Let The Sun Shine In

A little bit of sun is good for us. Just 10 minutes of sunshine is all you need every day to boost your vitamin D – even on cloudy days. And a vitamin D deficiency can increase your risk of stroke by 80%, not to mention the possible risk of heart disease. So go outside and enjoy the sunlight for a few minutes this weekend.

Warning, This Can Be Habit Forming

Up late, as usual, watching infomercials or as they call them these days “paid programming”. No, I don’t want the Colon Cleanse, I eat enough fiber, and no, I don’t want to buy a course to teach me how to sell on EBay, I do that already for free without your course thank you. But of course what always catches my eye are the exercise infomercials, oh sorry “paid programming”.

I sat through Slim in 6, Michael Thurmond’s Six Week Body Make Over and Kettleworx. They all were including, free of charge of course, a six week workout guide. I began to wonder why six weeks. Why not two, three or four weeks?

The idea behind the six weeks is that any activity, performed over and over and over again soon becomes a habit. Experts (how do I get on one of these expert panels, anyway?) have discovered that it takes six weeks of repetitive action to successfully form a habit. I guess this also applies to things that are bad for you so if I were you, I would not start any filthy repetitive activity that I don’t want to become a habit.

Now if you did not happen to be up late watching infomercials (damn, there I go again calling them infomercials) and did not get sucked into buying any of the fantastic exercise programs or the zero percent body fat models that were the “after” results of the program didn’t seal the deal for you to add another expense on your already close to maxed out credit card, then this means that you do not have the free six week workout guide that comes with said program.

Oh well, here is a trick, and I promise I don’t have many tricks in my magician’s hat anymore, but this trick is to take a regular calendar and choose a date that you want to begin your exercise program. Mark a BIG X on that date and an even BIGGER X on the date that is six weeks from that date. Make sure that you do your activity at least 3 times a week for the six weeks. Each week, mark that week off to show how much closer to your six week goal you are getting.

After you create your habit even if you take a break from it, you will find that picking it up again, is much easier than if you hadn’t established it at all, though taking a break from exercising I am not recommending (remember, you started this to become healthy not just to lose that stubborn ten pounds and then quit). This will be like riding a bike, even if your bike is buried in the garage under tons of crap, if you pull it out, you will get back on it and ride it like a pro.

TTFN
Diet Diva 4 Life

Pssst...Diaries Are Not Just for Your Dirty Little Secrets

Hello Diet Divas,
One of the most successful tips for getting and staying healthy is to maintain a food and activity diary. I mean, most of us, at least those of us who want to look like we are organized, keep a schedule of the things we plan to do either on a daily, weekly or monthly in some sort of organizer (there are some anal retentive Divas that do it on an hourly basis…bless you if you can do this and may I add, you need to see a professional for this sickness)

Write down the foods you eat or plan to eat, the activity you plan to do (walking, running, which DVD workout, etc) and how much of it you will do as well as the goals you plan on reaching for that day, week or month.

If you do this on a daily basis, make sure you do it the night before, this way the next morning you will know exactly what your meals and activities are. If you think that doing it a week at a time is your choice, then I suggest that you draft your schedule every Sunday night.

Now, please don’t write down what you know that you can never accomplish, that is setting yourself up for failure right from the start. Your behavioral goals should be simple and something that can be accomplished with few major changes in your life; example- cutting out excessive use of salt or sugar, or whatever behavior you want to change to make your life a more healthy one. Small changes can lead to bigger changes later on. Write it down and make it happen! (kinda like the movie, Field of Dreams..build it and they will come)

Remember to list EVERYTHING you eat, even snacks (don't try to lie and say you don't have the snacks Diet Divas, you know you do and you have to list them.) At the end of he week, sit down and review the past week. You may be surprised at the stuff you consume and the foods you can eliminate from your diet. I betcha didn't know that by cutting just 100 calories per day from your diet, you can lose ten (10) pounds a year. Yes, this is true.

So Diet Divas, in addition to keeping your diaries of “dirty little secrets,” keep a FOOD and ACTIVIY DIARY as well, believe me, this is one diary you won’t mind if it falls into the wrong hands or your mother reading if she happens to be spending her vacation with you and decides she wants to give your bedroom a quick cleaning (can someone please tell me why moms feel the need to still use that cleaning line? We all know they simply want to snoop)

If any of the Diet Divas out there do this already please give me some feedback, if you plan on doing it or have any other suggestions to add, give me feedback as well, I welcome it.

TTFN (TA TA FOR NOW)
Diet Diva 4 Life