Working Out Your WillPower

We are faced with battling our willpower everyday. As soon as the alarm goes off, you are faced with many choices of will. Do you hit the snooze alarm, do you skip choosing a quick sugar filled breakfast for something healthy, do you skip the double mocha latte with whip and go for the plain coffee, Do you finish following through this major task for work or jump on facebook, and Do you choose to get a chicken salad hold the dressing or get that Turkey club complete with bacon! The list goes on! All day we are battling our will just to make better choices, ones that should be moving us towards our goals, keep us healthy, as well as form to what should be the best decision according to society standards. Does it make you cranky? Sure can! It’s exhausting at times to constantly be fighting temptation. Over and over again, it surely can start to chip away at your willpower and before you know it, BOOM; you’ve given in by allowing your priorities to crash and good choices fly out the window!

 

But great news is that research as proven that willpower works just like a muscle! Overtrain/work your willpower just like a muscle, it falls into fatigue. But, on the opposite scope of it all, it can be strengthened making you more productive and happier with your choices and results. Below are some habits you can use to help create strength in your willpower and not allow yourself to hit that wall.

1) Write it Down!– Keep a journal that you can keep daily notes and tracking on how you perform or scheduled your day. Whether it’s for weight loss and keeping track of your daily meal plan and exercise to following through on business building techniques for your business. This is a way to track back. So if in times where you start to fall short or hit a wall, you can track back to when things were good and progressing.

2) Don’t Procrastinate! – When you procrastinate on a task or get anxious, research has shown we tend to give into an urge to improve our moods by doing something else. One suggested book to read is Eat That Frog, by Brian Tracy. Suck it up, and get the hardest most daunting task done first!

3) Be on the OFFENSE team! – Many people are successful at making good choices and not constantly battling their will because they put themselves in situations where temptation isn’t even a choice. If you can proactively arrange your day and your life to avoid problems or bad choices in temptation, you will have a much smoother day with sticking to your plan in action. If you are trying to lose weight, plan your meals for the day and don’t fall into the lunchtime crew heading out to the all you can eat buffet! If you are working on habitual for jumping back and forth between email, twitter, and facebook to avoid a work assignment, close those programs or shut the computer down if possible! People who are proactive avoid risk. Just like taking your car in for check up and maintenance.

4) Pick your Battles! – You can’t control every situation or every temptation in front of you. It’s easy to fall into a trap where everything just goes to “pot” because you are stressed out with too many situations, obligations, and tasks! Choose your timing! If you are just starting a new job, trying to lose weight, and trying to quit smoking, maybe lighten up on how strict your efforts are while you take on such a major change in your life. Keep that forward progress but maybe put the breaks or slow down on the pace.

5) Reward yourself often! – People love incentives. Your reward doesn’t always have to be like a kid in a candy store. Making good choices on your rewards can be as simple as doing something you normal don’t have the chance to do, like a massage or pedicure. Or even schedule a babysitter so you can go out for a couple hours and do anything you want. It can even be having a day or meal where you take in some of the most desired treats you have been cutting back.

Success in your goals and achievements is planned. It’s a plan laid out like a blue print. You can’t build a house, unless you have a blue print. Work on creating habits that won’t leave you agitated and fighting with yourself every day. Find a way where it’s reasonable, takes maybe a different pace than you initially wanted, but will lay out a plan for success.

5 Unhealthy Diet Foods that Can Make You Gain Weight

Eating healthy and finally deciding to take charge of your health and fitness is a great step in achieving the fountain of youth and quality of life!  It’s a fact! People who are fitter and healthier are happier!  A quality diet is essential for good health, but as s novice jumping into this so-called healthy food world, you can easily be fooled. Just jumping into the world of “diet” food conjures up feelings and thoughts of negativity.  My mother use to think that whenever she had to drop some pounds, she would have to eat grapefruit, cottage cheese, and lettuce for all of her meals.  Doing is surely a way to set yourself up for failure in the long run.  That’s not a normal daily diet, and is a quick temporary fix.

Be careful about the so-called diet healthy food.  Companies know how to fool their consumers with just a play on words. Check out some of the common words that easily fools someone into reaching for this so-called healthier version:

• Fat Free
• Reduced Fat
• Low Fat
• Sugar Free
• No Added Sugar
• Diet

We easily can believe that these foods in this category are healthier and the version we should choose, right?  This is an easy mistake to make.

Typically, those words cover up the real story of what is hidden: Full of Sugar, Chemicals, High Carbs, High glycemic index….I could go on!

Think about candy.  Isn’t sugary candy like starbursts, lollypops, jellybeans etc fat free? Why yes! But it’s loaded with artificial ingredients and sugar!

Check out some of the so-called diet good for you items that we so easily get wrapped up in using:

1) Diet Soda – Fewer calories and sugar yes, but research has shown that dieters actually gain weight when drinking this for long periods of time.

2) Smoothies – If you can blend it, it must be good for you, right? Wrong! How many calories are in that smoothie? Sometimes you choose items to add that have high levels of sugar, fat, and calories. It all adds up!

3) Pre-Packaged Frozen Diet meals – Easy for you to heat and eat, but loaded with sodium! These types of foods need artificial preservatives, that’s why they are in long term freezer storage!

4) Yogurt!  Most common choice of yogurt is loaded with calories, sugar, and fruit!

5) Popcorn!  – What? Popcorn is in the category?  Most often times people pop the 3 or more serving bags, and then eat it all! They are loaded with calories, sodium, and preservatives. Stay clear.

General rule of thumb is to choose fresh foods with limited processing.  If you stay simple with your food choices, you will get greater healthier results. Stick to lean meats cooked grilled, baked, or broiled. Fresh vegetables and fruits. And always remember to keep an eye on serving and portion sizes.

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How to Fit in Working Out When You are TOO BUSY?

Fact- You are NOT too busy, you just haven’t scheduled in the time to work out or you haven’t made it a priority in your life. It’s just an excuse, and first thing you have to do, is admit that you are making excuses. I think nowadays, we can all have an argument on who is busier than whom, correct?
I have had many directions and obstacles in my life that could easily be used as an excuse as to why I wasn’t working out. I used to travel nationally/internationally. Flying all day, working all day in an unknown environment, eating out every day; easy recipe to just go back to the hotel and watch tv.
I have had 2 babies, both via c-section all while working 2 full time jobs, 1 managing and developing 60 fitness professionals for a major fitness company and the other was starting up my home business JC Dwyer, Inc where I’m working in creating a monster downline and achievement in the Team Beachbody home business. I was also scheduling and presenting trainings on weekends (3rd job) and so much more! Was that an excuse, could be, but wasn’t.

I’m going to be honest, I personally don’t LOVE working out all the time. I’ll be VERY honest. If it wasn’t for me teaching group exercise, working for fitness celebrity Chalene Johnson, and being a fitness and health coach with the Team Beachbody business, I probably wouldn’t think to work out as much.
But even if those things aren’t your goals or even have the opportunity to do that, you don’t have to believe that’s what you have to do, to do it. You may just need to find the reason for accountability. Because, that is one of mine.

Recently, I moved from upstate Rochester NY to outside of Dallas TX. Family of 4, driving 2 separate vehicles, 1500 miles. My 2 toddlers always wanted to ride in mommies car, which I loved =). But moving across country, away from the state you have always known, the life you developed, comforts of home- is stressful and exhausting.
I didn’t schedule in working out. Left it up to it would only be a couple days, I’ll get back into it. But the struggles of waiting to get into your new home, closing, getting the your stuff moved in from the truck, putting it away can easily be an excuse to not fit in exercise. I did just that! Didn’t schedule it and left it up to how I felt that day and if I had time to work out.
I’m now faced with no classes to teach for group exercise! That was an EASY way for me to have it on schedule, I had to teach other people! It’s up in my hands now.

After 1 week of packing up, traveling across country, unpacking some, I finally scheduled a work out.
It felt horrible! I wanted to quit so many times, but I had to follow through and just do it, because it’s that important.

Bring on the TURBO!

So the moral of this is, schedule it! Life is busy! You can easily let it take over you! If you work for someone else, work from home, or don’t even have a job, your day can easily escape you and get filled with errands and other people’s requests.
Each day, start with these tips to ensure you fit in exercise:

1) Get your work out gear ready the night before!
2) Make your To-Do list which includes your work out
3) Put it on your actual calendar- schedule the EXACT time you will work out!
4) Set an alarm reminder for 30 mins before your scheduled time
5) If you are overwhelmed with things to do when your work out time hits, and you HAVE to do them, change up the length and intensity of your work out to be faster and more intense.

The things you do for other people, the business you build, the meals you make, the errands you run are temporary. How you feel about how you look, your energy level, and your overall positive feeling that you did something for yourself is the fountain of youth. That is longevity, so make it a priority.

How to plan your meals for weightloss

If you’re thinking about losing a few pounds, there are a few ingredients you need to ensure your success. Of course you need to have an exercise program scheduled in your week, complete with resistance, stretching, and cardio training. BUT, I’d like to focus mostly on how to organize and plan what you should be eating throughout the day to make those strides towards your goals in weight loss.

If you are like me on the days you haven’t planned what you will eat, you may be likely to either skip eating or grab a bunch of empty calorie foods or a boat load of pretzels. Planning and being prepared is key.

One of my tricks is to stay as consistent in what I eat from each day. Now if you are a person that likes creativity and variety, then I suggest you plan out a couple of days and then just rotate around them until you get in the habit of knowing how to pair up the foods you eat and the portion sizes. But for me, creature of habit. I’m pretty much good with the same thing everyday.

General rule of thumb is to choose foods you actually like to eat, and yes, healthy foods. Additionally, my suggestions below may not fit exactly in your dietary guidelines, and always suggest checking with your doctor.

But in general, you need to eat carbs, protein, and fats. Your life is not living a lifestyle if you omit a food group so you can quickly lose weight. I am not a fan of the no carb diets. Your body needs carbs as well as good fats. I’m a mom of 2 toddlers, married, running my own home business, as well as working professionally in the fitness world. I don’t have a lot of time to “think” about what I want to eat. These are my general guidelines:

1. Find out how many calories you should be eating for your body type, weight, and goals (maintenance & weight loss) On average- decrease by 500 calories from maintenance to lose 1 lb per week.
2. Once you know what your caloric goal for the entire day should be, divide up those calories into 5-6 meals. Then just choose serving sizes and foods each time you eat to fit that caloric range.
   1. If I’m on a 1800 calorie diet and eat 6 meals a day, then each time I eat- I’ll eat about 300 calories each meal.
3. Always choose protein, carbs, and sometimes fats.
   1. Suggest eating 1-2 times a day of good fat. (Avocado, Olive Oil, Peanut Butter, Almonds.)
4. Eat your starchy whole grain carbs in your first meals and switch to the fibrous carbs in the afternoon for the later meals.
   1. Starchy Whole Grain- Oatmeal, Whole Grain breads (be sure it doesn’t say enriched wheat)
   2. Fibrous Carbs- Vegetables are best choices (green) limit too many fruits.
5. Be sure to always eat every 2 1/2 – 3 hours. Fuel your metabolism!

The quality of the food you choose will be your focus as well. When selecting your protein sources, be sure to choose lean meats prepared broiled, baked, or grilled. The more processing to the meat, the higher chance it’s not a good food choice. Also, you want to stay clear of deli meats. Those have a lot of preservatives and are not the best choice of meats to choose from. Only select that option if you are in need of something quick.

I personally supplement my meals as well so I’m not always “preparing”. I personally use meal replacement bars like Kashi but additionally everyday, I at least have 1 or 2 Shakeology shakes.

I know I’m getting the delivery of all my fruits and vegetables, probiotics, prebiotics, daily vitamins, and many rare ingredients I just couldn’t possible eat or fit in my day. It’s easier sometimes to just have a quick shake as well so your body is processing food. I personally chose to be a rep with this company because of this product, but I would suggest it no matter. If you want to know more about it or try a sample for taste, let me know.

Your main goal is to have your body run like a fire. Keep throwing small pieces of wood on it to keep the fire burning! Rather than 1 big load, which will extinguish your fire (metabolism) If you feed your body small mini meals, the fire of your metabolism starts working for you and increases caloric burn.

Also, don’t be so hard on yourself! Allow for moments of sweet tooth fulfillment!. Just jump back on your schedule. The more strict you are in your diet for too long of a time, the higher the chance you will go off on a binge and throw it out the window. So schedule in those days of indulgence. Maybe exercise a bit more that day or cut back the calories in the day leading and following. Be flexible, and know this is a lifestyle. We’re human, and as long as you keep working to see what works best for your lifestyle and to see that improvement, you will get there.

What about Liquid Calories?!?!

It’s that time of year that I get asked a lot – what are the best choices to enjoy a cocktail with friends at the summer parties, barbeques and get-togethers? Skip them, right? Right! Ok, well it may be easy for some, but for those who would like to enjoy an occasional drink, it’s important to make the best choice.

Most of us know the rules to help us get healthy, stay healthy and maintain our weight. We fill our plate with mostly vegetables, then lean proteins, drink plenty of water and exercise regularly. So what should one do when they’re doing all that, but then the occasional party or festivity comes up, or you want to relax after a long day with a cocktail to keep our calories in check? Be smart and plan ahead. Know your liquid calorie count – ‘cause yeah, they count whether they’re in liquid form or not! And like everything else, moderation is key!

So what’s the best choice as far as calories are concerned?

Generally, a 5-oz. serving of typical white wine contains about 110 calories, while the red versions are slightly higher at about 120 calories. A 5-oz. glass of champagne also has 120 calories. One way to ‘stretch’ your glass of wine is to add some zero calorie club soda or fresh fruit to your glass.

A regular 12 ounce bottle of beer will cost you about 150 calories or you can opt for the ‘light’ versions, that will save your around 35 calories. Just be careful when its served in a glass bigger than 12 ounces to account for the extra calories there as well.

Ok, but what about these fruity, fun cocktails? Yikes. Most of them are drowning in sugar and have as many calories as a meal. A tiny little margarita is usually 500 calories for 4 ounces! So make your own! Use healthy, lower sugar juices like pomegranate, cranberry or green tea, or there are plenty of places that you can order mixers that are sugar free and lower in calories.

If you choose not to indulge in the occasional cocktail, then you have no worries; just keep your water bottle full! But if you do have one, be smart, plan ahead, and make it through the party or festivity without blowing your hard work with liquid calories. Happy Summer to ya! ;0}

If your Weight loss has plateaued, could it be because…

…You are eating the exact same amount of food/calories everyday!

Generally speaking, weight loss is all about taking in less calories than you expend.  However, when you get close to your target weight, a calorie cycling diet plan can be beneficial.

A calorie cycling diet is all about switching things up so that your body stays in a fat burning state.

The theory behind a calorie cycling diet is that you eat a lower number of calories on certain days and a higher number of calories on other days.  There’s many different ways to do this.

ONE WAY

Use the 3 day rule.  On every 3rd day, adjust your calories to be a couple hundred more.  You can then adjust this to alternating every 3rd timeframe to be more one time and less the other

AROUND YOUR EXERCISE

Cycle lower on your calories on days you won’t be exercising hard or at all.

2 WEEK PLATEAU

If your weight has stayed the same for at least 3 days- no changes whatsoever, and you have been PERFECT- eat a free for all meal- this is just ONE MEAL—ONE SITTING!  Not taking food home, having more later etc etc. What you can eat at your one meal- choose GOOD FOODS but quantity and calories watching goes out the window on this meal.

If you have a lot of weight to lose, just focus on limiting calories and doing intense exercise.  If you’ve gotten the full benefits of those methods and are still looking to trim some fat, why not try the above mentioned calorie cycling options.

HOW MANY CALORIES SHOULD YOU EAT DAILY?

There are different ways to calculate how many calories someone should take in, especially when it comes to men and women.  This is a general guideline to follow. Some of the caloric equations out there do not factor in your normal resting metabolic rate (RMR).

A simple rule to follow, is a male burns 1 calorie per kilogram per hour and a female burns 0.9 calorie per kilogram per hour.

EXAMPLE: 140 lb female – change lbs to kilograms (140LBS = 63.5Kg) then use this formula to find the RMR. 63.5 kilograms x 0.9 x 24 = 1,372 calories

However, athletes need more calories for two reasons,

1) they burn a lot more calories and 2) they have more muscle. So it’s important to add on 50% to your RMR to account for simple daily activities such as walking, working, and making dinner.

EXAMPLE CONTINUES: 1,372 x 50% = 686

Add 1,372 + 686 = 2,058

Active people usually burn an extra 250-1000 calories a day.

Depending on your goals, you’ll have to subtract or add to your final number. If you want FAT LOSS, you’ll want to create a deficit of 500-800 calories a day.  You can do this with a combined effort in calorie intake reduction and exercise/training.  This would create a weekly deficit of around 3,500 to 5,600 calories.  As you may already know, it takes a reduction of 3,500 calories to lose one pound.

HIghly recommend weight training. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you will burn at rest.

Resource: Oxygen Magazine, Oct 08