Rethink the idea that healthy food is too costly. In 2008, Americans spent more than 140 billion dollars on obesity related health care. Why not reap the benefits of investing money in good food, quality nutrition, and exercise, instead of on doctors bills, medications, and bigger clothes! Think of mealtime as an investment in your physical and mental health and not as a costly grocery budget.

TrainWithJess.com

Sneaky Sources of Sugar

Remove hidden corn from your diet. It goes well beyond high fructose corn syrup and processed corn ingredients such as dextrose, corn syrup solids, and corn based sweeteners. Eliminate these products from your diet by removing junk food from your cabinets and become a healthier and leaner you!

The thing is, bread, crackers, salad dressing, ketchup, yogurt—they all contain added sugar, so you may not even realize how much of the sweet stuff you’re consuming.

Check out these sneaky sources of sugar for more info on some of the surprising places you’ll find it!

TrainWithJess.com

 

Lost 33 lbs! AdvoCare and the 24 Day Challenge

See what the 24 Day Challenge is all about!

TrainWithJess.com

50% Reduction…

Having a hard time eating your way to the recommended daily value of fiber?  Fibro-Trim 

Adapted from Prevention Dec 2013

• Assists in the binding, transport and removal of dietary fats
• Helps the body eliminate fatty waste materials
• Helps maintain healthy cholesterol levels already within the normal range
• Provides a feeling of fullness and helps control appetite
• Supports intestinal health and regularity
• Works even better with MNS

If you’re having a hard time dropping weight, a lack of fiber could be your answer. Inquire about AdvoCare’s Fibro-Trim today and find out if this could be an easy solution for you!

TrainWithJess.com

YOGA – Now in Chestertown

● Increase Your Energy & Metabolism 

● Lower Your Blood Pressure

● Gain Flexibility In Your Tight Hamstrings & Shoulders 

Need more reasons to start your YOGA practice today?

NO complicated choreography.  ALL LEVELS WELCOME!

SATURDAYS – 9am @ PhysicallyFIT.com – 321 High St, Chestertown, MD (next to Dunkin’ Donuts)

All you need is a smile and a mat (I even have some extra’s for you) !

See you Saturday, October 5 at 9am!

TrainWithJess.com

Send Your Metabolism Soaring

Make your body a fat-burning furnace!

I said it once and I am going to say it again…

Foods That Send Your Metabolism Soaring

Meals, tips, and recipes that power up your fat-burning engine with every bite!

Turn Up the Burn

A calorie is a calorie, and cutting them is the best way to lose weight, right? Not so fast. New research (well, it’s not new research, it just keeps coming up time and time again) shows that eating certain types of foods can rev your metabolism, curb your appetite, and help you drop more pounds than others. Do you want to eat 800 calories/day of chocolate cookies and feel like crap or 2000+ calories/day of amazing, eat-clean food and have a body like a champion!

When eating-clean, foods are broken down into four types of “active calories”—chewy foods, hearty foods, energizing foods, and warming foods. Here’s how each one encourages your body to burn more calories.

Chewy Foods

(lean meats, nuts, whole fruits and vegetables)

These calories make your body work right from the second you start chewing, literally!  To maximize the chew factor, choose food in its most “whole” state—apples instead of applesauce, for instance. High-protein foods really are your best ally as they take more work to chew, and longer to leave your stomach so you take more time eating—and have more time to register that you are full.

Hearty Foods

(fruits, vegetables, brown rice, whole grains and cereals)

In addition to being chewy, these foods are packed with fiber!  They take up more room in your stomach  (compared to other foods with the same number of calories), and leave less room for second helpings. Foods that take more work to chew make your mouth work harder (ramping calorie burn by 10%) and increasing the thermogenic effect of food, the calorie-burn we get from eating and digesting any given type of food.

Energizing Foods

(coffee, black and green tea, dark chocolate – yes, I threw that in for some of you!)

You can get metabolism-boosting caffeine in coffee and black tea; just be careful not to load them up with milk, cream, or sugar. Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant, so your daily coffee or black tea can boost your metabolism by 5 to 8%—about 80 to 128 calories a day.  Green tea doesn’t have much caffeine but it does contain catechins, an antioxidant that raises resting metabolism by 4% (about 80 calories a day). Dark chocolate contains both catechins and caffeine, but stick to 1 ounce per day to limit fat and calories.

Fat-Burning

Keep your calories to around 1,500 a day and you could lose up to 10 pounds and a few inches in just 4 weeks. But watch where those calories are coming from…you have to eat-clean if you want to start melting the fat away! And if you didn’t get to read the post “Foods That Aid In Digestion,” please read or re-read as the two topics, eating to burn fat and healthy digestion, go hand in hand!

Things to Do with an Extra Hour of Daylight

I might be a little late on this one but I decided to write it anyway…

Turn off the TV, start an outdoor sport, and fire up the grill—Daylight Saving Time will help you jump-start your diet and fitness goals just in time for spring!

 

Spring Ahead

Don’t get grouchy when Daylight Saving Time steals an hour of your sleep this month. An extra 60 minutes of sunlight during your waking hours means more mood-lifting vitamin D, the return of outdoor exercise, and a kick off to the season of gardening, grilling, and kickball games. Make the most of longer evenings by devoting your extra hour to healthy eating and exercise. Here’s how.

Soak Up More Sunlight

Sun exposure increases the body’s natural production of vitamin D, which can strengthen bones, decrease your risk of cancer and autoimmune disease, and help keep your spirits high. In fact, women with low levels of vitamin D are twice as likely to suffer symptoms of depression, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. If you need one more thing to feel good about, research conducted at the University of Minnesota suggests that people with higher levels of vitamin D at the start of a low-calorie diet lose more fat, especially in the abdominal area. Gotta like that one:)

Fire Up the Grill

Olive oil may help lower cholesterol and fight heart disease and cancer, but 2 tablespoons add about 240 calories to your meal. Grilling is a lower-cal way to cook protein because it causes excess fat to drip off. To prevent food from sticking without the help of oil, grill on a clean surface or use a spritz of no-cal cooking spray. Try a 20-minute protein-packed dinner like bison burgers, salmon, shrimp kabobs, i could go on an one…

Plant a Garden

Or get muddy out in the woods on a hike w/Reece and I! Digging, weeding, and trail walking/hiking burns close to 300 calories per hour.  Start planning and get planting – plant your own fruits and veggies to save yourself trips to the store!  If you don’t have space for a garden, don’t forget to explore our local farmers’ market. Find one in your area by visiting localharvest.org.

Turn Off the TV

With winter ending, you no longer have an excuse to hibernate. Instead of slacking on the couch, venture outside.  In a study of more than 50,000 women ages 30 to 55, every 2 hours logged in front of the TV increased the odds of obesity by 23% and the risk of type 2 diabetes by 14%, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 23%, WOW!

I know of some other things to do with an extra hour of daylight but I will leave that for another channel;-)

4 Mistakes You Make in the Gym (#1)

Mistake #1: Being cardio-obsessed

Cardio-Obsessed? Doesn't look like much fun, does it.

Did you miss mistake #2 from yesterday? Get it here. 

When it comes to strength training, your fear of turning into Hulk Hogan is completely unwarranted. Let me repeat: You will NOT turn into Hulk Hogan by lifting weights a few times a week, there is a lot more that goes into it.

The chances that you are that genetically gifted are slim to none. The bottom line is that strength training burns major calories both during and after your workout. We also have to remember how much muscle plays a role in our metabolism in that:

Muscle DOES burn more calories at rest than fat

Muscle DOES give your body the shape you are going after, lifts, and defines

A client of mine, once she started noticing how much stronger she was getting as her muscles became ‘alive’ again, once put it to me this way….”My muscles are like a total body corset!” I think she got it right;-)

How do we fix this mistake: Go heavy! To build muscle, you have to wear it down — and not by doing 100 reps with a 3-pound weight. Incorporate AT LEAST one day of strength training into your routine where you do moves with a weight that is heavy enough that you can only complete 8 to 10 reps per set.

Did you make it to the gym a minimum of 3 times this week?  You still have time…finish the week off strong, remember what you learned this week and stay away from the ‘4 Mistakes You Make in the Gym.’ If you are just tuning in to the TrainWithJess Blog or missed it, get it here!

J~

metabolic effect weight training!

I could not have said this better myself:)  I just stole this from somewhere but it states, short and sweet, what I wrote about in my last blog!

Weight-Train – Cardio alone will not cut it, literally.  Cardio alone may get you bigger or smaller, but you will stay the same ol’ shape– weight training is the #1 way to change the shape of your body.  Besides, there is only so much cardio and calorie-burning you can do in a day (trust me, I used to be the queen of cardio), so why not help out your metabolism by upping the impact with weight-training.  Do Metabolic Effect-style weight-training (rest-based), short-duration and high-intensity, to increase hormones that help burn fat long after your workout is over.

Keep this fresh in your head and dream about it tonight!

J`

Tweak of the Week: Eat More!

We have all heard it…you need to burn more calories than you consume to lose weight. This can be complicated and easily lead to one of the most common weight-loss misconceptions: The less you eat, the more you lose.

This truth does apply to a certain extent — if you eat more calories than your body needs to maintain your weight, you will gain weight. However, if you suddenly drop your caloric intake too low, your body will think you are starving itself and go into survival mode.  Think about it this way…your body, its metabolism, and its fat burning furnace will begin to hibernate like a bear!  If you don’t eat enough, you will sabotage your weight-loss efforts.

A healthy diet generally will NOT tell you to consume less than 1,200 calories, but you will need to find your “magic number” for optimum weight loss. Research suggests that those who consume less than the optimal amount see their resting metabolism plummet by as much as 45%.  I don’t know about you but my workouts are tough and I expect a great deal out of my body to be sacrificing it and its fat burning effectiveness (AKA metabolism).  I am not letting my metabolism drop!

The best way to lose weight is to keep your metabolism firing on all cylinders by eating enough calories and QUALITY calories (a fine example of quality calories can be found in my past blog about 10 Things to Purchase at the Grocery Store This Week ).  You can eat foods that will FUEL your muscles or you can eat junk that will do nothing but slow you down and make you feel tired!  Eating clean, quality foods ensures that you keep your metabolism revved up all day!  Remember and follow these few tips:

Always eat breakfast. I know, I know, I hear it all the time…
“I don’t have time for breakfast!”
“I’m not hungry when I wake up.”
“I can go until lunchtime Jess and save the calories by skipping it, right?”

Wrong! While you are asleep, your metabolism slows down, and it will not turn the “thermostat” back on until you eat something. Eating breakfast is crucial for boosting your metabolism first thing in the morning and burning calories all day long. It does not need to be an extravagant breakfast or even something that you need to sit down and eat.  Grab a protein shake, pre-made/prepared hard boiled whites, string cheese, ostrich stick, a piece of toast with peanut butter or sunflower butter spread on top!  Yum, now I just made myself hungry!  All of these can be taken in the car and eaten while you drive to work!  Be careful driving though:)

Eat more often. That’s right!  Eating every three hours or so will not only keep you from gorging at your next meal because you are starving, but it will also keep your metabolism higher because it takes more energy to digest food. Shoot for eating smaller meals and snacks — yes, you can snack! Eat a meal when it’s meal time (think in the range of 350/400 calories) and eat a snack when you cannot make it to your next meal (think right around the 100 calorie range).  And keep your metabolism fired up all day!

Plan your meals. I am always telling you guys…PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE!  It does take a little work to learn how to plan ahead, but I can assure you, you will get in the groove and that’s when it becomes second nature!  By knowing what and when you are going to eat, you have more energy throughout the day and that is when you will notice amazing changes in your body!

Once you get your body used to a regular, eating clean schedule, you will be on your way to serious weight loss without the starvation associated with it. And going into hibernation like a bear! Grrrrrrr!

What is your favorite, quick, breakfast of the day? (or get ideas from others)

J`