Tips for Fat Loss

Remember, you want to feed the muscle and blast the fat!

I always say, you cannot out-exercise a bad diet!  The simplest change is to stop eating foods from a bag or a box. Switch over to more fruits and vegetables. Think about it, what comes in bags?  Cookies, chips, fast food.  Basically, all the over-processed and chemically altered food.  These are the items you really want to eliminate from your diet, your routine and your pantry!

By making small changes every day, week, month & year, you will incorporate new eating habits and eliminate old, bad habits. 

Start today with:

·        going to the store and the produce aisle to help control your appetite, regulate your blood sugar, and burn body fat

·        throwing out all of the things in your cupboards and pantry that are processed and/or junk

Think of your body as a Ferrari or Jaguar.  You need to put premium fuel into your engine to have the energy and zest to get through your day and live your life with vitality! Not grease, not sugar, not caffeine (ok, I have to have my morning cup of java – but it is black without added sugar, and I limit it to one cup)!

Start by eating several small meals each day, focusing on protein and fiber-rich foods.  Combine that with the short, convenient, intense workouts and you'll feel like a million bucks.

Let food be your medicine - nutrition & exercise are as powerful as drugs and guess what?  There are no side effects, other than feeling better and looking better-- (your liver will thank you!)

Read More

How to Boost your Metabolism!

How to Boost your Metabolism!

Even small amounts of excess body fat can increase your risk of several chronic diseases.  Simple strategies to power up your metabolism can be helpful.  Follow these tips!

1. Have a cup of green tea.  This will boost your immunity, reduce cardiovascular risk and boost your metabolism.

2. Eat – Commit to three meals a day and two snacks to keep hunger at bay.  Skipping meals, especially breakfast, is proven to drain your metabolism and sabotage your efforts.

3. Eat your omega 3’s – Omega-3 fats play a key role in maintaining fat burning potential.  Include oily fish, omega 3 fortified eggs, walnuts and dark leafy greens.

4. Give your metabolic machinery an oil change – Limit saturated fats to once or twice a week.  Cut all trans fats completely.

5. Steer Clear of the Great White Hazards – white flour products, white rice and sugar.  These foods rapidly increase your blood sugar and overwhelm your metabolism.  Over time, these foods basically wear things out causing type II diabetes, metabolic syndrome and other health issues.

6. Get hot!  Super hot foods like chili peppers, hot mustards and Tabasco are proven to provide a temporary boost to metabolism  as well as mood lift.

7. Move – physical activity helps maintain and even build lean body mass.  The more lean body mass you have, the faster your metabolism.  In fact muscles burns about 70% of the calories you consume.

8. Get your rest!  Sleep deprivation revs up appetite stimulating hormones. 

Read More

Work Out Smarter, Not Longer!

Work Out Smarter, Not Longer!

Along with teaching good eating habits, AllyFitness is all about efficiency. Our programs are all about teaching you how to get the most from your workout in two ways.  First, you don’t have to spend endless hours in a gym to reach your fitness goals (we all have lives to live, right?).  Studies show shorter, more intense workouts can maximize your results even better.  Second, these programs train your body to keep burning calories at a higher rate long after your workout is over. The way these two goals are met is through metabolic training.

What is Metabolic Training?
Metabolic training is a way of working out that increases the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) - a.k.a. the after-burn!  After-burn elevates the metabolism after exercise.  New studies indicate you can keep the after-burn effect going up to 24 to 48 hours after high intensity training.   The research basically states high intensity resistance training (85% of maximum effort) increases EPOC significantly when compared to low intensity training.  What does this mean for you?  If you perform circuit weight training using a weight that challenges you at a high intensity, you will increase the EPOC and burn more FAT– which is what we want!  Preserve the muscle, burn the fat!  Working at higher intensity levels also reduces the workout time.LADIES – do not be afraid to lift heavy weight.  You need to work out with weights that challenge you.

Read More

Build Muscle - Burn Fat

My philosophy for getting fit - we want to be fit, healthy and happy, not live at the gym or be gym rats.  So……..how do you do that?

Metabolism is the sum of all chemical processes that take place in the human body to sustain life. Though metabolic rate is largely determined by genetics, there are various ways to increase metabolic rate (the speed of your metabolism) through exercise, nutrition, and supplementation.

Old school philosophy- Performing daily body part workouts – or upper / lower body splits.  If you are a body builder or competitor, this is what you do.   The rest of us, not so much.  The reality is that training your whole body more frequently will result in bigger strength and muscle gain, greater fat loss, and more metabolic boosts than training each muscle group once per week– and the science supports this.  Plus it is much more time efficient!  My clients are busy and have busy lives.  I design programs that work and allow you to still have time for your families, hobbies, etc.

It’s important to understand the more muscle you have the greater your resting metabolic rate (RMR). Your RMR is the total number of calories you burn every day regardless of activity and adding several pounds of lean muscle mass will result in an additional daily calorie burn of up to several hundred extra calories per day. This translates into a fat-smashing snowball effect over the course of weeks, months, and years.

Work out smarter - not longer!

Read More