Kim Lyons 12-week fitness program, Kim has been physically active and a competitive athlete her entire life. She ran track, played softball, and participated in cheerleading. After graduating from college in 1995, Kim took a more serious approach to weight training while battling her own weight issues.
Her life changing experience prompted her to attend the National Academy of Sports Medicine where she became a personal trainer. She segued into fitness competitions and quickly won national and international titles such as the Galaxy Competition in 2000. She would then earn her IFBB Pro card in 2002, identifying her as one of the top fitness competitors in the world.
Kim moved to California and worked both as a personal trainer and a model. She modeled and wrote for several fitness magazines and hosted infomercials. In 2004, her agent encouraged her to audition for The Biggest Loser. When she walked into the audition, the room was filled with hundreds of trainers all with managers and professional press kits.
“I thought, what am I doing here? I’m just a trainer. I’m not a Hollywood girl,” recalls Kim.
Despite her uncertainty, Kim was selected out of hundreds of applicants for her knowledge and reputation as a trainer and nutritional consultant. Since season three, she has been coaching her team to weight loss success and giving them the tools for a healthy lifestyle.
Kim is now offering those same tools for effective weight loss and fitness in a 12-week program. The program concentrates on developing healthy habits that will keep you healthy for life. With this program, she says her goal is to inspire and educate people to reach their optimum physical, mental, and emotional fitness goals. In order to achieve those goals she believes in “good old fashion hard work and proper nutrition. There are no excuses, period.” She uses a combination of time efficient, fat burning circuit workouts and a healthy eating plan you can use for the rest of your life.
THE FITNESS TRIANGLE
In fitness, there are three elements that need to be in balance: cardiovascular work, resistance training, and flexibility training. Kim says to think of these elements as “legs on a triangle.” When one of them is neglected or overdone the triangle becomes unbalanced or lopsided. In order to have an effective fitness program each element has to be in balance to achieve a fit, healthy body.
Resistance training - Cardio is not the only element that burns calories. Resistance training also burns tons of calories, especially during the “afterburn” that occurs in the days following your workout. It improves strength, coordination, balance, and reduces the risk of many diseases, and adds quality lean muscle to your frame.
Cardiovascular training – Cardio trains your heart, lungs, and circulatory system to work better and more efficiently. It also reduces stress and anxiety, decreases blood pressure, and most of all burns calories.
Flexibility training – This form of training increases your range of motion while you are working out and helps to decrease risk of injury. Kim suggests 10 – 15 minutes of stretching after every workout.
Kim cautions against overtraining. Some signs of overtraining include: insomnia, diminished strength, energy, and decreased appetite. It is important to give your body a chance to rest. Kim recommends two full days off every week and no more than 60 minutes per workout session. This will allow your body to rebuild and repair your muscles and tissues.
NUTRITION BASICS
In fighting the battle against the bulge, Kim says forget about fad diets that can stress your body and wreak havoc on your metabolism and body composition. In order to lose weight and keep if off you need a balanced diet and exercise. Good nutrition can seem complicated, but it really is not. The most basic nutritional elements are proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Each of your meals should contain all three of these elements for you to lose weight and keep if off.
Proteins – Kim suggests lean beef, skinless chicken breasts, shellfish, egg whites, and 99 percent fat free ground turkey or beef. Avoid full fat hard cheese and cream cheeses, bacon, high fat ground beef and full fat milk. It is important to eat a protein with each meal since proteins promote a sense of fullness, provides energy, and stabilizes blood sugar. Your protein should be about the size of a deck of cards in length and width.
Carbohydrates – Despite popular belief, carbohydrates are not evil. They are necessary and an important nutrient to the human body. Carbohydrates are the number one source of energy to feed the metabolism. In order to lose fat you have to eat carbohydrates. Eat higher glycemic carbs (crackers, white rice, fruit juice) earlier in the day and lower glycemic carbs (brown rice, sweet potatoes, oatmeal) in the afternoon and evening. Your high glycemic carbs such as fruit and potatoes should be about the size of a baseball or about 1 cup in volume.
Fats – Dietary fat is not the same as body fat. Fats help the body absorb vitamins A, D, E, and K. Kim recommends avocado, raw nuts (almonds, cashews, and peanuts), olive oil and fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, and herring). Avoid fats such as egg yolks, butter, ice cream, and full fat mayonnaise. Saturated and trans fats are bad for your health. These fats have been linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes. One tablespoon serving of peanut butter is a perfect serving of fat for one meal.
And, of course don’t forget your veggies. You should have about 1 cup of veggies with each meal.
Also, make sure you drink water and plenty of it. You should drink about a half a gallon a day, more if possible. Just a few of the benefits of drinking water include: decreased appetite, improved liver function, and increased energy levels. To keep from “crashing” and feeling tired, hungry or crabby, spread your calories out through the day. Kim says you should be eating something every 3 – 4 hours. Your daily calories will be broken up into three meals and two snacks daily.
