I’ve been on a diet since I was in grade 5. I was dealt a melodramatic devastating blow when my pediatrician told me I was over weight for my height and age when I was 10.  To add insult to injury my brother caught wind  of this little tidbit and was absolutely elated to finally have something to torture his ‘goodie two shoes’ sister with.  LOL!  He called me fat I called him dumb…  Oh brotherly sisterly love!  By the time grade 6 rolled around I was a card carrying member of the Weight Watchers chapter located at the local strip mall in our little suburb.  I became avidly involved in school sports and swore to myself that ‘fatness’ was something I totally could control and control it I would!  Every year it was something new, some different diet/workout regimen that would get me to the ultimate goal of supermodel skinniness.  I’ve tried it all!  Starvation, anorexia, bulimia -although I never could quite commit to the whole ‘fingers down the throat thing’ -diet pills etc, etc.

It’s taken me around 20 years to get it.  With the goal of supermodel skinny waaay out of my mind I’ve finally found a way to stay healthy and fit with a realistic understanding of body image.  With the New Year here with us I thought I would share some of my tried, tested and true methods to staying healthy and happy.

1. Don’t Diet. Losing weight is awesome, but to loose weight on some ‘get slim quick’ scheme can prove nightmare-ish if you gain it all back.  The only way to possibly keep weight off is to make lifestyle changes that you are willing to live with FOREVER.  uggh, I know, sounds so scary, but in the end you will be happy to never have to pull out those ‘fat jeans’ again.

2. Have A Realistic Goal: Humans love achievement – why do you think we have so many institutions set up with the sole purpose of judging us?  Hello, Oscars, Olympics, Scholarships the list goes on… So since we can’t all be on ‘The Biggest Loser” or don’t all have a gala to look good for in a month, we have to set up our own sensible set of goals that are tough but realistic.  If you start out saying you want to loose 15 pounds in a month and you’re going to do it by doing 3 workouts a day and only eating grapefruit and All Bran, you’re setting yourself up for disaster.  If you haven’t worked out in a while (or ever) start with 3 days a week and if your diet is unhealthy start cutting out the things you know your body doesn’t need.  Which brings us to number 3…

3. Pick Your Moments and Get Over It: I say pick your moments and get over it because everyone’s going to have a friend, colleague, or family member who can ‘eat whatever they want’ but the reality is most people can’t.  Food is fantastic!  But food shouldn’t be an obsession or  something that satisfies an emotion.  In reality food is supposed to nourish and fuel our body, not make us happy, solve our problems or help us get over a break-up.  Yes it sucks that not all of us can eat 3 meals a day of whatever we want when we want, but if you start to figure out what works best for your body your insides will be so much better off and thank you with amazing things like better skin and not so much muffin top.  Also, if you eat healthy the majority of the time, every now and again you can have a little of what you love and feel satisfied.

4. Educate Yourself:  Knowledge is key to everything you do.  There is so much diet and health information out there that it can seem overwhelming.  Start by getting a general understanding of what is in the food that you are eating.  There are really cool websites like caloriecount.about.com that you can use to search the nutritional information of your favorite foods.  It might make you realize a few things, for example, today I learned that my favorite drink at Starbucks (tall soy Americano Misto) has 70 calories 2.5 grams of fat and 4 grams of sugar…  I really didn’t think it had more that 50 calories and totally didn’t realize that it has sugar in it…  Maybe I will just opt for the regular Americano (15 calories) because not only is it cheaper, I can use those calories elsewhere, in something I actually really like!

nutrition facts for a tall americano misto at Starbucks

5. Know Your Body: I hear many of my friends complain about bloating, constipation and stomach pains.  They never understand why they are having these issues and at the same time never do much about it… In talking to my doctor about my own issues and discussing them further with Lyzabeth (a registered Nutritionalist) I discovered that it is estimated that 75% of the worlds population is lactose intolerant  (the inability to metabolize lactose) and 1 in 133 Americans have gluten intolerance or Celiac Disease -a sensitivity to gluten, which is found in wheat, barley and rye.  Gluten and dairy are in so much of what we ingest on a daily basis and sometimes the simple removal of some foods from our diet are the ticket to getting our bodies back on track.  Knowing your body and more importantly, your bodies sensitivities are paramount for healthy living.

6. Weigh Yourself Once A Week: I know most of you will hate this one, and trust me at first I did too.  But if there is one thing that I have done that has helped me take off 40 pounds and keep it off, it has been a weekly weigh in.  Weighing yourself once a week is the best way for you to measure your success or figure out where you’re going wrong.  It holds you accountable and lets you know when the pounds start creeping back instead of waking up one day and not being able to fit into your clothes.  Plus the sense of achievement you feel after being on track for a whole week and seeing positive results is amazing!

There is one stipulation that is a MUST when implementing a scale and the only way you will be able to stop yourself from becoming a weight maniac:

Weigh yourself once a week at the same time on the same day on the same scale.  If you start weighing yourself more than once a week you might be heavier one day or lighter the other and start fretting unnecessarily about it.  Weigh yourself at the same time of the day (I do it first thing Monday morning) because if you weigh yourself one day on an empty stomach at 7 am and then another day at 9pm right after dinner you’re obviously going to be heavier. Some scales are different than others, so pick one, whether it be at home or at the gym and only use it to weigh yourself.

7. Weight Training Is Just As Important As Cardio: Lifting weights doesn’t make you bulky.  As a matter of fact, weight training is one of the best ways to help you shed weight.  Muscle burns fat even when you’re not working out, so having more muscle on your body is a bonus.  One of the biggest misconceptions women have is that if you lift weights you will instantly start to resemble Arnold Schwarzenegger.  The truth is, it takes a ridiculous amount of weight training and specific dieting to gain major muscle for women.  The best way to work out and get great results is a cardio/weight training interval workout.  My favorite is 2mins runs on the treadmill with a weight training exercise in between.  Here’s an example:

2 min run

15 squats with 15 pound free weights (repeat 4 times with runs between set)

30 alternating lunges with 15 pound free weights (repeat 4 times with runs between each set)

15 split squats per leg with 12 pound free weights (repeat 4 times with runs between each set)

30 bootie raises on bosu ball (repeat 4 times with runs between each set)

The intervals make the workout fly by and keep your mind from wandering.

8. Switch It Up: I get sick of cardio quickly.  One of the reasons I joined The Hourglass Workout was because I was so sick of my routine.  Every now and again spruce up your routine by doing something different.  Add a random spin, boxing or dance class.  Go indoor rock climbing, trampolining, or take your run outside.  There are so many ways to get your body moving that actually help increase your quality of life.  Every time I walk out of Boot Camp or Spin class I’m absolutely beaming!

spin class

hourglass outdoors!

9. Take The Temptation Out Of Your Home:  Throw out and stop buying junk.  If it’s in your pantry chances are your going to get weak at some point and the first place your going to go is to the junk.  If there’s no junk, there’s no chance in you eating it.  The harder it is to access, the easier it is to stay on track.

10. Know What You’re Going To Eat and When: Planning what you’re going to eat (or having a rough idea) takes the guess work out of a healthy lifestyle.  Life is hectic and forgetting to eat can be as damaging as over eating.  So whether its pre-cooking a bunch of chicken breasts (which can help your pocketbook as well) or just pre-planning the times you’re going to eat and where, you’ll be ahead of the game. Remember that what you eat effects 70-80% of your results leaving only 20-30% up to your workouts.  You can be in the best cardiovascular shape ever but if your diet isn’t right, the extra pounds will still be hanging around….

11. If You Fall Off, Get Back On STAT!: You’ve been excellent all week, it’s Friday and you’re getting together with a bunch of your friends.  One drink turns to four and four turns into dancing and dancing turns into 3am at the Chinese restaurant….  You wake up the next morning feeling like crap, sad you ruined all of your hard work and want to just throw in the towel.  NEGATIVE!  Get your booty out of bed and start back on your healthy eating/workout plan.  Don’t wallow in despair, give yourself forty lashes for bad behavior, just get back to it!  Forget about cheat days and cheat meals, taking weekends off, just eat as well as you can as often as you can and you’ll be good.

10. Do It For You!: I know it’s awesome to have a partner, someone to go through the journey with, but unfortunately the only people we can depend on is ourselves.  If our health depends on the fortitude of another then we won’t get anywhere.  It’s cool to workout with other people, make plans to meet at a class, but don’t make the reason you’re going or the only way you’ll go be dependent on the other person.  Chances are the other person is going to bail, so make a promise to yourself that you’re going to reach your goal no matter what and if someone wants to come along for the ride, amazing!  I joined Hourglass thinking all of my friends were going to join, none of them did.  I went anyways and have made so many great friends and haven’t stopped going since!

xoxo,

coco

p.s. sorry this was so long.  apparently i like talking about this stuff!  this year i will make more of an effort to  share more health tips from my friends Mark and Lyzabeth.