Aggghh it's finally March and THE BEGINNING OF SPRING! What comes to mind when you hear the word spring? I imagine flowers, green grass, spring cleaning and the start of my own personal "bikini body ready" routine! Yep, shapeless tunics won't cut it. I'm going to have to give in and show some skin.

I think you should read the health mags and blogs with their "bikini body ready" plans to get you in shape. But while reading, remember that no two people are the same. Motivation, taste buds, and "vices to adjust" are all personal. Read the articles with an open mind and always remember to adapt a program to you.

This year, I'm looking at my own bikini body ready prep as just a facet of the larger, overall spring cleaning of my current life. I think that winter naturally throws our lives out of balance due to poor eating, lack of sunshine, and the "laziness of a hibernating bear" that comes with darkness greeting us so early each evening. If you Spring Clean Your Life as a whole, I truly feel it is easier to lose weight and keep it off.

Here are some steps to Spring Clean Your Life (write these steps down and build your plan)

1). Choose your Motivation
2). Choose your Workout Plan
3). Change Your Eating Habits for the better
4). Healthy Habits that need to be priority
5). Organize Your Work Space

Please just use my personal plan below as a rough template to adapt to your own spring cleaning!

The 2010 Spring Cleaning of My Life

1). CHOOSE YOUR MOTIVATION (both "body" and "organization" motivation)

My Body Motivation! Hmmm... nice weather, my cousin Corey's June wedding in Michigan, photo shoot in late April, and getting body "baby ready" for whatever may come my way in a year (or three).

My Organization Motivation! Everything is easier when you have a clean work space. Plus, being organized means feeling less scattered, which would make me way more apt to stick to my workout plan.

2). CHOOSE YOUR WORKOUT PLAN

My Workout Plan (I plan for six days a week, but if I only hit 5 because of a busy schedule, no problem). I'm a morning person, so if I don't do it in the morning... it's not happening):

- Monday: 30 minute treadmill and pilates with Crystal B
- Tuesday: Rest
- Wednesday: 30 minutes on treadmill and pilates with Crystal B
- Thursday: 30 minutes on treadmill and Tracey Anderson video
- Friday: 45 minutes on treadmill
- Saturday: 40 minutes mix on treadmill/elliptical + legs
- Sunday: 40 minutes mix on treadmill/elliptical + abs & arms

3). CLEAN UP YOUR EATING
My Clean Up! These are the personal "eating vices" I hope to address, as well as healthy foods that I enjoy and would like to add more of in my diet. Everyone's tastes are different, so please insert your own. For some of the foods, I added my favorite brands and/or how I prepare. By the way, Count Me Healthy is great at tracking some of these bullet points!

- Ditch sweetener
- Reduce diet soda
- Ditch energy bars full of fake stuff because all they do is hurt my stomach
- Ditch soy crisps
- Reduce caffeine
- Reduce sodium
- Reduce I Can't Believe It's Not Butter (yes, I'm admitting that I spray it on everything)
- Drink more water



Foods I love and want to eat more of:
- Eggs
- Spinach
- Fish (love all white types)
- Brussel sprouts (broiled at 450 with olive oil spray, sea salt and pepper )
- Broccoli & cauliflower
- Sashimi (the salmon sashimi with chives from Whole Foods is AMAZING)
- salads
- Almonds and Unsweetened almond - milk (I am going to turn into an almond I eat so many. I need to watch my portion size)
- Green tea
- Stevia, (I prefer the liquid in the dropper)
- Decaf coffee (Newmann's Own)
- Oatmeal with fiber (I mix 1/4 cup of the dry organic with almond milk, cinnamon, stevia and Renew Life Fiber Smart)
- Protein pancakes
- Kombucha (GT's No. 9 is my fave and found at Whole Foods)
- Red grapefruit
- Hummus
- Kashi bars

4) Healthy Habits to Make and Break
Here are mine:
- Limit my drinking to one glass of wine a night (or not at all)
- Remember I owe it to myself. I AM WORTH IT.
- Stop eating snacks that are over 5 grams of sugar and don't contain fiber
- If I want to snack late at night... go to bed
- Read more (book club bound)
- Get more sleep
- Take my Vitamins
- Schedule my health maintenance: Doctor, chiropractor, dentist, hypnotist (yes, I want to try a hypnotist... it worked for Fergie, enough said)

5) Organize Your Work Space

This means cleaning my office at ful (picture below is my purple office at ful) and my home office. This also includes backing up my Mac on my hard drive, shredding documents that I no longer need and organizing my notes.

Here's to a healthy, fabulous spring. Remember, Balance=Beauty! As always, keep counting.

Labels: chelsea gossett, count me healthy, eating healthy, health tips, healthy living, March, spring cleaning

So, we leave for Vegas tomorrow. It's for work, but unless you are an alien there is a pretty heavy "fun element" laced throughout any business trip to Vegas. I've been there about 50 times and it never gets old. Some people say, "Oh, but I'm not a Vegas person." Who exactly is a Vegas person? They must like drinking, gambling, partying, and eating at the buffet. I don't agree with this (although all of the before-mentioned activities are fun to me). I think this view must have come from watching National Lampoons and the Hangover. But Vegas has so much more to offer. It's not just bright lights and bunny ranches. Vegas is a shopper's paradise, spa heaven, and home to the best shows on earth.

But alas, when it comes to maintaining my Healthy Travel Moderation (HTM) it is truly Sin City. By actually writing out some temptations beforehand, maybe it will give me pause--a sense of realization--before I fall headfirst off my HTM wagon.

Temptation #1) Usually, upon landing, the casino picks us up and we ask if we can swing the limo through the In-N-Out Burger. I never eat fast food... except in Vegas. If I am truly feigning this Christian culinary delight (In-N-Out has bible passages on the bottom of their drink cups), I will go for the "protein style, no cheese, no sauce, no onions." Protein style is wrapped in lettuce and I know I saved some major calories by forgoing the sauce and cheese.

Temptation #2) I'm dehydrated because it was dry on the plane and we're in the desert. As I've mentioned before, when you're dehydrated, sometimes you have a tendency to misinterpret thirst for hunger. I am one who always does this and if I don't eat healthy snacks to tide me over it won't be pretty.

Temptation #3) Okay, bright lights, music, no idea what time it is outside, that equals a party to me. And what is served at parties? Alcohol. Here it flows with abandon, while making me abandon my healthy food choices and hard-earned willpower.

Temptation #4) So, we are having a blast and I have to keep the energy up so I reach for caffeine in the form of Sugar-free Redbull. This stuff will tweak you up, dehydrate you, and leave you crashing hard the next day (like a bad lover).

Temptation #5) Since I don't know what time it is and my body clock is tossed from the caffeine, I guess there is nothing better to do than order room service at 2 AM!

So here is a recap of five temptations that could throw off my HTM (let me disclose that these are in no particular order of prominence):

1) In-N-Out
2) Misinterpreting Thirst for Hunger
3) Alcohol
4) Caffeine leading to NO SLEEP
5) Night Eating

I'm going to go pack now. I'll let you know how I fair in LV now that I've put these little potholes down on paper. How do you stay healthy in Sin City, while still having a good time? Can you maintain your HTM? As always, keep counting.

Labels: count me healthy, eating healthy, health tips, travel, vegas

For a while, I tried to fight watching reality television. This was due to the instant, undeserving fame these people get from the tabloids (Speidi, anyone)? Bad memories of Omarosa making the front cover of one of the weeklies because it was her "implant tell all" kept coming to mind. Alas, I gave in and tuned in, but I'm doing it for a good cause. I tape the episodes the night before and then watch them to help me through my morning cardio. Nothing gets me more motivated than a mental breakdown over tulle on Project Runway or the philandering of the ex-porn star who stole the rest of the contestants dirty socks to stuff her bra on Rock of Love Bus (yes, I watched Rock of Love, all three seasons.) I'm loving The Bachelorette, Bachelor, and I even liked More to Love, although there was something missing... oh yes--construction paper cards asking if he/she would like to spend the night with he/she in the honeymoon suite. (As a side note, I thought Tali was genuine and gorgeous on More to Love.) I'm also psyched about the new season of Dancing With the Stars. I watched the premiere and I just don't see the talent I saw last year, but then I remind myself I'm not an expert. Of course, the most motivational, wellness-wise, is the Biggest Loser, hands down. I do tire of the show's blatant, product promotions (i.e, trainer Jillian, "When you're fighting a craving, the best thing to do is chew Winterfresh sugarless gum from Carefree.") I do understand that Wrigley's or Carefree shelled out an amazing amount of money for the trainers to whip out the pack during opportune times--then followed by a commercial break featuring the product. Hey, I understand the game... in fact, I may have just purchased a pack on my way home yesterday!

They say spending countless hours in front of the flat screen is bad for you, but I really think it can be a good thing as long as you are moving while you're watching. Do you have any suggestions on other "must see" television? What show gets you through your workout rut? It can be drama, comedy, even sci-fi (within reason). I'd love to hear from you and will test watch whatever must-see you mention. And as always, keep counting.

Labels: count me healthy, count me healthy jewelry, fitness, fitness tips, health tips, reality tv

Countesses,

Who hasn't tried the lemonade, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup detox or at least heard thousands of times how Beyonce lost 20 pounds using it to get screen ready for Dreamgirls? I tried it successfully for about five hours. Although the lemonade diet wasn't my gig (I like chewing too much), I have been on a never-ending quest to achieve the "Shangri-La body-balance" that detox plans in magazines, books, and ads promise. Anyone tried Kioki foot pads?

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of phony science and lip service out there. But I do believe that laying off some of the sugar, fat, alcohol, and high-impact carbs we eat will help our bodies rebuild and perhaps not tax our vital organs quite as much. I do think it would make us more energized and rested. I've tried the fiber cleanses and juicing, but a lot of it is so time-consuming and not long-term. The weight comes right back. It got me thinking. In order to reduce the amount of bad stuff we put into our bodies, we need to get to the root of why we are eating and drinking when we know darn well it's not conducive to our well-being. Maybe if we know this it will 1) reduce bad habits through awareness... helping to create a more detoxifying LIFESTYLE and 2) help us better stick to whatever specific detox we want to try within this healthier lifestyle.

I came to the conclusion that we eat these things because we are stressed, unhappy, and/or discontented in other areas of our lives. We need to work on detoxifying these areas in order to achieve Shangri-La body balance. Some examples would be getting rid of clutter. Get yourself a shredder and embrace the grrraawwww sound as you shove junk mail into the slot and make more room in your office. Make sleep a priority and get to bed an hour earlier than you usually do. Call someone who loves you that you haven't spoken to in a while, like Grandma. I feel so great after I get off the phone with her and she gives me one of her latest recipes from her dinner parties.

Organize your life, and over time, the eating won't be so erratic and toxic either. You can use one of your Count Me Healthy bracelets to track areas in your life you're looking to detoxify. Once you do this, I strongly believe that body-balance will follow. Have you used Count Me Healthy to better your life? Let us know by entering the Healthy Her contest (click here to enter). We'll highlight a new Healthy Her on our blog, Facebook, and Twitter complete with pictures and details about the winner's health & lifestyle goals. Plus, we'll give the winner a Sassy Stack so she can continue to keep multiple wellness goals top-of-mind.

Keep counting and be proud of the goals you've set for yourself!

-Chelsea Gossett

Labels: detox diet, health tips, healthy her, sassy stacks