Simply Motivated

I live in Solna

KimMaxwell@SimplyMotivated.com — Mon, 24 May 2010 04:02:15 +0000

I live in Solna, a municipality just north of the city of Stockholm. In 2006 Solna had 61,000 residents. We received a special section of the newspaper the other day that described the ongoing projects underway in the city.

Construction of a new national sports arena with 65,000 seats that will also incorporate one of the biggest shopping malls in the country, 2000 housing units, a hotel, and the head office of the nation’s water company. Cost:280 million US dollars.

Construction of a new housing area to include 4000 new homes, apartments, restaurants, boutiques etc.

Expansion of Karolinska Hospital and Medical Research and Teaching Complex, creating 35,000 new jobs and 5500 new homes. This includes a major expansion of the hospital itself, and building of a number of private bioresearch companies.

The New Karolinska Hospital and Biomedical Research Center

Expansion of the cities transportation system with the addition of two new tram lines creating a better link between the hospital and the city of Stockholm and another line into Solna Business park.

Järvastaden, previously industrial land is being converted into a new housing developement of 4000 new homes, shops, parks, schools…etc.

Ulriksdahl another area of residential development with 1500 new housing units being built.

Another office complex near the bioresearch center to include 700 new housing units and 480,000 sqft of office space

Renovation of Solna centrum, the mall across the street from me that already has 120 shops or so to include 20,000 more sqft of shops and even more housing units.

Lets see that is over 16000 new housing units, thousands of jobs, hundreds of new businesses, tons of environmentally friendly public transportation and even Crown Princess Victoria is moving here after she gets hitched next month, yippee doo!

All this growth in an area 1/3 the size of Norwalk (for those of you who know how big that is). All this growth in just Solna.

If you ask me there is one thing and only one important thing that is driving this huge boom in the Swedish economy…a huge housing shortage due to a progressive immigration policy. The population of Sweden is booming because they are taking in all of the world’s refugees by the thousands every day. Think about it.

Send this to someone you know who thinks that the US should shut its doors tighter (or just to the entire state of Arizona). We experienced huge growth when the tired and poor came to build the country a hundred years ago, why shut them so tight now?

5 Great Kitchen Tools that help cut calories.

KimMaxwell@SimplyMotivated.com — Sat, 08 May 2010 08:57:10 +0000

Microwave Vegetable Steamer. For me this is indispensible. We buy a lot of frozen vegetables because way up here they are either not available or after being on a truck for a week and a half to get here they just aren’t really all that fresh anyway. I put the frozen veggies in and about 4 minutes later they are piping hot, and not dried out at all. They are crisp and the flavor is still good. The best part?….its really hard to burn things in the micro!

A Truly Sharp Bread Knife. I know a lot of you out there are saying “BREAD?” and avoid breads and simple carbs like the plague,…and so do I. But we recently bought a new bread knife and it’s magic. When I do want a piece of bread I am able to cut a slice of our favorite sourdough soooo thin that you can almost see through it. Two of those, some spicy mustard, lettuce, tomato, low-fat cheese, and sliced ham make a great quick lunch on the road, and I have cut the carbs literally in half by making my slices so thin.

An Egg Timer. I have a super cool egg timer that you put in the water with the eggs. When I hear Roberta Flack’s best known tune “Killing Me Softly” I know they are soft boiled, something called “I Wish I Was a Hen” for medium, and Orff’s “Oh Fortuna” from Carmina Burana when they are hard boiled. The selection of tunes alone was enough to make me buy the thing, someone had a sense of humor. Having a whole bunch of perfectly hard boiled eggs around makes for a nice quick breakfast or snack. I usually don’t eat the yolks which is where the entire bulk of an egg’s fat resides, gulping down the yolks which are pure protein, and rack up a mighty 16 calories each.

A Good Non-Stick Frying Pan. Cast Iron pans are for cooks; Calphalon and Teflon pans are for dieters. You can use much less oil when cooking by using a good non-stick pan, and at 120 calories a tablespoon adding unnecessary oil is a good thing to avoid. If yours is on the older side consider buying a new one, even a cheap one, you will find that you can cut your added oil in half and clean up will be easier again.

A Kitchen Scale Duh. Ok this one is a no brainer, and even if you live in the US and have all of your dietary labeling listed in pounds and ounces I still recommend getting one that will give you the option of weighing grams. Why? Because you can easily find the nutritional information in grams on the net when the labeling is not available and it’s so much easier to calculate in grams. When you have the time, weigh your food. Get to know how many calories are in the things that you eat all the time. Most of us eat the same thing for breakfast every day. Take the time to weigh it and calculate it out. You might get surprised to find that your serving of granola is actually two servings. Oops!

If you have an appliance or a kitchen tool that you use that you think helps you squeeze a few extra calories out of your diet please post it below where is says “Leave a Reply”.

Posted by Kim Maxwell

Coming out of hibernation

KimMaxwell@SimplyMotivated.com — Sun, 02 May 2010 16:49:13 +0000

It’s finally spring and it’s time to come out of hibernation. For lots of animals fall is a time to eat and bulk up, and then winter is the time to hibernate. There are times that I think that we humans want to follow an instinct to do the same. It seems as if trying to eat less and move more at New Year’s, in the beginning of winter, just goes against our instincts.

Now it’s the beginning of spring and I think that beginning a new exercise regimen and altering one’s diet fits better with this time of year rather than New Year’s…don’t you?

So make that “Spring Ahead” resolution instead and decide that NOW is a better time to start making adjustments to your daily routine. Get outside, it’s nice out there now. Eat some vegetables, you can even find fresh ones in the market now.

But the best reason to start your new fitness regimen now is because bathing suit season is coming!!!! Yoiks!

Gym Free Membership

KimMaxwell@SimplyMotivated.com — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 05:40:40 +0000

Here’s a yummy link that I found today on Yahoo for an equipment-free workout. Going to a gym is a great motivator but too often it takes so much time to get there and get back that you could have done your workout already! Having a repetoire of gym-less activities makes it more likely that you will squeeze in a quick workout or strength training session in the odd bits of day.

Here are a few more links for gym-free workout ideas. Bookmark them!

http://www.bodybuildingforyou.com/articles-submit/gary-matthews/workout-without-gym.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how_5761_total-body-workout.html

http://www.bodyresults.com/e2nogym.asp

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/becker20.htm

Get creative, I did and now am the member of the very exclusive Solna Stairwell Gym Club. It’s never crowded, it’s air-conditioned, and it’s costs absolutely nothing. Nothing is the membership price that I like the best, it’s FREE!

Change Your Routine Today

KimMaxwell@SimplyMotivated.com — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 08:22:57 +0000

Escape the doldrums, do something different, and reap the benefits.

Nothing livens up life’s party more than change. Oddly enough most people seek out consistency in their lives; we do many of the same things every day because they are comfortable. But today I urge you to do something different. Go off course a bit, add in something new. Do something a tiny bit uncomfortable. It’s good for you.

I have always said that nothing makes me feel more alive than the smell of the interior of a jet plane. When I get a whiff of that cabin air I know I am in for an adventure, that the day is going to be different from the boring normal day before and that most likely something unexpected will happen. I like this. It’s not very Capricorn of me to say so, but I like a change in routine. I love to travel, see new places, eat new food, meet new people, smell new smells, and even have something unexpected happen. It makes things “grow” in my brain.

Over the last few weeks I have been trying to smash my way through a plateau in my weight loss efforts, and am pleased to announce that I have made a bit of progress and see am starting to see the needle on the scale start to move again. I credit changing my daily routine with this progress. I was doing great workouts, and eating right but when all of these things are “normal” then the growth, the progress, stops too.

I changed my daily routine from riding the exercise bike to doing laps up and down the stairs in my apartment building. We have 7 flights of stairs and it makes for a pretty challenging interval routine. The first day I did 7 laps on the stairs and could not walk two days later, even after many weeks of cycle training. In no time at all I stopped feeling that any training pain at all, and I am up to 15 laps up and down. Even with the weeks that I have spent on the bike this new exercise was a challenge to my muscles. This is progress.

I once read somewhere that you should change your training routine every three months. This now sounds very sensible to me; I have personally seen the benefits, it really works.

What is your current training routine now, and when do you plan to change it and how? . Please share below, write your comment where it says “Leave a Reply”.

Posted by Kim Maxwell

Take This Quiz! I failed it, how will you do?

KimMaxwell@SimplyMotivated.com — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:14:50 +0000

I took Dr. Oz’s Ultimate Weight Loss Quiz and it was tricky, I got only 60% right on the first go around; and I read everything not nailed down about dieting! It’s only 20 questions and included some tips that I was not aware of. It was very helpful and I learned a few new things. If you take the quiz post your results on the blog where it says “Leave a Reply”. Good luck!

5 Ways to Break Through a Weight Loss Plateau

KimMaxwell@SimplyMotivated.com — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:16:47 +0000

: A prettier plateau

Wonder why I’ve been so quiet lately? Nothing to talk about. My progress was going no where, and it was going no where and sneezing and coughing the whole time it was doing it. I don’t exercise when I am sick, it does not “clear things up” the way others have suggested; it just wears me out.

So after a week of chaos before traveling, 10 days on the road and two weeks of sneezing and hacking my way through a spring cold/allergies…..blaaaaaaaaa….I am back in the land of the living again and facing the dreaded weight loss plateau.

I have been here before. I have gotten down to this weight and then it stops. Then I go up again, get frustrated, dig in and go back down to….this weight. Ok, so this is the third time I am here and I am not going to let it get me again! This weight is like a brick wall in front of me. So I have gathered the best tips from the web and boiled all that advice down to the best 5 suggestions. Here is my plan for the following week in order to blast through that brick wall.

Add more cardio. I am going to add 5 more minutes to my workout, or add in a second short workout in the afternoon.

Add more weight training. Re-establish my weight training schedule which I have eased off on because of some shoulder pain.

Eat a little more, make sure that I don’t miss my snacks. I am going to buy a plastic banana holder so I can carry one with me when I need to.

Meditation and Relaxation. Make sure that I get a meditations session in. This is the one thing that I know is the most important key to my success and all too often I manage to forget to squeeze it in.

Do some yoga or stretching in the evening. It’s easy to just stretch while watching the tube but I forget to do it, and according to Dr. Oz it relaxes you and actually burns more calories than you think!

With any luck by this time next week I will be reporting that the needle on the scale has started to move again.

Here are links to 5 other website articles with advice on how to break through weight loss plateaus. Have a great weekend everyone!

http://www.ehow.com/how_4452139_break-weight-loss-plateau.html

http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2006/02/27/5_ways_to_break_a_weight_loss_plateau.php

http://www.shapefit.com/exercise/weight-loss-stopped-slowed-down.html

http://exercise.about.com/cs/weightloss/a/weightplateaus_2.htm

http://www.doctoroz.com/blog/taisha-hayes/plateau-breakers

Susan and Martha

KimMaxwell@SimplyMotivated.com — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 05:59:37 +0000

: Susan Sullivan and Nathan Fillion

When I am not listening to blistering riffs on my mp3 player to keep up the intensity of my workouts I am otherwise likely engrossed in watching an episode of Castle. I like this show; funny, interesting, and well written, and it has Susan.

My favorite character on the show is Castle’s mother Martha Rogers, played by Susan Sullivan. The best description of the character of Martha is “Hot Grandma”. Martha parties until all hours, drinks martini’s for breakfast*, has her “gray-dar” on 24/7 for the man of her dreams, is still auditioning for the big roles in plays**, and is constantly on the move. Her life is still going somewhere and doing something. I aspire be Martha someday, (without the martinis of course), and live a life that doesn’t stop.

Susan is now about 68 years old, looks fabulous, and gives this role more than 120% of what it needs. She is beautiful, agile***, and funny. Nothing about this character says “granny”. This is not a role defined by jokes about failing organs and joint pain, nor about who is in the will and who isn’t, and neither is it about sucking up to the witch-on-wheels matriarch of the family, . This character is a different grandmother.

But is it the character Martha that I admire or is it Susan? Martha doesn’t exist without Susan. Martha may be the flamboyant character that I love but Susan is the reality.

She ultimately brings believability to the role of Martha. Sixty bla bla years old and at the top of her game. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think life should stop at 60 or anything, but my point is when was the last time that you saw a 60+ year old female role model on TV? How many roles have we ever seen for “Hot Grandma”?

Why should any of us say that we are too old to, or that it is too late to……???? (Fill in the blank). Susan is not only redefining what it means to be of “retirement age”****. For me she is redefining what it means to be of any age in the process, by reminding me that today it is never to late to….??? (fill in my own blank.)

*Consult your doctor before beginning this regimen.

** One must think of one’s career.

*** We don’t say spry, that is reserved for old people.

****Give or take a decade or two, please consult the Social Security department for a detailed description of this terminology.

Do you have someone that inspires you, or makes you think about taking a different approach to live? If so add your hero our list by posting a comment below.

Posted by Kim Maxwell

Thank you Jan Akkerman

KimMaxwell@SimplyMotivated.com — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 08:18:30 +0000

There are endless ways to stay motivated. In the middle of a slow day the phone can ring and suddenly you can find yourself off the couch and jumpin’.

One of my personal favorite ways to stay motivated while I workout is to listen to my favorite music. I have collections of music that represent energy, vibrancy and are generally classified as “dance floor fillers”. These tunes do not have to have intrinsic musical merit or show amazing talent, they just have to have that “thing” that makes me move.

Today I want to thank the rock group Focus. Yes you have heard of them but probably killed the brain cells that knew this back in the 70’s with something illegal. You may not even know that the tune that you know is called Hocus Pocus, but what you will know now is that this is the best interval training tune on the planet. The workout instructions are simple:

1) When the guitar wails, you wail.

2) If you are not enjoying a ride in an ambulance or waiting for one, rest until the wail comes around again.

3) Repeat if necessary or possible.

See! Interval training is easy and all you need is to workout to the right tunes. Enjoy!

On the Road in Northern Germany

KimMaxwell@SimplyMotivated.com — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:22:03 +0000

Spring is coming to northern Germany. When we started off this morning the fields were brown not even a tinge of green, but they looked ready to go. As we drove south slowly the green appeared… but so did the rain. Dang. We were so looking forward to the hopeful rays of sunshine. It rained on us a bit as we headed south to Hamburg to meet our friend Mal for coffee.

Timing is everything and we got a text from Mal stating he was in a café on the street we had previously agreed upon, and to our good fortune it we found it about 30 seconds later with a parking spot directly in front. It may have been cloudy but on this one point the gods were smiling on us. We enjoyed mammoth sized croissants and lively conversation as Mal described his first few months in Hamburg and wrestling with a new job in a new city, with a new language and his new apartment. His life still has the tags on it, but he’s doing fine.

We are back on the road again soon, and the fields are getting greener and greener. The typical vista here is a large green field just sprouting with brand new energy producing windmills spinning away, begging the observer into a trance. Beyond this a cluster of houses in a village huddled around a steeple. I imagine that these little bergs sprung up generations ago around a water source, a low in the valleys. As you drive by you only see roof tops and imagine quiet village life, bored teenagers and dogs that roam freely.