First thing is just to make sure we take care of ourselves.  We are not all going to fit into the airbrushed supermodel image, but we all can do things to stay healthy.  Get blood pressure and cholesterol checked out; find out your body mass index and waist to hip ratio.  Also know not only your weight, but the other part of the big picture, your body fat percentage and from there let’s get moving.  If there is one thing I can share today with you and one thing to remember, it’s to keep your plan simple.  Keep your plan simple so you can follow it for the long term.  After you have regular healthy eating habits and exercise patterns, if you want, go for super star status.  But for most of us, just a few simple changes can help.

·        Think in terms of how many times can I workout; instead of how many pounds can I lose.   At first it’s easier to add things into your lifestyle than take away. 

Cardio: 2-3x’s/week about 20 to 60 minutes will help improve function of the heart by working your respiratory system.  And as an added bonus, cardio burns calories and helps you lose weight.  Walking, swimming, biking, dancing, running and or jogging are all examples of a cardio workout.

Flexibility Training: 2-3x’s/week at about 20 seconds of stretching can be added on to your cardio.

Muscular Strength Training: 2-3x’s/week which helps muscle and bone function.  I am going to provide further detail why we need to lift.

·        One of the best ways to improve your health and cleanse your system is one of the easiest: Add more water into your diet, about ½ ounce for every pound of body weight.

·        Start living healthy one action at a time.  Start by getting adequate sleep.  Not every moment has to be perfect but the overall picture should be the right combination of choices to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

·        Losing muscle mass as we get older coupled with the few extra pounds every year is the culprit of weight gain for many people.  I know you have heard people say; As I get older, I seem to gain weight more easily.  This is because as we get older we lose muscle mass every year.  Having muscles is like wearing a fat burning back pack.  Every where you go you are burning fat just by picking your fork up or watching TV.   I can not stress the importance of strength training enough. 

·        That’s called after burn.  After burn does not include the calories burned during the workout.  Research has shown regular strength training induces a variety of cellular changes that affect the metabolism and body composition.  By strength training just twice a week, you can burn an additional 10, 400 calories or 3 pounds per year for just the after workout burn. Therefore, you will lose additional fat without having to do anything. 

And as an added bonus, researchers have found that lifting weights is better than cardio for whittling intra-abdominal fat, the fat associated with diabetes and cancer.  It doesn’t mean you don’t have to do your cardio though! 

·        Of course, your nutrition can not be forgotten.  Actually, it is the most important part of your healthy lifestyle and matters most when it comes to losing weight.  I am not going to stand here and tell you what to eat.  But let’s look at what we get from the food we eat, energy.  A calorie is a way to measure how much energy food has.  It equates to the heat required to raise the temperature to 1 kilogram of water 1 degree Celsius.  Cheese is a calorically dense and a little bit of cheese will give us lots of energy.

·        Earlier I said the best way to be healthy is to keep it simple.  Let’s think about food in the terms we think about finances.  If you want to save money you don’t spend it.  If you want something really nice and extra special you spend money, probably lots of it.  But that’s ok, if you spent the money, you planned for that big car or house and saved for it so it is not going to affect your checkbook drastically.  And then of course, there is the money you have to spend, your mortgage, your utilities, diapers, etc. 

·        So, if you want to lose weight, don’t spend all your calories allowed at every meal.  You want to create a deficit, a calorie deficit that is.  If you spend lots calories on an expensive pancake breakfast, you can make it up by eating light or spending light on the next meal.  For example, at lunch eat a garden salad topped with chicken.  If you have dessert twice in one week, your next dessert should be an apple. 

·        A food log, even if it’s just a visual overview inside your head is a great way to balance your calorie checkbook.  Am I spending too much?  How can I save money or calories, where can I slash calorie spending?  Maybe eating out is costing me too much calories.  And then of course, there’s the food you have to eat or money you have to spend to make it by.  You can’t stop eating to lose weight.  Just like you can’t stop spending money, you need a place to live and clothes, etc.  Starving yourself is terrible, the body will register it as a famine and stop your metabolism. And what’s worse the body is so smart it will get rid of our expensive muscles, aggh. Our bodies are smart machines and need certain nutrients like fruits, veggies, proteins, and complex carbohydrates and water.

·        When you enroll your child in dance class or karate class I am sure you expect complete perfection, correct?  No, of course not!  We shouldn’t expect ourselves to live every minute 100% perfect all the time.  Most of our decisions should be healthy.  Don’t wait until January to be healthy, make it a lifestyle everyday.  If we falter, just get on the right track again and keep going. 

Finally, as I told you before it’s my mission in life to tell people about the wonders of physical movement.  It feels great to move and be alive, so go for it.  Have fun with your kids, exercise regularly, eat healthy most of the time.  Don’t worry about starting your perfect workout plan tomorrow.  Live your healthy life today!