Surviving Summer Fun and Feasting

Summer weekends can derail a healthy eating plan quickly. The gym is closed, the family is coming for a cookout which includes brats and burgers with all the buns, chips, mayonaise based salads and show off deserts! What's a girl to do?

Here are some tips to make a summer weekend a great memory rather than a regret.

• Start the day with a long walk. Go out early if it's super hot, and take water with you. If you live in a rainy climate, take an umbrella. Remember walking in the rain as a kid?
• Eat a healthy breakfast including whole grain oatmeal. Add chopped almonds, rasins, cinnamon, truvia or stevia and a bit of skim milk. YUM! The almonds add some protien to the oatmeal making this a very well ballanced breakfast at about 350 calories.
• Plan ahead for picnic time. Throw a few chicken breasts on the grill for those who may be trying to eat a bit healthier. If you marinate them in balsamic vinegar, olive oil and some herbs and spices that you love they will grill up tender and flavorful. Decide which side items are the best choices for you. I usually make sure that their is a platter of raw veggies to add to my plate. Carrots, celery, bell peppers, cucumbers, sliced tomatoes and raw brocolli are great sides for grilled foods.
• Nix desert temptation by making sure their is a sweet watermelon on ice nearby. You won't be alone is choosing this natural desert over brownies and apple pie.
• If you love, love, love potato salad, eat a few bites. Just not the whole bowl. Pick one item that you just don't want to skip and build the rest of your meal from healthy choices.
• After the meal play games with the kids. Show them that you can still hit the ball and run the bases after all these years. Don't worry, they will be so excited to have you play that they won't even notice that you can't slide into home.
• Don't skip supper or snacks. It is easy to think "oh, I will just eat a HUGE lunch and then skip everything else." That practice causes your metabolism to slow down and can actually reduce the number of calories you burn for the day.

What tips and tools do you use to beat defeat on your road to a healthier you? 

Are you healthy? Comparitively?

I Googled healthy to see what the definitions would be. It was exactly what I expected, still as I took time to really read the definitions it made me think of how relatively they may be interpreted. Over the next week or so, I'm going to look at all of those definitions and how they affect my goals of a healthier life.


Healthy:
health•y adjective /ˈhelTHē/ 
healthier, comparative; healthiest, superlative

This part made me think. Not even to the definitions yet, and I saw a huge stumbling block for myself.

 I know that I am overweight, I know that I need to be more consistent when it comes to eating right and exercising, but I am healthier than a lot of people I know, and in some circles, I am the healthiest in the crowd. We need to be careful not to make such comparisons. Doing so can create a false sense of health. It's like wanting to be photographed with people larger than me, so no one notices how much weight I need to lose. It doesn't change the facts, it's just a lie to make us feel better about the thing that makes us feel worse. No wonder we walk around confused so much of the time.

I had a friend once who refused to be friends with anyone thinner than she. When I found that out, I actually pulled away from her "friendship". It felt a lot like codependency in supporting an addiction. Not good. Friendships based solely on a common addiction, problem or destructive lifestyle are rarely lasting once one person has moved toward a healthier life. It is very difficult to bring others with you, unless they are motivated and working toward the same goal themselves. I used to try to motivate people to get healthy with me. Then I realized that while I am on the journey, I can encourage them and share what I learn along the way...but I can't be an effective cheer leader until I learn to reach the goal myself.

I can understand the concept though. If we go to lunch with a friend who eats right, or only finishes a rational amount of the food that is on their plate and skips dessert, then it can bring a ton of guilt if we want to order, "the double bacon cheeseburger with extra mayo and a side of fries"...eat the WHOLE thing and then finish with the, "double chocolate brownie sundae for dessert...and NO we don't need three spoons, thank you."  

If we stick with friends who are in the same boat, we can follow their lead and feel justified in making unhealthy choices. I actually had a friend scold me for ordering healthy in a restaurant, because then she felt guilty for ordering what she wanted. It is amazing to see how much pressure we put on ourselves based on the behavior of those around us. It's okay to make your own choices, not based on what your friends are doing. Isn't that something we learned in elementary school?

Remember, "If your friends jumped off a building, would you do it too?"  But today we would call ourselves smarter because we went last, even after we saw everyone else having heart attacks and developing diabetes? Yes, mom had something there. I know that if I don’t do the things my body needs to stay healthy, it won’t be long before the abuses I have inflicted on myself every time I shovel in a donut instead of fruit , will catch up with me and I will be less healthy than I am now. The comparison must be with our own body…am I as healthy as I can be? If not, why not? Life changes have to come from a motivation to be the best ME I can be. Lets get motivated! You can do this!