Fit & Healthy Buffalo- Fitness Success After 40

  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

Do you know one of the TOP reasons people have for NOT being able to commit to a regular fitness routine?   It’s because they say they “don’t have enough time.” So in this email, I’m going to break down some ways you can find that time! This quote pretty much sums up why this matters: If you don’t make time for your wellness, eventually you will have to make time for your illness. Even committing to JUST 5 MINUTES can help transform your routine. Over time, after that 5 minutes takes root, it can grow to 30 minutes that you enjoy and look forward to. 10 Ways to Find Time for Your Fitness Get up first thing in the morning and go for a walk or do a cardio session. Take a walk or do a workout during your lunch break. Do strength exercises while watching TV at night (planks, bridges, squats, etc.). Turn household chores into a cardio session by turning up the music and moving fast enough to get your heart rate up. Turn your date nights into “fun” nights – go skating, hit the batting cage,