Hello, friends! Regardless of whether or not you are beginning 2015 with new weight management goals in fitness and healthier eating, or if you are resolving to continue your amazing fitness and healthy eating habits, here are some facts to help: 1. To reach a healthy weight, this is the bottom line: Energy In (i.e. calories!), Energy Out. If weight loss is your goal, your body needs a DEFICIT of calories to what you expend in a day for energy. If you are underweight and needing to gain weight, flip it (excess energy to what you put out in energy). 2. On the days you exercise, and depending on the amount, duration and intensity of exercise (i.e. Crossfit or intense circuit training vs light jogging or 30 minute elliptical training) you will need to take in more energy than on the days you rest. So you spend hours in the gym week after week but your pants still fit the same? This is frustrating and demotivating, I know. But all this is likely because you are taking in more calories (or less if you need to gain weight!) than what you are expending over a 7 day period. 3. The latest popular diets, if they do in fact work, all boil down to ONE fundamental rule: a deficit in calories in relation to energy spent will produce weight loss. The PROBLEM I have with some of these popular diets is that they can be restrictive in essential nutrients AND to your wallet....these diets arent cheap, folks! Such a restriction, over time, can actually derail your long term fitness/nutrition goals because you are depriving your body of essential nutrients it cannot produce for itself, so it works hard to try and compensate, leaving your immune system vulnerable and your cells and metabolism hungry. Does this mean that if you drink 3 margaritas, which equal about half of your total daily calorie needs (every BODY varies, this is just an example) that you cant eat dinner? NO! Your body is begging you for the macro and micronutrients on your dinner plate. So eat and dont beat yourself up for not hitting your calorie goal for the day. I HAVE A RULE OF THUMB HERE: Be mindful of your calories over a one week, 7-day period rather than obsess about that ONE ROGUE DAY. (I have rogue days; those days are fun. But I get back on track the rest of the week and maintain that balance of health and LIFE.) The day after your margarita/dinner fiesta, seek that balance, filling your meals with high fiber, high protein, healthy, complex carbohydrates (lots of fiber-filled veggies and fruit, lean cuts of meat, poultry and fish, high fiber/protein grains and seeds like quinoa, wild rice, brown rice, bran, barley, flaxseed and chia seeds). Drink lots of water everyday, more on the days you sweat during exercise. FINAL THOUGHT: Dont compare yourself to others and dont let others make you feel bad for living your own life. Their fitness and nutritional needs/goals will always be different than yours. Always. Focus on and live for yourself and your family but carry tolerance for others, save your harsh judgment and be kind...TO YOUR BODY, to your peers...
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 13:28:42 +0000
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