Health Advice from Me (The Girl Whom Everyone Gives Health Advice)

As you know, when it comes to working-out and eating right, I try it all. Literally. If you suggest it, I try it. I admit, I’m still not perfect, I still make mistakes now and then, but there are a few things that I wish I knew at the beginning of this journey last year, that may have gotten me some results sooner. So I thought I’d share….

So without further ado, I give you…

Amanda Hanna’s tips for getting fit and healthy:

1. Drink your veggies. Eat your fruit.

Sure, you can (and should also), eat veggies, but under no circumstances, should you DRINK your fruit. Fruit is sugar (albeit, natural sugar). When you blend your breakfast smoothie, if you put fruits with a high glycemic index in the mix, it comes out to more sugar than you probably would’ve eaten. When you have sugar in the morning, you crave it all day–and a sugar craving often turns into a salt craving…..Anyhow, believe me. If you want to add fruit to your breakfast smoothie, add berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries), not mangos. (If you are going to do a heavy work-out, you can also add a banana, despite the sugar, because it feeds your muscles potassium, so they recover better). Besides–don’t you like eating fruit? It tastes go, so why skip it?

2. Don’t have oatmeal (or similar healthy complex carbs) at night.

Oatmeal is a great source of energy because it is complex carbs. Complex carbs are awesome to kick start your day, but not so great before you sleep. Complex as they may be, carbs are sugar, and when sugar is unused, it is stored as fat.

3. Vegetarianism–if done incorrectly–can cause more harm that good.

This is not a fad diet, or a quick way to drop a few pounds. Vegetarianism is a religion. It’s something you need to understand fully, before you jump in and give up meat for lent. Why? I’ll tell you why. These five pounds I have been trying to lose for the past 3 years, are a direct result of a pop-vegetarian lifestyle I carried on with for a few months. In this time, I declared Carrot Cake with cream cheese icing as “vegetable”, and ate it EVERY DAY. I was also thrilled that banana chips could now become a staple of my “vegetarian” diet. Listen people–take it from me–if you don’t understand how to introduce plant protein into your diet, to replace meat, don’t do it. You will only run into hardship down the line.

4. Be consistent with working out. It’s not how hard, it’s how often.

I have done the hard core pushes in the gym, lifting heavy weights and feeling like I was going to pass out afterwards. Then I’d take six days off to recover. Let me tell you–this was not productive. I have found that it is better to do easier work-outs, more times a week, then one life-crushing work-out, fewer times a week. Of course, I am not training to be a bikini champion like my friend Sandy Lee, so if that’s your goal, ignore number 4.

5. Each day is a new day. Take it meal by meal.

If you focus too hard on a goal, sometimes you can feel overwhelmed. I try to take it meal by meal, each day. I start off with my green smoothie (Kale, broccoli, handful of Dole Frozen Fruit, and water, with half a scoop of protein powder. Sometimes I add cucumber and left over romaine lettuce). Then I work-out. Then at lunch I have grilled chicken, sweet potato wedges (baked), and veggies. For dinner I try to have another lean meat with veggies, but often times I fail in favor of kibbehs, hummus and tabouleh, or Wendy’s chicken nuggets. I figure, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.

6. Eat on time.

If I don’t eat at the same time every day, it is very likely that I will pass out. This happened to me a couple weeks ago when I was getting my nails done. My day was unusual, and I forgot to eat lunch. As the nail tech was getting me ready for my manicure, I started to see black spots and then it all went south. Also, on Friday after I went running, I didn’t wan to disturb Ricky as he was cleaning the kitchen, so I delayed having my snack. That’s when my friends, the black spots appeared. Soda is the only thing that can save me in those situations, and once soda (sugar) is introduced into my system, my day must end with greasy, delicious Chinese food. See what I’m saying?

Don’t let your day end in greasy, delicious Chinese food. Eat on Time!

7. It is good to cheat.

Many people have a cheat day, but I prefer to have a cheat weekend, every other weekend. In this time I can eat my favorite things, like rice and bread and noodles. I get to carry on this way for forty-eight, blissful hours. It also spikes my leptin and causes my body to burn any stored fat. Then it’s back to business.

8. If you don’t remember anything else, remember this: High Protein, High Fibre.

I aim to put 50 grams of lean protein in my body every day. I also aim to have veggies with every meal. Why? Protein builds muscle. Muscle burns fat. No matter what I do in the gym, nothing will build muscle like what I put in my stomach. Fibre, similarly, keeps me full and makes sure I’m regular. (Hey–bathroom stuff, gross as it is, is a very important factor in your health and fitness). Once you focus on getting plenty of protein and fibre, you’ll be too tired to chew any of that bad stuff you used to like so much.

That’s all I got for you so far–same old boring stuff about eating right and exercising. I wish I could be more original, but alas, it is what it is. Hope these tips helped. I wish someone had told them to me last year so I could be even closer to my fitness goals now.

 

DIG MY BLOG, CHECK OUT MY FUNNY CHICK-LIT NOVELS: THE NEW YORK CATCH, NEW YORK SOCIALITE, NEW NEW YORK, NEW YORK SERIES, RED ROCK CAFE, MIDLIFE WIFE.