Balance and Happiness before Vanity

Moving from the Bay Area back to LA was the best move I made this year. I am having an absolute blast living in LA with my two great roommates, friends, and family. I don’t think there has been a dull moment yet. But, as I alluded to in last month’s entry, my new lifestyle has been tough on my diet and exercise routine. Lately, I’ve been reflecting on where I was and where I am at now and whether I was happier then or now? Overall, I am happier now, but it is hard to accept that I am not in the same peak shape that I was in the Bay Area. I haven’t stepped on the scale since I left the Bay, and honestly I’m a little afraid to. I can tell by how my clothes are fitting that I’ve gained a couple of pounds through this transition back to LA. Sometimes I get down on myself for it too, but then I try to remind myself that this was a hard transition and even though I’ve been here two months now, I am still adjusting and trying to carve out a new life in LA.

I look back on my Bay Area days and realize that maybe what I achieved there isn’t going to be possible for me to achieve in LA. I might need to find a happy medium between what I was doing and what I am doing now (which isn’t quite enough). I work much longer hours in LA and I am surrounded by a lot more temptation and distraction, which isn’t all bad, but can really take its toll on your diet and exercise. But, to be at my peak would mean cutting out a lot of my social life and even some of my sleep. Is it worth it? Is it worth being at the peak if it means being alone? That’s what I’ve really been thinking about this week. I may need to accept that working out 5 days a week for an hour and a half and cooking 90% of my meals isn’t workable anymore. Maybe this lifestyle just isn’t a reality in the context of my new LA lifestyle. I don’t want this blog entry to be misconstrued as me justifying my sliding backwards a little bit or telling people to not work hard on their diet and exercise goals. That is not my point. My first point is that sometimes what worked swimmingly at one point in your life may not work as well at another point and you have to learn to accept that reality and stop beating yourself up. And, my second point is sometimes you need to really reflect on whether your diet and exercise goals are allowing you to lead a full life; don’t throw balance out the window for the sake of vanity. In the Bay, I feel that my routine worked perfectly with my lifestyle. I had the time to invest in it as much as I did and I didn’t have the social demands I have in LA. But, I am happier in LA now that I get to see more friends and family more. And, sure I indulge a little more, but I also feel more connected and fulfilled down here than I did in the Bay. I can’t imagine my Bay Area routine working as well here, and it’s not worth sacrificing sleep or isolating myself from friends and family for the sake of being 2-3 pounds less when I am still very healthy.

Nevertheless, now that I am starting to get used to my lifestyle here, I do see that there is room for improvement with my diet and exercise and I’m ready to take that challenge back on after a little bit of a hiatus (when I say hiatus I mean hitting the gym three days versus five, not letting myself go completely). I have really reflected on these past two months and I think that four days in the gym is probably most manageable for me. I’ve also noticed that I’ve indulged more at work than I should and I think I can easily cut this out as well. These are tweaks I can make that’ll help me manage my health, but still allow me to feel balanced and happy, and that is what truly matters.

Coping with Change

A few weeks ago, I moved from the Bay Area back down to L.A. where I am originally from. I started a new job a couple days after I arrived, and will be moving into my new apartment today (I’ve been staying with my family these past few weeks living out of my suitcases). Life has been moving fast since I got here! It has been hard to have a normal routine when I am living out of suitcases and boxes and still feeling out my new schedule.

When I was up north, I would wake up at 7 a.m., leave for work at 8 a.m., get there at 8:30 a.m., leave by 4:30 p.m., and be back home at 5 p.m. I had a gym in my garage, so I would get home, put on my gym clothes and be done by 7 p.m., eating dinner and relaxing until bed time at 10:30 p.m. Ohhh the good ol’ days!! Now, my commute is two hours roundtrip. I wake up at 6 a.m., leave by 7 a.m., arrive to work at 8 a.m., and leave work at 5 or 6 p.m. to get home an hour to an hour and 15 minutes later. My new schedule makes it hard to figure out when to workout. Do I eat dinner and workout late? Do I ignore my hunger pains, workout first, and then eat? It hasn’t been easy to figure out. Plus, now I have to commute 10 miles roundtrip to the gym. Ohhh how things have changed!

It’s hard to stay motivated to go to the gym when life feels like you’re on the go constantly. I’m getting to bed later than I like just to fit it all in and I feel tired. I also feel like I don’t have time to just sit back and relax, or go hang out with friends as much. Now, I understand why our country is overweight. When you’re spending 10-12 hours of your day commuting/working it’s very easy to want to ditch the gym, eat dinner out with co-workers to wait out traffic, etc. At my new office, there is leftover food and sweets every day!! I feel constantly tempted and short on time since I moved. So I sympathize with everyone out there who doesn’t know when to make time for the gym, or how to say no to all the temptation. It’s HARD! I had it easy in the Bay in comparison – short commute, no food temptation at work, and gym at home. For me, there was absolutely no excuse not to be on top of my workouts and get at least eight hours of sleep a night. I had plenty of time to do everything I needed to do. I know with time I’ll adjust to my new L.A. life and schedule, but I would be lying if I said it’s easy to do all I did in the Bay. I have still been good about my workouts, and have tried to ignore the temptation the best I can, but I know I have more challenges to face than I did before.

So to everyone who knows how I feel, stay strong and positive! Remember that taking care of your mind, body, and soul is one of the most important and healthiest things you can do for yourself. When you think you don’t have the time or energy for the gym, tell yourself this is my ME time. It’s about shutting out all of the day’s stresses and doing something that makes you feel good about yourself. It’s hard, I know, but it’s worth it!

Don’t Be a Slave to the Scale

Recently, a couple of my friends commented that I look like I’ve lost some weight. But, when I stepped on the scale I still weighed pretty much what I’ve weighed for the past two years (give or take a couple of pounds here and there along the way). I tried to think about what I’m doing differently now than from the past that would make my friends think I look so much different when clearly the scale begs to differ. Funny enough, I eat more calories per day now than I did a year ago and I workout the same amount of days. So what HAS changed? I’ve focused more on my strength training, I eat protein at every meal and strive to get about 60 grams a day, and I continue to up the intensity (but, not the time) of my cardio sessions. So while I haven’t lost weight, I look leaner because I’ve swapped fat for muscle. It just goes to show you that sometimes the numbers on the scale don’t tell the whole truth. Don’t get me wrong, the scale is still a great indicator of your overall health. You should certainly utilize it to keep yourself on track, making sure that you aren’t gaining or losing large quantities of weight too quickly (both can be dangerous). But, when you’re at a healthy weight and you still think you need to lose five pounds, you may want to rethink your mindset. Instead of worrying about the numbers on the scale and focusing on completing more and longer cardio sessions, shift your focus to your strength training and protein intake. I guarantee that if you focus on eating approximately 20-40 grams of protein (20-25 for women, 35-40 for men) at every meal, eat frequently throughout the day, and spend more time on your strength training each week, you’ll look leaner and more toned! While strength training maybe doesn't burn as many calories as cardio, strength training does increase your metabolic rate more than cardio does post-workout so that you continue to burn calories for a couple hours after your workout. So don’t get stuck on the numbers on the scale. If you focus on incorporating more strength training and protein into your routine, you’ll see results!

While I'm on this topic, let me say one more thing about the scale. There is no need to weigh yourself more than once a week. If you weigh yourself every day, throughout the day you're going to drive yourself crazy because your body's weight naturally fluctuates. To stay on track, weigh yourself once a week at the same day and time, using the same scale each time. Preferably, you should weigh yourself first thing in the morning when you're naked. Weighing yourself once a week is plenty to monitor your progress accurately.

Healthy Summer Salads

Who doesn’t love a salad with their meal during summer? Pairing a salad with a meal is more refreshing than eating a heavy baked potato when it’s 90 degrees outside. Here are two great, easy, and healthy salads that I love during the summer. Both salads are filled with fiber and protein to keep you feeling full and satisfied and either goes great with grilled fish, chicken, or steak. So, forget the fattening Caesar salad, and serve up one of these healthy and yummy alternatives instead! Enjoy!

Spinach Strawberry Feta Salad (serves 4)

1 bag of pre-washed spinach
1 cup of reduced fat feta cheese
50-60 raw, unsalted almonds (or almond slivers)
2 cups of sliced strawberries
½ cup of Annie’s Naturals Fat Free Raspberry Balsamic Vinaigrette

Calories per serving: 225

Apple Walnut Salad (serves 4)
1 bag of pre-washed romaine lettuce (or whatever type you prefer)
½ cup of Sargento shredded parmesan cheese
2 medium granny smith apples sliced or chopped
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup of Trader Joe’s Fat Free Balsamic Vinaigrette

Calories per serving: 200

What's great about salads like these is that you can mix up the nuts, fruit, and cheese for an entirely different salad. Try pear with gorgonzola cheese. Or add cranberries to the apple walnut salad. Or, eat these salads as entrees by adding grilled chicken breast on top. Be as creative as you want!

A Magic Pill?

This past weekend, I was reading my new Glamour magazine while I laid out in the sun (wearing SPF 30 sunscreen of course) jamming along to my iPod. I got to an article that asked if there was a magic pill that could…

• Slash your chance of getting breast cancer
• Help get rid of headaches
• Cut symptoms of depression almost in half
• Lower your risk of type 2 diabetes by 50 percent
• Make it easier to get pregnant when you want to
• Boost sexual arousal by 100 percent
• Improve your body image
• Make you fall asleep 40 percent faster
• And help you lose a pound a week
…would you take it? Of course, after reading the exact list above in my Glamour, I was nodding my head in agreement, thinking duh who wouldn’t take a pill that did ALL of that!

Guess what that magic pill is? Exercise! That’s right – 30 minutes a day will truly keep the doctor away! That is pretty powerful stuff! Like I’ve said in past posts, the benefits of exercise reach far beyond transforming your physique. If you want to feel better mentally, physically, and emotionally every day just get moving for 30 minutes! I can’t name one other single thing you could do that would have such an extensive impact on your overall health. What a small price to pay (if you even want to think of it like that) for such a great benefit! Talk about an amazing return on your investment!

Remember, exercise comes in all forms. You don’t need a gym membership or fancy equipment to get in shape. Go outside and walk for 30 minutes, take a yoga class, go for a hike, go swimming, dance the night away, play tennis, work out to an exercise DVD or with Wii Fit, play volleyball, do jumping jacks and run in place, basically do whatever excites you and gets you MOVING for 30 minutes. Everyone has 30 minutes in the day so find the time and reap the rewards!

An Insider’s Guide to Restaurants

For two years during college, I worked in the restaurant industry, working my way up from hostess, to to-go service, and finally to server. And let me tell you, working in a restaurant teaches you a lot! I have so many crazy stories from my restaurant days from my boss getting in a fight with a drunk customer, to a senior citizen choking and dying on a piece of steak right in the restaurant, to a woman flinging her baked potato across the table because it was wrong, to a mom spiking her underage son’s coke practically in front of my eyes. But beyond the crazy stories, memorizing the menu, and learning a lot about human behavior, I actually learned a lot about food (and no, we don’t spit in your food if you send it back, we may mock you and vent, but we don’t spit). Here’s just a few of the things I’ve learned while working in the restaurant industry:

1. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is cooked in butter. So the next time you think you’re being extra healthy by ordering a chicken breast, steamed veggies, and a baked potato with the toppings on the side, think again! The chicken breast is basted in butter, the veggies are soaked in butter, and the jacket of the potato is covered in butter. If you’re really trying to be healthy when you go out to eat then specify that you don’t want the extra butter on your meal. Most of the time, servers are more than happy to ‘86’ (remove) the butter for you.

2. A server’s job is to sell! If a server gets you to order an appetizer and/or dessert then your bill just went up and hopefully so did their tip! I don’t care how sweet and cool your server is their job is to sell you what you don’t need. And a lot of times, it’s hard to say no because people go to restaurants to relax and enjoy food, not to count calories, worry about every bite, and penny pinch. Nevertheless, you should still be weary; the most popular appetizer at the restaurant I worked for has a whopping 3,000 plus calories! Think about it, if a server successfully gets you to order an appetizer, dinner, AND dessert, just imagine how many calories you’re eating!?! It’s astronomical!

3. Nine times out of 10 the most frequent customers are obese. If you don’t believe there is a strong correlation between the amount you eat out and gaining weight, think again! From two years of working in the same restaurant, I can tell you that our ‘regulars’ were usually obese. And, really it isn’t rocket science. When you go out to eat versus cooking dinner, even if you order what you would cook at home anyways, the restaurant meal has 10x the amount of calories, fat, and sodium than the home-cooked meal does. Plus, you end up eating things you probably wouldn’t have eaten at home. Say you planned on cooking up sirloin steaks with veggies and a baked potato at home, would you necessarily pair that with a loaf of bread, Caesar salad, bottle of wine, and then finish the night off with dessert? Probably not, unless it was a special occasion or you were entertaining company. So imagine if you’re doing this once a week, or even twice a week at a restaurant? It adds up!

4. On a similar note, ‘regulars’ who have kids tend to also have obese kids. I was astonished at what parents would let their kids order when they were out to eat. One kid’s mom let him have three or four refills of coke. One parent convinced their kid to choose an even worse dinner than she originally wanted. This little girl wanted to order macaroni and cheese (which, is still ridiculously high in fat and calories), but her mom convinced her to get fried chicken fingers with French fries and ranch dressing, which is even worse! I just felt so bad for these kids when I worked in a restaurant. The choices these parents let their kids make, or made for their kids, do nothing but contribute to their obesity and declining health. Chilis chicken crispers for kids have a whopping 600 calories, 39 grams of fat, and 1,610 milligrams of sodium! Adults shouldn’t even consume this kind of meal on a regular basis, let alone kids!

5. Even those so called “healthy” meals on the menu aren’t that great. Cheesecake Factory’s Weight Management Grilled Chicken entrée still has 580 calories and 13 grams of fat. I could make grilled chicken at home, with a baked potato with a tablespoon of butter, and a side of asparagus for roughly 375 calories. So please, don’t be deceived by restaurants’ “healthy” menus. In all honesty, most restaurant items should have the nutrition facts of the so called “healthy” items and not even be labeled “healthy” because they’re still not that great. I guess it’s all relative though. If you’re out at Cheesecake Factory, the weight management chicken looks mighty healthy when you compare it to its Lemon Herb Roasted Chicken, which comes in at a whopping 1249 calories and 30 grams of fat. It’s pretty pathetic that the 1249-calorie chicken makes the 580-calorie chicken look healthy because neither is really that great! Personally, I’d rather stay in, make my 375-calorie chicken dinner and enjoy a glass of wine and strawberries with some whipped cream for dessert all for less than 550 calories.

The lesson here is to be mindful when you eat out. Trust me, I love eating out. It’s great to have someone serve you, not have to worry about cleaning up after dinner, and eating food you wouldn’t normally cook at home. I totally understand the appeal! But, if you’re really trying to watch what you eat, you need to either cut back on how often you eat out or be very specific with your server about what you do and don’t want in your meal. And trust me, cutting back on how often you eat out is a lot easier than going to a restaurant and making the healthy choice. For me, it’s real easy to tell myself all day that I’m not going to eat that bad when I go out to eat, but in all honesty the second I step into a restaurant my self control goes right out the window!

Also remember, if you do have kids, really be careful about eating out too often because kids’ menus are really pretty disturbing! Remember, your kids are not old enough to always understand the consequences of their decisions. They often turn to YOU, their parents, to help them make good choices because they value your opinion. So please, help them make the good choices when it comes to food. Most restaurants post nutrition facts on their websites. It is not a bad idea to scan the menu before dinning out to help your family make the right choices.

Need Some Inspiration?

I admit, there are days when I just really don’t feel like working out, where putting on my gym shoes feels more like a chore than an exciting challenge. I know how hard it can be to stay motivated and make exercising and eating right a consistent habit. Think about it, if it were so easy, we wouldn’t have the obesity epidemic we currently have in this country. After a long day of work (and being in high heels), it’s not always easy to come home and hop right into the gym, but without fail I manage to make myself do it every single time (unless my body is super sore and really needs a night off) because life just isn’t that HARD and I have no excuse not to take care of my health! In fact, no one should make excuses to not take care of their health. And, being physically active is an integral part of being healthy.

Whenever I’m feeling uninspired about working out or eating right, I watch or think about the Biggest Loser on NBC. When I watch that show and see how hard the contestants workout in the gym, I think hey I can do that too! These contestants are 2-3 times my size, and push themselves way harder than I do. Now, I know it’s a reality show and that they are there for one single purpose, and that’s to lose weight. They have amazing trainers, 24-hour access to the gym, and no other responsibilities or obligations holding them back; they can fully focus on their goal. Nevertheless, what these contestants are doing is not easy. To get up every day and spend hours working out and being pushed to workout harder than they’ve ever worked out in their lives is AMAZING! And, every time I watch that show and see their progress and hard work I’m inspired. Whenever I am feeling unmotivated, I think about what these contestants do and think I have NO excuse not to get in my gym and workout. I have a young, fit, able body and I feel truly blessed for that. If people 2-3 times my size can do things 10x harder than I do, I truly have no excuse not to push myself.

If you ever feel like you CAN’T (I hate that word with a passion by the way) do something, watch this show and get some real perspective. You can overcome anything you want to – genetics, years of bad eating and exercise habits, low self esteem, etc. The only thing holding you back is YOU! If a 350-pound contestant like Michael (who started at over 500 pounds) can run a 5k on the treadmill for the first time in his life, anything is possible! You can change your circumstances at any age, any weight, any time. And, more importantly it doesn't matter what you did in the past, it matters what you do NOW, and what you plan to do tomorrow. So, please don’t say “can’t” and don’t come up with excuses. You CAN and you SHOULD exercise and take care of your body, no ifs, ands, buts about it!