Fit & Healthy Buffalo- Fitness Success After 40

  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

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

If you would like to look and feel great, then I’ve got good news for you: follow these 5 Fitness Secrets and your goal will quickly become a reality.  These secrets aren’t secret in the sense that you’ve never heard them before, because you likely have heard them. The secret is that by faithfully following each and every one of these 5 steps your progress will become automatic and your results will be guaranteed.  Fitness Secret #1 : Consistency is KEY If you want a fit body then exercise MUST be a consistent part of your life. You can’t exercise hard this week and then take the next two weeks off and expect to see results. Results come from consistency.  Fitness Secret #2 : Set ATTAINABLE goals Let’s be realistic here, you aren’t going to lose 20 pounds in a week. That’s not an attainable goal! Those who achieve the most amazing body transformations do so by reaching a series of progressive, attainable goals. If you would like help in determining what an appropriate, attainable goal

There are two distinctly different approaches to losing the fat and getting into amazing shape. One of these approaches works. (Every. Single. Time.) And the other approach fails. (Every. Single. Time.) I call these the Fitness Short Game and the Fitness Long Game. Let’s find out which game you’re playing… Fitness Short Game:   Those who choose to play short are looking for the quick fix. They are looking for the program that will give them dramatic fat loss results in the shortest amount of time. They want results, they want it NOW, and they don’t play to stick with it. This is the instant gratification crowd. Fitness Long Game:   Those who choose to play long are focusing on making lifestyle changes to sustain for the long haul. They are working on steadily adapting healthier habits and putting in the time and effort to maintain these improvements. They are patient and focused on their end goal, knowing full well that gratification will be delayed, and results will be permanent. Whic

  I saw an infomercial the other day for a weight loss solution targeting the frustrated people who,   “fail to see results from diet and exercise.”   Had to scratch my head on that one. When does diet and exercise fail? This, of course, is a trick question. Diet and exercise don’t fail. The only way for diet and exercise not to work is if you fail to stick with it long enough for the results to show. Plain and simple. End of story. I’ve seen more clients than I can count transform their bodies through the power of diet and exercise. Without surgery. Without gadgets. Without pills. The real question to ask, when you’re not making progress towards your fat loss goal, is not why diet and exercise has failed you, but rather why have you not stuck with it? How to stick with a diet and exercise plan… I will not downplay the hard work that goes into sticking with a diet and exercise plan, day-after-day, week-after-week, in order to achieve a stunning body transformation. It takes dedication,

  Here are my 5 personal lifestyle rules. Stick with them at least 90% of the time to keep your body healthy and hot. Lifestyle Rule #1: Don’t Eat Just To Eat There is no place in your healthy lifestyle for mindless snacking. I’m talking about a tub of popcorn at the movies or a bag of chips in front of the TV. All the calories ingested from mindless snacking have to end up somewhere…and that somewhere is around your waist or on your thighs. Snacks are fine when you are aware of how much you’re eating in order to balance it with the rest of your meals for the day. Lifestyle Rule #2: Stand (And Walk) When Possible Have you heard the saying sitting is the new smoking? The idea is that a lifetime of sitting all-day-every-day is as harmful to your body as smoking. Think for a moment about how much of your day is spent sitting. You wake up and sit down for breakfast. You sit on the drive to work. You take the elevator up. You sit for most of 8 hours at work. You take the elevator down. You

Raise your hand if you love a “how am I doing?” quiz. (I know I love them!) I’ve got a little fitness & health self-audit for you today to help keep you on track with your healthy habits. This can be a good self-check to see if you need to double down on your healthy habits after the past few months. How to take this quiz:  Think about your past week, then answer the questions based on your actions (vs. your intentions!), and keep track of your “score” as you go. Over the past 7 days, how many days did you: 1.  Work out for 20+ minutes 1 - 0-1 days 2 - 2 days 3 - 3 days 4 - 4 days 5 - 5+ days 2. Get 7+ hours of sleep 1 - 0-1 days 2 - 2 days 3 - 3 days 4 - 4 days 5 - 5+ days 3. Drink at least 8+ glasses of water 1 - 0-1 days 2 - 2 days 3 - 3 days 4 - 4 days 5 - 5+ days 4. Eat fruit and/or veggies at every meal 1 - 0-1 days 2 - 2 days 3 - 3 days 4 - 4 days 5 - 5+ days 5. Avoid sugary, fried, and/or salty food 1 - 0-1 days 2 - 2 days 3 - 3 days 4 - 4 days 5 - 5+ days 6. Work on self-d

  What’s the big secret that they know about losing fat, getting lean, and looking amazing? The answer is as simple as it is difficult: Avoid Sugar. While you do your best to eat healthy, do you know how much sugar you are actually consuming everyday? The answer will surprise you. The average American consumes over 80 grams of sugar everyday, an amount that’s easily three times more than is safe and healthful. How much sugar do you eat? Write down the sugar count on everything you eat for the next few days and then find your average sugar gram intake. Now work on slashing this number. Part of the problem is that food items are often sneaky about how much sugar is really hiding within. Deceiving messages on the packaging imply that the contents are beneficial, causing us to ignore the high sugar content. In the end whatever supposed benefits being advertised are overshadowed by the negative effect of the sugar. What’s the big deal about taking in a lot of sugar? Well, you won’t achieve

  That can’t be true! How could it be? I’ve always heard you need to eat less and move more. Let me explain. In order to lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit doesn’t mean 0 calories… A calorie deficit means that you need to burn more calories than you consume. Here’s where most people get it wrong though. Your body needs a MINIMUM number of calories to function properly. Your heart beats. Your lungs breathe. Your organs function. Your brain thinks.   This all requires fuel (aka calories). If you eat too FEW calories, your body will regulate in order to protect itself (survive) . Your metabolism will slow down, you will burn muscle for energy, and your body will want to store more fat.  Fat is the longest, slowest burning energy source that we have. Will you lose weight this way?  Absolutely. But the goal isn’t to weigh 0 lbs… The goal is to be strong, lean, and toned. FOR LIFE! So eat the amount your body needs and get better results!  Win/Win. Yours In H

Mondays matter more than any other day of the week. This is because your actions on Monday set the tone for your entire week. Start out on the wrong foot and it could take days to get back on track. Mondays are like mornings. If you win your mornings, you're usually going to win your day.   Starting out with a healthy, balanced breakfast that avoids sugar and is full of fiber and protein gets you primed to eat healthy again at lunch, and again at dinner. Likewise, when you exercise on Monday, you're going to set yourself up to have an active and fit week. When you show up prepared and rested on a Monday, the rest of the week flows with successes and wins.   Fact: When you get that Monday workout in, you're 4 times more likely to get in a Tuesday workout... and that Tuesday workout leads to getting workouts in the rest of the week. On the flip side, when you don't show up on a Monday with your A-game then you're left chasing the rest of the week and playing a game of

  The thing holding you back is something that you have complete control over:   it’s the intensity with which you exercise. Intensity is something that’s difficult for the outside observer to measure but is felt within your body as you go through the motions of an exercise. It’s how hard you push yourself to go as heavy and as quickly as possible. It’s picking up a weight that feels hard to handle. It’s putting a boost behind each stride as you run. It’s resisting the urge to simply go through the motions. It’s outdoing your efforts from last time. Now I understand the urge to put out token effort in your workout, going through the motions while cutting corners along the way. We all have days when the weights feel extra heavy and our energy stores feel depleted, and those days will naturally be less intense. However, when low intensity workouts are your norm, you simply won’t ever achieve the results that you’re hoping for. And this is something that you completely control. So, as you