Author Archives: Megan_mefit

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About Megan_mefit

Nutritionist, Personal Trainer, Community Leader Personality: Driven, energetic, supportive, open-minded Certifications: Corrective Exercise Specialist (NASM), TRX certified Education: Bachelor of Science from the Radford University in Foods and Nutrition I’ve been passionately working in health and fitness for over two decades. Through these experiences I’ve learned a lot about myself and what my job means to others. In my coaching programs, we work to upgrade your mindset, overcome disappointments, obstacles, perceived failures, challenges and by doing so we create a sense of self efficacy (belief in oneself to complete the task). Also, by providing education that facilitates a sustainable foundation of knowledge, creating healthy habits that turn into a consistent routine and therefore lasting results. What we do together is not a diet plan or a cookie cutter workout program. OUTSIDE THE GYM Originally from Virginia, I moved out to Portland, Oregon directly after college for the delicious hippie food, circus arts, music, coffee and overall vibe. For recreation I enjoy hanging my hammock, dancing music festivals, hula hooping, hiking, and paddle boarding. I spent a year living abroad in Japan with my husband, and recently moved to the Hudson Valley area in New York. We love plants and animals! We garden, have many house plants, fish tanks and four pets. One miniature poodle, Butternut, one toy poodle, Hazelnut, one of their puppies Cashew & an orange tabby cat named Filbert.

Words of advice that may help improve your body image….

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Negative body image (or body dissatisfaction) involves feelings of shame, anxiety, and self-consciousness. People who experience high levels of body dissatisfaction feel their bodies are flawed in comparison to others, and these folks are more likely to suffer from feelings of depression, isolation, low self-esteem, and eating disorders.

•85% of women and 79% of girls skip important activities due to body dissatisfaction.

•Those who frequently look at “fitspiration” on Instagram are less likely to be satisfied with their bodies and more likely to want to be thinner.

•70% of girls with a poor view of their bodies won’t be as vocal about opinions

•54% of women say they’re their own worst critics While we all may have our days where we feel awkward or uncomfortable in our bodies, the key to developing a more positive body image is to recognize and respect our natural shape and learn to overpower those negative thoughts and feelings with positive, affirming, and accepting ones.

Accept yourself. 💕

Accept your body. 💕

🤍

SOURCES:2021 Body Image Facts, Figures, and Statistics | Beauty Schools Directory[26] Fardouly, J., Willburger, B. K., & Vartanian, L. R. (2017). Instagram use and young women’s body image concerns and self-objectification: Testing mediational pathways. New Media & Society, 20(4), 1380-1395. doi:10.1177/14614448176944992021 Body Image Statistics: 40 Shocking Body Image Facts (breakbingeeating.com)#bodyimage#eatingdisorderawareness#onlinepersonaltrainer#fitness

Positive Body Image

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☝🏽This is THE definition of positive body image. If you haven’t read More than a Body 📖, you need to. 🤍

Let’s dig into this idea:

✖️“We are all at a severe disadvantage when our body image is so deeply tied to how we look (or how we think we look). Too many of us not only feel awful about our looks, since we can never achieve or maintain the aspirational beauty ideals presented to us, but also feel awful about our dynamic, adaptive bodies overall because all we care about is how they look. This is truly the root of negative body image.

✖️So how do we fix this? The most popular strategy for promoting positive body image relies on messaging such as “All bodies are beautiful” or “Our flaws make us beautiful.” Those ideas might provide a temporary mood boost and are catchy marketing slogans, but ultimately they don’t get to the root of the problem. Regardless of how the definition of beauty expands, it’s still being reinforced as the most important thing about us. A more effective approach to healing our body image issues needs to reflect the understanding that focusing on the appearance of our bodies is the *problem.*

✖️Each of us has grown up in and experienced every second of life inside our own incredible bodies, and yet we judge and define how we feel about our bodies by how we think they look to others? That thought would be laughable if it weren’t so cryable. When we can understand and relate directly to our bodies by experiencing our physical selves from the inside, we can see more in our bodies and ourselves. No more trying to squeeze ourselves into the narrow molds of our cultural beauty ideals, and no more trying to stretch our cultural beauty ideals to fit all of us. No more struggling to convince ourselves we are all beautiful since beauty is the greatest source of value and confidence we can imagine. Let’s imagine something better than beautiful for ourselves and everyone we love.”

Repost from @beauty_redefined

🚨 The hardcover book is on SALE for $11/each + free shipping when you order 3+ on Amazon! (Also at Target, but they sold out). And it’s on audiobook & Kindle – all linked in bio. #morethanabody

PSA: Your watch has no idea how many calories you burn

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Your watch ⌚️ doesn’t have a clue how many calories you burn 🔥

•A study published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Researchers have found that, five brands of commercially available fitness trackers on average, were reasonably accurate with measuring heart rate, but wildly ineffective at estimating calorie burn 🔥 for energy expenditure.

🤪The scientists found that the wearables overestimated calorie burn by 14 to 23%.

Those findings reinforce a 2017 study at the Stanford School of Medicine, in which researchers looked at seven popular fitness trackers:

•Apple Watch
•Basis Peak
•Fitbit Surge
•Microsoft Band
•Mio Alpha 2
•PulseOn
•Samsung Gear S2

All devices scored poorly, with a medium error range being from a dismal 27.4% for the Fitbit, to shockingly bad 96.2% for the PulseOn.

While these trackers can be useful, You can see if you upped your activity or intensity from the day or week before to gauge your own progress.

But please don’t go trusting these numbers as facts.

MDPI Source: ijerph16173037

#onlinepersonaltrainer#personaltrainer#fitness#smartwatch#calorieburn#psa#fitnesscoach#healthylifestyle#calories#cico#cardio#cardioworkout#heartratetraining#strengthtraining#orangetheoryfitness#orangetheory#hiitworkout#hiit#hiitcardio#hiitcardioworkout#stepgoal#getyourstepsin#neat#newyorkfitness#truthbomb#science#evidencebased#publicserviceannouncement#explorepage

Why you shouldn’t skip rest days…

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PSA: Skipping rest days doesn’t make you a badass. 🙅🏻‍♀️

It does get you more tired, stressed, inflamed and farther from your goals though. #hardtruth

💤 What to do on rest days:
Hydrate 💦
Focus on your nutrition 🍴 (adequate carbs & protein)
Light movements like walking and stretching 🧘‍♀️

What NOT to do:
Drastically Reducing your calories or carb intake- I see this strategy often, which is based on the assumption you don’t need as much ⛽️ because of less activity. From my perspective, this can create unnecessary stress, potential disordered eating behaviors and it’s best to consume your usual amount of calories on rest days to ensure muscle growth and recovery.

Benefits 👇🏻

1. Allows time for recovery
•Contrary to popular belief, a rest day isn’t about being lazy on the couch. It’s during this time that the beneficial effects of exercise take place. Specifically, rest is essential for muscle growth.

2. Prevents muscle fatigue
•Remember, exercise depletes your muscles’ glycogen levels. If these stores aren’t replaced, you’ll experience muscle fatigue and soreness.
Plus, your muscles need glycogen to function, even when you’re not working out. By getting adequate rest, you’ll prevent fatigue by letting your glycogen stores refill.

3. Reduces risk of injury
•Overtraining also exposes your muscles to repetitive stress and strain. This increases the risk of overuse injuries, forcing you to take more rest days than planned.

4. Improves performance
•Rest has the opposite effect. It increases energy and prevents fatigue, which prepares your body for consistently successful workouts.

5. Supports healthy sleep
•While regular exercise can improve your sleep, taking rest days is also helpful. Rest can help you get better sleep by letting your hormones return to a normal, balanced state.

💞✌🏼Link in bio for coaching

#onlinepersonaltrainer#personaltrainer#onlinenutritioncoach#nutritioncoach#restdays#restday#restdaybenefits#dontskiprestday#disorderedeating#dietculturedropout#fitnesscoach#fitnesscoaching#education#newyorkfitness#hudsonvalleyny#explorepage#nourishyourbody#nourish#carbs#eatyourcarbs

Lack of willpower is actually NOT a thing…

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“Lack of willpower” is actually NOT a thing. It’s typically a mindset issue.

Willpower/self-control is like a muscle, it can be trained to grow stronger and it gets fatigued. Under stress in particular, our self control is drastically reduced. Even though it gets “worn out”, we must understand our mindset limitations are a larger contributing factor.

Let’s start with How do you perceive self-control? Do you have it? Do you not? Can you change it? Are you aware of when your self control is compromised? And why? Awareness here is 🔑, then you can begin working backwards. Where is it stemming from? Like my most recent post, you can’t change what you don’t know needs changing.

Maybe where you need to start, is it with more self-control at all… But simply awareness.

1️⃣Begin with awareness, self-monitoring your behaviors to understanding your triggers.

2️⃣Stress reduction can also do wonders! Stress is an energy sucker! When you have less stress, you’ll have more energy available for alllllll the other things! More posts on this to come.

And maybe 🤔 you do need some tough love for more “willpower”, let me ask you this:

Is some discomfort now worth it, if you know it’s only temporary to make progress? How will you benefit from succeeding?

The stronger you are focused on the personal pay off, the more likely you are to follow through with desired behaviors. That’s you flexing your willpower muscle 🙌🏻💯 The deeper your why (the intrinsic drive) the stronger you’ll be!

Link in bio for coaching 🤍

#onlinepersonaltrainer#willpower#mindset#awareness#personaltrainer#fitnessmotivation#nutriton#strengthtraining#mindsetmatters#dietculturedropout#icaniwill#trainertips#newwindsorny#hudsonvalleyny#newyorkfitness

What is the FIRST and MOST IMPORTANT step in changing your behaviors?

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Step ☝🏼 in cultivating change is awareness.

Awareness doesn’t equate to change though.

Cultivating self awareness around triggers, emotions, and self-limiting thoughts that lead to our behaviors is a very important part of the process. 🌀

🎯 Over time the target is to self manage the point of trigger before the behavior itself, “head off” our emotional chain reaction that leads to the unwanted behavior.

Awareness is the 🔑 that begins the ability to implement your intentions.

You have goals and desires, now you must bridge the gap to behaviors and actions.

Awareness is part of how you get there 💕

Link in bio to apply for coaching 🤍

#fitnesscoach#nutritioncoach#onlinepersonaltrainer#personaltrainer#mindsetiseverything#mindsetmatters#mindset#awareness#goals#newyorkfitness#hudsonvalleyny#westpointny#fitnessmotivation#awarenessiskey#awarenessispower
#behaviorchange#mindset#selfcompassion#healthylifestyle#healthyeating#health#healthiswealth#sustainablefitness#sustainablenutrition#trainertips

Why you should ditch heavily scented products & perfume:

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While many folks in the health space have likely gotten rid of most heavily scented products, what about our clients? ⠀⁠⠀⁠⁠⠀⁠⠀

According to the NPD group, nearly 80% of consumers scent their homes. Their reasons? Consumers want to feel “relaxed”, “cozy”, and to “uplift their spirits”. ⁠⠀⁠⠀

A study conducted by Statista showed that 15% of men never use fragrances (perfume & eau de toilette), compared to 8% of women. The inverse of these stats is that likely 85% of men DO use fragrances of some kind, and 92% of women DO use fragrances of some kind.⁠⠀⁠⠀⁠⠀

But at what cost?⁠⠀⁠⠀⁠⠀

Many products list “fragrance” on the label, but only a tiny fraction of companies actually disclose the specific constituents making up that fragrance. ⁠⠀⁠⠀

These ingredients are considered proprietary and therefore are not required to be disclosed. This lack of transparency does not help consumers make informed choices.⁠ (California recently passed a new law requiring disclosure of these compounds, starting in Jan 2022.

This will likely spell change for the entire industry, and is good news!)⁠⠀⁠⠀

Even without completely transparent ingredient lists, there’s plenty of evidence linking fragrance to a myriad of serious health conditions like cancer, reproductive and developmental toxicity, allergies, and sensitivities. ⁠⠀⁠⠀⁠⠀

The best and easiest way to avoid these exposures is simple: stop buying and using scented products!⁠⠀⁠⠀⁠⠀

This is an avoidance intervention that’s available to ALL people regardless of resources. In fact, not buying these home fragrances and perfumes/colognes SAVES money. ⁠⠀⁠⠀

Scented home products can be hard for some folks to let go of – there’s a strong emotional attachment that keeps people addicted. But understanding and articulating these bigger risks can help! ⁠⠀⁠⠀⁠⁠⠀⁠⠀

Are you working on ditching scented products? Drop a YES in the comments if you are!

REPOSTED from Envirnomentaltoxinssnerd

PSA: Motivation is unreliable…

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Kicking off the week with #motivationmonday 💥🙌🏻
👇🏻Comment below & share with me how you stay focused in the face of low motivation?

💯 Truth be told, you are not always going to be motivated.

We already do things we might not wannnnnaaaa do often, because the benefits outweigh the cons. I am sure you’re not always motivated to go to work but you still go on those days & get it done- right?! 👊🏼 💥

So, how do we persevere in the face of low motivation?? #milliondollarquestion

Find your intrinsic motivation. You do have it, we just have to uncover it. 🕵🏻

•Who is the person you want to be?
•What does that person’s life look like?
•What do you value?
•What do you prioritize?
•What are your expectations of a healthy lifestyle?
•What outcomes are you expecting?

GIFT VS CHORE

🤔Taking the time to answer these question can help cultivate the mindset from thinking it’s a CHORE to thinking these actions are a GIFT for yourself.

🤍Nourishing your body and daily movement is a form of self-care… You will experience lifted mood, more energy, and less stress. This can translate into more patient parenting, more production at work, a more loving spouse and general a happier human. 🤍

This is the first part of my series of posts focused on motivation, discipline, self compassion and our goals this week to close down #mentalhealthawarenessmonth!
Stay tuned 🙌🏻

#onlinepersonaltrainer#nutritioncoach#onlinehealthcoach#fitnessgoals#workout#workoutmotivation#fitnesstips#trainertips#personaltrainer#fitnessmotivation#motivation#motivationtips#normalizementalhealth#mentalhealth#explorepage#discoverunder5k#psa#fitnesscoach#newyorkfitness#newwindsor#newwindsorny

Benefits of Aloe Vera Juice

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Aloe vera juice has many benefits, especially for gut health, but I think the most incredible thing is the amount of potassium it contains. There is 940mg in 8oz of juice! That’s even more than coconut water, making it an ideal option for optimal hydration. 

​Aloe vera juice is also beneficial for those that struggle with digestive issues. Aloe vera specifically helps to reduce inflammation in the digestive tract, which is helpful for acid reflux. It also helps pull water into the colon, which is why it aids in constipation and encourages regular bowel movements.

I get the Lakewood brand at my local Sprouts, but they also sell it at other grocery stores and Amazon! Comment below if you’ve ever tried it or are planning to.

It’s not sweet or particularly tasty on its own, but my favorite way to get my daily dose is in an adrenal cocktail. Just combine 4oz orange juice, 4oz aloe vera juice, and 1/4 tsp sea salt for a boost of vitamin C, potassium, and sodium. It’s delicious, energizing, and hydrating!

Reposted from

Women’s Health Dietitian

NutritionistAmanda Montalvo, RD, FDN-P

Discipline without self compassion turns to guilt…

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Let’s dive deeper…..

While having discipline is an important aspect of behavior change, YES. But being too rigid, too strict, leaves you with little room for making mistakes, which are inventible. When you do slip up without having any self-compassion, you’ll feel guilt and shame. This down spiral will likely lead to you stopping all together.

Having self compassion can lead to great mindfulness, optimism, higher self-efficacy, and more enjoyment through the process. Too much self compassion, you’ll let yourself slide all the time, and eventually stop.

Too much of either of these, ends up in very little action.

True success is found in the middle!