Mirzuk Fitness

Trick #4 to Permanent Weight Loss

mirzukadmin — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:14:55 +0000

Trick #4 in Keeping the Weight Off for Good!!

Dear Miranda,

Ok, we’re up to the 4th trick in making weight loss stick. This trick blends in with all the others.

And it is… (drumroll please…) Pace YourSelf!

So when creating your new healthy habits, you need to pace yourself. Make space for mistakes and for life to happen. Just take it easy. My suggestion is to add one new healthy habit per month for an entire year. You can plan in advance what your 12 habits are going to be- write them in on your wall calender and GO!

Here’s how to start: tonight write down what 12 healthy habits you will add to your life in the next year. I find that usually people have a pretty good idea of what they need to add, they just don’t commit to doing it.

Writing the habits down in your calender is a commitment. Write your start date for each habit and keep track of them in a fitness journal or wherever works for you.

If you need some ideas of healthy habits to add, here are a few: drink 8 eight ounce glasses of water every day, add more fiber to your diet, exercise a minimum of 3x per week, add more green veggies to your diet, keep your portion sizes reasonable (palm sized), snack on nuts and carrots instead of power bars and chips, etc…

If you need a little more guidance and support, I offer several programs that vary from group support, to individualized one on one coaching. To find out what works best for you, and for the opportunity to receive a complimentary strategy session with me, go to http://mirzukfitness.com/mirzuk-fitness-questionaire/ and fill out the questionnaire.

Good luck!! Trick #5 in keeping the weight off for good will be coming your way next week!!

Your Fitness Coach,

Miranda Zukowski

Trick #3 to Keeping the Weight off for GOOD!

mirzukadmin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:34:33 +0000

Trick #3 to Keeping the Weight off for GOOD!!

It’s time for Trick #3 of the 5 Tricks to keeping the weight off for good! This trick is all about how to get through those rough patches when you can’t seem to stop your self sabotage roll. First thing to remember is that we all have choices. If you make a crappy one, OWN it and then move on. Feeling guilty and bad about yourself usually only leads to more poor choices.

Trick#3 picks up where Trick#2 left off with emotional eating. We’re taking it one step further and dealing with exercise and all other aspects of leading a healthy lifestyle.

There are 3 things to remember when you find that you have fallen off your wagon. These apply whether you skipped your fitness class, didn’t get enough sleep, took on a project that you know you shouldn’t have that left you all stressed out, or ate the cake at the party.

1- You are human, and it’s not the end of the world. You made a poor choice, what choice can you make to move you forward from where you are now in a positive direction?

2- Be as matter of fact with yourself as possible. Beating yourself up and reacting emotionally does nothing to move you forward in a positive and healthy way. If you can’t stop berating yourself, just take a step back and watch yourself from an outside perspective. (read “The Power of Now” by Eckhardt Tolle) Let the emotions be what they are and then let them pass. Next, decide how to move forward in a healthy way that you can be proud of.

3- And if you think you can’t do it- think again. There’s no reason why you can’t and no one is stopping you but YOU!!

In the end, the goal is to shift your trend, so that healthy living becomes your norm instead of your exception. And when the exception happens, you accept it and get right back on your wagon!

So, for today, what choice can you make to move yourself forward in a way that makes you feel good about yourself.

Share your answer in the space for comments, below.

Have a Wonderful, Amazing, Fantastic day!!!

Your Fitness Coach,

Miranda Zukowski

Keeping the weight off for GOOD! Trick #2

mirzukadmin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:25:06 +0000

It’s time for Trick #2 of my 5 tricks to keeping the weight off for good. This trick is about emotional eating, (and guess what folks, we all do it…). To find out how to get back in charge of what you consume, you need to get connected to your Self. What the heck do I mean by that?

Just this: emotional eating is a significant factor in weight gain. You need to get connected to your Self to keep a close watch on how certain feelings affect your need to hit the fridge. When you begin to build awareness of how your emotions are making you eat, you can begin to prevent slipups.

Here’s the thing, we ALL eat for emotional reasons from time to time. The definition of emotional eating is simply eating for reasons other than hunger. We use certain foods as rewards, or to make us feel comfort in a desperate moment, or even if we are just bored. If we didn’t eat for emotional reasons, we wouldn’t be human. It is what it is. But when you build awareness, you can make more mindful decisions on whether or not you want to give into those emotions.

So how do you build your awareness? There are a few ways to do it, but for me the easiest and most effective way is to keep a food journal. You can keep it in a word doc or literally write in a journal. You write down what you eat, how much you consumed, what time, and WHY you ate it.

The last part is crucial to your success. It could be “Because I was hungry”, which seems obvious but is more often NOT the reason why we ate what we ate. And what we don’t realize is that if we don’t ask the question WHY, then we won’t know why we are eating. Other, more common than simply being hungry, reasons for eating might be “I was bored”, “My boyfriend dumped me”, “Needed to occupy myself while watching tv”, “was rewarding myself for getting through a rough day”, etc…

You must write it down in order to build awareness. Only then can you begin to see your patterns and make conscious choices about whether to consume food or not.

As your awareness changes, so will your bod.

Enjoy the transformation!!

Your Fitness Coach,

Miranda Zukowski

Take it off, KEEP it off… trick #1 to weight loss

mirzukadmin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:00:13 +0000

Take it off, KEEP it off…

What in the world am I talking about? Weight! So many people try to lose weight. Some do not succeed at all. Others succeed, but then go right back to their crappy habits and gain it all back. Very few actually take it off and keep it off. What’s holding you back?

We’ve all heard it, many of us have done it: You change your ‘diet’ in order to reach a short term weight loss goal and then you turn around after you’ve achieved it and go right back to your old habits, and as a result you put the weight right back on. And, in many cases, you put on more weight because you’ve messed with your metabolism so your calories are getting burned at a different rate. Well, that’s just no fun. How can we avoid this from happening?

I have 5 tricks to share with you and today I am going to share Trick #1

THINK LONG TERM

Short term goals are great, but when it comes to weight loss, we are talking about lifestyle changes. Yes, it’s overwhelming and big. Do you want the goal, or not?

Ok, so step #1 then, is to change how you think about diet. The word ‘diet’ means to most people cutting out foods you like so that you can lose weight. It’s something that you ‘go on’ for a short period of time to reach a predetermined weight goal. When you reach the goal, you are done with the ‘diet’. You go back to your old habits and you gain the weight right back.

What the word ‘diet’ actually means is what you eat. Your diet is what you eat. Forever. Period.

Step #2 is to BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND! This concept comes from Stephen Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” (Great book! Very applicable to life). It works for all areas of life, including weight loss goals. What do you want to look like? Feel like? How do you want your clothes to fit?

You have to make the goal tangible. One way to do this is to create a vision board (my preference). You can add motivational quotes that speak to you, pictures of yourself, pictures of people you want to emulate, ideas, anything that visually entices you to hit that goal.

Step #3 is to break the goal into doable parts to reach the goal weight. Try adding in one new healthy habit per week. Focus on the positive, meaning the addition of healthy habits, as opposed to what you need to cut out. When you begin to notice how the new habits make you feel, you won’t be as attracted to the old habits that make you feel fat and lethargic. The weight will magically start to drop away!

Apply these simple steps to your life and watch the transformation!!

To your Magnificent Health!

Your Fitness Coach,

Miranda Zukowski

Why are these people dying so young?

mirzukadmin — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:18:09 +0000

On a recent call I gave for one of my programs I read an excerpt from Kris Carr’s book “Crazy Sexy Diet”, which is WAY more than a ‘diet’ book (I don’t like how the word ‘diet’ is used in our society. Diet means what you eat, not starving yourself. It simply means “what you eat”), and in the excerpt she mentions that in this country we spend way more on sickness than wellness and we are way off balance. A study that she mentions says that this will be the first generation where the children will die before their parents. This is due in part to the availability of ‘foods’ that are literally poison to our bodies. Notice how many children these days are gluten intolerant, have all these allergies, down syndrome is on the rise, etc. Were the other kids all sick and obese when you were 10 years old? You will see the signs of our poisonous lifestyles if you just stop to look around for a moment.

People purposely don’t educate themselves because they’re afraid of what they might find out, and they think they won’t be able to do anything about it. Well, look at it the other way- if you educate yourself then you have the power to change. It’s not as hard as you may think to start creating a healthy lifestyle. Just take one new piece of information in every day, and before you know it you’ll have a solid foundation for health and your healthy lifestyle will influence friends and family to also begin to live healthier lives.

As far as the “children starting to die before their parents” goes- I have 2 stories for you.

1st story – I have a client whose permission I have to share the following story. Seems the day after Christmas, her brother went in for bowel surgery. He suffered complications from the surgery and as a result his kidneys failed. His MOTHER had to make the decision to keep him off machines and order a DNR. He died on Tuesday this week. He was 49. No parent should have to bury their child! Why do you suppose he needed bowel surgery in the first place?

And that’s not all…

2nd story- On January 10th a friend of mine went to pick her daughter up from school. When they walked into their home, my friends husband was dead on the floor. His child and wife found him dead, and his parents flew up late last night to bury him. Another hard hit, and an example of the child dying before the parents. Can you even imagine the horror of this? It’s true you never know when you’re going to go, but can you do your best to make sure you at least stick around for your child’s high school graduation? Surely there is some motivation in that?

So what does it take to motivate oneself to prevent his or her own ill health? Are the freaking potato chips REALLY that good? It is your responsibility to take care of your body and your self. It’s not a game, and it isn’t just about you. It’s about everyone you touch. Your children, your spouse, your parents, your siblings, your friends, your coworkers- everyone you touch. So many people are hurt by these deaths I just mentioned, and there are stories like that every day. Needless death and needless pain.

I am very affected by both of these stories, and I wanted to share with you to emphasize how important YOUR health is. When you have one of those days where you say to yourself “But it’s too hard” or “what’s the point” or “why bother”, please remember the stories I just shared. It is worth it. Every choice you make makes a difference in your life. Choose wisely.

I create simple, easy to follow programs to help people get back on track (or get on track in the first place!). It’s true that society is offering a lot of killer stuff (seriously), but it is not as hard as you think to live a healthier lifestyle. And it is only getting easier the more we educate ourselves and become aware of what’s going on.

If you want to talk more about this super duper important topic, you can leave a comment here or email me at miranda@mirzukfitness.com. I also have a questionnaire that will help you get an idea of where you are at so you can determine where you want to go and how to get there. It’s on the home page of my website- www.mirzukfitness.com

Health & Happiness to you and your family!!

Your Fitness Coach,

Miranda Zukowski

My New York State of Mind- (does this happen to you?)

mirzukadmin — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 23:10:44 +0000

I am the luckiest girl alive! Ron had to go on a biz trip and asked me to come with him. Ok, so a little vaca from the daily grind- that’ll be nice. But, check this out. His business convention was held at the Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado Island outside of San Diego. We had an excellent room where you could hear the waves pounding the shore all night (I had crazy dreams- I think I was a superhero in one of them?), and the whole entire experience was AMAZING! The hotel is crazy awesome and I really could’ve just stayed there the whole trip and been happy.

The interesting thing was that as soon as I got up on the first morning and got into the shower I felt this panic. Something like this “Oh my God I only have 3 days and it’s going to go by too fast and how am I going to get the most out of it and I really need to do this this this this this and this. But it’s already almost over and I’m wasting time taking this shower and we should’ve added an extra day and ” and and and. I realized how crazy I was and said out loud “STOP.” (pause for dramatic emphasis) “Breathe…” and I took a few slow deeeep breaths and got myself together.

Breathing is what I tell other people to do if they’re getting into panic mode. It really is quite an amazing tool. (I probably will say “amazing” a few more times in this post, just so you know). I took my own advice and just stood there and breathed for a few long slow moments. When I got out of the shower I just kept my mind on the words ‘slow’ and ‘breathe’. I was much better equipped after calming down to hear what my intuition was telling me. How will I get the most out of my time here? What are the things I really want to do?

Surprise- I wanted to do work! I found it very easy to do work for my current group (the 30 Day Kickstart to FIT & HEALTHY. Don’t worry if you missed it, I’m going to do another one probably in the spring). And then my intuition said EAT- so I went to the restaurant in the hotel. And then I felt the need to go sit on the beach and just stare at the waves. I listened to some meditation music and that mixed with the sound of the waves was magic. I closed my eyes and put my hands in the sand. Life slowed down and I just took it in. Felt amazingly alive! I took some time every day to do some meditation.

The highlights of the weekend were those meditative moments in front of the ocean. The reason why is that they brought me into the present moment, and made everything else I did exponentially more enjoyable. Spent time with Ron and had some lovely meals together. Ran and ran and ran and ran and ran on the beach. And then ran some more. Also amazingly meditative and it made me feel so alive! Took a ton of pictures, went to the San Diego Zoo, dinner in Seaport Village, top of the Hyatt, rode bikes around Coronado Island, explored Ferry’s Landing, went to the gym (of course) and recorded a video for people who use “but I was traveling” as their excuse for not working out.

Whenever I felt that panicky stuff come up I would take a few slow deep breaths and figure out a way to ground myself. Sometimes that was standing barefoot on the ground. If I couldn’t be barefoot, just standing still worked alright also. Also sitting still and not doing anything also helped bring me back to me.

Had a very full 3 days, and they didn’t fly by. I enjoyed and appreciated every moment. It’s true that it did eventually come to an end, and that’s ok. I was ready to come home and enjoy what comes next.

Do you get into a “New York state of mind” and get all panicky? What do you do to settle yourself back down? Or do you do anything? Try what I did. When you start to get that run on crazy voice in your head telling you all the things you need to do and feel time crunching down on you- say out loud “STOP” and then “Breathe”, then actually take a few moments for some slow deeeep breaths. Then write down what’s in your head. Get it out of your head and onto paper. Then you can go through and choose what is your priority in the moment. Take it one step at a time.

Main thing is to enjoy your life in the moment. Breathe, and enjoy!

Health & Happiness,

Miranda Zukowski

Happy New Year 2012! What does it mean to you?

mirzukadmin — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:02:55 +0000

I surprised the heck out of myself last night. I went from super thrilled awesome New Year’s Eve attitude to seriously deflated and all of a sudden not hungry in an instant. In hindsight, it was kinda silly, but it had to come from somewhere. But where?? I’ll explain…

Ron & I decided to celebrate New Year’s Eve at home, and we had a fantastic time! There was wine, grapes, crackers, cheese, lots of chatting and playing and it was really an overall delicious evening. There was no stress, no worries, just a grand ole time with each other and looking forward to the new year. We had the Times Square event streaming on Ron’s computer so we could watch. We were being ‘bad’ eating ice cream and were just hanging out. LOW KEY, ahhhh.

When the final minute countdown came on the computer, Ron turned it off. Huh? Turns out he was trying to make the screen bigger, but the result was that he turned the screen off. With less than a minute to go until 2012. He got it back on eventually, but it didn’t really matter at that point. He turned it off right before the ball dropped and we missed the event. We did not ‘ring in’ anything.

I was completely deflated. All the happiness I had been feeling went right out the door in an instant. I looked down at the ice cream I was holding and wondered what the hell I was doing with it. Completely lost my appetite and threw the ice cream away. I just felt so sad.

So what’s up with THAT? It was a HUGE energy shift. If you had asked me yesterday if watching the ball drop was a big deal for me I would’ve told you that I liked it but that I could live without. Guess I was wrong about that! So why was there such a huge shift? And what was I going to do about it?

Perhaps wallow, but for what? I didn’t like feeling what I was feeling, and I immediately reached for something to shift my energy back to where it had been. I decided to watch “How I Met Your Mother”. It did help some. But I still couldn’t help feeling this hopeless sad feeling.

Again I ask- WHAT’S UP WITH THAT? My reaction really surprised me. I think the energy of all those people being so happy about this one moment definitely pulls me in, as it clearly does for so many people, and there is something to be said for that. And I had that moment taken away from me at the (almost literally) last possible second. So that sorta shocked my system.

But I wanted to go deeper than that. I had to examine what New Year’s Eve means to me. It means a new beginning. It means a chance to start over. It means, as I mentioned, that all these people are out having a great time and acting crazy which makes me happy. In particular, for 2012 I am looking forward to new beginnings and perhaps an easier road. The evening was off to such a great start which made me feel like the year was off to a great start.

2011 was a rough road. Everything I did felt like it had a block. Moving forward with my business felt like trudging through mud, and as I looked around me throughout the year it seemed that others were skipping happily along forward. I hired a great coach, and even she said about one instance in particular “Wow, I’ve never seen someone have all those technical issues with just this one thing”. Everything was like that. Something that should’ve taken 5 minutes could take an entire day. The simplest thing became the most arduous task. It was really ridiculous. And it wasn’t just with work. It was my personal life, too.

Most of 2011 was given over to fertility issues. (There, I said it.) This was the reason I made so many health changes (and yes, they did make a difference, but that’s another story). I didn’t get to travel or do any fit ventures. I did get to miss a bunch of work and shoot myself up with all sorts of drugs and go to the doctor every other day to be poked and prodded and get more needles stuck in me. Meanwhile, other people have sex, get pregnant and pop out babies. Say wha? How do they DO that?!??

Point is- everything in 2011 that people think of as seemingly effortless was for me, to say the least, NOT!!! I had high hopes for 2012.

So, what would YOU think? You’re being optimistic about a new year and new beginnings. And you’re safe and warm at home with someone you love watching the ball drop. And you can’t even get THAT right. HA! It’s kind of funny actually, right!?

In short (haha- in ‘long’ really), the reason I got so upset I realized is because of this last statement. I can’t even do something simple like watch the ball drop on NYE without getting it screwed up. So that represented to me what 2012 is going to be like.

You’ve gotten this far- don’t stop reading now. The lesson that I’ve taken from my experience is that New Year’s Eve isn’t the only new beginning. EVERY DAY is a new beginning. EVERY MOMENT you can choose to stay on the path you are on or shift to a different one. New Year’s Eve just happens to bring more people’s awareness to this fact, but they lose momentum soon afterwards (You know, with those New Year’s Resolutions that last maybe til February…).

But you can change your path in any moment that you choose. I choose to shift my path now. I choose to have a more fluid year in 2012. I will make choices every day that keep me steady on this path. I choose to focus on the positive, because there is a lot of it. If the negative stuff happens, I will find something to learn from it and move on. I choose to nurture my relationships more. I choose to continue to do what I love and am so fortunate that I can. I choose to notice when I get off track and put myself back on. Just like I did today. Which sets a fanTAStic precedent for the rest of the year

And, it’s already working! Just today we shot a ‘flexibility stretch’ video for my new program. The weather was perfect, the shoot was done in one take and it all FLOWED PERFECTLY… It’s going to be an awesome year!!

Happy New Year! I wish you a fluid, super wonderful 2012!!

Your Fitness Coach,

Miranda Zukowski

Yay Healthy Food!!!

mirzukadmin — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 16:37:30 +0000

photo credit: SummerTomato

There are many perspectives about food. How do you look at food? Is it the enemy? Is it the tempting evil thing that brings you down day after day? It is fun to consume and then the aftermath not so fun? Is it something to dread? Something to enjoy? Something to meditate to as you prepare? What?

I had an interesting experience this morning. I was groggy from last night and had a slow to rise morning. Ron and I went on a wagon ride with some fun NYers and some Clydesdales on a farm out in Jersey. It dropped us off at a cozy bonfire where we proceeded to heat up cookies and hot cider rum on the fire. Oh, and s’mores. I don’t like s’mores so I didn’t go for them. But chocolate chip cookies heated up by fire? I went for it. And howzabout that hot cider rum? Really, the main reason I drank that was because it was hot. I was cold, it was hot, I drank it and had some temporary relief from the cold. It was all pretty awesome. In that particular moment, anyway. I actually started falling asleep while I was standing there, so the result of the consumption was fast acting.

Point is, this morning I woke up dragging ass. I was wondering what I would write my blog about today and decided to make myself some food and ponder my options. I made oatmeal with bananas, blueberries, walnuts and cinnamon. YUM! As soon as I was done I found myself bouncing around a little more. Instant energy! From good food! YAY FOOD!!! It’s a lesson we all learn over and over. Eat crappy foods, feel like crap. Eat healthy foods, feel fantastic! So why don’t we all just eat healthy foods all the time?

Now, I’m no psychologist, but I am going to make a generalization about human beings right here right now. We are not designed to avoid temptation. We are just not designed for it. We can do it for small periods of time, but we are built for immediate gratification. Look at what we are doing to the planet! We sort of care what happens in the future, but the majority of us care more about what happens right now. We are the same way with our own lives. You would think that living a long healthy life would be a motivating factor, but it doesn’t seem to be. How we feel from one moment to the next is what drives most of us.

So I am going to ask you to expand your minds a bit. Think about how you want to live. Ask yourself how you want to feel. Do you want to have energy to be able to go out and enjoy life? Enjoy being with your family? Especially this time of year when many of us are spending more than usual quality time with our loved ones. Do we want to spend that time passed out on the couch? I know, for me personally, the answer is NO! I want to be alert and awake and able to focus on them and hear about their lives. So I have to watch what I fuel myself with.

And back to point number 1. How do you see food? I see it as fuel. Am I putting good quality fuel into my tank or not? Last night, I put in low grade crap. This morning, I fueled up with high quality diesel. As far as immediate gratification goes- focus on how you want to feel as opposed to what you want to eat. It’s all in the same moment pretty much. Just shift your focus. Expand your mind a bit. How do you want to feel?

I want to feel fantastic and alive. So I eat foods that I know will fuel me up.

Added bonus: I live a long and healthy life! Yay!!!

How to avoid temptation? Just don’t put the junk in your home. If you don’t know what fuels you, experiment and record what happens. Write down what you ate and how you felt afterwards. Not sure what to make? Go to Barnes & Noble and get yourself a cookbook, or a nutrition book, or both. I just got a book called “Thrive Foods” by Brendan Brazier that is a combination of both. Decide how you want to live, and then DO it!

If you give into temptation at the holidays, it’s human nature. Beating yourself up helps NOTHING, so just focus on moving forward. When going into a situation that you know is going to have a lot of temptation, just focus on how you want to feel, then eat the foods that steer you in that direction.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and how you are doing this holiday season!!

Your Fitness Coach,

Miranda Zukowski

How are you Feeling RIGHT NOW in your Body?

mirzukadmin — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:51:40 +0000

How do you feel in your body? About your body? RIGHT now? Are you pleased with how you look, feel about yourself, and your levels of energy? Are you apathetic- “Oh, whatever, I can’t change it so I might as well just eat all of this”??? Are you freaking out? What are you feeling?

If it’s not quite the picture you want, you can change it. Yes, you can.

I want to start a dialogue here. I would love to know how many holiday parties or family gatherings you have already attended and how many are still on the schedule. I want to know if you feel you are eating more this season than you normally do throughout the year. And, most importantly, I want to know how you FEEL about it.

Do you have an “it is what it is” attitude?

Are you feeling out of control?

Or are you able to not eat the junky junk and maintain your figure and your health through this season?

If you take on one of the first two attitudes, then you could use a plan to help you get back on track. First, don’t judge. It’s ok to fall off the wagon. This is life, and it happens. Second, no need to feel sorry for yourself, just put a plan in place to get back on your path.

If you need help formulating your plan, I’ve got something exciting in store for you!! I am offering a FREE live call with me on December 20th, all about how to kickstart your engine to get FIT & HEALTHY in 2012!! If you are a do-it-yourselfer, this is all you will need to get yourself going. If you need a little more guidance and support, I have developed a program just for you, and I will tell you about it on the call.

If you can’t make the call, you can still sign up for it! We will send you a recording of the call. Why would you do that? BECAUSE, as mentioned, if you are a do-it-yourselfer, this is ALL you will need to set yourself on a path towards being Fit & Healthy. And, because my goal is to help you realize YOUR goal, I am offering bonuses on the program ONLY offered on the call.

It’s a no brainer.

Ask yourself how you want to feel in 2012? Do you feel that way now? What’s it going to take to get you to where you want to be?

Enjoy the Holidays and time with your fun peeps and loved ones!

Your Fitness Coach,

Miranda Zukowski

Sugar and Inflammation- Why you feel sore, tired and plain yucky

mirzukadmin — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:12:50 +0000

Last week I told you about my little experiment to fall off my health wagon for Thanksgiving. I mentioned how my hip was sore the whole next day as a result and I received a few comments on how that is possible just from eating crappy one day? (PS- this is one experiment I won’t be repeating!)

First of all, think about it. Do you have sore joints? Achey back? Hips? When do your flare ups occur? These can actually be avoided if we treat our food as medicine. What you put into your body MATTERS!! Think about it- how could it not be so?

Also, consider that your coughing, sneezing, wheezing, and general ills are just symptoms of inflammation. They are not the sickness, but your body trying to deal with what you have dished out to it (so to speak). Avoid all this unpleasantness by simply eating the right foods. Sound simple. IT IS!!

What do you think causes dis-ease? Most diseases are caused by inflammation. When you overload on simple carbs (white breads, white rice, white pasta, etc) it results in an insulin spike which cause biochemical changes in your cells. Staying away from these high glycemic foods is one of the best ways to prevent inflammation. Complex carbs, on the other hand, are critical for good health. These include (but aren’t limited to) apples, asparagus, beans, broccoli, cabbage, cantaloupe, citrus fruits, kale, kiwi, other leafy greens, peaches, pears, plums, raspberries, spinach and strawberries. Many of these will also give you that sugar fix you are craving, and you can avoid the super sugary processed foods and avoid inflammation.

What else causes inflammation? Stimulants (coffee), alcohol, chemical sweeteners (your ‘diet’ sodas), anything processed, and, as mentioned, anything that spikes your insulin levels (worth repeating- white rice, white pasta, white breads, pizza, cakes, pies, ice cream, pastries, candy, anything with added sugar).

My suggestion is to do a little experiment of your own. Pick a pre-determined amount of time (try no less than one month to see and feel results) and cut this stuff out of your life. Focus instead on veggies, brown rice, barley, lentils, beans, salads (no funky dressings! stick with basic oil and vinegar), organic meats, organic cheese, fruits, whole grain breads, oatmeal. Add in an Essential Fatty Acid supplement along with a cinnamon supplement (or just add cinnamon to your food). These are both amazing on cutting down the effects of inflammation. Simple.

Take before pictures and make sure you get a good one of your face. Your skin will change dramatically, as all the crap in our regular diets make us puffy, red and wrinkly. Think about it, does your junky food really taste THAT good? Is it worth it?

I’ve given you some simple suggestions and basic info here. If you want to read more on this topic and dive a little deeper, check out:

http://www.wethechange.com/how-to-reduce-inflammation-in-the-body-and-why-you-need-to-do-this/

http://www.lowcarbmonthly.com/general-health/the-relationship-between-sugar-and-inflammation.html

http://www.groundfloorhealth.com/diabetes/sugar-intake-increases-inflammation-in-body/

It’s just one month. You can do ANYTHING for just one month!

SO, when is your start date?

Here’s to YOU and your long, healthy, HAPPY life!

Your Fitness Coach,

Miranda Zukowski