Month: January 2015

Ok ok ok , so now that you have your why, you are probably trying to figure out what’s the next step you are gonna take. Let’s start with what‘s the best time for you to get that workout in.

Morning?

Lunch?

Right after work?

Or in the evening?

Or right before you go to bed at night?

Truth be told, it is simply going to come down to what works best with your schedule & lifestyle. First, I tried in the morning. I would get up and make the hour commute to work and go to the gym at our work facility. This was going pretty good until one morning after I had finished my workout, showered, shaved & as I’m getting dressed, I realized I forgot my belt that goes in my dress slacks. At lunch, I ran out to the local Target to get a belt after having to hold my pants up all day.

Next, I tried going around lunch time for a few days but I felt like I was being rushed to get a decent workout in, rush to get dress, and rush to get back to my desk eat lunch and continue working. I figured this just wasn’t going work out.

Then, I thought about getting the workout in immediately after work a few days a week. Then I realized that I have two kids that are in recreational sports where I would need to get home and get them to practice that is probably on the other side of town. I thought about it but I figured this wasn’t going work either.

So, I figured maybe it would be better for me to go after the kids are done with practice. Dinner would be done, kitchen would be cleaned, and everyone would be settling in for the night. I could go by the gym and get me a quick hour in. Well, I did and I came home “wide awake” and couldn’t fall asleep to around 11:30 or midnight. For someone that is already at work by 7:00 in the morning, this was a bit too late for me.

Confused and not sure what to do, I checked the times at my local gym where I lived and found out that they actually opened up at 5:00am in the morning but I was like “Ain’t no way in the world that I’m gonna wake up that early in the morning to go to the gym”, I already had an hour commute, I wouldn’t be able to make it to work time.

My first thought was, “I’ll go and get a great thirty minute workout in and still have time to go home get showered, changed over, and still make it to work in time.” So, that night I got a good night sleep, woke up early, and made to the gym at exactly 5:00am only to find people already breaking a sweat and out of breath. I completed my thirty minute workout and still had enough time to make it home to get cleaned up and make it to work by 7:00am.

Seeing that a few folks were already at the gym breaking a sweat, I figured that tomorrow I would try and get there around 4:45ish and see if I could get a few extra minutes in on the treadmill. The next morning I got up a few minutes earlier and made it to the gym at exactly 4:45am only to find that those same 10 or 12 folks already into their workout. So now, I’m convinced that maybe this place is opening up at 4:00 or 4:30 in the morning.

Anxious to figure what time they really open, the next day I got to the gym at 4:15am and it was dead as a door knob. Quiet, dark, and no one were around. A white Toyota Prius pulls up around 4:20, then this grey Jeep SUV swings in around 4:25am along with a caravan of other vehicles. At 4:29am, the girl that works the front desk opens the gym and everyone come swarms the entrance to get in.

I got it; the gym opens at 4:30am not 5:00am. This means I could work out from 4:30-5:30, head home to get clean up and still be out of the house by 6:00am just so I could make the hour commute and be at work by around 7:00ish.

I told myself “I would officially give this early morning gym thing a try. I reminded myself of once quote and that was “If it was easy, everyone would do it.” Nine months later, I’m still getting up early to get that work out completed before the break of dawn. I quickly realized that it wasn’t about how early I had to get up, it was actually more to do with what time I was going to bed at night.

Bottom line is, I went through some trial and error to come up with a good time to work out but I figured it out. Mornings ended up being the best time for me. Regardless, if it is early morning, at lunch, or after work, you will have to figure it out what best fits your schedule.

Benjamin Franklin said “Early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” I don’t know how wealthy or wise sleep will make you but their definitely some truth about your health.

A good night’s sleep is that one thing that we all love to get from time to time. Depriving yourself of quality sleep for weeks, months, and even years can become a big problem. From dealing with depression, migraine headaches, weight gain, and even type 2 diabetes, not getting quality sleep could have some lasting effects on your overall health.

Well, don’t just take my word for it; check out this blog post & podcast from Shawn Stevenson of The Model Health Show. As a professional nutritionist specializing in biochemistry and kinesiology, he breaks down all the things that may be causing your lack of sleep and gives some tips for improving your sleep. Here’s the link, check it out!

http://theshawnstevensonmodel.com/sleep-problems-tips/

By now, maybe you have figured out the best time for you to work out whether it be early morning, lunch, or after work. Now that you are working out a few times a week, you probably have to come to the realization of when will I have time to cook. Between the daily commute to and from work, to getting the kids to their afterschool activities and the fact that you still haven’t started dinner yet, you might be getting burnt out.

You probably have that thought of “Screw this, I don’t have time. I’ll just stop somewhere and pick something up.” You get ready to pull up to the drive-thru and then it hits you. “I’ve been working hard every day. I’ve cut back on all the snacking I use to do. I’m down to only one soda a week (Let’s hope no soda by now). And I’m down about 8 pounds.” So you buy food for the rest of the family and you go home and find yourself something else to eat while stealing fries from your kids when they are not looking. It’s frustrating. You work out extremely hard; you are trying to do your best but can’t seem to find the time to keep cooking healthy meals every day.

I was at this place just over a year ago. I came to the conclusion that the only way I would be able keep up with my life as a dad, spouse, and everything else is that I was going to have to cook up all of my meals on the weekend. Whether it was some sort of a casserole, crockpot dish, or whatever, it was going to have to be cooked Saturday or Sunday. So I started to Google weekly meals, meals for week, prepping meals, and meal prepping, hundreds of sites popped up giving all kinds of meal prep ideas. After looking around for about an hour I figured I would go with a meal prep plan that was consistent on most of the sites: Grilled Chicken, Steamed Vegetables, Brown Rice, & Baked Sweet Potatoes. I wasn’t real sure about tracking carbs, proteins or fats at this point. I just wanted to have some food cooked, done in the freezer so when I was hungry I could just stick my meal in the microwave and warm it up. Here is what I did:

1. I cleaned out my freezer in my garage so I would have room for some food storage containers
2. I stopped by Walmart and picked up some food storage containers (4 for $.99), since they were on sale, I bought 12 of them. (Pretty good deal)
3. I picked up the two family packs of chicken breast, fresh broccoli, & 4 large sweet potatoes. I had brown rice already at home.
4. When I got home I clean and cut the chicken breast in half. They were pretty big. I washed the broccoli and prepared to steam it in a large pot. I cut the sweet potatoes into large round medallions and baked at 375 for twenty minutes. I seasoned (Cajun seasoning) all the chicken up and cooked it outside on my grill.
5. Forgot to start boiling water for the brown rice, then I got started on the stove. ??
6. While the food was cooking, I washed my new food storage containers and set them aside.
7. After all the food was done, I started assembling each meal. (Half a chicken breast, Brown rice, & Broccoli, alternating my rice and sweet potato every other meal) I had enough for 10 meals.
8. Four hours later, I was done. I put two meals in my fridge and the other ten in my big freezer in my garage. I did it. I was done with my meals for the week. As soon as I put the food away, I felt relieved. A big part of my daily stress was now over.

Some of you are probably saying, “Good for you Byron, but I don’t have a big freezer in my garage, heck for starters I don’t even have a garage.” I’m not saying you have to do what I did. I just wanted to let you know that you have options. Maybe, you cook on Sunday and have meal prepped for Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday. Then cook again on Wednesday, for meals Thursday, Friday, & Saturday.

For anyone that asked me how have you been able to keep the weight off? I would say without a doubt, it would have to be meal prepping. Meal prepping has kept me on track week in and week out. If you are interested in meal prepping, here is a free 7 Day Meal Prep Plan for anyone looking to get started.

Enter your email below, download the pdf and post it on your fridge. Change it up, add to it, or simply follow it step by step. I think it is a great resource for you reaching your weight loss goals. So, should you meal prep? I would recommend it but it will ultimately depend on you and your schedule. I would say give it a try until you find something that works for you.

“If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.”

 

Ok Ok Ok…. Christmas has come & gone. The New Year is here and in next couple of days the conversation will be what is your New Year’s Resolution or goals for 2015? Some will say save money, spend more quality time with family, read a few books, put down the smart phone at dinner & actually have a real conversation or just simply try to complain less in the New Year. Most people will say something along the lines of lose weight, get in shape, and eat healthier. The problem with this age old goal is most people have it as a New Year’s Resolution but don’t ever quite get there.

As the New Year approaches, I want to continue encouraging anyone out their who have had weight loss as a goal but have struggled with it over the years. Also, having lost over 50lbs in the past year, I realized the hardest part was getting started. Once, I got started, it was a little bit easier week to week to keep pushing on. With that said, I still have long way to go but I want to continue to stay On The Grind in 2015 and what better way is to host a weight loss challenge to make sure I get my butt in gear.

So I came across this site DietBet where I could host a weight loss challenge. This is a website that allows people to simply bet on themselves that they will be able to lose a percentage of their weight in an allotted amount of time and all those who reach their goals within that time will have a chance at splitting the pot with other participants that reached their goal. In kicking off the new “On The Grind” blog and Facebook Fan page, I have decided to host a four-week challenge using DietBet. You can join us by going on the site and searching for “2015 OnTheGrind Weight Loss Challenge” or clicking on this link.

 

The DietBet Challenge

DietBet offers a 4 week challenge, sort of like a “Kickstarter” in which everyone who participates, the goal of this particular game is to lose 4% of their body weight in four weeks . Example: If you weigh 160 pounds you would be expected to lose 6.4 pounds during the four weeks and your goal weight would be 153.6 pounds. A group is formed with people of similar interests. The people within the group are required to submit their current weights (with picture verification) to DietBet. The cost of any particular each game range from $25, $35, $50 and up to $100

During the 4 weeks, members of the challenge will have access to a private page on the site where they can weigh-in regularly and communicate to others within the group. Participants will be able describe some of the struggles they may be going through or even give tips of motivation for others to keep up the weight loss. After the end of the four weeks, there will be a final weigh-in through DietBet. Everyone that makes their goal weight will split the pot amongst all the other winners.

 

How do you join us?

1.     Click on link “2015 OnTheGrind Weight Loss Challenge”
2.     Join the OnTheGrind weight loss challenge
3.     Get signed up with game for $25 bucks by Monday, January 5, 2015.
4.     48 hours before the Challenge DietBet will ask you to submit a picture of yourself in “airport security attire” on a scale with a key word  that will be provided by DietBet.

Note: This is all managed through the DietBet website, not by me. I don’t have access to anyone pictures or actual weight.

 

I am excited to start this challenge with all of you and encourage you to tell your friends and family members to join if they need a little motivation to lose weight. This is a group or challenge open to all who are interested in joining. If you are ready to kick your 2015 Weight Loss in gear and are willing to bet on your own success PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS! Go ahead and get signed up today!

And I created a quick cheat sheet to give you a rough idea of what is 4% of your body weight…

Let’s get On The Grind in 2015…