Hi friends!
Here is your weekly Tri-Tip Tuesday, sharing our current thoughts on food, fitness, & travel. Please forward this to others if you think they may be inspired.
Food: impatience is killing your success
In today’s age of fad diets with harsh restrictions, and a nutrition industry selling false promises, people have come to expect maximum results with minimal effort.
The roller coaster dieting may bring dramatic weight loss initially, but that doesn’t make it safe or effective long term. I’ve previously discussed how crash diets hurt your body composition, sacrificing your lean muscle in the process, and causing more and more muscle loss with each diet cycle. This approach wreaks havoc on your body, longevity, and mental health.
Implementing sustainable healthy habits is the key to lasting results. The top habits for healthy lifestyle success: cook your own food at home, eat protein and fiber at every meal, drink plenty of water each day, prioritize 3-4 strength training sessions per week, get daily movement through daily steps goals, focus on eating whole foods and minimizing ultra-process foods, sleep 7-9 hours per night, and manage stress levels.
When you start adding in these healthy habits, you’re not going to see drastic changes overnight. You need to be patient and stay consistent, for a good 6-12 months before assuming it's not working. Too many times people will start off with good intentions, then fall off after only a month because it “didn’t work”. It’s not the healthy habits that aren’t working, it’s your impatience and unrealistic expectations that aren’t working.
Fitness: bouncing back
We’ve all had those times in life when we fall off the workout train. The term, "fall off" is relative to each individual. For some, falling off may mean one week without a workout. For others, falling off may mean a month, two, or even more.
Sometimes we fall off because we get sick, and can’t workout. Or, a child or family member is sick, and you need to care for them. Perhaps work life got busy and got the best of your time. For whatever reason, your priorities shifted and the workouts stopped. Sometimes the hardest part about getting back into your routine is your mindset.
Assuming that you are safe and healthy to exercise, stop thinking about it and debating it, just jump back in right away. Jumping back in doesn’t mean plugging your nose and leaping a cannonball into the deep end. It can mean dipping your toes at first, then wading at the knee level, and finally tipping back to dunk your head in.
Just like everything else with my approach: shoot for progress, not perfection. If it’s been a long time since your last workout, don’t try to resume the same volume, duration, or intensity that you were at before. Scale it back and be safe. Start with 20 minutes or 2 sets of your program instead of 4. Get back into the motion again to reintroduce the routine again. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your mindset changes, and how quickly your body responds.
Travel: three weeks in, eh?
Today is day 21 out of 48 on our Canadian travels. We have covered a lot of ground during these first three weeks from New Brunswick to Nova Scotia, and now here we are in Newfoundland.
We are enjoying the tour of the Maritimes and doing a lot of bus tours, museums, and group events. It's out of our ordinary routine, and keeping us busy as hell.
I often get asked if I'm Canadian, as my Minnesota accent can be thick at times. Sometimes I feel like I've lost a bit of my Minnesota accent as a result of RVing cross-country for nearly six years. I've been enjoying listening to the Canadian accents, and am even starting to talk like one here and there.
It has been particularly fun up here in Newfoundland, where the residents not only have a unique accent but also have their own dictionary of different sayings. My favorite new saying this week was when a tour guide was describing what a small mom-and-pop shop sold in their store. She described the item selection as "everything from a baby's fart to a clap of thunder".
I will take that with me everywhere I go.
Make it a great week!
Christine Irene
NASM-CPT, Senior Fitness Specialist, Precision Nutrition Pn1 + Pn2 Certified, & Avid Traveler
"Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid of standing still" - CHINESE PROVERB
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