A Healthy Lifestyle

Living a healthy lifestyle is imporant for all of us, but it isn't easy for most of us.  Face it: we live busy lives.  Sometimes the choices that fit the easiest into our lives aren't always the healthiest.  But that doesn't mean you can't be healthier.  We are all human and nobody is perfect, but a lot of small things can make your overall lifestyle a lot healthier.  I do my best to live a healthy lifestyle, but I still choose the couch over the gym sometimes, or a milkshake instead of a fruit smoothie.  It is all about balance.  Hopefully you will find some tips within these articles to help you fit more healthy lifestyle choices into your life.

The GRE Hiatus

The GRE is evil!  Okay, so that may not be true, but I do believe that ETS (the forces behind the GRE) is setting us up to fail.  And it is an expensive failure at $140 a pop.  I haven't even considered writing anything for PNN lately because I have been studying for the icky GRE.

In case you aren't sure what the GRE is, it is a standardized, computerized test that most people have to take to go to grad school.  You are scored on verbal (vocabulary, reading, etc.), Quantitative (math), and Analytical Writing (two essays).

Well, I studied my butt off for weeks before I took the darn thing yesterday.  I didn't fail, but I did not score high enough on the verbal section as I need to for the area of studying I'm going into...for some of the schools I'm applying to.  Yeah, some schools don't even require the GRE (for my area of study).  None of the schools will even look at the math part.  So why exactly did I spend so much time studying math?

Because I didn't want to look like an idiot.  Seriously, I barely studied for the verbal section and still did fairly well, just not well enough.  If I had studied for it, I would have done so much better.  But my pride would not let be get a lower math score due to not brushing up.

Now I'm faced with a decision: let it go, or take the test again.  What would you do?

Personal Health, Personal Decisions

In October of 2006, I realized I was very unhealthy and needed to change the way I was living.  I decided to change my lifestyle because I wanted (and still want) to be healthy.
Since then, I've lost over 50 pounds, but gained 10 back in the last few months.  I have lost many inches, reduced my clothes size by half (was wearing size 16, now size 8), and am so much more physically active.  I still want to lose more weight and become more active, but I know I've gotten over the most difficult hurdle to health.
I have a personal blog about my Quest for Health, which you are welcome to check out, but I only post to it once in awhile.

What did I do?

It was time to be healthier. I didn't want to go on a diet because diets are temporary--I wanted to make permanent changes to my lifestyle. I began researching different programs online and came across sparkpeople.com. Now, this site works great for me, but everyone has their own preferences. There are other sites and programs out there that might work better for you.

This is what I did:

• Tracked the calories I consumed.
• Tracked the calories I burnt.
• Began and followed an exercise schedule.

Those are just the basic things I did. I also began reading articles and learning more about nutrition and fitness. I learned how to balance my diet with the right amounts of carbs, protein, and fat.

It wasn't easy, and it still isn't.  I often want another piece of chocolate, a second serving when I'm already full, or to spend the day lounging.  But when I choose healthier foods, eat healthy portions, and get out into the world and move, I feel so good about myself.

What do you do to incorporate healthiness into your life?  Big or small, it all counts.