Working to the music

I do find it amusing that some people think that they know best when it comes to what tunes are playing for you to work out best to. Each of us have varying tastes and there are different types of music that motivates us or gets us moving so what works for me may not work for you and vice versa.
Yes, I have quite often looked at these lists of apparent best workout songs of all time and wondered what sort of people were doing these lists, let alone the people commenting on these posts and adding some quite obscure songs to me anyway but if it works for them then good on them.
I have a library of workout songs with a wide range of songs, from Electric Light Orchestra doing Mr Blue Sky, Disturbed doing their version of Genesis' Land of Confusion, Ima Robot with the theme song for Suits "Greenback Boogie" to White Zombie Thunder Kiss 65.
During my studies we sat down and listened to various songs and tested our heart rate to each of them to see the effect they had on us. It is actually quite smart as we need our heart rate over 60% to get the fat burning going in the right direction and if music increases the heart rate then why not use the songs that increase it.
So don't push your music tastes on people saying that your music is better for workouts as we will all differ in our choices, just find what works for you, you may want to try some other peoples suggestions but in the end it is about what works for you.

Shortcuts, Gimmicks - stop kidding yourself

Pretty sure by now the majority of you have all seen the "Magical Skinny Pill" or the "Secret that The Rock or anyone large seems to use" and these wonderful weight loss powders that are available everywhere now too. If weight loss or muscle building was that easy don't you think that everybody would be doing it????
Let's be honest, not everyone can spend countless hours at the gym or can change your meals at the drop of the hat as we have children, we have responsibilities and time is precious. It is great that you want to drop the extra weight or centimetres or add some muscle but it isn't something that you can say today and instantly start doing tomorrow. You REALLY need to plan ahead and if that pushes things back a few weeks etc while you get yourself and your life ready then it will be worth it.
One thing that I do hear a lot is that people don't have time, I have 3 children who I take to kindy and school everyday as well as picking them up and taking them to their after school activities so I can relate. What I suggest you do is sit down with a piece of paper and write down what hours you are awake from (such as 05.00 to 23.00) and for those hours break it up into 15 minute blocks (05.00, 05.15, 05.30 etc etc) and then block out the sections of time that you have commitments for each day of the week such as school drop offs and pick ups, work hours etc etc. Then plan for 6 meals a day, breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and something later so there is more time blocked off. Now let's have a look at it and see what time periods you have left over and go from there with allocating time for a walk, jog or treadmill run or even a rowing machine or exercise bike as with kids I know it is difficult to leave the house with them in tow and if you are planning on a run you don't want to stress out with them with you. You may surprise yourself with time periods that you do have free where you can do some crunches, squats etc all of which can help as the picture in this post is correct - There are NO Shortcuts as there is work involved.

Activity Trackers

Over the past 18 months I have been using a Fitbit Flex and over the last 6 months I have also been used the Jawbone Up in an attempt to compare the two.
Both have their upsides but they definitely have their weaknesses as well but the major advantage having any type of activity tracker is that they do provide you with a type of motivation.
For around $120 the Fitbit Flex is a popular fixture in the activity tracker market and when I purchased mine there were not a lot of options available, whereas now there are a plethora of them on the market. I know when I purchased the Flex it was a choice between the Nike variation, the Jawbone Up or the Flex as the Nike was completely out of my price range and the Up did fail in the comparisons I was doing at the time. Six months ago I was able to get the Up due to Optus having a deal where I could get one with the purchase of a new phone, so I thought why not and I would be able to compare the two.
Let's get into the Fitbit Flex, the band and the clasp are an issue (band pic below) but I must commend the people at Fitbit as they did send me a replacement band at no cost when the first one split after 2 months. They say the items are waterproof etc (to a distance) however I have never worn mine (or the Jawbone) in the shower, pool, ocean etc as it might be just me but I just didn't feel safe in doing so as I am not in a position to have something worth that much break on me.

pic showing where the band splits

Unfortunately it is the band that does let the Flex down, not only the splitting of it and the breaking of the clasps (particularly on the replacement bands) but also the cost, at around $30 for a pack of 3 bands is a bit steep in my opinion, especially when you have paid over $100 for something that should last longer than a couple of months and being an activity tracker it should be able to stand up to a bit. Another issue I have encountered is the charging of the product, once removing the unit you place it into a charger that comes with the tracker and away it goes, well apparently, I have had countless issues with it not charging and have had to put a nail file in the end of the charging unit to push the tracker down so it can actually register. Even last night and today I could not get it to charge no matter what I tried until using another charger (my wife's) but not everyone has that option. Now down to the nitty gritty, yes it tracks your steps, your sleep, your activity levels etc and you can set yourself goals via the dashboard either on your phone, tablet or pc. It will tell you how many calories you have apparently burned throughout the day but unless you have a lot of time on your hands, entering what you have consumed can be strenuous as food lists on their database are not the handiest for Australian customers (unless things have changed recently). You can download and install another application to help with this but isn't the idea of activity trackers to get you off your backside instead of having to spend more time there to keep track of what you are eating. I do enjoy the sleep function as I am not a good sleeper and it is handy to be able to keep track of that which is easily done by a couple of taps on the tracker as you are on your way to bed. The downfalls is that the display is a bunch of 5 led dots (each representing 20% of your goal) and to change what your target is means going onto your phone etc again to adjust the settings. And like most trackers, it doesn't register a lot of things such as lifting weights but then again, you can go to the dashboard and add an activity and for how long you did it for. It does appear that Fitbit are trying to update things with a new range but when the price goes up to about $350 it is way out of my price range and most others.

The Jawbone Up is let down by a few things, the band (well mine anyway - pic below) and when the band stuffs up the whole tracker is worthless compared to the Flex where you can replace the band without replacing everything. The display is pretty basic, it has a moon and a sun to let you know whether you are in awake or sleep mode, there are other options that the band can do such as stopwatch etc which to me seem pretty pointless when there is no physical display of time etc. I have the large band version and it is pretty snug on my wrist and with it being a wired version (connect via the headphone socket on the phone) you are having to take it off quite often to check your results which I can only do via the phone as the dashboard on the computer has never worked for me.

you can see the splitting and the extension of the band which can't be repaired

One issue I have noticed with the UP is that according to the Flex I did around 11,000 steps yesterday which was about right but according to the UP I did about 5,000 and I have noticed this quite often when comparing figures where the UP is usually at about 60% step wise of what the Flex is. The UP also has an inactivity alarm that you can set if you are not moving for a certain amount of time and I have had this go off on me whilst mowing, exercising etc so I do have to query the authenticity of the results it comes up with. The upside to this one is the battery life of approximately 10 days and the quickness in which it charges (without issues either Mr & Mrs Fitbit).

I could ramble on for days but if it came down to these 2 I would probably go for the Fitbit Flex but to be honest, I would save up and get something that has a decent visual display where you can actually see what you have done without having to access a phone or computer, something that does your steps, exercises, calories, sleep, pulse and you can see it right there in front of you.

I am hoping to try out a Samsung Gear Fit in the near future, possibly a Garmin and would love to try the new top of the range Fitbit as the band issues look to be solved and it is more like a watch than an accessory.

Goal Re Evaluation required ???

So you've had a couple of days to digest your resolution and you may have started well by counting the calories, gone for a walk or even joined a gym. Congratulations if you have, but what is your plan for tomorrow, next week or even next month and how are you going to keep testing yourself as depending on who you are the novelty will more than likely wear off.

Let's say you joined a gym, are you going to get your moneys worth, have you got an exercise program to follow, did you fork out for a personal trainer ??? I have my thoughts on personal trainers and yes I have done all the education and training to be one and do train the odd person but not once have I charged any money for doing so, but I will leave my thoughts out of this post. Anyway, whatever you are doing, you need a plan to test your body and to keep surprising it as boredom will lead to bad habits. If you are going for a run, make sure you enjoy doing it and not getting up at whatever hour thinking "Oh sh!t, I have to run again" or somehow find motivation to do your 50 crunches or push ups. There are so many alternatives out there to exercise and finding one you enjoy doing is an integral part of trying different methods as if you are not looking forward to doing whatever exercises you are doing yet again it won't last.

Counting calories ??? yes that is an option but you still have to eat the right calories, still get some exercise and be patient. Patience is definitely a virtue when you decide to get healthy as things are not going to happen overnight and frustration can also lead you back to old ways so changing little things with your goals can help. Instead of having your goal as 10 kilograms, re evaluate that goal to, let's say 5cm off the waist and at the same time every week record your measurements as sometimes your weight will actually increase (muscle mass) when you start exercising but your measurements in the waist will decrease. And be flexible and realistic with those goals, have a goal for February 1, if you achieve that or get close, set another goal for March 1 and work from there but have your long term goal for December 31. So you might want to lose 5cm by March 1 but you may want to lose 20cm by December so plan out your goals both short and long term.

There are other ways to get healthy that you may be adopting too, weights, exercise and changing your diet but yet again you need to plan ahead and not just work off the top of your head. Personally I know what I am eating 2 weeks in advance at the moment and would like to have it mapped out further but I am still experimenting with meals I want to add to my plans. My exercise plan is still a bit up in the air due to the after effects of an illness last year and my weight program is getting back to some sort of normality although I do have a set number of certain activities that I push myself to do every day. Every night when I lay down, I make sure I do between 125 and 250 curls on each arm and during the day make sure I do at least 100 reps on the muscle group I feel like working on. But as I said before, what works for some may not work for others so you may prefer to do something else, but please, enjoy yourself whilst you do it and do make it seem like a chore.

As I have said before and as I will say over and over again, feel free to ask anything as I will do my best to offer any assistance and if I don't know, I will find out.

The New Years Resolution

Let's be honest here, how many of us have actually followed through on a resolution??

Really??? I know some of the ones I have set myself in years gone by had been in a state of despair after striking out on a night out, probably in a state of drunkenness or feeling sorry for myself too.

Anyway, why should it be some big thing to decide on December 31 that "Hey I'm going to give up smoking" or "You know what, I am going to drop those 10 kilos" or pretty much something along those lines of getting yourself healthy. If you are one of those people then good on you for getting some motivation and deciding to do something, now keeping that motivation and getting some inspiration is the tough part. For me, inspiration is everywhere to get healthy and it should be for you too, have you got kids?? there's inspiration, do you have a wife/husband/partner etc?? there is some more inspiration, what about a mirror?? even more inspiration.

Now, 2015 is going to be the year it all happens for you, let's not get overawed and remember some key things, it isn't going to happen straight away so don't get disheartened and there are many stepping stones to get to your goal.

I have 4 basic steps to start your journey

1. Buy Smaller Plates

2. Cut out the soft drinks

3. Reduce your take aways

4. Go for a walk/ride 2 to 3 times a week

All 4 do take a bit of effort but for a starting point they are all quite realistic, and that is the major word we should be focusing on here. All the goals you have set yourself should be realistic, realistically achievable in a realistic time frame.

Smaller Plates - a very simple strategy, smaller plates mean it takes less to fill them up 

Soft Drinks - this is my downfall, I love the soft drinks but they cause the bloated gut and fill us up with the sugar that we can really do without, so finding an alternative is a key goal.

Take Aways - yes I know they are cheap and easy and I wouldn't tell you to stop them completely as we all need a break from cooking, so try limiting them to once a fortnight.

Walk/Ride etc - do this a few times a week, 30 minute brisk walk or a ride to get the heart beating is an essential part to get things going.

Feel free to reply with your goals as one of mine is to assist as many people as I can in achieving theirs.