Holiday Celebration Eating
Holiday celebration eating is a always a challenge for me...
Fit and Strong
Visualize Your Goal
This popular holiday video shows exactly why it is so motivational to visual your goal. If you haven't seen it yet, it's worth the watch. I love a lot of things about the video, except the exercise he uses with the kettlebell. My back hurt just looking at it. I know why the ad agency decided to have him do that exercise, that way, but WOW! OUCH! The only way I would do the kettlebell push out is after a lot of training, while under the watchful eye of a certified personal trainer and in the squat position, not standing up the way he did. And certainly not that super heavy weight. You'd need a really strong core to not hurt yourself! Also when he first stood up with...
The First Steps to Losing Weight
What are the first steps to losing weight? You’ve decided that you need to lose some weight and now you need to figure out what the first steps are. Sometimes the hardest thing to do when you’re trying to make any kind of change is to simply start. Do You Need to Lose Weight? The first step is probably to determine if you actually need to lose weight and why you want to do so. If your doctor has told you that you need to lose weight, then you probably need to do so. When you realize that your clothes have become tight or you need to buy larger sizes, you probably might consider losing some weight. If you just don’t like how you look, maybe you...
Getting Back to Basics
After a really busy November, a conversation I had with Jill made me think it's time for me to get back to basics. I find it’s easy to get caught up in the extreme or the minutia of exercising, healthy eating and motivation. Sometimes when I start overthinking, I stop doing. What is back to basics? For me, back to basics means seven things: 1. Drink water. I like to feel my bike water bottles, and put a rubber band around them so I know how many bottles I finished per day. Using my bike water bottles also reminds me of all the fun I have biking. 2. Stand up and walk at least 250 steps each hour. My FitBit around my wrist reminds me at 50 minutes...
Walking the Dog Adds Lots of Steps
I just realized that walking the dog adds lots of steps to my daily totals. I knew that, of course, but when I looked at my Fitbit numbers, there was the proof. Remember when I got my puppy, Penny? I wrote about her last summer when she was a baby. Now Penny is about six months old so still a puppy but she's more like a pre-teen these days. She keeps me very busy with taking things out of her mouth and stopping her from chewing on things. My expensive She Fits sports bra no longer zips because Penny chewed the zipper. She also got the back of my newest pair (and most expensive) pair of running shoes. Fortunately, I caught her with the shoe early enough...
Making Coconut Yogurt in the Instant Pot
I figured out how to make coconut yogurt in the Instant Pot. It's easy though it does take some time. I've been trying to eat more fermented foods and when we talked with Christine Bailey on a recent podcast, she said yogurt was a great option. She also recommended coconut yogurt if you are not eating dairy. I've been avoiding dairy for a few months because a doctor suggested that some of my skin problems might be related to dairy. Like most of us, I love certain dairy products. Cheese, sour cream, cream in my coffee. I love all of that. But eliminating all of that has helped me feel better. I do like yogurt. For a long time my go-to breakfast was plain Greek yogurt with berries...
Pursue Your SPARK with Heike Yates
Episode 71 Download | Play in New Window Please Subscribe: Apple Podcasts (iTunes) | Google Podcasts | Amazon Podcasts | Android-Google Play | Audible | Stitcher | Player FM | Castbox | Tunein | Spotify | RSS In episode 71, Jill and Chris talk with Heike Yates, a fitness and nutrition expert who has helped women worldwide to stay fit for over 30 years. Her passion is empowering women over 50 to say YES. I CAN. She helps them to take back their health and strength by showing them how fitness, nutrition, and mindset strategies combined create a winning team. Heike has developed a reputation for creating real-life solutions and lasting results. She is the creator of Pursue Your Spark, the 4 Week Lean Out Program, and host of the Pursue Your Spark podcast. Heike is also a body builder, an Ultra Marathon runner and completed...
Vaccines and Shots to Avoid Illness
Vaccines have been in the news this past week. Different companies announced early results from tests on their vaccines to fight COVID-19 (Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, and the other by biotechnology firm Modern.) It was about this time last year when I got a flu shot. And this past week I got my flu shot, so now two years in a row I got the flu shot. With almost every news story about COVID-19, illness is top of mind. Just a few minutes ago, my daughter texted me and my husband about getting a pneumonia vaccine. Neither of us have had that vaccine, but perhaps we should. The way I understand it, there are three causes of pneumonia (viral, bacterial and heart-related) and the shot...
Miso Ginger Noodle Soup
It's fall here in Ohio and my heart has turned to soup. My Miso Ginger Noodle Soup is a great soup and very easy because I used convenience foods to make it. I know we're always talking about not using prepared foods but I think this worked out well. The miso-ginger stock that I used was something I bought at Trader Joe's. It's fantastic. I used to buy regular miso there but they no longer carry it. (At least right now. You never know what they'll carry or discontinue.) I had intended to make my own miso stock but this was convenient and tasted great. I had a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables so I decided to use that. Rummaging around in the refrigerator uncovered some...
Gut Health with Christine Bailey
Gut Health - Podcast episode #70 Download | Play in New Window Please Subscribe: Apple Podcasts (iTunes) | Google Podcasts | Amazon Podcasts | Android-Google Play | Audible | Stitcher | Player FM | Castbox | Tunein | Spotify | RSS In episode #70, Jill and Chris talk about taking care of the gut and brain during menopause with Christine Bailey. Christine is an award winning degree qualified Functional Nutritional Therapist, Chef and Author with over 20 years of experience in the health, corporate and food industry. With a first class degree in Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy (BSc) and additional training by the Institute of Functional Medicine Christine is an experienced nutrition practitioner and speaker working in the public and corporate sector. Christine works as a consultant for a wide range of health, fitness, supplement and food companies. Discussed in today's podcast with Christine...