Fit Forever with Kathy!

Challenge Your Workout In 2015!

by Kathy Smith

Kathy

4 Tiny Game-Changers To Help You Lose Winter Weight

by Kathy Smith

1. Consider Your Past Habits

You’re sitting on the couch with your friends and family watching television when a bag of salted chips comes your way. You ask yourself, “Should I have one?” You know that each chip is only about 10 calories, and that isn’t much. This is when you need to recall previous times you were in the same situation. Did you eat just one? If you didn’t — and you ate half a bag, which is 600 calories, then the best decision today is to pass the bag to someone else.

2. Detach Mood From Food

Sometimes when you’ve had a really bad/stressful/exhausting/boring day, you arrive home and all you want is to eat a pint of ice cream and a bag of barbecue potato chips. Sound familiar? Sometimes eating is not about hunger. Mood eating is one of the most overwhelming issues for any weight-conscious person. We often turn to comfort foods for reasons other than fuel, and distinguishing the physical need from the emotional need — especially in the heat of the moment — can be one of the hardest things to do. Boredom, loneliness, anger, sadness, anxiety, frustration, and fatigue are all controlling emotions. The key is to strike a balance between knowing what you eat and understanding how you feel.

3. Make Your Home A Healthy Environment

Your environment should support your healthy eating habits. Create a positive energy in your kitchen with how you stock and organize it, just as you create a certain energy in your home with your choice and placement of furniture. Start by doing an inventory of your kitchen, then discard items that don’t fit your healthy lifestyle and may sabotage your weight loss goals.

4.  Go for the gold (and red and green)

I always tell people that the key to grocery shopping in a way that maximizes micronutrients is to stick to the perimeter. A typical supermarket layout has central aisles filled with packaged foods– the cookies, the crackers, the sodas and chips. These are, of course, the foods highest in sugar, trans fats and preservatives – and largely void of any of the micronutrients our bodies are really cravings.

Look to the perimeter, however, and the scene completely changes. Suddenly you’re faced with a rainbow of colors: The stunning scarlet of fresh tomatoes and strawberries. The gorgeous green of kale, spinach, cucumbers and celery. The deep purple hue of eggplants and grapes. The summery orange of tangerines and bell peppers.

When you’re eating vegetables and fruits that are packed with color, you’re filling your body up with disease-fighting plant compounds. If you need a fun way to amp up your veggie intake, turn your eating habits into a little game, and designate each day of the week to a color. Mondays are red, Tuesdays are yellow, Wednesdays are green, and so on. So on Monday, pack a sliced red pepper or grapefruit in your bag to snack on throughout the day.

What little game changers are on your New Year’s Resolution list? Tell me in the comments below.

Here’s to your health!

Kathy

Is Yoga A Good Way To Lose Weight?

The answer might surprise you.

I get asked all the time, “Does yoga help you lose weight?” Well, it all depends on the type of yoga you’re doing. There are slow, fluid classes that are more about stretching, and there are other classes that are more about power, speed and strength. All yoga is beneficial to your health and your mind, but which style you choose will determine how many calories you’ll burn.

If you’re looking to lose weight with yoga, here are 3 reasons why it’s a good idea to start today:

To burn the most calories during yoga, pay attention to the labels! “Vinyasa Flow” classes earn 3 times as many calories than traditional “Hatha” yoga!

It’s a fact — yoga burns calories. To burn the most calories, find a yoga class that focuses on strength, fluidity, flow or power. Typically, these classes will be called “Vinyasa Flow” or “Power Yoga.” When you choose these classes, you’ll not only burn calories, but you’ll also increase your heart rate throughout the class. You can burn up to 597 calories in a Vinyasa Flow class, and only 189 in “Hatha” yoga, a term that describes a class that’s more relaxin and focuses on flexibility.

To reduce your caloric intake throughout the day, take mindfulness off the mat and into your life. 

Research shows that the mindfulness side of yoga has a strong correlation with weight loss. This is because the mindfulness that you practice in yoga is carried on into your daily life. The stillness of being in the moment will help you make healthier decisions throughout the day, especially when you’re faced with a choice like, “Should I have a brownie or should I have some strawberries?” Making decisions like this become easier when you practice yoga, because you’ll learn balance, confidence, and relaxation so you can stay in-the-moment and make decisions that are beneficial to your health.

To burn more calories after class, perform strength-training poses.

Yoga helps develop strength. Some yoga poses require you to hold your own body weight while using your breath. While you’re bearing this weight,  you build muscle in your entire body…from your arms to your core to your calves! As you gain this strength, everyday tasks (like running up a flight of stairs) become a little easier. This increased muscle mass will help you move more efficiently throughout the day, which helps burn extra calories!

Remember, yoga will not only help you lose weight, it will improve your balance, strength, coordination, flexibility, cardiovascular health and physical confidence. It’s a must for anyone suffering from aches, pains or too much tension, or if you’re looking to drop a few pounds. Here’s to your health!

Too Tired To Workout? Try These Proven Ways To Amp Up Energy

The Shortest Path To Happiness

by Kathy Smith

Thanksgiving is more than just a cultural tradition. Practicing gratitude can truly elevate our levels of happiness….in fact, studies show that it makes us 25% happier! Gratitude has the strongest link with mental well-being than any other character trait.

Here are some of my favorite gratitude quotes. Take them with you on a walk, or during the gentle stretching routine below.

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

- John F. Kennedy

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was,’thank you,’ that would suffice."

- Meister Eckhart

"Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all."

- William Faulkner

Kathy

3 Moves To Tone Every Inch

by Kathy Smith

Attention: The holidays are almost here! But don’t sweat it. You still have time to rev up your metabolism if you turn up the volume on your fitness routine today! And that’s why I can’t wait to show you the 3 moves (below) that will tone every inch of your body. So get your light weights ready, and start bumping up your caloric burn and toning from head to toe in order to keep your metabolism intensified 24/7. Let’s get started!

Move 1: Twisting Squat Squat With Rotating Twist

How to do it:

Stand with feet hip distance apart, holding light weights in each hand. Push your hips back until your knees are bent to about a 90-degree angle, pulling weights to the chest. As you rise keep the left foot and hip parallel but pivot on the right toe, turning your whole body to the left. As you pivot on the right toe, squeeze the right glute while bringing the weights overhead toward your left side.

Repetitions: 12 with your right toe pivoting and 12 with your left.

Tips:

Move 2: Rolling Plank Rolling Plank

How to do it:

Start in a modifi ed push-up position with your forearms and feet on the floor. Have your feet about 12 inches apart. Pull the navel in toward the spine and keep it there as you breathe in and out for about 15 seconds. Roll to your right forearm, turning both your feet onto their sides. With your left arm in the air, squeeze the shoulder blades together, opening your chest. Hold this for 15 seconds. Then roll to the left forearm, lifting your right arm into the air. Squeeze the shoulder blades together again and open the chest. Hold for 15 seconds.

Repetitions: 1 in the plank, 1 on right forearm, 1 on left forearm.

Tips:

Move 3: Lunge from 9 to 3 Lung to 9 to 3

How to do it:

Stand with feet together, holding a light weight in each hand. Take a wide step to the right, pressing the weight in your left hand in front of your body at shoulder height. Return to starting position, then lunge to the left, pressing the weight in your right hand in front of your body at shoulder height.

Repetitions: 12 on each side.

Tips:

Kathy

4 Moves For A Total-Body Workout In Less Than 15 Minutes

by Kathy Smith

For flat abs, try:

For strong arms, try:

For a toned butt, try:

For increased flexibility, try:

Kathy

The #1 Overlooked Muscle To Help You Look Slim….Instantly!

by Kathy Smith

If there’s one area of the body most of us overlook, it’s the back. Naturally, we focus on toning the muscles we can see — our abs, legs, arms, chest, and shoulders. People don’t go around saying, “Hey! You’ve got a terrific back!” But in reality, no muscle group deserves more attention.

Think of your body as a house. Long before you start decorating, you’ve got to build a strong foundation; otherwise the structure will cave in. The foundation for your body’s strength comes from your abdominal and lower back muscles. If they’re weak, your body isn’t going to hold up. At that point, the decorating — sculpted arms and shoulders, for instance, won’t matter.

You’re especially prone to weakening your back muscles by spending a lot of time sitting at a desk or driving a car. In those poor-posture-prone positions, your back muscles tend to stretch out. If ignored, they’ll eventually lose strength. However, if you strengthen them, you’ll counter-act the tendency to slouch. You’ll stand tall, look slimmer, and project a confident image. Try out the superman exercise below to help strengthen your upper, middle, and lower back.

 Superman

How to do it:

• Lie face down on the floor. Keep the ribs and pubic bone on the floor, pulling your navel up off the floor.
• Lift your chest off the floor slightly, keeping your core firmly engaged, and extend the left arm and right leg off the floor.
• Return to the starting position, and switch sides.

Strengthening your back muscles in order to improve your posture will help you boost your confidence. Standing tall projects to the world that you feel good about yourself, and it will make you look 10 pounds thinner…not to mention a few years younger! As we age, we need to pay more attention to our posture. By making a conscious effort to stand up straight, you fight the effects of gravity on the body. You’ll look firmer, more toned, and younger.

Medically speaking, perfecting your posture makes sense. Years of slouching can weaken your bones and put a strain on your internal organs. But when the spine is properly aligned, you’ll find you’re breathing more deeply, sitting more comfortably, and walking with more vitality.

Here’s a head-to-toe demonstration of perfect posture:

 Make it happen!
Kathy