Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Busy Time of Year!!!

Wow!!  End of August is quickly approaching.  School is back in session for most people, and life is busy!!  So, how do you make time to eat healthy and still exercise?  You have to be very purposeful about it.  You need to put it on your schedule and make time for it.  Prepare food ahead of time, knowing that you will be getting home late and will be tempted to stop at a drive thru.  I have three boys all in different sports.  Some nights we aren't getting home until 8:30pm.  But, I either have dinner in the crock pot, or I have it in the fridge waiting to go in the oven.  I have fruits and vegetable cleaned and cut up, so that we are reaching for healthy snacks instead of unhealthy ones.  I look at my calendar for the week, I meal plan, and then I prepare the food the night before if it's going to be busy the next day.  Putting into practice all of these things will keep you on a healthy track.  It's very easy to get so busy, that we put our health aside.  Eating a clean, chemical free diet can have it's challenges, but, it doesn't have to.  It just takes a little pre-planning on your part.

As far as exercise goes, you need to find a time in your schedule 3-5 days a week, to get in at least an hour.  There was a cartoon I put on my facebook that was of a doctor talking to an unhealthy patient and the doctor said, "do you want to find an hour a day to work out or be dead 24 hours a day?"  That's probably the number one excuse I hear from people- I'm too busy and I have no time.  I guarantee we all have at least an hour.  It just means that we will have to miss something else, like television, computer time, video games, etc.  Your health is important and you need to treat it as such.  We all need reminding of this from time to time, as our days get busier and busier.  Go to the doctor and have them run some blood work to check your cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.  Sometimes seeing what our numbers are will give us a good kick in the pants.  I've always encouraged people to not put too much stock in weighing yourself everyday, but, instead seeing how your clothes are fitting.  When I was losing my baby weight from all my pregnancies, I would have what I called my "dream" clothes.  I would keep a pair of pants in my closet in the size that I wanted to be and I would try them on every 4-6 weeks.  That was a better judge of how my body was changing than the scale was.  Put encouraging messages on your refrigerator or use the app My Fitness Pal.  You can enter the number of calories burned during exercise as well as the food you are eating.  We have to be proactive about our health and keep ourselves encouraged to "keep on, keeping on".  Because, this is not just a fad we are going through or a "diet" that we are on.  This is a lifestyle change- for life!!!

If I can give you any encouragement please let me know.  You don't have to do this alone- you can have help!!  As always, let me know if you have any questions!!

Friday, August 3, 2012

August Challenge!!!!

Do you know what vital nutrient makes up around 70% of your body?  Water!!!!!  So, this is your nutrition challenge for the month of August- drink more water!!!!

Let's breakdown the water in our bodies:  as babies we are 75-80% water; as we age it decrease to 60-65% for men and 50-60% for women; the human brain is 85% water, bones are around 22%  water, muscles consist of 75% water, and blood consists of 80-85% water. 

Now, what does water do for our bodies:  it transports nutrients and oxygen to the cells, moisturizes the air in your lungs, increases your metabolism, protects our organs, helps your organs to absorb nutrients better, regulates your body temperature, detoxifies the body, and protects and moisturizes our joints.  There are also many benefits of drinking water including:  it helps you to lose weight by flushing out the by-products of fat breaking down in your system and by increasing your metabolism, it helps relieve headaches, improves the appearance of your skin, helps your brain to be more alert and focused, gives you more energy and helps you to exercise more and better, helps with digestion, prevents cramps and muscle strains, protects against illness, helps protect against certain cancers like bladder and colon.

What happens when you don't drink enough water?  Not drinking enough water makes your body dehydrated.  The last sign your body gives that you are dehydrated is a dry mouth.  How many people don't get a drink of water until they have a dry mouth?  You are probably dehydrated to a certain extent often.  Dehydration can cause migraines, fatigue, dry skin, cramps, constipation, irregular heart rate and blood pressure, and death.

How much water should you drink?  Well, that depends on how much you exercise, if you drink caffeine, are pregnant, live at a high altitude, live in a dry climate, your weather is extremely hot or cold, have kidney disease, take certain medications, etc.    For instance, for every cup of caffeine you drink you need to drink 12-16 ounces of water to counteract the dehydrating effects of caffeine.  So, a good starting point is to take your weight and divide it in half, and that's how many ounces of water to drink.  For example:  a 120 pound woman would start with 60 ounces of water a day.  Then she would add in water while exercising and water for the caffeine she drinks, etc.  There are calculators online that you can google to find out, depending on the above factors, how much you should be drinking.  The point is: you need to eliminate sodas and sugary drinks, and drink more water!!!!!

How's your fitness regiment coming along?  Here's a workout for you to do at home:  to warm up go outside and run around your house 10 times; then do 25 squats (with or without weights), 10 push ups, 25 jumping jacks, 1 minute of mountain climbers, and 25 stomach crunches.  Then repeat this 3 more times.  Make sure you have clearance from your physician to exercise!!!

Have a great weekend!!!