Page 28 - Megan Reichman

Fit and Fabulous:

The Busy Woman’s Guide to Healthy Living

By Cynthia Woods

Today’s multi-tasking women have careers, carpools, kids 2. Keep from overeating by following these suggestions:
and a slew of activities that keep them on the go. Staying • Don’t skip meals. Wait until you are truly hungry before you
healthy should be a top priority, but these hard-working ladies begin eating--even if it’s mealtime. Try to listen to your body
are so busy taking care of everyone else that getting fit be- for signals; if you eat when your body isn’t hungry, you won’t
comes a last priority. Here are five easy strategies for incor- be able to tell when you’ve had enough.
porating healthy living into anyone’s busy lifestyle. • Cut down the size of your proportions. Your stomach is the
1 Five minutes size of your fist, and a fist-
of exercise every sized portion is about all you
two hours. “That’s need to eat at each meal.
all it takes to slow • Don’t snack; develop the
the aging process fine art of passing on snack
and prevent weight foods when you aren’t
gain,” says exer- hungry. You can walk by that
cise guru Terry candy dish and not take one
Bowers, a fitness (oh yes you can!).
expert whose clients • Drink a large glass of wa-
include many of the ter before and during each
doctors and scien- meal. Water will help you to
tists at the National feel full. Besides, it’s great
Institute of Health. for your complexion.
Studies show that
two hours of inac- Fast food, empty calories,
28 tivity releases the and stress eating are some
of the biggest reasons for
stress hormone cor-
tisol into the body. increased weight and de-
Cortisol is a neces- creased energy. “There is
sary hormone that pretty much no way around
is produced by the this one,” Bower’s says,
adrenal system and “if you want to lose weight
gives us that spike you’ll have to cut back on
of energy in times calories. Planning your
of stress or fear. But meals is one way you can
too much will cause make sure that you won’t
weight gain, internal overeat.”
organ stress, pre-
mature aging, and a To keep from overeat-
suppressed im- ing when you are bored,
mune system. Daily stressed, or feeling emo-
exercise keeps the tional, here is a suggestion;
adrenal system make a list of five things you
functioning effi- love to do that don’t involve
ciently and reduces food, like scrapbooking,
the overproduction reading, drawing, knitting,
of cortisol. etc. Instead of eating for
The good news is stress, boredom, or emo-
that you don’t have tional fulfillment, reach for
to do an extensive one of your hobbies, and if
workout for it to be they aren’t available, take
effective! “Exercise is cumulative,” say Bowers, “Every hour a 5 minute walk first or do lunges from the refrigerator to the
or two take a five minute walk, jog, or do some housework cabinet. It may not stop you from overeating, but it will at
or gardening. You’ll have completed the equivalent of a full least temporarily divert you from food.
workout by the end of the day. Not only will it keep stress hor-
mones at bay, but the diversion might keep you from reach-
ing for that doughnut!”
September/October 2010