Twitter Q&A

This post is my twitter daily tips / topic of the day. Follow me on Twitter @ezhomefitness

Today is Q&A Friday! So ask me your #diet & #exercise questions!

Q: What is the best breakfast food? A: Oatmeal. It has slow burning carbs & fiber. Low fat. Steel cut oats are even better than regular oats.

Q: Is swimming good for cardio? A: Yes! It's also good for the upper body especially the shoulders. Try intervals with different strsokes!

Q: Do you train people at a gym? A: No, I actually train people in their homes in person and via my online training. No gym required! ;)

Q: I want to gain weight, can you help? A: Yes. The concepts for losing/gaining weight are the same. Just the numbers used are different.

Q: I get bored easily, how do I stay motivated? A: If you are bored then u are not challenging yourself enough. Add variety to your routine.

Q: I'm a 60 year old woman, can I start working out at my age? A: Of course! U will just have to start & take it slower than someone younger.

Q: How do I tone my flappy arms? A: Tighten diet to lose fat. Arms must be worked out with weights and high reps. It's an overall process.

#Quote of the day: No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. - Eleanor Roosevelt

Twitter topic of the day: Too old or too young to workout?

This post is my twitter daily tips / topic of the day. Follow me on Twitter @ezhomefitness

My #questionoftheday is do you have or know kids or seniors who are overweight? Do you or they think they are too young or old to workout?

You are never too young or old to exercise. There are exceptions to this rule, mainly due to health issues, but exercise if possible helps. Pre-teens and younger should shy away from using weighted exercises but absolutely should exercise. There are too many obese children! Parents need to take their children's health and present & future self-image under their control. They cannot just leave it to chance. Worse yet, parents cannot leave it up to their children to figure out how to lose weight or eat less. Kids don't know better. They need help. Obesity among children is escalating to scary numbers. Parents need to take action and get their kids the help they deserve. Senior citizens are also another group of society that don't exercise enough. A lot of seniors do and take action for their health. Some of my best clients have been seniors who were determined to get back some of their mobility and health. One of my best success stories was with a 70+ year old man who was over 200 pounds and suffered from COPD when we started. He worked hard, stuck to the diet guidelines I gave him and within 4 months had lost 30 lbs. and had arms that would put a teen to shame! The weight loss and exercise helped his COPD, his weight, his knees and overall energy. Seniors can benefit just as much as anyone else. If you have a senior family member or parent that is overweight, get them to exercise so that they'll be around longer. Help them. An issue with seniors is that they are set in their ways so getting them to take that step will require effort but they know they need it. They make kick and scream like kids but they know they need it. It's just the years of bad habits talking. Find a way to get them to listen. With kids, it also takes effort to get an obese child to exercise but you have to find a way to make it fun & different. I've trained all ages and know that all ages can make huge differences in their bodies and self-image with #exercise. Be the role model to get the kids and seniors in your life exercising! If you do it, maybe you can include them and you can all benefit. :)

#Diet tip: Replace your dinner plates with smaller plates. The smaller plates will appear fuller and trick your brain that you ate more.

#Quote of the day: No matter who you are, no matter what you do, you absolutely, positively do have the power to change. - Bill Phillips

Top 5 reasons to workout

"What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself."
~Hecato, Greek philosopher

Why workout? There are many reasons but I'll give you what I feel are the top 5 reasons to get yourself into a consistent workout regimen.

Reason #5 - To reduce stress
Exercise is a great stress reducer. It helps the body get stronger and better able to deal with outside stress. It helps burn off some anxiety through exercise and it also helps you feel more tired at night which leads to better sleep.

Reason #4 - Weight reduction
Not much to say here, you and everyone knows the value of exercise in losing weight.

Reason #3 - Health
This normally should be #1 but I think you'll understand why I have this listed here when you see my #1 and #2 reasons. Exercise (along with diet in some of these cases) is key to heart and circulatory system health, to reducing cholesterol, reducing high blood pressure, improving lung function, strengthening bones and muscles, reducing anxiety, improving posture, raising metabolism, strengthening the immune system, prevention of diseases and conditions and so much more. Exercise along with proper nutrition is key to health.

Reason #2 - Self-esteem
Exercise helps your self-esteem as you see yourself getting fitter and stronger because of your own hard work. It is very satisfying to challenge yourself and find that what once may have been hard (say for example - 10 pushups), is now not only attainable but easily doable. It's a very empowering feeling. It shows you what you can do and accomplish if you set your mind to it and those are lessons you can apply to other aspects of your life. Seeing your muscles getting toner or bigger and your waistline getting smaller also makes you feel good about yourself. You feel more confident in yourself and can take great satisfaction in that you did that. Which leads me to...

Reason #1 - You
I put you as the #1 reason because you have to want to exercise for yourself. Not for anyone else. It is your stress, your weight, your health, your self-esteem. It all comes down to you wanting to do something about it. No one can do it for you. It is up to you to take a stand and say today is the day that I will make a change and not settle for anything less than the best for myself. Make today your day.

The best workout

"Know thyself means this, that you get acquainted with what you know, and what you can do."
~Menander

What's the best workout you can do? Drumroll..... any workout is!

While for experienced trainees, more specific workouts are preferred and needed. For the beginning trainee, any exercise is good exercise. Just getting your body moving can mean a difference in your self-esteem, confidence, self-awareness and fitness level. A lot of beginners either have never really exercised or have not exercised consistently enough to see results so getting your body moving and into a physical workout routine is a huge step in the right direction. Sometimes getting started is the most important thing. This is especially important for seniors and obese people. Once you see how it makes you feel or how easy it was to make the time for it that you didn't think you had, it gets to be something to look forward to and not put off. Once you see results, then it gets better. However, working out in some fashion should be a lifelong pursuit. It shouldn't be just that thing you did for a few months before quitting on it.

Cardio, weights, martial arts, tennis, basketball, jogging, heck even ping pong! Anything that gets you moving and using your muscles is good for your heart and body. Just make sure you start slow and don't overdo it at first. Check out my blog post for July 2010 for tips on how to do your cardio and strength training and happy exercising!

The scale lies

"The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can."
~Robert Cushing

Are you afraid of getting on your scale? Do you dread what it will say? Do you avoid your scale like the plague? Is it hidden somewhere out of sight only to be pulled out and used once a year or so? Well I say, don't be afraid of the scale (in fact that's my slogan as a Personal Trainer) because the truth is that the scale lies! Yes, it does its job and tells you your weight but its not the scales' fault that it only gives you partial truth. Confused? Lol. I'm sure you are interested in what the heck I am talking about! ;)

The scale only tells you your weight. That much we know. What most don't understand or aren't taught by most of the weight-loss centers, dieticians, doctors, well-meaning family members and friends is that the scale doesn't take into account other things such as your fat percentage, your bodymass to bodyfat ratio, your well-being, your fitness level or how your clothes fit.

I always tell my clients that the scale is a good tool to keep them honest but don't freak out by the numbers when they are working out hard because the scale will only tell them a partial story. I have a weekly weigh-in with my clients and then take their bodyfat measurements with bodyfat calipers and also select body measurements. Put all together, I then show them how and why their diet is affecting their bodyfat levels and I also show and tell them how their exercise is affecting their muscle and body measurements. To further explain, let's say the scale says you were 160 lbs. last week and this week after much hard work, you get on the scale and it still says 160 lbs. Most would find it discouraging. I would tell my clients to wait until we do their weigh-in and let's see what it says. A bodyfat loss of 2 lbs. with a muscle gain of 2 lbs. would mean that the scale wouldn't change but there would be a difference! It would be 2 lbs of fat lost that was replaced with a 2 lb muscle gain! That's progress that the scale would show. This is why I say the scale only gives a partial story.

When you are exercising, you will be toning and building muscle (especially at first) and the scale may say that you've gained a few pounds but it will be muscle. At that point, you are ahead in the game because the added muscle will help you burn extra calories and fat. So while the scale may not change or even go up, it is not the bad thing you might think. Instead, most people would see that and think that what they are doing is wrong and give up when in fact they were actually progressing towards their goal. Always, always, always keep at it with your exercising. Even if you plateau and have no changes in a week, you are improving your fitness level so there is still a positive to focus on.

I always tell my clients to go by how they feel (do you feel satisfied that you are working out and doing something for your health?), how their clothes feel on them and how they look in the mirror as a progress marker for their dieting and working out rather than the cold hard number on the scale. Never let the scale lie to you again! Now you know. ;)

You are never too old or out of shape to exercise!

"As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Think you are too old to exercise? You're wrong! Think you're too out of shape to exercise? You're dead wrong and that's exactly what you're doing to yourself. Leading yourself to an early grave. These roadblocks you are putting before yourself are only mental, you can never be too old or out of shape to try to improve your health. In fact, you owe it to yourself, your spouse, children, grandchildren, friends, etc.

I've trained people of all ages, from obese children to senior citizens, including seniors with health problems and through proper exercise and changes in diet, I've seen some dramatic improvements in my clients weight, fitness and health.

Is it hard to get started the older you are? It sure is but it's like anything else. It's about getting into a routine and being determined to make yourself happy and satisfied with your health and weight.

Is it harder to lose weight the older you are? It is because your metabolism begins slowing down at 30 and progressively slows down over the years, even more so if you lead a sedentary lifestyle. BUT you can get that metabolism working again in your favor through exercise! It can be done, I've seen it done firsthand through my clients. It's up to you to take that first step though. Stop saying you will do it only to continually keep putting it off and get to doing it. You owe it to yourself! You've put others before you throughout the years, now it's the time to put yourself and your health first. You can do it. Just take that first step.