Losing Weight/Gaining Weight

Last week I sent out an e-mail to my subscribers letting them know why they may be having problems losing weight.  I got a huge response!  Most people responded to thank me for the helpful information, but a few wanted to know what to do if they had the opposite problem: trouble gaining weight.  That seems so foreign to me - I've always found it very, very easy to gain weight.  Anyway I looked into it and sent out another e-mail with information on how to gain weight and I thought I'd share it with you :)

If you like this article and would like to get regular information from me regarding all sorts of things health and fitness related (including healthy recipes and fun workouts) you can sign up in the box on the right ;)

Here's the last article I sent out:

Yesterday I sent out an e-mail regarding what may be stopping you from losing weight.  I got a huge response!  A few of those responses were actually on the flip side.  They wanted to know why they can’t gain weight.  To a lot of us that sounds like a dream come true – not a problem!  But people who have a hard time putting on weight (hardgainers) are just as frustrated and self conscious as those of us who are always struggling to lose weight.  There’s a ton of information out there on how to lose weight, now here’s a few tips on how to gain weight:

1.   Lack of Food. Most hardgainers eat less than they realize.  You should be eating every 2-4 hours and your meals need to be dense in healthy calories.

2.   Wrong Food Choices. Eating too many carbs and not enough protein and healthy fats will not help you gain weight.  Be sure to include protein, a healthy fat and some healthy carbs in each meal (think whole grain bread, whole wheat pasta, starchy vegetables such as sweet potatoes).

3.   Too Much Activity. The typical hardgainer (or ectomorph) is always on the go.  They tend to be quite active and often forget to eat.  A physically active job will burn calories and these calories need to be replaced.

4.   Training Wrong. If you just work one muscle group at a time (think bicep curls) you won’t get anywhere near the results you would get by doing compound exercises such as squats and deadlifts.  Talk to a trainer to get a proper program set up.

5.   Avoiding Fat Gains. When trying to put on muscle gaining weight without gaining fat is slow & hard so don’t be afraid of gaining a bit of fat.  Gain weight first, then lose the fat. 

6.   No Consistency. No approach will work if you miss workouts, neglect to meet your daily caloric needs and change your approach all the time.  Find an app on your phone to track your calories and your workouts.  Stay accountable if you really want results!

Best Foods to Gain Weight. Calorie dense foods that are healthy are the best ones for weight gain.  Here’s list of some good ones:

·         All natural peanut butter

·         Dark chocolate

·         Raw almonds, cashews and other nuts & seeds

·         Fruit (especially dried fruit)

·         Whole grains, whole wheat pasta and brown rice

·         Potatoes and yams

·         Beans and other legumes

·         Avocados

·         Dairy such as cheese and yogurt

·         Fish high in omega 3’s such as salmon and tuna (watch your intake of tuna due to mercury)

·         Red meats with the word ‘round’ or ‘loin’ in the name

·         Olive oil, flax seed oil, hemp seed oil

       

- If you can't get enough calories from food, try a meal replacement shake. Add peanut butter, flax oil, fruit, etc to make it even more calorie dense.  Vega has some really good ones!  (p.s if you order Vega off my website I do get a little kickback.  That’s not why I promote it though – I promote it because I use it and it’s an extremely high quality product that I’m proud to recommend on my website).

So there you have it!  Just as someone who is struggling to lose those last 10 pounds, hardgainers must be diligent and consistent with their nutrition and physical activity - if you want it enough you’ll do the work and get the results!  Contact me anytime with your questions!

Heather Lind
Wholey Fit Inc.
We make healthy bodies!www.wholeyfit.ca

http://wholeyfitvancouver.blogspot.com

info@wholeyfit.ca

604-773-4660 

  

Leg Recovery

Today we rode out to Porteau Cove and it was awesome! 

Climbing hill after hill, chasing after the 2 guys in the lead, legs burning, heart pounding, lungs feeling like they may burst at any moment....I felt exhilarated!  I LOVE hills!!

I rode just over 92km today and when I got home my legs felt heavy and tired.  No worries though because I knew just what to do!  At the end of my shower I ran the water over just my legs and slowly made the water cooler and cooler until it was as cold as it would go.  I then slowly counted to 30 as I ran the water over one leg and then the other.  A little uncomfortable, but when I was done my legs felt refreshed and ready for tomorrow to teach my 3 spin classes and a Total Body Conditioning class. 

Cold water really works well on tired legs - give it a try after your next big ride, or tough workout!

Now it's time for a snack and a nap :)

Healthy and Easy Recipe for Chicken Marsala

Crock pots rule!  Just throw in the ingredients, turn it on and walk away - dinner will be waiting for you when you get home :)

Here's an excellent recipe to try:

CHICKEN MARSALA CROCK POT RECIPE

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup of flour
1/4 cup Chopped parsley
1/2 cup Marsala wine
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

Directions

Mix most of the flour with the sea salt and pepper and cover the chicken breast in this mixture. In a skillet brown the chicken breast on both sides and place in the Crock pot. Add the wine and mushrooms to the skillet and let heat for about 10 minutes, while tossing and stirring. Sprinkle the left over flour onto the chicken breast and pour the sauce over. Allow cooking on low for 6 hours. Use the parsley to garnish the finished chicken Marsala.

 

Delicious!  You know what else is delicious?  Easter chocolate - especially after a long bike ride on a beautiful day with my awesome bike club :)  Hope you're enjoying your Easter weekend!

Great Day for a Ride!

Rode almost 85km today and it was awesome!!  The sun was out and it even warmed up a bit :)

One of my favorite parts of a great ride is the coffee afterwards.  Did you know that 1-3 cups of coffee (that's regular 8 oz cups - not giant cups that are bigger than your head) can actually be good for you? 

Coffee is a great source of antioxidants!  But what about the caffeine?  Won't it dehydrate you?  Good news!  When you drink coffee you do get some water from it, and the amount of caffeine in 1-3 cups of coffee is not enough to cause you to lose more water than you're able to retain.  It's only when you go above 3 cups (or your cups are giant) that it becomes a problem.  I would still recommend drinking a glass of water for every cup of coffee you drink, but as someone who sweats A LOT,  I'm big on hydration :)

So no more feeling guilty about enjoying a quality cup of coffee!  Just don't ruin it by adding a bunch of crap to it (sugar, cream, flavoured syrups, whipping cream etc) and you'll be fine.  Also, since coffee crops are one of the heaviest sprayed crops, you should only consume organic coffee and the coffee should remain in bean form until you're ready to use it so it doesn't go rancid - you want to keep all the goodness intact until you're ready to consume it ;)

Fat Torching Workout for All Fitness Levels!

Were you just sitting there wondering what to do for your workout today?  Even if you weren't here's something to try!

Super simple and you can do this on any piece of equipment, or go out and walk, run or bike ride.  Here's what you  do:

Warm up for 5-10 minutes.

For 3 mins. do whatever activity you've chosen at an easy level (ie leisurely jog)
For 2 mins. do the same activity at a higher intensity (ie run slightly out of your comfort zone)
For 1 min. do the same activity at the highest intensity level you can handle (ie sprint)

Then repeat for however much time you want to spend working out (each set is 6 minutes long).

Finally cool down and stretch each muscle group for 30-45 seconds.  Contact me anytime at info@wholeyfit.ca if you need any good stretches to do or just need some advice ;)

Want another fun workout?  Check out my homepage: www.wholeyfit.ca

Nutrition, Health & Weight Loss

I was speaking today with a fellow passionate fitness leader about nutrition and how important it is to your success, whether you want to lose weight, get stronger or just improve your overall health.  One of the things we spoke about was how so many people don't make the connection between proper nutrition and optimal health.  When someone wants to get in shape and improve their health nine times out of ten the first thing they think about is adding exercise to their lifestyle.  A great place to start but that's not all there is to it.  You also have to think about eating proper, real foods that are nutrient dense and not processed.

I get so frustrated when I hear so called nutritionists insisting that weight loss hinges only on calories in versus calories out.  That's just too simplistic and very misleading to the average person who doesn't know enough about proper nutrition on the cellular level.  Sure - if you eat a ton of calories and don't move you will gain weight, but think about this for a moment: if you meet two people and one of them is eating a 1500 calorie diet consisting of fast foods and processed foods and the other is eating a 1500 calorie diet consisting of real foods that actually occur naturally (and will go bad if left out on the counter for a day or two) you will have two completely different bodies, not to mention brains.  Not only will the fast food person be physically unhealthy, they will also be mentally unhealthy.  They'll probably suffer from depression, lack of energy and a whole slew of other health problems.  The sad thing is they may never make the connection between healthy food and a healthy mind and body.

People have to realize the importance of what they put in their body.  I like this analogy: if you build a condo out of crappy materials what do you get?  A leaky condo of course!  If you build it out of high quality materials what do you get?  A beautiful home that you'll be able to live in for a long, long time.  So why would you think your body is any different?  Put crappy materials in and you end up with a body that's unhealthy and breaking down.  Put high quality materials in and you end up with a strong healthy body that you will live a long, happy, productive life in free of a lot of the pains/ailments that many people suffer from today!

In this age of processed and convenient everything we've managed to save some time, but we've lost our health.  That's too high of a price for a little convenience if you ask me. 

So the next time you sit down to eat something ask yourself this: if I didn't have access to any stores and had to hunt for my food would I be able to find what I'm about to eat?  If you're about to eat a twinkie, I have some bad news: there are no twinkie trees out there.  If you're about to eat a salad and a nice steak you're making a wise decision that will affect your body in a positive way.

Any questions?  Please feel free to comment below or contact me at info@wholeyfit.ca.

Free Workout & Recipe for you!

Just wanted to share a fun workout and a delicious recipe with you:

Warm-up (5 minutes)  You can jump rope for each circuit, or do jumping jacks (or low impact jacks).

Circuit 1

• Jump rope or Jacks -  1 minute
• Stationary Lunge with right leg in front 30 seconds, jump squats 30 seconds
• Stationary Lunge with left leg in front 30 seconds, jump squats 30 secondsCircuit 2

• Jump rope or Jacks -  1 minute
• Plank 30 seconds,  triceps (narrow placement of hands) push ups 30 seconds
Circuit 3Plank 30 seconds, regular push ups 30 seconds

• Jump rope or Jacks -  1 minute
• Pulsing low squat 30 seconds, burpees with a push-up 30 seconds
Pulsing low squat 30 seconds, burpees 30 seconds

Circuit 4

• Jump rope or Jacks -  1 minute
• Hip bridge left foot on floor right leg in the air, flip over and do 5 shoulder push ups (you're in a pike position with your butt up in the air and doing push ups.  Range of motion may be quite small)
Circuit 5Hip bridge right foot on floor left leg in the air, flip over and do 5 shoulder push ups (you're in a pike position with your butt up in the air and doing push ups.  Range of motion may be quite small)

• Jump rope or Jacks -  1 minute
• Bicycle crunch 30 seconds, reverse crunches 30 seconds
Bicycle crunch 30 seconds, regular crunches 30 seconds

Stretch!

e-mail me at info@wholeyfit.ca if you have any questions about that :)

Sweet Potatoes with Warm Black Bean Salad (makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

·    4 medium sweet potatoes

·    1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed

·    2 medium tomatoes, diced

·    1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

·    1 teaspoon ground cumin

·    1 teaspoon ground coriander

·    3/4 teaspoon salt

·    1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream (or plain yogurt 2% or less) - optional

·    1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Preparation:

1.     Place sweet potatoes in a baking dish and bake at 425 degrees F until tender all the way to the center, about 1 hour. 

2.      Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine beans, tomatoes, oil, cumin, coriander and salt; heat in a small saucepan over medium heat until heated through.

3.     When just cool enough to handle, slash each sweet potato lengthwise, press open to make a well in the center and spoon the bean mixture into the well. Top each with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of cilantro (optional).

mmmmmm mmmmmmmmm!

Stay posted for news on my studio!  I'm going to be running indoor cycling classes, cardio boxing classes (I supply the equipment), HIIT classes and more!  So much fun!!