Dear Clients, Friends and Family,
It has been my honor to provide resources, guidance and support on your quest to be your Personal Best throughout 2009 and I look forward to continuing with you on your journey throughout 2010.
I mentioned in my last blog that I was starting to ramp up my nutrition in preparation for a more aggressive nutrition plan to launch in 2010. Let me explain how this started. First, two of our trainers Derrick deLay and Ted Schatz are strict Vegans and have challenged the rest of us to a Vegan diet for one month. So I've been seriously considering and prepping for that. The dairy will be the hard part for me so I haven't made the mental commitment to that yet but we'll see... Secondly, I watched the documentary "Food Inc" this weekend and that furthered my motivation to try this lifestyle and see how my body responds. If you haven't watched the documentary yet, I would encourage you do - maybe even this weekend - and let it be part of your 2010 nutrition and fitness plan launch (ps. You can watch it "On Demand"). If you're local, join us on January 7th at our Vancouver studio when we will show the documentary and then lead a discussion and Q & A afterwards. Call us at 360.574.7292 to reserve your space now.
If you decide to attempt a Vegan diet (or any spectrum of vegetarianism), follow along with my blog where I will post my eating plan and various tidbits to help us along the path.
Another great resource to provide excellent tips on implementing a more vegetarian diet and fabulous recipes is Derrick's website 'Vibrant Vegan'. You can visit his site at http://www.vibrantvegan.com/.
Finally, one of our instructors Karle Wagner sent me the following list and I thought it would be wonderful to share as we ring in the New Year. Here's to the best year ever!
OPTIMAL HEALTH & WELLNESS HANDBOOK 2010
Health:
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants..
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy
5. Make time to pray and/or meditate.
6. Play more games
7. Read more books than you did in 2009 .
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.
Personality:
11. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don't over do. Keep your limits.
14. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need..
18. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with His/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree...
Society:
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. Spend time w/ people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
Life:
32. Do the right thing! (It's the hard thing)
33. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. God/the Universe heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change..
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come..
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank God/the Universe for it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.
Last but not the least:
40. Please Forward this to everyone you care about.
I love you all and wish you the very best new year - full of lots of love, happiness, laughter, peace and your best health ever!
xo
Sherri McMillan
ps. If you are local and would like a little extra guidance, our trainers and nutritionist are here to help you personally. Many people often need a coach overseeing your specific plan and progress. We're also hosting a 10 Week Fat Loss program starting mid January which will provide you extra motivation and tools to ensure you really transform your body and change your whole life! You can get more details at http://www.nwpersonaltraining.com/subs/events/event_details.php?event_id=105
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
It's time for a flush of the system...
Dear clients, friends and family.
I hope you enjoyed a fabulous holiday and are ready to focus on your health and fitness. You're not out of the woods yet - you've still got New Years to enjoy!
But if you're like me, you're ready to start a little flush of the system. Probably lots of toxins and junk in your system so time to get rid of it!
This week, I'm ramping up my water, fruit and vegetable intake. That will help a lot!
Next week, I'm starting a more aggressive nutrition challenge - I'll tell you more about it later. Maybe you'll want to join along with me.
So even though it's not January 1st yet, start taking some healthy action steps today so you'll have the momentum going by next week.
Yours in health and fitness,
Sherri McMillan
I hope you enjoyed a fabulous holiday and are ready to focus on your health and fitness. You're not out of the woods yet - you've still got New Years to enjoy!
But if you're like me, you're ready to start a little flush of the system. Probably lots of toxins and junk in your system so time to get rid of it!
This week, I'm ramping up my water, fruit and vegetable intake. That will help a lot!
Next week, I'm starting a more aggressive nutrition challenge - I'll tell you more about it later. Maybe you'll want to join along with me.
So even though it's not January 1st yet, start taking some healthy action steps today so you'll have the momentum going by next week.
Yours in health and fitness,
Sherri McMillan
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
2 Tips for Looking Hot for the Holidays
Dear clients, friends and family.
Looking and feeling your best is a potent combination of exercise and healthy eating. It always has to include both! So here is your next exercise and nutrition tip to get you Looking Hot for the Holidays.
Nutrition Tip: Part of the problem leading to our epidemic rates of obesity and overweightness is people eating past the point of fullness. This will always lead to energy storage and increased body fat levels! So learning to stop eating when you're full is a big step in the right direction. Use the following hunger scale to help guide you.
The Hunger Scale – Learn to use this scale to rate your hunger and fullness
0 – Ravenous, Primal Hunger. I’m so hungry I could die!
1 – Extremely Hungry, dizzy, shaky, faint
2 – Very hungry, irritable, finding it hard to concentrate
3 – Stomach growling
4 – Hungry but not ravenous
5 - Totally comfortable
6 – Feeling like I ate too much
7 - Stomach is stretched/uncomfortable
8 – Very Full/Stuffed
9 – Very Full and Bloated/Overstuffed
10 – So Full it Hurts, Feels like I’m going to explode, Feel sick to my stomach
LEVELS 0-2: Signifies ravenous hunger. This is when you are most likely to overeat. Avoid this stage!
LEVELS 3-4: These are the best times to eat. Your body is saying that it needs food.
LEVELS 5-10: Starting to eat at these levels indicates emotional, not physical hunger.
Eating until you reach level 6 and higher may indicate that you've lost touch with your physical hunger.
Exercise Tip: Incorporate Interval Training into your Workouts. Here's why.
The benefits of higher intensity exercise are as follows:
*Expends more calories per minute
*More efficient – burns more calories in less time
*Most effective method for improving fitness conditioning
*Most effective method for raising anaerobic threshold. Your anaerobic threshold is the stage of exercise where you feel very tired and feel the need to either stop or slow down. You may feel dizzy or nauseous if you stay at this level too long. By incorporating higher intensity activity into your exercise workouts, you raise your anaerobic threshold. This means that you can exercise at a higher intensity before you start to experience those uncomfortable sensations.
*Most effective method for inducing training adaptations. Incorporating this type of training into your program will enable your body to handle the higher intensities more easily. You will find that intensities that used to leave you breathless and fatigued, no longer challenge you anymore. Soon, you will be able to expend more calories per minute compared to when you first started exercise. When people first initiate an exercise program, a comfortable calorie burning level is approximately 5cal/min. Elite athletes can expend more than 20cal/min and sustain it for over 2 hours! As a result, it takes them a lot less time to burn one pound of fat.
*Most effective method for increasing fat mobilization. This means that as you get fitter, you actually get better at burning fat. Inside of your fat cells, you have enzymes called hormone sensitive lipase and lipoprotein lipase. Hormone sensitive lipase, the "good guys", are responsible for releasing fat from a fall cell to be used for energy. Lipoprotein lipase, the "bad guys", are responsible for the uptake of fat from the blood stream into fat cells to be stored. Lipoprotein lipase functions to develop our unwanted bulges. If you have lived a sedentary lifestyle and have eaten a poor diet all your life, you will have a lot of the "bad guys" and they will be very good at their job. You will have fewer "good guys" and they will not be so competent with their responsibilities. The goal is to get more good guys doing their job. But changing the internal chemistry inside of your fat cells may take years. So in the beginning you may not be experiencing results as quickly as you want because you body is actually working against you. But with consistency in your training program, your body will soon start to work for you. Soon you will have increased your ability to mobilize and use fat as a fuel. Training in a high intensity zone will make you fit quick and enable you to enjoy this wonderful training benefit. Soon you will be burning more fat during and after exercise. You will become a fat burning machine!
*Experience a higher EPOC (excess post oxygen consumption). Have you ever wondered why you continue to breathe heavy and sweat after your workout is done? Why doesn't your breathing and body temperature go back to normal immediately? After exercise you consume a greater amount of oxygen to assist your body in recovering from the stress of the workout and the demands it placed on your body. It is important to know that EPOC uses fat as its fuel. At higher intensities, your EPOC is greater translating into a greater caloric and fat expenditure post activity. Although the effects of EPOC are small, if you expended an additional 100 calories post exercise as a result of a high intensity exercise session, within 100 workouts (5 months), you would have burned an extra 10,000 calories or 3 pounds of fat!
*Intervals are the best way to add intensity to a workout by adding brief, high-energy outputs followed by active recovery phases which will avoid fatigue and injury.
Yours in health and fitness,
Sherri McMillan
Looking and feeling your best is a potent combination of exercise and healthy eating. It always has to include both! So here is your next exercise and nutrition tip to get you Looking Hot for the Holidays.
Nutrition Tip: Part of the problem leading to our epidemic rates of obesity and overweightness is people eating past the point of fullness. This will always lead to energy storage and increased body fat levels! So learning to stop eating when you're full is a big step in the right direction. Use the following hunger scale to help guide you.
The Hunger Scale – Learn to use this scale to rate your hunger and fullness
0 – Ravenous, Primal Hunger. I’m so hungry I could die!
1 – Extremely Hungry, dizzy, shaky, faint
2 – Very hungry, irritable, finding it hard to concentrate
3 – Stomach growling
4 – Hungry but not ravenous
5 - Totally comfortable
6 – Feeling like I ate too much
7 - Stomach is stretched/uncomfortable
8 – Very Full/Stuffed
9 – Very Full and Bloated/Overstuffed
10 – So Full it Hurts, Feels like I’m going to explode, Feel sick to my stomach
LEVELS 0-2: Signifies ravenous hunger. This is when you are most likely to overeat. Avoid this stage!
LEVELS 3-4: These are the best times to eat. Your body is saying that it needs food.
LEVELS 5-10: Starting to eat at these levels indicates emotional, not physical hunger.
Eating until you reach level 6 and higher may indicate that you've lost touch with your physical hunger.
Exercise Tip: Incorporate Interval Training into your Workouts. Here's why.
The benefits of higher intensity exercise are as follows:
*Expends more calories per minute
*More efficient – burns more calories in less time
*Most effective method for improving fitness conditioning
*Most effective method for raising anaerobic threshold. Your anaerobic threshold is the stage of exercise where you feel very tired and feel the need to either stop or slow down. You may feel dizzy or nauseous if you stay at this level too long. By incorporating higher intensity activity into your exercise workouts, you raise your anaerobic threshold. This means that you can exercise at a higher intensity before you start to experience those uncomfortable sensations.
*Most effective method for inducing training adaptations. Incorporating this type of training into your program will enable your body to handle the higher intensities more easily. You will find that intensities that used to leave you breathless and fatigued, no longer challenge you anymore. Soon, you will be able to expend more calories per minute compared to when you first started exercise. When people first initiate an exercise program, a comfortable calorie burning level is approximately 5cal/min. Elite athletes can expend more than 20cal/min and sustain it for over 2 hours! As a result, it takes them a lot less time to burn one pound of fat.
*Most effective method for increasing fat mobilization. This means that as you get fitter, you actually get better at burning fat. Inside of your fat cells, you have enzymes called hormone sensitive lipase and lipoprotein lipase. Hormone sensitive lipase, the "good guys", are responsible for releasing fat from a fall cell to be used for energy. Lipoprotein lipase, the "bad guys", are responsible for the uptake of fat from the blood stream into fat cells to be stored. Lipoprotein lipase functions to develop our unwanted bulges. If you have lived a sedentary lifestyle and have eaten a poor diet all your life, you will have a lot of the "bad guys" and they will be very good at their job. You will have fewer "good guys" and they will not be so competent with their responsibilities. The goal is to get more good guys doing their job. But changing the internal chemistry inside of your fat cells may take years. So in the beginning you may not be experiencing results as quickly as you want because you body is actually working against you. But with consistency in your training program, your body will soon start to work for you. Soon you will have increased your ability to mobilize and use fat as a fuel. Training in a high intensity zone will make you fit quick and enable you to enjoy this wonderful training benefit. Soon you will be burning more fat during and after exercise. You will become a fat burning machine!
*Experience a higher EPOC (excess post oxygen consumption). Have you ever wondered why you continue to breathe heavy and sweat after your workout is done? Why doesn't your breathing and body temperature go back to normal immediately? After exercise you consume a greater amount of oxygen to assist your body in recovering from the stress of the workout and the demands it placed on your body. It is important to know that EPOC uses fat as its fuel. At higher intensities, your EPOC is greater translating into a greater caloric and fat expenditure post activity. Although the effects of EPOC are small, if you expended an additional 100 calories post exercise as a result of a high intensity exercise session, within 100 workouts (5 months), you would have burned an extra 10,000 calories or 3 pounds of fat!
*Intervals are the best way to add intensity to a workout by adding brief, high-energy outputs followed by active recovery phases which will avoid fatigue and injury.
Yours in health and fitness,
Sherri McMillan
Monday, December 7, 2009
Sometimes you need a little 'bad' to get the 'good'...
Dear clients, friends and family,
I hope you've been enjoying the Holiday season so far. Here's my two quick and easy tips to keep you on the path of looking and feeling your best.
Nutrition Tip: I'm a big believer in doing whatever it takes to get you to eat your fruits and veggies - they are that important! I use this technique with my kids too. Envious friends are always asking how I get my kids to eat so many fruits and veggies. Well, sometimes, you've got to add some 'bad' to get them to crave the 'good'. For example, cheese melted over broccoli, celery with cream cheese, salt sprinkled on cut peppers, fruit with yogurt and granola, apples with caramel, carrots and ranch dip etc. Try this approach and watch your fruit and veggie intake increase dramatically!
Exercise Tip: Invest in the right gear. If it's cold and rainy, it doesn't matter if you've got the right clothing that keeps you dry and warm. You never want the weather to get you out of your routine - especially in the northwest when the weather is so unpredictable. Fortunately, there's lots of great specials right now. Plus you can always put your needs on your Holiday Wish-list!
Yours in Health and Fitness,
Sherri McMillan
I hope you've been enjoying the Holiday season so far. Here's my two quick and easy tips to keep you on the path of looking and feeling your best.
Nutrition Tip: I'm a big believer in doing whatever it takes to get you to eat your fruits and veggies - they are that important! I use this technique with my kids too. Envious friends are always asking how I get my kids to eat so many fruits and veggies. Well, sometimes, you've got to add some 'bad' to get them to crave the 'good'. For example, cheese melted over broccoli, celery with cream cheese, salt sprinkled on cut peppers, fruit with yogurt and granola, apples with caramel, carrots and ranch dip etc. Try this approach and watch your fruit and veggie intake increase dramatically!
Exercise Tip: Invest in the right gear. If it's cold and rainy, it doesn't matter if you've got the right clothing that keeps you dry and warm. You never want the weather to get you out of your routine - especially in the northwest when the weather is so unpredictable. Fortunately, there's lots of great specials right now. Plus you can always put your needs on your Holiday Wish-list!
Yours in Health and Fitness,
Sherri McMillan
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
If you're busy but still want to look and feel your best, you've got to read this...
Clients, Friends and Family.
I was just reading this great article that I wanted to pass onto you. This counts for your Exercise Tip for the Day - it's actually full of great tips!
http://health.msn.com/blogs/second-opinions-post.aspx?post=1383814
Nutrition Tip for the Day: When you are super busy, try to eat something quick and easy so you don't go too long without eating anything. Because when you do that, we all know what happens! Your healthy eating plan goes out the window! Here's some On-the-Go ideas for even the most time-starved individuals.
*low-fat yogurt, granola and fruit
*raw vegetables and yogurt dip
*fruit and yogurt dip
*Powerbar or Harvest crunch bar
*Rice Cakes and hummus
*glass of juice or milk
*hard boiled egg
*low-fat crackers and cheese
*a couple fig bars
Yours in health and fitness,
Sherri McMillan
I was just reading this great article that I wanted to pass onto you. This counts for your Exercise Tip for the Day - it's actually full of great tips!
http://health.msn.com/blogs/second-opinions-post.aspx?post=1383814
Nutrition Tip for the Day: When you are super busy, try to eat something quick and easy so you don't go too long without eating anything. Because when you do that, we all know what happens! Your healthy eating plan goes out the window! Here's some On-the-Go ideas for even the most time-starved individuals.
*low-fat yogurt, granola and fruit
*raw vegetables and yogurt dip
*fruit and yogurt dip
*Powerbar or Harvest crunch bar
*Rice Cakes and hummus
*glass of juice or milk
*hard boiled egg
*low-fat crackers and cheese
*a couple fig bars
Yours in health and fitness,
Sherri McMillan
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
I've got a little rhyme for you...
Who says you have to wait until January 1st to transform your body and achieve your goals?!
Start today - Think of this little rhyme...
One positive step here,
One little action there,
That's gonna be your Bikini next year! :)
Exercise Tip for Today: Variety is key. Try a class you've never tried before. Consult with a trainer. Sign up for a new program. Register for an adventure. Do something that gets you out of your comfort zone to shake things up a bit and stimulate your body to respond positively!
Nutrition Tip for Today: Holiday parties are starting up. Pigging out on chocolates, cookies and cakes and drinking till you see three of everything is enough to make you feel like you’ve been hit by a truck! It’s perfectly okay to indulge a little over the holidays but you’ve still got to keep your health and fitness goals in check. Instead of forbidding any treats over the holidays rather, focus on drinking 8 glasses of water, consuming 5 vegetables and 3 fruits every day, eat breakfast, and consume 5 small meals/snacks each day. If you’ve still got room for your favorite Christmas cookie, go for it. But eat them slowly and really enjoy the taste. At parties you may find yourself eating a lot later than usual. Try to eat something small earlier and then at the party you’ll be less likely to overeat right before bed. And fill up on veggies at the party first - then you'll be less likely to eat everything in sight!
Yours in health and fitness,
Sherri McMillan
Start today - Think of this little rhyme...
One positive step here,
One little action there,
That's gonna be your Bikini next year! :)
Exercise Tip for Today: Variety is key. Try a class you've never tried before. Consult with a trainer. Sign up for a new program. Register for an adventure. Do something that gets you out of your comfort zone to shake things up a bit and stimulate your body to respond positively!
Nutrition Tip for Today: Holiday parties are starting up. Pigging out on chocolates, cookies and cakes and drinking till you see three of everything is enough to make you feel like you’ve been hit by a truck! It’s perfectly okay to indulge a little over the holidays but you’ve still got to keep your health and fitness goals in check. Instead of forbidding any treats over the holidays rather, focus on drinking 8 glasses of water, consuming 5 vegetables and 3 fruits every day, eat breakfast, and consume 5 small meals/snacks each day. If you’ve still got room for your favorite Christmas cookie, go for it. But eat them slowly and really enjoy the taste. At parties you may find yourself eating a lot later than usual. Try to eat something small earlier and then at the party you’ll be less likely to overeat right before bed. And fill up on veggies at the party first - then you'll be less likely to eat everything in sight!
Yours in health and fitness,
Sherri McMillan
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