Just Step Out the Door

Appraising Your Success

The end of the week is a good time to review the past week of your SWEET Life and count up your accomplishments. Your goal is 5-6 times per week for each aspect of the SWEET Life: Sleep, Water, Eating, Exercise, and Tranquility. If you didn’t achieve some of your goals for the week, then next week, focus on those areas more and think about how to fulfill them more consistently.

How do you feel at the end of this week? Are you better rested? Do you feel relaxed? Are you more energetic? Do you feel generally healthier? Continue with the SWEET Life and you’ll experience all of these feelings!

Topic of the week - Just Step Out the Door

Last week I wrote about challenging your body. For some people, the challenge is just getting out the door.

My friend Kimarie said that if she can simply get herself out the door, she'll exercise: run, bike, walk, etc.

For others it's a matter of putting on their shoes: if the running shoes are on their feet, they'll go for a run, or at least for a walk.

FlyLady.com suggests setting a timer for 7 minutes and walking away from your house. After the timer goes off, turn around and walk home, and you've exercised about 15 minutes. It's a start. As your endurance builds, increase the amount of time on your timer.

That reminds me of my build-up to ab exercises: I'll start with the number of crunches I can do and add one, every day. Ideally, I'll start at the beginning of the month, so it's easy to know how many to add. For example, July 1 = 30+1=31 . . . July 15 = 30+15=45 . . . July 31 = 30+31=61, etc.

The point of all these examples is to start where you are, and just do it! That you exercise at all is the most important point.

Look for another topic next week, and keep living the SWEET Life!

Suzanne
Weekly Encouragement history: http://sweetlifeweekly.blogspot.com/
The SWEET Life of Suzanne blog: http://thesweetlifeofsuzanne.blogspot.com/
Website: http://livingthesweetlife.net/

P.S. If you want to stop receiving these Weekly Encouragement emails, simply reply with “unsubscribe” in the subject line.

Copyright © 2008 Suzanne Fong. All rights reserved.

Challenge the Body

Appraising Your Success

The end of the week is a good time to review your SWEET Life and count up your accomplishments. Your goal is 5-6 times per week for each aspect of the SWEET Life: Sleep, Water, Eating, Exercise, and Tranquility. If you didn’t achieve some of your goals, then focus on those areas more and think about how to fulfill them more consistently. You need a plan, not a hope, in order to be successful. If your plan isn’t working, it’s time to revise your plan.

How do you feel at the end of this week? Are you better rested? Do you feel relaxed? Are you more energetic? Do you feel generally healthier? If so, that’s great! Continue with the SWEET Life and you’ll continue to experience all of these feelings! If not, know that by living the SWEET Life, you will feel all these great feelings!

Topic of the Week – Challenge Your Body

I’ve exercised consistently and even changed my workout, but I haven’t seen positive results. What’s going on? Whenever I feel this way and whenever I start to feel sick or stressed out, I focus on living the SWEET Life. Am I really living the SWEET Life, or do I just think I am?

For instance, I changed my workout and am biking a lot more. Sometimes, I’ll bike 10+ miles/day, which, I think, is a good workout. I’m often pulling a 100-lb. trailer of kids and their stuff, so isn’t that a workout? At the same time, however, my 10 miles is broken up into smaller segments throughout the day. That’s an excellent way to build up exercise for those who are not used to it. But, for me, it doesn’t challenge my body the way that riding 10 miles straight would. I’m exercising; I’m going through the motions, but my new exercise plan is not challenging my body.

I’ve heard moms of toddlers question their weight gain or lack of weight loss, saying they get a lot of exercise chasing their toddlers around. However, their bodies are used to chasing toddlers around, so they aren’t challenging their bodies.

It’s been referred to as a plateau. People mid-weight loss will hit a plateau where they stop losing weight. Why? Their bodies have adjusted to the diet and exercise program and have modified their energy consumption (i.e., metabolism) accordingly. They need to change their workout to challenge their bodies.

The problem for me is that it’s often easier, these days, to piece together parts of a workout than to find the time to complete a full, challenging workout. However, if I want to have positive results, I need to make the time to challenge my body.

Look for another topic next week, and keep living the SWEET Life!

Suzanne
Weekly Encouragement history: http://sweetlifeweekly.blogspot.com/
The SWEET Life of Suzanne blog: http://thesweetlifeofsuzanne.blogspot.com/
Website: http://livingthesweetlife.net/

Copyright © 2008 Suzanne Fong. All rights reserved.

Swimming!

Appraising Your Success
The end of the week is a good time to review the past week of your SWEET Life and count up your accomplishments. Your goal is 5-6 times per week for each aspect of the SWEET Life: Sleep, Water, Eating, Exercise, and Tranquility. If you didn’t achieve some of your goals for the week, then next week, focus on those areas more and think about how to fulfill them more consistently.
How do you feel at the end of this week? Are you better rested? Do you feel relaxed? Are you more energetic? Do you feel generally healthier? Continue with the SWEET Life and you’ll experience all of these feelings!

Topic of the week - Swimming

Ah, summer is coming and so is pool-weather! It’s so wonderful to dive in and feel the sensation of weightlessness as I glide through the water. I love the cool water rushing through my hair, cooling my scalp, on a hot day. I’ve been getting into the water a lot lately, and it’s really got something for everyone.

Yes, yes, I know; the hardest part for many women is just getting into a swim suit. Having grown up by the beach, I’m so used to wearing a swim suit that I don’t feel uncomfortable wearing one. Wearing a swim suit is 80% confidence, 20% having the right suit for your body. Every suit doesn’t work for every body, but every body can find a suit that looks great. And if you want to look at it from a different point of view, there’s always someone else at the pool who looks worse than you do in a swim suit!

Swimming is a great, low-impact, cardiovascular exercise. It uses all the major muscle groups: legs, abs, arms, chest and back. Because of the controlled breathing required, it’s excellent for the cardiovascular system. Furthermore, water’s buoyancy makes it easy on the joints. You can swim laps, use a kickboard, or take an aqua aerobics class. You can also take lessons to improve your swimming form. If you really get into it, you can join a master’s swim group. Even just hanging out in a pool or hot tub, playing with your kids, socializing with friends, or relaxing alone, immersing yourself in water can be great Exercise or wonderful Tranquility.

Look for another topic next week, and keep living the SWEET Life!

Suzanne
Weekly Encouragement history: http://sweetlifeweekly.blogspot.com/
The SWEET Life of Suzanne blog: http://thesweetlifeofsuzanne.blogspot.com/
Website: http://livingthesweetlife.net/

Copyright © 2008 Suzanne Fong. All rights reserved.