You want to lose those last five pounds. You want to shave that pesky minute off your half-marathon or 5K PR. You want to have more energy every day without needing a candy bar sugar rush at 4 pm. You want it, and you're putting in the fitness hours. Yet it's not happening. Which is really frustrating - maddening, even.
So what's the culprit? What's keeping you from the finish line of your goal, whatever it may be? The following five habits could be your roadblocks:
1. Lack of cross training: If you're a runner and all you do is steady run all the time, your speed gains aren't likely to come as you want them to. Cross training with speed intervals at the track, plyometrics like burpees and squat jumps, light weight training, even running stadiums and cycling -- those are the keys to making you faster on race day. Try adding in at least one cross training workout a week and see how much better your time gets.
2. A constant diet of "diet" foods: Frozen low-calorie meals, sugar-free this, low-calorie that. Blech. Most of these diet foods marketed as "healthy" are overprocessed Franken-food that our caveman bodies (yes, from a metabolism and anatomy/physiology standpoint we are all still cave dwellers) don't know how to process. Fiber One bars, Healthy Choice and all that other stuff are not the key to a leaner, healthier you. They are filled with ingredients we don't recognize, and way too many ingredients. Eat REAL food. Fill up on vegetables, fresh fruit, whole grains, lean protein and healthy fats - these are high-volume, naturally low-calorie foods that will keep you feeling full all day. Side benefit: You will feel better, and your skin will probably even look better.
3. Skipping the first meal of the day: Note I didn't call it breakfast, and I didn't note a time for eating this meal. Some people aren't interested in food as soon as they wake up, or even for an hour or so after. Fine. But by mid-morning, it is best to eat something to fire up the metabolism. Skipping altogether and waiting until you're so hungry at lunch that you want to eat the plate and the waitress who serves it, will only set you up for overeating. Multiple studies have found that people who eat in the morning end up consuming fewer calories over the course of the day than those who skipped.
4. Eating just three big meals: More than a few co-workers over the years have noted I am "always eating." Yes, actually. Every two to three hours, to be exact. Breakfast one, then another small breakfast mid-morning, then lunch, then something mid-afternoon, and then dinner. These five to six "mini-meals" throughout the day ensure a steady blood sugar and never getting to that point of "I am starving, I will eat anything in sight." Your snack meals aren't supposed to be big feasts, just something (150-200 calories is a good target) to keep your metabolism firing and prevent your blood sugar/hunger levels from getting off the charts.
5. Being an Exercise Sleepwalker: We've all seen Gym Sleepwalkers. They arrive like clockwork every morning or evening and sleep walk through the exact same routine they did when you first joined a few years back. In some cases, if they weren't at the gym you might not know they are gym rats. The body, cave dweller that it is, is impressively adaptable. Muscles and metabolism respond best to "shock and awe," not steady drumbeats. To see results, it is vital to change up your exercise at least every few months, if not more often. This doesn't mean totally altering everything - it could be as simple as changing your morning elliptical routine from a steady pace for 30 minutes to 1 minute higher-intensity intervals followed by 30 seconds of "recovery" intensity. Or changing the weights from 15 reps at the current weight to 6-8 reps at a heavier weight.
Coming up: A 20-minute Power Core routine with lasting results...