Rest and Soreness

Any fitness expert will tell you that it's a good idea to take a day to rest every so often. The frequency of rest days varies depending on who you ask. Just remember any day you workout that you normally wouldn't have is a step in the right direction. However, most fitness novices and gurus alike will tell you you should workout at least 3 days a week. How often you workout and how often you rest is dictated by what you are training for. Professional athletes can train on a daily basis only resting a couple times a month, where as those how are just getting into a fitness program may need to rest a few days a week.

The best idea that I have found is to have planned rest days. This helps push you through those days that your are sore and don't feel like working out, because believe it or not, doing another light workout when you are sore actually helps move the built up lactic acid (that's causing the soreness) through your body. I've found that if I rest on a day I feel "too sore" to workout I end up only feeling more soreness by the end of the day. Make sure you drink lots of water every day not only to keep your body healthy in general but it also helps to flush out the lactic acid as well!

Know the difference between feeling sore and being hurt. It's one thing to push yourself through the pain when you are feeling sore, it's another to push yourself through the pain when you are actually hurt. If the pain you are feeling is from a pulled muscle or it feels like it's something more than just a soreness from working a muscle that hasn't been used in a while. Then its a good idea to rest. Pay attention to your body. Some say that pain is weakness leaving the body, but sometimes pain is your body trying to tell you there's something wrong.

Know What You Are Eating: Frozen Dinners

Sometimes life gets a little busy and you just want to something you can cook up quick without much prep or clean up. Frozen dinners often fit that niche, but before you just grab a frozen dinner out of the freezer isle take a look at what you might actually be eating. Chances are if you select a frozen dinner that is marketed as "diet" you'll be getting a lower calorie meal compared to those that are not, BUT what do the dinners include? Is it a balanced meal? How many calories are from fat? Take the time to compare the nutritional information on the packages before you just purchase one.

I compared two frozen dinners today. One is marketed for healthy eating the other was not. Both were similar meals. IF I was going simply by the number of calories in each dinner I would have bought the regular meal as it only contained 290 calories compared to the healthy dinner's 360. However, 120 of the calories in the regular meal came from fat as apposed the mere 90 calories in the healthy meal. The healthy meal included Breaded Chicken Breast in Marinara Sauce with Cheese, Whole grain Penne pasta, broccoli, and a caramel apple multigrain crisp.

The regular meal just included the Breaded Chicken Breast in Marinara sauce and Penne Pasta (the pasta was not whole grain). This means the 290 colories are coming from 3 main food groups, Meats (proteins) and Carbohydrates (pasta) the marinara sauce giving it a little vegetables, oh and don't forget the fats and oils!

The Healthy meal hit on all the main food groups, Meats (proteins) Carbohydrates (pasta), Vegetables (sauce & broccoli), fruit (apple crisp), Dairy (cheese), and of course some fats and oils.

Remember when dieting the key to weight loss is eating less calories than you burn in a day, but you don't want to end up malnourished or end up with other health problems from eating too much of the wrong things. Being healthy is more than just the number of the scale, there is a lot more to consider.

A New Better Breakfast: Corn Tortilla and Turkey Mini-Wrap

1 Corn Tortialla - 50 cals
2 Egg Whites - 34 Cals

1 oz Butterball Peppered Turkey Breast lunch meat - 60 cals

0.5 oz shredded Hot Pepper Jack Cheese - 45 Cals

1.5 oz Snow Peas in Pods - 18 cals

1 sec spray Pam Non-Stick Cooking Spray (original) - 7 cals (to heat and make corn tortilla pliable)

1 cup orange juice or apple cider (120 cals or 110 cals)

This has become my favorite breakfast meal. Only 325 calories or 335 calories with orange juice instead of cider. It is filling and delicious! My current calorie goal, because I am now down 14 pounds is only 1420 per day. This allows for 3 snacks of about 109 calories, and 3 meals of about 370 calories. Of course you can always adjust it if you're snacks have more or less calories of if you know you are going to be eating a calorie heavy meal at some point in the day.

You can also find this meal under the My Better Breakfasts tab! Enjoy!

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

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YOUR Better Dinners

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YOUR Better Lunches

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YOUR Better Breakfasts

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