• braised chicken with leeks & heirloom carrots, cauliflower puree and green beans
• roasted salmon with roasted cauliflower and spinach salad
• roasted pork tenderloin with sweet potato oven fries, green peas and salad
• pizza!

Why?

Because that is what is served to them. I don’t offer alternatives. I have always given them variety and I offer mostly foods that they enjoy. I don’t make each of them their own meal and cater to their preferences when we are eating together as a family. They know if they don’t eat what I serve them, there is nothing else to be had.

I stay away from the “restaurant” mentality in my kitchen. But I have a few other tricks that help a lot, too…

• Don’t overcook meat/poultry/fish. The drier, the harder for little mouths to chew & swallow. Also, the drier the meat, the more likely they’ll ask to dowse it in ketchup.
• Serve salad first while your little people are waiting for the main event. It will look more appealing when it’s the only thing on offer.
• Try the “one bite” rule – your child must have one bite of everything on her plate. Be firm on this one.
• Over-serve them just a little bit. Even kids will eat more if there is more on the plate.
• Don’t force a child to clean his plate. If you don’t turn it into a battle, it won’t be a battle.
• Try, try again. It take a child several exposures to try a new food or, if they’ve tried it, sometimes just to acquire the taste and enjoy it. Keep serving and enforcing the “one bite” rule.
• Serve a variety of vegetables at every family meal.
• Use a little butter, oil, salt, spices & herbs to dress up simple veggies. You’d be surprised how bacon fat will help a brussel sprout go down the hatch!
• Watch your starch servings. A giant pile of mashed potatoes will almost certainly be preferred over a piece of steak. Give a smaller serving of starch and allow more after your child has eaten the meat and veggies, if he is really still hungry.
• Eat with your kids. You know how unappetizing sitting at your desk and eating solo can be. Eating together is just more fun. Period.

I am on a bit of a Last-5 Pounds mission myself, right now. I have joined the Heart & Stroke Foundation’s Healthy Weight Action Plan and I’m enjoying the recipe suggestions in the weekly newsletter and on the Healthy Weight Action Plan website.

I know that, mostly, if something is good for my kids, it’s good for me as well. And vice versa. (except red wine… that one is just for mommy…)  So I won’t serve my children fish sticks and french fries while I eat salmon and veggies.

The biggest tip I’ve got when it comes to getting your kids to eat healthily? Lead by example.

Do you have a healthy weight goal? Join the Healthy Weight Action Plan to track your weight, get great recipe ideas and tips for weight loss or weight maintenance. It’s free & totally peronalized!

Blaargh… I know no one likes being asked to set goals but the truth is, you’ve already got goals. You might just not realize it. Your goals are those nagging thoughts that tell you, “Maybe I should look for a new job”, “Dammit I hate how messy this closet is” or “Ack! None of my clothes fit anymore”… you just have to take the nagging thought and turn it into action. Let’s take the messy closet as an example because disorganization is surely one of the things most of us struggle with in these hectic, modern days. Right? It’s not just me? Right?

This woman has no idea what a messy closet is.

Nagging thought: “Dammit I hate how messy this closet is!”

Goal: Create and maintain an organized closet by next weekend. Stop cursing at closet. (The latter part is optional.)

Now how to achieve that goal? Sitting around cursing at your closet won’t do much good. It might freak your husband enough that he’ll step in and do a little cleaning himself, but chances are he’s not going to do it to your satisfaction, ladies, so best to remain calm and just do it yourself when it comes to most aspects of household maintenance. In my experience, anyway…

Take that big goal and chew on it. Too big. Spit it out. That’s what my toddler does. Now, cut it up into smaller pieces and try again. That’s gross. But toddlers don’t know any better.

Step 1: Today I will research closet organizing strategies and decide which hooks, bins, etc. will work for my space. I will create a list of what I need to begin organizing.

Step 2: Saturday I will sort my closet and put anything I haven’t used in 1 year into a black garbage bag to donate to charity, and drive it there on my way to work on Monday.

Step 3: Tuesday after work I will drop by [insert big box store that carries shelving, plastic bins, baskets, hooks, etc. here] and shop for the items on my list.

Step 4: Next Saturday I will install my shelving and organize my items into bins. I will label everything.

Step 5: I will drink a bottle of wine in my luxurious, organized new closet. What? No, I don’t hear the baby crying…

I have been using and reviewing the Heart & Stroke Foundation’s Healthy Weight Action Plan for a month now, and I have set a small weight loss goal to help me blast off these last few pounds from 5 years of childbearing and nursing and drinking wine in closets. Yes, even personal trainers have fitness goals.

I was really impressed when I entered my weight goal into the HWAP and it prompted me to set mini-goals to achieve my overall goal. This is exactly the way I tackle a fitness goal with a client. There has to be a strategy to reach that goal or it will revert into just nagging thoughts again, seeming to fade from your reach. When you set a goal you make it possible. If you only wish it and never put a plan into action, you risk having that goal drift into the realm of “impossible” as far as your brain is concerned. It keeps telling you it wants something and you keep acknowledging it and doing nothing about it. Eventually you’ll imprint in your psyche that you just can’t do it, after all. And that’s not true, is it?

When you set your goals on the Healthy Weight Action Plan (HWAP), it will prompt you to set mini-goals and plan your strategy. You can even name a person in your life who will help you with that particular mini-goal AND email them directly from the HWAP site to ask them to support you in your efforts. That is some serious accountability, as we all know that saying your goals out loud to other people really does put you on the hook to save face follow through.

Confession time. So here are the mini-goals that I set for myself in my Healthy Weight Action Plan:

1. Run 2 evenings per week. This gets me out of the house and cures my evening boredom, plus a little extra jogging can’t hurt when I’m in leaning down mode, even though I get plenty of exercise during the days.

2. Cut down on the wine. *sob* I don’t have a lot of sugar and/or junk food in my diet so there were not many places to cut. I love me some evening cocktails but it’ll have to be a strict 2 days per week only. I suppose not drinking at all could be an option but let’s remember a goal must be realistic…

3. Eat vegetables or fruit at every meal. I generally achieve this most days but when I’m on the run, it’s easy to grab starchy carbohydrates or just eat a half-meal. If I eat a veggie or fruit at every meal I will not only be full and satisfied, but I will get more fruit into my diet, something the HWAP assessed was missing from my diet when I first recorded my eating habits for a week.

So I’ll get a report to you soon on how well I’m sticking to my mini-goals. Do you have a goal you’re reaching for right now? Comment below! In the meantime, why not join the Healthy Weight Action Plan yourself?

And clean that closet, for the love of God.

Take a deep breath and think this through, girlfriend.

goal [gohl] noun: the end toward which effort is directed; aim.

The definition of a goal is an identifiable and possible end result. If you cannot achieve your goal it is:

hope [hoυp] noun: desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment.

Which one would you rather pin your future health on?

In an effort to improve my own odds of not dying of heart disease and stroke, I have committed to using the Heart & Stroke Foundation’s Healthy Weight Action Plan program for 6 months. Why should I worry about it? Oh, no big deal… except 1 of 3 Canadian women will die of heart disease and stroke. I don’t want it to be you, but I sure as heck don’t want it to be me.

So I am setting some healthy goals. I am on week 3 of my Healthy Weight Action Plan and I’ve been receiving encouraging weekly emails to keep me on track, give me recipe ideas, coach me on how to use the software and just remind me (just as I remind my clients by texting or emailing them to touch base) that I am working toward something very important and I should keep it top of mind.

So what am I working toward? I’m glad you asked!

When I signed up I chose an overall weight goal of losing 5 pounds. I could have gone for more but I am already relatively lean and active, plus still breastfeeding (oh my God, yes, I am still breastfeeding my giant man child…) and I know my body. It will relinquish a few pounds on its own when I wean my son, plus it is pretty close to where it likes to be. I may end up losing more than that in the end, but I have learned from coaching hundreds of clients that it is better to set a smaller, more reasonable and achievable goal than to go for the gusto, expect to accomplish everything you ever hoped for (see above) and then feel like a failure when you can’t tackle it all at once.

So perhaps, in my head, I’d prefer to be about 8-10 pounds leaner. My goal is 5. When I reach the goal of 5 pounds I will consider the way my body performs and feels at that weight and decide whether I need the other 3-5 or not.

Goals are good. Goals keep us moving onward and upward. However, as we discussed above, it is only a goal if:

• you can achieve it (It has to be reasonable and possible or you can never achieve it.)
• you commit to it (It has to be spoken aloud, written down or otherwise identified in concrete terms.)
• you set up a framework for it (It has to have a timeline and a process of steps that will lead to the end goal.)

I’m not going to get out of debt, stop procrastinating, potty-train my son, streamline my business processes, lose 5 pounds and end world hunger right now. I think my blood pressure went up 10 points just writing that line… But I can lose 5 pounds. Right now I’m okay with that. It’s a goal – maybe a small one, but one I am capable of reaching. And that’s going to feel pretty good. Really, it’s more about the achievement than the 5 pounds.

Once you’ve got your goal – for example, I am going to lose 5 pounds in 6 months – you can begin setting up those steps, or behaviours, to achieve the result you are targeting. More on that next week, plus a peek into the small goals I’m setting to achieve my overall healthy weight goal.

Got some general fitness and health hopes that you’d like to turn into real, concrete and achievable goals? By the way, maintaining your already healthy weight can also be a goal! Check out the Healthy Weight Action Plan and get started today on your new, healthier lifestyle.

Well, maybe not after this post.

I used to drink a Diet Coke or two each day. Back in my late teens/early twenties, when diet food was still all the rage and before I knew better, I considered diet soda a no-calorie, healthy alternative to alcohol and anything else I probably really wanted more. As in, I probably shouldn’t have a beer so I’ll have a Diet Coke.

Now I stick with carbonated water or low-sodium club soda when I want something “sparkly”, most of the time. I never was a lover of real pop. It’s just too sweet for me. Also, not enough alcohol content.  I see a lot of food journals, though. I have had clients who begin training with me and are consuming up to 8-10 cans of soda per day. That is upwards of 3 litres of soda per day.

But is it really any different from drinking too much juice? Or too much chocolate milk? What about those stories of cola being used as a solvent and cleaner?

Before you hit the vending machine this afternoon, consider this. What really happens to your body if you drink a Coke? Like, right now. Well, here’s how the next hour or two will look for you:

Originally by Wade Meredith, published at blisstree.com.

In the first 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor, allowing you to keep it down.

20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (And there’s plenty of that at this particular moment.)

40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate; your blood pressure rises; as a response, your liver dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked, preventing drowsiness.

45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production, stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.

> 60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium, and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.

> 60 minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium, and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolytes, and water.

> 60 minutes: As the rave inside you dies down, you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like hydrating your system, or building strong bones and teeth.

This will all be followed by a caffeine crash in the next few hours. (As little as two if you’re a smoker.)

Coke itself isn’t the enemy here. It’s the dynamic combo of massive sugar doses combined with caffeine and phosphoric acid, which are found in almost all sodas. Moderation, people!

And if that didn’t scare you, here are the ingredients in that bubbly, caffeinated, coloured syrup you’re enjoying: carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, phosphoric acid, preservatives, caffeine, caramel coloring, potassium benzoate, natural flavors.

Mmmmmm…. potassium benzoate and HFCS. Just like Mom used to make.

The other day I was driving to see a client, sipping on some coffee and listening to a podcast, and I drove right past my exit on the expressway and way overshot my destination. I was late 5 minutes (embarrassing) and shocked at how frequently I must be operating on “autopilot” (scary).

The truth is, a lot of the tasks I accomplish in a day are done on “autopilot”: cooking, checking & deleting emails, driving, tidying up, colouring the same freaking Disney Princess colouring book… not by myself, of course. I’m also in the same automatic, mindless mode when it comes to eating much of the time. Not when I’m preparing and eating a meal that I’ve planned and enjoy – that is an experience, as I think we can mostly agree. Good meals are memorable, fun to share and satisfying in physical and emotional ways.

Can you say the same about that desperate 5 minutes with the fridge door open after work, when you haven’t eaten for hours and you can’t wait long enough to select and prepare something meaningful and satisfying? What about the drive-through cheeseburger? Or that pastry you gobble down every morning with your coffee?

One of the first things I recommend to a new client is that they keep a food journal. Whether your goal is to lose weight, gain weight or just maintain a healthy, happy weight that you’ve naturally settled at, being aware of your regular food choices (i.e., the choices we make on “autopilot”) is a very smart and effective first step.

On my second week reviewing the Healthy Weight Action Plan program, I was asked to examine a week of my own food journal (Your journal can be recorded on paper or electronically on the HWAP site – paper for me; sorry, Greenpeace.) and evaluate my eating habits. I have to admit, I was a tiny bit skeptical about the type of advice I would be given. Would it be that old-school, low-fat, high-carbohydrate, 80s aerobics, Richard Simmons, leotard-wearing sort of plan?

No. Actually, it isn’t.

I was able to express my preference for a higher-protein or higher-carbohydrate diet right from the outset. I was even given 5 sample meal plans to choose from, built on a certain number of servings from the major food groups: protein, dairy, grain, veg & fruit, and added fat, all with different ratios of protein to carbohydrate and different total calorie counts. My personal weight goal and daily activity level were taken into account and I was able to steer the boat. I decided what my meal plan would look like and how dramatically or undramatically I would alter my current habits.

This is not your typical online eating plan. Take it from someone who’s checked out an online eating plan or two in her lifetime.

So here are a couple of things I learned after examining my own eating last week:

• I don’t eat enough fruit. I used to eat tons of fruit and mostly prefer vegetables, so I’ve fallen out of the habit of including fruits daily. Yummy! This is an easy problem to remedy. This weekend I’m stocking up on delicious melon and berries for home, plus the old stand-by, apples, to toss into my bag when I head out in the morning.
• I eat on the run too often and miss meals. I leave early in the morning, before I’ve even had a chance to form an appetite for breakfast. I often miss breakfast altogether and then eat quickly in between clients and Belly Bootcamp classes, or even not until 2 or 3 p.m. when I’m done my work day and home with my little ones. If I have to eat out the house, which is the case most weekday mornings, I can bring my pre-peeled hard boiled eggs, the aforementioned fruit and some nuts or seeds for a healthy, protein-rich breakfast.
• I drink too much coffee. If you know me, you already knew this was true and I didn’t need fancy software from the Heart & Stroke Foundation to tell me this. I haven’t quite decided what I am going to do about this. I will say that I have a cup of tea steeping in the kitchen as I write this – a conscious effort to vary my substance choice and decrease my caffeine intake.

I’ll keep you posted.

If you haven’t signed up yet, get started on the Healthy Weight Action Plan now and face your own music. It’s simple, free and way more customizable and individualized than you might expect. What are you waiting for? You can’t improve without knowing where your starting point lies.

Ah, those familiar little shapes.

I have mentioned before, in an effort to be as honest & transparent as possible, that my kids sometimes eat chicken nuggets. I have also expressed definite disappointment in McDonald’s and its blatant marketing to children. I have even compared the financial cost of eating McDonald’s “food” to eating real whole foods.

But, still, I let my kids have McDonalds once in a while. Cash calls it “Nakdonos” and I fall prey to their cuteness when they ask for nuggets. Sometimes I just fall prey to my own lack of planning and buzz into the drive-through, like after a busy day of holiday shopping when I have nothing convenient to cook at home. I’m not saying that really happened over the holidays. OK, yes I am.

Bad mommy.

To be realistic, my children eat meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, dairy, nuts & seeds and some grains 90% of the time. But is that good enough?

Sometimes I clean up the McDonald’s waste and have to ask myself whether the remaining fries, etc. belong in the compost or not. Let me just say, people: If you have to question whether your food belongs in the compost bin, it probably does not belong in your body.

No marketing by McDonalds to tell me their nuggets are “all white meat” or their burgers are “100% Canadian beef” can quell the nervousness I always have when I purchase their products. As when encountering the creepy single guy at the playground, my mother’s intuition is telling me, “Get away! Get away!”

But it’s oh-so-hard to say “no”, isn’t it? I wish I had never fed my kids a chicken nugget. Ever.

I wish no one had ever fed any kid a chicken nugget, actually. Then I wouldn’t have to make the decision to take them away… which is the decision I’m struggling with today after viewing again this amazing clip from Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

If you think this is just about your kid and your kid’s health, you’re wrong.

Something is very, very wrong with our children. While I don’t believe my kids have been nuggeted and brainwashed anywhere near as much as the average American school child, I am wrestling with some mommy guilt this morning.

Your thoughts? Occasional treat or not at all?

Mommy needs a drink. And a kick in the pants.

After two babies and 5 years of nursing, sleepless nights, postpartum depression and a growing affinity for “cocktail hour”, I sometimes feel like I could use a personal trainer myself. Not as a source of knowledge but more a source of inspiration. Motherhood keeps me motivated to be healthy but it has taken a little bit of wind from my fitness “sails”… or perhaps injected a more persistent but gentler wind that keeps me constantly afloat without ever really surging ahead as I did in my single days. I exercise, I eat well, I lead by example 95% of the time, but I just don’t feel compelled to strive for perfection anymore.

There are a lot of ways to get motivated to improve your fitness and health.  A trainer or coach can be crucial to keeping you afloat. A deadline or goal keeps you on track. An expected reward keeps your eye on the prize. Sometimes, just fear of the consequences if you don’t follow through on your health goals can be motivation enough. For example…

1 in 3 Canadian women dies of heart disease or stroke. Do a quick count of your female family members. Your odds don’t look very good, do they?

I’ve considered my own risk factors and I think I’m pretty likely to escape heart disease. But we’ve all heard the story of someone who seems healthy and one day goes out for a jog and never comes back. I don’t want to be one of those stories. So when the Heart & Stroke Foundation asked me to test and review their Healthy Weight Action Plan, I agreed right away. I need a little motivation just as much as the next gal.

The Healthy Weight Action Plan is easy to use, free and based on the most up-to-date scientific research on weight loss, weight maintenance and weight as a risk factor for heart disease & stroke. There are just 6 steps:

1. Signing up
2. Logging and assessing your current habits
3. Getting your recommended plan
4. Setting goals
5. Creating a plan
6. Tracking success

So over the next 6 months I’ll be tracking my personal progress on the Healthy Weight Action Plan site and implementing some of the recommendations on my own quest for optimal fitness.

Want to try it along with me? The only thing you need to do to get started is sign up with your basic information and 2 important numbers: your weight and your waist circumference. Although everyone makes a big fuss about weight and BMI, we trainers know you really can’t judge a book by its weight... or something like that… some of the fittest people register as “overweight” on a BMI scale because of heavy muscle and bone mass, while some very unhealthy but “skinnyfat” people might have a healthy BMI but be one Cinnabon away from a heart attack. Combine BMI with a waist measurement (or – even better – a waist-to-hip ratio to give a picture of overall shape and not just size) and you’ve got one powerful predictor for heart disease risk and a good indication of body composition (i.e., what proportions of fat and lean tissue make up your body).

Here’s a great explanation of how to take a waist measurement and when & why you should be concerned about your waist:

So please join me! Comment below if you’re on your own healthy quest this year. Maybe you’ve got a New Year’s Resolution to finally take off the last 10 pounds. Or maybe you’ve got a half-marathon coming up this summer and you know you’ll be faster on your feet if you optimize your weight. Or maybe you’re battling the postpartum bulge.

Whatever the reason, we can all use a little support! And a little beer. But we’ll just have to save that for cheat night, won’t we?

For your enjoyment, all you mothers, a prayer for our daughter by Tina Fey:

First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches.

May she be Beautiful but not Damaged, for it’s the Damage that draws the creepy soccer coach’s eye, not the Beauty.

When the Crystal Meth is offered,

May she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half

And stick with Beer.

Guide her, protect her

When crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th Street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called “Hell Drop,” “Tower of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,” and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age.

Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance.

Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes And not have to wear high heels.

What would that be, Lord? Architecture? Midwifery? Golf course design? I’m asking You, because if I knew, I’d be doing it, Youdammit.

May she play the Drums to the fiery rhythm of her Own Heart with the sinewy strength of her Own Arms, so she need Not Lie With Drummers.

Grant her a Rough Patch from twelve to seventeen.

Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long.

For Childhood is short – a Tiger Flower blooming.

Magenta for one day —

And Adulthood is long and Dry-Humping in Cars will wait.

O Lord, break the Internet forever.

That she may be spared the misspelled invective of her peers

And the online marketing campaign for Rape Hostel V: Girls Just Wanna Get Stabbed.

And when she one day turns on me and calls me a Bitch in front of Hollister,

Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends.

For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it.

And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord.

That I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back.

“My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget.

But I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.

Amen

I love you, baby girl. xo

Yay! January. Time to beat ourselves up for not accomplishing what we wanted to over the past 12 months.

When I asked my hubby whether he had any resolutions, he gave me a pretty definite “nope”. I don’t know why I feel compelled to make these resolutions, year after year. Partly because I’m a dork. I think the other part might be my optimism. I don’t always follow through on the things I say I am going to change but I keep my hopes high that, one of these days, I’m going to have nothing left to resolve! I will be perfect. Completely remodeled, revamped, renewed and resolved. That year, I’ll resolve nothing.

I’m looking forward to that year.

In the meantime, here are my personal resolutions for 2012. And in case you haven’t decided on yours yet, here is a big list of healthy resolutions you can actually achieve and that would help anyone reach their goals.

1. Jog more. I love jogging and have a hard time convincing myself to embrace the elements. Jogging is a warm weather sport for me. I’m going to change that and start jogging year-round. I even pre-resolved myself (OK, that makes no sense. Moving on…) with my first outdoor jog of this winter in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve while visiting family in -30 degree Ottawa. Brrrr! Frosty. Frosty and inspiring.

2. Worry less. Lately I worry a lot. The older I get, the more responsibility I have, the more worried I feel. I guess this is pretty unremarkable among women but I feel a bit paralyzed by my worry sometimes. I know it’s unproductive and draining. I recently read that many psychologists recommend to worried patients that they focus on their feelings of gratitude; this shifts the focus off the “what-ifs” and is proven to reduce worry. So I’m all over that. More learning, more reading, more appreciating, more movies, more jogs, more hanging out. Should leave me less time for worrying, right? Right?

3. Control my email. Sometimes my email controls me. I have sort of a love/hate relationship with technology and modern communication. I can happily go without a phone, facebook… even a watch.  Being “unplugged” can be really relaxing as long as I’m not dreading whatever work and unanswered calls/emails are awaiting me at the end of my technological hiatus. So instead of checking my email (by computer or iPhone) fifty times per day and stressing about the responses I need to send when I have time, I will only check my email when I have time to deal with it. That means no obsessive iPhone checks while waiting in line and shutting my laptop when I’m not at my desk so I can’t peek at my facebook and email every time I walk by.

So that’s what I’m going to do with myself this year. Now I’m going to shut this laptop and put it away and read a book (#3). And appreciate the fact that I’m reading a book (#2). Then tomorrow I’ll go for a jog (#1).

I feel better already.

Are you too cool for resolutions? If you’re a dork like me, what are you resolving for 2012?

I’ll bet you have a hard time mustering half that energy around this time of year, with all the parties, dinners, shopping trips, extra cleaning/tidying/decorating/wrapping chores and the accompanying emotional, financial and physical stress. Wow. I sound like a Grinch. I actually really like the holidays, but the older I get, the more I find the responsibilities of the festive season to be pretty overwhelming at times.

One of the stresses for me during the holiday season, as well as for many of my clients, is trying to keep one eye on that fitness prize whilst being tempted by well-meaning relatives and (let’s be honest) even sabotaging girlfriends.

I really don’t recommend resisting every bit of temptation. I don’t think the mid- to late-December time of year is a great time to target any substantial weight loss or performance goals, if you’re one who celebrates a winter holiday. And if you celebrate more than one, God help you.

Instead I prefer to think of this time of year as an easy maintenance time. I try not to gain any weight. I try to balance my indulgences with some exercise. But I also recognize that pumping my veins full of carbohydrates and booze does not set me up for stellar workouts. I am sleeping less. I am drinking more. I am drinking a lot of coffee. I mean, a lot of coffee. I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off because I am the textbook definition of a procrastinator. Willpower wanes. Schedules get tight.

So do what I do. I know from years of fitness training that there are times to fight tooth-and-nail, and times to admit I’m beaten. Give yourself a free-pass to enjoy the festivities over the next couple of weeks, by all means… but let’s keep it to something slightly more wholesome than the food and drink version of “Girls Gone Wild.”

Here is my plan, and now your plan, to enjoy the holidays without giving yourself a month-long hangover come January 1st.

• Don’t eat every carbohydrate that passes under your nose. Resist. Resist! When you get to the party, dinner, brunch, survey the options and decide which of the side dishes you can pass up.  Mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes? Are you carbing up for an Ironman Triathlon? If it doesn’t really excite you, skip it. It’s probably not the last meal you’re going to eat.
• Beware the condiment. Seems harmless, right? Just a dip in the ranch dressing. Maybe a smear of some kind of strange cheese spread. Dip 10 veggies in ranch dressing (one time each – easy, double dippers…) and you’ve likely consumed a couple of tablespoons of dressing and up to 200 calories in dip alone.
• Volunteer to be on kitchen duty. This is a good one! Not only will you keep your butt off the couch and burn calories cooking and cleaning, you’ll also spend the day hovering over the stuffing, potatoes, latkes, braciole… insert your festive cuisine here. This takes the excitement of the “reveal” away when you sit down to the table. Look around the dinner table and notice – I’d be willing to bet the people who spent the day smelling, cooking and tasting those dishes are not piling their plates as full as everyone else. It’s a “been there, done that” kind of thing.
• Or… volunteer to be on kid duty. Take the kids outside. Snow or not, you can keep the kids from going totally nuts if you get them some fresh air, sunshine and exercise. And, unless you take the box of chocolates to the park with you, you’ll probably eat less and burn more than you would staying at home.
• Don’t drink too many calories. You’re going to eat and drink more than usual…pretty much guaranteed. So choose cocktails that don’t provide the equivalent of a meal’s worth of calories in a glass. 150 calories of red wine (about 5-6 oz) will get you just as drunk as 300 calories of a mixed drink cocktail (the average 6-7 oz glass).  Lower carbohydrate and lower calories options for mixed drinks are vodka, gin and tequila. Mix with sparkling water and add generous squeezes of citrus to help blunt the blood sugar spike.
• Keep a mental food budget.  Don’t count calories at the holidays. That’s more depressing than receiving a small appliance from “Santa”. If you know dinner is going to be heavy, skimp earlier in the day on the types of foods you’ll probably be eating later on. Specifically, most of us will eat a portion of meat surrounded by 463 side dishes of various starches, swimming in sugary and fatty sauces. By the way, I’m now salivating. Don’t skip breakfast & lunch in order to save calories; you’ll just be drunk and starving by the time dinner rolls around. Instead, bulk up on veggies and protein early on (which are, conveniently, lower in sugar and calories) so by the end of the dinner you’ve had a more well-rounded day of nutrition.
• When the going gets tough, get going. I like to party as much as the next personal trainer. No, really. We do like to party. My style is the go-hard-early-and-disappear-after-dinner style. In other words, I drink before dinner and enjoy dinner, help clean up (most of the time) and then generally head to bed pretty early. Stay up late and more drinks, dessert, snacks and midnight leftovers just become WAY more likely. Go to bed and you’ll not only miss that second round of gluttony but log some z’s so your metabolism stays somewhere near normal and you’ve got just an ounce of willpower tomorrow when the next holiday meal or leftover treats are beckoning.

Happy Holidays!