A new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast is now available. In this episode, I discuss going gluten free and one key aspect that is absolutely necessary in order to lose weight.
Monthly Archives: September 2015
Why You Shouldn’t Always Watch The Scale
Consulting the scale is an easy way to monitor your weight loss progress. You step on it and if you weigh less than the last time you stepped on the scale, then you have lost weight–right?
The truth is that this way of tracking your weight loss is great when you are first starting to get serious about your health. However, when you are working on the last few pounds of fat, the scale is not the ultimate indicator in how much fat you are losing. In fact, it can be deceptive.
So what are some reasons the scale can be deceptive? There are two main reasons that I will address in this blog. One is water weight and the other is muscle.
First off there is water retention. Simply put, this is when you store exes amounts of water in your cells. This can happen for a verity of reasons I will not go into here. While every body is different, the average amount of weight you can gain though water is about five pounds in a day. This means that you can gain or lose five pounds in one day as a result of retaining or releasing water.
Muscle is another major factor in why the scale can be deceptive. The reason for this is due to the fact that muscle weighs more than fat. One leader of fat weighs about 2 pounds while one leader of muscle weighs about 2 1/2 pounds. If you are lifting as a primary form of exercise the rise in weight on the scale is probably due to muscle gain.
It can be frustrating when you are faithful to your diet, and working out, but the scale moves up. Remember it is not weight that you are ultimately trying to lose but fat. Instead of relying on the scale take measurements. Another great way of tracking your progress is by clothing. Get some clothes that are tight and see if they loosen up.
So if you are sticking to your diet and working out, then don’t sweat it if the scale moves up a few pounds. It could very well be water weight or muscle gain.
Why Breaking Bad Habits is So Difficult
A new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast. In this episode, I talk about the difficulty of braking bad habits and creating new ones and what you can do about it. Enjoy!
Eating for Taste
A while back, I wrote a post on eating with your stomach. In that post, I talked about the importance of paying attention to how full you are while you are eating to avoid over consumption.
The way you monitor how full you are is by eating slowly. However, when you eat slowly there is also an added benefit–tasting your food. In other words, not only are you able to monitor how full you are, you also get to enjoy your food.
People are often supersized by how quickly they get full when they eat slowly and pay attention to their stomach. Likewise, it is shocking what you actually taste when you eat with the intention of enjoying your food.
What is the reason for the shock? It is due to the fact that often food you think you like turns out to taste gross.
When we eat too fast, not only do we overeat, but often times we only get the rush of salt and/or sugar (and other flavors) over our tongues. Because of this, we often do not recognize it when we do not like something.
This hit home for me some years ago when I decided to eat slowly and enjoy my food. At the time I was following the Paul McKenna diet. I went to one of my favorite restaurant and ordered the stake fries. But instead of gobbling them down I attempted to enjoy every bite. I did not succeed in that attempt. They were horrible. As a result, I have not eaten them since.
On the flip side, there are now many foods that I now enjoy that I did not before. For example, baby carrots are very sweet. By slowing down and enjoying the flavor, eating these items is a great way to curb your sweet tooth.
In closing, I encourage the reader to try it for themselves. You will be supersized and what you do and do not like.
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