Weight Loss

  • Personal Blog

    The Best Weight Training Program For Women Is In Your OWN HOME!

    The Best Weight Training Program For Women Is In Your Own HOME!

    Are you looking for the best weight training program for women? Here’s a secret: there is no ONE best weight training program for women. Any weight training program for women will  be beneficial, and that is whether you train at home or in the gym. 

    Raise your hand if you want to lose weight? Do you also talk about wanting “toned arms”? Do you say that you’d love to lose the cellulite on your thighs? Do you want to lose the jiggly skin in many areas of your body? 
    GIRL. I hear you. 

    If this is what you want- toned arms, firm legs, a nice tight set of buns,what you need to be focusing on is a weight training program for women (not one designed for men duh!). 

    Ditch the endless hours of cardio and focus 1st on lifting and watch your body transform. TRUST ME ON THIS ONE. It’s life and body changing! 

    This is me giggling at how little I knew before when I thought I was all Ms. Fitness Badass a few years ago. I have learned a LOT in recent years and much of it came from working with a fantastic trainer and seeing what his training did for my body, and a lot of it came from me figuring out on my own– with research and analysis of my own history- what works and what doesn’t work. So- please note, as I share some tips and advice below, I’m just a girl sharing her opinion and experience. 

    The Top 20 Mistakes Women Make When Trying to Get Fit.

    • They think that the best way to lose weight is to do CARDIO. Cardio ONLY. And lots of it.
    • They avoid lifting weights because they don't want to GET BULKY.
    • They go on extreme trendy fad diets- and stick with it for 2 days, then give up.
    • They don't count calories or even know what their caloric deficit window should be for weight loss.
    • They don't deal with the INNER REASONS why they gained weight in the first place.
    • They have an all-or-nothing perfectionistic mindset.
    • They diet in secret- not telling anyone for fear of judgment or being made fun of.
    • They follow random "food rules" they see on instagram or in the media that have no basis in reality- like cutting out all carbs or not eating after 8pm or not having wine etc.
    • They have no specific goal.
    • They have a totally unreasonable (short) timeline for reaching their goal.
    • They keep trying the SAME diet and the SAME WORKOUTS over and over again.
    • They think "just eating clean" or "just cutting out carbs" or just....anything -- is a diet.
    • They have no diversity in their diet.
    • They aren't taking any vitamins or supplements.
    • They don't weigh themselves or measure themselves or take progress photos.
    • If they make a mistake or "cheat" on their plan, they view it as failure and quit.
    • They don't understand that the only way to "FIRM UP" or "TONE" is to have MUSCLE and that to have MUSCLE means one must LIFT WEIGHTS heavier than a Q-tip.
    • They don't understand that there is no magic solution to getting rid of cellulite, but if there's one that comes close, it's lifting heavy weights.
    • They aren't on a program of any kind. They are WINGING IT.
    • They aren't tracking anything and therefore have no idea if they've made any progress.

    Why George Costanza was a genius.

    Ladies, I have been applying The George Costanza approach to life recently– and I DARE YOU to apply this to your fitness journey. I mean think about- like the quote above says– and is so true — if you change NOTHING, nothing will change. If you reviewed the top 20 trends above and can relate to any of them or several of them or all of them, why not be bold and decide to DO THE OPPOSITE??? DO everything differently. Dive in, be bold. Go crazy!! 

    What I'm Doing Differently in my Diet and Workout Approach!

    Now, here is a summary- on an introductory level- of all the things I’m doing differently now and what I’m not doing- and at age 51, and with major hormonal imbalance and hypothyroidism, I’m losing weight and feeling GREAT AGAIN. 

    • I am on a DIET. I know my caloric deficit window and it's my primary goal.
    • I am on a PROGRAM. Instead of just mixing and matching random workouts, I am on a 60-Day PROGRAM based on heavy lifting. I am ONLY doing this program and not quitting! And loving it BTW.
    • If I mess up, I do not stress about it and give up. I just keep on going.
    • I am weighing myself and measuring myself and holding myself accountable to YOU and to my man and my weight loss accountability partner.
    • I am taking my vitamins and supplements daily.
    • I am weighing myself and measuring myself and holding myself accountable to YOU and to my man and my weight loss accountability partner.
    • I am focusing on the long-term vs. worrying about how fast I can get as skinny as possible.
    • I am learning to love myself and respect myself and appreciate myself NOW vs. thinking I am gross and unworthy until I am the perfect size.
    • I have learned to let go of aiming for perfection.
    • I do the work on becoming more self-aware every day- and focusing on self-LOVE.
    • I 100% BELIEVE IN MYSELF and my ability to get to my goals and slay them.
    • I don't quit.

    Ladies, as I made this blog post and this list of the top 20 things that women do WRONG when they try to get fit- I realized that each one deserves some time and thorough explanation. Therefore consider this blog post my introductory one into a series where I’ll cover each of these top 20 mistakes — and then my top 20 pieces of best advice on getting fit- at any age, and regardless of health/hormone conditions — in this series. This series will be blog posts with videos and podcasts- how about that? 

    This is what I am passionate about – helping other women see that they CAN break through all the bad STUCK points in their past and create amazing results they probably never thought possible– but it does require WORK and discipline. It’s not necessarily hard or complex to get fit. It’s just that it requires doing the WORK and staying focus and committed. If you can do that, you’ve got this. I’m here to help. Let me know what questions you have or what your struggles have been so I can be sure to address them. And be sure you are subscribed below so you don’t miss a thing when new posts come out! 
     
    ALSO- if you liked this post, you’ll probably like this post “How to lose weight and get into great shape during Coronavirus” as well as this one “The Top 10 Tips to Losing Weight While Working From Home” and “How to lose weight working out at home” plus “The Real Secret to Losing Weight and Keeping It Off“. You’re welcome.

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  • Fitness, Personal Blog

    The simplest way to GET MOTIVATED and make PROGRESS toward your fitness goals.

    If you are tired of being overweight, stop making excuses.

    Ladies, we spend far too much time whining. Seriously. How often have you complained about not being able to lose weight or not being able to fit in your skinny jeans or not being comfortable in a bikini? 

    Right? The answer is “a LOT” if you are like I’ve been in the past.

    The thing we don’t realize is that all the time spent thinking about how upset we are, all the time spent complaining to our co-workers and friends about our weight– is time not spent DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY.

    It’s time spent on negative emotions which only serves to likely stress us out more and raise our cortisol levels, thereby contributing to fat storage or even gaining fat. 

    Yikes. 

    If you are tired of being overweight, stop wasting time on the wrong things.

    Recognizing that — if you are stuck or have been stuck for a while in your fitness journey– that something has to change in order for your body to change (HELLLOOOOOO)- and probably, a LOT of things need to change for your body to change….well then, don’t you think it’s time to take back all the hours you’ve been spending whining and complaining and start doing something??? Something new – something different. Anything. 

    News Flash: You don't have to spend HOURS AND HOURS a day to make a difference in your body.

    Many times, we think that the CHANGE we need to make is an extreme one. We assume that in order to get fit, we’ll need to spend 2 hours a day in the gym or eat nothing but steamed broccoli and plain grilled chicken breast 6x a day. Or both, God Forbid. 

    It’s this kind of thinking that gives us permission to think “oh hell I can’t do that!” and then– we do NOTHING. 

    Watch my video below and let me know what you think about my point– you gotta just DOSE YOURSELF A BIT OF MEDICINE TO START MOVING THINGS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. 😉

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  • Fitness, Personal Blog

    The 5 Biggest Fitness Mistakes I’ve Made, and How I’ve Fixed Them For the Better.

    What NOT to do if you want to get fit.

    I have been blogging and vlogging and talking about my fitness journey online since 2007. And in the past 12 years, I’ve learned a lot. 

    I’ve learned a lot about what NOT to do that’s for sure. 

    The truth is, what has become very clear to me recently is that– my massive insecurity about my looks and my body, combined with my incredibly impatient nature, drove me to push way too hard in all areas, with the desire to get fit FASTER. 

    News Flash: that never happened. What did happen was that I became run down, my workouts suffered, I lost my energy and often my motivation, my inner self-talk went from negative to destructive and my eating practices became obsessive. 

    It took me doing a lot of introspection to figure this stuff out and I encourage all of you if you can, to get a therapist you can talk to to figure out your inner BAGGAGE that is likely holding you down. If you aren’t ready for that step, start with some personal development/self-help books– they’ve done wonders for me. (HINT: I’ll be sharing a post next week with some of my favorites for you)– and if you are that person who hears the words “personal development” or “self-help” and rolls your eyes with skepticism (I did back in the day)– guess what? You probably need it far more than you think.

    Whatever you are most resistant to is likely what you need to pay attention to most in your life. 

    Example: Are you always worried about money? Freaking out about paying your bills or wondering how you can earn more? You have money issues you need to get to the bottom of– quite often we have these hangups inside of us that affect our behaviors– until you identify them and recognize them when they appear, you can’t change them. 

    So, when I was finally able to be real with myself, that’s when I could identify all my bad behavioral patterns or thought processes that were becoming huge obstacles for me in my fitness journey. Because what I realized was this: for all my years of working out and dieting– I never once reached my ultimate goal. Never ONCE. I’ve made progress then backslid, then made progress then backslid. It has been a PATTERN of two steps forward then 2 and a half back etc. I’ve LINGERED in the land of “almost there” for so long it’s just sad. 

    But I am the obstacle. It’s MY behaviors and MY habits that I’ve allowed to remain– I’m still working on figuring out why– why have I self-sabotaged, why have I held myself back? Why do I give 80% and not 100%? Why do I make exceptions? This is the hard part, ladies, the inner work. But it’s the work that matters the most– because I guarantee you this- we ALL KNOW the foundational principles of getting fit. We all know what food is the best choice and what is bad for us. We all know we should work out vs. watching TV or sleeping in every morning. We all KNOW what we SHOULD do to get fit. So the things that propel us toward making bad decisions- that’s the meaty stuff we have to figure out on our own. You can read all the diet books and troll as many fitfam instagram accounts as you want – if you don’t get YOUR MIND right, it won’t matter.

    Bam.

    So– as promised then, let me share with you what my biggest MISTAKES have been– the things I’ve cut out of my life now. Then I’ll share what I’ve added IN to my fitness life – and I’ll share how it’s making a difference. 

     

     

    My Top 5 Biggest Fitness Mistakes.

    1. Setting Unrealistic Expectations: I cannot tell you how many times I would start some DIET or “challenge” program that promised crazy weight loss in x weeks– and even if that was already unrealistic I would make the diet and workouts even more extreme to hurry the process UP! Signing up for any challenge that promises you and anyone else in the world the same results in one or two months– is not realistic in any way. Once you are past the age of 30- you have hormonal issues and stress issues to consider– and each of our unique DNA history will have an effect on our inevitable outcome.
    2. Working toward completely unrealistic goals: Ladies. I am as curvy as a Kardashian. (Well maybe not as butt-tastic as they are but this girl has boobs and butt and always has) and all of my life I have aimed to look like Jennifer Garner in Alias. That is NEVER going to happen. We have completely different body types and yet, I have measured my success by comparing myself to her physique. 
    3. Thinking that MORE is better. I am so impatient. I want overnight results. And as such, I would take every diet I attempted to participate in and ENHANCE IT. By doing MORE: more restricting, more working out, more of every extreme measure I could. HINT: It never worked. 
    4. Beating myself up. I cannot tell you how much of my adult life has been spent beating myself up emotionally. I mean, picking myself apart for my looks from head to toe. The conversations going on in my head – if you heard how I talked to myself you would be MORTIFIED. I realize now how damaging this has been and it’s a work in progress to fix.
    5. Aiming for perfection or nothing. I obsessed over every detail for years. I thought I had to be so rigid and compliant with whatever program or diet or challenge I was on that if I slipped with 10 calories, I’d end up bingeing and starting over. To me it was all or nothing. If you messed up one day, the whole week was ruined. STUPID.
    Ladies, these are the biggest mistakes I’ve made and the areas I’ve made the most significant change in recently. And the changes are making a difference in every way. You may also want to read this post I published on FitFluential for more tips; CLICK HERE.

     

    The 5 Best Changes I've Made In My Fitness Journey That Are Paying OFF For the Better.

    So, what have I done to be “out with the old and in with the new”? Well, the truth is, I absolutely DO focus on that– call it the George Costanza Opposite Approach (if you don’t get my Seinfeld reference shame on you). In other words, I recognize that what I practiced in the past, did NOT work, so it makes sense for me to do the opposite or close to it. Read on for my top 5 new best practices:

    1. I accept myself as I am. I no longer am striving to look like Jennifer Garner or Ashley Horner, but to become the best, strongest, leanest, healthiest version of ME that I can. 
    2. I cut out the negative self-talk and replace it with self-respect and self-love and ENCOURAGEMENT. I absolutely still catch myself when I see a glimpse of my bad areas- I catch myself slipping into self-loathing but I am now able to stop it for I KNOW HOW DAMAGING IT IS. I move right into telling myself how far I’ve come and how “You’ve so got this Olexa!!” I really do. It works.
    3. I stopped the obsessing. I no longer obsess about mistakes. I don’t freak out if I hit 120g of carbs on a day that my goal might be 90g of carbs. I don’t FREAK out that the day I had to skip my workout because I was sick is going to ruin everything. I CHILL OUT and am learning to enjoy the process.
    4. My goals are LONG-TERM without deadlines. I’ll get there when I get there.
    5. I am LIVING MY LIFE along the way. Before, I thought I could not go to the gym until I was at 20% body fat. I could not go on vacation until I was perfect. I didn’t want to buy a size 10 jeans. I only wanted to wear size 6 so I would never go out until I was perfect. I’ve learned to LIVE my life and buy awesome clothes for my amazing healthy body RIGHT NOW and keep working toward a better version of me every day. But life is for the living!!

    Ladies, these changes above have made a huge difference. In my upcoming posts, you will read more detail on each point– from the mistakes list to the great additions list. Be sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss out. 

    What points hit home for you- the good ones or the bad ones? Let me know in the comments what you struggle with the most. 

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