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4 Steps for a Successful Fitness Routine
Hey there Diva friends!
I get questions all the time about working out, so I wanted to give you my top 4 tips to being successful!!!
Top 4 workout tips
1) Have a plan. There's nothing worse for a personal trainer than going to the gym and seeing the same people walking on the treadmill for hours at a time days on end....why? Because they NEVER SEE RESULTS. I lied - perhaps there is one worse thing, and that's seeing people either completely avoid the weight rack or go over there an have no idea what they are doing, no concept of form, and no plan on how to reach their goals!!!!
So have a plan. Know the equipment. Be willing to ask questions. Get out of your current routine!!!! If your current routine was working, I have a feeling you wouldn't be reading this post :)
Even if you DO have a plan or a goal like "I want to tone my arms" - do you know the number of reps that are optimal? The weight you should use? The rests you should take? Will you (be honest) push yourself hard enough when you're alone and show up as many times a week as you need to? If you are SUPER self motivated and disciplined then WOOHOO! But for the rest of us that leads me to point #2 :)
2) Get yourself a trainer! This might be long term, or it might be short term to familiarize yourself with proper form, what weights to use, how to create a program that works for you etc....Tell your trainer what your goals are and come up with a plan together.
Even me!
If you can't afford a trainer or, like me, you ARE a trainer and want another option, use at home workout programs! I use Beachbody at home workout programs every day. Why? Because they are effective, planned (so I don't have to train myself!), and there is plenty of variety to keep me interested and challenged. PLUS I don't have to hit the gym when I'm not training clients, I can just get down in my tiny basement and get it done when I have time in my day!
Either way - live training or in home workouts - These are ways you can set goals, see what proper form is, have a set schedule, and reach past your own mental limits!
3) Focus on nutrition. It doesn't matter how awesome your workout program is, if you aren't supporting it with good nutrition you WON'T see results!!! Nutrition is truly 90% of your success. It fuels your brain, your cells, your energy and your muscles! Without the proper nutrition you will feel tired, unmotivated, your muscles won't respond appropriately, and your body composition will stay the same. But WITH nutrition PLUS strength training your fat will burn off, your body composition will become leaner, stronger, more muscular, and you will reach a happy, healthy weight!
4) Don't forget to stretch. No matter who you are, what age you are, or how naturally limber you are, do NOT forget to stretch! Make sure you warm up sufficiently for the excercises you will do, and cool down long enough to bring your heart rate down and get those muscles lengthened back out after you've contracted and pushed them hard!
I hope this helps! If you want set up your FREE 30 minute consultation with me, just comment below or message me with your e-mail. Can't wait to chat more :)
By for now!
Taking the stress out of 21 day fix meal prep...
Hi there Diva friends! I get it....BELIEVE me do I get it. When I decided to hop on board the 21 day fix meal prep train about a year ago, I sat down, looked at the requirements and immediately felt super overwhelmed. I wanted to quit before I got started! I mean, I had a great thing going, I already ate paleo, I was at a healthy weight my workouts were good....
Honestly, if I hadn't had the pressure of the upcoming Beachbody Classic physique competition I probably never would have tried! But I'm glad I did because I've taken bits and pieces of what I learned to use more regularly (aka making tons of veggies over the weekend!), it helped me understand my challengers who go through the 21 day fix program, and it's always good to challenge myself with new things.
All that being said, I'm someone who likes to be efficient, get things done quickly, and enjoy my food. I mean - I LOVE FOOD. So I wanted to share this article on how to make meal prep more enjoyable, so that hopefully you can learn to love it too!
1) Take a Deep Breath
That might sound silly, but like I said - when I started I was super overwhelmed! If you're following a plan like the 21 day fix container system, then take a deep breath and break it down into easy steps. For example, step 1 is to write down at the top of my page how many containers I can have each day. For me that is Plan C which is 1800-1999 calories (by the way I don't encourage anyone to go below that plan!) so it's 5 Green containers, 5 Red (protein), 4 yellow (carb), 3 purple (fruit) 1 orange (seeds) 1 blue (healthy fat) and 5 tsp of oil. Make a tally at the top of your page.
Then I write my meals down like this:
B:
S:
L:
S:
D:
Once I have that outline I can choose my meals and fill in the blanks. I often find it's easier to start with a recipe for dinner and then fill in the gaps afterwards. If pineapple kabobs are for dinner that is 1 red, 1/2 purple and 1/2 green, so I write that down and can fill in the rest of my day accordingly! There are TONS of recipes out there that are "fix approved" and have the container equivalents all figured out for you. But don't be shy about using your favorite recipes and doing your best to guesstimate how it would fit in!
2) Keep it simple but don't get bored
In the beginning you are so overwhelmed that it's easy to just be basic and make one protein, one carb, one veggie all in bulk for the week. I would encourage you not to do that for a few reasons, one being that your body needs more nutritional variety that that would provide, and two if your food doesn't taste good you won't stick with the plan!
*NOTE* Shakeology counts as 1 red, and provides lots of extra nutrients to your day so it's a valuable addition to any meal plan!!!! Plus it taste like a treat, boost your energy, curbs your cravings and provides probiotics (all from whole food, natural sources!)
I would encourage you to make a variety of options for each container and then mix and match within your day! You will end up finding that combinations are really good like sweet potato with chicken and broccoli, or rice with beef and asparagus!
Even within a single container think of fun combos you can make like peppers+onions+mushrooms+spices sautéed in water. That = a green container!
Use lots of spices, seasonings and flavorful ingredients to keep it interesting. Last night my husband and I made a whole chicken, shredded it, added some spices to the bowl so it wouldn't be plain chicken, and then used the chicken carcass to make our favorite homemade bone broth! The bone broth can be used later to cook rice and quinoa more flavorfully, and of COURSE we will drink it too!
3) Be flexible
Anytime you try something new it's really easy to get super dogmatic about it like if you go "off plan" something terrible is going to happen. I'm all about a healthy lifestyle NOT dieting, so PLEASE if you ever meal prep with something as specific as 21 day fix, give yourself some grace! You will go out to eat - make the best choices you can and eyeball it! You will make casseroles for your family that don't allow you to portion everything exactly - do your best and don't stress!!!
21 day fix meal prep and other meal planning structures, are simply here to give you a guideline. It's not a religion, and I promise nothing bad will happen to you if you estimate that cup of blueberries instead of pulling out your purple container!!!! :)
These guidelines are here to get you on track, teach you some basics about nutrition (hello 5 servings of veggies every day!!) and introduce you to tips and tricks that allow you to prep a lot of food over the weekend and save time during the work week!
My lunch from today! 1 Red + 1 Green+ 2 yellow + 1.5tsp
4) Try it and then live your life
This system is NOT forever. If you've never tried it before I would encourage you to use it for about a month! Then I want you to live your life without portion control and calorie counting and simply listen to your body! As long as you are still eating the nutritionally dense, whole, healthy, real foods, you should be fine! This isn't a diet tool that you go off of and gain 10 pounds. There should be no fear associated with dropping the program....it's simple a step to get you started.
Once you've figured it out an gotten used to how it works, the stress is gone and you can bang out a meal plan in no time! Pull it out every once in awhile as needed to get you back on track, and then let it go. Remember, it's a TOOL. Just one of many that you have in your arsenal!
p.s. Play some music and get your hubby or friend to cook with you! An enjoyable atmosphere can make the process way more fun and doing it with someone makes the time go faster! :)
Supplements you should consider....
Hey there Diva friends!
It's so easy when you are trying to be healthy to get overwhelmed by all the supplements available! I need this for my joint pain, this for my brain health, this one for my skin and this one for my belly!!! Trust me, I understand. As someone who is working on balancing my own hormones and recovering from years of damaged gut health from NSAID use and poor eating habits, I pop a handful of supplements every day and don't bat an eye!
But for the average person who is just looking to improve their overall health and doesn't struggle with any chronic or serious conditions, a handful of supplements multiple times a day is not appealing....and the question may arise, "can't I just get what I need from food?"
Yes. And no. Getting nutrition from food is optimal of course and any supplements you take should be of the highest quality and derived from whole food sources whenever possible! My first response to that question however, is that 99% of the American population is not eating a diet healthy enough to come even remotely CLOSE to providing the nutrition they need. Full of homogenized, oxidized vegetable oils, starchy/processed carbs, and sugar, a typical American diet can actually cause malabsorption of the nutrients you DO try to get in. But for arguments sake let's say you've hopped onto the Whole30 or Paleo/Primal bandwagon with me and your daily fare consists of grass-fed meats, pasture raised chicken eggs, fresh veggies, organic fruits, and high quality healthy fats....even THEN it's tough to get what you need for 2 reasons:
Why Take Supplements?
1) You simply don't get enough variety. Let's face it, we are creatures of habit! Unless you are the rare healthy unicorn that tries something new every time you go to the supermarket and you also love to cook creatively (bless you - can you come to my house?!), we typically pick up the same rotation of our favorite vegetables. For example, I eat kale, brussel sprouts, carrots, onions and peppers on the regular....but I hardly ever have rutabaga, parsnips, cassava, swiss chard, or spinach! This can be compounded if you have picky family members or kiddos to consider....So even as healthy as my family tries to be - it's flat out hard to get nutritional variety - at least on the level that you need daily.
2) We aren't just building our health, we are repairing it! Consider that even if you are the model of health in your nutrition choices now, for the first 20-30 years of your life you probably weren't. Most of us were raised (at no fault of our parents) on cereal, PB&J, commercial dairy products, and processed meats.....not to mention the fast food treat (even if it WAS only once a week!). Because of those foods (all processed!) we have given our systems a great load to bear. (For more information on how these foods have affected our overall health and our gut health specifically see my previous post HERE).
For that reason we spend the second half of our lives reversing symptoms, building up our health, healing our guts, and strengthening our brains, organs, skin, guts, and overall wellness. Essentially...catching up! Thankfully our bodies are survival machines that do the best with the building blocks they are given....so why not give them the strongest stone possible to build a wall of health instead of foam bricks or worse...nothing at all?
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For those two main reasons I recommend that everyone take at least 3 supplements daily.
Which supplements are best?
1) Probiotics. Probiotics are KEY! Raise your hand if you have ever been on a round of antibiotics? You need a probiotic. Raise your hand if you have ever taken tylenol, ibuprofen, and NSAID of any kind? You need a probiotic. Raise your hand if you have ever experienced food poisoning, acid reflux, burping, belching, constipation? You need a probiotic. Raise your hand if you have ever taken Tums, or pepto bismol? You need a probiotic!*
* There area few instances where a probiotic could exacerbate an underlying health condition - while less common, if you bloat out after taking a probiotic or eating a fermented food like sauerkraut you may need further testing to rule out some bacterial overgrowth.
Have you ever thought about this before???
WHY? Because all of those things point to an imbalance in your gut microbiome. Your gut is like your second brain - lots of what happens externally or symptomatically in your body starts with your gut! (See my post on gut health here). Taking all those OTC medications can damage your gut lining and if you've ever taken an antibiotic....well....your gut microbiome is NEVER the same. Dramatic? Yes. True? Sadly. Antibiotics wipe out not ONLY the bad bacteria but also the good....and its tough for your body to recover from that. Like I said, it's a survival machine but have you ever come back from antibiotics and experienced side effects like constipation? Now you know why! If and when you need to take antibiotics it's ALWAYS beneficial to take a probiotic at the same time to replenish the good stuff! You can listen to a GREAT podcast on gut microbiome HERE.
For more info on how probiotics work and why you need them read this article here.
2) Digestive Enzymes. Along the same lines as probiotics, digestive enzymes help you have a healthy gut. Enzymes help you break down your food and digest it properly. It makes it easier on your small intestines to then absorb the nutrients properly without causing inflamation and damage to your gut as discussed in my previous blog post! The right digestive enzyme can also help you avoid acid reflux and stomach upset. This is of course assuming you aren't using an enzyme to excuse poor eating habits!
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3) Remember how earlier we mentioned how hard it is to get all the good nutrition in that we need even when we are health nuts? Thats why I recommend everyone have a multivitamin. Preferably one derived from whole foods! A multivitamin is a great tool to cover your bases, make sure you are getting some vitamins in your system daily, even if you happen to get busy and eat the same thing every day in a row for the week ha! Who hasn't been there before?!
Where can I get these supplements?
Well, I could give you a list of highly recommended brands and individual supplements to take in pill form, OR, I could simply recommend Shakeology! Did you know that Shakeology includes probiotics, prebiotics (fiber that supports your probiotics so they can do their job), digestive enzymes AND tons of vitamins and minerals BECAUSE it's made from whole foods?! While kale may be in my diet, yacon root, bilberry juice, and moringa certainly are not! (except that they are because I drink Shakeology every day hehehe)
I'll be honest - as someone who was already on the path of eating whole, real, health conscious foods, a shake didn't appeal to me. But when I did my research I discovered that Shakeology is made from high quality whole food ingredients from around the world. The ingredients are wonderful, and the taste....well....I always say they must be hiding the fairy dust in the ingredient list because it's DELICIOUS. Chocolate vegan is my favorite!
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Many people tell me that at $130/month for Shakeology seems pricey. I would say the quality of your supplements matter. If you purchase 3 high quality supplements you are getting close to the cost of Shakeology without the additional benefits of getting a tasty snack AND dose of quality protein. Health is always an investment - you can pay now for something to improve your health, or you can pay later when you are popping the RXs and hitting the docotors office weekly. Ask me how you can get a monthly discount on Shakeology to make it more affordable!
So to wrap up - if you're looking for better digestion, a healthier gut, and something tasty to get lots of vitamins in your day without chugging a kale smoothie....you DEFINITELY need to try Shakeology. If you have any questions, message me or comment below - but before you leave, I have to mention one more thing!
For $30 above the cost of Shakeology you can ALSO get a full year of streaming access to ALL the Beachbody at home workouts. You heard me - a full year! Click here for all the details. With ANY purchase comes access to my monthly challenges that include meal plans, encouragement, tips, live videos where you can ask me questions, and FUN!!!! We see results -are you ready to jump in yet?!
Order the All Access Pack ($160) here
I love to hear from you! Comment below with questions, takeaways or topics you'd like covered in the future! :)
Bye for now! :) Here's to your health...
3 Steps to Healing your Gut
Hey there Diva friends! Kylene here, enjoying this BEAUTIFUL day and thinking about all the wonderful things I want to share with you in the coming months....but today I'd like to talk about something I'm SUPER passionate about and that's gut health!
Have you ever wondered WHY everyone is suddenly getting food sensitivities, IBS, bloating, indigestion, acid reflux, celiac etc....? Why are autoimmune diseases becoming more and more prominent? Why are imodium, Ex-Lax, gas-x and tums part of every American's medicine cabinet? Why does everyone seem to have a sensitivity to SOMETHING?
Or maybe you haven't wondered...you just think that these things are part of life, aging, eating rich foods and that it's "normal"....
A few years ago I had INTENSE stomach pains. So bad in fact that I had to leave work several times because I would be doubled over on my desk incapable of doing anything productive. I remember one specific instance where I went home and took everything available in the medicine cabinet aka excedrin, pepto bismol, tums, ibuprofin....WHATEVER could help the pain go away. But nothing seemed to work!
This happened enough times that I was pretty concerned and thought "could I have an ulcer?""is it stress?" "What could this be?" I had nowhere near the understanding of nutrition and gut health that I do today, but somewhere in my mind I connected that maybe it had something to do with what I was eating....or rather drinking....so I cut out soda for YEARS. Thankfully after that the pain pretty much went away. That isn't to say that everything ELSE I was eating was healthy....but this is what I have found out. Our bodies are INCREDIBLE at healing themselves... and what I now believe I was struggling with is something called gut permeability. The soda exacerbated my already irritated gut lining, and removing it didn't necessarily HEAL it, but at least it stopped the pain.
What the heck is gut permeability?
So glad you asked :) Gut permeability is the fancy term for what is commonly referred to as "leaky gut". And that my friends is EXACTLY what it sounds like.
See these little guys? These are the little villi, or teeny tiny hairs, that line your small intestine! They are coated by even tinier hairs! These villi keep things moving in your gut - they wave around and protect your gut lining, absorb the nutrients you NEED, and keep the bigger and/or bad particles OUT of your blood stream. But what happens when you have leaky gut? These little guys can't do their job. The hairs get separated or damaged and then particles get into your blood steam that aren't meant to be there!!! Depending on the damage, large particles of food can fall in between the villi into the blood stream or if there is significant damage the particles can even be absorbed through them inappropriately.
This of course causes all sorts of irritation, inflammation and food sensitivities!
What Causes Gut Permeability?
Let me back up here for just a second because I just said that gut permeability can cause food sensitivities....but what do you think causes gut permeability in the first place? You guessed it.... food sensitivities! I'll explain:
Step 1) We eat food that causes irritation. Many foods we have been told are "healthy" are the worst culprits! The biggest reason for that is genetic modification - the "food" is no longer in it's created state and cannot be digested properly (an entirely separate blog post!)
Step 2) That food damages the villi and loosens the tight junctions in the gut, lowering our immune system, allowing food particles into the blood stream that shouldn't be there, and causing symptoms (p.s. symptoms are some of the LAST things to occur NOT the first!) like acid reflux, constipation, indigestion, pain, acne, bloating etc....by the time you feel symptoms, something is going wrong inside!
Step 3) Your gut is inflamed and irritated....because of that, many foods that may normally be fine are now being labeled by your body as irritants! For example: Let's say wheat and dairy (usually the top 2 most common inflammatory foods!) are the actual culprits that started step #1 in your body. Once you are having gut pain, intolerances, belching, etc....your body has probably labeled a few other foods as irritants as well. If at this point you took a food sensitivity test you may be alarmed at the long list of foods that are on it. "Avocado?! Eggs?! No way! I know these aren't bad for me and there's no way I can be sensitive to them" is what you might think. And in most cases you'd be right! The good news is that once your gut is healed many of those foods can be brought right back in with no problem. Foods that are KNOWN gut disrupters remain gone forever.
So how can I heal my gut?
Step 1
Remove the offensive foods. Whether or not you take a blood test to know the full list of irritants, there are many common offenders that everyone can try at home through a simple elimination diet. An elimination diet should last for approximately 1 month (or longer) and means that you eliminate any food that can cause inflammation, gut damage, or sensitivities. After that time you can go through a guided process of reintroducing those foods one by one into your diet to see how you react to them individually.
The most common irritants are grain (all), wheat (specifically) and dairy (depending on the person this can be all dairy or just low quality dairy). A few less common are legumes, nuts and nightshades (like tomatoes). Sugar is also inflammatory and processed sugar should be avoided.
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Step 2
Step 2 is crucial and step 1 and 2 will not be as successful without each other. While you are removing the foods that cause irritation you also need to bring in foods that can soothe, heal, and repair your gut!
My top 3 favorites are: Collagen, Bone Broth, and Gelatin. I love to add Collagen to my Shakeology, drink bone broth like coffee (homemade is the best!) and occasionally I'll make homemade jello from the gelatin! You can find a great Jello recipe HERE.
Fermented foods like Sauerkraut and kombucha are also really beneficial to boost your healthy gut bugs and a high quality probiotic is a good choice. A note on fermented foods and probiotics: If you begin taking these and notice bloating afterwards it may indicate some further bacterial issues and require further testing which leads me to step 3...
Step 3
Be willing to get some testing done, work with a practitioner, or coach that is familiar with the process and can help guide you through the elimination diet. Resources, encouragement, and knowing you are not alone can be invaluable! When I work with my clients sometimes they just need to be HEARD. We can laugh that they aren't crazy, and it makes the process more fun to have someone that can support you every step of the way. It's also great to have access to someone you can email and say "hey - I'm going out to eat is this ok?" or, "I'm really craving this right now - any recipes for me". They also find relief in knowing that I do the work of finding good recipes for them so they don't have to google, guess, and experiment!
Often when you have gut dysfunction you are struggling with several other things like skin issues, fatigue, hormone balance, joint pain, or more....The body is very connected and much of our health begins in the gut....which begins with what we eat! So it's great to work with someone who can guide you, test instead of guessing, encourage you, and help you resolve it from the ROOT cause - not just cover up a symptom!
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