Most of the time when we think of weight training we immediately think about building muscle. Though weight training is the best workout for improving your strength and increasing your muscle mass, there are a lot of other health benefits no one really talks about. Here are six side benefits of weight training that you may not know.

1. Reduces Back Pain: If you have a job where you sit all day and have lower back pain or stiffness as a result, weight training will help reduce this pain. Weight training helps strengthen the muscles in your core which support your spine. So when you are sitting, the extra strength helps reduce the tension in that area.

2. Increases Your Mobility: Weight training helps you develop “body awareness.” Body awareness is the ability to understand what muscles you are using for specific tasks. When you weight train, you are very aware of all of your muscle groups and how they work. This knowledge helps you increase your mobility.

3. Fights Osteoporosis: When you weight train you don’t just increase muscle mass, your body also naturally increases your bone mass. Increasing your bone mass helps reduce the risk of bone loss from diseases like osteoporosis.

4. Counters Stress: All exercise helps you combat stress, anxiety, and depression. Weight training, like aerobic exercise, helps you release endorphins in the brain. These endorphins help elevate your mood. Building muscle also helps increase your energy, which can reduce getting fatigue-related stress.

5. Lowers Your Risk Of Diabetes: Weightlifting helps build white muscle which burns blood glucose for energy. By increasing your use of blood glucose, weight training can reduce your risk of diabetes.

6. Boost Metabolism: The type of muscle fiber you build during weight training increases your metabolism. This boost in your metabolism means you can burn fat no matter your diet or level of inactivity. Meaning the more muscle you develop from weight training, the faster you’ll lose unwanted body fat.

To learn more about the benefits of weight training or to begin a new weight training routine, speak to the expert private trainers at Everlasting Changes. We can help put together a great weight training routine to help you get these benefits and more. Sign up today to get three free personal training sessions with a private trainer in the Charlotte area!

Call now for three risk free, complimentary sessions. We offer a 30-day money back guarantee on all of our packages.

Do you have a specific fitness goal that you are hoping to achieve? This goal could be a number on the scale, or a clothing size. Or maybe you are hoping to wear a certain cut or style of clothes like strappy tank tops, shorts, or a bathing suit.

While having this goal is great, it will NOT guarantee success.

You knew that, though, because this isn’t the first time that you’ve had a fitness goal. A goal that you didn’t meet. In fact, you probably know dozens of other people who also have struggled to meet their fitness goals.

Here’s the typical scenario: you get all pumped up to lose weight and get into shape by starting out completely gung-ho. Your enthusiasm lasts about two weeks, before old habits and routine slide back into place, cutting your results off before reaching your goal. Then your goal begins to fade from your mind, and life goes on.

The problem, my friend, was your initial focus on the result rather than a sustained focus on the process. Let me break this down for you…

Fitness success is not about focusing on your goal. It’s about making the fit lifestyle stick.

Of course, once you’ve gotten a fit lifestyle to stick you’ll end up meeting that goal!

This may go against everything you’ve come to believe about achieving a goal, but then, your techniques haven’t exactly been working. The number that you’re hoping to magically be one day doesn’t matter one bit, and here’s why…

IT’S ABOUT LIVING IN THE MOMENTUM.

Can you remember how it felt the last time that you ate clean, exercised hard and got adequate sleep for a few consecutive days? A feeling of momentum came over you, didn’t it?

There was a buzzing in your cells and a rhythm in your pace. You felt alive, you felt sexy, and you felt empowered. Never mind that you weren’t yet at your goal number, you were headed there!

Getting down to your goal weight, and fitting into your goal size, is the direct result of living in that state of momentum for an extended period of time. You see, the momentum can be felt immediately, once you start eating clean, exercising hard and taking care of your health, whereas that “goal number” simply can’t be felt until it is achieved, and so it’s not as powerful a motivator.

My challenge and advice to you is to find the joy of living in the momentum, and keep that momentum going until your goal number is achieved. Focus only on the momentum, not on the number.

Fitness is a way of life. Being lean is a lifestyle. Neither of which can be had by going about it halfheartedly.

You have to become the momentum.

Call or email me today and we will get your momentum started on the exercise program that will reshape your body once and for all!

Do you eat your feelings? Read this.

It happens with most of us.

You have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day… and at the end of it you turn to food.

There’s a reason that it’s called comfort food. While you’re eating it you feel better.

And when you’re done eating it you feel worse.

Keep this in mind next time you are tempted to turn to food for comfort:

Emotional eating temporarily relieves distress and then makes it impossible to attain what you really want.

Green Bean, Egg and Quinoa Salad

Here’s a tasty way to eat your green beans – tossed with quinoa, sliced plum and topped with hard boiled egg. This type of salad, where the base is a steamed vegetable and protein is added on top, makes a phenomenally fit meal that will help get you to your fitness goals faster than ever. Enjoy!

Courtesy of RealHealthyRecipes.com

Servings: 4

Here’s what you need

1 cup cooked red quinoa
2 cups green beans, steamed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 ripe plum, thinly sliced
2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
½ teaspoon sea salt
ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Combine the quinoa, beans, plum and egg in a large bowl.
2. Drizzle with the sesame oil, lime juice, salt and pepper. Mix well and enjoy!

Nutritional Analysis

One serving equals: 225 calories, 7g fat, 270mg sodium, 31g carbohydrate, 5g fiber, and 10g protein

Whether you are trying to lose weight, increase your gains, or simply workout to fight against a chronic illness, the best way to reach your fitness goal is with the advice and guidance of a personal trainer. Certified personal trainers have all the knowledge to make sure that not only your exercise routine but your diet is leading you down the right path. Here are the seven reasons personal trainers are essential to helping you reach your goal.

1. Every Body Is Different: Everyone has a different level of fitness, metabolism, and physical capability. Therefore, workouts are not a one-size-fits-all method. What works for some bodies, will not work for others. A personal trainer will tailor a fitness plan to your specific body’s needs.

2. You Will Learn A Lot: Personal trainers are the experts. They know everything from how to perfect your form to prevent injury to what to eat for more muscle mass to how to train with specific medical conditions. When working with a personal trainer, you will learn a ton about fitness.

3. You’ll Reach Your Goals Faster: Personal trainers will help you develop realistic goals and get you on the path to reaching them in the fastest, most efficient way possible. You’ll never waste your time doing an exercise that won’t support your goals.

4. You’ll Stay On Track: Personal training sessions help you stay consistent in your weekly workouts because they are scheduled on a routine. Personal trainers will also help you stay accountable to yourself and your goals.

5. You’ll Progress, Not Plateau: One of the biggest challenges we face when working out on our own is the dreaded plateau. Where for weeks or months, no matter what we do, we don’t see any changes. Personal trainers will make sure that doesn’t happen. They use their expertise to help mix up your workout so you see progress and plateaus.

6. Personal Trainers Are Motivators: Personal trainers are your biggest cheerleaders. They’ll be just as excited that you’ve reached a goal and will help you stay motivated to keep going.

7. It’s Fun!: Working with a personal trainer is a blast. They make workouts fun and engaging instead of just a daily chore. It’s like working out with a really knowledgeable friend.

These are just some of the ways that personal trainers are vital to helping you reach your goal. If you’d like to learn more, talk to our trainers at Everlasting Changes. We’ll give you three free personal training sessions so you can see for yourself just how game-changing working with a trainer can be for your life! Call us today to get started!

Call now for three risk free, complimentary sessions. We offer a 30-day money back guarantee on all of our packages.

When you are a busy professional, it’s hard to find a work life balance. Often times, the first thing to slip in our routines is the maintenance of your health. When you are working overtime, it’s really easy to grab the quickest thing to eat instead of the healthiest. It’s even easier to skip the gym because you’re just too tired. However, no matter how important your work is, your health is a bigger priority. If you don’t have your health, you can’t work. We understand how it can be though, so we’ve got some helpful tips so you can stay on top of your health no matter how packed your schedule.

Treat Your Health Like A Business Meeting

You would never skip an important meeting with a client. So take that same can do attitude and apply it to your health. Whether it’s making time to go to the gym or cook a healthy dinner, make the same commitment to your health you would those important business meetings. If you treat your health as a non-negotiable like you do your work, then it will be easier to make it a priority.

Take Meal Planning Shortcuts

You don’t have to spend time slaving over a meal to eat healthily. There are plenty of shortcuts you can take. For example, opt for pre-cut vegetables and fruits at the store, they may cost a little more but they will save you big on prep time. You can also skip the oven and use the microwave or crock pot. You can also subscribe to a meal service that delivers the perfect portions for healthy at home cooking. This will save you the hassle and time of going to the grocery store, the prep work, and ensures you’re eating something great.

Hire A Personal Trainer

Finally, the best thing you can do is hire a personal trainer. Personal trainers, like your boss at work, keep you accountable to your fitness goals in many ways. First of all, we can design a program to help you achieve your health goals more effectively and efficiently, so you never waste time. Secondly, you are far more likely to attend a scheduled personal training session than just loosely decide you’ll go to the gym sometime during the day. Finally, we work around your schedule to make sure you can get a workout in no matter your work hours.

We understand that it is hard to make time for your health when you have a demanding job, however, we’re here to help. Our certified personal trainers will help you make a plan to stay healthy that works with your busy life.

Call now for three risk free, complimentary sessions. We offer a 30-day money back guarantee on all of our packages.

You woke up this morning and began making choices.

You chose whether or not to exercise, to eat a healthy breakfast, or to do something productive. You chose whether or not to eat that donut, to sleep in, or to watch an extra hour of TV.

At the end of each day the sum of your choices pushes you in a direction.

It could be pushing you in the direction of fitness and health, if your choices were predominantly wholesome.

Or the sum of your choices could be pushing you in the direction of weight gain, health issues and problems.

I find this perspective to be helpful when it comes to making a major body transformation. It’s tempting to feel helpless in changing your body when you have so many pounds to lose and so much work to do, since you aren’t able to do it all in one day.

However, by capturing the power of each day by making wholesome choices, you will be pushed in the direction of weight loss and health day after day, week after week.

Until one day you’ll look in the mirror and see that you’ve arrived at your ultimate destination: a lean, healthy and vibrant you.

So embrace the power of each choice that you make today, and allow a momentum of good choices to push you through to your goal.

Today is a big deal. Today is all you have.

Make the most of today.

If you’re not yet one of my prized clients then make the excellent choice to call or email me today to get started on a program that will supercharge your momentum towards the best version of yourself.

Let’s do this!

Do This At Bedtime

The best way to ensure that you will make stellar choices tomorrow is to plan for it tonight. Before you go to sleep, jot out your plan for the next day.

What will you eat? What is your exercise plan? What food traps will you avoid? How much time will you spend watching TV?

Write down your ideal day and then sleep on it. When you wake up take that list with you as a guide to making great choices all day long.

Make this a before-bed ritual and watch how quickly you see the results!

Rainbow Roasted Veggies

Eating plenty of fresh vegetables is an excellent, healthy choice. The fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants contained within will do wonders for your energy levels and overall health.

Here’s a simple recipe for roasting vegetables that’s a wonderful side dish for dinner. Use whatever vegetables you have on hand, or seek out the full spectrum of colors for a natural vitamin boost.

Courtesy of RealHealthyRecipes.com

Servings: 6

Here’s what you need

2 red bell peppers, seeded and cut into ½ inch strips
2 orange beets, peeled and cubed
16 Pattypan squashes
6 mini green zucchini
1 purple onion, cut into wedges
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and lightly grease a rimmed baking sheet with olive oil.
2. Arrange the veggies on the prepared pan in the order of the rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue/Purple. Drizzle the olive oil over the veggies and sprinkle with the salt and pepper.
3. Roast in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until browned and tender.

Nutritional Analysis

One serving equals: 130 calories, 5g fat, 20g carbohydrate, 13g sugar, 189mg sodium, 6g fiber, and 5g protein.