“I’m not going to do that. I’m fine and that’s just not going to happen”.

OK.  That’s your choice, but you’re going to have to accept the reality that it will take longer to reach your goals.  My old boss used to say, “you get what you measure”.  If you don’t have a way to measure your progress, you’ll never know when or how long it will take to get where you’re going.  You’re just guessing.

I had this picture in my mind every day while training for the climb

Information gives you a realistic picture of how much weight you can expect to lose and how long it will take to accomplish the goal.  Here are four ways you can stay on track toward your goals.

1. Be clear. Before you begin tracking the progress toward your goal, you’ve got to have a good goal.  Your goal must be crystal clear. You should be able to create a picture of what your goal looks like. A goal like “lose weight” is junk. It’s meaningless.  Think differently. How will your life be different when you’ve lost 10, 20, or whatever number of pounds you want to lose? What will you do with your life that you aren’t able to do today? If you really want it, find a picture of your goal and post it on your bathroom mirror. Each day when you brush your teeth you’ll see your goal.

2. Know how much you need to eat and keep track of what you eat. Everything, no exceptions. Yes, it’s boring and a pain in the butt. But you’ll have a much better idea of what you eat, when you eat, and why you eat.  These are important things to know. Without this info, everything else is just a guess. You’ll probably be surprised at the number of calories you’re taking in, as long as you’re being truthful with yourself. You’ll also find that you eat certain foods in certain situations. If you’re a data geek like me, you can use a device like a BodyMedia FIT to take control and achieve your weight loss goals by knowing how much you burn.  If you’re a member of LifeStyles Fitness Center, you have access to a great tool called DotFIT that can help you with this part of the process.

3. Get a heart rate monitor. This little device will tell you if you’re really working or if you’re just kidding yourself.  I use mine religiously.  There are times when I might think I’m working hard and I’ll check my monitor, only to realize that I’ve got a long ways to go.  Here’s an article I wrote about how to select a heart rate monitor.

4. Have someone you’re accountable to.  That’s where a good trainer can help you.  We’ll ask questions, observe, develop plans, and push you to try things you might not do on your own.  Ultimately, our goal is to help you reach your goal.

Put these four things in place and you’ll be on your way to reaching your own goals.

If you’re on a weight loss journey, it’s probably your most feared enemy, next to chocolate cake. It’s probably the first thing you consult when you wake up, even before brushing your teeth.  It’s probably driving you crazy.

You’ve probably heard someone say that muscle is heavier than fat too. So, which is heaver, 5 lbs. of muscle or 5 lbs. of fat?  Which would you rather have.

I can hear your argument.

“John, muscle is more dense, so given the same volume, muscle will weigh more”.

You got me. You’re right. But if you’re trying to get smaller, don’t you want to occupy less space?  Swap 5 lbs. of fat for 5 lbs. of muscle and that muscle will take up less space.

That’s a good thing.  Not only will you be a smaller you, but you’ll be a healthier you, a more functional you, your body will burn more calories at work and at rest, and you’ll look better.  Clothes will fit better too.

Are you more concerned with the number on the scale or are you really trying to change how you look in the mirror and how you feel?

Isn’t that the true measure of health and fitness?

Throw out your scale.

Move more.

Eat better.

If you’d like more ideas to help eliminate those holiday pounds and get yourself back on the right track, I’ll be presenting ” Three Things You Must Do To Lose That Extra Weight ” at the Fountaindale Library on Tuesday, January 10, at 7pm.  I hope you’ll be able to join me.

I’m not going to try to get into all the details of how each additive in these drinks and potions you find at the checkout line of every grocery store, convenience store, gas station, etc. affects your body in negative ways.  I’ll let the professional researchers tell you about the safety issues associated with consumption of commercially available energy drinks.    We’ve all heard the news stories of high school and college students mixing this stuff with alcohol and dying.  In this case, they didn’t even need the alcohol.  Here’s a study supporting the pattern of energy drink consumption explaining the enhanced risk of both caffeine and alcohol toxicity in youths.  If you’ve ever read the label on a can of this stuff, you’ll find that you can’t pronounce half of the ingredients.  Do you really want all those chemicals inside you?  Are you still waiting for the reasons we SHOULD be drinking this stuff?  Yea, me too.

How else can we get the energy we need to keep going?

You guessed it. 

Proper nutrition, with real food. 

Food is fuel and provides energy.  Many people lack energy because they’re eating crap.  Rolling through the drive-through for a greasy burger and fries doesn’t count as quality food.  Grabbing lunch from a vending machine will kill you over time.  I was in a drug store the other day and noticed that the bag of licorice has “A Fat Free Food” printed on the package.  Wow, really! That must mean it’s good for you right? Wrong.

A fire requires wood and oxygen to burn, right?  There’s the fuel.  Stop adding fuel and the fire dies out.  Add wet fuel or choke off the oxygen and the fire can’t get going.  Your body and your metabolism work the same way.  Add quality food and your metabolism burns hot. 

Get lean.

Notice that I didn’t say get thin.  There’s a difference.  Thin simply means weigh less.  Do supermodels look healthy? That’s thin. A diet might make you thin, but it won’t make you healthy and won’t give you energy.  Most diets result in less food, which means less fuel, which means less energy.  

I’m talking about adding more lean muscle to your frame.  You don’t have to have the freaky huge muscle that makes you look like 200 pounds of marbles in a 100 pound bag.  Think Olympic sprinter or gymnast lean and muscular instead.  Muscle is active and helps you move more efficiently.  A stronger body with less “baggage” will move better and require less energy to perform basic efforts. 

Stop spending $2 per can and you’ll have more than enough for a fitness membership at LifeStyles Fitness Center and still have almost $40 at the end of the month!

It’s really simple.  I don’t know how to make it more complicated, so here’s the answer to getting more energy, and not from a can:

1. Eat smart
2. Move more
3. Develop a stronger and more efficient you

Need help?  Here’s a way to get a great start on Your Fitness Journey!

Photo: Stephen Bowler

Our bodies are a lot like cars.  They come in different shapes and sizes.  Some are built for speed, some for power, others to carry a lot of stuff, or luxury, and more. Each one has an engine, again various sizes.  What’s common between them is that they all require fuel.

If you put in bad fuel, your performance drops. If you don’t put in enough fuel, it stops running. The bigger the engine, the more fuel you use.  While the name of the game with your car is to try to conserve fuel, most people’s goal with their body is to use as much fuel as possible.

I work with many people who have a weight loss goal and we can use a similar analogy.  When you’re exercising you’re burning calories.  That’s our body’s storage form of energy.  Your largest muscles use the most energy.  The more muscles you get involved in the activity, the more energy you use too. 

If your goal is weight loss, get the big muscles moving and get more of them engaged in the activity.  Spending time in the gym doing multiple sets of wrist curls will work the tiny little muscles that flex and extend your wrist. You might end up with forearms that would put Popeye to shame, but it’s not going to do anything for your weight loss goal.  Sort of like trying to run a Hummer with a weedwacker sized engine.

Replace those wrist rollers with a few sets of squats or a bodyweight exercise like the Burpee and you’ll engage every major muscle group.  (As an added bonus, if you’re having trouble getting your kids exercising, the name Burpee alone is often enough to get the kids interested.) 

Get the big muscles going and watch your metabolism light up, melt the fat off, and add lean muscle to your frame to burn a monster truck load of calories.

Is your metabolic age important?

Metabolic age is a comparison between a person’s basal metabolic rate (BMR)  against the average BMR for an age.  The calculation uses a benchmark, your age, to determine your body’s efficiency by comparing that benchmark against the average metabolic rate of different ages.  Therefore, the suggestion is if you have the same metabolism as someone younger, you would be in better shape.  However, the calculation doesn’t consider conditioning or body composition, but instead looks only at height, weight, and age. 

So, back to the question, can you lower your metabolic age.  Yes.  Within the context of the calculation the only variable you can affect is weight, so a lower weight will bring down the metabolic age based on the calculation.  The real question though is, “is that really important?”  If you are 50 years old and have the metabolic age of a 30 year old, but you’re fueling your body poorly and you’re not moving enough, it won’t make a difference.  If your metabolic age is a concern, I’d be willing to bet that you’re not really worried about that number as much as you are trying to manage your weight.

The most important thing to know about metabolic age is that you’re really trying to measure metabolism, or specifically increase metabolism.  So, what’s the best way to increase metabolism?

• Add more lean muscle  by lifting weight:  Your body has to work harder to maintain lean muscle and that work means more calories are used.  The more calories you use the better.
• Shed body fat:  You can accomplish this once again by lifting weight combined with the right type of cardiovascular exercise.
• Eat better: Food is fuel and better fuel makes the engine run hotter and more efficiently.  Ultimately, having a faster metabolism than someone else doesn’t matter if you’re taking in more calories than your metabolism is burning. Keep the calories in check and keep the right mix of macronutrients along with muscle building exercise and you’re on the right track.

You won't find your six pack abs here

In search of your own six pack, you spend time on the floor doing endless reps and sets of sit ups and crunches from every direction. You may have even purchased the Ab Roller, Ab Doer, Ab Rocket, Ab Lounge, or some other ab contraption. How’s that working for you?

Let me tell you a secret. We all have six pack abs. They’re just harder to find on some people. Read on because I’m about to help you find yours. Here’s another secret. The answer doesn’t lie in all those contraptions. Even the pieces of abdominal equipment alone at the gym won’t bring out the six pack.

One of the biggest myths in fitness is that of spot reduction. To be blunt, the idea that you can work a specific area of the body with a specific exercise and melt the body fat in that area isn’t true. Now that it’s out in the open, how do you bring out the washboard in you?

First, abs are made in the kitchen. Eat better, move more. Notice I didn’t just say to eat less, although for many people that’s really important too. Instead, you need to eat enough of the right stuff to keep your body fueled, but not so little that your body thinks it’s starving.

The mistake many people on a weight loss journey make is to rely solely on diet and slash their calorie intake to the point your body begins storing energy as fat instead of using it to perform daily functions. When that happens, your metabolism slows, you lose energy, and eventually run out of gas. If you give your car less fuel than it needs what happens? If you give your car cheap low octane gas, what happens. Right, sluggish performance. Your body runs the same way.

Fuel your body with enough quality proteins for muscle growth and rebuilding, carbohydrate for energy, and fats for vitamin transport and hormone production, and you’ll be heading in the right direction.

Next, get the big muscles moving to burn more calories. Let’s go back to the car example. Which uses more fuel: Hummer or a Honda Civic? It takes more fuel to move the big car, so use the same principle with your exercise program. Bicep curls or squats? One exercise uses the little tiny muscles in your arm a nd the other uese the calorie-hogging muscles like the glutes and hamstrings. Those big muscles will bun more calories during the exercise and they have to work harder to recover after the exercise to rebuild. More work equals more calories used.

Now, back to the washboard stomach. With the elimination of the myth of spot reduction we know that sit-ups and crunches aren’t going to do the job. The key is to get rid of the body fat to see that six pack hidden in all of us and the best way to do that is to use more calories. To get you started, here’s a short video showing a four exercise full body complex. If you need more help, I know a good trainer for you.

Those control panels on the machines give you all sorts of information.  They’ll tell you your speed, distance, elapsed time, incline, and more.    They’ll also tell you the number of calories you’ve burned.   They’ve also got pre-designed programs with names like Cardio Blast, Interval, and a perennial fan favorite, Fat Burning.  Hmmm.

Ever wonder how the machine can determine how many calories you burn?   The rate at which each person burns calories is more complex that entering in your height, weight, and age and having the machine come back with a burn rate.  You have to factor in how hard you’re working, your metabolism, your heart rate, body temperature, and more.  Many machines don’t even ask you your height, weight, and age.  How could they possibly be accurate?   

So, what should you do?

1. Stop worrying about being “in the zone”.  If fat loss is your goal, burn more calories than you take in and make sure you’re taking in the right kind of calories.  The more calories you burn, the better.  More activity = more calories used. 

2. A good rule of thumb to gauge your intensity for your steady state cardio work is the Talk Test.  Imagine yourself doing your preferred exercise. Can you still hold a conversation with someone or are you huffing and puffing too hard.  Bring yourself to just below that point where it starts to get difficult to hold a conversation and stay there for the duration of the exercise.  As your fitness develops, you can experiment with other more intense cardio options.

Got questions?  Leave me a comment below.

The answer is…sometimes, sort of, and never.

Let me explain how your body uses energy. When you ingest carbohydrate, your body converts that to glucose to use it for energy. Glucose that is not needed for immediate energy is converted to glycogen, some of which circulates through your body and some is stored for later use. Your body uses the circulating glucose for immediate energy and once that’s depleted it goes to the glycogen stores. When you’re sleeping, your body is still using energy and since you’re not taking in any food, your body uses those glycogen stores. If you wake up and do your morning low to moderate intensity exercise without eating, your body goes to the next preferred source of energy which is body fat.

Should you eat breakfast?

However, this process can work if the exercise is at a low to moderate intensity. During high intensity exercise your body doesn’t process oxygen and instead prefers to use stored or circulating carbohydrate. In absence of that source and without oxygen, your body isn’t as efficient at burning fat as fuel and instead turns to attacking muscle. High intensity exercise is fantastic and should also be a part of your workouts regularly, but you also need to make sure you’ve got enough fuel to keep yourself going during that workout. Losing muscle is bad news.

I started this article saying I sometimes skip breakfast and I’d like to clarify what this is really about. Sometimes I skip breakfast before my workout, but I always eat breakfast either before or after my workout. Fasted state workouts are a solid strategy for those on a weight loss journey, but one that should be used sparingly. Once or twice weekly is enough. Make sure you eat a real quality breakfast very soon after your exercise sessions to refuel yourself. That means real food with a mix of protein, carbohydrate, and dietary fat. Not a donut or a cup of coffee. That’s not breakfast. On your other exercise days, eat a small meal 45 to 60 minutes prior to your workout to allow time for gastric emptying while giving you energy for the upcoming session. Follow it up with another meal to help your body rebuild effectively. Ultimately, the answer is never skip breakfast.

Give it a try and get ready for the results.

According to IRS Publication 502:

“You can include in medical expenses amounts you pay to lose weight if it is a treatment for a specific disease diagnosed by a physician (such as obesity, hypertension, or heart disease). This includes fees you pay for membership in a weight reduction group as well as fees for attendance at periodic meetings. You cannot include membership dues in a gym, health club, or spa as medical expenses, but you can include separate fees charged there for weight loss activities.”

The rules specifically exclude gym membership fees, but they do include additional fees for weight loss activities.  To me, that says if you sign up for a specific program at your gym to assist in your medically-required weight loss program, such as personal training, classes, etc, you can include those expenses.

I am not a tax advisor and am not providing tax advice.  If you think you may qualify for this deduction, contact a qualified tax professional for advice.

Check it out.  What do you have to lose?

The only thing you'll lose is your money

We were going through the coupon circulars in this weekend’s newspaper and found this advertisement.  There was much laughing.

As I read the fantastic claims of instant weight loss along with the amazing healing powers of this $13 bodysuit, I began thinking of all the people who were reading that same ad and eagerly picking up the phone and forking over their hard earned money to place their order.  After all, losing 10 to 15, even 20 pounds is as simple as a phone call, right?

A 2007 study completed by the Will County Health Department  identified 35% of county residents as overweight and 21% obese.  Diabetes is on the rise.  Preventable cardiovascular disease is one of the leading killers.  Americans will spend almost $50 more this year to combat obesity than they will to fight cancer.  I doubt that we’ve gotten to this point because we wanted to be this large.  If weight loss were as easy as making a phone call, wouldn’t everyone be lean? 

The truth is that it’s not easy.  It takes work.  Hard work.  It takes consistency and dedication.  Weight loss is not a short term event.  Sure, you could lose weight short term by dieting, but what happens when the short term diet or exercise program ends?  I don’t need to tell you.  You’ve been there and you know it all comes back, plus a few pounds.  There is no magic pill, powder, potion, drink, bodysuit, gadget, website, isolation exercise, gizmo, diet program, TV show, or other shortcut to lose weight.  The only bulge that’s going to disappear when you buy this contraption is the lump created by the money in your wallet.

The time tested, foolproof way to weight loss success hasn’t changed.  Here’s the answer:

• Proper nutrition (I didn’t say diet!)
• Regular exercise

Inherently, we all know what we should be eating.  We just don’t want to.  It’s pretty simple.  Eat more real food.  Eat more vegetables and fruit and less food from a box.  Stop looking for the magic shortcut and eat like you’re going to be eating for the rest of your life.  Start simple.  If the restaurant you’re visiting has a mascot, think again.  If your drink of choice fizzes when you pour it, think again. 

The biggest excuse for lack of exercise is time.  “I’m too busy” is an excuse, plain and simple.  The average American spends 264 minutes per day watching TV.  Very few people admit to this; everyone says “I don’t watch much TV”.  It’s time to fess up.  I know someone who complains about being too busy, yet he spends at least an hour each day posting links to music videos on Facebook, usually late into the night, and then tries to figure out why he doesn’t get enough sleep.  If President Obama can find time in his schedule to exercise daily, you can find the time too. 

The extra weight wasn’t put on in just two weeks and it won’t disappear in two weeks.  Create a nutrition and exercise plan, dedicate yourself to it, and you’ll see results in time.