The Habit of Health

You've taken the steps to making healthier food choices when making your meal plans and now you have that brand new shiny gym membership. You might even go out and buy some new clothes to work out in while you're there. You get through your first week, you're a little sore but you work through it. Monday comes around and you really aren't feeling like going because your cat doesn't seem to be acting normal, and you really need to make sure that he's not going to jump from your first floor apartment window in attempt to take one of his 9 lives. You skip Monday's workout and say "I'll just go tomorrow." Well tomorrow never turns into today and you just stop going. Why is this?

Well I'll tell you why, you haven't established a routine and developed a habit of going. It takes approximately 28 days to develop a habit and approximately 66 days to establish a routine. No matter how bad you might feel like skipping a workout in the very beginning you need to stick it out and go. Once you have developed that habit and established that routine you increase your chances of successfully abiding by your workout schedule.

Now with saying that, I'm not saying don't take a day off to rest. You need those scheduled rest days to allow your body to recover from those intense workouts. When developing your workout routine try and schedule 1-2 rest days. The key word here is scheduled rest days, so try and stick to your schedule the best you can.

An example of a workout routine would be:

Monday: Chest/Tri's
Tuesday: Cardio/Abs
Wednesday: Back/Bi's
Thursday: Cardio/Abs
Friday: Shoulders/Legs
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest

Monday: Chest/Tri's
Tuesday: Back/Bi's
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Shoulders
Friday: Legs
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Cardio/Abs

No matter what the schedule that you come up with looks like, the key is to do your best to stick to it in the beginning so you can establish that routine and develop that habit. Set small achievable goals for yourself so that you have something to keep you motivated. For myself I used 5lbs increments of my weight loss. Remember that you didn't gain the weight overnight so don't expect it to fall off overnight.

The Full Story

Have you ever just barely arrived at work and you feel yourself starting to get hungry even though you have "breakfast?" I know I've been there before, I guess my monster size bowl of Lucky Charms just wasn't enough. So being the not so health savvy person I was back then I'd run to the vending machine and grab a snack.

Well you see the problem is there are certain foods that really provide nothing to your body so you're body is screaming "Hey you! yeaaa you with the hands that can feed me, why don't you give me some real food!" Real food? you mean that pop tart isn't real food? Whoahhhh mind is blown!

So it pretty much breaks down to hey lets give our body what it needs, real food. There are a lot of foods that keep you fuller longer, or satiety. These are foods like eggs, yogurt, fruit, oats, potatoes, beans, chicken, fish, lean beef, broth base soups and our favorite low calorie snack..popcorn!

You see the pattern here? These are real foods that provide a lot of nutrient value to your body. Do your best to try and incorporate these high satiety food items into your meal plan. This way you're getting the best bang for your buck. You can have one hell of a day eating great food while maintaining a low caloric intake to properly lose weight rather than starving yourself. Eating sounds like it's a lot more fun than starving.

Here is an example of how you can go through your day:

Breakfast: 
1 cup of oatmeal( plain that way you can add your own flavors, stuff like apples and nuts, peanut butter and banana)
8oz of OJ

snack:
banana

lunch:
4 oz of chicken breast
lettuce
tomato
cucumber
avocado( for that healthy fat that we need in our diet) 
Lavash bread (tortilla like wrap that is low cal and low carb)
apple slices with greek yogurt( low fat and high protein)

snack:
popcorn or nuts

Dinner: 
4 oz beef(marinade in lime, tequila, chili, cumin, mustard powder, paprika and oregano) see where we are going here? STEAK TACOS BABY!
lettuce
tomato
cheese
corn tortillas (wrap in foil and either throw on the grill with the steak or in the oven to warm)
black beans


Now I know a lot of people out there say don't eat past 7pm bla bla bla! Have a very small snack before bed. This keeps your metabolism going and prevents your body from going into catabolic state and breaking down valuable muscle tissue which we need. Some of my snacks before bedtime that I like is a spoonful of peanut butter(cream or crunchy which ever you prefer), Casein protein shake(slow digesting protein), a small muffin with a glass of milk, a small bowl of a healthy cereal of choice with milk.

Just remember when choosing your snack before bed to avoid high sugar foods that can cause a spike in blood sugar levels like ice cream, candy, alcohol, cookies..etc. You want a food that will provide a nice even digestion for a steady blood sugar level throughout the night. Foods like the muffin and milk and the cereal with milk can actually help you sleep. The combination of the carbohydrates along with the tryptophan in the milk can make for a rather nice night of Z's.

Health Tips For The Busy Lifestyle

A friend of mine asked me a great question yesterday and it gave me the great idea for today's topic, thanks Tracy! The question was about how to squeeze in fitness and health into a busy lifestyle. Well I'm going to hopefully answer that for Tracy and any of you that have the same question. We all live crazy hectic lifestyles and we still need to take care of our bodies. Here are a few tips on how you can achieve your fitness and health goals no matter what your schedule is. 

Plan and prepare your meals ahead of time
Plan out what you will eat for your lunches and dinners for the week the weekend prior. Take a little extra time on Sunday and get to work in the kitchen or outside on the grill and get everything prepared ahead of time. You can bake a weeks worth of chicken tenderloins in the oven at 425 degrees in 20 minutes. This way you can throw everything in separate containers and in the refrigerator. Monday morning comes along just grab your container for lunch and boom you're on your way out the door with a healthy nutritious meal. No more ordering out because you're so tired from a hard day at work, your meal is already taken care of, pull it out warm it up and enjoy.

Some things that I like to do is to grill or bake my meats( I prefer chicken, low fat and high in protein) with just some basic seasonings so that I can switch things up throughout the week so I don't get bored and want to give myself a break with McDonald's or some other nasty disgusting fast food. Grill your chicken with just some salt and pepper and you can be creative with how you put it together, anything from a chicken wrap, chicken salad, chicken with pasta and veggies..you get the point. Remember that eating healthy doesn't have to be boring and bland.

Eat breakfast
Eat breakfast! I can not emphasize enough how important this is. When you skip breakfast you're killing your metabolism and setting yourself up for hitting up that vending machine for a bag of chips or a candy bar. It doesn't have to be some big breakfast that takes hours in the kitchen. Something as simple as a glass of OJ, some fruit and a whole wheat english muffin with jelly or jam. A breakfast like this takes no time at all, you can throw the english muffin in the toaster while you blow dry your hair, shave or get dressed. When you're ready throw some jelly or jam on it, grab some fruit and some OJ and walk out the door and on you are on your way to work.

Exercise
We all know that we should exercise but think that we need to spend countless hours in the gym. Not true at all, just remember that ANY exercise is better than no exercise. Instead of parking up close so your walk into work is like having front door service, take some time and park a little farther away. That way you can get a little extra exercise and that jerk with the truck that can't park won't ding your door. Skip the elevator and take the stair, it may suck at first but eventually it gets easier and you're a champ damn near running up the stairs beating the lazy ones taking the elevator. If you have a desk job try and stand up as much as possible. I highly doubt there is a rule at your job that says you must sit down. Lean against the desk and do some pushups

There are also plenty of desk exercises and stretches along with the pushups that can be done throughout the day. Here is a video by Michigan State University that demonstrates some stretches and exercises that can be done while at your desk.

You can also try and form a walking group with co-workers to walk during breaks while your other co-workers are out sucking in that nicotine.

Hydrate
Be sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day. Bring a water bottle that you can fill up throughout the day. Set a goal for yourself on how much water you want to drink per day. Having a goal to reach for will help remind you to drink more water. Try keeping track of your water intake, this way you can see exactly how much water you are actually consuming. What ever your trick is for drinking more water is, just be sure to use it, unless it's packets of sugar filled water flavoring. Try and find a sugarless flavoring if you can. I hear those Mio's aren't bad at all, they're small and compact and can be carried with you.

And you will probably hear this from me over and over and over, but while it may seem like a pain in the ass at first, just stick with it. After a while you won't even realize you are doing these things as they've become a routine and a habit. Are you willing to sacrifice the 15 minutes of extra time it took to prep your meals for the health you've wanted for a lifetime?

Diet is a 4 Letter Word

Have you ever looked in the mirror after showering and thought to yourself, wow I really want to try and lose some weight. You may want to lose weight for some special event like a wedding, for health reasons and of course the reason we all want to lose weight, so we look better naked. What ever your reason for wanting to lose weight you decided that you wanted to diet. AHHHHHHH that 4 letter word that we all hate. DIET! The word diet has obtained negative connotations which bring negative emotions.

I can't think of the last time I heard someone say, "Damn I can't wait to start my diet this week, it's going to be great!" Sorry but that just doesn't happen. Most of the time we think of dieting as limitations on what we can eat. Majority of us have no clue on how to properly diet so we turn to the dreaded fad diets like Atkins and the South Beach Diet. They're easy, they give us a strict format that we can follow, eat this and this and stay away from that and that.

And that is where the problem comes in, nobody likes being told you can't do something or you can't have something. We're all adults here, we have been since we were 15 and decided that our parents were clueless and we knew better than they did (only to find out that they were right, CRAP!).

We start the diet plan and might even stick to it for a while, but then the cravings kick in. MMM pizza, chocolate, hot wings, burgers...you get the point. That is when we break and give in and tell that diet to take a hike. Diet food is so boring and flavorless, I want real food damn it!

You can eat healthy, lose weight and enjoy great food. There is no need to diet if you want to lose weight. As a matter of fact take that word out of your vocabulary. We do not diet, we make smart healthy food choices, eat proper portions and most importantly we become healthier. 

If you think of your weight loss goals as a lifestyle change rather than a diet your possibility of success increases dramatically. Don't think of it as a diet, but rather providing your body with the nutrients and fuel it needs. We all take care of our cars and homes, but how many of us take care of our body? No way your using inferior products in your 1971 Chevelle, but yet you will stop and McDonald's on the way home from work and...actually eat it! You can always buy a new car if it breaks down, but you can never buy a new body once it starts to break down, so take care of it now while you still can.

This is my first of many blog entries. I hope you enjoyed it because they will only continue to get better, more educational and will teach, guide and motivate you on your journey to a successful transition into a healthier lifestyle. Till next time.