I have spent a good part of last week talking with moms who are upset with their body shape.  Each would tell you that her tummy is too big and that she doesn’t even have to “cheat” much, and all of a sudden the weight piles on.  Or maybe, despite her time in the gym, she’s not able to lose those extra inches around the middle.

These ladies were frustrated and embarrassed to wear certain clothes.

Do you know anyone like this?

One of them is even on a special commercial diet that restricts her calories to 1,200 per day.  She finds herself being hungry after exercise and “does a little cheating” only to find that her weight is creeping upwards or is stagnant at best.  (This is a calorie-restrictive diet and something that can exhaust your body and cause weight gain.)

All of these ladies exercise 3-6x/week.  (Yes, that is a range and, yes, it does impact weight loss.)

Here are my top ten fitness and nutrition tips to prevent this typical female frustration:

10. Get rid of temptation food.  PERIOD. Is it Cheetos, Litte Debbies, juice, soda, candy?  Identify all tempters and throw them away.  (Purging into the garbage is very empowering. Try it.)

9. Get a handle on your stress and go to sleep.  Cortisol washes around your system facilitating fat storage when you are not sleeping enough.  What does “sleeping enough” mean?  That depends on how much you are exercising -the more you train, the more sleep you need.

8. Stay away from alcohol.  It collects around your middle.  If you want a six-pack, then reach for water!
7. Prepare and package your meals and snacks.  If more people did this, then the fast food industry would be bankrupt.
6.  Eat upwards of 13 servings of fresh, raw, pesticide-free fruits and vegetables daily.  If you want to prevent disease and increase your fiber, then this is a no-brainer.  Email me back if you want to know how to do this economically.

5. Eat green leafy vegetables daily (kale, spinach, collards, chard).  The darker the better.  This alone will curb lots of cravings.

4. Fat loss is a numbers game.  If 10% of what you eat in a week is off-track, then you’ll do fine. If you make poor choices 20% of the time and eat proper portions and all the right stuff 80% of the time, then you still have to shore up on 10%.  This is why logging food is critical to success.

3. Make sure your actions match your goals.  In other words, don’t be surprised if the weight is not coming off when you have clocked in 3 days of exercise instead of 5 and you haven’t changed your food intake for the decreased activity.

2. Get the support of your family.  If mom is not healthy and feeling great, the the rest of the family suffers.

1.  Make interval training your preferred cardiovascular exercise.  Long endurance (40+ minutes) is not necessary.  When you practice interval training, your body will shift into a high metabolism and boost calorie-burning.  Burning more calories means that body fat will come off.  If you’re not practicing interval training, then you are missing a crucial element of fat loss and spending more time than necessary exercising.

Fitcamp, Cleveland’s best interval training program for busy moms, is opening a new class time starting Tuesday, June 1:  6:00-6:45 a.m.  If you know a busy Cleveland mom, who needs to improve her fitness, then send this along.