YOUR DIET IS AFFECTING YOUR DAUGHTER AND YOUR GRANDDAUGHTER WHETHER YOU REALIZE IT OR NOT

Your Dietary Habits are Shaping the Next Two Generations

Think, "Big Picture" for a moment...The food you eat is fuel or energy your body needs to do physical stuff like blink, snap a selfie, do a couple dozen squats, or carry in the groceries from the car. Your Greek yogurt, can of tuna fish, handful of nuts, ice-cold apple, and bowl of piping-hot broccoli all contain amino acids, carbohydrates, and healthy fats that your body requires to create all the cells, tissues, organs, muscle, hair, and blood in your body. 

The amino acids you get from your meals and snacks build proteins and those proteins help make and mark your DNA. What? You don't think of your breakfast burrito, your lettuce wrap, or your Frappucino like that? Maybe you should start.

Your eating habits aren't just about feeding your cravings, trying to stay at your ideal weight, or about looking great for summer. What you deem sustenance isn't a matter of following a particular diet like Paleo, being a lacto- or ovo-vegetarian, or trying to save innocent animals from suffering by going all-out vegan which is highly commendable. The majority of what you eat is used by your body to create new parts when the old ones wear out and to fix whatever inside or outside of you gets damaged or broken. 

Your body's processes of renewal and repair can be best summed up like this: "You are what you eat." You've heard that before, right? But have you read about the latest research that's suggesting that if you're a woman of childbearing age that well-know expression becomes: "Your granddaughter of the future is what YOU eat"? 

It turns out that if you are of the female persuasion, (Fellas, I will get to you and your epigenome in another post) what you nosh on or choke down can have even farther reaching affects than your current level of health and well being. As a woman, what you eat today can affect who your daughter of tomorrow may be and your diet also has the power to dictate in large part who your future GRANDDAUGHTER may become.  

There's two ways that this is possible. 

As a female, anywhere from the age of first menses to menopause, you and the foods that you eat create the baby that will by-planning or by-surprise begin to grow in your uterus when you get pregnant. What you have eaten and continue to eat -- good, bad, or even worse -- will, if your child-to-be is a girl, create her lifetime-supply of eggs or approximately 6 to 7 million oocytes that will be created and afterwards stored in her ovaries at around week 20 of gestation. 

The chemical substances that you are ingesting, processing, absorbing, and utilizing on a fairly regular basis are placing biochemical markers on top of your DNA called epigenetic marks that can and in many cases will be passed on to your progeny or offspring and their offspring. Scientists are currently discovering that more than just eye color, height, ear attachment, and some diseases are passed along in our sex cells or germ line to the children we create. Your body's sensitivity and ability to process sugar, how much fat your body stores, and your metabolic rate may all be handed down to your daughter and granddaughter.  

In practical terms, what does this mean ultimately? 

If you are throw back shots of tequila on the weekends with your spouse or make a habit of sharing romantic bottles of wine on the beach with your dates and you get pregnant as a result of your friskiness, those ounces of alcohol you slam and the four-cheese stuffed calzones you chow-down on at midnight along with all the other not-so-great food-like substances you digest frequently are the building materials your body is going to use to form the baby-making eggs that will one day become your grandchild just as your oocyte that was just fertilized by your lover's sperm was formed inside of your mother when she was a growing fetus inside of your grandmother's womb. Your regular consumption of sugar and fat, alcohol, and drugs are affecting your DNA and therefore possibly impacting your offspring's future by marking their genetic information with many of your biochemical predispositions.

You not only have the power to create a newer and better you by what you choose to put into your mouth and bodily system each day, you also have a huge opportunity to radically change the future of our planet by populating Earth with a human being who can think outside the box, run like the wind, feel empathy for others, and live to be over 100 by your eating lean, clean, and green. 

Thank you for reading what my super-charged neurons were currently meditating upon today and thanks giving me a reason to wake up in the morning.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

FRUSTRATED WITH YOUR STOMACH - CAN'T GET DEFINED ABS

HOW CAN I GET ABS?

Whether or not your abdominal muscles show or DON'T has a lot to do with three things primarily -- One, your current percentage of body fat. Two,  the size of your abdominal muscles' muscle "bellies." Three, the difference in your abs depends upon the length of your abdominal tendons.

Your percentage of body fat has everything to do with whether or not you can see your tummy muscles in the mirror after a really good workout or just rolling out of bed.
I started training professionally when I was 17 years old. I have worked with over 1,000 women and men. In all my years of experience this is what I have consistently observed: Men start showing their abdominal muscles somewhat at 15% body fat. At 12% body fat, a man's abdomen clearly begins to show muscle separation between the rectus abdominis muscles, a little bit of the external obliques begin to peak out (more obliques show at 10%), and the transverse abdominis is flat. In order to see the coveted six-pack abs that have earned their bragging rights, a fellas needs to be at 8% body fat. Between 6-8% body fat, the inguinal ligaments that display the really great "V" taper going downward into jock-wearing area appear. Congratulations!

A woman has a tougher job ahead of her when trying to get her abdominal muscles to show when she is sporting her bikini at poolside due to evolution's great idea to have women pad extra body fat for childbearing. (Thanks, Mother Nature.) Between 16-20% body fat, a woman begins to have a stomach that she is proud enough to wear a tank top in but not until most women hit 15% body fat based upon my professional experience does a woman get to see her external obliques peaking out enough where she can clearly see where her rectus abdominis muscles stop and wear her side obliques begin. At 11-13% body fat, a woman's abdomen is completely defined, six-pack abs are showing, and her torso is smooth, extremely linear, and desirable.

Now, let's suppose you have your body fat percentage just where you want it. Obstacle number two when it comes to creating a chiseled stomach are your muscle bellies. This is the middle of your muscle anatomically, the part where it is the biggest or widest. Some people are just born with thicker muscle bellies than other people. Your muscle bellies make your abs look more pronounced or outwardly instead of flat since you possess higher peaks on each one. If you have thinner muscle bellies on the other hand, your abdominal muscles will lay flatter and you may even possess an inward appearance in your abdomen (like Arnold Schwarzenegger). This is due to your muscle peaks being lower or not as bulky at their centers.

Your abdominal muscle tendons are the last hurdle a person striving to get beach-ready abs must consider when putting together their ab-training program. Your tendons are the connective tissue that unite your muscle to other muscles or connect a muscle to bone. Your body's unique tendons have a huge role in whether or not you have washboard abs or NOT. Your tendons are either longer or shorter. The longer ones will show larger gaps between your abdominal muscles. If you have shorter abdominal tendons, your ab muscles will have smaller gaps, will show more muscle striations, and your tummy appear more washboard-like than someone with longer abdominal tendons.

I hope your take-away from this article is that everyone is uniquely different. Take the time to learn about your body, study it as you would your major in school or an important aspect of your job. Love the body that YOU ARE IN. You are going to be in it for a long, long time HOPEFULLY.

Thank you for reading my thoughts. I appreciate you giving me a reason to think.
-Bell Gia
Nutrition and Fitness Expert

WHAT IS THE COST OF GOOD HEALTH

Good Health Comes at a Cost 

"You don't get something for NOTHING!" We've all heard that saying and if you're over 12 years old, you KNOW that it's true. Everything comes at a COST and that includes GOOD HEALTH.

"What is the price of good health?" you ask. Good health will cost you 3 things -- TIME, ENERGY, and MONEY. 

Possessing good health doesn't just happen. Come on, you know that's the gospel truth. If good health and a great body didn't cost you some of your very limited time, we would all wake up gorgeous and ready to run a marathon every single morning. But that doesn't happen, does it? No, it doesn't and that's why coffee machines and cars were created.

Feeling good inside your body is going to take an investment of several hours each and every week of your time. Time you're going to have to CUT out of your television watching, game playing, social chatting, and just sitting around doing nothing. 

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans released by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommends that Americans need AT LEAST 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity in addition to performing muscle-strengthening exercises 2 or more days per week. Notice that the HHS said, "at least 150 minutes" of moderate-intensity exercise per week. They suggest, however, that Americans who want additional and more extensive health benefits should increase their aerobic physical activity to 300 minutes a week PLUS 2 or more days of muscle-strengthening activities that involve all major muscle groups. 

It appears, according to the HHS, that GOOD physical health comes at a cost of 5 HOURS per week plus a couple days of lifting weights. 

If the first cost of good health is time spent in the gym then you know that Cost Number 2 has to be ENERGY because working out 5 plus hours per week (the plus is for the 2 or more days per week of strength training) you are going to need a whole lot of energy to accomplish that task. Where are you and I going to get all this energy from pray tell? We are going to get it from getting a good night's sleep so we are fully rested when we get up each and every morning and from following the 2015 United States Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) that tells us to drink WATER, which has absolutely zero calories, instead of sugary drinks. The DGA says water should be one of the primary beverages consumed. Sleep, water, and nutrient-dense foods are going to give us the energy we need to possess good health. Just like we put gas in our cars and trucks to make them go, the human body needs fuel also to carry out the activities of daily living. 

The food-for-fuel we consume brings us to Cost Number 3: MONEY.

There is a financial cost to owning good health. Good health does kind of grow on trees but those trees are owned by Big Agriculture and they want their money for growing the food that gives you and I good health. I'm not going to tell you that you must buy all organics because, frankly, the scientific research doesn't say that. It is suggested by the Environmental Working Group that you should try to purchase when possible the following organic produce due to the heavy use of pesticides by growers: apples, celery, cherry tomatoes, collard greens, cucumbers, grapes, hot peppers, kale, nectarines, peaches, potatoes, nectarines, snap peas, spinach, and sweet bell peppers. 

Besides purchasing the above-referenced 15 fruits and vegetables organically, good health is going to cost you when you eat out as well. If you want good health then you aren't going to be able to eat out at the fast-food restaurants that offer that lunchtime hamburger for $.99 or that burrito/taco for under $1 buck. There has been enough published research on the negative health effects associated with fast food consumption that you know that running to the border or driving under the golden arches is not going to bring about good health. You are going to have to spend some extra hard-earned money on a variety of colorful vegetables, fresh in-season fruit, lean sources of protein, low-sodium legumes, and healthy-heart fats like Omega 3 from fish, flaxseed, or algae sources. 

The cost of good health is time, energy, and money. Three resources we are all fortunate enough to possess to some varying degree. It is up to you and I to decide for ourselves whether or not good health is worth the personal sacrifice of our minutes and hours, dollars and cents, and precious calories. This is America. We are each free to choose. Cast your vote for good health. 

Thank you for reading. 

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

NUTRITION AS A SKIN THERAPY

Eating for Healthy Skin 

You know that your skin is the largest organ of the body. You're aware of the importance of having your skin professionally exfoliated by an esthetician. You spend the time and the money to have a monthly multi-acid peel to minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. You wear a daily SPF of 30 or higher in order to protect your skin from damaging UVA/UVB rays on both sunny and cloudy days. You never ever pick or pop your pimples or force out an unsightly blackhead even if that means sitting on your hands. You've made it a habit to wash your face in the morning and at night as well as remembering to apply a high-end facial serum before you smear on your multi-vitamin moisturizer on top. 

You do basically everything you think you should do to possess absolutely gorgeous skin. But what about your diet? "What" you say? 

Your skin is an outward reflection of your internal environment and level of health. Surprising to most people is the fact that the saying, "You are what you eat" applies to your skin also. A vibrant complexion, or lack thereof, is a telltale sign of a clean diet and a well-functioning digestion and eliminatory system. Poor digestion, inadequate nutrient absorption, and improper evacuation of bodily waste products oftentimes is revealed and presented on the skin as blotches and blemishes, rashes and acne, dullness and paleness as well as an overall appearance of grayness or sallowness on the forehead, cheeks, and eyes.  

If you recognize any of the above-mentioned dermal afflictions on your own skin, the first thing you can do to incorporate good nutrition as part of your skin-care regimen is to remove the biggest saboteur standing between you and the youthful complexion you dream of.  The added sugar found in bagged, canned, and boxed processed foods is minimizing the positive effects your esthetician is trying to give you. Honey, maple syrup, turbinado, liquid fructose, crystal dextrose, and evaporated cane juice are all forms of natural sugar that, regardless of being found in nature or not, still increase serum blood glucose levels and bring about the abnormal release of the hormone insulin and thereby causes systemic inflammation that clinically presents as those troublesome skin eruptions outlined above. 

While you're weaning yourself off of your sweet tooth, try making a concerted effort to obtain adequate hydration as defined as 9 1/2 cups of pure water per day. According to the International Journal of Cosmetic Science, drinking 2.25 liters of water daily will improve skin's density and thickness as well as increase blood flow to the skin.

Eliminating processed foods' toxic sugar and getting adequate hydration will do wonders for your skin's texture, tone, and appearance but don't stop there. According to published research in PLOS One, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal, adding healthy Omega 3 and Omega 6 fats into your diet in the form of flax seed and olive oil, respectively, will create supple more softer skin due to lubricating properties found in natural plant fats. Sprinkling flax seed on top of your oatmeal or Greek yogurt and drizzling some extra-virgin olive oil on top of your veggies or leafy-green spinach salad are easy wells to obtain those EFAs without too much inconvenience.    

Regaining skin's suppleness by consuming healthy plant fats is only one reason to eat more plants. Green-leafy veggies, nuts and seeds, beans and peas, fresh fruit, low-starch root vegetables, and lean sources of protein provide the infrastructure necessary to build well-nourished skin from the inside out. In order to maximize the incorporation of additional plants at breakfast, lunch, and dinner throw in fermented foods in the form of sauerkraut, yogurt, kimchi, or kombucha while you're being adventurous to help recolonize your gut with good forms of beneficial bacteria which will ultimately clear-up your complexion by improving your digestion, absorption, and assimilation of the foods you eat. 

Now that your body can better breakdown, process, and utilize your newly acquired plant-based fare, no 21st Century skin-care routine would be complete without the addition of flavonol-containing dark chocolate and vitamin-C rich red bell peppers. The antioxidants found in dark chocolate and red bell peppers will provide your skin with a powerful arsenal to combat reactive oxygen species (ROS) and free radicals that cause pre-mature aging. The vitamin C found in the red bell peppers will also provide the body with the raw materials required to manufacture collagen, the skin's main structural protein that helps rebuild the outer layer of the skin and provide it with enough support to prevent early sagging.

Diet is tantamount if not paramount with regular skin-care treatments by a licensed esthetician. External pampering of the skin is not enough to bring about a healthy, glowing appearance of the skin. Feeding the skin with vitamin- and mineral-rich foods found in their most natural states from nature is essential if ones skin is to shine from the inside out. The next time you are on your way to the spa to have your monthly facial, don't forget to stop by the green market for leafy-green veggies, fresh fruit, and a huge brown bag of raw nuts and seeds.

Thank you for reading and giving me a purpose to seek out knowledge.

--Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert     

BETTER INCLUDE SLEEPING AS PART OF YOUR WEIGHT LOSS DIET

Lack of Sleep Could Be the Reason Why You Aren't Losing Weight on Your Diet

So you put on some weight over the holidays -- going to several parties, enjoying the festivities with friends by partaking in several cocktails, indulging in delicacies you normally don't allow yourself to have, and nibbling out of holiday candy dishes like a person possessed. Come on, life isn't worth living if you can't enjoy yourself every once in a while; right? But somehow December and January's splurges snowballed into continued out-of-control eating in both February and March. Ugh! 

It's April and somehow you are still carrying around December and January's "party pounds!" Why haven't you gotten rid of that belly bulge and those jiggly thighs yet even though you signed back up at the gym and have been taking that Orange Theory class twice a week? Could it be a lack of sleep that's stopping you from losing that winter weight?

According to research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine by the University of Chicago Sleep Research Laboratory, sleep loss can alter energy intake and expenditure in overweight individuals. Grant money was given by the National Institute of Health to help fund the study which was conducted at UC's Sleep Lab to determine whether sleep restriction diminished the effects of a reduced-calorie weight-loss diet on excess adiposity (fancy speak for people who had too much fat on their bodies). 

The sleep study was conducted for 14 days and involved restricting the amount of sleep of overweight, non-smoking dieters. The control group were permitted to sleep 8.5 hours per night and the experimental group were limited to 5.5 hours per night. The primary measure to determine the effects of restricted sleep on weight loss was loss of fat and fat-free body mass (lean muscle). A secondary measure was also used to ascertain the effects of shorter night's rest were changes in hunger, energy expenditure, 24-hour metabolic hormone concentrations, and changes in substrate utilization (protein, fat, or carbs).

The results of this study will make you want to hit-the-sack early instead of watching your favorite late night show or playing another game of Foosball with your buds. Reduction in sleep decreased the proportion of weight lost as FAT by as much as 55% (3.08 lbs vs 1.32 lbs in the 8.5 hour a night group and the 5.5 hour per night group, respectively). And if NOT losing weight loss from fat wasn't bad enough, it was also discovered that the overweight dieters in the study who were only permitted to sleep 5.5 hours per night experienced a loss of lean-muscle mass by 60% (5.28 lbs vs 3.3 lbs in the 5.5 hour participants and the 8.5 hour, respectively). 

Dieting by decreasing overall daily caloric intake always causes an average muscle loss of ~10%, unless the dieter is using an every-other-day fasting diet strategy which has been shown in laboratory research to only cause a ~1% muscle loss (See Klempel MC, et al, Alternate day fasting (ADF) with a high-fat diet produces similar weight loss and cardio-protection as ADF with a low-fat diet, Metabolism (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.metabol.2012.07.002). Losing six times the amount of lean-muscle mass while disciplining yourself like a champ by strictly eating clean & cutting out all the junk food just because you didn't get enough sleep would be CRUSHING! I would throw my scale in the street and run it over 20 times on my way to the store to buy a gallon of Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip while ranting about how all my dieting was for nothing.

Now that you and I know that sleeping is a necessary part of our dieting strategy, let's make it our top priority after drinking enough pure water, cutting back on carbs, and limiting our intake of processed food and sugar to get 8.5 hours of sleep each night. I would rather sleep my fat away then get up an hour early and go to the gym to climb up a 1,000 stairs anyway. Sleep over the stair climbing sounds like music to my ears -- make that snores.

As always, thanks so much for reading.

--Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

Reference: Ann Intern Med. 5 October 2010, 153(7):435-441 dos:10.7326/0003-4819-153-7-201010050-00006. 

SHOULD I EAT A SNACK OR EXERCISE ON AN EMPTY STOMACH

SHOULD I EAT A SNACK OR EXERCISE ON AN EMPTY STOMACH 

Part 4 of 4

            

My hope is to always provide my readers with the real answers to their diet and exercise questions. My goal is to clear up the confusion, misinformation, and the widely touted myths associated with diet & exercise. Wrong information which oftentimes is really just the preferences of the well-known trainers, dietitians, and nutritionists that disperse their own beliefs, behaviors, and practices instead of disseminating sound science and duplicatable laboratory research because their baloney somehow legitimizes what they themselves do in their own lives regardless of its actually truth in bringing about the health, weight loss, or increased levels of fitness in others. 

When it comes to answering the frequent and reoccurring exercise question: TO eat or NOT to eat before exercising, I need to first ask you, "Why are you exercising?" Seriously -- Why are you about to go to the gym, go for a run, or partake in a Pilates class? Know the answer to that question and I will provide you with the answer to the question of eating before exercise or not. 

Are you about to go to the gym to lift weights in the hopes of building bigger muscles (hypertrophy)? If that is the reason for your trip to the gym then you NEED TO EAT before you go to the gym. Eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread or fuel-up on a Greek yogurt with a handful of oatmeal (or granola) with some slices of banana on top about two hours BEFORE you start lifting iron. The Greek yogurt has a sufficient amount of protein in it to provide your muscles with the amino acids they need to increase in size following exercise (protein can take 4 hours to fully digest) and by adding a serving of oatmeal or granola to your yogurt your body will have some slow digesting carbs to provide those hard working muscles with the energy they'll require throughout the workout. The banana on top contains the instant monosaccharides your body will use to initiate your exercise session from the word, "Go!"

If your desire is to burn nasty fat from off of your waist, hips, thighs, and buttocks then I will tell you the best option to accomplish your fat-burning goal is to exercise first thing in the morning BEFORE you have anything to eat and then perform intervals of high intensity and low-moderate intensity for eight to ten cycles. Yes, I am suggesting that you go to the gym or out for your run on an empty stomach -- You think this is workout heresy? It's not! In order for your body to use stored fat as energy, the body must first disassemble your triglycerides stored in your fat cells in order to get those stored fats through the cell's membrane and make them accessible to the body to fuel movement, thought, cellular repair -- basically everything -- but your body won't burn fat if it is releasing insulin in response to a recent meal. The body cannot secrete its calorie-storing hormone knows as insulin at the very same time it is releasing its fat breakdown hormone. The best chance YOU HAVE at burning more fat over any other time of the day is AFTER you have woken up from a good night's sleep and haven't eaten anything yet.

If you are NOT a middle-of-the-night snacker, the chances of your body waking up in a fasted state and being partially depleted of its glycogen stores (stored sugar calories found in your muscles and liver) is really good. If you exercise NOW in this semi-fasted state, your body will have a greater opportunity to use up the remainder of your body's stored glycogen and cause your pancreas to secrete glucagon (the hormone that signals to the body to release its stored fat for chemical breakdown to fuel for its energy needs) and get to burning fat.

A word of extra advice here -- If burning fat is your aim in the hopes of reducing your body-fat percentage and weigh less, then make sure following your high-calorie burning cardio exercise routine that you eat a post-exercise meal of healthy fat and protein and not carbs. Now that your body has depleted its day's worth of glycogen, it will be looking to refill those tired muscles and your liver with new glycogen. If you do not eat carbs (found in common after-exercise meals: fruit, smoothies that contain fruit, store-bought yogurt with mixed fruit, a Starbucks' muffin and its flavored coffee with sugar & cream/milk, or a bagel and cream cheese) your body will be forced to breakdown even more of its stored fat to restore the required glycogen.

If you are of normal weight and body-fat percentage, seeking to get toned, and you do not want to bulk up, then you can eat before you go exercise. You should enjoy an easily digestible & absorbable breakfast that has a moderate amount of protein, complex carbs, and simple carbs. A green smoothie made with vanilla-flavored soy, almond, or hemp milk with a banana, a scoop of protein powder, a handful of spinach, and a 1/4 - 1/2 cup of oatmeal about two hours before you throw on your tank top and workout shorts would be perfect for a person just like you. A breakfast like this would allow this exerciser to get the most out of her or his exercise-training session. 

I hope I answered your TO EAT or NOT TO EAT BEFORE EXERCISE question. If you are in need of further details, please look through my other blog posts about exercise and eating. You can also go to my website DietBella.com and fill out my contact page with your inquiry. I will get back to you in about 24-72 hours.

Thx again for following my blog.
--Bell Gia

MOTIVATION 2016 -- What the Research Labs are Discovering

The Real How-To Steps to Motivate Yourself

Coming up with a reward to treat yourself with AFTER you have accomplished a goal you have set for yourself is a great way to motivate yourself to grab ahold of that sought-after desire; right? Wrong! Guess again! 

Research out of the Motivation and Emotion Research Laboratory at San Francisco University has proven that much of what we have read in the past is supposed to motivate us into doing those things WE KNOW SHOULD DO instead of the opposite is actually counterproductive and sets us up for failure. Creating a treat-reward based motivation system really makes us LESS driven instead of more driven to get across that finish line.  

Rewarding ourselves for healthy behaviors like "I'll buy myself a new outfit if I do three Zumba classes this week," for example, actually takes our focus off of why we really should be doing cardiovascular exercise in accordance with United States Dietary Guidelines of 3-5 times a week for a minimum of 150 minutes. When we dream up a "pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," we think more about the perk or prize instead of our all-important health and fitness level which is the real reason why most of us need to make a habit of running, jogging, or walking regularly.

Ever heard of the Plan-B scenario of motivating yourself? You know -- always creating a back-up plan of how to accomplish your goal or task that needs to get done. This motivational strategy is a LOSER too when it comes to getting ourselves out of the habit of ordering pizza on Friday night after a long, hard week at work instead getting our booties into our chef's aprons and baking a piece of fresh fish along with steaming 2-3 cups of organic broccoli and cauliflower for dinner.  Creating a contingency plan actually prevents women and men from completely committing to that great goal we thought up for getting us into better physical shape. Telling ourselves that if we don't make it to spin class on Monday and Friday but instead take the yoga class at the local YMCA down the street in place of spin actually creates a convenient way to get us off the hook from doing what you really need to do to GET HEALTHY which is hard, blood-pumping cardio. Ditch your Plan B and make spin class or kickboxing a PRIORITY. 

Shhhhh........Keep your success plan or goal to yourself is what actually WORKS in real life and not doing the "tell someone your goal so that they can hold you accountable goal-achieving system we have read about in self-help books written by non-scientists who didn't know the facts.  Skip posting your goal on Instagram and Facebook and instead keep your eye-on-the-prize to yourself because blabbing on social media doing actually gets your brain to let you off the hook in getting-the-job-done because posting your goal to your friends and family actually provides a person with a feeling of accomplishment and ultimately the psyche checks that goal off as DONE. 

In conclusion, when we need to get something done we should internalize the task, creating one doable plan to accomplish that must-do job, and focus on WHY we should be working toward conquering that "certain thing" in our lives instead. If we do these three things we can expect to get that pat on the back by ourselves in due time.  

Thanks for reading. Have a fantastic day.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert