HealthE Start

I've been busy at work promoting our HealthE Start program.  This six week program aims to help participants keep their New Year's Resolution by following the three E's...Education, Exercise, and Eating.  The participants do different activities worth different amount of points (5, 10, 15 points).  The goal is to be the person with the most points at the end of the program.  The activities are as small plan your exercises activities in your day planner to attend a group fitness class.  I thought it would be fun to share some tips and activities to help my friends stick with their health and fitness resolution goals. 

Tip #1 – Variety and Progression

 

The human body possesses an incredible ability to adapt to most stressors that are placed upon it, and this includes your activity levels. Once the body adapts to your regular exercise routine, it requires some sort of variation and progression to continue getting desired results. Most “fat loss” exercise programs require constant change every four to eight weeks depending upon the individual. Keep the mind and body guessing by incorporating the following recommendations for a long-term “fat loss” program:

• Incorporate interval training three days per week. Interval training is a short burst of work causing the heart rate to increase, like a sprint, followed immediately by recovery time. Your workouts can be progressed by: 
  • Increasing intensity of sprints (go from one minute to 30 second faster sprints)
  • Reducing recovery time between intervals (go from 1:30 seconds to 1 minute) 
  • Progressing the type of cardio (go from walking to running). Choose variety in the types of activity (try swimming, rowing machines, etc.) 
  • Adding intervals into one bout of activity (start out with four, and progress to eight or even twelve). 

• Incorporate strength training in a circuit-training format three days per week (non-consecutive days). Circuit training is setting up 8-12 exercises and moving from one exercise to another with very little rest between. After completing all exercises in one cycle (set), repeat another cycle starting with the first exercise again. Your workouts can be progressed by:
  • Overload – constantly strive to overload the muscles with increased resistance (weight) by starting out light and then moving toward heavy.
  • Reduce the duration of each exercise by allowing the repetitions to come down. Start out at 12 to 15 and progress by reducing reps to 8 to 12 (make sure you are increasing your weights with this recommendation). 
  • Exercise program – start out at a total body routine and then progress to a split routine such as lower body alternating with upper body. 
  • Equipment – start out using machines if comfortable and progress towards free weights such as barbells and dumbbells 
  • Positioning – start out with seated positions and gradually progress to strength training exercises that call for a standing position.

Tip #2 – Meal Planning Basics
Meal planning is deciding what meals you are going to eat for a given period of time (typically three to seven days) and then creating a shopping list based off of those meals. Meal planning: 

• Saves time, money, and waste
• Lets you have healthy meals and snacks that are ready-to-go 
• Allows you to better control meal choices and portion sizes 
• Provides fewer trips to the grocery store 
• Gives more variety in your diet 
• Decreases stress

Because you plan meals and snacks in advance, meal planning can also help maintain or achieve a healthy weight, provide energy and overall well-being, incorporate your cultural values into the meals you prepare for yourself and/or your family, and most importantly helps you stay within your food budget.

When deciding to plan a menu for yourself and/or your family for a few days or a week, take some of these tips into consideration: 

• Involve family members in food shopping/preparation/menu planning 
• Provide a variety of vegetables, both raw and cooked, at most meals 
• Enjoy fruit with meals or for dessert 
• Aim for balance, variety, and moderation every day 
• Think about and choose foods you and your family enjoy 
• Each meal and snack will ideally include: 
  • A source of protein 
  • Healthy carbohydrates
  • Fiber 
  • Healthy fats

Meal planning requires a time investment up front – maybe 30 minutes to an hour once a week to plan out meals and write out your shopping list. However, the time savings and all the other benefits are well worth it. It takes time to save time!

 

Tip #3 – Five Steps to Successful Meal Planning

#1: Make a list of your family's favorite meals

• Even better, have them sit with you and write down their favorites
• If they write it down, they will be more likely to eat it 
• It can also provide ideas for meals when you can’t think of what to eat

#2: Grab the grocery ads 

• Saves both time and money: start with the protein sources on sale as those are typically more expensive (ground turkey, beef, pork, chicken, fish, tofu) and build meals from there 
• Cut coupons 
• No paper? Check online – some grocery store websites will even give you meal ideas and shopping lists

#3: Check your calendar 

• These days, everybody is busy, especially if you have active youngsters. Before getting too far into your meal planning, check the schedules for the week. Late baseball game on Wednesday? Plan for a quick meal or leftovers.

#4: Take inventory 

• Take an inventory of what is in the fridge, freezer, and pantry so you don’t waste food and can build meals with what you already have 
• Waste less food because you buy only what you plan on eating that week

#5: Get ready to go 

• At this point, you are ready to write out the meals for the week
• Make a shopping list for the items you don’t have
• Post the “menu” on the fridge and hit the grocery store!

 Have a great week!