C is for CHANGE.

CHANGE: To make the future course of something different from what it is or what it would be if it was left alone.

CHANGE: To transform something into something different. A passing of one phase into another.

Change and courage kind of go hand in hand. One is required for the other. But this post will focus on change. Change is necessary for growth to happen. Without change - nothing changes! LOL! ie. No growth!! If you want your future to look different than what you are doing now - things need to change.

Change and growth both take time. You can’t become an expert in a day, or completely shed all your old bad habits in a week. However, you should be always moving forwards!! Persistence will be needed to get to where you want to be! If you never give up -- keep on changing and persevering and you will get to where you want to go! This is true for whatever area in life you want to change in.

Change and growth can be scary!! You need to recognize if you are feeling discomfort, boredom, confusion, fear or worry about the idea of changing something. Think about your reasons for wanting it and find something which is going to motivate you enough to push through it!! You have to want the change badly enough to overcome the discomfort, boredom, confusion, embarrassment, and worry that pops up to stop you along the way. How badly you want it and the intensity of your desire to change is going to determine whether you actually get there or not.

If you want to be successful, grow and move forward in life -- in whatever area you are thinking of... change is a necessity!

C is for CALORIE

A calorie is a unit of food energy. 1 calorie = 4.2 kilojoules. This unit of measurement allows us to talk about how much energy a food contains and how much energy is used for our bodies to function and burned up during exercise.

How much energy there is in food is determined by how much carbohydrates, fats and protein there is in it! Fats and alcohol are the most energy dense food.

1g fat = 9 cal

1g alcohol = 7 cal

1g carbohydrate = 4 cal

1g protein = 4 cal

When we regularly eat more energy than our body needs, the excess is stored inside fat cells. Obviously if we eat less energy than we need -- we lose fat cells!! To lose 1kg in a week a person needs their energy balance to be 7000 cal in debit. How many calories a person uses per day depends on their age, gender, body composition, and activity levels.

Couple of interesting facts!

You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.

The average deep fried mars bar contains almost 1,000 calories – that could be most of your daily allowance, if you’re a small female.

12WBT Blog Hop #1

12WBT Blog Hop #1.

I am Kelly. In 2010 I lost almost 50kg. In 2011 I maintained my weight and became a personal trainer!
I am excited to be helping others become the best version of themselves!!
I am looking forward to this round of the 12WBT -- learning more about myself and continuing to cement my ability to maintain my weight long term!

An insight into what made me begin the journey.

http://falldown7timesgetup8justdontgiveup.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/me-and-my-weight-emotional-eating.html

http://www.katesaysstuff.com/

B is for BREAKFAST.

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day".

Breakfast may be the meal that is most often neglected or skipped. Eating breakfast not only aids in weight management, it fuels the body to help provide energy, better concentration and problem-solving ability throughout the day,

Eating a healthy breakfast kick-starts your metabolism for the day. It replenishes your supply of glucose and provides other essential nutrients to keep your energy levels up throughout the day. Neglecting breakfast slows the metabolic rate (which is the biggest burner of energy). The idea is to have smaller regular meals throughout the day keeps the metabolic rate high chewing through energy constantly.

Research has shown that:

Those who eat breakfast tend to have more nutritious eating habits than those who skip breakfast. The problem comes because by the time lunch comes around people who skip breakfast are usually ravenous and tend to eat more to compensate. So, if you do miss breakfast for any reason try a nutritious snack such as fresh fruit, yoghurt, or a wholemeal sandwich to help you through that mid-morning hunger to avoid over-eating at lunchtime.

Skipping breakfast can diminish mental performance, which lowers your ability to concentrate. Eating high fibre breakfast cereals reduces your fatigue and tiredness and help you to concentrate more!!

B is for BOSU

The name is an acronym which stands for "Both Sides Up" or "Both Sides Utilized" a reference to the two ways a BOSU ball can be positioned. It is flat on one side and a raised dome on the other. The solid platform is 25 inches in diameter and the dome should be inflated until it is firm. Using a BOSU ball is another way of adding variety into your workouts in a functional way. It focuses on developing balance in your left and right sides and also efficient timing of the up and down movement.

When the dome side faces up, the BOSU ball provides an unstable surface while the device remains stable. In this position it is often used for balance training; however, you can walk, run, jump or hop on it which means you can use it for an aerobic workout too. 

If you flip it over  the BOSU is extremely unstable and there are a huge number of exercises you can do on it in this position too. This combination of stable/unstable means a wide range of people can use it, elderly people, injured people all the way up to elite level athletes.

The BOSU can also be used for core conditioning and stabilization and can provide great proprioception challenges to your training.

B is for BANANA

1. Banana's a great for providing energy during sports, restoring normal bowel function and even improving your mood and reducing depression!! (They contain tryptophan, an aminoacid that can be converted to serotonin.)

2. Bananas are extremely high in potassium, yet very low in sodium which is the perfect ratio for preventing high blood pressure and stroke.

3. This high potassium helps normalize the hearthbeat and regulate the
body’s water balance. When we are really stressed, our body’s potassium levels tend to be extremely low-- eating bananas is a great way to get them up without using drugs.

4. They are low in calories -- one medium banana has only around 105 calories!

Other interesting facts:

1. Bananas are usually harvested when they are green, but not eaten until they are yellow!!

2. You can freeze a banana for up to 2 months! Just remove the peel and sprinkle some lemon juice over the pulp to prevent discoloration; then wrap them in plastic.

3. The cluster of bananas sold in supermarkets is a "hand" of bananas, while the individual bananas on the hand are called fingers.

4. The strings that go up and down the length of bananas are called Phloem Bundles. They help distribute nutrients to every part of the growing bananas.

5. The banana peel is edible, though perhaps not very palatable unless cooked.

6. Bananas usually grow in a horizontal fashion, which then becomes vertical with the weight of the bananas. This takes about 3 months.

7. A banana tree is not actually classified as a tree due to the fact that it has no wood fibres. So it is actually a plant, IE: Herb.

8. A banana is actually classed as a berry! A berry is an indehiscent fruit with two or more seeds and a fleshy pericarp, which is exactly what a banana is.

Favourite banana recipe.

3 egg whites
Mashed banana

Wisk those 2 things together and cook like pancakes.. YUMMO!!

B is for BELIEVE.

You will only achieve what you believe!! And this is the absolute truth! When I was training for my half I had someone tell me I was not a runner and I was going to struggle to do the half in the 2hours I wanted to do it in. Initially it knocked me around a little, however, I believed I had a good chance at being able to do it and so I went for it -- and managed to do it in 1:59:19... It got me thinking about this topic though. If I did not believe that I could do this -- of course there is NO chance of me doing it .. NONE! However, if I believed I could do it ... or at least that I had a good chance of doing it, then of course I am going to feel positive about it and put everything into it!! I am HEAPS more likely to succeed with the positive, give it my best shot, I think I can do it attitude!!

If you believe in yourself and your ability to do something it gives you the ability to be consistent, confident, focused and determined. A confident person will keep on going even when things may not be going perfectly, they will stay positive and enthusiastic. If you believe in your ability to succeed, then you are preparing yourself for success and at the same time bracing yourself for any obstacles. Obstacles with this frame of mind however, will be things to work around or just mow clean over!! LOL!!

Belief in yourself enables you to be courageous and do things you would not normally do.  Being courageous is not being fearless; you still may feel afraid but you act as if you are not. You will suck it up do what you need to do in order to get done what has to get done.

Goal setting is a great way to improve your confidence and belief in yourself!! Success (however big or small) is going to build your self confidence -- so set goals and get onto achieving them!! Visualising yourself doing things -- crossing that finish line, standing on the scales 5kg lighter etc... That is going to help!!

People who have a high self confidence have the following:

Thoughts - positive thoughts of success

Feelings - excited, anticipation, calm, elation, prepared

Focus - on self, on the task

Behaviour - give maximum effort and commitment, willing to take chances, positive reaction to set backs, open to learning, take responsibility for outcomes

However, people with a low self confidence end up with the following:

Thoughts - negative, defeat or failure, doubt

Feelings - tense, dread, fear. not wanting to take part

Focus - on others, on less relevant factors (coach, umpire, conditions)

Behaviour - lack of effort, likely to give up, unwilling to take risks (rather play safe), blame others or conditions for outcome