Phit-N-Phat

LOGGIE’S MOM – OCTOBER NEWSLETTER

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great September and used my getting started-cardio routine if you were not already exercising. This month we are going to look at the importance of flexibility training. There is a delicious recipe for Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad that is great as a potluck dish or a football party snack. We will also talk about making small changes in your life that can lead to big successes. Lastly, I've included a link to a list of recipes on the Weight Watcher Message Boards that has tons of ideas for packable lunches. Bonus! They are almost all Core-friendly for those of you doing Core. Let's get moving!

Featured Exercise Routine – Flexibility Training
Flexibility training is often overlooked but is critical to your overall fitness regimen, especially as you age. Flexibility offers you better balance, less chance of injury, and helps keep your muscles and joints strong as you age. As we get older, we continue to lose flexibility. In fact, after the age of twenty-five our bodies start to slowly breakdown and we lose our flexibility if we don't continue to stretch our muscles and joints.

Most experts recommend stretching both before and after intense activity. Each stage of stretching is different because the body is at different stages. During your warm-up, warm the muscles by first walking at gradually increasing speeds. This prepares the body for your workout. Take a two-minute break and stretch. Stretches should be held for five-to-ten seconds only. Your goal is to decrease tissue stiffness, focusing particularly on the muscles that will be used in the activity to follow. This stretching session should be quick.

After your workout, the body temperature increases and tissues offer less resistance. Therefore, stretching for flexibility gains is best done after your workout. Stretching after exercise may also enhance muscle relaxation, return you to a normal resting heart rate, increase circulation to your muscles, and help remove waste products. These stretches should be held for a minimum of thirty seconds. It takes your joints at least thirty seconds of continuous stretching to elongate enough for permanent gains.

While it is best to stretch after every workout, new studies have shown that two-to-three full-body flexibility sessions are all you need to gain maximum flexibility. The following stretches are great to incorporate into your routine either every day or as often as you choose. For example, you can either do a full body session a couple of times a week or do lower body stretches on your lower body weights day and upper body stretches on your upper body day. Regardless of how you do it, you'll reap many benefits from adding in regular stretching to your routine.

The above routine and pictures are courtesy of www.about.com. You can find a wealth of information on about.com regarding exercising. The pictures will not show on this webpage. If you would like the original email of this newsletter with pictures, please email me at corinne@chriscrabtree.com. Thanks!

Featured Recipe
Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad

Ingredients
1/2 cup fat free ranch salad dressing
1/4 cup Miracle Whip® Free
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese (optional)
1 tablespoon Frank's Hot Sauce
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 cups cooked diced chicken breast
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups dry whole wheat macaroni
1 medium tomato, diced

Directions
Cook macaroni according to package directions. Rinse under cold water and drain. Refrigerate until cold.

In a large bowl, combine dressing, mayonnaise, blue cheese, hot sauce and paprika. Add chicken, celery, onion and macaroni. Mix well to combine. Stir in tomatoes.

Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Gently stir again before serving.

Courtesy of the Weight Watcher Message Boards.

Question of the Month
How do I make changes to my lifestyle without feeling like I'm just giving up everything?

Many times it feels that when we are starting a diet or new exercise program that we are giving up everything we love and having to suffer. Well, it's just not true. Many times people give up too much in the beginning and burn out before the first three weeks. Others never seem to be able to get the ball rolling because the commitment seems to be too overwhelming. I have found that the best approach is keeping it simple. Here are some strategies for making changes to your lifestyle that help you set yourself up to want to go all the way with losing weight and exercising.

Start with small changes over the course of a month that you know you can stick to. For example, divide the month into four weeks. Each week make one change that will improve your health (walking one mile with your kids in the evening, parking at the end of every parking lot during errands, waking up 10 minutes earlier than normal every week until you have reached 30 extra minutes for a morning workout)

• Increase your water consumption by one glass a day for a week until you reach 80 ounces of water a day.
• Cut-out one high-caloric indulgence a week.
• Commit to one aerobic activity where you need to move for five to ten minutes at least two to three times a week.
• Reduce your smoking by three to five cigarettes per week if you smoke.
• If you drink, have a glass of water for every alcoholic beverage you consume.
• Keep fruit in the house and promise to eat one piece five to ten minutes before every meal.

If you can commit to making one healthy change every week, it will not take long before you are feeling better and have a better frame of mind to tackle your weight loss journey. When I was losing my weight I didn't diet for a long time. I just exercised and the weight was coming off so I continued to focus on my activity levels. My eating was poor, but I felt like I only could commit to doing the exercise because I knew that in order to sustain any weight loss I had to totally be dedicated to working out. After awhile (8 months), I was finally prepared mentally to change my eating habits to support my new active lifestyle versus starting a diet and dropping the exercise because it wasn't a habit. Here I sit today at goal and the thinnest I've ever been in my life. It took making those small changes before I was ready to go all the way. Give it a try…you have nothing to lose but weight!

Grocery Shopping
For people who work, it isn't always easy to find delicious meals that can be prepared from home. Many of us tire of the frozen dinners and salads and pine for a satisfying meal. Recently on the Weight Watcher Message Boards I stumbled upon a thread addressing this issue. It was entitled "Packable Lunches" and was filled with recipe after recipe of items that can be made and packaged into easy work meals. The good news is that there are a lot of Core friendly recipes on this thread, too, if you do Core. Enjoy!

http://tinyurl.com/mlkzo

Have a great month and email me if you have any questions regarding any of the topics discussed. Please remember, I am not a certified trainer or nutritionist. Advice is to be used upon your own discretion and your physician’s advice.