I Have A Secret....

I have a secret, well it’s not much of a secret anymore. You want to get better results? You want to feel better? You want to lose weight and keep it off? Do you want to add lean muscle and be stronger? The answer is not more reps…it’s more sips.

What am I talking about? I am talking about protein. And not just protein, protein shakes to be specific. I normally would not recommend protein drinks because I have had a lot of experience with protein shakes and none of them have been good…until I tried ProFormance Protein Shakes.

Lets start with why we need protein….

Protein is extremely important to have our body functioning properly. Different sickness could harm us like anemia and hypotension if we lack protein. Our blood circulation and tissue healing would also be affected, since protein builds muscle, without protein, our muscle mass will reduce and weakness may happen.

Our body demands for protein because “it is inclined with all of the important functions of our body,” says Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

We can obtain a lot of health benefits from protein.  To preserve a health and wellness, it is necessary to have enough proteins in our diet daily. In times where we get cuts or injuries, protein aids in repairing damaged tissues. Protein also works hand in hand with carbohydrates to give us more energy everyday. Our immune system also needs protein to function properly, for it helps fight off sickness.

Another benefit we can get from protein is that it can helps us make ourselves more full than eating fats and sugar which would help us reduce weight. Another fact is the protein actually has a thermogenic effect.  This means that our body burns more fats by digesting protein. In fact, many athletes have already included proteins in their diets due to this reason.

Finally, it helps build and maintain muscle which will help your body burn more body fat and will aid in weight loss and keeping the pounds off.

I don’t normally recommend products, nor would I recommend something that I myself have not taken and enjoy. Put ProFormance Protein Shakes are the best shakes I have ever had.

In the past I normally would not take protein shakes because of either the taste(bad) or it left me feeling a little uncomfortable(gassy) and so I resigned myself to having to get my protein from my food, this meant more calories, but not with ProFormance. Here is why I am suggesting that all of you reading this order some..  

1. Low Calorie – it is only 130 calories per serving so you can use it as a snack or take 2 scoops and have a meal.

2. Taste – This is the best tasting protein shake I have ever had. They use stevia, which is so much better than sugar.

3. Digestive Enzymes – ProFormance has digestive enzymes to help ease the digestion of the protein and I never got that “uncomfortable feeling” after taking.

4. 30g Per Scoop – This is really great because this allows you to get the maximum of protein without all the calories

5. Mixes really well – I mixed mine with water and it was GREAT! Most of the time I need to add everything but he kitchen sink. With ProFormance you don’t need to add anything to drink it. ProFormance calls it “drinking naked”. No need to dress it up.

6. 5 Different Protein – This is great because you get all the amino acids your body needs and you can either drink it before you workout, after you workout, in the morning for breakfast, as a snack or whenever you want.

7. Gluten Free – This is great for all you folks with Gluten allergies

8. Chocolate or Vanilla – Both are great and really tasty.

Bottom line, I have been taking this for a few weeks and love it. In fact, the other day I was training all day and did not get a chance to eat. I took 2 scoops and mixed it with water, next thing I knew I was not hungry anymore and had the energy to finish with my clients.

I have worked out a deal with ProFormance for all my folks. When you order ProFormance just enter the coupon code HBFM and get 20% off each time you order.

If you have any question you can email ProFormance at

info@proformanceshake.com or visit their website atwww.proformanceshake.com

Now you know my secret…pass it on

Aging Well and Lifestyle Choices

Aging Well and Lifestyle Choices

Is there anyone among us who is not in favor of good health and preventing the onset of premature aging and age related health conditions?  Yet, for many of us, we continue to make lifestyle choices that work against these positive outcomes.  Current research tells us that it is our lifestyle choices which determine the state of our health and how well we age.  In fact, our lifestyle choices can even affect inherited traits from our DNA which means we are not necessarily doomed to suffer the same diseases our grandparents and parents may have had in their lifetimes. We have the freedom to choose to live healthier lifestyles and reduce our risk of those inherited diseases, and perhaps live longer and remain more active and fit than our ancestors.

Our diet, exercise habits, stress and environment will affect the gene expression as to how healthy we are and how well we age.  One can choose to live in a healthy environment and take personal responsibility for staying fit and well by choosing to eat right and exercise regularly.  Avoiding unhealthy habits like smoking, drinking alcohol, and eating chemical-laden processed and GMO foods are a great beginning to protecting your health, youth and vitality. All these habits negatively affect our genes and predispose us to disease.  There is a complex network of chemical switches that sit on top of the genes. These switches surround our DNA and turn genes on and off.  This network of chemical switches is known as the epigenome.  The epigenome interacts with our environment. Everything we come into contact with and everything we put into and on our body has the power to turn genes on or off via different chemical pathways. The end result is the ability to change the way our body expresses our genetic coding and which traits will be realized in our lifetime. This expression of traits will vary during our life, primarily depending on levels of stress, exercise habits, environmental exposure to toxins and diet.

Your body has all the resources and has infinitely adaptable systems to self-regulate, repair, regenerate, and thrive.  You must to learn to work with the body to help it do its job rather than making choices that work against it.  The body is an amazing mechanism comprised of trillions of cells, and approximately every 7 years we get a new body as these cells are replaced by new cells.  Why not choose to focus on a healthier lifestyle and influence your genetic coding as to how well you will age?  All healthy and unhealthy habits interact with the epigenome, but it is the unhealthy habits which have the potential of telling it which disease genes to turn on.  Positively influencing your genetic code and the expression of genetic traits is as simple as developing healthy dietary and lifestyle habits which promote positive gene expression. This will decrease your risk of disease and increase your potential for longevity. 

Antioxidants & Free Radicals: What’s the Buzz?

Antioxidants & Free Radicals: What’s the Buzz?
We keep hearing about how beneficial antioxidants are to our overall health. But what are antioxidants and how do they benefit our health? Here’s what I’ve found out through my research.
When you hear about using antioxidants to protect your health, it means that they are used as a preventative rather than as a treatment. Antioxidants work to prevent the build-up of chemicals and damaged cells within our bodies. These damaged cells, known as free radicals, have been linked to a number of age-related diseases and illnesses including cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, and immune dysfunction.
Free radicals are damaged cells that occur naturally. They are a physical result of aging. Free radicals build up over time from a variety of different sources: sun exposure, fried foods, pollution, and smoking are examples. Avoiding the sources that cause free radicals will limit their build-up. However, it’s impossible to completely avoid what occurs naturally as we age. We can choose to fight against them by making better, healthier lifestyle choices. Choosing to eat foods that are rich with antioxidants will help your body limit the build-up of damaged cells.  Free radicals cause damage to the body by placing extra stress on our body’s natural oxidation process. Oxidation is the body’s way of balancing the occurrence of free radicals or toxins. Antioxidants work by assisting the body with this natural oxidation process.
The best known sources of antioxidants are vitamins A, C, and E. Fruits and vegetables that are rich with color are full of these vitamins. Make sure to consume plenty of carrots, dark leafy greens, berries, green teas, cocoa, apples and oranges. Each has specific antioxidants that work to prevent disease and illness in different parts of the body. This fact makes it important that your diet includes a balance of healthy foods. For example, carrots are especially beneficial in keeping your eyes healthy, and cocoa is good for the heart. There are also great benefits to eating raw fruits and vegetables. They have not had their nutritional value broken down through cooking, making them a richer source of antioxidants.
We have more control of our overall health than many of us realize. It’s important to be aware of the choices you make that will affect your health and how you age. Many of us are always looking for the quick tip or secret to staying young, but the key to good health is not a mystery: make good choices.  Having plenty of antioxidants in your diet is one of the best ways to promote slow and graceful aging.
Resources:
www.webmd.com/food-recipes/20-common-foods-most-antioxidants
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/antioxidants/#introduction
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/vitamins-minerals/how-do-antioxidants-benefit-me.html

Why Protein for Weight Loss

Why Protein for Weight Loss

Studies show that higher protein diets (30% protein) not only help with initial weight loss but also help keep the weight off.

Why does protein help with weight loss?

1.         Preserve muscle mass as you lose weight. When you lose weight on any diet, you lose both fat and muscle. Higher protein diets (30% protein), however, do a better job at preserving muscle mass and your metabolism. Remember one pound of muscle burns approximately 30-50 calories per day so you want to keep your metabolism up by preserving as much muscle as possible.

2.         Promote loss of body fat. Higher-protein lower-carb diets promote loss of body fat, due to the lower insulin response of a lower carbohydrate diet. Remember more insulin promotes packing on fat.

3.         Metabolic advantage of protein. There is a caloric cost of digesting food called the thermogenic effect and the caloric cost is highest for protein. It takes about 30% of a protein’s caloric value to digest it, while it only takes about 2% of a fat’s caloric value. Our bodies are a lot less efficient at digesting protein, compared with carbs and fats, so less overall calories are available to the body.

4.         Protein helps curb appetite. Protein makes you feel “full” and curbs your hunger more effectively than carbs or fat.

How Protein Helps Your Metabolism

One of the key researchers in this area is Donald Layman, PhD6, from the University of Illinois, who has published many papers on the subject. He has found that the high protein, leucine-rich diet, in combination with lower carbohydrates (150 grams or 600 calories per day) is effective to support weight loss, blood sugar metabolism, and a variety of factors that impact cardiovascular health.

His research points out that during weight loss our bodies can easily lose muscle mass (and bone for that matter).  Leucine has a direct signaling effect on muscle that prevents muscle loss during weight loss. This means that on a high-protein diet, the weight that is lost is mostly fat, not muscle. Whereas on a high-carbohydrate weight-loss diet, much more muscle is lost.

Remember balance is the key. Your body also needs carbs and fats for optimal health. While these stars incorporate protein with every meal, their diets are also rich in unprocessed carbs and healthy fats to keep their bodies in top form.

High-protein diets have become a popular way to lose weight because emerging research has hinted that protein may be able to satisfy hunger better than either fats or carbohydrates.

No Results....Dont WINE About It

If you’re thirsty for wine and knowledge,  get ready for some light-hearted and truthful answers to a sometimes serious subject. Turns out it’s also a major hindrance to women trying to lose weight, or should I say fat!

I am going to pour on the info about your cocktail consumption.

Today I am pouring you an information cocktail. Here is the skinny on everything you need to know in regards to alcohol consumption. After sipping on this "info-tini" you may want to reconsider just how many more you want to pour!

Daily alcohol consumption will slow or stop your results. I use the word daily because as I said in my last article one glass of wine is fine. When you belly up to the bar with that T.G.I.F. attitude THINK BEFORE YOU DRINK more than two drinks. I am referring to any liquor with a greater than 70% proof alcohol rating. Your liver can't metabolize alcohol and fat at the same time. It will always get rid of the toxic substance (alcohol) first. That means that as long as there's alcohol in your system you won't be burning any body fat. If you have less than three drinks, you might stall your fat loss for a few hours. If you have quite a few drinks, ( three to five)  it might be as long as four days before you're metabolizing fat again.

Drinking also dehydrates you, raises cortisol levels (goodbye muscle tone), raises estrogen levels (hello hips and lower pouch), lowers inhibitions (pizza, chocolate anyone?). Combine that with the fact that alcohol promotes abdominal fat storage (of all places!) and it's really not worth it, not if you're serious about making a major transformation in your health and general appearance.

I know several women who have a few drinks once a week and they've still achieved their goals. They also work three hours per week with a Personal Trainer (okay me!) .  It's only the beginning, now add an olive some dirty juice, and presto! a puffy lower belly. Just how negative the impact is probably depends on your goals, age, activity level, metabolism, and a zillion other things.

If wine with dinner is part of your lifestyle, you might experiment with a glass a day, but that is it!  One glass has been proven to beneficial and not harmful so perfect balance.  Repeat after me - ONE (savor it)!  

 See if you can have a glass of wine a few times a week and still be making progress. If it's really slow going, keep cutting back the number of drinks until you're satisfied with the level of your results. Of course, if you want to radically transform yourself and lose several pounds it's properly best you have less than 4 drinks per week. Men with the "Dunlap" disease get into the gym or better yet hire a" qualified" professional. Ladies go on a tropical vacation, without the tropical drinks, exercise! Sip your drinks make them last, and have two glasses of water between your limited alcoholic beverages or there will be no special date with a little black dress. The truth that is self evident and we all need to understand the damage we are doing to ourselves for many days, just for a few hours of indulgence. Play Smart.

MaryAnn Molloy, ACSM CPT

Optimal Fitness = Energy = Business/Life Success

Optimal Fitness = Energy = Business/Life Success

There are many parallels in business and fitness that apply to achieving goals in any aspect whether business, health or personal.  One of the key components to success is having the energy to accomplish all the activities and tasks that lead to those goals.  Since women are still the primary caretakers of families as well as their careers, it is even more important to maintain a certain level of energy and stamina.
 
One of the best ways to get that needed energy is through exercise within a formal fitness routine.  If you are not functioning with optimal health and running low on energy it can be difficult to best utilize your time without feeling exhausted. Your body and mind need to be invigorated and fit.

There are some key components that work in fitness, business and life skills.  They are flexibility, time management, delegation, accountability and attitude.
Let’s start with flexibility.  As women, this is integral to the juggling act when trying to “plan” your day.  You have to allow for some time to be flexible to changes.   You may or may not have flexibility body wise, but that too is one of the key components to optimal fitness (along with cardiovascular endurance, muscle endurance and strength). 
The counterpart to flexibility is time management.  This of course starts with prioritization and goal setting. You need to make yourself a priority and set goals both professionally and personally. Schedule your fitness workout just as you schedule your children’s appointments and your business clients.  Equal priority to your fitness schedule helps keep you on track.  If it is on the calendar there is less room for excuses or conflicts of time.

Every good manager, business person or mom knows how to delegate. In fitness that may mean delegating the initial set up of a program to a personal trainer.  Do not spend time trying to design your own exercise program.  In order to have an effective program you need the right person or facility. At the least get a baseline fitness assessment so you know where you should begin. Don’t experiment on yourself with exercise

Accountability is also a factor. Whether through a report for work, tracking children’s grades or keeping track of your workouts and progress, accountability is key.  Honor your commitment to yourself and track it somewhere.  That also gives you history of your successes and lapses so you can analyze going forward.

Lastly, attitude is one of the largest factors and yes, does even affect your energy level.  Having a “me first” attitude is not selfish but self aware.  This type of self care along with positive self-talk allows others to reap the benefits of your accomplishments.

If you do not currently have a fitness routine here are some tips to incorporate exercise into your daily life:

*Start out slow.   If you do too much too soon you may be too sore, injure yourself or just get discouraged. Try 10-15 minutes of walking or some form of cardiovascular exercise.
*After working up to 20 minutes a day add a couple of resistance training exercises to build muscle, strengthen your bones and burn excess fat.
*Start resistance or strength training the same way, slow.  5  - 10 minutes , 2- 3 times a week and add a minute or two at a time until you can do 20-30 minutes a day at least 3 times per week.

Many women feel they do not have time to exercise, especially after a long day.  In fact, exercise gives you added energy.  When done for right amount of time and intensity, exercise increases blood circulation, oxygen uptake rises, your metabolism gets a jolt and the endorphins generated make you feel good.

 So, keep an upbeat attitude and remember the payoff for getting physically fit is better health and more energy to achieve any goal! 

Be healthy,

MaryAnn Molloy

Chief Fun & Fitness Officer
Healthy Body, Fit Mind

http://www.HealthyBodyFitMind.com
http://www.facebook.com/HealthyBodyFitMind

207-210-6640

Fitness While You Are Away

When vacationing or traveling for work it is easy to let the change in schedule negatively affect your fitness schedule.  In turn, it makes it more difficult to get back on track upon return to your “normal” schedule.  There are ways to incorporate fitness while away from your regular routine.  Just like planning your trip details you have to plan how you are going to stay on track with your fitness routine.

Below are some simple options.  The key is to choose what works for you and continue to make time for yourself no matter where you are. 


Plan the Same; Only Different

Pack your bag as usual but intentionally add workout clothes and sneakers and even a bathing suit with the assumption of working out.  Check with the hotel.  Often if they do not have a fitness facility they have passes to local health clubs where you can get a free or inexpensive pass for the day.  Use this as a chance to try something new like a yoga class or kickboxing. Set a specific time each day or every other day that you will devote time to fitness.  Even ten to fifteen minutes is better than zero.

Play Tourist

Even if you have been to New York for business every month or visit aunt Martha in Buffalo every year; create a new experience and play tourist.  Explore (by foot) the architecture downtown or the latest trails or even the mall.  Look at the same old place through different eyes and you can find new opportunities to add activity to your schedule.

Bring Your Own Gym

Whether the hotel or home your staying at has accommodations or not, you can prepare.  The simplest and least expense thing you can bring is an exercise tube.  They cost between $8-$15 dollars and come in a few different levels of resistance.  They fit in your suitcase, gym bag or even your purse easily.  They often come with an exercise chart and/or dvd with instructions. Many chain stores like Target and WalMart carry them along with sporting good stores.  You also have the best piece of equipment with you always; your own body weight.  Simple push-ups against the wall will do or crunches on the floor. Take the stairs whenever possible.  Walk.  Skip the cab when possible.  


Make it Fun

Just have fun whether you are traveling for work or pleasure, travel can still be stressful.  No need to put extra pressure on yourself to workout.  Use the time to treat yourself and your body.  When choosing something to do choose activities that involvement movement and enjoy  Long walks on the beach, dancing after dinner and walking the city sidewalks are indeed activities that can aid in your overall fitness plan.  



General  Tips

·         No matter what form of physical activity you choose, do not forget to warm up for five to seven minutes.  Go for a walk, jog or even just march in place. 

·         Stretch after.  Even those long casual walks can cause muscle soreness the next day

·         Drink plenty of water, especially when traveling by plane

·         Bring healthy snacks with you so you have control of what you eat at least some of the time.

·         Try the local fare only in small portions.

Sources:

www.acefitness.org

Schlosberg, S. (2002). Fitness for Travelers: The Ultimate Workout Guide for the Road. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Books.

Be healthy,

MaryAnn Molloy

Chief Fun & Fitness Officer

Healthy Body, Fit Mind

http://www.HealthyBodyFitMind.com

http://www.facebook.com/HealthyBodyFitMind

207-210-6640

"Adaptability is the key to longevity."