As the holiday season rolls around, we all start to think differently. The hustle and bustle of the season gets us going and can be very difficult to avoid stress. As the stress mounts, the challenges of the holidays really come out. We are tired, there is too much to do and there are too many places to go.
Going to the gym is the last thing on our minds. Actually, it’s not. From my experience as a health coach, health and the things you need to do to be healthy are on our minds quite frequently. Even if the gym is a place you don’t frequently go, it is a place that you frequently think about.
The holidays don’t make it any easier, but they are not necessarily the culprit. Think about the rest of the year. I know it’s difficult to do this during the holidays since things get so hectic, but it is important to be realistic. Think about your normal routine on a February day. Or think about it on an August day. Whatever part of the year you feel is the most typical, think about it.
Now that you have a new month pictured, think about what your routine looks like. If you are anything like my coaching participants (before and in the early stages of our work together!), than your routine actually looks pretty similar. I know there is more going on during the holidays, but how different does your exercise routine look? How different does your diet look?
Most people are thinking about working out. If nothing else, it is that something that you want to do or that you know you should be doing. Never the less, it is on your mind. No matter how much, or hour little you have doing on, your health enters your thoughts regularly. Whether or not you do something about it, is another story.
After all, the holidays present extra activities and extra food, but are they really that different from the rest of the year? You still manage to go to work, take your kids to activities, attend parties, prepare or purchase holiday treats, buy presents for loved ones and all of the other things that seem to fill our plates. And outside of a few meals, our plates are filled about the same as they are during any other time of the year.
In other words, we all manage to keep our routines going through the toughest most stressful time of the year. No matter what is thrown at us, we manage it. We take it on and make sure that it gets done. If you are on track with your health, you will include exercise and diet choices on your list of must-dos. You will include it in December just as you do in March. You will include it because it is part of your routine.
That is the challenge most people are running into around the holidays. It’s not that there is so much going on that they don’t have time to exercise. You have time to do what you make time to do. That is why people can make time for holiday parties. That is why people make time to complete everything else on the long list. The only difference between healthy and unhealthy is including it on your list.
No matter what the season throws at you, health can fit in. In fact, exercise helps manage stress. What better way to find relief in a busy time of year than setting aside time to exercise. Eating healthy not only helps your body function at higher level, but it keeps your immune system strong so you can fight off the bugs that go along with the fall and winter seasons. And here’s a newsflash for you: If you are eating healthy before the holidays and you eat healthy after the holidays, the impact of a few meals will be minimal. The real problem is when every day is Thanksgiving.
Think about that as your move through the holiday season. Don’t blame the season on your lack of exercise. Don’t blame the season on your overeating. The season comes and goes. Your habits are here to stay. They are your habits until you change them. Rather than throwing your hands up and declaring the holidays as your worst enemy, sit down and think about it for a minutes.
If you have goals now, you can start to reach them. Maybe you can start slow by setting specific goals for the holiday season. Or maybe you can simply decide that what you want is what you will do. The problem that most people run into is the fact that what they want and what they are actually doing doesn’t match.
People in healthy routines don’t stop during the holidays. People with healthy routines don’t have to stop during the holidays. I have yet to see a person gain 5 years worth of weight in a month. It doesn’t work that way. Healthy people know that. That is why they plan their routines. They fit exercise in, just as people with unhealthy routines fit in everything else. The only difference between healthy and unhealthy during the holidays is making sure that healthy activities are on the list.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Healthy Holidays
Holiday Eating Strategies
The average person puts on weight over the holidays. Gaining 5 pounds between the Thanksgiving holiday and year’s end is not uncommon. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can celebrate guilt-free and still enjoy yourself if you have a plan. There are many more gatherings between now and spring. You can use them as opportunities to gain weight or to solidify your game-plan. It’s up to you.
Only Eat Sitting Down
It is easy to graze through events and grab things as you go. The problem here is you don’t realize how many calories you are actually consuming. In many cases, since you aren’t thinking about it, you don’t even realize you are eating anything.
Tip: If you only eat while you are seated, you not only eat less, but you actually enjoy each item more because you are taking the time to savor it.
Eat well the rest of the day
If you keep yourself on track by eating healthy then avoiding the candy and desserts is easier because you will not be hungry.
Tip: Make sure that your meals and snacks are healthy on the day of parties. That way you know that there is room for some goodies as a reward for the good day you put together.
Only buy/bring the treats that you don’t like
What may be tough for someone to resist may not be too hard for you to resist.
Tip: You can control the menu if you host events and you can bring any items you want when there is a potluck or dish-passing event. Bring healthier versions or things you know you won’t eat
Decide what you want to eat ahead of time
Look at the options available to you. Do you have a favorite? If so, why eat all the other stuff just because it’s there?
Tip: pick a treat and enjoy a reasonable amount of it. Sit down and eat it deliberately. When you are done, you can look back and remember you enjoyed it rather than the mindless eating that can go on all day.
This can be a challenging season, or it can be an enjoyable season. It all depends on how you prepare. If you have a plan and can stick to it, things will go well. If you don’t have a plan, how can you possibly stick with anything? You can’t be on track if there is no track.
Keep in mind that none of the tips above are suggesting anything radical or specific to a certain diet. Your plan has to work for you. If you are trying to follow someone else’s plan into the holidays, things will be even more challenging. Make sure that your weight loss or healthy eating strategy is in line with your goals and the things you like to eat. Portion control and exercise have been the best way to live healthy for centuries. Anything that goes against that or adds other stipulations is going to be even more difficult to follow because it isn’t natural.
Good luck! Have a healthy and happy holiday season!
The average person puts on weight over the holidays. Gaining 5 pounds between the Thanksgiving holiday and year’s end is not uncommon. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can celebrate guilt-free and still enjoy yourself if you have a plan. There are many more gatherings between now and spring. You can use them as opportunities to gain weight or to solidify your game-plan. It’s up to you.
Only Eat Sitting Down
It is easy to graze through events and grab things as you go. The problem here is you don’t realize how many calories you are actually consuming. In many cases, since you aren’t thinking about it, you don’t even realize you are eating anything.
Tip: If you only eat while you are seated, you not only eat less, but you actually enjoy each item more because you are taking the time to savor it.
Eat well the rest of the day
If you keep yourself on track by eating healthy then avoiding the candy and desserts is easier because you will not be hungry.
Tip: Make sure that your meals and snacks are healthy on the day of parties. That way you know that there is room for some goodies as a reward for the good day you put together.
Only buy/bring the treats that you don’t like
What may be tough for someone to resist may not be too hard for you to resist.
Tip: You can control the menu if you host events and you can bring any items you want when there is a potluck or dish-passing event. Bring healthier versions or things you know you won’t eat
Decide what you want to eat ahead of time
Look at the options available to you. Do you have a favorite? If so, why eat all the other stuff just because it’s there?
Tip: pick a treat and enjoy a reasonable amount of it. Sit down and eat it deliberately. When you are done, you can look back and remember you enjoyed it rather than the mindless eating that can go on all day.
This can be a challenging season, or it can be an enjoyable season. It all depends on how you prepare. If you have a plan and can stick to it, things will go well. If you don’t have a plan, how can you possibly stick with anything? You can’t be on track if there is no track.
Keep in mind that none of the tips above are suggesting anything radical or specific to a certain diet. Your plan has to work for you. If you are trying to follow someone else’s plan into the holidays, things will be even more challenging. Make sure that your weight loss or healthy eating strategy is in line with your goals and the things you like to eat. Portion control and exercise have been the best way to live healthy for centuries. Anything that goes against that or adds other stipulations is going to be even more difficult to follow because it isn’t natural.
Good luck! Have a healthy and happy holiday season!
Monday, November 14, 2011
Costs of not eating healthy
I hear people say that eating healthy is expensive. When someone tells me why they have been eating unhealthy foods, their reason is often the price of food. There is a common perception that healthy foods cost more than unhealthy foods.
Sometimes, in certain situations, this is true. For the most part, the statement: healthy food is more expensive is actually false. There are a few myths and misconceptions at play here.
I would like to take a closer look at those situations to determine why eating healthy can be more expensive. But more importantly, I want to break down the numbers and show how healthy food is often cheaper to purchase. We already know that there are more significant long-term costs to eating an unhealthy diet. I also want to break down some of those actual costs to see just how much it costs to eat healthy and how much it costs when you don’t.
Misconception #1
In General: Healthy food is more expensive than unhealthy food
This is something that I hear a lot. You see the value menu prices and compare them to the costs of fruits, vegetables and other fresh items and it’s easy to say, at first glance, that the value menu is cheaper. It only costs a dollar to get a sandwich. It only costs another dollar to get a side or a beverage.
How could something that was purchased at the store and prepared at home be cheaper? Well, let’s do the math: For $20, you can buy many combinations of food. Let’s say you just buy 20 $1 burgers from a fast food restaurant. That is 20 sandwiches for $20. Now let’s say you go to the store to buy the ingredients for 20 sandwiches. You need bread: $2 loaf, 1 lb. of meat for $8, a tomato for $1, cheese for another $2, a head of lettuce or spinach for $1. So far, we are able to make 20 sandwiches with as much nutritional value for only $14. We also lean meats of much higher quality than you get at a fast food restaurant. If you wanted to, you could make these sandwiches MUCH cheaper by skimping on quality, which is exactly what they do at the restaurant to make that sandwich so cheap for you to buy. You can upgrade the bread and add other veggies while still keeping the cost under $1 per sandwich.
As you can see, cheaper is not healthier. More importantly, healthier is not more expensive. You can make good foods at home without spending any more money. In fact, often, you can buy and make foods for less money than you would spend by eating out.
Reality
It actually costs more to eat out.
Misconception #2
Eating healthy food is not important to maintain good health
Many people think that as long as they are buying food from a familiar place, they are eating healthy. What’s worse is that often people think that what they eat doesn’t have a big impact on their health. The truth is: eating healthy is very important! If you don’t eat well, you don’t get good results from your body. Food is what fuels us and when we don’t get good fuel in, we don’t get good results out.
This is why so many Americans are tired, cranky and depressed. It is also why so many people need caffeine, don’t get as much done as they would like and just feel an overall dissatisfaction with their lives. The diet has a significant role in helping us do good things and helping us feel good about those things.
As we continue to abuse our bodies by putting in more fat, calories and chemicals, we start to develop other problems. The most common is excess weight. The body can only burn so many calories. Since most of us are not getting enough exercise to begin with, the fast-food combo becomes extra dangerous because we are packing in double, triple or even more calories on a daily basis. An obese individual spends about $2000 more each year on healthcare- medications and other procedures. They spend another $2000 on other incidentals throughout the course of a year. That is $4000 extra dollars spent, just because they are overweight. That doesn’t even include the extra money going toward all the extra food.
What are some of these other problems? How about Diabetes? A person with Diabetes spends an extra $900+ each year compared to a person that does not have the disease. This is due to medical costs, testing equipment and supplies as well as other procedures that are routine for them.
Those are the most common and immediate issues that come from eating unhealthy. We also know that there are some more severe consequences. Heart attacks and strokes cost people their lives every day in our country. For those that survive or their loved ones if they don’t, these events can cost over a million dollars each. When it comes to hospital stays, follow-up treatments and medications, these costs add up fast and don’t go away on their own.
Reality
Eating healthy is very important to maintaining good health
As you can see, there are many costs to NOT eating healthy. The longer we pretend that a dollar cheeseburger is a good deal, the more health issues we will be dealing with in the future. Even if the cost of a healthier choice were slightly more expensive, the results would lead to cheaper living for the rest of your life. The fact is, healthy food is NOT more expensive, so the excuse is no longer valid. Can you spend more money at the grocery store in a month than you spend on fast food? Of course you can, but that doesn’t mean you are getting as much food and certainly doesn’t mean that you are getting the nutrition that you need to live healthy.
There are more costs involved than simply the price the food. As illustrated above, you can spend more money on medication and medical treatments than you will ever spend on healthy foods. The bonus is that the healthy foods will actually prevent the need for medication and prevent you from needing medical treatment of any kind. We have known for centuries that healthy foods are the best medication. They are the best and they are the cheapest. Healthy food doesn’t cost more. It cost you more NOT to eat healthy.
Sometimes, in certain situations, this is true. For the most part, the statement: healthy food is more expensive is actually false. There are a few myths and misconceptions at play here.
I would like to take a closer look at those situations to determine why eating healthy can be more expensive. But more importantly, I want to break down the numbers and show how healthy food is often cheaper to purchase. We already know that there are more significant long-term costs to eating an unhealthy diet. I also want to break down some of those actual costs to see just how much it costs to eat healthy and how much it costs when you don’t.
Misconception #1
In General: Healthy food is more expensive than unhealthy food
This is something that I hear a lot. You see the value menu prices and compare them to the costs of fruits, vegetables and other fresh items and it’s easy to say, at first glance, that the value menu is cheaper. It only costs a dollar to get a sandwich. It only costs another dollar to get a side or a beverage.
How could something that was purchased at the store and prepared at home be cheaper? Well, let’s do the math: For $20, you can buy many combinations of food. Let’s say you just buy 20 $1 burgers from a fast food restaurant. That is 20 sandwiches for $20. Now let’s say you go to the store to buy the ingredients for 20 sandwiches. You need bread: $2 loaf, 1 lb. of meat for $8, a tomato for $1, cheese for another $2, a head of lettuce or spinach for $1. So far, we are able to make 20 sandwiches with as much nutritional value for only $14. We also lean meats of much higher quality than you get at a fast food restaurant. If you wanted to, you could make these sandwiches MUCH cheaper by skimping on quality, which is exactly what they do at the restaurant to make that sandwich so cheap for you to buy. You can upgrade the bread and add other veggies while still keeping the cost under $1 per sandwich.
As you can see, cheaper is not healthier. More importantly, healthier is not more expensive. You can make good foods at home without spending any more money. In fact, often, you can buy and make foods for less money than you would spend by eating out.
Reality
It actually costs more to eat out.
Misconception #2
Eating healthy food is not important to maintain good health
Many people think that as long as they are buying food from a familiar place, they are eating healthy. What’s worse is that often people think that what they eat doesn’t have a big impact on their health. The truth is: eating healthy is very important! If you don’t eat well, you don’t get good results from your body. Food is what fuels us and when we don’t get good fuel in, we don’t get good results out.
This is why so many Americans are tired, cranky and depressed. It is also why so many people need caffeine, don’t get as much done as they would like and just feel an overall dissatisfaction with their lives. The diet has a significant role in helping us do good things and helping us feel good about those things.
As we continue to abuse our bodies by putting in more fat, calories and chemicals, we start to develop other problems. The most common is excess weight. The body can only burn so many calories. Since most of us are not getting enough exercise to begin with, the fast-food combo becomes extra dangerous because we are packing in double, triple or even more calories on a daily basis. An obese individual spends about $2000 more each year on healthcare- medications and other procedures. They spend another $2000 on other incidentals throughout the course of a year. That is $4000 extra dollars spent, just because they are overweight. That doesn’t even include the extra money going toward all the extra food.
What are some of these other problems? How about Diabetes? A person with Diabetes spends an extra $900+ each year compared to a person that does not have the disease. This is due to medical costs, testing equipment and supplies as well as other procedures that are routine for them.
Those are the most common and immediate issues that come from eating unhealthy. We also know that there are some more severe consequences. Heart attacks and strokes cost people their lives every day in our country. For those that survive or their loved ones if they don’t, these events can cost over a million dollars each. When it comes to hospital stays, follow-up treatments and medications, these costs add up fast and don’t go away on their own.
Reality
Eating healthy is very important to maintaining good health
As you can see, there are many costs to NOT eating healthy. The longer we pretend that a dollar cheeseburger is a good deal, the more health issues we will be dealing with in the future. Even if the cost of a healthier choice were slightly more expensive, the results would lead to cheaper living for the rest of your life. The fact is, healthy food is NOT more expensive, so the excuse is no longer valid. Can you spend more money at the grocery store in a month than you spend on fast food? Of course you can, but that doesn’t mean you are getting as much food and certainly doesn’t mean that you are getting the nutrition that you need to live healthy.
There are more costs involved than simply the price the food. As illustrated above, you can spend more money on medication and medical treatments than you will ever spend on healthy foods. The bonus is that the healthy foods will actually prevent the need for medication and prevent you from needing medical treatment of any kind. We have known for centuries that healthy foods are the best medication. They are the best and they are the cheapest. Healthy food doesn’t cost more. It cost you more NOT to eat healthy.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Balance: Find it or you will regret it
Work-life balance is something we hear about on a regular basis. I discuss it with my clients as they find that they want to be companies that support work-life balance. I discuss it with my clients’ employees as they want to find it for themselves. Work-life balance is something we all strive for.
Balance itself is a word that can help us in many areas. When things are balanced, we can do things better. We can do good things and we can even do more of them. But most importantly, with balance, we don’t get too far off to one side in any area.
What does that mean? When you have balance, you are in the middle of the spectrum. On one end of the spectrum, you have one extreme and on the other end of the spectrum, you have the complete opposite. Being in the middle means that you have found a way to incorporate parts of both.
When it comes to work-life balance, this can be difficult to achieve. I know that you have to work in order to maintain a living. When I was an employee, I knew that I had to work in order to keep my job. As a business owner, now I know that I have to work in order to keep my business moving in the right direction.
My clients know all of this too, which is why they want their employee s to work hard for them. They not only want this, but expect employees to work hard on a regular basis. That is what makes a successful business. Hard working people doing their hard work every day is how a company gets ahead.
There is more to life than work, however. Just because hard work leads to success, does not mean that the harder you work and the further you are on the spectrum, the better you will be. This may be true in short stints, but over the long-term, you need to find balance or you will not be able to sustain the pace and eventually your performance will fall off.
My clients also know this, which is why they want to be supportive of a balanced work culture. When they talk about their employees, you hear about more than simply output or hours worked. You hear terms like sustainability, quality and of course balance. These terms are what come from a workforce that is not stuck on one end of the spectrum.
I’ve seen companies on both ends of the spectrum. We all know what happens when a workforce doesn’t do very much. We all know how it goes when people aren’t working hard or not working at all. That is never a good thing. What we don’t always think about is the consequences of working too hard.
Working too hard has consequences too. What happens when we work too hard? We start to see issues like fatigue and poor quality. Think about the work that is completed at the end of a long day or after too many hours, days and weeks in a row. What does the work look like? It actually takes longer to do the same tasks and you make more mistakes.
When it comes to health, work-life balance is very important. We all know what happens when you don’t take care of your health. You lose it and problems ensue. When you are on one end of the spectrum with your health, there is only one way that it will end. Well there are actually many ways it can end, but they are all bad. Heart issues, diabetes and even cancer are all attributed to poor lifestyle. Making unhealthy choices has clear consequences.
My clients know this too. Businesses that want to be successful today and in the long-run are taking note of this. They know that working hard is important, but they also know that taking care of health has a significant impact on their employees and the work they do.
Companies are seeing this in all industries. Balance doesn’t mean that people are exercising instead of working. Balance does not mean that people are reading nutrition labels instead of reports. And no, balance does not mean that employees are researching health products online instead of sending company emails. Balance means that people are working hard and making time for other things.
We all know that working hard is the key to getting ahead. What we need to realize is that people can’t work hard if they don’t have health. They can’t work hard if they don’t have rest. They can’t work hard of they don’t take time to recharge and recover.
Balance is more than just rest. Balance is both working hard and relaxing. Finding this balance is not only the key to health, but it is the key to success overall. Without balance, you cannot achieve success in any area. The idea of balance is good for everyone. Finding it is another story. When you find it, good things happen. If you don’t find it, there is a whole list of reasons for regret.
Balance itself is a word that can help us in many areas. When things are balanced, we can do things better. We can do good things and we can even do more of them. But most importantly, with balance, we don’t get too far off to one side in any area.
What does that mean? When you have balance, you are in the middle of the spectrum. On one end of the spectrum, you have one extreme and on the other end of the spectrum, you have the complete opposite. Being in the middle means that you have found a way to incorporate parts of both.
When it comes to work-life balance, this can be difficult to achieve. I know that you have to work in order to maintain a living. When I was an employee, I knew that I had to work in order to keep my job. As a business owner, now I know that I have to work in order to keep my business moving in the right direction.
My clients know all of this too, which is why they want their employee s to work hard for them. They not only want this, but expect employees to work hard on a regular basis. That is what makes a successful business. Hard working people doing their hard work every day is how a company gets ahead.
There is more to life than work, however. Just because hard work leads to success, does not mean that the harder you work and the further you are on the spectrum, the better you will be. This may be true in short stints, but over the long-term, you need to find balance or you will not be able to sustain the pace and eventually your performance will fall off.
My clients also know this, which is why they want to be supportive of a balanced work culture. When they talk about their employees, you hear about more than simply output or hours worked. You hear terms like sustainability, quality and of course balance. These terms are what come from a workforce that is not stuck on one end of the spectrum.
I’ve seen companies on both ends of the spectrum. We all know what happens when a workforce doesn’t do very much. We all know how it goes when people aren’t working hard or not working at all. That is never a good thing. What we don’t always think about is the consequences of working too hard.
Working too hard has consequences too. What happens when we work too hard? We start to see issues like fatigue and poor quality. Think about the work that is completed at the end of a long day or after too many hours, days and weeks in a row. What does the work look like? It actually takes longer to do the same tasks and you make more mistakes.
When it comes to health, work-life balance is very important. We all know what happens when you don’t take care of your health. You lose it and problems ensue. When you are on one end of the spectrum with your health, there is only one way that it will end. Well there are actually many ways it can end, but they are all bad. Heart issues, diabetes and even cancer are all attributed to poor lifestyle. Making unhealthy choices has clear consequences.
My clients know this too. Businesses that want to be successful today and in the long-run are taking note of this. They know that working hard is important, but they also know that taking care of health has a significant impact on their employees and the work they do.
Companies are seeing this in all industries. Balance doesn’t mean that people are exercising instead of working. Balance does not mean that people are reading nutrition labels instead of reports. And no, balance does not mean that employees are researching health products online instead of sending company emails. Balance means that people are working hard and making time for other things.
We all know that working hard is the key to getting ahead. What we need to realize is that people can’t work hard if they don’t have health. They can’t work hard if they don’t have rest. They can’t work hard of they don’t take time to recharge and recover.
Balance is more than just rest. Balance is both working hard and relaxing. Finding this balance is not only the key to health, but it is the key to success overall. Without balance, you cannot achieve success in any area. The idea of balance is good for everyone. Finding it is another story. When you find it, good things happen. If you don’t find it, there is a whole list of reasons for regret.
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