In this episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast, Ean Carlin talks about how to deal with those new years resolutioners who are at your gym.
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Dealing With Resolutionars at the Gym
Yes it is that time of year again. It is that time when everyone is trying to get into shape and make all kinds of goals regarding health and weight loss. For many, one of those goals is to hit the gym and hit it hard! What this means is that the gym will be swarming with new people. For us long times, us people who already go to the gym on a consistent basis we, we call these new people “resolutionars”! And they can be annoying at the least and completely your workout at worst.
Don’t Be A Hater
Dealing with resolutionars can be bothersome. Often they are in the way and many of them don’t seem to understand proper gym etiquette.
That said, don’t be a hater. Keep in mind the fact that these people are just trying to better themselves by improving their health. This type of behavior should be encouraged.
In practical terms, smile at the new people instead of glaring at them hatefully. Introduce your self. Let them know that you have been coming to this gym for a long time and tell them everything you like about the place. Just think: it may be your kind words that makes a resolutionar a regular.
Don’t Worry
Next thing to do is not worry about all the new people. Statistics show that 95% of people who make resolutions for the new year will break those commitments by January 15th. Just wait it out a week or two and those who are not serious will be gone and out of your way. And if you followed the above recommendation, those who decided to really make a commitment, will now be your friends.
Take Time Off
If you really just cannot handle being around resolutionars, then one of the best things you can do is to take some time off. I know for us regulars, taking time off is difficult. We love working out and we love going to the gym. However, most workout regiments require taking time off. And if you are anything like me, you workout hard during the holidays and could use a break. Remember, for optimal health, recovery is just as important as working out.
Home Gym
So maybe you did take the holidays off and you need to workout. The home gym is always an option. You may not have every piece of equipment they have at a traditional gym, but you can do push ups, squats, lunges, and all sorts of things that will keep you in good health.
Go in The Morning
If you just cannot stay away from the gym, then your best bet is to go in the morning. This will not keep you from resolutionars altogether, but it will minimize your encounters with them. Generally speaking, most of them are not dedicated enough to go in the morning. And those who are willing to make the commitment to go in the morning are more likely to become regulars.
Switch Your Routine
The last thing you can do is to change your routine. Instead of doing chest on Monday, do biceps. Or simply do what is available. Make the best of what you have and do what you can do. This will always make a great workout.
P. S.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this article. I hope it helped you. If it did, please do me the favor of sharing it on your favorite social media. Have a great new year!
5 Easy Ways to Lose Weight For the New Year (Audio)
A new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast is now available! In this episode, Ean talks about five ways to lose weight for the new year and the new you!
5 Easy Ways to Lose Weight For the New Year
Did you resolve to lose weight for the new year? Great! Here are five easy ways to lose weight for the new year and the new you!
Eat Clean
One of the reason people are overweight has to do with how much toxins are in our food. Part of the body’s natural protection is to store those unwanted toxins in our fat cells, particularly in our belly fat. Switching to organic food (and any food without toxins) will shut down the need for the body to hold onto extra fat. As a result, excess weight will come off.
Save Your Carbs For Dinner
Your body is naturally more insulin sensitive in the evening. This means that it takes less of the hormone insulin to get the excess sugar out of your blood. Less insulin means less fat storage.
Now this is not an excuse to eat all the carbs you want as long as it is night. Ideally it is best to keep your carb count to 25 grams at the low end and 50 at the high end. And it is best to spread them out over two meals. However, the majority of those carbs should come at night. Controlling how much carbs you eat is a great way to lose weight. But controlling when you eat those carbs also matters a great deal!
Skip Breakfast
I know that we have all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day; however, this is simply not true. While I do not have the time here to go into all the benefits of intermittent fasting, let me say that it has done wonders for weight loss. In short, your body has gone through all its blood sugar while you sleep and you start burning fat for fuel the first half of the day.
All you have to do to make this work is finish eating dinner by seven or eight the night before. Then skip breakfast. After that, eat lunch around 12:30 or 1:00. It’s really that easy!
Walk After Meals
Now you may not be able to walk after lunch because, lets face it, most of us have to get back to work. However, walking after dinner should not be a problem for most. Walking after meals lowers your blood sugar without a large amount of unnecessary insulin. In other words, it is a natural way to help you become more insulin sensitive.
Eat Slowly
Weight management is not simply a matter of calories in and calories out. In fact, it is more important to track your carb intake and your chemical intake than it is to track your overall calorie intake.
That said, it is still not good to overeat. It’s not good hormonally and it is not good for digestion–two key factors in weight management. In addition, if you eat less and you are eating the right types of food you will see weight loss.
So how do you eat less food without feeling like you are hungry? The answer is to eat slowly. This is a technique that I have used often and it works great.
Often we overeat because we eat too fast. The food is already in our stomach and we are back for seconds before the brain can tell us that we have had enough. By the time the satiety signal hits us, we have overeaten.
By eating slowly you allow your brain to tell your body that you are full before you overeat. You can still eat until you are full. You do not have to be hungry. It is just that you feel full on much less.
Closing Thoughts
Any one of the above suggestions will most likely help in losing weight. However, if you are serious about dropping those unwanted pounds, then do all of these together and you will get the best results. Best wishes for you in this new year!
And please don’t forget to like, comment, and share.
Everything You Need To Know About Fat-Shaming (audio)
This is a new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast. Today, we are talking about fat-shaming–what it is and what it is not. Enjoy!
The Carb Cycling Wars (Podcast)
This episode explores the different protocols of carb-cycling.
The Carb Cycling Wars
Not that long ago in our own galaxy, in fact, on our own planet, there was an obesity epidemic. In response to this epidemic, an evil empire of dietitions arose and ceased power. This evil empire insisted that a low-fat, calorie restrictive diet was the answer to this problem. However, they were wrong.
In response to the evil empire, there was a rag-tag group of rebels who fought against the dogma of the day. These people insisted that the answer to obesity were low-carb, ketogenic, and Paleo diets.
Those who followed these diets had great success. But often they did not meet their ultimate weight-loss goals. The Rebels came to realize that cycling carbs was one of the solutions to this problem. What follows is a small portion of their story:
All Kidding Aside
All kidding aside, the truth is there are health benefits for cycling carbs. That is to say it is beneficial at times to have more carbs. In fact, if you have hit a plateau in your weight-loss, this is a great way to re-ignite your fat burning hormones.
The fact of the matter is that there are a number of carb-cycling plans to choose from. These plans differ on the amount of days you should carb-cycle, as well as what kinds of carbs you should have.
What follows is a list of some of the major proponents of carb-cycling and the way the do it. However, this is not an exhaustive list. This is just a list that I am acquainted with.
Ethical Disclaimer
I cannot share every detail of the methods listed below due to ethical reasons. The authors I have researched draw their income from the books they sell. Therefore, I have tried my best to offer a fair evaluation of their method while not revealing everything they recommend. In other words, what is listed below is just an outline. To get a fuller understanding, you need to buy the books.
That said, some of these authors have publicly shared much more about their diets than others. For those who have shared more openly, I have revealed more about their protocols.
Kiefer
Kiefer is the author of Carb Nite Solution and Carb Back-Loading. Both are carb-cycling diets. Here is what you need to know
Carb Nite Solution Essentials
This is an ultra low-carb diet for 6 days of the week. One day of the week, or more appropriately, one night of the week you can have as many carbs as you want. In fact you can have as many carbs as you want from any source that you want. This is to say that Kiefer allows for “dirty” carbs. You are not just carb-loading with sweet-potatoes and fruit, you can have cake and ice cream as well. No food is off limits.
However, it is important to note that you don’t have to have dirty carbs. You can do this protocol with clean carbs as well. He just does not restrict to clean carbs only.
Carb Back-Loading Essentials
This diet is very similar to Carb Nite. But it differs in that there is more than just one night a week you carb-load. On this diet, you can carb-load, in the evening or after noon, but only after an extremely heavy workout. You can also have dirty carbs on this diet too.
One important difference between these diets is the intention. Carb Nite is inteded for weight-loss, while Carb Back-Loading is intended for bulking.
Dave Asprey
Dave Asprey is the creator of the Bulletproof Diet. He also runs a company and has a podcast of the same name.
Bulletproof Carb-Cycling Essentials
This is basically a low-carb diet, but not an ultra low-carb diet. This diet focuses more on the quality of food you eat. It allows for some clean carbs at night in order to help sleep and other functions.
On this diet, Dave recommends that one day a week you carb-load. Also, on the day you carb-load, you are suppose to protean fast. Meaning you have very, very little protean. Dave very highly recommends carb-loading with only clean carbs. That is lots of white rice, certain fruits, and other clean sources of carbohydrates. That said, he does allow for the occasional (very occasional) dirty carbs. But it should not be the main source of your carb-loading and you need to be prepared to accept the consequences.
Chris Powell
Chris Powell is most famous for tuning fat people into fit people on his television show, Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition. He has written a couple of books but I am only going to deal with one of them here, Choose To Loose: The 7 Day Carb Cycling Solution.
7 Day Carb Cyceling Solution Essentials
This method is the most liberal when it comes to carbs. Basically the diet is one day of high carbs and one day of low carbs. Sounds easy but things do get complicated. Even on the low-carb days, he recommends that you eat a carb portion at breakfast. Your meals are also split into five small meals throughout the day. All carbs during this cycle are clean.
However, one day a week, you can have anything you want. This includes dirty cabs. So it is high-carb, low-carb (except for breakfast)….. until Sunday. On Sunday, no food is off limits.
Jason Seab
Our final player is Jason Seab, aself proclaimed Paleo proponent. He is the newest contributor on the list with his book Alt Shift.
Alt Shift Essentials
The Alt Shift protocol recommends a few days on an extremely low-carb diet, followed by a few days on a high carb-diet. There are no dirty carbs on this diet.
Conclusion
Which carb-cycling is right for you. The truth is, if you are already fat-adapted, and you have stalled out on your weight-loss, just about any one of these diets will help. But self experimentation is always the best way to find out. So give each of them a fair shot and see what works.
Eliminating Negative Self Talk (Podcast)
Why negative self talk is so damaging to your weight loss goals and what you can do to fix it, next on A Mind For Fitness Podcast!
Secret Weight Loss Weapon (podcast)
In this episode, Ean talks about the importance of keeping a food journal and why not keeping one may be the key to losing those last 10-15 pounds.
The Importance of Food Journaling
One thing that people overlook when they are trying to lose weight is the importance of keeping a food journal. In fact, I highly recommend that if you are serious about losing weight, a food journal is a must. In other words it is not an option! Why is this so important? Why do so many people benefit from writing down what they eat? Here are three reasons:
It Keeps You From Cheating (As Much)
Even the best of us cheat from time to time. I’m not talking about the regularly scheduled cheat meal or carb-nite. I’m taking about those times when you eat something (or a lot of something) you know you shouldn’t. Food journaling can help with this problem.
The objective of a food journal is to write down everything you eat and when you eat it. When you keep track of what you eat in this way, you really have to think twice about what you put in your mouth.
Why is that? Well, One of the reasons we cheat is due to the fact that there is an immediate pleasurable experience. But that is not all. For many people, they do not have to face any negative consequence for their bad behavior right away. They can eat that brownie and not think about it for some time.
However, a food journal provides an immediate negative consequence. It is much like a health coach or an accountability partner that you have to confess to right away. If you had to confess every time you ate something bad for you, and you had to confess it immediately, you most likely would not do it.
Even though no else has to see your food journal, simply having one is still a deterrent for most. The very fact that you have to write your bad behavior down creates an objective reality to the behavior that cannot be ignored. This, in and of itself, is enough of an immediate negative consequence. As a result, it reduces cheating.
It Will Keep You Form Over Eating
Even if you are only eating the right food, the amount of food you eat counts. No, I’m not promoting the calories in calories out myth. But an over abundance of nutrients in your system has to be dealt with. Often your body will eliminate it though waste or store it to fat. Not only this, but there are bad hormonal reactions to stuffing yourself. How much you eat does count. Food journaling helps regulate your overall intake.
The truth is that your overall food intake can get away from you fairly quickly. For example, it’s pretty easy to have four eggs for breakfast instead of two, and a double cheese burger (lettuce wrap, of course) instead of a single; a little more chicken than necessary at dinner, in addition to that bag of almonds you ate for snack. Please do not misunderstand me. All this food is fine if you are really that hungry. However, many people do in fact eat well past satiety.
Overeating becomes more of a problem when you are trying to lose those last 10-15 pounds. At the beginning of your weight-loss journey, simply switching to the right foods will often be enough to lose a significant amount of weight. But if you have stalled out on your progress, the amount of food you eat is often the issue. Food journaling tracks your overall caloric intake. When you write down what you have eaten, you can objectively evaluate what you may need to cut out.
It Keeps You Honest With Yourself
This last point is really a combination of the two points listed above. But it is important to note that when we are not losing weight we expect, it is often due to the fact that we are deceiving ourselves. We lie to ourselves about what we have eaten and how much we have eaten.
The fact of the matter is most people who do not keep a food journal cannot recount with accuracy what they ate. To complicate the matter it’s easy for us to lie to ourselves about these issues. This becomes a big problem when a person is not getting the results they are expecting. Wondering what went wrong or what is going wrong becomes common.
A food journal helps in keeping one from self delusion. After all, there is (or at least there should be) an objective record. This record keeps you honest.
In closing, there is only one question you need to ask yourself: Do you want to lose weight? If you do, then a food journal will tremendous help with your goal.
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