Summer time is near! To me summer means outside adventures, water, and togetherness. I love working out in the summer time; it just feels right. The sun on my skin soaking up its natural vitamin D, the warmth keeps my muscles warm filled with blood, and I love tank tops and shorts. Okay, to be honest I probably wear tank tops and shorts all year round while in Manteca, California, but you get my point. Sometimes California has its cold days.
In my last blog "How to Lose Weight and Keep it Off" (3 parts) I discussed the realities of decreasing body fat and gave another perspective of the How-to. Today I want to share the things that I do to help keep my keep my body fat percentage low. It should work, generally speaking, for most body types. If you these follow simple rules you can achieve the "summertime body": 1. Stay active; 2. Eat correctly, and; 3. Keep stress out of your life
Of course, there are different variables pertaining to the 3 simple rules listed above. However, let's not complicate things and get into it.
Stay active. One of the simplest ways to build healthy habits towards decreasing body fat for your summertime body is physical activity. Anything...do anything. Move your body, go outside for at least 20 minutes a day. Whether it be going for a walk or doing simple exercises that you can perform safely. Go do something.
I enjoy cycling. Let me rephrase that...I love CYCLING! I love outdoor bike rides, I love indoor cycling, I love cycling for fitness purposes, and I love leisurely bike riding as well. Okay, you probably notice I used two different words when it comes down to bikes; biking and cycling. Biking is done on a regular bike and cycling is done on a modified-type bike or a performance racing bike. I only told you that, because I love being on any type of human-powered bike. I want to tell you why I love biking and cycling so much.
From here on I will use biking and cycling interchangeable. Biking is a great way to burn calories. You will burn many calories while biking, even if it's done for leisurely purposes. Of course you'll burn more calories by cranking down on the pedals and putting in some real effort while riding, but you do you; I mean that. If you don't know how to ride a bike, get on a stationary bike (like the one's at the local gym). We typically refer to indoor biking as spinning or indoor cycling. "Spinning" is most commonly used though. Indoor biking is great because not only will you burn many calories it is also super low impact, meaning it's not hard on your joints. I do urge you to take a class on indoor biking because it can be one of those things if you're not taught correctly, you will hate it. Unless it's a recumbent bike (the indoor bike that you sit back on) you should get some sort of guidance in learning to correctly ride it. I do happen to be a AFAA Group Fitness Instructor (the person that teaches classes at the local gym in those rooms in the back) so if you need a crash course, go ahead and reach out to me and we'll get you started on the how-to's. Besides you'll burn more calories by activating the correct muscles. So what do you have to lose?
I typically ride (indoor/outdoor) 5 times a week outside of teaching my classes. I just keep track of what kind of riding I do; long-distance or short-distance, low intensity or high-intensity to ensure I don't do the same thing over and over and risk injury from over training. If I do feel something tight then I will opt out of riding an extra day or two, but this is rare since bike riding, especially in the upright position, which is a comfortable position for the human body. Just get out there and ride the bike that you have locked away in your backyard shed or in the back of the garage. Take it out and enjoy the outdoors. Go visit your local gym and ask about their indoor bikes. They'll show you where it's at. Typically you can attend the indoor biking group fitness classes for no extra cost, depending on your membership. Still need help? Send me an e-mail at info@rootedkingdom.com and we will get you scheduled for an appointment to learn indoor cycling.
Eat correctly. We all know that nutrition can be a headache. Don't think too much into it. Eat wholesome nutritious foods. I discuss nutrition in my latest series in "How to Lose Weight and Keep it Off" Part 2 (go ahead and click the link, it'll open in another page and you can visit it after this one). In Part 3 I share what I eat as an example.
Some rules that I follow when it comes to nutrition is: I typically only eat the foods when I know exactly what the ingredients are. Its a good rule to practice, but its not to say I don't enjoy a meal from the local cafe. To keep it simple, I eat whole vegetables, fruits, legumes and tofu as a main source of nutrition. I do prepare most of my foods for myself and family. Most of the time I eat raw vegetables and sometimes I eat it cooked, but mainly its raw form. I keep it simple! I don't get creative with it and try to enhance the flavors with adding this or that or puree this or that, I just keep it simple. Nutrition can already be overwhelming so why add to it? Besides nutrition goals should be obtainable.
Who wants to cook for 4 hours or meal prep a whole day? I absolutely DO NOT. My goal is to eat to give my body nutrient-dense foods and not fill it with chemicals or other type of preservative engineered in a lab. When we know what we put in our bodies we can account for the calories, carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids going in. You're probably thinking "Dang Herman, so you just eat salads?". Essentially, yes. Each vegetable has a different flavor profile and texture from sweet to salty to crunchy or soft. So I use different vegetables. Going to the store every few days for fresh foods, gets me out and walking around, burning more calories...so why not? Besides, its cheaper than using a food delivery service. That extra money you're not using for food delivery service you can invest it in yourself.
Here's anther nutrition habit that I do. I don't use the word "diet" when it comes to nutrition. To me, diet refers to following a set of standards and practices of do this and do that. It's not needed. When comes to nutrition I keep it as simple as I can. Nutrition has to be simple and it has to be an obtainable habit. Like I mentioned, I don't try to meal prep every Saturday, because its too much work. If I "cook" something it's typically my tofu. Sometimes, I like to expose it to heat so it's hot and crunchy. I add that tofu to my salad to give it texture. I also have a small crockpot. I'll buy some jackfruit and throw it in there along with spices. It tastes great accompanied with greens and tomatoes. It tastes like a burrito bowl. Eating "healthy" doesn't have to be a chore. Don't define it and don't "try to eat healthy". Just make better nutritional choices. If you feel like having something naughty, go for it. Just know how much you're intaking. 1 serving in a bag of chips is usually 160 calories. A person can devour an entire bag of potato chips, usually 13 servings. So 160 x 13 = 2080 (calories). I have seen this with my own eyes and I was astonished this person didn't realize 2080 calories was just consumed. So I showed the person what one serving of 160 calories is and that person was surprised on the little amount it was. Try it for yourself. Go get a small weigh scale and measure out some foods and see what the measurements look like. You'll be surprised on the amount you were over-using.
I also have the habit of keeping a running count of my caloric intake and jotting down what I have eaten. Why do I do this? A few reasons; I like numbers and I like seeing how much calories I eat. My nutritional choices are very simple so keeping a running count on the calculator on my phone is easy. I can easily remember what I've eaten too, because what I eat is simple. Simple is better. Nutrition is definitely not a hassle. It took me a while to build these habits, but I did it and it's simple. Believe it or not, I used to weigh 265 lbs +. I was overweight, in fact I was borderline obese. I was one of those guys that held it well. And that was my excuse...I held it well. I was not happy in my body. However, I seemed like the happiest person on Earth. My biggest problem was how I perceived food. My relationship with food was purely emotional. It took many days of making those changes. It literally was one foot in front of the other. I finally made it to a point where I am happy, but I am never satisfied. I am a student of myself. I am constantly evolving as a person and exploring any possibilities and avenues for self-growth.
Keep stress out of your life. I do my very best to not be stressed. Stress is a silent killer. I was in the military and most recently retired from law enforcement. I understand stress and I believe we all have our own stresses. So why add to it. If you can help it...remove stress out of your life. One thing that I do that keeps me stress-free is I DO NOT partake in social media. I stay clear away from it. I don't smoke or drink. I used to though and those were habits that was hard to break. The hardest habit to break was my habit to go on social media. I experienced next level anxiety. I was glued to it. It took effort and soul searching to remove it from my life, but when I did I started getting better. Even for my fitness business (Rooted Kingdom I am not active on our social media accounts. I won't even hire a social media expert. My accounts just sit there in the clouds. I don't want it near me at all. I was going to delete it but that would mean I would have to log on, so I don't. Once I kicked that habit, I could start working on other habits I needed to break. The habits that hindered me from self-growth THAT was my key to success. Everything seemingly fell into place from there.
I also don't surround myself with people who don't help level me up. As cliche as this sounds, my wife and daughter are absolutely my very very very best friends. I love being around them. They level me up as a person and help keep me grounded. People can take your energy and just keep taking until you have nothing left. If you have nothing left to give, you have nothing left for yourself. Try this...say 5 names of a person that you love. Go for it...I'll wait. Those are important people to you because you named them and maybe they have impacted your life in some way. It could have been an impact from a life-lesson whether positive or negative, those people have impacted you. Now...my next question is this...in those five names of people, was your name on it? I really hope it was. I (me) cannot truly know what love is until I love myself unconditionally. Let's move on from this. Perhaps someday it'll make sense if it doesn't. I hope it does.
I try to be present. Emotions are what makes us humans and emotions can transport us to a past event and use that information to make a decision. It can also cause us to make a decision for the future. Think about that. Thats past and future, but not present. How can we be present when we are focused on the past or future? We can't. Meditation through yoga and working out in my gym has been a vessel for me to be present. I try to be present by focusing on one repetition or movement at a time. It allows me to practice being present and eventually I get good at it. Besides to get better at something we have to practice, right?
This is some deep stuff, but let's dive a little deeper into what stress does to our bodies. There's a bunch of scientific stuff to it, but let's write normally and keep it simply put. Our bodies are designed to keep us alive. It does it so well that it can work against us, only because the way our society is set-up now...anyway, that's another story. When we are stressed-out, we go into this mode to when our body recognizes danger it will hold on to fat as a form of stored energy, to use it for when we need to fight or runaway; otherwise known as fight or flight. The stored energy, if not used, will stay there. So in a sense when we are under stress our body recognizes it as there is danger near. We need to get rid of this so we can optimize our bodies. Thats done through physical activity, replenished through nutrition and rest. Another important part of the equation of being stress-free is our minds; our brain housing group. All actions, whether conscious or subconscious, happens there, in our heads. I found this statement to be my truth..."A calm mind is a calm body". Stress puts your body in this prepare to fight or flight mode without having to actually fight or flight (runaway), which expends the energy stored. It's not quite that simple, but I think you get the point.
Our summer bodies are within reach, we just have to make life-style changes. I find that these 3 simple rules help me to stay on path for my goals. I stay active, eat healthy, and stay stress-free. This is what works for me. Perhaps it can work for you too. Try it! Leave me a comment and let me know how it goes!
Need more help or personalized coaching in fitness or nutrition? Contact me today and let's have a conversation.
