Fitness & Wellness

The Other Night I Was Putting My 2.5 Year Old, Layna To Bed And It Was The Sweetest Moment 🙂

She hugged me, super tight and I didn’t want to let go.

She kissed me on the lips and I told her, I love you.

She repeated back, “I love you too“, in a whispery voice.

Then she started rubbing the sides of my face every so gently and went on to say:
“Your face is so, so wrinkly.”

It’s dark so you couldn’t see the shock on my face and she continued rubbing my face and said:
“You’ve got a wrinkly face mom.”

Oh that sweet moment suddenly turned into Layna being a little stinker. She is cute, but she is a handful!

I was also trying not to laugh, after all she seemed calm and it’s bedtime. I didn’t want her to get all ornery and start jumping on the bed.

She really is a sweetheart and I love every minute with her…the good and the challenging times too- even is she’s reminding me I am getting some wrinkles 😉

While I know that I am getting older, after all I turned 40 this year and I get constant calls and mail from AARP and Medical Alerts, aging is inevitable too.

But age is just a number.

How you look and feel might not reflect your chronological years.

I would like to think I am aging gracefully. How about you?

Do you ever see former classmates that look like they’ve aged an extra 10 years?

When It Comes To Ageing Gracefully, That’s Where Exercise And Nutrition Come In.

What you eat and how you take care of your body is reflected in your hair, skin, nails, posture, activities, and more.

How you have taken care of yourself, is how you live.

The flip side can be for former athletes who beat their body up for years and are now paying the price with a bad back and weight gain due to depression and lack of activity.

For many it’s one extreme or the other – either they over exercise and beat their body up and it’s going to get angry back …….. or they sit around eating and drinking too much setting the stage for heart attacks and Type II Diabetes..

It’s that American all or nothing mentality;)

I’ve been on both ends of the spectrum. If you recall I am a retired Pro athlete and I retired 10 years ago because I knew I would pay for it later, if I kept going at that pace. I do have days now that my joints remind me of my past flips and tricks. Some days I can start to feel my “age” too.

I have also been a fluffy size 12 eating too much fast food and spending time on the couch. Even over the past 5 years I went through bouts of inactivity.

Then I Got Smarter.

Today, I know I have a balanced food and fitness regimen and it’s what I teach my clients too.

You don’t have to spend hours in the gym or follow restrictive diets.

My most successful clients only exercise 10-30 minutes a day and enjoy their favorite foods. There’s no crazy 100 reps of heavy lifts meant for trained pros, hours running on a hamster wheel, or calorie counting and starvation diets. Just realistic lifestyle habits to for your chaotic life and make sure you fit in your jeans;)

After all, it’s our small daily habits that make us. So if I have some wrinkles on my face from smiling too much, I am okay with that and you should be too!

We are all going to get older, so we hope, but we can age gracefully and enjoy the precious moments in life without spending hours in the gym or sulking on the couch.

The wrinkles will come too, but maybe a little less than our friends because we are nourishing and caring for our body, rather than abusing or neglecting it. I know many people who take better care of their pets, than they do of themselves.

I will embrace my wrinkles, each one at a time, and enjoy all the precious moments in life…..for a long time to come and I hope you do too!

If you’d like to combat aging, improve your mood, and enjoy a healthy life, I’d love to help you too.

Just contact me and let’s come up with a plan that fits your life and your goals:)

Committed to helping you live a healthier & happier lifestyle,
xoxo
-Coach Summer Montabone, CSCS

PS- It doesn’t matter where you are located, my wrinkles and I can coach you virtually too:) If you are already enrolled in one of my programs, then you are good to go, but feel free to email me if you need any extra help!

Weight loss is tough and portions matter if you’re serious about trying to lose weight. While eating raw vegetables probably won’t require you to have portion control, since the amount of fiber in them will fill you up before you add enough calories to make a difference. At one time it was thought that too much fruit had a negative effect, but since, most studies show that again, the fiber content will fill you up before you can eat too much to fill you out. Both of these types of whole foods should be eaten frequently throughout the day. However, for all other foods, portion control counts.

Drinking water before a meal will help with portion control.

Sometimes, the urge to eat doesn’t come from hunger, but dehydration. If you drink plenty of water throughout the day, you’ll probably find you’re less hungry. Also drinking a large glass of water before you eat can make you feel fuller so you want to eat less. Remember to use plain water, or water with a tad of lemon in it, rather than other types of drinks. Soft drinks are filled with extra calories and even diet soda has a negative effect causing weight gain. Stick with a large glass of water before meals and portion control will be easy.

Consider using smaller plates.

It almost seems to simple, but it’s true. Using smaller plates will visually trick you into thinking you ate more than you did. One study showed that people who used larger bowls compared to those given smaller bowls, served themselves 33 percent more food (In the case of the study, it was ice cream). The study also used two different sizes of scoops. Those who had larger scoops served themselves 14% more ice cream. The color of the dishware mattered too. The higher the contrast of the plate to the food, the less was eaten. If you’re eating pasta, don’t use a white plate, but opt for a brightly colored one. For salads and lower calorie foods, blend in with a green plate.

It doesn’t matter whether it says diet, you can’t eat the whole box!

Not only are there plenty of other reasons not to eat special “low calorie diet” foods, one of them is portion control. Just because the box of cookies says it’s lower in calories, it doesn’t mean you can eat the entire box…or maybe two….in one setting. While some natural sugar substitutes, such as Xylitol have some benefits, However, even artificial sweeteners can create that craving for more sugar and make dieting more difficult.

You can eat the same portion of a food if you add more bulk with vegetables. Consider a plate of pasta, now add broccoli, cauliflower or other veggies to it in a 50/50 ratio. When you eat the same portion, you’ll be adding fewer calories while still satisfying your hunger.

Let your clothing be your guide. If you’re wearing sweats to every meal, the chances of overeating are greater than if you’re eating food in form fitting pants. When you feel that snugness from the pants, you’ll have automatic portion control.

Eat slower. The slower you eat, the more time you give your body a chance to signal your brain that you’ve had enough.

Eat more foods that make you work. It’s harder to eat too many pecans when they’re in the shell, requiring you to crack them first.

When you want to achieve your personal best, finding the best possible help can be what you need. I pride myself on working closely with people to help them achieve their goals. It doesn’t matter whether the goal is to become fitter, shed weight or have more energy, my staff and I can help. We assess your overall fitness level, listen to your goals and learn of any special needs before designing a program that will get you to your goal faster than you thought possible. You’ll be working hard, but it also will be fun and within your capabilities.

You can work with a trainer one-to-one or workout in a group.

You’ll get the same expert advice in both cases. When you work in a group, it’s led by a trained professional who adjusts your workout to your fitness level. You’ll get important nutritional advice, too. While you’ll be sharing the trainer’s time, you’ll also be sharing the cost, making a group workout far less expensive. It’s also a blast and provides a great deal of comradery and group encouragement.

Your personal best changes every day.

It doesn’t matter where your starting point is, every day that starting point will be different. While you won’t go from breathing heavily from a five minute cardio workout to running at top speed for 20 minutes overnight, you will see a great deal of improvement, perhaps being able to do that same five minute cardio with ease after just a few weeks. You’ll also see pounds seem to drop off as you build more muscle tissue and learn healthier eating habits.

We won’t give you a diet.

Diets do not work!!! That’s because they always end, either in success or with a dozen donuts. Then you go back to old eating habits that put on weight in the first place. Instead of a diet, we’ll show you how to make smarter choices when it comes to food. Sometimes the calorie savings is small, such as eating whole grain rice rather than white rice, but each small change adds up to big savings. Sometimes it involves learning to cook differently and passing up fried foods for a meal of whole, steamed, grilled or baked foods. While we might give you sample meals until you learn healthier eating, you won’t be left feeling deprived or hungry.

When you combine healthy eating with regular exercise, you watch fat disappear fast. Exercise not only burns calories, it builds muscle tissue and muscle tissue requires more calories than fat tissue does.

We track your progress, which can help you see just how far you’ve come. Since the changes are small each day, sometimes its hard to remember what it was like before you became fitter. Seeing the difference on paper will remind you.

You’ll feel more energetic and want to be more active. That not only improves your social life, it also burns extra calories.

You’ll start to feel better about yourself and as you conquer each battle, have renewed self-assurance you can achieve any goal.