Hey guys, it’s Kris from Custom Fitness, your personal trainer in Amarillo, Texas back for another installment of “Living Lean”. If you missed our first part and want to catch up, feel free to look back at the blog history or give our trainers a call at 806-322-3188 and we’ll fill you in. In our first post on this series, Living Lean Part 1, discussed the nutritional side of how to begin living lean. Things like:
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Drinking half of your body weight in ounces of water daily
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Eating 4-5 small meals daily
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Focusing on balance of nutrients on each plate
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Eating more whole and unprocessed foods
Nutrition truly is 70(ish)% of the puzzle.
Without it, you will never see the results you are looking for. If you’ve ever met that person at the gym that goes and does cardio for an hour or two daily for months and doesn’t seem to change, you know what I’m talking about.
However, with nutrition being that much of a difference maker, are there perhaps other things we should be doing in conjunction with nutrition to truly get and maintain results for a lifetime? YES!!
So, what else can we do to begin Living Lean?
We can change our lifestyle habits, making good choices of how to use the energy that we consume. Whether you lead an active or sedentary lifestyle will determine the amount of calories that you should be consuming and your starting point of change.
Exercise counts for 20+% of your results.
So, with many people nowadays having desk jobs and with social media, email and texting being prevalent, how do we begin to add in the activity we need to increase our metabolism, energy, cognitive function and more?
Well, we could all go to the gym to slave over the machines each day, run on the elliptical or treadmill for hours on end, OR, we could simply start by adding in moderate environmental activity throughout the day. (That’s not to say that working out is bad….we’ll get to that in a moment). Environmental activity is the activity you do naturally throughout the day within your environment, or at least you used to. Standing to talk to someone, walking to give messages instead of emailing or texting, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, etc.
There are so many ways to add an extra little calorie burn to your day if you just get out of your normal “routine”. Could you add in a quick walk at lunch? What about taking the stairs 2 at a time instead of singles? Could you stand to take that phone call or walk to the filing cabinet or printer instead of rolling in a chair? I have no doubt that once you start to consider the opportunities you have around you each day that you can start to make some better choices about movement. Movement is good! And with that being said and me being a fitness professional, you know that we now have to discuss the good side of exercise, right?
Exercise is good.
Exercise doesn’t have to hurt or make you feel sick. Exercise doesn’t have to be scary, boring, long, confusing, etc. It is what you make of it. With the programs we give to our clients, they can easily improve their health, body image, waist line, and so much more in just 3-5 sessions per week. Of course, we also don’t believe in people taking several hours each day to workout. We know the community here are busy juggling family, jobs, and social responsibilities. We get it! That’s why my crew of Amarillo personal trainers make each of our workouts 45 minutes or less with minimal to no equipment. (If people have to GO to a gym, they eventually will get tired or bored and not do it.)
I’m not telling you this as an advertisement, but rather as a beginning to thinking outside the box.
If we can get results for people by giving 45 minute workouts with little to no equipment, what excuses can you get rid of? “I don’t have enough time”, “I don’t have the right machines”, “I can’t afford the membership”?
The point is that in order to LIVE LEAN, you have to be open minded.
You have to understand that simple is good and that if it’s complicated and difficult, you WON’T STICK TO IT. So why not try adding some simple exercises into your day like squats (if you sit and stand from a chair, you’re doing a squat!), jumping jacks, running in place, push ups, the possibilities are endless. If impact is a scary subject for you (ie. running, jumping, etc.) then take it out. You DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE IMPACT IN ORDER TO GET RESULTS.
Okay, so nutrition = 70%, exercise = 20%, what’s the other 10%?
Recovery.
We live in a 24/7 society. We are expected to give our 110% every single day. Our mental understanding of this has been proven time and time again. CNBC.com reports that “U.S. workers are using only 77 percent of their paid time off”. We don’t hardly ever rest!
Recovery and / or rest doesn’t have to mean that you are lying in bed all day. It just means you are taking a mental and physical break from light to intense stressors and giving your body a chance to recoup.
One of the best ways to do this is to work on improving the quality of your sleep. Sleep quality is a large enough subject that we will have to post an entire blog just on it but today, we’ll touch on a few key factors that can help improve the sleep you are getting.
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Get to bed by 10:00pm
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Get at least 7 hours of sleep EVERY NIGHT\
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Turn off all electronics 30 min – 1 hour before bed
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Limit all caffeinated beverages to being consumed prior to 1:00pm
If you are up for the challenge, try implementing these 4 strategies for 7 days and see what changes occur. Not only would I imagine that your sleep will improve, but also your daily focus, energy and ability.
My point today was not to turn your life upside down and have you start as a new person tomorrow, but simply to open your mind to the simplicity of opportunities that exist around us each and every day. Opportunities that when taken can lead to small changes that create amazing results. I hope that you choose to see outside your comfort zone, past your current mode of survival and into a world of thriving as you begin to Live Lean.
If you’d like some guidance or have a for you program customized for you to help get you started, that’s where my team and I come in; give us a call at 806-322-3188 or info@customfitness.biz. We are YOUR personal trainers in Amarillo. We would be happy to discuss your goals with you.