Relax a little bit before the weekend hits

Let's all take a moment today whether it's 30 seconds or 5 minutes. Find a quiet spot where you can be uninterupted(if possible) dim the lights, you can even light a candle. Find a comfortable position and close your eyes. Relax all the muscles in your face and work down all the way to your toes. Start focusing on nice deep breaths. On your inhale "I am happy" exhale "because I am" repeat for a few breaths and then let yourself be silent. Only letting positive thoughts in your mind, letting go of any negative ones or muscle tension, keep letting peace and happiness float in. Slowly start to wiggle your fingers and your toes and slowly open your eyes when you are ready. Enjoy the rest of your day and take time on the weekend to repeat this exercise if you feel you need it.

Holiday Interval Training

Burn more fat this holiday season with some interval training! The benefit is you don't have to maintain a high level of exertion the whole duration of your workout and you may even get better results. Go ahead and keep your workout around 30 minutes. If you have a heart rate monitor great if not you can just time your recovery. After warming up for 5-10 minutes: Pick up the pace and go all out for approx 15 seconds. Recover at a lower intensity until your heart rate returns back to 120-130 or approx 1 min 15 seconds. Repeat 10-15 times or until your 30 minutes is up allotting 3-5 minutes for a cool down. As you progress I'll add variations to this workout.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas!

It snowed yesterday:) I was so excited, because I love snow! It's so pretty when it's white and sparkly outside. Since it is getting quite chilly outside I do need to invest in some warmer clothes, especially if I head outside for a walk or run. I recently purchased a fleece mock neck shirt and I love it! I saw a few other colors at Marshalls the other day and I just might have to go back and get them. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the neck hole was so small I had to really pull it on. So you can say good-bye to your hair-do if you had one. Have you ever had that problem? Other cold weather gear that's nice to have is something to cover up your ears! I love the wider headbands as long as they stay put. Over at athleta.com you can find them complete with a ponytail hole in the back for $19. I have never had one but I am thinking about trying one. I tend to put my ponytail a little higher. However I think the headband was designed to wear under a helmet too. Anyways it's very cute!
On another note we also put the Christmas tree up tonight and got those cute little candles to put in the windows. Starting to look festive around here:)

You Really Do Have Options!

So I want to put so many of you at ease. My friends, my clients, and probobly you too think that so many foods are bad or forbidden. Carbs are bad because of the low carb/protein diets. Fat is bad because of the low fat diets and all the food that advertises. Then there are certain foods that are just bad like pizza, pasta, potatoes, bananas, chocolate, fruit in general even! Guess what? Your body needs all three macronutrients. Carbs in all their glory, fat in all its shinyness, protein in all its buffness. You need it all to function at your very best. Yes their is good fat and bad fat, good carbs and bad carbs, and more optimal forms of protein. If it grows in the ground it's probobly good for you. The less steps from ground to your mouth the better. The less chemicals, processes, preservatives etc the better. There are healthier ways to prepare all foods. If you don't believe me leave a comment and ask me to help you out with your food item of choice.

Debra Messing, A Great Role Model

If you want a nice big piece of honesty check out Debra Messing who is on the cover of Shape magazine this month. Looking fabulous of course. I saw her on Jay Leno two nights ago and he brought out the magazine. Debra tells Jay that the cover says "How I lost 42 pounds on the cover" (like she did it in 3 weeks) but she says it took her 3 years. So there I am given the impression it's very possibly not the celebrity that pushes for these unrealistic ideas but possibly the magazine itself. I got my issue of Shape in the mail yesterday and was excited to read the article. My fave quote from Debra was "It helped me drop the first few pounds, but I was exhausted! I couldn't work out 3 hours a day and do my job as a mother and an actress." Wow that's fabulous she just told us right there that she is completely real. She also chose to lose weight the healthy way. By eating healthier and even though she still worked out with the trainer she cut back on the time. That's fabulous and I love how she is not afraid to say it took her 3 years!
I am curios about all the celebrity moms out there posing for magazines in their bikinis. My gosh they are so brave, but we never see a stretch mark or a zit. However we all know if we had a zit in our wedding photos etc we would definately want the photographer to airbrush it out. So is it really so bad that the stretch marks are erased.......or do they even have them anymore. Maybe they should let us know what their trick was for getting rid of them. So we can know what works and what doesn't.
Or should we just stop the airbrushing and completely show the world what we look like in real life! I'm sure this would take a long time for our society to accept. I do think that we could change the way we look at being "perfect" if we started to look more objectively at all kinds of beautiful whatever the size or so-called flaw. It's about believing what's in your heart and not what others portray as acceptable.

Your Fairy-Weight-Loss-Mother to the rescue!

I have a love hate relationship with Jillian Michael's. I think she looks great works hard and definitely motivates people to get healthy. I love her workouts, and like to hit them up on demand on FitTV. However I saw her on Rachael Ray yesterday and they we're talking about whether she indulges at all. She said she is very selective about it. Which is pretty much how we all have to be:) You know when you say hmmm if I really want that piece of chocolate later maybe I won't have this cookie. The subject of margaritas came up and Jillian told Rachael that they contain about 600 calories. Rachael about fell over, and then asked if red wine was a better for you. And Jillian almost said no like don't even bother drinking it's a waste of calories(but hey if that's your treat go for that over the chocolate cake). She then tells R that it's about 100 calories and Rachael responded by saying well I could have 6 glasses of wine instead of one margarita! (Now that's my kind of thinking, girl;) To be fair I think that Jillian is so in the spotlight she kind of has to portray the I eat no bad food vibe. She does a fabulous job at it too! However I am so glad I am not her. I would not want that job! Yes I think you should eat healthy and I think you should workout but I do not think that you can't have any fun. Food is one of the joys of life so be your own judge and remember that we all have certain things that are worth indulging in. It's good for your soul to enjoy the good things in life. Moderation is key in anything we do.
My goal is to be healthy fit and still be able to enjoy an extra glass of wine or even pizza now and then. You can always up the nutrition in your indulgent food and probably make it healthy somehow. All it takes is a little creativity and adventurous taste buds.
I also used to wonder why she yells at her clients etc. Well after training a few different personalities and levels of motivation. I can tell you I have wanted to do the same thing! Really (now I may not go as far as say I'm going to break your @!#$@#$ legs with the barbell...wow I can't believe she said that. But it is TV and that's what people want. I don't think that would go well with my clients. Ha!) but I do want to say hey if you aren't going to even try to follow a healthy diet Shut-Up and stop complaining that you are not losing weight. I already gave you suggestions to change your lifestyle, but you have not changed a thing and that my friend is your fault not mine. What do you think I am the magic fairy-weight-loss mother. Poof let me wave my dumbbell at you and melt your fat cells away! Lol OK I'm done ranting I hope that made you laugh:) Anyways I don't think you should be too obsessive over the small stuff it's important to be healthy in mind, body and spirit and restricting everything can put a damper on your overall balance.

Be realistic and have fun!

It's Monday morning already and it's December 1! I can't believe how fast this year has flown by. If you are feeling a little on the unmotivated side and not looking forward to getting back into your workout today remember that maintaining your weight now is easier than having to lose a few pounds in January. You will then be ahead of the game and be looking great on New Year's Eve. You may find yourself busier than normal with all that extra shopping, decorating and parties. However anything is better than nothing so whether it's time or frequency that you have to cut back on you can make it up by increasing the intensity. Good luck and let me know if you need any suggestions.
I think we all need a reminder that celebrities have to workout just as hard as we do and eat properly to attain drastic results, but they generally can hire someone to cook for them, wake them up at 5am, and follow them around being the candy police! I happened across this article about Faith Hill yesterday. It suggested celebrity bikini shots come with a warning label. Wow what a great way to put it. How about instead of a warning label a reality label. Now in the article it states that Faith does Pilates 3 times a week and regular workouts on the elliptical. It does not say how long or how hard she work out. So in all reality yes this workout could definately give her a nice body. Remember that everyone is different and genetically prone to looking a certain way.
It takes a lot of hard work to get where you want to be, and sometimes it takes a long time. Know your body type so you can set more realistic goals. If you are 5'3 you may not look like Kerri Walsh but you still have the same potential as everyone else to be healthy fit and beatiful. So don't get discouraged(because someone did it in 30 days), be realistic and know that plastic surgery may be the reason that some people look perfect. It's ok to have some imperfections. Being healthy and fit is the best way to go.