Loosing Baby Weight

I had my 3rd baby 9 months ago, and once again experiencing how hard it is to loose all of the baby weight. Loosing weight is a simple formula, but not always as simple to implement. I worked out throughout my pregnancy, and popped back into fairly good shape soon after, but I have not gotten back to what I would like to get to.
What is the simple formula for loosing weight? Well simply you have to burn more calories then you take in. But the complected part can be, how do I know how much I am eating, and even harder to answer is how do I know how many calories am I burning? The answers to those questions is the key to loose weight. The thing I struggle with is after I have my baby, I nurse for about a year after, and it is hard for me to have as much control over myself to stick to a diet while nursing. It makes me hungry. So I do the best I can, then after I stop nursing, it is much easier to loose the weight and stick to a better eating plan.
The best way to stick to a meal plan is to plan it out first, and calorie count. Measure and package things in the right amounts to help with quick snacks and meals. There are many phone apps and web sites that you can find out how many calories are in things.
A way to find out exactly how many calories you burn in a day is to buy a body bug or ftibit and wear day and night to find out. Then you will know how much you need to eat. Take about 500 calories out of your calorie needs per day to loose weight effectively. If you do much more than that, you might go into starvation mode, and then your metabolism slows way down and then you wont loose any weight.
Do you have any great ideas you would like to share that has helped you in your journey to loose those baby pounds? Please let us know! Good luck!!

Body Mass Index

The other day my husband and I got one of those health pamphlets in the mail. Inside was a calculation for your body mass index. I was interested to know what mine would be so I plugged in my numbers and got my result. Then my husband wanted to know his too. It was interesting to know, but then it just peaked my interest, because it said that my husband was at the top of optimal and if he gained anymore weight, he would be considered over weight.  He is not a big guy, but I would say is about average. So today I looked at a few websites talking about BMI and found out that there is a slightly different calculation for men, but men like their weight to be at a slightly higher BMI then women. One thing I learned is that it doesn't take into account body type, or people who are very muscular. It might be worry some to someone who as a lot of muscle mass, and low body fat, because their weight might be considered overweight when in reality, they just have a lot of muscle.
So if you are interested in finding your BMI, then go ahead, it is good to keep yourself in check. Most likely you will know if you are overweight or not. I just recommend to not take it as the complete truth, listen to your gut feeling, and make the changes you feel are necessary, but don't stress over numbers. Health is more than numbers.
Click Here for the website I recommend to check your BMI.

"The Doctors"

Here is a video of Tony and Carl on "The Doctors" Enjoy.

Preventing Heart Disease

Like most people, I have parents and grandparents who have problems with high blood pressure, have had strokes and diabetes. I am 29, and will be 30 this year. I have helped my grandparents recover from strokes, and other problems that they have had, and can see what a devastating thing a stroke can be. So it makes me wonder, could they have done more and prevented or greatly slowed these problems down? I do not know exactly how they have lived their lives, but I have decided to do an experiment with my own life. I am going to listen to all that the doctors say about taking care of myself, and preventing those diseases from happening. This experiment will take my whole life to see the results of, but seeing that I have a family history riddled with these problems, I figure that it can only help.

So what exactly am I doing that is going to help prevent these problems?

1.       I exercise 5-6 days a week, or as often as I can.

2.       I cook healthy meals for my family with veggies, fruit and whole grains.

3.       I limit the amount of salt I put on the foods, and instead use herbs and other seasonings to help enhance the food taste.

4.       I take vitamins regularly.

5.       I drink mostly just water, and no alcohol, coffee or pop.

6.       I do my best to limit my sugar intake, with an occasional treat or desert.

7.       I try to stay active aside from my daily exercise, by going hiking, walking, gardening and yard care, and cleaning my home quickly so I raise my heart rate.

I live a regular life, and just do the best I can, but always have in the back of my mind my goal of living a happy healthy life. Not eating hamburger and fries every week or pizza and other greasy and salty foods, is not making my quality of life go down, but I believe it is enhancing my life. I am living in the moment and for the future.

I will let you know how I am doing in 70 years when I turn 100. You better be around and be happy and healthy with me. Let’s make that goal together. Here’s to a healthy life.