Metabolic Renewal Phase 1

Since I reached my goal weight in 2015 I seem to have hit a brick wall on my journey. From the gallbladder attacks to increased menstrual issues my body is fighting me all the way. The scale keeps going up and I can't seem to find a way to turn things around.

Metabolic Renewal appeared in my email from a couple of people so I checked it out.  This program is designed to help women get their hormones in check through diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes, some components I hadn't heard about before.

I'd seen of some programs that focus on exercising LESS rather than MORE. Metabolic Renewal has 3 HIIT workouts per week (~2 min warmup, ~15 min workout, & ~5 min burnout).  The other days are filled with your choice of light activity (i.e. walking, yoga, Pilates, swimming, etc.), anything that doesn't get your heart rate up.  Metabolic Renewal a rest based training program where you do the exercise until you can't and rest until you can, picking back up wherever they are on the video workout.

The biggest challenge for me on this program is the nutritional piece.  According to the hormones quiz I'm estrogen dominant.  Following the Metabolic Renewal Meal Plan this means I'm to only have carbs at dinner.  This is a big change for me as I normally have carbs all day long!  Also, like the keto and paleo diets, there is no dairy (although butter is allowed as a healthy fat), because of the hormones that can be introduced from milk.  I do allow myself a little dairy with my salad dressing since I haven't found any without milk/cheese that I enjoy.

Along with the physical measurements, Metabolic Renewal has you monitoring your sleep, hunger, mood, energy, and cravings (SHMEC).  My period came the second week and on top of that there have been issues with Austin and at work.  So all of that compounded into a heightened emotional state, screwing up the improvements I'd made.

It's been a tough mental challenge for me to make these kinds of changes in both what I eat and my workouts.  It's forcing me to eat veggies with every meal so I may need to introduce more of them into my diet before burning out on the ones I'm currently eating.  I've started eating eggs (for many years I couldn't even stand their smell) loaded with veggies and spices. 

Includes some of the foods I eat

So what do my breakfasts look like without carbs?

• Smoothie: protein powder (15-25g protein, less than 6g carbs, 2g dietary fiber), chia seeds, hemp seeds, low to moderate glycemic fruit, and a green veggie.
• 3 eggs with veggies, spices, and bee pollen.
• Some other protein with veggies (if chicken it's half a breast).

Benny doesn't like this program because of the number of containers that have to be loaded into the dishwasher packing 10 meals for work! LOL

Have you ever done a program like this before?

Sassy September Slimdown: Introduction

If you are looking to add lean strong muscle to your body, as well as boosting your strength, then Sassy September Slimdown is for you! This challenge is ideal for women who would like a dedicated strength and muscle building program that delivers real results. Within this challenge, you will find the key information and resources that you will need for sustainable and effective muscle building. Apply this and stay consistent to it and you will achieve great results.

Below you will find some further details on what to consider during the challenge.

Nutrition

The primary goal of the Sassy September Slimdown is to ensure you gain lean muscle mass every month. This means you do not need to gain excessive body fat with this process. 

To ensure your body only adds lean muscle, your diet will play an important factor throughout this challenge. You can do all the training in the world to add muscle to your body, but if you don’t support it via nutrition optimally, you will see poor results. 

An important aspect to get right is to understand how much you are eating on a consistent basis. Therefore, our primary goal for this challenge is to calculate how many calories you need to consume daily. We also know the importance of how your daily protein, carbohydrate and fat intake are too, so that must be calculated before starting. You will find more info on how to do this soon.  

The meal planner provided is to give you a basic structure and an ideal template to follow. Use the suggested meals from it to create great tasting food every day. You don’t need to eat every meal suggested on this plan; it’s simply a template for you to use to guide your daily decisions and choices. 

Make sure you create great tasting, varied and nutritious meals. Don’t just eat a plain chicken breast with some boring veg, spice it up and get creative with it all. You know you have got this right when you actually look forward to your meals and enjoy eating.

So, without starting out too complicated, I want you to focus on the following: 

1. Calculate your recommended calorie and macronutrient intake
2. Aim to be within 5% of your recommended macronutrient intake daily
3. Use a food tracker such as www.MyFitnessPal.com to record and track 

Training

The Sassy September Slimdown has been created to optimize muscle building and strength. It is simple yet highly effective, and it’s recommended that you stick to it as closely as possible. A key component to it will be ensuring you are progressing on a weekly basis. Along with the addition of some advanced muscle building techniques, this creates the perfect muscle-building environment. 

Also to consider is your rest and recovery rate, as this is also critical to your results. You do have to train hard and heavy to add lean muscle mass, but you must also learn how to recover from this type of training too. When you can find the perfect balance between intense training and recovery, you will see the best progress. This means reducing or limiting any cardio or extra exercise as much as possible during this program. So be sure to train as hard as you can when required, and then get plenty of rest in-between. 

When it comes to the Sassy September Slimdown, quality over quantity is the motto. 

In this challenge you will also receive a training planner, which outlines an ideal template for the suggested workouts. Just like with the nutrition plan this doesn’t need to be set in stone for your success. It can and likely should be adjusted to suit your routine and schedule. 

Lifestyle

We have already put into place the most important factors for your success. So, for the mean time, I simply want you to focus on the above and make those consistent changes to your current routine. But aiming for 7-8 hours of quality sleep each night and finding some time to unwind or relax daily will greatly improve your health and wellbeing too.

Participation

To participate in the Sassy September Slimdown you will need to be a member of the Brand New ME Community on Facebook.  Join today and get to know our little family ahead of the challenge.  Stick around afterwards and enjoy the support and community to help you continue on your journey to reach your health and fitness goals.

Exercise: The Ultimate Stress-Reliever

Perhaps it’s the result of having a new job, a new partner, or a new baby. You are overwhelmed with a feeling of excitement. Yet, you feel inadequate as well. As a result, you are under a tremendous amount of stress. At times, you might feel as if there’s no relief in sight—as if you’re on a treadmill which shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

However, the secret to effectively dealing with the stress may be to get your body onto an actual treadmill. Exercise can be the key to stress relief. It’s an obvious antidote to fatigue. It can make you feel more energetic, improving your strength and resiliency. It has been shown that individuals who are more physically fit often experience fewer health troubles. In addition, exercisers are less likely to suffer from psychological problems such as depression, binge eating, or insomnia.

Without exercise, you are increasing the likelihood that you will be afflicted with colds, flu, or other medical problems. Aerobic exercise in particular can improve your cardiovascular system and decrease your anxiety level. Some studies have shown that, during aerobic exercise, a chemical is produced in the brain which helps to heal the body from stress-related conditions. You should exercise at least three days a week for 30 minutes at a time in order to improve not only your health but your mental outlook.

If you find it difficult to become motivated to exercise, there are a number of steps you can take. To begin with, you can join a gym. Knowing that you’ll have to pay monthly fees may make it more likely that you will actually end up exercising. You might also consider enlisting the aid of a personal trainer. A trainer can provide powerful motivation, pushing you to complete exercises you never thought possible. Another idea is to join an exercise class. There, you’ll meet other people who are in a similar position. The camaraderie that develops between exercisers can help to reduce your stress level.

In general, exercise should make you feel less anxious. Your muscles become less tense and you will be less shaky after a round of exercise. It has also been shown that exercise leads to an hour and a half to two hours of relaxation response. This has also been referred to as the endorphin response. As a result, your mood will improve, enabling you to deal more effectively with stress.

Exercise can also improve your self-image. You’ll experience greater self-worth, which will, in turn, reduce your stress level. A confident person is an individual who knows how to handle stress without becoming flustered. As a result of exercise, you may also end up eating better. Your improved menu may also prove to be a stress reliever. For instance, if you give up caffeinated drinks, you might become less jittery.

In addition to your sessions in the gym, you should be looking for additional opportunities to be active. This could mean taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking to work instead of driving, or playing touch football in the backyard with your children. The point is to get moving—and keep moving—at every available opportunity.

Exercise quickens the blood flow to your mind, offering the brain additional sugars and oxygen which can be important if you are concentrating. Exercise can also clear out waste products from the brain which can result in unclear thinking. You will also feel a greater sense of well-being as a result of exercise.

As has been shown here, exercise is beneficial for both the body and the mind. As a result, it can relax you when other techniques fail. By engaging in exercise, you free up your mind, enabling you to concentrate better and work more efficiently. Chances are you will not only feel better, you will look better as well. With your brain under control, you should experience less stress. Granted, exercise takes time and requires discipline, but it is well worth the exertion. The good feelings you get from a powerful workout can actually last for days. You may find that you actually look forward to working out because of the tremendous benefits it brings with it.

What is your favorite exercise to overcome stress?

How Hormones Affect Your Energy and Weight

Are willpower and self-control the real solution to low energy and high weight?

Maybe not.  It might be your powerful hormones.

And we’re not just talking about sex hormones here; we’re talking about the hormones that directly affect your blood sugar, metabolism, and appetite. Things that control your energy and weight.

Let’s go over a few of the critical links between your hormones, and how they affect your energy and weight. The links may be stronger than you think.

What are hormones?

Having healthy, happy hormones is all around the “health waves” these days.

And for good reason! Your hormones are part of the master control system of your entire body.
Hormones are compounds made by one part of the body that are used to communicate with another part. For example, insulin is made in the pancreas. When your blood sugar gets too high, insulin is released into the bloodstream. Then, it goes to your muscles and other cells to tell them to absorb that sugar out of the blood (and if there is still too much blood sugar, it signals to store it as fat).

Your hormones control not only your blood sugar, but also your metabolism and appetite (plus a host of other things). And you probably know that having healthy blood sugar, metabolism and appetite is a foundation for your optimal energy and weight.

So, how can your hormones get out of whack to zap your energy and pile up the pounds?

Common Hormonal Imbalances

In optimal health, your hormones would work great, and you’d have ample energy and be a good healthy weight.

But often there are problems with this whole setup. One common issue is that there may be too much or too little hormone released to have the desired effect. This is known as hypo- or hyper- “hormone” (i.e. hypo- or hyperthyroidism).

Another common issue is that, even if the right amount of hormone is released, the cells they communicate with can start ignoring them. This is known as hormone “resistance” (i.e. insulin resistance).

As you can imagine, if your hormones have such critical jobs, including controlling blood sugar, metabolism and appetite, they can cause issues with your energy and weight.

Hormones & Energy

Your metabolism is key for controlling your energy. Metabolism itself is basically how much energy (calories) you burn. One of the main players of this is...you guessed it! Your thyroid hormones.

Your thyroid releases hormones that affect the metabolism of all the cells in your body. If it’s too low and your metabolism goes down (hypothyroid), you may feel cold, hungry and tired. If it’s too high and your metabolism is too fast (hyperthyroid), you may feel hot, jittery and lose weight.

What you want is an ideal metabolism, ideal energy use, ideal temperature, and an ideal weight. Your thyroid hormones are the master controller here.

Hormones & Weight

Your weight may be controlled by hormones more than you think! Insulin controls your blood sugar, and whether that sugar is going to be stored as fat or not. And when your blood sugar is too low, you may start craving sugar and carbs.

You also have hormones that control your appetite! How hungry and how full you feel are controlled by the hormones ghrelin & leptin. When those get out of whack, you may find yourself wanting to eat because your body thinks you’re hungry and not satisfied...even if that’s not true.

And craving food (especially sugary ones) and not feeling full are going to be huge drives for you to eat more. Even if your body doesn’t truly need it, the hormonal signals tell you that you do.
And don’t forget that stress hormone cortisol. When it’s too high for too long, it tells your body to store fat. And not just any fat - belly fat!

What You Can Do

Your body is very complex and uses hormones to control a substantial number of functions. They control your blood sugar, metabolism, and appetite, among others. And these directly affect how much energy you feel, how much you weigh, and even where your body fat is stored.

Here are a few “hormone stabilizing” tips that might help you with your energy and weight:

• Get regular exercise to use up excess blood sugar before your insulin has your body store it as fat
• Try stress-relieving activities like deep breathing, meditation or even coloring to reduce your (belly-fat inducing) cortisol
• Support your thyroid with iodine-containing sea vegetables, fish, legumes, or even an egg
• Balance your blood sugar with extra fiber from raspberries, avocados, or flax seeds
• Reduce blood sugar spikes by replacing your juice or soda with fruit-infused water

If you need some support with your energy levels and/or weight, contact me (your wellness coach) for a free strategy session to see how I can help you.

REFERENCES

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/fast-weight-loss-changes-hunger-hormones
http://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-thyroid
https://authoritynutrition.com/9-fixes-for-weight-hormones/

How to Lose Weight with Kettlebells

Kettlebell training has many different advantages and lets you train your body from different angles and in a far more functional range of motion.  But what’s great about the kettlebell is how versatile it is as a tool and how it allows you to develop your fitness and health in numerous ways.

If you want to build bodybuilder-type muscle, then you can do so by using single joint isolation movements and heavy resistance.  This will create muscle fiber tears, flood your muscles with metabolites and generally help you to encourage more growth.  At the same time though, you can also use a kettlebell to lose weight and it happens to be particularly well suited to that goal.  Let’s look at how you might do that.

The Exercises

The great thing about the kettlebell is that it allows you to perform resistance cardio.  This means you are doing cardiovascular training that increases your heart rate and helps you to burn fat.  At the same time though, you are also lifting weight, which protects your muscle from breakdown and increases the challenge, thereby increasing the amount of calories burned and the amount of effort involved.  The kettlebell also allows you to train on the spot and without a lot of tools. Unlike running, you can enjoy kettlebell training anywhere and anytime.

To get the very most of this, you can combine the kettlebell with the HIIT modality.  HIIT is ‘high intensity interval training’ – a form of exercise that challenges you to alternate between brief bursts of high intensity exertion and shorter periods of relatively steady-state exercise.  For example, you might perform the kettlebell swing for 1 minute and then rest for 30 seconds before going again.  The kettlebell swing is an ideal movement for resistance cardio that involves swinging the kettlebell between your legs and then straight back up in the air using a slight hip thrust movement to provide the forward momentum.

The Diet

To lose weight, kettlebell training must be combined with the right type of diet, one that is relatively low in calories.  The objective is to burn more calories in a day than you consume.  So, if you normally burn 2,000 calories and consume 2,200 calories, you can increase that burn to 2,400 doing kettlebell training and you can then reduce the amount you eat to 2,100 calories.  Now you’re losing 300 calories every day!

Try to eat more protein and you will support more muscle growth while reducing fat storage.  Combine this with 4 workouts a week, lasting about 20 minutes each, and you should start to see the results you’re looking for using just this one tool and one movement.

Remember though, weight loss is only achievable if you change your entire lifestyle and habits.  It is not enough to simply add in an exercise and forget about it!  Walk more, spend less time in front of the TV and reduce unhealthy snacks.

10 Ways Exercise Boosts Your Self Confidence

All of us want to feel good about ourselves. When we are confident, we feel better emotionally and mentally and this reflects in a very positive way in our behaviors, and improves our quality of life, everything from personal relationships to our professional endeavors.

Therefore, anything, which can help boost our self-confidence, is good for us. One of the best ways to boost your self-confidence is by exercising regularly. This not only good for self-assurance but has great health benefits.

So how can exercise boost self-confidence? Let me count the ways...

• Weight Control. Exercising along with healthy eating is the best way to control or lose weight. This is all about energy intake and energy burning. Obviously, if you burn more energy than you take in then you will lose weight. Being overweight can be a confidence destroyer. Therefore the better shape you are, the better you will feel.

• Improves mood. There's nothing better emotionally than a good workout. Before you think that this requires a trip to the gym, think again. A good workout could be a brisk walk, or a jog. In fact, anything that makes your body work physically harder can be a workout. What this does is to stimulate brain chemicals like dopamine and serotonin, which promote a general feeling of well-being. The results are a reduction in stress and anxiety.

• It's good for the heart. Regular exercising lowers the risk of various heart-related conditions. Exercising has been proven to lower blood pressure, reduce problems associated with diabetes and can even help in fighting heart disease. This is quite logical – if exercising reduces weight, then this means that the heart has to work less and in turn, the heart is much healthier. There is also less pressure on joints and other areas of the body.

• Keeps the body in shape. This is slightly different from weight control. Being is shape involves having a well-toned body and better posture – all aspects connected with self-confidence. When a person feels good about himself, it's easier to make friends and more connections in life means more confidence.

• More energy. If we don't have the energy to do things, then everything becomes a chore. That can lead to feelings of feeling bad about oneself. Regular exercise helps the whole body work more effectively. The result is that chores become responsibilities and the more responsibility we are coping with, the better we feel.

• Better sleep. Regular exercise promotes good sleep. It is proven that sleep is necessary for general feelings of well-being. Sleep is also necessary for how we look. Just imagine preparing for an important meeting and looking in the mirror and seeing dark circles under bloodshot eyes – how confident will you feel? Therefore, exercising will improve sleep. One word of warning – just don't exercise too near bedtime.

• Improves productivity. One of the best ways to clear the mind is to exercise regularly. Exercise gives you a chance to wipe the slate clean and start from new. In addition, if you push yourself exercising you can realize new potentials and this in turn boosts self-confidence. Very often, what you thought was a major problem before exercising disappears after.

• Give you something to look forward to. Once you have a reasonable schedule for exercising, you will start to look forward to it. This in itself is a confidence booster. Once you start seeing the benefits of exercising, you will have the desire to continue and in the end, you feel better and look better.

• Improves concentration. In general exercising helps us to develop the necessary skills to concentrate on the task in hand. This then trains us better when we have tasks or responsibilities to concentrate better, resulting in more praise and benefits.

• Feelings of control and achievement. In general, exercising has so many benefits to health and mind that we can't help having a feeling of control and achievement. Working out takes work, dedication, commitment, and care for oneself, and all this facilitates enormous feelings of confidence.

Don’t Wait! Get Started Today!

Try incorporating regular exercising into your routine and you will experience the many benefits to your self-confidence that regular exercising gives.

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane

The alignment was right within Canva but when I save the file the title shifts...

Benny's mother is sick so we're making the trip to Germany to visit her and the rest of his family.  I really wanted Austin to join us, especially since it's over his spring break, but I'm not sure it would've worked out.  So many factors come into play from cost, to getting my ex to comply, to the logistics of it all.

This is my first time on an airplane since the ex and I went to California in 99.  It's also my first time traveling overseas.  On top of that, now that I know some of the incompetence in the aircraft manufacturing industry...well, it kinda makes me want to obtain a list of manufacturers for all the components on the plane to see whether or not I trust that certain critical parts were made correctly.

Travel Arrangements

The grand adventure begins Tuesday when we ride the Greyhound bus to New York.  You may be asking why we're not flying or driving ourselves this leg of the trip.  It's straight up the cost...about an extra $400 on round trip airfare or one way car rental.  I have plenty of vacation time (and will get my next batch in May) so this trip will hopefully allow me to relax a bit.

We arrive very early Wednesday morning, giving us almost 15 hours in the city before the flight to Berlin takes off.  So what are we supposed to do with our luggage and what will we do to kill all that time?  If you have any recommendations please be sure to let me know.  The flight to Berlin is non-stop so that'll be smooth sailing.  We'll pick up a rental car at the airport (most likely) and head to a bank to exchange currency before driving to Benny's brother's house where we'll be staying.

We'll head back home a couple of weeks later but we have about a 9 hour layover in Lisbon.  Also looking for recommendations as to what to do there.  We didn't book the Greyhound back in case there are any flight delays that would stop us from being in line with the bus departure times.

Fitting in Fitness

Benny says they don't have gyms there like they have here (whatever that means LOL) so I'll have to improvise with workouts.  I'm bringing the resistance band set for strength training and plan to take walks throughout the neighborhood or wherever else we end up going.  How do you like to fit in fitness when you travel?

Healthy Eating?

I have no idea what food options I'll have while overseas.  As I don't speak the language (Benny's family speaks some English but it's rusty) so he'll have to interpret most conversations and translate the menus for me.  I've only met his parents so I don't know anything about how the rest of Benny's family cooks or eats.  My tub of Chocolate Brownie PlantFusion is already packed in the suitcase along with a shaker cup so at least I know I'll have something healthy.  We're still sorting out what we're bringing for the bus ride.

Adventure awaits!

Yoga vs. Pilates

While both yoga and Pilates take an integrated mind-body approach to fitness and well-being, their origins, approach to these objectives and methods differ greatly.

The emergence of mind-body classes like PiYo and Yogilates can make it difficult for people to distinguish between the two. Although the two can be pursued as complementary activities or integrated into one style, like PiYo, they are not the same.

It can be beneficial to practice each independent of the other and which one you practice depends on what you want to achieve.

The Origins

Yoga

Yoga is a spiritual practice with a physical aspect. It evolved in India 3,000 to 5, 000 years ago. Yogis, people who practice yoga, use breath work (pranayama), physical poses (asanas), meditation (dhyana) and personal practices to pursue the full integration of mind, body and spirit or samadhi. Samadhi refers to attaining the state of enlightenment, bliss, or union with the divine.

Pilates

Pilates emerged in the late 1900s, introduced to the world by its namesake, Joseph Pilates. Pilates developed his method as part of his efforts to heal himself. He suffered from physical weaknesses, rheumatic fever, asthma, and rickets, during his childhood. In his efforts to cure himself, he studied Eastern and Western forms of exercise, Greek and Roman exercise practices like wrestling, gymnastics and calisthenics as well as yoga.

How Yoga & Pilates Differ

In general, Western yoga practitioners are most familiar with the physical postures of yoga. Asanas, are only one component of an extensive system of philosophy, spiritual practices, and science. The poses are intended to build strength in the body and encourage mental focus. The asanas develop and strengthen every part of the body, joints, muscles, organs, glands, bones, and metabolism.

During yoga, the breathing is deep and continuous linked to each movement and asana throughout the practice. Yoga’s extensive and currently exponential growth in popularity in Europe, the United States, and Canada supports the development of a broad range of yoga asana styles, including the more popular styles:

• Ashtanga
• Vinyasa
• Anusara
• Hot Yoga
• Yoga Therapy
• Restorative
• Chair Yoga
•  Bikram

How Pilates Differs

 

Pilates differs from yoga in several ways. Both yoga and Pilates focus on integrating the mind and body, but Pilates does not include any spiritual pursuits. It does generally increase practitioners’ sense of well-being, but this is not its primary purpose.

Pilates also takes a less organic approach to movement. All Pilates exercises extend from the body’s core, also called the powerhouse. The powerhouse spans the center of the body from the pelvic floor to the top of the shoulders.

Pilates practitioners focus on stabilizing the powerhouse and allowing other limbs to move freely to guide the body through the Pilates regimen of movements. Pilates also incorporates the use of exercise machines to offer support and take muscles through their full range of motion with optimal levels of extension and contraction.

During Pilates, the breath is coordinated with the execution of each exercise. The primary focus of each move in Pilates is perfect execution, versus repetition of any particular move.

The Mindfulness Element of Yoga

Overall, yoga offers more than 60 different health benefits for mind, body, and soul. It reaches into every aspect on one’s life and goes way beyond fitness and physical achievement. For example, the mindfulness approach taught in yoga that is not a part of Pilates helps one to improve many elements of life, including weight loss, where you're getting in touch with the true needs of the body, such as hunger helps to reduce incidence of emotional eating or eating for any other reason but hunger.

The mindfulness aspect of yoga can be viewed as “life skills” training. In addition, this training can help deter many emotional and mental health problems, and the associated physical manifestations that result from them. Mindfulness during yoga brings calm and peace to your mind, body, and life. Through the process, you become more in touch with how you really feel, and that includes symptoms of stress. Such a heightened state of awareness allows you to better manage the triggers and affects that stress can have, thereby allowing you to avoid its serious health complications.

Many scientific studies have demonstrated the practice of mindfulness to have impressive and wide reaching benefits, including:

• Greater sense of well-being
• Stress and anxiety reduction
•  Better mood
• Reducing risks for depression
• Better immunity
• Better social relationships
• Improved cognition, memory and focus
• Improved awareness of oneself
• Improved ability to make decisions
• Improved sleep
• Reduction in chronic pain
• Lower blood pressure and reduction in risk for heart disease
• More enjoyment of life in general
• Overall improvement in quality of life

So Why Choose?

While yoga and Pilates provide similar benefits, a strong and toned body, endurance and a sense of well-being, their end goals differ. Pilates focuses on strengthening and rehabilitating the body for optimal physical health; the mind or will is employed to achieve this goal. Yoga's physical postures and breath exercises strengthen the body and discipline the mind in preparation for meditation and spiritual evolution.

In short, Pilates is outwardly focused and yoga is inwardly focused.

Making the choice between doing Pilates and practicing yoga comes down to one of intentions. If the intention is simply to form a strong and balanced body, Pilates will serve. If the intention is to achieve a strong and balanced physical body while gaining mental and spiritual benefits, pursue yoga. If both outcomes seem like something you would like to experience, try them both and see which one you find most accessible and beneficial. It just may turn out that you are not willing to let either one go.

Do you prefer yoga or Pilates?  What's your favorite style of yoga?

6 Ways Women 50+ Can Benefit from Pilates

Pilates is a type of anaerobic exercise that is designed to increase the strength and flexibility of your core muscles.  The beauty of Pilates is that it can be done by just about anyone at any fitness level (see me & Pilates on Facebook).  It involves very little in the way of exercise equipment and can be done anywhere.

Pilates isn’t just for the young, athletic person.  Because it doesn’t put undue strain on the heart, it can safely be done by older adults, including those over the age of 50.  It can improve the health of woman over 50 and doesn’t take a heavy toll on the body.

There are many reasons why Pilates can be a good exercise for women over the age of 50 years of age.  Some of these benefits include the following:

1. Pilates involves an invigorating mind-body workout. Pilates places a heavy emphasis on using proper breathing techniques, aligning your spine correctly, and keeping your pelvic aligned.  It involves concentrating on flowing, smooth movements that help you become more in tune to your mind and body.  When you do Pilates, you learn to control your movements by practicing quality exercises that focus on the core.  There is a focus on breathing to the tune of your movements so that you can use your power to efficiently move your body.  By being a mind-body workout, Pilates teaches you how to breathe better, which can be great for women who are under a great deal of stress.
2. Pilates helps you develop strong core muscles. Much of the focus in Pilates is the strengthening of the core of your body.  The core of your body is the central part of your body—both the abdominal muscles and the back muscles.  Pilates helps you strengthen these muscles so that you can move with ease as you go about your day with complete control over these essential core muscles.  Pilates can help you find integration between your pelvis, trunk, and shoulder muscles so that they function as a strong unit.
3. Pilates helps increase flexibility and allows your muscles to lengthen.  Many anaerobic workouts, such as weight lifting or using weight machines will only lead to muscles that are bulky and short.  These muscles tend to be more likely to be injured and aren’t the kind of muscles you want to have.  Instead of bulky “body-building muscles”, Pilates helps you elongate your muscles, strengthening them at the same time.  Your muscles will become more elastic and you will have increased flexibility of your joints. When you achieve these kinds of muscles, you are less likely to become injured.
4. Pilates can help you prevent muscle injuries and can improve your performance in other sports. Most other anaerobic workouts work the same muscles over and over again, such as the biceps muscles or quadriceps muscles.  Sometimes these muscles are exercised to the exclusion of other muscles.  You can easily over-strengthen certain muscles, while other muscles are under-strengthened.  In Pilates, all the core muscles are strengthened at the same time so that you have a decreased chance of becoming injured while working out or by doing your ordinary activities of daily living.
5. Pilates conditions the entire body. In doing Pilates, you strengthen not only your core muscles but also strengthen the muscles of your extremities.  Pilates doesn’t emphasize one set of muscles to the exclusion of other muscles.  When you do Pilates, you can function better in daily living and will be better at sports with a decreased chance of becoming injured while doing other types of sports.
6. Pilates helps you move with better efficiency.  When you do Pilates, you train many different muscles at the same time.  Pilates involves doing smooth and continuous motions so that you can train your body to move with more safety, decreasing your risk of falls and the fractures that can come with falling.

As you can see, Pilates is an activity with many benefits for women over 50. If you are interested in doing Pilates as a form of anaerobic exercise, take a Pilates class or purchase a DVD (such as those in my Amazon store below) that will teach you how to safely do the exercises.  You can practice Pilates every day with a low risk of suffering from any kind of overuse injury to your muscles.

Wear A Posture Brace and Make Your Back Worse?

With so many people sitting in front of a computer all day, it makes sense that they will spend a good amount of time seeking out ways to improve posture. They usually start off the same way, trying to remember to have good posture.

When that doesn’t work, they start scouring the internet looking for gadgets that will make them have better posture – and the posture brace will soon look like a tempting option. But don’t make that mistake!

Here’s why a posture brace can’t possibly give you better posture…

Wearing a brace for extended periods of time won’t make your muscles stronger, it will only make them weaker. Sitting in front of a computer all day makes the muscles in the front of your body short and tight, while making the muscles in your back long and weak.

The only way to really make positive posture changes is to stretch the front of the body and strengthen the back, but what do most people do? They pull their heads down and then they bend over to stretch out their back.

They are stretching areas that are already too long!

Then you add in the posture brace. Let’s say your back is functioning at 100% strength and then you add in a support like a brace. It increases the “strength” of your back to 110% and you feel immediately better, so you start wearing the brace all day every day.

Your muscles will begin to weaken at a pace of about 1% each day. Just a week later, you need the brace just to feel like your back is okay. Soon after, you’re fully dependent on the brace just to get through your day and you’re back to the internet to seek other options.

Here’s what you should do instead…

Start working on improving your posture through posture exercises. Not sure where to start? Try doing the opposite of what you do all day. Do you sit hunched and rounded in front of a computer? Then you’ll need to spend time stretching your chest and the front of your body.

A simple and effective exercise is one commonly referred to as the “superman” exercise. That’s when you’re lying face down on the floor with your arms extended in front of you. Then you slowly lift up both arms, both legs, and your head as high as you can go.

Initially, it won’t go well. Your muscles are likely very weak! You’ll be doing great to just get in about ten repetitions of each movement. After a week or so, you should be able to feel that your muscles are getting stronger as you are able to do more reps without taking a break.

The key is to go slowly and build up over time. Doing a little each day is better than trying to do 100 repetitions and then not doing the exercises anymore. It took a while for you to notice that your posture was getting bad because it didn’t happen overnight.

It won’t take years to fix your bad posture, but it will take more than a day!

Dr. Philip Cordova is a chiropractor in Houston, TX and a 1997 graduate of Parker College of Chiropractic. He is a speaker on health and wellness topics with a focus on spinal care and posture. He grew up in Glendale, Arizona and practices with his wife, Dr. Natalie Cordova at CORE Chiropractic. Click Here to Read Dr. Cordova's Full Bio