Heidi Nicholls – Personal Trainer

Healthy Eating Plate and Healthy Eating Pyramid -Harvard School of Public Health http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/pyramid/

Ran across these websites in a couple of magazines. They are really great. healthydiningfinder.com lets you enter your zip code and hooks you up to healthy meals from fast-food and sit-down restaurants in your area. All the choices and nutrition details are right there!

Download “Restaurant Nutrition” on iTunes (it’s free) and you get linked to 250 restaurants and a breakdown of thousands of menu options!

The best way to take control of what you’re eating is to pre-select healthy options before you go.

http://www.greatist.com/health/52-healthy-meals-in-12-minutes-or-less/

http://www.psychologytoday.com/node/51019

http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/fitness-trumps-weight-loss-for-living-longer

More Health and Fitness News & Tips at Greatist.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/30AyG8/www.thenobullshitdiet.com/

1. Losing a pound of fat requires burning 3500 calories.  If you reduce your caloric intake by 175 calories a day for the next 100 days, you’ll have lost 5 pounds in the next 100 days.
2. For the next 100 days, eat five servings of vegetables every day.
3. For the next 100 days, eat three servings of fruit of every day.
4. Choose one food that constantly sabotages your efforts to eat healthier — whether it’s the decadent cheesecake from the bakery around the corner, deep-dish pizza, or your favorite potato chips — and go cold turkey for the next 100 days.
5. For the next 100 days, eat from a smaller plate to help control portion size.
6. For the next 100 days, buy 100% natural juices instead of the kind with added sugar and preservatives.
7. For the next 100 days, instead of carbonated drinks, drink water.
8. Create a list of 10 healthy, easy to fix breakfast meals.
9. Create a list of 20 healthy, easy to fix meals which can be eaten for lunch or dinner.
10. Create a list of 10 healthy, easy to fix snacks.
11. Use your lists of healthy breakfast meals, lunches, dinners, and snacks in order to plan out your meals for the week ahead of time. Do this for the next 14 weeks.
12. For the next 100 days, keep a food log. This will help you to identify where you’re deviating from your planned menu, and where you’re consuming extra calories.
13. For the next 100 days, get at least twenty minutes of daily exercise.
14. Wear a pedometer and walk 10,000 steps, every day, for the next 100 days.  Every step you take during the day counts toward the 10,000 steps:
    • When you walk to your car.
    • When you walk from your desk to the bathroom.
    • When you walk over to talk to a co-worker, and so on.
15. Set up a weight chart and post it up in your bathroom. Every week for the next 14 weeks, keep track of the following:
    • Your weight.
    • Your percentage of body fat.
    • Your waist circumference.
16. For the next 100 days, set your watch to beep once an hour, or set up a computer reminder, to make sure that you drink water on a regular basis throughout the day.
17. For the next 100 days, make it a daily ritual to mediate, breath, or visualize every day in order to calm your mind.

Dear leather Jacket, I first spotted you on a trip to Niagara on the Lake, a place I love because it has many of the things I adore in a one mile radius. Great theater, shopping, wine and interesting new people to talk to. I was on a weekend get-away with my Mother, only months away from ending my then 13 year marriage. Little did I know then, that my leather jacket and I were going to be in for a firestorm of adventure.

At 38 years old, I was still 23 emotionally. I actually started dating my first husband at 23 and I gave him as much reign as I needed to keep me from making the decisions that force you to grow up. The upside was that very little real worry had come my way, and my countenance reflected it.

It was still a kick to shop for clothes. An amateur actor, I was a professional at costuming myself for real life. My clothing spoke less to my life as a Banker’s wife, but more to my former, lost days as an edgy fashion PR girl. Bottom line? I was on the hunt for Canadian leather!

It didn’t take much time for me to find the perfect little shop in a town over-flowing with tourists ready to drop American dollars on pretty much anything. There’s a year round Christmas shop there and a store devoted to all things Scottish, or is it Irish? I’m not really sure, because I think I spotted kilts and shamrocks. It may just be a Celtic shop, come to think of it. At any rate, none of that interested me. Leather did.

After less than 5 minutes in the leather shop, I instantly befriended the girl who was helping me. A rosy cheeked, blonde with a lilting Canadian accent. She reminded me of Bridget Jones, or Renee Zellweger playing her in the movie. As is my custom, we got way too close way too fast. In 10 minutes I knew her dating history, her shoe size and what she ate for lunch. Fashion girls are like speed daters, especially when they meet up in the wild. I had an “in-style” friend and everything was perfectly set up for the thrill of the kill!

I tried on everything she threw at me. I paraded in and out of the dressing room in every permutation of leather. She convinced me that I was the ONLY one who could pull off the gold, snakeskin mini skirt, so I set that aside immediately. But I couldn’t just go home with a one-off — I had to find myself the Holy Grail. The gold standard in the world of leather — the perfect black, leather jacket.

It appeared in the form of a black, buttery soft hide of heaven. Just skimming the hips, it would still show off the cute pockets of my “Seven For All Mankind” jeans. The front zipper was gold, so it had just a hint of the 80s decadence that had shaped my tastes forever. A silver zipper would have been just a tinge too casual. This would be the jacket that would edge up a cocktail dress and be the perfect counterpoint to a pair of cargo pants. I sang a note like Madeline Kahn did in “Young Frankenstein” and it was lovely. My leather shopping experience left me wanting a drink and a cigarette. My beautiful moment with the rosy cheeked girl at the store had ended, but I was off to begin a new relationship with my new, leather jacket.

Something to think about…aside from the obvious health benefits of exercise, i.e., cardiovascular fitness, strength, agility, mental well-being, etc…what are many of us regular fitness fans trying to do? One thing is to look BETTER! We want to SEE and FEEL RESULTS! I look at athletes and I want to replicate (to the best of my ability) their lean musculature…tight butts, strong shapely legs, toned and defined arms. Yeah, I admit it… I want to look MY best. I must work within the confines of my own age, genetics and time constraints, but I want to make my time in the gym count!

Common sense and my own personal experience as a trained competitive tennis player, tells me that even now, well past my prime (athletically speaking!) I must train like an athlete to look like one.

Three times a week, I teach challenging cardio/strength interval style workouts. Some people may call them HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) or “Bootcamp” style workouts…that’s basically what they are. I am seeing real changes in the way my participants perform and in the way they look! We cycle in and out of more traditional, steady state cardio intervals and then kick it up, using High-Intensity intervals of varying lengths, (usually between 30 seconds to 1.5 minutes.) We then actively recover from those intervals, going in to more steady state cardio or dynamic strength moves, utilizing multiple muscle groups…(think body weight exercises like push-ups, plank variations or squats with curls/presses,etc…)

These High-Intensity intervals will most often include plyometric exercises such as jump-ups onto a step, jacks, jumping lunges, pop-squats, jump-roping, etc…) These explosive high-intensity moves bring us into our anaerobic systems and by definition are difficult to sustain. They burn a ton of calories in a short period of time by training the muscles for speed, power and endurance – just like athletes do!

I have noticed changes in my own body since doing 3 of these workouts per week. I can go longer and harder to be sure. In addition, I weigh the same as I did last year, but have gone down a whole pants size!

The best part is that I have seen similar results in my class participants! I feel the benefits of going harder for shorter periods of time! I do suggest taking the day after this sort of workout for a longer more “steady state” workout, like a walk/run at an easier pace and continuing to strength train body parts in a total body or split routine, depending on what your personal goals are.

Bottom line is that almost everyone can start to train like an athlete and start to look like one!  Would love to hear from you with any comments or questions!

Your partner in fitness,

Heidi