Things you should do everyday:

• Drink water as soon as you get out of bed before doing ANYTHING else. Don’t shower, don’t eat, don’t scratch your head  before you have your first glass of water.Continue to drink   plenty of water throughout the day; at least eight 8-ozs a daily.  Adding fresh squeezed  lemon to your  water comes with a host of health benefits as well.
• Get 7-8 hours of regular  sleep every night.
• Add cinnamon to your coffee/tea in the morning
• Eat three balanced meals rich in protein and two to three healthy light snacks between meals if hungry. This maintains metabolism and prevents over eating.
• If you drink alcohol, stop. OK! OK! If you HAVE to,  try to keep consumption at 3-4 drinks per week. If you are a wine drinker, keep it up  but only   one glass of wine per night, preferably red wine.
• Floss your teeth EVERYDAY. Plaque buildup causes lots of health problems, one being heart disease.

How to prepare for your workout session and what to expect after:

We will start each session with a 10 minute, or so, warm up and end each session with stretching.

Wear comfortable clothing that you can easily move and stretch in.
SHOES! These are very important. Typically, if your shoes are a year or older, it is time for new ones. Go to a store like Texas Running Company  where the staff is knowledgeable if you do not know what you need. I recommend a cross training shoe to start with. I live in the Nike Free.  Anything that allows for natural movement is a good place to start.

Most folks can expect to be sore for up to three days after our first couple of sessions. This varies from person to person, some people never get sore. I have been working out for 14 years and I still get sore sometimes! Drinking coconut water, which contains a lot of potassium, after your workout sometimes helps off set muscle soreness. Warm Epsom salt baths are good and if need be, take Motrin.

If you would like, I will weigh you and take measurements of your hips and waist at our first session and there after every six weeks. I do not believe the scale is the tell all nor do I totally rely on measurements. A scale weighs total body weight, which is totally NOT fair 🙂 Our heads weigh a lot and muscle weighs more than fat! 🙂 In the beginning of a strength training program some people actually gain weight on the scale but lose inches. Furthermore, In order to get a VERY accurate reading with measuring you have to measure in the exact same place every time you measure. That can get tricky. The waist and hips are pretty easy and a very good judge of progress. Hip to waist ratio is an indicator of obesity/heart disease which is important for me to be aware of when I start work with a new client.

With all of this being said, the bottom line is that you will know when you have lost weight. You will feel different and your clothing will fit differently. Weight and measures are just numbers 🙂

What to eat and how to eat for exercise:

If you are exercising first thin in the morning doing so on an empty stomach will work, otherwise eat at least 30 minutes before  but no longer than 90 minutes prior. I want you to be fueled, not digesting. Perfect timing would be an hour before. As pre-workout food is important, Recovery food is key post workout.  The best food for your muscles  after a workout is protein, I prefer whey protein,  no more than 30 grams but no less than 20.  I go back and forth between Dr. Mercola’s Pure Power Whey  Protein Powder and EAS Vanilla Whey Protein Powder. I usually mix with unsweetened almond or coconut milk or just plain ‘ol water. Adding a teaspoon of unrefined coconut oil is great too or Nativa’s Cocao Powder if you want chocolate flavor.  Its full of iron and magnesium.    Not replenishing fuel to your body after exercise can ultimately cause your muscles to cannibalize inhibiting muscle repair and growth. Eventually this behavior can also compromise your immune system. If you are going to participate in more than two hours of exercise,  it is also important to replenish energy store intermittently. Meaning, drink a protein shake or eat a protein bar mid-way through your workout. Be nice to your body- feed it!

Snack Examples:

• Plain organic Greek  yogurt with a  handful of raw nuts. If you can;t get over the tart-ness you can add stevia.
• Coconut Yogurt. You can find this at most natural grocery stores like:  Natural Grocers, Whole Foods, Sprouts and Central Market.
• Handful of raw nuts or nut butter
• Raw veggies with  low sugar  salad dressing or hummus
• Coconut water is great to drink either before or after a workout with a snack. I recommend Zico brand. Coconut water is chalk full of vitamins and minerals!
• OS Trim Jerky Sticks
• Think Thin Protein Bars
• Pure Protein Bars
• The Paleo Bar
• Egg Whites
• Hard Boiled Eggs
• All natural no nitrates and low sodium deli meat
• Avocado
• Tomatoes
• Garden Of Life Perfect Food- Super Green Formula

When choosing from the above list of food choices there is no need to count calories. Use your fist as a measurement guide. Your portions should be no larger than your fist. Along with your fists use your brain. This does not mean that you can eat an amount of PB the size of your fist. It means you could eat a piece of fish, lean meat, a serving of veggies, or  a handful of raw nuts.

Another note on food:
Although exercise and healthy eating go hand in hand, 80% of weight loss depends on what you eat. You can practice one without the other and NOT get optimal results, but you have hired me for optimal results, RIGHT? It is essential that you are mindful of what you eat. This is just a quick run down of my ideas on eating.

I do not recommend a radical “diet” but instead a lifestyle change. If you have bad eating habits such as: drinking soda, eating out more than once a week, fast food, eating candy or sugar products in genral, drinking too much alcohol and so on, then taking slow, small steps toward change is key for long term improvement. If you drastically change or cut something completely out of your diet you are more than likely to fall back into your old ways. Lifestyle change for weight loss/better health does not happen overnight. This method takes time, but in the end is the one that works, pays off and sticks around. Be patient and be prepared for set backs. When you experience a set back just start over at your very next meal—every single time it happens. It is normal to fall off sometimes.

• I recommend eating natural, whole foods, and to include your favorite “junk food” once a week. Some folks are able to have a whole cheat day, while others do better when they isolate it to one or two meals.  This means if you really love cheeseburgers, pizza, cheesecake, doughnuts, or whatever “junk food” weakness you have, you should have it! Once a week. The psychological  idea behind this is to prevent the feeling of deprivation that ultimately will jeopardize your efforts causing most people to over indulge. If you know you will be able to have it, you won’t obsess over it. The science behind this is that spiking caloric intake once a week causes a host of hormonal changes that actually improve fat loss by improving conversion of the T4 hormone   to the more active T3.

Be careful not to take this too far, you get one day and when that day ends you are back to the grind. Believe it or not, I am always happy to get back to my clean eating after a cheat day.  You will get there too. At first my cheat days were  insane but now that my body is not in  shock over  all of  the foods I CAN’T have, it has actually realized I do not need them. It just tales time to re-train your cells.

Below is my list of items that should be looked at more carefully and ultimately be cut out of your diet—SLOWLY! In the same way that a doctor weans a patient off of medication, you can train your body to no longer be dependent upon foods that are not good for you. You will be surprised at what is actually in your food when you start reading labels. Some items may be foods that you thought were healthy.

First things first- start reading the labels of canned/packaged/frozen ANYTHING you buy to eat.
To be avoided:

1. High sodium/sugar in canned goods/processed foods/frozen foods including canned soup – buy only items that are labeled low sodium/ no salt added or no sugar added.
2. Artificial sugar. Real sugar should be used in the rawest form and sparingly less than 25 grams per day for most people.
3. Grains. Yep, you heard right, grains. Oats, brown rice, noodles, wheat bread and the list goes on.  Is that too much for you to handle, no worries.  We’ll talk.
4. Fruit. No, I am not crazy. You  will get all of the vitamins and nutrients that you need from all fo the yummy greens you will be eating. Canned fruit / juice with added sugar.
5. Soda, diet and regular
6. Fried foods
7. Dairy products, yes your beloved Milk and cheese. Make the switch to unsweetened Almond, coconut, rice or hemp milk if you want  a milky drink.
8. Trans fat
9. Deli meat: it is loaded with salt, nitrates and other preservatives. Switch to  Boars Head, Apple Gate Farms or other brands labeled “NO NITRATES / LOW SODIUM
10. Fast Food (two ugly four-letter words)
11. MSG other wise known as Monosodium Glutamate
12. READ LABELS!!!!