The "Set Back" Trap

Oh my goodness.... Hello Internets!

I apologize for my blogging absence. As some of you may know, I started my masters last September and it has seem to have taken over my life. However, I am determined to continue my dedication to helping people become and stay physically active, so you will be seeing a lot more writing from me (the majority of my coursework is complete!).

Based on a series of recent events, I thought an appropriate topic would be how to avoid "the set back trap". 

Before I provide some advice on how to avoid this phenomenon, I'll first explain what it is. The set back trap is essentially the discontinuation of a desired behaviour due to external (or internal) events that "get in the way" of this behaviour.

This can apply to any behaviour, whether it is exercise, eating healthy or quitting smoking. For the rest of this blog post I will focus on exercise (i.e., purposeful physical activity), since this is a physical activity blog. 

Consider this scenario: 

Avoid the Set Back Trap!

 Beth is unhappy with her weight and the amount of exercise she is getting. After she got married, work, moving into a new house, and life always seemed to stop her from working out. However, this January, Beth started doing bootcamp classes as part of her new "active" lifestyle. In late February she caught the flu and was sick for almost 3 weeks. It is now April and she has still not returned to the gym because she is embaressed for falling off the wagon and feels like a failure. She has also started eating junk food and drinking every night to help her de-stress from work.

If your like me (or how I used to be), this scenario may be all to real for you. From my work in the field I know that is a trap a lot of people fall into. It follows a specific pattern....

Guilt --> Exercise Initiation --> Perceived Set Back -->  Discontinuation --> Feeling of Failure --> Continued Discontinuation --> Negative Health Behaviours 

 If you've noticed in the above diagram I've highlighted "Perceived Set Back". The reason I have done this, is I believe this is the area we can break the cycle from spiraling out of control.

So how do we change this cycle. Well I have 2 tips that I’ve used over the years....

1. Expect Set Backs

 The first thing I always tell my clients when trying to adopt a healthier lifestyle is to expect setbacks. If you are a type A/Perfectionist (aka me), this is probably the hardest thing to do. I find women also have a hard time expecting things to go wrong.

However, there is a way to deal with the inevitable, and that is…

 Schedule 3 weeks off of your exercise routine a year! By this I don't mean schedule exact weeks in January, but anticipate 3 weeks of the year (similar to work) that you think you may experience a set-back. I used to schedule this around finals of heavy semesters, when I usually get sick for the year (e.g., flu season) or if I was going on vacation.  

Disclaimer: I do not recommend this technique for people trying to stop a negative behaviour (e.g., smoking cessation) but for people trying to adopt a positive behaviour (e.g., working out, eating healthy)

2.  Have Positive Perceptions of Set Backs:

 

How you perceive expected setbacks is just as important as expecting them in the first place. This is probably one of, if not the most, important concepts to adopt in behaviour change, but unfortunately is the hardest.

 It has to do with how you a) assess and b) respond to inevitable setbacks. It's important not to perceive yourself as a failure when life does get in the way of your exercise routine.

A lot of this has to do with your self-talk (i.e., what you say to yourself on a daily basis). Below I’ll give some examples of positive self talk and negative self talk regarding the same setback context. 

Positive Self Talk

·         “Wow getting sick sucked, but I can’t wait until I’m better because I’m dying to get to the gym again.”

·         “I bet my personal trainer missed me last week; I can’t wait to see them again.”

·         “I’m glad that busy work week is over because now I can get back to my exercise routine.”

·         “I’ll take this crazy week as one of my 3 break weeks of the year, now time to get back on track”

Self Talk Your Way Over Your Barriers

Negative Self Talk

·         “Oh my god, I haven’t worked out in three weeks because I was sick, now I’m so busy because I was sick. All I want to do is sit on the couch and decompress.”

·         “My personal trainer probably hates me because I missed last week’s sessions, well, I’ll just stay home.”

·         “God damnit this week sucked, all I want to do is drink beer because I’m so stressed out, I can’t even think about exercising.”

·         “I can’t believe I couldn’t make it to the gym because of last week. I’m such a failure, I’m no good at anything, I’m going to be a fat slob forever.”

Life Happens, but You're Strong!

The important thing is, is to realize how you talk to yourself, how you rationalize not getting back to the gym after a set back and changing the cycle. This takes work, but if you can change your perceptions regarding inevitable setbacks, then you’re less like to “fall off the wagon” so to speak. 

 For example, I was not able to neither get to the gym nor climb for 3 weeks in late February /early March because I was sick with the flu. However, instead of saying "well there's no point of going now because I failed" I said to myself "I can't wait until I'm better because I'm dying to get to the gym and climb again".  

So I hope this helps! As always if anyone has questions, comments, or concerns I'd love to here them. My question for those of you that avoid this trap is also... what do you do to overcome setbacks and barriers to staying physically active?!

Stay Strong

Byn

Pre Workout Nutrition: Sorting Out the Confusion

Hello Internets!

I’ll start by apologizing for the delay in this week’s blog post. A combination of a busy and blog-blocked Byn equals delayed-ness in posting.

However, one of my clients has sparked my writing topic this week by asking a question I have heard a lot over the years, “What should I eat before coming to work out with you, why and when?”



Is it time to eat yet?!

This question is usually spurred after a first session or a wicked hard high intensity workout. Why? Because this is when we notice most how nutrition affects our performance when being active.  If we don’t eat properly for the workload we are about to ask our bodies to handle, we can easily go from a superstar to a wet piece of gym towel in minutes.

This often leaves us feeling out of shape and frustrated, which is less than motivating! So, if this scenario sounds familiar to you, try some of these tips to improve your workouts DESPITE your fitness level.

Tip #1: Do NOT eat within the hour before a workout

This is something I learned from my exercise physiology professor, and it has changed my workouts (specifically when I go climbing).  It can seem counterintuitive at first glance and I often get perplexed looks when I preach this all important concept.

When and What You Eat is Important

It is true that we need fuel to exercise, but eating within the hour before starting to be active is setting your body up for metabolic failure.

What we need during exercise is to have level blood sugar so our cells get what they need. If you eat, say, 30 minutes before working out your body will spike in insulin levels to deal with the blood sugar rise.  This is bad because when you start exercising you are in a hypoglycemic state, as insulin tells all the sugar to go into your cells to be used or stored. This leaves you feeling sluggish, light headed and weak.

Now, the beautiful thing about exercise is that it suppresses insulin release due to two hormones called norepinephrine and epinephrine. So it is ok to eat once you have begun to exercise, as insulin will not be released and you will not become hypoglycemic.

For example, say you have a volleyball game at 6. You ate lunch at 12 and now its 5… and you’re starving. If you wait until you are already playing volleyball to eat that granola bar and banana your blood sugar will stay much more level than if you eat it on your way to the game… causing you to play better.

A note of caution with this…  I would not recommend downing a banana right after the warm up before an intense circuit training class. What you eat is important as well…

Tip #2: Choose Appropriate Food Depending on Your Impending Workout  

As afore mentioned, eating a banana right after a crazy warm up (*cough* Bobby*) and right before an impending ass kicking is probably gonna make you vomit. So –what- you eat is also as important as when you eat it.

I don’t recommend falling into the volleyball scenario mentioned above, but hey life happens. So if you do find yourself staring down an over-enthusiastic trainer holding a sledge hammer with an empty stomach, reach for something that will digest very quickly and is bulk free.

There are several options you can choose from, including glucose gels to energy drinks. These are a quick fix and I do not suggest falling into a habit of using them on a regular basis, but keep some with you incase crap hits the fan and you have a Bootcamp at 5. 

Gels often don’t taste the greatest, but I prefer them to energy drinks as they often contain less sugar, for example try Clif Bar energy shots. Gatorade has come out with a new line of pre- during and post- workout nutrition. I haven’t tried these supplements myself but those are another possibility to avoid puke-age. DO NOT drink energy drinks… they are not the same thing… they are very very bad for you.

The goal, however, is to eat 2 to 3 hours before your workout. What you should eat should depend on what you are about to do. I am a fan of high intensity training, and for this you want to make sure you have a low fat, high carbohydrate meal with some protein.

Some examples could include;

·         Banana and half a class of orange juice with 8 almonds: The banana and orange juice is light, quick digesting and high in potassium which will allow you to avoid cramping and keep you going through those burpies.

·         Small Chicken Salad with Fruit in it: This is a good choice for 3 hours before. Two hours may be pushing it as the roughage may not sit well. It really depends how your body handles food. For me, I have to stay away from too much roughage if I want to avoid heart burn, but some people it doesn’t bother them. Make sure to have fruit (i.e. grapes, blueberries, strawberries) for those quick digesting carbohydrates that will help you last longer.

·         Fat Free Yogurt and Berries: You’re probably getting the idea that fruit is a good thing before a workout. Fat free yogurt is a great paring because you’ll be getting some protein, which is important to maintain your blood sugar and is very very light.

·         1 Piece of 12 grain Toast/ 1 Tbs of Peanut Butter and 1 Banana: This is my favourite pre-workout meal not only because I’m addicted to peanut butter but my body handles it very well.

·         Apple and a Handful of Walnuts

So as you can see, you’re eating light, nutritious foods with something quick digesting.  The most important thing is to listen what your body is telling you. If you eat an apple and walnuts 3 hours before and you feel like you have 0 energy to finish a class, re-evaluate and try something different.

Tip #3: Please Drink Water

This can either be the easiest or hardest thing for people to do in my experience. You either hate drinking water because you were raised on pop and Sunny D or you don’t mind drinking it, well at least that’s what I have found.

Drinking plain and simple water before exercise is very important for performance, which a lot of people don’t realize. Most of us think that we just need to drink during a workout, when we are sweating. However, if you go into a workout dehydrated your body will be struggling to keep up with your crazy fitness instructor, personal trainer, workout program, workout partner… you get the idea.

So how much water should you drink? Simply put, you need 2-3 cups 2 hours before a work out and ½ to 1 cup directly before a workout. There’s no playing around with this one… that’s what you need. So drink that water!

I find putting stickers on my water bottle helps…



Mmmmm Water!



That’s it for this week! My regular followers may have noticed a lack of vlog action. I hang my head in shame as this regular vlogging thing seems to be harder than I first anticipated…mainly the editing.

I’m not giving up though! There will be more to come, I promise.

As always, questions, comments and suggestions make me VERY happy!

Stay Strong

Byn

Your Metabolism and Cool Summer Recipes

Oh Hi There Internets!

Via request of one of my Windsor readers, I’m going to write about nutrition again this week. Specifically, I’m going to give you some quick, easily metabolism boosting recipes that do not require heat to make.  People without air conditioning in Windsor.... you’re welcome in advance.

Before giving you the recipes for this week I’d like to discuss exactly what is meant by metabolism. We silly fitness professionals like to throw this word around a lot sometimes without actually explaining what it is (most of our brains go a mile a minute).

To put a long story short, your metabolism is the amount of energy you use to live. This includes making different essential compounds for your body (anabolism) as well as burning fuels for various chemical reactions (catabolism).

If you could look at your body under a microscope you would see thousands to millions of complex chemical reactions happening all at once. These reactions allow us to move, see, think, digest and much much more...pretty cool eh?

So why is metabolism so important, especially when it comes to weight loss? Well, the more metabolic reactions that occur the more your body burns just existing, which leads to weight loss if you are in a caloric deficit for the day. To learn more about calories and how they contribute to weight loss click here.

A common myth/excuse used by those having difficulty losing weight is they have a slow metabolism. For a healthy person a slow metabolism does not exist (if you have a thyroid condition that’s another story).  So why aren’t you losing weight? Not because you have a slow metabolism, but you are not giving your body what it needs to make more chemical reactions and burn more energy.

Things that will lead to your body being more efficient from a chemical reaction standpoint are;

·         Eating: dieting is probably the worst thing you can do for your metabolism. If you think of a chemical reaction, you need stuff to start with to make a reaction. If you starve your body of the nutrients is needs, the body because less efficient chemically and you burn less energy.

·         Building Muscle: Another common misconception, especially among women, is if they gain muscle they will look bulky. Estrogen prevents us from looking masculine (unless you’re taking steroids), so fear not the dumbbell. The reason you want the most muscle you can have on your body is because this will increase the number of chemical reactions happening, as each muscle fibre needs hundreds of chemical reactions to exist and move.

·         Focusing on Nutritious Foods High in Vitamins: This kind of goes along with the first point. Yes, you need to eat to keep those reactions going, but you also have to be cognisant of what you’re feeding your body. If you eat potato chips all day, yes you are getting enough calories but you are not providing your body with the essential components to fuel these reactions, leading to less caloric burn-age. Vitamins are not only important because your mom says so, but because they help these little worker proteins call enzymes speed up (catalyzed) your metabolic reactions!

·         Drink Water: Drinking lots of water is very important to keep your chemistry going in the right direction. As you know, we are made up of a lot of water, and there is a reason for this, we need to exist... and existing is making sure all those reactions run smoothly and in the right direction. Replenishing water to the body is very very important as metabolic reactions often use a lot of water.

There you go! That’s the quick and dirty on your metabolism. If you’d like to learn more feel free to ask me lots of questions, I will answer them I promise.

Now for the good stuff. Here’s some recipes you can make without heat that will help your body more efficiently. Most (if not all) of the ingredients in the following have been shown to be great for metabolic reactions.

Spinach Super Food Salad

Ingredients

·         2 Cups of Spinach/Baby Spinach

·         8-10 Unsalted Almonds

·         ½ cup of Bean Sprouts

·         1 handful of blueberries

·         Cherrie tomatoes

·         2 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil

·         Salt

Wash all of the vegetables. In a bowl add the spinach, almonds, bean sprouts, blueberries and cherrie tomatoes. Pour the EVOO on the vegetables and salt. Enjoy!

Body Boosting Shake

Ingredients

·         ½ cup of soy milk (flavoured optional)

·         ½ cup of ice

·         ½ cup of blue berries

·         ½ cup of apples

·         ¼ of grapefruit juice (NOT from concentrate)

·         Whey Protein (optional)

In a blender crush ice. Then add soy milk, blueberries, apples, grapefruit juice and protein. Blend until smooth!

And for those of you with a little more time on your hands

Sprouted Buckwheat Granola (found on fromsadtoraw.com)

Ingredients:

·         Spouted buckwheat

·         Sprouted millet

·         Sprouted amaranth

·         Sprouted quinoa

·         Soaked sesame seeds

·         Soaked flax seeds

·         Soaked currants

·         Soaked yellow raisins

·         Soaked walnuts

·         Freeze-dried Coconut

·         Sprouted pumpkin seeds

·         Sprouted sunflower seeds

·         A little oil of choice (macadamia, almond, olive)

·         Diced Fresh Strawberries

·         Any berry of choice

·         sea salt

·         Vanilla

·         Maple Syrup or Sucanat

Sprout grains for 2 days. Soak seeds for a few hours. Soak Dried Fruit for about 30 minutes  then mix all ingredients together in a large bowl, stirring well with a large spoon. Place a thick layer of about 1/2" on mesh dehydrator sheet.  Dehydrate until crunchy - about 12-14 hours.  Serve with fresh nut milk or soymilk.

So there you go! Stay tuned for Wednesday Vlog where I give you an awesome fat burning circuit!

As always, questions and comments are greatly appreciated.

Stay Strong Internets!

Byn <3