Balancing, Negotiating & Trade Offs!
Balancing, Negotiating & Trade Offs!
How you view your overall training plan can be sometimes very detailed. We have Strength training to build (or stop the loss of) muscle, cardiovascular fitness to keep the heart alive, boxing to improve your co-ordination, Pilates to improve your posture & yoga to develop dynamic flexibility. Of course all of the above have numerous additional benefits and it would be beyond the scope of this article to try and list them all, however there is one facet of your training plan that creates more attention than any other: Your eating plan!
Food glorious food! And what better way to start discussing your eating habits than right before Easter! Now, if you can engrain and maintain healthy eating habits over Easter, then congratulations…I am sure that you can maintain these habits forever!
Part of our initial consultation with new clients involves having them fill out a typical analysis of a week’s eating. This process allows us to determine where changes can be made, if people are satisfying minimum nutrient levels, and generally paints an accurate picture. The response with the lady that I met with today was great as she told me straight up: “this weekend I can tell you already…Chocolate…and Vodka!” Now, my response was fairly relaxed (much to her amazement) because, hey, it’s Easter!
A similar situation happened this morning with one of my clients when he asked me if I was having chocolate this weekend. My response was “definitely”. Then when I placed the question back to him, his response was “well, I am now!” My consumption of chocolate is conditionally based on the fact that I will be Trading off the higher calorie consumption of food with activity. So we negotiated (myself & client) that his consumption of chocolate was conditional also. So if you are reading this (you know who you are) then I am sure you will stick to your commitment!
Which brings me to say that in any festive season, you should allow yourself to enjoy whatever you choose: drink the wine, eat the chocolate and virtually do whatever you want. Just remember to trade off some of this calorie consumption with some calorie expenditure!
If you do the exercise before you eat & drink the bad stuff your body will be still burning calories for hours after the activity. So don’t worry, its like depositing money into your bank account before you go on the clothes shopping spree! If you over consume food during the four days, do no activity and then come back next week feeling “swollen” its like getting a $10, 000 limit on your credit card, maxing it out on the shopping spree, and then paying it off after!
Enjoy your Easter & your chocolate!
How you view your overall training plan can be sometimes very detailed. We have Strength training to build (or stop the loss of) muscle, cardiovascular fitness to keep the heart alive, boxing to improve your co-ordination, Pilates to improve your posture & yoga to develop dynamic flexibility. Of course all of the above have numerous additional benefits and it would be beyond the scope of this article to try and list them all, however there is one facet of your training plan that creates more attention than any other: Your eating plan!
Food glorious food! And what better way to start discussing your eating habits than right before Easter! Now, if you can engrain and maintain healthy eating habits over Easter, then congratulations…I am sure that you can maintain these habits forever!
Part of our initial consultation with new clients involves having them fill out a typical analysis of a week’s eating. This process allows us to determine where changes can be made, if people are satisfying minimum nutrient levels, and generally paints an accurate picture. The response with the lady that I met with today was great as she told me straight up: “this weekend I can tell you already…Chocolate…and Vodka!” Now, my response was fairly relaxed (much to her amazement) because, hey, it’s Easter!
A similar situation happened this morning with one of my clients when he asked me if I was having chocolate this weekend. My response was “definitely”. Then when I placed the question back to him, his response was “well, I am now!” My consumption of chocolate is conditionally based on the fact that I will be Trading off the higher calorie consumption of food with activity. So we negotiated (myself & client) that his consumption of chocolate was conditional also. So if you are reading this (you know who you are) then I am sure you will stick to your commitment!
Which brings me to say that in any festive season, you should allow yourself to enjoy whatever you choose: drink the wine, eat the chocolate and virtually do whatever you want. Just remember to trade off some of this calorie consumption with some calorie expenditure!
If you do the exercise before you eat & drink the bad stuff your body will be still burning calories for hours after the activity. So don’t worry, its like depositing money into your bank account before you go on the clothes shopping spree! If you over consume food during the four days, do no activity and then come back next week feeling “swollen” its like getting a $10, 000 limit on your credit card, maxing it out on the shopping spree, and then paying it off after!
Enjoy your Easter & your chocolate!