I had a chance this week to speak with celebrity trainer and nutrition coach Nadeen Boman (you know her from Slice's "Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp" and "Bulging Brides").
Before our chat, I surveyed my readers for the biggest excuses as to why they don't exercise enough or eat properly. I shared these with Nadeen so she could offer her words of wisdom to kick all of you (us!) into gear. I'll warn you in advance: she's tough!
This Mom: The first excuse has to do with not having enough time for nutrition: being too rushed to make healthy lunches in the mornings, no time to make several trips to the grocery store for fresh produce, or to wash, peel, chop the healthy things that we should be eating. Any tips there?
Nadeen Boman: We don't have time if we don't plan for things, so if you can choose one day a week where you buy all your groceries, and then you come home and prepare them and get everything ready for the week ahead, then there's no excuse not to do it that way.
This Mom: The same "time" excuse came up a lot in terms of exercise as well: the kids are involved in extracurricular activities in the evenings, moms are up early and late doing chores, some have work commitments at night...how do we squeeze in the exercise we need?
Nadeen Boman: You know, we don't need a lot of time to do exercise, and it doesn't have to be that you go to the gym and work out for half an hour on the treadmill and then do some weights. You can do just a walk around a block, and if you're extra keen find a bench to do some pushups or stepups, or do some lunge walking. It really is just about staying active and moving around and not so much having to specifically work muscles, especially for people who can't fit that time in. The other thing is, they do offer half an hour training sessions now that you can book with a personal trainer, so if you do have the funds, that's a great way to utilize just a half hour, to specifically get in there and do it. That way you know you're covering all your body parts, you're getting a balanced workout in, and then you don't have the alignment issues that come from not spending time making sure you're getting stretched and getting your muscles worked in a balanced way.
This Mom: Several of my readers talked about taste, and the fact that sugary snacks just seem to taste better (especially because of cravings) and healthy things aren't always as appealing. What are some good-tasting foods that are still good for us?
Nadeen Boman: It's kind of a myth that healthy food doesn't taste good because we've become addicted to sugar. {I swear she was looking right at me through the phone line when she said this}. We crave it because we haven't gone through that withdrawal to get off it. {Did she say "withdrawal"? If this is a 'blog interview intervention' someone is going to pay! I am now looking around the room frantically.}
If you have a nice fresh salad with all kinds of different vegetables, some fresh chicken, shrimp or salmon in there, and throw on some strawberries or blueberries and pine nuts, that's a delicious-tasting concoction. There's no trick to it; it's a mental thing more than anything where we think it doesn't taste good, but try some different things out. My parents had never tried strawberries on their salad. I just introduced them to that the other day. We have this misconception in our mind, but until we try something I think we have to be open-minded about it.
This Mom: What about snacks? I know I'm an M and M's kind of snacker where I like little pieces of something I can munch on for a while...are there any healthy alternatives to those types of snacks?
Nadeen Boman: Edamame beans are good, or baby cucumbers, snap peas, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, radishes...for protein, nuts are a great option as long as they're raw and not roasted, and again, one handful is a serving size; you don't want to go overboard as they are high in calories and fat. Popcorn can be a good snack too, especially if it's a choice between chips or popcorn, and as long as you're not soaking it in butter or salt.
This Mom: What about when you have kids who are picky eaters? Sometimes it seems like why bother making this fresh healthy meal if the kids are just going to turn up their noses at it?
Nadeen Boman: Well, my view is, make the kids do it! {Laughs.} People should force their kids to eat. I know that happened with us and sometimes it backfires, but it's harder when we get older, because you have to eat vegetables and you have to eat fruit. Maybe there's one or two that you don't like, but you can't have kids {or freakish mom bloggers?} saying "I don't want to eat any fruits or any vegetables", because they're just not going to grow up to be healthy people, and parents don't want that for their children. They want their kids to be healthy! So let your kids say that maybe they don't like liver or don't like brussels sprouts but for the majority of things I think we have to lead by example {whoops!} and say "This is healthy and it does taste good," and eventually they will start to like it.
This Mom: What about the issue of motivation? Sometimes TV or the internet are more appealing than getting up and moving, or our to-do list is long and exercise is continually bumped to the bottom.
Nadeen Boman: A lot of the time, we don't feel motivated because it seems like it's too overwhelming and too big a change. The Controlex product {which Nadeen is currently representing; more on it later} really works great as a breakthrough to get over a plateau or kickstart a new program because it gets you results right away. It doesn't take weeks to start working. You take that pill 15 minutes before you eat a meal, and you take it with a glass of water so you're staying hydrated, and it will curb your cravings so you're only eating as much as you need, you're not overeating. So right there, you're already cutting the calories and you're going to see results within a week or even a few days, but you'll even notice that first meal you're not eating as much because often we gain weight because we are overeating.
This Mom: I know you'd like to talk about Controlex. Can you speak to how it works, and how safe it is?
Nadeen Boman: Controlex is a natural, plant-based product, made of three ingredients: glucomannan, pepsin, and yerba mate. These ingredients work together to moderate hunger, so they're not suppressing your hunger, just making you feel fuller. It's done with water. The glucomannan absorbs 100 times its weight in water, and when we're overweight it's due to overeating, and our stomach size has been stretched out, so with Controlex, our stomach gets filled but not stretched. After we follow the regime for a while and reach our ideal weight, we can go off it without the risk of gaining weight back because we've developed healthy habits and our stomach has shrunk back down to size.
{This sounds way too good to be true...if any of you decides to try it, I would love to hear your feedback.}
This Mom: And it's a safe product?
Nadeen Boman: It's safe, with no known side effects. And it's not a miracle pill. It really works slowly and in a healthy way in conjunction with healthy eating and exercise. You can get it at Walmart for around $35, and there's a deal right now where the first 500 people to like the product on Facebook receive a free three-day trial, and they really can see if it works for them.
This Mom: Last question: my readers and I all share "momhood" in common. Any tips for incorporating the kids into our exercise routines?
Nadeen Boman: That's an interesting question, because they've done some research and there are some programs set up for resistance training with kids as early as five years of age, so we really can start doing workouts with our kids, and just going out to the park and doing lunges or line drills, playing tag...what kid doesn't like to do that, and the moms get the cardio in there. You can make fitness into a game with your kids, just doing it on the fly and chasing them around, and doing pushups and chinups and situps.
For more on Nadeen, including info on fitness training and meal plans, visit her website.