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3 Tips to Help You Get Fit for Summer

Have you looked at the calendar lately? Summer is almost here. But, don’t worry: there’s still time to get healthy, fit and lean for summer!

Here are three simple yet effective tips that you can use to get fit for the summer.

Tip 1: Prioritize
Maybe you have 5, 10, or more items on your to-do list to get your body health-and-fitness-ready for summer. Prioritize that list, and focus on just one weak area. If you try to do everything at once, you’re going to increase your stress levels, which typically leads to inactivity and failure. Each week pick one primary goal for the week, and stick with it.

For example, you might decide to start with alcohol consumption. Alcohol is the fastest way to add empty calories, and it weakens your resolve to choose healthier foods. The average serving of 1.5 ounces of 80-proof alcohol contains about 90 calories before adding mixers. There’s no need to abstain from alcohol completely. Instead, you might choose to drink only one mixed drink per day. Or you might decide to stick with a glass of wine and forgo high calorie mixers. Try drinking mineral water with a slice of lime at a cocktail party instead of alcohol.

By prioritizing your to-do list, you’ll keep your goals manageable and feel successful. Each small success breeds even more success, and before you know it you’ll make progress in every area on that list.

Tip #2: Prepare
As the saying goes, “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.” � Plan out what you’re going to eat for breakfast and lunch. Limit yourself to one or two breakfast choices, and just a few lunch options to keep it simple and hassle-free. Plan for a easy lunch such as grilled chicken with some fresh steamed veggies and a half a sweet potato or a dinner or pan seared salmon on top of a bed of mixed greens with olive oil and vinegar.

Plan ahead for a weekly massage to work away stress. Take a 5 minute walk outside in the middle of the day to let the sunshine revive your spirits. Before you step into a stressful meeting or pick up the phone to call a difficult client, take 5-10 deep, slow breaths. Let the air fill your lungs and energize your body, and exhale away stress and tension.� You will be amazed at how much breathing and focusing on your breath can clear your mind.

#3: Recover
If you view any slipup as a defeat instead of a bump in the road, or you demand perfection in your eating habits, you’re more likely to increase your stress levels and strike out on your health and fitness goals. Resetting yourself by doing something active and concrete helps you restructure your thinking so you avoid an all-or-nothing attitude that cripples your success.

Use a Protein Day after a day filled with eating disasters to get right back on track. Base your meals and snacks around protein: eggs or egg whites for breakfast, grilled chicken or fish in a salad for lunch and with steamed vegetables for dinner, and canned tuna or sliced turkey for snacks. A Protein Day gives your body a break from carbohydrates and breaks the cycle of overeating and then feeling terrible.

Another recovery tool is to treat yourself to a healthy cheat meal once a week. Simple things like a chicken burrito from Chipotle, or a Hamburger from La Tub. Yes, you guessed it, these are my favorites. This is because I know dieting gets hard and we all need a break. Enjoying Cheat night dinner helps you regroup, so you wake up the next morning feeling light and ready for a balanced breakfast.

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With the tips outlined here, you’ll be beach-ready before you know it!

WOMEN AND SELF ESTEEM

Woman and Self Esteem

As a trainer to so many women, I have worked with all shapes, sizes and issues. Every woman has her own fitness goal when she begins working with a trainer. Whether it is to lose weight, tone up, learn new exercises, or prepare for a contest. But what I have seen in most of my female clients is the desire and need to improve their self esteem. Whether you know it or not when your self esteem improves everything else does too, from the way you walk to the way you dress and the things you do.

Our society puts a lot of pressure on woman to be thin and stay thin. We see it everywhere we go. In advertising whether it’s for sneakers or cat food the models are skinny. The models in the magazines, whether they are fashion, fitness, or maternity are skinny. The movie stars on the screen and in tabloids are skinny. The clothes and styles are made to look great on skinny people too. So what gives? When are woman going to catch a break? It’s time that all of us women be happy with who we are as individuals and happy with our bodies and what God gave us.

Every woman is beautiful in her own special way and because society has put this stigma on what a woman is suppose to look like, it makes every woman who is curvy or full figured feel that nothing is quite right with her body.

In psychology, self-esteem reflects a person’s overall self-appraisal of their own worth. People need to realize that your self worth is not based on your outward appearance but is based on the person whom you are from the inside. Being healthy is part of this. Eating healthy and exercising improves not only a person’s overall health but begins to improve their overall appearance which improves a person’s self confidence.

It is amazing to watch the transformation of my clients from when they first walked in the gym. They are not happy with how they look and feel on a daily basis. But just after a few short weeks of training with me, I see them walking in with a brighter smile and a more energetic walk. They express to me how much happier they are with themselves. My client the other day told me she was shocked because now men are looking at her again and she forgot what that felt like. Another client told me how great it was to fit in her skinny jeans again and one told me how much sexier she felt with her husband.

Helping a woman reach her goals both mentally and physically is what brings me the most joy about my job. I see so many women battle this daily, including me with body image issues. The first step to being happy is being happy with yourself and in your own skin. Until that day we will never be happy.

Interval Training

Interval Training

Interval training is great for anyone no matter what their fitness level. Interval training is varying an exercise routine to include short periods of increased intensity. Elite athletes first used interval training to improve their speed and performance in sports. But anyone can use it to shock their bodies into a change for the better.

WHY INTERVAL TRAIN?

You don’t have to be involved in sports to interval train. Interval training offers many benefits to your health like improving cardiovascular fitness, increasing speed and burning more calories. Interval training is dynamic because it can be used in many types of activities and in many environments. You can use interval training in swimming, walking, running and in weight training and you can do it at home or at the gym.

PLAIN OLD CARDIO:

People have long been advised to work out for long periods of time with low-intensity activity to burn calories from fat. Therefore, many people work out at the same intensity level for the duration of their exercise. But we now know that interval training can help you increase your metabolism, burn calories from fat and carbohydrates and keep burning calories long after you finish working out. For people on diets hoping for some weight loss, interval training is a great way to make the most of your time at the gym.

GETTING TO IT:

There are two types of interval training, one for people at the beginner and intermediate level and one for more advanced athletes. Health experts recommend those people just starting interval training should use the beginner level. The beginner level means that you would work out at a greater intensity for 2-5 minutes and then go back to a comfortable stage for 2-5 minutes.

INTENSITY:

You need to monitor your heart rate in order to calculate your intensity levels. Your lower intensity level would be around 50-65% of your target heart rate while the higher intensity would be just below 85% of your target heart rate. If you find monitoring your heart rate too difficult you can use the rating of perceived exertion scale. This is a scale from 1 to 10 with 0 being no exertion and 10 being the most exertion you can handle.

EVERYONE CAN DO IT!

Almost everyone can incorporate interval training into their fitness routines. Those people who are over the age of 40 or have chronic health conditions should consult their doctor before they begin a new fitness regimen. Since you control the variables of the intensity, speed and duration, interval training can be adapted to walking or hiking in the woods to swimming laps or jogging on a treadmill.

For example, if you were walking, you could increase your intensity for 30 seconds and then resume your normal walking pace for a minute. The next time, you could increase the intensity for two minutes before resuming your normal walking pace.

THE EFFECT ON YOUR BODY:

You may have found that, after weight training or aerobic activity, you have pain or tingling sensations in your muscles. The pain is from the accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles. Because interval training alternate high intensity and low intensity exercise, your muscles are better able to adapt and you will not have as much pain.

ADVANTAGES OF INTERVAL TRAINING:

Burn calories more efficiently Increase metabolism Improve speed and endurance Enhance cardiovascular fitness Keep your workout exciting Prevent injury

RISKS OF INTERVAL TRAINING:

Potential for over-training Potential for injury

If you would like to try interval training and belong to a gym, you can set up a session with one of the personal trainers. If you workout at home or on your own, then look for ways to vary the intensity of your workout.

Palm Beach Pro Am 2007

Here are some short clips from me on stage at the Palm Beach Pro Am in 2007. 

EXPECTATIONS

Do life a big favor and refuse to accept anything less than the best from it. Give respect to those around you by relating to them with the highest of expectations.
It is not naive, cruel or arrogant to sincerely expect the best of yourself, of every other person and of every situation. In fact, it is highly empowering and enriching for all concerned.

Genuine, deeply-held expectations serve to powerfully guide thoughts and behavior. And by so doing those expectations create results.

Expect the best of yourself, and when you start veering off course your high expectations will push you to get back on track. Expect the best of others, and you will instill a sense of confidence that can substantially boost performance.

If you do not truly expect to reach them, your dreams and goals will only tease and taunt you into a sense of bitter frustration. Yet when you give those dreams the power of positive expectation, you have what it takes to make them real.

Your expectations can influence every thought, every perception, every action, every interaction, and every situation. So choose to make those expectations the very highest and best they can be.

This was passed to be my girl V, who recieved it from the people who make it possible and easier for her to do what she love to do...her trainers. I thought I would take a minute to pass it on to those who are in the midst of training, competing and achieving their goals, I hope it inspires everyone I pass it on to as much as it has inspired me.

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