Happy Happy Hump Week! You are now entering your 3rd week of the four week series of ‘A New You in 2009.’ Last week, we focused on getting rid of bad nutritional habits with a ‘detox’ and revving up your workouts by increasing your intensity and duration. All of these steps should help to make this week’s ‘to-dos’ easier. As I’ve mentioned before, make sure you have successfully completed the second week steps prior to moving forward. This will give you a sense of accomplishment and help you to not feel overwhelmed.
Week 3’s Roadmap is outlined below!
Nutrition: Making Smart Choices. Last week we focused on getting rid of the excess sugars, toxins and chemicals in your body. You now should be ready to start fresh and eat the foods that your body really needs to be nourished and function properly.
- Healthy Starchy Carbohydrates. If you like bread, pasta and cereals, that is ok, just stop eating those made with bleached and refined flours or non-whole grains. Whole grain pasta and whole grain breads taste really yummy and offer you a lot of healthful benefits, such as fiber and lower amounts of sugar (which we learned from week 2 is an enemy). Regular pasta and white bread have very little nutritional value and pack on pounds. Any time you want bread or pasta, reach for whole wheat, whole grain, multi-grain, grain, grain, and um…grain…
- Eat your Veggies. Hands down, vegetables are vital to a healthy diet. Find the ones you like the most and eat them. Eat lots of them. Eat so much that you can’t eat anymore. Why? They are loaded with vitamins and minerals and provide you with much needed fiber. Further, they fill you up, causing you to eat less of the bad stuff. If you start your lunch and dinner off with a salad, you will be filling yourself up with healthy stuff, curbing your appetite and interest in eating unhealthy stuff. Be careful though, use dressings sparingly, and think twice before loading nuts and cheese on, for these add a lot of fat to the otherwise healthy salad
- Healthy Fats. You should definitely incorporate fats into your diet. However, you want to make sure that you eat the right ones (mono-unsaturated fats, poly-unsaturated fats and essentially fatty acids, Omega-3 and Omega-6) and that you use them sparingly.
- Low-fat and Non-fat Dairy. Dairy can be your friend, but aim to consume those that are low in fat or non-fat. If you are drinking full-fat milk or 2%, knock it down a % notch. Eventually, you should aim for 1% at a maximum with Skim milk being optimal. The reason for this is that full fat dairy has a lot of saturated fat…one of the worst types of fat for you.
- Lean Protein. Protein is essential to a healthy diet. That said, you want to be sure that the protein you consumer is lean: White meat poultry, fish, beans, low to non-fat dairy, egg whites. Try to avoid red meat, or limit your intake to no more than once a week.
Fitness: Rounding it Out. Last week we had you up the ante around your intensity and duration of exercise. Your heart should start to feel a little stronger and you should feel like you have more endurance than you did when you started. Now it is time to round your workout out.
- More than Cardio.Now that you have a feel for what you should be doing for cardio, start looking at your other training types and working on incorporating them into your work-out
- Strength Training. Classes that hit on these include those that incorporate some weights, resistance bands and bars. Body Pump, Body Sculpting and others incorporate strength training. Also try to use weight machines and free weights. You should target all muscle groups. A great resource for strength training using weights is: The Body Sculpting Bible for Women, Revised Edition: The Way to Physical Perfection (Body Sculpting Bible)
- Core Training. Classes to try: Pilates, Abdominal classes
- Flexibility Training. Classes to try: yoga and pilates
- Strength Training. Classes that hit on these include those that incorporate some weights, resistance bands and bars. Body Pump, Body Sculpting and others incorporate strength training. Also try to use weight machines and free weights. You should target all muscle groups. A great resource for strength training using weights is: The Body Sculpting Bible for Women, Revised Edition: The Way to Physical Perfection (Body Sculpting Bible)
- Personal Trainers. If you have access to personal trainers, think about trying a couple of sessions to get some guidance as to what you need to be doing
Good Luck with Week 3! Let us know how Week 1 and 2 went. Did you find it helpful? Did you hope to do more? Was it easy or difficult to stick to?
Related Topics:
- Strength Training Programs
- Types of Exercise to Round Out Your Workout
- Calculate your Target Heart Rate
- Learn about Good and Bad Fats
- Basics of a Fitness Program
- Get a Jump Start on your New Year’s Resolution
- Resolution Roadmap – Day 1
- Resolution Roadmap – Week 1
- Resolution Roadmap – Week 2
