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 . . .
What if calories didn’t exist?
Is it possible to separate calories burned from calories consumed? I know that it seems like a weird question when diet and exercise are inextricably linked. We hear it all of the time: Eat Less, Move More! Clearly we know that the calories in versus calories out equation is true (to a certain degree). So, if you eat more calories than you burn, you should gain weight; and if you burn more calories than you eat, you should lose weight. But the advice of Eat Less Move More is flawed for much of the population. Sure – it might be true for folks who are neither active, nor paying any attention to their diet. But when you’re already active and restricting calories, and plateaued, that advice doesn’t work anymore. But yet, we’ve bound eating and moving together as if one cannot exist without the other. When we overeat, we immediately Read More . . .
The solution for your #1 struggle
Overwhelmingly, the thing that I hear over and over again, is ‘Elizabeth, I want to work out (or eat healthy, or go to bed on time), but when it comes to actually doing it, I just don’t. I don’t feel like doing it.’ I can totally relate to this. In the light of day, I have the best intentions to eat vegetables all day, go for long walks, and lift heavy things, but when it comes to actually doing it, I have a hard time motivating. This time of year can be especially difficult: it’s getting darker earlier; there is so much going on, it can seem easier to just say ‘eff it! I’ll start new in January!’; it’s cold – which breeds hibernation, and starchy comfort food. Its not surprising that motivation is the thing that folks struggle with. We think that we need more information – so we go out and by books, Read More . . .
Your Future-Self Thinks Your Body is AMAZING!
I recently volunteered to host a screening for a movie about women’s body image. It started innocently enough; I heard about the movie; it sounded great! But it wasn’t being shown in general theaters. The only way to see it was if someone volunteered to host a screening. I hopped on to the web to see if it was showing anywhere locally, and it was, but it was a bit of a drive – which was a bummer. I didn’t want to do it. So I got all mopey for about 2 minutes, until I decided that I could host a screening! I knew enough women around town who were interested in their health – why couldn’t I do it?!? The movie Embrace is great! It covers a huge breadth of topics that all influence women’s body image – and the media, societal, and other messages that we receive about Read More . . .
The Gift I’m Giving Myself for the Holidays
It wasn’t long after Gary & I got married that we started questioning the tradition of gift giving for the holidays. Because we don’t live close to our families, it was difficult to stay up do date on what everyone was into, and notice what they needed. When you’re physically around someone frequently, you notice what things are getting worn, or if a gadget or subscription to a service would make their lives easier. But we really didn’t have that since we live over 2000 miles away from our nearest relative. So, unless we were able to pick up through a conversation that Dad needed a new drill, or visiting that Mom’s bake wear was really in need of an upgrade, we – like many others – would ask for a list. And since our families visited us less frequently, they’d ask us for a list too. The problem that Read More . . .
4 Surefire Strategies to Not Gain Weight During the Holidays
We are now full blown into the holiday season. OMG! I can’t count the number of Black Friday sales emails I’ve gotten! And it’s interesting. Isn’t it? Because every year, I say, ‘Not me. Nope. I’m not going to overeat, or drink too much alcohol. I’ll get enough sleep, and keep to my workout schedule. I’m not going to succumb to the holiday season weight gain.’ And yet, every year, I find my kitchen teeming with holiday goodies (which is totally weird since I don’t really bake), rich winter foods, and wine. Lots of wine. And when food is around and available to you, you eat it. It’s just a fact. I know I’m not alone in this. I’ve heard from so many of you that, like me, you’ve had this same mindset in previous years too – the holidays aren’t going to get me. And yet they do. So, Read More . . .
You’re Invited: Embrace – A movie about body image
Body image – we don’t really like to talk about it, and yet, we all feel like crap about ours. The beauty, fashion, and fitness industries count on the message that we aren’t good enough without this product that they are trying to sell us. Over the course of the past few years, there’s been a rise in the body image movement. Proponents of this movement state that no matter what your size, you should be happy with your body. You shouldn’t hide or live in shame if you don’t identify with the narrow definition that are portrayed in the images we see, that really only represent a small percentage of women – what color we are, shape and size. Opponents of the body acceptance movement fear that if we are happy with our body, then that means that I won’t be driven to be healthy, eat nutritious food, or exercise. Somehow, they attest Read More . . .
Are plateaus your body’s braking system?
Losing weight is hard. But keeping it off seems to be even more difficult. When I started my weight loss journey, I was resolved to not become one of the statistics of folks who would regain their lost weight back. I had decided that I couldn’t afford to regain my lost weight. It was going to stick. That doesn’t mean that the road to my success was linear. I certainly had set backs, I did a lot of stupid things (and learned from them – you can read ALLLL about them here In the 7 Mistakes I made during my weight loss journey & the fixes to prevent you from doing the same). I emptied my wallet to buy supplements; I scoured every magazine to find my magic bullet (there isn’t any). I was tenacious. And for about 10 years, it was what I was singularly focused on – my weight. It really Read More . . .
6 Basic Movement Patterns
We all have exercises that we like, and therefore do a lot; and there are exercises that we dislike, and don’t do, unless we’re forced. I have them too. We tend to gravitate towards those bodyparts that we enjoy training, and steer clear from those that we don’t. The problem with doing the same exercises over and over again (and not doing others ever) is that you risk injury. When one group of muscles is significantly stronger than another group, you will move differently than if your muscles are balanced in strength. Strong muscles pull on other muscles in the body, and weaker muscles stretch out. An example of that might be if you have weak lower back, the stronger muscles in the glutes and hamstrings will pull on your lower back muscles. That could pull your pelvis out of alignment, and cause pain not only in your lower back, but also Read More . . .
Eat the Freakin Banana
So, here’s the scene: It’s after dinner, and you want something. A banana. But you don’t eat it. Because you heard that it’s got a lot of starch in it. And sugar. And they can also have a lot of calories! And all of that is bad to have before you go to bed. So you eat a handful of almonds. Because even though they can be higher in calories, at least they don’t have any starch or sugar. And that’s good because you’ve heard that at least it won’t raise your blood sugar before bed. But the almonds don’t really hit the spot. So you find some fat free Greek yogurt. And you put a touch of honey in it to sweeten it a little. But that’s okay because you read that you should always eat carbohydrates with protein – because protein slows down the spike in blood sugar. And Read More . . .