Questions You Should Ask Before Starting A New Workout Routine
If you finally decided to get up off the couch and start a new workout routine, you need to start with one important question. How is my health? While you need exercise to maintain good health, overdoing it if you have a health condition already can be disastrous. Get a check-up first to determine if you need to approach any areas with caution. High blood pressure, diabetes, joint problems and risk factors for stroke or heart disease need to be considered when creating a plan. I want to know about your special needs and adjust for them, but if you don’t know, you can’t tell me. Check with your health care specialist first.
Is this the best workout for me?
You may have read about the workout all the celebrities do or the latest craze at the gyms and decided to try it. Because something is popular, it doesn’t mean it’s the best for you. One of my clients is almost 70 and while she needs a lot of work on cardiovascular exercises, she’s stronger than women in their 40s and far more flexible than most women in their 20s. Her workout is not what normal women her age require. Everyone is different and that’s why personal trainers take the time to assess each person individually.
Am I overdoing or slacking off when I do this routine?
That question is one of the reasons many people choose to work with a personal trainer. Judging your own fitness level can be difficult. Some people push well beyond their ability and make two potential mistakes. They either are too sore to continue the routine for a week or two or injure themselves because their form suffers when trying to do more than their body can handle. On the other end of the spectrum are the people who pamper themselves and quit just before the exercise is most effective. Again, this is why a personal trainer is important and can help provide the guidance necessary to get the results you desire.
Is this routine going to be the best to help me achieve my goals?
If your goal is to shed weight, but you don’t have any strength building exercises, it will help you reach your goal, but not as much as if you included strength building. Anyone who needs to improve endurance, still needs some flexibility, strength and balance exercises, but not as their primary focus. As a trainer, I want to know your goals first, before I create your program. It’s part of the process to achieve the best workout for your needs.
– Am I going to have time to do this type of workout? If you’re planning a two hour a day regimen and only have a half hour a day, you won’t achieve your goals. Tone it down and get realistic.
– Does my schedule accommodate this workout routine. This is different from having time to do the routine. If you choose a gym that only is open while you’re at work, you’ve eliminated five possibly six days when you can exercise.
– Am I motivated to stick with the program? If you’re exercising on your own and decide running is the way to get fit, but you hate running, you’ll fail. Switch to something you like, such as biking.
– Can my budget afford it? I do believe that exercise is so important, but not if it jeopardizes putting food on the table or paying a mortgage. That’s why I have so many different types of classes and even some free ones. There’s even one that’s slightly more than $2 a day. Reduce your stress and keep fitness workouts affordable.
How To Get Past Your Biggest Fitness Hurdles
No matter who you are, there’s always a voice in your head giving you reasons not to workout that day. Sometimes, those voices are barely perceptible and don’t affect your dedication. However, at other times they scream and are your biggest fitness hurdles. Some of these seem like legitimate reasons, but they fall apart when you actually analyze them.
Time is a huge factor for many people, but it shouldn’t be.
No matter how busy you are, getting in shape should remain a high priority. Good health allows you to remain on the job, beat the stress of the day and enjoy your life more. One method of battling this block is to consider the extra energy that exercise and healthy lifestyle brings, you realize getting fit can actually be a time saver, helping you get through tasks faster and having energy left at the end of the day to enjoy.
Self-consciousness and embarrassment can stop you from exercising with others.
Whether you should feel embarrassed or not about your body image or understanding of fitness doesn’t make a difference. Almost everyone feels awkward and uncomfortable the first few times at the gym. Even if it nobody judges, the potential it might happen could stop you from working out and shouldn’t. At the Worx, everyone is friendly and that comradery makes it fun. The best way to overcome this hurdle is to remember that these are strangers and you don’t need to impress them or worry about what they say. Of course, it only takes a week or two of working out to realize nobody is judgmental. In fact, our one week free trial is a good way to do it.
Financial reasons may seem legitimate, but not if you look at it closely.
Look at your budget closely and see if you spend slightly over a few dollars a day on unnecessary items. The price of a Starbucks grande coffee that many people pick up on their way to work is a few dollars and that candy bar you pick up at the gas station counter or grocery on the way home adds another few. We offer an online service to guide you that’s just slightly over $2 a day, making it very affordable and another hurdle breaker is realizing it costs you nothing to workout at home.
Sometimes people think exercising is boring. That’s only because they haven’t been challenged with exciting programs like Group Fitness P90X.
Sometimes health conditions or fear of injury can stop people. If your doctor said it would be bad for your health, then it’s a definite NO. However, most people simply worry without basis, particularly if they have personal trainer that considers their special needs.
Eating healthy shouldn’t be a problem, but when you’re first learning what to change, a sample diet is helpful.
Running out of day before you exercise is a hurdle many people face. That’s one reason signing up for boot camps or using a personal trainer is so effective. It’s a scheduled appointment. You can do the same even if you workout at home by putting your workout in your schedule and make it an appointment with good health.
Great Apps To Help You Stay Fit
You don’t spend yur entire day in the gym or with your personal trainer, so for the times you’re on your own, consider using technology as an aid. There are great apps to help you stay fit that can track your food intake or steps, help you make smarter choices in food and provide a host of other help. One of my favorites is RunKeeper. This app tracks you as you run and gives you information about things like distance, pace, number of calories burned and time. It offers audio coaching with a tool to share socially.
Fuducate helps you make smarter decisions when it comes to food.
Just like a personal trainer, this app doesn’t provide a diet, but teaches you how to make smarter decisions when it comes to buying food. What’s even better is that it makes label reading easier by providing a tool that scans the bar code and instantly provides all the ingredients, healthy alternatives and nutritional facts about each product on the shelf. There’s a database of 200,000 products, so it spans most of the choices available. It also has food tracking tools as well as a grocery list.
Get the beat to keep you moving.
Some of my clients love to exercise “freeform” on the days they’re not at the gym. Some do simple calisthenics at home, others run, while many often dance to fast music putting their heart and soul in each movement. There’s nothing wrong with those options. Just walking is good for the heart, so you can imagine how great boogying down can be for cardio. Fit Radio provides non-stop streaming high-energy music that will make your workout easier and fun.
Paprika helps you eat healthy and is good for your budget.
Do you find yourself stumped when it comes to grocery shopping and even more confused when you’re trying to decide what to eat. This app helps you plan meals and even helps you shop. You can save recipes on it and make a record of the food you have already. That way when you choose the recipes you want to make, it can tell you the ingredients you need. You can plan meals for a week or for as much as a month, so there’s no last minute quest to figure what’s for supper, which might otherwise end up as less than healthy.
IEatWell is an app that focuses on how well you eat providing rewards for eating healthy judged by what you tell it you’re eating or the photo you provide.
Fooducate helps educate you on how healthy food is, grading it on its nutritious value. It also helps you find the healthiest foods.
Eat This Much first learns your eating goals and food preferences, then makes suggestions with recipes also based on the number of meals you eat daily and the amount of calories you want to consume.
If you want help creating workouts at home, the Johnson & Johnson Official 7 minute workout app will provide them. It not only has the original 7-minute workout, it also has many others that vary in length and intensity.
See What Happens If You Don’t Give Up
Too many people get discouraged when it comes to achieving their fitness goal. They don’t see the results in the first few days, so they give up. If you keep the prize in mind, your goal, and persevere, you’ll be amazed to see what happens if you don’t give up. You’ll achieve far more than you ever expected possible, while looking and feeling fitter than ever.
Becoming overweight and out of shape didn’t occur overnight.
You didn’t go to bed one night and wake up the next morning 20, 30 or 40 pounds heavier. It happened over time. Don’t expect the change to be sudden. However, it can be quicker than you think to see some results from your efforts, especially if you follow the plan we created together to a T. The amount of rewards you get back are directly proportional to the amount of effort you put into anything. Keep at it and you’ll achieve any goal you really want.
Never quit believing.
The power of belief can take you a long way toward success. When you first start working out and eating healthier, you may so no improvement for a few days. Suddenly, as if by magic, you’ll shed a pound or two. The belief in a program of healthy eating and regular exercise, plus the belief in your own abilities to change your future kept you going until you saw the results you hoped to achieve. YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!
If you doubt anything can help, use that to your advantage.
Sometimes, everyone gets discouraged. I see it all the time with people who come to me for help. They’ve tried to lose weight before and either didn’t succeed, quit after a few pounds or lost the weight they wanted, then regained it again. They never made the changes in their daily habits that are necessary for permanent success. I tell those doubting people they have to follow my instructions to the letter in order to prove me wrong. If it doesn’t work when you do that, you can say, “I told you so.” In fact, I even recommend they take the special 21-day training, follow everything and see what happens. I know they can succeed, just like you can, because I believe that everyone has the ability to get back into shape.
Drink plenty of water on your way to fitness. That may sound odd, but water not only helps you lose weight, with your new workout plan, you’ll need to replenish and rehydrate.
Make smarter choices when it comes to food. I won’t give you a diet, but help you learn how to eat healthier. The combination of healthy eating and regular exercise takes weight off faster.
Always believe you can achieve. Don’t weigh yourself every two hours to see if you weigh less. Weigh yourself once a week at the same time. Even if you don’t shed a pound, you’ll probably lose inches.
Take note of other signs of improved fitness, such as more endurance, strength and flexibility. Appreciate every gain you’ve made on your road to getting fitter.
Undo the Weekend (48 hour recovery)
What a weekend that was! You went out, you ate and drank and had a blast! And now the fun is over and the consequences are setting in…you feel terrible. You woke up with a headache, an overall feeling of bloating and a sluggishness that you can’t shake.
It’s time to undo the damage brought on from that epic weekend. Here’s how…
- No More Junk! It may sound obvious, but the first step to recovering from all that fun you had is to stop the damage. No more naughty foods. No more alcohol.
When you are vacationing or partying it’s easy to remove your mindful eating and drinking mechanism, and to replace it with the anything-goes mindset. This makes sense for party-mode, but once you come back home and get back to real life it’s important to firmly put an end to the junk food and calorie-laden beverages. If you don’t then your weekend diet may continue into your week, resulting in tons of extra calories that quickly add up in unwanted pounds.
- Flush Your System. For the next 48 hours your main mission is to drink as much water as possible.
All of those poor food and drink choices result in dehydration, which manifests in a pounding headache and a feeling of sluggishness. Plan to sip on water throughout the next two days, adding in fresh sliced fruit, cucumbers, mint or basil to add a refreshing and rewarding flavor.
- Get Some Rest. End the party or vaycay Sunday afternoon so that you can get into bed early in preparation for the week ahead.
It may not sound super exciting to plan an early-to-bed night at the end of your weekend but, come Monday morning, you will be functioning much better with a little rest under your belt. Plan to get to bed early the next couple of days as well, and fit in a nap if possible.
- Eat Cleansing Foods. You’ve stopped eating junk, now fill your diet with small light meals consisting of fiber and a serving of protein. Stick with only whole foods for the next 48 hours.
Fruits and fresh veggies should make up the bulk of your calories as you recover. Asparagus, leafy greens, citrus fruits, and raw veggies are all wonderful items to enjoy in addition to high quality, low fat protein.
- Avoid Going Extreme. Yes, you ate and drank a LOT this weekend, but swinging the pendulum too far in the other direction isn’t actually going to help. Overcompensation is rarely a winning idea.
Fight the urge to skip meals or to over-exercise in response to your indulgences. Going from one extreme to the other creates a bad cycle that leaves you feeling even more tired. In addition, taking your body from feast to famine will actually make you more prone for fat storage.
Getting and staying in great shape will not only help you bounce back from the weekend faster, it will also help you achieve healthy habits that will stick with you even as you party and vacation.
My programs are designed with your overall lifestyle in mind and I’m here to get you (and keep you) in your best shape ever!
Call or email me now to get started on a fitness program that’s specially designed for you. Let’s do this!
Reasons To Workout In The Morning
There are good reasons to workout in the morning. That doesn’t mean that if morning is an impossibility for you that you should skip the gym and give up, just that if you’re one of those people who have the ability to choose between a morning workout and another time of day, choose the morning. Normally, the gym is less crowded and you’re not yet wound up in the dramas of the day, so it creates a peaceful atmosphere, like a mini vacation with sweat.
You’ll jump start your metabolism for the day.
Whether you’re a morning person or not, an early morning workout gets your body going. I’ve had clients that told me it takes several cups of coffee and about two hours before they could mumble cohesive sentences whom I convinced to come to the earliest session. Their day was already hectic and a workout became harder to fit into their schedule as each hour passed. Each one of them took me up on the challenge and each one of them were amazed at how different they felt once they did. One study at Brigham Young University showed that when people worked out in the morning, they were more active the rest of the day. Another showed they burnt more calories throughout the day than those who didn’t exercise early.
When you workout early, you’ll be more likely to be consistent.
You know it yourself, as the day wears on, there are new demands on your time. A project can run overtime and before you know it, you’ve missed your workout session. Getting an early bird start avoids many of the conflicts that occur throughout the day. If you’re the checklist type of person, you’ve checked it off your list and can focus the rest of your day on other things.
You’ll become a human dynamo.
Even though you go into the workout with one eye closed, it will soon change before the end of the first set. While you might want that first cup of coffee to make it to the workout, once the workout begins, your body will provide the wake up call and become the source of energy. Studies show that exercise is a better stimulant than even coffee. It gets the blood circulating and wakes up the mind. That super zip to your step is one reason you shouldn’t exercise at night or you’ll find it hard to fall asleep. The water you drink to rehydrate also provides more energy than coffee.
You’ll do a better job throughout the day and be mentally quicker. One study shows that a brisk workout can boost your cognitive abilities by 12 percent. Coffee only gives a 6 percent boost.
Do you shower in the morning? Then a morning workout actually saves you the time it takes. You’ll get your after workout shower/hair/make-up prep and morning shower all at the same time.
Start your day with a smile. Sure you’ll face many challenges and rigors of the day, but you’ll have the happy hormones on your side that the body creates during a workout.
You’ll get many health benefits, one of which is lower blood pressure. One study at Appalachian State University showed that people who worked out in the morning had the benefit of lowering their blood pressure by 10 percent and that not only stayed lower throughout the day, lowered to up to 25 percent at night.
What You Should Teach Your Kids About Nutrition
Anyone that’s struggled with extra pounds often found out the problem came from poor eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle. As a mom, I want my children to get the best start in life that’s possible and I know most of my clients that are mothers feel the same. Knowing what to teach your kids about nutrition is often one of the problems parents face. But it’s one that’s easily solved.
Set a good example for the kids.
Kids learn to eat by what they’re served at home. Sure you’ve always got the picky eater who won’t touch the broccoli and tries to feed his or her Brussels sprouts to the dog, but with so many healthy recipes and healthy choices, you’re bound to find something that fits their palate as well as yours and is low in calories and high in nutrition. We tend to eat what we know, so make sure all snacks and meals are healthy and they’ll not only get a healthy start, it will probably continue the rest of their life.
Make it a rainbow and unicorn meal.
Okay, maybe unicorns aren’t part of the meal—especially not the meat part! The plates can be filled with a rainbow of color that will provide a wealth of nutrition. Choosing a fruits and vegetables in a wide variety of colors is a simple way to not only create a great looking plate of food, but one that’s packed with loads of different vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients.
Make eating healthy a game.
You can make it like a scavenger hunt, collecting and eating different vegetables and fruit. Keep a scoreboard listing the different vegetables each child that ate during the week and/or day. Creating fun displays like a whale from a watermelon stuffed with a mix of watermelon and other fresh fruit in its mouth. A pineapple porcupine and vegetable flowers make eating healthy more fun.
Have healthy snacks ready and in the refrigerator. It’s easier to eat healthy when there’s no effort involved. If it’s all ready to eat, the kids will help themselves.
Have them help you cook and make healthy meals. There are some simple tasks that don’t require knives or have anything to do with fire that young children can do. Older children can even find recipes and help create new delights for the meal.
Grow a garden. Even if you don’t have yard space, many vegetables can be grown in pots. Those will be more desirable to eat than store bought food. Find a U-pick and take the kids along if you’re just getting started and a garden is out of the question.
Take the kids to the grocery to help you shop. Show them how to pick healthy food. Teach them to read labels for ingredients and if they can’t pronounce the words or it sounds like a bad science experiment, it’s time to find something else to eat.
Fruits That Are A Sweet Treat
Once you develop the habit of eating healthy, you’ll look forward to fruits that are a sweet treat, rather than the baked goods composed mostly of sugar and lard. They leave you more refreshed and actually have flavor, unlike some of the cardboard tasting treats you were used to eating. When you need a boost in the afternoon and a sweet snack sounds like it would hit the spot, try a medjool date stuffed with a teaspoon of organic unsalted almond butter. Medjool dates are large and super sweet. The combination will boost your energy level without spiking it, then suddenly dropping.
Get a cool summer frozen treat that’s both healthy and yummy.
How does a frozen chocolate banana sound? Pretty delicious, but also pretty fattening. Don’t worry these are made with dark chocolate, and each one is less than 100 calories. These are the perfect summer snack and made by cutting a banana in half. On the cut side, slip a Popsicle stick into the center to create your banana pop and freeze. When it’s frozen, it’s time to melt mini dark chocolate chips. Hold the banana over the bowl and spoon two teaspoons on each banana half. It should harden immediately and create this delicious treat you’ll want to have ready when hunger hits.
Fruit is getting a bad rap.
You hear lots of celebrities talk about cutting out the fruit from their diet because of the sugar, but it’s still a great diet choice in my book. You’ll be more apt to eat an apple rather than celery if you’re hungry for a candy bar and find it fills the bill. A sugary sweet slice of watermelon will keep your sweet tooth satisfied. While it’s true, there’s sugar in fruit, it comes in a package that contains other benefits, such as fiber, antioxidants and other nutrients. Blueberries contain anthocyanins to help prevent colon cancer and mangoes have a substance that prevents, slows and stops the growth of both breast and colon cancer cells.
Fruit is great for a snack before working out.
You’ll get plenty of fuel and energize your body when you have a fruit snack before you exercise. A study that compared sports drinks to eating a banana before cycling at top speed, found the banana superior in several ways. It triggered the release of dopamine faster and provided far more nutrition than the sports drink. Raisins, the grandmother of grapes—actually, it’s more like the reverse, but grapes are so shriveled!—did just as well as bananas, but had even more minerals and the prebiotic inulin.
Just because fruit is good for you, it doesn’t mean you can go overboard. Try to stick with just two servings a day, but when you have a huge work load that requires a little more energy, one more piece of won’t hurt and may really help.
You’ll get antioxidants from fruit that can keep your skin looking younger and keep you healthier by protecting the cells from damage, including sun exposure and pollution.
If you’re counting carbs, the number vary from fruit to fruit. Bananas and grapes are on the high end with cantaloupe and berries on the low side.
The best way to have fruit is whole fruit. Juice doesn’t fill you as much and has less fiber. A cup of juice has far more calories than a cup of the fruit it came from.
It Will Be Worth It Tomorrow
No matter how tired I get during a workout, I keep one thought in mind, “It will be worth it tomorrow!” In today’s world where everyone wants instant results, it’s hard to keep going when something takes more perseverance and dedication. Getting fit isn’t a one time shot or even an easy goal to accomplish. It takes dedication and continual striving to reach a goal. That isn’t to say you won’t see results within a few weeks, because you will. Just not the final goal or results you want…but it will be good indication of what is coming.
When you’re ready to quit before you’ve finished a workout or skip the workout entirely, keep tomorrow in mind.
You’re never going to have this day again, so make it count. Push yourself to accomplish what you wanted from this day, whether it’s working out in the gym or cleaning out a closet, and tomorrow you’ll be happy you did. Goals are accomplished one day at a time and unfortunately if you skip one day, it often becomes too easy to skip another and then another. Before you know it, that beautiful goal you created is no longer.
Do something toward your goals each day.
Each goal deserves some attention every day. If you want to lose weight, exercise, shop for healthy foods, remove unhealthy foods from your home and get moving. Even if it isn’t a day for the gym, turn on some music and dance through the house to burn a few extra calories. This is true for all goals, not just fitness. If a clean closet is the goal and you don’t have a lot of time, find one or two outfits that you no longer want or do one other small job that takes only a few minutes and before you know it, that huge job will be a lot easier.
Learn to appreciate everything you do to reach the goals.
Sometimes our goals are huge and it seems like we’ll never hit them. When I run up against that, I create smaller mini-goals that stair-step me to larger ones. I’ve learned to appreciate both the larger and smaller steps that take me where I ultimately want to be. While you need to remember how much you’ll appreciate your actions tomorrow, sometimes, you also need to appreciate what you did today.
When you need a little motivation, reach deeply for more resolve. If that doesn’t work, we’re always here for you to believe in you until you can believe in yourself.
Before you order that burger and fries, think about all the hard work you’ve already done. Wait and get a healthier meal or better yet, have healthy snacks and meals ready so you won’t be tempted.
You won’t fall off the wagon forever. One indiscretion does not negate all the hard work you’ve put into getting fit. If you’ve missed a workout or ate far more junk food than you should, it shouldn’t end everything. Get right back to work on your road to fitness the next day.
Have fun with your workout and support those around you. That comradery adds to your resolve to succeed. Getting fit may be hard, but it still can be fun.
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