How Sweet It is

December 17, 2009 By

 

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

Filed Under: Nutrition, Weight Loss Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Daily Activities For Weight Loss

October 14, 2008 By

 

Let’s talk briefly about exercise vs. activities.

Walking your dog-activity

Going for a 30 minute run-walk session – exercise

Painting, pulling weeds and general home improvement-activity (yes, even if you sweat and you are sore)

Booty Bootcamp class -exercise 🙂 of course

Parking as far away from the door as possible when shopping – activity (ok, maybe incidental exercise)

Doing 20 minutes of circuit work at the gym or in your living room (my personal gym) -exercise

Can you see a difference?

There are times when my ladies experience a plateau. I always ask them what they are doing on their "off" days from boot camp. Usually I get answers like going for a walk, walking around at a fair, working on their house, etc.

I know these activities may leave you a little fatigued and maybe even sore but they are not enough of a stress on your body to make it change.

When you are tying to remove excess fat off of your body you must give your body a reason to let go of the unwanted pounds.

If you go outside and run for 2 minutes and walk for 2 minutes for a total of 30 minutes do you think your body might have a reason to let go of some L-B’s so you can handle it next time?

If you spend all day Saturday painting your family room do you think your body will rev up to get in shape for the next marathon painting session?

The activities I mentioned earlier will cause you to burn more calories than siting on your couch or in front of your computer. And in the overall scheme of things, the more active you are the better.

But please do not buy into a false sense of accomplishment that because you parked at the far end of the parking lot or you took the stairs to the 3rd floor you got your exercise in for the day. Good for you for getting those extra calories burners in, really, I mean that. Keep it up.

But to make big dents in you excess fat and to truly progress to your goal, you must have a focused plan to get you there.

If you need some help with that I have a suggestion or two.

You know I just want to help you. I’m always here.

Sarai Jones

Filed Under: Exercise and Fitness, Fat loss Tagged With: , ,

Small changes make a big difference

October 1, 2008 By

 

How many times have you told yourself that you need to lose weight?

I’m not talking about a couple pounds either – I’m talking about 20 or more pounds of extra fat that you’d like to see disappear.

Maybe you are even considering signing up for personal training in the Livermore or Elk Grove area.

I’ve come to notice a trend. Most people psyche themselves out before they ever start losing the weight. It’s as if the enormity of their goal simply puts them into shut down mode, and they give up on the idea entirely.

Has this ever happened to you? You try out a diet or exercise plan for a week or so, and then you get frustrated when your body looks the same as before. So you give up.

Weight loss isn’t a speedy thing. It takes time to gain weight – many people put on weight for years and then expect to lose it in a few weeks or months. It doesn’t work that way.

So instead of pressuring yourself into losing 50 pounds in two months, how about sticking with a realistic, proven way for long term weight loss: Small changes to your lifestyle over time will make the difference.

In practical terms, make it your goal to drop one pound a week.

Now, this may not seem like that much, but if you did this consistently for one year it would result in 50 lbs lost. All it takes are small changes in your daily lifestyle. Let’s break the process down…

How to shed a pound a week: Burn 3500 extra calories.

It really is that simple. Try the following three steps:

  1. Record your normal weekly exercise – look at everything from walking to participating in sports to exercising in the gym. This is your starting point. You need to burn an additional 3500 calories on top of your normal weekly exercise. If you don’t currently exercise, then this step is really easy for you, a simple blank page will do.
  2. Record your normal weekly food intake – this may be hard to do honestly, but remember that you are only cheating yourself by not recording everything. Calculate the total number of calories that you eat in an average day. In your quest for dropping inches you shouldn’t exceed your normal daily caloric intake – you should, rather, work at slowly decreasing that number. Remember, we are going for a 3500 calorie deficit each week – this can be done by a combination of increased calorie exertion (exercise) as well as a decrease in calories consumed (eating less).
  3. Chart the difference – now that you know your starting point for both calorie exertion and calorie intake it is time to turn the tables in your favor. Take every opportunity to exert more calories by increasing your physical activity, and to decrease your calorie consumption by eating fewer calories and by making healthier selections. Record your progress in a notebook and refer back to it often. You will be surprised how encouraging it is to see your progress written down on paper.

Remember, if you burn up 500 calories a day you will drop a pound in a week.

Here are some practical ways to lose calories:

If you normally…
Do this instead…

Drink regular soda pop
Drink water or diet soda pop (160 calories lost)

Eat a snack from a vending machine
Enjoy an apple (180 calories lost)

Hit the snooze button in the AM
Jog for 30 minutes before work (150 calories lost)

Skip your workout
See me for an invigorating workout (changes your life!)

Weight loss doesn’t have to be allusive. Make small changes each and every day toward a healthier, fitter you. Remember that small changes make a big difference.

I’m always here to help –

Sarai Jones
email me today!

Filed Under: Exercise and Fitness, Fat loss, Nutrition Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Starbucks Diet

September 23, 2008 By

 

So my post on http://twitter.com/BootyBootCamp (if you’re not following me, please do) where I mentioned drinking a Starbucks Vivanno caught a lot of attention from my Booty Boot Camp girls.

You wanted to know if it was “ok” to drink when you are on the go without sabotaging your fat loss efforts. I was pretty sure I had remembered the nutritional facts correctly but I wanted to double check so here it is.

It turns out that the between the two flavors; Chocolate-Banana and the orange-mango-banana, the chocolate-banana Vivanno is the better choice (which makes me happy because I think it tastes the best). Even though it has 20 more calories (270 compared to 250) and a little more fat (5g vs 2g), it also has a less carbs, less sugar and more protein, so overall this is my pick.

They both have 6g of fiber (about 25% of your recommended intake) which explains why they keep you full for a long time.

You can also add a shot of espresso to the chocolate-banana or a shot of matcha to the orange-mango-banana but beware, while the espresso does not do much to the nutritional value of the chocolate-banana (it brings everything down a gram or two) the matcha sends the orange-mango-banana into the unsuitable category. The one shot adds 40 calories, 10g carbs and 10g of sugar.

So while I would rather have you drinking a vivanno instead of eating a starch loaded sub-way sandwich with very little protein or some greasy fast food option, I still want you to be aware of the fact that these
drinks do contain a higher amount of sugar than you want to take in on a normal everyday basis. Most of this is due to the fruit content but if you are trying to reduce the fat on your body, keeping your blood sugar stable is key, and too many sugar loaded meals can keep you spiking and crashing for hours thus slowing down your fat burning process.

A couple of tips to bring down the calories and sugar even more would be to substitute non-fat milk
for the regular 2% and ask for 1 or 2 less pumps of the bittersweet cocoa used in it.

My best tip: Be prepared. I would say 9 times out of 10 you know if you are going to be working late or on the road for more than an hour or two. Pack your little cooler with a healthy high fiber, low sugar, protein
packed meal that you can eat on the go and save the vivannos for a treat. I’ll take my own advice and lay of the starbucks. 🙂

Sarai Jones

www.getfitwithsarai.com

Filed Under: Fat loss, Nutrition Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Flexible Spending = Massage

September 20, 2008 By

 

A massage is always a good idea. Any excuse will do.

One of my boot campers forwarded this message to me about using you flexible spending dollars for massage therapy. It sounds like a perfect way to put those use it or lose it dollars to work.

Now this is from a specific massage chain but the rules apply no matter where you choose to get our rub down.

check it out and enjoy!

Sarai Jones

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

The end of summer always signals a switch in schedules. It seems as if things suddenly go from slow-and-lazy summer to full-speed-ahead fall. As your me-time gets more scarce, it’s more important than ever to pay attention to your health. That includes eating right, exercising, getting plenty of sleep and getting regular massages to help keep your stress at a healthy level.
While we can’t help cross many of the tasks off your to-do list, we do have good news. This is likely the time of year when your flexible spending account (FSA) is soon approaching the closing date. If you still have money to spend, don’t forget that massage therapy is an eligible expense. And since FSAs have a "use it or lose it" policy, you have a great reason to move massage a priority in your schedule.

While the health and wellness benefits of regular massage are many, not all massages qualify for your pre-tax FSA dollars. Based on federal tax code, a qualified expense "must be to alleviate or prevent a physical or mental defect or illness." Massage is a frequently endorsed component in the treatment and prevention of a number of conditions. For starters, by lowering your heart rate and blood pressure, relaxing muscles and increasing endorphins, massage can aid in releasing stress, which is a leading contributor to a number of health conditions. It also can help naturally boost your immune system leading to fewer illnesses.

The news about massage is also good for migraine sufferers because massage has been shown to decrease headache frequency and reduce sleep disturbances, as well as reduce the chances of stress-induced headaches.

Additionally, recent research shows that massage therapy can help those who have insomnia, chronic pain, depression and anxiety, arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome and fibromyalgia, and is beneficial for people recovering from surgery.

Ready to use up your FSA dollars on a massage? Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Talk to your medical practitioner (any healthcare provider who can write a prescription). A prescription for massage is required for your therapy to count as a qualified medical expense.
  2. Double-check the prescription. It should contain three pieces of information: Length of treatment, duration, reason for prescribing massage therapy.
  3. Schedule an appointment at Massage Envy. Although you will not have to bring your prescription to the clinic for your appointment, be sure to hang on to it.
  4. Keep all receipts for your records. Even though an expense is approved, you could still get audited by the Internal Revenue Service. To avoid problems, keep your written prescription and your FSA debit or credit card statement or other type of receipt that shows what you spent on the massage therapy.

If you don’t have an FSA, ask your Human Resources contact about your options and consider signing up for this benefit during your company’s next open-enrollment period.

Filed Under: Exercise and Fitness, Mental Health Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Got Muscle Confusion?

September 19, 2008 By

 

A question that I am often asked by frustrated women is "Why have my results stopped? I’m doing the same routine as before – what happened?"

This is a common place to end up, usually a few months after starting a new exercise routine. At first your body responds to your routine in lost pounds and gained muscle tone, then one day your results screech to a stop.

What happened?
And, more importantly, what can you do about it?

You may have heard the saying, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best idea is to
get off." This is the perfect analogy for your stale workout routine.

  • The problem: Your body has adapted to your routine. Let’s face it, when you
    can do your workout routine in your sleep it’s time for something new.
  • The Solution: It’s time to shake things up, and to apply the concept of
    muscle confusion.

Muscle confusion means that you keep your body guessing by changing your routine. The following are great ways to do just that:

  1. Exercises: When you know that your routine has lost its
    effectiveness the first obvious thing to change are the actual exercises. It is
    important to include every major muscle group in your routine, so be sure to
    exchange each exercise for one that works the same muscle group.
  2. Resistance: Do you find yourself always reaching for the
    same dumbbells or medicine ball? Change your weight as well as the number of
    repetitions you do. If you normally do 15-20 repetitions then increase the
    weight and do 12-15. The key is to challenge your muscles in a new way. If you
    are doing reps for time, try to go longer during each set without stopping.
  3. Equipment: There are so many different pieces of exercise
    equipment out there—don’t limit your routine to just one type. If you love
    working with dumbbells but your routine has fallen flat, put them aside and try
    something new. A little creativity can really jump start your progress.
  4. Style: So often the training style that we are first taught
    sticks with us forever. For you this may be the style of doing one set, taking a
    rest period, and then doing another set. Or maybe you have caught on to the
    circuit training style that keeps your heart rate elevated throughout the
    routine. Whatever your chosen style, be sure to change it once your routine
    ceases to produce results.

Now, don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that you need a brand new workout every day of the week. In fact, your body will take some time to adjust to each new workout, so it should be done for the appropriate amount of time before results start to slack off.

What is that ‘sweet spot’ of time that each new routine should be used before moving on to the next? Well, the answer to that question is as unique as each person reading this.

For some this will mean a new routine every 3 weeks, and for others it will mean a new routine every 8 weeks. Typically the fitter you are the quicker your body will adapt to each new routine.

Muscle confusion plays a big part of the programs that I provide for my clients both in Booty Boot Camp as well as in my personal training programs and it’s one of the little secrets I use to deliver fast
results.

Want to know more?

Contact me today to get started on your own program aimed at weight loss success. sarai@getfitwithsarai.com

Sarai Jones

Filed Under: Exercise and Fitness Tagged With: , , ,

Healthy Breakfast Idea

September 9, 2008 By

 

Looking for a healthy breakfast idea?

One of my clients gave me a serving of a great hot cereal for breakfast. She was in a concoction making mood and came up with the recipe and I think it’s pretty good and healthy too.

What should I have for breakfast? is the question I get most often from my boot camp ladies and personal training clients and this is a good option.

The recipe is for a large batch of dry cereal that you can then cook in single servings as desired.

Give it a try.

Danette’s Morning Mix

1 bag ground flax seed (16 oz)
2.5 oz. (1.5 cups) wheat bran or wheat
germ
1 c. ground almonds
2 scoops vanilla protein shake powder

Mix it all up in a zip loc bag and keep it in the freezer (because of the flax).

To make a single serving:

  1. Mix 1/4 cup cereal mix with 1/2 cup water
  2. Cook in
    the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes.

You may add a little sweetener and about 2 teaspoons non-dairy creamer or non-fat milk to make it nice a creamy.

Note: Just like with any hot cereal, play with the quantities of water, cream,
sweetner to get the taste and consistency you like.

I calculate aprox. 157 calories per serving or less and it’s loaded with both protein and fiber

Enjoy!

Sarai Jones

Filed Under: Nutrition, Recipes Tagged With: , , ,

Need A Reality Check?

August 28, 2008 By

 

I recently read a study article where researchers had a group of women work out as hard as they wanted to on a treadmill. Then the researchers had the women estimate how many calories they felt they had burned.

Guess what?

The women estimated that they had burned quite a bit more than the actual amount of calories that they did burn.

The researchers then took that same group of women and put them in a room with food and asked them to eat how many calories they thought they had just burned.

You guessed it…..

The women ate a lot more than they thought they burned.

So in reality, they burned less than they thought they did, and they ate more than they thought they burned.

What does this add up to?

A big fat “plateau” (I have a theory about most plateaus but that’s for another post)

You CANNOT out work a bad diet.

You just can’t. End of discussion.

One of my clients turned me on too a cool little widget from Kaiser that I think you will find very useful.

It called “The Burn It Off!” Fitness Calculator http://www.kpwidgets.org/widgets.html

You load this little gadget onto your desk top and whenever temptation strikes…you enter what you are contemplating eating and it will tell you exactly how hard you will have to workout to burn off that little cheat. http://www.kpwidgets.org/widgets.html

Now keep in mind, if you want to progress you’ll have to do your regular workouts PLUS that additional time to keep moving in the right direction.

How’s that for a reality check?

Want a reality check on what working out hard really means?

http://www.getfitwithsarai.com/boot-camps-for-women.html

http://www.getfitwithsarai.com/group-fitness-training-programs.html

Sarai Jones

Filed Under: Exercise and Fitness, Fat loss, Nutrition Tagged With: ,

The Power Of Your Convictions

August 27, 2008 By

 

“I’m going to try and eat a good breakfast everyday”

“I’m going to try and work out 3 days this week”

“I’m going to try and get to bed by 9 pm every week night”

Well are you or aren’t you?

Either you are going to plan and prepare what you will eat for breakfast all week so that you can eat a healthy breakfast or you are just going to wing it and expect some miracle to happen where you have a perfect breakfast waiting for you each morning.

Either you are going to schedule your 3 workouts each week like any other appointment and stick to them (joining a boot camp is a great way to hold yourself accountable to this www.getfitwithsarai.com), or you are going to hope that the stars and moon will suddenly align at 3 different times in your week and you will find yourself sitting around with nothing to do for an hour.

Are you getting my point?

“Trying” to do something is nothing more than giving yourself a way out of really committing to something.

And when it comes to fat loss and fitness all it does is leave you stuck at square one, frustrated and feeling like your whole life revolves around losing weight.

Aren’t you tired of that yet?

Once you decide that something MUST get done and you commit to doing it, you’ll be amazed at the power of your conviction.

Are you ready for a proven system that will take you from trying to doing?

http://www.getfitwithsarai.com/boot-camps-for-women.html

http://www.getfitwithsarai.com/group-fitness-training-programs.html

Sarai Jones

Filed Under: Exercise and Fitness, Fat loss, Mental Health Tagged With: , , ,

Burn Maximum Calories

August 24, 2008 By

 

Think you can’t get a workout challenging enough to take you to the next level in your own home? Think again. One of my favorite ways to get an effective fat loss workout in is with a piece of equipment that ways mere ounces, and cost less than $10, a jump rope.

While I was in Jamaica last spring I did 20 minutes of jump rope almost every day along with some bodyweight strength moves and I actually came back weighing less than when I went. Unheard of for me when it comes to vacation weight gain.

Even though jumping rope is a natural for interval training, believe it or not it can also be used for more traditional steady state cardio. I will often jump 30 minutes straight when I control my speed and jump height.

It is an unbelievable cardiovascular workout and it will improve your coordination and strength, as well as your overall endurance.

I was amazed to learn that jumping at an average of 145 jumps per minute burns the same amount of calories as running an 8 minute mile (once you get the technique down 145 jpm is not as hard as it sounds) and if done correctly has only about half the impact of running because you stay close to the ground.

It’s all in the technique. Here are some tips:

First, make sure your rope is the proper length. To check if your rope is right for you, simply stand on the center of the rope with your right foot and hold both handles in your right hand. When the rope is completely straight, the handles should be level with the top of your arm pit.

Now of course there is always a little room for adjusting. I have extra long arms so I jump with a rope slightly longer than the “correct” length. But this should get you in the ball park.

Next, try to jump straight up and no more than an inch of the ground. Bend your knees slightly upon impact. What I see most often is people taking huge 5 or 6 inch jumps off the ground for each turn. No wonder it seems like 30 or even 5 minutes is an impossibility, with that form, it is!

keep your arm movement in check– spin the rope by flicking the wrist rather than making big circles with your shoulders. Keep your shoulders relaxed and your elbows close to your side. This will prevent premature shoulder fatigue and it allows you to take lower jumps.

Find something to focus on and keep your eyes fixed there. I will often pick a knot on a tree, a spot on the wall or anything else I can stay focused on and stare at it for my entire jump. Once you start looking around you are bound to trip up.

Last thing, try to avoid the two-hop jump; trust me on this one, it’s easier to do a smooth one hop per jump than the school girl double hop. Think about it; one jump per rope turn or two, which do you think uses less energy?

With a little practice you’ll get it.

Now in the beginning you probably will be tripping up, out of breath and otherwise struggling, but if you want a do anywhere, super effective, body sculpting, cool looking workout to fit into your busy day, keep trying. It only takes a few sessions and you’ll be jumping like a pro.

I’ll post one of my double duty interval/ abs jump rope routines shortly.

Stay tuned!

Sarai Jones

Filed Under: Exercise and Fitness, Fat loss Tagged With: , , , ,