Tips, tricks, hints, etc.
CdnPgnMom
Posts: 172 Member
I come cross different little tidbits online quite often and will start sharing them here. Feel free to share your own.
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Slip off your shoes, reach down and rub your feet. Specifically, massage the acupressure point in the area on the top of the foot between the first and second toes for two minutes. This is an area associated with the liver, an organ that filters blood, releases stored sugar and contributes to protein formation. Stimulate this acupressure point, and get a surge of energy.
Source: Sparkpeople0 -
The scent of cinnamon stimulates the thalamus, the area of the brain that governs wakefulness and raises energy levels. At breakfast, sprinkle cinnamon on toast, hot oatmeal, cold cereal or coffee. Or, during the day, put a drop of cinnamon oil on the inside of your wrist and sniff the invigorating scent.0
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Bob Harper's SKINNY RULES (summarized):
Drink water before every meal;
Don't drink calories;
Eat protein at every meal;
30-50 grams of fiber every day;
Eat apples & berries every day;
No carbs after lunch;
Read food labels;
Measure & weigh food;
No added sweateners;
No white potatoes;
Make one day a week meatless;
No fast or fried foods;
Eat a real breakfast;
Make your own food & eat at home at least 10 times a week;
No high-salt foods;
Eat veggies;
Go to bed hungry;
Get enough sleep;
Plan one splurge meal per week0 -
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Tricks to stay full:
Quinoa, quinoa, quinoa... the only thing that remotely makes me feel full with a somewhat reasonable quantity!
---Written by Krista0 -
How to feel full:
I eat smaller things, often. I try to never let my stomach get to that "angry hungry grumble" stage because then I know I'll eat everything in sight.
Written by Krista #20 -
Tricks to feel full:
I find drinking green tea in between meals helps.
----Written by Vanessa0 -
Dealing with Binge Eating:
fitjanfin: A really cool site I found with tons of great advice is dietriffic.com It is written by a registered dietician and she has tons of really great articles on all kinds of things. For me, it is my dang sweet tooth! But I am sure there are some relevant articles that you might find helpful. I hope so, anyway! The woman who runs it actually encourages her readers to contact her with questions...and she responds in person! Awesome. Hope you find this helpful.0 -
Dealing with binge eating:
It might sound silly, but when I feel like bingeing, I go to my Tumblr blog. I follow several healthy living blogs on there and there are always photos of healthy fruits and veggies on there and I just don't want the junk anymore. There are also inspirational/motivational quotes on there that remind of why I'm doing this. It's a great motivator!
----Written by Christina0 -
Forgive yourself. What happens in the past is just that, in the past. You can’t do anything to change it, so don’t dwell over it. Just take a deep breath and move on.
Revisit your goals. This one depends specifically on how long you were off track. If it was longer than 3 or so weeks, you’ll need to take a look at your goals and slightly alter them. If you haven’t run in two months, don’t expect to be able to run a 10K your first day back on track. If you try to attempt things like this, you’ll only end up disappointing yourself and you’re bound to end up back off track.
Revisit your reason “why”. When you originally started your journey, you probably had a pretty clear reason why you wanted what you did. So dig deep and figure out what that was, and remind yourself of your ultimate goals. Maybe running a marathon is one, competing in fitness competitions, or being in the best shape of your life by your 18th birthday. Whatever it may be, tune in to that reason and keep it in your head at all times.
Think about why you want to get back on track. If you’re like me, you just can’t stand living like this anymore. The unhealthy food, the inactivity, it’s not worthy for my body and health. We deserve health, all of us. So think about why you’re choosing now as the time to get back on track. Are you ready for the commitment?
Start with small changes. Even if you’ve done this before, you can’t expect to get back to where you were in one day. You weren’t off track for one day, you didn’t neglect your priorities for one day, and you will not be able to change your entire lifestyle in one day. You need to understand this before you decide to commit.
Take things slowly, but don’t worry too much about the future. Take this journey meal by meal, day by day, or week by week. There is no need to plan out your workouts for 81238 days ahead. Worry about right now, or at most the week ahead. You can focus on the next month when the next month comes.
Find a support system. It can be “in real life”, on Tumblr, or anywhere else. Just find people who support your choice to get back on track, because a little support can go a long way.
***Source - Tumblr
----Provided by Christina0 -
4 Mindless Habits That Are Hurting Your Weight Loss Get Focused to Get Back on Track
-- By Megan Coatley, Behavior Expert (Sparkpeople)
If you’ve ever tried to break a bad habit, health-related or otherwise, you know how difficult it can be. Every morning, you awake to a daunting, gut-wrenching choice: to commit to change or to fall short of your goals. Those of you who have taken on the challenge of becoming your healthiest self can attest that this choice especially applies to creating changes in your diet and exercise routines. We all realize that the trick to lasting good health lies in mastering positive fitness and nutrition habits. But how can you put bad habits behind you and make wellness your main priority... every single day?
When attempting to dial back unhealthy behaviors, you’re up against several obstacles:
It is likely that you’ve been practicing your unhealthy behavior over and over again for decades. Since your first childhood experience with brussel sprouts, you’ve become a master at avoiding vegetables. Since middle-school gym class, you’ve become adept at excusing yourself from exercise. Because you’ve been forming those unhealthy habits for so long, it isn’t easy to leave them behind.
Efficiency and convenience are another knock against your good-health goals: unhealthy habits are often much easier than the alternative. Should I drive to work or ride my bike? Play football with the kids or rent a movie? Chop and prep fresh veggies or hit the drive-thru? Usually, unhealthy alternatives save us lots of time and require less physical and mental effort than their healthy counterparts. We’ve created such an efficient society that making good choices is almost impossible next to the not-so-healthy, yet quick and easy options.
Finally, bad behaviors also come with sneaky, seductive pay-offs. It is understandable that most of us enjoy chocolate more than apples--it’s sweeter! And why wouldn’t we avoid morning exercise when we could stay cozy and warm just by hitting snooze one more time? Of course, there are pay-offs for healthy habits as well: lower cholesterol, lower BMI, increased energy, longevity... But they’re usually not immediate or powerful enough to control our choices in the moment.
With the odds stacked against us, it’s easy to understand why conquering unhealthy habits with willpower alone can be rough. Luckily, the science of habit change gives us more effective ways to go about banishing unhealthy routines for good. Let’s take a closer look at some common unhealthy habits to see how we can put behavioral science to work for us.
Bad Habit: Eating on the Run
We’ve all fallen into the trap: You’re late for work, so you stop for a latte/muffin combo. The kids have soccer practice after school, so you settle for take-out tacos. And if you’ve ever taken a road trip, you’ll agree that convenience stores definitely live up to their name: there’s a one-stop-shop for all kinds of unhealthy eats within every 5-mile stretch!
Bust It!
Eating out while you’re in a rush is a habit that can definitely wreak havoc on your health and fitness goals. But there are ways that you can combat the convenience of fat-laden fast foods. Get savvy about stowing snacks in your vehicle. If you’ve got apples, carrots, granola bars and water on hand, you’ll be less likely to make unplanned pit-stops. Additionally, if you know you're in for a busy week, prep quick and easy meals at home ahead of time. This way, you can grab a healthy bite to eat and avoid the all-too-familiar fast-food run in between evening activities. When you're preparing to leave the house, give yourself more time than you'll actually need to get ready so you can make healthy decisions with a level head instead of instinctively reaching for the easiest option.
Bad Habit: Skipping Workouts
As important as nutrition is in your health-focused efforts, exercise ranks right up there with it as a tool to achieve lasting wellness and weight loss. There’s lots of work that goes into planning meals and pumping weights, but only one will get you sweaty and crank up your cardiovascular health. If you find yourself missing workouts, you’ve probably fallen victim to one of two bad habit culprits: lack of practice or more powerful pay-offs.
Bust It!
There are two types of people who are most likely to fall off the exercise wagon: people who haven’t yet mastered making fitness an everyday priority, and those who have become bored with their age-old routine.
In the first case, when you’re starting a new workout regimen, it is extremely important to set small, measurable goals and to track your progress daily. Keeping a chart on your wall of the days you fit in your workout will help you stay on track toward creating a lasting healthy habit.
If you’ve been rocking it out at the gym for a while and have recently hit a wall, consider changing up your routine and adding in incentives for reaching new heights. Never tried yoga? Complete a month of classes and then treat yourself to a massage. Think you hate cycling? Commit to biking to work for a week and, only then, indulge in that new handbag or pair of jeans. When you’ve lost internal motivation, adding outside incentives can give you the boost you need to get back on track.
Bad Habit: Mindless or Emotional Munching
On the surface, the analysis of unconscious eating behavior seems pretty simple. Food tastes good, especially the sugary or salty snacks we choose when we’re munching away in front of the television. It is obvious that there’s an immediate, powerful pay-off in the taste and texture of whichever treat you choose from the pantry. What you may not realize is that there’s another nasty habit-maker at fault here as well. If you really think about your instances of mindless munching, you’ll realize that they often occur in coordination with some other environmental trigger. Many of us turn to food when things go bad or when we’re bored; maybe you reach for chips when you hear unexpected bad news, or you’ve always had ice cream as a bedtime snack. The practice of situational eating is deeply ingrained and can be tough to correct.
Bust It!
Here again, keeping track of mindless munching and adding in incentives for staying away from unhealthy snacks can help you to reign in your behavior. Notice your food/mood triggers when they happen and make a point to keep your biggest trigger foods out of the house. Be mindful about what you're eating and set a goal for avoiding senseless snacking. Is there a favorite show you’ve taped or a new album you’ve been eyeing for your iPod? Deny yourself those little luxuries until you’ve met your goal of mindful eating for one full week. Adding a pay-off more powerful than the flavor of food can help you avoid so many extra calories. And, you can start practicing an alternative healthy behavior to get you through stressful times instead of food. Try journaling, meditating, calling a friend, or going for a walk instead of reaching for your usual comforting snacks.
Bad Habit: Skimping on Sleep
Late to bed, early to rise is a poisonous pattern that rings true for most of us. We know that sleep helps us to function well and be productive. But, between career commitments, family time, social activities and personal fitness, who has time to get a good night’s sleep?
Bust It!
Sleeping patterns are typically programmed in when we’re young. If you think back, you may realize that you were a night owl in` high school or an early riser in college. Your body has found a rhythm and is happy sticking with it. Because being awake is so well-ingrained, when you’re trying to change your sleeping habits, you’ve got to start small. Set up a bedtime routine and stick with it; this will help trigger your brain and body to prepare for rest. Brush your teeth, wash your face, read a book, or meditate to calm your body. Avoid looking at a computer or TV screen right before bed, as this can sometimes make it more difficult to fall asleep. It also helps to reserve your bedroom for sleeping only; relegate the television, video games, and home office to the rest of the house.
After you've got your bedtime routine down, aim to go to bed 5 minutes earlier or sleep in 5 minutes later than usual. When you achieve this schedule for a few days, add 5 more minutes of shut-eye. Making little changes like this can lead to big results. Keep it up for a month and you’ll have added over one full hour of restful rejuvenation!
How to Establish New, Healthier Habits
When you’re working on wellness, it always seems like someone is asking you to cut something out: sweets and fast food from your diet, time from your day to exercise, and so on. To stay sane while decreasing unhealthy behaviors, you need to fill the gaps! One of the best ways to break a bad habit is to insert an alternative healthy behavior in its place. You can use tips and tricks based on the information above to help you build new, healthier habits and make them stick, in conjunction with the following three tips:
Practice. Set an achievable weekly goal for how many miles you’re going to bike, laps you’re going to swim, fruits you’re going to eat, and healthy meals you’re going to cook--and get cracking! As you reach your goal each week, you’ll find a rhythm and your healthy behaviors will start resembling a well-oiled machine.
Make healthy choices easier and more convenient. Get environmental obstacles (like lack of jogging gear and a pantry full of junk food) out of your way. Once you’ve set up your environment for success, sticking with healthy habits will become much simpler!
Plan some powerful pay-offs for reaching your wellness goals. Sure, internal motivation is great and hopefully you’ll have a ton of gumption to get fit. But, no matter how committed you are to your cause, unhealthy habits will always entice you with their quick, underlying pay-offs. If you plan ahead and reward yourself with extra incentives for working out and eating right, you’ll be riding high on healthy habits for a lifetime.
---Provided by Christina0 -
11 Benefits of Being Positive
Over the years I've done a lot of research on the positive effects of being positive and the negative effects of being negative. The research is clear. It really does pay to be positive and the benefits include enhanced health and longevity, happiness, career advancement, athletic performance, team building and financial success. Being positive is not just a nice way to live. It’s the way to live. In this spirit here are 11 benefits of being positive.
1. Positive People Live Longer - In a study of nuns, those that regularly expressed positive emotions lived on average 10 years longer. (The Nun Study)
2. Positive work environments outperform negative work environments. (Daniel Goleman)
3. Positive, optimistic sales people sell more than pessimistic sales people. (Martin Seligman)
4. Positive leaders are able to make better decisions under pressure. (Heartmath.org)
5. Marriages are much more likely to succeed when the couple experiences a 5 to 1 ratio of positive to negative interactions whereas when the ratio approaches 1 to 1, marriages are more likely to end in divorce. (John Gottman)
6. Positive people who regularly express positive emotions are more resilient when facing stress, challenges and adversity. (Several Studies)
7. Positive people are able to maintain a broader perspective and see the big picture which helps them identify solutions where as negative people maintain a narrower perspective and tend to focus on problems. (Barbara Fredrickson)
8. Positive thoughts and emotions counter the negative effects of stress. For example, you can't be thankful and stressed at the same time. (Several Studies)
9. Positive emotions such as gratitude and appreciation help athletes perform at a higher level. (Heartmath.org)
10. Positive people have more friends which is a key factor of happiness and longevity. (Robert D. Putnam)
11. Positive and popular leaders are more likely to garner the support of others and receive pay raises and promotions and achieve greater success in the workplace. (Tim Sanders)
From Jon Gordon email
www.jongordon.com/
---Provided by Christina0
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