Back to school time is just about as popular as new years for getting a fresh start on your exercise and nutrition.
I keep seeing all kinds of juicing and “detox” post on facebook and I have to tell you that I am not a huge fan of the typical juice and detox plans I see floating around.
Most equal nothing more than a prolonged laxative effect. Meaning you feel “cleansed” but really it’s not TRULY cleaning you out.
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Today I’m going to dole out a little tough love, so brace yourself and know that this is for your own good. It’s time that we had an uncomfortable little talk about a very important issue…
That junk food in your house.
You know the stuff that I’m talking about. The ice cream jammed into the back of your freezer. The packaged cookies that you say are for the kid’s lunches. The candy stash that’s leftover from the last few holidays.
Those bags of crunchy, salty snacks in your pantry. The bottles of soda that you know you shouldn’t drink. And the list goes on…
Here’s the bottom line: If you eat junk food then you’ll get fat. Junk = Fat. 
Now I know that you have justified the presence of junk food in your house,so let’s walk through three of these justifications and I’ll shine some truth on it for you.
1) It’s For The Kids: This is the oldest excuse in the book when it comes to keeping junk food in the house. It’s flawed for many reasons, namely because you know you eat some of it.
When junk is in the house you are bound to eat some of it at times. And your kids should NOT be eating junk food on a regular basis, such as in their lunches. It’s not good for them and it’s not good for you.
2) A Little Bit Won’t Hurt: When you keep junk food in the house you’re fooling yourself if you think that you only eat a little bit of it. The contents of your kitchen become the things that you habitually eat. If there’s junk in the house then you habitually are eating it, and a little bit of junk every day adds up to a LOT of junk over a week or month. And you wonder why you haven’t lost the weight yet…
3) Life’s Too Short: YOLO, right? (You Only Live Once) If this is your excuse for having junk food in the house, then I’ve got a new one for you. YOLO, so why not live that life in a healthy, fit, attractive body that’s full of energy, free from aches and pains and looks amazing?! [Read more…]
Who wants to cook dinner? It’s Friday!
The only problem is most of what you order out is filled with fat, sugar (they sneak that in to the most unlikely places) and refined carbs.
Admit it, most of the time when you’re done with a take-out meal you feel bleh.
Remember you are what you eat so don’t be fast, cheap or trashy 🙂
One of my favorite take-out meal has always been Crispy Orange Chicken. Yum! [Read more…]
I see it happen all the time…fitness results that are thrown away by eating the wrong foods.
The problem is that often foods are packaged to make us believe that we ARE eating healthy. Some things I’m pretty sure you know by now like:
– White Pasta -White pasta will never be OK to eat when your goal is to look fit. Sorry, it’s filled with way too many simple carbs. These plentiful carbs have one singular goal: to become stored on your body as fat.
– Blended Coffee Drinks -Coffee chains have made it socially acceptable to sip on a large blended coffee drink topped with whipped cream, anytime and anyplace. Unfortunately your body is going to respond to all that sugar in the only way that it knows how…by storing it as fat. [Read more…]
Are you still interested in getting HOT for summer? Scratch that; are you still interested in getting HOT for your LIFE?
If so, I have great news for you: Beast Mode Squad
Most of the time I hate the word realistic.
It puts limits on your dreams and is the fastest path to average or mediocrity.
But at times realistic has its place.
Like when we talk about how fast you will get to your ‘Dream Body’ status. Because the truth is, if you’ve been putting yourself last in life; neglecting workouts, eating crappy food and running on a handful of hours of sleep every night, you simply can’t expect to reverse all the damage you’ve done in a few short weeks.
But unfortunately that unrealistic expectation, or impatience, is the biggest saboteur of true progress and achieving Dream Body Status.
No it’s not lack of willpower, being too out of shape or unsupportive relationships that cause the ruin of so many get fit goals. It’s YOU. Yeah I just called you out. I can do that because I had to call myself out at the beginning of the year. [Read more…]
As much as I talk about training; lifting progressively heavy weights, the right kind of cardio, I never want you to forget that what you eat plays the absolute biggest role in the success of your goal.
Lift heavy with a crappy diet and you may end up bulky (because you add bodyfat too), don’t eat enough and you won’t be able to build muscle because muscle can’t build from nothing.
Today I’m going to share with you a few of the breakfast ideas that I’ll be giving to the ladies of the Beast Mode Squad to make sure that their nutrition is on-point with their goals for the next 6 weeks and beyond. [Read more…]
Who Else Wants To Get Lean, Feminine, Sculpted and FIT
I think it’s pretty safe to assume that if you are on this email list or a reader of my blog then you are into fitness and want to LOOK like it!
Over the last few emails I talked about all the myths and misinformation you may have been seeing and or practicing for years to achieve your goal but you’re just not getting anywhere.
Things like: Hours of cardio, light weights w/ high reps to tone, super low-calorie diets, low-fat diets, banishing carbs, ughh….just writing that list makes me feel weak and deprived.
Well it’s time to change all of that and I want to introduce to you something that is so near and dear to my core about how fitness should be: [Read more…]
I hear it ALL. THE. TIME. Whenever I tell a client that they need to lift a little bit heavier this week since they’ve been using those 10lb dumbbells on a deadlift for 2 months now; “I don’t want to get bulky” then when I explain that they won’t actually get bulky and that more muscle will make them leaner they say: “No I really do! The last time I worked with a trainer they had me lifting heavy and my arms (legs, shoulder) got huge!”I’m going to admit something to you…..I’ve said those same words myself. I know, I know…I should know better but deep down I’m still a woman and have those deeply ingrained “bulky” fears in myself too.
But I DO know better and I’m going to explain to you the only three ways you could possibly get bulky from lifting heavy:
1. Illegal drugs – Building muscle takes a good amount of the hormone testosterone, in fact without a very high level of it is impossible to build HUGE muscles. Heck even though men who have LOTS of it naturally have to take drugs on top of their natural hormones to reach Arnold like shape and size.
So anytime you see a women with HUGE muscles; like cover her face and you may not be able to tell the difference between her and your boyfriend, then she is most likely on something black market to help that process along. Annnnd she is still working out like 6 hours a day!
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So far we’ve covered two important factors of getting a more fit lean look: 
1. Focusing on the composition of your body (percentage of fat vs. Muscle) rather than the scale alone.
Remember, if you focus just on the scale and ONLY diet and slow-go cardio to lose weight then you’ll most likely the weight you lose will be a majority of muscle and water and you’ll end up being a smaller version of your starting apple or pear shape.
2. Cardio NOT being an effective means for fat loss and how too much can be detrimental.
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You wanna look good in shorts, tanks, swimsuits, and your own skin?
You need to build muscle and shed fat.
I’m on a mission to finally convince the women of Sacramento that building muscle is the best way to NOT look bulky (totally goes against the common beliefs I know)
We’ll talk more about how to build muscle in another email but what about the shed fat part?
The best way to do that is cardio right? You sweat buckets, the elliptical machine or treadmill tells you that you’ve burned 737 calories in your workout, you must be on the right track.
Well I’m gonna give you some bad new but only because I want you to succeed. [Read more…]