How to Get Your Fitness Motivation Back

People who can identify in some way to the title know that going through this is tough. Being a normally active person or simply having a goal to becoming a health nut and not having that drive inside of you hurts. It almost wounds you, if you’re someone who is usually top-notch. Whether it’s due to lack of time, lack of energy, or just plain lack of motivation, it’s depressing to not have that hunger to work the body hard. Since I’m no longer training people full-time, I have found that my fitness motivation isn’t as high as it used to be. When I was training full-time, I was an example, and my clients were my motivation. I appreciated all the hard work they were doing and that, in turn, inspired me to keep fighting hard for my health. Now that I’m not training as much, my motivation dips to what I can do to “stay in shape” or “get by.” This is the worst because just getting by is average and I loathe average.

It’s not all bad news. There’s light behind those dark clouds. It is possible to get out of that slump and the key is within your own mind. I’ve thought about this a lot recently–how I want to beat average and become my truly fit self again. I’ve thought about what has motivated me in the past or what has really fired me up. Being fit is a very personal thing. Everything is in your head–your goals, your inspiration, your drive, and so forth. Motivation is not universal. I can tell you right now that Dani California Cooks does not get motivation to workout hard while listening to a video game soundtrack like I do (she’s nerdy in other ways). We are all different–and that’s what makes humans so interesting. However, there are some tips on how to tap into your inner drive and motivators and how to get your fitness motivation back.

Dec102014

Our December Goals

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… and the end of the year! 2015 is right around the corner and even though you might be working on those New Year Resolutions, we all need to realize we have three more weeks of quality time that shouldn’t be wasted! So let’s brainstorm… think of five REALISTIC goals for December. These will help keep you focused during the frenzy of the holiday season. They will also get the ball rolling so you have some momentum moving into January. It’s hard to go full throttle the first of the year, so build some steam in December by creating and achieving these reasonable goals.

Hungry’s Goals

1. Train every day! For what? Life! I don’t have any fitness related goals right now but after skipping the last six days of November, I’ve trained every day of December. Let’s keep it going since consistency is key for progress.

2. Perfect work attendance! Since starting at my new Y in October, I haven’t missed a shift. I want to stay healthy, or tough, enough to keep those paychecks flowing and build other’s trust in my abilities at my new workplace.

3. Bring all meals to work! Every time I forget to pack lunch or go grocery shopping, I end up spending an average of $10 on a meal. I can eat healthier and save crucial money by preparing simple meals once a week.

4. Continuing Education Rush! I did a TRX GSTC on Sunday and have loads of YMCA training courses lined up for December. Still, let’s push the envelope and finish one more I didn’t plan to do! I have some ideas so stay posted.

5. Celebrate Christmas! I love Christmas. I love presents. I love the holidays, the decorations, the music, the meals with the family. And if I’ve done 1-4, you better believe I’ll be celebrating such a great month and year.

Fit’s Goals

1. Train six days a week. This means either lifting, cardio, yoga, OR all three! There’s always room for something. I’m letting myself have one day off, but I’ll always be doing with my walks with Noke at the very least.

2. Bake once a week. This was my jam every week back in Boulder, where everything was simpler and easier. I’ve baked only a few times since living here in LA, whether due to lack of time, lack of ingredients, or just laziness or tiredness. No more! Getting back on that baking…plus it’s great therapy.

3. Cook legit meals at least three times a week. This doesn’t mean I’m eating out the other times, but Hungry and I have what we call “lazy meals” which we’ve been thriving on lately. This means quick microwaving, or fridge food. I want to get creative and into cooking more and come up and try out new recipes! My work provides my lunch so I just have to cover breakfast and dinner!

4. Meditate every day. Oh this horse I have fallen so far off of! Yesterday, I was thinking how badly I need to get into meditation. It creates such a healthy impact on my life and I crave it especially during these stressful times.

5. Go through my emails every day. Boring one? Most certainly, but for me–necessary. I used to be good at keeping up, categorizing, etc with every single email, but during these hectic times, I just throw my hands up. Every day, I want to have my inbox organized by the end of the day. This doesn’t mean every email is taken care of, but at least it’s starred or in the proper folder. Even though it’s slightly more work, it will alleviate stress in the long-term.

For December, there be our goals. I’m excited for us to start this tradition every month. It’s always good to set goals. It keeps you motivated, it keeps you focused, it keeps you grounded while you dream. Remember to make them (or at least most of them) realistic so that you can reach it! It’s good to set standards high, but you want them completable so that you can feel good about yourself at the end of the month. Encourage yourself and those around you to create at least 3 monthly goals. It should help keep you in line ;). Make goals to stay hungry and fit!

Jul092013

FUN TOUGH SUMMER CIRCUIT

Here is an infinitely challenging but tremendously fun circuit that can help you develop lean muscle mass, athleticism, and cut down for the summer. It is a high-intensity exercise that can even be modified for HIIT if you are very goal-oriented. Otherwise, it is a great full body workout that contains some elements that are a little bit outside the box. The order of the exercises can be changed and some can be substituted or left out depending on what fits your needs best. Remember that there is no single workout that can help everyone equally. This is part of the reason that you will hear me constantly not recommending INSANITY or P90X or other similar products. Everyone’s body is different and requires different needs based on their strengths, weaknesses, injuries, goals, etc. But for everyone that is just looking for something a little strange that can still get your heart rate up and challenge you to push yourself… here is our FUN TOUGH SUMMER CIRCUIT.

The circuit is designed as six exercises with no rest between exercises. You run from one station to another and immediately begin the next exercise. After a set of all six, you then rest. I set it up for thirty-second rounds with a rest of 30 seconds after the full six exercises although you can play with these numbers depending on certain variables. Ask below if you are more curious about what I mean.

The goal is continue completing full sets until failure, which means you either give up mentally or physically. I would hope that your legs become jelly and you just can’t do it anymore, instead of getting hurt or giving up. I would shoot for five rounds although if you go all the way through twenty rounds I wouldn’t stop you. Just be careful, like always. Here are the exercises that are demonstrated and explained in the YouTube video linked above. (PLEASE feel free to like the video, comment, subscribe and share it with EVERYONE!)

1. Dynamic Ball Slams – This activates your upper body heavily, your core and your legs. Control the ball fully and dynamically lift it and slam it to the ground before picking it up and repeating. This will really help develop a strong back and shoulders.

2. Punching Bag Flurry – The goal is not to strike the bag as hard as you can or properly but rather to keep your body moving. In the video I use knees, elbows, shins, forearms, palms, fists and everything else. I keep it varied so I don’t get bored but too also activate different muscles. Don’t stop until that timer is finished so that you really challenge your body to push itself.

3. Jump Rope – Singles – Now we move away from the upper body somewhat and start to focus on our legs and getting our heart rate very high. You can absolutely do different jump rope techniques here although I used single jumps. Doubles, crosses, steps, and everything else is fine but keep moving. I will do a post on jumping rope at some point to give you more ideas.

You don’t need to jump this high

4. High Knees – This is a simple exercise but do it properly. Actually get those knees up towards the sky, through your chest. Explode off of the ground with all of your legs, including your hips. Once again, push yourself to continue until the timer ends and you feel those quads burning deep.

5. Over Jumps/Lateral Hops – Your legs probably feel like jelly after one round but you need to dig deep and find a groove. Most of these exercises are based on rhythm and mastering the motion. Complete full jumps with safe landings, absorbing the impact throughout your body. Watch your ankles on the lateral hops and avoids slick surfaces.

6. HULA HOOP – Really? Of course! This is a great way to take the stress off your upper and lower body as you use your core to keep the hula hoop off the ground. Then take some time to get a drink and REPEAT over and over again.

Again, watch it here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFnPqWTp8mk

For individuals that want a challenge, try doing this with ankle or wrist weights or even a weight vest. It can be a great workout for an athlete of any level! And it’s fun! Fun workouts are one of my favorite ways to stay hungry and fit!

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Jun242013

The Best Way to Cut Calories: Swimming

This post was inspired by an old swimming friend that has more recently gotten involved in lifting weights and trying to transform his body. He is an extremely experienced and skilled swimmer so he has a lot of tools at his disposal. He does not enjoy running or biking as a means to burn calories but he is interested in cutting for the summer.

Cutting is a term used in the fitness industry, primarily among physique based competitions, that refers to a stage after bulking where you lower your caloric intake and increase your caloric deficits in order to lose fat. Through this process of lowering body fat percentage, the muscles that a person developed and strengthened during their bulking phase will be more defined, visible and prominent. It has a certain aesthetic effect.

Not exactly your typical lap swimmer (it’s Alana)

Mr. M (we will keep his identity a mystery) asked me if swimming was a suitable substitute for cutting and the answer is yes. Anything that helps you achieve your caloric deficit amongst a cutting phase, with proper diet and rest, is a proper form or substitute for the classic “cardio machines.” Most professionals have ellipticals, treadmills, steppers or even bikes in their home gyms. There are a few reasons why swimming does not receive attention on the same level. Those reasons are primarily seen as a disadvantage and therefore complicate the process. However, there are certain advantages as well if you are cutting for your own reasons and not trying to be like everyone else. Here are the reasons why people do not use swimming to lose fat:

1. Most people do not know how to swim. That’s true, believe it or not. Beyond that, many people that do know how to swim don’t know how to swim properly. The number of people that can swim the four competitive strokes and various other safety strokes properly is extremely small. Many bodybuilders are among this population and are not interested in learning how to swim. However, for Mr. M, this is not a concern and with strokes such as backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, and butterfly it is very easy to burn more calories than on a machine that plugs into the wall.

2. It is much harder to calculate burned calories while swimming. Machines that plug into walls have abilities to calculate these numbers, therefore making it extremely convenient for someone tracking these figures so strictly to hit their marks properly. This is not the case while swimming, as every stroke will burn a different amount of calories. Pacing yourself will also affect this greatly. Swimming a 100-yard freestyle on 55 seconds and following with a second 100 yard freestyle on 1 minutes and 15 seconds will result in different calculations that need to be made. If you are not extremely strict on your figures, then this is not an issue as you can estimate. You can also buy some new devices in the market that are waterproof and track your calories that are burned. Fit will be doing a post soon about these devices so keep an eye out for that.

3. It is generally more difficult to find a body of water, especially year round, that is safe. You can run and bike on land. You can run indoors in the winter no matter where you live. Finding a safe swimming spot is harder as it is a much more dangerous activity due to the medium of the water. In developing countries swimming is a luxury and something that the majority of the population does not know how to do. Overall, it is simply not as safe.

Despite these factors, I highly recommended Mr. M to swim in order to cut to achieve his goals. The best way is to use all the strokes that you know and incorporate them into a HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout. Switch up your strokes and change your pace consistently to challenge your body to work harder and burn more calories. Swimming for an hour at the same pace does not do much unless you somehow can maintain your full speed, or something close, for that whole time. I love to do 100 and 200 IMs (individual medley- butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke, freestyle) with the 100s being all out and the 200s being at a steady pace. I will do 5-10 of each depending on how I feel with minimal rest in between. It makes me feel good, keep my skills fresh and avoids putting extra impact on my heavy flat feet.

If you are interested in specific questions related to swimming or cutting calories please leave a comment below. And look forward to more entries in the Best Way to Cut Calories series. Use this to stay hungry and fit!

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BONUS KITTY PIC

Meow

Jun182013

The Best Protein Shake

I noticed we had five drafts waiting for us to finish. Two are interviews between myself and Fit (those are going to be amazing) and then there are two others I already forget and actually put in the trash bin. We either did them or aren’t going to do them. You’ll find out what those are soon enough. This is the final one and I cannot believe I have not published this yet.

I have many recipes for post-workout protein shakes. I cycle supplements even though I have my favorites. I try new supplements when they are released so I can recommend them and, depending on my fitness goal at the time, I have different blends of mass gainers and protein. I also often purchase depending on price and deals. The base ingredients of my shakes are consistent and simple. I often combine my post-workout shake with a meal… typically dinner. Therefore, I don’t make them massive because I would not risk ruining my appetite. With that being said, here is my base shake with potential deviations.

1. MILK– I am almost always bulking or maintaining and I love dairy products. Milk is one of my favorite foods period. In a bulk, I might have whole milk. In a cut, I might have 1%. It’s not set in stone but I always use two cups of milk, which on average is about 16 grams of protein and 300 calories. I NEVER calculate fats or carbohydrates. Sorry. This is the shake’s foundation.

2. ICE CREAM– That’s right, more dairy. More fat. More calories and slightly more protein. My go-to ice cream I use 95% of the time is Breyer’s Natural Vanilla. It’s expensive so I wait for it to go on sale and buy, buy, buy. It’s been rated by Men’s Health as the healthiest ice cream for men year after year. I also have eaten Breyer’s since I was a kid. A serving is half a cup so I typically use a full cup in my shake. It’s somewhere around 300 calories and 6 grams of protein. Somewhere around there. This makes the shake rich and smooth.

3. Protein- This is the ingredient that will differ the most depending on everything I mentioned above. Right now, I am using Cytosport’s Whey Protein, which is a blend of whey concentrate, whey isolate, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. It’s low in calories and very high in protein. I use two-three scoops depending on what other food I eat throughout the day. My go-to is two scoops, however, which comes out to 54 grams of protein and under 300 calories, I think. I use regular chocolate because I think a lot of the other flavors in the industry are disgusting, especially vanilla.

4. Banana- I love fruit and like to make sure my potassium intake is high enough for when I actually start swimming and playing sports again. Banana and chocolate is also the perfect mix. It may only be about 100 calories and 1 gram of protein but it’s delicious. Also, many primates eat bananas and they’re strong as heck so of course I’m going to eat some too.

5. Creatine- This one isn’t always present but when I am taking extra creatine (my pre-workouts often have it too, plus I do) I usually throw in two teaspoons in my shake during creatine loading cycles and one during creatine maintenance. I use Optimum Nutrition’s Creatine Monohydrate. It can be extremely grainy so mix well or be ready to deal with the texture. It is calorically void.

That’s about it. I have been known to mix in other fresh fruits, especially strawberries or blueberries. I used to add peanut butter until I got sick of cleaning it off the blades afterwards. I used to add chocolate syrup but that’s long gone. And more. So there you have it. My typical protein shake measures out to a liter. It currently has about 75-80 grams of protein and between 1000-1200 calories.

If you have any questions about post workout meals, supplements, or anything related feel free to comment below! Stay hungry and fit!

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Jun142013

A Great Way to Lose Weight

This is for everybody, but mostly aimed at parents, kids, those trying to lose weight, or maintain weight. My message is simple: Food should not be a reward. I’m not really one to talk, but now I try to follow this too. Of course, we look forward to special dinners, nights out with friends, and barbecues with families, but what I speak of is different. Think about this situation: reminding your child before you drop them off at kindergarten that if they are good all day and don’t cry, they get to go to McDonald’s after!

Who thought eating at Wendy’s could be so seductive?

Now, what’s wrong with that situation? Well, many things, you might say. But think about the habits that it forms. Child thinks…do not cry, get to go to McDonald’s. Being good = deserving yummy food. They then depend on it. This doesn’t just revolve around children because children tend to grow up into adults. And then we develop emotional eating.

I’m sure we’ve all experienced emotional eating at one point or the other whether it be happy (like the McDonald’s child) or sad. Every time, we feel we deserve a reward, we often think of food…cupcakes, an ice cream, you name it. It just sets us up for failure if we’re trying to stay on a healthy lifestyle or lose weight. We aren’t dogs (although, I tend to resemble one when it comes to churros) and we shouldn’t treat ourselves like dogs. When you’re sad, or when you were a child and became sad, doesn’t the thought of ice cream cheer you up? Stop your tears right in their tracks? Now it’s time to reverse that habit.

This takes a lot of time, effort, and willpower to reverse this bad habit that is so constant in our society. Whenever you feel like you deserve something, that you did something well, instead of celebrating by binge-eating that batch of brownies your partner made, go out dancing, to a museum, to a convention, on a trip! Find other ways of rewarding yourself. Put this into your mind! Think about it and let it seep into your life. Food is not a reward. It is an energy source. There are so many other things we can reward ourselves with.

Girl Scout cookie madness

This is so important for those trying to lose weight. Again, sometimes I do this myself (I could argue I’m not trying to lose weight, but it’s good to set examples), but I’m urging you to simply get out of the habit of rewarding yourself with food to avoid emotional eating or setting triggers for yourself. Let’s set ourselves up for success, not failure.

Yup.

Feel free to comment or contact us in regards to any questions with how to break this. I hope you enjoyed these ridiculous pictures of Chris. Cheers! Use this post to stay hungry and fit!

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Jun092013

Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner: Tofu Scramble

Now this is another recipe from the great book my lovely client got me: the McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook. It’s full of delicious, healthy recipes that don’t take the whole evening to prepare. My client encouraged me to try the tofu scramble and I finally did. I am very thankful I did so, and I was rewarded by having it for many meals since it makes plenty of servings. This recipe is healthy and easy to make, especially for those who take lunch to work. You can have it any time of the day with anything–toast, eggs, stir fry! It is SUPER easy.

Feel free to spice it up!

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 packet firm tofu
1/2 cup water
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1-2 cups mushrooms, chopped
1 cup spinach
2 tbsp mustard
1/2 tsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp paprika

Directions

Put the water in a medium frying pan and turn on heat
Put in the chopped mushrooms and bell pepper

Ready to be cooked!

Once the mushrooms and peppers have been somewhat cooked, throw the spinach in as well. Feel free to season how you’d like

While it continues to cook, take out your tofu and put it in a bowl. Mash it up, reeeal well. Keep going!
Put all your seasonings in with the tofu and mix it around the mash
Add the tofu to the veggies and cook for another 5 minutes or so, until you see fit.

You can serve with potatoes, tacos, eggs–whatever meal it is and whatever you are in the mood for!

I, of course, opted for the tacos

Feel free to spice it up!

It may not be pretty, but it is nutritious and delicious! It’s easy to whip up (I did it after a long workout) and it kept me fed for a few days after I made it! Definitely worth it. There’s so many ways you can change it around. The original recipe calls for onion, but I say whatever vegetables you have in the house, throw them in! This is the perfect recipe to stay hungry and fit!

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BONUS KITTY PIC

Bed cuddles

May312013

Hungry Eats… Ramen (Little Tokyo, Los Angeles)

If you read the title you know that there are a lot of good things going on so this has to end well. Hungry’s favorite soup and potentially his favorite food is ramen. Most of you are probably thinking why would Hungry love ramen; it’s not good for you and it’s disgusting. That’s what a lot of people I know say until I get them some real ramen. Ramen is a type of noodle popular in Asian cultures such as Japan and Korea.

You can find it in American supermarkets made by Maruchan and Top Ramen for anywhere from 15-25 cents a package. It’s almost completely nutritionally void or negative with dead calories and large amounts of sodium and abundant processing. But I love it. Ever since my sister ate ramen in high school, I have loved it. Luckily, I live a generally healthy lifestyle so I do not feel guilty or see the negative effects of eating it, even in excess, but you need to be careful consuming these supermarket brands (but the real stuff is okay!). BUT this all is going to be saved for another time because I didn’t mean to say this much about ramen. This is a restaurant review for Men Oh Tokushima Ramen in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles.

Little Tokyo (you can see Fit on the left corner!)

Daikokuya is the most popular ramen spot in Japangeles. It is always packed and it was very busy when we went with our party of 6. We decided to pass it up and continue to Men Oh because of reviews on Yelp. It is not in the main drag of Little Tokyo and is hidden in a strip mall so it can be hard to find. You need to find it. The 6 of us (Fit’s family and family friend) walked in the Sunday night before Memorial Day. It was empty but by the time we left it was completely full although it is small. The menu is tiny but I can assure you that nearly everything is amazing since we had nearly everything. Everything we had was amazing so we figure everything is just as good.

The Menu

The atmosphere mimics a perfect, small ramen shop but not ramen stop. It was very clean and cute. The staff was organized, kind, professional and efficient. The food was ridiculously filling, delicious and cheap as dirt. It also was much healthier than your store-brand ramen. Their theme is ramen influenced by Tokushima Prefecture on the smallest of Japan’s 4 major islands, Shikoku Island. The industry here is based on raising pork so the ramen has broth heavily flavored by pork bones and filled with pork meat. We got 4 of their 3 ramen dishes available (custom) and all were nearly flawless. I was the only one with great ramen experience but even people having it for the first time were as thrilled as I was.

Awesome painting

My dish

Fit’s dish (without meat or pork broth)

I can’t say much more than this is the perfect spot. You get a cheap, delicious, and filling meal that is quickly served by an efficient and kind wait staff in a clean and enjoyable environment. We will go back whenever we can and bring whoever we can. Michelin might not give this place a star, but I certainly do. And that says a lot. Really. Hungry approved. More to come about my obsession and history with ramen in the future!