Meditation and Body Type Training

Motivation
Meditation can help you focus your mind on one single object. The object of meditation should be neutral in emotion and perception. Examples of a meditation object would be your breathing,an image, or sound. It doesn't matter what you choose for your object of meditation, just stick to the same one throughout.

Focusing your mind on a single object is not as easy as it may sound. Our mind is always working and in motion, it never stops even when you are asleep.

You can retrain your mind to be one that is completely focused on a single object with practice and effort, this can be achieved. Whats in it for you? Your goal in life becomes easier to achieve!

Nutrition & Training Body Types
The Endomorph tends to have higher proportions of body fat and the majority of it in one region of the body. The "pear shape" would be a typical endomorph with accumulation of fat around the hips and the midsection.

Endomorphs need to pay close attention to their meal frequency and must keep metabolism up via weight training. Ideally, endomorphs (as well as most people trying to lose weight) should weight train a minimum of three to four times per week and do aerobic exercise at least four or five days a week too.

As they begin to add muscle from weight training, the boost in metabolism will increase the speed of fat loss.

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The Truth: What Workouts Should you Do to Burn Belly Fat?

A question I am often asked is "what workouts should I be doing to burn belly fat?"

There is a great deal of confusion about what is beneficial or not so helpful as far as losing extra belly weight is concerned. I primarily work with new moms trying to lose those last few pounds in their midsections, and this is a topic that is often discussed.

Let me dispel one major exercise myth: you cannot spot train your belly. Please do not develop the mindset that you have to do a ton of crunches to lose your belly fat.

Much more goes into losing fat in that area, and here are three helpful ways to effectively attack and burn fat on your midsection:

HIIT
HIIT stands for high-intensity interval training. This is when you exercise in intervals, from ten seconds to a minute, working at max effort. You complete those short bursts of exercises, then enjoy an equally short resting period (ten or so seconds of rest).

When doing a HIIT workout, you go back and forth between high-intensity bursts and short rest times. For your high-intensity bursts, you could spin, sprint, do burpees, or mountain climbers. You can also modify your exercises, too, in case you have issues with your back and knees. That way, you can get your heart rate up but protect your joints in the process. 

Here is a HIIT fun fact: You can burn calories for up to 48 hours after your workout! Oh, and here is another plus about HIIT workouts these workouts do not have to be super long. A big mistake I see people making is doing 60 minutes of cardio, every day.

While that is certainly a great way to relieve stress, there are shorter, more effective ways to burn belly fat, such as completing a HIIT workout.

Strength Training
Aim to strength train 2-3 times per week to burn belly fat. Many women believe they will become bulky if they lift, but the results are actually the opposite! When you lift heavy weights, you burn fat efficiently, reshaping your body and leaning out, too.

Here is a strength training fun fact: One pound of fat burns 20 calories per hour! So, focus on learning how to appropriately strength train so you can burn fat faster.

Low-Intensity Workout
At least once a week, enjoy a low-intensity workout such as yoga, hiking, walking, or jogging. These workouts do not necessarily burn a ton of fat, but they help your mindset immensely. When you de-stress, your body improves as a result. If you are stressed, your gut flora could be out of wack, damaging your gut lining, which leads to bloating and fat storing. Instead, take part in an enjoyable, low-intensity workout.

When you are in a good mood, your body and mind will change in a positive way, and the tips mentioned above will definitely get you on the right track on what workouts should you do to burn belly fat.

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How To Fit in Workout as A Busy Mom

The topic of time is often discussed among mamas, especially relating to health and fitness.

As moms, time is limited. As a result, we may not make healthy food choices or dive into a work out

because we are already stressed with life.

Between working, feeding, cooking, cleaning, and the million other tasks we juggle on a daily basis, I understand the obstacle of consistently carving out personal time. It would be easy for me to say that you do have the time, or everyone has the same 24 hours in their day, but I know that is not the case! 

While there is some truth to those pieces of advice, I understand how it feels to have so much on your plate that adding one more thing would feel impossible, especially if that one added thing has to do with health and fitness.

However, think about how many times a day you're on social media. Whether you are scrolling your
news feed or watching someone else do a workout, you may easily spend a few hours a day on social
media when you could be taking 20 of those minutes to complete a workout. Altering your daily habits to fit healthy practices into your schedule is important, and you can do it, but will you?

Here are a couple of tips to help you free up space in your schedule to take on a new fitness routine so you can improve your life and have increased energy.

1. Plan ahead: Once a week, or at the end of each day, create a schedule of everything you have to do in the coming days and plan exercise into that schedule the same way you would anything else. 

Exercise should be no different than scheduling a doctor's appointment, and taking the time to write out these "appointments" really makes a difference! By doing this, you will clear your head of all the clutter, ultimately realizing you can do a 20-minute workout the following day. 

By planning your meals and respective grocery list, you will be less likely to succumb to fast food and unhealthy snacks because your plans support your new health goals! You can even take that one step further and prepare your meals in bulk, refrigerating or freezing your ready-made meals so you are not left wondering what to make every time dinner approaches. Also, plan ahead and store healthy foods at your desk oatmeal, nuts, and dark chocolate, too. And do not forget your water bottle!

2. Start somewhere. You do not have to workout six days a week for an hour each session. Start with 2-3 days a week doing 20-30 minute workouts, and work your way up once you feel comfortable with your new schedule. Then, you can add a 4 th day or a 30-40 workout. Get into a routine and stay consistent! Consistency is key.

3. Commit. This can be difficult. I work with women, every month, and these women have multiple children, full-time jobs, spouses, and meetings that are vying for their time, but if they can do it, you can, too. You just have to decide and commit. Invest in yourself, and health suddenly becomes a priority. Once you truly commit, you will figure it out and successfully fit fitness into your schedule.

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How to Lose Weight After Pregnancy - Natural and Quickly

How to Lose Weight After Pregnancy - Natural and Quickly

Losing weight after pregnancy can be quite a challenge for many women.  In my own personal journey I struggled after having my 2nd baby figuring out how to lose weight in a healthy way.

Despite exercising and eating healthy I still couldn't manage to figure out why I still looked pregnant most days even at 8 months postpartum.  I had a stubborn belly bulge and bloating that just wouldn't budge.

I remember crying trying to figure out why it wasn't as simple as it was after my first pregnancy or why none of my clothes fit right anymore.  It was an emotional time to say the least.  As women I think there's a lot of pressure to "get your body back" however no one tell us that it will be as stressful as it often is.

One of the biggest things I've learned on my own journey is to give yourself grace and time.  Every new baby brings on new life changes and challenges and as moms our top priority should not be to "get our body back" but to simply live a healthy lifestyle with being a great mom as our top priority.

It takes time to lose weight after pregnancy and there are many ups and downs along the way.  Don't be hard on yourself and focus on long term sustainable weight loss vs. a quick fix!  As your body evolves and recovers the weight will drop if you stay consistent with positive changes.

Here's my tips for losing weight after pregnancy:

1. Move Daily

We all know exercise is important when it comes to weight loss.  However, time is of the essence after having a baby.  We have a lot less time in our day to say the least so figuring out how to exercise can be a challenge.

My best advice is to make it a goal to move daily.  Take your baby for a walk in the stroller or carrier or do a short 20 minute home workout during nap-time.  Whatever you choose, make sure its something that makes your body FEEL good.

If you're doing hour long workouts and putting added stress on your body you could be causing yourself more harm than good.  Exercise is healthy, but if you stress your body out to the max it will break.  Meaning it could cause adrenal fatigue, hormone imbalance or worse.  Start small and work your way up!  Slow consistent and long term weight loss comes with slow consistent efforts.

2. Eat MORE Whole Foods

One thing I've found is that most women are not eating enough calories after pregnancy.  With all the demands thrown at you during this time in your life its easy to see why it would be difficult to find time to make nutritious foods.

On top of that the diet industry has told us eating less and moving more is the only way to lose weight - however that's simply not true.

As a postpartum mom is vital that you're eating enough calories to fuel your energy demands.  Low calorie diets can be effective in the short term but can cause weight loss plateaus and a host of health problems in the long term.

Specifically for breastfeeding moms your body needs fat in order to produce milk, so if you're not eating enough your body will hold onto the extra fat in order to feed your baby.  Its really vital to your health and weight loss goals to eat MORE nutrient dense calories!

Now, you shouldn't just be eating ANY empty calories.  Focus on eating whole nutrient dense foods 90% of the time.  Eliminating processed foods and excess sugar is really key to losing weight in a healthy way.

Try to keep your plates filled with healthy protein options (such as grass fed beef, turkey, chicken or fish), healthy fats (ie. avocado, nuts/seeds, yogurt, olive oil, coconut oil, etc), complex carbs (ie. sweet potatoes, quinoa, brown rice and oats) and lots of fresh veggies (all veggies are great)!

Notice I said 90% of the time... this means you can eat sweets or your favorites 10% of the time (I try to keep this to 1-2 meals per week) but the key is to not restrict yourself!  There's simply foods you should eat more of and foods you should eat less of.

Don't fall into the "all or nothing" mentality that says if you don't eat perfectly 100% of the time you won't lose weight.  In my experience restrictions lead to binging which leads to quitting.  So, give yourself grace mama and take it one day at a time!

3. Make Sleep a Priority

This one is so underestimated!  Sleep is hard to come by as a new mom but it really is VITAL to your ultimate weight loss goals.  Sleep greatly affects your hormones which affects weight loss.

It may sound difficult (this one is always the hardest for me) but you have to sleep as much as possible.  I know it can be tempting to stay up late when you've FINALLY got your baby to sleep.  I know its nice to have alone time and to not have a child attached to you.  I know its nice to Netflix binge or scroll Pinterest or get those "to do's" checked off your list but don't let that temptation keep you from sleeping.

If you want to lose weight, make sleep a priority could be the thing costing you your health and weight loss goals.  Going to bed earlier, using a sleep mask, turning off the tv/electronic devices can all help with getting more restful sleep as often as you can.  And absolutely sleep when your baby sleeps.

4. Simplify Your Life

Having a new baby can cause a lot of stress on your body, your marriage and your life.  It can be incredibly overwhelming to try and "do it all" and those thousands of to do's can seem never ending.

If you let it that stress can become chronic and can wreak havoc on your entire body, damaging your gut (we'll talk more about that in a minute), your hormones and ultimately stalling your weight loss.

De-stressing and simplifying your life is really important to your weight loss goals - please DO NOT write this tip off.  Stop feeling guilty for asking for help, start saying "no" sometimes and stop trying to put so much on your list. 

Do whatever you can to simplify.  Instead of having a mile long to-do list try to just simply have 3 things to accomplish each day - that's it. Don't overwhelm yourself during this time in your life, ask your spouse or family members for more help and take time for self care. This is one thing I wish I would have done sooner on my own postpartum journey.

It really is key to just slow down and focus on staying healthy, sane and taking care of your baby during this season of your life.

5. Heal Your Gut 

Your gut health is one of the most important things you can focus on to lose weight and get healthy.  An unhealthy gut flora and inflammation is one of the key markets of disease and weight gain.

Now, when I talk about gut health I don't simply mean that you have good or bad digestion.  Your gut health is incredibly complex and affects your entire body.   In fact, its estimated that 80% of Americans have leaky gut which is a condition where the permeability of your gut lining is compromised.

It can cause symptoms such as bloating, gas, diarrhea, IBS, headaches, allergies, depression, anxiety, Autoimmune disease, thyroid problems, acne, Psoriasis, low energy, joint pain, mood issues, weight gain, and autism.  If you have even one of these symptoms it can be a sign that you have gut permeability and a huge reason why you're failing to lose weight.

So what can you do to heal your gut?  First you must lower your stress levels.  Chronic stress, sleep deprivation and lifestyle factors can cause leaky gut.  You must also remove inflammatory foods from your diet (foods such as sugar, hydrogenated oils, alcohol, fried foods, gluten, traditional dairy products, processed/white flour and starches are highly inflammatory foods). 

Inflammatory foods will be different for each individual however its important to know there are some basic common foods that are inflammatory in a majority of people.  Its also important to know that what is inflammatory for one person may not be inflammatory for another.  For example I may have a highly inflammatory reaction to dairy and you may not experience any problems with it. 

However, you may have an inflammatory reaction to quinoa - something that is very healthy for me.

It's important that you start to take notice of which foods are giving you inflammatory responses after eating them and start to slowly eliminate them.  You don't have to eliminate them forever but just for a short time so that you can start to heal your gut lining.

Its also important to introduce anti-inflammatory foods into your diet. Some great anti-inflammatory foods include: coconut oil/coconut products, extra virgin olive oil, bone broth, raw cultured dairy such as kefir, yogurt and grass fed butter, Kombucha, nuts/seeds, flaxseeds, chia seeds and grass fed beef, lamb and wild caught fish high in omega 3's.

These foods combined with a diet high in fiber (ie. lots of veggies and fruits), is a great way to start healing your gut!  I also recommend getting on a high quality probiotic to help re-introduce good bacteria into your gut.

6. Change Your Mindset

Having a healthy mindset around health and fitness is vital!  Focus on the small things you can do each day to move toward your weight loss goals.  This mindset switch from feeling like you need to do everything to knowing that the small things are the most important is a HUGE factor in reaching your goals. 

In fact, all clients that keep a positive mindset and focus on the small wins they accomplish each day are the ones who always have the most success!

If you let yourself have a negative mindset around your health goals and you're constantly feeling like you're doing something wrong, well then, you're probably going to speak that into existence.

We like to blame big picture things like not perfectly tracking our macros or eating a smidge too many calories for our failures but the reality is that its always the more simple things that deter us from reaching a goal!  Its the small daily habits we create that make the BIGGEST impact on our life.

Focus on the small daily wins that will get you closer to your goals because that is what will fuel you to keep going.

Instead of being frustrated that your baby interrupted your workout, be excited about the fact that you completed half a workout for the first time in months!  Instead of being upset that you didn't have a healthy lunch, applaud yourself for making the time to have a healthy breakfast and dinner that day.  Do you see what I'm saying? Its a simple mindset switch that can keep you from "falling off the bandwagon" simply because you had one slip up.

The reality is that we are all human, we are never going to get this perfect and anyone even those people with perfect bodies are not perfect.  This journey is all about striving for progress not perfection!  And at a season in your life when that is hard - well you've GOT to give yourself grace girlfriend.  Keep doing your best and working towards being the best version of you each day!

If you're looking for more tips, advice, workouts and recipes how to lose weight after pregnancy be sure to join this program.

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Why Simplifying Your Life is Your New Weight Loss Plan

I used to be all about the hustle and bustle. I had to be constantly busy as if it were some sort of award. As If I was not busy I was not important.

After having two babies now my life has gotten even busier and at one point I took my busy to the level of becoming chronically stressed.

That stress resulted in a whole other host of health problems, which I'll share more about in a minute.

Did you know that stress is one of the biggest contributors to unhealthy gut flora, weight gain, disease, mental health problems and even divorce?  In fact, I even tell my clients if they are chronically stressed they will likely not see results in any program they do.  That is how detrimental stress can be on your health.   

When I realized how bad this busy habit had gotten for me I knew I had to slow down. I started focusing on getting as much sleep as possible and cutting A LOT of clutter and added responsibilities out of my life.

Now I focus only on the things that bring me peace. ... God. My family. My health. And my passions.

Sometimes mama you have to say NO to good things so you can say YES to the best things.

If you are chronically stressed I urge you, PLEASE slow down before it impacts your health and ultimately your family.

I know you don't totally believe me. You think you can keep going at a rapid pace, sleep just a few hours a night and you feel totally fine right?

That's what I thought too. Until, years of neglect, chronic stress, overworking and sleep deprivation caught up to me.

FOR YEARS I did not sleep much. I knew it was advised to get 8 hours of sleep at night but and so I'd try for a bit maybe a week or two but every time I would come to the conclusion that I just DIDN'T need it. I was different. My body could function just find off of 5 hours. I was more productive and just said, I do not feel tired, so it must be fine for me.

It was not until after years of neglecting sleep that I started to notice the symptoms of my neglect. I was unusually gaining a bit of weight. I could not remember even the simplest things. I was forgetting everything (even more than usual).

I had EXTREME brain fog. I would forget a word mid-sentence or lose my train of thought. My husband would remind me of a conversation we had just the previous day and I had ZERO idea what he was talking about. I was having major mood swings and would get frustrated with my kids constantly.

At first I chalked it up to mombrain/momlife until it just kept getting worse. And then, I realized the biggest limiting factor for me when it came to health was sleep. I was not different than anyone else and because I had neglected my sleep for so many years - my brain was literally deteriorating and so was my health because of it.

And when it really started impacting my relationship with my husband and how I interacted with my kids I knew I HAD to change.

Now listen up - this didn't happen because I wasn't eating well. This didn't happen because I wasn't exercising. In fact, I was exercising 6 days per week and eating the healthiest I ever had in my life. It happened because I had WAY too much stress and way too little sleep.

When I finally realized that was the moment I HAD to have determination, stop making excuses and finally change my habits and thought processes around sleep and stress.

A few things I did to simplify my own life and de-stress ...

• commit to daily prayer and meditation
• Only check social media 1x per day
• Slow down work responsibilities
• Get groceries delivered
• hired a housecleaner
• stopped saying  "yes" to everything
• make sleep a priority
• De-cluttered my home so my spaces were more simplified

As a result:

I have more energy
I lost weight
I have more mental clarity
I have better focus
I am HAPPIER
And ultimately I am healthier!

One of the first steps I took was to de-clutter my home (I'll share more on this in another blog). Why? Because I wanted to feel more at peace in my space. I wanted my home to give me peace of mind and not constant chaos.

The hustle and bustle can be tempting but having peace and true happiness is SO much better. Not only will it help you feel better but it will help you to re-wire your stress hormones that are causing you to gain more weight.  

I want you to think long and hard. What's one way you can de-stress and simplify your life TODAY?

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