Reno Personal Trainer, Clifta Coulter Perez, won the 2010 INBA Team USA on September 25, 2010 in Las Vegas Nevada.
So… what’s next??? Clifta is preparing for the biggest show of her life… the 2010 INBA Natural Olympia. To be held in Reno, Nevada at the Grand Sierra. Here Clifta is posing and flexing her muscles after a great workout! Weight 100.6 lbs.
This is one of my things that I'm working on. Getting more and better sleep so I thought this article was a good one... and one that I thought I'd share with you. ___________________________________________
The ultimate sleep setting starts with a comfortable bed — good pillows and a blanket or comforter make your bed more inviting. You also want to set the right mood to help you sleep.
The Root of Sleep Problems
People have trouble sleeping for many reasons. Barbara Phillips, MD, director of the University of Kentucky Good Samaritan Sleep Center in Lexington, speculates that sleep problems may have to do with human instinct and the need to survive.
“Difficulty sleeping is a normal reaction to stress and to an unhealthy or dangerous environment,” Dr. Phillips says. This probably gave our ancestors a survival advantage when the greatest risk to their well-being was being attacked at night, whether by saber-toothed tigers or enemy tribes.
How does that affect your sleep today? “We are probably hardwired not to sleep as well when there are problems in our lives,” says Phillips. “This may be part of the reason that insomnia is often associated with stress, depression, and anxiety.” Being physically uncomfortable when trying to sleep can make it even harder.
How to Sleep Well: Creating Your Sleep Haven
The right sleep environment is essential to set the stage for better sleep. Give your bedroom a makeover with these tips:
Sleep is a necessity, and it should be restorative. It can also be enjoyable. Create a tranquil sleep environment so that you can sink into a deep, restful sleep easily each night.
I thought this was a great article. :)
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As you get older, your body doesn’t respond the same way to weight-loss efforts. This aggravating phenomenon occurs primarily because your metabolism is slowing down and you need fewer calories each day. Here’s how to adjust to get back on track.
Weight Gain and Aging: What’s Going On?
“The 40s are very different from the 30s, and the 50s are very different from the 40s as far as your metabolism,” observes longtime dieter Frances Simon of New Orleans. Simon turns 55 this year and says that number is causing her to get serious about achieving her weight-loss goals. “It seems like it’s harder and harder. But, boy, I remember when I was in my 20s — admittedly I was a lot more active, but I had a lot more energy then, too. I would go out dining and drinking a lot when I was in my 20s, but now in my 50s there is no way I would do that. It’s easier for the weight to come on than to try taking it off.”
Simon’s experiences are not unique. With menopause you may find your waist expands a bit, your muscles lose their tone, and you get new fat deposits. Researchers have yet to uncover the reason for these physical changes, but suspect that rapidly shifting hormones affect your body’s makeup.
While the factors that lead to weight gain as we age are the same for men and women (with the exception of menopause), national health data shows that men over age 65 are slightly more likely than women to be overweight. In fact, 76 percent of men ages 65 to 74 are obese, compared to 71.5 percent of women in that age group.
Weight Gain and Aging: Your Changing Body
Here are some of the contributing factors to your unwanted weight gain:
You’re burning less energy. “As you get older, you don’t need as many calories. Part of that is a little bit slower metabolism, but part of it is you’re not rushing around as much. You can’t believe how many calories you don’t need,” says Donna L. Weihofen, RD, MS, health nutritionist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Weihofen says that learning to adjust your diet to your body’s changing needs is a gradual process. She gives her clients guidelines like switching to smaller portions and sharing at restaurants, especially if dining with a spouse who is having his own problems with weight gain.
You’re less active. Many people find they have less energy as they age, but you may also find that life is less demanding than it was in earlier years. Simon says that eating a Mediterranean-style diet, with an emphasis on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats, keeps her feeling full and gives her more energy to exercise.
However, she notes that there is another significant barrier to exercising for older women. “For people my age who want to exercise or get started exercising, I think it’s discouraging to go to a gym where there are lots of younger people,” she says. Simon’s goal is to attend Jazzercise three times a week, a class she enjoys because the participants are her age and older. “Some of those 60-year-olds look pretty fine, too!”
Weight Gain and Aging: How to Fight Back
A study of weight gain prevention in 284 women showed that women who maintained a healthy weight over a three-year period were more likely to:
The strategies for combating weight gain as you age are the same you’ve used before:
Aging doesn’t mean you are destined for weight gain — just step up your diet and exercise routine to stay on track!
Buy Raffle Tickets and Help Clifta get to the USA and represent TEAM PHAT!
If you Win…
You’ll get a Training Program and Nutrition Plan from Clifta!
In ONLY 4 months…
Go from this… 121 lbs.
To This… 102.2 lbs.
Nicole Did! And YOU can too!
**Winner will receive 3 months of Nutrition Plans and 3 months of On-line training!
(If you live in the Reno area… you have a choice to do either on-line or personal training. If you choose personal training you will get 2 sessions per week for 1 month. Equals 8 sessions.)
(If one of my current clients win… you can’t use these sessions in place of what you already do. You can add them as extra sessions per week.)
Click on links below to purchase your TODAY!
1 Ticket = $5
5 Tickets = $20
15 Tickets = $ 50
Prize is worth over $600!
Buy 1 ticket for $5 and it could be yours!
Buy more tickets to increase your chances of winning!!!
Drawing will be held
September 20, 2010!
Thank you for your support! 🙂
EstraCort – The Secret to the Body of Your Dreams!Estrogen, cortisol, hormonal imbalance… Chances are you have heard these terms and they probably either confused or scared you. Estrogen is quite a word. To some it might mean femininity and signify the essence of being a woman. But to someone interested in getting in shape, it might mean something altogether different. Estrogen is not bad, but excessive estrogen can lead to fat gain, cause difficulty losing fat, water retention, mood swings, cravings….and the list goes on and on! Combine that with excessive cortisol—the STRESS hormone, and reaching your goals and feeling your best will be extremely difficult to do! In todays fast-paced, stressful world it is not uncommon for estrogen and cortisol levels to get out of whack, creating a hormonal imbalance. Knowing this, PGN Nutrition with the help of world renown fitness trainer Chuck Rudolph, MEd, RD, and Two-Time Miss Olympia and Miss Fitness International, Jen Hendershott, created the PERFECT supplement to help women control estrogen and cortisol to help achieve their goals and get the body they have always dreamed of! The future of the fitness-minded woman’s supplement is here, and it is PGN Estracort™. The FIRST supplement designed to specifically address this essential need!
PGN EstraCort – Estrogen and Cortisol Support for Women
Hormones are chemical messengers that signal the body to perform certain actions. For example, after you eat carbs, the hormone insulin is released to signal the body to absorb these carbs from the blood stream. The body releases various amounts of insulin depending on the type and amount of carbs you eat. Controlling insulin levels through smart diet choices is important since high levels of insulin lead to fat gain. Insulin is not the only hormone that contributes to controlling your weight, there are many. Of prime importance are the hormones estrogen and cortisol.
Estrogen is the primary female hormone (comparable to testosterone in men). Estrogen gives women their feminine characteristics and testosterone gives men their masculine characteristics. Estrogen has numerous actions in the body. Estrogen is needed for normal functioning of the body but too much or the wrong types of estrogens can have negative effects on your body. The same holds true for another hormone called cortisol.
Cortisol is called the “stress hormone” because it is released in response to stress and anxiety. When released at a normal level cortisol helps restore homeostasis after stressful events. But, like estrogen, when too much cortisol is released or cortisol levels are elevated for too long negative affects arise.
Knowing all of this PGN has created a formula to control estrogen and cortisol levels, leading to increased fat loss, less water retention and an overall leaner figure.
Summary Of EstraCort Ingredients:
DIM (Diindolylmethane)
DIM, a phytochemical found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, is an estrogen metabolism modulator, meaning it favorably shifts estrogen metabolism. Estrogen is not a bad hormone, it is needed for normal functioning of the body, but certain metabolites of estrogen have more positive actions while other metabolites have more negative actions. DIM increases the amount of “good” estrogens (2-hydroxy) and decreases the amount of “bad” estrogens (4-hydroxy and 16-hydroxy). The good estrogens protect the brain and heart due to potent anti-oxidant activity, along with other positive actions, while the bad estrogens promote weight gain and are linked to cancer (breast and uterine). By supplementing with DIM your body’s natural estrogen metabolism becomes primed to create more of the good and less of the bad estrogens, leading to a health-promoting estrogen balance.
Calcium D Glucarate
Calcium D Glucarate is a botanical extract found in fruits and vegetables that promotes the removal of toxins and excess estrogens from the body. Calcium D Glucarate helps detoxify the body through a process called glucuronidation. The body naturally tries to removes toxins and excess estrogens through glucouronidation, but this process can become reversed by the enzyme beta-glucuronidase, which releases the toxins back into the body. Calcium D Glucarate increases the detoxification process by inhibiting the beta-glucuronidase enzyme, allowing the glucouronidation detoxification process to work its magic. Supplementing with Calcium D Glucarate increases the elimination of cancer-promoting toxins and estrogens.
PhosphatidylSerine
Phosphatidylserine is a phospholipid found in the membrane of all cells, particularly in the brain. Phosphatidylserine keeps cells flexible and primed for nutrient absorptive. Supplementing with phosphatidylserine has been shown to improve cognition, memory, and mood and decrease blood concentrations of cortisol. Excessive cortisol levels can lead to suppression of the immune system and the accumulation of abdominal fat. Supplementing with Phosphatidylserine not only will improve brain functioning but will also help control cortisol levels.
Green Tea
Green tea is a type of tea leaf (black and oolong are other types of teas). Green tea has been used by the Chinese to treat a variety of disorders for years. Green Tea has powerful antioxidant properties, specifically from the active EGCG, and has been shown to help protect against various cancers. EGCG has thermogenic effects and has been shown to assist in weight loss by decreasing dietary fat absorption, appetite suppression, and catechol-O-methyl-transferase (COMT) inhibition. COMT is involved in the breakdown of catecholamines (i.e. NE). By inhibiting COMT, NE breakdown is slowed and it is able to activate the adrenergic receptors to a greater degree and enhance lipolysis (fat breakdown). Supplementing with green tea extract improves overall health and helps promote fat loss.
Summary
Supplementing with DIM, Calcium D Glucarate, Phosphatidylserine, and Green Tea together will optimize a women’s hormone levels, promoting a leaner, more healthy figure.
Not only will Estracort support your overall health, but it might just be exactly what you need to shift your body into the DREAM ZONE – obtaining the body you have always dreamed of having! So stop wasting time and letting estrogen and cortisol spoil your results. Get the body you have always wanted with Estracort today!
Clifta Coulter Perez of PHAT Physiques
Reno Personal Fitness Trainer
Reno Bootcamp Instructor
775-996-7183
Well, it’s 8 weeks from yesterday until my first Figure show. I weighed 101.8 lbs. today, which has been my lightest in awhile. I’ve started low carbs and should start to see my weight start to drop and also see myself get leaner. I really see a big difference this last week with lower carbs.
I got my bodyfat tested this past Friday and it’s down 8.5% from when I started in February! Yay! Lean mass is up 9.4 lbs. That’s what happens when you don’t workout for a while… you lose muscle and get FAT! Finally feeling like I’m on track now for 8 weeks out.
Just wanted to post a little update…
Clifta 🙂
Reno Personal Trainer
High in flavonoids, which are lauded for their relaxing properties (chamomiletea is another great source), chocolate also contains phenethylamine, a chemical that enhances your mood. The darker the chocolate, the more healthy substances you’re getting in your diet, so look for bars that are 70 percent cacao or higher.
Skim Milk
Turns out that a glass of warm milk really is calming. One study found that women who drank four or more servings of lowfat or skim milk every day were about half as likely to experience stress-related PMS symptoms than those who drank less than one serving a week.
Oatmeal
Carbs help you produce serotonin, a calming hormone that helps fight anxiety’s negative effects-which is probably why many of us crave them when we’re stressed. Go with the craving and choose healthy sources. Oatmeal is high in fiber, which means that your body will absorb it slowly. In one fell swoop, you’ll prolong the serotonin boost, keeping yourself feeling full for longer (and on less) and making sure your blood sugar’s in check.
Salmon
Research shows that omega-3 fatty acids-abundant in fish like salmon-can help reverse stress symptoms by boosting serotonin levels, and that an omega-3-rich diet can also help suppress the production of the anxiety hormones cortisol and adrenaline.
Walnuts
They’ve been shown to help lower blood pressure, which is critical for those whose hearts are already working overtime thanks to high adrenaline levels. In fact, research so strongly backs their health benefits that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration goes so far as to recommend 1 1/2 oz per day.
Sunflower Seeds
A good source of folate, which helps your body produce a pleasure-inducing brain chemical called dopamine.
Spinach
Studies show that magnesium, which you’ll find in leafy greens like spinach, improves your body’s response to stress.
Blueberries
Their antioxidants counteract the effects of stress hormones like cortisol on your body.
Just wanted to list some really clean & healthy sources of proteins & carbs.
These are what I’ve been eating for the past 5 weeks.
Proteins
Egg Whites
Egg Beaters
Chicken Breast
Turkey Breast
Salmon (can)
Tuna (can)
Carbs
Oatmeal
Brown Rice
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Pasta (occasionally)
My Favorite Veggies
Broccoli
Spinach
Carrots
*I eat about every 3 hours and usually have a protein, carb, & veggie with every meal except my last meal before bed… no carbs.
*I also use stevia, ketchup, bar-b-que sauce, fat free dressing, & spices that contain NO SALT.
*I don’t use butter, mayonaise, or sugar.
*I drink water (1/2 my weight in ounces), crystal light, tea, coffee (1 cup in A.M.), & diet pepsi (maybe 1/2 to 1 per day).
*You can see my supplements here.
Clifta Coulter Perez
Reno Fitness Trainer
Reno Bootcamps
Better Bodies Bootcamp in Reno
Honor God with Your Body 