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Body by Jillian Michaels, Joy Bauer, Weight Watchers, Team in Training, etc: Part 2—Hungry Girl

12/25/2011

Eight months ago I started this series of "Body by Jillian Michaels, Joy Bauer, Weight Watchers, Team in Training, etc" blogs, but every week when I went to work on a new issue, other topics inspired me to go in different directions, and I never got back to the next part of the series. As a Christmas gift to all my Flabby to Flabulous readers, I have decided to share three more secrets to a healthier “you” in 2012. Here is the link to Part 1 for those of you that would like to read that one as well: Link to Part 1

People often ask me to share how I took off the weight and how I have managed to keep it off. I don’t often give advice unsolicited, but for Christmas I shared a little secret with one of my friends in the form of a present. I was shopping at Home Goods and noticed one of my weight loss tools in the form of a stylish lunch box. One very simple way to be in control of what you eat is to pack a nutritious lunch and a couple snacks into something that you can easily carry with you. I love this lunchbox because in addition to it looking more like a purse than a lunchbox (and hers really looked more like a purse than the one I bought for myself pictured above), it also came with some little food storage containers and an ice pack.

         Another gift I presented her with was a cup with a lid and a straw because secret number two I would like to share with you today is that drinking water is another amazing trick to stay healthy. Water keeps you hydrated and will actually fill you up when you drink it throughout the day. When you feel like you are hungry, try drinking a glass or two of water first because you may be thirsty, not hungry. I actually don’t like plain water so I put a splash of lemonade or orange juice in mine to make it taste better. For those of you that can handle artificial sweetener, the individual serving sizes of Crystal Light or other similar drink enhancers can make drinking your water a little easier. Before I gave up all artificial sweeteners, my favorite flavor to add to my water was Ocean Spray’s White Cranberry Peach. It comes in individual serving packets, so it can easily be taken with you in your cute new lunchbox.

            Now secret number three that I am gifting you on this Christmas Day is a website that will help you choose healthy food and drinks to put into your new lunchbox and drink cup. Preparing lunches and bringing beverages will not help if you are not making and bringing healthy food and drinks. I am all about eating healthy, but I also like having large portions that also feel a little like I am cheating. Lisa Lillian, also known as Hungry Girl, does an amazing job of taking my favorite restaurant and fast food menu items and finding ways to actually make them in a healthy way. She has written amazing cookbooks to share her recipes—I own four of these very inexpensive books and my entire family loves the recipes I create for them.

Hungry Girl also has a new television show that airs on both Food Network and the Cooking Channel. Her episodes are worth watching because she shares shopping tips, delicious recipes, and she even gives advice on making good menu choices at restaurants.

My favorite resource I get from Hungry Girl is the daily emails she sends my way. Each day I get a newsletter that might share a healthy food swap recipe, where she sometimes answers readers food related questions, and where she will also send links to food items that she endorses—she will only send links to products that she actually uses in her recipes. Here is the link to her home page where you can link to her cookbooks, her television show schedules, and the place to sign up for her daily emails, which I highly suggest you subscribe to for that little daily inspiration: Hungry Girl Website

Below I will share some of my favorite issues of the Hungry Girl daily emails so you can get a feel for the kinds of resources Lisa Lillian offers her subscribers (click on link to access selected resource):

--Starbucks Survival Guide

--Official 2011 Hungry Girl Super Market List (lists of healthy products available)

--Sushi Survival Guide (my favorite kind of food)

--Top “Ate” Junk Food Swaps

--Hungry Girl’s Salute to Wonton Wrappers

--Top “Ate” Food Fakers

--Salute to Canned Pumpkin (one of my favorite secret ingredients)

--The Brunch Bunch (brunch ideas)

--Best Finds of 2011 and New Year’s Eve Party Tips

           Now that the two most food-centered holidays are behind us, it is now time to begin thinking about refocusing on where we want to be in 2012. Many of us decide to wait until January 1st to make these changes, but why wait? Start planning and making your lunches and snacks so you are never left grabbing some unhealthy option in a desperate fit of hunger. If you make even just a few changes before 2012 (add an extra day or two of exercise, swap one meal a day for a healthy alternative, drink your water) you will be ahead of the game. You will be moving into the New Year with a positive attitude, a few new tricks under your belt, and you may even be a few pounds lighter as a result.

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Rest and Recovery—Not Just for Wimps

12/17/2011

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Yes, that's me in the back

        Today began the first day of my three-week winter break vacation, and while I should be out enjoying my first day off, here I sit bundled up on the couch sicker than I’ve been in years. I think there may be a lesson here that I can share with you—being dedicated to exercise is one thing, but completely ignoring what your body is telling you is insanity.

            About a week ago I started to feel like I was getting ill—I felt a little run down, and my throat was hurting. So what did I decide to do? I decided to run the Holiday Half Marathon in Pomona. I have never missed a race I signed-up for, and I wasn’t about to start with this race when I wasn’t laid flat on my back with something. I have a feeling that all my running friends would agree: Not dead? Run the race.

            I will admit that I didn’t feel sick during the race. My time, 2:20:43, was my best yet for such a hilly course, but it was after the race that I should have taken the time to recover. The race was on Sunday, and the next morning, despite the fact that I had sore muscles from the 13.1-mile course, and I was feeling a little under the weather, I was at Crossfit at 6 AM for my first workout of the week. In fact, when my coach heard that I had run a half marathon the morning before, he asked, “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be taking a rest day?” I laughed and told him I was fine—after all I must know best what my body is capable of, right?

The Killer, Tuesday Crossfit Workout

        On Tuesday, we had our most difficult workout since I started my Crossfit training (see picture of whiteboard at right). We started with a warm-up of 60 jump ropes and a couple rounds of box jumps, push-ups, pull-ups, etc. We did a little weight lifting before moving on to the Workout of the Day—rows and my all-time least favorites, burpees (more than 80 of them). I was so worn out by the end of this workout that all I wanted to do was go home and jump back into bed. Unfortunately, I had to teach lessons to four different classes that day, so this was not an option. By the end of a full day of teaching, tutoring, and mothering, I honestly wanted to collapse.

            So, you would think I would finally listen to my body for Wednesday, right? But, no. My not-so-bright thought was that Crossfit was not open at 6 AM on Thursdays, so I needed to tough it through one more workout before a rest day was warranted. What I failed to take into account was that I not only woke up at 5 AM to get to Crossfit, but I had a full-day of work in addition to two afternoon/evening meetings that would not have me home before six that night. And while I did take Thursday as a non-workout day, I was right back at Crossfit on Friday before the sun had barely come over the mountains.

            I ended up coming home sick later that day, and here I sit miserably on the couch instead of having breakfast with my friend, instead of playing with my kids, and instead of getting my much needed Christmas shopping done. Now I am sure that many of you are thinking that I deserve to finally be relaxing on the couch after such a busy year of work, exercising, and parenting. It would actually be ideal except for the fact that I am so sick that for most of the day I could not even lift my head off the pillow due to what I am assuming is a migraine due to exhaustion. If I am going to relax, I want to watch movies, read books, play with my kids…anything other than what I was able to do for most of today: sleeping and praying my head would just stop pounding.

Lifting 80 pounds, but looking a little tired

So what did I learn from this little fiasco? I am hoping I learned that being dedicated is admirable, but if I want to continue on this journey to a healthier me, I need to listen to my body. I say hoping I learned because I have been known to forget great pain once I have lived through it—hence I have three kids despite the fact that each pregnancy practically killed me (and I can assure you that I am not exaggerating this…at least for the last two). When my muscles tell me I need a little break, I need to listen to them and take a day off. When I am feeling tired and worn out, I need to rest. And when I feel like I am going to collapse from exhaustion, I cannot be so afraid of missing a workout that I push my body beyond its limits. Once again, I need to remind myself that I am in this for the long haul. I am never going back, but one less workout a week will not make me the 230-pound person I once was. However, pushing myself too hard might set me back for a lot longer by causing a more serious injury or illness…or just causing me to burn out.

This blog is dedicated to my friend Tony, also know as Endorphin Dude, who will soon be finishing Marathon #52 of the year. Kudos to you my friend for running all 51 (soon to be 52) despite great physical pain at times, but hoping you will take a little well deserved rest and relaxation in the new year. To give to Tony's charity, please click here: For Chewbacca's Furry Friends

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Mother May I?

12/11/2011

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        Have you ever played the game “Mother May I?” As a kid, this was one of the games my friends and I always wanted to play. For those of you that have never had the privilege, here are the basics: one person, the “Mother,” stands at one end of the field. Everyone else stands shoulder to shoulder in a row across the other end of the field. One at a time, the players ask the Mother if they can take a certain number of a specific type of step (e.g. scissor steps, giant steps, baby steps, etc.). The Mother then replies with "Yes, you may" or "No, you may not." The winner is the one who reaches the mother first.

            Now one thing you learn from this game is not to be greedy. If you ask for fifteen giant steps, the chances of the Mother denying your request were pretty high. However, you could ask for the same number of baby steps and would likely receive a, “Yes, you may.”

            I am not sure why, but when I was doing one of my 800m runs at Crossfit this week, I began to think of this game. It occurred to me that my journey through life, and specifically my journey to flabulousness, is really like one big game of Mother May I. Sometimes it’s as if the Mother says I can take one giant step, and then other times even the baby steps seem out of reach. I look to the right and to the left of me and it seems like these “players” are making more forward progress despite the fact that I am working just as hard as they are.

            At the same time, I was thinking of my boss at work and her philosophy of change. She is always reminding us that if we want people to begin to make change, to do things differently than they have in the past, we should expect them to move forward in baby steps. To me, this can also be applied to my journey to better health and fitness.

            For example, when I started running a year-and-a-half ago, I couldn’t run longer than a minute before my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest, and it was so hard to breathe I was certain I would collapse to the ground. Now I can run 30 or 40 minutes straight without slowing down a bit. Eight months after I began running, I finished my first half-marathon in just under three hours at 2:58ish…my last few halves I have been able to finish in under 2:25. Last year I ran my fastest 5K in 32:00, and this last Sunday I made it in 29:43 and was 30 seconds from receiving a 3rd place medal in my age division. I need to remember that every day I run a little faster, and I am also getting stronger, which gradually increases my endurance—baby steps.

            In addition, when I started Crossfit, I was embarrassed to even be working out in the same room as some of these incredibly fit people. I could barely jump up onto a twelve-inch box, I couldn’t do one pull up, and the most weight I could squat was the 15-pound bar…and even that hurt my shoulders. On Tuesday, I was able to jump up onto the eighteen-inch box 40 times without falling over, was finally able to at least do a modified pull-up (80 of them), and actually squatted 45 pounds. I know this may not seem like a huge jump forward, but I am continuing to increase my strength just a bit every day—baby steps.

            My husband was sharing another story that relates to this. On Monday he had strained his elbow lifting weights during a workout. On Friday, as he was doing a pull-up workout, our coach, Al, asked him how his elbow was feeling. “My elbow feels fine, “ Sean replied, jokingly. “It’s my overall fitness that is hurting.” They both laughed, but Al, sensing Sean’s real frustration, told him that it is important not to compare himself to some of the other people in the gym who have been working out, in some cases, for years. “The only person you should be comparing yourself to," Al explained, “is the person who first walked into this gym when you got started at Crossfit.” Sean said that this conversation really helped him keep things in perspective and reminded him to value making steady, incremental progress instead of expecting unrealistic gains—baby steps

            I am not where I want to be weight-wise yet, but I have kept off sixty pounds, and my clothes fit better than they have in years. I still have the same twenty-five pounds I have been trying to get off for the last six months, but my body is trimmer due to all the weight training and running. I think this weight loss plateau is the area of my fitness that most frustrates me, but I know that the times in the past when I have tried for the speedy diet fix and miraculously fast weight loss, old habits, along with the weight, returned to deflate any gains just as quickly. Again, I need to embrace the many small changes I have made over the year and not get caught up in trying to achieve my goal all in one giant step only to be sent back to the start line—baby steps.

What I am coming to realize is that I may be taking lots of baby steps toward the finish line, but when I look back I am giant-steps from where I started…and this time the healthy habits are sticking. Mother May I achieve my goal…one small baby step at a time? Yes, you may!

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When You’re Finding it Tough to Feel Inspired—Draw Inspiration from Others

12/4/2011

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        I don’t know why, maybe it is the time of year, maybe the stressful weeks of work, or maybe it is just that I can’t expect myself to be on all the time, but I must admit that I am just not feeling like the picture of inspiration this week. I feel personally uninspired, which means I have needed to depend on others to push me and remind me why all this hard work is truly worth it. I know in my head that I never want to go back to that 231 pound, inactive person I used to be. However, having to watch everything I put in my mouth and getting up early everyday to get in my workouts, sometimes it just seems like that last stubborn 25 pounds is never going to come off.

         This is not really something I want to admit on my blog, but I truly feel it is important that I share exactly what my journey is like so that if you hit this hurdle as well, you can see that it is normal and that it’s okay to have bad days or bad weeks. It is how we deal with those roadblocks that keep us moving forward or throws us back.

         Therefore, this week I am going to share what is propelling me forward rather than in reverse in hope that you, too, can find inspiration from those around you. My first and best secret weapon is my husband, Sean. Besides being my biggest cheerleader, he also supports me in many ways, big and small. He has been making me healthy breakfasts, packing snacks in an attempt to keep me from reaching for convenient but sometimes calorie-laden choices, and lately he has even been making our dinner as well.   With our busy schedules this has been a life and money-saving support. In addition, he also makes it possible for me to work out. When I run, he will often bike or walk nearby to ensure I am safe. And if we cannot work out together, he will also watch Eoin or take the kids to activities so I can fit my workouts into my busy day.

         Lately, Sean and I have been getting up early three days a week to attend a 6 AM Crossfit class. It is here that I found another inspiration, my coach Al, who pushes me to attempt things I never thought I could do. While my eating has not been stellar over the last few weeks, my workouts have prevented me from sliding backward. Al makes us sprint every morning and then lift weights to increase our muscle mass. The rest of the hour is spent doing a kind of intense circuit training that has me waking up in the middle of the night wondering what movement I could possibly have done to cause muscles I never even knew I had to ache. I know it is hard to believe that pain inspires me, but when Al pushes me to lift twenty more pounds than I ever thought I could do, it makes me want to do more.

         Last, but not least, I have been truly inspired by my friend Kristine. A few months ago she asked me to share my secrets for training for a half-marathon. So for the past few months she has been building up to be able to run her first 5K. Despite having a young toddler at home, despite her husband getting pneumonia, she still found time to fit some training into her routine. So with great anticipation we met at Starbuck’s for our early morning ride up to Loma Linda. The drive up was filled with excited chatter including tips for the actual running of the race and our overall goals for finishing—I wanted to beat my PR (personal record) of 32:00 and Kristine was hoping to finish the race in less than one hour.

         Once we arrived, Kristine was able to experience her first racing bib pick up, to get her first race t-shirt, and to feel the anticipation and exhilaration of her first run across the start line. The air was cold and the terrain extremely hilly, but 3.1 miles later I reached the final hill down to the finish line. As I turned the corner toward the final slope to the balloon-arched finish line, I ran as fast I could to complete the race in just 29:43. I went back to meet Kristine, so I could see her cross the finish line as well. It was an amazing feeling to watch her push herself to run down that final hill, and to see her face as she realized she had completed her first 5K in a very respectable time of 49:26. Watching someone achieve her goal after working hard to meet that target is very inspiring.

         So as I approach this new week, the slate is wiped clean. I will continue to achieve my goal of exercising 5-6 days per week, but I will be more careful about the extra snacking. And if the blahs continue to plague me in the coming weeks, I will look to find the inspiration all around me—my kids, my husband, my friends and colleagues, and even my coach (despite the fact that he tortures my muscles in the name of fitness).

         If you hit the skids during the holidays like me, remember that you are tougher than you give yourself credit for, and if that doesn’t work, look to those around you to remind you of this inner toughness. We can’t be perfect, and we all need a little support sometimes—even if it is hard to admit.   It is this support that will remind us we have a lot of reasons to stay healthy, and these reasons will keep us on the road to our more flabulous selves.

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Body by Jillian Michaels, Joy Bauer, Weight Watchers, Team in Training, etc: Part 2—Hungry Girl

Rest and Recovery—Not Just for Wimps

Mother May I?

When You’re Finding it Tough to Feel Inspired—Draw Inspiration from Others

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