Healthy 716- Connecting the 716 to Healthier Living

  Each day is filled with choices. We chose whether or not to exercise, to eat a healthy breakfast, or to do something productive. We chose whether or not to eat that donut, to sleep in, or to watch an extra hour of TV. At the end of each day the sum of your choices pushes you in a direction. It could be pushing you in the direction of fitness and health, if your choices were predominantly wholesome. Or the sum of your choices could be pushing you in the direction of weight gain, health issues and problems. I find this perspective to be helpful when it comes to making a major body transformation. It’s tempting to feel helpless in changing your body when you have so many pounds to lose and so much work to do, since you aren’t able to do it all in one day. However, by capturing the power of each day by making wholesome choices, you will be pushed in the direction of weight loss and health day after day, week after week. Until one day you’ll look in the mi...

 Most of the time, when encouraging you to exercise, I focus on your health and fitness goals. These are two significant benefits, but there’s another side effect of exercise that’s hugely important… How exercise makes you feel. Every workout has an immediate impact on your energy, mood, body chemistry, and even mental functioning. The endorphins released are specifically designed to make you feel good. All of these factors combined create your overall feeling of well-being. Don’t you want to feel good? The tricky part is that most of us are habit driven, and so our activity level (or lack thereof) is fairly consistent day-to-day and week-to-week. This makes the impact of each sedentary day less noticeable since another similar day causes no obvious change. It simply perpetuates your current state of un-wellbeing, with a slow decline. Why this matters: You could begin feeling a lot better than you do today by starting to exercise. This could come as a surprise, especially if you be...

  Do you ever struggle with sticking to your exercise and diet routine? One skipped workout leads to another, and another, and another. Then, before you know it, your fitness progress grinds to a halt. This frustrating cycle is all too common. Many of my clients have asked for a brilliant tip to stick with their exercise plan, and I found the solution in an unlikely place: from the mind of Jerry Seinfeld. The story goes like this… A few decades ago, when he was a touring comedian and the Seinfeld show was new to TV, a young man approached him behind stage at a comedy club to ask for advice. How can I become a better comic? He told the young comic that to become better he should write better jokes. And to write better jokes, he must write every single day. Seinfeld went on to describe his Chain Method for staying consistent. He hangs a big calendar of a whole year on the wall. On every day that he writes, he marks that box with an X. After a few days you have a chain that continues ...

 I know why you’ve been reluctant to jump on the fitness bandwagon, and I’m not blaming you for it.  Because fitness is hard .  Want to know just how hard? Here’s a glimpse into the Fit Life:  Fit Life Truth #1: Exercise Counts Lace up your shoes and hit the gym instead of getting extra sleep, watching TV or doing whatever else it is that you’d rather be doing. Do this 3–5 times each for 30–60 minutes.  Fit Life Truth #2: Nutrition Counts Choose your meals based on the nutritional makeup rather than following your taste buds. Limit your intake of simple carbohydrates and get lots of protein and fiber in each meal.  Fit Life Truth #3: No Room For Junk Turn down your favorite junk foods –even when you really, really want it. Cut simple sugars and harmful, processed fats out of your diet completely.  Fit Life Truth #4: Push Harder Push your body to be stronger, faster and better during each workout. Don’t simply go through the motions in your routine — co...

  Talk to 10 people and you’ll get 10 different opinions on the best way to get fit. One will tell you to attend an aerobics class. Another will swear by jogging. Yet another will tell you that dance and biking worked for them. The truth is that there’s really only one effective way to get fit. Before I get into the details, it’s important that we agree on the definition of ‘fit’. Too often thin is mistaken for fit, and that’s not what you should strive for.  When someone is thin, but has very little muscle tissue, they aren’t truly fit.  Here’s why thin doesn’t equal fit: Their body fat percentage will be higher than ideal — even though you won’t see a lot of fat on them, if their muscle percentage is low then fat percentage will be higher. Their resting metabolism will be low, since little muscle is present to burn calories at rest. Their body won’t be functionally strong, which will lead to injuries and frustrations. So how does one get truly fit? It’s this simple: Str...

  I’m sure you’ve heard the story of the Tortoise and the Hare… This one is a bit different. See the Tortoise and the Hare already had their race. We know who won… But years later the Hare was still upset about the loss. It had been some time since they had both exercised and they had gained some unwanted weight. So the Hare proposed a weight loss competition. Instead of a foot race, it was to see who could lose 10 pounds first. The Tortoise agreed and off they went. The Hare hit the ground running. Literally. He did HOURS of cardio. Running. Running. More running.  He ate VERY little. It would leave even the littlest bunny starving. He thought,  “If I do more and eat less, I’ll be sure to lose weight the fastest!” After the first week, the Hare was down 6lbs. He was starving and exhausted but the results were there. The Tortoise on the other hand ate balanced meals. She only exercised three times. After the first week, she was down 2lbs.   The Hare thought he h...

 When it comes to excuses for not exercising, I’ve heard them all.  Sometimes the excuse is self-inflicted:  I don’t have the time. Other times the excuse is pure procrastination:  I’m going to start as soon as tax season ends. And then there are excuses that are downright funny:  I don’t like to sweat.  As delicately as possible, I point out to these well meaning excuse-makers that, even though they don’t want to do it, exercise is an important part of cultivating a strong, healthy and attractive body. I tell them that if they would just exercise 2 to 4 times each week they would feel a dramatic improvement in their daily life, starting with renewed energy and strength. Then I bring up the health benefits and explain how many of their health problems would improve or even disappear. I talk about how great they will feel, and look, dropping those extra pounds and rediscovering a slender figure. Even with all this experience in e...

  If losing fat were easy then we’d all look like fitness models, right? Unfortunately, the fat loss game is more frustrating than most care to admit. The scale quickly becomes a dreaded enemy—a constant bearer of bad news. If the number on your scale won’t budge then read on for an explanation: Possibility #1 : You’re Not Eating Enough Calories This only happens in cases of severe calorie restriction, so don’t take it as a license to eat whatever you’d like. When you’re trying to drop a few pounds by eating next to nothing, it actually counteracts your efforts. There’s a base number of calories that you should be eating in order to maintain your proper bodily functions, including fat loss, so check with a doctor or nutritionist to make sure that you’re eating enough. Possibility #2 : You’re Eating Too Many Carbs Processed carbs will promote fat storage quicker than you can say the alphabet backwards. Blood sugar and insulin levels always respond the same to processed carbs – wheth...