Nutrition is at least 75 percent of success.  How close have you been to reaching your fitness goals and fell short?  Along with resistance training and cardio, how swiftly did you lose a pant size?  When you strayed from your diet, how swiftly did you gain the pant size back?  Finally, in overall health and body functions, did you feel better or worse while eating healthy?

To aid in your nutrition clean up process start by drinking more water!  Dietary recommendations posted by the Institute of Medicine suggest that men consume roughly 3 liters (equivalent to 13 cups) a day and women consume 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) per day.  Water also helps you stop snacking out of boredom or just because food is there.  Next time random hunger sets in, drink a glass of water.  15 to 20 minutes later if you are hungry it may actually be time to eat again.

When it comes to what you eat, eat perfect six days a week and allow the seventh day to do whatever you want (still abiding to reasonable portions ice cream, chips, alcohol, etc).  This allows room for sanity and lowers the chance for a poor nutrition relapse.  Here are some things you can do to prevent these relapses from happening:

-         Don’t make junk food easily available by keeping it in the house, in a book bag, car or a purse.  The less convenient junk food access is when food cravings kick in, the easier they are to control.  You are less likely to go out of your way to attain the item.

-         Make a conscious effort to familiarize yourself with food labels (serving sizes, nutrient grams, and calories).  Referring to the saying, “You are what you eat,” what happens to our midsection if we eat too much of a food high in fat?  Yes, we can pinch more of it.

-         Preplan by knowing what you are going to eat for every meal and snack.  Taking out the guess work will leave less room for aimless blissful eating; particularly if you always find yourself in a hurry with no time to eat!

-         Cut out all binge drinking!  This is a top reason why many of you have a hard time seeing results.  Alcohol is full of empty calories meaning, there is very little/no nutritional value to it.  In one nights outing drinking beer, mixed drinks, and shots, you can consume in excess of 2400 calories.  For an active male 2400 calories is equivalent to one day’s worth of eating.  Check out this article for alcohol intake guidelines, benefits, and risks. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alcohol/SC00024  The following is another good site that provides calorie counts for your favorite drinks.  Pay close attention to that 12oz frozen margarita 739 calories, ouch! http://recipecircus.com/recipes/awsum34/TIDBITS—You-Need-To-Know/Beer.html).

Going a bit more in depth for preparation of meals:

1.   Know roughly how many calories you should be consuming for the day based off of goals and activity levels.  Keep in mind that healthy males should never drop below 1400 calories per day and females shouldn’t drop below 1200 calories per day unless advised by a trained health professional.  (This article posted by the Mayo Clinic goes in more depth on why calories play a major role in dietary success http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/calories/WT00011 it also provides other tips for successful eating!)

2.         Based on goals, know your nutrient intake ratio (carbohydrate, protein, water and fat).  For example, individuals looking to gain muscle mass should consume 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound in a day.  (A 160 pound male should consume up to: 160 * 1.5 = 240 grams of protein)

3.         Adhereing to nutrient ratios and caloric intake, break foods into 5-6 small meals/snacks.  Be sure to get use to measuring portion sizes.  This aids in managing calorie count.

4.        Once again, eat perfect six days and allow the seventh day for aimless blissful eating (within reason of courseJ)!

I like to base meal planning off of the food guide pyramid, this site is posted by the USDA, (http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/fruits.html# ). The food guide pyramid offers recommendations for well balanced and nutritious eating habits that are essential to getting you results.  After browsing the website if you have more questions about nutrition guidelines don’t hesitate to drop us a line.

In closing, many have been falling short of our goals.  I want us to challenge ourselves starting tomorrow by following the tips for successful eating.  Also, incorporate some of the nutrition guidelines from the food guide pyramid.  This along with consistent resistance training and cardio will definitely get you the results you are looking for.  Stick with it for two weeks and see how far you can push your results, who’d know, maybe you’d want to keep it up because of the noticeable results.

Here is a quick/easy protein rich, energy snack or meal:

-         ½ cup low fat cottage cheese…90 calories

-         1 cup strawberries…50 calories

-         2 tablespoon sliced almonds…70 calories

-         Add Splenda for taste (if desired)…0 calories

Total calorie count 210.

Let’s get serious folks.  Break the cycle and make it happen!

Criston Smith

Unfortunately many individuals tend to think of personal training in this mind frame…

“It’s hard for me to get in the gym a lot, I’ve got stuff going on, so I need accountability and I really just need someone to tell me what exercises to do and tell me that my favorite afternoon snack is an ok snack to have.  That way I can get my workout in and resume normal life as quickly as possible.”

This isn’t verbatim what people say, but this is where their mind is.

It’s the people with this mind frame that tend to make progress in large stride again, again and again…the people you see in the gym who’s bodies change, and keep changing, but one thing about them never seems to change, the intensity at which they pursue their goal.  It always tends to be the most noticeable thing about them (unless maybe they’re really loud).

“Ok awesome, I have my own fitness coach now, so I’ve got someone to be accountable to.  I’m going to take full advantage of this person’s knowledge and experience (which I’m paying for whether I use it or not) and do everything in my power to reach my goals.  If I need motivation, I’ve got it, if I need to learn how to eat to attain my goals more quickly, I’ve already got it.  I may have to work for a living whether I like it or not, but I don’t have to be in the gym, ever!  Since I choose to be though, every second I’m in their  is for me, so I’m gonna act like it and make it count.”

By the way, yes this person is human, this person still wants to meet up for happy hour, or have a couple drinks at lunch, or skip a meal when they don’t feel like eating, or even making it and yes this person has terribly crappy, long days at work that make them vomit in their mouth at the thought of the smell of the gym they’re going to afterward, compounded by their superior(s) barking orders at them, all day. Or perhaps just asking them very gingerly to do something, but with a sparkle in their eye that says ‘I own you until 5 p.m.’ every time it twinkles.

A client of mine made a very good point and I wanted to share it.  They told me they were spending X amount of dollars a month (X being quite a bit more than what you would consider a ‘negligible amount’) on training, but weren’t living as if they were doing so.  I believe they mentioned their diet wasn’t really where it needed to be, and maybe had a few too many drinks throughout the week to expect much to be happening in the mirror, they asked themselves “If I’m making this type of investment, why am I not making it work for me by giving it all I’ve got and doing it completely?

So the next time you’re heading into the gym, think about what you really want for yourself out of the whole experience.  It’s there; you may as well take it,

You’re already paying for it

I digress.

People who take fitness very seriously (packing healthy lunches, hurrying from the office to get to the gym, always being seen in the gym, being seen in public with workout clothes on, having pantries full of healthy food, staying in from a night of drinking to maintain a nutrition plan or being the only one out not drinking, taking supplements etc.) are usually grouped into the ‘fitness freak’ club (trust me, I know).  I personally find it to be an alternative to self-destructive behavior; purely essential.  I understand many others may see it in a different light.

Ok so the above may have hit home for you or it may have gone right over your head because you haven’t given it the slightest thought and in that case, don’t.  You’re better off.

I want to challenge everyone to do something for you; it’s a big one, so brace yourself. Take what you read in the rest of the message to heart, after all, this is about you and in case you’re wondering what the term ‘extreme’ in this context is, is arbitrary.  It’s what you want it to be, if you want to be an extremist about health and fitness, you are, if you want to be the overall health conscious, level headed person, then you are.  Its another label that helps others dictate what individuals are to them to ease the turbulence their self esteem sails through each and every day.  That should have little impact on reality in general and even less on your personal reality, so do yourself a favor and don’t compare apples to oranges.

There are two ways to do anything.

The right way: completely and consistently.

The wrong way: too many characteristics to name.

You’re probably thinking, “ok well the ‘right way’ for me may be totally different for someone else”, with that I completely agree, so here is the deal…

You decide what you’re capable of doing in terms of:

 -Food preparation

-Setting time aside for working out

-What kind of expenses you’re willing to take on and maintain

-Cutting out things that you know are detrimental to what you’re trying to do for yourself.

-Decide before you start how intensely you want to pursue the goal you come up with.

From this, you can decide what a realistic goal is.

The majority of the time, people do this process backward.  They say “I have to lose 20 lbs.” or “Alright, I’m gonna put on 15 lbs. of muscle” and then just go for it and realize they left all the biggest obstacles in the way.  For those who have a “I genuinely do NOT care what it takes” mindset, doing it this way will likely only make that type of person want it more as time goes on, the obstacles that WILL come up are stepping stones for their ego because this is such a large part of what they want.  Although, for most people who are juggling busy lives and usually have fairly realistic goals, not taking care of the things listed above has a potential to leave people disillusioned by getting lost in the clean up process and trying to figure out what they really mentally got there selves into. 

There are two facts of life we are dealing with here:

#1 some things just have a way of going wrong, no matter what.

#2 many problems can be eliminated when proper scrutiny has been employed.

So taking both of those facts into account, sit down and come up with your goal by answering the questions above.  It may not (and probably won’t) be a quick 10 minute task, you may need to take a week and evaluate all of the different aspects of life this entails, do it!  You’re worth it, right?