Tag: success

4 Secrets to Fitness Success

Posted on by alwayshungrypt

Joining a gym or signing up with a trainer is a great start, but if you really want to take full advantage of your fitness journey, there are a few intangibles you need to address to ensure you’re getting the most out of this journey.  Too often I hear stories of people “doing everything I can” to get in shape – regardless of their goal – only to hear one of these topics being left unattended, that I know could be the one thing holding them back from launching into success.  It would be great to know that all you had to do was workout a few times a week for 30-60 minutes and reach your full potential, but like any project you’ve done before (school, work, home), you know there are always additional pieces that need to be addressed in order for it all to come together! 

Only this time, the project is yourself!

So you’ve got your training program and you’re ready to go or already kicking butt, let’s talk about the 4 secrets to fitness success outside of the gym!  I’m talking about Nutrition, Rest/Recovery, Hydration, and Consistency!  These 4 pillars of fitness, wellness, and health are the driving factors that power any fitness journey from fat loss to muscle gain; athletic performance to just staying healthy for yourself and your family.  Let’s dive a little deeper, shall we?

Nutrition – You Can’t Outwork a Bad Diet

As much as it pains me to admit, all those cheesy affirmations about “abs are made in the kitchen” and “the best fat loss workout is 3 sets of 10 reps of not eating so much junk.” are true.  All the working out in the world is fine, but if you’re not fueling your body with the right things, you’re going to have a hard time reaching your fullest potential.  That being said, the aim is NOT perfection.  If we aim for perfection and have a minor slip up, chances are that we’ll backslide further down.  None of us are perfect as it stands, so to completely change and aim for 100% is just unrealistic.  Instead, we need to adapt a “Progress > Perfection” mindset.  Taking a minute to look at what you’re eating in a day, a few days, a week can really help open your eyes to the choices you make and better understand not only WHAT you eat, but also WHY you’re eating it.  From there, we can start to make better choices.  Regardless of your goals, a few rules of thumb include:

-Focusing on lean protein sources; complex carbs; and healthy fats

-Limiting consumption of highly processed foods, sugar, and alcohol

-Increasing the amount of fruits and veggies we take in

-Remembering that a bad meal isn’t the end of the world, but don’t miss more than 2.

Taking time to address your nutrition and make grocery lists that focus on options even slightly healthier than they currently are can be a major step in the right direction.  Clean up your nutrition and not only should you see the changes, but you’ll feel them as well!

Rest/Recovery – “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

Though that’s true, it will be the “long sleep”, but that’s a horrible position to take in regards to your health.  Everyone is different and functions on different levels of sleep, but the generally agreed level of sleep is 7-9 hours every night.  If you’re a person who regularly gets the same amount of sleep each night, you can tell a major difference on the days when you get more or less than that median and it’s not typically for the better.  Not only will less sleep make you feel prolongingly tired, but the additional time that you are awake and sleep deprived, the higher your chances of faulting on your nutrition, not having energy for your training sessions, and overall just not being your best self.  Finding a good sleep routine including turning off electronics; lowering the room temperature; blocking out all light; etc. can help better your sleep behavior and increase your recovery time.

Beyond sleep, rest days from training are crucial for your body to be its best.  If you’re training your body every day, you’re not giving yourself adequate time to repair and build into a stronger, healthier version.  When we workout – in any capacity – you are creating tiny tears in the micro fibers of your muscle tissue (not a bad thing), but if you’re not allowing the body enough time to fully recover those tears and continually pushing yourself, not only could you be more susceptible to injury, but using fatigued muscles won’t provide for best efforts in the gym.  Take your rest/recovery days seriously and you’ll see exponential leaps in your gym performance.

Taking it a step further, todays world is rife with stress.  When our stress levels are up, we are in a heightened state mentally and physically.  This can wreak havoc on our bodies in a variety of ways, but if we’re able to find outlets or work on how we handle stress to lessen the effect it has on us, the quicker our body can recover – from physical and mental stress.

Moral of this story – rest, recover, de-stress and see how much further you go after slowing yourself down.

 

Hydration – Now that’s some high quality H2O.

It can’t be stressed enough how important water is to your overall health.  If our bodies are made mostly of water, what makes you think that you should cut back on how much you take in?  The average person drastically undercuts themselves on how much water they drink daily.  And contrary to belief, you don’t need to slug a gallon per day.  Even hitting 100oz of water each day can drastically change your body physically and mentally.

Water keeps your muscles hydrated and healthy.

Water keeps your circulatory system clear and healthy.

Water keeps your waste system flowing and healthy.

Water keeps your skin clear and hair strong and healthy.

Water keeps you mentally fresh and healthy.

Water keeps your appetite at bay and healthy.

Water is the best.

It cools you down; it keeps food cravings away; it’s wonderful.

Drink more of it!

This does not include sodas, juices, energy drinks, alcohol, etc. just because “it has water in it!” The amount of every other bit of crap in all of those completely destroys any possible health aspect that water tries to help.  Limit or eliminate those from your routine and focus on water (or sparkling water) and you’ll feel healthier in so many different ways.  It’s the best supplement that everyone overlooks, don’t be one of that crowd.

Consistency – Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally…

It comes from what you do consistently.  It doesn’t matter what your fitness goal is, if you can’t make it a priority to consistently work on it or show up every day, then you’re leaving a LOT of success on the table.  Overnight successes or quick turn around stories often lead to rebounding back to the origin or worse because once the goal is reached, the habit disappears.  If you want to reach your fitness or health goals, you have to be willing to do the work.  You didn’t get to where you are right now – wherever that may be – overnight.  It took weeks/months/years of consistent habits and behaviors (whether positive or negative behaviors) to lead to where you are.  If you’re trying to lose 30 lbs, but you’re 50 years old; haven’t lifted a weight or eaten a healthy meal in 25+ years, you have to understand that it will take longer than 15 days to reach that goal.  That is years of habits and behaviors that need to be unlearned or re-focused toward the new goal you’re working toward.  You have to show up consistently and put in work on yourself every day in some capacity.  This doesn’t mean working out every day – as noted earlier, rest is an incredibly important aspect to any fitness journey – but you can focus on mindset goals, habit changes, those pesky stress inducing problems, etc.  Our health journey is more than physical and by consistently working on a little something every day, it may take months, years, decades even to reach where you want to go, but if you show up every damn day, I guarantee you’ll get there faster than if you yo-yo back and forth between bouts of crazy high and low activity.  “The journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step”.  Take that step, then another, and another, and when you don’t feel like stepping, take another!

There is no end all; be all plan that will get you to your goals instantly – if there was, you’d bet your ass I would have tried it.  But know that when you start your journey and you address more than just your workout routine – dialing in your nutrition; planning rest days and recovery protocols; keeping hydrated; and creating habits that consistently get you showing up every day – you’ll be on the right path to success on your fitness journey, no matter the goal.

Now stop reading and go kick some ass!

Success Beyond the Scale

Posted on by alwayshungrypt

According to legend, it’s physically impossible to discuss fitness or nutrition with someone – anyone – without mentioning the scale!

Okay, so that may NOT be true, but be honest, it comes up in MOST health conversations and it’s a piece of hardware that plagues us all.  It brings us some of our highest highs and our lowest lows.  Somehow this small piece of equipment has evolved into one of the most controversial topics of health in the world… and all you do is stand on it.

Because it is so widely recognized as the staple piece of equipment for measuring change or progress in a fitness/nutrition/health program, it has been given more power than it ever intended to receive or should be allowed to have.  Too often and easily, we misplace stock of our progress in the number that a scale spits back at us – some to the point of letting it become their main focal point of self-worth, which is very unhealthy.

The scale must be taken down a peg or two and we must remember what it truly is.  The scale is simply a tool in our belt of measuring progress.  It is not an evaluation of who we are or what we are about or the efforts we put into our body.  It is literally a measure of your weight – right now, at this very moment.  Which means it is meant to change and fluctuate over the course of weeks, days, or even hours!  There are so many factors that impact how much we weigh at a given time, including:

-Time of day

-Hydration

-Hunger

-Stress

-Amount of sleep

-Daily activity

-Hormone levels

-Did you just poop or are you backed up?  (yes…this can really cause fluctuation)

And so many other possible factors that could throw off your weight.  Any number of these could cause it to go up or down at any moment.

These are reasons why it’s crucial to remember that the number on the scale is simply another tool in our belt as we move forward on our health journeys – regardless of the target you’re shooting at.

Take stock of your success beyond the scale and celebrate each victory you reach on our journey to a happier and healthier you.

Increased Energy Levels

Combining regular exercise in any form, with nutritious whole foods, and managed sleep/stress levels come together to boost your energy to levels you could only dream of.  Your body wants to move and by moving, it creates energy.  That’s why activity when you’re doing it, may be tiring, but the release of hormones, the blood pumping in your muscles and breath firing in your lungs takes us to a higher level of energy beyond the exercise and carries through to our daily life activities.

Fit of Our Clothes

When I was embarking on my own transformation journey and started seeing results, one of the best, but most frustrating results was that my clothes fit better… then loose… then too loose.  It wasn’t a bad problem to have for my self-esteem, but my wallet wasn’t super happy about it (but I’ll take that trade off).  My sister would even give me grief because I was wearing “skinny” jeans and they were PRETTY tight, I will admit.  But as I told her then – I wear them not just because I like the look, but because I couldn’t wear these before!  I’ve gotten questionable looks from my friends I play hockey with when we won our league championship and the prize was a t-shirt and I asked for a Medium… because I knew it fit a little snugger, but I wanted it because it wasn’t a Large or X-Large which I had to wear for about half my life.  We all know what it’s like trying to find clothes that fit – both up and down – but there’s something about slipping on a t-shirt that A) used to be too loose and now you fill it out with those big strong muscles; B) you have to change out of because it’s now a parachute; or C) was one you’ve been avoiding because last time it was JUUUUUST a little tight but you try it and it fits PERFECTLY!

Injury Pre/Re-Hab and Prevention

We are flimsy skeletons of bones connected by thin tissues that are protected by meat and skin and we live in a crazy world that is trying to hurt us all the time.  Injury is a step away almost always.  Regular exercise and nutrition can not only help prevent injuries that may potentially occur, but it can also help correct imbalances or problems you’re experiencing to eliminate pain all together.  How many people do you know in the office or family or friend circles that occasionally complain about lower back pain and you know are more sedentary people?  Chances are you’ve seen those people try and try to stretch the pain away or talk about chiropractors, pills, massages, heating pads, etc… everything in the world to mitigate the pain… except exercise, nutrition, lifestyle changes.  What people don’t realize is that most general lower back pain can be resolved by strengthening the area directly – purposefully working those muscles to get stronger – rather than stretching it.  I have seen this happen with a number of clients – one of whom had been seeing a chiropractor weekly for 3 months prior to working with me, and within our first month, has yet to go back to them (it’s been over a year we’ve worked together).  Fixing an injury or even preventing one you can see coming is a huge victory that often gets overlooked though it should be given much more spotlight.

Relieving Reliance of Medications

Maybe the most highly overlooked success of following a proper fitness/nutrition/health program is its ability to relieve us of reliance on many medications.  Type-2 Diabetes, Blood Pressure Meds, High Cholesterol, Anti-Depressants, etc. Working on your health can have immense benefits to relieving of you of reliance on these medications as you physically get your body in a healthy position, internally you’re healing problems of hormone imbalances and toxicity levels that plague our society today. 

The scale is a useful tool in measuring progress, but it has been given too much power.  Don’t let it rule over your journey to happy, healthy, fruitful life by holding your focus to it’s number and remember to celebrate all of your victories along the way – especially the non-scale victories such as increased energy; better fitting clothes; injury prevention; and relief of medications; along with a whole host of others.

 

I shared a little story about better fitting clothes, if you’re comfortable – please share a little anecdote of your success beyond the scale below in the comments and let’s hype the hell out of each other!