The 2 MOST powerful words you can say to yourself

Running seems easy enough. I suppose that’s why so many people do it. All you need is yourself, and a good pair of shoes. But running is hard. Like – really hard. Especially for beginners. I mean, it LOOKS like it’s just fast walking, but after about 5 minutes of this ‘fast walking’, your heart is pounding so hard it feels like it’s going to come out of your chest, and your legs feel like they’re tree trunks, and your brain is asking, is this what dying is like? I think if you were to ask folks, how do I start running, most would say, “you just start running.” And then, they’d think to themselves, “uh – duh!” But that’s not entirely true. You actually can’t just start running at the pace that you want to keep for the entire duration of your run – whether it’s 15 minutes or Read More . . .

Hummus 101

My Friend, Anthony Chalas and I got together to make hummus. I know what you’re asking yourself: Why would I need to know how to make hummus when I can just go buy it? Here’s why: 1) to flavor it as you prefer (make it spicy, add roasted red peppers, more or less garlic) 2) to control the ingredients – on a diet? hummus is great, but can have a lot of fat in it. (yes – it’s good fat, but its still fat) 3) to reduce preservatives in your diet 4) because La Sirena – Puerto Morelos might be closed & you’re really really wanting hummus! … and I’m sure there’s more. Watch the video to learn about how to make hummus, and how to get supple cells! Read More . . .

6 Best Practices For Good Sleep when you Travel

We all know that we feel better when we get good sleep, but yet, sometimes it seems like folks get into a competition for bragging rights to see how little sleep they can get and still function. The thing is that there’s so much that we don’t know about sleep; for example, why we do it. We know that we process information and learn while we sleep, and that our cells regenerate. But when we think about early man, and how much it made him vulnerable to predators, it’s not logical to think that we shut down for 1/3 of our life. Just like amounts of calories, how much alone time we need, or whether we like cilantro, everyone’s ideal amount of sleep differs. Some folks do great on 6 hours, while others need a solid 8. And there are times in our life when we might need more – Read More . . .

3 Tips for Staying Fit When You’re On the Road

For folks who love traveling, or who travel for their job, it’s one of the downfalls that goes along with the luxury of going to wonderful new places: traveling is disruptive to even the best intentioned person, when it comes to their health. I recall when I started my first job where I would be traveling 100% of my time; I knew that business travelers often gained weight. I was already bigger than I felt comfortable with, and didn’t want to gain more. I was young – in my late 20’s. I had never exercised before in my life and my diet was sh*t. I knew my diet was bad. I loved bloomin’ onions, burgers, fries, and beer. I knew that I should be eating more vegetables, but I didn’t know how to do that – so I did it the only way I knew how – I became a Read More . . .

Sangria!

What makes a good sangria? Do you know? Should you use sweet wine? Cheap wine? Expensive wine? What about the fruit? Sweet? Acidic? Crunchy? I know! So many questions. Join Total Health by Elizabeth and Dona Sonia & Chef Marco as they show how to  make the perfect sangria. A few things discussed in the video: What type of wine you should use (red or white) What type of fruit will work best Will your Sangria ‘keep’ if you save leftover for tomorrow? Want more tasty cocktail recipes just like this one? Click here for over 10 more fantastic cocktail recipes. Read More . . .

How to clean and disinfect fruits and veggies in Mexico

Join me and Dona Sonia & Chef Marco as they show us how to make sure that we stay safe and healthy while visiting or living in Mexico. Covered in this video: Why you want to wash your fruits and vegetables even if you live in the US & Canada Pros & Cons to the different methods: Microdyn, vinegar, bleach Organic vs Conventional produce The Clean 15 The Dirty Dozen If you like what you’re reading, join my friends list and get access to my best stuff. Stuff that’s even better than this! I know. Can you believe that there’s more? If you’re not on the list, sign up HERE to get more tips, tools, and ideas delivered weekly to your inbox. You’ll learn how to change your relationship with food, your body, and realize that what you eat doesn’t determine whether or not you are a good/bad person. And you don’t Read More . . .

Cellulite: What is it? How do you get rid of it?

Highlights: EVERY woman has cellulite. Let me repeat that: EVERY WOMAN has cellulite. Cellulite is fat pushing through a connective tissue ‘net’ that lies just below the skin to create that dimpled effect. The ONLY way to reduce the appearance of cellulite, is to reduce body fat (which, unfortunately, you can’t target a certain area. It has to be done all over) Interested in more truth-telling? I send email to my subscribers once a week (not too much!) with other great information just like this. If you’re tired of the BS that women’s magazines promote, sign up here. Read More . . .

Want to Up Your Guacamole Game?

Dona Sonia & Chef Marco joined me in my kitchen to share their guacamole recipe with us! Some of the things we talked about in this video are: how to pick a good avocado, which avocados are best, and how to cut them without hurting yourself. how to cut onions without crying how to cut cilantro how to seed and cut a jalapeno without the spiciness of the pepper sticking to your fingers Here’s the recipe for the homemade tortilla chips. Read More . . .

Why you’re not Losing Belly Fat

It seems to happen without our even noticing it. Seemingly all of a sudden one day, your pants seem a little bit more snug around the waist although not in the hips and thighs. Huh. I wonder why? So, you set out to lose that belly fat: go low carb, and wake up earlier so that you can dedicate more time at the end of your workout for ab exercises. Running! That’ll do it! Move more & eat less! But it doesn’t seem to be working. Nothing you do seems to be working! As we age, the calories in versus calories out approach doesn’t work like it used to. Gone are the days of just working a little harder at the gym to drop a few lbs.  Here are the top reasons why you might be having trouble getting that belly fat to budge. You’re getting older This is especially Read More . . .

5 Ways I Make It Easier to Get Up for Early Morning Workouts

I didn’t start out being an early morning exerciser. I started out going to the gym after work, fighting for equipment in an over-crowded gym with tons of other folks. But once I made the switch to early morning workouts, I’ve never looked back. Although there’s no ‘best’ time to exercise – you should do it whenever it works for you – there are some distinct advantages of exercising first thing in the morning: It’s done & over with – you don’t have to think about it again. Nothing gets in the way of working out in the morning – no last minute meetings, drinks with friends,  or traffic. The gym isn’t typically crowded, so you don’t have to fight for the use of equipment or space.   I made the switch when I started volunteering for a women’s shelter, and committed myself to going through training after work. Once Read More . . .

Why crowdsourcing for health doesn’t work

I LOOOOOOOVE what I do. I love talking to folks about their health. The more I learn about it, I think the body is an amazing organism, and the way it works is brilliant. The body’s primary goal is to keep us alive. So, it will do everything that it needs to do to preserve our life. Sometimes it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, or is counteractive to what we want (like losing body fat. We want to look good, but the body sees that fat as storing energy for some famine-day when it might need it!), but most everything it does, it does to preserve our life. A few weekends ago, I was talking to a woman I had just met about her health. She was complaining that over the past few months, she’d gained almost 30 lbs! She was frustrated – and understandably! I don’t Read More . . .

How to use a life change to become healthier

Every once in a while, something happens in your life that will help you make the changes that you want to make your life healthier. In her book, Better than Before, Gretchen Ruben outlines how we can rely on the power of habits, and how those habits can help us to either make our lives healthier or not. Habits can be complex, or they can be pretty simple. But regardless, they can be broken down in to three distinct parts: the Cue, Routine, and Reward. Here’s an example of a very simple habit that I have: Every week night, my husband and I watch television on the couch after dinner. About a half hour after we’re sitting there, I get a craving for something sweet. Although I used to eat dark chocolate, I’d sometimes eat more than I intended. So, I switched to something more portion controlled – a protein bar. Read More . . .

Should I Use Machines or Free Weights?

Walk in to any fitness center, and you’ll see lots of machines taking up space – from treadmills, bikes and ellipticals to weight machines that seem to be medieval torture devices, seemingly working every muscle in the body. What do all of them do? Do you need all of those machines? If walking into a gym with lots of machines is intimidating enough,walking into a gym without any machines is even more so! What do you do with all that stuff? All you see are free weights, and maybe some bars, ropes, boxes, and other, different looking, torture devices. Is one better than the other? Will machines get you better results? Or will free weights? As with everything related to your health, the answer is, “It depends”. It depends on where you are in your fitness journey: your physical abilities and what you know about exercising. Pros & Cons of Read More . . .

How to Roast Spaghetti Squash

Ever since I discovered spaghetti squash, regular pasta has little to no appeal to me. For me, plain pasta noodles don’t really taste like anything, and really are just a vehicle to deliver the good stuff: pasta sauce, cheese, and meat. I created this video because I think that seeing a spaghetti squash in the grocery store is pretty intimidating: How do you cook it? for how long? You can’t really screw this up unless you severely over cook it, or under cook it (but if you under cook it, you can just stick it in the microwave, and you’re good. General Directions: Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Carefully cut the squash in half, lengthwise. With a spoon or ice cream scoop, scoop out the seeds and other slimy muck. Place squash halves face down on a cookie sheet. Add water to the cookie sheet in the video I Read More . . .

Two tricks I use to avoid the “eff-its” over the weekend

We all work so hard during the week. And once Friday night rolls around, we just want to put on our sweatpants, sit on the couch, and be a vegetable – not eat vegetables. We are worn down from all the adulting that we do during the week, that all we want to do on the weekend is NOT be responsible. Weekends tend to be a bit more relaxed. We typically have more time, so we want to sleep in, hang out with friends, have fun & not have to think about our diet. Well, unless you have kiddos who are in soccer, baseball, basketball, go to birthday parties, and other activities. In that case, weekends aren’t such a relaxing time O.o When we finally get through the week, we feel like we deserve a treat – and one of those treats is to not think about it. So, there are a Read More . . .

The Messy Middle

Who’s sick of their fitness routine? This is statistically the part of starting a fitness routine where you’re ready to throw in the towel. Maybe you slept in, maybe you got invited to happy hour & decided that you’d go to the gym after, but didn’t because, um, margaritas (true story!)… It’s all normal! Totally normal. This is just the messy middle. That frustrating period of time when you can’t see the end goal to save your life and everything feels overwhelming. Everything in life has a messy middle. Everything. In the beginning, working out and experimenting with new healthy recipes is fun. “We’re going to get a six pack and my a** is going to look amazing in my jeans and we can totally live on salads sprinkled with lemon juice and this will be so awesome!” In the end, working out and eating well is REALLY fun! “Yawn, Read More . . .

How to Comeback After an Injury

“Youth is Wasted on the Young” – George Bernard Shaw When I was in my 30’s, I was strong. I would work out with heavy weight, my strength training schedule was carefully planned and followed, and about every 12 weeks, I would dutifully take a week off from training, to give my body a break, and ensure that I wasn’t over-training. After the self-imposed week off from training, I would pick right back up where I left off, and move on with the rest of my training schedule. Then, something ‘magical’ happened: I turned 40. Everything changed. After I turned 40, if I took a week off for a vacation, or just because my body needed a break, Oh. My. GOD! The Soreness! For Days! See, beginner exercisers wonder when the soreness is going to get easier. And the answer to that is: if you’re consistent, your body should get Read More . . .

4 Ways to Reboot your Resolution

One of the biggest complaints I get from my clients is that they lack motivation and accountability when it comes to consistently working out and eating healthier. And I have to tell you, it’s tough. With so many demands on our time and attention, carving out a little time for ourselves seems to be an ever increasing battle, and sometimes, all we want to do is drink a glass of wine & veg out. But before we delve into how to get on board with being motivated to do whatever it is that you’re wanting to be more consistent with, Its important to ask the question, “Do you really want to do this?” And a few variations… Do you really want to do this? If you don’t have the passion for wanting to eat well, or exercise regularly, you’re not going to do it. And if you don’t really believe that Read More . . .

Letting Go

I have always been a control freak. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always tried to manipulate the situation so that it would turn out as I had expected it to. Looking back, its a bit embarrassing thinking about how I strong-armed my in a few situations. One example I recall was when I first moved to Austin, Texas, and my dad came to visit me. There’s a restaurant near us that serves amazing tex-mex food. One of their specialties is Chicken Fried Steak. So, for anyone who is unfamiliar with what Chicken Fried Steak is, it’s a steak that has been breaded & deep-fried – like you would do to fried chicken – and then covered in cream gravy. I hadn’t had it. It was waay too unhealthy for me to even try. But everyone raved about how good it was. And because everyone else liked it, Read More . . .