Fitting Healthy Meals into Your Busy Schedule

A common excuse I hear for people not sticking to healthy eating is lack of time. Since your health should be one of your top priorities (besides looking out for yourself, you can't take care of your family if you are in poor health!), it's important to find ways to eat nutritious meals.

Food can fuel your body in a  positive way—giving you energy and helping to fight off disease & inflammation, amongst other good things.  It can also make you feel sluggish, bloated, give you diabetes & clog up your arteries, amongst other very bad things.

Hopefully you're convinced now that you & your family should be eating healthy meals. But, you might be struggling with how to manage your busy schedule and find time to grocery shop, prepare and cook meals for one person, much less a family.

Here are a few ways to help:

1) Block off time at the beginning of the week—maybe Sunday evening—when you prepare ingredients & maybe even whole meals for the week.

• Chop vegetables & save in baggies/tupperware.
• Cook large portions of food that you can use over a few days.
• Grilled chicken is a great example of something you can cook in advance & use in multiple recipes (throw in salads & wraps; have as an entree with a side of veggies).
• I make a large serving bowl of quinoa with vegetables and eat it over the week (you can throw meat into it if you like). It couldn't be easier to make.

2) To save even more time, you can buy some things already chopped, mixed & cooked (I'm not talking about a pre-made foods or frozen dinners that have lots of preservatives! Stick to whole, healthy, unpreserved foods.) You'll pay extra for it, but it'll save you time, so you might decide it's worth it:

• Pre-cooked grilled chicken
• Pre-mixed greens (Trader Joe's has a great one called Cruciferous Crunch Collection. They also have some great prepared salads that aren't too expensive & last a couple of days in the frig.)
• Pre-chopped vegetables
• Cut-up fruit

3) Use a crock pot. Throw a bunch of ingredients in it in the morning; come home at night & your dinner is ready!

4) Shakeology—my favorite, easiest, healthiest meal. For those of you already drinking it, you've experienced its many benefits, but at the very least, it only takes about two minutes to prepare.

Use these ideas to help you do something great for yourself & your family—eat well! You deserve it!

Enjoy the Summer Without Packing on the Pounds

In some ways it's easy to eat "clean" in the summer—there is an abundance of fruits and vegetables available and grilling is a quick and healthy way to prepare meat and fish.

In other ways, summer poses a big challenge in terms of eating well. There are a lot of parties, happy hours, ball games, water parks, and pool & beach clubs that don't offer a lot of (if any) healthy food options. Instead, they serve a lot of junk & fried food, along with a lot of sugary and alcoholic drinks.

I know after last weekend, I was feeling a few pounds heavier & the summer has just begun. It's easy to get caught up in all-day grazing (& possibly drinking) while you're hanging out at the pool or beach. Before this gets too out of hand, be conscious of it & plan ahead.

If you're eating well all week, you are entitled to a "cheat meal". The problem is, many of us find ourselves in the predicament of being in these situations multiple times a week. I've been hearing this a lot and being asked what to do. So, here are some suggestions:

1) Eat before you go. Eat a healthy meal that fills you up & you'll be less likely to dive into the cheese fries & fried dough as soon as you get wherever you're going.

2) Bring your own food. I realize a lot of these situations are day outings, where a healthy breakfast before you go won't satisfy you for the entire day. In these situations, bring what you can. 

• If you're going to the beach, you can bring food for the day. Pack healthy wraps or pre-packed salads for lunch and fruit & veggies to snack on. 
• If you're going to a party, look for some healthy options (veggies) to fill up a little bit before you head over to the wings. Better yet- bring a healthy dish that you enjoy. If your hosts aren't serving anything healthy, at least you'll have what you brought.
• If you're going to a ball game or water park, you'll have a bigger challenge. You can bring some small snacks (nuts, Kind bar, apple) in your bag. 

3) In cases where you are stuck without your own food:

• Look for a salad. It might not be great, but usually there is some version of a salad available. Choose a vinaigrette dressing if you can.
• Salvage the good stuff. Look for something that contains grilled chicken & eat that with any lettuce or tomato that you can get with it.  Scrape off heavy sauces, cheeses & ditch the accompanying fries (telling them to serve it to you without that stuff is the best option, so it's not tempting you).  If chicken's not an option, do the same with a burger—ditch the bun & fries.
• See if you can find frozen yogurt. While this is more of a desert, it's better than most of the food options at those places.
• Pretzels are probably the best snack option at most of those places: either a big, soft, ball park one with mustard, or pre-packed hard ones.

4) Drink lots of water! Besides helping to keep you hydrated, flushing toxins & boosting your immune system, water increases your metabolism, helps build & repair muscles, and makes you feel full.

5) Stay active! While controlling what you consume is the most important part of controlling your weight, staying active will burn calories. AND, time spent playing tennis, riding your bike,  swimming, etc, will keep you away from those tempting foods & drinks for a while.

Summertime fun may be a challenge to your healthy lifestyle, but YOU CAN ENJOY IT without packing on the pounds! Start these habits now and continue them throughout the year :)

It's Hot! Stay Hydrated!

This week the tri-state area experienced temperatures in the 90s and humidity that makes it hard to breathe. Without even looking at the calendar, we know that summer has finally arrived.  But, after the horrible winter we had, even with the oppressive heat, we're outdoors. We swore during those snowy days that we wouldn't complain about the heat—if it would just get here! So, now we're running, biking, hiking, playing beach volleyball & soccer in the blistering sun. 

It feels great to be outdoors and active, but we need to make sure we stay hydrated. I can't stress this enough. I'm constantly telling my clients to drink water and they respond that they don't need it. Well, guess what? You do need water! All day long! And, you need to drink more water when you are working out. And, you need to drink even more water when it's hot out.

A good measure for how much water you should normally be drinking is half your bodyweight in ounces. So, if you weigh 150 lbs, you should be drinking 75 oz of water a day. Sound like a lot? We need it! Water is essential to almost all bodily functions. It helps digestion and metabolic function, hydrates brain cells, eliminates toxins, provides elasticity to muscles & joints, and regulates body temperature, amongst other things.

When you're working out in the in heat, you need to consume even more water. And, don't wait until you're thirsty! By the time you're feeling parched, you're on your way to becoming dehydrated. 

You should start drinking water before you exercise—17-20 oz 2 hours prior to exercise, then another 8 oz 30 min before your workout. You should continue to drink 8 oz every 15 minutes during exercise and for 30 min afterwards.

If your workout lasts one hour or less, water is sufficient for hydration. For longer bouts of exercise, you can have a sports drink or coconut water.

Fruits are another way to hydrate. Berries and melons have as much as 80% water content. So, enjoy the fruits of summer!

Alcohol, on the other hand, is not another good way to hydrate. It is a diuretic, taking water from the body. So, if you're enjoying a few beers during or after your activity of choice, make sure you are also drinking water!

You get the point. Enjoy the summer. Get outside. Be active. Stay hydrated.

Crazy Things Happen

20 years ago, if you had offered me a million dollar bet that I would wind up living down the Jersey shore, working as a Personal Trainer, and owning a dog, I would have taken it. I would have told you that you were crazy. I would have bet against any one of those things.

And, I would have wound up owing you a lot of money.

I had a vision of what I would be and what I wouldn't be. That vision, like a goal, helped me focus on what I wanted to achieve, but also closed me off to a lot of things.

Goals and focus are important—they are necessary to reach the highest levels of success. But, it's also  important to realize that your goals may change. And, that's ok. It doesn't necessarily mean you failed because you didn't achieve the original goal. It means your priorities changed.

Keeping yourself open to possibilities allows you to experience more things. It also allows you to achieve more things.

I see this with training a lot - people are closed to possibilities of what they can do. Someone watches a video on YouTube or see someone at the gym doing something she thinks is really impressive and she'll never be able to do. I either tell her she already does a version of it, she can do it, or she will be able to do it. She replies, "No way", or tells me I'm crazy.

This is what I LOVE: I have her do it, or a modified version of it. And, I tell her to be impressed with herself.

Keep yourself open to all the possibilities out there, even if they seem crazy. Crazy things happen. And, they can be awesome :)

#possibilitiesareendless #youneverknow #neversaynever

Measuring Progress

Sometimes, even when you've been diligent about adhering to a workout program and healthy diet, the number on the scale doesn't move. It's very frustrating, especially when you feel like you've lost weight.

Ever happen to you? You probably lost fat and gained muscle, which is exactly what you want to do! Don't be discouraged! 

Fat takes up more space than muscle, so while the scale may not reflect your progress, you will be slimmer if you replace fat with muscle.

Put your scale in a closet. Or, in your attic. Or, in the garbage! 

Use the following ways to measure your progress instead of your scale:

1.         Your clothes. How do your jeans fit? How about that snug sweater? If they're looser than they were when you started working out, you've made progress! Your clothes are a great way to measure your progress.

2.         Body measurements. Have someone measure around your shoulders, chest, waist, hips, thigh, calf, biceps when you start your exercise program. Have that same person take the measurements again in a month. 

3.         Energy levels. How do you feel? Hopefully, you have more energy than when you started working out. Daily activities will become easier and you should have energy to do new things. (*If you feel exhausted, you may be over-training—make sure you give yourself recovery time.)

4.          Emotions. Looking and feeling better should make you feel happier and more confident :)

Forget about the numbers. Stick with clean eating and your exercise program. Concentrate on how you 
feel. Celebrate and enjoy your progress!

Fat Loss vs Weight Loss

When I ask people what their fitness goals are, their response almost always includes losing a number of pounds.

When we talk about wanting to lose weight, what we want to focus on is losing fat. And, we actually want to gain muscle. Muscle is what creates that "toned" or "ripped" look.  And, muscle burns calories—even when you're not working out! One pound of lean muscle burns approximately 50 calories a day.

If you just restrict your calories and don't exercise, the number on the scale may go down, but you'll wind up losing muscle, which will slow your metabolism. This will most likely cause you to not only put the weight you lost back on, but to gain even more.

Combining a regular and efficient exercise program with a healthy diet that provides the food and nutrients your body needs to fuel your muscles will initiate fat loss and increase your metabolism.

It's Not Too Late!

I got an email today from someone who said he's leaving for Hawaii tomorrow and wishes he had contacted me to help him get in shape before he'll be strolling the beaches. 

Well, it's too late for him to have the beach body he'd like for Hawaii, but it's not too late for him (& you) to make progress—fitness-related or otherwise—before the summer! 

Memorial Day Weekend is 10 weeks away. For those of us that have been affected by the bitter cold and frequent snow this winter, 10 weeks seems far off. But, as we know, time flies. Summer will be here before we know it. Why not use these next 10 weeks to make progress towards a goal?

Picture yourself 10 weeks from now. You'll probably have some plans for the holiday weekend. Maybe you'll be going down the shore; maybe you'll be going to a party, or multiple parties; maybe you'll be hosting people at your house. You'll probably be with other people—family, friends, neighbors, co-workers—some of whom you haven't seen in a while or spent time talking to.

Think about catching up with people over that weekend. What would you like to be able to talk about? A trip you just took? Renovations to your house? A course you completed? A race you just ran? How you lost 15 pounds? Some books you read?

The next 10 weeks may fly by, but it's enough time to accomplish some small and big things. Spend some time this weekend thinking about what you'd like to achieve. Next, figure out what steps you need to take to get it done. Then, start working on it!

Finally, look forward to Memorial Day weekend, when you'll be celebrating not only the un-official start to summer, but also your achievement(s)! :)