Instead of setting a New Year’s Resolution to lose X amount of weight, try setting a healthy eating goal! Replacing one bad habit with one good habit will eventually give you the results you’re looking for. The benefit of taking the long route is that it will last longer. Get off the weight loss roller coaster and start creating healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime!
Learn 3 healthy eating tips from the experts to get you started!
1. Eat Every 2-1/2 to 3 Hours
Ever find yourself on the go, and before you know it you haven’t eaten all day? By the time lunch (or maybe even dinner) comes along, you’re starved! You may be thinking, “I’m not even eating that much, why am I not losing weight?”
By skipping meals, you’re going into a “starvation mode” and instead of losing weight, your body is holding onto everything it can to fuel those important organs that keep you running. One of the most important healthy habits you can start is to eat regularly throughout the day. Start with breakfast within the first 1/2 hour to hour of waking up, then eat a small-portioned, balanced meal every 2-1/2 to 3 hours from the time you start your first meal. This healthy habit will get your metabolism going, level out your blood sugars, and help you lose weight safely.
Joni Moore, Certified Health Coach, Take Shape For Life
2. Change the Way You Think and Feel About Food
Diets are temporary unless it becomes a way of life. A healthy, slender lifestyle includes eating clean, exercising and having a healthy mind. Changing the way you think and feel about food is the key to end dieting forever.
Take a look at how you view food. Is it company, love or a friend? Food is meant to nourish us. By learning how you think and feel about food you can then focus on the areas of your life that food is substituting. Food then becomes more neutral, as it is meant to be. You can still enjoy healthy food, but you will have addressed the body image and emotional issues you heal with food that cause weight gain to begin with.
3. Drink Enough Water
After gaining forty pounds dieting, I swore I would never diet again. I lost the forty pounds with my own technique (thinking thin) and have kept it off over twenty-five years. As I imagined myself thin, ideas came to me to put into place for life. The most effective idea, and easy for me to stick with, was replacing any kind of fruit juice or soda with water.
I love desserts, so I opted to keep those and toss the sugar from juices and sodas, replacing them with what my body really needed and wanted, pure, fresh water.
Debbie Johnson, Author, Think Yourself Thin
Put these 3 habits into place over the next 3 weeks and watch as you gradually begin to feel more healthy. These feelings will motivate you to make even more changes and you will be on the road to a weight loss lifestyle in no time!
There are many ways you can up-level your mindset for success – to help you stick to your newly established healthy habits, to make sure that they stick and last well beyond “New Year Resolution.”
3 Simple Tips That Make A Big Difference
1. The 90/10 Rule. Eat well and healthy 90% of the time, and let yourself indulge without guilt 10% of the time. Don’t beat yourself up if you slip – this kind of guilt and self-blame does not help you stay on course.
Deprivation is not a sustainable way to make changes that last. You may be able to go cold turkey on your favorite food for two weeks, but want happens after your “diet”? Most people will probably binge, feel bad, and give up. Allowing yourself to eat what you love, and possibly finding healthier substitute to satisfy your taste bud, is how you can make healthy changes that will bring you benefits for a long time to come.
2. The Bigger Why. When you face challenges in adapting dietary and lifestyle changes, and wanting to just go back to the old familiar way of eating, ask yourself – what is costing you not to take action?
You need to go deep, and think not just the immediate consequences but keep asking “then what?” – tap into the emotions that come with the immediate outcome – that is the ultimate results that you want to create.
3. Subconscious Fear and Mental Blocks. If you have been trying to make changes to your diet and lifestyle, but are unable to make breakthroughs beyond a certain point, I invite you to dig deeper into what is holding you back. Maybe it’s not just the matter of willpower at the present moment that is preventing you from succeeding. You may have to do some work to see if any of your past experiences is responsible for some limiting beliefs that are holding you back.
ling wong, Certified Holistic Health Coach, Thoughts For Foods Holistic Health
About the Author: Ling Wong, CHHC, AADP, provides holistic nutrition and wellness coaching to support busy moms to “get their mojo back”. She helps her clients lose weight, gain more energy, attain emotional balance and mental clarity with actionable steps and changes that work with their lifestyles. read more →
We asked our panel of guest bloggers for some advice about incorporating Kickboxing into our workout routine. Health coach, Jodean Pertersen, reminds us of the importance of warming up prior to our kickboxing class. Learn what moves will best support your workout.
Warm Up and Prepare for Your Kickboxing Assault
Kickboxing is a very intense exercise, making a good warm up essential. This work out uses nearly every muscle you have and it is easy to injur the delicate shoulder muscles or hip flexor muscles even in classes which do not use bags.
Incorporate the following warm-up exercises into your routine to avoid injury or strain:
- Arrive at the class about 15 minutes early and warm up on a bike or treadmill.
- Take the time to do a full body stretch with your hands over your head, slowly bend at the waist, keeping your abs tight, let your hands touch the floor and walk out on your hands and stretch your calves.
- Perform 10 small then large arm circles forward and backwards.
- Begin class with slower and more deliberate movements and after you have a nice sweat going (won’t take long) start firing away.
Your body will be warm and flexible. You will actually burn more fat because you have much improved circulation and oxygen flow to your muscles.
Jodean Petersen, B.S. ACSM-CPT, Health Coach, Jodean Petersen
Many thanks to Jodean Petersen for supplying us with this valuable advice.
Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurtbudiarto/6038931650/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Balancing a schedule that includes a regular fitness routine can be a challenge. We know it’s hard work, but we also know that the work pays off in many areas of our lives. Learn how this fit Mom makes the time in her schedule to exercise.
Find a Fitness Routine You Love
…and set the appointments for it in stone!
After the birth of my son, my fitness routine really suffered. Everything else in my life came first and I was suffering as a rsult. The way that I got it back was by finding classes I loved with teachers who inspired me. I have my spot in those classes reserved through the end of the year, they are in my calendar and I book my schedule around them. It has to be some very extraordinary for me to miss class and then I do my best to fill in a different class during that week.
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About the Author: Randy Rabney is a board certified holistic health coach, trained chef, food lover and working parent. She is the founder of TheConsciousPlate.com a company dedicated to helping people find the freedom to eat real food without getting fat. She is also the author of “Delicious For Life: Your Everyday Guide to Making Quick & Healthy Meals.” She is a graduate of The Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts as well as The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, both in NYC and has cooked at the Golden Door Spa in California and has taught classes in a variety of places, including Whole Foods Markets. read more →
Certified holistic health coach, Ling Wong, shares with us the reason why dieting can actually be harmful to our health. Learn why we are ditching diets for good and have focused on creating healthy habits instead.
As you dive into your workout routine and make it a habit you start to hear more and more about the balance between workout and rest. For someone who is new to an intense training program it is important to find that balance. We want to make sure we don’t allow ourselves excuses to skip training days, however we don’t want to risk injury either.
Learn from our experts how to find the right workout and rest balance that’s right for you:
A Rest Day After Every Work Out Day? Maybe Not
Resting because you have had a work out can present a large dilemma wrought with excuses and rationalizations justifying “resting”. Split routine work outs were started way back with Arnold and “the guys” lifting 400 and 600 pounds. Most of us do not use such behemoth weights.
If you are not working out intensely and resting during your work out, you do not need a rest day(s). Puttering on the treadmill and showing up for yoga are not work outs requiring rest. Boot camp, Insanity, and lifting 50% or more of your body weight equates to an intense work out which should not be completed more than 3 days per week.
Resting from an intense work out such as a “CrossFit” type of work out, or a kickboxing class is essential to prevent injury. Active rest at least one day per week is best, focusing on a full range of motion stretching routine. Indeed a leisurely bike ride or chasing your kids around the park followed by stretching would be an excellent rest day.
Jodean Petersen, B.S. ACSM-CPT, Health Coach, Jodean Petersen
Rest is as Important as Work
Your body needs a right balance of hard work and real rest. I recommend taking at least one full day off per week from all exercise. I think of it as a “sabbath”. It is wise to take a day to quiet the mind AND the body with down time. Ideally, do about 4 cardio hours a week, 3 strong strength sessions, and daily stretching. Planning ahead will allow the balance!
Nancy Radding, Fitness Director, The Oaks at Ojai
How did you find the right balance between workout and rest during your intense training? read more →
As busy as we all are – we can’t be effective without sleep. That goes for everything from work to working out.
Our guest bloggers are here to share the importance of sleep and show us the link between how much sleep we get and our weight.
Here’s a St. Patty’s Day beverage you don’t have to feel guilty about drinking first thing in the morning. Get your nutrients in first thing to keep you going strong all day. Have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day and ENJOY!
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