Well , stay tuned and I will be updating my blog more frequently! If you are interested in personal training sessions please contact me and we can set a time and date to get started!

Laila

AFAA Personal Trainer

I was introduced to AdvoCare by Monica Vera, the Boss, and belive me, I have ALWAYS struggled with my weight, ever since I remember my mom had always limited my bread intake and my chocolate intake… my favorites!… I have tried every product, pill, excersice…that you can think of, Alli, Phentermine, Slim Quick, Atkins diet, South Beach Diet, Herbalife, Isagenix… WOW! There are sooo many things I’ve tried! at least to maintain my weight, but as always, I am never satisfied and I wanted to really look slimmer but by dieting all I did was lower ,y calorie intake and carb and that would make me feel like I had no energy so I know there had to be something I was doing wrong… As most of you know I am in the health and fitness business and I decided to educate myself more so now being a Personal Trainer and still educating myself, I have learned to make the right combinations on my meals, but it just takes a while to get where you want…So, I started with the 24 day challenge giving one more product a chance, being skeptical about it like the others I’ve tried, but I was wrong! This has been the ONLY products that have actually helped me! I have been loosing weight plus I don’t feel lethargic any more! It gives me energy without the crash, they have products that help me with appetite control, give me energy, maintain muscle mass, and recover after a work out… AND… not only that but I decided to become a distributor to get a discount not even considering selling them, but people started asking me what I’ve been doing and now it has also become an income for me and my family while I share and help people be healthy! I am so blessed to have been introduced to AdvoCare! for the support I’ve had from my mentor Laurie Crites! So if you are ready to change YOUR life either by starting a weight loss plan or ready to build your own business, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!???

Call me for the opportunity you have been waiting for… Dont say I didn’t tell you….A year from today if you don’t do anything about it, don’t look back and say OH!!! Laila told me about that and I didn’t listen!

Laila

www.advocare.com/110112991

#7: WORST WATER
Vitaminwater Multi-V (1 bottle, 20 oz)
125 calories
0 g fat
33 g sugars

As long as companies continue to sell multivitamin pills and your sink’s faucet keeps spitting out tap water, you have no excuse to ever uncap one of these faux health drinks. This bottle has more sugar than a Snickers bar!

#6: WORST SODA
Sunkist (1 can, 12 oz)
190 calories
0 g fat
50 g sugars

Soda is one of the more condemnable sources of calories in the American diet. It doesn’t even bother with the pretense of nutrition—it’s puresugar, plain and simple. But among the throngs of terrible sodas, Sunkist is the worst!

#5: WORST BOTTLED TEA
SoBe Energize Green Tea (1 bottle, 20 oz)
240 calories
0 g fat
61 g sugars

Leave it to an “edgy” American beverage company to corrupt green tea, a natural wonder of the nutritional world. SoBe’s product is merely a saccharine simulation of green tea, with “natural flavor” preceding “green tea extract” on the nutrition label. Gulp down one of these bottles and you’ve taken in the sugar equivalent of seven Popsicles. DON’T BE FOOLED! These misleading nutrition claims will add inches to your waistline.

#4: WORST LEMONADE
Orange Julius Lemon Julius (medium, 20 oz)
360 calories
0 g fat
94 g sugars

If you were drinking straight lemon juice, you could tip back 15 cups, or 120 fluid ounces, and still not reach the sugar impact of this icy, lemon-esque beverage from Orange Julius.

#3: WORST FROZEN COFFEE DRINK
Dairy Queen Caramel MooLatte (medium, 16 oz)
660 calories
19 g fat (15 g saturated, 0.5 g trans)
90 g sugars

How is it that such a simple, healthy beverage like coffee can be so mistreated by fast-food purveyors? Dairy Queen’s MooLattes, for example, are essentially fat-bloated milkshakes with a little coffee blended in, and the caramel version has nearly as many calories as five White Castle sliders.

#2: WORST SMOOTHIE
Smoothie King The Activator Strawberry (32 oz)
834 calories
1.5 g fat (0 g saturated)
134 g sugars

Judging solely by name, you’d think this beverage were some sort of metabolism-boosting superfruit, but in reality it’s a hyper-sweetened smoothie filled out with 550 calories of pure sugar. In Smoothie King’s defense, it also delivers nearly 30 grams of protein, but that’s not nearly enough to justify the caloric impact. Unless you you’re a body builder looking to maximize your caloric intake, leave this blended beverage behind the counter where it belongs.

#1: WORST MILKSHAKE
Cold Stone Creamery Oh Fudge! Shake (Like It size, 16 oz)
1,250 calories
70 g fat (45 g saturated)
127 g sugars

At Cold Stone, “Like It” is the small size. If you upgrade to “Gotta Have It,” which denotes a large, you’re facing 1,920 calories—nearly a full day’s energy in one cup. The truth is, milkshakes represent some of the most concentrated calories that will ever cross your lips, so when you find a good one, you should take notice.

DID YOU KNOW? The average American consumes 450 liquid calories every day, and sugar-laden  summer drinks are some of the worst offenders.

WHAT I RECOMMEND TO DRINK:

AdvoCare SPARK

KEY BENEFITS:

• Enhances mental energy and      focus*
• Provides support for      long-lasting energy*
• Helps fight occasional      drowsiness*
• 21 vitamins, minerals and      nutrients
• Sugar-free and only 45 calories
• Helps reduce free radicals*

THINK BEFORE YOU DRINK!!!

Laila

To order AdvoCare products go to:

www.advocare.com/110112991

Everything is quite the same… I still teach Zumba at Studio VIDA! It is my second home. I love everything about it! Our team, the people that give me a smile every morning and the ones that dont, the NEW studio, just everything! I love what I do, I want to help people accomplish their goals… Not only look good but be healthy… I am educating myself as often as possible to become a great trainer and continue helping people. To me 1 person being happy makes me feel like I have started to change the world, we all have the power in different ways… I want to be better and to inspire others…

So I hope you find my blog useful!!!

Laila

Get Excited for National Dance Day and Basics Workshop!! 

So You Think You Can Dance executive producer and judge Nigel Lythgoe would like to declare July 31, NATIONAL DANCE DAY.   

BASIC STEPS WORKSHOP

The National Latino Family Expo is the largest Hispanic consumer show in the country. It is free and open to the general public.  The Expo will be held at the Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday and Sunday, July 10-11 from 10:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Monday, July 12 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  The expo hall will be divided into seven different pavilions, allowing participants to experience a variety of activities.  Additionally, Monday will highlight services and activities geared toward the San Antonio senior population.

Click on the following link for more information

http://www.nclr.org/section/events/conference/2010_national_latino_family_expo

Emotional eating often leads to eating too much, especially high-calorie, sweet, salty and fatty foods. Women are especially prone to emotional eating — and then feel guiltier and less healthy than men do after snacking on “forbidden” foods.

The connection between stress and eating likely has roots in brain chemistry. Faced with a real threat, the fight-or-flight reaction kicks in and suppresses appetite temporarily. But when faced with persistent stress — health problems, difficult relationships or too much work — many people turn to high-fat, high-calorie foods for comfort. Using food as a coping strategy doesn’t alleviate stress and will likely cause weight gain.

• Learn to recognize true hunger: A craving for sweets soon after a meal is likely an emotional hunger, not real hunger.
• Look elsewhere for comfort: Instead of grabbing unhealthy food, try exercising.
• Identify the food triggers: Keeping a journal can help identify patterns in emotional eating, including emotions and feelings when eating; what and how much was eaten; and feelings after eating.
• Manage stress in a healthy way: Many people over eat and reach for bad foods when they are stressed. Lower stress with healthful stress busting strategies, like exercise.
• Eat a balanced diet and healthy snacks: Between meals, opt for low-fat, low-calorie snacks such as fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, and unbuttered popcorn.
• Toss out the unhealthy foods: Avoid stocking the shelves and refrigerator with high-calorie unhealthy comfort foods. practice healthy eating by reaching for healthy comfort foods like fresh vegetables, low fat protein foods or fresh fruit.
• Practice mindful eating: This means become aware of what you are eating. Avoid mindless eating like eating while watching TV or studying. Mindfulness eating leads to over eating, over indulging and eating bad food. When applying mindfulness to eating studies have shown that people eat less food and as a result gain less weight.

Laila

Have you noticed that you seem to put on more weight when you are stressed out than when you are happy, content and peaceful?

There is a scientific reason who stress causes weight gain. The main reason you put on more weight when you are under a lot of stress is due to a hormone in your body called cortisol.

While cortisol is an important and helpful part of the body’s response to immediate stress, helping the body’s relaxation response to be activated so the body’s functions can return to normal following a stressful event, it can also cause undesirable results when the body is exposed to prolonged stress.

During chronic stress prolonged levels of cortisol in the bloodstream have been shown to have negative effects, such as:  suppressed thyroid function, blood sugar imbalances such as hyperglycemia, higher blood pressure, increased abdominal fat, higher levels of “bad” cholesterol (LDL) , lower levels of “good” cholesterol (HDL), weakens your immune system and several other undesirable health consequences. The prolonged levels of cortisol also causes changes in your metabolism which derails any serious weight loss attempt.

Stress can affect your weight in several ways:

Slower Metabolism – Chronic stress causes elevated levels of cortisol. Prolonged elevated levels of cortisol can slow your thyroid leading to a slower metabolism. A slower metabolism will lead to weight gain, and fat storage.

Increased Fat Storage – Fat storage is related to your metabolism. Prolonged levels of high cortisol slows the metabolism and can lead to increased abdominal fat. Increased abdominal fat.increases your risk for heart disease, type II diabetesand several other serious diseases and conditions.

Food Cravings – Stress, and anxiety causes many people to overeat, and reach for simple carbohydrates like sugary foods. These sugary foods cause elevated insulin levels, which will stop fat burning.

Emotional Eating – People under stress often reach for comfort foods. Comforts food are typically fat laden and sugar laden; both not conducive for weight loss. The act of binging on comfort foods is called emotional eating. Try these tips to stop emotional eating.

This is what you can do About Stress

There are many things you can do to reduce stress in your life, thereby reducing cortisol levels, and getting your weight back on track.  You can exercise, meditate, or just take some personal time to do something that you enjoy.  By reducing stress, you can reduce chronic elevated cortisol levels, and get your weight loss program back on track.

Laila

Love chocolate? Celebrate Valentines Day with these guilt free, chocolaty dessert recipes, guaranteed to satisfy your craving.

I found a few recipes for that special Day!

 Plain Ol’ Dark Chocolate
Let’s start with what we’re all really craving: A hunk of plain chocolate. Diet disaster, right? Wrong. A one-ounce piece of dark chocolate amounts to only 151 calories, and its positive attributes don’t stop there.

The flavonoids in chocolate are heart healthy, can lower cholesterol, and can even help prevent certain cancers, such as skin cancer. Dark chocolate is by far the healthiest option, as it contains less sugar and more antioxidants than milk chocolate or white chocolate. Stick to a small one-ounce serving when you really need it, and you can satisfy your next craving guilt-free.

Dark Chocolate-Covered Graham Crackers

Ingredients

• 4 small graham-cracker rectangles
• 2 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips

 Directions
Microwave chocolate chips for 30 seconds, until just melted.
Spread graham crackers with chocolate and let sit for 10 minutes, until chocolate has hardened.

Chocolate Soy “Egg” Cream

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons plain low-fat soy milk
• 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
• 1 1/4 cups seltzer water
• 1 pretzel rod (optional)

Directions
In a tall glass, stir together the soy milk and chocolate sauce. Top with the seltzer; stir. Serve with a pretzel if desired.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups canola oil
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, beat together oil, sugars, and vanilla until creamy. Beat in eggs. Gradually add flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Roll into small balls; flatten slightly onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9 to 11 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.

Big Fudgy Bittersweet Brownies

Ingredients
1 large egg
1 egg white
3 tablespoons plain nonfat yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 ounces high-quality unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup buckwheat or presifted whole wheat flour

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly coat an 8-inch-square nonstick baking pan with cooking spray. In a small bowl, whisk together egg, egg white, yogurt, and vanilla extract; set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine sugar, oil, salt, and 3 tablespoons water, stirring constantly for 3 minutes on medium-high heat. Remove from heat; stir in cocoa and chocolate until chocolate melts, then add egg mixture. Add all flour, stirring until batter is smooth.

Pour batter into baking pan. Bake 25 minutes, or until top is firm. Cool completely in pan on rack. Cut into squares.

Chocolate-Covered Soy Nuts

A handful of these babies (about 1/4 of a cup) will set you back just 140 calories — and it packs in 5g of protein!

Banana with Dark Chocolate-Honey Sauce

Ingredients
2 tablespoons bittersweet chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon unsalted butter
Small pinch of salt
1 small banana, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 teaspoon chopped toasted walnuts

Directions
In a double boiler or microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate with the honey, butter, and salt, stirring frequently. Serve the chocolate sauce and walnuts in bowls for dipping, accompanied by the banana chunks.

Dark Chocolate Pistachio Apricots

Ingredients
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
24 dried apricots
4 tablespoons chopped pistachios

Directions
Melt chocolate chips. Dip half of each apricot in chocolate. Place on waxed paper. Sprinkle with pistachios. Let chocolate set in fridge.

Chocolate Pudding with Graham Cracker Pieces

This super-easy snack/dessert clocks in at just 150 calories, satisfying your sweet tooth without breaking the calorie bank.

Ingredients
1 low-fat chocolate pudding cup
1 graham cracker square

Directions
Crush graham cracker square and sprinkle over chocolate pudding.

 Enjoy!

Laila

Yes! Why is it so expensive to be healthy?!

It makes me so mad that at a point we don’t have an option! Who can afford to eat fish twice a week? And we wonder why there is such a high rate of obesity in Texas…More than 60% of Texas is overweight or obese.  A while back the American Obesity association declared San Antonio, Texas, the fattest city in the United States! 31% of its residents are obese and 65% are overweight, 32% of the children are obese!! NOW we can honor that famous saying “Everything is bigger in Texas” …ugh! How embarrassing!

Now let’s go back to eating healthy and eating habits… While I was shopping, I was behind a woman that had her cart full with junk food, and I couldn’t resist myself and asked her if she was having a party…Amazingly she answered that it was just part of her weekly grocery shopping…what?! She had 3 bags of Doritos, packaged food etc… then she added that she had 3 kids that were always hungry… In my mind I was: Why would someone go spend their money on packaged food?  Don’t they know what a waste of money it is to buy junk food? So, I was kind of waiting for her to go to the checkout counter, and I was behind her, I just wanted to know how much money it would cost to buy all she had in her cart…So finnaly we are there… her car is all the way to the top! Sodas, chips, packaged food etc… My cart is half of what she had, bottled water, chicken breast, fresh fruits and vegetables… $155 dlls was her total…Mine $140 dlls. What?! I thought: ““wow!!! It’s real expensive to eat healthy” How could that be!? Her cart was full! Mine was half way!

As a rule, processed foods are more “energy dense” than fresh foods: they contain less water and fiber but more added fat and sugar, which makes them both less filling and more fattening. These particular calories also happen to be the least healthful ones in the marketplace, which is why we call the foods that contain them “junk.” Drewnowski concluded that the rules of the food game in America are organized in such a way that if you are eating on a budget, the most rational economic strategy is to eat badly — and get fat.

It is expensive to eat well, even if you are only buying raw veggies. The truth is that populations that live on junk food, are getting more calories per dollar than the rest of us. It’s economically efficient, if tragically perverse.

The reason has to do with the Farm Bill, which heavily subsidizes soybeans, corn, and wheat – three major ingredients, or sources, of many of the ingredients in junk food. The result?

The real price of fruits and vegetables between 1985 and 2000 increased by nearly 40 percent while the real price of soft drinks (aka liquid corn) declined by 23 percent. The reason the least healthful calories in the supermarket are the cheapest is that those are the ones the farm bill encourages farmers to grow. A 24 pack of sodas was $5.00 a 24 pack of Nestle water was $4.99. Now here comes the hard part…making a good choice.

So even foods that are more processed, that require more labor to produce, cost less. Let me explain the origins of the Farm Bill and the effect it is having on our population.

The farm bill helps determine what sort of food your children will have for lunch in school tomorrow. The school-lunch program began at a time when the public-health problem of America’s children was undernourishment, so feeding surplus agricultural commodities to kids seemed like a win-win strategy. Today the problem is overnutrition, but a school lunch lady trying to prepare healthful fresh food is apt to get dinged by U.S.D.A. inspectors for failing to serve enough calories; if she dishes up a lunch that includes chicken nuggets and Tater Tots, however, the inspector smiles and the reimbursements flow. The farm bill essentially treats our children as a human Disposall for all the unhealthful calories that the farm bill has encouraged American farmers to overproduce. This still makes me so mad…

So, now I realize why I paid $140 dlls for my groceries…

Now lets continue talking about being healthy, and now talk about excercise… I’ve been involved in sports my entire life. It is my stress reliever, my therapy, my passion… I try to get my entire family involved… but that is also a big expense…

Having two daughters does not get easy( you know how girls are! Ha! )If one is doing an activity, the other has to be doing it too… So,you have to work a second job literally to afford any kind of sport for your kids…

Their first activity was when they were 4 and 6 years old, they were both in a dance studio where they offered a combo for beginners of ballet, tap and jazz. They were there for a year and I had a monthly payment of $120 dlls for both…it was all going good until I realized that my daughters had not learned a thing! and when it was recital time…$100 dlls for costumes for each girl, $80 dlls for recital fees per family, oh! and registration again! $60 dlls for each one, which made a total of  $400 dlls huh?! I thought it was a joke, but it wasnt! So I had to pull them out… at 5 and 7 I registered them in gymnastics, I was a gymnast for 12 years and they really enjoyed to watch gymnastics with me, so my monthly payment was $140 dlls for both, they were in gymnastics again for a year until the coach approached me and said it was time for them to move up to team! I was so exited! Even though deep inside me I questioned the coach and wasnt sure if my daughters were ready for that, but, oh well, they will learn as time goes by. My surprise was the first month of them being on the team…I went to make my monthly payment and was told I owed $460 dlls… I was in shock, and asked what had happened with my payment, and they replied that the cost had gone up because they were now in team, plus it had been a year since they registered and I had to pay registration again…$60 registration per family, $180 dlls for my 5-year-old being in the pre-team and $220 dlls for my 7-year-old for being in team… I went to my car and I started crying! Yes, I did… Again I had to pull them from gymnastics… I started researching what else they could do…sadly, every sport or activity is the same way! And we wonder why our kids are obese! We don’t have options! The programs that are out there are so difficult to qualify, almost impossible (of course I didn’t qualify)…I only found one thing they could do…it is the YMCA, they have season sports for kids, soccer, basketball… My daughters decided to play soccer, I still have to pay $73 dlls for each one for a 6 week season…  I really hope this changes… we need more programs for our children, to keep them busy, exercising and off the streets in every side of town not only at specific locations…

So it’s not only the food that is becoming more and more expensive, but everything else that would help each and every one of us living a healthy life!

I try to do my best to help everyone, but sometimes circumstances make it so difficult to succeed…

Start by doing what’s necessary;
then do what’s possible;
and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

Laila