A friend of mine once told me that fixing the outside if the inside is broken tends to only accentuate the brokenness.
My disclaimer is that I am not a licensed psychologist, psychiatrist or even a psychic, so anything posted on this blog is intended as an unofficial helping hand.
Self image and self perception are huge issues in relation to your health and fitness. There are some who no matter what the result never see themselves any different. Their body might be healthy, but the inside still isn't. Your heart health is just as important as your physical health.
Your heart is more than just the thing that pumps blood to the rest of your body. The heart in a lot of cultures was consider the center or the seat of your being. It is widely considered that the source of life both physically and spiritually/emotionally was the heart! All this being said your health goes far beyond a flat tummy, bulging biceps and skinny waist. Health is an emotional issue. Health is a spiritual issue. Health is a wholistic issue. All of you needs to be healthy.
While focusing in on your fitness improves you body, focusing in on your relationships will improve you heart condition. While locking in on what goes in your mouth, lock in on what you put into your mind. Surround yourself with positive and encouraging people. Read books, blogs, posts that will fill your heart and mind with peace, joy and love.
Take aim at making all of you healthy! Here some tips:
1) Read personal development type books. Books that better you!
2) Find a faith community - church, synagogue, Bible study.
3) Find friends that build and support you in your dreams and in your health goals.
4) Continue to exercise. Endorphin make you happy!
5) If necessary find someone or place to help you deal with the emotional stuff - a counselor or psychologist. There is no shame in asking for help. We all need some help!
Your heart and your spirit are just as important as your body. Get all of you healthy!
Beachbody Challenge
Showing posts with label winning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winning. Show all posts
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
A Recovering Fat Kid
If you have ever worn anything with Husky in the title...you might be a fat kid.
That was me, the chunky, husky kid (with a brother that wore jeans with slim in the title). I was that slightly overweight athletic kid. While always good at sports, I was even better at a buffet. I loved food and food loved me back. For whatever reason I could not out run the calories I was taking in. I was active, energetic and played outside. I was part of the pre-video game society. We played hide and seek, kick the can, and ghosts in the graveyard. And I was still the chubby kid.
Here is the intriguing piece of this puzzle, most of us grow up to still wrestle with that fat kid. I am Jeff Pitts and I am a recovering fat kid. This is because over time our metabolism slows down and so do we. The one lesson that we continue live out is how we still eat like a kid...pick at our green veggies and sliding them off to the dog. We must muster through some mustard greens in order to fill a bowl full of ice cream.
As a recovering fat kid I have had to swear off sweet tea, end my love affair with Chex Mix and close the bag on my deep seeded desires for Peanut M&M's. I have had to mature into a passionate consumer of broccoli, a master chef of veggie medley and daring daredevil of things that fall in the vegetable category.
There are not meetings for people like me, but there is help. I have found support in the caring arms of the Beachbody community. Beachbody is more then the company behind the eye catching informercials for the world's leading fitness programs. It is a group of fitness minded, exercise lovin', nutrition learning recovering fat kids like me.
Maybe you found yourself in some Huskies in your youth...then I invite you to join me and thousands of others who are recovering fat kids!
That was me, the chunky, husky kid (with a brother that wore jeans with slim in the title). I was that slightly overweight athletic kid. While always good at sports, I was even better at a buffet. I loved food and food loved me back. For whatever reason I could not out run the calories I was taking in. I was active, energetic and played outside. I was part of the pre-video game society. We played hide and seek, kick the can, and ghosts in the graveyard. And I was still the chubby kid.
Here is the intriguing piece of this puzzle, most of us grow up to still wrestle with that fat kid. I am Jeff Pitts and I am a recovering fat kid. This is because over time our metabolism slows down and so do we. The one lesson that we continue live out is how we still eat like a kid...pick at our green veggies and sliding them off to the dog. We must muster through some mustard greens in order to fill a bowl full of ice cream.
As a recovering fat kid I have had to swear off sweet tea, end my love affair with Chex Mix and close the bag on my deep seeded desires for Peanut M&M's. I have had to mature into a passionate consumer of broccoli, a master chef of veggie medley and daring daredevil of things that fall in the vegetable category.
There are not meetings for people like me, but there is help. I have found support in the caring arms of the Beachbody community. Beachbody is more then the company behind the eye catching informercials for the world's leading fitness programs. It is a group of fitness minded, exercise lovin', nutrition learning recovering fat kids like me.
Maybe you found yourself in some Huskies in your youth...then I invite you to join me and thousands of others who are recovering fat kids!
Monday, January 28, 2013
Day #22 The Hardest Workout
No it is not P90X or Insanity Pure Cardio...it is the workout that you don't want to do. Tonight was one of those nights. I was fighting a headache, so every time I jumped my head throbbed. I watched the seconds tick slowly as my only thought "oh Lord, when is this going to be done!"
Sometimes the hardest things are the things that you feel least like doing. On the flip side of that coin is that those workouts are oftentimes the most rewarding. I may not have burned as many calories as a workout that I felt fresh and ready to go, but the emotional reward of pushing through a difficult workout is as much a gain as workout you attacked.
These are the moments that are a test of grit, a test of determination, a test of discipline. Tonight I had all three....
EXERCISE:
LES MILLS COMBAT Extreme Cardio 60
Sometimes the hardest things are the things that you feel least like doing. On the flip side of that coin is that those workouts are oftentimes the most rewarding. I may not have burned as many calories as a workout that I felt fresh and ready to go, but the emotional reward of pushing through a difficult workout is as much a gain as workout you attacked.
These are the moments that are a test of grit, a test of determination, a test of discipline. Tonight I had all three....
EXERCISE:
LES MILLS COMBAT Extreme Cardio 60
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Are you a cheater?
Friday nights at Casa Pitts are blocked off as a family night (at least as best as our schedules allow). After a long week, prepping a sit down meal at close to 7 PM (after finishing our other Friday responsibilities) is just not feasible. So our Friday night is our "cheat night". It is the one night a week that nutritionally we let our guard down a little bit and make frozen pizza or sandwich bar or something easy and pop in a movie and just chillax as a family.
So I wanted to pass on some tidbits of wisdom from a cheater like me.
1. Take caution in what you cheat with -
Just because you allow yourself a cheat meal does not mean that meal has to lack complete nutritional value. If you get a pizza make sure has some veggies on it. If you are going to eat sandwiches use a lighter cheese, skip the mayo and use mustard or even avocado as a replacement. You want chips with that sandwich, even here you make a better choice about the chips you eat. Cheat with wisdom, if you eat out you can still enjoy a yummy meal, but do it responsibly. Just because you are eating a cheat meal don't make a wasted meal full of empty calories because...
2. Your body knows what it wants -
Here is the reason you need to make sure even when you cheat, you cheat right. Your body is smarter than you are. It's true. When your body has a need for protein you will crave meat or eggs. When you body has a need for calcium, you might want cheese or milk. Your body knows what it needs and signals your brain "hey get us that." One of the dangers of a cheat meal is not fulfilling the need of your body. When that happens your body tells your brain "hey we need something else and more of it." If that something else is not what your body needs it will keep sending that signal to your brain. Your brain sends the signal to the rest of you and you find yourself with your hand back in the bag of chips even though you are not hungry. Which leads to...
3. Overeating
A cheat meal does not mean 5 trips to the all you can eat buffet. While you will more than likely blow your typical calorie count for a meal out of the water (my meals range from 350-425 a meal), this is not an excuse to eat like you are in the 4th of July Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest. You need to still have some portion management. So you may go back for a bite of seconds, but thirds, really, fourths. At the bottom of the bag of whatever you are eating is regret. So take caution! Manage the amount of what you are going to eat. Just because it is a cheat meal does not mean that you throw out the discipline you have the rest of the week. Consider this a controlled indulgence.
You don't bust your backside to not enjoy life. We fight for our health through diet and exercise in hopes a living a happier and healthier life. Give yourself some grace on occasion to cheat. Just cheat with caution. It is still cheating and cheating can always lead us down a slippery slope and leave us caught elbow deep in a tub of ice cream. So enjoy your pizza, your occasional scoop of Rocky Road, even juicy steak, but make this the exception to your life and not the rule. If you let poor habits rule what you eat you will be right back to the point you were before your journey toward a fitter you!
So I wanted to pass on some tidbits of wisdom from a cheater like me.
1. Take caution in what you cheat with -
Just because you allow yourself a cheat meal does not mean that meal has to lack complete nutritional value. If you get a pizza make sure has some veggies on it. If you are going to eat sandwiches use a lighter cheese, skip the mayo and use mustard or even avocado as a replacement. You want chips with that sandwich, even here you make a better choice about the chips you eat. Cheat with wisdom, if you eat out you can still enjoy a yummy meal, but do it responsibly. Just because you are eating a cheat meal don't make a wasted meal full of empty calories because...2. Your body knows what it wants -
Here is the reason you need to make sure even when you cheat, you cheat right. Your body is smarter than you are. It's true. When your body has a need for protein you will crave meat or eggs. When you body has a need for calcium, you might want cheese or milk. Your body knows what it needs and signals your brain "hey get us that." One of the dangers of a cheat meal is not fulfilling the need of your body. When that happens your body tells your brain "hey we need something else and more of it." If that something else is not what your body needs it will keep sending that signal to your brain. Your brain sends the signal to the rest of you and you find yourself with your hand back in the bag of chips even though you are not hungry. Which leads to...
3. Overeating
A cheat meal does not mean 5 trips to the all you can eat buffet. While you will more than likely blow your typical calorie count for a meal out of the water (my meals range from 350-425 a meal), this is not an excuse to eat like you are in the 4th of July Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest. You need to still have some portion management. So you may go back for a bite of seconds, but thirds, really, fourths. At the bottom of the bag of whatever you are eating is regret. So take caution! Manage the amount of what you are going to eat. Just because it is a cheat meal does not mean that you throw out the discipline you have the rest of the week. Consider this a controlled indulgence.
You don't bust your backside to not enjoy life. We fight for our health through diet and exercise in hopes a living a happier and healthier life. Give yourself some grace on occasion to cheat. Just cheat with caution. It is still cheating and cheating can always lead us down a slippery slope and leave us caught elbow deep in a tub of ice cream. So enjoy your pizza, your occasional scoop of Rocky Road, even juicy steak, but make this the exception to your life and not the rule. If you let poor habits rule what you eat you will be right back to the point you were before your journey toward a fitter you!
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Day #18 Emergency Plan
So I live in a place where if it snows the world seems to stop. Stock up on bread and water from the local grocery, because you are not going anywhere. The emergency plan here in the Bluegrass is to just stop doing whatever you had planned. This seems quite familiar with most people's health and fitness plan.
Most people don't just decide to stop exercising or just stop going to the gym. What typically happens is that some sort of storm in our life happens and we don't have an emergency plan for our fitness. We get in a time crunch so we skip a workout, we have something come up, so exercise gets pushed aside. What is needed is an emergency plan.
My go to in a crunch, got little time to get the burn in is Insanity Fast & Furious. It is 22 minutes of heart racing, calorie burning intensity. It fits neatly into a tight schedule!
Here is why I keep this workout handy, while we all work hard to stick to our programs it can quickly unravel with a missed workout or two. What we know about habits is that it is harder to build a good habit than it is to tear one apart. I know that while one missed workout won't necessarily keep me from getting the results I want, I do know that it can start to unravel the disciplines I have put into place.
No matter what it is have an emergency workout plan. Life is going to happen. There are going to be days that working out is not going to coincide with life. Have a plan for those moments!
My go to in a crunch, got little time to get the burn in is Insanity Fast & Furious. It is 22 minutes of heart racing, calorie burning intensity. It fits neatly into a tight schedule!
Here is why I keep this workout handy, while we all work hard to stick to our programs it can quickly unravel with a missed workout or two. What we know about habits is that it is harder to build a good habit than it is to tear one apart. I know that while one missed workout won't necessarily keep me from getting the results I want, I do know that it can start to unravel the disciplines I have put into place.
No matter what it is have an emergency workout plan. Life is going to happen. There are going to be days that working out is not going to coincide with life. Have a plan for those moments!
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