September Blue

MOVE MORE EAT WELL | MONTHLY UPDATE: APRIL + A LITTLE FREEBIE

Hello Spring. Oh how I wish you would arrive here in Latvia. Mother Nature played a cruel joke Monday morning and dumped about 4+ inches of snow on us. I was totally bummed. In March I developed a slight fondness for running on the treadmill and I was looking forward to possibly trying to take this new activity outside. Obviously she had other plans... 

So, those of you who are visiting from Cathy's Move More Eat Well 2.0 Workshop over at Big Picture Classes, how is it going for you? Staying on track? My April numbers are starting off better than my March numbers did. Here's what's going on:

I'm down 1.2 pounds since the beginning of last month. It's not much, but I'll take it! My March started off really strong. The meds the doctor gave me while in Ramstein worked wonders for my back and I was a gym rat and yoga junkie during the first half of the month. During the later half of the month, I was down below 150! I would like to give diet and exercise the credit for that loss, but unfortunately it was due to the flu. It knocked me out for a good 7-8 days. I was able to keep some of it off while I was on the mend, but a roadtrip with friends over the weekend helped to put some of it back on. Again, I am down from last month and even have lost an inch or two, so I really can't complain too much! 

As far as diet goes, I'm still enjoying "Meatless Mondays" and cooking with super fresh ingredients. Nothing really processed. What I mean by that is I am making nothing that is coming from a can or a box. Sure I use boxed pasta, rice and other grains, but I'm making sauces, soups and side dishes all from scratch. And I love it. If I had to pick a "problem" with my eating habits this month, I would say I've been eating a bit too many carbs. I need to balance my diet out with a little more protein. I will concentrate on that during April! 

Although there is still snow on the ground, there are signs around Riga that spring is around the corner. Gardeners in the park around the corner from us have already trimmed the shrubs back and there are piles of woodchips just waiting to be placed in the flower beds. Another sure sign of spring around here are the "tents" that spring up in the various beer gardens around Old Town. We noticed about a week ago that preparations were under way in getting at one of our favorite beer gardens in town ready for the upcoming spring and summer seasons. This is all well and good for a fun social life, it can cause a major crash and burn on the road to a healthy lifestyle. I just have to keep reminding myself to look at my Advantage and Response Cards (see this post) before I go out, have a plan and stick to it!

Wellness isn't easy. It's hard. I'm finding that the older I get the more difficult it is! And as hard as it is, it is important. I am finding that my reasons for staying fit and healthy are not just "to look good." I have come to realize that working at staying healthy is a responsibility to myself, my family and to society. As Chris is getting ready to retire from the Marine Corps in a few months, we will be faced with many decisions that go along with transitioning to civilian life. Healthcare is one of those issues. So before I close this post, I thought I would share a little quote that my sister, Kerry, shared on her Facebook page a few weeks ago. It's thought-provoking and I made it into a little 3x4 printable card for you to download and print. Think about it the next time you question whether or not to buy those organic and slightly more expensive salad greens or pay to attend a new fitness class at the local gym...

Download MMEW_Wellness.png

Thanks for reading! Have a healthy month!

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Move More Mondays | MMEW Monthly Update

MOVE MORE MONDAYS | MMEW MONTHLY UPDATE

Welcome March. After a rough February, you are a sight for a slow rise (in the numbers on the scale!).

The beginning message of Cathy Zielske's MMEW March video was just what I needed to hear:

"Every month is still a renewal."  

The scale is showing that I defintely took a long detour from the road to a healthy lifestyle. Reasons why vary from poor decisions while eating out, to back pain, to having too much fun in Germany. BUT, it is not a reason to get all down and depressed about it. It's life. Things like this happen. I just have to back it up and get back on the road. Cathy gave us a 3x4 quote card as well that said:

"Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent."
                                                                                                    ~Marilyn Vos Savant

Isn't that a great quote? Totally needed to hear that! So inspiring!

So this morning, the scale showed that I was up 4.4 pounds. But if I was to compare the photo of myself below to the one I took in January, this month's picture looks better (my tummy looks flatter). When we have a setback, I think it is important to recognize the reasons for it, acknowledge it, and make the needed adjustments. So after some thought, this is what I came up with for my little detour:

One : For three weekends in a row, we had fun social events every Friday and Saturday night. While I was good with my meal planning and eating during the week, I kind of let things go over the weekend. I just got wrapped up in the moment(s). I do not believe in rewarding myself with food when I do something healthy for myself (I am not a dog!). And I didn't do that in these circumstances. I think I just got lazy and didn't plan my food/drink very well when we went out. Course of Action: Eat a healthy snack and drink a tall glass of cold water before going out. At restaurants, go for the healthier dishes. At receptions, opt for fruit and limit wine to one glass. If out with friends, choose lower calorie drinks and drink water between.

Two : Back Pain. My back had been bothering me in February and I decided to revisit the physical therapy exercises that my PT gave me when I was living back in the States. That meant giving up one of my days in the gym. While the exercises have seemed to help I still wasn't able work up to a reverse crunch (I haven't been able to do them since late last fall) and the loss of cardio I believe was a factor to the weight gain. Course of Action: Good news!!! While I was in Germany I had an Xray done on my back. Turns out I have retrolisthesis (a slight posterior bulging of the spine) of the L4-L5. The doc gave me Meloxicam and you know what??? I can do my reverse crunch! Turns out there must have been some swelling in the area and the meds are taking care of that. I feel great! I was at the gym this morning and had an AWESOME workout session!

Three : Way too much fun in Germany! And I am not apologizing for it. The German food, my favorite German beer, and the American restaurants on base including Macaroni Grill, Chili's, Antonio's Pizza, and yes, Burger King (sorry but I can't resist those sausage croissants and little round hash browns-but I only had them one time-on our last day...on the drive to the airport). After being away from it for 8+ months, it's was hard to resist.  I wrote Lisa this morning and told her about my gain, but I am the one in control. She wrote: "Good attitude...living what you're writing in your blog. (You) Have to enjoy life there is a time and a place for everything...it's no fun not to be able to let loose and let go sometimes..." Love her. Course of Action: Nothing I can do about this one-just be very careful of what I'm eating. I'm kind of restricting myself this week to replacing two of my meals (breakfast and lunch) with Isagenix Shakes and having a super healthy dinner with Chris. For snacks-lots of fruit, veggies and a handful of nuts here and there!

Move More Mondays | MMEW Update

It's been one month since I joined Cathy Zielske's Move More Eat Well Workshop at Big Picture Classes and while there have been several days during January where I may have strayed from the path to a healthy lifestyle, all is good! 

I've done really well sticking to my exercise routine. I go to the embassy gym on Monday mornings around 730 and I'm done by 830/845. Tuesdays and Thursdays I work out with Lisa and the girls. Wednesday and Fridays I'm in a traditional yoga class and on Sundays Chris and I take a 90 minute hot yoga class. My energy is up and that is good! While my activity level has increased, I have realized that my back is bothering me a little more and has even prevented me from doing certain exercises. So in addition to my time at the gym I feel as though I need to add more ab work into my routine as well as the exercises a physical therapist gave me a few years ago. I want to be able to do a reverse crunch again and get into a shoulder stand in yoga without pain!!!

"Meatless Mondays" have gone pretty well, too! I've really enjoyed searching the internet and recipe websites for vegetarian meals. So far my favorite has been the "Black Beans and Rice" recipe I found and slightly adapted from Real Simple. I made a recipe card for it which you can download from this post. I realized I don't have any vegetarian cookbooks! I need to get a few of those! What I've really like about "Meatless Mondays" is that I haven't used any processed foods. Everything is so fresh. I love flavoring dishes with fresh herbs and spices rather than relying on the ingredients you would find in bottled, canned or jarred products!

January wasn't without its challenges, however. I attempted a 9-day cleanse using Isagenix products and got thorough six or seven days (you can read more about this cleanse in this post). I've done the cleanse before with no problem, but I honestly believe that this time around it was more difficult because of the shakes I had to drink! Don't get me wrong, they are really, really good, but the issue I had was drinking shakes in the middle of a Baltic winter! It's too damn cold!!! One other issue I was having this time was my appetite on cleanse days. I didn't have some of the Isagenix products the company recommends to curb your appetite and I found that I was snacking a bit too much on those cleanse days. I was reaching for fruit and veggies, but still, I felt like I was cheating. When I did this cleanse last fall, I don't remember exercising as much as I did this time around, so I'm sure that could have lead to my extra snacking as well! At the end of the cleanse I was down 1.5 pounds, which was just fine with me. As I mentioned in that link above, I wasn't doing the cleanse to lose weight, it was to rid the toxins in my body. January was also unexpectedly busy from a social standpoint. There were several embassy receptions, dinners and other parties we had to attend. It is so difficult not to get caught up in the wine and appetizers! So I feel like I did stray a bit more than I intended to this month. BUT after I revisiting a written exercise that my trainer, Lisa, had us do during a weightloss meeting, and including it in my MMEW album (you can see it here), I feel like I am back on track.

So that is my Move More Eat Well update. Below are a few photos of the pages I added into my MMEW album. Have a healthy month!

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Hello two thousand thirteen!

Move More Mondays | January 28: Recipe Freebies

Move More Mondays | January 14th : Spa Water

Move More Mondays | January 21: Cravings + Project & Freebie

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Move More Mondays | January 7th

Move More Mondays | January 28: Recipe Freebies

So how are all of you doing with your commitment to getting healthy in 2013? I'm doing pretty good! I was extremely active last week-attended one hot yoga class, 2 traditional yoga classes and went to the gym 3 times. Feeling pretty good!!! I got a lot of positive feedback on my Move More Monday post from last week and I wanted to thank all of you that commented here and at the MMEW message boards! It was such a long post that this week I decided to shorten things up a bit and pass along a few of my favorite healthy recipes that I enjoy regularly and I'm sure you will, too! You can download a zip file of the recipe cards near the end of this post. They are sized at 4x6 and for those in Cathy's Move More Eat Well 2.0 Workshop at Big Picture Classes, you can add a recipe section in the back of your album and slip these cards into 4x6 divided page protectors by We R Memory Keepers. I am so sorry I don't have a photo to go with the soup or beans & rice recipe. Next time I make it, I'll be sure to post a photo!

Trail Mix

The Trail Mix is addicting! 

Tortellini Soup 

I have been making this soup for years! I love it! 

Black Beans & Rice

I found this recipe through Real Simple and it is perfect for our Meatless Mondays! It's very filling!

Download SeptBlue_Jan28Recipes

I added a recipe section to my MMEW album. Below are photos of what I did:

Recipe section title page.

Recipe page (sorry for the fuzzy photo). I may go back and alter what I put in the smaller pockets of the page. Maybe lined paper for notes or some word art quotes. But this will have to do for now!

Have a healthy week!

Move More Mondays | January 21: Cravings + Project & Freebie

Salty or sweet, creamy or crunchy, chips & dip. We all have that one food we crave while on the road to a healthy lifestyle. Although I love sweets just as much as the next person, I'm happy to say sweets are one of those things that I don't crave. Chips and salsa, however, is another story. Sure there are more unhealthy things that I can indulge in if I had to, but my problem is not knowing when to stop! Five or six chips may not be that bad, but eating a half a bag in one sitting is!

So what are your cravings? How do you handle them? Do you give in or do you have a strong will-power to let the craving pass? This is something we talked about extensively in our Group Lifestyle Weight Management meeting when I first started working out with my trainer Lisa. Lisa Biffin is a qualified personal trainer and lifestyle weight management coach certified through the American Council on Exercise (she is also a yoga instructor!). She is truly passionate about what she does, is extremely knowledgeable and well-educated in her field. I take her words and advice to heart. I asked her if it would be okay to share the anti-craving strategies that she taught us a while back and she gave me her blessing. So her are some of her strategies (and at the end, there is a little project for you to do!):

Lisa's Anti-Craving Mindset Techniques

1. Label it. Tell yourself, "This feeling is just a craving...it is uncomforable and intense, but (like hunger) it is not an emergency."
   
   
2. Stand Firm. Tell yourself that you're absolutely not going to eat the food that you're craving. Remind yourself that you truly don't want to strengthen your giving-in muscle and weaken your resistance muscle. Ask yourself whether giving in to this craving will be worth the momentary pleasure you'll get from eating. Think about how giving in can undermine your confidence.
   
   
3. Don't give yourself a choice. The emotionally painful part about a craving is the struggle you feel. Once you can tell yourself with total convicition, "NO CHOICE," and do something else, the craving will diminish. It won't go away, though, if you waver or say to yourself, "This is so intense, I don't know if I can stand it." Of course you can stand it. It may be uncomfortable, but nothing bad will happen if you withstand it. In fact, in a few moments you're going to be proud of yourself!
   
   
4. Imagine the aftermath of giving in. Go ahead and think about eating the food you are craving. Imagine it in your mouth. How many seconds does it take to eat it? How many seconds do you feel pleasure? Now visualize the rest of the picture...the part of the experience you usually don't think about until it's too late. See yourself feeling upset, giving up, continuing to ear more and more, feeling worse and worse. Do you start to feel heavier in your body or more heavy-hearted? As you become upset in the image, remind yourself you wouldn't do it again, and how hopeless you felt. Now that you've seen the entire picture, which seems better: giving in or not giving into your craving? 
   
   
5. Remind yourself why you want to learn to withstand cravings. Read your Advantages/Response cards (more on those later in the post-it's a project for you!). You won't be able to attain the wonderful benefits of lost weight unless you tolerate your cravings. If you continue to give in to them, you'll always be at risk for gaining weight.

Lisa says that if you're still tempted ot eat something you shouldn't after you've done all of the five mindset techniques above, you can try some of the following behavioral techniques below:

Lisa's Anti-Craving Behavioral Techniques

1. Distance yourself from the food you crave. When you experience a craving because you see or smell food, you might be able to move that food to an inconvenient place (out of sight out of mind) or to get rid of it (give it away, throw it away). If you are unable to move the food then try removing yourself from the situation.
   
   
2. Drink a no calorie or low calorie beverage. Thirst can mask as hunger and trigger you to eat. Consider drinking club soda, water with lemon, herbal tea, etc.
   
   
3. Relax. You can teach your body how to relax in a variety of ways. Meditation can help refocus your thoughts and it only takes a few minutes.
   
   
4. Distract yourself. Do you remember a time when a natural distraction interrupted your craving and you later were glad you hadn't given in? Maybe a friend called, the dog need to go for a walk, your boss came into your office? By the time you finished what you had to do, your craving had weakened or passed. You focused on something else.

It's been a while since I've pulled out all of these anti-craving techniques. They make so much sense and they are doable. Don't you agree?

Mind Over Matter Project

So in point #5 of the Mindset Technique, Lisa mentions "Advantage and Response Cards." This was a homework assignment from Lisa and I find them extremely helpful. She originally had us make them on index cards. Being a crafty kind of girl, I got a little more creative and printed/mounted them on cardstock and held them together with a keyring. But since then, I've remade mine so they fit nicely in my MMEW album. The 8.5x11 page protector you see in the photo above are by We R Memory Keepers. I cut two 4x12 pieces of Bazzill Cardstock (apricot) folded them in half and placed them in the pockets. Using an EK Success 1.75" circle punch I punched half circles in the the two vertical pockets like this:

Be warned that the punch may not give you a clean cut (see photo below), but it is easy to trim with a pair of scissors.

The reason why I cut the notch is to allow easy access to your cards when you need to refer to them.

Pretty cool, huh? I love it.

On to the cards. Here's what you do:

1. Create an Advantage Card(s) that lists all the reasons why you want to lose weight and keep the weight off. Categorize them by importance (i.e. very important, important, not so important). Ask yourself, "Why do I REALLY want to lose weight?" i.e.: (you can see some of my Advantage Cards in the photo below)

          How will weight loss impact my love life, friendships, family, career, social life.
          How will weight loss impact my energy level, participation in hobbies, sports, etc.
          How will weight loss impact my body, health and my mental outlook.

      2. Create Response Cards that counter negative thought or situations that you will encounter,
          i.e.: 

          "Remember the bread/beer will be tempting, but I can resist it. It's more important to
           me to lose weight. If I eat bread/drink beer, I'll get a momentary pleasure but
           afterwards I'll feel worse."

Above are some of my Response Cards.

The point of these cards are to remind you of why you are doing what you're doing & what you can do to support yourself during challenging/tempting situations. 

And guess what? I am providing you with templates to download so you can make your own! There is even one for the vertical title pocket I made for the page as well! Whoop, whoop!!! 

Now the templates are psd files. For the "Mind/Matter template the text has been rasterized and you can use a color overlay to change it to the color of your choice. You can also choose your own patterned paper to insert as well. Download the template by clicking on the link below:

Download SeptBlue_mindovermatter.psd

The text on the Advantage and Response Card titles has been rasterized as well. Again you can use a color overlay to change the color. They are 4x6 cards. When you print them out, trim them down to measure 3.5x5.5. Then mount the title cards to the top of your cardstock. Download the templates by clicking on the link below:

Download SeptBlue_AdvRespCardTitles

The text on the Advantage and Response Cards themselves has NOT been rasterised (it is the same file for both cards). The bold font you see in orange is Helvetica Neue LT 97 Black Condensed Oblique, set at 24pt and 21pt leading. The smaller font in gray is Helvetica Neue LT 57 Condensed Oblique, set at 10pt and Auto leading. If you do not have this font on your computer, your program will replace it with something else upon opening. They are 4x6 cards. When you print them out, trim them down to measure 3.75x5.75. This size allows the cards to be slipped into the pockets easily. Download the template by clicking on the link below: 

Download SeptBlue_MMEW_AdvRespCards.psd

I placed this page on the right side of my album. I needed something for the facing page and wanted it to be motivational. So I altered one of the templates that Cathy Zielske provided in her class and did this:

The text came from an ad for Athleta clothing I saw in Real Simple Magazine. I find it empowering. It's the perfect compliment to the "Mind Over Matter" page. I cannot provide you with this particular template, as it was part of the class that I paid for. But for those of you who are participating in MMEW, you should be able to alter yours and feel free to copy what I did. 

I hope you found this post inspiring and will put these techniques to work for you! A big shout out to Lisa for allowing me to share her tips and techniques with you! 

Have a healthy week!

 

 

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Move More Mondays | January 7th

Move More Mondays | January 14th : Spa Water

How many times have you heard "Make sure to drink 8 glasses of water every day!" or "Drink water if you feel hungry, it will fill you up!" or "Drink lots of water during the day to flush out your system!"? I'm sure you've heard many more thirst-quenching tid-bits of advice when it comes to drinking water and dieting. So many that you can drown in them! But plain old water out of the tap or office water cooler can be down right boring, right? Right. I mean what kind of satisfaction are your senses getting from drinking this clear tasteless liquid? Absolutely none!

That is unless you dress it up with some mouth-watering flavors and cool containers!!!

I started to flavor my boring water about 5 years ago after visiting the Canyon Ranch Spa at the Venetian in Las Vegas. They had this amazing water that was flavored with what I believed to be cucumber, mint and maybe some rosemary. It was soooo good. I was hooked. There was something luxurious about drinking this wonderfully flavored water while wearing a white, fluffy spa robe and getting your nails done. It felt so healthy. And from the moment I returned home from Vegas, I have always flavored my water with fruits, vegetables or herbs.

Some people make pitchers of flavored water and keep it in the fridge. But these European refrigerators tend to be a little small to hold a big pitcher, so I usually place my ingredients directly in the water bottle and refill it throughout the day. I also like to put the fruit, veggies or herbs in the water bottle first, then add the ice and water. Placing the ice on top of the ingredients bruises them a little bit, releasing the flavors! 

Some of my favorite combinations include (based on a 24 ounce water bottle):

Cucumber & Mint: Two slices (cut in half) of cucumber and a 3-4" spring of fresh mint.

Citrus Water: One slice each orange, lemon, lime, cut in half.

Orange & Ginger: One large slice of orange, quarted and 2 or 3 slices of fresh ginger.

Strawberry & Mint: 3-4 strawberries (halved) and several mint leaves.

There are several books on the subject as well. I found these two (and ordered them) on Amazon:

Spa Water by Pam Wenzell

Cool Waters by Brian Preston-Cambell

(This one is out of stock, but I ordered it anyways so it will ship as soon as it's back in!)

I can't wait for them to arrive! 

Special water needs a special container to show it off! While there are plenty of totally awesome water bottles out there, I want to take this opportunity to share two of my faves! 

Tervis Tumblers

 

I love these tumblers! They keep my water super cold and the tumbler doesn't sweat! The 24 ounce tumbler fit nicely in the cup holder in my car. I like the lids that are available for them, too. I take this tumbler to my hot yoga class with me and the water stays ice cold during the 90-minute class! These tumblers are made in the USA!!!

AquaZinger

This water bottle has quickly become my FAVE!!! I received this as a Christmas gift from my son Dustin and his girlfriend, Beccal Why is it so awesome? Take a look:

 

The bottom of the bottle unscrews (into two pieces), allowing you to place small pieces of cut fruit, veggies or herbs on both sides of the "blades." Don't worry, they are not sharp. Then you replace the second piece on top (note that there is a metal filter on that second part). When you screw the stainless steel tube back on to the bottom piece, it grinds the fruit, releasing the juices. You then fill the bottle with water, give it a few shakes to filter it through the bottom and presto! Flavored water! I love this! Genius!!! It comes in several colors and you can purchase on their website. There are also tons of recipes on the site, too!

Some other products you may want to try include:

Pampered Chef's Herb Infuser

Fill the tube with herbs, veggies or fruit and drop it into a pitcher of water.

 

Takeya Fruit Infused Water Maker

 

This is a great pitcher to keep in your refrigerator if you want to make a big batch of flavored water! It holds 66 ounces!

I hope this inspires you to make some of your own spa water the next time you have the urge to reach for that sugary soda!!! Whew! I can't decide if all of this talk about water is making me thristy or need to use the ladies room!

On to my Move More Eat Well weekly update:

Weigh-in: Not much changed from last week's scale reading. I lost a whole 2 ounces. Which bring me to my next update:

Isagenix Cleanse: I mentioned in last week's MMEW post that I started my Isagenix cleanse. If you recall from that post, I am not doing this cleanse to lose weight but rather to rid my body of toxins while at the same time replacing it with the good stuff it needs. So I'm really not too upset that I haven't lost much weight. And let me tell you, I feel fabulous! My energy is through the roof and I feel like my concentration and focus is much better. I'm not going to lie and tell you it has been an easy go this time. When I did this cleanse last fall for whatever reason I wasn't exercising as much so I didn't feel hungry between my Isagenix shakes. But this time I've been at the gym more and I think I need the calories to keep my energy up. So I have been reaching for fruit, and sometimes almonds when I need an energy boost. This past Saturday I totally fell off of the cleanse wagon, but got back on come Sunday. Another thing that is difficult this time is that it is downright freezing outside. It's so hard to drinks shakes when it is 16F degrees outside!!! But I only have 3 more days and I'll be done! 

Meatless Mondays: Last week was the first time I introduced Meatless Mondays at dinner time. I think it went pretty well and Chris really didn't complain~although he did pick out the sweet potato from the dish I made! I found this great recipe for Lemon Asparagus Penne from MeatlessMonday.com. I had to substitute a few of the veggies, but it really turned out yummy! Be sure to check out the site for some good meatless dishes!

Before I close I wanted to include some other blogs of those who are also participating in Cathy Zielske's Move More Eat Well 2.0 class at Big Picture Classes:

Friday's Love Song

Life Inside A Scrapbook Room

Julie's Creative Journey

These ladies blog about other topics as well. You will have to search through their sites to find MMEW posts.

Have a healthy week! Thanks for reading! 

Move More Mondays | January 7th

Hello Monday!!! As I mentioned in a post last week, I am participating in Cathy Zielske's Move More, Eat Well 2.0 Class at Big Picture Classes. Each Monday I will have a blog post that will be dedicated to my road to a healthy lifestyle in 2013. Although I am documenting this journey in a scrapbook, I will not have weekly layouts to share. You can count on, however, healthy recipes, little tidbits on what I do to maintain a healthy diet, my bumps in the road and so on. I hope you will check in weekly to see how my progress is going and get some inspiration yourself!

The two page layouts below were created with the templates that Cathy provided us in class. One side shows a photo of me taken today. It's a starting point. Think of it as a before picture. The journaling block next it is where I logged my stats for the beginning of January (I weighed in at 151.8 this morning). The other page describes my story with weight loss story-what my physique was like when I was a child, weight gain, weight loss, exercise history, etc. It's kind of nice to have this all in one place to see what patterns and habits have been established over the years. There is also a "just one thing" box. This is where participants in the class are encouraged to choose one thing that they want to change, add or adapt in our routine in the month of January. This month I will be introducing "Meatless Mondays" into our home. I know I won't have a problem, but Chris wasn't thrilled with the idea. But he can have meat at lunchtime if he chooses. Dinner, however, will be meatless! 

So today, January 7, is what I am calling my "January 1." Our youngest son Ryley was still here last week on his Christmas break from the University of South Florida and we were still in "holiday mode"–eating out all of the time, indulging in wine & other spirits. He left on Saturday and it's now time to stop the madness and get back to my healthier way of life! I don't know about you, but after several weeks of eating my way through the holidays, I know I start to feel sluggish. It's time for a cleanse.

Early last fall my sister Kerry (who is a fitness nut) was introduced to a line of whole-body nutritional cleansing & weight management products by Isagenix. She just raved about the products and was really wanting me to try them. Even though I was skeptical (very skeptical), I figured what do I have to lose and gave them a shot. Come to think of it I was about 5 pounds shy of reaching my goal weight (read "this is my story" layout page above) so I did have something to lose, but really, I was not, I repeat not doing this cleanse to lose weight. I was sluggish and had no energy lately and felt like this could help rid of toxins building up in my body. It was a 9-day cleanse that alternated between 2 "cleanse days" and 5 "shake days," and then 2 more "cleanse days." On "shake days" two of my three meals were their IsaLean Shakes (yummy) along with a meal between 400-600 calories + a piece of fruit or two for a snacks. On "cleanse days" I would drink their "Cleanse for Life," which is blend of cleansing herbs that I mixed with water and would drink as a tea 4 times a day. I'm not going to lie, the "cleanse days" were tough. But you know what? After all was said and done, I couldn't believe how awesome I felt. Tons of energy, clearer thinking and I lost my final 5 pounds! 

Now here we are at the beginning of 2013 and I'm feeling sluggish once again. So today my trainer Lisa and I are going to start the cleanse together! She noticed how my energy level changed when I did the cleanse last fall and thought she'd like to give it a whirl (not that she needs it-she has tons of energy already!!!). I'm glad we'll be there to support each other during the next 9 days! I will let you know how things are going in next Monday's post! You can read more about Isagenix and their products here. It is a link to their product catalog. {Please note that Isagenix is a direct sales company, if you were interested in purchasing thier products you would have to find an associate near you or sign up to be one yourself}.

I look at Isagenix as a "tool" to help give me a jump start on my road to a healthy lifestyle. You know another little item that I absolutely LOVE??? It's my Fitbit! 

I love this little technological fitness friend! It counts your steps, flights of stairs, tracks the number of calories you burn, your energy level and can even track your sleep patterns! It's awesome! Fitbit will send you encouraging messages as well. Little phrases like "Way to go!," "Move It,"  & "High Five" shoq up on my screen and I find them extremely motivational! It's a little gadget with a big heart! The Fitbit website is awesome as well! All of my information from my Fitbit is uploaded to my dashboard where I can see my activity level, calories burned, sleep patterns and even log my food! 

Do you have a Fitbit? If so, let's become Fitbit Buddies! "Friend me" by searching for Kelly S. 

Have a healthy week!

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Project | Move More Eat Well 2.0 (with Cathy Zielske)

Move More Eat Well 2013

Hello two thousand thirteen!

Project | Move More Eat Well 2.0 (with Cathy Zielske)

Eat healthy.

Exercise more.

Eat less fat.

Join a gym.

Any of the above sound familiar? It's that time of year again. You know what I'm talking about. The holidays are over and the only reminder left of the season are the cookies that seemed to have made their way to your waistline. It's the same story every year. We make the resolution in January to change our attitude about exercise and healthy eating. Come March, we have fallen off the fitness wagon. May arrives and bathing suit season is on our minds. Back onto the wagon we climb. Some of us may keep our fitness routine going through fall, but we know how work, kids school schedules and sporting events can really screw us up. We put everyone else's needs before ours and before we know it, the holidays are here again and we use them as an excuse to slip back into our old habits.

I like to think I live a healthy lifestyle. I try to eat right and exercise, but sometimes it is nice to have a group of people to reach out to when you hit a bump on your road to a healthy lifestyle or to share a personal victory like when you lose a pound or two. This is why I am so glad I signed up to participate in Cathy Zielske's "Move More Eat Well 2.0" class offered through Big Picture Classes.

If you are not familiar with Cathy and her journey to a healthier lifestyle, go and check out her blog. She is not a personal trainer or licensed nutritionist, but a graphic designer, author and blogger by profession (and a very well-know scrapbooker I might add). Cathy is extremely candid about her ups and downs when it comes to weight loss. And I believe it is because of her honesty that she has built a stong online healthy lifestyle community within her "Move More Eat Well" class.

Those that know me may be wondering why I am participating in this class. Am I overweight? No (although I do have a few pounds to lose after the holidays!). This is not a weight loss class. It is a class for those want to document their journey to healthy living and have the support from those who have the same goal. And if they lose a few pounds in the process, GREAT!

I started working out with a trainer (and three other friends) a little over a year ago. We meet twice a week and the training sessions are great. No two are ever the same. In the beginning, we also had a weight management meeting every other week. Lisa, our totally awesome trainer, is extremely knowledgeable and was constantly giving us ideas of how to stay on track with our weight loss and fitness goals. Unfortunately due to scheduling conflicts of all involved, we had to stop those meetings. I miss them. Being accountable to others and having a support group, I feel, is very helpful when it comes to reaching your healthy lifestyle goals. And that is why I chose to participate in this class. I am looking forward to sharing trials, triumphs, recipes, exercise ideas, etc. with those participating. And I am looking forward to documenting the process.

Every month Cathy will provide class participants prompts and digital templates to help document their journey to being a healthier person. I will be creating my pages using her templates, printing them out and placing them in an album. The very first photo in this post is the printed version of my title page. The photo above is the digital version.

One of the pre-class assignments Cathy had us do was a "Statement of Intention." Mine is above. This will go behind the title page of my album.

The first page of my album is the one you see above. Again, Cathy provides us with the templates and we just drag and drop photos in using Photoshop.

I am really looking forward in documenting this journey and I hope you will follow along! Each Monday I will have a "Move More Monday" post where I will share my MMEW pages, recipes and other healthy lifestyle tips that work for me and just might for you, too!

Here's to a happy and healthy 2013!

 

 

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