Healthy Living

Get Healthy by Taking the Stairs

2012-01-15T20:12:00.000-08:00

Try Stair Climbing

Lose weight and get toned in your legs, stomach and buttocks by climbing the stairs.

Good places to finds stairs;

home
work
library
park
office building
hospital
school
college
track

Find out more by reading the Fitness.com article,

Get Healthy by Taking the Stairs - Heart Disease, Body Image, Osteoarthritis, Programs, Goals, Aerobic Exercise, Fat Loss, Diabetes - Fitness.com.

Joy Brown's Healthy Living

* Disclaimer. The information contained on these pages is general in nature and not intended to be expert or authoritative advise. Before starting any diet, exercise or lifestyle change it is recommended that you consult your physician.

© 2012 Joy Brown - all rights reserved
Images Copyright (c)123RF Stock Photos

BMI - Body Mass Index Calculator - Healthy Weight

2012-01-14T08:50:00.000-08:00

What's Body Mass Index?

Wikipedia - Body mass index is defined as the individual's body weight divided by the square of his or her height.

BMI provides a simple numeric measure of a person's thickness or thinness, this allows fitness and health professionals to review over and under weight problems more objectively with individuals.

Body Mass Index Value Setting

BMI of 20 to 25 may indicate optimal weight
BMI lower than 20 suggests the person is underweight
BMI above 25 may indicate the person is overweight
BMI below 20 due to disease;
BMI above 30 suggests the person is obese
BMI over 40 is morbidly obese

Body Mass Calculator

Check out this cool too to keep you on your road to fitness.

BMI - Body Mass Index Calculator - Healthy Weight

Joy Brown's Healthy Living

Images Copyright (c)123RF Stock Photos

Healthy Desserts

2012-01-10T19:55:00.000-08:00

Hot Dark Chocolate

Try this low fat, low caloric smart dessert. When you are craving some chocolate and need a fulfilling treat for those chilly winter evenings. Pickup the sugar free dark hot cocoa mix at your store. Top it off with low fat whipped cream add a sprinkle of cinnamon power or a cinnamon stick to your cup.

Delicious Apples & Cinnamon

An all American favorite snack and dessert. Slice red delicious apple in thin pieces, add cinnamon to each layer. Server on dessert plate warm or cold.

Green Apples & Honey

Tasty treat. Cup up a green apple in small cubes. Serve in bowl with honey drizzled on top. Add a dash of cinnamon on top.

Joy Brown's Healthy Living

Keep it Up!

2012-01-07T19:43:00.000-08:00

Stay Focused

Realize that getting fit takes time and you'll have successes and failures. If you eat something unhealthy or do not make time for exercise, forgive yourself and get back on your plan as soon as possible. Many gain the weight they lost back because they get hung up and wait too long to change their eating behaviors and lifestyle.

Review the Steps to Getting & Being Fit

Use Your Powerful Motivational Tools

Recall your commitment, I am resolved to live my life today to be fit.
Chart the progress you are making in your daily food and activity journal.

Healthy Choices

Keep making healthy choices daily.

See Your End Goal

You will reap the long time rewards by sticking to your fitness goal daily. You'll start to notice how much better your body feels as you become lighter and more fit. Your mental attitude will be stronger as you are now achieving your goal.

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

See yourself fit in your minds eye. Think about some things you would enjoy doing fit. Write them down and see yourself doing them. You'll be looking forward to it.

Set a Short Term Goal

I will reward myself with a mini vacation in three months.
I will buy that dress or jeans in one size smaller.
I will travel abroad.

Reach Out to Others

Find friends or family members who are open to the benefit of fitness and share your story with them.

Joy Brown's Healthy Living

Images Copyright (c)123RF Stock Photos

Reward Yourself

2012-01-06T21:40:00.000-08:00

Buy a Gift

Give yourself a special non-food treat every week. Set your budget and buy something that you normally would'nt.

Try a pair of themed stockings; lace, animal print, textured patterns are always fun.
Check out some new hair jewelry.
Consider a new hoodie or pair of sweat pants.
Grab some sexy underwear.
Buy a book of low fat recipes and try a new one each week. This will also expand your healthy meal planning.

Treat Yourself

Spend time with yourself. This is your personal time carved out of your busy week. Set aside one hour each week that is all yours. No kids or hubby, this is just your time and space. Have fun exploring new areas of interest.

Checkout your local chain book store. Pick up a good book, grab a cup of coffee, find a cozy chair and read the first chapter. If you like it, read on.
Visit your local gym and ask for a free workout. If you've never been a member of a gym, inquire it they have a free monthly trial and if they offer a trainer to show you how to use the equipment and weights for strength training.
Call a local spa and schedule a time for a facial or hair waxing.
Try a pedicure, manicure, foot message or a new hair style or color at a full service salon.

Rewards of Daily Fitness

I can now stop feeling guilty that I'm too fat. If you mess up, forgive yourself and move on.

I feel good about myself as I am on a path to fitness.

I can see my body responding, hey I like this.

Reflect on Your End Goal

You are reaping the long time rewards by sticking to your fitness goal daily. You'll start to notice how much better your body feels as you become lighter and more fit. Your mental attitude will be stronger as you are now achieving your goal.

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Remember Rome was not built in a day. Living a life of fitness is a daily commitment. Know you are on the road to fitness following this path.

What's disappointing about many diets is the waiting period before you see any kind of real results. Keep focused that this is really a mind game. If your mind is set and resolved to living healthy, you'll make better choices and be on your way towards getting and staying fit.

Joy Brown's Healthy Living

Get More Movement with Exercise

2012-01-05T20:58:00.000-08:00

Set a Goal to Exercise Daily

If you haven’t exercised for a while, try walking. As your body becomes adjusted to more movement, you can step it up doing your favorite exercises like brisk or power walking, cycling, jogging, jump roping, aerobics or any cardiovascular activity.

Start Small – 20 to 30 minutes per day

Take baby steps, set aside intervals of 5 or 10 minutes to equal 20-30 minutes and start walking everyday. Make this your special time to reflect on your day and how you are achieving your fitness goals. If you are stuck inside, go up and down steps or walk or run in place. You'll see a change soon. Add 5 more minutes each day the following week until you are at an hour of combined exercise three times per week. Fitness gurus claim to do a 20 minute high impact cardiovascular workout three times per week. Just keep it up, results will come guaranteed.

Write in Down

List you daily exercise on your Activity Fitness Journal. There is great power is seeing what you are achieving each day. Keeping a log of your efforts will help toward your goal of daily fitness. Don't forget to add your activities that require movement like gardening, cleaning, snow shoveling, leaf raking, car washing and shopping etc.

Calories Burned

Gardening - 272 calories per hour

Light Cleaning Light – Picking Up, Dusting, Changing Linens, Empty Trash - 170 calories per hour

General Cleaning – 204 calories per hour

Heavy Cleaning – Window Washing, Car Washing, Scrubbing Tile, Tub or Shower - 204 calories per hour

Shoveling Snow - 408 calories per hour

Leaf Raking - 156 calories per hour

Shopping - 78 calories per hour

* Calories Burned assuming a body weight of 150 lbs

Monitor Your Heart Rate

Keep an eye on your heart rate and gradually increase your time allotment.

Grab a Work Out Buddy

Grab your mate or find a friend who is fitness oriented and exercise together.

Join a Running / Cycling Club

Get motivated by joining a local running or cycling club. Check your local paper or search online for times the clubs and meet up groups meet. Great resources to find others with same interests.

Check Out you local Parks, YMCA and Gyms.

Joy Brown's Healthy Living

Keep a Food & Activity Journal

2012-01-04T16:20:00.000-08:00

It's a Powerful Tool – Use it

I can't stress enough how essential it is to write down everything you eat daily. There is something very powerful when you write your actions down and are able to see exactly what you are doing. Sounds like you are in control, doesn’t it. This tip also helps to build your self esteem, as you can now see that you are really accomplishing something.

Your Personal Daily Tracker

A journal will aid in helping you track you fitness success. If you are not getting stronger and loosing weight, something is amiss and having a food and activity journal will help you determine what you need to modify in order to achieve your goal. I keep my food journal in a simple calendar format that I print out each month and place it on my refrigerator. I also add my exercise activities and any other fitness goals I have for that day. You can also use a bound daily calendar or a blank paper bounded journal, or even a standard notepad. Just do it anyway that's easiest for you. My daily calender is my personal helper as my day unfolds. I can easily check, oh I need to eat more veggies or fruit and see oh I'm not getting enough grains. This way I can add to my day what nutritional food items I'm lacking and continue to eat healthy toward my end goal of being fit each day. We are taking this one day at a time, that's all anyone can do.

Online Printable Calendars

Here's a few links to get free printable calenders online;

Counting Amounts, Calories or Carbohydrates

A lot of my friends write down their count of calories or carbs daily. They like to keep a running total of what they are eating in their smart phone or a small pad they have on their person. I think that's a good idea too, however if you are changing your lifestyle and eating habits, you need to track your success. Writing down everything you eat and drink will prove an effective tool toward fitness success.

I like to focus on the amounts I eat and keeping a food and activity journal has worked well for me. I've had the most success in losing weight by watching my amounts instead of counting calories or carbohydrates. Any method will do, choose one that works for you.

* Disclaimer. The information contained on these pages is general in nature and not intended to be expert or authoritative advise. Before starting any diet, exercise or lifestyle change it is recommended that you consult your physician.

Joy Brown's Healthy Living

Plan & Prepare Healthy Meals to Eat

2012-01-03T19:52:00.000-08:00

Don't go to the grocery store hungry or without your meals planned and a specific list of healthy food to purchase. It will take some time to become familiar with the best healthy items to purchase while shopping. You'll need to read most labels to view the nutritional content. Avoid if possible all processed foods and high fat content of 50% or more. Drop all sugared drinks, sweets and snacks. Completely avoid the sweet isle, don't even look at items that could steer you off your FiT plan. Buy only whole grains, lean meat, low fat cheese, low calorie snacks, yogurt, lots of fresh greens and fruit. Drink a minimum of 64 ounces of water daily. This diet is based on a daily 1200-2500 calorie amount or 45 carbs per meal. It will help you lose weight. I follow the amounts of food I'm eating vs the calories or carbohydrates. You can use it either way, whichever works best for you.

Grains - 6 servings per day

Breads, wraps, pasta, rice, cereal, corn and starchy vegetables

Avoid white flour, bread, and enriched wheat. Look for whole grains and multi grain products.

Meats - 4 - 6 ounces per day – size of a deck of cards

Select low fat lean meats and white meat. Add fish 2-3 times per week.

Proteins

Replace these items packed with protein instead of meat for your meal planning. Beans, soy, avocados, nuts, peanut butter, low fat cheeses and eggs.

Vegetables - 3 - 5 ½ cup servings per day

Greens - Load up on greens and leafy green vegetables like broccoli, lettuces, cabbage, peppers, string beans, celery, cucumbers, okra and, zucchini, Tomatoes, turnips, cauliflower, mushrooms, and onions. Most have little caloric content and pack loads of nutrition.

Fruits 2 - 4 four ounce servings per day

Load up on fruit. Apples, oranges, tangerines, pears, peaches, pomegranate, melon, grapes, cherries and bananas are great sources of natural sugars. Try a fruit melody by cutting small pieces of three favorite fruits in a bowl. Have fun and mix it up, less chance of getting bored.

Dairy 2 - 3 servings per day

Choose low fat, milk, sour cream, yogurts, cheeses, cottage cheese and whipped cream.

Fats 3 - 5 servings per day

Cook with a olive oil pan spray or extra virgin olive oil with fresh white onions and garlic for seasoning. Butter and margarine. Be mindful of the foods naturally high in fat like peanuts and avocados.

Joy Brown's Healthy Living

* Disclaimer. The information contained on these pages is general in nature and not intended to be expert or authoritative advise. Before starting any diet, exercise or lifestyle change it is recommended that you consult your physician.

Goal Attained - I Will be Fit Today!

2012-01-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

If you do not write it down and commit to being fit, you already lost the battle. What I like about this goal is it's totally attainable NOW. It's your decision every time you start your day. If you will plan your day with this goal in mind or not. Sounds easy, I know. It does take some planning. So how can you plan to live today with the goal of being fit in mind?

Make Good Choices

Keep your goal in mind as your day unfolds. Make your fit goal the center of your day and you'll see what choices that will make a difference for getting fit.

Motivation Comes From Within - See Your FIT Goal Daily

Take a picture out of a magazine of a fit body and cut out the face, replace it with your face and place it on the refrigerator or somewhere you'll see it daily.

Dig out an old swim suit or buy a new swim suit in a size you will attain. Hang it up on the wall and look at it everyday. Each time you look at it tell yourself, I will be wearing this soon.

Keep Focused

Know that getting fit takes time. Do not be discouraged and when you are feeling low, call a friend for encouragement. If you need to snack munch on healthy foods try a low calorie snack, 1/2 cup of fruit or a handful of peanuts.

Decide I Will Only Eat Healthy Foods

From your shopping list, when you go out to eat and all the goodies at home or at work... if you decide to be fit, you won't be reaching for the empty caloric items. Pack a healthy lunch and snacks and have them handy so you won't have to settle for less.

Get More Movement

Go out and do something Fun.

Check your local paper for Things to Do and Local Happenings.

Go see a movie or visit a local historic spot.

If you have to run errands and don't have any times to exercise, squeeze it in during your day. If you drive to the store, park as far away from the entrance as possible. When you lug in your groceries, park your car further away to get more exercise.

If you sit to log on to the Internet daily to read your email or visit your face book friends, consider standing and walking in place instead of sitting on your duff.

Run up the stair or walk, run in place for 5 mins at a time to get in your 20-30 mins of daily exercise.

Joy Brown's Healthy Living

* Disclaimer. The information contained on these pages is general in nature and not intended to be expert or authoritative advise. Before starting any diet, exercise or lifestyle change it is recommended that you consult your physician.

© 2012 Joy Brown - all rights reserved

Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

Keep Your Mind on Fitness & Keep the Weight Off

2012-01-01T22:57:00.000-08:00

Well it's another New Year and after the holidays, we all could benefit from losing some weight. Self motivation is key for keeping fit and weight loss. Stop beating yourself up, forget about why you're too fat and move forward now. Simply put, agree with yourself that you will be fit. Weight loss will come naturally if your focus is fitness and best off all, you'll keep it off.

If you've been the classic yo-yo dieter and plan to change and get fit. Focus on one goal, to live a lifestyle of fitness by thinking and planing to be fit. Most people do not plan to fail, they fail to plan. It's all about attitude and commitment.

Steps to Be Fit

Step One - Set a Goal to be Fit

Write it down and pledge to yourself that I will be fit. It's my body and my decision, I will be fit.

Step Two - Plan and Prepare Healthy Meals to Eat

Don't go to the grocery store without a specific list of healthy food. Drop all processed foods, drinks, sweets and snacks. Buy only whole grains, lean meat, low fat cheese, low calorie snacks, yogurt, lots of fresh greens and fruit. Drink a minimum of 64 ounces of water daily.

Step Three - Keep a Food Journal

Write Down Everything you eat each day.

Step Four - Move with Exercise

Start walking 20 minutes, everyday. If you are stuck inside, go up and down steps or walk in place for 20 minutes, you'll see a change soon. Just keep it up, results will come.

Step Five - Reward Yourself

Buy yourself a special non-food treat every week. If you mess up, forgive yourself and move on.

Step Six - Keep it Up

Find a fit buddy to exercise and share your fit plan with.

Joy Brown's Healthy Living

* Disclaimer. The information contained on these pages is general in nature and not intended to be expert or authoritative advise. Before starting any diet, exercise or lifestyle change it is recommended that you consult your physician.

© 2012 Joy Brown - all rights reserved.

Images Copyright (c)123RF Stock Photos.