Health, Fitness and Quality of Life City Rankings

Men's Health and Women's Health magazines just reviewed data from well-known national sources in order to rank 100 of America's largest cities in multiple categories regarding health, fitness and quality of life. All 50 states were represented, and rankings were grouped into best and worst cities for men and for women. Important to understand for this ranking is that the data crunch was not focused on suburbs, but rather the cities themselves.

I'm going to speak to the overall rankings for Memphis, Tennessee since that is my hometown. Memphis ranks 98 for women and 95 for men. Let's put this into perspective: 1 is the best and 100 is the worst. WOW. Before those of us that are suburbanites blow this off I would daresay, unfortunately, that we would not have had much positive impact.

The people of Memphis can change this ranking. It is within our power to do so, but it will take significant change, one step at a time. The short-lived weight loss frenzy that always dominates January is not going to do it. So what steps can we take?

Get motivated.

How important is your health and quality of life to you? It's never too late to take your health and fitness to the next level, which in turn dramatically improves your quality of life. This is true of the self-professed couch potato or the athlete actively competing in a sport. You cannot do all that you want to do or be all you want to be if you continue to put your health and fitness on the back burner.

Set some goals.

I mean long and short term, very personal goals. Long term might be how you see yourself this time next year. Short term goals with specific dates attached keep you grounded and focused. Challenge yourself but don't set yourself up for discouragement with an unrealistic goal. Each short term goal should push you a little further. Do you want to lose fat, gain strength, build muscle, increase your endurance? You can't get there if you don't know where you're going.

Establish accountability and support.

Very important! If no one knows what you're doing, you're not accountable. Seek out someone that will understand your goals and actually hold you accountable. This is probably not the same person that will meet you for dessert when you've had a stressful day. Also, enlist as many family members and friends as possible to help support you during this process. It will make the road easier, help lift you out of a slump and you'll probably be a positive influence on them!

Develop a plan.

Having the motivation and setting goals will still get you nowhere if you don't develop a plan on how to achieve them. Action items are crucial. What workout program will you start on what date? What is your strategy for food preparation and eating? Who will watch the kids? How does this fit into your work day? Make sure your plan is doable.

Clean up the eating.

The hardest part for most and yet one of the most important steps of all. Memphis is not known for healthy eating out options. That means you have to eat at home, figure out healthier options in restaurants, plan your fun meals (instead of just letting them happen to you) and pack a lunch bag. We can say that fast food is cheap, but what's cheaper than a big hand full of fresh green beans from the local grocery?

Begin a sound workout program.

Always get clearance from your physician to begin a workout program. Find a trainer for advice if you're not sure how to get started. Make sure your workout program lines up with your goals. You'll have to decide whether to join a gym or workout at home and potentially puchase equipment. The good news is there are great workouts available that require very little equipment and can be done at home or on the road.

Finish your workout program.

Seems obvious, but next to good nutrition this is the hardest accomplishment. If you have goals, measure your progress along the way and complete what you start, you will achieve success. Remember that once you've gone through these steps, it won't be for lack of knowledge, it may be from lack of just doing it.

Do it again.

Revisit your goals often to make sure you're focused. Revise them as you grow. Also revisit your action items. Are they helping you reach your goals, or is it time for a change?

Come on Memphis and all you other low-ranking cities. We have some work to do! http://www.womenshealthmag.com/ http://www.menshealth.com/

Merry Christmas

I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas season with lots of joy, time with family and friends and special time to reflect on Jesus, the greatest gift of all. What peace He brings in spite of this world of chaos. This year has been especially challenging in multiple ways, but we are blessed with each other and the opportunity of a new year. What a perfect time to reflect on 2008 and prepare for 2009. I also wish for you much deeper plans and goals than the typical resolutions we hear each January. You were created with great deliberation, for a purpose. Set your course and give it all you've got in 2009!

Bodyweight Workouts

As I walk into the gym, I notice people on the cardio equipment, others on the machines and others in the free weight area. It's less often that I notice people doing bodyweight exercises, even in the warm-up/stretching area. Maybe it's because you don't have to go to the gym to do bodyweight exercises, but I still find it interesting. Of course a person's goal should determine how they train and bodyweight workouts aren't always the answer to that, but there is some thought out there that until we master bodyweight exercises, maybe we shouldn't be adding an external load with weights. That makes a lot of sense. Why not be able to crank out a serious number of push-ups anywhere before obsessing over how much you can bench press at the gym? A few benefits to bodyweight workouts are:

• They can be done anywhere, anytime
• They require little to no additional equipment
• It's a great way to master your form before adding external load
• They can be grouped into circuits for serious fat-burning workouts

Examples of bodyweight exercises are squats, lunges, step-ups, various jumps, push-ups, pull-ups, inverted rows, plank, crunches, bear crawls. The variations are many and the possibilities are endless. If you're short on time, you can't get to the gym, you need some variety, you want to do cardio but can't tolerate another hour on a machine, or you just want a good, solid, fat-burning workout that you can do anytime, anywhere, try a bodyweight circuit workout.

Choose two leg exercises and two upper body exercises and one ab exercise. Determine the order of your exercises, how many reps you will do of each one, how long you will rest between circuits and how long your total workout will be. You will want to alternate your lower and upper body exercises so one is resting while the other is working and put your ab exercise last. You're now ready to get started. Here's an example:

Squat, 8 reps

Pull-up or inverted row, 8 reps

Lunge, 8 reps each leg

Push-up, 8 reps

Side plank, 30 seconds each side

Rest 30 seconds

Repeat circuit as many times as possible for 20 minutes.

You can choose from multiple variations of these basic exercises. All you'd need for this workout is some space and a bar (the swingset in the backyard would suffice). Keep the intensity high but don't compromise your form. If pull-ups or inverted rows are too challenging at first and you have an exercise tube, you can use it by wrapping it around a steady object and using it for standing rows.

Try a bodyweight circuit workout! Make up your own or try Turbulence Training Bodyweight Workouts.

This post contains an affiliate link. Please see my disclosure statement.

Roll, Roll, Roll Your Ankle...

...while jumping on a bench! Actually, please don't do that. I tried it last night at the gym and it was not a good addition to my workout. However, being the over-achiever that I did not realize I am, I got through the rest of it. Then went by the grocery. Then went by my daughter's house. Then decided to prop it up with ice. After waking up at 3am and hardly being able to walk, I went back to bed and spent the next three hours trying to concoct a broken-ankle workout in my head. Good news is that it's not broken anywhere (went in for an Xray today to be on the safe side), but it's a sprain alright. Now I'll have to figure out a sprained-ankle workout. I'll let you know how that turns out! Words of wisdom: ice, elevation, an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory, an ankle brace from the drugstore and did I mention ice? Oh yeah, and don't run errands on the way home!

The 12 Pounds of Christmas

There are so many people writing about how not to gain weight over the holidays that I thought I wouldn't even mention the subject, but it is a very real issue, so I can't ignore it. I'd like to say that I'm not impacted by this phenomenon until December each year but it's not true. The first cold, dreary, rainy day we have in fall is when it hits me. All of a sudden I want to go home, put on my PJs and curl up in front of the fire with a big Jethro bowl of macaroni and cheese and watch a marathon of HGTV. Keep in mind this is sometime in October usually, so without a strategic plan it could be downhill for an entire quarter of the year. Compound that with all that comes with the holidays: a packed schedule, hosting events, multiple parties, bountiful snacks and sweets at every turn, no healthy food to be found while out shopping, less sleep, fewer hours in the day. Next thing we know the gym seems too far away, we can't go one day without making a bad food choice and we throw our hands up in the air and say "Next year! It will be here soon enough".

You'll find all kinds of advice out there.

• Try to keep your weight gain to a minimum and start again with your new years resolutions.
• Don't try to lose weight during the holidays, just try to maintain your weight.
• Don't try a new program right now and set yourself up for failure.
• Try this new gadget/quick fix/diet plan/weight loss book/ab machine...

No wonder it's all confusing. Here are some questions I ponder.

• Why don't we implement a plan for the last quarter of the year, knowing this will happen?
• What is more important than our health?
• Why undo such hard work with the very habits we've tried to combat all year?
• Why don't we get a jump start on the new year instead of back-tracking and making the new year harder?
• If we want to honor God this season, why not show it by taking care of our body/soul/mind/spirit?
• Why don't we use this time to be an example to the next generation?

Whatever you do, do it with deliberation and don't just let things happen to you!

Fitness and Nutrition Goals

I just revisted my fitness and nutrition goals.

I find this process challenging. I don't have a problem with determining action items, but without a goal my action items become scattered, inefficient and inconsistent. Developing a specific goal is much harder but a complete necessity in a fitness/nutrition program. At first, all I can think is that I want to drop weight, buy jeans or a bathing suit without post-shopping depression, or for my belly not to jiggle when I do forward lunges with dumbbells. Those, however are not effective or motivating goals. Examples of specific goals might be:

• My body fat will be X % by X date.
• Master 90% compliance with nutrition plan over next 4 weeks.
• Complete current fitness program by X date.

I find this process annoying. Why can't I just do this without having to have written goals? I might be able to start off that way, but it would be based on will-power (short-lived) and a perfect schedule (what?). So I must make them clear and measurable. I have to write them down and revisit them regularly. It removes the emotion, the ebb and flow of enthusiasm, and forces me to work around obstacles.

I find this process interesting. There is a lot to learn about human nature from this process. Why is writing down a goal, revisiting it and striving to achieve it so intimidating? Because when I write it down, it's more of a commitment. When I revisit it, I feel more convicted to make good choices for things I can control. When I put a date to it, I have to face whether or not I hit the mark and take responsibility. I have to work hard to achieve it.

Here's the great part. When achieve my goal, I get to set a new one.

Cleaning Up Our Diets

One of my favorite quotes by Alwyn Cosgrove is that you can't "out-train a crappy diet". I am living proof of that. I worked hard at the gym for a long time, getting stronger and building muscle but could not budge my body fat. It wasn't until I finally decided to clean up my eating that I finally started seeing that muscle I'd been working so hard.

I must confess I detest the word diet. It has such a negative connotation to most of us. Truth is, if you eat anything at all you're on a diet, but not everyone makes the best food choices. I'm also convinced dieting as we know it is the wrong approach. For the most part it's unsustainable, deprivation is depressing, and the body wasn't designed to operate without complete food groups. So how do you clean up your eating?

For us it was a matter of daily choices. I literally changed my eating overnight. Jimmy made his changes more gradually. Consequently he's had greater success. Starting with simple changes is doable. Choose one or two new changes a week and stick to them. Pretty soon you will have changed a lot of things in a relatively painless way. Here are some changes we incorporated along the way:

Bake, grill or broil your meat instead of frying

Choose mustard instead of ketchup or mayo

Switch from breakfast cereal to oatmeal

Try olive oil and balsamic vinegar for salad dressing

Drink 2-3 more glasses of water a day than you have been drinking

Choose a sweet potato instead of a white one

Switch from regular soft drinks to diet (add fresh lime for taste)

Mix almonds and raisins for a quick snack

Eater smaller meals more frequently

Plan for eating the foods you crave (for us it's mexican)

Here a picture of one of Jimmy's typical meals now

(that's a 97% fat-free turkey burger)

If you'd like an easy read on cleaning up your eating that makes sense, pick up a copy of The Eat Clean Diet.

The Eat Clean Diet can be found in my Amazon Store. Please see my disclosure statement.

Great Personal Trainers

I must take a moment to tell you about my personal trainer, Branda Polk. There are personal trainers, and there are great personal trainers. She's one of the great ones.

Branda is cute, fit, totally lean and high-energy. She's married to a great guy and they have four boys. She bounces in the gym and you'd better be ready to work. If she's smiling especially big when you come in, you know she has something new in store for you. She even has a no whining clause in her contract. Sometimes I can't believe I pay her to kick my butt for a solid hour. When I work with Branda I sweat like a pig and don't even care what I look like. On any given night she can be overheard saying things like "four more!" and "you gotta love it!". There's no getting away with sloppy form and no slacking off. I have asked her how she can be so cute and so evil all at the same time.

Seriously, Branda took me on and scooped me out of a slump when I started training with her. She met me where I was, helped me establish my goals and rebuild my foundation, tackle my poor eating habits and hung in there with me through a diagnosis of hypothyroidism. She is exceptional at what she does, and she has had a permanent impact on my life. I absolutely love her!

If you are new to fitness or you are in a training slump, find a personal trainer. Look for one of the great ones who can help you get on track without spending days, months or years floundering around on your own.

Fitness and Nutrition

This blog is going to be all about fitness and nutrition. I am fascinated by the human body, what it can do, how it works, and how it was geniusly and deliberately designed. I'm also intrigued by our society's sedentary lifestyles, rising obesity rates, poor eating habits, and haphazard health management and at the same time our obsession with weight loss, anti-aging, quick fixes and the easy way out. All types of training for fitness are interesting to me, but I particularly love strength and interval training. Fat loss and metabolism are also of special interest to me. I find that so many people would like to make positive changes in their lives in the areas of fitness and nutrition but don't know how or where to start and may not have the right information or support. My goal is to dedicate this space as a helpful tool to achieving higher levels of fitness and optimal nutrition.