Category: weight loss

#47 Benched

Should you work out when you’re injured?

Feel like you’re benched because you pulled a muscle? Don’t be so quick to let yourself off the hook. You can get in an excellent workout despite your injury, and without causing further pain.

Say you pull a muscle in your leg so you call off your run for the next day. Sure. Of course. But if you have a training session scheduled for two days later, there’s no need to cancel your appointment. A good trainer will be able to work around your injury, and give you an excellent workout that will make you question why you ever considered canceling.

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#46 Party Games

What to do when there’s no veggie tray.

Here’s a scenario to ponder: You’re at a party as your husband/boyfriend/significant other’s sidekick and he/she goes off to talk to his/her friends, leaving you smiling nervously at a bunch of people you don’t know. What is the natural thing to do? Check out the food table. Grab a drink. Take sips of your drink. Munch on chips. Search for the veggie tray. Find no such tray. Eat more chips.

This scenario was brought to mind thanks to a training client of mine who recently shared that she was at a party as her husband’s sidekick, was left by herself, found herself alone at the food table with no veggie tray in sight, and didn’t know what to do but munch on chips.

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#45 Hunger Games

There’s no need to play hunger games with your body.

Oh, the games we play to stave off hunger, pretend we’re not hungry, rationalize that we’re hungry again already…

What would happen if we all just very simply listened to our bodies, fed ourselves what we need to survive, and resolved hunger at the physical level?

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DIY Energy Bites

Pop a couple of these to get you through an afternoon slump. They’re good for you!

Fantastic Fruit Delights (aka Energy Bites!)

They’re raw, easy to make, and nutritious, and they’re known as “energy bites” in my home. Instead of buying a bunch of Power Bars, I make a batch of these. Just a couple fill my belly when it’s not quite mealtime, and they’ll last forever in the fridge.

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#44 A Week at a Time

Sexy Up Your Week of Workouts

It’s Sunday night and you’re contemplating the coming week. Where will exercise fit in this week? Will this finally be the week you stay those 15 extra minutes to do some weights, as you keep hearing you should? Or will you just barely eke out 30 minutes at the gym three times this week, as usual, flipping through a magazine and moving at a just-below-challenging rate on the cross-trainer? Ugh. Your workout needs a lift.

First let’s talk about interval training. It’s hot right now—you should know what it means. Working out in intervals trains your heart for better endurance. You throw a curveball at your heart every so often to challenge its comfort zone. So for example, if you’re walking on the treadmill, every 10 minutes, say, increase your incline from a 1.0 to a 5.0 for 3 minutes without reducing your speed. Or increase your speed from 3.6 to 4.0 for 3 minutes. Or step off the treadmill and do 10 jumping jacks, 10 pushups, and 5 assisted pullups, then climb back on the treadmill.

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#43: Juiced!

To juice, or not to juice? That is the question!

To juice or not to juice? If you saw Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, no doubt you came away from it wanting to try a juice “cleanse”—no matter your weight. It was so inspiring to watch the people in the movie not just lose weight, but detox their bodies of all the crap they were subjecting themselves to: sugar, caffeine, processed foods…

I absolutely do not approve of fad diets. I do, however, think that short-term, doctor-monitored juice “fasts” are an interesting idea. There is not much wrong with eating only fruits and vegetables in their purest form, at least to kick start your quest for healthier eating. I do believe that a short-term fast can adjust your taste buds, help with taming your processed food addictions, and jump-start your weight loss, if that’s part of your goal.

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#42: Too Busy for Your Own Good?

Your life is full, but are you happy?

Do you ever sit down to eat dinner and say, “Wow. I think this is the first time I’ve sat down all day!” I do. It can’t be true, but it sure does feel like it sometimes. It is so easy to get caught up in the grind of life—running the kids around, getting some work done, picking up milk at the store, cooking if you’re lucky, more work, emails—to the point that you may have lost touch with your friends, family, or even yourself. If you are someone who says, “I don’t have time to exercise,” this might be describing you.

You might be busy, but are you happy? Think about that for a second. Are you making time for you to be happy? Sometimes when we are too busy, we overlook our own needs; a basic example is how you might be so focused on the presentation you’re writing that you put off getting up to use the bathroom for an hour or more. Caught you, huh? If you neglect yourself, you won’t be able to be the best you you can be.

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Meatless Monday: Fajitas

An Easy Weeknight Dinner

Fajitas

1 T olive oil
Green, red, and/or orange peppers (about 2 cups), sliced
Small onion, sliced
About ½ package Morningstar Farms or Gardein chicken strips
Dashes of each or any of these: cumin, coriander, oregano, chili powder or ancho chili powder, salt
Sour cream, salsa, and/or avocado for toppings
Small flour tortillas

Cook onions and peppers in the oil on medium heat. Add spices and cook about five minutes, or until the veggies are tender. Add the chicken strips and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until chicken is heated through. Warm tortillas in toaster oven or microwave, then add the fajita mixture. Top with suggested toppings, or come up with your own!

Afternoon Green Smoothie

A great way to curb the pre-dinner munchies

Several of you have asked for the recipe for the green smoothie I drink in the afternoons. Here it is!

About 1 T chia or flax seeds (throw them in first so they are weighed down in the blender or they’ll stick to the sides when you blend), a cup of almond milk, 1/2 or whole banana, healthy handful of spinach, 1 T nut butter (I’m using almond right now, but be creative), and a few ice cubes. Sometimes I add a few baby carrots, sometimes a T of carob powder.

That is it! It’s easy, delicious, and for me, fills the void between lunch and dinner. Let me know what you think.

#41: Searching for Freedom from Yo-Yo Dieting?

It’s all in your head.

I’ve been thinking about my face lately. I can’t seem to avoid doing so, since I read an article about face transplants in The New Yorker and then literally a day later read a chapter in Women Food and God in which the face issue reappeared. Who am I without my face? If my face were to suffer a terrible allergic reaction and be covered with boils, would I be the same person? To myself, surely—my soul is my soul. But to others? Would my words be as convincing?

What if you were a different size? Do you feel like you are who you arebecause you’re a size 12? Would people take you more seriously if you were a size 8? Do you think they would? I guess I’m hung up on the topic of digging to the root of your overweight issues because I think it’s that important. If you identify yourself with your yo-yoing weight or your diet of the moment, I truly fear you won’t ever succeed in keeping the weight off. You’re just too connected to yourself as “person on a quest for a new and better body.” Will that new body, when finally achieved, bring you all the happiness and bliss you imagine? Not a chance. Not if you don’t address the issues that made you fat in the first place.

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