friday::FITNESS

Tips for Dining Out

Fre­quent eat­ing out isn’t healthy for any­one. Not only will it expand your waist­line, but it’s sure to lean out your wal­let. It may seem like $7 here and $12 there, but it adds up. I rec­om­mend lim­it­ing eat­ing out to 1–2 times per week. (If you take me up on this rec­om­men­da­tion, DON’T freak out at your first gro­cery bill. Wait until the end of the month, and you’ll be shocked how much money you saved.)

How­ever, I’ll be the first to admit cook­ing every meal at home is unre­al­is­tic. Not only does life hap­pen and we get pushed for time, but with ministry, we all have people in our lives. Birth­days, hol­i­days, and meet-ups at restau­rants are unavoid­able.

When you do treat your­self to din­ing out, here are some guide­lines to help you stay on track with your health & fitness.

Eat your calo­ries — don’t drink them! Water is the best option, but you can also opt for unsweet­ened tea. If you have to sweeten it, carry some ste­via with you, as many arti­fi­cial sweet­en­ers can be just as bad for you as reg­u­lar sugar.

Scan the menu for key words. Aim to order dishes that con­tain words like grilled, steamed, broiled, or broth. Avoid menu items that con­tain words like fried or creamy.

Skip the appetizer.…at least as an actual appe­tizer. The extra 10–15 min­utes to wait won’t kill you, and this will help elim­i­nate eat­ing excess calo­ries. How­ever, if there’s a healthy choice as an appe­tizer, it could make a great choice as your entree. Appe­tizer serv­ing sizes gen­er­ally aren’t as large, and prices are usu­ally more rea­son­able as well.

Don’t assume every salad is healthy. A fried chicken salad with ranch dress­ing, cheese, bacon and crou­tons can have more calo­ries than a Big Mac, large fries and large Coke. If you do order a salad, fill it with veg­gies and lean pro­tein like grilled chicken, salmon or shrimp. Also, ask for vinai­grette dress­ing on the side, dip­ping each bite as you go.

Side items count. Just because you were good and ordered grilled chicken, don’t ruin it with french fries and mac and cheese on the side. Even if not on the menu, most restau­rants will usu­ally bring you a side of fruit or steamed veg­gies if you ask. (Remem­ber — you are the pay­ing cus­tomer. Don’t be afraid to ask for substitutions!)

Ask ques­tions. I’m always sur­prised how “healthy” menu items come as pre­pared in the kitchen, such as steamed veg­gies that are served drown­ing in but­ter. Ask your waiter before­hand how what you’re order­ing is pre­pared and make adjust­ments to suit your health needs. (Don’t be afraid to send it back if it’s not cor­rect. Always be polite, but there’s noth­ing wrong with get­ting exactly what you ordered.)

Avoid the bread bas­ket. Most restau­rants serve but­tered white bread, which is full of fat and sim­ple carbs…empty calo­ries, which will not make you feel full, caus­ing you to overeat.

Eat half. If you’re din­ing with a health-conscious friend, find an entree you can split. If you can’t agree on any­thing, when the waiter comes back with your order, ask for a doggy bag. Put half of your meal away, and eat the other half. If you ordered wisely, it’ll be a fine lunch for tomorrow.

Have a bite of dessert. That’s right — a bite! Buy a dessert for every­one at the table to share. That way, every­one gets a taste of some­thing sweet, but no one pigs out.

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friday::FITNESS

Consistency Counts

Fitness. It's on everyone's brain. I mean, it's January - the most popular month for exercise thanks to New Years resolutions. But what if there were some tips that would help us not fizzle out on our goals by February? Thankfully, there are.

It's so impor­tant to find a work­out that you enjoy. If you played sports in high school and miss those days of con­di­tion­ing, a boot­camp style work­out may be a good fit for you. If music moti­vates you, maybe jog­ging, walk­ing, or run­ning out­side with you iPod is bet­ter. If you pre­fer weights, you can con­cen­trate on strength train­ing. If you used to cheer or dance, there are dozens of dance work­outs avail­able. Activ­i­ties you dread are easy to dis­miss, but you will always be more con­sis­tent with things you like to do. (Con­tact me if you want to talk fur­ther about a plan that is right for you - I love helping people find their soul mate workout!)

Write it down. Sched­ule your work­outs just like you would book a meet­ing at work. If you plan to work out on your lunch break and a co-worker asks you to go to lunch, say you’ve already got an appoint­ment. You do — with your­self! Would you back out of an impor­tant meet­ing at the last minute just because you didn’t feel like it? Hope­fully not. Plan your work­outs a week in advance, write it down in your cal­en­dar, and stick to it.

Get account­abil­ity from a fit­ness pro­fes­sional. Before you argue that you don’t have enough money to hire a per­sonal trainer, what if I told you you could get help at no addi­tional cost to you? Join­ing my website makes me your FREE fit­ness and nutri­tion coach! Together, we will develop a fit­ness and nutri­tion plan that com­ple­ments your pri­or­i­ties, your goals, your sched­ule and your budget.

Con­sis­tency involves con­sis­tently chang­ing up your rou­tine. If you con­tinue to do what you’ve always done, you’ll con­tinue to get the same results. So, if you want your body to change, you’ve got to change some­thing you do. For exam­ple, I teach strength train­ing classes. I have a few peo­ple who rarely miss a week. They are extremely con­sis­tent. But some of them are still using the same weights they were using a year ago, and their bod­ies aren’t chang­ing. Few gym frus­tra­tions are worse than putting in the time to work­out with­out see­ing results. Make a com­mit­ment to change some­thing every­time you work out. Lift heav­ier. Wear weighted gloves to kick­box­ing. Run on incline. You don’t have to change your activ­ity — just make small adjust­ments to your routine.

Have a "why" that is deeper than a smaller pants size. Sure, losing weight will be good motivation for a while, but after the a few weeks, the weight doesn't come off as quickly. Instead of focusing on the scale, make the reason you work out to be a healthier mom to your children or a better partner in ministry to your spouse. Those things are closer to your heart and will motivate you much more than any number.

Happy New Year!

Let's do this,
Michelle

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friday::FITNESS

How to Not Jiggle All the Weigh: Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain

The average adult gains 7-12 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years Day.

YIKES! That's around a pound a week!

Here are a few things you can avoid to help you stay the same size through­out the hol­i­day season.

1) DON’T skip your work­out.

We know. The most wonderful time of the year is often the most stressful time of the year. Did you know that exercise has been proven to reduce stress? You need your workout now more than ever! Get a work­out buddy and hold each other account­able. You could also mix up your rou­tine to avoid bor­dom — try a new class, give yourself a gift of a a new home workout program, etc.

2) DON’T skip break­fast.

Knowing of an evening party, many peo­ple will skip break­fast as an attempt cut calo­ries. WRONG! Eat­ing a healthy break­fast (oat­meal, egg white omlet with fresh veg­gies, whole wheat toast and low fat yogurt) at the begin­ning of the day starts your metab­o­lism and will pre­vent you from overeat­ing later in the day. Those who con­sis­tently eat break­fast con­sis­tently weigh less than those who skip the most impor­tant meal of the day.

3) DON’T eat only fat and carbs.

Most Christ­mas good­ies (gin­ger­bread cook­ies, candy canes, hot choco­late, etc.) are full of refined sug­ars and unhealthy fats. These are also the nutri­ents that make you feel even more hun­gry than you did before you ate some­thing! Fill up with lean pro­tein first to help con­trol cravings.

4) DON’T eat straight from a bowl.

When you get to those hol­i­day gath­er­ings, take the time to put every­thing that you eat on a plate. If you nib­ble straight from the dish, you will mis-judge por­tion size and be in trou­ble before you know it! Try and fill your plate with veg­gies and lean pro­tein. Only allow a small place on the place for treats. (Addi­tional tip: Try using the dessert plate instead of the din­ner plate. It’s smaller, and it will help you with por­tion control.)

5) DON’T eat treats that you like.

Only splurge for those treats that you love. If you just like them, you don’t need them.

6) DON’T let ignorance be bliss.

Weigh in reg­u­larly this month so you can see how you’re doing. If you pre­fer to mon­i­tor a dif­fer­ent way, get your favorite pair of pants that make you feel healthy and fit. Try them on every other morn­ing to see how they fit.

7) DON’T go to a party hun­gry.

The worst thing you can do is arrive at a party fam­ished! Because you know there will be LOTS of unhealthy options, and very few items that fit into your nutri­tion plan, try eat­ing a bowl of broth-based soup or a salad before you go. That way, you already have some healthy nutri­ents in you, and you’ve knocked the hunger edge off so you don’t devour every unhealthy food in sight.

8) DON’T eat the whole thing.

Most of the time, you can sat­isfy a crav­ing with just a few bites. Instead of eat­ing a whole piece of pie, split a piece with your spouse.

9) DON’T eat for speed.

Slow down your eat­ing, and savor every bite. You don’t indulge every day. Take the time to enjoy it! Plus, the longer you take, the longer your stom­ach has to real­ize that you’re full, and you can avoid overeating.

10) DON’T beat your­self up if you mess up one time.

If you go to a party and overeat, don’t use that as an excuse to let your­self go for the whole sea­son. Get up the next day, go to the gym, and make a healthy food choice at the next meal. No one expects you to be perfect!

Michelle Myers is going to have fit and healthy before you know it! You can connect with Michelle Myers Online, Twitter, Facebook, Myers Cross Training and be sure to check out her latest book The Look that Kills: An Anorexic's Addiction to Control (2010)!

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new column::LIFESTYLES

We know (from personal experience!) that being a PW is about more than just church issues. It's about marriage, family, money, politics, hospitality, forgiveness, frustration, ecstasy - and the list goes on. It's about our public life and our private lives.

As we seek to be godly women who care for our families and support our husbands and love our church members and train our children and, and, and... often we totally forget to take care of our own needs. We forget to be healthy. We forget to look nice. We get overwhelmed by pinching pennies to stay within the budget.

So we want to bring some freshness to CLUTCH. Here are three new writers who will be blogging under our new LIFESTYLES column. A slight departure from our normal content, but we hope you'll enjoy it.

Look for these writers on Fridays!

fashion::SARAH

Hello! I’m Sarah Nelson. I’ve been married to Ian, the most incredible man I know, since September 2009. Six months into our marriage we moved to Portland, Oregon to work at a church called Solid Rock and I have just loved living in the big city!

I studied apparel design at Oregon State University in Corvallis and then switched to Interior Design when I transferred to Portland Community College. Though I never finished college, my passions still revolve around design and creativity.

I'm a part-time administrative assistant at our church and a full-time wife! My personal blog, Frills for Thrills, is an outlet for me to share my passion for fashion and interior decorating, crafting and thrifting, and all the other fun things that come with being a girl! Over at Sitting Solo I also write about the blessings and burdens that come with being a Pastor's wife. Otherwise, find me right here on CLUTCH!

I am so excited to write this fashion column on CLUTCH to share affordable and creative tips to broadening your closet and style. I hope you'll share your ideas with us too!

No matter how natural, conservative, or eccentric you are -- all women long to feel beautiful. I believe fashion is an easy way to feel good about ourselves and confident standing next to our man when other women in the church try to get at him! : )

fitness::MICHELLE

Hi! I'm Michelle.

I strug­gled with anorexia and obses­sive over-exercise for four years, but was brought out of my addic­tion and restored to health through a real rela­tion­ship with God and an under­stand­ing of His plan for my life.

Because of how poorly I treated my body in the past, I am amazed every day that my job is now help­ing oth­ers get healthy the right way — through a bal­anced lifestyle of proper nutri­tion and exer­cise. You can read about my jour­ney in my book, The Look that Kills: An Anorexic’s Addic­tion to Control.

Now I'm the new mom of baby Noah, as well as a nutrition coach and fitness instructor. I'm a pastor's wife in Austin, TX.

If you’re into the aca­d­e­mic thing: In 2005, I received my Bach­e­lor of Arts in Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Stud­ies with a minor in Psy­chol­ogy from The Uni­ver­sity of Ten­nessee in Knoxville, TN. In 2010, I earned my Mas­ters of Arts in Chris­t­ian Education (Women’s Min­istry Con­cen­tra­tion) from South­west­ern Bap­tist The­o­log­i­cal Semi­nary in Fort Worth, TX.

Every­thing I do revolves around my top pri­or­i­ties: my faith in Jesus Christ, my incredible family, and my com­mitment to a balanced lifestyle of fitness and proper nutrition.

finance::HEATHER

Hi there, I'm Heather! 

Growing up a pastor's kid, I always said I would never marry one, but love has a way of changing things. When the guy I'd had my eye on since middle school announced he was going to study theology, I gave in.

Andrew and I have been serving in our first two churches for almost a year. We are also blessed with a 2 year old son, Jaden, and a six month old baby girl, Lilly.

Between being a PW and mother of two little ones I rarely have time to "play," but when I do, I love to scrapbook, decorate, shop, and cook. Budgeting/Finances is another one of my hobbies that grows from lots of personal experience. Raised in a single-income home, serving as a missionary to India for two years, and currently raising a family on one income has taught me a lot about economy. I enjoy finding ways to minimize our spending while still providing nice things and creating quality experiences for my family.

During these financially challenging times I know I'm not the only one pinching pennies, so I am looking forward to sharing some of my tips with you and hearing your tricks too. My prayer is that we grow together as we seek to bring glory to God in the way we use our financial resources.

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© CLUTCH, 2009-2011 unless otherwise sourced.
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Tweets, trackbacks, and link sharing encouraged.

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