urbanathlete

It is my belief that one of the biggest detriments to the health and wellness industry is the abundance of information that is available on line, specifically nutrition (likely fitness too but I’m going to tackle nutrition today)… And here I am adding to that information. It’s also a detriment to consumers because it’s hard to tell who is telling the truth and what really works. 

First: my disclaimer is that I am not a registered dietician or nutritionist and this is simply my opinion. 

If you seek out information online about how you can be a healthier person and make better decisions when it comes to nutrition and exercise, then I’m sure like the rest of us – you’ve encountered more ways than you can count on what works. Not only that, I’m sure you’ve read success stories on each of those ways and now the big question you ask yourself is which one will I try?

It’s confusing to say the least. If you’re struggling with wanting to achieve any type of goal it’s also frustrating. 

Here’s my take on all of it. 

Most of us, even if we eat healthfully, don’t do so consistently enough for a long enough period of time to know if what we are doing is working or not working for our bodies. 

Second to that, we are all different humans and some of us need different protocols to follow than others to see and more importantly feel success.

If you believe you eat relatively well then I encourage you to track your food and beverage consumption for just 3-4 days from the minute you wake to the minute you sleep. Here’s why…our mind tends to push aside the less important things to make room for those items that are more important. It’s easy for the best intentioned of us to assume we are following a smart nutrition plan 90-95% of the time. When in reality it’s closer to 65-70% of the time, simply because we forgot about the piece of chocolate after lunch on Tuesday or the glass of wine with dinner on Wednesday night. 

Tracking will also show you if you are eating enough variety of fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, healthy fats and non processed carbohydrates. Like I mentioned above, this post is adding to the info that you can find online but in my opinion it’s important to evaluate. The objective here is to uncover if you are eating healthfully or if you just think you are. 

By that, I mean no disrespect but it’s too often that we aren’t doing as well as we think we are so an honestly documented food journal will confirm that. It will also tell us; that before you decide to jump into the next, most talked about nutrition option that has the best success rate, if you’re eating enough whole foods on a consistent basis to start playing around with a different plan. 

Trust me, if there was a way to push a button or have a magic nutrition plan and all my health and fitness goals would be an instant reality, I’d jump all over it. The true reality is that most of us do not eat enough healthy, whole foods, balanced throughout the day to even consider fancy supplements let along invest in the “next best nutrition miracle on the market.” 

Let’s not worry about which meal plan you should be following until you’ve confirmed that you’re eating well balanced, whole foods at least 90% of the time for a specific period of time first. We’d be happy to help you review your results once you’ve tracked them!

-Pamela

We’ve run various challenges and programs at Urban Athlete over the last 13+ years. Our most successful program outside of our membership commitments is our Lifestyle Challenge.

The foundation of the program is to make healthful and mindful habit changes that support lifestyle commitments that are sustainable for the long term, rather than short term with yo-yo effects. This 6 week challenge begins on Monday, October 14th and runs through Friday, November 22nd.

The 6 week challenge is open to non members (and members) of Urban Athlete and includes:

• starting and final measurements using InBody technology
• nutritional guidelines
• supportive recipes
• four scheduled group workouts a week
• participation in the member’s only November active challenge, along with other member benefits for the duration of the challenge

• Saturday, October 12th 11am – 12pm
• Sunday, October 13th 9am – 11am

Have you ever sat for too long at your desk or watching TV, go to get up and you find yourself stiff and uncomfortable?

Ever been tired, on more than one occasion, on the days when you’ve had plenty of sleep and nothing occurred that day that was overly exerting?

How about catching a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and noticing that you’re a little more pale or gray than the last time you walked past a huge glass window while peaking at your youthful reflection, never mind either a few pounds heavier or a little jiggly?

There are, of course, plenty of things that exercise cannot cure…but when it comes down to it, movement is better for us than no movement. Movement helps to keep our joints lubricated. Movement decreases our risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Movement keeps us agile, allows us to improve balance, get stronger and increase bone density. Movement is by far one of the best things you can do for the health of yourself.

(The others are eat well and sleep appropriately.)

I’ve been exercising consistently for almost 20 years. I have had several injuries that have set me back but despite those, consistent exercise or movement has helped me feel less cranky, more confident, more mobile, stronger and overall I often forget what my biological age is. I also owe a big thanks to consistent exercise for maintaining mostly the same physical size as an adult, bouncing back from my first pregnancy (c-section nonetheless) with more ease than expected, a factor in keeping my type 1 diabetes in check and in general having the energy to keep up with my life which includes running two businesses, having a toddler-aged boy and a little girl on the way, consulting part time as a fitness business coach and volunteering.

Of course, life isn’t perfect so there have been times when I haven’t been as consistent as I would prefer or when I’ve even just taken some time off from exercise, but the reality is those are the times when I’m at my worst. I don’t sleep as well. My bones feel achy. My joints get a little restless. I don’t eat as well. I feel tired.

These are all the reasons I remind myself to move each day. This is the key, moving each day doesn’t mean beating myself up in the gym until I have nothing left in the tank. Some days it means a walk, 10-15 minutes of Original Strength resets, dance parties with my kiddo, heavy lifting at the gym, endurance sessions, high intensity interval sessions, etc. My point is – there’s moderation to movement but the common denominator is mindful and purposeful movement that happens every day.

I don’t know about you but I don’t particularly care for the times when I’ve felt stiff, fatigued or older than my age. My intent for all of us is to feel less about those three things and to feel more inspired to spend time in the opposite spectrum; agile, rested and youthful.

Want to see what I’m talking about? Give us a call or stop in to schedule a success session.

I think there’s a little bit of a stigma to when you hear someone say they have a personal trainer. There tends to be an underlying misconception that there is a title status one is seeking. While this could be the case in some instances I believe that having a personal trainer really can propel your fitness forward.

It ranges from a wide variety of goals like simply just getting committed to a routine and having the accountability of another person to meet for appointments, to someone who is guiding you along the path of either working around injuries or really pushing you hard so you can’t talk yourself out of doing something that you know deep down you can do. Personal training is just that, personal, it’s tailored to your specific wants, needs and goals. While group training, like ours, can be scaled down or progressed to be more accommodating to what you need. Personal training should always meet your needs. It’s equally as important to communicate with your trainer to let them know how the workout and the exercises within the workout feel to you.

Please don’t confuse this with every workout should leave you crawling out of the gym. That too is not the desired goal, but open communication from both of you will help your trainer progress your program along in an effective way to meet your goals and then be able to set new ones!

Can personal training be expensive? It sure can but think about it… It’s one on one or small group dedicated time with one person who’s studied anatomy and physiology, who has also had experience in helping others reach their health and fitness goals and who most importantly is interested in seeing you reach your goals. When you find the right person, think of the wealth of knowledge you obtain without having to learn all the knowledge yourself! Not to mention the benefit of doing some exercise over others and why… but that’s a topic for another time.

If personal training is out of your price range you can look for places or trainers who offer semi-private training or small group training. Simply put it’s still personal training, it’s just that 1-2 other people are also doing their own workout at the same time as you. Often these sessions and monthly memberships can be significantly less expensive than one on one personal training and have a little extra bang for their buck; like camaraderie, additional accountability and support and a social component – all while focusing specifically on what you need to succeed.

Here are some things that we offer with our semi private training at Urban Athlete that you might want to consider when you are looking for a coach or trainer to help propel you toward your goals.

• Flexibility in scheduling – Often times a static schedule is a far greater option from an accountability standpoint but if you have a little wiggle room to make changes based on your busy schedule, that is an added plus.
• Additional gym access – If you’re doing training in a big gym this shouldn’t be an issue but if you’re at a smaller facility this might not be an offering. If you have the option see if the gym space is accessible to you outside of your training time for an additional workout during the week. Your coach or trainer should be suggesting what you do on your off days to help move you along toward reaching your goals.
• Travel workouts – Whether it’s work travel or vacation, continuing to move while you are away is one of the key factors in continuing to reach those goals! Im’ not saying that you have to pack a gym in your luggage when you travel but you do want to plan to be moving even if just for 10-15 minutes in your hotel room before the day starts or once it’s over. Daily movement should feel like therapy to your muscles and joints not a chore.
• Nutritional guidance – While most of us might not be registered dietician’s you can seek our guidance on the direction of what your nutrition should look like as well as get some feedback on all the crazed nutrition / diet options that exist out there today. This might be tough to digest but your nutrition is more important than the exercise you get in. One of our favorite sayings; “You can’t out train a sh!tty diet.” This goes a little further into detail but for the most part, food and exercise really shouldn’t be transactional. You can however prepare differently on the days that you will / will not exercise as well as on the days that you will / will not indulge with your calories.

Those are just some considerations for you when thinking about adding in personal training or semi-private training into your weekly routine. Remember that movement really is important and once you start with it consistently, you’ll feel better and start to see results. This shouldn’t be an endeavor that you decide to do for a month or two as a sprint to get ready for either a trip or big event. This should be a lifestyle consideration for the long haul to assist in longevity and quality of life.

If you still have questions about personal training or exercise, reach out and let us know what they are. We’re happy to help!

I get it… Not everyone loves strength training. It makes a certain amount of sense since there is plenty of chatter about using lighter weights to tone the muscles. Now, trust me… I’m not mocking what other people say, that’s there prerogative.

Here’s the deal from my perspective though.

Strength training assists us with

• burning fat
• increasing bone density (this means less breaks and fractures as we age, particularly women)
• boosting confidence AND…
• gets us through every day life

Here’s the other BIG thing to consider, strength training or resistance training is unique from person to person. The maximum amount of weight that I can lift today will be different from yours, which will also be different from your friend and your other friend. The common ground is that it is really important, for all of us.

I know another big concern is that some of us get a little more bulky than others when doing some serious strength training. If this is the case, which it certainly can be… then you want to vary the weights that you use throughout your workouts on a weekly basis. Not to mention there’s zero benefit to lifting the max amount of weight you can lift every single time you workout.

So how do you know where to start?

There’s a little bit of trial and error that goes into it. For starters though, you’d want to set aside some time to pick few exercises that you’d be curious to knowing your max amount of weight that you can move. You’d likely only want to test 1-2 of these exercises a day and spread them out over the course of a week. Trying to lift your maximum amount of weight for a single exercise will be very challenging, you don’t want to test several in one day, unless you are at a competition.

Once you know your numbers take them into consideration when you are deciding which weights to use for your workouts. If the workout has rep schemes that 8-12 or more, use a lesser percentage of the weight. If the rep scheme is 3-5 or less, consider using a greater percentage of your maximum weight and vary those higher percentages from workout to workout so you aren’t always doing the same. Remember, attempting 100% of your weight all the time isn’t a good thing.

When it comes to H.I.I.T. (high intensity interval training) keep in mind that high intensity doesn’t necessarily mean fast. This could be a great opportunity to use a slightly heavier weight for one exercise and lighter to moderate weight for the other exercises, provided the rep/set scheme is appropriate. Adding in strength training here will help with all the attributes of lifting heavier weights that were listed out above while also feeling like you’ve worked out doing the H.I.I.T. component of the workout.

If you aren’t quite into the whole idea of lifting heavier weights this will be a mindset shift for sure. It’s OK to ease into it, remember Rome wasn’t built in a day. Mixing up the amount of weight you use during your workout program as a whole (meaning month over month) helps you to avoid serious plateaus so from that standpoint it’s highly important to vary the amount of weight you use for both different exercises and the same.

Want to see what I’m talking about, stop in to set up a success session with one of coaches today!