This is my site where I will be sharing my thoughts, feelings and happenings. In the words of Austin Powers, "It's my happening, baby, and it freaks me out...yeah!" Enjoy!

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Healthy Habits

Over the past few years I've been much more interested in being healthier and developing healthy habits. I've gotten many things down pat--like getting 8 hours of sleep each night, taking my daily multivitamins, drinking more water, and of course, brushing my teeth every morning and night. I'm still working on other things--like exercising at least every other day, eating healthier, reading the Bible every day, clearing the clutter out of our apartment and keeping the place clean (I really hate dusting and scrubbing the shower and toilet!).

There are a lot of reasons why I desire to be healthier, such as (1) to have more energy (2) to be able to do more active things without tiring easily (3) to have a strong heart, lungs, bones, etc (4) to look good. Another reason I desire to be healthier is so I will live a long and happy life and won't suffer due to poor health when I'm a lot older. I want to be able to still lead an active lifestyle then. I don't want to have clogged arteries or excessive weight gain because I ate fast food or junk food a lot during my lifetime. Also, I don't like going to the doctor (or taking medicine) and one way to limit my visits (and need for medication) is to develop healthy habits so there will be less of a chance that I will have to go to the doctor (or take drugs).

It's nice that I'm really determined to workout regularly because it has changed how I look at many things in life. For instance, I don't try to get a close parking spot when I go to Wal-Mart because by parking further away I get a little more exercise. And, when I heard that our friends will be moving soon, I jumped at the chance to help out because (1) I want to help them and (2) helping them move will be a good workout. I now realize that any and every movement I make burns more calories and that is a very good thing.

I must say that eating healthy has been the hardest habit to develop. I love my sweets and never gave any thought to eating anything and everything whenever I wanted before the year 2000 because I was always very skinny. It was during the summer after college that I noticed that none of my shorts fit me anymore because I had gained quite a bit of weight. That was an awful discovery! I've slowly been able to eat more veggies and less chips, cookies, foods of that nature and drink less pop. I've always been one to eat 3 meals a day because I get so hungry therefore skipping breakfast (which is a bad thing) was never an issue for me.

I've gotten even more serious about eating healthy in 2005 because I slacked off in my workouts this past fall and winter and I ate lots of holiday treats and I gained 10 freakin' pounds! You can guess what my New Year's Resolution was. I started working out 30-80 minutes a day and limiting my portion sizes and amount of sweets/junk food.

I love eating so much! I can be quite mean and very easily irritated when I'm really hungry and all I can think about is food. I am hypoglycemic so sometimes I get really weak and shaky if I haven't eaten in awhile. I've learned that it's better to eat 5 small meals a day rather than just 2 or 3 so that works perfectly with my hypoglycemic need for eating every few hours. I just have to make sure to have healthy snacks (and not high in calories) and not each too much for dinner. I've also learned that you shouldn't eat anything in the 3 hours before bed (if you're worried about weight gain).

I was pleased to hear that the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn...even when just sitting still or sleeping. So, the more muscular you are, the more calories you can consume in a day (eat more food--yeah!). That's so awesome! Bring on the weight lifting!

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