Here are some tips on how you can be more mindful. Whether it's mindful eating or other mindful aspects of your life such as working out, driving, or interacting with people. So, the number one is meditation. I can't say enough about it. It physically changes your brain. It helps regulate your emotions and your stress. It clears your head. You could think of meditation as an exercise in mindfulness.

So the more that you meditate, the more will help you be more mindful. Breath work and breathing is another great way to be more mindful. So even just counting your breaths, doing box breathing which is breathing in for four, pausing for four and breathing out for four, that could also help with mindfulness and really bringing down your stress levels and raising your awareness.

Then finally when it comes to mindful eating, you want to put your fort down and then count that number of chews. Especially if you're a fast eater and you find that you want to chew what's on your mouth before...

When it comes to eating mindfully, it's really about being self-aware. And so how do you carry that over into other aspects of your life? So in addition to eating mindfully, you'd want to workout mindfully. Maybe when you go outside for a walk, you want to take in the sounds, the smells, the sights. When you're working out, you really want to focus on your workout.

Again, not distracting yourself to ensure that you are focused and you are mindful and you are feeling all the feels right? I think a lot of times, people rush thru things or stay distracted and it's not really beneficial. Whether that's eating, working out, interacting with people, being mindful is so super important. And it's really important to use all of your senses, your sight, sound, smell, all of them. You want to carry that into other aspects of your life. I know, I'm sure you've gone through where you've driven somewhere and you don't even recollect how you got there because your mind just completely zones out....

Why is it important to eat mindfully? Well, there are a number of reasons. Obviously when you eat mindfully, it will help prevent emotional eating or stress eating. If you are mindful about the food that you're preparing and about to put into your body, you really think through. Am I hungry right now? What am I hungry for? When you're emotional or stress eating, think about if you want to have a bowl of broccoli or a bowl of potato chips. Obviously if you're not interested in eating fruits, vegetables, or something healthy, odds are that you're eating out of stress or boredom.

If you're emotional and stress eating, you'd want potato chips or pizza or ice cream or something that's going to be really satisfying and maybe not that healthy. So mindful eating is important to make good choices, right? Understand why you're eating because you should be truly hungry, plus eating slowly and mindfully will also help with your digestion. You're not going to rush through your meal. You're going...

What is mindful eating? Mindful eating is when you really take the time to think about what you're eating. And what does that mean? That means slowly chewing your food, it means really tasting it and using all five senses. So looking at the colors, smelling your food, really tasting it and chewing it slowly. I think that's an important point.

Many people rush through their meals. Maybe you'll have digestion issues, you're feeling bloated. So when you mindfully eat, it's really slowing down the pace of how you eat and being very deliberate. It's also important to not have any distractions. So I know people like to frequently eat in front of the TV, eat while looking on their phone, reading a book. Mindful eating is about really making your meal an experience. So that means putting away all the distractions, sitting down to your meal and really just enjoy the food. That's also going to help you recognize when you're full. So those are just a few ways to incorporate mindful eating...

When it comes to movement, one topic that I feel like isn't frequently covered is something called NEAT, which is Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. NEAT essentially means all the activity that you do throughout the day, separate from your dedicated workout. So if you're weight training, if you have a cardio session - the calories burned during NEAT are completely separate from those workouts.

The beauty of NEAT is that it actually burns a higher percentage of calories than those dedicated workouts. Best of all, it's one of those things that you could just fit in throughout your day. If you're wondering "How do I increase my NEAT?" The easiest way is by walking. You can grab 10 minutes before work, 10 minutes during lunch. It's fitting in little pieces of movement throughout the day. It could be taking an extra walk when you go to get the mail. It could be parking farther away. You always hear "Park further away!" or "Take the steps instead of the elevator". That's how you...

So when it comes to movement and workouts, you really want to prioritize weight training. Weight training is a great way to not only build muscle but it's gonna help with your mobility, it's gonna help prevent injury especially as we get older, we lose muscles as we get older. So you really want to make a focused effort to make sure you get enough protein, that you are lifting weights. If you're unsure where you'll get started, start with body weight workouts. So squats, push ups, pull ups. Those basics will set you up to be able to start getting into more weights using heavier dumbbells. That is really how you "get toned". Its not "getting toned", it's building muscle. And you really need to challenge yourself and lift heavy to do that.

So if those two-pound pink dumbbells don't feel like a challenge and you could quickly do reps, you really want to lift a weight where it is a challenge to get thru ten reps, eight reps because that is really how you build muscles. So I always tell...

This month's theme is all about movement and the first topic I want to cover is cardio I know many people try to kill themselves with cardio in an effort to lose weight. But when it comes to losing weight and making sure that your metabolism is operating at the most optimal rate, it's really important to build muscle. So you want to prioritize weight training, which I'll talk more about in a separate video, but cardio should be used as a tool for weight loss. If your primary goal is heart health or you're marathoner or triathloner, then cardio is going to be your primary workout.

However, if you're just looking to lose weight, build muscle, and get lean (or a lot of people like to call it "get toned"), you really want to use cardio sparingly and for overall heart health. What does that mean? That means using cardio maybe one high intensity workout a week, maybe one steady-state workout. But it's really important to make sure that you rest enough. A lot of people like to focus...

Let's talk about the importance of protein in your overall nutrition. Protein is typically a macronutrient that is not eaten enough by most people. We typically focus on carbohydrates and fats, but protein is super important for a number of reasons.

First, protein helps you to feel full and satiated, so when you focus on having protein at meals and snacks, it will make you feel fuller throughout the day. Protein is also the building block of muscles. If you are trying to build muscle, and muscle at rest burns calories, you want to try to build as much muscle as you can. To do that, you need to prioritize protein.

And then there is also something called TEF - the Thermic Effect of Food. TEF means that certain foods take more calories and energy to break down, and protein is one of those. That's another reason why protein is important for your diet and should be the foundation of your meals and snacks. Make sure you have a good quality serving of protein. It could be 3-4 ounces of...

If your goal is weight loss, let's talk about getting off the diet train and not focusing on quick fixes.

There are so many fad diets out on the market today, from Keto to Whole 30 to a variety of plans where entire food groups are eliminated. The key is to not starve yourself, which negatively impacts your metabolism as you're trying to lose weight. For example, if you're using MyFitnessPal and your goal is weight loss, the app will automatically set your calories to 1,200, which is not enough for the average person. Eating enough is so important! It may sound counter-intuitive, but you actually need to eat enough to lose weight, otherwise your metabolism suffers. That means don't eat until you're overly full. Don't eat until you're still hungry. It's really being intuitive and self-aware of when you eat, how it impacts you, and how it makes you feel. You want to target 80% to 90% full.

I talk a lot about macros -- protein, carbohydrates and fats -- and that's because it's...

Let's talk about "Mindful Eating." What exactly is it? When you eat, do you typically eat and do something else? Maybe you're scrolling through social media on your phone, watching TV, reading a book, or some other form of multi-tasking. Well, here's a tip and some homework to help you be more mindful...

I challenge you to try eating and only focus on eating. That means not doing anything else but focus on your meal. That means really taking the time to taste the food, explore the texture and focus on whether you're actually full or not. When you eat distracted, you often don't realize how much you've eaten or you're not full because you're not consciously aware of how much you've consumed. When you mindfully eat, you really hone in on how the food tastes. Take your time to slowly eat, chew and swallow. Typically, we rush through our meals instead of taking the time to enjoy the experience. My challenge to you is to be mindful when you eat. Try it! You'll be surprised at how...