Thinner Thanksgiving

Published by reggie on November 23, 2016 | Leave a response

If all your childhood memories about Thanksgiving involve mountains of food that flow with rivers of gravy and have pie lining the banks of those rivers, you aren’t alone. Thanksgiving is normally a day where people consume enough calories for two to three days of normal eating—note I didn’t say healthier eating but “put the fat on” normal type of eating. A thinner Thanksgiving can mean a number of things from looking thinner to eating healthier. Here are just a few ways of achieving those things.

Start today to achieve a “thinner” you for the Thanksgiving holidays.

It’s never too late to start. Sure you won’t get the full effect of healthy eating and working out like you would if you’ve been doing it for months, but it is a step in the right direction. Not only will you learn more about the foods to select for your Thanksgiving feast, you’ll also end up with more energy and strength to get through the holidays.

Plan healthy alternatives.

If you’re having everyone over, just make sure that your menu is healthy. Have lots of fresh vegetables for snacks and some low calorie tasty dip. It can help keep down the hunger so you won’t be as apt to gobble up everything in front of you or load your plate to the limit. If you’re not doing all the cooking, take a healthy dish. If your family is like mine, normally everyone brings something to the celebration. You probably know most of the foods you’ll have at the feast and identify those lowest in calories, eating more of those and far less of the marshmallow laden sweet potato casserole or rich pecan pie.

Add an activity to the day.

Start your day with exercise. It helps burn off the hormones created by stress, while making you feel refreshed and happy. If the weather permits, plan an outside activity with the family, even if it’s just taking a walk. Most people love the idea of walking off the calories and helping their food to digest. You’ll find your suggestion will also help set a restful tone and avoid some of the high decibel noise level stress that occurs when there are a number of people in an enclosed area.

Go easy on the gravy. You can have a little of everything, even the mashed potatoes, but don’t drown out their delicious taste with a lake of gravy. It adds calories without adding nutrients.

Skip the whipped cream and opt for the lightest possible dessert. If you have a choice between fruit salad and pie, take the fruit salad.

Watch your portions. Keep them small and eat slowly. You’ll find you fill up faster that way. If you want to go back for seconds, wait before you do. Sometimes the brain doesn’t catch on that your body is full immediately.

Enjoy a great conversation and savor every bite. This is the time to be grateful for not just the bounty of food, but the company too. You’ll not only enjoy catching up with friends, you’ll eat slower in the process.

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How To Make Your Weekend More Active

Published by reggie on November 8, 2016 | Leave a response

If your Saturdays consist of sleeping in and remaining in your pajamas for the rest of the day, it’s time to make your weekend more active. Getting active can also help you in other ways. It can help you get those pesky chores out of the way that have been waiting for ages and form better bonds with family and friends. Most of the time, people who lounge on the weekend end up watching reruns of shows they don’t even like or viewing the same adorable Facebook picture of a cat that managed to shred all the toilet paper. It’s time to make the most of your day and declare independence from inactivity. You’ll find you feel more refreshed than you would if you just sat or lounged the whole day.

Take the family or friends for an adventure.

The adventure doesn’t have to be mountain climbing or safari hunting. It can be something as simple as going to a local museum or a flea market. Both of these require you spend time walking and you’ll have fun in the process. Shopping is another potential, even if it’s just window shopping. A picnic at the park, day at the beach or pool and even going to a festival or out dancing at night burns off the calories and gets you fitter..

Clean your home and do some chores.

Okay, you probably hate me by now, but you don’t have to clean everything at once. Take one room at a time and do some deep cleaning that requires a little elbow grease. Clean out the refrigerator and scrub the inside. Scrub down the bathroom or wash the walls. Washing windows, especially if you use step a ladder to do them and raking leaves or gardening get you moving too. You get the idea by now, do something that makes you move.

Change your mode of transportation.

Spend one weekend relying on your bike, your two feet or public transportation to get in the extra exercise. I know a woman that retired after years of having a job where she had to drive from one of her offices to another several times a day. She gave up her car keys when she retired and opted for a bike. This lady had never taken public transportation either, so she studied the bus route, walked to the nearest bus stop and spent a few weeks learning the ropes. She swears to me that bus stops are quite far from her shopping and stopping haunts, so she had to travel on foot quite frequently. She was far more fit after her first year of doing this, without adding any extra workout to the mix.

Have fun with your kids or younger children in your family. If you don’t have children, give a friend or family member a break and do something with their children for an hour or two. You’ll be exhausted but in a good way.

Do something for someone else. Find a charity you feel strongly about and do some work for them that requires physical effort or stop by an elderly neighbors or family members home and do a few extra chores for them. You’ll feel good about yourself and shed pounds in the process.

Look for healthy food bargains. Lots of places that let you pick the produce, such as strawberries or apples, offer huge discounts when you pick them yourself. Get plenty for the freezer so you have them over the off season too.

No matter how dragged out you feel, get up, take a shower and go for a walk. If you haven’t planned anything, walking can clear your head and boost your energy level. While you’re walking you’ll also come up with great activities for the rest of the day.

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How Much Do You Really Know About Nutrition?

Published by reggie on October 27, 2016 | Leave a response

One the keys to a healthy life is good nutrition. No matter how smart you are or how much education you have, most people, including doctors, don’t have the background education in nutrition to plan healthy meals continuously. That doesn’t mean they aren’t on the right track or know the basics. It simply means that sometimes to get the most out of your meals, you need to delve a little deeper. Often, you’ll find that nutritious meals are far more enjoyable than the foods you’ve eaten in the past.

Even doctors don’t get adequate nutrition training.

I’m not trying to bash doctors or say I’m better than they are. They have a lot to learn in the years they’re in school, so you can understand why many schools short them on nutrition training. A recent study on the status of nutrition in medical schools showed that the average doctor had 23.9 contact hour s of training in nutrition. Those hours weren’t necessarily in specific nutrition classes, but may have been in courses that touched on nutrition. More and more scientists are discovering how important nutrition is to our lives and overall good health. It’s one of the reasons many doctors send their patients to specialists, such as personal trainers and nutritionists, to get help.

Modern technology has changed the perimeters of nutritional information.

The computer has changed our lives in many ways. One is that it made it easier to create good nutrition plans for people based on their personal needs. All the data for different body types and metabolic types are input into the computer, plus dietary information on what types of foods help each one. Balanced nutrition is easier to balance when you have the aid of a computer program. The input information can also help find substitutions and alternatives for people with a food intolerance or difficulty losing weight.

You still need human interpretation, no matter how factual a computer is.

While the computer can provide some shortcuts and excellent help creating dietary programs. You still need to have the human touch to modify and adjust those programs. Even if you’re a specific body type, it doesn’t mean that your body is going to react the same way as another person in your groups to a specific diet. That’s where I come in. I help you hone the diet until it meets your specific needs. If we see progress, it means what we’re doing is working….HOORAY! If progress is stalled or limited, it can mean one of two things. Either there input is wrong or something’s not working. I help you with both problems.

When the input is wrong, either you’ve misjudged proportions or you’ve sneaked some extra goodies. Sometimes, people eat without realizing it. You walk past the candy bowl and absentmindedly eat a handful. (It happens! And people don’t even remember it because it’s a habit!) I’ll help motivate you and make you aware of your eating habits.

Sometimes, no matter how much you stick with a nutritious plan, it’s just not right for you. That doesn’t mean you ever give up, it just means it’s time to start making subtle changes to see what the problem is.

The amount of exercise you get makes a huge difference. Adding exercise to the nutritional program can make the plan work more effectively. It’s one reason that putting the two together gets best results.

You’ll be amazed at what you’ll learn and how habits change easily. At first, you’ll have to follow closely and be very aware of your habits. Slowly, you’ll see a change where you intuitively know the right foods to eat.

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Do You Hate To Workout?

Published by reggie on October 6, 2016 | Leave a response

I see it all the time, people come to me after unsuccessful attempt at fitness and one huge reason is that they hate to workout. It’s understandable when you talk to them. Either they have gone to a traditional gym and been pointed in the directions of the machines and left to their own devices or they’ve worked out alone to a program they found on the internet, which occasionally caused injury. Often they worked hard but didn’t see any results.

Motivation is so important.

I don’t care who you are, you need someone cheering you on, whether it’s a personal trainer, good friend or even your family. Fitness programs often fail at filling that need for external motivation. Every week someone comes into my gym and sheepishly tells me that they’ve started fitness programs, sometimes many, many fitness programs, but failed to follow through because their life became too busy. I’m here to tell you that the activities of their life wasn’t the problem, but their lack of motivation was. When something is important, people often carve out the time or find a way to follow it through, even if it’s doing some isometric exercises at their desk.

Not knowing the what to do next is a huge problem.

I applaud people who get exercise of all types, no matter what it is. Even if you don’t know what you’re doing and go to the gym faithfully, just moving your body for that half hour or hour helps, but it doesn’t necessarily use your time wisely. If you’re reading this, NEVER STOP TRYING! Even if you’re visits to the gym aren’t helping, keep going until you find something that does. (Unless of course, your visits to the gym only include changing into gym clothes and hanging around the juice bar or getting a tan.) A personal trainer, like me, can create a program designed specifically for your needs, body type and level of fitness.

Doing an exercise wrong can cause injury.

I know I said exercise of any type is good, but let’s face it, sometimes people go too far and try complicated routines with kettlebells and other types of equipment they don’t know how to use. Even doing a simple calisthenic wrong can cause injury or minimize the benefits you reap. For those that workout in a gym on machines, there are some people you can ask about how they work. Normally, while these aren’t the best workout, they are more goof proof. I can help you learn the right way to do each exercise to avoid injury and see results faster.

No two people are alike, even identical twins. That’s why no two workouts will be the same. I assess each person’s fitness level, even identifying undeveloped muscle groups that can affect your overall fitness, before I create a program.

Not everyone will work at the same intensity. Lots of times I have people work in groups, but everyone will be doing his or her own personal program. Some will do more repetitions or a modified form of the workout.

People need different types of exercise. Even if you’re really strong, you may not have the flexibility or endurance to be considered fit. I create a well rounded plan for every person.

Being the best you that you can be changes. You may start out at one fitness level and work toward your maximum potential, but as you become fitter, your overall potential increases. I help you by adjusting your program when that happens

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No Cookie Cutter Workouts Here

Published by reggie on September 26, 2016 | Leave a response

One problem faced by many people trying to find a way to reach their fitness goals is that most places offer cookie cutter workouts and photocopy diets. You won’t find that here. I know that each person is different and needs a program that not only helps overcome some of the differences but actually uses those differences to maximize results. Every person has a unique structure with special personalized needs. No two people are alike when it comes to goals or what they want from a fitness regimen. That’s why I first talk to each person and learn more about them before I create their unique exercise program.

Fitness isn’t just exercise, it’s a way of life.

While two people may lead similar lives, they won’t be the same at every level. That’s the same with fitness. Even if both people weigh the same, have similar fitness levels and even like the same foods, the strength and weaknesses of various muscle groups will be different. Their schedules will be different and even their special needs may differ. Fitness is part of a healthy lifestyle and needs to blend with the rest of your life, which is another challenge I work with when creating a workout program.

Carving out time for exercise is hard, but important.

If you work all day in an office and go home to face another full day of work, finding time to exercise may seem impossible. That’s why I like to create programs that get the most results in the shortest amount of time. Of course, you should always make sure you allow time in your schedule for fitness. You’re important and the busier you are the more you have to work at staying healthy. If your family, job or friends need you now, just imagine how lost they would be if you were ill and no longer available. Carving time out now to stay healthy is just as important to those who need you most as it is to you! I’ll create a flexible program that works with your schedule.

You need to feel good about yourself.

If you’re overweight and out of shape, it’s hard to feel good about yourself and also hard to get the most accomplished. Exhaustion can lead to underproduction and that makes you work even harder, getting less accomplished. I’ll help you make fitness a priority in your life and you’ll often find that when you feel good, you get far more accomplished.

You’ll burn off the hormones created by stress that can cause illness, that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach and even foggy brain.

You’ll have more energy than you ever did before you started exercising. It’s amazing, but the more you workout and burn energy, the more it seems to grow.

You’ll cut your doctor’s visits to a minimum. Exercise helps boost the immune system and even can reverse serious conditions such as diabetes, osteoporosis and high blood pressure.

You’ll see results and feel good about taking charge of your life again. That feeling of being in command will extend to other areas of your life.

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Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone

Published by reggie on September 6, 2016 | Leave a response

There’s a reason it’s called your comfort zone. It’s easy. It’s familiar and it’s comfortable! However, doesn’t give you the same fantastic feeling when you’re finally achieving something new or the confidence you feel when you reach a goal. Living in your comfort zone means missing all that life has to offer you. It also can be devastating to any fitness program. Just as a comfort zone is stifling to creativity, achievement and even fun, it’s also lethal to fitness programs. Sure, you’ll be healthier, because doing something is always better than doing nothing, but you won’t see the changes you’ve hoped to achieve.

Take it to the max!

Live a little! Start today! You don’t have to sky dive, quit your job and ride the rails or sit in a room filled with snakes and spiders just to face your fears or do something life altering. You can start with a healthy change that won’t force you to leave town, endanger your social standing or income. That change is also healthy and can alter your life for ever! It might sound boring at first until you realize how difficult it can be, but how phenomenal the results are. It’s changing your looks and your confidence through a program of exercise and healthy eating that will challenge you, but still be a blast to do.

If it were easy, everyone would look fabulous.

Taking it to the max means you’ll be working out far beyond levels you’ve ever experienced. You’ll soon be doing things you’ve never thought possible before you started. You’ll see muscles that remained hidden by years of inactivity and notice there’s a whole new you hiding underneath the person you used to be.

Moving beyond your comfort zone gets fabulous results and helps you with more than just fitness goals.

The more change you see, the more you’ll want to see and the more confident you’ll become in other areas. You’ll develop the confidence to change your life in positive ways, such as asking for a raise or even finding a better job you really enjoy. You’ll have a whole new outlook on life that will lead you to a more fulfilling and enjoyable life.

Getting out of your comfort zone will also help make you healthier. The program of regular exercise will give you the energy and stamina to face life’s challenges, while also lowering the risk of serious conditions.

You’ll learn to eat healthier. People often find that the new way of eating is far more enjoyable than their previous diet, which they often ate because it was familiar, not because they enjoyed it.

You’ll look fabulous and feel dynamic. Others will notice the change and you’ll find many new doors to opportunities opening.

As you conquer each goal, you’ll start to believe you can do anything you set your mind to do. You’ll be right in believing it.

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What Is Your Journey

Published by reggie on August 24, 2016 | Leave a response

What is the reason you start your journey toward fitness? That’s a question that many personal trainers ask. There’s a very good reason for this. It not only helps solidify goals, but also provides a great deal of information for creating a program of fitness. Even though a trainer can identify a person’s fitness level, that person is often the best judge of how he or she feels. Many health care professionals forget this or don’t pay attention, but it’s so important. Trainers use that information to help pinpoint problem areas and create fitness programs.

Are you looking for a program that provides more energy?

Overall fitness requires all types of exercise, from strength and stamina to balance and flexibility. However, if you’re finding your energy levels short, the trainer may include more endurance training to get you up to par. If you find you have more than the average share of pulled and strained muscles, working on flexibility may be the key.

Do you find you can’t stick to a diet?

Part of the journey includes finding out what doesn’t work. What doesn’t work may be dieting—and often is. That’s because diets in general don’t work. They either leave you feeling hungry or deprived and always end, not always successfully. Then the pounds return and you’re often worse off than you started. Instead, learning how to make smarter choices when it comes to food isn’t dieting and is a lifelong way to keep pounds off and get healthier.

Do you lack the motivation to continue exercising and start almost as soon as you start?

That’s another common problem faced by many. The right type of guidance will keep you motivated throughout and often help you see the progress you’ve made. Trainers also help you get results faster and that’s super motivating. When you work with a personal trainer, you’ll be accountable for your fitness program, which is another motivating factor.

Learn how to make fitness and healthy eating part of your routine. When you do that, you’ll never be overweight or lack energy again.

You’ll find you feel better after working out. That’s because the exercise not only burns off the hormones from stress, but creates new ones that make you feel great.

You’ll sleep better at night when you exercise. A good night’s sleep is often undervalued, but extremely important to your health and mental well being. It also helps you steer clear of sugar foods to boost that energy.

You’ll feel good about yourself. The more self-confidence and the higher self-image you have, the more apt you’ll be to do the things you need to do to reach your fitness goals.

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Fitness Guidance

Published by reggie on August 3, 2016 | Leave a response

Many people find that getting fit is difficult for a number of reasons. The main reason is a lack of fitness guidance that works for their situation. While an exotic diet of goji berries, sabacha, wakame and agar-agar may help you lose weight, they aren’t normally on the menu at your favorite restaurant or easily found on the grocery shelves. You don’t have to worry. Healthy eating doesn’t have to be expensive or involve foods you’ve never tasted. With the right guidance, you can learn to make small changes in your diet that will reap big rewards.

Fitness is more than just diet, it’s exercise too.

No two people are exactly alike, so no two exercise programs should be identical either. While you may be far stronger than the person next door, he or she might have more flexibility or endurance. There are more ways to measure fitness than just measuring inches and muscle strength. There is cardio vascular fitness—endurance, flexibility—range of motion, strength and balance. The right type of fitness guidance can identify your level of fitness in each and create a program to improve all areas.

Make sure you do all types of exercise.

Why is it important to get specialized advice in all areas? While Superman may have muscles of steel, he still needs flexibility, maybe not that of Elastic Girl/Woman or Mr. Fantastic, but still needs it to prevent super hero muscle and joint injuries. Without all types of exercise, you’re only partially armed to help prevent injuries and have functional fitness. A trainer insures you get the right amount of exercise in all areas to meet your personal needs.

Tracking and staying with the program is one problem most people face.

One of the best ways to boost your results is to track your results. That’s also one reason many people turn to professional help when it comes to fitness. Knowing the right way to weigh in—yes, there is a right way and it’s once a week at the same time each week—and when to up the ante and make your workout harder can bring great results. Trainers do that, either in person or via other forms of communication. Trainers also provide a great deal of motivation when you need it the most.

While health care professionals may know a great deal about illness, they often have little training in nutrition and exercise. That makes sense, since there is so much to know about the human body. The expertise of a trainer is primarily in those two areas.

Eating healthy often means eating foods that are closest to whole. Whole foods are those that are the least processed in the right amount.

You don’t have to make all the changes at once. Personal trainers don’t give you a diet but help you learn how to make smarter choices when it comes to food. You are never on a diet, because diets always end.

You’ll learn the right way to do each exercise from a personal trainer and that can preen injury and maximize benefits.

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Motivation For Your Fitness Journey

Published by reggie on July 25, 2016 | Leave a response

If you need motivation for your fitness journey, you’ve come to the right place. Everyone is motivated by results, but when it comes to fitness, results aren’t always that easy to identify. People on starvation diets may see pounds drop off immediately, but these extremely low calorie diets are just tricking you. While you may be losing water weight, you’re also slowing your metabolism too. Super low calorie diets are unhealthy and you have to end them sometime. Then the pounds start to return and they often bring friends. You need to do it right and get the potent motivation you need until you see lasting results.

Regular exercise and eating healthier is the only way to achieve lasting results.

That may sound like a lot of work, but I’m here to make it easier for you. I’ll show you how to have fun while getting the exercise you need to shed those pounds and build muscle tissue. I’ll also help you learn to make smarter choices when it comes to food. That’s not dieting because dieting doesn’t work. As noted before, diets always end and you go back to old eating habits.

Healthy food tastes fantastic.

People often eat the same old things out of habit. They’re familiar with certain foods and identify them as tasting good. Greasy fried foods, fatty meats and sugary treats help you put weight on, while also negatively impacting your health. You’ll be amazed at how much weight you can lose by making some small dietary changes that add up to huge calorie savings. Learning to eat foods closer to their natural state, whole foods, not only saves calories, it also provides more nutrition. You’ll find you like grilled, roasted, baked or steamed foods far better than fried foods after a while, too.

I’ll track your progress and help you get results faster.

Combining a healthy diet with regular exercise does so much more to help you shed pounds. Not only does exercise burn off extra calories, it builds muscle tissue. Muscle tissue uses more calories than fat tissue does, so it perks up that lazy metabolism and helps you shed pounds quicker. You won’t drop a clothing size overnight, but I’ll track your progress and provide motivation until you do. When you workout with me, you’ll see the progress faster, which is also a boost to your fitness program.

You’ll have more energy. You may not have started out looking for more energy, but find you have it. That gets you into shape to be more active and burn even more calories.

You’ll look more fantastic every day. Not only will you look slimmer, you’ll look healthier and fitter. That’s the new sexy!

We have fun here. Making your workout fun makes you look forward to doing it. While fitness is a serious goal, it doesn’t mean you can’t have fun reaching it.

You’ll feel happier and great. Not only does exercise burn off stress hormones that make you feel like you’ll explode, it stimulates the brain to create hormones that make you feel happy.

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Fitness Is Mental

Published by reggie on July 4, 2016 | Leave a response

You may think that getting fit is all physical, but fitness is mental, too. Belief in yourself and your abilities is just as important as knowing the right exercises to use and how to eat healthy. It’s a three legged stool that will be unstable unless each leg is strong. I can help you learn the right type of exercises, teach you how to eat healthier, but unless you have the resolve, you won’t put forth the effort it takes for success.

When you believe something is true, you make it true.

You are what you think you are. That’s right! If you think you’re meant to be overweight, you’ll sabotage all efforts to shed those pounds so you’ll always be right. If you believe that the extra weight is temporary and you have the ability to change, that makes all the difference. Change starts with belief. Even if you don’t have a firm focus on who you can become, I can help you. I believe that you were meant to be fit and know you’re capable of achieving more than you ever dreamed possible.

Sometimes you have to see results before you really believe they’re possible.

Seeing is believing. That’s why results are so important and why I help you achieve them faster than you might on your own. Too many fitness programs are abandoned before the person ever sees any results, even though they’re actually taking place in their body. I won’t let you give up and will do what it takes to get you through the toughest part, so you can see the results faster and have that burst of motivation it takes to achieve your goals.

If you can believe it, you can achieve it.

No matter whether you’ve tried before and failed, you can do it. You now have me to help you achieve your goals and I won’t let you fail. I’ll believe in you until you can believe in yourself. I’ll show you how to make smarter choices when it comes to food, but I won’t show you a diet because diets don’t work. Instead, I’ll teach you how to make substitutions, such as eating frozen mashed bananas instead of ice cream. (It taste just like banana ice cream!) Say good-bye to fried foods and hello to delicious whole foods. Most people love their new way of eating and never feel hungry or deprived.

You’ll have fun while you shed pounds. Working out should be renamed “Fat destroying fun.” Getting together with a group to boogie away fat not only provides lots of support, it also creates solid friendships.

You’ll feel fantastic after just a short time. You’ll ache at first, there’s no doubt about it. You’re waking up some of those muscles you’ve barely used. But after a short time you’ll only notice how great you feel.

You’ll not only look sexier, you’ll feel sexier too. Everyone will notice that you’re getting hotter by the day.

You’ll be doing your health a favor. Regular exercise and a healthy diet can help prevent serious conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.

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