Many of us had to cancel our vacation plans last year and again this year due to Covid. It has been frustrating for most of us who are stuck at home, not being able to visit family or friends during the lockdown. Some have experienced tighter restrictions than others depending on their state or country.

Being overweight in the summer heat is no fun. And exposing a fat stomach or fat thighs isn’t exactly pleasant when everyone else around you is wearing gnat-sized beachwear and drizzling oil onto wasp-like abdomens. In fact, for people carrying excess weight, summer can be an unpleasant trial involving countless opportunities for embarrassment and discomfort. So let’s take a look at how you can reduce some of your fat and make next summer a happier experience. But first, a warning.

Does the idea of eating healthier make you panic? Is your first thought that you need to buy special food and completely change your lifestyle? Does the idea of “eating better” piss you off even a smidge? Well, here are seven tips you can incorporate today without ever setting foot in the grocery store or cracking open a cookbook.

You may have heard about the glycemic index and wondered what it is all about. The glycemic index is a ranking of carbohydrates based on their immediate effect on blood glucose (blood sugar) levels. It compares foods gram for gram of carbohydrate. Carbohydrates that breakdown quickly during digestion have the highest glycemic indexes. The blood glucose response is fast and high. Carbohydrates that break down slowly, releasing glucose gradually into the bloodstream, have low glycemic indexes.

It is the belief of most parents that children are eating a relatively healthy diet, but if not, they throw up their hands and give up. Children are then plied with multivitamins. Though this is not a bad thing to do, many children think they are candy especially now that they come in gummy candy, gumballs, and cute animal and cartoon characters.

The secret to shrinking your body is strength training. Many women shy away from lifting
weights because they are afraid that they will bulk up and they’ve bought into the myth that
cardio is the key to weight loss. The fact is, for most women, bulking up is virtually impossible.
And though cardio is essential for good heart health, strength training delivers a whole lot
more bang for your exercise effort.

One common misconception that people have regarding exercise is that performing it on a regular basis will prevent them from developing any health problems. When you exercise, your body uses its nutrients to fuel the energy necessary to perform the exercise. Depending on the intensity of your workout and the amount of nutrients in your body, you can actually put yourself at risk for nutrient deficiency, which can result in infections. This is especially true for athletes during training.

My wife Shanna recently got allergy tested after complaining of not feeling good. This had been going on for years but she finally got around to investigating the problem and discovered that she is allergic to 16 out of the 20 most common food allergies! This explains why she has been feeling bloated as her body has been dealing with so much inflammation for years. It was time to clean up her diet and eliminate the foods that are causing the inflammation. This weeks topic covers Clean Eating: Athletes are doing it, celebs are doing it, dogs are doing it, and the cavemen
did it.

WooHoo, Christmas is almost here! And if you’re anything like I used to be, the first thing you cut when you’re feeling time-pressured is exercise. I don’t need to tell you all the reasons why exercise is important because if you’re reading this blog you already know them. But here’s what you may forget … if you suddenly stop exercising because you get too busy, you have a 57% chance of not starting up again for a very long time. That’s a recipe for
disaster when it comes to your weight loss plans for 2021.

As a basis for meals and menu planning, refer to the pyramid information mentioned earlier to make sure you have the basic food requirements met for all family members. Then cross check and plan by looking over basic food categories to target healthy foods to fit the lifestyles and health of everyone. For example, if someone has depression, add some foods mentioned above to his or her dietary plans that aid in the healing and prevention of depression.

In last week’s blog, 5 Mental Barriers that May Be Blocking You From Losing Weight, I discussed the
most common mental struggles that my coaching clients all have in common.
This week, let’s look at the physical barriers that are keeping you from losing weight.

Mindful eating is a powerful thing! Unfortunately, mindless eating is the norm.
We’ve all done it … eaten something on the run without taking the time to enjoy it or even
consciously realize that we are eating.

HIIT has gotten a lot of publicity recently. That’s probably because high-intensity interval
training burns more calories in fifteen minutes than an hour jogging on the treadmill. It boosts
your metabolism like nothing else and keeps you burning calories for hours.

Good nutrition is the foundation for our health and quality of life. What you eat affects how you feel and translates directly to how much energy you have to perform optimally. As an athlete, you need to be consuming the right amount of quality calories to power your body for hard training. If you eat junk then don’t expect good things to come out as a result. You also need to be eating the right amount and quality of protein after an intense training session to ensure that the body can repair the muscle damage caused and allow the body to adapt and become stronger. This is determined by a number of factors such as your age and gender, your sport, and how hard your train. The timing of when you are eating also affects your performance. Restricting fuel just before or after training can lead to poor performance and recovery whereas fueling before, during, and after training is good practice followed by successful athletes.

I was saddened to learn of the passing of Chadwick Boseman this week to colon cancer at only 43 years old. Colon Cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and rates are rising in younger people. Early screening is strongly recommended especially if you have a family history of colon cancer or inflammatory bowel disease. A healthy colon is a vital part of a healthy body.  The colon, along with the small and large intestines, are a major area where the nutrients in food are absorbed.  If the colon is not clean, it cannot fulfill this important task.  Not only that, but the impacted fecal material that builds up in the colon and intestines also releases toxins into the bloodstream.  You are in effect getting toxins instead of nutrients – not a very good trade.

Our bodies use sleep to repair and strengthen our muscles, joints and other parts that get tired and damaged through use and exertion during waking hours. This restorative process uses energy to rebuild lean muscle mass and to help rebuild other kinds of body tissue. That is worth repeating — this rebuilding process uses energy — and if the rebuilding process is running smoothly and efficiently, that energy comes from places in our body where energy is stored — from fat.

We all know by now that we should be eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. But knowing and doing are two different things, aren’t they? Sometimes it is just not easy to get them all in there. We are constantly tempted to fill up on convenience and junk food. If your family is anything like mine, they’d much rather fill up on a bag of chips or a bowl of rice or pasta instead of trying an apple or a plate of steamed broccoli. So we’ll have to get creative. Here are a few ideas to “sneak” some extra vegetables and fruits in your family’s diet.

When you’re stressed out, the foods that you’re turning to are most likely going to be traditional ‘comfort’ foods – think big meals, take-out, fatty foods, sweet foods, and alcohol. Let’s face it – we’ve all found some comfort in a tasty meal and a bottle of beer or glass of wine when we’ve been stressed out or upset about something. However, this isn’t a good permanent solution.

Extensive clinical and statistical studies have identified several factors that increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. These risk factors can be grouped into two classifications: 1) major risk factors and 2) contributing risk factors.

VO2 is the volume of oxygen measured over time and is typically expressed in ml/kg/min relative to body weight. VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen utilized by the body in one minute during exercise. It is one of many tests used to determine an athletes cardiovascular fitness and performance capacity.

Happy New Year! This is the time when many people like to start over and try to change their behaviors for the better. Unfortunately the majority who attempt fail and the rest don’t even make the effort.

As much as 92% of people fail to achieve their New Years resolutions according to one study from The University of Scranton. The most common New Year resolutions based on a recent Harris poll are

Endurance sports typically refers to running, cycling or swimming events lasting an hour or longer. Or all three combined as in triathlon events which has become very popular in the 40 plus age group. Rowing and Cross country skiing are other examples of endurance sports that require a high level of cardiovascular conditioning and aerobic endurance to be successful. It involves the aerobic energy system rather than anaerobic and it burns predominately fats as the primary fuel which require more oxygen to burn. It can be general endurance or specific endurance in relation to a particular sport. Endurance athletes typically have high VO2 max levels as they have conditioned their cardiovascular system to absorb and utilize oxygen at a higher rate than most and developed their aerobic metabolism to a high level which allows them to fuel their muscles for longer without stopping.

There are so many challenges today in the lives of teens such as struggling with procrastination, stress, low self esteem, digestive issues due to stress, poor body image, inability to focus effectively, anxiety, poor sleep habits, poor eating habits, social anxiety, test anxiety; and many teens suffer from most of these to some degree.

While we know bad moods can lead to bad eating habits; it’s also true that bad eating habits can lead to bad moods.

Food can impact our moods because of two factors. First, the nutrients are the building blocks for everything in our body, including mood-regulating “neurotransmitters.” Second, what we eat affects our blood sugar levels, which also impact our moods.

There is a list of common healthy foods that have positive impacts on our mood. But some junky ones make us feel better sometimes too. Once we see this is as temporary (industry engineers processed food is designed to hit those “pleasure centers”), we can ditch those.

Plus, I have a super-easy dessert or snack recipe for you too. Especially if you crave the mood boost from sweets.

Ever heard conflicting information on the healthfulness of different fats? Olive oil; coconut oil; soybean oil; etc.?

Well, I have some clarifying information in my newest post.

In this post, I list out my favorite cooking fats. I also give you my full permission to ditch a few of the popular but oh-so unhealthy fats.

And, I give you a healthy (and delicious) recipe for an all too common source of cruddy fats. You can make it a health-booster, rather than buster!

Salt: The Delicious Health-Buster (And What to Use Instead)

If you (or someone you know) has ever been told to “eat less salt,” or go on a “low sodium” diet, what does that mean? And how much sodium is actually in salt?

I can tell you right now that cutting down on the salt you sprinkle from your salt shaker probably isn’t going to have the effect you think. The problem is rarely the salt on your table. The problem, well 75% of the problem, is the salt that’s already in the food you eat.

I was surprised to read the statistics about where people’s salt intake was coming from. You may be surprised too.

I explain it all in today’s post. And I have created a low-sodium spice mix recipe for you to try out.

Keto this and keto that. What does this new (and very popular) dietary craze mean?

It’s high fat and ultra low carb. It tells your body to burn fat for fuel. Yes, it actually reprograms your body to burn fat.

Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Before you get too excited, I’ll tell you right now: It’s not for everyone.

But it works for some people. Perhaps it’s something you’ve considered?

I have some great info on the ketogenic diet in my latest post “Ketogenic Diet 101.”

Oh, and yes, I have an amazingly delicious dessert recipe at the end.

Do you find cooking to be fun? Or do you do it because you know it’s good for your health?

Maybe you avoid it because it’s such a chore?

If you’re in a rut and want some inspirational tips on making cooking more fun, I’ve got you covered.

I’ve compiled my five best tips and a fabulous (and fun) recipe for you to try.

Does stress make you feel a bit off? Do you notice negative health effects when stress is the worst? Maybe it affects your sleep, or maybe you get sick more often.

Yes, stress can definitely mess with your health.

Today I talk about some of the telltale (and not-so-obvious) signs that stress is messing with your health.

Oh, and I have relaxing recipe for you (two ingredients – no stress!).

Origin story of why I started Invigor8 coaching and how I serve clients to help with weight loss and stay on track with healthy habit change. I also serve the athletic population to help them to train smarter through physiological profiling and coaching to help them achieve their goals and be successful in their sport

Almost 108 million Americans were overweight or obese in 1999. Until now, obesity continues to be a serious problem and is predicted to reach epidemic levels by the year 2020. One way to prevent this scenario is to make people aware of the risks of being overweight or obese. Here are some diseases that you are putting yourself in risk of if you are carrying a lot of extra pounds:

I don’t want to get all scientific and put everyone to sleep here, so I’ll make this straightforward and basic: your metabolism is the number of calories your body burns doing nothing in a single day. We all inherit our baseline metabolism; it’s genetic. It also relates to our gender and our age, and as you know, we can’t change our age. While you could get gender-changing surgery, it’s a little extreme and it’s not going to increase your metabolism!

How many times have you heard a friend say, “I am on a diet”? Then what happens is your friend would lose some weight for a while before putting them all back on again. I’ll bet you have also seen someone say that “Cardio is the best for losing weight”. This person would then religiously pound the treadmill but results are agonizingly slow. Soon, he gives up and gains back all the weight he had lost, and sometimes even gaining some extra pounds! Ah, so you thought you’ve finally found the answer to permanent weight loss. You went on a strict diet and ran your heart out. You dropped pounds real quickly. But somehow, something is wrong when you look into the mirror in your birthday suit. Yes you have lost some weight, but somehow your body shape isn’t as flattering as you would like it to be. And then suddenly, you hit a plateau.

The Tale of Two Wolves, also known as The One You Feed, is a story that reminds us to cultivate the
best in ourselves. We are all born with a host of attributes, both positive and negative; it’s up to each
of us to decide who we want to be. Whether it’s how we treat others or how we love ourselves, we
grow the things we feed.

We’ve all heard the usual motivators for getting to the gym. You’ve probably tried getting a workout buddy who keeps you accountable or promising yourself a reward after you finish. You’ve bought a smaller pair of pants to work your way into or purchased a gym membership hoping that the membership card alone would motivate you to exercise.

But sometimes those tried and true motivators just don’t cut it and then you need to bring out the big guns. What can you do that could possibly motivate you to get your butt moving after a grueling day at work, in classes, with the kids…etc? This is your year, a fresh opportunity to set your fitness goals and smash them. Don’t let fatigue, stress, or negative self-talk keep you from achieving your fitness goals.

Here are seven surprising ways to get motivated to exercise when all you want to do is veg.

Over 40% of American adults over the age of 20 are obese in 2020. 73.6% of adults aged 20 and over are overweight, including obesity. That’s over 244 million Americans who were overweight or obese in 2021. Until now, obesity continues to be a serious problem and has already reached epidemic levels. The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the United States was $147 billion in 2008 US dollars; the medical cost for people who have obesity was $1,429 higher than those of normal weight.