A Healthy Lifestyle Bites...

Eating right, exercising, calorie-counting, blah blah. Living a healthy lifestyle is HARD. Ask anyone who knew me as a kid, and they'll all confirm my sugar habit. At any given moment, you could look under my bed and find a TON of candy wrappers.  I also hate exercising. Just the thought of it makes me irritated. Now, you'd have thought that I would've changed by this point in my adulthood, right? Oh, heck no. I just started playing the responisiblity game.  Here's how it goes and why it's still hard for me:

Rules to living healthy:
1. Increasing protein. You need protein. It helps repair your muscles, and it helps you lose weight. Why is it hard? I HATE most meat. No, I'm not a vegetarian. I just don't like it. SO. What to do? Protein powder every morning. I gag, but oh well. Evil necessity.

2. Increasing vegetables and fruit: Oh yes. This actually works. It sucks, but it works. Now if you'd like to roll any of those things in sugar, I'd gladly eat it. Unfortunately, that's not as helpful as I'd like. So, I just stick to my favorites.

3. Keep track of what you shovel in. There are websites and apps that help you log in what you eat and the calories they have. I know it seems like a pain in the butt, but once you see how your calories add up, you won't want to stop keeping track. Why? Because it's scary. So for me, I'd rather know what damage I'm doing to myself and stop it before it gets out of control.

4. Exercise. Yes. I said it. Nothing new. For me, machines, running, blah. They didn't help. What helped? Circuit training. I bought a book with a whole circuit training program, broken down daily and with pictures. I've always been lazy, and exercising is HORRIBLE. But it works, so "man up" and just do it.

5. Get a pedometer. They are $10.00 at Target, and it keeps you motivated. It only works because if you are supposed to do 10,000 steps, and you only do 2,000. You'll feel guilty, and get walking.

6. Find your favorites. Don't give up your favorite foods. Just keep it to a low roar. You won't stick to your goal if your food is so limited that you are unhappy.

7. Plan Ahead. If you know you are going out to dinner, look up the menu online, view the calories, and figure out what you are ordering so you don't have to debate when you are in the restaraunt. Also, the movies suck for me because I LOVE snacking. So...I've started taking my own popcorn and snacks. Saves a good 1,000 calories. PLUS I don't feel bad afterwards.

8. Salt is a killer. Drop the salt, and drop 2 pounds in 2 days. Say what you want, but water weight is just as vicious.

End story: Living healthy actually IS a lifestyle, and you have to be ready for it. For me, it's a constant stop-start-stop-start problem. But I tell you this: I'm not ever giving up.