surreal

I thought while I was here losing my last 15-20lbs…I could share my knowledge with others to help you achieve your goals Now…I know what your thinking….a personal trainer that needs to lose weight???? Lets just say my pregnancies weren’t pretty I’ll update this for you regularly and give you new tips and advice. If you have any questions…please feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to help you :) I have 2 very accredible certifications…a diploma in fitness & nutrition and am currently working on my Pilates.

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TRAINER TIP #7 - Changeing Behavior

The two fundamental skills required to build a fit, healthy and attractive body are: 1-A reliable knowledge or access to reliable advice on nutrition and physical activity and exercise principles, and,

2- The motivation to put that knowledge into practice.

This article is about the second skill — how to get and stay motivated for losing weight, building muscle and getting fit.

How to Change for the Better

Managing the change process is the secret to success. You need to know how to change behavior from what you’re doing now that is unproductive and not what you want, to a way of life that will give you that fitness, health and body you wish you had.

Some people find it easy to focus on targets and push ahead until they have achieved what they set out to do: Write a book, lose weight, build up a successful business. The goals may vary, but successful people have a few things in common. First, they understand that to be successful, you need a logical plan with achievable objectives at stages along the way. Second, they tend to have a strong visual and emotional image of what that success will look and feel like for them. This takes organizational skills, patience, focus, determination and drive — and some imagination.

That’s all well for the gifted few that seem to intuitively know how this all fits together from an early age. High-achievers in many fields are “born,” yet some are also “made.” It is possible to learn how to implement these skills by understanding the fundamental principles of behavioral change.

The Five Steps to Behavioral Change

Psychologists recognize five stages of change. Try to apply this thinking to your life, especially if you have ever wished to make positive changes in your life yet could not quite make it happen. And that includes just about all of us.

1. Pre-contemplation
In this early stage, a person is not aware of the need to change behavior. This is clearly not you because by reading this article you signal your interest of at least the possibility that your behavior may need to change.

2. Contemplation
In this second stage, a person reflects on the advantages and disadvantages of change. This may be the stage at which many readers of this article find themselves.

3. Preparation
When “changers” reach this stage, they are usually in the process of preparing concrete plans for change. As noted throughout this article, planning and preparation are crucial to achieving goals.

4. Action
This is the stage at which you are fully processing your plan. As a result, your behavior is changing or has changed to achieve your goals.

5. Maintenance
This is the crucial stage where you decide to continue the new behavior or to relapse to former behavior. Many people will recognize this to be the stage where it all goes wrong. You’ve put a lot of energy into getting to this point but you just cannot keep it going. You need a specific plan for this possibility as well.

“Self Talk” Keeps You on Track

The psychotherapists call this “cognitive therapy” or “rational emotive therapy.” It means developing a reasoning argument or a challenge in your head for why you should do or think positive. You should not indulge behavior that you know is destructive or counterproductive.

For example, you might challenge the idea that you’ve always been unfit and overweight, and that you will never have an attractive, healthy body. Challenging this perception with positive thoughts gives you the energy to change. When it comes to the maintenance phase, you need tools like this to help you build a pattern of behavior and living that will gradually build stability into your new way of doing things.

Here are seven behaviors to adopt when you’re trying to introduce and build lifelong habits for health and fitness. Examples of each are provided. While some of these items may seem impractical for you, they are examples of the types of behavior modification you may wish to consider. Think of some of your own as well.

1. Plan to Achieve Your Goals

Consider health and fitness a lifelong project. Approach it in a similar way to buying a house, car, overseas trip or other major project: Make it a necessity.

Plan, plan, plan. Use diaries, logs or journals to record activities, nominate goals and track progress.

Include photographs, notes to yourself, motivational quotes, and poetry — anything to keep you focused.

Don’t over-reach. Set goals that you consider achievable. If you aim too high, disappointment can discourage you. Two pounds a week of fat loss might be an achievable goal for many people. Five pounds may not.

2. Control Overeating Patterns

3. Manage Eating Behavior

4. Reward Progress and Achievement

5. Start Self-monitoring

 TRAINER TIP #6 - For The Walkers

If you listen to music while walking or jogging….the music you choose can dictate how motivated you are and how fast you move. First…choose music you like! The next step is choosing music with the right beat to keep you moving. Choose songs that have the same Beats Per Minutes so that your flow of movement is uninterupted.

- You’ll need to count the beats (strong beats) in the song for 10 secs….then multiply that by six and you have the Beats Per Minute (BPM) for the song. The beats in the song should be consistent.
- Pick 1-2 songs for the begining of your workout that have 120-125 BPM
- Pick enough songs for the length of your workout with 135-145 BPM if you’re a walker and 145-155 BPM if you jog.
- Pick 1-2 songs with 120-125 BPM again for your cool down.

While you’re walking…..make sure you take long strides and SQUEEZE your butt with every step. This will help lift your butt and give you that sexy a** you’ve been wanting . Also remember to keep your arms moving! This burns more calories. If you’re an experienced walker and need more of a challenge….walk with 3-5lb hand weights. DO NOT use leg weights! Leg weights cause more of an impact to your knees when your feet hit the pavement.  Happy Moving all!!

TRAINER TIP #5 - Making Healthier Choices

We often get so caught up in our busy lifestyles that we forget to treat our bodies the way we should. We tend to make poor decisions without knowing we’re making poor decisions. We may be out and about at lunch time so, we decide to go through the McDonald’s or Wendy’s Drive-Thru. Looking at the salads and the “healthy” options, we are fooled into thinking we’re making a good decision by getting a BLT salad or a grilled chicken on whole wheat. It’s true that these choices are the lesser of two evils….you could be making a worse choice. The problem in general with fast food places is just that….fast food. Even the healthy choice menu can be a bad choice because of all the salt and additives they contain. Here are some tips for the occasions where you need to eat on the road as well as making better choices in general.- If you know you’re going to be out all day, pack some healthy choices from home the night before or, put some fat free salad dressing in your purse and opt for a chicken or garden salad. The dressings, added cheese and other fatty ingredients are what usually kill the fast food salads.- If you can, stop at a restaurant where you’ll get more healthy options. Remember serving sizes though. Restaurants tend to serve you 2-3X the amount you need which adds to overeating. Try eating a garden salad with low or fat free dressing (again you may need to supply your own), with ½ a sandwich on whole wheat that doesn’t contain any mayo or white dressings.

- Try not to drink your calories. Avoid drinking lots of juices etc. Get your calories via a variety of healthy food choices and choose water alone to hydrate yourself. If you’re one of those people who don’t like drinking plain water, try the flavored water or adding a squirt of lemon juice to your water.

- Remember that eggs are not your enemy! Try using egg substitute or just egg whites.

- Avoid eating a large amount of breads, pasta, rice etc. (starchy carbohydrates). Watch your serving sizes and keep your meals balanced. When you do eat them, make sure they are whole wheat, and multigrain. Cereals should have 3 grams of fiber or more.

- Avoid eating a lot of pre-packaged foods for convenience. Take a couple hours a week and pre-chop veggies, fruit etc. for easy access. You could also make TV dinners for the week and pop them in the freezer for the evenings you know you’ll have less time for preparing fresh meals.

- Choose part skim cheese, 1% or fat free cottage cheese, fat free sour cream, fat free salad dressings and fat free yogurts.

- Use herbs for seasoning instead of salt. Salt makes us retain water L

- Limit yourself to one caffeinated coffee or tea a day. Drink decaf from there on in. Caffeine dehydrates us which in turn, makes us retain water.

- Drink at least 8-8oz glasses of water a day. You may need more on hot days and during intense workouts. Stay clear of gaterade drinks and power drinks as they tend to contain a lot of sugar. Herbal/decaf teas can count as a water J . Your urine should be clear or pale yellow by the end of the day.

- Try to avoid eating heavy carbohydrates such as pasta and potatoes with your meats at dinner time. Instead, have salad with your chicken breast (or whatever your protein is). This not always possible and is only laid out as a general rule. Carbs are used by the body for energy….how much energy do you need in the evening after supper? In most cases….not very much.

TRAINER TIP #4 - All About The Abs

Ok…so you want sexy abs! Who doesn’t!? Do yourself a favour though and DON’T get caught up in all those ab gimmic machines. The first thing you need to understand about getting sexy strong abs that you can SEE is…..you will NOT do it with crunches alone! Crunches will not burn the fat from your middrift. The only way to do that is cardio, cardio and MORE cardio!. The crunches strengthen and tone your abdominal area so that once you’ve lost the fat surrounding the muscle…that’s what you see…a six pack. Of course…while you’re eating low fat and doing your cardio….you need to make sure you’re doing your ab workout properly. All you need is a matt, some motivation, and the know how. I can help you with the know how ;). I hear many people say “I can do 50-100 crunches!” - BULL! I can’t even do that many and I do them daily! If you fall into this catergory…you’re doing them wrong. You should start with the smallest muscle group first (your lower abs) then do your obliques THEN do your crunches. The reason for this is because…if you start with crunches…your lower abs and obliques come in to play to assist you. That’s all fine and good BUT…once you get to your lower abs OR obliques…they’re EXHAUSTED from the crunches! The crunches call into play larger muscles and can handle the load.

So….now that that’s out of the way……..here’s how you should count and how your form should be. Lye on a matt…knees bent….feet flat on the floor. Interlace your fingers behind your head and allow your head to COMPLETELY rest into your hands. This will ensure that your abs do the work….not your NECK. Take a deep breath in through your nose…as you start to use your abs to raise your torso up…blow out through your mouth and count “1 and 2 and 3″…then hold and SQUEEZE. Then lower for “1 and 2 and 3″. If you can do 25 or more…your either in GREAT shape OR….your not doing them correctly ;). I know……..I’m tough My clients call my classes BOOT CAMP………

 I really hope someone out there is benefiting from these tips

TRAINER TIP #3 - Bicep Curls the RIGHT way

When lifting free weights it’s important to hold the weight properly. I know this sounds silly but…for example…when you’re doing a bicep curl, you should let the weight rest in the palm of your hand and GENTLY curl your fingers around the weight strictly for support. Another words…LOOSEN THE DEATH GRIP! When you grip the weight tightly…your forearms are taking alot of the weight off your bicep…not what you want. Next time you do bicep curls, do 1 or 2 reps griping the weight tightly and pay attention to the muscles being worked. Then…do 1 or 2 reps with the weight resting in your hand and using your fingers for support so you don’t drop the weight. You’ll notice that the biceps are being worked more the second way Use this same theory in every day life. When you carry bags of groceries, when you’re pushing the lawn mower etc.. Form really IS everything ;).

TRAINER TIP #2 - Avoiding Plateaus

We all plateau at one point or another but there are ways to get over that hurdle + ways to help avoid them First thing you need to remember is that our bodies are creatures of habit. One of the reasons we plateau is because our bodies get used to what we’re doing. Another reason is…after we’ve shocked our system with cutting calories etc….our body will slow it’s pace to adjust to what you’re doing/eating.

Avoid plateaus by challenging yourself! If you currently walk for 30 minutes a day and you’ve been doing that for a month or more…it’s time to kick it up and burn more calories! Try adding another 15 minutes! If you’re strength training (which I really hope you are) and you’ve been using the same amount of weight for the past 2-4 weeks…kick it up by adding another 1-2lbs! Your body can’t progress if you don’t. It WILL adjust to what your doing and you will remain where you are until you challenge yourself.

If you do that and that doesn’t work…..drop your calories dramatically for 1-2 days. This tricks your body! Once you move back up in calories…your body will start to work more efficiently :). NEVER go below 1200 calories though. When you go below 1200 you’re compromising your metabolism. These tricks should help pull you out of a plateau and help prevent one! Good luck everyone!!

 TRAINER TIP #1

DRINK UP! Members of my group (The Phoenix) have already heard this but since it’s our challenge this week…I wanted to post here for everyone else We know we should drink 8 glasses of water a day right? But why?? Is it to flush out toxins-Absolutely! Is it for better skin - You Bet! Is it for more energy? - Of Course!! So why else?? When you don’t drink enough water, your body starts to store it…similar to storing fat when there’s not enough calories consumed. This results in water weight! We get bloated…our fingers swell etc.. What’s worse is that….when we don’t consume enough…our liver (responsible for many functions) needs to assist our kidneys. When we drink the right amount of water…our liver can get back to metabolising fat! That’s what you want right? So drink up!!! And remember…you need more water when exercising or if you drink coffee. Coffee is a diretic which means it dehydrates you. Most people start a diet and start drinking thier water (not really knowing why)…at the end of the week…they lose 3-5lbs! That’s water Once you hydrate your body…it will release the stored water.