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I was able to pick up this bestseller book on Amazon.  Because this book came out in 2013, I was able to get it used for much cheaper. 

After I read the book, I was convinced to try the diet.  It made sense.  This diet coaxes fat from your body.  If you starve yourself, your body holds on to the fat.  If you exercise too much, your body holds on to the fat.  If you eat chemical laced diet foods, your body holds on to the fat. If you don’t eat enough fat, your body holds on to the fat.  It is not as simple as calories in calories out. 

Weight loss is not as simple as calories in calories out, or work out like crazy and expect to lose weight.  Your body does not work that way.

 

Purchase Book on Amazon

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My husband has been dealing with bad knee issues, so I decided to get one for him for Christmas.  I must say he does use it often during the week.  And his knees are feeling a bit better.

Because I am a fitness nut, I also tried it.  I like it. It does feel good to stand on it.  Not only that, but there are exercises you can do on the Vibration plate.   In just 15 minutes you really do feel like you got a workout.

Below you will find a 15 minute workout I designed on the Vibration Plate.

If you would like to buy a vibration plate Click Here to buy the Waver LifePro on Amazon.

Here are 10 reasons to try a Vibration Plate:

• Improved Muscle Activation: Vibration plates can stimulate multiple muscle groups simultaneously, leading to better muscle engagement and activation during workouts.
• Increased Strength and Power: Regular use of vibration plates has been shown to enhance strength and power, especially when combined with resistance exercises like squats or lunges.
• Enhanced Flexibility and Mobility: The vibrations help loosen tight muscles and increase joint mobility, making stretching more effective.
• Better Circulation: Vibration training can improve blood flow and circulation, which can speed up recovery, reduce muscle soreness, and promote overall health.
• Convenience: Vibration plates are compact and easy to use at home, making them ideal for quick workouts without the need for extensive gym equipment.
• Supports Bone Health: Studies suggest that vibration training may help increase bone density, reducing the risk of osteoporosis, especially in older adults.
• Low-Impact Exercise: For those with joint pain or limited mobility, vibration plates provide a low-impact way to work out without placing stress on the joints.
• Boosted Metabolism: Using a vibration plate can raise your heart rate, helping to burn calories and improve overall metabolic rate.
• Rehabilitation and Recovery: Vibration therapy can be a helpful tool for rehabilitation, as it aids in muscle relaxation and reduces stiffness after injuries or surgeries.
• Time Efficiency: Vibration plates allow you to achieve significant results in a short amount of time, with sessions as brief as 10–15 minutes being effective.

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There are so many stretches to choose from, I tried to narrow down to 10 stretches you need.

1. Neck stretch – neck pain stinks.  It sneaks up on us, one day we go to bed, the next day we wake up and cannot turn our head.  Want to avoid that, stretch your neck every day.  My favorite way is to lean my head to one side and relax my neck.

2. Shoulder stretch – shoulder pain stinks.    We pull something suddenly and then we cannot raise our arms overhead.  To prevent that, keep raising your arms overhead.  Your joints and muscles with atrophy if you don’t use them.  Stop raising your arms, then you will not be able to raise your arms over your head.   Add a bear hug for your back shoulders too.

3. On Back Knee Stretch – on your back hold onto one knee, add a twist.  This will stretch your back, hip, hamstring.  I love stretches that stretch more than one body part.  Everything is so interconnected.

4. Cat/Cow Stretch – on your knees lift your back to an arch, bring your back down.  This will help expand your back.  You can add a leg and opposite arm lift.

5. Sitting Hip Twist – this stretch can help alleviate sciatic nerve.  Twisting is great for your back, hips.

6. Butterfly – sit with legs bent to the side bring knees up and down.  This will help your hips and back.  Try not to hold on to your feet but your ankles instead.

7. Forward Fold – sit with legs forward, lead with your chin and aim your chin to your toes.  Keep your back as straight as possible, you can also do this with a rounded back.  It is actually good to do this  both ways.  It is a good stretch for your back and hips.  This can also be done standing.

8. On Back Hamstring Stretch – One leg at a time on your back, lift up one leg and stretch leg.  If your leg cannot go straight, you can bend your knee.  This is for your hamstrings and back.

9. Child Pose – on your hand and knees, with your knees together or knees apart sit toward your heels with your arms stretched out.   This stretch is not only relaxing, but it stretches your back and hips and shoulders.

10. Feet Up the Wall – this is a very relaxing pose.  On your back put your feet up the wall and just relax.  This is great for your back and hips and hamstrings.   You can relax into this pose for 1-5 minutes.

Below is a video where I do all these stretches and more:

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1. It keeps you from falling.  I know that sounds silly, but falling stinks.  If you have a solid balance you can prevent yourself from falling and injuring yourself.
2. It builds your core.  One of my favorite sayings is “strong core, strong body”.  When your core is strong, you feels more strong and more stable.
3. You build a mind-body connection.  Most of us walk through life without ever thinking about what our body is doing.  When you have a stronger mind-body connection you are able to prevent injuries since you know your body boundaries.  People that don’t have a strong body connection do tend to fall more and stretch their body past where it can go.
4. You will be a better athlete. All athletes, not just gymnastics or dancers, require balance.  Even if you just golf or pickleball, being able to control your body will help you be a better player.
5. It increases your longevity and independence.  As people get older they stop trying to balance, they feel unstable,  If we practice balance, we will feel more stronger.  Strength = independence = longevity.

Let’s all practice balance.  Here is a YouTube video I recorded in Costa Rica this month.  It is a short 20 minute video on all the components of balance you need: Quads, hamstrings, core, arms. Enjoy!

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Barre is NOT ballet.  Lottie Berk, the founder of barre was a dancer, more contemporary than ballet.  Barre is something dancers, not necessarily ballet dancers, do to strengthen their bodies to dance.  It was initially named barre from Eliszbeth Halfpapp, her and her husband Fred DeVito, started Core Barre Fit. and Exhale studio where I was trained in Barre.  It is called Barre because it uses a bar on the wall.  In an ideal world, we would all be able to use a bar on the wall, but we make do with a chair for most of my classes.

Barre is designed to be done everyday, but once or twice a week would also be perfect.  Here are the benefits to doing barre regulary:

You build Serious Leg Strength. 

In my Barre classes I always do the same sequence of exercises – front of the thigh, back of the thigh, side of the thigh, front of the thigh, and hamstrings.  It usually takes about 25-30 minutes.  By the end your legs might be a little shaky, in the beginning you might feel it the next day.  But what makes Barre special, is that you will (or should) always feel the workout.  Sometimes when you do a lot of squats and lunges your body will get used to the movement, you will have to do a lot or add weight to feel your legs.  With barre, you use your inner connected smaller muscles in tandem with the larger muscles.  Your legs build together causing more stability and strength.  Pound for pound,  dancers have much more strength than even body builders.  And I think it is due to working your smaller muscles and working with Strength and Flexibility.

It is Easy on your Joints, but Effective for Your Muscles

Lets face it, as we age who wants to feel joint pain, not I.  I want to instead strengthen my joints and bone density and muscles.  Barre is perfect for that.  When you work one leg, you are working the muscles, and then the leg you are balancing on, you work bone density.  Think about how dancers move, they want to be able to balance and dance on one leg, in order to do this, you need to have strong muscles and strong joints.  This will benefit not just for dancing, but for everyday life living.

Barre Builds Your Core

One of my favorite sayings in class is strong core, strong body.  You truly need a strong core to have a strong body.  Barre can do that.  In the Original Barre Method, taught by Lottie Berk in London, she actually devoted almost half her class to building the core by doing abdominal exercises.  She used a bar to work the abs.  In a perfect world, you would use the bar for abs, but since my classes don’t have one, we make due with an abdominal floor section.  Also by doing the leg portion of the class you do work the core too with balance.

Barre Builds Posture

It is all about the alignment.  I am always telling my classes, ears, shoulders, hips.  Get yourself in alignment to not only do the exercises properly, but to realize and build alignment in your body.  The more you do something, the more you practice, the more you eventually make it apart of your lifestyle.  An aligned body is strong and unshakable, like a straight tree, but an unaligned body can easily fall over, think of a leaning tree in a storm.

Here is my Quick Standing Barre Class you can take on YouTube:

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And then I thought how can I avoid this fate? How can I help the people who come to my classes to avoid this fate? I do realize accidents happen, health issues happen, but for most of us, can we live our life standing until the day we die.

Here are some tips we can incorporate in our lifestyle to stay young:

MOVE – yes move and move often. I would recommend exercising pretty much every day accept one day rest. Find something you enjoy to do: walk, Pilates, Barre, Pickleball, Tennis, Yoga, whatever exercise you enjoy doing, that is what you should do. However, I would recommend weightlifting at least once or twice a week. Lift something heavy, use your legs.  Avoid sitting for long periods of time too.  You don’t have to train for a marathon, but you do have to move and move often.

EAT WELL – Avoid seed oils, sugar, flour.  Eat foods with ingredients you can pronounce.  Eat whole foods often, avoid anything that comes in a box or bag.  Take care of your gut, eat probiotics and prebiotics.  Do you have a big belly?  Try giving up all grains.

SLEEP – why is sleeping so hard? Here are some thing you can try: sleeping in a cool (around 67 degrees if you can),  dark room (use sun blocking shades or a face mask),  no noise (or wear earplugs), eat at least 3 hours before sleeping, try to avoid alcohol, get off all electronics at least an hour before bed, natural supplements – reishi mushroom, valerian root, lemon balm (but don’t get hooked on melotonin or sleeping pills they could disrupt your hormones).

KEEP HYDRATED – they say to drink half your weight in ounces (if you weigh 150 pounds, drink at least 75 ounces of water). Try not to drink too much caffeine or alcohol, they are diuretics (make you pee).  AND most importantly, avoid all those sugary drinks.  Sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and especially artificial sweetners are so bad for your health.  Sugar makes you hungry, avoid it as much as possible.

BE SOCIAL – lets face it, life is better with others.  We need each other.  Work hard to find and keep friends.  Exercise classes or playing a sport together, like tennis,  are a great way to meet friends.  Churches are also a wonderful way to stay social and feel at peace with your life.

Stay young and healthy friends, age is just a number.

Here is my latest YouTube video – Classical Pilates.  There is magic in the sequencing.

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 So instead of punishing your body remember these points when deciding your fitness regime:

1. Find Joy in Movement
   Every form of movement is an ode to the marvel that is our body. It’s a celebration of its capacity, resilience, and versatility. Find a workout that makes you feel alive, empowered, and, most importantly, good. Whether it’s dancing, yoga, running, or even a brisk walk in the park – it should resonate with you, bringing joy and not dread.
2. Weight Loss: It’s Mostly What You Eat
   Research consistently shows that weight loss is primarily influenced by our dietary choices. The old adage, “you can’t outrun a bad diet,” holds true. While exercise can complement dietary changes by increasing the calorie deficit, the bulk of weight loss efficacy comes from what we put on our plates. Instead of viewing exercise solely as a means to burn off those extra calories, see it as a pathway to nourish and strengthen your body.
3. Realign and Rejuvenate
   Exercise isn’t just about burning calories or building muscles; it’s also about realigning your body. Practices like barre, Essentrics, yoga, pilates, and even strength training can help improve posture, enhance flexibility, and alleviate everyday aches and pains. It’s about rejuvenating from the inside out.
4. The Mind-Body Connection
   The benefits of exercise transcend the physical. Engaging in regular physical activity can boost mood, alleviate symptoms of depression, reduce anxiety, and enhance cognitive function. The rush of endorphins post a good workout session is unparalleled in making one feel optimistic and at peace.
5. Sustaining the Weight Loss Journey
   While diet plays a pivotal role in losing weight, consistent exercise helps maintain that weight loss. It keeps the metabolic rate in check and aids in building lean muscle mass, ensuring that the weight stays off.

In essence, exercise is less about punishment and more about celebration. It’s about cherishing what our bodies can do, pushing our limits not because we detest our bodies but because we appreciate their potential. It’s a love affair between the body and movement, one where both thrive. So, the next time you lace up those trainers, let it be out of love, not remorse.

Try this workout, great for your hips, core and glutes:

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