Working Out for Beginners

November 20, 2015November 16, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood4 Comments

If you are new to exercising and working out, here are some tips and tricks for you (some that I have learned the hard way so that you don’t have to.)

You will be sore! Don’t be afraid of the soreness, use it as motivation to keep going! Even if you are sore, you will feel better after you exercise. You will learn to hate it and love it all at the same time. Don’t let soreness prevent you from working out.
Don’t give up if you don’t see major results after the first workout 😉 You didn’t put the weight on in one day, you won’t take it all off in one day (or one week…or month) It takes consistent daily work
Choosing a healthy lifestyle is just as much mental as it is physical. You have to make a choice every day to keep going.
Form is everything! If you are new to exercising proper form may feel a bit awkward, get a mirror and watch your form. If you are doing a movement with improper form (especially if you are using weights) you are more likely to injure yourself. Injuries are not fun!
Always warm up! It is not worth the time you save to skip warming up. Your muscles will thank you and you will be less likely to injure yourself if you are properly warmed up.
Always stretch!!! Just like with warming up, it is not worth the time you save to skip stretching. Your muscles will thank you and you will be less likely to injure yourself if you are properly stretched! Do NOT skip stretching.
Breath!!!! Don’t hold your breath! Sometimes when things are hard we tend to hold our breath. Don’t do that! Proper breathing helps with core stability, plus you need to breath to prevent yourself from passing out. I always remember proper breathing by inhale on the easy part, exhale when difficult or blow out against gravity. So when doing crunches, exhale on the crunch up inhale on the way down. Push ups: exhale when pushing up, inhale on the way down. Lifting weights (even 3 or 5 lbs) exhale when lifting the weight inhale when lowering
Don’t overestimate your exercise’s impact while underestimating your caloric intake
It is not about being better than someone else, it is about being better than you were yesterday!
You CANNOT spot reduce fat! You can work specific areas and muscles, but the only way to get rid of fat in a “problem area” is to lose weight all over your entire body. You may carry more weight in your midsection, or have wider shoulders, or like me you might have chubby knees and cankles (I seriously HATE my cankles!).
While you can get in better shape, you cannot change your overall body shape. If you are pear shaped you will just be a smaller pear. (see number 8) You can exercise all day every day and you will still have your original body shape.
Be accountable to someone. Studies show that people who are accountable to someone, not only have more success with weight loss , but also are more successful at keeping the weight off long term.

I hope that you find these tips to be helpful! Enjoy your workouts, exercise is fun!

Disclaimer: While I am not a professional or a personal fitness trainer, I have been exercising for years.

Health/ Fitness

Essential Oils

November 18, 2015November 18, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood2 Comments

Unless you have been living under a rock :-), (or maybe you don’t have a Facebook or Pinterest account), I am sure you have heard one thing or another about essential oils. I have been using essential oils for about 2 years now. Don’t stop reading, I am NOT a Youngliving or Doterra sales rep, and I am not going to try to get anyone to buy something from me. I just love using essential oils. There are so many natural benefits to using these oils! As you may know, I am an RN, I give modern medicine on a daily basis. I believe in modern medication, but I also believe that essential oils are beneficial as well.

You may have heard the term essential oils, but might still be wondering what are essential oils?Well if you were to google “what are essential oils?” the first answer you would get would be “a natural oil typically obtained by distillation and having the characteristic fragrance of the plant or other source from which it is extracted.” Basically that means an oil that comes from a plant or other natural source.

I like to get a lot of my oils from Plant Therapy, but I have also used some YoungLiving and Now oils. Some of my most favorite oils to use are Lemon, Peppermint, and Lavender oil. I like to combine the three of them for an allergy fighting trio. Pinterest has many different ideas on how you can use essential oils. (Click HERE to follow my Essential Oils board)

Generally, essential oils are either inhaled through the use of a diffuser or applied topically. I have a GreenAir SpaVapor diffuser that I bought on sale from Amazon for $25. Every night, I diffuse essential oils for respiratory relief in my daughter’s room, and I really feel as if this helps with her asthma.

If you are going to be applying your oil topically, you need to cut it with a carrier oil. A carrier oil is a vegetable oil such as coconut oil, olive oil, my favorite grapeseed oil. These oils can be used to dilute essential oils. A 2% essential oil dilution is generally considered safe for topical application of essential oils on adults. To make a 2% dilution add 12 drops of essential oil to each fl. ounce (30 ml) of carrier oil. (Usually 600 drops of essential oil equals 30ml or 1 fl. ounce, so 2% is 12 drops) Some oils are more potent than others, but a 2% dilution is the usual recommendation. I’ll be honest, sometimes when diluting my oils, if I am familiar with my body’s reaction to the oil, I put a lot more than 12 drops when I am diluting them. But if you are new or still getting used to essential oils, less is more until you know what works for you. Also, if I am mixing more than one oil together, I personally do 12 drops of each oil to one fl oz total. I don’t add an extra fl oz of carrier for each oil, some may, but I personally usually don’t.

If you choose to ingest essential oils, before doing so, be absolutely sure that they are food grade oils. Personally, I would never ingest any essential oils, but that is my choice due to research that I have done.

Check out Using Essential Oils Safely. Essential oils are awesome when used properly, but like a lot of things, can be toxic when overused or used improperly. Also, if you have a lot of questions, Youngliving’s website has a great Q&A section!

**There are no affiliate links in this post. This is all my own opinion. I am not getting paid for sharing any of this information!**

Flab to FAB · Health/ Fitness · Jillian Michaels Body Revolution

I May Be Crazy… (Flab To Fab)

November 10, 2015January 4, 2016 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood3 Comments

About a year ago, my husband got me Jillian Michaels’ Body Revolution. I love Jillian’s work outs! She is by far my favorite!
I had almost completed the 12 week program, when at week 11, while on vacation, I injured my left abductor thigh muscle, (totally unrelated to the program). That injury was a major 4 month set back, and actually I sadly never returned to the program to complete it.
That is until yesterday…
I started back at week one. It starts off easy enough, especially since I exercise on a regular basis, it almost seems to be too simple for a Jillian workout. (I have already done all the workouts, so I know it gets a lot harder!) So as “simple” as it seemed, let me just say, right now I am sore in places that I forgot existed.
As I complete the program, I will be giving a more detailed review with all the information that I was looking for when I was researching this workout program a year ago. As for right now, I need to go stretch out my sore muscles.

Flab to FAB · Health/ Fitness · Quote

Always Be What You’ve Always Been

November 4, 2015November 5, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGoodImage1 Comment

This little saying goes both ways, good and bad. If you always brush and floss your teeth, you will have good dental hygiene and a healthy mouth, that is good. If you always stay up too late every night you will wake up tired and dragging the next morning, that is bad.

If you want something in your life to change, you have to try something different.

Flab to FAB · Health/ Fitness

“How To Talk To Your Daughter About Her Body”

November 2, 2015November 3, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood2 Comments

The other day, my friend posted this on Facebook. Despite the fact that it is not original to her, I still thought that it was too good not to share.

If you have been around Looking Joli Good for any amount of time, you already know that I have my own body issues 🙂 While right now, my daughter is only 5 and absolutely confident in herself, before I know it she will be a “tween”(… and then a teenager!!!) I would LOVE it if she could grow up without any of her own body image issues. I hope that I can be the one to help her accomplish that!!!

While it doesn’t seem to still be an active website, this post originally appeared on hopeave.wordpress.com.

“How to talk to your daughter about her body, step one: don’t talk to your daughter about her body, except to teach her how it works.
Don’t say anything if she’s lost weight. Don’t say anything if she’s gained weight.
If you think your daughter’s body looks amazing, don’t say that. Here are some things you can say instead:
“You look so healthy!” is a great one.
Or how about, “you’re looking so strong.”
“I can see how happy you are – you’re glowing.”
Better yet, compliment her on something that has nothing to do with her body.
Don’t comment on other women’s bodies either. Nope. Not a single comment, not a nice one or a mean one.
Teach her about kindness towards others, but also kindness towards yourself.
Don’t you dare talk about how much you hate your body in front of your daughter, or talk about your new diet. In fact, don’t go on a diet in front of your daughter. Buy healthy food. Cook healthy meals. But don’t say “I’m not eating carbs right now.” Your daughter should never think that carbs are evil, because shame over what you eat only leads to shame about yourself.
Encourage your daughter to run because it makes her feel less stressed. Encourage your daughter to climb mountains because there is nowhere better to explore your spirituality than the peak of the universe. Encourage your daughter to surf, or rock climb, or mountain bike because it scares her & that’s a good thing sometimes.
Help your daughter love soccer or rowing or hockey because sports make her a better leader & a more confident woman. Explain that no matter how old you get, you’ll never stop needing good teamwork. Never make her play a sport she isn’t absolutely in love with.
Prove to your daughter that women don’t need men to move their furniture.
Teach your daughter how to cook kale.
Teach your daughter how to bake chocolate cake made with six sticks of butter.
Pass on your own mom’s recipe for Christmas morning coffee cake. Pass on your love of being outside.
Maybe you & your daughter both have thick thighs or wide ribcages. It’s easy to hate these non-size zero body parts. Don’t. Tell your daughter that with her legs she can run a marathon if she wants to, & her ribcage is nothing but a carrying case for strong lungs. She can scream & she can sing & she can lift up the world, if she wants.
Remind your daughter that the best thing she can do with her body is to use it to mobilize her beautiful soul.”

(text in bold print added by me for effect)

Flab to FAB · Health/ Fitness

Healthy Eating…It Is Not Easy!

October 31, 2015October 31, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood3 Comments

Continue along with me on my journey from Flab to Fab.

I am going to be honest… I have had a really hard time with eating right this week. Obviously making the transition from stay at home mom to working mom has been (and will be) a work in progress. I have been getting up early to exercise and always make my lunch the night before to bring into work. Since I have been using my crock pot to have dinner ready as soon as I get home from work, it has also been a lot easier to prevent myself from unnecessary after work snacking. If I plan out and control my meals, I have usually been successful. I know that I cannot be successful 100% of the time. I do want to be successful 100% of the time, but let’s be honest, it isn’t realistic. I have been letting myself have one or two “treats/cheats” a week, and for the most part I have been really good at sticking to my healthy eating plan.

So what is my problem this week?!
Halloween candy is my kryptonite. Who am I kidding, candy in general is my weakness. I love kitkats and twix, and reeses pieces and pb cups, oh and don’t forget about skittles…
While I haven’t purchased any Halloween candy myself, we have gone to a few different Halloween activities where my kids have gotten candy. They have been kind enough to share it with me.

As you may remember, I am a “food addict”. As with all addictions, it all starts with the first piece…if I can just resist that first piece…why can’t I just resist that first piece?! It really is all about that first piece! Once I have eaten one, it just tastes so good, and it leads to another and then another. See what I mean, addict. Then comes the feelings of regret and guilt…does that happen to you too? I seriously hate it!

So, what am I going to do about this?
Well, for now, I am going to forgive myself for messing up this week, and I am making a conscious decision to make the right food choices in the upcoming week.

Flab to FAB · Health/ Fitness

Flab to FAB~Motivation

October 23, 2015October 16, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood2 Comments

Sometimes a little motivation is needed to continue on. Some days are harder than others. Mark this down, pin it or print it out if you need to and read it whenever you feel like you need a little kick in the pants…

What you have decided to start is very hard. Change is never easy. Choosing a healthy lifestyle is just as much mental as it is physical. You have to make a choice every day to keep going. You won’t see results for a few weeks, but you’ll start to feel stronger. It takes 6 weeks to see real results and 12 weeks before most people will notice the change on the outside that you have been feeling on the inside. You didn’t gain the weight in a week and you won’t lose it all in a week either. It takes time and commitment! Don’t let being sore stop you, use the soreness as motivation to keep pushing yourself! Make every jumping jack and every burpee count, don’t waste your time only giving half an effort. You’ll have good days and you’ll have bad days, but making the choice to keep going is what makes the difference!

Health/ Fitness

Don’t Just Be Aware Of Breast Cancer!

October 12, 2015October 11, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood3 Comments

Most people know that October is “Breast Cancer Awareness Month.” While most are “aware of breast cancer”, many forget to take the steps to have a plan to detect the disease in its early stages. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States (other than skin cancer). Millions of women are surviving the disease thanks in part to early detection and improvements in treatment.

As you may remember, I recently started a new job at the Hospital. I’m working in an Out Patient Infusion Center. We give a lot of different medications, and a lot of chemotherapy. In just the few weeks that I have been working, I have seen so many cases of advanced cancer. The earlier the cancer is found, the better the prognosis!

If you think that you can’t afford to get tests done, in the USA, coverage of mammograms for breast cancer screening is mandated by the Affordable Care Act. The ACA provides that these be given without a co-pay or deductible. (Obama care is good for somethings) Don’t put off screening because of fear of the possible outcome. I can’t stress to you enough that early detection saves lives!!!!

Health/ Fitness

Can You Exercise Too Much?

October 9, 2015October 10, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood1 Comment

Continue with me on my journey as I go from Flab to FAB…

Is there such a thing as too much exercise?

Regular exercise is definitely important for good health. When I say exercise, I mean a dedicated time set aside to do things such as cardio and strength/weight training. This might surprise you, but the answer is definitely yes!

Studies show that it is most effective to work out for less than an hour a day, generally between 30-45 min a day. The American Hear Association suggests: “At least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity at least 5 days per week for a total of 150 minuets. Or at least 25 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity at least 3 days per week for a total of 75 minutes; or a combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity. Moderate- to high-intensity muscle-strengthening activity at least 2 days per week for additional health benefits.”

The most important thing is to find the right balance. I know for me, when I work out too intensely, I tend to eat more. I have more sugar and snacking cravings. Balance high and low intensity to help control your hunger level. If you are exercising more but eating more, that will not be an effective way to lose weight. You cannot out run a poor diet! Find what works best for your body. If you feel tired or burnt out and are craving more food, maybe you are working out too much or too intensely. Don’t decrease your activity, but maybe just your time and intensity.

While exercising too much isn’t necessarily a good thing, what is important is to be moving throughout the day.Look for ways to include more movement to your day. Make small changes like standing when you can instead of sitting down, walking up the steps instead of taking the elevator, parking further away from the door. You don’t have to be doing things that cause you to be out of breath and sweating, but being more active overall is important.

So How Much Exercise is Enough?

According to Edward R. Laskowski, M.D. at the Mayo Clinic’s website

“For most healthy adults, the Department of Health and Human Services recommends these exercise guidelines:

Aerobic activity. Get at least 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes a week of vigorous aerobic activity. You also can do a combination of moderate and vigorous activity. The guidelines suggest that you spread out this exercise during the course of a week.
Strength training. Do strength training exercises at least twice a week. No specific amount of time for each strength training session is included in the guidelines.

Moderate aerobic exercise includes such activities as brisk walking, swimming and mowing the lawn. Vigorous aerobic exercise includes such activities as running and aerobic dancing. Strength training can include use of weight machines or activities such as rock climbing or heavy gardening.

As a general goal, aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day. If you want to lose weight or meet specific fitness goals, you may need to exercise more. Want to aim even higher? You can achieve more health benefits, including increased weight loss, if you ramp up your exercise to 300 minutes a week.

Short on long chunks of time? Even brief bouts of activity offer benefits. For instance, if you can’t fit in one 30-minute walk, try three 10-minute walks instead. What’s most important is making regular physical activity part of your lifestyle.”

I hope this was helpful!

$Seven Day Clean Eating Slow-Cooker Recipe eBook Brought to you by your coaches and friends at Strengthen You \ lookingjoligood.wordpress.com$

Flab to FAB · Health/ Fitness

Meal Planning…A Love/Hate Relationship

October 5, 2015October 3, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood5 Comments

Continue to journey with me from Flab to FAB

Do you meal plan? Do you love it? Hate it?

Now that I have gone back to work, meal planning is going to be more important than ever! I used to be able to go grocery shopping whenever I felt like it and take my time. Then all afternoon I’d be planning and making dinner. Not so much anymore.

When I come home from working all day the absolute last thing I feel like doing is taking the time to make a big healthy meal. (Can I get an Amen!) I am starving from running around taking care of patients all day and I want to eat right then! I have to admit, I had a bit of a rough time with sticking to my diet this week. I did awesome during breakfast and lunch, but when I got home and was trying to get the dinner situation figured out, I was so hungry that I snacked before dinner. If you recall, I am a bit of a food addict, and snacking doesn’t go well for me! While I didn’t gain any weight, I haven’t lost any this week either. (que the sad music :-()

$Seven Day Clean Eating Slow-Cooker Recipe eBook Brought to you by your coaches and friends at Strengthen You \ lookingjoligood.wordpress.com$ This coming week, starting today, I am planning to put my crock pot to great use! I will be following the “Seven Day Clean Eating Slow-Cooker Recipe eBook Brought to you by your coaches and friends at Strengthen You” I have my shopping list all ready and plan to head to the store soon. I will let you know how the meals turn out and if this crock pot meal plan helps me to be more successful this week! (If the food is good, I may share some of the recipes.)

Here is what is on the menu for the week…

$Seven Day Clean Eating Slow-Cooker Recipe eBook Brought to you by your coaches and friends at Strengthen You \ lookingjoligood.wordpress.com$ Also, if you have a killer crockpot meal that you know is not only healthy but delicious, please share it!!!

Looking Joli Good

Kindness is beautiful!

Category: Health/ Fitness

Working Out for Beginners

Essential Oils

I May Be Crazy… (Flab To Fab)

Always Be What You’ve Always Been

“How To Talk To Your Daughter About Her Body”

Healthy Eating…It Is Not Easy!

Flab to FAB~Motivation

Don’t Just Be Aware Of Breast Cancer!

Can You Exercise Too Much?

Is there such a thing as too much exercise?

So How Much Exercise is Enough?

Meal Planning…A Love/Hate Relationship

Continue to journey with me from Flab to FAB

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Is there such a thing as too much exercise?

So How Much Exercise is Enough?

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