Keeping your food fresh ‘n new and inspiring your taste buds to keep you dieting is hard. It’s hard to vary green vegetables to the point where they begin to look like hot fudge sundaes. That takes talent.

And who wants to troll around the produce section of a store, looking lost, while searching for new and exciting things like: vegetables? Umm…not I said the pig. Plus, what if it tastes bad or even worse, isn’t that good for me.

Alright, alright…pipe down, already. The following are some veggies that you may have forgotten all about or never really paid attention to that are not obscure or unheard of that will surely give your diet a kick in the arse:

Cabbage: Sure, I know what you’re thinking. Thanks Jo, I just emptied a small convenience store in one swoosh. Not only are you not helping my cause, but you are creating mass destruction in the mean time. Ok, sorry. But cabbage, specifically red cabbage, is yummy and is stuffed full of antioxidants for beautiful skin and shiny hair. There are a bunch of different varieties of cabbage to choose from so you don’t have to stick with the red version, but it is my fave.

Cooking it: Saute it. YUM!

1 small red cabbage
1/3 cup chicken broth
2 T Olive, flax or udo’s oil
2 T lemon juice, divided
Clove of garlic, chopped or pressed

Cut up cabbage and let it sit for a minute. Sprinkle with 1T of lemon juice to preserve color. Steam cabbage in a pan with the broth for about 5 min. and then transfer to a separate bowl. While it is still hot, toss with the rest of the ingredients and enjoy.

Shiitake Mushrooms: I know, your freebies are mushrooms of every kind alongside trough size amounts of onions and peppers. Bear with me, will ya? You most likely buy the button mushrooms which are great for you, but they’re not shiitake. These babies are high in nutrients (iron, cholesterol lowering compounds, immune building phytonutrients) and come in a few different varieties as well. Not sure which ones are good ones? Grab the ones that are firm, plump and dry.

Cooking it: Saute it! Another YUM!

Same as above minus the lemon. However, make it into a soup after and it’s to die for.

4 cups boiling water and a ¼ c of miso paste and some sautéed onions and you are good to go. Let that simmer for about ten minutes and enjoy.

Lastly,

Swiss Chard: If you’re anything like me you are thinking: What in heaven’s name is swiss chard. Well I’m glad you asked…it’s a leafy green. Mmm, Jo. Just what I need (rolling your eyes), another leafy green. Oh stop it. This one tastes different. Like earwax with a sweet flavor. But don’t take that from me, try it yourself. Good stuff!

Ok, all kidding aside. It is different in taste that it is a bit on the bitter side, but its texture is what gets you. It’s nice and crunchy and also juicy. Good stuff all around. Plus, it’s not spinach.

Cooking it: Saute it! How’d you guess?

Only this time, no chicken broth. Use olive oil only and sauté it up with everything else. THEN, add 1 diced tomato, 6 black olives, ½ c crumbled feta cheese and 1 tsp fresh or ½ tsp dried oregano. This is different b/c it is warm and cold mixed together and the tanginess of the recipe adds just enough kick. Have fun!

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…do it at your own pace and do it for real.

Are you fatalistic? All or none? In it to win it or you just couldn’t care less?

If you or a family member is like this, you are not going to go very far in the heart healthy arena.

Yes, you can psycho diet and hit your goal quickly. You’ll be down 20 pounds in 8 weeks and aren’t you fabulous? Where will you be 6 months from then, though? You could still be down in weight, but odds are you won’t be any healthier.

The AHA doesn’t want you thin, they want you healthy. Having you lose the weight and the bad habits is not about making you look good in your room. It’s about keeping you alive in your room. Nothing is worse than getting excited about your new body and possibly having a heart attack because of it. Let me clarify that statement, too, because I think it will be lost on many. When you lose weight without investing in the process, you run the risk of having a weak heart but a lighter, faster body. This is dangerous stuff and you see this with people who want to just “lose the weight first” and then bring in the good habits second. The thing is, you strengthening everything—including your heart—when you do it the right way and leave yourself weakened and vulnerable when doing it the wrong way. Commit to at least one good habit every 2 to 3 weeks and you will be more likely to keep them.

Here are 3 of the easiest changes that you can get your mom, aunt, cousin, friend or whomever to buy into without them feeling backed into a corner:

1) Movement attached to something enjoyable. Typically shopping. Go with them to a mall and make them move at least once a week. While you’re doing that, ask them their schedule and have them tell you when they have periods of downtime. Give them examples of how they can fit 10 min. of exercise into those spaces. Things that do not count as exercise: running late, giving you the run around, jumping to another topic, etc.

2) One colorful food per day: Tell them they must eat one colorful fruit or veggie per day and they cannot have the same one two days in a row or more than 2 times in a week. That’ll make them a bit mad but they’ll get over it and begin to change or they’ll eat red peppers every day and tell you to MYOB. Beware of the latter.

3) A glass of water at 3 meals/day: You’re not saying every meal. You’re not saying they can’t have their precious diet Coke. You’re saying I just need you to have 3 glasses of water every day. If you can do that for me, I will {fill in the blank here: mow the lawn, pay your taxes, stop growing hemp in the basement, whatever} and they will be more likely to adopt this habit as well.

They say it takes 21 days to make a habit (and 3 min. to locate the nearest Coldstone Creamery—keep the away from Google!) so stay close to them for a while and encourage.

You know someone who is worth it to you. Help them along wouldja?

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I know you have heard the saying:  80% of your results come from 20% of what you do.  Well I am going to redefine this for you today in terms of dieting so that you may look at a different way of enjoying the cheat meal. 

Last post I defined a cheat meal for 2 scenarios:  a brand new person to the world of clean eating and a not so new person to the world of clean eating.  Both situations involved “being good” all week long so that you may enjoy a meal or dessert once a week that is completely off plan.  I want to make sure that I point out that in all forms of dieting I always assume that your week is full of variety so that you never feel deprived and you are not limiting your nutrients.  It is imperative that I emphasize that because that can get lost in translation as I go through this series.  You will not survive the diet game if you deprive yourself endlessly with no variety in site.

As you mature in the way you view your food, yourself, your relationship with food, you will begin to loosen up on your “rules” you had set out for yourself in the beginning.  Almost all of us have gone through the same cycle some time in our lives:  deprivation àunhealthy relationship with food àgive up dieting à start again à ease up on self negative talk à learn how to be one with food àsuccess.  You may be in the beginning of this cycle, you could be at the end or you may have repeated this cycle more than one time.  No matter where you are, you are trying to achieve what is referred to as balance or moderation.  These are elusive terms that conjure up pictures of blissful days just co-existing with a chocolate cake on the kitchen table that we only had a small slice of…one time…and didn’t pick at it…at all…not even once–kinda.

Balance can truly be achieved.  It is not fake.  It does exist.  You achieve it through the 80/20 rule: the diet pros way of incorporating a cheat meal into their diet.

Let’s say for ease of understanding and math that you eat 5 meals per day, evenly divided, with 3 components in each meal.  The components could be protein, starch, fruit or veggie or protein, fat, fruit or veggie or you fill in the combination that suits you.  Using this meal set up, four meals per day would equal 80% of what you eat for the day.  If I apply the 80/20 rule to this picture, this would mean you fulfilled your good eating for the day by meal 4 and can technically eat something not-so-on-plan for the fifth meal.  This would also mean that you could do this every day and still reach your goal depending on what your goal is and how long you have been dieting. 

As you continue and feel comfortable with what you are doing, you can do one of two things: either tighten the rule to 85/15 or 90/10 or you can keep it 80/20 but tighten the food choices that you deem as cheats.  Either one will move you through any plateaus that you may encounter and still keep you feeling in control of your diet and your progress.  The idea here is that you have something when you want it and you avoid the never ending up down up down of dieting via deprivation.  The more you feel at peace with this idea, the easier it becomes for you to follow it and then to begin to change your overall choices so that there is very little difference between your not-so-on-plan meals and your on-plan meals.  This is balance.

In my years of dieting folks I have realized that, we as fitness professionals, can only sit back and watch this cycle play itself out.  It’s like watching your teenage daughter go through all the dating trials you did and there is not much you can do to stop it.  In fact, you don’t really want to stop it because the learning she will do because of it is precious you just want to minimize the damage.  This is the same here.  You must find your way through what works for you diet-wise, but in an effort to help you through the cycle as unscathed as possible, us fitness professionals pen these articles for you.  The learning is essential but the suffering is optional.  Glean as much as you can from those that have dieted before you—it really helps.

What does a day like this look like you say?  As always, it depends.  But how about a person who is pretty comfortable with where they are in their physique goals and their eating patterns and may travel for work?  Meal 1 eggwhites, oatmeal, fruit  Meal 2 cottage cheese, ¼ sc pp, 1T Pb  Meal 3 ground turkey, big salad w/ fixings, dressing  Meal 4  protein shake, veggies w/ hummus Meal 5 Has dinner out.  Does not attack waitress on how to make food, has a starch maybe but is not worried about it so much and just enjoys the meal.  No processed food but might have a light sauce on it or maybe it is not just grilled—the point is, there is enjoyment here.  Next day, no guilt or worries—starts all over again.  That is one way to do it.  There are so many more but you need to experiment to find what’s right for you.  The take home message here is that you need to begin to trust your instinct, allow yourself some slack and begin to look at this as a life long journey instead of a season of dieting.

Trust me, I know it is hard. 

But when you finally give yourself a break and try this, you will be so happy that you did. 

Next, alcohol.  We will wrap it up after that with how this all really looks when we put food to it.  Woop woop!:o)

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It’s winter time here in New England and we begin to look forward (it’s that the word?) to snowy days, warm living rooms, Snuggie’s on the couch (what? You don’t have one?) with a good Life Time movie starring Jaclyn Smith (yes, I’m dating myself again).  It’s a perfect time to begin trolling the cabinets for things you shouldn’t be eating.  Your mind is on fire racing through all possibilities:

That jar of peanut butter.

The bag of almonds.

The rice cakes—wait, they’re not open, yet. Whew.

I know what you are thinking.  Just a few nibbles.  No one will know and they won’t count because you promise not to chew.  What could be the harm?

You and I both know this could get ugly up in here but before I tell you how this drama concludes, let’s get into defining what really constitutes a cheat meal…

The “In the Beginning” Meal

I think all of us remember when we first started dieting.  It seemed so simple then.  You ate right—you lost weight.  Cool stuff.  But the average woman has been on at least 4 major diets (I say major because aren’t we all on a diet at some time during the day, every day?) by the time she hits 30.  That’s crazy and the body does not instantly respond like it did before.  But the beginning is the best time.  You’re a dieting virgin and you can get away with so much so why not take advantage?  If you love something, have it–please.  This also applies to the person who has a good amount of weight to lose (30 plus pounds).  Keeping your diet super clean is not prudent and it causes you to become a bit psycho—and I mean that literally.  It really is all about transition, moderation and being in it for the long haul.  

This means that extreme measures this far out will never work.  If you have been eating a slew of junk for years and then decide to clean it up (first, good for you! Yay!), don’t try to go cold turkey here.  Food is habitual and you will be good for about 2 to 3 weeks and then cave to the pressure, “cheat”, feel guilty and then throw it all out the window.  Let’s avoid all that.  What’s a good cheat for you?

The back room of a Wendy’s.

The first row of the ice cream display at Baskin and Robbins.

Any pizza—the whole pizza—at a Bertucci’s restaurant.

Everything in the cabinet at home.  You know, THAT cabinet.

Now am I serious?  No.  And I am sure you figured that out real quick but I am making my point here which is, have what you want.  Do not put any restrictions on what you eat but do restrict how you eat it.  Keep reading.

YOUR GUIDELINES

One meal.

One serving—no seconds.

It must fit on one plate.

If it’s a meal, no dessert.  If it’s a dessert, the meal must be clean.

You may NOT stuff yourself.  

Do not try to plan your day around it.  Just have it.

Don’t look back and don’t feel guilty.

Do describe it in detail and email me b/c I love to live vicariously through you.

The Blue Pill Vs. The Red Pill

Oh boy. 

You went for the red pill.  

Now you have the knowledge of good food vs. bad food.  You follow rules.  You pack your lunch.  You read labels.  You may do one of the following:  limit your fat intake, your carb intake, overall caloric intake, dessert intake and etc.  You have entered the Diet Matrix. 

There is no turning back.  You know too much now.  Your mind is forever tainted with too much information and you can no longer eat pancakes with bacon on a daily basis (which is a shame because bacon really does make everything better.)  You now know how far that rabbit hole goes.  But what does that mean really? 

It means you have been dieting long enough that you no longer have seismic weight drops when you begin a diet or you are within 15 to 20 pounds of your goal.  You have enough clean eating under your belt that your tastes should be changing and you no longer need to revisit the overly processed food gods to tame your palate.  Things like…

A good pasta dish at a restaurant.

Any meal that is not fried.

A yummy dessert but not the Jim Dandy size.

A healthy version of pizza.

A full sugar soda—16 oz or less.

You, my dear, have a different set of rules.

YOUR GUIDELINES

One meal, not overly processed.

One serving, no seconds

Should be same portion size as most of your meals. Same for desserts—no gorging.

Move away from fried food or overly cheesy meals.

Plan it into your day.

Keep in mind these are guidelines.  Everyone is different and you have to find what is right for you.  But you are no longer taking a stab in the dark, you have a starting place. This is just a tip of the iceberg for cheat meals.  I have not discussed the diet pro, yet, because they are getting their own post.  Way too much to cover there.  And I will qualify the statements above such as ‘plan it into your day’ and ‘not overly processed’ in another post. 

Much more to come like alcohol, functions, restaurant vs. eating at home and etc. so keep checking for more posts.

But what happened to the scenario above?  She realized the harm could be how she would feel the next day, so she opted for a cup of herbal tea and finished watching the movie.  What did you think she would do?:o)

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Cheat meals are both a blessing and a curse.  When we first begin dieting they tend to be the biggest worry for the newbie dieter:

Can I have a cheat meal?

What counts as a cheat meal?

What can I have as a cheat meal?

Just the thought of eating off plan the first two to three weeks for some folks is too much to handle because ‘they want to get everything right’ or they are trying to maximize the amount of weight they can lose in that time.  During this time you try to eat as clean as possible and deny yourself the right to even breathe by a bakery much less walk into one.  I am going to venture to say that you go over the top during this time by trying to over diet.  This eventually backfires when you just cannot take it anymore and do the backstroke through the buffet table at the Beansprout restaurant.  Not pretty.

The other end of the spectrum is counting down the minutes to your cheat meal to the point where you have a counter on your blog stating: 3 days 2 hours 25 min 32 sec til my cheat meal.  There’s cause for concern if this is you.  You’re going to wait until you have a cheat meal but you’re going to treat it like it’s the last meal in the year 2012.  Not only do you plan it down to the moment, but you have built it up to the point that unless this meal comes served with a 2 week vacation in Maui, you are not going to be happy.  So now you cannot stop with just the meal.  You’re actually let down so you start trolling through the cabinets for something to satisfy the fantasy you just basted all week long.

For the next couple of posts I am going to dissect the cheat meal for you.  I’ll talk about what you can get away with, pitfalls, fallacies and etc. with the hopes of getting you through this holiday season safely (I don’t want anyone throwing their back out hucking their scale out the window.lol).  There is an art to this and you can master it.  If you understand what makes you psycho, you can get in front of it and own it before it owns you.  Also, if you also understand how much damage this meal doesn’t do, you will handle the day after so much better. 

Get ready to venture into the land of cheat meals…WOOP WOOP!:o)

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I realize it is that time of year now where fitness professionals start giving out hints and tips for staying focused during the holidays.  They tell you how not to gain weight and how to stay on track and etc.  I may or may not pull one of those out of the closet this year but before I do, I am going to give you at least 3 or 4 posts that say to you, “Really? I mean really?”

My main message has been and most likely will stay as ‘what you need to do to look good naked’.  You want more out of your body and you expect more out of yourself.  This means the proverbial “put some extra veggies on your plate” type of lecture almost seems out of context here.  But we are human right?  We’re not perfect and we should never try to be.  So I am sure you’re wondering what’s on my mind right now…

Snacks.

Yes.  Snacks.

They torment you so they torment me. 

If I had a dollar for every “I know what to eat for my meals but what can I have for my snack?”.  Umm…food.  The same stuff you have been eating all day.  Just have less of it.  

Somewhere some clown made all of us think that there is this *snack fairy* who is going to come along and give us this unknown snack food that is clean and legal that is going to WOW us like no other.  This food is rich and full of flavor, bursting with color and juiciness that sends our eyeballs to the backs of our heads.  Motion stops, breathing stops, the world stops as we savor this snack as if it was our last meal.  The phone is ringing, kids are crying, mountains are moving—heck, the universal health care debate is being solved and we just don’t care!  We have our snack, by golly and dammit it’s amazing!  Why haven’t we eaten this before?  Why didn’t Jodi tell us about this snack?  It has no calories, amazing texture, can be eaten everyday without any ramifications; it has protein galore and no ST count in it.  OH MY LORD I THINK I HAVE FOUND UTOPIA!

Then you wake up.  Wipe the drool off of your face.  And realize you are holding a cup of plain Fage yogurt with cut up strawberries in it.  Good.  But not where your mind just was…

Snacks are only elusive to you because you do not want to admit that there is no secret snack out there.  There is nothing majorly new under the sun.  Really what you are saying to me is, “Jodi, this is your problem that I find food boring.  You need to make up some new food so I can stick to my plan.  Because you refuse to make this exciting for me and force me to find a cookbook or recipe on my own, I can fully justify this really yummy pastry I found in the office lounge because you have abandoned me in my time of need.”  Sound familiar?

Most of you are savvy shoppers.  You are google fiends.  I am not falling for the “I cannot find any snack ideas (that do not involve copious amounts of starchy carbohydrate).  There are none that are clean (that I like or feel like eating) with protein in them.”

Ummm…yeah….

So here is the deal.  You want what you want when you want it.  So you are going to have to do what you have to do when it is time.  Period. 

There are plenty of snacks all over the web.  I will post them for you as we get deeper into the holidays if I come across them, but let’s be very real here:  The issue isn’t the lack of recipes floating around or the lack of information available to you, the issue is your mindset and *deciding* on how you want this holiday season to go. 

Feel free to let me know what your decision is.

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Last week (and some of the week before) I was hit with a bug that nearly took me out.  It has been a long time since I have been sick and it made me sit down and analyze my diet and sleep patterns to see if there is a “whole in the bucket” somewhere.  While no one can live completely sick free, there are ways to boost your immunity enough that sickness is a rarity.  For the most part, I feel pretty confident about nutrition and sleep because I almost never get sick (honestly cannot remember the last time I was) but knowing that no one is perfect, I brought out my check list to make sure I was covering all my basis.

Fruits and Veggies

If you do not know by now, I am a true advocate for variety in the diet.  Eating the same foods every day assures you that you have only those nutrients covered in your diet while leaving you hopelessly deficient in others.  It goes without saying that you need to get out there in vast landscape of the supermarket called the produce section and move past the apples and berries.  Find some foods that will help you make it through this season like garlic, onion and leeks.  All 3 of those are high in a sulfur-containing compound called allicin which is a no-joke antibacterial and antiviral agent that hugs up on Vitamin C to get the job done.  Not only will it keep you healthy, but it will make your breath so nasty that no one else (who may be sick themselves) will want to get close to you thereby keeping you healthy.

Buy Local and In Season

Right now you may be tempted to add variety to your diet by eating the latest and greatest food that has been shipped in from North Kalamazoo.  While I encourage you to open your diet with new stuff, I want to try and discourage you from eating foods that might have sat on a truck for more than 3 days.  The longer that fruit or veggie has been sitting on a truck, the less nutritious it is.  Try to find your local produce market if you can and buy what they have on display.  I live in MA and we have a store here by the name of Lambert’s.  Their produce comes from local sources so you can be assured that it still has most of its nutrient profile in tact. 

Holy Crap!  Is That Normal?

Another temptation we all have is to buy the biggest or best looking fruit or veggie in the market.  Umm, don’t do that.  I know you are thinking that it looks amazing, but I betcha ten bucks it doesn’t have as many nutrients in it as the small guy next to it.  Big mumbo jumbo perfectly looking fruits and veggies tend to be grown with fertilizers that are higher in nitrogen count.  These fertilizers cause the fruit or veggie to take up more water making them look bigger and better—but they aren’t.  They are just bigger and more water logged.  They still have the same amount of nutrient in them as the small ones do but now they come with more nitrogen—and that can’t be good for you!  Nitrogen can reduce the body’s ability to carry oxygen and as an athlete, there can’t be much worse than that!

Honestly, You Make Me Sick.

Lastly, when you look at your diet and start to switch things around, look for items that may also cause you to have sensitivity to them.  There are some more notorious than others (dairy, eggs, wheat, nuts and shellfish can wreak havoc on your life more than spinach, tomatoes and oranges) but nonetheless, they are harmful to you in that they keep your immune system so busy that little buggies have a chance to sneak in.  Try to be cognizant of how foods make you feel when you put them in your diet.  Since you are not eating the same thing every day (cough, cough), make a note if you become tired, queasy or irritable after eating certain foods.  This info is vital to your success because you could be wearing yourself down day after day with foods that you think are good for you when in fact, they are hurting you little by little.

It was a long 2 weeks for me that I was sick.  It was not a flu, more like a head cold on crack but it took me out regardless.  I will be doing the nutrition overhaul starting today to make sure there was nothing missed because I would rather be dragged down the street by wild horses than go through that again.  Make today a healthy one!

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It’s the fall right now but winter is around the corner in New England.  We will go from balmy and 70 degrees one day to dry and 30 degrees the next.  When that happens, the first thing on your body to “complain” is your skin.

I’m going to let you in on a secret:  my skin is a source of stress for me.  There is very little in my life that bothers me quite like my skin does.  Now you know I am going to tell you it is all my fault—because I am my own worst enemy.  So I am a sun lover for sure!  Nothing I love more than lying out in the sun…in Aruba…on the equator…with oil on me…and a meat thermometer to make sure I’m not overcooked. Hehe.

Yeah, I know, read me the riot act.  But I am now paying for my over indulgence of the big fireball in the sky with age spots.  Now truth be told, it could be worse.  I could have a whole host of things cropping up left and right for as much as I abused the gift of the sun, but I do not because of my insatiable love of omega 3 fatty acids.  Besides keeping my wrinkles at bay and smoothing out the texture of my skin, EFAs provide the structure necessary for skin with “snap”.  You know, non saggy skin.  So let’s get right into it and talk about what you might be going through this winter:

Dry skin:

Ignoring the fact that you want to shower with molten lava and wash your skin with heavily perfumed soap, you may find that no matter what you do you cannot rid yourself of dry skin.  The first place to look is your diet.  Are you hydrated and are you eating fats?  You want to have at least ¾ of a gallon of water per day and at least 3 to 5 servings of a good omega 3 rich fat source preferably in the form of an oil.  A long time ago I was told by a well known naturopath that you should have as much oil as you can tolerate that leaves your skin moistened after coming out of the shower.  I can tell you right now, none of y’all will try that, so let me ease your burden a bit with this recommendation:  if one serving of good fat per day does not help, add a ½ serving per day until it does.  Give it as much as a week to kick in before going up in the fat and cut a little bit of something else out during the day to make up for the extra cals.

Greasy skin:

You have a sweet tooth, girl.  Knock it off.  Too much sugar and fat helps the body to form a layer on the skin that is shiny.  If you replace those sweets with EFAs, you will fair much better.  Feel free to share those sweets with the rest of us so we may help you to move on from your bad habit.  Hopefully it was brownies you were eating…I’m just sayin.

Bumpy skin:

Increase the amount of orange foods in your diet (Vit A) and ease off the dairy a bit.  These occur more as an allergy to a food and typically dairy is the chief offender.  I know you love your greek yogurt, but 2 in a day is a bit much.  Let’s diversify a bit, shall we?

Acne prone skin:

Just like the greasy skin, walk away from the processed fats and the refined sugar.  They are killing you.  A clean diet with adequate hydration should begin to give you some relief although it is not always the full answer.  Also, a vitamin deficiency will also cause your acne to come out more and you know how I feel about vitamins so this should already be handled! [giving you a hairy eyeball]  If you are an athlete, or as active as one, you will not get all that you need from food alone and then your body begins to give you a hard time.  Listen to it when it talks to you, it knows more than you do.;o)

Nutritionally there is more to it than just EFAs if you want to survive a rough winter.  Vitamin E, Vitamin C, zinc, Vitamin A and selenium all aid in keeping your skin soft and healthy and are abundant in a clean, varied diet.  If you can venture out of your zone and eat more than just the same two veggies and one fruit that you eat every day, you should be well ahead of the game.  Another thing to note is, all those vitamins and minerals also do well for you topically.  So if you can find a good moisturizer with any of those added, grab it.  The more back up you can provide your skin with, the better.

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The clocks have been pushed back, it’s colder in the morning, it’s dark out at 4pm in the afternoon…HELP! I’m losing my workout mojo again!

Honestly, I loathe the winter time.  If I could move to Florida (and know that when I came home from work my house wasn’t blown away in a hurricane or taken over by flying cockroaches) I honestly would.  I would love to be able to work out outside all the time.  I love the sound of nature, the difficulty of an outdoor workout and the freedom from the time ticker on a cardio machine.  But alas, I live in New England and it is that time of year again.  It is time for me to become creative and find something that gets me going when I don’t want to do anything but curl up in a ball on the couch with a Snuggie (no, I don’t own one yet but I am obsessed)! 

One of the most successful things that I have found to work for me is to change my cardio based on the seasons—or at least time intervals of weeks.  This helps tremendously and keeps me from getting in a cardio rut.  If you have the luxury of being able to do this—do it! 

Right now it is windy and unpredictable so my workouts have moved to the street where I will either bike now or hill walk.  I live in the hilliest area of my city and I love it.  In the summer it was all about field workouts and track workouts because the grass was conducive to direction change (no leaves on the ground) and great traction.  The winter is now upon us almost and I am considering my next outdoor adventure:  snow shoeing.  Yes…snow shoeing. 

I have never done it but I am really looking forward to trying it.  Not sure if I am going to or not, but it is a definite possibility.  I want to stay outside.  I am not a long distance runner—I am a sprinter by DNA—so that’s not really appealing to me and biking becomes dangerous once the snow falls.  So I am left with no choice other than to become really creative with my cardio if I want to stay outside for the majority of my workouts. 

Now if you know me you know that this is going to last until the first real cold day and then I’ll be over it faster than you can say 9-10 cardio!  Then I’ll hunker down to a nice kettlebell workout or a heavy complex and use that for cardio til it thaws out. 

No matter what your weapon of choice is, find something that brings out the kid in you.  Nothing stresses me out more than looking into the eyes of the drones on the elliptical machines in the gym who have been sucked into the land of mindless cardio.  There has to be more to life than that and I am punking you right now to find it.  Man up and get out there and find a great cardio alternative!…and then come back and share!  WOOP WOOP!:o)

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On a normal work day, I get up at 4 am and start my long arduous commute to work in my basement.  It could take me a whole 3 min. to get down there if there is a lot of traffic that morning.  If there is traffic, it’s always around my kitchen area where there could be something left out and in the way that distracts me from the task at hand.  I try to find alternate routes to work when that happens because I can really be bogged down in there for as long as 15 to 20 min.  I have a very clear objective in the morning: avoid the kitchen.

 I get up that early in the morning because I honestly want my brain as sharp as possible for whatever task is at hand that day.  I love that the house is as quiet as a church mouse and I have free run of the living room, kitchen (even though it’s a boobie trap) and basement.  It is honestly the best time of the day for me in terms of creativity.  That’s huge!  Because as we age we take for granted one of the most precious gifts we have been given—our brains.

Have you ever been mid sentence and just lost your train of thought?

Have you ever been mid sentence and just lost your train of thought and who you were talking to lost it as well?

Have you ever put something down in the house and then for the life of you, have no idea where it is?  Only to find it a day later in a draw or on some obscure shelf?

Ever set up an elaborate color coding system for something in your house or your job and then not remember what it all meant so you had to start over or just scrap it?

Still can’t remember all the names of the parents of your child’s fourth grade friends even though you’ve known them all since your child was in PreK?

Do you remember a time when you were just flowing with creativity and so much around you inspired you?

Have you ever written up a long list of things to do so you could avoid forgetting it all only to lose the list somewhere in your house/office/car and not be able to check it all off?

 Losing your mind is not a normal part of aging; it’s a normal part of everyday neglect.  High stress, poor nutrition (even if eating all the “right” foods), being sedentary, being stuck in a rut and lack of proper vitamins can really do a number on your brain.  Eventually, it translates into poor cognitive response from your brain and you are left standing in Starbucks staring at the menu as if it changed from the day before and they added 10 new items! 

 It’s time to exercise your brain to keep it sharp as a tack and as pliable as clay.

 1)       Break the Chain!

I know it feels good to have a regimented schedule where we get a lot done in a day, but doing the  same thing every day is just as bad for us as eating the same thing every day.  Step outside of yourself at least once per week and do something different.  Learn something new.  Stretch your mind like you do your muscles and your wallet! My nose is always in a book or I am forever in a class of some sort.  Learn, learn, learn! 

2)       It’s Playtime!

Remember when you were younger and you would get those silly puzzle type books for Christmas or your birthday?  They would have connect the dots in them, crosswords, word play and etc.  Didn’t you just love those?  Good, go buy one right now.  Get on it and get cookin’!  Books like those are the “treadmills for the mind”.  You will be that much sharper once you do a few crosswords and word scrambles that challenge your current level of thinking.  Even if you do not get them right, you’ll be that much wiser.  Hurry up, Highlights is waiting for you.

3)       Power Foods to the Rescue!

Omega 3 oils, nuts, fatty fish and some white fish, chocolate (yes, I said chocolate) and tomato juice/sauce are all brain loving foods.  Get them in your diet.  Are you surprised to see the good fat there?  Honestly, I am going to start snorting it now and just cutting right to the chase.  Do we need any more examples as to why it is so important in our lives? 

4)       Ok Killah, Chill Out!

A bit high strung?  Working 25 out of 24 hours in a day?  Packing more in before lunch than an entire city full of workaholics can in a week?  Not good!  Back it down or you are priming yourself for a great brain frying event.  You are going to burn out faster than a cheesy incense stick purchased on a Manhattan corner!  And burn out means only one thing: fried brain cells.  Say hello to confusion, fog, mood swings, large memory gaps and more.  You need to get a handle on your situation now before you incur permanent damage.

Now all of this exercise is occurring outside of the gym and is very doable!  There are no excuses here.  Get to lovin’ and pamperin’ your mind right now and stop the leaky faucet in its tracks.  You may be so far gone right now that you don’t even know you lost your mind—now that’s a shame if so.  Let’s all hope for the best if this is you.  But if you have enough where-with-all about you to know it’s going down, then get on it!  A mind is a terrible thing to waste!  (As well as a good meal and an even better dessert.  Another post for another time, for sure!)

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