I ran across this article the other day and thought it shared some great ideas on how to keep your fitness mind-set strong. I know most of us can relate to having a difficult day but when you’re working on something as important as your health then it is crucial to your results to have the right mind-set. -Kelly

By: L R Goodman

Keeping with a fitness program can be very hard, especially if you don’t start seeing the results you want right away. Many people quite within a month of beginning their fitness programs and have to psych themselves back into a fitness mindset before they will begin again.
If you are one of those people, know that there is hope that even you will be able to break free from the start/stop syndrome of your routine.

don’t give up!

Tip #1: Determine to Press Ahead

Admit it. You want to quit because you feel like you are wasting your time and you would rather be doing…. (fill in the blank). Whether it is eating a big bowl of ice cream, sitting in front of the TV all day, or just a fitness failure feeling, something besides dieting and workout sessions has caught your attention.
So STOP. Think about what you REALLY want. Fitness is not easy, but you chose to start down that path for a reason. Was it to lose weight? Was it to regain your health? Was it to build your core so that you could be stronger? What was it?
Once you have remembered your goal, write it down. Go… do it NOW. This hub will still be here when you get back. Write it as many times as you need to so that you remember that goal. Stick it on your fridge, write it on your mirror, put a post it on your TV and do whatever it takes to get yourself back into the fitness mindset.
Pushing through the difficult moments when you don’t see what you want right away will put your body into gear and you will be grateful when you do start seeing results. Determination is a strong quality, and don’t you want to prove to the world that you have it?

Tip #2: Get a Second Job

No, no, don’t start looking through the employment ads. Put that newspaper down and pay attention.
View your fitness program as your second job. Make sure you show up to your shift on time, do your required work and the benefits will follow.
Do you enjoy your job all the time? You may like is most of the time, but ALL the time? When you are not enjoying your job, you can’t just decide to avoid it until you feel like working again. You have to work and stick it out and eventually things will be smoother again.
The same goes for fitness. You are not going to enjoy working out all the time, but you need to press on and you may even end up loving your second job!

bored yet?

take a breath

Tip #5 Slow Down

If you are experiencing pain or find yourself exhausted, slow down your workout sessions instead of quitting all together. A common problem with fitness programs is that people jump into them fully instead of slowly getting into it. Doing this could wear you out quickly and cause you to give up.
As you workout, your body will get stronger and you will be able to increase your workout sessions to allow you to build more endurance and stamina. Taking things slow in the beginning may just help prevent injury.

Here are some surefire ways to burn off an additional 100 calories to help you burn extra fat and attain a leaner physique.

1. Raise Your Intensity

It’s a well known fact now that increasing your intensity during your workout will create an “afterburn” effect.  If you haven’t heard of the term “afterburn” in the fitness world, it simply means a disturbance in your metabolism causing you to burn more calories after an intense strength training or interval training workout.

2. Ditch The Sugar

One 8 oz glass of juice has an average of 28 grams of sugar and 120 calories. One packet of sugar is 4 grams and 16 calories. Do the math. In one glass of juice you just consumed 7 packets of sugar. Get rid of the white stuff; your body will appreciate it.

3. Ditch The Sugar Substitutes

Research has shown that our body reacts the same way to sugar substitues (sucralose – aka Splenda, aspartame – aka Equal, saccharin – aka Sweet’N Low). Insulin levels still spike, wreaks havoc on our metabolism and causes the body to store more fat.

4. Eat Healthy Fats

Studies have shown that consuming more healthy fats, aka essential fatty acids, allows our cells to burn more fat and shrinks existing fat cells. A supportive diet rich in healthy fats also helps to break down the visceral fat around our organs, which is the dangerous body fat.

5. Turn On The Heat

If you’re into the hot stuff (get your mind out of the gutter) research has shown that adding more spice (hot sauce and chili peppers) to your meals can elevate your caloric burn by 25%.

6. Stand Up and Let Go Of The Handles

If you’re one of the machine cardio goers, let go of the handles on the elliptical already! If you’re stuck on the bike, change it up and get on another machine that has you standing instead.

7. Sleep Well

A lack of sleep and poor quality sleep drastically affects your fat burning hormone, leptin, and your appetite controlling hormone, ghrelin. A good eight hours of sleep will keep these hormones working full-time versus part-time. If these hormones aren’t operating optimally it can cause cravings.

Did this post help? There are a lot of other tips out there, let us know what else you’ve heard. Share in the comments section below.

- Rommel

I was asked a great question this morning from one of our dedicated male boot campers about doing extra cardio after the boot camp in order to burn more calories. I applaud him for wanting to do some extra work, but I cautioned him that it would be counterproductive in several ways. Now I gave him the cliff notes version, but I will provide you several reasons why extra cardio and just traditional cardio in general is counterproductive, especially in regards to losing bodyfat.

But before I go any further, please understand that I don’t completely dismiss cardio as a fitness tool. It’s a must for addressing metabolic disorders, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, and is a necessary tool when training for long duration events such as a marathon. However, for losing weight and body fat, cardio is just plain inneffective. Here’s why:

Studies have shown that results plateau after 8-weeks

When you apply stress to the body it tries to find a way to adapt to the stress as fast as it can. The human body hates to be energy inefficient so it will adapt accordingly to become energy efficient. Basically, if you used to burn 500 calories during a 30-minute run, after 8-weeks your body has adapted and you may now only burn 400 calories during those 30-minutes. Your heart health is improving and becoming more efficient, however the ability to burn calories is decreased.

It decreases muscle strength and power

This is associated with the type of stress put on to the working muscles. There are slow-twitch muscle fibers and fast-twitch muscle fibers. Slow-twitch muscle fibers are normally referred to as our endurance muscle fibers or Type 1 fibers, and fast-twitch muscle fibers are normally referred to as our strength/power muscle fibers, or Type 2 fibers. The more continuous cardio you do causes your slow-twitch fibers to dominate the adaptation process. Slow-twitch fibers produces the least amount of force, but are very energy efficient.

Fast-twitch fibers are classified under two types, Type 2a and 2b. Type 2a fibers are a hybrid of Type 1 and Type 2b. Because of the hybrid characteristics if more aerobic work is done then Type 2a’s will behave more like Type 1’s, and on the flip side if more strength is done then they will behave more like Type 2b’s. Type 2a fibers are also most responsible for increases in muscle gain. To illustrate, who has more body fat an Olympic sprinter or a marathoner? Most people would answer the marathoner because on the outside they look lean and thin. However, many strength coaches have demonstrated that when measuring the body fat of a sprinter versus a marathoner, the sprinters have less body fat.

Type 2b fibers are most responsible for generating all out power, but are highly inefficient and depending on the type of strength training you are doing Type 2b’s can convert to Type 2a’s. Let’s compare again a sprinter and a marathoner, who has more strength and power? This should be obvious in that sprinters are explosive and have good muscle mass.
Simply put, cardio can make your body slow and weak.

It increases oxidative stress

Oxidation is a process in which free radicals form in the body. With adequate amounts of antioxidants in your nutrition this shouldn’t be a problem, because you’re body will normally neutralize the effects of free radicals. However, if the body is exposed to too much free radicals, which is produced by excessive cardio then you’re body will have an extremely difficult time combating this process. Too much oxidative stress has shown to accelerate aging!

Can impede proper hormonal function

First, too much cardio can stress your adrenal glands, which are responsible for the delicate balance of hormones. Fatigue the adrenal glands and you’ll quickly experience symptoms such as chronic fatigue, insomnia, decrease in ability focus on tasks, anxiety, and decreased immunity just to name a few.
Secondly, it can negatively affect testosterone and cortisol ratio’s. If the testosterone/cortisol ratio is lowered your ability to build muscle is decreased. Why? Because, muscle is essentially your metabolism. The more muscle you have the more calories you can burn. The inability to build more muscle simply makes your ability to lose weight harder.

Are you experiencing any of the negative effects stated above? Are you finding your hitting a fitness plateau? Take a good look at your workouts and observe the ratio of cardio to strength training. You might just be wasting your time and efforts if you’re trying to lose weight.