Monday begins a new month. We are soon going to be in the whirl wind of the holidays(and 4th quarter craziness with travel for me). During this time food and exercise tend to suffer for a lot of us. We eat the wrong things because we are stressed or short on time. We are so mentally drained and tired we just can't seem to find the energy to get in a workout. Well we need to stop this. It is during these crazy stressful times that eating healthy foods to fuel our body and working out is so important. I would like to start an accountability group, this is open to all of my friends/family and any of your friends and family(just share my blog with them). I will post meal options, workouts that can be done at home in little time(or at the gym as well). Lets maintain(or loose) and not gain this year! I will use this blog as the biggest point of contact, we can comment on the post to encourage one another or throw around alternate ideas for one another. However, if you have a more personal question or are embarrassed to post here you can email or text me your questions. I also log my daily food and workouts on www.myfitnesspal.com you can find me on there user name mhackrott. Encourage your family to join you in this including the kids. You want to live a long healthy life for them well teach them how to live a long healthy life by including them in eating the right foods for fuel for the body and by making exercise fun for the family. Go for family walks or bike rides. Go to the park with the kids and don't just sit there watching them play join them! Do the monkey bars, do pull ups on the bars, do ab leg pull ins while hanging from the bars, do tricep dips on the short parallel bars, play tag or hide and seek, just keep moving with them! If they have sports practice you can walk while they practice, if there are bleachers you can run the bleachers, the list is endless! Where there is a will there is a way! You have to WANT to live this healthy fit life. Quit making excuses and just do IT!
Here are sample good for you foods(some better than others) by meal so you can make your grocery list (feel free to comment/post your food ideas/recipes):
Breakfast: (add veggies to your egg whites for more flavor)
-Plain oatmeal(Quaker or steel cut oats) with egg whites and a piece of fruit
-Dry whole wheat toast with egg whites and a piece of fruit
-yogurt(Greek has the most protein but I personally do not like it) with fruit and all natural organic granola
-egg Whites and turkey bacon or sausage and a piece of fruit
Lunch: (if you are somewhere where you can walk safely during lunch go for a 30min stroll)
-Campbell 100% all natural soups
-Salads made with dark leafy green lettuce options, grilled chicken, nuts, hard boiled eggs, other fruits and veggies with EVOO and Vinegar or other EVOO dressings
-Sandwich on whole wheat, low fat cheese, other veggies, no mayo or ranch, get the deli lunch meat so it is not so processed have veggie sticks and or fruit and not chips
-Grilled chicken and veggies and a piece of fruit
-Dinner left overs
Dinner: (try to have this by 7pm)
-Make your own whole wheat pizza crust and use skim milk mozzarella and lots of veggies you can use Canadian bacon or ground turkey for meat
-Grilled chicken or fish with veggies and brown or long grain wild rice
-Lean steak with veggies (limit red meat to once a week)
-Salads made with dark leafy green lettuce options, grilled chicken, nuts, hard boiled eggs, other fruits and veggies with EVOO and Vinegar or other EVOO dressings
-Whole wheat pasta with veggies and EVOO(saute green and red bell peppers, cherry/grape tomatoes, fresh garlic in EVOO toss in with wheat pasta or whole wheat pasta with the veggies and light Alfredo sauce or make your own marinara sauce and pack it with fresh veggies...if you want meat use ground turkey you can buy it with Italian seasoning)
-Grilled lean pork chops(I have a really good cilantro lime recipe) with veggies and brown or long grain wild rice
-Crock pot pulled pork
-Turkey Chili
Snacks: (2 a day)
-apple or banana with all natural peanut butter
-fruit
-veggies with hummus
-hard boiled eggs
-all natural sweet potato chips from central market with salsa(count out your serving then put the bag away)
-Laughing cow ice creams
-yogurt frozen or regular
-sliced cucumber and tomatoes(squeeze some lime juice over them)
-Protein shake before and or after your workout(you want to watch the calories and sugar on these, women you do not want creatin in yours)
Again the above foods are just to get you started there are so many options out there. Feel free to share your other ideas. Allow yourself one cheat MEAL a week. Limit alcohol intake.
As far as workouts shoot for at least 4 days a week, 5 would be ideal. You can walk, run, jog, bike, do weights at home or the gym, get a workout DVD(the Jillian Michaels are good when you are on a time crunch, Insanity is AWESOME, P90X is good if you have the time and extras that are needed). Take classes at the gym such as spin, boot camp, body pump/works, do yoga once a week(I do this on my "off/rest" day). You should not be doing only cardio. You need to do weights for toning and to build lean muscle that will help your body burn more calories.
I know I have given you a lot of information to process today but I hope you are willing to commit to start or continue a healthy fit life and join this accountability group for encouragement and to encourage others as well.
Stay fit my friends!
