"Here for a Good Time"

This week's Ask Annie question! Please forward any fitness/wellness related questions you have to me and I'll endeavor to answer them with great accuracy and a maximum of witticisms.

"Uggghh, I like to work out and eat healthy, but it's not a huge priority for me. I want to feel great and have energy, but honestly at the end of the day, I am simply too tired to prepare home cooked meals or workout. How do I change this?"

Thanks for your question - it's a doozy! I believe that the best way to correct bad habits is to incorporate good habits, so instead of trying to STOP doing something cold turkey, try adding healthy things into your day to replace them.

Unfortunately, a tough love answer is coming. 

i) You have to DO it! You'll make time now or be forced to make it later when your health is in crisis. Statistics state that the average Canadian spends their last ten years under constant medical care - and this can be prevented. One way or another, your health is going to consume your time. Take control and make it on your terms.

ii)Plan your week: make a food plan/shopping list and exercise schedule. After all, in the time it takes to order a pizza or go through the drive in you can prepare a simple, healthful meal at home, for less money and  countless more health benefits.

iii) Be Accountable!: tell a friend who will support you and encourage you to make these healthy additions stick in your life. 

iv) Document the process: write down how the changes are going - good days and bad. Use the evidence to inspire you to keep up the good work. For example:

"Strength training 1/2 hour tonight. Feel so strong after. Enjoyed a nice hot bath and had the best night sleep! Energized in the morning"

When feeling unmotivated - reread your entries and remind yourself of the benefits you have already reaped from making these positive changes.

In short - no magic bullet to make this happen. You MUST make these changes yourself. Better now than later, trust me!

Good luck! We're here to motivate and inspire you any time you need :)

Find Your CORE!

" I Like Big Butts and I Cannot Lie"

This is the first of the "Ask Annie" blog responses! Send in your burning fitness questions and I will dig through my brain files to get you my expert answer. Thanks for those who have submitted already. This week's question:

"It doesn't matter how much I work out or what I weigh I am always rocking my thighs and butt. What are some good exercises I can do to tone them up and maybe shrink them a bit? Well not the butt just the legs."

Great question!! We often have areas of our body that we want to shape or reduce. Everybody stores fat in different places - some in the lower abdomen (tummy), some in the arms, and many (especially North Americans) store it in the thighs and buttocks. It is common to work hard to target a specific area and become frustrated that we don't get the results we want.
The answer? Unfortunately, just as we cannot command our body to divert our fat stores to aesthetically pleasing parts of the body, we also cannot tell the body where to trim the fat when we exercise. The good news is that there are some ways to enhance the muscle tone in those areas.
Try as you might, you won't be able to burn fat from a specific area on the body. If you run 5K a day, attend Zumba class with regularity, and suffer through tabata intervals 3x a week in an attempt to reduce fat from your legs, you may end up losing a half-inch off your waist instead. This is just the way it is - so when exercising to burn fat, aim for overall calorie burn, regardless of where it happens.
If your goal is to burn fat: According to the Mayo Clinic. one pound of fat is equal to 3.500 calories, which means that you have to burn 3,500 more calories than you eat before you can drop just one pound. Use an online calculator to track how many calories you burn during your daily exercise, then compare that to your approximate daily caloric intake.
Keys to fat loss? Eat clean and follow the food guide for good balanced eating. Get moving, get the heart rate up, make cardio your friend. Stay motivated and don't give up!
You can, however, target these areas and tone and strengthen them, although as mentioned above, they may not get "smaller". They will however get STRONGER, which in the end is better - you can kick any hater's butts!
Try my favourite moves for butt/thigh strengthening :

Good Mornings: emphasizes the gluteals and hamstrings. Hold a barbell on the shoulders in the squat position  Bend forward with back straight and feel the hamstrings and butt stretch. Legs bent or straight (but softened) according to trunk flexibility.
Travelling Squats w/Resistance Band.: To tone your outer thighs, you need to move laterally. Stand with feet hip-width apart and a band tied around your anklies. Step out to the left as far as you can, working against the resistance of the band. Bring right foot to me, than lift left leg out to side as far as you can, keeping torso upright and toes pointed slightly downward.
Repeat above 2-3 sets of 12-15 reps.

Remember, above all, to accept that certain parts of us are just a part of our charm! Exercise, eat well and be happy - cheers to good health!

Find Your CORE!

            

"Courage, it couldn't come at a worse time"

Someone told me last week that I was fearless and crazy. Crazy? Yep! I'll take it. But fearless - far from it.
I fear tonnes, I mean TONNES of things!
For example (things that I fear):
i) bathrooms where the toilet is out of arms reach of the door.
ii) failure. Failure scares me. I'm actually anxious just typing it.
iii) pigeons. Don't ask - they just peck too much.
iv) commitment - I am always terrified I can't follow through and will disappoint. It takes me a long time to trust a friendship/partner etc.. to love me despite my flaws.
v) food group mix ups. I like my vegetables/starches and proteins to remain in their own corner of the plate, no socializing please.
vi) my daughter never knowing how beautiful inside and out she truly is
vii) financial ruin - is money ever not terrifying?
viii) people finding out that I am not what I seem - that this is not my natural hair colour, not my real name, not my...oh no! - I guess the cat's out of the bag :)

But you know, "courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it". So don't let your fear stop you from loving every second of this crazy existence!

Find Your CORE!