How to Loose Weight Over the Holidays

Does it seem possible to you to loose weight over the holidays? For many, that is a laughable thought. But, it is possible, nay, probable with just a few simple steps. Every holiday season I go into it a bit heavier than maybe I want to be and come out with my healthy, lowered weight. It is not from starving or fad diets. Not from massive 3-hour workouts or days in a sauna. It is from simple changes in lifestyle that we all can do all year long. Follow these steps and chances are that you will get to the new year feeling happy and healthy too!

Smoothies

My biggest secret to any quick, easy weight loss is smoothies and juicing. It is way healthier than what most of us eat in the morning, afternoon, and evening. With a smoothie or juicing you are not having to worry about added fats, salts, and starchy carbs that can sabotage any weight loss regimen. Just be sure you are putting the right things into your body to get the right stuff out. Smoothies and juices that are completely filled with fruits will only give you more sugar than needed and [most likely] keep those extra lb's on.

My go-to smoothie is two handfuls baby spinach, half a banana, and three strawberries. Blend, then add some ice cubes and blend again. It tastes. so. good. As for juicing, my favorite is the mean green juice recipe.

Now, how I loose weight with this is to have two of my big meals per day be smoothies. It usually falls into the breakfast and lunch times, but a smoothie for dinner is not bad either! This keeps the calories, carbs, and fats down but allows me to get plenty of good food in! It is also wise to eat 2-3 solid food snacks during the day (things with oats are great) and a dinner with lean protein and complex carbohydrates. Mixing chia or hemp seeds in a smoothie is pretty great as well.

Micro Workouts

Next up on my favorite things list for loosing weight is micro workouts. These are the best around the holidays and keep your metabolism up the whole day through. Really, a micro workout is anything that raises your heart rate and/or tones muscles for anywhere from 1-10 minutes. Micro workouts can be done in the morning when you are waking up, every hour, before eating, or any other time in the day.

I like to fit in 1-4 micro workouts throughout my day and, hopefully, a full sized workout as well. This keeps my body toning and raises my metabolism higher than the average would otherwise be. It also keeps me thinking healthy thoughts and ensures that I will get a workout in somehow, even if there is not enough time for a full 1-hr class.

The best advice I have for a micro workout is to make it something easy that you can do at certain times of the day. Fifty jumping jacks at the top of the hour is sure to add up in the calorie torching department. Forty squats before each meal will kick that metabolism up and help you burn more than usual. Heck, speed skaters every time you use the restroom is an easy thing that can be done anywhere without much attention being drawn at all.

Think Healthy

This post has run away with itself and there are still a few things that can be done to loose weight over the holidays. The no-brainer of them all though, is to just make healthy choices. We all want to drink our weight in holiday cocktails and hot cocoa, or eat as many cookies as humanly possible, but those are just bad choices. By no means do I encourage going through the holidays as a healthy grump who makes everyone else feel fat, but everything in moderation. Opt for the farther parking space instead of battling that grandma for the one up front. Walk up the mall escalator or take the stairs instead of the elevator. Carry your groceries to the car instead of using the cart. All of these are good ways to keep your body a bit healthier and happier over the holiday season.

Chances are, you will also find the stress level to being going down, energy levels to go up, and more enjoyment to be had this holiday season!!

Weighing In

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Since we are all friends here, I decided to be pretty honest about something... Summers can be a bit fickle for me in the gaining weight department, especially since we are up in Michigan where sweatshirts and booties are my daily uniform. This year was no different and I found myself eating, eating, and eating some more. I am not one to eat on a schedule; at home I eat when I am hungry and don't when not. Up in Michigan things are a bit different since meals are scheduled and I do not always make my way down to them. For this reason I find myself eating 2-3 of each meal and not the most healthy of things either. There is also TONS of midnight snacking and eating right before going to bed. The worst. 

When we got home I put myself on a scale for the first time in two months and was SHOCKED. This body of mine had somehow found a way to pack on ten extra pounds in 2-months time. Yikes. Although I am super happy that two of those pounds are muscle from all my intense Michigan workouts, the other 8-lb's were a bit of a shock. I am a big supporter of weight being but a number and the way you feel being most important, but have personally been feeling a bit bigger and clothing that I usually love is not zipping up so well.

So many of us go through these weight yoyo's and it just made sense to share mine with you. Sometimes we see people we think are super fit and healthy or have it all together, but the fact is, all of us have issues. Right now, my issue is losing those extra pounds that seemed to glue themselves to me over the summer.

The hubs recommended that I try a low-carb lifestyle for a while since he knows my addiction to bread and the whole thing about it not being great for me (I could, and have, eaten an entire loaf of bread in one sitting- it is just so good!). It is actually going very well and he is being super good about not having breads or super carby snacks in the house. Things are much easier not to eat when they are not available :)

So far, I have lost two of those pounds and these are a few of the things that have helped me do it...

• A low-carb diet that has plenty of fruits, veggies, and lots of protein!
• Snacking. My stomach seems bottomless now and I feel like I could eat an entire buffet's worth of food in one sitting. Snacking keeps me satisfied better than big meals that turn my stomach into a black hole of calories.
• Hot Yoga. This is something my body has very obviously been missing. It raises my heart rate, burns fat, and keeps my mind at peace... Everything I love in a workout!
• Drinking coffee black. So long yummy creamers filled with carbs, you weren't that great anyway.
• No more splurge days. This has probably made the biggest difference. I use to have one splurge day a week but could never remember when the last one was or would go out with friends a day after the splurge and end up having way more splurging than healthy eating on a weekly basis. Now, I am eating healthier by just keeping a healthy diet in mind and avoiding not-so-great things. If I want something unhealthy, it is not held off for a week, but instead, eaten in small quantities.

What are some of your tips and tricks to staying healthy or loosing some extra weight? I would love to know any suggestions you have and may even create a post or two about all your fantastic ideas! Any of your favorite calorie burning workouts would also be super appreciated since trying new workouts are, pretty much, the best thing ever!

Happy Friday friends, I hope your weekend is simply wonderful! Be sure to check out my workout sum-up this Sunday as well :)

TBT: What is Water Weight and How to Loose it

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Water weight is like a stealth bomber to so many people's fitness aspirations and one of the main causes of the dreaded mini yo-yo effect. With the mini yo-yo, you can gain and loose up to 10-pounds in as little as one night. Simply put, there is no way that we are able to gain pounds of fat or muscle that quickly, even if we are eating cruise ship style. Those crazy scale fluctuations that simply make no sense and leave me recalibrating my scale on an [almost] weekly basis can be attributed to water weight. This small annoyance has got me asking the questions what is water weight and where does it come from?

In simple terms, water weight is an abnormally large amount of fluid in our circulatory system. This fluid is mainly from the pressure in our capillaries getting too high. When this pressure gets to high, fluid is excreted into the surrounding tissue as a way of equalizing. Sometimes, this fluid is re-absorbed back into the capillaries when pressure regulates, and sometimes, it does not. When the fluid is not immediately re-absorbed, it becomes what we endearingly refer to as bloat or water weight.

Water weight can usually be found in our abdomen, legs, knees, and ankles. Although rare, water retention in the ankles and feet can also be a sign of congestive heart failure. This is normally only seen in people ages 50 and over. Other symptoms of congestive heart failure include fluid in the lungs and chronic coughing.  

There are a few less severe reasons for water retention other than congestive heart failure. Usually, bloating is brought on by a diet too high in sodium or alcohol, or too little water. By decreasing the alcohol consumption and limiting the amount of processed foods eaten on a daily basis, we can usually cut back the bloat. Of course, drinking at least 8 cups of water per day is vital for water retention prevention.

The average person will see a decrease in water retention after 1-4 days of a diet with lower sodium and alcohol and a higher intake of water. Sometimes, the weight loss process can take as long as three weeks, depending on one's diet. If your first go at loosing that water weight leaves you heavier rather than lighter, do not fret. It is common for our bodies to retain both the water we are drinking and the fluid in our body for a small amount of time. This normally goes away after the first 1-2 days.

Try eating grapefruits, blueberries, and non-artificial sweeteners to increase the water weight loss. Exercising at least 30-minutes per day will also help reduce water weight along with staying away from carbonated beverages, starchy foods, and dairy. For those who are extra serious about loosing those extra lb's, take Jillian Michaels water wight-loss challenge and drink 60-ounces of distilled water mixed with one tablespoon of sugar-free cranberry juice, 1 dandelion root tea bag, and two tablespoons lemon juice daily for a week. 

Check out this article for an in-depth list of foods to reduce bloating, and this article to find out some of the foods that cause it.  

Originally published on September 9, 2013 :)

6 Health Questions I Do Not Know the Answer To

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There are plenty, and I mean plenty, of ways to find out information on the internet. But, no matter how hard I look, a few questions of mine have still gone unanswered. Like most with a question, my first stop is the internets and it's wealth of knowledge. Unfortunately, these answers seem to not exist or I am at a loss for where to find them. 

I, therefore, set these questions out to the internets. Do you know the answers to any of these or have questions like them? 

1. What is a healthy body muscle percent?

We all know about body fat percentages, BMI, water percentages, and visceral mass, but what about muscle percent? Is there a healthy amount or is it just whatever is left over after everything else is a healthy number? 

2. Should I be sore after a workout?

This one is a little less of an unanswered question and a little more of a question that has many answers, all going in different directions. It also seems to change whenever the mood strikes. Is being sore a good thing for muscle growth like some say, or does it mean we breathed and drank to little?

3. Does height really make a difference to BMI?

It would make sense that it does since BMI only really covers two dimensions and we are three. But, would we have really gone this long in the health industry with something that measures us all wrong? I don't know... we did it with food. 

4. Give me real foods that are healthy and not fads

This is more a statement than a question. I am a bit simple when it comes to food and prefer to stay away from fads and "secret foods that will increase energy and health". I love spirulina and kale and vitamin B12, but there are so many fad mixes and sugar replacements out there; can't we just be healthy without jumping on a band wagon? 

5. Is a gym membership worth it?

We know that working out in groups is better for keeping us on track with our fitness goals, but do gym memberships count as groups? This is something I have been wondering as I have been taking more Orange Theory and Hot Yoga classes throughout the week. Unfortunately, I have found no conclusive data that shows a marked difference between health of non-gym and gym goers to share with you. 

6. What should I avoid to loose weight?

Haha, I tricked you on this one! There is a very good answer to this and one that will have it's own blog post quite soon. People have a predisposition to eat and not eat certain foods from the three categories- fats, carbs, and proteins. One of these three is harder for the body to breakdown and will cause weight gain. Thankfully, close monitoring of how what you eat effects your body, or, a quick genetic test will give you the answer.