Healthy Diet & Exercise Suggestions

Updated on September 07, 2010
B.K. asks from Kaufman, TX
12 answers

I am looking for some direction & suggestions in the healthy eating & exercise department from someone who has been in my shoes. So let me give you a little background...I am 31, very busy with six kids, don't take the time to exercise at all (except running around behind them, of course), I try to fix reasonably well-balanced meals but don't always succeed. I have gained five pounds over the last six months or so...no big deal except that my jeans don't fit any more & I am unhappy about the belly flab area. I would like to lose 10 lbs. to get to 120 lbs. (I'm 130 right now). I've never had to watch what I eat or exercise to stay the size I want. Soooo...this is going to be a challenge for me. I have a great desire to be a good example to the kiddos by eating healthy & being active so this will be good for me & them as well. But I don't know where to start. I want to shave off the 10 lbs. & especially concentrate on my belly area, as I seem to be holding onto most of my extra weight right around there! Any suggestions from anyone who has been walked the same road??? Thanks so much!

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Z.M.

answers from Dallas on

There's a Keller Weight Loss Challenge starting up on 22 Sep in Keller if you are close to that area. The details are on Meetup.com.

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M.L.

answers from Dallas on

This diet is great... the pounds just melt off... and you can attack the problem zones using her system for exercising. Lots of the information is free, or there is a series of books you can buy for ~$50 I think. You'd be back at your goal weight in a month or less. Its just a good way of eating and getting the excess sugar out of your families' diet.
http://www.thedietsolutionprogram.com/burnfatg.aspx

3 moms found this helpful
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S.D.

answers from Dallas on

check out Labrecque Family Chiropractic in N. Richland Hills. They have a great nutrition/exercise program called Maximized Living (you can check it out online) that is easy to incorporate and the exercise program only takes 12-20 minutes a day. You can go work out with the Dr. on Tuesday and Thursday mornings (free) and you're out by 8. Just realized you're in Kaufman, but Maximized Living is a national program so you can search the max living website to find a program near you.

2 moms found this helpful
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S.M.

answers from Charlotte on

GO out and get the book Raw FOOD detox by Natalia Rose. It changed my life on how me and my family eat and our health/well being. I'm getting ready to start my own personal health and healing service. I've lost 25 pounds in 4.5 months and it's all about what your eating and when and how your combining your food. The belly has alot to say to us about our emotions, our digestive system. STRESS effect our health, and with 6 kids I'm sure your feeling some if your honest. I do and I only have 2! IF you need more help hopefully within a month I'll have my business posted on this site. You can do this, I wont exercise that often, and when I do it's the pool with kids, alittle walking or rebounding. So I hear you there girl! You've got a busy schedule you just need alittle help w/the menu so you can combine your foods right, feel great emotionally and mentally to raise those beautiful children and drop the waste in the meantime. Weight=waste...and we all has waste even if we are a toothpick...it's just a matter of where it's stored the fat or your organs. BEST TO YOU MOMMA!!!!

1 mom found this helpful
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C.C.

answers from Dallas on

Cardio is the best way to blast belly fat. If you are going to eat carbs have them in the morning. Choose lean protien foods and watch the sugar in your foods. Good luck!

1 mom found this helpful
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C.M.

answers from Dallas on

6 kids! I'm envious. We have two and I think my husband is stopping it there :-(

Anyway, here are some things that I was doing this summer.

I try to eat mostly clean. When I go to the store I buy meat, fresh fruit and veggies and just a few things from the middle, such as, cereal, crackers and pasta.

Every other day I was doing to Couch to 5 K program. It is an awesome running program that you do every other day for 20-30 min. I would get the kids in bed and head over to the middle school gym to run on the track. My MP3 had specially loaded tracks that would tell me when to run and walk. However, now my husband is gone from 8 am to 10:30 pm so I am wanting to sign up at the rec center so I can continue Couch to 5K after my husband gets home.

Good luck!!!!

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J.C.

answers from Lincoln on

Since it sounds like you are looking for healthy food, not just weight loss here are my suggestions. Try to cut 3 things from your diet completely. Aspartame, Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), and Corn Syrup (or High fructose Corn syrup). If you read labels and choose not to buy anything with these products in them you will find yourself naturally eating less (those are addictive substances that make you crave more and more food) and eating much more fresh, unprocessed food. Do a little research, watch a few documentaries on Netflix and you will see how important to your and your children's health getting rid of these chemicals is.

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M.H.

answers from Dallas on

Hi B.! I have 8 kids so I know where you are coming from... sometimes the only time you can eat is when you grab something on the go, etc. I gain weight on the belly too, so even 3-5lbs are a lot. What has worked for me is not eating too many cookies (0-2 per day), having small meals for dinner, and moving around. If I'm sitting I move my legs. I try to exercise at the gym (with daycare) 2 -3 times a week. If I can't, then I go for walks with the kids around the block or go "shopping" in indoor malls and get exercise that way--just walking around briskly pushing the stroller. Even if I can go to the gym I try to walk the dog or go around the block with the kids. Best wishes and God bless!

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V.B.

answers from Dallas on

I am losing weight at about 2-3 pounds a week. I am eating anything I want as long as I count Fat grams. Keep it under 20 per day and drink a lot of water and eat a lot of healthy salads for dinner along with a little protein such as chicken, fish or boiled egg. I use the foil packettes of tuna and salmon at the grocery and spinach and leafy green lettuce for salads with tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. Lite Ranch dressing is very good and stay off all sugar for a month and you will lose it easy. Good Luck!

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T.H.

answers from Kansas City on

I think you need to figure out when and how you can get some work out time in. Eating better is great and we all have those days when it isn't perfect, but in my experience you have to couple the exercise component with it too. With six kids, I'm not sure you'd be able to make it to the gym but I don't know their ages and your schedule, so it's possible! But, figure out what works for you...maybe it's going to the gym before husband gets up, maybe it's doing work out videos in the basement while the younger ones nap and the older ones play, maybe it's running in the neighborhood after dinner...?? I recently found a plan that worked for me and I feel good about it. It doesn't happen every day without fail, but I try my best and I think that's all we can do. With young children, and 6 total, you gotta find time for you and your health, even when it's hard! It sounds like you're doing pretty awesome so far, so keep it up!!!

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L.D.

answers from Las Vegas on

You don't mention whether or not you work also so I'm not sure how much available "free" time you have. I just remember as a kid, it was very easy for me to stay slim and trim partly due to the amount of activity in my life at that time. My family didn't have a lot in terms of material comforts and technology so me and my siblings basically had to go out and entertain ourselves -- bicycle riding, skate boarding, playing tag and hide-and-go-seek, playing badmitton and the like. Also, if we wanted to go to the mall, which was 1 mile away, we had to walk it to and from. Same with school. Once I became an adult and got a desk job, that's when the weight started creeping on even though my eating habits hadn't changed. If you can engage in some kind of fun play activity with your children each day and walk with them to nearby parks and nearby stores or schools each day, that maybe all you need to get down to 120 and have that flat belly you desire. And it would be good for your kids too, having you make this a family lifestyle.

Hope this helps.

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D.G.

answers from Dallas on

Walk or Run ....... We need to be healthy to keep up with kids and grand kids. I am of the opinion you eat some what healthy if you are only 10 pounds over weight. You can get an enlarged food guide pyramid laminated and put it on your kitchen wall for all you kids to see. I feel I need to let you know your fat is not just distributed only on your belly it is distributing evenly and will be marbled in your muscles too. Measure your inches around your waist. Buy ten pounds of butter, put the ten pounds of butter in those large freezer zip-lock bags. close tight. See how many bags it takes. Let the butter soften and squish it around try to get the air out. leave the butter bags on the counter for motivation to exercise. Don't hide those bags. People in the Olympics exercise 20 to 60 hours a week, you can find at least 5-6 hours. Walk around the park as your children are playing. walk around the field as your child is at sports practice! Ask your self when am I sitting and why? Don't sit to watch tv ever. I do floor exercises or pilates at least twice a week these included stomach exercises. use weights at least once a week. Walk 40 mins at least twice a week. Do all sorts of low and medium leg lifts to the back and sides before and after any exercise And stretch the worked muscles after any exercise or you'll get sore. You will lose weight just as evenly as you gained it.
The butter bags could also serve as motivation to not eat candy or sweets because they are just adding fat we do not need. Children and teenager bodies utilize those sweets our beautiful mature bodies do not. When your loosing the weight, weigh the bags once you've lost the equivalent of a butter bag you can get rid of that bag ect. If you gain muscle you might not get rid of your last bag which is good too. Remember measuring your inches. If you don't feel you already know how to do these exercises take different exercise classes or buy dvds. (but we have to open them and use them.) don't buy special food or pills.

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