New Life Reolutions

Here we are balancing on the start of a new year. This past month as we moved into the new house, I stopped counting calories--from there I spiraled from one bad choice to another. Bottom line, I gained back seven pounds. Did you ever notice how easy it is to gain weight and how much work it is to lose weight!

Life deals out changes, trials, stess and more. We can start a new year resolving to lose weight and within a week find ourselves mired in a situation that overcomes our newfound sensibilities. So before we even start the new year, let me remind you to start each day fresh. You can't control or change what is past. This is the day the Lord has made, walk in the new day with newness of mind. Don't let past success or failure nudge you from the way you should go.

Donna
Check out more articles and classes on writing at the Inspired Author

Joint Pain Weight and Diet

What about joint pain? Did you know that being over weight can contribute to Osteoarthritis and Joint Pain in the knees and even the hands?

Exercise helps keep joints healthy. It reduces joint pain and stiffness and increases flexibility, muscle strength, and endurance. It also helps with in losing weight. As we head toward a new year, what better time to set weight loss goals! If you've reached your goal weight, exercise should still be part of your daily life for better health.

Can diet affect joints? That's a bit controversial--but this author thinks it's worth research. The apple cider vinegar I talked about awhile back is one of those things that claims to help. I'll try it and let you know what I think. I haven't been consistent enough to offer a real assessment.

Donna
Check out more articles and classes on writing at the Inspired Author

What About Detox?

Heading into a New Year offers hope for a new start. But it's not quite that easy, because we drag he consequences of the previous year along like Marley's chain in Scrooge. Overeating and lack of exercise add unwanted weight and it doesn't melt off when we turn the calendar page.

As you change eating and exercise habits, your body may experience the effects of detox as your body throws off toxins that build up over time. I'm not talking extremes here (like colonics or strict diets). Remember moderation. Here are a few things you'll want to elininate or greatly reduce over time:

cigarette smoke
pesticides
food additives
alcohol
caffeine

Think about these things as you consider better health in the New Year.

Donna
Check out more articles and classes on writing at the Inspired Author

Read the Labels

I remember back when laws changed so that ingredients HAD TO be listed. Reading labels can help you to make wise food choices. Ignorance of what you're putting in your mouth won't help your body. For example, the nutritional information includes a serving size. I'll never forget learning that in most cases a serving of ice cream is 1/2 cup. I probably ate at least three times that at any sitting. So in reality, I tripled the about of calories I thought I was eating.

Take the time to make wise choices. Read the label.

Donna
Check out more articles and classes on writing at the Inspired Author

Living Foods

For years I've read about living foods--foods unaltered by the cooking process. When you think about it, what's the opposite of living? Dead. The idea behind living foods is that they provide living cells for your body's nurishment. In the same way, your body creates new cells based on what you feed it. So what are you creating? Are you building your body with death or life? Wow! Never thought of it like that.

I'm not saying I'm going to become a person that only eats raw foods--yet--but they do need to be a big part of my diet. Why?

One reason is the enzymes which help to digest our food. These precious elements are lost in the cooking process. And here's the real kicker--this contributes to gaining weight. Yes, you heard me right.

Now before you think I've gone overboard remember my basic message. Moderation. Look over your food selections and be sure to include living and raw foods in your diet.

Donna
Check out more articles and classes on writing at the Inspired Author

Why Whole Grains?

I grew up on a diet of refined products. The only bread I knew of other than white bread was rye. But almost twenty years ago I began the journey toward healthier eating. In some ways, it's more like a war. It's easier to eat refined foods, and foods loaded with refined fats and sugars taste scrumptuous.

So why eat whole grains?

Whole grains reduce risks of heart disease and offer an excellent source of disease fighting phytochemicals and antioxidants not found in fruits and vegetables, as well as B vitamins, vitamin E, magnesium, iron and fiber. The recommended 3-5 servings promotes health benefits which also fight stroke, cancer, diabetes and obesity. Note that last benefit? It helps fight obesity.

In my quest to lose weight and live healthier, I'm going to make choosing whole grains more of a priority.

Donna
Check out more articles and classes on writing at the Inspired Author

So What's Wrong With White Flour

White flour--how does it make you feel?

Until you take the time to get in tune with how foods affect your body, you may not realize how white flour makes you feel. At one time, I thought the whole notion a bit absurd. But, I have more than one family member who experience stuffy sinuses when they eat white flour products. Other medical evidence links white flour with diabetis. Putting all that aside, if you stop to realize that white flour has no nutritional benefit, and helps put on weight, why eat it?

Start replacing refined foods with whole foods and you'll be surprised how much better you'll feel. If you wonder where to start, choose whole, living foods.

Donna
Check out more articles and classes on writing at the Inspired Author

Snap, Crackle, Pop--I'm Walking On Thin Ice

The move from FL to GA is almost complete. We are almost done with the cleaning painting process and a few of our personal items have crept from storage to "home." It's wierd stepping into a place I call home without knowing it intimately. That's the difference between home and house. We've bought a house--we need to make it a home.

It's a challenge keeping up with my freelance editing and writing through the moving process--but the thing that's failing is my eating moderately. Schedules are out the window, and we tend to clean and paint until we're starving and then just go eat.

Just like I look forward to the house becomng my home, I look forward to being "home" and getting back to eating right.

Donna
Check out more articles and classes on writing at the Inspired Author

How to Eat Enough Fresh Fruit

This week I'm wearing my editor hat more than my writing hat. It's not my preference, but life isn't always what we want but what needs to be. It reminds me of eating. The well documented importance of eating fruits, vegetables, and whole grains is not always what I want--but it's what my body needs.

How to Eat More Fresh Fruit

Like every goal, you need to have a plan. Do you like fresh pineapple? Buy it--bring it home, cut it up and you'll have easy-to-eat bite size fresh fruit. Don't like the bother of cutting fresh fruit? Purchase precut fruit in the produce section. Buy what's in season to stay in your budget. If you have to eat on the run, keep fruit like apples, bananas and oranges on hand. These come in their own easy to carry skin and don't have to be refrigerated.

If you must choose processed fruit, eat frozen, dried or fruit canned in water. The more processed the food, the more nutritional benefits deplete.

Vary your fruit selections and it will help you eat the recommended five servings a day. That's right. Five. Make a plan not to eat other snacks until you've eaten your fruit for the day.

Donna
Check out more articles and classes on writing at the Inspired Author

Apple Cider Vinegar

In my recent travels, a friend reminded me of the benefits of drinking apple cider vinegar. Not just any apple cider vinegar, but natural, raw, (cloudy) apple cider vinegar with the Mother (Braggs). Taken three times a day, it claims to eliminate joint stiffness. So, as part of my diet, I'm including it as a regular part of my regime--so we will see how my knee and shoulders feel a month from now.

Donna Sundblad, author of Pumping Your Muse and
Windwalker

New Day Mindset

Oh, the stress of moving. I must admit, yesterday I caved in to making eating choices less than ideal. However, in the same breath let me point out that I didn't begin to match the calorie content of a year ago. Learning to eat moderately as a lifestyle has helped me realize failure of one day does not mean failure PERIOD.

I used to let minor set backs pull me into a downward spiral of mood initiated feeding on sweets, chips, and fried foods. Yesterday, as my calories climbed higher than the ideal I still chose a double order of steamed broccoli rather than broccoli and a baked potatoe. I didn't count; I know I went over, BUT today is a new day. I'm counting. A new day offers a new start. I don't have to wait for the guilt to go away, or the stress to lessen to "get started."

Don't let the failure of one day follow you into the next. Shake it off and start with a clean slate.

Donna Sundblad, author of Pumping Your Muse and
Windwalker

Disappointment Does Not Need to Be Fed

Yesterday I learned that an article I had written didn't make the paper. Those kinds of things can bum me out. Freelance writing for a living is fraught with ups and downs. Last year at this time, I allowed these ups and downs to push me into a feeding frenzy to meet emotional needs.

Now that I have set a calorie span to help me SEE moderation as something I can measure to a point, these moods don't hold much sway over me--although they try. Just like the stress of moving, health problems in the family, difficult financial situations--no matter what is making me stress--eating is not the answer.

Instead, as a freelance writer it's time for me to write. Isn't that a much healthier choice?

Donna Sundblad, author of Pumping Your Muse and
Windwalker

It's That Time of the Month

These past few weeks have been full of challenges when it comes to eating and exercising. Yes, the weather grew cooler, Thanksgiving came along with all that food, plus we finally found a house AND traveled to Florida to get some things out of storage. Time went fast, and all the while I kept up with my NaNoWriMo word count, but how did I do with eathing and counting calories?

I decided while traveling not to count calories but to make an effort to make better choices than I "naturally" would make. For example, I ordered a sandwich but didn't eat all the bread. Little difference add up.

Speaking of adding up, I made it over 50,000 in my third year to finish NaNoWriMo. Hard to believe I've done that for three years in a row. In fact, my novel Windwalker was my 2004 NaNoWriMo project. If things go well, 2005's project will make it through edits and rewrites and be submitted within the next two months.

For those who read this blog regularly, I know what you're waiting for--it's the first of the month--my weigh-in day. Wondering how I did with traveling, the stress of NaNo, buying a house, visiting with family and friends plus Thanksgiving? Well I could have done better, but I could have done worse. My weight stayed the same! Even while researching food for medieval fantasy weddings for an article. Moderation pays off again.

Donna Sundblad, author of Pumping Your Muse and
Windwalker