I had less time to eat.

My daughter told me the other day, she was going to volunteer so she could get out and have less time to eat. She’s a smart young woman. It made me think of things I had done in the past to help with night eating. The most successful was teeth whitening. Who wants to eat when your teeth feel and look so good? I started it again this week. (Drugstore.com has a sale on GO SMILE Advanced Formula B1, $28.99 reduced from $89.00. Best of all – no trays.) Polishing my nails worked but not as well. Going to bed earlier is a great one because it works for your beauty rest as well as your eating. What enjoyable activity can you add to your life that will give you less time to eat?

What healthy choice will you make today? Let me know.

I spent Saturday riding around with my family looking for houses to buy. Needless to say, I didn’t plan my food very well. So we ended up at a fast food chain for a pit stop and lunch. I haven’t been in one for a long time.  The first item I saw on the menu was over 1,000 calories! Thank you Philadelphia for now having a law that calories have to be listed at chain restaurants.

What to do?

Ideally, I should have planned better or picked a better restaurant. But I didn’t. So what then? The first thing I did was to stop looking at the combo meals. The French fries and soda were definitely not worth the calories. I ordered off the $1.00 menu. You can also check out the kid’s menu. The portions are smaller. And sometimes you can put together a much healthier meal. In my case, I cut calories from 670 calories for adult version  to  340 calories for the Jr. version. I could of done better, if I had gone on line before and decided which fast food places have better choices for me or planned what is the best to order in each place.

If nothing else, it reinforced that I do not want to spend possibly a full day of calories on this type of food. What healthy choice will you make today? Let me know.

When you are trying to make changes, it is easier to hang out with people that have those habits. I have a girlfriend that that likes to dance.  This is a habit I want to cultivate. So I told her, I would go whenever she goes. She is always actively looking for opportunities but now she knows she has a partner in crime. I go because I said I would and each time I have more fun.

Other ways this works

This works well when you are eating out with others. Watch what they order. It might surprise you. My healthy friend orders appetizers instead a main course for dinner. Then pace yourself with the person that eats the slowest. Notice what healthy people bring for snacks. This is a great way to try new things and pick up a new habit you like. Can you think of other ways to use this strategy?

So whom are you going to copy? What healthy choice will you make today? Let me know.

Meal planning

First what do you consider a healthy meal? For me it would be a balance of proteins, high water carbohydrates and good fats. Then a meal would have 500 or fewer calories and a snack 200 or fewer calories. In addition, I want to feel good after I eat – not tired or hungry right away.

Next you have to decide if you want to plan by the meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks) or if you want to design by categories of food (carbohydrates, fats and proteins.) Or you could do both at the same time.  You may be surprised that you eat the same types of foods in a meal. As you redesign and plan a meal, some of the ingredients will be used in other meals.

Here is an example of this.  I want my breakfast to include toast. I  select a high fiber multigrain bread. If this is the only type of bread,  I buy, my lunch sandwiches just got healthier. If I pick a healthier alternative to butter, my dinner vegetables just got healthier. What about some healthy turkey breast slices. I can have a sandwich or a salad. You get the idea.

What healthy choice will you make today? Let me know.

Day 13 of 14 Day Plan

Scored a 5

What is the best way to lose weight?

Did you ever ask yourself what is the best way to lose weight? Should I:

A Cut calories or
B. Exercise more?

An eye opening moment

Years ago, I went to see Dr. Mike. He asked, “What are you going to do about your weight?” “Let me guess”, he continued, “You’re going to exercise.”  I nodded yes.

“Ok”, he said. “Tell me how long it takes you to eat a piece of chocolate cake?” After some thought, I asked the important question: “Am I eating by myself or in front of other people?” It was important to know.

“Less than 10 minutes” I finally replied. He came back with “How long will you have to exercise to burn up all those calories?” It was an eye opener for me! It could take me hours or days to work off some of the things I was putting in my mouth!

The small change of cutting a mere 100 calories a day will equal a 10lbs loss in a year. If you weighted 200lbs, you would have to walk 385 miles at a rate of 3 mph to burn off the same 10 lbs!

The moral of the story is you can lose more weight by cutting the empty calories in what you eat. But exercise is the additive that gives you faster and better results. For the best results, do both and make choices you can live with for a lifetime.

Do you want to learn to make the right choices for you? Join I’m Ready 4 Me! Membership. What can you do today to improve your health? Let me know.

Scored  6

I won’t bore you with details. I’m going to weigh tomorrow.

I do know several things:

1. I look and feel rested. Getting a more sleep and exercise must have helped.

2. My face is breaking out. This seems to happen whenever I start to lose weight faster. It might be that that I am cleaning out toxins by drinking more water.

3. I expect a loss but not a large one. Smaller meals have helped. I have been exercising more, so building more muscle. This makes the next loss small (fat loss-muscle gained= net loss).

4. The decluttering effort is starting to show results. I attacked and reorganized my refrigerator.

5. I’m really glad I did this. I’ve identified some actions that I didn’t know I was doing and some things I thought I was doing well, that need improvement.

What can you do today to improve your health? Let me know.

Scored a 6.

Glad the week is over. With the weekend coming, I have more time to make some headway on some of my actions. I also have more time for distractions!

Just as important as what I am consistently doing, is what I have not done.  I am going to focus on visualization and measuring meals. I’m going to do a menu for the week so when I food shop tomorrow, I’ll get what I need.

Update details

The 4 actions that I have done each day are: eating 4-5 meals, 7+ hours of sleep, blood sugar and beauty time. After the first day when I had some problems, I worked out a better system. Since then, I have been drinking 88 oz. of water.

I may replace sleeping with another action. It seems that I was already sleeping 7 hours. I need something that will really stretch me and give me better results.

What can you do today to improve your health? Let me know.

Scored a 7.

I think there must be a full moon. Clients were changing times. I was trying to keep on schedule and a couple of things fell through the cracks or were reorganized.  I had 2 hectic days, back to back! So I guess I should be glad I scored a 7. I’m either doing really well or my actions are too easy. What do you think?

Update details

Walked my dog Monk farther for the 3rd day in a row. Schedule of drinking water is working and I got my 7+ hours of sleep straight.  I’m drinking 20 oz by 9:00am, another by noon, and another by 4:00 and the last before bed. Took my blood sugar twice.

Spent time decluttering my exercise and wellness room. Did beauty time. I had a wonderful massage from my son! Had 4 meals. All this pampering got my meals pushed back. If you are in the Philadelphia, PA vicinity, he is offering free introductory massages to launch his practice. You can reach him at skintoxication@gmail.com.

What can you do today to improve your health? Let me know.

Today is day 1 of my 14 day Super Highway Plan. The purpose of this plan is to increase my weight loss accountability by tracking health actions.  I have listed my 4 Goals & 10 Actions below. If I do each thing, I will score a point for a high of 10 points. More importantly, I am reinforcing healthy habits.

So far I had my 7+ hours of sleep. I’ve had 5 of 11 glasses of water and 2 of 5 meals.  Measured the protein in my first meal and added more to the second meal. Dried milk is an easy way to do this. I added it to my coffee and my oatmeal. Took my blood sugar. Decluttered for 30 mins. in my bedroom.

I will be counting steps as I walk Monk, my new puppy and will give myself a beauty treatment tonight.  Still have to do another exercise and visualize.

And the Eagles look like they are going to win. What more can a girl ask for?  What can you still do today to improve your health today?

For more information on the 3 types of weight loss plans you should have for long term consistency and much, much more. Join us in I’m Ready 4 Me!

My 4 goals are:

1. Lose 6 lbs to break the next 10lb mark.

2. Lower my blood sugar

3. Redesign or improve some favorite meals

4. Walk more than a mile every day

Here are my 10 actions:

1. Increase water intake to 88oz. – 16 oz when I first get up.

2. Eat 4-5 small meals a day.  First meal within 1 hour of getting up. Snacks about 200 calories/ meals less than 500

3. Weigh & measure at least 1 meal a day. Check protein.

4. Measure Blood sugar daily. Twice if not dropping.

5. Walk the new puppy.  Increasing distance each day

6. 1 additional exercise

7. Sleep at least 7 hours

8. Some me time (beauty,etc.)

9. Declutter 30-45 mins/day

10. Visualize success – think up some juicy goals.

What can you do today to improve your health?