Why it isn’t necessary to half kill yourself to lose weight, feel better, and have more energy — tips from your trusted Wichita fitness trainer.

Wichita fitness trainer says don't quit

I get it, I really do. The fad diets that you see on late night infomercials can be pretty convincing. After all, who doesn’t want that rock hard body, to lose FIFTY THREE POUNDS in 90 days, and experience the “best results of your life?”

It’s tempting stuff.

Real results from your Wichita fitness trainer

Weight loss results by a Wichita fitness trainer

Wichita fitness trainer from Premier Fitness

As a seasoned Wichita fitness trainer, let me ask you this — What’s wrong with a SUPER HARD CORE workout, getting drenched in sweat, being so sore it’s hard to walk the next day, plus not to mention exercising the incredible discipline that it takes to push yourself that hard?

Nothing. If you are an athlete or at least in good physical condition, in your early 20’s, and still made out of rubber. 🙂

What happens when you work out that hard?

–          It’s MUCH harder to maintain a commitment, especially when it means being incredibly sore the next 3 days.

–          Even if you’re already training, these types of workouts can have negative effects on your body if not properly dosed. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22561973

–          “The study of army recruits suggests that greater amounts of exercise not only result in greater risks of injury, but in some instances may also impart no additional increase in fitness, a finding consistent with an earlier study of civilian runners.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7809556

–          Feeling ill or rundown, losing muscle mass, gaining fat, and constant exhaustion can all be signs of excessive exercise of any type.

–          Common sense dictates that if we go into a high intensity exercise program with muscular imbalances that are not addressed, things will get worse.

Aging puts your body in a state of constant degradation. This would include any collagen based cushioning discs such as the meniscus and vertebral cushioning. So, if they arewearing out, would it then make sense to increase intensity and frequency of the forces wearing them out? No! Am J Sports Med. 1997 Nov-Dec;25(6):873-81. Athletics and osteoarthritis. Buckwalter JA1Lane NE.

Nobody is suggesting you don’t workout. Far from it, in fact. It’s just important to understand the perils and the benefits to a more balanced approach.

If you bought a new car and you couldn’t get new tires for it after the first 25,000 miles how often would you peel out in the parking lot?

Warning! Some of these hurt to watch

Take heart. There is a better way

You can lose weight, feel better, and have more energy that DOESN’T require risking serious injury or half killing yourself working out. You will be amazed at how much better you can feel and how much weight you can lose by making 5 simple changes in your life.

wichita fitness trainer workout

#1 – CLEAN UP YOUR THINKING! –

Forgive me for going all Tony Robbins on you, but this is a MUST if you really want to succeed.

If you really want to lose weight, feel better, and have more energy you MUST stop being your own worst enemy!

1)     Pay attention to how you talk to yourself. No more negative, self-defeating talk.

“Most people don’t even realize what they’re saying to themselves, and most people think that the only factors that affect their weight are what they’re eating and how they’re working out,”
Read more at:http://womensrunning.competitor.com/2015/04/health-wellness/the-number-one-bad-habit-you-need-to-stop-if-you-want-to-lose-weight_38988#pY5lqkhXeX3hLyAj.99

As automotive pioneer Henry Ford said, “If you think you can do a thing, or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” Negative self-talk is associated with poorer performance. It simply undermines your ability to succeed. – sentinel.com

As Henry Ford said, “If you think you can do a thing, or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” Negative self-talk is associated with poorer performance. It absolutely undermines your ability to succeed. – sentinel.com

How negative self-talk makes you fat – Huffingtonpost.com

2)   Use affirmations. I don’t care if they seem corny, they actually work!

http://awesomeaj.com/2014/10/28/best-weight-loss-affirmations-perfect-body/

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-8370/15-affirmations-that-will-help-you-lose-weight.html

Write them on the bathroom mirror. Print them out and read them 10 times a day. Put them in your phone. If you are going to succeed you absolutely must clean up your thinking.

Examples of things that are helpful to start telling yourself – every day!

–          I look great; I am active; I am enough; and I count.

–          I am proud of my body; it did what I told it to do.

–          My body’s natural state is to be lean.

–          My body responds to my thoughts

–          I am physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually balanced and healthy.

–          I accept myself for who I am.

–          I allow myself to make choices and decisions for my higher good.

–          I let go of any guilt I have around my food choices.

–          I have hope and certainty about my future.

–          I am choosing progress over perfection.

–          Today, I focus on the good things that are unfolding in my life.

–          I am at peace on my body, heart, and soul.

–          Food is a resource I manage wisely.

–          I am patient with my body as it learns new habits.

–          I love myself, I love my body, and the fat just disappears.

–          I love and approve of myself

–          I am the creator of my future and the driver of my mind.

–          I believe in my ability and truly love myself for who I am.

–          I do a healthy amount of regular exercise regularly.

–          I am grateful for my body and all it does for me.

–          I can do this. I am doing this. Healing is happening right now.

–          Every day, I feel healthier and stronger.

–          I let go of unhealthy patterns and behavior relating to food.

3)   Start asking yourself better questions (seriously, starting today).

It’s hard to explain just how powerful this is until you experience it yourself.

As a long time student of Tony Robbins, I learned long ago about the power of your subconscious mind. In a nutshell, your conscious mind ‘controls’a tiny fraction of your brain’s true capabilities. It can only track 4-5 tasks at once and processes less than 100 bits of information each second.

Wichita fitness trainer explanation

Your subconscious mind, on the other hand, is unbelievably more powerful.

–          It literally works 24 hours a day

–          It processes 100’s to 1000’s of tasks at once

–          Thinks, plans, analyzes

–          Source of strength and faith

 

 

 

Willpower wichita fitness trainer

To get back on task, how can you put your subconscious to work so it helps you lose weight, feel better and have more energy?

Simple. Ask better questions.

Your subconscious mind works 24 hours a day – every second of every day to give you what you ask for, strive for, and pray for.

What kind of answers is it giving you when you ask questions like:

“I have tried over and over and I can’t ever seem to lose weight, what is WRONG with me?”

“I hate my body, why can’t I have more willpower and lose weight!?”

“I have tried everything and nothing seems to work when it comes to losing weight”

Answers to those questions would be pretty ugly. That’s what your subconscious is serving up.

As an expert Wichita fitness trainer, let me tell you this “You can change that (and your whole life potentially) by simply asking yourself better questions.”

It sounds simple – and it is. It’s also very powerful.

I challenge you, start asking yourself questions like this every day.

–          What steps can I take today to help me find easy and enjoyableways to be more active?

–          What activity could I start doing that would help me lose weight that I would actually enjoy doing?

–          What small changes could I make in my day that would help me make better choices when it comes to eating and being more active?

–          What can I do besides watching TV that would help me feel better?

–          What are three reasons I deserve to have tons of energy and feel better?

–          What are things I would do if I felt great and had tons of energy?

You get the idea J

Don’t worry about the answers! Your subconscious is going to chew on them day and night and before you know it, you WILL start seeing change in your life.

Here is an excellent book on the subject if you want to read more – http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Your-Subconscious-Mind/dp/1614270198
Wichita fitness trainer book

 

“I have seen miracles happen to men and women in all walks of life all over the world.” — Dr. Joseph Murphy. At last, a great new scientific discovery brings the incredible force of your subconscious mind under your control. Here are the simple, scientifically proven techniques and the astonishing facts about how your subconscious powers can perform miracles of healing. How lung cancer has been cured and optic nerves made whole again. How you can use the newly discovered Law of Attraction to increase your money-getting powers. How your subconscious mind can win you friends, peace of mind, and even help you to attract the ideal mate. How your dreams can help you solve problems and make difficult decisions — or warn you of potential disaster. Prosperity, happiness and perfect health are yours when you use The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind.

4)   Set tiny goals you KNOW you can achieve.

Quit worrying about losing 30 pounds (Like right now, STOP!) What do you know, without a doubt, you CAN do every day? 5 jumping jacks? Great. Commit to that and stick to it. If you can do more than, of course, do more. If that’s all you got in you today then start there and build on it.Strive for progress, not perfection. Too often we are hyper focused on the end result and not the process. This will put you in a perpetual state of not being good enough.

Wichita fitness trainer one-pound-at-a-time

5)   Be aware of how you are spending your time. TV, Pinterest, and Facebook. If you are going to spend hours on social media then search for pins relating to ‘workouts you can do at home’, ‘fitness quotes’, ‘healthy recipes’, ‘fitness motivation’ then you should actually use them! Just pinning or posting them isn’t going to help you. Search Facebook for closed ‘fitness groups’ where you can find like-minded folks to exchange ideas with or to ask questions.

6)   Genetics – If you are focusing on looking like someone else, you need to stop. You need to focus on being a better version of you whatever that may look like. I generally tell people if you want an ultimate goal, shoot for what you looked like at 18. Usually by then your body looks the way it would naturally assuming you haven’t been engaged in some of manipulation such as excessive dieting or steroids. We tend to focus on people with superior genetics. I’ve met very few people that have completely changed their body shape from their natural form. This is why it is important to set goals based on you, not someone else.

7)   Don’t ever say the word ‘diet’ again.

You aren’t on a “diet” – you are making healthier choices because you want to feel better and have more energy.

Two researchers — Sherry Pagoto of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Mass., and Bradley Appelhans of the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago — call for an end to the so-called diet wars, because they are all equally as good, or bad, in helping people fight obesity.

In the end, patients only get confused thinking that one diet is superior to another, they said, when in fact changes in lifestyle, not diet types, are the true ways to prevent weight gain and the associated ills of diabetes and circulatory disease. – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/21/lose-weight-diet-_n_3789932.html

#2 – DRINK WATER. LOTS OF IT! –

This is at the top of the list of a Wichita fitness trainer like me, for a reason. It’s crazy important if you are serious about having more energy, losing weight, and feeling better.

19 REASONS WHY DRINKING WATER IS SO IMPORTANT:

  1. Helps you burn fat
  2. Decreases fatigue
  3. Allows red blood cells to carry oxygen more efficiently, resulting in better muscular function and increased mental acuity
  4. Prevents constipation
  5. Helps you control calorie intake
  6. Cleanses toxic waste from various parts of the body and carries it to the liver and kidneys for removal
  7. Helps with asthma and allergies: When dehydrated, your body will restrict airways as a means to conserve water. In fact the rate of histamine produced by the body increases exponentially as the body loses more and more water
  8. Regulates your body temperature
The average human body is 75% water
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  1. Makes up 75% of your brain
  2. Helps reduce high cholesterol; when the body is dehydrated it will produce more cholesterol to prevent water loss from cells.
  3. Eases joint pain or stiffness; all joints have cartilage passing which is composed mostly of water. When the body is dehydrated, cartilage is weakened and joint repair is slow resulting in pain and discomfort.
  4. Prevents memory loss as you age
  5. Lessens addictive urges, including caffeine, alcohol and certain drugs
  6. Allows for efficient cell repair
  7. Slows down the aging process
  8. Smoothens skin
When you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated.
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  1. Helps to release toxins from the body

Plus:

  1. Dehydration taxes the heart by causing it to pump faster to get sufficient oxygen to your muscles.
  2. The blood is normally about 92% water when the body is hydrated. When dehydrated, the blood becomes thicker causing resistance to blood flow and resulting in elevated blood pressure.

Wichita fitness trainer drinking water tip

If you take nothing else from this entire article start doing this (TODAY)

–          Right when you wake up in the morning drink a big glass of water!

–          Before every meal drink a big glass of water!

No self-respecting post about the virtues about the benefits of drinking water would be complete without mentioning the perils of drinking pop – just don’t do it. Yes, even if it is diet.

Pop is the #1 source of excessive calories in a person’s diet. 

Wichita fitness trainer on cola

cola2 wichita fitness trainer

If you are serious about losing weight, feeling better and having more energy – the pop has GOT to go!

#3 – EAT CLEAN!(Okay, cleaner)

It’s not hard to understand the benefits of eating clean and why it makes sense to make it a priority. People aren’t meant to eat the way they do and you know it

WHERE TO START (today)

Avoid foods that are packed with ingredients you don’t know what are, can’t pronounce and many of which are TOXIC to your body, at all costs!

Wichita fitness trainer not food

This is the $36 Billion dollar a year in ‘food’ marketing dollars ($10 billion directed to kids alone) designed to get us to eat more, eat all manners of dubious neo-foods, at entirely new eating occasions hard at work.  http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/six-rules-for-eating-wisely/

It’s really simple. If you have no idea what it is and can’t pronounce it – DON’T EAT IT.

A Wichita fitness trainer from the Premier Fitness Team will also share these simple rules when wanting to feel better, lose weight and have more energy:

  1. It’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car.
  1. Don’t eat anything that took more energy to ship it than to grow.
  1. Avoid high fructose corn syrup as much as possible. This isn’t just in soft drinks anymore. Cereals, ketchup, bologna, baked goods, soups, and salad dressings all have it – just to name a few. It’s horrible for you and just empty calories…. Click here”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM for more on why fructose is bad for you.
  1. Spend more, eat less. Americans are as addicted to cheap food as they are cheap oil. We spend only 9.7% of our income on food, a smaller share than any nation. Is it a coincidence we spend a larger percentage than any other nation on health care (16%)? The higher quality of food you eat, the more nutritious it is and the less of it you’ll need to feel satisfied.
  1. IGNORE health claims and nutritional ‘science’ you see on food packages.
    • When Kraft Cheese Food Product has been labeled a ‘health food’ and you can buy ‘whole grain’ Lucky Charms, the days of trusting what you read on the packaging has long gone passed us by.

Wichita fitness trainer foods

About 80% of the ‘foods’ on the supermarket shelves today, didn’t exist 100 years ago. 

The key here is BALANCE. Doing the best you can to eat more natural foods and less processed foods will go a long way towards less fat and better health.

Don’t feel that it’s necessary to become completely obsessed with eating only the purest forms of food that you can find. This can lead to stress (not healthy), social isolation (not healthy) and weight loss from refusal to eat calories unless they’re the purest form possible (also not healthy).

___________________________

Women who eat a high-glycemic index diet are more than twice as likely to develop heart disease, according to a 2010 study published in the “Archives of Internal Medicine.” In other words, crap carbs or sugar laden food cause heart disease not ingestion of healthy fats.

Studies showing sugary carbs related to health risks not saturated fat.

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/86/4/899.short

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2673878/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23594708

In the past few years, many massive studies have examined the link between saturated fat and heart disease risk. – The question, most specifically, may become: does low quality meat (ie. Meat fed and kept in an unnatural environment) cause issues? We need to differentiate between correlation and cause.

One of these studies included 347,747 participants and looked at data from 21 studies. The conclusion: there is no evidence that saturated fat increases the risk of heart disease.  http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2010/01/13/ajcn.2009.27725.abstract

Red meat good or bad? Depends on the quality. Processed or grass fed antibiotic free.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20479151

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23497300

http://www.lifewithgreens.com/read-your-food-labels

Wichita fitness trainer on food labels

–          Processed Foods: 10 of the most toxic food ingredients – Huffingtonpost

Wichita fitness trainer nutrition tip

The above picture is so true! Doing a 1000 crunches a day doesn’t remove the fat from the abdomen. Again look at the correlation vs cause. We see fitness models doing this super ab workout and he/she has very little bodyfat in their abdominal area. We assume that it’s because they do that workout. If you looked at the whole picture and followed that person around for a few days you would find that it has more to do with consistency. This consistency of clean eating and exercise gives results not super magic bullet ab ripper 6000.

#4- RESISTANCE TRAINING!

Weights. Lifting weights, even if it’s your body weight, will keep you burning calories long after you have stopped working out. If there is still any misconception out there, no, weights don’t bulk you up.

Again, we look at the bulky muscled up guys in most gym’s weight area and assume if I do that then I will look like them.

Wichita fitness trainer too much muscles

It’s more complicated than that. Unless you’re a person that has the genes to muscle up easily you don’t have to worry about this. Most of us have nothing to worry about and would greatly benefit from doing some weights. Did you know that resistance training is a major key to metabolism, anti-aging and healthy bones? I say resistance training instead of weight training mainly because the resistance can come from a variety of places such as body weight, resistance bands, kettle bells, and heavy objects. It doesn’t have to be dumbbells, barbells, or weight machines.

#5 – HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL CARDIO

Ok, here it is. You will be sweating if you engage in high intensity interval training.

It’s good for you and a very important piece of losing weight, feeling better, and having more energy.

I wish walking the dog around the neighborhood every evening and putting in an hour walking on a treadmill would get the job done, but it won’t. Those activities are fine for maintaining health and active recovery.

But those activities can have the opposite effect if you are working towards burning fat more efficiently and getting the figure you may want in the time you want.

You need to sweat.

There is no substitute for getting your heart rate up. The good thing is these higher intensity workouts don’t have to be for a long period of time. Usually 20-30 minutes will do the trick.

cardio workout Wichita fitness trainer

You don’t have to kill yourself doing high risk exercises or do burpees until you are ready to throw up or take the jazzercise class for an hour but yes, you need to do some high intensity cardio to see better results.

#6 Sleep

This is so important because it affects so many things tied to your success. Your willpower, hormones that burn fat, and other critical factors are affected by lack of sleep. Check out this blog for more detailed information on how sleep deprivation can make you fat. The whole sleep thing can be a catch 22. As your Wichita fitness trainer, let me remind you that if you don’t sleep well enough you might make poor food choices and not exercise. But if you did these things you would sleep better.

Exercise Wichita fitness trainer

Tips for better sleep:

+ Don’t drink caffeine later than six hours before your bedtime. One study showed that caffeine consumed six hours before bed reduced total nightly sleep amounts by more than one hour.

+ Don’t watch TV or use a computer screen (including iPads and backlit e-readers) after 8 pm. The blue light waves keep your brain thinking it’s daylight, time to stay awake.

+ Many people find that regular exercise helps them sleep better.

SUMMARY

–        No more self-defeating, negative talk.

–        Drinks lots of water (lots)

–        Eat clean(er)

Plan ahead.

Make your lunch the night before and take it with you if fast food

Smoothies are quick, easy, and super healthy

–        Resistance training

–        High intensity cardio

–        Sleep