September, in conclusion

My goal for September was to live the SWEET Life. My weakness all month was what goes into my mouth: Water and Eating. I learned a few things by tracking my SWEET Life Cycle last month: 

I need to take Water with me if I'll be out of the house for long periods of time. I need to remember that!

I need to only eat foods that I can measure, no more "nibbles!" I have 1 cup Chinese soups bowls, 1/2 cup custard cups, 1/4 cup tiny ramekins & lots of soup spoons (~1 T.) to use to be more aware of how much I'm eating. This also helps me focus on eating more variety, rather than large quantities of one food.

So my goal for October is to focus on Eating less and drinking more Water.

As my business develops, I'm realizing how the different parts of my business will fit together. Therefore, I'm starting a new blog, integrating what I'm doing: Balanced Healthy Lifestyles: http://balancedhealthylifestyles.blogspot.com/
Look there in the future!

Lose It Success!

Well, no, I didn't successfully lose weight; I successfully tracked the day's calories & exercise on Lose It! (iphone app). I finally decided to stop complaining about those couple pounds of belly flab that are making my waistbands tight and, instead, do something about it. It's very simple: I just need to eat less (because I already exercise enough). I needed to make measuring cups my friends and use them throughout the day. I needed to become honest with myself about how much and what I was "nibbling" throughout the day. In the end, it wasn't difficult to stay near my calorie target for the day, and after dinner, I added in all my exercise, which dropped me way below my calorie target. (Lose It! adds more calories to consume if you burn off calories in exercise. But that doesn't help me lose weight, so I add in my exercise after consuming all my calories.) What's really nice is that right now, after dinner, I feel satisfied but not stuffed and bloated, like I have been feeling lately!

In other aspects of the SWEET Life, I went to bed too late last night to get enough Sleep. Along with tracking my calories, I tracked my Water intake on Lose It! I atE 1411 calories with a good range of nutrients. I taught GO Fitness and walked to Ruby's Tumbling and back with my girls for Exercise. Lastly, I had a morning free of children to get stuff done and have some Tranquility.

So today I lived the _WEET Life. :-)

After 3 weeks: living a SWEETer Life

The thing that helped me live a SWEETer Life the most was writing a journal: just sitting down at the computer with a blank page and writing whatever came to mind. I wrote about 4 pages (typed, single-spaced), and all sorts of ideas came up that I never knew were on my mind. That always seems to be the best cure for me: just writing for myself. Writing a blog is different and harder because I don't want to ramble on, like I do in a journal. Also, when writing for myself, I can let ideas come out that I would never admit to anyone. It's completely private, unlike a blog. Getting out all this garbage that has been clouding my mind has freed me to think and act clearly and with direction. That's allowed me to live a SWEETer life.

I feel better about myself, so I've lost a couple pounds from "nibbling" less and drinking more water. I'm deciding when it's better to give up some sleep in order to get stuff accomplished, rather than using sleep as an escape from what I need to do.

I decided I need to write a journal weekly, to keep my mind clear. But it's not a blog entry; it's not for ANYONE else to read.

Fall into Fitness

This fall, get fit with GO Fitness!

Goal-Oriented Fitness! is an outdoor fitness program that combines cardio and strength exercises, flexibility and balance.

It is designed for a committed, results-oriented group of participants.

SCHEDULE: We have monthly programs for “early-birds” as well as for those with flexible schedules:

6:00-7:00 a.m. M,W,F

6:00-7:00 a.m. Tu, Th

8:30-9:30 a.m. M,W,F

8:30-9:30 a.m. Tu, Th

All classes are subject to a minimum enrollment of 4 participants.

Get some friends together and guarantee your class days/time!

All programs take place at Krusi Park and run the 1^st-28^th of the month.

DISCOUNT OPTIONS:

-Pay by the 25^th for the following month to receive a 10% discount and guarantee your space in the class.

-Sign up for 5 days a week and receive a 15% discount.

-Pay for 3 months in advance and receive a 20% discount.

-Refer a friend (who pays for a month) and receive a 25% discount.

Register now! http://G-O-Fitness.com

After 2 weeks: Living the S_ _ET Life

So, having tried to live the SWEET Life for the past 2 weeks, my conclusions are:
I'm living the S_ _ET life pretty consistently. I Sleep, Exercise and have Tranquility consistently.

That means, I need to focus on my Water and Eating. The next week is supposed to be a heatwave, so I really need to focus on staying hydrated; my kids too. I've learned that I need to take a big bottle of water with me if I'm going to be out of the house a lot during the day. If I have it with me, I'll drink it!

As for Eating, I eat too much. I don't think I eat "a lot," but I eat more than my body needs, keeping an extra 5 lb. on me, and causing my clothes to fit just a bit tightly. Today, I started using Lose It! (iphone app) again, to help me pay more attention. My main problem is "nibbling" which I will differentiate from "grazing." You hear about "grazers" who eat every couple hours. Experts say it's a healthier way to eat than eating 3 big meals. I think "grazing" is fine and great if you are eating GRASS every couple hours, but that's not what I'm eating! ;-) I've come to notice that I nibble on everything, especially finishing those last couple bites of my kids' meals or snacks. It's just a couple bites! Off each plate. Every meal & snack. I've found it hard to track my Eating, either on my SWEET Life Plan or on Lose It! because I eat so many unmeasured "nibbles" of food. It's a hassle to measure how much I'm eating ALL the time! But I'm coming to realize that might be my problem: I don't realize how much I'm eating with all these "nibbles" of food. I NEED to measure quantities and face up to those 2 cookies I ate with my breakfast, which are about 200 calories! Eeek! So here I start, today, tracking my quantities & calories on Lose It! . .

Days 3-5 of living the SWEET Life

The past couple days, I've hardly been at the computer at all. However, keeping this daily-ish blog helps me face my SWEET Life and whether or not I'm living it.

SLEEP: I've been sleeping enough about every other night, 3 out of 5 nights so far.

WATER: Tues, Wed, Thurs, I didn't drink nearly enough water. I was out of the house a lot, which makes it more difficult. Today I've drunk a lot; in fact, I'm finished and it's only 4:30 pm!

EATING: The past few days, I've eaten less, but I haven't really tracked which food groups I'm eating from. I've been focusing on eating a better variety of foods, but, like with Water, when I'm out of the house a lot, it's difficult to keep track throughout the day.

EXERCISE: Wednesday I taught GO Fitness! Thursday is my day off of exercise. Today I taught GO Fitness! and Aqua Aerobics. I also swam a few laps (4) before class, just to stretch out and glide through the water. I love the feeling of flying that you get from swimming. Swimming laps is different from doing Aqua Aerobics or "swimming" with my kids. There's more movement, and it's smooth and horizontal.

TRANQUILITY: Haven't gotten much Tranquility lately. :-( Wednesday I was switching off kids all day: hanging with Zoe while Maya was in school. Hanging with Maya while Zoe was playing with Grandma. Hanging with Zoe while Maya had dance class. Hanging with Maya while Zoe had dance & tumbling classes. It's great to have one-on-one time with each kid, but I need some one-on-one time with myself, as well. Last night I went to the Airport Area Business Association's 40th anniversary celebration with Mary Grace. That was a lot of fun, and Tranquil. Today, my kids are swimming all afternoon with their friend Aya, so I have several hours alone in the house to catch up, and be Tranquil. :-)

Today, so far, I've lived the SW_ET life! Hey, that's pretty good!

Conclusions:
SLEEP- We don't have any early plans for the weekend, so I should be able to sleep well the next couple nights.
WATER- I've got to take it with me if I know I'll be out of the house a lot.
EATING- I might need to use Lose it! (iphone app) to help me track my eating while out of the house. However, that's a calorie-counting program; it's different from my SWEET Life program, which focuses on nutritional variety. Yes, I long for a SWEET Life iphone app! Any iphone app developers out there?!
EXERCISE: I'd really like to go running along the beach and get some consistent, endurance cardio.
TRANQUILITY: The weekend is family time; I should be able to get plenty of Tranquility the next couple of days. :-)

Day 2: living the S_ _E_ Life

Hmm, I didn't live a very SWEET Life today. It was merely S_ _E_.

• SLEEP: I was proud of myself for going to bed early last night, and felt great this morning, waking up after 8+ hours. However, this afternoon I forgot to ask for decaf and drank caffeinated coffee ~4:00, so I know I'm doomed to insomnia tonight. Might as well get some work done then!
• WATER: I didn't drink enough water today, by a long shot. It's hard when I'm out of the house a lot, like today. And last night, yes, finishing my water at 8:00 was too late, and I woke up and had to pee in the middle of the night.
• EATING: I'm 0-2 for Eating well. I ate appropriate amounts of fruit and protein, but far too much grains and not enough veggies and dairy. A niece's bday party didn't help, but boy was that Moroccan food and ice cream cake good!
  
• EXERCISE: I taught Aqua Aerobics today, which is moderate exercise.In that class I get the most exercise pulling myself out of the pool over and over to demonstrate the next exercise! But what a beautiful day to be in the pool! (see image above)
  
• TRANQUILITY: hasn't happened yet today and don't expect it to. But it wasn't a high stress day either.

Hmm, rough start. I really need to focus on eating better tomorrow. It helps that I stocked up at the farmer's market today (although that didn't help me today, for some reason???). I have ~1 hr without kids, in addition to hula class tomorrow, so I should get some Tranquility out of that.

Day 1 of restarting the SWEET Life:

Day 1: I lived the _W_ET Life.

• SLEEP: I only slept 6 1/2 hr. Hmm, maybe that's why I'm already tired at 8:10 p.m.!
• WATER: I just finished my 64 oz. of water, remembering at the last minute, that I should have finished it with dinner so as not to wake up and have to pee tonight. Oh well . . .
• EATING: I was quite conscious of making sure to eat some fruits and vegetables. I ate a good variety from all the food groups, but I also ate some junk at a bbq: chips, beer, cookies, etc. Overall, I feel rather full and uncomfortable right now, and I think I ate too much. I need to focus on eating a bit more dairy, which is surprising because I love dairy! Cheese, yogurt, milk, ice cream, etc. Yum!
• EXERCISE: I already mentioned that I started the day with a long walk. . .
• TRANQUILITY: . . . and that the walk was with girl friends along the beach on a beautiful morning.

So, knowing that Exercise and Tranquility are my easiest parts, I only improved on Water today. But that's a start. I did eat a better variety of foods, so that's a step in the right direction.

Restarting the SWEET Life

I haven't posted in a few months. My last goal was in May: to get my GO Fitness! class going, which I did. It's been going, monthly, since June 1.

I decided to start tracking living the SWEET Life again. Once it becomes habit, I don't need to keep track of it, but lately I've felt like I'm not living the SWEET Life.

SLEEP: I certainly don't sleep enough, and I don't track it. This will be a major focus because I know I often need afternoon naps or fall asleep putting the kids to bed.
WATER: I don't think I've been drinking enough water, but I feel so much better when I do. I filled up my pitcher with 64 oz. and am determined to finish it today.
EATING: I think I've been eating too much and not enough variety to get all the nutrients I need. This is another major point of focus. I'm also guilty of finishing off my kids' plates, which adds those extra calories my body doesn't need. I will stop being the garbage disposer!
EXERCISE: Teaching 5 fitness classes/week, this is the easiest part for me. However, sometimes I feel I need a good cardio-endurance bout, which I don't get in the classes I teach. I went for a nice walk with a group of friends this morning along the beach. It was so beautiful out!
TRANQUILITY: I haven't felt really stressed lately, so I think I'm getting enough tranquility to keep my stress level low.

So the 2 main things to improve are Sleep and Eating. Really, most people only need to focus on improving in 2 areas. O.k., let's see how the rest of the month goes . . .

GO Fitness! August Session Sign-ups

“(GO Fitness!) is just what I need.” –Satisfied Participant

With a 79% improvement in strength (ave.) and a 60% return rate,
GO Fitness! is not only a “jump start” to your fitness routine!

It’s an outdoor fitness class that combines cardio, strength, flexibility, and balance.
Most importantly, it focuses on achieving your fitness goals!

“I am feeling stronger: I can bound up the stairs faster, sometimes two at a time;
I carry more bags of groceries; I went shopping for clothes recently
and didn't feel all doughy in the dressing room.” –Mary Grace

Tell your spouse, tell your friends, tell yourself:
The next session of GO Fitness! (Goal-Oriented Fitness) starts August 3.

GO Fitness! meets 6-7:00 a.m., Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
(12 sessions/month), at Krusi Park.

“Stretching, while looking straight up at the beautiful Alameda sky and clouds,
at the end of class, is also a great way to start the day.” –Whitney

Register by July 26^th and receive a 10% discount ($180 – 10% = $162)
and guarantee your space in the class.
(Monthly class fee can be prorated for scheduled vacation dates.)

For more information, go to: G-O-Fitness.com

I look forward to seeing you at GO Fitness!

Suzanne
http://G-O-Fitness.com/

Do you and your friends have your “summer bodies”?

Do you and your friends have your “summer bodies”?
Do you have good posture?
Do you feel comfortable wearing tank tops?
Do you live the SWEET life? (integrating Sleep, Water, Eating, Exercise, & Tranquility)

If you answered "no" to any of these questions, GO Fitness! can help change those answers to "yes!"

The next session of GO Fitness! (Goal-Oriented Fitness) starts July 1.

It’s an outdoor fitness class that combines cardio,
strength, flexibility, balance and agility.
Most importantly, it focuses on achieving your fitness goals!

GO Fitness! meets 6-7:00 a.m., every Monday, Wednesday and Friday
(12 sessions/month), at Krusi Park.

Register by June 26th and receive a 10% discount ($180 – 10% = $162)
and guarantee your space in the class.
(Monthly class fee can be prorated for scheduled vacation dates.)

For more information, go to the GO Fitness! website

Spending Time vs. Wasting Time

I’m not sure what’s bugging me, but something is. I’m gaining weight, feel stressed, have a tight neck muscle, feel unsatisfied, etc., all the little signs that something’s not right. What is it?

I think part of it is not having enough time to do the business that I want to do. I think part of it is realizing that life takes control of me if I relax just a little, causing me to not accomplish what’s important to me and to feel that I’ve wasted time on email, facebook, etc.

Spending time vs. wasting time. It’s an interesting choice of verbs that we use with “time”. We don’t usually say, “use time” unless we add the word, “wisely” to the end of it. “to spend time” is productive; “to waste time” is unproductive. Email & facebook are a combination of both, but I think it’s more wasted time than spent time. I like to keep up with what people are doing, but there’s a lot of sifting through uninteresting/unnecessary stuff, which can easily cause me to get side-tracked and waste time.

What’s difficult is that sometimes I need to relax and just catch up with people, so at those moments, it’s hard to keep focused and only read entries of significance. I just want to relax and not think too much! Last night I wanted to go to bed early, but found I wasted time on email/facebook which kept me up until my regular bedtime. A couple nights ago, I had a couple hours in the evening to get work done, but I wasted it, instead, checking facebook and chatting on facebook. So I feel stressed that I’m not getting more work done towards my business, but at the same time, I’m not spending the time that I have well.

This morning, I went running, returning home ~7:15. I knew I was going to have to shower, get the girls & myself ready, and get them to school, so I was in “go mode” the entire time. No wasting time, just focusing on the goal of getting us ready and out of the house. In the end, because I was focused, we were ready early, including my shower, make-up and everything. J But I’m not focused every morning because sometimes I’m tired. I do realize and sometimes have to remind myself that forcing myself to get up and moving in the morning makes my entire morning more relaxed because we’re not rushing and late for school. It’s worth taking control and focusing on the goal because it makes the rest of the morning more relaxed for me. The same is true in the evenings with the girls’ bedtime. It’s just that I don’t always want to control everything. I don’t want to be the domineering mom all the time. I want to be able to let my guard down now and then. But then, when I do, I waste 2 hr. on facebook or email! L

Hmm . . . I don’t know what the answer is.

New Month, New Goal: GO Fitness!

End of the month review:

I did achieve my April goal of losing a few pounds so that my clothes fit better. Using the Lose It! Iphone application helped. I didn't lose all 6 lb. I'd wanted to, but I lost 4 lb. and that's really where I've been most of my adult life anyway.

This month my goal is to develop my GO Fitness! course and start instructing it June 1.

Today I spent a couple hours putting together a basic website for the course. I was proud of myself for doing it myself and for completing it so quickly, including images. I made a website before which took forever, was too text-dense, without images, and not something to be proud of. This time I had a different mindset: just put the basic info that someone would need to know, on ~one screen-length. Then I added a couple other pages with marketing enticements: comparing my class to a gym membership, comparing my class to other similar classes, and special events that one might want to get in shape for. I figured out how to use online Clip Art for some images, and that was it. The website is: http://suelfong.googlepages.com/gofitness!

Next steps are marketing the course to drum up interest, get the business license, and create the curriculum, all of which I've started.

Lose it! Progress

After two weeks using the Lose it! Iphone application, I’ve grown accustomed to it and worked out the kinks.

Unfortunately, last Friday through Sunday I didn’t keep good track. I was in an “I don’t care; I’m eating!” kind of mood, which could have been brought on by a party Friday (hard to track calories) and the fact that I hadn’t planned meals last week, so weekend meals were haphazard (also hard to track calories).

Overall I was much more on track, only 250 calories over my weekly budget (compared to 731 the week before). I tried to keep my calorie intake to my budget of 1383, then subtracted my exercise calories-burned at the end of the day. That really helped me stay closer to, or under, budget.

I started tracking my macro-nutrients on Lose It!: fats, carbs & protein. I recently went to a workshop on nutrition, which said our diets need to include 20-30% fat, 50-60% carbs and 20-30% protein. My average the week before I started paying attention to that was 34% fat (too high), 50% carbs (good) and 16% protein (low). After paying attention for a week, it was 40% fat (too high), 42% carbs (low), and 18% protein (low, but improved). I made myself a list of ways to get more protein. I gotta pay more attention to the amount of fat I eat. Good-bye, peanuts, peanut butter, and avocados! They are sources of fat, even though they are healthy, unsaturated fats.

Lose It! Adjustments

So now I’ve used the Lose It! Iphone application for a week. How did I do? Well, there are a couple adjustments I need to make, in terms of exercise and the calories in individual meals.

Exercise:

The program adds exercise as extra calories to consume. For example, my calorie intake was calculated to be 1383 calories per day (based on my goal and how fast I want to achieve it), but if I burn 400 calories in exercise, it will increase my calorie budget to 1783. I don’t want to eat that many calories because that’s only ~300 calories less than I was eating before! It’ll take me 11 days to lose one pound! My solution is to add exercise at the end of the day, after I’ve finished totaling calories.

Calorie budgets per meal:

The program starts with your total calorie budget for the day and deducts the calories you consume. So if you aren’t careful, you might have only 50 calories left by the time dinner rolls around! Although it does total your calories per meal, it doesn’t give any calorie budgets per meal, only per day. I wish it would budget each meal, in addition to each day. I also wish I could compare calories per meal and exercise across the days. I can only compare total calories across the days.

So, at the end of the week, I was almost 800 calories over budget. L The first day and the last couple days I was on budget, but mid-week, I was about 200 calories over budget each day. Next week, I’ll, first, pay more attention to my calories per meal and, second, add in the exercise at the end of each day.