Bigger isn’t always better. In fact, when it comes to weight loss, it’s often the small changes that end up tallying up to greater rewards. No wonder the idea of small victories is one of the hallmarks of the Best Life plan. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking small.
Say a word—or two.
Flexing your small-talk muscle can actually aid in maintaining your overall health. Social interactions have a lot of positives, including an elevated mood and reduced stress-hormone levels, that can keep you both emotionally and physically healthy, studies say. Not to mention, chatting it up can be an effective distraction from the buffet table or bar at most parties. Read Full Post >
Last week on Live Big With Ali Vincent, we met Dominique who is getting ready for a day she’s dreamt of for years…her wedding day. Of course Dominique wants to feel amazing walking down the aisle. She also wants to jump start her new life as husband and wife in a healthy way.
Have you ever had that special occasion you wanted to lose a few extra pounds for? I certainly have…and still do. I think special occasions are great opportunities to reboot our healthy living. However, if you switch your lifestyle completely just to lose a few pounds you run the risk of returning back to your old habits and gaining all your weight back (and probably more). Read Full Post >
When most people start a diet, they focus on the numbers that appear on the scale, but Colleen Fields had a different sort of goal in mind, her dress size. In January 2010, Colleen weighed 304 pounds and wore a size 26 W. Her goal was to shed enough weight so that she could wear a size 12 by her 40th birthday. She knew she had just under two years to make it happen.
As a child, Colleen remembers being “chubby,” but says her real struggle with weight didn’t occur until after she had her second child. She gained 75 pounds with her son and never shed the extra weight. Then, a divorce and the demands of being a single parent caused her to gain even more.
Colleen explains, “I had a terrible marriage that left me with significant self-esteem issues. I left him shortly after my son was born and I poured myself into my kids (I also have a daughter, same father, who is three years older). I went back to school, I worked full-time, and I shuttled them to all of the normal kid activities – Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, gymnastics, baseball, soccer, dance, swimming, etc. I wanted to give them as much of a normal childhood as possible despite the fact that their father was not involved in their lives, and in the process I ignored myself. I would leave work, pick them up from day care, take them to their activities, grab fast food, get home and do homework, then put them to bed and I would do my own homework. There was no time for me and I didn’t make me a priority.”
Exercise scientists have found that a seven minute, high intensity workout yields the same cardiovascular and muscular results as an extended fitness session, like running for a couple of hours.
The exercise program incorporates 12 different workouts, executed in quick succession with less than 30 seconds of rest between bouts, and works to maximize metabolic efficiency.
Longer exercise sessions negatively impacted the intensity of a workout, and 15-20 repetitions of an individual fitness bout fulfilled metabolic requirements, according to researchers at the Human Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.
The 12-step circuit aims to sustain an increased heart rate while burning calories and developing strength in the core, upper, and lower body.
The workout can beconveniently completed at home with your own body weight serving as natural dumbbells and your office chair the only equipment required.
When my young son came home from school on April 15, I had to share with him the sad news about the Boston Marathon bombings. I was gentle and only gave the information a nine-year-old needed to hear. I had the TV on and he walked into the room and saw the cleared scene of the crime. He immediately said, “Mommy, that’s exactly where we stood.”
I knew that the moment the news broke, my husband did, too. But it didn’t quite sink in until our child was impacted by the closeness of this terrible event. The second timeI ran Boston, my son and husband stood under the international flags and cheered for me as I finished. My son’s world changed on April 15, 2013. It changed in a way that broke my heart.
Erin Kreitz Shirey also had a similar sad moment with her little girl on April 15. Instead of being able to report the winning times, she had to tell her about the tragedy and how the race was stopped.
“What about the kids cheering on their parents? Mom, are they OK? Are the kids hurt?”, innocently questioned Shirey’s daughter that night. Her daughter, like my son, had cheered for her mother at many races as well.
We and many other parents struggled to talk to our kids about this event, especially our fellow running parents. We’ve all had our kids at races, standing on the curbs, hanging on the fences cheering. Now what are we supposed to tell them? Read Full Post >
