Go Green Get Fit Challenge: Week 8
I’m one of 30 bloggers participating in the 12-week Go Green, Get Fit Challenge as part of the EcoMom Alliance Sustain YourSelf™ Program presented by PlanetShoes.com. Once a week I’m posting about progress toward my goals and other aspects of the challenge.
What not exercising looks like!
Cruising along quite well with an occasional misstep when it comes to eating within my program. I find the longer I’m eating the right things, the easier it is to give up what I’d come to feel were the only foods worth consuming.
Exercise has been more challenging for me because I’ve been away so much this summer. I have been getting a walk in almost every day at the minimum, but my extra daily workouts have been skipped way too often and weight training has zipped down to almost nothing when I’m on vacation. Since I’ll be going away once more at the end of the week, I need to really think through how I’m going to operate for a couple of weeks.
Some tips that have helped me with both food and exercise through the first eight weeks of this challenge that might help you too:
- Set a timer to exercise for five or ten minutes once an hour throughout the day. Even when I’m on vacation I can often do this, though not always.
- Eat veggies first. This seriously is a challenge for me, but when I separate my food out this way, it definitely helps me to eat less of other things.
- Fit exercise in whenever I can. I walk when I’m on the telephone, do squats and leg lifts when brushing my teeth, rock up and down on my heels when filling my car with gas or standing in line at the post office. I’m always thinking what I can be doing instead of standing still.
- Purposefully fidget. James A. Levine, M.D., Ph.D., a researcher at the Mayo Clinic, has shown that those who do more fidgeting and gesturing can burn as many as 350 extra calories per day, and even though I’m not into calorie counting, it can’t hurt! And it makes me feel better about sitting at the computer. Also when I watch TV and don’t feel like actually exercising, I lie back on the bed with my legs on an exercise ball and bounce them throughout a show.
- Order smaller portions. I realize how obvious this seems, but I never did it before. If I were ordering ice cream, I’d always order a double. Now I’ll order a small or child’s size and really try to enjoy it. So far so good.
- Drink tea. Until I started on The Smarter Science of Slim program, I’d never really drunk tea or coffee. But all the studies say that green tea helps with weight loss so I’ve been drinking two cups a day. I’ve noticed this does make me less anxiously await upcoming meals.
Not sure when I’ll post about next week because I leave on Saturday very early so you just might have to wait to hear how it’s going!
Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson are mother and daughter and authors of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, and founders of Green Halloween®.
