Top Women’s Vitamins

Ok, so you know Vitamins and Minerals are important. Most every woman knows that.

However, not everyone understands WHY they are so important for their body. So I recently asked Registered Dietitian Jayson Hunter to give us the easy rundown on the Top Women’s Vitamins. Here’s what he had to say:

Vitamin A – This vitamin contributes to the health of you eyes, skin and nails.

Vitamim B – While B Vitamins are often referred to as “energy vitamins” they don’t actually give you a surge of energy, per se. What they actually do is help facilitate metabolic reaction in the body to create energy. They’re also necessary for a  healthy metabolism.

Vitamin C – This women’s vitamin is a great antioxidant and immune system booster. It also helps skin health.

Vitamin D – Helps women absorb calcium. And it may help prevent certain types of cancer.

calcium – It’s actually a mineral not a vitamin. And as most women know already, it improves bone density.

Pretty simple, right? But you can also see why it’s so important to understand vitamins for women. When we understand the reasons to make healthier choices it helps us make them.

Now, I get asked all the time by women which vitamin supplements, if any, they need to be taking. Great question.

Well, if your nutrition is 100% perfect all the time then you probably don’t need to take any.

But that’s not the case for most women. Most women are busy and don’t always find the time for proper nutrition. So if that’s the case with you I recommend taking a Whole Foods based Multi-Vitamin. And the only one I recommend is Prograde Nutrition’s VGF 25+ for Women.

It’s actually really cool because it’s literally made from 25 veggies, greens and fruits. You should definitely check out Prograde’s Women’s Vitamins  At the very top of the page is the list of ingredients. You can see the 25 whole foods they use to make VGF 25+ for Women.

Hugs~~

Coach Angela
Pretty cool, huh? The nutrition of 25 whole foods in a bottle!

Bust That Plateau

Monday evening, I had the pleasure of speaking on the Ultimate Homeschool Expo show. If you missed it, you can still purchase tickets to the expo and hear over 100 speakers. Much more affordable than a regular conference and you can wear your pajamas! Woot!

During the call, I had an interesting question asked by Cindy Rushton. She asked, “What do you do when someone hits a plateau?” It’s an important question because plateaus are common and can be rather de-motivating for someone trying to lose weight.

Before I tell you what I do for clients that hit a plateau, let me explain what it is. Our bodies are so wonderfully made that it works hard at keeping the amount of energy consumed in balance with the amount of energy we use. So, our bodies do not like to lose weight. Read more

Amazing Benefits of Krill Oil

There are all sorts of crummy supplements on the market you don’t need. Some of the stuff is flat out junk. Some of the stuff is good, but the actual product and brand is lousy.

And then, there are some products that are just flat out awesome for you.

Bottom line: The health benefits associated with a quality Krill Oil supplement are just too powerful to ignore. I don’t know if I can be any more blunt about it.

Besides the fact Krill Oil doesn’t cause “fish burps” like fish oil capsules do, its just one of the best sources of Essential Fatty Acids.

Krill Oil can also:

Help protect your heart

Improve your memory

Strengthen your immune system

Minimize the damage caused by free radicals

Reduce joint pain and PMS symptoms

Aid the fat loss process

I’m telling you, it really is one heck of a powerful supplement. And the only brand I recommend is the brand I trust completely – Prograde Nutrition.

Their EFA Icon is the best Krill Oil product on the market, as far as I’m concerned.

Yours in health,

Coach Angela

PS – Again, there are all sorts of lousy supplements on the market. But a solid Krill Oil product is NOT one of them. It’s an extremely powerful nutritional product with extraordinary benefits. For the best quality Krill Oil get Prograde Nutrition’s EFA Icon

PPS – Prograde also includes the research studies on Krill Oil. Just click on one of the links above to check those out. You’ll find them at the bottom of the page.

Breakfast of Champions – Or Not

I attended a breakfast seminar this morning, at 7:30 am, which was hosted by our Chamber of Commerce. The food offered was your typical continental breakfast of simple carbs (bagels, donuts, danishes) and fruit. I just had a plate of fruit and a cup of coffee. There was no protein to be found and I was kicking myself for not bringing any with me. I’m always teaching others to plan ahead, yet there I was unprepared and mad at myself. I ended up eating an omelet when I got home.

So what does a typical breakfast look like for someone after a fit and lean body? Read more

Eating Healthy On A Budget

Today I have a guest post from Molly Green of www.Econobusters.com

If you have the mindset that eating healthy is expensive and beyond your means, then please read this post. Molly has sound advice for homeschool moms who wish to change their families meals to fit, healthy fare. Enjoy!

EATING HEALTHY ON A BUDGET
Molly Green, www.Econobusters.com

I have to admit that sometimes it seems like it would be much easier, and possibly cheaper, to grab a “meal in a box” out of the freezer section of the grocery store, warm it up in the stove or microwave, add some side veggies and call dinner “done.” However, over the years I have found that this is not the healthiest or the cheapest route to take when feeding my family. Read more

6 Steps to Getting Lean Quickly

Americans want things fast and they want them now. That includes getting lean. I know women get discouraged when they don’t see the scale move on a daily basis.

In fact, if they get on the scale and see it move up 5 pounds, they panic and starve themselves for the day. This is not healthy.

Due to hormones, barimetric pressure, foods you consume and drink, your weight can fluctuate between 5-10 lbs.

I like women to focus on their circumference measurements and the way their clothes feel and look on them. The scale never gives an accurate description of your progress.

One of the ways to help you get lean quickly is getting a gazelle like focus on your nutrition. Many popular diet programs allow things like processed, convenience foods as part of their program. This really does not help you get any healthier and definitely does not aid in teaching you how to change your lifestyle to one that will keep you strong and disease resistant.

To help you get lean quicker follow these steps:
1. Eliminate processed frankenfoods from your diet.

2. Eat whole foods in their most natural state.

3. Increase your intake of fresh fruits and veggies. Eat them with EVERY meal and snack.

4. Eat starchy, high glycemic foods post workout only.

5. Strength train and perform intervals for your cardio sessions.

6. Rest

These 6 steps will get you lean quickly and your results will be permanent.

Hugs~~

If you want to learn more about eating this way for life, check out Dr. Jon Berardi’s Precision Nutrition. Hugs~~

Fight Fat with Fat

I read an interesting article today on brown fat versus white fat.

I have not read the actual studies so I am using this article as a reference only. Apparently we have brown fat which is “good fat” that burns more calories than white fat which is the “bad fat”. This brown fat sits in the neck and collarbone area, women and lean individuals have more of it. It is metabolically active and is most active in infants or when an individual is sitting in a cold room.

I certainly hope the general public does not fall for this next “exercise pill”. Please explain to me how popping a pill an sitting in a cold room is going to aid in the loss of excess bodyfat? Society is already doing too much sitting. Stop putting patients on diets and recommending ineffective exercise programs.

Instead, get to the heart of the problem -the emotional issues, teach sound nutrition and get your patients in touch with a fitness professional that understands the roll of metabolically active lean tissue. All research on finding a “weight loss cure” in a pill is a waste of money, time and intelligence.

I’m personally fed up with it all.

Dieting Spells Disaster – Part I

Most women believe that in order to lose weight the first thing they need to do is eat less and move more. In a way this is true, but there really is more science behind that. What typically happens is women eat maybe 1 or 2 meals a day, drastically reducing their caloric intake and then adding a walk in for exercise. They may see the scale move but what are they really losing? I bet you’ll be surprised. Read on…

Your body’s metabolism is the key to losing unwanted body fat. When working with women, I am not concerned about their weight as much as the level of body fat they are carrying around. A healthy bodyfat level to be at is between 19-25%. Most women who have dieted for years will find themselves at 30% or more. Those are dangerous levels that invite disease into their bodies. Although they may have lost 50 lbs. of body weight, they may still be at 30% body fat and at risk for heart disease, Type II diabetes and other ailments.

How can they be at risk when they wear a size 8 dress pant? Because they never lost bodyfat while dieting. They lost body water and precious lean muscle mass.

Lean muscle mass is the main manipulator of your metabolism. The more lean muscle mass you have the more calories you burn at rest. When your metabolism is humming along at a strong rate, it does not need to use bodyfat for energy. It’s alive and functioning at optimum levels. Fat that is stored on your body for energy is not needed and your body lets it go. You continue to build strong, lean muscles and your metabolism gets stronger and faster, you indeed get leaner, stronger, toned and full of energy. This is the picture of health and vitality.

Now take the woman who is dieting. She is eating 3 meals a day and not focused on the right type of exercises. She’ll go for a walk around the block. It works for about 1 month. She’s dropped 5 pounds. She’s excited!

Month 2 rolls around and the scale has stopped moving, she cuts her 3 meals into smaller portions and adds another block to her walk. The scale finally drops again. She’s excited!

Month 3 rolls around and the scale has not moved or has gone up. Yikes! She drops to 2 meals a day, adds another block to her walk and an exercise video.

Month 4 comes too quickly. She sees the scale move again so she cuts calories even more and increases her walk for a full 2 hours every day. She’s tired, frustrated and wondering why this is not working?

I could go on, but I think you get the picture. The only way for her to keep the scale moving is to continue to decrease calories and increase the amount of time spent on low, steady state exercise. Is she really losing fat? No, she is losing water and precious metabolic boosting muscle that is why she has to continue decreasing calories to see change. If she continues on this path, she will lower her metabolic rate to such a level that her body will go into panic mode and begin conserving every morsel of food that enters as bodyfat so it will have the energy just to function.

The result is a cranky, tired, moody, flabby, and frustrated woman. I know, I’ve been there.

Ladies, I want you to know the truth. The scale is not your friend. You have been lied to for years. There’s even a tv show dedicated to keeping these lies alive (Biggest Loser Challenge) where your worth is determined by a number on the scale! How have we as a society allowed this to happen? Satan has been at work!

God made you in His image. You are a beautiful, strong, and vibrant woman. Don’t allow Satan to get a foothold in your mind. Oh how I wish I could give you all hugs right now!

Here is the picture of a woman on the right path:

She determines why she wants to accomplish this goal of being healthy and full of energy.

She enlists the help of her husband and children.

She puts together a plan of action including how to deal with obstacles that will be thrown her way. Her plan does include strength and interval training as the core of the program.

She also determines her caloric intake and creates meal plans for the week.

She cleans out her cupboard of all manmade, adulterated foods and buys food in their original God created package.

She gets connected with other women who are doing the same steps (this site of course!) and stays accountable no matter what happens to try and bump her off course.

All her workouts are scheduled in for each week just like math and english class. She sticks to her workouts because she is full of determination.

Each week she discovers how much better she feels. Her clothes are getting loser, she is getting more flexible and full of energy. She finds herself hungry more often because her metabolism is on fire. She has more lean mass so she can eat more food, quite the opposite of the dieting woman. She does not suffer from mood swings, turbulent hormone levels or bloating due to eating whole foods.

Does she know how much she weighs? Does it really matter if she is feeling this strong and vibrant?

This is what I want for you. I will elaborate more on how to stop dieting for life in another post. This one ended up way longer than I intended.

Hugs~~

Weird Reason Breakfast is Boring

This morning I was sitting in front of my computer struggling to come up with a catchy title for this. I was thinking – yet again – about stressing the importance of breakfast to you.

So as I sat there trying to be clever I mumbled out loud, “Breakfast is boring.”

And there you have it. That’s exactly how I came up with this title. But do NOT take this message lightly.

You see, I know you’re heard it a million times before. “You have to eat breakfast.” And I know it’s not a super sexy message. But do you have any idea how many people I meet as a fitness professional that DO NOT eat breakfast? A lot. And do you have any idea how many of those people that don’t eat breakfast are overweight? Pretty much all of them.

Look, I’m not crazy. I know you don’t have much time in the morning. And I know many of you just aren’t all that hungry right after you wake up.

So let’s look at this another way. You get up each morning and go to work every day because you want a roof over your head and food on the table, right? Day after day after day you go to work because you want the RESULT of that effort.

Well, IF you want to burn fat, feel better and have more energy you WILL eat breakfast every morning. Period. End of discussion.

Some things are boring. Some things just have to be done to get the result you want. For those of you that want to burn fat all day long, breakfast is just one of those things.

Prograde Lean http://inspirationfitness.getprograde.com/lean is a DELICIOUS chocolate meal replacement shake that I recommend to all my clients. It’s the perfect solution to breakfast.

Cookbooks Making You Fat?

I was reading a news article today that I just had to share with you.  Apparently, it’s not only restaurants that have blown up their portions.  Cookbooks are jumping in also.

A very popular cookbook has been supersizing portions since the 70’s.  Don’t take my word for it.  Read more

« Previous Page — Next Page »