Saturday, May 28, 2011
Article I found on Greek yogurt
Per my video blog post, "Health Foods In Disguise," check out this quick-hit article from a neat website I found called "Cooking clarified, cooking made simple" to learn about the difference between regular yogurt and Greek yogurt: http://cookingclarified.com/2011/02/greek-yogurt/.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Wednesday warm-up: 'I just don't feel like it today'
One of the most difficult things to overcome to reach your fitness goals is a lack of motivation. I enjoy exercise for the sake of being active, so usually I'm itching to get going rather than starving for desire. But everyone has days when they "just don't feel like it," whether they thrive on exercise or have to force themselves to get up and move.
There's no way around the fact working out takes time. But if you're staying fit to maintain a healthy lifestyle, fitness only should take a fraction of your day. If you manage your routine correctly, you're only focusing on moving for 20 to 60 minutes daily. Compared with the 23 hours you're not exercising, this is a small fraction of your time. If you're exercising more than this, it's either your job to work out, you're training for something, or you're overdoing it.
But before you can accomplish the goal of thinking about how little time exercise takes out of your day, make sure it really is not taking too much time. If you want to be able to keep moving, you have to sit still enough. But going too hard or for too long yields more than just physical injury; you're setting yourself up for mental burnout if you exercise too strenuously, too frequently, or both.
If you pressure yourself to exercise for 40 minutes or more every day, it's probably going to weigh on you until you get it out of the way. Likewise, you'll probably be miserable the whole time you're in motion because you've put so much energy into loathing the thought of it that you literally lose momentum. Setting more realistic goals to which you know you can stick on a regular basis will allow you to be in better shape overall because you're not taking time off for injury or because you're sick of it.
For example, complete a 20-30 minute lifting routine along with 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise three days a week. Then, do 20-40 minutes of cardiovascular exercise on two to three of the days you don't lift. This gives your body at least one day of rest, and you will still have to challenge yourself to keep up with the routine. Take things one day at a time and remind yourself that exercise is occupying a small part of your day.
Then comes both the most difficult and beneficial part: Don't let yourself dwell on exercise when you're not in the middle of it. This way you won't build it up in your head into a dreaded event in the absence of which you rejoice. You may eventually feel silently exultant for the moment you get a chance to take a break from work, lace up the shoes, and hop on an exercise bike to clear your head. You might even be able to push yourself harder, or perform better without thinking about it.
Changing the way you think about exercise also can immensely improve your consistency. It allows you to harness fitness to enhance your lifestyle, not govern it. However, changing the way you think about something is arguably the hardest thing to do since all the things you decide to do start with thought, and getting to the basics of anything takes practice. But if you really stick with a new perspective and get through the initial days when it's still a pain, you can save yourself from the mental torture of feeling like you're forcing yourself to get moving every time you exercise. So make a few simple changes in your attitude and schedule, and you'll be able to Rize up, get fit, and maybe look forward to it for a change.
There's no way around the fact working out takes time. But if you're staying fit to maintain a healthy lifestyle, fitness only should take a fraction of your day. If you manage your routine correctly, you're only focusing on moving for 20 to 60 minutes daily. Compared with the 23 hours you're not exercising, this is a small fraction of your time. If you're exercising more than this, it's either your job to work out, you're training for something, or you're overdoing it.
But before you can accomplish the goal of thinking about how little time exercise takes out of your day, make sure it really is not taking too much time. If you want to be able to keep moving, you have to sit still enough. But going too hard or for too long yields more than just physical injury; you're setting yourself up for mental burnout if you exercise too strenuously, too frequently, or both.
If you pressure yourself to exercise for 40 minutes or more every day, it's probably going to weigh on you until you get it out of the way. Likewise, you'll probably be miserable the whole time you're in motion because you've put so much energy into loathing the thought of it that you literally lose momentum. Setting more realistic goals to which you know you can stick on a regular basis will allow you to be in better shape overall because you're not taking time off for injury or because you're sick of it.
For example, complete a 20-30 minute lifting routine along with 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise three days a week. Then, do 20-40 minutes of cardiovascular exercise on two to three of the days you don't lift. This gives your body at least one day of rest, and you will still have to challenge yourself to keep up with the routine. Take things one day at a time and remind yourself that exercise is occupying a small part of your day.
Then comes both the most difficult and beneficial part: Don't let yourself dwell on exercise when you're not in the middle of it. This way you won't build it up in your head into a dreaded event in the absence of which you rejoice. You may eventually feel silently exultant for the moment you get a chance to take a break from work, lace up the shoes, and hop on an exercise bike to clear your head. You might even be able to push yourself harder, or perform better without thinking about it.
Changing the way you think about exercise also can immensely improve your consistency. It allows you to harness fitness to enhance your lifestyle, not govern it. However, changing the way you think about something is arguably the hardest thing to do since all the things you decide to do start with thought, and getting to the basics of anything takes practice. But if you really stick with a new perspective and get through the initial days when it's still a pain, you can save yourself from the mental torture of feeling like you're forcing yourself to get moving every time you exercise. So make a few simple changes in your attitude and schedule, and you'll be able to Rize up, get fit, and maybe look forward to it for a change.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Tuesday Tune-Up: start your fitness goals with you
In my last written post, I addressed some methods to "live into" your fitness goals by balancing your diet more and practicing the ideal image you have for your fitness. Here's the exercise portion of the equation:
Start with you.
The first thing you must realize before adopting a fitness routine that works for you.None of us are living the same lives. We're built differently, live in different places of the world with different climates and general lifestyles, and we all have different responsibilities to fulfill. So it's foolish to think you can apply one general rule to your life and expect the same results as everyone else. You've got to consider your needs and limitations before you can effectively start working toward your fitness goals.
Starting with you means first looking at what you've done with fitness that has and hasn't worked, and looking at what fitness might be able to fix for you. For me, this meant recognizing my that I am very injury-prone when I log too many running miles. I've probably had to take off six-to-eight months total out of the what will be ten years of running in June, not counting time off for being sick. And taking time off for injuries made major setbacks for my fitness goals, both with running and otherwise. Once I was done with high school track and cross country and moved on to college, however, I was able to exercise on my own time for my own ends, which meant I could finally run as much as or as little as was good for me, and be more proactive to prevent injuries. I adapted my workout routine, trying new things to suit my class schedule, the weather, and to try new things. I incorporated swimming, biking, lifting, and an abdominal routine into my workout routine. I use these workout forms as cross training, or something one uses to supplement his or her main means for fitness. I practiced them sporadically in high school because I was so fixated on running, but regularly taking the impact of running off my bones and joints, and strengthening the muscles an joints running ignores, has eliminated having to take time off for shin splints and stress fractures. So pay attention to how your body works and what it can handle, and build your workout plan from there.
Look at, set your goals.
Once you have a good idea of what your body can handle, and what it needs to keep going with fitness, you're ready to look at your goals. Figuring out what you're working with first allows you to be realistic about what you want to achieve. It also makes achieving your goals feel more natural, instead of a forced effort. You've got to keep in mind that you're working with a specific set of needs and abilities when you're making your goals, too. Being in tune to that is a constant process with successful fitness. For me, the Holy Grail of fitness was to have six pack abs. I had a flat stomach all through my cross country years, but I could never achieve the six pack abs. I did countless crunches and watched what I ate more that most of my peers, but just couldn't get there. Most cross country runners have no problem with this because they're built with a tall, thin frame, which has never been the case for me. I'm tall, standing at six feet, but otherwise have a very medium build. I can gain muscle fairly easily and have what I would consider a normal metabolism. It might be slightly faster because I'm still in my twenties, but I certainly can't eat whatever I want and maintain the level of leanness I prefer. The problem with my goals for a six pack went back to "starting with you" to meet your fitness goals. Instead of viewing how I was built as a hindrance to my goal, I should have viewed it as a way to help me achieve my goal. Because I couldn't realize that, I was fighting against something I couldn't change, but which could help me immensely in achieving my goal if I just embraced it. So I started lifting more regularly, changing my lifting routine periodically so my body didn't get used to it and plateau. I used fitness articles and advice from fitness magazines and websites, such as Men's Fitness Magazine, bodybuilders.com, to vary things to keep challenging myself and to keep myself from getting bored. I actually was able to exercise my abs more regularly and efficiently because I was more fixated on total fitness, and on achieving it by capitalizing on my physical strengths. I was gaining muscle, and adding muscle is adding something extra for your body to maintain with calories, which meant my body was burning more calories, and I was finally reaching that next level of leanness I could never get to. Along with the basic dietary changes which I outlined in the previous article, I finally achieved my six pack, which I have maintained for almost two years, although I will say that I am still working to improve it. Focusing on total fitness rather than obsessing over one goal not only helped me achieve my original goal easier, but led to other exciting fitness gains and goals I never anticipated, and made things happen more naturally.
So the lesson for this week's Tuesday Tune-Up is to start with what your body needs to keep going with fitness, and what you can capitalize on, rather than obsessing on that seemingly impossible goal you've been chasing. Focus on using your strengths to develop total fitness, and you might finally reach your goal. Until next time, Rize up and start doing something to capitalize on your fitness strengths to reach your goals.
Start with you.
The first thing you must realize before adopting a fitness routine that works for you.None of us are living the same lives. We're built differently, live in different places of the world with different climates and general lifestyles, and we all have different responsibilities to fulfill. So it's foolish to think you can apply one general rule to your life and expect the same results as everyone else. You've got to consider your needs and limitations before you can effectively start working toward your fitness goals.
Starting with you means first looking at what you've done with fitness that has and hasn't worked, and looking at what fitness might be able to fix for you. For me, this meant recognizing my that I am very injury-prone when I log too many running miles. I've probably had to take off six-to-eight months total out of the what will be ten years of running in June, not counting time off for being sick. And taking time off for injuries made major setbacks for my fitness goals, both with running and otherwise. Once I was done with high school track and cross country and moved on to college, however, I was able to exercise on my own time for my own ends, which meant I could finally run as much as or as little as was good for me, and be more proactive to prevent injuries. I adapted my workout routine, trying new things to suit my class schedule, the weather, and to try new things. I incorporated swimming, biking, lifting, and an abdominal routine into my workout routine. I use these workout forms as cross training, or something one uses to supplement his or her main means for fitness. I practiced them sporadically in high school because I was so fixated on running, but regularly taking the impact of running off my bones and joints, and strengthening the muscles an joints running ignores, has eliminated having to take time off for shin splints and stress fractures. So pay attention to how your body works and what it can handle, and build your workout plan from there.
Look at, set your goals.
Once you have a good idea of what your body can handle, and what it needs to keep going with fitness, you're ready to look at your goals. Figuring out what you're working with first allows you to be realistic about what you want to achieve. It also makes achieving your goals feel more natural, instead of a forced effort. You've got to keep in mind that you're working with a specific set of needs and abilities when you're making your goals, too. Being in tune to that is a constant process with successful fitness. For me, the Holy Grail of fitness was to have six pack abs. I had a flat stomach all through my cross country years, but I could never achieve the six pack abs. I did countless crunches and watched what I ate more that most of my peers, but just couldn't get there. Most cross country runners have no problem with this because they're built with a tall, thin frame, which has never been the case for me. I'm tall, standing at six feet, but otherwise have a very medium build. I can gain muscle fairly easily and have what I would consider a normal metabolism. It might be slightly faster because I'm still in my twenties, but I certainly can't eat whatever I want and maintain the level of leanness I prefer. The problem with my goals for a six pack went back to "starting with you" to meet your fitness goals. Instead of viewing how I was built as a hindrance to my goal, I should have viewed it as a way to help me achieve my goal. Because I couldn't realize that, I was fighting against something I couldn't change, but which could help me immensely in achieving my goal if I just embraced it. So I started lifting more regularly, changing my lifting routine periodically so my body didn't get used to it and plateau. I used fitness articles and advice from fitness magazines and websites, such as Men's Fitness Magazine, bodybuilders.com, to vary things to keep challenging myself and to keep myself from getting bored. I actually was able to exercise my abs more regularly and efficiently because I was more fixated on total fitness, and on achieving it by capitalizing on my physical strengths. I was gaining muscle, and adding muscle is adding something extra for your body to maintain with calories, which meant my body was burning more calories, and I was finally reaching that next level of leanness I could never get to. Along with the basic dietary changes which I outlined in the previous article, I finally achieved my six pack, which I have maintained for almost two years, although I will say that I am still working to improve it. Focusing on total fitness rather than obsessing over one goal not only helped me achieve my original goal easier, but led to other exciting fitness gains and goals I never anticipated, and made things happen more naturally.
So the lesson for this week's Tuesday Tune-Up is to start with what your body needs to keep going with fitness, and what you can capitalize on, rather than obsessing on that seemingly impossible goal you've been chasing. Focus on using your strengths to develop total fitness, and you might finally reach your goal. Until next time, Rize up and start doing something to capitalize on your fitness strengths to reach your goals.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Be the change you wish to see in your diet
It's tough to reach your ideal level of fitness with a busy lifestyle. I'm not just talking about completely failing to make time to exercise; I'm also talking about those folks who already make time to exercise a few times a week but aren't seeing the results they'd like, one of the people I used to be. Unless you have the metabolism with the calorie burning capacity of a steel mill in the early 1900's, you might have to put a little more thought into what you eat to bust through your fitness barriers.
That requires changing how you think about fitness.
Here's my story: I'm a runner, and I used to think that was a license to let my sweet tooth take over as my third most active (pseudo) organ. I would run three to six days a week sometimes with a couple days of lifting, biking or swimming, obviously amping up my lung and heart activity, and afterwards eat as many sweets as I wanted to because I thought I could "because I'm a runner," hence leaving my sweet tooth with a strong third-place finish in the organ race. I was definitely in good shape and was by no means anywhere near overweight, but I had fitness goals I'd always wanted to reach but never could because of this sweet tooth, so I thought.
After a while, something would inspire me to finally reach that goal, once and for all. I can be kind of a purist, so of course, that meant making extreme changes in my already-decent lifestyle to go from Average Joe to Superman all at once. So, of course, I would start with changing my diet, and unfortunately, that's also where my endeavor ended. I would try to give up sweets and fried foods for long periods of time until I reached my ideal level of fitness. My virtual sugar fast usually lasted for ten-day periods, but once I think I maxed out at a month without sweets, which for this guy is a serious act of will considering my sweet tooth's third-place status. Then, after a while, my extreme health make-over would fizzle out as I psychologically burnt out from forcing so much will power with food all the time. I felt like I was somehow punishing myself by depriving myself of something I enjoyed, and I wasn't seeing the results I wanted as immediately as I changed my lifestyle, so I would just give up on my fitness ideal. I'd go back to the good 'ol runner boy attitude of "I can eat anything I want because I just ran 'x' amount of miles." After a while, I'd get frustrated with myself for quitting my last fitness feat, and I'd give up sugary treats all over again, and the cycle repeated itself. I was always stuck in some form of this pattern for about nine years.
I finally realized that my vacillating cycle of veritably condemning my sweet tooth as the culprit of all my fitness failures would never work because it wasn't the culprit of my follies. I thought if I gave up sweets completely for one, long spurt, I would reach my fitness ideal and thenceforth only treat myself with as many extra calories as I burned exercising. But that was just the wrong way to think about it. What I didn't realize is that I could literally live into that ideal of being able to enjoy desserts here and there, while still improving on my physique.
It would be great if we could go through one, hard diet, and reach our fitness ideal forever, but, frankly, that's not how we work because even if you do reach that ideal, there's always going to be a certain amount of maintenance work to perform. I realized this when I recognized that feeling of silent defeat after my sweet tooth whispered through my psyche, "You've seriously been punishing me by depriving me of sweets for such a long time. Forget that ridiculous ideal I'll never reach. I want some cake!" That feeling of defeat, that I'd been punishing myself, is what was defeating reaching an ideal that was right in front of me the whole time.
I realized that fitness is something we attain by sometimes giving things up a little at a time on a daily basis, not all at once. And if you work the system well enough, it won't feel like your giving up anything at all because you're gaining the satisfaction of reaching a goal and feeling well because you treat your body well. So instead of giving up sweets altogether, when I really craved something sweet, I would have something small and call it a game for the rest of the day. Of course, I'm human, so sometimes I'd overindulge, so to compensate, I'd work out longer the next day or go without sweets completely just for one or two days. But cutting back a little allows you to satisfy that tiny screaming brat of a sweet tooth, which by the way is sheerly psychological. But being a psychological phenomena doesn't mean something should be ignored, because part of fitness is not how many miles you can run and how present your six pack is, but also taking care of your mind. Fitness should be a way to enhance your lifestyle, not govern it, and when you're constantly obsessing over that craving you're squelching, you're not going to be able to shut out the noise to listen for the flight attendant to call for you to board your plane to those fitness heights you've always wanted to reach. If you let yourself indulge a little here and there, that little voice won't be screaming like a three-year-old having a temper tantrum in the middle of a grocery store, but walking away quietly and contently with a Popsicle, able to forget about it when he's finished eating and move on with the rest of the day. And that's what you should be able to do: as long as most of what you eat is healthy, you're golden, and you won't have to obsess over fitness to feel like you're getting somewhere with it. Just make it a point to eat at least three meals daily, each including whole grains, protein, fruits and/or vegetables. Make sure you always have a granola bar or some sort of energy bar that's high in protein on hand, and, as a rule of thumb, allow yourself one small indulgence daily if you're still trying to get leaner. If you feel like having a piece of cake, by all means go for it. Your body isn't keeping a running tally of every single calorie you eat to see if it fits in with the FDA's daily recommended amount, and it's also not going to shout "retreat, retreat!" to your metabolism because you ate something sweet. Firstly, your body might have room to burn off your sweet treat without exercise depending on how small and calorie-dense it was. Secondly, even if you replace some of the extra calories you burned from exercise, you can still manage to burn extra calories and lean out if you don't overindulge. You will, however, likely crack and go crazy eating the very thing of which you starve yourself in a diet if you take extreme measures to meet your fitness goals. If you take that route, your little sweet tooth-psyche kid will be kicking and screaming because you're punishing it, and won't shut up until you give it that candy bar.
Gandhi once said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." I'm here to tell you that you have to live into that carefree lifestyle of enjoying your fitness and your treats at the same time; you must be the change you wish to see in your diet. Changing my attitude toward what I ate helped me to finally reach that ideal, and I'll share in my next written post the exercise component that helped me reach it. Until then, get up and do something active, and don't hold off on treating yourself every once in a while. Rize up, get fit.
That requires changing how you think about fitness.
Here's my story: I'm a runner, and I used to think that was a license to let my sweet tooth take over as my third most active (pseudo) organ. I would run three to six days a week sometimes with a couple days of lifting, biking or swimming, obviously amping up my lung and heart activity, and afterwards eat as many sweets as I wanted to because I thought I could "because I'm a runner," hence leaving my sweet tooth with a strong third-place finish in the organ race. I was definitely in good shape and was by no means anywhere near overweight, but I had fitness goals I'd always wanted to reach but never could because of this sweet tooth, so I thought.
After a while, something would inspire me to finally reach that goal, once and for all. I can be kind of a purist, so of course, that meant making extreme changes in my already-decent lifestyle to go from Average Joe to Superman all at once. So, of course, I would start with changing my diet, and unfortunately, that's also where my endeavor ended. I would try to give up sweets and fried foods for long periods of time until I reached my ideal level of fitness. My virtual sugar fast usually lasted for ten-day periods, but once I think I maxed out at a month without sweets, which for this guy is a serious act of will considering my sweet tooth's third-place status. Then, after a while, my extreme health make-over would fizzle out as I psychologically burnt out from forcing so much will power with food all the time. I felt like I was somehow punishing myself by depriving myself of something I enjoyed, and I wasn't seeing the results I wanted as immediately as I changed my lifestyle, so I would just give up on my fitness ideal. I'd go back to the good 'ol runner boy attitude of "I can eat anything I want because I just ran 'x' amount of miles." After a while, I'd get frustrated with myself for quitting my last fitness feat, and I'd give up sugary treats all over again, and the cycle repeated itself. I was always stuck in some form of this pattern for about nine years.
I finally realized that my vacillating cycle of veritably condemning my sweet tooth as the culprit of all my fitness failures would never work because it wasn't the culprit of my follies. I thought if I gave up sweets completely for one, long spurt, I would reach my fitness ideal and thenceforth only treat myself with as many extra calories as I burned exercising. But that was just the wrong way to think about it. What I didn't realize is that I could literally live into that ideal of being able to enjoy desserts here and there, while still improving on my physique.
It would be great if we could go through one, hard diet, and reach our fitness ideal forever, but, frankly, that's not how we work because even if you do reach that ideal, there's always going to be a certain amount of maintenance work to perform. I realized this when I recognized that feeling of silent defeat after my sweet tooth whispered through my psyche, "You've seriously been punishing me by depriving me of sweets for such a long time. Forget that ridiculous ideal I'll never reach. I want some cake!" That feeling of defeat, that I'd been punishing myself, is what was defeating reaching an ideal that was right in front of me the whole time.
I realized that fitness is something we attain by sometimes giving things up a little at a time on a daily basis, not all at once. And if you work the system well enough, it won't feel like your giving up anything at all because you're gaining the satisfaction of reaching a goal and feeling well because you treat your body well. So instead of giving up sweets altogether, when I really craved something sweet, I would have something small and call it a game for the rest of the day. Of course, I'm human, so sometimes I'd overindulge, so to compensate, I'd work out longer the next day or go without sweets completely just for one or two days. But cutting back a little allows you to satisfy that tiny screaming brat of a sweet tooth, which by the way is sheerly psychological. But being a psychological phenomena doesn't mean something should be ignored, because part of fitness is not how many miles you can run and how present your six pack is, but also taking care of your mind. Fitness should be a way to enhance your lifestyle, not govern it, and when you're constantly obsessing over that craving you're squelching, you're not going to be able to shut out the noise to listen for the flight attendant to call for you to board your plane to those fitness heights you've always wanted to reach. If you let yourself indulge a little here and there, that little voice won't be screaming like a three-year-old having a temper tantrum in the middle of a grocery store, but walking away quietly and contently with a Popsicle, able to forget about it when he's finished eating and move on with the rest of the day. And that's what you should be able to do: as long as most of what you eat is healthy, you're golden, and you won't have to obsess over fitness to feel like you're getting somewhere with it. Just make it a point to eat at least three meals daily, each including whole grains, protein, fruits and/or vegetables. Make sure you always have a granola bar or some sort of energy bar that's high in protein on hand, and, as a rule of thumb, allow yourself one small indulgence daily if you're still trying to get leaner. If you feel like having a piece of cake, by all means go for it. Your body isn't keeping a running tally of every single calorie you eat to see if it fits in with the FDA's daily recommended amount, and it's also not going to shout "retreat, retreat!" to your metabolism because you ate something sweet. Firstly, your body might have room to burn off your sweet treat without exercise depending on how small and calorie-dense it was. Secondly, even if you replace some of the extra calories you burned from exercise, you can still manage to burn extra calories and lean out if you don't overindulge. You will, however, likely crack and go crazy eating the very thing of which you starve yourself in a diet if you take extreme measures to meet your fitness goals. If you take that route, your little sweet tooth-psyche kid will be kicking and screaming because you're punishing it, and won't shut up until you give it that candy bar.
Gandhi once said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." I'm here to tell you that you have to live into that carefree lifestyle of enjoying your fitness and your treats at the same time; you must be the change you wish to see in your diet. Changing my attitude toward what I ate helped me to finally reach that ideal, and I'll share in my next written post the exercise component that helped me reach it. Until then, get up and do something active, and don't hold off on treating yourself every once in a while. Rize up, get fit.
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