Ok...can I shake you up a bit?  It's MAY.  OMG - beach season is here!  Well...it should be here, anyway. This weather can really get you down.  We've had what - 3 nice days all spring?  But truth be told, we will all wake up one morning and BAM - it will be summer.  Now I don't know about you, but I was kind of a slug this winter.  WHAT!  A fitness trainer was a slug!!???  Yes - people, I too, am human.  I'm not Barbie. I eat chocolate, I indulge in some wine on occasion (smile!) and I don't always look the way I would like to look.  But I am always working at it - ALWAYS.  And I believe that is the ticket.  In my mind, as a trainer and just a regular girl, my goals for myself and my clients as well, is to stay the course as we age.  To always go back to the lifestyle that strives to keep you healthy and fit.   

Essentially it boils down to this. If you are unhappy with the way you look, you need to change something and possibly many things. The first thing you need to change, above all else, is your attitude. If you want to change the way you look, you have to really WANT to. You have to want it bad. The second thing you need to do is make a plan for your transformation. Third? You have to follow the plan. Once you start following your plan, the transformation will begin.

As an aside, if you are overeating and not exercising, you need a lifestyle change, not just a short term plan. Going on a "diet" or planning to "do this" for a month, 2 months, etc. may get you to your goal, but in my opinion it is only a short term solution.  For most, the minute you go back to your old habits, you end up where you started.   I personally advocate a clean eating lifestyle rather than counting calories.  But, that being said, you should do what works for YOU.  Some people do well following Weight Watchers, others count calories, still others like to start with a South Beach type regime and then move toward a clean eating style.  I think the common thread here is to eat clean, unprocessed food.  More on that another day. But for now, let's get started.....

The plan goes like this: Write down your specific goals and how you will accomplish the goals. For example: 

Ultimate goal

Lose 1/2 - 2 pounds a week totaling 4-6 pounds by July 4th

Daily Goals

1. Drink at least 64 ounces of water daily;

2. Eat clean 90% of the time (this gives you 4 meals a week to cheat!)

3. Eat 6 times a day;

4. Incorporate both protein and complex carbs into every meal;

5. Log your food;

6. Log your workouts.

Weekly Goals

1. Do a minimum of 2 strength training workouts each week;

2. Do 3, 30 minute, high intensity interval workouts each week;

3. Do 10-30 minutes of some activity (like walking) on the days you don’t do a strength or cardio workout;

4. Avoid alcohol Monday through Thursday;

5. Plan your cheat meals/day.

How do you accomplish these goals? Plan to accomplish them. Here’s an example of how to plan to accomplish your goals.

1. Fill a half gallon container with water each morning and make sure it is empty by bedtime;

(I recommend emptying it by 5pm so you aren’t up all night!)

2. Plan your 6 “meals”;

Studies show that fit people eat the same foods throughout the week with the exception of dinner. Plan each meal and snack according to your protein and carbs goal.

4. Schedule your workouts in your calendar;

Join a class. Get up earlier and workout before work and before the kids get up. Get a friend to workout with you. If you don’t schedule it, it’s not happening.

5. Write down your daily workouts;

I have a calendar hanging at the top of my stairs. I draw a big red heart on every date that I do a cardio workout and I make a notation on every date that I strength train or walk for 30 minutes or take a Yoga class or a bootcamp class. This way, every time I walk up those stairs, it is staring me in the face and I know exactly what needs to get done before the week is over. I have been doing this for 11 years! It keeps you honest.

6. Resist that glass of wine (or 2 or 3) after work;

Look forward to Friday’s glass or two. Did you know that a FOUR ounce glass of wine has about 100 calories? Come on - when was the last time you drank JUST a 4 ounce glass?

7. Plan to cheat!

Woman cannot live on clean food alone. WE NEED CHOCOLATE! At least, I do. It is so much easier to permanently change the way you eat if you don't feel deprived. So build a cheat meal into your week so you have it to look forward to.  Plan to go out to dinner on Sat.  Have dessert. Drink some wine. Have a Mojito. Just eat lighter that day. Can't go all day without a sweet or a glass of wine? If you're a calorie counter, build it into your calories for the day.   There are many tips and tricks, but the point is - go back to your clean eating lifestyle as soon as your cheat is over! 

So, there you have it. Some great ideas to get you to your weight loss/fitness/ healthy lifestyle goals.  See you in a few days.

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What is HIIT?

You know what amazes me? The human body. It is so complicated that sometimes it's so simple. I had a nagging pain in what I thought was one of my hip flexors on the front of my left thigh/groin area. It only hurt when I worked out and right after, but it went on for months. I went to get accupuncture for it last week and I asked my accupuncturist, Emily (who is also a physical therapist), about the pain. She did some needling, gave me ONE simple stretch to do 3-4 times a day for like 30 seconds and within 24 hours, the pain was gone. Is that amazing or what? I shake my head in amazement.

Do you know how many times I have had an injury over the years and waited it out for often up to a YEAR! Each time I finally consulted with Emily and she resolves my problem, sometimes in 24 hours. Case in point! So simple!

Accupuncture is unbelievable! I swear by it. But you have to find the right practitioner. I drive 50 miles one way, to see mine. She is totally worth it.

Anyway - did you know that you don't have to workout mega hours each week? Do you know that you only have to strength train twice a week and you only have to do your "cardio" for 30 minutes 3x a week to get the results you are looking for - stripping fat and making muscle? When I say "cardio" I mean your workout on the treadmill, eliptical, stairmaster etc. or your walk, run outside - whatever it is you do to burn fat.

The big shots in the industry hate the word "cardio". Me - I think we all know what it refers to so I use it. What they really object to is that people have been lead to believe that they need to do like 45-60 minutes of "cardio" 5-7 times a week to lose fat. THAT is so not true! I also object to that theory. The fitness industry changes their mind ALL THE TIME. But I really think we're on to something with "Interval Training" or High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).

This is what HIIT is: Warm up for 5 minutes, do 20 minutes of intervals and cooldown for 5 minutes. DONE! This is an interval - whatever you are doing, treadmill, running outside, walking, do it hard for 1 minute and easy for 2 minutes. That simple. And mix it up. Do it hard for 45 seconds, easy for 90 seconds, hard for 30 seconds, easy for 1 minute, hard for 8 seconds, easy for 12 seconds. Just DO IT for 20 minutes.

What this does is shake up your metabolism. Your body has to recover from all those intervals and that recovery can take from 24-48 hours, in which time, you are burning more calories per hour. Some refer to it as the "afterburn". If you do long slow cardio, your body adapts like a fuel efficient car. A fuel efficient car burns less gas. A fuel efficient body burns less fat. So you get fitter and fitter with long slow cardio, but your body gets more efficient and burns less fat. With intervals (HIIT) your body gets fitter and burns more calories on a daily basis. Combine that with the muscles you are laying down and the clean food you are eating and I see Fit Girl!

So cut back on the workouts if you are being a crazy person. If you do a hard and breathless strength training session for like 30-40 minutes, jump on that treadmill for another 30, that's all you need 3x a week. Just talk to me. I'll make it efficient for you! Results guaranteed - as long as you hold up the food end of the bargain!

See you back here next week!

My Goodness It's Been a Long Time

I can't believe that my last post is dated November 26th. My BAD! I guess the holiday season got away from me. I have to admit, it's the "hap-happiest time of the year!" I just LOVE the holidays and this year was the best! It's all about the season for us and we really made the best of it. We spent priceless time with friends and family and just really tried to stay in the moment. Were there stressful times? Absolutely! But we pushed through it and made it all work. I hope your holidays were as peaceful and blessed.

AND, I hit goal in late November and stayed there. Until I started eating Christmas cookies about 4 days before Christmas. It was all over once the first grain of sugar hit my lips. So - I went with it. Drank some wine each day, ate some cookies, had a few donuts (aghast!) and came out the other side with about 4 pounds of FAT to get rid of. Not so bad though - already feel much better after just 4 days of CLEAN EATING.

That's what it's all about, you know. There's no magic bullet. It's about clean eating. Eating Clean is the healthy way to lose weight and keep it off forever. I am totally confident that no other diet or nutrition program works so perfectly. You don't even need to count calories. I use the following rules of thumb and it takes care of the problem:

The measure are all based on your own body size:

Protein - size of your palm
Whole Grains - 1 handful or ice cream scoop
Fruits and Vegetables - 2 handfuls

If you include these nutrients in each of your 5-6 snacks/meals everyday, you don't need a "diet".

Here are a few tips that will help kickstart your metabolism and get you moving toward your fat loss goals:

1. Water, water water. Hydrate yourself with water to keep your body operating smoothly and to speed up metabolism

2. 5-6 snacks/meals each day. I just read a study where 1 group of people ate 3 meals a day and 1 group ate 6 meals a day. They ate the same number of calories and the group who ate 6 meals lost significantly more weight in the same amount of time. Force it for a week and your body will be screaming for food every 3 hours. I am GIVING YOU PERMISSION TO EAT! What better gift???

3. Make sure you eat enough fiber. It will keep those lazy bowels moving and sustain you longer between meals.

4. Don't go past the point of hunger. Skipping a meal triggers a starvation response and your body will hold onto that fat for dear life!

5. Shoot for 3-5 ounces of lean protein at each snack/meal. Plan, plan, plan. That's the ticket on this one.

6. Sugar is white poisen. Stop eating it, PERIOD. It's addictive and fattening and will slow your metabolism right down.

7. Fruits and vegetables satisfy the needs of an active body. Load up, ladies.

8. Eat a big breakfast - everyday! It's a treat to be able to eat. Take advantage of it.

That's it for today. Gotta go finish making a big pot of lentil soup. Full of protein and fiber. Also making a batch of whole grain muffins. See the recipe page on my website. http://www.thefitnessconnectiononline.com/recipe_muffins.html
Awesome.

Life Lesson

See that title? I learned one this month. BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER! I have been without my address book for almost 3 weeks. My computer blew up in mid November. I finally have access to my favorite places on the internet - like this blog - but still no address book. I had no access to my password list (Do you think I should print it out and hide it somewhere??? HELLO?) so I couldn't get into the many sites I am a member of. ME - the information junkie - was lost. But boy did I get a lot done around the house! No computer calling my name. Interesting study of myself...

Anyway - so how did we do over the Thanksgiving holiday? With the exception of not enough sleep, I did pretty well. Light on the wine, od'd on the desserts one night, but not like I expected, and I worked out HARD 4 times last week. I am completely mentally prepared to get through December without gaining an ounce. How? Because I did all the prep work beforehand. I went off the sugar and wine for 6 weeks with very little stray. I got through Thanksgiving and the cravings have not come back. I have exercised regularly and HARD for months and I refuse to make any Christmas cookies until the last weekend before Christmas!

I plan to go to 2-3 Christmas parties this holiday season, but I'm not worried. A glass or two of wine and if I eat well during the day, I know I can eat pretty much what I want at the party. I will just make sure that I drink plenty of water the days following the party and continue to eat clean. I have NO doubt I will do this. You can too. Make it your goal to either maintain or even lose a few pounds in December and you will be so proud of yourself and feel so good about yourself that going into the new year will be a piece of cake (no pun intended!).

I was blabbing with my friend and client Robin the other day. Robin said that she re-read my logo for my gym, The Fitness Connection and she said she really "got" it. If you aren't familiar with my gym, I have a small gym and I do one on one or small group fitness training - 8-9 women per class. This is my logo:

The Fitness Connection
Lose Weight, Be Healthy, Feel Great...Get Connected

I told her it was great that she understood the whole mind/body connection I believe in - that when you lose weight and/or get fit and healthy, you feel great about yourself. When you are doing everything you can for yourself and you look great too, you just feel great! You're connected. Simple - mind/body.

But Robin was actually looking at the logo a little differently. She thought the logo meant the connection that forms with all the women that workout together and how that connection keeps them coming back every week to workout together. That they wouldn't ever workout on their own or workout as hard as I work them. It was all about working out together and that was the motivation to keep working out (aside from my great training!!)

Having a support group is a huge thing. Success rates with weight loss and fitness rise dramatically when you surround yourself with people who think like you do. You know you should workout and watch what you eat. But it's ALOT easier if you have people to do it with, talk about it with, exchange ideas with. The workout may be wicked hard, but everyone is doing it together so it's so much better. So Robin - thanks for pointing that out. I didn't realize my logo went even deeper!! I'm just plain grateful that I have such a great group of women coming to train with me. I love you all!

So - I highly suggest you find a group to workout with. It really changes your outlook on the whole process of taking good care of yourself and it makes it so much easier. Give it a shot. You may be very surprised what you are capable of!

To ALL My Women Friends and To Those I Have Not Met Yet

My friend Karen sent me the link below. I thought you should all experience it. I am not often so touched by what circulates the net. Maybe it's the music, but it really lifted me. We women ROCK!!! Enjoy! -Joey

TheWoman.pps

I GAINED 5 POUNDS!!!! LOL!!

Hello! Is anybody in there? I'm baaack. Have you been waiting with bated breath for my 9 week project results? Actually I lost about 8 pounds and gained about 5 pounds! Seriously - I was so up and down it wasn't even funny. The net is that I lost a solid 2 or 3 pounds out of the 4-6 I wanted to lose. So I am holding at about 2-3 pounds lower. Am I happy? Mmmmmmm - not THAT happy but I'm not quitting now. I'm almost there! And the holidays are here! Last Christmas I ate about 4 dozen Christmas cookies a week for 4 weeks and started the new year 5 pounds heavier! Not this year. I refuse to bake cookies this year - well, maybe some, the last weekend before Christmas - but NO EARLIER. I'll eat them all. That's the truth.

So anyway - no, I didn't make goal but I made a dent and that's what counts. It's a struggle. There is no doubt. You just keep working at it. I am pleased that I have cut WAY back on my alcohol intake and I am virtually eating no sweets. (I cheated on Halloween with 3 mini hershey bars and that was IT.) I am definately leading a healthier lifestyle than I was 9 weeks ago. I am sleeping longer and deeper (thanks to Mona Vie, I think) and I generally feel more energetic. All in all, this was a great way to get back to where I want to be. The lesson for you is that this is a lifestyle change, ladies! I'm not going to just stop doing what I'm doing because I didn't make goal. This is how I want to live my life going into my "older" years. I want to be active, I want to eat healthy, I want to feel great and I want to look as good as I can no matter what age I am. And so should you!

On to more interesting "stuff". I was thinking the other day about all the excuses I hear from women about working out. The biggest one is "I don't have the time." Guess what? I don't believe you. Time is about priorities. If you are not scheduling workout time into your week, it is because you don't want it bad enough. And if you don't want it for the weight loss benefits, you absolutely must do it for the health benefits. Do you want to live through your 60s, 70s and hopefully 80s, in a state of bad health? Do you want your week to consist of going to doctor's appointments, popping so many different pills a day that you need a suitcase to keep track of them and talking constantly about what ails you? Isn't the healthcare system in the United States overburdened enough without adding you to the pile?

You need to workout and take care of yourself. Diabetes and heart disease in this country is reaching epidemic proportions and has slithered it's way into our population of young people. It's disgusting. Stop contributing to the problem and start being pro-active. Start taking care of yourself. Stop taking the easy way out. It's the death of us!

So getting back to working out - where do you schedule it? For most people, you schedule it early in the morning. It will not kill you to get up a half an hour earlier in the morning to work out. You set out your workout clothes the night before, you set the alarm, you get up, get right into your clothes and you do what you have to do. You only need 20 minutes or so and chances are, you will go longer, once you start. Let me tell you - the best part of getting it done in the morning is that IT'S DONE! You will feel like a million dollars all day long. Trust me!

Stay tuned for some workouts you can do in 20 minutes that will kick your butt and get the job done.