Carrie Symes is here to give others encouragement and support to achieve a healthier and fitter lifestyle. She is passionate about GIVING the gift of a healthy, fit and free life to others.
Sorry, there is no magic pill and no magic weight loss fairy that will help you lose weight over night(if someone tells you that do # 13). It takes time and a little bit of effort on your part.
Here are a 15 Healthy Weight Loss Tips & Tricks to help you out on your journey!
Just Do It- Get out of your normal routines and just do it!
Be +- Positive happy thoughts lead to GREAT results. Negative unhappy thoughts lead you into a downward spiral to nowhere.
Bottoms Up- Stop drinking all that pop/soda and switch to just water. You can even Jazz Up You Water too!
Eat More Protein- Eating protein helps retain and build lean muscle and burns fat. It also helps stabilize your blood sugar levels and helps you from getting hungry.
It’s a Secret- Keep a journal and write down everything that you eat, what exercises you did and how you felt.
Super Size That- Over the last decade our portion sizes have grown as big as our waist lines have. Don’t always feel obligated to eat everything on your plate. Leaving a little extra will help to teach you self-control. If your sure about your portion sizes feel free to drop me a line.
Small Changes Big Results- Making small changes until they just become habits and then change something else. You will be so much more likely to achieve your goals than it you dive in head first. Baby steps!
Exercise- Find something that you love to do and JUST DO IT!
What’s Your Excuse- Stop making excuses. This might be why you aren’t achieving your goals. Once you stop with the excuses like “I just don’t have the time,” you will spend less time making excuses and more time reaching your goals!
1-2-3-4-5- Keep track of your calories. There are many great apps to help you count your calories like MyFitnessPal, Lose It!, fatsecret, and many others. If you have MyFitnessPal my username is CarrieSymes2.
No Diets Here- Don’t think of it as a short-term thing, think of it as your new way of living. Lets face it, how did you get to this point? Do you want to have to repeat this process again? I hope not. Think of your self as a caterpillar going through metamorphosis and once you become that beautiful butterfly, you need to maintain its beauty.
Sleep – Make sure you are getting about 8 hours of good quality ZZZZZZZs a night. Your body needs time to rest, relax and restore its self. The less sleep you get, the MORE stressed you will have and thus resulting in little or no weight loss.
Schools Out!! NOT- DO your research and educate yourself. Just because someone says this is the best thing for weight loss, just might not be the right thing for you and your body. Before you jump into something do your homework!
ME, ME, ME- Do it for you and no one else. If someone wants you to lose weight, don’t do it. Plain and simple if you don’t want it, it ain’t gonna happen.
Never Give Up- This is a journey to become the healthiest you that you can be. Yes, there will be stumbling stones, but pick yourself back up and wipe away the dirt, because YOU CAN DO THIS!!
I hope these little tips will help you out. I practice each and every one of these daily. Put just one of these into affect this week and slowly add in another until you become a pro! I believe in YOU!!
Carrie Symes is here to give others encouragement and support to achieve a healthier and fitter lifestyle. She is passionate about GIVING the gift of a healthy, fit and free life to others.
With Mother’s Day this Sunday I though I would put together a hint list for all the hubbies that have no clue what to get you this Mothers Day!
Fun beginner programs:
Or really step it up with one of these:
Have a wonderful Mothers Day!!
Carrie Symes is here to give others encouragement and support to achieve a healthier and fitter lifestyle. She is passionate about GIVING the gift of a healthy, fit and free life to others.
Happy Monday!! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. Well, the weekend started out great for me and then things changed. Friday morning I went and got my motorcycle permit!! Then when we got home I got a phone call from my mom that my grandmother had just passed…. All in all it is a good thing because she is in such a better place now. The last few years for her were not the greatest, so it was kind of a blessing. When I was growing up she lived in Arizona and would come and visit every few years. When it got to the point where she realized she just could not do it on her own anymore she sold her home and move up with us to Pennsylvania. She lived in her house right around the corner from my parents and I would go daily to check on her, make her lunch and housework. The thing that she loved most was watching my daughters and being able to be around them.
After awhile she ended up needing watched day and night, so we moved her in with my parents and during the day I would still go and help her out. Not long after this my mom had her second back surgery, so I was there helping with both of them. After awhile stress was starting to take a huge toll on my parents, they ended up putting grandma in a home. This last year of her life wasn’t the best because she was always sick with something. She is in such a better place now and I am glad for it. It’s a relief when you see someone suffering as much and for a long time. I worked in nursing homes for a few years as a nurse aide and have seen so many suffer and hang on for so long.
After we had found out a friend of ours needed their lawn mowed because their tractor was broke. Let me tell you, it’s a HUGE yard! It took Jeremy(hubby) 2 hours on the rider to do the back and part of the field and it took me the full 2 hours push mowing the front and side yard. That was a serious workout! It was a good thing though, it gave me time to think and clear my head a bit. For dinner that night we ended up going out to eat, because this momma was NOT cooking after all that mowing. We ended up going to a restaurant that we always used to go to when I was over weight. I ordered my usual HUGE breakfast like I did back then and I dug in, I was starving! You know what? I have no regrets eating that meal. Yes I could have chosen something healthier, but I knew I had been good all week with my eating and I had just really worked my body hard for 2 hours. With all the work I had done that day I was only over on my calories by 118, so that was not bad at all. I used this meal a flex meal for the week. You need to have a flex meal every once in a while, no more than once a week though.
Sunday rolled around… I felt like I was beyond stressed! Bella and Joclyn have a tendency to yell and fight with each other like cats and dogs. And Bella just generally has a loud personality at times. I seriously felt like eating all sorts of junk foods, so instead I decided to throw in Hip Hop Abs and already I felt better. Instead of eating out my stress, I used my workout to relieve all the stress of the last few days and it felt great! So, next time you feel stressed and food seems like the only answer, try popping in a workout and doing that instead. The more you workout, the more you will love it and use it as your mental therapy instead of pills and food.
Have you tried working out instead of grabbing food when you are stressed?
Carrie Symes is here to give others encouragement and support to achieve a healthier and fitter lifestyle. She is passionate about GIVING the gift of a healthy, fit and free life to others.
Hubby has been riding since 2008 and I have always loved to go with him. It’s something that we really enjoy doing when we are without the girls. It’s an amazing feeling of wind blowing through your hair and the sense of being FREE! Just like those pictures you see of riders with their arm spread wide. It’s a sense that not everyone feels when on a motorcycle and I understand it. Coming from a nursing background I understand many of you have fears of riding and I understand and respect that.
2 summers ago I decided that I wanted to start riding myself. Over that winter we ended up going to the International Motorcycle Show in Cleveland. That is when I found the bike that I wanted. You see we are not real big Harley fans. Over the last few years our friends Harley’s have been broke down more times than not and for other reasons. Anyway when I first sat on this Yamaha Stryker at the bike show, it fit like a glove and I did not want to get off!
2012 International Motorcycle Show
After we got home about a month or so later we went to our local dealer and got a great deal on 2011 Stryker(the one on the top)! That is my baby! A few weeks later I started having severe pain in my wrist and later found out it was carpal tunnel and I had to have surgery….That put a hold on me riding at all last summer….. Towards the end though I did practice around the yard a bit, but have yet to get my license. Also that spring hubby’s friend was on his way to work on his bike and a car pulled out in front of him. Thank the Lord that he did everything that he was supposed to and had very few injuries.
In the back of my mind I have had a little fear of riding my own bike. It’s something that I have been hiding deep down. I have to fear getting on the back of the bike with my hubby, but riding my own that’s a different story. This fear has been holding me back from the person who I want to be. This week I plan on going and getting my permit. After I do that I am going to sign up for classes to get my license.
My point is you need to face your fear every once in a while and do something that you might totally scare the crap out of you. Do something that challenges you in all aspects of your life physically, emotionally, mentally and sometimes financially. The more you step out of the box the better person you will become and learn so much more about yourself.
To all you bikers out there ride safe! Have you stepped out of your comfort zone lately?
Carrie Symes is here to give others encouragement and support to achieve a healthier and fitter lifestyle. She is passionate about GIVING the gift of a healthy, fit and free life to others.
Since summer is right around the corner hydration is very important!! I know many of you have a very hard time drinking just plain water, so here are a few different recipes for you to try out to jazz up your water!!
1) The classical : lemon/cucumber:
Mix in a pitcher: 10 cups of water + 1 cucumber and a lemon, thinly sliced + 1/4 cup fresh finely chopped basil leaf + 1/3 of finely chopped fresh mint leaves. Leave in the refrigerator overnight before serving.
2) The granite : Strawberry/Lime or Raspberry/Lime
Mix in a pitcher : 10 cups of water + 6 strawberries / 0r Raspberries and one thinly sliced lime + 12 finely chopped fresh mint leaves. Leave in the refrigerator overnight before serving.
3) The digestive : Fennel/citrus
First: infuse 1 to 3 grams of dried and crushed fennel in 150 ml of boiling water for 5-10 minutes. Allow to cool.
Mix in a pitcher: 10 cups of water + lemon juice (put the leftover lemon in the mix) + a small thinly sliced orange + 12 fresh chopped mint leaves + the infusion of fennel seeds. Leave in refrigerator overnight before serving.
4) The antiOX : Blackberry/Sage
Note that a part from the berries, sage leafs is the herb that has the highest antioxidant content.
Mix in a pitcher : 10 cups of water + 1 cup of blackberries that have been very slightly crushed + 3-4 sage leaves. Leave in refrigerator overnight before serving.
5) WATERmelon : watermelon/Rosemary
Mix in a pitcher : 10 cups of water + 1 cup of watermelon cut into cubes + 2 rosemary stems. Leave in refrigerator overnight before serving.
6) The exotic : Pineapple/Mint
Mix in a pitcher : 10 cups of water + 1 cup of pineapple cut into cubes + 12 fresh mint leaves finely chopped. Leave in the refrigerator overnight before serving.
7) The traditional : Apple/cinnamon
Mix in a pitcher : 10 cups of water + 1 cup of apple cut into cubes + 2 cinnamon sticks + 2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Leave in the refrigerator overnight before serving.
8.) The zingibir : Ginger/tea
In advance: heat 1 teaspoon of ginger in two cups of tea, let it cool down.
Mix in a pitcher: 10 cups of water with two cups of the ginger tea + 4-5 pieces of fresh ginger cut into cubes. Leave in the refrigerator overnight before serving.
Carrie Symes is here to give others encouragement and support to achieve a healthier and fitter lifestyle. She is passionate about GIVING the gift of a healthy, fit and free life to others.
