Six Steps to Curbing your Carb Cravings

It's no shocker we eat a lot of sugar in this country.  According to the American Heart Association, the average four to eight-year-old eats 21 teaspoons of sugar a day, but they should only eat three to four teaspoons.  The average adult eats about the same amount, 22 tsp., which is also about 5 times the limit amount of added sugar recommended for adult men and women.  I doubt any of us adults actually thinks that the sugar we consume is good for us, and yet we do little to manage our intake- particularly during times of stress. In Julia Ross's book, The Diet Cure, she writes, "many clients have told me that they got hooked the very first time they got a high from ice cream, sodas, or cookies.  Personally, I think of refined sugar as a drug.  When white sugar was first introduced to Europe int he 16th century, it was kept under lock and key, because of its potency.  It was worth its weight in silver and they even called it "Crack"!  Just because sugar is legal, cheap, and easily available doesn't mean that it isn't destructive."

The author goes on to say that "if you eat sweets a lot...you will exhaust your adrenals eventually.  This is true if you diet a lot too, because your blood glucose is always low when you diet.  Dieting is a big strain on the adrenals.  There is no greater strain that impending death, which is what the adrenals perceive starvation dieting to be.  But Any extreme or prolonged stress will overtax them. "

So how do we combat our desire to eat sweets, especially when we can't complete avoid stress and we are constantly bombarded with opportunities to eat sugar?

1) Manage your stress as best as you can with communication and scheduling:  When we talk about our problems that can't eat us up inside- so we won't use food to stuff our emotions down.  When we schedule our lives, we have less stress in the first place and can anticipate our needs.

2) Stop dieting:  Eating a lower calorie diet may seem like a good idea in the first place, but we can only survive on fewer calories if we are getting a TON of nutritional density out of the calories we eat.  Most of us need to eat at least 1200-2000 calories a day minimum to meet our daily needs.  Anything less puts our body into a starvation setting and increases our desire for quick sugary carbs.

3) Eat a protein or a fiber with your carbs:  Eating a protein or a high fiber food (like veggies or whole grain brown rice) slows down the rate of the sugar absorption so we don't have such a big surge in insulin release to handle the processing of the high sugar intake.  When we absorb the energy we eat more slowly we are less likely to have large swings in our blood sugar- we stay more stable, and therefore have less cravings.  Ideally you should be getting 30-35 grams of fiber a day.  Use a supplement if you needed...we love UltraFiber Plus.

4) Add these 2 amino acids to your day: Adding two 500 mg capsules or L-Glutamine three times a day between meals improves your brain chemistry by balancing out the energy the brain needs.  Taking 50-100mg or less of 5HTP 2-3 times a day increases our natural serotonin levels so we feel more emotional stability and self-confidence.

5) Get your sleep:  Carbohydrates and sugar are purely an energy source, like the gas you put in your car.  When you are low on energy, you crave more quick fuel...like sugar and carbs.  Boost your energy by getting your Zzzz's.

6) Remove the tempting food from  your environment: If it isn't there to eat, you won't be able to eat it.  Pack your kitchen full of veggies, fruits, and lean meats instead.  When a craving comes along, do your best to eat a little protein and wait about 10 minutes.  The amino acids in the protein should help the craving subside.  This trick works especially well for those of you who feel you cannot remove all tempting foods because of kids in the house.

You may not have to give up all your sugar...just do your best to cut back at every opportunity you can!

Heating Up Your Workouts When the Weather Turns Cold

OK.  The easy answer here is to simply tell you to bundle up, tough it out, get outside and do what you always do.  Which is a great suggestion.  However, here's a few ways to kick it up a notch:

1. Find some hills or (even a mountain) and walk or jog up as fast as  you can.  Stop every 10 minutes to take some pictures of the beautiful snow.  Or...drag your sled along and enjoy the ride back down!
2. Revive your playlist.  Nothing gets a person going more than a good ol' beat.  Here's a great top 50 song list from 2011.
3. Try something new.  Your body has to work harder to try something it has never done.  Find a new class, pull out that dusty workout video, find some great short workouts on YouTube, or perhaps test out some of your kids stuff in the garage!
4. Use big movements that combine upper and lower body:  When you perform and activity with both your upper and your lower body, one that we call "complex" it increases the demand on both your muscular and cardiovascular system.  Things like a squat to an overhead press or a Lunge with a Bicep curl are great choice.
5. Insert Power or Plyometric exercises into your circuit:  Moving with high speed and force- especially when you have to get the weight of your body off the ground, requires a ton of energy and w ill get your heart  pumping and your muscles burning!  We love squat jumps, lump jumps, and bounding up the stairs!
6. Turn up the sex appeal.  This one may be a little out there for some of you- but rather than thinking of your workout as a way to stay slim, think of it as a way to help you feel more sexy.  Dance a little, shake that booty, sing in the mirror, belly dance- heck...try a little pole dancing.  You aren't on candid camera, so let it loose!

Most importantly , get your body up and do it.  It's easy to use a snow day as an excuse- but why not reframe the cold temps as the perfect reason to turn up the heat on your exercise routine!

Rolling with the bumps in the road to health

I recently attended a business meeting with the Crankset group, and this analogy was brought up to explain the best way to look at our path to greatness in life.  Too often we give up or get disappointed because we don't see the clear road ahead and we feel like all we do is come up against challenges rather than success.  We think our journey to success should be a straight upward line of accomplishments. What's interesting is that if we think about it realistically, every successful undertaking looks more like a winding mountain stream than a straight flat road.  Imagine the drop of water that starts at the peak which has to create a path around rocks, tree stumps, cliffs, mud, ponds, hills, and valleys.  Although it is headed downhill, and will end up in the ocean just like the rest of the water from the top, it has it's own journey to take to get there.  What we have to assume is that although the road may have bumps and hurdles, if we focus on our purpose and passion and set our life on a course based on strong values that we prioritize, we will make our way to our own ocean of success.  Health may not always be a given, but we do have a choice to decide how we will live in the given moment.  Will you choose to find the way to an optimistic attitude, to gather a great support system, and allow yourself to be pushed while giving yourself grace or will you shut down and stay put in your pain?

The choice is yours.

Take courage and get help.  Find confidence in knowing you will find what you need when you ask.  Be willing to connect and share your story.  After all, road trips are always more fun with a friend.

Is snacking really that good for you?

I read an interesting post this week about a mom who has had it with constantly being asked to bring snacks for her kids' every event.  While it's true we typically advocate snacking, it made me wonder if it really is appropriate for everyone out there.  This lady writer had a point.  We never had the vending machines and food on every corner like we do today- and I distinctly remember my parents telling me not to eat too much in the afternoon or I would spoil my dinner. So I took a look into the research and found only 2 studied reasons that would have us closing our lips to those scrumptious snacks:

First, a recent study examined the impact of a snack consumed after a standard lunch but before the subjects became hungry. The researchers fed subjects a snack (400 kcal) at various times after a 1300-kcal lunch when they were not hungry. The snack neither reduced the amount of food consumed at the dinner meal nor increased the time before the subjects requested their dinner meal.  Therefore, snacking when you are aren't hungry may only add to your total caloric consumption without adequately changing our total daily input in the end.

Second, it would appear that we are less likely to need the smaller more frequent meals when we eat a lower glycemic loaded meal than a higher one.  A high glycemic meal would be anything that causes a sharp rise in insulin, so things like refined carbohydrates and sugar.  IN other words, when we make better choices with our meals by eating foods high in fiber, healthy fat, and protein, we automatically reduce our need for snacks because our body takes longer to digest these foods, and therefore doesn't need the frequent snacking to keep up it's metabolism.

That said, there are so many studies supporting the use of snacking for so many beneficial reasons, it seems ridiculous not to have a snack or 2 a day as long as you are aware of your total intake over the course of the day and adjust your portions accordingly.  Here's some of the many studied benefits to snacking a couple times a day:

• Weight maintenance: One study used NHANES data to determine associations between snacking frequency and overweight/abdominal obesity. The study found inverse relationships between snacking frequency and mean body weight, BMI, the percentile of BMI-for-age, and waist circumference among participating adolescents. In this same study, prevalence for over-weight/obesity and the occurrence of abdominal obesity decreased as snacking frequency and energy consumed from snacks increased.
• Weight Loss: Hunger is more intense before meals than before snacks. The satiety ratio was quantified and found to be higher for snacks than meals.
• Sustained energy: Eating a morning snack can help offset the effect of a small breakfast (although getting a big breakfast is preferred!)
• Improves diet quality: When we aren't starving we make better choices.
• Helps manage Diabetes
• Assists in raising healthy eaters
• Prevents pre-term deliveries in pregnancy

Overall the verdict is still out, but more often than not, eating small snacks is a good choice.  Especially when that choice includes veggies, fruits, and healthy fats.

Here's a list of 100 healthy snacks under 100 calories to get you packing those yummy snacks!

The secret to simplicity

Isn't it ridiculous that in this day and age when we have countless things to make our life simpler, we are found pulling our hair out at how complicated things have become?  There's always another app to download, another blog to read (thanks for reading this one!), another friend's facebook post to comment on, another book to read, another workout or recipe to try.  With the accessibility of so many resources and information, it's wonder we ever get anything done! What's missing is our ability to live simply.  It's just too darn easy to let life pile up and to try to do it all.  Our church has put out a challenge over the past couple of years to simplify with the goal in mind that we get back to what matters most:authentic relationships, both with ourselves, God and others.  Here's a peek at our Commit to Simplify action items.  See if you can find one this week to commit to and start to make changes.  Even if it means reaching out (and getting vulnerable) to get some help to make it happen:

1. Commit to making a real budget (You earn money, so spend it in ways that matter)
2. Commit to de-cluttering your life (Your mind, home, car, relationships, time...)
3. Commit to taking a time inventory (168 hrs/week.  Are you spending them wisely?)
4. Commit to nature (get out- find ways to be in nature daily)
5. Commit to developing a habit of giving things away (consider those in need and how you can help)
6. Commit to enjoying things without owning them (find freedom in the simple things- less is more)
7. Commit to the environment and God's creation (reduce, reuse, recycle every opportunity you get)
8. Commit to practicing delayed gratification (no impulse buying. is it needed? is there money?)
9. Commit to a spiritual time with God each day. (slow down enough to pray, worship, consider God)
10. Commit to increasing your compassion for others.  (find ways to serve those who have less)

If you are anything like me, meals are something that you have to plan in order to simplify your life, rather than scrambling at the last minute to figure out what's for dinner.  In order to meal plan consistently you have to be realistic about how much time you are willing to give to meal prep.  Many families choose to cook for a day and freeze bigger entree's for the month, others rely on providers like Back to Basics Kitchen in west Lafayette to have meals on hand without having to do much prep at all.  Whatever your solution, you must get into a routine, or it will never happen!

Get ideas for meal planning and cook ahead recipes: Once a Month Mom Once a month cooking world Real food for real people Free printable grocery lists Relish: Weekly menu plans

How to convince yourself to workout...and love it

My mom was here today watching my 5 month old twins (thank God for mom's) and she was on the fence about going to workout.  She had a couple legitimate excuses, 1) she had an allergy flare up and her nose was dripping, 2) it's nearly impossible to leave my two little angels...because they are so darn cute.  In the end, she ended up going to workout with the words "well I guess we will just see how it goes".  Not exactly the words of enthusiasm her workout crazed child would prefer, but the fact of the matter is that she DID go workout.  She didn't let her excuses get in the way of her intention. If you find yourself needing a little nudge to get your workout going and would be thrilled to love doing it- here's my 5 step how to guide:

1) Set your intentions.  If you know why you are going to workout, and you do it for a higher purpose (my mom is planning on staying 49 forever so she can live it up as long as possible), then you will be more likely to stick to it.

2) Tell someone else what you plan to do.  When you go public with your intentions you will be much more likely to follow through, because, lets face it, it's easier to let ourselves down than to let others down or to let them think with aren't keeping up.

3) Put on your workout clothes and commit to 10 minutes.  Even if you are feeling like working out is the last thing you want to do, if you simply get started, your energy will likely change, and after 10 minutes you will find you can easily do another 10 or 20.

4) Get a clear feeling or picture of how you will feel when the workout is over.  Or better yet, how awful it feels to skip the workout when your head hits the pillow at night.  It's amazing how doing something for yourself that is hard to do will lift your spirits and empower you to do even more when the workout is over.  I call this dropping your body baggage, or letting go of the negative feelings you have when you beat yourself up for not doing enough.  You won't have to even go there if you just get started!

5) If all else fails to commit to what you had planned, do something else.  Get creative.  Do a few runs up and down your stairs, pop out a few push-ups, read a magazine article while you do your plank, play your favorite dance tune and get jiggy with it...whatever it takes to just do something that makes you feel alive through movement.

Ultimately moving your body will release endorphins that will help you feel the love of the moment.  Don't believe me?  Watch a runner after a race who has reached a runners high, or a dancer after she or he as expressed themselves with their movement.  Don't worry about how long, how intense, or how precise your workout is...just move, and love yourself thought it.

Sidelining negative emotions with one technique

This past week I have pondered the question of whether it is possible to think yourself out an emotional response. This is important to me as I examine my reaction to so many different things in my life, but specifically to how I react to stress. I tent to get anxious, overwhelmed, fearful and then completely disabled when stress mounts. After a chat with my pastor, he suggested I take a look at Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as a means to change my self-talk and create a different response to my habitual negative one. I have been introduced to this type of therapy through the WellCoaches training I am taking right now, but when I thought about it on a more personal level, it occurred to me that this therapy could be used to help people overcome negative habits of any kind. Relationship expert, Dr Alice Boyes, Psychologist suggests we list our negative thoughts or reactions and when they come up again we replace the thought for ourselves with a third person. It would look something like this.. Rather that hearing "You are a failure", you would replace the statement with an observation..."Oh there goes Susie again, she things I am a failure, but I know I am (replace with whatever positive truth you would like)." In this way we take out the emotion and allow ourselves to replace it with a thought is more rational and purposeful.

Another approach to derail the automatic emotional response is to immediately begin to "distract" the pattern by walking through a familiar process that brings you peace. For example, let's say you hear yourself thinking about how you feel disgusted with your late night eating and you start to berate yourself for having no will power. The moment you hear that, say to yourself "My emotions are lying to me", and then start to walk yourself through a process of something you love. Imagine every detail of the process. For me, I like to think about putting on my running shoes and going starting a run. I have to think through every step of opening up the laces, getting on my sock, sliding my foot in, tightening up each level, tying the bow and then the double knot...and so on. Once you get about half-way into the process, you will likely notice your emotional response has waned, and you can begin to think differently or react more rationally to your situation.

This may not work every time, but with practice, it can help get you started with changing you negative emotions so you can be empowered to create positive change!

Bach Ache Relief Trouble Shooting Guide

Estimates vary, but approximately 60% to 80% of us will get at least mild back pain at some time in our lives.  The pain can range from a little achiness to severe pain from a fracture of the vertebra or a herniation of the disc between your vertebra that can cause radiating nerve pain known as sciatica.  In any case, prevention is the best medicine, but if you are in need, here's our guide to reducing your back pain: 1) Stretch.  This one seems obvious, but it is ridiculous how many people neglect simply stretching to be sure they aren't putting undue stress on their back. Here's some favorites:

Chest Stretches

Neck Stretches

Shoulder Stretches

Lower back Stretches

2) Strengthen your back: My three absolute favorite exercises for this are the prone cobra, bird dogs, and the more advanced movement-a deadlift.

3) Strengthen your core: Here's a top 5 video of core stabilizers that would be a great start. (notice the bird dog is repeated here!)

4) Floss your nerves.  Sounds strange, but our nerves live within a sheath...sort of like a hose that holds water.  The nerve can glide within the sheath to allow for the movements our body makes.  When we injure a nerve or potentially have an adhesion due to injury or muscle tightness, we can trap or irritate the nerve which causes pain.  Here's a video assist with flossing the nerve that causes sciatica, and here is a video that addresses pain that could be coming from your hip flexors- Femoral nerve flossing.

5) Massage your knots.  Outside of hiring a massage therapist, consider purchasing a TheraCane or simply use a foam roller!

Of course, if you have pain that is persistent or extreme, or if any of these exercises make you worse, see your physician for further evaluation.

Four Lessons to Succeed like an Olympian

Olympic hopefuls don't get to the games on accident.  Ride their wave of success with these four lessons: 1) “Discipline is remembering what you want” – David Campbell

Remember what you want: Too many times we talk ourselves out of things or allow the lull of the day to day to pull us away from working diligently toward what we really want. Figure out what you really want and don’t let the negative or your own laziness bring you down. Staying focused is one of the hardest things we can do in our age of distraction, busy-ness, and technology.

2) “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” - Edith Wharton

Surround yourself with winners: If you find it hard to stay focused on the positive, do everything you can to find others who can support you and who will remind you daily of why you are doing the tedious work to reach your goal. There are so many new ways to get involved, try MeetUp.com, join a local team, get training with a class, or find a buddy or coach to work with you. Give yourself a pep talk, watch an inspiring movie, or read an I-can-do-it quote or book. Even if it means you have to find a whole new group of friends or spend a little less time with family, it is worth it in the long run.

3) “Whatever happens, take responsibility.” -Tony Robbins

Take responsibility for your success or failure: Life can throw you curveballs, and I won’t even mention all the lemons we can be dealt. Our circumstances won’t always align to give us the perfect scenario for success, but by taking responsibility for our lives will always put us back in the driver seat and give us perspective to keep going.

4) “Practice is the best of all instructors” -Publilius Syrus

Learn who you are by applying yourself. The repetition of practice proves our character, helps build resilience, and will give us competitive fierceness beyond any other life lessons. We learn who we really are when the going gets tough, and we choose to get back up again!

So, here's the four questions you must ask yourself to apply what the Olympic mindset to your own life:

• What do you want?
• Who can you surround yourself with that wants it too?
• What successes and failures do you need to take more responsibility for?
• How can you applying yourself more regularly to access your greater potential?

Remember, “Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them — a desire, a dream, a vision.” ~Muhammad Ali

What's a Strategic Health Plan?

When I say "strategic" things like accounting, business development, or college planning come to mind.  What doesn't come to mind is when I will work out, what I will do, and for how long will I commit to the workout.  Still, most of us plan our vacations better than we plan the day to day things that could have more meaning and add more fun to our daily existence.  Too often we drudge our way from one to do item to the next without stepping back and really thinking  about what will make our lives more exciting and meaningful.  We regress into a state of just getting by and letting life happen.  Unfortunately, entropy will only ensure that if we allow ourselves to constantly go with the flow, our health may just flow right out the window. Never in my life have I had to engage in so much planning to get anything done.  That includes my workouts, or even just a quick stroll with my 4 month old twins.  Last Friday I had the liberty of rejoining the morning Fitness Fire classes that we offer at Restoration Fitness.  All I could think the whole time I was there was, I feel so incredibly privileged to get to workout out, and OMG, am I gonna be sore!  It felt incredible to be back in a high energy atmosphere working out with people I love.  I was motivated, inspired, and energized.  I was also sore for 6 straight days.   It would be easy for me to complain about the soreness, the time it took, how out of shape I feel, how I would rather have had more sleep, but to tell you the truth- it doesn't even occur to me.  I showed up anxious to finally get to do something for MY body.  The hard part is committing to do it again and again when a schedule constantly changes and my energy ebbs and flows.

It just so happens I also just finished reading an exceptional business book by Chuck Blakeman about strategic planning.  It got me thinking-  What if we all strategically planned our workouts so they actually got done and we could really look forward to them?  One of the reasons I believe in fitness coaching and training so much is that it helps you do just that...just like a financial planner helps you with your financial assets, we help you with you health assets.

So, in a nutshell, I thought I would give you a little tutorial about how to strategically plan your workouts based on how we do things here:

1) Get a clear picture of WHY you are doing this.  You won't get far if the only reason is to fit into your jeans.  One of my underlying reasons is that I am simply a better person when I workout. Everything about me is better: my mood, energy, attitude, physical appearance, stamina, and much more. I can tell within days if I haven't worked out because I get crabby.  I am no fun to live with if I am crabby.  Just ask my husband (or my mom for that matter).

2) Choose some specific goals and put a date on when you will achieve them.  Nothing sets your body and mind in action than a deadline you can see in the not so distant future.

3) Get accountability.  This step is probably one of the most crucial.  Tell everyone about what you are doing.  Spread your excitement by talking to people, asking questions, blogging, logging your workouts and food (Get a free copy of our food and exercise log sheet here), workout with a friend, or get accountability with your trainer.  The regular conversations and opportunity to trouble shoot where you are and what is going on will help you in the day to day grind of making changes.

4) Get your workouts planned and on the calendar.  You can find workouts online, or you can make them up...but the preferred and easiest method is to simply have the experts write them for you.  We make sure you are doing balanced exercises that keep you pain free and progress your exercise so you don't have to go through the 6 days of soreness like I did (and I did it knowingly and willingly!)  Once you know what you are going to do between weight training, cardio, or yoga, put the specific times on  your calendar and treat them like a sacred appointment.  It's not just you whom you are letting down when you skip...you are letting down your accountability group as well!  Here is a sample of how we change up our sets and reps every 4-6 weeks to progress our clients and keep their muscles growing!

Month 1: 1-3 sets of 15 reps

Month 2: 2-4 sets of 10 reps

Month 3: 2-3 sets of 12 reps

Month 4: A combination of 2-4 sets of 10 reps and 1-2 sets of 20 reps for speed.

As for cardio: Consider doing intervals for 15-30 minutes starting with 1 minute hard. and 90s easy.  Then start reducing your rest time.  Once you get better at these, start reducing your effort to 45 or 30 seconds hard, and give yourself equal rest.  Remember to push yourself to a high intensity for maximum benefit!

5) Check in regularly for milestones along the way:  Re-time your mile, get your circumference measured every 4 weeks, see how many more push-ups you can do.  As long as you choose something that can be measured, it will help you see how far you are coming even if when you look in the mirror you are not seeing as much change as you thought you would.

Most of all, remember that your body is not to be taken for granted.  Keep yourself a a priority, and your health will reward you!

Fitness without excuses

I completed a quick workout yesterday while the boys were napping, and it was glorious. I video taped most of it, but included only the finisher here: Nicole in Home workout. (If the link doesn't work, I will keep working on it and repost soon) Needless to say, you are all my motivation as I get back on track with 2 little "excuses" taking up my time. I felt great after the workout and was even a little sore...especially my tummy! Here's what I did so you can try it at home too! Warm-up: Stair running x3 minutes Dynamic Stretches: Standing quad stretch x3ea; Lateral lunge groin stretch x3ea; Walking heel digs x3ea; Pec stretches x2ea; 15 speed squats. The Circuit: Stepping lateral lunge 2x10 Push-ups 2x10 (these were harder than I remember them being...) Standing bentover reverse fly 2x10 Step ups to the second step 2x10 Finisher: Front plank 30s followed by walking burpees (step back to push-up position, hop both feet to hands stand and jump, repeat) x10. I rested until I felt recovered and repeated this 1 more time.

I got in a good little sweat and felt so amazing to have done something for me! I can't wait to get back into my routine again. Let me know what you are doing these days to get into, and stick with, your routine!

Fitness Beyond Definition

As many of you know, I have been an avid runner since the age of 13. In fact, I can’t remember ever feeling particularly out of shape since I first started running. So it’s not surprising that I recently told someone that I haven't been this out of shape since I was 12. After laying low to try to get pregnant, and then the restricted activity while pregnant, and then the recovery time, I have gradually turned to mush. This is a tough reality to swallow for a girl whose life work is all about healthy fitness. The bright side is that I have two beautiful and amazing little boy munchkins that are a great trade off, I get to empathize with my clients a little more, and I get to redefine what fitness means for me. Fitness and being “in shape” comes in all shapes and sizes. I have always known there were different varieties and levels of being fit because even within my own beloved sport, I was a distance girl, and didn’t train to sprint. I also played basketball, but put a softball in my hands and I was all thumbs. Which is to say, what does being in shape mean to us? Is it all about aesthetics, the ability to participate in particular sports, the way our fitness levels our stress, or how we improve our life expectancy?

Ideally, fitness is a multicolor coat that can change and evolve and become what we need it to be. In order to birth my two little boys, I needed to be fit mentally, emotionally, and to have a huge sense of calm and endurance in my body. Still, I long for that runner’s high after a long day on the path. But now that I am a mom, I am forever trying to squeeze one more minute out of my day, and one more ounce of energy to put toward my workouts. If I do get the chance to workout, it feels completely different, and it is definitely much harder than it used to be!

To keep my motivation up, I recently stumbled across some winning fitness blogs that were ranked by Fitness Magazine and its readers earlier this year. Their “Fitterati” blogger awards are broken into great categories like best healthy living blog, best running blog, or best nutrition blog. My favorite so far is MizFit and The Body of a Mother. But don’t take my word for it, check out the list and see if one of these bloggers catches your eye. Or, just keep reading here…I am passing on all I learn to you every day!

Laughter as Medicine

It's no secret that laughter is great medicine, but when was the last time you allowed laughter into your workouts? It's easy to laugh at comedians, or jokes, or the silly things in movies or TV, but one of the best things we can do is be able to laugh with ourselves. When we judge, condemn, belittle, or berate ourselves, especially when it comes to what we look like, or how "well" we are working out, we take the fun out of it all. It would be weird if we all looked the same, and yet we somehow have an expectation that there is a certain "look" we all have to have to fit in and be healthy. I just had 2 babies. My body is forever changed. It would be easy to sit around and beat myself up because I am not back in my pre-maternity clothes. But if I did that, I would miss the beauty of what my body has accomplished and the miracle that it is doing to provide nourishment to grow our boys. So I laugh about how sexy my momma body is, and actually do my best to believe it. I don't laugh at myself, I laugh with myself, and for myself.

Research shows laughter reduces cortisol and other stress hormones in addition to increasing our T cell activity which boosts our immune system.  When we have a good laugh we also gain perspective and allow things that would normally feel threatening to be more of a challenge that we get to master.  Belly laughing is also one of the best ab exercises you can do because we use the diaphragm more correctly than with traditional abdominal exercises.

So put on a silly outfit, sing in front of the mirror, wear a goofy hat, tell a few jokes between sets, or share a funny thing about your life with a workout buddy.  Whatever your smile fancies!

Kaizen

Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy of continuous growth and improvement of working practices and personal efficiency. Wether it be excelling at work, changing career paths all together or getting to the next level in your workouts; kaizen urges you to push through your existing comfort zone to find true happiness and be the best you.

We spent a lot of time this week in Fitness Fire classes talking about getting out of your physical and emotional comfort zone and pushing through. I believe that some of the best personal growth can come from pushing through your comfort zones. If you think about it, it begins at birth. A baby is safe, warm, and content in its' mother's womb but at a certain point, it is time for it to join the unfamiliar world. Each step of growth for a baby is forcing it to leave it's comfort zone. The baby's first days out of the womb, crawl, step, etc. Each sign of growth is a step out of its' existing, familiar comfort zone and into the strange unknown. For the baby, pushing through leads to more independence and the formation of their own unique personalities.

The same principles hold true in ones' adult life. New, fresh experiences are vital to enrich ones' life. Personal growth stems from new challenges that lead you to new life experiences. It is easier to remain static and not push forward; fear of change and the unknown are huge factors.  Fear is your body's natural way of letting you know your comfort zone is being compromised. One should be aware and respectful of the feeling of fear but do not let it hold you back. Fear is not a comfortable feeling and usually we avoid it at all costs. Remember we would all be (twenty,thirty, forty,etc) fifty-somethings living in our mother's womb if facing fears were not necessary.

Every time we face our fear and push through our comfort zone, growth happens! Growth is not supposed to come easily. Again, think of the tiny baby taking all its' firsts. Or another example would be any business owner that has taken a risk; for their business to grow they must constantly move forward and be comfortable with change to keep up with the industry. Successful businessman and author Robert Cushing stated, "The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can."

Something to keep in mind is once we've pushed through one comfort zone into the new zone, over time the new zone can become yet another comfort zone. It is important in life to continually challenge oneself with new goals and experiences; this allows for personal growth which sanctions ones' best life possible. It may seem trivial but when you are sweating, out of breath, and feeling uncomfortable during a workout and you make the decision to continue and push yourself by going even faster or picking a heavier weight or just finishing all the way through, you are practicing kaizen. I urge you to take that feeling of empowerment and succes and continue to grow!

• By Erica Sigel

Which Would You Rather Lose?

There's a difference between weight loss and fat loss.  For those of you who read magazines or blogs promising miraculous weight loss, you might be led to believe that losing weight is just as good as losing fat. Ah, but the real evidence of health is having a good balance of fat and lean body mass.  You read it right, it isn't healthy to lose too much fat or too much lean tissue.  In fact, losing too much fat (below 9% for women and below 5% for men) can actually lead to death much faster than being obese.  The real question, and the one that really hasn't been answered definitively yet by modern science, is what ratio of fat to lean body mass is best for your body?

"No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat.  Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office."  -George Bernard Shaw

Which Weight are We Weighing?

Although I may not be able to specifically answer the very individual question of what body fat percentage vs. lean body mass (connective tissue/bones/muscle) percentage your body functions best at, there are many different charts that give us ranges to shoot for. If you'd like to know what these ranges are for your age group and sex, here's a link. What I find more interesting is that although these charts would lead us to believe that we can all fit into a little category, each and every one of us has a unique body that can both be manipulated to perform and change, and that will also find a way to lean toward its own set-point.

Data from the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study out of Dallas, TX found that men who were physically "fit" (scored in the top 80% of one's age group while performing a treadmill walking test) had death rates one-half those of lean unfit men.  So, even though they had a significantly higher body weight than others, because they were active and fit, their likelihood of living longer was still double!  Our body weight is a measure of our total mass regardless of what that mass is composed of. When we look at body fat, we are looking at both subcutaneous fat and the fat that protects and surrounds our organs. Our lean body mass is made up of muscle, connective tissue, organs, bones, and really everything besides fat. In theory, the less excess fat we have, the less work our body has to do to overcome our total mass to move and play and live. However, without adequate fat, our organ systems shut down, our hormones deregulate, we don't think as clearly, and we have no energy reserves to do anything beyond very minimal activity (unless you are eating 8 times a day).

To reach a balance of healthy body fat and an active, flourishing amount of lean tissue, you must eat a diet rich in colorful vegetables and fruit, lean protein, omega 3 fats, and you must do some form of regular activity that forces you to resist your own body weight and beyond. We build muscle tissue when we stress the muscle enough that it lays down more muscle fibers so it can meet the challenges we impose upon it the next time we place a demand on it.   This requires that we come within a few repetitions of near failure, and that we do different things to challenge the muscular system all the time.

We love resistance training and have found it to be a great compliment to nearly all of our clients lives outside of the gym to help them improve performance in other activities, reduce injuries, improve metabolism, and give them more energy. And, when one thing improves, it's easier to gain momentum to make other health changes too!

Please feel free to respond with your thoughts or comments on health, wellness, or your energy anytime.  We love it when this newsletter is shared and forwarded to friends or when readers give us their suggestions or ideas!

Have a beautiful week!

In love and health,

Nicole Irlbeck and the Restoration Fitness Crew