Are you a total Gym D-bag? Find out the seven sins d-bags commit and why it annoys people on this episode of A Mind For Fitness
Tag Archives: Pounds
Carbs for Skinny People
We all know naturally thin people. You know, the kind of person who can eat anything they want and it does not effect their weight in the slightest. I have had many friends like this. While I was trying my hardest to lose weight by staying away from high-carb food, thinner friends would gorge themselves on things like pizza and ice cream.
However, there is some bad news for naturally thin people. While they may not be gaining weight form eating high-carb food, they are still damaging their bodies. Or to put another way: Carbs are not good for skinny people either.
The truth is being overweight is just one sign that you are unhealthy. Skinny people who eat poorly can and more than likely will still suffer from things like high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, and a whole host of other problems.
Also, later in life, naturally thin people will get fatter. They may never look like those people you see on weight loss TV shows. However, we have all run into thin people with a big pot belly. How did that happen? Too many carbs.
In summary, eating a low-carb diet is not just for overweight people. Healthy eating is for everyone. If you are a naturally thin person, do not fool yourself into thinking you can eat whatever you want. All those carbs will catch up to you eventually.
Home Gym VS. Traditional Gym (podcast)
In this episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast, I take on the issue of which is better, the home gym or a traditional gym. Also, when is it right to snack and more.
To Snack Or Not To Snack
Recently, a friend of mine asked my advice on picking out some healthy snacks. This question caused me to contemplate whether snacking was good or bad in general. I have come to these three conclusions. Hope this helps you make great decisions for your health.
Snacking is OK when a person firsts starts a low-carb diet.
It is a major improvement when someone stops eating the standard American diet. Generally, those first 20 to 50 pounds come off quite quickly. Because of this, snacking is for the most part fine. Just as long as they do not exceed 35 carbs a day.
Another good reason for snacking during this time is to avoid starvation mode. This is when a person restricts their nutritional intake too dramatically. As a result, the body holds onto fat reserves rather than releasing them. Snacking is a great way to avoid this state.
You may need to stop snacking if you have hit a plateau.
Everyone who is trying to lose a significant amount of weight will eventually plateau. There are many things that you can do to re-start your metabolism. One of those things is to stop snacking.
Please do not misunderstand me at this point. A person should still eat if they are hungry. If you are hungry between meals and desire a snack, then by all means eat something. However, you should only eat when you are hungry. Or to put it another way, if you are not hungry do not eat. Even low-carb snacks are not good during this process.
As a side note, if you feel compelled to eat when you are not hungry, this is a good time to find out why. For many, eating when one is not hungry is a way to fill a void in ones life. Personally speaking, I use to snack because I was bored. It was not food that I needed but excitement. Next time you are tempted to eat when you are not hungry, ask your self, “what void am I trying to fill”?
Snacking can be OK if you are in maintenance.
If you have already reached your goal weight, snacking can be fine. Just as long as you carefully monitor your weight. It would be a sad event if you gained back the weight you worked so hard to lose. But generally speaking, after you have reached your weight loss goals, you have much more liberty to eat when you want. This is due to the fact that your body is now a fat burning machine.
A Call to Leave Paleo?
I do not normally re-post an article written by someone else; however, I just ran across an article that I thought was so important that I had to share it with my audience. It is from Body IO and was written by John Kiefer a coach in the indistry whom I highly respect. The article is titled, A Call to Abandon The Paleo Diet. Below is a link to the article. I hope you benefit from it as I did.
A Call To Abandon The Paleo Diet And The Pursuit Of Ancestral Health: Part 1
Bad Choices That You Think Are Good (Podcast)
A new episode of A Mind For Fitness podcast is now available. In this episode Ian takes about choices that we make that we think are healthy. However, many of the choices that we think are healthy are actually interfering with your weight loss goals. What are those choices and are you making them? Find out by listening to this episode!
Sometimes it’s OK to Not Work Out
I recently injured my back. While I am not sure of the extent of the damage, it has caused me to ease up on my workouts. In fact, when I first injured it, I had to take five days off altogether. This really upset me. I am at this point quite a gym rat. I enjoy my time there and was unhappy that I had to give it up for a while.
My recent time off from the gym cased me to think about times when it is OK, and actually beneficial to stop working out. Here are three:
When You Are Injured
I was disappointed when I could not go to the gym. However, it is better to deal with a litter disappointment. Why? Because it actually gave me the time to recover.
The other option that I had( and have seen many people take) is to push through the pain and workout anyway. However, to do that is to risk serious injury. Because I stopped working out as soon as I hurt myself, I was able to limit my vacation to five days. Many who try to push though the pain hurt themselves severely and have to spend weeks, even months, and sometimes years away from the gym.
When You Cannot Recover
Getting injured is not the only time you need to recover. In fact, you need to recover from every workout. Why? Because every workout is doing damage to your body. In fact, the workout it self does not help you get fit. You get fit by recovering from your workout. The best way to recover from a workout is to rest. And the best rest is sleep.
So here is the situation. If you cannot get an adequate amount of sleep, you are better off to skip your workout.
When It Stops Working
Finally, there are times when you simply stop getting results from your workout. You can change thing up a bit. For example, If you do cardio two days a week and weights tree days a week, switch. However, even this stops working after a while.
This is due to the fact that our bodies get use to the same workouts or the same types of workouts. Eventually, you just stop seeing results. The best thing to do in order to get out of this slump is take a week off. Then, when you go back to the gym, you body handles it like a new activity.
Closing Remarks
Like I said. I hate missing my gym time. However, I love getting and staying fit. The reality is in order to stay fit, sometimes you have to miss a workout out or a weeks worth of workouts. Don’t be hard on yourself. In the end, you will be in better shape because you did not workout.
One Habit That Might Be Keeping You Overweight
About six moths ago, I was walking from my office to the front room. On my way, I passed though our kitchen. While in the kitchen, I grabbed a small handful of almonds. I began eating them when it suddenly hit me. I’m not hungry right now; so why am I eating? Upon further reflection I realized that I eat a lot when I’m not hungry. I may chose low-carb, healthy items, but eating when I’m not hungry is just a bad habit.
For many people eating when they are not hungry may be the cause of plateauing. While weight loss is not simply a matter of calories in and calories out, overeating can stall ones progress. This is true even if a person is eating all the right food.
When one is first starting on a low-carb diet, he/she may be able to get away with some overeating. However, after the body has adapted to a low-carbohydrate diet, the extra nutrients from overeating can and often does store in the fat cells.
Often, people do not realize that they are overeating because they do not feel stuffed. I know this was true in my case. I did not feel stuffed by eating low-carb snacks between meals. But the truth is that eating when you are not hungry is a form of over eating.
The remedy for this is to simply give up eating when you are not hungry. No one has to eat out of habit or boredom. In fact eating when you are not hungry may be the one habit keeping you overweight.
Why Your Workout Is Not Working Out (Podcast)
Four reasons why your workout may not be getting you to your heath goals on a Mind For Fitness Podcast
I Was Working Out. So Why Was I Still Fat?
Found this picture of myself at a Martial Arts camp. I was 18 at the time. While, in the picture, I do not think I look extremely fat, I still was not fit. But why? After all, I was working out all the time practicing Martial Arts. So what was the problem?
Wrong Diet
First off, I seriously underestimated the importance of a right diet. is to maintaining. It has been said by people much more wise than I, that 70 percent of weight loss is achieved in the kitchen and 20 percent in the gym.
Working out is often not enough. There is a small segment of our society that can workout and eat anything they want. They are called athletes. But these people often workout for more than eight hours a day.
Also, people who are naturally thin or naturally in shape can maintain a lower percent of body fat by simply working out. However, this only works while they are young. The older these people get, the more they have to watch what they eat.
Not Always a Workout
While Martial Arts can be an awesome workout, often it is not a workout at all. There is a lot of learning involved. A student sits and listens to the teacher. Then there is also practice where you are moving slowly and really not exercising at all.
Too Much Cardio
When you are working out, it is mostly cardio. While there is the occasional push-ups and/or sit ups these kinds of exercises are mostly done as a warm up. The rest of what can be considered a workout is cardio. Cardio is good, but it is not the best way to lose and maintain fat loss.
Repetitive Workout
Another problem was that I was use to the workouts. I have been practicing Martial Arts in some form or another since I was 7 years old, and my body has adjusted long ago to this kind of exercise.
This is a common problem with any workout. If you do the same exercise enough, your body will adjust, and you will stop seeing results. The best way to fix this is to mix it up. Change your workout.
Today
I still love the Martial Arts. I practice regularly. But it is only one component in my healthy lifestyle. I also eat right and have a verity of workouts helping me keep those unwanted pounds away.
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