|
I don’t remember EVER taking a vacation or going seven days without a workout. But I did last week and it wasn’t pretty.
We drove my son, Theo, to Escondido, California where he started college. Now I can relate better to what some of my athletes go through when they choose not to or can’t workout when they travel. I won’t bore you with the details. I’ll just say every day I got up at my usual 5 a.m. vacation time, had the equipment needed then had to rush off to the next hotel or school event instead. Eating at restaurants all day long. Arriving at our hotel or rental home late at night then doing it again the next day. All I could think was, “this sucks!” Early morning exercise always energizes me as it gets my organs (I call it my engine) fired up for the day: blood flow pumping, digestion working, joints loose, muscles warm, hunger started, brain on. This is especially helpful when you’re sleeping in a strange place, eating different foods at different times, etc. No workout meant my happy endorphins didn’t fire up and my body systems slowed down. This left me grumpy, lumpy, and lacking my usual physical high. I didn’t get time to take care of myself before spending the day taking care of my family. To me it’s like putting on my life jacket on a plane before I help someone else put on theirs. We walked a lot to get to places, but that wasn’t the kind of workout I’m talking about. Some vacation walking can be heart-thumping, brain-firing, and digestion-cranking. But usually it’s just strolling with your travel buddies. A lot of athletes I train with struggle to get workouts in when they travel. So, I asked myself, is it because they’re so busy from dawn to dusk trying to fit in all the sights and activities like I was? Or do they want a vacation from working out. Or maybe a little of both. There is no wrong answer because it depends on your goals. My goal is to maintain a healthy body with all engines firing and feeling good wherever I am. No setbacks. No catching up when I get back. Consistency at home and away. I’d never been able to relate to the idea of taking a workout break before. I always got up early enough and found a place to workout. In Boston it was a tiny hotel gym, New York City a run to the nearest 24 hour Fitness and Sunriver the rental house garage. Getting a workout in and eating healthy is hard enough when you’re home. Being in a different place with a tight schedule makes it even harder. When you’re on vacation what’s your trick for fitting in a sweaty workout? Or, maybe you prefer to take a break from exercising when traveling so your body gets a reset for when you return. Everybody is different. I hope you learn what feels best for yours. I know I did. I hope to NEVER have another vacation where I don’t workout the entire time. It clearly doesn’t agree with my mind or body. But, now I feel like I can relate more to people who choose not to workout on vacation.
1 Comment
Going for long periods without eating, often called intermittent fasting (IF), can work for men, but doesn’t for most women. For some women it can be harmful due to it’s negative effect on women’s hormones and metabolism. This makes it an ineffective way to lose weight or increase strength for most women.
Two credible female scientists tell us why. Precision Nutrition molecular biologist Helen Kollias, Ph.D., says while IF can work well for many men, most women won’t benefit because women might be more sensitive to calorie restriction. Turns out, women’s bodies more readily interpret missed meals and fewer calories as stress. This low energy intake and stress impacts the hormones key functions—like ovulation, metabolism, and even mood. Periods and ovulation can go awry, fertility can decrease, symptoms of menopause may worsen or develop too early, libido can cool off, and metabolism might even decrease. So now you’re looking at disrupted menstrual cycles, higher anxiety and stress, impaired performance and often weight gain—pretty much the opposite of what you’re looking for! If you try IF you may lose weight during the first three months because calorie restriction diets get results short term. However, according to Stacy Sims, MSC, Ph.D, international exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist, the long-term effects for women athletes (THAT’S YOU!) is endocrine dysfunction, increases in abdominal fat, more depression, and a backlash of subsequent fat gain. Instead of restricting food, consider focusing on eating less processed, more nutrient dense foods slowly until you’re almost full. If you need help figuring out how to do that effectively with your lifestyle contact me and we chat about it. If you’re interested in the deep science behind IF from these female scientists you can read their articles via the links below. Dr. Kolina’s article: Does intermittent fasting work for women? Learn how fasting can affect hormones, weight loss, and fertility. Dr. Sim’s article: You are an athlete and you shouldn’t practice intermittent fasting. Protein builds muscles. Protein reduces snacking. Protein helps reduce body fat. That sounds too good to be true! But, it is and science proves it!
I’m sure you eat food with protein such as chicken, yogurt, fish, beef, beans, milk, etc. The question is are you eating enough protein-dominant food to achieve your goals? Here’s a calculator, based on scientific studies, that can help you determine how much protein you need per day. Then divide that number by the number of meals you eat per day (3 - 4 is average. https://examine.com/protein-intake-calculator/ Was the number higher or lower than you thought it would be? Time to measure how much you're currently eating compared to what your body really needs if you want to get stronger. You can do that by actually measuring food, using My Fitness Pal or using your hand as a guide (1 hand palm = about 15 - 20 g of protein depending on the size of your hand) EXAMPLE: Let’s look at yogurt. Goal is 30 g of protein for a 125 lb athlete:
A lot of math, but you get the idea. What you think is a high protein meal, might not be. Thus, you could be lifting weights and wondering why you can’t lift more or aren’t getting bigger muscles. What can you do? For two weeks find ways to incorporate more protein into your entire day and prioritize it over carbohydrates and fats. Do you need to measure? No, just use the palm of your hand as a measurement tool (since you always have it with you) and add one more palm of protein to your day. See what happens to your performance and how you feel. Most athletes I train with who try this experiment consistently for two weeks immediately feel the results of the protein helping to build muscle, improve performance, reduce snacking because they’re full longer and crowd out some of the fats and carbohydrates that may have dominated their meals before. Do you want to build muscle, snack less and lose weight? Then why not try this? If you want help trying this, I have a couple of nutrition coaching spots available and would LOVE to achieve your goals. SLOW DOWN + LOSE WEIGHT + LOVE WHAT YOU'RE EATING
When you’re on vacation or taking a trip it’s fun to enjoy rich foods, restaurants, or worry less about what you’re eating. Why rush through those tasty meals? Eating slowly, savoring every bite not only makes the meals last longer so you can enjoy them longer, but more importantly, it’s beneficial for your body. And can help you LOSE WEIGHT even when you’re on vacation! It takes about 20 minutes from the start of a meal for the brain to send signals to the body that it’s full, done, and doesn't need anymore. Most people’s meals don’t come close to lasting that long! BENEFITS OF SLOW EATING:
EATING FAST CAN CAUSE:
Most athletes I work with want to lose weight and get stronger. Eating fast means you eat more calories, feel more bloating and absorb less nutrients needed to gain strength. Clearly this behavior is not helping anyone reach their goals. But, can this sound too good to be true? What does eating slowly mean? Maybe you don’t have a lot of time to eat or you don’t want to hold anyone up if you’re eating with others. Here are some TINY ways you could try eating slowly - even on a trip or at a restaurant:
Maybe eating slowly doesn’t work for your lifestyle. Maybe dinner loses its appeal if it gets lukewarm or cold. Maybe you don’t want to spend that much time thinking about food or how you eat it. Maybe you literally don’t have that kind of time in your life right now. THAT'S OK. There are plenty of other things you can do to improve your health. I am happy to brainstorm with you about some ideas that might work better for you. Eating slowly may sound too easy, too good to be true as a way to lose weight. If you decide to give it a go, try it for 2 weeks daily and let me know if your body feels different - less bloating, more enjoyment, not overfeed, more energetic - or not. I did something REALLY hard a few weeks ago. I threw away half of a perfectly good, delicious French almond croissant. It was leftover from a delightful coffee date with a friend.
It was hard because my mom taught me to NEVER throw away edible food. I bet your mom did, too. Love our moms! I ALWAYS take home leftovers from restaurants. Leave no food behind! Do you do that? In this case, I even carried the cute little brown leftover box all around another store while I shopped after the date and made sure it was in a safe place in my car so it didn't spill out. It was perfectly good food. Why wouldn't I? When I got home I realized ... I didn’t need this croissant, my husband didn’t need it, my daughter didn’t need it and my son didn’t need it. Not only did we not need it, eating it would keep us from reaching our goals. IT HAD TO GO! Don't get me wrong, I love eating all kinds of pastries, especially donuts. But, in this case after I'd had my fill and the experience was over there was no need to eat more. The croissant experience was done. But, the leftover sat on my counter wanting to be eaten. "NO!", I shouted to myself in my head, "you already enjoyed it now move on." Into the garbage it went! It felt so liberating to throw it away that I started throwing away other perfectly good food I didn’t need - boxes of pudding, coconut butter (bought two years ago for one recipe that I never made), two leftover slices of homemade pizza (this was the most painful! I LOVE pizza) and four slices of leftover homemade carrot cake (oh, yes I did!). I could’ve eaten all of those foods at some point and enjoyed every bite. But, in the scheme of things, there is only so much room in your meals for foods that help us reach our goals so we should eat more of those and less of others. I’m not suggesting YOU go throw away a bunch of food. I’m sharing my experience of liberation from fear of food waste in an effort to make you aware that throwing away food isn’t a sin. Often, instead it can be cathartic, invigorating, freeing! Sometimes painful, yes. But, could eating too much processed or rich food be more painful in the long run? Ask your body. We need to give ourselves permission to throw things away (food, clothes, stuff) that don’t get us to our goals. Otherwise we'll never reach our goals. I value working hard to supply my family with the basics they need to survive. They didn’t need pudding, leftover pizza or a half croissant to survive. My kitchen is full of eggs, cooked pork, fruit, yogurt and almonds. Similar flavors, higher quality nutrition. Yes, I will order an almond croissant again. And, I will savor every bite mindfully. When I am 80 percent full (not stuffed) I will put my fork down. Maybe I’ll take it home. Maybe I’ll share it. Maybe I’ll eat the other half. Maybe not. But, if it gets in the way of my goals that week it is outta here! Got some Easter candy you don’t need in your belly? If you throw it away can you easily buy more if you want to enjoy some? Are you an adult with a car? Might be painful to throw it away or freeing. Only you know what's right for you. You are the expert of your own body. Are you afraid of burpees? Do they seem too hard?
Have NO FEAR!! Instead, find a "Burpee Buddy." This is my new name for a chair, couch, bench, table, anything that you can use to put your hands on as you drop into the plank movement of the burpee. Burpees are simply a squat, plank, squat and maybe a push-up and/or jump. That's simple when you break it down. We often lose our great form and confidence when we dive into the plank without enough core control letting our bellies droop, butts poke up, hands go forward, etc. INSTEAD, build your form and confidence one step at a time by mastering the plank form with a little help from a buddy. When dropping into a plank on a sturdy chair you lessen the load on your core, don't have to drop so far to the ground and give your core a chance to do its job - BRACE YOU! And, that leads to a stronger core/ glutes and better results for you. You have nothing to lose but your fear of burpees and all to gain in your form. Try it and tell me what you think. |