Wonder if Intermediate fasting is for you?

Today I wanted to break down intermediate fasting. A lot of people have a lot of questions and concerns when it comes down to it and I wanted to bring some clarity to some of the questions that you may have. Below I am going to break down the benefits and perks from it and you will find out if it is a good fit for you.

Well one of the questions you may have while reading this is what is intermediate fasting? It is eating within a restricted period usually involves a fast window about 16 hours and an 8- hour eating window.

Some tips to help you

Don’t break fast with a heavy carb meal try to eat a more balanced meal with protein and healthy fats
You can use coffee and tea to curb your appetite just NO SUGAR or creamers

Health benefits

Can help cut help calories by limiting the time period you’re eating
Boost your immune system
Cellular repair of damage and dysfunctional cells
Human growth hormone increases

All of these things are very beneficial when it comes to your body and fasting does help you a lot if you do it the right way. But on the other hand if you have a history of eating disorders or underweight I would not suggest this type of fast.

Why lower calories is not always a better option

A lot of people fall into the trap that eating things with less calories is always a good thing. They go to restaurants and look at the menu and try to see which option is the one with less calories and they automatically assume that this is the healthiest. But I am here to tell you that it is not.

Just become something has less calories than something else does not mean that it is more nutrient dense. This example can be very extreme but you can see how something like this could play out. A lot of people stress that if they eat too many calories that it is unhealthy for them and are very strict when it comes to eating foods with a higher calorie count. But if you slip up from time to time it’s okay you will live and see another day. It’s just being mindful of what you are putting into your body is what I want you to be aware of.

Something that I would suggest when looking at foods with different calories is this:

Check the ingredients
Check the overall sugar content
Check the number of servings in the package

While calories can be a very helpful tool it is never a life or death matter if you eat over your calorie intake for the day. Also there are helpful tools you can use such as caloric measurements to keep your portions in check. But most of all make sure you are getting the proper nutrients and eating whole foods that will help you get the body you are working for.

Self Confidence

Often times when people first start going to the gym they are going for a reason. They either feel as though they are over weight or they want to gain weight or a number of other issues. But as you start to work on yourself and start to look better you will start to notice your confidence start to rise. When you look in the mirror you gain confidence and feel good about yourself. But in today’s society self confidence is often looked at as cocky or arrogant. But I am here to tell you this

Have the most confidence in yourself no matter what people may say. As I start to level up and be more assertive with my time people often confuse me to be arrogant or being cocky. But this is something that comes with the territory, when you are confident in yourself and become more aware of everything around you, you will find yourself distancing yourself from other people. You will find yourself cutting ties with people that are negative and start to put yourself first than them. And trust me they will have an issue with that but at the end of the day you have to do what makes you happy.

Once you stop worrying about what other people’s opinions and what they may think of you, you will start living your life to the fullest and become much happier. Getting to the gym and working out is one thing but once you have that slimmer tone or added muscle that you always wanted you have the right to have confidence in yourself and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.

Coach Q

Foods with richer vitamin C than oranges

A lot of people automatically assume that when they hear the word vitamin C they automatically think of oranges. But what you may not know is that their are many other foods that have more vitamin C than oranges. Vitamin C is great for growth and repair of body tissues. Vitamin C is also beneficial to people who’s immune system was weakened due to stress.

While vitamin C may not be the cure to the common cold there is a lot of good research that shows that it helps reduce the risk of developing further complications when you do get sick. Vitamin C is a very strong antioxidant in it’s self that can help boost your blood antioxidant levels which in turn help reduce risk of chronic disease.

One small orange has 51.1mg vitamin C and a medium orange has about 69.8 mg vitamin C. The minimum requirement that a human should consume is about 75-90 mg a day.

Below are some of the vegetables that contain more vitamin C than an orange are :

Bell Pepper 341mg
Broccoli 132mg
Strawberries 85mg
Kale 80mg
Pineapple 78mg
Kiwi 64mg

Hopefully this article convinces you enough to start thinking about your vitamin C intake. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact me.

Coach Q

How the brain benefits from exercise

While a lot of people exercise for their physical appperance and looks a lot of people may not know that it is also very important for healthy brain function. Exercise has been shown in many different studies to improve moods to energy levels to even cognitive functions. I know for myself after I workout I am always in a better mood than I was before.

Some of the benefits are

Exercise can improve working memory
It will improve your mood and fight depression
Increases concentraion and focus
Shown to improve overall conginitve performance
Boosts energy level
Helps maintain brain volume and healthy brain aging

Onr of the major factors that shows how exercise can increase the production of BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor). BDNF protien helps regulate synpatic plasticity which is very important for learning and memory. It also helps with growth and helps the brain mature as well. The higher the levels of BDNF in the brain are often lead by better learning and memory retention.

Overall exercise will improve the functions of the brain in many different ways. Next time you go workout take notice of how you feel before you workout then notice how you feel after! I promise you will see a major difference

Hope you find this article helpful, and I will be back to blogging everyday now! Talk to you all soon

day 3

When my alarm clock goes off today I didn’t feel like moving at all. I took a nap the previous day and my plan was that when I got up this morning my body would feel less tired but man was I wrong. After staying up until 1AM watching the basketball game last night I knew that this was going to be a struggle for me. My alarm went off at 4:30 like it usually does and today it seemed like my body was just dead. So once again I snooze it until 4:45 and then I attempt to get up so I can wash my face and start my stretching routine. While I was stretching I thought that my body would kind of loosen up so I could have some sort of energy to get to the gym and start my workout. But today was not that day. All I wanted to do is lay back down under my covers and sleep my day away. Also with the rain down pouring this morning I really did not want to walk to the gym at all and wanted to skip it entirely. But I told myself that I made a commitment to the class to push through so mentally I got myself together and told myself to get through it. As I’m leaving to walk to the gym I try to put on some music to see if it can help motivate me to get me over the emotional struggle that I am dealing with. Going through my playlist the first song I chose that I had on repeat the whole time while I was going to the gym was called blue laces by Nipsey Hussle. Arriving to the gym I thought to myself how can I get quick energy to help me get through the workout? The first thing that came to mind was drinking a monster energy drink. Never having one before I was thinking it would help me out and give me a good energy boost. So I take a couple drinks and proceed to the weight room, then about 10 minutes in my stomach starting hurting and bubbling. I’m not sure what your experiences are with energy drinks monster specifically but as for me this was one of the worst things I could of done. Maybe it was because I was drinking it on an empty stomach and I had just took creatine before my workout, I’m not really sure but what I do know is that it did the opposite of what I wanted it to do. I started sweating randomly so I tried to drink a bunch of water to try and get it diluted in my stomach. I ended up feeling better after about 30 minutes thankfully but as I learned Monster Energy Drink is not for me. I plan on going to sleep early thursday night so I can have a success story for you guys on friday!

Day 2 on 5 AM Journey

My alarm goes off at 4:30 once again and my eyes are heavy. I reach for my phone to push the snooze button and then I doze off again. 8 minutes later the alarm goes off again and now I attempt to wake up. I find that this is still the hardest part for me because it is like trying to get back into a routine. I know that if I can just make it to the bathroom and throw some water on my face I will be able to make it to the gym on time but at this moment I just couldn’t. So I snooze the alarm one more time and now it’s almost 5 o’clock and I am losing some time that I usually devote towards stretching in the morning. So after my daily morning routine I come back to the room and start to stretch my body and see what parts of my body are tight. After taking the weekend off and letting my body rest my back is not in pain like it once was. As I go through my stretching routine I find that my hamstrings tend to be a little tight so I focus more on them today than I normally would. As I pack my bag for the gym I hear the birds start chirping near my window. As I open my window a cool breeze brushes my face and as the birds get louder This is a clear sign to me that the weather is being nice. The weather has always been a big motivator for me when it comes to waking up in the morning for the gym. ‘I discovered that the more nice the weather is the easier it is for me to transition from my room to the gym. The gym from my dorm is about a 5 minute walk so I try to put on some good music that will motivate me to get there. This has been something that I used to do to help distract me with the time. The cool breeze sends shivers up my spine because I left my room in shorts thinking it was warmer than it actually was. Getting to the gym I start with my warm up around the track to loosen my body. Today is shoulder and back day so I plan to hit the weights hard. Concluding my workout my body feels exhausted. I am literally drained and arms feel like noodles. It is hard to even lift them up. But I can’t wait to share with you guys about my experience on Wednesday!

First day on my 5 AM Journey

As I wake up today it’s 4:45 and my head is pounding. Feels like someone is hitting a hammer to the back of my head with a nail over and over again but I know I have to workout. I wake up at 4:45 so I can give myself a little extra time to stretch and get myself mentally prepared to go outside and walk to the gym. Today is a little foggy outside because of the rain and my lower body is still sore from a workout that I did a couple days ago. Still wanting to be dedicated to the gym like I said I would be I proceed to get myself out of bed and get myself to the gym. The one thing that I hate about going to the gym here at school is the actual walk. Living on campus the walk is literally all downhill. So during this walk especially today my lower body is just aching with pain but I know right now that it is all mental for me. This is how it’s always has been even this year during basketball season I found out that even when my body is hurting if I can find a way to push through it and distract my mind it dosen’t hurt as bad. Proceeding into the gym I noticed that my lower back is aching as well but after doing deadlifts two days ago after not doing them since basketball season ended I figured this is something that might occur. My warm up on the bike got my body lose and my headache seemed to have gone away and 30 minutes in I seem to feel like I’m going to power through this workout. Today was an arms day and I wanted to do a little bit of abs at the end of it. But while I’m breezing through as I’m moving onto abs I realize that my back start aching again. I think I came up too fast while I was doing a russian twist and it literally feels like something is stabbing me in the lower back. Now having to cut my workout short I move onto the foam roller to try to loosen it up a bit and try to get the pain to calm down. But it seemed like the more I foam rolled then the more it hurt so eventually I just called it quits for today and what was supposed to be an hour and 10 minute workout turned into 45 minutes. And when it comes to working one thing about me is that I hate when my workouts are cut short especially due to something that is out of my control. Being an athlete a part of me wanted to keep going but then again I know my body’s limitations. I hope over the weekend I can get enough rest and recover so I can give you all a better story than today!

Benefits of cold showers

Most of us have heard of either cold tubs and know most of the benefits from them. Not many people know about the benefits of cold showers. I know for myself my thing has always been hot showers. I enjoy them a lot but it wasn’t until recently when I did the research on cold showers that I actually seen the benefits from them. Some of the benefits are below

Increases Alertness

Taking a cold shower in the morning and feeling cold water go down your body seems more discomforting than soothing. However the deep breathing that happens during this process when our body is in shock helps us keep warm and also increases our overall oxygen intake. This gives us the energy boost we need for the day.

2. Refines Hair and Skin

When it comes to hair and skin, one of the most natural ways to maintain it is with cold showers. Ever wonder when you take a hot shower and you get out and you become ashy and your skin is dry? That is because it is drying out our skin. Cold water on the opposite hand tightens up our skin and will tighten our pours which will prevent then from getting clogged. The same thing goes for the scalp where it prevents dirt from getting in it.

3. Simulates Weight Loss

Cold showers can help weight loss in an unexpected way. The human body contains two types of fat tissue white fat and brown fat. White fat is gained when we consume more calories than our body needs to function and we don’t burn off these excess calories for energy. This body fat piles up in a variety of places in our body and is hard to get rid of. Brown fat is good fat which generates head to keep our bodies warm and is activated when exposed to extreme cold temperatures.

#4 Eases Stress & Helps recover faster

Jumping into the shower without letting it heat up or going into a pool without slowly acclimating to it can help increase tolerance to stress and even disease. Also as you may all know ice baths are something that athletes do to help their body recover faster but if you are not at that level yet, cold showers can have the same affect.

Try a cold shower in the morning and see how alert you are for the rest of the day. A lot of you depend on coffee and other energy boosters to help you. But from my past experiences I have been way more alert after a cold shower than any other drink could do for me. And if you can just jump right into a cold shower, start gradually. Try a luke warm shower and then move it to a little colder.

Any questions or advice feel free to contact me on instagram

@lefthandedassassin

Coach Q

Importance of Eating breakfast

All my life growing up I have never been someone who liked to eat breakfast. I never saw the point in eating cereal or anything of that matter in the morning. It was never for me I always thought that I could skip breakfast and just eat things in the afternoon, little did I know that I was starving myself. Think about it growing up if you didn’t eat breakfast if you were lucky enough to go to a school where you would get a snack break in elementary school sometimes middle school if not you would have to wait until 11 AM to eat your first meal. And growing up when I would get light headed or feel dehydrated it would be because of either I’m not drinking water or I’m waiting too late in the day to eat my first meal. It wasn’t until I got to high school and realized that when I don’t eat breakfast and wait until 11 to eat my first meal that I realized that I was literally starving myself for 8-9 hours. There was no wonder why I would have no energy to go to the gym in the morning or even feel light headed. So when I realized how important it was too eat breakfast I thought about some simple ways that I could fix this problem of not eating in the morning and I wanted to share them with you:

#1. You can drink a protien shake. Every morning I wake up I try to drink at least 2-3 glasses of water on an empty stomach. After that is when I would suggest drinking a protien shake so you could at least have something in your stomach. If you are like me I’m not a big fan of food in the morning so eating a big breakfast is something that I never do. A protien shake can be a subsitute and should hold you over until your next meal.

#2. Bring mini snacks with you to eat throughout the day until your lunch time. Whether it is eating a banana and bringing bags of nuts or different fruits with you to work or put it in your gym back, it is always important to have some sort of filler snack that you can eat that can hold you over until the next meal. I’d rather you do that than to be so hungry after the gym that you go eat fast food.

Drinking a protein shake or eating a variety of fruits and nuts in the morning or even eating something light as yogurt is something that I think is very beneficial to you. A lot of people over look breakfast as I once did and I think this is one of the worst things you could do. Breakfast provides you with a variety of vitamins and nutrients that you miss out on if you wait until lunch. Now of course if your fasting or doing some sort of dieting program than their is exceptions.

Hope you find this beneifical to you.

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