Coach Angela’s Recipe of the Week

This week it has been the hottest ever in Northwest Indiana and I have no desire to cook. So what do you feed the kids that requires minimal cooking and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg? These snacks are so easy to make the kids will want to help out. They store easily in the fridge too!

Check this video out to see my latest favorite snack: Read more

Holiday Calorie Control Tip #2

Yesterday we discussed how crucial it is for you to have a PLAN to control your calorie intake during the holidays. Today’s tip is even more simple and expands on the premise.

Plan on staying away from the booze.

Look, a drink or two isn’t going to be the end of the world. But when two turns to three…

I’m not getting on my soap box here. I’m just telling you something you already know:

Booze leads to bad decisions. And in this case, we’re talking about bad eating decisions. Read more

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~~

Ultimate Women’s Expo

I just finished two seminars on the Ultimate Women’s Expo where I covered the Truth About Fitness and Diets Make You fat.  The theme of the expo is New Year/New You.  I think fitness and dieting fit in there pretty well.

It was awesome to be invited onto the show.  They have plenty more shows coming up that will encourage and uplift you. 

I don’t know how  many women were actually on the radio show, but it sure felt good to speak the true, hard facts about fat loss without all the fluff that is so common in the media today.

If you still think you can lose body fat by vacuuming and parking further away from the doors of the supermarket, you definitely need to listen to this call.  If you missed the live taping, you can purchase a ticket to the expo and get the recordings, as well as, all the free gifts I am giving away. 

If you were on the show, please give me your feedback, questions or comments regarding the seminars.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Ultimate Women’s Expo

I just finished two seminars on the Ultimate Women’s Expo where I covered the Truth About Fitness and Diets Make You fat.  The theme of the expo is New Year/New You.  I think fitness and dieting fit in there pretty well.

It was awesome to be invited onto the show.  They have plenty more shows coming up that will encourage and uplift you. 

I don’t know how  many women were actually on the radio show, but it sure felt good to speak the true, hard facts about fat loss without all the fluff that is so common in the media today.

If you still think you can lose body fat by vacuuming and parking further away from the doors of the supermarket, you definitely need to listen to this call.  If you missed the live taping, you can purchase a ticket to the expo and get the recordings, as well as, all the free gifts I am giving away. 

If you were on the show, please give me your feedback, questions or comments regarding the seminars.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Negative Body Image

Homeschoolers are always accused of overprotecting our children or creating an anti-social generation.  I’m not going to get into that one today, but there is definitely something we should be protecting our children from – the negative body image problem that is so prevalent in our society. 

I know I have caught myself on numerous occasions saying, “Oh, look my thighs are getting bigger!”  or “Does my butt look fatter to you?”  I admit that my negative body image is something that I sinfully fret about on a daily basis.  I know it stems from growing up as the chubby child, later to the chubbiest cheerleader and then on to the overweight bride.  I worry too much about heading back to where I came from.  How many of you can relate to this?  I’m sure there are more than a couple of you. 

It doesn’t help that magazines, movies, television and Hollywood create an image of the perfect woman that is near impossible to maintain by the average mom or that society decided that it is the definition of beautiful.  Even after knowing how much they doctor up all those photos, we still secretly strive to be like those women.

I had a reality check a few months ago when I was hanging out with my teenage daughter.  She turned to look at me and said, “Mom, I need to start working out with you, I’m getting fat.”  I could have cried.  I was so upset with myself because I knew it was my negative body image that started this in my daughter.  My daughter lacks any bodyfat because she is extremely athletic.  She is muscular and very beautiful.  I was heartbroken. 

 

I could not let this go on.  We began a bible study together on true beauty.  It has helped us both.  I know I will continue to struggle with negative body image self talk, but there is no reason for my daughters to ever worry about it. 

Eating disorders are developing in girls from the early age of 5 or 6.  A recent study indicated that 70% of 6th grade girls worry about their weight.  I believe their worry stems from their parents who are preoccupied with their own poor body images. 

If you ever find yourself talking negatively about your body, stop yourself immediately and tell yourself, “I am beautiful inside and out.  God loves me just as I am.”

Never say the word “diet” around your children.  Ask friends not to discuss dieting or being fat around your children.  

Be an example by working out, but don’t complain about it or they will have a negative image of exercise.  Let them know that working out keeps you healthy, strong, full of energy and stamina so you can keep up with them.  Let them join you and make it fun.  Engaging in physical activity as a family can be a lot of fun and you should do it every day as part of a routine, such as taking nightly walks, going on a bike ride or roller blading.

Getting your children involved in sports will help them become self confident and improve their self esteem.

Prepare healthy meals so you can teach your children the importance of good nutrition.  Remember there are no “good” foods or “bad” foods.  Kids will gravitate to bad foods (like candy) if they think they are not supposed to eat them. 

Damaging behavior learned from a parent may take years to overcome, but I am in for the long haul.  It starts with you. 

I’d love to hear what you do to create a positive self image in your children.