[...] aside blocks of time to do things. When I was talking with my wellness coach earlier this year, she asked me why I didn’t exercise more often. “I don’t have [...]

[...] Soon after I started saying “yes”, a GRS reader offered to provide free wellness coaching. My gut reaction was to say “no”. But I caught my negative thinking. “Just say yes,” I said to myself. So I did. Working with Lauren, my wellness coach, has been an amazingly positive experience. [...]

Water
and
Having an outside agency with an unbiased, but invested opinion on what’s going on with my general fitness

For what it’s worth.

[...] side effect of losing weight — a positive one, mind you — is that I don’t fit into some of my favorite clothes [...]

[...] and facts category is great. I like wine (though I’ve been drinking much less since starting my wellness program), but I don’t know much about it. I’ve learned a lot browsing these [...]

Anybody know?

We see that as an integral element for what we are trying to do: a mental workout circuit. We just launched the brain fitness blog carnival, and you may be interested in taking a look
http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2007/01/19/inaugural-edition-brain-fitness-blog-carnival-1/

Regards

Weekly Roundup – 01/19/07…

Here’s a quick look at some of the personal finance articles that caught my eye over the past week:

Flexo is thinking about dumping NetFlix. My wife and I actually go ’round and ’round about this same thing. I don’t think we&#…

A big thank you to the good folks here at GRS who recommended sparkpeople.com back during the New Year’s Resolution posts. It’s a terrific tool for keeping track of what you’re really taking in and working off.

Keeping track of your calories in and out is in some ways like keeping on top of your finances. But when it comes to money, you get receipts and bank statements and all kinds of documentation that you can use to stay on track. With food, not so much–the most obvious measure of how you’re doing is your “bottom line”. Sparkpeople’s tools essentially let you do “diet bookkeeping”…very nice.

My comments regarding her recommendations weren’t just about what she had specifically recommended to you, but what I had also read in her articles.

As an ACSM certified personal trainer, I take issue with some of Lauren’s assertions. For example, caffeine in moderation is good for you, and can help prevent soreness after exercise, among other benefits. Alcohol in moderation is also good for you! Red wine, especially, has been proven to have health benefits. I had issues with other things on her site, but I’m not going to write an entire essay picking apart everything she’s said.

Lauren certainly put a lot of warnings on her site about unscrupulous trainers, but then said little or nothing (that I could find) about her own qualifications.

Lauren also warns *against* using a personal trainer, but a good personal trainer does everything Lauren claims to do. The difference might be that we are trained and certified. Perhaps Lauren is, too, but failed to mention that on her site.

[...] J. D. on how a Fitness Coach Whipped Him Into Shape! [...]

[...] Get Rich Slowly » How a Wellness Coach Whipped Me Into Shape [...]

The link between attitudes for frugality and weight-loss were an insight for me. Good stuff. Thanks.

I’ve been making similar changes in my life, with great results as well. Check out these posts:

* Givin’ up caffeine – help!
* 2006 Year in Review – A great year!
* Recipe for a Flat Stomach
* How I save money

Good luck on the rest of the year! Stay positive, and don’t let negative thoughts stay in your head.

http://www.shovelglove.com/

I’m trying to lose the last of my baby weight (argh) and couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t coming off. I’ve started exercising regularly again, albeit not as much as I like, given the Denver’s been hit with a gajillion feet of snow every weekend for a month.

Anyway, I started tracking on fitday and was totally shocked at how many calories I was taking in–who knew?

My bit on the caffeine/alcohol thing–for me, the problem is not so much the coffee/tea itself, but my associations with it. If I drink the cup of coffee, I want the big piece of choc. pumpkin bread to go with it. If I drink the glass of wine, I want the plate of crackers and cheese. So I’m working on moderating those things for these reasons.

But a recent post got me thinking–it’s hard to find the balance between “living the good life” and overdoing. This is my battle.

I particularly like the comment about the similarity between tracking everything you spend and tracking everything you eat. I’ve found that tracking everything I eat in a program that will automatically track how many good (and bad) nutrients (etc) I’m consuming is really, really helpful for me. I use the (free) service sparkpeople.com for this, although there are a number of others, also (I think the USDA even has a free online one). It’s a great place to start!

I truly believe that anyone could run a marathon if they put their mind to it and lay out a detailed training plan ahead of time. Best of luck.

On my training runs I’d listen to music and Dave Ramsey podcasts on my ipod. By the time the marathon came around my body and finances were in great shape

re: caffeine, most beverages vary in their caffeine content, but coffee typically has the most, at around 100 Mg per 8 ounce cup (or 100 mg per shot of espresso!), while green and white teas generally have the least, around 15 mg. Most soft drinks are somewhere in the middle of that.

Of course, your mileage may vary depending on the product and how it was made.

Incidentally, chocolate also isn’t generally high in caffeine itself, but it does contain other compounds which *I think* are called thio-bromates which synergize with caffeine to enhance the effects.

Yes, indeed. I would be lost without my iPod. Books I have listened to while walking over the past few years: Vanity Fair, Dracula, Master and Commander, Cloud Atlas, and many more. Plus, sometimes I listen to music.

For me, there’s a natural progression to exercises when I work toward fitness. In the past, I’ve started with walking, moved to biking, moved to running. I’ve then added in some weight-training and swimming. To me, swimming is the pinnacle of fitness. If I’m able to swim regularly, I know I’m fit.

JD decided to stick with exercise which he enjoyed: walking, running, and biking. We discussed the benefits of resistance (weight) training. However, his initial decision was to work within his ‘favored exercise’ perimeters so he will stick to it, not to (yet) require him to do exercise he didn’t want (and wouldn’t) do. He also purchased an indoor trainer for his bicycle, which will help build some muscle groups for this initial season.

In addition, he found favorite ways of incorporating other favorite activities while he walked or ran, like listeing to books on tape or music. [There's a method to this coaching madness.]

whfoods.org

Regarding sugar/carbs – you will get enough of it in whole foods without having to consume bread, pasta, etc. all of which ends up on your belly and on your butt as fat. I have a bowl of whole oatmeal with ground flax seed and that’s it for “grains” for the day. You can get the same fulfillment with legumes – beans like chick peas, kidney, black, etc. if you crave that “pasty” feel on your tongue.

Alcohol is very high in sugar content, especially beer and wine. Like everything else, ok in moderation.

And exercise needs to become a necessary habit like brushing your teeth. I’ve had 3 heart attacks and I’m diabetic, but my teeth look great!

One thing that a lot of diet/exercise programs emphasize, in addition to good food choices and aerobic exercise, is anaerobic exercise (weight-lifting). Has this been a part of your coaching program? Even moderate weight-lifting helps build muscle mass, helps burn fat, and boosts metabolism.

Congrats on your progress! This story will help me continue on my own journey of self-improvement.

JD had a serious caffeine issue. Caffeine isn’t too bad ‘in moderation’ (1 or 2 cups at most… that’s an 8-oz cup, not a Starbuck’s Venti), but he was really imbibing so much more. His body was trying to use caffeine to wake him up because ate so much sugar he’d get a lull after his blood sugar dropped, and because he ate meals so infrequently, he had no energy. So caffeine (for him) was a substitute for “real fuel”. (JD, normally I wouldn’t talk about my clients but you are being so open about this subject).

Our coaching sessions didn’t just create a list of ‘do’s’ and ‘don’t's’, although this recap had to be written this way. JD and I reviewed carefully almost every hour in his day, his food or habits choices, and why he did those habits. These habits (for all of us) usually spring from a previous action or habit, so often bad habits (or unbeneficial actions) pile onto each other — and we don’t realize it!

So JD helped review his actions. He found slowly (and with testing!) that certain habits were unbeneficial to him; he tried new activities a little and discovered they worked well. So he added them as ‘beneficial habits’. Slowly he discarded what didn’t work, and created more ‘what did work’: ie: what made him feel good, energetic, and alert.

His secret goal was to run a marathon one day. Not everyone wants to run, nor run a marathon; but that was HIS goal. As a coach, I know that these dreams are important to clients. So we reviewed all his thoughts about why he wasn’t CURRENTLY running, and we started knocking down the barriers… now he’s doing great on his path.

JD was the perfect client: attentive, willing to face himself honestly, and ready to stop being fat. That’s all anyone needs, really. The rest is easy: it’s the decision which is hard.