Your body

We only get one body. Some people may be able to get transplants for body parts that aren’t working, however, in terms of our whole body, we only get one. That leads me to my question, what are you doing to take care of yours?

 

Recently I have been going to physio appointments for some wrist pain. It is nothing serious but I wanted to get ahead of it before it got worse. A few years ago I also had back pain from having such bad posture, especially when I was sitting. I have since improved my posture greatly, at least while I am at my desk anyways. I do try to be conscious of it other times as well. Where I am going with all of this is that there are many little things to remember. Sometimes too many things to remember and know that it can be over whelming and make us give up on our goals very quickly.

 

When I am doing my exercises hourly for my wrists I have to have complete focus on that and make sure that I am using proper form and keeping everything else aligned while doing it. This can be really tricky, especially when you feel like you are starting from the beginning of your journey to better health. What I recommend is to make small changes at a time. Pick one to three small things that you can change at a time and work on those. Once you have gotten those down then you can add a few more things.

 

Although our bodies are tough, they do rely on us to take care of them. I cannot tell you how many times I see people at the gym completing an exercise with awful form or just doing it completely wrong. I can’t stress enough how important it is to complete the exercises properly. If you can’t afford a personal trainer, perhaps you can find a friend who knows what they are doing to show you. Chances are if someone has worked with a personal trainer before they know about proper form and would be willing to show you. I have had to stop myself from saying something to people SO many times. Not only are they using horrible form that will get them hurt, the way they are doing the exercise is completely useless and doing nothing for them. I am really really surprised when trainers at gyms DON’T go up to people and correct them. That is their job! If I was a personal trainer in a gym, I would make sure that people weren’t doing things incorrectly.

 

Step one:

Know what your final goal is, or the big picture. Maybe it’s to lose weight, or quit smoking. Maybe you want to be able to run a 5K race, or maybe it’s something along the lines of being pain free (or at least significantly less pain). Sometimes we want to be able to do ALL of those things and we expect it to happen right away, then when it doesn’t we give up.

 

Step two:

Break down your final goal into much smaller increments. If your goal is to lose weight, focus on 5 pounds at a time. If it is to quit smoking count how many cigarettes a day you are having for a week and then aim to have one less a day every day for a week, then the next week take away one more (I have never smoked so I don’t know if this would help, this is just my way of showing you how to break it down). If your goal is to be pain free in a certain area then make small changes to allow that area to heal. Remember – these things take time but they will be worth it. When I speak about pain I am referring to pain that you can control, like for example my wrists. I am doing something that is causing them to be painful, so I need to correct the action.

 

Step three:

Find support. Find someone, or lots of someone’s who can help you reach your goals. These people will be very important when you struggle, which trust me, you will struggle.

 

Step four:

Reward yourself along the way. It doesn’t have to be a big reward but something that means something to you. If you are trying to lose weight I strongly suggest that you do not use food to reward yourself. Instead find something that you actually want and enjoy it guilt free when you hit your goal!  

 

October and November were really stressful months for me. I was really busy, I was sick with a lung infection, and a number of other things happened on top of a major bathroom renovation. During that time I still made sure I got to the gym, however, my eating was not the best. The past two weeks have been much better (aside from my hand slipping into my Christmas baking a few too many times) and I have been on a better track with my eating and have really been enjoying my gym workouts. I switched it so that now I go to the gym in the morning all the time instead of switching between morning and after work. There is just something about getting it accomplished in the morning that starts the day off the right way.

 

Now that December is here, it is usually a very busy time for families as there is a lot of extra items to do. I am really going to try to focus on slowing down and actually enjoying doing the items instead of just rushing through them and crossing them off my list. I am also trying to be very conscious of washing my hands and trying hard not to touch my mouth and eyes to minimize my chances of getting sick (or at least reducing theillness if I do get sick). It is also important that you get enough rest, so for me, since I am up so early, this means going to bed at an early hour. I might not get everything on my to do list done so I will keep my to do lists shorter and then feel great when I accomplish them. Even if it is only a few items each night!

 

What are you going to do to care for yourself this holiday season??

 

 

 

There is only 24 hours in a day

Oh Hello! You have probably forgotten who I am by now right? It has been over two months since my last post, although, trust me, I have thought about posting often, time just doesn't allow. 

There has been so much happening the past few months. The weather is finally beautiful and warm so we have been outside a lot. We have been on the go and have no signs of slowing down anytime soon. I have so much stuff on my brain but I will stick to my health in tonight's post. 

Let's go back to April when we had Easter. I did get into some mini chocolates which caused me a bit of a slippery slope for a week or two. Thankfully I didn't gain from that but it did cause me to miss my next weight goal by 0.8 of a pound.

My goal was to get under 200 pounds by May 17 which is when I left for a week in BC. I was SO close that it stung to miss by such a little amount especially when I know that I didn't do my best for two weeks. But it was also hard to be too upset because I had worked really hard and still felt great.

For the past few weeks I have been teetering RIGHT above 200 pounds. I went from 200.8 to 200.4 to 200.2. Last week I was FINALLY under 200 pounds. I weighed in at 198.4!!! I was SUPER excited to see a 1 in front of my weight instead of a 2. 

I do love the summer weather. I have been walking often, still going to the gym 2-3 times a week, playing soccer, on top of all of our house work and gardening. I have been pretty good with my eating, all while still enjoying my summer treats (as I sip my Bud Light Lime beer). This summer I have ventured out into the world of vegetable gardening. I bought all of my vegetables already started and planted them all a few weeks ago. My garden is now in the weeding stage where I have to weed it often. Perhaps I did not prep my soil properly? Next year I will look into some kind of weed killer before starting to plant my vegetables. I bought a lot of plants so hopefully we will have a successful "crop" this year and get some good eats!

So how am I doing it all?! Good question...I wish I knew haha! I have had to really focus on what is important to me. I am very organized so I still do my meal planning and grocery shopping the same as before. I squeeze in my workouts when I can and that includes utilizing our workout program during lunch times some days. On top of eating healthy and exercising I have still been following our automatic body program and taking the Nutrie products. It definitely helps with my energy level that's for sure.

One thing that has been very over whelming to me is trying to make the best health choices for myself and my family (especially my daughter). I am having a very hard time trying to educate myself on things that are natural and good for her. I can't tell you how many hours I spent researching and deciding if I was going to give her cows milk. My over whelming decision right now...sunscreen. There are SO many arguments that say that the chemicals in brand name sunscreens are worse for you than getting hit with the sun. Rylee (like myself) is very fair and would burn easily. I use a natural sunscreen on her BUT that being said with all of the trickery out there on word plays ect how can we know what is actually natural or not?!

It is absolutely exhausting. Part of my wants to just give up and take the easy way out. Part of my thinks "well giving her a chicken breast that is not certified organic is better than giving her kraft dinner". And part of me only wants the best for my family but I don't even know where to begin. I try to pick small changes that we can manage like changing our lunch/food storage containers to glass instead of plastic. But like I said I can't tell you how many hours I researched and seriously stressed over the decision to give her milk or not and that is only ONE small piece of her everyday food consumption. 

Some choices are easy - like juice. We do not give her juice. period. She LOVES, and I mean LOVES water - so why give her juice and make her not like water anymore? The odd time (maybe once a month) she gets diluted juice at daycare which I am totally fine with her having once in a while but it is NOT a daily occurrence. My mom also makes Rylee popsicles out of water with a bit of juice for flavour. So for US the right choice is to not give her juice. I understand that this is not the right choice for every family so as long as you 
have figured out what works for you then more power to you.

The problem today is labels. They are there for you to read but the amount of trickery that goes into the wording is UNREAL. You think that you are getting meat that is "Free Range" yet really Free Range is the NAME OF THE COMPANY that supplies the meat! Same thing with McDonalds 100% real beef. That is the name of the company that sells McDonalds their meat and so they advertise their products as 100% real beef. 

Food has become a huge problem in today's society and I don't even know how or where to begin to find correct, unbiased, non-judging information. 

So I apologize for not having written more posts lately but when it becomes a choice between the blog of fitness - fitness will win everytime ;)

My fitness goals

Like many people I have a list of goals that I want to achieve for my life. I have a list of five main goals that are very important to me. Weight and fitness is one of the goals. I'll lay out exactly what my weight/fitness goals are:

Weight:

My first weight goal is to drop 25 more pounds by March 1, 2014 by following the automatic body program and working out.

My second weight goal is to loose 56 more pounds (that includes the 25) and get back to my goal weight. I don't have a dead line for this one as I will set that on March 1st when I have reached my next 25. At this point I should be back into my size 8 clothes which is very average for my height. I have a large bin of basically new clothes waiting for me...calling my name!

My third weight goal is to maintain my goal weight. 

Fitness:

My first fitness goal is to increase my upper body strength.

My second fitness goal is to increase my flexibility.

My third is to tone everywhere in general. Since I have a lot of loose skin it will take some time, but I am confident I can do this.

I also want to pick a physical goal like doing a mini triathlon, or running a race ect. But I don't quite know what I want it to be yet.

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My biggest concern is to get the weight off and focus on living a healthy lifestyle. Which I have already been working on with the automatic body program, making one small change, and weight watchers and have been having good results. Now it's time to kick it up a notch!

I am SUPER excited that I am going to be starting with a personal trainer again. I know when I worked out hard before I felt great. This time will be different though for a few reasons. I am going to be working with a new trainer who has very clear goals for our sessions and what we want to accomplish. He is listening to what I want but will also put in things that he knows will help as well. He is as committed to my goals as I am and will be reliable and consistent. We are going to change up the workouts every time so that we aren't just doing the same exercises or even types of exercises week after week. 

Today we met up as an intro and did my measurements, "starting weight" (starting weight with him, although not my automatic body starting weight) and went over what my goals are and a rough plan. Monday we are going to do our first session so he can see where I am at and make a more detailed plan to follow. I'm really pumped to get started and take my weight loss and fitness goals to the next level. 

He says that we will crush my 25 pound goal -- I'll hold him to it and he'll hold me to it!

So although I really liked my old trainer, it wasn't the right fit. I'm ready to get serious, and my new trainer is ready to help me with that goal.

Follow me on my journey!