All I Want for Christmas

This scale.

To be able to step on the scale every morning and not have to write anything down or remember anything... and have it make a chart automatically... mmmm... love.

Actually I want a treadmill and a sewing machine (and I think I will probably be getting both). But this scale will be in my near future. I can feel it.

To Your Health!

In honor of the new year (and the fact that my last two posts have been about Halloween goodies and Christmas goodies!!) I have decided to write a post about New Years resolutions. So here we go.

Our health is dictated by a lot of things – genetics, environment, what we eat, what we do with our time… the list is too long, and arguable, so we’ll just go with a few things.

This year, I will work on three areas of my life to improve my health.

1.) My environment

2.) What I eat

3.) What I do with my time

1.) My environment

In order to keep our bodies healthy, it is important to keep our environment healthy. One of my New Years resolutions is to make our environment more healthy. I am going to keep more indoor plants, open the windows more often, and replace a lot of my cleaning products with more “green” products. Already we use a lot of “green” things, but we can always be better. It is a little more expensive, but I have been more convinced lately that doing even what little things we can do has a big impact.

Another big way I am going to make my environment healthier is by reducing clutter and reusing as much as I can. Instead of throwing things away I am going to sell them, donate them, reuse them, or recycle them. Our waste facility here has a great recycling program. I would encourage you as part of your New Years resolutions to write your city waste management facilities as request more recycling programs. If we all write, then perhaps they will listen.

When we purchase furniture for our home next fall, I am going to try to purchase as much used furniture as I can.

2.) What I eat

We’re going to eat less junk food and more vegetables. Beans and other vegetables are going to be the main feature at our home!

This is a hard one for me, because my DH just loves his treats. Well, he is a little more on board this one than he used to be. One thing we will do this year to help with this goal is find healthy “treats” that can replace the candy and cookies. Then we’ll save candy and cakes for special occasions like birthdays and holidays. And even then, we’ll try to eat more of our “healthy treats.” Do you have any good ideas of healthy foods that still satisfy your sweet-treat tooth?

3.) What I do with my time

I’ve already been starting to change this one. I made myself a reusable to-do list (see #1) that I mark up with a dry erase marker and then reuse each day. It has been helping me be a better manager of my time. I have been a lot more productive since I have been using my list.

The other major problem with my time usage is my bedtime and rising time. Due to the holidays and DH being off school, we have been staying up WAY too late. Then I’m dragging in the morning, and I feel a lot less productive, plus I have no energy to exercise.

So starting in the new year (I’m pretty sure we won’t be able to start this until DH goes back to school) we’re going to be early to bed and early to rise kind of people. We usually put the kids down around 7:30, so if we’re consistent with that, we should be able to spend time in the evening, just the two of us, reading, playing games, we may even have time for a movie! And then we’ll still be in bed by 10pm and up by 6am.

And for my final, life capping event (okay, so probably not that significant) – I will spend the first half of this year training for a half marathon. I hope to run one sometime at the end of the summer or in the fall. I have done 5k’s before, but nothing like a half. I am really excited, because I just love to run, and it’s easier to run when you have something you’re working for.

 

Do you have New Years Resolutions? Are you going to lose some weight? Run a marathon? Get enough sleep each night?

Health Family Tip #3

Exercise together.

You'd be surprised at all the ways to get in some physical activity. Just this weekend we did a bunch of yardwork together. It was one of the best workouts I've had in a while. And we all got some exercise out of it!

We also have a trampoline and occaisionally we'll all go jump together. Jumping is really good for your lymphatic system, and so can aid in weight loss (not to mention overall health).

Some evenings we put on some dance music and workout in the living room. Papai does push ups, sit ups, and some curls, and we all do jumping jacks and crunches. My two year old loves doing jumping jacks, and when our baby was just a few weeks old, she even started kicking her legs and flapping her arms when we did jumping jacks!

Exercising can be fun family time. So make a goal to get off the couch at least 3 times a week and get some physical activity as a family! You'll get family bonding time and a workout all in one shot!

Aerobic vs Anaerobic Exercise

I have been reading a book called Perfect Weight America. It's actually a really neat book. The author wrote it actually after gaining weight, not losing weight - his crusade is that everyone has a perfect weight, and eating right will help you get there - wether it means gaining weight, or losing weight. I don't think I've ever seen a "diet" book that has addressed BOTH issues. Incredible, really. And in the same breath he talks about conserving - water, energy, etc.

One thing that I found interesting was his section on exercise. He says doing only long-duration aerobic exercise is not good for you. And especially doing exactly the same aerobic exercise day after day. He quotes some doctor saying that doing repetitive aerobic exercise like walking on a treadmill dimishes our body's ability to produce quick bursts of energy. He recommends doing at least 20 minutes of anaerobic exercise each day.

He has a cool little chart in his book that say something like this:

1 hour of aerobic exercise: during workout - 210 calories burned, 2 hrs after workout - 25 calories burned, 3-15 hours after workout, 0 calories burned

1 hour of anaerobic exercise: during workout - 650 calories burned, 2 hours after workout - 150 calories burned, 3-15 hrs after workout - 260 calories burned

Examples of anaerobic exercise are jumping rope, sprinting, lifting weights, doing high-intensity step aerobics, and elliptical machines. Anything that is high intensity is usually anaerobic.

So add some anaerobic to your workout routine today!!

Zonya's Lickety-Split Meals

This cook book comes highly recommended by myself (it was highly recommended to me by a friend of mine). 

I have been cooking from it almost exclusively for the past few weeks, and thanks to being very influenced by this cookbook, I now have a full fruit bowl all week long, and a full veggie tray on the top shelf of my fridge. I'm a lot more serious about controlling portion size, too.

Zonya shares lots of great health tips in this book - there is only one other cookbook I actually "read" - my Fanny Farmer cookbook. The only difference is that I read Zonya to learn how to be healthy, and I read Fanny Farmer to learn how to cook :) 

Another thing I love about Zonya's book is how she organizes the recipes in her book. There are sections for 5 minute, 15 minute, and 30 minute meals, as well as an "Oven, Exercise, Eat" section - which I use on my Tuesday running day - pop a meal in the oven, go for my run, and have dinner on the table when I get back! It's fabulous. We do 15-minute meals on Monday so we can have lots of time for FHE. With the recipes already organized for you, it's really easy just to pick a meal and make it! Especially if you follow her grocery list in the back - then you always have the ingredients on hand to make anything in her book!

I have decided that this book is going to be our trademark wedding gift. If you get married, you will get this book from us. It's so fabulous, and makes cooking yummy meals SUPER easy. I enjoy cooking, and honestly, the cookbook is a little "dumbed-down." That's not a bad thing! I am able to substitute and tweak the recipes pretty easily to my own tastes, but if you follow the recipes word for word, you will be able to cook a really really nice meal.