10 Things To Try Instead of Making A New Year’s Resolution

11 Comments Monday, 29 December, 14 Lexa

The scale says I weigh 151.1 pounds. So what! I have weighed less but looked worse. Lol!

At 49 1/2, I’m fit, healthy, and am in the best shape of my life. 🙂

Women are obsessed with their weight. Each day thousands of women choose to skip meals, pop diet pills, or start some fad diet. And why? For the sake of seeing a magic number on a scale that falsely suggests they are… umm.. somewhat in shape. Or maybe it’s for bragging rights to share with peers? Oh wait I know! The big one is to slip into “the gown” or “that dress” for a wedding, a high school reunion, or some other big event.

I dunno, but it is ridiculous and it needs to stop because unless a lifestyle change is made, the pattern will never end.

ATTENTION LADIES!!

Why not make today your last weigh in… for a least a month or two. Go ahead– first thing in the morning hop your butt on the scale and record the number.

Afterwards pick up the scale and put it away where you will not be tempted to step on it for at least 30 days. If you haven’t had a checkup in the past year, schedule a visit ASAP and, with your MD’s blessing, for the next 30 – 60 days try the following:

Eat breakfast every day! A smoothie, oatmeal, or an egg white omelet.
Don’t drink any alcohol (it’s only 30 to 60 days, you CAN do it). *Alcohol has sugar.
Replace soda and juice with water. Increase your daily water intake to 32 – 64 ounces (flavored bottled water doesn’t count).
Avoid unhealthy and processed snacks such as, chips (all of them), Doritos, cookies, cakes, pies, candy, donuts, etc… Snack on nuts, non sugary fruits like apples, strawberries, and blueberries.
Eat fresh leafy and green veggies like spinach, broccoli, kale, broccoli rabe, asparagus, zucchini and avocados. Avoid canned veggies like the plague but frozen veggies will do.
Reduce your sugar (including honey) intake. Read labels on everything you eat.
Hold off on white anything and drastically reduce your Bread, rice, cheese, pancakes, pasta, grits, cereal, etc… Replace with sweet potatoes, yams, brown rice, or whole grain pasta (in moderation).
Coffee! Skip the fattening latte’s with heavy creams and milk. Switch to a non-dairy milk like plain almond milk. I get the caffeine fix! Drink the coffee, but skip the sugar and watch your cream.. less is best!
Get movin at least 4-5 days per week. No, you don’t have to join a gym, you can start out by walking.
1. Wear a good walking sneaker.
2. Time your walk and distance. I like the FREE app MapMyRun, but there are tons of options out there.
3. Each day try to increase your pace and distance.
4. Don’t talk on your cell phone while walking! Doing this will slow you down. Listen to musics that makes you wanna dance–that should keep you moving. 🙂
Get a good night’s sleep every night. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends that adults get 7-8 hours of sleep every day. Specific hormones and the metabolism are linked to weight loss. Sleep deprivation may increase your Ghrelin hormone, decrease your leptin hormones and will have you eating more– of the bad stuff you should be avoiding.

Skip the annual New Year’s Resolution; they come and go. Instead commit to a lifestyle change and do it now.

During the next 30 or 60 days, keep a journal. Pay attention to how you feel when you wake up and throughout the day. Record your findings. You might as well record how you feel, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

This post is inspired by a close friend who decided to take on a challenge of avoiding alcohol and eating better for 30 days. 🙂

After your 30 or 60 days are up, if you so wish, step on the scale. You may or may not have lost weight, but I guarantee (barring any healthy issues) that you will feel 100% better than you did before the change.

For healthier meal ideas, visit my healthy eating board, soup board, or crock pot meals on Pinterest.

Not a day passes that I am not asked by someone about my lifestyle or seek advice about how to look like me, so that is another reason I wrote this post.

If you are at a place in your life where you feel compelled to make some positive changes, I hope and pray this post helps you. Are you up for the challenge? I would love to hear from you, please leave a comment below. 🙂

Not Ashamed To Admit This

Leave a comment Friday, 22 August, 14 Lexa

Happy Friday!

I woke up at 6:30 a.m. yesterday with firm plans to do legs in the morning. Hubby had different plans. He wanted to take me to breakfast. Dilemma!

This is a perfect example of the silly balancing act that many moms deal with. My heart spits the decision 50/50. My brain says, “Girrrrl, take your butt to the gym and get your workout on!”

With 26 years of marriage under my belt, I know good and well the importance of spending quality time with my man. The idea sounds noble and simple, but it takes real effort to make it happen.

We are just busy behind folks! Mom lives with us, our son plays several sports, we both work, I’m always racing off to the gym, or blogging… add sleep and meals to the mix and, well… damn! Lol!

I dressed for the gym, wore flip-flops but tossed my sneaks in the back seat and took hubby up on his offer to breakfast. We dropped B’Dazzle off to camp and drove to Kelsey and Kim’s on Melrose Avenue in AC.

My breakfast was the bomb!! I ordered a four egg (2 whites) vegetable omelet with jalapeño peppers. Salmon cakes were not available, so I surprised the waiter and chef with a request for six jumbo shrimp sautéed with fresh spinach and crushed red peppers. Lol! If you think it sounds mouth-watering, you should have tasted it.

Outstanding! By the way, this dish and time spent with hubby yesterday made me incredibly happy! #100HappyDays Day #3

The chef came out to ask me if the meal was hot enough. I think he wanted to see who the chick was eating all this food at 9 O’clock in the morning.

After breakfast, I suggested we walk on the boards. I did not realize though, that Hurricane Sandy destroyed the section of the boardwalk I intended to walk.

We ended up walking along the Caspian Avenue Beach, which was wonderful! Shame on me for living in the area all of my life and not knowing the Caspian Avenue beach existed. Seriously, I’m embarrassed.

We have a backyard pool, so I usually spend my time there. And the other thing is, when I do a beach day, I want to chill without running into too many students (I work at the high school) or other folks I know in the city.

I might sound snobby, but we’ve lived in the area all of our life. Rarely can we go anywhere, and I mean, anywhere without running into somebody. Ugh! Look, we’re very social people, but sometimes, I need to blend into the background and be unknown.

Only a week remains before the school year begins, but I hope to spend a least one day out there before the season ends.

That’s the City of Brigantine that you see across the water.

To the right of the rocks are the remains of pilings leftover from Hurricane Sandy. Only this section of the boardwalk was destroyed.

I just had to take a picture of the broken and dangling wooden piling. Tho it’s broken, it still kind of cool looking. The setting is pretty (to me).

After strolling on this beach, we drove further into the city and walked the boardwalk. I didn’t calculate, but we had to walk a good two miles.

Did I make it to the gym? No. But later in the day, I did do walking lunges to meet our son and his tutor on the campus of a local college. That counts right? Lol!

This morning, I’m headed to the gym.

Have a fabulous and happy day! 🙂

The Simple Pleasures in Life

Leave a comment Saturday, 9 August, 14 Lexa

This morning I traded the gym for annual blood work. Yuck! I would have much preferred the workout. However, healthy living is more than physical fitness and nutrition. HL also means yearly doctor visits.

While struggling with the daily balancing act of family life, often put our health on the back-burner… that is until a health issue or crisis arises, then we expect the doctors to put everything on hold for us. Ladies–for the sake of being caring for our families, we must put our health first. If we are not around, alive and well, in the future, we can’t possibly care for our loved ones.

Being off in the summer gives me the luxury and the flexibility of getting my well MD visits in without the hassle of juggling work, football, and all the other family stuff.

Like most women, the OBGYN is at the top of the hate list, but statistics show that

More than 20,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year.

-Fox Chase Cancer Center, Temple Health

So, be sure to get your much hated annual visit in. Blood work, an eye exam, a visit to my general practitioner, and the dreaded but much-needed mammogram are all in order for this month.

According to the American Cancer Society,

In 2013, an estimated 232,340 new cases of invasive breast cancer were expected to be diagnosed among US women, as well as an estimated 64,640 additional cases of in situ breast cancer.

That year, approximately 39,620 US women were expected to die from breast cancer. Only lung cancer accounts for more cancer deaths in women.

After getting blood work done, I could have easily returned home, ate and went to the gym, but I felt sluggish and have been running everywhere for a few weeks, so I decided to take my butt home and chill.

B’Dazzle (my son) wanted to cook his own omelet this morning. Since I was home by 8 o’Clock and knew I wasn’t going out, I could take the time to enjoy the simple pleasure of “supervising” him cook his omelet.

The chef in action! 🙂

He also likes spinach, tomatoes, and mushrooms in his omelet, but wanted a simple one today.

Isn’t that a beauty?!

He’s an old fashion 11-year-old. Still believes in magic, in santa, is very affectionate and has the biggest and kindest heart. OMG!! I’m a lucky mom! My mom was complimenting him on his cooked egg and he said,

“I’m not ready to live my own life yet! I’m enjoying living my life now”

B’Dazzle is a very smart soon-to-be 12-year-old! I like…no..I LOVE that he’s in no hurry to grow up. I’m sick and tired of seeing kids trying to act like grown ups. That mess is not my cup of tea–can’t stand it. Let kids be kids!

I had an omelet too. Spinach and egg, but I cheated with some shredded pepper jack cheese. It was fabulous and had a nice kick to it.