Tag: motivation

March 20, 2023 – Practicing Mindful Eating

As I continue with my journey to get healthier and lose weight, I have been trying different food and different strategies and sharing them here. My newest strategy is practicing mindful eating.

What is mindful eating? Mindful eating is paying attention to the food you eat and using all of your senses when doing so. The opposite of mindful eating is mindless eating. We’ve all done that, right? Rough day at work. Start cooking dinner and sit down to watch TV…with a bag of chips or box of cookies. The next thing you know, you have eaten the entire box or bag. You don’t even remember tasting the food. Yeah, that’s really mindless.

So, how do you practice mindful eating? Here’s what I’ve been doing. I choose one meal a day to practice this. Today I chose to practice at lunch. The steps I followed:

  • No distractions – turn off the phone, tv, radio and computer. I eat in silence if I can.
  • Today I am having a ham salad sandwich. I will incorporate all my senses while I eat the sandwich:
    • Touch: The sandwich is cold because it was in the refrigerator. The bread is whole grain with seeds so it had texture.
    • Sight: I can see the seeds and the air bubbles in the bread. I can see the creaminess of the ham salad. There are pimentos in the salad that are red and make the salad look pretty.
    • Hearing: The crust of the bread is crunchy when I bite into it.
    • Smell: The bread smells so fresh and there is a tangy smell to the ham salad.
    • Taste: As I bite into the crunchy crust and feel the soft and creamy ham salad, the nutty flavor of the bread and the tangy ham salad hit my tastebuds. Delicious.
  • I take my time eating my sandwich, savoring every bite.
  • The sandwich fills me up and once I finish it, I am full.
  • I feel satisfied and thoroughly enjoyed my meal.

That is how I practiced today. Have you tried anything similar? If you have, how has mindful eating helped you to eat healthier, enjoy your food more, and helped you lose weight? Do you have any tips or tricks you would like to share regarding mindful eating? Please comment below.

Thanks for reading.

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January 3, 2023 – Two good days in a row

Today was a “rest” day. I did not go to the fitness center. Instead, I did several short cardio and strength exercise videos from the Wakeout app.

Wakeout helps me to work out the stiffness that occurs when you work a desk job. It gives stretches and exercises to get you moving during the work day. It will even let you schedule reminders to move.

My food choices today were excellent. Special K cinnamon pecan cereal with blueberries for breakfast. No sugar in my coffee and i even measured my sugar free creamer!

For my morning snack I had a cup of unsweetened tea and a Sargento balanced break. For my afternoon snack, I had a clementine. Delicious.

Lunch was shrimp, spinach, tomatoes, Kalamata olives over orzo with a squeeze of lemon. Yum!!

Dinner was two tacos loaded with lettuce and tomato with 2 oz of lean taco meat. Just a sprinkling of cheese to top them off. Yum.

I drank lots of water and had no sugary drinks.

It was a good day and I am proud of myself.

Have any good healthy recipes or tips you would like to share? What is your go to trick to keep yourself on track?

My favorite health and weight loss podcast

I’ve tried most “diets”. From WW to Jenny Craig and more in between. It wasn’t until I started listening to The Chris Terrell Podcast that I started having success in losing weight.

During his weight loss journey, Chris followed the CICO diet. CICO stands for Calories In, Calories Out. He has lost 125 pounds! Amazing! When I am looking for some motivation, I listen to Chris’ practical advice on his podcast. Check it out here: Chris Terrell Podcast.

An explanation of CICO – For each pound you want to loose, you have to cut 3500 calories – either by eating less or by burning more calories through exercise. If you eat 500 calories less or burn 500 calories more each day for a week, you should lose 1 pound. Does that make sense. If you eat 500 calories less AND burn 500 calories more each day for a week, you should lose 2 pounds.

If you want to see how many calories you should be consuming each day, go to the Calorie Calculator.

Chris also offers coaching on his website Chris Terrell Coaching.

Give Chris a listen and spread the word!

Let me know if you have a favorite health, weight loss, and/or exercise podcast in the comments.

Thanks for reading!