Get Off the Phone!

Thanks for so many great comments and observations on Monday’s post. I wanted to share a few of the highlights and great suggestions.

Lori mentioned something she’s termed “food creep” –the snacking, nibbling, gradual act of eating more and more and not noticing until it’s too late (i.e. weight gain). 

Beth said she’s also experiencing something similar and is getting “back to basics” (good plan). 

Alex had a GREAT tip for holiday parties: use a small plate. It’s a fantastic suggestion that slipped my mind. My advice would also be in tandem of the small-plate-at-parties-plan and that’s not to stand next to the buffet/snack table during the party. It’s really easy to just mindlessly munch while you’re talking to people and not even notice OR enjoy the food!

You might want to check out this post that is similar to mine in it’s message, Dry December. It’s a great post, timely and I agree with it. The writer is limiting her alcohol intake to once or twice a week instead of every day. I’ve been doing something similar since the day after Thanksgiving. Since then I’ve had 1 beer and that’s it. I didn’t miss it, either.

I’m hoping the plan I’ve been doing for a few weeks now will show some results on the scale. That damn skirt is too tight, yet ironically the jeans I have that are a size 2 (Target vanity sizing, so probably a 4 or 6 in reality) are literally falling off my body. So how is the skirt tight and the jeans are loose?

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/Loli_Sug/status/276329201618006016″]

Last night I was at the gym doing my physical therapy exercises, elliptical and the weight machines (I try to mix it up with the free weights, machines and kettlebells) and I noticed something:

Almost everyone I walked by in the weight room was simply sitting on the machines, not working out, playing with their phones.

GET OFF THE PHONE!

I wanted to say, “Don’t you know you’re just wasting your time in the gym when you could be working out?” and “You aren’t really burning calories sitting there!”

Don’t get me wrong, I sometimes do that too–changing the music on Pandora, answer a text here and there, get lost on Twitter while I’m on the elliptical…but I try my hardest not to make that a habit. When I’m in the gym, I want to spend as little time as possible to burn the calorie count I’m looking for. Meaning, I know I can burn between 550-700 calories in 1 hour doing cardio and kettlebell exercises.  So why would I spend 90 minutes doing the same thing but taking lots of breaks to play with my phone?

I don’t mean this to be preachy or judgmental, just a friendly reminder. KEEP YOUR HEART RATE UP!

(source)

In related news, I did squats on the bosu ball per my physical therapist. If you’ve never tried it, give it a try the next time you’re at the gym. It’s surprisingly harder than it looks.

My gym session was pretty good. I liked the calorie number and went home famished. Michael made his amazing homemade meatballs and a puttanesca sauce over Barilla shells pasta. Unfortunately, my camera is on the fritz and I had to send it in to be fixed (I’m going through withdrawals not having my Canon DSLR around) but thankfully it’s still under warranty. Anyway, I used my old camera to take photos of the beautiful, picture-perfect dinner and of COURSE the photos didn’t turn out. 🙁

The sauce was fantastic and spicy as hell. He used a jar of Trader Joe’s vodka red sauce as a base and added chopped Kalamata olives and lots of red pepper flakes. It’s an easy sauce to make and tastes so good. It would definitely impress a dinner guest.

I miss my camera. 🙁

QUESTION: How do you feel about the “playing on the phone” topic?