Incorporating Fitness In A Busy Lifestyle

A hectic lifestyle is usually the reason why most individuals cannot stay in shape consistently. A busy lifestyle is almost always given the blame when staying fit fails. Typically this results in an unhealthy lifestyle rather than a healthy one. Especially when ones career takes them away from home and from time to time. Finding and/or being able to stay on a fitness plan becomes very challenging when your life is ruled by limited time, stress or business meals tempt you to eat incorrectly. In this post we are going to look at some of the ways that you can stay fit even if you are extremely busy in your life and career.

Most people have goals for work and a very clear vision for their working life. Having goals is also a great idea whenever you start a new fitness plan. If you document your goals for your weight, the shape of your body and what transformations you want to make, you are more likely to find ways to make those happen. Monitor the gains or your achievements that you make towards the goals you have identified, it will help you to reinforce your commitment to your fitness program.Think of how achieving your goals this will make you feel and relate that to how it will improve your performance on your job. By doing this, fitness can become part of your lifestyle instead of something you don’t have any time for.

If your career has you working away from home, plan ahead to make sure you maintain your fitness routine. One example of this is to find and stay in a hotel with amenities like gym and a pool area, or something that allows you to keep up with your fitness routine. If the hotel doesn't offer anything, there may be a gym in the neighborhood of your hotel. Now, if these options are not possible, you can always exercise in your hotel room. There are plenty of exercises that can be done in your room.

You would make things much easier for yourself if you spelled out your fitness goals to business colleagues and associates, and let them understand the importance of healthy eating and drinking habits in your personal setup.

Effective time-management is really all that is needed to find those periods of time where fitness activities can be done. Example- Suppose you plan on going to the gym right after getting home from working all day. Finding the motivation to stick with going to gym you are home is probably going to be difficult, since you are tired and most likely will start to get comfortable and relax. So, it's a better idea of heading to gym before you head home.

Lets face it, everyone is busy. However, there are many ways you can make time for incorporating fitness into your life. In doing so, you are going to find many benefits, including being healthy and even raising your energy level which will help with your hectic life.

Don't make These Exercising Mistakes

Exercising is, hands-down, one of the best physical things you can do for your health.

Besides being beneficial for weight management, exercise can reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and depression, and it can increase your energy levels, help you think clearer, and slow down the aging process.

Unfortunately, exercise is also one of the first things that tends to fall by the wayside. And, even with the best intentions and follow-through, progress can stall and intentions can go awry...

Shape magazineⁱ lists eight exercise mistakes that could be keeping you from getting the full benefit of your fitness program.

Interestingly enough, one specific type of exercise can help you circumvent or overcome most of these pitfalls, namely high intensity interval training—exercises in which you go "all out" for about 30 seconds, followed by a 90-second recovery interval.

(One session consists of eight such intervals.) Here, I'll reveal how...

Skimping on Sleep to Work Out Could Backfire

While I do recommend exercising first thing in the morning, I don't advise sacrificing sleep to do so. Fortunately, you don't have to!  The research that has emerged over the past several years clearly indicates you don't need to exercise for long periods of time—as long as you're exercising correctly! As it turns out, the most effective and efficient way to work out is to 'remember' your ancestral roots, meaning, how humans used to move.

Both young children and animals clearly demonstrate the proper way to exercise: in short but aggressive or intense spurts with rest in between. 

High intensity interval training using an elliptical machine or stationary bike can mimic this, and a growing body of research tells us the benefits from exercising this way are FAR greater than slow, long-distance forms of exercise. Interval training can dramatically improve your cardiovascular fitness and fat-burning capabilities in a fraction of the time--because you're utilizing your body as it was designed to be used. 

A high intensity interval session only requires about 20 minutes or less, two or three times a week, opposed to an hour or more on the treadmill, several times a week. Most people can carve out 20 minutes without losing sleep over it. As mentioned in the featured article, getting enough sleep is an important aspect of health, and lack of sleep can hamper weight loss efforts and contribute to a wide range of health problems.

Concentrating on a Single Body Area is Counterproductive

As tempting as it may be to believe you have to do 100 crunches a day to achieve washboard abs, the truth is that such spot-specific focus tends to fail miserably. One of the main reasons for this is that in order to achieve muscle definition, regardless of what area of your body you're targeting, you need to lose fat, and spot-specific exercises like crunches are not an efficient way to boost fat loss...

High intensity exercises can make a dramatic difference here, because these exercises not only boost fat burning, they also automatically help create muscle definition all over your body, while simultaneously improving your aerobic fitness. 

While I don't recommend doing just one form of exercise, IF that's all you have time for, then doing short but high intensity Peak Fitness exercises will give you the greatest all-around benefits, and this form of exercise differs from others in that it benefits your entire body. This is because high intensity exercises sequentially recruit all the different types of muscle fibers in your body, starting with the smaller motor units made up of slow-twitch fibers—which are primarily aerobic in metabolism, have a lot of endurance, and recover quickly—to the intermediate fibers; followed by the fast-twitch fibers. 

The key to activating your fast-twitch muscle fibers is intensity, or speed.

Your fast-twitch fibers are largely glycolytic and store a lot of glucose. When these muscles are recruited, it creates the stimulus needed to grow muscle. At the same time, it enlarges the glucose storage reservoir in the muscle, which in turn enhances your insulin sensitivity. I've often stated that normalizing your insulin is one of the primary health benefits of exercise, and this is particularly true in the case of high-intensity exercise. Conventional aerobics does not do this as efficiently.

Activating your fast-twitch fibers also prompts your body to create human growth hormone (HGH), also known as "the fitness hormone," which plays an important role in slowing down the aging process. 

Jumping on Every Fitness Fad that Comes Along May Hinder Your Progress

As mentioned by Shape Magazine, mixing up your workout is a great way to challenge your body and keep things interesting. But jumping on every exercise fad that comes along can be counterproductive. You need to stick with your program to give yourself the chance to reap the benefits from it. 

That said, there's certainly nothing wrong with trying something new. After all, exercise is part and parcel of a healthy lifestyle, so it's a lifelong endeavor. There's plenty of time to explore. I'm a perfect example of this myself; after 30 years of being a dedicated long-distance runner, I stopped running over three years ago and switched to interval training instead once I realized just how much time I was wasting, and how many more health benefits I could reap from the switch. 

Now I just do one high intensity Peak Fitness exercise on the elliptical once a week, along with two weekly strength training workouts. I go up to three Peak Fitness workouts a week if I don't have access to weight equipment when I am traveling.  But I pay careful attention to my energy level during the workout and during the day. If I notice that I don't have the energy to finish the workout or the weight I can lift is decreasing and not increasing, I know it is time to take a break and get some more recovery time.

Over-Exercising Could Do More Harm than Good...

Switching from long-distance running to high intensity Peak Exercises has saved me a TON of time while improving my physical fitness. There's no doubt in my mind that most people are wasting loads of precious time in the gym, or running outside, as I once was... Some may even be doing more harm than good by exercising too much—either by exercising too intensely, and/or too frequently.

As discussed in the featured article, the "no pain, no gain" methodology can backfire, as can the practice of hitting the gym twice a day... Granted, over-exercising is far less common than not exercising enough. But it does happen, and tends to be counterproductive in most cases—at least if you're exercising for general health and longevity. 

Part of the equation of creating optimal fitness is recovery. Besides intensity, recovery is a key factor of high intensity workouts. An equation to keep in mind is that as intensity increases, frequency can be diminished. In fact, you need to allow your body to fully recuperate in between sessions, so it's NOT recommended to do high intensity exercises more than three times a week. Both Phil Campbell and Dr. Doug McGuff have addressed this in previous interviews. 

If you don't allow your body to fully recuperate and rebuild, your efforts will not pay off beneficial dividends.... I made that mistake, which is why I cut back on my frequency. If you're competing, you can certainly increase the frequency, but if you're exercising to get healthy and live longer, then make sure to give yourself sufficient recovery time in between sessions.

One of the keys here, as with any exercise program and lifestyle change, is to carefully listen to your body. With exercise you have to pay careful attention to recover if you tend to be someone who pushes yourself hard. If you only work out occasionally, this is a non-issue. But for those who are really committed and disciplined, it is very easy to over train, so please understand that recovery is every bit as important as training and if you work out too much you will not achieve the results you're seeking.

Over- or Underestimating Yourself Could Nullify Your Efforts

As described in the featured article, many make the mistake of either pushing themselves too hard, or not hard enough. Or, when it comes to strength training; using weights that are too heavy or too light. In order to maximize your workout efforts, you need to strive for that 'Goldilocks' Zone' where you're pushing hard enough to challenge your body at your current level of fitness. Needless to say, this will change over time, and that's the crux—a lot of people forget they need to continuously up the ante as their fitness improves.

This is especially important as it applies to high intensity exercises. To perform it correctly, you'll want to raise your heart rate to your anaerobic threshold, and to do that, you have to give it your all for those 20 to 30 second intervals. (As a general guideline, you can calculate your anaerobic threshold by subtracting your age from 220.)

Easy Portion Control

You hear it all the time, "watch your portion size when dieting and you are looking to eat healthier and manage weight. It seems so simple, but like most "easy" things, is easier said than done for most. To make portion control work, its best to get to the most elementary level possible. How much more elementary can you get than your hands? My hands you ask? Yes your hands, and this time it really is as easy as it looks.

Check out the hand portion control chart below to learn more. For instance the chart states one "cupped" hand is equivalent to half a cup of cooked vegetables, pastas, ice cream, pudding etc. This tool is not about using your hands as utensils, but it's certainly an easy place to start. It's really all about having a visual in your head of everyday portion sizes so that it becomes second nature. Then you can truly become portion savvy.

Burst Training

Here is a video demonstrating burst training that can easily be done at home

Exercise Plans

As everyone is aware, or has been told, dieting (watching what you eat) and exercise go hand in hand.

When most people think of exercise, they think of a gym membership. Gym memberships work for most people however, typically someone will join a gym, go for a short time then it becomes more intermittent. Eventually, they stop going all together and that monthly gym membership fee essentially goes to waste.

Who says you have to join a gym to exercise. In one of my previous post, I included a short video that shows some examples of exercises that can easily be done right at home. That was just one idea. You can find all kinds of exercises that can be done from the comfort of your home.

If you are someone who likes watching video's, for that extra piece of motivation, there are plenty of those too. One of the popular things being talked about now days is the P90x training.

  

I have heard from many that this works and am considering purchasing it myself. I have gotten myself into shape already, however, I think the P90X will help me to get more definition. In reviewing the information on the P90X website, its good for the beginner or the advanced person.

Whatever motivates you, whatever you decide on, it really doesn't matter. The important thing is that you eat right and stay active. The P90X is just one suggestion of how you can stay active and burn some serious calories, which will provide results much quicker. 

Dieting, what is it?

I am all for healthy eating over dieting. However, what if you eat healthily and still put on weight? Then, the only solution is to pay attention to your balance of calories consumed versus calories expended and that, without any waffling, is dieting.

In our house we try to eat a very balanced and healthy diet. At this point I think part my problem is boredom. I think everyone can agree, that boredom leads to "the munchies" which is not friend of anyone who is dieting.

Most things that I claim to hate, like running and doing my taxes, I just hate the thought of. Once I’m into the thick of the activity I always find that I enjoy it despite my initial feelings. Dieting is the opposite. I love the idea of being in control and seeing results on the scale. Once I start however, I hate the whole boring thing.

I hate the amount of mental energy it takes to lose weight.

I hate the fussing over social engagements.

I hate saying, or even thinking, “I can’t eat that”.

However, I know there is no magic solution. The goal of fitting back into my spring wardrobe can only be achieved with a certain amount of sacrifice. My next step then is to find a way to do this hard work with the minimum of resentment and the maximum of joy.

• First step: no gimmicks. That means food from all the food groups and nothing between me and my calories. I just need to be able to think about what I’m eating and how much, how I’m moving and for how long. I know now that I cannot survive on a low carb diet so I won’t try. I also know that I can’t live without healthy oils. I can, however, temporarily do without alcohol and certainly without sugar and refined carbs.

• Second step: rhythm of life. How do I incorporate eating less and moving more into my life without it taking over my life? I don’t mind hard work but I refuse to be obsessional. I’m tentatively hopeful that this Intermittent Low Calorie plan will help me with that. I can work very hard for 3 days per week, moderately hard for 3 days per week,  then chill out a bit for the last day before starting all over again. The average eaten over a week should lead to a pound or so lost but the mental anguish should be fairly minimal.

Simple & Great Dieting Tips

Here are some obstacles and their solutions for helping you achieve or even exceed your diet goals.


Problem 1-

Poor planning

Without a plan you are at the mercy of whatever cravings come along and whatever situation you find yourself stuck in. 

The Fix:

Before you go to sleep every night, think through your priorities for the next day. Plan for regular healthy food, some kind of exercise and some rewards to yourself for sticking to your plan. Try to break the habit of rewarding yourself with food. Think of the most powerful thing you could do that day to move you toward more health, then schedule it in.

Problem 2

Using food to feel better.

Ever tell yourself that, “If I eat ice cream I won’t feel so bad” or “I just gotta have …”

The Fix:

Make sure you are already eating plenty of healthy food throughout the day. When you go shopping, don’t buy the junk food, just the health stuff. That way it won’t be there to tempt you.

Problem 3

Skipping Exercise

Ever tell yourself, “I’ll finish my…, then I’ll exercise” or “I’m too sore”

The Fix

Start off gradually, maybe begin by walking a tiny bit every day, if only 5 to 10 minutes. Look at the types that take only a few minutes (such as burst training) or on consider those that are simplest, like taking walks, if physical stress is a problem.

Problem 4

Looking for the next big fat fix.

Telling yourself “as soon as I start my gym membership” or “I heard of this new diet”

The Fix:

Right now ask yourself what you will do today or tomorrow that will most effectively move you toward health. Write it down in your evening planning session. Ask this same question again every evening.

Problem 5

Dreaming/craving about sweet food/junk food.    

            Find something to distract you.

The Fix:

Try chewing gum or try eating a healthy snack. You could snack on some celery with peanut butter, some dark chocolate (in small amount), an avocado, etc. Keep healthful treats nearby to move away from urges, which cause terrible eating choices.

Problem 7

Stuffing food when starving.

Dieting is hard, especially when you are used to eating, anything you want any time of the day. For most this results in looking for the quick fix or over eating when mealtime arrives

The Fix:

Eat slowly, try completely chewing your meals. Then hold out at least 20 minutes prior to eating more. Try eating some quality food well before you get really hungry. Pay attention to your body’s subtler cues to head off major starving and then binging.

Problem 8

Poor food buying habits.

Buying food (sweets, junk food, highly processed) that you know won’t help your diet.

The Fix:

As noted in “The Fix” for Problem 2, don’t buy it. If you don’t buy it, its not there to tempt you. Try staying in the healthy fresh food sections of the grocery store first. Only go to the store after you’ve eaten well. Have plans and recipes for fixing fresh healthy meals and smaller frequent health snacks to keep you happy all day.

10 minute workout

This is a great video that will really help you with your dieting, about burst training which is done in  ten minutes (10), every other day. Its really simple and can be done by the advanced or beginner dieter. 

Dieting & exercise

When it comes to someone who is dieting, exercising is very important. Most think that they can just watch what they are eating and they will loose weight. Some even think that they can loose weight by taking a pill or some sort of supplement. While these things may show some results, they simply aren't enough. If you want to loose weight, you need to eat better and increase your heart rate. The only real way of increasing your heart rate is through some sort of exercise.

If you are someone who hasn't ever been to a gym or perhaps has not gone in a very long time, you will need to start off very slowly. You should start off by going for a walk around the block. The distance that you walk is up to you and how you feel. You may want to start off by going around the block once or twice the first day. The  second day increase your distance, again depending on how you feel. Each day thereafter, increase a little more. Each day you want to push yourself to do just a little bit more. The main purpose of your exercising is to increase your heart rate, so you burn more calories.

The more exercise you can do the better. At a minimum, you should exercise at least 4 days a week, about 45mins each time. If you can do more, then it benefits you greatly. The more you can do the more successful your diet and the better you will feel.

Motivating yourself to exercise can be tough, especially in the beginning. When you have a tough time motivating yourself, try to think about your goal or your motivation. Use that to get yourself going. Once you have starting your exercise routine, whether that's walking, running, or whatever, just try to  push yourself to do a little more each day. Whatever exercise you decide to do, when you are done, you will feel much better since its over for that particular day. Most of all, you have taken another step towards being successful in your diet.