Things you learn in the grocery store: 3 common mistakes made in the gym

I have a knack for choosing the longest, slowest line at the grocery store (please tell me I’m not alone in this feat).  This rainy, dreary afternoon was no different, but I did overhear a couple discussing their frustration with weight loss and how exercise just "doesn't work."  I tried not to eavesdrop, but honestly I was hanging onto every word they said.  I wasn't getting any closer to checking out, so we stood in line, they discussed, and I listened. 

There are several different directions to go with this topic, but I chose to tackle (in my own head of course) the top three mistakes people make in the gym with exercise.  First, the body responds to change, and it is all too common (and easy) to start an exercise program and the next thing you know time has elapsed and you are doing the exact same thing over and over again.  Not only is this monotonous and mundane, but you won’t be optimizing the many benefits of physical activity.  There is a term in exercise world referred to as the 'overload principal' that simply states you have to be constantly thinking ahead and looking for the next step.  Take for example, walking for 30 minutes on a treadmill.  You will get a lot more out of this activity if you give yourself permission to push buttons.  Try mixing up the speed/grade/intensity.  Try a different exercise all together.  You may find you can decrease your time while increasing intensity, and who wouldn’t want more time on their hands. 

Second, one of my favorite adapted sayings in the gym has become “you have to straighten before you can strengthen.”  I find this especially true of people beginning an exercise program.  Keep in mind we learn to crawl before we walk and walk before we run; the same holds true with focusing on proper form and technique.  This statement encompasses a broad spectrum, but if you are not completing full range of motion on a bicep curl or maintaining proper posture on the elliptical machine you may be in fact setting yourself up for injury.  Maybe even more common, I run into a lot of people with back and neck pain.  There could be a lot of reasons for this, but if you are not addressing the potential postural problems with flexibility, and proper weight training, you could end up aggravating a problem.

Third, when I finally made it out of the grocery store, I hear my new friends say, “I want to get rid of these love handles and I do over 100 sit-ups every day.”  Wow, where do I start?  They have the strongest abs of anyone I know but it’s all behind a layer of fat.  We all know what love handles are, and we all want to get rid of them.  The question is how do we do it?  The ‘love handle’ is basically a build up of fat around the waist, and all the crunches, twists, and sit-ups in the world won’t get rid of them.  The answer to getting rid of fat throughout the body requires a combination of cardio, resistance training and a solid diet plan that leads to a calorie deficit. 

While exercise is something that feels natural (at least to some), there is a right way and a wrong way to approach it. Set yourself up for success by staying informed. Let’s get moving together!

Smoke and Mirrors

Ok, the third week of our program is here. Now it's time to talk about food.

You've completed a food journal on a daily basis for the past 2 weeks and are starting to recognize some patterns by now. You understand that for every ACTION you take, your body responds with a REACTION that should be fairly predictable, now that you have some data. If you skip breakfast, you're starving by 1 pm. If you wait too long to eat, you make poorer choices. If you're really tired, you graze to keep yourself awake.

So what should you be eating? I'm going to suggest that for now, we ignore the number of calories that you should eat. Again, I'm not crazy, just evil. Here's the rationale for ignoring calories for now. I want you to focus on how to fix the structure of your eating, and this is NOT dependent on calories. As you may have noticed, the days that you consumed fewer calories and didn't starve yourself, you were more regular in the timing and spacing of your meals. Your portions were probably more consistent, and you likely avoided extremes of hunger and fullness.

We've become so calorie focused in our efforts to lose weight that we lose focus on what's important. We begin to implement smoke and mirror tricks to say we can eat whatever we want as long as we don't go over the calorie limit for the day. We trick ourselves into saying that we're "saving up" calories like we're about to make a down payment on a new car. As a numbers game, it may work for a while. Then the weight loss stops and no amount of manipulating those calories from the candy and ice cream will work to get it going again.

Rather than give you a calorie target to manipulate, I want you to use a simple method to get started with your plan of what to eat. Start by adding fruits and vegetables to your day based on the table below. 

Current number of fruits and vegetables per day	Number to add per day
< 2	2
2-4	3
5+	4

Add the fruits and vegetables in place of the highest calorie items you consume (for most of us, it's fried potatoes, juices and other sugar beverages, and desserts). Ideally you should have 5 eating episodes per day. If you have spaces in your day where you were not eating, add the fruits and vegetables there as well.

If you start here, this will naturally lower your caloric intake and keep you more satisfied throughout the day. You are simply swapping higher energy dense foods for lower energy dense foods, reducing calories without trying to cut the amount of food you are eating. Simple how it works...almost like magic!


Keep journaling to see the results...