Keep It Simple Series: Healthy Flavor

February 4, 2015February 4, 2015 / ktbuchs87

Week 4! I’m actually starting to like doing these videos. At first I was nervous because I had never done anything like this before and if you know me I am not an in-front-of-the-camera kind of gal. But I am starting to get into a groove and enjoying the whole process of making these videos for you guys.

How about you? Do you like the videos? Are there any topics that you would like me to cover? Let me know in the comments so that I can make this blog work for you!

If you listen carefully you can hear Olaf (my kitten) meowing at me and knocking things over. He likes to have my attention every single moment of the day so he gets confused when I’m talking to the camera and not to him. He’s just a peach that way….

Keep It Simple Series: Healthy Workday Tips

January 28, 2015January 28, 2015 / ktbuchs87

The majority of us spend most of our day at work. Many people have a hard time keeping up their healthy habits while they’re at work, but it isn’t as hard as you think!

Today’s video has a few tips to keep your workday as healthy as possible!

Here are a few more “deskercises” and stretches that you can do at work throughout the day to keep you moving.

Do You Like You?

January 26, 2015 / ktbuchs87

I was listening to the radio the other day and Colbie Caillat’s song Try came on. If you haven’t heard it yet give it a listen:

I’ve heard this song before and I really love the whole message of the song. This time as I was listening though, one line really struck me.

Do you like you?

It’s a really simple question. Although it is a simple question, I don’t think many of us spend that much time thinking about it. We often get caught up in worrying about what everyone else thinks about us that we never stop to see if we like ourselves.

It’s kind of backwards though, shouldn’t we worry more about what we think about ourselves more than what people we don’t know think? Shouldn’t we be working to constantly improve for ourselves and not the random stranger we pass on the street? I know we’re always told to not try and impress others, but do we really take that advice to heart?

I know for me that sometimes I can get so caught up in trying to please others. I want people to like me and think that I’m a good person, it’s natural to want to be liked. But it shouldn’t come at the expense of what I think about me. I’ve been with me for 27 years and hopefully I will be spending many more years with me. I want to make sure that I am the best me possible for me not just others.

And I’m not just talking about how I look. Yes, I think that it is important to eat well and move more but it isn’t everything. If someone judges you by your looks then to be honest you don’t really need to keep those people in your life. You should want to be healthier for you because it makes you feel better, because it will add years to your life, because it is what YOU want to do. Not what others say you should do.

Instead of doing things to make other people like you, try doing things that make you like you. At the end of the day if you ask yourself do you like you, you can say yes.

Keep It Simple Series: A Tip Straight From Grandma

January 21, 2015 / ktbuchs87 / 1 Comment

Welcome to week two in the Keep It Simple Series! I hope that you were able to get a few tips from last week’s video and are slowly building up your healthier pantry!

Today I have a quick and easy tip that comes right from my Grandma!

When To Take A Break

January 19, 2015 / ktbuchs87

I have tried a variety of diets over the years. The fad diets would lure me in with their promises of fast weight loss and happiness and I would commit with a gung-ho attitude. I stick with the program and did what I was suppose to do and most of the time was met with moderate success. But there would always come that point in my diet where I would take a break.

I would have lost a few pounds, I would feel better about my body and therefore myself and I felt like I could get back to life as regularly scheduled. The diet had done what it was suppose to do and I could move on. I never viewed these diets as lifestyle changes and that is what helped perpetuate the cycle of losing and gaining weight.

There finally came a point where I realized that I couldn’t just change my life for a few weeks and then take a break while I went back to my old lifestyle. I had to make a lasting change that would go on forever. It sounded daunting, but I knew that I needed to take a big step if I wanted to be healthier and finally enjoy life to the fullest. So I flipped a switch in my brain from diet to lifestyle change and got on the path to a healthier me.

And it worked. While it was really tough at first to think that I would never be able to go back to what I used to eat if I wanted to keep moving forward, I fought my way through and got lasting and healthy results. I wasn’t taking a break this time. I was all in and I was never going to change. But weirdly, that kind of got me into trouble again.

I had committed so much to being the healthiest me possible that I scared myself from straying at all. I couldn’t miss a workout, I couldn’t overeat, I couldn’t choose the wrong food or everything would come crashing down around me. That switch that I had flipped got stuck in the opposite direction and now I was worried about failing and returning to the unhappy person I was before.

It was an important lesson that I had to learn to be able to move on. I couldn’t view the way I ate and exercised as a temporary change but I also couldn’t be so afraid to stray that I was rigid in every aspect of life. I had to learn to be flexible and trust myself to do what my body needed at the right time. So how do you know when you reach a happy medium?

By trusting yourself.

When you first start, it’s going to be hard. You’re going to want to eat like a million Big Macs and you’re going to want to sit on the couch rather than do a 30 minute workout. It’s really hard to let yourself take a break at this point because it will be so easy to slip back into your old habits. Once you start to realize that all your old habits have been replaced with new and healthier ones it’s a little bit easier to see where you have wiggle room.

While I don’t personally believe in having a “cheat” day or meal (it just doesn’t work for me), it’s ok to know that one meal is not going to destroy what you have worked for. If you notice that your body is sore and achy and the thought of heading to the gym for your workout makes you want to cry, then it’s ok to take a rest day. That’s your body’s way of saying, “Hey, I need a break here!” That’s ok, rest days are good. Enjoying life is good. Being flexible and able to adjust to the situation is good.

It takes a little bit of practice to find the right balance for you and your body. Be kind to yourself as you discover what works for you and what doesn’t. Remember, it’s what you decide to most of the time that is going to impact your overall health not the tiny slip ups every now and then.