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When the weight loss going gets tough, the smart and safe get savvy

Wouldn’t it be simply peachy and mango-y if all you needed to do to lose weight is simply eat less and sit like a couch potato?

Alas, life just isn’t fair (if it was, those white chocolate macadamia nuts would burn up 849 calories upon consumption), and to really lose weight effectively, you simply must exercise. Get up and go, move those muscles, get the blood flowing and the energy moving…..it’s a plain fact of life.

Exercise works.

But! What happens when you’re on track with your exercise routine and suddenly….life happens, and you have to turn on a dime?

That happened to me last month, actually…and let me tell you, it’s quite a difficult thing through which to work.

You see, I have a lousy bone structure, so intense jogging is out for me. Instead, I used to love becoming one with my beloved elliptical machine at the local YMCA – I had it down pat! HIIT activities, slow paces, fevered dashes, why, I could even do my karate blocking drill while walking backwards!

In a word, I had my exercise routine down perfectly for my particular body and shape.

Well, over the past few months, my weight loss has produced an astonishing negative side-effect – all of that disappearing fat seems to have aggravated a bone tumor I have on my right femur. Joy! Not! All of a sudden, going from sitting to standing started to cause physical pain – it’s gotten to the point that I have to hold in my thigh whenever changing positions like that.

Now…think about this on the elliptical. Knees go up, knees go down, tendons snap over my exostosis, and pain erupts. Wah! No more ellipticals for me!

But….but…..but. It would have been ‘way easy to simply sit down and give up…my delusional healthy view of myself has been shattered by reality!

I gave myself some time to feel a ton of self-pity…and then picked myself up and looked for alternatives. It turns out that the treadmill doesn’t aggravate my condition at all….and so now instead of ellipticalizing, I simply walk on the treadmill at a 15 level incline for 30 minutes, and spend the rest of the 23 minutes at various speeds/levels/etc.

End result? I get drenched in sweat, my cardio workouts seem to get easier and easier….BUT! Because I didn’t choose to give up, I’m still on the right path for my overall health.

Which brings me to my point!! Life….it happens. And when it happens, sometimes you have to simply accept the fact that you’re no longer in the same peak of health you used to be. But that doesn’t mean you must roll over and give up!

Instead, let out the inner warrior in you…give yourself permission to say, I might be down now, but I sure as hell ain’t out! And then pick yourself up and make your success happen. After all, if you cave into fear….nobody else will be there to make things right for you for the future.

The future….it’s in your hands, and your hands alone. Meet it boldly….your body will thank you for it.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – Want to see treadmill goodies? Consider:

Volumetrics – Food list for dieters

Morning,

Have you heard about Volumetrics? Although it’s really not new, it’s been gaining quite an interest both online and offline for people in search of weight loss help.

Volumetrics is based upon the concept of satiety; if you feel full and comfortable after eating, chances are, you won’t continue to graze until the cows come home. To paraphrase the website:

From Dr. Barbara Rolls, one of America’s leading authorities on weight management, comes a much-anticipated lifestyle guide and cookbook that empowers and encourages her readers to quit “dieting” for good, to feel full on fewer calories, and to lose weight and keep it off while eating satisfying portions of delicious, nutritious foods.

THE VOLUMETRICS EATING PLAN doesn’t eliminate food groups or overload you with rules. It’s a commonsense approach to eating based on Dr. Rolls’s hugely popular VOLUMETRICS WEIGHT-CONTROL PLAN and her respected research on satiety that shows you how to choose foods that control hunger while losing weight. Along with menu planners, charts, and sidebars on healthy food choices, the 125 recipes put her revolutionary research into real and tangible instructions for every meal. The full-color photographs make these delicious recipes irresistible.

With this important new guide to healthy eating and living, everyone can enjoy tasty and satisfying meals that will help them maintain their weight or lose those extra pounds while learning the pleasures of cooking the Volumetrics way…..MORE…

Sounds good? Well, I’ll confess – I always enjoy eating…and eating lots of yummies that are low-energy foods can be quite appealing indeed.

And guess what! I uncovered a free database online of the energy density of various foods – you can check it out here. The whole idea, indeed, might be something worth checking out….do drop me a line and let me know how it treats you.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – want more volumetrics? Lookie here!

Are you aware how much caffeine is really in your diet drinks?

Morning,

I’ll confess – I consider coffee to be the beverage of the gods. A true gift of wonder, my morning is not complete without my morning coffee, English toffee sugar free sweetener and coffee creamer; it affords me a quiet pleasure that gradually awakens me for the hub-bub of the day.

Do you enjoy coffee? Okay, let me rephrase that – do you worship coffee (a normal state of being, I might add)? If so, ever wonder about the caffeine that’s inherent in it? Ever debate about decaf? And espresso! How can life ever be the same without mulling over the subtleties of 935 grams of caffeine?

Today I have a treat for you! Check this out:

The Caffeine Database

Starbucks Bottled Frappucino 9.5 90 9.47  
Starbucks Double Shot 6.5 130 20.00  
Starbucks Grande Caffe Latte 16 150 9.38  
Starbucks Grande Cappuccino 16 150 9.38  
Starbucks Grande Decaf Coffee 16 12.7 0.79  
Starbucks Tall Caffe Americano 12 150 12.50  
Starbucks Tall Caffe Mocha 12 95 7.92  
Starbucks Tall Coffee 12 260 21.67  

There’s even a page for caffeine in candy as well!

Häagen-Dazs Coffee Ice Cream Ice Cream 48 per cup (8oz)
HeadshotBuy Bars 22 per bar
Hershey’s Kisses Chocolate 1 per kiss
Hershey’s with Almonds Chocolate 8 per chocolate bar

Nice, eh? Some of the information certainly is quite eyeopening.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – want gourmet coffee? Check out:

Resources for step aerobics workouts

Ever get an insane urge to beef up your aerobics routines?

If so, did you know there are bunches and bunches of places where you can download free workout music and uncover new choreographed moves?

’tis true! Here are some useful sites for you.

TurnStep.com

John’s Aerobics Routines

Expert Village Videos

iTrain

There are many different types of aerobics you can do! Step aerobics, even chair aerobics, ball aerobics, lots of aerobics. You can even get free previews (or even entire sets!) from YouTube like so:

YouTube Step Aerobics

Should you try the above out, do let me know what you think.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – need more great aerobics stuff?

Kids, self-confidence, getting fit and more

One of the biggest challenges parents have today is guiding their kids thru the turbulent times of growing up to become a responsible, self-confident member of society.

I vividly remember my extreme lack of confidence in my earlier years…it was soooo bad, it got the point I used to be grateful for any attention (negative or positive). It was only in my 20s that my own inner strength and spirit began to emerge…and help me become the superbly marvelous person I am today.

And that brings me to the very important point of, how are you helping to instill in your children “self-confidence”? It would be so easy if all you had to do was witness your child’s experiences as they go thru life…and see self-confidence magically grow and grow!

Alas, it just doesn’t happen that way. Kids need positive reinforcement whenever they excel…and accountability when they choose to perform under the bar. Nobody is perfect all of the time (except my parents, of course)….but every moment can be used to help your children grow along the straight and true path of self-awareness and self-confidence.

Last week I witnessed a perfect example of this. One of my kids is learning how to use the karate sais in katas and demonstrations; she was thrilled she had it under control and called to me, mom, watch me to do this (this was in at the karate dojo in front of lots of people). Well, she got about 80% right….but all I could think of at the time was my gosh, when I was that age, I’d have preferred to be frozen in carbonite compared to having people actually watch something I haven’t entirely mastered. What self-confidence she showed! I was lavish in my praise of her afterwards; she was beaming with pride as well.

How the generations can improve.

Being healthy and content and in control of one’s being is a great way for instilling self-confidence. Here are some resources for that:

What about sports and team participation and such? Many kids will benefit from the martial arts, which instills self-confidence, discipline, inner strength and more. Here are some resources for that:

Always let your children know just how special and terrific they are…but also let them know when they slacked off as well. When you raise the bar for your child, quite often, their response will be to attain the new goals and levels you have set. And that is superb experience for a continued, healthy, self-confident kid to have.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – Brain games are a great way to build mental confidence! Look at:

Tiananmen Square – living the history instead of studying it

Yesterday in karate class I had quite the relevation. Several of our senseis are in their twenties…and as such, Tiananmen Square is the subject of history classes.

Well, back in 1989…I witnessed part of it as much as an American can. I was part of the protest march that marched upon Washington DC in protest. Not that it accomplished much (she said with the benefit of hindsight) but wow, was that an experience for me.

Tiananmen Square, back then, was referred to as the first war that was fought with email and fax. Every day new information would be snuck out over the wires and sent to faxes around the country.

I vividly remember the emotions that raged during this time. I will admit, the Chinese government handled it brilliantly for their end…they let the student leaders identify themselves via their talks and posturing and when all was set and ready, murdered them all. Whomp. One fell swoop, the rebellion was utterly crushed.

It was most bemusing to me to listen to my senseis talk about the history, while in my mind, I was remembering living through the 3rd party experience.

Here are more resources for Tiananmen Square:

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

TankMan

Witnessing Tiananmen: Clearing the square

Memoirs

Sequence of Events

Never forget Tiananmen Square. It was an event that seared the souls of all who witnessed it…yet also showed that the human spirit will never….ever….be entirely crushed.

Barbara

ps – There are books for Tinanmen Square:

Shapely Secrets, lose weight by breathing … is it for you?

Morning,

Over at one of my favorite forums, the question about Shapely Secrets still rages.

For those not in the know, Shapely Secrets uses isometrics to help tone/exercise your muscles in 7 minutes.

That’s the exercise.

If you look at the website disclaimer, you’ll also notice:

*RESULTS VARY. TYPICAL RESULTS ARE 1 SIZE AND 6 POUNDS IN FIRST 14 DAYS. RESULTS BASED ON 7 MINUTE EXERCISE AND 7 SECRETS DIET/LIFESTYLE PROGRAM. CONSULT A PHYSICIAN BEFORE BEGINNING THIS OR ANY EXERCISE PROGRAM. NOT INTENDED FOR USE BY CHILDREN OR PREGNANT WOMEN.

Methinks that “AND” is a pretty huge AND. If you’re on a good diet and lifestyle program, of course you’ll lose inches as well. It’s common sense.

Here are more resources for Shapely Secrets:

Fitness Infomercial Reviews

Makeup Talk Shapely Secrets

Bella Online Shapely Secrets

What’s that, you want to lose weight by breathing? Check out:

Breathing Exercises

Tree of Fitness

Oxycise

Ah. The joys of wanting to get something for the least little bit of exertion….it truly is inherent within us. But having now been on my weight loss journey for 11+ months, I really do believe that the most optimal way to get healthy…is the one that forces you to confront your personal barriers/limitations and break past what you thought you could never achieve.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – here’s what Oxycise looks like!

Looking for diet or low carb or LAWL or … etc. recipes?

One of the great things about the Internet is how easy it is to find just about anything!

Take dieting and yummy food recipes. No matter what diet plan you’re on, you can uncover tons and tons of free super resources like:

And of course, don’t forget generic recipe places like

As you can see, there are lots of great resources online to help you keep to any diet plan you choose. You simply have to go for it and uncover them all.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – want even more? Consider:

I am Woman, I am Mommy, I am Me, hear me Roar!

Morning,

A few days ago, I experienced one of the most empowering karate sessions in months! Class size was at a minimum (6 kids plus yours truly – many parent teacher conferences), so our beloved sensei decided to drill us in hand techniques until ideally, our arms fell off.

Now, here is some background. We did the same thing last week only with legs, but because I cannot kick well, I wasn’t able to participate fully. But this time, hand techniques are my specialty, so I decided to ramp up the intensity by proclaiming, hah, you can’t break me!

30 minutes later everyone’s arms in class were quite aching, but nothing that was utter agony for me. But! Our next challenge was to do 10 punches and then 10 pushups, ….repeated a total of three times.

It never fails. If I’m preparing for a massive physical effort, be it pushups, sparring, fighting, etc., I mentally go into myself, the world fades, and all that’s in my vision is my goal that I must first conquer and then utterly decimate. My kids noticed me getting quieter and quieter and more and more focused, and when it was my turn, I …. whupped everyone’s rear with my abilities! :) In other words, I was the only one to successfully complete the challenge without collapsing; I knew I’d succeed and didn’t have to think about it twice.

That by itself was wondrous, but the next hour capped the physical exertion – it was kendo “let’s watch Mrs. Ling get toasted with her non-existent blocks!” time! Lots of the class was spent doing footwork drills and then during sparring, yet again, I felt the full power of one of our main kendo guys. But this time, no fear ensued – I simply learned from the experience and then thanked him again.

After that hour, I picked up my kids – they had wilted due to aikido and the earlier karate time, while I was pumped up and ready to spar anything that looked at me askancely. :) My gosh, have the times changed….I may be a weee bit older than, say, the last Ice Age, but wow, I’m doing peachy. It’s really quite an eyeopening thing.

Time to start the morning,

Barbara

ps – Being toasted can actually be a good thing! Consider: