Month: September 2016

Are abs the most difficult muscles to get right and tight? It sure seems that way. We crunch, we clench, we twist, we repeat, and…sigh, our abs still look more keg-like than six-pack. Fortunately, we at HealthyWay have an ace up our sleeves: our partner and contributing writer, uber-fitness guru Shaun T.
Shaun answered questions from HealthyWay fans during an awesome Facebook Live broadcast, and it includes some great tips, like how to do the perfect crunch.
Check it out.

Here’s an eye-opening statistic: Over half the foods in the average American diet are ultra-processed, meaning they’re full of chemical additives, flavorings, sugar, and highly processed ingredients.

That’s from a study published in the March edition of the journal “BMJ.” And I think it goes a long way toward explaining why the obesity problem in America is so dire—the standard American diet makes weight easy to gain and difficult to lose.

So what’s the answer? Part of the secret lies in retraining your brain to appreciate and enjoy the right foods. Whether you’re looking to lose weight or not, many people simply sigh and choose the salad over the hamburger or the fruit over the cupcake. While feeling sad or deprived is understandable, it’s essential to stop feeling sad about healthy foods and get excited about making healthy choices.

Here are four ways to retrain your brain to cut out the junk, eat more healthy foods, and yes, lose weight.

Look at Unhealthy Foods as Bad for You

The number of people who smoke has gone down in recent years, in large part to education about the health consequences of smoking and the negative public perception. Similarly, you can make the shift from loving junk food to not loving it, in part, by thinking of junk food as bad for you. When you look at a restaurant menu, cookies in the grocery store, or a fattening food on a buffet, think about what the ingredients will do to your long-term health and weight. Over time, this can help shift your thinking.

Be Willing to Try New Foods

I understand picky eaters—I have a few in my family (who shall remain unnamed). But you’ll never learn to embrace healthy foods if the only vegetable you ever eat is canned green beans. Try new foods regularly. Be willing to experiment with Brussels sprouts, different types of greens, and new whole grains.

Don’t Be Swayed

Part of learning to retrain your brain is changing how you react in social situations. If you and your friends always order the same unhealthy entrees at a restaurant, it can be hard to resist when they beg you to make the same bad selection they do. Practice saying “No thank you” in front of the mirror before you head out for an evening where you know you’ll feel tempted to eat foods not on your diet.

Find a Healthy Buddy

Keeping company with friends who live a healthy lifestyle can help retrain your brain and make your new lifestyle permanent. Find someone in your office, at the gym, in your family, or in your circle of friends who’s either living the kind of lifestyle you want or has the same desire as you to make a change. Support from friends and family can make a tremendous difference when you’re trying to change how you think of food.

Is your weight loss in trouble? If it is, you’re not alone. A lot of people struggle to get to their goal weight and have numerous stumbles along the way. One technique to move from weight-loss trouble to weight-loss success is to confess to yourself what’s been going on and find a way to reverse course. 

Here are six common weight-loss mistakes…and how to fix them.

Not Tracking Food Intake

I often hear clients confess to not keeping track of what they’re eating at all. When this happens, the calorie intake usually increases, sometimes dramatically. This is a problem that if not fixed, will guarantee weight regain.

The Solution: You don’t have to use an app or notebook if you don’t want to, although I do recommend it for consistency and so you have a written record. If you’re honest with yourself and good at math, you can keep track in your head. Just get back into the habit of tracking your food intake in some manner before your weight loss goes completely off the rails.

Self-Sabotaging

I’ve met few people who don’t fess up to some self-sabotaging behaviors when dieting. Sometimes people hide food for later, eat fast food when they swear they’ve given it up, binge on candy, or buy foods they know are hard to control themselves around.

The Solution: Eliminating self-sabotaging behaviors can be difficult. First confess to yourself what’s going on and recommit to your weight-loss program. If you find yourself engaging in self-defeating behaviors, write down the circumstances and think about what triggered the behavior. Over time, you might find (as I did) that the unhelpful behaviors decrease as your weight loss increases.

Looking For a Quick Fix

A common confession is that a dieter is just looking for something quick and easy to fix her weight issues. If this is you, it might mean you are looking to a fad diet or supplements to help you lose weight.

The Solution: Ditch the fad diet. Get rid of weight-loss supplements. Quit trying to get to your goal weight quickly. Instead, realize that weight loss is a process—and sometimes a long one. There’s no prize in life for losing weight quickly. The prize comes when you’re able to live the rest of your life at a healthy weight.

Tired of Dieting

It’s really common to confess to one of your friends or family members that you’re just tired of dieting and you feel hopeless. I get that. But you can’t give up or you will 100 percent never get to your goal weight.

The Solution: Look for non-scale victories that you’ve experienced as motivators. Are your clothes fitting better, do you get less winded when walking, or are you better able to control yourself around food? Rely on these victories as a way to re-motivate yourself; even if your progress is slow, what you’re doing is working.

Eating Just to Eat

Part of having a true lifestyle change when it comes to your weight is not eating just to eat. A lot of people who are overweight confess to eating because the food is there, is free, appeals to them right then, or that they’re just doing it out of habit.

The Solution: Practice mindful eating. Every time you sit down for a meal, think about what you are about to eat, how much you will have, and how each food item fits into your weight-loss goals.

Relying on Exercise Calories Burned

You may as well admit it: You sometimes overestimate the number of calories you burn while walking, jogging, or working out, and then justify your workout as a reason for that second piece of cake or extra helping of potatoes. That’s not a terrible thing to do every once in a while, but consistently doing this will derail your weight-loss effort.

The Solution: Don’t use exercise as an excuse to eat more. Instead, look at exercise as good for your health, your fitness, and as a strategy to lose weight a bit faster.

If I don’t leave a workout drenched in sweat or wake up the next morning wincing, I often think, “What was the point?”
But one workshop I took challenged that assumption. I was lying face down, and as the instructor counted to three, painfully slowly, I just barely lifted my fingertips off the mat, shoulder blades squeezing together. The movement was minuscule, the hold at the top brief, and yet I felt its quiet intensity shake me. Each following exercise was also slow, deliberate, and small. At no point was I sweating or out of breath, but it challenged me more than I could have possibly anticipated.
So is it really necessary to kill ourselves at the gym all the darn time? Is it even ideal? As it turns out, the answer to both of those questions is a resounding: no.
But to get our workouts to the next level, there’s one thing we must do: resolve our muscle imbalances.

ACKNOWLEDGING OUR ACHILLES HEELS

Every muscle in our body works in concert with the rest, but at the risk of gross oversimplification, each muscle specifically has one partner. In order to move a joint, one muscle must tighten or contract, while the other, its agonist, must lengthen or relax. The problem is that sometimes one muscle becomes overly tight or stimulated while the other, underused, becomes weak.
We all have these imbalances. They can occur naturally, like with over-stimulated quads and under-stimulated hamstrings, because we spend more time walking forward than back. But our environment and habits can also contribute to their development.
Individuals whose only workout ever consists of running, for example, may wind up with tight quads and weak hamstrings (along with rounded shoulders and tight hip flexors). And someone who wants washboard abs may overtrain their outer core muscles with crunches while neglecting the inner stabilization muscles.

Most of us hardly notice these muscle imbalances, because the over-stimulated muscles start to compensate for the under-stimulated ones. But they can be a real source of trouble. When one muscle takes over the responsibility of another muscle, or we lack symmetry in strength from one side of the body to the other, we put ourselves at great risk of chronic back pain, plantar fasciitis, shoulder impingement, shin splints, and jumper’s knee, to name a few.
The real stickler, though, is not that we’re more prone to injury, but rather that those intensely brutal workouts we sweat through will be less effective. Range of motion is limited, muscles are incapable of producing maximum power, and overall ability to perform a given exercise is diminished. You might be just barely scratching the surface of your potential!

THE NOT-SO-SEXY SOLUTION

In a society of instant gratification, we want maximum results in minimal time. Crossfit and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) are sexy. They promise to make us sexy. Lying face down on a gym floor and arching your back to a slow count of three is not sexy, so it’s easily overlooked.
But if you want to take your performance to the next level, you have to log the admittedly tedious time it takes to identify and resolve your muscle imbalances. A trained professional can conduct a movement assessment to identify your individualized imbalances, and then help you develop a plan to correct them.
First, you have to lengthen the overactive muscles. For most of us, these include the chest, hip flexors, and calves. Cut back on the exercises that further build up those muscles, and instead target them during your warmup and cool-down via foam rolling and traditional stretching.
Next, you have to strengthen the underactive muscles. Everyone is different, but common culprits include the back, glutes, and inner core. You have to first work on your ability to stabilize these muscles, so the movements tend to be slow and very minimal. Think about planks, bridges, and floor cobras. You may not sweat during them, but they will without a doubt redefine your concept of an “intense” workout.
Over time, your body will relearn to use the appropriate muscle groups for various movements, so that when you do want to HIIT it hard at the gym (or try our at-home HIIT videos!), you may surprise yourself with all of your power.

It’s no surprise that lack of time is one of the primary perceived barriers to exercise. Everyone is busy, so if we wait until we have excess free time, we’ll likely never start. So how do we carve out time in our already hectic lives?

REFRAME YOUR LANGUAGE

Let’s get one thing straight: you do have time. We’re all given 24 hours in a day. You’re currently choosing to do other things those hours. A lot of those “things”—work, paying bills—don’t feel like choices. But they are.

You’ve just decided that the consequences of not fulfilling certain obligations outweigh the benefits of fulfilling others. The first step is to acknowledge that time is precious, but that we all make time for what we deem essential. Make your own health a priority, and you’ll find the time.

KEEP A TIME JOURNAL

One of the best ways to find time is by keeping a detailed log of everything you do in a day. How many times do you press snooze? Change your mind about what to wear? Absentmindedly scroll through social media or TV channels? Log it. Track it. Then change it.

Eliminate mindless or unenjoyable activities, streamline, and delegate. Children (and spouses!) can pack their own lunches; you can find laundry services and babysitters; co-workers can pull their own weight.

COMMIT TO IT

Once you find time, schedule it in your calendar just like any other appointment. It’s too easy to brush it aside if it’s not official.

Telling someone about your goals, logging it in an app, or finding a workout partner can further help you stay accountable.

MAKE IT THE EASY CHOICE

Sleep in your workout clothes, lay them out the night before, or bring them to work with you. Join a gym that you pass frequently. Or invest in DVDs, online subscriptions, or home equipment so you don’t need to drive anywhere at all.

Basically, have a plan. New habits are extraordinarily challenging to form, so set yourself up for success.

FOCUS ON QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY

If all you have is five minutes, make them count! It’s better than zero minutes.

“Micro” workouts are increasingly popular. As your fitness improves, you can even experiment with high-intensity interval training.

TO MULTITASK OR NOT TO MULTITASK

Generally, eliminating multitasking can save time. It takes us longer to complete tasks when we’re pulled away by phone notifications or side conversations. If you devote your full attention to one task, you might find yourself with more time in the day.

On the flip side, though, it can be helpful to kill two birds with one stone given the right circumstances. Can you take a walk while you talk on the phone? Hop on a stationary bike during your favorite TV show? If you’re really struggling to devote your full time and attention to a workout, this could be a good place to start.

EMBRACE AN ACTIVE LIFE

You’re never going to choose to make time for something you hate, so explore different options until you find your passion. Running, yoga, fitness classes, weight training, workout DVDs, cycling, recreational sports, dancing: I genuinely believe that there’s something out there for everyone.

If dedicated workouts are too much right now, incorporate physical activity into your daily life. Walk or bike around town. Instead of catching up with friends over dinner or drinks, explore the neighborhood or toss a Frisbee. Round up the family for a hiking or skiing trip.

BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF

If you’re still struggling, ask yourself if time is truly the issue. We often use time as an excuse, when it’s really negative associations with physical activity, fear, embarrassment, or low self-esteem. This can be difficult to admit, but the more honest you are with yourself, the more progress you’ll make. Also acknowledge that sometimes you’ll miss a workout (or several).

Remember, this is because you have chosen to do other things with your time. As long as the choice is mindful and intentional (without guilt), that’s perfectly fine! Sometimes it’s healthier to get that extra 20 minutes of sleep or sit down on the couch and unwind .
No one else can tell you what’s right for you. Only you can choose, but it is, always, a choice.

Counting calories is a time-tested method of losing weight. All you have to do is figure out your calorie level, eat at or close to that level most of the time, and you should lose weight, right?

Well, maybe not. What if you aren’t sure what calorie level you should be aiming for or are worried that you won’t be able to continue to eat that few calories once you get to your goal weight? No worries. I’m going to share an easy way to set your weight-loss calorie level that makes losing weight and moving into maintenance simple.

Why Does Calorie-Counting Work?

A lot of studies have supported calorie-counting for weight loss. In one, from “The New England Journal of Medicine,” researchers found that the main factor for successful weight loss wasn’t what type of diet the participants followed, but calorie reduction instead. If you consistently eat fewer calories than you need to maintain your higher weight, you will lose weight. Of course, like anything in weight loss, the key word is “consistently.”

Of course, begs the question: How low should you go? WebMD suggests that the number shouldn’t drop below 1,200 calories for women, and 1,500 for men. That’s my recommendation as well.

But should you go that low? The upsides are that you may lose weight faster, and there’s a strict consistency to your calorie-counting. The downsides? It can be hard to get adequate nutrients on so few calories, and cheating is likely because you feel deprived. So if you’re prone to binge eating or cheating on your diet, or you hate feeling deprived, you might want to consider a different way of deciding your calorie intake.

What’s the Trick?

Here’s what I did when I lost 158 pounds (from 305 to 147). This trick not only helped me lose weight steadily, but it also made moving into weight maintenance painless. Instead of eating as low as I could go (in my case, 1,200 calories), I picked a calorie level that was appropriate for maintenance at the weight I wanted to eventually be.

I used a Basal Metabolic Rate calculator and found out that my BMR at a weight of 147 was 1,366 calories. Then, I multiplied the BMR (the amount of calories I need to survive) by the sedentary activity multiplier of 1.2. Therefore, if I stuck to around 1,600 calories a day, I would lose weight.

And I did.

It takes just a few minutes to plug in your numbers to the calculator and see your results. If you don’t want to use the calculator, multiply your desired weight by 11 (for women) and 12 (for men). That gives you another quick (if not as precise) way to choose a calorie level for weight loss. If you use this method, this is a base number; you can eat a little more depending on your activity level.

Why Does This Work for Maintenance and Weight Loss?

Eating at a calorie level that works for maintenance at the weight you want to be means you don’t have to tweak your calories as you lose weight.

For instance, sometimes weight-loss pros recommend cutting your current calorie intake by 500 to lose about a pound a week. That will work. But as you lose weight, that 500-calorie deficit will put you into maintenance instead of losing weight, because you weigh less and need fewer calories. So you would need to continually tweak your calorie level to continue losing weight.

Another example of this is Weight Watchers. As you lose weight, the number of points you get to eat each week diminishes.  If you fail to adjust those points downward, you won’t lose weight.

Like any method, there can be downsides. If you are older, have medical conditions that make losing weight hard, or are on medications, you may have to eat at the lowest recommended calorie levels to successfully lose weight.