3 Tips for Preventing Vacation Weight Gain

Summer is here. For many of us that means weeks (or months) of dieting and extra trips to the gym to “get in shape” for our summer vacation. We cut the carbs, suffer through bowls of dressing free lettuce, trade our lattes for black coffee, and schlog through hours of treadmill interval workouts just so we can look good in our swimsuit, only to ruin our hard won efforts as soon as we reach our destination.

Summer vacation does not have to mean weight gain. Implementing 3 simple techniques can help you maintain your pre-vaca physique. All without giving up the food and fun of your trip.

Technique #1 – Eat slowly

Taking time to eat slowly and savor your meals can help prevent overeating. Research shows that people who eat slowly and mindfully, aka focusing on what you’re eating, consume fewer calories than individuals who scarf down a meal. Take time to enjoy every meal. You are on vacation after all, why not make the most of each moment including meal time.

Technique 1A – Take a bite of food then put your fork down. Savor the bite. How does it taste? What flavors do you notice? Do you even like it? If not, stop eating it. Chew slowly, swallow, take a breath, repeat.

Technique #2 – Eat until 80% full

Vacation often offers the opportunity to partake of foods we normally would not eat at home. Unfortunately, we often over do it by justifying it’s ok because we are “on vacation”. This is a sure way to regain pre-vacation weight losses. Eating until your a 80% full allows you to enjoy your favorite vacation foods while reducing the amount of calories you would ordinarily ingest. This applies to alcohol and sugary beverages as well. For example, if you would normally drink 3-4 alcohol drinks per day on vacation cut it back to 2-3 (or less).

Technique 2A – Ordering a variety of appetizers rather than an entree is a terrific way to sample all the culinary delights your destination has to offer while allowing you to eat smaller portions.

Technique #3 – Keep Moving

Vacation time can be a terrific excuse to skip your workouts, but it is those workouts that got you into summer shape to begin with, so don’t ditch them entirely. You don’t have to hit the gym. Walking can be a great way to burn calories while on vacation. Try walking to dinner rather than taking a cab, take a walking tour of the city, bike ride through the countryside, kayak around the lake, splash and play in the hotel pool, or create a 10-15 min HIIT routine you can do in your hotel room. Being active for 15-20 minutes or more each day while you are on vacation can go a long way in preventing vacation weight gain.

Staying healthy and keeping your weight in check while on vacation does not have to mean giving up trying and enjoying new foods or spending time locked inside the gym. Adding these 3 techniques to your vacation itinerary can insure you look as good (or better) after your trip as you did before.

Are you ready to learn more nutritional habits that can have you looking and feeling your best? Then our Nutritional Coaching program is for you! Visit our website to learn more and get signed up: I’m ready to feel great!

Have a happy, healthy vacation!!

Good Nutrition Can Get You to All of Your Goals

No matter what your goals are this year: financial, career, relationships, or physical, good nutrition is a key step in achieving your goals. After all, how can you take action toward your goals if you are feeling sick, tired, and stressed out?

Good nutrition provides the nutrients you need fuel your brain, give you energy, and keep you alert and focused on the the steps you need to take to reach your goal.

Nutritional coaching can teach you how to eat to perform at your best mentally and physically. The better you perform, the faster and easier you will reach your goal.

In nutritional coaching, you meet with your coach to assess your current nutritional and dietary situation and determine the next step in becoming a little bit better by introducing small achievable changes that, over time yield measurable results. With nutritional coaching you can stop dieting, learn to eat better, and be more focused and energetic.

At Achieve Wellness, our clients meet with their coach via video conference or messenger once a month to discuss progress, identify challenges, and collaborate on what steps to take next. In addition, clients receive daily lessons and tips to help them stay on track. Coaches monitor progress and provide feedback as necessary throughout the process.

Because I want you to achieve all of your goals this year, I am offering a special new year rate for the month of January!

I am offering our 1-on-1 nutritional coaching program for $150/month (reg. $175/month) AND I am throwing in the initial consultation free of charge, that’s a $50 savings!

Space in the program is limited to 10 people and at this price spaces will fill quickly, so don’t wait!

Take a few minutes right now to fill out our new client survey and get on the path to reaching your goals in 2019!

5 Habits to Help You Get Back on Track After the Holidays

Welcome to 2019!

I hope you had a happy and prosperous holiday season!

If you fell off the nutritional wagon over the holidays, it is time to get back on track. This week take a few moments to review the 5 Basic Nutritional Habits:

1. Eat Slowly and to 80% Full
2. Eat 1 Serving of Lean Protein with each meal (animal of vegetable based protein)
3. Eat 2-3 Servings of Vegetables per Meal. Include some Fruit (1 serving = 1/2 cup/ 1 fist size)
4. Consume Starchy Carbs only After Exercise if You Want to Lose Fat (potatoes, rice, bread, pasta)
5. Focus on Healthy Fats (nuts, seeds, eggs, avocado, fatty fish, olives)

Next pick 1 and only 1 of the habits to focus on this week. Trying to do too many new things at once can lead to feeling overwhelmed, deprived, and frustrated all of which can lead to noncompliance. Keep it simple and do your best each day. Don’t beat yourself up if you mess up a little. It’s ok. Just get a little better each day. Stick with this habit for 1-2 weeks then add a new habit. Keep rebuilding your habits 1 at a time until you are reacquainted with each one.

If you stuck to your nutritional plan over the holidays. Great Job!!! You’ve truly built up some great nutritional habits.

Keep up the good work and check back on Friday for a new tip that will help keep you moving in the right direction.

If you want help building your own good nutritional habits this year, sign up for our next session starting 1/7/19. Space is limited! Click here to find out more or visit: https://procoach.app/wellnessphx

Eat Your Veggies

Happy December!

Now that we are officially in the holiday season, Jake wanted me to remind you of the importance of eating 5-7 servings of vegetables (and some fruit) every day. A serving equals 1/2 cup or the size of your fist.

Fruits and vegetables are loaded with nutrients that can help fuel you through the hectic and often stressful holiday season.

In addition, vegetables fill you up and can help you eat fewer high calorie foods like cookies, mashed potatoes, and egg nog. Make sure you fill your holiday plate with loads of different colorful veggies.

Vegetables are best raw, steamed, lightly sautéed in avocado oil, or roasted. Avoid veggie dishes swimming in butter (a little is ok) or heavy sauces like cheese or hollandaise.

If you are looking for a delicious dish for your holiday potluck or dinner check out our recipe for Roasted Vegetables.

Give the Gift of Good Health this Holiday Season

This year, give the gift of good health you your friends, family, or to yourself.

Join our exclusive nutritional coaching program and get started on the path to becoming the healthiest you, you can be.

This program includes daily lessons designed to help build healthy habits that will last a lifetime as well as personal guidance from me, your nutrition coach (and cheerleader).

This is not a diet or a gimmick, it is a program based on scientific research and years of program testing. This is not, a quick fix either. We will spend 12 months building the habits and knowledge you need to be successful. It will take time and effort on your part, but the results will be worth it and can last a lifetime.

This holiday season make the commitment to take charge and invest in a healthier you!

Sign Up Now!

I’m limiting the number of enrollees to 15 to ensure everyone gets the personalized attention they deserve. While this is great news for your success, it also means spaces will fill up quickly. Response to the program so far has been amazing, and I expect slots to fill up quickly. Don’t miss out on your chance to get in your best shape!

Register Now!!!

Good Nutrition is the Best Holiday Gift

If you are like many of my clients, you let your nutritional and fitness goals lapse during the holiday season. If I had a dollar for every time I heard, “I’ll get back on track (or start) after the holidays,” I wouldn’t need to work.

But the fact of the matter is, the holidays are the perfect time to start practicing good nutritional habits. Even a few small modifications to your diet (think eating slowly and eating to 80% full as opposed to stop eating carbs) can help you maintain your weight and health through the holidays and prepare you for a bigger commitment when the new year starts. For more on this topic check out this earlier post, Build a Foundation for a Healthy New Year.

Hiring a nutritional coach is the best way to get started on building healthy nutritional habits through the holidays. A coach can help you create a set of habits tailored to your specific challenges and offer support and guidance along the way.

Because I know the holidays bring additional expenses, I am offering my self guided nutritional plan for $60/per month! That’s a $10 discount. This special price is available for a limited time only. The price will go up January 1st, 2019! Typically this plan is self guided with no coaching feedback, however as a special bonus, I am including personalized biweekly messages for feedback and support to help keep you on track and ensure you get the best results possible.

This holiday season give yourself a gift and invest in your health. When your are healthy, happy, and feeling great your family, friends, and coworkers benefit too! It is the gift that keeps on giving to EVERYONE!

Remember, this offer only lasts through 2018, starting January 1,2019 the cost of the program goes up and the personal messages go away. Subscribe now, to get started! You will be glad you did!

Self Guided Nutrition Plan

Holiday Special – $60.00/month Invest in your health this holiday season.

$60.00

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook and have a happy healthy day!

Create Your Monthly Action Plan

As we head into the busy holiday season, it can be easy to lose track of your goals.

Take some time over the next few days to create a plan of action of steps you can take to move in the direction of your goals this month. They do not need to be big steps, often baby steps are the best way to get closer to your goals.

Good luck and have fun!

If you need help creating your action plan, I would love to help. Email me at: achievewellness@ymail.com for a complimentary 15 minute strategy session.

Don’t Let the Hectic Holidays Get in the Way of Your Fitness Goals

As we enter the holiday season, it can be difficult to stay on track with your workouts. Shopping, holiday parties, and travel can all get in the way of your normal fitness routine.

This season make a commitment to maintaining the health and fitness progress you have made. Make it a goal to do some form of exercise at least 4 days per week. Remember, you don’t need the gym to stay in shape and you don’t need to spend hours training.

This article from Precision Nutrition details a terrific whole body workout that can be done in as little as 10 minutes at home (or on the road) with minimal equipment:

how-to-stay-in-shape-when-you_re-busy-infographic-tablet.pdf

The big key through the holidays is to keep moving. You don’t have to be perfect just do a little each day!

Until next time, have a happy, healthy day!

Start Practicing Good Nutritional Habits Now to Prevent Holiday Weight Gain

It’s the first week of September and while it may seem a bit early to start talking about the holidays (and the dreaded holiday weight gain/nutritional slump), NOW is the perfect time to start practicing good nutritional habits that can help keep you on track with your healthy eating plan through the holidays.

For most of us, the holidays bring a plethora of delicious treats and foods we love. Whether its turkey and stuffing, pumpkin pie, gingerbread man cookies, or a big helping of turducken there is always something to delight our tastebuds. The good news is, it is ok to enjoy your favorite holiday foods, so long as you do so in moderation.

Over the next few weeks, we are going to build up a set of habits that will allow you to enjoy with holidays without feeling deprived but still keeping your healthy eating in check.

The first “habit” I am going to interlude to you is portion size. In a world of super-sized everything it can be tough to know what an appropriate portion size looks like.

This infographic from Precision Nutrition will help you learn what a portion should look like without having to carry around a scale and measuring cups.

Get familiar with it, download it if you need to, and over the next few week practice this method proper portion sizing. Keep your food choices the same as you normally would, you don’t need to worry about limiting or removing food right now. As always if the portions leave you feeling stuffed or uncomfortable adjust them down as necessary.

Learning a new skill can be hard, so go easy on yourself especially if you are new to monitoring your portions. Allow yourself to make a few mistakes and try to improve your habit a little bit each day.

Have fun, play and enjoy the process!

the-best-calorie-control-guide-infographic-tablet.pdf

If you want more information on what good nutritional habits you can develop to help you lose weight, look fabulous, and feel more energetic, I can help.

Contact me for a complimentary 15 minute nutritional review at achievewellness@ymail.com.