Tag: junk food

Relax, Rest, & Recover!

Relax, Rest, & Recover!

We all like our recovery and rest days, right?!  After all, recovery days are good for you, just like everything is (or can be) as long as it’s in moderation!  It gives us a chance to rest our muscles and rejuvenate our bodies, but resting doesn’t mean or give you a pass to sit around and eat junk food! While it is great to have rest and recover days, it is also important to note that it is not an excuse to cram in the junk food and veg on the couch all day.  It means that you might take a break from your cardio workouts, strength training routines, and heavy exercise regimes.  On my rest days, I might enjoy a leisurely walk or do some extra stretching to help loosen up my body during my off days. You might consider a light yoga class to stretch out or a game in the park with your kids.

Each week, you should have at least 1 day to recover, but no more than 3 total days of recovery during the 7 day week.  After all, you don’t want to be working out less than the days you are recovering/taking off.  You should, and I do emphasize should, be making yourself workout at least more than half of the 7 day week, so workout at least 4 days or more if you can!  On the flipside of that, please do remember that one full recovery day allows your body to rest and recover so that you are able to put forth your full potential, push yourself forward, and challenge yourself while still having enough energy to do so.  If you are too sore or too tired from your previous workout days, you won’t be able to have a successful and challenging workout.

Just keep in the back of your mind that you should be working out more than half of the week so don’t take more than 3 days off during a single week period!  Happy exercising with a day of rest or two to relax, rest, and recover!  Just don’t take advantage of those days off by taking too many! 😉

~jj

Make exercise your positive!

Make exercise your positive!

People often feel guilty when they eat lots of junk food or fatty foods over the weekend or skip a workout during the week so some people try to make up for this by punishing themselves with an extra long workout at the gym to compensate for missed days or junk food consumption.  There are a few problems with this though. Punishing yourself with an extra hard workout to make up for poor eating habits and missed workouts is like a consequence.  Further, remember that pushing yourself too hard and forcing an extra long, strenuous cardio workout is a great way to cause an injury or unnecessary discomfort in your joints and muscles. Rather than using negative reinforcement, try positive reinforcement (which studies show is so much more successful and beneficial).  For example, if you workout 5 consecutive days during the week, reward yourself with a small treat, shopping spree, etc during the weekend rather than punishing yourself because you ate a lot of carbohydrates all weekend and therefore need to make yourself get through an intense, two hour long workout.

Further, if you allow yourself to use exercise as a “punishment” your brain begins to associate exercise as a negative consequence for guilty or poor choices that you make.  Don’t do this!  You don’t want your brain to begin to feel as though exercise is a punishment.  Otherwise, this impacts your reality and feelings toward working out and exercise.

The solution is to try to maintain a routine and workout accordingly.  Did you slip up over the weekend and eat too much junk food, fatty foods, carbohydrates, or sweets?  Take a short walk or bike ride over the weekend mid-day or early evening to help balance it out so you don’t feel guilty or pressure to force a long workout in at the gym.  Use positive reinforcement and goals so that you can practice moderation.  Lastly, remember that exercise and fitness releases positive endorphins, improves your mood (by the end of the workout!), relieves stress, and I could go on and on.  The take all is that the benefits of exercise are astounding so don’t forget that what you gain from working out and the results you will see over time should be positives that keep you going back for more! 😉

~jj

Replace + Reduce > Rationalizing

Replace + Reduce > Rationalizing

All too often I hear people say, “I worked out earlier, so it means I can eat this cake and cookies now” or “I ate fruit at breakfast and a side of vegetables at lunch so I can cheat at dinner” or the best one is “I ate clean all week, so it means I can eat whatever I want this weekend” but rationalizing your choices when it comes to your health is not a good compromise or balance.  Try replacing rather than rationalizing to reduce your calories and your chances for heart disease (which I will add is the number one killer of Americans yet can be reduced by the choices we make).

I am not suggesting that you don’t allow yourself to eat sweets or desserts, but getting into the habit of rationalizing your choices is a sure way to lose track of your fitness goals and see a decrease in your progress.  Instead, eat in moderation and remember that replacing with fruits and veggies rather than rationalizing with junk food will boost your energy level and make you feel much better.  Consider replacing at least one food item at each meal to reduce the fat content, sodium, and carb load that is almost always higher than it should be.  Replace unhealthy sides such as mashed potatoes for a baked potato or make mashed potatoes that are 1/2 cauliflower and 1/2 potato and use Greek yogurt, low fat milk, and unsalted butter to get the creamy consistency you want.  Replace onion rings or french fries for healthy veggies such as grilled onions or roasted potatoes.  Further, at breakfast, replace potatoes and bacon in an omelette for veggies such as spinach (leafy greens are great for you!) and mushrooms.  At lunch, replace BBQ potato chips for plain tortilla chips or unsalted almonds and a BLT or chicken quesadilla for a turkey, spinach, and cheese wrap.  Small healthy choices at each meal may not seem that important, but small steps can help make a big difference in the overall progress you see.  Three small healthy choices (one at each meal) is a great way to work on making progress over time.

Remember that when you eat like crap, you often feel like crap so don’t use your weekend as an excuse to give up on your goals.  Instead eat for success because no diet does what healthy eating will do for your life.  It will change your mood, stress, and energy level!  Eating healthy doesn’t mean you have to eat less, just eat right! 🙂

~jj

Find solutions to your health weaknesses!

Find solutions to your health weaknesses!

I got home from the store today and my mom asked if I had bought her any jalapeno cheddar kettle chips.  My response was no because I don’t want to be the reason to encourage bad eating habits.  I didn’t say that to be mean, but because good family and friends help support those people they care about in their life.  By the way, I realize my blog as many post on exercise and health, but remember that in order to be healthy you must have a combination of emotional, nutritional, physical, social, spiritual, environmental, and intellectual well being.

So, why am I telling you about my mom’s chip addiction?  Because it is important to determine your eating and fitness weaknesses and find solutions for them.  For example, if it’s eating junk food, don’t buy tons of junk food like chips, oreos, french fries, and fried chicken tenders when you go to the store.  These junk food items tend to stare at you and reel you in if you keep them in your cabinets and pantry, encouraging you to eat more because of a food weakness you have.  If you aren’t capable of doing this because you don’t have the willpower to resist the urge of buying junk food, take someone with you that will make you be accountable for what you put in your cart.

If you struggle with having enough energy during your workouts then change your routine to include a power snack several hours before working out.  Apples, bananas, almonds, and carrots are great energy boosters to eat pre-workout.  If you don’t have enough energy at the end of your workout then you are probably doing something wrong.  Remember that the end of your workout should be the cool down.  This means you slowly ease your body and heart rate back down to its resting state.  So do NOT run 5 miles, swim, do a heavy cardio workout, etc and then suddenly stop once you have finished or met your goal.  One of the WORST things you can do for your body is to not do a proper warm-up and cool down (increases risk of spraining, straining, and other exercise injuries).  If you aren’t doing both now, I suggest you start to prevent injuries and slowly bring yourself back down to your normal heart rate.  It can be as simple as a 5 minute stretch.  This will help you ease into and out of your workout without dreading it or feeling energy deprived.

If your weakness is eating out, then consider making meals ahead and pre-planning meals each week.  For example, sit down on Sunday and write down your meals for the week and then insert what meals you will allow yourself to eat out.  I suggest you only eat out a few times each week.  You may think that you are able to find healthy eating options at restaurants, but often times you don’t know the calories, fats, and additives that are in restaurant prepared meals.

It’s summer and that means sunscreen season!  If you don’t wear it, you should!  If you think skin cancer won’t happen to you, think again.  It isn’t worth taking the chance!  Putting on sunscreen takes an additional 1-2 minutes or less (literally) and if that’s too long for you then consider a spray.  While I don’t think sprays are quite as effective, if that’s all the time you can or are willing to spare, then I am happy you at least do that.  One of the BEST ways to stay looking young is to apply sunscreen.  Why?  Because the sun burns and damages the skin around your eyes and nose where the skin is the most tender and thin.  This gives your face a more wrinkled and aged look.  So, next time you decide you don’t want to take the time to put on sunscreen, THINK AGAIN!

These may seem like nearly impossible changes to make to your current lifestyle, but remember that the above (along with most health choices) are learned habits, which means they can also with time, dedication, and discipline become unlearned habits!  I realize it can be hard to maintain healthy habits for your mind, body, and soul, but you will thank yourself if you work on changing your weaknesses into positives.  I challenge you to make a change to make a difference in your life, the life of those you care about, and the lives of others (through healthy choices, of course)!

~jj

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial