Monday, April 13, 2009

4 Reasons Why You Will NOT Experience a Set-Back If You Ate Too Much This Weekend

I hope you enjoyed the Easter/Passover Break.

It seemed like the girls, Rozanne and I were everywhere over the past 3 days spending time with family and friends and enjoying the fresh air and sunshine...after all, that's what a long weekend is about isn't it?
(To the right is a picture of my protein-junkie 18-month-old, Mikey, enjoying a hard-boiled egg...don't worry, she had about 6 chocolate eggs after!)


Amidst all the pizza, pasta, ham, dessert and all the little chocolate eggs that I ate, I still managed to get to the gym couple of times and stayed on track with my workouts.

Even though there was a lot of distraction (my in-laws have this knack for breaking out the poker chips at just the right time), I stuck to my schedule and was disciplined enough to cut out from the family stuff for a quick 45 minutes (traveling time included) to get to the local YMCA.

And even though I got kicked off the Smith Machine while I was doing Blast Strap Push-Ups because a trainer wanted their 40-something-out-of-shape-female-client to do some Smith Machine bench presses (!?!?!), I was still able to get a great muscle building workout in...


1a) 3 sets of weighted Chin-Ups
1b) 3 sets of Standing Military Presses

2a) 3 sets of DB Rows
2b) 3 sets of Blast Strap Push-Ups





Holiday eating can really throw you off your stride if you can't quickly get back on the horse. I’ve seen many a client just throw away all their fat loss efforts and completely fall off the wagon because of one indulgent weekend.

But that’s not going to happen to YOU (or to me)…

4 Reasons Why This Past Long Will NOT Set You Back From Your Fat Loss Goals
1. The weather is getting better. It's spring time and that means more family bike rides, hikes, playing in the park and NO STUFFY GYMS that make you feel trapped and clausterphobic. Being outdoors and doing your fat loss workouts outdoors will make you feel vibrant and alive. Your body relishes the Vitamin D that it's been missing over the winter. So get outside, take a kettlebell and and head over to the playground and do some chin-ups with your kids! ***Remember, no kettlebell swings while the little ones are around.
2. You will stick to your plan. The best part about your FitAndBusyDad workouts is that it allows for flexibility. If you miss a workout, it's not that big a deal because you can stack the missed component onto the end of another workout. And with each workout only being 20-minutes of less, you won't be caught in the gym or away from the family for very long at all.

3. Your diet could use the break. Chances are, if you've been eating well for the past few weeks, you're body could be reaching a plateau. Just like how our workouts need to be changed every few weeks to give our body a different stimulus to change, the same holds true for our diets. If you've been eating a lot less than normal lately, then a sudden "re-feed" could be just what your body needs to say, "whoa, what the HE** was that?" and restart your fat loss metabolism! Just make sure to go back to your clean eating ways starting today.

4. Don't sweat the small stuff. Truthfully, if you enjoyed yourself this weekend - spending time with the kids and your friends, family and loved ones - then in the big picture of things, if you ate a little too much this weekend, IS IT REALLY THAT BIG OF A DEAL? The answer of course is NO. We just need to jump back on course and continue with the healthy lifestyle that we've been living and teaching our kids. One long weekend of indulgent eating will not hinder our results if we've committed a lifetime of healthy habits to ourselves and our family. Now, it's just a matter of getting back on track and continuing what we started.

I hope you guys had as enjoyable weekend as I did. I'm off to the farm now (it's my day off) for a children's birthday party. Then it's off to the gym.

Enjoy your day!

Chris Lopez
The FitAndBusyDad

P.S. Speaking of indulgent eating, my good friend and fellow author Joel Marion just finished recording some REALLY eye opening videos on the pitfalls of dieting and how you can actually use your favorite foods to lose fat *faster*. I'll be sending you a direct link to check out these powerful videos tomorrow, so make sure to keep a close eye out on your email. Believe me when I say you're definitely NOT going to want to miss these!

4 comments:

Scott said...

Thanks for that well-timed post, Chris!

FitAndBusyDad said...

My pleasure! It seems as though a lot of us went a little overboard this weekend!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Chris, great post!

I like your '4 reasons', especially #4...(Have to get a pair of blast straps...great tool!)

Thanks again!

F.

dadshouse said...

Great tips! I agreee, good weather is a great excuse to get out and exercise with the family, or on your own. And one weekend of over-eating never killed anyone. It's part of life.

I like that your daughter followed her hard boiled egg with multiple chocolates.