Fitness & Wellness

It’s easy to say you’re going to diet or start an exercise program, especially if that announcement ends with the word, “tomorrow.” You have to be serious about getting in shape and stick with it to see results. Why do you want to lose weight or get into shape? Is it just something to say to agree with everyone else? Is that really what you want? What motivated you to begin? Your driving force should be something that’s important to you.

Use your motivation for strength when times get tough.

Your life is probably hectic with tugs from all directions. Taking time to workout may seem like it’s unimportant sometimes. That’s when you need to remember your motivation for starting and ask yourself, “If not now, then when?” It’s too easy to miss a workout and before you know it, your workout program is just a memory. It’s too easy to give up entirely on healthy eating if you’ve just consumed a pack of Oreos. Getting back on track is top priority in those times and that means getting motivated.

Your motivation may change or build.

Maybe you started on the path to fitness because of your health or even because your clothing no longer fit. Maybe you just wanted to feel better and more energetic. Whatever your reason, as you workout and eat healthy, you’ll find new motivation along the way. Once you conquer a certain exercise you couldn’t do before you started, looking for the next workout to conquer may become a motivating factor.

Don’t expect overnight miracles.

Too often people give up after a few days or few weeks because they don’t see the results they want. I tell them to give it six weeks. In fact, that’s why we have the six weeks challenge. Devote your energy and focus and follow the plan for just six weeks. Then look at the results. Your original goal can be to get through the six weeks and keep on the program faithfully. Once you’ve finished, the sky’s the limit.

• Setting big goals is important, but so is breaking them down to smaller goals that achieved quickly. They help keep you motivated.
• If you’re truly serious about getting into shape, your mind set will make a huge difference. Rather than thinking how hard a workout is or how much you miss biscuits and gravy, think about how great it is to be able to move easier and with more energy.
• A program of healthy eating doesn’t mean you’ll never get to eat your favorite foods. It does mean that you won’t eat them every day and watch portion control when you do eat them. Once you realize how good healthy foods taste, most people seldom crave unhealthy food.
• It’s time to transform yourself. Take our six week challenge. Remember, you can stick to anything for six weeks. It’s short enough that it doesn’t seem like forever, but long enough to see true results.

Want to Learn More About Getting in Shape?

If you’re ready to get in shape, contact me today here or call me at (210) 853-8333.

Many of my clients in Schertz/Cibolo, TX, say that they actually enjoy working out and wonder why they put off beginning a program for so long. If you’re in the right program for you, that’s true. Fitness programs that keep you focused as you workout and ones you like get the best results. It’s one reason trainers often switch programs frequently. It never becomes boring that way. You may be procrastinating for a number of reasons. The key to success is to start today, don’t wait. Do something active.

What have you got to lose?

Seriously, get started on something, anything, that gets your body moving. If you aren’t sure what to do, start by taking a walk. Make it brisk and walk for a half hour to 45 minutes if you can. You don’t have to have fancy equipment or even a gym to get into shape. There are body weight workouts you can do that are exceptional. Rather than sitting in front of the television or computer to get rid of the stress of the day, working out hard can burn off those stress hormones fast and make you feel good. If you get home from work feeling wiped out or stressed out, try working out. You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel.

Starting workouts on your own can be intimidating.

Some people don’t start because they worry they won’t get it right. If you’re one of those people, you do have a point. Making sure you have the right form for each exercise is important. It can cause injury if you don’t. That’s when you first start with walking more. Make sure you have good posture when you walk and hold your head high. Walk briskly. Use videos to help you with other exercises and don’t try to do them all. Focus on one exercise until you know you have the proper form, then add another.

You may worry that you won’t stick with the program.

One thing is guaranteed. If you don’t start, you won’t have to worry about sticking with the program, since there will be no program to do. However, you’ll never feel or look better, either. The solution for most of the fears and reasons for not starting a workout is to use the services of a personal trainer. A trainer ensures you do each movement properly. He or she also keeps you accountable for coming, since the workout becomes an appointment. Having a workout buddy can also be helpful if you don’t use a trainer.

• Postponing starting for the perfect time means that you’ll never start. Lack of time, money or too much stress aren’t excuses. There’s always a few minutes of each day you can use working out at home and exercise reduces stress, so it’s best at that time.
• If you have a health condition, talk with your health care professional first. In most cases, medical professionals encourage exercise, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
• Start slowly and work toward a higher goal. If you do too much too soon, you’ll be too sore to do more then next day. Doing something now doesn’t mean doing everything now.
• If you’re inspired, don’t let that inspiration go to waste. Get out of your chair do deep knee bends or any other type of exercise you can do at the moment. You’re better off doing something, no matter how simple it may seem, than waiting until some far off day in the future to get started.

The more you know about getting fit, the easier it becomes. Don’t fall into the trap of doing the wrong things to lose weight that can be quite discouraging. Here are the top 3 fat loss mistakes and some ways to counter them. I’ve included other hints that can help you shed pounds and keep the weight from returning. Arm yourself with this information to keep you on the road to weight loss and fitness.

One mistake is focusing only on cardio workouts.

Cardio exercises are important, but they aren’t the way to shed fat. In fact, doing too much cardio is one of the biggest mistakes most people make. Yes, cardio does burn a lot of calories, so running every day will help shed pounds. The problem isn’t whether it burns calories, but where the the body gets the calories. They come from both lean muscle mass and fat. You need muscle tissue. The more you have, the more calories your body burns 24/7, which means it boosts your metabolism making weight loss easier. It’s better to do strength training exercises that build muscle tissue as they burn calories.

Eating too few calories is a big mistake.

Your body needs fuel, especially if you’re working out in addition to changing eating habits. Super low calorie diets aren’t the way to go. Not only are they not sustainable, they are counterproductive. They put your body into starvation mode, which means it slows your metabolism to ration calories for important functions. You’re better off eating healthy meals, remembering portion control and forgetting about calorie counting.

A huge mistake is to think you can do it all with exercise.

Exercise is an integral part of a weight loss program, but you still need to combine it with healthy eating. A great body starts in the kitchen, not in the gym. If you workout regularly, but top off your workout with a pizza and a beer or two orders of fries, a soft drink and Big Mac, you won’t make any headway. You need both a healthy diet and regular exercise.

• Portion control is often forgotten and extremely important. A healthy snack of a handful of nuts is good, an entire family size bag of mixed nuts is not.
• Just because you want to get rid of fat on your body, don’t eliminate it from your diet. You need healthy fat to maintain bodily functions. Your brain is 60% fat! Both healthy fat and protein also fill you up and keep you feeling full longer.
• Don’t make the mistake of choosing low or no fat alternatives in food. They’re often made more palatable by adding sugar and can make you fatter by stimulating the production of insulin.
• Strength training, especially when combined in a HIIT—high intensity interval training— program, burns huge amounts of calories. It continues to burn them for up to 24 hours after the exercise ends, which can boost fat burning by as much as 24%.

It’s time to spring clean your fitness routine here in Schertz/Cibolo, TX. If you’ve been working out inside, maybe it’s time to switch it up and enjoy the dryer weather. You don’t have to give up the gym! Just start enjoying your fitness and add a few things, like adding walks during lunch hours and visits to farmer’s markets for fresh produce. If you’re part of our family at Custom Body Bootcamp you already vary your workout based on trainer’s recommendations, but if you’re not, here are some recommendations and reasons to change it up a bit.

Are you working out harder than you were a year ago?

When many of my clients first come to Custom Body Bootcamp, they couldn’t do many of the exercises that were part of their program. Not for lack of instruction on how to do them, but simply because their bodies weren’t cooperating. Today, those same people are pros at the ones they couldn’t do and push toward achieving more intensity and more repetitions. In other words, the fitter they become, the more they ask their bodies to achieve. That’s the only road toward progress and they know it.

Doing the same thing continuously can lead to plateauing.

Everyone has one or two favorite exercises they enjoy doing. That’s all right, as long as you aren’t depending on just those exercises. The longer you do a workout, the more efficient your muscles become at that exercise. While efficiency is good when you’re working, it’s not so good when you’re working out. It means your body burns fewer calories and burning fewer calories can lead to plateauing. It’s time to change up that old routine for a new one this spring.

Does your fitness routine include healthy eating?

When you think of a fitness routine, you normally think of only what you do at the gym, but there’s more to a routine than just that. Eating healthy should be part of your day, too. You cannot out exercise an unhealthy diet. It’s impossible. If you’re consuming fries, burgers, shakes and cakes, you’d have to spend the day in the gym to burn off all those extra calories. That doesn’t take into consideration the lack of good nutrition and effects on your weight it can have.

• Add some activity to your daily life. It doesn’t have to be traditional exercise. Just walking to lunch rather than taking a cab or car or spending some time playing with the kids can increase your exercise and burn more calories. Don’t forget to say no to the elevator and yes to the stairs.
• Consider adding some meditation or breathing exercises to your routine. While working out at the gym can burn off stress, sometimes you need to address it immediately. Those will help.
• Take up a new active sport. If you’ve never rock climbed, give it a try. Consider learning how to roller blade or just start taking bike hikes. There’s no better way to add to your fitness than doing activities you love.
• Encourage a friend to join you in eating healthy and working out. You’ll find the buddy system keeps you accountable and makes it easier to stick with a program.

There are all types of diets in Schertz/Cibolo, TX, but one that’s often touted as being the best is a low carb diet. Is it true it’s the real pathway to losing weight and looking great or is it all a myth that could potentially put on the pounds? There’s been a lot of time to test theories, since low carb diets have been around for ages. One of the more noted ones was popular about 45 years ago. It was the Atkins diet and extremely low carb. It promoted eating foods higher in fat, which produced ketones. Once the diet ended, the weight often returned very quickly.

There are newer versions of the low carbohydrate diet that are healthier than the Atkins diet.

The Atkins diet had people piling their plates with loads of steak and just one small floret of broccoli or two. It was too severe, but the newer diets aren’t. One study focused on just boosting the protein amount in the diet and lowering the carbohydrate percentage. The group first established the effects of the typical diet that had 50 percent carbs, 15 percent protein and 35 percent fat, allowing participants to eat as much as they wanted. Next, the same group raised the protein intake to 30 percent, lowered fat intake to 20 percent and maintained 50 percent carbs. The results after 14 weeks was an average 11 pound weight loss with eight coming from shedding body fat.

Everything in moderation, even dieting.

No matter what type of diet you eat, unless it’s a well balanced healthy diet made of whole foods, if you go overboard and get radical, there are health risks. Low carb diets are no different. If you’re not eating carbs, what are you burning for energy? Is it lean muscle mass? That could seriously affect your effort to shed weight by slowing your metabolism. High protein, high fat and low carb diets can increase cholesterol levels and ridding your body of the ketones from burning fat can cause kidney stones. Focus on healthy changes, not fads.

Healthy changes means eating healthy carbs!

There are healthy forms of protein, healthy fats and healthy carbs. It’s all about ensuring your diet has healthy foods, not just a specific percent of macronutrients. Not all fat is healthy, but you do need some, some make sure it comes from healthy sources like avocados or fatty fish. When you go low carb, give up the processed flour products and stick with the multicolor veggies—leaving potatoes and starchy vegetables for less frequent eating. Definitely cut out sugar, no matter what type of diet you choose, low carb or otherwise. You can include sweet fruits to get that boost of energy.

• Low carb diets that focus on fresh fruits and vegetables, lean protein sources and healthy fats is the actual definition of healthy eating!
• A diet higher in protein can help fill you up, so you’ll be less tempted to eat fattening things, like unhealthy snacks between meals.
• Eating a healthy low carb diet includes eating healthy fat, which actually lowers bad cholesterol levels, while raising the good cholesterol.
• Less drastic, modified low carb diets make it easier to stick with the program. It eliminates the calorie or carb counting and focuses more on healthy eating, which you can maintain throughout your life.

If you’ve never worked out hard and felt the exhausted but pleasant feeling of accomplishment you get, you probably don’t realize that working out can make you happy. I see the difference in people from how stressed they were when they began the workout at the Schertz/Cibolo boot camp and that smile on their face when they finished. You may think that it’s just that they’re glad it’s over, but there’s more to it than that! It is a feeling of accomplishment, there’s no doubt, but there are scientific explanations for that happy feeling.

Exercise burns off the hormones of stress.

The body was designed to face stressors like wild animals and enemy tribes. Unfortunately, it didn’t get the message that we’ve advanced beyond that. Even though there are some real stressors in the world that require the fight or flight response, most of them are angry bosses, crying children and traffic jams, where the reaction of running or fighting isn’t appropriate. The body still manufactures stress hormones that prepare it to run or fight and those make significant changes that leave you feeling uncomfortable, agitated and if left unchecked, can affect your overall health, not just your mood. Exercise burns off those hormones by mimicking the activities of running or fighting and puts you back to normal.

Your body produces hormones that make you feel good.

When you act on the fight or flight response, your brain releases both a protein called BDNF and hormones, such as endorphins. Endorphins are feel good hormones that act similar to morphine. They activate the same brain receptors and help reduce pain and any discomfort in the body. In fact, they’re chemically similar to morphine. The BDNF helps protect the brain from stress. While you need to have a vigorous workout to experience the rush, even light exercise, like walking helps reduce stress.

Your brain is doing more than producing endorphins.

When you workout, the brain works harder and increases serotonin and nor epinephrine. Those are neurotransmitters that help send the message of happiness throughout the body. While the endorphins play a role, the serotonin and nor epinephrine is the delivery system and you leave the gym feeling great again with a better outlook on life. Exercise is now part of programs for anxiety and depression.

• You can get too much of a good thing. If you’re working out hard more than seven or eight hours a week, you’ll feel worse, not better. You’ll know if you’re working out too much because you feel worse.
• Regular exercise can help boost your confidence. Studies show that even before you see results you feel better about yourself for exercising. Results only boost that good feeling.
• Exercise can provide a socially acceptable coping mechanism. Don’t punch anyone in the face hit a punching bag or workout until you’re too tired to care! Exercise also gets your mind off your troubles and can end that loop going in your head.
• Exercise can be quite social. Socializing, even if it’s just a smile, can lighten your mood. It’s far better than sitting and stewing alone.

Don’t get me wrong, when I say that not all workouts are created equal, that doesn’t mean you should stop the exercises you’re doing in search of the best ones. Quite the contrary. ANY EXERCISE is preferable to no exercise at all. However, some will get you in shape faster or help you lose weight quicker. In fact, it’s one reason people use personal trainers. Getting the best results for your time in the gym is always a goal. You need to identify what you’re hoping to achieve to find the best exercise for your needs. Each type is necessary, but focusing on a specific type can give you the best results.

Strength training is at the top.

If your goal is weight loss or building muscles, strength training should be at the top. While cardio workouts burn calories, so does strength training. Strength training also helps prevent muscle loss that can lead to bone loss. Aerobic training, cardio, doesn’t discriminate where those calories come from. They may come from burning body fat or burning lean muscle tissue. When you’re burning calories for strength training, you’re also building muscle tissue and muscle tissue burns more calories 24/7 than fat tissue does.

You need cardio, flexibility and balance training.

Don’t let the promotion of strength training mean you have to give up other types of exercise and head for the weights. You need all types of workouts to be fit. That’s why your goal is important. If burning calories is tops, go for it, add strength training to your workout schedule, but don’t do it more than twice a week if you’re going hard. Your muscles need time to recuperate and heal. Balance and flexibility training can help prevent injury from falls or sprains and strains. Cardio is necessary for heart health and endurance.

HIIT—high intensity interval training—is a way to get all the benefits.

HIIT is a method of doing different types of exercise, not an exercise itself. It’s a type of interval training. When you workout with a HIIT format, you give it all you have for a short time, followed by a moderate pace to recover. Then you repeat this process until your workout is over, between 10 and 30 minutes. You notice I didn’t mention a specific type of workout. That’s because you can use HIIT with any type of exercise. You can run hard and then jog, then back to running hard. Pushing hard in interval training gets many of the same results, but you’re working a lot of body areas.

• HIIT workouts provide cardio and strength training. They can also include balance and flexibility, so you get a full workout.
• HIIT workouts keep burning fat after you’ve finished. It uses fat to get your body back to normalcy after the workout.
• There are various ideas of the ratio of HIIT between the all out and the resting time. The best ratio should be one that’s tough for you, but not so tough you have to quit. A heartrate monitor helps.
• Any interval training can be turned into a HIIT interval training. Just adjust the amount of energy you put into the exercise. Go at maximum heart rate for a while and then do exercises at moderate rates.

Our gym in Schertz/Cibolo, TX is the perfect place to start to transform your body into the one that is healthy and more like it was meant to be. Everyone has the ability to be a better version of themselves. Fitness is all about turning small changes into habits that eventually, change your life. When you start working out with us, you might not believe you’re capable of the goals you set, but it won’t take long before you see you can transform yourself with by changing yourself one habit at a time.

If you don’t believe you can get fit, give yourself a time limit to see how much you can accomplish.

There’s a reason we offer a fourteen day kickstart program. It doesn’t require a long commitment, yet after the program is done, people feel so great and start to see the changes that they want to continue further. There’s no “LIFETIME” contract or other long term commitment that can look overwhelming and frankly, would scare me, too. Committing to a program for 14 days is the start of a total transformation.

You have to eat healthy.

Your body requires the right fuel to operate at its best. In fact, some foods, such as those containing high fructose corn syrup, actually sabotage you by affecting the hunger hormones in your body. When you eat food with this type of sugar, it reduces the leptin hormones, the hormones that make you feel full, and boosts the ghrelin hormones that leave you feeling starved. Eating highly processed foods also reduces the nutrients and often add not only extra calories, but a laundry list of chemicals into your body. Eating whole foods, with little or no processing, gives you high nutrition and lower calories. After just a few weeks, you’ll notice you no longer crave sugary foods and really enjoy a healthier way of eating.

You have to move your body for it to be its fittest.

Our bodies are amazing. Instead of wearing out, they just get stronger the more we work them. Fitness starts when you keep your body moving on a consistent schedule. Working out is one change you truly have to commit to in order to see results. When you change your eating habits, if you only have healthy food available, you’ll eat that healthy food. However, even if you put on workout clothes, it doesn’t mean you’ll get moving. It’s hard work and after the first session, people often question why they’re doing it. While seeing great results takes longer than two weeks, you’ll feel the results in your increased energy level after just two weeks.

• Rather than sit on the edge and always wonder whether you could make a change, just do it. Give two weeks to being healthier and see what a difference it makes.
• If you normally have a diet that’s high in sugar, you’ll feel some signs of withdrawal. Sugar is highly addictive, but after a few weeks, you’ll find your cravings diminish.
• What you eat is important, but so is what you drink. Instead of diet or regular soft drinks, switch to water. Herbal tea, green tea and even some coffee can also be added to the list of safe drinks.
• Eating healthy means you’ll never have to count calories or diet again.

There’s a lot of study about the effects of exercise on mental health and brain related illnesses. Most studies show that you can protect your memory and improve your mental health with fitness. Working out has recently been added to many protocols for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients and showed improvement or a slower progression of the disease. Therapists are finding that exercise and healthy eating play a dramatic role in improving the recovery from depression and anxiety.

You may have experienced it yourself.

If you’ve come into the gym, dragged out and in a such a bad mood, even puppies aren’t cute, but left feeling chipper and great again, you’ve experienced the effect that exercise has on your mindset. Exercise can burn off those hormones of stress that can affect your mood and replaces them with ones that make you feel good. Not only do the workouts boost endorphins, which you’ve probably heard about being responsible for the “runner’s high,” It also produces dopamine while you’re working out and as that lowers after the workout, serotonin. Serotonin, is responsible for many things, like the sleep wake cycle, but it also gives you a sense of satisfaction.

Exercise may be critical for those with depression.

Not only does exercise help reduce the risk of depression, it also keeps you more alert as you age. Studies have shown that it’s effective in treating many conditions and even helps with certain issues in schizophrenia. It affects areas of the brain and increases the blood supply, boosting the delivery of oxygen and nutrition. It may create new neurons in the hippo campus, an area of the brain that helps memory, learning and regulates emotion. It also improves the neuron signaling, connections and growth by increasing neurohormones and neurotrophic factors.

Exercise can boost your self-image.

Studies show that just starting a program of exercise can improve people’s self-image. Just imagine how much good it does when the results appear. If you’re feeling frumpy, fat, unfit or other type of emotion that indicates you’re not perfect physically (Who doesn’t from time to time?), working out can help and the results will add to your self-esteem. You’ll even walk taller because of improved posture and that can make you feel good too.

• The boost in serotonin from exercise helps you sleep better. The better you sleep, the better your mood normally is.
• While you’re working out, you’ll normally be focusing on the exercise, rather than the problems of the day. That alone can help give you mind a break from negative thinking and make you feel good.
• You’ll get a boost of energy after you exercise for a while. That extra energy can make you feel good emotionally, too.
• Many people hold their problems in, causing skeletal tension. Exercise helps you release that tightness and gives you a more relaxed feeling.