Do You Have A Weight Loss Resolution? Buy Frozen Diet Entrees Now While They Are On Sale.

Have you made a weight loss resolution for the new year?  If so, now is a great time to stock up on those frozen diet entrees from your grocery store.

Whether you live alone or with your family, it’s difficult to adjust your eating habits when you want to lose some weight.  But, it’s a lot easier if you can plan your meals ahead of time.  A great way to get started is with portion and calorie controlled frozen meals.  This way, if you still need to cook dinner for the family, you don’t have to spend a lot more time making something healthy for yourself.  And even though that would probably be your best option, it might not be realistic to think it’s something you’ll be able to do during the hardest and most critical time of your diet (the beginning).

In order to be successful on a new diet, you need to do two things right off the bat…

1.  Get rid of ALL the food temptations in your home.

That doesn’t mean your whole family has to “suffer” through your diet with you.  Get rid of all the foods that are tempting to you, and leave unhealthy foods that aren’t tempting to you.

Does your family love ice-cream, but it’s a huge weakness for you?  Get them together and decide on a flavor (or flavors) that you don’t really care for.  This way, your kids are happy that they have their ice-cream, and you don’t feel tempted to indulge.  Do the same with cookies, cereal, candy, and any of the other “junk” foods that you normally keep in your pantry.

2.  Stock up on the healthy foods you CAN have on your diet.

The worst thing you can do to sabotage a good diet, is to not have enough healthy foods in your house.  When you get those hunger pangs between meals, you absolutely need to have plenty of healthy (and quick) choices available.

This is where those frozen diet entrees come in handy, and this is the time of year when they all go on sale.  Not just 25% off either.  Most grocery stores are having buy one get one free and 50% off during these next few weeks after the holidays.  These manufacturers understand that losing weight is a huge new year’s resolution, and they want you to buy their products.  So if you can, save money by stocking up on them now.  Yesterday, I was able to get a bunch of Lean Cuisine frozen dinners for less than $2.00 each. For that price, I can have a healthy lunch and dinner for less than $4.00 a day.  That’s less than the cost of one meal at a fast food place.

Personally, I find these portion controlled meals a little small, and not very filling.  But a great way to compensate that drawback is by adding fresh (try cleaned/pre-cut) or frozen vegetable.  They only add a few more calories, and you can mix them right in with your frozen dinner to give them a bit more flavor.

So, get rid of the funk food and stock up on the healthy food.

Good luck, and let me know how you make out in comments.

Here are more posts on dieting and weight loss that you might find helpful…

• 3 Steps To Emotionally Prepare For Dieting
• The All-You-Can-Eat Diet
• Have A Lemon A Day To Keep The Pounds Away
• Top 3 Tips For Eating Healthy
• 4 Tips To Help You Prepare For A Weight Loss Resolution

Can The Movie ‘Mama Mia’ Reduces Stress and Make You Happy?

Can a good movie reduce stress? I’ve always believed that smiling and laughing is healing in some way. And, there is a lot of evidence that supports that theory. I also know that for me, music can deeply affect my mood. Some songs are sad reminders of the past, and others are happy reminders of experiences I never want to forget. Seeing the movie Mamma Mia with my daughter, and listening to all the music, is definitely going to be a lasting and happy memory for me.

This is what happened. My daughter has been wanting to see the movie Journey To The Center Of The Earth in 3-D, and we’ve also both wanted to see Mamma Mia. So, on Thursday, we decided to see Journey To The Center Of The Earth. But, when we got to the theater we found out it was only in 3-D at “selected” theaters, and we weren’t at one of those. Mamma Mia was showing in the same theater about 15 minutes later, so we decided to see that instead.

To tell you the truth, I really didn’t think that either one of the movies was going to have much of an impact on me. I was feeling quite depressed, and was only taking my daughter to the movies because I thought that was what a good mother would do.

So, since I was feeling like a failure as a mother when it came to my son, I thought I shouldn’t let my anxiety affect my daughter. However, I didn’t think anything, much less a movie, would be able to take my mind off of my troubles.

Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised.

Living Well With Chronic Illness – Redefining Yourself

This issue is so important, and that is because; When you suffer from chronic illness, although you are being treated (even successfully), going back to your former life before you were sick may be impossible. I hear this all the time from others suffering with CFS and FM, and I am certain it holds true for many others suffering with chronic disease as well. The biggest problem, is that many of us “define” ourselves through our work, or what we do for a living. Quite frankly, this is a bad idea even if you are a healthy person. None of us “are” our work. Our work is not who we are, it’s simply what we do. But, we all know it doesn’t always feel that way, especially when out of nowhere, we are unable to do what we do.

So….What do you do, when this happens to you? Well, it’s not so different than when a stay at home mom sees her last child off to college. They call it “Empty Nest Syndrome” for her, and it can be quite devastating for a women who has devoted her life up until then (usually at least 18 years or more) to being the best mom she could be, and doing it as a career. Now she is left with no-one to mother, and she loses her sense of “self”. At this point, she can choose to except her new life and find new and exciting things to do with herself (maybe go back to school, get back into a career, take up a hobby, or maybe travel), or she can choose to be sad and depressed and feel like her life is over because she has no-one left to take care of. It’s not the same as losing your identity due to illness, but it is an example of seeing your life (or identity), as half full or half empty.

Feeling sorry for yourself can be a full time job, but it’s a job that doesn’t benefit you in any way….so just take it on a part-time basis. Then on the days you’re not working hard at that job, focus on finding something to do with your life that can benefit you.

Step 1 – Make a plan. Take some time to write a list of all the things you can do in your current condition (not just work things; hobbies, school, etc)….even if it is something you don’t know how to do. Write down some “dream” ideas too.

This isn’t something you do in one day…do it over days or even weeks. Open your thoughts to ideas you may not have ever even considered before…this is the first step in “re-making” yourself.

Step 2 – Believe in yourself. Start believing it is possible for you to do one or more of these things. Take your pessimistic cap off for a little bit, and let yourself “feel” the possibilities…..see it in your minds eye.

Now, it’s o.k. if you don’t “feel” it right away, it’s going to take some time. The important thing is, to not let yourself feel hopeless, there are always possibilities out there. It’s just that many times we can’t see these opportunities, because we live in a box that we think we can never escape from. Just remember…This happens to everyone, not just you. So just do yourself a favor, and allow yourself to believe that you can escape if you wanted to.

Even thought it’s just two steps, doing them right takes time. This can be a very long process, so don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s taken me years, and I am still only in the middle of the process. But, you do need to start the process…you can’t reach your dreams or your potential, if you don’t open yourself up to the possibility.

3 Easy Steps to Emotionally Prepare yourself for Weight Loss

3 STEPS TO GET STARTED ON YOUR DIET

When you’re ready to start a diet, knowing how much weight you want to lose, and what foods to avoid, is important.  But, even more important, is preparing yourself emotionally for your diet.  Most of us gain weight because of emotional eating, and when we try to diet, those emotions don’t go away.  So, how do you prepare yourself  “emotionally” for weight loss?  Here are 3 tips that might help.

For the record, I really don’t like the word “dieting”, it sounds too much like the word “depriving,” and it feels too much like it too.  So, when I say dieting, I really mean, eating healthy for your body. I don’t believe in fad or radical diet plans.  Eat healthy and avoid junk food, that’s the best diet around.

That said…Here are the 3 STEPS TO GET STARTED ON YOUR DIET:

STEP 1 — YOUR GOALS

Take some time to think about your goals.

The night before you want to begin your diet, go to bed a few minutes early. Get comfortable and let go of any thoughts running through your head. Then close your eyes and start thinking about the foods you are going to eat the next day (healthy foods), and think about the foods you are not going to eat (unhealthy foods). Think about your goal weight, how you will look, how you will feel. Do this for about five minutes or so. That’s not too hard?

STEP 2 — YOUR FEELINGS

Take some time to think about how you will feel when you reach your goals.

After a few minutes of step 1, begin to think about how you will feel after a week of eating healthy and being on your way to your goal weight. You want to have a clear picture in your mind how you will feel when you are successful. The more you think about how your success will make you feel the better.

Since our thoughts are directly related to how we feel, and how we feel is directly related to our eating habits…You can see why it is so important to focus on what you are thinking at this critical point of your diet plan. For more on this check out the post – How changing your belief system can change your life

STEP 3 — PRETENDING

Telling yourself you are already successful. Pretend. This is also known as, faking it, till you make it.

Next, after another few minutes, just add into your thoughts the idea that you are already at that place. That you are already successful. That it has been a week, and you are feeling great. It has been a week and now looking back you can see it wasn’t as hard as you thought it would be. You feel proud of yourself, and feel confident that you will be able to continue your healthy eating habits for at least another week. Even though you will know that you haven’t actually been on your diet for a week yet, believe it or not…Your thoughts will translate into feelings, and your feelings will help you create a sense of success.

The biggest stumbling block with a diet, is getting past those first few days. Getting motivated to start a diet is easy, staying motivated is the problem. I found that the best way to stay motivated is to get over the proverbial “hump” – those first few days on your diet. The days that if you can’t get passed, are the sole reason 99% of us will just give up, and consider ourselves a failure at our diet, before we even have a chance to get stared. That is what STEP 3 is all about, pretend you are already over the hump.

Now you are all ready to start your diet. When you wake up in the morning, know you have already been successful, now you just have to continue your success by continuing to eat healthy. It’s easy now, because you know you can do it. Keep yourself motivated with your feelings of accomplishment. Take one day at a time. And each night reflect on your success. Most of all. If you falter, it is not a failure…Just begin at step one, and get back on the wagon as soon as possible.

“Every Though We This Is Creating Our Future.” — Louise L. Hay

Top 3 Tips For Eating Healthy

I am now also at Capessa Health and Fitness.

I hope you will check out my post…

Top 3 Tips For Eating Healthy.

Healthy Living: The Great American Health Challenge

Healthy Living and The Great American Health Challenge — by Catherine Morgan

Also See:  61 Days To Better Health, BlogHer’s 2009 Good Health-A-Thon, and Capessa Health and Fitness.

We’ve been talking a lot about making healthy lifestyle changes since the New Year. If you are one of the millions that wants to become healthier in 2008, you may be interested in this program…

The American Cancer Society is introducing an exciting new program on Thursday, it’s called The Great American Health Challenge. The campaign is designed as a comprehensive prevention and early detection program. It’s a simple program with four interactive tools to provide information and encourage healthy lifestyles.

The Great American Health Challenge is based on four simple things…

1) Check — Take a quick quiz that screens you for potential risk factors, and promotes early detection and treatment.

2) Move — Encouraging exercise by finding activities that are best suited for your lifestyle.

3) Nourish — Maintain a healthy weight, learn about healthy eating and get tips on diet and nutrition.

4) Quit — Information and tools to help you quit smoking.

So that’s it, four easy steps that could help you prevent cancer and heart disease.

You can also participate in BlogHer’s Good Health-A-Thon.

BlogHer’s Good Health-a-thon is all about what we can do, little by little, day by day, week by week and month by month to live healthier. It’s not a matter of saying “I’m going to go to the gym more this year” and then reviewing your progress in January of 2009, only to discover you haven’t actually used your gym card since mid-February.

Instead, the point of the Good Health-a-thon is to have each of us set simple, attainable, health-related goals for ourselves throughout the year. Our goals can be anything we want, but with the idea of broadening our definition of “health” well beyond calorie counting.

See: Week One

Other recent BlogHer Health and Wellness posts you might be interested in…

Body Image, Dieting, and Your New Years Resolution

Weighing In on the New Years Dieting Frenzy

Four Tips That Could Prolong Your Life

Ten Random Tips For Weight Loss

Journey To Physical Fitness and More

Fitness: It Changed My Life

Curvy Moms Are Brainier

Beans Are A Great Choice For Good Health

Online Diet and Fitness Tools

How Do You Choose To Diet?

80% of Women and 92% of Girls Are Dissatisfied With Their Bodies

UPDATE:  I’m am now also at Capessa Health and Fitness.  You might be interested in my post Top 3 Tips For Health Eating.

Hollywood and the fashion, cosmetics and diet industries work hard to make each of us believe that our bodies are unacceptable and need constant improvement. Print ads and television commercials reduce us to body parts — lips, legs, breasts — airbrushed and touched up to meet impossible standards. TV shows tell women and teenage girls that cosmetic surgery is good for self-esteem. Is it any wonder that more than 80% of fourth-grade girls have been on some form of fad diet? Is it any wonder that 80% of U.S. women are dissatisfied with their appearance? — go to Love You Body

92% of girls want to change at least one aspect of their appearance. Dove believes all girls deserve to see how beautiful they really are and is committed to raising self-esteem in girls everywhere. That’s why we created the Dove Self-Esteem Fund.” — above image is from Dove campaign

Sussane Reisman, BlogHer contributing editor, did a great post on body image a few weeks ago.

Just look at some of these ads that are offensive to women. No wonder women can’t be happy with their bodies, the images of what they “think” they should look like are based 100% on men’s fantasies (not reality).

So, what can be done? Will this ever change?

Today is LOVE YOUR BODY DAY – You can learn more about it here.

On a more positive note, I received this in my email today…

Banish Your Self-Hater