The Fit Stop

Feb. 16, 2012

The Importance Of Recovery

An often overlooked aspect of everyone’s training and exercise program is recovery, it’s not all about exercising as hard as you can and then disregarding the impact this has on your body for the rest of the day, recovery from training is in some ways the whole reason you’re training in the first place,…

What the heck am I talking about and how does it affect you?

Well…

Recovery basically refers to the repair of the damage we do to our muscles and our connective tissues during a workout. Recovery is also the restoration of the enzymes inside muscle fibres which are broken down during training, the refilling of the carbohydrate fuel stores within muscle cells, and it’s the return to normal of the nervous and immune systems, all of which are affected by a bout of physical training.

Nerdy textbook pic – there’s a lot going on in your body during and after a bout of high intensity exercise

This damage occurs after all our sessions whether it be strength training or cardio, however the degree to which it affects us on every level will vary accordingly. For example if we have a session of heavy lifting, our muscles anc connective tissues will need more recovery than if we did some interval training on the bike.

However, it’s important to remember that when we train we don’t just want our bodies to repair and return to normal during recovery periods. Ideally, our body systems should adapt and our muscles will repair and add to their structure to go that little bit further in making us stronger, adding muscle tissue, improving our motor control and coordination, increase our threshold for lactic acid and to allow us to increase the intensity and duration of work we can do.

The human body is amazing in that when we place a stress upon it, it will try and adapt to better cope with the situation (some of you might have calluses on your hands from training, this a real life example, your skin is adapting to the stress of holding dumbells) we are essentially doing this when we are working out.

You’re lifting heavy objects, fatiguing muscles, challenging your cardiovascular system and in doing so your body will sense that it needs to adapt and improve the efficiency in which you carry out these tasks several times per week, hence more muscle, increased strength, less fat, improved cardio etc. This is once of the reasons why we constantly need to increase the intensity and change up the programming of our training sessions to trigger this adaptation response.

So as you can see the recovery aspect of training is very important, it is literally the THING that gives you the results. We don’t actually get stronger and fitter while we’re at the gym doing a workout, nor do we grow new muscle tissue or burn a ton of body fat while we’re actually at the gym, it all happens in the other 23 hours in the day we spend away from the gym, what you’re actually doing at the gym is creating a stress.

Now that we know this, we know for best results we want to optimize our recovery, to speed it up and to improve our results as much as we can before our next workout. Best results are achieved when doing as much training or exercise as possible without going beyond our capacity to recover. This is the perfect balance. (Although it’s important to remember, we need to make sure that we’re training hard enough and with adequate intensity to create enough of a stress to trigger this adaptation response in the first place!)

What we do with our time after a workout, and the lifestyle choices we make, will affect our recovery and results either positively or negatively, fortunately however we have a lot of control over these factors.

Ideally we want to maintain a good healthy lifestyle & diet, this doesn’t just mean staying away from junk food, it means eating foods that are high in all the good proteins, carbs, fats, vitamins and minerals we need, and it means eating enough foods, as well as a good supply of water. Your body uses these nutrients as the building blocks to repair itself, and to improve upon itself, just like watering and feeding a plant or any other living organism. If your goal it to add muscle, or if you’re trying to repair an injury it’s even more important for you to eat enough food.

We need to make sure we are getting enough sleep, this is the main time your body restores and repairs itself, if you’re not sleeping your recovery is definitely not optimal and neither are your workouts, it’s ideal to aim for about 8 hours sleep a night, if you can get more then lucky you!.

Things like massage and soft tissue work like rolling on the foam rollers and little bouncy balls, as well as stretching, will also enhance your recovery and help keep your body functioning well, sort of like when you get your car serviced and your wheels aligned.

and lastly, it’s been shown that drinking a protein recovery drink within 30 minutes of finishing your strength training workouts will kick start the recovery process and improve the rate at which your muscles recover and repair. After a strength training session your muslces will be very receptive to protein intake so this a good window of opportunity to make your workouts more productuve and get better results, with very little extra effort.

It probably doesn’t need to be said, but drinking alcohol, junk food, late nights, super low calorie diets, stress levels, and smoking all affect your recovery negatively; all these things are bad for our bodies, so we are effectively placing added stress on to an already stressed system. These things will slow your recovery and your progress. The last thing we want is for you to train hard, then go and place excess demands on your body by not following good lifestyle choices, this could eventually lead to over training where your body just cannot cope anymore and your performance will actually go backwards, your energy and immune systems will be down, and you may even get sick!

So there you go, that’s the importance of recovery and taking care of yourself

.
Hope this has given you something to think about

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Feb. 2, 2012

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5 Questions To Ask Yourself At Meal Time

Losing weight, toning up, and being healthy comes down to the choices you make and the habits you develop from day to day. Its really quite simple, not necessarily easy, but it is quite simple when you understand what to do.

There are no magic bullet quick fixes, but if you just follow proven, solid principles on a consistent basis and go in to it with the mindset of ‘this is your lifestyle’ (and not a temporary health kick), you’ll get the results you want. Like it or not, the state of your body and health are the result of the lifestyle choices you’ve made up till now. If you want to change the outcome or the result you’ve been getting, then you need to start making the right choices that are conducive to your goals.

So if losing body fat or toning up is one of your primary goals, here’s 5 very important questions you should ask yourself when you sit down to eat… and if it helps, review these questions every single time you eat for as long as it takes to sink in.

SIMPLE: If you can provide the right answer to these questions every single time you eat a meal, you’ll lose weight and feel great and your body will reflect these great lifestyle choices you’ve made.

Here goes…

ARE YOU EATING TOO MUCH?

This might seem obvious, but it’s the best place to start. When you’re eating for fat loss its to be expected that you’re going to be feeling a little hungry some of the time, and that’s fine. It’s a good idea to stop eating before you’re feeling ‘full’.

So try eating on a smaller plate than usual, or just leave some food on your plate, put it in the fridge and save it for tomorrow.

And if you typically go back for seconds, maybe leave it at just one serve from now on.

Whichever one works for you, make sure you’re decreasing you’re calories in one way or another compared to what you’d normally eat.

So next meal time ask yourself – “Am I eating too much?”

(note: some people with a history of very low calorie diets need to eat MORE food to ramp up their metabolism and lose weight, have a think if you might be one of them)

ARE YOU EATING ENOUGH PROTEIN?

Protein intake will largely determine whether your body is going to burn fat or lean muscle, and obviously you want to lose the fat! It will also boost your metabolism and help repair and strengthen your muscles and connective tissues from weight training and other exercise (it will also help you overcome injuries a lot faster)

Females should aim for a palm sized portion, whilst men should aim for two palm sizes, choosing from good quality lean meats ( lamb, beef, chicken, fish), vegetarian sources (tofu, legumes) or powdered protein supplements.

So next meal you have, ask your self, “am I having enough protein?”

ARE YOU EATING TOO MANY SUGARS OR STARCHES?

If you’re eating too many sugars or starchy carbs this will very likely prevent fat loss, and is actually likely to be a big cause of your weight gain in the first place! So next time you eat, ask yourself if there’s too many starches, the most common contributor I see is bread and pasta, other common starches include grains, biscuits/crackers, potatoes, rice.

Sugars are commonly found in soft drink, fruit juice, chocolate, salad dressing, desserts, and sweet snacks. You don’t have to be completely free of these foods if its just too daunting to get your head around, but just start eating less of them to get the ball rolling.

Next meal time ask yourself- ‘are you eating too many sugars or starches?”

ARE YOU EATING ENOUGH VEGETABLES?

In terms of nutrient density and calorie for calorie ‘bang for you buck’ you can’t go passed veggies. By replacing a lot of your starchy carbs with a double serve of veggies you’ll help yourself to feel fuller, healthier and more energetic, as you’re loading your body full of extra fiber, vitamins and minerals.

Females should aim for ½ to 1 cup, whilst males should aim for 1 cup.

Next meal ask yourself – “Am I eating enough vegetables?”

ARE YOU INCLUDING HEALTHY FATS?

Its important to differentiate between good and bad fats here. Highly processed fats found in processed foods will damage your health and lead to weight gain. Healthy fats however, will help with your weight loss. So try replacing any of these processed bad fats with good fats.

Bad fats are commonly found in things like pastries, chips, fast foods, fried foods etc

Healthy fats can be chosen from sources like avocado’s, raw nuts, eggs, seeds, coconut oil, olive oil, and fish oil or krill oils.

Next meal ask yourself – Am I including healthy fats? Or did I have some with my last meal/snack?”

There you have it – simple!

5 questions you can ask yourself to ensure you’re on the right track…

•    Are you eating too much?
•    Are you eating enough protein?
•    Are you eating too many sugars or starches?
•    Are you eating enough vegetables?
•    Are you including healthy fats?

If you’ve got these questions covered then you’re on the right track, and remember this – if you want people to be impressed by how you look or the results you’ve achieved, then they should be impressed by looking at your food diary and your exercise log when you show them what it is you do.

Hope this has given you something to think about…

Have a great day!

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Jan. 12, 2012

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Success Leaves Clues…(Or How To Kick Butt In 2012!)

I understand not everyone has a massive fitness or weight loss goal they want to accomplish, and just like to train to keep in shape, stay active, be healthy and stay on top of things.

But a lot of people I speak to do have quite big goals and would love to see some big changes.

For those of you who do have a fitness or weight loss goal you want to achieve, one of the most overlooked aspects of success is your attitude, or mindset.

No matter how many tips on exercise and diet we give you, if you have a negative attitude, a bad self image or self sabotaging behaviours then you’re going to find things very difficult.

The truth is if you were to start out on a fat loss or fitness quest, you had no idea how to exercise or what to eat and the only thing you had was a good attitude, I’d say you’re very likely to succeed.

Anyone can learn how to exercise properly

Anyone can learn how to eat right for their goals

The information or ‘how to’ is very accessible once you sort the reality from the nonsense (especially with a good attitude)

But without the right attitude you’re likely to:

- Give up when you hit your first hurdle or when things aren’t so smooth
- Not commit or give it 100% because you’re doubting everything, (including yourself)
- Not push yourself hard enough or get out of your comfort zone when exercising
- Find a reason to cancel training sessions too often
- Be impatient and expect unrealistic results too quickly
- Blame your circumstances because it’s ‘too hard for you’
- Blame external factors or other people for making it too hard
- Give in to temptations and stray from your healthy eating or exercise plan
- Believe that you’ve been cursed with ‘bad genetics’
- Forever think of yourself as ‘the fat girl or guy’ (these beliefs will subconsciously sabotage your efforts sooner or later because deep down that’s who you think you are)

And I guarantee that if you think some of the above applies to you, you weren’t always that way, somewhere along the way you learnt to think like that.

I mean, think about it, once upon a time you were a baby and you couldn’t even walk or talk! At some point you literally taught yourself how to walk and talk from scratch…sounds stupid but it’s true.

Do you know how many times you failed, fell on your butt, hit your head and totally stuffed up whilst learning how to walk?…Hundreds?…Thousands?…

But this didn’t deter you one bit.., you just got straight back up and kept trying because you hadn’t yet developed any negative, self limiting beliefs, and you REALLY wanted to walk so through hard work, persistency, lots of practice and a good attitude you eventually got there.

But now you think it’s impossible to get up earlier every day and prepare yourself a healthy breakfast?…Or do some intervals when you get home from work?…or ditch the bread, pasta & alcohol that’s keeping you from losing weight and being happy with your body?. WHAT? Sounds a bit silly doesn’t it after what you’ve already accomplished? …

So, after falling over thousands of times, and even giving himself a hernia and a busted up nose in the process, my little boy Cooper has finally taught himself how to walk!
(and he knows how to eat a good healthy breakfast too)

On the other hand, people who are successful in achieving their weight loss goals (or any goals for that matter) typically display the same sort of attitude and characteristics.

Successful people leave clues for the rest of us…

And it’s no coincidence that people who do succeed in what they set out to do:

- Have a positive attitude & expect to succeed
- Have a burning desire to achieve their goal
- Work hard to get what they want
- Take full responsibility for their own results and blame no one else or outside circumstances
- Understand they can control their own circumstances, their environment and experiences
- Hit a hurdle, learn from it, and find a way to get around it or fix it to get back on track
- Get help from others to get to where they want to go quicker and easier
- Do whatever it takes to achieve their goal – no matter what, until they do.
- Are persistent, knowing that doing the right thing over time will eventually pay off.
- Constantly try and improve what they’re doing – even if its just by 1%
- Take massive action on what they know they should be doing, without waiting and procrastinating for a ‘better time’
- Just Do It (yes, Nike is on to something there)

So, it stands to reason that if you want to be successful at anything (in this case its improving fitness, health, losing body fat, toning up, getting stronger, becoming more flexible etc) then these are the characteristics you need to adopt which will get you there.

So have a great attitude & mindset, mix it in with a bit of hard work and discipline, don’t get bogged down with negativity, genuinely believe in yourself, and constantly look for ways to improve or do better, and you’re guaranteed to kick butt in 2012!

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Dec. 15, 2011

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What’s So Good About Breakfast?

If you are trying to watch the weight over the Christmas / holiday period, its important to maintain your good habits (and don’t pick up any new bad ones) when the structure of your day to day working life gets a little ‘out of whack’

When you’re no longer in work mode, and your daily routine changes up over the break, eating breakfast is often the first thing to go, and from there it can have a snowballing effect, ruining your whole day. (in terms of eating that is)

Now this is assuming you’re eating breakfast every morning anyway, if you’re not, then there’s no better time to start than right now, it is a must if you’re trying to lose weight or care at all about how you look or feel.

Yum…a great breakie…

Now I’ve touched on this before when talking about meal frequency that when your body goes for extended periods without food, your metabolism slows down in an effort to preserve the fat and muscle on your body, not only this, but your muscle tissue will be the first to be burned for energy when it is time to dig in to the reserves – not good if you want to keep that metabolism running high

Breakfast was given its name because you are literally “breaking the fast” from the last 8 or so hours you have been sleeping, and even more since you last ate. This is the reason it’s often said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

So after not eating for 8 hours or longer, it is very important to eat a meal to get your metabolism kick started for the day , it will also provide your body with the much needed nutrients and energy it requires after so long a gap since you last fed yourself.

By eating a good breakfast, you’re also far less likely to over eat throughout the day and less inclined to snack on ‘junk’ food when the hunger catches up with you and you find yourself ravenous in the afternoon (this is a common pattern for many people).

Sporadic, unplanned over eating on unhealthy foods, along with a sluggish metabolism from not eating consistently day to day,
is a sure path to weight gain (or at least no weight loss).

And lastly, if you are reading this then its likely you are doing regular workouts, which require high energy. The higher your energy levels the more intensity you can put into your workouts, and the more you’ll get out of them.

So especially if you’re training in the morning and are coming to the gym after not eating for maybe 8-10 hours because you haven’t had breakfast, it is a certainty you are not optimising your performance and getting the best out of yourself. Again, breakfast will kick-start your metabolism, improve your recovery from training and make sure your body isn’t in a ‘catabolic’ state where it will eat into your precious metabolic muscle tissue. Along with the physical energy you will get, people who eat breakfast are more mentally alert as well, and this cannot hurt at all!

Breakfast will help your brain work better…

As you can see, when trying to control or maintain your weight - speeding up your metabolism, cutting out unplanned and unhealthy snacks, increased energy, and having effective workouts are obviously going to help.

If you wake up and you find you’re just not hungry and the thought of eating makes you sick, this is a sign that you’ve got a sluggish metabolism and you need to get it fired up. (A good analogy is to think of your metabolism as a fire… you need a big meal to get it started for the day, then keep topping it up throughout the day to keep it burning, if you don’t keep topping it up the fire will burn out)

Your metabolism is like a fire, and you need a big healthy breakie to get it started

If you’re just starting to get used to the idea of breakfast, start out with something little like a small protein shake or a small bowl of oats, or a banana, or an egg, and gradually build it up over time till it becomes a full meal. Soon enough you’ll find yourself waking up hungry in the morning and actually look forward to your breakfast.

Some good ideas for what to include in a good breakfast:

- Oats (if you tolerate them ok)
- Eggs
- Egg whites
- Lean meats (the thought of this might make some people sick, but humans didn’t eat breakfast cereal for most of our existence)
- Last nights left over dinner
- Fruit
- Veggies
- Omelette with spinach or other veggies
- Protein shake / smoothie

It is good to always eat some sort of veggies with breakfast to kick start the day, a good mix of protein, carbohydrates and good fats. What gives you the most energy and makes you feel the best may not be the same as somebody else which is why it is good to try out a few different things and go with what works best for you. Some of you might find it very surprising, but it’s very common that people don’t tolerate oats, muesli, and common breakfast cereals too well and it leads to bloating, digestive issues, lethargy, weight gain etc so see how these foods makes you feel. In my opinion you’ll get a ton more nutrients with a veggie filled omellete!

Hope this has given you something to think about!

…and just in case I don’t see you before…

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Dec. 1, 2011

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The Carb Cycling Strategy

I’ve mentioned before that the number 1 rule for losing weight (or adding weight for that matter) is energy consumption vs energy expenditure.

Or energy in vs energy out

But often people hear this and it can be misleading, yes its right you do need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight (eating less energy than you’re expending) but this isn’t the be all and end all when in fact the TYPES and QUALITY of foods you’re eating to make up those calories WILL play a big role.

The type and quality of food you eat will affect you positively or negatively in these areas:

-    Hormones
-    Blood sugar levels
-    How you feel / energy levels
-    Immune system
-    Risk factors for basically every disease
-    Vitamin and mineral intake
-    Fibre consumption
-    Protein consumption
-    Fat consumption (good and bad)
-    Ability to recover properly from hard training
-    Ability to lose body fat
-    Ability to add strength
-    Ability to add muscle
-    Levels of inflammation and pain throughout your body

And i’m sure I’ve missed a few, and needless to say these areas all interrelated.

But to the point of today..

One of the key macro nutrients we want to address and manipulate when looking to lose body fat (particularly for somebody who has a problem with consuming too many calories) is carbohydrates, particularly processed, man made carbohydrates or or ‘non fruit & veg’ carbs.

There’s a couple of reasons for this, one being that whenever you eat carbs your body produces insulin as part of the digestive process, insulin being a hormone which is very ‘anabolic’ meaning that it will often promote the storage of body fat. When you eat a meal you want your body to produce as little insulin as possible, so ideally the food you eat won’t get stored.

Now not all carbs are equally bad, you’ve got things down one end of the spectrum like sugar which should be avoided by everyone at all times, then there’s things like sweet potato’s, potatoes, rice, quinoa, lentils, oats etc which can have a place in your diet depending on how well your particular body tolerates them and when you’re consuming them (after a weight training workout for example is by far the best time to eat some carbs along with your protein).

A lot of people struggle (myself included) with completely eliminating these ‘non fruit & veg carbs’ from their diet, I myself do eat the better quality ones mentioned above particularly on training days, and I sometime eat spelt bread (although I am not trying to lose weight and if I was I would eliminate a lot of these carbs).

However I am fully aware that even if your goal is to lose weight and it’s best to avoid the ‘non fruit & veg’ carbs, some people find this very hard.

One effective strategy is to cycle your carbs, meaning you have days where you allow yourself to eat ‘non fruit & veg’ carbs, and you have days where you don’t eat any at all. This can be a lot easier to mentally cope with for many people who struggle with the concept of not eating any bread, pasta, crackers, rice etc – and seems to be a lot less daunting than trying to stick to strict guidelines 100% of the time.

So a simple and straightforward way to set this up would be to only allow yourself to eat ‘non fruit & veg carbs’ on days that you do some sort of resistance training, and ideally, the sooner you can get them in after training, the better.

On these days and during these times your body will be a lot more sensitive to insulin (so you won’t produce as much after eating carbs), and the other great thing is a lot of the food and nutrients you ingest around your training hours will be partitioned to your muscles and used to replenish your body after intense exercise, instead of getting stored as body fat.

And using this approach you’ll probably halve the amount of processed carbs you’re eating week to week which in itself should make a big difference over time.

So if you’re doing some sort of high intensity, metabolic resistance training at least 3 days per week (which is ideal) then you’ve got 3 days per week you can relax a bit on the ‘non fruit and veg’ carbs – in fact it can be almost like a reward for some people.

Just BE WARNED – this ‘carb cycling’ approach in NOT an excuse to pig out on the wrong foods on the days you’re allowed to eat them. You should still be avoiding ‘sugary’ carbs at all times, and you want to stick to the good end of the spectrum like the foods mentioned earlier – sweet potato, potato, rice, quinoa, (spelt or dark rye bread if you are going to eat bread) etc. Remember if you’re trying to lose body fat you still have to have some self control, and yes you might be hungry sometimes, this strategy can just make things a little easier and allow you to structure the timing of your ‘non fruit & veg’ carb intake.

If you’re only training 1-2 times per week then this might give you some incentive to add another training session in to earn your carbs, OR it just means you’ve only got 1-2 days per week to eat them, you’re much better off doing more training but take your pick.

Hope this helps some of you, a good strategy to think about if it suits the way your mind works.

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Nov. 17, 2011

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Alcohol & Fat Loss

Everybody loves to have a drink or two now and then, some more than others, there is nothing wrong with that (within reason). We understand that not everybody wants to train to be an elite athlete, however it is worth having a look at the potential impact it may be having on your fat loss, health and fitness goals.

Firstly I suppose it is worthy to note that alcohol in small quantities has been linked with certain health benefits, studies have shown that 1-2 standard drinks a day for men, and less than 1 for women does provide partial protection against a specific type of heart disease and heart attack, as well as stroke. This is true particularly of red wine as it does contain various antioxidants, and has ‘anti-cancer effects’

But remember, as much as im sure a lot of people would like to believe it, there aren’t any additional benefits from drinking any more than this recommended amount, and it will offset any potential health benefits, with heavy binge drinking or long term drinking greatly increasing your risk of heart attacks (amongst other things)

The effects alcohol has on your fat loss efforts is another thing altogether. Alcohol is very high in calories, in terms of caloric content per gram, it is second only to fat.

Here is the calorie content of energy producing nutrients:

FATS 9 calories per gram
ALCOHOL 7 calories per gram
CARBS 4 calories per gram
PROTEIN 4 calories per gram

Even though alcohol is high in calories, it is not a good source of energy because the body can only metabolise alcohol at a fixed rate. So, when there is a sharp increase in energy demand (for example when exercising) alcohol metabolism is unable to meet it, making alcohol useless as a high energy source. I’m sure the thought of using alcohol as an energy source to fuel workouts never entered anyone’s mind anyway right?

Alcohol can be a source of energy however, when we are sedentary and not placing high energy demands upon ourselves. The calories provided by alcohol are also used preferentially, meaning that calories from food and body fat will not be used until all the alcohol is used up, this is why it is such a setback when we are trying to lose weight. Furthermore, alcohol itself is not a good nutrient because it does not supply any vitamins or minerals, in fact, in the long term, a high alcohol intake can impair the body’s absorption of nutrients from food and bring about vitamin deficiencies.

If you are on a fat loss plan then alcohol definitely needs to be kept at a minimum, alcohol adds calories, suppresses fat oxidation (your body’s ability to burn fat), messes with your hormones (and therefore your ability to burn fat) and also stimulates your appetite, leading to unplanned overeating and generally not so healthy food choices.

When you’re eating to lose weight, it also means you need to be eating in a calorie or energy deficit, meaning you’re consuming less energy than what is needed to fuel your body. Because your intake of food/calories is on the low end, its really important that the food you DO put into your body is going to ADD to your health in some way..

Basically when eating for fat loss, you want to pack in as many nutrients, vitamins and minerals as you can whilst sticking to your lowered ‘calorie budget’.
If you’re drinking a few hundred calories in alcohol, just keep in mind that nutritionally its basically wasted ‘empty calories’…precious calories which you COULD use in a much better way by consuming calories packed full of nutrients. So just say you’re eating 1700 calories per day on a weight loss plan, do you really want to be spending 500 of those calories (nearly 1/3rd) on alcohol?

You’d get much better results with some extra health promoting foods, adding nutrients, fiber, healthy fats and lean muscle building proteins.

So remember – use up your calories wisely!

Lastly, if you’re going to have a few drinks and get up to train in the morning (not uncommon to see in our Saturday sessions! :-p), you’re not giong to perform at your best…it will leave you dehydrated, reduce your blood sugar levels and therefore energy, impair your co-ordination, balance, strength, endurance and increase your risk of injury.

No matter who you are, too much alcohol will catch up with you…

To say it’s not possible to lose body fat whilst having a few drinks wouldn’t be entirely accurate, sure its possible to do it, BUT, just make sure you realise and understand what you’re getting yourself into, you factor in all the above variables to minimise the ‘damage’, and you understand that it won’t help your results and will most likely hinder them. Most people I see would make much better progress if they just dropped their alcohol intake alone. So next time the opportunity presents itself to have a few drinks, weigh up what takes priority for you at that particular point in your life and now you have the knowledge you need to make the right choice!

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Oct. 28, 2011

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22 Random Health & Fitness Tips Part 2

1. Drink a glass of water before every meal. It may seem like a chore, but drinking a large glass of water before eating is a great way to partially fill you up and prevent you from overeating (if that is a problem for you), and it’s a great simple way to ensure you are getting in your ‘quota’ of water every day if you find you sometimes forget.

2. Cut down on the alcohol if fat loss is a goal, apart from being high in calories, alcohol will actually be metabolised preferentially by your body before it burns off food. Your body will not want to lose body fat or burn up the food you eat if there is alcohol in your system. So the food you do eat, guess where that ends up?

3. Don’t avoid fat! (healthy fats) Most people assume that fat will make them fat, this is wrong! Your body needs fat to be healthy, it is vital in hormone production, in the absorption of vitamins and can help stabilize your blood sugar. In fact if you’re not getting any fat in your diet, your body will think it’s deprived and slow down fat loss!

4. It’s important to constantly vary your workouts so you’re not always doing the exact same thing from session to session. Your body will adapt to the exact same stimulus placed upon it every time you exercise, and will therefore have no ‘need’ to improve or change. Weight training workouts can be varied with different exercises, rep ranges, amount of weight used, rest break length, sets performed etc.

5. Your body needs a variety of nutrients to function at its peak and burn fat. Find new, healthy alternatives to your daily meals, and substitute them frequently so you are getting a whole spectrum of different nutrients on a regular basis.

6. Keep fish oil tablets and a multivitamin next to your toothbrush, then you’re guaranteed to take a few at least once or twice per day (I hope…)

7. The single most effective method for getting results is TAKING ACTION, you don’t have to wait till everything is perfect in your life, or you have the perfect diet, or perfect training program, or when you have ‘time’. TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW on everything you KNOW you can change to help your goals, you can improve and tweak the rest along the way, just get the ball rolling with whatever you can change now.

8. Cook with coconut oil, it’s the healthiest oil to cook with due to its high smoke point, it also contains a very healthy nutrient called Lauric acid which is a key ingredient in mothers milk. There is a story about a cattle farmer who fed his cows cheap coconut oil in an attempt to fatten them up – the cows instead got leaner, healthier and became more active!

9. Choose one day a week to cook a whole lot of veggies and lean meats, like Sunday for example. Place cooked meat & veg in plastic lunch bags and place them in your freezer, then every night before bed take out a couple of meals for the next day to thaw out – ready to take in the morning! Now you’re never stuck for a healthy meal option.

10. Write your fitness or weight loss goals down on a piece of paper and place it somewhere you will see it everyday. This will keep your goals fresh in your consciousness (and subconscious) so you will remember to TAKE ACTION every day to achieve them. It might sound a bit silly, but most of the top performers in the world (in any endeavour) do this, to keep their mindset and focus in check, probably not a coincidence…

11. Natural peanut butter (and other nut butters for that matter) blended with chocolate or cacao based protein shakes tastes awesome, and is a great way to add some healthy fats to your diet. Just make sure its the ‘natural’ stuff, and not the highly processed brand name ones you typically see in the supermarket.

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Oct. 13, 2011

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22 Random Health & Fitness Tips – Part 1

1. A cappuccino with 1 sugar can range from 200-300 calories. Drinks such as these which contain high amounts of sugar and calories should be consumed rarely when fat loss is the goal as the extra calories they contain are readily stored as fat. If you are having 2-3 of these a day this is a quick and simple way to make instant progress by cutting these out or just switching to green tea or even straight black coffee.

2. Make sure you take time to sleep, relax and de-stress. If you are always rundown and tired, your hormones will be out of whack and this can make it very hard when you are trying to lose weight, your body just will not want to drop body fat. Aim to get at least 8 hours sleep per night, and take some time to de-stress regularly. Remember, all things being equal, a healthier body will get faster and better results.

3. If you work in an office environment, buy a big fruit bowl for your desk, a couple of big bags of nuts, and a container of protein powder to keep in the office. This is your back up - now you’ll never be stuck with nothing to eat!

healthy in the office 22 Random Health & Fitness Tips Part 1

4. Eating small meals every 2-3 waking hours will increase your metabolism, regulate blood sugar and reduce fat storage. Make sure that these are healthy meals containing balanced amounts of protein, the right carbohydrates and healthy fats.

5. Its important to do exercises that incorporate compound movements rather than simple ones. A compound movement is one which uses multiple joints & muscle groups at the same time (think: ring row vs. a bicep curl). This will not only help in burning more calories, but will also build and tone more muscle at once! A few good compound movement exercises include: squats, deadlifts, push ups, lunges, rowing variations, or a combination of these movements could be made into one exercise.

6. Make it a habit to eat some fruit or vegetables every time you eat a meal, this is a great way to ensure you get enough servings each day to meet your ‘quota’ ,it will also help you lose body fat, give you more energy, help you feel better and make you a lot healthier.

7. Fat free foods, when eaten in excess, can still be stored as fat! Fat free cookies, yoghurt and crackers are made up of a whole lot of SUGAR and processed carbs! Yep, sugar is just as fattening of a substance as fat itself, when eaten in excess.

8. Did you know that 1kg of muscle burns 60-100 calories per day, while 1kg of fat only burns about 8-18 calories per day? And if you were to place 1kg of muscle next to 1kg of fat, the fat would take up more space – as muscle is much denser.The more muscle your body contains the more calories you burn each day at rest, and the leaner you will look (if you took up less space, it means you are smaller!). So if you could choose what your bum is made of out of the two tissues below which would it be? (And they weigh the same!)

9. Exercises involving the use of machines are generally not as effective for functional strength, performance,fat loss, or muscle gains. The reason being is they stabilise your body for you, and have you move through a predetermined ‘fixed’ line of movement, so you don’t use all the intricate ‘stabiliser’ muscles in your body when training.

10. Buy a magic bullet blender or something similar, you can get them pretty easily from Kmart, Myer etc. These things make it so easy for you to make healthy super shakes with lots of healthy ingredients in only a few minutes, with hardly any cleaning involved!

11. Exercises like front and side planks, anti rotation holds, 1 arm presses, 1 arm loaded lunges will strengthen and engage your ‘core’ in a functional manner – your cores main role is stabilisation. Exercises like sit ups place a lot of strain on the discs in your lower back, exasberate common postural issues (as most people sit down for alot of the day, its really not ideal to go to the gym and round out your spine for hundreds of reps on top of this), and they also have little carryover to functional strength or fat loss.

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Sep. 15, 2011

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Do-It-Yourself Workouts

So the other day I was in a spot of bother as to where I was going to do my regular weight training workout…

I try to do some sort of weight training ideally 4 days per week but sometimes this doesn’t go according to plan with a newborn around (who doesn’t sleep!).

On this particlar day I hadn’t done any exercise in about 10 days or so coz I had the stupid flu, (real flu, not man flu) which really knocked me about. I was dying to do some training as it was starting to get to me and I felt lazy.

Even though I’ve got a whole gym at my disposal ive got a little gym setup in my garage at home that I also use, but on this particular day my 4 month old son was in the car, in the garage - sleeping… It turns out he fell asleep in the car when Ella took him to the supermarket!

So there I was all ready to go, with about an hour of spare time up my sleeve with nowhere to train because Cooper was asleep in my gym!

So instead of skipping my workout, I decided to make the most of an inconvenient situation and… wake up Cooper – ONLY JOKING!

(I would never do that, especially after all the trouble we go through to actually get him to sleep in the first place, we’ll take whatever we can get. Plus it would be a complete waste of the new childrens book we just purchased)

Anyway, instead I went to the back yard, and did a body weight workout, without much equipment at all. I did jump squats (holding a weight plate), push ups, single leg squats, and ring rows on Jacksons swing set. It was actually quite a good workout in the end.

Not the most exciting story I know… but it did give me the idea for a blog post on DIY @ home workouts. Hopefully this will help YOU out for exercise options at home when you miss a session, or allow you to add in an extra session to your weekly routine.

So, as a general rule, I think it’s a good idea to shoot for a minimum of exercising 3 days per week doing total body workouts incorporating some strength training and interval training. This is enough to give you a good training stimulus and metabolic boost every couple of days, as well as giving you some rest and recovery days off.

But for those of you who might only be able to get in to the gym for a session 1-2 times per week, remember if you don’t do any other training on top of this you’re basically not doing any exercise 5-6 days out of the week! Sounds scary when you look at it like that! If this is the case it’s a good idea to find some time to do a quick, high intensity training session on your own to get that 3rd session in and that metabolism fired up.

and if you ever have to miss a session or you go away on holidays, you’ll also want to make sure you’re getting in some training on your own if possible.

So here are some ideas of what you can do on your own, often just at home, to get in 1 more training session per week or to make up a missed session – little things like this can make a big difference in your results over time.

Body weight strength training

Now this will depend on how strong you are, how hard you find lifting your own body weight and your access to heavy objects you can hold on to for extra weight as to the degree to which you can give yourself a good workout.

You can hit every muscle on your body with a basic strength circuit like this:

- Squats (or jump squats)
- Push ups (and push up variations)
- Lunges and variations of
- Band pullaparts (we’ve got lots of spare bands at the gym if anyone wants one)
- Plank hold

3 x 10-20 reps. 3 times through.

If you can do more than 15-20 body weight squats or lunges in a row with no problem, then you’ll need to add some weight. There’s really no rules as to what you can use, just pick up something appropriate, something that you can hold safely, and squat or lunge away. (for example sometimes I’ll even use my kids! – I’ve got a 4 year old or a 4 month old depending on how energetic I’m feeling!)

Body Weight Circuits

If you’re a regular here at the gym, you’ve most likely done these before. Using bodyweight exercises is an easy way to add in some strength training to your workouts without the need for a gym or any equipment. You’re training nearly every muscle in your body to do these movements AND they’re also a great ‘cardio’ workout too, they’ll really get the heart rate up making them an awesome bang for you buck way to train. If fact I would pick a bodyweight circuit over ANY cardio machine in terms of effectiveness if you had to choose only 1 way to quickly train and get the most out of it.

We’re not too concerned with weight here, its more just high intensity, fast paced repetitions.

Perform each exercise back to back without a break in between. Do as many reps as possible with good form.

- Squats – 30 sec
- Mountain Climbers – 30 sec
- Star Jumps – 30secs
- Burpees – 30 seconds
-
Rest 60 seconds in between. Repeat 3 times
If you don’t have a timer you can do it for reps instead. E.g.

- Squats – 30 reps
- Mountain climbers – 50 shuffles
- Star Jumps 50 reps
- Burpees 10-15 reps
-
Rest 60 seconds in between. Repeat 3 times.

Other body weight exercises you can use to make up a circuit (depending on your level of fitness) are:

- Squat Jumps
- Push ups (and variations)
- Burpees with a push up
- Reverse lunges
- Forward lunges
- Step ups (if you have something appropriate to do them on)
- Glute Bridges
- High Knee Sprinting on the spot
- Lying to standing (lying flat on your back then standing up)

And to adjust for your fitness levels you can

- Add or remove exercises to the circuit
- Increase or decrease interval periods or number of reps
- Increase / decrease or add in extra rest periods
- Use harder or easier exercises

Skipping

Ropes are cheap, easy to get and easy to store. They are very portable, making them a great option for @ home workouts. Depending on your fitness levels you can work up to a specific ‘time’ (like 5 mins or 10 mins without stopping), or you can mix up the intensity and do intervals (30 sec hard, 30 sec easy) Spending a good 20 minutes working hard with a rope can be a very good workout!

Other Interval Training

If you live near a park, footy oval or beach, this is a good place to do some interval sprints.

If you’re at an oval you could run 1 lap around the oval as fast as possible, then rest for 60-120 seconds. Do this 5-10 times and you’ll be nicely done.

Or set up two points about 70-100 metres apart – sprint up & walk back. Repeat 5-10 times

Or… you could set up 3 points spread about 7 metres apart and do some shuttle runs (suicides) just like we do at the gym. You should be able to get through 1 of these in about 1 minute (give or take), and again, repeat 5-10 times.

Hill Sprints – find a big hill, run up it as fast as possible, walk down – repeat 5-10 times. This can be gruelling but is such a great workout, you’ll feel your lungs, your legs and your butt burn!

If you have bike, you can do some high intensity intervals for time. So you could sprint hard for 30 or 60 seconds, then rest for 30 or 60 seconds. Best part about the bike is you can go for a nice relaxing ride straight after!
So there you go, hope this has given you a few ideas of how you can incorporate some hard training in to your week on your own. Whether it’s getting in that extra session per week, or making up a missed session – now you have no excuses!

Here’s a simple print out for you to download – just so you’ve got a quick reference on hand when you need it!

Right Click Here and ‘Save As’ —-> DIY Workouts – Print Out Sheet

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Sep. 1, 2011

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3 Reasons To Eat Fat

Fat can often be a confusing thing when it comes to your diet. Once upon a time (and even now to a lesser extent) it was thought of as a big no-no when trying to lose weight. This ‘old school’ advice on top of the fact that it just seems logical to avoid eating fat in order to lose fat, or avoid putting on any fat, often makes it hard for many people to understand just exactly where fat belongs in their diet.

Regardless of whether you’re looking to lose body fat, maintain your body weight, or build up some lean muscle tissue, your fat intake, and more importantly the types of fats you’re eating will play a massive role.

Now like I just mentioned, many people, especially those who are attempting to lose weight, come to fear fats because they think that eating fat will make them gain body fat.

This is not the case, in fact quite the opposite is true.

So here’s 3 quick reasons why fat is a very important part of your diet

It’s Nutritious
Healthy fat rich foods have many essential vitamins and minerals that you need on a daily basis and a lot of vitamins actually need fats to be absorbed properly.

If you skimp on the fat in your diet, you’ll no doubt find yourself deficient in something important sooner or later because A) you’ll actually be consuming less nutrients due to the fact that you’re avoiding healthy fats, and B) you won’t be absorbing a lot of nutrients properly without the presence of fats. .

Fats Regulate Blood Sugar Levels
The next benefit of healthy fats are stabilized blood sugar levels. Healthy fats have basically zero influence on insulin release in the body, while protein has a small effect and simple carbohydrates have a large effect.

When you get a high release of insulin in the body such as after consuming a large dose of simple carbs, that’s when you get a very high spike in blood sugar followed by a surge of insulin into your body. Insulin is a very ‘anabolic’ hormone, which means it basically promotes fat storage – so if you want to lose body fat, you want your body producing as little insulin as possible after eating and this is where eating some healthy fats in your meals can really help.

Fats Are Filling
Since dietary fat is broken down so slowly, by adding it to your meals you’ll stay satisfied for longer after you eat, this can be very helpful for people who have to try and eat less in order to lose weight.

Adding Fats In To Your Diet
So now that you can see all the benefits of healthy fats, how do you add them into your diet?
First, make sure you’re choosing only healthy sources. This includes fats from foods such as avocados, flaxseeds, fatty sources of fish, grass fed meat, organic free range eggs, olives, olive oil, fish oil/krill oil as well as nuts, seeds and natural nut butters.

Coconut oil is a great oil to cook with, it tastes great and is very healthy for you, and I often add coconut milk or flaxseed oil to my protein shakes…yum!

Avoid fats from lesser quality meats, as well as deep fried or baked goods. These are unhealthy saturated and trans fats which must be kept low in your diet, they will make you fat and unhealthy.

Keep in mind you still want to monitor how much fat you’re eating, since fats do contain 9 calories per gram, you want to make sure you factor this in and don’t overeat if your issue is that you typically OVER eat. Think of ways to replace some ‘bad’ calories with these healthy fats.

If you UNDER eat (remember this is REALLY common, you won’t lose fat if you UNDER eat) adding some healthy fats in to your diet is a great way to sneak in those extra calories to get that metabolism fired up again, and the hormones in check.

Its always good to start with a high quality fish oil, krill oil, or cod liver oil as the first type of fat to start including in your diet. Omega 3 fats like these contain what’s called EPA and DHA which are super healthy and important nutrients for our body, and are great for your brain, heart, and your joints just to name a few.

In fact fish oil and krill oil can really help with fat loss as its been shown to increase your ‘insulin sensitivity’ meaning that you’re body won’t produce as much insulin when you eat, remember a lesser insulin response from your food means less fat storage.

So there you have some interesting nuggets about healthy fats. If you’re currently on an ultra-low fat diet, it’s definitely time you rethink this approach and start adding some fats back into the picture.

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The Fit Stop
St Kilda's Fitness, Fat Loss & Health Resource

The Importance Of Recovery

5 Questions To Ask Yourself At Meal Time

Success Leaves Clues…(Or How To Kick Butt In 2012!)

What’s So Good About Breakfast?

The Carb Cycling Strategy

Alcohol & Fat Loss

22 Random Health & Fitness Tips Part 2

22 Random Health & Fitness Tips – Part 1

Do-It-Yourself Workouts

3 Reasons To Eat Fat

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