Category Archives: portland

Fitting in movement into your busy schedule

Leave a reply

#trainertips

✅ Schedule it in & Commit
When time is your biggest challenge when it comes to exercise, then knowing what you’re going to do and when you’re going to do it is very important! At the beginning of each week, schedule your workouts like you schedule your meetings or appointments. Create a plan, know what you’re going to do and when you’re going to do it, and commit! You can even have an alternative day to make up your workout if something does happen.

✅Morning or Earlier in the day workouts. Plan your workouts in the morning or during your lunch breaks. This way you dedicate that time for you before the day slips away. Being busy throughout the day usually leads to fatigue by the end of the day and can make commitments to workouts later in the day harder.

✅ Boost Your Daily Activities
Try giving some of your daily activities a boost to get your movement in. Take advantage of every situation. This can be parking a little farther from the grocery store, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking while chatting on the phone, or walking during meetings that you do not have to participate in.

✅ Change Your Mindset Around Movement
Movement should not be looked at as an activity that you dread or that takes over your life. We want to view movement as a GIFT to yourself not a chore. If you wake up and think “I don’t have time to workout today” you’re most likely not going to find the time to get it done. If you wake up thinking of it as a priority and how much better you’re going to feel after its done you are more likely to find the time.

✅ Make It Enjoyable
Do something that you actually enjoy. It’s easier to get something done when you like the activity. Focus on what makes you feel the best, helps you to reach your goals, and is rewarding for your mind and body.

What’s the #1 thing holding most back from their goals?

Leave a reply

Change of any kind intimidating and it may seem like you have a long way to go in achieving your goals…

Here are some tips for hacking consistency:

1️⃣Focus on 1-2 habits that you can easily commit to start. Get into the groove with them. Next, build one or two habits on top of those, this concept is called habit stacking.

Example: Two daily habits could be eating protein with almost every meal and getting 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Next you could focus on drinking water first thing before coffee and adding in a morning stretch routine.

Building on habits is what creates a routine.

A routine is what creates consistency. Consistency is what creates results.

This is why fad diets, 30 day challenges and 75 hard is a waste of your time. If it’s not based around your own individual health markers, lifestyle and goals, if it’s not teaching you about your own biofeedback and empowering you—You’re likely not gonna stick with it.

2️⃣Focus on what’s being added in and improved. Adding in more protein, more fruits and veggies, more movement etc. (not what’s being taken away or restrained.)

3️⃣However your path looks like on the journey to feeling better it should be rewarding and tied to deep personal meaning and intrinsic motivation.

4️⃣Self-Efficacy is the name of the game- building belief in oneself over time, creating a foundation of knowledge that is a sustainable lifestyle.

Consistency is everything— if what you’re currently doing is too difficult to stick with, it’s not YOU. It’s your approach.

Link for my 8 week foundations program ✌🏼💕

Why women who workout should NOT intermittent fast

Leave a reply

From a health standpoint, intermittent fasting is useful – especially for the general population who are not very active and struggling with metabolic diseases.

⚠️ However, if you’re adding intermittent fasting on top of exercise, you aren’t gaining any extra benefits.

❗️ In fact, if you’re a woman, adding intermittent fasting on top of exercise can be harmful to both your performance and your health. ❗️

💥 Women are more sensitive to kisspeptin, neuropeptide that’s responsible for sex hormones and endocrine and reproductive function. Diets such as intermittent fasting and keto disrupt kisspeptin production.

It comes down to kisspeptin, is a neuropeptide that’s responsible for sex hormones and endocrine and reproductive function, which also plays a significant role in maintaining healthy glucose levels, appetite regulation, and body composition. It’s also more sensitive in women than men. When it gets perturbed, our sex hormones aren’t produced and released the way we need them to be. 

Intermittent fasting and keto both disrupt kisspeptin production. When our brain perceives we have a deficiency in nutrients, especially carbohydrate, we have a marked reduction in kisspeptin stimulation, which not only increases our appetite, but also reduces our sensitivity to insulin. This is why research shows intermittent fasting is more likely to cause impaired glucose intolerance in women, but not men.

What happens when we layer exercise stress on top of the stress of denying our bodies an important fuel source? Stress hormones like cortisol rise even higher. As you keep increasing that stress, it keeps your sympathetic drive high and reduces your ability to relax. Your thyroid activity is depressed, which messes with your menstrual cycle. Your body also starts storing more belly fat.

So now you’re looking at disrupted menstrual cycles, higher anxiety and stress, impaired performance and often weight gain—pretty much the opposite of what you’re looking for!

The ketogenic diet has very similar effects on women athletes. We hear people rave about the increased mental focus with a keto diet. In men, yes. They have an increase in their parasympathetic (a.k.a. rest and digest) activity, so they can be more relaxed and present. In women, keto kicks up our sympathetic (a.k.a. fight or flight) drive, so we’re more anxious, more prone to being depressed, and we can’t sleep very well, which again hurts our hormonal health, performance, well being, and body composition.

Sometimes women will contend that these diets work so well for them. And they might for the first three months, because nearly any diet will yield some effects in the short term. The long term effects for women athletes, however, is endocrine dysfunction, increases in abdominal fat, more depression, and a backlash of subsequent fat gain.

Women athletes perform far better in a fed state. Women athletes need to eat. 

💥 The long term effects of intermittent fasting with exercise for women athletes is endocrine dysfunction, increases in abdominal fat, more depression, and subsequent fat gain.

Pretty much the opposite direction of your goals.

👇🏻LMK What’s your experience with IF?

SOURCE: https://www.drstacysims.com/

Why women need ample protein intake

2 Replies

When on-boarding new clients, one of the first things we focus on is daily protein intake.

  1. It boots metabolism- protein has a thermic effect upward of five times greater than carbohydrates or fat.
  2. Stay Fuller, longer- A growing body of research suggests that dietary protein specifically, can help promote satiety, facilitating weight loss when consuming as a part of a reduced energy diet.
  3. Supports lean muscle mass- Studies show that protein before and after a workout increases protein synthesis=muscle growth. It also preserves current muscle mass, which is part of a healthy aging process.
  4. Healthy skin, hair and nails- protein supplies the body with the amino acids it requires to make keratin-one of the structural proteins in our skin, hair and nails. To boost your body’s natural keratin production, you need to consume an adequate amount of protein, as well as specific vitamins and minerals that support this process.

,

Addressing Visceral Fat

Leave a reply

9516E825-425E-4C0A-A72A-909FED0648E6.jpegUnderstanding body composition-lean body mass, skeletal mass, body fat percentage and how it relates to optimal health and disease prevention is a fresh outlook in regards to weight wellness instead of strictly weight loss.

I believe in the importance of having body competition data to be sure we are losing body fat and gaining muscle when we see the scale shifting in either direction.

Let’s talk visceral fat:
First off there are Two types of Abdominal Fat-
Subcutaneous- the fat that is outside of your organs, can pinch with fingers
Visceral- Surrounding the organs, deadly in high amounts

What causes high visceral fat? Poor diet, lack of exercise, stress, aging, hormones and genetics.

When it comes to health, there is so much more to the picture than weight loss. Creating long term habits that build the foundation of wellness will make weight loss more sustainable and achievable.

Stress Management:
There are many easy activities you can incorporate into your daily life to help shift your focus and your mindset when you begin to feel stress. First, focus on what can you take direct control of: this may be incorporating the use of stress-modulating herbs called adaptogens into your diet, participating in an exercise program you enjoy, a spa treatment, cooking a meal you love, or simply turning off your phone for an hour.

Whatever your stress relieving activity is, schedule it into your calendar at least once a week. It is crucial to make room in your routine for important self-care tasks, like you would with a doctor or dentist appointment. Dedicating time throughout your week to self-care routines will improve the consistency of your actions.

Mindful Eating Practices:
Paying attention to the physical feelings of hunger. Are you physiologically hungry and actually in need of nutrition? How does this meal have you feeling? are you excited to prepare it? Excited to eat it? 

Identifying cravings: This is your body communicating with you and could be indicating you need a specific nutrient. Example: Craving salty foods like pickles or chips could mean you need to replenish sodium and/or electrolytes. Try adding ConcenTrace Mineral drops to your water, or make your own kale chips for a healthy snack. Craving onions could mean you need more sulfur in your diet for liver function. Chocolate cravings often indicate that your body is deficient in magnesium, which is a common deficiency. You can try adding mineral drops to your water and if you’re going to eat chocolate try adding cocoa powder to you smoothie, or dark chocolate.

Sensation of fullness: Also known as satiety. Having fiber, balanced protein and healthy fats as part of your meals and snacks will help you feel full after eating.

Taste satisfaction: Enjoying the food you eat is important for your body to get the most nutrition for your cells.  “Healthy” eating doesn’t have to be boring! Explore new spices, fresh herbs and seasonings. New recipes will excite your meal planning.

Gratitude: Take a moment before you consume your meal to think what it took to get from farm to table. It is recommended we chew our food 20-30 times before swallowing. Focus on feeling satisfied about how you have chosen to fuel your body.

New findings published in the Journal of Obesity suggest that combining a technique called mindful eating with stress management can help reduce cortisol levels and the resulting belly fat. The most effective mindful eating practices are paying attention to the physical feelings of hunger, identifying cravings, sensation of fullness, and taste satisfaction so you fully enjoy your eating experience and feel satisfied about how you have fueled your body.

Link to the Journal of obesity study: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jobe/2011/651936/

TO Read more about stress management: https://bridgecitywellness.wordpress.com/2017/06/07/is-stress-making-us-fat/

To read more about mindful eating and quality foods over quantity: https://bridgecitywellness.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/stop-counting-calories/