20 Minutes Will Save Calories!

Tuesday morning I was up at 5am for a 6am client and for some reason, I didn't get any breakfast. Usually, that early in the morning, I eat a bowl of Fiber One with fruit and skim milk and then at 10am when I am done for the morning, I make myself an egg white omellete (often with some home-made tomatillo salsa on the side - recipe courtesey of my friend Charlene) and a small amount of guacomole. It's delicious and satisfying.

At any rate, I train through my morning schedule and by noon, I am ravenous and I realize that I've only had a peach all morning. So I go out to lunch with my husband and have a great fresh tuna sandwich (are you bored with my life yet?) and a few sweet potato fries (don't like those) and I am still feeling hungry and unsatisfied. Rather than order the dessert that is screaming my name, I decide to wait it out and have a snack in about 2 hours. Why am I telling you this? Because 20 minutes later, I was no longer thinking about food.

The point being, if you don't feel satisfied and you are dying to eat a second portion or some dessert, promise yourself that if you are still wanting in 20 minutes, you will make the move. Chances are, in 20 minutes, you won't be unsatisfied anymore. The brain needs 20 minutes to record that the stomach is full. The first 10 minutes can be painful but it usually works.

On another note, if you are struggling to get your workouts in, try this little circuit. Go through the exercises without a break, and then take a 1 minute break and repeat for a total of 3-4 times. You'll get a strength and cardio workout, in less than 1/2 and hour and you don't need any equipment. Here it is:

15 Prisoner Squats
12 Pushups
8 Bulgarian split squats on each side
40 Mountain Climbers (20 each side)
30 second sideplank each side
20 reverse lunges
1 minute of jumping jacks

Kick butt ladies! See you in a few days!

1 Down, 8 To Go

Well, the first week of the “new year” is under my belt. I have 8 weeks left to accomplish my ultimate goal. Ok, I confess - I wasn’t 100% with my goals – sigh. Hey – sh-t happens, right??? I didn’t drink a half gallon of water every day (I didn’t even come near THAT goal!) I didn’t count my calories, but I’ve been eating like this for a long time and I am certain I stayed within a few hundred calories of my goal each day. (That could make or break me - not too smart.) I did pretty good with eating 5x a day and I probably didn’t eat as much protein as I think I should, but I did ok. I did all the work outs I planned but I didn’t get that 30 minutes of activity in each non-workout day. BAD GIRL! It’s SO hard!!!! Isn’t it amazing how life gets in the way??

BUT - I didn’t have any alcohol!!!! Now, THAT’S progress! The truth of the matter is, it’s not like I consume huge quantities of the houch. I can barely handle more than 2 glasses of red wine in an evening. But guess what, ladies?? Two 8 ounce glasses of wine? – about 600 calories! Whoa – do you feel like I just punched you in the gut? I challenge you to pour yourself a glass of wine (if that's your poisen) and then pour it into a measuring cup to see how many ounces it is. If you’re me, and you’re wondering how you gained this weight - that could be the answer. Because I got on the scale and even though I didn’t meet ALL my goals last week, I lost more than half a pound. And I think it’s the wine. So – my advice to you, knock out the daily libations.

So - what is the point of this boring dissertation of my little life? The point is, I made a plan, I did my best to follow it. It wasn’t perfect. But I still managed to lose. And even if I didn’t, I would do it all over again this week. Just because I wasn’t perfect, just because I messed up, I refuse to buy into the negative self-talk like, “Oh, what’s the use??”, “I can’t DO this!”, “I’m never gonna lose this weight.”, “I am such a loser.” Ok – I didn’t get the whole job done this week. But that’s what's so great about being alive! Tomorrow is coming! So don’t be so hard on yourself if this happens to you. Just start anew tomorrow.

Oh – and by the way, the built-in cheat day goal? Went outstanding!! Ha! Like I was going to screw THAT up!