Getting healthy and fit in real time, in real life…

I’ve been using WorkSafe Sam for over a week now.  For those of you who didn’t read my post last week, WorkSafe Sam is a “stretch prompter” that you can download to your computer. 

(Sam just popped up as I am typing this so I’ll continue my post after I stretch.)

Here are my thoughts on Sam:

Pros:

-I’m stretching more frequently now instead of waiting until I feel sore.
-It’s FREE.
-It’s easy to install.  (Thanks, V!)
-Sam’s kind of cute.

Cons:

-The program doesn’t start when I turn on my computer so I must open it manually, which I forget to do sometimes.
-I wish Sam would pop up more frequently.  I think it would be beneficial for some people to stretch more than once per hour.
-Sam only pops up for a few seconds then he disappears.  If I step away from my computer while he pops up, he’ll be gone by the time I get back and I would forget to stretch that hour.
-Sam offers very limited stretching tips.  Some tips are not even stretches but tips on how to avoid eye strain or lift heavy boxes.

Has anyone else been using Sam?  What are your thoughts?

As I said, Sam doesn’t offer many stretching tips so you can find more stretches on the Health, Safety and Environment website:
Office Stretch Break: http://www.hse.ubc.ca/__shared/assets/Office_Stretch_Break5276.pdf
Lower Body Stretches: http://www.hse.ubc.ca/__shared/assets/Lower_Body_Stretches5267.pdf
Upper Body Stretches: http://www.hse.ubc.ca/__shared/assets/Upper_Body_Stretches5304.pdf

Okay, they are not my top 3 food tips. They are my only food tips. Here they are:

1. Eat less, but do not deprive yourself

Deprivation of the foods you enjoy is a disaster awaiting to happen. I should know, I have done it many, many times. I once tried to completely cut potato chips from my diet. After about two weeks I ended up devouring a bag of chips…and I’m not talking about the small bags of chips you get out of the vending machines. Yup, that’s right, I went for the party size bags. Sufficed to say, it wasn’t pretty.

Since that food disaster, I have learned that moderation is the key. When I have a craving for potato chips, I take 5-10 pieces out of the bag and store the rest for later. I also make sure that when I start eating the chips, the rest of the bag is far, far away from me (ie. I’m in the living room but the rest of the chips are in that hard to reach cupboard in the kitchen). That way, I am less likely to get up and get some more.

2. Supplement with green leafy things

When decreasing portions of meat, try and supplement them with green leafy things (yes, I know that they are called vegetables). I recently cooked myself a steak and instead of eating the rather large portion I usually like, I cut the serving in half and added a spinach salad to the meal (this is in addition to the other fruits and veggies I usually have at dinner). The benefits of this is two-fold: I ate a more balanced meal and I was not left with that hungry deprived feeling.

3. Keep the rich, yummy, tasty foods at a distance

We used to buy the family-sized portions of chocolate ice cream and 12″ chocolate cake whenever we went shopping at Superstore. What would happen was since all that stuff was right in our fridge, we would eat it more often. Now we have stopped buying those items and if we find that we have a craving for them, we would go out to a specialty dessert place to get them. While buying a slice of cake or a serving of ice cream may be more expensive at a specialty dessert place than just getting them in bulk at the grocery store, we found that we would only make the trip if our cravings out-weighed the effort needed to get any of these items. And frankly, that doesn’t happen often.

I have found that these three strategies work well for me. I found that I can’t completely cut certain foods out of my diet, but by putting putting obstacles in the way of obtaining certain foods and by reducing the portions I can get a workable balance in my diet.

What are your tricks?

{ 6 comments }

Last week I stated that my initial approach to improving my flexibility would be to revisit a yoga exercise regime.  This is a 28-day fitness program which I began – from Day 1, no cheating – on July 2.  I’ll let you do the math but I am not on Day 15! Ah how things conspire against good intention!   

But, although I find myself somewhat mired on Day 8, I am not disheartened. I have been distracted only by transient episodes that will settle down, and for each day I have missed, I have gone back one day to review before the next daily set. 

This is the upside to having a ‘program’ approach.  I have noticed that I got through the ‘rubber leg’ stage where my body was trying to reintroduce different muscle groups.  “Hey, remember me?  I’m that hamstring that has been coiled up in your thigh all this time.  Thanks for the stretch!”  I expect this dialogue will continue until all muscle groups are players in the game.

I was gratified to learn from the responses to my first blog that lack of flexibility is not totally a gender issue.  I had assumed that women were naturally more flexible – due to their pelvic structure. I might have reached this conclusion from the pictures in my yoga book : the impossibly fit looking young woman in the extreme positions of every pose. 

Also, that damn little box does have a different scale for men and women, with the bar set higher for women.   But apparently this was misleading as some very fit-looking women have shared their own story of under achievement against that little box. I thank you for that.  

Another comment was whether there was an approach to yoga that wasn’t too…New Agey?  Well, yes there certainly is: make it your own style.  The yoga exercises that I’m trying to practice are basically stretching exercises. Yes, the book does expound on some yoga practices that seem a little outside my needs (How long can you stare at a candle?)  I can accept them as relaxation techniques – or gloss over them entirely, depending on my mood. 

Yeah, this may not be in the true spirit of advanced yoga, but I’m not using this as a tool to spiritual enlightenment either. There is a gradual progression in the exercises which I find appealing as an internal measurement of progress – in addition to the comments that my muscle groups throw back at me!

{ 1 comment }