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The sum of your choices…

  Each day is filled with choices. We chose whether or not to exercise, to eat a healthy breakfast, or to do something productive. We chose whether or not to eat that donut, to sleep in, or to watch an extra hour of TV. At the end of each day the sum of your choices pushes you in a direction. It could be pushing you in the direction of fitness and health, if your choices were predominantly wholesome. Or the sum of your choices could be pushing you in the direction of weight gain, health issues and problems. I find this perspective to be helpful when it comes to making a major body transformation. It’s tempting to feel helpless in changing your body when you have so many pounds to lose and so much work to do, since you aren’t able to do it all in one day. However, by capturing the power of each day by making wholesome choices, you will be pushed in the direction of weight loss and health day after day, week after week. Until one day you’ll look in the mirror

How to feel better (unspoken benefit of exercise)

 Most of the time, when encouraging you to exercise, I focus on your health and fitness goals. These are two significant benefits, but there’s another side effect of exercise that’s hugely important… How exercise makes you feel. Every workout has an immediate impact on your energy, mood, body chemistry, and even mental functioning. The endorphins released are specifically designed to make you feel good. All of these factors combined create your overall feeling of well-being. Don’t you want to feel good? The tricky part is that most of us are habit driven, and so our activity level (or lack thereof) is fairly consistent day-to-day and week-to-week. This makes the impact of each sedentary day less noticeable since another similar day causes no obvious change. It simply perpetuates your current state of un-wellbeing, with a slow decline. Why this matters: You could begin feeling a lot better than you do today by starting to exercise. This could come as a surprise, especially if you believ

Jerry Seinfeld’s brilliant fitness tip

  Do you ever struggle with sticking to your exercise and diet routine? One skipped workout leads to another, and another, and another. Then, before you know it, your fitness progress grinds to a halt. This frustrating cycle is all too common. Many of my clients have asked for a brilliant tip to stick with their exercise plan, and I found the solution in an unlikely place: from the mind of Jerry Seinfeld. The story goes like this… A few decades ago, when he was a touring comedian and the Seinfeld show was new to TV, a young man approached him behind stage at a comedy club to ask for advice. How can I become a better comic? He told the young comic that to become better he should write better jokes. And to write better jokes, he must write every single day. Seinfeld went on to describe his Chain Method for staying consistent. He hangs a big calendar of a whole year on the wall. On every day that he writes, he marks that box with an X. After a few days you have a chain that continues to g

Don't confuse "Active" with Fit

 When it comes to excuses for not exercising, I’ve heard them all.  Sometimes the excuse is self-inflicted:  I don’t have the time. Other times the excuse is pure procrastination:  I’m going to start as soon as tax season ends. And then there are excuses that are downright funny:  I don’t like to sweat.  As delicately as possible, I point out to these well meaning excuse-makers that, even though they don’t want to do it, exercise is an important part of cultivating a strong, healthy and attractive body. I tell them that if they would just exercise 2 to 4 times each week they would feel a dramatic improvement in their daily life, starting with renewed energy and strength. Then I bring up the health benefits and explain how many of their health problems would improve or even disappear. I talk about how great they will feel, and look, dropping those extra pounds and rediscovering a slender figure. Even with all this experience in excuse squashing, there used t

Why you’re not losing weight…

  If losing fat were easy then we’d all look like fitness models, right? Unfortunately, the fat loss game is more frustrating than most care to admit. The scale quickly becomes a dreaded enemy—a constant bearer of bad news. If the number on your scale won’t budge then read on for an explanation: Possibility #1 : You’re Not Eating Enough Calories This only happens in cases of severe calorie restriction, so don’t take it as a license to eat whatever you’d like. When you’re trying to drop a few pounds by eating next to nothing, it actually counteracts your efforts. There’s a base number of calories that you should be eating in order to maintain your proper bodily functions, including fat loss, so check with a doctor or nutritionist to make sure that you’re eating enough. Possibility #2 : You’re Eating Too Many Carbs Processed carbs will promote fat storage quicker than you can say the alphabet backwards. Blood sugar and insulin levels always respond the same to processed carbs – whether t

Nice abs!

 A toned, lean stomach is the ultimate sign of a fitness plan that’s working. It’s also one of the hardest things to achieve. It’s time that you forget everything you’ve heard about how to sculpt your abs. The truth is that crunches simply won’t give you a six-pack. Ever. Doing crunches with the hope that it will turn your midsection into a washboard is to operate under the most widely held fitness myth. I’m talking about the spot reducing myth. Here’s the truth: training one area of your body will not specifically burn fat from that area. Even those who have heard that spot reducing is a myth often still train as if it is true. So here’s the hard truth that you need to face: Doing crunches will not magically make your tummy shrink, it will not cause your muffin top to melt away, and it will not give you washboard abs. Only a reduction in body fat will do that for you. So want the secret to great abs? The secret to great abs is a combination of fat burning cardio,

How long it really takes to get results

I ’ve got a good one for you today – this is something I get asked about all the time: How long does it take to get results from your fitness routine? This email will lay it all out for you but I also want you to keep one important thing in mind … PLEASE do NOT get into the “crash” mindset,  where you try to speed your way toward your goals. That can end badly, with you feeling frustrated, tired, sore (or worse!) … and then completely giving up. It’s so much more rewarding (and healthier) to enjoy the process! Plus, everything that you learn and experience along the way will help you KEEP all of your amazing results. All of what I am about to say depends on a few things, like: Your health & fitness history Your current health & fitness level Your workouts and/or the food you eat How stressed you are and how much sleep you’re getting The distance between you and your goal With all of that said: it’s fun to see and feel the results of all your

5 Metabolism Myths-Busted!

 Sometimes, your metabolism works against you even when you think you’re doing everything right. It’s time you took a good, hard look at how your metabolism really works. Check out the metabolism myths below and then use your new knowledge to put your metabolism to work… Myth 1: Metabolism Works from 9 to 5 Difficult as it may be to believe, your body’s metabolism does not stop working when you do. In fact, your metabolism works all day, every day. If it didn’t, you wouldn’t even have the energy to get out of bed in order to read this article. (You are out of bed, aren’t you?) Also the time of day that you eat isn’t what makes you gain pounds. It’s what you eat. So if you think you can get away with eating that quarter-pounder with cheese, bacon, mayo, and bun; a large order of greasy fries; and a 32-ounce milkshake without any consequences—just because you ate it at lunch and not late at night—think again! Eat smart all day long, have a healthy snack at night if necessary, an

The 1 thing you need to reach your fitness goals

  I talk to a LOT of people workin’ on their fitness … and I see WAY too many of them falling into this same trap … They hopscotch all over the place, jumping from one thing to another – and then wonder why they aren’t reaching their goals! The shortest, fastest route to your goals begins with just one thing. It’s nothing fancy. It doesn’t require any special equipment. And you don’t need any secret inside knowledge. You just need a PLAN. But not just ANY copy & paste plan … I’m talking about  the right plan for YOU. It’s like putting an address into the map app on your phone. Usually, it comes up with several different routes to reach that address. Some of them will be faster than others … others might have tolls … others will have more traffic … and some of them will let you enjoy more scenery (or bumpy roads) along the way. And there might even be a route that you hadn’t thought about before! Which route you choose depends on what works best for YOU – because they all will get y

3-Step Excuse Buster

  Has this ever happened to you before? You’re planning to work out after work … but right when it’s time to leave, you start to think: You’re too tired The weather is too cold/hot/nice/cruddy You’re hungry You have too much to do You’re stressed You’re not sure what workout to do You really just want to watch something on Netflix etc.   And you’re tempted to give in and bag your workout. I get it! By the end of the day, a workout can seem like a LOT of effort in your head. BUT, before you let any of those excuses derail your goals, try this instead: Excuse Buster #1:  Take back your power from the voice in your head. Acknowledge that YOU control your actions – not your fleeting thoughts or whims. The choices you make and the actions you take TODAY play a direct role in your TOMORROWS … moving you closer or farther away. This is a very empowering mindset shift for any area of your life.   Excuse Buster #2:  Ask yourself: what’s REALLY driving your excuses? It’s probably not because you

The simple 80/20 rule for success

Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule? It can apply to just about everything in your life … including your health and fitness. It’s an idea that works for a LOT of people. Not only does it get them out of the “all-or-nothing” mindset with food and health – but it’s also really simple. It works like this:   80% of the time, eat nutritious whole foods: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean proteins   Can’t get much simpler than that. On a practical level it can work like this (I’ve done the math for you!): There are 21 meals a week (3 meals a day x 7 days), and 80% of 21 is 17. This means you focus on healthy eating for 17 meals a week. Or if you’d prefer to break it down by your overall calorie intake, you’d devote 80% to healthy choices.   At 1,500 calories a day, that’s 1,200 calories of healthier options. At 2,000 calories a day, it equals 1,600 calories   With this approach, no food is ever off-limits. Many people say that it helps them create healthier food habit

Is this sticky goo building up in your body?

  Today’s topic may make you rethink how you cook your meals, i.e., more salads and less flame-roasted burgers! It has to do with a gooey, disease-promoting substance that can build up in your body because of 1) the foods you eat and 2) how you prepare them. Here’s a visual: picture your grill after you’ve just finished cooking. You know all those sticky bits that glue themselves to the surface? Those bits are like the Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) or “glycotoxins” that can build up in your system. AGEs are linked with premature aging, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, kidney failure, heart disease, high blood sugar, and more. They can form when a protein or fat combines with sugar in your bloodstream. They also can form in foods that have been exposed to high temperatures (grilling, frying, roasting, etc.). They cause oxidative stress and inflammation in your body. The good news is that you have some built-in ways to get rid of AGEs, BUT … If you eat too many of them or too many form in