-
-
Cool stuff to check out!
-
If I had a bike I would want one! More »
-
-
Tag Archives: bodyfat
5 Things You Must Bring To The Gym
I know you are expecting to see a normal gym bag list. Don’t forget your shorts, t-shirt, bag, towel etc. Well this is a much more important list. If you forget a couple of these things then you might as well go home! In fact if you have all 5 of these things and no gym clothes….work out in your work clothes! Let’s get started,
Why Are You Holding On?
One of my favorite things about the fitness industry and working out is that you can make a slight change to an exercise and make it better. You can be creative with angles and timing and equipment. If you always keep safety and technique in mind there is no limit to the possibilities. However the opposite is also true. You can sometime change things for the worse and this will cause injury….or even worse….do nothing at all.
One of the moves that I just don’t get is holding on to the treadmill when you are using the incline. What makes this worse is that some machines even build in handles for you to hold on to. When you walk or run up a hill the difficulty increases and your body adapts to that difficulty. Your upper body leans into the hill depending on the incline and your legs work to propel you.
Meal preparation: How to make healthy eating faster and easier.
We have talked about the importance of meal and ingredient preparation on the blog before and I could go on and on about the importance of it when it comes to healthy heating. It makes meal time so much easier. Can you think back to a day that you did not have anything prepared for lunch or dinner and you ended up making a bad decision and either eating fast food or skipping meal time all together? Below are some of the things we do to make meal time easier.
For me the most important “tips” are taking a few hours each Sunday or Monday evening to prepare and organize food and making my lunch and snacks the night before, I guarantee if I don’t make my lunch the night before, chances are my sleepy butt is not getting out of bed early to make lunch.
Here are things that work for us, let us know anything that works for you.
Prepare all your food once a week: We buy our groceries for the week on Sunday and we take about 1 hour each Sunday afternoon to prepare, I cut up all my veggies and store them in Ziploc bags or Tupperware so I have easy snacks during the week and salads can be made quickly. I cut up my celery, broccoli, slice up my peppers and chop up spinach if needed. We decide what meat we will need that week and any meat that needs to be cut, we cut right away and freeze in a Ziploc bag. This way our meat is already cut up for meals like stir fry’s On Sunday we also cook a batch of rice or quinoa, for lunch or dinners, we boil eggs for snacks, we cook up chicken breast or ground beef to add to lunches or dinner and store everything in an air tight container in the fridge for the week. Cooked meat and eggs when handled, packaged and stored properly should stay good up to 4 days in the refrigerator.
Have a menu planned out for each night of the week: This will save you from last minute shopping trips, and you will know what you must take out for dinner the night before or that morning.
Start early when possible: The less work during the stressful dinnertime the better. To make dinnertime quicker, during the day when kids are busy playing, in school, during nap time or anytime you have a few minutes, do your prep work.
(Example: If making sweet and sour chicken cut meat into cubes, cut up veggies and make sauce. Then put each in a separate bowl and store in the fridge until dinner. Salads can also easily be made ahead of time.
Make your lunch the night before: As we are preparing dinner we also make lunch for the next day. Or plan to make a double batch of your dinner and have the leftovers for lunch. This will make your mornings much easier.
(Example: As my chicken and sweet potato is cooking in the oven, I make our salads and wraps for lunch)
Oatmeal can be made the night before: If planning oatmeal for breakfast, make it the night before and store it in the fridge. Oatmeal can be warmed up in the microwave and protein powder and berries can be added once warm.
Make yogurt parfaits the night before: If planning to have a yogurt parfait for breakfast or snack make it the night before. Layer your yogurt, berries, protein powder and oats in a container and store it in the refrigerator, mix just prior to eating.
Prepare cheese: If I know we will be having pita pizza’s later in the week I grate my mozzarella on Sunday or if my weekly snacks have 1oz of cheddar cheese I cut up my cheese in 1oz portions so it’s easy to grab and go.
Bake your own protein or granola bars for snacks: This way you can keep all the ingredients natural and healthy and you have lots of bars for your weekly snacks. You can find our favorite protein bar recipe here.
Don’t Give Up Now!
So we are now almost half way through February. Winter is almost all over and we’re thinking about spring and the warmer weather. Many of you are thinking about going south in March. Those of you heading south are probably doing well with the healthy eating and exercise. I’m not saying you’re necessarily enjoying it, but the thought of being in a bathing suit is enough to keep you from any sugary snack. However most of you are hitting that plateau and considering giving up!
For god sakes don’t give up!! This is when it all counts. You’ve been doing so well for almost two months. Your digestive system is thrilled and your body on the inside is thanking you. If you have made good lifestyle changes, then you have had some weight loss. More importantly, that loss has come from your body fat. I’m sure you have worked some exercise into the schedule and for that you have been rewarded with some new lean muscle and a more effective metabolism. This has added a few years to your life and started to lower many of those levels your doctor told you to work on (blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose etc). Your resting heart rate is now a bit lower and things are working a bit easier on the inside of that machine! All is looking amazing!
Then out of nowhere comes that damn devil on your other shoulder that starts to ask why the hell are you doing all of this? Come on you want that bag of chips, grab that can of soda! Don’t listen to that angel looking dude on your other shoulder, what does he know? Well that dude knows how your body really works! He/she knows that all of that crap that you want to eat does two things. First, it starts to break down that amazing machine that is designed to work efficiently for over 100 years and it makes a bunch of people rich!! Who, you ask? All the people in upper management at the companies that manufacture all of that crap! They don’t eat what they make because they want to live longer to enjoy the money you’re giving them!!!
Since we are on the subject of money let’s talk about that gym membership. You joined up in January and this time you said you will keep going. No matter what, you will make time in the day to get to that damn place. You will walk in the doors where there are many just like you and also regulars that can’t wait until February when most of you give up and it stops being busy!! That’s right ,many people that start in January will be done before March. Do you know how much money this makes fitness centres? Part of their budget is based on how many people will join only to give up and keep paying. They decide that they don’t need a bigger gym as 1,000’s will join and only 100’s will come regularly. What a great money maker! Each and every year they can bank on this happening, and I mean BANK on it. What if people stuck with it? What if the majority said I am not going to give up! My body is worth the work and the energy. I feel so much better after working out then sitting on my ass after work and watching Dr Oz tell me to do this.
I’ll tell you what would happen if people stuck with it. The obesity rate would drop! Childhood obesity would drop because we now teach our kids how to eat and be active. Taxes would go down because all the money going to the budget to cover medical expenses for preventative diseases would plummet. Grocery stores would carry more real food and less processed. More people eating healthy creates a demand for more farmers. This will create jobs and lower the price of healthy foods. I think you get the idea! I love how this sounds. People living longer, and enjoying their age not giving into it. Who says you can’t look 30 at 50!! You’re only as old as you feel.
FOR GOD SAKES, THIS YEAR, DON’T GIVE UP!
