TOP 10 EXERCISE TIPS from Wise-About-Weight

TOP 10 EXERCISE TIPS

Remember, if you are just starting out, keep your goals realistic. Rome was not built in a day and patience is a virtue!

1. Get good shoes that have been properly fitted to your feet and replace them every six months.
2. Wear wicking fiber clothes when exercising-not cotton. Wicking fiber will keep you more comfortable.
3. Never work the same muscle groups 2 days in a row. Give the muscle 48 hours of rest.
4. Always breathe! Never hold your breath.
5. If using weights, do not jerk weights into position. Always use smooth and steady movements to avoid injury.
6. Never “lock” or fully extend any joints. Always keep them slightly bent.
7. Muscle soreness that lasts a few days is normal after strength training; but if your joints are sore, or if you pull a muscle, you are over doing it.
8. It a movement causes you pain, lessen the range of movement. If it still causes you pain, don’t do it.
9. Stretch after strength building exercises or endurance exercises. Never stretch when your muscles are cold.
10. If you take a break from exercising for several weeks, when you return, start at about half the effort you were putting in when you stopped and gradually build back up.

LIVING YOUR INTENTIONS

“I have found that the greatest help in meeting any problem with decency and self-respect and whatever courage is demanded, is to know where you yourself stand. That is, to have in words what you believe and are acting from.”
- William Faulkner

Living your intentions is your destination and each step along this journey is necessary to help you reach AND MAINTAIN this destination and fulfill your reason for living.

“Your intentions give you your reason. So, be clear on your reason for doing this. Your reason is not your goal. Your reason is your WHY. (Example…to play with my kids) Your goals will be your WHAT.

Your “Why” will give you motivation when things get difficult.”

Strong intentions help people form their belief and motivation for taking action. When your motivation wanes, the most important thing you can do is revisit your intentions.

Throughout the lifestyle change process, many times it will be difficult and you may feel like giving up. You must find the meaning and motivation for this change by looking deeply to your intentions.

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Do You Operate From Your Strengths?

by Robin Kushner

Succeeding at any type of goal, whether it’s about your health, your work, your personal life or your family life, requires operating from your strengths.

So here are a few simple questions:

1. Are you aware of what your strengths are?

2. If you were asked to make a list of your strengths could you?

3. Are YOU operating from your strengths?

During a Wise-About-Weight class session a couple of years ago we had passed out a simple worksheet for the participants to fill out. In the first column they had to list things they did well. In the second column they had to list the skills/strengths they used to achieve success in the things they listed in the first column.

I distinctly remember this day because of what happened next. The facilitator and I walked around the class as they were filling out their worksheets to observe how everyone was doing and to gauge when the time was right to proceed to the next part of the exercise.

As I  walked around, I noticed that there were more than a few participants who had not filled out anything on their worksheet. Quiet rumblings were also heard referring to how difficult this exercise was.

Finally the facilitator stopped at one individual and said, “What do you think you are good at?” The participant started to cry and said, “That’s the problem. I’m not good at anything. I don’t have any strengths.” It was such a poignant moment. This person actually felt she had no strengths she could write down on the worksheet.  The facilitator proceeded to ask, “How long have you been married?” The woman responded, “35 years.” “Then write down patience! To be married for 35 years means you have patience”, replied the facilitator.  It was a beautiful lesson in self-awareness and realism.

Everyone, no matter what you are struggling through, has strengths. Everything you do requires a certain type of skill set.  Each skill set is made up of a variety of strengths. You need to be able to step away from yourself for a moment and see yourself with fresh eyes. It might even be worthwhile to ask a friend what they see, to give you a jump-start.

Confidence will grow when you focus on your strengths and pull from them.

TOP 10 WAY TO INVOLVE KIDS IN THE KITCHEN!

by Robin Kushner

1. Define the kitchen as more than just a place to cook and eat. Look at it as a family place, a room for sharing, talking, laughing, learning, being together.
2. Start your kids off young. When you are in the kitchen working let your little one’s be rock stars. Give them utensils pots, containers, and let them play! Don’t worry about the mess. You will have years to keep everything spotless when they are older.
3. Include them in the cooking early on. Set up a toddler height space in your kitchen and lay out all of your ingredients that are safe for them to handle on this space. Refer to the ingredients by their color and ask your toddler to give you the thing that is red (the red pepper), or the thing that is yellow (squash), etc…
4. As they get a bit older, have them help you prepare the ingredients. stirring, pouring, cracking eggs, etc…
5. When appropriate start to teach them how to grate, chop, push the correct buttons on the food processor (after you have set it all up safely)
6. Involve them in the meal planning. Create a meal chart for the week and have a sit down together and decide the menu.
7. Teach them how to grocery shop, read labels, how grocery stores are laid out. Teach them about fresh versus processed foods.
8. Let your teens do the cooking. Make one night a week their night. They pick the menu. You become the assistant rather than the chef.
9. Have kid friendly cook books in the house that they can use. Easy to read, simple ingredients, explanations on preparation.
10. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Your kids are home for such a short period of time and it goes by so quickly. Don’t strive to have everything perfect. Enjoy the little moments, ignore the mess, and ENJOY teaching them how to live the Healthy way!

Wise-About-Weight’s Top 10 Tips for Grocery Shopping

by Robin Kushner

1. Shopping is an important aspect to successful lifestyle changes.
2. Fill your cart with food items from around the perimeter of the store. This is where fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, and dairy are generally found.
3. Try to eyeball serving sizes since fresh produce is growing in size.
4. Choose fresh or frozen (without sauces, syrups) produce over canned varieties.
5. Prepackaged foods and frozen foods are generally on the inside aisles.
6. Make a list before going to the store. Try to avoid those “tempting” aisles.
7. Don’t shop on an empty stomach- your hunger may tempt you to buy more food.
8. Take time to read nutrition labels, use information you learned to determine if a product is high in calories, fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sugar or sodium.
9. Look for good sources of fiber, calcium, iron and other nutrients.
10. Try to make weekly trips to the store to ensure you have fresh food in the house.

Shop healthy and ENJOY!

The Ins And Outs Of Nutrition Labels -a healthy life lesson for young and old

It’s not, as they say, ‘Rocket Science’, but it can be confusing if you are not familiar with the terms on a food label.  Important facts about what you are putting in your mouth and what you are feeding your family are lurking in those labels.

Often the front packaging of food products has a variety of words that are meant to convince you that you are making a healthy choice.  The backs of the packaging actually contain the facts that lie behind finding the truth about what you are eating.

Today’s article is a guide to discerning what you are purchasing.

So, the next time you go shopping, take some extra time to familiarize yourself with the labels on the foods you commonly buy and while you’re at it, teach your kids how to read the packaging as well.

Shop smart and ENJOY life the healthy way!

From,

The team at Wise-About-Weight

SERVING SIZES

1. Serving sizes are standardized units of measure to make it easier to compare similar foods; they are provided in familiar units, such as cups or pieces, followed by the metric amount, e.g., the number of grams.
2. The size of the serving on the food package influences the number of calories and all the nutrient amounts listed on the top part of the label.

SERVINGS PER CONTAINER

1. Pay attention to the serving size, especially how many servings there are in the food package.
2. Beware of containers that appear to be packaged as single serving food, but actually contain two or more servings.
3. Ask yourself, “How many servings am I consuming?”

EX. If a label says one serving equals ½ cup, and you eat the whole package, you are eating 2 cups. That quadruples the calories and other nutrient numbers, including the %Daily Values as shown in the sample label.

CALORIES

1. Calories provide a measure of how much energy you get from a serving of the food.
2. The calorie section of the label can help you manage your weight.
3. Remember: the number of servings you consume determines the number of calories you actually eat (your portion amount).
4. The General Guide to Calories provides a general reference for calories when you look at a Nutrition Facts label. This guide is based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

TOTAL FAT

1. The total fat is the number of fat grams contained in one serving of the food.
2. Fat is an important nutrient that your body uses, but you don’t want to eat too much.
3. The different kinds of fat, such as saturated, unsaturated, and trans fat, will be listed separately on the label.
4. It is recommended to consume less than 30% of total fat and less than 7% of saturated fat as a percentage of total caloric intake.

EX. If there are 90 calories in one serving, how many calories from fat are there in ONE serving? The answer: 30 calories, which means almost one-third the calories in a single serving come from fat. What if you ate the whole package content? Then, you would consume two servings, or 180 calories, and 60 would come from fat.

CHOLESTEROL and SODIUM

1. These numbers tell you how much cholesterol and sodium (salt) are in a single serving of the food.
2. Cholesterol and sodium are usually measured in milligrams.
3. It is recommended to consume less than 300mg of cholesterol (<200mg if you have high cholesterol) and less than 2400mg of sodium daily.

TOTAL CARBOHYDRATES

1. This number tells you how many carbohydrate grams are in one serving of food.
2. Carbohydrates are your body’s primary source of energy. 3. This total is broken down into grams of sugar, starch and dietary fiber.

PROTEIN

1. This number tells you how much protein you get from a single serving of the food.
2. Your body needs protein to build and repair essential parts of the body, such as muscles, blood, and organs.
3. Protein is often measured in grams.

VITAMIN A and VITAMIN C

1. These list the amounts of vitamin A and vitamin C, two especially important vitamins, in a serving of the food.
2. Each amount is given as a percent daily value.
3. Other vitamins may be listed on some labels.
4. Vitamin A provides important nutrients for the eyes, skin, and for normal growth.
5. Vitamin C is essential for a number of metabolic functions. Insufficient vitamin C can cause scurvy.

CALCIUM and IRON

1. These list the percentages of calcium and iron, two important minerals, that are in a serving of the food.
2. Each amount is given as a percent daily value and other minerals may be listed on the label.
3. In addition to being critical for strong bones, calcium helps your heart, muscles and nerves function properly.
4. Iron is essential to help the blood carry oxygen.
THE PERCENT DAILY VALUE (%DV)

1. The % Daily Values (%DVs) is based on the Daily Value recommendations for key nutrients but only for a 2,000 calorie daily diet.
2. The %DV helps you determine if a serving of food is high or low in a nutrient. Note: a few nutrients, like trans fat, do not have a %DV.
3. 5%DV or less is low: For nutrients you want to limit such as fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium
4. 20%DV or more is high: For nutrients you need more of such as dietary fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium , and Iron

INGREDIENTS

1. All ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. 2. Those in the largest amounts are first.
3. Words for sugar: Terms ending in “ose” mean sugar—fructose, glucose, maltose.
4. Other terms that indicate sugar include corn syrup, honey, molasses, dextrin, maple syrup.
5. Words for salt: MSG or monosodium glutamate, NaCl, baking soda, sodium, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce.

ENJOY Life The Healthy Way! -The Wise-About-Weight motto

by Robin Kushner

ENJOY Life The Healthy Way!

E=ENVISION YOUR DAY

Pre-plan for each day, events, holiday parties, eating out.

N=NOTICE YOUR TRIGGERS

If certain situations are stressful, be sure you are aware of your triggers. Use Wise-About-Weight skills learned to address triggers.

J=JUDGE YOUR PORTIONS

Be sure to be vigilant about portion sizes. Sticking to the number of servings is critical.

O=OPTIMIZE EACH MEAL TIME

Focus on the people and the conversations around you. Carve out eating time from other activities(i.e. tv watching) so you are mindful of all food intake, as well as the tastes, smells, textures of what you are eating.

Y=YOUR LIFE, EVERY DAY AND EVERY MEAL

Remember, you must be mindful of living your intentions every day.