Open Book Blog Hop # 9 - Tell Us What You Do To Stay Healthy.

‘Do you like to read? Wouldn’t you like to know more about your favorite authors? Well you came to the right place! Join the MMB Open Book Blog Hop each Wednesday and they will tell all. Every week we’ll answer questions and after you’ve enjoyed the blog on this site we’ll direct you to another. So come back often for a thrilling ride! Tell your friends and feel free to ask us questions in the comment box.’

Question:
Do you diet? Do you exercise? Tell us what you do to stay healthy.

Hello and welcome from Christine Ardigo’s blog.

I like to consider myself a moderately active person. I’m not a health guru or health nut, not by any stretch. However, I have always been concerned about my overall health and BMI. Thus, I can safely say that I weigh the same as in high school and I am told I haven’t aged much.

Watching what you eat doesn’t mean eating diet food. It means eating whole foods. What are whole foods? Foods that don’t need to be fooled around with to be eaten. An almond is a whole food. Fruits, vegetables, rice, meats, etc. I eat a lot of chicken! Anything that comes in a box or bag with more than 1 ingredient on the package is not a whole food. Sorry, your granola bars aren’t that healthy. Neither is your Chobani™.

This isn’t to say that I don’t take part in eating my share of chips and chocolates. I do. In fact, probably too much according to dietary standards. How do I manage that and maintain my weight? I go up and down all the time. The scale isn’t something I am keen on. So don’t be confused that I am the same weight as in high school and manage to eat whatever. It’s not that simple. Not for anyone. There is a balance to strike.

How do I strike that balance? Excercise, portion control and an App.

I try to walk, in addition to my normal daily routine around the house or office for at least 15-20 minutes per day. I use the app from Everyday Health which manages my intake versus my activity. I know how much I can eat and how much I have to do to off set the extras I might pick at. If you don’t finagle the numbers this works and it helps those with food addiction, like me, to come to terms with a proper food relationship. Unlike drugs or alcohol, you can’t just quit food. It’s one of the hardest addictions to deal with, and also the least recognized.

No one gets to see this diary but you. You set your goals and you track your activity and eating. It adjusts as you lose weight, unfortunately taking away more calories that you can take in, but you can get them back with simple activities like walking the block, cleaning the house, running in place, using a stationary bike (spinning). The intake of your day dictates what you need to do. So, if you go over one day, you can make it up in real time, and understand you and how this body weight thing is working.

To be clear: It took three months before I started seeing results, but I stuck with it. My body is very stubborn to losing weight. You need to accurately log your food intake. Skipping or fudging the numbers only hurts you. No one is watching your log but you, so be honest–even when it hurts and frustrates, because in a few months, that is going to change, as you learn what is in foods and how they nourish you. If you’re honest, you will start to stray from danger foods and find a healthier menu that you love.

This was over a year ago and I am thinner than that after shot now and maintaining. I went from 160-130 in little over a year. Now at 125.

That is what I do to stay healthy, and friends have tried the same with even better results than I experienced. That is just a bonus!

Thanks for reading. You can find out what Stevie Turner does to stay fit and healthy.

PS – these are my feet (in case you thought mine were in the scale picture, which is just horrifying…cause I have beautiful feet…)

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Stevie Turner hails from East Anglia, UK, and attributes the countryside of her home with giving her the inspiration to write. She has found her unique voice writing the kind of novels women like to read. To date she has self-published seven books, mainly dealing with the darker side of relationships and always a bit of humor. You can find details of her books on the website http://www.stevie-turner-author.co.uk/

Stevie is married, with two sons and three grandchildren. If she isn’t writing or working, then you’ll find her walking around her pretty country village.

One boring Saturday evening in September, she sat in front of her computer and decided to write. “It became an obsession. Something I buried away for years had finally unleashed. It was my passion. Storytelling. Something I lost sight of as I traveled down my conveyor belt of a life. It was all I wanted to do.”