Nutrition Class

My sister in law gave me the number to a dietitian she went to to help her lose weight and make better food choices.  Well I attended a group class they had both last Tuesday and today.  I must say it was helpful however it was nothing out of this world.  Eat better, exercise regularly and voila, you lose the weight.  It's easier said than done isn't it?  There is no magic trick or not miracle diet out there; just the old fashioned and most successful way, eat better and exercise regularly.   They did however show us what to look for to make better food choices.  What and how to read the nutrition labels and to remind us to be "active" daily.  The dietitian was very particular not to use the work "exercise" but to be "active".  She gave us examples on little things we can do to improve our activity levels like doing some gardening, park further than usual, take back the grocery cart to it's proper location instead of placing it in the parking spot next to us and the one that I like the most was to unload the grocery bags one at a time, this way we walk more steps getting the bags instead of wanting to unload them on one trip.  It was insightful information, now I just have to actually do them.

I will admit that I envy all those who can run at a steady pace and for long distances without looking like they are about to die, like me.  I've never been a runner, even when I was at my fittest.  I found this great app on my iPhone called "Get Running" that helps you train to become a runner.  I tried it out for the first time yesterday and I just have to brag a little and say that I actually did it.  It's a big accomplishment for me since I haven't done any type of exercise in almost two years.  Anyway, the app tells you step by step on what to do. It tells you to warm up for five minutes then run for one, walk for a minute and a half then run again for another minute.  It reminds you of your progress every half a minute and ten seconds so you could be prepared for the next action.  You do this one day, rest the next, do it again the following day and rest the next.  After the first week is done the next week you run for a minute and a half following the same process as the first week.  After each week is done you run more and more and rest less and less in hopes of running without having to stop.  You can also choose to stay within a certain week if you feel you aren't ready to advance to the next one.  I will admit that I was dying by the time I finished.  It didn't seem like much when I fist saw what it consisted of but when I finally tried it, it was harder than I thought.  I also bought myself a pedometer just to see how much walking I do on an average day.  5280 steps is equivalent to a mile.  I'm aiming for 10K steps just around the house alone doing daily chores.  I'll see how I do with that too.  

In other news, some of my husbands family invited us camping to Yosemite this past weekend and you can only imagine that bad eating choices we had there.  Even though there was a lot of walking, the eating wasn't that great.  I will post pictures of our trip maybe tonight.  It was amazing!  Our first trip as a family of four :)