Healthful Tips

I have a few “go-to” things that I always do when I try to lose weight.  They are fairly common sense, but they make a big difference in helping to achieve my goals.  I haven’t started doing all of them again, but I’m working on it.  As a reminder to myself, I decided to write them down.  Maybe they will help someone else out there too.

1. Cut out pop (or soda or whatever you call it).  I have not had any Coke, Sprite or any other kind of pop since December 31^st.  Not only does this make a huge difference in my overall health, it allows me to eat more because I’m not drinking my calories.  If you’re thinking it doesn’t matter because you drink Diet, think again.  Zero calories, yes, but research what aspartame does to your body!  Yikes!

2. Related to that, drink LOTS of water.  I keep my water bottle filled and with me all day.  Whenever I feel like I’m going to eat out of boredom, I chug the whole thing.  It really helps me get past the mental aspect of eating for no reason.

3. Brush my teeth right after dinner.  By doing this, I am less tempted to eat an evening snack, aka ice cream.

4. If you will binge eat it or be tempted to eat too much of it, don’t buy it.  This is why I don’t buy cartons of ice cream and stick to the portioned ice cream bars.

5. Hang a motivating picture on the refrigerator.  This was a great tactic when I lost weight after having Aiden.  Now I have two pictures hanging – one from several years ago and one from after I lost weight last time.

Taken summer of 2007

6. Meal plan for the entire week.  A lot of people plan dinners for the week, but I’ve recently started to plan for lunch too.  Since I am home with the kids, I need to have a plan or else Jimmy Johns will be at my doorstep way too often.  This upcoming week I am going to try having the same lunch for most of the week so that I use up the ingredients.  For example, if I want to make a salad, but only have it one day, the extra veggies, chicken, lunch meat, etc. will go bad before I make another one.  I’ll let you know how this plan goes!  I found this grocery list/meal planning sheet awhile back and really like it!

7. Use MyFitnessPal App.  I’ve referenced this before, but I use it a little differently than most people.  I put what I plan to eat for the day(when I know) into the app in the morning.  That way, I can see where I am at with calories and if I need to change things up.  It also allows me to plan exercise and splurges!

8. Have fruit and veggies with every meal and eat them first.  Not only are these healthy, but also they typically have the fewest calories.  If I fill up on these first, then I eat less of the other stuff. 

As I said, none of these are mind blowing or brand new information.  But I’m not going for a fad diet here, I’m going for a healthy lifestyle that can be maintained.  These are also habits I want to pass along to my kids. 

The other thing that will make a big difference is when I can start adding my workouts in, so that I can eat more.  I started working with a personal trainer yesterday, in lieu of the cardiac rehab I did after my last surgery.  Instead of working out with a lot of (very friendly) older people, watching daytime game shows, I get to work out at my own gym that has a daycare and fun classes I enjoy taking.  I’ll write more about that next week, get excited J.

I know most of my posts have been health related recently.  That’s not my intention; it’s just been the focus of “Limke Life” these days.  I promise more variety in the future!