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Let’s face it, we live in a world where food temptations are everywhere…which leads to cravings, which lead to you eating things that you shouldn’t. Again. And again. And again. Until you’re so fed up with your body that you don’t even know where to begin to get yourself back on track.

Stores display the most tantalizing junk food items right where you can easily reach them. TV commercials for greasy, fattening foods portray them so scrumptiously that you literally salivate. Sugary snack items have full-page, glossy pictures in your favorite magazines. And as if all of these weren’t enough, the people in your daily life are another, constant source of food temptation.

To make matters worse, you’ve been conditioned since childhood to have a positive association with the act of indulging in your cravings. You use food as a reward. You use food as a source of emotional comfort. You use food as a way to relieve stress. And quickly, these associations and uses of food become habit. A habit not easily broken.

New Technique to End Food Cravings

Food cravings don’t need to have the upper hand on you anymore. Here’s how you can fight back using your most powerful asset: your brain.

Remember that your mind is an amazing thing. Once your mind is made up about something it’s nearly impossible to change it.

Try This Powerful Mind Exercise: Imagine that you are peacefully floating down a river on a raft. The sun is shining, birds are chirping, and you are having a fun, relaxing time.

You feel wonderful about the river because it’s making you feel happy.

Now change perspectives for a moment. You’re now in a plane flying over the river and the raft. Instantly, our eye is drawn to an enormous rocky waterfall. Then you look back to the person floating on the raft, having a wonderful time, headed straight for the treacherous falls.

With this new perspective of the river, do you think that you’d agree to get on a raft and take your chances floating toward the falls? Laughable, right? You’ve seen the hidden danger of the river. You know it leads to pain and suffering.

Now your negative association (watery death) with the river has replaced your initial positive association (relaxing fun).

This is the key to overcoming food temptations and putting an end to food cravings: building negative associations in place of existing positive ones. I’ll break this process down for you in two steps:

Step One: Create a STRONG Negative Association with Unhealthy FoodYou may not have realized it, but up until this point, you’ve placed unhealthy, fattening foods on a pedestal in your mind. As long as the wrong foods are on that pedestal, you’ll continue to give in to your cravings and will continue to gain fat.

• Take the wrong food off that pedestal by listing off everything negative about them…
• These foods make you unhealthy.
• These foods cause weight gain.
• These foods drain your energy.
• These foods kill your confidence.
• These foods lessen your quality of life.
• These foods damage your love life.

Every time you feel tempted to eat an unhealthy food, focus on your list of negatives. Kick the junk off the pedestal and put something healthy in its place.

Step Two: Create a STRONG Positive Association with wholesome foods

Now that your mental food pedestal has been cleared, put truly wholesome food items on it. Juicy fresh fruit, crispy vegetables and savory lean meats are the place to start.

List off the things that you love about healthy food…

• These foods make you healthy.
• These foods promote fat loss.
• These foods boost your energy.
• These foods build your confidence.
• These foods improve your quality of life.
• These foods enhance your love life.

I encourage you to immerse yourself in the world of healthy, wholesome foods. Browse the aisles of your local natural foods store. Stroll through a farmer’s market. Pack healthy snacks to bring to work. Clear your kitchen of junk.

Use the technique above consistently and you will soon find that healthy, wholesome foods are your favorite.

And craving the wrong foods will be a thing of your past.

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Would you like to be thinner? Have better habits? And feel more positive about life?

You may think that change is hard, that it takes time. But it really doesn’t have to be.

I believe that lasting change happens in an instant.

Sure, this goes against mainstream belief. Most believe that change has to be a struggle. They expect to try and fail numerous times before ultimately losing or succeeding.

For example, how many people do you know who struggle with their weight? These are people who want to make a healthy change by getting in shape, but the change never seems to happen.

What is the biggest part of your life that you want to change? Do you have inches to lose? Do you have preventable diabetes? Do you have a pair of skinny jeans that you want to fit into? Or maybe you have an unreached goal completely unrelated to fitness.

What specifically is keeping you from making this change in your life?

According to professional speaker and author, Tony Robbins, it’s the preparation for change that takes times. In the end there’s a single instant when the change occurs.

Use these 3 steps to instantly create a lasting change and a reinvented you.

Step #1 to Reinvent Yourself: Believe that something in your life must change.

Do you kinda want to get into shape, or do you absolutely haveto lose the weight? Does dropping a few pounds sound nice, or is living another day in your current body simply unbearable? In order to reinvent yourself, you must believe wholeheartedly that things must change.

Step #2 to Reinvent Yourself: Believe that you must change it.

It is vital that you take full responsibility in making the change rather than assigning responsibility elsewhere. Sure, others may help you, but in the end you are the one who is going to make it happen. You have to want this change enough to make it your personal mission—no one else can do it for you.

Step #3 to Reinvent Yourself: Believe that you can change it.

Don’t let past failures get you down. The truth is that you are capable of amazing things when you put your mind to it. Believe that you are able to lose weight or to make any other positive change in your life.

Why do most people fail to make change stick? They rely on willpower. This works for awhile, but you’ll soon revert back to what’s comfortable. The solution?

Change what you are comfortable with. People are motivated by two things: 1) to avoid pain and 2) to gain pleasure. When you want to change a behavior pattern the key is to associate pain with the behavior that you don’t want and pleasure with the behavior that you do want.

You know that you want to lose weight and that to do so you need to quit eating comfort food late at night. You also know that you need to start exercising on a regular basis. Up until this point your brain is trained to associate pleasure with eating comfort food late at night and to associate pain with exercise.

It’s time to retrain your brain to feel good about exercise and to feel bad about eating late at night. Think about all of the negative things about being overweight and connect these unpleasant thoughts to your late night snack. Now think about all of the wonderful things about being in shape and connect these pleasant thoughts to exercise.

You are capable of making big changes in your life. Start by contacting me for your no obligation fitness consultation.

Remember, change happens in an instant.

Are you ready to transform your lifestyle and body? Call or email me today to get started.

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It happens to everyone. That moment when you realize that it’s time to do something about your weight.

It may happen when you’re looking in the mirror or standing on the scale.

Your first thought is to go on a ‘diet’, but as quickly as that enters your mind, the ghosts of a hundred diets past return…along with all the frustration.

Then you wonder, why bother?

The weight will come back, as it always has. Then you’ll be back in front of the mirror as discouraged as ever.

The answer is not to go on another diet.

The answer is to create a vision and make it a priority.

Creating a Vision. What exactly do you wish to accomplish? If it’s weight loss, exactly how much weight? What size will you be when your goal is accomplished? Can you picture what you’ll look and feel like? Take time to clearly visualize what you really want to accomplish. This is your vision.

Make it a Priority. Having a vision is great, but unless you make it a priority, it will get lost and fade away. Embrace simple, small changes that will add up to big improvements in your lifestyle. Starting small allows you to stick with it, and to build upon your success. These are your main venues for change:

What You Eat. Let’s face it, most of the foods you eat aren’t the healthiest. Some are downright terrible (the burger and fries you had this weekend). While others are simply excessive (the snacks you eat while watching TV).

The solution to cleaning up your daily diet is NOT to go back on a ‘diet’. In fact, I never want you to go on a ‘diet’ again. (Yes, you heard me right!) Instead, I want you to make permanent healthy changes to your eating habits.

Here are some practical examples:

• Choose salad over chips or fries
• Don’t add butter to your food
• Eat fresh produce with every meal
• Limit desserts to one per week
• Cut out mindless snacking
• Drink water, not soda

I don’t expect you to eat a perfect diet every day of the week – that’d be very difficult. You should, however, make MORE healthy choices every day than unhealthy ones.

How You Move. Exercise is a huge component of a healthy lifestyle, and quite frankly, you’re not getting enough of it. How often does an entire week go by without you ever lacing up your tennis shoes? Don’t disregard the importance and power of a good workout.

Your new healthy lifestyle means exercising on most days of the week. This may seem tough, but I have the perfect solution – my boot camp sessions were created for busy people just like you who only have so much time to dedicate to exercise.

I understand how hard it is to find the motivation to stay consistent and to push yourself. Make exercise a no-brainer—contact me to get started on a lifestyle-enhancing program today.

Here are simple ways to move more:

• Watch less TV
• Stretch stiff muscles every day
• Play at the park with the kids
• Go for a jog

Your lifestyle is the balance of all the choices that you make regarding your body. Swing the balance in your favor—make a majority of your choices health-conscious.

So the next time you’re in front of the mirror, you won’t worry about your weight.

You’ll relish it.

Are you ready to transform your lifestyle and body? Call or email me today to get started.

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If you get fat, are you doomed to stay fat?

According to a study conducted in the UK in 2015, less than 1% of the formerly obese will maintain weight loss for more than a year. Specifically, this broke down to just 1 man out of 210 and 1 woman out of 124.

Participants in the study were told to eat less and move more, a method that failed to deliver long-term results. Clearly this sound bite advice wasn’t enough.

Now I could launch into a debate over whether or not this study practiced sound research and whether or not the participants really did eat less and exercise more, but instead I’d rather share with you what I know to be true about lasting weight loss.

Make no mistake about it, long-term fat loss results are very possible and are enjoyed by the majority of my clients, in stark contrast to the UK study results!

Since there’s more to it than simply eating less and moving more, how does one go about losing fat and then keeping it off for the long haul? Here are 5 Steps to Finally Lose the Fat…

Step #1 to Finally Lose the Fat – The Right Mindset

There are only two mindsets to choose from when you approach your quest for weight loss:

This is a temporary change in my behavior.

This is a new way of life.

There’s no middle ground; you either see it as a temporary change or you see it as a permanent change. It’s pretty obvious which mindset produces permanent results.

Step #2 to Finally Lose the Fat – New Habits

Understanding how to put new habits in place is the second step to losing the weight and keeping it lost.

As we just saw in step one, looking at your weight loss behavior as a new lifestyle is the only way to ensure permanent results and this means adopting healthy new habits.

Habits are best taken on in gradual steps. This has been proven to be the most effective way to make the new habits stick. Approach building new habits with baby steps instead of grand leaps.

If one of your current, fattening habits is that you drink sugary soda, then first switch to drinking diet soda. Once the habit of drinking diet soda has completely replaced your sugary soda habit, then you can start replacing some of the diet soda with water. You didn’t jump straight from drinking flavorful, fizzy soda to just drinking water; that’s too extreme and will make success unlikely.

Step #3 to Finally Lose the Fat – Your Environment

In order to permanently change your body, you must permanently change your environment. It makes sense that you won’t maintain a lean body in the same environment where you gained the weight.

The term “environment” sounds vague, so let’s break it down. Your environment is the world that you create around yourself. These are the foods that you see, smel,l and have easy access to. This is the ease or difficulty you have in consistently accessing exercise. This is the lifestyle of the people closest to you that casts an influence on your own lifestyle, whether you realize it or not.

I’ll bet you could draw out the ideal environment for permanent weight loss. You know the path. Now put in the effort to walk the path.

Step #4 to Finally Lose the Fat – Good Nutrition

The problem with the advice to eat less and move more is that it doesn’t make a distinction between calories. When total calorie count is your only goal, you’ll end up consuming lower-quality calories than you should, which leads to mindless eating and malnutrition.

Educate yourself on healthy calories versus nutritionally void calories. A great rule of thumb is that calories that are created in nature are always superior to calories created in a factory. Stick with real food over anything from a package.

Step #5 to Finally Lose the Fat – Your Support System

If you just did the first 4 steps, then you’d be well on your way to successfully transforming your body from fat to fit, and keeping it that way for the long haul. However, in order to fully ensure that you make the switch from where you are to where you want to be, it’s important to put a support system in place.

Nothing is more powerful than social accountability. Instinctively, you don’t want to let people down, and so you’ll work harder and more consistently in a support group than you would when working on your own. It’s hard to sleep in when you know someone is at the gym waiting for you!

This fifth and most important step is where I come into your life. My entire mission is to not only provide you with the action steps to getting into the best shape of your life, but I am also here to provide you with the support that you need to make it happen.

Call or email me now to get started on a program that will get you fit for life. You can do this!

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Get your best body ever (step-by-step plan)

Is your body in the shape you want it to be? Do you feel free to wear whatever you’d like without needing to cover up any trouble spots?

If not, then I’ve got a step-by-step plan to get you into your best body ever…

Best Body Ever Step #1: Program Your Mind

Your mind is your number one ally when it comes to achieving your goals. However, until your mind has been programmed for success, it will do more to derail your efforts than to help you.

• • Take a few moments each day to visualize yourself at your ideal weight. Imagine how it feels to look the way you’ve always wanted.
  • Protect your mind from any negative self-talk. If a negative thought comes to mind, immediately reject it.

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• You want to be thin and fit, and yet you think of yourself as out-of-shape and fat. Re-program your mind to think of yourself as fit and attractive, and you will be well on your way toward achieving your goal.
• Give up the belief that you can’t achieve the body you’ve always dreamed of. See it first in your mind, and then in the mirror.

Best Body Ever Step #2: Conquer Your Fear

Change makes most of us nervous – even if it is a change in the right direction. You may not be consciously aware of the fear you have of getting into shape. Until you conquer this fear, your best body efforts will be blocked by self-sabotage.

Professional speaker and author, Anthony Robbins, has outlined three specific beliefs that you must have in order to conquer your fear and instantly create a lasting change.

• Believe that something MUST change. You can’t be wishy-washy about it. You can’t be considering it. You can’t even be pretty sure about it. You’ve got to be rock solid.
• Believe that YOU must change it. You can’t pass the buck of responsibility and expect to lose weight. It’s on your shoulders. Other people will prove to be great assets in your journey, but in the end you are the one who is going to make it happen. You have to want this weight loss enough to make it your personal mission.
• Believe you CAN change it. You may have failed in the past, but that doesn’t matter. When you put your mind to it, you’re able to do amazing things. Do you believe that you are capable of losing weight? Once you own the belief that you can, you’ll be unstoppable.

Best Body Ever Step #3: Lose Your Excuses

Your excuses for being out-of-shape are getting old. An excuse takes less immediate effort than an action, but in the long run the action taker always has the advantage. Don’t allow excuses to ruin your life any longer.

• Don’t skip out on your responsibilities with excuses, instead expect more from yourself.
• Focus on the big reason why you are losing the weight. Make a list of the benefits you’ll enjoy once you achieve your goal and read them first thing each morning.
• Remember that you can only have two things in life: excuses or results. Which do you want?

Best Body Ever Step #4: Strengthen Your Commitment

How many times have you tried to lose weight, only to give up a week or two later? We live in a commitment-phobic world, so it’s no wonder that you routinely abandon your goals. If you truly want to lose weight, then your commitment to the process is a must.

• The margin between success and failure is bridged by your commitment. Don’t give up until your goal has been achieved.
• Treat exercise with the same importance as a work meeting, and you’ll never skip it at the last minute. Find three available 30-minute time slots in your schedule and mark them on your calendar. Now stick to your schedule.
• If you don’t give up, then you’ll never fail.

Best Body Ever Step #5: Control Your Diet

If you consistently eat the wrong food, then your weight loss efforts will all be in vain. To put it bluntly, you need to stop eating junk. Processed foods, refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup do not belong in your diet if you want to be in great shape. Cut these items out of your diet and replace them with real whole foods like lean meats, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and fruits.

• Don’t eat processed foods. Even though processed foods are accepted by our society, they contain tons of chemicals and empty calories that will make you sick and fat.
• Fat contains twice the caloric density of protein and carbohydrates, so make sure to limit the amount that you consume. Eat lots of lean proteins and wholesome carbohydrates from plants and whole grains.
• Vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts and seeds are filled with fiber and antioxidants which are vital for healthy weight loss. Snack on these instead of packaged treats.

Best Body Ever Step #6: Utilize Your PatienceIt takes time to transform your body from fat to fit, even though you want it to happen overnight. Remind yourself that it took time to put the weight on, so it will take time to take the weight off. When you find your patience wavering, or when you encounter a frustrating plateau, do the following:

• Review your goal. Is it specific and measurable? Is it small and attainable, rather than monumental? Focus on your goal when the going gets tough.
• Make each workout a new experience. Challenge your body with different resistance, new exercises and a varied pace.
• Remember that anyone can have one great workout, but that won’t get you the body you want. The only way to achieve your goal is by consistently exercising and eating right, plain and simple.

Best Body Ever Step #7: Build Your Support

People who exercise alone are less challenged, less accountable and are more likely to fail. It makes sense. Who would rush to the gym if no one is was waiting for them? Who would push themselves if no one was paying attention? Exercising solo is a recipe for disaster.

• Find a workout partner who is in better shape than you, or better yet, work with me, your local fitness expert, to guarantee your results.
• I am passionate about seeing you achieve results—don’t waste your time, energy and effort on mistakes.
• When you start a program with me, you suddenly have the upper hand on weight loss. I’ll be in your corner, coaching you each step of the way, keeping you accountable to workouts and giving you that dose of encouragement when you need it most.

Get serious about your results and begin the last weight loss program that you’ll ever do.

Call or email today to schedule your first workout.

How to eat for best results

The foods that you eat make a huge impact on your fat loss results. But it’s not just about what you are eating, it’s also about how much and how frequently you eat.

All of these factors make the topic of how to eat for best results a hot one with my clients! So let’s dive into the most popular eating strategies…

A quick online search produces two popular eat-for-fat-loss strategies: Intermittent Fasting versus Six Small Meals.

Which strategy works best? And, more importantly, which strategy would work best for YOU? Let’s find out…

Intermittent Fasting

This eating strategy cycles between periods of eating and periods of fasting. The content of your meals during eating periods is not a factor. Some cycle between eating and fasting each day, creating a small window for eating and fasting for at least 16 hours, while others cycle eating and fasting across several days, taking as much as 48 hours at a time to fast.

Pros: Humans have been fasting for thousands of years. Our bodies are well equipped to handle periods of fasting. Research shows that fasting produces benefits for disease prevention, metabolic health, weight loss and even life extension. Some find it less work to fast rather than to plan for several small meals. During eating periods you get to eat whatever you want.

Cons: Abstaining from nourishment for long periods of time can be challenging, especially when food is all around you. Socially it can be awkward to skip meals while your friends and family break bread together. Some find themselves overeating during eating cycles, and some find the ongoing absence of food to aggravate food obsession and to produce an unbalanced focus on food.

Six Small Meals

This eating strategy, of breaking the traditional 3 square meals into 6 smaller meals that are spaced 2-3 hours apart, has been used by bodybuilders and fitness competitors for years. The content and size of each meal is an important factor of this eating plan. Meals early in the day contain lean protein, fiber-filled veggies, and a small portion of complex carbs, while meals later in the day are smaller and do not contain any complex carbs. All meals are low in fat.

Pros: You never feel hungry. By fueling up every 2-3 hours you never get the feeling of deprivation that comes with fasting. Energy levels are steady and high due to the constant supply of wholesome calories. Fat loss results are steady, and, when done with an exercise plan, muscle is maintained.

Cons: You have to plan ahead. Every. Single. Day. Get used to carrying around a small cooler filled with containers of chicken, broccoli, brown rice, and sweet potatoes. Each meal is small, so restraint is required. Unless you are including the occasional cheat meal or cheat day, there is no room in this diet for empty calories or comfort foods.

Conclusion

The facts are out there to prove that both of these eat-for-fat-loss strategies work. There are photos of real, actual people who have subscribed to each of these methods and have gone from flabby to lean. Both methods irrefutably work.

But why? How can two methods that utilize opposing strategies both produce fat loss results? And which one is better? Let’s dive deeper into what makes these eating strategies work…

1. Meal Timing

When you eat is a factor in both of these eating plans. This means that subscribers to both plans are required to wait until the appointed time to eat. So mindless snacking, or grabbing a muffin just because it’s there, is out of the question. This reduces overall calories, which is key to weight loss, and explains why both plans produce results.

2. Meal Content

The Six-Small-Meals plan focuses on the content of each of your small meals in great detail. Your meals contain lean proteins, fiber-filled veggies, and limited complex carbs. This detailed control of calorie content is largely why this plan is a sure bet for fat loss, not just weight loss.

Intermittent Fasting does not consider the content of your meals during eating periods.

3. Meal Size

The Six-Small-Meals plan also focuses on the exact size of your meals, which makes sense since you are eating six times each day, and excess calories quickly add up. Typically this is done by weight, so as you pack your meals for the day you’ll be using a food scale to ensure that you have exactly the right amount of lean protein and complex carbs. Veggies are often measured rather than weighed.

Intermittent Fasting does not consider the size of your meals during eating periods.

So What’s the BEST Eating Strategy for FAST Results? As we’ve discussed, both of the eating strategies above are capable of producing results. This is due to the fact that both plans result in a lowered caloric intake.

When it’s all said and done, weight loss comes from caloric balance.

Remember the junk food diet where the professor lost weight eating restricted calories of only vending machine food? As long as you are taking in fewer calories that you are burning, you will end up losing weight.

While both of the strategies above end up curbing your calories, only the Six-Small-Meals plan encourages wholesome calories that are ideal for burning fat and building muscle, which is why this is the plan most used by bodybuilders and fitness competitors.

When it comes down to you choosing your own eating strategy it’s important to determine what will work best with your lifestyle. If carrying a cooler with you and making time to stop every 3 hours to eat a meal is simply not something you can see yourself doing, then Intermittent Fasting may produce better results for you. The key is to figure out a plan for restricting calories that you would realistically be motivated to stick with. And the more wholesome the content of those restricted calories, the better and quicker your results will come!

Want more guidance as you take your body from flab to fab? I’d love to help you! Give me a call or shoot me an email and let’s get you on track to shed some major fat before summer!

Let’s do this together.