On A Quest For Fitness and Health

Negative Impacts of Sodium

Posted on July 12, 2010 by Jon

Since I started counting calories (via LoseIt iphone app), I have become increasingly aware of everything I have been eating. After observing what I have been eating the last three weeks, it has become apparent to me that I know nothing about Sodium. I started to do a little research on Sodium, how much to consume, what it does for the body etc. The bottomline is that I (and Americans in general) consume way too much Sodium on a daily basis.

If you take a look at any nutrition label, you will find that most foods and beverages that you consume has Sodium in it. Couple that with the fact that we put table salt on everything, and Sodium intake is through the roof! Lets be honest, do you immediately reach for the table salt when a plate of food is put in front of you without tasting if first? I know I do.

Sodium is naturally present in a lot of food, probably food you eat on a daily basis. Eggs, tomatoes, plant foods (lettuce) and animal foods (pork, beef etc). If you consume any of these on a daily basis, you probably don’t need to consume any via table salt. Too much Sodium can have a very negative impact to your health. Water retention and an increase in blood pressure are two of the immediate impacts.Not to mention the long term damage to kidneys, bladder and liver.

There is a great debate going on. One side says that Sodium is essential to living, while the other side says that there are races of people that would be extinct if that were true. Since I have found no way of escaping eating salt, I just need to keep in under control and not eat too much.

So how much Sodium should you consume on a daily basis? This is were my research breaks down as I couldn’t find a concrete answer. Most of what I read indicates that you should be in the 2,300mg range, however, I think that’s still a little too high. Most of what I found online states a range of 1,000-3,000mg per day. The less you consume, the better!

I have consumed about 1,900 each day over the last few days. It would be much lower if I stayed away from beef jerky.

Posted in Diet & Nutrition | Leave a comment

Beer and Weight Loss

Posted on July 12, 2010 by Jon

This weekend tested my temptations and desire to drink beer. On Sunday, my desire got the best of me and I had not one, not two but five beers. After a quick look at my calorie intake, I ended the day 596 calories over budget. This is the direct result of two Pacificos (135 calories each), two Bud Lights (103 calories each) and a Michelob Ultra (95 calories).

I did a little research on the effect of weight loss when you drink alcohol. I read a bunch of articles and blogs, but I thought the best summation came from Liz Noelcke in this article.

Her article states alcohol is a determent to weight loss for the following reasons:

Alcohol is not metabolized the same way as food
Alcohol is a diuretic
Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram and offers No nutritional value

Take a look at her article for a full description of how the above list negatively impacts your chances of weight loss.

I know I can lose the weight, but I must not give into temptation. More specifically, if I give into temptation, I need to only have one or two beers and not go overboard. In fact, I think its okay to give into temptation once in a while. Giving up everything you love will make it difficult to stick to your plan. Just be smart and know that you can only have a smaller amount of what you love.

Alcohol is not good when trying to lose weight. Alcohol is not good when trying to lose weight. I just need to keep telling myself that!

Posted in Diet & Nutrition, Weight Loss | Leave a comment

Seeing Results!

Posted on July 9, 2010 by Jon

When you embark on any diet or fitness plan, you ultimately want to see results. Most people want to see the results via the scale by seeing their weight drop. However, there is a result that the scale won’t show; losing inches from your waist.

This is exactly what is happening to me. I have lost a nominal amount of weight in the last two weeks (2-3 pounds), but I have lost inches as my belt is not as tight and my once perfect fitting pants are now slightly baggy. To me, this is just as gratifying as seeing pounds drop from the scale screen.

Seeing and feeling that my clothes are fitting better, is an amazing boost to my mental state and motivates me to keep eating right and exercising. This is very important because I read a lot of blog and forums where people are frustrated about not seeing results. The majority of the time, their unit of measurement is the scale and not any other benefits. They might be losing inches, but they ignore that and focusing on just the scale. This can be depressing and lead someone to give up and going back to their habits that got them overweight in the first place.

The benefit of being in a great mental state in regards to losing weight is an amazing phenomena. Not only do I feel great, but I feel like I have a little bit more confidence and esteem that is projecting outwards. Like I mentioned, it also helps in wanting to keep going. A positive attitude is a huge factor in a quest to get healthy.

For all of you trying to lose weight, don’t just look at the scale…pay attention to how your clothes are fitting!

Posted in Motivation, Weight Loss | Tagged good attitude, loose fitting clothes, Weight Loss | Leave a comment

Staying on Track

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Jon

When it gets close to holiday time (Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas etc), I see a huge amount of fitness/health blogs giving advice on how to stay on track during the holidays. They all have some useful tips and insight on how to not overindulge and blow your diet. To me, the key to staying on track is the same as it takes to actually lose weight and change your life. Its a matter of desire and how bad you want it. If you want to be healthy and lose the weight, then you need to be disciplined and not get crazy during the holidays. I know this is easier said than done, but how bad do you want to look great or feel great? If you want it bad enough, you’ll stay on track.

One night, my wife and I were out to dinner with a bunch of friends. One lady made it clear that she was dieting and was not going to order an entree, just a salad. Everyone was impressed. But then dessert time came around and she ordered the double decker chocolate extreme. Most people thought nothing of it cause she saved up her dinner calories for dessert. But the way I saw it is that she really didn’t want to lose weight bad enough. You don’t order a dessert like that if you truly desire to shed pounds.

It comes down to this age old addage: mind over matter. If you don’t mind, then nothing matters. If you don’t mind that you can’t eat a candy bar, than the candy bar really doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is what you mind. So put your mind to being healthy and losing weight and it will be the only thing that matters!

Now I have a confession: I write this post not only to motivate others, but as a reminder to myself. I am 100% guilty of going crazy over the holidays and justifying it to myself one way or another. I wanted to put this down eternally so I can refer to it and let it resonate in my mind.

What are your tips for staying on track?

Feel Great. Be Well.

Posted in General Fitness, Motivation, Weight Loss | Leave a comment

Weighing In

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Jon

When on a diet or eating plan, how often do you weigh yourself? I there a reason why you should weigh yourself everyday or once a week? Every time I try and diet, I weigh myself on a daily basis. I’ve learned that this is driving me insane! Its not good for my mental health. Seeing .1 or .2 weight loss everyday makes me think and feel like I’m not making any progress. I like weighing in once a week and seeing a full 1 or 2 pound weight loss per week. I’m not sure there is a right or wrong way to do this, and I’m sure if we asked 100 people we’d get several different answers on how people prefer to weigh in.

I posed this question on a weight loss forum and several people responded with several different methods. Most people responded that they liked weighing in everyday to see the incremental gains on a day-by-day basis but also to see what effect the previous days eating had on their weight loss. In my opinion, this may be the best reason why to weigh in everyday. If I have had a weird or tough eating day, I will weigh myself the next morning to see how my body handled what I ate the previous day. It is intriging to see how your body reacts to what you feed it. In fact, learning this plays a huge and vital role in losing weight.

For now, I have decided not to weigh in daily for the purpose of seeing my progress. I will be weighing in every few days.

How often do you weigh in? What are your reasons for weighing in every day?

Posted in Weight Loss | Leave a comment

LoseIt!

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Jon

We all know that to lose weight, you have to exercise as well as eat right. My problem has never been with the exercise side of the equation. I enjoy working out and love being in the gym. I’ve always struggled with eating right. To help me, I’ve started using an iPhone app called LoseIt!. Not only is this app free, but its also the most comprehensive app there is for tracking what you eat.

You start by entering your current weight and your goal weight. It then calculates how many calories you should be eating per day to lose the weight you want. When you update your current weight, the app adjusts the number of calories you should be consuming on any given day.

The app also has a sizable food database that allows you to look up foods. One of the best features, is that it allows you to create a food item, stores it and allows you to use it in your calorie counting.

The app also has a free web-based component. You can go online and look at your stats, connect with other users, participate in discussions or run various reports to see how you are doing. This is a powerful weight loss tool. Seeing what others are doing and getting motivated by others success. The web-based service is also free!

I am hopeful that Lose It will help me lose the weight I want to lose to help me become who I want to be!

Be Well. Be Active. Feel Great.

Posted in Weight Loss | Leave a comment

Changing Focus

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Jon

I started this blog to discuss my journey on the P90X workout program. It was focued on P90X exclusively. It turns out that P90X is a little too much for the average guy. Thats not to say that the average guy couldn’t do it and have great success, but in general, its a little overwhelming for the average guy that has a 9-5 job, house projects, a family, plays in softball leagues, likes to golf etc. This blog will now focus on my journey to get healthy and lose weight, regardless of what program I am doing at the time.

I also had a ton of advertisements on this blog that may have seemed like I was just trying to sell and making up blog posts to support the sales. While I was being honest as to what I was writing, I can see how it seemed like a pitch. I have taken down almost all of the advertisements and affiliate links. Only a graphical advertisement remains in the footer to help offset the costs of hosting a web site. All of the content on this blog, will be from me and have nothing to do with sales. One cavet is that if review a product, I will link to the manufacturer. I will not make any money from this blog.

I hope you follow me on my journey to get healthy and be the man I want to be.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The 300 Workout

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Jon

I have been looking at add a little variety to my workouts and decided to give The 300 Workout a try. You’ve probably heard about this workout in the gym or have seen it online. It is a real a** kicker! When you do The 300 you do it for time. Every time you perform the workout, try and better your previous time. The workout is as follows:

25 Pullups

50 Deadlifts

50 pushups

50 Box Jumps

50 Ab Floor Wipers

50 Dumbbell Clean-and-Press

25 Pullups

That equals 300 total reps. Remember, try and best your time each time you perform The 300. My current workout schedule has me doing total body circuit workouts on M-W-F and The 300 on T-Th-Sat. I was talking to a lady at my gym yesterday and she just finished The 300 with her personal best of 12 minutes and 30 seconds. Try and beat that!

Here is a demo of the workout so you can see how to do each exercise:

Good Luck!

Posted in General Fitness, Weight Loss | Leave a comment

Fitness Apps for the iPhone

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Jon

If you take a look at the iTunes store, you will see thousands of fitness apps. There is no way I can test each one, but I have done some research and used several. There are three apps that I use daily for diet, exercise and nutrition.

Diet

LoseIt – This app is the most complete and streamlined weight loss application for the iPhone. Here are a few features:

Set goals and establish a daily calorie budget
Stay on track each day by recording your food and exercise
Enter food and exercise easily using a searchable database
Join together with friends for additional support and motivation
Monitor your progress with detailed reports and metrics

LoseIt is 100% free! Not only do you get the iPhone app, but you also get access to the website that has amazing people participating in forums. One quick read through the forum and you will see that many people are losing weight with this app.

Nutrition

Restaurants – This free app is instrumental in eating the right foods when dining out. It has a database of nutrition facts for chain restaurants. When dining out, I consult with this app to see how many calories certain menu items have. This helps me stay on track!

Exercise

DailyBurn – This free app works in conjuction with their web site. You can establish a workout plan and it will be loaded into the iPhone app. Take your iPhone to the gym and you have your workout in your hand. Plus it tracks your workout!

I would really like to find a Pedometer app that works well. If you know of one, please leave a comment!

What fitness apps do you use? Are they worth the price?

Posted in Diet & Nutrition, General Fitness, Weight Loss | Leave a comment

Extreme Workout
a lifelong quest for fitness & health