Hi from Jen

I love the New Year, itbrings the opportunity to take stock of where we are and where we want to be in the coming year. It's a great time to take a look at our goals from last year to see how well we did in achieving them. It is also a great time to get honest with ourselves and let the goals go that we have put on our list year after year that we just never seem to get to. These are not things that we really truly want because if they were then they would have a check mark after them. If you're saying - but Jen! I really do want to lose weight and get healthier! Then you need to ask yourself whyyou aren't seriouslyworking on it. If this is the year for you to really lose weight and get healthier then it is time get serious. It is so much easier to take care of everyone else and then not take care of ourselves - we NEED to make self care a priority. The first step is to create a workout schedule and then create a support team. Make sure that your workout schedule is realistic. If you schedule your workout for 5 AM and you usuallyget upat 7 AM it might not be realisticthat you'll get up to workout at 5 AM. On the other hand if you are getting up at 5 AM to workout with a friend then the your chances of being successful are much greater because of the added accountability.Some of the great things about Club Wuhoo is that you have a whole community that wants you to be successful.With the added benefit of being able to log all of your workouts along withwhat you eat and get help with menu planning. Youcan even see your progress bywatching yourstatistics change. I createdClub Wuhoo so that I could help as many people as I can be successful on their journey to better health. I'm confident that if you use all the tools provided in Club Wuhoo you will be very successful. Here's to your success in the New Year! Jen

Coach's Corner

I heard a saying a long time ago - blame is easier to give than to receive. Ain't' that the truth! As true as that statement is, it equally true that our personalpower is directly connected to our personal responsibility. When we blame others for where we are in life we are giving our personal power away. When we give our power away we begin to feel and act like victims. When we begin to feel and act like victims we begin to feel powerless. It is a downward spiral into darkness. I invite you to step into the light and reclaim your personal power through taking personal responsibility for your life and your actions. We can't change what happened to us but we CAN change how we respond. Some of you may be saying that I just don't understand how challenging and even awful life has been for you, I can honestly say I can. Growing up I suffered pretty much every form of abuse and I admit my anger was deep and consuming. I found though that through forgiveness and taking responsibility for my life, all of my life -the good, the bad and the ugly, I was able to reclaim my personal power. I can't change what happened to me any more than I can walk on air but I can change how I react and respond. I no longer carry the burden of anger because the only person I was hurting was myself. Those that hurt me stopped thinking about me long ago but I carried them around with me everyday letting them hurt me over and over again. When I forgave them they stopped having power over me and I was free of their bondage, I was free to live my life happy, joyous and free. I think the most interesting thing about forgiveness is that it has absolutely nothing to do with the person we're forgiving and everything to do with our own self healing. Through the power of forgivenesswe let go of the poison of anger and we stop hurting ourselves. I admit it isn't easy but it is WAY worth the effort and every time we let the poison go it gets easier and easier until one day we realize that we aren't angry anymore and that we are beginning to live the life we've always wanted.

Fitness Facts

One of the least used and one of the very best 'secret' training tools for maximum weight loss and peak performance is......drum roll please......REST.Our bodies healand regenerate tissue while we are at rest, if we don't give our bodies the rest is needs then we arenot taking full advantage of one of the most successful training tools. Professional athletes know and understand the importance of rest in order toachieve peak performance. Every time wedo a strength training workoutwe break down tissue, it takes 24-48 hours for tissue to heal. If we don't let our bodies rest in between strength training workouts we are actually preventing weight loss, which for most people is the ultimate goal. You can strength train every day IF you train different parts of your body. An example of this is doing a lower body strength workout Monday, Wednesday and Friday while doing an upper body workout on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. You should always take one day off each week from all exercise to let your entire body recover. When we don't allow our bodies the rest it needs the muscles will breakdown and continue to break down which results in loss of muscle which is high maintenance tissue,this is the opposite of what we trying to achieve through strength training. Some othercommon problems associated with lack of rest is over trainingwhich results inoveruse injuries, an increased resting heart rate and the slowing of our metabolisms when our bodygoes into famine mode. When the body goes into famine mode all calories are stored as fat with the exception of the calories needed for life IE: keeping your heart beating and so on. The number one directive of our bodies is to stay alive and our body will do that at all costs. It is important to workout but we need to be smart about it andstart using the 'secret' training tool-rest so that we can achieve true health and wellness.

Nutrition News

It never ceases to amaze me when I start working with a client and tell them how many calories they should eat daily to lose weight. Almost without exception I hear "I can't POSSIBLY eat that much in one day- I'll never lose weight!" The reality is that if we don't consume enough calories everyday then we won't lose weight.We need to give our bodies a certain number of calories each day just to maintain life. We have automatic systems that we rarely think about that need fuel. Things like your heartbeat, our liver and pancreas, our lungs inhaling and exhaling even while we sleep. Scientists have determined that in order to maintainlifeeach and everyoneof us needs to consume a minimum of 1200 calories a day. Ifyou workout then you need more. There are a couple of examples that I like to use to help people understand the importance of fueling our bodies properly. If our goal is weight loss then we need to create as inefficient metabolism as possible, with this in mindI'm going to compare a Toyota Prius with a full sizeHummer. When we push ourselves and don't give our bodies enough fuel we create a Prius metabolism - very fuel efficient. When we eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day which provides enough to fuel for all of our bodies needs we create a Hummer metabolism. Two great real life examples of the Hummer metabolism are Michael Phelps and Mia Hamm. When the women's US soccer team won the World Cup Mia consumed over 4000 calories a day andhas a lean beautiful body. We all know what Michael looks like, he had to eat 10,000 calories every single day just to be able to provide his body with the fuel it needed to become the greatest swimmer of all time. We don't want efficient metabolisms we want as inefficient metabolisms as we can create and the best way to achieve that is to eat. Of course we need to be sensible and eat a balanced diet full of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean meat, I promise you the results are well worth the effort. One more car analogy - if we got in our car and only had 1/2 a tank of gas could we take a 500 mile trip without stopping to refuel? Of course not we'd run out of gas! Don't do that to your poor body - it's doing it's best to take care of you, shouldn't you return the favor?