Top Mistakes Healthy Women Make

From my experience training women, I find some of the following are the biggest mistakes fit, healthy women make:

1. Only focusing on the short-term. Many women focus on fitting in that wedding dress, pair of jeans or losing weight for an event. It's important to set short-term goals, but the long term lifestyle change is much more important. Once the event is over, motivation wanes. Priority number one is to be fit the rest of our lives. It helps prevent disease and improves quality of life. So don't forget to set long-term goals, like staying off blood pressure medication.

2. Not listening. Be open-minded. Leave all preconceived ideas at the door. When your doctor, trainer or dietitian shares information with you, it's always in your best interest. We're not "selling" you on anything. We are here to help you. So no quick-fixes. No fad diets. Just real-life ways to improve your health and to live longer. Take it and make it part of your life. 

3. Being a cardio queen. Cardio is just one component of fitness. We also need strength-training and flexibility. The combination of all three help us be as healthy as possible. Strength-training is vital for women. It helps prevent osteoporosis as we get older. It's the only way to shape our bodies how we want. And as a bonus, it makes us feel strong and improves our self-esteem. 

Flexibility is necessary to stay limber and prevent injuries. Always stretch at the end of your workouts when your body is warmest. And try yoga, it's going to help you become more flexible, balanced and less stressed in life.

4. Afraid of getting "big". Piggy-backing on the above mistake, many women use wimpy weights while strength-training because they are afraid of getting big, body-builder muscles. Fact: women do not have enough testosterone to get "big". In order to tone, we need to build muscles. Lifting challenging weights will do that and improve our metabolism in the process. 

5. Avoiding complex carbs. Thanks to fad low-carb diets, women are afraid of bread, rice and pasta. While you should stay away from refined carbs (aka white versions), our bodies need about 50-60% of our daily intake from carbs. We need the fuel from complex carbs to power through the day and our workouts. Be smart, choose whole-wheat breads and pastas, brown rice and old-fashioned oatmeal. Your body needs the nutrients from these foods, so eat up.