Hello everyone in GDWland! Allison from Balance in Bites here. Allison of the GDW variety put out a request for guest posts, and since MY name is Allison, I figured I could slip on in here and write about something without you all being the wiser.  Sneaky, eh?

After a day or two, I found myself staring a blank word document with a blinking cursor, and realized that I had complete writer’s block.  So I decided to call on my fellow bloggers to help me put together an awesome post.  Without further ado, here are some snippets of very sound advice from bloggers around the blogosphere.  I hope you check out their blogs, as well – because what’s better than discovering new blogs to put in your reader?

Maria from Chasing the Now makes a good point about an appliance we ALL have in our homes, and probably could use more efficiently:

“Use your freezer. I think the freezer is one of the most underutilized tools in the kitchen, but it can be such a time and money saver. Make double batches of dinners you and your family love and freeze the leftovers. The next time you want to serve that dish just pop the frozen leftovers in the microwave or oven. You can also save a lot on your grocery bill by looking for meats, vegetables, and fruits on sale and purchasing them then. Buy more than what you need and freeze the extra in air tight containers to use later. I like to do this with beef, chicken, and bell peppers–foods my husband and I use in recipes very often. I portion them out when we come home from the store and life is so much easier later. And the money I’m saving doesn’t hurt either!”

Paige from Running Around Normal discusses how to get the most out of a workout:

“As our schedules gets busier and busier, it’s super easy to let our workouts take the back seat. But there’s no reason for that. Take the time you have, and use it wisely by upping the intensity, while diminishing the length! The shorter the amount of time you have to workout, the harder the workout should be. For example, on a lifting day, if I need to cut it short, I’ll change my workout to have fewer reps, but with heavier weights.  For cardio, instead of doing an hour run, I’ll do 25 minutes of intervals or high intensity interval training to get a great burn and workout in a shorter amount of time.”

Elina from Healthy and Sane has advice about goal setting:

“Question your goals. I think this applies to so many things in life, but I’ll talk about my experience with trying to reach my goal weight. Until recently, since I was a teenager, I’ve been unhappy with my weight. It consumed me. I was never truly overweight; my doctors weren’t concerned, no one ever made fun of me because I was “the fat kid in class,” none of that… but I did have a number in my head that I so desperately wanted to be. I dieted, then I binged, then I gave up, and eventually started up again. It was a mad cycle for probably 15 years. What’s even crazier is that over the past 2 years, I’ve been generally happy with how I looked. Yes, we all have something we’d like “improved” but overall I was happy, and my husband reminds me everyday of how beautiful I am. That helps too BUT, I couldn’t stop trying to lose weight. I’ve been doing it for so many years, how could I stop now… I never reached my goal weight! After talking to some wise people over an extended period of time, I realized that my goal was completely trivial. It was “stale” and reaching it wouldn’t make me happier, but trying to get there would certainly do the opposite. So I stopped! No, I’ll never be the skinniest girl in the room… who cares?! I’ve effortlessly maintained my weight for months now and I’m ok with it. I am SO MUCH happier; I feel like I’m finally living my life and not counting calories, hours until my next snack/meal, days until my next cheat meal, etc. I’m just trusting my body and it’s telling me everything I need to know.  This has led me to start questioning all of my goals!!! I suggest you do the same – it may just make you a better, happier person! ”

Eszter from One Forty Five has a great point about how exercise and healthy eating go hand in hand:

“When it comes to weight loss usually food is the first step. For me it wasn’t the obvious solution because how can a food addict change years of eating habits even in a week? So giving up the cookies and cakes, eating healthy food instead seemed like the biggest challenge. I kept thinking about how can someone control herself when she’s surrounded with food? Calorie counting? Special diets? No, no, no, because I would think about eating all the time. So I started to exercise to break my unhealthy relationship with food. I hoped that if I forced myself to workout I would feel the need of eating less, making also not so unhealthy food choices. Since the workout thing was harder I expected, the effort I put into the trainings helped me to resist to all the deliciousness. I just didn’t want that the workouts to be in vain. First power walking, then indoor bicycle, and now I’m running. These seem monotonous activities but they are the best for thinking. For thinking how great it would be to reach the goal weight and other health related objectives. Or anything at all. These are the moments which keep me away from the fridge. With these in my mind I’m also starting to build a healthy relationship with healthy food.”

And Melissa from Melissa Nibbles discusses how to manage time efficiently:

“I’ve had people ask me how I manage to fit so much activity in before work. Well, let me tell you, it isn’t easy. Before I go to bed, I lay out my workout gear, figure out what I’m wearing to work the next day and hang it all together in the front of my closet (including undergarments), prepare the next morning’s coffee in the coffeemaker so all I have to do is plug it in the morning, set out my mug and multivitamin, and then pack my lunch and snack for the next day. After my workout, I take a pretty quick shower. I don’t dry my hair because my office is like a steam room and my hair always ends up in a ponytail anyway. This saves TONS of time. My makeup routine is pretty simple. I do the “Five Minute Face” that Carmindy from What Not To Wear is always recommending (Here’s an instructional video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPVwKsYAmOQ). I eat a quick breakfast and I’m out the door to be at work by 8! I have a very short commute and that’s another reason why this works so well for me. I hope you can use some of these time-saving tips!”

Emily from Eating to Run makes a great point about buying local fresh foods:

“Hey Guys! I’ve just recently started making a conscious effort to buy local produce that is fresh and in season. From an environmentally sustainable perspective it makes sense; I’m also able to support local farmers; and perhaps most importantly (to my stomach, at least), fresh, in season produce tastes great!  With the winter season coming along, it may be harder for some of us to find outdoor markets, but I’ve found this (http://www.localharvest.org/) great website that will point you to local produce in your area. Happy eating!”

So tomorrow, I’m going to wake up early in the morning (I’ll have most things ready beforehand) to do a quick intense workout, which will help me make healthy food choices later on in the day, and then reassess my goals while I head over to the farmer’s market to pick up some local produce which I’ll put in my freezer. WHO’S WITH ME!

Do you guys have any tidbits of advice that you swear by?