DOING WHAT I CAN TO STAY HEALTHY!

And I must apologize. It’s taken me a while to adjust to working a full-time position. I’ve had far less time to post here.

I’ve managed, though, to get to work on time–actually, a half hour early. Relatively wrinkle-free (clothes, that is) and clean. With food for the day packed and my morning workouts (on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) done. That, in itself, is an accomplishment!

In my new job, I am learning so much about various health conditions. And I’ve been talking a lot with people who’ve had various diseases– cancer, diabetes, psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, thus far.

It’s a tough road for many people, and makes me think twice about how I treat people in general. I like to think I’m fair, friendly and cheerful. But maybe I could be better? I wonder.

Maybe I could be a bit more patient with the person in the car just ahead of me, who’s been sitting far too long (in my view, anyway) at the toll booth. Because, who knows–he might be sick with something, might have something very “heavy” on his mind instead of thinking about the 75 cents he should have ready for the toll. Maybe I ought to think twice before I toot my horn, grumbling to no one in particular, “C’mon, already!”

And, more than ever, I appreciate my health.

Though not perfect, it is pretty good, overall. And I thank God every day for it!  (Literally! I say a prayer at least twice a day, and the “health mention,” among other things, is in it.)

Just this past week, a “dad” my boyfriend knew passed away of a heart attack. He was 49, and left behind three young children.

And only a few days before that, my boyfriend got prescribed a beta-blocker to slow down his heart rate.

It is a convergence of things lately that has me in a contemplative place.

Thinking about…aging. Things breaking down and wearing out. Time left and how to spend it.

We try our best.

That’s our only option, isn’t it? And, yet, there are no guarantees.

This man who just died–the dad–we’d see him in the gym. He was trim, too, my boyfriend reminds me.

Some people have to just go the extra mile to stay healthy. See their doctors. Get their blood tests and their blood pressure and heart rate checked. Be physically active. Eat super healthy. Take supplements that can help them. And take medications they need to avert a dangerous “event.”

And there are still no guarantees.

But you can’t worry about “doing everything right” or “doing enough.” Just do what you can.

And maybe give the guy in the car ahead of you a few more seconds before you hit the horn.

Learn to love the gym

There’s really no two ways around it. It helps to get really comfortable at the gym in order to make the best use of it.

And that’s what I’d recommend to anyone who’s finding it difficult to be consistent working out. Because if you feel like you’re driving to a place you know well, it’s not so intimidating. And you just might start looking forward to it.

Know where the things are that you like doing best.

For me, it’s the free weights area. I have no fear of walking around in between the guys to get my weights or stake my claim on a bench. Don’t be shy. They probably don’t know what they’re doing, so have no fear of claiming your space.

Some people even have a favorite treadmill they like to use. At my old gym, I’d pick a treadmill under the ceiling fans, where it was coolest. And, for some odd reason, with all things being equal, I tend to go for cardio equipment that’s “on the aisle.” So…the stepmill  or the treadmill or the recumbent bike at the very end of the row.

I guess I just prefer having a little “breathing room,” rather than having people jammed up on each side of me (which increases the likelihood of having to deal with unpleasant odors, as well as coughing or talking on the cell phone right next to me). Hey–whatever you have to do to make the experience more pleasant. For me, it’s moving away from people who aggravate me.

Bring a towel to the gym.

I can’t stress that enough. Use it to cover the seats or backs of benches or equipment you’re going to use. This makes the idea of sitting or lying on benches a little less “eeeeuuww!”

And have “your” locker.

This won’t always be possible. So have a couple of options. (I do recommend having a “fallback” plan, in case there are too many customers in various stages of undress near where you’d normally go.)

Now, if you don’t go to the gym often or regularly, it will continue to seem “foreign” to you. That’s what you have to get over.

So, go as often and as regularly as you’re able.

I don’t mean go 6 times a week. Go according to the plan and schedule that suits you. Don’t “skip” a gym day.

And go at a time when working out is comfortable to you.

I go in the morning, before work, when it’s much less crowded and smelly than it is after work. That makes me enjoy the experience a whole lot more. I can certainly imagine not liking the gym if you have to go at a time when it’s disgustingly swamped and you struggle to get done what you went there to do.

Use an iPod.

Gym music is often disappointing. Having your own music can help you keep your workout fast-moving and intense and, bonus!,  helps to keep undesirable people from talking to you.

And, finally, go with a time limit.

I usually need to be out in an hour. Which helps enormously to keep me focused during the workout and improves the likelihood I’ll actually get a good workout.

On the weekends, I have more time, but even then, I aim to be out of the gym in an hour and 15, tops!

Short gym sessions are all you need, really. I never understand the people who brag that they’ve been in the gym 3 hours. Long workouts are inefficient and unnecessary. And, in the long run, they backfire, since eventually you’ll come to dread those 3-hour workouts.

Short sessions are what keep me coming back, day after day!

Finally…as with anything, you need to keep a positive attitude about it.

Sure, there are mornings I’d love to sleep in. It’s not always easy rousing myself at 5 AM to get to the gym before work.

But I tell myself that it’s MY time for ME. Not my employer, my children, or anyone else.

And I know all the good that exercise is doing for me–mentally and physically. It helps a LOT!

What do YOU do to make the gym a more pleasant experience for you? I’d love to hear your tips!

In my last post, I promised to tell you how I work my body part split.

I’m sorry it’s been so long. My PC’s hard drive crashed, which left me a bit flummoxed. It’s still not fixed, but I don’t want to wait any longer.

So here goes. I strength train 4 days a week.

Until quite recently, I’d usually shuffle things around this way:

Day 1: Shoulders and triceps

Day 2: Back and biceps

Day 3: Legs and calves

Day 4: Chest and abs

And I’d do 12-20 minutes of, generally, bodyweight cardio—a circuit of movements like mountain climbers, jumping jacks, squat thrusts, lunges and various other shuffles, hops and jumps—afterwards. Sometimes mixed in with planks or crunches.

OR, I’d do interval work on the treadmill (run fast one minute, walk one minute, and repeat). Usually just 12-15 minutes on this.

The importance of change

From month to month, I switch my days around or maybe train chest and back together on one day, and arms together on another day. Change is necessary if you want to continue to stimulate the muscle—and, to keep from getting bored!

I also change the number of reps in each set. So I have heavier weeks and lighter weeks (really heavy workouts usually when my boyfriend is there to spot me). And I change exercises, and the order of exercises in my workout, constantly.

Why do I do it this way?

I simply enjoy focusing on one—or at most two—body parts at a time. To me, it’s less arduous. I have more fun in the gym—and that’s what gets me to the gym 4 days (used to be 5 or 6!) a week consistently for years.

Doing full-body workouts are exhausting, and people over 50 already struggle with fatigue. Why add to the drain with exhausting workouts? (And I’m guessing that exhausting workouts are one reason people find excuses to skip “gym day.”)

It’s easier for me. I prefer to think about training just shoulders and triceps, for instance, than come up with a plan for the entire body. I think I plan—and get—a better workout.

I gain more muscle—or retain more muscle—this way. And that’s my goal, because as you’ve probably heard, adults who don’t exercise tend to lose muscle with age.

A note on this: It definitely gets harder to accumulate muscle once you’re over 50. It can be done, but it takes a lot of determination. Gaining muscle has to be a goal, I think. Otherwise, you’re one of those people at the gym whose body never changes—even years into working out.

After I’ve said all that…

I’ve recently (starting back in December) begun to change things up. I no longer do a leg day. (Hip problems.) Instead, I scatter 2-3 leg exercises, which are really performed more to hit the glutes, throughout my workouts, after I’ve worked the body part I intended to train.

Yesterday, for example, I worked my back. I like to do abs with back, so after back I did 3 exercises for abs. And then I did some leg/glute work.

Other days, I might do two exercises for glutes, followed by one for abs. I mix it up constantly.

And since most cardio aggravates my hip issues, I cannot perform much cardio at the moment. (Guess I need to get into that pool.) So I work faster during my weight workout—going a little lighter, doing more supersets (two or more exercises performed one after the other, no rest) and adding more body parts in a workout. Like yesterday: back, abs, glutes and, to finish, calves.

But, when I walk in the gym, I do think in terms of “back” only. I start getting creative when I’m there and looking around for space, weights and benches. I improvise, I suppose. Which becomes easier the longer you work out and the more comfortable you get with weight training.

My advice?

Have a plan so that when you get to the gym, you have an idea of what you want to do. I would keep it simple. One or two body parts. At most, upper body muscles or lower body muscles.

Take time to focus on each body part. That way, you’ll really start to feel what it is that you’re working. Otherwise, you risk walking away with a full-body soreness and a sense of exhaustion. And you’ll get better at working out faster! You’ll know what exercises are working which muscles. (And that puts you ahead of a lot of people at the gym!)

Improvise when you have to. Sometimes, you might need to skip the gym entirely. Other times, you can work around injuries or issues. For example, if you have elbow tendinitis, you can still find exercises that don’t exacerbate that area. What about your legs, abs/core, glutes, calves? Let the elbow rest, but there’s still a lot you can do! Of course, don’t be foolish. If you’re seeing a doctor for your condition, then ask him/her if you can safely perform X.

Happy training!

Chest and abs day, always fun

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends two or more days of strength training activity each week.

But then they go on to say that heavy gardening counts as strength-training activity.

I certainly don’t agree. Even if you’re really putting your back into it, gardening does not target muscles equally and efficiently–in most cases.

But that’s not the point of this post.

Whether you work out with weights on two days, three days, or more, you’ll get your best results if you have a plan.

Let’s break it down…

If you strength train twice a week, you’ll want to do a full-body routine in those two days.

If you go to a gym, you can do a circuit workout where you hit one machine for each bodypart. So, one machine for chest, then back, shoulders, triceps, biceps, quadriceps, hamstrings, calves. And you might want to do abs on a mat on the floor or on a bench–but they have ab machines, too.

My recommendations for this type of workout are:

1. Keep it intense. Move quickly from machine to machine. Use weight that’s rather difficult to move by the 10th rep or so.

2. Consider doing two sets on each machine before moving on to the next machine. This works well when the gym is busy and it’s difficult getting in a second circuit because others are hopping on the machines you need.

So you’ll get two sets on your chest exercise, then move on to get two sets on your back exercise…and so forth.

Alternatively, if you strength train twice a week, you don’t HAVE to use machines. You can do an effective workout–at the gym or at home–using dumbbells and a flat bench.

My recommendations for an effective DB full-body workout are:

Flat DB chest press. One-arm DB row, for the back (you can kneel on the bench or just put your hand on it for balance). Seated or standing DB shoulder presses. Seated DB overhead extensions (for triceps). Seated or standing DB curls (for biceps). Squats–regular or plie (in the plie, step your feet out and hold a DB between your legs). Lunges (walking or stationary). Standing DB calf raises (even better if you can find a sturdy/stable box or step so you can sink down through your heels and get a full stretch through the calves).

If you work out 3 days a week, even better.

You can do: upper body, lower body, upper body one week. Then flip it the following week: lower body, upper body, lower body.

OR, you can break your bodyparts down so…Day 1: chest, shoulders and triceps. Day 2: legs and calves. And day 3: Back and biceps.

This second split allows you to give all your body parts a little more work than if you were to do them all at once, or even if you were to do all your upper body muscles at once.

I strength train 4 days a week. In my next post, I’ll give you my reasoning for doing it this way.

Until then, make sure that when you work out, you have a plan.

You’ll get better results than if your workout is random.

Do you have a plan when you work out? Does it do what you want it to do?

Last weekend, strolling the boardwalk

I do. And that’s not good.

A new study (this is the PubMed abstract) reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that people over 50 who sit (and, specifically, watch TV) for seven or more hours a day have a greater risk for mortality than do people who watch only one hour of TV a day.

This is not exactly news. It repeats, emphatically, what other studies have already told us:

A sedentary lifestyle is linked with a higher risk of death.

I can’t imagine watching TV for 7 hours a day. But I sit at a desk, in front of computer. Can that be much better?

Even study participants who exercised 7 hours a week still had a higher all-cause mortality rate.

That’s NOT a reason to give up your exercise program.

But it should nudge you out the door for a walk now and again throughout the day.

If you work in an office, and you’re sitting most of the day, get up once an hour.

Go make some tea (good for you!), get a cup of water at the water cooler, go talk to a coworker face-to-face instead of emailing, hit the restroom that’s furthest away, walk during your lunch and, if you can, take a short stroll again after work.

Here’s a useful AARP article that profiles a gentleman who was morbidly obese. He began walking, lost a bunch of weight and is so much healthier and happier now. It also gives some great tips for starting a walking regimen.

A bentover cable row

Hopefully, you do.

But, what I really mean is, what are you doing to strengthen your back?

A strong back helps to eliminate the little aches and pains you might otherwise experience on a daily basis.

A strong back will also help to keep you upright and active into the years to come.

What do I mean by a strong back?

Srong back muscles. Strong spine.

Research tells us that the average woman loses roughly 50% of her bone mass through her lifetime. She also loses close to half her muscle strength by the time she’s 89.

This might explain in part why the spine is one of the 3 sites most vulnerable to fractures (bone breaks) as we age. (Also fracture-prone are the hips and wrists.)

Strong back muscles support your spine and can help you maintain bone mineral density (BMD) there.

(An aside: My spinal BMD is not so great, despite my years of exercise. But I am happy my back muscles are developed and strong, since they help support my spine and decrease my fracture risk.)  

So what do you do?

Weight-training exercises for the back are particularly effective at strengthening the muscles that support your spine and hold you upright.

Pull-downs, chin-ups, pull-ups:  With your torso in an upright position, your arms are outstretched above you and you use your latissimus dorsi (the muscles in your upper back, most visible in the area beneath the armpit) to pull down.

You might be pulling weight down toward your chest (as in a pulldown), or you might be pulling weight (specifically, your body weight) up toward your lats (as in a chin-up or a pull-up). 

In either case, the ultimate destination is a  full contraction of your lats.

Rows: In these movements,  your arms are outstretched in front of your torso. You pull toward your body.

You might be bent over at the hips, with your chest facing the floor, as in a DB row or a bentover BB row. OR, you might be seated at a machine or cable station, your torso upright.

Same thing: You’re going for a full contraction of your lats with each repetition.

How I work out

I tend to have one day per week where I concentrate on these types of back exercises.

(I also do planks, both unweighted and with a light weight plate on my back, which support the entire core–the muscles that support your spine like a girdle–on two days a week at the end of my workouts.)

When I train my back, I often select two pulldown-type movements and two row-type movements. But not always. On occasion, I’ll mix it up, depending on the equipment available to me that day. (No harm in getting 3 rows and just one pulldown. Change is often good.)

I do see men and women training back. But what I see most is people who are just going through the motions.

Here are 4 things to watch:

1. Focus on the movement. Many people are just not “present” during the exercise. To make it more of a back exercise, less of an arm exercise, focus on using your back muscles to move the weight.

2. Use proper form. On a pulldown, neither lean too far back nor hold your torso too upright. On a row (where your chest is not supported, as at a cable station for a low cable row), avoid leaning back at the top of the movement and getting your low back into the action. You want to come back to an upright position with your torso, and fully squeeze the lats. No lower back involved!

3. Use a full range of motion. Fully stretch the lats. Fully contract the lats. Don’t shorten the movement. You’ll lose the full benefit.

4. Select the proper weight. Go too light and you’re not making much of a difference. Go too heavy and you won’t be able to maintain good form (increasing your risk for injury) or go through a full range of motion.

If magazines represent reality…

You probably worry more about your stomach (and abs) than you do your back. (Think of all the magazine cover lines blasting “the ultimate ab workout” inside.)

Your back is a large muscle group. Including it in your exercise program burns calories and can have such a positive impact on your body composition.

That’s in addition to all the spine-strengthening benefits it provides–for both today and tomorrow.

What do YOU do to strengthen your back?

My spotter is manning the camera. Usually he's at the end of the bar, giving a little help when I need it!

Yes. Sometimes you do.

And for those of you who don’t know what a spotter is, let me explain.

A spotter is usually a training partner who helps you get the weight up.

And, depending on your wants and needs, stays with you through your set, from start to finish.

But a spotter can also be an individual you call over once you’re at the gym to help you during a set.

The initial rep

Just that first repetition (rep) can take a lot out of you if you’re using heavy weight or even moderately heavy weight. So much, in fact, that you may not have any steam for subsequent reps.

With a spotter to help you up with the weight–whether dumbbells or barbell–you have more power to go longer. So you can get more reps, which is a good thing. More time under tension helps you build strength and muscle size, too.

Plus, working with  a spotter allows you to work out with greater confidence. You know that he/she is there to help you if you need help.

So maybe you pick up heavier DBs than you’d normally use. Or you’d go for that extra rep you wouldn’t attempt if you were alone. Or perhaps you’d go for a full range of motion when you might otherwise be tempted to shorten it…for safety’s sake.

Speaking of which…a spotter also provides the safety factor.

I have a rotator cuff (in the vicinity of the front of the shoulder) that acts up from time to time. Doing chest flyes, where you lower DBs out to the sides of your body, can pose a lot of stress on that area. A spotter acts like a “bumper,” preventing me from lowering the DBs too low.

Sounds extreme, but basically I know there’s no way I’m going to wrench my shoulder out of its socket during the movement. 

A spotter also helps you get in position without a lot of potentially dangerous movements.

For example, a seated one-arm triceps extension. You’re sitting on a straight-back bench. You extend your arms overhead. Your spotter places the dumbbell in your hands, which you cup between both hands before starting the exercise. So you avoid hoisting it overhead all by your lonesome and potentially tweaking something.

Or, consider doing lying triceps extensions (aka skullcrushers). You are supine on the bench, arms extended over you. Your spotter positions the bar above your torso so you can easily grasp it where you need to. And he/she is there (hands under or on the bar) to keep you from whacking yourself in the face with the bar.

I could go on and on about the benefits of a spotter. So many exercises…and so many ways a spotter can help. 

So a good spotter is a very good thing, indeed.

When you don’t have one, you must make extra efforts at staying safe in the gym.

When you do have one, you must still make sure to exercise safely. But you have another person to help you do that.

A good spotter can be MADE

No one will know instinctively what you want or need. It’s up to you to communicate.

Some people like spotters just to help them get the weight up in the air on that first rep.

I like a spotter to stay with me through the set, give me just enough assistance to help me maintain my rhythm and to take heavy weights out of my hands when I’m done my set.

But NOT to do the work for me. A good spotter doesn’t help too much! You want to know that, for the most part, you are doing the work.

But it’s certainly worth a bit of discussion and trial and error to get someone who can reliably help you. You may not have him or her with you all of the time (I don’t), but even for once in a while, it’s a blessing.

A good spotter encourages you and even pushes you (within the boundaries of safety), so it can be motivating!

And, it makes working out a bit more fun! 

But, p.s., don’t let a spotter bully you!

I did once many years ago and ended up fearing a broken cheek bone from a DB that came down on my face. 

My fault, really. I should have stopped the exercise when I felt I couldn’t safely perform another rep.  I didn’t have the strength to control the weight, but I trusted him. And he was pushing me to do more.

Sigh. You’re in a vulnerable position and you need to be able to trust your spotter.

But he wasn’t able to control the DB’s path once my arm gave way.  

Bad spotting. It can and does happen. You’ll even see spotters gaze around the gym when they should be focused on their training partner.

So, be picky.

A blogger friend left a comment on one of my recent posts and included this great link.  (Thank you, Lisa!)

In case you didn’t see Lisa’s comment, I’m devoting this post to it. It’s that important– and I don’t want you to miss it!

The link provides cross-sections of two men’s thighs. Both are 74 years old. One is an athlete. One is sedentary.

You can plainly see the difference in composition–specifically, the amount of muscle tissue and fat tissue.

And, you’ll note that the 74-year-old athlete’s thigh is not unlike the 40-year-old’s thigh.

Nothing like a “visual” to remind you why you’re exercising!

Because you can forget, sometimes. And you might have those days where you wonder, betwen sets or laps, ”What am I really getting out of this?”

The changes you experience can be subtle. And you can forget how you used to feel when you didn’t exercise.

But skip exercising for a while, and then go back to it, and you’ll see what you’ve lost. The strength and flexibility you had. The greater energy and vitality you enjoyed.

And just a reminder…

After age 50, one in two women will experience a fracture due to osteoporosis, or low bone mineral density.

After age 50, one in four men will experience a fracture due to osteoporosis, or low bone mineral density.

Fractures–especially hip fractures–can be life-altering. Not in a good way.

At age 74, which leg would YOU rather have to hold yourself up?

Weapons of CONSTRUCTION

If you go through a “busy period,” research shows you can maintain muscle strength with once-a-week training.

But, if you’re between the ages of 60 and 75, not muscle size.

And, although the study reported last year in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, did not investigate adults ages, say, 40 to 59, I’m going to deduce that things do start slowing down!

Here’s a news release about the study.

The study

For 16 weeks (Phase 1), two groups of 70 individuals (total) exercised 3 times a week. They performed 3 sets of 3 exercises–the squat, the leg press, and leg extensions.

The 39 younger adults were between 20 and 35. The 31 older adults were between 60 and 75.

For 32 weeks (Phase 2), both groups changed their training. In this phase, they were further divided into three groups:

• those who performed 3 sets of the 3 exercises on ONE day a week (1/3 of their former training volume)
• those who performed just ONE set of the 3 exercises, on ONE day a week (1/9 of their former training volume)
• and those who did no exercise at all

At the study end, NONE of the individuals in the older group had maintained muscle size.

An aside, for my younger friends reading this…

Those younger individuals who cut back to one exercise day a week (1/3 of their prior program) continued to build muscle. While those who performed only one set of the 3 exercises (1/9 of their prior program) were able to maintain muscle. And those who did no exercise at all, lost muscle.)

But what of that huge population segment of people ages 36 to 59? The researchers didn’t look at this group, sorry. But, as I hinted before, I think we can safely speculate…and it doesn’t get better the older you get!

The upshot

Older adults need greater weekly maintenance dosing of exercise than younger adults to maintain muscle gains from exercise, says the researcher who led the trial.

Good to know. Your strength won’t decline too quickly if you’re forced to stop weight training. But your size will decrease.

Why should you care?

Because loss of lean muscle is independently linked to increased mortality in older individuals.

(Curious? Here’s one study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, that talks about the link between decreased muscle and increased mortality in older men.)

Resistance exercise builds muscle–the anti-frailty cure.

It helps fight disease by boosting your immune system and helping to ease inflammation, and also by…

• improving your body’s use of insulin, helping to normalize blood sugar levels
• boosting your flexibility and agility as well as your strength, decreasing your fracture risk
• strengthening and building your bones
• improving mood, memory and cognitive function 

So many reasons to pick up those weights–or, if you prefer, resistance bands.  

You won't find me outdoors (at least, dressed like this) NOW!

It’s true that you’ve got to be consistent to be healthy and fit.

You’ve got to exercise regularly and eat well regularly, too. That sometimes means finding a “middle road” that you don’t have trouble staying on.

Years ago, I dieted super strictly. But I could never stay on the diet for long. Monday through Friday, no problem. Weekends, forget it!

The net result: My weight keep going up. Frustrating, given I was “so good” 5 days in a row! But those weekends did me in–even though it didn’t seem they should have!

This is a good case for finding a more reasonable “middle road” and staying on it!

But–and here’s the catch–change is also critical!

You’ve got to change up your exercise program regularly to keep challenging your body.

And if your goal is to lose a few pounds, changing up your diet is a very smart idea.

Fortunately, the changing seasons help us do that somewhat–as long as you eat seasonal produce (for the most part).

Bodybuilders are experts at changing up their diet.

Now, you may not see the connection between you and a bodybuilder, but please consider: Bodybuilders getting ready for a contest have a certain length of time to get ready. Often, around 12 or 13 weeks. (Some a bit less, some a bit more.)

During that time, they juggle their macronutrients (protein, carbs, fats) regularly in order to keep shedding bodyfat.

If they continued eating the same meals, day in and day out, they’d hit a plateau. And, with a contest on the horizon, they have no time for plateaus.

But you don’t want to think about carbs, fats and protein, you say? I don’t blame you. It gets tedious. And sometimes that obsessiveness can backfire.

So what do you do?

It doesn’t have to be arduous.

Changing your diet

Just make simple substitutions for the things you “always” have.

For instance, do you always have oatmeal for breakfast? Change it!

Have a scrambled eggs (or use some whites to fluff it out) with veggies. Add sprouted grain toast, or fruit. Or a side of nitrite-free bacon or organic chicken sausage. Or top your eggs with a slice of Swiss (lots of calcium!) or feta or goat cheese.

Or how about a shake or a smoothie? Expecially if you’re tired of cooking anything at breakfast. Add a slice of toast, if you like, for the crunch factor.

Always have protein-starch-veg for lunch or dinner? Many ways you can vary that meal. Like chicken, roasted butternut squash, broccoli. Or salmon, cauliflower, yam. (Hopefully you already change things up, to get a variety of health-promoting nutrients into your body.)

But maybe you want to throw 3 nights of salads into your weekly meal plan. Toss some chicken or turkey in there, or whatever protein you like. Add avocado and any sort of veggie. And make your own dressing with extra virgin olive oil.

Or maybe you want to enjoy some homemade soup a couple nights a week. Great! Fill out your soup meal with vegetables and/or a salad, so your stomach won’t be growling an hour later. Make sure there’s a little protein in there, too.

Tip: I find that weekends are a great time to change up my diet. I usually have more time to cook than I do during the week. I can even have bigger, more fulfilling breakfasts. Take advantage of the days you have time!

 Changing your exercise

Change the types of activities you’re doing. Or vary the frequency with which you’re doing each.

Let’s say you’re currently taking 2 yoga classes a week and doing 2 days of weights followed by 30 minutes of cardio.

Doing strictly meditative yoga? Consider substituting a more challenging class for one session.

Or…consider doing 3 days of yoga. Keep doing your 2 days of weights (but change up the order of exercises and maybe how many repetitions you go for) and change your cardio activities. Maybe do 2 days of interval cardio, plus 2 days of long walks. Or take a class you’ve been curious about. Or get out and play tennis. Any activity YOU enjoy (or may enjoy) and are likely to hang with for a while!

You get the idea. There are lots of ways to change up your exercise plan. Including even taking a week off and maybe just going for restorative walks or, weather permitting, fun bike rides.

Just don’t make yourself crazy. Vary your program according to how your schedule and your energy permits. And be ready to change things again in, say, 2 or 3 months.

Again, the seasons (and the weather) can help you with this, depending on where you live.

For many of us, when we have warmer, dryer days with more hours of daylight, we have more outdoor options. Like evening walks, weekend tennis games, bike rides and hikes.

Change the exercises or the number of exercises you are doing in each session.

Do you do the same old exercises over and over again? Change it up!

Also change the order in which you perform the exercises.

Be creative. There is no workout cop who’s going to write you up for doing lunges instead of squats.

Do you always do 3 straight sets of each weight-training exercise? Change it! No reason you can’t do just 2 sets of some, or 4 sets of another. 

OR, try supersetting your exercises. For example, doing a set of DB upright rows for shoulders, directly followed by a set of DB side laterals for shoulders.

(Supersetting is an intensity technique. Most likely, you’ll need slightly lighter weights than you ordinarily use to keep doing all those reps.) 

I’ll leave you with this…

Most personal trainers will tell you that MOST gym “regulars”–the people who show up regularly and are consistent with their exercise routine–don’t significantly change their bodies over time.

Why? Usually the reason is either a faulty diet or they’re doing the same exercise routine again and again, for months on end.

And, sure, sometimes it’s a combination of both a poor effort at “eating healthy” and no variation in the exercise program.

No wonder people get discouraged.

Don’t let that happen to you. Keep changing things so you continue to make progress and you won’t be disappointed!

With exercise, change things monthly, quarterly or, at the least, seasonally to get the best results! 

With your diet, change things seasonally, or when you feel your results have stalled or when you’re going for a goal–such as weight loss, greater energy, lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar or greater disease protection.