Study yourself

This takes patience because you have to do a little trial and error sometimes, BUT it can have HUGE pay-offs. For example, when I was a teacher I was always baffled at how tired I was in the afternoon and at night. There were days that I would come home and take a nap...seriously? This was awhile ago. I started to look at what I ate during the day and started making substitutions to try and figure out what was causing my energy low. What was the culprit? Chocoloate milk - well it was not the only thing. I started paying more attention to what foods I was eating that had high-fructose corn syrup in it. I started to realize that there was WAY too much sugar in my diet. After I cut out alot of the sugar my energy increased, I couldn't believe it. Will this work for everyone? No, but you should study your eating habits and figure our how the food you are eating is affecting you.

Over the years, I have been successful with changing my exercise and diet to improve my physical well-being. I have been able to decrease my stress, eliminate migrane headaches, increase my energy, and gain more muscle. Again - this might not work for everyone, but you never know unless you give it a try.

Diet Pitfall

I have started out 2011 on the right foot. I am SO motivated to go to the gym! I have been going six times a week for 4 weeks - WHOAH! Exercise is only HALF of My Health Recipe. Exercise is the ingredients, but without the instructions the end product is not guaranteed to be edible. So let's talk about a common struggle.

Common struggle: Working out hard = hungry + tired = poor food choices

I need to make snacking easy and delicious, otherwise I am going to cave in to eating some not so great for me stuff (like bread with brummel n brown (butter spread type thing) - YUM). This morning, I took my prune baby food plastic containers (see Choc Chip recipe for how I use prunes as a fat substitute), that were empty, and filled them with trail mix. THis will help me keep track of how much I am eating since each container is a 1/4c. PLUS I need to drink more water! Ok - mission get diet under control is in full effect!

Choc Chip Flax Cookies (low sugar)

I love choc chip cookies and so does my husband, so I wanted to find an inexpensive healthy substitute for store bought cookies. This is what I came up with.

Bowl 1: mix together the following:
2c whole wheat flour
1tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Bowl 2: mix together the following:
(2) small prune baby food containers (I use the plastic Gerber)
1/3c flax seed meal
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla
3/4c sugar

Mix bowl 1 into bowl 2; once mixed add choc chips
Bake at 350 for 12-15min

DO NOT eat LOTS of these cookies, they could have an affect on your digestive system. I make the dough and leave it in the frig so if I REALLY want them I have to heat up the oven and make the cookies.

Enjoy! Let me know what you think. I get lots of compliments on them.

Nothing Works

Since this is a passion of mine I talk about it with alot of people. It is amazing how many weight loss struggles are common amoungst the people I talk to. One struggle is "I workout hard and I don't see any results", well the hard truth is - if you are not getting results then you are not working as hard as you think. Also, working hard is not just about the exercises - it is also your diet. It is very difficult to be honest with yourself, but if you want to see results you have to. The easiest way to figure out what you need to change is to write it down. Write down your workouts and ALL of the food you eat. There are many people who will say "I eat fine, I don't need to write it down", well then what would it hurt to just write it down and prove you are getting the right amount of calories. The truth is, the people I know who start a food diary are baffled at the amount of calories they are taking in. I know people who are very healthy, very skinny, and very content who keep themselves that way by sporadically keeping a food diary to stay on the right track.

Not many people write down their workouts, I use it to track my progress and I found it very satisfying when I have to make a note to increase my weight or I was able to run further than the previous week.

The point of all this, find a way to be honest with yourself and track your progress.

Accessories for Success

I wanted to share a couple of the accessories that I use as a part of my health recipe.
1. Heart rate monitor - I try and work out by heart rate zones (http://walking.about.com/cs/fitnesswalking/a/hearttraining_2.htm) and my heart rate monitor allows me to track what zone I am in. Also, my monitor tells me how many calories I have burned - which is very motivating to me.
2. Notebook - I keep track of my workouts so I know what exercises I do, how much weight I am using, do I need to change anything the next time I work out. I find keeping track helps me see progress which is very helpful.
3. Food Journal - every once in awhile I do a check on how many calories I am consuming each day, especially after incoroprating new foods into my diet. Portions can be very deceiving, writing down what I eat makes me very aware of what and how much I am eating.

What is your favorite accessory? What will help you be successful? Or what are you struggling with and not sure what accessory could help you?

Be strong, be honest, and enjoy life

Confidence goes a long way

I worked out for a week straight and it felt great, but my confidence is still low. I know, I just had a baby and I should give myself a break but I can not help it. I worked for years to get to the point where I was happy with myself and my self-confidence was WAY high. Now I just want to wear baggy clothes and eat my feelings. I am being a little dramatic but I do find it frustrating to see myself in the mirror and think back to how strong and fit I use to be. I'll get there. I have found that I use facebook as a support system. I am always posting something about working out in my status and the comments are usually words of encouragement. I can do this! I did it before, I can do it again, and this time I know what I have to do to get to the final goal.