Arena Athletic Blog

How can I avoid burnout?

How can I avoid burnout in the New Year when motivation to meet my resolutions wanes?

Does this sound like you? As you started to get dressed to head to the gym this morning, you found yourself spending more time organizing your gym clothes rather than actually putting them on. Then, instead of mixing your protein shake in your typical “automatic” way, you began surfing the web for new shake recipes and didn’t ever get to prepare one. When your cell phone rang and your workout partner was calling to see why you weren’t in the gym, you came up with some lame excuse and skipped the workout altogether.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to see if your motivation for exercise has evaporated: Do you…

• Feel more irritable after you exercise?
• Feel exhausted physically, emotionally and mentally?
• Feel so fatigued that you can’t get out of bed?
• Experience more muscle spasms, soreness and leg cramps?
• Feel unable to relax or unwind?
• Arrive to your training sessions late a bit too often?
• Find self-doubt and questions about the worth of exercise creeping in?
• Feel like you are having too many “bad” days?
• Experience boredom with your exercise “routine?”

If you answered yes to more than one of these, you could be experiencing burnout.

Burnout is fairly common and dates back to 1976 when the term was first coined and don’t worry, it’s not a disgrace.

Frequently, it’s tied to having great intentions, unrealistic expectations and overly rigid, perfectionistic self-demands.

When you exercise far beyond your body’s abilities to recuperate, you enter the “overtraining zone” and that is often physically and emotionally harmful.

Fortunately though, there’s a lot you can do to stop burnout before it becomes too widespread in your life. Listening to your heart, mind and body will set you in the right direction.

Here are 6 tips to get you past burnout and start to reenergize, refuel and reset your health:

1. Begin your day with a relaxing meditation — make it brief and create a SMART daily goal — one that is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound. Visualize yourself — really “see” yourself — in a more positive and enjoyable exercise routine.
2. Change your thinking about what you erroneously believe you “must” do to what you’d more accurately “prefer” to do.
3. Set firm and clear boundaries on your time. It’s ok to say, “no.” Work time is for “them” and private time is for “you” and fill the “you” time with quality enjoyment.
4. Slow down, take a break from working out and change up your exercise routine — add a new approach to the exercises you do, add new music to listen to on your iPod, find a new workout partner, or try another fitness coach. Do it! It’s your life and only you know what you really want and need in order to recharge yourself.
5. Ask for support from others, create new motivators, reset your priorities, take control of your time, focus on what’s NOT wrong and what can go right with your workouts. And, find alternative ways of thinking about exercising that are less demanding, more positive and lead to a healthier approach to working out. Mental and physical exhaustion, and burnout are different, and each needs its own responses.
6. Add PERMA to your life:
   • Positive emotions
   • Engaged activities
   • Enjoyable Relationships
   • Find Meaning in what you do
   • Take pride in your Accomplishments

These six steps are not meant to be a complete list, but they do touch on all of the key points that are meant to restore you to health, happiness and wellbeing — free of exercise burnout. Give them a chance, expand on them and return to the preferred you.

Dr. Michael Mantell

Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D., earned his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania after completing his M.S. degree in clinical psychology at Hahnemnann Medical College where he wrote his thesis on the psychological aspects of obesity. He coaches world-class athletes and fitness enthusaists for performance enhancement. He is Senior Consultant for Behavioral Sciences for ACE, on the faculty of the Equinox Fitness Training Institute, a national Community Ambassador for Experience Life Magazine's health initiative, appears weekly on San Diego's CW channel 6, is a consultant to Les Mills International, writes for IHRSA, is a member of the Sports Medicine Team at the Sporting Club of San Diego and the La Jolla Sports Club specializing in fitness psychology, writes the "San Diego Fitness Psychology" column and “San Diego Life Coach Examiner." He is also a writer and consultant to the Total Gym company. Dr. Mantell has written two best-selling books and appears regularly on radio and TV.

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A Perfect Day of Weight Loss

A Perfect Day of Weight Loss

Get hour-by-hour healthy eating and fitness tips on how to lose weight and reduce belly fat from Dr. Travis Stork of The Doctors

Find out the best times to exercise and eat to maximize weight loss results. You'll boost metabolism, burn calories, and torch belly fat for 24 hours with these healthy eating tips and workout advice.

 7:00 AM Wake up and do 2 minutes of jumping jacks, high-knee skips, pushups, or crunches.

7:15 AM Have two scrambled eggs and a slice of Canadian bacon. A 2009 Purdue University study found that a high-protein breakfast makes people feel fuller throughout the day, so they're less likely to overeat.

7:45 AM Hit the gym, and lower weights slowly. Taking 3 seconds to lower weights during full-body resistance training can rev your metabolism for up to 3 days, according to a Wayne State University study. (Study participants used a challenging weight for 5 sets of 6 repetitions for each exercise.)

9:00 AM Drink some milk. A diet with plenty of calcium-rich dairy can enhance weight loss, according to a 2007 study of overweight people.

10:00 AM Grab a protein-rich snack, like half a turkey sandwich on whole-grain bread with Swiss cheese. In a Georgia State University study, athletes who ate three 250-calorie snacks a day were more likely to lose body fat and have more energy than those who didn't.

11:00 AM Walk briskly around the office/neighborhood/mall during your break. A recent Mayo Clinic study found that lean people walk an average of 3 ½ miles more per day than obese people do.

1:00 PM For lunch, eat a spinach salad with grilled halibut and sliced almonds. All contain magnesium, a metabolism-friendly mineral.

2:00 PM If your work meeting is with just one or two people, walk the halls as you talk.

4:00 PM Down a glass of iced green tea. According to a study in the Journal of Nutrition, the catechins in green tea decrease body fat.

5:00 PM Have a handful of wasabi peas or some other fiery snack. According to a 2006 study review, spicy foods help burn fat and calories.

 

7:00 PM Take a short walk before dinner.

7:30 PM Eat dinner. If you ate lightly today, don't worry about having a heavier meal now: "It doesn't matter when you fuel up; it's how many gallons you put in the tank," says Gary Foster, Ph.D., director of Temple University's Center for Obesity Research and Education.

9:30 PM Grab a good book or magazine, turn on some tunes, and relax. Stress jacks up your level of cortisol, a chemical that boosts abdominal fat.

10:30 PM Draw your shades so the sun won't rouse you early. According to a 2008 review, losing sleep affects the hormones that turn your appetite on and off, making you feel hungrier.

Excerpted from The Lean Belly Prescription (Rodale) by Travis Stork, M.D., and Peter Moore, editor of Men's Health. 

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How to make resolutions you'll actually keep.

 

Harvey Mackay is the author of The New York Times No. 1 bestseller "Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive."

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Green Tea: A Dieter’s Secret Weapon

 

 

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8 Tips for Avoiding the Holiday Pounds

8 Tips for Avoiding the Holiday Pounds

By Stephanie S. Saunders

It's that time of year. The leaves turn majestic hues of red and gold. The air becomes fresh and crisp. We can finally put an extra blanket on the bed and cuddle up with a cup of hot tea. Yes, it's fall. We just spent eight months killing ourselves to get into that bathing suit, but now we've replaced it with a worn pair of jeans and a much more relaxed attitude towards food. After all, it's the holiday season, and no one'll notice a few extra pounds under layers of clothes. A little extra weight just gives us a New Year's resolution to focus on, right?

Wrong. According to a recent study by researchers at Sweden's Linköping University, those four weeks of celebrating can actually lead to long-term weight gain.

Essentially, the researchers took a group of healthy young people, increased their caloric intake by 70 percent, and lowered their exercise levels. They also had a control group whose diets weren't altered. At four weeks, the participants in the test group had gained an average of 14 pounds. After six months, and no longer on an increased-calorie diet, only a third of these participants had returned to their original weight. After one year, the test group members were each still an average of 3.3 pounds heavier. After 2.5 years, the "gluttonous" group continued to gain, while the control group still maintained a stable weight.

Now, most of us don't increase our calories that drastically for 30 days straight. Sure, there's Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving leftovers, Hanukkah, the work Christmas party, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day, not to mention the extra sweets, cocktails, and (ahem) fruitcake. But according to the New England Journal of Medicine, the actual average weight gain over the holidays is only one pound. (They obviously didn't poll my family or friends.) So what's the big deal? The problem is, a year later, the vast majority of people have not removed that pound. Continue this pattern over 30 or 40 holiday seasons and the problem becomes—quite literally—huge.

So how are we supposed to get through the holidays without causing weight gain? Here are eight effective ways to get yourself ready to beat the holiday bulge.

1. Buy clothes that fit right now. This first tip might be a bit pricy, but it's a great motivational aid in staving off weight gain. A new addition to your wardrobe in a size that shows off your summer body can be all you need to prevent those extra pounds from creeping on. Imagine that beautiful holiday dress or great pair of pants, then imagine being unable to zip them up thanks to sugar cookies. Yeah, no one wants that. So before you begin the festivities, go buy yourself something perfect to wear to your parties and hang it someplace visible, so it serves as a constant reminder. Perhaps on the TV where you play your P90X^® videos, or in front of that treadmill that might be starting to collect a little dust in the corner, or on your refrigerator door . . . that way, if it doesn't fit quite the same way the next time you try to slip into it, you know it's time to get back to work.

 

2. Write it down. We try to write down everything we eat, right? We spend countless hours each month staring at a food diary, adding up our calories, and seeing if we got the correct balance of macronutrients. And then the holidays happen, and our little book ends up in the bottom drawer. It's almost like we're hoping that if we didn't write it down, it didn't happen. Unfortunately, the scale doesn't fit in that bottom drawer. The truth is, if we would write down the not-so-perfect meals and treats, we could find a way to compensate for them, at least a bit. For example, you have a peppermint brownie in the break room at work, which you know is carbohydrates and fat. Eat one less portion of carbohydrate and one less portion of fat for your dinner. It's not ideal, but it'll help. Or perhaps you couldn't resist Mom's homemade scones for breakfast. You could plan on an extra 20 or 30 minutes of your workout tonight. The point is, if we write it down, and do the math, we can lessen the damage. It isn't a good long-term plan, but to help compensate for a few slip-ups, it can help.
3. Keep exercising. Most fitness trainers will tell you the slowest point of their year is between Thanksgiving and New Year's. Sure, their clients schedule workouts with the best of intentions, but then they cancel them for parties and gift shopping. It's hard to remain balanced when you have a million things to do and gifts to buy. Yet the greatest gift you can give yourself is to stay focused on your fitness goals and get your workout in. Shopping getting in the way? Do it online and save some time. Parties getting in the way? Just show up later. Who cares if everyone else is a couple of cocktails ahead of you? You'll be healthier, and you won't have to worry about the embarrassing YouTube^® videos in the morning. Just stay consistent, even if it's inconvenient. You'll be much less likely to look like Santa (both belly-wise and red-nose-wise) at the end of the month.

 

4. Eat before parties. Most holiday parties don't focus on low-fat, low-calorie refreshments, so unless you're organizing the event, the best damage control is to show up with a full tummy. Make sure you eat your meals and snacks throughout the day, and try to eat a healthy meal before attending any party. If you're going straight from work, prepare a healthy and filling snack to eat on the way. You'll be a lot less likely to swim in mayonnaise dips and pigs in blankets if you're full.

 

5. Get junk out of the house. The majority of people don't get into their car at midnight, drive to the store, buy the ingredients for cookies, bake them, and then stay up to eat them. But if those homemade cookies that Linda in accounting made for you are already on your kitchen counter, you better believe you'll find a way to justify it. Frankly, at 12:30 a.m., after a rotten day, for most of us there's nothing like a few cookies to drown our sorrows. The secret is to get the garbage out of the house. Send it to work with your significant other, donate it to a bake sale, regift it to your 100-pound friend with the perfect metabolism, or just dump it in the trash. Linda will never know. If you have holiday dinner leftovers, box them up for your guests individually and send them home with them. If your family still sends you that Pepperidge Farm^® cookie assortment, invite a bunch of people over for a pre-party party and serve 'em up before the drinks. Try not to be wasteful, but get the less-than-healthy temptations out of your reach.

 

6. Offer to prepare healthy fare. This suggestion won't be well received by those of us who'd rather spend Thanksgiving sitting around watching football than toiling in the kitchen, but if you do the cooking, you have the control. Your family could have a tasty and satisfying meal without ingesting thousands of calories and fat grams. The way the turkey is prepared, the type of stuffing, how vegetables are made, whether the cranberries are real, and countless other things can make or break the healthiness of a meal. There are tons of cookbooks out there, plus recipes in this and past newsletters, that can help you out. Yes, it does require a bit of work. But you're a graduate of P90X. You can do anything.

 

7. Choose wisely and proportionally. Something occurs during a holiday meal. It's like a Las Vegas buffet—we feel like we have to eat some of everything. We feel almost like those foods will never exist again, and this is our last meal on the planet. This year, why not try to eat only your favorites, as in two or three items, and keep the portions to the size of your palm? If you're still hungry, try to fill up on veggies (preferably ones that aren't drowned in butter or cream-of-mushroom soup). If you want dessert, lean toward a small slice of pumpkin pie (220 calories) as opposed to pecan (a heftier 543), leaving out the hydrogenated nondairy whipped topping if possible. If you're going to have an alcoholic beverage, go with a flute of champagne (100 calories) as opposed to that rum-laced eggnog (with more than four times more calories, at 420). Just a few wise choices will save you a ton of calories, and probably a significant amount of heartburn as well.

 

8. Don't beat yourself up. Quite possibly the worst thing you can do is beat yourself up over a bit of holiday indulgence. Yes, it does stink to backslide after working your tail off. But sometimes it doesn't stink as much as dealing with your mother when you turn down her brisket and potato pancakes. Sometimes, we don't have time to go to work, buy a Christmas tree, decorate it with our kids, make dinner, oversee homework, tuck kids in bed, and spend an hour doing INSANITY^®. We can only do our very best. Mentally beating yourself up will only make you feel worse, which never helped anyone get back to their fitness program. So if you happen to gain that one extra pound this holiday season, be part of the rare group who actually follows through with their New Year's resolution and manages to shed it again. A week of hard work and a slight calorie deficit should do the trick. Resolutions don't come easier than that!

A wise person once said, "The toughest part of a diet isn't watching what you eat. It's watching what other people eat." That really is the crux of the problem with dining out in public. When you're surrounded by people who are consuming the equivalent of their body weight in fat grams, it's really tough to stick to that chicken breast and steamed veggies. But if you have a game plan, you're more likely to walk out with both a satisfied tummy and a satisfied mind. So spend a few minutes on researching, on eating, and on exercising beforehand, and be strong when you get there. The effort will be worth it, and you might even be an inspiration to your dining partner. What greater reward is there than that? Oh, yeah—a six-pack.

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Thanksgiving Survival Guide

Make it Through the Day...Guilt-Free

-- By SparkPeople

Click here to lear how: http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=324

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Fit Tip - Study: Low-Carb Diets More Effective Than Low-Fat Diets

By Howard LeWine, M.D., Harvard Health Publications

People lost more weight on low-carbohydrate and Mediterranean diets than on a low-fat diet. Low carbs also led to better cholesterol numbers, researchers found. These are the findings published in the July 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study included 322 people. They worked and ate lunch together. About 85 percent stuck to the diets. After two years, people on the low-carb diet had lost about 10.3 pounds. The average lost was 10 pounds with the Mediterranean diet and 6.5 with the low-fat diet.

What Is the Doctor's Reaction?

Finally, we have the winner of the long debate about which style of weight loss diet is best: They all win. But the surprise is that the low-carbohydrate, unrestricted calorie diet (the Atkins-style diet) actually was the most effective.

In this week's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers report the findings of a very well-designed study. They compared three diets:

• Low-fat, restricted calories
• Mediterranean , restricted calories
• Low-carbohydrate, no specific restriction on calories

The people on the low-carbohydrate lost the most weight on average, 10.3 pounds. That compares with an average weight loss of 10 pounds for those on the Mediterranean diet. People assigned to the low-fat diet lost about 6.5 pounds.

The other big surprise was the changes in cholesterol. Low-fat diets have been promoted as the best way to lower blood cholesterol levels. But in this study, that was not the case. The higher fat, low-carbohydrate diet did much better than the low-fat diet in a key measurement.

This is the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol (the so-called good cholesterol).

In general, a lower ratio of total to HDL cholesterol is healthiest. The low-carbohydrate diet lowered this ratio the most. It did this mainly by raising HDL a lot more than the low-fat diet.

For women in the study, the Mediterranean diet tended to result in more weight loss than the other two diets. But there were fewer women in this study, so the results are less conclusive for women.

What Changes Can You Make Now?

You have three paths that can work to achieve weight loss.

The right choice for you depends primarily upon which one you are most likely to stick with. But this study did hint that some people might get more benefit from choosing a certain style. For example:

• Women seem to lose more weight on the Mediterranean-style diet. But this does require carefully controlling your calories.
• People with type 2 diabetes might be best served with a Mediterranean diet as well. In this study, people on this diet ended up with lower fasting blood sugar levels.
• People who hate counting calories probably would find the low-carbohydrate diet the most appealing.

A major reason that all the diets improved cholesterol levels was that everyone was advised about choosing the best sources of dietary fats, carbohydrates and protein.

All participants were urged to:

• Consume more monounsaturated oils such as olive oil.
• Avoid saturated fats and trans fats.
• Eat healthy sources of protein, such as nuts and vegetable proteins.
• Eat more whole grain carbohydrates.
• Load up on vegetables.
• Strictly limit sweets and high-fat snacks.

What Can You Expect Looking to the Future?

Research has always focused on how to make it easier for people to stick with a diet that is working for them. Now there should be less focus on which diet is best. Instead, it would be great to see a menu describing tips on behaviors to stick with, no matter which diet you choose.

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