You know how fitness websites will give exercise advice for “older folks” and then show videos of 20-something fitness models demonstrating the recommended moves? Yeah, that can be annoying. Check out my mom (who for my whole childhood I believed to be 29) performing the moves from the Silver Sneakers article 7 Functional Movements Every Older Adult Should Be Able to Do. I want to be just like mom when I grow up!
Hi fitness friends! Join me to get FAST-er:)
I’m on my way to Cambodia for a 15 day cycling adventure! I will miss my clients terribly, but please follow along with these workouts so you don’t have to miss ME at all:)
The name of the game is Cambodia Consistency. The plan is flexible so you can work out in short bursts every day or work out longer a few times per week. A short workout most days beats longer sessions that happen only one or two days. Here’s the play-by-play:
CAMBODIA GAME PLAN:
Step 1: Do two rounds of the Dynamic Warmup and/or walk briskly for five to ten minutes. BW means Body Weight only (no dumbbells).
Lays says: “betcha can’t eat just one”, Pringles says: “once you pop, you can’t stop”.
Trigger foods are those foods that cause us to keep on eating even when we should be full. Case in point: The fact that I can’t stop until I finished the whole damn pint of Ben and Jerry’s, and just maybe one bite of pizza causes me to go on to eat massive quantities of other tasty but evil delights such as chips, cheese, brownies, fritos and cake. I even get crazy cravings the next day after consuming said trigger foods. Duh, my trigger foods of pizza and ice cream are pretty “bad-for-me” foods anyway and hence logically should be avoided if I want to eat healthy, but what about whole grain bread, cereal and greek yogurt? They have a similar trigger effect on my brain. I can easily eat 5 plus slices of bread with butter in one sitting and still not be satisfied. It’s important to figure out your own personal trigger foods and realize what they do to your body and brain. Know that everyone has a unique set of trigger foods (mine are not yours!) and know that these trigger foods can change over time.
Buffer foods are the good guys. They are not necessarily 100% “good for us all the time fat loss friendly” foods but we can taste them in small quantities and our cravings will magically disappear or at least be tempered enough until our next meal when we are legitimately hungry again instead of simply craving. My personal favorites are: one tablespoon of peanut butter, the ME cocoa drink, a square of dark chocolate, BCAAs in water and apples. Each individual must experiment to find his or her own magic buffer foods. A buffer food for one person might be a trigger food for another, and sometimes one of your buffer foods could actually morph into a trigger food, so do your research and watch out!
Experiment to find out how often you need to eat in order to balance your hunger, energy and cravings. If you have no idea where to begin, six meals per day is a good place to start. If I’m out of the house for 6 hours I bring 3 meals with me. I know, that might sounds nuts, but this girl gets hangry! So what if your boyfriend eats three meals per day and refuses to snack in between meals? He is not you. Let your own body tell you when you are hungry and respond only to it.
“So what do YOU eat, Robin?”
Continue reading Nutrition Tip #6: Plan meals and include room for flexibility
I saw About Time on one of the many flights (I had 17 hours to kill) during my spring break journey to Peru and Machu Picchu City. What a heartwarming, good for the soul message it portrays. Tim can travel back in time and change life events. He learns a secret to happiness from his dad, a fellow time-traveler. The quote must be read in a British accent with a half-smile:
Nutrition Tip #5: Supplements: BCAAs, Greens Powder, Protein Powder
Check out my favorite supplements to use along with (as opposed to instead of) a healthy nutrition program:
Nutrition tip #4: Eat whole, unprocessed food as much as possible
Eating mainly whole foods sensitizes the palette and make us crave the good-for-us stuff, eventually snowballing into a perfect-for-you nutrition program.
In bed? Sure, but also in the kitchen…
Nutrition tip #3: Spice things up — add a variety of spices and homemade sauces
Protein and vegetables again, you say? Even though eating meat and veggies at every meal makes my body feel so good, it can totally get old. Adding sauces and spices to our food will ensure that our brains and palettes will not get bored. I’ll typically make a batch of sauce at the beginning of the week and use the same one for many different meals. For chicken, eggs, salad, veggies, rice, etc. Then I make sure to choose a different sauce the following week. Here are some ideas:
Nutrition Tip #2: Eat vegetables at breakfast (“you eat broccoli for breakfast?!?”) and throughout the day.
My family spent Christmas 2014 at a villa on the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The house was fantastic. We cooked our own breakfast each day since the house had a fabulous full kitchen. My breakfast consisted of a protein shake (or eggs) and always a big bowl of steamed broccoli. My mom was shocked, “You eat broccoli… for breakfast?!?” but then intrigued “Hey, I’m gonna try that!”, and finally converted “It’s delicious! And satisfying!”.
Robin Hersh Fitness 