How to Stay Lean During Quarantine

I don’t know about you, but I’ve hit my breaking point. Being cooped up at home is the absolute worst. To make it worse, it started snowing again, only after one day of beautiful 70-degree weather. The gyms are closed, parks are closed, the world is closed.

But hey, there is always something to learn in any given situation. As good as it feels to vent, I need to be careful because that venting can turn into too much complaining. And complaining only leads to a negative mindset.

I don’t know about you, but life is a real b**** when you have a negative mindset.

So I need to focus on the positives. We need to focus on the positives. The positive here is that something can be learned. And what I’ve learned during this time is that there is not better time to create new habits than when the world is shut down and you have more time on your hands than you know what to do with.

Having said that, here is what I want to share with you today: there is ALWAYS something we can be doing to keep ourselves leaner and healthier. And, the better we are at keeping ourselves leaner and healthier during crappy times, the easier it will be to stay leaner and healthier in the best of times (when the gym opens back up).

So let’s dive in. Here is how you can stay lean during quarantine.

BEHAVIOR #1: DIAL IN YOUR NUTRITION

Dialing in your nutrition means many different things to many different people. For you, dialing in your nutrition may mean figuring out how to curb your cravings. Maybe it means you need to practice better habits, like chewing slower and putting your fork down in between bites. Heck, maybe you just need to reduce your sugar intake from 200 grams per day to 180. Whatever it looks like, I am willing to bet there are some practices and behaviors that overlap from person to person.

Protein is a very familiar nutrient for the gym rats out there. But it must be a very familiar nutrient for you, too. Protein can help you stay lean during quarantine for many reasons. Protein is satiating. Protein helps you feel fuller for longer, thus causing you to feel less hungry throughout the day. Protein builds and preserves lean muscle tissue which is a main contributor to the amount of calories you burn in the day. Right now, being more sedentary than you usually are, you are at a high risk for losing muscle especially if you are not continuing your resistance training. Eating more protein can help you hold on to that muscle of yours. Protein also has a high thermic affect. This means that your body burns more calories breaking down and digesting protein than any other nutrient. Replacing excess carbs and fats with a little more protein may do you some good.

Too many people just don’t eat enough protein. It is one of the very first things I address when I begin working with a client. Unless you’ve already addressed this and are focusing on making an improvement, I’m willing to bet you’re not eating enough protein. For relatively lean individuals, I recommend .6-1g of protein per pound of body weight each day. For overweight and obese individuals, I recommend .3-.6g of protein per pound of body weight each day.

Protein can help you stay lean during quarantine.

Addressing your micronutrient intake would also be a good thing to do during this time. No, you don’t need to diligently track your vitamin and mineral intake each day, but work to incorporate more fruits and vegetables that are nutrient dense. Start with one big serving (two fist fulls) of greens per day and build from there. Greens offer an incredible amount of micronutrients that we need for a healthy life and most of us simply don’t get enough of them.

Take time to analyze your highly processed food intake. Yes, your “healthy” protein bar is a highly processed food. Our bodies simply don’t do well with a lot of highly processed foods. You should aim to have a diet that is mostly (at least 80%) comprised of whole, natural foods. What I mean by “whole” and “natural” is that it previously came from the ground or previously had a face before it became the food you were about to eat. There should be minimal change from A to B during processing. For example, it is very common to get organic cereal because it has more natural ingredients. However, there was still a ton of processing that occurred to turn the ingredients into cereal. Oats would be a more whole and natural alternative. Find ways you can begin to minimize the highly processed foods in your diet, and replace them with whole, natural alternatives.

Like I said, dialing in nutrition is going to look different for all of us. Maybe you’re not great at creating healthy meals and you need to toy with some recipes. Maybe you eat too many damn Oreos a day and you need to reduce it by two Oreos per week. Whatever it is, now is the time to create new, healthy behaviors that turn into habits. Those behaviors will help you stay lean the quarantine.

BEHAVIOR #2: PERFORM RESISTANCE TRAINING

I’ve beaten this dead horse too many times, but it needs to continue to be beaten.

Resistance training is hands down the best form of exercise for your long term health. It is also the best form of exercise when it comes to keeping you lean during quarantine.

Resistance training keeps your muscle protein synthesis elevated, meaning you can retain and perhaps even build muscle, even when you’re away from the gym. The muscle you build from resistance training can help you burn more calories in the day, helping you keep a leaner body year-round. Many other health benefits can be seen from resistance training as well. By manipulating your rest between sets, tempo, and more, you can tap into the cardiovascular benefits, improving your heart health. By increasing your rests between sets, going into lower rep ranges, and increasing the amount of weight you lift, you can tap into the amazing strength benefits that resistance training has to offer. Resistance training is really a Jack of all trades. But this Jack is a master of each and every one of them.

I know your gym is closed, and you may not have access to the equipment your gym offered. However, that’s not stopping you from getting quality resistance training workouts in. You can use your body weight and a set of bands to test and challenge yourself more than ever before. Sure, your bodyweight may not provide as much resistance during a push up as a 200lb barbell does during a bench press, but putting a band on your back and under your hands while implementing one or a combination of these tips will certainly help.

• Slow down. Slowing your tempo down during your exercise can add more intensity and resistance. Instead of doing a regular push-up, spend five slow seconds on the way down, and five slow seconds on the way up.

• Squeeze. Getting a connection to your muscles and feeling them squeeze is one of the best things you can do to take your home workout to a new level. Instead of moving your limbs and hoping to feel something in your muscles, be intentional. Squeeze your muscles first in order to move the weight.

• Hold. Adding an isometric hold in the middle of the movement will intensify the signal your muscles are receiving. Sure, you may only have a twenty-pound dumbbell for goblet squats, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it very challenging. At the bottom of your squat, maintain tension and squeeze your muscles as hard as you can for five seconds.

You may be away from the gym, but now is NOT the time to say f*ck it. Now is the time to grab those bands and test those muscles of yours.

Resistance training will help you stay lean during quarantine.

BEHAVIOR #3: GET TO STEPPIN’

As far as I know, no one is standing outside your door, prohibiting you from walking around the neighborhood. And if they are, no one is keeping you from walking around your house. Now is the time to make a habit of getting more steps in.

One of the main reasons we as Americans have such a hard time staying leaner year-round is because we don’t move enough. We’ve set up our lives to be so sedentary that we actually have to go out of our way to get activity. The average American only gets about 5,000 steps in per day, which is extremely low in my opinion. For someone that weighs 160lbs, 5,000 steps is about (and this is a rough guesstimation as there are many factors that play into this) 218 calories per day. 10,000 steps per day for that individual is about 435 calories per day. You many not think that is a huge difference, but that adds up over the course of a week, a month, and a year.

Making slight improvements to your step count can be the difference between and overweight version of you, and leaner version of you.

Seriously.

Sure, walking may not be a strenuous, bad-ass form of exercise, but those small improvements in steps compound over time to make a massive difference the the health of your body. Start making better habits by first figuring out your avg. step count currently. Whatever it is, aim to increase it by 1,000. Once that new target becomes a habit, increase it by 1,000 again.

When life gets back to normal and you’ve created a healthy habit of walking more, you’ll catch yourself going outside of the office for a walk before you head home instead of going to happy hour for another 500 calorie margarita. And your leaner self will thank you.

Steps help you stay lean during quarantine.

THE TAKEAWAYS

Whatever you need to address in your health, fitness, and nutrition, now is the time. Here is what you can do to stay lean during quarantine:

• Eat enough protein and focus on your greens. .6-1g of protein per pound of bodyweight for relatively lean individuals will do the job. Aim to get one big serving (two fistfuls) of greens per day.

• Do some resistance training. Help your body have an easier time getting leaner by testing your muscles, and testing your strength. Don’t workout to get sweaty and burn calories. Workout to get stronger.

• Get your steps in. Whatever your average is right now, start by increasing it by 1,000 and build.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.

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How to Tone Your Muscles

Tone is a made-up word.

Yes, that’s correct. It’s a word the was created out of thin air to attract the attention of females that were trying to shape a leaner, tighter body.

There is not merit to the word, “tone”. But that doesn’t mean the idea behind it is worthless.

Creating a lean, tight, and sexy physique is something that can definitely be done, but it doesn’t happen through a “toning” process in our body.

Here is a four-step guideline on how to create that “toned” body you’ve always wanted.

STEP 1: BUILD YOUR STRENGTH

Strength is the foundation of it all. In order to build the muscle that you want to define and sculpt, you need to have a solid foundation of strength.

This is often the most neglected element of a training program, especially in women looking to build a tighter body. There is too much focus on feeling the burn and sweating, and not enough focus on building strength.

In order to become stronger, we need to send a strength signal to the body. We do this through our training program. The amount of weight we lift, reps and sets we complete, and rest taken in between sets tells our body to adapt and progress in different ways. Strength gains primarily come from our central nervous system (CNS). When we get stronger, our central nervous system commands more muscle fibers to do more work. The CNS is your amplifier to your muscles as an amplifier is to its speakers. The better the amplifier is, the better the speakers will operate. We absolutely need a strong signal from the CNS to command our muscles to lift more weight.

In order to build strength in the gym, you should focus on compound, bang for your buck movements. Compound movements are movements that involve more than one joint such as squats, lunges, deadlifts, presses, rows, and pull-ups.

While performing those movements, your intention should be on on moving as much weight as possible in lower rep ranges with good form. A traditional strength phase will include anywhere between 2-8 reps, 2-6 sets, and 90 second to 3 minute rest between sets.

As a general recommendation, perform 5 sets of 4-6 reps with 2 minutes rest in between sets, focus on maximum weight while maintaining good form.

Once you’ve established a good foundation of strength, it’s time to focus on building some muscle.

STEP 2: BUILD MUSCLE

I can’t stress enough how important this step is.

You simply cannot have a tight, defined, well-sculpted body if you do not have any muscle to show. Muscle is what we shape, build, and sculpt in order to allow our body to look a certain way. If you don’t have muscle, you won’t have anything to show off come beach time.

Muscle is what gives you the tight and defined look, so you absolutely need to prioritize it.

Building muscle has a little bit of a different focus than sheer strength does. Can you build muscle while focusing on strength? Absolutely. But once you’ve transitioned out of your strength phase, building lean muscle is top priority, so your intent in the gym needs to reflect that.

While lifting in the gym, your focus should be on the squeeze and contraction of your muscles. This is called mind-muscle connection. During each rep, your focus is on the squeeze of the muscle, feeling it work hard during each and every rep.

Mind-muscle connection can be a hard thing to establish, but describing it to my clients this way has seemed to help the most:

Don’t lift the weight to work your muscles, flex your muscles to move the weight.

Muscle building can happen in many different training protocols, but a general recommendation on how to structure your program for muscle building will give you a good start.

Aim for 8-12 reps, 3-4 sets, and 45-90 seconds rest in between sets.

After you’ve established strength, and increased your lean muscle, it’s time to shed some body fat and show off what you’ve worked so hard for.

STEP 3: LOSE BODY FAT

You need to have lower body fat percentages in order to create a lean and tight look. It is an absolute must.

Does that mean you have to be counting every calorie, every gram of carbs, and every milligram of sodium in order to get the look you’re striving for? Absolutely not, but it will take some commitment to change.

In order to lose body fat, we need have two things happening:

1. We need to be in a calorie deficit

2. We need to make sure our body is losing fat, and not muscle.

In order to lose weight, more calories need to be burned than taken in. We simply need to burn more calories than we eat and drink. That sounds super easy on the surface, but it’s much easier said than done.

If we take the above fact at face value, all we’d need to do is move more and eat less. The problem is, it’s not that simple. Eating less and moving more will help us lose weight, but it’s extremely important that we lose the right weight, which is body fat.

First you need to establish your deficit. Hopefully by now, you’ve figured out the amount of calories you need in order to maintain your current weight. If not, I recommend tracking your food intake as is, and see how that changes your average weight. Weigh yourself every morning, and use the average of those seven weigh-ins to make an assessment. If your average weight climbs after a few weeks, you’re likely in a calorie surplus. If your average weight stays, you’re likely at maintenance calories. If your average weight drops down, you’ve likely found your calorie deficit. If you haven’t found your deficit yet, you can use your maintenance and reduce from there. I recommend reducing 200-500 calories per day. So, if your maintenance is 1800 per day, you can drop down to 1500 per day and see how that affects your body.

I would take caution and remember that this is a tortoise’s race. Use the littlest adjustment to bring about the most amount of change.

Once you’ve established a calorie number that is less than you’ll be burning in the day, there are some other items you should address before putting things into action. These items have helped my clients lose body fat, maintain or even build muscle, and keep their metabolism roaring:

1. Keep protein high. Protein is a nutrient that our body needs to maintain and build muscle. Even if you are reducing calories, it’s important you keep your protein high in order to keep all the muscle you’ve worked so hard for. For relatively lean individuals, .8-1g of protein per pound of body weight works well. For those that are overweight or obese, .5-.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight is plenty. If you are obese, stay on that lower end.

2. Continue to lift weights. This is NOT the time to go balls to the wall with cardio to burn max calories. That will derail your long term progress. This is where you get to utilize all the time you spent building muscle and increasing your metabolism. Manipulate your weight lifting program to allow you to see the most amount of change with the least amount of work.

3. Use cardio as a last resort, short-term tool.

Now for step 4.

STEP 4. USE CARDIO AS A LAST-MINUTE BOOST

Cardio is one of the best things for fat loss only when it is used properly. And I mean it.

Cardio can either make you or break you.

Using cardio incorrectly can lead to a slower metabolism, and a much harder time losing body fat. But what does “incorrect” mean? In terms of fat loss, using cardio incorrectly means that you are using cardio as your primary driver for calorie burn. You are doing cardio chronically, every day, in the hopes to burn more and more calories.

Our bodies were beautifully designed to adapt to the environment we put them in. When we do tons and tons of cardio, we begin to adapt by burning fewer and fewer calories. When we do tons and tons of weight lifting and strength-building, we begin to adapt by burning more and more calories at rest. So it’s important we use the metabolism-boosting effects of weights to get the most results, and use cardio sparingly when our body is least adapted in order to burn the most amount of calories.

This is where we talk about doing cardio properly.

“Properly” in this context means that we are using cardio for a fat-loss boost as we approach the deadline of our goal. Remember, the less your body is used to cardio, the more effective the cardio will be for your fat loss. Use your weight training and nutrition to squeeze out the most amount of fat loss possible before introducing cardio.

When introducing cardio, I recommend implementing HIIT, or High Intensity Interval Training.

HIIT has been shown to be effective for calorie burn during and even after the session.

I recommend 12-20 minutes of HIIT, starting on the low end and working your way up. Alternate between intervals of high heart rate, and low heart rate. Pick one of your favorite cardio movements, and implement the following format.

• 30 seconds as hard as you can go

• 1 minute at a moderate pace

• Repeat until total time (12-20 minutes) is reached

If your body is only used to weight lifting at this point, you should see benefit from your HIIT workouts.

Again, start low, and build up. Get the most you can out of the least amount of work, and only add more once you’ve maximized your results at your current cardio “dosage”.

THE TAKEAWAYS

This is the tortoise’s race. Slow and steady wins the race. If you want to create a lean, tight, “toned” look, focus on the following steps.

• Step 1: Build your strength. Lift weights with the intention to get as strong as you can. 4-6 reps is a good range.

• Step 2: Build muscle. Once you’ve increased strength, focus on the connection and pump of your muscles, squeezing hard each rep, with the intent to build muscle. 8-12 reps should allow you to build some muscle.

• Step 3: Burn Fat: Manipulate your nutrition and continue lifting weights to burn body fat while keeping and maybe even building some muscle.

• Step 3: As your approach your goal deadline, use HIIT cardio as needed. The body adapts to cardio within 2-3 weeks, so don’t abuse it. Use it as a last-minute boost.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.

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7 Ways to Curb Sugar Cravings

It’s late, you’ve had a stressful day.

After you’ve had your dinner, you plop on the couch. Thirty minutes in and you’re thinking about ice cream. This seems to happen every night at the same time. It doesn’t cease.

You wait it out for a couple minutes. The craving just won’t go away so you head to the freezer and pop the lid off on that pint of ice cream.

After grabbing the spoon, you sit back on the couch and take a bite, then another, and another. By the time the 25-minute episode is over, you’ve somehow blown through the whole entire pint.

Your craving got the best of you, and this isn’t the first time it’s happened.

You immediately feel a flood of guilt and shame rise over you and think, “gosh, I need to stop giving into these cravings. But, I just can’t seem to get rid of them.”

Here’s the thing, cravings can be beat, and you can beat yours.

There are seven ways I help my clients curb their cravings, and I hope they help you curb yours, too.

1. Give In, But Don’t Binge

This tip may surprise you.

Sugar cravings themselves aren’t horrible. They’re normal, and it’s ok to give in a bit.

Pay attention. It’s okay to give in, but just a bit.

When it’s not ok is when you let your craving turn into a 1,100 calorie binge through a pint of ice cream. It’s the binging that will keep you from progressing, not so much the craving.

When you get a craving, it’s ok to give in.

Have something around that you can use to healthily give into the craving. They key is having just enough and no more. It’s necessary that you don’t have an unlimited access of crap at home, because once you give in it’s easier to convince yourself that you need more.

When you only have a little bit, it feels like more of a treat that you can truly enjoy. You savor it, because it’s all you’ve got.

Make it hard to go further than a craving. Get rid of all the crap in your house. When you don’t have crap in the house, you’re more likely to choose something healthy to curb your craving. When you don’t have crap in the house, you’re less likely to go off the deep end. Make it harder to satisfy that craving. If you crave and you want to satisfy that craving, you should have to get in your car and drive to get what you want. Make it so you have to go to the gas station and grab one pack of Reese’s. Don’t have a value pack of Reese’s from Costco just sitting in the house.

Have whole food options available to give into as well, like fruit. Have apples, berries, grapes, whatever you like around the house. If you use whole foods like fruit to curb the craving, odds are you may start craving the healthier options over time.

2. Track Your Patterns

Sugar cravings usually come at similar times of the day. This can be due to emotional stress, lack of sleep, or simple boredom.

It’s important to know when the sugar cravings usually come, so you can both have a plan of attack, as well as figure out what the root source of those cravings are.

Grab a journal and track your thoughts and cravings for a couple of weeks. Note what you were doing at the time of the craving. Write down what you’re thinking, what you were doing before that moment, how stressed you are, how your day had been going, etc.

Take note of your environment, surroundings, emotional state, and more so you can create a plan of action for the future as well as address the source of the issue.

For example, if you usually crave sugar on Monday mornings at 10am, it would be good to know that it’s likely because of the stress that comes from your 8am meetings as well as your lack of sleep on Sunday nights.

3. Ditch the Artificial Sweeteners

Sure, artificial sweeteners don’t have any calories, which is why they get all of their praise, but there is much more to nutrition than what our food does to our physical body. It’s just as important to note what our food does to our brain.

When we consume artificial sweeteners, we are likely to crave more sweet things. In addition, we are less likely to feel any resistance to giving into the craving, since the diet Coke “didn’t have any calories anyway.” If you didn’t have that diet Coke in the first place, you may have been less likely to want sugar later on.

4. Reduce Overall Sugar Intake

If you’ve never tracked your food, I highly recommend it. It will give you a bird’s eye view of everything that is going on with your nutrition.

Most people eat too much sugar, but don’t know it because they haven’t every tracked what they put in their mouth.

When we eat too much sugar, we tend to want more, and that’s when the cravings kick in. Our body seems to get to a place where it just wants more of what we’re giving it.

By reducing your sugar intake slowly over time, you may reduce your body’s tendency to want more sugar. This is also a good opportunity to allow your body to want more of the good stuff. Rather than focusing more on eating less and less sugar, focus on eating more and more greens. The more veggies your body gets, the higher the likelihood your body will crave those foods.

5. Get Better Sleep, and Get More of It

When we don’t get enough sleep, our hormone function gets jacked up, which may lead to increased cravings. It’s extremely important to get plenty of high quality sleep for many reasons, curbing cravings being one of them.

Improving your sleep happens by taking time to improve your nightly routine. A couple of hours before bed, turn the lights off in the house and use salt lamps or whatever else you’d like. Avoid electronics as the blue light they emit can decrease melatonin production. You need that melatonin for quality sleep. If you have a show you enjoy and want to watch TV, at least combat the light by wearing blue light blocking glasses.

Your room should be a sleep sanctuary. Black it out, make it cool. We tend to get better sleep in a cool and dark environment. Make sure your body understands it’s time for bed.

The more your body thinks it’s daytime (lights, blue light from phone or tv, warm room), the lower your odds are of getting a good night’s rest.

6. Find Healthy Ways to Manage Your Stress

Stress will wreck you, and will increase your cravings.

Many people choose to handle their stress by mindlessly scrolling on social media, or plopping on the couch for three hours of TV in order to easily escape the world around them. This will help you forget about your stress, but it won’t get rid of it.

Plus, if you’re bored on the couch with built up stress inside you, what do you think you’re gonna do?

Find healthy ways to get rid of your stress. Get together with a friend and talk. Do some yoga, lift, exercise, or go on a walk. Allow your body to get rid of the stress you’re carrying rather than covering it up with a digital bandaid.

Learning healthy ways to deal with stress will help curb those cravings, and may actually reduce them overall especially if you begin to exercise on a regular basis.

7. Eat More Whole Foods and Less Processed Foods

This is the best tip I can give.

Highly processed, hyper palatable foods are designed to hijack our brain and taste buds. It’s no coincidence that we can’t just seem to have one potato chip.

When your diet consists of more highly processed foods, you may be likely to have far more sugar cravings.

Add more whole food into your diet. Whole food is what your body knows. I tell my clients that at least 80% of their diet needs to have had a face, or come from straight from the earth. There should be a minimal amount of change between the food’s initial state and your grocery cart.

Not only is a diet rich in whole foods important, but a diet rich in protein and healthy fats is crucial. Carbs are important, too, but they’re easy to come by. Healthy carbs can help reduce insulin spikes which may lead to less cravings. For example, oats will likely cause less of a spike than gummy bears. When we have hard spikes, we tend to have hard crashes, which can lead to cravings.

Protein and healthy fats can really help with this. Most people underconsume protein, one of the most important nutrients in the world. We need protein to thrive, and it’s important you get a lot of it. It is the most satiating food, so it will help us feel fuller for longer.

Healthy fats take a longer time to digest, and may help keep us from having drastic spikes and crashes in blood sugar. Those healthy fats are also important for proper hormone function, and hormones play a big role in cravings.

Eat less highly processed foods, and more whole foods, with an emphasis on protein and fats, as carbs are naturally easy to come by.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.

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