Free Juicing Report

Hey Gang,

Finally got pen to paper (well sort of) and wrote a free report for anyone interested in getting started with juicing.

Thirsty?

I am a huge fan of my juicer and what it produces.  Always feel better when I have a fresh juice to start the day.  My mood improves, my energy soars and my body responds.

If you are a new to the world of juicing, download my free report.  It will get you started with 5 must have recipes and the easiest ingredients to use.

I am so inspired by my report I think I’ll start a juice fast tomorrow.

I hope you enjoy the report!  Get juicing!

Download the FREE report…

Juicing for Health

Play Time!

Passing a park today on the way to softball, I noticed a group of kids playing tag.  It made me remember how much fun it was to be active.  No one had to tell us to run around or how to make our bodies move, we just did what was fun!
We called it Play!  I think as adults we lose site of what is fun for each of us and only stick to what the trainers, the latest diet or the so-called experts tell us to do.
Aerobic activities such as bicycling, jumping rope, roller skating, running, dancing, and swimming can be beneficial if they are done for 12 to 15 minutes without stopping.

You're it!

It’s time to think like a kid again and get outside and play!
Tag!  You’re it!

Fitness- What Does It Really Mean?

I am sure many people will be surprised at what being fit really means.

It’s a mindset, a certain attitude and a lifestyle.

Yes, it’s about having the body and health you want, but it’s first and foremost about loving yourself. It’s about knowing who you really are and who you want to be.

It’s the result of a complete transformation of your inner being and the sum of daily positive and healthy habits.  Fitness is not something that comes quickly.

Fitness is about habits: eating healthy, exercise and changing the way you feel about yourself.

Eating several times a day (5 to 6 times ideally), the right portions (use the size of your fist) and the right nutrients are prerequisites.  Non-processed foods, fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, whole cereals, and drinking plenty of water will get you on the right track to breaking unhealthy eating habits.
Prepare your own meals so you know exactly what you are eating and when.  Just this small bit of control will greatly reduce your chances of a slip in your healthier lifestyle.

We are all unique individuals and everyone will have to train a different way. You must find things that interest you and train according to your body type and fitness level. Combine three different types of workouts to keep you interested and having fun while challenging your body to create change.

The only way to a better the outside you is to make sure you understand the inside you. Usually, what you see in the mirror is all people think about achieving when they are getting fit.  If you don’t know why you had the poor habits to begin with or what drives you to become this new person, you are setting yourself up for failure before you ever start.

Personal growth and attitude are essential to succeed.

This does not happen overnight.  You need to be prepared to put in the work, to set your schedule up to give you the time to invest in yourself and trust the process.  Old habits are hard to break but if you know that you are worth every minute you invest, you can have great results.

There will be days where you will be super charged with energy and happy to undertake what you decided to.

Then there will be days where you will need to discipline yourself.  Your motivation starts to fade away and if you haven’t committed to the new habits, you will fight with yourself to move forward. This is when grabbing a hold of your vision of what you want from your life and focusing on it will be critical.  Let go of the negative thoughts, control your mind and keep going, whatever challenges come your way.

An easy way to do this is keep a picture handy or create a dream board.  An old photo of you when you were happier with how you looked, something you want to do when you’re fit, an outfit you’ll look fantastic in, what you believe your life will be like when you get the results you want. Remind yourself why you are doing this and what life will be like every morning and before you hit the sheets at night.

When you start to see results your motivation will no longer be a problem!  Your body will have accepted your new programming and the new you will feel different on the inside and out.

Being fit is not just about changing the you that everyone sees.  That will come if you change the way you see yourself inside.  Know what you want, know why you want it and find a way to make it fun.  Fitness is about making small changes for a long term results.

Make today a fit day!

Making Time to Add Fitness Into Your Daily Life

When do you find time?

How can anyone find time to workout with full- time jobs, errands, swimming & piano lessons for the kids, the costumes to design for the school play, a house to clean and still get some sleep?

Squeezing in a jog or a yoga class during the week is a constant struggle for many.

Luckily, there are ways to fit in some physical activity in your jam-packed life.

Schedule time for yourself: If exercising has become a goal and priority of yours, then make time in your schedule for it. Mark in your planner three or four times a week you want to set aside for just yourself and hit the gym or track.

After a few weeks, you will be in the habit of going to the gym. Exercising will become part of your routine like brushing your teeth in the morning.

Wake up early: A way to make more time in your day is to wake up earlier. Instead of hitting the snooze button five times, wake up the first time the alarm goes off and go for a jog. You will find yourself having more energy throughout your day when exercising becomes part of your daily routine.

The buddy system: Having a friend to exercise with will help motivate you. You will not want to let your workout buddy down by canceling your workout because you wanted to sleep a little longer or couldn’t get away from your soaps.

Stairs are your new friend: Say good-bye to elevators and escalators!   Using the stairs instead can help burn many more calories than pressing that button to the fifth floor or riding the escalator at the mall.

You don’t have to give up TV time: Instead of giving up your Desperate Housewives fix, spend the time during the commercial breaks to get in some jumping jacks or while watching the news you can do a number of different abdominal workouts, push-ups or stretches.

Take the Break out of lunch and coffee breaks: At work, instead of taking that extra-long lunch or coffee break with co-workers, go for a walk instead. You won’t be too exhausted or sweaty when you come back to work, and you will feel better about burning those extra calories instead of having that doughnut on your break.

Add more to errands and chores: There are numerous times during the day that you probably find yourself just standing around. You stand in line at the store, waiting for the bus, or at the stove sauteing. Well, use that time to burn calories and tone your muscles.

While in line at the store, you can stand with your feet together and lift both your heels up and down working your calf muscles. Raising your legs to the side can help work your outer thighs as well. Also, you can pick something out of your grocery cart and do bicep curls with it.

At home, you can do jumping-jacks or run in place while you wait for the water to boil on the stove.

The kitchen table chair is a wonderful way to help tone your arms. While you are waiting for your dinner to heat up, place a chair behind you and squat down in front of it. Place your palms on the seat of the chair with your fingers facing away from you and push yourself up and down. This will help strengthen your triceps.

Turn it up! Before making dinner or cleaning the house, turn on your favorite upbeat music!  You’ll be surprised how much fun it is to dance your way through chores.  Get the kids out on the kitchen dance floor with you!  The chicken won’t be the only thing “shakin’ and bakin'”!

Park further away: Those prime spots are now the ones on the far side of the parking lot!  Taking those few extra steps in and out to your car will help cram in some more exercise and fresh air.

Your schedule is unique and everyday is different.  There is no one, easy way to fit activity into your day.  Find what best suits your lifestyle, family, career and social life and it will soon become part of your daily routine.

How To Avoid Common Mistakes In Training

couples who jog together...

It is very important to learn from your mistakes but why even make the mistakes yourself if you can learn from mine? When I set my mind to my new way of life, I made many mistakes.  I want to help you avoid making those same mistakes in your training. It could save you years of frustration!

1. Training Too Long When I first started training, I wanted to get the fastest results possible so I figured more would be better. My wake-up call came when one day I did a 2 1/2 hour session and then lost a considerable amount of strength in my next session.

Lesson: training sessions should be approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour MAX! Any longer and you’re  just breaking your body down or not working hard enough to get results.

2. Not Eating Enough Protein After Training For 6 months I went on a very low-fat diet. The problem with this was I hardly ate any protein because meat had fat in it! I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t getting the results I wanted until one day, when I had had enough of low-fat eating, I cooked up 2 chicken breasts (with skin) and ate them all in one sitting. My strength jumped up immediately!

Lesson: protein is critical for muscle-building (and dieting). Don’t get enough and you will compromise your results.

3. Not Enough Cardiovascular Training A very good friend of mine  went from a 145-pound cross-country runner to a 217-pound weight lifter in 8 months. During that entire time he didn’t do any cardio training. Not only was a lot of that weight gain fat, he felt unhealthy and unbalanced.

Lesson: even if you’re trying to gain weight, keep at least some cardio training in your program, even if it’s just walking a couple of times per week. Your heart (and muscles) will thank you for it.

4. Too Much Cardiovascular Training After the previous extreme, there was a time when I was trying to lose fat and went to the other extreme: too much cardio. I remember one session where I did 20 minutes at the highest setting on the Stair Master, then skipped rope for 10 minutes, then did the stationary bike for 20 minutes, then the Stair Master for another 20 on high, then 10 more minutes of skipping. I was in great cardio shape but my strength and muscle mass plummeted and, to be honest, I could have achieved better fat-loss results with 15 minutes of high-intensity interval training.

Lesson: too much cardio can be counterproductive. Certainly, it will burn a lot of calories but your muscles will burn more during the day just sitting there. Short, intense sessions will spare your muscle mass and boost your metabolism more effectively.

5. Using a Weightlifting Belt When my husband started training, he used a weightlifting belt for every exercise. He would basically keep the belt on for his entire workout. It was a big mistake and here’s why: A belt is very effective for stabilizing the abdominal core area. However, it is so effective that your core muscles aren’t challenged and don’t develop effectively. This can leave them weak and your core unstable, fostering a reliance on the belt.

Lesson:  a belt should really only be used for near-maximal lifting with very heavy weights. If you need a belt to do bench presses or barbell curls, you should re-examine your form and honestly evaluate your core strength. You may be setting yourself up for a back injury. Here is another thing to think about: a belt works to stabilize your core by making your abs push outwards against it. Do you really want to be training your abs to push out and stay there? It’s like training to make your gut stick out. Lesson: ease yourself off the belt if you currently use one. You will need to slowly work back up to your current weights to ensure you don’t hurt yourself. When you go to do a lift, suck in your gut and tighten your abs. You will develop far better core strength and stability, not to mention tighter, flatter abs.

6. Lifting Too Heavy My husband’s goal has always been to develop muscle mass and strength. There have been times when he used a weight that either caused him to compromise his form or didn’t allow him to get enough reps to build mass. The rep range between 6 to 12 reps per set is most effective for building muscle mass. If you consistently use weights that only allow you to get 5 or fewer reps per set, you will build strength and some muscle but most likely not nearly as much as you are capable of.

Lesson: if you want strength, do 1 to 5 reps per set. If you want muscle, do 6 to 12 reps per set. Always push yourself to use more weight but not so much that you compromise your form or results.

7. Working Too Hard I can clearly remember one dieting cycle I did where I was so enthusiastic to lose fat that I severely over- trained myself within the first two weeks. In my enthusiasm, I buried my recovery ability with extreme training volume and intensity. Coupled with a reduced-calorie diet, this overly-hard work spelled disaster.

Lesson: train hard but don’t overwhelm yourself. Your body needs time and nutrients to recover and rebuild. This is especially important when dieting for fat loss.

8. Not Eating Enough This is a mistake I’ve made many times before and am sure I will make again. It applies not only to muscle-building but to fat loss as well. Not eating enough can really limit your results. But, as we all know, life gets busy and it’s hard to eat and prepare frequent, healthy meals.

Lesson: Do your best with the time and food you’ve got and be aware that the more regularly and frequently you can eat, the better. If you want to gain a lot of muscle, you are going to have to eat even when you don’t feel like you necessarily need to or even want to.

Conclusion: Everybody makes mistakes. There is no doubt about that. I sincerely hope that the information I’ve shared with you here will help you to avoid making the same mistakes I have.