Let a number lead you to make good decisions, but not define you as a person!

A friend recently recommended that I blog about our individual journey’s toward Optimal Health. I wanted to start with the question...What is a number on a scale anyway? Well, it is important in that it can represent where we fall on the BMI chart. This can also be an indication of our overall health since I believe being overweight is the number one preventable disease out there. All that aside, when you are on your own journey, please don't get connected to a specific number on a scale; not your own or someone else's. Each pound of fat lost is a major victory for YOU. It is a pound of disease that never has to be carried around again. For some the weight has taken years to add up so it can't be removed in one week. For others, the number on the scale doesn't reflect their overall health. They may be eating too little or too far apart. They may consume the wrong types of food, eat without thinking or be depriving their bodies of much-needed fuel. I love the book that we use to guide us in our health coaching, Dr. A’s Habits of Health by Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen. In the book Dr. A shares that he studied people who had been successful in losing weight and keeping it off long term. He found that they all had similar “habits of health” that assured them of the long term success. He decided to put them into an easy to remember acronym known as the BESLIM Lifestyle.

Here is a brief description in my own words:

Breakfast ~ Eat a healthy meal every morning w/in 30-60 min of waking

Exercise ~ Incorporate regular, moderate exercise into your life to include strength training and cardio work

Support ~ Surround yourself with like-minded people, including your health coach, who will encourage you to stay the course and make wise choices

Low-Fat ~ Eat 5-6 low-fat, low-glycemic meals a day to keep your body well-fueled and working efficiently

Individualize ~ Design a weight loss or eating plan for your schedule & your lifestyle. Adjust as needed!

Monitor ~ Weigh or try on a tight pair of pants once a week. Don't let the scale own you, but check yourself regularly to keep it from becoming a slippery slope.

I believe in this system and know it is why Take Shape for Life is a wonderful program!

Why Exercise Alone Won’t Help You Lose Weight

(Correction to my last post: My mom found the hummus recipes online and shared them with me.)

Why Exercise Alone Won’t Help You Lose Weight

**Dr. A’s Habits of Health; p. 64

I love to exercise at this point in life, if only I can find the time. Kevin got me a membership to 24hr. Fitness for Christmas and it was the best thing I could have received this year. I wasn’t always so fond of exercise though, especially in High School. At that time I played sports but wasn’t fueling my body well and was carrying around extra weight. Back then, when I was 16+ yrs. younger, running the mile in gym class was something I dreaded and participating in conditioning practices for volleyball was a form of torture! I don’t think I could have imagined back then that I would go on to play competitive sports in college and run 2 full marathons before turning 30. I have discovered now in my 30’s that although exercise is fun and rewarding when your body is well-fueled, it is not the answer to weight loss.

After each baby I would normally start running and doing exercise videos as soon as possible and within 6-9 months get back to a “healthy weight”. This time around, things were different. My body had carried 3 babies full term in less than 4 yrs., I was busier taking care of them at home, and I was getting older. Had I used exercise alone, I would still be working on getting rid of my accumulated fat. Starting in February, I was able to rid my body of the extra fat & inches in only about 8 weeks using the Take Shape for Life Program. If it can work for me, a busy mom who was nursing and has a thyroid condition, it can work for almost anyone.

It seems to me that it is a more reasonable approach to work on getting toward your healthy weight and then introduce exercise. At the gym I see so many overweight people literally killing themselves each day. They appear to be working beyond what their body can handle safely and are not making much obvious progress from week to week. Here is why that doesn’t work:

**When you take in more calories that you expend, the excess gets stored as fat-3,500 calories in one pound (of fat). Eating just 100 extra calories a day, beyond what your body needs, translates into 36,500 calories of excess energy over the course of a year. Even if your body stores only 1/2 of that, the result is over 5 extra pounds of fat a year!

You can try to burn those excess calories through exercie alone. But in order to burn JUST ONE pound of fat you'd have to run 33.8 miles!!! Just for one pound. And nearly 1/3 of us have an extra 30 lbs of fat. I certainly did after having Dylan. To burn that much, you'd have to run 1,040 miles, the equivalent of 40 marathons.  I use the Take Shape for Life Program b/c it puts my clients into a controlled fat-burning state that offloads 2-4lbs of fat per week. That's 7,000-14,000 calories of unheathly fat removed weekly. So then once that fat is gone your body is a much more effecient machine to work toward your goal.

 

For those of you that don't like to exercise this is a relief because there is an easier way to get to a healthy weight. For those that love exercise it is possibly an answer to the question of why your love for movement hasn't impacted your body the way you were hoping. Either way, exercise is a key to lifelong health and good for the heart, soul, mind & body! Just remember that is is not the most efficient way to reach your goal weight!

Hummus...the best dip ever & Water...the key to flushing fat!

HUMMUS~If you are looking for a great alternative to dressings and dips...consider hummus. It comes in many flavors. You can buy it in the deli section of most grocery stores. Trader Joe's has some of our favorite flavors.  Below is a delicious recipe for homemade hummus that I found online. This is an inexpensive way to have fresh hummus as a healthy snack with fresh veggies or as a dip for chicken or steak.

Awesome Red Pepper Hummus Dip
1 (14 oz) can of garbanzo beans, drained, liquid reserved
2 TBS tahini (sesame seed paste)
1 lemon, juiced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup bottled roasted red bell peppers
Place ingredients in blender or food processor. Add 2 TBS of reserved juice from beans. Pulse until smooth. Cover and refrigerate.
Serves: 12, serving size is usually 2TBS
Total Fat~2g
Sodium~327mg
Carbohydrates~9gm
Fiber~2g
Protein~2g

Variation~ Basil & Pesto
beans
1/2 cup basil leaves
1 clove garlic
1 TBS olive oil
1/2 tsp. balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp soy sauce
salt & pepper

WATER~Water is essential to the proper function of organs and systems, removing wastes and toxins from the body. You should drink at least 64 ounces of water every day. We recommend 1/2 your body weight in ounces while in the weight loss phase of our program. If you don't drink enough water the fat that your body is releasing will actually get reabsorbed by your cells instead of getting flushed out! I don't know about you, but I would like to keep moving the fat out!!!

The Pampered Chef ® Asian Cobb Salad

Asian Cobb Salad
----------------
Ingredients:
1/2  cup (125 mL) lite Asian vinaigrette salad dressing
3  tbsp (45 mL) Asian Seasoning Mix, divided
1  tbsp (15 mL) reduced-fat peanut butter
1  bag (6 oz/175 g)  fresh baby spinach leaves (about 4 cups/1 L)
2  ripe mangoes
1/2  medium seedless cucumber
1  cup (250 mL) snow peas, trimmed
1  small red onion
4  radishes
1 1/4  lbs (575 g) boneless, skinless chicken breast
1  tbsp (15 mL) vegetable oil
1/4  cup (50 mL) dry-roasted peanuts (optional)

Directions:
1.  For dressing, combine vinaigrette, 1 tbsp (15 mL) of the seasoning mix and peanut butter in Small Batter Bowl; whisk well using Stainless Whisk and set aside.

2.  For salad, rinse spinach; spin dry using Salad & Berry Spinner. Arrange spinach over Large Bamboo Platter, mounding slightly. Dice mangoes (see Cook's Tip). Dice cucumber and thinly slice peas on a diagonal using Santoku Knife. Slice onion crosswise using Ultimate Mandoline fitted with adjustable slicing blade on thin setting; cut rings in half. Thinly slice radishes using mandoline; cut slices into strips. Top spinach with even sections of cucumber, onion, peas, radishes and mangoes, leaving a space for chicken.

3.  Heat Grill Pan and Grill Press over medium heat 5 minutes. Brush chicken with oil using Chef's Silicone Basting Brush. Sprinkle chicken with remaining seasoning mix. Place chicken in pan; cover with press and cook 4–5 minutes on each side or until internal temperature reaches 160°F (71°C). Remove chicken from pan; thinly slice and place over salad. If desired, coarsely chop peanuts using Food Chopper; sprinkle over salad. To serve, drizzle dressing over salad and toss using Bamboo Salad Claws.

Yield: 6 servings (about 9 cups/2.1 L)

Nutrients per serving: (about 1 1/2 cups/375 mL): Calories 250, Total Fat 8 g, Saturated Fat 1 g, Cholesterol 50 mg, Carbohydrate 24 g, Protein 22 g, Sodium 450 mg, Fiber 4 g

Biggest Loser...KEVIN!

I've never been a blogger and don't know if anyone will take the time to read this. However, I was encouraged by a friend to start sharing so I hope you feel it is worthy of your time.

Congratulations to Kevin, my husband, who just won a Biggest Loser contest at work. For 30 days he committed to getting on the Take Shape for Life program (http://www.getfit2thrive.tsfl.com/) and his results are staggering. He has lost over 26 lbs. & 11.5 inches in just one month!!! The exciting thing for me, his health coach, was that I got to watch his physical and mental transformation as he acquired a healthy, thin mind as well as body. Neither of us are fans of diets as we find most are temporary solutions. My commitment with Getting Fit to Thrive is that we come to the place of no longer just surviving, but living each day as if it truly has meaning. I want to live in the present as much as possible! I'm not sure where I found this quote, but I keep it on my fridge and refer to it almost daily.
A New Day
"This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it...or use it for good, but what I do today is important, because I am exchanging a day of my life for it! When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something that I have traded for it. I want it to be gain, and not loss; good, and not evil; success, and not failure; in order that I shall not regret the price that I have paid for it."