In order to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you take in. The good news is that you don’t have to exercise all those calories away because our bodies use most of the calories just to function normally (Whew!). However, if you don’t burn off the calories that your body is not using for its regular daily activities, they will be stored as excess fat (a big “No-No”).

What’s the quickest and easiest way to get moving? Just walk. Walk around the block, to the store, in the mall, up the stairs, in the park, on the treadmill…any where. Walking is my favorite form of exercise because it requires minimal equipment (just a good pair of shoes), it’s completely free (don’t have to pay a gym membership), and you can do it anywhere at any time. What more can you ask for?

Steps For Starting a Walking Program

(1) Invest in a good pair of walking shoes.
There are several different types of shoes (for over-pronators, flat feet, trail walking, etc.), so ask for help at your local shoe retailer if you’re not sure what will work best for you. My personal fave is the Asics Gel Series Shoes. These shoes are usually only about 60 bucks, and they’re good for most walkers.

Asics Gel

(2) Find a good sports bra.
We don’t want the “ladies” to be uncomfortable now do we? Enough said. Try the Champion® Seamless T-Back Sports Bra. It’s made from a great fabric called Double Dry that wicks sweat away from your skin, so it keeps you cool and dry while walking.This is by far my absolute favorite product.

My Favorite Sports Bra

(3) Start nice and slow.
If you haven’t been exercising regularly, you don’t want to try and break Olympic records on your first day of walking. Spend about 10-15 minutes walking at a comfortable pace 3 to 4 times a week. Begin to add 5-10 minutes to your walks each week until you work yourself up to 30-45 minutes as often as you can fit into your schedule. Once you feel comfortable with this program and it even starts to feel a little easy (Yea!), start to speed up your pace. Ultimately, you should aim to walk at a speed of at least 4.0 miles per hour (easy to program on treadmill) which equates to walking 1 mile every 15 minutes.

(4) Drink plenty of water before, during, and after your walk.
This will keep you from dehydrating, and it just helps you feel refreshed.

These tips were brought to you by Amber O’Neal, Certified Personal Trainer and Owner of Café Physique, a fitness and nutrition company specializing in studio and in-home personal training, yoga & pilates and nutrition counseling in Metro Atlanta. For more information, please visit www.CafePhysique.com.

Most people who go on diets gain back any of the weight that they’ve lost. This is because it is very difficult to maintain a strict eating regiment and because dieting often disrupts our bodies’ natural metabolism.

We often start diets with the thought that we will suffer through some type of unnatural eating plan for a set period of time and then we will go back to our old habits after losing the weight and finishing the diet. In these cases, we haven’t really addressed our underlying reasons for why we eat and how we view food and self-care.

In terms of metabolism, when we follow strict diets that don’t meet all of our body’s needs, our body makes metabolic adjustments that make it increasingly difficult for us to lose weight. Our body becomes very efficient, and we then have to eat less and less and less in order to continue to lose weight. The fact that the same diet becomes less effective over time, makes it nearly impossible to stick with.

So, if diets don’t work, what is the answer? The key lies in making lifestyle changes (not temporary quick fixes) that honor your body. This is not an easy process, but it is fulfilling and life-altering.

Whenever we hear that diets don’t work, experts worry that people will interpret that to mean that they should just eat whatever they want and hope for the best. That is not the case at all. Many in the health and fitness industries have simply found that scripted diet plans rarely ever result in permanent weight loss. Many have witnessed the disappointment and embarrassment that typically accompany failed weight loss attempts, and now many are also seeing the wonderful life changes that result in self-care and making peace with food.

Brought to you by Amber O’Neal, Certified Personal Trainer and Owner of Café Physique, a fitness and nutrition company specializing in studio and in-home personal training, yoga & pilates and nutrition & wellness counseling in Metro Atlanta. For more information, please visit www.CafePhysique.com.

As people age over time their faces begins to deflate or lose its fullness. Older facelift techniques do not restore the youthful volume in the cheeks and under the eyes and around the smile areas of the face which can result in that stretched look giving signs of someone having plastic surgery.

Fat grafting has become a procedure of choice for many plastic surgeons to correct an array of these many problems, including scarring, lip plumping, and sever facial depressions in and around the nasal labial folds and eyes.

Answer: Of course it is difficult to address your personal situation without a one on one consultation. In general as we age our skin starts to sag and we loose fat (fat adiposity). As skin sags accompanied with the daily stressors and free radicals we start to see fine lines and wrinkles which can turn into deeper depressions without preventative measures.

We normally see fine lines appearing in the forehead area, glabella area (between the eyes) and crows feet. These areas can typically be treated preventatively with BOTOX Cosmetic to prevent further lines and deeper depressions. If the area is left unattended the fine lines can become a wrinkle and a deeper depression which will require further attention. A dermal filler may be needed to fully address and correct the concern.

To address fat loss, normally occurring under the eyes, cheeks, nasiolabial and marinette lines, dermal filler can be discussed in detail. There are several fillers which will be discussed during consultation to determine your specific needs. Please refer to the table below for reference.

One important reminder is: upkeep and prevention along with a healthy diet and a skin care regiment, is also helpful. You can discuss all of these items during your consultation with Dr. Bootstaylor and her staff.

Contact us with your questions and concerns and we will answer you either on the Blog or via email. ~ Atlanta APC Plastic Surgery~

Remind Yourself of Your Goals – Start thinking about why you started exercising in the first place and what the end results will be. Do you want to lose a certain amount of weight? Get more toned? Have more energy? A quick reminder of why exercise is important to you can be just the motivation that you need to eek out another set of reps.

Plan on Reducing Your Workout – If you feel that you won’t have the energy to do your complete routine, tell yourself that you will just do half of the work out. If you usually jog four miles, plan on just doing two. If you are weight-training that day, focus on just doing the compound exercises while leaving out the isolation exercises. Once you get going, you might discover that you actually have the energy to do your full workout.

Don’t Go Next Time – Give yourself permission to skip the next work out but not this one. If the next work out rolls around and you still don’t feel like going, you actually might be doing yourself some good by skipping it. Feeling consistently turned off by exercise is usually a sign of overtraining, and giving your body more time to rest can actually help you reach your fitness goals faster.

The trickiest part of any exercise plan is motivation. You can know all of the exercises and the proper techniques, but if you aren’t inspired enough to get to the gym, it won’t do you much good. Figure out what motivates you most, and make sure that you use that motivation to hold yourself accountable for regular physical activity. I’m not opposed to an occasional self-bribe either. It goes something like this, “If I workout at least 4 times this week, I’m going to treat myself to a spa pedicure next Friday after work.” Just make sure that your rewards are not food-based, and you’ll be good to go.

Brought to you by Amber O’Neal, Certified Personal Trainer and Owner of Café Physique, a fitness and nutrition company specializing in studio and in-home personal training, yoga & pilates and nutrition & wellness counseling in Metro Atlanta. For more information, please visit www.CafePhysique.com.

Bedtime Benefits
Exercise is known for causing the brain to produce chemicals that reduce stress, evoke feelings of happiness and increase libido. Studies show that couples who exercise regularly report better, and more frequent, sex with their partners. This is a huge motivator!

Through Sickness & Health
Couples recognize that working out together is an effective way to demonstrate a commitment to their wedding vows before they even take them. By taking care of their bodies, they show that they care about being their best for each other and that they’ll do what it takes to stay healthy and strong.

Accountability
When schedules start getting crazy before the big day, workouts are often among the first things to be let go in a quest for more time. Working out solo becomes increasingly more difficult because it’s much easier to break an appointment when no one is counting on you to be there. By working out together, and paying a trainer to be there with you, couple have a heightened level of accountability to each other – and to the trainer. This ensures that all of those extra cake-tasting calories don’t go straight to the hips (or tummy) before the wedding.

The Dress
This may be the #1 motivator for women to work out in the months leading up to their weddings, and oftentimes the men in their lives agree to join them in an effort to be (or at least appear…) supportive. Every bride wants to feel beautiful on her special day, and this often involves making it through a series of dress fittings with the hopes that bare shoulders and toned arms win out in the end.

by Amber O’Neal

This video helps explain how to properly self-administer Lovenox treatments but is not a replacement for the clinical care documentation that will be provided following surgery.

Introducing our new office located in Conyers, GA at 1501 Milstead Rd

And our new location in Lawrenceville, GA at 558 Old Norcross Rd.

Dr. Lisa Bootstaylor is Georgia’s first Board Certified African American Female Plastic Surgeon. She specializes in facial, body and breast cosmetic plastic surgery with emphasis on scar minimization.

As with any cosmetic surgery, there are potential risk of side effects such as poor scaring, bruises, and swelling. To minimize these possible results there is a massage technique used at Elements Therapeutic Massage for our clients recovering from cosmetic surgery called Lymphatic Drainage Massage (LDM.) The benefits of LDM are sure to enable clients to make a smoother transition to a full recovery.

What is the Lymphatic System?

One of the eleven systems that make up our human anatomy consists of the Lymphatic System. This system is responsible for carrying excess fluid, proteins, bacteria, and waste materials from the tissues, thus cleansing the tissues of debris. Once fluid and particles enter the lymphatic system they are called lymph. The lymph is transported to lymph nodes where it is cleansed and filtered and then it is returned to the blood stream. The lymphatic system plays an important role in the body’s defense against infection.

In the healing phase following surgery, waste products can build up in the local tissues. These waste products can increase and prolong inflammation, swelling, and pain during the healing phase. LDM improves lymph flow and accelerates the removal of these waste products, and thus can speed up healing.

What is Lymphatic Drainage Massage (LDM) Therapy?

Lymphatic Drainage Massage is a technique used to provide relief from edema, an accumulation of fluids in the tissues that causes swelling. It is a gently, rhythmic style of massage that stimulates the immune system and improves the appearance of the skin. LDM is used before and after surgery, to help speed up healing and reduce edema/swelling. It increases blood flow and can reduce scar tissue. During LDM, muscles relax, heart and breathe rate decrease, and clients move into a state of relaxation that promotes healing and balance. Symptoms like fatigue, mild depression, and chronic soft-tissue pain call for the gentleness of lymph massage. It will stimulate the immune system and has an energizing effect on the body’s vital energy. Scar tissue becomes smaller, smoother, more flexible and stronger with LDM.

How is LDM applied?

• Usually, the first session of lymphatic drainage massage will consist of a consultation with the therapist, at which time the therapist can determine how many treatments you will need as well as how those treatments will be implemented.

• LDM is a series of very gentle, rhythmic massage strokes that increases the transport of lymph flow through the tissues. Every stroke is very light, not as heavy as the strokes of a Swedish massage. The goal of LDM is to reroute the lymph fluid around areas that are blocked and gently move it into areas with healthy lymph vessels where the lymph fluid can drain normally.

• Excessive pressure is undesirable. Each stroke consists of an active phase and a resting phase. During the active phase, pressure is gradually increased, stimulating the skin in a particular direction.

• This is followed by a slow, controlled decrease in pressure into the resting phase. Each stroke is directed towards the regional lymph nodes to stimulate appropriate lymphatic flow. Strokes last a few seconds and are repeated five to ten times in each area. LDM can be started several days after surgery and a patient can undergo several, to a few, treatment sessions.

Benefits of Lymphatic Drainage Massage (LDM):

• Decreases edema (swelling)
• Enhances the action of the immune system
• Reduces pain
• Improves skin health
• Promotes deep relaxation
• Speeds healing of injuries
• Decreases scar tissue
• Minimizes scar formation

When to have a Lymphatic Drainage Massage (LDM):

• Lymph edema
• Post-mastectomy edema
• Pre and Post Surgery
• Inflammatory conditions such as sprains, strains, and muscle tears

When it’s NOT safe to have Lymphatic Drainage Massage (LDM):

• Congestive Heart Failure
• Serious circulatory problems
• During acute infections and inflamed illnesses
• Untreated, malignant tumors

Best Candidates for this Massage:

• Patients who want to experience a speedy and smoother recovery from cosmetic surgery.
• Patients with postoperative swelling find LDM to be very soothing and effective in its resolution.

*If you are looking for additional assistance to make your transition from surgery a lot easier, an LDM trained therapist at Elements Therapeutic Massage would be happy to service your LDM road to recovery. Elements Therapeutic Massage is located in the Berkeley Heights Plaza, 1700 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA 30326. The phone number to Elements is 404-389-0494. Call today and one of our client coordinators will make you an appointment.

a. Water is FREE! – Skip flavored drinks. Water is a natural diuretic and often suppresses hunger. Drinking water instead of soda or juice makes a huge difference on your calorie intake.

b. Purchase fresh fruits and veggies from the farmers’ market, wash them, cut them up and store in bags or a container. Look for fruits and vegetables that are in season because they typically cost less.

c. If the farmers market isn’t convenient, buy frozen fruits & veggies because they don’t go bad as quickly as fresh ones, and their nutrient content remains nearly the same.

d. Carry a cooler to work with an ice pack to avoid eating from the cafeteria and vending machine. It’s also easier to eat healthy when you prepare your own foods because you know exactly what’s in them.

e. When making lunch at home try to make enough for 2 days. Cook in bulk and freeze – saving time and money.

f. Cut coupons for you favorite meals.

g. Buddy up with someone else at work and bring food together or alternate days.

h. Buy meats in bulk and separate them into individual freezer bags after you get home.

i. Instead of buying small prepackaged snacks, buy snacks by the bag and then divide your portions into smaller snack size baggies. You remain portion control conscience and save money at the same time.

These tips were brought to you by Amber O’Neal, Certified Personal Trainer and Owner of Café Physique, a fitness and nutrition company specializing in studio and in-home personal training, yoga & pilates and nutrition counseling in Metro Atlanta. For more information, please visit www.CafePhysique.com. A collaboration between Atlanta APC Plastic Surgery and Cafe Physique.