Exercise.
Resolutions to diet and exercise.
Ick.
Ick!
ICK!!!
For me, the TwitterPT Challenge is not as much about diet and exercise (have I said ICK?!) as it is about making better lifestyle choices that will get the “Sleeping Beauty” inside of me MOVING in the right direction. A healthier direction. My motivation comes from an Oprah show I saw a few years ago.
(Leave it to a SAHM to bring Oprah into the picture, right? SHUT UP.)
The show featured Bob Greene who was talking about his basic “dieting” principles; principles which Oprah adopted in her daily regimen to lose weight and get healthy. The things he was talking about seemed simple enough. Three things in particular stuck with me:
1. Breakfast
Even if I’m not hungry, I’m trying to eat within an hour of waking up – to BREAK the FAST of not eating for the 8-ish hours I've been asleep and help jump start my metabolism. Bob says: "Eating bigger breakfasts and smaller dinners can help boost your metabolism."
2. Green Tea
I’m substituting at least ONE of my two morning cups of coffee with green tea. I like my coffee extra sweet and extra light with half & half, so I’m cutting my morning sugar/fat intake in half by cutting back on the coffee. And we all know the health benefit claims of green tea, right?
3. No eating 2-3 hours before going to bed.
I’m a notorious nighttime snacker. So this is a tough habit to break. But whenever I do get that hunger feeling in my tummy late at night, I try to remind myself that that feeling is my body going after the extra fat reserves. So I can choose to either feed that “hunger”, or let my body feed on that unwanted fat. Instead, I’ve been enjoying a pot of green tea with my husband and we toast to a long life together.
Simple! And as a SAHM of three kids, I NEED simple.
Plus, I’m MOVING.
I’m terminally lazy. I’ve never exercised a day in my life. So I started small. I was moving about the house with my kids - walking in place, DANCING to music, or just chasing them around and being silly. I was moving in some way – which is way better than not moving at all.
Lucky for me, a girlfriend was giving away her old treadmill, so I’ve NO excuse not to get up and move. Now with the help of the treadmill and our huge 52" flat screen TV as my distraction I’m walking a minimum of 20 minutes a day. I'm also trying to do my walking early in the day, because as Bob puts it:
"Activity actually has an “after burn” effect—that is, it raises your metabolism for hours after you’ve stopped exercising. Once you step off the treadmill, cease digging in your garden, or return home from a walk in the park, the rate at which you burn calories remains higher than normal."
Read more on Bob Greene’s secrets and his fitness tips.
What can YOU do to awaken the Sleeping Beauty in you?
5 comments:
CARDIO
20 minutes on treadmill, moderate incline, while wrangling 2 yr old who wanted to jumping ON with me!
That's talent, right thar.
And yes, only ONE cup of coffee. Getting ready for a pot of green teat w/ the husband soon. Trying to avoid box of Mallomars calling me from the kitchen. :)
Resistance training with my trainer for 50 minutes.
Another great tip to help things along is to remember to drink water, drink water, drink water!
Wednesday's workout for me:
30 min on treadmill, 2+ miles
30 min on elliptical, interval training
I only did one climb at the rock climbing gym. Sigh. One of these days I'll push myself to do more than that.
Now that my cardio is on track, it's time for me to start adding the weight training back in!
Forgot to post last night.
Continuing on with my swimming.
Only 6 lengths but hey I still made it!!
2.2 miles (21 mins) on the treadmill (slow but I was tired).
Stretching...
Yesterday, because of my over-exertion on my legs, it was impossible for me to even think of attending another Body Pump class. So, I chose to do some deep stretching to try and loosen my muscles. It seemed to work, though still sore, at least I can kinda walk normally today.
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