Team Slim Tweetup #2

Tweetup #2 is in the books, and I’d like to thank everyone for coming out Saturday. I had a fantastic team some new people and reconnecting with some very cool folks from our 1st tweetup.

Everyday that goes by with people tweeting #teamslim and making personal progress using that platform boggles my mind. Its exciting to be part of something that is actually making a difference, and its all of the Team Slim folks that make a point to be aware of their health that make the whole thing work.

Special thanks to @joyfully_e, @teampribisko (and Pat), @davepolak, mbert216, @annweinzimmer, @arthistorygirl, @dreamy07babe, @nikkischiro and @jukebox65 (who didn’t know the group, but came by to visit anyway!) for making it a great atmosphere and making me really excited to keep having our get togethers.

Team Slim motivates me everyday, and its awesome to be able to meet the people that have helped me so much. I’ll be begging @joyfully_e for help in planning or 3rd tweetup soon so we can keep this going:).

Our Very Second Team Slim Tweetup!

The time is near everyone!  This Saturday, April 17th, 6pm at Fatheads in North Olmsted will be our second tweetup.

 Here’s the link to Google Maps Fathead’s page, so no one get lost.  If you decide to come and need extra directions, DM or email me, and I’ll call you with my very best Garmin Lady voice and give you the turn by turn.  If I’ve already been drinking, get ready for an adventure with my directions.

Leave a comment if you’ll be there, we’re going to have to call ahead, I think.

Hope to see you all there!

Eating Right

Eating right can mean something different to each of us. For some, eating right might be substituting one cheeseburger a week for a lean meat and veggie meal. To others, eating right can mean reducing their caffeine intake. And even further, eating right might be the simple act of recognizing you are carbo loading too often. But in the end, the goal of eating right for different people is the same. Eating right is a conscience decision to make changes in your diet that lead to a healthier lifestyle.

I remember the day vividly where weight no longer became something I struggled with, because I had finally overcome my vainness and learned that eating right was about my health, and not my image.

Each of us has an opportunity to improve our intake, no matter how disciplined or strict our diet is. Even further, if you do not discipline much, you have lots of opportunity to improve, and you might be surprised at how easy it can be.

 Below I offer a few tips. I offer this advice humbly because each day I learn something new about my diet, and what works for me. My life situation (stress level), exercise routine, time of year, etc. are all things that madly impact my diet. I offer these tips only for the purpose of suggesting ideas that worked for me, in the hopes that if you are looking to improve, one of these suggestions might also work for you or your loved ones.

All my best, much love, and to your future self!

xo

Audrey Hayden

Eat Often.   Always eat breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Measure.   Use a calorie calculator to enter your height and weight to see how what calorie consumption is needed to maintain, gain, or lose weight. (You may be surprised!)

Sauce.  Keep in the forefront of your mind, how easily butter, oil and sauces can add calories or fat to simple, normally healthy meals – like stir fry.

Chemicals.  Processed foods are harder to digest. If you enjoy lunch meat, rather than buying from the deli, try fresh from the meat counter, cook it on your own, keep in the fridge, and slice off pieces for sandwiches. It will keep for a week. You’ll same money and reduce chemical intake.

Veggies.  Try incorporating a vegetable into every meal. This may be hard with breakfast, where I would recommend a high fiber and iron intake because it keeps you fuller longer, but always try to sneak in veggies at lunch and dinner.

Fruits.  Choose fruits and vegetables that are packed with nutrients to get the biggest bang for your buck. For instance, rather than purchasing iceberg lettuce, purchase spring mix or red leaf lettuce. The darker the color the more nutrients. For fruits, stick to bananas, blueberries or tomatoes. These pack a powerful punch. Not that strawberries aren’t healthy, you’ll just get more nutrients from blueberries.

Shop.  When shopping at the grocery store, shop mostly around the perimeter where fruits, veggies, meats, dairies and non processed food merchandise are often found. Meals can easily consist of a lean meat, a veggie and a starch. It doesn’t have to be difficult, but rather can be VERY easy to eat healthy.

Drink.  Eliminate soda intake or any drinks in which sugar or sweeteners are used. Try brewing your own iced tea and adding lemon. Or sticking with water. If you get bored with water or iced tea, try a flavored water (which will have a sweetener) so at least your saving calories.

Be A Social Eater.  Everything in moderation. If you are at an event, or visiting a friend or family member for a home cooked meal, or are out to dinner, you will likely immediately crave whatever temptation is in front of you. If you do not fulfill that temptation, you will likely over eat later when you are by yourself and probably not enjoy it as much. Have some, but keep it to a single plate. If you are an emotional eater or one who can not stop what you start, it might be better to avoid completely. Bring a dinner substitute with you and encourage those to understand your efforts so they can support you rather than criticize.

Get moving.  20 – 30 minutes a day. Even if it is just walking. When you spend the time to take care of yourself, you may be surprised at how selective you are with your diet. Why reverse the benefit of exercise?

Buddy up.  Human nature is to be competitive. If you and a friend or family member venture together, you can make the competition fun, rewarding and motivating.

Sex, Sex, Sex!  If you are in a committed relationship, have sex often. If you are not in a committed relationship, remember to practice safe sex. Sex is one of the best forms of exercise and it will remind you to take good care of yourself. Praise your partners body and tell him or her each little detail of what turns you on. No better motivation that knowing your partner loves your nakedness.

Track Your Intake.  Tracking is good if you look back on what you ate at the end of each day. It might help you identify times when you are most hungry, what triggers your eating patterns, or remind you of how much you actually consume. You can do this several ways. You can use www.twitter.com and tweet your meal and add the #teamslim hashtag, our can use the Iphone application, or you can go old school and buy a mini notepad and keep in your purse or pocket. Find what works for you.

It’s Happening

Earlier today, as my Saturday morning routine was drawing to a close, I could hardly contain my curiosity about what the scale was going to say.  I’ve been feeling really good, but sometimes the scale can be a harsh critic.  So, I put on my lightest pair of underwear (no, of course I’m not going to tell you what kind) and walked over.

193!  That’s 12 pounds in around three weeks. (Yes, around three weeks.  I’m aware of my horrible lack of foresight when it comes to remembering what may be important dates.)  Now, I’m not just patting myself on the back, I learned some stuff, and I’d like to share.

The most striking thing I’ve learned so far is that no matter how big your goals may be, you need people around to support you.  I’m happy and healthy, but as much as I love the life I’m starting to lead, everyday is still a struggle to make the right decisions.  Seeing people at the gym, or people ordering healthy food and it always looked easy to me.  I thought I was ordering unhealthy food because I liked it (pretty much how I said I liked smoking), but , it turns out that its much more satisfying to eat a gigantic bacon cheddar burger than it is it eat a tuna salad.  The person sitting across the table from you can have a gigantic impact on what you eat.  I’m not accountable in my personal life to stay healthy and eat only good stuff, so it’s just a little harder.  That’s why TeamSlim has been such a blessing for me.  The people in the group become the people that are sitting across from me at dinner.  This may be the most important thing I can say to anyone on Team Slim who is struggling like I do; when you sit down to dinner, just imagine that we’re all there with you.  None of us are scary (on purpose), and none of us are mean, so you don’t have to worry about letting anyone down and getting preached to, you only have to worry about eating something that you would be proud to eat while we’re all at the table with you. 

Another huge thing that I’ve realized in the last couple weeks is that it’s OK to be a little hungry sometimes.  Go back to the whole “huge burger is more satisfying than tuna salad” thing.  It feels better because it leaves you completely sated.  Toss a couple beers and pile of fries on that and you get up from that dinner completely full.  Too full, to be sure, but how many times have you said, “I ate too much, but it’s ok because it was sooooooooooooooo good”?  Ya, me too.  Before I started this, I never really left a meal without that completely full feeling, and it was killing me.  I realized that the place I could make my largest improvement was just in portion control.  I do eat much healthier overall than I did, but it’s still possible to eat 4 chicken breasts, 3 helpings of some veggie, and humungous baked potato.  Those are all foods that can be part of healthy diet, but eat that much of it, and you’re still packing yoursef way too tightly.  Finish a better dinner, eat the portion size you know you should eat (you can’t fool me, I know you know what portion size you should be eating), and if you leave the table feeling like there’s more you can pack into yourself, drink some water and have some good conversation.  If there’s no conversation wherever you’re at, come see Team Slim on Twitter, we love good after dinner conversation.  (#shamelessplug)

The third, and maybe the most personally significant, thing I’ve learned is that there is a world of people out there who want to help me.  Not because I’m anything that anyone else isn’t, but simply because I want to help them.  If you feel overwhelmed at any point while trying to become more healthy, the best thing you can possibly do is to reach out to someone else who may need a hand doing the same thing you’re doing.  I don’t know, maybe this sounds like some self serving, twitter version of Pay it Forward, or some rah-rah go me thing, but I didn’t start really making progress until I started doing everything I could to help the rest of Team Slim hit their goals. 

I think I probably end every post by thanking Team Slim somehow, and it’s not looking like this one is going to be any different.  193, ya’ll!  Thanks!

#TeamSlim Tweetup #1

Some of the folks at Team Slim made it through our first tweetup on Saturday night, and I couldn’t be happier about meeting some good people. We talked a little about being healthy, but mostly we just hung out, and that’s exactly what I was hoping Team Slim would become.

We’re all going to have our own struggles staying healthy, and we’re all going to cope with stress and pressure in different ways, so I’m really glad that our tweetup didn’t end up being a nutrition seminar or lecture about how much more we can be doing to knock off some pounds or get ripped abs.

I’m by no means the “leader” of Team Slim (we all lead *and* we all follow) the one attitude I will always try to foster with our group is we all have different stages of progress to find for ourselves. Someone who’s strict about eating specific things, has a supplement program and uses a personal trainer for fitness competition prep is *far* superior to me physically. That doesn’t mean that I can’t get excited about losing my next pound, and it also doesn’t mean that we can’t help to motivate each other to reach our next goal. The people who’ve helped to start Team Slim understand this more than even I did when I saw them cheering me on initially.

Myself, @joyfully_e, @davepolak, @sweetwhitesuga (and her date), and @annweinzimmer (and her husband) were the attendees of the innagural Team Slim tweet up, with special shoutouts to @AudreyHayden (who organized our get together, but couldn’t make it due to last minute circumstances) and @teampribisko (who missed because of a family function, don’t worry, family always comes first). We had such a good time that we decided to start a monthly Team Slim tweetup, so anyone who couldn’t attend will have a chance to catch up with the group on a regular basis. Our next tweetup will be Saturday, April 17th. Time and place still TBA, but we’ve got a solid guarantee that good times will be had.