Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

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.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

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/

Monday, June 2, 2008

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/

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Weekend Getaway

Last weekend I took a weekend getaway with a group of women to Sea Ranch, on the Mendocino coast, for four days. I introduced the SWEET Life to them, to make it a SWEET Life Retreat. What a great retreat it was! With the emphasis on “treat”! It was a group of six women, all wives and mothers. Did we live the SWEET Life?

Sleep: We slept a lot, staying up late, but we had no husbands snoring, no kids interrupting our sleep, and no alarms to wake up to. Some of us also napped during the lazy afternoons.

Water: We each brought our favorite cocktail, and we had a lot of Happy Hours. In addition, one woman brought and made sure we all drank a lot of water. There was also juice, sodas and lots of “weekend” coffee. I call it “weekend coffee” when it is drunk for relaxation and enjoyment, rather than for the caffeine jolt.

Eating: We brought a lot of food to cook and tried new recipes. We enjoyed cooking and experimenting with food, without kids under foot asking for snacks. We ate a lot of good, healthy food, but we also ate lots of cheeses and chocolate and chips. In addition, it was one woman’s birthday, so we had a cake for her.

Exercise: I brought my resistance bands to lead the group in some exercises, but we didn’t end up using them. Everyone was quite content to sit around the house, enjoying the spectacular view from the living room of the whales migrating north with their babies. At the same time, we were situated perfectly between Gualala Point Park and Walk-On Beach, 1½ miles from each, which is a nice walking/running distance. On our walks along the coast, we saw lots of whales, and there were seals hanging out on the rocks near our house. We also saw many sea lions, various types of birds, squirrels, deer, and people walking their dogs. In April there are tons of wildflowers, all shortened versions, due to the wind, of flowers I’m used to seeing.

Tranquility: It was a weekend of tranquility, above all else. We watched the view from the living room. We talked about all sorts of topics that are usually interrupted by children’s needs. We wandered along the cliffs, watching the waves crash on the rocks. We read “fluff” magazines and looked at catalogs of items we’ll never purchase. We definitely had a lot of tranquility.

In the end, I definitely recommend and encourage everyone to take a weekend getaway at least once a year. You’ll return a rejuvenated, SWEET person, ready to greet your family with wide open arms and big hugs. Ready to tackle the world again.

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/

Monday, April 7, 2008

Skinny-fat

I learned the term “skinny-fat” recently, referring to people who are skinny but out of shape. Supermodels and actresses fit into this category, as do most men, it seems. “Skinny-fat” probably refers to most of the thin people we see on the street, considering Americans penchant for fast food and a sedentary lifestyle. Fat people hate them for being naturally thin, but they are not necessarily fit. They don’t necessarily have a faster metabolism than the rest of us, just as overweight people don’t necessarily have a slower metabolism than the rest of us. However, “skinny-fat” people succeed in the most important component of maintaining weight: the number of calories consumed equals the number of calories burned.

So the question of the week is: Are “skinny-fat” people living the SWEET Life? Let’s see . . .

Do they get 7-8 hours of Sleep per night? There is a lot of research showing a connection between lack of sleep and weight gain, which is why Sleep is an important aspect of the SWEET Life! Therefore, my guess is that “skinny-fat” people sleep enough.

Do they drink 8-10 cups of Water per day? Dehydration causes the body’s functions to slow down and work inefficiently, including metabolism. Ample hydration helps all the body’s functions run smoothly and efficiently and prevents you from retaining water as a survival mechanism. Therefore, I’d say that “skinny-fat” people drink enough water to keep their metabolisms running smoothly.

Do they Eat a balanced, healthy diet? They may or may not eat well. Most Americans don’t eat a balanced, healthy diet, despite the huge amounts of food available to us. Most importantly though, “skinny-fat” people don’t eat too much; they eat only as many calories as their bodies burn off.

Do they Exercise? “Skinny-fat” people don’t exercise. If they did, they would be “fit” not “fat.”

Do they have Tranquility? Since research shows that chronic stress causes weight gain and slower metabolism, I would say that “skinny-fat” people have their stress under control. They have Tranquility.

In sum:

Sleep – yes

Water – yes

Eating – maybe, maybe not

Exercise – no

Tranquility – yes

Surprisingly, diet and exercise, which most people think of as the keys to weight loss and staying skinny, are the two aspects of the SWEET Life that “skinny-fat” people are least likely to do! I must say, I’m very surprised by these results!

Sources:

· Google search for “lack of sleep and weight”:
http://www.google.com/search?q=lack+of+sleep+and+weight&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

· Google search for “stress and weight”:
http://www.google.com/search?q=stress+and+weight&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

· Inch-aweigh.com: Why drinking water really is the key to weight loss:
http://www.inch-aweigh.com/water.html

· Natural News.com: Healing with Water:
http://www.naturalnews.com/003202.html

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/

Monday, March 24, 2008

Spring Has Sprung – Have you?

Daylight Savings Time means it’s lighter later, which gives us more time for outdoor exercise! The wonderful spring weather is a reminder that now is the time to tone up your body for summer’s skin-revealing clothing.

Shorts & short-sleeved tops show off your calves, thighs, biceps, and triceps. To tone those muscles, you’ll need to do a variety of exercises. Do heel raises for your calves. Any exercises that cause you to bend and straighten your knees will tone your thighs, like leg extensions and curls, squats, or lunges. Any exercises that cause you to bend and straighten your arms will tone your biceps and triceps, such as bicep curls and triceps extensions.

Sleeveless tops reveal your shoulders, in addition to your arms. Add any kind of exercise where you lift your upper arm, such as overhead presses, front raises, and lateral raises to tone your shoulders.

Tank tops, spaghetti straps, halter tops, etc. also show off your chest and upper back. To tone those muscles, you need to do exercises where your arms are up at shoulder height and you are pushing them forward (for the chest) and pulling them backward (for the back). For example, you can do flyes and reverse flyes or chest presses and high rows.

Swimsuits additionally reveal your hips, glutes and abs, which means you need a full body toning workout. However, the most important thing you need, in order to look good in a swim suit, is confidence. I’ve seen overweight women look great in a swim suit because it was the right suit for their body, in a great color for their skin tone, and they had a lot of confidence wearing it. I’ve also seen women who had good bodies but didn’t look very good in swim suits, mostly because they lacked confidence, although swim suit style and color also played a role.

Therefore, start springing into spring, toning up, and building confidence in yourself, your body, and your swim suit.

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

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Why Exercise!?

Appraising Your Success
The end of the week/month and year 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/month/year? 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, just know that by living the SWEET Life, you will feel all these great feelings!

Topic of the week - Exercise Drudgery vs. Habit

One day when I lived in France in 1991, I went to my local hangout and told the very good-looking bartender that I had just gone running in the Bois du Bologne. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “Why!?” I was floored. I had five reasons off the top of my head, but, basically, running was pointless to him. I was reminded of this recently when a member at the health club where I’m a Fitness Trainer asked me about working out twice a day. My first thought was, “Why!?” If I had the time to exercise twice a day, there are a lot of other things I would prefer to do instead. Lastly, I have a friend who just joined a local gym and started working out with a Personal Trainer. She doesn’t like it and just wishes she didn’t have to exercise at all. So all this made me think about those people who feel exercise is drudgery and whose reaction to exercise is, “Why!?”

Therefore, my topic for this week is: Why I Exercise
1. To feel strong and physically capable
2. To eat whatever I want
3. To sleep better
4. To have energy
5. To be able to play actively with my kids
6. To solve all my problems
7. To have a good reason to shower
8. To wear any of my clothes and know it will fit
9. To know that, in the dressing room, if it doesn’t fit, it’s the cut of the clothes and not the shape of my body
10. One word: bikini
11. To feel relaxed afterwards (Tranquility)
12. To enjoy Alameda’s beautiful scenery
13. To be “medically boring” and not need any medications
14. To be healthy, with only ~2 colds per year
15. To have longevity

These are my personal reasons for exercising, with #1-2 being the most important reasons. #3-5 are strong secondary reasons for exercising, and the rest are additional reasons why I exercise. Doctors will give you more physiological reasons, like improved bone density, lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels, etc. As the New Year approaches, think about how you look and feel physically and what you might want to change about that in 2008, knowing that exercise is the way to change the way your body physically looks and feels. I remember in high school tying all my belts around my waist, thinking that would somehow make it smaller. It didn’t. Sit-ups do.

Happy New Year!

Suzanne

Sunday, December 23, 2007

How to Have a SWEET Christmas

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 - How to Have a SWEET Christmas

Here, I expose my religious orientation, which is Christian. If you do not celebrate Christmas, you might be able to apply these ideas to a holiday that you do celebrate. If you do celebrate Christmas, here are some suggestions for how to have a SWEET Merry Christmas.

Sleep
If you have kids, tell them to go to bed early because the earlier they to go sleep, the earlier Santa will come. Also tell them they can’t leave their bedrooms until it’s light outside (~7:00 a.m.). Once it’s light, they should wake you up and only open their stockings before you are there (or whatever other restrictions you want to set). At the same time, you should also have your visit with Santa as early as possible (remember, gifts from Santa aren’t necessarily wrapped) so that you can go to bed early too. And don’t eat Santa’s cookies & milk just before bed because the sugar could give you strange dreams and disrupt your sleep.

Water
It’s easy to forget and to be too busy to drink water on Christmas day. Here are a few suggestions that might help you remember to hydrate yourself:
· Drink water each time you eat
· Drink water between alcoholic drinks
· If you’ll be at your own home, have a cup in the bathroom and drink some water each time you go in there.

Eating
Don’t “save up” and only eat Christmas dinner because of the “interest” that accrues when you starve yourself. You always hear that you’ll eat more at that one meal if you starve yourself beforehand. Well, I always thought that made sense because the extra calories at that one meal make up for not eating breakfast or lunch. However, what actually happens is that you “accrue interest” and end up eating more total daily calories and more fat, salt and sugar calories when you starve yourself then gorge yourself on one meal. Besides that, you will feel stuffed and uncomfortable for several hours after eating a huge meal.

Now that I’ve convinced you not to starve yourself all Christmas day, be conscientious to eat nutritiously during the other meals of the day. Eat small, simple meals of fruits and veggies and whole grains. These foods have a low glycemic index and a high nutrient content, which means they will keep your blood sugar (i.e., energy) level consistent and add the vitamins and minerals that you might miss in your big, Christmas dinner.

At the same time, and most importantly, enjoy your Christmas dinner! Like I said at Thanksgiving, serve yourself just a few bites-worth of each dish. If you don’t like something, don’t waste stomach space and calories by eating it. Just leave the rest, which will only be 1-2 bites-worth anyway. Holiday feasts tend to be high in protein, fat and high-calorie, low-nutrient carbs. Therefore, load up on any fruits and veggies that you can to get some balance in your nutritional load.

Another way to help control your eating is to wear close-fitting clothes with a belt to prevent yourself from eating too much. Remember the Hawaiians: they wore loose-fitting muumuus and weighed 300 lb. Don’t eat like a Hawaiian.

You’ll feel more comfortable and consume fewer calories and more healthy nutrients if you do the above.

Exercise
My first thought is: skip it; it’s Christmas!
However, my husband’s family likes to take a walk together after a noontime Christmas dinner. It’s actually very nice to get out in the fresh air and move around a bit after sitting around and eating so much. If the weather continues as is, we should have a beautiful sunny day for taking a nice family walk.

Tranquility
Tranquility could be an easy, natural part of Christmas.
Or Christmas could be stressful due to family relations, having too much to do, having too much to cook and prepare for the family, etc. If Christmas = stress, then you definitely need to plan some Tranquility into your day. It’s a great Christmas gift to yourself. Tell your family you need ½ hr. (or 1 hr.), so they know to leave you alone. Consider your schedule for the day, and decide if, mentally, you need it before the onslaught of Christmas or after it, in order to unwind from the day. Here are some examples:
· Go to church; ‘tis the reason for the season.
· Morning: take a bath with nice bath oil or salts, a candle, and peaceful Christmas music to start your day.
· Noon: After opening gifts with your immediate family and before your afternoon or evening extended family gathering, take a walk, or have a family “Quiet time” when everyone does something quietly, like read a book, newspaper, or magazine; play with new, quiet toys; watch a football game, etc.
· Evening: If your Christmas celebration ends by the early evening, it’s a good time to take a walk and enjoy the Christmas lights in your neighborhood, watch a Christmas movie, use a Christmas gift (if you received anything relaxing), etc.

Christmas should be a fun, happy celebration. It’s up to you to make sure you have a SWEET, wonderful day.

Merry Christmas!

Suzanne

Monday, December 17, 2007

How to Add Tranquility to Your Daily Routine

Sunday, December 9, 2007

How to add exercise to your daily routine

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 -- How to add exercise to your daily routine

If you don’t have the habit of exercising regularly, the task of adding daily exercise may seem daunting. However, you may be surprised to find that it takes less time to add the recommended amount of daily exercise than it does to add enough sleep to get the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep (if you only sleep 5-6 hours)!

The official recommendation for exercise is: “Adults should engage in moderate-intensity physical activities for at least 30 minutes on 5 or more days of the week,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/American College of Sports Medicine. Some physical benefits of exercise are: a stronger heart and respiratory system, stronger bones, decreased body fat, increased functional ability, increased calorie burn, increased metabolism, increased energy, increased lean body mass, relief of muscle soreness, improved posture, improved self-discipline, and improved quality of life.

Some disease-related benefits of exercise are: lower blood pressure, increased HDL (good cholesterol), improved cholesterol ratio, improved immune function, improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, decreased resting heart rate, and decreased risk of injury.

There are always a lot of little things you can do to add physical activity to your day: park at the far end of the parking lot, take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator, do 2 minutes of toning exercises during the commercial breaks of your favorite TV show, hop on any stationary cardio machine (treadmill, elliptical, bike, etc.) while watching your favorite TV show, sit on a stability ball at your desk (either at home or at work), take a 30-minute walk during lunch, walk anywhere that’s less than ½ mile away rather than drive there, etc.

Some physical activities might even seem pleasant, like taking a walk with your family after dinner, going for a swim on a hot day, going for a walk, hike or bike ride with family or friends on the weekends, or playing in the park with your kids (rather than watching them play from a bench). It’s important to do something that you enjoy; otherwise, you won’t follow through.

Decide what time of the day will work best for you to exercise, and set up an appointment with yourself for exercise. For a year, I’ve been exercising at 6 a.m. so that I could finish before my husband left for work. Now I’m burning out and having a hard time getting up that early, so I’ve decided to exercise in the middle of the afternoon while my girls are napping. The point is to set up a specific time and follow through as if it were an appointment for a job interview: don’t back out on yourself!

Also, decide what types of exercise you will do on which days; you need cardio, muscle toning, and flexibility. Stretching is good to do after all types of exercise. Beyond that, you can either segregate or combine cardio and toning exercises. However, your muscles need a rest after the fatigue of toning exercises, so be sure to work the same muscle groups only once per 48 hours. If you want to combine cardio and toning exercises every day, just make sure to tone different muscles on different days. Alternatively, you can do toning exercises every other day. You can do cardio and flexibility every day.

In addition, exercise benefits the other aspects of the SWEET Life in these ways: improved Sleep, increased thirst (i.e., you need to drink more Water), increased metabolism (i.e., you can Eat more), and decreased stress (i.e., increased Tranquility). Add exercise to your daily routine and reap the benefits!

Sources:
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/physical/recommendations/index.htm
http://www.fitness.gov/fitness.htm
Yoke, Mary. ((2003). A Guide to Personal Fitness Training, Revised Edition. Aerobics and Fitness Association of America: Sherman Oaks.

Have a SWEET week!

Suzanne

Traveling and the SWEET Life

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 -- Traveling and the SWEET Life

As Thanksgiving and the holidays approach, many people will visit family in other places. Late night parties and sleeping in an unfamiliar bed can sabotage your efforts to sleep 7-8 hours. Also, you will likely get out of your water-drinking habit with the change from your usual routine. Moreover, you will eat in a lot of restaurants and at family banquets. Lastly, you will be away from your usual exercise routine. However, you will probably get more tranquility and relaxation than usual. In short, being away from your routine at home can be disastrous to the SWEET Life.

So how can you have a relatively SWEET Life while traveling?
Sleep: Try to go to bed and get up at your regular bedtimes, despite any changes in the time zone. Earplugs and an eye mask can work wonders in blocking out unfamiliar lights and sounds.
Water: Drinking from 16 oz. bottles may likely be the easiest way to keep track of your water intake because you can carry it with you. You may have to spend some money to buy them around here and there, but you may be able to refill them at a drinking fountain or relative’s house.
Eating: Start with a basic, healthy breakfast, and keep meals without family and friends simple and nutritious. You will likely be eating a number of family banquets, so eat only a little of each dish, 2-3 bites, and load up on the veggies. You can get tired of eating so many big, holiday meals, so eat balanced, nutritious meals in between the feasts.
Exercise: I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of times I’ve taken workout clothes on a trip and not used them. While, on some vacations, it’s easy to take long, beautiful walks, on other trips, exercise is definitely more of an effort, possibly against everyone else’s will.

My advice about vacation exercise frequency is the following: If it’s a 2-day trip: skip it, but try to exercise the days before and afterwards. If the trip is 3-4 days: try to exercise once, so that you are not skipping half a week. If the trip lasts 5-7 days: exercise 2-3 times; if it lasts 8-10 days: exercise 3-5 times. For a trip lasting 11-14 days: exercise 5-7 times. Basically, I’m suggesting you exercise every other day. However, you can’t just “say” or “try” to exercise; you must plan it like an appointment or else it’ll never happen. Look at your trip schedule and decide, at the beginning, which days and times you will exercise; then stick to it.

The next question is where you will exercise. If you belong to a gym, see if there’s a location near you (& remember to bring your card). If your gym belongs to the IHRSA (International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association), you can use its passport program to be a guest at a member club where you will be traveling. Go to: http://healthclubs.com/find.html to find out if your gym is a member and to find a gym in the city where you will be visiting. If you don’t belong to a gym, most hotels have fitness centers in them or agreements with local health clubs for their guests to use their facilities.

If you prefer not to work out in a gym, suggest taking a walk with family or friends (instead of eating out another meal!). Another option is to find a nearby park or scenic area where you can go for a walk, hike or run. Last summer while visiting family, I found a park near our hotel where I could run while my husband played with our kids at the playground. It worked out great for everyone!

Another option is to do some toning exercises in your room. You don’t need much space or any special equipment to do some lunges, squats, push-ups, tricep dips and sit-ups. Find a curb or step and do some calf raises. Bring a resistance band with you (they don’t take much space) and you can do some bicep curls, lateral raises, and low & high rows. Spending just 30-40 minutes will help you burn off some of those holiday feasts, feel better about yourself, and help you keep living the SWEET Life while on vacation.

Tranquility: The best part of visiting family is that you will probably get lots of rest and relaxation. At the same time, visiting relatives can get overwhelming. Take some time out to be alone, if you need it. The morning might be the best time, before you meet up with anyone: read the paper or a book, take a bath, etc.

Other general suggestions are to bring your SWEET Life Plan to help you keep track of your SWEET Life quantities. If it’s an extended trip, say a week or longer, bring your SWEET Life Cycle and check off which aspects of the SWEET Life you are completing each day. As you know, a lot of the SWEET Life is just paying attention and being aware, so if these tools help you keep the SWEET Life in mind while traveling, then take them along; they don’t take much space in your luggage.

If you have the SWEET Life habit, then a week off of it will break your hard-earned habit. Don’t let traveling prevent you from having the SWEET Life!

Have a SWEET week!

Suzanne

SWEET Life Weekly Encouragement

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Just Step Out the Door

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Challenge the Body

Topic of the Week – Challenge Your Body

Monday, June 2, 2008

Swimming!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Weekend Getaway

Monday, April 7, 2008

Skinny-fat

Monday, March 24, 2008

Spring Has Sprung – Have you?

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Why Exercise!?

Sunday, December 23, 2007

How to Have a SWEET Christmas

Monday, December 17, 2007

How to Add Tranquility to Your Daily Routine

Sunday, December 9, 2007

How to add exercise to your daily routine

Traveling and the SWEET Life

How to add water to your daily routine

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

How to add sleep to your nights

Friday, November 30, 2007

Exercise in Bad Weather

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