20 Things I have learned

Here are some things that I learned WORKS! They may not work for you but they work for me:

1. What may be a "healthy food" for you, may not be a "healthy food" for me. We all have different bodies with different chemistry.
2. Wheat does not agree with me in any shape or form. I avoid it.
3. Drinking two glasses of water with a slice of lemon first thing in the morning helps me start my day.
4. Presentation is KEY to enjoying foods. Make your presentation pretty and it will taste better. Make every meal special.
5. Laughter and good company make food taste even better. Focusing on the company rather than the food however, feeds the soul. 
6. Drinking coffee instead of making the effort to prepare a snack when I am hungry is counter productive. My body does not thank me for it.
7. Grocery shopping when I am tired or upset is not a good idea.
8. Serving your water in a fancy glass with a slice of lemon or lime turns it into a treat.
9. When you need to talk, get together with your BFF, husbands are not your BFF. They want the bottom line, reader's digest version, BFF's want details, details, details. Don't get the two mixed up! 
10. Listening is harder than you think, it takes practice.
11. Friends are treasures that cannot be replaced.
12. Kids think you are not listening to them when you don't stop what you are doing and look at them. Wives think the same when husbands don't stop and look at them. Making the effort to stop and look is worth it.
13. Being compassionate to yourself is not a bad idea. It helps you empathize with others.
14. It is the little things that count and there is no such thing as perfection, unless you are talking about ice cream!
15. Life and Death are in the power of the tongue...and an encouraging word goes a long way.
16. Music makes mundane tasks so much more fun
17. Smoothies are the best thing ever! 
18. Sometimes doing what you love and loving what you do needs to be defended, but it is worth fighting for. You never know what adventures lie just around the corner.
19. Stepping back and looking at the big picture helps me to cope. I tend to get emotionally involved in what I do.
20. I love blogging.

Make your own list !

Subscribe to Fitness Training for Life and Adventures

  

www.melonyteague.com 
To subscribe to my consolidated newsletter, Click here 
Melony Teague a freelance writer and columnist and motivator who lives in Canada with her husband and two young children.
Founder of "Secrets of Body Transformation from the Inside Out" 
Join me on facebook. 

Tips for Making Informed Decisions at the Grocery Store - Tip #3

 Fitness Training for Life and Adventures

GUEST BLOG

 By: Allison Jorgens, P.H.Ec.

For more information:

Link to my website
Link to my blog
Link to purchase my books   

To purchase "Read it with a Grain of Salt" click here. 

 

Tip #3

Beware of the unassuming percent daily value for sodium. Shockingly this percent daily value is based on a number that is above the maximum amount of sodium that Health Canada recommends we consume each day; an amount that is likely to pose a risk to our health. Consider these three easy steps for reading sodium information on food labels

Allison Jorgens is a Professional Home Economist holding a degree in nutritional sciences. She has been working as a food label specialist for grocers and food manufactures in Canada for nearly a decade. Over the past ten years, Allison has reviewed thousands of food labels for many of Canada’s leading private-label grocery brands, large and small manufacturers, distributors, and a variety of importers. It is this wide-ranging experience in regulatory-compliance label reviews that makes her knowledge unique—and her perspective all the more shocking. As a concerned parent and advocate of leading a healthful lifestyle, Allison recommends that all consumers empower themselves with the knowledge needed to make more healthful and informed choices.


Allison sits on the board of directors of The Food Label Movement and the Ontario Home Economics Association. She is a proud member of the Ontario Home Economics Association, Ontario Home Economists in Business Association, Prince Edward Island Home Economics Association, and sits on the advisory council for Eating Disorders of York Region.  

Subscribe to Fitness Training for Life and Adventures

  

www.melonyteague.com 
To subscribe to my consolidated newsletter, Click here 
Melony Teague a freelance writer and columnist and motivator who lives in Canada with her husband and two young children.
Founder of "Secrets of Body Transformation from the Inside Out" 
Join me on facebook. 

10 Tips from Igor - Summary

Here is a summary of all Igor's advice so far on the Challenge! 

Tip  1:  Don't focus on eliminating. Instead, think about replacing.

When you eliminate something it leaves a "black hole", and sets up a sense of deprivation. Replacing doesn't have this effect. My approach is for people to only replace one thing and only until they don't feel that it's different anymore... they have to wait long enough for that one thing to be second nature and 'just the way it is' before replacing 'one more thing'.

Tip 2:  Igor says, " Do you want motivation in a pill? Take a high quality multi-vitamin and fish oil. Why does your body get cravings? Because the body intuitively knows that it's missing certain nutrients. So by supplementing with a high quality multi-vitamin and fish oil, you give the body what it needs. I want to emphasize "high-quality", because most products on the market are very poor. One of the worst is centrum. Pick from one of these 4 companies: Metagenics, AOR, Genestra or Thorne. Metagenics is the best I know, but it's not readily accessible. If you want to know what determines supplement quality, read this article: http://www.torontofitnessonline.com/2012/07/16/nutritional-supplement/

Tip 3:  Tell everyone you know about what you're doing. It's one thing to share it online with anonymous strangers, but it's another thing to tell people that you see every day. To learn some other strategies to help you succeed, check out this article: http://www.torontofitnessonline.com/2012/04/30/how-stay-motivated/

Tip 4: Measure, measure, measure. If you're not assessing, you're guessing. But measure the right things. If your diet is changing for the better and you're doing some form of resistance training, the scale and measuring tapes are just not enough. For instance, if you're measuring circumference, your hip and upper thigh measurements might actually go up, but you're losing body fat. If you can get access to someone qualified in using skinfold calipers, get that assessment every 2-4 weeks. Here's an article on the problems with different methods of assessing body fat: http://www.torontofitnessonline.com/2012/10/17/body-mass-index-body-fat/

Tip 5: Change your thinking. A naturally fit person looks forward to exercise for its own sake. Not for the end goal. So find some exercise you like. Although I believe that resistance training is essential. If you don't like resistance training, do it with a friend, and just do it 1-2 times per week, but put a lot of effort into it. To learn more about how naturally fit people think, check out this article: http://www.torontofitnessonline.com/2012/05/22/how-naturally-fit-people-think/

Tip 6: Cardio is good, but don't do too much of it, and don't do it exclusively. A lot of people run into problems when they start doing cardio more than 3 times per week for 30 minutes, or if that's all they do. The problem: they start to put on body fat. Surprise! To understand why doing excessive and exclusive cardio can make you put on body fat, read this article: http://www.torontofitnessonline.com/2012/02/13/aerobic-exercise-can-make-you-fat/

Tip 7: If you want to lose belly fat, crunches are not the way to go. In fact, crunches may actually increase your risk of back injury. Here are the best abdominal exercises: http://www.torontofitnessonline.com/2013/01/03/abdominal-exercises/

Tip 8: Sometimes you don't always have access to a gym. There are lots of options for things you can do without any equipment whatsoever. Read up on isometrics and dynamic tension here: http://www.torontofitnessonline.com/2012/07/09/bodyweight-exercise-no-equipment-little-time/

Tip 9: Do you have a hard job, and no time or energy to exercise? First and foremost, kill the energy zappers. Then start to think about exercise. Energy zappers include poor breathing, poor posture and poor nutrition. Learn how to improve these here: http://www.torontofitnessonline.com/2013/01/03/no-time-or-energy-to-exercise-plug-the-energy-leaks/

Tip 10: Proper breathing is very underrated. We all know that proper breathing is essential to both relaxation and endurance, but did you know that improper breathing can cause shoulder problems and lower back pain? To correct your breathing, focus on breathing into your belly, and do that for 5 minutes a day. Read more about that here: http://www.torontofitnessonline.com/2012/03/26/breathing-improperly/

www.melonyteague.com 
To subscribe to my consolidated newsletter, Click here 
Melony Teague a freelance writer and columnist who lives in Canada with her husband and two young children.
Founder of "Secrets of Body Transformation from the Inside Out" 
Join me on facebook.