Holiday Body Blitz (Part 4 Holiday Parties)

We all live in both anticipation and fear of the holidays. Grandmas and Nanas and Nonas and

Great Aunts who can all whip up the best traditional feasts and pinch your cheeks as you eat it.

Unfortunately, you know that their secret ingredients are a 50/50 mix of love and lard. And if
it’s your turn to host this year, you can’t be the person who doesn’t have a full fridge, gallons of
eggnog, and at least a pound of turkey for each of your uncles and cousins. So how do we get
through the holidays without ruining all the work we did the rest of the year?

- Bring Your Own: At any type of party, bring a dish! Most parties I’ve been to are seriously
lacking in salads, fresh veggies, and fruits, so it doesn’t hurt to add some low calorie fare
to the high calorie indulgent foods. Nobody has to know your spinach dip is low calorie.

- Send them Home: If you are hosting the party, a very important action is to send your
guests home with food…don’t even ask; pack it for them and send them home with it.
That way you’re not left with tempting leftovers during the “hangover” period. If you’re
hosting a potluck, do some organized planning ahead of time. If 15 people are coming
over, you don’t need 15 dishes (especially because you know this ends up being at least
five plates of cookies and brownies). Once you have a couple appetizers, a couple side
dishes, and a dessert accounted for, just tell the rest of the people they can bring soft
drinks, plates, napkins, etc.

- Clear the Table: If you’re hosting, serve the meal in courses, clear the table and pack up
the leftovers immediately once everyone’s kind of “done eating” that course. If the
turkey, salad, potatoes, and desserts are all sitting there for three hours, you’re going to
have three servings. The longer it’s in front of you, the more of it you’ll eat.

- Go The Distance: Don’t sit within arm’s reach of the cheese plate. If you have to
stand up, put your drink down, and lean over Aunt Mary to get to them, you’re not
going to have as many.

- Cleaning Crew: Offer to help clean up when dishes need clearing during the meal or
afterwards. If you can spend some time in the sink and suds instead of in front of
whatever’s on the table, not only will you be your mom’s favorite for helping clean up,
you’ll eat a little less.

Holiday Body Blitz (Part 2 - Fat Loss Habits)

Before we can get into the real meat of this blog post we need to establish some basic key habits you need to start practicing in order to get ANY results.


Two glasses of water immediately when you wake up: there is nothing more important habitually than hydrating immediately when you wake.

Keep all eating within a 10-12 hour window: There should only be a 10-12 hour window between when you eat your first and last calories of the day. Once that window is closed, so is your mouth.

Eat your first meal when your first hungry: If you wake up at 6am and your not hungry until 9am don’t force food at 7am. Wait until 9am and then start your 10-12 hour window from there.

Don’t let more than 4 hours go without a meal: once you’ve started your 10-12 hour eating window keep all meals within 2-4 hours of each other

Protein and vegetable with every meal: don’t worry I’ll give you ways to eat vegetables that you won’t want to stop eating them!

Plan your cheats for 10% of the time: Let’s face it. You’re going to cheat. It’s inevitable. But only cheat if it’s a planned cheat and limit yourself to 10% of your total snacks and meals. (Example: CHRISTMAS DINNER?) so if you are eating 30 meals and snacks a week then three of those can be cheats.

Zero calorie liquids only: If you have any liquid that has any calories that counts as a cheat. This includes, milk, juice, cream in your coffee, soda (both diet and non diet), alcohol etc.)

Plan Ahead: this is mandatory and only takes 5-20 minutes at the end of the day. Use the protocols in the next post.

Holiday Body Blitz (Part 1 - Introduction)

Congratulations on taking steps towards a better, healthier, happier life and welcome to the Holiday Body Blitz post. Over the next days this blog is going to serve as your go-to guide to burning fat during the holidays.

You see, the reason why I made this program is because without a doubt, the holiday season between Thanksgiving and right after New Year’s is the hardest time of the year to lose weight. There are a few reasons that contribute to this problem:

- No Game plan: the main problem is as simple as that. Not having any set structure of what your going to eat, when your going to eat and how your going to eat. Just by putting a plan in place you will be 10 times more likely to see results than if you just “winged it”.

- Always on the run: this is also the busiest time of the year for most people what with holiday shopping, kids, work deadlines and let’s not forget all the social gatherings.

- Holiday treats: they…..are….EVERYWHERE! Your boss has them on their desk, your co-workers have them on their desk, YOU have them on your desk or maybe in a dish in your living room or a little treat bag in your cupboard. Treats are constantly in your face for the next 40 days and there is little you can do about it.

- Social Gatherings: Work Parties, Friends Parties, Family Parties YOUR Parties…it’s an endless assault of alcohol and food.

So with these key points in mind I set out to design this plan in order to specifically combat every one of those excuses. I say excuses because let’s face it, once I expose the solutions to all of these problems listed above, 90% of people reading this will still use them as excuses to gain weight but they are really just trying to justify their own self-doubt and laziness.

YOU CAN DO THIS. YOU DESERVE THE RESULTS. STAY TUNE FOR MORE POST TO COME.

Head, Heart and Hands Featured Speaker Ernestine Shepherd was a guest on the Anderson Cooper Live Show this past Tuesday.

It is our pleasure to announce that we have arranged to bring Ernestine, who is a  world class health, fitness and nutrition expert to our Jamestown Bluffs Library Branch, 4153 N. US Highway 67 on Saturday, November 10th at 1:30 PM for a 90-minute presentation.

Be sure to register and grab yourself a spot for this event.   You can log onto www.getfit4christ.org for more info.

In the meantime check out the video below to see who won the push up contest.

Ernestine Shepherd Vs. Anderson Cooper Push Up Contest

This Puts the Zum in Zumba

You can approach Halloween one of two ways.

The first option is to go nuts with all of the eats and treats. The second is to indulge in moderation and offset any extra caloric consumption with a seasonal Halloween Zumba workout.

I recommend the latter... it's a lot more figure friendly! Zumba is exercise in disguise. I like to take it one step further (no pun intended) and add that Zumba is a total body workout that combines upper body, lower body, and core movements into one big bang for your buck workout.

Here is a video of a Zumba routine done by Phylliss that I guarantee will help you burn fat and build muscle in minimal time. I recommend performing this routine at least two times with little to no rest in between for every Halloween treat you eat:

Try it for yourself and have some fun.

And if you would like something a little more challenging with a lot more variety then keep an eye out for a special Zumba Halloween discount :-)

Click here for the video --> This Puts the Zum in Zumba

5 Ways to Fall Into Fitness

Fall Into Fitness

We all know that January is the time of the year that everyone starts to get in shape. But did you know that the fall season is the next popular time of the year to get fit and lose those unwanted pounds?


“September is second only to January as a time when fitness springs to the top of the to-do list, with gyms and training studios buzzing with activity and motivated new members,” says Rob Williams, a Personal Trainer in Vancouver. “At the same time, family and business commitments seem to increase and the days get shorter and darker.”

Here are my five tips for you to fall into fitness as your already busy schedule cranks up another notch.

1. Don't get caught up in the quick fix - There is no such thing as a quick fix and you're fooling yourself if you think there is. Good things come to those who wait and any health and fitness goals are going to take effort and commitment on your part.

2. Support - When you are trying to get more fit, it is very important to have family and friends supporting you along the way. This means that they need to respect your fitness and health goals and not tempt you into the wrong food choices or try and derail you from your fitness training plan. Remind them how important this is to you and you need their support and encouragement and who knows, they may end of training right along side you.

3. Use variety - The body is very adaptive. Performing the same routine over and over is not only boring, but your body will get used to the routine and quit responding. Change your exercises, the order in which you do them, the number or sets and reps, or change the weights. In one workout you may use weights, another you may use resistance bands, in another, machines. Make every workout different in some way.

4. Record and review - If you don't keep track of your workouts and improvements, how will you know if you're making progress? Whether it's fat loss, building muscle tissue, or just feeling better; keeping a log helps and motivates you to get there. When you see where you were, and where you are, you realize you're making progress!

5. Hire a Personal Trainer - It is proven that having a motivating and positive support system will help you stay with your goals long term. How many times have you started an exercise program and stopped? Remember those New Year's Resolutions? How many have you kept? Was losing weight or eating healthier part of those resolutions that are now on a shelf collecting dust? Do you have multiple pieces of exercise equipment that you bought on an infomercial late at night that you now hang your clothes on collecting dust? Get motivated and use a Personal Trainer to help support you in your life long mission to permanent weight loss and better overall body fitness and health.

Camille Simmons finds two weight loss plans that work

Camille Simmons

For some finding weight loss plans that work is like figuring out the rubic's cube blindfolded.

For Camille Simmons rapid weight loss techniques never work, but at MVP she has found two weight loss programs that work.  Here's your story.

I have two scriptures that I live by to get me through my weight loss journey. The first is 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, it says “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” The second is Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

I have to first start in the beginning. In 2009 in a quest to have children, I had several blood clots travel to my lungs. Had I laid down that night I may not have lived to see another day. While in the hospital every doctor that came in to see me, told me I should have gastric bypass. In my heart I knew that is not what I needed. I finally went home and was not released to go to work for five months. In that time I became bored and frustrated and that lead to me eating even more. Before I knew it I reached my all time high of 360 pounds. I felt my life was truly out of control and I didn’t quite know how to get out of it. I knew what the Word of God said, but it did not stick. I really couldn’t see it.

I had a very good friend who kept telling me about a boot camp that she found and how much she loved it. She would ask me to go and of course I just had to turn her down. You see I had a really defeated mindset. I could never imagine myself ever trying to do somebody’s exercise class let alone boot camp. Come on I was 360 pounds and oh so out of shape. I didn’t want to get out there and embarrass myself. I looked for every excuse to turn her down.

In late 2010 my friend finally convinced me to go. She said she had already paid and I had no excuse. Needless to say I went… I walked out onto the track that hot August day to meet Lyle Johnson and to begin my journey with MVP fitness. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. The first thing he told us to do was to run the track. I was stunned. All I kept thinking was “He has got to be kidding. It’s hot out here and I have not had to run in about 30 years. I’m clumsy and I’m going to fall and embarrass myself. I’m not going to make it. Guess what I didn’t make it. I think I ran about 30 steps and I was ready to turn around and head for my car. I starting walking trying not to cry out of frustration, embarrassment as l looked over and saw that everyone else was finished and I was only half way. About three fourths of the way I was finished, I could go no further. Lyle walked over to me and asked me if I needed him to drag the bench over to me so I could sit down. I did not know what to say. I just knew if I said yes he was going to yell at me and say things that I really didn’t want to hear. He did like he said and went to finish class. There was no yelling or fussing at me. I was relieved. I sat trying to figure out a way to get the energy to get back to the end of the track to get my keys and belongings. I was praying for God to give me a way to pay my friend back so I did not have to endure this. When class was over I wanted to cry so bad but my friend wouldn’t let me. I waited till I got in my car and had a big temper tantrum and cried like a baby.

I had every intention not to go back, I did not care who was mad at me. I wanted no part of boot camp. A few days later Lyle called me to see if I was ok and to encourage me to come back. Dang… how could I say NO now! I came back and by the end of summer I was not running but I was at least able to walk at least one lap around the track. Praise God, I was surely improving.

MVP Fitness has been truly a blessing. Lyle has even given me one on one classes for free to help me reach my goals, just because he cares. When we finally moved indoors Lyle introduced us to Kettlebells. Oh happy days! I fell in love with the class. I truly believe that God gave that vision to Lyle just for me. It has truly changed my mindset about going to boot camp. It has resulted in the biggest transition in my journey. I have something that I want to go to. I hate to miss a class and I get mad when it happens. I have had trials and tribulations along the way, but I will not be stopped. When things get rough I pray and give 100 percent, because that is all that has been asked of me.

Now with prayer,MVP, working at adopting a healthy eating lifestyle and a vision to be fit and healthy I am around 80 pounds down. I have made huge strides in my life because I feel better about myself and have gained more confidence. I was able to wear my wedding ring that I had not been able to wear for years. I applied for and got a new job with better pay and hours. I’m able to talk to people with more confidence. I even added Zumba in after class on Saturdays.

I have received so much encouragement from my husband, my good friend Deena Sneed who gave me the push I needed and to Lyle and his wife Phylliss that words cannot express.

My journey is not over. I have a long way to go, but I know that every day I am just that much closer. My goal is to “Get Fit For Christ” to be a light. Along the way God has given me a vision to be an example to the body of Christ, to live a healthy lifestyle and to show that He will work with you no matter where you are. So my question is what you are waiting for. “With man this is impossible but with God all things are possible.” Matt 19: 26. It’s time to take care of the temple of The Holy Spirit!

P.S. I am now running some of the track. I plan on being able to run the whole thing by summer’s end!