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5 Ways to Stay Active At Work (Without Getting Fired)
Weekend warrior-ism isn’t going to save us. In fact, a daily workout isn’t even enough. If you’re spending spending most of your day sitting at your desk, experts say you’re in the health-risk zone. But, as we all know, fitness advice sometimes falls short of reality. Constantly jumping up to walk to coworkers’ offices in the middle of a project, rather than calling or emailing, might not be feasible. And taking a midday exercise break can render you tired and distracted back at the office. So how are we supposed to prevent work from killing our health, and our health from killing our productivity at work? I wrote in my last post that, for me, the biggest obstacle is that … Continue reading
Gamifying Your Healthy Lifestyle
Normally when I write these posts I am writing it from my perspective as a guy who enjoys reading scientific studies, but today I can pretend to be an expert! I’m a full-functioning adult (or at least, I pretend to be one) and yet I have lived my whole life with video games. At the age of four I was pulling the NES controller out of my mom’s hand because she just couldn’t avoid koopa troopa’s with the finesse that was required of her. After saving money for a long time, I recently invested a sizable sum of it into a computer that, someone else my age might have otherwise used as a down payment for a car. This … Continue reading
Spring Clean Your Fitness Regimen
It’s the season for overhauls and new (for real this time) beginnings! If you’re on a roll, why not freshen up your fitness regimen too? Chances are you’ll find a few things it’s time to dust off, simplify or dunk in the trash. Ready? De-junk A feng shui principle I’ve always loved is that you have to clear out old things or new things won’t come. Clutter blocks progress. It sends a message – to the universe, to your subconscious – that you aren't open to change. Further, it physically prevents fresh additions, because there’s simply no room. So even if you liked the old thing, it might be worth saying "so long" to, if it could be replaced by something … Continue reading
Winter Blahs Are Over, Time To Get Motivated!
When December 31st is rolling around, most people are preparing for the new year, planning their resolutions, and getting ready for change. Me? I’m at my desk writing about how everyone else should be making resolutions and dutifully ignoring my own advice. It’s not that I don’t see the benefits, or don’t agree with the posts or anything along those lines, it’s just I know me. The moment the first snowflake hits the ground, I just want to shut myself indoors and go into hibernation until it goes away. (I hope in my next life I’m reincarnated as a bear. That would be sweet on so many levels.) New Year’s day does nothing to break this winter spell … Continue reading
Why ‘Living in the Now’ Isn’t Always the Best Option
All that about how we need to “live in the moment”? Sometimes, frankly, the moment is overrated. Like when it comes to saving for retirement, avoiding debt, getting our work done and taking care of our health. In reality, we’re enamored with the now. And our future selves are suffering because of it. Behavior economists have observed the underlying cause of our now-ism: we have a natural psychological tendency to overvalue present experiences and undervalue future experiences. We think a pleasure today will be more enjoyable than the same pleasure tomorrow. And, conversely, we think something bad will be a little easier to swallow tomorrow. We even value our current experience so much that we’ll sacrifice a big reward down … Continue reading
5 Tips To Getting Rid of Bad Habits
Do you have a goal of something that you really want to change but don’t seem to have the will power? One that I have had to deal with is a quick check of my emails & Facebook in the morning before I go workout. What starts out as a few minutes can end up taking several hours and my workout time is gone. I’ve even found myself at my computer still in my workout clothes at noon realizing not only did I skip my workout but I haven’t even showered. I don’t think it’s a willpower issue. I believe it’s just a bad habit and needs to be replaced with a better habit. Somewhere you’re getting some benefit from … Continue reading
10 Ways to De-Stress To Shed Pounds
Stress eating is one of the most popular sources of weight gain in today's society. We’ve talked in previous posts about what happens when we get stressed. We release Cortisol to “fight or flight”. Since we don’t usually have to fight someone or take off on a fast run. All that Cortisol in our system isn’t good. The funny thing is in the short-term stress can boost cardiovascular performance. If it’s not too severe it the brain will actually perform better. You’ll be able to solve problems more effectively and you’re likely to retain information better. On the flip side though is if the stress is too severe or too prolonged it can actually harm learning. If you’re stressed out … Continue reading
Keeping Calories Down, the ‘Log’ical Way
I’m going to share some advice that I recommend to our clients but I don’t really like to do it. It’s logging everything you eat each day for at least 30 days. I don’t like to count calories but I had to log my food for 30 days to really understand exactly what I was putting into my body. So many items are deceptive. You can eat a salad and think “I just ate a really healthy lunch so I can have a chocolate élcair for dessert”. What you may not know is that, supposedly, healthy salad you just ate was packed with 1,100 calories. No kidding. There’s a Parmesan Crusted Chicken Salad at Macaroni Grill that’s 1100 calories and … Continue reading
5 Common Side Effects of Long Term Dieting
Let's clear up one misconception before we start this article. So, what is the difference between creating a nutritionally healthy lifestyle and long-term dieting? Dieting, as defined in this article and in our videos and our battle cry 'diets need to die' is "dropping your caloric intake to lower than recommended levels in order to shed pounds more quickly." IdealShape is all about getting you into the healthy range based on who you are. When we give you a number to strive towards on your caloric intake, we always go for the healthy level for a person in that range. Everyone is different but there are levels of healthy and unhealthy on both ends of the spectrum. Programs telling you … Continue reading
The ‘How’s and ‘Why’s of Eating 5 Times a Day
Think about this. When your children were babies how often did they eat? Most babies I know eat every couple hours. In fact, as a new mother it’s sometimes difficult to feed them that often but that’s when they were hungry. As they started to grow, didn’t it seem like they were always eating? Not big meals, more like grazing. Then doesn’t it seem reasonable that eating 5-6 times a day is natural? We actually had to be trained to go to 3 larger meals a day. There’s this big debate out there as to which is better for you if you’re trying to get healthier and lose weight. Just eat 3 meals a day or eat smaller meals 5-6 … Continue reading
