“Dieting”? Consider this
If you’re reading our blog, the chances are good that you lead a fairly active lifestyle, perhaps have some personal fitness goals, and are conscious of what you eat to some degree. Most of us know what we should be doing where diet is concerned. The reality is, much of what we know about diet and the informations and suggestions we choose to follow where what we put in our mouth is concerned, comes to us from already digested sources (pun intended!). In the 80’s, low-fat diets were all the rage, and soon, anything in the grocery store that boasted a “low fat” label was much more readily consumed, which meant most of those foods needed to undergo extra processing in order to be even remotely palatable after the fat was removed. The foods that people may have considered “diet friendly” then, we no longer consider as such—we eventually realized that in stripping the fat from a product, more sugar needed to be added in order maintain a recognizable flavor, which of course defeated the purpose of removing the calories from fat.
Enter the Atkins Diet, which invited you to enjoy foods that were low in carbohydrates—like eggs, bacon, and steak—but limiting foods like starchy vegetables and bread. We know that the Atkins diet can be effective, because Jennifer Aniston had success with it, most of North America was following suit, and it seemed to be backed by some science. Soon, “low carb” replaced “low-fat,” but our diets still hadn’t improved much. Even though we weren’t eating as many refined carbohydrates in the form of bread and pasta, we were missing out on fiber and nutrients by limiting our vegetable and fruit intake.
Today, people seem to be more conscious than ever about where our food comes from and the process it undergoes before arriving in our grocery store and, eventually, our kitchens. Today, we opt for wild-caught fish instead of farm raised. We eat grass-fed dairy and beef, and free-range chicken. We know that avocados contain a healthy fat that isn’t meant to be stripped away into a low-fat alternative. We are concerned about the amount of pesticides used to grow our vegetables and do our best to stay away from foods that have unrecognizable ingredient lists. Today, we’re more concerned with what the lingering effects of ingesting certain foods can be. While this consciousness is great on some level, our tendency to place complete blame for discomfort, weight gain, and other maladies on one food or food group still remains. In health news recently, both gluten and dairy have been blamed for everything from pain-causing inflammation (whether due to intolerance or sensitivity) to acne, and “sugar” has become interchangeable with “opiate”. So what do we do to prohibit these undesired effects? Entirely eliminate these food groups from our diets in the name of health. The recent trend towards “paleo” eating suggests we eat as our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate, thereby eliminating foods that modern-day agriculture has popularized—sugar (whether the cane or corn-syrup variety), bread, and milk, and their respective variants. But in the name of health and weight loss, is cutting out everything that contains sugar, gluten, or lactose really the answer?
Oftentimes, simply eliminating the food groups we believe are the culprits of all our health woes seems to be easier than eating them in moderation (not including, of course, those with food intolerances or allergies). But, in today’s diets as in the low-fat, low-carb diets of years past, we may also be depriving ourselves of key nutrients and fiber, and usually making our lives more difficult in the process. One aspect of “dieting” for weight loss through elimination that tends to be forgotten is that elimination of any one food or food group usually results in weight loss- particularly if the food that has been removed from your diet was previously one of its major building blocks. By ridding your diet of a particular kind of food, you are probably eating fewer calories, which is ultimately a key aspect of weight loss. But here’s the rub: if you’re replacing those calories with another food source, you may, over time, see weight loss halt or not happen at all.
Fortunately, there’s something to be learned from this frustrating pattern. Though most popular diets over the years have more or less missed the mark on what exactly causes weight gain and what we can do to reverse it, most popular diets (though maybe with the exception of the Twinkie Diet—look that one up!) seem to agree on at least three things, according to elite strength training coach Dan John (t-nation.com). Most diets recommend:
- Eating a variety of colored vegetables. Most all diets agree that vegetables are essential to a healthy diet, although in the past some of them may have disagreed on which ones were better for weight loss. Some vegetables may have had more time in the health limelight than others (Kale, anyone?), but everyone seems to agree that the more you’re eating, the better off you are.
- Avoiding cheap sources of carbohydrates. The Paleo diet, although somewhat controversial in whether or not it is an ideal or reasonable diet for most people to follow, has had success in one thing (though perhaps inadvertently): drawing awareness to the damage overly processed, sugary carbohydrates can do to one’s diet, in addition to popularizing better sources of carbohydrates such as quinoa and sweet potatoes. You might miss the Pepperidge Farm cookies, but your body will function better with the bulk of your carbohydrate intake coming from sources richer in fiber and able to keep you satisfied longer. Speaking of processed foods…
- Avoiding any fats made in a lab. Before, we demonized fats altogether as “bad for you” and “likely to make you gain weight.” Then, saturated fats were the problem. Now, we’re a bacon loving society that’s blending coconut oil and butter into our morning coffee. So, maybe we’re not so afraid of fats anymore, and have even gone so far as to accept them as part of our diet, a nutrient that helps us absorb vitamins and maintain healthy organs. But if you think you can ingest just any kind of fat, think again. We all know that trans fat, concealed in a lot of packaged food and solid at room temperature, is bad for us. Its made in a lab. But even fat sources we think less about and ingest more willingly, such as corn oil, undergoes a process in a lab to be created before its packaged and shipped to a grocery store near you. With so many other, less processed options, eliminating or limiting these fat sources seems to be a realistic goal for many health seekers.
If you click here, you’ll realize, historically, fad diets come and go, but overall, our goal appears to remain the same: lose weight and get healthy. To know exactly what to eat and when, maybe a fancy, scientific explanation isn’t necessary—perhaps its better to go back to basics for the best route to heath and wellness. Maybe eating more of the food nature intended and less of the food nature had no part in will get us there faster rather than an edible witch hunt that requires us to eliminate perfectly healthy foods from our diets. In any case, doing this seems to be simple—but perhaps not at all easy.
-Maria Capuano
Warming-Up
You may have had a gym teacher, coach, or personal trainer go on and on about the importance of a proper warm-up before a workout or race. But your time is precious- maybe you only have 45 minutes to get a workout in before you have to get back to the office. In order to make the most of our minutes in the gym, many of us tend to skip the warm-up and get right down to business. But without a proper warm-up, you could be setting yourself up for injury: studies have shown that some of the benefits of warming up are an increase in core temperature and circulation—both of which can help make tight muscles more pliable and make movement more efficient, thereby reducing the risk of injury. Anecdotal evidence suggests that warming up helps increase focus and mental preparedness. For instance, if you are about to perform a deadlift at a moderate to heavy weight for a low number of repetitions, warming up prior to deadlifting can help you ease into the movement, helping you to feel more comfortable and capable at a higher weight.
Warming up is a widely accepted and generally encouraged practice. But most generally active people have no idea what to do for a warm-up—so they typically end up not warming up at all. On top of that, how long does a warm up need to be in order to gain the benefits? And how do you know if you’re “warmed up” anyway?
During my time as a rower, a coach of mine had a saying: “don’t rush the warm-up.” Years later, this saying has taken on a few nuances that have changed how I treat warming up.
1.) Don’t rush the warm-up. Seriously. Take your time and keep the intensity relatively low to start. If you’re prepping for a 3 mile run or jog (which would take about 27 minutes for someone running at a 9 minute/mile pace), do not immediately hit the pavement and expect to hold top speed. Besides entirely defeating the purpose of a warm-up, you may find it difficult to reach and feel comfortable at a quick pace, particularly if you’ve been seated for most of the day. Giving yourself 5-7 minutes to do some dynamic stretching and walking or light jogging before your run will help increase the blood flow to the muscles that you’re about to use and prime them for more intense activity. Similarly, if you were going to bench press, doing exercises that mimic the bench press (such as a pushup) and a couple of light sets using controlled motion will serve you much better than jumping right to the weight you remember doing 5 reps with last week.
2.) Give yourself time to actually warm up (and, see #1, don’t rush it!) We’re all guilty of showing up to the gym for a workout or personal training session right on time, because life happens. But, if you’re like most Americans and spend most of your day at a desk, get to the gym with time to spare. While there isn’t much decisive research regarding how long a warm-up must be in order to be effective, most people agree on about ten minutes of light, movement specific activity—you should break a sweat, but you shouldn’t feel as though you’ve reached maximum exertion. Ten minutes is not a hard and fast rule, either, as some people may need more or less time to feel their core temperature rise, depending on factors such as age or outside temperature. If you can, ask your trainer about what he or she has programmed for your session so that you can do movements that are specific to the kinds of movements you will be training.
3.) Pay attention to how you’re feeling. That nagging hip/back/shoulder injury being especially annoying today? Feeling sluggish because you got three hours of sleep last night? Your warm-up can also function as your time to do a total body-scan to figure out how you feel once you get moving. Is the calf cramp you felt going downstairs this morning beginning to subside within the first few minutes of your warm-up? Good, but monitor it at your discretion. Does your shoulder bother you just doing a modified pushup, when you can normally do a dozen regular ones? You may need to alter your workout for the day or train around it. If you work with a trainer, a warm up is a good opportunity to gauge together how you are feeling, particularly if you have a lingering injury.
So, the next time you find yourself at the gym, or getting ready for a session with your trainer, don’t forget the warm up. You’ll move better, and your mind as well as your muscles will be prepared for the demands of whatever your workout entails.
-Maria Capuano, NASM Personal Trainer
The Most Important Exercise You May Not Be Doing
Wondering how you can lower your everyday stress level, be more focused, and even perform better on your workouts? The answer could be something you’re (hopefully) doing right now.
If you’re breathing now, you’re on the right track.
Fundamentally, breathing is how humans take in oxygen so that cells can then use the oxygen to make cellular energy. Without enough of that cellular energy (also known as ATP), we wouldn’t get very far in our daily activities. The more oxygen we are able to efficiently take in, the more balanced and energized we are able to feel (“Why Do We Breathe?” snow brains.com). Breathing deeply and purposefully can also seem to quiet a stressful mind because of a physiological response that recurs in the brain. When you feel overwhelmed, angry, or sad, the brain is cued to release certain hormones (these are released in times of a late night ice cream craving or chronic fatigue—and everything in between) that prepare the body to deal with those emotions. This is called the “fight or flight” response, a leftover characteristic of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Apparently evolutionarily, being chased by a wooly mammoth is not too different than speaking in public where our brain’s chemical response is concerned.
You’re probably wondering what physiology, hormones, wooly mammoths, and breathing all have to do with YOU, and what exactly does it mean to “breathe purposefully/mindfully. Take a second to do a self-assessment of your breathing. Make sure you are in a comfortable position, and rest one hand on your chest and the other over your belly button. Take a deep breath. Which rose first, your chest or your stomach?
If your chest rose first, you may be having some trouble activating the diaphragm, which is the cylindrical muscle usually associated with deep breathing and the belly expansion that comes along with it. Many people tend not to engage their diaphragm during regular, relaxed breathing because, hey, who wants to look like they have a belly when they’re just standing there, breathing? As a result, they tend to “chest breathe” (also known as apical breathing) relying on other muscles to get air into the lungs, which are only able to partially expand as a result. Not exactly a recipe for getting maximal oxygen to the parts of the body (like the brain and heart) that really need it. This situation can be magnified negatively during exercise, when the body is under physical stress. Doing mountain climbers for intervals of sixty seconds or busting out some weighted squats requires some serious oxygen, which you may not be getting if you’re not able to make the most of your breath by breathing from the diaphragm.
There are a few ways one can learn how to breathe from the diaphragm, but one of the simplest ways is one that you can do anywhere, any time. Make sure you’re in a comfortable, relaxed position, but if you are seated, sit with proper posture (no slouching!). Place both hands gently on the stomach and take a few moments to breathe through the nose while focusing on expanding through your stomach and really letting the lungs fill. You should feel your belly rise quite a bit, while your shoulders and chest stay relaxed and rise only a little. Relax your stomach and exhale naturally, without forcing the air out. If lying down is an option you can advance this exercise. Maintain a comfortable position lying face-up with your feet on the ground and place a light but noticeable weight on your stomach (something like “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” or a similar weight is good), and work to breathe through the belly. This will help you properly recruit your diaphragm, although it may be a bit difficult, uncomfortable, and feel unnatural at first (“How to Activate Your Diaphragm,” Breaking Muscle).
Now for the important part: applying this to exercise. Of course, nothing worth having comes without a little work, and, in this case, maybe a little practice. Take a second, as often as you can, to think of your breath and do a self-check: am I breathing from my stomach, or am I really winded and starting to breath from my chest again? Simply having the conscious realization that you’ve stopped breathing from your belly is the first step to doing it more often. Remember, whether you’re on your last thirty seconds on the battle rope, doing heavy dumbbell rows, or swamped at work, taking a few deep breaths and letting it all hang out could be just what you needed to refocus and take on the task at hand.
-Maria Capuano
SoMa Autumnfest and Stroll Oct 3rd
Come try a free Barre Class at Momentum Oct 3rd at 11am! Sign up: Free Barre Class
Come try a free Barre Class at Momentum Oct 3rd at 11am! Sign up: Free Barre Class