Fab Fit Squad

Admit we all look down at our tummy’s and wish they are a little flatter, more

define or hell just wasn’t a muffin top! Here a four ways to lose that muffin top.

1. Add protein to every meal. I always ask my clients to write their food journals and the one element that is missing from most meals is protein. This is help you repair your muscles after working out and helps you to feel full longer.
2. Log your meals. This helps you really visualize what your are putting in your mouth. I mean you log EVERYTHING the Peppermint Patty  you grabbed from the receptionist desk. Want me to review? Just send 3 days and I’ll give you feedback.
3. Avoid artificial sweeteners.Because they are “artificial” it’s sometimes hard for our bodies to process them. When your body can’t process it causes inflammation. Unfortunately you typically can’t control where the inflammation occurs, most times it will occur in your tummy. So its best to avoid foods high in sodium, carbonated beverages, and gum.
4. Fill up on veggies.  Veggies are low in calories and high in fiber. This combination helps you feel full longer. Be careful with broccoli it does cause a little bloating.

Here is a bonus — interval training — instead of just hoping on a piece of equipment and doing the same pace, try mixing it up with intervals.  Try this one.  Go hard for 30 sec and then rest for 30 sec try this for 30 minutes. After you try it leave me a comment about how you did.

Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The first week of the new year is almost over. How are you doing with your resolutions? Are you still making them? If your resolution this year is to lose those last 10 pounds or to get into or back into shape I have a few tips that may help you get there this year.

1. You need a strategy — just hoping and praying isn’t a strategy. Think of your fitness plan as planning a trip. Would you just hop in the car and hope you end up a destination. No.. you would punch it into your GPS and follow the route. Getting back into shape and losing weight is the same thing! Your action for right now is to say — I am going to ________. I’m looking for an exact number, if its not exact you can’t measure how you are doing.  For example, by February 17 I will lose 10 pounds or I will run/walk 1 mile each day for the next 30 days.  So.. what’s your action item to get you toward your end goal?
2. Yes, write it down — you have you strategy, it’s not good enough to have it in your head, you need to write it down and put it someplace where you can see it each and every day! I recommend you tape it in multiple locations — your bathroom mirror, your nightstand, your refrigerator, your car’s sun visor, your cube at work. The more you see it the more you will be reminded of your goal and your actions will start to reflect where you want to go. Your action item — write your goal for the next 30 days and put it in multiple locations.
3. Don’t go hungry — when people start to diet the first thing I hear is I’m going to skip meals. Nothing makes me more crazy than when I hear that. Okay the other thing that makes me crazier is when I see people walking/running on a treadmill and holding on for dear life. Unless you came in using a walker or a cane there is no need to hold on. Pump your arms and use your core! Off my soap box, now back to meals. You must fuel your body every 2-3 hours.  You must keep blood sugar levels even, this is what signals the brain for food. The more even your blood sugars levels the less likely you are to go on a bender. Think about this.  How many times have you skipped lunch and then headed home after work and just ate everything sight or you planned on eating the right things and your hungry mind took over.  I know that never happens to you guys. =) If you are reading this and its been a few hours –EAT SOMETHING! Your action item — what snacks can you put in your desk drawer or in the car that you can eat?
4. Get support — You can’t do this alone! There will be times when you need a shoulder to lean on, a kick in the pants or just an ear when you need to vent. Ask someone to be your accountability partner. When you have this person you are less likely to fall off the wagon. I highly recommend you find that friend, co-worker or whomever that isn’t afraid to be hard on you.  Your action item — find and ask someone to be your support person?
5. Share your goals with the world — The more people who know what you are doing you are more likely to do it. No one wants to look like a fool. In this new world of social media — post your goal(s) on your Facebook wall, tweet about them on Twitter.  You’d be surprised how much support and encouragement you’ll get from others who maybe trying to reach the same goal or this is where you may find your accountability partner. Your action item –post your 30 day goal on your Facebook wall, tweet about or tell someone in person.  You can even leave your comments on my blog! I have no problem being that kick in the rump!
6. Pick one thing to change — Many of you feel you need to change EVERYTHING right away. I’m all for that BUT… if you aren’t that kind of person. Don’t do it!  I recommend you pick 1 habit this week and work on changing that. If you are addicted to diet soda — work on reducing the number that you have in a day or go cold turkey.  Action item — What is the one thing you will change this week?

With these 6 tips in hand do you feel like you have a nice blueprint to help you forward towards reaching your fitness goals this year? If you would some formalized help. I still have a few spots open for my F.R.E.E 30 day wellness coaching program. Just shoot me an email to learn more.  I really want to know how you are doing. Leave me your fitness goal in the comments below.

These past few weeks, we may have been eating more than we typically do during the rest of the year. Come January 1st, many of will list losing weight as your primary New Year’s Resolution. So what do you do? You head to the gym and hit the cardio machines, take a few group exercise classes and maybe lift a few weights. The question that remains is what are you eating? Jack Lalanne is the godfather of fitness and his famous quote is~ Exercise is King, nutrition is Queen, put them together and you’ve got a kingdom. Most people forget to think about the food.  Once you get your nutrition in alignment you will find that workouts come a little easier and you fit into those skinny jeans just a little faster.

Over the next 5 weeks I going to give a number of challenges to help you kick off the new year with a bang!

This week I challenge you to keep a food journal! This food journal doesn’t have to be anything fancy. I use Fitday to track my food. They have a free online version as well as a paid version. You can also just write it down on a piece of paper. Why do you need to write down what you eat? When you write down what you eat, you get an up close and personal view what you are putting into your body. This exercise will be very eye opening. Care to share your journal with me? I’ll do FREE 15 min nutrition review.

PS — Feel like you need a little more help and want to do a cleanse to detox the holidays? Let me know my client Kjerstan did and lost 7  pounds in one week! Shoot me an email for me details.

This is the time of year when many of you make “resolutions” you decide that this is the year that you will….. Now I ask you a question – WHY??? Why do you want to keep the resolution?  What is your motivation?  Why do you want to achieve that goal(s)?

Your why should be so powerful that it should keep you up at night with excitement, your why should be so motivating that it will drag your tushy out of bed on a minus 3 degree snowy morning to hit the gym to get your lift on. (more…)

You heard right we are clearing out the 2011 weight, we need to make room for the 2012 healthy life. We need to make room for the healthy person that is inside of us that we have been waiting to meet!

The time is now we only have a few weeks to make it happen. If this was the year you were going to loose weight, fit into those skinny jeans or look hot for the holidays in the little black dress. Your time is NOW. Join me in my year-end fat clearance. My client Kjerstan did this and loss 7 pounds in the first week!!!

I am doing a 30 day cleanse.  I’d love for you to join me. My goals for this cleanse are really simple jump start my 2012 fitness goals.

This isn’t your traditional starve yourself or drink a crazy combination of maple syrup and cayenne pepper. We aren’t going to dance around our backyards with a chicken and rabbit’s foot during a full moon. We are going to infuse our bodies with quality nutrients that ensure optimum health leading to safe weight loss.  During this cleanse we are going to get our bodies back into balance while releasing toxins and impurities that have accumulated in each of our bodies over time.

Why you should join me on this year end clearance? You’ll:

• jump start your 2012 resolutions and actually meet them
• increase your energy levels
• experience reduced cravings
• accelerate healthy weight loss
• improved digestion
• sleep better

I will be with you every step of the way going through the cleanse with you. When you join me on the year end fat clearance you will receive:

• step by step instructions
• daily motivational emails
• a grocery list
• unlimited support via email

Let’s get our weight loss goals off to a fast start. Join me for the year-end fat clearance. To join me on this challenge just shoot me an email and I’ll give you all the details.

The path to success is to take massive, determined action — Tony Robbins

So many people say the WANT to _______, you fill in the blank. Lose weight, build muscle, fit into their skinny jeans or the little black dress. And then you hit the wall of LACK! You know what I’m talking about, you can’t hit your goals, because you lack this, that and any other excuse you can drum. Below you will find 5 Lacks that you can turn around to make your weight loss/fitness goals a reality.

1. Motivation — you have a goal, but it doesn’t inspire you. It doesn’t cause you to take action.  Turn it around. What will inspire you to take action — is it telling someone? Is posting your goals all around the house? Is it taking your jeans up on your wall so you can see them each and every day? Whatever it is, needs to motivate you to take ACTION!!!
2. Accountability — you’ve set the goal, but you haven’t told anybody what it is, so if you don’t do it guess what it doesn’t matter because no one knows. Turn it around — TELL SOMEONE! You have no one to tell. Tell me — shoot me an email and I’ll hold you accountable. This accountability person is the person who holds your feet to fire and encourages when you get down or gives you the swift kick in the tush when you need it as well.
3. “Life” (you get busy) — these days are all “busy” running a million miles away, here is how you turn it around! Planning, planning and more planning.   Here’s how it works. Every week sit down and decide what you are going to do this week and put it in your calendar. I mean EVERYTHING — when will you prep your meals for the week, when will you workout.
4. Support — everyone around isn’t living a healthy lifestyle or will test your willpower. You can have just one can’t you? Well don’t let those crabs get you down. Turn it around by spending time with like minded folk. I know its hard to pull away from people, but its all about toward something versus remaining stagnat. To be successful at living a healthy life you need the support.
5. Results – you’ve gone down this path before and your results didn’t come as quickly as you would have hoped for. So.. you gave up, it wasn’t going to work any way, right. Wrong — most people give up right before they reach the tipping point the point at which change is about reach its boiling point.  I also want you to remember that change takes MASSIVE ACTION for MASSIVE RESULTS to be acheived. Are you ready to turn it around and take that MASSIVE ACTION.

I know that this is a total mind shift. You need to get your head moving from a place of what you lack into a place of what you don’t lack and how you can use those tools to push you toward your goals. One of the biggest ways I’ve been able to reach my goal is through the support of people, both online and offline. If you would like to brainstorm ways to turn aournd your fitness goals, shoot me an email. I’d love to hear from you.

PS — please join me for a pre-thanksgiving fast. I will be starting my 9 day cleanse on Tuesday, November 15 and breaking my fast on Thursday, November 24th Thanksgiving day. If you’d like to join me, please shoot me an email. My goal is to release 5 pounds from my body.

What I mean by that is, are you one of those people who sit around and say “Someday I will __________.” “I’ll meet my fitness goals if________________.” If I only had__________, I’d be able to_______.”

Does that sound like you? Are you waiting for someday? I have a question for you, how long have you been waiting for someday to come? Do you think it will ever come? Guess what if you don’t TAKE ACTION!! Your someday will never come in.  You won’t achieve your goals or dreams by wishing and hoping. You’ll achieve them by setting goals.

The best goals are WRITTEN. You can’t just think them or say them. You need to write down your goals and put them someplace visible. A place that you see them EACH AND EVERYDAY.

I have dry erase boards that I stick to my office door. Every morning I walk in my office and I look at my board and review my goals.  I have 4 of these dry erase boards on my door. Here is how I’ve broken down my goals.

1. My goals for 2011
2. My goals for the next 3 months
3. My goals for the next 30 days
4. My weekly goals

Every day I look at them and decide what am I going to do today and is that going to push me toward one of my goals.  My challenge to you is take 30 minutes and sit down and write out what is it that you want to achieve by the end of 2011. You have 120 days, what can you achieve so that you have more to celebrate than the end of the year and the start of the new?

If you are looking for a challenge, I encourage you to try my skinny jeans challenge.

Leave me some comments below to let me know what you plan to achieve in your 120 days.

Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan is arguably the one of the best basketball players in the world.  So you may ask yourself, what kind of problems could this guy have! Deciding who the pass the ball to, or just drive the ball to the basket himself.

If Michael Jordan had a challenge and stared them down, what are you doing about challenges.  Do you find a way around them, or do you just throw your hands up and decide that it wasn’t meant to be?

When of my favorite expressions I like to say whenever someone tells me they have a fitness challenge I say “It’s not like you’re climbing Mt. Everest in a bikini.” Most people laugh and really think their fitness challenge isn’t that huge.

Whenever I’m faced with a fitness challenge, here are a few things I do to help turn the mountain into a mole hill.

• Workout — this is my favorite, I come up with some of my best ideas this way.
• Talk it out with a friend — sometimes when you say it out loud your challenge(s) doesn’t seem that the bad.
• Break problems into smaller chunks — when you look at the problem as a whole it may seem like Mt. Everest, (sorry I have a thing about Everest) but then you sit down and break it down it, again it doesn’t seem that bad.

Tell me your fitness challenge. I’d love to help you solve it.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

It happens to each and everyone of us, we set a goal and immediately focus on the end result. We then have 2 thoughts, YES we can do it or NO this will never happen. Focusing on the end result I admit can be a little overwhelming when you start thinking about ALL that needs to be done to achieve your goal. But here is how I want you to start thinking about your goal. It works for any fitness, weight loss or life goal. Think of your goal as a cross country road trip. Picture this, you want to drive from New York to Los Angeles. Would you even think of just getting in the car and driving without a plan and God forbid rest stops? No you’d pull out the map pull up an online map and plan your journey, you’d pick your rest stops, places of interest along the way and interject some fun and celebrations along the route.

Instead of focusing on the end, break your journey into 200 feet. Pull out your map:

• What will you need to do to get to the first 200 foot mark?
• What actions do you need to take?
• What resources will you need?
• Who’s support will need?

Sit down right now and get clear about what you really want and then figure out what you need to do, to get to the 1st 200 feet.

Leave me some comments below, I would love to hear your plans.

Enjoy the journey — need any assistance, please let me know I’m hear to help.

To get the future you want, you need to let go of the past. Review your baggage and see if those old beliefs you have been holding onto are holding you back.  Take time to reflect and then say those are old beliefs and I let them go.

1. Set a deadline – nothing springs you into action like a deadline.  I recommend picking 3 dates (short roughly 6 weeks, medium roughly 12 weeks and long roughly 24 weeks). This way you’ll have something to celebrate yet keep you motivated.
2. Review past behaviors – As I said earlier, look at your past, if what you were doing wasn’t getting you to where you want to be, then you need to stop doing them. What I mean is if you want to lose weight and you are not exercising and/or watching what you eat, guess what?  You are not going to see results.

Now is the time to take your dream and put it into action.  I am hosting a Shape Up For Summer teleconference call.  I will be discussing actions you can take to flatten your belly, tone your legs, tightened your tushy and what’s the best thing to eat on a hot summer night. To attend, just register here.

In the next 30 days what actions will you take to make your dreams come true?