If your New Year’s resolutions don’t work – get this!
- 25% of people abandon their New Year’s resolutions after one week.
- 60% of people abandon them within six months. (The average person makes the same New Year’s resolution ten separate times without success.)
- Only 5% of those who lose weight on a diet keep it off; 95% regain it and a significant percentage gain back more than what they originally lost.
- Even after a heart attack, only 14% of patients make any lasting changes around eating or exercise.
While New Year’s resolutions don’t work – goals do! If you have not yet filled out your goal card at the Seattle Athletic Club perhaps you should think about doing it; studies have shown that goals written are more likely to be accomplished.
If you need some help completing your goals, just follow the SMART goal setting rules:
- Specific: make a detail oriented goal.
- Measurable: make sure the goal and an amount or time associated with it.
- Attainable: make sure the goal can be realistically attained.
- Reward Based: treat yourself to a present for completing your goal.
- Time Based: make sure your goal has a realistic start and end date that gives you the best outcome.
The goals and time frame are entirely up to you. You may want to focus your long-term goals on improving a specific health condition or your goal may be to simply play tennis again. Your success depends on setting goals that are truly important to you—and possessing a strong desire to achieve them. Everyone is capable of achieving well planned health and fitness goals. Making small, consistent changes often brings about lasting results. If you would like to discuss your 2017 goals with a personal trainer please contact Fitness Director Jacob Luckey or find a trainer at a fitness desk and start a conversation with them.
SAC Team
goals
What is your goal for the New Year?
Without a goal, you might find yourself spinning the wheels on your own health. We, at the Seattle Athletic Club, are interested in not only hearing what your goals are, but seeing them in writing. Studies have shown that if you write down your goal or tell someone – you are more likely to achieve it.
Here are some options for you to show others what you are trying to achieve:
- Write your goal on our SAC goal card and display it with the rest of the members (they will be displayed anonymously).
- Email fitness director Jacob Luckey with your goal and he will post them for you.
- Sit down and talk with any of our fitness staff about how to set your goal and discuss a plan of action to achieve them.
Let’s see how many people we can get to finish their goals; no matter how big or small your goal may be, we want to help you have a great and healthy New Year.
For more information on this complimentary event, please contact Fitness Director Jacob Luckey.
Lifestyle
goals, New Year Goals
Coming this Fall.
Meal planning is where your dietary intentions become a habit we develop and refine over time. Come get both inspiration and structure with Club Nutritionist Kathryn Reed, MS. In this program you will:
1st – meet with our club nutritionist for a private half hour session to assess your specific needs, goals and obstacles.
2nd – meet in a group each Monday for six weeks as you create the week’s personalized meal plan/grocery list.
Project Meal Plan is for those new to meal planning, those that just want some inspiration or new ways of cooking meals, for those busy professionals with very little time to cook and it’s also for those who just don’t want to go it alone!
$149 member cost / $179 non-member cost
For more information please contact Fitness Director, Jacob Luckey, at jluckey@sacdt.com.
Diet & Nutrition, Motivation, September News & Events
goals, grocery list, meal planning, Obstacles
New Year’s resolutions don’t work, get this:
- 25% of people abandon their New Year’s resolutions after one week.
- 60% of people abandon them within six months. (The average person makes the same New Year’s resolution ten separate times without success.)
- Only 5 percent of those who lose weight on a diet keep it off; 95% regain it and a significant percentage gain back more than they originally lost.
- Even after a heart attack, only 14 percent of patients make any lasting changes around eating or exercise.
But while New Year’s resolutions don’t work, goals do! If you have not yet filled out your goal card at the Seattle Athletic Club perhaps you should think about doing it; studies have shown that goals that are written are more likely to be accomplished.
If you need some help completing your goals, just follow the SMART goal setting rules:
· Specific: make a detail oriented goal.
· Measurable: make sure the goal has an amount or time associated with it.
· Attainable: make sure the goal can be realistically attained.
· Reward Based: treat yourself to a present for completing your goal.
· Time Based: make sure your goal has a realistic start and end date that gives you the best outcome.
The goals and time frame are entirely up to you. You may want to focus your long-term goals on improving a specific health condition or your goal may be to simply play tennis again. Your success depends on setting goals that are truly important to you—and possessing a strong desire to achieve them. Everyone is capable of achieving well-planned health and fitness goals. Making small, consistent changes often brings about lasting results. If you would like to discuss your 2015 goals with a personal trainer, please contact Fitness Director Jacob Galloway or find a trainer at a fitness desk and start a conversation with them.
For more information, please contact our Fitness Director, Jacob Galloway, at jgalloway@sacdt.com.
February Events 2016
achieve goals, goals, New Years, SMART
Dear Journal,my name is Adriana Brown and I am obsessed and in love. My husband feels as though an intervention may be in order. I cannot stop using the fitness app, MyFitnessPal. Thanks to fellow trainer Shay Massey, I am totally obsessed with this app and I constantly recommend it to clients, friends, family, acquaintances, and relative strangers. If you want to lose weight and feel like you still have a choice in what you consume (nothing is off limits) this is the absolute best way to do it. Here are a few things I totally love about this app:
1. It’s super easy to use.
2. You can tailor it 100% to your personal needs and goals
3. It’s cell phone friendly, computer friendly, and tablet friendly
4. If you are 100% honest with it you are 100% guaranteed to achieve your weight loss goals.
5. Nothing is off limits
Do these all sound too good to be true? Well, it is and it isn’t. You still have to put in effort just like attaining any goal.
First off, you need a food scale. Most foods you input into the app are measured in grams or ounces. It’s imperative that you measure/weigh your food as that will give you the most exact count of your macro-nutrients (carbs, protein, fat).
Second, you need to do a little leg work You can do a general search (Pink Lady apple), or you can scan a barcode (mixed veggies), or you can import the URL for any recipe (who the heck knows the nutritional info for homemade chili?). Once it’s in your food database you can easily select it going forward, so there’s no second time searching for your favorite Lara Bar!
Third, going out to dinner is hard. If you can’t be exact, do a search of something close to what you are eating. I doubt MyFitnessPal has Etta’s clam chowder in it, but you could select “Whole Foods Clam Chowder” and then be annoying and ask your server how many ounces the clam chowder is.
Fourth, it’s best to do most of your food log the day before. If you know you are having two eggs and a banana for breakfast tomorrow, you should go ahead and plan out as far as you can for the next day. That makes the whole day of meal planning much easier and increases the likelihood that you will hit your target amount of macro-nutrients, which is the ultimate goal.
The fifth–and most important step if you really want to lose weight–LOG EVERYTHING to the best of your ability. If my kids don’t eat all their broccoli I will eat it and add in even just 1.2 ounces so that I’m being honest with myself and really achieving my counts for the day. The more exact you are with your logging, the quicker you will achieve your goals.
On the upside, if you want to eat a Snickers Bar tomorrow, you totally can. It may mean that for the rest of the day you eat nothing but baked chicken and carrots to achieve your food goals, but the choice is yours to make. This is not a diet. This is a way for you to learn what kinds of foods give you what kinds of nutrition and how much of those foods you should be eating. It’s not even about calorie counting; it’s much more about hitting the macro-nutrient count. It’s almost like a game trying to hit your numbers, changing food amounts, changing food, etc. I just love it and think it’s an amazing way to stay on track. Even if you only use it for a week or two in order to understand how much of your meals should be carbs/proteins/fats, it’s a great learning tool.
I highly recommend you give it a shot. Perhaps you’ll love it so much, I’ll see you at the next MyFitnessPal addiction group!
If you want more information about this or other ways to achieve your goals, please contact Adriana Brown at abrown@sacdt.com
Fitness Advice, Fitness Department
apps, goals, MyFitnessPal, personal, tablet, tablet friendly, weight loss
It’s been 6 months since most of you made your New Year’s goals; now it is time to take a look at them again and see how you’re progressing. For some of you this may mean that you make more goals because you have already accomplished your old ones others, it may mean reassessing your goals and how you are working toward attaining them.
Remember your goals should be SMART:
- Specific – A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. T
- Measurable – Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set.
- Attainable – When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true.
- Realistic – To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work.
- Timely – A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there’s no sense of urgency.
It is never too late to reassess your goals and to keep working on them!
For more information, please contact Fitness Director Jacob Galloway.
Motivation, SAC Team
achieve goals, Goal cards, goals, S.M.A.R.T., SMART
Dr. Michael Li, DACRB
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great holiday! Each January, most of us rush back to the gym determined to burn off some holiday season calories and work toward New Year’s resolutions to get into better shape. Unfortunately, some studies showed more than half of those who join in a gym or fitness club will drop out after 3-6 months. The common reason: injury.
I want to use this article to lay out some strategies that can help you avoid injury and reach your fitness goals any time of year. If you are someone who wants to stay fit for the rest of the year, this article is for you! Here we go.
Overtraining & Injuries
As we are enthusiastically starting our new year training program, sometimes we may do too much, too soon, and those usually lead to early overtraining, and increase one’s risks of injuries. How can you tell if you are over trained? Here are couple things to look for:
- Test your resting heart rate in the morning or before you have breakfast & coffee. Is it higher than usual?
- Did you find yourself still feeling tired after a good night of sleep? This can be an early sign of overtraining.
- Soreness versus pain
- This is one of the most frequently asked questions I encountered and I hope the table below helps differentiate the two:
Muscles sores
|
Pain
|
| Discomfort sensation: the area feels tender to the touch, and you feel a dull, tight achy feeling when you are resting |
Discomfort sensation: sharp pain at rest |
| Onset: during exercises or 24-72 hours after exercise |
Onset: during exercise or within 24 hours of activities |
| Duration: 1-3 days |
Duration: more than a week |
| Location: muscles |
Location: muscles or joints |
| Feels better with: stretching, some light movement |
Feels better with: ice, rest (or no relief from either of those) |
| Feels worse with: being static |
Feels worse with: any activities |
| Appropriate action: continue the exercises once the soreness subsides or to a point you feel comfortable |
Appropriate action: consult with a medical professional if pain is sharp and/or lasts more than 1-2 weeks |
What to do?
Gradual increase in exercise intensity/volume.
- I found most folks injured themselves by doing too much, too soon. You may be away from training for a while, and thought you would just pick up where you left off. I would say to start off easily and ramp up gently. Start with one set of exercises for two weeks and see how your body response to it. Sometimes it takes time for your body to adapt to the new exercises routine, and you may not feel the good (and bad) effect from the exercises until 2-4 weeks later. Increase the difficulty of the exercises once you master the form and the movement.
Pay attention to your body
- “Feel” the work you are doing with your body and watch your form. Quality movements always trump high volume and bad forms.
Recovery:
- Good nutrition: make sure you eat and drink well and put good fuel back in your body after exercise.
- Sleep well: your body grows when you are sleeping. Better sleep = better recovery = better growth!
Planning & ideas:
Set Goal(s)
- Some folks train for a marathon, some exercise to prepare for a squash tournament, some just train to be healthier. No matter what your intention is, set a goal. You will commit to your exercises routine when you have a goal. Write it down. Put it at your computer screen or at your fridge. Ask yourself “why” you train/exercise and stick with it!
Make it practical
- This one follows nicely after you set up your goal(s). Make your training practical to what you want to do. If you are training for a hike that you would do during your next vacation, make sure your training helps you directly with your hike. You will be more compliant with the exercises.
Cross training
- You maybe training for the marathon, but it does not mean your training only involves running. Our body is a great adapter, both to good and bad stress. By doing cross training, you will train the weak stabilizing muscles you may miss during your regular training, and give the muscles a break. If you are a runner, do some weight training to helps support your joints to take on road.
Have some fun!
- Going to the gym can be a drag sometimes, especially during the days of 12+hours of darkness outside. Make it fun for yourself to go into the gym. Mix up the exercise routine after you build a strong foundation. Grab a workout buddy. Have a friendly pickup basketball game. Have fun with the exercises. Being healthy can be fun too!
Resources:
- Take advantage of the professionals in your circle and in the SAC. If you are dealing with an injury, get it checked out by me or other health care professional during the Wellness Tuesdays. Don’t know where to start on exercising programming, set up an appointment with a personal trainer.
- The personal training staffs and I have worked together on numerous occasions to help a member reaching their fitness goals. When a member is injured and come to me, I always communicate with his/her trainers to create the best exercise plan for that member. Together, we can check your base fitness to support your desired activities level; identify training errors; correct biomechanical problems; provide an appropriate plan to reach your goals.
I hope this article helps giving you a great start to 2015. Don’t hesitate to email the Seattle Athletic Club’s fitness director Jacob Galloway (jgalloway@sacdt.com) or me if you have any questions. Have a great 2015!
Dr. Li has been taking care of the SAC staff and members since 2010. You can find him at the lobby performing injury screen for members every 3rd Tuesday of the month. His practice, Mobility Plus Sports Rehab, is conveniently located about 10 minute walk from the SAC. You can find out more about him and his clinic at mobilityplussportsrehab.com. He can be reached by info@mobilityplussportsrehab.com.
Dr. Li, Fitness Advice, Fitness Programs, Sports Conditioning, Strength Training, Workouts
cross training, fun, goals, injuries, Muscles sores, overtraining, Pain, pay attention, practical, recovery
In April I said, “It’s time to lose my last 5lbs of baby weight”. In May I said, “No, seriously, it’s time”. In June I’m saying, “Only 2 or 3 more pounds…”. Well here I am, half way through June still trying to lose the last bit that back in April I was envisioning being gone by now. What’s holding me back? A few things, and I’ll put them out there right now to be honest with myself. One, not devoting enough time to me. It’s the same old sob story, two kids, a job (if you can call working 4 hours a day a job), a husband, a house, etc. etc. But I’ll be darned if the weekends come and I don’t trade a 20 minute hill running workout for family bed time and yard work during nap time. So, every weekend comes along and I tell myself, just 20 minutes for me and I somehow manage to find other things to do with my “free time”. Second, Plantain Chips, those dirty dirty plantain chips. I love them, my 2 year old loves them, it’s my one and only “treat”. It has to stop, no one should eat Plantain Chips or any kind of chips every day or every other day. I must break the habit! Lastly, obsessing. It’s a real killer and as a woman it’s just what we do. I obsess over how my stomach looks, how much sleep I’m not getting, about raising happy healthy kids, about cleaning up the house, about actually cooking a meal, about what we are going to do this weekend, about getting anywhere on time, about sending out birthday cards before said birthdays actually occur, about remembering to pay that medical bill, about getting groceries, about doing the laundry, about the workouts I’m doing (or not doing). If I give myself too much time I’ll obsess, stress, and get anxiety over just about anything. It’s like I always tell my husband, “Once you become a Mom you just can’t turn Mom off… ever.” It’s my job to worry, plan, care for, and put forth my best effort on all fronts for my family. But that also means I lose much of myself in being things for others. It’s about balance and I should probably find mine!
Any who, those are just my excuses. I’m sure I could come up with many more but those are the ones that are the big cripplers, not just in losing my last 3lbs but in just relaxing and living my life. Let it go, live in the now, just be. If only I could listen to myself.
So what holds you back? What holds you back from achieving your goals (fitness or otherwise)? What holds you back from feeling successful? What holds you back from being happy with yourself? What holds you back from feeling content?
Here is my advice on getting past it all one step at a time. Although, I’m obviously still working on it all myself so perhaps I’m not the guru you should totally invest in : )
1. Outline your goals.
2. Don’t make goals just to make goals, make goals that mean something to you.
3. Don’t let yourself off the hook, be accountable, failure is not failure if you try.
4. Be honest. Be honest with yourself, be honest with your family, be honest with your friends. If you really care about your goals the only way to get there is to be honest. NO MORE EXCUSES 5. Understand what it is holding you back and how to either cope with those things or come up with healthy ways to move past the road blocks.
6. Look on the bright side. We are always looking at the negatives but maybe instead of saying, “I didn’t run 20 miles every week like I planned, I’m a loser” you can say, “Well I didn’t quite get 20 miles but I got 15 and that is pretty good. Next week is a new week.”
It’s not easy to feel like you are losing the battle, like you’ve failed, like you are never going to accomplish something. But not trying, being complacent and living in a way that does not make you happy is much worse than the possibility of failing.
So while I stare at the scale (I’m not even a scale person for crying out loud) and think, “I’m so far away from losing these last few pounds, I’m never going to be able to do it” I instead will tell myself, “Good job, good effort, I traded my normal looking stomach for two beautiful children and that was the best trade ever!”. I’ll remember the positive and continue to work at my goals. Perhaps I’ll stop obsessing about my wobbly bits and start obsessing about something a little more healthy and worth my time. I’m open to suggestions here!
In the end, life is too short to obsess over stupid things. Life is too short to hold yourself back. It’s time to stop sitting on the sidelines. It’s time to join the game, you don’t have to be the best player just getting on the field is a great start! So get out of your comfort zone, try something new, break the cycle, form a new habit (a good one please), you can do it, don’t hold yourself back!
Lifestyle, Motivation, Weight Loss, Women's Health
baby weigth, fitness, free time, goals, kids health, Mom
By Personal Fitness Trainer Adriana Brown, Seattle Athletic Club Downtown
Well, it’s coming; fall is right around the corner. Soon, gone are the mornings of birds chirping, sun shining, and flip flops. Now comes the hard part, the continual early wake up in the dark, wrapped in your ski jacket, de-fogging your car. Not such a pretty picture I know. This is the killer for many workout routines. In the summer time it’s easy to have motivation to get up early and get your workout in before work but once the cold hits your warm bed talks louder and louder to you. How do we avoid the bad weather slacking? A few easy steps and hopefully we’ll stay the course!
- GOALS! Set them now, set at least one goal for the next 3-6 months. Make them small and achievable but make them something that means something to you. Remember that Mexico vacation in December? Now is the time to stay strong and continue to work towards that fit healthy body. Maybe you just want to do the Tough Mudder in September, continue your training and you’ll make it through with flying colors and a smile on your face! No matter what your goals are big or small, make yourself accountable and continue on your well earned path to success rain or shine!
- GET A WORKOUT PARTNER OR TRAINER! The number one way to make sure you get out of bed is to have someone waiting for you at the gym. Whether it is your friend from work, your cousin, or someone you are paying, having a breathing person waiting you at the gym will push you to make the same sacrifice as someone else. It’s so much more fun to workout with someone else, you can push one another, you can do more partner exercises, you can both bring strength and weaknesses to the table, but best of all you can keep each other accountable. If you are still ditching your best friend 2 days out of 3 maybe it’s time to pay someone to keep you on track. By hiring a trainer not only do you get fitness expertise, great effective workouts, but you also get someone forcing you out of bed!
- MAKE A DEAL! Waking up early not working for you? Make yourself a deal. Two days a week you go early to the gym and two days a week you do it after work. If after a month you’ve found yourself only making two workouts a week take a step back and see just what is and isn’t working for your workout times. If you just aren’t a morning person maybe 6AM isn’t going to work for you. Then find yourself a better time. Whatever fits and whatever gets you in and accomplishing your fitness goals!
- GOOD SLEEP! Good sleep makes everything better and easier. You are more alert, your digestive system works better, your immune system is stronger, you think better, and best of all you feel refreshed and ready to tackle the day. Make a bed time, stick to it. Routine at home is just as important as routine in the weight room. Resist the urge to stay up late for your favorite show, an extra 30-60 minutes of sleep could be your missing link between feeling half sick all the time and feeling like you can run a marathon!
- WATER! Drink it, drink lots of it. Replace one of your 4 cups of coffee with water. The more water you have in your system the better your insides function, the better you feel. It’s so easy to do so DO IT!
These are a few simple ways to keep you going when the going gets wet. Bring on the dark and the dreary; you’ll be feeling like a ball of sunshine when you finish a tough workout and you are proud of what you’ve done. You didn’t work that hard all summer to let it go now! Hang in there and work hard!
Cardio Training, Fitness Advice, Lifestyle, Sports Conditioning, Strength Training, Uncategorized, Weight Loss, Women's Health
Deal, End of Summer, fall, goals, Personal Trainer, Sleep, water
What is holding you back from achieving your goals? What keeps you from making the life changes you want to make? Here are a few things that may come to mind:
- I’m scared. I don’t want to be the new kid in class, I don’t want to try out a new workout, what if it’s too hard and I’m not able to finish it? Don’t be scared, how you will ever know what you are made of if you don’t try. You may not always be the best, you may look silly, it may make you feel like you are going to die, you may want to curl up in a ball and sleep for the next 10 days, but how in the world will you ever know if you can do it if you don’t at least give it a shot. Leave fear at the door and give that class/trainer/machine/piece of equipment a shot and embrace the fact that this is the first day, it will only get easier from here on out!
- Complacency. You come in, you get the same locker, you put on your favorite socks, you warm up on the same machine while you read the same newspaper, and then you do the same workout you’ve been doing for the past 8 years. Why? Why not push yourself and see what you can teach your body. When was the last time you changed up your workout, maybe not even completely? Maybe all you did was change how many sets of something you did or you added in an extra sprint. When was the last time you tried something new or decided to lift heavier? Why do the same old thing? If it hasn’t shown you improvement in the last 2 years why do you think it might tomorrow?
- I just don’t know how. You aren’t exactly supposed to so don’t feel bad about that. There are a few simple solutions, the first, hire a trainer. You don’t need to see a trainer every day for the next year to learn something. In one session, maybe even in just 40 minutes you can gain knowledge that will completely change how you exercise and show you more benefits than you’ve seen in years. Who knows, you might see such value that you sign up for more than just one session! You can always workout with some one else or join a program and really get yourself motivated and find the fun in working out!
- I don’t have enough time. If you think you need an hour or two to get a good workout in boy do I have news for you! In a whopping 10 minutes you can get a full body full cardio workout in. It’s not going to be a fun 10 minutes but it will be the most effective 10 minutes you’ve ever worked out! My point is, don’t say to yourself “Well I only have 30 minutes today, I guess I’ll skip it because there’s just not enough time.” There are plenty of ways to get a good workout in even if you only have a short amount of time. Think, keep moving, sprints, high intensity, full body, and jump!
Don’t let any of these things hold you back. You should walk out of the gym feeling proud of yourself, feeling like you’ve really accomplished something. If you aren’t currently feeling that way you are missing out. You should be satisfied with what you’ve done and maybe even so excited that you can’t wait to tell your co-workers/spouse/kids/friends, etc about what a rock star you are! If you need help moving forward and learning new skills contact one of our amazing personal trainers!
Fitness Advice, Motivation, Sports Conditioning, Strength Training, Weight Loss
club, exercise, goals, gym, health, Personal Training, Seattle Athletic Club, Training, workout
