Also… if you can’t take 20 minutes to DO SOMETHING… take 10. Take 5.

How many times has anyone stood in line at the grocery store and done zip? My water aerobics instructor reminded us that we can stand there and squeeze our abs. We can dance from foot to foot. Heck, probably I could do bodyweight squats, though I’ve not quite been brave enough to do that at the store! I do often do balance exercises on one leg!

The other day in Wal-Mart… all I needed was a few food items. But I took the few minutes to make one entire circuit of the big store at a fast walk before grabbing my food items and heading for checkout.

The time can be there if your mind is there to take advantage of it!

motivation…never thought I’d be short on it, but life can get so crazy. Thanks for the inspiration, everyone.

Blessings,

Kassandra

PS: We picked a name for the baby: Caleb! Oh, he’s definately a soccer player in the making lol. I can’t wait until you get to experience this too, it’s sooo worth every stankin’ pound lol.

If you can work out during your lunch hour, that’s the way to go, although I frequently work through lunch, or the weather is just too foul to go out. As the weather improves (hopefully) I’d like to start walking or swimming at lunch time. Also, I keep a pilates mat at work, but there isn’t really much privacy.

Very occasionally, I work out in the morning before work, and that feels great, but most mornings it’s the snooze button, and the mad last minute rush to throw on some clothes and get out of the door. How people work, work out, socialise, look after kids, etc etc, I have NO idea!

For one thing, it seems part of the issue was that the sweet taste leads our bodies to expect calories and if our bodies don’t get them, we then are inclined to eat more. I can buy that. And I can see that’s definitely a potential issue with diet soda, which is zero calorie!

But is it really an issue if, say, you are using a tablespoon of Splenda syrup with some yogurt, whey protein, fruit and some veggies?

In the later case, your body IS getting calories and nutritious ones!

To be honest about it, I don’t feel entirely comfy with artificial sweeteners, but they are making my weight loss journey more bearable USED IN MODERATION. And I drink water and tea (green, black, red, herbal) for my beverages and only rarely a glass of diet soda. I do not use any sweetener in my teas or water, they don’t need them.

I will use Splenda syrup in my smoothies, but no cravings… those hold me for hours!

I haven’t myself found that using Splenda this way has increased cravings in any way. One flavor of my favorite protein powder is sweetened with Stevia, a natural sweetener and the other with Splenda. I notice no difference in cravings when I switch between flavors.

Then again, I’m eating good whole food, 5-6x a day… cravings are fairly few and far between. And I use portion control, so I’m putting say a half cup of yogurt in a bowl or half cup of cottage cheese and not going back for seconds. Plus I eat plenty of veggies and fiber helps fill me. Usually if I have a bad craving… it is for convenience, the desire to just rip open a package and eat something with minimal effort. LOL!

So, my stand is that I will use them in moderation, but may start considering some other options such as stevia. Right now, they help me keep carbs low, while keeping things tasting nice. And I am losing.

Will I still use them when I get to maintenance? Perhaps not.