Day Eight: Tips on Dining Out

One thing that can be difficult to do when trying to be healthier and lose weight is dine out. Portions are usually way out of control and it can be hard or even impossible to find out how it is prepared. However, here are a few ways you can dine out responsibly.

1. If you are choosing the restaurant, then pick a place that is known for being a more healthy and wholesome place. 
2. If you are not choosing the restaurant, try to find a menu and nutrition facts online. 
3. Prepare before you go by picking out what you are going to order and deciding (if appropriate) how much of it you are actually going to consume while you are there. This tip is good for those that are creatures of habit and find it difficult to stray from what you would normally get. Simply visualizing and going in with a game plan can help fend off those other temptations.
4. If you can't find a menu or nutritional information online, then use your common sense when ordering. Avoid things that are typically bad for you like fried food, most red meats, cheese, white bread, etc. 
5. Don't be afraid to ask how their items are prepared and ask to have things specially made. 
6. Even if you try your best to order wisely, sometimes the portion size is the hard thing to get away from. One thing you can do is ask for a box with your dinner and automatically put half of it away to take home. Out of sight out of mind, right? 
7. If all else fails, and you're not afraid to be the odd person out, then you can eat before and just enjoy the night out with your friends and family. 

Hope you find this useful in your next night out. Just because you're living a healthier life doesn't mean you need to sacrifice going out. Thanks for reading!

Day Seven: Assessment

As I mentioned last Thursday, I will be assessing how I have done over the previous week in regards to my set goals and come up with new ones for the following week. Well, in looking at my goals, I only made one slip up. Again, my goals for the previous seven days were as follows:

• Avoid "unhealthy" fast food places. 
• Avoid high calorie sodas. 
• Get at least 30 minutes of activity in on three different days. (two long walks with the dog and one bout of exercise during a TV program)

The only goal I slipped up on was the soda one. Unfortunately, I got one with lunch the other day and did not even realize until after the fact. I guess it just goes to show how hard it is to break habits sometimes. It really bothers me because of all my goals, I thought that one would be the easiest for me to accomplish. My silver lining, is that I did not consciously sabotage my success. It was just habit that took over. Also, I have learned my lesson and will be much more cautious in those situations in the future.

Just before we move on to new goals, I would like to mention that the goals in regards to diet are compounding which means I am going to maintain previous goals along with the new ones. In regards to activity, however, I will be adjusting to a new plan each week.

With that said, my goals for this next week will be the following:

• No sweets but I will allow myself one free pass on this one. Therefore, at most I can have one dessert type item per week. 
• Activity:
• Cardio - Three 30min bouts.
• Resistance - Hit every major muscle group at least once. 

Basically, what I am adding to my plate for this week is resistance program and no sweets. Although it may not be showing it much now, my goals are going to eventually lead me to finishing that marathon in May and increasing my strength. However, since it is only the second week of my program, I am still choosing to make pretty minor additions. Simply getting a cardio and resistance training program going and sticking with it is the first battle. Focusing on that right now is most important.

Thanks for stopping by!

Day Six: Muscle Basics

Muscle has three main purposes which are movement, stability, and protection. It helps to protect organs and bones from injury. It helps stabilize parts of the body during activity, i.e. stabilizing the spine when walking. Finally, muscle tissue allows the body to move.

The human body is an amazing thing. It can adapt in so many different ways. When it is hot out, the body has ways of cooling itself down such as sweating. When the body is attacked by disease, the body can defend itself and often win the battle. Muscle is no exception. It adapts to what you put it through. When you start working out it will be hard but as you maintain your regimen it will get easier. If you do a bunch of intense cardio, your muscles will become more resistant to lactic acid (one of the biggest contributors to muscle fatigue). Lifting heavy weights will help you to increase how much you can lift.

This concept is why I am such a big advocate for cross training. Using your muscles in as many challenging but safe ways helps to keep them confused which will help to keep from hitting any sort of plateau. Also, it can help to keep the workout regimen interesting. Finally, it can help with weight loss.

Many people think of weight loss and resistance training as two separate things. However, a resistance program can really be a great supplement to an exercise regimen. Cardio is great because it is an excellent way to burn a bunch of calories in a short amount of time. Once you stop exercising though, the extra calories stop burning. Building up a little extra muscle helps you burn extra calories even when you are sitting on the couch. One pound of muscle burns an extra 50 calories per day.

Now, imagine you put on an extra ten pounds of muscle. That means you would burn an extra 500 calories a day and an extra 3,500 calories a week. If you don't know, 3,500 is the magic number in the world of calories. One pound of fat is about 3,500 calories. Therefore, if you put on that ten pounds of muscle, you would automatically be burning an extra pound of fat off per week without doing any extra work. Putting on a little muscle with each major muscle group can really help in your weight loss goals.

There are many more benefits to a resistance training program and I urge you to give it a shot if you have never been interested before. Thanks for reading! Hope you keep coming.

Day Five: Goals

So I have set my goals and they are the following:

• Increase strength by at least 50% by May 1st. 
• Compete in the Pump n' Run in Cincinnati in May. It is comprised of bench pressing and curling a certain percentage of your weight followed by a full marathon (I may switch to a marathon in Dayton, but either way I plan on doing a marathon).

Those are my long term goals and my short term goals will be set from week to week. For instance, this week I have the goals of avoiding fast food places and getting 30 minutes of activity in three times this week. Now that I have my long term goals in place, I can tailor these weekly goals to help me achieve the long term goals. Pretty soon here I will also create some monthly goals.

That's going to be all for this post. I wish I had more for you but due to some personal things going on right now, I did not have much time to plan out and write this post. So instead of rushing it and posting something sloppy, I will come back tomorrow and post some good stuff. Thanks for reading!

Day Four: Setting Goals

A great way to keep yourself on track is by setting goals. Having goals is a great way to motivate yourself by keeping yourself aware of what you are working toward. Also, it is a great way to know what you have to do in the short term in order to achieve those goals. However, there is a science to creating goals in order to make it more likely that a person will achieve them.

Be Specific - When establishing a goal, it should be measurable and there should be a deadline.
            
                       Bad example - I want to lose some weight.
      
                       Good example - I want to lose ten pounds of fat in sixty days.

Establishing the specifics not only makes it much easier to set up a program that you can follow but it holds you accountable for the results. You will know with no uncertainty whether or not you achieved your goal. 

Be Realistic - Do not be afraid to challenge yourself but do not make your goals so challenging that there is very little or zero chance at success. Take a look at how much time you have to devote to a goal, where you would be starting from (if you want to run a marathon, are you starting from square one or do you jog pretty regularly?), and what it will take to achieve that goal. One thing that I like to do is create a goal that is moderate in difficulty but include a "reach" goal that is quite challenging. That way, there is not as much disappointment if I do not perform at my best during that time, as long as I put forth enough effort to meet the moderate goal.

Short vs. Long Term - Often times people have goals that are not quick and easy to come by. Goals such as wanting to run a marathon, wanting to lose a significant amount of weight, wanting to see significant strength gains are all goals that are going to take the average person a while to achieve. We all know how daunting it can be approaching a goal that is going to take a month or longer. Personally, I have trouble seeing a couple weeks out.

Short term goals are a great way to guide you to your ultimate goal. Just be sure that your short term goals lead up to your long term goal in an appropriate fashion. Do not start off too fast and be sure you are always working up to the goal rather than regressing or staying stagnant.


Well, there are some basics on setting goals. I would love to address any questions or comments that you may have and I will be coming to you with my goals in tomorrow's post. Thanks for reading!
                    

Day Three: Weight Loss Basics

In order to lose weight a person needs to burn more calories than they consume. If a person burns more calories than they consume in a day, the difference is called a calorie deficit. There is a calorie surplus if more calories are consumed than burned. A person must reach a calorie deficit of approximately 3,500 calories in order to lose a pound of fat. Being such a high number this is usually done over a few days or even a week. Therefore, weight loss should be approached as a marathon instead of a sprint.

There are no quick fixes when trying to lose weight. If you really want to lose weight, then it should be done slowly and carefully. Too few calories in a day can trigger your body's starvation mode which can cause your body to start getting some of its energy from breaking down muscle tissue which can be very dangerous. Too many calories will obviously lead to weight gain. My last word of advice would be to not get obsessed with what shows up on the scale. Yes, if you are overweight, then it is very important to get down to a healthy weight. However, due to water weight and other factors, your weight can fluctuate quite a bit throughout the day. If you know you are doing things right and you are eating healthy, exercising, and feeling good, then do not let a couple of bad numbers deter you. Definitely assess things but do not by any means give up.

Well those are the basics and I'm looking forward to bringing you more in the future. I would love to answer any questions though.

Day Two: Motivation Through Numbers

Since the previous post, I have remained on track with my current goals. I avoided unhealthy fast food places and high calorie sodas. Due to the fact that I have an entire week to incorporate three 30 minute bouts of exercise I elected to take the day off from that and focus on something that could be a big source of motivation. That something would be numbers.

When starting your journey to a life of health and fitness, it is a good idea to take down some numbers in order to track how well you are doing. Weight is something people are familiar with but there are so many more bits of information you can gather about your current level of fitness. So many in fact, that I will only be mentioning a few at this point. In my opinion, the key is to choose the statistics that are relevant to your goals. For example, if you want to eventually run a half marathon, choosing modes of evaluation that gauge the efficiency of your cardiorespiratory system would probably be the way to go.

Examples of some of the things you can keep track of are:

• Weight - This is the easiest and most convenient statistic to keep track of if you are trying to slim down. Just know this is not always the most important statistic. 
• Body Fat Percentage - In acquiring weight loss, this is a better gauge of how you are doing but it is a more difficult number to calculate. If you know how to use skin fold calipers correctly, it can be the most accurate method. Bioelectrical impedance is the most convenient way to calculate this number but it is less accurate. Bioelectrical impedance is the technology used in some scales to calculate body fat percentage.  It can also be found in some hand-held instruments. There are other ways but they are not practical. 
• Blood Pressure - This is one way to assess the health of your cardiovascular system but be aware it is only part of the picture. It is not a means for diagnosing the overall health of your cardiovascular system.
  
• Resting Heart Rate (RHR) - Ideally you would take your heart rate as soon as you wake up, however, you can get a fairly accurate reading if you simply take it after sitting and relaxing for at least five minutes. Caffeine, alcohol, and exercise, among other things, can affect the accuracy of the reading. You can get this reading from a heart rate monitor, on some blood pressure machines, or by doing it yourself. 
• Heart Rate Under A Specific Load - With this, you would do a specific exercise for a specified period of time and take your heart rate at the conclusion. For example, you can jump on a treadmill for 5 minutes at 4mph and check your heart rate at the end. As your cardio improves, your measured heart rate should decrease. As long as you keep your program constant each time you do it, it can provide great insight. What I did was use a chair that I stepped up and down from for three minutes at a rate of 20 times (up and back down) per minute and took my heart rate when I was finished. There are standardized tests out there which give you the opportunity to compare your results to a sample population. If you fear that comparing yourself to others will be discouraging, then you may want to avoid these standardized tests. Just be careful in coming up with your own program. It should be at a moderate difficulty level and you will probably want to include a designated warm-up.  

As I said, there are a number of additional things that you can measure for the purposes of gauging progress. In future posts I will be covering some of these and feel free to comment on some of your own. Once again, these numbers can be really helpful and allow you to see tangible results which can help to keep you motivated. I hope this has been helpful.