7 Reasons Your Thighs Aren't Changing No Matter How Much You Work Out

You've done more squats and leg extensions than you can count, but no matter how hard you try, you just can't firm up your thighs. It might be your genetics—unfortunately, some of us are just born with more fat cells and fewer muscle cells than Jillian Michaels, says Wayne Westcott, PhD, director of exercise research at Quincy College. But even if that's the case, don't kiss the dream of dynamite thighs good-bye. Avoid these 7 common mistakes, and you'll sculpt some gorgeous curves.

1. You're being unrealistic
You can't resize your thighs with just a few workouts. "People think they can go to the gym for 2 weeks and see all the muscles in their legs," says Thrive trainer Sean De Wispelaere, "but it doesn't work like that." If you strength-train your lower body 3 times a week, expect to start seeing changes in about 4 to 6 weeks, he says.

2. Your diet isn't very thigh-friendly

"To really change your body, the first thing you need to attack is your nutrition," says De Wispelaere. "Protein, vegetables, fruit, and good fat—if it's not one of those things, don't eat it." Protein is vital: It builds muscle while raising metabolism, so you shed fat faster.

3. You're not doing enough cardio
If you're training your lower body 3 times a week and still not seeing any definition, add some cardio. Don't have enough time to exercise that much? Try spinning—the pedaling tones legs while combusting 420 to 780 calories per hour. (Still feel like you don't have enough time to see results? With Prevention's Fit In 10 DVD, you will lose weight and transform your body—all in just 10 minutes a day!) Another alternative is stair climbing. Walking up any incline spikes heart rate and recruits 25% more muscle fibers than strolling the flats.

4. You're not doing clockwork lunges
This simple, at-home, no-equipment exercise tones the legs, butt, and thighs, and it's great for getting rid of cellulite. In fact, the older you get, the more important it is to regularly do moves like this one. "As women age, they lose muscle," says Westcott. "As that muscle layer becomes thinner, weaker and less firm, the overlying fat layer loses its stable base, and it crinkles and wrinkles." Result: Your thighs pucker up. Do these lunges like clockwork.

5. You're ignoring the rest of your leg muscles
Most of us—especially walkers, runners, and cyclists—already have well-developed quadriceps muscles. But to get the slim, sculpted leg look you want, don't forget the hamstrings and inner thighs. And it's not just about aesthetics: "If you're not working every muscle equally, you'll tighten your hip flexors and put yourself at risk for knee injuries," says Lauren Boggi, founder of Lithe Method workouts. For the hammies, do glute bridges. For the inner thighs, do these two ballet-inspired moves.

6. You're not using enough weight

To really change your muscles, you've got to challenge them. If you're a strength-training newbie, it's okay to start off using just your body weight. "But as soon as 12 reps no longer feels challenging, increase resistance," says fitness expert Larysa DiDio. For squats and lunges, start with 16 pounds (two 8-pound dumbbells) and increase by 2 pounds each week or whenever it begins feeling easy.

7. You're doing the wrong kind of exercise
You can't change your basic body type, but you still have a lot of room for improvement. If you have skinny legs, avoid long-distance running, which breaks down muscle and will make them even more birdlike. "Instead, concentrate on weighted step-ups or spinning to build muscle," says DiDio. But if you've got short legs, too much heavy weight training can make you look even stockier. She recommends doing squats and lunges with just your body weight, and to aim for 12 to 18 reps. Cardio will also help. "But no matter what your body type, everyone should be strength training," she adds.

http://www.prevention.com/fitness/strength-training/workout-mistakes-and-solutions-thinner-thighs

GYM MUSCLE GAIN BODY TRANSFORMATION

Only 12 Minutes a Day and Your Legs Will Be Irresistible! Exercises That Fit Everyone

At the beginning of the spring, apparently everyone is concerned about the body weight. In the case of women, the most problematic parts of the body include their thighs and hips, as it is extremely difficult to lose extra centimeters from these areas.

However, there is no doubt that you should follow three golden rules if you are trying to lose weight and burn excess fat on your thighs:

• You should reduce the calorie intake
• You should drink lots of water
• You should regularly do some exercises.

What is best about out exercises today is the fact that you can do them at home, so you do not need to visit the gym.

We guarantee that this set of exercises for your legs will provide incredible results, and due to that, numerous women all around the world do exactly the same exercises on a daily basis!

Namely, in only 12 minutes a day, you will lose a centimeter in the thighs and hips a week!

The video below will provide all the needed instructions, and even though the exercises may appear intense and difficult at the beginning, you will definitely be thrilled with the results!

Why You Should NOT Train Every Day

YOU SHOULD NEVER EAT CUCUMBERS AND TOMATOES IN THE SAME SALAD!

The only criteria people have for a salad is mixing together some tasty ingredients, but despite the flavor, there are also other things to consider. Some ingredients don’t go together in a salad, such as a combination of tomatoes and cucumber. Each of these vegetables has different digestion time, and according to Ayurveda, we must know the exact digestion time of each food we eat before mixing ingredients together.

Combining ingredients that have a fast and slow digestion is not a good idea as the lighter ingredient will end up passing in the intestine just as the first one is completely digested. This will result in fermentation of the food in your stomach that may poison your whole body. It will lead to slow digestion and fermentation of sugars and starches, and won’t allow you to enjoy your meal as you should. Besides this, the process of fermentation can also cause gasses, swelling and pain in the stomach as well as intestinal problems.

Cucumbers and tomatoes are not compatible with each other and should never be consumed together. When they reach the stomach and the process of fermentation starts, the acid released in the abdominal cavity for digestion can cause numerous digestive problems. Here are some other food combinations you should never try:

1. Eating fruit after meals is not a good idea – fruits need a lot of time to be digested and should never stay long in the stomach. Eating them after a meal will result in “wine” in your stomach that can lead to acid reflux and other digestive problems.

2. Mac and cheese is a popular meal in the USA, but one that should be avoided nonetheless. Macaroni are rich in starch, which has a different digestion time than protein, so the delay will lead to inevitable fermentation and further digestive problems. The same goes for macaroni and meat.

3. Meat and cheese omelet is a favorite meal of millions, but you should avoid putting too much protein on the same dish. Choose only one type of protein per meal.

4. You should never mix bread or noodles with orange juice as the acid content required to digest the juice can destroy the enzyme responsible for starch digestion.

5. Vegetables and cheese is another no-no combination – eating it will only result in bloating.

6. You should never eat melon and watermelon together, as these fruits are meant to be consumed alone, not in combination with any other fruit.

7. Many people love eating bananas and milk, but this combination will significantly slow down your digestion.

8. People usually add fruit to their bowl of yogurt for breakfast, but this combination will slow down your digestion and harm your intestinal flora. This especially goes for adding pineapple to your yogurt, which boosts the active ingredients that cause food poisoning.

http://www.healthylifeidea.com/probably-didnt-know-never-eat-cucumbers-tomatoes-salad/

Do You Really Need a Rest Day After Exercise?

Rest days are a standard part of exercise programs, but they’re not the only way to avoid overworking yourself. Let’s look at the difference between rest and recovery, and when you can bend the rules.

The Reason for Rest Days

Most strength-focused programs like weightlifting either work your whole body and then skip the next day, or else they have you split up your workouts so that, for example, your arms get a rest on leg day. The idea is to let each muscle recover from a workout before you ask it to do the same thing again.

But not every activity works this way. Runners, for example, often run every day, and may only take one or two true rest days a week. But within that pattern, they will alternate days of hard running (like speedwork, hill running, or long runs) with easy runs that feel less challenging to the body.

Other sports may fall somewhere in between, but nobody expects to work every body part to exhaustion every day. Even when elite athletes do workouts every day that look killer to us, it’s because our “hard” is their “easy”. You can bet their coaches schedule in just enough of the easier workouts to keep the athlete’s progress on track with minimal risk of injury.

Rest days and splits help us to pace ourselves. Too much hard running, if you’re not used to it, sets you up for tendonitis and other overuse injuries. And too much exercise of any kind can lead to a syndrome called overtraining where your body may develop flu-like symptoms and disturbed sleep because it just can’t keep up with the demands you’re putting on it.

There’s Nothing Magic About Resting for One Day

Taking a single rest day after a hard workout isn’t the only way to keep yourself from overtraining. There are a few reasons it’s a good rule of thumb, though:

 

• Delayed-onset muscle soreness often takes two days to peak. If you did a too-hard workout on Monday, you might be feeling only a little bit sore on Tuesday and think you’re okay to work out some more. If you waited until Wednesday instead, you would have a better sense of how sore or injured you are. Then you would be able to make a better judgment call about whether, and how hard, to work out again.
• Resting every other day means only half of your days will be hard workouts. The other half will be rest days or easier days, so the schedule keeps your total workout intensity manageable.
• Mentally, it’s easier to stick to a workout when you enjoy it. Hard workouts aren’t always fun, and you may need to psych yourself up to try something really challenging. It’s okay if you don’t feel up to that every day. Having some easier, almost relaxing days can help you stick to your schedule.

If you can accomplish those goals with another schedule, though, feel free to do so. If you enjoy all your workouts, even the hard ones, slowly include more hard days in your schedule. If you feel okay with that, keep doing it! But if you end up sore or fatigued, listen to your body and put those rest days back in.

If soreness is your problem, be aware that skipping one day may not be the best way to deal with it. Soreness peaking at 48 hours is just an average, and the true timeframe can vary. Your muscles might only feel sore and weak for one day, or if you tried something new and difficult, you might feel it for a week. At the beginning of a new workout routine, you might even need three or four easy days.

Recovery Doesn’t Have to Mean Total Rest

Some people prefer the term “recovery” to “rest” days, because total rest isn’t necessarily your goal. After all, lifting a fork to your mouth is a similar action to a bicep curl, so if you just did a heavy arm day, would you be unable to eat? Clearly, some amount of activity is fine on a rest or recovery day.

This is where you have to calibrate your own sense of effort. If you’re new to exercising and you just did a day of heavy squats, a five mile bike ride is probably not a great choice for the following day. But if you bike five miles to work every day, you should be able to keep doing that even on your “rest” days.

When I did push-ups every day for 30 days, a few people suggested that I was setting myself up for injury by not taking rest days. But as I wrote in that article, I ramped up my fitness very carefully. A few sets of pushups every day is my new normal, and it’s no more taxing to me than a bike ride is to a bike commuter. Some days I might try a more challenging type of pushup or I might do more reps than usual; but I balance out those harder days with, you guessed it, easier days that are closer to my baseline effort level.

As you learn your own strengths and limitations, you too can alter your workout schedule according to what works for you. That might mean you only take one or two rest days per week, or it might mean you do mega-hard workouts and then lay low for a few days. If you’re getting a reasonable amount of exercise in total, and if you aren’t getting sore or injured, you’re probably doing okay.

http://vitals.lifehacker.com/do-you-really-need-a-rest-day-after-exercise-1792349953

Cravings Sweets After Eating

Sugar cravings often strike after a meal, despite feelings of fullness. Habits, brain, chemistry and your diet’s makeup cause you to crave sweets. You can learn to fight the cravings, but only after you understand why they occur.

Significance

Adam Drewnowski and Allen S. Levine write in the "Journal of Nutrition" in March 2003 that added sugar and fat make up more than 50 percent of the typical American diet and contributes to the obesity epidemic. Craving sweets after a meal can hamper weight loss efforts. You try to deny the craving, only making it more pronounced. If you indulge the craving, stopping with a small serving may be impossible for you.

Expert Insight

Drewnowski and Levine point to evidence that regular consumption of foods high in sugar and fat leads to "neurochemical changes" in the brain--hardwiring you to crave these types of foods. Food cravings often are a result of habit and association--if you have always had something sweet after a meal, you do not feel closure unless you meet that need. Sweet treats often are associated with rewards and positive feelings, so you feel good when you eat them.

Another cause of post-meal sweet cravings has to do with the mood-elevating brain chemical, serotonin. When serotonin is low, feelings of depression and sadness set in. You crave something sweet because sugars and simple carbohydrates prompt the body to release serotonin, improving your mood. Uneven blood sugar levels cause you to crave sweets after a meal as well. If you fail to balance macronutrients at your meals and eat primarily carbohydrates, your blood sugar levels soar--only to drop suddenly shortly after the meal. Your body seeks the "high" again, causing you to crave sugar.

• 

Considerations

Deprivation also can set you up for cravings. If you are following a strict diet and avoiding all sweets, you can make cravings worse by denying your desire to satisfy your sweet tooth. Professor Peter Rogers from the University of Bristol notes in the online resource ScienceDaily.com that the desire to eat foods, such as chocolate, combined with a knowledge that they should be eaten in moderation causes you to crave them more.

Solution

If your cravings are due to deprivation, allow yourself a small sweet--perhaps a cookie or a miniature candy bar. Sometimes, however, this sets you up for binging, in which case it might be best to go cold turkey for a few weeks. Over time, if your cravings are due to habit, they will subside. Make sure you are consuming adequate nutrition and calories during the day. Try to make each meal contain a serving of protein, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates such as whole grains. Techniques such as brushing your teeth immediately after eating or chewing a piece of minty, sugar-free gum also may help cut the desire to consume sweets after a meal. If you must have something sweet--opt for fresh or dried fruit, which offers nutrition along with natural sugars.

Misconceptions

If you seek to cut out sugar, eliminating cookies, cakes and candy may not be enough. Manufacturers add sugar to all sorts of products, from bread to salad dressings--so read food labels carefully. Artificial sweeteners may offer you a sweet taste with little or no calories, but they do little to curb your cravings. A 2004 study at Purdue University showed that artificial sweeteners may disrupt the body’s ability to count calories, setting you up to consume more calories overall. Also, because artificial sweeteners exhibit sweetness hundreds of times more intense than sugar, they may cause you to crave sweeter and sweeter products.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/77144-crave-sweets-after-eating-meal/

The 10-Day Sugar Detox Diet (To Reset Your Body and Brain)

If sweet is sweet then what is sugar? Diabetes, cancer, dementia, depression, acne, infertility, heart disease. Doesn’t sound too sweet.

According to some researches, the average American consumes about 152 pounds of sugar a day.The average American man weighs 195.5 pounds, the average American woman weighs 167lbs. In the 1960s the average American man weighed in at 167lbs and the average American woman at 141lbs.

The Big 10

It is very interesting that, more than 600 people tried out Mark Hyman M.D’s diet, and they lost 4000 pounds in 10 days. The question that everyone should ask themselves is, when was the last time you lost 7 pounds in less than two weeks? And how hard did you work? This diet promises no cravings, no bland foods or boring diet, no deprivation-simply rewire the way you think about food. The diet was created by Dr. Hyman to be full of sugar addiction-reversing foods that will reset your body and brain and let cut sugar from your diet and regain your life.

10-Day Detox Diet

Here are the top 10 big ideas for detoxing from sugar and refined carbs that will work for you in just 10 days.

Decide To Detox

Cold Turkey

An alcoholic cannot have “just one drink”, the same is for you. You just have to stop. Stop eating all forms of sugar, all flour products, and all artificial sweeteners because they slow metabolism, spike cravings and store fat. For 10 days you will avoid any foods that come in a box, package, or can that have a label. Instead stik to real, whole, fresh foods.

Don’t Drink Your Calories

Liquid sugar calories are worse than solid food with sugar or flour, according to Doctor Hyman. It is proven that, one can of soda a day increases a kid’s chance of being obese by 60 percent and a woman’s chance of type 2 diabetes by 80 percent.

Protein Power

Protein helps balance blood sugar and insulin levels by being a “carb-free” source of energy. Start the day with whole farm eggs or a protein shake. Use nuts, seeds, eggs, fish, chicken, or grass-fed meat for protein at every meal. Protein helps you stay fuller longer because it breaks down more slowly while delivering the energy we need. 4-6 ounces – about the size of your palm – is the average serving size.

Unlimited (Good) Carbs

You can eat all of veggies-just not the starchy ones like potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash or beets. But feel free you eat as many greens, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, asparagus, peppers, green beans, mushrooms, zucchini, tomatoes, and artichokes you like for 10 days.

Fight Sugar With Fat

Fat makes you feel and look full. It also balances blood sugar and is a necessary part of your cellular structure.

Prepare For Emergencies

A maze of fast food joints and vending machines will have anyone’s head spinning, especially when blood sugar levels are dropping. Dr. Hyman weighs in:

“You need an Emergency Life Pak. I have one with me all the time, filled with protein, good fats, and good snacks so I never have to make a bad choice. Here’s what’s in mine: Packets of Artisana nut butters and coconut butter, almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, salmon jerky or turkey jerky, a can of wild salmon or sardines and unsweetened wild blueberries.”

Distress or De-Stress?

The stress hormone, cortisol, makes you feel hungry, and it causes belly fat storage, and can lead to type 2 diabetes, taking deep breaths activates the vagus nerve which shifts metabolism from fat storage to fat burning, and quickly moves you out of your stress state. Just follow Dr. Hyman’s Five Deep Breaths exercise:

“Simply take five slow deep breaths – in to the count of five, out to the count of five. Five times. That’s it. Do this before every meal. Watch what happens!”

Douse Inflammation

The two hidden food sensitivities that most people have, are gluten and dairy. Most people crave these allergens. They may be tough to quit, even for just 10 days, but give it a shot and you’ll see you have renewed energy and relief from cravings.

Sound Sleep

College students were deprived of just 2 of the recommended 8 hours of sleep. This led to a rise in hunger hormones, a decrease in appetite-suppressing hormones and huge cravings for refined sugar and carbs. When you don’t sleep you look for energy, and reach for high-sugar products that give you a boost, and a crash. Sleep is the best way to ensure cravings are kept at bay.

http://gofitstayfit.com/10-day-sugar-detox-diet-reset-body-brain/

Morning Rituals of Tony Robbins, Oprah, Steve Jobs, Lady Gaga and the Most Successful People

7 Step Morning Ritual - Mindset Monday - Drew Canole

What Nutritionists Eat When They Want to Slim Down

What Nutritionists Eat When They Want to Slim Down

After an indulgent vacay or even a few too many dinners out, your body’s probably craving a diet cleanup. Nutritionists go through this cycle, too—but the good thing is, we have training and knowledge that’s taught us how to slim back down in a healthy way. So I’ve asked some of my favorite registered dietitians to share what changes they make when they’re on a mission to slim down

After an indulgent vacay or even a few too many dinners out, your body’s probably craving a diet cleanup. Nutritionists go through this cycle, too—but the good thing is, we have training and knowledge that’s taught us how to slim back down in a healthy way. So I’ve asked some of my favorite registered dietitians to share what changes they make when they’re on a mission to slim down.

“I make sure to add adequate protein to meals—about 30g—especially at breakfast. People do not get enough protein at breakfast. Eggs are getting a reprise, and they are wonderful mixed with dark green and red veggies topped with fresh mozzarella cheese. Add a side of mixed berries and you have an amazing breakfast. In fact, a recent study suggests that adequate protein in the morning helps tame appetite throughout the day.”

—Angela Lemond, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

“When I’m not feeling my best it’s usually because I haven’t gotten enough sleep. I add in a bedtime snack of dried tart cherries and walnuts, which have melatonin to help me get shut eye and keep my hunger hormones in line.”

—Rebecca Scritchfield, MA, RDN

“I lean on nuts, tomato juice, popcorn and tea. I top my Greek yogurt with fruit and nuts at breakfast, eat salads at lunch, snack on popcorn and tomato juice and rely on tea instead of dessert. My only splurge is a glass of wine at dinner.”

—Kathleen Zelman, WebMD Director of Nutrition

“I make a hearty Tuscan white bean soup that’s chock full of baby greens (like kale or spinach) and some diced vegan sausage…I love this soup because it’s packed with satisfying protein, rich in plant based nutrition (fiber, folate and antioxidants), and soup is a fantastic comfort food that lets you feel full longer on fewer calories.”

—Kate Geagan, MS, RDN, author of Go Green. Get Lean.

“I swap out any treats (frozen yogurt, for instance) with fruit and prepare my food very simply—herbs and spices for flavor versus sauces and mixed dishes. I also cut down on bread, crackers and other similar carbohydrates, because those are the foods I am most likely to overeat, and replace them with some combination of produce and protein (apples with peanut butter, melted cheese over steamed veggies).”

—Marie Spano, MS, RD, CSCS, CSSD, Sports Nutritionist for the Atlanta Hawks

“Since sweets are my biggest downfall, I cut back on chocolate, ice cream…all the places I get too many excess calories. I replace them with more fresh fruit to take care of the sweet craving as well as more Greek yogurt (topped with fruit). I also just really watch portion control. I may simply just take a little bit less on my plate, or fill more of my plate with veggies rather than higher-calorie items.”

—Tara Gidus, MS, RD, CSSD, LD/N, Co-host, Emotional Mojo, national TV show

“As an RD I certainly believe that no one food or nutrient is solely responsible for weight gain, but for me too much sugar and too little protein at breakfast does seem to be a big influence on an (unwanted) tighter waistband. If I notice it’s time to cut back, I start by swapping in plain Greek yogurt for some of the sweetened varieties that I love. And I add in an egg (either hard-boiled or microwave scrambled) at breakfast. These are very small changes, but they make a difference in how hungry I am later in the morning and by lunch.”

—Regan Jones, RD, Founding Editor at HealthyAperture.com

http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/what-nutritionists-eat-when-they-want-to-slim-down/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=FB%20MyFitnessPal

Five Steps to Get Back into Your Fitness Routine

We've all failed to keep up our exercise routines at some point. Weeks without training, consecutive days of binging, terrified to step on the scale—it happens to the best of us, and it's always hard to get started again and get back on the horse. Here's exactly how to get back into your fitness routine.

Step 1: Realize That Falling off the Horse Is Normal

I've written a lot about self-compassion, so I won't beat that horse to death. (Otherwise you won't be able to get back on it, amirite?) But it's important to show yourself some self-compassion.

 

Look, falling off the horse is completely normal. Everyone does it, and it doesn't make you weak-willed or undisciplined. It makes you human. It's important to come from a place of self-compassion here so that you can try again.

We're going to go through an exercise that's used in the field of social work in order to improve self compassion around this situation. It may seem silly, but it will greatly increase your forgiveness for this misstep.

Split yourself up into three different personas:

• The criticizer – The person who is angry that you fell off the horse.
• The criticized – The person who is defensive about the potentially hurtful things that the criticizer is saying.
• A compassionate mediator – Someone who is going to look at things objectively and help figure out how to move forward. You can pretend that this is the most compassionate, understanding friend that you have.

Now, run through the dialogue that the criticizer would say. You know, the things that you're internally berating yourself about for stopping your regimen. Notice the charged words that are said and how they make you feel.

Secondly, run through the dialogue that the criticized person would say. Talk about how hurtful the criticizer's words are and how they don't make you feel like continuing.

Lastly, go through the compassionate mediator's role. You're going to show an extreme amount of compassion for the person being criticized. It's important to note that this does not mean making excuses, but rather, be empathetic and understanding of the situation at hand.

Mediate those two sides. Talk about how the criticizer's intentions are probably good, but the way that they are expressed hinder the ability to progress. (Remember, the mediator should be compassionate towards both parties.)

Go through a plan of action in which the criticizer will be happy that you're going to prevent this misstep in the future. This is a good place to run the "Time Machine" exercise in order to talk about what you could've objectively done to minimize the amount of derailing. The criticized person will feel supported in his endeavors and understand that he/she is not defined by his misstep.

You'll find that when you practice going through this exercise, you'll start to show yourself a lot more self-compassion for falling off the horse.

Step 2: Evaluate Your Losses Objectively, without Judgment

Once you show yourself some self-compassion, you can now evaluate your losses objectively, without judgment. Your losses can be broken down into two categories:

Muscle and Strength Loss

If your layoff was under three months, then chances are you did not lose very much muscle.

According to Sports-Specific Rehabilitation, "Strength trained athletes retain strength gains during short periods of inactivity (two weeks) and retain significant portions of strength gains (88% to 93%) during inactivity lasting up to 12 weeks."

If you've gone without training for longer then that, don't fret. Bodybuilders and strength athletes have long observed that even after a long period of inactivity outside the gym—sometimes lasting years—previous levels of strength came back relatively quickly. It's almost as if one's muscle retains a "memory" of how strong it once was. (Hence, the term for this is "muscle memory.")

Scientists were actually perplexed about this phenomenon until recently, when it was discovered that the nuclei of muscle (called myonuclei) actually stay in-tact even through atrophy.

In short, strength comes back quickly.

Fat Gain

If you have been feasting and binging for several days, or even weeks, the number on the scale may shock you. It's typical for clients to put on as much as 5% of their body weight (10 lbs for a 200-lb man). One female client put on 8% additional body weight (about 10 lbs for a 135-lb woman).

But most of this weight is probably from excess water retention, not fat.

Basically, the scale is lying to you. Realize that it takes a surplus of 3,500 calories to gain one pound of fat. Think objectively and without judging yourself: Do you think that you racked up that much of a surplus?

Possible, but not likely. In all likelihood, most of it is water weight. Take a week on a relatively moderate caloric deficit (20% or so) then step on the scale again so that you can come to an objective conclusion. Additional water weight should subside by this time.

Taking the scale at face value is particularly dangerous without doing the protocol above. I've seen clients who fell off the horse completely, because they assumed that they undid all of their progress. In reality it would have only taken a week or two to undo damage.

Often it's not the two-week vacation that someone takes that leads to their fitness doom, but the illusion that this doom had already occurred.

I have personal experience with creating this self-fulfilling prophecy. In 2006, I lost 40 pounds in four months and then competed in a bodybuilding contest. After gorging myself for two days straight post-competition, I stepped on the scale and saw that I had gained a whopping twenty five pounds. Rather than realize this caloric accounting is impossible, I felt defeated, allowed myself to continue gorging, and ended up weighing 200 pounds within six weeks. (And no, that was not water weight.)

The moral of the story is this: When you fall off the horse, whether you thinkyou're past the point of no return or not, you are probably alright.

So analyze objectively, without judgment. Better yet, talk to an experienced coach if you don't feel like you can be objective with yourself.

Step 3: Show Gratitude for How Far You've Come

Let's say you won the lottery tomorrow. You'd be pretty fucking happy, right? Of course you would.

But that happiness fades away quickly. As it turns out, research shows that you probably wouldn't be happier than the average person, and only marginally happier than someone who was paralyzed in an accident (if they were already a happy person).

When it comes to happiness, us human beings are equally incredibly resilient and stubborn. We are always establishing a new baseline of happiness, and I see this in my clients all the time.

One client went from dumbbell chest pressing 40lbs to 100lbs in a few short months. (Honestly, there were some amazing genetics at play here, since that took me a total of three years.) Yet, after a short break he was incredibly displeased that he could only do 80lbs.

When you focus on how much you "once could do," you idealize your past similar to the paralyzed individuals in the study above. (I really don't mean to equate losing 20lbs on your bench press to becoming paralyzed, rather than display what happens when you idealize your past.)

Idealizing the past will lead to preemptive feelings of defeat, hopelessness, and self-hate.

But this can be prevented by showing a sense of gratitude. Take a step back. Think about how far you've come and how much work you put in to get there.

If you show a sense of gratitude with your progress to-date, you no longer focus on the 100lbs that you used to do, but the 40lb increase that you've accomplished. When you do that, you can again focus on continued growth rather than previous glory.

Step 4: Create a To-Do List for "Reboot Week" and Establish a Baseline

The penultimate step is to designate a week to get back on your program—we'll call this "Reboot Week"—and create a detailed list of all the things you have to do.

For example, if you're struggling with going back to the gym because you're worried about how weak you'll feel, then your checklist will look like the following:

Monday

• Diet: Hit your calorie goals within +/- 3%
• Training: Put on workout attire
• Get in car
• Drive to gym
• Do three sets of dumbbell chest press
• Do two sets of incline dumbbell chest press

Wednesday

• Diet: Hit calorie goals within +/- 3%
• Training: Put on workout attire
• Get in car
• Drive to gym
• Do three sets of barbell squats

And so on. Now here's the important part: just get through your list without thinking about outcome whatsoever. It doesn't matter if you've completely lost all of your strength (which you likely didn't) or if you're still up 10lbs on the scale. Focus on getting through your checklist.

Whenever you feel that voice inside of your head reminding you of where you once were, gently refocus back to your checklist and remain in the present.

By the end of the week, you'll have your totals for your major lifts, as well asyour weight and waist measurements.

Step 5: Crush Your Previous Baseline

That's it. Once you beat all of reboot week's previous totals, you will have re-established a positive feedback loop and you'll be ready to keep kicking ass.

It's intimidating when you've been away from the gym for a while, but you'll thank yourself later for getting back on the horse.

http://lifehacker.com/five-steps-to-get-back-into-your-fitness-routine-1658435892