6 Lessons for Your Leanest Summer Ever
These are things that you can use immediately to help you lose fat and get healthy, no matter where you’re at now.
Lesson 1:
You will never be able to out-train a bad diet. The bad diet will win. Every. Single. Time.
When most people think about losing weight or getting in shape, they think about exercise. They hire a trainer or pull exercises out of Men's or Women's Health magazine and go to the gym and work out. But while exercise is an extremely crucial part of losing weight and getting healthy, doing exercise alone without integrating a healthful diet, will yield minimal, if any results .
Research shows that with exercise alone you can expect to lose only about half a pound to one pound per month. That’s less than inspiring. Sad, really. Incorporating a regimented resistance training program with a healthful diet can help you lose one to two pounds per WEEK!
In general, people underestimate the actual amount of calories they eat and drink, and overestimate the actual amount of calories they burn during a workout. In the same 3 minutes it takes to consume 800-1000 calories of food, a person only burns approximately 40-45 calories in high impact cardio exercise. If a 140 pound person ate 800 calories of food it would take 92 minutes of running at 5mph on the treadmill to burn it off. So, one hot dog and a cup of potato salad at your July 4th bar-b-q will take an hour and a half of running at 5mph to burn off.
Lesson 2:
Find a big motivator.
We’ve all heard that to make a big change, motivation must come from inside. And it’s true. We all need a “reason why” — a real purpose and a sense of why losing fat and getting in shape is important to us.
But sometimes you need extra motivation to actually start making change. You need a big motivator that pushes you into action.
Registering for a race or big event (such as one of the many local events in Colorado this summer!) enlist a buddy to do your workout program with, buy sessions with a Personal Trainer so you will lose money if you don’t stick with your program, put your workouts on your calendar so you can’t blow them off, put $5 into a jar every time you workout and cash in after you have reached each goal you set for yourself… All of these are great ways to get, and STAY motivated to stick with your program.
Lesson 3:
Do what you enjoy.
If you find exercise hard or boring, it’s probably because you are exercising or moving in a way you don’t enjoy. For an exercise plan to work, it should be enjoyable, and you should not have to force yourself into doing it. If you have to forcibly convince yourself to exercise, it will seem like a chore rather than an enjoyable hobby, and you will eventually lose interest. You do not have to slog away for hours at the gym for exercise to ‘count.’ Try to fit in a wide variety of movement into your week- whether it is sport specific, body weight workouts (let me know if you need some cool body weight exercises to try!,) yoga, hiking, etc. It’s important not to forget that strength training is very important for protecting yourself from injury, but know that there are many different forms of strength training that you can work into your exercise regimen.
Lesson 4:
Get out of your Comfort Zone.
I say this until I am blue in the face. To get fast, effective results, you MUST get out of your comfort zone.
High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT, is cardio performed at such an intense level that your body will spend the rest of the day expending energy to recover from the butt-kicking you just gave it. I am sure you have heard of the term ‘after-burn.’ This is also known as ‘EPOC’ or, excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. This means that you consume a great deal more oxygen recovering from the exercise bout than you would if you’d just done a steady-state workout.
**If you have any cardiovascular problems or other health concerns that limit your ability to exercise, OR if you are relatively new to aerobic exercise, HIIT is NOT for you- at least right now. If you have any doubts or concerns, consult your physician before adding HIIT to your exercise program.
Benefits of HIIT:
Burn More Fat: Not only do you burn more calories during HIIT workouts, but the effect of all of that intense exertion kicks your body’s repair cycle into hyper-drive. In the 24 hours after an HIIT workout, you will burn more calories than you would after a steady-state cardio workout.
Convenience: Since the HIIT concept is so basic- work at a maximum effort for a short period of time followed by a recovery period and repeat- you can adapt your HIIT workout to whatever time and space constraints you have.
Lose Weight- NOT Muscle: Running (or other cardio) for long periods of time releases cortisol, a catabolic hormone- meaning it breaks the body down. During HIIT, you actually build more muscle. Look at marathoner body types vs. sprinter body types. Sprinters maximally contract their muscles, which requires a lot more work from their bodies than a slow, staggered, constant run. Thus, HIIT will reduce body fat and strengthen you more than long, steady state workouts, due to the maximal recruitment of muscle.
Increase Metabolism: During HIIT, you will consume more oxygen than in slower, distance exercise, which increases post-exercise metabolism.
Time Effective: HIIT Training usually only lasts about 20 minutes. For those of us that have a hard time scheduling workouts into our schedules, HIIT workouts will still produce positive effects, provided you are willing to work HARD for brief periods of time.
Lesson 5:
Be nice to yourself.
We have all heard of positive affirmations and saying nice things to ourselves, but this is not just an empty motivational tactic. The gravity of what we say to ourselves is monumental, and this could be the reason that some of us are more successful than others at our fitness goals.
If we tell ourselves every day that we are too fat, too tired to exercise, too busy to make time for our health, then- guess what?- that’s exactly who we become. We become too fat, too tired, and too busy. If we tell ourselves that we DESERVE to be fit, we DESERVE to be confident in our own skin, we DESERVE to have time to ourselves to spend on our health, that we WILL eat healthy, and we WILL exercise, guess what? – again, that’s exactly who we become. Thoughts become actions, whether they are negative thoughts into negative actions, or whether they are positive thoughts into positive actions.
Here’s your homework for the week: Tell yourself EXACTLY who you will become. If your goal is lose 30 pounds, tell yourself that you possess the dedication to achieve this wonderful goal. Tell yourself that you CAN, you WILL, and you DESERVE to meet, and exceed this goal. If your goal is to bench press 100 pounds, tell yourself that you are STRONG, you CAN, and you WILL do it. Be nice to yourself this week, and EVERY week.
It is completely counterproductive to begin a lifestyle change and at the same time tell yourself that you are fat and lazy and that you will fail this time, just like you always do. You wouldn’t want someone else to say this to you, so why would you ever say it to yourself?
Be nice to yourself, guys! Congratulate yourself today on deciding to be the best you can be.
Lesson 6:
Measure actions, not outcomes.
We can’t control outcomes, but we can control our actions that may LEAD to those outcomes. In other words, you can’t focus on losing 20 pounds since it’s an outcome that’s out of your control. Every day you step on the scale, and say to yourself, “I still have 17 pounds to go. I’m not even close to there yet. This is so frustrating.” You’re focusing on what you don’t have.
Instead of focusing on the outcome, focus on your actions- the small, healthy things you do consistently every day. Instead of focusing on what you don’t have, turn your attention to what you DO have.
Tell yourself:
“I’m going to do my workout today.”
”I will get to the gym today.”
“I’m going to practice my new habit and eat 5 servings of vegetables.”
“I will get out of my comfort zone today during my cardio session.”
“I will get out and go for a walk during my lunch break today.”
Actions practiced daily and built up over time, lead to amazing results, and eventually turn into good habits. Good habits are the foundation of living a healthful and happy lifestyle. Focusing on specific outcomes only leads to frustration and despair, which will start the downward cycle of lack of motivation and unhealthy choices. Track your positive actions and give yourself credit where it is due, and you will not fail!!!