The Power of a Team
Last week our very own Ethan Gutzmann wrote a great blog about the power of Small Group workouts like those here at Fuse Fitness Coaching when it comes to delivering results.
This week we start our initial check ins for Burn it to Earn FIT with Seminars this Wednesday at 7:00 and Saturday at 12:30 and the final seminar NEXT Tuesday at 7:00 pm. Burn it to Earn FIT is a 6 week team transformation contest with points for building muscle and burning fat. To learn more or to get signed up for a FREE nutritional seminar to get you started click here.
That same team approach can be used with nutrition whether it be helping keep each other accountable to meal planning or making healthy choices. It also can be used in what I have as a New Years resolution and that's to eat slower. I know the importance of eating slowly and digestion but like a lot of you I'm busy and spend a lot of my lunch and breakfast time (now) eating and....(inserting food now).. working.
Eating your meals with family or friends typically means you are eating slower while you talk about your day, weekend plans or current events. At my family meals we go around the table and talk about the best and worst parts of our day. This means the pace at which we eat is actually slower. Not eating at a table could be directly effecting your results in the gym.
Your eating pace strongly dictates many things about how you feel and your overall weight. By eating slowly, it allows your “full” hormone (leptin) to monitor your food intake. It also increases the amount of satiation (fullness) you feel from your meals. Eating at a slower pace usually means you will chew your food better too—which increases your body’s ability to digest and absorb nutrients… AND, it will allow you to stop eating when you are 80% full which prevents over-eating.
To help decrease the pace of your meals (as most of us eat much too quickly!) here are a few suggestions:
-Think about how you’re eating while you eat. Digestion starts in the mouth. In order to digest the proteins, fats and healthy carbohydrates you are taking in we need to chew our food thoroughly
-Avoid eating in front of a screen (i.e. TV, phone, computer, iPad, etc.) or while multitasking (i.e. driving, in a meeting, etc.) When we do this we are NOT thinking about how we are eating which effect digestion. We typically also eat to quickly which does not allow for us to listen to our bodies and eat to 80% full leading to over-eating. AND if we are eating in front of our screens we are not paying attention to our loved ones. Put the screen down!
- Eat with your opposite hand!
When I was a kid we couldn’t have seconds until we finished what we had. Growing up with two brother who are just a little younger than me, we use to race to finish so we could get the last burger, pork chop, etc. To this day I still eat way to quickly sometimes. Eating with your opposite hand or with chop sticks forces you to slow down. Again, by eating to quickly you are effecting digestion and absorption of nutrients.
The goal is always to eat to 80% full. If you eat to quickly OR if we are not eating the right foods sometimes it’s hard to recognize when we are 80% full or we eat and then we are hungry two hours later. Foods like healthy fats, fiber and protein fuel our bodies and help us feel fuller longer which helps with weight management. Advocare’s Meal Replacement Shakes have 24 grams of easy to digest protein, 5 grams of fiber, 50% of our daily calcium need and 26 vitamins and minerals!
Talk to a Fuse Fitness Coach this week if you’d like to try a sample of our Meal Replacement Shakes. As always, if you’d like to get 20% off of the Meal Replacement shakes or any of the other great Advocare products click here.
