7 Simple Strategies to Help You Stick With Your Plan

by JJ Virgin
Hey let’s face it, a weight loss plan only works…if you work it.   And there are a lot of challenges along the way that can throw you off if you let them.  Here are some of my top “stick” strategies to help you stay on the plan long enough so that it becomes your new way of living.  After all, if you live, think and feel like a healthy lean person you will become one over time.

1. Get a clear picture of the result you are going for by taking a picture of your favorite celeb body out there and pasting your head on it.  Put a copy of these everywhere – keep on in your purse, put one on the frig, etc.  You have to see it to believe it!
2. Make lateral shifts – trade your peanut butter for almond butter, your wheat pasta for rice pasta, your milk for coconut milk (unsweetened of course), your morning whey smoothie for a pea-rice blend, your butter for olive oil. 
3. Add before you take away – add more veggies, your morning smoothie, iced green tea between meals and you will crowd out the foods you shouldn’t be having.

4. Focus on what you can have and experiment with new foods in this category.  The best place to do this is at your local farmer’s market – check out arugula, mache, pomegranate, kale, cashew butter, coconut milk kefir, quinoa pasta….you’ll forget all about the foods you are eliminating.
5. Focus on how much better you feel.  Take an initial assessment of your overall wellness: gas & bloating, fatigue, excess fat, skin issues, focus & mental clarity, pain & inflammation, sleep quality, cravings and mood.  Reassess weekly to check your progress.  Quite often we forget how rotten we felt when we start to feel better! 
6. Create negative associations to help you break free from unhealthy food choices.  I know what happens when I eat foods that I react to and that has created a major negative association for me.  I just don’t look at cheesecake or sourdough bread as favorably anymore as I know I will pay for it later and it just isn’t worth it. 
7. Build in rewards to celebrate your success along the way.  Plan to treat yourself to something special when you hit your short and long term goals.  Be sure these are NOT food rewards! Some great ideas are a mani-pedi, a massage, a new journal etc. 

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JJ Recommends

Walnut Lentil Salad

As you may know, I am a Paleo Gal - I believe we should eat clean lean animal protein along with healthy fats, non starchy veggies and a small amount of “slow, low” carbs.   While I don’t subscribe to Veganism, there are some great recipes we can grab from the Vegan world that help deliciously increase our veggie intake.  I hope you enjoy this one from my new pal, the vegan expert, Alex Jamieson, CHHC, AADP. Author of Vegan Cooking For Dummies, Living Vegan For Dummies &  The Great American Detox Diet
Walnut Lentil Salad
1 ½ cups cooked brown lentils, cooled and drained
¼ cup sliced green onions, green part only
1 cup packed thinly sliced baby spinach
½ cup halved cherry tomatoes
8 kalamata olives, pitted and roughly chopped
¼ cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic or umeboshi vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 clove garlic, crushed
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the lentils, green onions, spinach, tomatoes, olives, and walnuts. Mix well with a wooden spoon and set aside.
2. In a small mixing bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, mustard, rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper and whisk together. Pour over the lentil salad and mix well.
3. Allow the salad to set at room temperature for at least 20 minutes, stirring a few times before serving. Alternatively, refrigerate in an airtight container for at least and hour hours before serving.

*Refrigerates for up to 3 days for picnics and lunch leftovers!

By Alexandra Jamieson, Plant-Based Wellness Expert
www.DeliciousVitality.com

©2011 JJ Virgin & Associates, Inc. Nutrition and Fitness Expert JJ Virgin is a the author of Six Weeks to Sleeveless and Sexy and the co-star of TLC’s Freaky Eaters reality series. Visit her at http://www.jjvirgin.com to grab her free audio: Top Ten Hottest Tips to Get Slim and Sexy Fast

Are You Eating Propylene Glycol?

by JJ Virgin


You eat organic food whenever possible,  you drink filtered water, you use environmentally healthy cleaning products and you wash your hair and moisturize your body with …. Phthalates, parabens, gluten, hydrogenated oils and GMO’s?  I hate to break it to you but even some of the most well known products out there claiming to be organic and safe may still contain harmful chemicals that can increase your body burden of toxins.   Just the bottles alone are often doing the product in by adding harmful plasticizers and xenoestrogens into your product. 
Remember your skin is a sieve, if you are washing with it or slathering it on your skin, you are effectively eating it.  When you think about it that way, it makes you really re-evaluate the products you are using! I did a fascinating interview with a toxicity expert, Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis* and she went into detail about what we are getting in our personal care products (and guess what, just because you spent a lot of money on those products doesn’t mean they are organic or safe). 
She recommended we all go check out the info on the environmental working group’s website (http://ewg.org) where they have compiled the list of products and their safety ratings. I was dismayed to find out that my favorite mascara didn’t make the grade (some of the top brands even had mercury in them) nor did my lipstick.
Turns out many lipsticks and lip balms contain propylene glycol.  And while toxicology reports show that this substance (used also as anti-freeze) poses no health risks (or so they say) at minute amounts, consider that over the course of a year you EAT (yep, eat) over 10 pounds of lipstick.  Then combine this with the other chemicals you are getting in your shampoo, conditioner, Brazilian Blowout (I knew that was too good to be true- can you say silicone!), moisturizer, eye cream….etc.etc. and guess what, Houston, we could have a problem here because these chemicals all get absorbed into your skin and then your body has to handle them.  And one of the top places to store these toxins is in your fat cells.  Dr. Angelo Tremblay showed that rats with higher toxic burdens actually had 30% lower metabolisms! 
 Hey, there’s no way around it, we live in an increasingly toxic world.  So we have to control what we can control by reducing our toxic burden in every way possible while improving our daily detoxification.  I realized recently after spending an enlightening evening with a skin care products expert, Jama Russano, that I was getting toxic exposure in places I wasn’t even thinking about!  So you will start to see me talk more about this in the coming weeks AND I will also be giving you amazing skin & hair care alternatives that will support your quest for optimal health.   For now I want you to become aware of what is in what you are currently using and make that decision to extend your healthy habits to your beauty regimen as well!
Here are a few of the things that SHOULDN’T be in your personal care products or the containers that are transporting them:  artificial colorings & fragrances, benzene, bisphenol A, dimethicone, EDTA, formaldehyde, gluten, GMO’s, hydrogenated oils, mineral oil, parabens, petrolatum, plastics, phthalates, PVC’s, PEG’s(1,4-dioxane), propylene glycol, silicates, silicones, sodium lauryl sulfates, wheat, triethanolamine. 
So just like we have you read the labels in the grocery store, start checking out the labels in the drug store and beauty counters and insist on organic, non toxic products just like you do for your food!
*you can grab this enlightening (okay and a bit disturbing) interview free here:  Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis


©2011 JJ Virgin & Associates, Inc. Nutrition and Fitness Expert JJ Virgin is a the author of Six Weeks to Sleeveless and Sexy and the co-star of TLC’s Freaky Eaters reality series. Visit her at http://www.jjvirgin.com to grab her free audio: Top Ten Hottest Tips to Get Slim and Sexy Fast 

Reality Bites: Lessons from TLC’s Freaky Eaters

By JJ Virgin

Not a day goes by where someone doesn’t share with me their food or drink “habit” and ask me if they are a “Freaky Eater”.  By our show’s definition, a freaky eater is someone who has taken an eating habit to the extreme and it is damaging their health, their relationships and their finances. They are quite often in denial about it, they hide their habit and they are powerless to stop.  While it is unlikely that your “habit” has reached that magnitude (if it has, we are casting for Season 3!) but I believe that nearly everyone has a bit of a freaky eating habit that could be keeping them from being their very best.
Fortunately you can use the same format that we have created on the show to turn around the toughest of cases in a week or less.  These are people who have been struggling for years, sometimes even decades and if they can do it, you definitely can….that is, if you want to.
It all starts with acknowledgment.  You need to come clean that there is a behavior/habit that you would like to change. By the way this can apply to staying up to late, skipping your workouts, etc. but for now we are going to focus on food.  Let’s say that you have the bad habit of snacking at night. 
Start a food journal so you can capture exactly what and how much you are eating at night.  By doing this you can really see the magnitude of what you are doing.  If you are eating a few extra hundred calories each night, and most likely these are the worst type of calories – refined carb and sugar calories, this can undermine everything you are doing as it is telling your body to store fat all night long and those extra calories gotta go somewhere.   Look at what this behavior is doing to your overall health - is it stopping you from being as lean, energetic and vibrant as you could be?  Is it getting in the way of your relationship (how about quitting the snacking and spending some cuddle time with your spouse instead?)  Are you wasting money on these treats?  It all adds up and you need to take a hard look at what you are really doing to yourself.
Next set up a course of action.  On the show there are two strategies we employ here. First we add before we take away.  I would make sure that you are eating enough at your 3 meals so that you aren’t hungry at night. I would add a glass of water as it was shown in a University of Chicago study that an 8 ounce glass of water shut down 100% of midnight hunger pangs.  Then we use lateral shifts. Quite often this means replacing a less healthy food with a healthier option like replacing ice cream with Greek-style yogurt topped with berries and sliced almonds.  However it can also mean replacing a bad habit with an incompatible one.  For example, instead of reaching for a snack, go relax in a hot bath with a great book. 
Figure out what will work for you here and lay out your action steps to make it happen.  Start easy, don’t give yourself more than three things to do and make sure that they are things you can have success with.
Get support while you are changing your habit.  You need to accountable to someone. The going might get a little rough during the transition and if you can call a friend or a coach and get talked down it can help ensure your success.   By the way, we have set up special one month coaching programs for this very reason (link here) so if you don’t have a friend you feel comfortable discussing this with, we are here to help.  You will probably find that you not only have a friend who will help, he or she will probably want the favor returned so they can break their own “freaky food habit”.

Could Your Belly Be Making You Fat?

by JJ Virgin

I bet you will agree that there is nothing worse than feeling gassy and bloated but what you might not realize is this could be a symptom of bigger things going down in your gastrointestinal tract that could be making you gain or hold onto fat, crave the very foods that are hurting you and zap your energy. If you are struggling with joint pain, fatigue, brain fog/mood swings, skin issues, constipation and/or diarrhea, congestion or gas/bloating, read on, I have some simple tips that could make all of the difference!

1. Try eliminating the most common culprits – believe it or not, some of those “healthy foods” could be hurting you as they are higher in potential sensitivities AND these intolerances grow when you eat something on a regular basis.  Try pulling dairy, soy, gluten, corn, peanuts, yeast and sugars/artificial sweeteners from your diet for 21 days and track your symptoms, you will be amazed!  And yes, there is still plenty left to eat – think raw nuts & seeds, a rainbow of veggies, low glycemic fruits and clean, lean protein which is what your diet should focus on anyway, ahem.
2. Take time to digest well.  Repeat after me, no more mindless eating, no more dashboard dining, no more_______ (fill in the blanks).  Make time for your meals, slow down, put your fork down between bites and don’t overload the fluids (which dilutes your stomach enzymes) during the meal.  I have found digestive enzymes to be a lifesaver here as well.
3. Search, find and destroy and kill….microbes, yeast and parasites.  Gut bacterial overgrowth can extract more calories from the food you eat and store it as fat, yeast overgrowth can wipe out your energy and make you crave carbs like crazy and parasites can send you running to the bathroom. If you suspect this, work with your integrative health practitioner to clear things up.  I also recommend a daily dose of garlic to keep things in check.  I have been using Kyolic Aged Garlic Digestion Formula 102. 
4. Build your defenses.  Add a daily probiotic to help rebuild your gut flora and boost your gut immune system through high quality whey protein (if you aren’t dairy sensitive) and saccharomyces boulardii.
5. Cool things off. Help reduce your gut and overall inflammation by making an oil change and getting in wild fish 3-4 times a week and supplementing with a balanced essential fatty acid product that contains EPA, DHA and GLA.  Freshly ground flaxseed meal mixed with applesauce is very gut soothing and healing and makes a wonderful afternoon snack.

These tips are from my brand new 7 Step Gut Healing program to help you break through your weight loss resistance and claim the energy, vitality and body of your dreams!  If you would like to be one of the first to experience this program, watch your inbox for how you can get this as a special bonus in May!


©2011 JJ Virgin & Associates, Inc. Nutrition and Fitness Expert JJ Virgin is a the author of Six Weeks to Sleeveless and Sexy and the co-star of TLC’s Freaky Eaters reality series. Visit her at http://www.jjvirgin.com to grab her free audio: Top Ten Hottest Tips to Get Slim and Sexy Fast

Stress – Our New Epidemic

by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP

In recent years, the word stress has taken on negative connotations, but from your body’s point of view, stress means any type of demand or challenge that requires the body to expend extra energy. Getting up out of your chair and moving across the room is a minor stressor because it requires more effort than remaining seated. Mobilizing energy and focusing on any given activity – getting dressed, playing with children or even preparing dinner causes your body to expend energy – and it’s an essential part of living. But our stress response was never meant to be a permanent condition.
In today’s world women are just inundated with stress - stress that doesn’t let up. Careers, relationships, kids, parents, the constant flow of electronic information, environmental stressors, hormone shifts, chronic health issues and even changes in our diets all add up to a heavy stress load on our bodies and minds. We’re all familiar with what causes stress, but what we aren’t so familiar with is our body’s response to this stress and the ways in which the stress we face today ends up depleting our energy and affecting our health.

Sometimes we are also acting out the effects of historical stress: reactions to present-day events that are made more difficult or intense because of our past experiences.

Do you find yourself unable to slow down during the day – feeling the need to keep up a pace which seemingly gets faster ever day? Do you lie awake at night physically exhausted but mind racing? Do you wake every morning feeling overwhelmed and exhausted? Do you struggle through your days feeling forgetful, depressed, tired and irritable? Do you reach for caffeine to jump start you at the beginning of your day or keep you going through the day? Do you crave sweets during the day? Are you losing muscle mass and gaining fat? Do you get frequent headaches?

If you answered yes to some or all of these questions, you aren’t alone! Thousands of women experience these same feelings every day. And getting more sleep just isn’t the answer. You may be experiencing adrenal dysfunction.
You may not think much about your adrenals, but they are crucial to your health, mood and well-being. Our adrenals are walnut-sized glands located on top of each kidney. These glands serve as important manufacturing centers for many of the body’s hormones. The innermost section of each gland produces adrenaline and noradrenaline. The layers outside the center, called the adrenal cortex, produce other hormones, including cortisol, DHEA, progesterone, estrogen and testosterone.
Cortisol is a great hormone which converts fats and proteins into energy, calibrates our heartbeat, balances electrolytes, keeps us alert and counteracts inflammation.

Under ordinary circumstances our adrenals are designed to give us bursts of strength from the little burst of energy that is needed to wake us up in the morning to the stimulating hormones that keep us alert, awake and focused throughout the day. Ideally as evening comes, our adrenal production is supposed to steadily decline and allow us to relax and eventually sleep.

When we experience a stressful situation like an unexpected crisis at work, or a car accident, your adrenal glands pull all your body’s resources together into the ‘flight or fight’ mode by increasing the production of adrenaline and cortisol. These instantaneously increase your blood pressure and heart rate, sharpen your senses, release your energy stores for use, and shut down digestion and other secondary functions. This is exactly what your body should be doing. But it shouldn’t be doing it for very long. When chronic stress repeatedly forces our adrenal glands to continually produce high levels of cortisol, the adrenals slow down in their ability to regulate your other hormones. And the continual flood of cortisol may start to damage healthy tissue.

Women with adrenal dysfunction often have trouble in a wide variety of ways: sex-hormone imbalances, thyroid abnormalities, blood sugar dysregulation, fibromyalgia anxiety, depression, cardiovascular issues, inability to concentrate, poor memory or poor immune function.

Stress just isn't uncomfortable and unpleasant - it can actually be dangerous.  Numerous studies have linked chronic stress to such life threatening conditions as heart disease, diabetes, as well as migraines, thyroid abnormalities, digestive disorders and backache.  Stress has also been linked to a variety of autoimmune disorders (sometimes making them worse or sometimes setting them off) such as Crohn's disease, lupus, asthma, multiple sclerosis and Hashimoto's thyroiditis.  It makes sense that stress is dangerous because none of our body's systems operate in isolation.  There is a lot of cross talk between all our systems, including adrenals, sex-hormones, thyroid, gut and brain.

Although men and women have the same basic biology, when it comes to adrenal function, I sometimes think that women carry an extra burden. Women often put other's needs before our own - both at home and at work.  Women also may have more than their fair share of trouble saying 'no’, setting limits and taking time for themselves.  This is something I always encourage my patients to be aware of - and to try to make changes accordingly. Mothers may also have an additional layer of stress. Child rearing has many demands that may not let up until your children are college age or even beyond!  While caring for others is important, so is taking care of yourself!

If you think you may have adrenal dysfunction the first step is to have a full physical exam to rule out any serious underlying conditions which may be causing your symptoms. The good news is that once you have identified adrenal dysfunction as your condition, you can address all your symptoms and heal the underlying problem that is causing them. You can change your diet, adjust your lifestyle, and reprogram the emotional patterns which are stressing you out.

Marcelle Pick, author of The Core Balance Diet, earned a B.S. in Nursing and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of New Hampshire and an M.S. in Nursing from Boston College–Harvard Medical School. Certified as nurse practitioner for both OB/GYN and pediatrics, Pick has served as medical advisor to Healthy Living Magazine. She also writes a bi-monthly newsletter for WomentoWomen.com. Her radio show, Core Balance for Women’s Health, airs weekly on Hay House Radio.

Do Calories Really Count?

by JJ Virgin

It seems like there are two weight loss camps out there – one that holds strictly to calorie counting for weight loss and the other that focuses on limiting or excluding altogether specific food groups for weight loss. I think that the most confusing section in the bookstore is the weight loss/diet section!  So who is right?
Calories Count…well sort of
Calories count, but where they come from counts more.  The bottom line is too much healthy food is unhealthy.  But there is clearly a difference between consuming 1000 calories from clean lean protein, fruits, veggies and nuts versus Twinkies, chips and soda (the latest “convenience store diet fat”). And intuitively, we all know this but we are always searching for a program where we can lose weight and eat what we want and how much we want of it.
Our body isn’t a bank account
There is more to losing weight than merely creating a caloric deficit, especially when you focus on fat loss rather than overall weight loss.  Remember, if you lose weight but not fat, or lose fat from your arms and legs but not off your belly, you are not getting healthier and in fact you could actually be hurting yourself and damaging your metabolism even more.
Your body is both a chemistry lab AND a history book
Food is information.  It can tell your body to

• burn fat or store it
• build muscle or burn it
• balance blood sugar or send it spinning!

It does this through the hormones that are triggered. This happens due to meal composition, meal size and meal timing. If you overeat, you can trigger a bigger insulin response.  If you eat a higher carb diet, especially refined carbs you can trigger a bigger insulin response.  If you eat small higher carb meals and snacks every few hours you may cause insulin to rise and stay higher longer than it should.  Higher insulin basically locks the doors to the fat cells, causing you to hold onto fat and burn sugar. 
Conversely if you go too long without eating, you can raise the stress hormone cortisol which can cause you to break down muscle and store more fat around your waistline.  Eat right before bed and you will suppress ghrelin, the hormone produced in the stomach that helps trigger the release of growth hormone as you sleep. 
You can’t trade your turkey for the pumpkin pie
An interesting study by Bernard Wolfe showed that when people exchanged some of their carbohydrate calories for protein calories they lowered their LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. So don’t think you can eat what you want as long as you are managing your calories. Treats are treats and should be handled as such. I teach clients to use the “three polite bite rule”. If they are craving something they can have three polite bites of it. In order to avoid eating more of it, don’t bring it into the house and ideally share it with someone who has a really fast fork!
So how many calories of what should you be eating?
You should strive to be eating nutrient dense calories from clean lean protein, healthy fats, non starchy veggies in a rainbow of colors and low glycemic, high fiber starchy carbohydrates and fruit.
Overall caloric needs are determined by your age, sex, activity level, height and weight and will be impacted by your hormones, especially thyroid, insulin and cortisol. 
Where your calories should come from – ie how many from protein, fats and carbs is determined by your genotype.
Stanford University completed a study in March 2010 that found that when people ate per their genotype (lower carb or lower fat), they lost 2 ½ times the weight as compared to when they didn’t.
A simple spit test can tell you which genotype you are as well as help you identify any eating behavior traits that may impact your overall success including increased appetite, increased food desire, a sweet tooth and even a dislike of veggies!
If you want to learn more about this go to http://jjvirgin.com/fitgenetics

End 2009 Healthy with these 4 tips

Great Health Tips from: JJ Virgin, CNS

End 2009 healthy and Start 2010 healthy  

• Introduce a new veggie into your life each week. Make this fun as you stand in the fresh produce aisle of your supermarket. Choose something that looks intriguing and then find a healthy way to make it. You can't go wrong by steaming veggies or stir frying them in a bit of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). If you're a parent, teach your children that veggies make us strong and help us have great energy. Remind them that veggies also help them grow. If your child is making that twisted, this-veggie-will-make-me-pass-out face then ask them to eat three bites before deciding if it's good or yucky. I love to add Italian spices to veggies and you can even sprinkle a bit of cheese on top with marinara sauce to disguise the veggies for your kids.
• Make sure, especially during this hectic season, to keep some 911 emergency healthy foods on you for snacks. You won't be tempted to eat that piece of gummy shopping mall pizza if you're armed with better choices that are easy to carry. Bring nuts, veggies and an apple with you for 911 moments. These are also great for long car rides and for plane trips. If you have a snack at the ready, you will avoid fast food stops or quick snack foods that are almost always just a carb bomb. Remember that you don't really need to snack. If you eat three good meals each day you will be satiated full and have great energy. You won't even want that snack. Do remember to add protein and high fiber foods (veggies, legumes, nuts and berries top that list) to each meal because they will keep you feeling fuller longer.
• Remember that Julia Roberts film “Sleeping with the Enemy?” Well, I refuse to sleep in the same house with the enemy. This means that I don't play eating roulette with myself and keep my favorite chocolate or ice cream in the house. Once in awhile, if I have a yen for it then I'll just go out for a treat. I'm not a big believer in this idea that your will power will win out over those Famous Amos cookies in the cabinet. Famous Amos isn't going to be living with you anymore. By the way, when you have this occasional treat have a mini-sized portion or three bites of it. I promise you will get the taste and feel satisfied without over-doing it.
• Finally, making small, conscious choices as 2009 winds to an end is a great way to mentally get ready for additional lateral shifts we'll make in 2010. Be proud of each change you make because it's a wonderful accomplishment. It's also the best gift you can give yourself.

picture found at http://www.csiro.au/files/images/pggv.jpg

JJ Virgin's Five Favorite Fool-Proof Tips!!

My Five Favorite Fool-Proof Tips for Staying Fit on the Road

Written by JJ Virgin PhD, CNS, Celebrity Nutrition & Fitness Authority

1) Repeat after me: “No Red-Eyes.” Unless you are flying in your own private jet for more than 9 hours you will have a bad nights’ sleep and start your vacation or work week off on a bad note. It always sounds like a great idea until you are actually living it. Instead, I turn the plane into my own personal office and bring all of my writing and reading that I need to catch up on (I take extra batteries and plugs too) and fly during my most productive hours. I use my iPOD to create my office “walls.” This way once I land I can immediately shift into “escape” mode now that I have gotten my work done.

2) If your travel includes a time zone change, start shifting the day or two before by altering your bedtime, wake time, and meal times by an hour. Use Thin Sticks (my favorite fool-proof all natural appetite suppressant and cravings crusher) to help your appetite cooperate with you.

3) Pack the Bullet. I travel with my Magic Bullet Blender and carry sandwich baggies prepared with a blend of my Olympian Labs Prescribed Nutrition shake stirred with some added fiber. I’ve learned to include a few extra baggies in case I end up missing a meal somewhere in transit or if I show up late at my hotel and want to have a shake instead of a whole meal. I also carry EmergenC™ Packets with me to kick up my immune system and keep my stress at bay as well as some of my favorite protein energy bars so that I never get stranded and fall victim to the airline “snack pack” out of desperation.

4) Plan your workouts. Whenever possible I workout prior to getting on the plane, especially on long flights. If the flight is too early I schedule in a workout when I arrive. I always make sure that the hotel where I am staying has a fitness center (as opposed to the dreaded fitness room containing a lone treadmill and a broken tv) or access to a nearby gym. If all else fails you will find me in the stairwell doing my bursts. If I am driving I bring my Xiser along. It weighs under 20 pounds so some of my male clients actually pack it; I unfortunately have far too many shoes that I MUST pack to be able to squeeze it in….

5) Carry your safe filtered water bottle along but remember to empty it BEFORE you go through the security line! Security will confiscate it… I’ve learned this one personally. I have also found that most hotel gyms have a water cooler so you can always locate a great source of clean filtered water for bottle refills, and hence yet another reason to make a visit there!

© 2009 JJ Virgin & Associates, Inc. JJ Virgin PhD, CNS is a celebrity nutrition and fitness expert, author, public speaker and media personality. She is internationally recognized as the authority in overcoming weight loss resistance and trains other health care professionals in her program. She is the president of the National Association of Nutrition Professionals, www.nanp.org.

If you are frustrated with your body and feel like nothing you are doing is working, take her free quiz “Are You Weight Loss Resistant?” at JJVirgin.com and receive her monthly LEANzine loaded with insider information on fighting fat and getting lean for life!
Read more: http://smartwomentravelers.com/index.php?view=article&catid=48%3Abody&id=90%3A5-fool-proof-tips-for-staying-fit-on-the-road&option=com_content&Itemid=57#ixzz0VvBQo1DX