Tag Archives: Weight Loss

Monitor Your Course

06 Wednesday Feb 2013

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Monitor Your CourseWhen traveling by car, boat, airplane or space craft, the driver or pilot must monitor the course and make adjustments as necessary. We can apply this same principle to our bodies; our health and our weight.

If we pay good attention to how our bodies feel, we can tell when we are hungry, tired, or rundown.  These signals cue us to eat, get more rest or sleep, and take better care of ourselves.

If you are interested in decreasing your body weight or maintain a specific weight, one way to monitor how you are doing is to weigh yourself every day or two.  The scale will let you know if you need to make adjustments to your eating or physical activity. Another way to monitor your weight, but not as precise, is by how your clothes fit.

What other ways do you monitor your health?

Love, Health & Happiness,

Phyllis

What’s Weighing You Down?

01 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Healthy Body, Healthy Mind

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What's Weighing You Down

What if achieving your desired healthy body and healthy weight wasn’t just about the food you eat?  What if unresolved thoughts, feelings, and experiences are what drives you to make the choices you make about your body? This includes what you feed it, if you exercise it, and basically whether you treat your body as a friend or foe.

Each one of us has gone through experiences throughout our lives that have been painful, fearful and heavy with emotion. Many people have experienced a significant illness, injury, loss, financial hardship, relationship or family conflict, and/or work or career related challenge.

What’s weighing you down? What experiences from your life, past or present, feel heavy? What burdens are you carrying around?  What’s weighing you down and preventing you from traveling with ease in a lighter healthier body?

Click the following: Navigating The World of Emotions for safe ways to express your feelings.

Love, Health & Happiness,

Phyllis

What’s The Buzz About Juicing?

13 Thursday Dec 2012

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What's The Buzz About Juicing?A lot of people have been asking about juicing lately.  It seems like the latest craze. Is it real or just a fad?

I have personally seen the benefits of juicing in two people I am close to.  One has used juicing to get healthy and lose weight, and as a result he has been able to get off of high blood pressure medication and eliminate the need to use a sleep apnea machine.  The other has used juicing while going through radiation treatment after cancer surgery.  She has expressed having more energy, and over all feeling healthier when she drinks juiced vegetables and fruit.

Juicing provides bio-available nutrients to our cells without the need of our body to breakdown food or fiber, making the vitamins, minerals, enzymes and phytonutrients easy to absorb.

Love, Health & Happiness,

Phyllis

Care or Curse Your Body?

20 Tuesday Nov 2012

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On a continuum, of lovingly caring for your body on one end, and cursing your body on the other, where do you see your level of care? Do you feel let down or betrayed by your body? Do you appreciate all that it does for you?

We only get one body, and the messages we tell ourselves about our body can significantly affect how well we care for ourselves. What if treating your body with kindness was the answer to feeling better, less stressed, more confident, and possibly the answer to overcoming an illness, injury or weight issue?

You only get one body. Treat it with the kindness, love, respect and care that it and you deserve.

Love, Health & Happiness,

Phyllis

Just What the Doctor Ordered

13 Tuesday Nov 2012

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Why should I go out of my way to exercise? How about to have a healthy body with good posture, to be fit, decrease stress, elevate mood, increase energy, and contribute to a strong immune system and well-functioning metabolism?  Or to increase strength, flexibility, coordination and circulation?

Regular exercise may also help with weight loss and weight management.  Keep in mind that you can never exercise enough to burn excess calories consumed by indulgent eating, over eating or to make up for poor eating habits.

Treat your body to some movement.  Find what works for you: walk, run, jog, bike, skate, ski, use a treadmill, elliptical, stair climber, mini-trampoline, DVD, attend classes, do yoga… Just get moving!

Love, Health & Happiness,

Phyllis

What’s For Lunch?

01 Thursday Nov 2012

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People who pack their own lunches have more control over what they eat, tend to eat healthier, and save money at the same time. Dining on a packed lunch has also been shown to aid in weight loss and weight management.

The following are some lunch ideas and recipe links:

Raw vegetables (carrots, celery, jicama, red peppers, peapods, broccoli, cauliflower) and hummus

Salad (lettuce, spinach, or kale) with raw or cooked vegetables, beans or lentils, and salad dressing on the side so the lettuce won’t get soggy, or Black Bean Salad, Kale Salad, Broccoli Cranberry Salad, Cauliflower Salad

Almost any leftovers from dinner, cooked vegetables, brown rice, whole grain pasta, lentils, quinoa, cooked chicken or salmon, baked yam or sweet potato, soup, Rice Beans and tomatoes, etc.

Fruit – apple, banana, orange, pear, berries, etc., or a fruit salad

Almonds or other nuts or seeds (in limited amounts for portion control)

If you don’t already pack a lunch, try it once or twice a week. You just might get into the habit of it! An easy way to get started is to make an extra serving or two of something you are already going to make, then pack your lunch when you are putting the extra food into storage containers. Your lunch will be ready to go into your lunch box, cooler or brown bag in the morning, when you pre-plan and pre-package your food the night before.

Love, Health & Happiness,

Phyllis

Increase Your Metabolism, Part 2

25 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by in Healthy Body, Healthy Eating

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While exercise is considered the best way to increase your metabolism (click here for part 1), there are other factors to consider that you have control over.

1. Sleep – Lack of sleep has been shown to have a negative impact on metabolism, slowing it down which can be an obstacle to maintaining or losing weight. Make an effort to go to sleep when you are tired.

2. Frequency of eating – How often you eat effects your metabolism. Every time you eat you stimulate your metabolism for a short period of time. Research from Georgia State University shows that  people who eat every 2 to 3 hours have less body fat and faster metabolisms than those who eat only 2 or 3 meals per day. Also, by eating frequently, you teach your body not to go into starvation mode, where it will conserve fat because it doesn’t know when the next meal will be.

3. What to eat – Include a serving or two of vegetables with lean protein or nuts. Increasing the amount of high-fiber foods, like vegetables is one of the best ways to raise your metabolism.  First, your body tries to break down fiber, which is a non-digestible carbohydrate, this burns calories and boosts your metabolism at the same time. Second, vegetables are low in calories and high in nutrients aiding in your ability to lose weight or to maintain a healthy weight.

Love, Health & Happiness,

Phyllis

Time For Breakfast

06 Thursday Sep 2012

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Time For BreakfastWe’ve all heard that breakfast is supposed to be the most important meal of the day, but do you know why?

A healthy breakfast fuels your body with calories so that your body can function. It provides needed nutrients, especially phytonutrients from fruits and vegetables.  Also, eating breakfast can help boost your metabolism and that may help with weight loss and weight control.

Plan ahead so that you have time to eat breakfast. Sometimes I take out what I need the night before.  For example, I usually have oatmeal, so I’ll take out the oats, a bowl, a spoon, and a measuring cup. Then in the morning I don’t have to go looking in the cupboards and drawers for these items.  All I have to do is cook the oatmeal, and add cut up banana or blueberries, and walnuts, flax seeds or chia seeds.

A high fiber, low sugar breakfast cereal is another option. Add low-fat milk or almond or soy milk and fruit for a satisfying healthy breakfast. If you eat dairy, adding fruit and a spoonful of walnuts or almonds to plain yogurt is a good choice.

Breakfast can consist of any leftovers of whole grains like quinoa or brown rice and vegetables, or an omelet with leftover vegetables and a side of cooked beans.  You could even have soup for breakfast or a salad.

Just like your other meals, a healthy breakfast will be comprised of some fruit or vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, nuts, seeds, and/or legumes.

Love, Health & Happiness,

Phyllis

Maintaining Weight Loss

16 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by in Healthy Body, Healthy Eating

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Maintaining Weight LossDid you know that half of all Americans who lose weight gain at least some of it back within a year, according to research published in the International Journal of Obesity.

It’s a lot easier to keep the weight off than to lose it all over again.  Maintaining weight loss is possible by creating life-long healthy habits and monitoring them. This includes:

1. Eating regularly, especially breakfast and eating moderately throughout the day, such as breakfast, lunch, dinner and one or two healthy snacks.

2. Consuming a variety of whole foods: fruit, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds.

3. Being aware of portions and serving sizes.

4. Weighing yourself once or twice a week or being mindful of how your clothes fit will allow you to know if you have gained a few pounds. Then you can go back to what works for you to lose the weight and maintain your weight loss.

Love, Health & Happiness,

Phyllis

Could You Spend $2,000 a Day, Every Day?

19 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by in Family Fun, Healthy Body

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MoneyIf you were given $2,000 every day, you might have a hard time spending that much money, every single day.  Yet, if you were given $2,000 a day and you had to buy your calories at $1/calorie, some of us could easily spend that much before noon, or on one meal! 

Calories are our body’s energy currency. Calories are used to create energy for our body’s daily activities. Olympic athletes can fuel their bodies with 5,000 or more calories each day, while most of us non-professional athletes only need a fraction of that, about 1600 – 2500 calories a day.  (Check with your doctor to determine your ideal weight and caloric needs).  The more active you are the more energy your body needs.

Make it a game and try this on your own or with your family: “Buy” your calories for three days in a row and see how much you are really “spending.”  You don’t need real cash to do this.  Money from games like Monopoly or Payday will work. Remember to include everything you eat, drink and chew.  This includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, all drinks, snacks, tastes, candies and gum. For calorie information, see the Nutrition Facts label of each food item for calories per serving and serving size.  When eating out, the calories may be posted on the menu.  If those options are unavailable, there are many sites online that have calorie count information.

No matter what “diet” we choose, our bodies need calories for energy, and unused calories get stored as fat. When we understand this concept, then eating with awareness and making good choices replaces any temporary diet. This is the an important step in creating a lifestyle of healthy eating.

Love, Health & Happiness,

Phyllis