“This is why we do this.” When I heard Jennifer’s story, I knew I had to share it. She’s a member of the Nerd Fitness community who for years struggled with things most of us can relate to:
Jennifer found herself stuck in this pattern until rock bottom presented itself: divorce. When bad times strike, it becomes easy to slip further into bad habits and vices. Jennifer knew this and realized she had to turn her life around. Six months ago, she did just that. Today, Jennifer loves strength training and is the strongest she’s ever been. She changed her views on food and nutrition and is no longer intimidated by the kitchen. Jennifer recently completed her first 8k, something she couldn’t have dreamed of doing before. And oh, Jennifer just came back from an epic photography trip where her new found stamina and strength allowed her to hike mountains to capture some awesome shots: That’s her! I’m honored that Jennifer has been a member of our 1-on-1 Online Coaching program since August, and has used our guidance to level up her life! While strength training and getting comfortable in the kitchen are important, the real success for Jennifer has been with her mindset. She knows she can’t change everything at once and is using one small change to spring into another change and then another, using each as a stepping stone to the next. This new frame of mind is something we can all learn from. It’s how Jennifer was able to transform so quickly and lose 20 pounds in a healthy, sustainable way. While it seems like changing everything at once is the quickest way to success, it’s often too stressful and thus abandoned. However, if you do what Jennifer did, and start with one simple habit like a food journal – it can start improving other areas of your life too. You don’t need to hear it from me though… Let’s bring in Jennifer! HOW JENNIFER THE PHOTOGRAPHER LOST 20 POUNDS AND LEVELED UP HER LIFE
I’d love to hear from you about your past – can you describe a normal day for you before you joined NF Coaching? JENNIFER: My day was pretty random, with no real set schedule. It would be hard for me to get up in the morning, and then I’d have an unhealthy breakfast – the American South is full of delicious things like biscuits and fried foods. Later in the day, I’d often find myself needing to take a long nap. Looking back, I did not have any sort of set schedule and spent my days with a foggy brain and zero energy. STEVE: I hear ya. A super carb heavy and sugary breakfast can send your blood sugar on a rollercoaster for the day. Sometimes a nap is the only way off of it. What changed? What made you invest in yourself by joining Nerd Fitness Coaching last summer? JENNIFER: I had a really horrific divorce and hit an all time low. I moved out of my home in Seattle, WA, back to my hometown in North Carolina. Sometimes you just have to escape your surroundings. I found myself comforting with sugary foods and alcohol. You know, totally healthy antidepressants. This really started to take a toll on my body. I had a moment of clarity then, as I realized I just didn’t have enough knowledge or drive to make changes on my own. I’m a believer in the “spoon theory,” which is a metaphor you see around the internet, which helps explain the limited amount of energy we face. Imagine having twelve spoons handed to you each morning. Every task or difficult scenario takes a spoon from you. Often at the end of the day, you have no more “spoons” to give. I knew I’d be much more successful with a routine that didn’t require any “spoons” to get to the gym. Instead, I could just start with workouts from home. It was right about then I decided to give the Nerd Fitness Coaching program a try. I decided I wanted to be told exactly what to do, which again would require less “spoons” from me. STEVE: I love the analogy of “spoons!” We’ve talked here in the past that willpower can be a finite resource for many. By the end of the day, you really can just be drained. Our philosophy on the subject matches your thoughts on spoon theory. That’s why we always encourage people to design systems that have the least amount of friction and require the least amount of willpower, or “spoons.” I’m glad you realized this and wanted to create a system where you could start working out from home. You can grow the practice into a gym routine (or not) later. The important thing is finding a system that allows you to start TODAY. You’ve been with coach Evan now for six months. Can you talk to me a little bit about what he had you do?
I had an eating disorder as a teenager. Hyper-focusing on everything I was eating and logging it all was really starting to trigger a lot of anxiety and bad memories in the beginning. But I told Evan all of this at our first meeting and he has been very good about helping me completely turn my perspective around about tracking my meals. He told me not to have any judgment about what I was eating, and to view the practice as a scientist collecting data. That perspective helped (Steve’s note: woo! Science rules!) For exercise, Evan started me out just taking a walk every day, followed shortly by some basic bodyweight exercises. At first, these were really tough, because I was really out of shape to start. I’d end most sessions a sweaty exhausted mess on the floor. Then Evan added in more dumbbell exercises (I have a small set at home and borrowed a bench from my family) and I instantly fell in love with those exercises! Evan made sure to add more of those into my routine as well. STEVE: That’s great to hear Jennifer. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of strength training. What’s your routine like now? What else is Evan having you do? JENNIFER: 5 months in, I’m even more of an avid walker. I walk daily, sometimes over 5 miles, or sometimes shorter if my walking buddies bail on me. Total flakes (j/k, I love you guys). I do strength training 3 days a week with a combination of bodyweight and dumbbell exercises. We just introduced some yoga routines to both help with stress relief and to help with stretching and mobility. I have had some issues with cranky muscles and joints on occasion, which yoga is helping with. The whole experience has been crazy to me. I’ve gotten to the point where I enjoy some kind of physical activity every day of the week. And fell IN LOVE with lifting weights. It is damn satisfying to see myself becoming a chick with “guns.” At this point, I have bigger biceps than my father and brother, haha. I am loving every second of that. It feels so good to be strong and be able to handle things on my own. As a female, that is even more important to me because society is pretty much built around telling us women that we can’t be strong enough and we cannot do things on our own. I am fed up with that cultural stereotype! As an aside, prior to joining NF Coaching, I was greatly inspired by Staci’s story and transformation. I like to think I’m following in her footsteps. STEVE: Yes! I love it. I think everyone should follow a strength training practice: man, woman, child, grandparent, self-aware robot… all of them! I’m really glad you found this new passion. Also, I’m glad you found inspiration from Staci! Many a rebel around here have also changed their lives after reading about Staci. You sent over some awesome pics of a recent trip in Scotland. Can you talk to me a little bit about that? JENNIFER: It was my goal in 2018 to do a hiking trip in Scotland. With Evan’s help, I got enough strength and endurance to do exactly that!
I wanted to be able to do the mountain hikes with all my heavy camera gear on my back, without being assigned to the group of folks who couldn’t do as much. I knew I was in no shape to do it originally. However, Evan and I created a plan, executed it, and boom! Up the mountain I went. I can do so many cool things with my body that I wasn’t able to do 5 months ago! I power walked my first 8k about a month after starting with Evan. It was hard but I had built the endurance from walking every single day before it. STEVE: I think it’s so great that you worked towards a goal and then hit it. I often encourage people to try and build up strength for an event. Something like a marathon, a ski trip, or in your case a photography workshop on the top of a mountain. It gives you something to shoot for, something to motivate you to work out when it seems so much easier to skip it. I’m glad you created a goal for yourself, made a plan with your coach, and then nailed it! Your physical appearance has changed. What else has changed about you? JENNIFER: I’ve had vast improvements in my posture which I think in turn has improved my self-confidence.
I’ve also battled depression for most of my adult life. And while it by no means is cured, the severity of it has been lessened by the daily physical activity and improved nutrition. All around, today I have the general ability to do more things because I have more energy and focus than I used to. I still have days when I get overly stressed out and go a bit off the rails with my nutrition and make unhealthy choices. However, I appreciate Nerd Fitness for the “never twice in a row” mindset. It keeps me from feeling like an utter failure if I have a day with too much pizza or delicious cake or something. I just know the next day, it’s time for me to get back on track. STEVE: That’s so cool! I’m happy “never twice in a row” resonated with you. I think it’s an important tool for preventing bad habits from developing. When people slip up (and we all slip up), it can become so easy to continue. Having a motto that stops this trend from continuing is a game-changer. I’m proud of you Jennifer. You mentioned a need to adjust your relationship with food. Can you talk to me a little bit about that? What’s your nutrition strategy like now? JENNIFER: I’m proud to say I’ve changed my relationship with food. I’ve always used food as a comfort. Knowing this, I was really nervous about even just logging my food. Looking back though, it was such an important first step. Tracking everything I was eating was eye-opening. It helped me see what I was putting into my body, which gave me more confidence and determination in the kitchen. As of today, I’ve conquered cooking all kinds of foods, founds healthy recipes I enjoy, and am beginning to work on meal prep. Evan has a strategy for me to plan ahead on food preparation. Healthy eating really has been a game changer. I am much more clear-headed today than I was six months ago, and I credit nutrition as a huge reason why. I don’t really follow Paleo or anything like that. Coach Evan has introduced me more into a “If It Fits Your Macros” style of eating. He really hammered in the thought that I had to eat protein with every meal. I’ve also drastically reduced my sugar and alcohol consumption, although I’ll still indulge from time to time. Going back to “If It Fits Your Macros,” if I know I’m going to be eating dessert or having some drinks, I’ll plan for it and reduce my calories and carbs beforehand. Again though, I’m doing this less and less. I actually prefer healthier foods now, to be honest. STEVE: That’s great to hear you say that. We here at Nerd Fitness continuously remind everyone that 80-90% of the weight loss comes down to nutrition. Not only that, but REAL food just makes you feel better. Which will give you more energy to workout. I’m glad that Evan has helped you see a plate of food differently. What are you still working on? What new habits are you trying to develop? JENNIFER: I am still establishing a fixed routine for sleeping and waking up, which is definitely something that has been a struggle to do. I have seen improvements though. I’ve created a pretty solid breakfast routine, prioritizing protein. Oftentimes it’ll be cottage cheese, which I never realized I’d like! I also have a glass of water upon waking up, which has been a good change. Earlier I mentioned I started doing yoga. I’m experimenting with doing it first thing in the morning. My biggest challenge for creating a successful morning routine is going to bed on time. I would say this is still a work in progress. One habit at a time. STEVE: Getting to bed on time can be such a critical step. I’ve struggled with being a “morning person” myself, but it really is worth pursuing the routine. Keep at it, Jennifer! Do you have any words of advice for somebody who hasn’t invested in any program and can’t seem to make any progress?
Trying to do that is like taking a starter character in World of Warcraft and heading straight to a high-level dungeon: you’ll get trampled. If you cannot commit to a program or feel overwhelmed that’s completely okay. Start small. Pick a small change and stick to that and build onto that routine once you’ve gotten comfortable. This way you slowly mold yourself into the person you want to be. I loved RPGs and grew up during the NES and SNES era and building good habits and getting healthy feels exactly like those games in a way. You don’t start at level 99,999 doing max damage to everything. You level up from the beginning and gain spells and abilities along the way and your character slowly evolves into the one you want it to be. I think the Nerd Fitness “Level Up Your Life” motto is incredibly accurate. Great change is made by accomplishing many smaller changes. And you’re so much less likely to become discouraged and just rage-quit if you go about change this way. STEVE: That’s amazing Jennifer. You nailed the whole philosophy on “Level Up Your Life.” Start small, and before you know it you’re a top-level mage slaying dragons with ice spells. Or in your case, climbing up mountains. Alright, one last question: you’ve already used some of our language, but what makes you a nerd? JENNIFER: I consider myself a multi-dimensional nerd! If that’s not a phrase I am deeming it thus. I’ve loved video games since I was very small. Loved all the NES and Mario games, as well as the Zelda series and RPGs like Chrono Trigger and the Final Fantasy series. I’ve played World of Warcraft with an awesome guild of all women for over 10 years. Shout out to Daughters of the Alliance! Comics are also a love. My absolute favorite is Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, and pretty much anything else he or David Mack have been involved in. I pretty much love all things nerdy. STEVE: I do love me some Neil Gaiman too – I actually have Vol 1 of Sandman sitting on my coffee table! Thank you for taking the time to speak with me, Jennifer! All the best! THE SIX KEYS TO JENNIFER’S WEIGHT LOSS AND LEVEL UP SUCCESS!In speaking with Jennifer, I realized she had a few great traits which helped her succeed. Lots of people embark on a fitness journey. Unfortunately, many of them are exactly where they started six months later. Jennifer is different. In half a year, she’s changed her relationship with food, begun strength training, and has taken an epic trip. After a rough patch, she used hitting rock bottom to turn her life around. In speaking with her, and analyzing her choices and decisions, I think there are six traits that set Jennifer apart. Here’s what we can learn from Jennifer’s success: #1) JENNIFER STOPPED RELYING ON WILLPOWER I love Jennifer’s “spoon” analogy. She knew she only had so much energy, only so much willpower, to get things done. So she sought a system that would require the least amount from her: Instead of buying a gym membership she would never use, she started working out from her home. Jennifer started with simple bodyweight exercises, a solid strategy to build momentum Once she got a little more comfortable from working out at home, she starting using dumbbells and a bench press that she had access to. Again, all from home. Working out and going to the gym are not tied together. If you have limited experience and/or motivation, start by doing simple bodyweight exercises at home. This is what Jennifer did! Second, know that working out gives you more energy. Which can help give you more willpower. Which can help you embark on other habits like cooking or meal prep. If you want to head to a gym for exercise, great! I do. However, if you have a hard time motivating yourself to leave the house, it doesn’t have to be the only option. Starting small requires less willpower, which can help make your actions more likely to become routine. #2) JENNIFER INVESTED IN HERSELF AND ASKED FOR HELP
Doing it alone seemed impossible. It was hard enough for Jennifer to get out of bed and face the day. She knew that creating a plan and then sticking with it would require a lot of energy. Energy and willpower she was already having trouble coming up with. So she asked for help. Jennifer wanted “Someone in MY corner to help cheer me on and guide me into a better way of living.” I’m proud that she reached out to us for that someone, and that she made a connection with her NF Coach, Evan. It’s okay to ask for help! Knowing what to do, how to do it, and how to tell if it’s working requires a lot of energy. Some can do it alone. But many can’t. Asking for help, and then being willing to invest in that help can be a life-changing decision. Jennifer knew this and was willing to take the step to hire someone to create a plan and help her execute it. I’ve had an online coach myself for 4 years and it has changed my life. #3) JENNIFER HAD DRAGONS TO SLAY I love that Jennifer planned a photography workshop in Scotland that required some physical strength and endurance. Hiking up a mountain with camera equipment isn’t easy, and Jennifer knew she’d have to train if she was going to make it. So she asked for help, developed a plan on how to do it, and followed the plan. And boom! She was able to hike up her equipment for her class. Having a goal gave Jennifer her “Big Why.” When Jennifer started logging her food, it gave her anxiety. When she first started working out, she would be exhausted. When her walking buddies bailed on her, she went anyway. Jennifer did these things because she knew they were part of a plan to get her up the Old Man of Storr in Scotland. Without doing the work, she would never get to the top. She would have to be part of the group that stuck to the sidelines. Having a goal can provide the “Big Why.” When things get tough (and they will get tough), knowing “why” you are working hard can make all the difference. Perhaps you want to go skiing with your kids and don’t want to be exhausted halfway through. Maybe there’s a marathon your friends are doing, and you want to go with them. Perhaps it’s practicing pull-ups so you can go tag along with your spouse who loves rock climbing. Having a “Big Why” can be the key to making or breaking a fitness journey. And what happens after you slay a dragon? You go find a bigger dragon! 4#) JENNIFER STARTED HER JOURNEY WITH SMALL STEPS Jennifer began with two small habits that most people can start today:
We often advise people to pick a small habit they can imagine sticking with permanently. Once this becomes part of a normal routine, they can think about picking another. This can be better than planning on “Going full Paleo, start rock climbing, and beginning a ballroom dancing practice.” If you don’t do any of these things currently, it could be very tough to start doing them all at once. And we all know temporary changes produce temporary results. We want results that last! That’s why Coach Evan had Jennifer start with small changes she could actually sustain. For nutrition changes, Evan just had Jennifer track her food. No judgment. No “eat this, not that.” Just a log of everything she was consuming. Once Jennifer got comfortable doing this, and only once Jennifer became comfortable doing this, did Evan start to make recommendations for adjustments. Jennifer also started small with exercises: just a walk. Walking is a great start for a fitness journey (it’s also a great way to get to Mordor). It’ll get your heart rate up and your muscles moving, and it’s something you can do around your neighborhood. Even just a five-minute walk is a great start. Once you get in the habit of that, you can make take it to 10 minutes or even a full mile. If you start this way, eventually you can be like Jennifer and crush miles each and every day. After you get in the habit of walking, you can switch to picking up some weights every other day. The habit of walking is easy to adapt to another exercise practice, like strength training. “Instead of my 2pm walk, it’s now my 2pm bench press time.” Be like Jennifer and start small. Once the habit is built, you can work to grow it from there. 5#) JENNIFER PLANNED ON WHAT TO DO WHEN SHE FELL DOWN It brought a smile to my face when I heard Jennifer say “never two in a row.”
Things will come up. You will miss a workout. You will have some beers and eat pizza. You will sleep in and miss your walking groups AM meeting. Your kid will get sick. When you miss these things consistently, you start creating bad habits. And what you do most of the time is how you create a healthy life. Missing one workout is okay. Missing two is bad because then it’s really easy to miss three. Eating pizza is fine. But “once and a while” can quickly become an “everyday” thing. Continue this for too long and then you’re just living off pizza! “Never two in a row” provides a framework for making sure bad habits don’t develop:
Create a mindset of stopping these things before they get out of hand. Be like Jennifer and create a plan on what to do when you inevitable stray from the path. 6#) JENNIFER IS HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY Jennifer considers herself a work in progress. When you think about it, we’re all works in progress! She knows this. But she is having fun now, which makes the days ahead seem sustainable. We are not on a month-long journey. We are in this for the rest of our lives. To make sure we stick with it, we need to have fun! And as I say in this video: we stop thinking in terms of “weeks and months,” and instead start thinking in terms of “days and years” Jennifer legitimately loves strength training. You can tell she’s looking forward to one day doing pull-ups. Jennifer likes eating nutritious food and loves how much energy she derives from those meals. My favorite part: she views where she’s at as an experiment. She highlights this when she talks about her morning routine and yoga. She’s still not sure how to get the AM just right and thinks a little yoga in the morning might help. She’ll try it to see if it works. If it doesn’t, she’ll try something else. IN SIX MONTHS, CAN YOU TURN YOUR LIFE AROUND LIKE JENNIFER?All of us will hit tough spots in life. Maybe it’s losing a job. Perhaps it’s a sick family member. Or a child that’s struggling in school. For Jennifer, it was a nasty divorce. At first, she coped in the ways many of us cope: food and alcohol. Jennifer decided this couldn’t continue. So she sought help. And in six months time, Jennifer has leveled up her life. She can pursue her passion for photography and not be afraid of the literal mountain ahead. She knows the shot at the top of the climb, is not only worth it, but doable. Where will you be six months from now? It’s enough time to build some great healthy habits as Jennifer did. However, it’s also a short enough time which can fly by if you’re not looking. If you’re standing in the same place you were six months ago, think about what you can learn from Jennifer:
If you relate to Jennifer and find yourself in a tough spot, we can help you turn it around. Depending on your current situation, our 1-on-1 NF Coaching Program might be just what you need. We help people everyday complete life overhauls. If you’re trying to get in shape, searching for a new way of eating, or want help developing a strength training practice, we know exactly how to get you there. You can learn more by clicking on the big box below and scheduling a free call with our team! The next six months will come and go no matter what you do today. I’d love it if half a year from now, you tell me Jennifer’s story was something you related to. Which inspired you to make some changes. You started walking every day. You began a food journal. You finally decided to ask for help. As always, if you do need somewhere to go for help, you know Nerd Fitness will be here. For the Rebellion! -Steve PS: I want to give a special shout out to Jennifer’s Coach Evan, who has been the Dumbledore to her Hermione over these past 6 months. And I’m proud of Jennifer’s success and can’t wait to see what she does next. If you are somebody that wants to have your own Yoda guiding you in the ways of the Force, check out or 1-on-1 coaching program, and I could be sharing YOUR story six months from now! PPS: Speaking of success stories…If you’ve had success with any aspect of Nerd Fitness, whether it’s our free workouts, Academy, or Coaching, email us! Send your story to contact(at)NerdFitness(dot)com and let us know so we can share your adventure with the galaxy! PPPS: We are very grateful to Adam Bulley, Paul Marshall, and David Roby, who provided some of the epic shots of Jennifer for this article! from https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/how-jennifer-the-photographer-discovered-a-love-of-strength-training-lost-20-pounds-and-leveled-up-her-life/
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So you’re interested in eating only plants, eh? Well, you’ve come to the right place to learn all about it. I’ve seen many people over the years have success with a Plant-Based Diet. Truth be told though, I’ve seen many people also struggle with it too. (After all, donuts are “plant-based” and pizza just got declared “a vegetable”). There is definitely a right way and a wrong way to embark on eliminating animal products from your diet. Today, I’ll share with you how to safely and correctly follow a plant-based menu and still hit your goals. Now, although I’ve been running this site for 10 years, I may be drawing a large target on my back by diving headfirst into a topic I’ve thus far avoided. As a blogger, if you want to tenfold your hate mail, take a stance on a Plant-Based Diet. And saying ANYTHING about veganism – for OR against – is an easy way to get virtual produce tossed at you. Although most people discover Nerd Fitness through our guides on Paleo or Keto, we get SO many questions on how to eat a Plant-Based Diet that I figured I’d give my two cents. With pop stars and famous directors advising folks to try veganism, these inquiries are only going to increase.[1] So today, we are going to talk about how to eat a Plant-Based Diet safely. The right way, and the wrong way, to go vegan or vegetarian. BIG ASS CAVEAT: I’m not going to try to convince you to give up meat. If you’re reading this, I’ll assume you’re here because you’re interested in doing so, and want to know the best path through it. The politics, controversy (yes, I’ve read the China Study[2]), and geopolitical impact of veganism are beyond the scope of this article. I’m just a nerd who studies the hell outta health and wellness and sometimes wears pants.[3] So setting all the controversy aside, I want to explore the science and the “how to” for people who are heading down this path.
Let’s goooooo!
WHAT EXACTLY IS A PLANT-BASED DIET?There are quite a few different versions of a Plant-Based Diet. It’ll be good to start with some definitions so we land on the same page. According to the Vegetarian Society, a vegetarian is someone who “does not eat foods that consist of, or have been produced with the aid of products consisting of or created from, any part of the body of a living or dead animal.”[4] So NO eating:
Instead, vegetarians DO eat:
Plants, more or less. “Vegetarian” can be a broader term for more specific examples of plant-based eating. Some examples would be: Lacto-ovo-vegetarians is someone who doesn’t eat animal flesh but does eat dairy and eggs. This is the most common type of vegetarian. Lacto vegetarians don’t eat eggs but do eat dairy. Ovo vegetarians avoid all animals products, with the exception of eggs. Vegans avoid all animal products, including dairy and eggs and even things like honey. If it came from an animal, it’s not a part of a vegan diet. Some even take it one step further and eat only a “raw vegan” diet, where the plants consumed are not cooked prior to consumption. The above are the most common forms of Plant-Based Diets, but there are others! A pescatarian is someone who consumes no animal products except fish and shellfish. A flexitarian is someone who follows a vegetarian diet a majority of the time, but who will occasionally eat meat. Now granted, neither pescatarians nor flexitarians are technically vegetarians because both contain animal products on the menu. However, they are mostly plant-based, so worth mentioning – especially if somebody is doing this in an attempt to be healthier. There are many more considerations and labels, which can tackle a lot of the ethical stances around being vegan: not wearing animal products, the treatment of animals, etc. To be blunt, this is outside the scope of this article. I’m only interested in “If you are going to eat only plants, how do you do it?” So we’ll politely ignore clothing, testing, and captivity for this article. Which brings us to… WHAT DO YOU EAT ON A PLANT-BASED DIET? WHAT’S ON A VEGAN MENU?What you can or cannot eat on a Plant-Based Diet depends a lot on what kind of vegetarianism you follow. Eggs and dairy, for example, may or may not be included. It really comes down to what path you are choosing. There are some general food groups we can consider as universal no matter what form of vegetarianism you follow. A Plant-Based Diet will include the following foods: Whole grains. Rice, oats, barley, and buckwheat would all be examples of whole grains. Most vegetarian diets include a sizable amount of whole grains as their base. Vegetables. Of course, a vegetarian diet is going to include vegetables! And it should because vegetables are great for you! They’re packed full of nutrients, fiber, and generally low in calories. Most people could stand to eat more veggies. If you find yourself not being able to stomach greens, I got you. Check out this post for tips on how to turn around any vegetable hater. Legumes. Beans, lentils, and soy make up the legume family. If you’re following a plant-based or vegan diet, legumes would be a great way to get protein (more on this to follow). Fruit. Bananas, apples, and oranges all come from plants, so all are vegetarian-friendly. While high in fructose (sugar), they are also nutrient dense. Our general stance on fruit around these parts is to eat “in moderation.” Nuts and seeds. Again, they come from plants, so almonds, cashews, and pumpkin seeds are good to go on any vegetarian plan you pick. So is quinoa, which although is often thought of as a grain, is actually a seed. Mind=blown. Nuts and seeds, although high in fat and calories, are another great way to get protein on a Plant-Based Diet. No matter what type of vegetarian diet you pick, you’d be free to eat the above (provided they fit into your current nutrition goals – but I’ll get to that shortly). The below will depend on what kind of vegetarianism you are trying. We may be stepping into controversial waters (remember, don’t shoot the messenger) with the following: Eggs. Eggs are a great source of vitamin B12 and protein, which will become important in a section further down. Dairy. Whether or not you consume dairy will be determined by your specific strain of plant-based nutrition. On the one hand, it’s from an animal (moo). On the other hand, dairy can be full of nutrients that might be harder to source from only plants, like omega-3s and calcium. Fish. Look, I get it. Fish are animals, so technically not allowed on a vegetarian diet. However, if you eat a mostly-Plant-Based Diet that includes a little fish, it wouldn’t be too different from a Mediterranean Diet. There are a lot worse ways to eat than like the Mediterraneans. And as mentioned earlier, depending on who you talk to, being pescatarian could be a form of a Plant-Based Diet. That’s a lot of the major food groups when it comes to plant-based eating. So here’s all you need to remember: Whatever form of vegetarianism you may pick, stick to REAL food whenever possible. Pinto beans, asparagus, apples, and quinoa would all be examples of real food. These are nutrient-dense foods that will keep you full and energized throughout your day. Deep fried cheese balls, donuts, and candy bars are examples of “plant-based, but not real” food. And I’ll give out a warning on processed vegan junk food in a moment. For now, there may be a question you are thinking. It’s one of the most common ones we get when it comes to eating a vegetarian or vegan diet. WILL A VEGETARIAN OR VEGAN DIET HELP ME LOSE WEIGHT?…MAYBE! There are plenty of examples of people losing weight on a Plant-Based Diet.[5] However, there are also stories of the opposite where people gained body fat when going vegan.[6] However, anecdotal evidence isn’t science. What does the research say? If you look at studies on the subject, there’s nothing here that will surprise us: plant-based calories count just as much as animal-based calories.[7] There are some studies which show the success of veganism compared to omnivore diets for weight loss.[8] Then there are others showing that a diet including meat outperforms vegan diets for trimming body fat.[9] Depending on who you’re trying to impress, you can find six studies that say vegans will lose more weight than meat eaters, or half a dozen studies that show vegans will lose less weight. It honestly doesn’t matter, because when it comes to weight loss, it comes down to calories, calories, calories. Oh and calories. Did I mention calories? Put bluntly, if you’re not losing weight, you’re consuming too many calories. It doesn’t matter if they’re vegan or vegetarian or Paleo or certified organic. Check out our “Why can’t I lose weight?” article to learn the science behind why! Let’s get to the point: You’re here, you’re eating plants, and you want to lose weight. So here’s how to do it. If you typically ate a standard American diet filled with burgers and french fries, and then moved to salads? Yeah, I’d imagine that you would lose weight – simply because you’re now eating fewer calories than you were eating in the past. However, if you go from scarfing down normal burgers to scarfing down an Impossible Burger or a vegan burger? Maybe not.[10] Let’s take a look:
The Impossible Burger is made with wheat protein, coconut oil, potato protein and heme (a molecule found in plants and animals). So it’s very calorically dense. Moral of the story: don’t assume that food without any meat in it will have fewer calories in it. While there are plenty of nuances, when it comes to weight loss, calories in and calories out plays a major role in whether or not you are successful. Just because something is vegan doesn’t mean it’s necessarily healthy. As someone pointed out in our private Facebook Academy group, “Oreos are vegan.” If you don’t plan properly, you could be deluding yourself into thinking veganism will be a weight loss strategy. I know that adopting a new lifestyle can be challenging, especially if you’re really busy. Whether it’s veganism, a low-carb diet, or trying to build muscle, embarking on a new habit can be tough if you don’t know what to do. Weight-loss, no matter which strategy you pick, can be a hard road to follow. I want you to know that you’re not alone, we’re here to help. We offer a 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program to help busy people like you embark on complete life overhauls. We can help you with dietary changes, exercise, and accountability so you can create new healthy habits that fit into your chaotic day-to-day life! If you’re thinking about a Plant-Based Diet for weight loss, we can help you switch to a less restrictive diet over time. Slow and steady is our preferred approach. If you’d like to learn more, click on the big image below: DO I HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT GETTING ENOUGH PROTEIN WHEN EATING A PLANT-BASED DIET?Contrary to popular belief, you CAN get enough protein when following a Plant-Based Diet. However, protein consumption SHOULD be something that’s prioritized if you’re trying to lose weight, build muscle, and be healthier. What we call “protein” is actually a combination of different amino acids. There are 20 or so amino acids that we use to build muscle and keep our organs functioning. Nine of these amino acids our body can’t produce itself, so we need to get them through food. Getting all nine is important, because these amino acids do everything from build and repair muscle tissue (which is HUGE for strength training), run our metabolism, and even help our genes function correctly.[11] All nine are found together in all forms of meat. When you eat a piece of chicken, you are getting all nine. When it comes to non-animal sources, most plants will generally be missing one or two of these nine essential amino acids.[12] Soy might be the best way to get all nine together in one plant; however, soy doesn’t seem to provide the same biological functionality as dairy or eggs.[13] You can overcome this small challenge easily by varying your dietary choices. Let’s look at the most common example:
Eat them together, and you’ve covered any amino acid deficiency![14] To recap: if you eat some kind of unprocessed starch (rice, corn, potatoes, beans), combined with some fruits and vegetables during the day, you’ll be covered.[15] The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics explains “Protein from a variety of plant foods, eaten during the course of a day, supplies enough of all indispensable (essential) amino acids when caloric requirements are met.[16] Did you catch that caveat? As long as you are meeting your calorie requirements from “plant foods,” you’ll get all your necessary amino acids. But this only works if your calories are coming from plants, not cookies. I’ll say it again: EAT REAL FOOD. Eating a variety of foods will help build up a diversified nutrient profile, including amino acids. Oats with one meal, lentils with the next, and rice with dinner, for example. This would be a better strategy than just living off soy. And DEFINITELY better off than living off of Soylent Green… To recap this section: vegetarians can get plenty of protein. It just really depends on what they are eating. So why are we focusing so much on protein? Because, muscles. CAN I BUILD MUSCLE ON A PLANT-BASED DIET?Look in the right places and have the right conversations, and you’ll be able to find uber successful plant-based athletes that have built plenty of muscle. For example, Danielle Sidell is a CrossFit athlete who follows a 100% Plant-Based Diet: David Carter, a defensive lineman in the NFL, calls himself “The 300-Pound Vegan.”
And one last example to round things out: Joe Venus, a vegan bodybuilder who gets anywhere from 80-180 grams of protein daily through big meals.[17] Putting on muscle with a Plant-Based Diet is certainly not impossible. If you analyze how these athletes eat, you’ll notice many similarities to other “omnivore” elite athletes, and a few places where they diverge: Let’s look at a typical day for CrossFit athlete Danielle Sidell:[18] “Typical breakfast is 2 slices of sprouted bread with vegan butter, half an avocado, mini fruit salad with strawberries, grapes and blackberries with peanut butter drizzled over the top and a cup of coffee. My snack before lunch is some roasted chickpeas and plain popcorn – it’s a really filling snack. For lunch I’ll do a serving of Beyond Meat’s chicken or beef crumbles with jasmine rice, a serving of veggies and another half of an avocado. For afternoon snack I’m typically on my way to the gym so I’ll have a banana, spoonful of peanut butter and a glass of unsweetened soy milk. I like soy and pea milk the most because they have lots of protein. After I workout I’ll do a shake with pea protein and dextrose. For dinner I’ll have a cup of some sort of beans, hummus for the extra fat, some sweet potato and another serving of something by Beyond Meat. Then for a snack I’ll do a whole bell pepper with hummus or a serving of beet chips.” Compare that to any other athlete, and you’ll find very similar strategies: get the correct amount calories for your goals, and eat plenty of plants. The only difference is protein sources! And protein is how you build muscle.[19] Again, it’s not impossible to get enough protein strictly from plants to build muscle, it simply takes foresight, some understanding of your macros, and planning. So although there is an observed correlation between muscle size and animal protein intake, we all know that correlation doesn’t equal causation.[20] Just because someone doesn’t eat meat, doesn’t mean they will have less muscle or smaller muscles. To put it another way: eating meat doesn’t necessarily lead to bigger muscles, either! To recap: if you are looking to strength train and build muscle on a Plant-Based Diet, it comes down to protein consumption, total calorie count, and training regiment! HOW MUCH PROTEIN DO I NEED TO EAT EACH DAY ON A PLANT-BASED DIET?At this point, you may be asking, “Steve, how much protein do these plant-based athletes have to eat? How much protein does it take to build muscle?” Great questions. There’s some debate on this. There are estimates that you need .8 of a gram to 1 full gram of protein for every pound (or 1.6-2g for every kg) you weigh.[21] Another study found it might be as high as 1.4 grams of protein for every pound you weigh.[22] I’d say 1 gram of protein, for every pound of lean body mass, is a good solid number to shoot for if you are trying to build muscle. If you don’t know how to calculate your lean body mass – just go with 0.8 grams per pound (1.6 grams per kg) and adjust up or down from there depending on your results. Let me get to a more important point here: As with EVERY athlete pointed out above (Danielle Sidell, David Carter, Jeremy Reijnders, and Joe Venus): They all supplement with isolated plant protein for increasing protein intake without dramatically increasing calories or carbohydrates. Here’s why: Dr. John Berardi from Precision Nutrition points out, “You just can’t avoid carbs in a vegan plan.”[23] As you’ll recall, plants have less protein but more carbohydrates and more calories than animal sources:
The same size serving of black beans has less protein, twice as many calories, and more carbs compared to chicken. If your goal is weight loss, you need to be aware of your calorie intake. If you try to get the same amount of protein from black beans as you would from chicken, you’re going to end up consuming 2-3x the number of calories and a tremendous number of carbohydrates. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you’re an athlete or strength train! After all, carbs aren’t evil HOWEVER…you could struggle with CERTAIN body fat percentage goals if you are going plant-based. That’s not judgment or a challenge or anything in between – it’s just reality. Dr. Berardi highlights the biggest challenge of strength training on a Plant-Based Diet: It’s not that you can’t bulk up. It’s that due to the inherent nature of how plant-based protein-rich foods are structured, you are potentially more likely to increase your body fat through overconsumption of calories: “I feel it’s actually going to be pretty easy to build muscle on a vegan plan – you just have to eat a lot of food. What’s probably difficult is getting super ripped. These foods have a high percentage of carbs compared to proteins and fats. It’s not a problem getting lean on a vegan plan. But to actually preserve muscle mass and be bodybuilder-lean, that might be a challenge.” The solution: if you consume more carbohydrates in order to hit your protein goals, then you’ll need to eat less fat to keep your calorie intake in balance. One goes up, the other goes down. This ensures total calories don’t increase to such a point that you start to put on fat. Is there a preferred ratio of macros? Sure…though your results may vary! Some people do better on a low-fat diet, while others do better on a high-fat diet. This is true of a Plant-Based Diet or any other diet! Hulda B. Waage, a vegan powerlifter, suggests those trying to strength train on a Plant-Based Diet aim for fat intake at around 15-20%, with protein at 20-30% and carbs at 55-60%.[24] For comparison, the International Society of Sports Nutrition generally will recommend fat intake to be around 30%.[25] The only consistent constant of successful athletes: Whether they’re high carb or low carb, high fat or low fat, they all prioritize adequate protein consumption. This can be aided by protein supplementation – covered in our next section! Your results may vary, because you are a unique snowflake. Our advice would be to track your macros and track your results – see how your body adapts and changes, and then adjust along the way! Before we wrap up this section though, it should go without saying that not only will you have to eat right to build muscle, you’ll also have to actually work out and train. We have a whole Strength Training 101 series on Nerd Fitness that can walk you through EVERY step of that process. Want to take it with you? Download our free guide, Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know, which will give you an exact plan to follow to build muscle and gain strength. Grab the guide free when you sign up in the box below and join the Rebellion!
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
WHAT ARE SOME GOOD PLANT PROTEIN SUPPLEMENTS?If you’re struggling to hit your protein intake goals for the day, it’s worth looking into a protein supplement. My go-to protein powder is whey, easily the most popular and efficient protein supplements you can take.[26] When I can’t hit my protein goals with my regular meals, I drink a whey protein shake to fill the gaps. Whey is a dairy product, so would fall into the menu of a vegetarian, but not a vegan. If you’re going 100% plant-based, these are not the powders you’re looking for. You’ll have to forgo it. Here are our recommendations and suggestions for plant protein powders:
If you want all three in a mixture (my recommendation), you can do it yourself or find a company like Vega that makes a blend of pea, rice, and hemp protein. You can mix any or all of these powders with almond milk, some berries, and oats for an awesome vegan smoothie. My friend Matt Frazier over at No Meat Athlete has some great vegan smoothie recipes for you to check out. Want some more recipes on how to prioritize protein on a Plant-Based Diet? Let’s do it! WHAT’S A PLANT-BASED DAY OF EATING LOOK LIKE?So we’ve laid out a few key foundational pieces of a healthy Plant-Based Diet: :
Let’s break this all down and look at what a day of eating vegan – with adequate protein intake – looks like. We’ll keep it at .75 gram of protein for every pound of lean body mass because it makes the math easy, and can help manage hunger/satiety.[29] Let’s calculate for a 200-pound male, who is 5 foot 9, and just started strength training. Let’s also pretend this person just turned 35. If you’re keeping track at home, our newly created imaginary friend needs to eat 150 grams of protein per day. How can we get to 150 grams of protein, using only plants? With the help of some recipes from Fit Men Cook and Minimalist Baker, I’ll show you how: Breakfast:
Lunch:
Afternoon Snack
Dinner
Late Night Snack
BOOM! 150 grams of protein, with no animal products whatsoever. Total calories? 2,024. If we calculate the needs of our imaginary 35-year-old male (who weighs 200 pounds and is “lightly active”), using our Total Daily Energy Expenditure Calculator, we know this comes in under the 2,522 calories recommended for weight maintenance:
Which means if this person eats like the above, he’ll build muscle and lose weight like a champ. Now, if this person was 145 pounds and wanted to bulk up, they would simply increase their calorie intake by following similar strategies as above. Not eating enough is an uber common mistake I see people make who are trying to bulk up. This example daily menu was chosen to show you, that with a little bit of thought and preparation, eating adequate protein is possible when following a Plant-Based Diet. You just have to plan carefully (that theme again). Did you notice something about all the foods we recommended? Not a whole lot of junk food to be seen. This was not an accident. COMMON MISTAKES WHEN FOLLOWING A VEGETARIAN DIETThroughout this article, I’ve been using the terms “vegan diet” or “veggie diet” and “Plant-Based Diet” interchangeably. At this point though, we need to differentiate. Pizza, fettuccine alfredo, bowls of sugary cereal, grilled cheese sandwiches, and calorie-bomb burritos can be vegetarian. Donuts, pasta, and bread can be vegan. Plant-based? Technically, sure. Healthy? Wrong! If your goal is weight loss and a healthy check-up at the doctor, eat plants. Full stop. You know the drill: vegetables, fruits, tubers, etc. Things that you can pluck from a tree or pull from the ground, clean, and then eat. Those are whole foods that will have a lot of the fiber and nutrients intact. Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, sums it up well: “If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.” Now, I’m personally not saying to never eat pizza or donuts. Pizza and donuts are amazing. Just know that these processed, calorie-heavy foods are easy to overeat and are part of the reason for expanded waistlines. In other words, if you treat them as a treat, and know your calorie goals, you can make it work. I’ll say it again: if you’re gonna be a vegetarian, please eat vegetables. Some of the unhealthiest people I know are vegetarian, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen them eat a veggie. This highlights one of the greatest mistakes people make when going vegetarian or vegan. They only think about what they are cutting out (meat), without actively considering what they are replacing those foods with. Remember our example of protein in plants vs. animal products:
If you are going to follow a Plant-Based Diet, you won’t have as much leeway as your omnivore friends. They can gobble down a serving of steak and receive 62 grams of protein from that piece of meat alone. 62 grams of protein is almost half of the requirements of our imaginary friend from earlier. We had to figure out breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks to get us to 150 grams of plant-based protein. Compare this to an omnivore who could eat some eggs, steak, and a chicken salad and be pretty much at 150 grams of protein (and a lower calorie count too). That’s why the American Dietetic Association’s states “vegetarian or vegan diets” need to be “well planned.”[30]
When you do the math, because a pound of body fat equals around 3,500 calories, a 500-calorie per day deficit would result in 1 pound of weight loss per week for this person. Unless of course, he overeats on donuts and Oreos and vegan burgers and pizza. So, minimize the vegan junk food and prioritize foods that will help you meet your goals. Another mistake I see vegetarians specifically make is simply replacing meat with buckets of cheese. Let’s go with another comparison:
So be careful of just swapping out meat for cheese, because you’ll end up with less protein intake and more calories overall. Another common mistake we see over and over again is people just switching to “fake meat” when they start a Plant-Based Diet. Let’s dive into this with its own section. BE CAREFUL WITH “FAKE MEAT”Throughout this article, we’ve encouraged the consumption of REAL food. Vegetables, fruits, legumes, etc. As we mentioned, these are nutrient dense, low-calorie foods that can help with a healthy life. However, something we see time and time again over here at Nerd Fitness is rebels just switching “real meat” to “fake meat” when starting a Plant-Based Diet. This switch can be a big concern because some of these products are highly processed and full of additives and refined oils you want nothing to do with. Sometimes you’ll find a veggie burger whose patty is just mashed up black beans with a little onion. That would be fine! Most other times, you’ll find processed foods like tofurky, facon, and mock chicken nuggets that are quite unhealthy. Not all imitation meat is created equal. Here’s what you should be on the lookout for: TONS of ingredients. This would be a good rule of thumb for most food: be wary of foods that have a long list of ingredients. Things like “modified corn starch” or “hydrolyzed wheat gluten” should raise some red flags. It means the foods have been processed and then processed again. This can strip a lot of the nutrient content out of the food.[31] If they have to add “hydrolyzed wheat protein” to make a veggie sausage look and taste somewhere in the ballpark of a real sausage… eh, maybe skip it and just eat some lentils instead. They might not be “vegan.” Many veggie meats will include things like egg whites and casein (a milk protein) as binding agents and to increase the protein content. In my opinion, if you’re okay with this, perhaps you can just eat plain eggs without all the other added ingredients and preservatives. Watch out for sodium (salt) content. Sodium is often used as a preservative, so lots of processed food will include a decent amount of salt. We should note, this is also true of processed meats too. If you eat a lot of meat substitutes, you’ll likely be taking in a lot of salt too. Be aware of this and perhaps minimize salt intake with other foods to compensate. I asked one of our NF coaches, Kerry (a pescatarian), about some trusted brands to source meat substitutes. Kerry is a brilliant coach and only occasionally eats fish, so I knew she’d be a great source of knowledge on the subject. Here are some brands to consider when looking into a meat substitute: Beyond Meat. Both Kerry and CrossFit athlete Danielle Sidell mention Beyond Meat as a good source of meat alternatives. Their burger substitute is made out of pea protein and not too much else. You can find their products at many grocery stores. Hilary’s. Another brand with minimal ingredients in their products is Hilary’s. For example, one of their veggie burgers is beans, sweet potato, coconut oil, chilies, and a few other things. Not bad. Again, you can find their products in grocery stores. No Evil Foods. I’ve got to hand it to No Evil Foods. Their Comrade Cluck “No Chicken” only has seven ingredients, one of which is water. It should be noted, that most of their foods rely on wheat and gluten for protein. If you can process both okay, No Evil Foods is a good option. That should get you started on some meat substitutes to experiment with. Also, we should discuss tofu and tempeh. They are both meat substitutes that are made from soy. These are generally minimally processed as well, so they’ll contain few ingredients outside of soy. They are also time tested. Folks in Asian cultures have been eating tofu and tempeh for centuries, providing them a good source of protein.[32] If you’re looking for meat substitutes, tofu and tempeh would be worth looking into. If you’re male and worried about soy disrupting your hormones and causing “moobs,” we dive into the science of that in our article “How to Get Rid of Man Boobs.” Okay, that about does it for our warning on fake meat. Let’s shift gears and start chatting about vitamins and minerals. WHAT SUPPLEMENTS TO TAKE IF YOU GO VEGANIf you are moving forward with a plant-based or vegan diet, based on our research we would recommend supplementing your diet with a few key things. I won’t get into it too much in detail here on whether people evolved to eat meat or not.[33] Again, trying to keep the inevitable amount of hate email to a minimum. In addition to the massive protein supplement section above, these are the supplements I would recommend: In my research, vitamins like B12 consistently comes up as a deficiency amongst vegans.[34] This is logical because plants don’t need B12, so they don’t store it.[35] Vitamin B12 is critical for protein metabolization, meaning if you want your body running correctly, you really don’t want to be deficient in this essential nutrient.[36] I would hedge my bets and take a B12 supplement. It would be my number one recommendation (outside of eating REAL food) if you’re going vegetarian or vegan. Taking B12 came up multiple times as a recommendation for a Plant-Based Diet from our vegan rebels in the private Academy group. This B12 supplement is a good option. It’s not the only supplement worth considering. You could also consider taking an algae supplement, which is high in omega-3 fatty acids. Why omega-3s?
Vegetarian folks generally have lower levels of these types of acids, because meat (fish specifically) is a great source for omega-3s – a food that isn’t consumed on a Plant-Based Diet. However, animals are not the only source for omega-3s. Again, I’d look into an algae supplement, like this one. Another supplement worth discussing: Vitamin D. We get it from the sun, and also by eating certain animal products. While some plants like algae do contain some Vitamin D, it’s most abundant in fish and dairy products.[40] Vitamin D helps us absorb calcium and also plays a critical role in our immune system.[41] However, because many of us spend time indoors, we can be deficient – though this is true of vegans and omnivores alike.[42] Simple solution: go out in the sun more frequently, and consider a vitamin D supplement in the winter months. Two other minerals worth discussing would be zinc and iron, because vegetarians are often low in both.[43] Here’s why:
A supplement of both zinc and iron would be smart. It should be noted, that all supplementation becomes more important the more strict you are about avoiding animal products. If you eat eggs and dairy, you’ll get most of the nutrients you need outside of those found in plants. Eggs contain omega-3s, B12, and small amounts of vitamin D. And while this is for sure debatable, there might be some ethical ways to purchase eggs.[45] That about does it for supplementation recommendations. If you want to do even more research, let’s turn you in the right direction. WHERE CAN I GET EVEN MORE INFORMATION ON EATING A PLANT-BASED DIET?There’s all sort of information for going vegan online. However, you need to be careful about who you trust. Some of it is garbage (no, broccoli doesn’t have as much protein as steak).[46] Although some of it is well researched and backed by science. Let’s point you to some respected advisors. BLOGGERS:
RECIPES:
That should help get you started with moving to a Plant-Based Diet. IN DEFENSE OF A PLANT-BASED DIETSo you’re gonna adopt a Plant-Based Diet! Great. Good luck, soldier! Alright, let’s do this. I would encourage you to follow our recommendations here: #1 Eat Real Food If you’re going to be a vegetarian, eat actual vegetables. Don’t make it about what you are not eating (meat). Make it about what you are actually eating (plants). That’s why I’ve been using the term Plant-Based Diet. I want you to actually eat plants. Don’t let the fact that an Oreo is technically vegan make you lose sight of the fact that it’s highly processed and full of sugar. Eat a Plant-Based Diet. #2 Calories and Macronutrients Still Count Cutting out an entire major food group does not guarantee you will lose weight or be healthier. An Impossible Burger has more calories but less protein than a regular beef patty. Vegan does not equal “less calories.” Calculate how many calories you will need to make your goals (you can do so right here), and then make a plan on how to follow through. #3 Prioritize Protein Animal products are calorie for calorie the best sources of protein. You will have to put in extra effort to think about how you are getting your protein from plants. Also, you will end up eating a lot more calories trying to match the same amount of protein as found in meat (remember there are more calories in beans but less protein than chicken). Every meal you eat should have a solid source of protein: beans, lentils, oats, tempeh, etc. If you are strength training (which you should do), this is even more critical. Consider a protein powder like pea, rice, or hemp to add protein with minimal calories attached. #4 Meal Planning For the Win! Everyone should meal plan. If you’re trying to lose weight or just be healthy in general, knowing where your next meal is coming from is really important. If you are going to cut out a major food group, this is hyper-OMG-please-be-careful- critical. I will again mention that the American Dietetic Association’s states that Plant-Based Diets can be healthy if they are “well planned.” #5 Add Variation I mentioned earlier, that if you allow eggs and dairy, eating a Plant-Based Diet becomes much easier. You simply have more options to choose from when it comes to what to eat. Perhaps allowing small concessions with a Plant-Based Diet – like eating eggs – will make your diet more manageable and sustainable. This could be better than going vegan for 30 days and then giving up. #6 Supplement Make sure you are getting all the nutrients you need. There are things like B12 that just don’t find their way into plants. That’s why the Mayo Clinic advises those following a Plant-Based Diet to get checked for “vitamin B-12, iron, ferritin, calcium and vitamin D.”[46] Statistically, vegans come up often as deficient in these vitamins and minerals. I believe that all of us should eat plants (sorry, Carnivores, you won’t get me endorsing you fully). Fruits and vegetables are packed full of nutrients your body needs to thrive. So no matter which way of life you pick, eat plants! Do some push-ups. And, ah, be nice to each other? Debates on how we should eat can often get heated. Which can be understandable, because of the passion and ethical considerations driving people’s dietary choices. However, I’d recommend acting curious towards the other side. I wouldn’t recommend tying your identity to a style of food, but rather tying your identity to “I’m a curious person that learns new stuff and tries new stuff all the time.” No matter how someone else eats, don’t turn your nose up against them. Be nice, and let them do their thing. This can be true for veganism, Paleo, Keto, or an Intermittent Fasting protocol. If someone is trying something new, don’t immediately put them down for it. You may legitimately learn something from someone else’s way of life. Which hey, is a pillar of our philosophy here at Nerd Fitness: “Question everything.” Including the way you eat compared to others. I think that about does it for my advice on eating a Plant-Based Diet. In summary, stick to REAL food and think about a supplement or two. Now, I really want to hear from you! I know there are many vegan and vegetarian folks in the Rebellion. Can you share with us your experiences? Tips and tricks you follow to make it work? I’d love for the comments here to be a place where we can share honestly and openly. For the Rebellion! -Steve PS: Seriously, be nice. The internet has enough people being mad at other people they’ve never met. PPS: If embarking on a complete life overhaul stresses you out, we can help! I’ll again remind you of the Nerd Fitness Coaching Program! We work with busy people just like you level up their lives. Whether it’s through dietary advice (Plant-Based or not), creating workouts, or providing accountability, we are here to help you create a healthier version of you. Click right here to learn if we are a good fit for each other. ### All photo citations can be found right here.[47]
Footnotes ( returns to text)
from https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/how-to-eat-a-plant-based-diet-a-scientific-look-at-going-vegan-safely/ This Feed Will Stop Updating on March 1st 2019! Please contact the owner to avoid disruption.2/7/2019 According to our new plans, Inoreader Pro is required to export RSS feeds. If you are the owner of the feed, please consider upgrading to Pro. source https://blog.inoreader.com/2019/02/official-announcement-inoreader-new-plans-and-pricing-updates-in-february-2019.html Via https://neurologyjacksonms.blogspot.com/2019/02/this-feed-will-stop-updating-on-march.html “Steve, why is it so dang tough to lose weight?” This is the question that has consumed my brain for the past decade of running Nerd Fitness. “Just eat less and move more” is nice in theory… But it comes across as an insult to people who KNOW this, who try their best, and yet the scale just doesn’t budge. As a business owner in the health and fitness industry – who also happens to hate the health and fitness industry – I get to see both sides:
Today, we’re gonna deep dive – Scuba Steve style – into nutrition and why it’s so tough to lose weight, and what you can start to do about it.
WHY THE NUTRITION INDUSTRY MAKES ME SO ANGRYI took this picture walking around Manhattan last week: There is some SERIOUS, psychological warfare going on here, and it hurts my soul. For starters, they advertise as “THE” flat belly tea. This means there are many other companies selling similar products, which would ALSO lead me to believe this is a lucrative product to sell! They list every fitness buzzword and term every marketer uses when it comes to selling health and fitness: gluten free, “removes waste,” organic, “burn fat,” Including some real head scratchers. “Strengthen your colon?” How the hell do you strengthen your colon?! This reminds me of the brilliant Saturday Night Live skit about “Colon Blow” cereal: But I People are buying this stuff, even if they know it probably won’t work. Like buying a lottery ticket even when we know the odds of winning are 0% – what we’re really buying is “hope”:
Don’t get me wrong. “Hope is a good thing, and no good thing ever dies.” I just HATE when hope gets weaponized to sell you expensive snake oil and pretty-packaged fluff. This is what we are rebelling against here in the NF Rebellion: marketers and companies who are crappy enough to prey on our hopes and fears and sell snake-oil in a bottle. We’re also rebelling against that voice in our head that talks down to us, calls us failures for not getting in shape yet, and berates us every time we break down and eat a cookie. I say no more. Let’s fight fire with fire science. WHY CAN’T I EXERCISE MY WAY THIN?There are a few generally accepted truths when it comes to weight loss. All of these are controversial, vary wildly depending on your weight and body fat percentage, and will differ from person to person. Setting all of that aside, I’m going to try and keep things simple just to prove my point. Let’s go with an (understandably) oversimplified look at weight loss: a pound of fat equals around 3,500 calories. This would mean you’ll need to either eat 3,500 less calories, or burn an extra 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound. So…how long does it take to burn 3,500 additional calories per week? …How many hours do you have? Studies show you’ll burn an extra 100 calories when walking or running a mile. So, you would need to be running/walking an additional 5 miles per day, 7 days a week, to lose one pound per week. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time to run an extra 5 miles a day. Nor do I want to. Not only that, but as you’ll see below – this idea of just burning an extra 500 calories per day to lose a pound a week only works early on. You’ll quickly run into speed bumps and roadblocks – figurative ones, try to avoid the real ones on your run – that slow down your progress significantly. Simply put, exercising your way thin has proven time and time again not to work:
What I’m trying to say, and a lesson we try to deeply understand at Nerd Fitness: “you can’t outrun your fork” …and the bad news isn’t done. OUR BODIES RUIN EVERYTHING!When you start to lose weight, your resting metabolism slows down. You might think this is some sort of evil sorcery worthy of “He Who Must Not Be Named,” but unfortunately – it’s just 2nd grade math. When you start to lose weight, there is less of you to ‘manage.’ In other words: your metabolism doesn’t have to work as hard to fuel all of your bodily functions, has less weight to carry, and thus it will burn significantly fewer calories compared to when you were much bigger. Here is the daily resting calorie burn (“sit on your ass all day”) of a 35-year old male nerd at 3 very different weights:
WHAT THIS MEANS: Unless you adjust your calorie intake as your weight decreases… your previous calorie intake amount becomes less and less effective at weight loss, until you hit an equilibrium. Put a different way: this person could eat 2,300 calories per day and over time, lose 50 pounds (from 300 pounds to 250 pounds), but that’s where he’ll hit equilibrium: calories burned equals calories consumed. In order for him to lose the next 50 pounds, he’ll need to decrease his caloric intake even more, and then STAY at that calorie consumption to keep the weight off. In economic terms, this is called “diminishing marginal returns.” And then it gets even worse! There are buckets of anecdotal evidence of a bodily feature called “adaptive thermogenesis.” Which has nothing to do with the band Genesis – though feel free to listen to “Invisible Touch” right now: It might soften the blow while you learn about “adaptive thermogenesis.” This term refers to the process in which our bodies will adjust based on how many calories we burn – and do whatever it can to preserve the body fat we have. Our bodies WANT to maintain the extra body fat we have (“I don’t know when I’ll need this, better save”), and are actively working in unison to preserve it – so even after a few pounds are lost from running, it’s going to be a persistent challenge to keep the weight off. As pointed out in this article above: “In long-term studies of weight-reduced children and adults, 80%-90% return to their previous weight percentiles, while studies of those successful at sustained weight loss indicate that the maintenance of a reduced degree of body fatness will probably require a lifetime of meticulous attention to energy intake and expenditure.” This is why so many people can LOSE weight, but can’t seem to keep the weight off. To Recap:
This is all terrible, horrible, no good, very bad news. I know, I know. However, there is HOPE! And here at Nerd Fitness – and in the Star Wars universe – rebellions are built on hope. We have thousands of success stories from people who thought they couldn’t lose weight…until they did. People HAVE lost weight, and kept it off. People who are older, bigger, have more children, less money, more illnesses, and bigger hardships than you. It’s a constant battle, but one that’s absolutely worth fighting. And this means that you are not broken. You don’t have metabolic damage. You are not doomed. Sure, you’re flawed. But so are your heroes . You might be playing life on “Legendary” difficulty, but people like you have succeeded. It starts by using all of the tools at our disposal, because the forces working against us are doing the same. Let’s get nerdy. SCIENCE IS THE BEST. EMBRACE ITYES, it would be awesome if you could drink a tea, or wrap yourself in plastic, and it would somehow magically make you lose weight or fat. YUP, it would be amazing if a 30 minute bootcamp class was enough to still allow you to eat junk food all day every day and not gain a pound. YEAH, it would be amazing if you could take a magic pill that reversed the past decade of damage you’ve done to your body. It would also be cool if superheroes were real and I could fly. Well, not like that. Come on, Aquaman. People can see you. Anyways! We live in a world of science, physics, and thermodynamics. This means we should ALWAYS look at life through the following lenses:
Let’s apply this to our waistlines: If we are overweight… It’s not because we have “toxins” in our body that need to be flushed out. It’s not because we didn’t spend enough time in the “fat-burning” zone during our “muscle confusion” bootcamp. It’s not because we picked the wrong ‘fat burning’ product tea. These are all pseudoscience buzz terms to sell products, and have no truth to their claims. Occam’s Razor dictates the simplest solution is PROBABLY the right one. So what’s the simple explanation to why we’re overweight? Every day, we consume food that gets transformed into energy. This food must either:
If we are overweight, we are consuming too much ‘energy’ every day. Our body doesn’t need all of it, so too much is being stored as fat consistently. Which brings us to the main point of our nutritional focus: If weight loss is our goal, we must consume FEWER calories than we burn on a consistent basis. By doing so, our body HAS no choice but to dip into that “rainy day” fund of fat stores to still get all of its bodily tasks done each day. Do this consistently, and that’s how we end up with a lower number on the scale and a smaller pants size. “Steve I know I should eat less. It’s doing it consistently that’s the tough part. Have you tried CAKE?!” Great point. And yes, cake is awesome. But we have to start somewhere. And it starts here: we need to eat fewer calories, but it ALSO has to be sustainable and enjoyable, otherwise we’ll never stick with it. And temporary changes produce temporary results. We want permanent weight loss! Just saying “eat less” doesn’t factor the crazy biological, physiological, and/or emotional challenges we face every day: We might eat when we’re stressed, depressed, or bored. We can’t eat just one potato chip without eating an entire bag. We absentmindedly grab a handful of Peanut M&M’s when visiting Kevin in Accounting. Not only that, but even when we pay attention to what we eat, studies show that we often underestimate our calorie consumption by 30+%. Crap. This just keeps getting worse! If we KNOW we overeat without realizing it, and we KNOW restricting calories is tough to stick with long term, then the only path forward is to attack the problem differently. Not with fit tea. Nor with body wraps. Not with “muscle confusion.” But with science, math, and psychology. CHOOSE YOUR FOOD WISELYIf weight loss is the goal, we need to shift our food choices to foods that give us more “bang for our buck” – healthy, filling, nutritious foods that fill us up and makes us less likely to overeat calorie-bomb foods. These foods allow us to feel full, but still keep us under our calorie goal for the day:
These are foods that take up a lot of space in our stomach and make us feel full. Compare this to foods that don’t fill us up, but are loaded with calories – thus making it very easy to overeat without realizing it.
To really HAMMER this point home… As we point out in “Can You Burn Fat and Build Muscle at the Same Time?” Here’s what 200 calories look like, thanks to WiseGEEK. Which ones do you think will make you feel full, and which ones will make you eat more than you realize?
Can you get yourself to stop after 2/3rds of a bagel or a small handful of pasta? Of course not! One more example – here’s 200 calories of broccoli: “Steve, that is an absurd amount of Broccoli.” Yup. It’s also the SAME number of calories as 2/3rds of a bagel (which doesn’t even include the calories from the cream cheese or butter). Now, it’s insulting to say “You should eat more broccoli and less bagels. There’s yer problem.” I’m merely pointing this out to emphasize the difference between energy (calories) and volume. (Hate broccoli and all vegetables? Read this.) Depending on what you eat, you could feel “OH SO FULL” after your meal or “Why am I already hungry again? NOM NOM NOM.” Which means… If you can start to make even SMALL changes, substituting nutrient-dense, calorically-light foods like protein, fruit, and veggies, for junk food – even occasionally, it’s going to shift the energy balance back in the right direction. You’ll become more likely than not to eat fewer calories than you burn, moving you beneath your daily equilibrium. Do that consistently, and you start to pull from those fat stores. And we end up the holy grail: sustainable, non-miserable weight loss. This is actually the secret sauce for ALL popular diets these days. As we point out in our “Perfect Diet” article, all the popular diets get you to eat more REAL food and less junk food. They just all have their own unique marketing spin to sell cookbooks and podcast episodes Let’s look at each of these diets in a nutshell:
ANY of the diets above will result in weight loss if you strictly follow the rules, but not for the reason you’d think. It’s not because we’re designed to eat like cave people (though we are), or that our bodies function differently on a Ketogenic Diet (it does), or even that fasting has plenty of health benefits (it does!). Those things are like 2% of the reason why they work for weight loss. [2% is a statistic I made up to emphasize the smaller importance of any ancillary benefit compared to the bigger picture] The other 98%: they make us more likely than not to consume fewer calories on average than we usually eat, which will lead to weight loss in the long term… if you can stick with it. And each diet has rules and guidelines that speak to the specifics of individual people. We have our own 10-level system at Nerd Fitness that we’re proud of – it promotes small changes and gets results in a unique way. WHICH DIET SHOULD YOU PICK?In my opinion, you should only follow a strict diet like those above IF you can see yourself sticking with it consistently for the next 10 years. “Steve, that’s melodramatic. Come on.” That’s what I was going for. If a diet sounds too restrictive to stick with permanently, then it’s too restrictive for you to devote weeks or months of your life to! After all, temporary changes equal temporary results. You’re better off picking a diet that you confidently feel like you can stick with permanently. Here’s the end goal we’re working towards: Sustainable weight loss and weight maintenance. A healthy weight that you can maintain without feeling miserable. Looking in the mirror and being happy with what you see, and knowing that the weight stays off. And most importantly, our “normal” behavior that allows us to enjoy life but also reach our goals. Not temporary changes. But permanent small adjustments that adjust over time as we start to see results and build momentum. Sound good? Let’s get back to basics and start learning about the food we’re putting into our bodies. Cool? Cool. A PRIMER ON STRENGTH TRAININGConservatively speaking, strength training is the greatest thing ever invented in the history of the galaxy. Okay, so maybe it’s third after electricity and Nintendo. But I say this to make a point. There’s a huge difference between “exercise” and strength training when it comes to body composition. We cover this in a very in-depth manner in our “Can I lose weight and build muscle?” article – which is one giant Harry Potter allegory that you’ll love – but I’ll share the basics right here. If your goal is consistent, permanent, healthy weight loss and weight management, 80-90% of the battle will be nutrition, When it comes to exercise, you really only have TWO things to focus on:
I’ll touch on the first one quickly. When you do exercise you love, you’re giving your heart and body a good workout. You’re reminding yourself “I am living healthy” and THUS you should be more likely than not to stick with your healthy eating strategy. Notice I said “exercise you love.” If you hate running, never run a mile again. Hate going to the gym? Never set foot in one. Hate bootcamps? Me too. Don’t do them. Instead, go rock climbing, or hiking, or do yoga, or swing dancing, or LARPing. Really, anything that gets you off your ass and moving. Cool? Cool. STRENGTH TRAINING WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFEYour body functions differently when you strength train, in all of the right ways. We have a whole Strength Training 101 sequence that can you get you started, but I’ll whet your appetite with the nerdiest metaphor ever below. You can find study after study after study that shows you the benefits of strength training for weight management when combined with “calorie restriction.” Let me explain it here quickly, borrowing from Harry Potter: To keep things simple, let’s look at the 3 most common results. It’ll sort those calories into one of three Houses: A: Burn for Fuel. Your body sorts most of those calories into “Burn for Fuel.” There’s a number of calories your body burns each day just existing: to keep your liver functioning, your heart pumping, your brain operating, and so on – it burns a good chunk of calories just keeping the lights on. Here are two quick examples:
Now, if you don’t do any exercise, and you consume MORE calories than the rate you burn each day, the “Sorting Hat” in your body needs to put those calories somewhere! However, your body’s sorting behavior changes when you strength train.
When you strength train – by picking up something heavy – your muscles are “broken down” during the exercise itself, and then they rebuild themselves stronger over the next 24-48 hours. It also diverts additional calories to “Burn as Fuel” to handle this increased “muscle rebuilding” activity. Which means two amazing things:
There are significantly fewer calories available for “Store as Fat.” AND IT GETS BETTER.
NOPE! Your body has been preparing for this, by storing any excess calories over the years in the “Store as Fat” house. This is the moment your body has been saving up for. This means your body can pull from “Store as Fat” to make sure all the work still gets done, including your daily functions as a human, and rebuilding the muscle.
This would be a “win-win-win” according to Michael Scott, Regional Manager, Dunder Mifflin Scranton. BACK TO BASICS: SLOW CHANGES FOR THE WIN!If you’re still reading, then there is hope for you yet. You can do this – but you have to be smart and diligent about it! Stop trying to exercise your way thin, and stop trying to find ‘get fit quick’ solutions. Instead, take this one day at a time. We’re here for you! We talk about proper nutrition in our big “Healthy Eaters” guide, and we go more in-depth into the specific foods that we recommend, but it starts here:
Understand you’re overeating, and forgive yourself for doing so – most foods have been designed for you to overeat! YOUR MISSIONS, SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT THEM: #1) Pledge to stop buying snake oil. If you’re not sure, ask yourself “Does this sound too good to be true?” and “What would Steve do?” In addition: stop doing exercises you hate just to lose weight. Pick exercises you enjoy, and put all of your focus on slowly adjusting your nutrition instead! Shun the Dark Side and come back to the Light! #2) Be deliberate in your decisions. Every calorie counts. Every decision counts. So make ONE different decision as a result of you being more aware of what you put in your body. Drinking water instead of soda or juice. Swapping out a salad for fries once per week. It all counts, but make your decision deliberate. You’re a smart person. You know what foods should be daily staples, and what foods should be occasional treats. It all counts. So make ONE decision differently to prove to yourself that you can change. #3) Educate yourself on the serving size of ONE food that you eat regularly. Google it. Find out if what you THINK is a serving and what’s actually in a serving is anywhere close to accurate. You might be surprised to find out:
I don’t want you to change the food or the portions yet. I just want you to educate yourself on what you’re eating, and compare it to how much you thought you were eating. #4) Do a strength training routine! We have 15 free circuit training routines and our Beginner Bodyweight Routine is super popular. We also have a whole Strength 101 article series that gets you from “newbie to barbell” quickly. While we’re hurtling down this rabbit hole of nutrition, calories, food, and happiness, I’d love you to leave a comment below: “What is the biggest question you have around nutrition, strength training, and weight loss?” -Steve PS: I know this article covers a LOT, and my hope with it is to inspire, educate, and get you fired up. However, you might still be super overwhelmed and lost. I get it! If that sounds like you, and you’re looking for professional guidance, custom strength training routines just for your situation, and expert accountability, check out our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program! Schedule your free call and tell us your story! We’d love to hear from you, and we can decide together if we’re a good fit for each other! Simply click the image below for more details: ### Photo source: A good Sunday to you, Can I have your bicycle, Speed!, Swimming pool, Pizza lab, Dinner is set, Happy monday!, Speed. from https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/why-cant-i-lose-weight-heres-the-truth/ We chat to Lucy Kuper, General Manager and Dermal Specialist of Biologi about after sun care: ‘By now we all know the harmful effects the sun can have on our skin. In this day and age, it’s important to be mindful of the long-lasting damage the sun can do, and to protect yourself from it! As with most things, prevention is better than cure, so first things first are going back to basics and remembering to slip, slop, slap! In fact, the sun is becoming so harsh that the Cancer Council has added a few more words into that ever-famous campaign, which now reads, Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek and Slide, reflecting the importance of seeking shade when in the sun and sliding on wrap around sunglasses. Sunburn is the skin’s response to extreme UV exposure and is an indication of severe damage, resulting in redness from dilated blood vessels, tightness and a loss of moisture. Over time the skin cells will start to thicken and melanin pigment will be produced in an attempt to stop the UV rays from penetrating deeper into the layers. If the UV rays do penetrate further, you’re at the risk of damaging the DNA of the cells which can lead to things like cancer. Peeling of the skin can occur as your body is trying to get rid of the damaged cells, instructing them to self destruct and make way for other cells. Being prepared when heading out in the sun is incredibly important however sometimes you can get caught out. Perhaps you’ve lost track of time and forgot to re-apply your sunscreen or found yourself in the sun without a hat for too long. So just what do you do when you’ve gotten yourself burnt or been over-exposed to the sun?! Whilst you can’t undo the damage caused from the sun, you can help your skin’s repairing process. The first step is to take a cool bath or shower and dab the skin dry gently. Then, we recommend applying Biologi’s Bf Serum, which is a powerhouse of active phyto nutrients to repair sun damage and protect skin from further damage. The Bf Serum is a unique blend of fruit acids and vitamin C that hydrate, soothe and repair, easing the feeling of sunburn. Apply this daily or whenever you’re feeling like your skin is in need of some moisture. After that, avoid going in the sun! This is incredibly important because you do not want to do further damage, nor risk damaging any of the new skin cells.’ Prevention is better than cure: Wondering what sunscreens tick the boxes? Well we always go natural because we all know that what goes onto your skin goes into your system. {SIMPLE as that} has a new 100% natural, light-weight mineral sunscreen. With an uncompromising approach to quality and purity of ingredients, the sunscreen has been pharmacist formulated to safely provide broad spectrum protection from the suns UVA and UVB rays using Zinc Oxide as its active ingredient. The {SIMPLE as that} SPF 30 Natural Sunscreen Lotion also contains Green Tea and Rosehip Oil, well known for their antioxidant properties, as well as their signature ingredient, Red Raspberry Seed Oil for its natural protection against UVA and UVB rays. The post Sunscreen and After Sun care tips you need to know appeared first on Fitness In The City. from http://fitnessinthecity.com.au/live/lifestyle-live/sunscreen-and-after-sun-care-tips-you-need-to-know So you fell off the wagon already. Welcome to the club. It’s called “being human!” There are like 7 billion of us. So how did I know you probably fell off the fitness wagon already? Because statistically speaking, MOST people have already abandoned or missed out on a lot of the resolutions they’ve set for 2019. Seriously. As somebody who has fallen off the wagon many a time in the past, but managed to stay ON the wagon this time… Here’s my step-by-step guide for you to get back on track. STEP 1: FORGIVE YOURSELF. I heard a podcast interview recently about a man who had made a huge realization through seeing a therapist. Specifically, their therapist asked them “Would you talk to somebody the way you talk to yourself?” I bet the answer is a RESOUNDING “No.” Nobody deserves that kind of abuse. We’re often our own worst critic, and our own worst enemy: You know that voice in your head, that one calling you a loser or a failure? Treat it like a different person. You’re under no obligation to listen to it! It’s not you. “Oh you think I’m a piece of s** and that’s why I can’t stick with a workout routine? I disagree strongly. I might have some faults, but I’m here, and I’m still trying. So shut up and get out of my way.” You’re reading this, which means you’re trying. Forgive yourself. And move on. STEP 2: RECOGNIZE YOUR SCIENCE EXPERIMENT FAILED. MOVE ON. Your goal of hitting the gym 2 hours a day and only eating Keto failed after three weeks. Congratulations! You conducted an experiment that did not have the results you expected. That’s neither a good nor a bad thing. Like any other experiment, it just… IS. So write down specifically what your experiment entailed. What did you try to do?
Look at your list: this is a combination of variables that doesn’t work for your lifestyle. SIDENOTE: Learning from the millions of people that have come through Nerd Fitness over the past decade, my guess is that your experiment didn’t work out for one of two reasons:
STEP 3: CHANGE A VARIABLE IN YOUR EXPERIMENT. You’re reading this email, which would lead me to believe you’re interested in trying again to lose weight and get in shape. To avoid getting the same results, we need to change the variables in the experiment to try and get different results. You know, science. For your next attempt consider adjusting one of the following variables. And remember, any good experiment has accurate measurements for their changing factors! You don’t just put “some uranium” in a nuclear reactor. You know the exact amount. So be exact with your variables. Let me give you some suggestions:
This is a 10-year journey we’re on here, so the exercise itself is not nearly as important as building a routine of working out that fits into your life. So lower the bar for what a “win” scenario is for you. Example: if you walk into the gym and do 1 set of 1 exercise, it counts as a win. Doesn’t matter if you’re there for an hour or for 5 minutes to do a set of push-ups and then leave. It all counts. STEP 4: RESPAWN, GET BACK IN THE FIGHT. When you play a challenging video game, you’re going to die. A lot. (I died literally thousands of times while playing my two favorite games of the past year – Hollow Knight and Celeste). What happens after you die in a game? You respawn, and try again! You’ve learned a new tactic or pattern. You have a new technique. You’ve uncovered a secret. Or you’ve just gotten better. So you try, again. And again. And again. And when you finally succeed? Nirvana. Adulation. Pure joy. There’s no shame in failing when it comes to weight loss. We have hundreds of stories of people who kept failing, but kept reading and trying, and then finally – something clicked. And that next attempt is the one that changed their life’s path. Like Joe, who made like a dozen weight loss attempt until he changed the right variable and got results: So try again today. And keep these things in mind:
Write down your plan, and start executing. STEP 5: SUPERCHARGE YOUR RESULTS I know hacking your experiments to get better data isn’t exactly “scientifically smart” or “morally responsible,” but I’m the one writing this email and I have more important stuff to say so you’re just gonna have to deal with it. Once you start your new experiment, here’s how you can stack the deck in your favor: Write everything down. Write down your workouts. Write down what you eat. Treat it like a science experiment, and you’re collecting data! Plan ahead. Be PRO-active (“I will do Strength Training Workout A at 4pm and tonight I’ll have roasted chicken and bacon wrapped asparagus) instead of RE-active (“What should I do for exercise right now?” and “Ah, what’s for dinner? Oooh, Burger King!”) Recruit allies to your team. Don’t go this alone, as you’re more likely to succeed based on the people you spend time with and hang around. So recruit allies. Start spending more time with healthy people that empower you, rather than unhealthy people that enable you and drag you down. Join a running club. Find a lifting buddy. Somebody you can check in with. Hire a professional. There are two types of coaches worth the investment:
GET BACK IN THE FIGHTAn old baboon named Rafiki once taught me: “Yes, the past can hurt. But you can either run from it, or learn from it.” Okay maybe he taught that to Simba in The Lion King, but I too learned the same lesson: TO RECAP: Forgive yourself. You wouldn’t talk to somebody else the way you talk to yourself, so have some freaking compassion. You’re trying. Identify what experiment you JUST tried. Write down what you believe went wrong over the past few weeks. Congrats – you found a strategy that doesn’t work. Pick a new path, try a different variable. A good scientist meticulously tracks their data and writes down their hypothesis. I would change one of the following:
And then try again. Recruit allies, hire a coach, plan ahead. But start. -Steve PS: If you’re overwhelmed and came to the realization you can’t do this on your own, you’re not alone! I hired an online coach because I wanted better results and it’s been the best investment I’ve made. If you want step-by-step instruction and accountability, our coaches are ready to help you with every step of this process! ### Photo Citation: Oh My Goodness! Shut Me Down from https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/fallen-off-the-wagon-today-is-national-respawn-day/ There’s an argument in the fitness world that you can either choose to lose fat or you can choose to gain muscle. You just can’t do both at the same time. The claim goes something like this:
How could one possibly do both? Great question. Let’s answer it. Today we’ll discuss losing body fat and building muscle at the exact same time. To see if one can tighten their belt, while simultaneously building strength and gaining muscle. To help on our journey, we’ll rely on science, studies, and Harry Potter references. This is Nerd Fitness after all. First, we’ll talk about the science of losing body fat. Second, we’ll discuss how you build muscle. Then, we’ll tie it all together with a bow and chat about if you can lose body fat while building muscle, both at the same time (spoiler alert: you totally can). Let’s go!
HOW DO YOU LOSE WEIGHT?There is a simple answer and a slightly less simple answer when it comes to losing weight. The simple answer: “consume fewer calories than you expend or burn.” Eight words, and one or two of those could probably be thrown out. When your body needs more calories than the amount you are eating, you are in a “caloric deficit.” Your body doesn’t have enough calories to go around, so it’ll start breaking down parts of itself for energy requirements. The hope is that your body will mostly pull from fat stores, though depending on how you are training it will also break down muscle too.[1] Said again: when you are eating a caloric deficit, your body will pull from both its fat stores AND existing muscle for energy. From a physique and health standpoint, obviously we’d prefer that your body doesn’t break down muscle when in a caloric deficit, and instead really focuses on using fat stores.[2] I make this point for a reason: your goal in fitness shouldn’t only be “weight loss.” Who cares what the scale says, right? The goal instead is losing fat while also keeping the muscle you have (or even building more muscle). That helps lead to a better physique and a healthier body. This is the reason why there are such things as tracking “body fat percentage.” By reducing your total fat on your body, or increasing muscle mass, you’ll end up with a lower body fat percentage. And lower body fat percentages are where “toned arms” and “6-pack abs” hang out. We’ll talk about tips to keep and grow muscle while in a caloric deficit further down. For now, remember you need fewer calories “in” compared to calories “out” for weight loss to occur, from either fat stores or muscle. If you’re curious about fat loss, you may be asking, “Steve, what’s easier to do? Burn more calories or consume less?” Good question. Numbers will help tell the story: 3,500 calories equals roughly one pound of fat. There are seven days in a week. So, if you want to lose one pound of body fat in a week (a worthy, sustainable goal), you would need to create a caloric deficit of 500 calories a day: either through consuming 500 fewer calories, burning 500 more calories, or a combination of the two. Which half is easier to affect? Here are both halves of that equation. 500 calories equals:
Yeah… That’s why when it comes to maintaining a caloric deficit, it really comes down to diet. It’s significantly more effective and time-efficient to consume 500 fewer calories than it is to burn 500 additional calories. As Time magazine controversially pointed out – with tons of cited studies – “exercise alone won’t make you thin,” It’s too easy to add more calories in, and requires too much work to effectively influence “calories out.” Which brings us to our slightly less simple answer on how to lose body fat: You need to watch what you eat, and do so in a sustainable way. Here at Nerd Fitness, we are firm believers that 80-90% of the fat loss equation comes down to diet (check out Rule # 4). Here’s another idea we focus on: EAT REAL FOOD. Food that grew in the ground, on a tree, ran on the land, swam in the sea or flew through the air. Meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts are all great examples of REAL food. This type of food is very nutrient dense and often low in calories compared to its processed counterparts. Which means you get filled up without overeating. Win-win-win. Have you ever seen the difference between 200 calories of broccoli and 200 calories of a bagel? WiseGEEK does a great job of displaying this, so we’ll borrow a couple of their photos. 200 calories of broccoli: 200 calories of a bagel: That’s why REAL food is the answer to creating a sustainable caloric deficit. Most people can eat an entire bagel no problem. Plates of broccoli, with all of the fiber, are much tougher to overeat. We lay it all out in our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating. It’ll provide tips on how to gradually create habits that get you to a “REAL food” way of eating. We advise to take it slow, so new habits of healthy eating become permanent, something you can do for the rest of your life. Because again, what you eat will be 80%-90% of the equation on losing body fat. The other 10-20%? Exercise. Of course it’s exercise. Which is a pretty good segway into… HOW DO YOU GAIN MUSCLE?If you want to build muscle, you’re gonna have to lift heavy things and eat such that your body has enough calories left over for muscle building. This makes logical sense. In our Beginner’s Guide to Building Muscle and Strength, I summarize it as follows:
Let’s chat about each one quickly. 1) Lift heavy things. I will always be on Team Strength Training. If you’re looking to build muscle, you’re gonna need to lift heavy things. When you lift an object (or your own bodyweight) enough times, your muscles reach the point of failure. Which will cause it to tear and breakdown. When your muscle rebuilds, it’ll be bigger and stronger than before. Then you do it again. And again. And again. As long as you are eating enough to rebuild your muscle, you’ll keep progressing in strength. 2) Eat a diet based on your goals. If your muscle needs to be rebuilt after exercise, the calories are gonna need to come from somewhere. I’ll talk a lot about proper diet in the next section (with a Harry Potter analogy), so I won’t spend too much time on it here. Just know that eating the right foods will be a big part of gaining muscle. 3) Rest. Your body rebuilds itself while you sleep. So make sure you get plenty of rest each night. I’m talking 8-9 hours. This will help ensure your body has the time it needs to grow stronger. If you’re strength training and only getting six hours of sleep a night, you’re really doing yourself a disservice. Go to bed. That’s the short gist of how to build strength: challenge your muscles, eat well, and get some rest. Let’s narrow in on our second point, “Eat a diet based on your goals.” It’ll become very important when balancing both losing body fat and gaining muscle. To do that properly, grab your owl, and let’s chat about Hogwarts. CAN YOU LOSE BODY FAT AND GAIN MUSCLE AT THE SAME TIME?To answer the question of losing body fat and gaining muscle at the same time, I’d like to introduce an analogy from the world of Harry Potter. Recall the “Sorting Hat.” The Sorting Hat’s job was to determine which of the four houses kids will call their home. It’s almost like a traffic director: “Harry, you will go to Gryffindor! Draco, you will go to Slytherin!” Your body operates on a VERY similar operation: every day it receives new calories (when you eat), and it needs to decide what to do with them! For example: You eat a chicken parm sub, with fries, and a 20 ounce soda. Your body then has to know where to route all those calories. To keep things simple, it has three choices. It’ll sort those calories into one of three houses: A. Burn for Fuel. B. Rebuild Muscle. C. Store as Fat. Right now, when you eat food, your body sorts most of those calories into “Burn for Fuel.” There’s a number of calories your body needs each day just existing: to keep your liver functioning, your heart pumping, your brain operating, to regulate your body temperature, and so on – it burns a good chunk of calories just keeping the lights on. There’s also “B. Rebuild as Muscle” and “C. Store as Fat,” which I devoted entire sections to above. When you overeat calories and your body doesn’t need anymore to fuel itself, it takes those extra calories and stores them as fat. However, our goal is the OPPOSITE of this! We want to keep the muscle we have (or grow it) while getting rid of the fat! So let’s imagine a scenario where we pull all this together:
Does your body just shut down? NOPE! This means your body will pull from “Store as Fat” to make sure all the work still gets done, including your daily functions as a human and rebuilding the muscle you tore apart. Said another way: if you have fat stores on you, you do not need to be in a “caloric surplus” to rebuild muscle. The calories stored in your fat cells act as this required energy. There is also evidence that muscle can even be grown while in a caloric deficit. Meaning bigger muscles with a lower belt size.[3] However, as previously stated, you need to have decent fat stores on you for this to work. There needs to be something in “Store as Fat” to pull from. If you don’t have a lot of body fat AND you are trying to build muscle, being in a caloric deficit will most likely result in you not getting bigger (this is the biggest mistake I see skinny people make trying to bulk up – they don’t eat enough) Because you aren’t eating enough, and you don’t have much in the way of fat reserves, your body will have trouble building muscle because there are no extra calories left over for its creation.[4] There’s just not enough calories in the total system to go around. However, for the average person trying to get fit, this shouldn’t be an issue. Which means that most people can build muscle and lose body fat at the exact same time. There are some finer details though, that we should discuss. TIPS TO LOSING BODY FAT WHILE GAINING MUSCLELet’s bring this all together and create some actionable steps to losing body fat and building muscle at the same time. 1) Sustain a caloric deficit. You need your body to burn more calories than you consume. Remember the Sorting Hat analogy. If you’re eating too much, your excess calories are being sent to the “Store as Fat” house. We want to pull from this house instead. So eat less than you burn. Which granted, is way easier said than done. I have two resources for you. The first, mentioned earlier, is our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating. If you want tips and tricks to create habits based on REAL food, that guide will help get you there. The second is our article “Determining the Perfect Diet for You.” I talk about the benefits of creating a Mental Model on nutrition like Intermittent Fasting, Paleo or Keto (or Paleolithic Ketogenic) to help navigate all the food choices you need to make. You don’t have to follow some predetermined blueprint like “low-carb.” You can create your own diet (which is what I do). Learn all about it right here. 2) Strength train. If you could sell a pill, that could be prescribed to every single person on Earth to make them healthier, it would look something like a strength training practice in a bottle. It is one of the best things you can do for your body.[5] And really, if you’re after building muscle, you’re gonna need to lift something. You need to challenge your muscles in order for them to get stronger. Now, as we discuss in our article on the correct number of reps and sets, there are multiple ways to go about this. You can lift light but put in a lot of reps. Or go heavy with fewer reps. The important thing: pick a strategy and get going. Even if you just start with your own bodyweight. Once you’ve picked up the habit of strength training, you can work on adjusting it to the next level. 3) Prioritize protein. Outside of being in a caloric deficit and lifting weights (or yourself), eating enough protein is one of the key components of both losing body fat and building muscle. Protein is the number one nutrient for creating new tissue. So when you cut out calories to create a caloric deficit, don’t cut them from protein sources. Studies have shown that participants can gain muscle, even while in a caloric deficit, as long as they eat enough protein.[6] It’s important enough that I’ll say it again: if you don’t want your body cannibalizing it’s muscles while you are in a caloric deficit, you need to eat plenty of protein.[7] How much protein? Roughly 1 gram for every pound of your weight.[8] Or a half gram for every kilogram you weigh, if you live across the pond. The gist: don’t skip out on protein. It should be on your plate for every meal. If these generalized recommendations stress you out, and you want to know exactly what to do, we can help! We offer a 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program to help clients lose body fat, gain muscle, and level up their lives. We can provide tailored and specific recommendations based on your body and lifestyle, plus accountability and mindset changes to help ensure your new habits stick. Want to learn if we are a good fit for each other? Learn more by clicking below: CAN YOU LOSE WEIGHT AND GAIN MUSCLE AT THE SAME TIME?We started this article asking a question, “can you lose weight and gain muscle at the same time?” We switched “weight” to fat loss, as a more ideal goal for health. However, I want to address the question on losing weight and gaining muscle at the same time. Can it be done? The answer is “yes.” Research has shown that if you have a lot of body fat to lose, and are strength training, you can still build muscle while the scale drops.[9] The cited study demonstrates that both body fat and total weight can drop while muscle is growing. Don’t assume that the scale has to go up if you are gaining muscle. It’s a common mistake I see people make: “I started strength training, and the scale went up. I probably gained 10 pounds of muscle and lost 5 pounds of fat, that’s why the scale is up.” Maybe. But maybe not. Body composition can be complicated. For example, as this study points out, even if you are losing muscle mass during a caloric deficit, you could still be maintaining or increasing your strength.[10] There could be a lot of different factors at play. For example: it’s important to know that muscle size, while correlated to strength, does not exist in a 1-to-1 relationship.[11]Muscle can grow stronger without getting bigger. So even if the scale is dropping because you are losing fat and muscle, if you are strength training, you could still be getting stronger. Sigh… STEVE, JUST TELL ME WHAT TO DO!Okay, okay, I hear you. I would encourage you to follow the three steps above to lose body fat while gaining muscle: sustain a caloric deficit, lift heavy, and prioritize protein. Those three steps will help you keep the muscle you currently have, and potentially grow more, while burning through your fat stores. As noted though, this will only work until a point. You’ll reach a status where there just isn’t enough fat on you to help with “Rebuild Muscle.” At this stage, you can no longer stay with a caloric deficit. You’ll need to flip to “caloric surplus.” Which means you’ll have to eat more. It’s debatable when this will actually occur, and we are all different. Reaching 8% body fat for men and 16% body fat for women could be a good rule of thumb. Once you are that low in body fat, and you want more muscle, you’ll need to increase your calories. There’s no way around it. For a lean person to put on muscle, you’ll need enough calories to get the job done. I talk about this extensively in our article A Beginner’s Guide to Bulking Up. It covers ways to increase your calories for muscle gain, from eating plentiful amounts of Paleo foods to drinking enough milk to make Santa Clause jealous. I encourage you to read it if you are plateauing in size. I want to stress that if you are lifting heavy, and not gaining muscle, diet is likely the culprit. It was my problem for years, and I’ve seen it amongst countless readers of Nerd Fitness who have trouble gaining muscle. Let’s end this article by offering some tips to make sure everything is going according to plan. HOW TO TELL IF IT’S ALL WORKINGIf you’re trying to improve something, it’s important to track it. This also holds true of body composition. Most people do this by jumping on the scale. This can be “Ok,” but it’s only going to tell part of the story. As I explained muscle weighs more than fat, so if you are losing body fat and gaining muscle at the same time, you might actually weigh the same. Or even more! Despite weighing more, you could potentially have a better physique. That’s why in addition to jumping on the scale, I would also encourage you to take some selfies. Take front and side photos in your mirror, wearing underwear or a bathing suit. Each week, take new photos, and record the number on the scale under the same scenario. Two forms of tracking here allow us to get the full picture. The scale sometimes lies! If you eat for a caloric deficit, strength train, and prioritize protein, see what happens. You may find yourself losing some fat and gaining muscle. If not, track each category.
Data can help tell the story. …I was thinking of detailed notes. But an android would be helpful too. Oftentimes if you’re not seeing desired results, notes and record keeping can help point us in the direction to make adjustments. Test your assumptions if things don’t appear to be on track. I think that about does it for me and this article. Did I miss anything? Do you have any tips and tricks when it comes to shedding body fat and building muscle? Share it with us! -Steve, PS: If you want more personalized advice on how to lose body fat while building muscle, I’ll again remind you of our Online Coaching Program. We work with busy people just like you to help implement complete life overhauls. If you want to see if we are a good fit for each other, click right here to learn more. ### All photo sources are right here.[12]
Footnotes ( returns to text)
from https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/lose-weight-and-build-muscle-or-do-one-then-the-other/ Guest post by sleep specialist Olivia Arezzolo We’ve all been there – the thoughts running on endless loops while we lay staring at the ceiling. Or how about those 3 or 4am wake ups which jolt you with the thousand thoughts running through your mind, and subsequently, leave you exhausted the next day? If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Statistics show that poor sleep affects 77% of Australians on a weekly basis. But rather than popping a sleeping pill, which has an entire section on my website dedicated to it’s dangers, such as lethargy, memory loss, anxiety and mood swings; I am here to supply you with the information you need to take action today, to sleep better tonight.
These tips are straightforward and scientifically proven to work. So rather than just scroll through another blog or close this tab, take action to remedy your difficulties. Sign up to my free sleep tip series now, sip some sleep inducing tea such as I Need A Moment by Little Wildling Co and practice some deep breathing. You’ll feel worlds better immediately – and sleep better tonight. Written by sleep specialist Olivia Arezzolo. Olivia’s background in psychology, physiology and nutrition to improve sleep, reduce stress and optimise productivity. Sign up for her free sleep tip series or email her at [email protected] and find out how she can help you. Links – www.instagram.com/oliviaarezzolo Bio – Olivia is a Sleep Specialist (Bachelor of Social Science – Psychology; Certificate Sleep Psychology; Diploma of Health Science – Nutritional Medicine; Certificate 3+4 Fitness). As a speaker and ambassador, Olivia has worked with Sealy Posturepedic, GoHealthy, F45 Group and PE Nation; whilst her writing regularly features on popular platforms including Sporteluxe, Ten Daily, New Idea and Daily Mail. Her mission is to improve sleep, reduce stress and optimise productivity, which is achieved via her corporate wellness program, The Sleep Solution. The post Not sleeping? 4 tricks to implement today to sleep better tonight appeared first on Fitness In The City. from http://fitnessinthecity.com.au/expert-contributors/not-sleeping-4-tricks-to-implement-today-to-sleep-better-tonight I get an email at least once a day that says the following: “Steve, what should I do for a workout?” After all, many people are interested in getting started with strength training and want to know what workout routine to follow. Considering that a program should be developed around a person’s biology, age, goals, diet, free time, etc, there’s a lot of factors I can’t get in through email that would allow me to tailor a program specific to that person. It’s really easy to overcomplicate this process as there are an infinite number of exercises, sets, reps, and programs to choose from. And yes, we have a solution for people that JUST want to be told what exactly to do: Our uber popular 1-on-1 coaching program pairs you with your own Nerd Fitness Coach who will get to know you, your goals, and your lifestyle, and develop a workout plan that’s specific to not only your body, but also to your schedule and life. We take the guesswork and uncertainty out of this process for hundreds of people – and we’d love to be able to pair you with a coach who can do the same: click the image below and speak with our team to learn more: ***** Now, if you’re more of a “get my hands dirty and figure this stuff out on my own,” kind of person, – we’re going to dig into how to build your own workout plan today! Developing a workout routine for yourself can be intimidating, but it’s really not too difficult and kind of fun once you understand the basics. If you are ready to start building your own routine and want to know how its done, great, let’s do this! We’ve also created a free resource for folks who want to build their own workout but would love some more specific direction and instruction. You can download our free guide, Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know, which will help you build a workout with bodyweight exercises all the way up through your first few weeks in a gym with weight training. Grab the guide free when you sign up in the box below and join the Rebellion!
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Determine Your SituationFor starters: how much time can you devote to exercise? If you can do an hour a day, that’s awesome. If you have a wife or husband, three kids, a dog, two jobs, and no robot butler, then maybe you only have thirty minutes, twice a week. That’s fine too. Whatever your time commitment is, developing the most efficient workout is crucial. Why spend two hours in a gym when you can get just as much accomplished in 30 minutes, right? After all, we know that weight training is the fat-burning prize fight victor, and efficiency rules all. Next, you’ll want to determine WHERE you’ll work out:
Once you determine where you want to train, and how much time you have, we can start to use the equipment you have to build your routine and more. What Exercises Should I Do?I like to follow the motto of “Keep it simple, stupid.” (Note: I am not calling you stupid. You’re reading Nerd Fitness, which means you’re intelligent, good looking, really funny, but most of all, modest.) The best workout is the one that you actually stick with, and people make things FAR too complicated and try to target a bazillion different individual muscles with six types of exercises for each body part. It’s exhausting, unnecessary, inefficient, and intimidating. So keep it simple! We’re going to pick 5 exercises, and get really strong with those movements. This is the ENTIRE philosophy behind our Strength 101 series. Unless you’ve been strength training for years and know what you’re doing, we recommend that you pick a full body routine that you can do 2-3 times a week. You want a routine that has at least one exercise for your:
Yup, by targeting compound movements that recruit multiple muscles at the same time, you can build a full body routine that uses only four or five exercises. Hows THAT for efficiency! Here is a quick breakdown on those movements:
Pick one exercise from each category above for a workout, and you’ll work almost every single muscle in your body. Get stronger with each movement each week, and you have yourself a recipe for a great physique. An example for a great, effective, simple workout:
Don’t need to make things more complicated than this! If you’re not sure how to do any of the movements above, click on their links for thorough write-ups. Want high-definition multi-camera demonstrations of each exercise? Here’s a sample video from the 100+ in our online course, the NF Academy, with Team NF’s Jim and Staci demonstrating a proper bodyweight push-up: As stated above, when building your workout, don’t overthink things! Pick one exercise from EACH category above, specifically ones that scare you the least, and that will be your workout every other day for the next week. Once you get confident in those movements, feel free to add some variety. Why? If you do the same exact routine, three days a week, for months and months, you and your muscles might get bored, and you’ll stop getting gains. So feel free to stick with the above ‘formula,’ but change the ingredients:
Pick a different exercise to improve and your muscles will stay challenged, you’ll stay challenge, and you’ll actually DO the workout! Then, focus on getting stronger! Lastly, your muscles don’t get built in the gym, they actually get broken down in the gym, and then get rebuilt stronger when you’re resting. Give your muscles 48 hours to recover between workouts, especially when training heavy. A Monday-Wednesday-Friday workout works well to ensure enough time to recover, especially when you are just getting started. I stuck with a Monday-Wednesday-Friday full day routine for nearly 10 years and just focused on getting stronger with each movement. I realize all of this can be overwhelming, especially if you’re trying to learn Strength Training AND build your own workout too. So we created a free resource that gives you some starter workouts (both bodyweight and weight training) that gives you the confidence to start today. You can grab our Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know when you join the Rebellion and sign up in the box below:
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
How Many Sets Should I Do?SIMPLE ANSWER: Not including a warm-up set or two, I recommend doing between 3-5 sets per exercise. A “set” is a series of repetitions that you complete without stopping. For example, if you drop down and do 10 push-ups right now, you just did 1 SET of 10 REPETITIONS (or REPS) of push-ups. Got it? Cool. Again, do not overthink this. Do not freak yourself out by worrying if you should do 4 sets or 5 sets. Pick one, record how you do with it, and get stronger the next time you do that movement. So, try to keep your TOTAL (all exercises combined) workout number of sets for all exercises is in the 15-25 set range (5 exercises total, each with 4 “work sets” is a good start). Remember, the most important part is to get started – you’ll learn how your body responds and you can adapt as you go. What you DON’T need to do: multiple exercises for each body part with 10 sets. Unless you are a bodybuilder or an advanced athlete following a specific protocol prescribed to you by a coach, you can stick with 4-5 sets for each of the 5 exercises in your workout routine and get outta the gym (or finish your home workout) sooner. How Many Repetitions Should I Do?This is another thing that many people overthink. If you are new to exercising or strength training, you’ll want to aim for higher reps per set with lighter weights as you’re learning the movements (if you’re training with weight). As you get stronger and start to learn about how you like to train, you might switch to a lower rep range, even up to a single rep of maximum effort (on a movement like a Squat or Deadlift). Some general rules: If you’re looking to burn fat while building muscle, keep your number of repetitions per set in the 8-15 range per set. If you can do more than 15 reps without much of a challenge, increase the weight or the difficulty of the movement. This is true for things like lunges, bodyweight squats, push-ups, pull-ups, etc. There are some generally accepted ‘rules’ about how to determine how many reps you should target per set, based on your goals:
Remember that how you eat will determine if you get bigger or stronger If you’re looking for a simple answer: do 4 sets of 8-10 reps for each movement you’ve chosen, and see how your body responds. But don’t neglect your diet! That’s 90% of the battle! How Long Should I Wait Between Sets?Keep it simple, you smart, good looking, funny, modest person. Below is a basic formula for you to determine how long you should wait between sets, but this can be adjusted based on your level of health. The goal is to wait the least amount of time you need, but still rest enough that you can perform all reps of the next set safely and properly! Here are some guidelines (not rules set in stone!):
If you need more or less rest than the above recommendations, that’s more than okay. Do the best you can, record how long it takes you to rest between sets, and try to rest for shorter periods in the future. Your body will adjust as you get stronger and healthier! Do NOT overthink this! How Much Weight Should I Lift?We have a FULL resource on how to determine your starting weight for lifting, but I’ll give you the gist here. The simple to learn but tough to implement answer: lift enough so that you can get through the set, but not too much that you have NO fuel left in the tank at the end. How do you determine how much that is? Trial and error. But ALWAYS err on the side of “too light” versus “too heavy” when starting out. It’s better to say “I bet I could have done more!” instead of “that was too much, and now I need to go to the hospital!” If you’re doing exercises with just your body weight, you need to find a way to make each exercise more difficult as you get in shape – once you get past 20 reps for a particular exercise and you’re not gassed, it’s time to mix things up.
If you want more information on how much you should lift, and when to scale certain movements or adjust your workout, check out our Strength 101: Everything You Need to Know. It’s free when you join the Rebellion with your email in the box below:
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
How Long Should I Exercise?Easy answer: 45 minutes to an hour. If you’re doing 15-25 sets of total exercise, you should be able to get everything done within that 45 minute block. Now, factor in a five or ten minute warm-up, and then stretching afterwards, and the workout can go a little bit longer. If you can go for over an hour and you’re not completely worn out, you’re simply not pushing yourself hard enough. Less time, more intensity, better results. What if you don’t have 45 minutes? Maybe you want to build some cardio into your weight training. That’s where these next two sections come in. Alternating SetsLet’s say you’re doing four sets of squats and you plan on doing four sets of dumbbell bench presses after that. If you wait two minutes between each set, this will take you around twenty minutes or so (factoring in the time to get set and actually do the set). Try this instead: Do a set of squats, wait one minute, then do a set of dumbbell presses, wait one minute, then do your next set of squats, and so on. Because you’re exercising two completely different muscle groups, you can exercise one while the other is “resting.” You’re now getting the same workout done in half the time. Also, because you’re resting less, your body has to work harder so your heart is getting a workout too. Jackpot. Let’s see how this would play out in a sample workout:
CircuitsLike alternating exercises above, this is the most effective way to burn fat when exercising:
If you’re familiar with CrossFit, many of the workouts are built on circuit principles. This is also the most effective way to make you involuntarily swear at inanimate objects. A circuit requires you to do one set for EVERY exercise, one after the other, without stopping. After you’ve done one set of each exercise in succession, you then repeat the process two, or three, or four more times. I’ve written about two bodyweight circuits here on the site: We have 15 other FREE circuits you can follow to get your feet wet with building your own routine. You can get them over on our big Circuit Training roundup guide! Keep Track Of Everything!Keep a workout journal! As they say, that which gets measured gets improved. You should be getting stronger, faster, or more fit with each day of exercise. Maybe you can lift more weight, lift the same amount of weight more times than before, or you can finish the same routine faster than before. I track all of my workouts in Evernote: I note the sets, reps, weight, and date. I have over 1,000 workouts in my folder, which makes it super simple to see what I did last month, last year, and to make sure I’m improving! You can use an actual notebook, a bullet journal, an excel spreadsheet, a workout app, or a word document. Don’t overcomplicate it:
Do this with a workout you’ve built, and you WILL get results. I promise. Here’s how to properly track your progress and set a new personal best every time you train. Recap: Building a Workout RoutineIf you’re looking for sample workouts to build off of, I’d probably take the basic workouts in our “Gym 101” article. If you want to build from scratch, great! Let’s break it down into easy chunks with this recap:
More often than not, when I email people back and tell them how to build their own workout, they generally respond with: “Steve, can’t you just TELL me what to do? I’m afraid of building a crappy workout.” If that sounds like you, check the PS below. I certainly encourage you to try and build your own workout routine though, it can really help you develop a sense of excitement and pride when you start to get in shape based on your workout! If you have more questions, or a workout program you’re really proud of, share it in the comments below! Now, go do some push-ups ? -Steve PS: If you’re somebody that wants an expert to guide them through the training process, I hear ya (I have a fitness coach myself who programs my workouts!). That’s why we built two options for people: 1) If you are somebody that wants to know they are following a program that is tailor made for their life and situation and goals, check out our popular 1-on-1 coaching program. You’ll work with our certified NF instructors who will get to know you better than you know yourself and program your workouts and nutrition for you. 2) Good at following instructions and want a blueprint to follow? Check out our self-paced online course, the Nerd Fitness Academy. The Academy has 20+ workouts for both bodyweight or weight training, a benchmark test to determine your starting workout, HD demonstrations of every movement, boss battles so you know when you to level up your routine, meal plans, a questing system, and supportive community. ### photo: mdwombat, joshtasman: Question Finger 6, black.zack00: Yeaaaah…. Surprise ladies!!, Sterling College: Sterling Gym, ako_law: Stopwatch, black.zack00: Boxing a gentleman’s sport, Photographing Travis: Kettlebells. ahockley: DDC Stuff Sheath and EEEK Field Notes from https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/how-to-build-your-own-workout-routine/ WTF is a “downward dog” anyways? Is there a downward cat? Do I have to shop at Lululemon now? When somebody mentions they practice yoga, these might be some of the questions that enter your mind. I know it’s what I thought about! Although I was initially afraid of getting on the mat for years, I now freaking love it and flow through some yoga poses whenever I can. It’s my favorite solution for improving mobility and flexibility, staying injury-free when strength training, and even quieting my overactive mind. And I want you in on it. We have 21 yoga poses outlined below so you can start your yoga journey. We’ll begin with a complete video routine from our Nerd Fitness Yoga course, so you can see how they work. We’ll then go over the yoga poses in detail. And we’ll end with a couple videos going over some key stretches designed for desk workers. All because I like you so much. Our yoga poses are broken out into three levels, for you to progress in difficulty. What can I say, we love leveling up here at Nerd Fitness. Most of our poses are basic, Level One, in case you are completely new to yoga. However, we’ll include a few more advanced poses for further advancement. We’ll start by discussing a little Yoga 101, in case you are totally lost right now and don’t know yoga from yogurt. If you wanna skip to your desired video or pose, just click on it. Super Sweet Sequence Covering Basic Yoga Poses Basic Yoga Poses (Level 1)
Beginner Yoga Poses (Level 2) Intermediate Yoga Poses (Level 3) Yoga Stretches for Desk Workers Roll out the matt! Let’s do some yoga. WHAT IS YOGA EXACTLY?Yoga means lots of different things to different people… like Windfarm Yoga apparently, to the woman in the photo above. As one commenter from Cracked pointed out: “The only thing I know for sure about yoga is that whatever you’re doing when you practice it, you’ll be assured by someone that it isn’t “real yoga.”[1] I’m not interested in that particular aspect of the yoga debate: people need things to argue about and get offended over because Internet. What’s important to me is getting more people interested in trying yoga out because it’s damn fun and can really improve your life. After all, as Vox explains: “Yoga seems to help alleviate lower back pain, improve strength and flexibility, and reduce inflammation in the body — which, in turn, can help stave off chronic disease and death. Emerging research suggests yoga can increase body awareness, or attention to the sensations and things going on inside you. That’s no small matter: Researchers think heightened body awareness can improve how well people take care of themselves.”[2] Science is essentially telling us: Yoga can help you become more flexible like Black Widow, improve your strength like the Hulk, extend your life like the elves of Rivendell, and give you mental awareness like Yoda. The jury is still out as to whether or not it grants us telekinetic powers. When I approached yoga years ago as an attempt to improve my flexibility and to combat poor posture, I was initially worried about looking foolish or finding some aspect of the exercise that didn’t sit right with me. Instead I found a complimentary, enjoyable activity that helped improve my flexibility and mobility, alleviated my lower back pain, opened up my hips to combat a lifetime of sitting, and even helped me quiet my overactive mind! Plus, it was like a power-up for my strength workouts. It’s now an activity I do with regularity throughout my week, incorporating yoga stretches during the day in between desk sessions, after working out, and attending the occasional class to level up. WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT YOGA?If you read Nerd Fitness, you’re probably a skeptic. After all, one of the Rules of the Rebellion is to question everything! So you might be thinking: “Steve, you’re not going to ask me to start speaking in mantras, chanting OMMMMMM, and work on improving my spiritual chi.” As somebody who started yoga with the exact same reservations, I sit before you a changed man. For starters, if you decide the spiritual aspects of the practice aren’t for you, you’re not alone: research into yoga’s history can lead down an internet rabbit hole of controversy that is bottomless.[3] So we’re not going to jump in that fight. Instead, what you will find when it comes to yoga is study after study showing that this form of exercise is incredibly beneficial: 1) A body prepared to handle anything: at Nerd Fitness, we are huge fans of strength training, and yoga is its perfect compliment. it elongates your muscles, improves your flexibility, can release tension in your neck and shoulders, and helps you do things like touch your toes![4] It can help you build stronger muscles, improve balance and stability (especially for our older rebels[5]), and make you more “antifragile” (one of my favorite terms). As one study points out, “yoga subjects exhibited increased deadlift strength, substantially increased lower back/hamstring flexibility, increased shoulder flexibility, and modestly decreased body fat compared with control group.”[6] 2) Yoga is great for lower back pain: If you’re one of the 31+ million people like myself who struggle with lower back pain, yoga can help.[7] Yoga really helps those of us stuck at a computer all day long as well.[8] 3) Yoga can help meet weight loss goals when combined with a healthy diet. Look, we all know our diet is responsible for 80-90% of our success when it comes to weight loss. The other 10-20% of the equation is participating in physical activities that push your body outside of their comfort zone. Yoga is a great way to burn a few extra calories and keep your brain focused on “I am doing healthy things and thus I should be eating healthy foods!” It can help improve our fight against cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and obesity.[9] It’s also a great rest day activity to keep you on track when you’re not doing your other workouts. 4) Speaking of which…yoga can be done every single day, and can be done anywhere. No gym required, no equipment required – no excuses! On top of that, because it’s a low-impact activity and doesn’t overly tax your muscles like a powerlifting session, you can do yoga every single day, anywhere you can find a soft place to sit down: your living room, a park, a beach, your bedroom, on the moon, etc. 5) Yoga can quiet an overactive mind: We live in a world with a distraction around every corner; we read Facebook or our favorite blog while checking email and texts… while trying to work a day job. If you’re anything like me, your mind races a million miles an hour, and trying to develop a sense of control and calm over your mind is like herding cats. We’ve already explained the benefits of Meditation for Nerds; yoga can be tremendously helpful with becoming more aware of our bodies and help with reducing stress and anxiety.[10] Lastly, if yoga is good enough for badass Dhalsim from Street Fighter II, it’s good enough for me: Alright, I’m going to assume at this point you are on board with yoga. If being able to completely demolish a car with your bare hands doesn’t convince you, nothing will.[11] So let’s go over some yoga poses and routines. A YOGA ROUTINE FOR BEGINNERS YOU CAN DO AT HOMEWe’ll start out our explanation of different yoga poses by showing you what the end result can look like. Here’s a complete routine covering some basic yoga poses: The above video (Water Series – A) is taken from our course, Nerd Fitness Yoga. If you like it, I’d encourage you to go browse the page and check it out. Nerd Fitness Yoga is a course you can follow along within the comfort of your own home, and it’s built specifically for members of the Rebellion: easy to follow instructions, an inviting attitude, and as you can tell… some corny jokes from yours truly. This course will work for men and women of all shapes, ages, and sizes, giving anybody the confidence to get started IMMEDIATELY. Follow it regularly and you can expect the benefits of the dozens of studies I linked above when it comes to yoga practice. In addition to a HUGE pose library and step-by-step instructions, it also contains all of the following full-length yoga sessions filmed in HD:
All of these videos can be streamed or downloaded to any device as many times as you’d like so you can practice yoga wherever, whenever. I’m proud as hell of this product. We don’t have many things for sale at Nerd Fitness, so you know that when we do put something out, it’s worth checking out. Alright, if you found yourself lost in that above video, let’s explain the poses in depth. 10 BEGINNER YOGA POSES (LEVEL 1)Seated Cross LeggedOne of the most popular yoga poses is simply Seated Cross Legged. A seated position helps relax, reset, and open your hips up a bit. Bring yourself down to a seat on the floor, whatever is most comfortable. Cross one ankle of the other in front of you and sit cross-legged. Take a big breath in and straighten your spine as if there was a string pulling your head and neck up to the ceiling. Breathe out, but keep that upright posture. Hands can rest on your knees, but shouldn’t push out or pressure your legs. Table Top Cat-CowThis is actually a series of a few poses (Table Top, Cat, & Cow) that is used in almost every yoga session to help reset your spines and warm up your back. Start in Table Top, with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Your spine should be parallel with the floor to start. Exhale and slowly press into your hands as you abs up towards your spine. Round your spine to the ceiling as you bring your chin towards your chest. Gently push out your shoulders. Inhale and relax your abs while you bring your hips back down. Lengthen your torso as you head comes up and looks towards the ceiling. Your chest should come forward slightly and your lower back should push into your pelvis. Relax and return back to a neutral Table Top position. Child’s PoseChild’s Pose is considered a resting position. This means that any time you feel overwhelmed, overheated, or stressed about a particular pose or variation while doing yoga, STOP what you are doing and come slowly into a Child’s Pose to rest. This pose helps lower stress, refocus your mind, and lightly stretch primarily your lower back, hips, and thighs. Start by kneeling on the floor with your toes touching behind you. Widen your knees so they are just a little wider than your hips. Gently lower your body between your knees and hips. Your arms will stretch out lightly in front of you and you can drop your shoulders to the sides and down. A variation you can use (which may be easier or harder for you) is to tuck your toes under your feet, instead of having the tops or side of your feet against the ground. Do whichever variation is most comfortable and natural for your body. Forward FoldForward Fold is another one of our most popular yoga poses. It’s primarily focused on stretching the lower back, hips, hamstrings, and calves. Start standing and gently bend forward as you lengthen your torso and spine. As you fold towards the ground, keep your knees straight (but not locked out). If you can, grab the back of your calves and gently pull yourself deeper into the fold. As you breathe in, you can lift slightly and extend your torso and spine forwards. As you exhale, you can fold forward again into the stretch. To scale this down, you may use blocks to help raise the floor. Keep your knees straight and your spine long, and fold as far as you can comfortably go. StandingStanding pose is a resting and centering pose in yoga, but don’t take it for granted. Even when we are standing in between poses, be sure to stay strong, active, and rooted through your feet. Your feet should also be flat and not rolled in or bowed out. Activate your hips to prevent locking out your knees and keep your posture and spine tall and elevated. Finally, your shoulder should be open and your chest broad. Neck in line with your spine (not hunched forward). Stretch tall from your hips through your head. Standing MountainStanding Mountain is a great pose to warm up our shoulder and spine. Start by staying strong and rooted through your feet (which are flat on the ground). Legs active, but not locked out. Shoulders open and neck in line with spine. As you take a deep breath, bring both arms straight out in front of you and up overhead towards the ceiling. Make sure your shoulders aren’t hunched and close to your ears, but rather relaxed and released down. Rooting through your shoulder blades, pull your spine and arms towards the ceiling. CobraCobra is a popular pose which almost always follows Plank as a transitional sequence in many yoga sessions. This pose primarily stretches the shoulders, chest, spine, and stomach. Start by laying flat on the ground on your belly, with the tops of your feet on the floor. Your hands should be positioned under your shoulders (much like you would imagine starting a pushup). Slowly push down through your hands and straighten your arms to lift your chest up off the floor, but unlike a push-up, keep your hips, thighs, and tops of feet rooted and pushing down towards the ground. Move your shoulder blades back, lift your chest, and look forward and slightly up. Hold for several seconds and then slowly release down. To scale this pose down, only raise your chest and head to where you are comfortable. Be sure to keep your hips and thighs pushing down to the floor, even if that means you can only raise your chest a little. Low LungeLow Lunge is a variation of Lunge that is a building block for several more advanced poses. It’s most commonly thought of a Lunge with your knee on the ground. This pose will primarily stretch and strengthen the groin, hamstrings, and hips. Often, you’ll get into a lunge by starting in a Forward Fold and slowly stepping one of your legs back behind you. If you need to, you can scoot your foot back several times until you are able to have your front knee directly over your front ankle. As you bring your leg back, drop your back knee to rest on the ground. This will help support some of your weight, but the majority of your weight should stay pushing forward through your front knee and hips. Bend your torso over your front knee and lengthen your spine forward. Your weight should be pressing down through your heels. To scale down, you can use blocks on each side to balance yourself more without having to reach all the way down to the floor. Knee HugThis pose is used to compress and tighten your body. It’s often used right before Corpse Pose at the end of sessions to reset. Start this pose by lying on your back with your arms and legs straight out. Take a deep breath and slowly bring your legs together and your knees lifted toward your chest. As your knee comes up, wrap your arms around them and clasp your hands together. If you can’t quite wrap your arms you can reach down each hand and gently pull in your kneecaps. Gently squeeze your knees into your chest, keeping your back flat on the ground and dropping your shoulders down. You can focus your eyes down the center of your body. If for any reason you have trouble doing this, simply raise your knees towards your chest as far as they will go. Hold for a few seconds and release back down. Corpse PoseEveryone’s favorite yoga pose, and often a way to end a complete session! And while at first, it can seem like just lying on the ground, there’s more to it than that. This poses is fantastic for calming the mind, relieving stress, and relaxing the body back into a neutral position. You’ll have a desire towards the end of a session to skip over Corpse Pose and move on. Don’t! Spend a few minutes coming back down and resetting your body in each session. Start by laying on your back. Your arms should stretch down comfortable to each side, slightly away from your body. Both your legs stretched out and with a little space, as well. Do your best to “release” your shoulders and neck and let them fall neutral as well (even when on our backs we tend to engage our necks). Focus on your breathing and on relaxing any tight or sore areas of your body. If you need to, turn onto your side and bend your knees (laying on your side completely). Wiggle your toes, ankles, hands, or wrists as needed. 8 BASIC YOGA POSES (LEVEL 2)Downward DogThis pose primarily focuses on stretching the shoulders, hamstrings, and calves. The first few times you get into Downward Dog, you’ll want to start on your hands and knees (what we call Table Top), but with your arms a little bit forward of your head. Pushing into your hands and toes, slowly lift your knees off the ground. If you can, slowly straighten your knees (don’t lock them) as you gently stretch your heels down to the ground. Once comfortable, you can work your shoulders back toward your tailbone. To scale this down, you can lift your heels further off the ground and/or bend your knees for easy modification. You can also use blocks to elevate your arms as another alternative. Crescent MoonCrescent Moon is a variation of Low Lunge where we stretch upright towards the ceiling. This pose primarily stretches and strengthens the groin, hips, chest, spine, and shoulders. To start this pose, you’ll want to get into a comfortable Low Lunge. Usually, this means stepping on leg forward from Downward Dog or stepping one leg back from Forward Fold, and then dropping your back knee down rooted on the ground. As you take a deep breath, bring your torso up from lunge to upright and stretch both hands straight up toward the ceiling. Instead of arching your back, draw your hips down and forward and lean your shoulder back (keeping it straight and engaged). To scale this pose down, you can just stay in Low Lunge and work on stretching without extending upward. BridgeBridge is a backbend pose that primarily stretches and strengthens the back and spine, but also the chest, shoulders, and neck. Start by laying flat on your back. Bring your feet flat on the ground as close to your butt as they comfortable sit. Arms should be flat and down to your sides. Pushing down through your feet and arms, slowly lift your butt off the floor and into Low Bridge (around when your spine is straight with your legs). If you are comfortable, you can bring your hands together under yourself. Continue to slowly push your hips and butt towards the ceiling, making sure to keep your knees over top of your ankles. Work towards parallel with the ground for full Bridge pose. To scale this down, stop in Low Bridge if going further is uncomfortable. If Low Bridge is difficult, just practice moving your hips slightly off the ground from the starting position. As you gain more flexibility, you’ll work to hold in Low Bridge. Half SplitsThis pose primarily stretches your hamstrings, hips, and lower back. To start this pose, get into a Low Lunge. Your back knee should be firmly rooted on the ground. Slowly shift your weight as you move your hips and torso over your back knee. As you do this your front leg will go from bent at the knee to fully extended straight in a line. If you need them, you can use blocks or a supporting prop on each side now to support your weight (if you can’t reach the ground here). Slowly fold forward over the top of your extended front leg, with your hips staying rooted back and over top of your knee that’s on the floor. To scale this down, use blocks on each side as suggested above. You can also stay upright (instead of folding towards the end). Stop in the progression whenever you lose comfort. LungeThe Lunge is a major building block for all sorts of yoga poses. Many poses are variations of or come in and out of the Lunge. This pose will primarily stretch and strengthen the groin, hamstrings, hips, and knees. Often you will get into lunges starting in a Forward Fold and slowly stepping one of your legs back behind you. If you need to, you can scoot your foot back several times until you are able to have your from knee directly over your front ankle. Bend your torso over your front knee and lengthen your spine forward. Your weight should be pressing down through your heels and your back knee should be active with your knee straight throughout. To scale down, you can use blocks on each side to balance yourself more without having to reach all the way down to the floor. At any time, you can also drop the back knee down to the ground coming into Low Lunge instead. NinjaOne of the most fun poses to make sound effects while doing, Ninja is actually a series of movements rather than a single pose. You might also have heard it called a Side Lunge, but this is Nerd Fitness, so we’re going with Ninja. This pose helps strengthen the entire lower body and stretch out the hamstrings. Start by lowering yourself into a half squat (Frog Prep). Choose a foot and turn your toes out a little wider. Walk your hands over to your foot. Bend deep into that side’s knee as you lift up onto the heel of your opposite foot. Point or flex that foot up towards the ceiling. Bring your hands to prayer in front of your chest. Extend both arms out in an upward facing arc and look towards your extended leg. Hold the pose and keep your leg muscles engaged. Slowly come back up to Frog Prep (body in the middle) and slide over to the other side repeating the steps above. Seated Side FoldSeated Side Fold is a good, simple combination of a fold and a side stretch in one pose. Sometimes referred to this as “Half Dragonfly” as a nickname. This pose primarily stretches your spine, lower back, hamstrings, and groin. Start in a seated position, with your legs outspread wide in a V shape in front of you. About a 90-degree angle between your legs. Bring one of your feet over to your other thigh, so that the bottom of your foot rests tucked in and touching your thing just above the knee. Keeping your hips rooted down and your spine extended tall and towards the ceiling, you can gently fold over and use your arms to walk down your chest towards the ground next to the thigh and knee of your fully extended leg. You should be slightly off center, in line with your straightened leg (rather than a traditional fold which would come straight to the center). To scale down this pose, you can stay in the original seated position with both legs out in front of you in a V. Gently fold forward a little to each side and you warm up. 3 INTERMEDIATE YOGA POSES (LEVEL 3)Chair PoseChair pose is the basis for many of the more advanced moves found in yoga. It primarily stretches the chest and shoulders, while helping to strengthen your core and legs. Start in Standing with your arms out in front of you. Slowly bend your knees, moving them gradually more forward away from your toes. At the same time, drop your hips and butt back as you try to achieve a 90 degree angle with your thighs and calves. As you sit down, your arms will come straight above your head (next to your ears), pointing up with palms facing in. To scale this down, you’ll find it a little easier to keep your arms out in front of you – or coming towards your chest forming a “ball of energy.” Like in Dragonball. Drop your hips only as low as you can comfortably maintain for a stable hold. Warrior 2This pose primarily strengthens your shoulders, arm, thighs and opens up your chest and shoulders. Starting in Standing, exhale as you step one foot back. Align your back heel behind the other heel and then turn your back foot out 90 degrees. Turn your hips out and align your forward thigh with your forward knee. Slowly raise your arm, one forward and one back, both parallel to the ground. As you exhale, bend the right knee forward until it lines up straight over your right heel. Press your heels into the floor. To scale this pose down, you can bring your legs slightly in closer together. You also have the option to bend forward a little less or bring your hands back down onto your hips. Extended Side AngleExtended Side Angle is one of our broader Warrior-sequence poses, often done together in pairs or sets with other poses from the same group. This primarily stretches your groin, back, and torso. It also strengthens your thighs, hips, and legs. Starting in Standing, spread your legs slightly apart with hips facing forward. Choose one side and rotate that foot outward about 45 degrees. Bend the knee over the rotated foot and shift your weight to that side. Keep your stretched out back leg in place and keep pushing down through that foot. Bring your elbow (same chosen side as bent knee), down to rest on your bent knee. You hand and arm coming out in front of you. Your opposite arm now extends high into the air straight overhead. To scale this pose down, you can narrow your stance a little bit more and bring your hips a little higher in the air. Move deeper down as you get more comfortable. If you are comfortable enough here to scale up, you can switch your eyes to look at your arm overhead and gently stretch that arm to the side (so it falls in line with your torso and spine). This will deepen the stretch even further. Rebel WarriorRebel Warrior is another pose in our Warrior-sequences that are often used in pairs or sets as transitions to one another. You’ll sometimes hear it referred to as “Peaceful Warrior,” but, you know… This pose primarily stretches the groin, hips, check, and shoulders. Start in Warrior 2. Bring the rear hand down to the back leg, palm facing down. Turn the front palm facing upwards towards the sky. On an inhale, extend the front arm up towards the sky, palm facing towards the back of the room. Keep your hips open, but reach your heart up towards the sky. Keep the back of your neck long and your eye gaze pointing in the same direction as your heart. Keep bending deeply into your front knee; try to keep the weight evenly distributed on your front foot. To scale this pose, bring your legs in a little closer together to shorten the depth of the stretch. As you get comfortable you can ease back down into the full pose. YOGA STRETCHES FOR DESK WORKERSWork a desk job? Consider these two additional videos: Wrist MobilityWrists are an often overlooked area of stiffness and soreness for many people. Whether you type on a keyboard daily or are looking to improve front squats and handstands you’ll benefit from this 6 minute yoga session: Proper PostureHours hunched over a computer, stuffed into a car, or playing various games can cause some pretty awkward posture habits. This 6 minute yoga session will help you reset and improve your posture as you go through your day: When you’re able to escape from your desk for a few, these short sequences are perfect to help stretch out your body and help prevent injury. If you do find yourself stuck at a computer for most of the day, with seemingly no time to workout, we can help! We offer a 1-on-1 private coaching program to help busy people just like you level up their lives. We will get to know you, your goals, and your lifestyle, and develop a workout plan that’s specific to not only your body, but also to your schedule and life. We can design workouts for at your desk, or a quick session before dinnertime. If you want to learn more about the program, click on the big image below: TRY A YOGA POSE TODAYIf this baby can do Yoga, so can you! I don’t care if you’re at home, in a cubicle or office, I want you to use 3 minutes of courage to hold a few of the poses above! Which ones? Find a quiet place and go through: Even if you’re not interested in checking out NF Yoga and never attend a yoga class, try these four movements right now. Like, this very moment. A big reason Nerd Fitness and the Rebellion are successful in getting people healthy is that we encourage people to take action immediately. Not tomorrow, not after breakfast, RIGHT NOW! Try to hold each of the following positions for 30 seconds. Yes, even if you’ve never done yoga before and have no intentions on doing it again… I’m challenging you to give this a shot right now! I personally get up every 15-20 minutes and go through a few movements (Downward Dog is my favorite) to stay limber. Crushed those four poses? Take it to the next level and run through our full sequence from the Water Series. It’ll take you a little over 20 minutes. Alright, your turn. I’d love to hear from you: did you REALLY complete the 4-movement yoga routine above? And where did you do it? An office? In your cubicle? Remember, who cares if your coworkers think you’re weird – getting judged for doing something healthy is a badge of honor you should be proud of! …and Downward Dog! -Steve PS: Here’s that link again to Nerd Fitness Yoga! ### All photo sources can be found right here.[12]
Footnotes ( returns to text)
from https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/a-nerds-guide-to-yoga-4-movements-to-try-today/ |
Fitness Tips By JamesHello my name is James I am a health and fitness lover and like to be in a good shape. I like to share fitness tips with people so they can live a healthy life. ArchivesNo Archives Categories |