Taking care of yourself shouldn't an on/off choice!

20^th November 2014

If you give up at the first sign of struggle, you really aren’t ready to be successful. Kevin Hart

Happy Thursday everyone, let’s make it a good one!

I won’t lie I could’ve stayed snuggled up under the covers this morning, but now I’m up and drinking my cuppa, I’m coming round a bit. I’m looking forward to another great day at the scales, yesterday was a fab day, 165lb lost and the lovely Debbie achieved her goal having lost over 50lb to get there, fabulous achievement since joining in January.  Debbie’s enjoying following Filling & Healthy and finds that it fits in great with the rest of her family which is what you need when you’re a busy mom.

My chicken casserole was delicious, I was so glad I went to the effort of putting it into the slow cooker before leaving for work.  I’m thinking stuffed mushrooms today, brown rice, peppers, spring onions and whatever else I can lay my hands on in the fridge, then I’ll have the leftover casserole for my tea.  Thursdays always the day I’m time hungry so I can end up fridge greedy if I don’t plan. 

I literally had to force myself out for my walk yesterday, I had so much to do that I was coming up with every excuse not to go, I’m glad I did though as I do believe it’s making me feel good, lifting my spirits.  That does of daylight (vitamin D) is doing me the world of good and this time of year, I put my ipod on and listened to my tunes whilst apparently singing rather loudly for the world to hear, so my neighbour pointed out ;-)

My Fitbit is telling me I’m lightly active!  This is apparently equal to 51% of Fitbit users, so I’ve decided I want to increase it a little, I think it’ll be tough but worth it.  Why do I want to?  Because my Fitbit has just told me;

“Exercise is great for your health, mood, and energy throughout the day. Right now you are lightly active and burn about 917 Cal per day from physical activity. That is a good start but we think you can do better. We have designed a plan for you that will gradually push you to burn 1,080 Cal per day and bring you 89% of the way to Active. It is easier than it sounds. Just start off slowly and sneak in short walks for breaks or park the car a little further back in the parking lot. Short bursts of movement count more than you think.”

Let’s see if I can do that, it’s free for a month this motivator thing, so I’ll use it up until Christmas, I like the idea of having better mood and energy levels!

As we were discussing last night it does get tougher sometimes and Christmas is one of those times but as those members in my meetings are not “on a diet” they won’t be ON or OFF the diet, they’re making lifestyle changes which means they are able to celebrate different events because that’s what life’s about, it means they are more aware of their behaviour when they do it, they have already changed some habits that make it easier to handle and they don’t beat themselves up when they overindulge because that’s what people do.  It’s great to hear my members having that conversation.

This time of year can be difficult if you are a food lover, even more so if you love having a good time, but we’ll survive and there are lots of things we can do to help ourselves and others and one of those things is one I’ve already mentioned this week – Don’t buy food gifts for others!  Most don’t want them, even if they do like them.  I was talking to a teacher last night who actually said she didn’t want them, she ends up with a car boot full of chocolate = nightmare for a chocoholic!

Just listening to Radio 2 and the news broadcaster read out yet another piece on Obesity, apparently it’s costing Britain 47 billion a year!  Think that says it all, don’t buy chocolates and biscuits for Christmas presents, our waistlines just can’t take it!

On that happy note, I’m going to get off and think about a healthy breakfast, I’m thinking cherry tomatoes and scrambled egg on a crumpet, mmm yeah that’ll do me.

Have a healthy & happy day BeYOUtiful.