It's almost November!

     November is a month of change.  The seasons have shifted, the temperature is dropping and most importantly, Thanksgiving is coming!  November is typically a month where activity levels decrease.  Sunlight is scarce after 6pm, the cold outdoors deter a brisk walk or working outside. This means that people spend more time indoors and often this time is spent being sedentary.  Less activity means fewer calories burned and with holidays such as Thanksgiving creeping around the corner, it is even more important to remain as active as possible.  In this post I want to go over a few ideas that can increase activity throughout the day so that the shifting seasons don't affect your overall activity level.

     1. Find indoor activities: whether this means joining an indoor basketball league, following an at-home fitness DVD or joining a gym, finding new and useful ways to burn calories while inside will help prevent holiday  pounds from sneaking up on you!

     2. Increase activity at work: This can mean something as simple as taking the stairs versus the elevator, or setting up an office workout regimen for 20 minutes during lunchtime.  My best advice is to set a timer for an hour.  Each time the timer goes off, perform 2 sets of body weight exercises.  Beginners can perform 20 body weight squats, whereas advanced exercisers can perform 20 push-ups.  Take a walk around your work building, using the stairs if possible.  Regardless of how small the activity is, the additional calories burned  will add up to big changes in the long run.

    3. Find a buddy: This could be a family member, roommate, friend or work associate.  Use this buddy to help you stay on course with your exercise and dieting regardless of what is happening outside with the weather.  If there is someone that is going to keep you accountable, you are much more likely to keep on track!  To make things more interesting, place a wager.  Make things fun and challenging.

    4. All things in moderation: With the holidays around the corner, you want to have an extra close watch on what kinds of foods you consume.  There is no need to completely avoid holiday foods, but it is extremely important that any additional calories that you consume must be balanced out somewhere else.  In other words, every crime has its punishment.  My advice is to limit sweets and fatty rich foods to at most once per day.  Also look for replacements for calorie-dense ingredients.  A great example is using apple sauce instead of oil in baked goods. The apple sauce has much fewer calories, greater micronutrients and fiber.  Best of all, you won't even know the oil was never added!

   Most importantly, keep in mind that any permanent change in body composition, fitness and overall health is achieved through dieting, exercise and change of lifestyle.  Be the change this November and follow my personal changes as the holidays approach!

Shin Splints

Ugh!  This morning, I woke up at 7:30AM and didn't even want to move.  I've been consistent with a new training regimen involving running, weight lifting and diet.  I'm already in good shape for strength but definitely need to spend more time working up my cardio.

  Three days per week I run from my one job to my second.  It's only 1.5 miles, but between traffic and stoplights, it is a lot of stop and go running.  I've started to develop shin splints because I'm so out of shape!  Shin splints can arise in two different forms: muscular and bone.  Muscular shin splints happen when your tibialis anterior (the muscle on the front of your shin) is out of shape and gets muscular microtears.  Bone shin splints occur when micro fractures form in the tibia (shin bone). 

    In order to cope with these shin splints, I'm going to freeze a water bottle and use it to rub out the soreness at night before I go to bed.  To make it much more bearable I'm going to wrap it in a paper towel so that my skin doesn't freeze!

First Blog

Hey Everyone, this is my first internet blog on my new fitness revolution.  Follow me daily to get updates on my progress, interesting new exercises in the field of personal training and motivation for everyday life.  I hope that by keeping this blog I'll be able to motivate myself as well as motivate my subscribers to make that next big change in their life through fitness!