Juliebw’s BodyBlog

Preparation is Key When it comes to anything worth achieving, you gotta plan to work and work the plan. Well adopting a healthier lifestyle is no exception. If you really and truly do want to shed those extra pounds of fat, fit into that special dress or bathing suit, or you just want to have more energy, then you are going to have to plan. What I mean by plan is: You gotta get organized. Figure out your goal, what it takes to reach that goal, the obstacles that you will have to overcome, and a plan of action. The way I tackle it is this: purchase your meat in bulk and as soon as you get home, measure it out and divide it into small containers. I then cook enough meat based on my meal plan for the next 4 days. (I repeat this cycle again on Thursday for the remainder of the week). So say, you eat 6 meals a day, in which 2 of those meals are chicken and one is a turkey burger. I cook enough chicken and turkey burgers for the next 4 days, measure them out, and put them in a tight container in my fridge. Now, I don’t have to worry about those meals, when its time to eat, I just go to the fridge- grab and go. I do the same thing with my salad. As soon as I get home from the grocery store, I wash all my veggies and cut them up. I boil a dozen eggs and put them back into the container (be sure to write the date on the outside of the egg carton, it is wise to also note that they are hard boiled eggs; if not you will eventually grab on in the morning and try to crack it open in the pan.) I put my spinach leaves and romaine leaves into a big bowl. Mix in my chopped hard boiled eggs, chopped red, green, and orange peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and toss it all together. This goes back into the fridge (covered) and it is ready for as my side dish for the next several days. Then I got to my almonds and my other snacks. When it is readily available in the fridge, it becomes convenience foods. By getting into the habit of doing this, you will start opting for the good clean foods instead of the cookies or soda that is there. The main reason we grab those junk foods, is because 1. They are there and 2. They are easy to grab. Look at your habits and try and figure out how to adapt them to a healthier way of life. Make sure your fridge is stocked with Organic yogurt, water bottles ready to go. Cook up your sweet potatoes or baked potatoes so they are ready for the next several days too. This may seem like a way in the beginning, but trust me it is a HUGE time saver and waistline saver as you get used to it. This is how I live during Spring and Summer when my daughters keep me so busy. It’s nice to know when your at a game, that dinner is already prepared when you get home. You know it will be well balanced and nutritious, no need to go to that drive in. Imagine the money you will save by adopting these habits. Trust me, your gonna need that extra money to go buy a new wardrobe in smaller sizes. ?

Okay Ladies! Everyone here knows I am a competitor in training. However, my competition has been set back due to this cyst on my ovaries. With that being said, like you I want to keep on track through these upcoming holidays. We all have heard, that from October 31st thru the New Year the average person gains 7 lbs. I refuse for that to be me. Although, I am still trainnig and eating clean, I like having a goal. That competition date keeps me on target and makes it easier for me to stick to my grilled chicken when my friends are devouring a cheesey pizza.

My trainer, Cathy has started this Litlte Black Dress Challenge! This is just a way to keep a goal in front of you to keep you honest through the holidays. I love the concept soooo much, I would like to have you all join me too.

This way it works is, you need to go buy yourself a nice little black dress to wear to that speical event this holiday season. It can be an office Holiday party, Christmas party with family, or that awesome New Year’s Party that you will be attending. Holidays are a stressful, hectic, and tempting time of year. How many of you have put on a couple extra pounds last year and to only spend the first 6 months of the new year trying to lose it?

Remember, what I have been preaching, change the behavior today that will change the outcome of tomorrow. I would love to offer this challenge out to all of you as well. Let’s do this together and keep our healthy selves (some of us an even slimmer version) through the holidays.

Okay, here’s what you need to do. Purchase that hot little number one to two sizes too small, nothing crazy, remember it is only 12-15 weeks till the Big Event (depending on which one you are aiming for). Pick something that you are comfortable in. Don’t pick something that is off the shoulder, if that makes you feel insecure. You want to feel HOT on this day!

I will giving tips about eating clean and exercising thru my blog during this time. If I can get this countdown clock to work on my blog,  then you will have that additional remainder in front of you.

Okay Ladies, here is another new challenge. There is no reason you cannot make this goal! We have the Heart Walk coming in October, that’s a 3 mile walk for a GREAT cause, we have the boot camps, in home personal training, online training! I want all of you to feel fabulous in your God given skin on that special day. No excuses this year! Join me in this Little Black Dress Challenge. I will be posting my results as I hope you will comment on here how your progress is going too.

Do you suffer from the “loser mentatility”? Are you one of those people that slips up on clean eating and throws it in for the rest of the week, with the “I’ll start back again on Monday” mentality?” Life’s too hard for this anyway! Dangit, I want a juicy cheeseburger, a Coke, and some gosh darn fries!” Are you starting to think that it would be easier to just join the crowd and live with your heath the way it presently is? Only to decide to try again due to the frustrating act of lying on the bed trying to button up those jeans, or calling yourself names through the fitting room mirrors. Life is about balance, you have to give and take all the good and the bad. Expect slip ups and you will be okay. Healthy living is not about sacrificing everything good in your life to fit into a pair of jeans, its not about missing your child’s soccer game because you have to get to that cardio class or workout session, nor is it about giving up all the fun treats in your life just to lose some weight. If that were the case, the world would not consist of fitness models, fitness competitors, or athletes. It is about balance. Living life in moderation. Just like some stress is good for us, in moderation. We wouldn’t want to pile it on, but some of it is actually beneficial to life; getting that project done by the deadline, getting dinner on the table, so you can enjoy it before rushing off to a sporting event. Remember your human! You are gonna have the occasional mess up, the occasional missed workout. As long as you stay with the program you will see results. Life gets in the way sometimes of what we have planned. You get the flu, your kid is sick from school, your husband invited his parents over for dinner. It’s okay. There is always another hour, another meal, another day. Start back on track. People that don’t reach their goals, are the ones that throw it all in and quit. Your not a quitter are you? I didn’t think so. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, look at your goals again (because we all know they should be written down), and carry on. No self defeating talk, no negative thoughts, no poor me’s, nada, zilch, nothing! Just move on from it and continue. Eat those darn cookies, next meal have a handful of raw almonds and an apple, and carry on with life. No deprivation, no starvation, no diets. NO GUILT!! So again I ask, what are you going to do today that will change tomorrow?

I like to try out the new fitness equipment and gadgets that come out on a monthly basis for a couple of reasons. One, I like to see what all the hype is about and two because I know sooner or later one of my clients is going to ask me about it.

I try hard to stay on top of things, although a few do slip through my fingers and I never get to try them out. However, I did get to try out a new product that I was reading a lot about. A former Biggest Loser contestant advertised it has bringing him success. I even read about it on a couple of my boards.

What is it, you ask? It is the Hypnosis CD for weight loss. Let me be honest, I was very skeptical at first, as I am with many weight loss gadgets. I thought how in the world a simple CD would ever hypnotize someone into losing weight. I am not one able to quiet my mind or body for longer than a couple of minutes, so I felt for sure I was not the right candidate for this.

However, I tried it anyway. I put in the CD, found a quiet spot in my house (at least as quiet as it can get), I turned my phone on silent, and I laid down to relax and listen to the woman on the CD. I listened to this CD two separate times just to see what would happen.

Now let me tell you, I could be mistaken and this could really work for someone, after all it is just suggestions. But why do we need this special CD? We know what to do to lose weight; we know that it takes leaving the junk on the table and grabbing the clean foods. We know that it takes getting off the sofa and time outdoors to lose weight. So why would you spend $100.00 to have a woman on a couple of cds tell you the same thing but this time your going to believe it!

It doesn’t cost any money to lose weight. Sometimes, yes we need to pay someone like a trainer or a nutritionist to help educate us and motivate us, but we don’t need to drop $100.00 in the bucket on a silly gadget like this.

All this is teaching us is to listen to this lady’s voice when it comes time to make better food choices. Now, if I am not mistaken, we were already created with this same voice in our heads, “our inner voice,” which tells us when to run from danger or fight for our lives. If this inner voice is that powerful, than don’t you think it is something we can trust to tell us what we should and shouldn’t be putting into our bodies.

We also know the only way to lose weight is too move more. Do we really need to have someone put us into a calm state to tell us that? We know what to do; sometimes we just don’t want to do it. I know I don’t want to get up at 5:00 am every morning to push myself to the limit doing some sweaty bout of cardio. But you know what, I do want to be healthy, have energy, live to be fit and young at 80, and I want to look good in a bathing suit. Those goals are very important to me and give me enough motivation to stop hitting that snooze button.

 We are all blessed with an inner voice. This voice steers us from danger and keeps us on the right path. Maybe we should listen to it more and not some soft spoken voice on a tape. Maybe the problem is, we just don’t have enough important goals

Trust yourself, not someone else. Set your own goals, something that you have always wanted to do, but were too scared to reach for it. Just do it today! Why wait any longer to live the life that you always dreamed of having. Go on, lace up those sneakers and go for a walk. When you get back, replenish your body with a clean well balanced meal, and a big glass of water. You’ll feel much better and it didn’t cost you a dime.

Love yourself today,

Julie

Who motivates  you in this life? Think hard about that question. The correct answer should be you. You are the only one that can give the power to someone else to make you feel bad. You are your own worst enemy and your own best friend. If you think about it. You are in your own head 24 hrs a day, 7 days a wk, and 365 days a year.
 If your talking junk to yourself then it is only normal for you to finally believe it. How many times can you tell someone they are going to fail before they do?  Do something different today. Be nice to yourself.  Only say positive things and when those negative self defeating thoughts come back into your head. Throw back two positive thoughts for every one negative. Try to take every negative moment that happens over the next five days and turn it into a positive. What do you have to lose? Other than your negativity?
 Only when  you believe you can achieve something Will you. Have you ever heard a successful person say, ” Wow I never knew I could accomplish this, I mean I tried telling myself everyday that I would fail but here I am a success anyway.” Yeah if only it did work like that there would be far more success stories in this world. The only difference between that successful role model and you is that they believe in themselves. So what if no one else believes you can. Your the only one that has to believe it.
My motto in life is no regrets. I don’t ever want someone to say yeah, that Julie she could have been great if only she believed. No regrets remember!! No more pity parties, no more it’s not fair or it’s too hard , no more negativity or self sabotaging.  You pick your destiny. You live with your choices.
 Live your life like someone was looking up to you. If you have children you are being watched all the time. What are you doing or saying to yourself or about yourself in front of them?
 
Love Yourself Today

Fiber is a unique type of carbohydrate that passes through the human digestive system virtually unchanged, without being broken down into nutrients.. Fiber influences the digestion process from beginning to end. You can stick about five chips in your mouth and with a couple of bites, they are moving their way down your digestive tract. However, try that with broccoli, it’s impossible. It is going to take a bit more chewing to get it broken down enough to swallow. This slows down how much you can put in your mouth and it provides a sense of satiety. Due to the slower digestive process, fiber keeps your blood sugar at an even level. When fiber is broken down in the colon, the acids produced by this process provide nourishment to the lining of the colon. These acids also provide the body with fuel, which aids in your metabolism. Fiber also aids the body in eliminating fat. Fiber leaves the body in the same form it entered. As it makes its way down the digestive system, it grabs fats and carries them to the colon where the fat and fiber have created a little ball, the water is extracted, and the ball is eliminated from the body. An important fact to keep in mind though, is an apple cannot carry three slices of pizza, it is all in proportion. 

How much fiber do you need? The USDA recommends 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories consumed. Fruits and vegetables that are high in fiber include: 

• Apples 
  

• Beans 
  

• Berries 
  

• Broccoli 
  

• Brussels sprouts 
  

• Carrots 
  

• Cauliflower 
  

• Oranges 
  

• Pears 
  

• Peas 
  

• Prunes 
  

Here are other good sources of fiber: 

• Bran muffins 
  

• Brown rice 
  

• Multi-grain cereals 
  

• Oatmeal 
  

• Popcorn 
  

• Whole-wheat bread 
  

It is not as hard as you think to get in your daily fiber. ½ cup oatmeal, 1 small banana, 1/2 cup cooked black beans, 1 small apple, ½ cup peas, and 1/2 cup berries- will provide you with your daily intake. 

Therefore, if you are looking to lose weight or you just want to be healthy- You need to increase your daily fiber intake. Another quick note: add fiber slowly to your diet. If you add too much, too quickly, it can cause bloating and stomach cramping. Gradually add a serving every other day until you get to your daily amount. Be sure to be drinking plenty of water, getting in at least your eight minimum glasses a day. 

*Always check with your doctor if you have any questions, concerns, or are being treated for any health conditions before following any new diet plan. 

As a young child of divorced parents, I would go spend a week each summer with my dad and his new wife. I admit I was a picky eater as most 5 year olds are therefore; my mother would pack snack cakes into my suitcase for me to eat. My stepmother did not like fussy eaters and would more often than not send me to bed early because I refused to eat what she fixed for dinner. There I sat in this dark room all alone. I was scared and hungry and I would indulge in my little snack cakes for comfort. I learned at a young age that food provided me comfort.

Emotional Eating is a real epidemic in this country. If a friend were to come up to you and confess, they have a drinking problem or a drug problem, would you help them find a counseling program, or a service to get the help they need? What about a friend that eats to cover their emotions? Emotional eating is a real problem with experts estimating over 75% of overeating is caused by emotions.

Have you ever grabbed a chocolate bar because you had a rough day and you felt you deserved that treat?

Emotional eating is defined as eating food in response to feelings instead of hunger. I think we can all honestly confess to indulging in this behavior once or twice in our lifetimes. Some reasons people turn to food are depression, boredom, loneliness, anger, anxiety, frustration, stress, relationship problems, financial problems, and low self-esteem. You do not have to worry about your problems when you are sinking your taste buds into a nice salty bag of potato chips. It is a immediate comfort for stressful situations.

The first step in combating this behavior is to identify your triggers. Some possible triggers are: at the movies, you feel you’re suppose to indulge in a bowl of buttery popcorn. You are hanging out with friends at a restaurant and everyone is ordering appetizers and desserts. Having a negative self worth can also trigger emotional eating. You are bored, mad at a coworker, tired, or angry so you eat to fill the void.

The second step is to understand the difference between physical hunger and emotions. True hunger is a real physical pain that occurs over time; emotional hunger happens suddenly. When you are truly hungry, you do not crave any certain type of food, anything will satisfy you. However, when you are eating out of emotions you are craving a specific food and nothing else will do. Lastly, emotional eating leaves you feeling guilty about what you ate.

 When you have had a bad day and are craving something bad, try changing your behavior by reading a book, listening to music, taking a relaxing bubble bath, calling a friend, doing some household chores, exercising, or writing a letter until the feeling subsides. Having an arsenal of healthy snacks readily available will leave you more prepared for that unexpected situation or emotion.

Statistics show that when you experience a feeling of boredom you crave salty or crunchy food like potato chips. When you are happy, you crave carbohydrates like steak or pizza, and when you are sad, you crave sweets such as cookies or ice cream. You need to find healthier options for those cravings.

Instead of:                      
        Replace with:

Potato chips                   �
�         veggies, natural baked chips, mixed nuts, Wasa Crackers

Ice cream                   �
�             frozen yogurt, fat free puddings, light ice cream

Cookies                  �
�                Prograde Cravers (100% organic chocolate snacks bars) You can find Prograde Cravers at http://Juliewilcoxson.getprograde.com

Pizza                   �
�                    Thin Crust whole grain pizza or make your own healthier version.

It is always important to keep a food journal. Write down the foods you ate, the time of day you ate them, and rate your hunger on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being very hungry). Make it a habit to divide your portions into a portion sized container or baggie. Never eat out of a bag or container. Be mindful of why you are eating and always remember that Food is a necessity. It is neither a reward nor a punishment.

I read something that other day that struck me profoundly. It had me thinking about a majority of the moms out there. It was an article talking about healthy eating and how it is a choice. Something I preach everyday. However, the part that got to me read, “You are the most important person in your life.” I would like you to read that part again.

The reason it hit me hard is that I know many moms that would disagree. They would argue no way; my children are the most important people in my life. Well as a mother of two beautiful girls, I would agree. This was my same kind of thinking about 8 years ago. I did anything and everything for my daughters. I spent so much money on buying them those adorable outfits, I fed them the best nutrition, I took them to the park everyday, to make sure they had enough sunshine (Vitamin D), and I made sure they got the right amount of sleep every night. However, if you were to look at me, I wore my same baggy clothes to hide the extra weight I still didn’t lose, I ate whatever quick fix I could muster up, I stayed up late cleaning the house, and catching up on my television shows; only to wake up the next day with bags under my eyes.

Now does any of that sound like you? Does it make any sense? If you saw your friend putting that, much time and effort to care for someone else while letting her self go, wouldn’t you give her advice on how she needed to start taking care of herself. We all love our children, just because we put the same amount of care in ourselves, does not mean we love them any less and it surely does not mean we are selfish.

We have to be the most important person in our lives. That is how we show our love to our children. If our health fails, than we cannot take care of anyone. They will have to take care of us. By letting ourselves go, then we are teaching our children that we are not as worthy as everyone else. It took me a long time to understand this concept and to come to the place in my life where I could say that I actually love myself. After all, how could I not, my two daughters are walking around with part of me.

Be the Best Role Model You Can Be,

In Health,

Julie Wilcoxson

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