I look forward to helping you with your fitness goals.

I look forward to helping you with your fitness goals.

I'm a fitness professional at a top destination spa. I also teach spinning classes, yoga & Pilate's at a couple other fitness clubs.

I look forward to helping you reach your fitness goals. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have in regards to fitness, diet, nutrition and exercise.

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Gradually Work Into Your Fitness Routine

Gradually Work Into Your Fitness Routine

“The body needs to be gradually worked into fitness, and starting with too much work can lead to injury.”

This is particularly true for overweight couch potatoes. If you fall into this category, especially if you have a history of heart problems, see a doctor for a checkup before embarking on a new fitness regimen. Then start slowly — making sure to warm up with some light exercise first — and build up your exercise routine gradually over time.

Experienced exercisers should pace themselves. “People can exercise daily but not with high volume and intensity.”

“Alternate hard and easy days and take one day off a week if involved in high-level training.”

Working too hard day in and day out without proper rest — which can happen, for example, when people decide to train for a marathon and go too far too fast — can lead to the most common form of sports and fitness injuries known as “overuse” injuries. These include such problems as tendonitis, stress fractures, bursitis and nerve entrapment.

Pre-Workout
If your last meal was more than five hours ago, have a 100- to 200-calorie snack 30 minutes before your workout. Liquids digest faster, so try milk, juice, Gatorade, or half a smoothie (keep it low-cal by choosing plain, low-fat yogurt and fruit and skipping syrups, powders, and other additions).

Mid-Workout
You need a snack during your workout only when you're hustling for more than 90 minutes. Your best bet? A 100-calorie carb boost, or a sports gel such as Gu.

Post-Workout
Ideally, reach for a snack that combines carbs and protein to aid recovery. Second best: carbs with fiber (like fruit). If your next meal is less than three hours away, be sure your snack is under 200 calories; try an energy bar with at least 3 grams of filling fiber, half a bagel with peanut butter.

Below are a few more ideas.

A protein shake made from whey protein, water, and half a banana is a great choice, since your body quickly turns it into energy. Use 2 scoops of whey protein powder combined with water and 1/2 banana, 250 calories

Hummus and whole wheat pita. Hummus, a dip made from pureed chickpeas, gives you both carbs and protein. Coupled with the slow-release energy from the whole wheat pita, it makes for a snack that'll keep you fueled for hours.
Use 1/4 cup hummus with 1 whole wheat pita, 275 calories

Yogurt and Fresh Berries
Protein makes sense after a workout, since it contains amino acids that help build muscle. "Your muscles are depleted of amino acids after a workout, so you need an adequate supply of protein to help build them up,"
1 8-ounce container of plain, low-fat yogurt with 1/2 cup berries, 180 calories

Tuna on Whole Wheat
"Research shows that carbs and protein together have a better response to post-workout recovery," Tuna drizzled with a little lemon juice and olive oil spread over a slice of whole wheat bread is an ideal protein/carb mini-meal.

4 ounces water-packed tuna and 1 slice whole wheat bread, 220 calories

Turkey and Cheese with Apple Slices
If you're not in the mood for a sandwich, skip the bread and eat the fillings on their own! Spread a soft-cheese wedge over two or three slices of lean deli turkey, then roll up for a quick, high-protein, eat-on-the-go snack. Add a sliced apple for some energy-boosting (and glycogen-replenishing) carbs.

4 ounces deli turkey, 1 soft cheese wedge, and 1 apple, 240 calories

Your Fitness Routine, If Results Aren't Coming Fast Enough Don't Quit Exercising!

Your Fitness Routine, If Results Aren't Coming Fast Enough Don't Quit Exercising!

Do you have the sudden feeling like starting an intensive workout program when you have a special event coming?

Have you thought, "Maybe I could really do this!" that gets us all excited and gives us the energy and drive to start something new.

At the beginning we're all excited, with visions of being totally buff, or perhaps winning a gold medal some day Then we follow a program for a week, maybe 2 weeks, and one day we wake up and realize we're disenchanted with what we're doing, because...

The results are not coming fast enough. We're not even sure if we're doing this "getting in shape" thing right. We see others getting major results with (what appears to be)minimal effort, and we think there may be something genetically wrong with us that we can't spontaneously morph into a superbspecimen of the human form. Little by little, lots of times without even realizing it, a bit ofself-sabotage keeps us from fulfilling our true potential.

We get off the program, we skip doing things that we know we're supposed to do, we have unreal expectations for results, then we shake our fist in the air and think, "Ugh! This isn't working for me!" The Most important thing you can do when this happens is don't quit!

Have you hit a weight loss plateau?

Have you hit a weight loss plateau?

Why Weight Loss Plateau?
First, you need to understand why you have hit the weight loss a plateau. Actually the answer is very simple. You probably know that in order to lose weight, you have to consume less calories than you burn for energy.

So if you were losing weight effectively before and now your weight simply refused to go down any further, that could only mean one thing. That is you are longer on calorie deficit situation. Yes, you can say that you are still eating the same thing and amount when you begun the program and I can tell you that is exactly the problem.

Here is why:- Why do I stopped losing weight?

If your diet requires you to curb calories and since you wanted to get faster result, you cut down your calorie consumption more than what was recommended, your body adapts to this drastic caloric deficit by decreasing your metabolic rate sometimes known as "starvation mode" or "adaptive thermogenesis".

Your body's adaptation is actually a natural survival instinct because your body instinctively reacts as though you are starving and thus is conserving your body fat to keep you alive. Now, you may not be aware that as you were losing weight, you were getting smaller and therefore you need less calories than befor when you had a bigger frame. This being the case, if you are eating as much as before when you were heavier, then you are now consuming more calories than you are expanding.

So how can you lose weight if you are eating more calories than that which you are burning? Common sense isn't it? The trouble is that most people do not realize this implication or thought about it this way. Since now that you have a smaller body and is much lighter now, your body will burn less calories when you are moving about or doing your weight loss exercises. That will mean that you have to tweak your exercises to burn more calories.

These are commonly overlooked reasons why you often hear people say that it is most difficult to lose that last ten pounds or so. It is not difficult at all, it is just that they have overlooked or totally oblivious these simple facts. So the answer as to why you have hit the weight loss plateau is that you no longer in a caloric deficit state. Simple as that. So how do you overcome a weight loss plateau?

Well, you can get started by giving your body a break. Take a week or two off your program since your body has adapted to it. This is also to give your body a physiological break from the stress of dieting and exercising. It is also time to let your body reset some of those starvation hormones and start stimulating your metabolism again.

So when it is time to get back to the state of calorie deficit after your much needed break, your body will be responsive to your efforts again.

So when you return to your weight loss program, tweak it to reflect the current state that you are in and watch your weight start lowering again.