The best time to start a #diet - part 2

Timing is everything - ain't no joke.
IMHO, I think Spring is a great time to set healthy eating plan goals because:

• No major eating holidays
• Warmer weather is on the way, so you'll want to bare more skin soon
• Better temps also encourage outdoor activities
• The produce section selection starts to improve - more good eats to pick from!

So try on your warm weather clothes - if they don't fit, don't throw a fit! It's time to get fit!

I did all of the above. As I came dangerously close to my weight limit (which is sadly similar to the Debt Ceiling--every time it's close, we raise it a little) Unlike the government, I decided to do something about it.

Phase 1: I started by setting actual hard limits on my snacking and substituted more natural choices.

Results: For the first week, this worked out well. Due to work, family problems, and baseball season, I was forced to make some schedule changes and fell off the wagon which proceeded to run me over a couple of times... Quick drive-thru dinners save lots of time, but are horrible for a good eating plan.

Overall, I lost two pounds. yeah.

I still consider myself in Phase 1 until I master it for three weeks (when it becomes a habit!) But I want to add a little more to it, so I'll call it Phase 1b.

Phase 1b: snack limit & natural choices, plus walk the dog at least once a week.

this is me BEFORE

Sounds easy enough - but with my time constraints, I have to make tough choices. My weight is the least of my problems - until I'm dead! Prevention is a necessary evil that most people don't make time for. But in reality, we're just set in our ways and want to eat and do what we like. Starting kids in a healthy eating pattern when they're young is important.

Unfortunately, the rebellious teenage years usually undoes all the good they learned. But that's another story...

Anyhoo, unless I think of a spectacular idea for a post, I'm going to keep updating you on my progress. Talking about it helps! If you want to join me, please feel free! Misery loves company! But don't expect any pictures - I'm not that brave and I don't have enough confidence in myself to see much of a difference... Argh! I guess losing my negative attitude might help!

Good luck to us!

The best time to start a #diet - part 1

You know DIET is a four-letter word.

that's diet, btw

It's so negative. This is what it means to me:

D - Deny
I - Ingesting
E - Every-
T - Thing I like!

I used to try fad diets. Some worked at first. But you know the story - once you see some results, you give yourself a reward. Then something comes up, like a vacation or Thanksgiving or the weekend! and the diet is out the window.

I don't diet anymore. I've been dieting all my life - never satisfied with my weight. Sound familiar? That's a problem in and of itself - a self-esteem problem that is shared by most women. With age, and child-bearing, I grew to accept my form. I maturely realized I wasn't going to exercise my butt off (ha ha). I chose to spend my valuable spare time on things that were most important to me, like family and writing.

I stayed relatively healthy and not too heavy. Then the Change hit. No one said anything about the 25 extra pounds that magically appear!! And in such a short time! I didn't change my eating habits or minimal exercise routine, but BAM! Here I am about to hit my max weight of dire consequences. This is unacceptable and I now have to do something drastic. But I won't call it a diet...

Time to UPGRADE MY LIFE!

I have four constant goals:

But these goals are wishy washy and vague, and easily ignored or appeased. "I drank three cups of coffee - that's mostly water" or "How many raspberries do you think are in a jelly donut? That counts." I groan at my own excuses!

So I am undergoing a lifestyle change. I have to be serious. I also have to be reasonable with the expectations I place on myself. But most of all, I have to have WILL POWER!

At least I'm starting this undertaking at the best time to start a change of eating habits - SPRING!

In Part 2, I'll talk more about my plan and why Spring is the best time to start it. I decided to go for it on Thursday 3/29, so I'll have a 2-week update on my progress as well... Wish me luck!

Do you have a max weight? Do you diet? How do you stay healthy?

Hope you're having a great start to this Stormy Spring!

Happy is the First Step to Healthy

Hello again! Thank you all for having me back.

It’s confession time, Ladies. I don’t cook. At all.

Sometimes, I think about learning, watch Giada or the Ranch woman with red hair whose always making something yummy, and I think, I got this. And then reality by the name of the smoke alarm or food poisoning sets in and I go back to remembering that coffee is my one and only culinary quest. The rest, thankfully, is my husband’s.

And to answer your unasked question, yes, I look to the sky and give thanks for this amazing gift of a husband who cooks every day ;) But, while I have no crockpot recipes to give you (another confession? I cried the last time I tried to use my crockpot—I’m that scared of the kitchen), I do happen to have some health tips. Not because I’m a healthy person who has the golden ticket to health and happiness—the direct opposite actually: I understand what it’s like to want to be healthy and stand in my own way. Once I recognized what I was doing, everything changed.

1. Being healthy isn’t attached to a specific weight—it’s attached to how we feel about ourselves. The power of positive thinking is a real thing. Don’t just make goals, make affirmations and read them.
2. Try new things. I am a college athlete who thought running and lifting for hours a day was the only way to exercise. This was false. In fact, the more out-of-my-comfort zone I get, the happier I find myself, and the more charged my body. Right now, I’m doing the BeachBody Country Heat dance videos. I feel like an idiot each time, I still have no idea what a kick-ball-change is, and I often look like an uncoordinated colt learning to walk, but I sweat, and I smile at the end.
3. Do not keep a food diary. This is something a counselor recommended to me a long time ago when I was struggling with my weight—write down everything you eat so you can recognize what’s positive and what’s negative. All it ever did was make me feel like I was heavy, disgusting, a failure. I write nothing down and I do not weigh myself. I set steps, and I make goals: a healthy breakfast, a timed amount of physical activity, replace one meal a day with a salad, and one splurge item a week (it’s almost always pizza).
4. Do not attach your confidence to your image. What we look like is only part of our package; it’s the wrapping paper. We have to love who we are and what we can do more than we love that outer part of us. This takes time—more than dieting and working out does, but those results…they are the game changers.
   
5. Finally, don’t be afraid to find a friend who understands your journey, and ask them to take it with you. I found my supporting cast in an online happiness group—I’m now supported by and supporter to women I’ve never met before, but who understand what I’m doing. This is, perhaps, the greatest tip. Don’t rely on those you’ve always known—sometimes, it takes the support and understanding of a stranger to give you what you need. 

Emotional health is just as important as your physical health. Do something for you, without strings or expectations of weight loss or image building, and find the happy that will make your healthy. If you need a friend for your journey, find me on Facebook at Author Kristen Kehoe I would love to support you.

Until next time, here’s to finding happy.
xo

Kristen Kehoe is a wife, mother to a four-year-old girl and four-month-old puppy, teacher, romance author, and captain of the crazy train. Nice to meet you ;-)

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Diet Is a Four Letter Word

That's me in 1988.

Let me explain a couple things about the picture...

1) The school photographer came and suggested we take action shots. In all my years of  "playing" basketball, this was usually all the action (outside of practice) that I got.
2) For years, I HATED this picture. I didn't hate it because my coach gave me a scowl and a head shake for doing it, but because I was certain I looked fat.

Seriously. I tried to talk my mother into liposuction after getting that picture back. She refused, of course.

While studying to be a mental health counselor in college, I had to write a weight loss program that could be used as group therapy.

I decided I'd make a plan that put self-love first. My weekly group would focus on the whole woman, not just a number on a scale.

Part one was the interest component:

Everyone has a passion...they just need to identify it. My group would require its members to explore interests. I'd bring in people to discuss different hobbies until each person found something that excited her.

Part two was the beauty component:

There would also be a beauty component to the group. I mean, everyone likes to look pretty, right? Wouldn't my weight loss group benefit from beauty tips by bringing in make up specialists, hair dressers, and fashion experts? I thought so.

Part three was the health component:

Lastly, there would be a focus on health. Not weight. Health. I know skinny people who maintain their weight through diet drinks and cigarettes. That's hardly better than being a chunk, right? The group would explore healthy eating and exercise habits. My group would play fun games like badminton or basketball. We'd share recipes that were not only delicious, but healthy. And everyone would be responsible for sharing and coming up with organizing games. That way planning and execution becomes a habit for them too.

So, that, in a nut shell (the original proposal was about twenty pages long) was my plan.

I got a C on it.

My professor's comment on the grading page was, "It sounds like a fun group, but you didn't make a weight loss group".

I took my paper to his office and argued for my plan. I told him I fully believed America's obsession with weight was exactly what was making us fat. If we stopped worrying constantly about what we looked like  and simply started living healthy, full lives, we'd have much better chances of reaching an ideal weight than by spending a whole day counting calories and loathing the bodies we have.

We shouldn't have to wait to be a certain size to enjoy the hell out of life and feel beautiful.

My logic worked a little. I was able to bump my C to a B.

I couldn't get my A because, as he said, I didn't put the focus on weight loss.

It's been twenty years since I lost that argument, but I still think I'm right.

Any time I obsess over my weight, I gain weight. Then I feel awful about myself and beat myself up, and then I gain even more weight. This  summer was one of those times when bad habits returned with a vengeance. I was back to my old obsessed self.

Once again, I am back to trying to re-orient my brain and remind myself that it's not all about weight. It's about living an active, healthy life without the negative self-talk.

Here's a few tips that help me:

1. Add calories rather than subtracting them. Try to eat at least ten servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

2. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. The body often confuses thirst for hunger, so we find ourselves nibbling when we really need to be drinking. And a body filled with enough water helps reduce fine lines and wrinkles!

3. Swap food. Where you can, switch from the higher calorie option to the lower calorie. I swapped turkey pepperoni for regular pepperoni and don't miss the original.

4. Keep a food journal. Writing down what I eat helps me make the connection between mindless eating and real hunger. It also helps me keep track of my fruit/veggie/water count.

5. Start counting productive movement. My grandmother baptized her sixth child in a size 8 dress and she never went to the gym a day in her life. What she had was an active to do list. Gardening, cleaning, and walking places instead of driving kept her fit and trim. My grandmother was almost a little over 80 years old when she stopped mowing her own lawn!

Finally, be kind to your body. Like it or not, it's the only one you'll get.

How about you? Any suggestions or tips?