Fitness & Wellness

One of the reasons that working with a personal trainer helps bring success is that the trainer holds you accountable. When people workout on their own, they often skip weighing in or a day at the gym and before long, they don’t go at all. You need to be accountable to someone, particularly if being just accountable to yourself has only led to failure. There are a number of ways to do this, but the easiest way is to use a personal trainer. Trainers hold you accountable by being there when you have an appointment with them at the gym, tracking your progress both in the gym and in weight loss and not allowing you to use the same old excuses for failure.

Find a workout friend or two.

One of the reasons our group workouts are so successful is that many people sign up with friends or quickly make friends with others in the class. When they miss a session, those people notice. If friends signed up together, they often ride together, which is another incentive to go. If someone’s in your driveway waiting for you, unless you’re a real dud, you’ll go no matter how much you feel like staying at home.

Make it a family affair.

In many cases, not only is one spouse heavy, both are. That’s a good time for both of you to start working out together and eating healthier. When one person’s resolve is weaker, the other’s is often strong, which adds to the chances of success. Working out together not only holds both of you accountable, it makes life easier when it comes to eating healthy. There’s no need for two different types of meals. When one spouse tackles weight loss alone, loses weight and starts looking good, the other often sabotages the efforts, worrying they’ll be left behind. When both of you do, there’s no problem. Exercise also boosts libido, which makes a date night with exercise even more enticing.

Journal your way to good health.

Even though you’re held accountable by another, keeping a journal and being honest about exercising, weight loss and healthy eating can be quite important. Track your own progress. There’s something about having to write down those times that you skip your workout or eat a half of a cake that makes you stop and think. Even better would be a blog online for the world to see. That really puts the pressure on you to tow the line.

• If you chose a weight loss partner, make it someone supportive who doesn’t sabotage you at every turn. Make sure they’re sincere in their and your efforts to shed pounds.
• Get a pair of skinny pants. Choose one pair of pants that fit not only tight, but too tight to zip up. Stand in front of a mirror and take a picture of how they fit. Once a month try them on and snap another picture.
• Have achievable goals with clear steps on how to achieve them and a time frame. As you reach each goal, create a new one.
• If you choose an accountability partner, they don’t even have to exercise with you or live near you. They just have to be someone supportive that you can share your progress with to help you and them stay on track.

The last child rang the doorbell this Halloween night and the parade of costumed children ended. Each child who came to the door had a bag filled with sugary treats that would keep their dentists in business or quite a while and add another five pounds to them or their sneaky parents who nibbled at the goodies while they slept. I pondered for a while. “Is a healthy Halloween possible?” I asked myself. After all, I gave candy too. I’m not going to be that person in the neighborhood who gives chocolate coated Brussel spouts and says they’re bon bons. That’s a quick route to unpopularity and the road to receiving Halloween pranks.

Before you take your child out to trick-or-treat, eat a meal.

Many cities have scheduled trick-or-treat times, which normally allow enough time to eat a normal meal. If your schedule is tight, plan ahead and make sure you have a healthy meal ready to pop in the microwave, so your child is already full when going door to door. It helps curb the desire to pillage their bag of bounty while you walk. Discuss being polite to the homeowners and only taking ONE piece of candy. Too often kids have a bowl pushed in front of them and their first instinct is to grab a handful.

Walk, don’t drive to the houses.

I had a number of SUVs in the neighborhood unloading children to come up my drive. At first, I thought they might be bringing these children in from another town until I saw them move with their group just a half block down the street and allow the children to get out and go to the next house, just a few houses down and recognized one of the parents. They live a block away. Really? You can’t walk a block with your kids, but must drive them? Get out of that car and let everyone get some exercise.

If you’re having a party at your home, serve healthy snacks.

You can’t just serve a veggie tray and expect kids to gather around, gobbling up every veggie in sight. Get creative with the food. Spider deviled eggs with the spider made of black olives, eyeball spinach pasta with eyeballs made of string cheese and olives sit atop the blood red sauce, with the green creepy noodles beneath, creative veggie or fruit trays made to look like monsters and frozen ghostsicles with chocolate chip eyes and a chocolate covered raisin or a mouth are a few ideas.

• Don’t let your kids eat all the candy at once. Before you leave, discuss how much they can have each day. Bag up anything that will take over a week or so to eat and put it in the freezer if necessary.
• Provide healthy snacks to your trick-or-treaters. Whether it’s a small bags of nuts, yogurt tubes, fruit juice boxes or snack size trail mix, the kids will like you and the parents will love you for providing these alternative healthy snacks.
• Check with local dentists about the Halloween candy buy back program. They buy back Halloween treats at $1 a pound (or you can just donate them, which is a lesson itself). This candy is shipped to U.S. troops overseas by Operation Gratitude. The troops receive a toothbrush with the candy.
• Don’t let your kids take candy from strangers. Only allow your children to trick-or-treat at the homes of people you know. It may just be those in your immediate neighborhood or grandma and grandpa’s house, just to be safe. That’s okay if they don’t score a haul, especially if you have healthy snacks waiting for them at home.

One cure for waning energy is to eat more frequently. Small and balanced meals for energy can keep your blood sugar level and fuel your metabolism. The extra fuel throughout the day will keep you moving at high gear, but also brings with it many other benefits that eating just once or twice a day can’t provide. You’ll feel better when you have a constant supply of fuel to send to your body, rather than waiting until your body has ready exhausted its calorie supply for the day.

Your brain tells you to rest when you eat large meals.

You can be left feeling sluggish and stuffed after a large meal, which can be particularly disruptive to achieving your goals for the afternoon. Your brain doesn’t have a store of fat to depend upon, so it has very little when it comes to reserves. Eating frequent small meals gives your brain the constant flow of energy without the overstuffed feeling that sends you to the couch for a nap. When you divide your daily meals into smaller portions, you’ll be feeding your brain throughout the day.

Be aware of the spike and drop in sugar levels.

Another reason you’ll feel drowsy after a big lunch is the spike in your blood sugar levels that a large meal causes. Of course, you’ll feel fantastic for an hour or two, but eventually what goes up, must come down and you’ll feel that exhaustion that barely allows you to keep your eyes open, let alone perform your tasks at work. If you’re lucky enough to be able to nap, it still slows down your schedule and active lifestyle for the rest of the day.

Make sure your diet is balanced.

Some people create a diet for the whole day and then break it down to small individual meals. They may not have every meal well balanced and that can be a mistake. Many of the nutrients work synergistically to provide their benefits. For instance, vitamin C found in citrus fruits enhance the effectiveness of iron found in protein sources like fish and meat. The nutrients in broccoli and tomatoes work better together to fight the effects of cancer, than broccoli or tomatoes do alone.

– Choosing the right time for each food can help. Foods containing vitamin C can reduce stress, so pack an orange for part of your midmorning or mid afternoon snack or have a lemon olive oil dressing at lunch to make it through the work day feeling better.

– Contrary to popular belief, eating more frequently doesn’t increase the number of calories you burn, but will boost your energy level in most cases.

– Some people believe that intermittent fasting is the right way to eat, which may mean eating just one meal a day. Some studies show this is a healthy way to eat.

– Regardless of which technique you use, it should be the one that’s right for you and contain a well balanced healthy selection of food. The key is to match the mode of eating to your preferences and lifestyle, while ensuring you have a well balanced day of food in the process.

If you’ve never heard of ballistic stretching, it’s probably because it’s done mostly by athletes, but has now become part of the average person’s exercise world. It uses the benefit of bouncing movements to stretch the muscles beyond the normal range of motion. Is it safe for the average person to do? While athletes, such as football players and dancers, find this exercise beneficial, they’re in far better shape than the average person working out in the gym.

Unlike traditional stretches, ballistic stretching is performed faster.

You may use the same stretching exercises to perform both traditional stretching and ballistic stretching, but the way you do each will differ. Unlike the slow, gradual stretching most people do, ballistic stretching is done rapidly with a bouncing type rhythm to push even further. If you’ve ever tried to touch your toes and only gotten half way there, so stood up and tried a second time, you’ll see improvement. The person using a ballistic stretching technique doesn’t stand up and slowly try the stretch again, but uses bouncing motions to extend the reach to their feet.

Ballistic stretching takes a shortcut to flexibility.

Every muscle has a neuro-style sensor that tells when there’s too much tension on it. The minute the signal goes off, the muscle contracts and protects the joint from injury. You short circuit that process when you do ballistic stretching and bypass the sensor by using quick bounding movements. The muscles then stretch further than they would under normal circumstances.

Static stretching—normal stretching—is better for non-athletes.

Athletes are in better shape, it’s part of their job to be that way. The average person doing ballistic stretching is normally not in that good of shape. Forced stretching movements can cause injury to the soft tissues, ligaments and tendons, at the joints. It can cause smaller tears in the muscles that reduce the flexibility or even cause tendinitis. Both the AAOS—American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the ACSM—American College of Sports Medicine—recommend against the bouncing style of stretching.

– Certain stretches can actually be more beneficial when using the ballistic technique, if done correctly. Stretching the muscles at the back of the legs this way can help people with tight hamstrings.

– If using the ballistic technique, get proper guidance on form to prevent injury.

– If you feel pain when using the ballistic technique to stretch, stop. Pain is an indicator you’re doing something wrong or pushed the muscle too far.

-Stretching the muscles too fast and too far can cause the muscle to contract involuntarily. That makes it counterproductive to the concept of stretching.

If you’re starting a fitness program, remember, every decision counts to either benefit you or sabotage your efforts. Skipping one workout can lead to skipping two and then quitting altogether. Eating just one chip isn’t very damaging, unless you finish off the bag once you break the taboo and eat just one. (Seriously, nobody can eat just one according to the Lay’s Potato Chip commercial.) Circling the lot to find the closest parking spot or waiting to take the elevator instead of the chairs are small decisions, but when compiled, make a huge difference in your health.

Start with your shopping habits.

If you don’t have junk food at home, you won’t eat it…at least, not when you’re home. When you go grocery shopping, first create your menu and then list the foods you need. Stick to the list. If you want to take it a step further, take cash, not the debit card to make your purchases. You’ll be less likely to overbuy or grab those extra candy bars and goodies, if you’re paying cash because you’re limited to a specific amount of money. Shop after eating, not before you eat.

Decide to workout, if only for ten minutes.

Most people have a crowded day and slicing an hour of time from it can be quite difficult. Even if the extra time isn’t a problem, getting the energy to go to the gym or even workout at home can be a problem. If you have ten minutes, you can make a smart decision. Use that time to get exercise. Go for a brisk walk, run up and down the stairs, do a few push-ups or other exercises. Everyone has ten minutes to spare several times throughout the day and it only takes three to four sessions to get a full workout. If you didn’t feel like working out, once you start exercising, you’ll probably do your whole routine, it just takes a smart decision to start.

Be mindful at meals and throughout the day.

Too often people work and eat like they’re in a fog, doing the same things continually. Be aware of those times you’re grabbing a snack and ask yourself if you really need it or even want it. You may be eating out of habit and not really hungry. Be mindful of your hunger, too. Make a decision to eat healthy snacks and don’t forget to grab veggies or fruit for a snack between meals. It curbs your appetite so you’ll eat less at the meal and also satisfies your hunger so you don’t grab an unhealthy snack.

> Make a decision to do one or more active tasks throughout the day. Whether it’s scrubbing the floors the old fashioned way, washing windows or rearranging furniture, you’ll get a job done and be more active.

> Getting adequate sleep not only is heart healthy, it’s also good for weight loss. Before you stay up that extra hour watching the same old reruns, ask yourself if it’s worth losing sleep.

> Getting adequate water throughout the day is important for good health. Make a decision to have a few bottles to drink throughout the day. Sometimes thirst is mistaken for hunger.

> Think before you drink. Alcohol is super high in calories and slows fat metabolism. Limit your intake to one drink and switch to water.