Winter Blues, Eating Unhealthily and Getting Back on Track

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I wonder if all Sagittarii all like this, but despite being born in December, I absolutely hate winter (apart from my birthday week where I get showered with presents and earn the right for *a birthday jam from my lindy hop friends).

But seriously, there is nothing sexy or pleasurable about having to put on layers and layers of clothes, lose your make-up to snow and sweat and have your plans cancelled because the weather really brought everybody down and seriously messed up traffic.

And when you are stuck at home, or the coffee shop nearby, it is hard to pay attention to how you look. Even if I do feel guilty about not having stuck to a healthier eating routine, especially when all the fat is stored in my belly region, ideals of having a Scarlett Johansson-like (I do have the curves, I just have a “little” more extra fat) body are exchanged by the momentary pleasure of chocolate. 

Scarlett in Red.

I was feeling bad that I cheated on my Fitnesspal (both the website schedule and my friend), but learned that she doesn’t exactly have the Jennifer Aniston resolve to get and keep fit at the moment either.

Of course unhealthy eating adds to your depressed state, which adds to your unhealthy eating. It is a vicious circle, and even though I want to be all on salads and vegetables, it seems impossible to just to eat natural nuts, dried fruits for snacks. And it no longer motivates to listen to songs like So Hot (Kid Rock) when you know you are not. At least not as hot as you can be.

And while I do admire Adele for embracing her weight and I’d never want to be skinny, I am the happiest with myself when I am the fittest.  How are you on your end? How is winter treating you?  If you got off track, don’t despair. It happens to all of us (humans.) The best thing you can do is to increase the indoors activity. 

Some Applicable Tips to Get Back on a Healthier Route: 

-Try your sexy dresses and see how much you need to hide and/or tuck in. This might upset you, but at least it should motivate you to do better. 

-Can’t say no to the chocolate bar? Eat it. Then turn on your favorite dancing songs, and dance away.
The faster the songs, the better. You can at least burn some off it!

-Clean up your house, organize your (home) office. If you are anything like me, the needed collective cleaning will equal to an 20-min aerobics session.

- Keep trying on more clothes. See if anything no longer suits your taste. Not only it burns calories, but it will give you space for shopping.

- Go clothes shopping! You shouldn’t go crazy like Rebecca Bloomwood, but trying on lots of clothes in lots of stores is actually quite good (and fun) exercise. If you can cut back a little on food, great. I once lost 8 kilos in one summer with shopping! 

- Go dark. Dark chocolate is more fulfilling, and you will feel more saturated with less amount of it. 

-Eat the chocolate but not the cake. Cut the flour, if you can’t cut the sugar.

-Take the stairs. In case you are carrying your laptop and other stuff with you.

- Go out to dance, if the weather allows you. 

-The moment you feel you won’t freeze outside, leave the house. How far you will go is up to you, but anything is better than sitting at home and feeling miserable.

- Listen to songs that are about getting back on track and/or never quitting or breaking no matter what. 

Some of my favorites: Bon Jovi, Unbreakable.                                          
                                  Tom Petty, I Won’t Back Down.

Which reminds me. I just changed my station into rock’n’roll for some stretching and dancing around. Will switch to rock after I warm up….

P.S. I know I didn’t include things like go to the gym. I live in a big city where my gym is far away. I think I’ll be going in that direction once March arrives.  Of course if you can go hiking or jogging on a regular basis, I’m proud of you. But then this post wasn’t really meant for the steel-willed….

*birthday jam: When all the guys and the girls try to dance with you because it is your birthday and others just watch and enjoy the show.

(Un)conventional Fitness Acitivity 6: Cleaning Your Room/House

Cleaning and Organizing Your Room

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First, let’s see who might get better results with this activity:

·      

           The obsessively tidy and clean

You belong to this category if you almost always see cleaning to be done, even if other people think everything looks immaculate. Worry not. This means this fitness activity is regular (& natural) for you.

Remember how fit Courteney Cox’s Friendscharacter Monica was? I am betting that any one close to her obsession with organization and cleanliness, wouldn’t really have the time or the opportunity to gain weight.

·         The unorganized and/or shopaholics

Well, I confess. I am by nature an unorganized person. I am also a shopaholic so I am constantly adding new clothes to my already stuffed wardrobe.

And maybe I could find  a way to keep the room in order to some level, but I am also a writer, an avid reader and movie-watcher. So add the novels, writing projects, writing stuff and files and the DVDs, and I am in big trouble.

My organizational efforts burn more calories than a session at the gym or hours spent on the dancing floor.

After all, cleaning works pretty much every muscle. You have to pick things up, pull things down, re-arrange furniture &clothes, clean after your mess....

My last organizing activity? Yesterday. The result? Burnt calories, and officially establishing the need for new wardrobes, a bigger room and a bigger house.

How to Make Organizing More Fun

If you are anything like Monica, cleaning provides its own rush and happiness. But for the rest, and especially the intrinsically messy ones like me, there are ways to make the whole thing fun:

Turn on a TV-Show/Movie That Doesn’t Require Much Attention

It can be the re-runs of things you already watched and loved make for great help. You get to laugh and get things done at the same time.

Music and Dancing

Yep, it is always great to turn on great, fast tracks while you finish the task. And if you squeeze in the lovely activity dancing, time might fly without you swearing off shopping for new stuff.

Confession: I did swear off shopping but I am guessing it’ll last only for a short time. I am just being honest here. After all, shopping is a much more fun way to keep fit, remember? J

Do you have suggestions to keep cleaning more fun?

Preventing Fitness Injuries

Preventing Fitness Injuries

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Sorry, it has been a long while since I last posted, but I have a valid excuse. In my last post Unconventional Fitness Activity 5: How Freelancing Can Help You Stay Fit, I had mentioned that I injured my leg.

The thing is, I am a big fan of practicing what I preach and an injured leg that constantly felt like I had run a marathon didn’t help my efforts to be fit or stylish. Let’s face it: a kneepad and a limp don’t really increase my hotness levels. Or improve my style.

But my leg is getting better, I am no longer taking cabs everywhere and I am slowly returning to my dance classses. Unfortunately, remembering all the dance steps and moves is a little harder than getting back on the bike.

I don’t know why exactly I got hurt, because I did stretch before the class. Apparently, it wasn’t enough.

But this is life and shit happens so what are we supposed to do when we get sick or injured?

God forbid anything serious or terminal. But apart from morbid situations, we usually deal with minor injuries and the flu. So what can we do to prevent injuries due to illnesses or simply inadaquate action or too much action?

We can stretch. Regularly, preferably starting the day with it and then re-stretching and warming-up before any fitness activity. Not only these give us energy boosts, they also make sure the muscles relax and you don’t end up staying away from the gym or the dance class for a month.

Even when you are feeling like you are going down with something, a couple of sit-ups and minor stretching shouldn’t be a big deal. And you know what you can do to prevent that cold: lots of fruits, vegetables and regular exercise.

So this was an injury prevention posts. I’ll be back with more unconventional and/or fun tips soon.

exer

Until then.

Unconventional Fitness Acitivity 5: How Freelancing Can Keep You Stay Fit

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Well, this one is tricky because the peace of your mind pretty much depends on how much money you are making (and how much you are enjoying yourself), whether your hands and arms are healthy (well carrying around your office around like a turtle and typing like crazy can hurt you at times) and well, physical health and a good internet connection also help.

Now, when I was first planning this post in my head, all was fine in the world. I was healthy, productive and was taking my own advice. Remember the unconventional tips about developing a crush, dancing and hanging with your attractive friends? Yeah, well- I worked a lot, danced about 3-4 times a week  (each session lasting for at least 2 hours), hung out with my best friend who is really attractive (and currently attracting a lot of guys, even the ones she doesn’t want to attract) and I am on the lookout for cute guys who might be worth my time. 

Then, on a couple of Tuesdays ago, I hurt my leg during dancing. Now, I am supposed to rest, which is a really difficult thing for a hyperactive person to do. I couldn’t dance at the Friday parties. Then my modem broke and my home internet connection went to hell, which is a bummer since I am supposed to stay a lot more at home to do that resting and even though I haven’t been typing all that much lately, my arm is now hurting too. 

Oh, yes. Mind you, I didn’t put on any weight since I combined my freelancing routine with dancing. Trust me, I’m not dieting. Or cutting back. At all. So I am pretty OK with keeping the weight constant. But if you watch what you eat a little, being a freelancer might help you shed some pounds too. Here’s how:

*Stop picturing freelancers and writers as people who don’t leave home. I barely stay at home because all the sofas, mess and housework can get in the way. And even walking to your bus stop is some action, especially if you live in a big city.

* Well carrying all that stuff around means you can work anywhere, so you don’t really need to cancel any 

spontaneous opportunities that come your way.

* How heavy is your bag? I think it should count as a minor (or major, depending on the size of your laptop) heavy-lifting activity.

* You can exercise at home. You don’t go to an office where you spend majority of your waking hours. So who’s to stop you from dancing to your favorite songs?

* You can go to the gym in the middle of the week, during other people’s office hours.

Let me know if you can think of more…

Hanging Out with Your Attractive Friends: Unconventional Fitness Activity 4

     You know what highly success people advise? That you surround yourself with more successful people so that with the help of the group’s dynamics, you will also succeed. It makes perfect sense – when no one around you is aiming low, nothing- even you- can hold you back.

So what does that have to be with beauty and fitness? Well, a lot actually. The idea is that you will hang out more often with friends who pay attention to how they look. I am not suggesting you surround yourself with superficial people, fashion victims or diet freaks. Rather, I am merely suggesting that among all the friends you can hang out with, choose to spend time with the ones who are more active, health-conscious and overall well-groomed.

Because you will feel bad if you are the only one who’s not taking care of yourself, peer pressure and motivation will make you want to put on that little touch of make-up, give up on the coffee cream and pick your more flattering outfits to wear.

image via: danspalatset.se

Yes, this is a Lindy Hop move. Hopefully one day, it'll be possible for me too. But there is no way I am going to get to it if I just sit around with my friends who only like to sit around. I have a lot of those!

Recently, I have been spending more time at the dance studio (where I am taking lindy hop lessons). The more I watch the good dancers, the more I want to attend the practice times and well, the more I want to dance. And the more I dance, the better I feel . And the more moves I can master, the more I will enjoy it and the more I will want to dance. Oh, yes :it is one fantastic and beneficial cycle.

The point is whatever you’d like to accomplish and/or maintain, find a way to hang out with people who are better at it than you do, or at least just as enthusiastic as you are.  I had a great year in Norway, when I was an exchange student. I had great friends, who were just as addicted to fun and partying as I was. The result? One fantastic year. And I am thinking, why not apply it to our looks?

Developing A Crush - Unconventional Fitness Activity 3

Yep, that is actually what I am advising. Get out there and find yourself at least one crush. I am saying at least one, because you might get too emotionally invested if you really start liking someone. 

It occured to me that I tend to spend more time in front of the mirror when I have a crush. Those extra minutes spent trying to look a little sexier, taking a little longer to decide what to wear…It is just that inevitably I move more.

I especially remember this one crush - more of an insanely sexual attraction, really. He was just so hot. Tall, dark blonde, great built, sexy face, great voice, perfect style... He even had the best taste in music.I think he knew how perfect he looked so he wasn't easy to approach. He just wasn't the type of guy that made you fantasize about romantic dinners. You wouldn't have the time to think what he would be like your boyfriend, because well, all you wanted was to get him in a room, alone.

Sure, it feels great when we are only looking more attractive for our own eyes alone. It is also fun when strangers admire you too. But I always found it much more stimulating when someone you find hot/attractive/cute thinks the same way about you.

But the downside of having a crush on someone, you can get too involved. So it is much better if you surround yourself with little crushes (objects of your like) rather than just one. Because that one crush might not like you back or he might and things may not work out. So you just might end up falling for your comfort food when things go sour.

You already have a crush? Great. Make the most of it.