Simple Steps to Live Stress Free

This was the Denise Austin newsletter this morning. I liked it and thought I would share. One of the tips is about rewarding yourself, but not with food.

I caught a little flak about my confession the other day. Emotional eating with a healthy snack like Cheerios rather than ice cream was viewed as not really being all that bad. Not much of a confession.

OK. The lesson there, I guess, is two-fold. One, try not to give into emotional eating at all. Use exercise or any one of the tips listed below to try and relieve the stress being caused by the situation. Two, keep relatively healthy snacks on hand so that if you do give in to the emotion and eat you can at least minimize the damage.

So, I was not proud of the act but I was proud that I have developed some better habits so that the snacks I have around are not just pure junk food.

Better?


Had a run-in with your boss or a fight with your sister - and can't stop thinking about it? Are you overloaded with projects at work and errands at home? Our lives are jam-packed with stress - and that can take a toll on our body and health. Long-term uncontrolled stress can cause chronic conditions like high blood pressure, headaches, and ulcers. Stress can also weaken your body's natural defenses so you're likely to get sick more often.

You don't have to live with stress! There are so many simple ways to cut stress and take back control of your life.

Say no!
If you don't have time for or can't realistically accomplish someone's request without straining yourself, do not agree to it. In most cases, people will understand that you need to put yourself first. If you can't say no to your boss, for example, try not to take on more than you know you can handle.

Set priorities.
We don't always have the luxury of saying no to daily tasks, so stay organized by making a list of everything you need to do. Prioritize your list so you can take care of the most vital items first.

Stay positive!
Stress is not inevitable; it's the way your body reacts to the situation you're in, so it's completely controllable. Keep yourself calm by maintaining a positive attitude. It helps to choose an inspiriting mantra that you can repeat to yourself or image that you can visualize.

Burn off your stress!
Go for a brisk walk or bike ride, or lift weights to let off some steam. Exercise causes the body to release endorphins - chemicals that help you feel better - which help reduce your stress level.

Practice deep breathing.
When we get stressed out, our breathing tends to speed up. So take a break and sit somewhere comfortable and quiet to focus on taking deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling slowly. Playing soft music can enhance the calming effect.

Treat yourself!
If you had an unusually stressful day or just finished a big, stressful project, go ahead and reward yourself! Not with food, of course, but with something that will help you relax. How about a pedicure or massage, a long bubble bath, or a great book you can curl up with?

Reach out to others.
We can't do it all alone, so don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it. A co-worker or supervisor may be able to shed light on a work problem, while your spouse or kids can pitch in to help with household stresses. Even if you must take care of some task or problem yourself, it still helps to talk it over with a friend.

There's no reason to be bogged down by stress for another day. There are seven stress-busting strategies here - put one of them to work every day in the coming week!

No, go out and enjoy the weekend!

Confession

As Darla said in her other blog, confession is good for the soul.

I gave in to emotional eating today.

There. It's out there.

My boss/partner upset me this morning and it bothered me. So I reached for a snack. Emotional eating. On the plus side, it was a bag of Cheerios Snack Mix so it really wasn't all that unhealthy in and of itself, but still...

Normally I would take a walk around the block or do something like that to "shake it off" but I was fairly confined to my desk today working on some deadlines so it was easier to just open the drawer and grab a handful of snack mix.

Lesson One: don't keep the snack mix in the desk drawer.

Lesson Two: do what you know is right and don't look to food to solve the problem.

Lesson Three: shake it off and don't repeat the process tomorrow.

There. Feel better already.

The Secret

Move More, Eat Less

That, my friends, in a nutshell, seems to be the secret that everyone is searching for.

Sounds simple enough.

Four small words.

Easy concept.

But, oh so tough sometimes.

I seem to have had a lot of people noticing lately the weight loss. People around town that I haven't seen in a while and so forth. So I have had to answer the question quite a bit lately "How did you do it?"

I think most of them are a little disappointed that I didn't join Weight Watchers (very big thing to do around here) or have any medical procedures. I think people really are looking for a quick fix and it just isn't out there. Taking control of your life and health is work and it has to be treated as such. It is your job and no one can do it for you.

Much as we'd like them sometimes.

You have to face every day and make choices - about what you'll eat, how much you'll eat, what kind of exercise will fit into your day and so forth.

It isn't easy. It isn't always pretty.

But anything worth doing is worth doing well.

So go for it.

And remember. Even at your real job you sometimes have a casual day or a work day or some kind of day out of the normal routine. You'll have these days in this also. Days where you don't make the healthiest choices. But, just like in real life, your same job is still waiting on you the next day and if you slip a little one day with this then you just get right back on the program the next day.

You can do it!

Before and After - Part 2

I wouldn't do this for just anyone, but I think you guys can handle it.

Class of 1984, 20th High School Reunion



Class of 1984, 25th High School Reunion


Proof positive that you can make any changes or do anything you want to. There was nothing wrong with the 2004 "me" in the picture but the 2009 "me" is very different. So all I'm saying is that you need to love yourself no matter what, but if you do want to make some changes let NOTHING stop you. Not age, not anything.

YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Now, go have a great day!
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My Sister the Coach

and Cheerleader!

If you don't already have your own Andrea, go get one. And no, you can't have mine. She's taken! I have waxed poetical about how wonderful she's been through this journey but it never hurts to say it again.

She sent me a very positive text message after my first day on the beach in Florida with a two-piece suit on (smart enough not to say it out loud, only where I could read it). And she didn't tell my mom how much I weighed despite my mom asking her repeatedly (because she knows the numbers are sensitive subjects with me). Then she responded to my rhetorical questions with a solution.

Resistance Training.

What was I doing for it, how often, and so forth. I had to confess that it had been over a month since I'd done anything other than my cardio workouts.

So we discussed squats, and girl push-up, and weights, and all the other stuff I should be doing to help my body be its best.

So Tuesday night after we talked I did 30 girl push-ups and 10 squats and told her that I had done 20 jackknifes after my jog on Monday night.

And this is what I got back: "That's my girl!"

Gotta love her!

Sometimes all you need to get over that hurdle is just a little push from behind.

Rhetoricals

Why is it that when you gain a pound overnight the Wii wants an explanation but doesn't care when you lose a pound overnight? I want to tell it what I did right, not what I did wrong!

Why is it that you can gain 2 pounds overnight (and you can, it has happened to me more than once lately) but it will take a week to lose that same two pounds? Isn't the phrase "easy come, easy go"?

Why do I have these thoughts?

I'm starting to think that losing the weight was the easy part and the maintenance is going to be tough. I would have thought it would be the other way around since I maintained my old weight for so long. (That one is a joke)

Everyone, have a wonderful day!

Denise Austin's Swimming Tip

Go Swimming Indoors!

Did you know you don't need a pool or ocean to go swimming? "Swimming" is one of my favorite Pilates exercise moves because it really works your core, arms, shoulders, legs, and chest — it's essentially a total-body workout! All you need is a mat or other comfortable, firm surface on which to "swim"!

To start, lie on your stomach with your arms extended over your head. Press through your fingertips and toes to create length in your spine. Then exhale and raise your right arm and left leg a few inches off the floor. Lower your right arm and left leg slightly and raise your left arm and right leg, keeping all four limbs off the ground. Then alternate your arms and legs as if you were swimming! It's easy, and it's really effective for toning your arms, legs, and backside.

Kind of sounds like fun! I might just give it a try later.

Back on Board

OK, vacation is over.

Time to get back with the program!

I actually made pretty good choices while I was gone. No fried food. Everything was grilled or broiled. Problem was I ate late and I didn't eat my four small meals and the plates were too big. It was breakfast after my walk and then hours until a light lunch and then a big dinner. Just before bedtime.

So, sunburn (fluid retention), a few extra adult beverages, and the items noted above added a few pounds to the frame to this past week. But not to despair. I got back on the wagon today. Light breakfast, light lunch, exercise, and a salad plate for dinner. Granted dinner was Italian with garlic bread, but still... I ate less than I did at Olive Garden last week.

Vacations are nice. Very much needed to keep your spirit in shape. But real life does come calling and we must answer the door.

So if you, like me, occasionally take a break from your program don't let it derail your overall progress. I just had to look at myself in the mirror this morning and go back to doing what I know works best for me.

And by the way, I did wear the two-piece suits on the beach. Figured who cared - I wasn't going to see those people again anyway and my family had already been warned. But no, there aren't any pictures. Some things don't actually need to be documented for posterity.

Blogging from the Beach

Exercising in Florida is pretty cool! I took a 2 mile walk down the beach today. Saw one guy doing his yoga. This was about 6:30 in the morning (my body clock does not take a vacation so I was up at 5:30 as usual) and I thought to myself how wonderfully peaceful that must be. Yoga with the waves in the background. Morning sun and peaceful silence.

Hopefully I won't indulge too much this week. I finally broke through my slump and 5 of the last 7 days have been decreases on the scales. Finally happy with my numbers again.

Taking a vacation doesn't necessarily mean a vacation from doing what you know you should. Yes I may eat a little more but I'm also getting more exercise. I've walked the beach a couple of times and then up to the room and back and so forth. So I'm trying to do the right stuff.

And "stuffed" is how I feel after dinner at the Olive Garden!

Everything in moderation.

Change

ALL CHANGE INVOLVES leaving behind something known in order to move toward the new and unknown. It means releasing the way things were in order to embrace the way things are and the way things will be. … Understanding our past is important, but our lives are meant to be lived in the present and into the future.

- Leigh Harrison
Birthed in Prayer: Pregnancy as a Spiritual Journey

From p. 53 of Birthed in Prayer by Kim Barker, Linda de Meillon, Leigh Harrison. Copyright © 2008 by the authors. Published by Upper Room Books. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore

This was my devotional lesson this morning, but I felt like it would really apply here as well. Change is what we're all doing. Changing our habits. Changing the foods we eat or the ways in which we prepare them. And letting go is hard. We get comfortable and comfortable is easy. But we have to let go of the things that aren't good for us and make those changes. And one of the keys, at least to me, is understanding our pasts to improve our futures. Nothing exists in isolation. I didn't just wake up one day overweight. I woke up one day, realized and accepted it and decided to do something about it, but the problem had been growing for quite some time.

Anyway, I liked the passage. Hope you do as well.

Now go have a great day!