Why do you need carbohydrates? If you ask any bodybuilder to tell you about protein’s role in muscle building you’ll get an in-depth response about the way muscle builds, hypotrophy, anabolic rates and more! But what about if you asked the same bodybuilder about the role of carbohydrates and building muscle? I doubt you’d get a very lengthy response.

Carbohydrates are often overlooked when planning a muscle building diet. This is because a lot of people are not aware of the importance of carbohydrates and the role they play in muscle development. The truth is what type of carbohydrates you eat, when you eat them and how much you eat can have a great effect on the muscle building process.

If you want to optimize your diet for muscle gain and fat loss it’s important to know how to integrate carbohydrates into your diet. There’s nothing complex about it, you just have to follow a few simple rules.

TO MINIMIZE FAT STORAGE FOLLOW THESE RULES
1.Eat complex carbohydrates
Complex carbohydrates are found in whole foods like brown rice, potatoes, whole grain cereal and oatmeal. Complex carbohydrates should make up the bulk of your daily calorie intake because they form muscle glycogen, the long lasting fuel that your body needs to train hard. Complex carbohydrates are slow burning which means you get longer lasting energy. They also help keep your blood sugar levels constant, this reduces fat storage and fatigue and promotes the release of insulin. Insulin is the body’s natural anabolic hormone and is essential for muscle development.
2.Eat carbohydrates directly after training
When you train hard you reduce your blood sugar level considerably. Eating carbohydrates straight after a training session provides your body with an insulin spike. This insulin spike puts your body into an anabolic (muscle building) state. If you do not get the right nutrients after training it’s possible that your body could enter a catabolic (muscle breakdown) state. This is why post workout nutrition is so important.
3.Eat small amounts of carbohydrates more often
Eating smaller servings of carbohydrates more often helps keep a steady flow of insulin into the body. If you eat large amounts of carbohydrates in one sitting your body is much more likely to store them as fat. Eating to much is one sitting is unnecessary; your body doesn’t need that much nutrients at one time.
4.Eat high fiber carbohydrates
This goes hand-in-hand with point number 1 because most sources of complex carbohydrates are rich sources of fiber. Fiber helps to build muscle by making muscle tissue absorb amino acids faster and more efficiently.
5.Avoid fruits
This may sound insane because we all know that fruit is high in vitamins, low in calories and very good for general health and wellbeing. But, fruit contains fructose which is a very simple sugar. The body converts fructose into glycogen which is used as a building block for fat tissue.
6.Have carbohydrates and protein in the same meal
When you mix protein and carbohydrates together in the same meal you minimize the chance of the carbohydrates being stored as fat. Protein is harder for the body to process, so it increases your metabolism. Also, carbohydrates help transport the nutrients from protein to the muscle cells which aids in muscle growth.

Follow these rules, and you can use carbohydrates to your advantage to build more muscle faster. If you find you’re gaining too much fat then you should cut out carbs after 7pm. Unless you have a fast metabolism, eating carbs late at night is generally not a good idea. Your body does not need the energy while you’re sleeping so it’s likely to store the carbs as fat.

Another point worth mentioning here is meal sizes. Like I stated in point 3, you should eat small meals more often. Have you ever felt really tired after eating? Then you’ve eaten too much. Your body has to use a lot of energy to process the food which leaves you feeling tired and energy-less. This style of eating will also decrease your metabolic rate. To keep your metabolism high you need to constantly stimulate it with small meals every 3 hours or so.

So the main points you need to remember here are; eat good complex carbohydrates, eat small amounts more often, always have a good serving of complex carbohydrates about 1 hour before your workout (for energy) and straight after your meal (for insulin spike) and if you are gaining excess fat stop eating carbohydrates after 7pm.

Article by Sally Kennedy of “Your Healthy Life”

Reason 1
Deprivations based: No matter how seemingly good the latest and greatest diet seems at the start – the concept is the same and the end of the diet is marked with a BINGE!

All diets are built around the concept that there are foods that a dieter can not have. Deprivation leads to feelings of hunger and which creates powerful cravings for the foods that are “taboo” It is the same concept as telling a child not to touch something because it is hot.

What is the first thing they do when they get the opportunity? They touch it – Right? The same is true for diets. Telling someone that they can not have something for the rest of their life just makes them want it more!

Reason 2
Rules Rules Rules: Eat this but don’t eat that. Log your food, count your calories, do your exercise, drink your water…

Diets are rigid and boring! So what happens when someone “falls off the wagon? They usually just throw in the towel and chalk it up to another diet that didn’t work. Or worse then that they beat themselves up and consider themselves failures. This continues until the next miracle diet comes along.

The end result is yo yo dieting which studies show leave the dieter heavier then when they started. Many people have lost the same 30 pounds 10 times!

Reason 3
Dieters usually fail to make lifestyle changes:The only permanent way to lose weight and keep it off is to make realistic permanent changes to both your eating and exercise habits. This requires a person to set realistic goals, find support, make shifts and changes gradually.

Too often those old eating habits will creep back in, no matter how much weight the dieter has lost, and in time they’ll find themselves back at square one.

“National Institutes of Health and other studies show that 98% of people who lose weight gain it back within five years. And 90% of those gain back more weight than they lost. The failure of weight loss programs is so great that a leading researcher has said, “Dieting is the leading cause of obesity in the US.”

© 2011 Sally Kennedy

Sally Kennedy is founder of Your Healthy Life, a personal training and nutrition coaching business in Powell, Ohio. Sally is best known for helping busy women to ease their way into a healthy lifestyle. Her “tell it like it is” approach coupled with her wit and sense of humor keep her clients on track and see results. To get a copy of her free report called 10 Essentials for Creating a Simplified Life visit http://www.YourHealthyLifeBegins.com

Take a minute and ask yourself the following questions:

1) Do you sometimes realize that you haven’t hard a word the other person has said?

2) Do you believe that what you have to say is more important than what someone else has to say, so you tune out when others speak?

3) Are you tempted to finish another person’s thought for them because you think you know what they are going to say?

4) Do you listen solely to glean points that support the message you want to deliver and as soon as you get that lead-in, you pounce?

If you can answer yes to any of these questions (and many of should), than you are guilty of bad habit numero uno – selective listening. Your chance of discerning the nuances that can help you better resolve conflict, effectively build and lead teams, manage change, or generate effective communications are slim. But there is hope. If I, a classic multi-tasking person, can retrain my mind to focus on the conversation at hand and listen for understanding, then so can you. And the very first thing you need to do is get over yourself. You need to view others as bringing just as much value to the situation and to the conversation as you. Once you establish that as your mindset, you can begin to use some focus tools to really help your be present in the here and now. Here are a couple of tools here that may help:

1) Reflection – after leaving a meeting, spend 5-10 minutes reflecting back on the conversation and jotting down key points. Key points includes not just meeting takeaways but it also includes information learned about people that could help build a relationship and insights gained that may be relevant to other projects or situations. Then try to send a follow-up note by the end of the day that includes something that may be of interest to them based on what you learned. It may be a news article or a link to a website or information on other resources they want to consider. The point is that is shows that you were listening and that you’re interested.

2) Mind games – there are some great mind games available on line that improves your power of focus and observation. Some require subscription after the free trial period (e.g., www.lumosity.com) and some are built into social network sites. Neither take much time. Five or ten minutes, 2-3 days a week is all it takes to retrain your mind.

As you practice and establish new mental routines, you may find that it’s hard not to pay attention and observe nuances and your recall has improved tremendously. So resolve today to increase your emotional intelligence by building your listening skills and break a bad habit that can torpedo your relationships.

As I close in on 1/2 a century this saying keeps playing in my mind. Act your age. What does that mean?
Is there a specific way you are supposed to act at 20, 50 or 80?

Occasionally, I hear people use their age as an excuse for their ill health or why they can’t do something.

To be honest I think it is a cop out. I am not saying that they don’t have real aches and pains. But what are they doing to reverse it?

Are they just content to sit back and age not so gracefully?

Not me! I am going down with grace and style!

I turn 50 at the end of the month and I have never been healthier, felt better or had more energy. I still love to do cartwheels and act silly.

I am no different then anyone else my age except for the fact that I take an active role in being healthy and staying young both physically and mentally.

I am not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But, I have made health and fitness a priority. With our health care system in disarray and the obesity levels of adults and children at an all time high it’s time to take back control of our health.

No one can do it for you but you don’t have to do it alone!

50 and fab!

Sally Kennedy is founder of Your Healthy Life, a personal training and nutrition coaching business in Powell, Ohio. Sally is best known for helping busy women to ease their way into a healthy lifestyle. Her “tell it like it is” approach coupled with her wit and sense of humor keep her clients on track and see results. To get a copy of her free report called 10 Essentials for Creating a Simplified Life visit http://www.YourHealthyLifeBegins.com

I recently attended the Arnold Schwarzenegger Health & Fitness expo and almost every supplement manufacturer was hawking their latest fat-burner. We’ve all heard of fat burners, the pills that can make fat melt off your body like ice cream from a kid’s cone, right? Not exactly. Fat burners are supplements. They’re designed with ingredients that can really give you an extra boost to help burn fat. But they can’t replace a solid diet and exercise plan.

Think of fat burners like a scope on a sniper rifle, only you’re trying to shrink fat cells. Diet is the gun, the heavy artillery; exercise is the firepower; and fat burners may help you aim a bit better and kill fat more efficiently. But fat burners don’t work to their best effect when they’re used improperly. Usually, it’s because people don’t take into account the following five basic concepts for using a fat burner efficiently to lose weight. If you do, that the next fat burner you invest in may help you trim the fat and reveal that body you’ve been working hard to build.

1. Diet Is 80 Percent Of The Weight-Loss Battle

One of the biggest mistakes that many people make is thinking that they can just take a fat-loss support supplement and weight-loss results will be theirs. They think the fat burner is the miracle solution they’ve been looking for. But sticking to a calorie restricted diet is 80 percent of your battle. If you can do it and stay consistent with it, then you’ve done 80 percent of the work. The rest is exercise, time, and you can get extra help from supplementation.

Fat burners can help enhance fat loss, but they’re only going to do so if a proper diet is in place. Fat burners work in a variety of ways. They can boost energy, help curb appetite, promote fat to be used for energy, and even increase your metabolism and core temperature so you burn more calories throughout the day. But, if you take a fat burner and then feast on burgers, pizza, and bagels, you won’t be seeing fat loss any time soon.

Take a hard look at your diet and determine if it fits your fat loss goal. To lose fat and reveal a toned physique you’ll need to be eating slightly fewer calories than your maintenance level, getting lots of protein, and maintaining other clean and healthy eating habits with slow-digesting carbs, healthy fats, and lots of fresh vegetables.

2. Expectations Will Make Or Break You

Stay realistic with your expectations. Some people believe that if they’re using a fat burner, they should be able to melt pounds of fat off each week. Not gonna happen.

While your rate of fat loss can be enhanced, you won’t be dropping 10 pounds in a week simply because you’re using the supplement. Remember: A safe rate of fat loss is 1 to 3 pounds a week for average, healthy individuals. You can push this rate up to 4 pounds a week, but it’s not sustainable. Eventually, your body will hit a plateau and fat loss will slow.

If you’re dropping weight too quickly, on a fat burner or not, you could be losing lean muscle mass. And unless you want to look like shapeless coat hanger instead of a toned, fitness model or bodybuilder, you should rethink your fat-loss plan.

Write down your expectations for your weight from week to week and month to month. When you meet those small goals overtime, you’ll stay more motivated and see great results from your program. With the help of a fat burner, your fat loss will stay on track.

3. More Is NOT Better

Fat burners are designed specifically to give you the proper doses of various ingredients to support fat loss. But that doesn’t mean that the more of the ingredients you take, the more results you’ll see. Supplement manufacturers state the serving guidelines and directions so that you can have a way of measuring what dose works best for you.

It’s always best to start with the lowest dose listed on the package and stay at that dose for at least two weeks. After that, you can determine if you want to bump up the dose to the higher end of the spectrum if it’s listed on the packaging. If the product lists only one serving size, you should stick with it.

4. Overdoing Caffeine Will Wear You Out

If you can’t start your day without a cup of coffee and you drink another three or four throughout your day, be careful about choosing a stimulant fat burner. Most fat burners, unless directly specified, contain caffeine or a caffeine-like substance, a stimulant. If you want to take a stimulant fat burner, watch your total intake of caffeine over the course of the day.

While you will definitely love the energizing benefits you’d get from such a high caffeine intake, if you’re mixing fat burners with multiple cups of coffee or any other caffeine-containing beverage, you could really burn out quickly. You could experience fatigue easier and have a harder time recovering from workouts. In the end, that equals slower results.

So while you may think that combining coffee and fat burners will only help you see results faster, you’ll end up killing the positive effects of a fat burner by over-stimulating your body. Either switch to decaf coffee while using the fat burners, or at the very least, use decaf around the same time when you take the fat burner. That way you won’t get a huge caffeine overdose in a short period of time. Before you even get started on your fat burner, make sure to shop around a bit and find the one that best matches your needs and preferences. There are a number of different products available to use, so it’s important that you don’t just jump on the first one without looking at the differences among them all.

5. Results Need To Be Measured

Once you do pick out the fat burner you’re going to use, give it two to three weeks before assessing progress. But you absolutely must assess your progress. Whether you take progress photos, body-part measurements, body-fat measurements, or just your weight on a scale, you won’t know if a product is helping you see results if you don’t know your starting point.

Certain people react better to certain ingredients in fat burners, so what works best for one person may not necessarily work best for another. After several weeks, if you find that you aren’t seeing the results you had hoped for, consider using a different product instead. By keeping a close eye on your progress overtime, compare products so you can find one that’s ideal for you.

To tie it all together, if you stick to a fat-loss diet and exercise plan, write out your fat loss expectations (remember to be realistic!), take a fat burner according to directions, don’t overdo the stimulants, and measure your progress-you’ll find that supplements to support fat loss can keep their promises. That isn’t to say that every product on the market is exactly the same quality. It takes some research and shopping around to decide on a fat burner. But keep these five basic tenets in mind, and you’ll be standing as the victor on the fat-loss battlefield. And looking good doing it!

I’ve discovered the best health tool ever invented.

Over the last several years, I’ve spent many hours reading, researching, talking with others, watching others, picking the brains of friends, and seeking out new ways to increase my overall health and well-being. My bookshelf contains an array of books from today’s most ground-breaking and influential authors on leadership, health, wellness, emotional intelligence, spiritual, and even psychology. I regularly attend webinars,seminars, and workshops on these topics and more. I even spent a year attending school to become a certified health and wellness coach.

And yet in despite of all this reading and knowledge gathering in none of these is where I found the best health tool ever. Despite all the money I paid and time in self-reflection did I ever discover it…but then I found it!

I found it at the Trek Bicycle store on Lane Avenue. It wasn’t on the shelf. It wasn’t even for sale. In fact, they gave it to me for FREE!

I also discovered it at Road Runner Sports and then at Columbus Running Company during recent visits. Also free.

I found at a recent Ohio Wellness Leaders meeting and Healthy Ohio Business Council meeting that others had discovered and were giving it freely to others. I found it during a holiday party of Ohio State University’s Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. My significant and the other doctors there had discovered it and gave it to me for free…no co-pay or medical insurance needed. I found it at Turks and Caicos during a recent vacation and again at Metro Fitness – they had it on display at the front desk. Believe it or not, I even got one at Highbanks Metro Park of all places – in the Nature Center. And yes, free there, too.

Even with all the scientific breakthroughs in psychology, biology, sociology, and other ‘ologys, there is only one tool that has immediate, atomic-like impact on one’s health.

What am I talking about and where can you get one? You’re dying to know, aren’t you?

It’s a SMILE. A genuine, ear-to-ear, show-all-your teeth “nice to see you” smile.

Nothing creates positive impact on your health (and on another’s) more quickly than a smile. Nothing diffuses a negative situation more instantly than a smile. Nothing says, “I’m happy you’re here” like a smile. Nothing says, “Life is Good” better than a smile.

A real smile. It’s the only kind that works. Don’t give out one of the half smiles…you know the ones…the ones look like your gassy from eating a bad batch of chili beans. Fake smiles are worse than not smiling at all. Getting a fake smile is like walking around with a wet underwear. You feel icky and uncomfortable until it dries.

But a real smile, now THAT can change my whole day for the better.

I know at this point, many have probably stop reading. I teased you with the title and teased you a little more and then “gave” you the best tool. You bailed on me thinking “Oh my God, another stupid mushy self-help tip that
doesn’t work.”

If you think that, you missed the whole point. You may be too skeptical to really understand how powerful a smile can be. You probably never smile at babies when they smile at you. Do you? Joking. But that’s ok, because you’re still reading. And you and I together are going to change the world.

For 2012, I have adopted the motto “Be Amazing in 2012”. How am I’m accomplishing it? I lift weights five days a week and I’ve made a practice of smiling at people walking toward me. I slow the pace of walk just a little and give them a “from the heart” smile. Granted, I get a mixed reaction. Some people flash one back. Others avoid eye contact ….especially you ladies…why is that? Others give me a double take to see if I’m smiling at them or someone behind them. But, honestly, I don’t do it for them. I do it for me. I’ve found that every time I beam out a big smile, I get a burst of adrenaline….a little boost in energy. It’s not an emotional burst, it’s a biological burst. It’s like my own little turbo booster. On occasion, I might even throw in a “Hello” or a “Good Morning”. I can imagine the people I smile at talking in the locker room telling their training partners and friends, “That guy sure does smile a lot…too much if you ask me.” It makes my workouts fun and even inspires me to work harder in the gym.

Hardly anyone smiles when they are lifting weights or working out. And, I’ve noticed, very few people smile at work and even at races I attend, either. They are too serious…and if you ask they why they say “I’m just focused” or “I’ve got a lot on mind”. Instead, we save our smiles for three-day weekends, funny movies, cute babies, or even the monkeys at the zoo. I wonder if people think that there are only a finite amount of smiles so we can’t possibly waste them on strangers or co-workers or even worse yet on other runners, walkers, and triathletes.

Smiles will also get you through the worst times in your life – divorce, a relationship ending, family crisis, job loss, lies and betrayal of a business partner, or other crisis. Even on your worst day, you can still manage the break off a smile. Trust me your face will not break.

Did you know that you have an UNLIMITED supply of smiles while you’re alive? It is impossible to run out. Even when I’m exhausted near the end of one of my workouts…even leg day… I can still manage the strength to smile at those last few people I pass as I head to the locker room. We’ve all experienced a stressful situation that was transformed by someone’s big smile and calming presence. Somebody today might need that transformation. YOU could make it happen with your fabulous smile.

So how do you get more smiles from others? You get at least one smile for every one you give. No, it’s not always an immediate payment, but the more you smile at others, the more smiles you will receive, I promise. Smiles are Karmic (I love that word).

Cheers to Good Health!

In training for my first bodybuilding show this coming April, I have been researching and talking with experienced bodybuilding athletes about their diet and contest preparations. One of the subjects I’ve been learning more about is the thermic effect of food.

Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) is the energy expended by our bodies in order to consume and process the food we eat. Not all calories are created equal, and different types of foods take different amounts of energy to digest. Generally speaking the more nutrient dense (healthier) the food, the more calories will be burned just from eating it.

The following is a breakdown of the TEF matrix of the macronutrients:

Protein: On the scale of energy required to digest different foods, this one sits at the top. Digesting proteins is difficult for your body and tends to burn more calories than any other type of food. Some estimates go as high as 30% of protein calories you consume get burned during digestion.

Carbohydrates: Carbs can be broken down into two separate subgroups; simple and complex. Simple carbs like sugar and refined carbs are easily digested and turned into fleeting energy by your body, and therefore burn little energy during digestion.

These types of foods are so easy for our bodies to digest that it only burns an estimated 3% of the calories you consume during digestion. Complex carbs however take much more energy for your body to digest, which is why it is important to eat complex carbs like whole wheat or brown rice.

Fat: Fat is easily digested by your body and therefore, as far as TEF goes, should be eaten sparingly.

As a recap, processing protein requires the greatest expenditure of energy, with estimates ranging as high as 30%. Dietary fat, on the other hand, is so easily processed and turned into body fat that there is little thermic effect, perhaps only 2 or 3%. The amount of energy required to process carbohydrates falls between that of protein and fat.

What Do You Do with This Information?
As you can see, all calories are not equal. If you eat an equal number of calories of protein, fat and carbohydrates, the calories in the fat are more likely to end up on your waist as fewer of them are burned off by the thermic effect.

And a gram of fat contains more than twice as many calories as a gram of protein or carbohydrate. So a gram of fat not only gives you more calories, but a smaller percentage of them will be burned off by the thermic effect. A double whammy.

A figure of 10% is generally used to account for the thermic effect of food. This means that if you want to replace 500 calories burned through activity, you need to eat 10% more, or 550 calories. And if you eat 500 calories, 10% of them will be burned off by the thermic effect, leaving only 450.

However, most people are either unaware of the thermic effect of food or choose to ignore it, making weight loss seem just a little easier.

I’ve been accused of being a little clean-food obsessed and I think we all can be at time. Why? because we know that your food decisions really do make a difference in your physique and health. All it takes is one miscalculation in your execution, and suddenly your plan is ruined. If you’ve been left wondering where your game plan failed you, don’t pack it in just yet! Everyone makes mistakes – even the best in the world – at one time or another.

Here are 10 mistakes I’ve made and how I learn to fix them.

Mistake #1: Waiting too long between Meals
Often, work would keep me so busy that I would end up being an hour or two late in eating my meal. If you wait too long between meals, blood glucose levels drop, and when glucose is in short supply, the body begins to break down muscle for energy. The Fix: Get in the habit of eating every three hours. Set your timer on your watch to remind you when to eat. Now, no matter what you are doing, you’ll never forget to eat your meals.

Mistake #2: Cut out all sodium (Zero sodium>)
I used to believe that any amount of sodium (salt) would make me bloated and retain excess water, so I cut out all salt containing foods to avoid looking ‘puffy.’ The truth is, sodium helps regulate the body’s fluid balance, and consuming too little has the potential to initiate water retention. When sodium levels dip too low, it can also negatively impact nerve and muscle function, causing muscle cramps and weakness especially if you are a triathlete, cyclist or runner. The Fix: Adjust your diet to incorporate a moderate amount of sodium. Not only did this help reduce the occurrence of muscle cramps, but it also can make a clean meal plan more manageable by adding more flavor to your food. (Also, try adding black or red pepper).

Mistake #3: Counting all Calories equal
My first ‘diet’ consisted mainly of highly processed foods like crackers, deli meats, frozen entrees and sugar-laden yogurt, “fat-free” snacks, cereal and protein At the time, I believed that ‘all calories were created equal,’ and as long as I counted every calorie, I would achieve the look I was after. Even though I maintained a strict daily calorie intake and worked out regularly, I was skinny fat.” The Fix: Ditch the processed foods for whole foods. Replace sugary foods with slower-digesting complex carbs such as sweet potatoes, oatmeal, brown rice and fibrous veggies; increase intake of lean proteins; and incorporate healthy fats in the form of nuts, tuna and salmon. From my personal experience, within a few months of switching, I began to see drastic changes in my physique, losing more fat while building lean muscle.

Mistake #4: Overindulging during holidays and vacations
Vacations and holidays are viewed as a break from the routine and to some extent they are. Enjoy the holiday treats or vacation pleasures of dining out and trying different and exciting cuisine but don’t overindulge on bad foods. Trust me if you over-indulge – it will show! The Fix: Put together a meal plan that allows for one or two “cheat” meals or treats per week during the holidays and vacation and stick with your plan. You will be able to eat the foods you love, but in moderation. This will not only spur huge improvements in your physique, but also teach you how to live a healthy, balanced life.

Mistake #5: Having “Just a Bite”
Sometimes when I’m eating clean, I sometimes would have a ‘bite’ of my co-workers birthday cake, my significant’s cookie, or a family member’s dessert – foods that weren’t part of my meal plan. Because it was just a bite every few days, I didn’t think it would really make a difference in my physique. When you’re eating clean though, every extra calorie – good or bad – counts. The Fix: Incorporate a cheat meal every week. That one meal may be enough to curb your cravings and it helps you feel less deprived.

Mistake #6: Insufficient Carbs
I believed that in order to lose weight and cut body fat, I had to drastically cut down on carbs – to the point that I almost didn’t have any in my diet. I ended up looking way too lean, because I didn’t realize that eating too few carbs forces the body into starvation mode, and muscles begin to burn their own protein for energy. Additionally, a low carb meal plan is not sustainable. The Fix: Seek out guidance from a health coach or nutritionist, and spend time learning more about nutrition. Once I realized that getting lean was not just about cutting calories from carbs, and then put this notion into practice, my body began to take on a whole new look.

Mistake #7: Extra “Bites” of Good Clean Food
I would have a few extra ‘bites’ of my diet food here and there, but only if I was really hungry. I thought that because these foods were in my diet (clean cheat), and it was only a little extra once in a while, doing so wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t until seeing pictures of me months later that I realized how the extra food had affected my physique. The Fix: There are going to be times when you’re hungry between meals. To help quell the hunger, chew a piece of sugar-free gum or flavored tea instead of eating. This will help get you through those hunger pangs and wait to eat until your next scheduled meal.

Mistake #8: Carb-loading or pre-workout Carbs
Before I became a health coach and more knowledgeable about nutrition, I believed that consuming high-GI foods [fast-digesting carbs – high on the glycemic index) pre-workout would help give me energy. I would have these carbs with my meal, usually two hours before a workout, and halfway through my workout I would end up hitting the wall. Consuming fast digesting carbs elicits a sharp increase in blood glucose, which in turn caused my insulin to spike. When insulin spikes, blood glucose drops and your energy levels crash. The Fix: Swap fast-digesting carbs for slow-digesting carbs before you work out, and add the fast-digesting carbs to your post-workout shake or meal. Consuming fast-digesting carbs immediately after workouts helps drive carbs and amino acids into damaged muscles and boosts recovery.

Mistake #9: Yo-Yo Calorie Intake or Calorie Slashes
When I first began training, I wasn’t leaning down as quickly as I would have liked to. I cut calories too drastically, which caused my weight to plateau. I felt tired all the time, and had little energy for workouts. The Fix: Use a basal metabolic rate calculator to help figure out the minimum number of calories per day your body needs. Once you knew your BMR, you will be able to calculate and adjust daily calorie needs based on activity level. I found out that I was consuming more calories and exercising with greater intensity – and getting leaner!

Mistake #10: Skipping Meals
Working full-time, training, producing races and events, and being a parent, I lead a busy life. When I first started focusing on my physique, I found it very hard to fit all of my meals in around training, producing races, work meetings, family time and even social time with friends. As a result, I wasn’t seeing the changes in my physique that I was working so hard for in the gym. The Fix: I learned how to better manage my time and prioritize. It’s quite basic, but sometimes it takes reminding to keep on track. Get in the habit of sitting down for a few moments at the start of each week – I do it on Sunday – and create a daily or weekly schedule. Once I put myself on a schedule, I made sure I ate when I was supposed to. Not only did my physique immediately start to change, but I also noticed a huge improvement in my mood. Also, never forget the value of sleep and recovery.

I hope you learn from my mistakes.

If you are looking for ways to improve your health you may want to consider green tea. The health benefits are primarily due to its anti oxidizing properties, which come from its Caffeine, Catechin Polyphenols and Theonine.

Here are just a few of the amazing benefits:

1. Anti Aging: regular consumption of green tea can effectively delay symptoms of ageing.

2. Stimulating: Tea is ideal to counter fatigue, laziness, sleepiness and lack of energy and to improve blood circulation.

3. Immunity Boosting: Green Tea boosts immunity. The anti microbial properties are said to protect us from bad breathe, diarrhea, tooth decay, indigestion, flu, cough & cold, colitis etc. that are caused by microbial & fungal action.

4. Anti Carcinogenic: Green tea is now being clinically used in prevention of cancer, particularly those pertaining to colon, rectum, pancreas and intestines.

5. Reduces Cholesterol: Green tea has been seen effective in reducing cholesterol level to some extent, probably due to its alkaline nature.

6. Weight Loss: You believe it or not, but green tea also helps lose weight by enhancing rate of metabolism and thereby faster consumption of fat storage of the body.

7. De intoxicating: Green tea is the best cure to get rid of hangovers and fatigue caused by consumption of alcoholic beverages and lack of sleep due to late night parties. (hummmm… some of us may have needed this on January 1?)

Adapted from Health Benefits of Green Tea – OrganicFacts.net

Article by Sally Kennedy, founder of Your Healthy Life, a personal training and nutrition coaching business in Powell, Ohio. Sally is best known for helping busy women to ease their way into a healthy lifestyle. Her “tell it like it is” approach coupled with her wit and sense of humor keep her clients on track and see results. To get a copy of her free report called 10 Essentials for Creating a Simplified Life visit http://www.YourHealthyLifeBegins.com

A lot of people begin the New Year by making resolutions. We’ve all done it! Personally I can’t remember one resolution that I’ve even made and kept. However, that doesn’t mean that I am not a fan of setting intentions and I think that there is a big difference between the two. Resolutions are like wishes – People set them and hope that they can acheive them. While an intention is a deliberate acheivable and beievable goal! Something you state with feeling and emotion behind it.

If you are up for some deliberate change in 2012 try these simple steps and set your INTENTIONS!

• Clearly write your intention – Why do you want to lose weight, exercise more, work less etc? Really think it through. Get into how it will feel to live with the intention. Keep writing until you believe that you will achieve it. (Limit the number to one or two heart-felt intentions)

• Keep them in a visible place – Taped to your bedroom mirror, set a reminder on your phone, hang them on the refrigerator or the dashboard of your car.

• Share your intentions with friends and family – Hold each other accountable for achieving your goals. If you want to go to the gym more, have a friend call you two or three times a week to check on you or invite them to join you.

Big changes do not require big leaps. Be kind to yourself! If you take a step back don’t beat yourself up. Permanent change is more likely to happen gradually than through one big restrictive plan. Allow yourself to climb the ladder one rung at a time.
Happy New Year!

Article provided by Sally Kennedy, founder of Your Healthy Life. Your Healthy Life is a personal training and nutrition coaching business in Powell, Ohio. Sally is best known for helping busy women to ease their way into a healthy lifestyle. Her “tell it like it is” approach coupled with her wit and sense of humor keep her clients on track and see results. To get a copy of her free report called 10 Essentials for Creating a Simplified Life visit http://www.YourHealthyLifeBegins.com