Are you ready for that change?

One thing I have learned over the years is that change will not come unless you are ready for it, even if you need it. I had two major health issues before I was ready to make the change and become a healthier person. You would think that a 5 day hospitalization when my son was 10 weeks old would have been enough by itself to make me change my unhealthy ways. Nope, I waited until my second near hospitalization before I had my, as Oprah would say, "A-Ha moment". I think the first health issue felt like a fluke and the second drove the point home. I had always been healthy, but sometime just after I had my daughter, I began eating poorly and was not as active. I put on a lot of weight and my digestive system was P.O.d at me...and it was letting me know. I was barely 30 and was having problems usually experienced by the elderly. It was as I was laying on the procedure table ready for a colonoscopy that I realized I needed to take my body back. 

I was working full time and I had two children, ages 4 and 2. When I wasn't working, I was on-call and could be summoned in at a moment's notice...and often was. When I wasn't back at work, I was home caring for my babies and making the sacrifice a lot of moms make... I gave work and my loves all my time and left none for taking care of me. I remember thinking, "What good am I to them if I am in the hospital or worse?" It was time for a change, but when? I certainly didn't have time in my day. After the kids finally went to bed, I needed time to unwind and most of the time I fell asleep on the couch exhausted anyway. The only time I could do anything for me would have to be time I created. I would literally have to create an extra hour in the day to exercise and that meant getting up an hour earlier and I would have to make sure I learned all I could about making the right eating choices. To be honest, getting up at 5 am everyday was not easy at first, but after a few weeks it felt normal. It wasn't  long at all before I had so much more energy from taking care of myself that I began to love love love it. I found myself so excited about my new body and energy that I wanted everyone to experience and have what I had, my health and my life back. I spent the next several years learning all I could about exercise and eating well. Finally, I took the next step and became certified as a Personal Trainer so I could pass on my experience to others... To those who are ready...are you? 

I love the idea of helping others get their health back. Everyone needs a little help and trust me, I had plenty of help at the gym and plenty of support from family, friends, mentors and co-workers. Personal training is my passion. I love using my creativity and experience to plan fun and effective workouts for my clients. I love helping my clients find their motivation and channel it toward their goals. Nothing gives me greater satisfaction than a client's happy realization that they can do it...whatever it is they didn't think they could do. My ultimate goal with any client is to give them the tools and knowledge to not need me anymore....because I teach a lifestyle...not a fad workout routine...not a fad diet... I teach change. So......are YOU READY FOR A CHANGE? Message me, call me, text me, or visit me on my website, WWW.SIGCT.COM.

I want to help you!

Grilled Pesto Chicken- Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day! I hope most of you have the day off and are gonna cook out! There are so many simple and delicious options for clean eaters that go great on a grill. If you are tired of the same old BBQ, try marinating your chicken in this pesto recipe before throwing it on that flame. I usually put between 12 and 18 boneless, skinless thighs into a gallon ziplock bag with one batch of this recipe and message it all together. I generally let it marinate for 2 to 4 hours, then cook it on the grill over a piece of tin foil. You can use one of those grilling grates but be careful because the oil will cause large flames when it hits the heating element. Enjoy!!!





Basil Pesto


Total Time:
5 min
Prep
5 min
Yield:
1 cup



Ingredients
2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese

Directions
Combine the basil, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add 1/2 cup of the oil and process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

If using immediately, add all the remaining oil and pulse until smooth. Transfer the pesto to a large serving bowl and mix in the cheese.

If freezing, transfer to an air-tight container and drizzle remaining oil over the top. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw and stir in cheese.

Copyright 2003 Television Food Network, G.P. All rights reserved

09-01-2012... Cheating and Resting

Last night was my cheat night... I had a few beers with good friends, and some snacks that don't normally fall into my clean eating diet. That is ok though. If you've read my previous 60 something other blog entries, then you know I strongly support cheat days or meals. "Cheating" is important because when you completely deny yourself any of the foods you enjoy or crave, then you are far more likely to give up on your clean eating lifestyle all together. It's a huge burden to place on yourself to be perfect all the time. I do try to mitigate the damage though. I try to make sure I pair up a cheat day with a workout day to make sure my metabolism is going strong when I'm cheating. I usually do my cheating later in the day, several hours after I have given my body clean food to optimize my workout.

Usually my day after a cheat day is a day off from the gym. So, you guessed it, today I am resting my body. Rest days are very important for overall health. There is such a thing as over training. Over training leads to injury and fatigue that can mimic flu like symptoms, among other things. The best results always come with plenty of rest. I chose my rest day after a cheat day because I know that when I eat poorly, my body is not at it's best the next day. While the inclination may seem to get up and work off the "cheat", I find that my chances for injury increase when I try to push my body with out the right fuel in my tank.

Now over cheating and over resting are problematic to a healthy lifestyle, so find a good balance. I try really hard not to cheat more than once a week and I rest one to two days a week. If I rest twice in a week, they are seldom back to back days. My ideal schedule is workout three days, rest one day, repeat.

So, any thoughts on cheating and resting? I always love to hear how others do it. No one has all the right answers, but collectively we sure do have a lot of them!

Stay healthy!

08-31-2012

So this morning was pretty awesome. I had originally planned to go to the gym and hit my shoulders, back, and biceps...but the opportunity arose for a bike ride with my hubby and one of our awesome neighbors. I was a little hesitant about getting on the bike today because I had a huge leg (and butt)workout yesterday and wasn't sure I was up for it. I am so happy I went though. We did 11.3 miles around our picturesque farming town. It was gorgeous...just a hint of crispness in the air gave us a preview of fall which is always pretty special in New England. It took about an hour through gradual inclines and declines, winding roads, with ample scenery. When we got home we jumped right into the pool. The water was only 70 degrees but felt like heaven. I even tootled around on the float for a while before hitting a warm shower. If every workout was like this, I would never want to do anything else!

Update 08-30

So I have been back to my healthy self for four days now, eating clean and hitting the gym... The old "1...2....punch"! I have only lost one pound but I am not bummed....I am excited....because I know I am on the right track! Yes, if I starved myself I might have lost two or three pounds in these 4 days but I guarantee those pounds would be back with even more next week.

Here is why I have only lost one pound and by doing it this way will lose and, more importantly, KEEP OFF even more in the weeks to come.

I am eating clean, which means I am eating non-processed food, in it's most natural state, that my body recognizes as food and fuel. I am eating 4 to 5 small meals a day. Why? Because I am training my metabolism to keep up with me and burn what I give it right away knowing that I will provide more food (fuel) soon.

When you starve yourself, you are actually training your body to save some food, in the form of fat, for a rainy day. When you starve yourself, your body learns not to trust you. Your body needs a certain amount of calories to function so if you eat less often, your body will actually not burn fat... At least not right away. A starving body eats muscle first. Crazy huh? That is the way our bodies have been designed to work. remember, we were built to be hunters and gatherers who did not always have ready access to food, so our bodies evolved into the perfect energy storing devices...kinda like the hibernating bear. When you starve yourself you may appear to be losing weight on the scale but you are not losing the fat you wanted. You are losing muscle and storing fat.

So, I am in the process of retraining my body and getting it to trust me again, so my metabolism isn't where it should be yet. The good news is that our bodies are quick studies so it shouldn't be long before I am burning calories with a vengeance.

I am back to doing regular weight training and cardio, which means 4-5 days a week in the gym. Muscle weighs as much as fat (a pound of muscle weighs as much as a pound of fat...just like a pound of feathers weighs as much as a pound of bricks), but takes up far less room and, I feel, looks more attractive. I know that I have put on muscle in the last 4 days. I know you are thinking 4 days is not long enough to put on muscle. Not true... Especially because I have always done some weight training, even over the summer. What I changed was the weight...I have gone heavier and have forced my body to do it (read: as much as I can without injuring myself). I have also worked each muscle group twice this week so my body is starting to realize it needs to get some more muscle in those places if this is going to be a regular thing. It's amazing what you can train your body to do and how quickly. As much as we are forced to listen to our body (hunger, pain, etc), our bodies are also forced to listen to us!

So, losing a pound this week is a good thing. It means that despite putting on muscle weight, I am losing fat because my body is learning to trust me and not store anymore fat despite the fact that I am actually eating more than I did last week. Cool, huh? And if you think a pound is no big thing, check out the picture below!

It has always been my hope that others would come along with me on my health and fitness journey. The reason for my blog is to inspire and be inspired by my readers. If you are like minded, please read through my blog entries for clean eating recipes and fitness tips. I am just like you, I am sure, in so many ways. Let's help each other be as healthy as we can, for ourselves, and the ones we love! I also love feedback, so go for it!

I'm Back Baby!!!

Today starts the school year here, and with that the summer is basically at an end. Yes, the warm weather may be here for a few more weeks and the pool isn't quite ready to be closed. I will hopefully be wearing shorts and sandals just a bit longer but the mostly carefree schedule of a stay-at-home mom with kids on no particular schedule are done.

I greet this change with very mixed feelings. Although I am grateful for what was probably the best summer ever for my family, I am happy to return to the structure of the school year and all the activities that go with it. The summer was full of fun, a lot of get togethers, cookouts, trips, etc. But with the carefree I also got a little careless. In my attempt to "go with the flow", I found myself not eating right and I discovered beer (I don't completely regret that). Even though I was still working out, it was not as often as I normally did and we all know you can not sweat away a bad diet.

I made some huge mistakes this summer and I am lucky that the only ill effects I suffered was gaining about ten pounds. With my history of stomach issues, I could've landed myself in the hospital. I had committed myself before to never letting myself get that sick again... It wouldn't be fair to my family.... So the mistakes have got to stop!

So now my routine is back. The kids got on the bus this morning and I got my butt over to the gym. I did my meal planning and grocery shopping yesterday to make sure we would all be eating clean more regularly. With the kids back in school it is time to get back to taking care of me, and now I have a little more time to do it. I am also motivated by the fact that, with the unhealthy state of school lunches these days, I have to work super extra hard to make sure I am planning and packing healthy meals my kids can take to school, and more importantly, will enjoy!

I will still have my cheat meal or wine once a week...because deprivation never works (and football season is upon us!). I will, however, try to be better about not rewarding myself with food. I will set my goals and think of a prize to get when I reach it... perhaps those new boots I have been wanting :)

My blogs should be more regular now, because, as I have written before, one of the most effective tools we have is accountability. I will use my accountability to you the reader as one of my motivators to stay on track.

So, no more excuses...who is with me? Who else is committed to living a healthy lifestyle with clean meals and exercise? I'm back baby!!!!