The University of Fitness

Resolution Time

First off, I hope everyone had the happiest of holidays. Also, apologies for being MIA for the past few weeks. You know, finals and all.

With 2009 coming to an end, we all know what time it is. December is a month of indulgence, and as soon as that’s over comes just a slight bit of regret for letting loose at parties and family dinners and allowing yourself to loosen your belt one notch [though there's no need for the guilt since it's good ol' homemade food]. So, either because of the indiscretions of December or because you put it off all year in 2009, January 1st is the time to make those resolutions to get into shape.

The point of today’s post isn’t to discourage you from making a fitness-related resolution because they’re either stupid, misguided, failures, or any combination therein. Resolutions can work, but you have to make them the right way. The problem with normal resolutions like “lose 10 pounds by February” or “have a six-pack by the end of 2010″ is that they focus on the ‘what’ and not the ‘how’. I’ve been guilty of this for the past several years [yeah, that second one in the last sentence was my resolution 4 years running]. Inevitably, I got through a week of running on the treadmill or doing an hour of crunches a day, and then missed a few days and let it slide because, hey, I’ve got until the end of the year.

I like the third one.

The thing is, saying that you will accomplish X by the date Y seems fairly simple, specific and straightforward. But it’s a very deceptively vague way to set out a resolution because you just ignore all the real specifics. So, as much as I hate to use a tired old saying, failure to plan is planning to fail in this case. Speaking of tired old cliches, has anyone seen Avatar? I’m pretty sure the old, evil ex-Colonel talked entirely in them. He actually said, “We’re not in Kansas anymore” at one point. No shit, Colonel, it’s another planet. But I digress.

So how do you make a New Year’s resolution and avoid the pitfall of making a vague resolution that is riddled with ways to fail? Simple: forget the goal. It seems a bit counterintuitive to set a resolution without a goal, but it may be the easiest way to reach one. Instead, resolve to follow a behavior that will eventually get you to your goal for the first month of two of 2010. For example, if you want to lose fat, resolve to stop drinking soda and sugary drinks for two months. If your goals are a bit more ambitious, resolve to go to the gym at least 3 times a week in January. Then, set your actual goal at the end of the first or second month, AFTER you’ve completed your initial resolution.

Wait, what’s the point of that?

Resolutions fail because people start strong and put them off and give up on a plan early.  As dumb a strategy as doing an obscene amount of crunches  was, if I did it for a while it would likely have gotten me somewhere eventually.  But I put it off until “later” in the year because I could rationalize that I could still fulfill my resolution.  However, if the resolution is to go to the gym 3 times a week in January, you can’t really fool yourself into thinking you’re still following it if you skip a week.  This way, it’s more of a conscious decision to break your resolution so early in the year.

Also, I like this resolution style because a habit takes about two months to form depending on the habit and the dedication to forming it.  The idea is to form the habit of going to the gym regularly before you decide what you want to focus on once you have established that regular gym schedule.  The same thing applies to a dietary habit like not eating fast food or drinking soda.  Obviously you can make some headway on the goal that you’ve got in the back of your head.  If you cut out all your soda, you may end up halfway to that 10 lb lighter display on the scale.

Here are a few of my resolutions for 2010:

• Study twice as much as I did for the MCATs this time than last time
• Average 3 posts a week on here in the month of January
• Do at least 50 pullups a day [this is where doorway pullup bars come in handy]
• Only watch 2 hours of TV a day* [seriously, I'm an addict.  *Playoff football will not count toward this quota.]

So what are your resolution[s]? Any updates of past resolutions?  Or how did you update an old resolution to make it  more likely to succeed?  These adventures an more, in the comments!

Nutrition 101: One Simple Diet Tip That’s More Than Half the Battle

I’m sure everyone’s heard some version of this little gem of diet tips, but it really is one of the most valuable pieces of advice to follow when it comes to eating healthy: don’t eat anything that comes in a bag or a box. The premise is so simple it can be sort of puzzling: just eat natural foods, the kind that don’t come prepackaged in a cardboard box or an airtight, sealed bag.  ”Really, that’s it?”  That’s it.   That means no sugary cereal, no Twinkies, no Doritos, and while we’re at it, you can forget about drinks that come in cans too.

Congratulations! You’re in the right aisle.

Just to cover all our bases, here are some other versions of this rule:

• Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food
• Don’t eat anything that doesn’t rot.
• Don’t eat it if there’s something on the ingredient label you can’t pronounce/recognize as actual food.
• Buy your food on the outside edges of the supermarket, not the middle aisles. [Typically where fresh food is]
• Don’t eat anything that casts a shadow. [Oops, how'd that get in there? Silly vegans.]
• Don’t eat anything on a dare.*

So what’s ok to eat?  Fresh fruits and vegetables? Check.  Meat and poultry? Check.  Nuts, oils, and other natural fats? Keep ‘em coming. And don’t forget the spices to keep things interesting.  Dairy and grains are in a bit of a grey area depending on who you ask, but if you can tolerate dairy, and make healthy choices with the grains, then you can include those too.  However, chuck the Wonder bread and pick something out from the bakery section.  As a matter of fact, get out of the supermarket and go to a REAL bakery.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the vast difference in quality and taste [and fund some local moms and pops at the same time].  I personally won’t give up milk and cheese, but I also don’t recognize Velveeta as a type of cheese.

There are obviously some exceptions on both sides of the rule here.  Yes, I know butter actually comes in a box.  And unless you have a pasta press, some homemade fettuccine may be hard to come by, so as long as it’s a healthier option like wheat, it may be a line you can tiptoe across.  Also, almost any guy that’s been hitting the gym has had some form of protein powder, including myself.  Protein is just protein and a gram or two of artificial sweetener won’t derail all your efforts in following the guideline. Don’t go off and try to find every exception in the book though.  The point is still to eat foods made by nature, or made by you after they were made by nature.  Leave the machines and the packaging plants out of it.

The one ingredient that actually counts as food isnt even spelled correctly. Needless to say, this foodlike item doesnt make the cut.

“But I can still follow those rules and find something unhealthy.”

Yep, you definitely could.  But be honest, how hard did you just have to think about the most unhealthy food you could possibly conjure up using natural, fresh ingredients?  Plus, how much work is that food going to take to make?  Not only does it take a bit of thinking to eat unhealthy under the above guidelines, but the effort it takes to actually make that food almost serves as a deterrent mechanism for how often you’ll eat those foods.

That’s because unhealthy options in this category tend to fall into special occasion food: holidays, parties, big family dinners.  These are all venues that don’t exactly scream healthy, but its equally unlikely that your grandmother is pulling out Pop-tarts at Thanksgiving, so technically you’re still following the rules.  So, that one simple sentence above even has the fact that ‘you shouldn’t be worried about a stupid diet during the holidays‘ built into it.

“So what’s so great about this diet?”

For starters, it’s less of a diet and more of a lifestyle guideline that’ll keep you healthy for a pretty long time.  You can pretty much use this for any goal you’re trying to accomplish.  You can lose fat or gain muscle eating like this.  Or you can stay the same weight while vastly improving your health.  I didn’t outline a particular use for this diet because it’s not really useful for just ONE goal.  It’s a base off which to build you future plans. Just follow one simple rule first, and then after you get used to it, tweak it to get the results you personally want.  [Which is not to say you won't get results while you're getting used to it. You will.]

Another great thing about eating “clean,” as it’s often called, is that you develop a taste for real food.  Here’s a confession: I loved kiwi-strawberry Snapple, and occasionally I missed it.  Then I realized that actual kiwis and strawberries were a whole lot better. [Note: modern factory farmed strawberries taste a bit like cardboard.  You have to get the real ones - the smaller, the sweeter.  Those are awesome.]  Lately, when I eat junk food I haven’t had in a while, I wonder what the big deal was anyway.  Some cheat foods will always have a soft spot in your heart, but after eating well for a while, you’ll realize you’re not missing out on much when you stop eating crap.

Stay tuned for more on why this style of eating works and how to use it for different goals.  In the meantime, try it out.  Questions about what’s ok to eat or awesome overnight results [kidding]?  Any suggestions for “junk” food that you can make following the above rule?  Leave them in the comments.

*Ok, so that’s not a real rule.  But when’s the last time it was actually a smart idea to eat something someone dared you to put in your mouth?