I hear this all the time in fitness ads; New Year, New You! I don’t like it, it sounds rude to me. I doubt you need a new you.

You may want a stronger you, a healthier you or a more energized you but I’m sure you don’t need a completely new you!

What do you like to do in the New Year; start a new eating plan, start a new workout plan, do a Body Cleanse or Detox???

Is it confusing with so many options and you may think you will start, do too much and just quit.

I’ve been in the fitness biz a long time and I know majority of the people I come in contact with will do something, even if they are not totally sure what they are doing.

I just started using and working with Arbonne and their nutritional line. No, it’s not dried foods or 30 day juice plans.

What I can help you with is to get started on a healthy plan that works for you.

Simple Options:

Incorporating Protein Shakes in your meal plan.

Taking a good vitamin.

Multi-layered Ideas:

Get your workout set straight.

Totally change up your diet and get a serious jump start!

Kick it off with a Body Cleanse that is very “normal” and includes eating on a daily basis, every meal, not just an apple and then drink all of this.

I am setting up 1-on-1 (or small group) meetings to help my clients and anyone who wants to get started on the right track. We can discuss your goals and what works best for you.

If you are interested in sitting down with me so you are ready to roll after the holidays let me know ASAP so you are set before Christmas and ready to get your start Dec. 26th!

A little info for you…Arbonne Nutrition Line is plant based, nothing synthetic; Gluten Free and Vegan. It’s a very clean, straight forward line that I love and am happy to share with all of you.

_Happy Holidays_Diana

I just learned of a great new product called a Thermos!

What?
You’ve heard of this gadget before? Are you using it for lunch?

The only thermos I remember is my dad taking one in his lunch or fishing and filling it with coffee. Thanks to my great friend (and nutrition tip expert), Vonda, I now have a better way to pack lunch for my daughter.

To say the least I am neither Betty Crocker, (stop laughing or saying a big “You got that right!” nor I am creative with meals.

For the past many years my daughter has pretty much had the same thing over and over. Turkey or ham sandwich, string cheese, fruit, chips and juice box. Throw in some left over pizza once in a while to mix it up.

The upside of this, she can pack it on her own and does so daily. The downside, I know it’s not the best lunch, I would assume she has to get bored with this and being in the fitness industry I am the mom who should be sending the Gold Star lunches to school!

Vonda told me about packing her kid’s lunch in a thermos. What a brilliant idea! Warm, healthy meals they can take to school. Meals just as good as any they can eat at home.

I told my daughter about this and she was VERY excited! She loves her new gadget and it even has a pop-out spoon to use, which is of course BEYOND!

Here are a few ideas to start with and I am sure you can come up with a few more on your own. If not, use the internet for everything or ask a creative fried like I do:)

Rice Dishes:

Protein Packed Rice: Rice, chopped chicken breast, shelled Edamame.

**I made this for Tay this morning, here are some quick tips.

Boil in a bag or microwave rice, pre-cooked chicken breast from the meat section, steam-able bag of shelled Edamame. It was ready and packed in minutes with leftovers for later.

Fried rice: whole grain rice, salad shrimp (tiny size), scrambled egg, scallions (if they like it) and soy sauce.

**Place cooked rice in a pan, mix in egg and tiny shrimp. The egg will cook as you scramble the rice around. Cook long enough to warm shrimp and cook egg. Add in soy sauce or put in a container on the side so they can add at lunch.

Meatballs and Sauce:

**Cook meatballs from the freezer section or meat counter according to directions. Warm sauce on stove or in microwave. Place meatballs in thermos, top with sauce. If you’d like to add some cooked pasta to this, rotini or bow ties would work great.

Soup: Pick your favorite.

I guess you could put anything left over that needs to stay warm and will fit?? I’m new at this so try it out and see if you can make the Gold Star lunch for your child this week.

Best part….You can do this for yourself and take a great lunch on the go too! Enjoy your lunch!

How are your knees?

Many of my clients over the years have had knee issues, at some point in your workout career or general daily life we will most likely experience knee pain. Often an exercise mat, even folding it in half, doesn’t give them the support they need.

Bang it on a table, too much running, health issues, skiing accident….

Many things can bring knee pain and many times once you have it, it tends to stick around.

One of my clients showed me an article from Sunday’s paper (Chicago Tribune…I think) about a little gadget that can help relieve knee pain when you are doing exercises that require you to put pressure on your knees such as modified push ups, glute presses and spinal balance.

I had her send me the link and these actually look pretty cool. They can be used for anything, not just working out (even though we should all be exercising!!). My first thought was how my knees kill after sitting on our hardwood floors to help my daughter with a project; these can be helpful around the house as well.

They also show a small wedge to help relieve wrist pain when you are doing an exercise that requires pressure on your wrists, push ups, planks, renegade rows…

If you are avoiding certain exercises or not working out at all because of pain check it out.

NO, I have no part of the company (wish I thought of it!) but wanted to pass along the info :)

dodfitness

Here’s to your knee health ~ Cheers!

Motivation comes in many forms. Why do you work, why do you clean, why do you sign up to be on a committee, why do you exercise???

I believe you have to be very honest in why you are doing anything you do. Is it to get ahead in the world, to one-up your neighbor, to be a better parent?? It’s hard to stick with anything if you cannot be true to yourself about why you are doing it.

I honestly have never sat down with someone in the Fitness Biz and heard them say, “I’m tracking my cholesterol and my goal is to drop it 10 points.” Or, “My bone density test came back low so my goal is to do more resistance training and see if I can improve it over the next six months.” Trainers, just like majority of my clients, have a goal to look good…bottom line.

So, why do you exercise or want to start exercising? Maybe for better health, maybe because heart disease runs in your family or maybe to fit into an old pair of jeans. Whatever it is OWN IT! You have to really want something and be honest about why to reach that goal and get it.

I’ll focus on exercise (obviously). It is not easy to stay or get into shape. It takes planning, commitment and hard work on a daily basis.

I believe it can be one of the hardest things to stick with and get the results you want. Not because you can’t, because it takes consistency and honesty to get there. Too many people stop before they even start to see a change.

If you are in this place right now of wanting to be fit or change your diet and you keep “failing” it’s time to be real with yourself. Be honest and figure out why you want it. It can’t be because your neighbor works out or you’re “supposed to” workout. There has to be an end result that you want badly and will commit to get it.

Here’s your starting tips: 1. Figure out why you want to change and DON’T FORGET IT! 2. PLAN! Not for a day or a week but plan out a month of times you can exercise, meals you can prepare and grocery lists. 3. You CANNOT let excuses get in your way. There’s a ton of them and I hear them all.

If you can stick to something for a month and really stick to it, you will start to feel the change and that will become even more motivating than any picture on your refrigerator or any pair of jeans in your closet. Once you feel lean, energized, healthy you will want that feeling forever and you will know you can do it!

Our bodies are funny little machines. If you’ve had 2 good days you cannot celebrate with a meal at your favorite Mexican place. Even a good week can be wrecked by that and then back to square one, disappointment and frustration. Once you FEEL the difference you will learn your time line for you body.

For me, I have to be perfectly on my workouts and diets for at least 7-10 days and then one morning I’ll wake up and WHAM! There are the results. From there on it becomes way easier to turn down pizza for dinner or at least eat 1 slice compared to 3!!

Get motivated, get to the point where you feel the WHAM and you will get it 

What’s most amazing about this video is that I shot it wearing shorts after a beautiful warm run on the lake. I’m now sitting here typing this in long pants and a sweatshirt. If you are in Chicago (or anywhere in the Midwest) you feel my pain! C’mon already with some sun and nice weather.

Anyway… I have a hard time getting myself to do yoga on a regular basis. I enjoy the poses, the stretch it gives me and how it’s made my body feel better in the past. Still, even with the benefits I have a hard time committing to a 90 or even 60 minute class where I am supposed to be quiet and centered. I’d much rather run, punch, kick, lunge and burpee my way through an hour.

I’ve started incorporating some basic yoga into my stretching routine after my runs. I think it really helps relieve my tight muscles more than a traditional sitting on the ground stretch and really helps the hips and lower back.

Use the moves here for a post-run or post-workout stretch. If you would like to do a little more yoga on your own you can also use this series as a workout. Instead of flowing pose to pose do a flow from downward dog-plank-crocodile-upward dog-downward dog between each pose for a longer and more intense yoga session.

Example: Flow - Runner’s lunge - Flow - Runner’s lunge/Warrior I - Flow - Runner’s lunge/Warrior I/Warrior II - Flow….

You build on the series by repeating the move you did before and adding a new one on each time after you move through your flow of down dog to up dog and back to down dog.

Hope this all makes sense.

Have a great week and I hope we get some more sun and warmer days ASAP! Diana

I want to share a success story about one of my campers. I want to share it because her road to finding results was not the smoothest yet she figured it out and is now seeing the changes and enjoying her new understanding of her body and how to make it work for her.

My client has been with me for about a year or more taking boot camp. She faces the same struggles many of my clients do, a busy work life as a teacher, a husband who travels making it hard to get to boot camp on a regular basis and raising a 3 year old.

She was determined to see the pounds drop and the muscles tone up! She tried very hard to get her nutrition down, discussing ideas with me, using the Windy City Boot Camp meal plan, hitting the gym or taking a run when she couldn’t get to camp… Still, she was stuck around the same few pounds up and down. She knew stress was a trigger that threw her eating off track and she didn’t feel well after eating certain things.

This past January she took it one step further. She met with the Dietitian, who had created on our boot camp meal plan, to get a plan that was specific to her. Not only did she get a more specific meal plan but they worked on an action plan to get rid of stressful eating and keep her on track. She cut a few things out of her diet that upset her body and didn’t work well with her, stuck to suggestions the Dietitian made for challenging times, put it together with her workouts and…SUCCESS!! She has broken the cycle of frustration and has it all working for her.

_**Since January she has dropped 15 lbs. and 15.75 inches!! **_Talk about feeling a difference!

Imagine dropping 2 inches off your waist,** 4 inches around your belly button **area, 2.5 from your hips and 2 from each your upper and mid thigh. That is awesome!!

And, once you feel that kind of difference you are only MORE motivated to keep it all going in the right direction.

She did not have an easy road to get these results but she believed in herself, knew she could get it done and just had to keep working at it until she found the perfect combo for her life and body!

When you get frustrated don’t give up, use that energy to figure it out. Try a new plan, a new workout a new path to success and you will get there!!

Great Job Anna P. 