Have a great weekend!!

I figure taking steps into the right direction is best, then just jumping in and feeling overwhelmed. So, I have made changes to the food I am bringing to work, and what I am eating during the day.  I bought a new DVD to workout with, you know change things up , make it new! I have walked some now.. and it shows, already lost 3 inches total from my body in about 3 week time frame and I wasn’t even trying much.

I am sharing my journey with you because then I can share the ups and the downs and maybe there are others in my position and this can help motivate or inspire.

Starting weight 148lbs, I am only 5 feet also, measurement will be posted at a later date.

tomorrow will be day 1 of Yoga with Jillan Michael’s and a 35min walk.

come back and read how I am doing!!

lots of smiles,

April

I have a good friend who has tried many “diets” she would get close to her goal weight only to start junk food binge eating and not working out and basically no longer taking care of herself.

This time, its been 4 months and she is still on the right path… she still binge eats, but only once a month and still has DQ ice cream twice.. her exact words ” I am not on a diet, its a lifestyle change”.

I say take it one day at a time and make those changes to feel better about yourself.

I just wanted to share this…. I am so proud of my friend!!!

FIRST THING IN THE MORNING
The best time to eat fruit is immediately upon waking. While you sleep, your liver burns up its glycogen to supply needed glucose to the brain during your nightly fast. When liver glycogen levels begin to dip a signal is sent to the brain to start breaking down muscle protein to convert amino acids into glucose for the brain. When you wake in the morning you are a muscle-burning machine. At this time of day you will not have to worry about fructose being converted to fat, so eat up. The fructose will be put to good use for restocking the liver glycogen levels and switching off the signal to burn muscle protein.

Best morning choices (pick 1 or 2):
Pineapple (1 cup diced)
Honeydew melon (1 wedge)
Orange (1 medium)
Banana (1 medium)

PRE-WORKOUT
Another good time to eat fruit is about 30-60 minutes before a workout, particularly if you haven’t eaten a high-carb meal for several hours. The fructose will replace the liver glycogen that’s been used throughout the day, which will be used to steadily deliver glucose to the working muscles while you exercise and help to spare the glycogen in the muscle cells. This helps to prevent muscle fatigue that usually comes on strong as muscle glycogen levels begin to fall.

Best pre-workout choices (pick 1 or 2):
Pear (1 medium)
Watermelon (1 wedge)
Apple (1 medium)
Cantaloupe (1/2 melon)
Grapes (1 cup)
Strawberries (2 cups)
Raspberries (2 cups)

POST-WORKOUT
After a workout there is nothing wrong with eating some fruit to replenish your glycogen levels in both your muscles and your liver. Just remember that two servings of most fruits will only provide about 20-30 grams of carbs. For those who want to optimize muscular gains you’ll need to kick the carb grams up to at least 40-100 grams by also eating some white bread, potatoes, rice or oatmeal, or making sure the whey protein you’ll also need at this time contains at least 20 grams of carbs.

Best post-workout choices (pick 1 or 2):
Cherries (1 cup)
Peach (1 medium)
Apple (1 medium)
Cantaloupe (1/2 melon)
Grapes (1 cup)
Strawberries (2 cups)
Raspberries (2 cups)

FRUITS FOR SUPPS?
The value of fruit goes way beyond glycogen replenishment. Check out these little-known supplement-mimicking benefits of some popular produce:

Grapefruit
Subjects who ate half of a grapefruit with meals or drank 8 ounces of grapefruit juice three times a day lost 4 pounds (with some losing more than 10 pounds) in 12 weeks without dieting.

Orange
The king of the citrus world is a great pre-workout snack because the vitamin C helps protect nitric oxide (NO) from being broken down by free radicals. It also helps to have one post-workout because of these same antioxidant effects.

Apple
Apples contain polyphenols which have been proven to increase strength and fat loss.

Cherries
Grab a handful of cherries post-workout to reduce inflammation and enhance recovery. The wonder ingredient? Anthocyanins.

Watermelon
This citrulline-heavy melon helps you with blood flow and nutrient delivery since citrulline gets converted to arginine and NO.

Gargle with salt water when you get home, take salt water on a q-tips and swab your nostrils.  also drinking warm fluids will help as well , keep you hands out of your mouth, and WASH YOUR HANDS!!!! can’t stress that enough…

If you do get a fever, know that going to the clinic is not the best move unless you can’t control it.  Flu’s are not fixed by medications, they are a virus and so the body must fight it off…

Stay Healthy!!!

Stone fruits — specifically, certain varieties of plums and peaches — may have antioxidant levels on par with those of the nutrient-packed berries.

Red Means More Greenbacks
That’s particularly good news in these tough economic times, because stone fruits tend to be much less expensive than antioxidant-superstar blueberries. A recent study showed that red-fleshed plums and red-fleshed peaches generally contained equal-to-blueberry levels of phenolics and anthocyanins, two major disease-fighting antioxidants. (Yellow and white peaches and nectarines, on the other hand, did not quite match up.) Ask your grocer about antioxidant-rich red-flesh plum and peach varieties next time you’re shopping.

The Disease-Fighting Connection
Antioxidants in certain peach and plum varieties also inhibited a certain type of breast cancer cell in a lab setting, and certain varieties of plums, peaches, and nectarines reduced LDL (bad cholesterol) oxidation, too. More good reasons to seek out pits.

RealAge Benefit: Getting the right amount of antioxidants through diet or supplements can make your RealAge 6 years younger.

information from the Real Age website

you sometimes have trouble cutting yourself off after only one cup of coffee in the morning, don’t fret.

Actually, going back for a refill might not be a bad move. A few recent large-scale studies have uncovered some new by-the-cup health benefits of coffee. Check ‘em out:

1 cup . . . may lower your risk of cancer. A 13-year Japanese study revealed that men and women who drank a cup or more a day were half as likely to develop cancer of the mouth, pharynx, and esophagus compared with people who didn’t drink coffee

2 cups . . . may fend off strokes. In a 24-year study, women who drank 2-3 cups a day were 19 percent less likely to have a stroke compared with women who drank less than a cup a month. One caveat: The benefit applied only to nonsmoking women with no history of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes

3 cups . . . may safeguard your neurons. Middle-aged adults who reported drinking at least 3 cups of coffee a day were 65 percent less likely to have developed dementia or Alzheimer’s by the time most of the group had reached their mid-sixties to seventies. Now, that’s a lotta coffee. But not for everyone

What’s in Those Magic Beans?
Although it’s not clear how coffee does all of these wonderful, protective things, researchers suspect that the coffee bean’s high level of inflammation-fighting antioxidants (called polyphenols) may have something to do with it.

information from RealAge website