Happy Halloween! My treat for you this Halloween is not edible. My guess is you have enough edible treats around your house ! My treat for you is a 3 minute task that will give you some helpful information on your risk for cardiovascular disease. All you need is a flexible measuring tape and a calculator (if you’re really good at doing math in your head, you don’t even need the calculator!).

Using the measuring tape, measure around your waist one inch above your navel. Measure again around the widest part of your hips. Divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement. The number that you get is your “Waist/Hip ratio”. Women who have a Waist/Hip ratio of .8 or under are statistically at less risk for cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes.

Women with “apple-shaped” bodies (with more weight around the waist) face more cardiovascular health risks than those with “pear-shaped” bodies who carry more weight around the hips. That’s because abdominal fat is more likely than fat stored in other spots to lead to changes in hormone levels and to cause inflammation (which in turn leads to clogged arteries). We can’t change our genetic make-up which is greatly responsible for where our fat stores are held. We can, however, be in complete control of HOW MUCH fat we store.

There are many factors that can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It’s important to exercise, eat a well-balanced diet and get regular check-ups with your doctor in order to stay as healthy as possible and be aware of minor risk factors before they become major ones. One thing you can do right at home is keep an eye on your waist/hip ratio by checking it every so often. And of course, I’d like you to visit this blog often to learn tips and tricks to getting and staying lean!!

So, check your waist/hip ratio today and have a Happy Halloween!

Committed to your success,

Becky

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We all have them: “I have no time”, “I work too much”, “I can’t get up early”, “I don’t know what to do”, “I don’t like to cook” ….the excuses are endless. Well, a fitness colleague of mine is doing something really crazy with regard to banishing a lot of these excuses from our minds and our mouths. He’s given himself an unusual 60 day challenge, and I hope every boomer woman reading this will take the time to learn from this young guy.

My friend Jeremy owns a personal training studio in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and he is moving into his studio for the next 60 days where he will sleep on an air mattress, work 12 hour days, sleep only 7 hours a night and prepare his meals from a very minimal make-shift kitchen there at his studio. He’ll work out only 45 minutes per day, up to six days a week and he’ll log his weight loss progress over the 60 days. He’s doing it to show us all that a lot of the reasons we give for not reaching our fitness goals are really just excuses.

So, what’s in it for you? Some free stuff, that’s what! He’s going to give away a free 4-week fat loss workout program, AND a nutrition DVD just for visiting his blog! He’ll also be logging his food and exercise every day, so if you return to his blog often over the next 60 days, you can learn just what he’s doing (and eating) to lose weight successfully. He may not be a “boomer gal” like us, but I’m telling you, this young guy has a lot of knowledge to share.

He moved into his studio last night and he just uploaded a video today (in his underwear, no less!) to kick off the program. You’ve gotta see it to believe it!

Log on here: www.NoExcusesFatLoss.com/blog

Jeremy called me a couple of weeks ago to run this idea by me and ask me if I thought he was crazy. Well, yeah, I think he’s kind of crazy, but it’s a it’s a GREAT idea! Jeremy is just one of those great guys who will go to GREAT lengths to get people motivated (even if he has to strip down to his undies to do it). If you live anywhere near Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, I highly suggest you take him up on his offer for some free personal training at his gym there. You’d be learning from one of the best.

So, head over to www.No.ExcusesFatLoss.com/blog and grab some great FREE workout and nutrition information for yourself.

Now you’ve got TWO trainers on either end of the U.S. committed to your success!

Becky

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Ah, yes, those dreaded “trouble spots”. I just had a new customer today tell me that she wanted to work on hers. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting certain parts of your body to look leaner and more toned. In fact, I have a free booklet you can download by filling out your name and email address right up there in the right hand corner of this page that will help you get great looking arms. But, when this new customer mentioned those two words–trouble spots–I realized I needed to go into my little speech about how working a certain part of your body doesn’t remove body fat from that area. It bears repeating here.

Exercises that target your legs, your rear or your abs are great and should be in your program. In fact, I hope you do exercises that hit just those areas! However, we need to remember that doing squats (for the legs and rear) or a stability ball crunch (for the abs) won’t whittle down the girth of any of those areas. We’ll certainly strengthen those areas and perhaps they’ll feel firmer or tighter. But, I’d submit to you that they’ll still be “trouble spots” unless you’re also doing something to shed body fat.

That’s why I told my new customer she’ll be doing exercises that utilize a lot of her body at once as well as doing interval cardio workouts. Remember that old song that went something like “the leg bone’s connected to the shin bone, the shin bone’s connected to the…..”?. This is a great way to look at exercise and the human body. We function due to movement of many muscles moving in concert with each other. It’s best to exercise the body this way and get lots of joints moving at once. This serves several great functions. First, we exercise using movements that are functional –they’re similar to activities we do in “real life”. Second, by moving large muscle groups and several joints at once (say the legs and rear) as opposed to single joint movement (like a biceps curl) we burn more calories while doing the exercise (muscles gobble up calories when they’re working hard!). Again, I see nothing wrong with biceps curls, but they should be an added extra to a full body strength training routine using multi-joint exercises. Burning a serious amount of calories in a strength training routine and following up with an interval cardio routine is the best way I can help a baby boomer shed body fat. That and a supportive nutrition plan, of course!

So, I have a little education to do in my first session with my new personal training customer tomorrow. After a brief evaluation and a good warm up, we’ll do a nice beginner level full body workout (mostly using body weight and maybe a few exercise bands), and finish up with an interval cardio workout on a stationary bike. We’ll be done in 45 minutes, most likely. It’s going to be a very different workout for this woman, a baby boomer in her early fifties. She was expecting a lot of low intensity cardio and strength work on machines. I guarantee she’s never worked out like this before!

I’ll be back later this week to give you more information on how to do cardio-interval workouts.

Committed to your success,

Becky

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If you’re in the San Jose, CA area, please make sure to check out the press release below that announces my newest camp for “boomer” ladies:

Baby Boomers. They’re not planning to “get old” without a fight. But how does a Baby Boomer battle a slowing metabolism and an expanding waistline? Not through long, moderate cardio workouts and extremely low calorie diets according to local fitness expert, Becky Williamson.

“Women from the Boomer era have grown up with the idea that hours of moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise and eating as little as possible is the way to stay trim. I think we actually screwed up our metabolisms by following that advice” says Williamson, an Exercise Physiologist and Baby Boomer herself. “Women have sacrificed a lot of calorie-burning muscle by chronic low-calorie dieting and staying away from strength training due to the fear of “bulking up”.

Frustrated with seeing so many over-forty women do all the wrong things in order to get slim, Williamson has created a fitness camp for women over 40 to train them to do exercises that will boost their metabolism. “Muscle IS your metabolism”, Williamson explains. I’ve created a format that pairs strength training exercises done in rapid succession with short bouts of cardiovascular exercise. One of the best things about this format is that I can give women a strength AND cardiovascular workout in about 40 minutes. That’s a lot better than an hour and a half at the gym! “

Recent studies have shown that bursts of higher intensity exercise followed by brief recovery exercise may indeed be more advantageous for body fat loss than longer, more moderate intensity exercise. Short bouts of higher intensity exercise isn’t for everybody, but Williamson believes that with proper form and by building up fitness slowly, just about anybody can benefit from this type of training.

Women over 40 in the Bay Area will get their first chance to experience Williamson’s unique program this November in Willow Glen. The “Fit and Fabulous Fit Camp for Women” will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays in November from 6:30-7:15 am November 4th through November 20th at St. Francis Episcopal church located at 1205 Pine Ave. Tuition for the 6 class camp is $90 and includes handouts on nutrition and weekly email support from Williamson.

Those interested in learning more about the program can log on to www.lifesportfitness.net/FitFab/index.html for more information.
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Okay, there you go ladies! If you’re in my neck of the woods, I’ve got a special class coming up in November just for YOU!

Committed to your success,

Becky

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In my last post, I touched on how important the words we choose to use can be. Just today, I got a little taste of my own medicine. I was on the phone with a mentor of mine and in response to something I said, his words to me were “Be careful what you say”. Apparently, I had verbally expressed a limiting belief about myself (I hadn’t really realized it!). Being a weight loss and fitness coach to hundreds of women, I was amazed that someone caught me expressing a limiting belief. Yikes!

His words reminded me that our beliefs can hold us back from moving forward in any type of effort we undertake, weight loss or otherwise. Our thoughts are really that powerful! And, yes, even your coach here needs to be reminded of it on occasion!

I learned a good lesson today and decided to share it with you–and ask you to examine your limiting beliefs with regard to weight loss and creating a healthy lifestyle. Could some of your thoughts be limiting your current efforts? I would venture to guess that these thoughts/fears that hold you back are false. I’ve been a personal trainer in San Jose for many years and I’ve heard many, many limiting beliefs from women. Things like “I don’t think I can lose the weight”, “I lose weight but I always put it back on”, “I’m post-menopausal, there’s no way I’ll be slim again”. Thoughts like these can sabotage your results. The negative beliefs can become reality because they subconsciously affect your actions.

So, here’s my action item for you: If you find yourself thinking or saying these types statements, STOP, catch yourself right that moment and re-phrase your words or thoughts. Remember what my mentor told me, “Be careful what you say”. Re-phrase your thought or words into an affirmative. It’s not always easy, but you must believe you will achieve your fitness goals. See them. Feel them. Believe you can. Your continual thoughts of success will help drive your actions. Your consistent actions will create the results you want.

Small changes in the thoughts and words you (and I) use can have a massive effect on the outcome. Let’s all get our thoughts in alignment with our goals! .

Committed to your success,

Becky

(To J.L.: Thank you)

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In my last two posts, I’ve covered themes that I believe need to be in place in order to maintain high levels of weight loss motivation. The last theme I’d like to cover on this topic is Social Support.
Research has shown time and time again that when people have a social network that supports their efforts, they are more successful at losing weight. Nothing zaps a person’s motivation more than being surrounded by people who aren’t “on board” with their goal, who practice competing behaviors (non-goal oriented behaviors), or who flat out sabotage the individual’s efforts. Very recent research has also found that “birds of a feather flock together”. In other words, if you spend your time with overweight individuals who don’t exercise and eat poorly 24/7, guess what your lifestyle and physique might begin to look like??? Scary isn’t it? Maybe our friends CAN make us fat??!!

So what’s a boomer woman who wants to get slim and stay slim to do? Please understand I’m not asking you to dump friends, family or significant others if they don’t share your goals of being fit and healthy. However, I am suggesting you create a support network NOW. Here’s what I’d like you to do:

1). Identify several people that you know and trust. Let them know of your current goals. Please don’t tell them you are “trying” to lose weight or that you are training to “try” and run a faster 10k. That language implies that you don’t necessarily believe you will succeed. Let them know you WILL be losing weight, or that you WILL be ramping up your running skills. Use words that commit you to your goal.
2). Give these trusted individuals ideas on how they can help and support you. Maybe it’s by not bringing junk food to the office. Maybe it is by becoming an exercise buddy.
3). Ask your support folks to check in on you with a “how’s your program going?” type of question in a few weeks.

All three of these suggestions will do two things for you: 1) They’ll help you develop a support network and 2) They will create some accountability for you. Accountability is really important when you set out to achieve a goal. Knowing someone is going to be checking in on you raises the stakes a bit and stokes your motivation.

If you’ve been successful with a weight loss goal and you were helped by a person in your support network, please post here so we all can learn how other boomer gals are making weight loss happen with social support. Heck, that would be social support in and of itself, wouldn’t it??? The guys have their good ‘ol boys network. We boomer gals need to have our own little club to help each other get where we need to go!

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In my last post I talked about how finding the “why” is important in maintaining your motivation in a fitness program. Today I’ll address another theme that I believe is extremely important with regard to weight loss results for boomer women–especially if your ultimate result will take a long time.

Maintaining FOCUS is paramount if you wish to maintain your motivation and reach your goals. Focus involves having a clear picture of what it is you want. Being focused means being able to minimize distractions that take your mind or body away from goal oriented behaviors. Think for a moment about someone you know that you would describe as “unfocused” or “distracted”. Does this person get a lot accomplished? Probably not.

We baby boomer women are often classic multi-taskers (yours truly is guilty as charged!!). We juggle a lot of balls between work, family, volunteering, and other responsibilities. Maintaining focus, especially on ourselves, can be really hard. I think this is one reason that some baby boomer women struggle with their weight–they just don’t stay focused long enough.

Successful weight loss requires that we maintain some sort of focus on our goals. Here are some tips to help you maintain your focus on weight loss or other fitness goals:

-Put it on paper. What do you want to achieve? Write the specifics down. Post them where you’ll see them.
-Put it in pictures. What will you look like when you reach your goal? Find photos or other images that reflect what you will look like. Post them where you’ll see them.
-Put it in your mind. Visualize how you’ll look and feel when you reach your goals. Make a written list of those feelings and emotions.
-Take daily action. Keep a little notebook and write down at least ONE thing each day that you’ve done toward reaching your goal. Even little things matter. Doing something goal-oriented every day keeps “your mind on the prize”.

Some of us are better at maintaining focus than others. But even those of us who are easily distracted can learn to focus better. Try these tips and I guarantee your focus will improve— and you’ll enjoy successful weight loss and better fitness!

Becky

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