52well

Living the fit life year 'round

[52well-blog]

20 Rep Sets To Gain Muscle and Burn Fat

Training hard leads to all kinds of benefits – and every rose has it’s thorns. 2 years ago I went all in on the 5x5x5 workout. I saw some really nice results, but after a good run at it…

I am seeing great results! Worth checking it out for yourself.

[52well-blog]

All I Want For Christmas Is Gains And Losses

Forget my two front teeth – I want my progress on my goals! I want more lean muscle mass and less fat. Be honest – Everyone wants muscle gains. Everyone wants fat loss. But not everyone…

Yep. That’s the truth. 

[52well-blog]

Coffee Is a Super-Suppliment!

Coffee, The sound, the smell, the thought of it brings us pleasure. They call it an ‘acquired’ taste. Not sure what that means anyways, really! But heres the scoop on your morning scoop of dirt from heaven – coffee is one of the best pre-workout drinks ever. I’m going to focus on four things that coffee does. Short and sweet. Oh but there’s a rule, drink it black for it’s best effects.

Coffee increases fat burn and energy: Not only does the caffeine boost your metabolism throughout the day, but the combination of other goodies in your morning cup possess fat burning preferences in your body for fat to be metabolized. The fat burning effects of your coffee are increased all the more in the gym – this makes coffee your ‘fat burn secret.’ Here’s the catch. The fat burning properties of coffee are drawn out when you don’t feed your coffee the fat and sugars it wants – in other words: no cream or sugar. Black coffee wins. If you provide the calories and the fat with the coffee when you drink it, your body won’t preference to burn stored energy (fat) it’ll just handle the ready to be metabolized stuff in your gut.

Coffee is an appetite suppressant: If you are like me, you like to work out in a ‘fasted state’ and regularly pair coffee with ‘intermittent fasting.’ Coffee is the trick. coffee tells your body to pull energy from your glycogen and fat stores, and your body will listen if there isn’t much in that tummy to grab ahold of. Think about it, when you are on the treadmill you might feel a little hungry, but the body is preferencing fat for energy and therefore doesn’t send as many ‘food’ signals. But why the aerobic exercise ends – then the food cravings start. Coffee helps to put your body in the mood for a workout and curb the cravings before and after it.

Better Performance and Less Muscle Pain: I thought I’d pair the most obvious – better performance – with the less obvious – decreased muscle pain during the workout. Coffee helps you get those extra reps or steps in. The burn comes a little later when you’re on the coffee. This means the workouts don’t hurt so much, or if you’re like me, they hurt just as much – just after you get more work in; which ought to be the goal – maximize your workouts with coffee.

Remember: this works best when you have your coffee black, and everything is maximized for the fat burn when you are at least semi-fasted. Don’t forget, coffee has the capability to squeeze water out of your cells, so drink plenty of water before and during your workout to stay hydrated and healthy.

[52well-blog]

The quick fix is a BINGE

There’s a point to this, just humor me.  Binge eating! What does it make you think of? It makes me think of those nights when I just want Peanut butter and jelly!!! I do it up like a pro. One slice of bread. A knife of peanut butter and a spoon full of jelly; fold it up like a taco and it’s gone in 2 bites. Who has time to spread it out – I’m on a friggin binge, give me another!!!

I’m no genius to point out that this is bad idea. But it’s my experience. Something in me clicks. I respond to a desire, a perceived need, a deficit and binge like crazy. All the while I tell myself that I need it, that I’ve been deprived of calories and carb. I tell myself fairy tales like that I will spend 2 hours at the gym to pay for it – but like most fairy tales that never comes true. Why is that – you can not win in a fight of binges.

YOU CANNOT OVERCOME BINGE WITH BINGE

You cannot combat that impulsive eating by ‘binge dieting’ or ‘binge training.’ It’s pure insanity. A life style of punishing yourself for making  diet mistake is a lifestyle of punishment. Eventually – like most normal people; you’ll just stop punishing yourself. You’ll come to your senses and let yourself eat without the shame. You’ll stop going to the gym because the gym is a place for punishment, or the gym is a place you go to in order to break even with yesterdays pizza.

YOU CAN OVERCOME BINGING WITH LIFE STYLE CHANGES

Look, binge eating might not be your thing. but you might binge on your workouts. take 2 months off and try to make it all up in a week. This is not healthy. It stresses your body out and causes it to want to conserve energy producing lethargy and ultimately slowing your progress. You have to make life style changes to overcome binging. You have to believe what is true about you and your body and live out that truth. So start asking the right questions and adjust life style – do some ‘life-styling’ in response.

ASK THE HONEST QUESTION AND RESPOND HONESTLY

“Why did I binge?” Probably because you were craving a body change, not a life style change. Perhaps it’s because your lifestyle was deficient and you malnourished yourself which led to uncontrollable animal like cravings. Be honest with yourself and above all. Be patient with yourself. If you are hones and listen to your body you’ll know all you need to know. Life style changes don’t happen by force in short periods of time, that’s called binging and it never ends well.

ENJOY THE PROCESS AND ENJOY THE PROGRESS

If what you’ve been trying leads you to the ‘start-stop’ inconsistency most people experience with their fitness and diet goals; then you have to learn to be less impulsive. Take your time, Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither will your abs be sculpted in a week. Take time to educate yourself and embrace each change fully. Understand what and why you are doing what you’re doing. Be consistent (see my article on progress) and slow down a little. It’s hard to be a Binger if you are slowing down and enjoying the process. I imagine I would eat a lot less PBnJ if I would just take the time to properly spread the peanut butter and jelly out and enjoy each bite. I also imagine you will love your progress when you take the time to appreciate and enjoy the process – even if it means being less impulsive and celebrating the small successes along the way. Don’t wreck yourself going at it like a speed demon. Get better results by slowing down in your life style changes. You’ll thank yourself later. You don’t want, and you don’t need a quick fix. You need a true sustainable life change, just like the rest of us.

[52well-blog]

Slow Down For Better Results From The Gym

IF you are anything like me; you can be a bit impulsive about your decision to get fit fast. Your whole life gets flipped on end, as well as your household when you decide that this time you are serious about getting results from life-style changes. You dump all the junk food, try to acquire a taste for kale, and you spend every spare moment you have either in the gym, or studying the internet for a quick fix.

There is no quick fix. Working harder will bring results fast, but you inevitably will be asking yourself a question: ‘Is this really the life I want?’ ‘Do I value change in my body enough to change everything else in my life at once?’

Let me answer that question for you. NO! No you don’t. That’s why you search the web for six minute six-pack-abs. That’s why you put your faith in 30 day body transformations. That’s why you look for the 2 week diet pill. That’s why the 3 day cleanse is appealing. You want results NOW, and everyone on the web knows you do. So what’s the deal? SLOW DOWN!!! Don’t be in such a hurry. The mentality is wrong and your results will not last if they come without true habitual life-styling changes.

Three major components to any successful body transformation:

Sleep

Nutrition

Activity

It doesn’t take a genius to figure this one out. But what it requires is patience with yourself to do it right. Why not take some time.

SLEEP: Start with sleep. Don’t worry about nutrition, don’t even worry about hitting the gym yet. Teach yourself that you love sleep, that it is good for you. Show yourself the benefit of that extra hour or two of sleep. Make sure you get a full 8 hours every night. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, your body will not respond as well to the other changes in your life. What if you took 2 weeks to change your sleep habits; you’d be a happier, more energetic, and less stressed version of yourself.

NUTRITION: Find out what works for you. Nail your nutrition down before you start your workouts. WHY? Here’s the deal. When you develop habits of healthy eating before you add the gym life to your life change; you learn what’s good for you. You learn what energizes you without the added fatigue of gym life. You also learn how to see and maintain results through diet alone. Make a life style change with your diet. Don’t look for a quick weight loss diet, look for a life style diet that suits you well. Give that 30 days to sink in. See results from diet. You will feel better, you will sleep better. It takes a full 30 days to retrain your body to crave the good stuff and stop withdrawing from the not-so-good stuff. Now you have 2/3 of the life change habits in place. Now you know how to maintain the results you got in the gym if ever those days go away and life gets crazy.

GYM: This is at the bottom of the list for a good reason. It is nothing without proper sleep and nutrition. You will not get the results from your workouts that you desire if you don’t have proper sleep for recovery and diet to fuel the workouts and recovery. People make the mistake of changing diet and gym together. What happens is they train themselves to crave and eat enough food to make up for the calories burned in the gym. Therefore moderate results from the gym because the calorie deficit is cancelled by increased calories. What makes it worse is the eating habits stay when the gym goes away – therefore you hate yourself if you don’t go to the gym. You lose results so fast you can’t handle it. This has to do with not nailing down your eating and sleeping habits before your gym habits. This is a lifestyle change. Take your time with it.

Slow and steady wins the race. BE CONSISTENT. Here is a post I wrote on the key to getting results from your life style change.

Slow down. You’ll thank yourself when your whole world is finally and successfully changed and on track with your goals.

[itzdevyb123]

[52well-blog]

I love this! so true.

[shrinkingcourt]

If you’re anything like me this is the biggest struggle of all! As soon as I start to see really noticeable results and feel really happy with how my body is looking I seem to lose the plot and undo all of my hard work! And so it continues, I will not give up!

[52well-blog]

Exactly how so many feel.

[52well-blog]

One word you must know to get the results you want.

Buzz words. Everybody goes by them. Those short mantras we all can recall: ‘no pain, no gain,’ ‘what doesn’t kill me will make me stronger,’ ‘winners never quit.…

This is the only sure way to reach your fitness and nutrition goals. One word changes everything.