Your Diet Is A Stretch

You need to do a bit of warm up before your daily walk to increase the effectiveness of the exercise and reduce any stiffness that might come later. There are just a few to do to give you a great start.

Hamstrings (back of legs)

1. Sit on the edge of your bed with one leg up and the other on the floor and reach with both hands until you feel the stretch in the back of the leg.

Calf stretch

1. Stand at arms length away from a wall and lean against it.

2. Put one leg straight back and the other bent under you.

3. Keep your back straight and lean your hips forward.

4. Keep rear leg straight with your heel on the ground.

5. Repeat for other leg.

Side stretch

1. Stand with both arms over your head.

2. Lean to one side, then the other.

3. You can also leave your right arm at your side and bend to the right while reaching your left arm reaches overhead, then reverse.

Torso twist

1. Stand with both arms out to side with elbows slightly bent.

2. Feet should be at shoulder width or slightly wider.

3. Twist your torso to the right and then the left, alternating back and forth slowly.

Quadriceps (thigh)

1. While leaning against a wall, reach back with your left hand and grab your right ankle.

2. Pull your foot back and away from your butt.

3. Repeat for the other side.

It really won’t take you long to do these. It’s a good way to start your exercise or even just your day.

TODAY: DO YOUR WARM UP EXERCISES.

Deal Your Meal A Deck At A Time

Remember that “deal a meal” diet plan? Well I’m going to make it even more simple. You don’t need a deck of cards, you just need to remember how big a deck of cards is. For the most part you can use that as a gauge for how large a portion you serve yourself. You don’t have to deny yourself the food you like, just eat a reasonable amount. Keep the portions of protein and starches the size of a deck of cards and savor what you eat. Of course salads and veggies can be larger. Half the plate of salad paired with your protein will give you a full house … er… stomach and keep your weight in check without a raise.

Of course after you eat make sure you shuffle… out the door for a walk. (I know, I’m a joker.)

TODAY: CUT YOUR HIGH CALORIE PORTIONS DOWN TO A DECK OF CARDS.

Lose Two Pounds A Week By Downsizing

If eating a quick lunch means a burger, shake and a large order of fries, then you’re eating 1500 calories in one meal. That’s a whopper! (Pun intended.) You can still have the fast food burger lunch, just make it a regular burger, small salad (no creamey dressings) and a low fat milk and you have cut over a thousand calories from that one meal. Cut a thousand calories from each day and you will lose two pounds. Honest.

You see 3500 calories equals one pound… of YOU. So by reducing your intake by 500 calories each day you will lose a pound in a week. A thousand gives you two pounds. That’s a nice slow reduction in weight thyat will keep you out of that dreaded yo-yo bounce. Add the 250 calories you will burn if you walk for a half hour and the healthful benefits of that exercise and you’re really looking good.

So in this economy where downsize has become a dreaded word, this is one that you want to be a part of.

TODAY: CUT 500 to 1000 CALORIES FROM ONE MEAL.

There Is No Bad Food, Just Bad Portions

Dietary researchers have just made one of those findings that just make you say “duh”! They have found that it doesn’t matter if you follow a low fat, low carb, low meat, low starch, or low mein diet. All that matters is whether you eat more calories than you use up. So we’re on the right track with our eat less exercise more plan. We’ll continue to try each of the varieties of diets. It keeps things interesting while encouraging you to pay attention to what you eat.

TODAY: EAT WHAT YOU WANT… JUST EAT LESS THAN YOU DID THE LAST TIME!

Eat For 20 Minutes

Okay… don’t eat the entire time. Just make sure that you stretch your meals out to at least 20 minutes. If you’re still hungry after finishing your meal, take a 20 minutes break. Sip a cup of coffee, relax, take your mind off eating. Then see if you are still hungry. You’ll probably find that you don’t need more calories. It takes that long for the “full” signal to get to your brain. The main thing is that you see the “stop” signal go on.

TODAY: SLOW YOUR MEALS DOWN.

Exercise Like You Shampoo

You’ve read it hundreds of times. Rinse, wash, repeat. Though the secret is that the directions originated from the marketing department at one of the shampoo companies. They realized that they could sell twice as much shampoo if they just told us to wash twice at a time! Well, if you approach your exercise program the same way you’ll quickly double your calorie consumption.

TODAY: EXERCISE, RELAX, REPEAT.

Don’t Let The Week End Your Diet

Studies have found that we eat more on weekends. I hope they didn’t spend a lot of money to figure that one out. All they had to do was visit a grocery store or look at a restaurant parking lot. Anyway, it turns out that we eat about up to 115 calories more per weekend day. It may not sound like much, but that would add up to an extra pound after ten weekends. So try and avoid those extra treats.

My trick for curbing snack cravings is to use diet sodas. The extra sweetness of Diet Dr. Pepper or Root Beer seem to be very satisfying. If you need a real thirst quencher after your extra long walk (hint, hint) try diet Tonic with a squeeze of lime.

Just don’t let the weekend be a weak end to what you are achieving.

TODAY: DOUBLE UP ON YOUR WALKING.