(MCT) — The new year brought resolutions, crowded fitness clubs, and a short burst of enthusiasm for setting and achieving goals. In reality, much of this enthusiasm was short-lived, and after the initial excitement, many of us fell prey to old habits. So, here we are, two months into the new year, and I thought that some fitness and nutrition reinforcements were in order.
An avid believer in charts and visual reinforcements, I recently published "Chart Your Way to Health and Fitness" on Discovery Health's web site.
Parents live a very physical life — running after kids, running up and downstairs with laundry baskets, and trying to squeeze 26 hours of work into a 24-hour day. However, there's no substitute for dedicated time for exercise. When you keep track — in writing — of diet and fitness, you're absolutely more likely to stay on track. Here's the link for the full list of tips: tinyurl.com/c796mc. I also recommend a workout-food Diary (link tinyurl.com/c5nu3r), because keeping track of workouts is a visual reward, and keeping track of food throughout the day may lessen the likelihood of cheating on a diet.
There are lots of great books on health and fitness. One I saw recently, "Strength for Life," caught my eye partly because its promise sounded longer-term than the usual quick fix, which is what making and keeping resolutions is all about. The author, Shawn Phillips, a strength and fitness expert (and dad), offered my blog readers a free personal training session online at The MomTini Lounge (www.MomTiniLounge.com), and it seemed particularly timely to republish here.
Phillips, CEO of Phillips Performance Nutrition, is a Colorado-based strength and fitness expert who has helped athletes, celebrities, and tens of thousands of people for the past 20 years.
Here are his tips:
1. Realize that health is not enough!
Most of us define health as simply "not sick," but in today's demanding world this precarious balance is not enough. It is possible to gain the physical and mental strength that will help you have more, be more and give more.
2. Don't start today
Today's world can leave us feeling overwhelmed and exhausted; high levels of stress combined with bad nutrition and a lack of sleep lead to zero energy. Even if you start with the best of intentions, deciding to "get fit" or start a training regiment in this compromised state is a recipe for failure. If you're one of those people who tends to crash and burn three weeks into a fitness program, consider that it's not a lack of motivation — rather that your body can't handle the pressure of adding another obligation to your already overstretched, depleted energy reserve.
3. Focus
In our eagerness for rapid results and increasing desire to get fit fast, Americans have learned to train out of our minds, literally. We focus everywhere but on the activity itself, aiming for quantity when it's quality that makes all the difference. Because of this failure to engage and focus our minds, we receive a fraction of the benefits from their workouts we could enjoy.
4. Throw away the scales
Many women fear strength training as they are concerned that adding muscle will lead to adding mass or "bulking up." This is a myth, not only is muscle a fat-burning furnace, it is much denser than the fat-mass that most people are seeking to unload. A pound of lean muscle is about the size of a baseball (or less), but a pound of fat is about the size of a cantaloupe.
5. Aim for "nutritional freedom"
For most people eating habits are just that — habits, they rarely take the time to examine why they eat the way they do. When you eat with the aim to feel energized and nourished as opposed to simply "filling-up" you make better choices. Nutritional freedom is the process of strengthening your awareness. Being aware involves taking the time to learn how food leaves you. It's not about deprivation or dieting — it's about understanding that what you eat impacts your energy levels, mood and strength.
Amy Kossoff Smith, founder of The Business of Motherhood, is a nationally recognized Mompreneur who owns a Web site, www.BusinessofMotherhood.com, and blog, www.MomTiniLounge.com. Available 24/7, just like moms, the Web sites offer parenting tips, resources, and a host of ways to manage the job of motherhood