Volume
8, Issue 11:
November 2007 |
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Heather's Upcoming Appearances:
Have Your Cake and Eat It Too
Learn how to look good and feel great without the guilt and pressure from traditional diet and exercise programs.
November 29th at Kennedy Club in Atascadero, 6:30-8:00pm. To sign up email or call Michael at 781-3488 x19.
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How to Stay Fit and Trim During
the Holidays |
Staying fit and trim is largely about consistency. To maintain your exercise habit during the hectic holiday season, avoid the all-or-nothing thought. It’s like any time that your life is interrupted by outside circumstances. But the advantage of the holidays is that you can predict—and plan for—much of the disruption.
Attempting to maintain your usual routine can lead to frustration and the ultimate abandonment of exercise for weeks. The result is a decline in fitness and energy levels, and sometimes a rise in weight. Instead, plan to stay fit and trim during the holiday season:
- Decide on a realistic amount of exercise you can fit in over the next several weeks, adjusting the number and length of sessions as necessary. Schedule it in your calendar and honor exercise like any other appointment.
- Are you bombarded with offers of parties and sundry gatherings during the holidays? If your exercise suffers, consider drawing boundaries. Over-committing impacts more than your exercise program—you’re at risk of becoming sick or run-down.
- On days you can’t fit in a workout, wear a pedometer and strive for a minimum number of steps.
- If reducing exercise time, maximize results:
- Strength training : do multi-joint exercises (e.g. lunges and pushups) over single-joint exercises (i.e. biceps curls and leg extensions)—this way you work more muscle groups in less time. If you’re advanced, try combining exercises such as a shoulder press simultaneously with a lunge (use less weight than you would for each individual exercise). Doing pushups with your legs on an exercise ball recruits several muscles groups (chest, shoulders, triceps, abdominals, obliques).
- Cardiovascular : Do interval workouts. Here’s a 20-minute example: warm up for 2 minutes, then alternate 4 series of 2-minute high intensity / 2-minute moderate intensity exercise for a total of 16 minutes. Cool down for 2 minutes. If 2 minutes of high-intensity exercise is beyond your fitness level, decrease it to 1-minute or 30-seconds and lengthen the moderate exercise time, still keeping to a total 20 minutes.
Every bit of exercise helps to maintain your fitness level and weight. And when you stick with exercise, your healthy eating habits are more likely stay intact. The reverse is also true, as in the “I’ve Blown It” mentality. Habits feed upon each other—make sure your habits are the ones you want to expand.
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| Message From Heather |
 As I write southern California is in a state of emergency, where the majority of my family calls home. I’m grateful they are all safe, yet sad for some of their losses and those of thousands more.
With Thanksgiving on the horizon, I didn’t intend to write about the obviousness of gratitude this month because we culturally focus there. Everyone’s talking, and writing, about it. But what hits home for me during disasters such as this is that I’m sometimes blasé about gratitude. It isn’t that I’m not grateful, but rather that it’s not in my face so severely on most days, thank God. I can say the forced reflection does me good. I feel like I could fill a book today listing everything I’m grateful for.
Two years ago a colleague of mine lost her home in Katrina and I saw her at a conference that November. She was incredibly upbeat considering. She said her major realization was that, “I don’t need as much as I thought I did.” And she said it with a smile.
In gratitude,
Heather Moreno
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| Now Open! |
Get a jump on your holiday shopping!
Have someone to buy for who needs motivation or an exercise overhaul? Maybe someone who’s ready to get off the diet rollercoaster?
I’ve picked out my favorites from fitness and food books to exercise DVDs and inexpensive at-home equipment.
It’s managed through Amazon so shopping is easy!
Check it out now.
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| A Cold Weather Staple |
When the weather turns cold, try a healthy twist on the comfort food of chili. This recipe reduces the amount of calorie-heavy meat and fat, offers more of the natural phytochemicals in plant foods that protect against a wide range of illnesses, and provides a good dose of dietary fiber, thiamin, vitamin B6, folate, and several important minerals.
Chili with Turkey (makes 10 servings)
2 Tbsp. canola oil
2 cups chopped onion
5 garlic cloves as desired, chopped fine
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped coarse
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper, or as desired
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (optional)
3 cans (16 oz. each) of 3 different types of beans (kidney, black, garbanzo, etc.) rinsed and drained
1 cup frozen corn (or canned corn, drained)
1 can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes, with juice
1 cup low-sodium vegetable tomato juice (spiced version, if desired)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 cups diced cooked turkey
Hot sauce, to taste
Reduced-fat sour cream and shredded cheese (optional garnish)
Heat oil in large, deep pot over medium-high heat until hot. Stir in onion, garlic and bell pepper. Lightly sauté until onion is translucent, garlic is golden and bell pepper is softened. Add in chili powder, cayenne, cumin, oregano and cinnamon and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Stir in beans, corn, tomatoes, and juice.
Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer gently 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in turkey and simmer an additional 15 minutes. Adjust seasonings, as desired, adding more salt, pepper and hot sauce.
Serve accompanied by reduced-fat sour cream and cheese as toppings, to taste.
Per serving: 289 calories, 8 g fat (1 g saturated), 34 g carbohydrate, 22 g protein, 10 g fiber, 560 mg sodium.
Courtesy of the American Institute for Cancer Research .
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