Weekend Getaway

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 – 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/

Copyright © 2008 Suzanne Fong. All rights reserved.

Skinny-fat

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 - 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/

Copyright © 2008 Suzanne Fong. All rights reserved.

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

How to Add Tranquility 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 Tranquility to Your Daily Routine

The “T” in the SWEET Life is for Tranquility. It’s really about tension-reduction or stress-relief. As much as it would be nice to live in a constantly tranquil world, no one does. We all have stress in our lives; some of us have more stress than others. At the same time, some stress is within our control, but some is not. Because of that, it is important to have multiple methods of relieving your stress. Some people just accept that their lives are extremely stressful; those are the people who need methods of relieving stress the most!

Excessive stress over time can contribute to a variety of ailments, such as hypertension, strokes, heart attacks, diabetes, ulcers, neck or low back pain. Stress can negatively affect many aspects of the SWEET Life as well. Stress can cause insomnia, as you think about what is stressing you, rather than sleep. Stress can cause you not to pay attention to drinking your daily water. Stress can cause you to eat “comfort” foods, especially those high in salt, sugar, and fat, rather than eating a variety of nutritious foods. Stress can cause you not to exercise, convincing yourself that you don’t have time for it. And thus the downward spiral of stress makes you not live any aspects of the SWEET Life.

Everyone needs multiple, healthy methods of relieving stress because, depending on the situation, we can’t always do our preferred method. Personally, exercise is my preferred method of relieving stress. A 3-mile run can solve all my problems because it gives me time for my mind to wander, absorb whatever’s on my mind, and find solutions to any problems. However, if it’s night time or raining, I can’t run, so I need other methods. Journaling also works for me; writing down whatever is on my mind helps me clarify what is causing stress and work out solutions. Some people prefer calming types of stress-relief like a bath, yoga, listening to relaxing music, meditation, etc. Others prefer hobbies, such as knitting, baking, painting, etc. to help them relieve stress and find tranquility. Others prefer more active pursuits, like exercise, playing with their kids, driving, gardening, etc. What’s important is to find healthy things to do, rather than alcohol, drugs, shopping, etc. It’s also important to find a variety of things that will make you feel tranquil to do in different circumstances.

Lastly, it’s important to spend time every day in tranquility. A mere 30-minutes a day will go far in helping you relax, relieve stress and find tranquility. An hour a day is even better.

The following web pages are excellent sources of information about stress:
http://www.stress.org/americas.htm
http://www.stress.org/topic-reduction.htm?AIS=6934505de631c228b165483c7f4652c7

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

How to add water 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 water to your daily routine
If you are not used to drinking a lot of fluids throughout your day, adding 8-10 cups of water a day could seem overwhelming, as could the trips to the bathroom caused by such an increase in fluid intake. However, your body has an incredible power to adapt to the circumstances given to it, for better or for worse. Within a couples weeks of adding water to your daily routine, you won’t have to use the restroom as often. In addition, you might find that you weigh a pound or two less because your body will stop holding on to extra water, once it’s convinced that it will continue receiving ample water.

There are many different ways to make sure you drink your 8-10 cups of water. You can drink it warm, cold or on ice; the temperature doesn’t matter. Personally, I like to fill a 2 quart pitcher in the morning, knowing I need to finish it by the end of the day. I drink it out of a tall glass, which I refill from the pitcher as soon as it’s empty. People on the go might prefer to drink water by the standard 16 oz. bottle, knowing they need to finish 4-5 of them throughout the day. The bottle is small enough to fit in a purse, computer bag, etc., and the amount in a 16-oz. bottle isn’t overwhelming. On the other hand, if you don’t want to use so many bottles, you can carry around a 2-liter bottle, which you only need to finish once. Another way to drink your water, without having to carry it around all the time, is to drink a tall glass (16-oz.) with each meal, plus a cup (8-oz.) with your multi-vitamin, and at least one other cup sometime between meals. Furthermore, be sure to drink water before, during and/or after exercising. Your body needs one cup per 15-min. of cardio exercise.

Remember, too, that all fluids count, not only water. This includes the fluids in foods (i.e., soup, fruit, tomatoes, etc.) and, of course, all beverages. However, limit caffeine and alcohol intake to one cup per day because research shows that a cup a day is beneficial to your health but that more than that is harmful to your health. In the end, water is best because it contains no calories, sugar, caffeine, alcohol or other unhealthy ingredients.

In the end, be sure to drink your water, especially during these winter months when heaters can really sap your hydration.

Have a SWEET week!

Suzanne

How to add sleep to your nights

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 sleep to your nights

Many people take sleep for granted and don’t realize the importance of getting enough sleep. Sleep helps your memory, concentration, metabolism, weight management, safety, mood, and cardiovascular health. Adequate sleep also fends off disease.

Sleep is an important pillar of the SWEET Life because lack of sleep will likely cause you to skip exercising the next day; you might be too tired to focus on eating healthy and drinking enough water, and you might feel more stressed out, all due to a lack of sleep.

There are many negative affects of sleep deprivation. Of course, we all know how it can cause irritability, impatience and moodiness; moreover, it also causes an inability to focus, which can result in mistakes and accidents. Chronic sleep deprivation can alter your hormones, causing weight gain, weakening the immune systems and possibly causing hypertension and irregular heartbeat. Finally, fatigue can simply make you too tired to do the things you would like to do.
In order to feel rested and rejuvenated, most people need about eight hours sleep per night.

Here are some suggestions for how to get more sleep at night: think about the times you go to bed and have to wake up. Are they 8 hours apart? If not, decide which of those times you can change and do so. For example, for years I was an 11-7 sleeper. As soon as the 11:00 news came on, I got ready for bed and crawled in. My alarm was always set for 7:00 a.m. Nowadays, I get up at 6:00, but for a long time, I didn’t alter my nighttime routine. No wonder I was always tired! Now, I watch the 10:00 news and get ready and go to bed then. Decide which time you can modify, your bedtime or your waking time, in order to get eight hours of sleep consistently.

Other aspects of the SWEET Life affect sleep, too. For example, dehydration can make you feel sleepy, so if you feel tired during the day, drink a glass of water before grabbing a caffeinated beverage. In addition, eating a variety of nutrient-dense foods throughout the day will give you sustained energy, preventing any sugar or caffeine crashes mid-afternoon. Also, exercise has the effect of making you feel more alert during waking hours and sleep more deeply at night. Knowing that, I always ask myself how much (or how little) I’ve been exercising, if I have a spell of not sleeping well. Furthermore, stress can keep you awake, so do relaxing things, like reading, before you go to bed or if you wake up feeling stressed during the night. Reading will help your eyes feel tired and will take your mind off of what is making you feel stressed, allowing you to relax and fall asleep.

In conclusion, besides altering your bed- and waking times, in order to get enough sleep, take advantage of the other aspects of the SWEET Life to help you sleep more soundly at night and feel more awake during the day.

Source:
http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/importance_of_sleep_and_health.htm

Have a SWEET week!

Suzanne