January 2018

Are You Sabotaging Yourself?

This week’s topic was spurred by a member question. After successfully finishing up the 7 week Maintain Don’t Gain Holiday Challenge she wondered, “Why do people sabotage themselves after they’ve hit a fitness or weight-loss goal?” We think lots of people encounter this same issue and it’s a common challenge among the fitness crowd.
Here’s a typical example of self sabotage as it relates to fitness or weight loss. Maybe your goal is to drop 10 pounds over the course of two months. For those two months you are consistent with your exercise and adhere to a strictly healthy diet. At the end, you step on the scale and BAM! You’ve hit your target. You’re 10 pounds lighter and feel confident and proud. Maybe at that point you’re feeling a bit too confident and you start to think, “I achieved my goal and I deserve a reward.” Since you’ve been dieting, your reward is probably some kind of food you’d been staying away from. And that triggers the self-sabotaging spiral of making poor choices and the guilt that inevitably goes with it.

According to health and wellness coach, Jason Christoff the reason people self-sabotage is nearly always the same.

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Eat as Much as You Want of these Foods

When people think of dieting, most assume it means eating very small amounts of food. While it’s true you should only eat small amounts of certain foods like sweets and treats, there are some foods – a lot of foods actually – that you can go hog wild on without spoiling your health and fitness progress.
What determines whether you can eat a certain food without restraint? There are a few factors:
  • Volume: Some foods are made mostly of water or contain a lot of air which increases their volume without adding calories. High volume foods help fill you up quickly.
  • Protein: Studies have proven over and over that protein is more filling than fat or carbs.
  • Fiber: Natural fiber in food makes you feel full when you eat it and also slows down food as it moves through your digestive system. This keeps you feeling satisfied long after you’ve finished eating.
Based on this criteria, here are some foods you can fill up on with no regrets.
Citrus fruits like oranges, tangerines and grapefruit are high in water content and full of fiber.

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5 Reasons to Stay Hydrated

Most people know in general that drinking water is good for you. Since our bodies are made of mostly water, good hydration is critical to maintaining healthy digestion, circulation, and even body temperature. In some respects, water is even more important than food. Humans can go without food for weeks, but can only go three days without water. But aside from the essential life functions it supports, water plays a pivotal role in fitness too.

  • When you are dehydrated, even just a little bit, it leads to fatigue and actually makes your muscles weaker. This can make even your regular workouts seem more challenging and cause you to tire more quickly. If your hydration is off, even just by 1.5%, you’ll feel it.
  • Water can help energize you for a workout even more than caffeine can. Studies have shown that the number one symptom of dehydration is fatigue. And nothing kills your motivation to work out more than that. So, if you’re feeling too tired to exercise reach for a bottle of water and give your body some time to absorb it. Chances are, a little re-hydration will give you the second wind you need to blast through your workout.

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Common Workout Myths

When it comes to working out and getting fit, it seems like everyone has their “expert” opinion. Unfortunately much of what’s out there is false or inaccurate. And with the sheer volume of information it can be hard to sift through to get to good, sound fitness advice. Here are some common workout myths to be aware of.

Myth: You have to workout every day to get in shape.

Truth: While you should do something to get your body moving each day, you should not go all out seven days a week. Your body needs time to recover from strenuous workouts and exercising intensely every day can do more harm than good. Shoot for two days of recovery per week to do only low intensity exercise like walking or gentle yoga.

Myth: For women, working out with weights will make you bulk up.

Truth: This is probably the most common fitness misconception out there. The truth is, women don’t have the chemical makeup to bulk up from the average strength-training routine. They produce far less of the hormone testosterone than men do. In fact men have about 30 times more testosterone than women which is why they tend to put on more muscular size than their female counterparts.

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