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The Fitness Almanac Weekly - Issue #14 |
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In This Week's Issue:
- Motivation (Value in the effort)
- Fit tip (Limit Trans Fat)
- Testimonial (Rossi Horn)
- Fitness Q&A ("maximize my fat burning with food? )
- Success Quote (Chuck Yeager)
- Healthy Recipe (Buckwheat Protein Pancakes)
- Featured Fitness Article (Stop Emoitonal Eating )
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Motivation
Value in the effort
To desire something without also desiring the effort necessary to create or obtain it is indeed a wasted desire. To get something for nothing is to have nothing but an empty trinket.
The value of anything worth having is in the effort needed to obtain it. The thing itself can be eventually taken away, or it can be depleted, it can break or it can turn to rust. Yet the strength, the experience, the
confidence, the wisdom you gain from the effort will always be with you.
When you sincerely look at the things you desire, you'll see that you don't desire those things at all. You desire to be the person who can obtain and maintain those things.
As such, it is best to focus not only on the objectives you desire, but also on the efforts which will make them a reality. That's where the real value is.
Note: Do you want motivation like this sent directly to your desktop, absolutely free of charge? If so, click here and you'll also receive the new e-book, Positive Thinking!
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Fit Tip
Limit Trans Fat
What do bread, crackers, cereal, macaroni & cheese, frozen pizza, donuts, and cookies have in common? Besides being at the top of the list of many kids' favorite foods, they are all possible sources of trans fats. Trans fats are oils that have been chemically-altered (through a process called hydrogenation) from their original liquid states, into solid shortening. The process increases the shelf life of the oil and improves the texture of the food to which the oil is added. Many manufacturers add it to their products for these reasons.
However, when you add those foods to your grocery cart, you're increasing your risk of heart disease (and your kid's too), because trans fats are artery-clogging professionals. They carry cholesterol to the arteries, drop it off, and go looking for more. A Harvard Medical School study of 80,000 women found that a 2% increase in trans fat consumption increased a woman's risk of heart disease by 93%.
But you can still have your cake, eat it, and have a healthy heart too. Just avoid products that list "partially-hydrogenated" vegetable oil or shortening as an ingredient. |
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| FREE FITNESS EBOOK - Compiled in this e-book are the top 10 best Success Quotes, Fit Tips, Motivational Articles, Healthy Recipes and Fitness Articles, 100% FREE! |
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Testimonial
"I do best at succeeding toward my goals when I am supported and encouraged. I found GHF when I lost my personal trainer to another venture. This on-line fitness program has given me 24-7 advice, support and encouragement, which was much more available than anything or anyone I had ever experienced before! All of this for only $60!!
After printing out all the exercise instructions, I now have more knowledge as to what I am actually doing, therefore getting much better results. And the customized program you develop for me has been a perfect plan to reaching my goals! After printing out the GHF On-line Weight Management Book, I learned great solutions to emotional eating. I have spent many years battling my weight problem. Now I see it as a challenge of health and fitness that I share with many people -- those that are with me every step of the way.
What I like most is that GHF encompasses ALL aspects of a successful fitness program: good nutrition, exercise (cardio, weightlifting, and stretching), support, encouragement, valid literature, on-line weekly motivations, psychological issues and everything else necessary to help its members reach their full potential. Thank you so much, I am totally amazed by your company."
Rossi Horn
RosyRossi@aol.com
For more testimonial stories from hundreds of GHF members, please click here.
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Fitness Q&A
Q: I'm an early riser and I work out at 4:30 am. I prefer to get everything done and out of the way in the morning. My workout usually consists of 45 minutes of weight training and then 30 minutes of cardio work. What if anything should I eat before I get to the weight room to help maximize my fat burning?
Also, I've heard different things about when is the best time of day to train. What are your thoughts on workout timing? I do my weights and cardio together but have been getting confused because some experts
say you should split it up. Do you recommend that cardio and weights be done separately or together and which should come first? For example: (1) wake up, eat, cardio, lift, or (2) wake up, cardio, eat, lift later
in day?
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A:
There's probably some truth to the idea that each individual has a certain natural biorhythm which dictates their personal best time to train (morning people vs. night people, etc).
I've also seen some research literature which cited hormonal ebbs and tides as evidence for one "perfect time of day" for everyone to lift weights, but since there is so much variation from person to person, I'm cautious about making generalizations.
For example, I experimented one season with very early morning training. I gave it a fair trial for three months straight without missing. I got up at 5:00 am to eat meal one, then hit the weights at 5:30 am.
But I found that my workouts suffered greatly from this schedule. I was not mentally or physically primed to train at that early hour. I prefer to train late in the morning after I've been awake several hours and I have a couple of meals in me.
If you've discovered a certain time that "feels" good to you and suits your lifestyle, go with it. I don't believe there is a single best time of day to train.
I've seen many people get results while training at just about any time of the day or night. I even know a few people who train at midnight or in the wee hours of the morning at a 24 hour health club or home gym.
As for eating prior to workouts, if you are only doing cardio early in the morning, then it's okay to do the cardio without eating anything beforehand. Although controversial, many fitness experts believe that
it's even more effective for fat loss to do cardio in a fasted state. However, the same is not true for strength training.
Most people will compromise their workout performance too much by weight training on empty. Instead, I suggest you eat before weight training in the morning and especially if you are doing weights and cardio together in one long workout.
If you are the type of person who has trouble training too soon after a full meal because the food sits "heavily" in your stomach, or makes you feel nauseous, then at least have a light meal or a meal replacement drink that's not too filling. Then be sure to take one of your largest meals of the day immediately after training.
Judging by the number of times I've heard questions about workout timing, a lot of people are concerned about doing it "wrong." Well, the only way you can really get it "wrong" is by doing nothing, but you can definitely fine tune your workout timing approach based on your objectives.
If training in the early morning works well for you, then I'd suggest you continue. If you're not getting the results you want, you might consider experimenting with a different training time.
The ideal training time will depend on:
(1) your goals/primary objective (fat loss versus gaining mass)
(2) practical considerations like job, family and time available
(3) whether you're doing cardio only or cardio + weights the same day.
When considering workout timing issues, a good rule of thumb to follow is:
"Never compromise your primary objective."
When fat loss is the primary objective, and it's just a cardio day, then doing your cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach has many benefits for increasing fat loss, not to mention it's a great way to
start the day, physically as well as psychologically. Eat your first meal immediately afterwards.
If you're on a fat loss program and you're doing weights and cardio the same day, you have options:
One, do your cardio early in the A.M. on an empty stomach, then eat meal one immediately afterwards. Hit your weights in a separate session later in the day - late morning, afternoon or evening.
Two, since working out twice a day isn't practical for everyone, a second option is to eat your first meal, give it just enough time to start digesting, then hit the weights first and your cardio second, followed immediately by your second meal.
On a muscle growth program, things are different. I don't recommend morning cardio in a fasted state on muscle mass building programs.
In fact, I recommend keeping the cardio to a minimum on muscle gaining programs: 3 days per week for 20-30 minutes is usually plenty. Ectomorphs (skinny, small jointed, slow-gaining body types) might do even less cardio and extreme ectomorphs may do none at all.
On the muscle mass program, split up your cardio and weights if that's practical and space them out a good eight hours or so (lift in morning, cardio at night, or vice versa). Eat plentifully after each workout session.
If two separate sessions - one cardio and one weights - doesn't fit your schedule, no worries, just do your cardio workout immediately after your weight training in the same session
If you're doing cardio & weights in the same session, and your prime objective is bodybuilding, then always hit the weights first and cardio last because you will have the most strength and energy for whatever you do when you are fresh at the beginning of the workout. Put the most energy into your primary objective.
One final suggestion is to get yourself on a regular schedule rather than to train at random times that vary from day to day.
People who have a designated workout time every day, regardless of whether it's 4:30 in the morning, 12:00 noon or 10:00 pm in the evening, tend to be the most consistent in the long run and many become fiercely religious about their "sacred workout hour."
The big advantage of getting onto this kind of regular schedule is that it will begin to become a habit. Eventually, your "training time" can become as deeply ingrained into your daily habit patterns as taking a shower every morning and brushing your teeth before bed every night.
That's the point where your workouts no longer require willpower and they become more difficult NOT to do than to do... and that is a great place to arrive at.
Train hard and expect success,
Tom Venuto
GHF’s Fat Loss Expert
All GHF members receive unlimited fitness consulting absolutely FREE! To learn more about this membership feature and all 30 of GHF's fitness, medical and nutrition experts, please click here.
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Success Quote of the Week
"You don't concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done."
- Chuck Yeager, pilot
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Healthy Recipe
Buckwheat Protein Pancakes
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
1 cup buckwheat
1/2 cup chocolate or vanilla protein powder
2 tablespoons Splenda sugar substitute
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 to 2 cups skim milk
2 egg whtes
Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients together in large bowl until smooth.
2. Pour 1/4 cup of batter onto hot griddle and flip when bubbles appear and the bottom is lightly browned. Continue until batter is all used.
Nutritional Info:
Calories: 220
Fat: 2 g
Carbohydrates: 30 g
Protein: 20 g
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| Fitness Article
Entire books have been written about emotional eating and it can quickly become a deep subject if you let it. I believe however that most people overthink it and that the fundamental issue here is to simply realize that people often eat in order to obtain a feeling or in response to a feeling.
In some contexts, this is appropriate, as in a holiday social gathering. In other contexts, it may be inappropriate, as in a binge at home alone in response to a stressful day or event.
In other words, you may be eating for the wrong reasons or dealing with emotions inappropriately by using food. The real "kicker" is that you may not even be aware that you are doing it!
If particular eating behaviors are not serving you in a constructive way and you want to remove this negative emotional connection to food, here are 4 quick tips to stop the negative pattern and change it to something positive:
(1) first you must become aware of it when this negative old pattern is occurring, because such behaviors often happen automatically on the non conscious level. Beliefs about food are also often held on the non-conscious level. Once you have this conscious awareness, then you need to...
(2) interrupt or break the pattern immediately when you realize it's happening -- you could simply say "stop" to yourself and ask yourself "am I eating because I'm hungry and need to fuel my muscles and boost my energy level or am I eating for another reason?"
Then start asking yourself some questions that will generate the positive response you want. They can be simple and straight forward, or they can be blunt and outrageous. Ask yourself, "is it worth it?" or "is eating this going to move me closer to or further away from my goal?"
Personally, I find that playing with the concept that "you are literally what you eat" interrupts the pattern quite well for me. When I ask myself, "If this food is going to become part of my physical cells, do I really want this to become a part of my bicep... or my brain...or my eyeball???", then the answer is almost always a resounding "NO!"
(3) If you're eating for an emotional reason, find alternative and more constructive ways (which serve you) to obtain / satisfy that feeling you are after.
(4) establish the right reasons for eating and develop strong neural connections and associations between food and those reasons through repetition/reinforcement.
The 4 beliefs about food that will serve you the best in creating positive associations to healthy foods are:
1. food is for building muscle and other body tissues (good food is "construction material"... i.e. you are what you eat)
2. Food is for energy (good food is fuel)
3. Food is for burning fat (good food in small frequent meals stokes your metabolic furnace like logs thrown on a fire)
4. Food is for creating optimal health (good food contains every nutrient you need for optimal health)
I eat specific (healthy) foods and avoid specific (unhealthy) foods automatically, because I am so strongly connected to the reasons why I eat. The best part is that it's completely automatic behavior - its not difficult, nor does it require will power anymore as it did when I first started, because those beliefs and behaviors are now ingrained at a neural/cellular level.
I believe that anyone can break the negative cycle of emotional eating and reach this point of automatic positive eating behaviors, by identifying negative patterns, stopping them dead in their tracks when you become aware of them, by eating for the right reasons, by finding constructive alternatives for responding to emotions and by changing the way you talk to yourself repeatedly over time.
These may seem like simple ideas, but they are very powerful ideas, and they don't even require any physical effort on your part -- all you have to do is change the way you think!
Train hard and expect success,
Tom Venuto
GHF’s Fat Loss Expert
http://www.tomvenuto.com
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