Maybe it’s just me or maybe it’s the day since Fridays are so relaxed with it being jean day at work and the weekend just hours away and so my lunch choice on Fridays become relaxed. I don’t feel guilty on Fridays when I order the hamburger with fries and get a big sweet tea to wash it down or chow down a whole basket of chips before eating my greesy and cheesy covered enchiladas. This is no way to start a weekend especially if you don’t burn many calories on the weekends.

But I don’t feel so bad because usually by Friday I’ve already worked out 3 or 4 times which included strength training and cardio. Also for the most part, I’ve also eaten pretty healthy for the week. And I now made it a habit to be active once or twice over the weekend whether it’s a run at the park or a spinning class or a weight workout or playing some flag football or softball. It’s become a lifestyle for me to do something active on the weekends so I allow myself to REALLY enjoy my Friday lunches and even a couple of other unhealthy meals over the weekend.

So what if you’re having an off week(which we all have) or you’re just not as active. Here are some tips you can follow so that high calorie Friday…isn’t so high.

First, before you go to lunch, eat a healthy snack. You can eat a serving of carrots, an energy bar, some fruit, low calorie yogurt, a bran muffin or a protein shake. Eat a healthy snack that you enjoy and something that will help you eat less at lunch.

Next, make sure the server brings you a glass of water and make sure to finish one glass of water before you get your meal. This will help you get full faster and eat less. This will also help your body digest those fattening foods.

And since we are about to eat a plate of fatty foods, let’s order the lunch portion. If you eat a snack before lunch and/or drink a glass of water, you won’t feel like the lunch portion isn’t enough and end up overeating a big dinner plate. So set in your mind beforehand to order the lunch portion. You can always have a healthy snack later if it really isn’t enough. Plus, the lunch portion will save you a lot of calories, save you some money and save you from feeling like you’re going to bust out of your Friday jeans.

Now I can already hear the excuses, “There was no lunch portion of the plate I wanted” or “They didn’t have lunch plates”. In this case, here’s your tip while your hot plate of fatty deliciousness is cooling down, ask for a to-go container. Before you begin eating, put half or even two thirds of your plate in the to-go container. Close the container and put it aside. I said, put it aside =o) It becomes out of sight and out of mind. A lot of us have been trained to finish everything on our plate and this will help us do just that while we eat less calories than a whole dinner plate. If you are against taking food to-go, once you become full, push the plate away from you and place your napkin over your food.

Nobody said it would be easy but if you follow these tips, it will make a difference as you continue to enjoy your relaxing Friday lunches.

The Challenge:

• Eat a healthy snack before going to lunch

• Drink a full glass of water as you wait for your meal

• Avoid eating a whole dinner serving

Besides money, we could all use more time. But when it comes down to it, there will always be just 24 hours in a day so we can never have more time but we can be more efficient with it. That’s where planning comes in and is very important for including a fitness workout plan. We need to make time to plan so that we can accomplish more. And we need to write down our plan because it increases our chances of actually doing it. This is very important when it comes to our fitness and actually writing out a workout plan.

There are so many things we have to do and most times it seems impossible to work in a fitness workout. So before it becomes a lifestyle it must be a habit and before it becomes a habit we must plan it and to plan it we must write it down. Write down your fitness workout plan. I cannot express it enough.

But what do we write down? We can’t just write, “I’m going to exercise this week” because then we’ll probably only work out once or twice, if that. So we have to be specific in our workout plan. We should write down something like “I’m going to be healthy by starting the week working out on Monday for 30 minutes, running on Tuesday for 25 minutes, working out on Wednesday for 30 minutes and riding the bike for 45 minutes on Thursday”. We can take it a step further and write down the exercises we are going to do. Then when we do the workout, we should write down the exercises we do along with the amount of weight, the number of sets and the number of reps(repetitions) we do. This will serve as a great tool to see how often we really are working out. This will also work as a motivator to keep us running faster, lifting more weight, doing more reps and/or working out more frequently.

So plan your workouts and write them down when you do them. Make writing down your fitness workout plan a habit…then follow and do your plan and working out will become a habit, then a lifestyle.

Really! There is such a thing. I know from personal experience how hard it can be to be fit with a sweet tooth. Crave attacks can come often and sometimes they are just too strong to resist or I can just be that weak and sometimes that doesn’t take much. I’ll avoid enticing you and not talk about the little things that entice me to not have a healthy sweet tooth. But instead I will share my experience to get where I am today and hopefully you can skip some steps so you can have a healthy sweet tooth sooner than I did.

My first attempt was to neglect my sweet tooth all together. That does not work very well because when I did succumb to my sweet tooth, I went all out and usually had 2 servings along with ice cream on top no matter what the temptation. That is not healthy at all because even though it might not have happened often, when it did, it was packing in 1000+ calories of pure fat. And I would find myself back in the gym trying harder to get back to where I was but it was such an uphill battle. This strategy just isn’t easy when there are always holidays, birthdays or simply just an ice cream sale. Excuses and justifications are easy to come by when that dessert calls your name. There’s no resisting.

Okay so that didn’t work. So then I tried desserts made with less sugar or sugar alternatives. I don’t have to tell you that those just don’t taste the same and I did not enjoy them so all it would do is outrage my sweet tooth. So not only would I have the less sugar treat, but since it wasn’t satisfying enough, I would have the original treat as well. All that did was increase my calories since I ate both of them. So I was back to just eating the original treat with all of its sugary goodness.

Another failed attempt. How about if I just eat cheat treats on the weekend? Now this was a pretty good plan, but it was just a plan. My weekends included not only cheat treats but it went along with my plan of being able to eat unhealthy on the weekends. This meant restaurant food, fast food, backyard bar-b-que food and junk food. The weekends were pretty much open game and I took advantage. But once Monday came, I felt flabby, out of shape and disappointed because it felt like if I had to start all over.

So then I adjusted and made it to where I only ate one junky meal on the weekend and one cheat treat on the weekend. But you guessed it! This did not work either because it was not enough. I needed cheat treats more than once a week. So I would find myself cheating during the week at work. This was easy to do as there are always leftover sweets in the break room from meetings. And the break room is right across the hall from my office. Since I TRIED to deprive myself to 1 cheat treat a week, I found myself indulging myself at work on the free treats even though I didn’t even enjoy them that much. They were leftovers but they were also free and were sitting right there in front of my office.

There’s no escaping the sweet tooth, there’s no way to have a cheat treat only once a week, there’s no way to eat less sugar treats and be satisfied. So how do I have a healthy sweet tooth?

This is how to have a healthy sweet tooth… Find an energy bar that satisfies your sweet tooth and is really healthy. Some energy bars claim to be healthy but really are not. Read the ingredients and learn if it is or isn’t. Make sure you like the way it tastes. Don’t be discouraged if your first several taste tests are nasty. Some energy bars are pretty nasty but there are some that are delicious. Find the ones that are pleasing like a dessert and it will calm your sweet tooth.

Another thing you can do is to find a sweet protein shake or a sweet meal replacement shake. Take it once a day and along with your energy bar, it will seem as if you had 2 cheat treats in a day. Again, try different ones to find which one pleases your taste buds as well as your sweet tooth because some of them can be pretty nasty too. Some protein shakes are sold in individual serving packets or already mixed up for you to try. You can also try them individually at Smoothie King or the Smoothie Factory. They make smoothies for you but they use protein powder that they sell in the store. So before buying a whole box of something, try out a shake or 2. Also try different flavors of the same protein powder. Sometimes vanilla tastes way better than the chocolate version and vice versa. You have to find what you like.

I also satisfy my sweet tooth with cereal. But avoid cereals that are nothing but sugar. You want to get a cereal that has substance and that will fulfill your sweet tooth craving. You can find some cereals with great nutritional value and taste really good. But make sure they do not contain too much sugar. It’s an additional plus if it also contains a good amount of fiber. So make sure it pleases your sweet tooth and is a healthy choice.

There are 2 other best strategies that I follow to assure a healthy sweet tooth. The first is to not buy sweets to keep at home. When I do buy sweets it’s only good for one serving. So the only time I enjoy sweets is when I go out to eat or having it at someone else’s home.

The second best thing that I’ve done is tame my sweet tooth. Let me explain…before I use to eat sweets no matter what it was. If it was free or offered at someone’s home, I never declined. But what I do now is ask myself, “Is this a sweet treat that I will really, really enjoy?”. If the answer is yes then I go ahead and treat myself. But if the answer is no and I will eat it just because it’s sweet and it’s being offered, I’ll pass. Yes, it was hard at first because my reflex was to always say yes to ANY sweet. But with some will power and a mindful effort to just say no, it becomes easier and easier.

The Challenge:

• Find healthy sweet alternatives

• Don’t keep sweets at home

• Tame your sweet tooth

• Learn to say no to sweets that aren’t worth it

• Enjoy your favorite sweets but don’t get carried away on the
  portion size.

Accept the challenge, live the challenge and don’t give up. The sweet tooth can be a beast so take control and live a healthier lifestyle.

Okay, I have to give my more than 2 cents about low calorie diet plans that I hear about frequently. To my surprise is to hear that the person’s doctor recommends it.

There are many versions of the low calorie diet plan. The diet usually involves avoiding regular food and replacing it with a liquid diet. The physician carefully monitors the patient every 2 weeks by recording the patient’s changes in weight, blood pressure and pulse and even taking blood tests. This physician supervision is essential because of the drastic caloric restriction and the potential need for potassium supplements.

Are there side effects? Correction, what are the side effects? Patients on low calorie diet plans may suffer fatigue due to such low caloric intake, constipation, nausea and diarrhea. Within a few weeks, the side effects will usually clear and rarely prevent completion of the diet plan. The most serious side effect with low calorie diet plans is the formation of gallstones. The likelihood of getting gallstones during rapid weight loss is increased due to the caloric reduction which decreases the gallbladder’s ability to contract bile.

It’s a fact that your body, ANY body, needs more than(way more than) 800 calories to be healthy. So when participating in most if not all low calorie diet plans, your body will probably switch into survival mode. When your body is in survival mode it will try to burn only the minimum amount of calories needed to survive. A low calorie diet plan will help you lose weight but it won’t help you lose a lot of body fat.

How can you lose weight but not body fat, you might ask? Great question! The way your body works in survival mode is that it will burn some body fat but it will also start to burn your muscles for energy and muscle weighs more than fat. That’s how you lose most of your weight in low calorie diets. Muscles are made of proteins and your body uses protein to maintain & replace tissues in your body, it’s used to make hemoglobin which is the red blood cells that carry oxygen to your body. Muscles, organs and many hormones are made of protein. So when your body goes into survival mode, it needs protein and since it’s being malnourished, it will break down your muscles to get protein.

In the long run, losing muscle is not ideal because muscles help determine your metabolism. The more muscles you have the higher your metabolism. So when you get on a low calorie diet plan, your body switches from being a fat-burning machine to one that saves energy and stores fat. This is why it’s so common for weight REgain after a low calorie diet plan.

It is what it is, a plan. A low calorie diet plan is just a plan, it’s not a lifestyle. Low calorie diet plans do not provide the needed energy to have a healthy lifestyle. And life is enjoyed when you’re active.

So if you’re in it for the long run, it doesn’t take a low calorie diet plan. What it does take is healthier eating & daily physical activity. And you shouldn’t go by weight but instead, you should go by your fat percentage. The simple formula is to burn more calories than you eat. That includes strength training 3-5 times a week which will build muscle which will in turn increase your metabolism when you’re just sitting around. You should also do some cardio 2-3 times a week. Cardio is great for your heart and great for burning calories. You also want to eat 5-6 small meals a day because each time you eat, you kick your metabolism into gear. Your meals should include lots of vegetables and low fat protein. Drink plenty of water because your body may make you think you’re hungry when it really just needs water. If you have a sweet tooth like me, find a healthy alternative like a chocolate chip energy bar and/or a protein shake that you enjoy. I almost have one of each every day so I don’t crave the wrong sweets. Try different things because some sweet alternatives can taste gross but there are some that are delicious. Commit yourself to working out and eating healthier Monday thru Friday and then allow yourself to cheat a little on the weekends. Only a little cheating though and only if you were committed during the week.

The Challenge:

• Do strength training 3-5 times a week

• Do cardio 2-3 times a week

• Whether cardio or strength training, do it for at least 30 minutes

• Eat 5-6 healthy meals a day

• Stay committed

Eat moderately and healthy and then workout intensely. You can do it! Do what you have to and stay committed. Keep your focus on what motivates you. And whatever you do, don’t give up!

Doing a cardio routine is something that I don’t get too excited about when it comes to running. I enjoy it because I think a lot while I’m running and after I’m done, I feel refreshed. Sometimes the challenge is actually getting to the track. But once I’m there I’m good to go. At times I have to remind myself what my focus is when I run. It’s not actually the running or the cardio routine that I get motivated about. Some days I focus on the fact that I want to be in shape and be able to run faster and do more when I play softball or flag football. So that thought motivates me to get to the track. There are other times that I focus on how better my face or my stomach looks after a run. I tend to gain fat first around my face and my belly. But if I get a good run in, I can tell the difference. And even though I’m active, I’m pretty tired during my 3 mile run. So I have to think about other things so that I’m not focused on me being tired and so I don’t stop. I also time my runs and write it down so that I challenge myself each time to have a better time. My time right now is in the 24-25 minute range for a 3 mile run. I do stay active after to keep my heart rate up.

But then there are days where a run around the track is just boring and there is nothing to motivate me. So I have to change up the type of cardio routine that I do. I’ve recently enjoyed running hills at a park near my job. It’s about 40 feet high. I sprint up and walk down. I do 10 of those then rest 5 minutes and then do another 10. So I do a total of 20 hills. Once I’m done with running hills, I rest another 5 minutes near a picnic table bench. Rest time is up, so I do 15 jumps onto the bench and then do 20 step ups. I rest 2 minutes and then do 15 jumps and 20 step ups again. Whew! I’m done with my cardio for the day.

Running hills better prepares me for playing sports as it increases my speed and gives me more power with the bench jumps. The most important part of it is that it motivates me to the point that I really enjoy it because my focus is on it improving my sports performance.

Now that’s me. But what is important for you, is to find out what motivates you. What type of cardio routine will you enjoy? What type of cardio will you look forward to doing? Which cardio routine will challenge you?

Before you can choose, you need to know what is considered cardio. There are some misconceptions. I use think that cardio meant you had to be active non-stop for at least 15 minutes. But cardio really is an exercise that raises your heart rate and keeps it elevated for at least 30 minutes. Your heart rate range should be 60-80% of your maximum heart rate. Having a good heart rate monitor is a great way to make sure you’re within your range. So when I run my hills, as long as my heart rate remains within my range while I’m walking down, during rest and it’s for 30 minutes, it’s considered cardio.

There are so many cardio activities to choose from like running, bicycling, rock climbing, swimming, step aerobics, circuit training, using an elliptical trainer, playing tennis and the list goes on. Find what motivates you and get to it. If you start getting bored or it’s not as challenging, try another cardio.

The Challenge:

• Get up and do it!

• Do it for at least 30 minutes

• Stay within 60-80% of your maximum heart rate

• Have fun doing it!

You can do it! Believe that you can! Keep your focus on what motivates you. And whatever you do, don’t give up!

I’ve always been into fitness but as I get older and have more responsibilities, for me to maintain health habits, I have to be strategic to achieve it. It was a challenge at first but once I found new ways to be more efficient with my daily activities, then I was able to save time for working out.

There’s one thing that is very important in having health habits that should come first no matter what type of workouts you do…that is sleep…with an emphasis on quality and quantity. If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t have enough energy for work. And if you don’t have energy for work then you surely won’t have energy for an 8-hour workday and then for a workout. How much sleep should you get? It’s different for each person so you have to get to know what’s best for YOUR body. What to shoot for is 7-9 hours of sleep. There are countless reasons why sleep is so important but now there is substantial medical evidence that less sleep can increase your appetite. So get enough sleep and make sure you DON’T workout 3 hours before bedtime so that you also get quality sleep.

Next, try to workout when you are at your best. If you’re not a morning person then avoid working out in the morning…because it probably won’t happen. If you’re too tired to workout after work then either get more sleep or make time to workout before going to work. I use to be a morning person which made it easy for me to workout in the morning. But now it’s harder to wake up a lot of times which is why I press snooze for an hour which is also why I workout in the evening now.

What you can also do is find ways to save time and spend your time more wisely. What I do on some cardio days is pack up my running shoes/clothes in my gym bag. On the way home I pass a park that has a track and a hill. So on my way home I stop at the park, change in my car, run sprints up the hill and do some squat jumps. By the time I’m done, the traffic has died down and it doesn’t take as long to get home. So I get my cardio in and avoid wasting so much time in traffic. Time efficiency improves my health habits.

There are also many little strategies that you can do to improve. One of them is that I no longer look for the closest parking spot. I drive in from the back of the parking lot and park next to the last car. It’s a longer walking distance that burns more calories and I don’t waste my time trying to find the closest parking spot which sometimes ends up being towards the back anyways.

Another strategy serves me well in restaurants. Whether it’s going out to eat for lunch or for dinner, I make sure to eat a healthy snack before I go. That way, I won’t eat as much and it usually helps me to choose a healthier dish. But most times if I snack before I go, I end up getting an appetizer for the meal which has less calories. On top of that, instead of ordering a $3 watered down empty calorie cola, try having a healthy glass of water. Drink a whole glass of your water before the waiter/waitress brings your food out or before dipping into the free chips and you’ll eat less.

This brings us to the next important health habit…WATER. Make sure you’re drinking 8oz of 8-10 glasses. The over all amount depends on how active you are that day. Your body will tell you how much, just pay attention to it. But make sure not to confuse hunger with thirst. Thirst can give you feelings like hunger cravings which can make you eat when your body really just needs water. So the next time you have a craving, drink some water first and if the craving goes away, water is all you needed. Water serves many bodily functions that are healthy for you. So be sure not let your body thirst.

The Challenge:

• Get 7-9 hours of sleep

• Workout when you’re at your best

• Be efficient with your time, it is valuable

• Find little ways to be more active

• Snack & drink water before you eat out

• Drink plenty of water, 8-10 glasses of 8oz

You can do it! I know you can! Believe in yourself! Focus on one habit at a time if you have to. And whatever you do, don’t give up!

The best advice I can give to workout for fitness is to do it with consistency and frequency. That applies to fitness as well as nutrition. The hardest part is APPLYING consistency and frequency. It’s easy to say but not so easy to do.

I have always been active in my life. I played baseball all the way through high school, played playground basketball and street football. Once I got into college I mostly worked out in the weight room. My workouts were 2+ hours long. That was no big deal since I had time for those long workouts in college. The problems was when I graduated from college and entered corporate America.  Working 8+ hour days made it hard to have the energy and motivation to work out after work.  What made it even harder is that I still held on to the idea that my workouts had to be 2+ hours long.  So my frequency dropped from 4 workouts a week to about 1-2 workouts a week.  Life tends to get busy with having a work life and a social life then trying to get workouts in.  So my consistency was no longer and I was not working out at all for a month, sometimes 2 months and sometimes for 3 months.  Then when I did workout, it was such a chore to workout for 2+ hours but I missed working out.  Years went by as I struggled with consistency and frequency.  I had other priorities and began accepting that I was slowly getting out of shape and okay with it since I just didn’t have the time.

I then picked up playing sports again, recreational softball and flag football.  But I wanted to be in better shape so that I could enjoy it as much as I use to.  I love giving my all whether it’s sliding head first into second base or running and diving for a line drive.  But I could only do that if I was in shape so I knew that I had to workout for fitness, not for bigger muscles or a 6-pack, although those may naturally follow…maybe.

Maybe it was age that made me wiser, maybe it was an article or maybe I just did what I could.  I finally gave up the need to have to workout for 2+ hours.  I wanted to workout for fitness and made it a priority to workout 3 times a week.  But the only way I could do that was to decrease the length of my workouts.  I found out that I could still get an intense workout in an hour.  I could fit in a workout while I watched some NFL games or I could fit in some cleaning during my rest times during my circuit training at home.

My consistency and frequency is back but I have to be more strategic to achieve it.  I now workout every week about 2-3 times with weights and 1-2 times of running of some sort along with softball or flag football once a week.

I save time by not going to the gym and just working out at home.  That saves me about 30-40 minutes roundtrip to the gym.  If I work out 3 times a week at the gym, that’s saving 1½ hours in driving.  In that time I can get a whole work out in.  To save time I also do 2 things at once…workout while I watch tv or clean while I workout.

My current workout is a 45 minute circuit training workout with kettle bells.  Before I used the usual dumbbells and weight bar to workout with but now I enjoy using kettle bells more because it was a nice change for me.  A point to make is how very important it is to change your workouts to keep you interested and motivated and because it is better for your body.  Your body is very smart and makes adjustments so that it becomes more efficient.  That’s why you really need to change your workout routine every 4-6 weeks.  If not, your body will become efficient with your workout and the workout will not reap as many benefits as when you first started the routine.  So changing it up will keep you from hitting a plateau and keep your body on its toes.

The Challenge:

• Consistency – make time to work out every week

• Frequency – work out 3-5 times a week even if they’re 20 minute
  workouts but shoot for 45 minutes to an hour workouts

You can do it! I know you can! Believe in yourself, don’t give up, challenge yourself and do what you have to do to stay motivated.