Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Food fads look silly thirty years later, but I vividly remember wanting to eat the food that astronauts eat. I had never heard of Space Food Sticks , but I wanted a glass of Tang every morning. Even now, as an adult, I prefer the taste of Tang to real orange juice.

Here is a video from Pillsbury advertising Space Food Sticks:

The technical description of Space Food Sticks doesn’t sound appetizing:

A battery of food scientists at Pillsbury, lead by Dr. Howard Bauman, whipped up an energy stick that was actually edible. The long chewy stick could slide into an airtight port located in an astronaut’s helmet to provide essential nutrition in case of an emergency. Pillsbury released a commercial spin-off of their cosmic creation, imaginatively dubbing the product Space Food Sticks.

Described as a “non-frozen balanced energy snack in rod form containing nutritionally balanced amounts of carbohydrate, fat and protein,” the original energy bars came in several flavors including caramel, chocolate, malt, mint, orange and the ever-popular peanut butter. Aficionados will recall that the Space Food Sticks were wrapped in special foil to give them an added space-age appearance.

When you hear people who ate Space Food Sticks as a child, however, you might think they were a delicacy:

I remember eating them with many a lunch brought to school – peeling away the weird silvery paper (not the slick Mylar of today!) and biting into the weirdly homogeneous cylinder of snack! I can remember the flavor(s) even now. – Seattle,WA

We simply refered to them as “Space Sticks.” They were only around when I was a child, but my brother and I considered them a special treat – so much so we’d ask for them as Christmas presents. We were never allowed to eat more than two at a time but I always wanted more. Chocolate was my favorite flavor. – Pleasant Hill,CA

I had never heard of them before, but at only 44 calories, there was worse food that children could obsess over.

The food fads right now seem to be whole foods: whole grain, whole vegetables, whole wheat… I wonder if thirty years from now if any kids will be as excited about whole grain Captain Crunch cereal as kids were about Space Food Sticks and Tang.

Via: Retro Futurism: The Future Will Taste Like Space Food Sticks

I’ve talked before about how much I love the rice cooker. I will cook several servings of brown rice or wild rice and then eat it in a variety of ways throughout the week. Here is another variation that I enjoy.

Rice and Cottage Cheese

• 1/2 cup of brown rice (3 points)
• 1/2 cup of fat free cottage cheese (2 points)
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of jalepeno peppers (0 points)

Total: 5 points

Mix the rice, cottage cheese and jalepeno peppers in a microwave-safe bowl and cook for one to two minutes on high. The cottage cheese will melt and create a cheesy, creamy rice that tastes a lot like risotto without the extra calories.

If you use 1/2 cup of jalepeno peppers, this with count as one vegetable serving and 1/2 of a dairy serving.

Try this recipe and tell me what you think.

Every week, I’ll be giving you some direction for how to actually KEEP your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight or get more active. If you’re short on time, scroll down to the end and read “The Short Version” to get your weekly tips.

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If you’re like a lot of people, you have given up on your New Year’s Resolutions, but are desperately trying to find SOMETHING that works. Somehow, you’ve found Starling Fitness. If this describes you, go back to New Year’s Resolutions: Week 1 and start from there.

If you have been faithfully following along since Week 1, this week is very much like last week.

Cut Your Intake By 100 Calories A Day

Your goal is to get to The USDA’s MyPyramid recommended daily calorie intake. If you complete their little questionaire, it will give you an idea of how many calories you should be eating every day. If you are still above that amount, then cut your intake by 100 calories a day.

If you are eating the right amount of calories every day, then keep it up. If you are eating LESS than the recommended amount, then increase your calories by adding healthy food. Never eat less than the USDA’s recommended daily calorie intake for your height and gender.

Save enough calories to eat one teaspoon of healthy oil each day

If you are eating lean protein and high fiber whole grains, then you are going to need some fat in your system. The USDA recommends a lot of oil. For me, it recommended 5 teaspoons. Don’t jump into their recommendations all at once. Shoot for one teaspoon of healthy oil a day. That will be about 50 calories, so plan for that amount every day. Here is the USDA’s list of healthy oils:

• canola oil
• corn oil
• cottonseed oil
• olive oil
• safflower oil
• soybean oil
• sunflower oil

Include one teaspoon in your diet every day, either by cooking with it or using it on salads.

Plan One Non-Food Related Present Every Day

The longer you follow this program the more important it is to give yourself a non-food present every day. It will help you avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself. Since this is different for every person, think of some activities that you like to do. If you didn’t do this exercise, then go back to New Year’s Resolutions: Week 3 and work on finding out what these activities are for you.

Plan a non-food activity for yourself EVERY day and protect that time. It is your reward for eating healthy every day. You MUST reward yourself every day to stave off any feelings of deprivation that limiting your calories might cause.

Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day

One way to stay within your calorie range is to eat vegetables on a regular basis. You should be adding four to five 1/2 cup servings of fruits or veggies to your diet every day now. They are low in calories, provide essential vitamins and fiber and they keep you feeling full.

Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day

You need to make sure that you have enough calories saved up for two servings of dairy products every day. This is another healthy food to add to your diet. One cup of fat-free milk is approximately 110 calories. It’s probably your best option for adding calcium to your diet, so make sure you get two servings a day.

Increase Your Exercise

This week, I want you to increase your walking mileage to 1.50 miles five days a week. I want you to do it at the same time every day. If you want, you can increase your speed to really get yourself sweating, but if you end up sore the next day, you MUST slow down. It’s more important to exercise every day than to push yourself. Consistency is key. You need to learn the habit of exercising every day and that is WAY more important than going fast or covering a lot of miles.

If you are keeping track of your mileage, you can join us at Runner+ to track your miles and compete against other beginners.

Give Yourself Kudos

If you are still working toward your New Year’s Resolution, then you need to give yourself kudos. There are little boxes on the forms every day to give yourself a shiny sticker. Each day that you stay on the program, you need to acknowledge yourself and how good you are doing.

See you next week!

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The Short Version:

• Reduce your daily caloric average by another 100 calories. Write down EVERYTHING you eat including measurements and calories.

• Save enough calories to eat one teaspoon of healthy oil each day.

• Avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself EVERY day.

• Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

• Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day.

• Increase your mileage. Walk 1.50 miles five days this week. You are allowed to increase your speed to the point of sweating, but if you are sore the next day you MUST go slow again.

• Give yourself kudos for coming this far.

I watch Diggnation every week. I love how Alex and Kevin chat on their couch talking about cool stuff. Imagine my surprise when they go into detail about their New Year’s Resolution to go alcohol-free and the surprising results.

The best of all, Alex has been losing weight with Jenny Craig and shared that fact with the audience:

Alex: I was losing weight because I was trying to lose weight. And I will say, I’ve lost twenty pounds.

Kevin: That is freakin’ crazy!

Alex: Is everybody ready for this? The WAY that I’ve lost twenty pounds in three months? Jenny Craig.

Kevin: Oh Gawd! I can’t believe you told people! This is a big thing to do!

Alex: Honestly, I was like so didn’t wanna do this, but both Heather and Susie lost a ton of weight on it. My mom was doing it, so I started doing that Chef at Home thing. Honestly, HONESTLY, I was like I don’t wanna try this. This is for ladies… whatever.

Kevin: Well… JENNY Craig…

Alex: I looked it up online and it was like, yeah, this itty bitty thing, “Yes, we help men, too.” And I was like is this really gonna work? DUDE! Three months and I’m eating better than I ever have before.

Kevin: Did you tell your bro’s that?

Alex: Yeah! And every single one of them starts off snicker snicker and then goes maybe I should join Jenny Craig. Fuckin’ Twenty POUNDS, dude, in THREE months!

Not only did Kevin Rose lose seven pounds just by cutting out beer from his diet, Alex has lost twenty pounds since October by following Jenny Craig. Watching two geek guys sitting on the couch talking about these things just brought it all home to me. EVERYONE needs to take care of their bodies by eating healthy and exercising, not just the “ladies” not just body builders. EVERYONE.

Sushi is a particularly healthy meal. It’s mostly fish and rice, so it tends to be filling and low in calories.

My friends Cory and Kathleen showed me how to eat sushi on a trip to visit them in San Francisco. I have followed their habits since that day and it’s good to see that they taught me well. Here is a video from Video Jug explaining all the intricate details for eating sushi.

How To Eat Sushi

They explain the soy sauce, sliced ginger and wasabi as well as the habits that may be considered impolite. Here is a quick list of the steps:

There are a few do’s and don’ts, but as with all food, it’s there to be enjoyed. Sushi is cold, cooked rice cooked with vinegar, shaped into bite-sized pieces and topped with raw or cooked fish or formed into a roll with fish, egg or vegetables and wrapped with seaweed.

Step 1: What to Expect

• Your place setting should include a napkin, a plate, a small block called a hashi oki onto which you rest your chopsticks, and a small shallow dish. This is for pouring soy sauce into.

If you are trying to lose weight, skip the sake and beer in step 2 and just drink the green tea.

Step 2: Drinks

• You may begin the meal with one sake. This is an alcoholic, wine-like drink, made from rice. It is then customary to move on to either green tea or beer during the meal.

Step 3: Chopsticks

• Although it is easier to eat larger pieces of sushi with your fingers, you should also use the chopsticks for some pieces and sashimi, the thin slices of fish which often start the meal. You’ll most likely be using disposable wooden chopsticks.

• Wooden chopsticks often have a few loose splinters of wood, which can make them uncomfortable to hold. These can be removed by rubbing the sticks together. Do not let your host see you doing this, as it implies that they are cheap.

• When selecting a piece of sushi from the serving dish, use the wider end of the sticks, not the end that you put in your mouth.

• Never pass food to another from your chopsticks to theirs. This mimics part of a Japanese funeral ritual and is therefore considered extremely rude.

• When you’re not using your chopsticks, rest them on the hoshi oki or across your plate, but do not lean them on the edge of your plate.

Step 4: Soy Sauce

• Pour a little of the soy sauce into your small, shallow dish. Do not dip in too much. This is considered greedy and wasteful. You can take more if you need it.

Step 5: Wasabi

• This is the extremely hot green paste that is included with most sushi dishes. Take a small amount with your chopsticks and carefully stir into your soy sauce. Again, don’t get too heavy handed as it could override the subtle flavors of the sushi and offend the chef.

Step 6: Eating The Sushi

• You should begin with sashimi, the thin slices of fish. Handle them with chopsticks and take time to savor the flavor. Then move on to rice based sushi, which you can eat with your hands or chopsticks.

• Pick the piece up and dip fish-side down in the soy sauce. Do not dunk the rice in the sauce. This will make it too soggy and difficult to eat.

• Place the sushi in your mouth fish side down, too, as it’s the flavor of the fish, not the rice that’s important here. Ideally, you should eat the piece of sushi in one go, or two at a push. Try not to take a bite and return it to your plate.

Step 7: Pickled Ginger

• These are the pale, pinkish slices often served with sushi. The idea is to eat the slices between sushi pieces to clean the palate. Use chopsticks for this, not your hands.

Etiquette aside, clearing your plate is not recommended is you are trying to lose weight. Stop eating when you get full. You don’t need to eat every grain of rice if you have eaten your fill.

Step 8: Clear Your Plate

• As much as possible, try not to leave any food on your plate. It is considered especially rude to leave rice.

Knowing what to expect when you are at a sushi restaurant will help you enjoy the ritual and experience. I have found sushi to be a way to eat healthy and feel like I’m having a fun night on the town.

Every week, I’ll be giving you some direction for how to actually KEEP your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight or get more active. If you’re short on time, scroll down to the end and read “The Short Version” to get your weekly tips.

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If you’re like a lot of people, you have given up on your New Year’s Resolutions, but are desperately trying to find SOMETHING that works. Somehow, you’ve found Starling Fitness. If this describes you, go back to New Year’s Resolutions: Week 1 and start from there.

If you have been faithfully following along since Week 1, then here are your assignments for this week:

Cut Your Intake By 100 Calories A Day

Last week, you calculated your daily caloric average and should have cut it by 100 calories a day. Were you able to do that? If no, stick with last week’s goal for cutting your calories. If you were able to keep your calories within last week’s range, then this week you are to cut your intake by an additional 100 calories.

Make sure you visit The USDA’s MyPyramid Site to calculate your recommended daily calorie intake. If you complete their little questionaire, it will give you an idea of how many calories you should be eating every day. You should never go below their number.

If you are eating the right amount of calories every day, then keep it up. If you are eating LESS than the recommended amount, then increase your calories by adding healthy food.

Plan One Non-Food Related Present Every Day

Last week, we talked about avoiding the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself. Since this is different for every person, you were supposed to think of some activities that you like to do. If you didn’t do this exercise, then go back to New Year’s Resolutions: Week 3 and work on finding out what these activities are for you.

Plan a non-food activity for yourself EVERY day and protect that time. It is your reward for eating healthy every day. You MUST reward yourself every day to stave off any feelings of deprivation that limiting your calories might cause.

Eat four or five servings of fruits and vegetables every day

One way to stay within your calorie range is to eat vegetables on a regular basis. You should be adding four to five 1/2 cup servings of fruits or veggies to your diet every day now. They are low in calories, provide essential vitamins and fiber and they keep you feeling full.

Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day

You need to make sure that you have enough calories saved up for two servings of dairy products every day. This is another healthy food to add to your diet. One cup of fat-free milk is approximately 110 calories. It’s probably your best option for adding calcium to your diet, so make sure you get two servings a day.

Increase Your Exercise

This week, I want you to increase your walking mileage to 1.25 miles five days a week. I want you to do it at the same time every day. If you want, you can increase your speed to really get yourself sweating, but if you end up sore the next day, you MUST slow down. It’s more important to exercise every day than to push yourself. Consistency is key. You need to learn the habit of exercising every day and that is WAY more important than going fast or covering a lot of miles.

If you are keeping track of your mileage, you can join us at Runner+ to track your miles and compete against other beginners.

Give Yourself Kudos

If you are still working toward your New Year’s Resolution, then you need to give yourself kudos. There are little boxes on the forms every day to give yourself a shiny sticker. Each day that you stay on the program, you need to acknowledge yourself and how good you are doing.

See you next week!

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The Short Version:

• Reduce your daily caloric average by another 100 calories. Write down EVERYTHING you eat including measurements and calories.

• Avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself EVERY day.

• Eat four or five servings of vegetables every day.

• Save enough calories to eat two servings of dairy products each day.

• Increase your mileage. Walk 1.25 miles five days this week. You are allowed to increase your speed to the point of sweating, but if you are sore the next day you MUST go slow again.

• Give yourself kudos for coming this far.

I got this recipe last week at Weight Watchers. I have no idea where the member got the recipe, but she was SO excited to share it with all of us and I can understand why. It’s delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of fat-free milk – 100 calories – 2 points
• 6 ice cubes – 0 calories – 0 points
• 2 Tbsp of sugar-free fat-free pudding mix – approx. 15 calories – 0 points

Total: 115 calories – 2 points

Directions:

Put all of the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. The pudding gives the milk flavor and a little bit of creamy smoothness.

This recipe is a fast, 2 point dessert that REALLY fools me into thinking I’m eating a Wendy’s Frosty. I’ve also tried the white chocolate flavor, which has a malted milk and vanilla taste. There are so many pudding flavors to choose from, you could have a different milk shake every day of the week!

Yum!

The rice cooker has been a boon to eating healthy for me. Honestly, cooking rice on the stove top is difficult. Most times, I would end up with a sticky glue instead of fluffy rice. Brown rice and other whole grains are even harder. Now, I just cook up three to six servings of rice, divide them up into Ziploc bowls and put them into the refrigerator to eat in a myriad of ways.

Here is one of my favorites: Mexi-Rice

• 1/2 cup pre-cooked brown rice – 140 calories – 3 points
• 1/3 cup canned dark red kidney beans (drained) – 100 calories – 2 points
• 1 cup canned diced tomatoes – 25 calories – 0 points
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried onion
• Smidgen of dried chipotle peppers
• Optional additions: Two sprigs of fresh cilantro and/or a few drops of Tabasco sauce.

Total: 265 calories – 5 points

These are the ingredient sizes for one serving. It’s a HUGE serving, so you might want to cut everything in half if you have a small appetite.

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and microwave for 2 minutes. Mix together and add the fresh cilantro and Tabasco sauce for extra flavor.

If you are following the Weight Watchers Core Plan, this is also a Core Food. It counts as one serving of whole grains, one serving of lean protein and two servings of vegetables.

If you don’t own a rice cooker or know how to make brown rice on the stove, you can purchase pre-cooked packets of brown rice from Uncle Ben’s. It’s not quite as good as making it yourself, but it’s really easy.

If you try this recipe, please leave comments here about how you made it better. Considering how horrible a cook I am, I’m SURE there are ways to make it better!

Every week, I’ll be giving you some direction for how to actually KEEP your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight or get more active. If you’re short on time, scroll down to the end and read “The Short Version” to get your weekly tips.

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Last week, you should have been writing down the measurements and calories for everything you ate. If you didn’t do that last week, go back to New Year’s Resolutions: Week 2 and try again this week. If you DID write down everything you ate and your calorie amounts, good job! Now you have the information to help you move on to Week 3!

Find Your Daily Caloric Average

Add all your calories for the whole week and divide by 7. This will give you a daily caloric average.

Now, visit The USDA’s MyPyramid Site. If you complete their little questionaire, it will give you an idea of how many calories you should be eating every day. Compare that number with your daily caloric average.

If you are eating the right amount of calories every day, then keep it up. If you are eating LESS than the recommended amount, then increase your calories by adding healthy food.

If you are eating MORE than the USDA recommended amount, then this is the week you start to work on losing weight. I don’t recommend going down to the USDA daily calorie recommendations unless you are within 100 calories a day. Instead, take your daily caloric average, minus 100 calories and stay within that range this week.

This might sound easy, but it can be very difficult. When you take away, even if it’s only by 100 calories, you start to feel deprivation.

Avoid Feeling Deprived

Avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself. This is different for every person, so I can’t really tell you what your magical activity will be, but here are a few ideas:

• Give yourself 30 minutes to do whatever you want: Reserve that time and don’t let anything else get in your way. Read, play video games, crochet, whittle wood, whatever you want to do, give yourself at least a half hour to do it.

• Take several nurture-breaks: Throughout your day at work, I’m sure there are times when you reach for food. I know I hit the vending machines or walked past the candy dish at those times of the day. Instead of eating, take 2-5 minutes to breathe deeply, call a friend or do some other activity to clear your mind and give yourself a break.

• Watch TV Snack-Free: Every commercial seems to entice me to get up and check the fridge for some food. At commercial time, consciously do something else instead of eating. You can get up to go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, or even do a few exercises. Whatever you do, enjoy your television time without food.

I’m sure there are a million ways to nurture yourself without food. Please leave comments telling me your favorite way to reward yourself.

Eat three or four servings of fruits and vegetables every day

One way to stay within your calorie range is to eat vegetables on a regular basis. You should be adding three to four 1/2 cup servings of fruits or veggies to your diet every day now. They are low in calories, provide essential vitamins and fiber and they keep you feeling full.

Save enough calories to eat one serving of dairy products each day

You need to make sure that you have enough calories saved up for one serving of dairy products every day. This is another healthy food to add to your diet. One cup of fat-free milk is approximately 110 calories. It’s probably your best option for adding calcium to your diet, so make sure you get one serving a day.

Increase Your Exercise

This week, I want you to increase your walking mileage to 1.0 miles five days a week. I want you to do it at the same time every day. If you want, you can increase your speed to really get yourself sweating, but if you end up sore the next day, you MUST slow down. It’s more important to exercise every day than to push yourself. Consistency is key. You need to learn the habit of exercising every day and that is WAY more important than going fast or covering a lot of miles.

If you are keeping track of your mileage, you can join us at Runner+ to track your miles and compete against other beginners.

Give Yourself Kudos

If you are still working toward your New Year’s Resolution, then you need to give yourself kudos. There are little boxes on the forms every day to give yourself a shiny sticker. Each day that you stay on the program, you need to acknowledge yourself and how good you are doing.

See you next week!

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The Short Version:

• Reduce your daily caloric average by 100 calories. Write down EVERYTHING you eat including measurements and calories.

• Avoid the feeling of deprivation by finding non-food activities to nurture yourself.

• Eat three or four servings of vegetables every day.

• Save enough calories to eat one serving of dairy products each day.

• Increase your mileage. Walk 1.0 miles five days this week. You are allowed to increase your speed to the point of sweating, but if you are sore the next day you MUST go slow again.

• Give yourself kudos for coming this far.

Every week, I’ll be giving you some direction for how to actually KEEP your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight or get more active. If you’re short on time, scroll down to the end and read “The Short Version” to get your weekly tips.

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Last week I asked you, no begged you, to take it easy on yourself. I know you have a New Year’s Resolution to finish, but honestly you can’t finish it in a week. You had three options last week: Take it easy, overdo it or give up. Let’s figure out what to do this week based on your performance last week.

I Overdid It

If you jumped into your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight and get active, you might have overdid it. Your muscles are sore and you feel like you’re STARVING. If that’s the case, STOP IT! Seriously, right now, throw whatever plan you had to lose weight out the freakin’ window. I’m not asking you to give up on your resolution, I’m just asking you to stop abusing yourself and move on to the “I Gave Up” section.

I Gave Up

I can’t tell you how many January firsts started with a strict New Year’s Resolution plan that ended up with a Twinkie binge by January third. Okay, that’s a lie. It was one year. The other years, I binged on something else.

If you find yourself in the position of giving up, that’s completely fine. Seriously, you don’t have to kill yourself to get healthy. All you have to do is pick yourself back up, time after time. Instead of going back to your old ways, try my New Year’s Resolution plan. You’ll be one week behind, but that’s just fine. Start from here and move on:

• Starling Fitness » New Year’s Resolutions: Week One

Evelyn Underhill said,

“Every minute you are thinking of evil, you might have been thinking of good instead. Refuse to pander to a morbid interest in your own misdeeds. Pick yourself up, be sorry, shake yourself, and go on again.”

I’m not saying that eating poorly is evil, but if you use this idea for every time you eat poorly, you WILL succeed at weight loss.

I Took It Easy, Just Like You Said

The first thing I want to say is, “Good Job!” It is SO hard to take it easy, despite how it sounds. Here is your plan for Week 2:

Learn Serving Sizes and Calorie Counts

If you followed last week’s plan, you wrote down everything you ate. Excellent work. I want you to do that again this week, but this time, I want you to put the calorie counts next to all the food you ate. That means you need to measure and you need to start learning the calorie amounts for all of your favorite foods.

This is a week for education. You need to train yourself what a cup of rice looks like. You need to train yourself to know how many calories are in a Big Mac.

This is NOT a week of deprivation. You still need to eat just like you would eat before. All I’m asking you to do is to WRITE DOWN everything you eat and its caloric amount.

Eat Your Veggies and Fruits

This week, I’m going to recommend that you add two or three servings of vegetables to your diet every day. There are little check boxes on the forms for you to check off vegetable servings. You need to check off at least two servings a day. According to the USDA, you should have between 3 and 5 cups of vegetables a day. One cup is a mighty big bite to swallow, so I divide servings into half cups. Here’s a good list of veggies to try:

• MyPyramid.gov – Inside The Pyramid – What foods are in the vegetable group?

All I’m asking is that you make sure you eat 1 or 1 and 1/2 cups of vegetables or fruit every day.

Increase Your Exercise

I’m still telling you to go slow and easy. When I did this, the second week was actually HARDER than the first week, not because I increased my mileage, but because I wanted to increase it MORE. It was so frustrating, I complained about it on Twitter:

• Twitter / Laura Moncur: Workout finished. 1 mile doesn’t seem enough, even though I’m running fast. It’s hard to take it slow.

Here’s the run I was talking about:

• LauraMoncur’s run log for Wednesday, June 06, 2007 at 10:32 AM – RUNNER+

And I was pushing myself too much that week. This week, I want you to increase your walking mileage to 0.75 miles five days a week. I want you to do it at the same time every day. If you want, you can increase your speed to really get yourself sweating, but if you end up sore the next day, you MUST slow down. It’s more important to exercise every day than to push yourself. Consistency is key. You need to learn the habit of exercising every day and that is WAY more important than going fast or covering a lot of miles.

Give Yourself Kudos

If you are still working toward your New Year’s Resolution, then you need to give yourself kudos. There are little boxes on the forms every day to give yourself a shiny sticker. Each day that you stay on the program, you need to acknowledge yourself and how good you are doing.

See you next week!

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The Short Version:

• DO NOT change your eating regime at all, but write down EVERYTHING you eat, including the measurements (i.e. 1 cup of rice) and calories.

• You are allowed to ADD two or three servings of vegetables every day, but you are not allowed to restrict anything in your diet.

• Increase your mileage. Walk 0.75 miles five days this week. You are allowed to increase your speed to the point of sweating, but if you are sore the next day you MUST go slow again.

• Give yourself kudos for coming this far.