Moms Minute: fitness tips amp; zoo savings

MomsLikeMe.com - If you are starting off the new year with fitness goals in mind then MomsLikeMe.com is a great place to find information and support.

There are also moms who have recently lost a lot of weight sharing their best advice.

Here are some tips offered by Christie Bruner, owner & instructor of
1. Set Measurable Goals - What is the #1 New Years resolution of all time?

"Lose weight!" How do you know if you"ve reached your goal, though? Do you

want to lose 10 pounds? Or, do you want to fit into those skinny jeans? How

about running your first 5K? By setting small, measurable goals you will be

able to check off your accomplishments and stay motivated throughout the year.

2. Family Meal Time - Everyone is busy and it can be very difficult for everyone

to sit down together for a meal. If dinnertime is too hectic, try a family

breakfast a few days a week. Not only will your children see you eating a

healthy meal (yes, even moms & dads need to eat their veggies!), but it will

create an open line of communication in your home.

3. Participate in Activities Together - Turn off the TV and head outside. If

staying active as well. Take a family walk after dinner, play tag at the park

or be a coach for your little one"s sports team.

4. Challenge Yourself - If you are doing the same activities every day you will

soon hit a plateau, both physically and mentally. Instead of running the same

route every morning, grab a friend and head to the park to do some push ups on

the benches and calf raises on the curb.

5. Don"t Sweat the Small Stuff - It happens to everyone: a child is sick, busy

week at work, family in town. We all fall off the horse sometimes...just get

right back on without missing a beat! Don"t let a small distraction change your

new healthy habits. Try keeping a daily log on the calendar of your fitness &

nutrition habits. That way you can look back over the month and see your

successes!

Save some cash on family entertainment this weekend and head out to $5 admission day on Sunday, January 10. For 2010 the zoo is also offering free admission on guests birthdays. Get more details and see other Are you enjoying this cold snap? and.

New Years fitness tips - to help that wavering will of yours

Start crunching those calorie numbers. Get in the habit of keeping a food journal and go through it at the end of each day. Analyze what foods you"ve been eating, the healthy and junk, and cut out what you don"t need. Sometimes we forget how quickly calories do add up throughout the course of a day. This results in all those snacks turning into overeating habits and weight gain. Food journals can help you see the bigger picture of your eating habits and help curb them.

Take a 20 minute walk - and pick up the pace. In a recent study, women who exercised 3 days a week for 20 minutes, alternating between fast- and moderate-paced intervals, lost 5 times as much weight - up to 20 pounds in 15 weeks without changing their diet - as women who exercised 3 days a week for 40 minutes at a steady, brisk speed. The rule of thumb here would be to walk briskly, but you should still be able to carry on a conversation without being out of breath.

Eat slowly for the first 10 minutes of a meal, and your brain will help you with your weight loss. High-tech images of the brains of 21 adults showed that 10 minutes after they started eating a meal, their brains turned off their appetite switches. At that point, the urge to continue eating lessens. So learn to pace yourself for 10 minutes instead of wolfing down your food, and you"ll find yourself satisfied with a smaller meal and larger weight loss.

Beware of post-workout hunger. Exercise can boost metabolism for a few hours, but burning more calories can also increase your appetite. To avoid the munchies after exercising (and eating back the calories you just burned), try to schedule workouts so that you have a meal within an hour afterward. Or save part of an earlier meal to eat during that time. After workout snacks are also a great idea such as a cup of yogurt (100 calories).
Downsize your dinnerware. In this world of super sized portions, dinnerware has also caught up to the trend. Research shows that when packages, plates, and portions are larger, we eat more. A "Portion" is the amount of food that you serve yourself (which could be rather large when you factor in cravings), while "serving" is the measured amount recommended on the label. Its best to be aware of what the serving size is of food your eating, most of the time packages contain more than one serving but we end up eating the whole package regardless.

Is the Military Getting Soft?

Rank doesnt matter, nor does it count if your father was a general or a sergeant major: Anyone who reports to his or her unit on Day One in poor physical condition has lost the respect of fellow soldiers.

One company commander in my previous unit enjoyed testing his new lieutenants with a five-mile run at a blistering pace the day they arrived, followed by pull-ups, push-ups and a gamut of other calisthenics.

Perhaps this commander was channeling his inner Gen. David H. Petraeus,

вWhen we bring a new guy in, I take him out for a run в. I want to know how hell react and respond to the challenge, what his strength of character is. в

While the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have changed the militaryвs doctrine and equipment, physical fitness is still a trait that commanders state is of paramount importance. When my unit was deployed, the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Rod Coffey, stressed the importance of physical fitness by holding several athletic competitions. My previous commander, Maj. Charles Ford, often stressed the importance of physical fitness by citing statistics that correlated survivability on the battlefield after receiving a wound with oneвs physical fitness level.

As a platoon leader I tried to inspire my privates at 6:30 a. m. to be motivated about their physical fitness, telling them, вBesides professional athletes, the military is one of the few places where you get paid to work out. в

Todayвs military has spiced up physical fitness in numerous ways such as incorporating , which has a large military following. It also encourages soldiers to move beyond calisthenics by utilizing the weight room in gyms. Additionally,

or playing soccer while wearing body armor are some ways in which leaders have creatively incorporated physical fitness into their military training.

Despite the militaryвs stress on physical fitness, many senior officers and noncommissioned officers I have spoken to are adamant in their beliefs that todayвs soldiers are physically softer then the soldiers of yesteryear.

One recent study

, as a Pentagon estimate stated that close to one-third of youths in America are physically unfit to serve.

These statistics point to a troubling trend for the services as the quality of future recruits could deteriorate. Lt. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, in the Training and Doctrine Command has stated that the physical fitness of new recruits is his

. But is this push for physical fitness too late in the recruits lives to effect meaningful changes in their physical fitness level? And will the downward trend in society in terms of obesity and general health inevitably lead to a softer, less capable military?

Many leaders complain that more of their soldiers gain weight while deployed then lose weight. They cite the lack of mandated time set aside for physical training and the all you can eat buffet style of military dining facilities overseas.

While the conditions in Afghanistan and Iraq vary from base to base, in the majority of the large bases, the food in the dining facilities overseas is better, and the portions are larger, than ones Stateside. So while some defense analysts worry that the United States is falling behind in terms of cyberwar capabilities, at the other end of the spectrum is the fear that American troops today are just not physically tough enough.

Toughness beyond just physical fitness is a trait that cannot be quantifiably measured. In one instance when the Taliban scavenged the equipment from fallen American soldiers, they

, presumably because they lacked proper footwear. Stories like these, and the Talibanвs ability to defeat the Soviet Union, are why many in the military have a healthy dose of respect for their adversaries.

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