Holiday Hang Over

It’s time for the annual review of how much weight we’ve gained during the holidays. I know, technically, I am a little early since New Years isn’t until next week, but why not get it out of the way now and maybe prevent the dreaded New Years resolution to lose weight and workout more and blah blah blah.  I’ve gained a few pounds since Thanksgiving.  I lost a couple of those this morning too but I won’t discuss that.  I also have discovered the way to prevent the cycle. Yes, my friends, I have discovered how to eat whatever you want and not have too much of the holiday hang over.

I know there is one of you who wants to comment that I am spelling hangover wrong, but I am not. I am spelling hang OVER. The extra that pokes out over the top of our jeans. Some call it a muffin top or beer belly.  I call it the hang over. The remnants of a good time gone. The evidence of overindulgence. The reason we promise to change our behavior. A hangover.

Recently, I’ve been working on changing my lifestyle into habits that are extremely easy to manage and maintain. These habits must be flexible and produce measurable results. They also must be simple and not time-consuming.  There have been some changes that have worked extremely well and those are the ones I would like to share with you today.

Why do I say I have discovered the way and that it works extremely well? I am strictly speaking from my experience and the experiences of others.  So what has my experience been?  If you follow my blog, you’ve read about my transformation, you know I recently completed a couple challenges including an online squat challenge, and then I just kinda stopped working out hard. I found yoga to be an essential part of my daily routine and it has helped me maintain a mental and emotional peace that elevates my physical health in a new and refreshing way.  With these, I’ve managed to lose and keep off a few tough to get rid of inches. Inches in my thighs and triceps and happily, my glute has a desirable shape emerging once again! I find practicing yoga really helps to keep toning that very large muscle group.

I also suffer from chronic back… issues? Problems? Pains? I really don’t know what it’s called but basically, because I’ve been top heavy most of my life and because I’ve had multiple pregnancies and 2 cesarean sections, my core muscles take extra effort to build and that also means they provide little to no back support. I have discovered that practicing yoga and some basic Pilates movements have helped me tremendously to manage my back pain and improve my overall core and back health.

Improved back and core health has helped me with so much.  I am able to play my sport with a little more endurance.  I am convinced a secret that professional athletes don’t speak on so much but they should is listening to the cues your body speaks.  An ache here or a pain there, dry lips or slight headaches are the language of the body.  As we strengthen and nourish the body it will respond in kind with increased power and endurance.  Yoga and Pilates are simply additions to me because a few rounds of sun salutations and the hundred can be done anywhere. In the office, in the break room, on the playground or in the hallway.  I literally practice early in the morning before my shift, on the playground.  When it’s raining, I just go into the office and throw my mat down in front of the copier machine. I’ve had a few co-workers tell me I inspire them to do yoga too.  That’s so awesome to me.

As I stated, I have stopped working out hard for the time being and to me, that means the foods I choose to eat are very important. I have not really been good at tracking things so I downloaded MyFitnessPal and that app has really helped me track what I eat, the macros and the calories. (In case you aren’t familiar with the term macros, this simply means the nutritional statistics of the carbohydrates, fat and protein counts of the food)  This has helped me to notice what foods are seriously empty calories that spike my sugar and could potentially lead to health problems.  Such a simple tool to use too because it allows me to scan what I eat. I don’t have to enter all the information and let me tell you, it has a very large library.  I didn’t expect to find so many foods that we eat here in Hawaii on the app, but I have not been disappointed.  Now, with this bit of information, I began to track when I ate and what type of foods I eat at these different times. It’s no surprise that on days that I planned and prepped my meals and snacks, I eat healthier and fewer calories, without sacrificing a meal or a snack. What that means is that I didn’t go hungry because I planned out the meals and snacks.  On the days when I did a workout, I noticed that I needed more than what I had prepped for myself and so I ate more and logged it.  Since on those days I also burned more calories, I am convinced there was no negative effect on my weight loss goals and while the scale fluctuates daily, the way my jeans fit confirms my confidence.

Along with using MyFitnessPal to track how foods benefit my body, I began to make smarter choices. I also noticed that I often would have the healthiest foods early in the morning, not snack too much during the day and when it was time for lunch I preferred a larger meal and a light dinner if any. I always try to have my master amino acid complex for breakfast because I am convinced that breaking my overnight fast with vegan protein is healthiest for me and my goals of losing weight. I want my body to use the protein to move my muscles and let the stored fat get burned as fuel to jump-start the day. Some mornings I would add a power shake but  I usually had the power shake for dinner.  Eating this way lead me to the great discovery of how to avoid the holiday hang over, only I didn’t know it yet.

You know how you sleep all night, wake up and within a couple hours, you feel like you need to eat. For some of us, there aren’t hours after we wake up before our body expresses its need for food. We have jitters, shakes, see spots or feel lightheaded.  Some people break out in sweats or pass out completely if they don’t eat quickly after symptoms onset. For those types of reactions, I would highly recommend talking to a doctor to find out if your blood sugar levels are in a healthy range.  I am hoping that most of you do not have any symptoms like those when you wake up and assuming that you do not, you may be able to last a couple hours or longer before eating breakfast. This is when I found it to be easiest to keep fasting. Perhaps you remember hearing as you grew up that it was better to not eat or drink after 8 pm? I remember learning at some point that our bodies naturally detox evenings around 10 pm.  Now, I am sure the time is not the focus as much as perhaps a couple hours after our last meal and the sun has set and so forth and so on.  I mean, there is so much science out there about the body and its mechanics in relation to the solar system and weather patterns, but I have become convinced that there is much more to it than I understand and as such, to err on the side of caution is a healthy choice. Taking that into consideration, if you were to stop eating at between 8 and 9 and not eat again until 11 or better yet 1 pm, that 16 or so hours fasting would cause your body to definitely burn stored fat for energy and help the body to detoxify itself from some of the toxins we eat and absorb from the environment.

Eating healthy, exercising regularly and resting has done wonders and I highly recommend these habits as to all seeking to feel more youthful and energetic. I cannot rave enough about how much the quality of my life has improved since I made consistent changes in the way I eat and incorporated daily basic yoga poses.  With the New Year upon us, as the resolutions abound, let’s try this together… eating clean in a timely fashion and exercising regularly not just our body, but also our minds.

Happy New Year Everyone!

📗 About D Goosby of JDs Organic Productions

🌺My Story... The Journey Continues🌺

D Goosby of JD's Organic Productions is a wife and a mom to 8 beautiful kids including 2 sets of twins. At one point, she weighed close to 300 lbs and then lost half of it just to put most of it back on. D eventually got tired of the yo-yo. She learned some hidden truths about our food system and decided to get educated and make lasting changes. D studied to become a certified personal trainer, nutrition coach, and peristeam practitioner because she realized that she was not alone in wanting to make healthy lifestyle changes but lacking the knowledge to make anything permanent.

That is what D does today, she helps busy moms like herself, get back to where they feel good again, they look the way they want to look and they get to be a healthy role model for their families and friends.

#health #challenge #hangover #calories #diet #myfitnesspal #fasting #physicalhealth #weightloss #yoga #pilates #holiday #detox #masteraminoacid #hawaii #athletes #exercise #newyearsresolution