Practice Consistency As A Skill

Of all the areas you can focus on in your training, the single one that yields the biggest results is consistency. Whatever your training goals, consistency is important across the board in achieving them. This article focuses specifically on the most common goals of building muscle and burning fat, but the principle applies to all aspects of training. 

To train consistently, you will have to train when you don’t want to, when you’re injured, and when you’re tired. But working around these obstacles with a balanced approach will keep you motivated and moving forward. Too often we all put the brakes on training due to injury or tiredness. Yes, you must take time to rest, and should follow proper injury rehab protocol, but don’t use it as an excuse to opt out of training altogether. Ask yourself, is that voice in your head protecting you, or are you just making excuses?

We are the “Intsa” generation. We want everything now. Our movies, music, news, and even our fitness goals. We’re told to do weights and cardio at the same time, that HIIT workouts will solve everything, and CrossFit is the way. Take the blue pill and you’ll lose 10 pounds! Eat no carbs, eat loads of protein, eat fat, don’t eat fat. 

So much of the advice we get is extreme and only sustainable in the short term, but true gains in fitness take time and consistency. Whether it’s muscle gain, fat loss, or learning a new skill, be prepared to put the work. It will be rewarding, and if you can learn to enjoy the process, there is a much better chance of achieving your goals and maintaining at that level for longer. 

What Does Consistency Do for You?

When you train consistently, you give your body a more gradual curve to adapt to the stress of training, easing its way to higher levels of fitness. The longer period of time you develop a base of fitness, the less effect an interruption of training has. There is a common trend of doing something different all the time, going for the latest training method or exercise. But this hinders building the vital consistent base. Too much variety and variability can result in a reverse of adaptations, rather than greater gains. 

Consistency occurs in the small areas. Focus on the day by day, session by session, and meal by meal. It’s a skill that needs to be worked on and applied daily. Working on it on a daily basis also makes it easier to manage when you mess up. Make a bad food choice? Make a good one the next meal, and you’re back on track. Bad training session? No problem, you have another session tomorrow to do better.

The more infrequently you train, the greater the importance is placed on each session. Your inconsistency leads to too much stress, as you try to make up for the missed sessions by doing extra hard training. These hard sessions will not make up for the missed training, and could potentially lead to overstressing the body, resulting in a decrease in performance, injury, illness, and further missed sessions. 

By contrast, when you train consistently, you don’t need to go all out each session. There is more room and flexibility for variation in intensity. There is even room for outright bad sessions. You have more opportunity to try different set and rep schemes, and different exercises. Your sessions can be shorter, which is less stressful and gives you more time outside the gym to live life. Consistency enables increases in skill and technical proficiency, as you spend more time working on these areas.

Obstacles to Consistency, and Some Solutions

Your kids’ birthdays, work, holidays, and the rest of life will always try to throw you off track. You need to accept that there will always be something that life throws up that will get in the way of your training. Don’t use these as excuses. Have backup workouts to go to if your energy is low or you’re short on time. Go shorter, or just do bodyweight, or a little skill work, but don’t skip the workout. Consistent short, targeted, and intense workouts are far better than irregular 1-2 hour workouts. 

Do your best to get ahead of the curve by planning ahead. Have some pre-made meals in the freezer. Always have a few key ingredients in your cupboard, so you can rustle up a quick meal, and have a few go-to meals you can make with your eyes closed. Cook for two nights instead of one. It’s the same prep, cooking and cleaning time. 

Keep spare workout gear in your place of work or in your car so you don’t get to the gym and realize you forgot it. Get up earlier and train in the morning before your day starts, and you won’t be frazzled from a full day in the office. If you leave the session till the end of the day, all your willpower will have been used up and you won’t train. 

Allow yourself to be human in your training. The perfection mindset breeds failure. When real life happens and things aren’t so perfect, people who think this way throw in the towel fast. Don’t strive for perfection all the time. Stop waiting for the perfect time to train, to start a new program. Focus on the now, start now. You can change in the now. You haven’t got control over achieving perfection, but you do have control of what you do now.

Get out of the mindset that if you don’t have access to a gym, you can’t train. The world is your gym. Do a set of push ups at work. Get a pull up bar at home. You don’t need to be in gym gear and in the gym to train. Train at home first thing in the morning. You can get a lot done in a few minutes. 

Add new movements and challenges to keep things fun. Variety also prevents injury from over-trained muscles. You still need to build that solid base, but once that is in place you can add in some variety. For example, choose handstand push ups instead of military presses. Both are vertical pressing exercises, but handstand push ups are way more fun! 

Consistency creates momentum, and vice versa. Pick a number of training sessions per training block to help build momentum. It’s much easier to build on 10 sessions than 2 sessions. By just adding one more you’ve hit 11 sessions. Keep building! 

Nobody Said It Would Be Easy

Consistency results in adaptability, which you can fall back on physically and mentally during challenging periods or as a result of interruption. If there is no consistency in your training, there will be little or no foundation for an adaptive response. To produce a given training goal or objective, training needs to be consistent and regular. Not being consistent in your training will lead to losses, not gains. 

Life is going to get in the way. Some days, you’re going to be tired, the session will seem too hard, and you’re not going to want to train. Accept these obstacles as a fact of life and training, but don’t use them as an excuse. Consistency matched with quality workouts, good recovery, and a balanced diet equals results.

https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/practice-consistency-as-a-skill

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/

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

The 10 Proven Habits of the Happiest People In The World

Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology, theorizes that 60 percent of happiness is determined by our genetics and environment and the remaining 40 percent is how we choose to respond.

In his TED talk he summarized fulfillment and happiness as "consisting of knowing what your highest strengths are and using them to belong to, and in the service of, something larger than you are".

There are dozens of researchers like Seligman who have studied the art and science of happiness. I’ve dived into the most interesting habits of the happiest people in the world and decided to share them with you here.

1. They enjoy the moment

It turns out that taking the time to "smell the roses" truly does enhance happiness in life. When you enjoy the small moments- good or bad- you’re more aware of what’s happening around you.

The happiest people focus on what they can control and it’s possible to choose happiness in the moment, no matter the struggles you may be going through.

2. They have a growth mindset

In the book Mindset, Carol Dweck explains that the most successful and happy people have what she calls a “growth mindset” compared to a “fixed mindset.” A fixed mindset seeks success as affirmation of intelligence or worth; a growth mindset thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence or unworthiness but as a catalyst for growth and stretching beyond existing abilities.

After twenty years of research, Dweck concluded that those with a growth mindset had happier relationships, achieved more success in the classroom, and were much more persistent through challenges.

3. They surround themselves with other happy people

As Jim Rohn once said, "You are the average of the five people around you".

Who we surround ourselves with has a huge impact on how we think, feel, and what direction we head in life. It may sound harsh, but cutting out the negative people in your life is necessary if you want to be happier.

You won’t have to confront them personally about this; it could just mean spending less time with them gradually so you can focus on improving yourself.

4. They have a dream

Without a future to look towards, the past is the only thing we can look back on. Whether your dream is to travel the world, start your own business, or learn a new language, having a dream is one of the most important things in remaining optimistic when things get tough.

This concept of having a purpose is especially prevalent in Eastern Asia. In Japan, there’s an actual term called ‘ikigai’, which is translated as “the reason you wake up in the morning.” When some of the happiest and longest-living people were studied, they all had such a reason.

5. They can wait

The bigger the dream you have, the more patience you have to practice.

Happy people are willing to wait for the rewards and focus on the journey, how far they’ve come, and what’s ahead for them.

They understand that the best things in life come to those who are patient and can stick it out for the long run, whether that’s a job promotion, relationship, or a new skill they’re learning.

6. They schedule “me” time into their day

Saying "yes" to everything puts you on the fast track to being miserable.

Giving is important, but if that means taking up "your" time to relax, wind down, and learn new things, then you’ll have nothing to give over time.

You can’t always be agreeable; that’s how people take advantage of you. You have to set clear boundaries.

7. They spend money on experiences- not material things

That car that you just bought diminished in value the moment you drove it off the lot, but experiences are memories that will stay with you for the rest of your life.

The happiest people would rather go on a backpacking trip around Asia instead of buying a flat-screen TV that they’ll seldom use. According to Marc and Angel:

"Experiential purchases tend to make us happier for two key reasons:

1. Great experiences improve over time when we reminisce about them. 

2. Experiences are often social events that get us out of our house and interacting with people we care about".

8. They give more than they take

Since happy people live in a world of abundance where there’s always more opportunities to be had, more money to be made, and more love to share, they’re always giving when they can.

From raising money for a charity they care about, offering a dollar to a talented artist playing in the subway, to giving their precious time to mentor a mentee, they’re always giving.

As ironic as it may sound, happy people understand that this will actually make them happier in the end.

9. They embrace discomfort

According to psychologist Peter Kramer, resilience is the opposite of depression. Happy people know how to bounce back from failure. Resilience is a padding for the inevitable hardship human beings are bound to face. As the Japanese proverb goes, "Fall seven times and stand up eight".

Struggle is the evidence of progress, and happy people live by this. Why? The rewards of becoming great at a skill far outweigh the pain they have to endure in the process.

10. They are always learning

Despite his ASL, Stephen Hawking has made prominent scientific discoveries. What is more, he has found the words to tell the world about his findings.

Like Hawking, the happiest people all have one thing in common. They are lifelong learners, constantly reading new books, exploring other cultures, learning new languages, etc. It is an ongoing process because without growth there’s no life.

BY SEAN KIM

Q&A 1

Q:

Why is it important to have a healthy lifestyle?

A:

QUICK ANSWER

Having a healthy lifestyle is important because it helps a person to control weight, boost energy, improve his mood, combat disease and live long, notes Healthline. A person has a healthy lifestyle by exercising regularly, eating right and resting enough, according to Mayo Clinic.

FULL ANSWER

Healthy habits such as eating a low-fat diet and living an active life help a person to maintain a healthy weight or to reduce excess weight. Simple habits such as walking, taking the stairs and eating fruits and vegetables are effective in weight control. An active lifestyle activates brain chemicals that make a person feel relaxed and happy. A healthy lifestyle leads to a better physique, which boosts self-esteem and confidence. Social connections such as joining a club also improve mood, reveals Healthline.

Healthy habits prevent diseases such as high blood pressure, stroke, depression, diabetes, arthritis and certain types of cancer. An active lifestyle also improves muscle strength, which gives a person more energy. Evidence shows that people who walk 30 minutes every day, reduce the risk of dying prematurely.

Exercising enables a person to enjoy the outdoors, unwind and become happy, according to Mayo Clinic. It also allows a person to connect with friends and family. An active lifestyle is more rewarding when people do what make them happy, advises Mayo Clinic. People who have chronic health problems should consult a doctor before engaging in physical activities.

healthline.com

mayoclinic.org https://www.reference.com/health/important-healthy-lifestyle-72f9dfdb247a3a

Your Habits in Life

Your Habits in Life – The Answer to Permanent Change

We are all creatures of habit. Everything we repeatedly do, say and think is as a direct result of our entrenched habits. Habits are those actions or reactions which are on auto-pilot, which we do without consciously having to think about them. The success you enjoy in your life, or the lack thereof, is directly related to the nature of your habits while your habits are the product of your beliefs. To enjoy permanent, positive change in your life you must change your negative beliefs and their associated habits.

Your Life is a Habit
When you examine your daily routine, you will find that most of what you do, say and think on a daily basis is habitual. From the moment you wake up in the morning, your physical and mental routine is already in place and you faithfully follow it with little or no conscious consideration. This applies to all areas of your life. The general state of your relationships reflects your social habits; that of your health and body reflects your eating and exercise habits; that of your bank account reflects your business and money habits and so it goes on. Your habits either serve you or they don’t. They either take you toward your goals or away from it.

Your Habits are the Product of Your Beliefs
Every single one of your thoughts is colored by your beliefs. You perceive and experience life in accordance with your beliefs. Your actions and words reflect your beliefs. When you believe a certain thing about yourself or anything or anyone, you act, speak and think accordingly. Ultimately, you are what you believe you are. Know that your habits are the children of your beliefs. You cannot expect to permanently change a negative habit into a positive one if its underlying belief remains negative. To successfully and permanently transform your bad habits into positive ones, you must also change your beliefs.

The Chicken or the Egg
Once your habits are firmly in place they serve to reaffirm your beliefs such that it may become difficult to distinguish the parent from the child. Most people try to establish new habits without dealing with the underlying negative belief and so, more often than not, find themselves resorting back to their old habits. In so doing, they lose weeks and even months of concerted effort and usually become discouraged and give up on their hopes of changing their negative habits, not realizing that the underlying negative belief is the source of their failed attempt.

Why Diets Fail – An Example
The only reason most diets fail is because the dieter has a negative underlying belief that goes unchecked. If the dieter has a belief such as “I am fat”, then no health or exercise regime will be met with permanent success if that belief remains intact. Sooner or later he or she will take actions to fulfill that negative belief again – they have to because it is their belief. Ironically, even the decision to go on a diet is a fulfillment of the negative "I am fat" belief although it may appear to be a genuine attempt at losing weight.

Align Your Beliefs with Your Habits
While it can not be ruled out that persistently changing a habit can ultimately lead to a change in the original underlying belief, trying to create a positive habit in the face of a negative belief takes great amounts of will power and success is not guaranteed. To the contrary, once you change the belief associated with the negative habit, then lasting changes in your habits come far more easily. In other words, creating a new, positive habit requires little or no will power when the underlying belief is working with it rather than against it.

There is No Need to Wait
While it is important to change your underlying negative beliefs, you do not have to wait to change them before creating your new, positive habits. Working on the two together is, in fact preferable as it speeds up the process. The emphasis here is to change the negative belief, not to wait before changing the habit. Change the two together and success will quickly be yours. Using the example of the dieter, changing his or her underlying belief from "I am fat" to "I am healthy and slim" while at the same time systematically adopting new healthy eating and exercise habits that reflect the new belief, is the surest if not the only route to permanent success.

You Were Not Born With Your Habits
We were all born with a clean habit-slate. Both your "good" and "bad" habits were created from the beliefs that you adopted through your interactions with your teachers, peers, parents and society in general. Without consciously choosing your beliefs and hence your habits, you effectively leave yourself and your life in the hands of general social conditioning. There is no need to allocate blame for your habits or your beliefs – in fact, that would only serve to further entrench them. All you need to do is consciously choose those habits that serve you and eliminate those that fail you by changing your beliefs. It is never too late to change.

Habits Inhabit the Subconscious Mind
Everything that you habitually do, say or think today, started off as a single action or thought which was repeated often enough until it was passed down to your subconscious mind where it became a habit. All habits reside at the subconscious level of your mind where you no longer have to consciously think about them. Therefore, in order to permanently change your habits, you must learn to program and re-program your beliefs at the subconscious level.

Using Creative Visualization to Change Your Reality
The most effective and practical way to consciously access and program your subconscious mind for success is through creative visualization. It is the fundamental technique underlying reality creation. To put it simply, you can change any negative belief by repeatedly visualizing yourself feeling and experiencing the new positive belief and imagining yourself effortlessly repeating the actions which you desire to become your habits and are aligned with that belief. You will soon find that your actions and thoughts in your day-to-day waking life begin to reflect your new beliefs until such time that they too become habitual in nature.

Your Will Power is Your Guide
You will know to what degree your underlying negative beliefs have been replaced by gauging how much will power you have to use. Any time you find yourself having to use significant amounts of will power to do something positive that you know serves your desired outcome, then there is probably still a major conflict between your actions and an underlying negative belief. Anything you do or say that is aligned with your beliefs, whether “positive” or “negative”, requires very little will power and is effortless.

This is not to say that some or even great amounts of will power will not be necessary at the beginning of your efforts to change your negative beliefs and adopt new, positive habits. However, will power is the domain of the conscious mind whereas your aim is to transform your actions into habits of the subconscious mind, which is the domain that knows nothing of will power and needs nothing of the sort to carry out its actions.

Habits Are Intended to Serve You
The fact that you can repeat a task often enough until you can perform it with no longer having to consciously think about it, is a testament to your mind power. This ability frees up your conscious mind to continuously process and learn new information that serves your success until the associated actions become habitual and so the process can be repeated. Having said this, most people are inadvertently at the service of their beliefs and habits because they never consciously chose them in the first place. Your beliefs are yours to choose and your habits are yours to create. Resolve now to make your habits serve you and your success. Ultimately, you have the power to create your ideal life.

No words capture the relationship between your beliefs, your habits and your destiny as precisely as those of Mahatma Gandhi: "Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values, Your values become your destiny". 

Mahatma Gandhi

In a nutshell, we are all habitual creatures. The state of your life is largely a reflection of those actions, words, and thoughts which you repeat without any conscious involvement on your part. In other words, your life is a reflection of your habits and your habits are a product of your beliefs. Most people try to change their negative habits with no consideration for the underlying negative belief and so meet with little permanent success. By reprogramming your beliefs at the subconscious level, you give yourself the freedom to create new habits that effortlessly add to your success and to eliminate those that don’t.

By Tania Kotsos http://www.dreammanifesto.com/habits-life-answer-permanent-change.html http://www.mind-your-reality.com/ 

“The challenges in our lives are there to STRENGTHEN our CONVICTIONS. They are NOT there to run us over.” ― Nick Vujicic

The 10 Proven Habits of the Happiest People In The World

Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology, theorizes that 60 percent of happiness is determined by our genetics and environment and the remaining 40 percent is how we choose to respond.

In his TED talk he summarized fulfillment and happiness as "consisting of knowing what your highest strengths are and using them to belong to, and in the service of, something larger than you are".

There are dozens of researchers like Seligman who have studied the art and science of happiness. I’ve dived into the most interesting habits of the happiest people in the world and decided to share them with you here.

1. They enjoy the moment

It turns out that taking the time to "smell the roses" truly does enhance happiness in life. When you enjoy the small moments- good or bad- you’re more aware of what’s happening around you.

The happiest people focus on what they can control and it’s possible to choose happiness in the moment, no matter the struggles you may be going through.

2. They have a growth mindset

In the book Mindset, Carol Dweck explains that the most successful and happy people have what she calls a “growth mindset” compared to a “fixed mindset.” A fixed mindset seeks success as affirmation of intelligence or worth; a growth mindset thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence or unworthiness but as a catalyst for growth and stretching beyond existing abilities.

After twenty years of research, Dweck concluded that those with a growth mindset had happier relationships, achieved more success in the classroom, and were much more persistent through challenges.

3. They surround themselves with other happy people

As Jim Rohn once said, "You are the average of the five people around you".

Who we surround ourselves with has a huge impact on how we think, feel, and what direction we head in life. It may sound harsh, but cutting out the negative people in your life is necessary if you want to be happier.

You won’t have to confront them personally about this; it could just mean spending less time with them gradually so you can focus on improving yourself.

4. They have a dream

Without a future to look towards, the past is the only thing we can look back on. Whether your dream is to travel the world, start your own business, or learn a new language, having a dream is one of the most important things in remaining optimistic when things get tough.

This concept of having a purpose is especially prevalent in Eastern Asia. In Japan, there’s an actual term called ‘ikigai’, which is translated as “the reason you wake up in the morning.” When some of the happiest and longest-living people were studied, they all had such a reason.

5. They can wait

The bigger the dream you have, the more patience you have to practice.

Happy people are willing to wait for the rewards and focus on the journey, how far they’ve come, and what’s ahead for them.

They understand that the best things in life come to those who are patient and can stick it out for the long run, whether that’s a job promotion, relationship, or a new skill they’re learning.

6. They schedule “me” time into their day

Saying "yes" to everything puts you on the fast track to being miserable.

Giving is important, but if that means taking up "your" time to relax, wind down, and learn new things, then you’ll have nothing to give over time.

You can’t always be agreeable; that’s how people take advantage of you. You have to set clear boundaries.

7. They spend money on experiences- not material things

That car that you just bought diminished in value the moment you drove it off the lot, but experiences are memories that will stay with you for the rest of your life.

The happiest people would rather go on a backpacking trip around Asia instead of buying a flat-screen TV that they’ll seldom use. According to Marc and Angel:

"Experiential purchases tend to make us happier for two key reasons:

1. Great experiences improve over time when we reminisce about them. 

2. Experiences are often social events that get us out of our house and interacting with people we care about".

8. They give more than they take

Since happy people live in a world of abundance where there’s always more opportunities to be had, more money to be made, and more love to share, they’re always giving when they can.

From raising money for a charity they care about, offering a dollar to a talented artist playing in the subway, to giving their precious time to mentor a mentee, they’re always giving.

As ironic as it may sound, happy people understand that this will actually make them happier in the end.

9. They embrace discomfort

According to psychologist Peter Kramer, resilience is the opposite of depression. Happy people know how to bounce back from failure. Resilience is a padding for the inevitable hardship human beings are bound to face. As the Japanese proverb goes, "Fall seven times and stand up eight".

Struggle is the evidence of progress, and happy people live by this. Why? The rewards of becoming great at a skill far outweigh the pain they have to endure in the process.

10. They are always learning

Despite his ASL, Stephen Hawking has made prominent scientific discoveries. What is more, he has found the words to tell the world about his findings.

Like Hawking, the happiest people all have one thing in common. They are lifelong learners, constantly reading new books, exploring other cultures, learning new languages, etc. It is an ongoing process because without growth there’s no life.

BY SEAN KIM