Pam lives by the mantra of “healthy mind, body, and spirit” for others and for herself

Name: Pam

Sessions Completed: 99

MotionTraxx Minutes Logged: 2,170

Favorite MotionTrack: Burn This! for Tabata Lovers

Result: Lost 35 pounds

After some soul searching and with the support of those close to her, Pam decided to make a big career change – she left the corporate world and dedicated her time to helping others. Pam now works as a mental health therapist with at-risk teens and kids in Ohio’s legal system. Most of her work is in-home intensive care that transforms how members of a family relate to one and other.

99
Sessions Completed

Pam has dealt with her own share of difficulties in life – she struggled with self-esteem as a kid and had a difficult divorce in her later years. Friends and family members gave Pam the positive foundation she needed to emerge out of trying times. She attributes her inclination to help others to her parents, and credits them for showing her how to respect others. Her brother (who is a marathon runner) and her sister-in-law both inspire Pam, as she sees how they excel in their personal and professional lives. Pam explains, “family and friends have impacted the way I see myself and interact with the world. Without these important people, I would not understand love and inspiration.” With so much support in her life, Pam was able to turn around and be a positive force for others.

Pam’s job is both emotionally taxing and rewarding. She works with defiant teens and struggling parents in crisis situations. Yet, she gets to be a part of major transformations as she helps families reunite and leads kids on a better path. Pam explains her success in therapy, “I think I’m a great listener and problem solver. I’m very empathetic and just want to see families succeed. Families are important to me because my family is so important to me.”

Pam lives by the mantra of “healthy mind, body, and spirit” for others and for herself. To keep up with the demands of her job, Pam makes sure to take care of herself first – a big part of that has been exercise. Exercise either gives Pam energy to start the day or helps her to decompress at day’s end.

2,170
MotionTraxx Minutes Logged

When Pam meets with some families to start the day, she knows she will have significant challenges to face. With a good workout under her belt, the better she is at her job – “the more energy I have, the better I feel about myself, the more I am able to help people.” Working out serves a different purpose at the end of the day – “because my job is definitely emotionally and mentally demanding,” she explains, “I need that release and reprieve. My workouts help me calm down and decompress before I go home.”

Working out translates to overall empowerment for Pam. While most of what is thrown at us in life is out of our control, exercise lets us gain control and feel a sense of autonomy in our own lives. The most satisfying part is seeing and feeling that what we put in has a tangible impact. For Pam, that tangible impact has been a 42 pound weight loss, increased self-esteem, and improved relationships. “My workouts help me hold myself higher, make me feel more confident in my job, and make me a better family member and friend.” While she never was a huge runner, Motion Traxx helped Pam gain endurance. The sense of satisfaction and accomplishment she feels after making it through an entire treadmill workout without stopping is immense.

Pam is a fighter in life and that quality shines through in the gym. “I’m a pretty intense person when I work out. When I do something, I always try to do it to the best of my ability. I always want to get the best workout in that I can and strive to get better every day.” She loves how Motion Traxx trainer and sport conditioning coach, Tom Holland pushes and empowers her. Hearing him say, “this is so you see change” and “this is so you improve” makes Pam push just that much harder to get results. “When I’m exhausted after, I feel amazing.”

Pam’s Favorite MotionTrack

Pam’s support system is comprised not only of Motion Traxx trainers, but also her family and best friend. The support and encouragement she has received from those close to her have been instrumental in her health journey – Pam feels incredibly grateful for those who have stood by her side and given her inspiration to keep on going.

Pam knows that exercise played a key role in her personal journey, and encourages those she works with to find a sport they love and to stay active. A healthy body is a key ingredient to a healthy mind.

Have an inspirational fitness story to tell?  Email me at lovetosweat@motiontraxx.com

Peter’s take-charge attitude permeates all aspects of his life, especially his workouts.

Name: Peter

Sessions Completed: 102

MotionTraxx Minutes Logged: 2,533

Favorite MotionTrack: Treadmill Coach vol. 2 by Amy Dixon

Result: Contagious Optimism

Peter was born and raised in Jamaica but took off for a life around the globe, working as an executive chef on a cruise ship. With a contagiously positive attitude, Peter lived to embrace life and the twists and turns that were thrown at him. Because of his travels, Peter lost touch with a girl he met online. When a message popped up six months later from the same special woman, Peter decided to embrace the moment – he booked a flight to the US and never looked back.

102
Sessions Completed

Peter would have never met his wife if not for taking a chance on love. He explains, “you have to take chances in life.  If you don’t you’re not going to know what could’ve happened.”

“I don’t believe in maybe. I believe in do it.” – he says

Although his work-shift spans from 3pm to 3am, Peter knows that a good workout is key to a good day. MotionTraxx helps Peter overcome the impulse to hit the snooze button and gets him going.

“It doesn’t matter how tired I am – I know that once I go on that treadmill and jump into MotionTraxx, everything starts to feel fresh again.”

2,533
MotionTraxx Minutes Logged

Workouts are a key ingredient to Peter’s contagious optimism – they help him start the day off of the right foot and keep him energized through out. We can all carry Peter’s words with us for an extra boost.

Peter’s Favorite MotionTrack

“MotionTraxx motivates me – it’s like someone right there coaching me and telling me what to do. Even if you don’t want to push, it drives you further and further. I like the part when Amy says, think about someone beside you – don’t let them pass you.”

Bigger, Faster, Stronger is the motto that Rich Thomann cultivated from old-school neighborhood competition and the motto that later helped Rich play for the best football team in the country, Notre Dame.

Name: Rich

MotionTraxx Sessions Completed: 95

MotionTraxx Hours Logged: 2,017

Favorite MotionTrack: Elliptical Express #2 by Stephanie Vitorino

Result: Life-sustaining endorphin highs

Rich grew up in Akron, Ohio where he had to earn respect out on the football field. Competition wasn’t league organized or school sanctioned, but run by the big boys in the neighborhood. Rich’s motivation came from never wanting to get picked last or bullied – he attributes his toughness to the drive to come back bigger, faster, and stronger each and every day to meet the challenges of his environment.

95
Sessions Completed

Rich’s competitive spirit and drive translated to a successful high school and college career. With 200 students vying to play for the Varsity football team, Rich made it his goal to be the best. He describes himself as being “the biggest fast guy and the fastest big guy,” always making strength and agility his goals. In 1968, Rich was recruited to Notre Dame as a linebacker and in 1970, helped the Fighting Irish beat the University of Texas in the Cotton Bowl.

Rich attributes his success to the relentless pursuit of his goals “My Notre Dame experience was a culmination of all those neighborhood and high school games – all the time as a kid that I spent in the gym and on the field.”

“When you live a life in athletics, it’s a life of competition, you want to be the best. I can’t live unless I’m advancing, I can’t retreat.”

After college, Rich continued to play football professionally. Although his football career eventually came to an end, Rich never gave up the pursuit of challenging himself. True success, he believes, comes from the hard work when nobody is watching. Rich no longer has football players around him to set the bar – he sees himself as his biggest competition.

“You can get better wherever you are in life, you can always do better – the fight becomes with yourself. You can always be better than you were the day before.”

Rich’s Favorite MotionTrack

Rich craves going to the gym every day and during each workout, he looks forward to the next. The endorphin high from his MotionTraxx workouts are addicting and life-sustaining. Working out used to shape Rich’s body and mind to compete against bigger and stronger guys, but now at 64 years old, working out keeps Rich young and a part of the lives of his kids and grandkids. Looking back on his life, Rich is thankful for the tough environment that he grew up with – it helped foster a lifelong love of competition, discipline and athletics.

Have an inspirational fitness story to tell?  Email me at lovetosweat@motiontraxx.com

Tracy lives in Fruita, Colorado, an outdoorsy area with a small town feel. She’s 45 with three kids (24, 21, and 11) and one 9 month-old granddaughter. Relaxed, energetic, tattooed, strong, and active, she’s one of the coolest grandmothers out there – as Tracy puts it, she’s really 25 at heart.

Name: Tracy

MotionTraxx Sessions Completed: 75

MotionTraxx Minutes Logged: 1,663

Favorite MotionTrack: Tabata Timer – 5 Rounds

Result: Young at heart

With biking as the most common mode of transportation and hiking as the favorite activity, wellness is inherent in the Fruita lifestyle. Unlike people who live in a big city, staying active isn’t something people have to make time for in Fruita – opportunities to stay fit and enjoy the outdoors present themselves on a daily basis.

75
Sessions Completed

The mountains and community feel are the secrets to Tracy’s youth. She wakes up to breathtaking views every morning and wherever she goes, Tracy runs into a friendly face. She describes her town as laid back and non-judgmental – “There’s no pressure here to be a certain way. My husband and I are heavily tattooed, I have a Mohawk – it’s not a big deal, nobody looks at you like there’s something wrong with you or like you’re a bad seed. There’s so much diversity with the type of people who live here.”

The mountains always have their way of capturing a sense of awe and they make you break a sweat. No matter where you go – whether driving or on a hike – the views are breathtaking. “You can have an awful day when everything is going wrong, then you go outside and think – look where I get to live and how I get to spend every second of my day.” Besides their aesthetic quality, the mountains are a great place for working out. Tracy often bikes up thousands of feet of elevation to get her heart rate going.

“I feel better about myself when I exercise – I feel more confident. If I can pedal up a thousand feet or go to the gym and lift a bunch of heavy weights over my head, it’s like I can conquer anything.”

1,663
Minutes Logged

When Tracy has to take her exercise indoors, MotionTraxx is the perfect solution to maintaining the intensity and sweat she gets from the mountains. She explains that sometimes it is a metal battle to get to the gym, but after one good Motion Traxx workout, her mood is completely enhanced. “Particularly with cardio, you want someone there to push you and keep you motivated.”

“If you’re on the spin bike by yourself, you can slack off, but there’s none of that with Greg Cook! He knows exactly when my mind is going to wander and even though he’s not standing right in front of me, I feel like he’s pushing me and telling me exactly what I need to hear at the right time.”

Tracy is surrounded by likeminded people who value working out and the outdoors and who strive to get the most out of each day whether it be hiking, fishing, camping, or working out in the gym. With no big cities around them, the residents of Fruita choose to live where they do for the love of the outdoors and a passion for the artsy scene. If Tracy and her husband aren’t mountain biking or hiking, they’ll be at a concert listening to music or drinking local beers.

Tracy’s Favorite MotionTrack

“I’ve said it before – I don’t know why everyone doesn’t live here!” The constant activity has kept Tracy young and the outdoors lifestyle has created an even stronger bond between Tracy, her husband and her eleven-year-old son. She says, “we love it here, this is home.”
Tracy doesn’t have to drive far to a gym or squeeze in workout time into her schedule – all she needs to do is walk outdoors, and enjoy the adventure that awaits. 

Have an inspirational fitness story to tell?  Email me at lovetosweat@motiontraxx.com

If you’re looking for a workout that can give you a better metabolism boost, then look no further then Pump Up Your Run on the Motion Traxx app. This 25-minute workout taught by Teri Ann Krefting is a total body, High Intensity Interval Training workout. This workout was first seen in Shape magazine and was designed by Nathaniel Oliver.

Whether you are a treadmill lover or just use the treadmill for a good workout, Pump Up Your Run allows you to turn a boring, average run on the treadmill into a motivating exercise. By incorporating more strength over speed in this workout, you are increasing your calorie burn both during and after your workout. This workout features exercises such as high knees, reverse lunges, squats, and more along with running and jogging in small 3 minute intervals.

No WiFi? No Problem! Using the valuable offline feature, you can download Pump Up Your Run and workout on the go at any time! Not near a treadmill? It’s okay! This workout can be done either outside or on a treadmill, so you can spice up your exercise anywhere you choose! It’s time to sweat with Motion Traxx!

You’ll be happy to know that Motion Traxx was designed for one thing: to get you moving!

To get your 2017 in ‘Motion’, we just released three new workouts that will provide you with major exercise motivation.

These are short workouts, and can be done by anyone, at any fitness level.  Whether you just want to shed a few ‘holiday pounds’, come back after a long layoff, or totally transform into a new ‘you’, these new workouts will help kick off your 2017 on a motivating note:

1. Even Steven (Treadmill)

This ‘balanced’ treadmill workout features equal work and rest intervals. It’s great for walkers or runners, beginner or advanced. The workout is led by the incomparable Amy Dixon, IDEA ‘Fitness Instructor of The Year’ and trainer on Oprah’s OWN TV network. Her coaching is magical, and your results will be too!

2. ProgressiveBurn (Indoor Cycling)

If you love an Indoor Cycling challenge, Schwinn Master Trainer Rachel Vaziralli will take you on the ride of your life. Can you hang with one of our toughest trainers??

3. Elliptical HIITs (Elliptical)

This efficient, total-body workout is coached by Teri Ann Krefting, who’s trained celebrities like Adam Levine and Maroon 5. Do this workout, and you’re the one that will feel like a star!

So inject some ‘motivation’ into your new year with Motion Traxx.  Like many of our users, you too will #lovetosweat.

Here’s to a super fit and super prosperous 2017!

I believe that being fit empowers us to live our greatest life.

Who better to accomplish our biggest goals and accomplish our dreams than the fittest, healthiest version of ourselves?

So, why aren’t more people living their fittest life? I think it comes down to 4 obstacles:

1. Lack of time
2. Lack of motivation
3. Lack of knowledge
4. Lack of money

The Biggest Obstacle: Lack of Time

I believe that lack of time to workout stops people the most.

I get it. You’re busy.

The hustle and grind of work and life’s responsibilities are necessary, but can be time-consuming and exhausting. So, it can be difficult to squeeze workouts into an already packed schedule.  While it may be tempting to skip a workout entirely, we know that’s not going to get you get closer to reaching your fitness goals or achieving the fittest, best version of yourself.

Instead, find ways to save time and ‘fit fitness in.’

Below, and in the video above ^, are 4 time-saving hacks to help you both save time in the gym and make more efficient use of your time outside of the gym.

Hack #1 (Outside the gym): Turn ‘Wait Time’ Into ‘Work Time’

Use the time spent waiting for the bus, airport, or take-out to get active. Walk or bike to your destination, take the stairs, or do 40 squats while you wait for the train. This can help you get exercise without adding any additional time to your schedule. 

Hack #2 (Outside the gym): Plan Ahead

Plan your workout time right into your schedule. Create an ‘immovable block’ of time that you schedule your other obligations around. This will ensure your workout actually gets done and not left to chance.

Bonus #1: The night before your workout day(s), pack your gym gear and have it ready to go. This way, the stress of the morning will not cause you to risk not bringing your bag, which might prevent your from getting your workout in.

Bonus #2: Prep and plan your meal in advance. Since we don’t know exactly what we’re eating when we eat out, leaving your nutrition to chance is not ideal. Instead, meal prep and pack your meals the night before. (this applies to every day, BTW, not just your workout / gym days).

Hack #3 (In the gym): Turn Rest Time Into Work Time / Super Sets

Efficiency is the key to working out on a tight schedule. Do a superset: While resting one part of the body after a set, say biceps, use that recovery time to work on something else, like triceps.

Hack #4 (In the gym): Do High Intensity Interval Training a.k.a. HIIT

When it comes to your cardio, there’s no better way to add efficiency than with High Intensity Interval Training (H.I.I.T.). This training format – shown in a study to burn up to 9X more fat than steady state cardio – consists of short bursts of very intense work, followed by short rest periods. If you’ve never tried it before, it’s similar to doing sprints or taking a spin class, many of which are structured along the HIIT protocol.

Because doing HIIT is very intense, sometimes a few minutes is all you need. Best of all, doing HIIT raises your resting metabolic rate for 24-48 hours after finishing the workout, helping you burn fat long after you’ve stepped off the exercise machine.

For free, HIIT-based workouts led by top trainers and perfectly synced to energizing music, download the free Motion Traxx fitness app now.

With the 4 hacks above, you will be able to get your exercise and workouts in more efficiently and consistently. So, leverage fitness to help you accomplish your goals and live your best life by fitting fitness ‘in.’

Happy time saving,

Deekron ‘The Fitness DJ”

Running delivers a myriad of benefits for your fitness and your health.

A study published in Psychonomic Bulletin and Review showed that running can be good for the heart, legs, and lungs, while also boosting memory.

But as running continues to rise in popularity, so does the amount of information, and misinformation, about running.

We set out to dispel the rumors so you can hit the pavement (or the track, the trails, etc.) with confidence.

4 RUNNING MYTHS TO STOP BELIEVING

1. You Must Stretch Before You Run

You may have been told about the importance of stretching before a good workout in order to prevent injuries. However, a study conducted by the USA Track and Field and Simon Fraser University found that there was no real statistical difference in the risk of injury among groups that did a pre-stretch before running and those who did not.

While there’s no harm in stretching beforehand,  it is not as necessary as once believed. And by skipping the stretch before your run, you can save some overall workout time.  Feel free to add this time saver to our list of time-saving fitness hacks. 

2. Runners Don’t Need To Strength Train

This cannot be further from the truth. As primarily a lower-body exercise, running relies heavily on leg and foot strength. In addition, the pounding on your joints from running makes it that much more important to have strong legs and feet in order to reduce the chance of injury. Thus, strength training is essential to building the strong foundation of muscles and joints that propel and support you during your runs. 

In addition to preventing injury, stronger legs mean a faster pace. This is why professional marathon runners incorporate weight training in their routine. To quickly boost your running pace, and reduce the risk or injury, trying adding 3-5 sets each of squats, lunges and leg presses to your weekly exercise plan.

3. Running Barefoot Is Good For You

This has been a highly debated topic for a while now, and although there have been claims for and against this running style, the British Journal of Sports Medicine has conducted research showing how detrimental barefoot running can be. The study showed an increase in the number of injuries sustained to the plantar surface of the foot and to the calf. So, make sure to run with shoes that have at least some cushioning to avoid the risk of injuries.

4. Running Is Bad For Your Knees

Actually, the opposite is true. Studies by the National Center for Biotechnology Information have shown how there really isn’t any increased risk of knee injuries amongst runners. In fact, additional studies conducted by NCBI show how running makes the cartilage in the knee more resistant to wear and tear. So, while running may not build much muscle mass, it certainly does build up your knee joint.

Now that we’ve cleared up some of those running myths, you can lace up your shoes and make the most of your running routine. 

While you’re at it, turn up the Motion Traxx running music podcast and boost your run with free tunes designed to drive your feet to the beat!

Happy Running,

Deekron ‘The Fitness DJ’

Want to know the #1 way to get in shape, fast?

The answer is simple.

Doing it is not. If being fit was easy, we’d all be working out consistently, tracking our progress and eating all the best foods. 

But being fit is not easy. The #1 way to get fit fast, is to work with someone who can help you get there. This is why I’ve recently decided to apply my 30+ years of fitness experience and personal development/mindset training to start coaching people!

I will be empowering people to undergo 90-day fitness transformations through a combination of coaching, motivation, knowledge, and accountability.

You see, I believe that being fit helps us live our greatest life. It’s this belief that fuels my passion to help people experience the benefits of fitness, while removing the obstacles to being fit.

Because this is a new program, I will be offering a very attractive, 66% discount to an initial, small group of dedicated individuals. Our Motion Traxx fitness app  subscribers and loyal fans will get first dibs.

There will be 1-on-1 calls, videos and other means of keeping you inspired, on-track and accountable towards accomplishing your fitness goals, and ultimately, transforming your life!

Like I said, this initial group is limited to a few people only.

If you are ready to make a significant change in your life, and work with a bad-ass, passionate, inspiring coach (me!) to help you take your fitness – and your life – to the next level, please visit this page to reserve your spot today! 

Thank you.

Happy transforming,

Deekron ‘The Fitness DJ’

One of my core beliefs is that being fit helps us live our greatest life.

While fitness provides a myriad of benefits, both physical and mental, it can also have very practical benefits across many areas that are important to us.

In this post, we’ll explore if fitness can help us with the area of career. More specifically, we’ll look at the question: Can being fit actually help you get a better job (by helping you ace your job interview)?

BETTER POSTURE MEANS MORE CONFIDENCE

First, let’s start with the notion that making a great first impression on a job interview is critical. One key to making a good first impression is your posture. This is partly because good posture makes you appear more confident, and partly because keeping a positive posture make your thoughts more positive. A study in the European Journal of Social Psychology examined how posture can affect our thinking. Study participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire about their strengths and weaknesses, while sitting in a confident posture (back erect, chest out) and while sitting in a doubtful posture (back curved, slouched forward). The results showed that the participants who were sitting in confident posture answered the self evaluation questions more positively than when they sat in a doubtful posture. 

To keep a good posture, be sure to do core exercisers, which will help keep your posture erect, and do back exercises, especially rows, which will help pull your shoulders back and prevent your from slouching.

BETTER MOOD AND BETTER ENERGY MAKES A BETTER EMPLOYEE

It has been said that exercise can improve your mood, which can trigger what’s known as the ‘Halo effect’. This term, coined by psychologist Edward Thorndike, explains how we focus on the good qualities in the people we like and overlook the ones that need work, which will definitely give you an advantage in the interview. Similarly, researcher Jacob Drannan from Bangkok University conducted a study that shows how exercise increases productivity and energy, which in turn, can be used to in the workplace, adding another factor towards the hiring manager saying ‘yes’.

To keep your mood positive, considering doing a HIIT cardio workout with the Motion Traxx fitness app before your interview. This will get your endorphins going, which will boost your mood.

BEING OVERWEIGHT MAY GIVE THE WRONG IMPRESSION 

Believe it or not, a factor that is subtly taken into consideration when hiring is the job candidate’s weight. A number of studies, including one published by PubMed center, show how overweight candidates were viewed as ‘less suitable’ for the work environment than other candidates with normal weight. Some of these conclusions are based in stereotypes and assumption that go something like this: ‘If someone is not taking care of their own health, then how would they be able to take care of a task at the company?’ While this is not always an accurate conclusion, it is an unfortunate part of the hiring process of which one must be aware.  Therefore, it is important to develop healthy fitness habits so this situation does not happen to you.

Staying at a normal weight is primarily related to your nutritional choices. To keep that belly flat, consider switching to the Paleo diet. I have personally had a lot of success with this eating philosophy.

So, as you can see, being fit can impact many areas of your life, including your career. So the next time you’re dreading hitting that treadmill, keep in mind that your next sweat session can actually help you ace your next interview.  

Happy earning,

Deekron ‘The Fitness DJ’

The struggle is real. You’re doing your best to eat healthy, when all of a sudden, you get a craving for that cookie in you cupboard or that frappuccino at your favorite coffee shop or that piece of cake sitting behind the glass (the list goes on).

Sugar Is One Powerful Substance

No one can blame you for craving the sugary stuff because, from a physiological standpoint, it can be quite tempting. According to a study by Dr. Nicole M. Avena, sugar was found to activate the same regions of the brain as those experiencing drug addiction. Sugar is some powerful stuff indeed.

What makes sugar even more of an enemy for your waste line is its ability to ‘fool you’. A study by The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism shows how sugar suppresses the hormone ghrelin, which is responsible for letting your body know when you are full. This can lead to overeating because you don’t feel satiated, even though you’ve had enough from a ‘fullness’ standpoint.

Diet Hacks To Beat Your Sweet Tooth

Personally, my sweet tooth kicks in when I have a meal that leaves a strong aftertaste in my mouth (e.g. eggs, fish, etc.). Washing down your food with a yummy desert is a great way to finish a meal. It’s probably why most restaurants offer dessert.

So how can one consistently satisfy their sweet tooth and enjoy something sugary without wrecking their waste line in the process? Stated another way, how can one ‘have their cake and eat it too’?

We have a solution. Whether your goal is to have a six-pack or just maintain a healthy weight, the 4 diet hacks below will help you beat your sweet tooth while keeping your sugary carbohydrate intake manageable:

Sweet Tooth Hack #1: Have ‘Just One’

Ever hear the commercial ‘no one can have just one’? Pretty slick advertising, but I’m here to tell you that you can – and should – have ‘just one’. This is one of my favorite hacks for quickly satisfying a sugar craving after having dinner. I basically go into my cupboard, grab just one M&M or one gummy bear, chew it on both sides of my mouth to savor it, wash it down with a gulp of water and that’s it. Need for something sweet satisfied. Total carb impact? Just 2 grams of carbs and 1 gram of sugar. 

Sweet Tooth Hack #2: A Touch of Honey

Honey is a great substitute for sugar. Unlike most sugars, which are processed, honey is all natural, making it a great choice for those following the Paleo diet. Plus, unlike sugar, honey is packed with nutrition, delivering minerals, vitamins, and protein.  

Honey is versatile enough to be used as a cough suppressant and a remedy to treat burns. Most importantly, from a diet and sweet tooth perspective, honey literally helps you consume less sugar. The way sugar suppresses gherlin, the hormone that makes us feel full and causes overeating, a study conducted by the University of Wyoming discovered that honey has the opposite effect and actually activates gherlin, helping you better gauge when you’re feeling full. 

A half teaspoon of honey has just 11 calories and 3 grams of carbs. When choosing honey, purchase raw honey vs. commercially processed honey.

Sweet Tooth Hack #3: Fresh Breath Fix

Having a clean mouth and healthy teeth are necessary for consuming all the foods you love, including some sweets, which is more reason why a fresh breath is necessary. The American Dental Association says that oral bacteria that consume sugar creates an acid that will wear away the enamel if left untreated. Therefore, it is important to find another way to suppress that craving and at the same time, aid in oral hygiene.

Next time you crave a sugary snack, chew on a piece of gum or have a mint instead. Many gum brands in the market keep teeth healthy and can distract your brain from wanting sugar. The sweet taste of gum, and the mere act of chewing something, can help reduce the need to have that sugary treat. 

Better yet, a study published in the Journal of Neurogastroenterology & Motility found that peppermint actually reduces appetite. So the next time you feel like you want something sweet, just take a piece of gum or mint instead, and go about your day with a clean mouth and a clean conscience too.

Sweet Tooth Hack #4: Have Guilt-Free Goodies

If the hacks above don’t cut it for you, then another option is to have dessert but have something that limits glycemic load (i.e. has few carbs). One such option is dark chocolate. Like honey, dark chocolate is a powerful source of antioxidants and has essential minerals like iron, magnesium, and copper. It has also been shown to lower blood pressure. When choosing dark chocolate, go for ones that contains 70% or more cocoa content.

Another great alternative is something called FitFreeze ice cream. It’s ice cream that’s specially designed by dietitians for people dieting or watching their weight. Believe it or not, it contains all of the great taste of ice cream without all the artificial ingredients/sweeteners that are found in most brands of ice cream. Best of all, it contains fewer carbs, sugars, and has more protein. Sound appetizing? You can get a free sample of FitFreeze here.

By following the 4 diet hacks above, satisfying your sweet tooth while still staying true to your macronutrient goals will be a (small) ‘piece of cake’. 

Happy guilt-free indulging,

Deekron The Fitness DJ

Aging. It can turn us into lesser versions of our former selves. And, unfortunately, there’s no escaping it.

But it is possible to delay it and age gracefully?

SOME EFFECTS OF AGING
As we age, our bodies go through numerous changes. One notable change is that our muscles and bones get weaker.

According to a study by researchers Karsten Keller and Martin Engelhardt, the aging process leads to muscle mass and strength loss. Compared to those below the age of 40, those over 40 experienced a greater decline in muscle mass that ranged from 17% to 41%. Weaker muscles can mean less strength, a greater probability of getting injured and, ultimately, less mobility, which means less freedom to do things like travel and be active.

Aging also leads to hormonal changes. Men lose 1% of their testosterone per year, while women experience menopause. Additionally organs start to lose some of their functions, mood can decrease, and chance of diseases increase.

It all kind of sucks, really.

Wouldn’t it be great if we can slow down, and even reverse, the effects of aging?

Turns out, we can!

To find the proverbial fountain of youth, read on…

HOW EXERCISING HELPS WITH LONGEVITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE
When it comes to living a longer, higher quality life, exercise is one of the most important tools available. (While nutrition also plays a massive role, for the purposes of this post we will just focus on how exercise helps with the aging process).

Here are some of the ways exercise can help with longevity:

1. Increases lifespan

Exercise has been shown add more years to your life. According to the Center for Disease Control and prevention, people have a 40% lower risk of dying early when active for 7 hours a week compared to those who are active less than 30 minutes per week. In another study conducted by the Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam found that moderate to high levels of physical activity for people age 50 and up added more years to their life expectancy: 1.3 to 3.7 years in men and 1.5 and 3.5 years in women.  

2. Combats diseases

While living longer is important, we also want to enjoy quality of life. Thankfully, fitness helps with this as well. Exercising can boost key bodily systems, such as the immune system. A Harvard Health Publishing article correlates a strong and healthy immune system with the adoption of healthy lifestyle habits such as exercise and sleep. In addition, the study cited above by the Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam found that aside from extending life, avoiding a sedentary lifestyle also prevents cardiovascular disease. Finally, an article by The Mayo Clinic states that exercising improves the way insulin regulates blood sugar (in diabetics), controls the severity and frequency of asthma attacks, and even reduces the pain of arthritis.

3. Improves Mental Health

Exercise positively impacts mental health. An article written by The Journal Of Clinical Psychiatry discusses how aerobic exercises like jogging and dancing are proven to reduce anxiety and depression. It has been proposed that these improvements are caused by blood circulation to areas in the brain that control anger, fear, and anxiety.

Exercise has even been shown to improve memory and reduce stress.  Further, the Alzheimer’s Association states that regular physical exercise can lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease due to the increase in blood flow and oxygen to the brain. When it comes to keeping your mind healthy, you can say that exercise is a ‘no brainer’.

4. Prevents Injury

Thus far, we’ve covered how exercise helps with extending life, combating diseases, and improving mental heath. Another benefit of exercise is injury prevention. As mentioned before, muscles shrink in size and strength as we age. Reducing our mobility and functional capacity. To combat these changes, doctors recommend strength training and exercise to keep the muscles active and promote muscle growth in order to slow down the process of muscle atrophy. 

5. Helps With Weight Loss

Last but certainly not least, exercise help with weight loss and with maintaining a healthy weight. First, because the calories we burn while working out help create a caloric deficit, which is critical to losing weight. Second, because having more muscle on our body boosts our metabolism (i.e. basal metabolic rate), which makes it easier to maintain a healthy weight by burning calories and fat even when we’re not exercising. 

HOW TO TAP INTO THE EXERCISE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH
To access some of the many benefits exercise delivers on longevity and quality of life as we age, make exercise an essential part of your weekly routine. Studies recommend getting 2.5 hours of exercise each week at a moderate to hard intensity.

We suggest doing a combination of strength training and cardiovascular exercises. For your strength training, squats may be the single most effective exercise one can do. They strengthen your core, legs, improve balance, and aid in flexibility. And speaking of flexibility, yoga can be used to relax those tight muscles, making them more agile and less likely to get injured, not to mention relieve stress.

For cardio, running, jogging, swimming, cardio machines or even walking are all beneficial. The body adapts quickly to movement, so to get maximum benefit from cardio, seek to increase your intensity. The cardio workouts in Motion Traxx app (designed for the treadmill, elliptical, spin bike, rowing and more) help add motivation to your cardio through a combination of coaching by a personal trainer and high energy workout music. 

If you’re struggling to find time to workout be sure to check out our Fitness Hacks For Fitting Fitness In.

Of course we haven’t covered the power of nutrition for longevity in this post, but for powerful anti-aging benefits, we recommend a powerful supplement called Organifi Red Juice.

In closing, none of us can escape father time. The effects of aging will impact all of us. But with a regular exercise routine on your side, aging gracefully and tapping into the fountain of youth is no sweat at all.

What if I told you that adding just one habit to your routine could make all the difference in your ability to lose weight, tone up and put on muscle?

This one habit is so powerful, it gives you greater awareness of everything you eat, for your entire life, and improves your chances of weight loss dramatically. It’s a habit people with the best physiques – models, actors, bodybuilders, bikini competitors – rely on daily.

THE INSIGHT YOU’VE BEEN MISSING

One of my core beliefs is that being fit helps us live our greatest life. Indeed, proper nutrition and exercise can go a long way to providing a high quality life and aiding with longevity. 

To truly know if you’re on track towards meeting your fitness goals, you need insights. You need to know where you are and the impact of your actions on your goal. In other words, you need data and you need measurements. As renowned management guru and author Peter Drucker famously quoted “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”

While he was referring to financial and business performance, the same holds true for your health and fitness goals. Tracking and measuring makes a huge difference towards achieving a healthier you, and ultimately, living your greatest life.

The power of tracking can be seen in a study by The Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, whose findings showed that participants who kept a food diary doubled their weight loss compared to those that didn’t keep a food diary.

Tracking helps you get a sense of where you are today and better assess the ‘gap’ towards where you want to go. It helps you understand cause-and-effect relationships between what you are doing and how it’s impacting you. For example, adding one extra HIIT session per week (done easily with the Motion Traxx fitness app), might help you drop some extra weight.

As another example, reducing your carbohydrate intake by 20% might result in a slimmer waistline. Best of all, seeing ‘the numbers move’, whether it be your weight, your bicep size, your average running pace, your cholesterol level, etc. – can be very motivating and can keep inspiring you to stay consistent and even take things to the next level.

BEST PRACTICES AND HACKS TO KEEP YOU ON TRACK

While tracking your progress is valuable, putting tracking into practice can be a challenge. First, you need to know what to track, whether it be the protein you consumed, the reps you lifted or the number of steps you took.

Next, you need to know when to track so that the data and metrics are relevant and can give you the insights you need in a timely fashion.  Additionally, you must think through how to track – what tools to use and how to interpret the data.

While tracking for #fitnessgoals can be a pretty in-depth topic, beyond the scope of this post, some of these best practices and hacks below will go a long way towards helping you implement this super-useful habit of tracking, so you can crush your fitness goals with ease.

Knowing What to Track

While there are myriads of data variables one can track, and what to track depends on each individual’s current situation and goals, below are some basic items to track that will pertain to most people’s weight loss journey:

1. Track Your Weight
This one is simple and straightforward. Stand on a scale. Done. One thing to keep in mind when tracking your weight is to make sure the scale is accurate, especially if you don’t have a digital scale. Measure a random object on your scale 3 times in a row to test if there is variance in the reading. Additionally, because scales are calibrated differently and reading may vary a bit among them, be sure to use the same scale every time.

Don’t get overly obsessed with your weight, though. According to Katherine Zeratsky, nutritionist from the Mayo Clinic, our body is designed to stay in equilibrium, which is one reason why body weight fluctuates throughout the day. Therefore, weighing oneself multiple times during the day, after every meal is not the best method of recording. The best time is in the morning since most of the food consumed the day before is already used up and getting up from a relaxed state that sleep brings keeps the activity in the body to a minimum.

In short, weigh yourself on the same day of the week first thing in the morning, naked, before eating or drinking anything. This will give you the most accurate measure of your weight and show whether you are making progress.

2. Take Progress Photos Each Week
When I coach people on body transformation (i.e. to lose weight and add muscle), one practice I emphasize is sending me full body progress photos each week. This is because weight data only tells part of the story. Changes in body composition, where you are adding muscle weight and losing fat, can ‘fool’ the scale.

When focused on body transformation, you might weigh in at the same weight, or actually in come in heavier, even though you are making significant changes in muscle tone (a good thing). This is one reason why the Body Mass Index (BMI) measurement is usually inaccurate, and one I don’t recommend you rely on. The BMI can show you as overweight, even though you have a 6-pack. That’s because it treats all weight the same, whether it’s muscle or fat. Big mistake. But I digress.

In short, don’t just rely on the scale to show progress. Take full body pictures, from all angles – front, sides, back. Most likely, you will hate your starting pictures. This is actually a good thing because they will serve as motivation. Hang them up somewhere visible to serve as a constant reminder of what you don’t want to look like. This will help with discipline and staying on track.

Once you make some progress you are proud of, replace the first set of photos with your new progress pictures. You can even have them side-by-side to show your progress. Use this for inspiration and positive motivation. As an added bonus, photo documenting your fitness journey will give you some impressive before/after shots you can brag about on social media. Let the ooh’s and aah’s begin.

3. Track Your Nutrition (Super Important!)
When it comes to food, what to track is simple but when to track it (constantly) is what makes it hard. Focus on tracking the basics: Calories, Protein, Fats and Carbs.

Tracking your nutritional intake will help you determine if what you ate that day is in line with your daily caloric and macro-nutrient targets. What should those targets be for you? Well, that depends on a number of factors, including your individual height, weight, age, gender, level of activity, current body fat, weight loss goal, etc. This is something I customize for each client, individually, in my 90-Day Body Transformation program. You can also do some research online to find the right targets for you.

Once you have your targets, you can track what you ate and determine how many calories and macros are in each meal. Now, I do recommend people track their food for at least a few weeks, for several reasons:

Primarily, because you will start gaining a better understanding of which foods contain quality nutrients, and which one don’t. Just as importantly, you will see which foods are healthy but loaded with sugars or fats that can impact your waste line negatively. Moreover, you will start learning and even memorizing the nutritional content in foods (e.g. one ounce of chicken breast has 8 grams of protein, no carbs and >1 gram of fat. The average chicken breast is around 6 oz. So every time you each a chicken breast, you will know, forevermore, that you just got around 50 grams of protein. You get the idea.).

But until you develop your ninja food-tracking abilities, you will have to look up food items online and this gets tedious, fast, because you’re eating and drinking several times a day, which necessitates looking up foods in a database multiple time per day. But have no fear, as Deekron has a food tracking hack to help you with this. (For more of my fitness and diet hacks, check out my blog posts Fitness Hacks For Fitting Fitness In, and Diet Hack: Beat Your Sweet Tooth).

Here’s what you do: Create a Note in your phone that will serve as a temporary food log. Every time you eat something, jot down the food item and the amount (i.e. number of servings). To easily estimate the number of servings, use the ‘fist method’ (I’m not sure it’s called that; just making it up, science be damned). The fist method is basically this: one serving is approximately equal to the size of your fist.

By quickly jotting down what you ate in your Note on your phone, you record the food without having to look it up on the spot, which requires you to stop what you’re doing at the moment in order to log your food. This can kill the moment, and be rude to anyone dining with you. Definitely not a good idea during a business lunch or dinner date, that’s fo-sho.

Later, during a free moment, you can open the Food Log on your Note, and enter the items in the database. This little hack will make tracking your food easier. I used this technique myself daily to keep productive and reduce interruptions during the day, but still get my tracking in.

4. Track Your Activity and Exercise
Being active and working out help us burn calories and create a caloric deficit, the key to losing wight and firming up. Better still, lifting weights builds muscle and boosts our metabolism, helping us burn more fat even when we’re not exercising. This is why weight training is a core part of my fitness coaching philosophy.

But how many calories are you burning? And is your fitness level actually progressing? For weight training, you want to track things like weight you lifted, and the number of sets and reps you did for each exercise. For cardio and endurance workouts, you want to track the distance you ran or biked, your average pace, and account for things like hills and elevation. A more advanced technique is to track our intensity by using a heart rate monitor. This will tell you if the workout you just did, which felt hard, actually was hard.

When doing cardio machine workouts, you can enter you weight and age, and most machines will tell you approximately how many calories you burned in that session. On that note, to really crank up the calorie burn during cardio, do a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout with the Motion Traxx app. It streams guided audio workouts that feature coaching by top trainers, synced to high energy music.

For basic, non-exercise activities like walking, dancing, etc. most phones and many smart watches, including Apple Watch, will track your steps, distance, calories and other relevant metrics.

Tools To Use To Track 

Some popular tracking tools include:

• Nutrition Tracking – MyFitnessPal, MyMacros, LoseIt!
• Calorie and Nutrition Lookup – CalorieKing, SelfNutritionData
• Activity Tracking – Apple Watch, FitBit, Samsung smartwatches, iPhone, Android phones
• Workout Tracking – Skimble, JEFit

So there you have it. An overview of what to track, when to track and how to track it in order to meet your fitness goals. If you’ve read this far, I’m certain you’re excited to starting implementing tracking into your routine and receiving the many benefits of this all-important practice. It’s certainly one of the things that separates those who succeed and those who wish they could.

Please let me know if I can help you implement any of the practices above, and reach out if you have any questions. I have no doubt that by following the practices above, you will embark on an all new ‘track’ to fitness, and to greatness.

When it comes to achieving a fitness goal, whether it’s to lose weight, run a marathon or get the body you want, the saying ‘your habits determine your success’ rings very true.

It’s our habits, or what we do consistently, that either moves us toward or away from what we want. The foods we eat, the sweat sessions we endure, the tracking of our fitness and nutrition, all play a role in helping us accomplish our goal of dropping 10 pounds or setting a new personal best on a 5K. But forming the habits we need to support our fitness goals is not so easy, it seems.

The Challenge With Forming New Habits
According to an article about habit forming in The Ladders blog, habits are formed by repeatedly performing an action or behaving a certain way. The more an action is practiced, the more it gets ‘wired’ into our brain via the creation of new neural pathways, thus, become a habit. Think of brushing your teeth. This is an action that’s been repeated so many times, it’s locked into our brain as a habit and we almost never skip it (at least I hope you don’t, for the sake of your chompers!).

This habit forming process can be both helpful and hurtful when it comes to accomplishing a  fitness goal. On the positive side, once a helpful habit is embedded into our brain, there is a very good chance it becomes something you do regularly, without having to think much about it. It becomes just ‘something you do.’ Whether it’s brushing your teeth or getting your weekly weightlifting session done, it becomes automatic and you just get it done.

On the negative side, this process can make it very difficult to change unwanted habits. Examples include fingernail biting, smoking, forgetting to signal when changing lanes or snacking at late hours. Fortunately, there are strategies you can use to undo bad habits and create positive habits that will support your fitness goals:

1. Ride The ‘Motivation Wave’
While motivation (and it’s close cousin, willpower) is a powerful catalyst for driving us to take positive actions towards our goals, motivation is not ever-present. It ebbs and flows. This can result in a temporary ‘high’ which then fades, causing our productivity and good habits to fade with it (think: New Year’s weight loss resolutions). Thus, we can’t always rely on motivation alone to get us all the way to our goal.

However, when motivation IS there, use this optimal time – referred to as the ‘motivation wave’ – to maximize your productivity and take massive actions towards your goal. Take advantage of this time to do things like sign up for that gym membership, get the clothes and gear you need, research fitness routines, create your healthy eating shopping list, etc. Just remember, it won’t last forever, but while it is there, be sure to capitalize on it. When motivation does run out, you can rely on this next habit strategy…

2. Go Slow and Steady To Win The Race
So, we know that motivation helps but does not last, so how do we get to our goal when motivation dips? According to renown personal development author and speaker Jim Rohn, “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”

Remember, it’s ongoing repetition of an action that’s required to create the new pathways that forge a new habit in your brain. This will take time to build. Thus, it’s better to take some action consistently vs. big actions occasionally. Said another way, it’s better to start off slowly, gradually, and consistently than starting full-out but getting burnt out or overwhelmed, and quitting. For example, if you’re sedentary and are doing no exercise, it’s more productive from a habit-forming perspective to, say, taking a 5-minute walk every day vs. trying to run 3 miles from the get-go, failing to hit this mark and not trying again for a week or more.

So when you start out toward a goal, take small actions every day to make the activity more manageable and enjoyable in order to make forming the new habit easier. This will help keep you consistent with a new routine long after the ‘motivation wave’ has run out.

3. Be Accountable To Someone
When I put people through my 90-Day Body Transformation Program, one of the biggest benefits my clients rave about is my structured accountability. Why? Simply put, being accountable to someone dramatically increases your chances of accomplishing a big goal. According to a study conducted by the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD), you have a 65% chance of completing your goal if you commit to someone. Moreover, if you have a specific accountability appointment with the person to whom you’ve committed, your chance of success skyrockets to 95%!

Left to our own devices, our mind lets us off the proverbial ‘hook’. But with someone holding us to account to take ongoing action towards our goals, our conscience, and even guilt, kick in and make us think twice about having that cookie for a snack or skipping leg day (yet again).

Personally, I pride myself in providing kick-ass, no excuses accountability to help my clients reach their fitness goals. If you’d like someone by your side holding you to account, I’m happy to help. You can learn more about my 90-Day Body Transformation Program, which includes 1-on-1 coaching and weekly accountability video check-ins with me, via this <link>.

By using the three strategies above, forming the new habits you need to lose weight, get fit or accomplish any goal in your life, will be practically automatic. 

Due to things like pesticides, pollution and plastics, there has been a rise in toxins found in our food, air and water supply.

These toxins are flushed out by your livers, which means our livers need to work extra hard these days to eliminate toxins from our body. According to an article by DetoxDIY, our liver is responsible for a variety of tasks, including activating enzymes, destroying old blood cells, storing vitamins and minerals, regulating protein, carbohydrates, and fat in the blood, metabolizing alcohol, but most importantly, breaking down substances that can harm the body.

While our liver is quite the workhorse, it sometimes needs a little help in order to continue performing its myriad functions. Occasionally detoxifying the liver can help it operate properly and keep you healthy for the long-haul, boosting your longevity.

There are numerous detox plans one can follow, but these plans can be extremely complicated. Some plans require a very disciplined, and often impractical, intake of supplements every half hour, while other plans require restricting your diet, sometimes to an extreme. Some of these plans can last as long as a full month and the supplements can get very expensive. 

Would you like to learn how to detox the easy way? Fortunately, there are much simpler ways to assist your body in getting rid of toxins effectively. According to DetoxDIY, here is a list of ways you can help the liver with its essential functions:

1. Drink Vegetable Juice

Eating vegetables helps detoxify the liver but sometimes it’s difficult to get the necessary 4 to 5 servings of vegetables each day. One thing that makes it easier is to make juice out of them. Juicing is a sure-fire way of consuming the right amounts of vegetables while saving time by combining multiple servings of different foods in just one glass. Studies from the National Center of Biotechnology and Information have shown that juicing plant foods such as beets, carrots, kale, broccoli, and cabbage helps lower cholesterol and reduce inflammation. According to the study, the best way to juice vegetables is to juice them raw because store-bought juices may have been put through processes such pasteurization, which can destroy essential vitamins and minerals.

2. Lose Weight (Especially Visceral Fat) 

Generally, losing any type of fat benefits your entire body, but for detoxing purposes, losing visceral fat is highly beneficial. What is visceral fat and how does it differ from regular fat? Visceral fat is a term used to describe the deep fat that accumulates and surrounds essential organs like the heart and the liver, versus regular fat that forms beneath the skin. This is by far the more dangerous of the fats our body stores because visceral fat can restrict organ function and even increase their chance of failure. Therefore, burning fat (i.e. losing weight) can go a long way towards making sure your liver continues to detox your body. If you’ve tried to lose weight without success, ask me about my BodyHack^TM Transformation program, where my clients lose weight and keep it off for good. 

3. Increase Your Intake of Vitamins B and C vitamins

Another way to benefit your liver is make sure you are getting a regular supply of  vitamins B and C. A study by Harvard Health Publishing showed how Vitamin B can help in the breakdown of fats and sugars in the cells, making it more efficient in gathering the nutrients to produce the energy your body needs to function, and helps prevent storage of the deadly visceral fat discussed in the previous section. The study also shows how Vitamin C can help fight off inflammation and protects your organs from toxins and free radicals. Best of all, Vitamin C is easily broken down, so there is little risk of overconsumption.

4. Increase Intake Of Potassium and Iron

Since we are on the topic of vitamins and minerals, another way to aid in detoxifying the liver is by consuming foods rich in potassium and iron. Potassium-rich foods like bananas and legumes aid in lowering blood pressure and bad cholesterol, which can improve liver function. Iron is necessary for the development of red blood cells and is something the liver has great control over in the form of how much of it is released in the body. Increasing the intake of these two minerals can ensure the liver will be more efficient in helping you detox.

5. Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting involves limiting your eating to a specific window of time. For example, eating for 8 hours and not consuming any food or calories for 16 hours. Everyday there is more research that reveals how much this eating technique benefits the body. A study conducted by the Washington University School of Medicine has shown how fasting protects mice from DNA damage by promoting small intestinal epithelial stem cell survival. These stem cells are used to create new cells in organs, including the liver, which can help greatly because the liver requires more regeneration than any other part of the body.

6. Avoid Refined Sugars

You’ve probably heard that it’s best to avoid refined sugars found in foods such as soda, cake, and cookies. These foods usually contain preservatives, chemicals, and unnatural ingredients like high fructose corn syrup that the body struggles to breaking down and eliminate, causing it to work harder. A good way to detox is to not consume the toxins in the first place. Give your liver a break from having to break down sugars. Our blog post with diet hacks for ‘fixing your sweet tooth’ will make it easier.

7. Drink Detox Water

Detox water combines water with pieces of fruits or vegetables (e.g. lemon water). These can have a powerful cleansing effect on the body. According to the National Research Center in Cairo, Egypt, detox water has been shown to reduce inflammation, DNA fragmentation, brain lipid per-oxidation, and liver damage. When mixed with citrus fruits like lemon or orange, the citric acid provides antioxidant benefits that create a layer of protection for the liver.

The EASIEST Way To Detox The Liver

Now that you have all the methods of detoxing your body, it is time to put them into action. Make sure your diet consists of natural, healthy foods to give your liver an easier time processing. Again, stay away from processed sugar. 

For a fantastic way to quickly and easily get a solid dosage of vegetables, vitamins, iron, and other liver-cleansing ingredients is to use a greens powders, like the one from our partners at Organifi. Their Organifi Green Juice is made up of beets, turmeric, and 9 other superfoods that balance hormones, boost immunity, provide nutrition, and flush out toxins.

To get your supply at a lower price than anywhere else, click this link.

Conclusion

As you can see, detoxing your body is important to do and can have many health benefits. Follow the detox tips above to maintain optimal health.

PS – To start detoxing immediately for better health, detox the easy way with Organifi.

Here’s an easy question:

How would you like to quickly boost your health, feel great and lose weight, all at the same time? If you said yes, then this blog post is for you.  

First, let me say that we will be focusing on vegetables and we will layout some hacks that will make getting more veggies into your diet both fun and efficient.

ARE YOU GETTING YOUR VEGGIES?
Eating vegetables helps deliver a variety of health benefits, including lowering heart disease, losing weight, and adding more fiber, vitamins, minerals , and antioxidants to your diet.

Plus, vegetables are so versatile, they fit in many popular diets, including the Mediterranean diet, Paleo diet, Vegetarian, Vegan, Flexible Dieting, and The South Beach Diet.

To give you the necessary amount of vitamins and minerals your body needs, it is recommended by Dr. Hatem Zayed, a specialist in anti-aging and longevity, that you eat at least 6 servings of vegetables each day.

Despite the many benefits and flexibility of vegetables, The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that most Americans eat less than half the amount of recommended vegetable servings. The recommended 2 1/2 to 3 cups per day (roughly 4 to 6 servings) is in fact, only being met by 10% of people.

I get it. It’s not always easy to get enough veggies because we’re running around and tending to work, school, family, etc.

5 HACKS TO MAKE GETTING YOUR VEGGIE EASY
Here are five ways you can easily add veggies to your diet immediately, so you can start receiving the amazing benefits vegetables deliver: 

1. Replace Carbs With Veggies
Instead of eating starchy carbs like potatoes, rice or pasta, substitute the starch with fiber-rich, filling veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, peas, spinach, cabbage or kale. Because most vegetables are naturally low in sugar, having veggies instead of starch will reduce your carbohydrate intake, decrease the spike in insulin (a fat-storing hormone) caused by starch and help you cut down on calories, which can help you lose unwanted weight.

Here are some simple substitutions you can make to add more vegetables in your diet: Instead of chips have carrots. Instead of hummus with bread, have celery. When eating a sandwich, wrap it in lettuce instead of using bread.

2. Slather On The Salsa
This is one of my favorite hacks and secret weapons when it comes to eating clean. Cooking lean/low fat can sometimes make the food dry and sort of bland (e.g. chicken breast). A quick fix for this is to add salsa, which helps moisten the food, while also adding vegetables to your plate. Salsa is made up of tomatoes, onions, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, and pepper and packs an entire serving of vegetables in every 1/2 cup. Best of all, no cooking required! Look for organic salsa, which does not cost much more than the regular kind.

3. Batch Cook Vegetables
Having your stock of vegetable prepped and cooked in advance makes it easier to add them to you meals throughout the week. Having cooked or grilled veggies on hand makes it a snap to add them to salads, a side dish or an omelet.

4. Don’t Fear Frozen
No, not the hit animated Disney movie that’s taken over the world. Frozen vegetables! Freezing preserves most vegetables without affecting nutritional content. All you have to do is throw them in the microwave. Buy a bunch and keep them in your freezer for when you need them.

Similarly, easily add veggies to any meal by cracking open canned veggies. Beans, string beans, mushrooms, olives, tomatoes, and potatoes all make good canned veggie options. Keep some cans with vegetables in your desk at work to quickly add veggies to your lunch.

5. Use Greens Powders Daily
This is another great hack I use almost daily to add more greens to my diet, instantly. I just stir greens powder in water and voila! Instant serving of veggies.

My favorite veggie supplement is ‘Greens Powder’ from our friends at Organifi. It tastes great, is made from lots of great veggies such as beets, turmeric, moringa, and spirulina, and helps detox the body. It also contains Ashwagandha, which can help you lose weight by aiding in the regulation of your metabolism.

Better yet, because this green juice is made up of 11 versatile, nutrient rich super-foods minced down to an easy to mix powder, you can save plenty of prep time, boost your immune system, reduce stress, increase mental focus, and even rejuvenate the skin.  

->Use this link now to save money on Organifi!

In closing, now that you’re familiar with the hacks above for incorporating more vegetables into your diet, you will have an easier time meeting your daily veggie requirements and getting all the benefits that come with it for greater health, a leaner body and enhanced quality of life.

Have you ever felt you couldn’t exercise like you wanted to because back or knee pain was limiting your range of motion?

If so, you could be limited due to tightness in your hips.

Below, we will cover the main reason for hip tightness and give you helpful exercises and stretches to keep your hips loose and supple, so you can exercise and move your best.

BONUS ALERT: You have a free bonus waiting for you at the end of the article, so be sure to read through to the end!

More Sitting Means Tighter Hips
Today, the majority of US workers grind away at desk-related jobs. According to Business Insider, 86% of American workers sit at a desk all day. If you’re one of them, your hips may be affected.

You see, long bouts of sitting can lead to a shortening and weakening of the hip muscles, which can severely restrict hip movement and cause major problems like back, knee, and hip pain.

It can also expose you to a greater risk of injury. A study featured on the PubMed Central website relates how Norwegian researchers found that sedentary men had a 150% greater risk of hip fracture than those who participated in recreational sports for at least 3 hours per week. In essence, sitting creates a greater danger for your hips that playing sports.

Open Up Your Hips With These Moves
Fortunately, mobility in your hips can quickly be restored and you can get back to doing the things you love without any limits.

Below is a list of movements that will help loosen your hips and restore flexibility fast:

1. Wide Legged Splits
From a standing position, open your legs wide and bend forward with your hands touching the ground. Slowly move your feet further away as far as they can go, keeping them flat to avoid stress to the knee, and make sure the heel is wider than the toes. For those who can keep going, try touching the ground with your elbows.

2. Butterfly stretches
You’ll remember this classic stretch from gym class. Sit on the ground with both knees bent, feet together, and open them to the side as if they were a book. The goal is for the knees to touch the floor, but only go as far as you can. For an added stretch, bend forward and touch the floor with your hands in front of you, but be careful not to compromise the posture. A straight back is key to this exercise!

3. Head To Knee Pose
Sit on the floor with both legs extended. Bend one knee in and with a tall spine, reach for your foot with the arm of the same side on the extended leg. When stretching, try to have your forehead touch your leg to really target the thigh. Repeat on the other side.

4. Pigeon Stretch
For this stretch, lay face down on a yoga mat and get into a plank position. Bring your right knee to your chest while pulling your right foot up towards your left chest (so that your right leg below your knee is at least at a 45 degree angle or almost parallel with the top of your mat). Your left leg should remain straight. Lower down and sit the weight on your right buttocks.

Maintain this position for the duration of the stretch and try to keep your hips aligned. If this is too difficult, start out with a lunge until you develop enough flexibility to do this move. If you can go further, reach forward for that added stretch. Repeat on other side.

5. Reverse Lunge w/Knee Drive
Stand upright with both feet together. Bring one leg back into the lunge position. Stretch for a few seconds and bring it back up, but instead of standing back in the starting position, bring the back leg up to your stomach and hold for a bit. Then, go back to the lunge. Repeat for a few reps and then stretch the other leg.

6. Ball Knee Tucks
For this exercise, you will need a large exercise ball. If you do not own one, then a chair will do. As long as you have something that will keep your feet up for this stretch. Start in a push up position with feet on the ball and body level. From this position, tuck your knees in towards you chest while avoiding rocking your body. Repeat for a few reps.

7. The Clam
This exercise requires you to lay on your side with your feet together and knees slightly bent. Open your legs with the knee on top going as far as it can, and then slowly lower it back in place. Repeat for a few more reps and then do the same for the other leg.

Lay on your side, feet together and knees slightly bent. Raise the knee on top as far as it can go, and put it back into place. Repeat for a few reps and do the same for the other side.

These stretches, if done consistently, will ensure your hips stay loose so you can enjoy better overall mobility.

FREE BONUS: To help you get more out of your hip workouts, get yourself a set of these free resistance bands!

You can get them now, for FREE! (just pay shipping and handling)

In closing, don’t let tight hips limit your workouts or your life. By adding the above exercises to your workout routine, you will help prevent the knee pain, back pain and other issues that are caused by tight hips. Again, be sure to get your free resistance bands before this offer ends!

(Disclaimer: When clicking on the link for the free fitness bands, please note that several other products will be advertised before you get to the checkout page. You are not obligated to purchase any of these other products in order to get the free fitness bands. There is an option to skip these products and finalize your transaction for the free fitness bands. Again, you will only pay shipping.)

Here’s to having healthy hips and mobility!

Have your fitness results ‘flat-lined’?

You’re working hard in the gym, you’re being careful about your eating and you’ve even given up some of your favorite guilty pleasures, to no avail.

Even though you’ve made some good progress in the past, losing fat and achieving your ideal body seems to have gotten a lot tougher. Dropping 10 pounds is no longer as easy as it used to be and the scale won’t budge no matter how hard you try.

If you can relate to some of the above, then chances are you may have bumped up against a weight loss plateau.

Often, the lack of progress when we hit a plateau leads to frustration, disappointment and, worst of all, a lack of motivation to continue.

WHY WEIGHT LOSS PLATEAUS HAPPEN
Weight loss plateaus happen because of how our bodies adapt to food, dieting and exercise. The more progress you make in losing weight and increasing your fitness level, the more likely you are to hit a plateau.

As we diet and lose weight, our bodies adapt and store calories more efficiently. Amanda Foti, M.S., R.D., a Senior Dietitian at Selvera Weight Management Program says, “if you are successfully losing weight, you’ll most likely hit a plateau at some point.”

In fact, research conducted by The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2014 uncovered that even those who follow their diet plan religiously can expect to hit a weight loss plateau 6 months into their journey.

The second adaptation that happens in the body is how it responds to the stimulus of exercise. Registered dietitian and health & fitness instructor Jim White explains, “your body becomes more efficient, so it burns less energy during any given workout.”

A study with over 2,900 participants published by The National Center of Biotechnology Information supports this by uncovering how for every pound of weight participants lost, they burned 6.8 fewer calories on average. So, it appears the closer you are to your fitness goal, the more difficult it becomes to achieve it.

To help you avoid or bust through a current weight loss plateau, let’s look at how to diagnose the problem areas causing the plateau and present some solutions for busting through it with confidence!

DIAGNOSING AND BUSTING YOUR WEIGHT LOSS PLATEAU
Often, when I speak with people that are looking to burn fat, tone up and transform their bodies via my BodyHack90^TM transformation program, I ask them what their current struggles are. Many will say things like ‘I can’t seem to lose those final 10 LBs’ or ‘No matter what I do, I can’t seem to get rid of my muffin top.’

When it seems their progress has stalled and they’ve hit a plateau, I usually diagnose the problem by looking a four key areas:

1. Nutrition
2. Exercise
3. Sleep
4. Stress

Let’s briefly dive into each one of these areas below, to see which one might be causing your results to plateau, and review some recommendations for how to fix each of them:

1. Nutrition
The first place to look at with any weight loss plateau is the quality and quantity of your nutrition. While you’ve heard it before, it’s worth repeating: Our bodies, first and foremost, are a reflection of how much and what we consume. Indeed, we are what we eat. When it comes to maintaining a healthy weight or changing your body’s composition (i.e. burning fat and adding muscle), nutrition is said to make up 70-80% of the equation.

So tell me, is you diet on par with the body and health you’re committed to attaining?

First, be sure you are consuming healthy, natural foods that will kick-start your metabolism. Whole, natural foods are you friend here. This means reducing things like processed foods, sugars and unhealthy fats and increasing you intake of quality meat, whole grain and healthy fats (nuts, avocado, olive oil, etc.). Not only will these foods take longer to digest, but will keep insulin levels low. According to David Ludwig, Professor at The Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, fat cells stop storing calories when insulin levels are low.

Second, focus on getting plenty of protein. Not only does protein help you feel fuller, longer, but digesting protein actually burns calories! In fact, the act of digesting protein burns 20% more calories that digesting carbs.

Third, eat plenty of vegetables to receive vital micronutrients your body needs to function properly.

On that note, if you’re consuming a lot of fruit and have hit a plateau, you may want to reduce your intake of fruits. A 2005 study by Basciano H, Federico et al. indicated that that consumption of fructose, the sugar found in fruit, can lead to insulin resistance, elevated blood cholesterol levels and increased fat gain, especially in the abdominal area.

Fourth, note that after losing a certain amount of weight, the body will adapt and your metabolism will naturally slow down. After following a certain diet for some time, the body learns how to use the food you consumed so efficiently, the intended results of losing weight slowly start waning. According to a 2016 study from The National Institutes of Health, it showed how contestants from The Biggest Loser TV show burned 499 fewer calories than what they should have at their current weight due to the dieting they had done while on the show.

To keep you metabolism churning regularly, make sure to eat throughout the day, especially at breakfast. Unless you’re doing intermittent fasting (which is something you may want to experiment with if all else fails), skipping breakfast will result in a slower metabolism. So have breakfast, and, ideally, eat protein. According to Tim Ferris, author of The Four Hour Body, having breakfast within 30 minutes of waking will help keep you satiated longer and fights off hunger pangs.

Finally, and this almost goes without saying, be clear on what your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (i.e. how many calories your burns on a daily basis). Once you know this level, be sure to have a nutrition plan that has you eating at this level, and NOT over. If you over eat calories, those calories will be stored as far.

Coming up with the TDEE and appropriate meal plan based on your individual caloric needs, macronutrient needs and eating preferences is a core part of what I do when I set up a new client on my BodyHack90^TM fitness transformation program.

2. Exercise
Performing intense exercise is the best way to rev up your metabolism. In fact, it benefits you in two ways: First, by burning calories while you’re exercising. Second, by keeping your metabolic rate high for 24-48 hours after your workout is over.

Additionally, if you do weight training and add muscle to your frame, the added muscle increases your resting metabolic rate, which means you burn more calories while at rest (i.e. sitting, sleeping, etc.). That’s almost like getting paid while not working!

The most beneficial type of exercise, and one that I put all my clients on, is resistance training. The most beneficial type of resistance training is one that targets your lower body, since that’s where you’re biggest muscle (your glutes) and muscle group (your quads) reside. Working these large muscles will naturally be the most taxing and will, consequently, boost your metabolism the most.

When doing resistance training, ideally, use free weights like dumbbells, barbells and kettlebells. But if that’s too intimidating, start with machines, cables, or bodyweight-based movements using a TRX device or doing plyometric exercises.

Your other friend when it comes to exercise is doing High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT. This is a more intense way to do cardio and is highly beneficial. Studies have shown that doing HIIT can burn up to 9X more fat than doing stead-state cardio. Furthermore, a study published by The National Center for Biotechnology Information has shown how HIIT training protects against metabolic slowdown.

You probably know by now, but we’re big fans of HIIT training. Its so much more fun and effective than typical cardio workouts. That’s why we launched the Motion Traxx fitness app. It features audio coaching by leading fitness instructors, set to high energy beats that are synced to your workout. Use this motivating workout app to power up your next treadmill, elliptical, rowing or indoor cycling workout!

BTW, men: If you’re doing a lot of endurance running, you may want to consider reducing your mileage. Running long distances has been shown to reduce testosterone, which is a hormone we need to keep muscle high and body fat low.

Finally, if you’ve been nailing your workouts but still not seeing results, consider changing up your routine. Try different exercises, and different sets and rep combinations.

3. Sleep
This is a weight loss plateau culprit many people overlook.

I was recently speaking with an old friend who I had bumped into randomly at the beach. He mentioned he was currently struggling with a weight loss plateau and couldn’t figure out why.

He had been working with a trainer, doing weights and cardio, and had also been careful with his diet, cutting out junk food, sugar, alcohol, etc. He was even taking three different training supplements, including a fat burner, all to no avail.

After asking him about his sleep patterns, he revealed that he rarely slept well, tossing and turning and waking up several times through the night, on most nights. When I pointed out that his lack of sleep was probably the culprit, he was shocked. He hadn’t even considered that as a factor.

Here’s how a lack of sleep can cause you to plateau:

First, sleeping less causes your metabolism to slow down. A study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information found that study participants (healthy adults) who slept for only 4 hours, 5 days straight, experienced a drop in resting metabolic rate by 2.6% which returned to normal after sleeping for 12 hours.

Second, it prevents you from going full-out during your workouts. Both your muscles and your central nervous system need to recover after an intense workout. If you’re not properly recovered, your body cannot push as hard during your next workout, which means you won’t receive the full benefit of the time spent during your sweat session.

Third, a lack of sleep boosts cortisol, a fat-storing hormone our body releases when we are under stress. Which leads me to…

4. Stress
Stress is another often overlooked factor for plateauing weight loss. 

As mentioned, stress leads to the release of cortisol, which was shown in a study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information to increase belly fat storage. One reason for this might be cortisol’s impact on our thyroid, which is responsible for regulating our metabolism.

Per Dr. Veeravagu, Founder of Sage Clinic in Yaletown, irregular cortisol levels can impair the conversion of thyroid hormone from its inactive form to its active from. This can result in a low thyroid situation, causing weight gain and symptoms of poor metabolism.

Another way stress can cause a weight loss plateau is by leading us to take actions that are detrimental to our fitness goals, including skipping leg day and emotional eating.

To better manage stress, try meditating regularly. Meditation clears your mind, calms your nerves, and allows you to assess your thoughts from a neutral, unemotional place, which will give you piece of mind.

In fact, meditation has been proven effective for losing weight. An eight-week National Center for Biotechnology Information study of 34 overweight and obese women, who partook in a stress-management program that included muscle relaxation and deep breathing, resulted in an average weight loss of 9.7 pounds.

HOW I CAN HELP YOU BUST YOUR OWN WEIGHT LOSS PLATEAU
Using the techniques above, you can better diagnose what might be causing your weight loss to plateau. Often times, knowing where the problem lies and what to do to fix it is enough.

Other times, it takes more formal help with things like dietary guidance, workout planning and accountability to stay on track. I take great pride in helping my clients bust through their weight loss plateaus and attain the health, body and confidence they seek through my online fitness coaching.

My clients have dropped significant weight and have transformed their lives. One success story I love is from my client Carita A., who lost more than 30 pounds in less than 3 months and can finally fit into her Hugo Boss tailored suits that had been sitting in her closet, unused for many years. Pretty cool right?

Looking for results like that for yourself?

With my BodyHack90^TM program, which is virtual, I can coach you to better results no matter where in the world you live.

Interested in how I might be able to help you or someone in your life?

Fill out this one-minute form now to receive a no-cost Weight Loss Plateau Diagnosis, which will help you lose those stubborn 10 pounds and wave goodbye to that weight loss plateau for good!

When it comes to your fitness routine, efficiency is essential.

Wouldn’t you prefer to get your workouts done in a time-efficient manner so you can get on with the rest of your life?

Me too!

In fact, efficiency is what I espouse to clients in my BodyHack90™ program all the time. It’s why I design workouts for my clients that take less than 2 hours, TOTAL, per week!

But, and here’s the big ‘but’, while saving time is something we all want, we also want to get results. I mean, what good is efficiency without effectiveness?

So, the workouts you do have to meet both of these key criteria:

1. Can be done quickly
2. Deliver results

Otherwise, we’re either taking too long in the gym or we’re not getting the muscle building and/or fat loss results we’re looking for.

So, it’s great when we find workouts that hit the sweet spot of efficiency and effectiveness. The ab routine I’m about to show you does exactly that, so read on!

STEAL MY THREE-MINUTE AB BLASTING ROUTINE

The routine below blasts all the major abdominal areas – upper abs, lower abs, obliques and intercostals – in just three minutes.

How’s THAT for efficiency and effectiveness?!

Now, I know you want to try it out, so just watch the video above, and follow the steps below for a fast and effective way to chisel that 6-pack.

Deekron’s 3 Minute Ab Blasting Workout:

1. Start with lower ab pulses (this looks easy but it’s NOT!). Do 10-20 of them.
   
2. Lie on the mat and get into a crunch position to do rotating crunches. Take turns counting down and alternating directions. Five reps clockwise, four reps counterclockwise, three reps clockwise, and so on.
3. Do 25 pulse crunches. I usually hold my breath while doing them, and after each set, I take a split-second break to inhale. Do three sets of 5-10 reps.
4. Do 10-15 cross-knee pulsing crunches on each side.
5. Do lying scissors, 10 – 15 reps.
6. Bring it all together with a grand finale that hits your all your ab groups – bicycle crunches.
   

If you have more time, or want more of a challenge, feel free to add more reps/sets for an even greater burn.  

Hope you enjoyed this routine, which hacks the time it takes to get a great ab workout.

To ask me any questions about this routine, or to learn more about my BodyHack90 transformation program, which helps you attain your ideal body in 90 days, without spending more than 2 hours per week working out, contact me anytime (my email is below).

Happy six pack hacking!

If you’re like me, you love to do things efficiently, including getting your workouts done fast. 

You may know by now that we have a number of super-efficient, 20-minute HIIT treadmill workouts in the Motion Traxx app.

The fitness app features audio coaching from top trainers like master trainer Amy Dixon, set to motivating dance music beats, to push you and keep you in your groove for a quick, calorie-burning sweat session.

But sometimes you may be really short on time (i.e. the morning craze before work) and even 20 minutes may be too long of a time commitment. So, here’s an efficient treadmill workout you can do when you’re really short on time (or for when you rather train without the Motion Traxx app or music).

I consider this the ultimate treadmill workout for when you’ve got ‘no time’. This is what I usually do to elevate my heart-rate and get my blood pumping when I’m in a hurry. Go ahead and steal this workout now…

Deekron’s 10-minute ‘Mini Pyramid’ Treadmill HIIT Session:

1:00 Walk
0:30 Jog
1:00 Run
0:30 Sprint (rest for 0:30)
0:45 Sprint (rest for 0:45)
1:00 Sprint (rest for 1:00)
0:45 Sprint (rest for 0:45)
0:30 Sprint (rest for 0:30)
0:30 Slowback down and catch your breath

Voi la! You’ve revved up your heart rate and your metabolism, and you’re done in just 10 minutes, including the warm up and slow-down.

Best of all, you weren’t bored at all!  So the next time you’re hesitating and thinking ‘I don’t have time’ or ‘cardio bores me’, do this workout.

It’s the cardio quick fix for any time crunch.

P.S. You can actually use this mini pyramid HIIT workout on any cardio machine – elliptical machine, spin bike, rowing machine, stepper, etc.

P.P.S. Remember to stretch when done!