Small Changes = Big Results......Update #1

So, I'm on Day #3 of my Small Change Big Results mini series. On Sunday, my first day, I only got in about 44 ounces. I was literally, sitting on my couch at 8 pm watching a House marathon rapidly sucking down water from a VAT! Needless to say, topping off your bladder right before bedtime, is not necessarily a contestant in the "Best Idea" category!

Monday, now that was a different story! I drank a little over my 64 ounces and actually had no diet soda at all. My plan is that I'll not disallow diet pepsi, but I have to drink all my water first. As it turned out yesterday, I ran out of time to drink anything other than water. The bladder is coming under control and I had surprisingly more energy even by bedtime last night. I'll keep you posted. Drinking this much water is a habit that should last a lifetime, so I'm on my way!

Small Changes = Big Results......The Mini Series

Don't you just love a good mini series? Well, I'm starting one minus Jane Seymour. By the way, the first mini series I ever saw was East of Eden and she was absolutely EVIL in that! I digress....I'm of the firm belief that small changes yield big results. Rather, small CONSISTENT changes yield big results. I think people fail with their exercise routine and fitness because they try to make humungous changes only to find that they just can't seem to stick to them. So they feel they have failed and failure just leads to a mentality of more failure. That's why we need to set ourselves up to succeed, even if it's just in small changes. The great pyramids weren't built with 5 large stones, but rather hundreds of smaller stones joined together. Our fit lives can be constructed the same way!

Each week, I'm going to focus on one small change. These often will be what I need to work on and I'll post updates throughout the week as to how well I'm doing that. Then, week by week, we'll continue adding on to our fit foundation! Sounds like it's fun and doable, eh? Now let's unveil this week's small change that will yield big results.....DRUM ROLL PLEASE!



DRINK AT LEAST 8 GLASSES OF WATER A DAY...THAT'S 64 OUNCES!

Now for the sake of keeping it real, are you really drinking 8 glasses of water a day? REALLY????? I didn't think so, but I'm not judging because I'm not getting my water in either. Here's why water is sooooo important to health and a healthy weight. Among other things, water flushes toxins from your system, helps in digestion, keeps you hydrated to fuel muscles and improve skin, and is essential in weight management. So....today's the day. THIS I VOW....head will not hit pillow until I have drank at least 8 glasses of water every day this week. Notice how I'm starting small? Who's with me?

Ignorance is not bliss...

They say, "Ignorance is bliss"; but THEY are misinformed. And by the way, whenever I meet "They", I've got some words for "Them". THEY say alot of things and do alot of things and THEY seem to cover their tracks really well because we never know exactly who THEY are! Now let me just say again, ignorance is NOT bliss. In fact, ignorance may actually be dangerous.

We put food in our mouths everyday that we have no idea where it comes from. We have no idea how it's going to fuel or affect our bodies. We're under the impression that if you say grace over a bowl of chemicals, it will transubstantiate into carrots, spinach or possibly even acai berries.

There are just some things that my conscience won't allow me to eat. I mean, I tried to avoid finding out what was in some scrumptious foods, but the info slipped up on me before I could avert my eyes or cover my ears. Who knew that there are 813 calories in one Cinnabon cinnamon roll?!?! Or how about this? 48 grams of fat in a McDonald's Big Breakfast? And did you think, when you choose a taco saladfrom Taco Bell, that you were eating 790 calories and 1670 mg of sodium? It's a SALAD for goodness sake!! Just the name reaks of health and vitality>

Now I'm not just talking about calories and fat. What about chemicals? Our bodies are real, shouldn't our food be? Have you ever read the ingredient list on some of our foods? After the first couple of items, the rest aren't even pronounceable. I thought that when I ordered chicken nuggets at McDonalds that I'm basically getting chicken and a flour coating that is deep fried. Not great, but hey! I'm from the south, I can live with that. But what I can't live with is this. A chicken mcnugget has 38 ingredients and chicken is one of the least of them! Mcnuggets are about 56% corn or corn products. Look, as one voracious eater to another, I get it. I love food and sometimes, I can overlook something and munch away. But based on what I now know about these foods, I just can't in good conscience eat them. I know what you're thinking. "But Serene, Oh my gosh! I love me some Taco Salad!" My answer to you would be this: If smacking the elderly on the head was fun, my conscience STILL wouldn't allow me to do it! Now you know.......

Actually, It's Doesn't have to Hurt So Bad...



No pain, no gain.... right? WRONG! Believe it or not, exercise is NOT supposed to hurt. Now I'm not saying that working out should tickle, because if it does, you DEFINITELY aren't doing something right! Buuuuutttt, I AM saying that there should NOT be pain involved.

Now, having said that, there IS a difference between pain and discomfort. Pain hurts! Period. When you're working out and you have a sharp pain anywhere, stop what you're doing. Don't stop working out, just stop what you're doing that is associated with the pain. Personally, I've experienced this with running. When I run, I start getting pain in my shins. Afterward, my hips HURT really bad. There is so much physical pain associated with running that for me, this tells me that running is probably not the best exercise for me.

On the other hand, when I get a really good walk in, I'm VERY uncomfortable. My heart pounds, my muscles stretch and get sore. By the time I'm done, I'm sore and stick a fork in my muscles, they're DONE! However, there's no pain involved. Discomfort? ABSOLUTELY! Pain? Absolutely NOT! I think it's important to make the distinction between pain and discomfort. I've seen people continue on through pain (not discomfort), only to have to have something iced, rested or at worst....replaced. By their very nature, aren't workouts supposed to be healthful and good for you? Yes? Then it defeats the purpose when we're working out to our detriment...to our "unhealth", if you will. Think of it this way, you're not giving up anything when you modify your workouts so that you don't hurt. But, if you don't modify and continue on exercising in pain, you risk giving up weeks or months of regular workouts. That's not something any of us want!

A Very Alarming Find



I just read an article that states that by 2020 3 out of 4 Americans will be overweight. The article starts by saying that the world's wealthiest countries have an increasing overweight population.

The reason, according to the article is that food is cheaper now, particularly unhealthy food. It also blames eating out as another culprit. As we sit here in a recession, more and more people are gaining weight. I spoke with a woman last night who was lamenting the fact that since she lost her job she has really put on weight. She said that she gets bored at home and ends up eating. From there you can imagine the cycle. Weight gain begets frustration, which begets depression which begets further weight gain which transitions to more frustration, deeper depression and it just goes on.

There comes a time when we HAVE to take action. And let me tell you, the time is NOW. I keep saying it because I believe it with all my heart - Our prosperity is killing us! As Americans we are busy. Constantly busy. Too busy to cook a meal - so we are bombarded with pop n go frozen meals filled with chemicals and just plain funky stuff. Have you ever read how many ingredients are in frozen meatballs? It's a meatball for goodness sake! Yet, there's an ingredient list 3 inches long in microscopic letters just to lawfully list it on the package. We eat fast food almost more than we eat at home, and believe me; I've been the fast food QUEEN in the past. I never met a drive through I didn't like!love!But when I read that there are 30 ingredients in a chicken mcnugget, that got this girl's attention!

Now, on top of our eating habits, add to that our sedentary lifestyle. We drive around 5 minutes looking for a parking space so that we don't have to WHEEL our buggies back to our car. It's not like we're having to carry our purchases on our backs! We don't WALK anywhere. Everything in our lives is set up to make it convenient for us not to have to MOVE. Why? Because recession or not, we are a very wealthy country. Poverty, to most Americans, means that we have to get frozen pizza instead of Pizza Hut. We have more access to health care, doctors, hospitals, disease prevention and health education than most of the planet's population. And yet cancer is almost a plague in this country, heart disease is commonplace, and how many people do we all know on antidepressants?

We all know what the cure is. It's healthy diet and daily exercise. It really is just that simple. We are absolutely without excuse. It's obviously not a lack of information, burt rather motivation that is keeping us overweight. You can't flip channels at anytime and not hit an informercial on weight loss or exercise. Seems everybody has a "quick fix" for obesity. There is absolutely NO QUICK FIX. But there is something significantly scarier than changing our eating habits and getting out of our comfort zone. And that is DYING from an obesity related illness that is so preventable as to border on the ridiculous. We cling to our overeating and underexercising as if it's as part of our American way of life as baseball, apple pie and the American flag. We do have it made. We have jobs (or unemployment), homes, phones, computers, cars, and more cars. We also have an over abundance of time to try and figure out if our life is meaningful or if we're fulfilled when most of the world spends their day just trying to feed themselves. Maybe that's the great equalizer. We have the world's wealth, but we may also have the world's illness. And no matter what our increased mortality rate, that's not living.

You can't take this too seriously



I think alot of us take our exercise pretty seriously.  I mean, we're here.  We're sweating.  We're making things happen!  But I keep going back to the fact that becoming and being fit is a lifelong endeavor - I don't have to make it happen all today!  I'm working out in Mandy's (if you don't know her.....let me just say, that class can send a grown man weeping into the fetal position) class this morning and I thought I would puke. ALOT!  It's okay....put my head between my knees, call it a yoga move and just keep going!  

It's a Family Affair


I've been talking alot lately about walking.  Well this past week, I got my kids in on the action!  A couple of years ago, I would take all 4 of my kids on a marathon walk of about 8 miles every other Sunday.  The Barley's pizza treat at the end was the bribe to get them to agree.  But actually, after a couple of times, they really started enjoying it.  I think kids want to WANT to spend time with their family.  And mine did when they saw that they actually had fun! 

Bennie and I have been walking together since we were dating.  It was one of the things the many things about him that I fell in love with.  It was so great to have this sweet man in my life who had a great time just walking with me and I really believe it made us even closer.  So now, we were all getting in on the action.  Sonja is 17 and Dallas is 13, so I really was not expecting them to warm up to the idea of running up and down hills with their mom and stepdad.  But guess what?  They were actually excited! 






Sooooo.....we start by walking about 10 minutes (after being lectured to by Sonja and Dallas about the importance of stretching) before heading up the hills.  We had to head across the street to a subdivision that has not been built yet.  There is an INTENSE vertical hill that is paved and that leads to a HUMONGOUS dirt hill that is even more vertical.  That's the one I just run up as quickly as I can.  I started running up that hill before Dallas and the next thing I know, that 13 year old throw rug is passing me at warp speed.  Like it was NOTHING! 



Heading up the first hill.





Dallas kicking our butts!



I'm feeling great about 2/3 of the way up the hill, but I swear, the other third, and I'm seriously burning!  Dallas took it like it was nothing but a thing.  Now, would you believe that this is the same kid who basically plays video games in his room in all of his spare time?  The really cool thing about this was the confidence it put in all of us!


We made it!  Believe it or not, we were STILL smiling!



Then it was time to come down.  Who woulda thought that coming down would be so scary?  The key is turning your foot horizontally and NOT running!  We did this hill twice with some walking in between times.







This made Sonja a bit nervous.


So then we started heading back across the street to back down and up another hill.  Now, THAT I could tell, got Dallas's attention! 




This is after Dallas tried to race all of us down the hill.


During the walk, or rather workout, because this was really about doing the hills; we decided that we would try to all do this together a couple of times every week.  I've found that with my kids, if they just get moving the eating takes care of itself.  That's not to say that they don't still want junk food, but if we only keep decent stuff in the house, then at least I know that when they're at home, they're eating well.  I also found that what they loved about doing this was that it was a challenge, and so they felt good about themselves for being able to do it.  I'm discovering that challenging ourselves is absolutely key to sticking with exercise.  But more about that in another post.  That's worth expanding on!



And I leave you with the ever present pageant wave!  This girl's going places!