Get Off the Negative Bandwagon

Unemployment is on the rise. Layoffs are commonplace at many companies. Benefits for both employees and retirees are being cut more and more. Cash is king... but there's less and less to go around. And many people are finding that there is more month at the end of the money.

How can you not be pessimistic? How can you not join in with co-workers who seem to find ever more creative ways of predicting doom and gloom? Like so many things in life, moaning and complaining is a bandwagon that's easy to hop on, but hard to get off.

What I find rather interesting is that the "doom and gloom" people at most workplaces are treated as if they are all-seeing prophets who have a crystal ball that they use to scry the future. Yet someone who is upbeat and positive, on the other hand, is treated as if he or she has some sort of psychological malaise.

I could go on and on describing this phenomenon, but I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. So instead, let me just explain what I think we need to do:

1. Don't be a sheep and blindly follow the naysayers and negative ninnies.
2. Remember that the choice is always yours.
3. Choose optimism.

Will you be wrong sometimes? Absolutely. But that's not the point. The point is that negative words and ideas create negative energy, and negative energy saps your spirit. And considering all of the truly serious problems that we're facing today, none of us needs any additional negativity if we can help it... so get off of the negative bandwagon! The choice is yours.

Train hard and pray harder,
Brandon Jubar

Health and Fitness Myth Busters: No Pain, No Gain

The Myth: The best indicator of an excellent workout is that I should be really sore, especially on the day after.

The Reality: Muscle soreness is expected to some degree, especially if you're either a beginner, you have not trained in a long time, or you've made significant changes to your routine. But muscle soreness is certainly not the only way to tell that your workout was effective. In fact, if your nutrition is good and you are allowing adequate recovery time between workouts, muscle soreness should be minimized.

Given proper training, nutrition, and recovery time, strong muscles should be exhausted immediately following a workout, but you should not be in pain the following day. The "pain" you feel when you properly push your muscles is better described as "strain". If you are pushing to the point of true pain, then you need to either adjust the weight, the number of reps, or the intensity of your workout because over-training will definitely slow your progress. The truth is that training to pain will minimize your gains.

Train hard and pray harder,
Brandon

Health and Fitness Myth Busters: Cardio Burns More Fat

The Myth: The only way I'm going to burn off that layer of fat is to put in some hours on the treadmill or elliptical machine (or some other form of cardio exercise).

The Reality: Sure, cardio can burn calories, but it isn't the only type of exercise you should be doing. In fact, many experts agree that it's not even the best exercise for significant fat loss. Slow, steady cardio burns calories while you're exercising, but a short while after you stop, your body settles back into its basal metabolic rate (BMR). Strength training, on the other hand, using a varied program that is changed up every 4 or 5 weeks, causes muscle confusion and keeps your body burning more calories for around 38 hours after the workout. Also keep in mind that muscle tissue is extremely active and burns 5 or 6 times more calories than fat when your body is at rest (a pound of muscle burns 10-20 calories a day).

Cardio is excellent if you're training for an activity that requires physical endurance, but it is not the best solution for fat loss. Stick to strength training and high intensity interval training (HIIT) to burn the most fat in the shortest amount of time. Then when you need to shed those last couple of pounds and get totally shredded, feel free to hop on the stationary bike and pedal to your heart's content!

Train hard and pray harder,
Brandon Jubar

More Energy for Hectic Days

Okay... so who hasn’t been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Well, regardless of whether you agree with the statement or not, there is one thing that everyone seems to agree with: A healthy breakfast is certainly a good thing. Of course, there’s also another statement that many people will agree with: Eating a healthy breakfast can be difficult with the fast pace of life today!

With that in mind, here are two suggestions for ensuring that you get a decent breakfast, even when you’re on-the-run!

1. Prepare something the night before. Most of us underestimate the time we’ll have available in the morning, so take breakfast out of the equation by preparing something the night before. Throw some nuts, raisins and sunflower seeds into a plastic bag for an inexpensive, homemade trail mix. Likewise, you could throw some granola or other healthy dry cereal into a plastic bag to munch on during your commute. Or what about some low-fat cheese slices and some whole wheat crackers? Or pre-peel an orange, slice an apple or pear, or clean some grapes and have them bagged and ready to grab on your way out the door.

2. Focus on the right foods, not on breakfast foods. Cereal and oatmeal are fine, but you don’t have to limit yourself to traditional breakfast fare. The key is to shoot for the right types of foods. Go light on the sugar to avoid a ‘crash’ later in the morning. Focus on fiber by going for complex carbs, not highly processed white flour foods. Try to add in some protein for more sustainable energy. And if you can, include some healthy fats for added brain performance (throw some almonds or walnuts in with your trail mix, or have some omega-3-enriched hard-boiled eggs on hand).

Regardless of whether or not you think that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the fact is that it is important... so don’t skip it. Prepare something the night before and make sure you’re eating the right types of foods, and you should have more energy to get you through your hectic day!

Train hard and pray harder,
Brandon Jubar

Health and Fitness Myth Busters: Toning Up

The Myth: If you want nice muscle tone, you need to use lighter weights and higher repetitions (more sets might help as well).

The Reality: The theory sounds good: lighter weights and higher reps will give you a lean, supple, musculature; while heaving around heavy weights with fewer reps will bulk you up and make you muscle-bound. Apparently the belief is that this style of workout will burn more fat, leaving you with a sleek, athletic physique.

The fact of the matter is that this style of workout is not a magic bullet to solve your fat loss dilemmas. And light weights with higher reps certainly won't "tone" your body unless you also manage to create a calorie deficit and lose the right amount of body fat. Workout all you want, but don't expect to see those muscles until that layer of fat is gone!

Train hard and pray harder,
Brandon Jubar

Health and Fitness Myth Busters: Spot Reduction

The Myth: You can burn fat from around your belly, hips, thighs, (fill-in a specific body region) by doing certain targeted exercises.

The Reality: Factors such as genetics, hormones, and age are what determines where we store body fat. Because of this, we tend to lose fat in the reverse order from which we put it on. For example, I put on fat around the middle first, then around my arms and chest, and then my face and backside. When I started losing weight, my face and rear were the first places that thinned, followed by my arms and chest, and... well... you get the picture.

Doing intense, focused abdominal workouts might give you six-pack abs, but if your body stores fat around your belly, your six-pack may be hidden from view. And although there is (allegedly) a recent study that shows a slight thermogenic effect in the immediate vicinity of a working muscle, it’s doubtful that it makes a difference (and frankly I couldn’t find the study “cited” by another author).

As disappointing as this might be for some people, keep in mind that now you’re free to avoid endless crunches or leg lifts and start focusing on full-body strength training that will help you in a number of ways (see 3 Good Reasons for Strength Training and 3 More Good Reasons...).

Train hard and pray harder,
Brandon T Jubar

7 Snacks for 7 Hours of Sleep

Getting a good 7 or 8 hours of sleep each night is one of the best (and cheapest) ways to lose weight. But with all the stresses that many of us face today, getting a “good” night’s sleep is becoming more and more difficult.

In looking through my personal notes, I came across the following list of foods that make a good night-time snack. For various reasons, snacking on these foods (don’t eat more than 200 calories) won’t tax your digestive system and will help you relax, calm your racing thoughts, and in some cases even provide serotonin and melatonin, two hormones that help us sleep.

1. Warm milk – contains some tryptophan, which also acts as a gentle sedative (and it appears that the calcium helps the brain use the tryptophan).
2. Chamomile tea – acts as a gentle sedative, great for calming the mind.
3. Honey – causes the brain to stop releasing orexin, which is a neurotransmitter linked to alertness (don’t over-do it though, because too much honey has a stimulating effect).
4. Banana – releases serotonin and melatonin; also acts as a natural muscle relaxant.
5. Oatmeal – provides melatonin, and it’s filling without loading you up with too many calories.
6. Almonds – contain tryptophan and also act as a natural muscle relaxant.

Turkey on Whole-wheat bread – the carbs in the bread cause your body to release insulin, which then helps the tryptophan in the turkey get to your brain, where it’s converted to serotonin and thus encourages sleep.

Generally speaking, you can mix and match items from this list, just try to keep it below 200 calories total and you won’t experience the typical negative effects of eating late in the evening.

Train hard and pray harder,
Brandon

Have More Than 2 Modes of Operation

One trait displayed by some of the most successful managers I’ve worked with over the years is that they have more than 2 modes of operation -- they have a variety of moods, demeanors, and feelings. Some of the worst managers I’ve worked with, on the other hand, have had 2 modes of operation (or only one).

Let me explain with a story that happened several years ago...

I had been working as a supervisor on the factory floor for a number of months, in one of the worst areas in the plant. One night, production had ground to a halt and everyone was upset. The details aren’t important. What’s important is that all of my employees were gathered around me, most of them yelling. The Union Committeeman, the Alternate Committeeman, and two Shop Committeemen were also there, most of them yelling as well.

After a few minutes of trying to get people calmed down and back on the job, I finally lost it. And I mean lost it! I don’t remember what I said, but it wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t polite, and on a scale of 1 to 10 my volume was at least an 11. In less than a minute, the production cell was up and running full speed and the Union reps were telling me that they’d stop and chat with me later.

Why did everyone scatter when I started yelling? Was it because they were intimidated by me? No. It was because only a couple of them had ever heard me swear, and none of them had ever heard me yell. It took them absolutely off guard and they knew that they had pushed me too far. They understood that their concerns of the moment did not outweigh my anger with them, and they quickly returned to work.

Roger, on the other hand, yelled all the time. Roger had been a foreman for 30 years and he had exactly 2 modes of operation: he was either laughing or yelling. There were no in-betweens. Unfortunately, because of this, his people never knew when Roger was truly mad and when he was just being Roger. Over the years, they learned to just treat him the same regardless of whether he was laughing or yelling, and that often made it really hard for Roger to get the job done.

Now I’m not perfect -- far from it -- but I’ve tried to take on some of the traits that I’ve seen in people who are truly thriving, and being generally level-headed while still exhibiting a full range of (appropriate) emotions is one of those traits. It allows you to incrementally increase your intensity when dealing with people, which allows them to react more appropriately to your requests (or demands, as the case may be). It may take some practice to know what is and what isn’t “appropriate”, but the key thing to remember is that you need to have more than 2 modes of operation!

Train hard and pray harder,
Brandon Jubar

Can't Buy Happiness

Unhappy and unsatisfied people pay self-help gurus millions of dollars each year in the hopes of becoming wealthy. They don’t pay all that money to become happy and satisfied with their lives. They throw good money after bad in hopes of getting rich and living “the good life”. What makes it such a sad situation is that most of them fail, and none of them really need to do it!

Regardless of how it’s packaged – and I’ll admit it’s packaged attractively – the solution that is usually offered really comes down to making internal changes. It almost always comes down to changing the way we think and feel about our situation, about events that occur, and about the people with whom we interact.

It sounds simple, but it’s certainly not easy, which is why we spend millions and millions of dollars each year to learn how to do it. What I find disheartening is that where we really should be starting is at a local place of worship. When we talk about changing thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, we’re talking the language of faith and spirituality. And the basic help that we need on such a journey is available for FREE!

Sure, you can donate all you want, but most places of worship aren’t going to charge you a membership fee or monthly dues. They’re also not going to lace every sermon with barely veiled plugs for their latest audio program, ebook, or success symposium. Most worship communities don’t list “profit” as their number one goal. In fact, most worship communities only focus on donations so that they can afford the resources necessary to share their message with as many people as possible.

If you find yourself feeling unhappy or unsatisfied, don’t drop $49 on yet another audio program to listen to in your car. Instead, take a trip to your local place of worship, whether it is a church, synagogue, or temple, and get involved. Attend worship services, but also find out about prayer groups or various ministries, and become active in the faith community. That will take you much further along your journey to happiness than any product you get from a self-help guru. You’ve heard it before, but it’s worth saying again: you can’t buy happiness!

Train hard and pray harder,
Brandon Jubar