52 Healthy Habits: How I Broke My Eating Out Habit

Welcome to the latest edition of 52 healthy habits when each week we tackle a new habit to improve our lives. A healthy lifestyle is built on habits, it's what we lean on when our willpower and motivation run out (because we are human and that's what happens). If you take the time and energy to develop healthy habits, then over time you can reap the benefits of an easily sustainable healthy lifestyle. We don't need to overhaul our whole lives at once, just tackle one habit at a time. No matter where you are in your healthy lifestyle journey, from newbie beginner to expert, there is always room for incremental improvements. It's the small changes over time that lead to big results. 

When I talk about healthy habits, I usually talk about the new healthy habits we can develop, rather than focusing on changing bad habits. If you develop healthy habits, often the bad habits get squeezed out naturally. For example if you focus on adding more vegetables to your meals each day, you tend to fill up on fiber, feel more full for longer time and maybe eat less of the unhealthy stuff as a result. I usually like to discuss what we can add to our healthy lives rather than what we need to take away. Today is a little different. 

HOW I BROKE MY EATING OUT HABIT

One of our New Year's Resolutions was to not eat out at restaurants. We committed to prepare all of our meals at home, within reason. It wasn't necessary about eating healthfully, if we wanted hamburgers and french fries, we could prepare them ourselves at home. It was more about controlling our spending than anything else. It just so happens that it is healthier to prepare food at home. The first month of not eating out, I lost five pounds without changing any of my other habits. Happy accident. 

It's not that eating at restaurants occasionally is inherently bad. I happen to enjoy going out to eat. You can eat at restaurants, make healthy choices, make special requests for a healthier meal and control your own portions by eating until 80% full, sharing meals or taking home leftovers. Restaurant eating absolutely can be a part of a healthy lifestyle.

It is only a potential issue when it becomes a habit. Not something that you enjoy, just something you do because...well, that's what you do. If you run through a fast food drive-through for breakfast each morning, it might be a habit. If you go out to eat for lunch every work day, it might be a habit. If you go out to eat dinner every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, it might be a habit. 

We were going out to lunch every Saturday and Sunday. We would spend hours deciding where to go. Where do you want to go? I don't know, where do YOU want to go? At nauseam. It's not just us, right?. Then a lot of times it would not even be that enjoyable. We would spend $60 or more each weekend for mediocre food with not much payoff. We decided to break our eating out habit by committing to not eating out at all in 2017 (within reason, and I will get to that shortly). 

MAKE THE COMMITMENT FOR ONE MONTH

You don't have to go all in for a year like we did. Try it for four weeks and see how it goes. Look at it as an experiment. After the month is up review how it went. Did you feel deprived? Were you incredibly inconvenienced? Or did you just get used to not eating out and eating at home became your new healthy habit? Did you lose weight? Save money? That is what happened to us.

Once you have a month under your belt, you can make a decision on how to move forward. What was good about it? What was bad about it? Where there any benefits? What were the struggles? Depending on the outcome of your experiment, decide how to move forward. Maybe limit restaurant meals to once a month, or once a week or maybe keep going with the experiment.

BE REASONABLE

In case you were wondering, I am not a robot. I am a human being. I like to eat. I like spending time with friends. I enjoy special occasions with my family. When we committed to not eating out it was with the caveat, within reason. That means when my best friend got married and I went to her rehearsal dinner, I enjoyed a restaurant meal. When an old friend called me up and asked me to go to lunch, I went. When it's someone's birthday at work and the company is picking up the tab for a birthday lunch, I don't stay behind with my Tupperware salad. When I visited my family in Pennsylvania and my Dad wanted to go to Olive Garden, I was there with bells on. The idea is to break the habit, not become a drone. If there is a special occasion, a meaningful social reason or a business obligation, then those times are the exception to the rule. When It's Friday night and no one feels like cooking, or it's Saturday afternoon and we're bored, that's when it's most important that we hold to our commitment. 

SET PARAMETERS

We didn't initially set parameters for what qualified as eating out and it threw us off track in the beginning. My husband started buying hotdogs from the convenience store when we were doing construction on our house. He was working long days and had very little time for lunch.

We thought buying a drink or a snack from the convenience store was inline with our plan, so at first we considered this ok. But after some thought, realized we had created a loophole. While hot dogs weren't necessarily a restaurant meal, it certainly wasn't preparing food at home, so he stopped. If he wanted hot dogs, he would have to buy them from the grocery store and prepare at home. Decide in the beginning what is considered eating out and stick to it. We decided prepared meals from the grocery store were ok, prepared foods from the convenience store or coffee shop were not. You don't have to follow my rules. Set up your own parameters up for what works for you and your lifestyle.

HAVE A MEAL PLAN

The only way this will work is if you plan ahead. If you usually go out to eat at lunch, you'll need to spend time planning and preparing what you'll eat for lunch each day. It's a good idea to have have simple to prepare meals planned out for weekday dinners. Some nights we make turkey burgers, or veggie omelettes or have a crock pot meal prepared. The easier the better. If your nightly meal is easy to prepare, you'll be less tempted to go out to eat or order in. 

Be realistic with your meal plan. Don't plan extravagant meals on a Tuesday night when you know your time is limited. Don't put fish on your meal plan when you don't actually like fish, just because you think it's healthy. Try to marry what you think you should do with what you will actually do. Plan healthy meals that you enjoy. Then have a backup plan.

We all know life throws us curve balls that can thwart our best intentions. Have a plan for when your plan fails. A rotisserie chicken or prepared salad from the grocery store can be a quick and convenient meal while still sticking to your commitment. A freezer meal may not be the healthiest thing you can eat, but it can be a lifesaver on those crazy days when nothing goes as planned. It's not about being perfect. It's all about making the best choice available in the moment. 

INDULGE

This is by no means intended to limit indulgence meals, fun or enjoyment in food. We still eat all the foods we enjoy. We make burgers and pizza at home and buy grocery store sushi for our indulgence meals. Try looking up copy cat restaurant recipes to prepare your favorite restaurant meal at home. Plan a fancy meal at home. Just because you temporarily gave up restaurants doesn't mean you have to give up good food. I'm not a fun hater. 

How often do you eat out? It is for enjoyment or is it just a habit? Is there room in your lifestyle to cut back on restaurant meals? Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

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My Fitness AHA Moment: How I Made Lasting Permanent Change

When did you have your fitness AHA moment? You know, the time you realized that fitness was going to be an integral part of your life. For me, I went through stages. 

I spend a lot of time on this blog dishing out fitness and nutrition advice and I thought it would be helpful if I shared a little bit about where I came from and how I got to where I am today. I'm not perfect. I miss workouts and eat unhealthy foods sometimes...just like every other human on this earth. I do my best to make the best choices possible considering what's reasonably available. I mess up all the time but I also make great choices all the time. For me and my journey, it was all about learning balance. 

I think it first started when I went to the doctor's office for flu symptoms, so I was already feeling like crap when the nurse asked me to step on the scale before I went in to see the doctor. I stripped off my jacket and kicked off my shoes, because you know, every quarter pound matters.

I hadn't stepped on a scale in a long time. I knew I weighed more than I would like, I knew my pants were tight, I knew I was overweight. I didn't know the number. When that number flashed back at me it was a reality check I wasn't emotionally prepared for. I came in for flu medication but sat there on the doctor's table with tears rolling down my face. 

The doctor was unsympathetic, he sternly told me I could take control if I would eat better. He didn't tell me what "better" meant. He didn't even ask me what I was currently eating. He recommended that I go on an "elimination diet" but I didn't know what that meant, I thought it meant cutting out carbs. He asked if I exercised and when I told him I was a runner (on and off, mostly off at that point), he said "Well, exercise doesn't help much with weight loss anyway." 

Now I was pissed and sad. How the hell did I get here? I stopped at the grocery store on my way back to work after my office visit and picked up some cottage cheese and blueberries for lunch 'cause that sounds satisfying and filling. (insert sarcasm font here.)

It was the first time that it hit me that I really needed to make some changes. I remember thinking, "Do I just have to accept that I am a fat person now?" It wasn't always this way. I was thin. It was the combination of poor nutrition, approaching my thirties and a switch from a retail management job to a sedentary desk job. It all caught up with me. Not in a day. Probably not in a year. But it slowly crept up over time and I realized I had a problem. For a moment I thought I had to accept my new reality, but I knew I could do better. I was ready to make some changes. I wasn't ready to give up. But I had some learning to do.

That was how it started but it didn't end there. It wasn't easy. I didn't magically lose all the weight and become happier. I made a lot of mistakes. I started over a lot. I lost weight and gained it back more times than I care to recount. 

I followed stupid fad diets, I exercised too much. I got obsessed with the scale. I'd eat too little and run too much for as long as my willpower would allow (sometimes a year). I'd try to live on cottage cheese and skinless chicken breast. Then life would happen, I would get sick, or go on vacation or deal with a stressful event and it would all fall apart. Then I would get overwhelmed. I drank too much wine. I ate too much. I wasted a lot of time (years!) in an all-or-nothing mindset. I was either on my diet or off. I was either running or I wasn't. My weight reflected that inconsistency.

But those first 40 pounds I gained and my learning experiences around yo-yo dieting over the better part of a decade was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I had to make those mistakes in order to learn. If I had been able to maintain a low weight with my unhealthy behaviors I never would have had the motivation to make real and lasting changes that not only affected my weight but my health and wellness. If I had never have gained the weight I would have never would have gotten healthy.

I learned that I love exercise. It makes me a better person. I love nutrition. I love feeding myself well and how that makes me feel. All these experiences, all these mistakes, they led me to becoming a fitness blogger, then a personal trainer, running coach and nutrition coach so I can help other people get on the fast track to making better decisions, to cut through the BS and make lasting sustainable changes. I help people so they don't have to waste time making the same mistakes that I did.

Today, fitness and health are my passions. I couldn't imagine life without this blog and my training. They are my creative outlets, my saving grace.

The most important lesson that I learned in all of this is that it is not about perfection, it is about making the best choice possible of what's reasonably available to me. It's not all-or-nothing. It's a little of everything. It's learning to find the balance of what is enjoyable, healthy and sustainable for life. It's about building healthy habits. When I stopped trying to be perfect and decided I would do the best I could, everything changed. 

Can you relate? 

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Coach Lea

Fit To Run: Month 2 Strength for Runners Workout B

Welcome to the latest edition of workout Wednesday! Each week I've been unveiling a part of my strength for runners program. This program allows you to fit in quick and effective strength training workouts around your regular running routine. You don't have to spend hours in the gym, just carve out about 20 minutes after your easy-paced runs three times a week to become a faster, stronger, more well-rounded, less injury-prone runner. 

This week I am sharing the second strength workout in month two. At the end of the post you will be able to download a printable version of this workout and the instructions. If you like this workout, can I ask you to save it to Pinterest? 

FIT TO RUN: MONTH 2 STRENGTH WORKOUT (B)

EQUIPMENT:

Gym Mat

INSTRUCTIONS:

Perform the assigned reps of each exercise then move to the next exercise without rest. When you have completed all the exercises, rest for one minute (or as long as you need) and then repeat the circuit one or two more times. 

LOW TO HIGH PLANKS

Position your elbows on the floor and your shoulders directly over your elbows. Your body should be in a straight line parallel to the floor. Engage your core, pulling your belly button into your spine while breathing normally. Be careful not to sink or raise your hips in the air. Do not clasp your hands in front of you. 

Straighten your right arm, then your left to lift yourself up to a straight arm plank position. Then lower yourself back down to a forearm plank. That is one rep. Next rep start with with your left arm, then your right when lifting to a straight arm plank to reduce stress on your shoulders. Perform six reps before moving to the next exercise. 

PLANK JACKS

In a high plank position place your shoulders directly over your wrists. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your heels. Don't allow your hips to drop or raise up. Engage your abs and breathe normally. Start with your feet together then jump your legs wide out to the sides (like the motion of a standing jumping jack) and then back together. Perform 8 reps before moving on to the the next exercise

SINGLE LEG SQUAT WITH BENCH

While the single leg squat is an advanced move, there is a safe variation that almost anyone can perform. I like using a bench for the low position. Balance on one leg with your knee slightly bent and lower yourself as slowly and as controlled as possible until you are sitting on the bench. Work to keep your standing knee inline with your outside toe as you lower to the bench (don't allow it to collapse inward). Keeping the 2nd leg off the ground stand back up to the starting position. Repeat six reps on each leg before moving on to the next exercise.

REVERSE LUNGE

Stand tall with your hands at your sides (add dumbbells to progress the exercise). Take a large, controlled step backward with your left foot. Lower your hips so that your right thigh is parallel to the floor and your right knee is over your ankle. Complete the rep by pressing your right foot into the floor and bringing your left leg forward to return to standing. Alternate legs to complete 8 reps on each side. 

PUSH UP

Start in a high plank position with your hands placed a little wider than your shoulders and your fingers pointing forward. Keeping your body in a straight line while engaging your core bend your elbows slowly to lower your chest to the floor. Once in the low position, push back up to the starting position. If this is too challenging, drop to your knees or perform the reps with your hands on an inclined surface like a bench or counter.

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52 Healthy Habits: Pantry Cleanout Challenge

Welcome to the latest edition of 52 Healthy habits when each week, we tackle a new practice to improve our healthy lifestyle. It's not about changing all your bad habits at once, but making incremental improvements over time. Working on developing healthy habits, rather than trying to overhaul your whole life at once, is a much more sane and sustainable approach to healthy living. When we're trying to eat healthier, sometimes the problem lies not in the decisions we make today, but in the choices we made in the past. When we load up refrigerators, our freezers, and our pantries with unhealthy food, it can make it more challenging to reach for healthy ones. When you're hungry, will you reach for a handful of potato chips or an apple? What if the chips weren't there? The first step in changing our eating habits for the better maybe in cleaning out our existing food supply. If you keep unhealthy foods out of arm's reach, you are less likely to eat them.

THE PANTRY CLEANOUT CHALLENGE

Take everything out of the pantry and place it on nearby kitchen counters or tables. (This may also be an excellent opportunity to wipe down the empty pantry shelves because if you are anything like me, this doesn't happen very often.)

THROW AWAY EXPIRED FOODS

Look at the expiration date and 'best by' dates on the foods in your pantry and start by throwing away aged food. It's an easy first sweep through the contents in your pantry. I often find items from 2004 that I swear I was going to get around to eating someday. Throw it away.

NEXT, IDENTIFY RED FLAG FOODS

Red flag foods are heavily processed foods with a lot of added sugar, sodium, and processed ingredients. Carefully evaluate items like chips, cookies, crackers, candy, high-sugar cereals, high-sodium soups, and most packaged snack foods. Who in the family consumes them? Is there a healthier alternative? Are they a temptation? That's not to say you shouldn't save a few treats, but be honest with yourself and only keep the foods that know you can maintain control over. If you've never opened a bag of chips without polishing the whole thing off (raises hand), it might be a good idea to get rid of them. For a healthier pantry and less risk of temptation, reduce these types of foods.

LEARN TO READ NUTRITION LABELS

Once you have rid your pantry of expired foods and red flag foods, it's time to take a third sweep through and look for sneaky foods that may be masquerading as healthy foods but are not. Food marketing labels sometimes use buzzwords that claim foods are all-natural, organic, gluten-free, sugar-free, all-natural, vitamin-enriched, or multi-grain, but these labels are often meaningless marketing.

Organic fruit rollups are not healthy; gluten-free cupcakes are low-nutrient junk food, low-carb cookies are...well, cookies. The key to not being misled by food marketing labels is to understand how to read a nutrition label. 

Read the ingredient list first. It will tell you almost everything you need to know. Ingredients are from highest amount to lowest, so if sugar is the first ingredient, it has more sugar than anything else. Other names for sugar in ingredients lists are corn syrup, fruit juice concentrates, maltose, malt syrup, cane crystals, evaporated cane juice.

Look for ingredients that you recognize. If the ingredient list has partially-hydrogenated oils, corn syrups, or long words you can't pronounce or understand, it likely doesn't fall into the healthy category, no matter what the marketing label says. 

Then look at the nutrition label and make sure the sugar, sodium, and calories are in line with your goals. Pay attention to portion size listed on the package; often, one small package will claim to have several servings to make the calorie count seem lower. I'm sorry, but three crackers are not one serving in my world.

Take everything you learned about reading nutrition labels and make a final sweep of your pantry.

BE REALISTIC

Not everyone can afford to throw away all the food in their pantry and replace it with new healthy food. There are often foods in my pantry that are not the healthiest choice, but not the worst either. My husband likes to buy those packaged flavored rice mixes and boxed pasta salads. Last week he purchased Star Wars mac & cheese because he wanted the box. Hah. There are definitely healthier choices for side dishes, like vegetables, plain brown rice, potatoes, or quinoa.

However, I live in the real world, where every morsel I consume is not worthy of a health food standing ovation. Honestly, I'd rather not waste these foods by throwing them away. I'd rather eat through them in moderation, in proper portions, then make a choice (or convince hubby) not to rebuy them in the future. I know I can eat Yoda-shaped macaroni without my whole, healthy living plan falling apart. It's not about being perfect; it's about making good choices most of the time. My boxed pasta salad in proper portions in moderation (occasionally) is still probably better than a restaurant meal. One less-than-perfectly-healthy side dish is not going to ruin my health or fitness progress. Moving away from the perfect-or-nothing mindset is the first step in living a healthy lifestyle. 

CREATE A SHOPPING LIST RESTOCK WITH HEALTHY STAPLES

• Once you've followed the steps above, it's time to restock your pantry with what is left and create a shopping list for healthy staples. 

• beans

• lentils

• tomato sauce, tomato paste with no sugar added

• canned vegetables

• canned fruits in water

• raw nuts (watch out for added sugars and oils in 'flavored' nuts)

• oatmeal

• rice

• quinoa

• whole wheat flour, almond or coconut

• healthy fats like extra virgin olive, grape seed, avocado, coconut oil

• vinegar

• low-sodium broths like chicken, vegetable, beef

• pouched or canned protein like tuna, salmon, sardines, chicken

• low-sodium turkey jerky

• honey

• green tea

• protein powder

• natural peanut butter and other nut butter

Once you tackle your pantry, you can follow the same process to clean out your fridge and freezer...but one step at a time. Don't overwhelm yourself by trying to do too much at once.

Just looking at all the labels in your pantry and evaluating them to become more aware of what you are consuming is a fabulous first step, even if you don't throw away or replace a single item. 

Does your pantry need a healthy makeover? Have questions? I'd love to help!

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7 Habits of Highly Effective Runners

If you want to be a better runner then it makes sense that you should focus on running more, but there is more to being successful than just running. Highly effective (aka fast and injury-free) runners don't just run, they follow these seven habits.

1. Run Consistently

The most successful runners run consistently, week after week, year after year. In order to improve you have to lace up those shoes on a regular basis. Work to build up fitness slowly over time and get in the habit of hitting the pavement on a regular basis. This doesn't mean you need to go from zero to 30 miles per week (that's a recipe for injury). Work towards a consistent running schedule over the long term.

2. Eat well

Athletes fuel properly for performance by consuming a variety of nutrient-dense whole foods. Aim for a mix of healthy carbohydrates, fats and protein in your diet.

Eating too little for your activity level can affect performance in a negative way, just as over consuming can leave you feeling bloated and sluggish. Finding the balance of healthy foods you enjoy in proper portions is the key to success. I wrote more about nutrition for athletes in this post.

3. Recover Well

Great runners recover well. For proper recovery from those workouts aim for 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Don't underestimate the importance of sleep as it relates to running success. Most of our body's recovery processes happens during sleep. If you are not improving over time despite your best efforts, sleep (or lack thereof) may be to blame.

We always seem to be looking for the magic bullet to achieve our goals, new supplements, intense workout routines, macro manipulation and meal timing. While these things can be helpful as we work to meet our goals, we shouldn't be attempting advanced strategies until the basics are covered. Sleep is an important basic. Are you getting 7-9 hours of quality sleep?

Speaking of recovery, rest days are an important part of any successful runner's training cycle. For best results allow at least 48 hours in between intense workouts. Adaptations (getting faster and stronger) happen during rest, not during the workout, so be sure you give your body the time it needs to recover and rebuild. Alternate between high intensity workouts with low intensity workouts and rest days.

An example week might look like this:
Monday: High intensity interval workout
Tuesday: Rest day (or active recovery, like walking or gentle Yoga)
Wednesday: Low intensity workout
Thursday: High intensity or low intensity workout
Friday: Low intensity workout or rest day
Saturday: Long run
Sunday: Rest day

Try to avoid back-to-back intense or long workouts in order to properly recover. It's not about hammering yourself into the ground for results. Your body will thank you and you will reap the benefits in your performance.

4. Log Workouts

Great runners track their workouts and progress in training logs. In order to reach your goals, it is helpful to know where you are and where you came from. When you keep track of weekly mileage, average pace, as well as heart-rate and intensity you can make outcome-based decisions on what comes next in your training.

Maybe you'll notice that you always feel drained with heavy legs on early morning runs, but feel fast and efficient in the afternoon. Tracking may reveal that too many speed work sessions in one week leaves you feeling drained and overworked. Maybe you find that adding an extra tempo run in a week improves your half marathon pace. It's hard to know what is working or not working until you track and monitor it. 

I noticed that if I ran more than two days in a row, I would experience some hip pain. I backed off running on that third day for rest and the hip pain went away. The journal helped me see that pattern and I adjusted my training plan to fit my needs. 

When you document your runs you can follow the trends and make adjustments as needed. Keeping track of your runs, how you feel and your recovery can help you make decisions that will set you up for success in the future. 

5. Strength Train

In order to be a great runner, it pays to take some time for strength training. Runners can develop muscle imbalances and overuse injuries. Performing full body workouts while focusing on strong hips, hamstrings and core with a supplemental strength training program can help you become a faster, stronger and less injury prone runner. This blog is devoted to strength training for runners, so click around for a lot of strength training workout ideas. 

6. Stretch and Foam Roll

Most of us mere mortals have both overactive and underactive muscles. This means that some muscles are working too hard and are tight, shortened/overactive, while other muscles are underactive and not pulling their weight (so to speak), so they need to be strengthened. 

Stretching and foam rolling can help with those overactive, tight muscles. Runners can improve overall flexibility and work to correct muscle imbalances by foam rolling before runs and stretching after every run. I wrote a post about foam rolling that may be helpful. 

7. Build Mental Toughness

Mental toughness is learning the difference between physical pain and mental pain. Never attempt to push through physical pain in the muscles or joints during runs. Physical pain is the body's way of notifying you that something is wrong. However, often the pain we feel is mental anguish. When we work to keep going when our minds tell us to quit or we push through another tough mile, lap or rep, it builds the mental toughness that is necessary to be a highly effective runner. We almost always can do more than we think we can. Test that theory to watch your results skyrocket. 

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