Real People. Real Solutions. Real Quick
“Someday is not a day of the week.” ~Unknown
We all say, “Someday.”
Someday we will lose weight. Someday we will take control of our lives. Someday we will get healthier, stop smoking, exercise, eat more veggies, play with our kids, go to the beach, ride our bikes.
“Someday” will never come unless you make it.
Will you make today your “someday?” Or will you wait?
~Onward
“Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work.” ~H. L. Hunt
What are you willing to give up to lose weight? Think about it for a second.
Are you willing to give up that second serving of food, the chocolate chip cookie, the extra glass of wine, the 15 minutes of sleep, or the 1 hour of television?
What is being fit and healthy worth to you?
There is no magic in weight loss. You can’t have your cake and be thin, too. You have to pick and choose – what you want and what you are willing to give up to get it. You don’t have to give up everything “fun,” but you’ll need to set priorities and decide what’s important. Otherwise, we go nowhere.
Onward.
~Helen
The #1 New Year’s resolution? Probably to lose weight. January 1 always seems like a good time to start “fresh” and people, feeling bloated from ovedoing the Holidays, are desperately seeking a way to get those Holiday pounds off.
I, too, feel the bloat, so here are some of my previous blog posts on weight loss resolutions and staying with it. Time to read my own work, he he. Enjoy…and have a great, brand-spankin’ new year!
Sticking to Weight Loss Resolutions
Keeping Weight Loss Resolutions – The Beginning
Keeping Weight Loss Resolutions – Sticking With It
New Year’s Weight Loss Resolutions
Photo: ©Flickr Krissy Mayhew
“You’ve got to say, ‘I think that if I keep working at this and want it badly enough I can have it.’ It’s called perseverance.” ~Lee Iacocca
The secret to weight loss is summed up by this one quote above: You’ve got to want it badly enough. Period.
This Holiday season is the perfect time to see how badly you really want it. Instead of eating with abandoned at every Holiday function, ask yourself one simple little question before you reach for that extra serving: “How badly do I want it?” If you take more cookies than you should, then you’ve learned a valuable truth: You don’t want it badly enough. And there’s nothing wrong with that. When you are ready, when you really want it more than anything else, you will succeed. That’s what happened to me – and how I lost 80 pounds. I wanted to be healthy and fit…more than anything else.
Do you?
Onward.
~Helen
“So maybe tomorrow. I’ll find my way home…” ~Stereophonics
Four years ago I was a superfit 119 pounds (down from my original 200 pounds). At one point during the summer of 2005, I was down to 114 pounds – too thin by my standards (I am only 5 feet tall). Today – well, today I have no idea how much I weigh. I am going to guess about 128, judging from the fact that I can’t button most of my pants, or when I do, I have a terrible muffin top. (As an aside – I no longer weigh myself because I refuse to focus on a number.)
I way fell off the superfit weight loss wagon about three years ago when the stress of being a single mom with limited income drove me to eat too much chocolate and too many Ritz Crackers.
I still exercised and taught Spinning classes, but the calories I was snacking on were overtaking the calories I was expending.
Continue reading ‘How I Am Getting My Pants to Fit Better Again’
“I hate myself for loving you…”~Joan Jett
If you’re like me, sometimes you eat things you don’t even like.
Take Cheetos, for instance. I don’t like them. They taste like styrofoam and they make me puffy. And yet…when I am tired or stressed, I sometimes discover that my fingers are orange from eating my daughter’s Cheetos (Puffs).
The bummer with eating foods we don’t really like is that we waste calories on things that have nothing to do with pleasure or fun. If I am going to eat something fattening and pretty much useless, wouldn’t it be better to eat some expensive, delicious melt-in-my-mouth Belgian chocolate rather than Hershey’s (wax) chocolate?
In all reality, when I am “stress eating,” I am eating not for flavor or fun but to relieve some pressure in an overbooked and fatigued day.
I want salt, sugar, salt, sugar…and it doesn’t matter what form those ingredients come in. Just bring it.
I think the trick is for us to find other ways to relieve our stress and fatigue. In the past I have used exercise as a stress release and it works most excellently. Sleep is oftentimes out of the question, but what about yoga? Or reading a book, or watching a movie? Maybe snuggling with your child or significant other? Do these things really work, or are they poor substitutes for some good, old-fashioned carbs?
What do you think?
Onward….
~Helen
Photo Flickr ©vkareh
{This post was written my fitness column on LA’s the Place – “The Fit Life.” It gives you some quick and easy real life tips on getting in shape for the summer. . ~Helen}
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You’re standing in the fitting room filled with dread. The harsh overhead lights don’t do anything to ease your fear of the garment clutched in your hand. You slowly strip down, peel on the suit. And scream. Yup, it’s bathing suit season once more.
It may seem a daunting task to fit into that suit (or swim shorts), especially if you have more than a few pounds to lose. There is no quick hacks to safely losing weight, however, but there are some simple steps you can take to get you there faster.
Continue reading ‘5 Easy Quick Steps to Your Best Summer Body’
“Waiting for the end to come. Wishing I had strength to stand. This is not what I had planned. It’s out of my control.” ~Linkin Park
When I was a young girl my mother was always dieting. I grew up watching her go through the latest fads in diets: The low carb (or, eat all the bacon and eggs you want) diet, the grapefruit diet, the pineapple diet, the “diet pill” (amphetamine) non-diet and everything in between. My mother was not very overweight at all. In fact, she was what I would call “normal” for her time. But no matter how “normal” in weight they are, women diet. That is what we do. Weight loss trumps all.
Being surrounded by dieting for so long (and being a serial dieter myself with my own body image issues), I learned all about what to eat – and what not to eat – to lose weight. To put it simply, in the world of dieting all the foods that taste fabulous are bad you, and all the foods that do not tickle your taste buds are good for you. Don’t eat bread, don’t eat fat, don’t eat sugar, don’t eat fruit, don’t snack, don’t eat solid foods..we are surrounded by “dont’s.” So, why, then are we still fat?
Because there are no “do”s.
Continue reading ‘Why Diets Don’t Work: Goodbye to Atkins, 4 Hour Body and More’
This is a moving guest post by Deborah Nicosia. It will resonate with all of us who have struggled with our weight. Look for more from Debbie in the future if I can convince her.
So, yesterday I had a typical “diet fail.” My intentions were good as I started the day…they usually are. I got my coffee and had four scrambled egg whites with one yolk.
Off to a crazy Saturday at work. I work five hours with a 15 minute break, so there is no time to walk upstairs, stand in line and get lunch. There was nothing at home to bring for lunch, because I forgot to plan for myself. I had been taking care of sick kids all week…..and forgot about me, as usual.
No time to venture upstairs at work and only a dollar in my pocket. This meant getting two hot dogs quickly, and go back to work. Cheap, quick, and I’ll be full!
When I got home I was totally exhausted. My feet were throbbing, and I was starving. It had been four hours since I ate the two hot dogs. My husband arrived home 30 minutes later with three egg rolls in hand. I devoured all three of them. I was satisfied after two, but…they tasted so good I didn’t stop until they were gone.
Continue reading ‘Failing with Dieting’
“Wind me up and watch me go, where she stops nobody knows. A good excuse to be a bad influence on you.” ~Pink
I used to be an avid weight lifter and hated anything cardiovascular. I would run, sure, but despised every minute of it. Sometimes I would ride my bike to school but only out of necessity because I didn’t want to take the bus. For the thrill of it, the power of it, the invincibility of it, I would always lift weights. Nothing beat the feel of cold, hard, heavy steel in my hands.
Now that I’ve gotten older I have switched teams and am a die-hard cardio fiend (in the form of Spinning® and cycling). How and when this traitorous change happened I am not sure. All I know is that I’ve played on both sides equally and aerobic exercise is now my drug, I mean exercise, of choice.
This is the question debated hotly back and forth in the fitness world: “Which type of exercise – cardio or strength training – is best for weight loss?” Trainers and group exercise instructors fight over this at length. Both camps claim that “mine is better than yours,” with trainers leading the weight lifting charge and class instructors flying the cardio flag.
All the while, Pilates and yoga gurus probably stand quietly and Zenly by, with their tight cores and neutral spines, laughing at our inability to come to an agreement.
Continue reading ‘What Type of Exercise Is Best for Weight Loss?’
