by Kim Miller | Aug 8, 2015 | Totally Tone Tuesday, Uncategorized
It was a real treat to take our time and focus on everything I write about. One of the things I learned over the years is that it is not necessary to train like a maniac in order to receive the benefits of a fit body that can do what you need it to do. I am not opposed to working like a “maniac” when it is called for, but too often I see people training in quiet desperation thinking they will lose weight because of exercising. Of course exercise is great for all of us, but the intent of why many people exercise is old school thinking: to burn calories, lose weight, or punish oneself for overeating. I want to help people change this kind of thinking.
P.S. The picture above is not me training at the hotel but it motivates me because I cannot imagine someone looking like that and eating well…crap. I imagine she got her muscles from working out , but got her lean body composition from eating like a champ! Which is exactly what today’s news is about.
![Image result for food matters]()
One of the concepts that I want people to understand is that fitness is part of health – yes, but that weight maintenance/loss, and being lean is a matter of what you eat.
Think About This
How many people do you know that train in the gym, or run and bike miles daily yet are overweight?
I am not about not exercising. Exercise is extremely important in aging well and changing the physiological responses in the body positively. The problem is that the mindset that many people have regarding movements effects on weight loss is incorrect. The mindset being that exercise will cause us to lose weight is the real reason people are not losing weight. By having this mindset we deny the real reasons we cannot lose weight and obtain the body we desire. The fact is – food matters. What we choose to eat and not eat is extremely important in weight loss. This understanding is so central to being able to lose weight that in my 30 Days to Lean Program, I do not even discuss exercise other than to say… do something you enjoy a few minutes a day. No pressure. Just enjoy.
Awareness is Key
There is a direct correlation in what we eat and how much weight we lose! There is little correlation in how much we exercise and weight loss. It’ s a tough realization for many, but for those who are up to the challenge, it makes all the difference in living well. As one member who lost 24 pounds in 8 weeks said, ” I used to exercise like a nut. 90 minutes everyday in the gym for 20 years, and for that I have gained 20 pounds in 20 years. Now, I am sensible. I eat well and I exercise moderately. I am not deprived and I love my daily eating practices. I do not feel deprived either. And most importantly, no one could have told me I would love my new eating and exercise life. I never believed it myself! The words freeing and liberating come to mind.”
Here’s a Challenge For You.
The next time you go into the gym, take a walk, run, bicycle ride, improve your strength, stretch your body, practice balancing, or implement any of the exercises in the Totally Tone newsletters, exercise not because you are aiming to burn calories and lose weight, but because it is part of being a healthy person. Say to yourself, “This exercise is designed to improve my physical conditioning but it will not cause me to lose weight.” This realization that it is not exercise that will cause one to be trim looking is central to going at the root cause of why one may be overweight. No longer can one use exercise to atone for poor eating practices. Instead one will have to make the needed mind shift that exercise is for conditioning the body and that it is separate from the ability to lose weight.
Food matters not only in bringing health to our bodies, but in ridding the body of excess fat. By de-emphasizing training like a maniac, one can focus on what they eat as a means to transforming their bodies and their lives. You can have the awareness that there is a direct correlation in what you eat and how much weight you lose! Yes, it’ s a tough realization for many, but for those who are up to the challenge it makes all the difference in living well.
by Kim Miller | Aug 8, 2015 | Totally Tone Tuesday, Uncategorized
Here’s The Thing.
We need to strengthen our bodies to continue to do what we want to do. We need to stretch our bodies so the strength we gained can be turned into functional movement that feels easy. And we need to hone in on practicing balance to tie things all together.
Simple as it sounds, if tying your shoes while balancing on one leg is impossible for you, then hitting the ski slopes with robust, playing a physical round of tennis, or maintaining your consistent golf strokes for 18 holes, soon yields itself to not just injury, but premature loss of vim and vigor before it really is your time to slow down. This is called premature aging. Too often we slow down before we need to.
Is Slowing Down Before Your Time Not in Your Plans?
Then turn it around. Here’s where to begin: If these exercises are too basic for you, stick around anyways each week, as you are sure to get lots of insight to go along with all the action plans. Brain and brawn working together! Stay tuned. And do these exercises several times before we meet again.
I Want You to Know:
We are all going to age. But aging before our time doesn’t have to happen.
1. You can practice balance anywhere.
2. You can practice stretching anywhere.
3. You can practice strengthening your body anywhere but for best results and to prevent injury go to your gym and see your training pros.
Balance:
Hold for one minute each leg. skirt and high heels optional.
Strength:
Hold for one minute squeezing the gluteal muscles.
Stretch
Hold for one minute receiving stretch in back of upper leg ( hamstring0.
Balance Strength and Stretch:
Hold for one minute: back flat.
Front Knee bent and over ankle.
Fingers tips slightly touching floor.
Back leg slightly extended.
Reverse sides.
by Kim Miller | Jul 30, 2015 | Totally Tone Tuesday, Uncategorized
There are many reasons for achy hips and backs but common reasons have to do with too much repetitive movement or lack of movement/ sedentary living.
The extremes of living on both ends can cause back and hip flare ups that are painful and debilitating.
The joke in the gym amongst my clients when I come in to train them while feeling stiff and achy is that I tell them I over trained on the tennis courts. This answer works like a charm, because if I tell them I sat on my bottom all day long writing, it is not too impressive – especially when you are telling them what to do to keep in shape. Training hard in sport is so much more respectable, so I always go with that as a reason! You may find it can work for you too!
Below are 3 exercises that are daily musts for alleviating the pain and inflammation due to extremes of lifestyles whether you find yourself suddenly overactive, or suddenly inactive. Regardless, maintaining a daily regimen of these exercises goes a long way in preventing long term hip and back issues. And one last note: Do these exercises more often daily if you are in moderate back and hip pain. A good guide to follow is simple – if you feel better as you do the exercises then continue. If it feels worse then discontinue and try the next day. If still no improvement then seek a doctor to check on common ailments like herniated discs or spinal stenosis.
Bridging
Bridging, strengthens core muscles of the lower back and buttocks, while stretching the hip flexors.” The hip flexors, or psoas muscle area, play an important role in keeping the lower back strong and healthy.
- Begin this exercise by lying on your back.
- Bend your knees keeping your feet flat on the floor and keep your arms at your side, against the floor.
- Gently lift your pelvic region into the air, as high as you comfortably can.
- Hold for several seconds.
- Return hips to ground.
The Pelvic Tilt
The pelvic tilt increases range of motion and flexibility of the pelvic region. Like the previous exercise, the pelvic tilt helps to strengthen the muscles in the pelvic and abdominal regions, which can provide the support one needs to avoid back pains and strains.
- Begin this exercise on your back.
- Bend your knees keeping your feet flat on the floor and place your arms across your chest area.
- Contract your abdominal muscles by tightening and squeezing in that area while pressing your lower back to the floor, so there is no space between the floor and your lower back.
- Be sure to keep breathing normally as you contract these muscles. Beginners often tend to hold their breath during this exercise.
- Hold for 1-3 seconds, while breathing normally.
- Relax and repeat up to 10 times, or as many times as you are comfortable.
The Cat and Camel Stretch
Like with the previous exercises, breathing plays a key role in the cat and camel stretch.
- Begin this exercise on all fours, with your knees and hands on the ground.
- Start to round your back with your head down while exhaling. This position should resemble a frightened cat with their upper back rounded near the neck.
- Reverse this position by allowing your back to relax and lower. This should resemble the valley between a camel’s two humps.
- Be sure to inhale and exhale as you move through this exercise.
- Repeat up to 10 times, or as many times as you are comfortable
Status Symbol
Exercises like these will be helpful for people with arthritis by strengthening the muscles surrounding the joints. And Importantly, these exercises, if done several times while seated for long periods of time ( at the computer for example) will keep back and hip stiffness at bay. Perhaps most importantly though, these exercises can be flaunted as a status symbol that you exercised vigorously in athletics such as with tennis, running, golfing and other sports that push the body in rigorous ways. As you know, it’s not age causing you to be more stiff, it’s that rigorous lifestyle of yours! That’s my story and I am sticking to it!
by Kim Miller | Jun 21, 2015 | Burn Baby Burn, Uncategorized
Two weeks ago I told you that my biggest motivation for strength training today is different than years ago. Today,my motivation for working out is that I may have the energy and stamina to do what I want to do! I want my tasks of daily living to feel easy on my body and my mind! This is where strength training and keeping my body limber prove beneficial. And like you, if I have to suddenly exert an extreme amount of physical energy or mental focus, I want to know I can do it! Strength training and stretching, and yes even practicing balance activities help me to do what I need to do at any given moment.
If you love the idea of being fit, healthy and lean so that you can do all the things you want to do, yet find it difficult putting healthy living into action, know you are in good company. Many people, in many facets of their lives are living a Walter Mitty style life. I am here to say – Stop That! ( In a nice way).
Here’s The Thing:
If being fit, lean, and healthy is something you desire for yourself, know you must act on it. Like many things in life, inaction causes misery. Life gets mentally tough as you struggle for your ideal life and get down on yourself for rarely putting healthy living into action. No doubt, it’s difficult mentally to desire a certain way of being while simultaneously doing little to improve one’s lot. Mentally we wear ourselves out as we desire one way of living yet act another way. When it comes to health and fitness, not only is a lack of acting out our desires mentally debilitating, but it is physically debilitating as well. We need to stop this!
Here’s the Challenge:
What can you do to help your friends, family, spouse, brother, sister, son daughter, niece, nephew or other important people in your life to get out of the Walter Mitty mindset when it comes to healthy living? If you come up with a good idea, let me know. I am on a mission to get to the heart of the matter when it comes to healthy living. If you are too, I would love to hear from you!
by Kim Miller | Jun 21, 2015 | lose your waist wednesdays, Uncategorized
There are two important things you should know about belly fat:
1. Yes, you can target it.
2. It burns so much quicker than other fat.
I know this sounds like wishful thinking because people in general have so much trouble in reducing their belly fat. But the reason it is so difficult is because there are basically 3 things that people are doing or not doing that sabotage their efforts at losing fat in the middle. In upcoming issues we’ll explore in detail what you should be doing and not doing to lose belly fat. Today, I’ll set the stage for what you need to know and what the science says to reduce your waist size.
My suggestion: read the information I am presenting today and wrap your head around it now. The information is not what you may think, but it is the reason that so many people are losing weight in their mid sections. We’ll go into detail in later issues.
1. Exercise
Slow and steady exercise burns belly fat. The more you do it, the more fat you burn. But you can’t increase your stress in the process. Walking or very light jogging is best. The average person will ignore this advice and keep burning themselves out and then wondering why their food and sugar cravings are through the roof.
In my 30 Day to Lean program members are encouraged to exercise daily. However I tell them to let it feel good. Take daily 30 minute walks or bike rides or go to the gym and do lite exercise not heavy. There’s a reason for this downplay of heavy lifting or intense cardiovascular activity. And the reason is that that when you are in the process of losing weight, heavy and intense exercise will raise the hormone cortisol. Cortisol is actually a stress hormone that locks in belly fat. I tell my clients that are aiming to lose weight to take it easy on yourself. This is no time to be acting like a maniac in the gym. Be low key and focus on light moderate exercise that relieves stress instead of elevating it.
2. Reduce stress
The other thing you must do when you are in the process of losing weight is to reduce stress. This of course goes hand in hand with moderate light exercise which reduces stress but there are other things that one can do to reduce stress during this time period of weight loss.
I tell my members that this is their time to feel good and do things they love to do. Sleep well and never feel guilty for sleeping 8 or 9 hours. Too often we pride ourselves on being so productive that we rarely sleep. This style of thinking I try to discourage because again it raises cortisol which makes our belly store fat. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather sleep 8-9 hours and grow lean rather than sleep a few and grow round.
3. Address insulin resistance
This is the toughest of the three things to do to lose belly fat. And it takes changes to your diet, not just eating less. This is why the Top 3 Diets fail in the long run, because they do not address this point. In my opinion and from what I have witnessed having over 53 people participate in this program is that what you eat and what you do not eat is so vitally important. Food matters and if you could only implement one of these facts, this is the one I would concentrate on.
by Kim Miller | Jun 20, 2015 | lose your waist wednesdays, Uncategorized
As a fair warning to you, today’s news is a little hard hitting regarding weight gain and belly fat. It’s a tough topic, but I think the more you know regarding how belly fat seems to almost suddenly appear as we age, the better you will be prepared to control it. Before you read this, just know that belly fat has much to do with the hormone insulin, and that we have the power to change and to stop weight gain in the mid section.A Shift In Biology
Weight gain, especially in the dreaded midsection often signifies a shift in biology creating hormonal imbalances that complicate taking control of weight gain.
So often people experience a vicious cycle of losing weight then gaining weight. One of the biggest reasons for this is that even our top rated diets of today still focus on calories in as a means to lose weight. When we focus on calories in and expending huge amounts of energy throughout the day, we lose sight of the fact that bringing health to the body especially hormonally is an absolute must in sustaining weight loss.
Insulin – Fat Storage Hormone.
Numerous hormones contribute to belly fat, but none proves more powerful than insulin. Insulin is our fat storage hormone. High levels of insulin tell our bodies to gain weight around the around the middle. Insulin also drives inflammation and oxidative stress, creating a myriad of downstream effects.
Eventually you become insulin resistant, which leads your body to generate belly fat and hold on to that spare tire for dear life. Fatigue after meals, sugar cravings, blood sugar swings or hypoglycemia, high triglycerides, low HDL, low sex drive, and problems with blood clotting are also common among people who are overweight.
Simply put, less insulin equals less belly fat, since insulin makes you hungry and stores belly fat. The best thing you can do to prevent diabetes and all its problems is to lose weight.
The Number One Thing You Can Do to Reduce Belly Fat
High insulin levels don’t just exist in a vacuum. They influence other hormones like leptin, your satiety hormone. When insulin blocks leptin, your body thinks it is starving even after a big ribeye steak, baked potato and glass of wine. Ever wonder how you can still be hungry right after a big meal? It is the insulin surge and the leptin resistance.
More than any other food, sugar becomes responsible for hijacking your brain chemistry and your metabolism to create insulin resistance and all its repercussions.
Calorie for calorie, sugar is different from other calories that come from protein, fat, or non-starchy carbs such as greens. Sugar scrambles all your normal appetite controls. So you consume more and more, driving your metabolism to convert it into lethal belly fat. We are all overdosed at an average of twenty-two to thirty teaspoons of sugar4 a day per person in America.
Fructose, the most metabolically damaging sugar, just makes things worse. It goes right to your liver, where it starts manufacturing fat, which triggers more insulin resistance and causes chronically elevated blood insulin levels, driving your body to store everything you eat as – you guessed it – dangerous belly fat.
You also get a fatty liver, which generates more inflammation. Chronic inflammation causes more weight gain and diabesity. Anything that causes inflammation will worsen insulin resistance.
Another problem with fructose is that it doesn’t send informational feedback to the brain, signaling that a load of calories just hit the body. Nor does it reduce ghrelin, the appetite hormone that is usually reduced when you eat real food.
We are programmed to store belly fat in response to sugar so that we can survive the winter when food is scarce. Genes do play a role, but they are a minor contributor to what is taking place today.
Shut Down the Insulin Surges
You will stop belly fat storage and cravings. And this is the number one thing you can do to stop belly fat now. More concise- stop eating sugar!
Belly Fat is Not Your Biggest Challenge
The biggest challenge you’re facing with being overweight is not your waistline or your weight. It’s not your belly. It’s your brain. Changing the way you think about food so you get your mind working with your body, not against it, is critical to weight loss and healing.
If you want to lose pounds, you need to first lose the ideas that keep you stuck in an endless cycle of yo-yo dieting. You need to let go of the beliefs and perspectives that sabotage your goal of permanent weight loss and vibrant health. Thinking the way you’ve always thought and doing things you’ve always done will only lead to more of the same.
