Posts Tagged ‘Diet’
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
Who wants to lose weight? Who wants to help save the environment? What if I told you that it is possible to do both of these things at once? If we take a look at our diets, there is an easy way to lose weight, be healthier, and help reduce your carbon footprint. The average American diet now consists of tons of processed foods and lots of meat and dairy products. Both of these factors into a higher carbon footprint and both of these factors contribute to the rise in obesity in the United States. Simply put, it requires more energy to produce meat and dairy products than it does to grow fruits, vegetables, and grains, and it requires more energy for companies to make processed foods than it does for you to eat whole foods. I want to make it clear that I am not trying to force vegetarianism or veganism on anybody, that is a choice that every individual must make for themselves, and truth be told I still enjoy eating meat and having dairy products. The key is to limit your consumption of these products. This is also not saying that eating meat or dairy products is unhealthy; in fact it is quite the opposite as they are a wonderful source of protein and contain all of the essential amino acids our bodies need. However, as a whole Americans consume roughly 30% of your daily caloric intake from meat & dairy products which is far more than is necessary.
As we grow up we are constantly told what is healthy for us; whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Yet when we become adults and get to make all of our own food choices, we don’t always tend to make the healthiest choices. Besides, it is far easier to go to a fast food joint for something quick to put in our stomachs (I cannot in good conscience call it “food”) or go to the grocery store and buy a premade dinner that has chemicals in it that you cannot pronounce. I don’t think that I’m a breaking any new ground by saying that getting ingredients from your local farmers market, your own garden, or a farm-share program and cooking with them is a far more healthy alternative. A good rule to follow is that if a food item has anything in it that you cannot identify (mixed tocopherols or potassium bromate, e.g.) then you probably shouldn’t be putting it in your body. Whenever possible you should use locally sourced ingredients as they will be fresher (translation: tastier) and you will be able to reduce your carbon footprint that much more. When you go into your local grocery store’s fruit and vegetable section, the labels should tell you at the very least the country of origin of that fruit and vegetable.
Meat used to be considered a delicacy; a special treat reserved for special occasions or as a status symbol for those who could afford to eat it every day. Now, thanks to the industrialization of the meat industry meat is plentiful and cheap. This is good news for our bank accounts but unfortunately it is also bad news for our world. It takes significantly more energy to produce a cow or pig then it does to grow crops. That is because not only do we have to grow our crops to feed ourselves, but now we also have to grow crops to feed our animals as well. Not only do we have to spend energy on growing feed crops for our animals, we also have to use fertilizers and pesticides to make sure that the crops come in on time and whole. Then you add in the methane (another big greenhouse gas) that these animals produce as a byproduct of their digesting the crops that we’ve fed them with. If you’re interested in reading about the carbon footprint of a cheese burger (and it is more than a little depressing), Jamais Cascio has written an excellent article on that. Carbon Footprint of a Cheeseburger.
We know how to eat healthy, it just requires more effort. We know we want the world to survive so that our children and grandchildren can enjoy it, it just requires more effort. I’m not expecting every reader to immediately become a vegetarian and only eat locally sourced produce. However, I do want everyone to take a look at their diet and think about how they can change it for the better. Maybe you simply eat less meat or maybe you buy a share in a farming-coop.
I hope to be doing a continuing series on how to eat healthier and save the environment at the same time. Please leave comments in the comment section if you have any tips or any questions about what you can do!
Tags: carbon footprint, cooking, Diet, environment, Fitness, Oregon, Personal Trainers, Personal Training, Portland, The Biggest Loser, Weight loss
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Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
If staying in shape were easy, it wouldn’t be called “working out” when we exercise. That “work” part is tough because we already have so much to do in our hectic lives, we often don’t want to put the tough effort it takes to stay in shape. So today I thought I’d share with you 10 good reasons to keep yourself motivated and working hard when you exercise!
1.) When your body is fit, your confidence is generally sky high!
2.) If you are feeling stressed out, nothing relieves stress quite like taking your frustrations out on exercise.
3.) Look better naked! Let’s face it, we are all generally our own worst critics and if we feel comfortable in our own skin we will be more comfortable with everything else!
4.) Better sex. Tying into #3, when we look better naked, we have more confidence in our abilities.
5.) There are 168 hours in the week, workout hard for 3 of them and feel the benefit for the other 165 hours!
6.) Set goals and then meet them! Nothing feels better than reaching that long time goal, whether it is to lose 20 lbs or to be able to squat 300 lbs. Setting goals will help keep you on track as well!
7.) Live life the way you want to! Your fitness level should never dictate what you can or can’t do! If you work hard, then you can do anything you set your mind to!
8.) Exercise keeps you young! I’ve seen 30 year olds who look like they’re 60 because they don’t take care of themselves. Conversely, I’ve seen people in their 60s who look like they are in their 30s because they constantly are challenging their bodies!
9.) Exercise makes you happier! When do you feel better, 30 minutes after a good workout or 30 minutes after you eat a whole box of donuts?
10.) When you look and feel your best, you are at your best! Never settle for what you have now, aim high!
Tags: achievements, Diet, Exercise, Fitness, Gyms, Oregon, Personal Trainers, Personal Training, Portland, six-pack, The Biggest Loser, Weight loss
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Friday, February 19th, 2010
When we are trying to lose weight, one of the hardest areas to control is our snacking. Controlling portions at meals tends to be easier than controlling portions of snacks. A meal, even a portion controlled meal, is generally filling and leaves us feeling satisfied. A snack however is not meant to do that. A snack is meant to give us a little bit of energy and tide us over until our next full meal. A client of mine recently asked for a list of good healthy snacks, so I thought I would share with you what I came up with. In general, snacks should fall into the following categories: 1. Fruits & Vegetables. 2. Nuts & Seeds. 3. Low Fat Dairy products. 4. Whole Grains. The following are snacks that you can feel good about eating. This is in no way a complete list of healthy snacks, but should give you a nice starting point.
Fruit & Vegetables:
- Apple Slices with either 1 tbs peanut butter or 1 small slice of cheddar cheese.
- Ants on a log. 2 pieces of celery with thinly spread peanut butter and raisins on top.
- 1 Banana with a small handful of mixed nuts (Almonds & Walnuts are especially good).
- Carrots & Celery. Go nuts with these guys if you’re eating them plain. You will get full long before you ruin your diet with these high fiber low calorie vegetables.
Nuts & Seeds:
- 1 Handful of mixed nuts (approximately ½-3/4 a cup).
- Roasted Pumpkin seeds. My favorite recipe is to roast them with some curry powder.
- Sunflower Seeds (watch the salt content if you buy these in a store).
Low Fat Dairy Products:
- Single serving of Yogurt with ¼ cup granola. Watch the sugar count for both the yogurt and granola. I go with plain low fat yogurt and homemade granola.
- String Cheese with a single piece of lean lunchmeat. String Cheese isn’t just for kids any more, it is a delicious low calorie snack.
- Cottage Cheese with a slice of cantaloupe.
Whole Grains:
- 1 Small whole grain pita with hummus.
- 4 whole grain crackers with 2 small slices of low fat cheese.
Tags: cooking, Diet, Fitness, goals, Inches, Oregon, Personal Trainers, Personal Training, Portland, Snacks, The Biggest Loser, Weight loss
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Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
The other day I was watching some TV and a strange commercial came on. You may have seen this one before; it is a Taco Bell commercial that is advertising their food as a healthy alternative to other fast foods. Watching this commercial I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Taco Bell was introducing their own version of Subway’s Jerad, only instead of an average looking guy they had a good looking girl in a bikini. Taco Bell, the restaurant where I have personally seen everything from beans, cheese, and even ground beef being put onto a taco with a caulking gun was advertising themselves as healthy. Naturally, I was a little skeptical so I decided to do a little bit of research on their “Drive Thru Diet.”
The first thing I noticed was the fine print in the ad. Give Taco Bell’s lawyers some credit because they were working hard to cover their own ass. First, their spokeswoman (hereby to be referred to as Female Jerad) mention that “these results aren’t typical, but for me they were fantastic.” They also add in the fine print that their Drive Thru Diet “is not a weight loss program” and that these items are “not a low-calorie food.” So despite the commercial’s obvious intention of have Female Jerad convince us that we can also lose weight by choosing healthy Taco Bell options, all of the fine print and legalese put into the ad makes sure to tell us that this probably won’t work. Oh yeah, Female Jerad also mentions that she started making “other sensible choices.” Could these “other sensible choices” involve exercising more and eating healthier food when not gorging herself on Taco Bell? It also doesn’t tell us how often Female Jerad was eating at Taco Bell. If you generally have a healthy diet, making the occasional (1 per week or less) trip through the fast food drive-thru will not kill your diet (ed note: not that I approve of fast food, but realistically it is OK to have it once in awhile). Clearly, Taco Bell’s ad executives and lawyers are trying to pull a fast one on us by making Taco Bell appear healthy without actually telling us that it is healthy (because the lawyers know that they would eventually get sued for that).
With this commercial Taco Bell is advertising their new Fresco line of foods which all have less than 9 grams of fat. However despite having less fat than their other offerings, these Fresco products do not have significantly fewer calories than their more fat filled brethren (remember they have already told us that they are not a low-calorie food). The Crunchy Taco Supreme is 200 calories; the Fresco version cuts that to 150. The Fresco burrito supreme with steak keeps it at 330 calories, while the normal version hits 380. That is a mere 50 calorie difference between Fresco and full fat Taco Bell. Now obviously that can add up, especially given that my experience is that no one goes to Taco Bell for one burrito or one taco. If you were to go to Taco Bell (and again, I don’t recommend this), I would recommend looking at the Fresco menu first, but that doesn’t mean that it is healthy. Just because something is less bad for you doesn’t mean that it is good for you. If you want to lose weight then you do need to start watching what you eat and making “sensible choices.” The most sensible choice you could make? Give up your fast food and eat something real!
Tags: abs, Diet, Fitness, Inches, Oregon, Personal Trainers, Personal Training, Portland, Taco Bell, The Biggest Loser, TV, Weight loss
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Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
December can be one of the hardest times to workout. The days are the shortest, it has really started to get cold outside, and there is so much preparation needed for the holidays. Very quickly one missed workout can become several missed workouts which can become weeks of missed workouts. Throw in the extra calories from Christmas cookies and holiday parties and you are looking at a waistline disaster. That is why for December, you should try extra hard to keep a routine going. Make sure you are staying active with at least 35 minutes of aerobic activity every day and doing resistance training 3 times a week. A routine allows you to keep that exercise time sacred. Your friends, family, and co-workers will all know that you are exercising during that time and that you are unavailable for that short period of time. Even better, you can convince a friend or family member to workout with you and that way you will both keep each other motivated. Have the routine developed allows you to exercise without even thinking about it and helps drive away any excuses that may be keeping you from going into the gym. Once we form a habit (either good or bad) we stick with that habit (for good or bad), so concentrate on making sure that you keep a healthy habit this December.
Before I was a personal trainer, I worked a standard 9-5 office job. There were days when it was cold and rainy outside and after a long day of work all I wanted to do was go home and watch an episode of The Simpsons. With excuses flying around in my head as to why I could get away with not going to the gym that day, I would mysteriously find myself in my gym clothes walking in the rain towards the gym five minutes later. My body had become so programmed that it automatically put me on my path to the gym. I know what you are thinking, “Yeah, but Stephen, you are crazy and enjoy working out. I could never have that happen to me.” But you would be wrong to think that. You can program you body to take you to the gym, just like you’ve programmed your body to brush your teeth before bed or take a shower in the morning. These are actions that are just so automatic to us that we do them without thinking. If you get in the routine of going to the gym, pretty soon you will find that it too is an automatic part of your day. So on those dark December days when you don’t feel like going to the gym, remember that you are improving yourself every time you head to the gym. Don’t let excuses get you out of exercise, work those excuses out of your life!
Tags: christmas, December, Diet, Exercise, Fitness, Gyms, holidays, Oregon, Personal Trainers, Personal Training, Portland, thanksgiving, Weight loss
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Last week I talked about some of the main culprits behind the traditional Holiday Weight Gain, so this week I decided it would be best to give you some strategies to help fend off weight gain. The important thing to remember is that if you eat more calories than you burn off, you will gain weight. So if you pig out during the Holidays, remember that you are going to have to work that much harder to keep yourself from gaining weight. Here are some simple strategies to help you prevent that traditional Holiday Weight Gain.
Strategy #1: Prep for the Big Meals
As I discussed in my last blog post, overeating is one of the biggest culprits of Holiday Weight Gain. While I’d like to think that my words of warning have thoroughly changed your life forever, I am far too realistic to assume that there won’t be some over-indulgence occurring during those delicious holiday meals. While I still encourage you to listen to your body and stop eating when you are satisfied, if you know you will be reaching for that third helping of turkey, stuffing & gravy there are ways that you can prepare yourself ahead of time to limit damage control. The first thing you can do is eat slightly smaller meals leading up to the big holiday meal. Do not skip meals, but just limit the portions a little bit more before and after the big meal. This will help average out the massive amount of calories that you consume (the average American consumes well over 3,000 calories on Thanksgiving dinner alone). Another strategy is to make sure that you are drinking lots of water. Before dinner, have a glass of water and then continue to drink water during the meal. Water is your ultimate ally because it has 0 calories and is filling (especially when combined with food). Drinking water will help you feel full and keep you from consuming too much during those big holiday meals (and other meals as well). Remember that if you substitute another beverage for water that you will be gaining extra calories from it, especially if you decide to substitute water with an alcoholic beverage or soda.
Strategy #2: Get Some Exercise
It bears repeating that if you consume more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. Luckily there are a number of ways that we can fit exercise into our holidays. First off, most gyms offer a good exercise class on Thanksgiving Day to help you burn some calories before you eat your large supper. Warning Shameless Plug Ahead: If you are in the Portland area, Alameda Fitness Center will be offering a wonderful exercise class on Thanksgiving at 9 AM. It will be taught by yours truly, and best of all it will be completely free! End Shameless Plug. Other strategies you can use to burn some extra calories involve having some family game that involves running around (a game of touch football for example) will make sure everyone is working off their 3,000+ calorie binge. If you come from a non-athletic family, doing something as simple as going for a walk will be a positive step. This can either be a wonderful opportunity to bond with your family and friends as you go for a group walk in between the main course and dessert, or if you need to get away from your friends and family a good healthy way to do so.
Strategy #3: Make Substitutions
If you are doing the cooking (or doing part of the cooking) for these holiday meals, that means that you are in control of how many calories are in the dishes. Just because Great Aunt Mildred put two cups of lard into her pie crusts does not mean that you have to follow her recipe to the letter. With baked goods, try to use whole grain flour instead of enriched white flour. This will help prevent an insulin spike in your body and also save you an average of 77 calories. If a recipe calls for milk, use skim milk instead of whole or 2% milk. It will be just as creamy but will have significantly less fat and calories. Finally, replace eggs with egg substitute (like Egg Beaters) in your cooking and baking. It will save 60 calories and 238 mg of cholesterol and you won’t even know the difference. These are just some of the substitutions you can make. Go ahead and be creative, start a new holiday tradition of healthier cooking for your big holiday meals. Your body and future generations will thank you!
Tags: christmas, cooking, Diet, Exercise, Fitness, Gyms, Oregon, Personal Trainers, Personal Training, Portland, thanksgiving, Weight loss
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Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
The holiday season is upon us once again and for most people that means family, friends, and weight gain. Yes this is the time of year when we can have an extra helping (or five) of turkey and mashed potatoes, eat pumpkin and pecan pies until we burst, and let’s not forget about all of the Christmas cookies that will soon be invading our kitchens and diets. Over the next couple of weeks I will be writing blog posts designed to help you survive the holidays without gaining the weight of the turkey you’ll be serving. In this blog post I will be outlying some of the biggest problems we face during the holidays and give some tips on how to avoid them.
Enemy #1: Overeating
In a future blog post I will talk more about some of the better food choices to make during the holidays, but for now I want to talk about the sheer amount that people eat during the holiday season. For some reason we decide to celebrate the pilgrims being rescued from starvation by stuffing ourselves with enough calories to feed the entirety of the Mayflower. While a traditional Thanksgiving meal is one of my favorite meals of all time, it does not mean that you need to eat like there is no tomorrow just because everyone else is. Instead try and treat it like any other meal; eat until you are satisfied and save a little room for dessert and enjoy leftovers the next day. Just because your family bought a 30 lb turkey does not mean that it is your goal to finish it in one sitting. The same goes for Christmas cookies and other treats; just because they are not around 12 months of the year does not mean you have to stuff your cheeks like a squirrel burying acorns for the winter. Having one or two once in awhile will not ruin your diet, however having one or two entire batches a week will certainly expand that waistline. Also, do not take your eating cues from those around you. Just because cousin Fred has a serving of mashed potatoes the size of Mt. Hood or that Aunt Muriel baked her famous triple layer chocolate peanut butter bars does not mean that you have to eat as much as everyone else.
Enemy #2: Stress
This is a big one for most people. Travelling, getting Timmy the hot toy that is sold out everywhere, and dealing with the in-laws are just some of the stresses that we need to deal with during the holidays. Unfortunately for us, our body’s natural defense mechanism when it feels stressed is to put on weight. In biological terms, when we feel stressed our body wants to conserve as much energy as it can so that we can outlast this stressful situation. How does our body store energy? By building up our fat reserves of course! To make matters worse, many of us when we feel stressed will turn to our vices for comfort. When we have spent all day in a crowded mall looking for the perfect present for everyone, that Cinnabon stand can seem like a wonderful way to treat ourselves. Unfortunately, that brings us back to enemy #1, overeating. In order to combat stress, the best thing to do is to recognize what is causing the stress, take a few deep breathes, and remember the true meaning of the holidays is about being with the people you love. Another good way to combat stress is to workout. Yes, I know that we have more time constraints during the holidays, but try to take at least 45 minutes a day for yourself and do some exercise. It will take your mind off of the stress and burn calories at the same time. It will help you be more relaxed and can definitely help keep those pounds off during the holiday season.
Enemy #3: Excess Alcohol
Something about the holidays just seems to lead people to drink more than they do the rest of the year (and I’m not just talking about your New Years Eve Party). Sometimes it is because we are around those we love and we want to drink and be merry with them. Sometimes it is because we think we need the alcohol to get through dealing with unpleasant family member/traditions. Either way, we end up having more than our fair share of alcohol during this time of year. While I am not saying that you should not drink during the holidays, I am saying that much like overeating, overdrinking is a good bet to gain weight. Alcohol contains empty calories that contain energy but no nutrition. While it is ok to deviate a little from your normal patterns of consumption, do not go crazy. In fact, you’ll have better memories of the holidays if you don’t get smashed at every holiday function.
Tags: christmas, Diet, Exercise, Fitness, Gyms, holidays, Oregon, Personal Trainers, Personal Training, Portland, thanksgiving, The Biggest Loser, Weight loss
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Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Confucius
Whenever I meet with a potential client, one of the first things that I ask them is, “what are your goals in terms of fitness?” The answer obviously varies from client to client but often times these goals are over generalized and not well thought out. People say that they want to lose weight or they want to be stronger or simply look better naked. While these are good starting points, they need to be fleshed out in order to have any real meaning. If someone comes in and says I want to lose weight and lose 1 lb are they going to be satisfied? Probably not. It is important with fitness (and with life in general) that we set real concrete goals that we can achieve. If you want to lose weight, a good place to start is to think about how many pounds you really want to lose. After you determine the amount, then you need to set a timeline for when you would like to see this take place. Obviously you need to be realistic and saying you want to lose 35 lbs by next week is probably not going to happen unless you have some liposuction scheduled. I like to have my clients break their goals down into 3 separate timelines; a short-term goal which is something you want to accomplish in one month’s time, a medium-term goal which is 6 months, and a long-term goal which is 1-2 years. By breaking your goals down this way it is much easier to set yourself up for success. Saying that you want to lose 35 lbs or increase your bench press (or other random strength measurement) by 50% is a very daunting task. By breaking it down into smaller pieces such as losing 5-7 lbs or increasing your bench press weight by 10 lbs in one month, you are giving yourself a much easier target to hit. Plus, because the goal is smaller than your long term goal you are not likely to be intimidated by it. At the end of the month you can sit down and check on your status. If you made your goal, give yourself a pat on the back and create a new goal for next month. If you fell a little short of your goal, examine why you didn’t meet your expectations and come up with a plan to fix the problem that kept you from achieving it. Then set the goal again and try and hit it. As you head towards your long term goal there are probably going to be months were you might not meet your goal, realize that it’s ok to fall a little short once in awhile as long as you make adjustments to correct whatever stopped you from meeting your goals.
Top Tips For Setting Goals:
◊ Be realistic. Setting unrealistic goals sets you up for failure and frustration.
◊ Break you goals down into short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals.
◊ Focus on the short-term goals. Don’t get overwhelmed by the long-term goals.
◊ Make adjustments as necessary. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
◊ Do not panic if you fail to meet a short-term goal. Use it as a learning experience and make any changes that are needed.
Tags: achievements, Diet, Exercise, Fitness, goals, Oregon, Personal Trainers, Personal Training, Portland, Weight loss
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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Fall is almost here and once again the TV networks have unleashed another batch of shows designed to keep us glued to the couch. This year marks the 8th season of NBC’s The Biggest Loser, and as a trainer it always leaves me conflicted. On the one hand, it truly has a great message about trying to lose weight and that everyone has the power to change their lives. On the other hand, it sets up unrealistic expectations for viewers at home who want to see the same results as contestants on the show. In full disclosure, I should note that I am not a regular viewer of the show (I generally am not a big fan of reality TV) but I do occasionally watch episodes out of professional curiosity. If The Biggest Loser has ever inspired you to lose weight and start a path to a healthier life, let me offer you a hearty congratulations and say that the show has done a lot of good for viewers.
Viewers watching The Biggest Loser will see the contestants lose massive amounts of weight on a weekly basis and be inspired. Unfortunately it sets up extremely unrealistic expectations for most anyone in the real world. For starters, the contestants work out between 4 and 6 hours per day! Most people, with the exception of some avid gym rats don’t spend 6 hours working out in a week (Personally, I recommend to my clients to spend 3 hours in the gym lifting weights and at least 3 hours of some form of cardio per week). To be perfectly fair, most people can’t spend that much time working out every day. The majority of us have these little things called jobs, family, and friends that make it so that we can’t spend all our time working out. We should realize that this is OK, and that we all deserve to have a life outside of the gym (in fact, that’s why we exercise!). The next problem with the expectations that The Biggest Loser sets is the gross amount of weight that contestants lose every week. We regularly see loses of 15-25 lbs during the first few weeks of the season and think to ourselves, if that guy can lose that much weight why can’t I lose just 2 lbs per week? The answer is that all of the contestants on The Biggest Loser are morbidly obese and the percentage of body weight lost is not as unrealistic as the sheer amount of lbs they lost. If a 360 lb contestant loses 16 lbs in a week, they have lost 4.4% of their body weight (still an unrealistically high goal). Finally, there is all of the off camera help that contestants on The Biggest Loser receive. They have professional chefs there to cook them healthy, nutritious meals, a whole staff of doctors and on-site EMTs to monitor the contestants to make sure that they are doing everything in a medically safe fashion, and a team of trainers who make sure that every last second they spend working out is used efficiently. Most people do not have that immense support staff to help them achieve the weight loss that is seen on the show. You can help yourself by hiring a trainer, talking to your physician, and hiring a nutrition coach (many trainers also double as nutrition coaches, but make sure that they understand your goals and provide a realistic diet plan), but you won’t have the 24 hour access to them that contestants on The Biggest Loser have.
All that being said, I want to wish the best of luck to anyone who has been inspired by The Biggest Loser and I hope that you find yourself on the path to a healthier and happier you. I also want to wish the best of luck to the contestants on The Biggest Loser, even though they probably will never see this post. You have been given an amazing opportunity and I hope you realize how blessed you are to get the advantages you will receive as a contestant. As always, I wish everyone the best of luck in their journey of weight loss and a happier and healthier life!
Tags: Diet, Exercise, Fitness, Gyms, Oregon, Personal Trainers, Personal Training, Portland, The Biggest Loser, TV, Weight loss
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Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
As a personal trainer I am often asked, “What is the easy way to get fit?” Often what the person is meaning is, “How can I look good quickly with little to no effort?” Unfortunately the answer to the question they are really asking is that you can’t lose weight or gain muscle through some magic pill or one single exercise. Luckily there is a better answer to “what is the easy way to get fit” and it is four simple words, proper diet and exercise. I know that when people hear this answer they tend to cringe and think, “That isn’t the answer I was looking for!” However, despite the challenges of maintaining a proper diet and making time to exercise every day, it is the easiest way to get in shape. The hard paths are the ones that are destined to fail; the quick fix diet programs and exercise routines that promise life changing results in no time. To keep trying these trying these quick fix solutions is one way road to frustration and disappointment. Let’s talk about the two key components of getting into shape.
Proper Diet:
When people hear the word diet they tend to conjure up all sorts of negative connotations involving eating nothing but leafy greens and feeling hungry all the time. The word diet gets a rather bad rap, when really all it means is the foods that we eat. All of us are “on a diet” so to speak, so long as you are consuming any amount of food. A “proper diet” is merely making sure that we have balance in what we eat. The basic recommended daily allocation of your calories should be as follows: 45-65% Carbohydrates, 10-35% Proteins, and 20-35% Fats. I know that a lot of people who have been following the Atkins diet and other fad diets will look at those numbers and scoff, however if you are trying live a healthy and sustainable lifestyle these are the guidelines you should be following. Fad diets will be discussed in a later posting. The other part of a proper diet is to make sure you are not over consuming. You need to eat the right amount of food for you. A good calorie calculator is available here, http://calorieneedscalculator.com/. There is a simple equation when it come to our bodies and weight, if total calories consumed > total calories burned then weight will increase, if total calories consumed < total calories burned then weight will decrease. There is no pill, device, or diet that can change this equation. If you are aiming to lose 1 pound of fat per week, then you need to have a total calorie deficit of 3,500 calories per week or 500 calories per day. While that may seem like a lot of calories, the best way to approach it is to split it between both diet and exercise. Eating 250 less calories a day and working to burn 250 extra calories per day makes 500 seem like a much more manageable number. And that brings us to the second key to getting fit and being healthy, exercise.
Exercise:
Exercise can be a scary proposition for some people and there are all sorts of mental barriers that prevent us from exercising as much as we should. For some people it’s not knowing what to do when they get to a gym and being intimidated by all the people lifting weights. For others it’s thinking that they don’t have any time to exercise because of their job, their spouse, or their kids. While I am not encouraging anyone to neglect their relationships with any of those people, I will tell you that once you get into an exercise routine you will find that you have more energy than you previously did and can therefore improve your quality at your job or with your spouse and/or kids. Also, spending time exercising does not mean you have to be by yourself. Working out with your spouse or going for family walks/runs/bike rides are great ways of spending quality time together that will strengthen bonds while helping the whole family get into better shape. Being intimidated by all of the machines in a gym is also no excuse not to exercise. Personal trainers are a great resource to learn about what each machine does and how to spice up your exercise routine. It is also OK to go up to somebody who is training while they are resting between sets and ask them about what they are doing and why they are doing it. Somehow in our culture it has become taboo to talk to strangers, but the best way to learn about new ideas is to talk to people. Don’t be afraid to get off the treadmill and work with weights. The most effective way to burn calories is through lifting weights and building muscle. Create a challenge for yourself by setting goals and work to attain them. Better yet, find a partner to train with and have a competition to see who can reach their goals first. It is important to look forward to going to the gym, not dreading it, because if you aren’t enjoying yourself that rerun of The Simpsons will be a lot more appealing and you’ll be headed down the road to frustration once again.
Tags: Diet, Exercise, Fitness, Gyms, Oregon, Personal Trainers, Personal Training, Portland, Weight loss
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