I love to run. Not just because it feels great to be outside in the cool wind, my feet rhythmically hitting the road, my mind clear, my stress draining away…
I love to run because it’s a great calorie burn. It’s actually the best exercise I’ve found to simply burn calories. I cycle, kick box, weight train, use cardio machines, etc., but when I run my body uses up more calories than it does for any other exercise.
Why is that?
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When someone is ready to get their weight off, they want to do it NOW! They want their weight loss to happen fast. Sometimes they’ll do unsafe and unhealthy things to try to make that happen. They end up burning out or being unsuccessful and giving up.
Follow a sensible diet with regular exercise and avoid doing these 7 diet mistakes:
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There is no magical formula for weight loss. No diet pill, special soup, lemon water, or ab roller is going to do for you what old fashioned hard work will do.
For weight loss it all comes down to calories in, calories out.
What that translates to is eating a healthy diet in your calorie range and adding exercise for extra calorie burn. As your body uses up all the calories you give it, it will go looking for more fuel. That’s when it starts to break down and use up your fat stores!
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I have several small groups that I train each week. It’s challenging to keep everyone exercising at their highest effort because of the different fitness levels. One person may be able to run around the track while another person may only be able to walk briskly. One person may be able to do pushups on their toes, the other person on their knees.
Sometimes the person with the lower fitness level will start comparing herself to the others in the group. I’ve seen this lead to self doubt and insecurity. She may feel like she is not capable enough to exercise with the others and is slowing the group down. It takes a lot of courage for her to continue coming to the group exercise.
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Until we take complete responsibility for our behavior, we are powerless to change it.
Often my clients blame work stress as the reason why they didn’t lose weight or had a bad eating week. “Work was so stressful this week,” they’ll say. “I had a huge deadline and I worked extra hours…”
While the stress is valid, the behavior choices are not work’s fault.
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Emotional eating happens to everyone at times. We feed our feelings, trying to meet an emotional need with ice cream, chips, or fast food. But instead of feeling better, we feel worse – guilty and disappointed in ourselves.
Emotional eating is anytime we reach for food when we’re not physically hungry. It’s times when we eat because we’re sad, lonely, angry, or rewarding ourselves. This kind of eating, however, can really mess up our diet efforts.
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To some people, healthy food means tasteless food. And, yes, if you’re used to sugary, salty junk food, healthy food does have a lighter taste – but healthy food certainly is delicious.
You can find healthier recipes for just about any of your favorite foods – even onion rings, brownies, chili, etc. There are so many healthy cook books and recipes online that you have no excuse for not making healthier foods for you and your family.
These cookies are favorites with my family. You can even stick a few dark chocolate chips on top of each cookie for your kids.
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I know, it’s a strange title, but I’ll explain shortly. So just hang in there with me.
Sometimes I get flack for being so committed to exercise. There are some people who don’t understand why I run or workout. They think I should skip it for other priorities. Sure, in some cases exercise has to be dropped for the day (like the day after I spent all night in the ER with my mom).
But I would say the people who don’t understand my commitment to exercise aren’t exercisers themselves. They look at exercise as uncomfortable, unpleasant and a waste of time. Or maybe not a waste of time, but not worth the time.
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One of my clients is a school teacher. Her toughest time of day for staying on track with food is right after school. She’s hungry, stressed, and tired. She would arrive home and begin raiding the kitchen. What also made this time difficult was waiting for her husband to come home so they could have a late dinner together. She was so hungry she would continue snacking.
She realized that the rest of the day went well. It was this one period in the afternoon that was sabotaging her weight loss efforts. She came up with a plan to deal with this trouble spot.
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Several years ago I was weeding my flower beds on a warm, breezy day. As the wind blew my bangs into my eyes, I brushed them away and tucked them behind my ears. I worked for hours, enjoying the fine weather. Unbeknownst to me, among the weeds were poison ivy plants.
I broke out all over my face, neck, arms and hands. The exposure was so great, the poison entered my blood stream. I began to break out on my stomach and back. It was the most painful, horrible case of poison ivy I’ve ever had.
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I took a great kickboxing class tonight. The instructor is awesome. Every time I thought I was pushing myself hard, he’d yell, “Come on! More Power! Go crazy!” So I’d punch and kick harder. Then he’d yell again and I’d take it up yet another notch, giving it everything I had. My heart was pounding, my muscles burning.
At one point, I thought to myself, “I don’t think I can work ANY harder.” Another thought followed a split second later, “You don’t know until you try.” So I tried and I was able to work even harder.
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Recent news articles claim that America’s anti-fat feelings are growing stronger and louder. Despite our country’s population being 63% overweight and 31% obese, heavy people are looked down upon, disdained, and laughed at. The perception is that they are lazy and have no self control.
“There’s this general perception that weight can be controlled if you have enough willpower, that it’s just about calories in and calories out. It’s a failure to control ourselves. It violates everything we have learned about self control from a very young age.” Dr. Glen Gaesser, professor of exercise and wellness at Arizona State University, said for a Newsweek article.
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Do you remember “the mile” in high school? I do – and painfully so. I was the fat kid who couldn’t run even a quarter of the way. I was huffing and puffing, red in the face, sick to my stomach, walking as fast as I could, but left behind. Everybody else finished way before me. I could see them standing around waiting for me to finally drag myself in.
It made me feel sad and humiliated. I hated running.
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This is a fun workout that targets cardio, hamstrings, glutes and quads. It is done on the treadmill so you can do it anytime regardless of the weather! It only takes 20 minutes, but it’s a high intensity workout. It’s great for when you have a short time to exercise, or want to follow your cardio with a leg weight workout.
Begin by setting the treadmill on a 5% incline and walk at a brisk pace for five minutes. On the sixth minute, slow the speed to 2.5 and do walking lunges. Take big steps and lunge deeply. Then follow this progression for the following minutes:
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Keeping a food journal is one of the best tools for weight loss. It keeps you honest about your eating and on target with your calories.
All you need is a small notebook that fits in your purse or desk drawer. Keep a pen clipped onto it so you can jot down your foods throughout the day. If you’re not fast at adding, you may also want to keep a small calculator nearby.
Every time you eat, write the food and the calories in your journal. Several times a day subtotal your calories to see how many you’ve used. Here is a sample of what a 1500-calorie food journal could look like:
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In a movie, several “politicians” sat together in a charged conversation. One man challenged another to put behind personal pain: “If you want to win, you have to pay the price. And the price is pain.”
How do you feel about weight loss? Is it a painful process for you?
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I’ve noticed that over the summer I let sugar slip back into my diet. I have to admit it was mostly in the form of ice cream. There’s not much I enjoy more than cold, creamy ice cream to cool summer’s heat. But it was getting to be a little too much and a little too frequent.
Then over the weekend we had a birthday party for my son. My mother made homemade chocolate cake for the occasion. It was incredibly moist and rich. I ate too much and felt yucky afterwards.
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I have a wide range of clients – those who work diligently to control their food intake and exercise consistently…and those who don’t. Sometimes as a trainer I find it hard not to get frustrated with those who don’t.
Now, I’m not expecting everyone to have the same level of motivation or have the same goals. But those who “say” they want to lose weight and only offer lip service, well, that’s frustrating.
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Grabbing something fast doesn’t mean settling for something unhealthy. You can stay on track with your eating even when you’re short on time.
It may be tempting to pick up a candy bar – and you may rationalize that you don’t have time for anything else – but that’s just an excuse. There are many healthy choices that are just as fast as a candy bar.
Here are 10 fast and healthy snacks to fuel your body in a hurry. [More]
Today was a hectic day schooling the kids, shopping for groceries, and going in to work to train a client. I also had to take my boys to their evening activity, feed them dinner, walk the dogs, etc. It turned out to be a crazy day.
In between everything, I was able to squeeze in a one-hour workout. I wanted to burn the maximum amount of calories I could in that time while hitting cardio, legs, and abs.
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“I have no idea what I’m going to eat for dinner tonight,” I heard one lady say to her friend as they walked out of the gym.
She’s headed for trouble, I thought to myself.
When you’re already hungry that is NOT the time to figure out what to eat. Your blood sugar is low, your brain is signaling your body to eat, and your stomach is growling.
If you haven’t already figured out what you’re going to eat before you’re hungry, what do you think you’ll do when you walk in your kitchen door? Calmly prepare a salad and open a can of tuna? Very unlikely. You’ll probably open the cupboards, the fridge, and the freezer and start munching on anything that looks good!
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