As I mentioned previously, the average American gains between 3-7 pounds over the holidays. This most likely is not surprising to you. But what surprised me is that research has shown that we then never get that weight off. Despite good intentions and New Year’s Resolutions, each year we end up weighing more. Year after year after year. But, the weight gain is not just from Thanksgiving Day nor Christmas  Eve nor even Hanukah week, it is from week after week of poor eating. It seems that the time between Halloween and January 1st is a season of  ridiculous over consumption.  And, once we start, we just can’t stop!

So why do we allow this to happen when we know the consequences are so serious? Our genetics, for one reason.  Across the plains of ancient Africa, our ancestors naturally went through periods of starvation, then abundance. From digestive hormones, to fat storage, to brain chemistry, we are programmed to accept overeating as a natural part of life because starvation was often right around the corner. Nowadays, McDonalds is right around the corner.  And that brings me to the second reason we overeat. Over indulgence is in our faces at every minute of the holiday season via television, advertisements and social gatherings. Who could not resist eating fattening foods when they are so prevalent? Who? Well, the emotionally vulnerable American, or the stressed out American, or the lonely American. And there are millions of us. Combine stress and emotional trauma with “in your face” foods, and this is how we have become so nutritionally ill.

But, this is no excuse. We are more than just genes, and we are better than any food can make us feel.  But it takes thought, awareness and concrete behavioral changes to overcome temptations. Willpower is not the way- thinking is the way. This is why diets fail. Diets don’t address the mind. Remember, the same brain that can lead us to crave sweets, can also lead us to crave fruits and vegetables. But you must stay aware… aware of how you feel, what emotions trigger your eating, what your fullness quotient is, and what your hunger cues are…..

Step 1 begins today.  Start a journal that tracks your eating- where, when, how much. Get specific. Next, figure out what is your biggest challenge and unhealthiest eating pattern and target that first. You undereat during the day? You eat alone at night? You eat when stressed or sad? Consider these important questions first.  On your log, keep a track of your emotions, your stress and your sleep, which all directly relate to your eating patterns.  Don’t forget to use the techniques and tips I gave you in the last blog, and  most importantly, ask for help. There are many psychologists and therapists who can help with emotional overeating.  A good trainer can always help as well!

I do know one thing: as I age, I no longer wish to experience the holidays as a time for over indulgence.  I am done with the stress over eating, the stress over drinking and the regrets that come after. While it is well known that most of us gain weight over the holidays, what is even more distressing is that, research shows, we then never lose that weight, thus gaining 3-5 pounds year after year after year. This weight gain is not automatic nor inevitable. We have choices.  But, these choices need to be backed by mindfulness practice, pre -holiday nutrition diligence and practice, and concrete strategies for behavioral change and coping with the stress of the holidays.

My first suggestion is to take the next two weeks to practice the techniques and mindfulness behaviors  we then want to use over the holidays. Begin food logs. Eliminate unhealthy foods NOW so that you can either: keep off these trigger foods completely, or if you CHOOSE, eat them over the holidays with control and mindfulness. The key to eating treats and special holiday foods is to do so with true awareness and enjoyment, not  by stuffing or bingeing. If we all took a moment to slowly eat our treats, to enjoy each and every bite,  to enjoy the way the food looks, the way it smells, the way it tastes, we would definitely eat less of it. Practice this now. Before you eat any special treat or holiday food, take pause.  Take 3 breaths first, getting yourself centered and aware. Then, look at the food, the way it looks. Enjoy its beauty. Next, slowly eat the food, pausing between each bite to really taste it. If necessary, pause longer between bites to ckeck in with your feelings of fullness. These techniques are proven to decrease over eating. Start practicing now!

My second suggestion is to begin to set up structures and plans that will allow to you stay aware and on track during the holidays.  Make a plan for how you are going to eat and drink. Include easy things such as planning low cal healthy appetizers, a meal with plenty of vegetables and healthy protein, using a smaller plate for smaller portions, or limiting portions initially to no bigger than 1 cup. Make only one or two desserts, rather than 3 or 4, and give away leftovers so you do not continue to  over eat past the holiday itself.  And please, there is no need to have a never ending candy jar sitting around the house.  No one will miss it if you eliminate it. That’s just your excuse to allow yourself to eat candy without accountability and awareness. Your choice. Let’s face it- if we ate indulgently for JUST the holiday itself, we would never gain the 3-5 pounds most of us gain during this season. The weight we gain is a factor of multiple meals, multiple over indulgences, and lots of excuses.

Lastly, take time this week to put down on paper your vision for a better holiday- not a  perfect holiday- no holiday is ever perfect- but a better one .  While you can not control your brother-in-law and his craziness, or your mother and her criticism, you can control how you choose to react. Write down your vision. Then, live it.

My ebook “Getting Golf Ready- A Woman’s Guide to Golf  Fitness” is in it’s final editing stages. What started as a small give -away project two years ago, is now an 80 page ebook. I am very proud of the book, and very grateful for the help of Pat Mulally of www.GolfGurls.com for her expertise in creating the book and helping with editing.  If you are interested in learning more about the book- email me and I can put you on the book release distribution list.

Also, upon my return from Italy, I learned that I was a finalist for the ACE and Life Fitness 2011 “Personal Trainers To Watch “  national award. What a privilege to be listed as a finalist with all of the other fabulous trainers!  With close to 400 nominations,  I guess all of my years of community service, diligence and continual desire to learn more and be a better trainer,  have finally paid off.  It only took 23 years to get the kudos! Next award- at age 75!

Let’s review the facts. Cleanses have been around for centuries. Cleanses began as a spiritual experience performed for religious reasons.  They were always combined with religious practices as well, so that cleanses acted as a combined tool for creating spiritual purity.  To this day, many religions such as Seventh Day Adventists and Muslims cleanse on a yearly basis. Yoga cleanses, or Ayurvedic cleanses, have been around for close to 4000 years. But, spiritual purity is not the reason for the ridiculous abundance of cleansing programs in this decade.  Aside from cleansing for spiritual reasons, the ONLY reason that cleanses are now super popular……. quick weight loss. Many of the cleanses are used as just one more magic pill, magic potion, magic diet… whatever is the QUICKEST way to lose weight.

Unfortunately, this is a major problem because cleanses never produce permanent weight loss.  Never. That’s why my acquaintance above is on his THIRD cleanse! He starves himself, loses weight, brags about it and then gains ALL the weight back, and more.  I can only speak for myself, but I would much rather be 5-10 pounds overweight and stay the same, than lose 20 pounds and then gain 30 back.  And that’s what cleanses may do if you don’t permanently accept the new eating habits you have practiced through the cleanse. But, no one can!  Nutritional deprivation from a low calorie diet or a cleanse always leads to eventual over eating in order to compensate for the deprivation. It’s evolution. It’s genetics. It’s hormonal, it’s physiologic.  In nature, periods of starvation are always compensated for with periods of gorging. That’s the way many wild animals live their lives, and it works well for them! Of course, a big fat polar bear does not care if it’s big and fat. It wants to be big and fat.  But, that is the opposite of what we are trying to achieve!  We are doing it for weight loss, right? Guess what?  For permanent weight loss, it just does not work.

This is because, when you cleanse…which is classically about undereating in some way…. not only do you lose fat, you also lose muscle.  Research has shown that during a typical low calorie diet that produces 15 pounds of weight loss, up to 9- 10lbs of that weight loss is water and muscle tissue, not fat. Muscle loss means slow down of metabolism and subsequent weight gain.  And, the weight that you gain back is not good weight gain….. it’s pure FAT gain. Cleanses also create a hormonal tornado that compels you to over eat.  Hormones that signal hunger escalate, hormones that signal fullness diminish. It’s the way our bodies are designed to self regulate.

So, now you know the negatives about cleanses. Are there any positives? Sure! For one, cleanses teach you that you CAN do without processed foods, sugar, or other foods that are not condusive to good health. Once you have success, if you are intent on being healthy and not just losing scale weight, you can incorporate these changes into your ongoing nutrition. Cleanses restart your taste buds. Butternut squash tastes phenomenal IF you can learn to appreciate its goodness and quality forever, and not just during the cleanse.  Lastly, cleanses can help you determine your food tolerances or even allergies. Eliminating foods, then reintroducing them, is a great way for you to be aware and understand how these foods affect you.

There are many different types of cleanses. Some cleanses are merely a gimmicky name for clean eating. If the “cleanse” you are trying is full of veggies, fruits, healthy fats and lean highly digestible proteins, and this is opposite from how you are eating,  then this may be a cleanse for you!  And, ongoing,  you should try and always eat like this. But, really, this is how we should be eating anyway.  At the other extreme, cleanses that involve only minimal food choices, or involve no foods at all, are dangerous and counterproductive.  I can’t ever recommend any of these.

If you take nothing else from this article but this… remember… cleanses never produce permanent weight loss. They may actually contribute to body fat gain in the long run. Is it worth the risk?

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”

When it comes to personal training, this is perhaps my biggest frustration. I can create the best, safest, most effective exercise program, but if my clients don’t do it, then what good is it? About 20% of my clients have difficulty  getting on track and staying on track. It does not matter what I say, what I do, how I nag, whether I call, email or stop by, if the client can not find the self motivation and self care to help themselves, there’s nothing I can do.

Many people have many excuses for not exercising. Some are valid, some are not.  All of them can be justified by the client. So the bigger question really is, how does the client adress these excuses and overcome them? Often, the excuses are created by underlying issues with time management, stress, lack of self esteem, past failures and…. gremlins…. that tiny voice in your head that creates doubts and holds you back from success. Until we discover the reasons for these gremlins and our continued “stuck” behavior, we won’t, can’t , move forward.

This is where I was with a very dear client. Smart, beautiful,accomplished, wealthy,giving, she had almost everything. The one thing she did not have was her health.  Over time, I realized there was nothing more I could do for her until she was ready. Luckily, at the same time, I began exploring alternative methods for empowering my clients: life coaching. Life Coaching is something I had experienced  personally via one day workshops, self help weekends, books, CD’s and more.  But, the workshop experience was fleeting. I never followed through. And, I did not have the finances to work with a life coach every week.   One day, after a particularly frustrating day, I had a thought….. What if there was a workshop series, where clients could experience life coaching in a group setting, where the cost was affordable, and the follow up was extended and clear?

This is how the Today’s Superwoman Series was created. With the help of a life coach, Maureen Letendre of In demand Coaching , and  acupuncturist Julie Dalbec of Marlborough Wellness Center, we put together a comprehensive group coaching forum which has been a huge success for everyone involved, including us! And, my special client…she is finding success too.

So… if you are stuck, have gremlins, can’t initiate, life coaching may be for you! If you are local to Metrowest Boston, Massachusetts, you can take advantage of this great group coaching experience. For more information, concat Maureen at www.indemandcoaching.com.

Classes will be held Tuesdays from 5:15-6:30 beginning June 21st and will run through August 16th. There will be no class July 5th,2011. Session is $70 for 7 classes. Drop ins are $13 if class is not full. Please call Kathy at 978-562-0377 or visit the Hatha Yoga Web Page for more information.

Many of my clients  have bought into the stereotype that a good trainer screams and yells and berates their clients…that this somehow will be motivating to them. This is one reason I hate The Biggest Loser, as it reinforces this ridiculous stereotype.  If I spoke to my clients the way Jillian Michael’s speaks to hers, I’d have no clients.  The producers of the show should be ashamed of themselves for the way the trainers act, and the way they portray the contestants on the show. Don’t these people deserve love and compassion?

On several occasions, I have blogged about the fact that many obese men and women are victims of sexual, physical or emotional abuse. Thus, when the trainers on The Biggest Loser  berate their clients, it is merely reinforcing the patterns that they grew up with. The contestants take it, because it is familiar and normal, not because it is right.  Clearly, it is not the way we should treat other human beings.

Last week, I gave a workshop on this exact topic to a group of women attending my lecture series, Today’s Superwoman- What To Do When Your Cape Is At The Cleaners?  Today, I was forwarded an article that appeared in The New York Times on Self Compassion and Eating.  The article quoted a study that showed that women who were told to be easy on themselves, to not feel guilty about eating something, ATE LESS than the women in the study who were not given this message. Truly, the universe is in agreement with the principle of self compassion for success. Perhaps it’s time you adopted this philosophy?

Just after Christmas, I suffered a mild to moderate back injury that really surprised me. ME? A trainer!? Suffer a back injury? I should know better!  That’s what went through my mind when I could not get out of bed the day after I shoveled a foot of snow from a major snowstorm  here in Massachusetts. With self evaluation and a bit of “looking back” I discovered the recipe for my back injury. It’s classic. It’s common.  And, everyone is susceptible!

Start with an extended period of no exercise or little or no physical activity. For me, this came after minor knee surgery. For the two weeks prior to the surgery, and two weeks after, I had only walked for exercise. I had not been able to do my regular strength workouts, and then found excuses to not do my core strengthening. Big mistake!

Add several hours or several days of sitting.   Extended periods of sitting are a big set-up for a back injury. Whether you sit for work every day, or while attending a conference, or just to do work on your computer or watch TV, sitting shuts off core muscles and shortens the hip muscles, putting your back at great risk.  Be very careful after sitting for extended periods of time… this is when you are at most risk!

Bend over without proper posture or lift something heavy without proper lifting technique.  You may have done this a hundred times, but eventually, this will cause injury. If you do this after extended periods of sitting, when some muscles are tight, others weak, your luck may just run out.

Add a Workout without proper warm-up or perform exercises that are risky for the back .  These can include gym exercises like dead lifts, heavy leg press,  rotary torso or other ab machines or , the ultimate strength training exercise, shoveling snow! One big lesson I learned from my injury was to take 5 minutes prior to shoveling to foam roll and warm-up my muscles. Shoveling can be an incredibly exertional exercise. Do not underestimate the stress it can put on the human body, both  to the cardiovascular system as well as the  musculoskeletal system.

Eat a diet rich in inflammatory foods and ignore dehydration.  Most people do not truly understand the role that good nutrition and hydration play in the health of your muscle tissue, tendons and ligaments. I have found a direct correlation between the frequency of injury and severity of injury with the degree of healthy nutrition. Poor eating/poor hydration= more muscular dysfunction, more pain, longer recuperation.

While there are many wonderful recipes that I love to share with my clients, this is not one of them! I learned a huge lesson this winter, and I hope once you read this recipe, you too can begin to recognize the role that  YOU can play in decreasing your risk of injury!

Last week, I was watching video of Malia and her family disembarking from a helicopter at The White House. As Malia was descending the stairs, her left knee caved in on each stair. This is called “medial deviation” and is a sure sign that Malia’s knees are not “prime time” ready.

As a strength and conditioning coach, and a high school sports coach, I see knees like this every day. Knees that cave in when athletes are jumping, running, stopping and starting, or even just going down stairs. The “caving in” puts excessive stress on the medial aspect of the knee, and more importantly, is an indicator of a risk for serious knee injury. Knee pain and injuries are an epidemic in adolescent girls. Women are 2-5 times more likely to have a knee injury, and often it is an ACL tear, a serious injury usually necessitating surgery. The reason for the heightened risk in women and young girls is not totally clear. Some researchers believe it is genetic and structural, others believe that hormones may play a role in the loosening of the knee joint. But, two things are clear from my viewpoint: young women are weaker and less conditioned than most young men their age, and young girls are playing too much of the same sport without cross training or proper conditoning.

As a coach and a trainer and a Mom, my first goal is to empower young ladies to become stronger and more aware of their physical fitness. However, parents need to be at the front line when it comes to watching out for their daughters. Yes, I know, your daughter is the best (fill in the blank)_____ player in your town and is SURE to get a college scholarship, right? Not if she injures herself first! Parents-Do NOT allow your daughter to play one sport, year after year. Soccer comes to mind here. The girls in my town play soccer all year round. Soccer creates significant muscle imbalances in the legs and hips, UNLESS these ladies get proper conditioning and a good physical assessment to determine weak areas of the body.

The key to decreasing injury risk is to get your athletes stronger. Strengthen the glutes, the hip muscles, the anterior core. Stretch tight areas post exercise, and always warm up properly before practice or games. Contact a certified trainer or strength coach to assess your athletes biomechanics. DON’T rely on your doctor or even your local orthopedist for the best answers either. I have found, overwhelmingly, that most MD’s just do not understand biomechanics, and they all recommend the same thing: strenghthen the quadriceps. This is poor advice, and for some girls, could actually increase the risk of knee injury even further.