Set up for Success

Set yourself up for success, think about planning a healthy lifestyle as a number of small, manageable steps rather than drastic change. Approach these changes gradually and with commitment, you will have a healthy lifestyle sooner than you think. A few tips to get started:

• Simplify. Instead of being overly concerned with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in terms of color, variety and freshness. Then it should be easier to make healthy choices. Focus on finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more delicious.
• Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time. Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic.  Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different color vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking.  As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.
• Every change you make to improve your diet matters. You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to completely eliminate foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet.  The long term goal is to feel good, have more energy and reduce the risk of disease. Don’t let your missteps derail you—every healthy food choice you make counts.

Review Food Labels

Look at the nutrition label before you buy.
LOOK AT:
Serving size
Calories / serving
Fat / serving
Ingredients

Avoid foods packed with sugar and trans-fats.  The ingredients are listed in order of highest to lowest. Meaning the first ingredient is the most prevalant in the product. Avoid or minimize if they are one of the top ingredients listed in the ingredients list: Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup and Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil.

You should be looking for more natural foods and not highly processed foods.

Plank Pose

Sugar WOES!!!

Why worry about sugar? Aside from providing empty calories, one of sugar's major drawbacks is that it raises the insulin level. An influx of sugar into the bloodstream upsets the body's blood-sugar balance, triggering the release of insulin, which the body uses to keep blood-sugar at a constant and safe level. Prolonged, elevated insulin levels can increase the risk for disease by causing inflammation within your body and by inhibiting key hormones that regulate the immune system. Insulin also promotes the storage of fat, so that when you eat excessive sweets high in sugar, you're making way for rapid weight gain and elevated triglycerides, both of which have been linked to cardiovascular disease.

Twas the week after Christmas...

Twas the week after Christmas and all through the city,
Not a person was pleased with their weight, what a pity.
A Fitness Trainer devised such a plan,
To fight our love handles and be the best that we can.
So wipe off that frown and post Christmas blues,
2011 has a plan just for you!
9 weeks of heart thumping, lifting, and sweating,
Muscle toning, stretching, and a whole lot of begging.
No mercy will be shown for that pecan pie belly.
If you have any questions you need to call Shelley

Step4wardfitness@suddenlink.net

Couch Potato to RED HOT Tomato

January 10 – March 10

Mon, Wed, Thurs
9:00 am
and
Mon, Tues, Thurs
5:45 pm

All class access
Body Composition (before and after)
Nutrition
Weekly weigh in
Texts
Videos
Emails
ACCOUNTABILITY!
$220

2011 Get Your Health on PROGRAM!

Couch Potato to Red Hot Tomato!



This?????



THIS!!!




                   

January 10 – March 10

Program Includes

9 weeks (all class access)

Body composition (before & after)
Nutrition Accountability

Weekly weigh in

Stretching DVD

$220

9:00 am (Monday, Wednesday & Thursday)

5:45 pm (Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday)

Contact Shelley

Step4wardfitness@suddenlink.net

405-334-3707

www.facebook.com/step4wardfitness

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=step4wardfitness

Can't I just eat less and skip meals?

It's naturally what we want to do - but it's not quite right. "I must lose weight so I'm gonna starve myself". This is where things get a bit confusing. Starve the body too much, and it gets the hint and slows down - you'll feel irritable, fatigued, and begin to lose muscle as well as fat. After clawing your way through hunger pangs and dreams of food, the chances are you will binge, or start eating back how you used to. Guess what happens? The weight piles on because your body is still in "slow" mode. Fat loss is all about calorie reduction, but a calorie intake that is too low will cause problems.

Get Accountable in 2011

There are hundreds of diet books and weight loss programs out there. Many of them have terrific claims, but remember:


 There is no one-size-fits-all weight loss program.

 There are no magic bullets or miracle instant cures.

 There is absolutely EVERY chance that you can transform yourself.

 It is completely possible for you to lose the fat and get healthier.

 Believe in yourself.

Get accountable and get support. Join my "Fitness Crew" Step4ward Fitness Training can help you, encourage you, and reach your goals.

I know that step is not easy, believe me I have been training for 20+ years.  However, I have yet to meet anyone who followed through with their initial step that was unhappy with their weight loss & strength gains.

Do it! Make the Change!