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If You Want Results, You Have to Sleep!

5/26/2016

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There is almost nothing worse than a bad night of sleep. Aside from how you feel and your inability to concentrate, a bad night of sleep can impact you in a number of ways:
  • Weight gain- Figured we'd start there. Lack of sleep messes up your hormones, increases your likelihood to overeat, and is directly linked to weight gain. 
  • Health problems- Aside from weight gain, poor sleeping habits can raise blood pressure and increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and a number of other things you really don't want.
  • Decreased sex drive- You certainly don't feel frisky when you're excessively tired, and in men, it can lower testosterone levels depending on how severe your sleeping issues are.

That is a very abbreviated list of negative effects from not sleeping well. The good news is, unless you're an insomniac or have sleep apnea (in which case you should be seeing a doctor), there are some relatively painless strategies for getting the recommended 7-9 hours each night:
  • Cut off the electronics an hour or two before bed. I know a lot of people are glued to phones, tablets, and the television right up until bedtime. If you have trouble sleeping, try to ease up on the use of these devices. The blue light emitted from them decreases your brains release of melatonin, which is a hormone that helps you sleep.
  • The darker the room the better for a good night's sleep. This all comes back to light messing up your melatonin release. Get some heavy, dark curtains for the windows, and turn your phone over or off to avoid the blinking LED light keeping you awake.
  • White noise can help some people sleep more soundly (pun intended). I personally can't tell you the last time I slept without a fan in the bedroom, even in the winter time. If a fan isn't your thing, there are a variety of different white noise machines out there that emit comforting sounds.
  • Avoid caffeine late in the day. Some people have to cut it off before noon. Some people can use it later in the afternoon and have no issues. If you are a caffeine junkie and don't sleep well, try to cut back after noon. This could make a big difference for you.
  • Exercising vigorously even just a few minutes a day can help you sleep better at night. Your body recovers from exercise during sleep, so the harder the workout, the better you sleep at night. Just ask my clients.
  • If all else fails, or you're just looking to optimize sleep on a daily basis, supplementing with melatonin (anywhere from 1 to 10mg) and/or magnesium (200-400mg) can help tremendously. Melatonin helps you get sleep, and magnesium can aid with helping you "wind down" after a long day. I personally use both every night before bed, and 99% of the time I sleep quite well.

There are also things like meditation and yoga that can aid with a good night's sleep, but the above tactics should be more than enough to help get you on the right track. If you think there is something more sinister behind your poor sleep habits, it may be beneficial to see your doctor where they could possibly order a sleep study to dig deeper into the problem.
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The Scale Only Tells Part of the Story

5/22/2016

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The scale isn't the be all end all of health measurements, but I know it's the most important indicator to a lot of people. I'm also fully aware that the expectation among many folks is that they can achieve overnight success with their fitness goals.  There's even a book out there I've seen called the Overnight Diet that promises you can expect to lose 11 pounds in a week's time.  There's NOTHING good about losing 11 pounds in a week unless you're a couple hundred pounds overweight.  It's time for everyone to take their foot off the gas and slow down.

First things first.  If you own a scale and obsessively weigh yourself, throw it away, put it somewhere where you won't see it every day, or throw it away.  Yes, I said throw it away twice.  To a lot of people, the number that comes up on the scale is a sign of success or failure, and stepping on it can become an excessive habit.  I've had clients and friends tell me "I lost 2 pounds last night," then turn around and message me the next day saying "I don't know how but I gained 3 pounds last night!"  First off, they are a candidate for donating the scale to Goodwill or putting it in the dumpster, and second, you'd have to eat and or burn off several thousand calories in a day to see legitimate negative results like that (this was discussed in my Day 2 post). 
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Hopefully you've got the scale thing under control.  What's next?  Next, it's time to face the reality that if you're overweight, even by just a few pounds, it didn't happen overnight.  If it didn't happen overnight, why should you expect it to come off overnight?  If you read my fad diet post, you will know that not only is losing weight at an accelerated rate a dicey proposition, it actually makes it much harder to continue losing weight and keep it off.  All these stupid diets promise you will lose a large amount of weight in just a few short weeks. There are starvation diets, juicing diets, overnight diets, etc etc...  As I've said before, all these books amount to are nothing more than a decorative item for your bookshelf, and if you're serious about results, you're going to have to face the reality that it could a significant amount of time to see the results you're looking for.  

Don't be deflated because you can't make this happen in two weeks.  Almost nothing worth having comes easy.  You have to set a plan and put it into motion. That said, having a laid out plan of attack is a great thing, but it needs to be realistic. Saying "I want to have a six-pack in 6 months" is not only a huge goal, but for most people, it's an unrealistic one.  When you set goals, make them reasonable.  If you have 100 pounds to lose, set 5-10 pound weight loss goals.  If you only have 20 pounds lose, 2 pounds is a significant achievement whether you choose to recognize it or not.

Even better than setting weight goals, I recommend setting measurement goals.  It's not always a good indicator of success measuring your weight, especially if you're involved in a proper resistance training program.  Aside from being in better health after losing weight (the ultimate achievement in my opinion), the scale may not have drastically changed but there's a significant difference in body measurements, how your clothes fit and even how you look in the mirror. This can be due to fat loss and muscle gain.  The difference in the makeup of fat and muscle is drastic.  This is an accurate depiction of just how drastic. 
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Fat loss at a reasonable rate will be the fat you lose for life. Fat you lose at a rapid pace will be much more likely to come back. Don't use the scale as your only fat loss measurement, and your mindset will be much better for it. The only reason I'm posting daily scale pictures is because it's an easy measurement to display. In normal life, I weigh myself once a week on the same day, naked, first thing in the morning. This is a good method for just about everyone.

Have a great rest of your weekend. I'm getting ready to go do 40 minutes of light cardio and taking today off from the weight room. I hope you get up and move too! Until tomorrow...
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You Must Weigh Your Food (Most of the Time)

5/21/2016

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A very big part of counting calories, macros or any other measurements of food is knowing how much you're actually eating. That's why a food scale is probably the most important kitchen gadget you can own. While it may seem like a major inconvenience, knowing the difference between 3 and 5 ounces of meat or how much a serving of peanut butter truly is can make several hundred calories of difference. You can purchase a decent digital food scale at nearly any department store (Target, Walmart, etc.) for around $20. I personally measure every non pre-packaged thing I eat, and if you want to be truly successful, this is something you'll need to start doing as well. 
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