Making Exercise a Habit.....

Making Exercise a Habit.....

We know that it’s not the easiest habit for most people, and most people’s experiences consist of starting and stopping and starting again. Which is fine — don’t beat yourself up about it. The important thing is starting again.

The Main Problems
So why do most people have trouble making exercise a regular habit? Well, there are probably a number of factors, but here are a few of the obvious reasons exercise in not a habit for everyone.

1. Too difficult. People set out with a lot of ambition and enthusiasm, and start out with a big goal. “I’m going to go to the gym for an hour a day!” or “I’m going to run 30 minutes every day!” The problem is that the goal is too difficult to sustain for very long. You can do it for a few days, but you soon run out of energy, and it becomes a drag to do it.

2. Too many goals or unrealistic goals to start. Often we set out to do too much. We want to run, and lift weights, and eat healthy, and quit sweets, and stop drinking soda. Some of us have an image in our heads of exactly what we want to look like and set a time to get there! STOP!!! Take your time and focus on getting daily exercise first, clean up your diet and drink water with fresh lemon or lime juice instead of soda. If you stick to the plan and get the good habits to replace the bad then the rest will fall into place. Your body will reflect your new habits but be patient you didn't get in the shape your in overnight so it certainly won't be fixed overnight either.

Golden Rule never give yourself a deadline for looking good!
3. Not enough Motivation. So many times we start with good intentions yet the motivation dies quickly. Well if that's the case lets fix it!!!! Starting May 18, 2013 we will start our support group for everyone that needs motivation. That is a Saturday and we will meet at the Studio at 7:00PM sharp. If you want to stay motivated you have to have a great support team to help and that's what your trainer and our staff is here to help you do "STAY MOTIVATED"
 

Solutions

1. Start by setting your goals low and attainable for you. Remember if you set unrealistic goals you will FAIL! Set goals that will assure your SUCCESS! As you become more fit and eager for more that is when you step up and make those harder goals, just remember to baby step your way up to the bigger goals!!!!

2. Write your goals down and keep them posted so you can see them everyday multiple times a day! Remember out of sight out of mind!

3. Be specific with your goals both short and long term. Write down the exact exercises you plan on doing everyday and DO THEM!!! Make a date with yourself everyday and stick to it so at 3:30PM I will walk 2 miles and do 25 push-ups and 25 set-ups. Like I said be detailed with your daily goals. Once you've completed the goals write down how you feel and how easy or difficult the exercise was for you, evaluate yourself and increase or decrease the exercise based on how you feel.

4. Look for a Trigger mechanism that will spark the motivation to exercise daily. This will help you get into the habit and stay there. We all have events that happen everyday without fail. So take one of those events and use it as a trigger for your exercise program. Here's what I'm talking about. Many of us wake-up to coffee brewing in the kitchen or an alarm clock blasting in our ears that starts the day rolling it makes us focus on the task at hand, "getting ready for the day". Many of us now have smart phones so set a timer or your alarm for your workout time and give yourself ample time to get where you need to be to exercise. If you work 15 minutes from the gym then set your alarm on the phone 30 minutes before you need to leave. That way you can close things down, take your pre-workout supplements and get to the gym on time.

5.Hold yourself accountable- Journal every workout everyday. Be detailed and write down exactly what you did for the day. As you get in better condition your will be impressed with how much more you are able to do with greater ease. This will help establish the good habits and boost your self confidence and self-esteem.

6. Visualize your new image....cut out pictures from magazines clip out articles on fitness and nutrition and post them where you work and live. If you can see yourself in a bikini or that cute dress you saw at the mall, chances are you will succeed by staying focused. Remind yourself with visual images.

7. Avoid Negative People, the last thing you need in your life is a nay sayer! You know the type always giving you an excuse as to why you are wasting your time! Remember this, they just want you to quit because what you are doing is making them feel bad about themselves. Stay away from these people, remember misery loves company. Stay in contact with people that are lifestyle friendly with your new program. These people will support you and encourage you to stay focused.

8. Educate yourself on what you are doing to your body. Take the time too learn how your body is responding to the exercise and the nutrition programs just don't follow a plan without actually doing some research and learn what really works best for you. Remember the only person that can build the perfect program for you is YOU! Sure trainers can help and I highly recommend using one if you are just getting started but lets face facts few us us want to pay money for years and years and never learn a thing. Personal Trainers are a great way to start your program and if you are training for a specific sport or event you need one. But they can not tell you how you feel after you train with them! Only you know how you feel and only you can adjust to get maximum results with your efforts.

So get in the habit of being accountable to YOU! Set your goals and get in the right HABIT!!!!

EAT MORE - WEIGH LESS! Part 1 of 3.

EAT MORE - WEIGH LESS!  

Part 1 of 3.

So many of us get so caught-up in losing weight we fail to completely understand the consequences of not eating enough food each day. You see it's not so much of caloric restriction as it is calorie management. So many times we feel like if I just stop eating I will lose weight. Well I wish it were that easy, if it were we would all be in great shape.

The trick to dropping unwanted body-fat may sound a bit confusing at first but once you understand how the metabolism works you will have a much better understanding.

Here's the facts

First we must understand why we eat and when we eat.

The obvious, "I'M HUNGRY" is NOT why you should eat. In fact if you wait until you are hungry you have waited far to long to eat and proper caloric management is disrupted.

(GOLDEN RULE: EAT FOR WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO DO, NOT FOR WHAT YOU HAVE JUST DONE)

I'm sure you've all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day....and this is true. But have you ever really wondered why?

Let's examine the word, "breakfast" separate the word and you have two words and it simply means, "break the fast"!

Most people will eat their last meal between 5-8PM and then we relax a while and typically go to bed between 10PM and 12AM. Then we sleep between 6-8 hours. In many cases allot of us have not eaten for 10-12 hours by the time we have gotten out of bed in the morning.

Understand this, if you have a healthy metabolism your blood sugar will be very low in the morning because you have not eaten for a long time. We are not always hungry simply because there is no caloric demand from waking up. Your body has been is a resting and rebuilding phase while you were asleep.

We all get our day started by waking up and hitting the floor with both feet just like everyone else does. But in many cases that's where the similarity stops. What everyone should do upon waking up is break the fast they have been in before they get hungry and keep feeding the body all day long so it never gets hungry and the facts are you will melt body-fat away.

However if you are like many Americans you will skip breakfast grab a drug called caffeine and get your day started with a stimulant. So let me tell you what happens when you chose either situation.

First lets go with the benefits of breaking the fast and eating breakfast.
1. (And this is KEY throughout the day) You will elevate your blood sugar to normal ranges. You see by not eating for 6-14 hours your glycogen storage will be low, yes you do still burn calories while you sleep. (I will get into that later) So it is important to get blood sugar into normal ranges first thing in the morning and maintain normal blood sugar levels all day long.

2. It prevents your body from going into the catabolic phase. Providing the body with proper nutrients upon wake-up will prevent the body from pulling nutrients from muscle tissue. You see our body behaves much like us, the last thing it wants to eat is fat, the nutrients your body craves are all found in the lean muscle tissue throughout our body. Once you blood sugar has bottomed out the body goes into starvation mode and will start wasting muscle tissue. The saddest thing about this over a long period of time is you are destroying your metabolism because muscle tissue and it's activity is the only thing that burns calories. Think about it for a minute, how many of you have had a steak with a ring of fat on the side and purposely eaten the fat first because you love fat? The answer is very few if any at all! The body acts the same way, just for different reasons. You see fat is our reserve energy source and if you do not feed the body the first thing that will happen is the body starts reducing its need for more calories by getting rid of the cause for more calories and that is your muscle tissue.
Here is the biggest problem we have, our body is very efficient at saving itself from us (LOL) by being able to store fat so easily and in many cases we are our own worst enemy and we aid our bodies into hanging onto stored body fat by starving ourselves.

3. Eating breakfast automatically elevates your metabolism for the rest of the day!

4. Eating breakfast also aids in brain function and sets the tone for a better day. Yes eating breakfast stimulates a hormonal release to energize your day.

The key is keep blood sugar in normal ranges and it becomes impossible to store body-fat.

Tomorrow I will explain why it's more calorie management than it is calorie restriction.

Here is what you will need to know more about.

1. The Glycemic index and how you can use it to maintain your blood sugar.

2. Proteins and the Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER)

3. Fats and their key role to a healthy metabolism

4. Feeding the lean body mass, not total body weight (your true BMR)

Food for thought, is resistance exercise the key to maintaining low body fat more so than cardiovascular exercise???