Fit & Healthy Buffalo- Fitness Success After 40

  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

 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

  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

 I know why you’ve been reluctant to jump on the fitness bandwagon, and I’m not blaming you for it.  Because fitness is hard .  Want to know just how hard? Here’s a glimpse into the Fit Life:  Fit Life Truth #1: Exercise Counts Lace up your shoes and hit the gym instead of getting extra sleep, watching TV or doing whatever else it is that you’d rather be doing. Do this 3–5 times each for 30–60 minutes.  Fit Life Truth #2: Nutrition Counts Choose your meals based on the nutritional makeup rather than following your taste buds. Limit your intake of simple carbohydrates and get lots of protein and fiber in each meal.  Fit Life Truth #3: No Room For Junk Turn down your favorite junk foods –even when you really, really want it. Cut simple sugars and harmful, processed fats out of your diet completely.  Fit Life Truth #4: Push Harder Push your body to be stronger, faster and better during each workout. Don’t simply go through the motions in your routine — consistently challenge your muscles

  Talk to 10 people and you’ll get 10 different opinions on the best way to get fit. One will tell you to attend an aerobics class. Another will swear by jogging. Yet another will tell you that dance and biking worked for them. The truth is that there’s really only one effective way to get fit. Before I get into the details, it’s important that we agree on the definition of ‘fit’. Too often thin is mistaken for fit, and that’s not what you should strive for.  When someone is thin, but has very little muscle tissue, they aren’t truly fit.  Here’s why thin doesn’t equal fit: Their body fat percentage will be higher than ideal — even though you won’t see a lot of fat on them, if their muscle percentage is low then fat percentage will be higher. Their resting metabolism will be low, since little muscle is present to burn calories at rest. Their body won’t be functionally strong, which will lead to injuries and frustrations. So how does one get truly fit? It’s this simple: Strength Training

  I’m sure you’ve heard the story of the Tortoise and the Hare… This one is a bit different. See the Tortoise and the Hare already had their race. We know who won… But years later the Hare was still upset about the loss. It had been some time since they had both exercised and they had gained some unwanted weight. So the Hare proposed a weight loss competition. Instead of a foot race, it was to see who could lose 10 pounds first. The Tortoise agreed and off they went. The Hare hit the ground running. Literally. He did HOURS of cardio. Running. Running. More running.  He ate VERY little. It would leave even the littlest bunny starving. He thought,  “If I do more and eat less, I’ll be sure to lose weight the fastest!” After the first week, the Hare was down 6lbs. He was starving and exhausted but the results were there. The Tortoise on the other hand ate balanced meals. She only exercised three times. After the first week, she was down 2lbs.   The Hare thought he had this in the bag. He w

 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

  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

 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,

 If you’re exercising regularly and still not seeing results then it’s time that you look closely at your diet. One of the biggest obstacles that prevents you from losing fat and getting into awesome shape is all that processed food that you’re still eating. And I can’t blame you, with the way more and more processed foods are being marketed as healthy, even the health savvy are being fooled. Take a walk through the local natural foods market and you’ll see nearly every form of junk food that you’d find at the supermarket – only with things like ‘gluten free’, ‘organic’ and ‘zero trans fats’ on the packages. Those are all great – being gluten free, organic and trans fats free. Fresh, organic veggies, fruits and meats could all boast the same. But when those words are stamped on a package of cookies, chips or the like, then eating them is going to seriously slow your fitness results. Gluten free or not. Here are the top 5 ‘healthy’ processed foods that you’re eating

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

 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

  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