I get very frustrated with my clients when they tell me they don’t eat breakfast. If you think about it, your body has been in a fast for anywhere from 8-10 hours! That is a long time for your body to go without food.

I hear a lot of “But I am not hungry”, “I just forget”, or “I don’t have time”. The reason you are not feeling hungry is because your metabolism has slowed down. If you make breakfast a more regular thing, I can guarantee  that you will wake up feeling hungry! Set a reminder on your phone or put up a sticky in your kitchen until you make it a habit. If you are short on time, choose something quick and easy, like a protein shake.

One of the very first things I do when I get up is have some type of food. Most days its a protein shake, just because I do my workouts right away in the morning and I need to have some food in my system and protein is the most important.

My body is so used to food right away, I usually feel hungry right after I climb out of bed. Some people might think this is a bad thing, but actually its not. It means that my metabolism is at work and I am burning calories.
What is metabolism and why would we want it to be working?
Metabolism is the amount of energy (calories) your body burns to maintain itself. Whether you are eating, drinking, sleeping, cleaning etc… your body is constantly burning calories to keep you going, and this is what we want to have happen to reach our fat loss goals. When we burn calories, our body looks to food to fuel itself and without proper nutritents, it will begin to eat away at our muscle instead of our fat.

By adding breakfast in the morning, we are giving our bodies a jump start to fat burning and helping it to maintain the muscle we already have. This in turn helps us to burn more calories throughout the day. And isn’t that what we all really want? Of course we do!

Who does not LOVE blueberries? I sure do! If there was any fruit that I could eat any day, any time and any season, it would be blueberries!

Why blueberries? Because they taste so wonderful and are full of antioxidants!

Packed with antioxidants and phytoflavinoids, these berries are also high in potassium and vitamin C, making them the top choice of doctors and nutritionists. Not only can they lower your risk of heart disease and cancer, they are also anti-inflammatory.

“Inflammation is a key driver of all chronic diseases, so blueberries have a host of benefits,” says Ann Kulze, MD, of Charleston, S.C., author of Dr. Ann’s 10-Step Diet, A Simple Plan for Permanent Weight Loss & Lifelong Vitality. When selecting berries, note that the darker they are, the more anti-oxidants they have. “I tell everyone to have a serving (about 1/2 cup) every day,” Dr. Kulze says. “Frozen are just as good as fresh.” Be sure to include lots of other fruits and vegetables in your diet as well. Remember too that, in general, the more color they have, the more antioxidants.

Resource~ WebMD.com

So how do I eat my blueberries?

Blueberry Smoothie: This is my favorite one. I do a smoothie in the afternoon for my afternoon snack! So YUMMY!

* 1 cup soy milk

*1 scoop protein powder

* 1/2 cup blueberries

* ice

*(other additions: plain yogurt, peanut butter, almonds or walnuts)

Cottage Cheese & Blueberries: This is one that I also use as a AM or PM snack.

*1/2 cup blueberries

* 1/2 cup cottage cheese

*1/2 cup plain yogurt (greek yogurt)

*(other additions: peanut butter, almond butter, 1/4 scoop vanilla or chocolate protein powder, ground flax, walnuts)

Cup O’ Blueberries: The easiest and quickest!

Here are some more great reasons to eat blueberries:

Blueberries contain:
- A synergy of multiple nutrients and phytonutrients.
- Polyphenols (anthocyanins, ellagic acid, quercetin, catechins )
- Salicylic acid
- Caratenoids
- Fiber
- Folate
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin E
- Potassium
- Manganese
- Iron
- Riboflavin
- Niacin
- phytoestrogens
- Low calories

Blueberries are one of the most important superfoods. They are small in size but bring huge benefits to your health. “The blueberry combines more powerful disease-fighting antioxidents than any other fruit or vegetable. Just one serving of blueberries provides as many antioxidant protection as 1,733 IU of vitamin E and more prottection than 1,200 miligrams of vitamin C.”

To some people the most amazing benefit of blueberries is their ability to prevent aging. Blueberries help in maintaining healthy skin and reducing the sags and bags brought on by age.

Reference~ Nutrition Facts

Here is what Johnny Bowden, author of 150 Of The Healthiest Foods On Earth has to say about blueberries…

I just spent 5 minutes reading about all the finalists in Craig Ballantyne’s latest Turbulence Training Transformation Contest.

I mean, I feel like these success stories have removed EVERY excuse I could possibly come up with. It’s amazing what these guys and gals accomplished in just 12 weeks.

Makes me feel bad that I dropped out and didn’t try harder. But dang, what tough competition I would have had! I followed Karla for quite some time and she was a huge motivator for me until I fell off the wagon. She truly inspired me though and she looks amazing!!

The finalist’s accomplishments include…

1) “Catherine Beats Fat Loss Plateau By Losing 14 Inches, 14
Pounds, and 5% Body Fat - And She Looks 14 Years Younger!”

2) “Kerry Cuts Cardio and Loses 6 Pounds to Get 6-Pack Abs at Age 51″

3) “Abby Lost 13 Pounds and 5% Body Fat, Fits Into Size 4’s, and is Back to Her High School Weight!”

4) “Karla Got Her Rock-Hard Body and Lost 15.2 Pounds, 6.65% Body  Fat, and 14 Inches While Exercising LESS Than Before”

5) “Mark Burns 6.2 Pounds of Belly Fat and FINALLY Gets Abs”

6) “Barry Finds It is NEVER Too Late to Burn Fat & Regain Health, Losing 11.5 Pounds and 11% Body Fat, While Burning 5.5 inches of DEADLY Fat From His Waist”

7) “Shanda, a Turbulence Training Skeptic, Loses 16.2 lbs, 6.3% body fat, and 17.25 inches in ONLY 12 Weeks”

Cast your vote here: Transformation Contest Voting!

“A New Way of Thinking, Eating and Living to Achieve Your Perfect Weight.”

I had the pleasure of reviewing this book and I cannot express enough how wonderful of a book this is! If you are a true believer in the Law of Attraction and visualization, then this book is for YOU! It is a 255 page book filled with the most effective ways to reach your “Perfect Weight“.

I even found this book useful in other areas of my life as well. I related a lot of what they said to my career, personal life and health! It is definitely a book I will be handing off to and recommending to my clients. If you are stuck in the mindset of not being able to achieve your goals, this book will help you to move beyond all that and start making progress.

Here are some excerpts from a press release about the book…

BREAKTHROUGH PROGRAM EXERCISES THE MIND WITH BODY TO HELP ANYONE ACHIEVE AND MAINTAIN THEIR PERFECT WEIGHT FOR LIFE

‘The Secret’ Teacher Bob Proctor Introduces the LifeSuccess Perfect Weight Program— Offering a Healthy Solution to Millions and Providing a ‘Business in a Box’ Opportunity for Health and Fitness Entrepreneurs

Proctor debunks traditional industry strategies, teaching that achieving the perfect weight is not about counting calories or tracking pounds lost.

“Most people have been conditioned their entire lives to find what they lose And that’s why over 60% of dieters put their weight back on,” notes Proctor ” Your perfect weight is not about this “lost and found” cycle of failure,” he adds. “The work is on the mind and the body; picturing yourself at your perfect weight. With this visualization and learning how to use the power of the mind to release weight, anyone can, and will, achieve their perfect weight for a lifetime.”

“Our goal is to revolutionize the industry,” adds Proctor. “We provide people with what has been eluding them with all of the other programs and fad diets they have tried– their Perfect Weight. We want to help change the global obesity epidemic in the world by changing one mind, one body at a time.”

“Your Perfect Weight is the picture you hold in your mind of the way you really want to be and our program is designed to turn the image in your mind into its physical reality,” said Dodaro.

This is a MUST read for anyone who trying to achieve their perfect weight, or to achieve any goal in their life. It will truly change the way you look at life!

Here is one of the quotes from the book:

“The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Strengthen your desire! Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat.” ~Author Unknown

I had a guest post about exergaming last week, and the received some info on a new site called Zyked. Zyked is all about making exercising more fun and motivational, by adding video game elements such as points systems, skill levels, achievement badges and highscore lists. Looks interesting and motivating!

Have you checked out ExerciseTV lately? You can now download workouts such as Yoga, Slim Down Secrets and Ultimate Sculpt and Tone to your iTunes and workout whenever you want!

Are you feeling sluggish and tired all the time? I used to, but I found this book, Fatique Be Gone and it was amazing. Not only that, but the author Viveca is the sweetest most generous person. She answered all my questions and then some! If you feel like you just can’t get out of that slump of being tired all the time, you have to check out this book!

Do you want to know how food affects your mood? Check out this post by Burn Sports. It all makes sense!

If you have children that are in school and need to take lunches, this is a great site with loads of information. Check out iLunchBox.com for recipes, meal ideas and shopping lists!
America On the Move, which is dedicated to helping Americans improve their health and quality of life, conducted the survey as part of its third-annual STEPtember campaign. STEPtember is America On the Move’s month-long campaign that encourages people to commit to making two small lifestyle changes for a six-week period:

*To take 2,000 more steps (about one mile or 15 minutes of walking)
*To eat 100 fewer calories (about a tablespoon of butter)

You can read more about America On the Move by clicking ==> HERE!

For you fellow twitters out there, have you seen TweetWhatYouEat? It’s like a food diary on twitter! Great way to keep track of your foods if you are tracking foods or even just to look back and see how well or badly you are eating! Check it out, and TweetWhatYouEat!

Happy Sunday!

“Coconut oil is the healthiest oil on earth” says Dr. Bruce Fife, a naturopathic doctor and the author of the book The Healing Miracles of Coconut Oil.

I just pulled out my coconut oil this morning. It has been quite a long time since I last used it and I totally forgot all the benefits that it has along with how yummy of a taste it has with foods. Now, coconut, the food itself, I can’t handle, but I LOVE cooking with my coconut oil. It just adds this great flavor! I also use it when I make my protein muffins for extra added flavor and healthy fast! Another great trick I found is to add it to your coffee in the morning! It not only gives your coffee a sweet taste, but the oil kind of sits on the top and moisturizes your lips too!

Another incredible fact about coconut oil is that even though it is a fat, it actually promotes weight loss!! The reason is again because of the healthy medium chain fatty acids. These fatty acids do not circulate in the bloodstream like other fats, but are sent directly to the liver where they are immediately converted into energy, just like carbohydrates. So the body uses the fat in coconut oil to produce energy, rather than be stored as body fat.

Medium chain fatty acids found in coconut oil also speed up the body’s metabolism burning more calories and promoting weight loss. The weight-loss effects of coconut oil have clearly been demonstrated by many researchers.

-reference from Alternative Healthzine.com

Here are some more health benefits of coconut oil:

• Helps you lose weight, lowers cholesterol
• Reduces your risk of heart disease and other diseases
• Helps those with diabetes, thyroid, chronic fatigue
• Improves Crohn’s, IBS, and other digestive disorders
• Boosts your daily energy
• Rejuvenates your skin, prevents wrinkles

-reference from ghchealth.com

So if you haven’t yet added coconut oil to your diet, now is the time! Look at all the benefits you will gain from using it!

Do you know the 2 biggest reasons men and women stop exercising?

1) Lack of time
2) Lack of motivation

Let’s tackle “Lack of Time” today with 5 ways you can get your workouts done faster. After all, no one should spend more than 50 minutes in the gym.

Here are 5 ways to cut time from your workouts.

a) Supersets

I use “non-competing” superset. This means, choose two exercises for different muscle groups - and preferably completely opposite movements. For example, choose a push and a pull. That way, one muscle group rests while the other works…and you cut the rest time you need between sets.

b) Choose a better warmup strategy

Don’t waste 10 minutes walking on the treadmill. Instead, use a total body circuit of bodyweight exercises as a general warmup, and then move directly into specific warm-up sets for your first two exercises.

c) Pair dumbbell and bodyweight exercises together in your supersets

This saves you time at home (you don’t need to change the dumbbell weight between exercises) and in the gym (you don’t need to fight for 2 sets of dumbbells).

d) Choose Intervals over slow cardio

The latest research shows more weight loss when people use
intervals, and intervals take half as long to do.

e) Limit the use of isolation exercises

Pick multi-muscle exercises, such as squats, pulls, pushes, and
rows. If you have time, you can squeeze in some dropsets for arms and shoulders if you want. However, if you only have 3 sessions of 45 minutes per week, isolation exercises must be the first to go.

In addition, don’t spend more than 10 minutes per week on direct ab training. It’s not efficient and won’t give you rock hard abs alone.

Workout less, live life more!

This is an article from Craig Ballantyne, creator or Turbulence Training. I can not express how amazing this guy AND his workouts are. If there was ever a product that I would recommend and stand by 100%, it would be Craig and his TT workouts.

If you haven’t picked up a copy of Turbulence Training yet, I suggest you do so. You can even try it out for 21 days for less than $5!! Here are some more suggestions about where to start when using the TT workouts:

If you are a beginner, start by reading Dr. Mohr’s nutrition guidelines…eating properly will be the biggest factor in your early success.

Beginners should also start with the Introductory TT workouts to prepare their muscles for the upcoming intense training.

For others, it’s best to start with the Intermediate Level TT workouts. If those aren’t enough of a challenge, you can move onto the Original TT workout and follow the 16-week advanced program right through.

If at any time you need a break, try the TT Bodyweight 4-week plan.

And then finish off with the TT Fusion Fat Loss program followed by the 30-day Maximum Fat Loss program to cap off a full 24 weeks of Advanced TT fat loss workouts.

After that, choose between the TT for Women or TT for Muscle programs to help put the finishing touches on your physique. All of these are included as bonuses with Turbulence Training.