Tag Archives: alcohol

11 Simple Tips to be More Fit

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Looking back at what’s been done so far, I thought I’d give you ten easy tips that will help you be more fit:

  1. Be in the right mindset. Getting your mental game together will go a long way in improving your physical performance.  If you’re not where you need to be, identify the problem and neutralize it.  You mind can be the biggest hurdle in making yourself better.
  2. Drink enough water. Water is the thing that gives all things life.  It cleanses your system of toxins and allows you to extract energy from your food.  If you’re dehydrated, you’ll feel horrible and perform even worse.
  3. Work out. Really? Exercise is the basis of being fit coupled with a good diet. Get into a routine of working out at least three times a week for at least a half hour.  That’s a minimum.  If you can do more, do it. If you don’t exercise, you’ll never gain muscle and always be low on energy.  Don’t just exercise your body either.  Make sure you exercise your mind daily.
  4. Only eat carbs for energy and don’t over-do it. Having too many carbs will promote fat growth, but having too little will leave you starved for energy during your workouts.  You need carbs to build muscle.
  5. Use biofeedback to get the most out of your workout. Listening to your body is the best way to increase gains when you’re working out. Do range of motion tests before each exercise in your workout and you’ll get maximum results.
  6. Pick a diet that works for you. I’m talking about vegan, vegetarian, and omnivorous diets here. That whole South Beach, Atkins, Peanuts Only thing is just a gimmick.  Pick the one that fits your lifestyle and is the easiest for you.  I’m an omnivore myself.
  7. Eat high protein foods before and after you work out to build muscle. Get those proteins three hours before you work out and three to four hours afterward.  You’ll get maximum synthesis then and see excellent gains in muscle growth.  Of course only do it if that’s what you’re going for.
  8. Vary your workout to give tired muscles time to rest. If you give tired muscle groups that time to rest you can keep your heart rate up and give them some R&R at the same time. That will maximize your time to gain ratio.
  9. Don’t just worry about weight loss. Keep your mind on fitness, not weight loss.  Unhealthy weight loss can cause health problems later. Don’t sweat it out or starve it out.  Earn it.
  10. Cut out the alcohol. This is the single easiest way to lose weight and feel better. Alcohol dehydrates you and adds a ton of extra carbs and calories to you body that you don’t need.
  11. Strive for perfection and perpetual progress. This is the most important point.  Striving for daily perfection is what will keep you going forever. This will keep you from slipping back into your old habits. When applied to other facets of your life, you’ll only see positive things.

If you exercise (hah, see what I did there) those ten tips every day you will be well on your way to becoming more fit.  What tips do you have?

Who is James Thompson?

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I am the author of this blog.  I’m a self-proclaimed geek from Morrisville, Vermont. I don’t have any medical or fitness training, but in my own quest to seek personal wellness, I’ve discovered some things along the way and wanted to share them with the world. I started posting my findings here, and the rest is history.

Background

I was born in Plattsburg, New York to Darwin and Ramona Thompson.  My father was in the military and I moved around a lot when I was a child.  I moved from Plattsburg to Omaha, Nebraska.  From there I did a stint in Panama City, Florida and then moved on to Chugiak, Alaska.  I lived in Alaska for ten years, where my parents divorced. I moved to Poquoson, Virgina in 6th grade, and my mother stayed in Alaska.  My father, originally from Vermont, moved back there a few years after he retired from the military in 1998.  I went to high school in Vermont and have been there ever since.  I graduated in 2002.

I went to college at Johnson State College of Vermont, and majored in business with concentrations in accounting, management, and marketing.  While I was still in college, I started Acute Technology, a business doing IT work for local companies.  The business flourished.  I bought out my partner in 2008, and have been developing the business ever since.

I married my lovely wife Michelle in 2005 and we’ve been happily married ever since.  She keeps me in line when I need to be and lets me pursue my ideas when the time is right.

Fitness and Me

My friends throughout high school and college always called me “Anorexia the Hungry” because I could eat intense amounts of food and stay thin as a rail.  That all changed shortly after high school. Sometime around when I was 18 I began to gain a noticeable amount of weight, and it didn’t stop until I decided to do something about it when I was 24.

The catalyst that made me realize I had a problem was when I was taking an exam for life insurance for my company and wasn’t in the highest bracket of health – which is where a 24 year old male should be. I bartered some of my computer expertise to a local gym and began to get back in shape.  I lost about 30 pounds over the course of 6 months and everything was going great – until the gym closed.

Shortly after the gym shut down, I fell back into my old habits – eating at McDonalds, chicken wing eating contests, and beer. Lots and lots of beer.  Before I knew it, I had gained the 30 pounds back and then some.  I weighed almost 240 pounds at my peak.  I’m 6’2″, so that isn’t horrible, but it also isn’t healthy.

In 2010 I started to research being fit again and started to get my fitness under control.  Posting here has been my motivation for staying on track.  I want to chronicle my journey and let people know what is and isn’t working. Because I’m a geek, I like to get into the science of why things do and don’t work.

I’m not an expert on diet, exercise, or fitness, so some of the things I say may or may not be 100% correct, but I’m calling it as I see it.  You have all of the permission in the world to call BS on anything I say.  I want to learn from this.

I look forward to connecting with you, because I truly care.  Please let me know about your journey.

Ups and Downs of Carbohydrates

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There are a lot of theories about how carbohydrates affect your fitness.  Basically they are complex sugars and usually occur in baked products, but also occur naturally in fruits and vegetables like potatoes and bananas.  This doesn’t mean you should shy away fruits and veggies, because there are different types of carbs.

There are simple carbs and complex carbs, and the complex ones are the ones you want to watch out for, because they’re converted to fat the easiest.  Fruit and vegetables tend to contain simple carbs, while baked goods like pizza and bread tend to be made of complex carbs.  Stepping back your complex carb intake can drastically affect the amount of hydrated fat on your body.

Cons

There are various diets out there, like the South Beach Diet, which prohibit the intake of carbs to lose weight.  The Atkins diet is another take on that same theory.  The basic idea is that if you don’t take in complex carbs they can’t be converted to body fat.  If your food can’t be converted to body fat, you won’t gain weight.  That’s not entirely true, but it kind of works.  I’m not saying it’s healthy though.

Alcohol is probably the most common carb out there and is the biggest culprit for gaining weight.  There is a reason they call it a “beer gut”.  As you drink beverages with higher and higher alcohol content the carb ratio goes down, but it never goes away.  Also remember the alcoholic drinks are very high in calories.  Some shots of liquor can have upwards of 150 calories!

Pros

Carbs and sugars also provide you directly with energy.  That’s why you see people who run marathons taking in a large amount of calories, most of which are carbs.  If your body is using the energy, they are the easiest form of food to convert.

When you’re going to the gym, if you eat a carb heavy diet about three hours before you go, you’ll feel more energized and probably perform better while you’re there.  It’s good to eat a larger amount of them in the morning and cut back on them at night.  This way you’ll have the energy for your day, but not convert them to fats while you’re sleeping.

The Take Away

Basically you need to remember that carbs aren’t as bad as some diets make them out to be, but they can be bad if you don’t moderate them.  Remember that they are in most foods and beverages – especially alcohol.  The easiest way to lose weight is to cut alcohol from your diet.  For some people it’s also the hardest thing to give up.

There really is a lot of science that goes into figuring out how many to eat and when you should eat them.  When you combine something complex like the science of consuming carbs with the science of drinking water or other consumption habits, it’s easy to get confused.  We’ll try to break down those barriers for you and make it simple.

Need more help figuring out all of this?  Just hit us up with your questions.