5 Super Simple Fat Loss Hacks That You can Use Today In Your Kitchen!

5 Super Simple Hacks You Can Use Today To Improve Your Nutrition.....

The truth is, nutrition for health, fat loss and performance does not need to be tricky. It's quite simple actually and a sustainable eating plan will always consider all macronutrients to achieve the best results.

There are some specific ways that you can craftily create better results faster. Check out these hacks below and let me know how you go with them, feel free to share them with your friends so they achieve the best results also.

1. NEVER eat carbohydrates by themselves 

Carbohydrates tend to spike blood sugar (raise insulin) more than other foods which creates a fat storing environment inside your body. Therefore, you will want to combine your carbohydrates with a form of lean protein to prevent unwanted fat storage. 

2. ALWAYS have some type of high quality protein in every meal 

This will keep your body in a consistent “anabolic” (muscle preserving) state. Protein provides muscle tissue with a steady stream of amino acids to help assist muscle growth This will help keep blood sugar more stable throughout the day to keep you in a high energy – fat burning environment .The thermal effect of protein will help prevent metabolic slow down and burn more calories (in other words, your body will burn more calories digesting and breaking down protein than it will digesting and breaking down fat and carbohydrates) 

3. Always LIMIT fat intake when eating starches or fruits (carbs) 

By keeping fat intake lower in meals that contain starches and/or fruits you’ll avoid insulin AND fatty acids being present together in the blood stream. Remember, insulin + fat = potential fat storage – NOT good 

4. Keep fat intake to a minimum before AND after workouts 

Fats tend to slow digestion and keep insulin stable. This is a great benefit during other times of the days, but pre and post workout are the only 2 times of the days when we want to speed up absorption and intentionally spike insulin. This will help force more nutrients into muscle tissue because insulin is a “storage” hormone. It’s also very “anabolic”, which means it helps create a muscle building environment inside your body during exercise. 


Key HACK: Always combine proteins and carbs together before and after your training sessions, but keep fat intake below 10 grams in both these meals

PORTION CONTROL:

This is a big one (excuse the pun!!)

When you are getting hunger pangs it's easy to pile your plate high and then wonder why you might not be feeling so good at the end of it all. 

Portion control is where many clients get confused. Again there is a super simple method to achieve the best results without much fuss at all just by using the palm of your hand! I know it sounds a little weird at first but this is the best may of monitoring your food intake without the fuss of scales.

Your fist, palm, and thumbs are directly related to how many calories and grams you should be consuming on a daily basis to burn more fat. Here’s how it works. 

1. Protein = the size of your palm 

An acceptable range is 15 to 25 grams per serving for women and 20 to 40 grams for men If you’re not consistently exercising, these amounts should be lower 

2.Carbohydrates = the size of your fist 

3. Fats = the size of the end of your thumb x 2 

Remember that Carbohydrates and proteins only yield 4 calories per gram while fats yield 9 calories per gram, which indicates you have to monitor fat intake and use smaller portion sizes for fats (ex: 12 to 15 nuts, not HALF the jar!) 
An acceptable range is be 15 to 30 grams per serving (approx. 1 to 2 tablespoons)

LOVE YOURSELF: Why you're not getting results from your training: Industry secrets to making MASSIVE long lasting change.

Wondering why you're not getting results from your training? Follow my LOVE YOURSELF series to find out my solutions to you achieving all your health and fitness aspirations.

GOAL SETTING

1. Problem: Your goals are too wishy washy….  or maybe you haven't set any goals at all?? 

The result is a massive stump in your progress,  you have stagnated through lack of focus. 

This is because you haven't decided what you really want (by the way,  doing this means that you have made a decision not to want anything at all) when you want to achieve it by, you are just simply going through the motions and holding your self back from achieving your dreams.

Are you being wishy washy because you think considering your family commitments, it's too selfish to set your own hopes dreams and desires as a mother/wife daughter ? You could be a victim of not loving yourself enough, click here to find out more 

Solution: GOAL SETTING AND ACTION PLAN: All of your planning towards your specific goals start with a thorough goal setting session preferably with your coach/trainer. Once you have ascertained your specific goals, your effort required in each of these training session forms part of your plan and allows you to stay focussed thus,  enabling you to achieve high quality results. So in essence;  if you don't have a goal you won't have a back bone for your training and therefore your results will definitely be lagging. My number one tip for you is to take HUGE INTEREST in your goals and yourself, after all you deserve the best!. If you don't take an interest by 100% then don't expect to accomplish your goal by 100%. 


During your goal setting session, you should 

1. Decide what it is that you are going to accomplish and write it down.                               I ask my clients precisely what their three main priority goals are. Remembering if it doesn't scare you even slightly then its probably not going to do much to your health and fitness so take the plunge! What do you really want from your training? (note I have emphasised WHAT DO YOU). Open up your own emotions as much as possible during your goal setting, what do you want for you? (do not prioritise your partners wishes or friends/family pressures over your own, you are doing this for you). Prioritising for yourself is essential part of being specific and allows you to cohere with the plan. With your own desires at the forefront of your goal setting,  will allow you to train with your true passion and encourage you to adhere to the plan when you have a hard day, and you want to give it all up.  By the way, Its perfectly normal to have days here and there, where you get frustrated and want to throw the towel in, this is where your goals give you the inspiration to stay on track.  If you start throwing a tantrum, you or your coach  then reiterate your goals again to keep you on track. 

2. Another essential question formulating great goal setting and results getting is: What are the reasons's WHY you want to achieve your goals? Why do you want this specific goal? Connecting reasoning behind each specific goal is an essential driving force behind the energy that you give to your training program and is directly related to the quality of results. The devil is definitely in the detail, so dive into this component as much as you possibly can because this this is a really important part of you sticking with your training plan and getting your results, make sure you write all the detailed information down next to your goal. What do you desire from your training? And WHY? What you want to avoid again is being wishy washy with your answers as this can lead to wishy washy results in the long term. 

For example My client says: I want to drop 10kgs'. 

I say: "Great! Why do you want to drop 10kg?"

My client says " I want to look good on the beach in my bikini"
(Now this answer is merely skimming the surface, but its a great start)

So i say…. "So why is it so important for you to look good on the beach anyway? How will that improve your life ?" (trying to dig a little deeper to get her real why)

She says " it will make me feel better and more confident about going to the beach with my kids, without getting embarrassed about the size of my thighs and having to cover up or avoid going down to the beach altogether, I will be able to enjoy being with my kids more" 

So as you can see from the above example, you might start off thinking you need to lose 10kg but in fact what you want is to shape up your thighs, also you are linking emotion to the problem and visualising where you need to go by applying a motive. 


So in summary to help you dig in deeper to WHY'S of your goal: Typical example questions I might ask my clients are: 

• Why is being a size 10 so important for you anyway?  
• What will losing the belly fat/toning the legs/losing 5kg  allow you to feel/see in your life that you are not feeling/seeing now? This creates a real visual picture in your mind and as a results enables you to create an emotional connection to your goal.

 3. Once you have established your three main goals and connected reasoning behind every goal, set a date for which you will accomplish it. Be as specific as possible.   Don't just say, "I want this as a lifestyle so i don't mind when i achieve my goal". Although its great that this answer shows the client really wants to keep the results they achieve from their training and nutrition  When clients say this to me i scream in my head "WHAT? You mean in five years time you STILL don't mind that you haven't yet achieved your goal???" Indecision on timeframe, suggests that you have made the choice not to achieve your goal. So be confident with this answer as well as realistic, although it would be awesome, obviously you can't achieve big goals in 2hours, so keep that in mind. Your level of commitment will effect your time frame. How may hours per week can you dedicate to your training, nutrition and healthy lifestyle considering your work and family commitments?  

4. How committed are you to achieving each of your 3 goals?  Anything less than 100% signals danger to me and as your trainer,  I would be asking what i could do to get your level of commitment up to 100%. If you still didn't know I would be worried about how strong your desire is really to achieving your results and question whether it would be right for you to be investing in your training because i believe it takes 100% commitment,  no matter what. This also can often be the results of setting goals that are relevant to loved ones and that are not necessarily your own, so have a re-visit to your initial goals if this is the case and see if you can think of something that's going to fire you up a bit more.  

Now you and/or your can begin to make massive determined action by formulating an action plan that specifically aligns with your goals. This is coming up next, so stay tuned strong women!


Lizzie

Top 7 Tips to Choose The RIGHT Personal Fitness Coach

There seems to be a common buzz about the place, this time every year as people embark on the mammoth task of improving their health and fitness in some shape or form. There's no doubt that with an expert helping you along the way will enable to you achieve better results in the long term and the short term. 

Considering that most people will give up on their goals sometime after January, (if that) a professional will be able to help you to set your health and fitness goals properly so you actually achieve them and don't drop the ball so to speak.

There are so many bonuses to hiring a health and fitness professional upon your pursuit to healthiness- so what's the catch? In my opinion there are a myriad of different personal trainers who mostly all profess to helping you achieve your dreams and whilst the majority will help you achieve your goals,  there are a minority of trainers that will in no way be suitable for you and you will end up wasting your hard earned cash.

So how do you choose the right personal trainer for you? Here's my top 7 tips of your picking.

1. Experience and knowledge and the articulation of both of these key elements: If you are looking for high quality results you will need to invest more per session in an expert trainer. An expert trainer is someone who is able to understand health and fitness have significant experience within the industry plus is able to apply this understanding to your goals allowing you to succeed so you achieve results in the set time frame. It is all very well having experience and/or knowledge but if you have a trainer that doesn't apply this then you will need to seriously consider whether this trainer is right for you. Also consider the fact that experienced trainers, don't always stay on top of the current industry trends and training techniques, some get stuck on something from the 1980's, so if leg warmers aren't your forte then I suggest that you make it a must to do a little check first before you sign up. This is purely for the fact that exercise training is a science and being in this realm means that things change, so effective training methods should follow suit.

2. You pay for the service which is provided- if you pay cheap expect the results to be cheap….

I have trained many clients who have opted for the cheaper option with their previous trainer only to be left disappointed that they have not achieved any results. So in essence, you get what you pay for- if you want Chanel/Gucci you expect top quality clothing that lasts for a lifetime and the same goes with personal trainers if you buy from Supre, don't expect the clothes to stay in one piece or in trainers terms your results to be particularly outstanding.

3. Check out the profile board and also watch them interact with other clients. Check out the profile boards of the trainers on websites and in the gyms but don't just base your assumptions on the board, maybe have a look and see how the personal trainers are actually communicating and interacting with their clients. Are they sitting down and playing on their phone whilst the client works out or are they spotting and discussing training with the clients. 

4. Ask the trainer for a free trial session to confirm your thoughts. Usually PT's offer a first free consultation or a mini training session to showcase their skills and their knowledge around your health and fitness requirements. In consideration for the fact that this is 'personal' training you will need to make sure your personality types don't clash, are they listening to your needs, do you think they have the intelligence to help you to produce the results that you are paying for?

 5. Don't just pick a personal trainer because you (secretly) want to go out on a date with them.

I've seen this scenario so many times, and as soon as the trainer gets the sniff of your real intentions of join gout on a date with them, and they are just not that way into you, then your going to be very disappointed, not to mention, the poor trainer will feel deflated and awkward. Believe it or not, most of us PT's  actually want to help you and as much as we love you, we don't want to have a love affair with you. Pick a trainer based on their intelligence, their personality style blending with yours, their experience and their knowledge being able to apply these key components to your goals. Whilst it is nice to have someone who is good looking, this is no more than second priority to the above critical values.

6. Make-sure you pick a trainer who is specialised in your desired goal. There's a limited use in picking a trainer who is specialised in endurance training if you want to become an body builder and visa versa. Usually specialisations come with different personality types, you will find that a trainer who is specialised in body building will be much different in looks, style and personality than a trainer specialising in endurance. If you are looking for pre- post natal training try picking a trainer that is specialised in this area, and has actually been in the same situation themselves as they will be much more able to help you empathetically. 

7. Let the trainer show you the journey that you will undertake: Gold standard of professional exercise training is that your trainer insists on performing an initial evaluation and follow up measurements, so that they can track your progress towards your goals. Periodisation is an essential item to your training and your success, this is your plan of action according to where you stand right now in your fitness and where you can take it to. If this is not being performed then warning bells ought to be ringing in your head as to the trainers' skill articulation. 

Enjoy your quest to better health and fitness with a pro in the know, and most of all have fun with it all!

Christmas Vouchers

Sydney-sider living in the Northern Beaches? Want to help yourself/your loved one definitively achieve health and fitness goals in 2013? Then check out our range of Christmas vouchers available on our website www.bodywizepersonaltraining.com. Up to15% off for the next 48hrs ONLY! 

EXECUTIVE HEALTH & FITNESS PT#2

So how are we going with the journey towards your goals?

In the first part of this series (twas a very long time ago?), we touched on how to begin to correctly formulate your goals. You may have already devisee a great plan. Here are some helpful tips then, to firmly launch you upon your trajectory path towards your ambitions.

Sports psychologists have traditionally helped athletes reach top levels by setting three types of goals which are similar to the following;

1. Big dreams or long term goals
2. Process goals towards these dreams eg mid term goals
3. Performance goals (aka short term goals)

Rome wasn't built in a day-so please don't expect that you will achieve your big wins in a day either.

Lots of little steps will be more acceptable for your brain and body to surpass.

What do the experts say? Michael Johnson, discussed his successes to journalists, you would expect that he would say things came pretty easily with him, yet this would be an incorrect assumption. He said that to achieve his big dreams, he mainly focussed on taking each day at a time. He worked on his process and performance goals during each & every training session(eg-> baby steps AKA short term goals) and believe it not, pushing towards his success even as one of the worlds top athletes , was a struggle

MOTIVATION - THE KEY TO SUCCESS.

Primarily athletes use the sports psychology principles of motivation as the stepping stone to achieving their goals. Motivation is to be moved to do something (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Motivation is what will form the back bone, it will essentially give you the key to unlock your potential, whilst helping to drive you strongly forthward towards your goal achievement. This is why it is very important to choose your goals carefully, they HAVE to come from the heart, because if they don't, you run the risk of abandoning ship very quickly, due to a lack of motivation.

Recognise also that attaining the big dreams or the small ones aint necessarily going to be easy, be prepared to go through the tough stuff, knowing that you will probably come out of it, feeling like you can take on the world.

So it's OK to struggle? It is absolutely ok to struggle we humans, were all born to struggle, and we were also born to overcome obstacles out of acts of survival. What is important here, is that studies have shown that top athletes, are really good at breaking their big goals down into smaller pieces to allow them to maintain focus, motivation and success!
One of the major comparatives between human life now and back in our primal days, is the amount of choices we have these days. Back in the day, our primal ancestors didn't really have the choice of a chicken sandwich or chicken salad or giving up on their goals (e.g catching thier prey) altogether! They had to eat to survive, when they failed to catch their prey they just has to get right back up and keep at it...otherwise starve?

Whilst I do not advocate the starvation method, can we learn a lesson from our ancestors? Of course we can! Maybe we can just assume the people of the world have gone soft because of the changes in life? We could also adopt a 3D approach to our understanding, realising that in some ways because of the variety of choices we have these days, we are potentially challenged in different ways nowadays, compared to that of our ancestors. Hence we must work hard to overcome these differing struggles.

Just quickly, reminiscing on the first part to this series (yes... I know, clearly this was a long time ago) ***please note that it is important to know yourself and be honest with yourself so that you can apply the principles which are most relevant for yourself.***

Once you have established those exact ambitions of yours, the ones which put a really big fire in your belly, you can apply a specific action plan to launch you off the blocks, on to the race track so you can be assured that you hit the ground running.

ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION

Achievement Motivation is the notion of the need to achieve whilst avoiding failure. Top athletes have been found to possess high levels of achievement motivation. So how can we make ouselves even more motivated to achieve?
Most of us fall into the category of requiring tasks that are challenging yet attainable, they must have at least a 50% chance of success. Rememeber this when setting your all important smart goal plan.My fellow group fitness instructors and personal trainers please note the following: Research shows that we are likely to be more motivated by a task that pleases us out of enjoyment of doing the task itself, rather than doing a task out of external rewards such as praise, results etc (Ryan & Deci 2000, Gegne & Deci, 2005). Yet another reason why a well devised achievement plan is invaluble, and to the fit-pro's how can you use this powerful fact this to refine your coaching skills during your classes and/or PT sessions?

FIRST AND FOREMOST .......TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE

Locus of Control (LOC)

Rotter (1966, 1971) believed that the reasons (or attributions) one provides us on past successes and failures of situations or tasks reveals whether a person possesses more of an internal or external LOC. Two factors we might attribute to success or failure are;

INTERNAL LOC; such as the effort one places on a task. For Eg- one might attribute the hard work they placed on a task as a factor which influenced their success.

EXTERNAL LOC; luck or destiny. Eg one might attribute their success because they were lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

LOC influences our behaviours during future situations In very general terms, it is usually more favourable to possess a more internal LOC, because then we take ownership of mistakes and can learn from the mistakes, allowing us to become more successful the next time we participate within tasks. According to the research within this area, some of the characteristics of an individual who possesses an internal LOC dominance are the following

•Persists in the face of failure
•Welcomes new challenges
•Is proactive wants to overcome shortcomings
•Takes ownership within their lives
•Copes will with stress as less susceptible to anxiety
•Experiences success often

External LOC dominant person may possess the following characteristics

•Tends to give up in the face of failure & is less persistent at tasks
•More susceptible to anxiety and as a result does not cope well with stress
• Avoidance of new challenges
•Feels like they don't need to be proactive and doesn't take ownership of life's shortfalls (fate might lead the way...)
•Feels experience of success is rare

Can you be really honest & identify which of the above lists sounds more like you? The good news is & important to point out is that a dominance in either internal or external LOC can be interchangeable and often changes according to situations during the lifespan. Possessing either of these locus of controls will effect you emotional responses to situations. And it is these emotions which may be causing a hindrance to your success. If we can identify our emotional responses, it will help us to pin point our weaknesses and ultimately then provide us with the knowledge, of how to move forward.

For example, when Individuals with an internal locus of control experience success their emotional response to this success may render pride, confidence competence & self satisfaction. Whilst individuals with an external locus of control might feel gratitude, thankfulness or blame their success on luck.

When those with an internal locus of control experience failure they tend to feel guilt, shame, incompetence and/or depression, whilst their external counterparts experience anger surprise & astonishment in the same circumstances.

All is not lost you can change your dominant LOC with practice. Some basic recommendations are to take ownership of tasks in your life, try some new tasks which you would not normally undertake and assess the areas in your life (eg friends, work, hobbies) which are reinforcing your external LOC and try to change these situations to activities which allow you to be abundant within your internal LOC.

In relation to goal achievement, you must commit to assessing yourself so that you can see where you are sitting during different situations. For example assess yourself on your short term and mid term goals-what are the reasons you are giving for your successes and failures? and what are your emotional responses to your successes and failures? This is imperative as it will allow awareness of your current state so you can adjust where neccasary...easier said than done right? RIGHT! Practice makes perfect.Also, by applying specific principles as suggested within this article can help you to irradiate some of the stress and or anxiety you might currently be experiencing. The exercises shown will help to power you up allowing you to achieve greater wins in your life:

CONFIDENCE & PMA (Positive Mental Attitude).

Simulating the attitudes of top athletes seems to be a winning approach!

Athletes possess high levels of self confidence, this has been shown to lead to reduced anxiety during stressful situations, allowing for first class performances. Confidence is a real positive trait, & will ultimately draw other positive confident successful people around you. When confident positive people are around you, your body and mind can't help but to absorb this energy which helps you to power up your being, to an even greater you. So now we know why possessing confidence, in your ability to flourish is of paramount importance. Positiveness & Confidence is not always innate. Even if we are blessed by being born with confidence, this trait will still need to be nourished & trained. Confidence can be trained by using positive self talk, imagery techniques and relaxation. If these techniques sound a little sissy to you, then stop & think again! Athletes use these all the time to help them produce elite performances. If they use them they gotta be good. Right?

During my 3rd part to this series I will discuss applied sports psychology in a little more detail so that you have a few tools up your sleeve just incase you need them....so stay tuned and keep working hard!