Weight Loss with Yoga – Exercise that is Easy on Your Joints

As many of you know by now, I have compromised joints. There have been days where the joint pain in my knees has made it difficult for me to walk. Well, I am in the midst of rectifying that by losing weight (the right way!) and strengthening my muscles around my joints.

Now, exercise is a challenge because I don’t want to put added stress on my joints. My solution for this is in losing weight are exercise bands (To Bands
) and now Yoga!

I never thought that Yoga could increase your heart rate enough to loose weight. Boy was I wrong! When I did my Yoga exercise today, my heart was pumping, I was sweating and I was breathing hard! I was also able to work my muscles without any added stress on my joints. At any time, if I felt like I couldn’t do a pose, there was a modified pose to do. I could also make the workout a tad easier by simply dropping my arms. I’m definitely a new fan of Yoga and am adding this to my weight loss routine.

The video that I like best out of the few that I have purchased is The Biggest Loser: The Workout – Weight Loss Yoga. In this video, you can customize your workout to include a warm-up, different levels of the program and a cool down. I really like this workout customization feature of this DVD. I also particularly like trainer Bob Harper and his constant reminders of what your form should look like (knee above ankle, 90 degrees) and how you should FEEL during the Yoga workout (you’ll feel a stretch in the hamstrings). These tips allow you to know if you’re doing it right. I do find it a bit awkward having to look at the TV to ensure I’m doing the pose right, however after a week or two of doing this, I should know the poses well enough that it will no longer be an issue.

So, if you know you need to start exercising but aren’t sure what to do because of your joint pain, I highly recommend The Biggest Loser: The Workout – Weight Loss Yogafor a great workout that won’t strain your joints!

Blessings,
Tula Rainwater
http://cellgenehealth.com

Healthier Diet Means Weight Loss Results!!

After another week of changing my diet to lower fat and higher protein, I lost it! Weight, that is! I didn’t even exercise last week and I lost 3.2 pounds! Yes, that’s in just one week simply from changing my diet! Imagine what I can do once I start my weight training again (I’ve been laid out this last week due to ankle injuries). I am now a strong believer in simple changes in diet! Who knew that weight loss could be so easy?

So, I will continue to remind everyone that if you are at a standstill with your weight loss program, start writing down what it is you are putting into your body. You can either create your own spreadsheet that counts calorie and fat intake, or you can purchase a program like Calorie King (which is what I did). Simple non-fat changes in cheese, oils, sauces and dressings is really going to make a world of difference!

Blessings,
Tula Rainwater
www.cellgenehealth.com

Changes in Diet to Lose Weight

So, it’s been about a week since I have been using Calorie King to change my eating habits and lose weight. As you guys read on the last post, I had a HUGE revelation on what I was actually putting into my body. Although the amount of calories I was taking in was low, the amount of fat I was eating was WAY TOO HIGH, and the amount of protein I was eating was WAY TOO LOW. No wonder my weight loss journey has been a bust!! So here are some of the changes I have made…

I love coffee and was very excited to see there are very little calories and fat in coffee itself. However, the creamer and other additives (can we say mocha?) can kill your weight loss program. I also love lots of creamer. Some people ask me if I’d like some coffee with my creamer! LOL SO, I changed to Coffee Mate Non-fat creamer. Very little calories and NO FAT!

I also love milk and have always preferred 2% milk. Yet, the amount of calories and fat in 2% milk simply isn’t conducive to my weight loss program. So I have switched to skim milk. It does take some time to get use to, however after a week, I’m finding it’s not so bad after all. Again I was able to trim off calories and fat by making this switch.

By counting calories and fat intake, I also found that although I was eating nice health salads, the cheese and salad dressing I was putting on my salads was increasing my fat intake. You would be surprised how much fat is in both cheese and ranch salad dressing! So I’ve switched to Fat Free shredded cheddar cheese (I also love cheese!). At the suggestion of my good friend, Rex Harris, instead of using typical salad dressing I am using mustard! Ok, I know it sounds weird… but if you buy French’s Honey Dijon mustard it will make your salad extremely flavorful and only has 10 calories per teaspoon and NO FAT!! By making these two simple changes in my salads, I cut out over 300 calories and 35 grams of fat!!

To increase my protein count, I have been adding chickpeas and kidney beans to my salads along with plain skinless chicken breasts. Beans are a great source of protein and fiber with very little calories and fat. Now, I didn’t buy canned because of all the sodium. Instead, I bought the dried beans and simple soaked, cooked and drained them. I then placed them in a container in the fridge. Another nice thing about beans is that all the fiber in them really fills you up!! I actually feel stuffed after having one of my salads! They also make a great snack… sometimes I combine some chickpeas, kidney beans, fat free cheese and mustard in a bowl and just have that as a snack.

Finally, I’m a chocolate lover. Just another thing that led to the demise of my weight loss program. I found these Hostess 100 calorie pack cupcakes that are WONDERFUL!! They are low fat and with the amount of calories and fat that I’ve eliminated from dressings and cheeses, I have found I can have two of these packs if I choose! YAY for me!!

So, there you have it. Some of my food changes I have made in my weight loss program. These changes have cut the amount of calories, sodium and fats that I take in daily and have increased the amount of protein. Hopefully, some of the tips I’ve given here will help you in your weight loss. If you haven’t already, start marking down what you are taking in everyday, either use a program like Calorie King or count it out by hand using a spreadsheet. It will make all the difference!

Blessings,
Tula Rainwater
http://cellgenehealth.com

A Revelation on Calorie and Fat Intake

Having as many joint surgeries as I have had and suffering from constant joint pain, weight loss has been a struggle for me in recent years. When you go from playing sports to having a hard time walking some days, it becomes rather difficult to burn calories. Something like this requires a complete lifestyle change in the way you eat and some creativity on how to burn calories.

On this quest of mine, both my brothers have been telling me about this calorie counting program. My one brother has been raving about it for the last year and my other brother has recently been raving about it.

I don’t know about you, but counting calories seems like such a chore. However, if I’m going to get serious about this, I realized that this is something I’m going to have to do.

So last night, I purchased the program Calorie King. It’s a one-time fee of $50, so it will hardly break the bank. I opted to download the program on my computer instead of joining the online community for privacy reasons. If you read the fine print, they will share your information with third parties and I’m just not keen on that.

The program makes it very easy to add what you have eaten for the day. They have a pre-defined list of common foods, or you can enter the data for foods you specifically eat on a daily basis. For example, I have a specific brand of eggs that I always purchase, so I can enter this brand and all it’s nutritional info under a “my foods” area and save. This eliminates the need to have to enter the nutritional data each time I eat that food.

I was SHOCKED to see the results. According to Calorie King, I am not even coming close to the calories I should be eating per day. You would think I would lose weight, right? NO. Reason being, I am taking in DOUBLE the fat I should be taking in! I’m also eating only HALF the protein I should be getting on a daily basis.

HOLY $#&@!

This program has been a true eye opener for me. Oils, dressings and cheeses are simply killing me as far as fat intake is concerned. It’s going to be difficult, but I’m going to have to seriously cut down or eliminate these things from my diet and increase spices to make things more flavorful for me.

If you have hit a standstill in your weight loss program, I highly recommend that you actually sit down and write out what you are taking in. Be sure to take into account the number of servings for the nutritional data written on products, and how many servings you are ACTUALLY consuming! If that sounds like too much work, then do yourself a favor and purchase Calorie King. I think you will be astonished by what you find when you take the time to enter what you are eating. Somehow, seeing it all laid out in front of you makes everything so much more clear.

Blessings,
Tula Rainwater
Skype ID = tula4gsds
www.genehealthinfo.com

How to Alleviate Joint Pain by Tula Rainwater

There are so many people around the world that suffer from some sort of joint pain. Knee and shoulder pain seem to be the most common. You would think that with so many joint pain sufferers, there would be a definitive way to alleviate it. Unfortunately, there isn’t just ONE way to alleviate [...]