Is your lack of sleep getting in the way of your fitness goals?

If you are like most Americans, you are not getting enough sleep. Researches believe that one of the primary causes of obesity is sleep deprivation. Which simply means that the less you sleep the more you will weigh. Throughout the day, the longer we remain awake, our metabolism tends to get confused and we end up eating more, getting stressed, and gaining weight. When your body doesn't get enough sleep, the proteins in your body that tell you you are full simply stop working. This causes your body to feel hungry and of course, you eat more.

Sleep deprivation also causes increased levels of the hormone cortisol. Cortisol tells our body that we are hungry and lowers lean body mass. Lack of sleep also causes our bodies to convert calories into fat instead of energy. Finally, not getting enough sleep can interferes with your bodies ability to build muscle mass. Of course, the more muscle mass you have the more calories you burn through out the day.

There are a few ways to help yourself fall asleep each night.

• You should turn off your computer and T.V. every night at least 30 minutes before bedtime.
• Make sure that you eat enough proteins during the day and try to eat something with protein before you go to bed. This will keep you full and lower your stress level by increasing the amount of cortisol in your body.
• You should try to go to bed at the same time everyday, even on the weekends. This way you body establishes a routine.
• Also, when you plan out your day, you should exercise at least three hours before bedtime. Exercising wakes up your body making it harder for you to fall asleep
• . The last thing that you can do to help you fall asleep at night is try not to take naps during the day. Of course if you need to try to limit them to 15 minutes.

Written by Lori Sarne, Personal Trainer at Motivation Fitness

Holiday Activities & Calorie Burn

With all the excitement, busyness, and stress of the holidays, many of us seem to feel like we do not enough hours in the day to get everything accomplished.    How many of us stress out when we do not get our exercise in because we are “getting ready” for the holidays?  I know I do.  It is ok to cut down on your exercise so you can more enjoy the holidays.    Most of us may actually increase our daily caloric expenditure (not including exercise) during the holiday season due to everything that needs to get done for the holidays.  

Below are some holiday activities that most of us engage in including the estimated calories burned for 30 minutes of doing that activity.

• Shopping: 112 calories, whether it is shopping for gifts or grocery shopping.
• Touring/ Traveling: 100 calories, take a walk around the neighborhood to look at Holiday lights.
• Cooking: 100 calories, since we eat more during the holidays, we have to cook more.
• Housework: 137 calories.  The house has to be spotless for the guest, plus cleanup after gifts.
• Standing: 56 calories.  Yes, standing, but that is what we do at holiday parties.
• Playing board games with family and friends: 75 calories. 
• Dancing: 150-281 calories. This is a fun and effective way to burn calories and that holiday party!
• Wrapping presents: 106 calories.  I did not find the estimated caloric expenditure for wrapping presents so I used the estimated caloric expenditure for “ironing”.   I thought they were similar because we primarily use our arms for both of them.

These particular numbers vary according to your weight. To do your own calculation, go to http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc. Just choose an activity; enter your weight and time allotted to come up with your exact calorie burn. You can have some fun with this calculator!  

As you can see, we have a lot of activity during the holidays.   So, don’t beat yourself up if you miss a workout.   Go do all the things you need to do for the holidays and enjoy them.  

Happy Holidays!

Post written by Jeremy Workman, Personal Trainer at Motivation Fitness, West Conshohocken

The Secret To Lasting Fitness Success

With new year's just around the corner and resolutions in the air, people constantly ask me about what they should do to effectively lose weight and get in shape once and for all starting January. Most of the time, their question centers around what kind of foods are okay to eat, what exercises are best, what kind of cardio burns the most calories, and other similar questions. My reply, however, is often not what they are expecting:

The right plan is the one that you can stick to for the long term!

The truth about fitness and nutrition is that there is no special secret or magic recipe for success. There are tons of different ways of achieving a given goal and its likely that you could use multiple methods to reach the same outcome. However, the method that will give you the longest term results, guaranteed, is the one to which you adhere the longest!

So the take away point is pick plan that you can stick with! Fad diets might help you lose weight quickly but you cannot do them long term. The same is true with extreme exercise regimens. Pick something that fits your personality and that you like, and then do it relentlessly. That's the way success is made.

Written by Yudi Kerbel, Head Trainer at Motivation Fitness, West Conshohocken