Mirror Trainer, Rachel Nicks’ Genius Tips Will Motivate You to Sweat

Movement has been a part of Rachel Nicks’ life since she can remember. One of the lead instructors on the Mirror, Nicks is a certified Hatha yoga, barre, T.R.X., kettlebell, Pilates, prenatal and postpartum fitness instructor.  When she is not pushing you to your fitness limits, she is a certified DONA doula, and a working actress on hit shows like “Grey’s Anatomy.” Her fitness philosophy is all about getting up and moving. She wants you to set goals, but celebrate your strengths instead of obsessing over your weaknesses. “Health is wealth,” Nicks shares. “My goal is to empower people to achieve health from the inside out by equipping them with education, tools, and encouragement.” Nicks sits down with us to talk about staying focused while working from home (without childcare!), her go-to healthy meals, fitness motivation, and top tips for managing stress.  How have things changed for you since COVID-19 hit? Well, I have not been back home to New York City, where I live, since March 14th. When COVID hit, my family made the decision to stay with my parents in California — and are here until January. I’m pregnant and we will have our baby here and spend our maternity and paternity leave here. Living with my parents has been a beautiful and challenging experience. Not knowing when I would return home or where I would give birth was overwhelming. After three months, I needed to make a decision to ease my anxiety. Once we decided to stay and get our own place I was able to feel more settled. I have learned to embrace chaos. Trying to balance work while being pregnant and mothering a 2-year-old is not easy. Then, with the added stress of COVID-19, it can truly be all consuming. Having my son is truly helpful because he forces me to live in the moment.  What are some of your tips to stay focused, especially now? Focus with a 2-year-old and pregnancy brain is interesting! I usually try to get work done when my son is napping and when I feel I have the energy or clarity. I have given myself permission to ask for extensions to deadlines and I have embraced that my phone calls may include a toddler meltdown. I accept my circumstances which helps me focus and not be so stressed about how unique and challenging my circumstances are. It also helps to know that we are all dealing with the same thing so I feel a sense of camaraderie and support.   Do you prefer to workout in the morning or evening?  Mornings are my favorite, but I don’t have that luxury anymore because my husband works the first half of the day. So my workouts these days have consisted of baseball, golf, and chasing my son on a scooter.  How often do you exercise, and what’s your workout of choice? I exercise at least 5 times a week. I try to walk daily to get fresh air. I love variety. I find that different disciplines not only challenge me differently physically, but they impact my mind and spirit differently as well. I love HIIT, kickboxing, pilates, barre, and yoga. Only thing that is not my jam is running. I find other ways to get my cardio in. How do you motivate yourself (and your clients!) to workout?  Just get started. The times you don’t feel motivated is when you really need to move. Movement is medicine. It shifts your energy. I am amazed every time I move how quickly I feel my energy shift and it is always a positive shift.  Don’t wait for the perfect time or the perfect mood. Just move. Try different types of workouts. Vary your workouts. Try to find something you enjoy. Don’t just do something because it’s trendy. There are too many options to dread your workout. If you have children, work out with them. It will teach them to move and it’s fun. It won’t necessarily be a “perfect” workout but who cares. For myself, I get moving when I have some energy or to help boost my mood. I usually try to do some yoga to just connect to my body and breath and release tension and stress.  If you had to name your healthy diet, what would you call it?  I believe in wellness. It’s a lifestyle. I believe in eating fresh, local, and real food. I avoid processed foods and cook as much as I can because I can control what I am putting into my body. I pretty much eat everything. I do not believe in cheat days or punishing myself for eating certain things. Food brings me immense joy. I try to not wait to eat until I am starving. I eat 3 meals a day and have little snacks throughout. I control my portions. I don’t fill my plate. I listen to my body. Your body will tell you what it needs if you listen. Pregnant women aren’t the only ones with cravings. Has it been hard to stay on track with your nutrition while in quarantine?  My father is a Cookie Monster so when I was staying with him, staying out of the pantry was tough. In my home, I avoid stocking my fridge or pantry with a lot of tempting snacks. Now that I am in my own space, I have been doing much better with my nutrition. I also just feel so much better when I avoid a bunch of sugar.  Your go-to breakfast?  Yogurt, fruit and granola. Colder seasons I love oatmeal and berries with honey.  What’s the one food you always have in your fridge? I only get to pick one? I always have eggs, apples, yogurt and almond milk. What do you eat before and after a workout? Before a workout, I’ll have a boiled egg and toast or a piece of fruit. I try to have protein after a workout —and hydrate well. Your favorite food indulgence? I love a good

The Snacks, Workout Rules, and Stress-Relief Practices Chris and Heidi Powell Swear By

You’ve probably seen celebrity trainers Chris and Heidi Powell helping people drop pounds on ABC’s Extreme Weight Loss. The duo gives new meaning to the term power couple—training clients on TV, writing books, and raising four children together—all while staying super fit and healthy. And their app, TRANSFORM with Chris & Heidi, brings their expert approach to weight-loss to anyone with an iPhone. “We guide you (and ourselves) through whatever transformation journey you want to take on,” Heidi says. RELATED: How to Overcome a Weight Loss Plateau While you wait for it to download, find out more about their many healthy habits, below. Unsurprisingly, the pair is pretty in sync when it comes to wellness. How Do Chris and Heidi Powell Live a Nutritious Life? If you had to name your healthy diet, what would you call it? Chris: We call it Carb Cycling. It’s a patterned way of alternating between a high carb/low fat diet some days (to optimize metabolism and muscle development) and a low carb/higher fat diet other days (to maximize fat loss). Beyond the physiological benefits, it also allows a wide variety of meal combinations, to create a lifestyle around foods that you truly enjoy. Heidi: Yes, we carb cycle…but with a very flexible and sustainable twist. Deprivation diets do not work for me or for anyone else that I know. We can lose weight on them for a period of time, but after too long the dam will break and binges can happen. This is how we’ve fallen into that yo-yo dieting pattern repetitively for years. By adding in treats or reward foods to our meal plan occasionally—that still fit within the calorie and macro budget—we finally have freedom with food! What’s your go-to breakfast? Chris: Typically, it’s a protein shake and some high-fiber starch like bran cereal with almond milk or a whole grain bagel. Heidi: My reward food comes at breakfast every day! I do a protein shake (because it’s easy) along with a Starbucks Marshmallow Dream Bar (i.e. a rice crispy treat!). RELATED: Why Fitness Pro Adam Rosante is All About Smoothies (and Cocktails) Your go-to workday dinner? Chris and Heidi: Scrambled egg whites with sea salt and whole grain waffles. Yes, we are one of those breakfast-for-dinner families! What’s the one food you always have in your fridge? Chris: Lean ground turkey. It can be used with a ton of meal combinations from broccoli and cheese to mashed potatoes and gravy, to rice and marinara sauce. Heidi: EXTRA lean ground turkey for me. Same idea, just less fat so I can eat more peanut butter to fulfill my fat requirements each day. Also, unsweetened vanilla almond milk. It tastes so good, and is so low in calories. I cook with it, bake with it, use it in cereal, shakes, etc. The one food you’d never buy? Chris: Soda. Heidi: Whatever your trigger food is. Trigger foods are foods that we cannot eat even once without it triggering bad food behaviors. For some it might be chips, for others this might be chocolate. Know your trigger food and avoid it at all costs! The snack you always have with you when traveling? Chris and Heidi: We never travel anywhere without these 4 items: Protein bars, protein powder, low-fat granola bars, and almonds. RELATED: The 5 Healthiest Protein Bars, Found Your favorite conscious food indulgence? Chris: Homemade chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, and oatmeal raisin cookies. Heidi: Red velvet cupcakes and homemade apple pie. How often do you exercise? Chris: I typically train five to six days a week. My workouts are predominantly powerlifting/bodybuilding style, with a short cross-training style ‘metcon’ at the end of one or two of the workouts. Heidi: I also train five to six days a week. Five days a week of strength and hypertrophy training (iron gym style to sculpt) and one day a week of HIIT with metabolic conditioning circuits. Which workout would you NEVER do? Chris: The Shake Weight. Heidi: Ha! I don’t know of one that I would never try unless it put me in danger. I believe in dating all forms of fitness, even the ones you don’t want to try, to find out what you actually like. You might be surprised! How do you stay active outside the gym? Chris: If there is any activity we do outside the gym, it’s running. Heidi: Are you kidding me? The most active thing I do in LIFE is run around after our four kids. That’s a workout in and of itself! What’s your go-to tool for managing stress? Chris: Without beating a dead horse, it’s working out! For me, sometimes I need to put the boxing gloves on and just hit the heck out of a heavy bag for a while. It helps put my mind back in the right place, and helps me keep my priorities straight. Heidi: A massage! I don’t indulge in very many things in life, but once every couple of months I do a 90-minute massage and just zone out. In fact, I’m overdue for one now. What’s your weirdest healthy habit? Heidi: I like to combine peanut butter with rice and extra lean ground turkey. Sometimes I add a little Sriracha for spice! It sounds weird, but it ends up tasting like a Thai peanut sauce and helps me get in all my macros for the day. Which healthy habit do you wish you had more time for? Heidi and Chris: Stretching! We have neglected flexibility training, and now our muscles are insanely tight. Time for some more yoga. Lightning Round Meditation or massage? Chris: Massage! Heidi: Massage. A hot shower or a soothing bath? Chris: Hot Shower! Heidi: Hot shower. Almond butter or peanut butter? Chris: Peanut Butter! Heidi: Peanut Butter. Coffee or tea? Chris: Coffee! Heidi: Grande iced coffee, with one pump of mocha. A long run outside or a dark spin class? Chris: Long run outside! Heidi: Same…we are made for each other!