At age 40, Holly Mosier felt like she had hit a wall. “[It was] hard to come out of my bedroom at times. I was a wife, mother, stepmother, trial lawyer… trying to blend a family and maintain some semblance of peace, joy, health and vitality, and I was failing miserably,” says Holly. She sought solutions everywhere she could think of to find tools that she could work in to her life despite being a very busy professional and mother.
Despite searching in books, seminars, classes, medical studies, experts, and television shows, as she looked for practical, efficient solutions, and Holly never found the answers she was looking for, she was able to develop her own set of tools to create a “lifestyle that balances the needs of the mind, body, and spirit in a practical, efficient way.” After working these techniques into her own life and seeing the result, Holly put them together in her book Stress Less, Weigh Less. Holly has now expanded her techniques to create the following tips for handling holiday stress.
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Christmas is supposedly the Season of Joy, except for many, it steals joy like the Grinch stole Christmas from the Who’s. Holiday distress can be caused by traffic, crowded shopping malls and parking lots, financial struggles, and a calendar crammed with holiday parties and events. In addition, the season shocks us with a dip in temperatures requiring extra time and bundling, the least amount of daylight in a 24 hour period of the entire year, and for many of us, complications such as snow, ice, sleet, and a wintry mix. The real culprit stealing the joy of the season for many is grief: missing a loved one during holiday celebrations, unfulfilled dreams or unmet goals, memories of old hurts, and/or family situations that do not meet the holiday ideal.
When you are feeling a bit Scroogey during the holiday season (or any time), it is extra tempting to eat fatty, sugary foods, eat larger portions, skip workouts and stay in bed longer than necessary. Depression also encourages negative thinking patterns which can lead to personal put-downs, self-doubt, and giving up on goals. They may seem basic, but these tips can help you avoid having a Blue Christmas and hold steady on your goals through the end of the year.
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Often, the most scary part of Halloween isn’t the costumes or the pranks, but the treats. We’ve all seen the baskets of candy kids come home with after a night of trick-or-treating. Now a group of farmers, appropriately titled A Bunch of Carrot Farmers, has come up with a new plan to help kids make a healthier choice.
Late this past summer, the group began a campaign entitled “Eat ‘Em Like Junk Food” to get kids to eat more carrots by borrowing the sales tactics of junk foods. The branding program included packaged baby carrots in potato chip-sized bags and selling them in brightly colored refrigerated vending machines, using vibrant billboards and flashy commercials. The campaign even featured a carrot-crunch-powered iPhone and iPod Touch game, “Xtreme Xrunch Kart,” available as a free download at the iTunes store.
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When you hear “Oktoberfest“, what comes to mind? If you are anything like me, it’s beer. Beer can be a caloric bomb, though, next bringing to mind the term “beer belly”.
Beer doesn’t contain fat; however, it does have tons of carbohydrates, protein and alcohol- and that’s it. Beer is the epitome of empty calories, giving you all the calories with no vitamins, minerals or redeeming health qualities whatsoever. A gram of carbohydrates has 4 calories, a gram of protein 4 calories, and a gram of alcohol has a little over 7 calories. This is why different beers can have higher calorie counts in relation to their alcohol content.
To keep things in perspective, I found this information online at realbeer.com: “A five-ounce glass of wine contains about 125 calories; one ounce of distilled spirits, 90 proof, 75 calories. Beyond the world of alcohol: an eight-ounce glass of milk has 160 calories, one ounce of potato chips 160 calories, a banana split 550 calories, and a Burger King Whopper 650 calories. Oh yeah, just six French fries have 12 grams of fat (about as many calories as a light beer).”
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Two weeks into the New Year…. how is your new weight management plan working for you? What are some of the new habits you have incorporated into your daily activities that you feel good about? I would love to hear what is working for you, as well as what is not working for you, so we can troubleshoot together.
Just in case you need a few fun reminders, here’s a quick hit list of the things that are working right now for those experienced weight managers:
1. Forgive yourself for the Holidays. That’s right, no matter what you indulged in, it was all good. Memories of good times with people you care about are WAY more important than whether or not you fit into your skinny jeans. Time to move on and move forward, and tell yourself every meal opportunity is a new opportunity to choose health and body confidence.
2. Increase and/or change the intensity of your workouts. Whether it’s squeezing in a walk with Fido, or adding swimming to a cardio routine, changing your activity has been shown to kick start the body’s ability to build muscle, the key to a well-tuned metabolism. Take advantage of all those post-holiday sales, and buy those resistance bands you have had your eye on. Defined arms by Labor Day? You betcha!
3. Add calcium and fiber for passive weight loss. Yes, it’s that easy. Studies have proven that by ingesting low-fat sources of calcium, and making sure to include adequate fiber intake into one’s daily diet, will aid in weight loss without any change whatsover to a person’s activity program. Who doesn’t like easy?
