Too Busy for Fitness is Not an Option

If we don't make time to workout and let the day get away from us, it's easier to say forget it. Other things become a priority and we tend to use being busy as an excuse to skip it. If we're high energy in the morning and missed that window to exercise, we can dread doing it in the afternoon.

I just so happen to prefer working out in the morning and understand the feeling of pushing through later. It sucks but doesn't mean to skip the workout. Discipline means doing what you need to do even when you don't feel like doing it. So, it's important to not let ourselves down and make it happen. We can only blame ourselves and will suffer the consequences of not taking care of our fitness business.

There will be times missing a workout can't be helped and that's acceptable. Honestly, this is a rare occasion. When busy things seem to take over our entire day leaving us without a sweat session is the norm. Fitness takes good planning, making time and not skipping a workout no matter what. Without a plan, it's just a wish, right? Without making the time, it's not going to happen, right?

We go through life making so many excuses on how we don't have time. Really?  I love that quote "someone busier than you is working out right now" and it's the truth.

We must start owning our excuses and admit when fitness is something we don't want to do. Now that's the beginning of a revelation.

We should ask ourselves why we procrastinate or refuse to take care of our health?  What's so burdensome about moving your body for a few minutes each day and eating healthy?

It's not about time at all, but your feelings toward working out and eating right. Honesty is always the best way to create change.

The truth of the matter is if something is important to you, it gets done. Everyone has time to hit up social functions, watch hours of TV and surf the web. When it comes to one hour of exercise, the busy button somehow gets turned on. Give the offer of meeting for a drink, and suddenly a burst of energy occurs.

Unfortunately an unhealthy epidemic is happening because too many people are refusing to take the time for health and fitness. Those who exercise and eat right on a consistent basis are in the minority. This really needs to change. Agreed?

If we continue to not make time for exercise, we will eventually be making time for illness. The same applies to eating right because we are what we eat. What we eat in private, we wear in public and our body certainly shows how we're living. This has become a horrible fact. Straight talk, but we need to start making the time!

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Slow it Down for Better Fitness Results

Rushing for any goal can create stress, frustration and missing way too much of what's important in life. I have learned to take things a little slower, practice patience, listen intently and enjoy the moment.

I have implemented this philosophy into my fitness, nutrition, work, and play. I enjoy teaching that nothing good happens fast and the process is the result. 

Take workouts for example. Slowing down to execute good form on all exercise is essential. Our focus should remain on the muscle being worked, understanding the movement and doing it right. Lifting weights is a slow and controlled process. When done correctly, we can achieve amazing results. 

When we take it slow and think before we lift, our muscles receive a greater benefit. I personally create a two-part motion to weight training. I focus my mind on the muscle being worked, contract the muscle, then execute the lift. 

Lifting with purpose creates the best environment for muscle growth and reduces the chance of injury. Nothing good happens fast and muscle growth takes time. Patience is very important and better results happen when you take it slow. 

Nutrition is another area we need to slow down and eat right. We tend to eat too fast not allowing adequate time for our brain to tell our stomach we're satisfied.  

Cooking amazing healthy food is meant to be savored and enjoyed slowly. It takes at least 20 minutes for the brain to communicate satiety to the stomach.

Sadly, we often consume larger portions eating too quickly. Habitual speed eating is one of the many causes of obesity. We tend to snack on unhealthy processed foods after the meal because we remain unsatisfied. 

Learn to slow down and savor your healthy meal. Allow 20 minutes, drink water, enjoy conversation and relax. There is no need to rush and our body will appreciate the slower pace. 

Stress can become a problem when we constantly rush here and there. Our calendars are flooded with commitments and many are unnecessary. Saying yes to everyone and everything causes us to rush without any breathing room. Our time to take care of ourselves becomes limited and excuses of being too busy take over. 

Chronic stress releases chemicals into our body hindering our ability to lose fat. Our body can only take so much before it lets you know enough is enough. We are usually hit with illness, anxiety, burn-out and just not healthy.

When life feels on fast forward, we need to take an active role in slowing it down. Do we really want to miss out on the opportunity to feel our best and live our best healthy life?  

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Cabbage Bacon Bowl (Dairy, Gluten and Grain Free)

This recipe is one created by my husband.  Once and awhile we are blessed with his culinary creations.  Often he doesn't write down or remember what he has added to the dish but thankfully this one was placed on pen and paper.  This delicious meal which was not only tasty and filling, but also great for a simple budget.

Ingredients (serves 4-5 people)

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 diced onion
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 7-9 strips of bacon cut into small pieces
• 1/2 thinly sliced large white cabbage
• 1 shredded small zucchini
• 1 shredded apple
• 1/2-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• sea salt and black pepper to taste
• 1/3 cup cashews, pecans or walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. In a large wok or frying pan, add oil and fry onion, garlic and bacon until it browns and onion is soft.
2. Add mustard seeds, turmeric, cayenne and cabbage. Fry until cabbage is soft (about 10 minutes.)
3. Add all remaining ingredients into the pan.
4. Cook until apple and zucchini are soft, approximately 5 minutes.
5. Serve as is or place over a bed or rice.

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Discipline is Doing the Workout Anyway

Early morning or evening, it's important not to skip your workout. Discipline is doing it anyway even when you don't feel like it. Let's face it, we all have these days. 

We don't always feel like getting out of bed to that set alarm. After work we're tired and just want to get home to a hot meal and sofa time.  

Sometimes it takes forcing ourselves up in the morning and splashing cold water on our face. Having our gym clothes ready to go in the car after work can motivate us to hit the gym. 

Discipline is what takes us to that place called success. It's the inner force within us stronger than our negative mental game trying to sabotage our commitment to fitness. 

We need to feel stronger mentally and physically and push through the hard. If we only worked out on the days we felt good, it would become a rare occasion. We can always come up with a reason not to hit they gym. It's those days we feel tired, weak, sore and mentally defeated that make for the best workouts. We come out the other side feeling like a champion. 

Nothing feels better than a finished workout!

My workout of the day included:

1-mile ARC trainer warm up or 20 minutes
Leg extensions 40lbs @ 25 reps
Lying hamstring curls 25lbs @ 25 reps
BOSU ab crunches @ 30 reps
Interval: wide lateral lunge knee tuck fast paced @ 15 reps per side
repeated 4x and total 25 minutes, total workout time 45 minutes

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Our Daily Choices Define Our Fitness

Being fit is not a temporary condition but fills our entire day and life. The motivation to get in shape may have initiated with bikini season or an event. The fitness results, however, should be life long.

Unfortunately many settle back into old unhealthy habits, but that's not the way fitness is supposed to work. We are living not realizing life is the event we are getting fit for.

I approach my fit lifestyle with a plan. My energy is highest in the morning, so I schedule my workouts accordingly. Starting my day with exercise enables me to feel great for the remainder of my 24/7 fitness shift.

The workout is not the only part of staying lean and muscular. Planning my nutrition plays a major role in maintaining my body. I have lots of healthy food ready to go and follow a 90/10 nutrition plan. I may relax some on the weekend shifting down to 80/20 allowing for a few treats. I also drink plenty of water and consider it an essential nutrient.

Fitness doesn't end at the workout but includes the 23-hours after sweating your butt off. Working out daily and turning around eating crappy on the regular isn't the definition of being fit. What we choose to eat, hours of sleep and even our stress levels determine our fitness.

When fitness becomes a habit, the healthy behavior is done without thought and going through the motions come naturally. Being fit is not a pretend or fake lifestyle. Your body always knows the truth of your actions. In fact, those who are closest to you will know exactly how you're living and if it represents health and fitness.

The choices we make throughout the day determine our fitness. When we adopt a fit lifestyle, it just feels normal. We don't think, we just do and it feels right. We are living our best life and feeling great about it. Our body represents the life we choose to live and what we do today affects today but also all our tomorrows.

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Maintenance is the Fitness Goal

Reaching fitness goals is a great accomplishment to be praised. Are you maintaining them is the question?

Fitness is not meant to be a temporary fix but a lifestyle of health and wellness. Sure, you may rock that suit and look good in those pictures but is that all fitness means?


True fitness success is when you live it daily. Eating healthy foods consistently and exercise is part of your normal routine. In fact, getting off track for too long doesn't feel right when living a healthy lifestyle. Fitness becomes a priority and excuses no longer get in the way. You refuse to return to being overweight, sick and nearly dead. You get the point.

I've seen too many people succeed at reaching goal weights, reduced body fat, and improved health and throw it all away. The belief system we can get away with returning to a few old habits snowballs. The purpose of dumping old ways is to learn and keep new and healthier methods. This is lacking and maintaining our health is suffering.

We need to focus not only on reaching our fitness goals but keeping them for life. Life is the event we are getting in shape for not bikini season. Forget the clothes and stand naked in front of your mirror. This will let you know if you're doing a great job of maintaining your fitness. I'm not talking about body and skin changes naturally occurring with aging. We all know the difference and also if we're not living a healthy life.




We show outwardly how we live inwardly. Your body keeps the most accurate record of what you're eating and drinking regardless of what you write down. Reaching fitness goals is possible because you have done it and maybe more than once. Instead of having to repeat getting back and shape, why not just stay in shape. Real talk all in fitness love.

Be well and Stay Healthy

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Sorta Kinda Fitness Doesn't Work

We want to be fit, feel good and look great. You may be trolling the net right now for the newest fad diet or quick fix to fitness. We struggle with giving 100 percent to getting in shape the right way. We are stuck in sorta kinda fitness.

Sound familiar? We want results but just can't commit to a fit lifestyle. We blame others and ourselves for eating off track and make excuses for missing workouts. When we give a small percentage to doing it right expect small rewards in return.

We are wasting too much time and missing too many opportunities to get healthy. Why is that? What is going on in our lives where we stop making ourselves a priority? Instead of looking into the issue, we accept it as our normal. This is an unfortunate truth.

We have great intentions and even put in some effort to eat right and exercise. This is awesome and to be applauded. Something happens to halt the process. Our mind plays negative games, we may hear a hurtful comment, or not seeing results causes frustration.

Sorta kinda fitness also involves partying too much with friends or at home. Eating crappy food half the time and managing only one or two workouts per week. We can even be in denial about these behaviors. We believe living this way is fitness.

Resentment can be a problem with sorta-kinda fitness. We don't understand why we're not losing fat or not seeing muscle. More self-doubt and what's the use mentality creeps into our thoughts. It's time to take off the rose-colored fitness glasses.

Living a half-way fitness life is not giving your all to the program. Being in denial and pissed off about it doesn't help or change things.When we start taking responsibility for our health is when fitness happens. Fitness is a lifestyle and sorta kinda just doesn't work. Straight talk all in fitness love. Stay Healthy!

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Fake Health Foods Lead to Fake Fitness

Health food and marketing is big business. Depending on the health food subject, this can stimulate a soapbox moment for me. We have been hit hard with no-fat, low-fat, no sugar, no calories, gluten free and now unhealthy organics are making headway.

Whatever current health food trend is happening, food companies are figuring out ways to dupe the consumer. Do you really believe organic Ruffles, Doritos and Cheese Puffs are healthy?  Really!?

Sadly, consumers believe them to be healthy and are loading grocery carts full of unhealthy organic food items. Chips are chips, organic or not and probably one of the worst things to put in your body. Other food items try to squeak by stating they are minimally processed, but processed is processed.

Store shelves are lined with convenient organic items and granted some may be fabulous, but most are not. The ingredients tell the real story for anything in a box, bag or wrapper. If you can't understand or pronounce what's on the ingredient label, you better believe it's a chemical sh*t storm.

Many fitness enthusiasts rely on protein and energy bars. Have you looked at those labels? Most are the same as eating a candy bar. Health bars are also available in organic versions but does it make them any better? Removing pesticides are great but what about all those additives, sugar, and salt?

When it comes to buying any food, rely on the ingredient label and look for understandable quality ingredients. Fewer ingredients are more when it comes to packaged products.

We need to become wise consumers and discontinue believing fake health food marketing schemes. Eating a bag of organic chips post workout isn't muscle recovery food. Reaching for that energy bar may not be the best choice, and forget the organic white pasta.

Real organic food is just that, real in its raw state. Sometimes organics can even look ugly with blemishes and it ripens quickly. We need to get back to and understand real and whole organic food is what will keep us healthy.

We obtain optimal fitness, improved athletic performance, fat loss and muscle gain when we feed our body the good stuff.  Just because the label says organic, fat-free, gluten-free or any "free" doesn't mean healthy.  Be a wise shopper and eat what you understand. Keep it real and Stay Healthy!

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Why Do We Complicate Fitness?

The only hard thing about fitness is negative thoughts about the process. We convince ourselves a boring diet is needed and endless hours of exercise are required. We go as far as considering it a burden and a cramp in our lifestyle. Instead of turning our nose up at the very thought of getting healthy, maybe rethinking the process is all that's needed.

Do you think people decades ago farming for a living to survive working from sunrise to sunset worried about a diet? They may have spent hours doing physical labor, but it was a lifestyle and eating healthy was part of it. Nothing complicated, just some sweat, and eating home cooking straight from the garden. Their bodies represented how they lived. Unfortunately, this has been replaced by couch potato channel surfing, stuffing our faces with processed food and diets that don't work.

Getting fit doesn't take a miracle diet and certainly isn't a secret to accomplishing the goal. The problem is within our thoughts and unrealistic expectations. You want to lose 20 pounds in a week and look like a fitness model. Not going to happen. We also want the process to be an easy quick fix requiring no workouts and drinking magic shakes while remaining on our sofas. Wake up America!

Being fit and healthy is really simple. Eat greens, grains, lean meats, healthy fats, drink lots of water and exercise at least 3 times per week. Nothing hard about it and it's not a diet. Why is this process considered boring, tasteless, and the end of fun in life? Society and marketing have done a great job brainwashing people to believe a load of crap.

Eating a fresh organic crisp apple or perfectly grilled chicken breast are not what I call horrible. Are you kidding me?  Remember eating celery stuffed with peanut butter? Now that's a healthy treat full of flavor and fun. Being fit will take tossing the food myths and getting real with your thoughts about health. It will also require you to move your butt off the couch and into the gym. Exercise is what you enjoy. Love basketball? Start playing. Enjoy dancing?  Look into a Zumba class. I like to use the jungle gyms at parks and play around on those doing pull-ups, step-ups, and triceps dips for example. No more excuses or belief that fitness is complicated. It's time we all embrace the simplicity of the process and have fun on the journey.

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Almond Thumbprint Cookies (Dairy, Gluten/Grain, Egg and Refined Sugar Free)

I really should have posted these before Christmas as they were created for our Christmas cookie tray however time slipped away.  Life, baby, homeschool, Christmas...you know what I mean :)

These cookies turned out really well and stuck to my diet of egg, dairy and refined sugar free.

Ingredients (makes 12-15 cookies)

• 1 1/3 cup ground almonds or almond flour
• 1 tablespoon coconut flour
• 2 tablespoons tapioca or arrowroot starch
• 2 tablespoons ground flax
• 1 tablespoon pysllium husk
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons coconut or palm sugar (optional-if sweeter is desired)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1-2 teaspoons water (adjust for rolling into balls)
• 1/3 cup softened coconut oil
• 1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (for rolling)
• 2-3 tablespoons of your favourite jam (I recommend strawberry or raspberry)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and prepare cookie tray.
2. In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients except shredded coconut.
3. In a medium size bowl combine all wet ingredients except jam.
4. Add shredded coconut to a plate.
5. Add wet to the dry and mix just until combined. 
6. Roll into balls and add a little water if needed to help them stick together.
7. Roll balls into the shredded coconut.
8. With your thumb press into the middle of the ball creating a little dip.  You may need to reshape your cookie to ensure it stays together.
9. Add a little jam into each dip of your cookie balls.
10. Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
11. Store in air tight container in the fridge or freezer.

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Why is Unhealthy the Acceptable Norm?

Have you been feeling unhealthy and just not right for some time? This can be physically or emotionally. Yet, we continue to accommodate and even accept the situation. Our body and mind can only take so much before it breaks. We ignore the signs until we are lying face down in our own hopelessness.


We're aware of how unhealthy we are and how bad we feel but continue to tough it out day after day. Instead of making changes to create a better situation, we simply accept unhealthy as our normal way of life. Sad but true. Many of us don't even realize how good we're supposed to feel. We continue to eat processed foods, refrain from exercise and live under a cloud of stress.

How often do you take inventory of your life?  Are you accommodating joint pain and illness from eating unhealthy foods leading to being overweight?  Are life's circumstances so stressful to the point of causing depression and anxiety? What's going on at home in your personal relationships?  Is your home a peaceful sanctuary or a war zone?  How about the job? Are you happy and doing what you've always envisioned or burdened by the thought?

We are meant to live a happy, healthy life. The unfortunate truth is many of us choose to accommodate being unhealthy. We eat and drink things we shouldn't, become couch potatoes and drown in our own self-pity.

Isn't it time we stop accommodating unhealthy and start fixing the problem?  If you don't know where to begin, ask for help. No shame or stigma about needing assistance sometimes. We've all been there. Society puts shaming on every human topic ad nauseam. If seeking help from a professional gets you on the right track, then go for it. I suggest an expert in the area of your struggle.

If you want to adopt a healthy lifestyle, consult with a qualified personal trainer, nutritionist, or registered dietician.  Making a doctor's appointment to discuss your stress and seeing a licensed counselor or therapist may be helpful. Check out your local church and talk to a pastor. If the marriage is suffering, sometimes all you need is a little help from a licensed marriage and family counselor. The great news is you have options!

What it boils down to is changing your life for the better. It requires recognition of the problem and a willingness to fix it. There is nothing healthy about accommodating unhealthy. You can either sit and wallow where you are or put on a fix-it attitude. Wishing you health and happiness!

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