How to Get Fit and Healthy

How to Get Fit and Healthy Audra Lowe: Our next guest, Jennifer Cohen is an author of Celebrity Fitness Expert and the go-to gal for Smart Fitness Tips and Solutions that can help anybody get in shape without forcing them into the gym. The motto of her business is “No gym required anytime, anywhere. No excuses.” Jen has got some amazing tips and tricks that can help you save money and get you into fabulous shape. She’s got a few things that can help you improve your life right now. It doesn’t take a lot of work right Jen? Jennifer Cohen: That’s right. Audra Lowe: You’ve worked with a lot of celebrities in the past. When you work with celebrities, do you typically have one plan set initially and then just try to tailor it afterwards or do you give everybody their own tailored workout? Jennifer Cohen: Absolutely not. I find that everyone works out the same. The whole conception of this brand was based around the fact that I noticed whenever I would train a celebrity at a gym, at a really high-end gym with every piece of equipment, I’d always gravitate to the corner and use very simple equipment like dumbbells, balls, resistant bands. And I found you’ve got a better workout using those things versus the expensive equipment because those pieces of equipment actually do 30% of the work for you. Audra Lowe: Interesting! I've never heard that perspective. But now you’ve got a couple of tips for other people out there. Again, no gym required, it doesn’t take a lot of money. The first thing that you say is really to try to make it regular. Integrate fitness into your everyday life. Jennifer Cohen: Exactly. Audra Lowe: No matter what. Jennifer Cohen: It’s a lifestyle. So I think once you—with anything like any habit, once you start doing something it becomes very much like second nature for you. So you just have to get the motivation to start. And once you do that if you can build from that place. Audra Lowe: 10-15 minutes a day will that actually do the trick? Jennifer Cohen: Yeah. And in fact actually research has proven that bouts of 15 to 20 minutes of exercise a day can actually be more effective than doing an hour or two hours of duration. And the thing about that is that if you're going to do a 15-minute workout, make it count. And you can wear these shoes, these no-gym required shoes that come with interchangeable weighted mid-sole that actually helps you burn up to 50% more calories by just putting in a heavier weight because you're adding on the resistance. So when you do your exercise, increase the intensity by just doing this small little simple solution. Audra Lowe: No thought working out too. Jennifer Cohen: Right exactly. Audra Lowe: Using the classics, sit-ups, push-ups—the old school things that we did that now people are telling is not to do. Are those really still effective? Jennifer Cohen: I truly believe the back-to-basics approach is for sure the most effective and you can vary it a little bit. But a push up is the greatest upper body exercise that you can do. It works the entire upper body plus it gets your endurance, your stamina and it builds strength. So yeah, I think the basics are way more effective than gimmicks that are out there now. Audra Lowe: But what about interval training, if you don’t have a lot of time if you have a short period of time to get in there and workout is interval training effective? Jennifer Cohen: I think interval training is actually the most effective. When you fluctuate your intensity you end up burning more calories. So try to do a really high intense minute to go down to a regular minute and do that back and forth for 15-20 minutes and you will get to your goal in no time. Audra Lowe: And keep with theme of the busy schedules. You cannot skip your meals either. And is there a really good meal replacement that you’d recommend or what should people do if they’ve got a busy schedule? Jennifer Cohen: What I always tell people that the diet is actually 80% of the battle. And it is extremely important to eat consistently through the day. So if you don’t have time to eat a meal, make sure you have things with you like muscle milk light. Its great, no sugar, lots of protein in that. You can have almonds. There are options that kind of bring things with you throughout the day. Audra Lowe: Alright. Good tips. Thank you so much Jen. Jennifer Cohen: I’ll see you again. Audra Lowe: And for other tips that will help you lose weight and get in shape, you’ve got to get Jen’s book it’s called “No Gym Required” and it’s available now.