Health and Fitness: Yoga & Nutrition Journal

Hello everyone!

Today I used yoga sequences by Esther on YouTube.com, www.youtube.com/user/yogatic.
I did the first two parts of her Yoga for weight loss series, the first is visualization and believe me don't skip it! I never thought of closing my eyes and imagining what I would look and feel like if I were thinner. It was a great tool!
My hands and wrists for some reason (probably my weight) have a hard time in some Yoga poses, specifically Downward Facing Dog. Other than that, the 2nd part of the weight loss series was great. A little more fast paced than her beginner series, but great nonetheless!
I also tried my hand at relaxation, it was a lot harder than I thought! Especially since my back felt achy at first, but toward the end, all the tense, achy feeling went away! And my back felt better for it. So if you need to relax, try it out!

Secondly I wanted to talk about keeping a Nutrition/Diet journal. I used to always think I had to diet to lose weight, but really it's just eating healthier, you don't have to starve and you don't have to eat nothing but lettuce and celery and drink 20 gallons of water a day! In the past all a journal of what I ate did was depress me!
So I encourage you to start one! But don't look at it like it is a running tally of how much you fail. Take a good look at what you eat and just make little changes.
For example; I started to look at what empty calories I was blindly consuming. Soda is a big one for me, I love soda, almost every flavor or form with the exception of Diet and Mountain Dew. But I used to just drink drink drink it all day long. Then I realized that just by replacing my soda 'snacking' between meals with water and saving the soda for a treat with my meals, I could save a lot of calories that could give me a better rounded and more filling meal!

Another thing I have started doing is salads. You don't have to kill yourself trying to make lettuce and vinaigrette into a decent meal. I for one hate vinaigrette dressings! So, instead of eating something you don't really like, or spending way too much on expensive salad blends, buy heads of whatever type of lettuce you like, I prefer Iceberg. My husband led me to discover chopping iceberg with the proper knife rather than tearing with your fingers leads to more crisp and juicy lettuce! I don't know if anyone else was mislead in this fact but I was, so no poking fun!
When I make my salads, I make it something I like. I use light ranch, iceberg lettuce, natural, real bacon bits (about a tablespoon) and some shredded real sharp cheddar cheese (about 2 tablespoons!) To me, a salad like that is divine! My favorite thing on salads is cheese and bacon. You give me those two things and I will skip the croutons in a heart beat!
So there is a healthier salad for my tastes! If you like the healthier ways of making salad by all means, but this is what helps me!

I also make it a point to workout 5-7 days a week. I didn't want to work out today, so I did around 20 minutes I believe, of yoga.

If you don't have the time to write down your daily munching on paper, look for a good and well resourced online nutrition/diet journal. I prefer the one from Babyfit (sparkpeople). If you haven't had a baby or are not pregnant, you might be more comfortable with another journal because I believe this one is specifically tailored for those two groups. So it might be giving you more nutrients a day then you need for just you, whereas a pregnant or nursing mother would need them.
What I love about this journal is that you search for a food, select it and fill in how much of it you had and it calculates everything for you! You are able to track many different nutrients, calories, carbs, fat, even selenium and zinc! I have rarely had to add a special food because it has such a good library of foods out there. It also saves your foods that you manually enter for future inputting!
I highly suggest this journal.


So, in summation;

1. Make small changes they make a big difference!
2. Keep track of what you eat but make it a positive learning experience!
3. Workout as much as possible with whatever type of workout works best for your body!
4. Be positive! Look at it as getting healthy and eating things that are good for you rather than all the good stuff you can't eat.

I didn't mention this before but it is also a good idea to remember, healthy weight loss that stays lost happens slowly, so if you only lose 1 pound a week that's great! You just have more of a chance of keeping it off!
If you are a instant gratification junkie like I am, you weigh yourself every day expecting a huge dip in your weight. Unfortunately it doesn't happen that way. So if you are weighing often and aren't seeing results or as much as you'd like, try to keep weighing to a minimum, about once a week. Or less often if it helps. The longer you wait the more chance you have to lose and the more you lose the more motivated and positive you will feel about the whole experience!

Positivity is a big part of weight loss, if you get depressed or negative about any part of your healthy lifestyle, it could go down the tubes tomorrow.

So keep your chin up and remember, you are worth fighting for!

I can see this entry is already getting ridiculously long so I will leave you with this.

YOU ARE WORTH IT.



Thank you so much for stopping by, I appreciate it so much.
I hope you are doing great and have an amazing day!