10 Ways To Get And Stay Motivated

Having trouble staying motivated? Here are ten useful tips.

1. Create a fitness vision board. 
I pasted photos of bodies I would like to have and some of myself when I was younger and fitter. 

2. Hang a "target outfit" in plain view.
I hung a pair a jeans that no longer fit on the back of my bedroom door. Seeing these jeans everyday and imagining myself wearing them helps to keep me inspired.

3. Post motivational quotes in key areas in your home. 
I posted many motivational quotes throughout my home, including my refrigerator. Keep these quotes positive and you will always feel inspired. I remember my friend's mother had a refrigerator magnet with a picture of a very large woman with the caption "keep out!" While this is humorous, this did little to inspire my friend's mom to lose the unwanted pounds. Reminders that "you can do it!" will help you to show up for yourself everyday.

4. Pack your gym bag the night before. 
Having one less thing to do in the morning will eliminate the excuse of being too rushed to pack a gym bag. Put your gym bag by the door, so it will be ready to go.

5. Pack a nutritious lunch and snacks the night before.
Packing a delicious, nutrient rich, colorful lunch and putting it in the fridge the night before will eliminate the temptation to forgo the morning preparation and "grab something" on the go.

6. Pick out a colorful, fun outfit to wear to the gym. If you work out in the morning, set your gym apparel out the night before (and as I mentioned, have your work outfit packed in your bag and waiting for you by the door). Seeing a vibrant, colorful set of gym clothes will brighten your mood.

7. Make it a habit to do a morning meditation.
It doesn't have to take too much time. Five or ten minutes of deep breathing, with a meditation mantra can help you get motivated. There are plenty of meditations on You Tube and many of these channels carry downloadable mp3's.

8. Grab a workout buddy.
Having an accountability partner or hiring a trainer will help you stay on track. If you don't don't show up, you're not only letting yourself down, you're letting your friend down.

9. Schedule your workout when it's easiest for you.
If you're not a morning person, no matter how many articles you read on the pro's of a morning workout, it won't be very effective, because you won't show up on a consistent basis.

10. Make your workout FUN!
Doing activities you love makes the prospect more enticing. Remember, you'll be working out for a very long time, so you might as well enjoy it!

Your Best Body - A Matter of Choice

Yes, your best body is a matter of choice! Isn't that great news? Because when you leave your shape up to chance, you will end up with whatever mother nature decided to give you. I always had saddle bags and a stomach. No matter how many sit-ups I did or how many miles I ran, I could not lose the fat in the "trouble spots". An article that had been released letting us know there was no such thing as "spot reducing" sent me into a teary tailspin. Couple all that cardio with a micro-calorie diet and I was setting myself up for failure.

It wasn't until I discovered weight lifting that I began to see changes in my body. Right now, I'm a work in progress and I promise to post before and after pictures soon. I lift weights three days a week and do some form of cardio three days a week.  I am eating a clean diet with no bleached flour or "white" carbs, no excess sugar, lots of proteins and plenty of veggies. I also began a nutritional cleansing program. Why the cleansing program? Because we ingest toxins every single day - from the foods we eat, the products we use and the air we breathe. Our bodies have a defense mechanism against toxins and that is called "fat". Yes, our fat cells grow to protect our organs from being contaminated with these impurities. As you cleanse and eat a healthy diet, these cells eventually shrink. If you want to know more about cleansing, fill out the contact form to the right of this article. I will be more than happy to assist you.
Cheers!
Ellen

Skinny for summer? How about fit for life?

Throughout most of my adult life, one of my main concerns was "taking it off for summer". No, I'm not taking about my top, I'm talking about the ten to fifteen pounds I had "put on" during the winter months of hibernation. This became a habit of yo-yo dieting, which wrecked my metabolism. The older I got, the harder it became to maintain my ideal weight. 

A body without much muscle will not burn as many calories as one with lean muscle, simply because muscle requires more calories to sustain it. Before I discovered weight training, I had my share of "trouble spots", such as hips, thighs and belly. I would try to "spot reduce" and would end up losing valuable muscle instead. When we practice muscle inducing exercise and eat properly, our bodies take care of themselves. The "trouble spots" seem to go away and you're left with a nice sleek form with curves in the right places. 

7 Kettleball Moves That REALLY Burn Calories!

Here are some kettleball moves for fantastic results!

http://www.fitsugar.com/Kettlebell-Exercises-Weight-Loss-21504882

21 Reasons To Stop Drinking Coffee

21 Reasons to Stop Drinking Coffee
by Larry Fuchs Jr.

It is recommended that you stop drinking coffee. Many people kid themselves, bragging I drank coffee while doing my Isagenix program and I still lost weight. Facts are that you probably would have released two or three times the weight if you had given up your coffee.  Remember the goal of Isagenix is not weight loss, but to remove impurities from your body.
The toxicity of caffeine can be found when trying to remove this stimulant from your diet. The withdrawal symptoms of detoxification alone should clue you into how terrible it is for your body. Common symptoms include headaches (caused by sudden increase circulation to the brain when blood flow is no longer constricted), fatigue, sleepiness, lethargy, irritability, depression, muscle pain and stiffness, and sometimes even flu like symptoms. The narcotic effect of caffeine is so powerful that its influence is abundantly clear when the addict reintroduces this stimulant and all symptoms vanish.

Here are the facts you should know about what really happens when you drink coffee:

1. Numerous studies link coffee to calcium loss contributing to osteoporosis, and more bone fractures. Calcium is robbed from your bones to neutralize every time you consume something acidic like coffee.

2. A healthy body maintains a blood pH of around 7.3. Coffee is 25.1 on the acidic scale and 5.0 on the pH scale. All disease is promoted in an acidic environment and your health goal should be to create an alkaline body.

3. Decaffeinated Coffee is just as bad as and even more acidic than regular coffee. Most Decaffeinated Coffees are processed with formaldehyde, which is one of the most toxic substances to humans. Even in small amounts, formaldehyde can cause serious health problems and unfortunately takes years to finally dissipate.

4. Coffee dehydrates you, raises your cortisol levels (aging you more rapidly), and makes you acidic.
5. Coffee also hurts our natural intestinal flow, raises anxiety to high levels, aggression and blood pressure, along with staining our teeth as the least of the issues.

6. Coffee is another way to borrow energy from the future, but crashes you in the end.

7. Coffee makes your anxiety heightened and therefore hurting your ability to focus.

8. Coffee has also been linked to cancer.

9. Heating the coffee bean creates the chemical Methylglyoxal, benzopyrene, and chlorogenic atractyosides. A 1981 study from the Harvard School of Public Health concluded that drinking coffee was the cause of half of all pancreatic cancer cases.

10. It also found that drinking three cups of coffee a day increased your risk of pancreatic cancer by three times.

11. People who drink too much coffee often have difficulty getting rid of chemicals from their bodies, and their liver function is off. Caffeine just isn’t that easy to digest. To break down the coffee you ingest and deliver that burst of energy to your blood stream, your liver uses enzymes. If all of your enzymes are hard at work within your liver trying to break down the caffeine, they aren’t ready and active in your blood to knock out other bad chemicals it needs to get rid of.

12. It takes 64 ounces of water to neutralize one 8 ounce cup of coffee.

13. Caffeine constricts blood vessels of the brain and causes decreased flow of blood, which cuts the oxygen supply to the brain, resulting in a headache. It also increases your heartbeat 15% and makes your lungs work 13 times harder than normal. It greatly plays a role in fatigue as well.

14. Stop drinking coffee and you may see a huge gain in your sex drive! The adrenal glands in our bodies are the glands responsible for making hormones that make us feel sexual, like testosterone. If you have low testosterone, you will have a lower sex drive. Both woman and men have testosterone, obviously lesser amounts in women. But both sexes will see a difference in their sex drive if they drink too much coffee. If your cravings for sex have decreased and you drink a lot of coffee, weaning yourself off may be the first step to getting your sex drive back to normal.

15. People can have trouble getting pregnant or impregnating their spouse if they consume too much caffeine. To carry a baby, a woman has to have a certain amount of a hormone called progesterone. This hormone also helps women to become pregnant. Our adrenal glands make another hormone called cortisol, which is used up by our bodies during times of stress. If our adrenal glands are suffering, they can’t make cortisol, and your body may take progesterone so it can make more cortisol. And without the progesterone, you can’t get pregnant or carry a baby through a full term. If you are attempting to get pregnant, cutting the caffeine from your diet is step one.

16. Caffeine is also blamed for eliminating your feelings of being happy, as it kills the neurotransmitters in your body. Your brain won’t be able to produce enough of these happy chemicals with lower neurotransmitters. People who are depressed are often lacking in a hormone called serotonin, which keeps you feeling good and satisfied. Caffeine is actually one of the main suppressants of serotonin, so steer clear of coffee if you suffer from depression or are feeling a little down in the dumps. While most people believe that coffee will lift them up, in the long run, it pulls them down.

17.  Your adrenal glands actually store energy on your behalf, and they make chemicals that help your brain to feel happy, strong and motivated. Because caffeine is a stimulant, it causes your nervous system to run on high, making adrenaline, which we know we need in situations requiring action, or stress. If you can tolerate high levels of caffeine without a response, this is a bad thing - it means that your glands have actually stopped responding to you, like the boy who cried wolf! This can leave you susceptible to accidents, sleepiness, and health problems.
18. Coffee has the most pesticides of any food on this earth. So let’s be clear- I’m not saying it has traces of pesticides, I’m saying you can’t find any other plant in the world that has a higher toxicity of pesticides than coffee. It is so heavily treated with chemicals and fertilizers that it is even proving deadly in crop workers in many countries. Studies have shown over a thousand chemicals in coffee! If this isn’t enough to put your cup down, read on… about twenty of these chemicals are proven to cause cancer. Is it worth the risk?

19. Caffeine Can Cause Obesity, caffeine stresses your adrenal glands, and your adrenal glands work cooperatively with your thyroid, the gland that takes care of your metabolism. If you have a slow thyroid, you will have slow metabolism, which means you’ll gain weight more easily than someone with a ‘normal’ metabolism. By drinking too much coffee, you’re intentionally slowing down your metabolism. So if weight is an issue for you, eliminating coffee from your daily diet is an easy first step to losing those unwanted pounds.

20. Caffeine limits the ability of your immune system to properly function. Your adrenal glands create or support over a hundred different hormones which help to keep you in good health. Caffeine has been shown to actually limit production by your adrenal glands, which eventually leads to lowered immunity, meaning more illness. So staying away from excess caffeine can actually strengthen your body’s ability to fight infection.

21. Caffeine slows down your body’s ability to absorb vitamins, minerals, and other valuable materials, which are vital for your health, drinking too much caffeine can actually cause your body to be unable to take in some of the very valuable ingredients you are feeding it. As an example, coffee can limit your holdings of iron by more than fifty percent. So besides the fact that this is bad for your health, if you are working hard to get all the necessary vitamins and minerals into your diet (by eating alone or through expensive multi-vitamins), you are simply throwing your money out the window.

This is for those of you that are ready to pounce on me, because e+ Energy Shots have caffeine. Sorry, it’s just not the same caffeine. Coffee contains the stimulant caffeine. Unlike bioactive caffeine found in green tea, black tea, yerba mate, guarana, and kola nut, the caffeine in coffee is considered dead. Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant that is followed by a depressed phase involving exhaustion, nervousness, irritability, fatigue, and often headaches.

I know what you’re thinking; “just one cup a day is not doing damage”, right? The accumulative affects of drinking a cup a day is still unhealthy, just as smoking a cigarette a day is seriously unhealthy.  If you are addicted to the taste of Coffee, try an alternative to drinking coffee, Teeccino. Teeccino is an herbal coffee, made of roasted carob, barley, chicory root, figs, dates, orange peel and almonds. It is delicious and tastes just like coffee. You can find it at most health food stores such as Whole Foods or Trader Joes. Teeccino comes in many flavors. http://teeccino.com
References: The Dangers of Drinking Coffee, http://Dherbs.com
10 Reasons to Stop Drinking Coffee NOW!, http://idealbite.com
Caffeine, http://www.avoiddisease.com

Special thanks to Dr. Russell Brokstein.

Is Your Diet Helping or Hurting You?

The term "empty calories" is misleading. It makes one assume that when we eat junk food, the calories get used for energy and the chemicals, sugar, trans fats and sodium get expelled. Not so. Every time you feed your body, you're either feeding a disease or fighting it. Nutritionally dense foods contain disease fighting enzymes, promote energy and help your organs function at their peak. 

Wierd Stuff People Say When You Decide To Get In Shape

1. "Don't lose anymore weight. We won't be able to find you!" Also the seemingly more benign, "are you really planning on losing more weight?" and "are you still bulking?" Um, yeah, and who made you the authority on how I'm supposed to look? 

2. "You're getting thin / bulking up / getting cut, only because you live at the gym". Okay if you consider spending 1 1/2 hours someplace on a daily basis as "living there", I guess I do live there - you know like the way you live at your job. 

3. "I would work out as much as you do, if I had that kind of time". What kind of time, exactly? I have the same twenty four hours as you. I choose to get up an hour earlier than you and I forgo an hour's worth of TV at night. 

4. "Are you getting down to your hunting weight?" Yes! And if I keep up with my workouts, I'll be able to overtake my prey! He won't stand a chance!

5. "If I were young like you, I'd be able to maintain my weight." I haven't heard this one in awhile, but age is just an excuse. It is more difficult to maintain a physique with age, but not impossible. 

6. "I'm not interested in going all out with the exercise. I just wanted to get rid of my..." Sorry! Spot reducing is a myth. The only way to "get rid of" something is to lower your body fat percentage. 

7. "I don't want to get too big". Unless you eat protein by the scores and lift tons of weight, you're not going to look like a man. 

8. "Is that all you're going to eat?" Us lifters eat 5 or 6 small meals a day. We don't eat ourselves into a coma at each meal. 

9. "Okay, it looks like you reached your goal weight. Why are you still eating healthy and getting up at 5:00 am for the gym?" One word. Maintenance. 

10. "You're obsessed!" To a couch potato, I suppose we are obsessed. Anything worth achieving and maintaining takes effort. 

Lift More, Burn More!

Building muscle keeps the metabolism revved up! We require more calories to maintain a body with high muscle mass, rather than a body where the fat percentage is high. Also, muscle looks sleeker and takes up less room! So pick up those weights, ladies!

Skinny For Summer?

Yo yo dieting is no way to live. I know. I've been there. Throughout my twenties, I could eat what I wanted and never gained a pound. I was also a "cardio" girl. I had an eliptical trainer and a stationery bike in my home, plus a vast library of videos including, Tae Bo, Joanie Greggains, Susan Powter (remember her?), Buns of Steel and whatever other video came down the pike! As long as I was huffing and puffing for an hour a day, I could burn fat from my flabby form.

In my thirties and forties, it wasn't so easy to burn off all the junk I was eating. I steadily began to put on the pounds. The older I got, the harder it became to remain thin. I have been on every fad diet under the sun. In spite of all my hard work and deprivation, I would see very little results. I began lifting weights, but most of my muscle was hidden by a layer of fat. Almost at 200 lbs, I was at the end of my rope.

A friend recommended I try a nutritional cleansing program. I had tried cleansing products in the past, but said, "why not? I tried everything else, what do I have to lose?" (except 70 unwanted pounds). So I ordered a 30 Day system and started on January 6th of 2014. Within the first six months I lost 40 lbs. I was so pleased with the results and became more consistent with my exercise regimen at the gym (three days weight training, three days cardio). Since then, I had lost another 10 lbs. I had been comfortable at my present weight and have been focusing on weight training. I am now on a quest to lose the last 20 lbs using the same program.

This is not a diet, but a lifestyle change! While experimenting with the fad diets, I was not learning how to eat healthy so I could maintain the fat loss. I was also sacrificing valuable muscle due to very low calorie counts and omitting certain food groups. I did not feel good most of the time and was always tired. We ingest a great amount of toxins and failing to flush our bodies of impurities leads to weight gain. To learn more about nutritional cleansing, fill out my contact form to the right of this post. Change your lifestyle and your body will reward you for it!

10 Things That Happen When You Get In Shape

Here are some amazing things that happen as we travel along our road to fitness. You don't have to arrive at your goal weight or achieve your black belt before you enjoy the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. Some of these perks start to happen as soon as you begin your journey!

1. You have more energy - Exercise and a healthy diet enhances the blood flow carrying oxygen and nutrients to muscle tissue improving their ability to produce more energy.

2. You look better in clothes - You've heard the old adage, "muscle weighs more than fat", but the reality is, muscle takes up less space than fat, giving you a slimmer appearance. The best news is, it takes more energy to sustain a body with more muscle mass.

3. You sleep better - The quality of sleep does improve when you perform regular physical activity. Your mental clarity is also improved during the day. When I wasn't exercising, I would have that "foggy" feeling more often than not. At 3:00 pm, I used to run to the coffee pot. Not anymore!

4. You are more confident and you carry yourself better -You look better and feel better. This shows on the way you walk, talk and interact with others. People begin to treat you better.

5. People begin to follow you to the gym - With your new found confidence, people will wonder what you're doing. When I first started my healthy eating program and getting up at 5:00 am to go to the gym, my friends, family and coworkers could only comment on how "hard" it would be to make those changes in their lives. Now, they've seen my results and they are asking about my eating habits and workout routines.

6. You begin to love healthy foods - You will want to eat what's good for you and in turn, you will feel better. You may never want to go back to your old ways.

7. You can listen to what your body’s telling you - When you treat your body like a trash can, you quell your body's "voice". Once you start eating healthy, some foods don't taste as good as they used to. You will start to crave the good stuff that will keep you healthy. Your body will be more aware when you haven't had enough sleep or you're getting a cold.

8. Endorphins, the feel good hormone - When you exercise, your body produces endorphins, which trigger a positive feeling in the body. The feeling that follows workout is often described as "euphoric." That feeling, known as a "runner's high,"  comes with a positive outlook on life.

9. You want to do “right” by your body - You won't want to miss a workout. You may begin to exercise in the morning if you don't know how the rest of your day will shake out. I was never a morning person. I started working out in the morning, because I never knew when I would be asked to stay late at work or my commute was going to be longer than usual. Now my mornings aren't complete without my hour at the gym.

10. You'll feel a great sense of accomplishment - With your morning workout "out of the way", you'll be ready to tackle any situation that may come up at your job. You'll keep a cooler head, during your commute and you'll simply carry that confidence in all your encounters - which could only help you get that promotion!

Get Your Guns!

Best exercises for arm flab. I do triceps exercise and still get annoyed about underarm flab. These exercises help tighten the trouble spot.

http://www.skinnymom.com/2014/07/16/9-bicep-sculpting-moves-for-sexy-summer-arms/

Nutritional Cleansing Special Promo! Limited Time Offer!

There is no better time to jump onboard and get into the best shape of your life! My company is offering a special promotions for all new members on qualified orders. That's a savings of up to $25. Isn't it time you embraced a healthier lifestyle? No one regrets getting healthier, feeling great and looking their best. 

Taking my workout up a notch.

Yesterday was shoulders, chest and back. Today was quads, glutes and hammies! I'm sore! 

31 Incredibly Cute Outfits To Wear To The Gym

Here's some cute outfits to wear to the gym. Top from Under Armour. Pants from Adidas. Check out more cute outfits here. 

http://www.vogue.com/slideshow/755092/lets-get-physical-31-fantastically-cute-gym-looks-photos/#23

21 Energy Boosting Breakfast Toasts

Bored of the same old toast? Try one of these! Delicious and nutritious!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tashweenali/energy-boosting-breakfast-toasts

Self Control 24 Hours a Day

At one time I thought daily exercise was a license to eat. Well that showed (and my efforts at the gym didn't). Then I went on a strict diet. In spite of still going to the gym that yielded minimal results. Then I tried Nutritional Cleansing and lost 60 lbs. I'm looking and feeling better than I have in decades!

Ten Reasons You're Not Seeing Results At The Gym

You drag yourself to the gym everyday, hop on your favorite treadmill - the one directly in front of the TV set for the channel with your favorite show. You key in your settings for the usual level at a slight incline at the customary 60 minutes. Only to lose 5 lbs after 4 weeks. Worst of all, you don't look any different than you did on January first, when you vowed 2015 would be the year you get that physique to die for. By now, you're ready to eat a red velvelt  cupcake and indulge in a latte del grande. What do you do? Do you accept the fact that you weren't "meant" to be "skinny" and throw in the towel? May it never be! Now is the time to make some adjustments.

Here are the top 10 reasons you are probably not seeing results and how you can fix them:

1. Exercise monotony. If you do the same old routine day after day, your body gets used to it and no longer responds. Muscles don't grow, fat doesn't get released. Try mixing it up a bit. I do three days cardio, three days weights, alternating between the two. 

2. Too much cardio causes your body to go into a caloric deficit and in times of need, your body would much rather burn muscle than fat. Sure, the scale may move in the “right” direction, but you will losing valuable muscle and your body will still look the same.

3. Passing up on the weights. Building lean muscle will rev your metabolism and the beautiful thing is, muscle takes up a lot less room than fat - an look nicer too. And please don’t subscribe to the old wive’s tale that you will begin to look a man. you don’t have enough testosterone. As long as you’re not “bulking” or eating protein by the tons, your muscles will never grow so huge.

4. Eating too little. You need your protein to feed those muscles you worked so hard developing at the gym. Also, don’t be a afraid of carbs. Complex carbs (those from fruits, veggies and whole grains) will give you the energy you need.

5. Not drinking enough water. Water helps aid in your weight loss goals on so many levels. It boosts your metabolism. It helps curb your cravings. Water is an energy boost. It restores vital nutrients, which helps all your organs maintain their peak performance. Best of all, water flushes out toxins.

6. Stress. When we are under too much stress, our bodies release a surplus of cortisol, a hormone that regulates stress. Cortisol helps us maintain a layer of fat around our middle. Exercise and meditation helps to relieve us of stress.

7. Not enough sleep. Without the proper amount of sleep, cortisol levels will be high. Try to get at least 7 hours of sleep each night if you can. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time each day, so your body gets into a routine.

8. Sedentary Job. Try to get a little extra exercise in throughout your workday. Get up from your desk every so often and stretch. If you can, go for a walk. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk instead of ride. Park far away from the door at the supermarket. Be a good samaritan and walk your cart back to the cart bank when you’ve finished shopping.

9. Caffeine and sugar substitutes. Both caffeine and sugar substitutes have an adverse effect on your fitness goals. Both help trigger a hefty release of insulin. They may give you boost, but they cause your energy level to crash and leave you wanting more caffeine and sugar and more food.

10. Neglecting to cleanse. A deep cleansing that flushes impurities from your body twice a month will help you lose unwanted fat. Cleansing helps liver function and all your organs perform at their peak. It also helps restore antioxidants, which block and destroy free radicals. Cleansing also helps reduce unhealthy cravings.

Fit and Fabulous Over Forty

 Hi Everyone,

Hope you're all enjoying this fine spring weather! I'm announcing the launch of my Facebook page, Fit and Fabulous Over Forty. You will find there are quite a few entries, as the page was in it's experimental phase. You can find the page here.
 https://www.facebook.com/fitandfabulousoverforty

We all know with age comes extra baggage (as in body fat) that we just don't want. Before we know it, we're engaged in extreme dieting and / or stringent exercise programs. You know where that can lead you, right? Fitness burnout! Very few programs work and I'm here to share which programs create results, based on what I have accomplished!

The photos below are my before and after photos. I'm still in the process of building muscle and dropping another twenty five pounds of body fat, so this photo will be updated shortly. Right now, I am enjoying my nutrition program and have enough energy to go to the gym.

Cheers!
Ellen Eustace

The World's Oldest Female Bodybuilder! An Inspiring Story!

Do healthy, ripped bodies only belong to the young? Not if you're Ernestine Shepherd. At 77, she's the world's oldest female bodybuilder and in our original documentary short, we follow a day in her life.

Create Your Home Gym On Any Budget!

Create your perfect home gym on any budget with this fitness equipment and Les Mills Smartbar Weight Set. 

http://www.muscleandfitnesshers.com/training/create-your-ultimate-home-gym%E2%80%94now?page=2

The Truth About Cardio

Are you cardio happy? Matty discusses the reasons you could be working your butt off in the gym and not making much progress. Remember the 80/20 rule. 80% nutrition, 20% exercise.

Is Your Fitness App Hurting Your Progress?

Fitness apps are great, but they are only as good as the information you enter into them. Wrong info can quickly send you down the wrong path.

Biggest Fat Loss Mistakes While Cutting

Here is a great video about the biggest mistakes people make when trying to lose fat and gain muscle.

Enjoy!

Pass The Splenda Please? NOT!

Okay, I know I sound like the food police, lately. Last week warning about the effects of margarine and this week artificial sweeteners. For the most part only Sweet & Low and Equal got the bad press, but Splenda is equally as bad for you.

Generally, "substitutes" for real foods are no substitute at all. Foods made in a lab are never good for you. Splenda will not only cause you to keep the weight on, it's toxic. So next time you're out for coffee with friends, do not pass the Spenda!

Pass The Butter Please

This is interesting . .. .
Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back.

It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow colouring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavourings....

DO YOU KNOW.. The difference between margarine and butter?

Read on to the end...gets very interesting!

Both have the same amount of calories.
Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams; compared to 5 grams for margarine.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.
Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and only because they are added!

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavours of other foods.
 

Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years .

And now, for Margarine..

Very High in Trans fatty acids.

Triples risk of coronary heart disease ...

Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)

Increases the risk of cancers up to five times..

Lowers quality of breast milk

Decreases immune response.

Decreases insulin response.

And here's the most disturbing fact... HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC... and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT.

These facts alone were enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance).

Open a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things:

* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)

* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value ; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not a find a home to grow.

Why? Because it is nearly plastic . Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?
 

Pass the butter please - THANKS NATHAN NEELY

What Is Your Why?

One way to stay motivated to stick to your program is to determine your "why". Why do you want to shed some weight? Is it for health reasons? Do you want to fit into your favorite jeans? Are you wanting to go back to your "hunting" weight? Determining your biggest "why" or "whys", will help keep you focused and stay motivated. Write down ten of your biggest reasons for wanting to get into better shape. Write whatever comes to mind. Your list could look like this:

1. Look great in a swimsuit at my in-laws beach house on Cape Cod
2. Lose thirty pounds for my twenty year high school reunion.
3. Husband is complaining I'm not the person he married.
4. Feeling overtired, worn-out and just plain grumpy.
5. Can't keep up with the kids.
6. My friends are all so fit and trim. I hate them!
7. I don't look "right" in fashionable clothes.
8. I look at my pictures and I cringe.
9. I'm just not comfortable in my skin.
10. I'm hungry all the time and have mood swings.

This list was similar to my list. Except the hubby and kids part. I'm not married, nor am I a parent. So if this is what your list looks like, let's break it down. In this example, the woman wants to lose weight to impress or gain the approval of others. Secondly, she doesn't feel comfortable in her own skin and comparing herself to others. She's also feeling hungry, lethargic and has low energy. To sum it up, her "why" would be to feel good about myself, have more energy and be more active.

80 / 20 Rule

Most of us gym rats don't want to hear this, but weight loss is 80% nutrition. I've had the best luck with releasing unwanted pounds by eating a body builder's diet - protein, complex carbs, fruits that are low in sugar and lots of veggies. I stay away from dairy, except for eggs. I avoid foods that are high in fat. I aim to eat foods that are low sugar and low sodium. Most of all, I ditched processed foods.

Love Your Body!

Beating your body into submission gets you nowhere. You end up overdoing it and then sidelined the week after. I've done this. We've all done this. Be good to yourself. Love every inch of your body. Enjoy every milestone of your fitness journey!

Cheers!

Why Cleanse?

Finally! A way to release body fat and keep it off. If you are interested in losing body fat instead of valuable muscle, email me at elleneustace@gmail.com

Why Diets Fail

 

The stats are discouraging. Two out of five dieters quit within the first seven days. Only one in five make it three months. Those who do manage to stick to their diets and lose weight, have a low success rate. 80 to 90 percent regain all their weight plus some within a few short months.


Muscle Loss.
Restrictive fad diets put the body in a catabolic state, which causes tissue breakdown that affects both fat and muscle. Typically, a dieter loses 75 percent of their weight as fat and 25 percent as muscle.


Slow Metabolism.
Muscle is a metabolically active tissue, meaning it takes more energy (calories) to be maintained. On very low calorie diets, our body becomes more efficient at storing fat, to be later used as energy. Blame mother nature. It’s a survival mechanism safeguarding our bodies in case of famine. Many dieters bare down and eat even fewer calories, which compounds the problem, destroying the metabolism. When the dieter finally gets disgusted and returns to eating the way they’ve always eaten, they gain the weight back plus a few more pounds.


Nutritionally Lacking.
Fad diets are often lacking essential vitamins and minerals, which leads to irritability, headaches, mood swings, fatigue, and digestive problems.  Low-fat diets lack adequate amounts of essential fatty acids needed for your organs to function.


Poor Satiety.
Satiety (feeling full) is regulated by the appetite hormones, leptin and ghrelin. Leptin is produced by fat cells and sends signals to the brain when a person is full. Ghrelin is known as the “hunger hormone” and is produced primarily by the stomach and intestinal tract signaling hunger. Eating enough protein and nutrient rich foods help you feel full and lessens your chance of binging.

Unrealistic.
Most diets cannot be incorporated into the dieter’s busy schedule. Time and preparation is needed. On some plans, the food combinations are so strange or a food group is completely ignored, making it virtually impossible for the dieter to find food suitable for the plan in a pinch. When the dieter is maintaining, they’ll be less motivated to go the second mile in order to stick with the plan.

No Lifestyle Change.
In order to take the weight off and keep it off, there has to be a lifestyle change! We cannot subsist on very low calorie intake for long. If you go back to eating the way you’ve always eaten, you will gain back the weight and it will all be fat. This sets the yo-yo dieting in motion.

5 Things That Will Transform You Inside And Out

1. 1. Change who you hang around. Plato said that “People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.” For better or worse, we become more like the people that we hang around. Your associations have a lot to do with where you’re at in every area of your life.  Your friends are going to influence you either way, so why not pick the friends who will be a positive influence? Create an “ad­visory board” of friends who will lift you up, challenge you, inspire you, and hold you accountable.
2. 2. Read more. Reading allows you to shape your identity independently of your current circumstances. You internalize the wisdom and knowledge of the authors who you read. They say that there are two types of experiences that we can learn and grow from: personal experience and the experience that we borrow from others. Reading allows you to learn from mentors who you don’t have access to in your daily life. Learning from other people’s stories of chal­lenges and triumph is far less painful and time-consuming than going through those challenges yourself. That is why most of the world’s greatest leaders have been avid readers.
3. 3. Keep your word. Are you a person that keeps your word to others? What about the promises that you make to yourself? If you make your word your bond, both to yourself and to others, you will turn yourself into a person that shapes your own identity through the power of your pledge. Becoming a person that keeps your word starts with doing the little things, like calling someone back when you say you will or arriving to an appointment at the time agreed on. Once people know that they can count on you, you will be seen as a person whose words come to pass. You will come to see yourself that way too. Eventually, if you make a promise to yourself and others to make some change in your life, you will feel bound to keep your word.
4. 4. Challenge yourself. Just like great athletes have to constantly push themselves physically, we all have to take on challenges outside of our comfort level to become champions. If you find yourself in a place where you live your life on auto pilot, going through the motions and never really stretching yourself, chances are you will be in the same spot five years from now that you are in today. Challenges keep us fresh, give us energy, and most importantly, turn us unto stronger people capable of more than we were previously able.  
5. Get crystal clear about your why. For the past ten years I have said that mankind is lazy until something catches his heart. Your why is what fuels your life. If you don’t have a clear picture of your why, you will never stay motivated through the how. Our natural state is to be lazy and to take the path of least resistance, unless we are motivated by the why in our heart. What’s your why? Really meditate on it, write it down and read it often. You will find that you have more energy and more passion. Why is transformative.

If you dream of changing your life, you have to first become the person who can bring about that change. As Albert Einstein wisely pointed out, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
Patrick Bet-David has been called a renaissance man because of his interesting philosophies on politics, sports, history, humor and life. He is the founder of People Helping People (PHP), a fast-growing financial services company, and the author of Doing the Impossible (www.patrickbetdavid.com).

Read more at http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/how-to-transform-your-life

Are You Drinking Enough Water?

How much water are you drinking per day?

Most people think they drink enough water by drinking 6 to 8 "glasses" a day. The glasses are usually tiny. It's best to have your water in a container where you know how much you're drinking. If you use 8 oz bottles or glasses, it's easy to lose count and end up drinking 5 8 oz portions instead of 8. It's better to drink out of water bottles that hold 24 to 32 ounces. At a minimum, you should be drinking 64 oz a day.

Why Drink Water?

Quenches thirst. Drinks loaded with sugar and artificial sweeteners will leave you feeling thirsty.
Water boosts energy. Dehydration saps us of energy.
Helps promote weight loss.
Flush out impurities.
Hydrates and firms skin.
Aids digestion. Water can help prevent stomach acid problems.
Prevent headaches.
Drinking water helps reduce the risk of colon cancer by 45% and bladder cancer by 50%.
Heart healthy. Staying hydrated lowers your risk of heart attack by 41%.

Countdown to Summer 2015

 http://days.to/summer/2015#.VOKytv57vfE.facebook

Why is this date important? This is the first day of summer! That’s 124 days. Are you ready for the beach? Will you be wearing a new bikini or hiding under a sweater?

If you tried every diet under the sun and didn’t get the results you wanted, it’s time to switch to a nutritional cleansing program. Whether you want to lose weight, build lean muscle or have energy to ride the waves, Nutritional Cleansing will help you achieve your goals!

Join our team in our 90-day challenge! Email me today to learn how you can get started! You owe it to yourself to look and feel your best! Make summer 2015 your best summer yet!

The Planet Fitness Nightmare

Here's a funny article about Planet Fitness. Funny thing is, I use that gym now, because it's on my way to the train station and it's the only 24 hour game in town. I'm usually there at 5:30 am. I know I'll outgrow that gym as I'm getting more serious about lifting.

http://www.t-nation.com/opinion/planet-fitness-nightmare

4 Biggest Lies About The Biggest Loser

I just read an enjoyable article about the many ways The Biggest Loser misleads people who want to shed weight and get in shape. I paraphrased it for a quick read. For those of you who want to read the article in it's entirety (and I highly recommend it) the link is pasted below.

http://www.t-nation.com/powerful-words/4-biggest-lies-of-the-biggest-loser/comments

• The Biggest Loser is a show about fitness that teaches people nothing about fitness.
• The show tells uninformed viewers that exercise must be debilitating and that scale weight is the only thing that matters.
• The show keeps people ignorant about the metabolic impact of building muscle and sustained fat loss.
• The Biggest Loser overemphasizes cardio, making its overweight followers injury-prone, metabolically weak, and skinny fat at best.
• The show does have some redeeming factors for already-fit viewers. 

Lie #1: Exercise has to be excruciating in order to be effective. The exercise routines the trainers put the contestants through are not only rigid, they are unrealistic. The competitors train for 4-6 hours a day.

 

Lie #2: The scale is ultimate barometer for success. If you're adding muscle to your body, while losing weight, you won't see such a dramatic drop on the scale. Muscle weighs more than fat. A 150 lb woman with lean muscle is going to appear smaller than a 150 lb woman who doesn't workout.

 

Lie #3: Effective workouts involve tons of cardio. Wrong! The most efficient way of losing body fat and keeping it off is to add lean muscle. Cardio might "get you there" quicker, but most people fail to keep the weight off.

 

Lie #4: Your life must be overhauled to get into shape. Wrong again. The show implies this by moving contestants to a ranch for six months. They are put on strict diets and train 4-6 hours a day. It is unrealistic to keep such a routine in the real world. Most people are going to return to work and get tempted by the morning bagels. People have kids and spouses, who will want to eat the foods they've always eaten. What needs to be overhauled is the way they look at food. They need to look at food as fuel and not as a crutch.

10 Tips To Keep You Motivated.

It's almost January 15th. The crowd at the gym is beginning to thin out. Here's 10 tips to keep you motivated to stay on your program.

http://beautyhigh.com/workout-motivation-tricks/#_a5y_p=1528323

Commitment!

This Video Will Inspire You!

This guy got into the best shape of his life using the equipment that was available to him. He invented many of his own exercises. He fell many times and got up. Don't let any obstacles stand in your way!
YOU GOT THIS!!!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=716001718478214 

18 Things Mentally Strong People Do

18 Things Mentally Strong People Do (that most people don't).

Why We Break New Years Resolutions

Instead of making a list of resolutions. Make a list of goals. What's the difference, you may ask. Resolutions are promises you make to yourself - and promises can be broken. Goals are slightly different, because goals come with a game plan, a deadline and often a reward awaits those of us who meet our goals. 

If weight loss is part of list, your reward may be the promise of a new wardrobe, when you reach your goal - or simply how you'll look and feel! Here is an interesting article about why we break our New Year's resolutions and how to keep ourselves on track.

http://blog.pipedrive.com/2014/12/why-new-years-resolutions-are-great-if-you-make-them-great/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=blog_postp&utm_campaign=NYResolutions

Cheers! And here's to a happy and healthy 2015!