Happy Woman
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Do You Choose Hard Now or Hard Later?

Let’s face it, getting and staying fit and healthy is hard work.

There’s all the effort that you have to put out in making wholesome meals.

There’s the will power that you must muster in avoiding unhealthy (TASTY!) foods.

There’s the energy that it takes to get out of bed early to get in a workout before the day begins.

There’s the struggle to lace up your shoes at the end of a long day to head out and be active rather than diving into the comfort of the couch.

To be fit and healthy is to choose to do what’s hard, right now.

Because let’s face it, getting dinner from a drive-thru is easier than making it at home.

And eating whatever looks the most enticing is easier than saying no thank you.

And sleeping in is easier than getting up at the crack of dawn to exercise.

And settling into the couch at the end of your day is easier than moving your body through something active.

We are faced with these decisions all day, every day. And they add up.

DO WHAT’S HARD <== or ==> DO WHAT’S EASY

Here’s the thing, though. It’s not actually a choice between HARD and EASY.

The real choice we are making is between HARD NOW <== or ==> HARD LATER.

Because for every EASY choice that you make today, you are setting yourself up for a HARDER life, down the road.

Make no mistake about it, being unhealthy is hard.

Being out-of-shape and overweight is hard.

Living in a body that is racked with aches and pains is hard.

Not being physically able to do the things you want to do is hard.

So as you go through your day, faced with hundreds of opportunities to do what’s hard or what’s easy, remember this…

Choose to do what’s hard now or be faced with something much harder later.

I’m here to help you transform your body (and your whole life!) through the power of fitness.

Call or email today to get started on a fitness plan that will give you the opportunity to do what’s hard now, to achieve the body that you really want.

TRY A FREE WORKOUT
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scale and tape measure
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Here’s Why You Can’t Lose Weight (3 Bad Habits)

Are you stuck in the frustrating cycle of gaining and losing the same 5 pounds but never reaching your goal weight?

Read on to see if these 3 Bad Habits are holding you back from the body of your dreams…

Bad Habit #1: You’re Eating TOO MUCH (healthy food)

Yes, there is such a thing as TOO MUCH healthy food. Extra calories can come from healthy food just as readily as from unhealthy foods.

Yes, healthier foods are typically lower in calories, so it will take you longer to gain weight by overeating roasted chicken and sweet potato than it would ice cream and chips, but the extra pounds will add up nonetheless.

If you would like to lose weight then it’s very important to control your portions, even of super healthy foods, since ALL foods carry calories, and too many calories will block weight loss.

Bad Habit #2: You’re Dehydrated (not enough water)

If you are like most people then you live in a state of partial dehydration, every day. Being dehydrated is dangerous for all of your major body organs, and it blocks fat loss. Additionally, water is an appetite suppressant that fills your stomach and prevents you from overeating and add to that the fact that thirst is often mistaken for hunger pains, you can see why dehydration leads to frustrating weight gain.

Make it a point to sip (or chug!) water throughout the day and you’ll avoid dehydration, making it easier to drop those unwanted pounds.

Bad Habit #3: You’re Slacking (in the gym)

If you want to lose weight and see a measurable transformation in your body, then going through the motions at the gym simply won’t cut it. Of course, going through the motions with a workout is better than sitting on the couch, it certainly won’t get you the body that you want.

How hard do you exercise on a scale of one to ten? If you know your workouts land below an 8 then seriously consider stepping up the intensity of your next workout in order to really burn that fat away.

I’m here to help you transform your body (and your whole life!) through the power of fitness.

Call or email today to get started on a fitness plan that will help you achieve the body that you really want, and that you truly deserve.

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pasta on a blue background
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Your Fad Diet Nightmare

Have you noticed how people jump on board with a popular fad diet, lose 5, 10 or even 20 pounds…only to gain it all back and then some. Why does this happen? It’s actually a simple concept, and once you understand it you will be forever saved from the tortures of yo-yo dieting.

Fad diets saddle you with unsustainable calorie restrictions and some even cut out entire food groups just to produce that short-lived drop in weight—a process that is actually harmful to your long term metabolism. The fad diets also ignore one major component in shaping up: exercise.

You see, most fad diets operate on one age-old premise: cut calories, cut calories, cut calories. By restricting the type and amount of food consumed the fad dieter usually sees an immediate drop in weight. If only it stopped there…

But it doesn’t stop there. Life continues, and the fad dieter returns to their pre-diet eating habits—with one major difference in their body due to the sudden drop in pounds. Their calorie requirements have gotten smaller.

In practical terms, this means that the dieter will begin gaining weight even though they are eating their normal pre-diet portions. And since exercise hasn’t become a part of their routine, the unneeded calories will result in pounds gained. So what’s a dieter to do? Find a brand new diet to follow—right? Wrong.

There is a way to drop pounds and firm your body, but you won’t read about it in the next diet book or hear it on the news. The solution to your fad dieting nightmare is a lifestyle change.

What is lifestyle change? To change your lifestyle means to replace unhealthy habits with healthy ones, and to do so consistently. It isn’t something you do for a week or two, only to revert back your old ways—a lifestyle change redefines who you are.

I know this is starting to sound like some heavy stuff, but hear me out. Changing your lifestyle from one that is unhealthy to one that is healthy will be the best thing that you ever do for yourself. Trust me, I help people like you make this change every day with amazing results.

Fact: The shape of your body is the direct result of your current lifestyle.

So how do I change my lifestyle? That is a great question, and the answer is actually easier than you might think.

Most people who are unhappy with their bodies are really only holding on to a few bad habits. Once these destructive habits are identified and then replaced with healthy habits their body naturally transforms from one that they loathe to one that they are proud of.

In other words, to get the body that you want simply determine your unhealthy habits and replace them with healthy ones. Here are the most prevalent unhealthy habits:

The habit of inactivity. Failing to exercise on a consistent basis is one of the most destructive obstacles for your health and figure. (The keyword here is consistent. If you aren’t exercising at least 3-4 times each week then you own this habit.)

The habit of overeating. Consuming calories in excess of your daily caloric needs are one of the main reasons that more adults are overweight today than ever before.

The habit of empty calories. Filling your diet with foods that hold little to no nutritional value is a great way to expand your waist. (Hint: if a food item is made up of mainly sugar and/or fat consider it ‘empty’ calories.)

You can lose weight and improve both your appearance and your health.
You can look and feel great.
You can transform yourself into the person that you’ve always wanted to be.

Don’t let another day go by that leaves you a slave to unhealthy habits. Take action now. Call or email me today and together we will recreate your lifestyle and redefine your body.

By the way, I should mention another deadly habit that destroys too many people’s dreams. The habit of procrastination.

How many times have you told yourself that you will start eating healthy tomorrow? How many times have you promised that you would call me to start your personal training program? Each day that you succumb to the habit of procrastination is a day that pulls you farther and farther from your goals.

Break that nasty habit of procrastination — contact me today.

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Ingredients for breakfast brownies

Brownies for Breakfast? Sure!

Ingredients for breakfast brownies

Everyone loves brownies, don’t they? Personally, I can’t remember the last time I indulged in those little squares of chocolate sweetness! Too many calories and I just can’t do it. But this morning, I made up a little chocolate pancake that reminded me so much of brownies that I had to share it!

It’s tough when you are watching your weight – sometimes it feels like you can’t eat anything “fun”, but I assure you, you can! You just need to find more creative ways and substitutes to satisfy your sweet tooth (or chocolate cravings) with better choices. So, let’s try this!

1/2 C Kodiak Dark Chocolate pancake mix
1 heaping scoop of chocolate Parillo protein powder
2 egg whites
water to desired consistency, that’s it!

Stir it up, spray a pan with oil, and cook just like a pancake.

Try it this week and let us know what you think.

For me, they satisfy the top three requirements of a breakfast:
1. Balanced (protein and carbs)
2. Yummy
3. Quick and easy.

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cucumber-mint-mocktail
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April Was Amazing

Congratulations to everyone who completed the “Alcohol-Free April” Challenge, it was a great success. And for those of you who didn’t stick with it, just TRY AGAIN. Even if you were only 80% successful, it’s still 80%. Isn’t that better than nothing?

Many people fall prey to “all or nothing” thinking, and unfortunately, that just leads to a lot of starts and stops, and a lot of inconsistent progress. They believe that they have to fix everything, like give up carbs, alcohol, sugar of any kind, and workout 7 days a week to reach their goal.

How long do you think will that last? Generally not very long. Then, as a result, the individual feels like a failure again, and their confidence drops even further. There’s nothing wrong with setting high goals and expectations, but a realistic plan of 1% better every day will get you there faster than a cold turkey kind of approach. Think of the tortoise and the hare – this is a marathon not a sprint.

Slow, steady, and consistent wins the race, every time. So if you’d like to try giving up alcohol for another month, join us again in May, or better yet, start today!

Here’s to a great May!

This is what we have planned:
Mock-tails in May – more alcohol-free recipes are coming! If you want to limit/ avoid alcohol, then you need some alternatives- these should taste great and satisfy!

Trainer’s Training continues through May– our 6 interns are killing it! If you know someone who loves fitness and wants to positively influence others in health and fitness- please recommend this internship!

Essential Oils classes – Mother’s Day is a perfect time to share these beautiful oils with your mom…. bring her to one of our classes this month!

Finally, our new book for May will be revealed next month- check out our Facebook Page for more details!

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EF Weekend in Palm Desert

Fitness Weekend in Palm Desert Recap

Thanks to all who were able to attend the “Fitness Weekend” in Palm Desert!

Our next “mini Retreat” is scheduled for Aug 23rd at Essential Fitness (all day) and will include:
A cardio workout
Weightlifting
Nutrition workshop
Stretch
Lunch
Dinner
& EPIC goals!

EF current clients: $149.00, non members $200.00.

Read below for a rundown of the amazing weekend in Indian Wells (and save the date for next year – February 20-22, 2020)

Essential Fitness hosted it’s inaugural “Essential Fitness Weekend” at the 4 star Indian Wells Renaissance Resort in Palm Desert on Feb 22-24th!

The weekend exceeded everyone’s expectations due to the amazing beauty of the surroundings and the wonderful women that attended. I think that the women all formed a very close and special bond during this amazing three days because they were all there with the goal of transforming their lives, and as a result, they built a unique and supportive atmosphere to encourage one another to do just that!

The women were treated to exquisite meals made by the resort chefs and designed by the trainers to be clean, satisfying and well balanced. Some of the highlights included house-made protein smoothies, date bars, and whole wheat pancakes! In addition, we had two “menu review” sessions, where we carefully analyzed our dinner restaurant menus and learned how to “eat like the trainers eat” – so that they could eat well, feel great, and keep losing weight – even when eating out!

The “workshop portions’ included 3 nutrition workshops, with topics such as “What To Eat And When”, “The Science Behind Why It’s So Easy To Overeat Junk Food”, and finally, a very poignant and heartfelt talk on Identity and self-love.

The retreatants were challenged with multiple workouts, including a cardio class, multiple weightlifting sessions, pool time and a 3-mile uphill hike. It was spectacular!

Finally, we celebrated with a movie night and major goal setting! These women are perfectly poised to have an amazing year filled with new friends, improved mindset, better skills, and LARGE, CHALLENGING goals that we know they will reach!

All have committed to attend next year Feb. 21-23 2020, and we can’t wait!

Want more information? Email

Ma*****@yo******************.com











 for more details and we hope to see you next year!

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Women doing yoga

Hesitation

Hesitation is one of our greatest obstacles as fitness coaches. Many people who have health and fitness goals let hesitation get the better of them for years and decades before doing anything about it. I find that this is one of the greatest roadblocks we face when trying to help a potential client change his or her life. The fact is, many potential clients have often been putting off making a change for a very long time, and as Mel Robbins (author of “The 5 Second Rule”) is so adept at explaining, any hesitation is long enough for our brains to kick in and actually MAGNIFY the potential risks of making a change.

This is because our brains are wired to prevent us from doing uncomfortable and challenging things. And when you hesitate, your brain will actually start working against you – helping you to imagine greater potential loss, magnifying the difficulty of changing your life, and remembering the fear of failing again. Very often, in the end, these habits of hesitation essentially kill the excitement to change, to grow, and to reach your goals.

Just think about it, your day is made up of thousands of decisions, and so often, you make those decisions based on how you feel at that moment. You might have had big plans to work out at lunch and then eat a salad, but the morning was tough, so instead, you skipped the workout and went out for a burger with friends.

It’s true that if you delay long enough, you can always put off doing difficult things. Difficult things like working out and sweating, running 3 miles, and saying no to dessert…. these can feel like hard things, but it seems like the longer you think about it, the harder they seem to become.

You rationalize to yourself saying… I’ll do it later, I’ll start tomorrow, it doesn’t matter. But we are here to remind you that it does matter! If you do truly want to change your life, lose weight, and take control of your health, STOP HESITATING. Stop overthinking the potential difficulty and start moving!

I highly recommend Mel’s book if you are struggling with this, and as a result, you are watching the months and years go by without taking charge of your fitness. If you want something more for yourself, find a place to help you reach your goals and jump in! Fully commit to yourself and your health and don’t hesitate – you will never regret starting TODAY.

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Essential Fitness Planl
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Essential Fitness Trainer’s Training

Hello –

Maureen from Essential Fitness here! I wanted to share the details about our newest and most exciting program- “Trainer’s Training.”

Do you love fitness?
Do you love helping others?

Then this program may be for you!

This internship is designed to teach you all of the information you need to help inspire and motivate others to live a healthier lifestyle!

This program has been a passion of mine for over two decades and I cannot wait to share the opportunity to help like-minded women empower other like-minded women to be their best!

In fact, Essential Fitness was born from the idea of helping women achieve anything they want to achieve!

So, please read the details below, and don’t hesitate to get back to me with any questions you may have.

In the words of Jen Sincero “Stop doubting your greatness and start living an awesome life.”

Trainers Training Information
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One Arm Row
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1% Better Every Day

1% Better every day by Trainer Cynthia Carlson

Habits are the compound interest of self-development.

The same way money multiplies through compound interest, so too do your habits multiply as you repeat them. It doesn’t appear to make a difference on any given day, yet the impact they deliver over the course of months and years can be enormous. It’s only when looking back two, five or ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes extremely obvious.

That is hard to appreciate as we make our way through our daily life. We overlook the small changes because they don’t seem to matter very much at the moment. Save some money today, you are not a millionaire tomorrow. You go to the gym 3 days this week, you are still overweight, feeling out of shape.

The same with bad habits, the slow pace of the consequences of these choices make it easy to let this behavior slide. I just ate one cookie, I can put off that project until tomorrow when I have more time to finish it, I can skip my workout it’s only one. A single bad decision is easy to dismiss.

When you make small beneficial changes and engage in positive habits to become 1% better every day, in one year you will be 37% better overall. On the flip side, repeated errors every day through poor decisions, tiny mistakes and rationalizing little excuses, combine to lead to a 1% decline day after day.

These 2 paths will lead to very different destinations. With good habits repeated over time, your destination will be toward success. Poor habits will lead to one of failure and hardship over time.

We should be far more concerned with the direction of our lives than with your current results. Results are important. But day to day, it’s the habits we employ that will predict our future.

Good habits make time your friend. Bad habits make time your enemy.

You get what you repeat.

Make it a great day!
Registration is still open for our amazing Wellness weekend in Palm Springs but there are only a few spots left! Call Maureen today to find out more! 949-264-6767

TRY A FREE WORKOUT
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Essential Fitness Planl
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Don’t Look For A Quick Solution To A Lifelong Problem

It’s that time of year again! People are searching for the next best thing to change their lives and help them get fit!

The problem is- they are often looking for a quick solution- such as a 6-week program, a 30 day cleanse, or a 12-week transformation to get them to their goals once and for all.

Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work that way.

It’s actually not the workout programs that are the issue, but it’s the TIMELINE that is the problem – the mindset of short-term thinking that becomes the real handicap to long-term results.

Let’s think about it…if you want to achieve weight loss and fitness, you know this is a lifelong endeavor, not a 6-week challenge or a 30-day diet. And in that case, if you are looking for a short-term commitment, you are ultimately going to fail long term. To truly become the person you want to be and have the body you want to have, you need to COMMIT to a LIFETIME of changes to your eating habits, your daily routine, and consistent workouts.

Does this mean you have to go out and buy a lifetime membership at a gym? No, but let’s start with a year. Yes, 1 whole year.

Because if you’re honest with yourself about what it’s going to take, you know that 6 or 12 weeks isn’t going to do it. In fact, if you only want to commit to 6 or 12 weeks, then my advice is don’t waste your time because you’re not ready to do the real work that it will take to transform your body. Sound harsh? Perhaps, but some truth and honesty are what you need when you really really want to lose weight, get fit and change your life! You don’t need another quick fix, a no carb diet or some hardcore boot camp to whip you into shape. Ultimately, all that is just going to get you is- rebound sugar cravings and probably a back injury.

So this year 2019, please consider doing something different than what you’ve done in the past. Work on the mentality of a new life, one with daily workouts and lots of vegetables and salads. Make huge weight loss and fitness goals, and then make a reasonable plan to reach them. Keep in mind that this is a marathon, not a sprint, and slow and steady will absolutely win the race! This is about changing your eating habits and scheduling workouts all the time, and it’s not easy to change a lifestyle- it takes hard work over an extended period to really get there.

But here’s the good part:
You CAN do it.
It can be FUN!
There are people who will hold you accountable and make sure you are doing things right.
And finally, it is WORTH IT.

Start today, and make a plan for the whole month of what you can do to move forward. and then do it next month and the next.

Make this your best year yet!

Come see us at Essential Fitness for your health and nutritional needs! Here are a couple of our upcoming events!

Our next workshop is Saturday, Jan. 12th– from 9:00-10:30 at Essential Fitness. We will do a group workout, then discuss goal setting, building resolve, commitment, and distribute new BINDER material, followed by a member coffee social hour from 10-10:30 am. Free to members, non-members $35.00. Please call the front desk to register- 949.264.6767

“Wellness Weekend” Friday, February 22-24, 2019 in Palm Desert. Join us for an amazing transformation weekend designed to challenge and inspire you to reach new heights in 2019! This will be a weekend of signature E.F. Personal Training workouts, workshops on mindset, goal setting, and nutrition, plus the building of lifelong friendships and community that will support you all year long!

TRY A FREE WORKOUT
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