Don't Maintain This Holiday Season, Improve!

From the Halloween candy, to the Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing, to the Christmas gingerbread and fruitcake, to the champagne on New Year’s Eve, and all of the parties and pumpkin pies in between, now more than ever, we must arm ourselves for battle against this cold-weather-holiday-season onslaught of guerilla tactic assaults aimed at tearing down our best efforts toward clean eating and gym going.

Don’t allow yourself to “just maintain” during the winter months. The idea of being in a “maintenance” stage of training breeds in the mind a feeling of complacency. And complacency is especially dangerous in the cold weather. "Maintenance" will inevitably lead to backsliding. Before you know it, that scale will start creeping up and by the time spring rolls around, getting back on track for the bikini season will be far more difficult than it needs to be.

So instead of just maintaining this winter, improve! No matter what level of fitness you have achieved, there is ALWAYS room for improvement. I suggest setting new goals for yourself during the winter months. These should be qualitative or performance related goals rather than quantitative goals. This could be anything from improving your personal best on how many push-ups you can do in one minute, finally training your lats for that wide-grip pull up, or improving your speed on that 3-mile run. Signing up for a turkey trot is a great way to stay on track as the holiday season reaches its high-point of activity. An added bonus to the turkey trot is that you will usually be helping a good cause, and it is easy to get friends, family and co-workers involved along with you. This gives you the opportunity to infect others with the bug to stay fit and healthy, rather than letting them detract you from staying fit and healthy.

Such performance related goals will help keep you excited about hitting the gym. And as your performance improves, inevitably, so too will your physique. Finally, this year, you won’t have to worry about fitting into that little black dress for New Year’s Eve…maybe you will even have to buy one in a smaller size!


I am challenging all of you who are reading this post, before next Saturday (Halloween), to choose a new performance related goal that you will work toward throughout this holiday season. Send me your goals by commenting back to this post, and that way we can all support each other in our effort to eat clean and hit the gym over the next ten weeks. Personally, I have recently taken up hot-yoga, and will be working on increasing my endurance levels to be able to handle the 75 minute hot-yoga class. Hot yoga, by the way, is a great thing to look forward to as the weather grows increasingly frigid! What are your goals? I can't wait to hear about them!

*Holiday nutrition tip for the week* A tablespoon or two of canned pumpkin makes a great addition to your morning oatmeal. With a little cinnamon and Splenda or brown sugar, you've got a perfect defense against all those tempting pumpkin pastries at the coffee shop! This tip comes from my good friend and client Ellen...thanks Ellen! What a great idea!

Introducing LIVFIT

Who do you want to be? Defining yourself isn't just about sculpting a beautiful body! Life is about creating yourself. It's about the health and vitality of your mind, body, and spirit. With my varied background in counseling, training, fitness, nutrition, and health, I want to help you create the body and the life that inspires you to be your best!

I have been training and coaching people of various fitness levels since 1996. I have a background in both dance and sports, including: ballet, jazz, modern, basketball, track/field, volleyball, and tennis. I currently compete as an NPC Figure and bodybuilding athlete. I specialize in women’s fitness, enhancing athletic performance, and recovery and rehabilitation training. I am an ACE certified personal trainer, and a NESTA certified fitness nutrition coach. Professionally and personally, I know the process of setting a goal and doing what it takes to make that goal, that dream, a reality. That dream comes into being by taking a single step every day until that goal is reached.

Even more important than the destination, is WHAT you do and WHO you become during the journey.

I am LIVFIT and I offer programs and services to help assist you on YOUR journey to LIVE FIT!