Last night was Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics which is also the biggest rivalry in basketball history.

In order to win the finals, a team must win 4 games out of a 7 game series. This series went the distance. As you can imagine, a game 7 is pretty intense.

The entire game was extremely intense but in the 4th quarter there was a certain kind of…intensity.

I was almost nervous while watching the game during the last few minutes because you can imagine the pressure the players are feeling. Both teams are so close and desperately want to win and they know that in x amount of minutes they will have won or lost the title. It’s now or never.

Back to us…

I see so many people in the gym reading while barely walking on the treadmill, taking 10 minute breaks between sets, talking on the phone and all sorts of other activities that distract them from the task at hand: exercising!

There’s two ways to burn more calories when it comes to exercise. Increase the duration of your workout or increase the intensity. These days, I don’t have the time, nor do I want to have 2 hour long marathon workout sessions like I used to do in high school and college.

We all have a million other priorities and that’s a challenge in itself – because the first thing we forget about when everything else gets hectic is our health and fitness. However, if you’re going to spend your precious time in the gym or exercising then gym or exercise it up!

Bring that certain kind of intensity!

Here’s how I do it:

What would happen if you were not allowed to exercise for more than 30 minutes a day? Or 45 minutes a day? Or 60 minutes a day? Or even 10 minutes a day?

How would you use those minutes? I guarantee if you timed your workouts you’d have a certain kind of…intensity – that you didn’t have before.

It’s also a lot less daunting knowing that you only have to exercise for x amount of minutes.

Try it. See how it feels.

Ready. Set. Go.

Gotta love the NY Post! Might as well be called NY Gossip. However, there was an article in it yesterday that caught my eye.

From the NY Post:

“Andrea Wernick, a 63-year-old executive recruiter with platinum blond locks, just slipped on a size – 0 bandage dress with the ease of teenage supermodel. Her secret? Wernick, a Type-A Manhattanite who believes that looking great is non-negotiable, works out for a minimum of seven hours a week, no matter what.”

“I have a fabulous body,” says Wernick, proudly.

“I look beautiful. I look better than most 30-year-olds I see.”

Highlights from the article = not my words! I repeat, not my words.

Wernick was smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day in her 40’s. She replaced her ‘obsession’ with working out.

Last month the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study on women and weight gain, tracking some 34,000 women in their 40s, 50s and older over the course of 15 years.

Those women who worked out for 60 minutes every day — or at least seven hours a week — managed to maintain their girlish figures, while those who lagged behind began packing on the pounds.

But is working 7 hours a week actually possible?

It depends entirely on your priorities. She believes it’s absolutely worth the effort.

The study showed exactly what I’ve figured out. It’s just an hour — come on. Post-menopause, working out is vital. There are times when I’m not feeling well but I still go to the gym.

I go anyway, and maybe work at 60 percent instead of 100 percent. I don’t want to look old and I don’t want to act old. People usually assume I’m 10 or 15 years younger than I am because of it. I often outdo the 30-year-olds next to me in class.

I think the point [of the study] is if you don’t work out every day throughout your middle and old age, every year you gain a couple of pounds, and before you know it you’re 30 pounds overweight. [My note: this is known as weight creep. It's not all that noticeable each month or year but after a few years it will be.]

When women say they don’t have time to work out because they have kids or work or have a life, it’s just an excuse. I work, I have kids, I have a life, too, but working out has been my priority. There really are no excuses.

I don’t know what happened to the people who are my age. They got old and fat. I think that people just give up. They get married, and they think it’s not important to keep in shape — until their husbands cheat on them. I want to stay hot.

***(My words now)

While you may not like what they said, or how they said it, or agree with anything or everything these women said I think there are a few valid points and a few very important missing ones:

1. Priorities: Whatever you make time for gets done. If something is really important to us, we’re able to get it done. Naturally, less important things slide down the list. What does your list look like? Here’s a question: What are your top 5 priorities? Top 3?

2. Not every workout has to be a banner workout. Woody Allen said it best. “80% of success is showing up.” Just do something. Anything.

3. What this article doesn’t talk about is the army of people these “real housewives” employ which isn’t fair.

4. Diet is 80% of the battle. This is hugely important. In fact, it’s everything. Working out for 60 minutes and burning, say, 600 calories per hour doesn’t mean anything if you eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s each day on top of what you already eat.

5. It doesn’t talk about the daily battles EVERYONE faces. It just talks about the results. Never compare your inside to someone else’s outside. It’s always a battle. It’s always work.

6. It’s never too late to start. Ever!

7. Health and fitness is a huge priority to these women so they don’t feel bad investing in it.

Interesting aside! I had the crazy idea of trying to talk with one of these women. So I fired up Google – and I was able to reach one of them!

I told her I was doing research for my blog – which I was – and I also told her about my company. Long story short, she proved me right: She signed up!!! (She loves the idea of daily accountability with her food.)

But the real point is that she’s willing to invest in her health, diet and fitness and so are all these women.

I think that’s a crucial switch that has to happen: Expense Vs. Investment.

Want ice cream? But you also like grapes? The ice cream costs $6. The grapes are an investment of $6. See the difference?

I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. Just another day in the life of a Body Tutor. Someone has to do it, right?

Make it count guys!

I hope your weekend wasn’t as snowy as mine. In NYC, we got about a foot. I love snow, however, because I’m not a student, and the possibility of school being canceled is no longer an option, it’s not all that exciting once it turns to slush.

If anything, it adds to the stress some of us are facing – especially the week of Christmas as it only makes holiday shopping that much more difficult.

A good solution is to engage in some activities like exercise that aid in reducing anxiety as this time of year is certainly riddled with it!

So, how exactly does exercise make you less anxious?

Well last month, at the annual meeting of neuroscience in Chicago, preliminary results were presented. One group of rats were allowed to run while the other one wasn’t.

Then all of the rats were forced to swim in cold water, which they don’t like to do.

Afterward, the scientists examined the brains of all the rats. They found that the stress of the swimming activated neurons in all of the brains. The researchers could tell which neurons were activated because the cells expressed specific genes in response to the stress.

But the youngest brain cells in the rats that ran, that scientists assumed were created by running, were less likely to express the genes. They generally remained quiet.

According to the researchers, “the cells born from running appeared to have been specifically buffered from exposure to a stressful experience.” Through running, the rats had created a brain that seemed biochemically calm!

For years it has been known that exercise enhances our mood.

In another experiment done at the University of Colorado in Boulder, it proved that rats who had run prior to being exposed to a laboratory stressor, were less anxious and helpless despite the stress.

According to Michael Hopkins, a graduate student at Dartmouth, “It looks more and more like the positive stress of exercise prepares cells and structures and pathways within the brain so they’re more equipped to handle stress in other forms.”

Which means that what you do physically (exercise wise) absolutely affects your mental capacity to deal with stress! This is incredible.

(Two for the price of one. Make yourself physically and mentally stronger at the same time. I won’t even get into all of the other benefits of exercise for your future self and your current self!)

However, these changes don’t happen overnight. Rats that only ran for 3 weeks didn’t show much change. But those that did for 6 weeks or more did. Something happens between 3 and 6 weeks – another reason why it’s essential to keep on going!

They’ve only tested the benefits of aerobic exercise like running, walking, biking or swimming.

According to doctors you may not feel the change after your first session of cardio. However, in the long run the molecular biochemical changes that will occur are profound!

In short: Aerobic exercise *consistently* will make you less anxious and help you deal with stress better in the future.

As it’s getting cold outside these workout tips and tricks keep entering my mind. We’re also smack in the middle of the holiday season and everyone seems to be extra ‘busy’ so hopefully these tip will help too.

1. Go directly to the gym on the way home from work, if possible. Bring a gym bag with you. Going home and then changing and then re-bundling up is going to make it that much harder for you. So just go directly there!

2. Workout before you shower. Since time is limited (when is it not though?) – instead of having to shower 2x per day, just plan your workouts before you shower.

3. If you’re going to a holiday party – make it a rule that you must workout that day. Whether it’s in the morning, afternoon…get it done. It’ll help you feel fantastic and you won’t want to throw in the towel on your diet.

4. Never go to a holiday party hungry. But we know this. This is by far the most important rule.

5. Instead of just cooking one healthy meal at a time like chicken, etc., why not cook a large batch one time? Put the extra in the fridge and viola – you have healthy meals ready to go and for when you come home (maybe a little tipsy from a party) and want something nutritious.

6. Work out!

Exercise – if you push yourself enough – will make you feel fantastic. It will also make you realize that you work very hard in the gym and you won’t want to negate all that hard work outside of the gym.

I find I enjoy eating healthfully more when I’m consistently exercising because I want my body to recover as good as it can by feeding it what it really wants – which feels really good.

What a great tip you say. Workout! Duh.

But I mean, even if you do 20 push ups or jumping jacks before you go to a party, it’ll help a lot.

7. Piggy back it! The more you plan ahead, the better. Go to the gym after you do errands, etc., is obvious but not really (or else we’d all do it). Doing this has made it almost impossible to skip workouts! Piggy back it. Do it after something. On your way home! On your way somewhere.

8. Don’t leave things until the last minute. When you’re stressed your mind doesn’t or can’t grasp anything and in turn you won’t do anything. Buy your gifts now if you haven’t. Do your work that might be due by year-end. The more you plan ahead, the less stressed you’ll be!

Think about what you can do the next few weeks to make it as easy as possible for you to feel as good as possible!

In other words, set yourself up!