Get rid of this, get more of this and you will reach your goals

A month and a half ago you made yourself a promise. You promised yourself to reach your goals and you decided to start off your new year the right way. You see, we all have our goals, our dreams are what makes life so beautiful. Every new year we promise to reach those goals, this year is the year! Unfortunately most of you are in relapse right now. You failed already. I will tell you how you can get back up on your feet and get to your goals. I have used this technique over and over. It has never failed me and I promise you it will never fail you.


Number one, get rid of the excuses. Excuses don't matter but results do, excuses is your mind playing tricks on you, excuses is a way for you to justify not reaching your goals, excuses is your way of thinking it is not your fault. I am here to tell you that you are strong enough to have ZERO excuses. Nothing can stop you from reaching your goals. Some excuses are stronger than others but they all have one thing in common: they all cost you reaching your goals. I promise you there are people out there with terrible situations/excuses who have said "I have a pretty damn strong excuse to not reach my goals but I won't let that stop me, I will work through them and shoot them down". I have seen and read stories of winners, people who reached their goals, who had the worst of excuses to stop them from winning but who instead stood up and said "No, this can't be it, this won't be it, I can do this" and guess what, they did it. The moment you let go of all excuses is the moment you know that your goal and dream is not only attainable but also inevitable.

Number two, get more faith. We could all do with a bit more faith. I want to help you have more faith in yourself. Think of the people you love the most, if they have faith in you then why can't you have faith in you.

Consider these questions: Why not me? Why can't this happen to me? Why can't I be like that winner". Now please listen to this, you will only be on your way to success the day you ask yourself these questions without having a valid answer to it. If those questions don't make sense to you then I congratulate you. I have people come up to me and ask "Mohamed why can't I lose 200 lbs, or why can't I be the best on my team, or why can't I get straight A+s?" my answer is always "I don't know, why can't you?". The day you answer all the why questions with "I don't know" then your dream is possible and within reach. If you answer those questions with anything other than "I don't know why" then you are back with the excuses. Again, get rid of the excuses. It's all connected once you sit down and think about it.

Get rid of your excuses and get more faith. Work hard, no one said it is easy. It's easy for us to sit, stare at the winners and say "They are so lucky or they have good genetics or they have a lot of help" but we most likely don't know their complete story, we don't know how hard they worked, we don't know how many times they brushed away excuses and said "Why not me!" until they got there. Life is not about what others have that you did not have, life is about what you made out of what you had.

You just need to want it so bad.

Get in touch with me if you think you have excuses and I will help you work around your excuses to make your dream a reality.

Love it, or use fitness & nutrition to change it!

Mohamed

Four huge differences between you and a winner

Winning is not just attainable in sports. We win when we reach our goals, we win when we achieve our dreams, we win when we conquer our fears, we win when we are happy and most of all, we win when we smile at the end of the day knowing we gave it our best shot.

The first step is setting our goals, it could be health/fitness goals, it could be your dream job, it could be a perfect GPA, it could be changing personality flaws and most of all it could be making a difference in others lives.

1) You make excuses:

Making excuses takes many forms. From "oh I'm on vacation" all the way to "I have a broken leg". While some excuses are more serious than others, they all end up being barriers to your goals. As long as you keep making excuses, you will be unable to reach your goal.

The winner: "I have a broken leg, but my goal is to stay fit and so I will go to a fitness center 3 x a week and exercise my upper body, I will compensate for my lack of mobility by eating healthier and reducing my energy intake"

A personal story: I was on a 2 week vacation in Washington and couldn't afford buying day passes to the gym. Instead of using this as an excuse not to exercise, I decided to sign up for 3 day trial passes to one gym at a time until I had free access for the entire vacation.

2) You live in the past:

You could stare at your current and past pictures as long as you like, it won't change a thing. You're a person who grows in life. What's the purpose of the past if you choose to live in it instead of growing out of it?

The winner: "I used to be overweight but that won't dictate my future. I will act like who I want to be in the future and therefore I will be that person when the time comes". Reaching your goal needs a good attitude and time, if you are stuck in time then how will you ever reach your goal?

A personal story: I grew up being a Water Polo athlete and stopped at the age of 16 thanks to an injury, a busy high school schedule and loss of motivation. At the age of 18 I wanted to return to playing again but never had the courage to. I was living in my present and past rather than looking forward. My past was telling me "It's been 2 years, forget it". At the age of 20 I pushed myself to work hard and joined a competitive team in Canada, it took me 3 years but I finally became the athlete I never thought I could be. If I can do it, so can you.

3) You have tried, failed, then quit

The biggest lie you were ever told is that failing makes you a failure. I wish I was taught otherwise in school and in the sports I grew up playing as a child. I learned this a bit later in life, failing does not make you a failure, quitting does. It's very simple, the difference between you and the winner is that the winner failed many times but got up every single damn time and did it all over again, until they succeeded. Bill Gates didn't build Microsoft in one try.

The winner: "I failed to make the starting lineup in my sport this year, but I will work double the amount my teammates do during the off season so I could make the starting lineup next year"

A personal story: My friend and I were at the gym and we saw an elite athlete chest press 120 lbs dumbbells in each hand. I told my friend "I will be able to do that one day", he laughed at me and said its impossible given my body structure (he studied kinesiology). I made it a goal since that day, this summer I finally reached it. It took me 3 years of failing, getting up, changing my approach and trying again.

4) You are easily intimidated by others

Many of us are easily intimidated by others, some of us are intimidated by the super fit people at our gyms, others such as athletes are intimidated by their teammates who they think perform better than them. The bottom line is that letting this intimidation get to us will only stop us from putting in 110% effort. This unfortunately is more common among females. Trust me when I say this: even the super fit person had to start somewhere, they weren't born this way.

The winner:"Yes I am lifting little weights compared to the huge guys in the corner lifting 5x the amount I am lifting. However, I could not care less about them. When I'm at the gym I will make it about my body and my health. I will work at my own pace and I one day others will be looking up to my strength"

A personal story: Whenever I tell my friends "just go to the gym and start exercising" their #1 response is always "easy for you, you're already fit" which I always answer back with "well guess what, I wasn't born this way and had to start from the bottom at one point". Once you surpass the bottom, it becomes the past, and remember, we don't live in the past :)


Promise yourself you will keep failing and trying, conquer every excuse until there are none, work your way up from the bottom until you look back at it leaving it in the past and finally, not care about what others think about your journey to reaching your goals.

But if you are already happy where you are, then congrats :)!

Love it, or use fitness & nutrition to change it,

Mohamed

Do you have any of these 6 fitness & health obsessions? Here is how to fix them

Developing obsessions is never a healthy thing, it often takes away from other important parts of our lives. It also takes away from the bigger picture and can often lead to failure. The same applies to the health & fitness field. There are those who develop complicated obsessions that often lead to bigger issues such as eating disorders. I have personally met plenty of people who develop unhealthy obsessions that lead to an unbalanced life. Leading a balanced lifestyle is important if you want it to be a healthy one. In this post, I will outline some of the most common health & fitness obsessions, how to recognize them and fight them. 

Resistance exercise obsession: 

The signs: you do resistance/weight training everyday for 1.5+ hours

Unless you are an athlete with a well planned program then you should not be doing resistance training on a daily basis. Resistance and weight training involves the breaking down of muscles in the gym. Your body responds by building them bigger and stronger (providing you have proper nutrition and rest). If you train everyday then you risk over-stressing your body which needs the proper amount of rest to rebuild. Picture a plant that you water too much, it simply won't grow. You should reduce the amount of resistance training to 3-5 per week depending on your goals and expertise. 

Scale & weight obsession:

The signs: you weigh yourself multiple times per day

Obsessing over your weight can disappoint your or cause you to fail. The body weight changes multiple times per day, so if you are going to weigh yourself on a daily basis anyways then do it at the same time everyday. Furthermore, those who are doing resistance and weight training will often see times of weight gain or no decrease due to the fact that the body should be building muscle. Instead, use a measuring tape to measure your waist, hips, chest, arms and legs. Restrict use of the scale to once a week. Instead focus more on exercising and eating healthy.

Calorie (kcal) obsession:

The signs: you worry about every kcal you take in and aim for a very low kcal diet (below 1500). 

This in my opinion is one of the worst ones. Obsessing about every kcal you eat will only cause you to lead an impossible lifestyle, you will be bound to fail and revert to an unhealthy lifestyle. Instead, focus on eating kcals from healthy sources such as whole grains, proteins, good fats, fruits and vegetables. Some foods will be high in kcal but are excellent sources of nutrients such as nuts and seeds, don't shy away from them. Finally, aiming for a very low kcal diet will cause your body to starve and draw on energy from itself which leads to muscle wasting and bone mineral loss. The best way to lose weight is exercise and eat nutrient dense foods. 

Cardio (running) obsession:

The signs: you use running (often multiple times per day) as your primary weight loss tool

Again, unless you are a specific athlete, obsessive running is not recommended as a weight loss tool for several reason. Firstly, running has high impact on the knee and will wear your knees out over time. Secondly, long runs often lead to muscle wasting since the body draws on the muscle stores for energy use. Make sure you supplement your cardio activities with resistance training and sports. 

"I will start next Monday" obsession: 

The signs: you keep promising yourself and others that you will start eating healthy and exercising next week

This one is self explanatory, if you keep promising to start next week because of that birthday or travel time then you are most likely to keep postponing. If you keep finding excuses then you will most likely find another one when Monday comes. Instead, try starting right away by making better food choices and finding an activity that will get you moving and sweating! 

The measuring obsession:

The signs: you measure every oz of water and food on a daily basis

Unless this is a short term phase for a specific goal then this obsession is most likely going to cause you to fail and revert to an unhealthy lifestyle. Measuring everything you put in your mouth is time consuming and tiring, very few people can do this in a healthy way. Instead, focus on differentiating between nutritious and low nutrient foods. Know how a cup of grains looks like or use a cup to scoop it but don't avoid eating grains because you have no measuring device in some situations (restaurants etc).


Love it, or use fitness & nutrition to change it,

Mohamed

How to start resistance training from scratch and boost your weight loss efforts

Weight loss is a tricky thing when you are throwing everything you got at it. You might be one of many people eating healthy and exercising but still struggling to reach your goals. Often clients and friends come forward voicing their frustrations and concerns towards their wellness goals, they “exercise” and eat healthy but still see minimal results. The first question that comes to mind when faced with such scenarios is always “what type of exercise do you do?” We live in a world where we exert minimal activity; everything is designed to make our life easier and effortless. Keeping that in mind, walking for 30 minutes or running for 15 minutes is often considered “good exercise”. While that form of exercise is definitely suitable for a specific population and is a good start, there comes a time where you have to push your body more for better results. So, how do you push your body for better weight loss results? Read on. 

This blog entry was inspired after a health and fitness conversation with a friend. The conversation raised the question “how to start participating in resistance and weight training”. The benefits of resistance training for both men and women are countless, I have touched on them in a previous entry and the bottom line is: resistance training will help you lose weight, increase yoru confidence, improve your health and tone your body. While there is no easy way to explain this in one blog entry, there are steps you can take to start on the right track.

Start simple and don’t shy away

No one said you should go all out with the resistance training. Start with a one hour session that includes: 10 minutes warm up (light running on a treadmill), 30 minutes resistance training, 12 minutes cardio training, and 8 minutes stretching. Don’t shy away from the gym because of the regulars, everyone had to start somewhere and no one was born super fit.

Start by hitting your big muscles

Bigger muscles = more energy spent exercising them = more weight loss! Start by targeting the following muscles:

Legs (quads & glutes): The exercise: Squats. Stand shoulder width apart, brace your core and tighten your glutes. Now throw your hips back as if you are sitting down until you form a 90 degree angle between the knee and leg. Make sure your heels always stay on the ground and knees are not ahead of the toes. Now stand up again and repeat. Power should always come from your heel. 

Back (lats): The exercise: Lateral Pull downs. This is a machine with a bar and a seat, the bar is above your head and attached to cable weights. Start by adjusting the seat so that when you sit, the toes are ahead of your knees and legs locked in safely. Now keeping your shoulders down in a natural position, pull the bar down until it is between the nose and mouth area. The elbows should be pointing downwards and aligned with your body. Your lower back should be straight in its natural form, neither rounded nor arched. 

Chest (pecs): The exercise: Push Up. This is a body weight exercise. If you cannot perform a push up on the ground then do wall push ups. Stand arm length away from a stable wall. Place the palms of your hand shoulder width apart against the wall and aligned with your shoulders. Keeping your toes on the ground and your body aligned, push forward until your nose almost touches the wall, now push back and repeat. Your elbows should be pointing to a direction in a way where you can place a slice of pizza between your arm and body (45 degrees). If you can complete more than 30 wall push ups then move to a normal push up with the same technique. 

Use your gym personal trainer

You don’t need to pay for most trainers when it comes to advice as long as you keep it simple. Don’t shy away from asking technical questions such as the following: “how do I perform this exercise?”, ”What exercise would you recommend for this muscle?”, ”can you watch my form and correct it?”. 

Keep it challenging

Don’t stick to the same exercises all the time. Make sure you switch it up either by adding more exercising or increasing the resistance. For weight loss, if you can complete 12-15 repetitions of the resistance exercise then increase the weight by 5%. For more info on making it challenging read my previous entry titled ”why you should work your muscles to failure if you want to lose weight fast”.

Find an experienced workout partner

Grab a friend who is willing to exercise with you. Bonus points if that friend has exercise experience. You will find that having a workout partner can help you push yourself, expand your knowledge and improve your motivation. 

Ask me questions!

What’s better than free advice? Email me and ask me your exercise questions and I will be sure to point you in the right direction.

Love it, or use fitness & nutrition to change it,

Mohamed

Lose more weight by eating in this specific hour!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of you! First off, I am officially a Registered Dietitian Candidate, meaning I have all my rights and privileges to practice until I can write my license exam in May. Here is an article I wrote for the Dalhousie Gazette earlier. One of the most important things to pay attention to: 

Everyone exercises with a goal in mind, be it dropping a few pounds or bulking up.  However, people often forget one of the most important parts of a successful fitness regimen: the post-workout meal.
The hour after a workout—often referred to as “the golden hour”—is just as important as the time you spend in the gym. While training in the gym is all about stimulating your muscles, how you eat afterwards will dictate your body’s ability to restore those muscles efficiently. Think about it this way: you can have the fastest and most expensive car in the world, but you will never reach your destination without the proper fuel.

During the golden hour, your muscle cells are extremely sensitive to nutrient intake. Therefore, what you eat post-workout will likely contribute to building your muscles and not your fat cells. This is not an excuse to overeat or consume food lacking in nutritional value. Eating the proper food in the golden hour will do you wonders.

What are the right kinds of food to eat after intense exercise? Often, people end their workout with a quick protein shake and call it a day. Although not wrong, this is not the most ideal way to provide your body with the nutrients it needs. A mixture of fast-digesting carbohydrates, protein and so-called “good” fats is the key to a healthy recovery from a workout.

Some examples of fast digesting carbohydrates are bananas, whole grains and chocolate milk. Carbohydrates allow the body to release insulin, an anabolic hormone that aids in building muscle. Protein is also an important factor in the muscle-building process— good sources of this nutrient include chicken, eggs, Greek yogurt, turkey, milk and whey. Finally, good fats fight inflammation and help build new muscle cells. You will find healthy fats in peanut butter, fish, hemp seeds and flax seeds.

If you are unable to get home within an hour to have your post workout meal, simply pack it with you. Make a smoothie with milk, yogurt, banana, whey protein and flaxseed. If a smoothie seems too complicated, just mix a scoop of whey protein with a cup of Greek yogurt and top it off with some bananas and a tablespoon of flaxseed.

Of course, training hard and getting eight hours of sleep a night are important factors for any active person to consider. At the same time, what you put into your body during the golden hour can be equally significant. If you miss the golden hour, try to eat as soon as possible following strenuous exercise. But whatever you do, do not discount the benefits of a proper post-workout diet.


Love it, or use fitness & nutrition to change it,
Mohamed Rezk.

Are you motivated to find your motivation? Look at this picture!

Finding the motivation to exercise and lead a healthy lifestyle is difficult, we shall keep it honest and straight forward today. Some of us are highly motivated in reaching our health goals, most of us are not. If we were, then the obesity, diabetes and the many lifestyle-dependent-disease rates would not be sky high.

I would like you to take a good look at this picture and try and find the 8 in all those 9s. How long did it take you? It takes the average person a while to finally find the 8 in this picture (hats off if you found it in less than 10 seconds).

I want you to treat your motivation for exercise and healthy living like this picture, dig for it and try to find it. Work hard to locate it! Basically be motivated to find your motivation. As weird as it sounds, it takes motivation to find a healthy motivation. You are currently one step closer because you are already trying to try to find your motivation. Yes! You are motivated to find motivation. Don't back away now! How motivated were you in finding that 8? Most likely, very.

Now I want you to take another look at this picture. Assuming you have already found the 8, how easy is it to find the 8 again? You will most likely locate it right away, your eyes will fall on it without even thinking! This is what happens when you finally your motivation. Once you find your motivation, you won't lose track of it. Feed it, treat it well, empower it, and it will reward you generously.

Whenever you lose your motivation, work hard to find it again. Be creative. Take another look at the picture, however this time, look at it upside down, it is much easier to locate the 8 that way because all the 9s look like 6s. Sometimes you just have to look at your life from another perspective. Think big and outside the box. It seriously is that simple.

To support this with a bit of science: very recently scientists have discovered that there is an area in the brain responsible for exercise and motor function motivation, it is called the Dorsal Medial Habenula. Try to empower this strong little part of your brain by finding your motivation and you will unlock powers and secrets you never knew you possessed.

Share your motivation or motivational stories, I would love to hear about them! Message them to me or simply comment on this entry. Seeing different people's motivation automatically helps us find our own, sometimes. Personally, my motivation was performing well in my sport and being happy with who I am.

Writing classes teach us not to use the same word multiple times in one essay, but in this entry I used the word motivation as much as possible. I want it to sink in your mind! Find your own personal motivation, good luck.

Love it, or use fitness and nutrition to change it!

Mohamed

How to become your own nutrition expert

What is the one thing all fit, cut and healthy people all have in common? They all know how their body works and are experts of their own lifestyles. That, however, does not make them experts of other people's lifestyles. The main reason is simple, all those people have had a sample population of 1, themselves only. Research and science is based on large samples, every scientist knows that a study with a small sample size gets ripped apart and criticized big time. I learned this though one of my inspirational professors at school, Dr. Jeremy Koenig. I was presenting in a journal club on the topic of a specific supplement, someone in the audience asked me about my own experience with this controversial supplement and so I gave them my account of it. After my presentation, my professor pulled me aside and said "be careful giving your own personal experiences on such topics because you are only a sample population of 1". I have never forgotten that since. This applies to every "healthy" and fit friend you have out there, chances are their sample population is 1. I placed the word healthy in quotations because its definition varies largely depending on the scenario and the person. So here is my top advice for self education in nutrition:

1) Find a good book that will strengthen your connection to nutrition

There are many books to go to, I can't recommend one because different people will enjoy different books depending on the style. Head to the nearest bookstore/library, find the health section and pick a basic book about nutrition. Stay away from all the crazy diet books (wheat belly, atkins, gluten free etc). Personally, my favorite books are "Anti Cancer: A new way of life" by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber and "An apple a day: The myths, misconceptions and truths about the foods we eat" by Joe Schwarcz. Those 2 books are a bit heavy on the sciences but that is what I enjoy.

2) Google your foods just for the fun of knowing!

Eating simple and basic is the best way to lead a healthy lifestyle. That means home cooked foods or foods that don't come with a huge ingredient list. So next time you are having almonds, eggs, spinach, chicken etc look at websites such as CalorieCount and NutritionData. These sites have a comprehensive list of foods with their nutrition breakdown. It also tells you the good and the bad about the food!

3) Subscribe to a health magazine!

While this could be tricky because there are tons of magazines full of false information out there. Surrounding yourself with health related material will automatically encourage you to lead a healthier lifestyle and make you think twice before eating junk. There are countless magazines, my favourite being Men's Health and Women's Health. I find the basic nutrition information there reliable and they back it up with science.

4) Surround yourself with "healthier" friends

It's a fact, the more healthy friends you have the more likely you will lead a healthier lifestyle yourself and learn more about nutrition. Being on the same page with your friends will go a long way to helping you reach your nutrition goals. For once you will most likely not be spending most of your time in restaurants, instead spend it being active or take turns cooking at home etc. Just remember to be wary of those who spread false information based on their sample population of 1.

5) Ask a trainer or a dietitian

Honestly, there are tons of personal trainers out there who are not competent and thus I can not point you to your typical "gym trainer" because I don't know them. Dietitians (in Canada) on the other hand undergo an extensive education program and are competent in their fields (most of them at least). Just be aware that "nutritionists" and "dietitians" are not the same. "Nutritionist" is not a protected title and thus anyone can call themselves that. "Dietitian", is a protected title and is awarded after a comprehensive 5 year program and a license exam. While some nutritionists are very knowledgeable, they are not governed by any body, this is not the case with dietitians who are governed by the Dietitians of Canada.

I will save you the trouble, since I am a personal trainer and a dietitian-to-be, then you can just direct your questions to me :)

6) Make it a habit to know why

This is my personal favorite. If you make it a habit to ask the next person who gives you nutrition advice why his advice works, I guarantee that you will quickly filter out a lot of false information. For example if a friend encourages you to eat raw eggs then ask them "why will that be good for me?". If he is unsure, cannot give you a reason, or says something that doesn't make sense, then you now know not to follow such advice (for the record you should not eat raw eggs). Research it or ask a dietitian instead. Never ever take nutrition advice without knowing why its good for you! Same goes for reading information online, always try and find out why. 

That is it for now,

Love it, or use fitness and nutrition to change it!

Mohamed