Disaster Preparedness Wellbeing

If you live on the east coast, no doubt you've heard about the pending storm Hurricane Sandy converging with a winter storm from the west. There's all kinds of media suggesting that we could be out of power for days and that it's a storm of "historic proportions." It's weird to think about, because the weather has been calm and pleasant the last couple of days. That said, it's good to be prepared and have a plan if the power goes out or if you live in a high risk flood or wind area.

My family grew up with disaster preparedness as kind of a game--it was always fun & exciting to me, mostly because my dad used to respond all over the world to the aftermath of disasters, providing medical care. When we lived in both Kansas and Oklahoma, tornado warnings seemed to be a pretty regular occurrence. To this day, I still love looking up at the sky and predicting rain, snow and other storms just by looking at the clouds. I remember once, my dad responded to a flood in Missouri and then we had a mainland hurricane in MD on my birthday. We lost power, I still had my birthday party and after the storm was over, we played in our flooded backyard. It was an adventure.

Now I'm not trying to downplay the negative affect of huge storms like this. I know they are destructive to people's lives. I'm simply offering a positive outlook on preparing for storms, and making it fun, especially if you have kids.

Here's a couple of things I do to get ready:

1. Find my flashlight and extra batteries. Stock up on candles and have a lighter or matches.
2. Buy a loaf of bread, some peanut butter, and a can of beans, just in case.
3. Get a bag of ice and find my cooler. Of course, keep ice in fridge until you need it.
4. Get some crafts, a crossword book, a new book to read or something to keep you entertained if you do get homebound for a couple of days.
5. Download a weather app and keep track of the alerts in your area.
6. Know where you will go if the storm does get really bad--for example. I live on the second floor of an apartment building with a ton of windows. During that crazy derecho back in July, all my windows were opened and I woke up to things flying across my apartment and all the doors in my apartment opening and closing on their own. At first, I thought it was a tornado, so I got in the bathtub (that was humbling!)   :) Then I sat on the floor in the most central part, away from the windows.

This is just what I do. I encourage you to have a plan of your own. Here is a great resource with more tips!

Personal Fitness Victory!

Seven years later, my dad and I revisited a straight up mountain climb that left me crying, panting and begging to go home. I didn't realize how out of shape I was then, until we did this hike. Revisiting the same starting point, and going for it, I found that while it wasn't easy, I could do it no problem (so could dad!), and we continued hiking afterwards for about 8 hours.

Seven years ago, this would not have been a reality. It feels great to achieve something like this and revisit something that was "impossible" at the time.

Whatever you want to achieve, even if you suck at it now, just keep getting better everyday.

It's never too late.

You can be fitter in one year than you are now.

Just be consistent.

Don't ever give up.

This video is from the top of the mountain, right after we finished the 20-minute ascent. A little red in the face, but still breathing and standing ;)

Monica's Fitness Victory: A Mountain Climbed!

The 80% Rule for Food

This may go against the beliefs of many fitness "professionals" and maybe against what you believe about what it takes to be healthy, but I believe in a practical, realistic approach when it comes to health. In my opinion, for the regular, hard working American eating "clean" and perfect and only fruits and vegetables from the farmers market and grass fed meat from the local farmer is not realistic 100% of the time. I believe this, because as a person who strives to be healthy, I have fallen into this trap of trying to be perfect and then finding it impossible, many times.

I'm not into making excuses, so please don't think that's what I'm trying to do here. What I'm aiming to help us all achieve is the understanding that you can be healthy and still splurge, eat crap sometimes, get take out sometimes, and still be healthy.

If you have kids or a (more than) full time career or you hate to cook or you don't have time to cook or you are just getting started on healthy eating, let me tell you, healthier choices are better than not healthy choices. If you can make healthy choices say 80% of the time, you will be well on your way to health. The 80% is just a number. It's all about progression. If right now, you make healthy choices 10% of the time and already find that hard, don't try to change to 80% today. That's unrealistic and in most cases it won't last. Instead, aim for 15%, then 20% and so on. Progress slowly and experience the liberation of healthy choices, as you progress...Ahh...

The easiest times (in most cases!) is to eat healthy is at breakfast (when you're home) or at snack time, by packing  healthy snack. As a woman on the go, I find that some days, a healthy breakfast, a healthy snack and an attempt at a healthy dinner are all I've got. Ok. In my opinion, it's better to eat healthy when you have the option too, than to say, "ugh, this day is a waste, I'm just going to eat whatever junk comes my way, because I've already ruined the day." This is a lie we tell ourselves and I encourage you NOT to believe it.  A healthy breakfast doesn't mean you have to sit down, read the paper and cook french toast (for real, it's 2012!), but it does mean that you can grab and go a healthy breakfast or take less than 10-minutes to make an energizing first meal.

While driving through a fast food joint for breakfast can be appealing, it's way healthier and sometimes faster to make your breakfast sammy at home. Try cooking 1-2 eggs on a skillet over medium heat and adding to 2 slices of whole wheat bread, with a slice of cheese or a slice of deli ham. Add an apple and you will get a well balance meal of protein, fiber and sustained energy for your morning ahead! For other breakfast ideas, check out my blackberry coconut smoothie or  my feta and egg breaksfast burrito.

When it comes to exercise, so often we set a goal and try to go from no activity to running a half marathon or lifting a house in one week. I've been guilty many times. Why do we feel like the microwave, short term solution will give us long term results. Have you ever heated up coffee (or anything!) in the microwave. It's hot at first, maybe for 10-minutes, but it cools down quickly. Don't be a microwave product; increase your heat (time, effort, consistency) over time and watch your results fire up!!

So where does the 80% come in?!

As a fitness professional, I keep up to date on different blogs, articles (and comment on those articles), trends, and research updates. I often read comments or blogs that refer to the extremes. My post today was inspired by a comment I read two months ago from a woman who was responding to a social media chain about the childhood obesity epidemic. She said that if schools and parents would just feed the kids 100% vegan diets, the obesity problem would be solved. I was appalled by this. Not because a vegan diet is evil, but because to ask a child to become 100% vegan (or anyone else who has troubles with eating healthy foods regularly) is outlandish. What?! This kind of hit my core and made me realize that we need more people who promote a healthy diet, but not who promote extremes. I like being healthy, but I can't say that I'm ready to change my diet to 100% vegan or inflict it on a child. As a child I ate McDonald's and I drank huge sodas (which I biked to get--does this redeem it?!) I know what it's like to eat food and not know the negative affect on your body, but does that mean we make rules that kids can only eat vegan? Hopefully you agree, of course not.

So, today, I'm telling you that 80% pure healthy and 20% fast food, quick stops, etc. is ok. You can easily control the 80%. Maybe some weeks, its even 98%. You don't have to be perfect or extreme to hit your goals. Everyday or every week make one small change that moves you forward toward a hug future. I empower you to make the healthiest choices you can with your circumstances. Choose fruits, vegetables, beans, lean proteins like chicken and seafood, and healthy fats like olive oil, almonds, and avocados. Don't try to be perfect. Please.. Make a vow to improve. Maybe you add salmon to your dinner menu once a week to start. Maybe you start by making a green smoothie twice a week for breakfast.

Don't give in to information that you read telling you that you must eat a certain way all the time to be healthy. Extremes for food are silly. Limiting food groups is silly (in my opinion). Eat healthy most of the time and allow yourself indulges when you travel or when you're out and about with limited options. You'll be happier, less stressed about food, and more able to focus on issues that really matter.

Happy (and mostly healthy!) eating,
Monica

Egg, Feta and Herb Breakfast Burrito

This is an energizing breakfast and can be made in about 5-minutes.

Scramble 2 eggs and place in a whole wheat tortilla with an oz of feta, a handful of cilantro (or your favorite herb) and some cracked pepper. Roll it up and put it back in the skillet over medium heat, browning both sides.

Serve with an apple and some energy lemonade. For energy lemonade combine 8 oz of seltzer water with 1 shot of lemon XS (ask me about this!)

Stay energized until lunch!

Fall into Your Goals

The fall is always a time of renewal for me. 

The leaves falling reminds me of letting go of any baggage or negativity or any voices that may say, "no you can't do that." 

All that stuff falls to the ground and is raked away by us or washed away by the rain. What's left is a bare tree, ready to be renewed. You can be like this too, if you have things that you want to change. 

This month I have set 1 goal for myself and only one. It's scary, it's atypical, it's out of character, but I believe that hitting this one goal will catapult me & start the process of building momentum for what I really want.

Usually I set 3-4 business goals, 1 personal training goal, 1-2 personal health goals, a spiritual goal and an organizational goal. What? This is nuts--it's a lot of pressure, and it's unhealthy. And I almost never hit every goal I set (or even remember what they are a week or month later)

This month I have one business goal. 

One.  

This is the first time in my life I have only set one goal in a month. 

Change must be proceeded by change. 

I'll update you at the end of the month.

If you want change you have to change something. This is profound, I know. But how often do we desire change, but we change nothing. Or how often do we think we are changing, but then fall into old habits. 

 This fall, choose to fall into change. Pick one thing you want to accomplish and pursue it wholeheartedly. I bet that things will start to fall into place for you!  

Ok, enough puns about fall, it's time to take action. 

What do you want? What are you willing to do for it? Where do you see yourself at the end of October? Did you hit your goal?

In health & prosperity, 

Monica