Fat Tuesday Challenge- Changing Your Life for the Next 46 Days

Fat Tuesday is notorious for gluttonous eating, drinking and sometimes hedonistic behavior, but also serves as a reflective time for many who are looking at changing a behavior and letting  go of certain things for an allotted time. It’s a last chance to let go, unwind and unload for some, but a reflective time for others who are honestly looking to make a change in their lives and let go of some not so healthy behaviors.

I figured this was the perfect time to offer up a challenge! Fat Tuesday is the precursor to Ash Wednesday, which is 46 days away from Easter Sunday. The day of going back to whatever it is you decided to give up for 46 days. I believe it is the perfect amount of time (a little over 6 weeks)  to change a habit, let go of poor attitude and behavior and make a positive change in your life.

By the end of this challenge my goal is to see that all of you have made positive steps in taking better care of your health and fitness and that you just plain see, feel and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Are you up for it? Of course, you are!!

I am a firm believer in health AND fitness and know that it takes more than physical action to make a person healthy. So, to represent all of you I’ve created a challenge in the five categories that I know represent everyone in the categories of health and total wellness.

Pick one or more of the following “Fat Tuesday Challenges” or create your own. In either case, you must commit to making this behavior change for the next 46 days:

1. CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH- walk or do something that gets your heart to pump above its normal level at least 30 minutes 5-6 days per week. Cardiovascular health not only makes the ticker a stronger pump, but also assists with burning extra calories and will contribute to weight loss by the end of the 46 days. Especially, if you are not an already active person.

2. STRENGTH CONDITIONING- perform a strength conditioning workout that fatigues all your major muscle groups withing 30-60 seconds,  3 days per week on non-consecutive days. Muscle is very active tissue, and is responsible for more than 25% of our calorie use while we sleep. The more we have, the more we burn at rest. It’s a VERY good thing. Don’t be afraid of heavy weights and/or strength training (women, I’m talking to you).  It’s the secret to staying lean!!!!!

3. EMBRACE YOUR STRETCHINESS- practice yoga and/or stretch out all your major muscle groups at least 2-3 days per week. This is the forgotten element in many of the aging fitness enthusiasts and contributes to many of their common issues such as low back pain, shoulder and neck tightness. Maintaining normal, healthy range of motion in your joints is only enhanced by being a regular stretcher!

4. TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR EATING- for once and for all..please listen to me here. You can sabotage every intention by not eating enough, or eating too much. The body is a scale and needs to be balanced! Good intake supports good effort. Visit dietgrader.com and get your optimal nutrition and stop the habit of poor nutrition.

5. MIND/BODY AWARENESS- just like poor nutrition, a poor attitude can influence everything you do when it comes to taking care of yourself. Take the opportunity to write down your thoughts on a daily basis and let go of the negative, flip your thoughts (make the negative a positive) and enjoy every moment. Journal your thoughts daily and let go of everything that makes you feel or act negatively. Honestly this is one of the key factors to changing your behavior!

My hope is that by the end of this 46 day challenge, you are a new person who appreciates their health, fitness, mind, body and understands that being healthy takes more than being physically active. Do you embrace all 5 of the categories to health and wellness?

You should! If you don’t then take the 46 day challenge. After all, we can all use a little improvement when it comes to taking care of ourselves.

Amy

PS- I will be joining you many of you in this challenge and will be sorting my thoughts out on the FIT Launch, Facebook, Fan page…beginning tomorrow, look for weekly posts on my own Fat Tuesday Challenge.

PPS- Become a fan of FIT Launch on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Everett-WA/FIT-Launch/86524801158?v=app_4619579915&ref=ts copy and paste this really, long address

Spot Reduction- The Three Secrets to Losing that Body Fat

Image via Wikipedia

Looking for the best way to get rid of your saddle bags, muffin top and flabby arms?  I’ve got it for you right here, right now. The three things you must know in order to get the body of your dreams. The best part is there is no need to perform 8 minutes of a singular exercise to make it happen.

Better yet, you don’t have to purchase some obnoxious piece of equipment that inevitably ends up collecting a pile of dust bunnies under your bed. More good news- you don’t even need to spend a dime on diet foods, powders, potions, pills or fatten Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers wallets anymore.

Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? Well, it’s the truth- it happens everyday to people with healthy, strong and aesthetically pleasing bodies. They know the 3 secrets to spot reduction and how to keep body fat at bay. Are you ready to soak them in, too?

Take a deep breath, get ready, here we go:

1. Move your ass- get off the couch and take a walk, go jogging, ride your bike and do something most days of the week that gets your ticker ticking at a level that screams exercise to you. Lift heavy things that work all your muscle groups a few times a week to make them stronger, which will torch more calories. Hire a trainer to help you put together a proper program for your current fitness level, or join a fitness boot camp or exercise camp that provides you with accountability and support to exercise. Exercise = weight loss, DUH!

1. Shut your mouth- put down the fork and leave the seconds to the rapidly growing teenage athletes in your home who need those extra calories. Eating proper portions of the right foods not only provides your body with critical vitamins, minerals and nutrients, but also keeps your body weight in balance because it supports your energy needs. Too much food (no matter what it is) leads to weight gain. By making simple adjustments in your daily food intake you can lose body fat weight and see those rippling muscles you’ve worked so hard to get (see number 1).  Less food = less ___________ (insert whatever loving name you have for your body part here)

1. Stop making excuses- we all have them, just like other body parts. The difference between those who have body fat issues and those who don’t is simple. Priority! Behavior change is inevitable if you are trying to lose body fat weight; you simply can’t continue doing what you are doing and you simply can’t keep making excuses for it either. Losing weight is a psychological process that takes time and energy on many levels, but it has to be done to spot reduce any appendage on the body. Excuses = no results, so STOP it!

Basically, I’m repackaging the same information I’ve been yelling from the top of my soap box for years. There is no magic way to make things disappear off of your body unless you would like to enlist the help of a plastic surgeon. Weight will come off gradually from all parts of your body that are carrying extra weight. We all have genetic potential to carry extra weight in certain places (thanks mom and dad), plus the aging process tends to shift things south and give the skin a less than plump appearance.

As a matter of fact, the majority of what my personal clients call “fat” is actually extra skin from losing weight after childbirth, or aging skin that’s lost elasticity. Sorry, no exercise will change that. However, exercise can change the appearance and give a little lift if the muscle underneath said skin is underused and no longer developed. Remember that butt muscle you used to have when you played sports? Maybe now it is a softer, flatter version of itself. I can fix that!

Most of you have heard of one or more of the three secrets to spot reduction. So the question now is what secret(s) do you need to put into play to give you the action figure body you want? I’ve got the answers: contact me to schedule a personal training appointment or sign up for a camp, go to http://www.dietgrader.com and sign up for a free week of nutrition enlightenment and get those portions and nutrients in balance. Oh yeah, almost forgot, please flush your excuses down the toilet with the rest of your crap. Excuses have no place in your spot reduction journey.

Lightheartedly- Amy

Serve It Up!

One of the hardest things I believe as a fitness professional is teaching my clients about proper nutrition habits.  After all, it accounts for at least half of your success rate when it comes to losing weight, plus by making just a few changes in your dietary habits you can see quick results.  Better yet, combine a few nutritional strategies along with a proper fitness program built just for you and voila- even better results.

So how about starting with getting to know a proper serving size?  Did you know that the average pasta serving in a restaurant is close to (gulp) 6 servings?  Yikes, or that the Vitamin waters and other sports drinks I see many a client drinking down contain 2.5 servings.  Double the yikes on that one!

It is so important that consumers get used to reading the food labels and understand what one portion is supposed to be, and even more important know what an average serving size of common food groups are.  Here is a list you can use to serve up your next meal or snack:

ONE SERVING	LOOKS LIKE
1 cup cereal flakes	Fist
1 pancake	Compact disc
½ cup cooked rice or pasta	½ baseball
¼ cup raisins	Large egg
1 baked potato	Fist
1 cup salad greens	Baseball
½ cup fresh fruit	½ baseball
1 ½ ounces of cheese	4 stacked dice (one cheese stick)
1 teaspoon of butter	1 dice
3 ounces of meat, fish, poultry	Deck of cards
3 ounces of cooked fish	Checkbook
2 tablespoons of peanut butter	Table tennis ball

 

*Source IDEA Fitness Journal, June 2008