Day-by-Day: Get Started December 18, 2011

 

Sunday: Start Yoga Journal’s 21 day Challenge:

http://www.yogajournal.com/21daychallenge/

 

 

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Understand your cravings December 6, 2011

Exercise:Motivation December 5, 2011

Repeat this cycle 2x right when you wake up in the morning. 50 jumping jacks 5 pushups 20 sit ups 20 mountain climbers 30 second plank 7 burpees

Detox Smoothies November 23, 2011

Flat Tummy

Rich in digestion supporting ingredients, this smoothie will help prevent bloating and digestive stress that can sabotage your tummy flattening efforts.

• 3/4 c. papaya
• 3/4c. sliced peaches
• 1/2 pear, sliced
• 1 tsp fresh ginger
• 2 mint leaves
• Water to thin

Skin Saver

Antioxidants in berries are known to help to fight wrinkles and other skin ageing signs.  Berries are also a great way to control blood sugar that can sabotage your complexion.  This smoothie also contains Omega 3, to fight inflammation, as well as vitamins E and C, both renown to help the skin.

• 3/4 c blueberries
• 3/4 c pitted cherries
• 5   strawberries
• 1/4 avocado, peeled and pitted
• 2 tsp wheat germ (optional)
• 2 tsp ground flaxseed
• Water, to thin

Peanut Butter Energy Booster

This protein-rich and minerals-filled smoothie will give you long-lasting energy.  Cinnamon will help to control your blood sugar so your energy level won’t crash too quickly.

• 1 big banana
• 1 scoop of natural hemp protein powder
• 2 tsp of natural peanut butter
• 1 handful of fresh baby spinach
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• Water, to thin

Bone Lover

This vitamin-rich green smoothie contains calcium, magnesium and other bone building minerals to keep your bone strong and healthy.

• 2 bananas
• 1 handful of Swiss chard leaves, stems removed
• 1 handful of kale leaves
• 1 tsp of green Matcha powder
• 1/2 cup of homemade almond milk

Immune System Booster

Rich in vitamin A, C and zinc, this smoothie can increase the production of white blood cells and antibodies to get your body ready to resist this season’s infections.

• 1/2 c. mango cubes
• 1/2 c. cantaloupe cubes
• 1/2 c. fresh pineapple cubes
• 1/4 c. chopped pumpkin seeds
• Water, to thin

Natural Skin Tanner

Studies have proven that a beta-carotene rich diet can make your complexion glow, and that particular skin tone is usually considered healthier than a regular skin tan. This smoothie can help you get that healthy glow without risking your skin lying under the sun.

• 1/2 cup of cantaloupe cubes
• 1/2 cup of papaya
• Juice of 1 orange
• 1/2 cup of carrot juice (or water)
• 1 small knob of fresh ginger

Antioxidant Power

Feel the power of this detox foods-rich smoothie.  Very rich in antioxidants, this smoothie will help to support your liver to detox naturally and help your body stay healthy and young longer.

• 1/3 cup of blueberries
• 1/3 cup of raspberries
• 1/3 cup of pomegranate kernels
• 1/4 cup of beet juice (optional)
• 1 banana
• Water to thin

Source: http://girlgetstrong.com/2011/10/10/7-detox-smoothies-with-added-health-detox-benefits/

 

52 Diet Tricks November 19, 2011

**1. Drink one glass of water every hour. It will make you feel full.
**2. Drink ice cold water. Your body will burn calories just getting the water to a normal temperature to digest. Also it is great for your complexion.
**3. Drink 3 cups of green tea daily. It will help boost your metabolism, plus its anti-oxidants make your skin look great.
**4. Take vitamins daily. *Do not take vitamins on an empty stomache, otherwise they have nothing to catalyze with (and could make you’re stomach upset).
5. Eat ice or gum when hungry. This will make your body think it had food without the calories.
*6. Do aerobics until you want to faint. Aerobics burns alot of calories
**7. Eat spicy foods. They raise your metabolism.
*8. Take cold showers because your body will burn calories to heat you back up.
**9. DON’T take laxatives. They don’t help you to lose weight. Take probiotics & fiber & lots of water  for healthy natural elimination for weightloss.
**10. DON’T use diruretics. They only dehydrate you. Your body is retaining water b/c you’re not drinking enough water, so it is storing it.
11. Brush your teeth constantly so you won’t be tempted to eat afterwards ,or drink anything but water, so you don’t stain them. (You don’t want to eat or drink anything an hour after brushing to prevent staining)
12. Wear a rubberband around your wrist. Snap it when you want to eat.
**13. Clean something gross (toilet, litter box, boyfriend’s closet) when you want to eat. You will not want to eat after cleaning a litter box. (This also helps with boredom eating-be productive and keep yourself from the snack cabinet).
14. Avoid depressed eating, do something that will make you feel pretty, have a spa party girls night at home, do your nails, take a bubble bath, get your hair done…
*15. Exercise twice the amount of calories eaten.
**16. Use smaller plates and utensils so it seems like you ate more.
**17. Chew each bite of food thoroughly and then take a sip of water between bites. You will feel full quicker and will not eat as much.
**18. Buy a hot dress that you can’t fit into & schedule a cocktail party and tell everyone you’re going to have lost “10 lbs” . Hang the dress where you can see it with an invite attached. This will motivate you to lose weight to fit into it by the party.
**19. Sleep at least six hours a day. If you get less than six this can lower your metabolism by 15%.
**20. If you start to feel hungry do sit-ups or jumping jacks or push ups to remind yourself to eat healthy and keep those calories down.
*21. Set a reward, schedule the date you’ll reach your goal and schedule yourself a facial, get your nails done, or have a spa day.
22. Get out of your house! Don’t sit around, get up and moving, go to the mall and walk if its not nice outside. Go to the park if it is, you might make new friends with similar weightloss goals.
**23. Make a inspirational scrapbook with pics of fit models. Right down all the reasons you want to lose weight. Keep track of everything you eat. Look at it daily for thin inspiration. Also add other goals too.
**24. Keep good posture, burns 10% more calories when you sit up straight.
**25. Pack healthy snacks (nuts, avacado, teas) &  instead of fast food, buy something else, a new shirt, flowers, jewelrey etc.
*26. Make a list of all the “bad” foods that you crave and tend to binge on. Each day, pick one to take out of your diet that you absolutely, no matter what, cannot eat again. Take one off the list each day until there are no more bad foods you can have.
27. Avoid alcohol! A shot of liquor has 100-120 calories, a glass of wine has 80 calories, a lite beer has 110-120 calories, and a regular beer has 140-170 calories.
**28. Portion control: Never eat anything bigger than what you can cup in your hands, your stomach will expand and then you’ll get hungry more.
29. Eat in front of a mirror naked. See how much you can eat then! :0
30. The smell of coffee is suppose to supress appetite.
31. Wear perfectly applied lip gloss. It makes you more aware of what’s going in your mouth.
**32. Have 6 meals (3 small meals & 3 healthy snacks) a day. Take 2 apples, and split them so you can make 6 meals out of them. This will increase your metabolisim & let your body know it dosen’t need to store food.
**33. Try to keep each meals around 400 calories, this is about how much your body can process at a time, the rest will go to storage.
**34. Low calorie/sugar hot chocolate curbs chocolate cravings, and makes you feel full.
*35. Take a picture of yourself wearing a bathing suit or something equally revealing, look at it when you want to eat. This will also make a good before picture.
* 36. It takes 20 minutes for the brain to realize the stomach is full. So, watch your portions and try to eat on a schedule.
**37. Eat lots of fiber. It makes you feel full and takes fat with it out of your body. The natural cleansing helps improve both your energy level and overall feeling of wellness.
38. Before you dig into that cake, bag of chips, candy, or whatever, take a deep breath and count to 100. Usually by the time you get to 100 you will have convinced yourself that you don’t really want it.
**39. Drink at least one glass of water before every meal, it will reduce overeating.
40. Celery actually burns calories. Every hour eat a stalk of it. Not only will it fill you up, but it will also get your metabolism kickin’.
*41. Your weight will fluctuate, weight yourself in the morning, after youve gone to the bathroom and measure your waist too ONE time a week on the same day to track your progress.
42. Read the nutritional information. Remember, fat-free does not mean calorie-free. Also keep an eye on fiber content. Get as much fiber into your diet as you can.
43. Cutting calories over fat is most important, remeber some fat is good for you like nuts, olive oil, avacado, fish.
44. Don’t eat high fructose corn syrup, the commercials are lies, your body CAN tell a difference.
**45. Don’t think you can eat that sweet snack because its sugar free, or diet coke. You are better not eating because your body doesn’t know what to do with all that fake chemical stuff, its just going to sit in you.
46. If you like to drink alcohol, you’ll like this. Make a rule: You can only drink every time you lose 2lbs. So, if you lose 4lbs a week, you can drink Friday and Saturday night. However, if you only lose 2lbs a week, you only get to drink one night.
*47. Do not eat in front of the computer or TV. This distracts you from recognizing you’re full.
**48. Save the money you would have spent on that “ice cream” or “Sugar special coffee drink” and put it in a jar, watch it growinstead of your waist.
**49. Stay away from Slim-fast and other so-called “healthy” candy bars and shakes… one look at the nutition facts will tell you why. With all the carbs and excess calories you may as well go eat a freakin pie or something. Not to mention the rediculous prices… save yourself the money, and the calories.
50. Imagine your self as a cave-man/woman, what did they eat? Vegitables, meat, fruit, nuts…thats what your diet should consist of to have a body of a goddess.
*51. An occasional binge doesn’t hurt, in fact it’s quite beneficial if you have reached a plateau (stopped losing weight). Your body will think you have stopped starving yourself, and you will drop at least a pound overnight! Just don’t binge too regularly!
*52. Someone told me that if you take a pure cold bath for 15-30 min and lower your body temp, your body burns around 200 cals for every degree it has to raise itself to reach a normal body temperture.

Please check out my Pintrest site for healthy recipes, inpirational pics and workouts: http://pinterest.com/elizabethnt/health-fitness/

   

Image of a body scan of a 250lb woman and 120lb woman.

Resources: Dr. OZ show, The 4-hour body, The Perfect 10

(Disclaimer: I am not a physician, and everything in mederation)

Fighting the Plateau November 8, 2011

I, like many others, am currently fighting the plateau. That point when you keep teeter-totering a weight barrier. I keep fluctuating by 4 pounds and have a figurative line that I can’t break.

I’ve had this problem before, and it took some serious changes to get me past it. I had to completely change my diet and exercise. However I’ve slacked off on the exercise a little and have maintained my weightloss, but I’m ready for step 2, I’m ready to loose the next 10lbs.

So, I’m uping my exercise again, and aiming for 5 days a week, at least 300 calories burned in exercise those days and no treats on the days I don’t exercise. I’ve also been seaching for some extra tips and found a great blog from another health and weightloss person that I wanted to share:

http://undressedskeleton.tumblr.com/extrapointers

She briefly touches on various common issues on this page, and find it very knowledgable!

Good Luck & Happy Reading.

 

What’s your real age? September 26, 2011

So, I found this great healthy website I wanted to share:
WWW.realage.com
You can take a quiz to find out what the real age of your body is and I recommend signing up for the newsletter, its packed full of great health and weightloss tips.
Enjoy

Fight the Personality Ethic August 1, 2011

“Today we come across an individual who behaves like an automaton, who does not know or understand himself, and the only person that he knows is the person that he is supposed to be, whose meaningless chatter has replaced communicative speech, whose synthetic smile has replaced genuine laughter, and whose sense of dull despair has taken the place of genuine pain.  Two statements may be said concerning this individual.  One that he suffers from defects of spontaneity and individuality which may be seen to be incurable.  At the same time it may be said of him he does not differ essentially from the millions of the rest of us who walk upon this earth.” -Erich Fromm

This hit home with me, it seems so true for the people of today.

Recommended Books to Read to combat this (get your teenagers to read these during the summer or something):

1. The 7 Habits of Highly Efective People

2. The Secret (you don’t have to read all of it)

3. Don’t sweat the small stuff

4. The Success Principles

and for the daring, a Buddhist priciples (read last)

5. Lecture on: Attaining Buddhahood in this lifetime.

If you know any great insightful reads please share!

PS.  Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography is supposed to be a good one too, I plan on reading it soon.

Eat Right America Follow-up tip. July 17, 2011

Are you enjoying salad as the main dish still? Packing lots of nutrient in each meal? In addition to eating more micro-nutrient rich foods, it’s important to also eat less macronutrients. This is key to your weight loss efforts. Ask any nutritional scientist, and they agree that moderate calorie restriction slows the aging process, prevents the development of diseases, reduces weight, and extends your lifespan. There is no controversy that Americans are eating themselves to death with too many calories. To change we must do three things:
Eat less fat
Eat less protein
Eat less carbohydrate
Suprised?  Click on the link below (or copy and paste it into your web browser) to read more about eating less of all three macronutrients.
 
http://www.eatrightamerica.com/weekly-comm/week-18
 
Remember, you must be logged into the member center in order to view the full message.  If your access is denied or you cannot see the full message, please login to the member center by clicking on the MEMBER LOGIN link in the top left-hand section of the screen at www.eatrightamerica.com.
 
To Your Success,
Eat Right America Support Team
cs@EatRightAmerica.com

Wellness May 29, 2011

“Wellness means not just that you dont have any particular illness or complaint but that you have abundant enery exude a keen since of purpose and place in the world, consider the whole rather than just yourself.” -dr oz, forward in Quantum Wellness