I’ve been chatting with several friends who are just getting started on their fitness journeys. Some of them have gotten the fitness part down, and are struggling (like many of us do) with the nutrition side of things. Some of them are struggling with both. We know that true fitness (with weight/fat loss) is only 30% gym effort but is 70% diet, so I am going to share some nutrition tips (and a fitness tip or two) I have learned from my nutritionist, health coach, trainers and fitness magazines over the years that have worked for me. I hope they work for you too!
Please note that many of my answers to these common fitness conundrums will probably raise other questions for you, which I have also addressed separately. So read through the whole thing! 🙂
I’m working out like crazy, but I’m not losing any weight!
Evaluate your workout. Are you doing a lot of strength training? In fact, if you’re doing any strength training it is important to remember that muscle is more dense than fat, and oftentimes when we are strength training we find ourselves trading out fat pounds for muscle pounds. Case in point: during the first 8-week Kosama challenge we did, on average, at least two strength training sessions a week (sessions focused on using actual weights), and our other classes usually mixed in some body-weight activities that build muscle, such as squats and lunges. At the start of the challenge, my weight was 178.4 pounds. At the finish? 177.6 pounds. Does that mean I only lost 0.8 pounds? Not a chance! My body fat percentage also went from 41.9% to 37.2%, a loss of 4.7% body fat. I lost 8.8lbs of fat during that eight weeks, but a scale wouldn’t tell me that. A scale would tell me that I have been working hard for eight weeks and didn’t even lose a pound.
So if you are relying on your scale to tell you what kind of progress you are making, STOP IT. If you want a real measure of your success, look at how your clothes are fitting, purchase a soft measuring tape and take your measurements, purchase a scale that will also measure your body composition, or find out if your gym has the tools to take these measurements for you (calipers, Tanita scale, etc…). A regular bathroom scale IS NOT YOUR FRIEND. Don’t let it be the measure of your success or failure.
I’m not losing weight as fast as I want to
This is going to be one of those reality-check answers that people don’t like to hear. Other than cosmetic surgery (which I hope would be any rational individual’s last resort) and a ‘stomach stapling” or gastric bypass surgery (which is reserved for those who are diagnosed by their physicians as morbidly obese), there is NO magic pill/diet/exercise that is going to let you lose what you have taken months, maybe even years, to put on in fat mass. The only successful and proven tools are diet and exercise, and diet is the number one factor in your success or failure.
Consider where you are now and where you want to be, and set realistic goals. And remember, it’s not recommended that anyone lose more than 1-2 pounds a week, and if you’re following a diet that has extreme calorie restrictions, etc… to see fast results, those results are not likely to last once you go adopt a normal, balanced, healthy diet. It might get you into that dress for your high-school reunion, but think about how you are going to feel when the weight immediately piles back on. It’s not going to be very motivating! Better to make small, permanent changes to your diet that you can follow for the rest of your life. Slow and steady wins the race, remember?
I don’t eat as often as I should or I forget to eat at all
Some of us can get really wrapped up in our work and life and forget to eat – which might sound like a crazy thing to consider a problem if you’re someone who has no trouble stuffing her face (thisgirl)! It’s only when our stomachs are gnawing at us from the inside that we remember we haven’t eaten since breakfast, and that’s when our decision making skills are weakest because the easiest and quickest way to solve that problem might be grabbing something from the vending machine or running to the drive-through.
But do you know what all that is? Excuses. Did you know that as of 2012, about 50% of Americans own smartphones? I bet you are one of them. And even if your phone isn’t “smart”, I’m willing to bet it has the ability to set up alarms or has a calendar in it.Where am I going with this? Set up a schedule to remind yourself when it’s time to eat. My nutritionist has provided me with the following (I feel) foolproof methods to never being hungry: eat breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up, and eat every 3-4 hours. That doesn’t sound so hard, does it? So set up some recurring alarms/reminders in your phone/calendar/Outlook/etc… to remind you when it’s time to eat. Our brains have to remember a lot of things – let your phone do the remembering to eat for you until your body adopts it’s own internal clock for it.
I eat often, but I’m still hungry
When you eat, are you eating balanced meals and quality foods? The exact ratio of carbs-protein-vegetables/fruit that you need is going to vary based on your current weight, fitness level and activity level, but here are some basic guidelines to help you make good choices:
- Eat a balance of carbs, protein and vegetables/fruits at each meal and snack time
- Try not to eat a carb or protein by itself at a meal
- Consume more of your carbs in the early part of the day when you are active, and fewer in the evenings when your metabolism is winding down
- Consume less carbs/protein at snack time than meal time
- Eat as clean as possible: avoid processed foods (think foods with ingredients you’ve never heard of or can’t pronounce, foods that say they have added vitamins, minerals, fiber or proteins – an attempt to make them seem healthier than they are). INSTEAD, eat lots of whole fruits and vegetables, lean protein, and complex carbohydrates. The processed foods will have you reaching for something to eat more often and even with the added nutrients you aren’t getting the best quality nutrients. The latter will have you feeling fuller longer, and are much better for you in the long run. You will find you can eat fewer of the high quality foods and still feel full.
To get a better hold on what your nutritional needs are, consider checking out My Fitness Pal (available on the web and via their app for iPhone and Android). By entering specific information it will recommend the percentage of calories from fat, protein and carbs and total calories, you should take in each day. You can then use their food log to look up food items (basic items such as fruits and veggies as well as packaged items and fast food/restaurant items) and track what you are eating against those targets. Also check with your health insurance to see if they have health coaching available, or look for a nutritionist to work with. Any of these options will give you better guidelines then guessing for yourself.
I’m not drinking enough water or I’m not drinking enough water because I hate the way it tastes
This one is tough for a lot of people – so know that you are not alone! If you aren’t already a water drinker you’ll find it may be an acquired taste, but not one that you can’t acquire! I will be the first to admit that I used to Hate, with a capital H, drinking water. It never tasted good. It wasn’t satisfying. But your body requires hydration – after all, it is made up of up to 60% water! This is one question I am not going to answer here though, only because I have already detailed it in another post. For tips and suggestions on consuming more water and the importance of hydration, check out Hydration is a Girl’s Best Friend. 🙂
I eat well for a short time and then I break down and eat “bad” again!
To people trying to lose weight/get fit, this might sound crazy, but you NEED to eat what you like. Okay, not all day, every day, and not a ton of food that is bad for you, but you absolutely cannotdeprive yourself completely of food you enjoy or you will never be successful. One of the most important parts of getting fit and being healthy is to remember that once you start, it is for life. Not for next month, when you have a wedding to be in, or next year when you have a high school reunion, or this summer so you can feel better in your swimsuit. Being healthy is forever. You aren’t “going on a diet”, you are completely changing your diet, permanently and sustain-ably, so that someday in the near future you won’t have to even think about whether you will look great for those events, you just will look (and FEEL) great.
The hardest part of changing your diet (what you consume) is to not treat it like a diet (restricting what you consume for a period of time). You really can have your cake and eat it too, and it doesn’t have to be some yucky processed Weight Watchers crumb either. If you spend most of your days eating balanced meals and snacks, you can indulge once in a while on something you enjoy. For that matter, there are thousands, THOUSANDS of re-imagined recipes on the internet (and in books such as Hungry Girl, Weight Watchers, and Cooking Light), that allow you eat something you really enjoy for less fat, calories, cholesterol, etc… and it tastes just as good as the real thing.
If you are reading this post because you saw my post on Facebook or Twitter and you’ve never read my blog before, or if someone recommended this specific article to you, please stick around and check out the rest of my site. I talk about where to find these recipes and post the good ones myself to share with people like you who are tired of eating cruddy high-sodium Lean Cuisines every day and just want to eat “some good fettuccine alfredo dammit”! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
I don’t always have time to eat healthy OR I’m always on the run with no time to stop and make a meal
I’m going to give you a little bit of tough love and call bullshit on this one.
Everyone is busy these days, and you are not the exception to the rule. People in offices run from meeting to meeting with no time in between to stop and pee. Students have to run across campus to make it to their next class on time. Stay-at-home parents spend their days chasing after toddlers who have somehow reached Usain Bolt speeds since they started walking. It is rare to find someone with the boon of spare time on their hands. Will we all slip up sometimes and eat later than we wanted to, grab something that isn’t the greatest because we haven’t prepared something? YES. But it doesn’t have to be that way, and we all need to stop using this as an excuse to make poor food choices.
There is no end to the amount of time-sensitive options out there to help you make healthier choices. Fruits and vegetables are great for you, and isn’t it convenient that there are companies who have already cleaned and cut them up and packaged them for you to throw in your messenger bag/purse/laptop case/insert-mode-of-transport-here? And how wonderful that there is such a variety of what you can buy this way (celery, peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, apples, etc…). Talk about options! Package too big? Buy a $1.29 box of snack-size baggies to individually portion them. Worried about them getting warm? Buy a cheap lunch tote and throw an ice pack in it. You can also buy (in bulk or prepackaged) dry-roasted nuts, or you can buy some of the cleaner protein bars (like Quest Protein bars or Kind bars – minimal ingredients you can pronounce). And let’s not forget, apples, pears, bananas… none of these require prep OR packaging. They are already grab-and-go.
The point is, you don’t have to be Betty Crocker, but you don’t have to eat greasy chips, and fake-health food like nutri-grain bars to get your healthy snacks in.
What about actual meals you say? I encourage you to sign up for Hungry Girl’s email newsletters. In addition to sharing great recipe trades for diet-killer dishes, she also reviews A LOT of prepared products, and only the mostly healthy ones with reduced sodium, etc… Are these products and meals going to be as good for you as making a healthy meal yourself? Of course not, because eating clean is still better for you because the food hasn’t been “tampered with”. But I promise her recommendations are going to be better than grabbing that Stouffer’s microwave meal you were eyeing, that calorie laden burger at the drive-through, or reaching for that doughnut on the conference room table.
I can’t afford to eat healthy
This is one of the biggest health misconceptions out there. If you look at the grocery flyers in your mailbox each week you will usually find that there are tons of fruits and veggies on sale each week. The key to affordability is buying what’s in season and what’s on sale. You can buy enough produce for two to last you an entire week for about $20 or less. Considering that a huge chunk of your diet should be fruits and vegetables, I’d say that’s a pretty good deal. You can also buy your produce and grains in bulk, at stores like Costco, Sam’s Club, etc.. and save money over the long term. In fact, oftentimes you will find that their prices for huge packages of vegtables and fruits are much less than what you’d pay in the store, so the cost of an annual membership (about $1.15 per week) really pays off in the long run. When you consider than a single fast-food value meal is probably going to run you at least $5-$6 per person (unless you’re always eating off the dollar menu), it’s a bargain both for your wallet and waistline.
I don’t have time to work out
As if you needed me to say it, any workout is better than no workout at all. And even if you have a tough time fitting in a workout, you can make changes to the way you move to improve your health too (i.e. taking the stairs, parking further away from the store entrance, etc…). The USDA recommends the following:
Adults should do at least 2 hours and 30 minutes each week of aerobic physical activity at a moderate level OR 1 hour and 15 minutes each week of aerobic physical activity at a vigorous level. Being active 5 or more hours each week can provide even more health benefits. Spreading aerobic activity out over at least 3 days a week is best. Also, each activity should be done for at least 10 minutes at a time. Adults should also do strengthening activities, like push-ups, sit-ups and lifting weights, at least 2 days a week.
This recommendation is JUST to be able to sustain your current lifestyle. It’s unlikely to lose you any weight (unless you’re also improving your diet), but it will probably have a positive impact on your cholesterol levels, etc… And it adds up to about 20 minutes of physical activity a day, which even the busiest individual should be able to fit into their schedule, even if they have to break it into two 10-minute sessions. You can do something as simple as going for a brisk walk, join a gym like Curves (if you’re a woman of course) where each circuit workout lasts only 30 minutes, or work out at home, for free, with minimal to no equipment, doing workouts by Zuzana (see her website here). I’ve also pinned a bunch of quickie workouts here on my Pinterest. There’s really no place for excuses in physical fitness. Just think of my favorite comic in which a doctor asks “What fits your busy schedule better, exercising one hour a day, or being dead 24 hours a day?”.
My (insert significant other here) isn’t supportive of my health journey
It can certainly be difficult to be one half of a pair and have very different health and fitness goals. Many of us will find that when we are ready to start our journey to living a healthier lifestyle, we are not always “in it” together. Maybe your significant other chows down on greasy hamburgers while you are eating a healthy salad, or maybe they leave you to go to the gym/fitness class/run by yourself. But maybe seeing you dedicated and focused to living healthier will be the catalyst for their healthy journey, too. I think, much like many other things such as smoking, you can’t force someone to do something for their health, but you can certainly influence them by being committed to your own health. Tough as it may be, YOU know that you are doing something important for yourself.
You can try to incorporate your significant other into your healthy-lifestyle by inviting them to participate in lower impact (“entry level”) or fun fitness activities (think a game of dodgeball or kickball) and making healthier meals for the both of you (maybe check out www.skinnytaste.com for some healthified versions of their favorite indulgences…). If they still aren’t on board, and you feel pressured or unsupported, you could also try having a heart-to-heart with them about how it is difficult for you to focus on doing something great for yourself without their support. Maybe they don’t realize the impact their unhealthy behaviors have on the people around them and would be willing to at least commit to making an effort.
If all else fails, buddy up with someone who does share your fitness goals, such as a friend, relative, or co-worker; someone who will go to the gym with you, commit to bringing healthy lunches to work and eating together, or maybe even just talk with you about your fitness goals. The reality is, we are more successful at being healthy when there are people in our lives who are supportive of what we are trying to do for ourselves. Even attending the same fitness classes with the same group of people a few times a week can be enough to build a support system of people who are all trying to accomplish the same thing for themselves.
The important thing to remember, is that someone else’s choice NOT to be fit, should not impact your choice TO BE FIT.
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Did I miss anything? Do you have a fitness- or diet-challenge question you’d like me to answer? Leave it it the comments and if I don’t have an answer myself, I’ll get one for you! 🙂
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