Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain

Hey everyone I would like to share this aritcle written by Mattie Schuler Men's Fitness on how to avoid holiday weight gain. I know its hard to stick with your workouts and nutrition plan during the holidays I have trouble myself. I have done pretty good so far havn't gained a pound.....havn't lost one either lol .
        1. Schedule in exercise, and stick to it.

During the holidays, exercise tends to be the first activity dropped from a busy schedule, says Roussell. To avoid this, schedule in your exercise just like you would any normal meeting or event. “If it’s in your calendar, you know when and how you will get in that exercise,” he says. Stay active with outdoor winter sports like skiing, snowboarding, or even sledding (yeah, it takes work to climb back up the hill). Or if you're not a fan of snow, buy some ass-kicking boot camp sessions at your gym.

2. Be wary of alcohol.

“Alcohol puts the brakes on fat loss,” says Roussell. Mixed drinks loaded with carbs and sugars will put back on what you burned at the gym in a heartbeat. But, because drinking (hopefully) occurs in a social setting, it can feel weird to not order a drink. Get your first one, sip slowly, and then switch to a club soda with lime on your second order — no one will know it’s vodka-free. The added bonus to drinking slowly: you won’t risk getting tipsy and reaching for fatty foods, or overeating, both of which you’ll likely feel bad about the next morning.




  3. Weigh yourself daily.

People who weigh themselves daily have better control over maintaining or losing weight. “A lot of people step on the scale on January 1st and are mortified,” says Roussell. “By weighing yourself everyday, you stay accountable and recognize what’s going on.” Even though you’ll fluctuate give or take a pound or two, you’ll notice patterns of increase and be able to reign in your eating habits before they get out of control.

4. Choose the right party foods.

Most party foods are refined grains or simple carbohydrates, says Roussell. Instead of reaching for snack mix, choose low-cal veggies or protein-packed shrimp cocktails. Eat a salad or broth-based soup before attending a holiday event so you can feel full (and avoid diving into the buffet head first). At a sit down dinner, fill up on meat and roasted veggies, first, before the carb-heavy mash potatoes and dinner rolls. Have a sweet tooth? Opt for pumpkin pie, which tends to be lower in calories than most other desserts.

5. Stock up on nutritional back-up snacks.

Keep healthy snacks in your car or at your office so you don’t feel hungry. Look for protein-rich foods like unsalted almonds or beef jerky for easy, grab-and-go options. Also, load your shelves with seasonal fruits and vegetables. Just because it's cold outside doesn't mean you can’t find produce in supermarkets. Go for kale, rich with antioxidants for detoxing your body throughout the holidays, and apples and oranges with Vitamin C to boost your immune system.


Source: http://www.mensfitness.com/training/...er-weight-gain


Monday, December 10, 2012

How To Break Through Weight Loss Plateaus

You're tracking calories, working out each day, then bam! For a week or two, the scale refuses to budge...and you realize you've hit a dreaded weight loss plateau. Now what?

Even though it's completely normal to hit a snag in your fitness journey, a perceived setback like this can send even the most dedicated dieter off course, away from healthy eating and toward cookies, cake, and pizza. But you can be strong and start getting back on the weight-loss track again. Try at least one of the following techniques, and there's a good chance you'll burst through your plateau in no time.

Here are five important things to know about hydration and exercise: 1. Zigzag your daily calorie intake.
In theory, you've got to eat less to lose more, but this isn't always the case. Sometimes you just have to shake things up. Here's one way to do it: If your average daily intake is 1,400 calories, try dropping to 1,200 one day, going up to 1,800 the next day, and then dropping back to 1,400. The idea is to keep your metabolism guessing. There's no magic number that works for everyone, so you'll have to experiment until you find the right calorie levels for you.

2. Switch up your exercise routine. If you do the same workout each day, eventually it can start to become less challenging, and (unfortunately) less effective. If you push yourself to new levels of strength or exhaustion, you'll almost certainly see a shift. Here are some ways you can challenge your body:
  • Swap your jog for a bike ride.
  • Try weights with your cardio routine. (ChaLEAN Extreme® or RevAbs® can help you do this.)
  • Add intervals of high intensity to really make you sweat. (INSANITY® is a great workout for this.)
  • Drop to the floor for 10 push-ups right now!


3. Eat some almonds. Almonds are a great snack, plus there's some research that indicates that they can help you burn fat. That's because they contain fiber and fatty acids—the good kind of fat that helps you lose weight. A study published in the International Journal of Obesity compared two groups of people who ate a 1,000-calorie-a-day diet. As part of their daily diet, one group ate 3 ounces of almonds every day. The other group ate a mix of complex carbs. What happened? The group that ate the almonds lost more weight.

4. Get more sleep. This may seem like the opposite of number 2, but the truth is is that you could be training too hard, which is about the quickest way to hit a weight loss plateau, because an over-trained body holds on to weight as if it were starving to death. There's no better way to test this than to try and sleep more. The reason is that your body recovers much more quickly from exercise while it's asleep, and if you're burning the midnight oil while trying to do INSANITY, you could easily plateau from lack of recovery time.

In a recent study at the University of Chicago Medical School, researchers found that during a period when study participants were deprived of sleep, they metabolized glucose less effectively. Additionally, they had higher levels of the hormone cortisol, which has been shown to impair memory, increase insulin resistance, and slow recovery in athletes. "There's a good reason why five-time Tour de France winner Eddy Merckx said, 'The Tour is won in bed,'" says Edwards. Your body's recovery response during deep sleep is only rivaled by performance-enhancing drugs. When you're on the borderline of overtraining, getting more sleep is the first thing anyone should try.

5. Relax. Believe it or not, the one big thing besides diet and exercise that can cause you to plateau is stress. When you're stressed, your body sends out higher levels of the hormone cortisol that, as stated in number 4, can encourage your body to hang on to fat. "Cortisol is actually a performance-enhancing hormone," says Edwards. "But it's gotten a bad rap because we've begun living our lives at too high a volume. Cortisol is released at times when the body is in an emergency state. It increases performance, but only over a short period of time. When cortisol is released and forced into action at regular intervals, it causes your body to wear down and switch to more drastic means of survival, like holding on to excess amounts of body fat. Your life shouldn't feel like one big emergency. As a society, we need to learn to be more tranquilo, as the Spanish say."

We get stressed for many reasons, almost all of which are influenced by the society around us. One of the best ways to combat stress is to get some alone time to chill. If you're the type who can't let go, try some forced relaxation techniques, of which yoga seems to be one of the most effective. There's something special about the mind/body interaction of yoga that forces a relaxed state even from the most stressed of us.

Monday, December 3, 2012

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