This is Claudia Aquino and my journey to lose 30 pounds over the age of 50!

One of the question I am asked is “how can I still lose weight during and after menopause?”
Why is it so hard to lose weight you might ask?
Well, one of the reason is that our hormone production is slowing down or shutting down!
Once our ovaries don’t produce efficient amounts of estrogen anymore, our testosterone production also shuts down…
Our adrenal glands deplete since they are also influenced by our ovaries…
That will affect our thyroid output!
Our liver is slowing down which helps with fat metabolism!
All of this will make us sluggish, depressed!
We are getting injuries more easily since the anti inflammatory response of the liver has slowed down!
Doctors will treat you for your hot flashes and depression usually with artificial estrogen, which will cause weight gain!
Hot flashes are caused by your depleted adrenals and thyroid!
You are actually estrogen dominant!
We have to change the way we are thinking about food.
We can not do the same we did while our bodies were full functional…
At this point we have become insulin resistant!
Our bodies can not digest the amounts of carbohydrates it used to…
And it doesn’t matter if you believe this or not, your body will not lose a pound unless you change what you are doing!

Let’s talk about stress!
By the time we reach 50 our bucket to handle stress has reached its limit!!!
Show me one person without adrenal fatigue….
I know no body wants to waste time on meditation or yoga…
But we need to do it!
You can find great meditation on you tube or you can download a application with mediation guidance.
Yoga is a great for injury prevention!
Lift weights!!!
Now that your body barely produces any growth hormone or testosterone anymore, you need to hold on or increase your skeletal muscle!
Work your cardiovascular health!
Not only our bones get brittle, our arteries do too!!!

To start your journey, write down your weight and body fat if you have it!
Measure yourself and keep track!
Measure around the upper stomach just under your rip cage, measure across your belly button, 3 rd measurement will be around your hips at your highest point across your gluteus.

I talk more about your diet in the video below this blog!

I will meet with you 3 times per week!
Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s
Together we can overcome these struggles!
Thank you for joining!
Claudia

Now that we have arrived to our last Week in our 35 Day Challenge we have to recognize our triggers…
Food is a powerful drug when it comes to dealing with emotions!
What have you learned about yourself so far?
Unconscious eating might be one of our pitfalls…
Simple rules might help with that.
1. Don’t buy or keep junk food at home.
2. Ask your family and friends for support.
3. Before you binge on something you later regret out of stress or anger, take 10 deep breaths!
It helps to calm you down, but also is so annoying that you forget about the junk you were trying to put into your body…

Anyway!
Here are your Rules for your last week:

1. No cheating at all!!!
2. 2 Gallons of water per day!
3. Final progress pictures on your last day
of your week 5
4. 840 min or 2 hours daily of working out!
5. Read 20 pages of a none fiction book.
6. Write down final weight and body fat
7. Meditate 15 min daily
8. Stretch for 20 min daily.
9. Drink 1 cup of Ginger Tea and 1 cup of
Dandelion Root Tea daily.
10. Add Electrolytes daily

Be proud how far you made it!!!
You are more powerful and more in control than you think!

I am grateful to say that our Group Training Classes have almost completely filled!
I have 2 spots left for a 7am session and 2 spots for my 4:30pm session!
Weekends at North Decatur availability is Friday at 4pm, Saturday’s and Sunday’s at 10 am!
Thinking about joining the Team?
You might need to do it soon…
Groups are being held at North Rainbow Monday’s through Thursday’s and North Decatur Friday’s through Sunday’s!
All at LVAC the Best Gym around!!!

Here is the link to Week 5 Video
https://youtu.be/Qn_oLmpHbRs

Here is your week 4 of our 5 week challenge!
What have you learned so far?
This is all about knowing your triggers and how to prevent them…
I think for me it is stress related!
I work 7 days per week… I do a ton of research on different subjects.
I try to start my you tube channel so I can give more value…
But I have to admit that I am not superwoman!!!
Working on myself to schedule my time differently so I can maybe have a breather at least one day per week…
I am sure you have recognized your triggers and try to figure out how to not get overwhelmed by them…

Having said that, here are your Rules for week #4

1. No cheating on your diet!
2. 1 1/2 gallons of water daily
3. Progress pictures
4. 630 min of working out or 90 min per
Day or 2 45 min workouts daily
5. Read 10 pages of a none fiction book
6. Write down body fat and weight
7. Meditate 10 min daily
8. Stretch 20 min day
9. Drink 1 cup of ginger tea daily
10. Add electrolytes to your water
You can add additional workouts to accumulate points or add more water.
Save and collect for later!

Here is the link for this weeks video:

https://youtu.be/RRpNkD2sXcA

#weightloss
#fitness

It actually took my 3 attempts before I could post the video…
LVAC is getting busy and it is difficult to record without anyone in the background!
With my own clients I do have written consent which allows me to feature them in my videos…
Random people not so much!
I always start with a good warm up especially since my left shoulder is messed up due to years of pulling weights of the machines…
Simply reach and rotations.
After I feel that my muscles are warmed up and range of motion has increased I start with a barbell shoulder press.
Holding the barbell in the middle with just one hand and pressing overhead while balancing the weight correctly…
I superset these with a isometric dumbbell lateral raise (barbell press 10 reps and dumbbell raise hold for 20 seconds)!
I finish with a wide grip upright row that I only raise to chest height to prevent wrist bending, but also mostly works medial deltoids and less trapezius….
I usually perform 3-4 sets back to back with almost no break!
I finish shoulders with each 10 reps of front raises, lateral raises and bend over rear deltoid flys for 3-4 sets each back to back or as I call it the “burn out”!
My biceps set was a bit short but effective!
10 reps each (no breaks) reverse curls, regular curls (anatomic position), hammer curls… superset with a seated 1/2 way down barbell curl!
The weight was a bit wimpy in this video because I already did this about 3 times (lol)!
My triceps routine was a scull crusher and press combo, alternating and dumbbell kick backs…
In case you want to try these exercises, make sure to use the appropriate weights.
Don’t overload until you get your form down.
If the barbell press is too heavy you can always start with a Dumbbell…
Changing your workout routine will help with sculpting your body and prevent boredom!
Just remember this is not exercise advice!
I post for entertainment purposes only!
You can watch the video right here!
Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day Weekend!
Thank you to everyone that has served and is still serving ??
https://youtu.be/LgnwbSngXuc

Starting of Week #2 in our 35 Day Weight loss Challenge!
Our first week was a very nice and easy introduction.
We know our triggers like stress or certain people that may cause us to fail and eat what shouldn’t be on our list…
Obviously we need to try to prevent these triggers or we need to exchange and adopt a different behavior.
That’s where the meditation suggestions come in!
You can download some on your meditation application or you can simply choose one on You Tube if you like and don’t want to spend money!
Also, after your first week there might not be dramatic differences simply because your body will fight you at first, especially if you have been dieting in the past…
Just keep going!
If you are in a calorie deficit and work out, your body will eventually give in and lose!
So, having said all this I am sharing with you our 2nd Week Rules!
Some are the same….
Some will change…
Some we add…

2nd Week of our 35 Day Challenge Rules:

1. 1 Gallon of Water daily
2. No cheating except a 300 calorie treat
( 200 calories less than last week)
3. Take your progress picture
4. 490 min of working out or 1 hour 10 min
5. Read 10 pages of a none fiction book
6. Write down weight and body fat
7. Meditate 10 min per day
8. Stretch 10 min daily
9. You can add 1 point each for drinking 1/2
Gallon of water in addition, exercise one
Additional hour
10. Use points at the end of our challenge
to reward yourself by treating yourself
to something nice or to compensate
for a missed workout
Thank you so much for reading and watching!

Here is the link to our second video:
Stay tuned for Monday when I share one of my favorite shoulder and arm workout:
https://youtu.be/EbXdWQb7FeE