Healthy Fast Food?

Well my friends, I think it's about time I shared with you a quick little blurb on my favorite fast food.  That's right, I do eat fast food, though I don't think it resembles the greasy burgers and salty fries you're imagining.  In fact, I think it actually tastes a lot better than both of those, and is most definitely a lot more filling.  Oh, and you know if I'm writing about it, then it's actually legitimately HEALTHY!!!!  Too good to be true?  Not at all!

So where is this magical place?  Why, I'm sure it's in your nearest big shopping district.  It's called Panera Bread, and boy do they serve some good stuff.  Panera is famous for delicious salads, sandwiches, and a bakery that will put most others to shame.  The stores are well designed, modern, comfortable, and welcoming.  And while you may be screaming "NOT FAST FOOD!!!" -- you'd be dead wrong.  The food there is remarkably fast.  Often I place my order, get my little buzzer thing, and by the time I'm sitting down the darn thing is already going nuts (and scaring me half to death.)  Believe me, that food is speedy.  

You know what else is great about Panera?  They post caloric information right next to the menu items.  Now while you may be a little leary as to how accurate it really is, I believe they're required by law to put the same portions in each bowl in order to comply with those measurements, so you won't have to give or take too many calories from the stated number.  

Now keep in mind, NOT EVERYTHING in Panera is healthy.  In fact, you can get yourself into a lot of trouble with both the bakery (those pastries are incredible), and certain greasy sandwiches or cheesy soups.  Now don't get me wrong, everything tastes fantastic, but if you want to stay healthy, watch both the number of calories and the content of each sandwich, salad, or soup.  When I'm in Panera, I usually get the Thai Chopped Chicken Salad.  It's 470 calories for a GIANT bowl of tasty salad that's completely loaded with protein and healthy carbs.  Sure, the dressing is pretty sweet, but is completely manageable.  If you want to make it even better, take out the little Chinese noodles (as good as they taste.)  

Want a better idea of the nutritional information in Panera's food?  Here's a link to that exact information for your dieting knowledge:

http://www.panerabread.com/pdf/nutr-guide.pdf

I believe the best sandwich choices are:

Roasted Turkey and Avacado BLT (510 calories)

Smoked Turkey Breast on Country (420 calories)

And the best salad choices are:

Thai Chopped Chicken Salad (470 calories)

Poppyseed Chicken Salad (340 calories)

Asian Sesame Chicken (450 calories)

BBQ Chopped Chicken (500 calories)

As far as sides go, I'd suggest either an apple or whole grain baguette.  The chips are baked though, so they're not the worst thing going.  

Panera is definitely my favorite fast food joint.  If you keep your head on your shoulders and don't get tempted by the crazy chocolate stuffed croissants or cheesy, creamy soups, you can walk out of that place with a pretty healthy meal in your belly.  Remember folks, not all fast food is bad.

Enjoy your meals, choose wisely, and as always, GOOD LUCK!!!

The Short Term Key

Short term goals are some of my best friends, and through writing this article I hope they become some of yours as well.  These little goals are not only easy to think about, but are easily achievable!  That's right, they're goals that you have a very good chance of achieving quite quickly.  Ahhh, doesn't that sound nice?  Accomplishment.  Love that feeling.

And conveniently, they're probably the best stepping stone to that long term goal looming dramatically over your noggin, constantly in your thoughts, keeping you awake at night (muahahahaha....).

But seriously, consider the short term goal your sword, to slay that giant beast.  The bat, to knock down that wavering pinata.  The axe, to hack at that massively daunting oak.  You get the idea.

First, let's define what a short term goal means in OUR situations (at the gym, of course).  They can easily be applied to lifting weights, cardio, flexibility training, even diet!  And the best part is, they keep you on track, keep you coming back for more day in and day out.  And probably their most important job is to keep you feeling good, accomplished, and satisfied.  Let's find out how to start setting some short term goals, shall we?

What can you do now?  This statement is purposely quite general.  What are your current strengths, skills, flexibility, calorie/nutrient consumption, etc.  How do you stack up?  Maybe you bench 190lbs for 4 reps.  Maybe you can jump on a 36" box 5 times in 8 seconds.  Maybe you eat 2500 calories a day and want to lose 3 lbs.  You're only going to know where you stand if you make an effort to record these type of things!  Write them down!  Put them on a note in your ipod (I have one on my iphone entitled "Current PR's"!  Make a voice recording!  I don't care which, just make sure you record your abilities, because if you don't I can almost guarantee you won't make progress (or nearly as much as you could.)

How do you feel?  This one's a little bit harder to fathom, but not too hard to grasp if you really put some thought into it.  After you did those 4 reps of 190lbs on the bench press, how did you feel?  Were they extraordinarily easy?  If that's the case, why the heck did you stop?  Were they super duper hard?  Was it your MAX? How about that diet?  If you're eating 2400 calories, how full do you feel throughout the day?  Are you starving?  Bloated?  Tired?  MAKE NOTES OF THESE THINGS AS WELL.  These feelings are important in order to set short term goals effectively.

What's your long term goal?  Remember what I said in my New Year's resolution article?  Set a long term goal that's challenging.  Make yourself work, reach, exert near maximum effort as often as you can while avoiding injury.  How do you plan to impress your friends (and more importantly, yourself), if you don't have to power yourself to a higher, fantastic level?  Be ambitious.  Record a goal for yourself that you can be seriously proud of when you complete.  Write it down, and PUT IT WHERE YOU CAN CONSTANTLY SEE IT.  You need constant reminders to be successful.  It's human nature.


Now, set your first short term goal! You've got all the factors in place to be able to set your first short term goal.  Now keep in mind, there's still an art to this.  Don't make it an immediate short term goal.  At the earliest, make it for tomorrow.  For the beginner, I'd suggest either weekly, or bi-weekly goals.  Monthly is a little lengthy, and gets to be vague.  Let's look at the examples above, and set some goals for those people:

If you bench 190lbs for 4 reps now, how about 195lbs for 4 reps next week?  Easy enough to do, eat right and get proper recovery, and you'll be there in no time.

Do you run for 10 minutes now at 7.0 miles an hour?  Aim for an extra minute next week, at maybe 7.2 miles per hour.  Or better yet, add another thirty seconds every two or three days.  Maybe only 15 seconds!  How easy is that?

How about the diet one.  If you consume 2400 calories now, and feel hungry, replace 200 calories of a guilty  "snack" food (like Tostitos) with 100 calories of some sort of bean salad, or a handful of peanuts.  Simple!

And the great part about short term goals is that they ADD UP QUICKLY.  It's easy to look at a short term goal and scoff, thinking the whole time about "so what if I squat 5 lbs more than last week."  It's 5 little pounds!  But if you could do that all year (which would be extremely difficult, but isn't unachievable,) you'd be squatting over 250lbs more than you did at the beginning of the year!  WOW!

But what if you fail?  Don't sweat it!  If we all hit every one of our goals every single time, we'd all be Olympic champions!  Recover, recuperate, regroup, re-motivate, and try again in a day, or two, or a week.  Don't lollygag, but don't rush into it.  It's really like walking a tight rope.  Push yourself, but on a consistent and realistic basis.

Finally, let's cover the topic you're all probably considering.  What if you don't set any short term goals?  Well, everybody works their own way, but you have no idea how many people I see go into the gym and do the same exercises every day, doing the same number of push-ups, same number of squats with the same weight, and same amount of time on the treadmill.  They don't have goals, they just want to say they go to the gym, and convince themselves that's all that matters.  Blahhh...boring...and believe me they won't get far.

How about those who have the big goal in mind, but no little ones?  Well, I've heard a lot of people say they want to bench 350, but don't go about getting there with any sort of routine or consistency.  They're dumb about it.  And what happens?  They get sidetracked, tired, burned out, and inevitably...FAIL.  Sure, there are exceptions, but in my opinion those exceptions are few and far between.

So that's the scoop.  Short term goals are what bring the big, crazy goals into perspective.  They're stepping stones across the huge waving river (there I go with the analogies again...).  Set them, and start seeing that sweet, sweet progress.  

Keep setting goals.  Keep breaking records.  You'll be surprised at how far you'll get.  Good Luck!

New Year's Resolution: Doing It Right.

Time for that inevitable post, regarding the most inevitable yearly subject with health and fitness: The "New Year's Resolution".  It's always there, nagging in your face, making you feel bad about yourself when things don't go as planned.  And they never seem to, do they?  It seems like whenever you get rolling on that goal, whether it be big or small, something comes up, and suddenly it takes a back seat to the rest of life.  And when the next January 1st comes sauntering back up the calendar, you remember back on that goal of yours and feel like crap when you realize how you didn't complete it.  Heck, you might not even have come close.  Why does that happen every year?  Why can't, just once, that goal be something you can grasp, complete, and feel great about?  Well, chances are, you're approaching it wrong.

What do I mean?  Well, there are several little seemingly minuscule details that can turn an achievable goal into something vague and inapproachable.  And they really are just little things, mindsets, schedule changes, or details about the goal itself that turn them froFuf m something amazing and inspiring into a demon-like monster, too scary and daunting to really tackle.  Here are a few ways to make sure that you ACTUALLY REACH YOUR GOAL this year, and god will you feel great when you do.  Ready to start?  

First of all, aim high.  That's right, HIGH.  Make it something you have to work toward.  There's a saying I live by (well, workout to), that if you're 100% confident you'll make the lift, it isn't heavy enough.  While this isn't always true, it has a lot of value in all sorts of daily applications.  If your goal is too attainable, sure you might complete it, but what have you really....attained?  Not much, if anything.  Want to lose two pounds?  Great!  Two to four weeks later you might be done, look in the mirror, and say, hell, I don't see a difference.  Why not aim for 10 lbs instead?  Or even 20 lbs?  Maybe more!  WORK HARD!  Make your goal something you really have to reach for, and stay committed.  Do you have any idea how amazing it will be to look in the mirror twenty pounds later to see that lean, mean, sexy machine?  You need to want it, to crave it, to make it your mission.  Attack with vengeance! After all, wouldn't it be nice to be the ONLY one of your friends who actually achieved their goal this year?

Life isn't easy.  Neither are the goals worth achieving.  The drive to complete the questionable and daunting tasks in life are what separate champions from the meek and average.

Second, I find quantitative goals to be more easily graspable.  Think about it.  I'll give you two common "New Year's Resolutions", and you tell me which one is easier to grasp mentally.  First resoltion:  "Eat Healthier and exercise more."  Second resolution:  "Lose fifteen pounds and hit the gym 4 times a week for one hour each session."  By the time the year is through, which one will you be able to look back on and say "I did that," to?  Definitely not the first one.  Well, sure, you could say it, but there's very little actually merit to thinking you ate healthier.  You'll have very little way of knowing actually how much healthier you ate, and how much more often you visited the gym.  Chances are you won't have done much of either, considering the goal is so vague to start.  Make it quantitative, numerical, and in other words, "recordable."  You can record time spent at the gym, calories consumed, weight loss, and easily see what we all commonly refer to as PROGRESS.  Progress is what keeps you pushing.  Visible, obvious progress.  Numbers are what count here.  Numbers.

Third thing to remember is that no excuse is good enough.  I don't care what comes up. 

-Genetics aren't a good enough excuse to blame on your slow weight loss, or poor strength, or a bad mile time.  

-While I agree that work can sometimes be a killer, it's not hard to slip in even half an hour of workout time in the morning, evening, even the middle of the night.  

-Sure family is important, but hey, it wouldn't be hard to include them in some fitness goals, would it?  Go for a hike, a swim, a run, a climb, I don't care, just get out there and work!  

And don't get me started on age.  Have you seen Tony Horton?  If not, google image him (in fact, I'll just save you the trouble here).  He's fifty something!  It's never too late, you're never too old, get those joints moving.  

Yup, Tony Horton.  He's 53 actually.

You have to want it, and in the end no excuse will explain why you didn't reach your goal.  I read a newsletter posted weekly by one of the top weightlifting coaches in the country, Nick Horton, and let me just say he writes some pretty inspiring stuff.  One of the greatest quotes I've read he posted just today, in his New Year's Resolution article:

"Every gym in the country (including my own!) braces itself for the New Year’s Rush. We get new clients in larger numbers than any other time of the year. And by March, nearly every one of them has already quit.

It is not just expected, it is built into the business model.

Putting in hard work in the beginning is meaningless if you're going to throw it all away the instant "real life" starts to rear its head on you. Being busy is not an excuse, having a family is not an excuse, neither is "it's not the right time".

At some point, every person who actually meets their goals learned the biggest lesson of them all:

Consistency requires a PERMANENT lifestyle change."

There you have it, wrapped up in a nutshell.  If you really want to achieve something amazing, no excuse is acceptable.  No matter the cost, you must integrate your goal into your life.  That's how it works, and that's how people become great.  If you put some real thought into it, it's not as hard as you think, and I GUARANTEE YOU CAN DO IT.  

To end this article, I'll share with you my goals.  I am a weightlifter, therefore they involve weightlifting, which is conveniently quantitative.  

I want to clean and jerk 150kg.  

I want to Snatch 100kg

I want to Back Squat 181kg 

I want to get in under a professional weightlifting coach

I want to be at least a lean 175lbs

See?  Quantitative goals.  And by posting them here, I've shown you my very last tip.  Force yourself to see your goals every single day.  Show them to other people.  Create some pressure to achieve what you set out to achieve.  Pressure is what keeps people going, because at the end of the year, people will look at you and say "Hey, did you lose 20lbs?  Did you hit the gym as many times as you said you would?  Where's that six pack?"  And you don't want to let them down, do you?

Try hard, push through the tough times, and never give up.  You are capable of more than you could have ever imagined.  GOOD LUCK!