Building Confidence One Squat at a Time
We all know that a good exercise program can help you lose weight and be healthy.
But most people don’t know about the biggest benefit you reap from working out – CONFIDENCE!
I love seeing clients lose weight and get stronger. But honestly the best thing is to see clients happy and more confident!
I love seeing them become more confident in how they look. I love seeing them become more confident in their fitness. I even love seeing them become more confident because they know their health is improving.
I love seeing people’s confidence grow!
And the craziest part is no true results have to be achieved for people’s confidence to improve. Maybe it’s the endorphins. Maybe it’s the fact that we know we are doing something good for us. Maybe it’s simply that we are pushing ourselves to our limits.
Maybe its all of the above.
Whatever it is though, the best part is that the confidence we develop is what truly spurs on great results.
How can you not feel better about yourself if you lift 5 more pounds than you did the week before? How can you not be more confident when you manage to push yourself through three rounds of a circuit when only the week before you had to take a break after the first round? How can you not feel better knowing that you managed to run .1 mph faster than you did even just a couple of days before?
And the craziest part is…that person probably could have lifted that much or made it through the three rounds without a break the week before. They just didn’t BELIEVE they could the week before.
So because they are working out, they become more confident. Because they become more confident, they believe in themselves. Because they believe in themselves, they get great results.
Which guess what?
LEADS TO MORE CONFIDENCE!
Simply put…Exercise is empowering!
Empower yourself today…try this workout or one of the other weekly workouts!
Weekly Workout #10
Strength:
Bench 3-2-2-1-1
Auxiliary lift circuit:
50-40-30-20-10 (Complete the previous rep range for all exercises before moving on to the next rep range. Ex: 50 reps all exercises then 40, 30 and so on.)
Barbell OH Press
Knees to Elbow
Burpees (Chest hits the ground each and every time)
Back Extensions
Can I say ouchie? My arms were toasted between the heavy bench, overhead press and burpees with push ups.
P.S. This is my favorite quote about exercise and endorphins.
“Ego Depletion”
You know when you feel down on yourself and you just can’t stop yourself from stuffing bad food into your mouth?
LOVE IT!
It may be caused by Ego Depletion.
I’ve mentioned before that self-control is like a tank of gas – each time you exert self-control, you draw from that tank and if you take too much out without giving yourself a “break,” you will lose all control and do something like stuff your face with bad food.
Recently, I’ve been desperately craving bad food. I even gave in and cheated last weekend because I just couldn’t resist.
I think it is a combination of working a lot, being sick and also getting a few negative comments that were blows to my ego that just made me lose control.
And that is probably exactly what it is based on a post that Candy set me yesterday. The post, called “Ego Depletion,” discusses facets and factors contributing to ego depletion.
I love the experiment discussed at the beginning of the post. Scientists have two different groups go and mingle at a social gathering. After the gathering, the scientists tell one group of people who people wanted to work with them while the other group was told that they needed to work alone since no one wanted to work with them.
Both groups were then asked to taste test some cookies. The group that had people who wanted to work with them ate fewer cookies than the group that had just been told that no one wanted to work with them.
On average the rejects ate twice as many cookies as the popular people. To an outside observer, nothing was different – same setting, same work, similar students sitting alone in front of scrumptious cookies. In their heads though, they were on different planets. For those on the sunny planet with the double-rainbow sky, the cookies were easy to resist. Those on the rocky, lifeless world where the forgotten go to fade away found it more difficult to stay their hands when their desire to reach into the bowl surfaced.
Why does this happen? Why does our self-control just seem to vanish when we suffer blows to our ego?
I like how the post tries to come up with some answers to this question:
The researchers in the “no one chose you” study proposed that since self-regulation is required to be prosocial, you expect some sort of reward for regulating your behavior. People in the unwanted group felt the sting of ostracism, and that reframed their self-regulation as being wasteful. It was as if they thought, “Why play by the rules if no one cares?” It poked a hole in their willpower fuel tanks, and when they sat in front of the cookies they couldn’t control their impulses as well as the others. Other studies show when you feel ostracized and unwanted, you can’t solve puzzles as well, you become less likely to cooperate, less motivated to work, more likely to drink and smoke and do other self-destructive things. Rejection obliterates self-control, and thus it seems it’s one of the many avenues toward a state of ego depletion.
So rejection and ostracism deplete our self-control.
I would fully agree with that.
We’ve all heard the term “emotional eater” and maybe there really is something to that!
So what do we do to try to prevent ego depletion?
The hard truth is…sometimes we can’t.
BUT we can try as often as possible to give ourselves some “me time” – to give ourselves some breaks so we can recharge and refill the self-control tank.
As the post says:
The only way to avoid this state of mind is to predict what might cause it in your own daily life and to avoid those things when you need the most volition. Modern life requires more self control than ever. Just knowing Reddit is out there beckoning your browser, or your iPad is waiting for your caress, or your smart phone is full of status updates, requires a level of impulse control unique to the human mind. Each abstained vagary strengthens the pull of the next. Remember too that you can dampen your executive functions in many ways, like by staying up all night for a few days, or downing a few alcoholic beverages, or holding your tongue at a family gathering, or resisting the pleas of a child for the umpteenth time. Having an important job can lead to decision fatigue which may lead to ego depletion simply because big decisions require lots of energy, literally, and when you slump you go passive. A long day of dealing with bullshit often leads to an evening of no-decision television in which you don’t even feel like switching the channel to get Kim Kardashian’s face out of your television, or sitting and watching a censoredJurassic Park between commercials even though you own a copy of the movie five feet away. If so, no big deal, but if you find yourself in control of someone’s parole or air traffic, or you need to lose 200 pounds, that’s when it’s time to plan ahead. If you want the most control over your own mind so that you can alter your responses to the world instead of giving in and doing what comes naturally, stay fresh. Take breaks. And until we understand just what ego depletion really is, don’t make important decisions on an empty stomach.
Have you ever suffered from ego depletion?
It’s my workout and I’ll cry if I want to
I’ll be the first to admit I’m an emotional person. When I decided to do something, I commit fully. Because I invest myself so fully into things, I can get super upset at the littlest set back.
In college, I would get super upset if I couldn’t lift a weight. When trainers would tell me “you almost have it,” I would almost get more frustrated than if I wasn’t even close.
To this day, I still get frustrated when I can’t hit a PR or at least match what I did the time before.
Most of the male trainers at my gym, don’t understand the emotional investment I make. Most don’t get why a failure can cause me to cry.
He's not crying now, but he will be when that weight doesn't budge from the floor!
I’m not ashamed to admit that I cry. I have been known to cry if I can’t hit a new PR after training hard for months. I don’t half ass things. It doesn’t matter what it is – I want to do my best at it. Shoot even pool, which I suck at, I still want to win and will get mad if Ryan beats me!
I’m not saying this is the best way to behave…trust me, there are definitely some times when I wish I wouldn’t get so upset about a bad lift…BUT the point is, I’ve also accepted that this is who I am.
That’s not to say that I’m not working on things. It is much more rare now that I cry after a bad lift. I, most of the time, don’t sweat the small stuff. I remind myself that there are going to be bad days. I remind myself that while Ryan may beat me in pool, I can kick his butt in everything else. (Just kidding Ryan….sort of…)
But even though I remind myself of these things, I’m still an emotional and competitive person who WILL get upset when she doesn’t “succeed.”
Anyway, my point is, don’t be ashamed if you are an emotional person. Don’t let people make you feel bad for showing emotion when you don’t succeed.
And the truth is, if you invest yourself fully into something, there is good reason to be upset when you don’t succeed! Obviously, you don’t want to let your emotions run out of control, but the occasional cry after missing a PR is good for you!
Is it just me or does anyone else out there ever cry after not achieving one of their fitness/diet/exercise goals?
P.S. No I didn’t cry today, but trust me I can name some really great examples of times when I did. Shoot I probably even have some pictures from tennis when I would slap my thigh if I missed a shot. Not the best way to express my emotions….
“The Tube Diet”
Have people gone insane!?!
Seriously, using a FEEDING TUBE to lose weight for your wedding?!
Why do people spend years planning their wedding, but only give themselves 10 days to get in great shape? If you want your wedding to be perfect, you spend time planning and working on it. If you want to look perfect for your wedding, why wouldn’t you spend the same amount of time planning and working on that!?!
And on top of that…why would you ever go to such drastic measures that you stick a FEEDING TUBE up your nose!
It uses a nasogastric tube (a tube that goes through the nose and down the esophagus into the stomach) to provide all nourishment, with nocarbohydrates, for 10 days. Dr. Di Pietro said body weight is lost quickly through ketosis, the state in which the body burns fat rather than sugar. Patients at his office are monitored during the 10-day period for things like constipation, bad breath and dizziness.
And there are other potential side effects of this extreme diet besides constipation, bad breath, dizziness and the fact that you look ill because you are walking around with a feeding tube up your nose!:
“Any extreme low-calorie diet is associated with side effects,kidney stones, dehydration, headaches,” Dr. Aronne said, “and if you lose muscle mass and water, what’s the point of that?”
There are a lot fewer side effects to healthy diets AND you will probably be able to MAINTAIN the weight you lost.
Even the doctors that do it admit that patients could get the same results with a healthy diet. Heck, I’d even argue people would get better results if they didn’t do something as stupid as stick a feeding tube up their nose:
“I don’t want to tell a bride she shouldn’t look good for the wedding,” Dr. Aronne said. “But we tell them, ‘You can get to the same place if you started earlier, instead of waiting until the last-minute and doing something drastic.’ ”
Seriously, why would anyone do this!?!
The Boston Marathon
I would say “To run a marathon” is on most people’s fitness bucket lists.
Can I just say, “I don’t get it?”
I just don’t have the running gene.
I love sprinting. I even enjoy jogging a couple of miles with Ryan when it is super warm outside.
But run more than five miles?!?
I think I would die of boredom before I hit 10….or stop and get ice cream.
Me.
But I’m definitely the minority.
So many people raise money just so they can run the Boston Marathon. While they are raising money for a great cause, most of them do it because they want to RUN. To them, running a marathon is a major feat of fitness.
But is it a major feat of fitness or just a major feat of stupidity when the average person runs one?
Don’t get me wrong, I can’t believe how freaking fast the top marathoners are. I honestly think they run faster than I even sprint. But they aren’t just recreational runners crossing something off their bucket lists.
Seriously, while it is “impressive,” is it stupid for the average person to run a marathon? I mean marathons are really stressful for your heart not to mention your body in general! Check out this post called ” Run for your lives.” (I think the title is super funny by the way!)
So can someone just explain to me why this would ever be on your bucket list? Why do so many people think that running a marathon is “badass” and a huge feat of fitness?
I just don’t get it.
Bikini Season Calls
It’s getting warmer outside and stores are advertising all the summer fashions.
You can tell people are starting to get that “get in shape for summer” itch.
Of course, do people start eating well and working out for bikini season now?
NOPE!
They wait until it’s no more than a month before they are going on vacation/wearing a swim suit/buying summer clothes to start working toward “their ultimate beach body.”
When really they need to start working toward their bikini body months in advance! I know it sucks, but guess what!?! IT’S TRUE!
I hate this crap. Really!?! Two weeks till my ultimate beach body!?! OMG!
While it is possible to drop quite a few pounds in just a month, your results won’t be as good (or as easily maintainable) as they would be if you started NOW.
Actually, I take that back. I would even recommend starting earlier than now if you want to be in tip-top shape the second the pools open Memorial Day weekend.
For one, if you are looking for great results in just a month, you are going to have to do something drastic. Drastic to me usually means UNMAINTAINABLE.
And when something is unmaintainable it means that the second people reach their goal, they will start backsliding and potentially backslide to a point that was worse than before.
They haven’t created a habit or taught themselves to live a healthy lifestyle. All they’ve done is stressed out their minds, bodies and self-control for a month.
But I’m not saying you can’t diet intensely to reach your goal. There is a difference between that drastic one month diet plan and a “cutting phase” or an intense month of dieting.
From January 1st until March 1st, I did a cutting phase. I dieted INTENSELY, but it wasn’t DRASTIC. I still gave myself cheats. AND while it wasn’t something I could maintain forever, it built a base that I could then MAINTAIN.
Also, those two months weren’t that extremely different from what I was doing previously. I didn’t go from eating fast food every day to eating an apple, oatmeal and plain chicken breast.
Yes it was a change. And no at points it wasn’t fun (especially with the low carb flu at the beginning), BUT it wasn’t a SHOCK.
I cut out indulgences and was more regimented than I would be during a maintenance phase, but again IT WASN’T DRASTIC.
It wasn’t a “depriving myself of everything that I love for a month so that I could barely stand it and couldn’t wait to binge for the next three months” diet.
It was more of an “ok I can’t have the foods I like whenever I want and I wouldn’t want to do this forever, but the slight sacrifice is worth the results” diet.
Don’t get me wrong…when you are cutting it isn’t necessarily fun and it is more intense than you would want to diet on a normal basis, but it gets you results quickly in a realistic fashion – it helps you create a base which you can then maintain!
And it isn’t a one month process. I had to spend at least two months (and I had a solid base before) to get truly great results that could be maintained
Anyway, the point of all of this is that you can’t really get the results you want in one month. Even if you reach that goal weight, I guarantee you don’t look near as good at that weight after one month of dieting as you would if you spent two or three months working to reach the same weight. And you will be way more likely to gain all the weight back after that one month crash diet than after the two or three months of cutting!
So next time you want to drop a few pounds or tone up for bikini season, don’t wait till the last minute! Actually this goes for any event that you want to look your best at!
I recommend this same thing to all of the brides I work with. Don’t decide the month before that you want toned arms in your strapless wedding dress! You should have a workout/diet program mapped out for the entire year you spend planning your wedding!
Tomorrow, I’ll post some great recipes that you can eat during a Man Bicep cutting phase (And guess what!?! Two are BLTs!)
And below is a workout you can do to help you get a great beach body!
Strength:
Deadlift 5×5
Auxiliary lift circuit:
30-25-20-15-10-5 (Complete the set number of reps for each exercise before moving to the next rep range. Ex: Do 30 reps of all exercises then 25 of all the exercises.)
RDLs (Straight leg deadlifts, Romanian Deadlifts)
Burpees (chest hits the ground)
Split Squat jumps (Lunge, jump up and switch legs..Also it is the rep number per leg..ex: 30 per leg, 25 per leg…)
Ab roller (ouchie!)
P.S. I haven’t forgotten about the foam rolling video. I apologize I haven’t gotten one up yet! It will be up by next weekend!!!!
It’s hard work…period.
I’ll never tell you it is easy to stick to a healthy lifestyle. I’ll never tell you it is easy to lose weight or hit a new lifting PR.
Because guess what? IT ISN’T!
It’s all hard work.
It’s hard committing the time and energy to eating well and working out intensely. It’s hard to stay committed to a process that can sometimes be slow and frustrating full of ups and downs.
But who wants to work hard!?! I know if I didn’t have to I wouldn’t!
I would love if there was a diet pill or supplement out there that would make me healthy, fit and strong instantly! I would love to eat pizza and ice cream every single day!
But there isn’t an easy way out.
It’s hard work period that will get you where you want to be.
And it’s a constant struggle. There are days, weeks or even months when it is easier to commit and stay committed. But then there are those days, weeks or even months when you feel like you just don’t have one bit of self-control.
I know how hard it can be. It isn’t always easy for me either! I have those days, weeks and even months where I just don’t want to care about my health, how I look or how my training is going.
There are just those times where I would rather binge on ice cream and sit on my couch and do nothing. There are those days when I get stressed and just don’t care. There are those days when I would rather celebrate and indulge than pick out a healthy option or go to the gym.
Heck there are those days where I eat everything and anything in sight. I’m even famous (among my friends) for the day where I gained 12lbs after a binge!
I understand how difficult it can be! But I also know how worth it all the hard work truly is!
I wish I had a solution for the ups and downs, but I don’t. There will always be ups and downs.
BUT if you set clear goals and map out a plan, you are going to have way more ups than downs AND you are going to see all of your hard work TRULY pay off as quickly as it possibly can!
I know I’ve harped on “planning” recently, but it is just so essential! And a big part of planning is goal setting.
Just think…what will make you work harder, a vague desire to be “healthy” or a goal of losing 25lbs by August with an average of 2lbs lost per week?
I would think the second goal would be more motivating because it is specific, broken down into long and short-term goals, and has an end date.
As cheesy as it sounds, there is something to setting S.M.A.R.T. goals – Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.
- Specific – A specific goal answers these six question: Who is involved? What do I want to accomplish. Where do I want to accomplish it (identify a location)? In what time frame will I complete it (establish a time frame)? What are some requirements and constraints? Why do I want to accomplish this goal (specific reasons, purposes and benefits)? Setting specific goals helps you outline exactly what it will take to reach your goals in the desired time frame.
- Measurable – Establish criteria to measure your progress and set target dates. Measuring your progress helps you stay on track. For one, seeing results will help encourage you to continue. And two, short-term goals with measurable results help keep you motivated to succeed every single day.
- Attainable – Almost any goal is attainable if you develop the attitudes, abilities, skills and financial capacity to reach them. You just need to plan out your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out your plan.
- Realistic – If you are WILLING and ABLE to accomplish a goal, it is realistic. Also, a goal can be both high and realistic. Actually, high goals may be even easier to reach than low goals since low goals supply less motivation.
- Timely – You must set out a timeframe in which you will accomplish your goals. An “end date” creates a sense of urgency and motivation. Also, you need to let yourself know that there will be a time when you can have your favorite food again or skip a workout just because you are tired. You need to know that at some point you will get some sort of “break” from your plan.
By setting goals that follow this criteria, not only are you more likely to accomplish them, but you will also build your self-image. You see yourself as worthy of these goals, and develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.
Setting S.M.A.R.T. goals will help you realize that your plan is doable!
So yea…It’s all hard work.
BUT by setting great goals and creating a plan to achieve them, you will find that not only does the hard work seem less daunting, but that you also achieve greater success.
Surprised that she loved it
So this is the second week of my lifting class (sorry Francine that I couldn’t do one at a time that worked for you!).
And I’m loving it. But the best part is…SO ARE THEY!
And I don’t think all of them expected to…
I have one participant, Lois, who is also one of my personal training clients. We started working together in August and I’ve watched her get stronger and fitter and more confident in herself each and every time we meet.
And while Lois never gives up and is always willing to give an exercise a shot, I have to admit that I was blown away by her strength and determination in our lifting classes so far.
We’d stuck to a lot of functional weight training in our personal sessions together and hadn’t yet done barbell bench press, barbell deadlift or barbell back squat.
But last week, Lois attempted all of them for the first time and excelled! I was more impressed/excited/proud than I could even express to her at the time.
And she continues to impress me. At the class today she deadlifted with the best of them. And she survived the killer auxiliary lift circuit we did, making the necessary modifications, but never giving up.
And the best part is that after both workouts, she has walked up to me and said that it was hard, but that she enjoyed it!
I think it surprised her actually how much she enjoyed lifting super heavy weights!
So if you’ve been shy about heavy lifting, give it a shot! I think you will be pleasantly surprised by how much you love it.
Also, I just want to give a big shout out to all of the members of my class. You all are AWESOME! 🙂
P.S. Lois if you read this post since I know you occasionally visit Man Bicep….KEEP IT UP! I’m so proud of you! 🙂
Getting Back into the Groove
Rebeca…this post is for you!
So you’ve gotten into a great rhythm. You’re eating well and going to the gym numerous times a week. You are so in the groove that it isn’t a challenge to keep your healthy lifestyle going – it has become a habit.
But then, you go on vacation.
And when you come back, your rhythm is gone.
You can’t drag yourself into the gym and you’re not sure you even know what healthy foods look like anymore. You’ve undone the habit in a quarter of the time it took you to create it.
So how do you get back on track?
It is by no means easy, but you did it once before and you can do it again! Remember that!
Also, remember that the quicker you get right back into it after vacation, the easier it will be. The longer you wait, the more you will regress. Just think about how hard you worked to make all that progress in the first place! You don’t want to lose it all!
I know how hard it can be to get back into the groove. When I come back from vacation feeling like a slug from bad food and inactivity, I don’t want to workout or eat well. But I remind myself of how great I feel once I start…and how crappy I feel when I continue my sluggish ways.
It’s all about the mindset! Your mind is the strongest muscle in your body so use it to push yourself to get right back into healthy habits!
For more great tips, check out my post about how to change your lifestyle and stick with it!
If you need more motivation to get back into working out and eating well after a vacation, email me. I’ll keep harassing you until you do!
You’ve been warned Rebeca!
Ingredients – Where are yours coming from?
A little bit ago I wrote a post about what the U.S. could learn from other countries about staying slim and being healthy. One of the big points I brought up is the fact that so many other countries eat “farm to table.”
Local farms produce the food in natural ways and that food goes straight to people’s tables. In other countries, people don’t buy a whole lot of processed crap or get all their animal products from conventional farms. Even the grains consumed in countries such as France, are in the form of freshly baked bread – not bread that stays good for weeks because it is baked full of preservatives.
But that really isn’t how we operate here in the U.S. We rarely eat farm to table. And, in general, people don’t worry about our farming system.
But slowly, things are changing. (YAY!) And last night I watched a great movie about the importance of caring where your ingredients come from called “Ingredients.”
A documentary film, “Ingredients” is all about eating local, naturally raised food. It talks about the dangers of our current food system with its monocrop production system and unnaturally raised animals.
Attention being paid to the local food movement comes at a time when the failings of our current industrialized food system are becoming all too clear. For the first time in history, our children’s generation is expected to have a shorter lifespan than our own.The quality, taste and nutritional value of the food we eat has dropped sharply over the last fifty years. Shipped from ever-greater distances, we have literally lost sight of where our food comes from and in the process we’ve lost a vital connection to our local community and to our health.
I don’t know about you, but this film made me really wish there were more farmers markets around. It also made me super excited about the fact that a client of mine knows a few farms in New Hampshire that ship products!
But even if that doesn’t workout out and I can’t get food straight from the farm, the least I can do is try to buy as locally as possible and get animals raised in the most natural way possible.
Watch the film. Do you care where your ingredients come from?
Man Bicep 