Decide. Act. Outlook change. Fit Life
You’re already an hour behind, and the world won’t wait. Also, your dog doesn’t care. Daylight savings week is statistically the least productive week of the year. No doubt Monday you woke up bleary eyed and wondering why you even bothered. Get hit by a truck much?
If your wedding is coming up, or if you just got engaged and want to look amazing on your wedding day, you are in the right place. I have been through the trenches of training and adjusting diet for the big day. Especially losing the weight you inevitably gain when you fall in love. Why is that? Decadent dinners, wine, ordering pizza with your boo while Netflixing. And then the rude awakening – a looming wedding and all the baggage it comes with.
On a weekly basis I update my meal and exercise plan google sheets so you can see real time what I eat, drink, and how I move. You can download the templates and customize them for your own meals and workouts. And I have a rolling update of my fast and simple recipes HERE. This week, I feature the Ezekiel BLT and my Zoodle recipes. Note that I also endorse intermittent fasting, including the 5:2 method, which I describe here. I overnight fast on a case-by-case basis, meaning I usually eat my first meal at 11-1130am. What drives this approach…
It is really hard, if not impossible, to make noticeable changes to your body without incorporating strength training. Most people shy away from it or do it wrong. In this post, I will share what I learned from training with numerous top-tier trainers over the years. What is strength training? The term “strength and conditioning training” refers to the format of exercise which highlights building the strength, size, and endurance of skeletal muscle. It can include these types of workouts as tools, but it is also good to be aware that you don’t have to be picking up a weight…
Failing to read or properly interpret nutrition labels can be a handicap for your goals. And it’s not your fault. I will arm you with knowledge to screen out when a “healthy” food is actually healthy or whether you are being gaslighted.
Time is the biggest barrier to working out that I see for people who have crazy busy jobs. We simply don’t have it. And we certainly don’t have the luxury of spending hours in the gym. I get that, and I am here to help you. I have hacks where you can not only fit workouts into your day, but also fit workouts into your work.
As part of a comprehensive fitness routine, strength training is important to keep that balance with cardio. It isn’t one over the other – in my experience, they are both necessary. There is something powerful about lifting and moving your body in ways you never thought possible. That extra testosterone boosts confidence, both in and outside the gym.
The nutrition industry has definitely evolved. You can find protein bars in all different flavors – cinnamon bun, chocolate chip cookie dough, red velvet cake, chocolate brownie. There are even protein COOKIES and protein BROWNIES and there is even high protein ice cream you can buy. Go to any GNC and you will even see protein chips, popcorn, and the entire assortment of any flavor of protein bar. Plus, you can have protein powders in cool flavors like vanilla ice cream and strawberry cheesecake. What is not to love? A LOT.
As part of this series, in the interest of full transparency AND possibly giving you some great ideas, I will provide a tracker of all my meals and workouts for the week. Each week, a new exercise and meal plan will be published. I keep a repository of recipes HERE. DAOFitlife Meal Plan -Week 1 This plan will change week after week. As a static constant, it will embody principles from the following articles: The DAO approach to food , eating, and meal planning – keeping it simple, variety cycling, and keeping ready to go meals and snacks on hand; The 80//20…
By popular demand, I am providing my sample exercise plan and template. It’s based on the formula HIIT+LISS+STRENGTH TRAIN = SUCCESS.
HIIT (High intensity interval training) is an important ingredient in your cardio soup. It is an excellent fat burner, and has an after-burn effect of raising your metabolism and burning more overall calories during the day. Plus. challenges your agility, and makes you feel, well, superhuman! Cardio, as I explain in this article, is important to a holistic approach to health and exercise. HIIT is like an amazing accessory that makes the entire outfit. Read on to get the quickest, most effective workouts you can knock out twice a week. What’s the skinny? This article reviews the best HIIT workouts…
The “new normal”. Our worlds, once so big, have gotten very small. It’s almost the one year anniversary – the worst.anniversary.ever. Gyms and workout studios are closed (or closed, reopened, closed and kind of reopened). Peloton sales have gone UP. App sales have gone through the roof – the fitness industry, besides the toilet paper industry, is a real winner in these “uncertain times”. There also have been winners and losers in the fitness sphere on the consumer side. I hear binary feedback from my audience – either they got in the best shape of their lives, or suffered from…
It’s not what you are eating, it’s what’s eating you! UPDATED WITH MORE JOURNAL OPTIONS. I don’t have a Ph.D. in psychology, but I do have a Ph.D. in stress eating. And I know enough to know, a demanding and crazy job is certainly a contributing factor to ignite that reach for comfort food. So hear me out.
Condiments may not seem like a big deal, but think of it like debt. It’s not usually the principal (the meal) that drives people deep in debt. It’s the late fees (and the late fees on the late fees) and the interest (and the interest on the interest). Those represent the condiments that could put you well over your caloric budget, especially since they usually come out of bottles we squeeze and turn upside down with abandon.
Have you ever been to a GNC or a Vitamin Shoppe and just ended up staring blankly at the walls of endless bottles? You don’t even really know what you are looking for and you leave 300 dollars later feeling like you somehow didn’t get what you needed.
Before we get to the apps, let’s answer the question – are these optional or niche workouts? Not if you want your body to truly change. Strength training and cardio do a lot, but they don’t work your core, balance or smaller precision muscles in the same way. I used to be the biggest SNOB about yoga. “Oh, that’s’ for hippy dippy people who don’t want to do REAL workouts.” Then I went to my first power yoga class, and collapsed after holding down dog for 10 seconds. This was a RESTING POSE???!!! The point is, if you are not…
Yeah, I am going there. I feel like I have a fiduciary duty to my corporate audience to do so. So here we go: how do we finally settle the battle of the at-home workout between Peloton and SoulCycle? As you will find out, it’s really about the Peloton v Equinox brands, as well. Also, note that Peloton and SoulCycle are not the only games in town. NordicTrack, a long-standing brand, is getting into the game with its iFit bike and treadmills. For the iFit bike experience, there is also a studio class experience, as well as simulated scenery rides,…
If you are looking to lose weight, cardio is a necessary part of the equation. Strength training alone will not cut it. Most of us need a structured program, for that, as well as the RIGHT type of cardio. So what is that? Read this to find out!
Both Jillian Michaels and Tone it up incorporate yoga-esque movements into their workouts. This ensures a comprehensive focus on mobility and strength.
The SWEAT and FITBODY apps have a lot of similarities. Each has different qualities that can be appealing based on whether you value simplicity or more intensity.
