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Are you on of those Super-Mums that does 100 things at the same time? You are up at dawn preparing snack boxes, lunch boxes, gym bags, swim bags, making Breakfast, getting kids ready for school, getting yourself ready for work, planning tonight’s dinner while at the last minute putting on a wash before slamming the door shut. Drive the kids to school, husband to work, getting your self into work where You are the Super Assistant. After running after the boss all day, it’s back in the car, pick kids up, drive your son to hockey, your daughter to ballet. Back home! Dinner time, home work, bathing, night time stories, kids to bed. Cleaning, Washing, ironing, planning the next day…It’s 23.00…..you are exhausted…and in about 7 hours it will start all over again!
The problem with most of us woman (and some men) are that we are very bad at putting ourselves first. But to be honest if We don’t take care of ourselves What use are we going to be to ourselves or our family or anybody else for that matter?As i read in an article You must take care of your own basics needs before you can take care of the needs of others. Quite simple really, right?
And to be honest being busy doesn’t necessarily mean that You are being very productive.
So what can You do? Some people find it very hard to put themselves first, it feels a little bit selfish, but You can at least treat yourself equally with those yo love.
Do you make sure the kids get enough sleep? Well, make sure You get enough sleep too…it doesn’t matter if there is a little bit of dust under the beds and the washing can wait another day.
Do you think it’s important that your kids meet their friends and have a fun social life? Well, You make sure you get to see Your friends sometime as well and make sure You have an existing Social life. It’s been proven that having a Social life decreases the chance of depressions!
Do you insist your kids do some exercise (which I really hope You do, it’s so important to health!) Well, same again, You make sure you go out there and do some Exercises too.By now you all know there is a lot of options for you Mums in Luxembourg:)
Seriously though, it doesn’t have to involve getting to a gym or a class, simply walk out that door and the Options are plenty. Go for a 20 minutes Interval session, Yes, that is the best way to boost the metabolism…Go for a swim, Run with the dog or the neighbour, organise a friendly soccer game or just go for a quick Walk. 20 minutes a day, that is all you need to really improve your health, your immune system, your mood, your pms-problems(if you have them:)) and your future. I have said it before and I am saying it again, Who doesn’t want to live a long life to be there for their family. Well, get out there and Move Your Butt!
But doing exercise is only one part of a healthier life. Getting enough sleep is important and what you eat is equally important to have the Energy you need to be a great super mum. You most likely have heard the saying:You are, What You eat! So true, it’s not even funny:) Eat clean, a lot of fruit and vegetable, good meat, fish and chicken and make sure you eat Every 3 hours minimum!!! And please, please, please don’t skip BREAKFAST!
So what else can you do to relax your life a bit. Well, have a laugh every now and again especially at yourself:) Surround yourself with people that make you happy and don’t drain you. And don’t be afraid to ask for help! If you need 30 min to just clear your thoughts I can most certainly guarantee that your Friend won’t say No, because you wouldn’t right, if they needed you.
Plan fun things, there is nothing better than having something fun to look forward to. And it’s as important to plan nice things to do as it is planning work.
Try to figure out the things or people that drain you and take energy away from you and that aren’t really that important, and get rid or at least minimize the time with that/them.
There is small word that a lot of people don’t use as much as they should…Take note and start using it more often: Learn to say NO! Your Yes should be valuable and only used on the things that are most Important to You.
Look at potential Problems from a different angle, sometimes a problem isn’t as bad as it looks straight on.
Now, don’t go out there and try a new Super Woman tactic and change everything in your life straight away. Most likely that will bring you down eventually. Try small changes and really try to make that a habit before changing the next. This way you are more likely to keep it and make it Your New Improved, Healthier Lifestyle.
Good Luck, Mums, and no matter what, We are still Super Mums but let’s be Healthy, Happy Super Mums instead:)
Jess
A-Vitamins: Red-yellow and dark green vegtables, egg, butter, fish, liver and fish-liver oils, carottes, spinach and persil.
B-Vitamins (all 7-B Vitamins): peas, egg, beans, meat, milk, vegetables, whole-grain, liver, milk products
C-Vitamins: Citrus Fruits, potatoes, white cabbage, peppars, berries, kiwi, tomatoes.
D-Vitamins: Fish, Fish-liver oils, egg yolks and d-Vitmin enriched milk products.
E-Vitamins: Peas, beans, vegtables oils, peanuts, oats, broccoli, soya beans, seeds, egg and graham flour.
Calcium: Milk, milk products, dark-green vegetables, tofu, salmon, nuts, broccoli.
Magnesium: Green vegetables, wholegrain, soya beans, nuts, bitter chocolate.
Iron: Meat, dried fruit, dark-green vegetables, liver, kidney, cacao powder, sea food, nuts, red meat and egg yolk.
Zinc: Meat, Fish, vegetables, wholegrain products, egg, seeds, nuts, mush rooms and oysters.
Get out there and indulge in all the Good Foods,
Have a healthy Day!
Jess
Get ready for the long, cold Winter!
29.10.08So the time has come and Winter is more or less here and with Winter time comes the Darker Days and the colds and flues ( which i just have experienced) start appearing together with tiredness and sometimes depressions. Everything seems harder especially getting up in the morning and the sofa attracts you more and more instead of leaving the warm and nice homes to get out and about. With the lack of energy comes the lack of trying to eat healthier and all this escalates into a bad circle. But have no fear, there are ways to boost you Immune system and ways to feel better so stand up tall and see what You can do to feel better this Winter?
Nutrition:
We have all heard it by now, You are what you Eat! And Yes it is still a Fact! So try to think before you put that piece of chocolate in your mouth because you are hungry and that’s the first thing you saw. Always think about what You are eating and what Good that will do to You and your body?
Make sure you eat clean carbs, protein and good fats. Eat lot’s of fruit and vegetables which are bombed with vitamines and minerals and antioxidants which will boost your Immune system. Try to eat warm food now when it gets colder because that will heat you up and fill you up for longer. Try porridge or an omelette in the morning instead of your sugary cereals or toasts. If you don’t eat breakfast, Now is a great time to start. Try it out and see what a difference it acctually makes to your whole day!
As always Avoid Sugar(which includes white bread, pasta and bisquits), Alcohol and processed foods. They are still No good and don’t have any nutrients. Alcohol can also make you feel depressed!
Exercise:
This is equally Important especially now when Winter is here. It’s easy to stop doing exercise at this time of year and us working in Gym can see a big difference in clientel at winter time. It’s just plain and simple Hard to get out when it’s cold and miserable out there but try not to stop. As i just said Exercise is very Important. When we do exercise we release the hormone Endorfines and that is the hormone that makes us feel Happy and it is the same hormone we release when we stress, have sex or are totally in love. And you know how happy you are then , right:)
We get stronger both mentally and physically and we also Boost the Immune system with regular Exercise. So if you are used to doing exercise, do continue, don’t give up!
If you are new to exercise start off nice and easy so you don’t over do it and get fed up or injured. Remember, Any exercise is better than No exercise.
An other thing that makes us livlier and happier is getting out doors. Wrap up real warm and go out for walks or gather some friends and play touch rugby or some other games or why not set up a little tournament of some kind and Have fun Out doors. You’ll get some fun, some fresh air and the Sun (if it’s out) will give You the all Important Vitamin D which makes your skeleton stronger and again boosts your Immune System. D-Vitamines are also great for the skin, hair and against Depression.
So, no more excuses about Winter. If you take good care of yourself this might be the best Winter Ever:) Eat good, Get outside and Do some Exercise. Why not Try something totally new this winter, get a friend to come along becuase that way You will never have an excuse not to do it.
Be Well and Happy Halloween:)
Jess
Want to try something new, here are our options:
Fitness Boxing classes: WWW.JESSBOXING.COM
Outdoor Functional training: WWW.FORESTFIT.COM
Or why not get a Personal Trainer this Winter: WWW.GETFIT.LU
As you all know We don’t promote Alchole and it is not to be mean and horrible , it’s because it is just NOT good for You. Especially if you are trying to loose bodyfat and maintain high quality training the Alcohole will set you back enormously. Yet again I am not trying to be mean, it’s a Fact.
When you drink alcohole your whole metabolism slows down. Unlike a car which normally only run on one kind of fuel the body has 3 main fuel sources: Carbohydrates which is the main fuel source, fat which is the second choice and protein which helps to repair the muscle tissue after a resistance training and also helps the muscle-growth.
To a certain degree the body uses the fuel source that is available at the time which means it uses what You feed it! So when people go on a diet they still think they can drink alcohole but they choose lower calorie alternatives. Now, if you want fatburning this will not help, alcohole is still alcohole. There was a research done (Posted in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition). “Eight men were given two drinks of vodka and sugar-free lemonade separated by 30 minutes. Each drink contained just under 90 calories. Fat metabolism was measured before and after consumption of the drink. For several hours after drinking the vodka, the whole body lipid oxidation (a measure of how much fat your body is burning) dropped by a massive 73%.”
So what happened? Well, instead of being stored as fat the alcohole converted into a substance called acetate. After the 2 vodkas the blood levels of acetate where 2.5 times higher than normal and it appears that Acetate SLOWS DOWN FATBURNING. So going back to my statement that Your body uses what you feed it, when acetate levels rises, the body will burn acetate and put the fat back in the que as a fuel source, which means You will burn less fat.
When you eat to much carbohydrate the body will convert any excess straight into fat. When the body deals with alchole it’s very similar.
Another reason to avoid alcohole is that alcohole acts as a potent appetizer. This means that if you drink alcohole you tend to eat more, and fattier foods…No wonder restaurants always offer an appetizer before a meal!
Alcohole and sleep deprivation is also a known fact.
If you after reading this STILL choose to booze look at these Calorie-Bombed drinks:
1 glass (250ml) of Red wine: 230 Kcal
1 glass (125ml) Sparkeling White Wine: 115 Kcal
1/2 Pint of Stella Artois/lime: 128 Kcal
1 Long Island Icetea: 230 Kcal
1Pina Colada: 380 Kcal
1 Bacardi Breezer: 182 KCal
1 Margarita: 256 KCal
1 White Russian: 270 Kcal
Think before Drink!
Jess
So I think We have all been there…It’s that time of the Year when all your clothes are suddenly to Tight and You wonder how the heck that happened. And in true fashion the first thing You would do is cutting down on the food or start mad hard training or even worse both at the same time….If You have any of those thoughts in you head then STOP right there…Think about it for a second. When you go on a diet you are acctually breaking down body tissues. You want to loose bodyfat but what happens in a diet is your loosing water and even muscles. Yeah, you might loose a few kilos but is it the right kilos???? On a diet you won’t get a toned body and You won’t feel very well either and worse of all when you start eating normally again, you will put everyhting right back on and often alot more.
Second scenario is You are training very hard and then start cutting down on the food because You feel nothing is happening….Why oh Why..?
A very hard training-body doesn’t Want to loose any fat and will do anything to keep it. So in order to loose BODYFAT you WANT to get the Metabolism-Fire burning to the Max. This is how to do that:
First of all, If you are trainig very hard and you don’t loose any BODYFAT, it’s most likely that you acctually don’t eat enough or secondly you don’t train in the most Effective way.
You HAVE to EAT to be able to BURN!!!!! Eat EVERY 2-3 hours to keep that fire burning inside you.It goes without saying that obviously it has to be the right things you eat: Keep it Clean and Natural and don’t make it hard on yourself. Stay away from alcohole and Refined Sugars, They will SLOW DOWN the metabolism!
Training Wise…for Fatburning, STOP those hour long cardio w/o and stay away from the aerobics classes. Start building MUSCLES! Without Muscle mass You will NOT BURN! You don’t have to go mad now and start building like Arnold Scwarzenegger…Bodyweight Resistance training is enough but don’t be afriad to use DumbBells.For a woman to get Huge with Muscles, it is near enough Impossible. That will take hours in the Gym with HardCore Wieght training for a very long period of time, so don’t be afraid to Push Yourself out of Your Comfort Zone, because that’s when things starts to heat up in your body.
Add on some SHORT but SHARP Intervalls into the schedule and Your Metabolism will really Kick Off .
Seems like alot of work??? Acctually, All You need is 3/Week Resistance Training a 45min and 2-3/Weeks Intervalls a 20-25min and together with EATING regulary the BodyFat will start to Melt off in the Fire of a Great Metabolism!
JESS:)
Nutrition for the majority of the worlds population is becoming a serious problem, not least the busy professional.
Despite the huge amount of advice that is freely available on the subject of good health eating, the dietary habits of the busy professional leave a lot to be desired.
The problem stems from those long busy days at work, where eating becomes an after thought. Breakfast, how often is this missed by you in the morning? Lunch, business lunch at the quality restaurant, over a couple of glasses of wine, OR, stuffing down a deli sandwich at your desk? Evening dinner, a pizza or other fast food fare on your way home, or a hastily eaten microwave meal before going to bed!
And then there is the snacks, the donuts and cakes for a colleagues birthday. The office snack machine always gets raided mid morning and mid afternoon, normally because of a serious blood sugar crash after your poor breakfast or lunch choice!
The nutritional value of all this stuff, equals roughly ZERO!
The problem is your body is a true reflection of what we consume, you know the phrase “You are what you eat!” is absolutely true! So if you eat junk, your whole body is junk, even when you do exercise the nutrients used to repair and grow the tissue in your body, are based on poor quality sources. This increases your chances of illness and injury!
Getting around this problem seems to be a sticking point for many people, however the solution is not as complex as people make out. By sticking to some fairly basic principles of nutrition you can make massive improvements in your overall health.
Eat only fresh and clean produce, this means
* Fresh fruit and vegetables
* Low fat fresh diary produce including eggs
* Fresh lean cuts of meat
* The best quality poultry you can buy
* Fresh water fish and seafood
That’s it!
Avoid all processed foods, i.e. anything that has gone through a manufacturing process to create the “food” that appears on your plate.
Starting today, do this consistently for the next two weeks and I guarantee that you and your body will feel more alive than it has in years! The hardest part is starting, once the habit is developed you’ll be less inclined to go back to the junk.
For a highly effective fat burning workouts done in a fraction of the time of your current workouts, claim your free e-report “How to lose weight even when you are really busy” at http://www.corporateathletehandbook.com/. Tim Goodwin is a fitness professional from Luxembourg, training the busiest individuals to achieve amateur sporting success and a healthier body. Feel free to duplicate this article with the bio and link intact.
Energy leeches are everywhere. Lack of energy is such a common reason for not training by many busy professionals.
You get to mid afternoon and you are running on empty already and it has only been a few hours since lunch and your are tired, irritable and frustrated at your lack of productivity. Going for a workout? Yeah right, your going home to crash on the couch!
Procrastination is the number one reason cited by people for not working out, your low energy levels contribute even more to your procrastination.
Your common energy leeches include, your computer monitor, the constant barrage of phone calls, or your boss giving you stress on the latest deadlines. This sucks you dry leaving you empty and ready for a night in doing nothing but feeling sorry for yourself. When you don’t go and do your workout, you’ll feel even more deflated lowering your energy levels yet further.
But going to do a workout can actually give you energy! “yeah right Tim, now you really are talking rubbish!” Seriously, despite the physical exertion of the workout, or participating in your sport, the
outcome can be a serious injection of positive energy. The body responds very well to physical activity, at certain intensities your body will stimulate the production of endorphins which give you that feel good glow after a particularly tough workout. This in itself becomes addictive.
Also by blocking out the energy drains, reducing the time spent answering the phone, or staring at your computer monitor, AND, promoting the energy boosts, eating the right foods, drinking water regularly and never missing a workout, you’ll quickly be full of energy again.
Jon, a very busy executive from a key multinational firm hated his workouts, at first it was a real struggle to get him in for our appointments. After a few particularly tough workouts I started to see Jon in the gym outside of our pre-arranged sessions. This then developed to almost every day in the gym. When questioned about this, he simply said with a smile “I still hate my workouts, I just love the feeling of finishing!”
This endorphin rush is quite real and can be brought about easily with workouts at high enough intensities. Many workouts I see being performed in the gym are just too slow and ineffective, whats more the low intensity will not give even a hint of the endorphin hit we are looking for, instead we are usually bored, demotivated and are desperately hanging on till the end of your workout.
Doing resistance based workouts with heavy weights for short repetition ranges are the opposite, and for guys gives a testosterone boost as well as the endorphin rush. A workout that utilises large muscle groups, such as squats, deadlift, push ups, rows and lunges will kick off an endorphin rush for both male and female exercisers.
Females fear not the bulky muscles, you don’t have the chemical makeup to achieve this, guys work hard and you’ll lose the gut as well as boost your sporting performances too!
Start today, by getting down to the gym and getting the advice of a trained fitness professional to show you the correct form for these fundamental exercises. I promise you you’ll view your workouts with more energy than ever before!
For a highly effective resistance workout and other time saving exercises, claim your free e-report “How to lose weight even when you are really busy” at http://www.corporateathletehandbook.com/. Tim Goodwin is author of The Corporate Athlete Conditioning Handbook and a fitness professional from Luxembourg, training the busiest individuals to achieve amateur sporting success and a healthier body. Feel free to duplicate this article with the bio and link intact.
What No Gym Train Any Where Any Time
04.06.08Excuses, I have heard them all…
Everything from “my wife didn’t wash my workout clothes” to “my dog ate my trainers”. All used to avoid doing a workout or even starting an exercise plan in the first place. But the one I here the most from the busy professional relates to lack of facilities…
“I travel a lot, so I cannot always get to a gym to do a workout”
My clients know better than to pull this one on me! Yes, lack of facilities does present limitations to your “normal” exercise program. Your travel schedule and location mean access to good quality gym facilities are often limited. Your training will lack consistency and your progress will be slow, especially when you travel every third week, or
a month away at a time!
“There is no gym close to my home or work place”
Most new office buildings are actually making provisions for fitness facilities, even if they are somewhat limited in some cases. As it happens the gym i spend the majority of my time in is based in the basement of a new office complex. A perfect place to fit in a fast workout during lunch, just before or just after work too.
Lack of facilities is not the legitimate excuse you may think it is. You can achieve as good a workout if not a more advanced workout WITHOUT any equipment than if you had a huge gym with every machine you can think of. There are many exercises that can be done outside of the gym environment. In fact you’ll find the use of those fancy, expensive looking machines in the gym is fairly limited, and whilst they are great for those not knowing what to do, they may not be the best use of your training time.
Bodyweight training however is massively underrated as a method of training, yet it is possible to get a superior workout using just your body weight as the resistance. In many situations most gym goers are using external resistance unnecessarily.
For example performing the perfect bodyweight squat, lunge, push up or chin up will give you much more of a workout than any machine you’ll find in the gym. Add some small, inexpensive pieces of equipment such as a stability ball, exercise mat and set of small dumbbells for exercises to be done at home, then your exercise choices are multiplied almost infinitely!
One particularly well travelled client was adamant that it was not possible to get a sweat from bodyweight exercises! 15 minutes in to our first routine she was racing for her water bottle and towel, and we hadn’t even touched a dumbbell…
Packing a simple exercise band, basically a long wide elasticated strip of rubber, into your luggage is a cheap, portable and very effective training tool. You can easily get a full body weight workout done in 30-40 minutes with just this piece of equipment. Squats, Lateral Raises, Rows, pulldowns etc etc can all be performed with the band to increase the resistance. Most of the items i have mentioned here can be picked up for very little money at most good fitness stores.
As you can see the lack of facilities should not be limiting your training program. A little bit of planning and investigating the right exercise for you and you’ll keep you training on track.
For a highly effective resistance workout and other time saving exercises, claim your free e-report “How to lose weight even when you are really busy” at http://www.corporateathletehandbook.com/. Tim Goodwin is author of The Corporate Athlete Conditioning Handbook and a fitness professional from Luxembourg, training the busiest individuals to achieve amateur sporting success and a healthier body. Feel free to duplicate this article with the bio and link intact.
Is Water Your Best Sport Drink
20.04.08From an athletic point of view, being dehydrated can have devastating effects on your performance. Not only does your body slow down but your brain function is reduced, get dizzy, vomiting and an increase in the bodies core temperature.
Now consider that most of the population do not drink enough water, I recently read a statistic that claimed that 1 in 10 people did not drink any water at all! Most of us are relying on other forms of fluids throughout the day, some are more evil than others.
So it is highly likely that you are dehydrated all of the time, to some extent. This effects your concentration, your mood, and your energy levels throughout the day, just like it effects your sporting performance, it massively effects your professional performance too.
The corporate athlete often depends on excessive caffeine fixes, from coffee, teas and so called performance drinks to keep them going throughout the day, just water is just never entertained as an option!
The sodas out of your company snack machine are nothing more than a sugary fix which will just add to your waistline. Step away from these at all costs.
The problem is all these false fluids do not hydrate your body in the same way as plain water, and in many cases cause further dehydration.
To get the best out of your body the solution is really simple and obvious.
- Drink more water! To keep things simple, for every 50lbs of weight you should be drinking a litre of water per day!
- Avoid ALL other types of fluid intake PERIOD.
- Get into a habit of having a full litre and half bottle of water on your desk in the morning and make sure it is finished by lunch, then start again for the afternoon
- And if fat loss is your primary goal, then taking a serious look at your alcohol intake should be your first assignment.
- Drop the alcohol completely from today for 21 days and your body will shed inches like you wouldn’t believe!
Once you are getting the water intake your body needs to function properly, your sporting performances will see an improvement, and you will certainly stay more alert through your normal working day too.
Other benefits of proper water intake include massively improved skin condition, the way your body eliminates waste will be improved. You’ll also stop getting so many headaches and get less digestive problems too.
Whilst drinking water is not so interesting, the benefits are certainly worth the tiny amount of effort of starting today for the next 21 days. I am sure you’ll see the benefits immediately and miss it if you stop again!
_______________________________________________________________
Claim your free “Warm Up” video at http://www.corporateathletehandbook.com/ . Tim Goodwin is author and fitness professional from Luxembourg, training the busiest individuals to achieve amateur sporting success and a healthier body.
Does you scheduler resemble open warfare? There is so much on there it is impossible to see gaps. Fitting in a workout would just not be possible, you’d have to cancel it anyway because meetings always over run, or someone else wants another “quick” meeting!
Whether you are a top executive, middle management or team player, the working day is full of distractions, seemingly “important” appointments and meetings.
Many of us confuse work and “busy work”. Busy work is the answering of phone calls, reading and answering emails, impromptu meetings with your boss or co-workers, that consume so much of your day. As such your days get longer, lunch hours get shorter (or completely consumed), and late night work to finish a project becomes the norm.
The unstructured day drains your energy and is frankly a waste of time. Your training gets missed too frequently, and then dropped altogether. Not only does your sporting ability suffer but your entire “out of work” life too, there is no balance.
Because your sports and fitness training is vital to you, you need to do something about this otherwise weeks and months will pass you by with no structured workouts done.
Solutions to this big problem are everywhere, all sorts of technology solutions are available to better manage your time, but often these tools become even more time consuming to use and ultimately become “busy work” too.
Having tried numerous electronic organisers from Outlook, online calendars, PDAs, phones, etc etc. I have found coming back to a basic paper scheduler to be the most powerful tool.
As a trainer it is impossible for me to see every single client when it suits them, I force them to work their schedule around me, when they realise that this is for THEIR benefit as much as mine, they discover a freedom and opportunity that they had not recognised before!
The following tips for scheduling and planning your work and workouts have been used successfully by some of my busiest clients with great success:
• Plan to check email only twice a day, just before lunch and just before you go home in the evening. Keep it turned off at all others times.
• Arrange and accept meetings only in the morning, maximum of 30 minutes
• Afternoon is for real work, do 50 minute blocks of work, then break for 10.
• Put all this in your scheduler, blocking out portions of the day for this.
• Put in all your workouts for the week 5 or 6 sessions of 20-40 minutes are enough, the morning, lunch and evenings are obvious times. Sacrifices will need to be made though to make this fit.
• Fix your sports specific training in as well, keep the training focussed and goal orientated
As obvious and as simplistic as these suggestions seem, they are extremely effective if you stick to the rules without deviation for 5 weeks. By this point, not only will you become more effective with your planning, your work colleagues will be better “educated” with how you view your precious time and respect the rules you put in place.
Give these rules a try starting immediately, go to your scheduler and be brutal with the marker pen to block out sections of your day for specific actions. Stop the rot of busy work and turn off the phone and email notifier!
Claim back control of your training schedule and make these appointments as big a priority as your work appointments. It is not easy to start with and I wish you luck.
Claim your free “Warm Up” video at http://www.corporateathletehandbook.com/. Tim Goodwin is a fitness professional from Luxembourg, training the busiest individuals to achieve amateur sporting success and a healthier body.
