Nursing Mothers Burn More Calories? Plus body image info :)

New moms everywhere have always been comforted by the knowledge that nursing mothers burn more calories, which helps take off the weight gained during pregnancy. Well, now that I am in that category of people I've been wondering how true that really is.  So I did a little experiment: I put my GoWearFit armband on and for the past five days have compared my sedentary calorie burn to my burn on rest days before I was pregnant.  On average, I'm burning about 2,100 calories just sitting around on the couch watching daytime television.  On my rest days of Thursdays and Sundays this time last year, I burned about 2,000 calories a day. So, technically I am burning more but nowhere near the 500 calories I've read about! But hey, I'll take it. Calories are calories! 


A few of you have jumped on my 10-pounds-gone-by-New Years bandwagon and to you I say, "climb aboard!" I expect my weight loss will be mostly related to those whopping 100 extra calories I am burning each day, since I am not going to be lowering my calorie intake for a while or adding lots of exercise. Nope, I still have three weeks to go before I can start working out again, and since nursing my baby is priority one, I won't be dieting for a while either. But as I have said over and over, wellness is 80% nutrition, and so much can be done for greater health just based on what and how you eat. I've started making some healthier swaps already and eating more vegetables, which I couldn't stand when I was pregnant. I already feel so much better and have way more energy. Yay!


I was also smart enough to buy some non-maternity clothes in larger sizes before the baby was born, knowing that I would want to wear something normal but would instantly get depressed if I tried to squeeze into my old stuff.  And let me just say now that I would like to retroactively kick myself for all the times I thought I was fat because these days I am feeling amazing about my body and how much it has transformed in the past two weeks but it is still WAYYYYYY too big for my pre-pregnancy clothes. So yeah, a little perspective there. :)


Speaking of perspective and body image, the biggest thing I am doing for my wellness this week is channeling positive energy. Read here about the valuable impact that I healthy body image can make on your weight loss and how you can start creating one today. :)


It's a wonderful day to get out there and get healthy!

One more thing about Vision Boards

My last post on vision boards has been nagging me; I don't feel like I've really explained what to do with your vision board once it's done. So now I'll wrap it up!


The whole purpose of a vision is to clarify your goals and plans, and make them something that you can visualize so distinctly that you can hardly see the line between possible and impossible.  Your vision becomes so absolutely certain that it is ludicrous to imagine it not happening, and your vision board just becomes a tool to use in remembering that vision.


But of course, you need to do more than remember it to make it happen. Visions require action, and vision boards serve as a daily affirmation of where you are focusing your actions.  And that all comes down to the power of positive.


Think about it this way: positive outcomes come from positive energy, right?  Where does positive energy come from? Positive interactions, reflections, and most importantly, expectations. When we surround ourselves with positive people, positive thoughts, and positive expectations, guess what happens?  We have a greater awareness of and appreciation for the positive things going on around us. All of that positive energy leads to....the top of this paragraph. Positive outcomes.


Did I just lose you? :)  Think about it in the sense of the opposite: when you have to spend the whole day with a really grumpy person, do you start finding yourself being grumpy too?  Well, the reverse is true as well.  Surround yourself with positive, and you will find yourself being positive.


Positive community, self-talk, and expectations are three of the best things you can do to bring about positive change in your health, fitness, and wellness. High-powered executives know it, professional athletes know it, and now you know it.

So. I'm not sure if that cleared anything up, but that's the point of it: creating a tool that helps transport you from simple "I wish," thinking to, "I'm on my way," thinking. I hope you're working on your board and that soon, I am part of your positive community. Have fun!


And as always, get out there and get healthy!

With a little help from my friends.

I know how shallow and petty it is to complain about the minor physical limitations of my body while it is in the process of undergoing the important business of growing and incubating another person, but I still do.  I have a feeling I'm not the only one who has marveled at the awe-inspiring magic of the whole thing while also griping about how nice the grass is on the other side of the fence.

We always want what we can't have, don't we? 

Yeah, I'm still eating healthfully and exercising five days a week, but I miss my extreme workouts. When I was complaining about feeling "blobby" to a friend yesterday, she reframed my reflection in a wonderful way, reminding me of my love for a challenge and that after the baby is born, I will get to embark on one of my all-time favorites: achieving my maximum genetic potential as an athlete. It was the pick me up that I needed and it helped today be a much better morning.

I had a great workout today, really fabulous. I walked/ran on the treadmill, did some lunges and deadlifts, some chest/shoulder work, and some crazy bicep curls that had me reveling in the old days of my workouts with Captain Awesome. I left feeling incredible.  Thanks for making that possible, Carole!

Another friend asked me earlier this week what color I felt like at that moment.  In a nanosecond I knew it was yellow.  To me, yellow means vibrant, energetic, full of sunshine and smiles.  At the same time, it is calming and serene. I'm a great place right now where I get to live on both sides of the fence: I have a massive source of energy within me holding a pep rally every day for some really incredible things about to happen in my life, and at the same time I have a calming smile on my heart because I am completely at peace with all of it. This is new territory. I'm not used to being at peace. I'm a problem-solver, and this doesn't feel like a problem.  It feels like I am finally where I should have been all my life.

These revelations, brought on with a little help from some wonderful friends, snapped me out of my blobbyness and into reality. I am a lucky, lucky girl.  I might be walking now, but my heart is running, and that's enough for me.

Walk, run, jump, leap - just get out there and get healthy. :)

The Crooked Path to Wellness

In an ideal world, we would all proceed happily down a path to wellness unencumbered by temptation, fatigue, budget restraints, travel food, and feeders. We'd arrive at our new and improved destination lighter, stronger, and healthier with a smile and in record time!  But, we all know that isn't exactly the case. In the course of any given week we face meals in restaurants, social events with tempting food, and the late-night munchies.  Losing weight is hard, yo.

That's why some people choose to have a "cheat day" built into their nutrition plan. I hate this idea. In fact, when a cheat day is included, I might as well go back to calling it a diet because that's what it is.  I'm known for preaching that a cheat day only cheats you, and I stand by that.  Here's why: if you're eating well, getting rest, exercising vigorously, and living a positive and healthy life, you shouldn't need (and likely won't want) to cheat. 

But that's not to say that every day is a nutritional fairy tale.  Yep, I'm going to ask you to change your perspective again. :)

Cheat, just like the word diet, is a negative word that implies that we are in such a desperate state that we have no alternative but to hide in secret and sabotage our efforts. When people cheat, it is because they don't have the confidence that they can succeed otherwise.  When we cheat, we are saying, "I can't do this on my own."  Why would we say such mean things to ourselves when we're in the process of doing something so amazing?

Remember, we're not on a diet anymore, we're changing our nutrition. And yes, on that nutrition path are some diversions. There are times when we wander off the path and explore a diversion, some of which are well worth it (your absolute favorite dessert, for example) and some of which are not (eating something sugary just because it's there).  Here's the difference between and cheat and a diversion:

A cheat is a negative message that tells us we can't handle our weight and wellness on our own.

A diversion is a positive message sent in the confidence that we have the skill set to keep the portion manageable and return to our regularly scheduled programming.

The difference to your brain is enormous.

I'll agree, sometimes there is nothing better than that rebellious feeling you have when you throw caution to the wind and say, to hell with it, make mine a double-scoop!  It feels great!  But trust me, it feels even better to know that the choice to do so can be a positive one.

You can manage your weight and wellness with confidence.  You don't need to cheat on yourself. You deserve better than that.

Positive self-talk is more powerful than we know. Just saying one positive message to yourself activates your brain to be happier and more optimistic. Try it today. Stop cheating, start winning, and get out there and get healthy!

Watch Yo' Mouth! Why I hate the word "diet."

Diet is a four-letter word.

In order to spell, "diet" you have to start with, "die".

The diet starts Monday!

What else do we say to show our dismay with being on a diet?  It might be one of the most loathed words in our language, and for good reason. It conjures up images of deprivation, sacrifice, punishment, and happy people all around us gleefully eating things we're not allowed to eat because we're on a &*^%$ing DIET. >:/

I used to get called out for using the word diet.  "You're not fat," people would accuse. I'd try to explain that my "diet" was just my nutritional plan, not necessarily a scheme to lose weight.  We all have a diet - it's the menu of food we have planned for the day. But that word carries so much negativity with it that eventually I just stopped using it.  Now, I refer to my "nutrition."

I like it much better! Not only does "nutrition" have a happier sound, it equates to balance in my mind.  "Diet" means the scales are being tipped out of my favor.  "Nutrition" puts the power to choose back into my hands, where I like it. 

Think about this:

What happens as soon as we go on a diet?  We want whatever isn't on the diet!  But what happens when we simply change our nutrition?  Instead of being shackled by the rules of our diet, we're making choices.  What a huge difference!

What happens as soon as we got off of a diet?  We gain the weight back.  What happens when we go off of nutrition?  We die. Honestly, do we ever go off of nutrition?  No! We do nutrition all day, every day. It's just what we choose to be part of it that makes us feel like we need that bad four-letter word.

Try this today - instead of vowing to go on another diet, promise yourself to just change your nutrition.  Walk around in that for a while and see which one you like better.  And if you need help changing your nutrition, let me know.  I'm all over that stuff.

Change your words, change your mind, change your life.  And get out there and get healthy!

Guess what? You're not as fat as you think you are.

Women: have you told yourself how fat you are this week? Have you told someone else?  Chances are, there have been half a dozen instances of negative self-talk in your life this week.  I'm guilty, too! 

Now be honest again... are you actually fat?  I mean clinically, are you fat?  Is your body fat percentage over 30%?  Is your waist more than 35 inches around?  Is your BMI over 30?  If not, shut it.

It's a major pet peeve of mine: women who look perfectly fine going on and on about how fat they are when they aren't.  I used to do it all the time, and sometimes I still catch myself asking my husband if I look fat or complaining that I "feel fat".  But I am not actually fat. Intellectually I know this, but after years of being a woman in America who is conditioned to believe that the only path to beauty is through unattainable physical perfection, its hard to believe.

About a year ago I stopped reading fashion and gossip magazines. They just made me feel bad about myself.  I also made a promise to start being nicer to myself and stop expecting to be perfect all the time.  The more I practiced positive self-talk, the better I felt, and the better I started to look to myself.  Over time, I started noticing more and more how many women are still in automatic put-down mode. 

So if you're one of those women who is not actually fat but can't stop telling yourself you are, here's what helped me stop:

1. Focus on your body's strength, not it's size.  In the past two years I have completed the Ultimate Fitness Challenge, ran two half-marathons, and completed a triathlon.  An unfit person would not have been able to do those things.  Once I realized that, it became easier to focus on what my body could do, not what it could fit into. 

2. Do some research.  Get online and start learning about the actual benchmarks for obesity.  Get your body composition measured and start using actual data as a tool for determining your fatness, not your mirror.

3. Every day, celebrate something you love about your body.  Yes, I mean every day.  There is something about your physical self that you can appreciate.  It can be the same thing two days in a row!  The point is to get into the habit of appreciating the beauty you already have.

4. Stop getting second opinions.  Who cares if someone else thinks you're fat.  The only opinion of you that matters is yours.

Besides, talking about how fat you are when you're not actually fat makes the actually fat people around you feel even worse. 

I've gone through a period lately of feeling fat and hearing myself slip into those old habits of being all down on myself because some physical limitations have kept me from my usual high-intensity workouts.  So, I'm calling myself out on it and inviting you to join me back on the positive path.  Take time today to be nice to yourself.

Good day!