Activity in your life

I started bowling a couple of weeks ago and man, was I sore the first time!  But I figure it's a fun way to get in my exercise.  Here's an excerpt from a newsletter that I receive.  Thought it was good advice!

By Dotti

Getting some kind of activity in your life is probably one of the most important things you can do for your health and well-being. In fact, a lot of experts are recommending you focus on getting more activity in your life before you make any dietary changes. Why? Moving more will give you a jump-start by revving up your metabolism, helping your body to be more responsive to losing body fat. You will see results when you become more active.
Let’s talk about some strategies to help you stay on your course of activity. Why not see if you can come up with a few of your own too.

• Get an activity buddy to help keep you accountable
• Set goals and give yourself rewards to help keep you motivated
• Always look for new ways to get more activity into your life
• Hire a personal trainer
• Try something different from what you are doing; mix it up
• Get your activity where others are active
• Keep a log of your activity; review it often
• Put your activity time in your appointment book; make it a priority

Why is it that activity is the last thing we seem to fit into our busy schedule? I’ll bet if you planned a fun activity like maybe bowling, water skiing or swimming at the lake you’d fit it into your schedule. So, why not start out by planning some activity that is fun, playful. As you become more active you will be able to start focusing on the frequency of your activity, along with increasing the time and intensity.
One of the most important things to remember when planning your activity is to pick activities that you will enjoy and be able to do over the long run; not just to lose the weight you want to lose. Physical activity not only helps you lose the weight but it also helps you to keep the weight off for good.
Hands down, walking is the most convenient activity for most people. I personally like walking because it is something I can do anywhere, any time. I can also fit walking into any time frame. If I only have 15 minutes out of my day to get some activity in then a walk will work. You don’t have to do all your walking at the same time. You can string together a couple of walks during the day, maybe during your two fifteen minute breaks at work. Walking is relaxing too!
Walking is aerobic and works the large muscle groups, so it’s great for burning calories. You can burn anywhere from 100 to 200 calories during a moderately-paced walk. Do you know how many calories you’d burn in a year if you did this every day? 36,500 calories or 10 lbs! Amazing, huh?
The experts say that you are better off walking a longer distance for 25 minutes at a slower pace than trying to jog, getting tired, and quitting after only 10 minutes. Did you know that you burn almost the same number of calories walking a mile as running it? It just takes longer to walk it. (You get about 90% of the same benefit from walking as you do from jogging, with a lot smaller risk of injury!)
The same goes for your other activities also. When you work harder or faster for a given activity it will increase the calories spent, but not as much as lengthening the time spent on your activity.
Here are a few ways to get some extra activity into your life without even realizing it. You can add to the benefits by putting some extra movement into them like swaying your arms as you walk the dog or doing a little dance around the car as you wash it.

• Vacuum briskly – 5 minutes
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator – 3 minutes
• Walk the dog – 10 minutes
• Walk to lunch instead of getting it delivered – 7 minutes
• Wash your car instead of going through a car wash – 15 minutes
• Make extra trips carrying in groceries – 5 minutes
• Rake leaves – 15 minutes

Total Time – 60 minutes
Look how fast those minutes of activity added up! WOW! You may be sitting there thinking you are getting no activity but in reality you are!
If you are one of those people who have problems regularly setting aside time for activity why not try adding short segments of activity (short walks or the examples above)? The goal is to try and get in a total of 30 minutes, but you can accumulate that amount over the course of the day. The separate bits of time spent do not have to happen back to back in order to reap the benefits.
A total of 20 minutes of activity a day is recommended but for weight loss results, 30 minutes is best. Of course, doing a longer stint of activity daily (40, 50 or 60 minutes a day) will burn even more body fat. Your heart will also reap more benefits from the added activity. Please remember that, if you’ve been inactive for some time, be sure to start with shorter activities and increase the time gradually.
I have started adding a regular exercise program back into my life recently and I can tell you I’m reaping the benefits. I have decided to make my elliptical trainer time fun. I watch an episode of Sopranos (HBO) every time I get on the elliptical. I don’t get off until the episode is over (usually 47-55 minutes). It’s a long workout but goes by quickly because I’m enjoying my show. I’ve also added in a 2-mile walk at lunchtime with Al, which gives us time to hold hands, talk, get out in the fresh air and just be together with no interruptions. Priceless. I’m losing weight again and feeling much better physically and mentally.
It doesn’t matter how you get your activity into your life. I’ve used walking as an example of one of the easiest ways, in my opinion, to accomplish this. Joining a gym, bowling league, or hiking club are a few other ways. Make sure if you can’t schedule your activity into your life, then do the short stints of activity during the day. Whatever you decide, make sure it’s something you enjoy and will be able to continue throughout your lifelong Journey.
Let’s all plan to move more in the upcoming months as spring approaches bringing the warm weather, beautiful flowers and birds singing.

Copyright © DWLZ, Inc. - 2009, all rights reserved

A recipe for you

Washington Apple Turkey Gyros
Serves: 8
Ingredients:

• 1 cup vertically sliced onion
• 1 cup thinly sliced red bell pepper
• 1 cup thinly sliced green bell pepper
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• ½ pound cooked turkey breast, cut into thin strips
• 1 medium Washington Golden Delicious or Winesap apple, cored and thinly sliced
• 8 pita rounds, lightly toasted
• ½ cup plain low fat yogurt

Preparation:
Cook and stir onion, bell peppers and lemon juice in oil in nonstick skillet until crisp-tender; stir in turkey and cook until heated through. Remove from heat; stir in apple.
Fold pita in half and fill with apple mixture; drizzle with yogurt.
Repeat with remaining ingredients.
Serve warm.
Nutritional Info Per Serving (1 filled pita):
[268 Cal, 4g Fat, 3g Fiber, 40g Carbs, 322mg Sodium, 19g Protein] *5.5
~Recipe from Washington Apple Commission

5-Minute Heat and Go Soup

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
1 can, 16 oz, low-sodium navy beans, rinsed and drained
1 can, 14½ oz, diced tomatoes with green peppers and onions
1 cup water
1½ tsp dried basil leaves
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp low-sodium chicken bouillon granules
2 tsp olive oil

Preparation: Place all ingredients, except oil, in medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes, uncovered. Remove from heat, stir in oil; serve.

Nutritional Info Per Serving (3½ cups):[198 Cal, 3g Fat, 9g Fiber, 34g Carbs, 252mg Sodium, 11g Protein] *2.5 (3.5)

~The Weight Loss Bible, Publications International LTD

Good Morning America

LOOK FOR ME TODAY ON GOOD MORNING AMERICA!!

On the Road ..... and a little blog candy

Well, would you believe I am on the bus about an hour away from New York City????!! Yep Ashley is sleeping in the seat beside me and I am trying to figure out how to use her laptop so
excuse any "typos." We arrived in DC yesterday a.m (having to get up at 5:30 am to catch the 8 am flight!). We had to hang around Ashley's for a bit for her realtor to come by with her handy man. She is putting her condo up for sale (she's moving to Texas Sept 1) and needs a little painting, etc. done first. Would you believe the handyman wanted to charge her $600 to paint 2 bedrooms (and not even the ceilings) and she was going to provide the paint?? A shyster, in my opinion. So she will be looking for another painter or be doing it herself. Her dad is coming up on Thursday to do some of the minor repairs (and to provide a ride back home for me!) So, after they left, we headed over to a Burrito place and had lunch .... yummy! Then on to the metro for downtown DC. We went to a couple of museums - American History and Natural History. We were involved in a very interesting presentation at the Amer. History of a re-enactment of the Greensboro lunch counter "sit in" in 1960. Actually, Angela and I were two of the "sit in" actors!! They had the actual lunch counter and stools there and picked 4 people to sit on the counters and had all the rest of the people crowd around us. Then they asked us how it made us feel ... it was quite thought provoking.

We actually went to the Natural History Museum by mistake, but it was pretty neat. That's where the Hope Diamond is displayed!! Wow, it's hard to even describe how beautiful it is. We wandered around looking at displays of animals .... giraffes, hippos, monkeys ... al hard to believe they weren't real. Mom's favorite was the Orchid display. They were just gorgeous and I took a lot of pictures that I'll be sharing when I return.

Well .... gotta run - bus is making a pit stop!!

Here's the link to BLOG CANDY!!

Gym Terms

•  “I'm getting pumped up” - I'm standing in front of the mirror and flexing because I'm enamored with the way I look
• Getting ripped - eating miniature meals in an attempt to remove all of the healthy fat from my body
• Supplements - products with all of the calories and nutrients contained in food but which have no resemblance in taste, texture, or appearance to food
• 'roids - illegal drugs taken by people who don't mind the inconvenience of having to walk through a door sideways
• Aerobics - masochism with an instructor
• Stairmaster - masochism without an instructor
• Reps - the number of times you torture yourself by lifting a heavy weight off your chest
• Free weights are better than machines - I'm too stupid to figure out how to work the machines
• Machines are better than free weights - I dropped a dumbbell on my foot one too many times
• Bench press - a strength training exercise in which you lie on a bench and try to prevent a weight-laden bar from plummeting down to crush your chest
• Treadmill - a device which allows you to walk or run, much like can be done outdoors, but this way you get to pay $25 a month and a large up front fee for the privilege of doing it indoors

Monday Mailers

Here are a couple of Monday Mailers to share with you.

I received this great card this week from Nancy Carr.

And this is the card I will be sending to Jennifer next week.  I am using the new set, Scene from a Garden and the white circle grommets from the Occasions Mini (available April 1).  I watercolored the scene and used my cloud template to make clouds.   

blog candy alert

check HERE for blog candy!

and HERE

Card Shares

Here a couple of cards I haven't shared with you that I made last week.

The first one used Thoughts and Prayers - a great stamp set! I used a non-SU corner punch in one corner and put the Baja Breeze ribbon with a Filigree Brad in the other corner. This was a sympathy card for a friend who lost her neice in an automobile accident.

This card was for a friend who had some minor surgery. I used Flight of the Butterfly and Pocket Silouettes with the Simply Scallops stamp. I just love this orange and green!!

New York ... New York

I am getting excited!  I am flying to DC Saturday with my mom and one of my sisters.  After spending the day with Ashley and getting my mom and Angela acclimated to the metro in DC, Ashley and I are taking the bus to New York!!  Mom and Angela will be staying in DC at Ashley's place and touring around DC.

This trip is my birthday present from Ashley(from last October).  We have tickets to be in the audience of Good Morning America on Monday morning.  I don't usually watch the show so not sure about it.  They did tell us to wear comfortable shoes because there is no seating and to wear bright colors and bring bright signs .... still working on that! 

We have tickets to a Broadway show, In the Heights, for Tuesday night.  We are going to try to get tickets to see Chicago on Sunday or Monday. 

But the best is .... we have tickets to the taping of Friday's The View.  The View tapes live every day except for Friday which they tape earlier in the week.  So, we will be in the studio Tuesday at 11:00 for the Friday taping.  We are actually going to be guests of one of the producers!    Ashley met someone on her cruise in January that had a friend who is a producer (and won an Emmy) for The View and she was able to get tickets for us.  The only drawback is ... if they have a give-away that day, we do not qualify IF the prize is over $75.  So, let's hope it's a good give-away and is worth $74.99!!  I am ubber-excited!  I have watched The View for years - through the Star Jones years, endured Rosie (I was hit or miss then) and now with Whoopie (whom I think is great).  So, set your VCR's and see if you can pick me out of the crowd!!

If any of you have recommendations for restaurants, etc. in New York, please let me know!! 

Idol Results

Well, the bottom three this week are Alexis, Allison and Michael. I thought it would be Michael for sure. I was surprised Allison was there - thought it would be Adam or Megan. Adam is a real good singer but he is definitely NOT a country singer! I think he basically desecrated a Johnny Cash classic! Megan probably got a pass since she was performing with the flu last night. After about a million commercials and performances by Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis (what was that in her hair?), Allison was declared safe and sat down. And then there were two. The judges announced that they had discussed it and they would save one of the two maybe. Drum roll .... Michael takes a seat and the one on the chopping block is Alexis! I am really surprised. She sings for her life, but .....Simon tells her it was good but not good enough, and they send her on their way. Did anyone really think they were going to use their veto this early in the season? Seems like a ploy for drama to me. But I don’t know what I expect. This IS American Idol, after all.