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Stories from the front line of fitness.
What's your story?
What's your story?
 I’m So Glad The Football is Over... Why? I can’t do anymore wings and beer! Seriously, it’s the only time I eat that combination (mostly the wings part, because beer is a love affair), and for good reason. Every Sunday during football season, my colon gets jacked up (Jacked up for your Denver Broncos!). But now it’s over and I can finally let my colon take it’s regular, non-inflamed state. I’ve been reading a lot lately about Intermittent Fasting; which basically means that you eat within a defined window within a 24 hour day. As in, 8 hours a/day from 10am to 6pm. There appear to be a multitude of reasons for doing so. Weight loss, increasing your metabolic rate, fat specific breakdown, and maybe even the mitigation of cancer among others. I think of genius things at brunch... Over brunch the SLF and I decided to lab rat ourselves to see if we could resist murdering each other over that time (so far just one biting incident; flesh wound). So to see what it’s all about the SLF and I decided to try a 16 hour fasting routine through for 30 days. Hungry gives you weird dreams.. So we’re about a week in. The biggest thing about the process is that you definitely have to do some planning. For my part, I found myself running out of time to eat; (My clients typically hate it when I’m mowing down a Hot Pocket in the middle of their HIIT session) so I definitely found myself short of calories the first couple of days, so I went hungry the first couple of days. Not dying or anything, I tried that once, right after college (another time for that story); but, I slept like the dead. If the dead had really weird dreams. SLF also reported really weird dreams the first couple of days, and we both had minor headaches, but probably from abandoning the morning coffee ritual. But so far, it’s not bad, and the first observation is that it makes you eat purposefully, mindfully; as opposed to eating absent mindedly, or without purpose (a fatal mistake if you’re trying to manage your weight). Since you have a limited time to eat and it’s typically within your working hours, you definitely have to redefine what it is that you’re going to eat. It’s actually a little more fun because if you only have a few hours to eat you have to make it count (i.e., garden salad ain’t gonna get there). It definitely took this first week to get a routine going, but I think we have a good thing going. I’ll keep updating with our progress. You should join us! Be mindful with us... I tell people that maintaining a diet is a lot like managing your checkbook (if you still had a checkbook). If you don’t pay attention, you can Starbucks Venti Triple Mocha your way right out of cash. The same is true of your skinny jeans, you’ll Starbucks yourself right out of them. You don’t have to get extravagant necessarily with what you’re including and not including (you do have to be reasonable, though), however, the best and easiest thing you can do is to pay attention. Do you need help in being mindful with your diet? You should join us in our experiment. I’m here to help, free of charge even! If you’re interested, hit me up at steve@fitnessplease.com. I’ll happily help you set some goals, help answer questions, and even do some complimentary measurements to help you get on your way to your best you. I’m looking forward to hearing from you! Be good. TrainerSteve
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I had the pleasure of getting out of town last week. Got to go to Mexico for a much needed vacation last week. Special Lady Friend and I been busting our asses the last, I don’t know, couple of decades; so we got out of town for a bit. I brought my laptop with me with full expectations of writing some super-deep fitness/life philosophy related opus-HEY! IS THAT CUBAN RUM? Yes please! I got a little distracted. I didn’t break that laptop out once. I slacked off like a champ, gave it 110%, I left it all on the hammock. And it's not a bad thing at all. Easy to say, right? But here's the thing, in my 15 year or so practice, I can't tell you how many times I've been confessed to (People seem to do that to trainers, even if they're not your client!) about how bad people feel about taking time for themselves. As if you don't deserve it. Of course, it's usually the people that work the hardest that feel the most guilt. It's a work ethic thing I guess. It's the way a lot of us were raised. Not necessarily a bad thing, the instinct to work hard will almost never lead you astray. I have to admit, with a growing business, I found myself feeling very anxious from time to time during this trip, about calls I could make, emails, visits, marketing and so on. The kicker is that, being on vacation, I had a whole bunch more time to be anxious about stuff. Cuban rum (And Picadillo! Sending the recipe on my email newsletter!), and the smell of the ocean, is very effective in curing those feelings, temporarily at least. But what I had to do was to let myself relax and be in the moment. I had to give myself permission. And you have to give yourself permission to enjoy yourself. Especially during this holiday season. Yeah, you have to be cognizant of what's going in your gullet, but you can't let your holiday season be ruined by calorie counting or guilt for indulging. This is a time for family and friends, and yes, eating and drinking. So eat and drink, how you always should: Without guilt or remorse and in the moment. Keep in mind that being cognizant of what you're doing does not imply a feeling of guilt or punishment. I hope you guys have a great holiday. To quote the famous philosopher Rick James: It's a Celebration! Enjoy yourself! Talk to you guys soon!  |
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