To celebrate the Holiday Season, Fitness Link is offering a dancing seminar this month. You’ll get a short introduction about health and dancing, general financial planning, and FREE Foxtrot and Swing dance lessons. The rest of the evening will be open to try out your new dance moves and to mingle!   Join us for a fun-filled active night. Light refreshments and appetizers will be served.

DanceQuest is located at 539 Metroplex Dr. off of Harding Place and I24. Click here for directions.

CALL NOW TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT: (615) 477-6502!

Fitness Link is my business in the Nashville area.  We provide personal training, group sessions/classes, bootcamps, and Metabolic Typing.  The standard package for Metabolic Typing® (MT) is available for online clients.  Click here for more details!

• Keep holiday planning in one folder to work on during spare moments.

• Complete a major planning session (20-30 min) to define holiday tasks.

• Use your main calendar or planner as you schedule your tasks.

• Steadily complete tasks in manageable steps.

• Review Daily Routine for E.P.I.C. (Eliminate, Postpone, Isolate, Consolidate) Results.

• Prioritize Fitness, Food and Self.

• After the holiday, review your plan. Note what worked, time estimates, and ideas for next year.

• Put the folder away until next October.

Time Management:

• Brainstorming is not a waste of time. It allows you to “brain dump” all the unconnected thoughts roaming your head. Those roaming thoughts and inability to process where they fit in an already busy schedule is the basis for a majority of holiday stress.

• When scheduling tasks, place a time beside the task. It’s important to give yourself a time estimate because you’re more likely to dedicate your efforts to the task’s completion as outlined.

• Every morning and evening between now and the end of the Holiday season, take 5 minutes to review your tasks, adjust your calendar, and find a spot to complete one or two holiday tasks. When the evening arrives, check off your list, highlight your accomplishments and prepare for the next morning. Breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy your well earned sleep.

Food & Events:

• Enjoy bite size portions.

• On a day a large meal is planned, eat smaller and lighter portions for other meals. Maintain a balance in the meals and don’t skip eating to make up for the big one.

• Have healthy, high energy foods on hand for snacks (ex. hard boiled eggs, fruit, cheese, vegetables, cut meats).

• Schedule one day a week as a splurge day. Focus on healthy choices the rest of the week.

• For weeks that have multiple events, pick and choose your weaknesses selectively. For instance, Mary Jane has a fantastic sweet potato pie at the annual office party. Indulge with a slightly larger portion than the other bite size portions.

• Test new, healthier recipes two to three weeks prior to it’s debut.

Exercise:

• Keep to your routine as regular as possible. Make this a priority and work other tasks around it.

• Missed a workout? Complete a shorter session at home.

• Take advantage of 5, 10, 15 minute windows to complete short workouts. You’ll be surprised with what you’re able to accomplish.   Intense, short sessions reap amazing results. Your body is your priority.

• Revisit your fitness goals daily!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

What tip would you add to surviving the holidays?

The grocery store is filled with information, but processing and understanding the details can feel overwhelming.  Here are a few tips that I put together to help you better understand how the food is that you purchase and bring home.

Happy Shopping!

When looking at foods to purchase, consider:

1. Quickest path from nature to mouth. The body is equipped to break down foods in their natural state. The more processes the food undergoes before reaching our pantries, the more the body has to figure out how to break it down.
2. Food combinations (Overall Meal Planning) for maximizing nutritional value. The body uses food as part of major chemical processes in the body. Many of the functions require multiple nutrients to be the most efficient. Our body needs over 50 nutrients a day.
3. Major Ingredient Concerns:

• Salt: Under 120mg per 100 cal serving. Goal-60mg to 100 cals.
• Sugar: Daily allowance of 12g-36g a day. 3Tsp-9tsp.
• Fats: Avoid trans fats (anything with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated ingredients).
• Goal: 1-2-3 rule—for Every 100 calories, 2 g. fiber, 3 g. fat.
• Keep saturated fats under 10% daily total calories. Usually around 8-12g. A day.
• Healthy fats are necessary in the diet. Look for unsaturated, poly, and mono fats.
• 20% daily intake should be in the form of fats.

Deciding Factors in keeping food healthy, nutritious, and tasty:

1. Cooking Method: In general, the most nutritious state of a food is in it’s raw form followed by steamed, broiled/grilled, sauteed, boiled, and (LEAST) fried.
2. Environmental Factors/Organic: There is uncertainty in how much damage or influence pesticides have on various foods and on our bodies. Just because something is labeled organic, does not necessarily mean it’s better for you. Be aware of processed foods regardless of the ALL NATURAL or ORGANIC labels.
3. Price: Still a major factor in determining your ability to purchase a wide variety of foods. Price does not mean that nutritious foods are off limits.  Most quality fruits, vegetables and meats can be purchased through sales and smart shopping.  Keep an eye out for sales, buy in bulk, freeze, and plan ahead to create frugal, nutritious meals for less than processed, convenience food prices.

Other Tips:

• Keep ingredient lists short
• Avoid difficult words in ingredient lists
• List is ordered from most to least
• When shopping for processed foods (sparingly), go for foods with sugar or salt not within the first 3 or 4 listed ingredients.

Arming yourself with knowledge is one of the many steps to help you in this journey of healthy living.  You’re not alone.  Work on one tidbit of information at a time and before you know it, you’ll be an expert in what you’re bringing into the home.  Keeping our families healthy and happy is a continuous conquest!  Enjoy.

The past few months have been another set of restructuring months in our home.  I decided to leave the gym and partner with another trainer to establish a business in bootcamps, in-home personal training sessions, and corporate programs.  Our home balance is shifting as my husband and I gear up for the school year as we are homeschooling our children.

In the mist of these changes, workouts have slipped.  Where I would workout 4 to 5 times a week, these last few weeks have only consisted of one or two workouts a week.  I can feel the drop in energy and increase in stress.  With these factors, I have also seen a change in eating habits.

So, I know it’s time to reestablish the consistency of working out.  It’s important to keep health a priority, and yet, I find myself slipping into the ease of “I just missed today, I’ll make it up tomorrow.”  Until tomorrow becomes next week!

Here are the mantras that I’m repeating to myself and so far it’s worked out.

• Just do it, Cindy! — As a runner, I really dislike the first day or two after missing runs for several weeks.  I have to remind myself that in a couple of days, I’ll feel so much better and energized to tackle the day.  It’s just a matter of getting through those first 2 to 3 runs…
• More muscle means faster metabolism– I’m an eater.  I really have a hard time shifting my diet.  I’m working on it and continue to make better and better choices in food, but I see real results when I strength train.  Feeling stronger really is empowering and I know that my body is burning calories at a higher rate when I strength train.
• It feels great to sweat. Yep, I love the high after a hard workout.  It motivates me.

How about you?  What are your mantras when you find yourself slipping?

The Yucca root is very much like the potato.  The recipe I found was Yuca French Fries.  Not wanting to fry them, I tried baking and WOW–What a wonderful surprise.

Try this:

1. Peel the Yucca root.
2. Cut into fry size.  **Some sites mention cutting away a hard fibrous core (similar to a pineapple core), but I didn’t see one in this one.**
3. Boil in water for 20 minutes.
4. Preheat oven for 400.
5. Drain the Yucca.
6. Layer on the baking dish.
7. Drizzle with olive oil, seasoned salt, garlic powder, and pepper.
8. Bake for 20 minutes, turning once or twice for browning.

They were slightly sweeter than potatoes and gobbled up by the little ones!  What a nice winner for the Posey household.  I hope it becomes one for you.

We often mention trying new vegetables and foods, but rarely take the chance for fear of the unknown.  This was a reminder to me that it’s worth checking out the wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables we have available in our supermarkets and local farmer’s markets.

This link provides more information about the Yucca Root and nutritional data can be found here.  What are you going to try this week?

• By Kathy Balland
• Published by Blissful Publications, LLC; 3116 S. Mill Avenue # 429
• Copyright (C) 2009
• ISBN: 978-0-9821831-0-6

Lose The Diet delves into the complexities of human emotion, connection and mental power that few people are willing to tackle when looking for a weight loss answer.

I often tell my clients that I can provide them with an exercise plan and give nutrition facts, but that 70% of their success is in the mind. Lose The Diet is filled with realistic advice and excellent “how to” exercises to begin the process of healing for successful long term weight loss.

“Most of us have lost connection–the connection with ourselves, our inner power, and with other people.  When the body is treated as a separate system from our mind and our soul, then permanent weight change cannot occur.” (10)

Lose The Diet breaks down into six main components:

1. Chapter 1: Overview
2. Chapters 2-4:  Food
3. Chapter 5:  Stress
4. Chapter 6:  Body
5. Chapters 7-9:  Mind & Emotion
6. Chapters 10-12:  Spirit/Inner Self/God

Food

Kathy briefly touches on the basics. The detail on sugar is due to it’s “temporary “fix” to fill the emptiness” (27) of the soul.

I disagree with the premise that calorie counting is unnecessary. This belief is based on an individual truly understanding the basics of nutrition. Foundations need to be built first to understand how food and it’s composition fuels the body. With the overload of “do this, don’t do that” quick fixes in our in society, the basics are lost. Without this knowledge, lack of nutrition will be a major obstacle in the weight loss journey.

Calorie counting makes people aware of what they are putting in their body and helps them formulate more questions about how their body is functioning. Initially, it’s important to understand the foundations of the mathematical aspect of eating. As you become educated in what the foods are, then the need of calorie counting becomes less necessary.

Good pointers that she shares in regards to food are:

• 30 to 90 days to reset taste sensation
• 15 second cravings
• Balance by choice
• My favorite mantra: Everything in moderation
• “Focus on quality, instead of food quantity.” (22)

Stress

In our high paced, go-go society, stress and lack of sleep are quickly overwhelming the majority of adults and children. Lose the Diet provides great tips for coping with stress in eating and in general. Kath shows how to create your own action plan by facing your unique stresses.

Body

The section on the body has one major flaw and I disagree with a couple points.

While she makes excellent points about resistance training, “keep in mind that muscles weighs more than fat” (102) is inaccurate.    1 lb of fat = 1 lb of muscle.  The difference is in the density. Muscle is more dense, so it fills less space.

I disagree with weekly body measurements because just as the scale becomes an obsession, the inches become a new crutch. Feel the changes in your clothing. The changes in body fat loss and creation of muscle are occurring on a level we cannot see. Everyone’s body is different and a good rule of thumb is to weigh and complete measurements once a month, right after your period, first thing in the morning and naked.

I also disagree with the recommendation on how little to exercise. First of all, if overweight, it is imperative that exercise is regular and consistent. “Never train more than two times weekly” (100) and “[l]ess is more” (100) are statements that do not fit the body’s need to move. People are already doing less outside, moving daily in life, enjoying of parks, trails and our own neighborhoods.

The “[s]tudies have show that over time, working out two days per week (w/ a couple of days in between workouts) has the same benefit as working out three days per week” (100) does not make me comfortable. I need to know more about “these studies,” what their goals were, and what the expectation of benefits was in order to validate the claims. There are so many studies that can be used to refute or make a point.

We are made to move. Two times a week for 30 minute sessions is not enough exercise to lose weight or improve flexibility, cardiovascular and muscular strength. These sessions may be enough to maintain current health, but not to combat the changes in age, stress, eating, and daily habits that will continually challenge the body. This argument gives too many an excuse to “not really” have to exercise.

I do believe in moderation for exercise and I don’t think it’s too much to expect people to devote 3 to 4 hours of their 168 hours in a week to physical fitness. How those hours break up in a week is dependent on goals, likes, and time management.

Mind, Emotion, & Spirit

Lose The Diet shines in Chapters 7-12. The explanations of the mind-body connection and spiritual needs are focused and detailed. The Self Hypnosis Guide on page 140 questions you to find out why you feel, what happened in the past, and what unresolved emotions are inside. There are several exercises provided in this section to help you delve deep within for answers.

Everyone is unique. One exercise that is perfect for you may have no answers for the next person. The goal to succeed is the same: Find happiness in yourself and the rest will follow. Make health a priority and you will seek the knowledge foundation that will strengthen your food choices, exercise decisions, and mental connection to a healthy, long-term weight loss for a fit lifestyle. Kathy sums it up perfectly,

“…we do not need to deprive ourselves of entire food groups or even certain sweets or “fattening” foods that we love. It’s a matter of finding the natural balance that our bodies will automatically go to once we have resolved what is going on “inside” of us. At which time the “outside” will naturally be come balanced, without having to check the numbers on a scale or count calories.”

If you are battling internal emotions or feel you’ve come to a mental standstill, check out Lose The Diet: Transform Your Body By Connecting With Your Soul. You will not be disappointed.

Think about it. Let’s say you were “the funny one.”  The attention and praise you were showered with whenever you did something funny felt great, so you kept at it in order to receive that praise.  But what happened when you wanted to be intelligent and serious?  Chances are you didn’t take the risk.  Venturing into the unknown and risking criticism or falling short of your goal wasn’t worth losing your tried and true role as the entertainer.

Even though a label may be flattering, it’s limiting because it can prevent you from stepping out of the comfort zone of how you’re being viewed and received.  We fail to strive beyond our labels.   Without the label, all areas are fair game as there are no expectations of how you should behave.

People love to categorize people, places and things.  It is easier for many of us to organize and compartmentalize things when we know what category everything belongs in.  If you grew up in a household with siblings, maybe each of you had your own label, which served as a way to easily describe you. “The smart one”, “the pretty one”, and “the baby” may have been descriptors that helped your parents easily introduce you to their friends, but these labels could also have held you back.

What about negative labels that we may have been given, or labels we may have interpreted to be negative?  If it was said enough times, we probably just accepted it to be true.  Unfortunately, this is how our belief systems are formed. Someone we trust (or a group, organization, society, etc.) says the same thing with conviction over and over again. Eventually we buy into it and it becomes part of our beliefs.

But what if that person or group that we trust was also on the receiving end of some limiting beliefs?   As a result, they may be misinformed, may not know any better, and they unknowingly pass that damage along to you.  Because of your trust and belief in that authority figure, you accepted the label (good or bad) that they placed on you.

For example, let’s say you had a parent who always called you “lazy”.   Maybe they were trying to motivate you to be another way or maybe they thought it was an accurate description of how you behaved.  In either case, you grew up thinking, “if they said it all those times, it must be true.”  So when opportunities came up, you heard that ongoing tape in your head – “you’re lazy” – and figured that whatever was involved may take too much effort for you because you are just too lazy.

Here’s the good news – you can get rid of all of these limiting beliefs once you identify them, evaluate them and decide to discard them.  Just as I keep saying, it’s our job to change what we don’t like.  As I’ve also said, it may not be easy, but it’s so worth it.

Can you think of some instances where your labels stand in the way of the happy, healthy version of yourself that you want to be?  Are you “the fun one” and that makes it difficult for you to say no to indulging at parties? Are you “the clumsy one” and that makes it difficult for you to try a new exercise routine?

What if you could throw away the old labels that aren’t contributing to your success and pick new ones that support your goals? What if you decided you were “the adventurous one”?  Or “the healthy one”?  Or “the happy one”?  What would that version of you be able to do?

Debi Silber, MS, RD, WHC The Mojo Coach™ is a Registered Dietitian with a Master’s degree in Nutrition Science.   She’s a Certified Personal Trainer, Whole Health Coach, Lifestyle Expert – just for moms, speaker and the author of The Lifestyle Fitness Program: A Six Part Plan So Every Mom Can Look, Feel and Live Her Best and From Mom To Wow: Your Ultimate Body, Mind and Life Makeover Guide.   Debi’s been branded The Mojo Coach™ because for nearly 20 years she’s inspired and empowered overweight, overwhelmed and unfit moms to “get their mojo back” through gradual, lifestyle change.   Sign up for a free report, 52 weeks of weekly tips and a subscription to Debi’s newsletter, Mojo Moments, at www.TheMojoCoach.com.

Goal Call Monday: Focused, Accountable, and Motivated for success.

This week’s winner is Anita!  Congratulations.  6 days of workouts and getting your red fruits and veggies.  I’ll be in touch for your feature post.

Ready to Share?

1. Enter your goal in the comments (anytime during the week).

2. You’ll be listed in the Goal Call section next Monday. Share with us how you did and your results/progress will be entered in the drawing.

Why You Want to Participate:

Focus on your top one-week goal in health, diet or exercise.

Accountability is shared here in the comments and by coming back with the results.

Motivation will be provided through your desire to achieve your goal and return with good news or the challenges you faced.

As an extra motivation, I’ll enter anyone who participates in a random drawing to receive a dedicated feature about You or Your site (Your choice) in a future post.

Goal Call

How did you do? Did you accomplish your goal, get stuck, have a funny story to tell?

• Blaine: Great job with the race.  There is the catch 22 when needing a competitor beside  you in a race to get that final umph!  Way to win.  This week’s goal is to rest a bit and go on a longer run with some easy miles in preparation for 4 races in 5 weeks.

• Anita: 30 mins/day every single day & to make wiser eating choices as the week progresses.  I know you’re gonna conquer the weekends!  Yes, they are tough, but you are tougher!

You’ll be entered in the drawing for a dedicated feature or post upon letting us know how you did with your goals. Everyone’s invited. What is your goal this week? I look forward to cheering you on and helping you stay focused!

Goal Call Monday: Focused, Accountable, and Motivated for success.

Ready to Share?

1. Enter your goal in the comments (anytime during the week).

2. You’ll be listed in the Goal Call section next Monday. Share with us how you did and your results/progress will be entered in the drawing.

Why You Want to Participate:

Focus on your top one-week goal in health, diet or exercise.

Accountability is shared here in the comments and by coming back with the results.

Motivation will be provided through your desire to achieve your goal and return with good news or the challenges you faced.

As an extra motivation, I’ll enter anyone who participates in a random drawing to receive a dedicated feature about You or Your site (Your choice) in a future post

Goal Call

How did you do? Did you accomplish your goal, get stuck, have a funny story to tell?

• Blaine: Goal is win and break the course record that you set last year. How did your 6 mile trail race go?

• Anita: Goal is exercise 30 minutes a day and 1 red veggie or fruit a day. Great way to focus on the week.

Welcome back Anita and Blaine! You’ll be entered in the drawing for a dedicated feature or post upon letting us know how you did with your goals. Everyone’s invited. What is your goal this week? I look forward to cheering you on and helping you stay focused!

Each month we provide a Free Seminar in order to answer questions that influence fitness and health goals. We’re also adding “Active Duty Briefings” bi-weekly to allow clients to discuss their challenges and look for advice from each other and our experts. We look forward to developing a connection among our clients that goes beyond meeting on the field/or in the home.

Dedicated to promoting health and fitness in Nashville communities, Fitness Link launches it’s first free monthly seminar in Nashville.

Multi-billion dollar industries such as health care, fitness studios, pharmaceutical companies, food processing, as well as endless books and magazines have debated and distorted the truths about health and fitness to the point where we are all utterly confused and don’t know what to do.

If you answered YES to any of these questions, you are not alone. Come join us in untangling the truth of health and fitness. You have a right to know! You have a right to change your life!

As a mixture of interactive discussions and mini-bootcamp challenges, the attendants will come away with a better understanding of Nashville’s need for improved physical fitness and a breakdown of the overwhelming myths surrounding exercise and healthy living. Come dressed in comfortable clothes and be prepared to move and feel great.

When: Saturday, July 11, 2009 from 10 AM to Noon

Where: Radisson Hotel in Donelson, TN at 1112 Airport Center Dr, Nashville, TN 37214

If you live in the Nashville area, then please join us. For more details, visit our website, www.tnfitnesslink.com or call 615-513-0349.