Lance Avery Morgan
Your entrance ramp to winter fitness, as we place the holiday season behind us, can also be the fast track to a new you. Here, our Lance Avery Morgan consulted with the experts and shares timely tips and trends to drive your New Year to be your most fit one yet. Heck, why shouldn’t it?
Trainers, gyms, and even the everyday active individual have a love-hate relationship with this masked motivational player that enters the arena at every start of the early Fall season. On one hand, it’s more people being active, sweating it out, taking a stand for their health, and looking to be a better healthier person. That part everyone loves. On the other hand, others burn their candles hot, powering through the gym haphazardly, clogging up classes, and losing their will to continue when it just seems like all the effort is either too much work or just not working. Everyone hates this part. So where are you left in the mix?
Here’s the good news. There is a solution. The bad news? It is not going to be all that easy. Change is difficult. Breaking habits is hard. Working when your body says ‘no’ and your mind says ‘yes’ hurts. But it sure all pays off. The truth is, every one of us wants to lead a healthier life, we just make excuses and put off hard work or new beginnings until tomorrow. Tomorrow is already here.
Now, For Plan B
Your original plan is a great one. It probably includes a huge transformation, a large weight loss goal, a six-pack, toned arms, nice glutes…you know the rest. What a great goal to have. There’s only one problem. It’s only one goal. Whether you are watching weight fly off the scale week by week or not, your efforts every day are something to celebrate and incorporate many small goals that lead up to a large result.
Let’s take Plan A and make it a trophy. Put that up on the shelf, revisit it each day, admire it, and let it serve as a beacon of encouragement and motivation. Now let’s take the path of health and break it up into manageable steps that can be taken one day at a time.
Enter Plan B. We all make mistakes, some bigger than others. And especially over the holidays, it would be boring and in many cases rude to refuse to eat and enjoy yourself for one or two days. When you can learn to embrace the “bad” that comes along with the good and understand that you are still on the path to creating a healthy life, you will embrace fitness and health as a part of your life and no longer treat it as a chore. You will celebrate the small steps like finding a healthy food option you enjoy, lifting a few more pounds at the gym, or being able to run five more minutes than the day before. Not many other things in life come easily overnight, and your health certainly won’t either. We are going to tackle this from the inside out, accept our faults, and work to correct them. We will sculpt and polish our exterior until both the outside and inside shine as one healthy living vibrant individual.
Nutrition is Everything. Truly.
Exercise is only here to supplement the calories we consume every day. It’s simple math, Calories In vs. Calories Out. However, anyone who has tried to sit down and find caloric values, do the math, and calculate their expenditures and additions has most likely quit after the second day…if not the second meal. How do you avoid having to count calories?
Dine More Often For Less Fat
Skipping meals tells the body to store the nutrients and allows the metabolism to go “cold”. The result of a cold furnace? You guessed it, fat storage. By spreading out your daily caloric intake into several small portioned healthy meals you keep the metabolism running, slowly adding fuel to the fire and allowing it to burn all day, using those calories efficiently and not storing them as fat fuel.
Eat Breakfast Each Day. Really
There is no excuse with this one. Just as we learned before, when nutrients are not constantly coming in the furnace goes cold. Last time I checked I don’t eat while I sleep, though the thought of it sounds great, When you wake up, nothing has gone in, and the metabolism is slow and cold. Kickstart it. It takes three minutes to put a bowl of oatmeal in the microwave. It takes 30 seconds to put a healthy breakfast bar in your bag or purse the night before to have as a mid-morning snack or breakfast if you are cutting it so close to five minutes to eat the oatmeal is making you late. Plan out your tomorrow today and stock up with healthy snacks and options. Think now and you won’t have to do it later.
You’re Smarter Than You’re Craving. Right?
Don’t deprive yourself, but don’t indulge. Its very true that too much of a good thing is still bad. Embrace the things you love, don’t abuse them. Find healthy options to satisfy your cravings, whether it be a fruit and nut bar or a portioned trail mix that has your beloved chocolate, know that a healthy snack and taste of what gives you joy still will satisfy your craving and be accomplished healthily.
Drink More Water. And, Then Even More
If you have just planted the new seed of fitness and health in your body, you know the first thing it needs other than the nutrient-rich soil we have outlined above, is a good dowsing of water. Our bodies are comprised of water, we sweat it out when we burn calories and it’s our job to replace it. Being dehydrated can lead to burning out faster than anything else in a fitness setting. Not to mention, it can be very dangerous.
The adage of eight glasses a day is hard to follow. I know I would lose count. And what if my glass is bigger or smaller than the glass they used? All of our bodies are different, but there is a simple answer. Find a reusable bottle that holds enough water to equal half of your current body weight in ounces. Drink that amount of water each day to maintain your hydration and keep those systems flowing. After you have had that much, fill it up again and keep going.
So, with this information, take stock and then, take action…and we’ll see you creating your best fitness regimen ever.
