4 Lifestyle Lifts for Working Women

Learn How to Boost Energy and Lose Body Fat with a Busy Lifestyle

Recently, I’ve had a few women approach me who work in high-paced office environments, looking for some help on how to create work-life balance, and I’ve noticed that they all have been saying things along the lines of:

“I’m just so stressed out right now!”

“I have so much going on right now, how can I relax?”

“I’m trying really hard to get on top of everything, but I feel like I have no time to myself…”

The hours are long, the pressure to perform above and beyond at work is rising and patience is wearing so thin that they barley have time to think! It’s no wonder so many women have no energy or motivation to dedicate to their health.

I totally salute all women out there, working hard and doing their best to create balance within their lives, you give so much to your colleagues, career, kids and friends and that leaves little time for the person who’s most important here… YOU!

If you’re feeling chronically tired, run down, sick, sleep deprived and not able to function at a high capacity, your body is probably through the roof with cortisol (the stress hormone). And having chronically elevated levels of cortisol are a huge sign that you’re overstressed and will inevitably lead to have increased body fat levels, especially around the tummy area.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking — “But, weight around my tummy is something I want to lose, not gain!”

That’s why I’ve carefully crafted these 4 Lifestyle Lifts that you can do to help you de-stress, recharge your batteries and burn belly-fat every day.

By the end of this blog, you will learn:

The simple trick to de-stress in just 1 minute a day
2 diet hacks that allows you to stay energised without caffeine
4 exercises that are guaranteed to boost your fat-burning and mood

– And much more.

In our 6 Week Peach Project Challenge, there’s some really important factors we make sure our each of our clients receive, before even getting started on their journey.

When starting at Alpha Fitness, we provide our formulated Nutrition Shortcut Training Book that outlines the basics of eating in order to get more energy and decrease body fat, so I thought I’d share some of these principles with you.

Here are the main things you need to know:

Alter Your Mood Simply By Breathing

Inhale… exhale… inhale… exhale…

How do you breathe when you’re feeling sad, stressed and negative?

What’s your posture like and what do you look like? Act it out now.

Now, how do you breathe when you’re feeling happy, relaxed and positive?

What’s your posture like and what do you look like? Act that out now.

It’s pretty different right? Short, shallow and rapid gasps of air when you’re stressed out and slower, controlled, deeper breaths when you’re feeling relaxed.

If you find yourself in a stressed out state often, here’s one really easy and quick breathing drill you can utilise to reduce your stress in just 1-minute:

Step 1. Sit-up straight with your shoulders back and relaxed

Step 2. Inhale for 1 second in through the nose.

Step 3. Exhale for 1 second out through your mouth.

Step 4. Add 1 second to the inhale and exhale each time you do them – Do this for the whole minute or as long as you like.

Bonus: Pick a song that makes you feel good or relaxes you and play it each time you use this breathing technique.

The best part of this technique besides the fact it only takes one minute is that you can do it anywhere, at any time and no one will even know you’re doing it!

Utilise Low GI Foods for Limitless Energy

As you’ve probably already noticed, different foods make us feel different ways after eating them. For example, that greasy, sauce loaded burger from that fast food restaurant down the road is going to leave you feeling a little different to that fresh, homemade, colourful, Moroccan chicken breast and quinoa salad you made the other day.

What’s the difference?

Well, the hangover worthy sauced-up grease burger was loaded with simple carbohydrates or “high GI” carbs, whereas the other was full of nutritious ingredients that included some “low GI” complex carbohydrates. The higher the GI, the bigger the blood sugar spike you get from eating a particular food. Sure, you may get a big hit of energy from that sugar spike, but what happens after it wears off shortly after?

You guessed it! Your energy levels crash and buuuurn.

Bonus: keep the long-lasting energy party going, stick to lower GI foods more often throughout the day. Some great sources of low GI carbs include:

Wholegrain, seedy breads
Most salads foods and green veggies
Most beans and lentils
Wholegrain pasta and brown rice

Try some of those lower GI substitutes next time you’re making a main meal instead of their higher processed counterparts.

Mindful Eating Magic

There’s something magical about stopping to enjoy your food. Often, instead of savouring the gloriousness of the food we’re about to eat, we get distracted by “life” and rush through our meals just like everything else.

When we slow down and enjoy eating food, we can truly switch off from the rest of the world and enjoy something special. You might find that even foods you’ve had many times before taste even better when all you’re thinking about is the flavours and sensations you’re experiencing.

Rather than sitting in front of the TV or devouring your food in 5 seconds flat, savour every bite and enjoy the relaxing meditation of mindful eating, at least for one meal per day.

Use These Movements to Burn Fat and Boost Your Energy Today

What would a guide to burning body fat be without some exercise to get the blood pumping?

Exercise is the closest thing to a magic pill there is ladies. When it comes to de-stressing, improving mood and burning body fat, exercise has the most amazing impact .

Here is a whole body circuit that’s sure to fire up your metabolism and boost your body fat burning potential:

What you need: a pair of light dumbbells

Push presses – perform a ¼ depth squat, then press the dumbbells above your head.
Renegade rows – get into a push-up position holding the dumbbells, then alternately pull each dumbbell up in a rowing motion.
Goblet squats – Holding just one dumbbell close to your chest and your feet set just outside shoulder width apart, perform a full depth squat. Return to the starting position after each rep.

Perform 8 repetitions of each exercise and go for as many rounds as you can in 8 minutes.

This circuit is great for burning lots of calories in a short space of time since it works your whole body!

Throw it in as a finisher on your next cardio day or use it on its own if you’re short on time and want to get in a quick workout.

Note: if you’re unsure on how to perform any of the exercises correctly, try Googling them or searching them on YouTube. Also, if an exercise feels too challenging, simply lower the weight you’re using or try without weight.

So there you have it, boosting energy and burning body fat can be as simple as:

Finding and utilising the right meditation for you
Choosing lower GI foods more often for sustainable energy throughout the day
Practicing mindful eating to help you destress
Kicking up the intensity with your exercise to burn calories and fat

If you’ve been struggling with stress and training for a while now and would like to get some further assistance with decreasing your body fat then send us an email with the subject line “Tone me up!” to – Jake@alphafitness.com.au

Happy Toning!