Getting Healthy – Page 25

How to get motivated with a 30 day challenge!

What keeps you motivated? How do you add a new habit to your life? Have you tried doing a 30 day challenge?

Hundreds of 30 day challenges exist, from fitness to photography. This says something about human beings doesn’t it? We love challenges! We love trying something new! We need repetition to build good habits!

My First 30 Day Challenge

My first 30 day challenge for myself was to do 30 straight days of exercise. I missed one day but allowed myself to have one day to make it up by doing two exercise sessions. I think that is part of making it through a challenge to not become discouraged when you miss a day. Just keep going.

By the end of the challenge I was finding myself wanting to get out and exercising. Which I have never had this urge in my life. Somehow my body had learned through the 30 days that exercise was good.

How did I do it?

I created a little sheet to mark off each day on my challenge. I made it fun and pretty. And I have it available for you to print off too. I wrote down what my challenge was (exercise) and wrote down my reward: Bundle Monster Nail Art Stamping Plates (affiliate link).

Each day I crossed off a mark and watched as I got closer and closer to my goal. It was fun and exciting to see my progress!

What’s My Next Challenge

Drinking 8 glasses of water every day for 30 days.

I have found that behind exercise and food, water is one of the biggest things that makes a difference in my weight loss. So for my next challenge I’m going to try and drink the recommended 64 ounces of water every day for 30 days.

Challenge Ideas

Drink Water
Exercise
No chocolate
No candy
No snacks after 7pm
Take a walk every evening
Blog everyday
Comment on 5 blogs everyday
Write for 30 minutes everyday
Take a photo a day
Learn a new word everyday
Hug your child everyday
Read your bible daily
No TV
One good deed a day
Clean your house
Cook at home every night
and more…

Now it’s your Turn!

One of the best things you can do when you are doing a 30 day challenge is to find support! Find someone to keep you accountable!

I’m now asking you to join me in a 30 day challenge of your own. Your challenge doesn’t have to be water or even fitness related. You could pick any of the challenges above or just make one that is your own.

If you are interested in joining in on this challenge then comment and tell me about the challenge you are going to do. If I have a few people interested we can talk about how to keep each other accountable and how to keep in touch (twitter, email, facebook, etc).

And to help you with your challenge here is your FREE printable 30 Day Challenge chart!

5 Healthy Android Apps

This is going to be one of my favorite android app posts. Getting healthy has been something I have been working very hard with this year and these apps have been some of the best tools I have had! I’m going to share with you some fitness apps, some food apps, and even an iPhone …

Getting Healthy Weight Loss Surgery

Last Few Items Before Surgery

Getting Healthy

Beating The Fat Loss Progress Plateau

As you go about your workout and diet program, one issue that may arise at one point or another that definitely throws a big kink into your plans is the fitness plateau. You were seeing great weight loss up until this point, but all of a sudden, that progress has come to a halt.

Frustrated, you think about just throwing in the towel altogether, chalking it up to the fact that you just weren’t meant to get down to your dream weight.

But, before you’re too quick to do this, there are a few other possibilities that you should keep in mind for ways that you can perhaps get past this plateau and back on the road to success.

Let’s take a quick look at what these methods are so that you can be sure to give it a full effort.

Start A New Workout

The very first way that you can work to beat a fitness plateau is simply by trying out a new workout program. Remember, after so long on any given workout program, your body will have adapted and will no longer see a reason to change.

When it can comfortably handle whatever it is that you’re trying to throw at it, you aren’t going to be moving any closer to your goal body weight.

Instead, shake it up. Try some new exercises, join a new workout class, or start a brand new weight lifting program altogether. Just do something different and you will be amazed at what this does to your end result.

Re-Calculate Your Calorie Intake

Second, the next important step that you must take if you have hit a weight loss plateau is to take a very good and honest evaluation of your calorie intake.

Are you eating a few more calories than you should? Do you nibble on some chips while you prepare supper but then forget to add those to your total daily calorie intake?

If you aren’t totalling your calorie intake correctly and are actually eating 200-400 more than you think each day, this will certainly hinder your fat loss progress.

Remember, success at weight loss does come down to burning off more calories than you consume so if you’re misjudging how many calories you’re consuming, this will set you up for a plateau.

Take a good honest assessment and see if you are making a few errors you should be accounting for.

Consider A Diet Break

If after that assessment you come to find that you are actually eating a very low calorie intake but weight loss has still stalled, then it’s time to consider a diet break. Sometimes what you need is to give your body a break from the rigors of the diet altogether, allowing it to recharge its metabolism so that it’s running top-speed again.

Since the metabolism does tend to slow down after so long on any diet program, sometimes a diet break can be just the thing to get fat loss moving again.

If you can’t remember the last time you had a few days off your diet, now’s the time to take them. Take 3-5 days off and eat whatever you want, still aiming to be healthy.

Then get right back on your diet and more often than not, you’ll find weight loss picks back up again.

So there you have the top tips to remember about beating a weight loss plateau. If you can be sure to try these out before you choose to throw in the towel, you’ll find that you get right back on track to striving to reach that goal weight again.

[box style=”rounded” border=”full”]Aishwarya is a passionate blogger and is associated with Offshore Ally- A Company offering virtual assistant services. She has been recognised as an active VA for real estate clients.[/box]

Getting Healthy Menu Planning

Master Grocery List

My homework this month has been to create a Master Grocery List as I’m still trying to learn to get beyond my struggles with menu planning. I am doing my master grocery list on 3×5 cards because I’m making a tool box all on 3×5 cards. It includes recipes, things that are working for me, motivating quotes, and hopefully soon I will include exercise routines.

Next week I hope to be announcing a great new event that I will be having on PepperScraps. Make sure and subscribe so you don’t miss out!

Getting Healthy

On “Toning Up”

[box style=”rounded” border=”full”]I hope you will welcome Miz, one of the first guest bloggers here at Pepper Scraps. She is posting on Weigh in Wednesday about her view of herself and her goals of eating better but also loving herself! I’m sure you enjoy her post as much as I did!

– Love Pepper[/box]

Ok ladies. I think I can safely say the majority of us have a little issue about the way we look. If we have blonde hair we want brown. If we have big boobs we complain about wanting them smaller. And there’s not a lady in my life that doesn’t want to lose a little weight. Most of my friends call it “toning up” or “wanting to get fitter”. No one actually says what they mean to. Then there are the women who want to lose that last 10lbs, for the summer.

I’ve been on a downer about my weight for years. In that time I’ve been skinny, fat, and somewhere in between. Those identifiers mean different things to different people, but to me skinny was a UK size 10 (US size 6), fat was UK size 18 (US size 14). At my happiest, I was a UK size 12 (US size 8). I was curvy, fit and healthy. I rocked vintage clothes and could dance the night away with merry abandon. But even then, without realising I was happy with my weight, I felt I had to lose “those last 10lbs”. There has never been a time when I didn’t pressure myself to “tone up”. Blame whatever you want, the fashion industry, peer pressure, or a woman’s inevitable urge to put herself down – but I know I’ve never not felt the need to be something I’m not at that particular point.

I needed to change the way I view my health. Right now, there are many reasons I should lose weight. Yep, I need to lose weight. I’m not dressing it as toning up. I need to face facts here. I’m 27 year old, UK size 16 (US size 12) and I have back issues, not helped by the extra bulk I carry. I can’t dance with merry abandon anymore. My vintage dresses are in storage. Thing is, I’m constantly told I carry my weight well. It’s the most insulting compliment I receive. It’s an admission that I’m carrying extra weight. It says I don’t look as bad as “other fat people”. It’s still judgement. The worst thing is, I said to myself too!

So yeah, change. Like I said before, weight and size mean different things to different people. I know I never want to be less than a UK size 12 (US size 8), I know I look ridiculous smaller, since there’s two quite big parts of my body that stay the same size no matter what size I am. I have no desire to be a Playboy bunny! But that’s *my* goal. There is at least one woman out there who would love to get to the size I am now. It’s all relative. Self image and weight are so closely linked that it’s hard to see the other possibilities to improve how you view yourself. If you make weight loss your only focus, what happens next? Do you go straight to loving your new shape, or do you stay in that mindset of trying to achieve the perfect figure long after you’ve already achieved what’s right for you?

So I stand in front of a mirror. I look at myself, hard. It was difficult at first. It’s appallingly easy to cut straight to the negative points. My stomach hangs. Damn cellulite. I hate my knees!

Stop.

Enough.

I love my hair. My boobs remain optimistically perky considering their size. I know I’ve got shapely and, sometimes, on good day, quite lovely legs. My body is my best visual aid to my history. Every lump and bump tells a story. I’m not trying to erase that, but start a new chapter. Now when I stand in front of a mirror, I tend to like what I see. On a good day, I even like my bum!

Since I’ve started seeing my body as my greatest achievement, I’ve started treating it better. I drink more water because I like the way it makes my skin look. I eat more fruit because it tastes fantastic and I get a natural sugar rush. I slather myself in beautiful smelling lotions and I give myself mani/pedis. I don’t even miss chips (that much, I’m only human!). I only eat dark chocolate now, on occasion, and I’ve developed a taste for it. I’ve never had a sweet tooth before! I’ve started walking, everywhere. Even if there’s no destination in mind, I love nothing more than plugging music in my ears, tying my laces and power walking for an hour, all by myself. I don’t see it as exercise, but a treat.

I’ve lost more weight, consistently, since this change. I didn’t realise that I’d change my body by simply loving it more. In fact, I think I’m using the wrong word here. My body isn’t changing, really, but evolving into something that this time, I’ll appreciate. The back pain is easing off, and soon I’ll be digging out those vintage dresses and dancing the night away with merry abandon.

Care to join me?

Hi I am Pepper, yep that’s my real name, it’s on my birth certificate. I’m an old school blogger going back to her roots. In 1999 I wrote out my feelings and shared my silly random thoughts.

Well I’m back! This is me sharing the real me, hoping that it shows you that hey you aren’t alone in those weird, funny, hard moments in life. I’m putting the pieces of life back together after divorce, emotional abuse and starting out on a new adventure. Want to join me?

More about Pepper >>

My Weight Loss Story >>