Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan is arguably the one of the best basketball players in the world.  So you may ask yourself, what kind of problems could this guy have! Deciding who the pass the ball to, or just drive the ball to the basket himself.

If Michael Jordan had a challenge and stared them down, what are you doing about challenges.  Do you find a way around them, or do you just throw your hands up and decide that it wasn’t meant to be’

When of my favorite expressions I like to say whenever someone tells me they have a fitness challenge I say “It’s not like you’re climbing Mt. Everest in a bikini.” Most people laugh and really think their fitness challenge isn’t that huge.

Whenever I’m faced with a fitness challenge, here are a few things I do to help turn the mountain into a mole hill.

• Workout — this is my favorite, I come up with some of my best ideas this way.
• Talk it out with a friend — sometimes when you say it out loud your challenge(s) doesn’t seem that the bad.
• Break problems into smaller chunks — when you look at the problem as a whole it may seem like Mt. Everest, (sorry I have a thing about Everest) but then you sit down and break it down it, again it doesn’t seem that bad.

Tell me your fitness challenge. I’d love to help you solve it.

For years we’ve heard that we need to add GOOD fat into our diets, but do you really know what that means’ Did you even know that there were different variety’s of good fats’ Well let me break it down for you.

• Omega 3 — we get them mainly from cold water fishes — salmon, blue fish, sardines, herring. You get the picture. Yes supplementation can help, but you really need to get it from the source.  When consuming these fish be sure that you are eating the wild version of these fishes vs. farm raised.  Farm raised tend to have less Omega 3 and less protein.  Go figure. For my vegetarian friends you can find good sources in flax and walnuts.  Sadly the average American isn’t getting nearly enough of this good fat. Why do we need omega 3s’ They help reduce inflammation in the body, assist with mental health as well as heart health.  Omega 3s are also used to produce hormones in the body. For a complete listing of food that contains Omega 3.
• Omega 6 — can be found very easily in the typical American diet.  The average American consumes 10x the recommended amount of this essential fatty acid. You can find omega 6s in soybean oil, nuts and seeds. These types of oils are found in 20% of all processed foods. Omega 6s are used to make hormones as well, but these types of fats tend to cause inflammation if not taken in the correct balance with omega 3. To help balance out your omega 6s & omega 3s aim to reduce your dependence on processed foods including margarine, bottled salad dressings and mayonnaise. Sorry ladies this DOES include olive oil.  For a complete listing of foods that contain Omega 6.
• Omega 9 — plays a smaller role than 3 and 6 and small quantities of this acid can be produced by the body. Because our bodies can produce this, when we are deficient in either omega 3 or omega 6 our body will produce extra Omega 9 to compensate.  Omega 9 does have it place, but its not as powerful as omega 3 or omega 6.  Omega 9 does play a role in reducing cholesterol in the body as well as improve our immune systems.  For those of you with small children, you’ll do what ever you can do improve your immune system.  For a list of food that contain Omega 9.

I hope you found this helpful. I’d love to hear what you think. Please leave me some comments below.

Today I was really struggling to come up with a great post, while I was procrastinating I went on Facebook and stumbled across this post from a good friend of mine.

Today your actions will help lay the groundwork for something that will get you noticed by the folks you admire most, act thoughtfully and take the high road. There’s a real change coming in your life, one that you’ve been hoping for, for a long time. It may be something you’ve been avoiding even speaking about because you fear it may never happen. Get ready, because you’re about to get what you wished for.

So I ask you what is it that you have secretly wished for’  If you stumbled across a magic lamp that said rub me and I’ll grant you one wish, what would it be’
Now imagine today is that lamp. What actions can you take TODAY that will lay the groundwork.

I know you’ve heard this before, but I have to say I truly believe and I’ve seen it time and time again when I write down my goals and get really clear about what I want, I ACHIEVE them. No, my goals don’t happen overnight, but the writing them down serves to purposes 1. It makes me get really clear about what I want 2. It makes me look at them and say what am I doing to achieve them. Call the 2nd one a nice swift kick in the tush!

What groundwork will you laydown today’ How will you begin to march toward your goals’

For me — I’m starting a new fitness tips ebook — that is my new goal. I will start by writing down as many tips I can in 1 month

I’m really fortunate that the people who read my site have two things in common:

• a passion to lead a healthy lifestyle
• goal(s) that they are striving to achieve

One of things I hope that I can provide to my readers as well as my clients is prescriptive guidance to help them achieve their goals. One of their main question is cardio’

I live in Boston right next to the Charles River as soon as the snow melts the runners, joggers and walkers come out in droves.  Do you know why they run — I mean at least 85% of them, come on you the answer, think about it!! That’s right its to LOSE WEIGHT!

Running is cardio right, running is hard for me so it must be good for me, running will help me lose weight, right.  Well…. Long distance running is the worst thing for weight loss.

SAY WHAT!!!

Most of you run because you’ve seen pictures of elite runners who are lean and mean and want to get the physique or you have a friend who has the physique that you want and you ask hey what are you doing and then they say or I just run x number of miles a day. You think to yourself — running that’s easy I’ll lace up and get moving.

I’m here to tell you unless you competing in an endurance event, running will not give you that lean toned physique. I’m sorry to report that continuous long slow steady state cardio just doesn’t get the metabolism fired up the way a strength training session coupled with interval training does.  Did know that interval training is 9xs more effective than steady state cardio’ Getting your metabolism fired up is EXACTLY what is needed to get that lean and toned physique. Intervals keep your body guessing and stops it from going on autopilot.

Long slow steady state cardio does just that, it puts the body on autopilot. Your body knows exactly what to expect, how much effort to give you and therefore only gives you what you need. I’m not saying these workouts won’t be hard, but your body doesn’t have to give you as much. What’s even worse as you build up your mileage you begin to burn more fat, but guess what your body adapts to help you become more efficient at running so it begins to “store more fat”!  Yup — you heard that right.  Don’t believe me take a look at any finish line of any race; you’ll see far more average Joe physiques than you’ll see Kara Goucher physiques. They’ll be a few Kara Goucher’s, but I’ll let you in on little secret they looked like that before they started running.

You can’t run to get fit; you need to be fit to run.” – Diane Lee, Canadian Physical Therapist

When you are training for a long distance endurance race your body is recruiting different muscles to make sure that you are efficient at running.  When you are training to change your body composition you are looking to make your body’s efficient at strength training. Training for both throws your body into tug of war.  As you get more efficient at running you may experience that your fat stores tend overtake your muscle stores. Most people experience loss of muscularity in their quads and then in their tushies. Now depending on where you hold your weight, you may also experience fat gains around your mid-section.

I don’t say this to discourage your fitness goals. I tell you this so that you can make informed choices.

Need more proof – here are a few studies.

• J Clin Endocrinol Metab. Jan 2
  Effect of calorie restriction with or without exercise on body composition and fat distribution.
  This is a six month study. Aerobic training group performed 50 minutes of aerobics 5 times a week for the entire duration. Results:  No additional effects of aerobic exercise on weight or body fat levels.
• Obesity 2007 June – [15:14]96-1512.
  Exercise Effect on Weight and Body Fat in Men and Women.
• McTiernan et al
  For 1 year they had a test group do six hours of steady state cardio for 60 min, six days per week. In one year, the group lost 3 lbs.
• According to a British study, levels of Human Growth Hormone, which assists in building muscle and burning fat, skyrocketed 530% in subjects after just thirty seconds of sprinting as fast as they could on a stationary bike.

I would love to hear your thoughts leave me some comments below.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

It happens to each and everyone of us, we set a goal and immediately focus on the end result. We then have 2 thoughts, YES we can do it or NO this will never happen. Focusing on the end result I admit can be a little overwhelming when you start thinking about ALL that needs to be done to achieve your goal. But here is how I want you to start thinking about your goal. It works for any fitness, weight loss or life goal. Think of your goal as a cross country road trip. Picture this, you want to drive from New York to Los Angeles. Would you even think of just getting in the car and driving without a plan and God forbid rest stops’ No you’d pull out the map pull up an online map and plan your journey, you’d pick your rest stops, places of interest along the way and interject some fun and celebrations along the route.

Instead of focusing on the end, break your journey into 200 feet. Pull out your map:

• What will you need to do to get to the first 200 foot mark’
• What actions do you need to take’
• What resources will you need’
• Who’s support will need’

Sit down right now and get clear about what you really want and then figure out what you need to do, to get to the 1st 200 feet.

Leave me some comments below, I would love to hear your plans.

Enjoy the journey — need any assistance, please let me know I’m hear to help.

What are your thoughts around losing weight, getting into shape, staying healthy. Do you think that you can do it, have you tried in the past and it didn’t happen as quickly as you wanted it to and then you gave up’ Were you successful and then went back to your old ways and put the weight back on’

Regardless of what happened to you there was a THOUGHT that you had and that THOUGHT made you be successful or told you to quit.

Now when you listened to the successful thought, did you visualize what you like when you reached that goal, could you smell taste, touch what success would feel like’  Or did you visualize failure and let those thoughts stop you dead in your tracks.

Give this  a try change the frequency and focus on the positive. See yourself as being successful, so clear you can touch it, you feel like you are dreaming and will need to pinch yourself.

Are you reading this and going what the heck is she talking about’ What I’m talking about is visualization. You set a goal and really clearly define it and see  yourself as if you have reached that goal! Each day you’re taking baby towards reaching that goal and eventually your goal will be achieved.

This happens because we changed our thoughts around our goal.

Here is how I changed my thoughts — I am not a very good swimmer and my husband is always asking me to go kayaking with him, I typically say no or I’ll think about it and never do. This past weekend, he asked me and instead of  my typical response, I visualized that I could do, I saw through my fear of the water and did it. I visualized myself being successful versus being stranded and rescued by the Coast Guard.

How can you change your thoughts’ I’d love to hear about that. Please leave me some comments below.

It started out really simple, I was looking for a new mid morning snack. I feel into a rut and was looking to branch out.  Then we had a bit of a heat wave and I didn’t feel like cooking anything. It’s one of the few times a year that not having an air conditioner in New England is a bad thing.

Any who.. I started making smoothies and I can’t stop! My smoothies have taken on a life of their own.  My latest creation.

1 T powdered greens
1/2 c greek yogurt
1 kiwi peeled
1 t Udo’s oil
4 oz sweet potato (yes a sweet potato) — previously roasted
1/2 c water
handful ice cubes

Take all of this mix in a blender and blend until smooth.  The shake will be green, but will taste great.  If you feel that you need it, you make add 1/2 t honey to add some sweetness.

So here were are 6 months into 2011 and I’m revisiting what I’m doing for me this year. This is the longest that I have gone without a fitness goal.  I got to tell you I’m a feeling a little out of sorts.

This past week I sat down and got clear about what I want to accomplish between now and the end of 2011.

1. Finish the Falmouth Road Race

• I’d like to run this in under 1 hour
• I’d like to properly train for this race, the past few years I’ve done a half ass job training for it. (more…)

The magical way to lose weight is taking consistent action.  My favorite quote is by Cher ~

If having a perfect body was easy everyone would have one.

To have your perfect body, you will need to take consistent action. Taking consistent action requires the following.

• Change your eating habits
  • remove sugary drinks — sorry ladies, those sweet coffee drinks sure look and taste great but they can pack on the pounds. (more…)

We all have those mornings where we are running out the door and can’t quite cook a meal or now that the summer has finally arrived and its too hot and you just don’t want to cook give this smoothie a try.

• 1/2 mango
• 1/2 banana
• 4 strawberries — frozen
• 1 scoop of protein powder (any flavor)
• 6 ice cubes
• 1 and 1/4 cup cold water

Put all in your blender and blend until desired smoothness and thickness.  Want this to be a little more satiating add in some good fat give 1 t coconut oil, flax or udos.

Quinoa is pronounced keen-wah and has a rice-like appearance with a crunchy texture and slightly nutty flavor. It’s a staple in my cupboards because it takes great warm as well as cold. Here are a few other reasons why you should think about giving quinoa a try.

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I am passionate about my goals. My passion drives me forward to live the life of my dreams. I know what I want in life and I set goals to get me there.

I know that each goal I achieve brings me in union with what I desire. I feel truly invigorated with each success! Meeting a goal, no matter how big or small, strengthens my confidence and self-esteem. I enjoy these feelings and strive to receive them as often as possible. (more…)