2010 goals
New Years has come and gone, congratulations on making it through another year of life. Well, we’ve seen our New Years rush here at the gym, hopefully some of these “resolution-ers” will stick around for more than 2 weeks this year and realize some of their goals. Even though I exercise year round I always try to improve on something as well when New Years rolls around. This year is no different. I wanted to go over some things that I’ll be focusing on and maybe it’ll provide some info for you to apply to your workouts and eating habits
Lately I’ve been avoiding spending time focusing on my weak links. Most people do the same, probably because it’s boring, it’s not impressing anyone, and/or we don’t want to spend time on things they are not good at which is usually why they become our weak(er) areas. One of the simplest ways to improve your overall health and strength is too strengthen your weaknesses. You’ve heard it before ” a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link”. Usually the exercises you despise the most are the one’s you need to work on. Just make sure you have someone check out your technique before you dive in head first.
My first resolution is to spend about 15 minutes addressing what I think are my weak areas. I’ll be working on things like improving grip strength, shoulder girdle function, hamstring/calf dynamic flexibility, overhead squat flexibility, more anterior core work, and work capacity.
My second resolution is to work out 4-5x’s per week and to work on a specific program for 4 weeks at a time. Currently I’ve been getting 2 or 3 workouts in during the week, not enough for me. For one reason or another my workouts have been kind of haphazard with no real direction as far as performance goals go for the past year. It’s much easier going to the gym and getting a productive workout in when you have an actual written plan. You can spend your time focusing on performing the exercises with intensity instead of wasting time walking around figuring out what to do next.
Third, as always, is eating healthier. Now I’m not going to be unrealistic and say “I’m giving up…!” It never works. I know I will not give up beer, or entirely give up coffee, or give up my Friday night pizza. Instead adopt an eating plan that allows for a cheat meal here and there. That doesn’t mean you get to eat a cheat meal everyday, that will not work. You need to go at least 2 or 3 days at a time, eating very clean, every meal, no shit. Once you accomplish that, then give yourself “a little freedom” on that 4th day. I said “A LITTLE” freedom. Try eating a normal amount of carbs throughout the day, a normal portion size every meal. It doesn’t mean getting shit faced and ingesting an entire pizza. I believe if you are overweight/overfat and trying to lose a substantial amount you need to ELIMINATE the bad stuff from you diet ENTIRELY for a while!! Stop telling yourself “oh, I’ll just have this one piece”. If you keep giving your body these “treats” it’s going to continue along on it’s usual mode of operation. I believe it needs just a little of what it’s used to getting in order to keep it’s current way of functioning. You need a hard core approach where it gets nothing that is bad for it for at least a month. It needs a “shock”, it needs a drastic dietary change to change the way its functioning. I’m sure you all heard it before but how many of you have actually accomplished this for 1 month straight. You can’t knock it until you try it. This is one of those “I can’t prove it, but it’s what I believe nonetheless”. Some suggest 1 cheat meal allowed for every 15-20 consecutive healthy meals, that’s sounds too difficult to me. I’m sure you would get amazing results doing that but I don’t think the average person would be able to accomplish it. As I mentioned above, try going totally clean (very low carb, 50-75grams to start) for 2 or 3 days and then have a cheat day where you eat normal portions of carbs and fats. Now the most important thing is that you make sure your “healthy meals” are healthy. Many people don’t know what healthy is anymore. “Low fat”, “sugar free” are generally not healthier choices. Other things commonly mistaken for healthy are “whole wheat” bread, pasta, etc. Wheat has a high GI index score, almost as high as table sugar, plus most of the population is intolerant or allergic to wheat, or wheat gluten. The first thing most of us need to do is eliminate the carbs, increase high quality protein, introduce a whey protein shake, take some omega 3 supplements, a probiotic, a fiber supplement, eat more vegetables, and select fruits that have a lower score on the gi index, or have a low “gi load”. You can’t be healthy on the outside if you’re not healthy on the inside. It’s that simple.
If you are strict w/yourself, you’re honestly eating well, exercising hard, harder than ever before, and getting nowhere, then you may have some underlying medical conditions that may warrant a checkup or possibly some blood work. For example, if your liver isn’t functioning well, you’ll find it more difficult to lose fat since the liver is the main “fat burning organ”. If it’s not working right or working too hard dealing with alcohol, medicines, processed foods, etc. it will impact how you metabolize food among other things.
Many people like saying “everything in moderation”. Well, if real weight loss is your goal, eating “moderately” well will get you moderate, or even less than moderate results. I believe in moderation for some things, but not for fat loss. You’ve probably experienced this already. Hard core dietary changes with some supplementation, and exercising with intensity and determination is what will produce results. Sorry, I don’t make up the rules, it’s just what I’ve seen over the years. Good Luck.