Staggering Statistics

Lately, I have been reading through some of the various Fitness magazines available at every grocery store checkout.  Some of the statistics they present are mind boggling.  Granted, I am not sure how accurate their sources are, but in most cases, if the data they are presenting is even half true, we, as humans, need to step back and evaluate what is going on with our health these days.  For example, one article I read stated “45 million Americans start a diet each year.”  But then I toggled over to a site I thought I could obtain some accurate data, the CDC and……  According to the CDC, over one-third of US adults (35.7%) are obese.  Factor in the % of overweight but not obese adults (33.3%) and you have a staggering 69% of the US population not at a normal weight.  Yet our grocery store aisles are overflowing with Healthy choice and lean cuisine meals.  Gym memberships are off the charts. Millions of people are starting diets every year!  So what is everyone doing wrong?

Honestly, I can only begin to guess.  First, I would fault all the “healthy food” we make available.  Lean cuisine is not healthy and either is “healthy choice.”  They have five days’ worth of sodium in one serving… okay, maybe not that bad, but close, haha.  We need to decide to stop eating out of cans and little plastic dishes with saran wrap.  Are we really that lazy these days that we cannot turn on the stove and steam some vegetables?  Also, one thing I learned from having a stress fracture is how important diet really is.  It is not beneficial to go to the gym for 2 hours and take a spinning class and some other high intensity cardio class, just to go home and eat three bowls of cereal.  You will not lose weight. 

Okay enough ranting about statistics, I need to figure out what I am making for dinner!

~ Savannah FitNut aka Morgan McNeal

New Christmas Presents in Action

Yummy Apples

Not sure about you, but I have certainly been enjoying all my Christmas presents.  My new Crossfit sneakers are amazing!  I love them and am kinda sad I have been going all this time without them.   Sometimes, they look like they are suited for a midget, but I still love them.  Also, I received a Himalayan salt block for cooking.  Amazing!  My husband grilled a steak on it and it was delicious, and not too salty.  I definitely recommend looking into it as a way to add variety to your cooking.  And lastly, we just tried our new dehydrator this weekend and made apple chips.   We sprinkled a little cinnamon on some of the slices and a little unsweetened cocoa powder on the others.  It did take a little while to dehydrate them (probably about 10 hours), but they were delicious.  We used 4 really large red delicious apples which made quite a few chips.   The process consisted of cutting up the apples into thin slices, putting them on the dehydrator trays and putting them in the dehydrator, easy as can be!  We are going to try banana chips next weekend.

Yummy Apple Chips with Cinnamon and Cocoa

In other news, now that I have had a full week in 2013, I have decided I am NOT adjusting my goals I set out in my previous post even though some of them may be very difficult.  I think the hardest ones are going to be to do 90% of Crossfit workouts at the prescribed weight and to do pull-ups.  I already read one book in the 1^st week and we only ate out one time last week (for a 95% rate of cooking meals in the home).

Pretty CF Shoes

I read an interesting article this weekend regarding what is the best diet to follow.  The article discussed all the diets we have out there, low carb, low fat, high carb, don’t eat this, eat a lot of that, drink lemon juice every day……bleh, bleh.  Research shows most of these fad diets DO NOT WORK…. Although you probably already know that.  What does work is incorporating the principles a lot of the diets have in common.

Here are the 5 guidelines I think are most prevalent in all the published diets out there and that I recommend (P.S.  I am not a doctor, although maybe someday J).

1. Drink water and lots of it.
2. Eat more vegetables.  Green, purple, red, just eat more of these.
3. Eat fruit, but not for every meal.
4. Eliminate (or drastically reduce) white anything.  White flour, white pasta, white sugar – throw it out of the house.
5. Eliminate (or drastically reduce) eating processed food.  It is not good for you.  A good rule of thumb is the 5-ingredient rule.  Read the ingredients and if it has more than 5 ingredients, reconsider eating it, especially if any of the ingredients are weird chemicals you cannot pronounce or have never heard of.

~ Savannah FitNut aka Morgan McNeal

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone!  I hope you enjoyed the holidays.  I certainly did.  My husband and I traveled up North to visit with our friends and family.  It was a long drive from GA to PA, but having our own car gave us the flexibility to visit lots of people and not have to bother anyone with our flight schedules.  We did get to see a bit more snow than I wanted.  It snowed on Christmas Eve, which was pretty, especially because I did not have to go outside.  However, it snowed a couple more days during our visit and we happened to be on the roads.  It just makes me quite grateful for the 60 degree Savannah winter days.  The vacation went by extremely fast and here we are already, it is 2013!

With the New Year, everyone seems to be in the “Resolution spirit.”  You are making plans for 2013, maybe revising the deadlines on some of those 2012 resolutions.  Everyone wants to be healthier and happier and overall better in the New Year.  There is nothing wrong with that!  I am not a resolutioner (that is not a real word, haha), however, I do like goal setting and what better time to write them down, then now.  Before I wrote down my goals, I wanted them to be specific and attainable.  In my opinion, many people do not achieve their goals, because they are too outlandish or not specific enough (i.e. I am going to eat healthier….. I am going to be stronger….).  My goals are very specific and attainable.  I will keep you posted on my progress and maybe add more goals as the year goes on.

Without further adieu, here are my 5 goals for 2013:

1. Read more books – at least 2 per month (whether it is on the Kindle, paperback, hardback, whatever, on whatever topic I choose)
2. 2 Unassisted Pull-ups (No band assistance)
3. Prescribed weights on 90% of CF workouts
4. Cook 90% of meals at home (that equates to a maximum of 2 meals out per week)
5. Maintain my blog – at least one post per week

What are your goals for 2013?  Fitness related, health related, family??

~ Savannah FitNut aka Morgan McNeal