journey gym nutrition blog

I fight it all the time: the urge to curl up on the couch with a delectable snack....mmmmm......But wait! Won’t I feel better, look better, be happier, and be better able to rationalize curling up on the couch if I just do my workout? Begrudgingly, yes I would.

No matter how it is hard for you (or me) to get moving, the benefits are outstanding and well worth it. So before you push your workout off to tomorrow, read and remember these five ways to stay motivated:

Determine an attainable goal and plan to reach that goal. The first thing to ask yourself is what your goals are and why do you want to reach them. Do you want to lose weight, sleep better, increase your energy, gain strength, add flexibility, or just feel a heightened since of well being? Once you know your goal, create a realistic workout schedule (like exercising twice on weekdays and once on weekends) that will set you up for success.

Change into your workout clothes. Sometimes, it's just a matter of getting dressed that causes the biggest barrier.

Lose the Excuses. Erase the concept that if you can't do at least 30 minutes you're wasting your time. Exercise burns calories, increases energy, and improves your health - even in small doses. So before you skip your workout, try these ideas to get moving:

For those near our homebase of Portland, Oregon. This Wednesday we are offering an opportunity to try out a journey gym at a local networking event with pdxMindShare:

Date: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 At 05:30:00 PM

Duration: 2 Hours

Location:

Paddy's Bar & Grill
65 SW Yamhill St.
Portland, OR 97204

Attendees will have an opportunity to recieve a generous discount on a journey gym purchase and, if interested, a chance to be in our second Alpha User Program. Each Alpha User receives a free journey gym and support acheiving their weight and fitness goals for a specified duration based on individual goals in exchange for sharing progress with journey gym and our followers.

pdxMindShare is a Portland-based networking group for those seeking employment or simply expanding their network. They provide a variety of educational opportunities as well.

Please join us! We'd love to meet you and show you how journey gym can improve your health journey.

When Michael Pollan wrote his various food-related books (Food Rules most recently), he was trying to simplify the challenges we face when trying to select food for a healthy lifestyle. While he provided some examples and more specific rules, his primary recommendation is:

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Simple enough. Right? Well, yes and no.

For those that are happy with such a simple answer, then it is just that. Your health will notably improve if you:

• Eat real food: Avoid food that makes health claims or has more than 5 ingredients.
• Not too much: Your body takes 20 minutes to recognize it is full and you know how much food you can eat in 20 minutes. A lot! So slow down and stop eating well before you feel full.
• Mostly plants: Meat and dairy are fine but can crowd out the fruits and veggies so make plants your focus. Remember that your food is the sum of its parts and in consuming that food, you consume all the nutrients and toxins it consumed (this is especially important with meat).

For those that feel this is too simple and would like more guidance, here are some sources for you:

It is never too young to start exercising but most of us, unless actively involved in sport, don’t really bother until we see or feel the signs that our bodies are deteriorating.

And our bodies are deteriorating at an accelerated rate at each passing year. Research shows that men and women lose more than five pounds of muscle every decade of life due to disuse (Evans and Rosenberg 1992). So, if you gain an average of 10 pounds a decade while losing 5 pounds in muscle mass, you are gaining 15 pounds of fat every decade.

All that fat has great negative impacts on your heart health, your metabolism, your endurance, and your ability to turn it around.

So it is simply not good enough to think that a weekend round of golf, an hour of tennis, or a brisk walk to the office each morning will keep a trim body.  Everyone needs to retain muscle mass through strength training. No matter how you feel about resistance bands, dumbbells, or weight machines, building muscle provides overall tone, increased metabolism, maintained or improved bone density, more energy, and overall better health.

How do some people seem to stay young and fit while others seemingly age faster than their years?