HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I hope you really enjoyed the holiday season and were able to spend time with family and friends. If you are like me, this also included indulging in many savory dishes and tasty treats which enabled a few pounds to creep on. And now that the new year is here, it means that it’s time to shed the weight.

MAKE 2017 THE YEAR YOU SEE YOUR BEST RESULTS!
To really see best results from any health and fitness plan you choose, you need to learn a few strategies. These are guidelines that must be followed if you are going to see superior results that will help propel you forward. Sadly, many people miss out on one or more of these and it greatly costs them their success.
Want to learn more? Keep reading!

Eat More Protein
Of all the foods that you could eat while on a fat loss diet, protein is perhaps the most important. Protein helps combat hunger, it helps stabilize blood glucose levels, and it helps prevent lean muscle mass loss. This in turn helps speed up your metabolism and accelerates the process of fat loss. Don’t let your diet intake fall short. Aim to eat some protein in each and every meal and snack that you consume.

Eat Regularly
While the concept that your metabolism will increase the more often you eat isn’t entirely accurate — as the boost you get after a meal is directly related to the size of that meal — eating regularly does help to keep hunger at bay. By feeding your body frequently throughout the day, you’ll help avoid food cravings, energy lows, and make it that much easier to stick to your fitness program.

Prioritize Fresh Foods
When selecting your foods, eating fresh is a must. We live in a world where processed foods are widely available and easily cause weight gain. Eliminate these and you’ll really give your diet a boost. Focus on foods in their natural state — fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats and oils, and lean proteins. If you only make one change to your diet plan, make it this one.

Set Short Term Goals
Think about what you are doing in the here and now, not months from now. It’s too easy to lose sight of your goals if they are going to take place six months to a year down the road. Begin thinking in three-week segments. Three weeks is about how long it takes for good habits to form, so is the perfect amount of time to you build behaviors that will stand the test of time. This is precisely 21-Day Fix from Beachbody was designed. It will help you stay motivated and consistent until you don’t even have to think about making those changes any longer — They’ll just be automatic.

Stop Comparisons
Finally, stop comparing yourself to others. Realize that this is your own journey and your own body. It’s unlike anyone else’s so you simply can’t expect to see the same results as everyone else. Instead, start comparing yourself today to yourself from yesterday. That will give you all the details you need to know. If each day you are getting better, you are successful in your journey.

So keep these strategies in mind and feel confident that you are headed in the right direction.

– Wishing you continued success in your fitness journey!

Struggling to stick with your diet program? You aren’t alone. Millions of people worldwide start up and fall off diet programs every day. Why is it so hard to stick with something? Why they can’t carry out a plan once and for all?

Often, it’s due to a few key mistakes they’re making along the way. Let’s take a closer look at three secrets that you need to know about sticking with a diet program. When you put these secrets into action, you’ll find it’s easier than ever to get the results that you are looking for.

Get A Diet Buddy

One word of advice: don’t go at it alone. Those who get a diet buddy to do a diet and experience the high’s and low’s with them tend to stand a much better chance of seeing success in the long run.

If you can’t convince someone to do the diet with you, at the very least, find someone who will stand by your side and be there for support when you need it.

You will hit a hard time, and during that hard time, it can really help if you have someone there to encourage you through it.

Use Hunger-Busting Strategies

Hunger is another reason why many people can’t stick with a fat loss diet plan. Either they are cutting their calories back too far, thereby causing the hunger, or they are not eating foods that encourage satiety.

You want to focus your diet around foods that break down and digest slowly. Lean proteins coupled with fibrous carbohydrates are the best choices, followed closely by small doses of dietary fat.

While the calories in fat do add up quickly, a small amount added to your diet can work wonders to help you better control hunger.

Set Short Term Goals

Finally, consider setting some short term goals. Think about what it is that you want to accomplish within the next two or three weeks. Far too many people have a long term view of what they hope to achieve in a year’s time, but it’s too easy to lose sight of that light at the end of the tunnel.

Instead, focus on the here and now. Find a program such as The 3 Week Diet that has you focusing on the coming weeks ahead. Build good habits in those three weeks and you will be well set up for the future months.

Remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you won’t lose all the weight you have to lose in just a week. Be patient, but at the same time, don’t fixate too far in the future. Otherwise, you’ll just lose motivation and give up.

Want to learn more about how to make the 3 week concept work for you? Check out The 3 Week Diet plan, which teaches you how to build proper habits over the course of three weeks that result in great weight loss and set you up for a future of weight loss and maintenance.

– Wishing you continued success in your fitness journey!

When I set out on my health and fitness journey more than 15 years ago, my goal was simply to get in the best shape as possible.  At that time, it meant losing weight and developing nice lean muscles.  Over the years my goal has evolved to living an overall healthy and fit lifestyle which includes eating healthy most of the time and staying as active as possible.   What I did not realize was that by living a healthy and fit lifestyle, I would also experience anti-aging benefits as an added bonus!!  So, if you are the type of person who would rather enjoy a sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy eating habits instead of giving your muscles a little more stretch, you better think twice.  That lifestyle speeds up aging. How? Well, inactivity accelerates aging in two ways: it decreases our muscle strength and gives us extra pounds.

Muscle meltdown
As we age, the quantity and strength of our muscle fibers diminish. In fact, we lose two to four pounds of muscles every ten years. Decreased number and strength of muscles causes our muscles to lose flexibility, losing our usual range of motion and optimal strength.

Lack of exercise is mostly to blame. It was found out that not exercising for even just a week weakens our muscles significantly. Moreover, if you do not exercise for a month, you will lose almost 50% of your original muscle strength. Some people may not even notice their atrophied muscles because of the fatty buildup in their body. 

Gaining extra pounds
The simple logic here is that if you are inactive, you gain extra pounds, and extra pounds can age you. But hey, there ís a missing link. How does an increase in weight speed up aging?

Researchers have recently found out that as people become heavier and became more insulin resistant (a common side effect of being fat and heavy), their telomeres (strands of DNA at the end of a chromosome that protect the tip from destruction and classically shorten with age) shrank more than those of people who didn’t increase their weight and developed more insulin resistance, an apparent sign that the aging process was speeding up among those who are overweight. Researchers indicate that the stress caused by increased weight and insulin resistance spawn inflammation and free radicals that damage cells. Simply put, a heavier body ages its own DNA.

The Solution
The good news is, you can recover what you have lost and slice off what you have gained. Research clearly shows that a healthy lifestyle and exercise can help keep your DNA younger.

In studies, regular exercise has been proven to reduce the instances of diabetes, muscle atrophy, cancer, stroke, Alzheimerís, and heart diseases. Regular workouts help prevent hypertension, reduce body fat, raise High Density Lipoprotein (good cholesterol), lower Low-Density Lipoprotein (bad cholesterol), improve circulation, keep the bowels healthy, and regulate key hormones.

With all of these benefits, there is no question that a workout consisting of cardio, yoga, and weight training would have a positive impact on your health.

• Jogging, cycling, walking, and swimming for thirty minutes a day for about five times a week. Doing these of higher intensity everyday can be helpful in bringing more blood and oxygen to our brain. These activities also guard your heart by lowering blood pressure, reducing LDL, and keeping arteries flexible to improve circulation.
• Weight training for 20 minutes a day, twice a week can be of great help in having strong bones, and muscles, which of course includes the heart. For beginners, 3-5 pound dumbbells will do.
• Yoga is one of the best activities to fight stress. It relaxes the body, thereby, keeping stress from burning you out. It also protects the body against free radicals that break down the elasticity of the skin.

More Benefits
Exercise does not only keep you young, it also helps you sleep, firms you up, improves your mood, keeps you slim, and take note of this, charges up your sex life

– Wishing you continued success in your fitness journey!

Life is not perfect at all times. On the surface, it may appear that way when observing others. But the fact is, we’re all human and will be affected by the unhappy bug at times. This can be further exasperated if you are a trailing spouse in unfamiliar surroundings and without your usual support network of family and friends to count on. That is exactly what happened to me. I became very unhappy.

I was taught at an early age that happiness comes from within. I never looked for it in anyone else and I actively created a life for myself filled with positive people and energy. Yes, there were some ups and downs at times, but by my early forties life was good. The icing on the cake was meeting and marrying my husband.

Shortly after we married, we moved away from it all – home, job, family, and friends – to an unfamiliar city for my husband’s new job. It was truly exciting in the beginning thinking about and living happily ever after in a new city, making new friends, and creating a life together. What I didn’t realize at that time was that I had no idea how to do any of those things from scratch. My friends I’ve had for decades, obviously I’ve know my family my entire life, and I was in my job for a number of years. I never had to just start over with everything from a blank slate.

My husband had the benefit of creating connections and relationships at his new job. His days were busy and filled with meetings, working with others, and building relationships. My days were spent at our new home in unfamiliar surroundings. There were many days where he was the only person I talked to. I thought about returning to the traditional workforce, but I truly wanted to become self-employed so that I could easily travel (or again move) with my husband when those opportunities arose.

Without the comfort and interactions with my previous support network it turned into a difficult transition. It started out as uneasiness and it grew harder and harder for me to harness that happiness that was supposed to be inside of me. I desperately missed the life I had created and was at a loss on how to create a brand new one.

What I did know was that I loved my husband and did not want to look back on that time with unhappiness. We were living in a great town full of possibilities and I needed to figure out a way to bring back the excitement and happiness that I once had. It was there; buried deep. I just needed to uncover it.

So what did I do? I changed my mindset and focus, which allowed me to make some simple changes that brought back the positive energy, happiness and fulfillment I needed. It also allowed me to again be the type of partner I want to be for my husband.

Tap into your creative side/Pick up a hobby
Do you like to write? Arts and crafts? How about playing golf? Perhaps you use to enjoy running and are thinking about starting up again. Well, there’s no time like the present. Now is a great time to nurture your creative side or work on some personal goals.

When I use to work an 8-5+ job, I use to lament how I never had enough time in the day to do things for myself. I had a list a mile long of goals I wanted to achieve. I just never got to them. However, now that I work for myself, I structure my schedule around activities I enjoy, which includes writing and health & fitness.

It has been great looking forward to each day knowing that I have something fun planned to do whether it’s training for a local race, streaming video to work out at home, going for a run, or finishing a chapter of my next eBook. There is truly joy in each day.

Exercise
Personally, I love to exercise! But if you don’t, consider adding more physical activity into your day anyway. Not only will you benefit physically, you will experience mental health benefits as well. Exercise has been shown to positively affect mood and mental state in addition to helping with the symptoms of depression. So get out there and take a walk or join a local gym. Get moving! It’s good for you.

Explore
You are living in a new town, maybe even a new country! There are so many places to explore – how exciting! My husband and I love to try new restaurants, parks, theaters, and museums. Whenever we are in a new town, we make a point of discovering something new. Living in a new area should not be any different. Only now, you have more time to really explore and appreciate what is around you.

The possibilities are endless. So do not spend your days holed up inside your apartment. Get familiar with your surroundings. Learn different routes to the grocery store or shopping plazas. Visit museums, theaters, and parks. Embrace the culture around you.

Change your location
What do you mean, we did that already? We are already living in a new location. Yes, that is true. But location does not always mean living somewhere else. For me, it started with getting out of my home office during the day.

When I initially started working from home, I took a lot of time and care in setting up my home office with everything that I needed. It was great at first. However, over time the four walls started to slowly close in on me. It was feeling claustrophobic. I wasn’t fully taking advantage of truly being able to “work from anywhere.”

Working from home (or remotely) means that as long as you have Internet access, you can truly be anywhere physically. So instead of working in my home office all day, I move around the house for a change of scenery. When the weather is nice, I enjoy being out on our deck. Sometimes it’s nice to be in a local coffee shop. The bottom line is that there is no need to keep yourself confined whether you are working, reading, watching TV, etc. Spend time in a place that brings you greater joy. If that means getting away for a quick trip, do that as well.

These are just a few of the changes I started with that have boosted my spirits tremendously. Yes, I still get the blahs, but these are a few of the things that I choose to do to help bring me out of my funk. Perhaps these can work for you as well.

– Make it a Great Day!

Consistently living a healthy and fit lifestyle does not happen by accident. For some, it starts with making small changes in diet and trying to be more active. Others may join a gym and vow to make it there at least 2-3 times a week. Inevitably, life takes over and before you know it, you are back to your old unhealthy habits.

What I’ve learned over the years is that it requires commitment and diligence in order to break the chains from old lifestyle choices and begin new ones. For me, it is akin to having a job where you must be responsible and effectively manage tasks in order to achieve established performance targets and goals.

Here are some tips to help you along the way:

Get an Annual Health Screening
Mark your calendar and get an annual health screening. A routine screening for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and cancer can help to facilitate early detection and mitigate complications that are costly to your health and your wallet. This is also an opportunity to discuss with your health care practitioner any concerns that you have about your health and any additional needed screenings.

Follow a Healthy Diet
Many struggle with this one! However, what individuals do not realize is that your mental and emotional health is a product of your diet as much as your physical health. A nutrient dense diet is required for everything to operate optimally. Therefore, minimize the amount of unhealthy fats, cholesterol, processed sugars, and salt consumed. A little indulgence once in a while does no harm. However, consistently eating unhealthily and over time will ultimately lead to detrimental consequences.

Manage Stress
Easier said than done right? Like many others, this one is difficult for me. Called, the “silent killer,” stress is a key contributor of many common diseases plaguing a number of individuals including heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, stroke, and depression. So how can you manage stress? There are a wide variety of stress management techniques available. Conduct research or work with your health care practitioner to determine the best methods for you.

Get More Sleep
Sleep! Some days I do not get enough. But getting more sleep will boost how you feel and perform during your waking hours. Additionally, sleep deprivation and weight gain are closely connected. Therefore, this could ultimately sabotage your weight lose goals. How much is enough? Many resources state that 7-8 hours is recommended for an adult. However, needs ma vary among individuals and as we age. Consult with your health care practitioner for further guidance.

Cultivate Healthy Relationships
Relationships can heal you and harm you. Therefore, it’s important to recognize the relationship patterns that cause stress and anger in your life and learn to manage them. Learning how to manage your mood, emotions, or reactions in your interactions can save your life and relationships themselves. Yes, there will be times you will get angry with your significant other, children, friends, or peers, but that anger must not control or consume you.

Find Joy In Every Day.
By making the effort to look at the positive side of things, you can change your outlook and overall mindset. Have you ever noticed that when you think negative thoughts, negative events tend to be drawn to you. The same happens when you think positive thoughts. It’s simply the law of attraction. While this may not help you live longer, it will help you experience more joy, happiness, and less stress during the time you do have.

REMEMBER: Life is not a dress rehearsal. You have to live it to the fullest each day.

If you are like many, you love carbs – the unhealthy ones! They are everywhere and packed into many of the foods that we would love to enjoy on a daily basis. My favorite carb happens to be bread. I could eat bread throughout the day everyday! I’m getting a bit excited thinking about that, but I digress. The fact is that overconsumption of unhealthy carbs will wreak havoc on your health and fitness efforts. The good news is that there are plenty of healthy and delicious alternatives that will help you to better control your carb intake

Do Not Drink Sugary Beverages
Soda, apple juice, fruit punch! These sugary beverages have very little nutritional value, and do not satisfy your hunger. For example, the 100 calories from drinking apple juice leaves you hungrier than if you ate an actual apple instead. As a result, you may be prone to consume more of these “empty calories.” Is it really worth it? I don’t think so. Consuming water is a much better way to quench your thirst.

Eat More Vegetables
Many tend to increase the amount of vegetables consumed when beginning a low-carb diet. However, this is an option you can start incorporating into your lifestyle now. Opt for non-starchy vegetables, such as greens, cauliflower, avocado, mushrooms.

Eat More (Healthy) Fat
Yes, it’s true! Eating healthy fats is actually a good thing. Fats fill us up, and make it less likely that we will overeat, especially in conjunction with consuming less carbs. We need fats for our bodies to run smoothly. Great sources of healthy fats include olive oil, nuts, avocado, fatty fish, and flax seeds.

Are You Getting Enough Protein?
According to the National Academy of Science, we can safely consume up to 35% of our diet as protein. Are you getting enough? Calculate your protein intake and see. If not, experiment with adding more protein sources into your diet.

QUALITY over Quantity
As you increase your vegetables, protein, and healthy fats, decrease the portion sizes of your high carb foods. Portion control is key and often they area where many struggle. The portion sizes we’ve become accustomed to are significantly more generous than a standard portion size in many instances. Half a cup of potatoes or rice is a standard serving size. So, get out your measuring cup and become more familiar with a true portion size. Also, IF YOU MUST INDULGE, have a 2 x 2-inch piece of a really great cake, or a small scoop of premium ice cream. One square of really great chocolate can satisfy a craving better than a bigger chocolate bar that is lower in quality.

Select Brown over White
Choose brown rice instead of white rice, and whole wheat bread instead of white bread. Additionally, eating grains whole instead of ground up into flour is a better option. You may find that a “no white diet” to be an easy way to cut back on carbs.

Substitute!
As with making any change, incorporating some or all of these strategies at once could be a bit overwhelming. So start off by making substitutions into your diet. Substitute lower-carb foods for high carb counterparts. Try a high-fiber low-carb cereal. Prepare spaghetti squash in place of pasta. Consider snacking on a package of nuts at the movies instead of popcorn. Continue to introduce these healthier substitutions into your diet and you will be well on your way to controlling carb consumption and a healthier lifestyle.

– Wishing you continued success in your fitness journey!

Fit over 40? Yes, it is possible! However, staying healthy and fit once you reach 40 can be daunting and feel like an uphill battle. You experience a decline in energy and your metabolism slows down. Personally, this has been the biggest struggle for me!! As a result what happens? Yep, weight gain that adversely impacts your health and overall well-being. But the good news is that you do not have to experience a downward spiral once you reach this age milestone. In fact, you can be healthy, fit, and in great shape over 40. Many boast about being in better shape in their 40s than in their 20s and 30s. So what’s the secret?

Mind over matter
90% of the battle is within your own mind! Think about it. How easy is it to come up with excuses as to why you cannot eat better and find time to exercise? We do this all the time and the excuses are endless. But finding solutions is actually the hard part. Why? Because it requires dedication, discipline, and commitment. We need to schedule and plan ahead to circumvent excuses. Yes, we all have busy lives, but our health and fitness will impact the quality of our lives. Isn’t that what’s important? So we need to discipline our minds to think “healthy” to establish the appropriate mindset to live a healthy and fit lifestyle.

Water
Do not reach for soda, coffee, or juice to quench your thirst. Reach for water instead. Water helps to cleanse the body from impurities and it can also help you to control your appetite. Did you know that what you think is hunger may in fact be your body telling you that its thirsty? So stay hydrated. Aim to drink at least half of your body weight in ounces. (e.g: weight = 120, drink 60oz of water)

Food & Nutrition
After 40, energy levels decline, so choosing foods that provide the energy needed without empty calories is important. Therefore, it is imperative to consume nutrient dense food consisting of protein, healthy fats, and carbs. However, we live in a world that values fast food, tasty treats, and processed foods. Therefore, healthy meals and snacks should be planned ahead of time in order to avoid the surrounding temptations. For ideas on the types of foods to consume, read my previous articles on the 5 staples for your freezer and what to stock in your refrigerator and pantry.

Exercise
Exercise is the best way to boost your metabolism. Whether you prefer to walk, go to the gym, or workout at home, you have to be consistent. Prepare a reasonable schedule for yourself in advance and post it where you can see it. I prepare my schedule each week and post it on my wall so there is no question in my mind what needs to be done. That’s what works for me. Be realistic and make adjustments accordingly. Just do not skip your workout. That is not an option!

STAY ENCOURAGED! Being healthy and fit over 40 is attainable. Once you commit and stay focused, the rest will fall into place.

– Wishing you continued success in your fitness journey!

Do you ever find yourself in a place where you’re sluggish and fatigued each day? Do you find yourself going to bed late, fuelling the fatigue? Are you finding that breaking the late-to-bed habit is an ongoing process? If so, have faith.

This was me for a long time. I then came to realise there were aspects of my life that were contributing to this low energy. In turn the reduced energy levels affected my confidence.

I began to recognize this as an opportunity for me to develop a way of taking myself from having virtually no energy to feeling motivated to move and do!

The personal development research I have completed over the years, and that I still continue on a daily basis, is revealing that certain aspects need to be in place for my energy levels – and hence my mood and confidence – to increase:

Energy Strategy – Raising Your Moods Consistently Every Morning

1. A good night’s sleep, or if not, having time in the day to rest and catch up on your lost sleep. Being able to take control and do this when you are able to helps in you keeping control of your mental and physical energy throughout the day

2. Some kind of movement to get the energy flowing: ie exercise, doing [a] physical task/s etc

3. Some kind of technique to release baggage and help you feel more of a sense of connectedness to yourself, others, the world, the universe eg Emotional Freedom (‘Tapping’) Therapy

4. Fuel (good food): so that your brain works at the optimum level

5. Water: a good amount throughout the day to increase the electrical activity in the brain. The ideal is said to be 2-6 litres per day.

6. Clean, ordered, de-cluttered environment, which helps with feeling you have more energy and that you’re in control

7. Some sort of prioritized and positive set of targets you know you can achieve in the day, even if it’s at a stretch: eg a to-do list

8. Some sort of positive, achievable and realistic set of timeframes: so that your mind knows there is an end point you can actually achieve

9. A healthy balance of sameness (eg routine) and difference (eg variety, different activities, different ways of doing things). This helps to satisfy (according to personal growth specialist Anthony Robbins), two of our key human needs

10.  Some sort of reward system for a job well done, even if it’s just basking for a few moments, or giving yourself a pat on the back

An important element of this is for you to engage in the above at the level that’s right for you on that particular day.

If you’ve had little or no sleep, you may have to do more tapping or more movement to get the same amount of energy flowing as when you’ve had more sleep. If you’re feeling out of kilter, you may have to watch what you eat that day much more than when you’re feeling a little better.

The above list constitutes a strategy I’ve come up with so far, in a rough order of priority, but it’s by no means an exhaustive list.

I know how I can feel in the mornings. Some mornings I feel that my energy is at zero. I know, however, that I have things that need to be done, so just lounging in bed isn’t an option.

The above is a simple set of tools to get me from zero (energywise) to a level five, a level eight or even a nine consistently. These tools, although fairly rudimentary, have had a significant impact on my moods and my life. I hope they can help you too.

Carmen Gilfillan is the founder of Stimulus Development & Training. Stimulus is dedicated to helping people raise their game, fulfil their potential and and live their best lives. We do this through Life & Wellness Coaching, Energy Therapy consultations and training in the areas of personal, professional and spiritual growth. Check out our website at http://www.stimulus.uk.com to book a coaching or Energy Therapy consultation.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Carmen_Gilfillan/694789

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Yep, I’m lucky! I get to follow my passion, earn a living, and help others in the process. I had a great career traditional Corporate America, but I wasn’t passionate about it. Health and fitness is what I’m drawn to and coaching others to be their best always came to me naturally. So when the opportunity to combine my passion and abilities came together, how could I say no?! The timing was right and I have not looked back.

Today, I earn a living by:

• Living a healthy lifestyle, working out and sharing my fitness journey

• Helping others like me get results from doing a fitness program and providing nutrition basics.

• Inspiring others to change their lives – join a fantastic team and learn how to create success!!!!

• Making new friends through social media.

BONUS!:

• I enjoy flexibility by working my own hours in my home office or on the go.

• I am present with my family everyday!

So it saddens me when others look at what I do as selling instead of helping and inspiring someone to be successful at their goals. The fact is, that most of my efforts are on providing people with support on their goals and fitness journey. Most of my time is spent building relationships with others and after connecting with them. If I have something that can benefit them or fulfill a need, of course I’m going to SHARE that solution with them. I do the same thing when I learn about a new recipe, a great restaurant, a fantastic spa, and sales on clothing and shoes. Don’t you? So why not coaching and fitness?

I wish someone had shared with me sooner about the support and accountability available to assist me along my fitness journey. It may have spared me some of the setbacks or at least assisted with navigating through the obstacles and keeping me motivated. However, the path I’ve taken has created tremendous empathy in me and fueled my energy and drive to succeed at my own goals and inspire others to do the same.

Would you benefit from having a coach?

• As your coach, I will motivate you when you can’t motivate yourself. I’ve been there and understand how difficult the fitness journey can be because I am working on my own goals as well.

• As your coach, I will help you find a workout program that best fits with what you want to accomplish. There are a number of programs available to suit your preferences, schedule, and abilities.

• As your coach, I will diligently search to provide a variety of healthy recipes that you can easily make on your own! I can also help you create a meal plan that best suits you and your needs. No, I’m not a nutritionist, but I have access to trainers and experts who provide meal-planning oversight.

• As your coach, I will lead by example. Each day you will be a part of my own fitness journey. I’m not perfect. I miss workouts. I don’t eat right 100% of the time. But I do make a great effort to follow an 80/20 healthy lifestyle balance.

If you believe you can benefit from this, then please reach out.

Do you love helping others?  If you’re someone that’s interested in a business where you get to wake up everyday, share your journey and connect others with information and resources that are life changing, then please CONTACT ME!

We are a team dedicated to creating value and working diligently while providing for our families.

– Wishing you continued success in your fitness journey!

Are you a sugar addict? Do you always crave some sugary snack or beverage? If you are unable to get your sugar fix, do you start feeling tired, light headed or confused? You’re not alone! In fact, this use to be me too. Sugar addiction is one of the most widespread of addictions affecting many children, teenagers, and those who have poor eating habits.

Sugar cravings are very difficult to ignore. Moreover, with sugary treats so easily available, it makes it even harder to ignore cravings. When this happens, many tend to overload on simple carbohydrates (i.e. sugar). While this may give your body a short-term energy boost, you will become hungry and crave for more. Can the cycle be broken?

 

Here a few tips to break the addiction:

1. Feed your craving with fruit. Keep fruits around for when those sugar cravings hit. Fruits are naturally sweet and full of nutrients and fiber. Bring fruits with you to work or and fill up your kitchen with them.

2. Go for a walk. When you get a sugar craving, get out of the house and go for a walk. If you are at work, take a break and walk about for 10 minutes. This will take your mind off of grabbing something sugary sweet. BONUS: You will also be getting in some physical activity. And if you wear a Fitbit like me, it’s always great to get in those steps to make sure you have at least 10,000 for the day

3. Eat regularly. If you don’t eat healthy meals throughout the day, you may be craving for sugar because your body is low on sugar. So be sure to consume whole foods that are rich in nutrients to ensure that your body is getting the nourishment it needs which will lower your cravings.

4. Eliminate temptations. Go through your refrigerator and pantry to get rid of all sugary treats. Also, when you go grocery shopping, make a list of the things that you need to buy and stick to the list.

5. Read food labels. Many consumers are not well informed of the amount of sugar that popular food items contain. Therefore, one of the best habits that you can start is to become well educated on food labels. Read them so you are aware of the actual content of sugar and the ingredients before you make a purchase. You may be very surprised by what you learn!! This awareness of sugar content can help you avoid foods that are high in sugar.

6. Make improvements to your diet. Eat more protein and healthy fats. Incorporate more whole foods. Consume small frequent meals to keep your blood sugar level stable.

7. Lastly, if satisfying your sugar craving is a must, go for quality instead of quantity. Have a small piece of dark chocolate instead of that candy bar. This is okay every once in awhile and it will be so satisfying.

– Wishing you continued success in your fitness journey!