Trainer Tip Fitness Questions To Ask Yourself Coppell & Online Coach

Coppell Trainer and Online Fitness Coach Tip – Questions to ask yourself if you are not getting the fitness results you are looking for.If you have any questions, write it in the comment below. This tip is important as we always get “I feel like I am doing all the right things but just not […]

Trainer Tip Fitness Questions To Ask Yourself Coppell & Online Coach

Coppell Trainer and Online Fitness Coach Tip – Questions to ask yourself if you are not getting the fitness results you are looking for.
If you have any questions, write it in the comment below.

This tip is important as we always get “I feel like I am doing all the right things but just not getting the results I want”

When looking to look and feel your best you have to realize that it is not just one thing you have to change in order for you to get the results you want.

You have to do a number of different little things over time in order to get that 6 pack or lose the weight around your hips.

You can’t just exercise, you can’t just eat better, you can’t just drink more water, or you can’t just take pills. It takes small changes and consistency over time to get the results you are looking for. Many use the perform “lifestyle” because you are really changing your lifestyle. 

Here are a few questions that can help you in figuring out if you need to make a few changes to help change your lifestyle.

1. Do you have a goal? What is your motivation?
This is number one because if you don’t really have anything you are aiming for, your most likely never going to come close to a goal. If you goal is to lose weight, why do you want to lose weight. That would be the motivation behind the weight loss. An example would be “I want to lose weight to look better for my husband/wife”. I would suggest getting a picture of them and writing “This is why I am doing it” on the picture. Have that picture with you every where you go. We have had a few clients have their before picture (a not so pleasing picture) with them and in their nutritional journal so that every time they go eat, they see that picture and why they are eating smaller healthier portions. The motivation behind what your goal is will be the reason WHY you don’t order the hamburger at Chili’s and go for the healthy items and also skip on desert.
What is your motivation? What is your goal?

GO here for a free video on how to dial in on your goals and WHY

2. Are you eating 5-6 small meals and snack each day?
You should shoot for three small meals and three small snacks every 2 and ½ to 3 hours. Each meal should have a protein the size of a deck of cards and two fist-sized servings of veggies. Each snack should include protein and fruit.  Meals and snacks should include: protein, high-fiber complex carbs, and healthy fats.

Protein and fiber help you feel full; complex carbs digest slowly without spiking blood sugar; and the fat, which also digests slowly, delivers a spurt of energy long after it’s consumed. You can also add in a meal replacement shake or health bar to help save time. A study in the Journal of Nutrition found that meal replacement shakes help in weight loss. Not only will it save you time, but it will also help get you in shape.  An example of a healthy eating schedule would be: 7am breakfast, 9:30am snack, 12pm lunch, 3pm snack, 6:30pm dinner and optional snack 3 hour before bed.

Your body will be a burning fire that will keep you feeling good and energized throughout the day.  Planning and preparing each small meal and snack for the week will keep your body fueled and your metabolism going all day long. Pre-planning with healthier, self-prepared foods will help you save money in the long run because you won’t have to eat out at fast food places, restaurants, convenient stores, and cafés.  Having something to eat will also stop the excuse of going to through a fast food line because you did not have time to fix something to eat.

3. Are you eating a well-balance breakfast everyday?

 – A healthy breakfast is an undeniable requirement for anyone in the process of beginning, achieving or maintaining an appropriate weight. Fueling your body with the nutrients it needs first thing in the morning, enhances your metabolism and sets the tone for your body for the rest of the day.  Eating breakfast helps you lose body fat because it gets your body going early in the day. Breakfast is just what the words sounds like: you break the fast in which your body has gone from eating last.  Your body needs energy from breakfast to carry about in normal day-to-day activities. Breakfast also helps get your metabolism going so it is able to quickly break down the foods you eat later in the day. Breakfast also helps curb your hunger, prevents binging, and prevents grazing during the day.

A study done at the University of Massachusetts reported startling statistics. You are 150% more likely to be obese by eating breakfast away from home, and you are an astonishing 450% more likely to be obese by not eating breakfast at all.

Statistics also show that only 14% of the United States eats a complete breakfast everyday.

If time is your excuse, the Alovae Replacement Shakes provide a well-balanced, lower-calorie meal that’s high in protein, and supports weight loss by building your muscle, not your fat. Many of Get You In Shape’s success stories come from people who plugged this one change into their daily nutrition program. 

If you do have time to make a quick breakfast, here are some healthy options:
1. Whole-wheat bread with some low-fat cheese or peanut butter with fruit
2. Low-fat, no-sugar added yogurt with a banana or piece of fruit.
3. Old Fashion Oatmeal (yes the slow cooking kind) with fruit. There are a few healthy instant oatmeal packs. Just make sure you read the label. Add a glass of soy milk or milk to add more protein.
4. 2(3) eggs whites, and 1 whole egg with whole-wheat toast (may add natural peanut butter) and fruit.
5. Hard boiled egg(s), whole-wheat toast (with peanut butter), and fruit.
You can add skim milk, low-fat milk, or silk milk to add some extra calcium and protein.

4. Are you eating at least every 3 hours and do you stop eating at least 3 hours before bed?
Eat At Least Every 3 hours
.
The goal is to eat every 3 hours throughout the day. I am not going to get into all the reasons why I recommend eating every 3 hours for short-term results and long-term lifestyle.

I will point out a few of them so that you can know why it’s worked so well for me and thousands of my clients over the years.  Food is energy so by eating every 3 hours it’s going to give your body an opportunity to use that food as energy, not store it as fat. It will also help you with your cravings and overeating.

If your body gets a lot of its daily nourishment throughout the day, it will naturally not need or want as much food later in the day.

The majority of people eat more calories after 5pm than they do the entire day because their brain is telling them to eat anything and everything to make up for hardly eating during the day.

You can certainly play around with the timing to make it less or more than every three hours but the idea is shooting to stay close to that mark.

Let’s look at an example of a typical day 

7:00am – Breakfast
10am – snack
1:00pm – Lunch
4pm – snack
7pm -dinner
10pm – sleep

Stop Eating 3 Hours Before You Go To Sleep

When we eat food, it requires energy from the body. The body has to work to digest the food and causes the body have to work which increases cortisol. This causes a decrease in melatonin which impacts your which causes a delay in your ability to go to sleep and also impacts the quality of your sleep. This tip will not only help you with your health and fitness but it will also help with your sleep.

Since many people consume a lot of their daily calories after getting home from work in the evening, adding this tool will also help your body get in calories throughout the day instead like most people and after they get home from work.  

This is a tough tip to get into the habit of but with proper planning I promise that you will feel and see results by following this tip.

5. Are you doing getting in enough resistance training and movement?

Resistance Training is the key to quality of life as we age. We know through science that building and, most importantly, maintaining lean muscle tissue is vital. Lean muscle tissue is the fuel for our metabolic engine. The more we have, the more we burn calories 24/7 around the clock – even when we sleep! So it’s important to get in 2-3 resistance or strength training workouts each week. You can get more but it should be at least 2-3 times a week at a minimum. 

Cardio is also essential for heart health and to supplement calorie burn (if weight loss if a goal), but resistance training should be the foundation for any exercise program.

We have designed our weekly programming so that you do Total Body Workouts Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s. Tuesday’s and Thursday’s are core and cardio days. Saturday’s are Mobility with added cardio. 

If you are following this and are not getting results you probably need to focus on the nutrition. If you are NOT following this plan then let’s start “following the darn instructions” and shoot for 5 workouts a week. 

If you are getting in the M-W-F sessions the first start would be to add in the  Tuesday and Thursday workouts. 

If you are not pushing yourself on the workouts you may need to focus on raising your intensity level and how hard you are trying to push yourself.

If you have a heart rate monitor, this is an easy way of seeing just how hard you are going. The more you can raise your heart and lower it (interval training) the more your heart has to work.

The next thing is to continue to change the workouts up. This just means always do different interval times each day so that your body does not get used to the same thing each time. Another thing you may want to try if you are going to the gym is to use different equipment each day or even each workout. This would be like doing 15 minutes on an elliptical, 15 minutes on the stair climber, and 15 minutes on the Concept 2 Rower.

Lastly, if you are not getting the results you are looking for, you may need to increase the amount of time you are putting into your workout. If you are changing the workouts and changing the intensity levels, you should only need 45 minutes of work along with a warm up and cool down. If you are looking for faster results, though, you may need to increase that until you have hit your number.

6. Are you drinking enough water?

We all know that we should be getting enough water but are you? Do you feel you are drinking what your body needs in order to live optimally? 

One study showed that 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Lack of water is the # 1 trigger of daytime fatigue

Another stat says that the human blood is 83% water, muscle is 75% water, liver is 96% water, bones are 22% water, and the brain is composed of approximately 93% water.

When we were born, we were about 98% water, when we reach adulthood we are anywhere from 55%-75% water.

Water is not only essential for life but in your quest for losing body fat, building muscle, and keeping healthy, it is crucial. Water is crucial to the proper functioning of every major system in your body.  We lose about a liter of water per day just through our daily activities. If you’re not getting enough water, your body will not metabolize fat or digest food as efficiently. Drinking enough water allows fat and calories to burn effectively, rid the body of toxins and waste efficiently, and improves metabolism.

Water is also important in controlling hunger. When your body does not have enough water or it is dehydrated, it will send a signal to your brain to eat. Watch out, because your body is really asking for water. This can be controlled if you’re drinking enough water. Become self-aware of your water needs and drink enough, throughout the day, before your body tells you that you need it.
Some steps that will help ensure that you are drinking enough water throughout the day.

1.Have a glass of water by your bed before you go to bed. When you wake up, drink the water.

2. Bring a water bottle everywhere you go and make sure you at the least drink 8 ounces each hour. An easy way to figure this out is to drink a 20 ounce bottle of water every 2-3 hours.

3. Drink a glass of water before and after each meal. Doing so will help to control your appetite.
Another great benefit to drinking water before and after each meal is that is will help in the digestion process.

7. Are you using your nutrition and exercise journal?

In the August 2009 Issue of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, a study was carried out regarding food journaling.  US researchers found that keeping a food diary can doubleweight loss as part of a managed program.  They said that the more consistent the records the more weight the participants lost.

When it comes to health, nutrition and fitness, losing weight is number one on the list when it comes to goals. If someone told you that you could double your weight loss just by doing this one thing, would you do it? One thing could be jumping off a cliff or running a marothon. Most people woudl be willing to do either of those just to lose weight. Keeping track of your daily consumption through food jounaling is not life threatening or anything like what a marothon would do to your body. This article will help you realize that inputting this change can and will help you acheive your weight loss and fitness goals.

It is important to realize that writing in a nutritional journal, keeping up with it online or on your phone does not have to be a life-long process. You have to view journaling as a means to an end. You have a goal and you doing this is just one of the steps you need to take to reach or accomplish that goal.

It is good to know why journaling is beneficial to losing weight or helping you achieving your weight loss goals. Here are a few benefits to writing and journaling your calories in a journal, online, or with your phone. Here are a few reason or benefits to writing or having a food journal and using it as a means to reach your health and fitness goals

1.Allows you to monitor how many calories you are consuming. Most people know that you need to consume fewer calories than your body burns in order to lose weight. The nutritional journal will help you monitor just how much you are consuming each day which will help you make the changes you need to lower your intake.

2.Helps you control the urge to overeat.– Many people who we talk to who journal have said this benefit of nutritional journal is key. Your actions change when you know you have to journal that you 2 pieces of garlic bread or you went through the buffet line again. This helps you not binge or overeat those times when you think you need to. Knowing you will be writing down EVERYTHING in your nutritional journal will help those urges to eat one more chip, one more Hershey kiss, one more bit of desert.

3.Encourages you to make better food choices.Most people don’t think about the calories that are in the foods that choose. This is very evident with restaurants and the amount of calories people are consuming in one sitting while eating out. Having to write down you had a bag of chips and salsa at On The Border that has about 1200 calories may help you realize it may not be worth it to have the chips.  Writing in a food journal will help you pay more attention to the foods you are eating.

4.Helps you realize how much you really eat!It is a eye opener to know how many calories you are really consuming after starting to journal the calories you are consuming. A nutritional food journal will allow you to take a good look at the amount of calories you are putting in your body and help you realize it is too much. Once you realize this, you can make the changes that you need to make to see results. Knowing that you are trying to eat healthy when meeting a friend for lunch and it still comes out to 800-1000 calories will be a shock.

5.Shows how committed you are in getting the results.We all know that it is tough to do anything positive. Telling friends and family that you have given up sweets or that you only drink water now can sometimes leave them with crazy comments or looking at you like you have lost your mind. Choosing to journal is just another sign of your commitment to make a positive change and in doing so, you know that you are doing the steps you need to do to reach your weight loss goals. Each time you write something down in your food journal, online, or in your phone, you are telling yourself that you are willing to do what it takes to achieve your goals.

6.Allows you to track your progress. – Many of our boot camp participants start our program with little knowledge of what, when and how to eat. Having a food journal will allow you to look back and see how far you have come in your journey. A nutritional journal can help you see how healthier you are eating today than you did when you started. This can be very encouraging for them but it can also be used to help spread that encouragement to someone else that may be looking to change, lose weight, and get healthier.

7.You can get help from a health care professional(personal trainer, nutritionist, doctor, etc).  Maybe you feel like you are doing all the right things but are not getting the weight loss results you want. Having a food journal with what you have been eating will allow a professional to take a look at your journal and help you make the changes you need to make.

8.Allows you to make a connection between the foods you eat and how you feel. Writing in a food journal helps you learn what foods help you feel good and what foods make you drowsy or tired. You can also use it to see if a particular food triggers overeating. This can help you identify any certain type of foods or drink that you may need to eat more of or eat less on depending on how it made you feel.

9.Helps you make sure you are eating a well-balanced diet. The Get You in Shape program really stresses how important it is to eat a well-balance diet. This is making sure you are getting a blend of proteins, carbs, and good fats into your diet. A food journal can provide concrete evidence and help you decide if you really are eating a well-balanced diet.

10. Encourages you to use your brain. You will need to take some time to search for the calories in the foods you are consuming. You will be amazed at how many calories you consume when you eat out compared to cooking your own food. You will be amazed writing down what you eat encourages you to think about what you are eating. Using a food journal will take some time but the time you take you will be learning and using your brain. Once you learn it, it will become easier and easier to track your foods.

Now that you know the benefits of using a nutritional journal, we will now help you learn how to use the journal.

We recommend you go the smartphone route, we highly recommend using MyFitnessPal – Track calories, breakdown ingredients, and log activities. Calories can be checked online or tracked in the app. (Click Here for the one page sheet for downloading the MyFitnessPal app, friending your coach so we can check your journal and other setting changes that will help you). It’s the #1 journal app in the world, owned by Under Armur so they have done all the work for us. 

The only thing to keep in my is we would like to steer you away from is getting consumed by and analyzing calories and macronutrient percentages (carbs, fats, and protein) at this point. There is a time and place for all of this but right now, we are trying to make it simple and sustainable.

Not ready for a food journal app yet?

If you are not ready to make a big change just quite yet then we recommend just downloading the Habit Tracking Sheet Herethen you can download the one page Food Journal Template here

Write down WHAT time you ate. Focus on eating something every 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours which will help keep your metabolism up throughout the day.

Write down 
EVERYTHINGyou eat and drink. This includes EVERYTHING. You will also count the calories in EVERYTHING. This include the half cookie you ate in the break room that adds another 75 calories to your daily calories. This includes the glass of wine you had when you got home from work. It all adds up!

Each day you will count up all the calories consumed. The next step is to make sure you are consuming less calories than what your body burns each day to lose weight.

Not a part of our Fitness Family? Click below to learn more.

Posted by

Share

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

GET YOU IN SHAPE ON ABC