3 tips to relieve soreness

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Ever felt like you couldn’t climb stairs or squat down on the potty because you’re SO SORE after a workout? Did you skip your next workout to “listen to your body and wait to feel better”? Well, guess what, that’s actually NOT what your body is telling you. If you stop moving, you’ll actually prolong the pain instead of healing it.

Here are a few quick tips to relieve the soreness faster!

  1. Use a foam roller! What the heck is a foam roller? Find out in this video I made to show exactly what it is and how to use it.
  2. STREEEEETCH! Spend 5-10 minutes in the morning and evening just stretching those sore muscles. Google “static stretches for XXX” where XXX is the muscle that is hurting you. You’ll find lots of different stretches you can do to loosen up those muscles and get them feeling better fast.
  3. Most importantly, do NOT skip your workout. Moving your body and specifically those muscles that are sore will actually increase the blood flow to those muscles as well as stretch them out and warm them up so that they can heal faster and get stronger, which is the whole point! It will hurt at first but once you get moving, you’ll notice the pain will begin to subside during the workout. Afterwards, you’ll continue to experience that relief for up to a few hours. Plus, the soreness will go away altogether faster than if you skipped the workout completely.

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Gym vs Home Workouts vs Private Training

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26841375_1982624858667915_3706689557479932164_oWant to start getting in shape but not sure how? The vast number of options to choose from can be both awesome and overwhelming. Often it can be hard to choose what will be best for you. Here are a few of my thoughts on gyms vs home workouts vs private training.

–> Gyms: Large buildings filled with equipment, sweaty people, aerobics class options, and even personal trainers is the most common picture to come to mind when thinking of gyms. Some people love this environment if they enjoy the social aspect of fitness and prefer to use equipment that they don’t have at home. Also, for some people, having to physically leave their home and go to a gym is more motivating and having a location away from the hustle and bustle of their families can be helpful to avoid workout interruptions. There are also boutique style gyms that cater to specific audiences such as women only or specific fitness styles such as Pilates studios or Barre studios. These tend to be smaller buildings and can be fun socially because you automatically have at least one thing in common, you’re all women or you’re all into pilates, etc etc. Financially speaking, gyms can range widely in price but often are in the middle of the three options.

20414094_10155455218600102_6514970187266003839_o–> Home Fitness: Working out in your living room can be a very convenient option and offers a different level of privacy. You’re able to workout whenever you choose without worrying about travel time and the only people who see you are those who live with you.  It’s great for people with really busy schedules and also those who prefer not to workout in a crowd. You can even get your kiddos in on it for extra fun! Often this is the less expensive option and there are more fitness style options available. It’s helpful to have support such as a workout buddy or group to cheer each other on. Otherwise, its only you that knows if you workout at home or not, which makes it easier to skip. Another advantage of home workouts though is that you always get the best spot in the class, you can pause it as needed, and the class schedule is completely up to you. You can choose your own music and shower in your own shower. There’s never anyone else’s sweat on your barbells either which is one of my personal favorite benefits! 😉

–> Private Personal Training: Hiring a personal trainer, whether in a gym or one who will come to your home or meet you somewhere such as a park, is a great option for those who want personalized attention and a routine specifically created to address their goals, health issues, and lifestyle. If you’re working out on your own in a gym or at home, you may have no idea you are doing certain moves incorrectly or that you have posture issues that should be addressed to prevent injury before even trying to exercise. A personal trainer can make sure you are exercising in the optimal zone and doing the optimal moves with correct form for your body. A personal trainer can also give nutrition guidance, although not individualized meal plans, to help improve your results. Simply exercising without changing your eating habits won’t get you to your goals. A personal trainer can also create long term as well as short term plans so you are prepared to make this new healthy lifestyle last! Pricing can vary widely though but is often not as expensive as you might expect.

Overall, the option that fits you best depends on your personal preferences, goals, and lifestyle. Regardless of which one you choose, it’s better to start somewhere than to not start at all. If you end up not enjoying your first choice, there’s nothing stopping you from trying something new!

**To schedule one free private personal training session with me or get information on my virtual fit groups with home workouts, contact me today!

Should Women Lift Weights?

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No doubt you’ve heard that lifting weights can make your muscles get too big and create a masculine appearance. Perhaps you’re even worried about that and try to avoid weights altogether. Well, I’m here to tell you that is a myth and weight training is GREAT for women!

Men get the larger muscles mostly due to the higher levels of testosterone in their bodies. Women can definitely get ripped and toned but regular weight training won’t turn you into a man, I promise!

27982561_1998029703794097_3742184840251879388_oIn fact, weight training is super important for women for many reasons, both aesthetic and overall health-wise.

Many of us want to prevent or get rid of those saggy upper arms, right? Weight training your triceps and biceps will help with that! Weight training is also helpful in getting those defined legs and a tight tush we all would love to have! Beyond that though, weight training improves day-to-day functional ability and also helps prevent osteoporosis, a weak bone condition that is more common in women than men as we age. Often we think of weight training as simply making our muscles stronger but it actually causes bones to grow stronger too. Cardio training alone won’t have the same effect.

I don’t know about you but when I’m a grandmother, I want to be able to run and play with my grandkids without fear of falling and breaking a bone. There are more factors in conditions such as osteoporosis such as genes and overall health of course, but starting a strength training routine can definitely help prevent or even improve it!

How to healthify your coffee

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29694369_2022298258033908_7513636351925813248_o“I want to get healthier but I don’t want to give up my coffee with cream and sugar.” Does that sound like you? It definitely was me a few years ago and I work with many clients who tell me the exact same thing. Good News: You don’t have to give up coffee to be healthier! Not as good news: Adding lots of cream and sugar is definitely going to slow down your progress.

Don’t worry though! Here are two easy steps to gradually healthify (yes I made up that word haha) a cup of coffee:

  1. Over the course of a few weeks, begin to cut down the amount of sugar – even if it’s fake sugar – little by little. First, cut it down by 1/4 and drink your coffee at that level for a few days. Then, cut the sugar by 1/4-1/2 again and so-on. Don’t stop until you have cut ALL the sugar out altogether. If you hit an amount that really makes you unable to drink the coffee, add a little honey. Then gradually decrease that.
  2. Once you have gotten the sugar out, begin to focus on the cream. Even skim milk is pretty high in sugar (lactose sugar) and calories. My biggest advice is to gradually switch from milk or a flavored creamer to an alternative milk product like unsweetened almond or coconut milk. These products are very low in calories and sugar and have more health benefits. Plus, you still get a creaminess in your coffee! Began by making your coffee with a mixture of half the amount of your regular creamer and replace the other half with the alternative creamer. Drink it that way for a few days to a week. Then, cut it to 1/4 your regular creamer and 3/4 the unsweetened almond or coconut milk. Continue until you’ve made the full switch.

There is an adjustment period but I can tell you that I no longer can stomach drinking really sweet coffee drinks like I used to enjoy. This method has helped many of my clients too! Give it a try and comment below to let me know how it worked for you

Exercise for not-so-sporty kids

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20160817_154900 (1)Not every kid is an athlete. Not every kid enjoys competition. Not every kid wants to play team sports. However, EVERY kid does need daily exercise. But what do you do when your kid would rather play video games and stay inside all day? In the case of my oldest daughter, I realized she was not going to naturally be drawn to exercise or sports pretty early on. So, we basically went for the “put her in everything and see what sticks” method and eventually discovered physical activities that she LOVES, from the swim team to regular recess, visits to the park, and family walks on the beach.

As early as two years old, we put her in dance, then gymnastics, and then soccer, and finally swim team. The theme here is that we kept trying. She didn’t fall in love with dance, wasn’t very interested in gymnastics, and would only go on the soccer field if she was holding hands with the coach. None of them worked, but we didn’t give up. We paid attention to the things she really enjoyed and finally, we realized that her love for the pool could mean she may enjoy the swim team. We asked if she was interested, she said yes, tried out and made the team the very next day! As a no-contact sport that involves doing something she loves already – being in the pool, it is a perfect match! Plus, swimming is one of the BEST forms of exercise! Whether or not she will be excited about the races remains to be seen, but all in all, as long as she participates in the weekly practices, I’m a happy momma!

Additionally, we found a school that values activities like daily recess, daily P.E., and even has a voluntary Morning Mile program that we can all do as a family! We also take family walks on the beach, go to the park, and swim in the community pool where we live. We limit electronics time to weekends only and make sure we spend at least 30 minutes a day doing something active, even if I have to rope the girls into doing a home workout with me in our living room. They love the dancing workouts like CIZE or Country Heat!

All children are different and their strengths should be appreciated. If the things they enjoy doing are tended, they will grow and flourish.

Top Tips for Morning Workouts

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Everyone who knows me has heard me say “morning workouts are where consistency is made!”
 
20160716_070540A lot of my challengers HATE the idea of morning workouts but see the value of it as they begin their fitness journeys. There is just too much that can go wrong during a day and end up causing you not to do it. I myself will come up with 24987 reasons not to do it by the end of the day if I wait. When you get it done first thing in the morning, you won’t have any excuses to knock you off track.
 
Plus, you’ll feel more awake, more energized, and more ready for your day after getting your blood flowing!
 
1. Plan ahead: Know what workout you’ll do, lay out your workout clothes or even wear them to bed the night before (that’s what I do!), have your workout space set up, have any equipment ready;
 
2. Go to bed earlier. Do I need to explain that one? Getting enough sleep is crucial not just to having energy to workout in the morning but also for having energy all day. If you’re getting up earlier, you’ll be losing sleep if you don’t counteract that by going to bed earlier. Simple math!
 
3. Have a friend or group for accountability, whether it’s in person or virtual. It’s no surprise that being accountable to other people is helpful in staying on track. Studies show better results in those who aren’t alone on their journey. I host monthly virtual accountability groups and you’re always welcome to join if you don’t have one of your own. Simply message me in the comments below if you’d like details!

Taking A Risk

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So I had this dream. Not like “I have a dream” as in some big dream for society or anything grand like that. My dream was just for me. My dream was for my own family. My dream was out of my reach, or so I thought.

When I began as a Beachbody coach, I created a vision board with goals and dreams I’d like to achieve/make real (if you’ve never done this, I highly recommend you google it and make one!). I keep it hanging where I can see it every day. I spend time every day simply visualizing these things at the time they’ve really happened. Still though, I felt they were very far away. I had created a real plan to actually reach them but they seemed currently out of reach.

One of those dreams was to live on the beach, right were I could hear the waves from my bedroom, walk out and watch the pelicans diving in, be amazed by storms and lightening  over the ocean, go for evening walks on the beach, watch the sunrise, and well, you get the point. It was my dream. It was something that brought a smile to my face just thinking about it. I didn’t think I could have it though, at least not any time soon.

Then, one day, on a whim, my husband and I stopped at an open house for a beachfront condo that was for sale. We laughed as we went in and made a bet on who would have the closest guess as to the exorbitant price it would cost. We were surprised to find that it actually was less than we thought. In fact, it wasn’t much more than the cost of our current house. Then we looked a little deeper and found that there were lots of places available that actually were in our price range. The caveat was they were smaller, much smaller than our 2000 sq ft, 4 bedroom house in a perfect little family neighborhood. Buuut this was my DREAM. It was actually within my reach. Would we be able to downsize so significantly? Would that be practical? How would it affect our children?

My husband loved the idea. We talked about the pros and cons for awhile but not long. We basically decided one thing. We decided that right now, in this moment, this dream was within our reach and the circumstances surrounding it were perfectly aligned. We didn’t know if that would ever happen again in our lives. Maybe it would but maybe it wouldn’t. So we went for it.

Just like that. We called our real estate agents, LB Realty, and said we wanted to sell our house and move to a condo on the beach. We literally sold it in a week from the day we put it on the market, sold half of our stuff along with it, and rented a 2 bedroom beachfront condo.

RLR_2519Every day, I wake up to the sound of the ocean waves.

Every morning, I sit outside and drink my Shakeology as I watch the sunrise.

Every day, I workout next to a window overlooking the ocean.

Every day, my girls and I go in the pool.

We go for family walks on the beach 3 or 4 nights a week.

We watch lightning storms, pelicans, crabs, surfers, and hunt for turtles.

It is literally my dream come true. Is it completely perfect? No. The girls are somewhere between loving and hating sharing a room. There’s a bit of an ant problem. Salt makes things rust easy and get weird, like sliding glass doors for instance. The sun’s light/heat coming into the windows from the  between 8 am and 12 pm is INTENSE lol

None of that compares to the good though.

We took a risk. While some family members and friends called us crazy, many actually said living on the beach was their dream too. All I have to say is that the cliche “you only live once” is true. If you have dreams, don’t let them just exist in your sleep. Make them happen. Go after them. Make them real. Take a risk. Take a leap of faith.

If you don’t, what good does it do? If you die tomorrow, will you have lived a life you loved or will you have simply settled, just gotten by, told yourself you “didn’t need that to be happy?” I believe we all not only deserve to have our dreams come true but we all have the capacity to make them happen. We are all born with the same 24 hours in a day. We all have the choice to spend an hour either doing something to take us towards our goals or just watching tv. The choice is yours. What will you decide?

3 Steps for Efficient Meal Planning

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Fail to plan = Plan to fail! We’ve all heard that right? It’s so true! Planning your meals ahead of time will take the guesswork out of your days. Essentially “meal planning” is just taking time at the beginning of the week to choose exactly what meals and snacks you will put into your body the rest of the week. Your biggest obstacle in changing your lifestyle is going to be managing your time. Getting fit and healthy doesn’t have to compete with your time for family, friends, career, etc. Meal planning will help you save time in the long run as well as keep you on track with your health goals.

  1. mealPlan_thumbTOOLS: Use a spreadsheet to plan your meals! Set one up that has a spot for each meal of the day and each day of the week. If you’re following the 21 Day Fix, include columns for each color container and a “total” row that tallies up the number of containers you have so far (I have a couple of these already created, contact me if you need one).
  2. REPITITION: Plan out meals for one or two days and then repeat them for the rest of the week. This will help you save on planning and prepping time as well as money at the grocery store! Plus, if you have Shakeology every morning for breakfast, that’s one less meal you have to plan!
  3. RESOURCES: Use Pinterest, the Beachbody website, or the FIXATE cookbook for recipes and simply look them up under the meal your planning. For example, if I am planning a snack, I’d search Pinterest for “21 day fix snacks” and the results would be full of snack ideas that are in line with the 21 Day Fix nutrition guide. Pick one or two and BAM! Done with snacks!

Tip: Plan your meals before you go to the grocery store. Don’t try to plan based on ingredients you already have in your fridge. That will take much longer and you’ll end up with wasted food. Plan and then go to the grocery store. After that, it’s time to PREP!! Check out next week’s blog for tips on meal prep made easy!

Just an Intro

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Helping people find their happy through fitness and freedom is my PASSION!

I am wife, mom of two beautiful baby girls, webmaster, and Beachbody coach. I began my personal journey with Beachbody in the summer of 2014 when I became officially DONE with being overweight, tired and lacking self confidence. I had gained weight from 2 pregnancies and my body was paying the price. I started with Focus T25 and lost 13 lbs and 3 pant sizes in 2 months! It was AMAZING and I was in LOVE. In early 2015 I became a coach to help others find the same success and life changing happiness that I found with these programs.

Now, I personally mentor 5 to 10 new women each month on their fitness journey. I provide support and guidance as they begin to change their lives or simply step up their previous health regimen. If you’re ready to make a positive change in your life, contact me today.

Additionally, I offer a private mentorship program for women who are looking for fulfillment and freedom in their lives. Are you a hard-working, driven individual who enjoys helping others and wants to LIVE YOUR DREAMS? If so, I want you to join my team! If owning your own business, working from home, making your own hours, and having fun the whole time sounds like something you’d love, contact me for more information!