life is too short

a lot of people might think that life is too short to worry about diet and exercise- that we just dont have enough time in our days- and i totally get that. i constantly, daily, battle with which things to do now or later, when i can do this or that, and whose needs to put first. do i go running and i know ill feel better and be a better mom or do i spend more time with my kids or my husband or my friends, and forego my excercise? its a daily battle for sure. and sometimes i look at people (who shall remain nameless!!) who dont make time for exercise and im sort of jealous of the extra time (they dont even reaize they have) in their days. but i know i feel good, i feel better if i make time for it. and i hope that it will extend my life so that i can, in the end, have more time for my kids, and my husband, and my friends. we have to think about quality of life too. i know an older man who has never exercised in his adult life and his days are spent in front of the tv on the couch. he doesnt ever feel well mentally or physically, so he has resigned himself to a lonely world on the couch. he doesnt play with his grandchildren or take walks. he doesnt have any desire to do much and is very grumpy. if he wouldve taken those few minutes every day and respected his body, he wouldn't feel this way now. he would have energy, he wouldnt have bad circulation in his legs, he wouldnt have high BP and cholesterol, he would be happier in general (many many studies show how working out=more feel good happy hormones and less depression). so i do agree life is short, and there are some days where i feel like, im just going to skip b/c i want to hang out, i try to think of the future and what it would look like if i didnt work out or take care of myself. its not just an extended life you'll get, but a better one.

measure-ey

so as i was walking out of fitworks and i overheard a trainer/nutrionist meeting with a client. also, that same morning i had the today show on and i remember it being one of the reocurring (yawn) pieces on portion control and calorie intake. the trainer/nutrionist of fitworks had a super boring copy of "the correct portions" you shall intake at each meal. this included such things as tennis balls and softballs. the client looked oh so interested in this sheet of course! and the trainer didn't have to do anything but pass that printed out dated worksheet on correct calorie intake and portion control onto her client to follow to the tee. i mean could we make it a little less robotic please? not to mention completely boring and dare i say not realistic at all? i mean especially for the beginner trying to lose weight- let us tackle one problem at a time before we get to how many peas we're allowed to eat at dinner. and to me, it's so much more important WHAT you eat, not just how much you eat. i mean if you're sitting down to a meal of carrots, who cares if you eat 75 of them? i'm so sick of these ADA following rule following portion controlled calorie intake bosses telling everyone how much and when to eat. it is not one size fits all! i think it doesn't have to be like this. who has time to count calories and measure your food and compare your meals to balls?!! not only is this method of food control completely boring, but it's really a pain and complicated. a healthy diet is actually the opposite of this- it's SIMPLE. let's just focus on eating real whole food and we'll all be much better for it :)
i focus on ingredients PERIOD. i focus on QUALITY, not quantity. even if you eat only a tennis ball portion of cheese puffs- you still subjected your body to cheese puffs. so let's stop being so anal and measure-ey (great word there, huh?!), and focus on the important stuff like what are you feeding your body? what are you feeding your mind?