Have you ever felt like you had SO MUCH to do at home or at work that it made you do NOTHING instead?
An overabundance of tasks or information can be downright paralyzing.
The same can happen with your journey to live healthier and develop the habits of a lean, athletic person.
Have you been working out with good intensity, regularity and under the guidance of a fitness professional for 30 days or more and you have not lost any weight or felt your clothes get looser?
If you say no to any one of those, first go address and remedy that. (I know a good fitness professional with a great program if you need a name ;D ).
If you said yes to all 3, then you my friend probably have a bit of an issue with food portions; sticking to them, knowing them and/or measuring them. You see in the end after all is said and done about manipulating time frames, rotating carbs and counting protein grams, it’s still about calories in and calories out.
If you’re like me, counting calories is kinda crazy-making and unless you eat 100% of your meals at home, it’s not always realistic or easy to count every calorie accurately which makes me crazier.
An easier way is to watch your portions. It’s pretty easy, you can do it with any meal, made by anyone and it works!
Look, you can work out until you drain every last drop of sweat out of your body but if you’re calories are too high, you won’t make progress. Take the time to look over these tips and start on them at your next snack or meal.
The number one reason why people don’t exercise is that they don’t have time.
At least that’s what they tell themselves.
I know we are all busy. Between getting to and from work, balancing responsibilities and having time for yourself, there’s little left over for workouts.
It’s so easy to say “Things are just really crazy right now. As soon as I finish “(insert current time eater), I’ll get back to working out.” Well you and I both know that every season, every month and every week has its own set of time grabbers. Be it graduation time, kids getting out of school, summer vacation and activities, kids going back to school, final exams, project deadlines, holidays, really the list goes on and on and on and on.
Let me just put it plainly, it’s not gonna get any easier. Life is not gonna magically slow down and give you an extra 45 minutes a day just so you can work out.
You have to decide whether getting in shape, losing stubborn fat and looking and feeling your absolute best WHILE you go through life’s hectic pace is more important to you than holding on to your excuses for why you don’t have time to work out.
Last week I talked about the importance of creating a vivid, so-real-you-can-touch-it image of you in your goal body. I hope you took the time to create this new you. It is so very important and I’ll be referencing it often.
Now, take that vivid image of the new you, hold it tightly in mind and use these tips to get off your putudy and get to getting, honey.
A couple of days ago I did a blog post about making most of your meals at home if you want optimal results fast.
But, I got several emails from some of you saying yeah, but it’s not realistic that I’m never going to eat out and I still want to lose weight so what should I do?
You are absolutely right.
And things actually have gotten easier for us calories watchers since restaurants are required to put the nutrition info next to every meal. I don’t know about you but I’ve been shocked at what I see more than a time or two. Most restaurants also feature a “light” menu now to make up for all their calorie secrets being outed but if you’re like me, that light menu can look a little drab when compared to the rest of the calorie loaded fare on the menu. So I’m going to give you 3 quick tips that you can use to transform a meal off of the regular menu into a flat abs supportive meal. Warning: not every meal is salvageable; you need to be ok with that :).
Here are 3 tips to keep in mind if you eat out this weekend:
We women want it all; firm arms, a flat stomach, lean thighs…but the one body part I get constant questions on is the butt.
Some women want it smaller, some tighter, others ask for a lift and a lot of women tell me they just need a booty, period!
Well, I’ve posted one of my all-time favorite booty workouts below. It’s a great combination of 
compound movements to work the major muscles in the legs (and burn TONS of calories) and isolation movements to sculpt that nice rear view.
Try my all-about-the-booty workout 3 times a week for the next 6 weeks and see what changes you can make in your bottom line.
And since nutrition is absolutely something that can’t be ignored in the quest for a tight, lifted bottom, I’ve even included a sample “perfect diet day” for you to get some meal and snack ideas. [Read more…]
In my quest to help the members of my weight loss boot camp eat healthy and get and/or stay lean, I’m always scouring the grocery store shelves for a new and tasty find.
Well I found one I want to share.
It’s a tasty little snack cracker called ‘Flat Out Good’ and the "cleanest" flavor is the whole grain one.
I love that these crackers are all natural. They have very minimal ingredients and you can actually pronounce them all! A lot of the crackers that market themselves as "natural" have a list of unreadable ingredients as long as your arm.
Check out these stats:
A serving size is 9 crackers and each cracker is about 3" in diameter (that’s a pretty good size)
Calories 35
Fat 0
Carbs 7
Protein 1
Fiber 1
Sodium 110mg
Ingredients: Whole wheat flour, natural cheese flavor, salt
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been eating them with hummus, natural peanut butter, or my favorite; laughing Cow spreadable low-fat cheese.
With any of these spreads, it’s a great snack for about 100 calories (a touch more with the peanut butter)
If you need more than a snack check out the healthy recipes section of my blog.
Happy snacking!
This Sunday, April 25th the Skinny Jeans Transformation challenge starts. If you haven’t heard about it, it is a 9 week challenge that will get you into your Skinny Jeans guaranteed! All the info is here Get Me In My Skinny Jeans! I am so excited to be bringing this to you and my boot camps are definitely buzzing.
During the 9 weeks the challenge covers, we will all be uber focused on our nutrition and daily workouts but I know as much as you do that those sugar craving are going to hit at some point and we’re going to need a fat-loss friendly way to satisfy them. So I am compiling a list of the tastiest sweet treats under 200 calories and then I’ll put them all in a special report for you to keep handy.
But I need your help. What are your favorite ways to beat a sweat tooth without wrecking your diet?
Leave a comment at the bottom of this post and share with us.
Don’t forget, if you want to be a part of this truly amazing and motivating challenge and finally get into your Skinny Jeans, check out the details here Skinny Jeans Transformation Challenge.
I’ll get the list started:
Help me out, what’s your favorite sweet treat under 200 calories? Leave it in the comments below.
Sugar and alcohol, those are the two topics I get asked about the most when it comes to weight loss and fat loss.
Sugar can be as addicting as coffee or even cigarettes for some people. And just try and quit it once its got its hooks in you.
But sugar can be confusing too. Is there such a thing as "good" sugar and "bad" sugar? And is there ever a time when you need to eat sugar?
My friend Leanne Ellington from Not Your Average Boot Camp in Orlando Florida gives you the skinny on it all. Check it out.
Sarai
I’m not getting on my soap box here. I’m just telling you something you already know:
Booze leads to bad decisions. And in this case, we’re talking about bad eating decisions.
The extra calories from the cocktails is one thing. But really it’s the extra calories you chew that start to add up.
One piece of cake turns to two…
A handful of chips turns into a a bag…
The dip sitting in front of you mysteriously vanishes…into your belly…
You get the picture. 😉
Have fun. Enjoy yourself. Just be conscious of what alcohol does to your decision making.
Stay focused,
Sarai
PS – One of my favorite snacks is Prograde Cravers. I always keep one on hand at parties so I can feel like I’m having a sweet treat too. It’s my duty as a proud Prograde Partner to share them with you 😉
Repeat after me -"I will not gain more weight this holiday season." 
When you said that right now, how did it feel? Did you mean it but just don’t quite know how to make it happen?
Well I’m here today with 3 more quick tips to help you avoid the dreaded end of the year 15 pounds.
And trust me, I know these simple tips work, because the women in my fitness boot camp use them to stay lean and trim all year, including through the holidays.
The 3 I’m sharing with you today are very quick and very simple, in fact, just like the first four weight loss tips I gave you, you can start these right now.
1.) Drink, Drink, Drink Water!
Water competes for space in your stomach and truly helps decrease appetite. For every plate you eat, try to drink at least 1-2 glasses of water. After that second plate, when you have 1 full liter of water in your stomach, I bet you might just throw in the towel!
2.) Control your Portions
Try to eat only half of all the servings of unhealthy food that you choose. Half of the portions equal half the calories!
3.) Perform High-Intensity Activity Before and/or After a Big Meal or Holiday Feast
I know, I know. I promised diet strategies, but I simply cannot go without recommending some activity. Your body is most receptive to higher calorie and/or carbohydrate meals within 30 minutes before and within three hours following high-intensity activity. Ideally you would want to workout out before AND after a big meal, but if you can only do one, that will suffice. It is less important when you do it and more important that you do it. Your best options will be 20 minutes of circuit resistance training or cardio interval training. Even a 20-30 plus minute walk a few hours afterwards can serve as a bit of damage control.
I’ve got LOT’s more tips to help you out. I’ll make sure to post a few more over the next few days.
If you want non-stop access to me and all my little tips, tricks and turkey burning workouts, come check out my boot camp for women. You can do it free for a full week.