Sally’s Kitchen & Stuff

I don’t have a new recipe up yet - it’s been a long time prepping Christmas…you guys have no idea what it’s like! I’ve been teaching a vocal group Christmas music since the beginning of August, and honestly, that’s probably why I haven’t been over-shopping for gifts. The constant festive music in shopping malls just drives me out of there without the hour.

So instead I’ve came up with some secrets…some secrets people’s been telling you about that you haven’t been listening to in ages. How I maintained my weight since 17, and how the old jeans still fit. It’s really very, very simple.

Eat well. Eat anything you want. Don’t ever deprive yourself.

Didn’t expect that did ja?

Now here’s the catch:

• No alcohol, no smoking, no drugs. You can’t do cardio and smoke. It’s just not feasible.
• No sugary drinks except for orange juice and other no-sugar-added juices.
• No buying chips and cookies. If you must eat it, make it yourself. Once you realize how much butter goes into the baking of one batch of cookies, and how much oil it takes to fry chips, you’d be wary of putting another one into your mouth. Worse yet, most commercial cookies still contain trans fat.
• Eat EVERY meal. Snack on vegetables. Don’t let your body feel hungry.
• Eat everything you put on a plate, and replace all your 12" plates with 8" ones. Nobody needs to eat that much!

It’s really not what you eat: it’s what you buy. When you go grocery shopping, bring a list. Make sure you have a bunch of yummy low-sugar fruits and veggies on it. Skip the snack and pop isle.

When you get home, prep the veggies  - wash, dry, chop - and throw them in Tupperware containers. So when you’re hankering for a snack, you’d reach for a Tupperware full of chopped white mushrooms and red bell peppers. Mmmm.

You CAN eat big heavy meals and still be healthy! Keep your snacks healthy and keep the unhealthy snacks hidden, if you must have them at all. Sure, I still like a few cookies once in a while, but since I only eat what I bake, I partake in premeditated bingeing - often, when the cookies are done, the therapeutic dough kneading and the smell of baking, as well as the interim veggie snacking already did its work, and I end up giving the cookies away.

Most of us lack the will power to go to a gym - I do. As much as I like to advocate Pilate’s/yoga/weight training/cadio/aerobics, I can’t. I don’t do any of them - they’re too boring. I stay healthy doing what I love - DANCING.

It used to be salsa and swing lessons that really reved up my metabolism, but lately I’ve turned to Dance Dance Revolution, or even better, its PC equivalent: Stepmania. All you need is a $10 dance pad, a PC, and USB adapter. There are lots of sites that offer free sim files, linked off of the Stepmania website. Each set of DDR takes 9 minutes (3 rounds). Pick 5 of your favorite songs, and you’d have 45 minute of cardio separated by breaks of 30 seconds or so each, or however long for you to pick a song.

If you have a PS2/Xbox, the official version of Dance Dance Revolution also has a workout mode so that you can play continuously. I prefer the breaks, however, but to each his own.

Staying in shape is not a science - as much as diet books and fitness instructors try to tell you. It’s about having fun in life, and wanting to have more energy to have said fun WITH! And since it is fun…why not start today?

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 8th, 2005 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Weblogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.