Hi guys, Kris from Custom Fitness here, your personal trainer in Amarillo. Distinguishing good fitness info from the bad when using the internet can seem overwhelming. Everybody has an opinion on the matter, whether it is vetted or not, and no one can come to a consensus. If you Google healthy diet, fat loss nutrition plan, or a nutrition plan for muscle building, you’re going to find somebody that looks the part and seems to have achieved the results that you want. They have a great plan that works for everybody, but first you have to pay X amount of dollars. Superficially their spiel sounds great. Unfortunately, what they are advocating is far too generic or far too detailed to actually work for anyone other than themselves. So you have to figure out whether this advice can be beneficial for your situation. Today we will dive into how to decide between what is beneficial and what is malarky. If you have any questions about this blog or would like us to take a closer look at some of your reference material, give us a call: 806-322-3188.
My personal approach is to teach the foundations. Teach things that are science-based and well researched. We are not going off the deep end, solely using one approach. People work well when incorporating various stimuli into their routines, not just one method. You want to look and see if the information you are getting is too generic. If you ask someone for nutrition advice and they tell you, “just eat healthy”. That is way too vague; deciding which food to eat is tough. Picking between frozen vegetables versus canned vegetables, organic versus non-organic, how much produce to eat, etc. Picking and choosing what is “healthy” can become a burden.
On the opposite end of the spectrum you have people who are far too detailed. They outline every hour for you and what exactly, down to the teaspoon, you should be consuming during it. Obviously, there are medical exceptions that do required an hour-by-hour meal plan. Barring that, imagine you walk into a stranger’s office and they hand you a meal plan that says you’re going to eat X,Y, and Z for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next 12 weeks. Chances are you’re not going to want to eat or even like about half of those required foods. Immediately that plan has become worthless. Also useless is if someone recommends things that don’t really fit into your lifestyle. Foods you don’t know where to buy, things you don’t know how to cook, things you don’t know how pronounce (say it with me, Quinoa: KEEN-WA). We don’t want to push ourselves too far beyond our comfort zone here, but we do need to evolve our kitchen prowess and taste a little bit. We can’t keep doing the same thing that we’re doing this whole time and expect to change.
So how do you know if the advice you are getting is sage or unuseable?
Step One: Fit Versus Force
We need to be able to progress without causing fear paralysis over new foods or foods we’ve avoided in the past. How can you find the balance between comfort foods, new foods, in a not detailed, but too vague way? You want to make sure that whether it is nutrition and/or exercise, that you can fit it into your life rather than force it into you life. With our Custom Fitness clients, we introduce new ideas, exercises, and foods in short or slow increments. Getting their toes wet with a new approach that slowly builds to a full on habit, allows our clients to increase their tolerance for something they’ve never tried while finding time in their schedule for it. That is one of our keys to successful clients. I’ve been a personal trainer in Amarillo for a while and I’ve noticed other gyms trying to force feed their clients a prescribed for everyone kind of plan. If you try something new and you are force it into your life expecting it to be perfect right off the bat, you just added a huge strain into your life. It’s like getting married overnight to somebody that you don’t know. You’re stuck trying to figure out what on Earth to do with that person and how to make it work out. You never want to force something new into your life. Instead try to find a way to fit the new habit into what you are already doing piece by piece..
Step Two: Has to Work for Everybody
If you have a family at home, that means your new plan needs to fit for the whole family. If you’re living the single life, it’s a bit easier because the plan only applies to you. If you have people you are responsible for feeding everyday, that you’re busing around from place to place, that you’re exercising beside or in between their activities, you need to be able to fit your plan within that family routine. If you are forcing this plan onto yourself and your family, you will feel guilty when you can’t get to it during your busy day and will most likely lose your motivation to continue. into Regardless if you are taking on a new nutrition plan or workout it has to work for everybody. You don’t want one parent cooking their meal while the family eats something entirely different. That’s not realistic, nor will it last very long. Imagine 2 sets of dishes for every meal. Adding in an extra grocery budget. Cooking twice as long. You’ll get burned out on this you versus them approach very quickly. Maybe the whole family’s not exercising yet, but you want to make sure that when you are exercising that it fits within the family schedule. Getting up at 4:00 AM to go for a quick run when you have to get back and put kids on the bus by 5:00 AM is going to be tough to handle. Try finding a time when the family is occupied for 30 minutes or more where you can get in a workout without feeling like you are behind.
Step three: Includes All the Essentials.
If it is exercise it should include strength, flexibility, balance, cardiovascular, etc. Every part of the body and every physiological part needs to be included in that workout. If it’s nutrition, your diet must contain all of the essential food groups, nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. For example, a lot of people are supposedly vegetarian. However, they don’t actually eat a ton of vegetables. They reduce their meat intake, but don’t increase their vitamin or mineral intake. This leads to a nutrient deficiency of protein all the way up to their vitamins. They don’t think to replace their meat intake with plant based, vegetable protein. The main protein we eat. You want to make sure your new plan includes all of the essentials. Are all of your muscles involved? Are you working your brain as well as your body? Are you moving through all the planes of motion?. Whatever type of eating you are doing: vegan, gluten free, dairy free, grain free, are you getting all of your nutrients that you need? That’s where collaborating with a professional comes in handy rather than researching online.
You can search for anything and you’ll find contradictory answers. Sometimes it is really frustrating to decipher between fact and fiction on the internet. Fret not. Trust a professional that you know, not a faceless fitness hobbyist, to help you weed through the baseless online advice to find what research actually shows instead of what is this person’s latest craze. At Custom Fitness we not only create a customized plan for you that fits easily into your and your family’s that includes all the essentials, we also simplify the process so it doesn’t feel so overwhelming. So when you’re a new client and you step into our studio, you will leave feeling like you understand the difference between internet sensationalism and customized driven routines. If you’d like to experience that first hand, reach out to our team: 806-322-3188 or info@customfitness.biz. We provide a free consultation where you can come learn a bit more about us and see if we are a good fit for one another. At Custom Fitness, we are YOUR personal trainers in Amarillo, Texas. Have a great day.