Timing it Right!

I don't know about anyone else, but everyone I talk to & every thing I read gives you different advice. It's enough to drive you crazy. The first thing I've decided to do is to let go of the idea that I have to do everything exactly right. One ideal and piece of advice I just had to get over was the idea that I shouldn't workout late at night because the boost in energy from the workout will cause me to have trouble sleeping.

While there is some truth to this statement, the fact is, I don't always have the time or luxury of working out at a specific time everyday... Unless I do it late at night. The fact is, I have trouble sleeping any way especially now that the school year has begun. I'm forced to stay up late as is working full time as well as taking a grad class, while being a single mommy leave little time for much else during the day. I've survived the last few classes by waiting until my daughter goes to bed, then staying up and doing my classwork. Often getting myself to bed around midnight or later. Even then I am not able to fall asleep right away so I may as well do something good for my health while I'm not sleeping.

And I am SO NOT a morning person so getting up earlier than I already do to workout will probably not be a very successful lifestyle change. So, I definitely need to let go of some ideals and do what works best for me. Sometimes adopting a Better lifestyle means adapting it to fit your personal style. I've noticed in the past two months that as I become more and more successful at making little changes I'm more willing to try bigger changes. Sometimes, I think it's totally worth it and find a way to merge it into my current routine or adjust my routine to fit it, other times it just doesn't work yet for some reason or other. It might just be a matter of timing. I have found that when I come back and try it again when the timing is right I am more successful at it.  In the mean time keep making better choices.

Combining A Better Reflection Blogs

As some of you may know. I have had 3 separate blogs running A Better Reflection, A Better Reflection: Nutrition and A Better Reflection: Workout Journal. I am in the process of combining the three blogs into one so that you can find all the ABR health and fitness information in one spot at Http://www.better-reflection.blogspot.com

I hope this change will make it easier and more convienient for you to find all the information you are looking for. In the mean the Nutrition blog and Workout Journal will still be linked to the main Better Reflection blog until the tranfer is complete.

Thank you :)

And always remember, Perfection cannot be reached without first making an improvement. Every day strive to be a little better and Perfection will be inevitable!

Small Changes = Long Term Success

When starting a diet many people think they have to make a drastic change to their eating habits. So, they cut out all sweets or all of a particular food group (carbs usually) or they trade every little thing they eat in for it's lowest calorie, lower fat, lower carb, counter parts. While this drastic change may produce big results it's a hard lifestyle to keep up. Can you really go the rest of your life without ever eating another sweet? Another carb? Or eating only the low fat or no fat version of a certain food? Don't get me wrong if you can stick to a diet like this then yes, you will lose weight and probably fast. But the downfall of this type of diet plan is that the moment you eat something that you have deemed as forbidden it gives you a sense of failure which often leads to the silly rational of "Well I ruined my diet for today so I may as well eat whatever I want the rest of the day." Both of these ideas are what kill most diets.

While there are people out there that would argue that your body needs that drastic shock to it's system to really get you on track, the fact is small changes are easier to stick to and are more likely to produce long term results. Let me give you some examples. The first thing most people do when they start a diet is to try to eat more salads. This is a great idea. Salads are packed with nutritious veggies and are pretty low calorie compared to what you might have eaten before. So let's say you have decided to eat a salad for lunch every day instead of whatever your normal lunch time routine is. That's great! But many people then take it a step further and decide they will only eat low fat or no fat dressing on their salad as well. If you like the taste of low fat or no fat dressings (and there are some very tasty ones out there) this is great, but if you really like the taste of regular ranch dressing then don't make that sacrifice yet. You've already made your first health choice. If it takes eating regular ranch dressing on your salad for you to enjoy it and stick with it, then go for it! The few calories in the 2 Tbsps of Ranch dressing that you put on your salad are far less calories and fat then what would have been in that burger in fries, so you are still making a healthier choice.

If you are changing your diet to lose weight and not just to be healthier and you hit a platue in you weight loss then, you can switch to the low fat or no fat ranch dress to give you a little more edge.

My point is proper diet and nutrition isn't an all or nothing concept. The most successful dieters are the ones that understand they can eat anything they want just in the proper portions because they aren't turning any one type of food into the temptation of the "Forbidden Fruit." Another thing to keep in mind is that your body wants to stay nourished. If denied a certain food group for a long period of time it will start to crave the food group and you may find yourself binging on it. And that isn't good either.

YOUR Better Snacks

Do you have a better snack idea that you think everyone should try? Post your recipe as a comment here!

YOUR Better Dinners

Do you have a better dinner you think everyone should try? Post your recipe as a comment here!

YOUR Better Lunches

Do you have a better lunch you think everyone should try? Post your recipe as a comment here!

YOUR Better Breakfasts

Do you have a Better breakfast you think everyone should try? Post your recipe as a comment here!

The Magic Weightloss Pill? Seriously?

Ever notice how ALL diet pills state that they are to be used with a sensible diet and exercise plan? If you started eating better and working out better than you did before you started taking the pills, you would lose weight and get healthier anyway, without the possible side affect of the pill. Think about it.

Now that I am down 11.5 pounds, my weight loss is noticeable to more than just those who haven't seen me in a long time. Because of this I have had several people ask me how I've been doing it. What surprises me the most about their reactions is their disappointment when they find out that I don't have a magic pill. It gets even worse when they realize that the website and app I've been using is just a calorie tracking sight and the other secret to my successes is actual physical effort.

There is no magic pill, like everything worth achieving in life it only comes from hard work and dedication. I know the media, diet pill companies, and other weight loss companies would like you believe that it could be as simple as just take this pill or eat our food or do this simple activity for 5 minutes a day. My favorite claim is  "eat as much as you want and still lose weight" (which by the way is something everyone can do if you just eat certain foods. - I'll have more on this claim on my nutrition blog next week.)

You can play the dieting game  in which you eliminate and entire food group from you diet or only eat certain kinds of foods or foods that don't have a particular ingredient it in, but the long and short of it is, these diets work because they force you to eat healthier lower calorie foods. And all weight loss regardless of which fad diet you follow is based on one simple principle: You lose weight when you burn more calories than you consume. Yes, I know there's all these complicated strategies that say if you eat certain foods it helps you burn more fat because it helps you build more muscle or the types of food you eat some how work with your body chemistry to help you burn more fat for some reason or another, but again, it all comes down to that one simple fact.

The simplest way to make sure you are burning more calories than you consume is to track your caloric intake to be sure you are taking in less than you are burning (I strongly recommend using a calorie tracking website or smartphone app to help keep you on track - it makes calorie tracking quicker and easier) Keep in mind, the nutritional information you see on food labels are based on a 2000 calorie diet. This amount is based on a 5'8" 150lb male. So, if you are not 5'8' or and you don't want to weight 150 lbs and/or you are not male. You're caloric necessities will be different. This is where the benefit of calorie tracking website and apps come in handy. They help determine the appropriate amount of calories for you to consume on a daily basis based on your height, weight, gender, and daily activity level.

The simplest way to burn more calories is to get active. If you want a little boost from muscle make sure your activity includes resitance or weight lifting of some sort.

There it is, that's the real magic to losing weight.

The Dreaded Plateau - What can you do?

In every weightloss journey there are plateaus. Those weeks that go buy when your weight and your measurements just won't budge. The first plateau is always the most discouraging because you go from successfully dropping weight check-in after check-in to losing nothing. There are two facts about plateaus that I have come to find. 1) The more weight you have to lose the longer it may take for you to hit a plateau and 2) the faster you lose weight in the beginning the sooner you will hit a plateau. There's a reason experts recommend setting a goal losing only between 1-2 pounds a week. The reason for this is to prevent your body from going into panic mode. When you lose a whole bunch of weight in a short amount of time it's a shock to your body. Among other things feels threatened because it's emergency storage (your fat cells) are disappearing at what it thinks is an alarming weight, this sudden change to your body also triggers several other changes starting with signals to hormones throghout your body to adjust to try to conserve the it's stored rations that you have been carrying around in the form of fat for a number of years. This is why it is recommended to only lose between 1-2 pounds per week. This rate of weightloss allows your body to slowing adjust to it's new weight and doesn't trigger the panic affect that dramatic weightloss can. I started my most recently weightloss journey on August 3, 2011. Every week with exciting and amazing success I was steadily losing weight. I even dropped 4 pounds in week two of my journey. In the weeks that followed I have been pretty successful at losing between a half to one and a half pounds each week, and on weeks that I didn't lose a whole pound or more I've lost inches... until this week. I lost not a pound nor inches. I have lost a grand total so far of 7.5 lbs. in just 5 weekss. So, what do I do about it? Do I get frustrated and give up because I am still 43lbs away from my overall goal and have already hit a plateau or do I realize that my short term goal is to lose 5lbs a month until my birthday (a grand total of 20lbs by December) and accept the fact that I am still on track to meet both the monthly and short term goals and just keep plugging away. The answer is obvious. Try to make even better food choices and make working out an even higher priority. With the help of MyFitnessPal to help me continue to stay on track with my calorie goals I know I can do it. So can you. Do not go on a drastic diet or drastically reduce caloires to break through this goal. It's frustrating to hit a plateau but it's even more frustrating and upsetting to give up and gain back what you've worked so hard to lose! Keep making better choices and stay focused. Sooner or later you'll break through the plateau and start dropping again.

Just as I finished this blogpost I saw a link for this article on twitter:
12 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight by Julie Davis (Medically Reviewed) on Everyday Health
http://www.everydayhealth.com/weight-pictures/12-reasons-youre-not-losing-weight.aspx?xid=tw_everydayhealth_20110912_main#/slide-1

Something's Got To Give: Changing Priorities as Needed

I just wanted to let everyone know that my posting frequency on all 3 of the ABR blogs is going to decrease significantly due to the fact that I am back to work and I have started my final certification class. It is a graduate level class that is extremely time consuming (mostly because I'm a perfectionist) so I'll only get a chance to post on nights that I'm not doing classwork, research, or studying for a quiz for the next 15 weeks, but once the class is over I should be able to start posting pretty regularly (at least once a week on each blog). Thank you for your continued support an understanding.

Which brings me to tonight's topic. Changing Priorities as Needed

Unless we are really lucky or really boring no ones life is perfectly predictable with a consistent schedule and consistent needs. Often we have to juggle many things at one time and as soon as we get to put down one another is thrown into the mix or we may be handed something else on top of all of our already overwhelming responsibilities. This is when you have to know what you can do without and what you can't. It may mean giving up something you enjoy temporarily for something that is mandatory or necessary. In the past, I always put working out or cooking healthy on hold either skipping workouts altogether to get required work done or choosing fast easy to prepare foods over preparing healthy foods in order to make sure I had time for everything else. For many people this is their story too. Or they try to force themselves to keep doing all the things they have always done which leads to stress, lack of sleep, becoming run down, and generally unhealthy. I have learned that I deserve time to myself, especially if that time is spent doing something for my health, i.e. taking a few more minutes to prepare a healthier meal or time to workout. To avoid other pit falls that come with trying to do everything and be everything for everyone that you are already involved with, remind yourself that priorities often change and just because you are stepping down or stepping back right now doesn't mean you have to completely give it up forever.

We also put a lot of undue pressure on ourselves to continue doing everything we've always done, we or others may try to convince us that we are the only ones who can do what we are doing. That if we step down they won't be able to find someone else to take over. In many cases this is not true. It may be difficult for them to find someone, but not impossible. So, when you are feeling overwhelmed you need to evaluate everything you're involved in. Is there a way to combine activities, is there something you can set aside, or step down from for a while until things change. If you have to make a list of all your obligations and and rank them in order of importance and value. Then determine which of your extracurricular or voluntarily activities you can reasonably step back from.  This will be different for everyone depending on their personalities, values, and lifestyles.