How Your Friends Make It Easy to be Healthy: Boot Camp & More
Five-a-Day, Water Instead of Pop, and Don’t Slip Back
This is a diary of the healthy lifestyle goals that my son, Chris, and I are making together each month.
September was a whirlwind of activity, as we prepared for the premiere of Loserville the Film. Chris was involved in promotion of the movie that he starred in, and we booked our trips and packed for Hollywood to attend the premiere on September 29th. Also, at the beginning of the Month, my husband and I traveled to his niece’s wedding. Chris and I kept to our previous goals, but did not make new goals until October.
In October, my new goal was to eat five fruits and vegetables a day. Chris’ goal was to reinforce all of his previous goals because he was slipping back on various things, such as drinking pop and eating burgers and greasy foods. So he added the goal of drinking water instead of pop.
October: Reinforcing previous goals
When Chris got back to New York after the premiere of Loserville the Film, he got sick. By October 9th, he was not totally well yet but ran ran the entire New Balance Bronx 10 Mile Race for Charity. He felt that he had a responsibility to run for those who had donated to the cause on his behalf. He ran for Team for Kids, an organization that helps promote fitness programs for youth around the country and fights childhood obesity.
Chris hadn’t been able to train for the race during his trip and illness. On the morning of the race, he was one of the last to register and arrive at the starting line. He looked around him as he began to run, and decided that “there was NO WAY I was going to be last.” He kept going and passed a group of runners and ended up with a medal. Congratulations, Chris!
Chris also tried out Barry’s Boot Camp on a Sunday for a full-body workout. It’s a mix of cardio and weight training. The idea is to shock your body because if you do the same things all the time, your body gets immune. Barry’s Boot Camp switches everything up in extreme intervals. It really burns fat and builds muscle. But it also works abs throughout, and there’s a lot of incline work. There were some in the class who said, “I can’t.” If someone needed to slow down, the trainer just let them slow down.
Drinking water helped Chris to keep the pop habit from coming back, and he paid more attention to sticking with his healthy food choices. I must say I was shocked at how well he was eating when we were at restaurants together in Los Angeles. At breakfast, he would have a vegetable omelet with a side of fruit. As his mom, I can tell you that I have never seen him eat such healthy food all through his life (except for the good foods I cooked and made him eat when he was growing up)! Lol!
For November, Chris wants to cut back on servings sizes and amounts. He said today he had about five breakfasts throughout the morning. Knowing that he eats too fast, I suggested mindful eating might help. He agreed that slower and more thoughtful eating and chewing thoroughly could help in cutting down on amounts.
October: 5-a-Day
I discovered right away that eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day was not only easy, but it was something I was already doing! I looked up serving sizes and was pleasantly surprised. Here’s an easy chart of serving sizes.
Most mornings for breakfast, I have a bowl of oatmeal with fresh fruit and dried cherries, berries and nuts. Add a cup of fruit juice and that’s already four servings of fruit! Next month, I am going to make it a goal to have more than 5-a-Day of fruits and vegetables. Although I’m sure I already do that without effort, I want to count it and see. Making conscious food choices has eliminated a lot of unhealthy foods from my diet.
I hope our health diary is helpful to you in setting goals and being more conscious about your health. Come back every Monday for a new blog post or sign up for emails to deliver the posts directly to you! There is a health report every month.
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