Fitness Etiquette

When I was going through my weight loss journey, I remembered it was tough to stay on a steady eating program particularly when it came to eating outside of my house.  The reality was that most restaurants don’t have a health conscious menu and even those who appear to have one, aren’t always healthy. (Some places advertise “Salads” that can range between 700-1400 calories!)  But one particular area where I found it hardest was when I was invited to a friend/family member’s house and they had prepared dinner for us.

See, it’s easy to tell a co-worker you aren’t interested in joining the department for the 12 o’clock taco truck or burger run.  But what do you do when you are at mom’s house or a close friends house and you are offered something that isn’t on your new menu?  If you come from a Latin household like I do, you know that declining your mother’s home cooked meal is like taking a dagger and sticking it right in the middle of her heart.  You just don’t do that.  Even then, a TRUE Latin family will never let you skip a meal.  I’ve been to some households where they literally shove a fried drumstick into your mouth right at the moment you say “No” and there is that small gap in your mouth.

Well, here is where you learn two things: Etiquette and Portion Control.  Sure, you want to stick to your new eating habits 24/7, but one thing I learned is that you have to compromise.  It isn’t nice when someone spends time in the kitchen, prepares a meal for you and your spouse/family, only to have it declined.  And although it can be easy for us to give the “no thank you, I’m not eating that right now” reaction, it’s a good opportunity to practice portion control.

In one of my earlier blogs, I mentioned that part of my new eating habits didn’t mean that I would NEVER eat any good foods, but rather that I learned to control what I was eating.  So if someone offers you some home cooked food, take it.  It doesn’t mean that you need to request three servings of it, but a polite request for small portions is never a bad thing.  This way, you keep control of your eating habits while at the same time show respect for the person that has offered their time, home and resources to prepare a nice home cooked meal for you.

Keeping your eating habits in line AND keeping friends sounds like a win-win situation to me.

Have a great weekend guys.

-J

Diet vs Habit

Raise your hand if you have ever said this: 

"I once lost (insert number) pounds but gained it all back shortly after".

The word “Diet” is always thrown around a lot when people are looking for a way to lose weight. I always hear “I’m starting a new diet this week” or “I need to get on a Diet”. As we all know, the word diet simply means habitual nutrition so in away, we all “Diet” every single day in our lives regardless of how fit we are. The problem I’ve had with this word is that to me it is equivalent to something temporary. Think about it this way, when was the last time you heard someone say “I’m going on a two year diet”. Never. People use it as a temporary term, something they will do for a week, a month or a weekend.

When I was losing weight, people used to ask me what diet I was on. The look on their face was priceless when I would tell them I wasn’t on a diet. Of course that sometimes made people think I had a terminal illness or I was on drugs, but we’ll talk about that another time! What I would tell people is that I was not on a diet, but rather I was changing my life. As I said in one of my earlier posts, I used to diet all the time. I would lose 20 lbs during the summer, but one week away from the gym and that weight would hunt me down and find me again. Why? Because it was temporary. My body was involved, but my mind wasn’t. That was the biggest difference this time around, I was going to involve my mind and change the way I used to think about nutrition and exercising and change my eating habits.

The minute I stopped thinking I was on a diet, I started liking what I was doing and before I knew it, it became a habit. No longer was I just worried about looking a certain way or fitting into a certain article of clothing, but I was thinking of how I felt inside and my health. I made sure that I educated myself about what I should be putting into my body and what was going to help me become a healthy man. So as I started forming those habits, the weight started coming off and I started feeling better. Before I knew it, I no longer had to pull out a book or a cheat card to figure out what was in the food I was ordering at a restaurant. Knowing what kind of food to eat became second nature to me, like going to the bathroom when your bladder is full! It no longer was something I felt I had to do, it was part of my life.

The same thing happened with working out. I got to a point where if I didn’t go to the gym or do something at home to get my blood pumping and heart rate up, I felt sick. I felt almost disgusted! That was my body telling me that it needed to be active which meant it had gotten used to the constant motion every day. It was equivalent to what your stomach does when you haven’t eaten all day. That is when I knew that I could/should not go consecutive days without doing something to keep my body in motion. That is when it became a habit to work out. Sure, there have been some road blocks and there have been moments where I’ve stopped working out, but my body tells me sooner or later that I’m doing something very bad and it’s easier now to get back on a workout regimen than it was when working out was simply temporary.

Remember, all of these diets that are advertised on TV don’t tell you something very important… THEY DON’T WORK FOR EVERYONE. Therefore, get into the mindset of creating what works for YOU. Take the time to do some research on what the things you are putting into your body are doing to you personally. Then look up information on what you can do to change those habits and create new ones. A quick fix diet will do exactly that, change things quickly in your life. But think about this, would you ever put a piece of chewed gum on a tire with a hole in it? My guess is no.

So get away from using the term “Diet” and get into the mind set of making this a life changing experience. Not just for a weekend, a week or a month, but make it last the rest of your life!


-J

Schwarzenegger to host obesity summit - ContraCostaTimes.com

Schwarzenegger to host obesity summit - ContraCostaTimes.com

Wii Cardio

If you are anything like me, you absolutely hate Cardio.  When I hear people say how much they love running, I wonder how someone can love putting their feet and joints through that kind of torture?  However, I do know that cardio is an essential part of exercising and weight loss and is very much needed!  Some of us get bored with monotonous running or cycling and wonder if there is anything fun that can be substituted. 

When I was going through my weight loss, I encountered a few days where I just could not go to the gym and hop on a treadmill.  So one day I got up, and picked up my Wii controller!  I realized that I could complete a good half hour of cardio and at the same time have a lot of fun!  If you have a Wii at home, here is a sample of what you can do within 30 minutes and burn over 200 calories!

I used Wii Sports as my platform and completed all 5 sports during the 30 minutes.  Here is the rundown of what I played:

• 5 games of Tennis
• 1 game of Baseball
• 1 game of Bowling
• 1 game of Golf
• 5 rounds of Boxing

Depending on how long it takes you to get through this set, it should take you at least 30 minutes to complete.  The best workout that you will get will be the boxing rounds!  For best results, I use a stomach wrap and sweater (a leather sweat suit is another option).

And there you have it, a fun way to burn some calories in a short amount of time!

-J

$5 Heart Attack Box

Lately we've seen all of these commercials with the noticeably hefty Charles Barkley advertising Taco Bell's new $5 Buck Box. This is a perfect example of how overeating is often advertised as a cheap compact quick fix for our appetite. What they don't advertise on TV is how unhealthy this box is. Below is the nutritional information for the $5 Buck Box:

Cheesy Gordita Crunch Box

Calories: 1270

Fat Calories: 570

Total Fat: 63g

Saturated Fat: 21g

Trans Fat: 1.5g

Cholesterol: 120mg

Sodium: 2830mg (WOW!)

Carbs: 130g

Sugars: 20g

Volcano Box

Calories: 1380

Fat Calories: 680

Total Fat: 76g

Saturated Fat: 21g

Trans Fat: 2g

Cholesterol: 135mg

Sodium: 3000mg (WOW!)

Carbs: 133g

Sugars: 18g

This is not counting the 20oz drink that comes with it averaging an extra 250calories and 60g of sugar. Overall, this cheap box can total over 1600 calories, 50g of fat and 80g of sugar. Now imagine mixing two sticks of butter and 6 tablespoons of sugar into a bowl and eating it?

Cheap fast food saves us time, but kills our body and in turn takes minutes off our life with every bite.

Weekend Weakness

Weekend Weakness

In talking to many friends who are trying to lose weight, I find that one of the biggest obstacles is getting through the weekend without cheating on their diet. Personally, this used to be the biggest obstacle for me and to date still is at times. During the week, it can be pretty easy to keep a healthy diet and not over indulge yourself with fatty foods or junk. Particularly if you are like me and work in a Downtown Business area with no fast food chains and may have a cafeteria in your building that caters to your requests. The hard part is making it from Friday night to Monday morning and still keep the same habits in line.

Regardless of where we work, we all have stress. For some it is physical, for others it is emotional and for many it is mental. When the end of the workday rolls around on a Friday afternoon, something enters our mind that tells us “I’m FREE and I’m going to do whatever I can to forget the last 5 days and enjoy the next two”. For some, it is alcohol but for many it is food. The LAST thing you want to do is cook after a long week at work especially during your two days off. So what is left? Eat out, order in, etc. and usually this means eating thousands of empty calories full of fat, cholesterol and tons of carbs.


I remember one week, I had worked out every day so I decided to give myself Saturday and Sunday off. I had lost about 3lbs,was able to wear a shirt that I hadn’t been able to for a while, and had a lot of energy. Friday night came and after a stressful work week, I decided to have a couple of beers. As many of you know, Guinness is my favorite beer but at 20g of Carbs per bottle, it can be like eating a half loaf of bread after a fun night. By the time Monday rolled around, the one bottle of Guinness became 6 and along came Taco Bell, 3-Item Chinese food, Round Table Pizza, Sunday Donuts and a box of Lucky Charms. When I weighed myself Monday morning, I had gained back the 3lbs AND 2 more. What a waste…
So the question is, how can we stop from feeling like F, S & S stands for Fat, Sugar and Scrumptious? How can we still enjoy our weekend but not throw out all the hard work we did during the week?

Let’s start with Alcohol.

Click on this link to learn about what Alcohol does to your body in regards to fat:

http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/alcohol.htm

As you can see, how much you drink and the types of drinks you consume can have a great effect on your diet. Even if you think you aren’t doing anything to yourself by drinking that diet coke and Jack or Low fat beer, you are still dehydrating your body making it easier for any calorie you consume to stick to your body like putty. So my rule is, drink moderately and lay off the stout if you can. If you need to have beer, I’ve found that the best are Bud Light, Miller Light and Heffeweizen Wheat beer. If you are going to have mixed drinks, remember ladies that all fruity drinks are packed with high fructose corn syrup and empty calories. Opt for a simpler white rum and coke or cranberry and vodka. Although vodka is primarily a starchy alcohol, it contains less calories than an apple martini.

Now on to food.

Recently I read a very helpful article on About.com that centered on how we can eat healthy on the weekends.

http://nutrition.about.com/od/changeyourdiet/f/weekends.htm

One particular item I was very interested in is the “eating less at restaurants” point. And I agree! Who said it is illegal to cook on the weekends? I don’t know about you guys, but my wife and I seldom have time to cook during the week and we both LOVE to cook. So for me, the only time I get to really try new recipes and play with my taste buds is on weekends. We like to use Sunday as our cooking day and often invite friends and family to enjoy in our cooking. There are multiple benefits to this:

• You save money
• You learn to cook something other than pop tarts

• You get to make your own food and therefore control the ingredients

• You get to spend quality time with friends and family

• You can cook enough to have lunch/dinner for the rest of the week!


If you MUST eat at a restaurant, stay clear of chains that will offer you nothing but high calorie high fat fried foods. If you are not sure as to where to eat, this website offers some great insight into caloric data for your favorite restaurants.

http://caloriecount.about.com/restaurants-mc1

The truth is, we will all splurge from time to time and rightfully so! However, think about it this way… Imagine if you worked tirelessly on building a house and during the first week you put up all the frame work and at the end of the week, you take a sledge hammer and knock it all down. How long will it take you to build that house? It’s the same with your health and body. If you work hard with dieting and exercise, why would you knock it all down on a weekend?

So when Friday rolls around this week, have fun, but watch your waist line!

How it all started

One morning, I woke up, went to the bathroom to take a shower and was simply disgusted at what I saw.  For years I had always pretended I wasn’t “fat” and many would tell me I wasn’t, but the reality was that I was.  I know that people didn’t want to hurt my feelings, but the vibrations I felt in my heart, high blood pressure at the Doctors office, the constant knee problems and foot discomfort didn’t respect those feelings.  The deadly combination along with what I saw that morning told me I needed to make a change.

As usual, I took the 20 stairs up to the train platform on my way to work and was winded when I got to the top.  In my mind was the visual of what I saw that morning in the mirror and a determination to change it.  As soon as I got to my office, I thought of nothing else but to fix the problem right then and there and I would stop at nothing.  I searched on-line for anything and everything that could teach me how to lose weight but lose it fast.  My patience had run very thin and I had tried every pill, technique and scheme out there.  Yes, I was on the all bacon no bread diet like half of the world, I had drank the “body solution” before bed, popped the Xenadrine pills by the bunch, ab rolled, Hollywood dieted, ate the cookies, the juice, the shakes, the bakes.  Nothing helped.

So I typed in “Lose weight fast” and “healthy” on the Google search window and of course I saw all the pills and shakes again.  But as I kept scrolling, I ran into a link that said “How I lost 28lbs in 21 days”.  I thought to myself “surely this is a pill or something that will make me relapse within a week “.  So I clicked on the link and read the story of Chris Gibson. 

http://www.weightlossbythenumbers.com/

I read his story with a lot of skepticism especially since the website looked like a typical get rich scheme fake website like all of those “get ripped in 3 days” websites.  However, one thing that grabbed my attention was that this guy had been featured on lot of news stations and blogs.  So I did my research and found out that this person sold no pills, no shakes, no candy or weird potions.  He sold a book, a book that would educate me on the simple ways to eat better.  At $39, I didn’t have much to lose yet everything to gain.  I downloaded the e-book and began reading immediately and found how SIMPLE it was to eat healthier and lose weight.  In the beginning, I didn’t think it was that easy.  The basic formula of lowering my Glycemic Index, eating smaller portions more often and exercising seemed like it was too good to be true. 

What I loved about the plan was that it let me eat a lot of the foods I liked but taught me how to substitute certain foods for healthier ones.  I’ve never been the type to eat only vegetables or drink wheat grass smoothies or anything gross like that!  So this got me even more excited to try this plan out and see what happened. 

The first week was very hard on me.  I was used to eating everything and anything I wanted, and now all of a sudden I had to control my portions and eat breakfast! (Something I NEVER did)  However week two was exciting!  I had lost 8lbs the first week and was down 2 pant sizes (from a 42 to 40)!! WOW!!  So of course, that got me more excited to keep on trying.  I didn’t do any cardio or exercise during the 3 weeks because I wanted to make sure the diet was helping me lose weight and not the 2 hours of running on the treadmill.  By the end of week 2, I had lost 8 more pounds and was now wearing a size 38.  

Meanwhile, I was ALWAYS full, I had much more energy and was not winded at the top of the train stairs!  On my 21st day, I had lost a total of 24 pounds and was wearing a size 36.  I could not believe my eyes!  All of a sudden, I was wearing “new” clothing which was clothing I had stuck in my closet that I had not worn since College and was getting a lot of compliments.   Of course, there were the skeptics that thought I was starving myself or drinking illegal pills, etc.  However, nobody could deny that not only was I losing weight, but I looked healthy.

After those 21 days and 24lbs lost, I was hooked and did not look back.  They say it takes 21 days to form a habit, and those 21 days sure did help me form the healthiest habit of my life.  

The rest is history…

2 Years

I was at one point in my life "Clinically Obese". I weighed 260lbs and was in bad shape. On February 18th, 2008, I decided to take my life back and changed my eating habits and began working out. By January 2009 I had lost nearly 110 fat lbs and gained over 30lbs of lean muscle and weighed 170lbs. (Picture attached) During this time, I had a lot of support from friends and family, some of which joined me on my journey and changed their life as well. Two months ago, I was featured on Men's Fitness Magazinehttp://www.mensfitness.com/fitness/515 which gave me more of a boost to keep this lifestyle going. By no means has it been an easy feat, but this has helped me learn that the old cliche of "where there is a will, there is a way" really does hold water.

At my two year mark, I thought about what I can do to give back. So I decided to do a few things... 1. I am offering my "expertise" to any of you who are looking to make a change, whether it be weight loss, body transformation, better lifestyle, etc. I am offering to assist you design an eating plan/workout plan, whatever it takes to help you reach your goals. 2. I will be starting a blog that will include tips on things that I've done, workout techniques and any knowledge I can share with people on a regular basis.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you are someone who is struggling with your health or the way you feel. Our creator Jehovah has given us one body and what better way to show him our appreciation than to take care of it and make it as healthy as possible?

Thanks again to all my supporters!