Girl, Get Strong! » Motivation

Top Tips to Build a Body you can be Proud of from the Experts

Sian — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:30:31 +0000

You’ve probably heard them all: put your fork down in between bites, snack on fruit when you want something sweet, take the stairs instead of the elevator. Diet tips can start to sound monotonous after a while, and maybe even obvious. But if they were so obvious, wouldn’t we be more apt to follow them? We went in search of some of the best diet tips you’ve never heard before, and a few notable dietitians gave us some great material that we know will help you kick-off your healthy new year’s habits!

Tips for Hunger Pangs

“At your first hint of feeling full, place your napkin over your plate.” – Mary Hartley, RD, MPH and director of nutrition for Calorie Count

“Wait for hunger to eat… hunger is the sign the body needs food. If you feel tempted to snack, but aren’t hungry, set a 20 minute timer and distract yourself.” Rebecca Scritchfield, MA, RD, ACSM

Tips for Portioning and Serving Sizes

“Cut your sandwich into four pieces, it makes it easier to leave the last piece.” – Hartley

“Use small serving spoons. Even four spoonfuls will still be a little.” – Hartley

Tips for Breakfast

“If you switch from half-and-half and 3 sugar packets to skim milk and 1 sugar, you’ll save over 27,700 calories (and potentially lose up to 8 pounds) in the course of a year!” – JOY BAUER, TODAY Show nutritionist and bestselling author

“Eat eggs for breakfast. Studies show that egg protein is especially satisfying and helps to curb calories consumed for the rest of the day. Combine one egg, a slice of whole grain toast and fruit for a filling breakfast that will keep you from reaching for high-fat, mid-morning snacks.” – Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD and author of Expect the Best: Your Guide to Healthy Eating Before, During and After Pregnancy

“Choose foods that do double duty. Make the most of your calories by opting for fortified foods, such as orange juice with calcium and vitamin D, Eggland’s Best eggs (with DHA and vitamin D), and fortified breakfast cereals that offer iron and folic acid.” – Ward

“Don’t skip it! In addition to providing brain and muscle energy to get your day off to a great start, a healthy breakfast (vs no breakfast) promotes weight loss. Yes that’s correct. Skipping meals, especially breakfast, causes us to lose sight of our body’s natural hunger cues. By the time we do eat, we’re starving – which causes us to eat too much, too fast and choose the wrong things.” – Cheryl Forberg, RD is the Biggest Loser nutritionist

Tips for Lunch

“During the work week, commit to brown-bagging your lunch every day instead of ordering out. When you prepare meals at home, you’re in control not only of what you’re serving, but also of portion size. Save calories by using slimming ingredients like low-fat mayo, reduced calorie salad dressing, low-cal bread options (like 100-calorie sandwich thins), and reduced-fat cheese, and by bulking up your meal with plenty of vegetables. By making lunch at home, you can easily shave 200 to 400 calories off your daily total.” – Bauer

“Lose the top slice of bread and eat sandwiches open-faced: Each and every sandwich you devour will be 100 calories lighter! That means, if you’re a daily sandwich eater, at the end of the month you’ll save your waistline 30 slices of bread and a whopping 3000 calories!” – Bauer

Tips for Dinner

“Make one-third of all your plates fruits and vegetables. They are naturally low in calories and high in nutrients that will give you long-lasting energy.” – Scritchfield

“Swap your regular spaghetti noodles or other pasta (which is calorie-dense) for spaghetti squash, which has a similar texture and appearance but a fraction of the calories (thanks to its high water content). Toss with your favorite low-cal sauce, like marinara. You can save up to 500 calories per pasta dinner every time you make this slimming substitution.” – Bauer

Tips for Snacking

“If you really want something like popcorn at a movie, or a special dessert, have it instead of a meal. Prevent going completely overboard by ordering smalls. Don’t do this often–maybe once or twice a month, because you need healthful foods and the nutrients they provide that you get from meals. But if you save up and really savor these special treats, you’re likely to not feel deprived or overly restricted and you’ll have something to look forward to.” – Elisa Zied, MS, RD, CDN and author of Nutrition at Your Fingertips

Fight Cravings With Nail Polish?! “When you get a case of the munchies, distract yourself by giving your nails a manicure (even if it’s just a fresh coat of clear polish). Once they’re perfectly painted, you won’t want to smudge wet nails by reaching for a handful of chips or cookies. By the time the polish has dried, chances are your urge to snack will have subsided.” – Bauer

“Snack after dinner. Most dieters struggle with nighttime eating, but there’s no reason not to eat after dinner, as long as you can control yourself. Budget 100 calories for your before-bed snack and stick to your calorie allowance during the day to make weight loss work.” – Ward

Tips for Healthy Habits

“Be the one at the table to jump up to fetch whatever was forgotten in the kitchen.” – Hartley

“You workout, but you need to stay active for the rest of the day for weight loss. Adding moderate activity, such as walking, burns calories without stimulating your appetite. Use a pedometer and strive to take 10,000 steps each day. Pace while you talk on the phone, take the stairs at work, and park further away from stores to work in extra activity.” – Ward

“Organize your life. Healthy eating takes energy; clutter and disorganization, especially in the kitchen, can sap your motivation to lose weight and keep it off. Start by cleaning out your fridge and cabinets, then plan your meals and snacks for the upcoming week, and shop regularly for healthy ingredients.” – Ward

“Chew your food for longer. Most people take five chews before they swallow, but for food to be ready for digestion it can take up to 30 chews. When you chew your food thoroughly you release the nutrients, make digestion easier and get fuller longer.” – Scritchfield

“Food journaling is the number one key to weight loss success. People who journal tend to lose twice the weight of those who don’t. We all tend to my mindless eaters and it’s way too easy to lose track of a bite here or a sip there if we don’t write it all down. If you’re in a time squeeze and don’t have time to write everything down throughout the day – grab your cell phone and take pictures! At the end of the day, review your pix while you’re completing that day’s journal.” – Forberg

Visit Diets in Review for even more tips!

Small Town, Big Winners

Sian — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:30:59 +0000

I fell in love with this story. A tiny town in Oregon has started their own “Biggest Loser” campaign.

Every Tuesday a lime cardboard sheet goes up in the only grocery store in the town with the name of the town’s biggest loser of the week. 20% of the town’s population is involved and together they have lost more than 600 lbs.

There are weekly weigh-ins followed by a group meeting in a small conference room. Everyone cheers for the biggest loser of the week. The weekly winner gets a trophy of a pound of fat to take home(!). Local business assist by offering gift certificates as prizes. After the meeting, the biggest loser group heads over to the school gym, which is the only place to work out without having to drive for hours.

Seven day a week dieters walk, meditate, and perform resistance training and aerobics. The only pieces of equipment are the floor mats from the school and bargain resistance bands they have found on the internet for $5. Before they got the resistance bands, they used water bottles filled with sand. When they climb stairs they have to climb actual stairs, the old fashioned way.

There is only one grocery story in town, which makes it very hard to cheat. Store co-owner Betty McNeil says some cash-register conversations go like this: “Two hundred thirty calories in that cupcake. Do you know what you’re doing? Do you really want that?” she says, laughing.

Then she notes that townspeople have to leave town to cheat. “It’s 20 miles to the next Twinkie,” she adds, laughing again

“The Merc,” as the locals call it, also aims for positive reinforcement with more fruit, vegetables and yogurt in its coolers. Demand for the good stuff has skyrocketed. And of course there are the signs in the storefront window charting the town’s thinning waistlines.

Around the corner, the Shamrock Bar and Restaurant weighs in with a daily “biggest loser” special.

The participants have had miraculous results. Blood pressure is down, in at least one case knee surgery no longer required. It has also brought the town together in a positive, healthy way. The weight-loss contest wraps up at the end of the month. The winner gets the pound of fat and $600 (unlike $250,000 grand prize from the Biggest Loser TV show). After the weight-loss contest ends plans are in place to keep the momentum going. Participants vow they will not give up and they set a goal of an upcoming half-marathon.

Betty McNeil thinks the poor economy helps keep the weight off. “It’s given us something else to think about,” McNeil asserts. “We’ve had so little control over what’s happened to our retirement. What can you control? Well, your diet. And your weight loss. And your physical activity. You can control that.”

We can learn a lot from this town, like….

-It’s easier to lose weight if you’re doing it with buddies. So seek out good friends with similar goals and give each other support and encouragement.
-It doesn’t take a chance at winning a quarter-million dollars to get motivated. Treat yourself with small rewards that have no calories, like new shoes.
-It doesn’t take fancy gyms or expensive equipment to get you moving. No matter where you live or how bad the economy gets, you can ALWAYS find ways to get physical!

GGS bottom line: Get inspired by this story! Tie on some trainers, grab a friend and get moving!!!

Top 10 excuses I use NOT to exercise

Sian — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:00:19 +0000

Ahhhhhh…..we tell ourselves daily why we SHOULDN’T exercise. Here are some excuses that have been (too) effective for me over the last few years:

Top 10 Workout Excuses:

My PVR is getting too full and I need to free up some space for tonight’s shows.
I would rather get my PJ’s on and snuggle with the cat
Way too busy with the laundry
Don’t want girls to be jealous of me and men to eye me up and down
Makes me all wet with sweat – yuck!
I will never look like Angelina Jolie
They have made some breakthroughs in plus-size clothing
Don’t want to die too healthy and besides doctors need the money
My book is just starting to get good
No pain is no pain- perfect!

Let’s get serious now as I overcome the above list with…

The Top 10 reasons why we should all exercise:

To sleep better-don’t want to be a cranky”Girl”!
To reduce stress-we are all superwomen doing too much
To own a pair of skinny jeans before they go out of style
To get the endorphins going; our ‘natural feel good drug’.
The cardiovascular benefits-no huffing and puffing up the stairs
Toning muscles-more muscles=more calories burned
To increase energy-need to be able to keep up with the kids
Good for the bones, posture and back-especially for those of us almost halfway to 80 years old
Get some alone time-especially if you have young kids
To live a long, healthy life- I would like to be a great-great granny one day (and those doctors have enough money anyway!)

Stay tuned for my series of tips to keep us Girls motivated through our weight loss/ fitness journey.

Staying motivated and the ‘Fat Pants’

Crazy Legs — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:56:32 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I find this time of year a bit depressing. Christmas and all its fun and treats and parties are over, the new year has come…and past, our Vancouver weather is full of rain, rain and more rain…and the shine is starting to wear off my motivation.

My energy level dips with the gloomy days and wouldn’t it be nice to stay in bed all cuddled up with a good book, or to sit and watch tv all day with a soft blanket, glass of wine, some cheese and the fireplace cranked up?

Thank goodness I joined the Peninsula Runners marathon running clinic.

Because, well, let me just say…this video sums up the reason why I need to get running:

On Wednesday, I felt absolutely listless and grumpy as I hadn’t slept well at all after having a small cyst removed from my shoulder the day before. It didn’t hurt at all, until I fell asleep. Who knew 3 small stitches on my shoulder blade could be that irritating every time I rolled over!

So I was really tired and was NOT looking forward to my evening run…well, maybe more like ‘dreading’ my evening run. Let’s face it, it’s pretty easy to lose motivation as the day wears on anyway. And while the run itself was to be around 6 miles, the hard part was the 3 mile tempo run which I was scheduled to run at a pace I just wasn’t sure about. Yikes!

I was so grumpy that I decided I’d better try to take a cat nap in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I’m not a good daytime napper.

When my husband came home and entered our bedroom, he took one look at my face (the only thing poking out from my big comfy pile of pillows and duvet covers) and promptly left again.

I could hear him hastily warning the kids not to come into my room. Guess I looked as grumpy as I felt, lol!

Half an hour later, though, I was up, dressed and ready to run.

Albeit, not cheerfully and everyone kept their distance from me, peeking at me out of the corners of their eyes. I laced my runners, waved goodbye and fled before I could think twice.

So what happened to get me out of bed…?

My girlfriend. It was my turn to drive to the running group and I had to go pick her up.

Instant accountability – and thank goodness, because without her, I’d never have gone! And guess what…she was exhausted from a long day of work and said the same thing to me.

You know the ending to this story….we went, we ran, we came home….pumped!

I felt energized and so, SO much more cheerful. I mean, irritatingly happy. I sat down in front of the tv, cranked up the fireplace, wrapped myself up in a soft blanket, had a little snack and my (sweet) hubby made me a giant spinach, blueberry and mango smoothie.

Heaven!

All that and I’d burned off 600 calories too.

I was SO glad I went.

And holding onto that thought – how happy I’ll feel after I work out – will help motivate me for my next run.

And if that fails, well, that’s what friends are for, right?!

Weight Loss Motivation: The Story of Rocky, by Anthony Robbins

Crazy Legs — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:20:23 +0000

What is Motivation? A Video to Inspire Us.

Happy New Year!

If – like many of us – you have weight loss or fitness resolutions this year, congratulations!

Now I know that some people poo-poo New Year’s resolutions but the GGS girls don’t. Yes, its better to try to have an all-around, long term healthy lifestyle, yada yada, but let’s get realistic. Sometimes we need a little incentive to get us off our butts.

New Years Resolutions can be that catalyst.

Six years ago at Sian’s happy/tipsy New Year’s Eve party, Sian, Susan and I made a resolution together that we’d start running. You know the boisterous-almost-bragging-off-the-cuff-we-should-do-a-10k-run-even-though-we’ve-never-run-a-step-before type of resolution…

Were we serious at the time?

Heck, no.

Alcohol impairs judgment, remember?

So did we wake up wondering what we’d gotten ourselves into?

Heck, yes.

We were sober by then.

But we’re all stubborn and none of us wanted to be the friend that “gave up”. So we had a little positive peer pressure to get us going. And go we did, one small step at a time.

But after a few months, we went from couch potatoes to fitness enthusiasts (you can read the whole story here, if you want the entire yada yada).

Later – after an injured back that required emergency surgery – Sian decided that gym workouts and not running are for her. For Susan, running is still an on/off passion and so is yoga. For me, running has become a way of life, part of the very fabric of my being.

In the end, we all took on the challenge of a New Year’s Fitness Resolution…and kept it. Six years and counting.

And you can too.

The trick is to find something you enjoy and to stay motivated so you don’t drop your resolution like a couch hot potato come February.

While only you know what will fire up your passion when it comes to fitness and weight loss, we can help you on the motivation end.

In this post we have a great video for you, and be sure to check out the other posts in our Motivation Category too for more inspiration.

In this video, super-motivator Anthony Robbins retells an inspiring story about Rocky, aka, Sylvestor Stallone. I don’t want to give much away, but it speaks to persevering when times are bleak.

We hope this is a story touches you and inspires you and helps you persevere when times get tough.

Because if you are just starting your weight loss or fitness journey, no lie, things will get tough.

But if you persevere, you’ll come out the other side a stronger, smarter, more confident person.

And isn’t it time you embrace that challenge?