Fitness Tip for Week ending February 23, 2013.

Yup, late again!  Life has been busy.  But his weeks blog is short, on purpose.  I have a long one in the works, but the tips his week are just that, tips.

Diet/WeightWatchers

I get lots of questions from those starting out about being hungry.  The typical one is " I am fine until about 2 hours after dinner, then I start to get hungry, by the  time I go to bed I am starved!  What do I do?"  Simple answer is eat! But in control.

You probably have gotten in the habit of eating later at night, while winding down, maybe watching TV.  And your body likes to fuel up every few hours.  So expecting to go from say 7pm to 7am without eating, well yes a lot of us get hungry.  So plan for it.  Reserve part of your calorie/daily point intake for later evening.  Now I am not talking about 800 cals or 10 pts, after all you are headed to bed and won't be burning off a lot.  About 100 to 150 cals can often do the trick.  And stay away from really sugary carbs.  go for protein and a little fat.  I like to have walnuts, or almonds, unsalted (salt will make you hungrier), only 5-8 nuts.  Low fat string cheese isn't bad.  A few pieces of beef jerky (low salt).  Plan for it, and eat it slowly.

Also drink so water or non-caffeinated tea. Many times that hunger is really thirst.  Staying hydrated helps keep hunger at bay.

Exercise/Fitness

Do you have fitness goals?  If not you should have.  Without goals, you can't measure progress, which means you can't tell if what you are doing is making a difference.  You will find my goals for the year in an earlier post in this blog.  But yours don't have to be as extensive. They can be simple as being able to do 5 pushups, to walk a 5K, or run a 5K without stopping.  As soon as you start putting some goals together, they give you motivation and direction. When you achieve a goal you get that great feeling of accomplishment.

Don't keep your goals to yourself. Tell people.  When you let others know what your goals are, they will ask about them, ask about your progress, and this builds in accountability.  It also helps when you tell them you need to workout, or aren't eating something because you are trying to reach the goal.

That is all, just a few tips.  See you next week.
Mike