Are You Willing to Persist in Order to Accomplish

Let’s face it, we’re not talking about the stories of persistence of some very well known people, we’re talking about taking one day at a time and fitting in and accomplishing your workout. According to Jack Canfield and Mark V Hansen in Chicken Soup for the Soul, “Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four and didn’t read until he was seven”. Eighteen publishers turned down Richard Bach’s 10,000 word story, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, before it was published in 1970. By 1975, it had sold more than seven million copies in the US alone. Richard Hooker worked for seven years on M*A*S*H and then was rejected by 21 publishers before Morrow published it and then it went on to become a blockbuster movie and successful TV series.

This week, it’s about, “did you fit in your workout?” I schedule my workouts in WOWY and as I said in another post, 10:00 am is about the only time in the day that I can justify taking about an hour away from work and family to do something for my health and fitness. I put on the schedule that I would do P90X Core Synergistics today and it was a good thing, because it was icy and schools had been closed, so I couldn’t run.

But the workout didn’t happen as planned. I was already quite stressed because I am getting a debt consolidation loan - long story, I am sure much like many others - and was trying to move a DVD player and set it up on an old TV for Grace to have another play area in our house and I would have a bright, sunny room to work out in instead of the garage. I could see that things weren’t working out at all, so I was aiming for 10:30. Then things took a turn for the worse and I got even more stressed. A call to Panasonic finally resolved my problems, but by the time that I got the DVD player working, it was too late to work out. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to work while at the same time being worried about money and super stressed about making ends meet.

I am blessed to get promptings and while carrying Grace around Whole Foods sound asleep and trying to shop, I realized that the best thing to do would be to do P90X Yoga X when I got home and before dinner and it turned out to be a God send. As Tony Horton urged, I cleared my mind and then left the troubles of my day behind, got in a great workout and really reduced my stress. It took determination to get through today without getting a stroke from stress, but in the end a workout was what I needed all along to clear my mind and reduce that stress. If you persist, you, too, will accomplish another workout that will continue to build your balance in your fitness bank account!

Have You Done Your 2008 Time Budget?

Budgets are on everyone’s minds these days and balancing one presents significant challenges for most of us. But what about your time budget? Unlike financial budgets, everyone on earth has the same amount to work with and that is 24 hours. You may be blessed to have a lot of free time, so your time budget doesn’t have to be so tight, but if you are like me, I don’t have a moment to waste.

Here’s a case study of a day in my life, and it is probably much like a day in your life, with but a few exceptions. I start my day between 4:00 and 4:30 so that I have time to work before my two girls wake up. By 6:30, I have gotten in some good work time as well as washed baby bottles, emptied the dishwasher and fed the dog, rabbit and tortoise. I have to get into the bathroom to shower by 6:45 so that I don’t wake up baby Grace who is still asleep in the crib and so that I am back out in time to watch Good Morning America while I work.

The girls are both up by 8:00 or so and I have eaten a bowl of cereal by then, too. At 9:30 on Monday and Wednesday (the other days are a little less rushed), I get Grace ready for her Mighty Mites fitness class and we leave in order to get there by 10:00 so that Grace can spend 45:00 in Mighty Mites play before her class actually starts. This is when I fit in my workout - 10:00 to 10:45 - and it is the only time during the whole day when I can actually do something for my physical wellbeing, which, as you know by now, is very important to me and to all of us.

We are home by 11:30, I shower again, work for 45:00 and then make lunch. I then work until 4:00 at which time Grace and I make our daily trip to Whole Foods (I am an ardent environmentalist and know that doesn’t sound good, but I only drive about 4 miles total a day and it is good from a mental health perspective to get out of the office and be around adults a little!).

The rest of the day is spent making and eating dinner, giving the girls baths, feeding the dog and rabbit again and giving the girls snacks before bed. I may have time to answer some emails or write a blog, but the main focus is on family.

How do you budget your time? Do you think that you don’t have time to do a workout? Do you think that you need an hour or more and can’t possibly think of when you could find that much time in your day. Believe me, I know first hand what it is like to have day after day that is just packed with seemingly not a minute to spare, but I make the most out of the 30:00 or 40:00 that I can find to work out and my fitness level is a testament to how well I utilize a very limited amount of time.

Make sure that you read the five articles in the post, Week Five Articles, and you will gain some valuable insights into time management and fitting a workout into your schedule.

Week Five Articles

This week’s theme is time management and fitting workouts into your busy schedules. Obviously, since it is already mid-afternoon and I am just posting the articles, I need to work on my own scheduling. This week’s articles are:

Fitting Workouts into Your Busy Schedule
Stick With Your Workout Plans
The 80 20 Rule for Time Management
Fitting a Workout Into Your Workday
Fundamentals of Workout Planning for Runners

Nutrition 911

In order to give you more resources to eat right and to fuel your body properly, I wanted to let you know about a six-part series on my site entitled “Nutrition 911″. Although I would like you to read all six, I will list them so that you can choose ones that might interest you right now. PartI, which is the “Why Natural Foods Are Better“, Part II is What are Fat Free and Low Carb, Part III is Mastering Food Labels, Part IV is 5 Ways to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, Part V is What Should You Eat and finally, Part VI is The Worst Food on the Planet.

Kids - Get Fit With Grace

Hi! My name is Grace Abigail Dafter and I am 3 years old. My Dad has an Internet business and now I do, too! You can see me in my office, playing with my toys and my best friend Angel. I also work out like my Dad does and you, too, can do my favorite workouts.

My Dad and I made an office in our garage so that we would have a big space for our computers, my toys and to work out. Maybe someday, we can tell people about our office in the garage like Google tells people about their first office in a garage!

My Dad says that it is really important to exercise and I love doing Tony and the Kids. He also just ordered Shaun T’s Fit Kids Club and I can’t wait to try it. We also go to the gym three times a week and I do my Mighty Mites Fitness Class which is really fun. You can see the list of articles that he has on his website about kid’s health and fitness. To see his list of articles, click here.

Dad also tries to get me to eat really well and we eat all organic foods and I never have junk food or fast food or candy, but I am 3 and sometimes I just don’t want to eat my meals and I would rather just have snacks. Dad gets mad, but I think he is starting to understand me a little better. You can see his list of articles on kid’s eating tips and nutrition articles by clicking here.

You can visit my website, Get Fit With Grace, by clicking here.

7 Great Books On Nutrition

I wanted to end the week with some good ideas for books on nutrition.  If you’re like me, I get an email from Borders each week with a coupon for a discount on one thing or another.  You can probably also finds these books in the library.  As the article says, “Reading is like chin ups for your brain, so why not check out the article, “7 Great Books On Nutrition” by clicking here.

10 Foods You Should Eat

One James A. Garfield (no, not the President who was assassinated since he died in 1881, but I don’t know which one) said, “Man cannot live by bread alone, he needs peanut butter”. Knowing what I do about peanut butter, it probably couldn’t have been eaten by President Garfield (unless it was a White House kitchen secret) because it really didn’t come into being until 1890.

What does peanut butter have to do with “10 Foods You Should Eat“? Well it is a good source of protein and fat and leads the list of the 10 foods in today’s article. The article, as it says, lists 10 common items that should be on your menu, even though you probably haven’t heard them touted as the next great miracle cure. To read “10 Foods You Should Eat” please click here

Cost Effective Organic Eating

You know those bumper stickers that say, “My money and my kid go to __________”. Well my money and my money goes to Whole Foods and I spend roughly 25% of my income there to feed a family of five. No, not because Whole Foods is affectionately known as “Whole Paycheck” (obviously it is not) but because I consider what we eat to be part of our “health insurance” budget. Currently, we don’t have health insurance and a doctor might say (and a doctor friend of mine did say), “you are playing Russian Roulette”, but so far we have been able to consume what we are spending on “health insurance” and that’s a pretty good deal.

But seriously, how can you afford to eat organically? It is simple. Think of what you buy as being a “whole food” meaning that you are paying for a fruit, vegetable, meat, seafood or packaged food that is all food and no additives or chemicals. You aren’t paying for someone’s marketing idea or new way to keep food fresher or redder or, more likely, cheaper to make and give the producer a better profit margin. The main entrance to Whole Foods in my town takes you straight into the produce department and your eyes begin to feast on the colors and the smells and the choices. Next comes seafood and then dairy and in the middle are all of those yummy, nutritious “whole foods”. The meats, prepared foods and bakery are at the farthest end of the store and your basket should already be full before you get there. Smart marketing? No, smart eating because the store is set up like a food pyramid. Nice touch, huh?

Want a simple example of cost effective organic eating. Good Morning America had a recipe for, “The Lady’s Cheesy Mac” from Paula Deen and it sounded good for dinner (kids love macaroni and cheese), so I printed out the recipe. It called for elbow macaroni, so I bought a bag of 365 (Whole Foods brand) Organic Whole Wheat Pasta Shells for $1.29. The recipe called for 2 cups of cheddar cheese, so I got their 1 Year Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese for $3.77 and used about half of it. The three eggs came from the 365 Cage Free, Omega-3 Organic Eggs and the total was $.75 for the eggs. The recipe calls for sour cream, so I used organic light sour cream that was $1.39 and finally milk, so I used organic 2% milk which is $2.79 a half gallon and I used a cup or so. Along with it, I got an organic cauliflower, which was $4.76.

The ingredients made two casseroles and each casserole fed 2 adults, a 12 year old boy and my two little girls - 3 and 1 - and the cost was under $12.00 - and all organic. See recipe, will make it healthy - and organic - and cost effective. If I can do it, you can, too!

Eat, Drink and Be Merry

Teaching a child the importance of good nutrition is giving them a good start in life.  My three year old does not eat well and when she doesn’t eat and doesn’t drink, she isn’t merry.  Instead, she is lethargic and moody.  Perhaps when we as adults have those same feelings, instead of looking for some complex or medical cause, we should simply be looking at our diet.

“To eat, and to drink, and to be merry” is actually a phrase from the Old Testament (Ecclesiastes viii. 15) and if it was good advice back then, it is surely good advice now.  But let me back up a little and revisit what I mean when I say that my three year old doesn’t eat well.  She actually eats all organic food from Whole Foods, she eats no junk food, no fast food, no candy and has never had a soda in her life.  But she goes through phases when she doesn’t eat enough and she doesn’t drink enough and the end result is Grumpy Grace.

Mary Ann Evans, the English novelist who used the pen name, George Eliot, said, “No man can be wise on an empty stomach”, and that is so true, but what is even more important is the quality of the food and drink that what we put in our stomachs when they are empty.  In Grace’s defense, she is more of a grazer (see the article, “What Type of Eater Are You?) and during the course of a day will ultimately consume enough calories to sustain her activity level (she is affected both mentally and physically when she doesn’t), but what about you?  Are you unwisely eating too few calories to fuel your basal metabolic rate and your day’s activities, are you unwisely consuming too many calories and allowing those extra calories to be stored as fat or are you simply making poor food choices with low quality that force you to eat more and more to get the nutrients that you need while at the same time getting all of those bad things that inevitably are found in fast food and junk food.

I am a big advocate of eating, drinking and being merry (along with getting quality sleep) because I know that I have to fuel and nourish my body and all four things - food, liquids, positive attitude and sleep - are essential nutrients.  Do you think for a moment that the reference in the Old Testament to eating, drinking and being merry could ever be interpreted as anything but to eat the foods of the time, which were whole grains, fruits, vegetables and probably wild game as well as drinking homemade wines?

If you got this command, “Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be joyful: for that shall abide with him in his labor all the days of his life” wouldn’t you do the best that you could to eat well, drink well and therefore be joyful.  It works for my 3 year old when she follows that command and it will for you, too!

Week Four Articles

In remembrance of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day, there was no class today. An extraordinarily gifted man, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. became at 35, the youngest person to have won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was awarded five honorary degrees, was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963 and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.

This week’s theme is nutrition and fueling our bodies to achieve the results we are seeking - whether it be weight loss, more energy or a competitive edge in sports.

Powerful Tools For Healthy Eating
Runner’s Diet Mistakes
Emergency Nutrition Class
What Type Of Eater Are You?
Food And Mood - We Are What We Eat