5 Fitness and Nutrition Tips That Will Refocus Your Life and Career!

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Your career is probably one of your greatest stressors. You want to earn more income. You want to receive more recognition for your hard work. You want more of a challenge. You want to be more dedicated. You want to thrive and succeed.

Many clients come to me burned out from working day in and day out. They have low energy and trouble sleeping. They lack passion for life. They are searching for that drive and focus that they used to have.

All of my successful clients shared certain traits. Perhaps the most important trait was trust. They trusted themselves and they trusted me. Their body was screaming for activity and nutrients. Their body craved healthy and vibrant foods. My successful clients trusted their body’s enough to become a willing participant in their own fitness and health program.

These successful clients trusted me. They knew that my 5 tips to fat loss was the absolute best, common sense, direct, no fluff route to health. They also know that overall health and fitness leads to a more positive outlook on life. Are you seeing the path to a better career yet?

Start by focusing on you. Get your nutrition and fitness program in gear. Get healthy and centered. This will result in a glowing, radiant, positive attitude. Your life will enhance. Colleagues will notice. Bosses will notice. Your career will improve. Your marriage will improve. Your life will improve!

Follow these 5 tips to fat loss and watch as your body, attitude and life make dramatic changes.

1) Eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day. The first meal should be eaten within an hour after waking and each meal thereafter should be 2-3 hours apart. Each meal should contain a protein and a carb.

Sample protein and carb meals include: salad with mandarin oranges and raspberry vinaigrette dressing topped with chicken slices, cottage cheese and blueberries, whole wheat wrap with black bean spread and chicken slices, sweet potato and turkey, oatmeal and egg whites, or veggie medley and tofu.

2) Drink a cup of water at each meal. It’s also healthy to drink herbal teas or a bit of green/white/red/black teas. It’s best to avoid soda, lemonade, coffee, energy drinks, juices and other processed, high sugar beverages.

3) Get your rest! Get at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night. It’s also best to take at least 48 hours of rest between strength training the same muscles and taking 1-2 days off from exercising per week.

Resting is not a sign of laziness. It is a sign of a competent and educated exerciser. Overtraining is a serious concern that everyone must be cautious of. Rest your muscles and your mind. You’ll reap more rewards!

4) Cardio should be done at different intensity levels and different session lengths. Consider doing a low intensity/long session, a high intensity/short session and a few medium intensity/medium length sessions. Always start your cardio routine with a warm up and gradually work into higher intensities.

Look into interval training. Interval training has been very effective at burning fat and it helps diminish the boredom factor.

5) Strength train each muscle 1-3 times per week. You should lift a proper weight and perform the proper amount of sets/reps for your strength training method. Always focus on lifter a lighter weight when first starting out. Focus on form and posture. As your confidence increases, begin to work with heavier weights.

Women should also lift heavier weights. It is very hard for women to bulk up and gain massive muscle. To be lean and toned, lifting heavier weights is one of the secrets to success.

Combining these 5 fitness and nutrition tips will yield a healthier and happier individual. Whether you’re a model walking down the runway or an accountant sitting behind a desk, the success of your career and your life starts with your health. Become an active participant sooner than later!

What Is Extreme Fitness Actually?

Extreme fitness can help you in a variety of ways. If you are a bodybuilder, it can help you get ripped while you gain lean mass. If you want to step up your cardio, extreme fitness can help you become aerobically superior. As an athlete, extreme fitness can really help you to step up your game. You can become stronger, faster and more explosive. In short, extreme fitness will take you to the next level in your workout and your fitness level.

From a cardio standpoint, your extreme fitness routine should include high intensity aerobic activity such as running, cycling and workouts on the elliptical machine. This may sound like any other aerobic workout, but the difference here is that the intensity level of the workouts is greatly increased. Running miles instead of minutes and cycling in a high intensity spin class or mountain biking as opposed to passive cycling can punch up your workout from ho-hum to extreme. You can achieve the same extreme fitness results in the gym by using the treadmill, stationery bike and elliptical machine. The key to taking your workout from a standard gym workout to an extreme workout is how long, how far and how intense you go.

If you want to build lean mass and get ripped, extreme fitness entails increasing your weights and adding reps. Your workouts need to become more efficient and you must ensure that you are doing each exercise correctly, maintaining the proper form. It would be wise to enlist the aid of a trainer at this point because they can help you with your form and make your workout as efficient as possible. They can help you with determining which exercises need more weight, which need more reps and which need both. Different muscle groups require different workouts in order for you to get optimum results.

As an athlete, extreme fitness can help you step up your game. You can become a better runner, stronger swimmer or more worthy opponent as a triathlete. Because you are training your body at a much higher level of intensity, you are making your body stronger, faster and more explosive. Your fitness routine should be tailored to your particular sport. For instance, a runner would have a different fitness routine that that of, say, a swimmer.

Of course, extreme fitness workouts for high level cardio, lean mass or enhanced athletic performance must be accompanied by a diet of fresh vegetables, either raw or lightly steamed, and lean meats. More protein will increase your muscle mass as you work those muscles. You will also need more calories and clean carbs for energy so that your body can sustain the high intensity workouts that you are putting it through. If you do not give your body the proper nutrition, you will not get the results that you desire. Also remember, you do need a certain amount of fat in your diet for various reasons such as keeping the skin supple and cushioning organs. Extreme fitness can get the results that you want, but you have to follow the whole formula which consists of diet, rest and exercise.

What Are The Benefits of Physical Fitness?

Bad health and depression are the types of problems that affect almost everyone at some stage of their lives. Both can be caused by many different reasons but they can also, for the most part, be avoided by keeping our physical fitness in top shape. Exercising is well known for keeping your body fit but it can also keep your mind and spirit in good condition. The mind, body and health benefits of physical fitness can be achieved by regularly exercising particularly outside as the sun can also work wonders on our health and mood. Exercise can be therapeutic as well as boosting the circulation of the blood, releasing good feelings and helping low feelings to subside. The benefits of physical fitness include surpassing the average level of health, protecting the immune system, stimulating the metabolism to ensure a loss of excess weight and providing an all round feeling of good health and vitality. Those who are physically fit often have more energy, are in better condition and ultimately feel a lot healthier and more confident than those who are lethargic and inactive.

The Advantage of Reaching the Peak of Physical Fitness

One of the most vital benefits of reaching the peak of physical fitness is the positive effect it has on the health of the heat. Regular exercise can strengthen the heart, make it more efficient and provide added protection against heart disease while lowering blood pressure, blood fats and bad cholesterol. There lots of other benefits that arise from reaching top physical fitness but anything that improves the most vital organ in the body is undoubtedly the most significant achievement. Physical fitness through exercise results in strong muscles and flexibility, stronger bones and stress relief. The mental health benefits of physical fitness are excellent as exercise is well known to release stress and anxiety from the body, improving the overall mood and emotional level of a person. It can aid sleep and many ailments can be improved when exercising such as PMS and tension headaches.

Even low levels of activity can help, especially for those who are embarrassed to visit the gym or work out in public. Every day activities such as gardening, walking, climbing stairs and even cleaning the house can be forms of exercise. Boring, repetitive workout is not essential to reach physical fitness. Dancing and ice skating are two fun ways to burn up calories, improve muscle tone and get further along on the route to top physical fitness. Even small changes can give a boost and lower the chances of disease or injury developing. These are only a few of the benefits that can result from reaching the peak of physical fitness.

The Yin & Yang of Fitness

Balance is necessary in all aspects of our lives – including our fitness plans. Here are just a few of the many things in our fitness routines that require some balance to achieve success:

1. Exercise & Nutrition:
   The balancing act between exercise and our diet is crucial to our long-term success. You can workout for 2 hours a day and still gain weight if you don’t watch what you eat. If you (like me) have a hard time giving up life’s many tasty treats…try to cut back on just a few of your indulgences. Make sure your input and output are balanced to take you to your goal. Without monitoring both your exercise and your diet, your fitness goals will be very hard to achieve.
2. Strength & Flexibility:
   If one of your goals is to increase your strength, be sure to focus on your flexibility as well. Strength training workouts can cause micro-tears in our muscles which will cause them to contract as they heal. Stretching the muscles after workouts will prevent this shortening and reduce the chances of strains and overuse injuries from tight muscles. Stretching without strength training will only weaken muscles and connective tissue over time. Together stretching and strength training will improve muscular function and performance and decrease the chances of injury.
3. Front & Back Muscles:
   Running primarily uses the back muscles of our legs (hamstrings and calves), so why do so many runners get quadriceps injuries? We need to balance the strengthening of our muscle groups. If your activity primarily uses your hamstrings, include some quadriceps exercises. If it’s your biceps that are primarily used, include some triceps exercises. If you want to reduce strain on your back, add some abdominal exercises. This balance will greatly improve your performance and reduce your chances of injury.
4. Stress & Rest:
   We tend to focus so much on the workout, we often forget that the actual improvements we want are achieved while the body is resting and recovering. Without stressing our muscles, we’ll never improve. Without resting our muscles, we’ll never improve. Be sure to have a healthy mix of stress and rest to achieve your fitness goals. If your workout routine has been the same for the past several months, chances are that you’re not stressing your body as much as you were when you started. Mix up your routine and add some increased repetitions or difficulty to challenge yourself when you can.

Balance is necessary for all of our goals in life. Learn to balance the items above in your fitness routines and watch the synergistic results take you to whole new levels of improvement!

Fitness Tips: How to Stay on Track

It happens to all of us – a few days into our new year’s resolution of sticking to a health and fitness regimen, and already the initial enthusiasm is beginning to wilt. That is the first sign of losing the motivation to keep exercising, becoming less focused, until finally we get back into our old habits. In most cases, this means stopping exercising and reverting to eating unhealthily. Of course, it goes without saying that this flagging of motivation must be overcome in order to accomplish ones long-term fitness goals.

So, if you’re feeling those first twinges of your enthusiasm diminishing, here are a few tips to get your focus back and stay on track.

• Get your New Year calendar out. One of the best ways to stick to a schedule is making an appointment and keeping it. You can do the same with your fitness schedule. Mark out the days on which you plan to exercise, and jot down the target time you will be accomplishing it in. And keep this calendar in a visible place.
• One of the next things you need to do is some soul searching. Ask yourself why you are actually exercising. Is there an upcoming event you want to look good for? Or is it because your boyfriend feels you need to get into shape? If it’s any of these, they are just not good enough reasons for staying on track. Exercise for yourself – because you want to add flexibility and muscle tone, become stronger, have more energy, experience that sense of feeling great, and of course to lose weight and look good.
• Make the time for your exercise routine. One of the main excuses people make for going off track is not finding the time. If you make your health and fitness a priority, you will find the time to do it.
• Setting goals is another great way to stay focused. The trouble with goals however is that they seem too far into the future, and hence soon lose their significance. One of the best ways to overcome this roadblock to staying on track is to make both short-term as well as long-term goals. The short-term goals should include things that can be achieved in 3-6 weeks, while your long-term goal could be what you plan to achieve in a year. Ensure that the goals you make are achievable so that you are not discouraged, but challenging enough to make you want to wear on your gym shoes or running shoes every day.
• Make sure that your workout is intense enough so that endorphins are released. One of the best motivators is that upbeat feeling of well being that endorphins give you. Of course, you will need to consult your doctor about the optimum level of exercises suitable for you, your level of fitness, and your body type.
• Select a type of exercise that you are likely to continue doing over a long period of time. Something that you love doing and will be enthusiastic about each day. Some like the competition of sports to keep them motivated, others prefer something simple and uncomplicated, like walking for instance, to keep them motivated.
• Think of your exercise as a gift you are giving yourself. Make the time you spend doing it special – a time when you can be alone with yourself and your thoughts. A time when you can bring back focus and balance within yourself.

Fitness: Measure What Matters!

When it comes to measuring our improvement, the bathroom scale seems to be the tool of choice…but is it a fair gauge? Most diets don’t provide long-term results because they are focused on short-term measurements. Take for example a dieter that has lost 5 pounds in their first week of dieting. They are overjoyed with the result…but what did they really accomplish? Their 5-pound weight loss is a combination of: 1-part stored energy (fat converted into glycogen); and 3-parts of water which is needed to burn it. So that 5 pounds on the scale may be more reflective of only 1 pound of actual fat loss.

Weighing yourself at different times of the day can also give you varied results, as your levels of hydration will vary significantly as the day goes on. That recommended 8 glasses of water per day that we should all be drinking equates to over 4 pounds of weight…and these are good pounds, my friends. Drinking water has many, many health benefits, so its temporary weight is well worth it. In fact, water helps the kidneys filter waste products from the body. Not enough water and your kidneys will turn to the liver for help. If the liver is ‘tasked’ with filtering waste, it will decrease or suspend its primary function of mobilizing stored fat for energy. Therefore water indirectly burns fat…so go ahead and have another glass.

If the scales are short-term gauges, how should we measure our long-term improvement? The best way is to measure our body fat percentage. This is a superior long-term gauge of success and will not significantly fluctuate with a bowl of ice cream or a glass of water. I personally like the circumference method, which by taking a few simple measurements you can record and calculate your body fat percentage. This measurement is best done every few weeks or even just once a month. It’s more reassuring than a weight number and it’s much more rewarding as you’ll actually see a decrease in size. By measuring your waist, hips (women only), and neck circumference with a cloth tape measure you can easily figure out your body fat percentage.

In summary, measure what matters. The bathroom scale is a good gauge of weight, but will only displays part of the story. By measuring your body fat percentage, you’ll be able to really see the long-term improvements of your fitness plan both on the measuring tape and in the mirror!

5 Tips and Motivation Hints to Start Your Fitness Routine This Fall!

The crispness of autumn’s air settles in after a long summer of hot and humid weather. The leaves begin to turn vibrant colors and the children head back to school. Adults settle back into their regular routines and begin preparing for the upcoming winter months.

If you’re like most adults, one of your priorities is to lose weight and tone up. Perhaps you want to drop a few dress sizes or add a few pounds of lean muscle. Whatever your goal may be this season, here are a few tips that will jumpstart your fat loss:

1) Eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day. Each meal should be 2-3 hours apart. Each meal should contain one protein and one carb. The first meal should be eaten within an hour after waking.

2) Drink a cup of water at each meal.

3) Rest properly. This means taking at least 48 hours between strength training the same muscles, and it also means getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Lastly, it means taking 1-2 days off from exercising per week.

4) Cardio should be done at different intensity levels and different session lengths. Consider doing a low intensity/long session, a high intensity/short session and a few medium intensity/medium length sessions.

5) Strength train each muscle 1-3 times per week. You should lift a proper weight and perform the proper amount of sets/reps for your strength training method. If you need more guidance or exercise ideas you can search the web. Try using the search term “strength training woman” or “strength training men” to narrow down your results. Include the quotation marks for best results.

It is possible for us to begin the autumn season and start checking things off of our “To Do” list. The secret to successful fitness programs lies in correct execution. Non-stop dieting or crash course fitness regimes will not help you achieve lasting fat loss.

There are many ways to keep your motivation strong through the fall and winter months. Here are a few that you can begin using right now: