Visualize yourself thin!

Visualization is a tool that has been proven to be effective in motivating people to achieve their goals. Now I feel compelled to stop right here and say that visualization combined with action is great, but visualization alone will get you nowhere.

One day a carpenter decided that he was done building houses for a living. Now our carpenter was a very pious man, so he decided to start praying with all of his might that he would win the lottery so he could build the house of his dreams and live the good life. Every morning, he would pray and pray that God would let him win the lottery, checking the newspaper to see if he had won. Well, this continued for ten years, until one day, the carpenter checked the numbers to see if he had one, only to be disappointed once again. He looked skyward and said, "God. I've been praying that I would win the lottery every day for ten years. I've been a good, reverent, and righteous person. Why haven't you let me win?" To the man's surprise, God responded in a booming voice, "You have been a good, righteous man, but what do you want me to do? YOU'VE GOT TO BUY A TICKET!"

Imagining yourself having the things you want is great to keep you working toward your goals, but this is only 1% of the work required to achieve those things. The other 99%, the real meat and potatoes, is action. Whether you pray, hope, wish, or just rely on dumb luck as a means of achieving your goals, do the things that will lead to accomplishing those goals. Luck smiles upon those who work hard.

Follow the suggestions in these fitness, diet, and nutrition posts. You can and will be more fit, lose that extra weight, and live a healthier life.

Have you ever used some form of visualization to motivate yourself to achieve your goals?

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Best Diet Ever: Drink one gallon of water a day

Yes, an entire gallon! Only oxygen is more urgently needed than water. Don't skimp on your water intake. Dehydration wreaks havoc on bodily processes and causes people to feel lethargic throughout the day. Dehydration can cause severe cramps during exercise, so ensure that you drink 16 oz. of water before any exercise and continue drinking during any strenuous exercise, especially if it's an outdoor activity and/or hot outside.

Staying properly hydrated will also help you not overeat when meal or snack times roll around. I've read that if you are dehydrated, your body misinterprets the thirst signal as hunger causing you to eat when you are really thirsty. I don't know that I buy that reasoning, but studies have shown that drinking water throughout the day, especially before meals, causes you to eat less because your stomach is full. Your brain gets the "I'm full. I can stop eating now" signal with less food.

Can you drink too much water?

It is possible to drink too much water, but it is very difficult. Within the past few months, a woman participating in a radio station's water drinking contest died after consuming large amounts of water in a short period of time. The actual cause of death in instances of water intoxication is an electrolyte imbalance, called hyponatremia, which draws water out of the cells in the body. Long distance endurance athletes, who do not supplement with electrolyte tablets, are especially susceptible to hyponatremia because excessive sweating for long periods of time deplete the body of both water and electrolytes, but drinking water alone is insufficient to replace lost electrolytes.

In summary, drinking a gallon of water a day is a good goal to achieve optimal hydration. If you are going to exercise for less than an hour, plain water is the best choice for hydration. If you are exercising in hot temperatures or for longer than an hour, a drink containing electrolytes, like Gatorade, is a better choice. If you are participating in an extremely long distance endurance event like running a marathon, ultra running, doing a century bike ride, or participating in an Ironman-distance triathlon, consider taking electrolyte tablets to maintain your electrolyte balance in addition to drinking frequently.

Do you think you drink enough during the day? Do you routinely take water with you when you exercise outdoors?

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Product Review: Ultimate Direction FastDraw

The summer heat is increasing the need to bring along water or a sports drink when you are exercising outdoors. If you are going to be exercising for an hour or less, plain water is what your body needs. If you are outside for longer than 1 hour, consider the use of a sports drink to replenish electrolytes and carbohydrates. Either way, you are going to need something in which to carry your fluids. You can certainly carry a bottle of water, but for me, the FastDraw is a cheap option that lets me carry my water without tiring out my hands from gripping the bottle.

I've owned all types of hydration systems: hydration pack systems (camelbaks), fanny pack/bottle holder systems, and hand held bottle straps, like the FastDraw. Depending on how much water I need to carry, I go with the FastDraw as a first choice, and if I need to carry more water, I'll add a fanny pack that can hold an additional bottle. I like the convenience of having the bottle in my hand, and I tend to drink more because of it. When I finish the bottle in the hand strap, I switch it out with the bottle in my fanny pack. Works great for me.

Things I like about the FastDraw:

• The water bottle that comes with the FastDraw has a cool "kicker" valve that is very easy to open and close.
• Most standard size water bottles fit the strap.
• If you trip and fall, not that I ever do or anything, a hand held water bottle can protect your hands and wrists. You might destroy the bottle (see below), but that's a much easier problem to solve than fixing a broken hand or wrist.
  

Think I don't like about the FastDraw:

• The bottle that I got with the FastDraw started to leak so badly between the bottle and the cap that I had to toss it. Granted, I took a nasty spill out on the trail and mashed it on a big rock, but I expected it to still be usable. It wasn't. Maybe I'm asking too much.
• The version that I own only has a very small pouch. I wish I had sprung for one of the versions with more space to put things. I would like to have enough room to put a gel and maybe a tiny first aid kit. As it stands, I can only put in a key, which is not quite big enough.
  

Despite the fact that I'm a bit irked about the bottle leaking, I'm very satisfied with my purchase. I looked at all other options and I still feel it was the best choice for "on the move" hydration.

Expectation Letdown Fatigue

Lose 10 pounds in 10 days!

8 minutes a Day to a Slimmer, Sexier You!

Fab Abs by Wiggling Your Toes for 2 Minutes a Day...Not Vigorously, Of Course!

Magazines with headlines like these really irk me. False promises like these are a main cause of what I like to call, expectation letdown fatigue.

Jane Wannabefit makes a decision that swimsuit season is just around the corner. She's put on a few pounds since last year, and it's got to go. The problem is, it's July and she's got to act quickly. Standing in the checkout line at the local Grab 'n Go, lo and behold, like an angelic gift from the heavens, out from the magazine rack jumps the headline, "Lindsay Lohan loses 10 pounds in 10 days! Find out how she did it!" What good fortune, it just so happens Jane's got 10 pounds to lose and only 10 days to do it in. Three point nine five smack-a-roos later, Jane has taken her first steps into fitness nirvana. Now the article, more often than not, is pure drivel, but this time Jane is lucky...the article actually contains a good plan for eating and exercise. She follows the plan perfectly for 10 days. Finally, she gets on the scale for the moment of truth. TWO POUNDS! She's only lost two pounds in ten days and she couldn't be more disappointed. What did she do wrong? It must be bad genetics.

The problem with this scenario is that is happens all the time. Even if the article contains good information, the results never meet expectations because all of the magazine articles exaggerate what is possible. Two pounds in a ten day time frame is a great result! It is a healthy, sustainable rate of weight loss. There is so much misinformation out there about weight loss that folks who make good progress give up because they are led to believe that they are making unacceptable progress. A few cycles of failed crash dieting with unrealistic expectations and Jane simply throws in the towel and begins to accept the (wrong) belief that she just wasn't born to be fit. The result...expectation letdown fatigue.

What is considered a healthy rate of weight loss?

As a guideline, you should not be losing more that 1.5 pounds per week. If you are losing weight at a rate greater than this, you are losing lots of muscle and not much fat. If you do manage to starve yourself down to your goal weight, the result won't be a "toned" you, but a smaller version of you still with too much fat.

So what do you think? Do you buy those magazines in the hopes that they will contain the magic formula for weight loss, some newly rediscovered, ancient secret that kept the Mayans thin? Or while waiting in line at the checkout counter do you skip over the gossip rags because you're too busy telling your kid for the 10th time, no, he cannot have a candy bar?!

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Best Diet Ever: Eat lean protein with every meal and snack

Protein contains essential amino acids that your body needs to build and repair itself. It has the secondary benefit of requiring more energy than carbohydrates or fat to digest. If you consume 100 calories of protein, your body will burn up to 30 of those calories during the digestion process. Foods high in protein also tend to create a sense of satiety, or feeling of being full.

Some good sources of lean protein besides the oft mentioned chicken breasts, fish, and lower fat cuts of beef and pork are:

• cottage cheese
• yogurt
• eggs
• soy products

If your diet tends to be higher in fat, choose low fat or non fat dairy products, as a large portion of their fat is of the saturated, unhealthy variety. Also, yogurt is a good choice, but watch out for highly sweetened versions with lots of added sugar. Try plain yogurt mixed with honey and berries. Eggs are another fantastic source of protein. If you enjoy eggs, but don't enjoy the additional calories, I would suggest using a 50:50 mix of whole eggs to egg whites.

What about peanut butter and protein bars?

In my opinion, most protein bars are just glorified candy bars. Sure they are convienient, but my preference is for real food. If you do find yourself in a situation where you need to eat something and you don't have any other options, then go on ahead and have one. The chocolate coating is usually high in palm, coconut, or palm kernel oil which means they are pretty high in saturated fat. Try to find one that contains 3g of saturated fat or lower.

Peanut butter is a healthy option, but it only contains about one half of the protein density as the above listed foods. It is also a very calorie dense food at approximately 200 calories per two tablespoon serving. And honestly how many people only eat two tablespoons. I do eat it in moderation, but I consider it primarily a fat as opposed to a protein. I buy a product called Naturally More that is peanut butter mixed with flax oil, flax seeds, wheat germ, egg whites to boost protein content, and a little honey for sweetness. It rocks and it has 167 calories/Tbsp. and 10 grams of protein. I've seen it at health food stores, but it is half the cost at Wally World.

Do you try to eat some protein with every meal? Which is your favorite lean protein source?

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Best Diet Ever!

Portion control and calorie counting are the keys to losing weight and keeping it off. That's still true, but it's so darn, oh, I don't know...not sexy. People want magical, fat-melting foods or one simple rule to follow that guarantees fat losing success. What is The Secret?! Well, I can tell you it is not sitting on your butt, meditating over a box of Ho-Ho's hoping that the universe will deliver you from your flabby self. Crazy, fad diets are the rule of the day. "Lose weight? Son, what you need is a lemonade, cayenne pepper, and ground up rhino testicle cocktail." Or it's some new miracle drug taking the country by storm, like alli. Oh, yeah, and that diaper you've got to wear to protect you from the, ahem, treatment effects, "You are WORKING IT, BABE!"

In the upcoming days and weeks, I'll be writing posts that contain the most time-tested, effective techniques for eating healthier and losing weight. Don't expect flashy headlines, or celebrity endorsed magical thinking, but you can expect simple rules that will lead to a sustainable weight loss.

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