Tag: clean eating

Don’t let failures hold you back

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This is something that everyone should live by, and it holds great meaning for those into health and fitness as well. You are bound to slip up a few times, or even a bunch of time, and make some mistakes along your journey. That is perfectly normal, and it would actually be kind of weird if you DIDN’T make any mistakes or slip ups! Everyone has bad days sometimes where they just don’t have it in them to resist temptation. The holidays can be tough, because you’re surrounded with yummy treats. Vacations can be a menace because it is easier to grab a snack on the fly than to make a healthy meal. You don’t have to be good 100% of the time, and it is okay to splurge a little bit occasionally.

The problem with these “slip up’s” is not that you had them, it is often the way in which you think about them. For example, you have a big meal over the holidays with dessert. That is okay, it is a special occasion and everyone deserves to have what they want over the holidays. However, if you start worrying about that meal and thinking that you totally destroyed your progress, you are going to run into trouble. That is where people go wrong and start thinking “well, I already screwed myself so I might as well have more treats”, or “…so I might as well skip my workouts”. Once you get into that line of thinking, it can be hard to bounce back.

You need to stop thinking of those slip-ups as failures, and start thinking of it as a reward for all of the hard work you’ve put in thus far. It is only a failure if you choose to quit because of those slip ups, instead of using them as motivation to do better!

Click Here if you’re ready to embark on a health and fitness journey of your own!

“I’m already skinny, I don’t need to work out”

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I have heard this phrase multiple times upon inviting people to try a Beachbody program. It actually drives me crazy, because it implies that fitness and nutrition is only for people that need to lose weight. I have a little secret for anyone out there that thinks they don’t need to work out or eat healthy simply because they are “already skinny”… YOU’RE WRONG!

Fitness is NOT just about getting “skinny”. Fitness is about gaining strength, being healthy, and staying active so that you have less health risks and can be around longer for your family.You can be skinny, and still not have muscle definition. You can be skinny to the point where your bones are showing like in that first half of the image, and still not be happy with your body. I know a lot of naturally “skinny” people, and most of them have issues with their appearance just like those with extra weight. In fact, many of them go to the gym to try to CREATE the curves that they are lacking by adding muscle to their body.

In addition, just because you are “skinny” does NOT mean that you are healthy. You can be skinny, and still be putting yourself at risk for health issues by being inactive and eating junk food consistently. Being naturally small does not give you a free pass to skip out on exercising and eating healthy, because not doing those things is likely going to catch up to you at some point in your life. For example, many people have this fast metabolism when they are young and treat it as a free pass to do whatever they want. Since they passed up on the opportunity to maximize that fast metabolism and keep it working for them, they eventually lose it and their bad habits bite them in the butt when they start packing on the pounds later in their life. Do you someone that has been through this? You probably do, even if they haven’t admitted it.

It is really unfortunate that so many people seem to think that nutrition and fitness is simply for weight loss. It is so much more than that. It enhances your mood, it puts you in a better frame of mind, it gives you confidence in yourself, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Click Here if you are ready to give up the misconceptions about fitness and nutrition, and start your own journey to a healthier life.

Sick and tired of being sick and tired?

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Are you feeling tired and sluggish all of the time? Are you getting a lot of sleep, but waking up and going through your day STILL feeling exhausted? If the answer to those questions is yes, I would like you to answer these questions honestly – even if you just admit it to yourself. Are you eating a lot of junk food or unhealthy foods? Are you exercising regularly? Are you sleeping more than 8 hours a night?

I know how it feels to be tired and sluggish day in and day out, because I’ve been there. What I have learned over my own health and fitness journey is that it comes primarily from your diet and lack of exercise.  I have found that eating a lot of junk food, failing to exercise, and sleeping more than 8 hours a night actually keeps your mind a bit foggy. It is a feeling that doesn’t really go away, kind of like trying to see through cobwebs. It doesn’t completely block your view (or in this case your mental capacity), but it does keep you tired and drowsy.

I honestly didn’t even realize how bad that fog was until I started eating better, working out, and not sleeping in until noon every day. It was only then that my mind got back to running normally, without those cobwebs keeping me from being my best. Exercise depletes your energy in the short-term, but what it actually does for you long-term is way worth it. When you work out, you are actually releasing endorphins into your body that I like to think of as mood enhancers! If I am mad or upset over something, all I have to do is throw in one of my high intensity interval training or kickboxing workouts and I feel so much better by the time I’m done.

I’m only human, so I have fallen off the wagon a couple of times and gone on binges where I ate a ton of junk food – usually on holidays or vacations. What happens when I do that though is the fog starts creeping back in. I’m not a scientist or a doctor, so I can’t say with any certainty that something in the junk food is causing this to happen, but I would bet money that it is!

Another instance where I feel this fog coming back is when I sleep too much. You need to get a decent amount of rest, especially if you are exercising because that is when your body heals itself from the strain and builds muscle. However, the longer you exceed 8 hours in sleep, the higher the chances are that you’re going to wake up feeling groggy. This happens to me sometimes because I work overnight shifts here and there that really mess up my sleep schedule. I will only get 4 or 5 hours of sleep for a few nights, and I’ll let myself sleep for like 10-12 hours on a day off to make up for it. On days that I have done that I just wake up feeling worse.

My point here is that if you want to get rid of this feeling, you need to start eating healthier, exercising regularly, and only sleeping as much as you have to. Once you start losing weight and you start feeling the positive effects of the exercise, chances are you’ll come to understand what I mean.

Click Here if you’re ready to make this commitment to change your life for the better.

Post-workout treat

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It never ceases to amaze me, but I know that a lot of people actually think this way! Some people will workout and then they think that it earns them a meal from McDonalds afterwards. They will then come to me wondering why they don’t see results. Well, the answer is simple. You NEED to eat clean, and you need to exercise.

If you work out for an hour and then you go to a fast food joint for supper immediately after, you are negating all of that work you just put in. You cannot expect to lose weight by treating yourself to junk food after a workout. The biggest part of weight loss is actually your nutrition, so if you want to be successful in losing the weight you have got to start eating healthier.

Click Here if you would like access to some recipes for healthy meals and snacks.

There is NO elevator to success!

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If you want lasting success you HAVE to be willing to make changes! Sure, you can spend a ton of money on diet pills, wraps, drinks, etc. In the majority of cases, all you are doing is throwing your money away when you buy these types of things, and I know because I have been there, done that. These things may seem to work in the beginning, but chances are whatever weight you do lose, you will just gain it all back shortly after.

Like I said, I’ve been there. I used to waste a lot of money on all types of different diet and weight loss products. After a while though I realized it wasn’t working, and I needed to make a change. I started P90X, changed my eating habits, and never looked back. The funny thing about all of those weight loss products that claim to help you lose a ton of weight with little to no exercise is that they require you change your eating habits. The reps will tell you to get the best results you should eat healthy and drink a lot of water. Well, guess what? If you would just eat healthy and drink a lot of water, you would lose weight WITHOUT wasting your money on weight loss products.

Of course there will be a limit to what you can achieve without exercise, but the biggest part of the weight loss battle is actually nutrition. If you just eat the right foods and hydrate yourself frequently, you will start to lose weight with or without exercise. If you’re serious about wanting to lose the weight though, and you want it to happen as quick as possible, you need to add exercise into your routine.

Click Here if you’re ready to start taking the stairs.

Don’t let failure keep you down

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I agree with this quote 100%! As coaches we are in this business to help others be successful, not to shove our success down people’s throats. Sometimes I see people get upset or angry when they see people with fit bodies, and they say things like “well that person probably never had a weight problem to begin with”. You CANNOT make that judgment without knowing a person’s story. I know plenty of people that were really overweight, and went on to compete in fitness competitions after a TON of hard work. Do you think they let small setbacks keep them down? Definitely not.

You can’t let failures or setbacks get you down, because if you fall into that trap you won’t see the progress that you’re hoping for. Everyone has small failures here and there. We are only human, so you are bound to slip up in your diet at some point or skip out on a workout. You have to learn to forgive yourself for those mistakes and not let it keep you from moving forward. Sometimes people have a tendency to think “well I messed up, I may as well go all out”. Then they binge for the day on all of the junk they’ve been missing out on, and that cheat day can easily turn into a cheat weekend, which can turn into a cheat week, and so on.

What you need to remember is that ONE bad meal and/or missed workout is not going to make you GAIN weight, just like ONE good meal and/or workout is not going to make you LOSE weight. Don’t get upset over a setback and let a little mistake turn into a big mistake. Try to stay positive and always push yourself to be better than you were yesterday.

Click Here if you are ready to start working toward your own success story.

What will YOU choose?

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You can choose to change nothing with respect to diet and exercise, and expect no positive change in your body. OR, you can choose to make good choices with respect to diet and exercise and start seeing progress in your body, strength, and overall health!

The first week is the hardest when it comes to diet. Once you find healthy meals and snacks that you like it becomes a whole lot easier! After you’ve been eating healthy for a bit and you get all of those chemicals and processed foods out of your system, your body won’t crave the junk food as much. Instead, you’ll find yourself craving your favorite healthy snacks.

Just try to always keep in mind that the time will pass regardless, so you might as well make the best of it!

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Pre-Diet junk food binge

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Does this sound familiar?! This used to be an annual thing in our house haha, but it is no good! All this does is cause you to gain extra weight that you will have to work off during your diet and/or new fitness routine. It does not make any sense for you to eat a bunch of junk food just to get rid of it,  because it is only going to hurt you in the end.

It is better to give it to a friend or family member than to gorge on it right before you start a new diet. It may taste good, but all it is going to do is make you feel pretty crappy and gain weight. Would you rather not “waste” the money it cost you to get the junk food in the first place and deal with the consequences, or get rid of the junk food and get off to a good start with your diet? Personally, I would go for that second option.

If you gorge on junk food before a diet, you are just setting yourself up for failure. You need to change your mentality surrounding the word “diet”, because getting fit and healthy isn’t a short-term thing – it is a lifestyle change. What you need to do is find foods like mimic the meals you typically enjoy, but that are much healthier for you. You don’t have to restrict yourself 100% of the time, but you should try to aim for 80-90%. If you want something that isn’t healthy, just work it into your calorie and macro limits for the day! It is possible to live a healthy lifestyle while still occasionally enjoying junk food, you just have to want it bad enough to keep yourself from junk food on a regular basis. Instead, use it as a treat for progress at the end of the month or something.

Click Here if you would like to take the first step toward a healthier life!

Hunger VS Boredom

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This was a huge thing for me! I am a big time night snacker, and I loved snacking while I watched tv. Watching movies or shows without food just felt foreign to me. What this is though is habit and comfort, it isn’t hunger.

When you catch yourself heading for a snack, I want you to think to yourself: “Am I really hungry, or is this just habit?” If you are hungry, try drinking a big glass of water to hold you over until your next meal. Believe it or not, water can actually curb your appetite short-term. If that doesn’t work and you’re still hungry, go for some of healthy snacks! Celery is a great snack choice, especially if your goal is weight loss. If you are snacking at night, try to stay away from fruit because of the natural sugars. It is better to consume fruit earlier in your day.

Click Here if you would like to gain FREE access to information regarding health and fitness, including recipes for healthy snacks and meals!

Are fad diets any good?

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Doing super restrictive diets, like many of the fad diets out there claiming to help you lose weight fast, is not a good idea at all! Sure, you will most likely lose some weight, but chances are as soon as you go back to eating normally you will gain it all back. What you lose with fad diets is the water weight, which comes back as soon as you get back to your normal eating habits. You WILL NOT maintain that weight loss, so what is the point in picking a diet that is not sustainable long-term? What is even more important to note is that it is simply NOT HEALTHY.

Instead, find a variety of healthy foods and meals that you enjoy, and then create a new healthy lifestyle around those foods! Eating healthy doesn’t have to mean depriving yourself of junk food 100% of the time either. It is important to have a cheat meal every once in a while to not only help you stay on track, but also because it revs up your metabolism. As long as you don’t completely pig out and you eat in moderation, one cheat meal is not going to hurt you every now and then – it can actually be beneficial! If you deprive yourself entirely of things you crave for a long time, there is a higher risk of going on a binge at some point. If you plan out your cheat meal and use it as a reward for progress, you will curb those cravings for a while and help yourself continue moving forward. 

Furthermore, you can still have “cheat” meals without it entirely being a cheat. For example, when I crave junk sometimes I will have a plate of nachos made with organic nachos, salsa, and cheese. If your kryptonite is chips, try cooking some homemade popcorn and just melting a bit of real butter to put on top with some sea salt. I also like having homemade pizza every now and then, and I just measure out my toppings so that I know how many calories I am consuming and I can organize the rest of my day around it. 

You need to remember that one bad day is not going to make you gain a bunch of weight. That works both ways though, because one GOOD day is also not going to make you LOSE a bunch of weight. Results will come over time, and with effort.

Click Here if you would like to be coached by me, and added to my private Health and Fitness group.