I wish Jillian lived next door...

I've been trying to motivate myself to workout in the mornings again. I don't know why I just won't do it. I thought, this morning, if Jillian Michaels was my neighbor, then we would probably be friends, and I could ask her for help with this issue. She is probably an early riser and would probably be more than happy to come over and say, "Get on that treadmill!" or, I imagine, she would call me at 6:00am and say, "Are you dressed? Then, get dressed and get on that treadmill because I'm going to call you back in 5 minutes and you better be out of breath!" :D

Jillian is awesome like that.

But, alas, she is not my neighbor or my friend so I'm just going to have to access my inner Jillian for awhile. I wrote, a week or so ago, about wanting to make exercise a regular part of my life. Trying to make a small change in that department...it's been a difficult one. Taking it one day at a time. The small change this morning, got up in time to sit and have coffee and check email and stuff before I work out. I have been trying to get up in time to just go work out but end up not sticking to it because I like my morning coffee time. So why fight it? Why not make the time to get up, have coffee, THEN workout??

Speaking of small changes...I did make one, over the weekend, that I'm rather proud of...I cut the sugar I put in my coffee, in half. I usually use 1 teaspoon of sugar per cup. On Sunday, I started using 1/2 teaspoon per cup and, honestly, I don't miss it. It's a small thing, I know but does save me 23-30 calories every morning. Small changes = big accomplishments.

This morning, I found this poster from the Love Your Body campaign from the NOW Foundation...wanted to share:

Clean Eating Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Sundays are Dinner from the Clean Eating Cookbook. Tonight I'm making Arugula Polenta with Chicken (page 118). And for dessert, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (page 221).

Ingredients:

• Nonstick cooking spray
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp Sucanat
• 1 egg white
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp water
• 2 cups Old Fashioned Quaker Oats
• 2/3 cup whole-wheat baking flour
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2/3 cup raisins
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Instructions
Preheat oven 350 degrees. Grease baking sheet with nonstick spray. In a bowl, hand-mix oil and Sucanat. Add egg white, vanilla and water; mix well. Add oats, flour, salt, baking soda, raisins and cinnamon, and mix until just blended to retain the texture of oats. Drop batter by teaspoons onto baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned.

Per cookie - 70 calories, 3.5g fat, 9g carbs, 1g fiber

15 Shocking Food Industry Secrets

I wanted to share this great little article by David Zinczenko (Eat This, Not That!). A lot of what he says echos the book I just read (and talked about in previous posts), The End of Overeating.

One Small Change = One Big Accomplishment

If I could change one thing about myself right now, it's my avoidance of exercise. I would like to be one of those people who must exercise everyday or they don't feel right. I want it to be a habit like brushing my teeth and taking a shower. It's not something I think about but if I don't do it, I don't feel right.

I want to exercise in the mornings. My biggest excuse? I can't get up early enough. I go to bed at 10pm every night but cannot seem to get out of bed before 6:30am. If I'm going to exercise in the mornings, I really need to be up by 5:45 at the latest.

Maybe it's a thing where I just have to suck it up and do it for the first few weeks...I know that my body responds well to exercise and when I'm doing it daily, I have so much more energy and I sleep better.

Ideas?