Balancing Pilates, Palates and Pounds

My mother taught me everything in moderation, play outside, study and visit with your family and friends. I took the outside suggestion by playing tennis, regular gym visits for weight training. My appetite grew, was that because I was exercising or because I love a good red velvet cake?

It’s often touted that by getting active, calories are burned off that have been stored up during the average course of the day. So, everything you, your kids, your friends eat and drink — from steel cut oatmeal cereal in the morning, the midday calorie laden latte, to dinner — is stored as energy. Here in lies, the imbalance. In this case, if you don’t use the calories, you store them, beginning the cycle of potentially gaining extra pounds. Its simple, not some complex formula.

However, balancing your food intake and activity can be possible even in our busy day-to-day lives. For many of us, it’s not as hard at sounds. What is challenging is the focus and discipline. Understand that there will always need to be a balance to avoid weight gain (if healthy weight gain or large loss is your goal that is a different story and not the focus of this topic. See your medical professional about that before undertaking ANY changes).

When we talk about increasing your physical activity, no on is suggesting to train like Olympians (unless you want to, of course). A simple way to achieve this is to park your car a little further than usual at work or when you run errands, take the stairs whenever possible, walk around the neighborhood. Increasing your activity even marginally can make all the difference in the world.

It’s up to the individual to choose the activities that are right for them. Stick with it and not just around the “new years resolution” time. There will be more activities to do as the seasons change so take advantage of where you live and weather permitting, put a little distance on that fit bit you’ve been eyeing all this time but can’t seem to impact. We live in a world where it’s easy to be glued to phones and tablets—posting pics (writing blogs), shopping on-line, liking posts, both during and after work. I get it, all that is EXHAUSTING, and all to easy to kick back when you get home. You have a right to solve all the world’s problems that you see on television and which housewife is yelling. But that doesn’t work well with the fight against that stored energy.

Kids have that same issue if they aren’t getting the kinds of physical activity that we got growing up in small Texas town. I find it enormously interesting that kids these days are even as fit as they are given the academic marathons that are presented to them. I have seen it far too often when kids are in front of their devices or mega TVs just snacking away on some not so great food and then head straight to bed. This imbalance is ripe for unplanned and unhealthful weight gain. Always check with your medical professionals before changing anything to your or children’s activity and outline for them what your or your children’s goals.

My mom and dad also said to lead by example. Use that inner rock star and set a course for your own physical balance. By default, you will be an example for others. There are plenty of “extras” to reducing your waistline including, better sleep, improved self-esteem, use this as another way to get involved with a community of people and making new friends and business relationships.

So for me, I’ll keep my red velvet cake. But I know I’m gonna have to take a few extra steps to not maintain the gain!