Five Resolution Mistakes Not To Make

1.    Avoid dramatic dietary changes.  Before you make any changes to your diet ask yourself if you can realistically maintain the change for a period of years rather than just a few months.  If you lose weight fast you are usually going to gain it back fast, and that is when the dreaded yo-yo epidemic starts.  To be successful in the long term, it is essential to make changes that you can live with.  For instance, reduce your food portions, or limit your fat intake.  You can also get good results by eliminating “nibbling” between meals and preparing healthy snacks.

2.    Do not place too much emphasis on the scale.  A body-fat measurement will tell you how much of your bodyweight is fat compared to muscle.  This is important because muscle weighs more than fat; so trusting the reading on your scale could be misleading.

3.    Do not do two hours of cardio per day!  Cardiovascular exercise is great because it helps to burn off extra calories and also helps to strengthen the heart; however, excessive amounts can cause you to burn out.  A balanced cardiovascular program can be achieved by performing 20-45 minutes of cardio 3-5 times each week.

4.    Do not rely on meal replacement supplements.  There are many great supplements out there; however, they are best used to replace the occasional meal if you get too busy, or to help supplement an already balanced diet.  Planning your meals ahead of time can help to reduce your reliance on supplements.  It is also important to focus on eating less refined foods because many vitamins and minerals are stripped during processing.

5.    Do not leave out the strengthening component.  To achieve the best results it is important to perform a balanced strengthening routing three times each week.  After the age of thirty we lose approximately a half a pound of muscle per year.  Muscle is the body’s most efficient calorie burner.  The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn while at rest!

Shaun Karp is a certified personal trainer.  For further information call 604-420-7800 or go to www.karpfitness.com.

Get Your Workouts Back On Track

It is difficult to maintain a workout regimen without interruption.  Life sometimes interferes; you might get sick or have to take a long business trip, or perhaps you just have a lot of parties to attend and give up on your health kick for a while. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get right back into it. There are a few different things you need to do to successfully get your fitness routine back on track.

1.) Get the first workout out of the way.

Getting back into your fitness routine for the first time after an absence is always the most difficult step. You simply have to force yourself back into the gym, into a yoga or aerobics class, or possibly on a hike or other activity. Rather than thinking about the big picture, you need to focus on the first workout as something independent of your entire fitness program. Just put on your runners and get out there. Then worry about the rest after that.

2.) Take care of any nagging injuries.

An injury often keeps us out of the gym. It is important that you see your physician and determine the severity of the injury, then proceed with your fitness regimen accordingly. You can continue to work on the areas of your body that are not affected by injury while you’re healing.

3.) Set a realistic workout schedule.

It is fantastic to be ambitious and hope to attend the gym every day, five times weekly or even three or four times a week, but if it has been a long time since you maintained a regular workout schedule, it may be best to start small and work up to something ideal. Commit to twice-weekly workouts initially, and make one of them something fun that you’ll look forward to. It will become progressively easier to attend the gym more often.

4.) Develop a gym and home workout.

There will certainly be days when you find it almost impossible to get to the gym, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still work out. There are many functional exercises that can be performed at home, or even at the playground down the street. Get creative, and make time for exercise no matter what the environment. You can purchase dumbbells and a mat and perform many of the exercises you’ve learned in the gym in the comfort of your home.

5.) Take the approach, “Every little bit counts.”

Don’t be discouraged if you only manage to fit 20 minutes of exercise into your day; that amount of activity is better than none at all. Be proud of yourself for making time for exercise at all, rather than beating yourself up about it not being enough. If your busy schedule does not permit a one-hour-daily gym routine, simply walk to and from work, or take the stairs instead of the elevator. Your body will thank you, and you are on the way to a healthier lifestyle.
Remember to focus on why it is important to include exercise in your lifestyle and not on how much or to what intensity you are executing it, and take it one step at a time. Sometimes it is the smallest steps that take us the furthest in the long run.

Shaun Karp is a certified personal trainer.  For further information call his office at 604-420-7800 or visit their web site www.karpfitness.com.

Keeping on track in the New Year

If every New Year’s resolution were easy to follow, it probably wouldn’t have become a resolution to begin with. Keep that in mind if you are struggling with your own, and try these five steps:

1. Understand the importance of situations in dictating behavior. People who pride themselves on their superior willpower and seem to epitomize self-control probably have no more willpower than you do. Their trick—almost always—is avoiding situations that cause temptation. These temptations might be to eat, to smoke, to be sedentary or to procrastinate. When directly confronted with temptation, the best of us give in. Most psychologists agree this is because of brain pathways that are hard-wired to make us react in a predictable fashion to certain situations. To succeed in controlling your behaviour, you should first try to control your environment. Avoid situations that confront you with temptation.

2. Make your goals health-oriented, rather than appearance-oriented. Weight loss is an exceedinglycommon New Year’s resolution. You’ll have more success losing weight and keeping it off if you focus on losing weight to become healthier, and not more physically attractive. A focus on health leads to positive lifestyle changes that can make weight loss permanent—not temporary. Quick and easy weight loss following crash diets almost never lasts.

3. Make incremental goals. It can be daunting to think about a lofty goal like losing 25 pounds of fat orgaining 15 pounds of muscle before summertime. It’s less intimidating to think about losing four pounds in a month, though. Write down a series of short-term goals and monitor your success over the course of several months or a year. Hiring a personal trainer who can measure your body-fat and let you know how you’re doing week-by-week also helps you stay on track.

4. Don’t be discouraged by failure. Many health and fitness goals are not achievable unless accompanied by permanent lifestyle changes, like eating a healthy diet. Much like trying to quit smoking, trying to make lifestyle changes can take multiple attempts. If you slip up and eat poorly for a length of time, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed. Forget about it, move on and get back on track. If you tell yourself you’ve failed, you’ve essentially made an excuse to stop working towards your goals.

5. Small changes can make big differences. While it is hard to make long-lasting lifestyle changes, don’t forget many small changes you can make that have huge impacts on your fitness and well-being. For instance, keep pre-cut vegetables around for whenever you have a craving to snack. Instead of juice or soda, drink water with a slice of lemon in it. Walk as often as you can—get off the bus a stop early or park a few blocks from where you need to go. Combined, these small changes, which are easy to make, can be transformational.

Shaun Karp is a certified personal trainer. For further information call his office at 604-420-7800 or visit their web site www.karpfitness.com.