Losing winter body fat…

Dear clients, friends and family,

I love this time of year. We are starting to see more sun, days are longer and everyone seems to have a renewed sense of energy. It’s one of the reasons we launch our Annual Spring Makeover challenge at this time of year. Plus people are ready to shed the pounds that many accumulate over the winter.

And I’m not immune to this phenomenon. I work out year round but definitely have a ‘winter weight’ and a ‘summer weight’ and they tend to be about 5 pounds different. So I always join in on our Weight Loss challenge to help motivate me to ramp things up a bit and get ready for the beach and all the fun summer activities.

This year, I joined Ted Schatz’s team – personal trainer extraordinaire. I thought I’d share with you his instructions to all of us. Hopefully, you will be able to pull out a few tips and follow along with the program with us. Here’s Ted’s tips for losing body fat safely, quickly and permanently:

Food goals:
1. 6 servings of vegetables a day
2. 6 servings of fruit a day
3. 1 large green salad a day (yes like a plate full of greens, go for Romaine or darker)
4. Focus on eating foods as close to their natural state as possible.
5. Meat that you eat should have lived a life as close as possible to what it would have lived in nature. (Free range, grass fed, organic)
6. 2 servings or less of dairy a day (1 yogurt, 1oz of cheese is one serving)
7. The one thing I really want you to try and avoid is highly processed grains (white bread).
8. Water is the only fluid you have to drink to live and thrive, 64oz a day minimum. With that said I am a realist also – Up to 12oz of coffee is acceptable, teas are great as long as they are not sugary, and this is a crazy one for me but up to 2 servings of alcohol a week (that’s because Ted doesn’t drink at all so the fact that he is letting us have 2 servings of alcohol per week is a big deal for Ted!)
9. All things consumed must be written down. He is having us log using www.livestrong.com – if you’ve not used this site, you should try it. It’s awesome for logging food and activity levels. It’s a great way to keep you motivated!

Exercise goals:
1. 1 hour or more of steady state cardio 4 days a week
2. 40 minutes or more of cardio intervals 2 days a week
3. 2-3 days a week of some sort of resistance training

I hope this gives you some ideas and helps you take your fitness and health to a whole new level!

Yours in health and fitness,

Sherri McMillan

ps. Feel free to post your progress and let me  know how it’s going!