Hungry Girl recently featured MTF 6-Packs in her newsletter!  Check out the Buy One Get One free offer valid until 5/29/11!

And thanks to our friend Carla MizFit for collaborating on this project!

Try these tips for a quick turnaround

The MTF EXCEL formula!

1.  Exercise: even 5-10 minutes can make a huge difference and help to get you back on track. Check out this great sprint segment and give it a shot!

2.  Create:  take 3 minutes (or the length of a favorite song, or longer if you can, through several songs):  Put on headphones and close your eyes and visualize what you will be doing and how you will feel when you’ve accomplished a goal on your wish-list.

3.  Elevate:  read or listen to an inspirational, motivating book/audiobook while getting ready, or commuting to work.  You will arrive at your destination pumped up and full of possibilities.

4.  Love: do at least one kind, courteous or generous thing for someone as soon as you can today.

This excel formula will energize, uplift and motivate you.  It works for us every time.  The reason it is so effective?  Because it is a whole-being approach that places us in the flow of nature through positive forward momentum.  So EXCEL today…you won’t regret it.  We’d love to hear your EXCEL success story, even the small ones for they matter just as much and lead to other things.

The MTF Take10, Formula: We can all find 10 minutes to do what really matters to us and what could be more important than your mental, emotional and physical wellbeing?  So, for when you only have 10 minutes for a workout, make it count.

Always be sure to listen to your body and work at your own level.   (HIIT = High Intensity Interval Training).

You can do this outside or on a treadmill.  If treadmill, establish which is your all-out running speed and when you reach 30 seconds, you can lift off the belt by placing both hands on either hand rail and jump your feet to the side board of the treadmill, then lower the speed to an easy 2.0 mph to recover for 30 seconds before sprinting again.

Listen to LeAura’s recent appearance on the Jack Evans show on WMBS-AM 590 Uniontown, PA. She speaks on how exercise has improved her health into her 40s and 5os!
Click Here to Listen

More than 40 percent of all adults say they lie awake at night because of stress.*  Your stress levels could be impacting you on a variety of levels internally, hindering your fitness goals and affecting your well being and health. High levels of stress hormones can significantly impact your quality of life, but you probably didn’t need us to tell you that!

Less is more
You’ve probably heard the term “fight or flight”. In times of stress the body releases cortisol into the bloodstream, increasing the flow of glucose in order to provide a burst of energy to combat any potential physical threat.

Small increases in cortisol levels have positive effects such as enhanced immunity, decreased sensitivity to pain, heightened memory functions and quick bursts of energy. But, high levels of cortisol will have negative effects such as: depression, high blood pressure, increased abdominal fat, decrease in muscle tissue and bone density, blood sugar imbalances, suppressed thyroid function and impaired cognitive performance.

Uh oh… is cortisol hindering my progress?
Your fitness results may have stalled, you may be gaining or not losing fat anymore and your moods may not be as positive as you’d like. It could be your cortisol levels are elevated. Studies have also shown that people who secrete higher levels of cortisol in response to stress also tend to eat more food, and higher in carbohydrates than people who secrete less cortisol. Over-dieting is a big no-no as well… A study published recently demonstrated that women who constantly restrict food have higher levels of cortisol.

Tom Venuto, author of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle agrees. “Avoid very low calorie diets, especially for prolonged periods of time. Low calorie dieting is a major stress to the body. Low calorie diets increase cortisol while decreasing testosterone.”¹

What can I do?
Yikes! Between work responsibilities, finances and relationships it’s really hard to NOT become stressed in the world we live in. Stress is something that affects us all in one way or another. Some more than others and many of us have different outlets to minimize its effects. Unlike serotonin high cortisol doesn’t make us “happy”. Keeping cortisol levels in check is very important. There are many ways we can alleviate stress in our lives.

Fuel Your Body!
Focus on feeding yourself balanced meals every 3-5 hours; 3 complete meals and 2 snacks full of lean protein, veggies, fruits and whole grains. Processed foods make you feel bad and lead to disease, so avoid this “toxic waste” and substitute with healthy foods (think shopping in nature’s garden), and treats that you also enjoy, such as protein shakes, fresh or frozen fruit smoothies, raw nuts and homemade nut mixes.

Yoga/Meditation
Meditation has the ability to restore the body to a calm state. Clearing your mind and focusing on deep breathing, or on your personal “vision board” for 5-20 minutes distraction-free can reap great benefits. It may take time and practice to train your mind to focus only on the moment but it’s well worth it as emotional/mental nutrition for your day. Meditation following yoga can be especially helpful for type A’s who might have a hard time slowing down otherwise.  Yoga DVD’s and instructors are really varied, so if you don’t like one, try another.

Exertion!
Our bodies were made to move which is probably why exercise generates “the happy hormone”, serotonin and decreases stress and cortisol, leading to a euphoric feel-good. Exercise is full body-mind therapy with integrated medication and rehabilitation designed by doctor nature.

Do What You Love!
Gardening, sewing, cooking, singing, dancing, sparring…. Positive activities naturally lower your stress levels.  So, find what you love and engage often!

1. http://www.tomvenuto.com/articles/cortisol.shtml
*2010 APA Stress Survey http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/index.aspx

“I wanted to come up with a way to convey to people what I do for workouts, as I am frequently asked,” she says. “The idea was to create a circuit workout that can be made more or less challenging by changing positions, or adding resistance bands or weights. I wanted it to be carried easily for travel, or just plain life on the go. And I also wanted them to be cost effective. At $12, I think it’s something most people can afford, and you can use and reuse and tweak and shift around the workouts forever.”
Read the full article here.

Jumpstart your Routine with these Five Fat Loss Rules

Don’t panic… summer is almost here but it’s never to late to jumpstart your current fitness routine and optimize fat loss results.

1. Set Your Goal
Before embarking on a new fitness routine, take a few moments to ask yourself what your goals are. Sure, summer is a great reason to get in shape but what about come fall? If you’d like to retain the benefits of all your hard work you’ll need to determine what type of workouts will work best for you, where and when you will do them and how to tweak your routine as you go to ensure your new plan is a lifestyle change.

2. Lift Heavier Weights
Contrary to common concerns; it will not cause you to bulk up. Women don’t have the amount of testosterone men have which is the reason men carry and develop more muscle than women. It takes a lot of work for women to develop muscle but the result of that will mean a more effective fat burning machine! So go on… don’t be scared to lift as heavy as you can… safely!

3. Perform less cardio, BUT, higher intensity
Just 15-30 minutes of high intensity interval training, commonly known as HIIT, can burn more fat and sustain muscle gains much more effectively than jogging for an hour. Why spend an hour on a treadmill when you can get an intense fat burn in a fraction of the time?

4. Combat Boredom
The same workout every session would be enough to make anyone want to throw in the towel! Vary your workouts and take note in a workout journal your weights, reps and sets to ensure you are progressing. Circuit based fat burning workouts are great but building heavier straight set workouts into your workout program is beneficial physically and mixes things up to keep you mentally stimulated.

5. Be Consistent, Patient and Honest
Nothing worth having happens overnight. Be realistic with your expectations and if you don’t see results tomorrow just know that consistent effort will yield results. The combination of exercise and diet designed for fat loss will prove effective if you are patient and honest with yourself. The only one you’re cheating is yourself when you aren’t honest about your efforts.

****  Don’t forget your fuel! Our Facebook friend Jody reminds us that what you put into your body is as important as any of these tips for fat loss, so ensuring a healthy diet full of lean protein, fruits, veggies and whole grains without overindulging!

My Trainer Fitness is built around bringing you personal trainer fitness from some of the best, while giving established experts a medium for sharing their expertise with a larger crowd than they could do by training one-on-one.

Please take a minute to meet Carla “MizFit” Birnberg, collaborator in the newest MTF 6-Packs for At Work and 100 Calorie Workouts, and drop by her blog for a glimpse of her humorously creative perspective on things.

Carla Birnberg is an award winning writer, community builder, and personal trainer who launched MizFitOnline.com to share her health and fitness knowledge with those who might not have access to one-on- one training. As a result of her online personality, Carla has gained the attention of publications like:

• Woman’s Day
• Experience Life
• ivillage.com
• Glamour
• Women’s Health
• Fitness
• Yahoo!
• Yahoo!Shine
• Yahoo!’s Your Wisdom
• Runners World
• Entrepreneur.com

Carla also serves as fitness expert and regular guest on Mom Talk Radio, Dr.Fitness & the Fat Guy, is a Sears Fit Club brand partner and sits on the Life…Supplemented™ social media advisory board. Most recently she was voted the People’s Choice in the Fila Real Women model casting call. In her spare time, she juggles motherhood, filming motivational/exercise videos, crafting irreverent tweets, recording a biweekly podcast all without breaking a sweat….and, when she does, she simply calls it cardio.

Her health motto (& life motto) is… fitness isn’t about fitting in. She believes we may all have the shared goal of living a longer, healthier, more vibrant life but it’s ok (& even encouraged) to carve our own unique path to get there.

Are your chemicals out of whack?  If you’re feeling down and low on energy, chances are they may be.  Science is proving what fitness fans already know:  there are natural ways to balance—and boost—these very important mood elevating chemicals.

A Serum for Synapsing

Serotonin is a chemical found in the brain that transmits messages through the nervous system in order to perform functions. It is a neurotransmitter that controls mood, sleep, appetite, muscle contraction, even cognitive functions such as memory and learning.

Serotonin and You

Serotonin plays a vital role in mood and outlook.  We could call it “silly serum”.  If you feel up, your serotonin is likely also up.  Conversely, if you feel down, chances are your serotonin is also down and is often linked to depression.  Depressed mood leads to greater anxiety…when your serotonin is down, stress can kick you around and gang up with negative stress hormones to keep you down.  A volatile hormonal mix in our internal science lab can lead to Dr. Jekyll mischief at work wreaking havoc on our mood and sense of well being.  It doesn’t take a lightning stroke of genius to see the potential destructive catalyst effect of chemicals, stress, and mood influencing our whole-body environment and health, weakening our personal eco-system to a whole array of possible illnesses, including heart disease.  http://www.livestrong.com/article/182951-exercise-serotonin/

The Serotonin Solution

Dr Jade Teta, founder of www.metaboliceffect.com and author of the ME Diet states; “Exercise has a profound impact on the central nervous system because it acutely and significantly increases blood flow to the brain. This in turn increases brain metabolism and raises all brain signaling molecules including serotonin. This is likely why exercise has been shown to be such a powerful modulator of mood. Intense exertion can allay anxiety while moderate intensity prolonged exercise like jogging or bike riding is one of the best treatments for depression.”

Many studies link exercise with raising serotonin levels in a natural and safe way. One study by Terry McMorris at the Health Sciences Research Center, University of Chichester, UK documented “The effects of negative life stress, 5-httlpr polymophisms, social support and physical activity on depressive symptoms,” that increased levels of exercise, especially among women, was directly correlated to an increased presence of the serotonin transporter, 5-HTTLPR.  Those that exercised in the study group found significantly decreased levels of depression.

Exercise: a No-brainer for Your Brain

So, if you’re having a rough day, hit the road, get to the gym, break out your bike…whatever exercise you can do in the moment…even just 10 pushups if that’s all you have time for, to significantly impact your physical and thus mental well being.  Serotonin, is a powerful natural drug, readily available to each of us for free from your body pharmacy, with zero negative side effects and many positives.  So hit the road—or the floor—Jack (and Jill) and keep going back for more!

“The effects of negative life stress, 5-httlpr polymophisms, social support and physical activity on depressive symptoms,” Terry McMorris, 2009, pp. 41-68

Next up, Adrenaline…. What you need to know!