Personal Trainer's Blog

According to psychology research, almost half of our daily actions are based on habit – about 40 percent, to be more precise.

This would suggest that nearly half of our daily actions happen more or less automatically.

Today, we’ll go over the critical importance of our eating habits and how to go about sustainably improving them.

The Impact of Our Eating Habits

You’ve probably come across the term ‘mindless eating.’ It refers to our tendency to overeat without thinking about it or paying attention to our hunger levels.

Prevailing wisdom suggests that mindless eating is, well, mindless. But, the truth is, it probably stems from our habits.

For example, mindless eating is characterized by behaviors such as:

•    Eating while watching TV or working
•    Picking the largest package size possible
•    Filling large plates and bowls up
•    Eating a wide variety of (often processed) foods
•    Eating fast

While it may seem ‘mindless,’ we could argue that each of these is an eating habit. For example, picking the largest package size of various snacks is a habit. Eating fast is also a habit. Having your meals in front of Netflix also happens because you’ve created a pattern of it.

The truth is, our eating habits go far beyond mindless eating. As you repeat a behavior enough times, it eventually becomes automatic. So, it’s in our best interest to repeat better actions and adopt them as habits.

Improve Your Kitchen Behaviors for Optimal Fitness and Health

If you aspire to be fitter, healthier, happier, and more energetic, the first thing you need to do is start taking better care of your nutrition – this is going to have the greatest effect on your body.

But, for you to establish better habits, you need to start small:

•    Don’t change your nutrition entirely from day one; start with just one healthy meal every day.
•    Don’t cut out all of your favorite foods; start by reducing their quantities.
•    Don’t cut out alcohol and soda immediately; start by slowly reducing your intakes and instead replace that with water, tea, and coffee.

Then, as you gain some momentum, scale these habits further:

•    Eat two healthy meals instead of one.
•    Reduce your intake of processed foods even further and replace them with fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and such.
•    Reduce your soda and alcohol intake even further.

Sure, your initial progress won’t be as quick, but you’ll build better habits that will have a much more significant impact in the long run.

When most people get started with fitness, they place all of their attention on the obvious things – training, nutrition, and recovery.

Granted, each of these is vital. But, there are two other aspects of fitness that also play a huge role:

Accountability and progress tracking. Today, we’ll go over why both of them are vital.

The Power of Accountability

No matter what your fitness and life goals are, you need to take action. The problem is, taking action is easier said than done in most cases. Even if you can get started, it seems that staying consistent is also a massive roadblock for many.The good news is, accountability is a powerful tool we can use to adhere to our fitness program and achieve great results.

Being accountable allows you to make use of social expectations, which is a powerful motivator. Knowing that someone is expecting you to do something makes you much more likely to follow through.

So, it’s essential to put yourself in a position where you’re accountable to someone. An excellent place to start is to write a diary from day one and share your progress with the personal trainer that you hire.

Why Tracking Your Progress Matters So Much

Yes, tracking your progress can be tedious at times, and you might wonder, “Why even bother with that?”

At first glance, it seems like nothing more than busywork. But, the truth is, tracking your progress provides you with actionable data. And based upon that data, you (and your trainer) can make decisions:

•    Should we keep the training as-is for now?
•    Should we tweak some of the variables (intensity, frequency, or overall volume) to see if that helps kickstart progression again?

For example, if you start writing down your workouts today and take a look at your training log in three months, you’ll have a clear picture of how things are going. You may find that you’re progressing well, but one exercise seems to be lagging. In that case, you can have your trainer see how you’re doing that exercise and perhaps help you make some tweaks to see if that works.

But, if you don’t track your progress, you won’t have that insight.

When you look at your data from the previous weeks and months, you can see what the general trajectory is. In other words, tracking your progress is not about your trainer; it’s about yourself and your success.

What to do Next

If you’re looking for a good personal trainer in El Paso - one that will help you with accountability and progress tracking - don’t hesitate to contact us today.

When most people decide to get into fitness and sports, they immediately put all of their eggs in the basket that is training.

But, the truth is, nutrition is even more critical and without paying careful attention to it, all of our gym efforts would go to waste.

Today, we’ll go over precisely why that is.

The Importance of Healthy Nutrition

Training provides the body with the stimulus it needs to drive positive adaptations - muscle growth, strength gain, and similar.

But, it is precisely your nutrition – the fuel you provide your body with – the factor that makes these adaptations possible.

For example, you can train diligently, but unless you also eat enough and get plenty of protein, your body won’t have the building blocks it needs to build new muscle.

The Mirage of Having Abs

You’ve probably come across the saying, “Abs are made in the kitchen.”

For the most part, it’s true. No matter who you are and what your fitness level is, you’ve wanted to attain a visible six pack at some point.

Many people associated visible abs with good health, but that is not always the case. The truth is, pursuing abs can turn into a downward spiral for some people who tend to fall in a perpetual cycle of dieting and binge eating.

This is because most people don’t realize just how much effort it takes to attain abs and how incredibly frustrating it is to maintain that level of leanness afterward.

What Is A Better Way to go About Your Fitness

Instead of focusing on metrics that won’t bring you happiness or fulfillment (or worse - may even lead to adverse health effects), go about it productively:

1. Focus on being functional

If you focus on your performance, you will find yourself much more fulfilled with the entire process. Plus, the more athletic you become, the more your visual appearance will improve.

2. Remain at a healthy body fat level you can sustain

Some people can easily maintain a six pack year-round; others can’t. If you’re in the second camp, don’t force yourself to keep an arbitrary level of leanness because it won’t fulfill you.

Instead, get to a healthy body fat you can sustain and focus on improving your gym performance together with your selected best personal fitness trainer near you.