90/10 Rule

Or 80/20 - but don't go any lower than that.  What am I talking about, you ask?  I'm talking about life.  I believe we can all live happy, healthy lives by fashioning nearly ever aspect of it around these percentages.   


What kind of ground beef should I buy?  The leaner the better - 90/10 is great, 80/20 is okay - but definitely don't drop below that or you're wasting your money and your health. 


That's a simple one, but let's dig a little deeper into these numbers.  We'll start with our weight loss plan.  The key to weight loss is 90 percent food and 10 percent exercise.   Obviously if you work out A LOT it could possibly be just 80 percent the food you eat, but again, never less than that.  Because let's face it - no matter how much you exercise, you're not going to be able to eat whatever you want and lose weight.  I am living proof of that.  I've been a certified fitness instructor for 10 years.  I have worked out consistently - meaning 3 days a week at the very, very least.  Those are just classes that I TEACH.  Right now I TEACH class 5 days a week - and that's been a pretty consistent number for me over the past 10 years.  There might be a month or two stretch where I'm only teaching one class that takes place two days a week, but that's honestly a very rare occurrence.    There have been times where I've taught two different classes on the same day, which would equal two hours of teaching exercise a day - and sometimes back to back. 


Remember, those are just my teaching hours - now let me add to that the workouts I do for myself for fun!  Yes, I said it - FUN. I have a passion for fitness - luckily Steph and I both do.  So when we find ourselves with free time we are usually looking for a good workout class to take or an opportunity to take a long walk somewhere.  We are lucky enough to have our lunch hour together, so we also generally find a way to be active for at least 20 minutes during that time period, whether it be going for a walk or doing yoga or an exercise video at the office. So, by the time you put together the teaching hours, the noon workouts, the boxing classes with our own trainer, evening walks with the dogs - it's not unheard of for Steph and I to be physically active 7 days a week, anywhere from 1-3 hours a day.    Now let me just tell you, and I hope you understand, I don't in any way say this to brag or build myself up - but I need you to understand all this in order for me to make my next point.  EVEN WITH all of the exercise I've done over the past 10 years, I have remained within the same weight range, give or take 10 (or 30) pounds, depending on whether I'm in a "diet" phase of my life or not. EXERCISE ALONE DOES NOT MAKE A PERSON LOSE WEIGHT.  

Note to reader: This eye candy was added to catch your attention....did it work?

Is exercise important? VERY.  Is it helpful in losing weight?  Most definitely.  And people who exercise AND follow a healthy eating plan are much more likely to lose weight and keep it off.   Losing weight is 90 percent what you put in your mouth and 10 percent how you move your body.   Let me give you another example.  A glass of skim milk (because we ARE health conscious) and 4 oreo double stuff (be honest - we all go for the double stuff because anything else is just a "waste" of  calories) totals up to 363 calories.    I can eat that snack in about 15 minutes - giving myself extra time to slowly dunk and drink.    In order to BURN that many calories by exercising, it would take about an hour, depending on what exercise I decide to do.  I guarantee you it would take at least twice the time to burn off that snack than it did to eat that snack.    And that's the SNACK. We have to burn more calories in a day than we actually consume, so that's just the EXTRA exercise you would have to do on top of  whatever workout it would take to burn off your regular meals.  


Bottom line is, you won't lose weight if you don't change your diet.  If you go from doing absolutely no physical activity to exercising an hour a day, you'll definitely see a change in the scale over the first couple of weeks without changing your eating habits.   But  a lot of that is water weight and bloating and sodium that your body is releasing and it will quickly level out.    


Again, I'm not saying you SHOULDN'T exercise - because I'm a huge, strong, firm believer in the benefits of exercise and I know it will help your weight and your health overall.  But if you need to lose weight, follow the 90/10 rule with diet and exercise.


This blog is getting longer than I intended - so I'm going to make this part 1 of 2 (or 3 maybe - who knows!!)  :-)


Peace, Love, Happiness and Health!!!

Motivation for a Healthy Life

Motivation. Gah. It really takes a lot of energy just to type out the word! Motivation to earn a living get us out of bed and sends us off to work. Motivation to have a nice lawn finds us pushing a mower. Motivation to smell and look descent and never get caught with dirty underwear puts us in front of a washing machine to do laundry...sometimes for what seems like an eternity. Yes, motivation....it's that one factor in our daily lives that gets us from point A to point B. It doesn't matter if your motivation is for greatness or just to make it through until you can go back to bed...it's still there.

What you do with motivation is up to you. It's kind of like water. We need it to sustain life, but what we do with it can vary...drink it straight and take it all in, dilute it with negativity and only get half of what we need, exaggerate it by freezing it and mixing it in a margarita, fill it up to the brim and pass it around to others....possibilities are endless! Leave motivation at home and end up dehydrated and lethargic.

I'm guessing if you are reading this you are on a constant search for motivation. You don't just stumble on to a blog site like this and read this far into it with no purpose! Unless you are just generally nosey and want to know what Andi and I are up to. If that is the case, you will be most disappointed in how boring we are! If you are that interested, let us know and we can spend an hour telling you about the most amazing "Wheel of Fortune" show we have ever seen (the lady told Pat that she loved him....we laughed for DAYS). But if motivation is what you are seeking, maybe we can help with that. It is as easy as one word - now.

Now is your chance to restart your life from how you lived before. Forget what you did just seconds before you read this and realize that NOW is the time that matters. I don't care if you ate junk food the past week, gained 10 lbs., kicked your neighbor's cat, made out with a guy who was a really bad kisser 25 years ago, stole post-it notes from your office, or didn't tip the lousy waiter you had last weekend...all that matters is now. Now is your motivation. It is an instant "do over" for all the things in your past. It is the ultimate personal forgiveness. What you do with now is up to you. Will you make it another regret or will you move past your regrets, your fears, your mental limits, all that bull**** that is weighing you down and give now a chance? It's here. It's waiting. It's been given to you for free. Grab it!

Pin the bib back on.

After sharing with Steph some of my struggles this week she cleverly (and geniusly - even though that's not a word, I will use it for her) made a "Start" line for me at the edge of my doorway.   Because she knows my marathon mentality, and the fact that even in the worst of circumstances, I have NEVER quit a marathon.  She expressed to me that this journey we are on is our own marathon and no matter what happens, we just can't give up. (told you she was a genius) :-)  So every morning I look down and I cross that Start line and remind myself to just keep pushing.   A running coach once told me that if I feel like I can't move my legs any further, then all I have to do is move my arms and my legs will have to follow.   JUST KEEP MOVING.  


Then this morning one of the first posts I read on Facebook was this: 


A friend sent me this, just what I needed this morning! We all run. We all fall. Each day presents us with fresh opportunities to allow the mercy, strength and grace of God to intervene in our lives. So whatever you face today, friend, run. Run to win the prize. Run like the wind. And when you fall; don’t throw in the towel, don’t point fingers, don’t stew, and don’t quit. Get right back up and run again… in the mercy, strength and grace of God. 



Coincidence?  I think not.   In this journey we're going to fall.  It's impossible to go that many "miles" without a trip up here and there.  Even if you need to lay down for a moment and take a rest, it's ok.  Just don't forget to get back up again.  Get up, look down at the start line, and keep moving forward. 


Peace, Love, Happiness and Health, my friends!!!!

One pound.....that's all.....

Yep.  That's reality now.  We just have to take it one pound at a time.  And right now in my head even THAT is not an easy task.   But I know it's where I have to be.

The last week has been difficult.  I went from the elation of the competition being over to a place of awkwardness and fear.  I went from eating very little processed food and fast food to almost every meal being junk.   And let me tell you - my body has rebelled.  It really DOESN'T want me to feed it crap, no matter HOW MUCH my head says it does.  I have had headaches and stomach aches and been horribly bloated.  The scary part of this is if I continue to eat the junk, my body will get used to it again and I won't feel this bad.   I can easily force my body to become immune to the unhealthy feelings and make me forget how bad I've felt over the last few days.   And for me (unlike Steph, whose conscience is much more pure than mine) I have no guilty emotional feelings about any of it.  My head is PERFECTLY fine with eating whatever.  In fact, it really, really wants to.  After all, I have nobody to answer to now.  Nobody to keep track of what the scale says.  Which, by the way, has changed quite dramatically over the past 6 days.  I'm blaming that partly on the bloating, partly on the fact that I'm using a different scale - but mostly because I don't want to have to face the fact that what I eat really, really matters.

This is an area where Steph and I differ greatly.  To her, food is fuel.  She eats because she's hungry.  Unfortunately that actually works AGAINST her at times because of her blood sugar issues.  It's important for all of us to keep our blood sugar stable, and in a perfect world everybody would eat a 150-200 calorie snack every 3 hours that consists of a mixture of carbs, protein and fat.  But it's doubly important for somebody with a diabetic background and type 1 diabetes rampant in the family to keep a close eye on that blood sugar.   So most of the time I actually have to TELL Steph to eat something. (Seriously, who does that?  I can guarantee you nobody has ever had to tell ME to eat!  LOL)

My point is, where Steph views food as fuel, I view food as fun.  And usually that fun food doesn't consist of oranges and celery and the like. So now that we both feel like crap I am having a much harder time letting go of my "fun" than she is.   I'm sure you've heard this before - and depending on where you are on the spectrum you either totally understand it or you don't get it at all - but it's very comparable to an alcoholic trying to come off a binge and dry up.   There are so many psychological and physiological factors that come in to play that are much more complicated than just changing the menu.

Sooooooo......here we go again. I will take up my sword and fight these demons again.  I have to keep in mind that there's a place I need to get to - a place where mornings aren't depressing when I'm looking in the closet, a place where photographs don't make me cringe and where stomach aches aren't a daily visitor.  And if I have to slay a few (more) dragons to get there, then I have to start swinging.  Because now I know I CAN - even if it's just one pound at a time.

The Day After

Anybody who has ever trained for a big event (think about any sports championship), planned something for many months (weddings, births, etc.), practiced for a performance (such as performing in a big theater production) probably understands the "day after letdown".  After all, your focus for so many weeks or months has surrounded that one event and suddenly, after just a few minutes sometimes, it has all ended. There is no more "thing" to think about, practice for, work toward......life just goes back to normal, whatever that may be.

Odd as it may sound, I am currently experiencing the "Biggest Loser letdown".  For 8 weeks every moment has been focused on how many calories will this cost me, how many calories do I have left for the day, how much more do I need to work out today to balance it out, what if I haven't done enough, what if I let my team down. And suddenly, after just a couple of seconds on the scale yesterday, all of that is gone.  We've spent 8 weeks counting down how many days of the competition were left.  Spent the last 48 hours counting down how many HOURS of the competition we had left. Talked about everything we planned on doing afterwards - everything we want to eat now that has been "forbidden".  And now that it's all over, I don't know what to do.  It's almost as though I feel I have no purpose, no goal, nothing "to do".

I know that eventually I will find my normal. And I'm not going to lie -I'm very happy to be rid of the stress of the competition.  Now I just need to focus on being healthy again.  But I gotta tell ya, today just feels weird.

Earlier this week I posted the blog with my wondering thoughts of how life would be post-Biggest Loser Challenge.  Today I received this poster as my answer.  Discipline.  It's the ONLY way to succeed at anything.  Discipline as a word has such a negative vibe.  It's almost as though "discipline" and "punishment" go hand in hand, and some days it feels that way!!  But we need to separate the two words and take the negative connotation out of discipline.  It doesn't HAVE to be a bad thing.   And frankly, discipline = accomplishment and accomplishment SHOULD feel good!

Some of us right now are starting a new phase in life, learning how "normal" day to day habits will be without a competition looming over us. Some of us are just hoping to continue the healthy habits we've created over the past 8 weeks.  And some of us are probably still thinking about "starting" a healthy living plan.  But no matter where you are on that spectrum, the common denominator is discipline.  That doesn't mean we have to be "perfect" all of the time, every day.  That just means that whatever we do, we need to make it a conscious decision.  I'm choosing today to eat a piece of birthday cake, and it's ok.  I'm also choosing today to eat a salad for lunch instead of the cheeseburger, and that's ok too.

If any of you Kingman or Cheney BL contestants watch the Biggest Loser on NBC, I wonder if you saw the irony of  last night's program in connection with our contest ending this week.   Last night all of the contestants went to singles instead of being on a team.  In essence, that's where we are at this week, too.  It's time to focus our healthy lifestyle on ourselves and do it because WE deserve it - not just because you don't want to disappoint your teammate or you fear the embarrassment of standing on a scale and having somebody else weigh you.   Our mindsets now need to shift from "diet" or "contest" to "living the life I want to live."  And the healthy life we all DESERVE.

Keep that positive, healthy, discipline in your life, my friends.  We will continue this blog as long as we know someone is out there sharing in the journey.

PEACE, LOVE, HAPPINESS AND HEALTH  :-)

"Last Weigh In"

As Steph mentioned in her post below, this week is the last weigh in for KNRC's Biggest Loser Competition.   And wouldn't you know just about the time I log on here to whine about "what am I going to do now" and "what if I gain the weight back" Steph has already posted a blog just SHUTTING ME DOWN.   I hate it when she does that - she's always right!!!! (Well, not ALWAYS, but I never tell her that. :-)  


We've had 8 weeks of strict food and stringent exercising.  It has definitely been a competition level - a level that I cannot maintain for life.   My brain and my body are already trying to slip into the mindset of being "finished" even though technically there are still two days to go. I'm excited to be able to eat the things I "couldn't" eat for the last 8 weeks.  I have a whole list of restaurants I want to go to. Some that I NEVER would've gone to before, but because they were off limits, NOW I want to go to them for some reason!  I already have a date with homemade cinnamon rolls on Thursday, have planned a fiesta fling for Friday night, and am going to make a toast to the McKennon heritage with beer on St. Patty's day.    And I'm ok with all of that, because life will happen and I refuse to stop living.  But what then?


That's the big question weighing on my mind right now.  I KNOW this journey isn't finished.  It can never be finished if I don't want to end up right back here where I'm at.  So really, the difficult part of this journey has just begun.  Because now, instead of having the fear of my teammates and the scale staring me in the face to "make" me do the right thing, I just simply have to respect myself enough to do it.  And honestly, that is not something that comes easy to me, and I know some of you can relate to that feeling.    As Steph said in her post below, this blog will hopefully be a big part of  the post competition success.  We will need you even more than ever now!  I hope you're willing to continue this journey with us.  I hope you will share this with your friends, and they with their friends, because we are going to need your feedback and your support in order to push through.  And we would like to do the same for you.  


Please leave us a message and give us some more ideas of what things you'd like to read here.   What YOU would like to get from this blog.  Thank you for being there to help keep us accountable. And as my quotation marks in the title of this blog indicate, there will never TRULY be a LAST weigh in because our journey will never end.  


PEACE, LOVE, HAPPINESS AND HEALTH!!!

Encourage others

This quote sums up what this blog site does for us.
We hit very low spots on our journey to "better living" (though that entire sentence looks like an oxymoron). But we know we can come on here, share our thoughts with YOU...encourage YOU to push, to try, to  be more than you were just the moment before. And that encourages us.

There is absolutely NOTHING easy about taking the high road every time you go out to eat. There is NOTHING fun about the stress we feel before we step on the scale. There is NOTHING worse than that feeling when the scale doesn't move or even goes up a pound or two (except maybe getting a sticker in your foot when you are walking through the yard...that trumps it all). You don't know if you should throw up or cry, but suddenly you want to do both at the same time. Those are the moments we need to reach out to others and have the same done for us.

If you want this Biggest Loser competition to be just that -- a competition, then that is all that it will be. At the end (this week), there will be "winners" and there will be "losers" and there will be a 1st place, a 2nd place, a 15th place, etc. But if you want this Biggest Loser competition to be MORE than a silly contest, THAT is up to you. What you do after this week and every week from here on out is totally up to you. You can either use the Biggest Loser contest as a stepping stone to something awesome, or just some thing you did with friends to lose a few pounds. The choice is yours. It really doesn't matter what happens at our final weigh-in on Wednesday...what matters is what you do on Thursday and Friday and Saturday...wait, Saturday is St. Patrick's Day, so let's forget I mentioned Saturday...and Sunday and Monday and all the days after that. Was this just a fad for you or is this something you can keep doing? That's what you need to decide now!

Even if it just means drinking one more glass of water than usual, eating a piece of fruit instead of a brownie, going on that 5 minute walk, just take a step forward.  Don't let procrastination have control of one more day, one more week, one more month, one more year, one more decade - whatever it may be for you.  Believe me, that one more day turns into one more decade in the blink of an eye.   YOU are worth it.  Take control.

Staying Motivated

Staying motivated - clearly one of the hardest things to do. Really, it ranks right up there with sitting through graduation ceremonies, balancing a checkbook, and finding a flashlight in the middle of the night. Maybe harder than all of those, actually.

If you are keeping track of the Kingman-Norwich Biggest Loser Competition you are well aware that we are on our last week of the event. It is at this point in the past that our team has felt the "fade" coming on and though we always said "let's finish strong" we never really did. But, this go around feels different. I think we are all a bit more focused and driven. Though, I'd be lying if I said that it has come easy.

Which leads me to this blog post. Staying motivated --- how do you do it? What are the tricks you play on your mind to keep your tummy from taking it over?

Some people try the ole "picture on the fridge" trick. You know, you post a picture of your ideal body on the fridge so anytime you go to open it, you see that picture and it is supposed to remind you of your goals and then IDEALLY you shut the door and walk away. Or maybe you post a picture of what you DON'T want to look like for the same impact.

I tried the "picture on the fridge trick" and here is the photo I used.

This photo was taken probably....ohhhhh....I'd say in 2001-ish. I had lost a few pounds and was feeling pretty good about myself. Was I bigger? Definitely. Was I unhealthy? Oh totally. But did I still love the body I was in? Yeah. Was I too scared and grossed out to actually touch a live fish? Uh-huh. That is beside the point. I've never been skinny or thin or anything, so the body I had was the body I was used to and I didn't have those icky negative emotions attached to it. I had also spent my whole life focusing on "loving the inside" instead of worrying about the outside, for the very same reason. So, now when I have this picture up on my fridge, I don't see a "Fat Steph" that I don't want to be like. Because I see the same person in that photo as I am now and that Steph in the photo and I had a great time! We laughed, we were active, we rocked bandanas...so, this way of finding motivation obviously hasn't worked for me. Apparently denial is way stronger than the power of photography.

Speaking of photos....

Until a judge recently ruled it unconstitutional, the tobacco industry was being pushed by the government to put graphic photos on their products to show the dangers of smoking and tobacco on health. Mouth cancer, blackened lungs, that sort of thing. Would we find motivation to eat better if this was idea was implemented to food? I think someone is working on that....though I'm sure a judge will find it unconstitutional as well.

But what if?

What if this photo were on the side of a frozen pizza box?

(That's human fat....pretty gross, right?)

Would that be motivation enough to choose a salad instead?

Do scare tactics like this really work? 

Is this an ENJOYABLE way to find a healthy lifestyle? No way. I'm not a fan of being scared into doing something that you will hopefully like better than you did the choice before. It attaches an "icky" feeling to it. 

Rather I like the idea of posting POSITIVE things all around you for motivation.

Like these:

Share with us some of YOU motivational tricks!!!!!!!!!!!!!