Resolve to be the best you for 2013! ~Beth Corbin

Resolve to be the best you for 2013!

~Beth Corbin

Here are some easy tricks you can do to help in your healthy life-style plan for your new year.  Most people can’t do all this at once; so pick and choose what you can do every little bit helps. 

Here are some keys to a healthy body that I suggest to people: 

·                    Take a multivitamin daily (if you can take half in morning and half in the evening).  Also take Vitamin D (400-1000 IU daily), and Omega 3 (fish oil) 1000 mg daily.  Most vitamins now have magnesium in them and this is good as it aids in absorption.

·                    Deep breath: In through your nose, so your belly expands, hold it for 4 count and out through your mouth, so that your belly gets skinny again.

·                    Stretching whenever you think about it, or see your dog do it.

·                    Sleep 6-10 hours a night, or whatever number your body needs (This is what I am bad about; I am working on it).

·                    Limit or reduce fried foods (think of them as a splurge).

·                    Drink 3 quarts of water each day in addition to your coffee and tea, etc.

·                    Eat 3-5 vegetables a day (1 Cup is a serving, and this is where we (me included) have a hard time getting this many in per day)… but we work on it. Kids eat 2 C, and teens 2 ½ C.  

·                    Eat 2 fresh fruit a day

·                    Cut your Carbohydrates, they have a big impact on heart, blood pressure, and glucose levels.  So, your carbs should be whole fruits, whole veggies, and whole grains whenever possible.  No more than half your calories should be carbohydrates and this is where many women have trouble.

·                    Get physical, move that body and work it out at whatever you like doing 3-4 times a week. Walk one day, hike another, and do yoga another, weights/strength another day…  

Here is how you figure how many carbs you should ingest a day:  Take your number of calories needed a day divide that number in half (this is the number of carbohydrate calories you should eat).  Take that new number and divide by 4 (This number is the amount of grams you should not go over per day).

So for example,

1200 calories = 150 grams of Carbs a day total (no woman should eat less than this; if she does, her fat cells will swell and go into starvation mode).

1600 calories = 200 gms of Carbs a day total (average woman consumes between 1600-1850 calories per day).

1800 calories = 225 gms of Carbs a day total

2000 calories = 250 gms of Carbs a day total (men category).

If all that is too much and scares you, look at it in simpler terms:  Your plate is half full of vegetables; the other side of the plate is meat, a fresh fruit and a whole grain. 

We are not beating ourselves up for eating a sweet sometime, or a fry-bread sometime; we just eat one portion and move forward.

If I were a woman and just starting; wanting to “see” results with weight loss, I would get in the habit of counting carbs, until I realized my portion sizes on them.  Then every week or two add another strategy from above.

Best wishes to you all in a healthier happier coming year!