Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat ~ Socrates

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four.  Unless there were three other people ~ Orson Welles.

When I was a kid I had a plate with an angel’s face on it that said, “Be an angel, eat it all“.   In fact, when I was growing up we were always told to “clean our plates” because there were, “children starving in Biafra“. 

Now I was a sensitive kid, so it made me really sad to think about those hungry children in Biafra.  I wasn’t even sure where Biafra was, but it sounded very far away.  Moreover, I didn’t understand how my eating lima beans in New Jersey was helping them out. 

I thought a more logical solution would be to put those beans in a box (along with that slab of liver that I also didn’t want) and simply send them to Biafra.  But for reasons never made clear to me, my parents never went for that.

Now that I’m a mom, I take the opposite approach.  I don’t ever force my 9 year old to clean his plate, because he has always had the innate ability to know when he’s full — and stop eating.   And that’s an ability I don’t want to mess with.

It’s fascinating to me.  It doesn’t matter how much he might be enjoying a particular food (even ice cream or cake) whenever he feels full — he just stops eating.  He doesn’t feel the need to finish everything just because its there — or even because it tastes delicious.  And that’s a powerful tool which will set him up for a lifetime of stress-free weight control. 

If you watch babies eat and then push away the nipple or close their mouths to the spoon, it would appear that all of us are born with this innate ability to self-regulate our intake.  But, unfortunately most of us lose it somewhere along the line.  At some point in time (for most of us) food becomes more than fuel for our bodies and we start eating for other reasons.  In this country we eat because:

• It tastes good
• It’s a social activity
• We are bored
• We are stressed or upset
• It’s “time” to eat

I believe that women as a gender, tend to have a more dysfunctional relationship with food than men, because of the added societal pressures we face to stay slim.

For too many of us food is either something we love but feel totally out of control with.  Or something we avoid as much as possible, because we fear we’ll gain weight.  Very few of the women I know feel completely comfortable with food. 

The fact is, we all need to develop a healthy relationship with food, because we need to eat several times every single day.  Food isn’t something that you can avoid — like cigarettes or alcohol.  It isn’t (or rather shouldn’t be) a vice.  In a perfect world, all of us would view food for the fuel that it is, try to make good choices every day and occasionally enjoy the pure pleasures of taste –without going completely overboard. 

Geralyn Coopersmith, MA, CSCS is an exercise physiologist, certified personal trainer, author of Fit + Female:  The Complete Fitness and Nutrition Game Plan for Your Unique Body Type and the creator of The Best Me Ever, a comprehensive weight loss and wellness system just for women.  It’s a first of its kind program designed to fit into a busy women’s life.  Lose weight and look great — 90 Day Unconditional Money Back Guarantee!!

As I push closer to forty, I worry if my arms tell my true age.  Do my saggy arms greet others before I actually wave hello?  

Well, it’s time to say GOOD RIDDENS to jelly arms!  

In our quest to be hip and fit moms, Running Betty and Run DMT have teamed up to present our readers with the ultimate challenge.  During the month of July, we’re pushing the limits with our push-up challenge.  Our goal: 100 push-ups before the end of July. 

With help of hundredpushups.com, this goal can be  painfully easily achieved. 

From hundredpushups.com

Push ups are one of the basic and most common exercises for the human body. Push ups are not only great for your chest, but do a tremendous job of defining your abs, triceps, shoulders and torso.  Your core strength will also go through the roof too!  

Hundredpushups.com offers a week-by-week plan to help make this an attainable goal.  Commit to 30 minutes three days a week and you will be on your way to one lean mean, hot momma machine. 

Are you up for the challenge?  If so, drop and give me twenty ten five two and sign your name in blood Mr. Linky to commit to the challenge.  Also, add a comment to this post with your link so other readers can visit your blog and support you through out the challenge. 

We would love for you to help spread the word about our “Pushing the Limits Challenge” by sharing it with your readers.   Add our “Pushing the Limits” bloggie button to your site and link back here. 

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<img src=”images/pushups” height=”102″width=”207″ border=”1″ alt=”Pushing the Limits July 2009″></a>

 

Feel free to tweet about it, too!  Pushing the Limits- 100 Push-ups by 7/31 http://tiny.cc/Fnls0 @denisermt @raffi #100pushups

I have been following the Weight Watchers Momentum program and learning about healthy cooking. Now that my husband and I are trying to eat better, I am finding that cooking dinner can be an all night chore.

My kids are relatively picky and very rarely will eat the different meals that I cook. On top of that, my oldest son will not eat red meat. The rule in our house is that they have to try new things before they can say they do not like them. It is usually more the texture they do not like as opposed to the food.

This past weekend I went to the grocery store and spent more time than usual. I tried to find healthy snacks and food options for the kids that could easily be prepared.

A popular dinner meal I serve to my kids is called “buffet supper”. I make sure I have a few different options for them to chose from for each food group. They like being able to make their own choices of fruits and vegetables, dairy, protein, breads and grains.

You can purchase ham chunks, which just needs to be warmed up. I also keep a lot of chicken around and cook up as needed. Apple boats are also another favorite. My son created this recipe. Apple slices in a sea of peanut butter with a chuck of cheese on a toothpick stuck in each apple slice.

Other favorites include salad, carrots with ranch dressing, fruit salad with vanilla yogurt and granola, cottage cheese, cheese sticks, yogurt, snack packs of chips, crackers and cookies, pears, fresh berries.

I find if you can make the meal fun (i.e. apple boats) then kids will have more of a tendency to enjoy the food. Both my boys also enjoy cooking. By getting them involved in the meal preparation process, they get excited about trying new things.

My oldest son who is now eight, likes to host dinner parties. His favorite meal to cook is Easy Mac ‘n Cheese from the Pillsbury Kids Cookbook. We go to the grocery store together and he helps find the ingredients we need to prepare.

He also likes to make the Pizza Snacks, Frosty Choco-Banana Snacks, S’mores Nachos, Create-a-Scene Cookie Puzzle, Frozen Brownie Sundae and Bunny Rabbit Pancakes.

I enjoy spending this quality time with my son. As a busy mom entrepreneur, it is so important to find quality time with the kids. Activities such as cooking and party planning gives us an opportunity to share something we both love to do.

How do you handle meal preparation for your family? Your tips and suggestions are welcome.

Traci Bisson has been a mom since February 2000 and an entrepreneur since August 2000. Eight weeks after she returned from maternity leave, the company where she had been employed for five years went out of business. She decided to try doing her own thing and failed miserably. After another year of working for two different companies (the first laid off the department she worked in and the other was showing signs of going under), she decided to try entrepreneurship again. Raising her two children and growing her company, Bisson Barcelona, has been both challenging and rewarding. Her story has been told in dozens of publications, including the Associated Press, National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB.com), Plan Ahead Get Ahead (cover story), Union Leader, The Portsmouth Herald, Our Times and Seacoast Ventures.

Several years ago, there was a phenomenally successful book on dating, called “The Rules”. I thought it was kind of a silly book, actually. But I loved the pure simplicity of it. The whole idea of if you do these specific things and you’ll get the results you’re after.

In this age of information overload, with so many so-called experts giving so much advice,it is easy to find ourselves in a situation of paralysis by analysis. Its often hard to know what path to follow or how to put all the information together. Understandably, folks want a recipe to follow that will yield results every time. 

I got to thinking about what some of “The Rules” would be for getting in shape — and staying that way. So here are five tried and true methods to insure that you’ll always look and feel your best.

Rule 1: Only eat when you’re hungry. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is. Don’t eat just because its time to eat. Let your stomach tell you when its time to dig in by reconnecting with your body’s nature hunger mechanism. It’s very easy to eat (or drink) hundreds of extra calories, that you didn’t even want in the first place. Before you eat always ask yourself…”am I actually hungry?”. If not, wait until you are ready…not ravenous, but ready.

Rule 2: Always try to make the healthiest food choice available. Play a mental game with yourself to try and identify the absolute best choice in terms of “nutrient density”. In other words, given the available choices at that moment what will give you the most health benefit in terms of providing: the least amount of saturated fat the least amount of processed white flour the least amount of simple sugars the least amount of artificial colors or flavors the fewest chemical additives the most fiber the most anti-oxidants foods that are closest to their natural form

Rule 3: Try to workout every single day. Yep…that’s what I said…every single day. The reason is that life being what it is, invariably there will be something that will come up and throw your exercise plans out the window. If you plan on working out 3 times a week and your workout gets derailed by some unforeseen circumstance (which it probably will) you’ll be down to just twice a week. Which is not enough to meet your fitness goals. Try to set aside some time (20-60 minutes each day) as your designated workout time. Realistically you’ll probably end up exercising 3-5 times per week, which is the recommended amount.

Rule 4: Find something that you really enjoy doing. I am always amused by people who say that they “hate” such and such time of exercise, but they know they should because someone told them that its “good” for them. Here’s a tip..human beings (even women) are only so masochistic, so if there is an activity that you totally loathe –it is unlikely that you will commit to doing it on a regular basis. Fitness should be fun. You should look forward to your exercise as your private time and your play time. Try to find several things you really like and working out becomes a break from the daily grind, time to clear your head, challenge your body and do something that’s just for you.

Rule 5: When Your Fall “Off The Wagon”, Dust Yourself Off and Climb Right Back On. Always keep in mind that nobody is perfect — and fitness is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Too many people give up on their fitness programs because they have a few weeks where their choices (in diet and/or exercise) are less than stellar. Stuff happens. Stuff is gonna happen. That’s life. The trick is to not beat yourself up over it, or use it as an excuse to abandon your routine entirely. Just resolve to get back on track before a five pound weight gain becomes a 25 pound one or a month-long lapse in working out becomes a year.

Geralyn Coopersmith, MA, CSCS is an exercise physiologist, certified personal trainer, author of Fit + Female: The Perfect Fitness and Nutrition Game Plan for Your Unique Body Type and the creator of The Best Me Ever, a comprehensive weight loss and wellness system just for women.  It’s a first of its kind program designed to fit into a busy women’s life.  Lose weight and look great — 90 Day Unconditional Money Back Guarantee!!

Thought For The Day

“Life is what’s happening when you’re making other plans”

~John Lennon

I cannot tell you the number of women I know who have a “when…then” mentality, particularly when it comes to their own health and well being. 

“When the kids start school…then I’ll start working out” or “when things aren’t so stressful…then I’ll start eating better”… or “when the weather gets nicer…then I’ll start that walking program” .  The list is endless.

Too many of us are waiting for the “perfect time” to get started.  The time when all of our proverbial ducks are in a row…when we have fewer obligations and tons of time to just spend taking care of ourselves.  Get real!! 

Think back on your life so far.  For most of us, there has always been tons of stuff going on in our lives.  From school, to work, to having a family, to juggling career and kids…its always something.  The notion of a point in your life when time stands still so you can focus on yourself is a myth, particularly for a woman.  If time were really standing that still, chances are you’d be pushing up daisies.

Meanwhile, for far too many of us life is going on and our health issues (both large and small) are getting worse and worse…leaving us more to fix things on the other end if that “perfect time” where to come around (which it won’t).   

For example, being five pounds overweight isn’t that big of a problem to deal with — but being 30 pounds overweight is. 

Having “pre-hypertension” or “pre-diabetes” can often be fixed in a few weeks with some simple changes in diet and exercise.  But having full-on hypertension and diabetes puts your very life at risk. 

In addition to this “perfect time”myth, I believe there are two other faulty beliefs that keeping us from doing the that things we know we should do.  One,  we believe we still have plenty of time to fix things before they get totally out of control, so we procrastinate.  And two, we believe that we have to make radical changes in order to be effective. Neither of which is true.

The fact of that matter is it is the very things we do from an early age which determine our health and overall quality of life over time.

One of the best illustrations of this was the famous Korean War Veterans study published back in 1953 in The Journal of the American Medical Association.  In this research, Army doctors performed autopsies on 300 soldiers who died in the line of duty in the Korean War.  When the doctors examined the coronary blood vessels (which supply blood to the heart) of these young men — 77% of them had evidence of major cardiovascular disease.  This even though their average age was 22!!

As to the second point, keep in mind that taking care of yourself doesn’t mean surviving on carrots sticks and tofu and running 5 miles a day.  The fact is it’s always a good idea to avoid extremes.  Extremes usually result in pendulum swings of one type of another.  It’s a better idea to try to make simple changes that you can live with.   Every action adds up, stacking and stacking until they result in a huge change over the long haul.

Today’s Action Challenge

Think about it.  What small changes could you make in your own life?  Think of some shift that you could make which really wouldn’t be a big deal.  Things like:

Geralyn Coopersmith, MA, CSCS is an exercise physiologist, certified personal trainer, author of Fit + Female: The Perfect Fitness and Nutrition Game Plan for Your Unique Body Type and the creator of The Best Me Ever, a comprehensive weight loss and wellness system just for women.  It’s a first of its kind program designed to fit into a busy women’s life.  Lose weight and look great — 90 Day Unconditional Money Back Guarantee!!

• Drinking more water
• Cutting back on fried or processed foods
• Doing that 15 min yoga tape that’s been gathering dust
• Taking a 20 minute walk after dinner

Little things do mean a lot.   Still don’t believe me?  Consider this…cutting out just 200 calories per day (the equivalent of one less tablespoon of butter and two oreos eaten mindlessly on the couch) would equal a 1/2 weight loss per week and could result in a 20 lb weight loss over the course of an entire year.  And that’s NOTHING!!

The bottom line is that there is never going to be a time when life comes to a screeching halt so that you can start taking care of your health.  Accept that as a reality and then look and see what you CAN do in the here and now that will point you in a better direction.  Then decide to commit to those things — and start taking action.   All we really have is the now…so there truly is no time like the present.

Thought For The Day:

Success seems to be connected with action.  Successful people keep moving.  They make mistakes, but they don’t quit. -  Conrad Hilton

Most of us don’t give ourselves enough credit for the little accomplishments we make along the way.  We approach life and our goals as all or nothing propositions.  If we fail to do everything absolutely perfectly we feel like we failed.  Too often we don’t celebrate the little victories and acknowledge just how much progress we’ve made.

Anthony Robbins (I swear I’m not on this guy’s payroll, but I really do love his stuff) talks a lot about setting up “the game of life” so that you can win more often than not.   He says that we set up far too many rules about has to happen before we can feel good about what we’ve done.  What if instead we make it as easy as possible to get a win? For example:

• If I exercise for 30 minutes today — that’s a win
• If I drink 2 more glasses of water than I did yesterday — that’s a win
• If I get an extra 30 minutes of shut-eye — that’s a win
• If I substitute one crappy food choice for one better one — that’s a win

You get the idea.  Too often we set the bar of success sooooo high, we’d have to be superhuman to even come close to reaching it.  Perfection is not the goal, consistent improvement is.

Today’s Action Challenge:

What about you?  What small changes have you made in the past 17 days that you can applaud yourself for? 

Geralyn Coopersmith, MA, CSCS is an exercise physiologist, certified personal trainer, author of Fit + Female: The Perfect Fitness and Nutrition Game Plan for Your Unique Body Type and the creator of The Best Me Ever, a comprehensive weight loss and wellness system just for women.  It’s a first of its kind program designed to fit into a busy women’s life.  Lose weight and look great — 90 Day Unconditional Money Back Guarantee!!

Core training is all the rage these days.  But core training has undergone some fundamental changes in the last few years.  Now more and more experts are recommending that you focus on stabilizing the core when you work the abs and lower back, rather than doing moves such as crunches or sit-ups.  The reason is that the primary job of these muscles is to help keep the lumbar spine in position so that the spine remains intact and pain-free.  These two essential exercises that can be done as part of your core training — or even at the beginning of a workout to help wake up the abs and lower back muscles.  Check them out and consider adding them to your program.

Geralyn Coopersmith, MA, CSCS is an exercise physiologist, certified personal trainer and the creator of The Best Me Ever, a comprehensive weight loss and wellness system just for women

Special thanks to Five Iron Fitness in White Plains, NY

For this week’s edition of 5 Minutes for Fitness, I offer you another one of my favorite strengthening exercises: Squats!  Squats are great for the gluts, quads and hamstrings. 

With your legs shoulder distance apart, sit an invisible chair.  Dig your heels into the floor to tighten your gluts as your squat.  Remember to not let your knees bend over your toes.  But don’t take my word for it!  Here’s a video to show you proper form. 

How low can you go with these songs?

 Flo Rida- Low (3:53)

Push It- Salt-N-Pepa (4:28)