Back to Basics for Healthy Weight Loss

While there are plenty of ways to lose weight, maintaining your weight loss over the long term is often unsuccessful. If you've lost and found the same pounds several times before, it's probably time to go back to the basics of a healthy weight:

• Prevention of weight gain or stopping recent weight gain can improve your health.
• Health can improve with relatively minor weight reduction (5 percent to 10 percent of body weight).
• Adopting a healthy lifestyle – eating smarter and moving more – can improve your health status even if you don't lose any weight at all.

If you want to maintain a healthy weight for the rest of your life, it's all about energy balance. Here are three basic steps for success:

Make Smart Choices from Every Food Group
Your body needs the right fuel for your hectic, stress-filled schedule. The best way to get what you need is to enjoy a wide variety of nutrient-rich foods that are packed with energy, protein, vitamins and minerals from all the MyPyramid food groups.

Where can you find these smart choices? When you go shopping, look to the four corners of your supermarket:

• Fruits and vegetables from the produce aisles
• Whole grains from the bakery
• Low-fat milk products from the dairy case
• Lean proteins from the meat/fish/poultry department.

Here's an easy way to eat more produce: Enjoy one fruit and one vegetable as a snack each day. It's quick, easy, tasty and very nutrient-rich.

Get the Most Nutrition from Your Calories

The biggest nutrition problem for most Americans is posed by high-fat, high-sugar foods and drinks, such as snack foods, candies and soft drinks. Eating smarter does not mean you have to immediately go sugar-free and fat-free. You can make a big difference in your calorie intake by just eating and drinking smaller portions and by making empty calorie choices less often.

The key is to moderate, not eliminate. Watching portion sizes is an easy way to cut back without cutting out. If you want to consume less sugar, limit your soft drink intake to one can a day and switch to sparkling water the rest of the time.

Balance Food and Physical Activity
What you eat is just one part of the energy balance equation. The other is your physical activity. Most of us take in more calories than we spend on our daily activities.

Finding a healthier balance means fitting more activity into your day. The minimum for good health is 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity each day. To reach a healthy weight, you may need to be physically active longer (60 minutes a day) or participate in more intense activities. How much activity do you usually get now? If it's only 15 minutes, try adding a 15- or 20-minute walk during your lunch break.

Source: http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=6847

What to Expect From Private Yoga Training

While group classes are an effective way of practicing yoga, yoga is a personal practice. Students looking for personal guidance can supplement their yoga classes with private instruction.

Why Choose a Private Session:

• You are a new student (especially if classes seem overwhelming or intimidating)
• When yoga practice has reached a plateau
• An injury, a disability or illness recovery
• Encountering the same blocks or problems
• Starting a home yoga practice
• Reducing daily stress

What to Expect
In a private training session, yoga is applied uniquely to each person. Sessions allow students of all levels to explore specific areas of interest such as alignment in asanas, meditation, philosophy, etc. Generally some time is spent in discussion, isolating structural issues, assessing abilities, improving the body's form and technique, working on breathing exercises, enhancing relaxation/meditation methods, and learning how to listen to the body's signals.

Yoga postures and breathing exercises are selectively chosen and developed based on an individual's specific needs, goals, and preferences. Clients learn and practice these techniques at their own pace and within their own limitations. Attentively guided by verbal instruction, imagery, demonstration, and hands-on direction, the students can enhance their yoga practice in a way that is not necessarily attainable in group classes.

Energy in Motion LLC offers in-home and workplace private and group yoga/pilates classes. Feel welcome to contact us for more information.

Related articles

• The Many Health Benefits of Yoga (webmd.com)

Happy Tails Yoga: Fundraiser for NJSPCA

Kinnelon Library Puts You In “Position” To Stop Animal Cruelty

Kinnelon, New Jersey – May 12, 2010 – Kinnelon residents, you are being called upon to stretch, reach and bend into your best cow, dolphin, eagle and downward facing dog pose to benefit New Jersey’s abused animals.

On Tuesday, May 24th from 6:30-7:30 pm, Energy in Motion LLC will be hosting a Happy Tails Yoga class at the Kinnelon Library meeting room to benefit the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NJSPCA).

The premise of Happy Tails Yoga is simple: during the month of May yoga teachers donate their time by teaching classes, locations donate their facilities to hold the classes and attendees donate their money to take these classes. Happy Tails Yoga turns over 100% of the proceeds to the NJSPCA to benefit mistreated and neglected animals (almost $5,000 to date).

Happy Tails Yoga was established in 2008 by Energy in Motion and Rockaway, NJ resident Tiffiny Twardowsky as a way to combine two of her passions: yoga and animals. "Yoga is the country's fastest growing exercise. There's so much good energy and so many good people in this community. Nobody was combining the good of yoga for the good of animals as a way to raise funds," stated Twardowsky.

Librarian and events coordinator Maryellen Liddy added: “We are always looking to provide our patrons with new classes and a way to better the community. The great thing about Happy Tails Yoga is that it allows attendees to do both. It’s truly a win-win for everyone.”

Participants interested in taking a class, but cannot make the May 24th one can visit the “schedule” section on the Happy Tails Yoga website and are encouraged to check back often as classes are constantly added. For those who cannot attend a class but would like to make a monetary donation, NJSPCA has a donation link on their website specifically for Happy Tails Yoga. You can also mail checks made payable to NJSPCA to:

Happy Tails Yoga
c/o Tiffiny Twardowsky
PO Box 53
Rockaway, NJ 07866

Questions can be directed to Maryellen Liddy of the Kinnelon Library at 973-838-1321 or Tiffiny Twardowsky of Energy in Motion at 973-983-9554.

Tips For Keeping a Food Journal

It’s not possible to know how many calories or what types of nutrients you’re consuming unless you write it down. A food diary can help you:

• stay focused and motivated so you’re less like to binge
• uncover if you’re truly hungry or just eating out of emotion
• determine if you’re eating enough fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fiber, etc.
• decide what needs to be changed in your diet
• set dietary and lifestyle modification goals

Tracking your food intake means you need to carefully measure portion sizes. A scale is a handy tool, easy to use and the most accurate. If you don’t have a scale you can visually estimate portion sizes by using items you’re familiar with such as a baseball, deck of cards, CD, or even your own hand. Research shows many people underestimate the food they eat; so be as accurate as possible. An inaccurate calorie intake assessment will make it harder for you to interpret results or modify your intake to meet desired goals.

There’s many ways to track you food intake. You can use a notebook, track it on line at websites such as http://www.sparkpeople.com/, www.mynetdiary.com and http://www.mypyramid.gov/, use a software program for your computer or even a phone app. Here are some basic guidelines and details you should include:

Write down everything you eat. Whatever you indulge, write it down. Whether it be an extra bagel in the morning, a slice of pizza late at night or a little piece of chocolate in the afternoon. Your food diary is designed to help you create a better diet for yourself, so don't leave any of these items out.

Write as you go. Don't wait until the end of the day to record what you ate and drank. Instead, write it down as soon as you can, after you eat. You’ll be more accurate on portion sizes and won’t forget little snacks or treats.

Focus on portions. Just writing down a “bowl of cereal” or “M&M’s” is not enough. A bowl of cereal could be anything from 0.5 cup to 2 cups, depending on the bowl. M&M’s could be 100 calories, or they could be 1000. You need to measure out the portion you would like to eat and record the exact portion you’re eating so you’ll be most accurate.

Record your feelings and emotions. Are you eating because you're bored or had a stressful day? This information will be important when you review your log so you can make the necessary changes to your eating habits. For example, if you find you're eating out of boredom, schedule in a fun activity at that time instead, like reading a good book to keep your mind occupied.

Review your food journal and set goals. A food journal doesn’t help if you never use the information written down. Designate a time each week to sit down and review your food journal. Look for trends, trigger foods, emotional eating, calories consumed and changes you’d like to make. Then make new goals for the week and write them down. Writing down your goals will make your diet changes more visible and keep you motivated.

Use your food diary to plan meals. At first, your food diary should be used as a tool to help you see what you're eating everyday. But, as time goes on, try to use it more for planning out meals and getting your diet back in order. Sit down at night and try to sketch out what you're going to eat the following day. Plan to pack a healthy lunch the next day and get a sense of exactly what you're going to eat. By doing this, you'll be able to get the best results from your food diary. You'll also begin to eat healthier as long as you use your food diary to help you along the way.

If you take the extra time to analyze your eating patterns, a food journal can definitely help improve your eating habits. Above anything else, stick to your journal even if you slip up or forget to fill it out for several days. Practice makes perfect!

If you need to help with your exercise and diet program, contact us at http://www.einmotion.com/