Baby steps

Quite often I get inquires from friends and family on how to lose weight. First thing I tell them-- TAKE BABY STEPS!

why?? Because if you try to totally revamp your lifestyle overnight... more likely than not, you will fail. Here are 5 tips that I did to help me lose weight. If you try these things you will notice a difference almost immediately which will give you even more motivation to continue down a path of a healthy lifestyle change.

1. Stop Drinking Soda

This is a big one. All of the processed sugars in these sugary drinks just makes you crave more. These drinks have contributed to the skyrocketing rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes. These are all USELESS calories that do nothing but eat your teeth and add unwanted pounds.If you must (and yes sometimes I must!) drink diet soda. I am a diet coke lover so I limit myself to one can a day.

2. Keep a Food Journal

You can double your weight loss by just writing down everything you eat. Research has shown that the more people wrote down what they ate the more weight they loss. We become aware of our habits when we go through the process of reflecting on what we eat. That is the only way to change a behavior, to become fully aware of it. There are online food journal sights that can make it easy or you can get yourself a cheap notebook and write it all down there. Make sure you include the time so you can see any patterns forming with they type of food and the time. Make sure to write how you felt at the time. Measure your hunger from 1 to 10, just that alone may keep you from putting that extra helping on your plate. This really helped me when I began my weight loss journey!

3. Eat Whole Foods and Go Organic Where You Can

Any un-processed or un-refined with no added sugar, salt or fat. usually whole foods have a low glycemic index so they will not increase your blood sugar and insulin levels as quickly as processed foods. Eat whole wheat bread! Eat as many fresh fruits and vegetables as possible. Stay away from anything in a bag, box, or can. Good rule of thumb!

4. Eat Outside The Home Less Often

Eating out at restaurants just makes you loose control of what you are eating. Many times they get prepared foods and fail to really cook anything. many additives and preservatives are used in the foods and many meats are soaked in a "salt brine" to keep it from spoiling (salt is a preservative). Be careful about the foods you buy for home, Look at the label. Be aware of sodium levels and keep them as low as possible. Be a conscious eater. There are many tools for when you do eat out to know the nutritional information-- pick up an app. for your iphone or itouch (if you have one) that allows you to see what is in the food you order... or go purchase a book like "eat this, not that" which will show you what to order at popular food chains.

5. Get Plenty Of Sleep

People really over look this factor. Sleep is one of the most important aspects of health. Without it hormone levels go "whacky" and you do not have the energy that you might have, you gain weight easily and you are moody. One thing that helps sleep is to have a routine and stick to it. No eating late at night, and make sure your bed is comfy and inviting!

Work out tips

Came across these tips & wanted to pass them on for anyone trying to get into a work out routine (: No time to start like the present!

1. Be Consistent

Chase Squires is the first to admit that he's no fitness expert. But he is a guy who used to weigh 205 pounds, more than was healthy for his 5'4" frame. "In my vacation pictures in 2002, I looked like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man at the beach," says the 42-year-old Colorado resident. Squires decided enough was enough, cut out fatty food, and started walking on a treadmill. The pounds came off and soon he was running marathons -- not fast, but in the race. He ran his first 50-mile race in October 2003, and completed his first 100-miler a year later. Since then, he's completed several 100-mile, 50-mile, and 50k races.

His secret? "I'm not fast, but I'm consistent," says Squires, who says consistency is his best tip for maintaining a successful fitness regimen.

"It all started with 20 minutes on a treadmill," he says. "The difference between my success and others who have struggled is that I did it every single day. No exercise program in the world works if you don't do it consistently."

2. Follow an Effective Exercise Routine

The American Council on Exercise (ACE) recently surveyed 1,000 ACE-certified personal trainers about the best techniques to get fit. Their top three suggestions:

• Strength training. Even 20 minutes a day twice a week will help tone the entire body.
• Interval training. "In its most basic form, interval training might involve walking for two minutes, running for two, and alternating this pattern throughout the duration of a workout," says Cedric Bryant, PhD, FACSM, chief science officer for ACE. "It is an extremely time-efficient and productive way to exercise."
• Increased cardio/aerobic exercise. Bryant suggests accumulating 60 minutes or more a day of low- to moderate-intensity physical activity, such as walking, running, or dancing.

3. Set Realistic Goals

"Don't strive for perfection or an improbable goal that can't be met," says Kara Thompson, spokesperson for the International Health Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA). "Focus instead on increasing healthy behaviors."

In other words, don't worry if you can't run a 5K just yet. Make it a habit to walk 15 minutes a day, and add time, distance, and intensity from there.

4. Use the Buddy System

Find a friend or relative whom you like and trust who also wants to establish a healthier lifestyle, suggests Thompson. "Encourage one another. Exercise together. Use this as an opportunity to enjoy one another's company and to strengthen the relationship."

5. Make Your Plan Fit Your Life

Too busy to get to the gym? Tennis star Martina Navratilova, health and fitness ambassador for the AARP, knows a thing or two about being busy and staying fit.

Make your plan fit your life, she advises in an article on the AARP web site. "You don't need fancy exercise gear and gyms to get fit."

If you've got floor space, try simple floor exercises to target areas such as the hips and buttocks, legs and thighs, and chest and arms (like push-ups, squats, and lunges). Aim for 10-12 repetitions of each exercise, adding more reps and intensity as you build strength.

6. Be Happy

Be sure to pick an activity you actually enjoy doing, suggests Los Angeles celebrity trainer Sebastien Lagree.

"If you hate weights, don't go to the gym. You can lose weight and get in shape with any type of training or activity," he says.

And choose something that is convenient. Rock climbing may be a great workout, but if you live in a city, it's not something you'll be doing every day.

7. Watch the Clock

Your body clock, that is. Try to work out at the time you have the most energy, suggests Jason Theodosakis, MD, assistant professor and exercise physiologist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. If you're a morning person, schedule your fitness activities early in the day; if you perk up as the day goes along, plan your activities in the afternoon or evening.

"Working out while you have the most energy will yield the best results," says Theodosakis.

8. Call In the Pros

Especially if you're first getting started, Theodosakis suggests having a professional assessment to determine what types of exercise you need most.

"For some people, attention to flexibility, or balance and agility, may be more important than resistance training or aerobics," he says. "By getting a professional assessment, you can determine your weakest links and focus on them. This will improve your overall fitness balance."

9. Get Inspired

"Fitness is a state of mind," says fitness professional and life coach Allan Fine of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. One of Fine's tricks to get and stay motivated is to read blogs or web sites that show him how others have been successful. "Who inspires you?" he asks.

10. Be Patient

Finally, remember that even if you follow all these tips, there will be ups and downs, setbacks and victories, advises Navratilova. Just be patient, and don't give up, she says on the AARP web site: "Hang in there, and you'll see solid results."

My LOVE for p90x

P90x is something you have probably heard of because they have about a bazillion infomercials on TV. Let me tell you, this is the BEST workout program that I have ever tried. It works every single muscle in your body and leaves you just exhausted (good exhausted) after each workout. It is not something I would suggest you just start doing because it is very very very tough. I tell you, one of the workouts called "Plyometrics" is tougher (to me) than running 10 miles. I kid you not! It gets your heart pumping and just totally sweaty. Man, I love it! I highly suggest that after you begin exercising for awhile, to purchase these dvds. I noticed my legs were slimmer almost immediately after using it and Geoff lost about 40 lbs from this program and added quite a bit of muscle. It is a great program and totally worth the $90 you have to spend to purchase it.

How do you stay motivated??

My husband often asks me how I stay motivated to consistently eat healthy and exercise when I do not always lose weight when doing so? The reason being, I am much happier when I live healthy. Here are also a few ways I have learned to stay motivated to keep up with a sometime hard lifestyle of being healthy...

1.Self-acceptance is the first, all-important step in achieving any goal. The fact is, you are where you are. You can’t change it. You can only take control of the present moment, which then becomes the future. If this is difficult for you, practice some techniques to induce relaxation. Meditation and yoga can be helpful. Relaxing music or visualization recordings can also be good for this.

2.The next step is to focus on what you’d like to accomplish. What’s crucial is to keep your mind on your desired outcome, not on what you have to do to get there. If your goal is to lose forty pounds, imagine how you will look and feel when you’ve reached this goal. If you find yourself thinking about how you’ll have to deprive yourself or how hard you’re going to have to work exercising, relax and try to return to the desired outcome.

3.The problem many people run into when it comes to losing weight, or any other goal, is that they get overwhelmed thinking about all the steps they have to take to achieve something. Your mind tends to put all of these steps together and you feel as if you have to do it all at once. This is not the case. You only have to live one moment at a time. This, in fact, is all you can do.

4. To lose weight, or achieve anything in life, you have to take certain actions. Or stop doing things that take you in the opposite direction, as the case may be. In most cases, however, it’s not more information that you need. You probably already know what you have to do and not do to lose weight. What’s stopping you is not lack of information, or even lack of will power. It’s the way you’ve been focusing on the wrong side of the equation. The more you focus on where you want to be, and not on the difficult (at least as you probably think of it) journey to get there, the faster you’ll arrive!

Proper serving size

America is so out of wack when it comes to serving sizes. You go to any fast food restaurant and they ask you "do you wanna super size this..? And more often than not, the response is yes. We stretch out our stomachs and feel like we need to feel absolutely stuffed after a meal, rather than satisfied. 5 years ago, this was something I really had to learn. I was one of those who was okay to sit and eat a super-sized meal from Jack-in-the-Box. Little did I know, that one meal had MORE calories than my body needed in a whole day. Thus, led to a lot of weight gain. Now, me and Geoff measure everything. I have a food scale to weigh my raw meat and I make sure half of my plate is veggies. It is something we have to train ourselves to do. We have to be conscience when it comes to our health. It's not easy, but then again nothing worthwhile is ever easy.

An email to a friend

I had a friend I grew up with that knew me when I was "fat" email me about a month ago asking me HOW to get motivated to to change her lifestyle and what I did to change mine so drastically and here is my reply:

Dear ______________________,

First off, the best thing you are doing right now is having a desire to change. That's the first step. There needs to be a strong desire. Growing up very over-weight, my highest weight tipping the scales at almost 250, I would cry about my weight and be so unhappy over it, yet, I never really had the desire to change.

Til one day, when I was 20 years old, something inside of me just snapped. I could not take it any longer and I got on my knees and asked God for help to make a drastic change in my lifestyle. I didn't want to go on a diet, I wanted a whole new life-style. From that day on, I have been on track. It had to come from somewhere deep down inside of me. My desire never was to be a size 2. I just wanted to be healthy and happy.

Where does a girl who hardly exercised a day in her life and lived off of fast food begin? Well, I started by doing a lot of research and found a friend to do it with me (my dad). Here is what I learned and has worked for me.

-Write down every single thing you put in your mouth. EVERYTHING! Even if it is a teaspoon of whatever. Write it down! Those calories add up.

-For me, I went on a 1200 calorie a day diet. Sounds restrictive I know. And the first few days were really really tough. But you can eat a lot with 1200 calories. Fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains and lean protein are what my diet consisted of. If I wanted a "treat" it was a very small portion (often times just a bite of dessert, just to have a taste)

-Self-control & self motivation is so important in changing your life-style. It is so easy to give up and go eat a box of donuts. But I always told myself "Nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels". I live by that motto now.

-Exercise, exercise, exercise! I am not talking running a marathon. When I first started changing my life 5 years ago, I would only be able to make it on an elliptical machine for 2 minutes at a time before I felt like passing out. So i would go 2 minutes, stop a minute to rest, go another 2 minutes, stop a minute... until I reached 30 minutes of good heart pumping exercise. It gets easier and the weight comes off and I have basically CURED my asthma now. I rarely rarely use an inhaler, where I was using it almost everyday before.

-Once you get on the scale and see results, you become more and more motivated to work harder to keep it coming off.

-You will reach a plateau at some point. Everyone does. For me I have been battling that for the past few years. Even marathon training wasn't helping as much as I thought it would. NEVER EVER give up. If the weight doesn't come off, do not go back to your old "life". If nothing else, you are keeping your body healthy and you will feel better after eating right and exercising.

-Reward yourself. For me, the greatest reward was new clothes because my other clothes were falling off of me and it was a need to get some new ones. Even if the reward is something as small as a new pair of earrings after losing 10 lbs-- do it! Make yourself feel special for working so hard to make such an important change!

This truly does work. I am down 85 pounds now and have never felt better. I still struggle from time to time but I am ten times happier. I truly believe that one of the hardest things in life is conquering yourself. We are our own worst enemies and constantly have to fight the battle to over-come self doubt and fear. Start with small changes if you need to and gradually increase. Ask for help when you need help. Just do not give up! Our bodies are capable of so much- we just have to convince ourselves of that!

Good luck & keep the faith,

Cami

Peach Cobbler (yes, even this can be healthy!)

I am a HUGE fan of splenda. It is made from sugar but without any calories! Some people say it is too expensive to bake with. My response? Can you really put a price on your health? It is worth it to bake with it! Here is a great, yummy peach cobbler that I have made many of times and nobody knew it was made with splenda!

• 1/4 butter
• 1 cup splenda
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• ¾ cup of skim milk
• 3 cups sliced fresh peaches, peeled or skins left on
• ½ cup splenda brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ cup pecans or walnuts (optional)

preheat oven to 350. Melt the butter either over the oven or in the microwave. Add the butter to a 8 inch baking dish.Then mix the dry ingredients (except brown sugar splenda) and the milk. Pour batter in the dish. Arrange the peaches over the mixture and then sprinkle the splenda brown sugar over it. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Rather than having the popular ice-cream on it, you can serve it with light or fat-free cool whip! It's truly delicious!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Totally just made this up but Geoff says it is amazing so try it for yourself

1 can chicken broth

1 can 98% fat free cream of chicken

chicken breast cooked & cubed

2 cans corn (do not drain)

2 cans black beans

1/2 diced yellow onion

1-2 cans of green chillies

1 packet of fat free ranch seasoning

1/2 c fat free sour cream

1 tsp oregono

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

salt & pepper to taste

dump everything in and let simmer

bag of tortilla strips (can buy them where the croutons are)-- you only need to sprinkle a few of these on the soup. Not too much of it won't be so low cal anymore! A cup of this soup is all you really need to be satisfied without stuffing yourself.

*Big healthy living tip is watching your SERVING SIZE. In America everything is super-sized. One reason obesity is out of control! Geoff and I measure EVERYTHING we eat. Right down to our morning oatmeal or cereal. You can weigh your meat by getting a food scale for less than $10 at Walmart and also just by using a plain old measuring cup. It really lets you know how much food you're consuming and is a great tool in weight loss!