The 8 Habits of Highly Healthful People

Plan Ahead, Success Follows

A lot of people ask me what I do to keep my figure at age 51. Any of you that have seen me working out know I am not lifting “soup cans” or parking my car 100 feet away to keep my “girlish” figure.  Some assume that I don’t have to work at my nutrition because I am either genetically lucky, work out over-zealously, or that I adhere to a painfully healthy diet. The general assumption is… “oh, it’s easy for you, Lauren.”

In some ways it is easy, because, it really doesn’t seem like work to me anymore. Rather, it is simply how I live. These are my habits.  Call it work or call it easy… I really do eat 5 planned meals a day every 3 hours. Each meal always includes a lean protein. I may have some genetics on my side, but if you are using genetics as an excuse for not losing weight, stop that right now! Genetics play some role but if you know your family history, wouldn’t you want to do everything imaginable to not be unfit or overweight? [Read more]

7 Tips For Thanksgiving Survival

Thanksgiving. It’s the ultimate food fest holiday. The average
Thanksgiving meal contains about 3000 calories. It would literally
take you about 30 miles to walk that off. You also may have heard
that turkey contains a natural sedative called Tryptophan, and
that’s why you may feel sleepy after eating it… adding more havoc
inactivity plays on the fat-loss equation. Actually, the grogginess
you are experiencing is more often a result of having to digest all
that food you are over-consuming!  

Thanksgiving is no doubt a difficult situation to handle when you
are trying not to gain weight, especially when your host liberally
uses every form of saturated fat ingredient available. Weight
gain does not have to be a given and with a little focus you can
survive this holiday. [Read more]

5 Tips About Carbs and Fat Loss

We’ve learned (hopefully) that the extreme low or no carbohydrate
diets are not the most efficient ways to permanently reduce fat,
nor is eating a high carbohydrate diet. It is no wonder why we are
confused about the quantity or the quality of the carbohydrates we
should be eating.

One of the main reasons so many people struggle to ever lose any
body fat is that they are over-consuming processed carbohydrates
such as cereals, pasta, rice, bagels, muffins, breads (even whole
grain varieties), sodas, juices, candies, crackers, and so on.

Worse, we are fooled by the labels because they lead us to believe
what we are buying is healthy. Often, the products contain excess
calories that don’t have much nutritional value. They pretend to be
whole grain but in reality the first ingredient listed is “wheat
flour” which is not “whole” wheat flour but a tricky name for white
flour. [Read more]

How is your strength training?

Congratulations if you are already working out at the gym!

If you are doing aerobic exercising only, you are missing out on a major part of the fitness equation! 

Here are some of the benefits of strength training:

• Increase metabolic rate- the more lean muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn throughout the day.
• Improve and restore bone density… as powerful if not more than the drugs your doctor hands out.
• Increase lean muscle mass, muscle strength and power – you will feel the difference in almost any daily activity you do.
• Prevent injuries or rehabilitate an injury- the stronger you are, more sports and life related injuries can be avoided. When you strengthen the muscles surrounding an injured area, the quicker the healing process will be.
• Improve your balance and flexibility- this diminishes as you age, but you can reverse or stop it from happening with proper strength training.
• Improve Posture- most of the time poor posture is simply a matter of a weak core, you don’t have to go through life slouching.
• Feel and look better- Leaner and toned muscles make anyone feel better about their appearance, giving you more self esteem and self confidence.

Do you know what exercises to do when you go to the gym… or are you just doing the same routine over and over without any knowledge of how or what to do? EASY TO FOLLOW EXERCISES is a eBook that will guide you through your workout! There are just over 100 exercises with step by step directions and pictures, showing you proper form… all for less than half the price of a personal training session!