Begin your week POSITIVELY

Mother's Day breakfast - not a green veg in sight!

Something about Mondays. Getting back into the grind after a nice weekend.

It can be a challenge, even when you don’t work a 9-to-5. On weekends, you probably give yourself permission to relax a little, perhaps indulge in foods you don’t normally eat.

As I did yesterday when I enjoyed my Mother’s Day eggs benedict and, later, a grande margarita with dinner!

But it was sooo worth it! And, I truly believe, helpful in the long run, to change things up every once in a while and relax and ENJOY.

As a result, two things come to mind today that I wanted to share:

1) Exercise after a “day off” from your usual healthy eating.

I used to have it backwards. A “day off” my nutrition plan would discourage me–especially if my day off was a Sunday–the usual “start” of my diet week. Not infrequently, I skipped exercise the next day. Often, I was just too sluggish to do anything,

Silly me!

If you indulged yesterday like I did, today is a GREAT day to get back on track. Just get that exercise in, whatever mode you enjoy most–yoga, tennis, a power-walk or weight training.

That extra bit of sugar coursing through your veins (glucose) will be put to good use as it is channeled into muscle cells, rather than contributing to your fat stores.

Just as important–getting back into the routine of exercise is just as important psychologically. It restores your sense of self-control!

2) Don’t diet. Let knowledge inform your decisions.

I no longer “diet” in the manner I did years ago when I was bent on a mission to gain muscle. I have other concerns now, so the bodybuilder-style diet I used to eat just doesn’t fit.

But, here’s my point. Don’t diet. Eat well. Become informed about the foods you eat and nutrition. And let that knowledge inform your choices.

Even a dietitian who writes you out a meal plan is just guessing at first. An intelligent guess, of course! Don’t get me wrong, nutritionists can help a lot–particularly if you’re clueless about what’s good to eat.

A nutritionist can take into consideration how old you are, how active you are, how much you exercise, your body type, your medical conditions and what your goals are.

But a couple months later, it’s not unlikely for him or her to tweak your diet if your improvements (eg, fat loss, better muscle tone) begin to slow down or stall.  

Tweaking is just part of life, right? You “tweak things” in all areas of your life. Raising kids. Doing your job. Your relationship with your mate. Your savings plans.

And, yes, your diet! 

So, don’t think you’ve “failed” if you need to tweak things.  Look at it as learning your body and your needs at this point in your life.

Because the body you had at 25 is NOT the body you have at 55!

And the body you had 2 months ago can be quite a bit different today. Truly!

While you’re tweaking things, be sure to aim for variety in your diet. That’s another mistake I used to make.

You probably don’t know your biochemical makeup, so avoid resticting your food choices too narrowly.

For example, it would be unwise to only eat broccoli at the expense of all other vegetables, or walnuts at the expense of all other nuts.

Foods have so many chemicals and compounds within them that make them valuable to us. So if you see one of those “7 foods you must eat” articles that are so popular these days, read them but incorporate those foods into a well-rounded plan.

Yes, wild salmon and blueberries have many benefits. But you’ll develop nutritional deficiencies if you eat them at every meal, on every day!