When you fail to plan, you plan to fail....

This post is inspired by one of my lovely friends who decided to embark on her healthy lifestyle journey. She went to the gym with me and has been going at it alone, while dieting. Im so proud of her, she lost 2 pounds already!!! I warned her not to go too crazy on the dieting in the beginning, because like every addiction, you have to wean off of it.

Today she tells me she had McDonalds for lunch because she was tired of the healthy stuff. Of course, I would want junk food too after being deprived for so long!!!

So my point is, when you fail to plan your diet, you plan to fail. Alot of excuses we make are at times and places where we feel that the junk food is the easiest access. WRONG. If you do your research ahead of time, there are restaurants/food spots that have lower cal options. I mean if your going to cheat, make that food at home that you want so bad from McDonalds. I bet doing that saves you so much calories, fat, salt, carbs, everything!

Bring your lunches to work! Yes it takes more work but in the end you wont wonder what to eat anymore. And if you plan to buy lunch, think ahead what you want to eat. Think about the costs, nutritionally and financially. Ask yourself, is this going to fill me? Will i be able to function after? Will I feel better after eating this about myself. Did I honestly make the right decision? If you can live with all those options then go for it!

Believe it or not, I am not the biggest veg/salad/health nut. BUT, I do plan my meals, and I variate to keep my healthy lifestyle going.

And please please please to all those that are STARTING to diet, take it slow. One day at a time. Wean off the bad stuff....Make healthier choices, but do not eliminate it all at once. WHY? Because then you will have a relapse. Overall, if you do relapse, get back up and get on it! No one is perfect and a perfect body isn't built in a day.

Happy Wednesday!

Meet your New Best Friend...

If you do not have one of these, I HIGHLY recommend you have one. I cant live without this. Every time I question the calories of something, I use it and measure it out and it tells me.. Yup folks im talking about a :::

                                      FOOD SCALE!!!


 & a handy calculator if you are not a math genius. Food scales are great because they tell you the weight of what your trying to eat. Whether it be a liquid or solid, the food scale will give you the right amount. When following a recipe, put the item on the food scale and you'll know if you have to trim some off or add. 

Alongside with measuring cups, these items should be your best friend. Even if your not cooking, and you want to have a snack and are worried if you'll have too much the food scale will tell you exactly how much the portion you choose is. 


The difference between the food scale and measuring cups is that the food scale can measure solids and liquids. If you want a bag popcorn and the serving size is 1/2 cup, putting it into a measuring cup may be a lesser amount than the actual amount your allotted.  Because popcorn is an airy solid, the actual weight (grams) is less, meaning you can have more! So when viewing the nutrition facts, always look at the serving size and the grams. Turn on the food scale and set it to grams, and booyah! You know how much your allotted. Surprisingly, even when we think we measure right sometimes, most of the time we are wrong.



I bought my food scale on sale for 20$ at sears. But you can get one anywhere! It does not matter how fancy it is as long as it tells you what you need to know.


                                                       Happy Measuring!

So you Wanna Start a Diet?..Steps that will help you start your healthy lifestyle today...

So you read my story, felt inspired, or it possibly gave you the kick to want to start a diet. First, lets not call it a diet, because by definition a Diet is:

a particular selection of food, especially as designed or prescribed to improve a person's physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease: a diet low in sugar.- From Dictionary.com

I do not agree with this. Diet's are not long term. Yes, the term DIET should be used to limit certain foods for a health risk or reason, but if your trying to lose weight it should be more of a change to a healthy lifestyle vs. a DIET.

 

Diets DONT WORK. Ive tried the 400 cal liquid diet, the NO CARB diet, using pills, diuretics, etc. If you ask me about weight watchers, it does work and may help to supplement and give you the push to the healthy lifestyle...But lets be honest...I do not want to be counting points my whole life!!!! And then after you get excited and really work towards it and do not see the results, you start to give up..

Here are some tips to get started on your new healthy lifestyle:

  

1.  Get your mind right!!! & Find a Focus   

 What i mean by this is stop stressing about losing weight and actually do it. Pick yourself up and formulate a mental plan. Imagine how you want to see yourself in a month or so. Set a goal. Do not set it so high. It should be 5-20 pounds in a time length of 1-3 months. 

  

     2.   Have high expectations for yourself, but not for fast rapid results

Its not going to happen overnight. Not in a week. Maybe not even in two. Sometimes you see results the first two weeks and then all of a sudden it stops. Your body is not a sports car. Its not going to burn the calories so fast just because you changed up your eating habits and visit the gym. IT TAKES TIME. Keep the motivation up and you will see the pounds sweat off. Being stressed about it isnt going to help either. The more you stress about not having results, the more your body is holding on to its fat because of STRESS.

    3.   GET RID OF THE HATERS 

I mean this in the nicest way possible. Get rid of all the negativity around you or better yet do not tell anyone you are on a lifestyle change. WHY? because 9/10 someone is going to criticize, try to give you their advice, and pretty much make you feel a little awkward about the situation. The sad part is, you know these people. They are your family members, close girlfriends, even your significant other could be a repeat offender of this. Whoever it is make it clear that this is what your going to do, and if they are not going to be supportive...BUHHH-BYEEE!

If you decide to keep a secret, when you come out with it make sure you say the same. 

    4.  Start changing your eating slowly...

Instead of completely cutting out EVERYTHING AND EVERYTHING, which will only make you miserable and hate the world and all the skinny girls in it, start slowly cutting off stuff the things you know you shouldn't be eating. You know what im talking about. Soda, junk food, cookies, pastries, (anything that does not have any nutritional value) PIZZA DOES NOT HAVE A NUTRITIONAL VALUE LOL. 

After you've decided what you know you cant eat, and are ready to give that up, look into your fridge and cleanse yourself of all these bad things. Start buying the stuff you should be eating, Whole grains, veggies, fruits, lean meats & fish. 

To keep yourself from bouncing back, have a cheat day. Yes i said it, have a cheat day, where you could eat something that you've been missing, and a dessert. After all, food is like an addiction. You cant just stop cold turkey. You need to ween off of it and its all about how much will power you have. On cheat day, do not go eating everything under the sun. At least have 2-3 things your supposed to be eating, then have dinner & small dessert. 

  5. Head to the GYM!!

Join a gym. Go back to the gym. Get started and get moving! Do cardio for at least a half hour. NOW LET ME MAKE THIS CLEAR ABOUT CARDIO......

30 minutes on the treadmill on the same stance and same pace is not going to cut it!!!!!

You need to trick your body. Variations is key. Get on that treadmill and set your incline to 1.0 and change your walking speeds. start walking, then briskly walking, then speed walking, then who knows JOGGING! If its too much to the point you want to pass out, then slow it down. But dont stop. Keep variating. I will later post some examples of what i mean.

If you use the elliptical, bikes, stair master. Do the same. Do not stay at the same pace. 

TAKE A CLASS! At first I hated doing this because I didn't want anyone else to see how weak I was. But um hello! Your at the gym! If you cant get a workout around your peers then where else can you do it? Remind yourself that everyone is there for the same reason you are. TO BE FIT. There should be no judging or criticizing. And who knows, classes at times introduces you to moves & free weight ideas that you can do out of class. SO TRY IT!

I would hold off with the free weights unless you really know what your doing. Taking a conditioning class should be done. You don't want to lift too much weights or do too much reps in which you end up bulking yourself up instead of slimming down.

LASTLY DO NOT GIVE UP. This is not supposed to be easy. If it was, everyone would be doing it!

Hope this helps to all my new followers! 

Comment if you have any questions, concerns or other ideas you'd like me to post about!