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Fitness Tip: Don’t Over Indulge – Life is about balance, and when you do anything in excess, your body pays the price. So when it comes to drinking alcohol, you need to be wise about your decision making process. Think of the effects of too much alcohol in your current and future fitness and health.
a. Can Damage your liver
b. Shuts your metabolism so you can’t burn food energy
c. Impairs your decision making process – especially with healthy food decisions
d. Adds tons of liquid NO quality Calories to your daily diet: Sugar & Fat

Before you start thinking about 20/20 or eye exams, I’m talking about your vision for the future. What is it that you want to accomplish? Where do you want to go in life? Where do you see yourself in 5, 10, 15 years? Who do you want to become? These are some of the most important questions you want to ask yourself. If you aren’t where you want to be and not doing what you want to be doing, what’s holding you back?

Whether you like it or not, the answer is you. At the end of the day we are all self-made but only the successful will admit it. Everyone else seems to find excuses why they can’t instead of reasons for why they should. We tend to find excuses like there is some type of reward for them. If there is, please let me know so I can collect! When I was younger I had so many but I stopped during my teenage years because I realized they didn’t do anything to change my situation.

William Jennings Bryan summed it up best when he said “Destiny is not a matter of chance, but a matter of choice”. Do not confuse your mental decision for not doing something with your physical capacity to do so. For example, don’t say you can’t quit your job when it really is that you won’t quit your job. Many people stay in an occupation they hate because they fear failing in something they would love to do. Nobody likes to admit they are scared so they come up with excuses such as I have a family to feed, I’m getting a little older, or a combination of both. On the surface those excuses seem like valid explanations, but when you get beneath the surface you find that they are still excuses. Read the biographies of some of the most successful people and you will find that most have come from humble beginnings like you and I or have had to overcome great obstacles. There is no difference between you and the person who lives the life you want to live unless you believe that there is.

Now that we have established that anyone can accomplish whatever they put their mind to, we’ll talk about creating your vision. When you are creating your vision do not focus on how just concentrate on where. Focus on where you want to go and not how you will get there. One of my favorite Walkerisms goes like this; “when a destination is chosen a path will be shown”. Too many people get caught up in the how to. It is impossible to learn every single detail and anticipate every problem. Sometimes you have to make your move before you are ready. The timing will never be just right and the initial plan will never be perfect. But be careful, failure to prepare is preparing to fail. It is very fine line you have to walk. On one hand, you need to have a well-thought out plan. On the flip-side, the most dangerous thing in life is taking too many precautions. That leads to analysis paralysis or paralysis analysis. I always get those mixed up. Analysis paralysis is when you think about every little thing and the sheer quantity of analysis overwhelms your decision making. Over time you will be able to make quicker decisions because you will have better judgment. Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment in the past.

The key is getting started, it doesn’t matter if you make mistakes. In fact, it’s only a mistake if you fail to learn from it. Don’t take it as a loss, take it as a lesson. Because once you’re out the there you can always adjust along the way if needed. It’s basically like a rocket going to the moon. Most rockets are off course ninety-seven percent of the time but they have built in a gyroscope to get them back on track. It makes the necessary adjustment to make sure it reaches its destination. Another good example would be a GPS. I have a Garmin Nuvi 660. My Garmin is a neat little invention and has definitely made my life a lot easier. I think I was one of the last people to get one. Anyway, when I want to go somewhere I put in my destination and get started. If I get off course somehow by missing a turn or unexpected detour, it automatically plots a new route to the same destination. That’s how you have to be when you plan your life. Just know where you want to go and be committed to getting there. There will be detours and some missed turns but you have the power to adjust and get back on track. How do you get back on track? You have to have concrete goals. Our next article will be about goal setting because any major accomplishment begins there.

If this post has helped you in anyway, please feel free to make a donation to our “Lose Weight, Save A Child” fitness challenge. We are raising money to help those who need it the most. Thank you.

Ok, it may be a little quantum physics but it is not rocket science. If you aren’t scientifically inclined there is no need to worry, I will break it down easily for you. In physics many people are familiar with the Law of Thermodynamics. There are four laws in the Law of Thermodynamics; however we can sum it up in a very brief sentence as it applies to weight loss. Simply stated, the reduction of body fat will take place when there is more energy being burned than consumed. It is really that simple. The only way to lose weight is to create a calorie deficit. This is very important for people out there who are exercising but aren’t seeing results. Somehow you are consuming more calories than you are expending. The next question is how can you burn more calories than you take in? Let me share with you a couple of successful ways:

Eat Less and Exercise More- This is by far the best strategy you can implement to lose weight. You do not have to go on a very restrictive diet and you will not have to live in the gym. Studies prove that people who make small changes in their exercise routines and nutrition get better results than people who just do one or the other to the extreme. Translation- it is better to workout an hour a day four times per week and eat 4-6 nutrient dense meals daily than to stay in the gym three hours a day with horrible eating habits. It is also better than having extremely restrictive eating habits and not exercising. You will stay with the program longer and have a better quality of life.

When you hear an expert say eat less and another expert say it more, who is right? Generally speaking, both are right if we are using the assumption that one is in the normal population and focused on losing weight. I know it sounds confusing but it is really simple. Eat less calorie-dense and low nutritional value foods and eat more nutrient-dense lower calorie foods. So cut back on the Big Mac’s that are loaded with calories and very little nutritious value and eat more fresh produce with lean meats (chicken, turkey, and fish). Notice that I said cut back not eliminate completely. It’s what you do most of the time that makes the biggest difference not what you do all the time. If you are disciplined enough to never cheat and eat healthy ALL the time, good for you. But there are so many delicious treats that we can indulge in sporadically, maybe once per week, and not have it affect our goals. Try to eat clean 5-6 days out of the week and have a cheat meal at your favorite restaurant one day as a reward for your discipline.

Eating more also refers to eating more frequently (4-6 small meals daily at regular intervals 2-3 hours). There is a trend that I have noticed over the last ten years and I’m confident you have noticed it to. The trend is that the people who are overweight tend to skip breakfast and only eat once or twice per day. Those meals tend to be larger than the normal portion size due to hunger and what I call “perceived hunger”. Perceived hunger is when someone goes a very long time without eating and overloads their plate at the next meal to make up for it. The other part of the trend is that some of the thinnest people I know eat the most. They eat 5-8 meals per day and I’m not talking “rabbit food” (salad). Is it coincidence? Is it genetics? I am certain from experience and scientific evidence that it is not coincidence. There may be some slight genetic factors to consider in some cases but not the majority. It has to do with metabolism which we will discuss more in our next article.

If you are eating right, exercising, and not losing weight, I have three words- UP THE INTENSITY. Doing the same 30-45 minutes of cardio at only 50-60% of your maximum heart rate will keep you relatively healthy internally but it will not do much for your external appearance. If I told you there was a way to spend less time in the gym and get better results would you be interested? Of course you would!! Try doing H.I.I.T which stands for High Intensity Interval Training. It is the best of both worlds. Your workout won’t take as long and your results will be better. Interval training is when you constantly change intensity during your workout. For example, if you are using a treadmill you would jog lightly for 2 minutes then the next 1-2 minutes do an all out sprint. After you are done sprinting, go back to jogging and keep repeating that cycle for 20 minutes. Check back in later for a more detailed article on interval training.

One of the best ways to lose weight and keep it off is to raise your metabolism. Your metabolism consists of all the chemical reactions/ processes that happen in your body to produce energy and sustain life. Of special interest to most people trying to lose weight is the Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) which should not be confused with the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). They are often used interchangeably but they are slightly different. The Basal Metabolic Rate is tested under stricter conditions. The Resting Metabolic Rate is the amount of energy/calories it costs for you to maintain all your internal physiological functions at rest. That means it is the amount of energy to keep your lungs, heart, liver, kidneys, brain, and the rest of the nervous system functioning properly at complete rest. Your RMR typically accounts for 65-75% of all your daily caloric needs.

There are many variables that influence your Resting Metabolic Rate such as your sex, age, lean body mass, and overall weight. Men tend to have a higher RMR than women due to the increased muscle mass. As you age, your RMR decreases. One fact I find interesting is that the more you weigh, the faster your metabolism. The excess weight makes your body work harder to support itself. I know there are probably some readers out there who have just lost their favorite excuse for being overweight, but don’t kill the messenger! You can use that information to your advantage. If you cut back on your calories and increase your activity level, it will help you lose weight even faster. That is one of the reasons people say the last 10 pounds are the hardest to lose. The metabolism will slow down with the decrease in weight so you have to work out harder and/ or further reduce calorie intake to continue progressing.

The factor that you have the most control over in regards to your RMR is your lean body mass. Your metabolism increases as you put on lean muscle. Studies have shown that for every one pound of muscle you gain, you burn an additional 10-50 calories per day. So if you add 10 pounds of muscle, you can expect to burn an additional 100-500 calories per day while you sit around and do nothing. That is why you must do resistance training if you want to keep the weight off. The biggest mistake I see people making in the gym is doing the same cardio routine for months on end to no avail. Don’t get me wrong, cardio is very important when you are trying to lose weight because of the calories you burn while doing it but it doesn’t have the residual effect of weight training. For optimal results, they should be used in combination. A good example to illustrate is looking at them like working income (cardio) and residual income (weight training). You get paid (burn calories) when you show up to work but not when you go home or call out. With residual income, you get an upfront reward (burning calories) and still reap those benefits year in and year out as long as you keep the investment (muscle).

To keep your RMR up, you also want to avoid restrictive/ crash diets. Have you heard of people who lost weight initially on a diet and then gained it right back plus some? That’s because most of the weight people lose initially is due to muscle atrophy which slows down the metabolism. The metabolism is also lowered by the body to adjust to the lower caloric intake and skipped meals. It is a process called “starvation mode”. Our bodies have evolved over thousands of years to protect us in times of famine so when you simulate those conditions by skipping meals, it starts to hold on to every calorie you eat. Guess what it will store those calories as? Muscle, you wish. It stores it as body fat because it doesn’t know when the next meal is coming and it wants to keep you alive. Our bodies care about us or they could just be saving their own tail but whatever the reason starvation mode is not good. The best way to avoid this is to eat small frequent meals, 4-6 over the course of the day. You want to graze not gorge.

I mentioned earlier that the RMR accounts for 65-75% of your daily caloric needs. The amount of physical activity you participate in and the thermic effect of food take care of the rest. Physical activity includes your normal daily activities along with a structured exercise routine. The thermic effect of food is the amount of calories it takes to process the nutrients you intake. Typically, 15-25% of calories of the calories you expend are burned by physical activity and the thermic effect of food is responsible for around 10%. I will go more in depth about the thermic effect of food later in the week.

If this post has helped you in anyway, please feel free to make a donation to our “Lose Weight, Save A Child” fitness challenge. We are raising money to help those who need it the most. Thank you.

Interval training has become one of the latest training methods to gain popularity in the fitness world. If your not familiar with interval training, it is a form of cardiovascular exercise that alternates periods of high intensity with periods of lower intensity. The most common method of interval training is sprinting. After a five minute warm-up you would sprint for a minute then jog lightly for a minute and repeat that cycle 5-8 times (don’t forget a five minute cool down). The sprint would be considered the high intensity and the light jog would be the low intensity.

How do you know when you are working at a higher intensity? We have a built in mechanism that gauges that for us. It is called our heart rate. Many experienced athletes and fitness enthusiasts can tell when they are pushing themselves intuitively but others should acquire a heart rate monitor. At the end of the article I have listed the top rated monitors available at Amazon.com. The constant change in heart rate is very beneficial for our bodies because of the indirect effect that it has on our EPOC levels. EPOC stands for excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. EPOC occurs when the body’s metabolism is elevated for an extended period after exercise.

The intensity of the exercise is directly correlated with EPOC levels. Here’s a good motto to live by in regards to interval training; work harder don’t work longer. When you push your body for those brief but intense spurts it will continue to burn calories after the training session in order to replenish energy supplies. During training, you will have likely depleted all of your muscle glycogen (stored carbohydrates) and your muscles will need energy. The muscles begin to breakdown fat to restore their energy in a process called fat oxidation. We will go into more detail about fat oxidation later next week.

Five of the most popular heart rate monitors and a body fat analyzer to track your results:

If this post has helped you in anyway, please feel free to make a donation to our “Lose Weight, Save A Child” fitness challenge. We are raising money to help those who need it the most. Thank you.