No matter how you label yourself, raw vegan to heavy meat eater, here’s a super duper smoothie recipe that is abundantly healthy and delicious too.

A daily shake or smoothie is an easy way to incorporate more plant-based whole foods in your diet.

It’s easy to pack nutrients into a smoothie.

Liquid drinks make it easier absorb the nutrients and require less energy to digest.

The right shake can be used to support your activity level and recovery.

I have a smoothie every day.

Ideally, a shake should contain all the elements of a compete meal: protein, carbohydrate, and fat.

Here are the four main ingredients in this shake: Hemp protein, ground whole flax seeds, chlorella and maca.

1. Hemp protein is a raw whole food source. It’s a complete protein. It has gained popularity and hemp is now being used not just for food but for all sorts of ordinary items as well (clothes, bags, etc). Hemp protein is alkaline, easy to digest, and full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, enzymes, and fiber.

2. Whole flax seeds (avoid flax meal that has had most of its health-promoting oils removed) are the richest source of Omega-3 fatty acids in the plant kingdom and a great source of soluble and insoluble fiber. Buy whole flax seeds, grind them yourself in a coffee grinder, and then store them in the fridge.

3. Maca is a South American root vegetable that acts as a powerful adrenal tonic. During times of high stress, maca is highly recommended. It’s high in sterols which help you gain strength, so maca is an important food for athletes.

4. Chlorella is another food good for stress reduction. It’s a freshwater algae with a protein content exceeding 65%. Chlorella is one of the most nutrient-dense superfoods on earth. It’s highly alkalizing and contains the highest concentration of chlorophyll found in nature.

After putting the four ingredients in your blender, you can mix in a banana. Use berries too because they are rich in antioxidants. You can try blending in raw pumpkin seeds for iron and ground sesame seeds for calcium, or raw carob powder for additional flavor and variety.

There are so many benefits to plant-based whole foods.

Just starting off your day with a shake like this goes a long way towards improving your health and well being. Try it and let me know what you think!

shelli

Got ankle pain, or do you perceive that you have weak ankles?

One of the many things I do as a coach is helping my clients recover from injuries and help them regain mobility and strength. I use a system called Z Health Performance Solutions.

Lately I’ve been noticing that many active people are asking me questions about recurring ankle sprains, so here’s some important information and a balancing exercise for you to practice.

The discomfort from an ankle sprain does subside, but there still can be issues with the ligament’s neural receptors.

These receptors convey ankle and foot positioning to your brain. When a sprain impairs receptor function, the brain’s sense of body positioning is thrown off. Your sense of balance is impaired, leaving you unstable and prone to injury.

Once your ankle pain has abated, try this exercise. It can help speed the repair of neural receptors to ensure a complete recovery.

Exercise: Grasp a chair for support. Keeping good posture the whole time, stand on the leg with the injured ankle and balance for 60 seconds. Repeat three times a day for four weeks. As this gets easier, try doing it without holding onto a chair and with your arms folded across your chest.

When you have areas in your body that are getting chronically injured, please have them checked out. There are solutions!

And while we’re on the topic of feet, I recently read a startling statistic.

The soles of shoes carry an average of 421,000 germs, some of which can be very virulent. So, to decrease your risk of contaminating your floors and body by 61%, take off your footwear at the front door!

I’ve been doing this since 1980 when I made my first trip to Japan. I loved the Japanese custom of switching to slippers when they enter a house. I prefer to go barefoot, but whatever your choice, do leave those shoes at the door!

shelli

There was an article in Time Magazine some time ago that many people are asking me about, so I thought I’d throw my two cents into the mix.

It declared that “Exercise won’t make you lose weight.”

It was written by John Cloud. He says he has exercised for years, has never been overweight, and therefore working out doesn’t do any good.

The same article claims that the federal government classifies two-thirds of Americans as being overweight.

However, only 57% of people say they engage in regular exercise so another conclusion you can draw is that “lying” about working out isn’t very effective for weight loss either!

I’m not going to go over the article in depth. If you’ve read it, and have some comments, share them with me and I’ll pass them along.

I do however, want to use the hoopla over the article to remind you of something.

It’s information I cover over and over again in my writing and in my teaching.

You can’t out-exercise poor nutritional choices.

It’s important to separate out exercise from nutrition, and what you’re using them for.

Cardio exercise, generally speaking, is to keep your heart and lungs and other systems healthy and fully functional.

Nutrition is what you focus on for body composition changes, such as losing weight.

I’m simplifying this so that you’ll better understand how to get the results you want.

Yes, exercise and nutrition go hand in hand when strategizing for optimal health. One without the other gives you sub optimal results.

So when you’re looking at articles like this one and see a headline that reads, “Exercise won’t make you lose weight,” you’re response will be, “Of course not, if that’s all you’re focusing on.”

shelli

Sometimes what you’re doing either with working out or nutrition
just isn’t working.

It’s important to remember that when one strategy doesn’t work, you’ve got to try another and another until you find the one that DOES work.

While this sounds simple enough, it can often be frustrating and
bring you to the point where you feel like quitting and throwing
in the towel.

But when it comes to physical activity and eating well, you really can’t throw in the towel because let’s face it, you must get some exercise, and proper nutrition
is not something you can compromise.

Let me tell you what got me thinking about all this.

I have a client who recently gave birth to her first child.

For years she had done her workouts at home. She used her garage
and set up a treadmill for her cardio and some weights for strength
training. She found music that kept her moving and energized.
She was a happy and healthy camper.

But like I said, that was before the birth of her daughter.

Now she was finding it very challenging to start, and even when
she got started very few scheduled workouts got finished. She
remained committed but the conditions had changed, and therefore
her strategies needed to change.

At this point, joining a gym made sense so she could utilize
their baby sitting services. This would give her the time and
space she needed to get back her discipline and DO the workouts.

Here are two key points to consider if and when your current
health and fitness strategies are just not working.

1. For all of us, there are certain times of the day that work
better than others for establishing consistent exercise routines.

So, if you’ve tried and tried to exercise at certain times of the
day and it just doesn’t seem to be happening, try something
different!

Switch to a morning workout instead of an evening workout. Be creative, but stick with the changes long enough to see if they are really working or not.

One scenario WILL work best for you.

2. However you set up your program, whether it’s a class or from
a book or personal trainer, choose one and commit to it for a
minimum of 6-8 weeks.

Let’s say that again. Whatever you choose, choose and COMMIT!

Block out the time, put it on your calendar, do whatever it takes to actually complete the scheduled routines.

These two points will help you move away from what frustrates so
many people when it comes to working out: inconsistency and lack of results.

Without consistency there can be no results.

So, assess what’s working and keep doing that.

Then assess what’s not working and do something else. Make sure
these two key points are in place and go from there!

shelli

Whether it’s from my yoga students, personal training clients or runners I’m coaching, a common question is about what to eat before they work out.

So let’s take a closer look at pre-workout fuel ideas.

It’s an important question because many of you exercise early in the morning.

You want to eat something that will digest well and is not too much food, yet you don’t want to feel lightheaded during your workout.

Eating before exercise can boost your performance, improve your endurance and help prevent low blood sugar, thereby preventing lightheadedness.

It also fuels your muscle and liver carbohydrate usage, providing you with energy throughout your workout.

The type of pre-workout fuel you’ll need depends on a few things.

One is your metabolism and digestive system.

The other is the type of exercise.

Your digestive system and metabolism are unique, so as I always suggest you must listen to your body to find out what works best. If finding a good pre-workout meal or snack has been a challenge for you, keep a journal of what you eat, the workouts, and how you feel.

Use these general guidelines when making your choices:

1. Blood flows to your belly during digestion. This means less blood flow for fueling your muscles. If you feel bloated when you exercise, this might be the reason. Have a meal or snack 45-90 minutes before your workout. You also need to allow for more digestion time before intense exercise as opposed to lower-intensity exercise.

2. Having difficulty with digestion? Then a liquid snack might be a better idea than a solid meal. Liquids take less time to digest (30 minutes or so).

3. Sugar will give you a quick boost. However, you’ll experience a drop in energy when your blood sugar levels stabilize. So if you’ve been feeling like your energy is on a roller coaster when you work out, stay away from sugar based snacks beforehand.

4. Eating carb-heavy foods before a workout can interfere with performance and cause stomach discomfort. If this happens to you, it’s because your body is still digesting. Make note of this and adjust the amount or type of carbs until you find yourself feeling fueled and energetic during your workout.

5. A study published in the May 2009 issue of the Journal of Nutrition found that women who ate low-glycemic carbs before a workout burned 50 percent more fat during the workout. If that’s one of your goals, then opt for slow-burning low-glycemic carbs.

Finding optimal pre-workout fuel comes down to following these general guidelines and then tweaking them to your individual needs.

Hope this answers some of your questions about pre-workout fueling!

shelli

No matter what your sport or what your health and fitness goals are in life, here are 5 perspectives to use that will enhance your experience, guaranteed!

1. Cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude

Be thankful for your body. It’s such a gift to be able to be physically active and see your body support you in your physical endeavors.

You likely put many hours into your training, so sometimes it’s easy to forget and take for granted our body’s response to the load we place on it.

Recall how far you’ve come as an athlete and how much progress you’ve made.

Play golf? Recall how awkward you were during the early days on the driving range.

Swim? Remember when you could barely swim two laps in the pool?

Training for a marathon? It’s taken months of dedication and adaptation as you ran mile after mile.

Sometimes when you stop and realize where you WERE as an athlete and how much progress you’ve made, it’s quite an eye opener.

Think about injuries you’ve overcome, obstacles you’ve busted through and choices you’ve had to make to enjoy an active lifestyle.

None of these are easy to handle, so bring that attitude of gratitude with you as you pursue activities that bring you pleasure and you’ll enjoy them even more!

2. Believe

Believe in yourself.

It’s easy to get discouraged and think you won’t ever reach your goals.

Setbacks happen, it’s normal. Get back in the game and start from where you find yourself and keep going!

Surround yourself with a good community of like-minded people and learn to use their support. They’ll help you stay the course, however, the core belief in yourself must come from you.

3. Understand your Nutrition and Hydration Needs

As an athlete and active woman you should know what your nutrition and hydration needs are. Don’t get caught up in what someone else is doing. You have your own needs.

Also, make sure to learn what it takes for your body to recover. Being smart about your recovery time is essential to keeping yourself training long into the future.

4. Stay in the Moment

I know you’ve heard this before, but it can be tricky to really grasp what it means.

Simply put, stay tuned in to what’s happening with your body. Stay present in both your mind and body to what you’re experiencing. Stay focused on what you are doing and how you’re feeling while you’re exercising, training, or racing.

You can do a body scan asking yourself questions such as: am I feeling hydrated, how is my heart rate, how do I feel?

Think about what you are doing in this moment. Don’t fall into the mental trap of spending too much time in future planning.

For instance, if you’re out for a hike and your thoughts turn to “what am I going to have for dinner tonight?” it’s likely that you’re probably hungry and should take in some fuel NOW!

Staying present fosters a sense of enjoyment and enriches your experience and memory of what you’re doing. It takes practice, so if you’re not already working with this idea, start now.

5. It’s All About the Journey

I know, this sounds like a platitude but it’s really true. As athletes we reach for new goals and experiences. We can be overly result-oriented so we have a tendency to forget to enjoy the journey and focus too much on our improvement or lack of results as a measure of success.

I train many first time marathoners.

The first goal I look to instill in them is that they finish the marathon with a smile on their face.

Their result time for that first marathon is insignificant compared to having a great experience. There is only one first, and I want them to enjoy it and perhaps even think about doing it again. It requires that their mindset focus on the journey!

There will always be rough spots and obstacles to overcome if we’re active and pursue an active lifestyle.

I think these five focuses help us keep one foot in front of the other, doing our best and moving forward.

Your perspective is key to how you’ll experience your life, so add these five to your perspective checklist and let them enrich your active lifestyle!

shelli

Are you aware of the heart health and fat-burning benefits of interval training?

The mainstream media is just finally catching on, so maybe you’ve heard the buzz.

In a recent study performed at Canada’s McMaster University, subjects did three interval training workouts per week, featuring interval sprints.

The sprints were not easy, done at the hardest pace the subjects could manage for 30 seconds. Meanwhile, another group did moderate cardio five days per week.

What the researchers found was that the short-burst interval training workouts were just as heart-healthy as the moderate-intensity cardio workouts.

The intensity of interval exercise can help prevent the early onset of cardiovascular disease by reducing the stiffness of blood vessels. And now this study suggests that shorter workouts are just as good as long cardio workouts.

So, yes, if you’re not a fan of long cardio workouts they can be replaced with short-burst training.

But before you get started, remember that it is important to train safely when doing intervals.

The subjects in the McMaster study did the intervals on stationary bikes, which meant they had less risk of impact injury and muscle strains compared to sprinting.

I also want to point out that they trained “all out” for 30 seconds. I do not recommend this 30 second burst if you are sedentary, de-conditioned, injured, or if you have not exercised in years.

If you are a beginner to interval training but are exercising now, start by increasing the intensity of your workouts for 30 seconds and then reducing the intensity for two minutes.

Continue to build up the 30-second “sprint” intensity over several workouts, until you are at a hard, but not “all out” pace. You will still get a lot of the benefits without the risk of injury.

Shelli

P.S. I’d like to ask you all for a “report card.”

In other words, are you finding these blog posts  helpful?

Do I choose topics that are of interest to you?

Do I communicate clearly?

What would you like me to write about in the months ahead?

I always appreciate your questions and that many of you forward these posts along to others you think would benefit.

Please, if I’ve helped you in any way, please share this site with your friends, or take a minute and tell a woman you know about these offerings. I write these to help us all feel better, look better and optimize our health.

Thanks!

A new study suggests that high-fat eating, even for just a few days at a time, takes its toll on both exercise performance and short-term memory.

So if you’ve noticed that you’re feeling a bit fuzzy in the memory department or your exercise performance is slipping, you might want to take a look at your dietary fat intake.

Researchers at Cambridge University found that both rats and humans (healthy males) experienced a similar drop in both exercise performance and cognitive function after consuming a high-fat diet for several days.

When I say high-fat I’m talking about a diet, in this study at least, that contained 55% fat.

Why would a high-fat diet influence these two factors?

It might be because a high-fat diet reduces your ability to efficiently use glucose. Glucose is needed for brain function.

As for exercise performance, a high-fat diet causes the body to release certain proteins that can reduce metabolic efficiency. This ultimately hinders physical performance.

So the point here is that regardless of the sources of fat in your diet, fat is still fat and too much of it detracts from optimum health and function.

Experiment for yourself and see if decreasing dietary fat, if you’re in the high dietary fat consumption group, helps you feel less fuzzy. Also be aware of better exercise performance.

In other words, let your body tell you YOUR optimal fat intake. For most of us it’s likely way less than we’re currently consuming!

shelli

Warming up is not stretching.

Let’s take a closer look at what it is, if it’s not stretching.

Warming up has many purposes.

It provides a smooth transition from the resting state to the higher level of energy expenditure and effort you experience in the main part of your workout.

It also raises your heart rate from its resting state gradually and safely in order to prepare your heart for more demanding activity.

It prepares you physiologically and psychologically for physical performance and also lessens the possibility of injury.

–A proper warm-up raises your body and muscle temperature, can stretch your tissues permitting greater flexibility, and prepares your joints permiting greater mobility.

–The time needed for a satisfactory warm-up varies from person to person and tends to increase with age. This depends on how fast your body takes to feel loose and break a steady sweat. For most people this is usually 5-15 minutes.

–The colder the weather, the longer the warm-up.

–General ideas for warming up are jogging or easy running, stationary biking, rowing or other light aerobic activity. You need sufficient duration and intensity without developing fatigue.

–The nature of the warm-up varies in some degree in relation to the activity.

You want to simulate as close as you can the physical activity you’re about to engage in. Many exercises and athletes use stationary biking with minimal resistance as their warm-up. It raises your heart rate gently and loosens up your entire lower body.

So, make the most of your warm-up!

shelli

You could walk from California to New York and still not be fit.

Why?

Because walking by itself will never get you fit.

Walking can put undue stress on your back and knees.

It tightens your hamstrings and other leg muscles.

It can cause foot and ankle problems.

It does nothing to increase your upper body strength, and does very little to strengthen your abdominals.

It does very little to increase your agility, balance, and coordination and does little to increase your strength and muscle endurance.

Walking does not increase your cardiovascular conditioning as effectively as other exercises and it takes a lot of time to see results (whether they are fat loss or conditioning results).

There has been a walking craze.

It’s not expensive, needs no equipment except for a good pair of shoes, and doesn’t require a lot of effort.

However, in most cases you’re better off seeing walking as a leisure activity.

Walk for fun, not for fitness. Engage in your regular fitness program and use walking as a supplement.

If you do want to include walking in your exercise program make sure you do two things: walking fast enough to get your heart rate up in order to realize some physical benefits and make sure your walking technique is solid. 

Yes, there is a proper walking technique, but that’s a topic for another article. 

Walk on,

shelli