Sometimes, eating habits seems to be so confusing. There is a lot of conflicting information available out there. Whether you should eat small meals and small intervals or should you eat one large meal in a day. Whether to avoid food rich in carbohydrates or to avoid them believe it or not, there is lot of contradicting information available about healthy food habits. But there are some general guidelines that every nutritionist follows and should recommend to their clients.

1. Never Skip Breakfast – Make sure you always start your day with breakfast.
2. Planning When and what to eat – You must plan at least, a day before when and what you are going to eat and make necessary arrangement for that.
3. Drink Water – Staying hydrated is one of the most important rules of healthy food habit. You must drink plenty of water throughout the day, especially before, during and after the meal.
4. Change to Smaller Plates – If you’re eating in large plates then you must quickly change your plates and move to a comparatively smaller plate. It is believed that “we don’t base our portions on hunger at all; we base it on plate size”.
5. Do Not Starve – You must not starve yourself that you eat anything you find. If you are hungry eat something healthy. You might have a handful of almonds and walnut with a glass of water. This would subside your untimely hunger.
6. Eat slowly – While eating you must try to eat slowly by taking small bites and chewing well.
7. Do not Skip meals – Skipping meals will slow down your metabolism and causes you to starve later. So, try not to skip meals.
8. Cook Your Own Junk Food – You are allowed to eat Junk food as long as you cook it yourself. Treat yourself with self made junk food as many times as you are ready to cook it at your home, chances are it won’t be every day.
9. Eat Real Food – Try not to eat processed food. Go for real vegetables and avoid packaged food having high levels of sweeteners, oil and preservatives.
10. Make Healthy Eating A Lifestyle – Having a healthy food habits should not be one time thing, it should rather be a permanent lifestyle for you.

 

Must-do steps to avoid injuries and keep your body healthy and pain-free

So, finally you have committed yourself towards getting fit and you are eagerly waiting to see the positive results in order to achieve your fitness goals. The next sound you hear during workout is “Ouch” as a result of most dreaded injury during workout. All your fitness and healthful plans are derailed by this unexpected injury. Every person who exercises fears getting injured during workout. Injuries usually arise due to over doing of right activity or due to performing the right activity in wrong way. You must be able to go to gym regularly to get in shape. You should be able to train hard, burn calories and gain strength but that won’t be the case if you are hurt during your training. You must take precautionary measures in order to prevent yourself from pulling a muscle, sprains, over-training and strain. So don’t hurt yourself because you’re training the wrong way. Here are the top things you should do to prevent workout related injuries.

1. Know Your Body

Knowing your body’s limitation is the best way to avoid fitness injuries. It’s all about knowing weak areas of your body and avoiding the activities that push hard on those areas. For instance, a person with weak knee should not focus much on steppers, treadmill or leg presses or if you have a weak wrist you should not push yourself to lift heavy weights. The point is that if you know the weak areas of your body and you can’t build them slowly, it is better to avoid activities that might hamper your weak areas. Also you must be aware of what joints and muscles of your body are susceptible to injury. If you are not feeling well, you should better take some time off until your body fully recovers because taking a break is better than getting hurt for prolonged period.

 

2. Balanced Nutrition and Hydration

If you are training hard and lifting heavy but not eating properly you are likely to get hurt. Proper diet and nutrition will not only give you carbohydrates for energy but will also replenish the glycogen stored in your body for your next workout. The protein intake is also important as it will repair the muscles that you have just broken down during previous workout. Also during severe dieting try to avoid heavy training as it would only hurt your body. How you feel all day after you have trained depends a lot on what you eat. Nutrition must be considered as the extension of your workout. Also if you have sweated a lot you must replenish your muscles with the necessary water.

 

3. Warm-Up and Take it Slow

The easiest way to avoid workout injury requires repetition. A warm up is defined as the high-rep, low intensity and quick paced exercise that increases the blood flow to the muscles. You must always warm up before you workout. During warm up, you actually loosen up the tighten muscles and joints which gets more flexible during high intensity exercise. I can understand that there are times you just want to rush to exercise but going right into the intense training will do you more harm than good. Five minutes is all it takes to warm up. You must also slowly build the pace of your exercise over the time. The warm up could consist of riding a stationary bike, stepper, jogging or some high-rep weight training. You might also go for dynamic stretching before workout and static stretching after workout for your warm up.

 

4. Rest and Recover

You must set aside a day or two each week for rest and must perform light exercises or you might skip the exercise entirely. The rest time you allow your body helps your muscles to heal and makes them stronger. It takes almost three days for a muscle to recover completely. The strengthening of muscles prevents injuries during the future workouts. Our body gives us signal when to stop exercising. If the pain lasts more than 24 to 48 hrs or you simply feel tired then you need to rest. It is also important to provide rest to your muscles during workouts. You should not push yourself to the point of extreme pain. Taking a break is always better than getting hurt and sitting back for months.

 

Get Private Training/Personal Training

The best way to avoid the injuries during workout is to have some sessions with the professional or certified trainers. The trainer will provide you with much needed knowledge regarding your posture during exercise. He/she will ensure if your alignments are proper while you’re exercising, which goes a long way in protecting you from getting hurt. Also, getting professional training prevents you from doing wrong exercise for your body type and helps you in moderating your routine so that you don’t do too much.

 

6. Be Smart and Don’t Overdo

Another common cause of workout injuries is overdoing. You must try to listen to your body and you will know if you’re pushing too hard. This also goes with warm-up before and after exercise. Overdoing is quite dangerous when it comes to weight lifting. You might end up losing control of dumbbell and that can be disastrous. Doing an exercise again and again might help you perfect it but it can also set you up for an injury. Overtraining negatively impacts our body’s overall strength and conditioning. You simply can’t grow when you’re over-trained.

 

7. Stretch it out (Pre and Post Workout)

However, stretching has no direct role in preventing injuries but it does make your body flexible. A properly performed stretching session after warm up and before weight training helps in relaxing and elongating muscles. It results in warm and loose muscles for your workout. Static stretching between sets or at the end of the workout eliminates the next day soreness.

 

8. Strength Training

If cycling or running on treadmill is your primary form of cardio then no doubt your quads are strong. But what about you arms? When certain muscles of your body are strong and others are weak it pertains to injury by causing imbalances and also put strain on certain muscles. So, it is necessary to add two or so strength training sessions each week to your workout and focus on toning those week parts of your body that do not get much required attention.

 

Now that you know what to do and what not to avoid workout injury, I expect you all to have safe and fun exercise. From now onwards don’t get sidelined by the injuries. Take the right precautions and with a right mind set go for a fit body.

We all have somewhere in our life come across the famous proverb “Where there is a will, there is a way“. The proverb simply means that if you are determined towards something you will surely find a way to accomplish it. The same applies to fitness and health. So, here I am with a motivational story of one of my client Dr. Anil Shotriya who found his way to achieve his aim to be fit and healthy.

A lecturer by profession, Anil Shotriya, realized in the summer of 2014 that he has become bulky and he needs to get this in check. Dr. Anil not only had high Blood pressure issues but also had Knee problems.
He realized that if he does not take some steps in order to get his body in shape he might get susceptible to more diseases in near future. It was then only he decided to join a fitness club to get himself in shape. After some research and visits to local Gyms in town, he finally joined “B2 Zone“. Like everyone else, he had his own doubts about joining the gym which, I tried at my best to clear for him.

While joining the gym in July’14, 48 year old Anil’s weight was 220lb (100 Kg) whereas the ideal weight for a person of his height 173cm (5.8 inches) is somewhere around 155 pounds (70 Kg). And after 10 dedicated months of hard work he lost an astonishing 53lb (24 Kg).

BEFORE

 

AFTER

As quoted by Dr. Anil

Before the transformation, I wasn’t able to catch the morning bus to college if it didn’t stopped at the right spot (as in if it stopped a little ahead of where I used to stand). I would wait for another bus to come by and then boarded on it. But now I could even catch a running bus leave alone walking small distance to catch bus.

Due to his consistency and commitment Dr. Anil lost a whooping 15lb (7 Kg) in the first two months of joining and at the end of the tenth month he had already lost 54lb (24 Kg). He has been a source of inspiration and motivation to rest of the members of our Gym.

By joining the gym Dr. Anil already took the first step towards healthy life. And as I always say, right nutrition is the key to perfect body shape and healthy life. Dr. Anil focused on his diet and nutrition. He started working on diet plan as provided by B2 Zone and also took necessary Proteins and vitamin supplements. He never had cheat meals except on Sundays. On cheat days also, he used to have a check on his carbohydrates intake.

As I have already mentioned, initially he had high Blood pressure, by the end of November 2014, he stopped taking medication for the same as he no longer had the High Blood pressure issues. Also Dr. Anil had less pain in his knees which ultimately dissipated.

Once he mentioned “I wasn’t able to stand for long in the bus, people used to get up and give me their seats so that I could sit, but now I do not face any such trouble. In fact, I am fine with providing my seat to those who need to sit.”

Today Dr. Anil is in best shape of his life and he simply endures it. He is happy, confident and is a positive influence to rest of the fitness lovers and people in his surroundings. One thing I admire about Dr. Anil is his dedication and commitment towards the workout. It is an easy task to make excuses but one really has to go an extra mile to get a positive outcome and be able to influence others.

At the end, I would just say that “Nothing is impossible“, as the word itself says “I M POSSIBLE“. If he can do it, you can do it. You just need to buckle up your shoes and commit yourself towards getting fit.

If you have any questions, concerns, please feel free to leave a comment below or drop us an email at [email protected].