How Are You?

Do you realize that when someone asks you how are you all that they really want to hear is just one word: Fine?

When I decided to take charge over my life and make some important changes to become positive, happier and more successful in everything I do, first I had this tendency to try to share my goals with others. But you know what?  I realized there is no need to say anything to anybody about it. People don’t like when you make changes.

Loosing weight and telling your friends about is brings kind of jealousy because they feel that you want to look better than them. Do you remember when one of your friends realized this healthier way of living and all you hear is them converting all of your friends? (Oh my I can go on and share with you story after story how they tried to convert me into all those healthy eating habits) So when you start your diet and exercise journey and you tell them, they’ll shy away. Just because you are ready for change they might not.  And quite rightly so – we all hate being preached out and reminded about our deficiency.

As a good advice when you start to incorporate a new change into your life keep it quite, don’t preach, propagate, try to convert, shout from the rooftops or even mention it.

Naturally, you will get a warm glow as you change your diet and your skin becomes healthier. You will feel better and people of course will ask questions like: what are you doing? How are you? You look great. Try to just keep is simple and say – it’s nothing, thanks you are fine, it’s just a great day and because of the sunshine or rain you just feel better or happier or whatever.  There is no need to go into detail because that’s not really what people want to know. In fact it’s exactly the opposite of what they want to know.

When people ask you how are you? All they want to hear: fine. Even if you are in the very pits of despair, that’s all they want to hear because, anything more then “fine” requires commitment on their part. And for a casual “How are you?” that’s most certainly not what they want. All they want is Fine and they can be about their business without any further involvement. If you don’t say “fine” but instead unburden yourself, they will back off pretty quickly.

Hopefully, you have your close friends to whom you can unburden yourself and share goals and your dreams, but the causal friends in your life don’t really care about you, so just keep it simple and short. How do I know that most people around you are not interested in you? Hmmm – let’s say – people in general are selfish and interested in themselves only.

I know most of you who read my blog want to see if I will loose that weight, not because of me, but because of you. When I failed you all felt good. Why? More likely many of you too are in the same yoyo diet circle and that’s OK.

So if you follow me and want to loose some weight too, don’t shout from the rooftops just quietly follow me, comment to support each other and let’s do it together. I try not only to share my weight loss struggles and success, but I really try to share my life to connect with my readers and embrace on a life-changing adventure together.

So how are you today? To be honest I am looking for something more than just Fine. I would like to be that friend you can unburden yourself and share honestly your dreams, problems, goals and even your failures.   

Ten Key Elements to Help You Feel Better

Most of us have those days when nothing goes as planned. You wake up in the morning and look forward to your morning coffee, but hubby just didn’t make it. In the second the kids open their eyes start screaming at each other for some add reason. The dog pies in the house just before you open the door. Your client calls that he’ll be there twenty minutes earlier and you realize your hair isn’t down yet. Panic sets in and everybody start to run. Does it sound familiar? If you have kids and live a normal life more likely you can relate to this picture.

I had one of those days today. Just as described above. Once the client left I felt terrible. I am trying to loose my weight, do my daily workout to feel and look better. I’m gonna be honest: I didn’t feel better today at all. As I was working the numbers with my client who is a good looking business man I just felt big, fat and overall heavy.

So I thought what would be the ten key elements that help me feel better?

Water – drink more water. When I am tired I sometimes tend to eat more if I don’t drink enough. Before you eat drink a big cup of water and wait five minutes. You might not be hungry just thirsty. Our symptoms might not signal a clear picture to our minds.

Walk – walking has it’s many benefits and I don’t want to repeat myself. For a faster progress in weight loss run. I work hard now to increase slowly my walk – run intervals. Trust me if you’re out of shape your body will need time to adjust, but it will adjust.

No Sugar – Stay away from sugar. Its empty calories and the more you have the more you crave. When the first time I eliminated sugar from my diet after three day I had experienced temporary withdrawal type symptoms. It wasn’t funny at all. Sugar especially white sugar is not good for you and me.

Go Mediterranean – I love Mediterranean food. Olives and olive oil with Greek salad and steak - sounds good isn’t it?

Incorporate weights in your exercise. I love the 30 Day Shred because if has cardio, abs and weight incorporated in that 20 minutes of exercise. With strength training and weight you build muscles. The more muscles you have the more calories you burn.

Fish Oil – Omega 3 oils are healthy. It’s important to have fish in your meal plan. If you are not a big fish lover then have some natural supplements.

No Margarine – Eliminate hydrogenated oil. Hydrogenated oil is the unhealthiest fat you can ever put into your body. Your body can’t eliminate that from your body. Don’t use it. Use butter or olive oil and coconut oil for cooking.

Stop eating before you’re full – When you eat before you finish everything from your plate, put down your fork and wait. It takes twenty minutes for you mind to get the signal from your stomach that you are full. Eat slowly and notice your body’s signals.

Write down your goals – Can’t emphasize enough the importance to have a goal with a plan how to reach your goal.

Take a picture – if you are really sick and tired take a picture in your swimming suit and put it on your fridge. I have a picture of myself of the time I enjoyed being myself. I promised that at every ten pounds I loose I will post a picture of my progress.

BMR - How Much Calories You Need?

Whereas yesterday I decided to watch my calories intake, first thing today I have to calculate how much calories I need to survive. Here you can read all about how much calories needs to be burned to loose a pound of fat. But I have to calculate how much calories I need to function and a basic level.

How to calculate your BMR – Basic Metabolic Rate?

BMR – Basic Metabolic Rate is the number of calories that your body needs to function at the most basic level – this is what you’d burn if you sat on the couch all day and didn’t move a muscle.

Using this simple formula, you will be able to calculate your BMR and identify the amount of calories you should be eating a day.

Now if you want to loose weight faster then you just have to reduce your calories intake. You can do that by exercising and diet.

Women

BMR = 655 + (4.35 X weight in pounds) + (4.7 X height in inches) – (4.7 X age in years)

Men

BMR = 66 + (6.23 X weight in pounds) + (12.7 X height in inches) – (6.8 X age in years)

After I did my calculations I identified that my daily calories need is 1,590. To speed up my weight loss I definitely have to keep my calories intake lower. I will do my best to keep the food intake at minimum and exercise more to increase the burned calorie numbers up. The cool thing would be to eat only as much I burn a day and that would definitely speed up my weight loss. Is that doable? I think yes, am I capable? I’ll let you know.

In the morning I started my day right by following the 30 Day Shred. It’s good to check it out and know that the exercise part is accomplished. Then I went for a walk and it started raining. I love rain, especially these quite summer rains. It refreshes the air and brings life to everything.    

I decided that at every ten pound lost I will post a picture, just to motivate myself and those who follow me and are in with me on this diet journey.

Did you ever calculate your BMR before? Do you follow closely your calories intake to keep in under the permitted numbers? How do you do it? 

Are You On Diet and Gaining Weight?

Help! I been following the 30 Day Shred and finally being able to walk the stairs again without feeling a cripple and now I weight myself and the scale is showing 185 pounds! Help! What’s going on? I am exercising shouldn’t I loose weight? Does any of you been on diet and gaining weight? This is not funny at all.  

Some of you might say – you’re gaining muscle, but this is just too early for that. I took an inventory of what I ate in the last couple of weeks and I recognized the problem.

Whereas I started exercising and pushing the 30 Day Shred I started eating comfortably without watching my food intake because I just got that “idea” that I can eat because I exercise. Too bad, just because I exercise that doesn’t mean that if I eat without self-control I will loose weight. To loose weight my calorie burn has to exceed my calories intake.

There is a saying that you are what you eat! Consequently you are what you don’t eat? So I made some drastic decisions today. To loose weight I need to stop eating and start exercising more intensely.  Sounds great, cool or crazy? You might think: what do you mean you don’t want to eat?

I came up with this idea to reduce my food intake to a minimum and increase my fitness level. As I will gain strength and work out harder more calories will be burned and slowly more food will be introduced back into my diet. I will not kill myself, no worries.

I will not eat any sugar and bread until I loose 30 pounds. My biggest challenge is bread. I love carbohydrates and unfortunately the bread and pasta in oversized portions are not helping weight-loss.   

My exercise will be still the 30 Day Shred and walking daily for 45 minutes. I want to increase my walking to running level. I know I need time as my heart is not able to handle the pressure yet. I have to increase my resistance for longer running intervals.

I don’t plan to add any extra weight to my exercise yet, because the 30 Day Shred has strength with weights incorporated in the program.

So let’s the party begin. On my iphone – did I mention that I own an iphone thanks to my lovely husband? I love it. I really wasn’t  interested in this new gadget and I didn’t wanted to have one, but when my old phone gave up to serve me my hubby talked me into changing to iphone. The cool thing they have an app for about anything. I use the Lose It app to write down my food intake and exercise and it calculates my calories.

Have you ever found yourself on a diet but gained weight? Do you know what caused the weight gain? What kind of changes helped you get back on track and actually loose your weight? 

  

Six Components of Fitness

I’m reading the warning on the Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred DVD this morning and it says that if you feel discomfort or pain you should stop the exercise. Discomfort? Are you kidding me, do you call this discomfort? I drink less water to minimize washroom time. This is pain. I’m thinking this is just funny. I believe most people who start this program feel discomfort and pain after the first day. Should we stop the exercise? Then, how am I going to loose my weight, look good and fit?

Anyways, after reading the warning, today I took a break in my 30 Day Shred. I realized that if I want to be able to walk I better implement a break day. When you start and exercise program you are stretching you body to new limits and sometimes a day break might help. I really felt the need for a break.

I been running around for grocery shopping and cooking and cleaning, but I didn’t follow the DVD. Last night I had a long walk, so I decided today is my day off.

I been thinking a lot about fitness and what is exactly fitness? What comes to my mind when I’m thinking about someone who is fit? What are the components of the fitness? Here they are….I thing these are important to be fit. 

Six Component of Fitness:

1. Exercise – Even 30 minutes of brief walk can help you to reduce many different sicknesses. I think exercise is a preventative step to keep you healthy and fit.
2. Diet – I am thinking about healthy diet as a lifestyle rather then a diet program.
3. Sleep – Now this is really important and we can’t stretch it enough. When we are tired we eat excess food. This article talks in details about why sleep is an important factor in our overall fitness. Here you can read how sleep time influences your digestion.  
4. Medical – Many people neglect their regular medical checkups. If you are healthy you still need once a year to see your physician for a physical check up. It is well known that any disease is more treatable in its beginning stage. Take this seriously and have an annual physical check up.
5. Appearance – I don’t want to tell you to keep up with the latest style, but you have to find a hair cut that fits your face well and it reflects your personality. When it comes to clothing you don’t have to fall for the latest of the latest style, but try to have a wardrobe with clothes that fits you well and highlights your body’s positives properties.
6. Mental / Emotional – Without a well balanced physical and mental wellness we can’t talk about fitness. Just because you look great, you might be emotional unstable. For your total well being and total fitness is important to be mentally, emotionally healthy. Personally I find this really important. Here you can read about the Spiritual aspect of vibrant Health. 

Look into your life and check over the above mentioned list. Which areas in your personal fitness find that you’re strong and where do you see that you need to focus in and work on it?

If you think I am missing some fitness components please feel free to point them out. Tell me which you think is the most important component from the above list? What is your strength and what’s your weakness?