Fabulous Financials & Fitness

I’ve always heard nutritionists say breakfast was the most important meal of the day, but I never really understood why. Yes, it gives you energy, helps to jump start your day, blah blah blah. But why can’t brunch do the same thing? And why doesn’t my body want to eat first thing in the morning?

The whole ‘breakfast is important’ spiel always went in one ear and out the other until I ran across this article on 8 ways to control your cravings. First it explains why we having cravings:

Cravings are all about blood sugar. If your levels are consistent throughout the day, your eating patterns will be, too. But when you starve yourself for hours, cravings call. And you will answer.

Your blood sugar can fall too low after just four hours of not eating…so you search…for carbohydrates, which will provide a quick boost.

Trouble is, fast rising blood sugar triggers your pancreas to release a flood of insulin, a hormone that not only lowers blood sugar but also signals your body to store fat. And in about half of us, insulin tends to “overshoot,” which sends blood sugar crashing. This reinforces the binge, because it makes you crave sugar and starch again.

In other words, if you eat crap, your body will crave crap. Wow, I finally get it! It also explains why my sugar cravings are slowly diminishing. I’m training my body to eat in regular intervals and I’ve been making healthier food choices, so my blood sugar levels are stabilizing. The body is an amazing machine.

And it gets better. One of the 8 ways to control your cravings is to…

Eat Breakfast
Sure, you’ve heard this one before. But consider that if you sleep for 6 to 8 hours and then skip breakfast, your body is essentially running on fumes by the time you reach work. And that sends you desperately seeking sugar, which is easy to find. The most convenient foods are often the same ones you should be avoiding. That’s because they’re usually packed with sugar (candy bars, soda), or other fast-digesting carbohydrates (cookies, chips).

If you don’t eat breakfast, you are literally STARVING your body. When your body goes into starvation mode, it stores fat and craves a quick pick me up – i.e. sugar! And the cycle repeats itself.

From this day forward and for the rest of my life, I vow to eat breakfast every single day. Even if it’s just a piece of toast with peanut butter, I will eat something as soon as I get out of bed.

Do you eat breakfast? What did you have this morning?

The masses have voted and over 80% of you are willing to ride with me, no matter what. So I guess it’s a GO!  Single Ma’s back…with a new focus (and hopefully a new look too)!

In order to keep health & fitness front and center of my life, I have to force myself to think about it every single day until it becomes a habit.  Similar to the early days of managing my finances, I had to track every dime spent and adhere to a strict budget.  With health & fitness, I track my nutrition and exercise everyday on SparkPeople.  But before I can track my progress, I have to plan what I’m going to do.

I thought about providing some back history, but most of you follow me on Twitter so I won’t bother.  I’ll just pick up from where I am today.

I officially completed week 4 with a 2.8 lb weight loss for a total loss of 11.2 lbs.  Continuing with my routine, this is my plan for the week of January 24-30:

Water Intake: I’m still chugging along and trying to consistently drink 32 oz of water everyday.  In one of my meetings last week, someone handed me a little 8 oz water bottle. Immediately, I thought to myself “drinking 8 of these tiny things should be easy!” (recommended 64 oz) So I reused that little 8 oz bottle all weekend.  Umm…how about no!  I could only drink 4 of them, which is the same amount I drink using my 32 oz water bottle.  Oh well, another week, another chance.  My daily goal is to carry my 32 oz water bottle with me everywhere I go and drink as much as I can with the intent of finishing the bottle.

Exercise: Complete Week 5 of c25k.  I had the courage to peek ahead this week.  My exercise routine will be:

• Day 1 (Tuesday?): Run 5, Walk 3, Run 5, Walk 3, Run 5
• Day 2 (Thursday?): Run 8, Walk 5, Run 8
• Day 3 (Saturday): Run 20 << Whoa, first day with no intervals!

Meals: Continue my routine of preparing every meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) during the weekday at home.  Here’s our weekly menu plan:

• Sunday: Leftovers from last night
• Monday: Steak Salad
• Tuesday: Bulgogi with Steamed Rice and Brocolli (a la Chef Baby Girl)
• Wednesday: BBQ Beef Pop’ems (slightly altered) with a side salad
• Thursday: Zesty Italian Chicken
• Friday: Zucchini Rice Casserole
• Saturday: Leftovers or dine out

Breakfast is usually 2 boiled eggs with toast, a blueberry bagel with peanut butter, a bowl of Cheerios with skim milk, a bowl of Quaker reduced sugar apple cinnamon oatmeal, or a smoothie with frozen blueberries and strawberries.

Lunch is usually leftovers from dinner or some kind of sandwich with cheese, baby spinach, grape tomatoes, and light mayo on a whole wheat wrap.

Our snacks for this week are bananas, oranges, clementines, grapes, Yoplait low-fat vanilla yogurt, mozzarella cheese sticks, and Quaker caramel mini rice cakes.

I am not, I repeat, I am not on a diet.  We eat regular food, but I am learning to choose healthier ingredients, substitute junk for healthier snacks, and eat in moderation.  However, I do try to limit my calories to less than 1500 per day, 200g carbs, 50g fat, and at least 125g protein.  Note to Self: healthy choices, normal eating, and consistency will lead to permanent lifestyle changes.

Weigh-In: My goal for this week is to lose another 2 lbs.  I’m not sure if or how I will report my weight loss on this blog, but I do weigh myself every Saturday morning.

Track Progress: Use SparkPeople to track my exercise and nutrition everyday. Continue reading my fitness prayer journal and writing my intimate thoughts at least 2x per week. Daily, ask God to order my steps and bless my journey because I know I can’t do this without Him.

Those are my goals for week 5. Let’s get it!

Oh but wait, I want to send a special shout out to @Tazzee, @nofearingthemoney, @aunaptural, and @talktotisha for inspiring, supporting, and encouraging me every single day.  I wouldn’t have made it this far without you.  I love you ladies to pieces!

Two quotes that inspire my personal finance AND physical fitness goals:

“If you want what the average person doesn’t have, you must be willing to do what the average person won’t do.” – My Mentor

I will never forget when my mentor said this to me. I was working on a project that, at the time, I thought was too hard.  The expectations were unrealistic and the required effort wasn’t worth the sacrifice.  Yet, I had very lofty career goals that the average person also thought were impossible. Contradiction, eh? Instead of holding my hand and feeling sorry for me, she gave me an “in your face” pep talk, and in so many words, told me to “figure it out!” I thought to myself “what a bitch!” I was discouraged, I stumbled, and I almost fell.  But that one quote stuck with me and I used it as a guiding light. Eventually, I completed the project – a little late but still within budget. It was my first major accomplishment, the foundation of my future, and my career trajectory began.

“What you focus on the longest will become your strongest. To be focused means having a keen sense of direction. Every thought, action and association has a purpose.” – Ken Brown

I discovered this quote when another PF blogger used part of it as the title of their blog post. I like it because it captures the essence of ME. When I’m dedicated to something, I give it my all. I mean, everything I have in me.  “A keen sense of direction.”  Nothing can distract me.  My goal becomes my new obsession, but an obsession with structure and discipline. “Every thought, action, and association has a purpose.” A clearly defined purpose with my eye on the prize.  I think about my goal daily.  With every move I make, I consider the impact it may have on my goal.  I seek out knowledgeable people.  When I interact with others, I share my goal and try to inspire them along my journey.  I read, I ask questions, I apply what I learn. The more I read and ask questions, the more knowledgeable I become. When I apply that knowledge, I measure my results. When I stumble and make mistakes, I repeat the lesson until I’ve mastered the concept. When I progress to the next level, I rinse and repeat until I am strong in that area and have reached my ultimate goal.

With physical fitness, I know it will take the same dedication and discipline to achieve what the average person thinks is too hard.  It won’t be easy, I know this too, but I’m willing to dedicate 110% of my focus to build and maintain a strong, healthy body. After all, I only get one.  So over the next year, I will continue to use these quotes as my guiding light and inspiration to achieve yet another lofty goal.

What inspires you?

With my new and improved perspective on life, I’m going to see if I can combine my two favorite PFs: physical fitness and personal finance.  From Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Retrain Your Brain to Love Exercise article, here’s a fitness tip that resonated with me:

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

With a savings account, you make deposits, watch your money grow with interest and then reap the rewards. You don’t deposit money so you can immediately withdraw it. Exercise is similar. It also gathers interest: As you get more fit, your body rewards your hard work by using more calories during and after your workouts. Here are some other ways that exercise contributes to long-term weight loss and weight maintenance.

1. Muscle burns calories while fat does not, even though it weighs more than fat.
2. Exercise builds muscle, which increases your body’s resting metabolic rate, so you expend more calories even when you’re not exercising.
3. Exercise also helps maintain muscle. Because muscle burns calories, exercise can also help you maintain the weight you lose, which is often harder than losing weight.
4. Some studies show that vigorous exercise can help reduce appetite, therefore exercisers take in fewer calories during the day without even thinking about it.
5. Researchers estimate that your body continues to burn calories at a higher rate for between 2 and 24 hours after you finish exercising.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

With exception of #1, all others were new information to me.  I didn’t make the connection until recently, but I’ve personally experienced and can attest to #4.  Since I exercise at the end of the day, I’m usually very hungry.  Everyone knows it isn’t smart to eat a full meal before exercise, so I may eat a small snack – something high in protein like low fat peanut butter on a few unsalted crackers because your body needs protein to build and protect the muscle.  Now you would think after my workout, I’d be ready to chow down, right?  Nope!  My hunger has usually subsided, which results in eating smaller portions – and – after working out, I get this insane craving for WATER like I’m living on a desert.  This helps with portion control too.

Beginning with week #3, I’m increasing my workouts to 4 times a week (Tues, Thurs, Sat, and Sun) for 1 hour each.  I’m making deposits into my savings account (exercise) so that my money can grow (healthy heart/build muscle) and work for me (burn calories) – oh, and the ultimate goal of a banging body.  You know I gotta keep it fabulous! ;-)

[image credit: bankrate.com]

I’ve heard people say, “the same skills required to manage your personal finances are the same skills required to become physically fit.”  Honestly, I thought that was bullshit.  But I finally get it now.  For the first time in my life, I’m committed to a regular exercise routine and sculpting a – dare I say it – FABULOUS figure. LOL!  Notice, I did NOT say anything about losing weight.  When people focus on losing weight, and only on losing weight, it becomes a temporary solution, not a lifestyle change.  As I mentioned in this post, my perspective on many things in life has changed – and physical fitness is one of them.

Not only have I been working out, but I’m also reading, researching, studying, observing, and networking with fitness and nutrition professionals to learn how the body operates and how to get the best long term results.  This means, I will make educated decisions to improve my physical fitness and fully understand what I’m doing to my body, not follow the latest trend of diet fads.  If I decide to share my experience on the blog, you may read things that the average person would think is counterproductive.  However, my long term readers and real life friends who read the blog already know that when I’m dedicated to something, I study first, then act.  The things I do often challenge status quo and conventional wisdom, but the results are undeniable.  To keep this personal finance related, I’ll give you two examples:

Example 1: I know to improve a credit score, one must have revolving accounts and use them often.  However, to be effective and use them wisely, one must pay the bill in full every month.  Whereas, the average person hates credit cards or thinks one must carry a balance and stay in debt to build credit.  Because I challenge status quo and conventional wisdom, I’ve had multiple credit cards (10+) with very high limits ($30k+).  As expected, this makes the average person uncomfortable, but those who truly understand the FICO algorithm know how to play the game.  As a result, all of my credit scores are in the top percentile (760+) and I’ve learned how to maintain them long term.

Example 2: I know to advance in a career, one must exceed expectations, toot your own horn, ask for what you want, and network.  However, to be effective, all of these things require a little charisma.  Whereas, the average person feels uncomfortable tooting their own horn, is afraid to ask for what they want, and hates networking.  Because I challenge status quo and conventional wisdom, I understand that “working hard” is not the solution to career advancement.  As expected, this frustrates the average person, but those who truly understand the good old boy’s system know how to play the game.  As a result, I advanced to a position in 6 years that takes the average person 20+ years, if ever.  Now that I’ve begun year 7 and competing with vets, I’m in maintenance mode but ambition is still brewing.

In both examples, I learned the most from reading, researching, studying, observing others in the know, and networking with “experts” – i.e. people who have done it and proven it, not people who are well known just because they’ve written a book or two on the subject.  I plan to approach my new commitment to physical fitness with the same vigor and dedication I give to my personal finances and career.  As with everything I do, it’s all or nothing.  GO HARD OR GO HOME!

• Advanced Degree? Check!
• Fast Track Career w/ 6 Figures? Check!
• Cash and Investments?  Check!
• Excellent Credit? Check!
• Home Owner? Check!
• Consumer Debt Free? Check!
• Banging Body? Pa-dow!

I’m only beginning week 3 of my fitness journey.  But by this time next year, y’all won’t be able to tell me nay-than!  With my only child on her way to college and entering my mid-30s, I will be the baddest b!tch you’ve ever seen!  Ha!  I’m recruiting for new haters.  Go ahead, you have permission now. LOL!

[image credit: abqjournal.com]