Dealing With Back Pain

Back pain is a big issue for many. It’s not just the older folks who complain of aches and pains. People young and old can experience back pain at any given point in time. But why does it happen? Ask yourself the following questions.

Are you sitting for long periods of time? If so, begin to disrupt this sedentary pattern by either getting up every hour for 5-10 minutes and moving around or by purchasing a standing desk. Sitting puts your hips in an unnatural and compromising position, as well as your lumbar spine, leading to tight hip and hamstrings. This combo leads to pulling and tightness in the lower back.

Stretch it out. Begin a nightly or early morning stretching routine. Spend 10 minutes each day doing a series of stretches for your lower and upper back, as well as your hamstrings and hips. Adopt a more active lifestyle. If you currently spend your time on the couch watching Netflix after work, start doing some squats during your favorite show, or even download Netflix on your phone and go for a walk. You can also tackle the stair master at the gym while listening to a podcast or YouTube video. This will help facilitate more mobility in your hips and legs, leading to less back pain in the long run, because sitting equals an unhappy back! Get moving!

How To Stop The Cycle Of Overeating

Overeating is a slippery slope. One moment you’re five feet deep in an Oreo Dream Extreme Cheesecake and the next you can’t breathe or remove yourself from the couch. It can feel so good to overeat because of the chemicals it releases in our brain telling us that we’re doing something good for our body to relieve stress. On the other hand, the extra calories, sugar, and fat that we consume by overeating repeatedly has some severe consequences. These are some suggestions to avoid the overeating trap.

Don’t starve yourself. Drastically under-eating will create a scarcity mindset and cause you to crave more food in the long run. Eat sensibly throughout the day (not overeating or underrating). You need to bring balance back to your body.

Avoid over-exercising with excessive amounts of cardio. Did you know that cardio in excess can actually make you hungrier? The last thing you want is to be ravenously hungry. If you end up overeating, do some weight training and lift some heavy weights to put those carbs to use after feasting. Not only will you have an awesome pump, but your muscles will put those extra calories to good use in the next few days as you recover from your workout.

If you end up having an episode of overeating try eating nutrient dense foods after your overeating episode. Your body is craving quality nutrients at this point. This could be a colorful salad with olive oil vinaigrette dressing or some eggs and fruit.

Overall, if you end up overeating, don’t beat yourself up. It happens to the best of us because food tastes so good sometimes. Remember, it’s not what you do infrequently that really harms you and will throw off your progress, it’s the things that you do consistently that can get you in trouble.

How To Get Abs

The quest for washboard abs or a flat stomach is very tempting to achieve. While some of that might be unrealistic, you can still improve your core by keeping a few things in mind.

Don’t rely on crunches. Why? Unfortunately, you can’t “spot reduce”, which means you can’t just do 100 crunches and think that you are going to melt fat from your abs. While training your core can strengthen it and create some definition, it will not burn fat right specifically on your abs. It never works like that. Eliminate that mentality now.

It starts in the kitchen. You’ve heard the saying that “abs are made in the kitchen” and that is totally correct. What you eat makes a difference in how your abs are going to look. If you are eating more calories than your body needs to lose fat, your abs will quickly disappear. Instead focus on whole, high quality, low calorie foods. These will allow you to eat a comfortable amount, without going over your daily maintenance calories. If you are unsure about how many calories you need in a single day to lose weight, take a look at a calorie calculator on Google, they can give you a ballpark idea for your height and weight.

Utilize compound exercises in the gym. These exercises, like the squat, bench press, hip thrust and dead lift will help you burn the most calories, while also causing you to activate your core in the process. Exercises like these will give you the most bang for your buck when it comes to burning calories and tightening your waist.

How Many Days A Week Should You Lift Weights?

Understanding the frequency in which you should be lifting weights can be nothing short of a puzzle if you don’t know what you’re doing. There are a few factors that need to be addressed in order to answer this question.

What is your goal? If you want to stay in relatively good shape and be active, 2-3 days a week of weight lifting or resistance training would be appropriate with a full-body program. On the other hand, if you are looking to sculpt and define your body so that specific muscle groups are targeted, 5-6 days a week of lifting would elicit a higher training volume, which in layman’s terms means more muscle growth.

What is your schedule? If you are a very busy person with very little time to spare, aim for 2-3 times per week and focus on total body training. If you have copious amounts of free time, utilize them in the gym to really focus on hitting each body part individually at least 2 times per week.

What equipment do you have available to you? If you have a lot of different forms of equipment in your gym, such as machines, bands, barbells, dumbbells etc, use them to train your body with different types of resistance. One day can be a “heavy” lifting day, while the other day a “lighter” training day with bands and body weight (which is still a weight). If you only have access to your body weight or bands and dumbbells, focus on total body training again, a few times a week.

How To Reduce Bloating

Belly bloat can be one of the most annoying things to deal with when you’re just trying to look and feel your best. There is no magic quick fix unfortunately, but there are many ways to tackle the bulge and create a slimmer physique.

Drink water- and lots of it. Fill up the largest water bottle that you own with water and sip on it all throughout the day. Hate the taste of water? Add a little frozen fruit or lemon to your water to make it taste better. Still need a bit more pep? Purchase a flavored BCAA supplement which can help with muscle soreness and encourage you to hydrate. This will keep your digestive system running and eliminate some of the tummy troubles that keep us feeling bloated.

Be wary about what foods irritate your digestive system and avoid those foods at all costs. If you need to, keep a food journal for a few days to see what foods are triggering bloating, and then don’t eat those foods! Everyone is different, what one person can digest, another person might not be able to.

Eat smaller meals. Sometimes when you eat a larger meal, your body cannot digest it properly all at once and you will be feeling the bloating creeping up on you. Eat smaller meals to allow ample time for your body to digest your food.

Recipe For Fat Loss

I guess you can say that there are a few “ingredients” for fat loss to occur. These things are crucial, at the crux of any fat loss plan. Without them, you will see mediocre results. These things are diet, exercise and consistency. We will talk about each one of these following points.

Is your diet in check? I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the phrase, “you can’t out-exercise a bad diet”. This is more than true. Diet is at the center point of fat loss. Why? Because it is the amount of calories that you consume that will dictate whether you will lose weight or not. That is the main thing. You haveto have your diet in check, by making sure you know exactly what you are putting in your mouth, otherwise the weight loss will stall or even begin to “creep up”. There are many ways to get your diet in check, however, it is up to you to choose the method. Make sure that this is a part of your plan, because if you don’t address what you’re eating, there’s a guarantee that you will be far from seeing any noticeable results.

Make it a point to move every single day.That’s right. You read it correctly. If you want to lose fat and keep it off, you need to stay active. With today’s sedentary lifestyles, it is easy to neglect the gym and getting outside for a walk or even just moving around during the day while you are at your desk. But, it is so important. You should make it a goal to be active for a minimum of 30 minutes every day. That doesn’t mean you have to go out and run a marathon 7 days a week, but anything from a session in the gym to walking your dog for 30-45 min can be considered physical activity. Do it. Everyday. Without exception.

Wash, rinse and repeat. This is the consistency aspect of your fat loss recipe. You have to repeat these steps day in, and day out for them to be effective. Nobody else can do this for you. Making excuses will be your biggest obstacle. It can be easy to brush off going to the gym for a few days, until weeks or even months go by without any effort on your part, and you’re back to square one. If you’re serious about making changes, you need to implement them and then keep implementing them. Repetition not only will get you results, but it will get you better at what you are trying to accomplish. Anyone who you admire who has “reached their goal” or is successful, has implemented their plan day in and day out. They keep repeating the above steps to stay at the level they want to be at. If you want something different, you need to do something different that you aren’t already doing. The same patterns you are in have led you to where you are now. Make the changes. Repeat for results.

How To Stick To A Workout Plan

This is one of the most important things to remember when you decide that you want to change your body and start sticking to a workout routine. This article will highlight a few tips that will help you find a plan, stick to it, and continue to find “motivation” to continue seeing results.

In order to stick to your new physical fitness goal, you will need a well thought-out workout routine to get there. Not everyone is the same, and therefore when choosing your plan, make sure you know your body well enough so that you are not attempting exercises that are above or even below your training status. Whenever you go to the gym, you should repeat this statement to yourself “I am doing this because ____”. If you are going into the gym with no goal or purpose in mind and just randomly trying exercises or machines, it is very rare that you will achieve the results you want, and you may even injure yourself. Pick a plan that is well suited for your particular goal, whether it’s fat loss, muscle gain, toning or endurance or strength. Make sure that your program fits your goals. If you need help finding what will work for you, utilize the abundance of resources here at your fingertips.

Plan your work, work your plan.This might very well be the most important aspect of your training success. Consistency. Without the ability to put your chosen plan into action, and follow through with doing it, for up to 3-5 days a week, there is no way that you will get results. What I suggest is planning each workout that you are wanting to do into your phone. That means you put in the date, time and set a notification to alert you a few hours before, so that you make sure that you do it at the right time and don’t make excuses. The old saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. I know you want success as much as I want it for you, so do yourself a favor and schedule in your workouts. No exceptions. You have a date with the gym and it’s set in stone once it gets into your calendar. Canceling your gym appointments will only come back and hurt your personal progress. So if you are serious about getting healthy and fit, you need to do this.

Finding and keeping “motivation”. The reason motivation is in quotes is because it is absolutely useless, if you want to see lasting results. Want to know why? Motivation is temporary. It is a feeling. It only shows up when you’re “in the zone” or “feeling great today”. What about when that day comes when you feel tired, you’re stressed from work, you have responsibilities piling up that seem to need to be prioritized over your workout? Then what? Will you just skip the gym and blame it on motivation? That is the wrong approach. Instead, think of it as determination, rather than motivation. You are on a mission. You are determined to reach this goal. That means it gets done, no matter if it’s raining, the sky is falling or you just simply don’t want to do it. You have to have that mindset set up before you begin your fitness journey, otherwise you will fall prey to the trap of motivation and end up in the cycle that you have been in for a long time. Do this for yourself. Take today to set yourself in the right direction, follow the steps above and watch your body and mind change.

Fat Loss

When it comes to losing fat, there is no one-size-fits all fix, however there are certain laws that are tried and true. The following paragraphs will outline the science behind what causes you to lose or gain fat.

The Law of Thermodynamics reigns king.This states that “energy cannot be created or destroyed”. Calories matter. No matter who wants to tell you that they don’t. They do. And they are the basis of losing or gaining weight. A calorie is a unit of energy. When you consume calories, this law explains that those calories have to go somewhere! They don’t just disappear out of your body (like we sometimes wish they would after a cheat meal). Everyday your body needs a certain amount of calories or “energy” to perform daily tasks. However, it doesn’t matter whether those calories come from an ice cream sundae or a pound of broccoli, your body will use the calories for energy. Whenever there is excess however, the body will store the calories as fat tissue, in order to use it in times of famine. This is America though, the land of plenty, and there seems to be no famine in sight for the next hundred years at least at the rate of our food production and consumption. Ice cream is more calorie dense than a pound of broccoli, yes this is true. That is why eating “healthy” helps you to lose weight most often, because you eat less of those calorie-rich foods, therefore you take in less calories overall and your body loses weight!

The other factor is of course exercise. Exercise alone will not produce adequate weight loss, however it is essential for long-term weight loss and helping to maintain a bigger calorie deficit. In addition, putting on muscle (which is more metabolically active) and having a leaner body (less fat mass) will also help you shed the excess pounds. Combining resistance training (weights) and cardio (aerobics) is the best workout formula for success. That way you are burning calories, challenging your heart, and building stronger bones and muscles. This in turn helps create an environment for your body to become a fat-burning machine.

Want to know the BIGGEST part of having lasting results? Consistency and balance is key. Extreme changes to your diet or fitness regimen that you won’t be able to maintain or keep up will only set you up for failure. Look for progress, not perfection when it comes to losing fat. Maybe you have a cheat meal once a week, but the rest of your week you are spot-on with your diet. Perhaps you don’t workout every single day for only a week, but instead you find maybe 2-3 times per week that you absolutely do not miss your workouts and keep that up for more than 6 months. I’ll say it again. It is all about consistency. You must take the daily steps to change. Don’t complain about not seeing results when your daily actions demonstrate you doing the opposite of what your goal is. It comes down to science. It is the habits that you implement everyday that will make or break your progress. If you regularly eat too much, don’t sleep enough, and skip the gym, the result will be an unhealthy body. However, if you drink lots of water every day, schedule your workouts so you don’t miss them, and make getting enough sleep a priority, you will have a happy and healthy body.

What About Supplements?

I’m sure you all have seen advertisements or heard about someone using a supplement that they have been raving about. It’s very important to realize that everything we put into our bodies has an effect.That includes anything we consume, from the food we eat to the supplements we ingest. Do we really need supplements? The top questions surrounding supplement use are: do I need them, what are the risks and benefits of taking supplements, and what are the best supplements to take? Let’s dive into these questions.

Should I take supplements?This is a question that depends on the individual, their level of nutrition and their personal needs. For example, if you know that you don’t get enough veggies in your daily diet you can take a supplement that has vegetable nutrients in powder form. Taking these supplements when you have a genuine need can help you get sick less often and feel better in general. Additionally, there is a “hair vitamin” that helps your hair to grow that can result in noticeable improvement when taken, due to the fact that that specific vitamin formula supplies your body with the vitamins it needs to initiate the hair-growth process. However, it should be noted that not all supplements are created equal.

Supplements are not usually regulated by the FDA (food and drug administration) therefore, they should be taken with caution. So their effectiveness and purity has not been tested for the most part. That is why the decision to take supplements should be closely evaluated firstly by doing your research online, reading user reviews, knowing your body and consulting your physician.

What are some of the risks and benefits of taking supplements?Everything we put into our body comes with risks and benefits. Always do your research on the risks/benefits of any supplement you may take. For example, my grandmother takes a lot of supplements. One time she took a high dosage of Niacin (or B3), which is used to increase energy naturally. While not a harmful supplement, it gave her a reaction where her whole body started to feel tingly and as if it was on fire. She turned red and her body reacted very poorly to it. Her body could not handle the dosage of the supplement that she took. That is another important factor. More is not always better. Make sure you carefully review the dosages of the supplements you choose to take.

What are the best supplements to take?It is recommended to really research the company that you are ordering your supplements from, make sure that they use pure ingredients that are safe. Figure out what your body really needs. If you are not lacking protein, then you probably do not need to consume protein shakes, if you eat a good amount of fruits and veggies you probably don’t need to take veggie or fruit supplements. However, if you are lacking in a dietary need, supplements can help you bridge that gap in your nutrition. Let’s face it, we’re not perfect, and at the end of the day, we sometimes need supplements to help us reach adequate nutrition levels. Look up the supplements before you start taking them, and make sure your research is from a reliable source or study and has been reviewed by your doctor.

What Are Calories Anyway?

Weight loss comes down to calories in vs calories out. This comes down to thermodynamics, but usually it isn’t as simple as that. Most of the questions surrounding calories include how much, when and what type. These are very important questions that will be addressed.

How many calories should I eat?If you haven’t been seeing a lot of changes in your body lately from your diet and training routine, you may want to track your calories. It can be helpful to know how much energy you are taking in vs what you expend. There are various calculators on Google that work off of formulas to give you an estimate. Please remember, calories should be an estimate, not an absolute. You should base your calories off your particular goal. If your goal is to lose weight you need to cut your calories to an extent to produce weight loss. However if you are trying to put on some muscle mass you need to increase your calories by a certain amount. Everybody is different and there is no “set” amount that is right for each person, you have to experiment for yourself, look at different calculators and decide based on your goals how many calories are right for you.

When should I consume my calories? The simple answer is that your body doesn’t really know what time it is! Strategies that include “don’t eat after 6pm” are just a guideline to help you reduce calories, but the truth is your body doesn’t know. It’s not like the calories consumed after 6 turn straight to fat! Not so. So the answer is that you can consume your set amount of calories whenever you feel hungry or feel like it. Think of it like a bank account.

What kinds of foods should my calories come from?If your goal is weight loss calories (from any type) as long as they are less than what you burn, it will result in weight loss. However, if you have goals to maintain hard earned muscle mass (I recommend this route) then you need to focus on the proteins, carbs and fats that you are taking in. More protein will preserve muscle mass better, however at the end of the day it is not the most important factor. Yes, what you eat is important for your health (without factoring in weight) but eating Twinkies for every meal might be setting yourself up for failure down the road. Stick to whole foods and then add in treats as you can fit them in. Moderation and balance in everything is the best strategy to lose and keep off weight.

Protein. Are You Getting Enough?

Do you know how much protein you really need? Women usually have the misconception that protein isn’t important or that they don’t need much of it because they don’t have a lot of muscle mass, in comparison to men. Not true. Protein is the “building blocks” for our cells and in order for our body to function properly and our metabolism to run smoothly, we need to keep up with our protein intake. Consuming protein keeps you fuller, your blood sugar stable, helps build your muscle tissue back up after training hard, and actually causes more of an increase in your metabolism. There are a few things to consider when it comes to finding out what your body needs.

It’s essential to know how to calculate your protein requirements.As a general rule, you need 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass (that is your fat free mass). If you know your body fat, this is a great method. Otherwise there are many calculators online that can give you a rough estimate on how much protein you need for your own body. Once you know that number, you may want to start keeping track of your food with a food tracker app such as MyFitnessPal, or just start to keep track of the labels and food items that have protein in them. That way you can see the totals and have an idea at the end of the day if you are far off your goal or hitting it.

What about protein supplements?If you start tracking your intake and realize that you’re not hitting your protein goals, you may want to consider adding in a protein supplement. Again, this shouldn’t be where all of your protein comes from, but this can be a great way to help reach your daily protein goal. Usually protein supplements come in powder form and many people drink it as a simple shake.

What To Look For When Choosing A Diet

New Years is full of resolutions for losing weight and getting fit. Usually this includes falling into the trap of going on a crazy diet in order to “lose the weight fast”. What should you consider when choosing a healthy diet?

Is it sustainable? Sustainability is one of the most often overlooked areas when it comes to choosing a diet. For example, the “cookie diet” or “5 Bite Diet” may bring fast results from calorie restriction, however, do you want to be eating per-packaged cookies or counting your bites for the rest of your life (maybe yes for the cookies!)? Ask yourself this question before picking any diet, or be prepared for your results to only be temporary.

Is this diet doing my body good? How healthy is the diet you have chosen? Is it full of micro nutrients (vitamins and minerals) that your body needs? Is it just filled with processed foods, tons of sugar, and laden with chemicals? The majority of your diet should be filled with foods that have some nutritional benefit to you, whether protein or vitamins, make sure you’re treating your body well and not just focusing on weight loss or “looking good”. A body that is treated right will show it.

Is it balanced? Oftentimes people get too strict with their eating habits. They don’t allow themselves one slice of pizza or even refuse to go out to eat with family and friends, all because they will feel tempted on their diet. Life is for living! Being able to find balance between having a healthy diet and indulging on a night out is so important. Additionally, having a lot of restrictions will mentally cause you to want to overeat the first chance you get. What we can’t have, we automatically want, as humans. Allow yourself something on an occasional basis, and don’t fall into the trap of feeling “guilty”. If you find yourself accidentally overeating, just brush yourself off, and think of those extra calories as fuel for your next workout!