To eat or not to eat processed foods?

Nowadays people are much more aware of the organic foods that are being made. We are much more conscious about how the food we eat is made. The processing of food is what makes or breaks if it is really good for you or not. Recently I have really been looking at the food that I am eating and asking myself is it in natural form?

A lot of my snacks include nuts and seeds especially when it is late night and I do not want to make a full meal. Now you may ask yourself are nuts really good for you? And the answer to that is as long as they are not processed and they are raw nuts then they are fine. The difference between processed and non processed is when you actually crack the shell yourself and eat them right then compared too when they are not directly out of the shell, roasted then extra preservatives to keep them fresh. When this happens you are pretty much eating dead food because when they are processed it loses some of its vitamins and minerals that you would only receive when you consume them in their natural state.

I know for myself that I like to have salted and sweet cashews from time to time but once I did my research and learned that some of the vital nutrients was being stripped from me I transitioned into eating nuts raw. And of course it took a little time to get used too but once you start to give your body natural foods then it will start to crave them and your sugar cravings will go away. This same concept can be used when eating vegetables as well. When you cook them for too long key nutrients, vitamins and minerals will start to go away and again you will be eating dead food. Pay attention to the foods that you are putting into your body.

Are your dreams on a back burner?

As a kid we all have different aspirations and dreams that we wish to accomplish. But as we grow older and start to get criticized when it comes to these dreams, we often shy away from them and put them on the back burner. There is always that big “what if” that strangers will put into your mind. We find ourselves often listening to their criticism and get discouraged. But why do we allow ourselves to let this happen? I personally find myself needing these type of people in my life because without them I have no motivation to prove them wrong. You need doubters and naysayers in your life. And I can honestly say that people will only talk bad about you when you are doing something special. They will do and say anything to destroy your confidence and have you second guess your decisions. So as my father always told me, when you tell someone your dream and people don’t laugh at it then dream bigger.

I say all this to say that if you have a body transformation goal that you want to accomplish then do not let somebody tell you that it is not possible. The only person that can stop you is you. We all have unlimited potential so why do people think that they can’t change their bodies to look the way they want? All you have to do is have the desire and know what you want the end result to be. There will be trials while you are training and people will question why are you even wasting your time at the gym because they (from the outside) don’t see a change. There will be times that you think you had an awesome week of training and you step on the scale and you see that you only loss a pound (which is still great). Then finally there will be that realization that you can get into the dress you always wanted to fit again or your abs will start to peak. Everything starts within yourself and if you can stay focused on this journey to success then I promise regardless of what the haters say at the end of the day you will be happy.

Benefits of body weight training

Getting in shape and having a tone body does not have to be complicated. Simple body weight exercises can be a great option for achieving gains in strength, flexibility and your overall health. When people think of gaining body mass they automatically assume that they have to go lift weights. But there is also an alternative option as well and that is using your body weight to exercise. Also this method of training is free and does not cost you a dime. Below I will give you some benefits on body weight training.

#1. It’s super efficient

Exercises such as plyometrics are something that you can see very quick results from. Being a athlete growing up I always wondered and thought about how I could jump higher. And after doing some research I discovered plyometrics and they helped. Also another example of this type of training is called HIIT workout which are short and intense workouts that can help you have major results.

#2 It can combine cardio and strength training

A lot of times when you are at the gym you often go run on the treadmill for about 20-30 minutes or do some type of cardio and then go lift your weights after or vice versa. With body weight training this allows you to incorporate strength training and cardio at the same time.

#3. You will get a tighter core and get core strength

Performing these exercises will not only give you major core strength but will have better posture and relieve lower back stress as well getting tighter abs. Doing simple body movements while performing this type of workout will force your body to engage your core.

#4. There’s never an excuse that you can’t workout

When it comes to body training you will never have an excuse not to workout. You can’t say well since I can’t make it to the gym I guess I can’t workout because none of this training requires a gym. You can literally do this workout anywhere.

#5 You will never get bored

I know a lot of times when we lift weights we get into a habit of just doing the same thing over and over again and never switch up the routine. However with this type of workout you can switch it up and incorporate different exercises which can then spark your interest and you can get creative!

#6. It can prevent injuries

I know for myself when I get injured working out is the last thing on my mind. I don’t even think about going to the gym. But on the other hand you can workout and prevent these injuries from happening with body weight workouts. Also anyone within reason can perform these workouts.

While everyone will have different perspectives on working out, I think this is one of the best ways to workout besides lifting. If you are not comfortable going to the gym quite yet you should try body weight workouts and see how you like them. I will be posting a video on my YouTube channel soon of some examples that you can do. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact me.

Coach Q

Think you are over training?

Over training is something that has been an issue of mine for many years. Playing basketball growing up I had an obsession of wanting to get better. So I would kill myself everyday in the gym for months as a time. Anybody who has me on Instagram and scroll through my old posts can see how obsessively I trained. With this being the case I found my body hurting 24/7. It was not until later in my collegiate career that I realized recovery was a major component when training. When your not allowing yourself to recover this can typically lead to injuries. If you are wondering if you are over training your body here some signs to look out for.

#1 Decreased Performance

One major sign of over training is a lack of improved performance despite increasing your training intensity. Some examples of this would be having a decrease in speed, strength, and endurance and also having slower reaction times are all common signs that you are over training your body.

#2 Excessive Fatigue

It is alright at times to feel sore from the gym or to be aching in pain because you worked out a certain muscle group the previous day. But fatigue eventually will accumulate in your body when you never allow your body to fully recover from previous workout. The key is when you feel your body start to ache excessively it is time to get the proper treatment and rest.

#3 Agitation and moodiness

Over training significantly affects your stress hormones which can cause a hormonal imbalance which then can cause you to have mood swings, and the inability to concentrate.

#4 Restless sleep

Sleep is the place where your body ordinarily has the best time to rest and recover. But the overproduction of stress hormones caused by over training may not allow you to completely relax which makes your sleep less effective.

#5 Nagging injuries

This personally affects me because when I was over training I would notice that if one part of my body was injured and I didn’t take the precautionary steps to fix it when I took a day or week off and thought it would be better it would flare right back up. So over training can cause injures that are very hard to get rid of.

#6 Physiological stress and or depression

Some people that live for the punishing workouts or training for competitions have a difficult time taking off from training. I know for me if the team trainer made me stay out of the gym for specific amount of days for me to recover from an injury I would get depressed because I couldn’t workout. Working out to me is a place where I can let out anything that has been bothering me for the past days or weeks and let out all of my frustrations. But when you realize that your body needs rest in order to get you to the next level that you want to be at, it is something you will implement in your training.

New to the gym?

When a lot of people first start going to the gym including myself I noticed that I was worried about what others thought of me. I was always concerned about how they would look at me or if I did a specific workout wrong I thought they would judge me. I literally would skip certain workouts because I was scared of messing up. I often find that this is one of the main reasons that people will not workout. Some of the things you might think are

I don’t know what kind of clothes to wear.
I don’t like the way I look
I’m so awkward. I’m afraid I’ll trip, or not know how to use a machine
What if it’s crowded and I have to stand around waiting to use the equipment? I’ll feel so uncomfortable.
I don’t want anyone to talk to me

If you find yourself in this situation today I want to put an end to all of this and help you become confident in yourself. Here are some tips that I want you to follow so you can overcome this fear.

#1. Never care about messing up during your workout.

I know this is harder than it sounds but this is something that I want you to put into practice. The only way to get better is if you mess up. When I first started seriously training I would go to the gym and always look around at everyone who was there before I started working out. I wanted to go to the space or corner where nobody could see me so I could get my workout in. But one day I realized that the people that are at the gym don’t care about what I’m doing, they are focusing on themselves so I thought why am I so focused on them and not myself? And that is when I started going to the gym confidently and didn’t care about what they thought. If I had to do a box jump and I fell I got right back up and did it again.

#2. Come to the gym with a plan

Your lack of confidence when it comes to working out can often come when you do not have a set goal or plan in mind. I used to go to the gym and literally copy what I seen other people doing and have wrong form and almost hurt myself. Having a set plan will eliminate all of this and you will be more focused when you are there. I found myself writing out my workouts in a notebook and after I complete each one literally crossing them out so when I finished I can look back and feel good about what I accomplished. It was always a mental thing for me. So never come to the gym not knowing what you want to work on. Always have a plan

#3 Be comfortable being uncomfortable

A lot of times when people workout they only want to do workouts that they know that they are good at. When the trainer says lets go run some stairs, they tend to shy away from something like this because they worry about tripping and falling so they are not comfortable. I want you to start putting yourself in positions where you have to adapt with being uncomfortable. Whether you hate speaking and you tell your boss you want to present and lead the meeting at work or if you are uncomfortable meeting people, the next time you are going out with friends I want you to introduce yourself with ten new people and get their names and carry on a conversation with them. You will soon realize if you practice this and step out of your comfort zone, you will become comfortable and confident within yourself.

I hope this article is helpful and you will break you out of the fear of being nervous to workout! Love you all

Coach Q

Never Settle

This time last year I didn’t know what settling was.

I wanted to talk about something today that has been on my mind for the past few months and that is never being content with settling.Over the past few months I found myself in a rut mentally where I was just being content with being average. I didn’t make the deans list last semester because I settled, I found myself not even wanting to go to the gym and workout after practice because I was settling. Coming off a year last year when I was killing my competition nobody could stop me. You could see in the picture above if you were to ask me how I felt it was a feeling I can’t even explain. The mind is powerful weapon and it showed. I was having a career year, and that summer I was so excited because of my accomplishments that I settled… It was the biggest mistake of my life.

My body wasn’t completely in shape like it normally was because I was missing workouts. I would stay up all night knowing I had to workout in the morning and sleep in till 12 thinking it was enough. When I knew someone who was hungry like myself last summer would have been on his third workout by the time I woke up but I didn’t care because I thought I’d be fine. This thinking caused me to have numerous injuries during the season this year which then affected my performance. I’ll never forget last year there was never a day that went by that I did not go to the gym and shoot jump shots every morning and night (Except if there was a snowstorm). Me and my roommate would go to the gym at 5 am and go to practice then come back to the gym after practice and shoot more. Which went to show why I had played the best basketball of my life. I’ve never been the one to make an excuse. If it is my fault this I will own up to it and settling is something that has been one the biggest obstacles in my life. I stopped working out at 5 AM because I got complacent with myself and thought I don’t need to work as hard anymore because of all the previous work that I put in. But I was wrong and it showed.

The moral of this post is to never settle for anything. Whether it’s a relationship, if your not happy and it’s toxic leave. If it’s work and your killing yourself everyday and tired of working for someone and want to go back to school or get a better job do it. Put the things that are most important to you first and if you aren’t achieving those things or you don’t find yourself being happy then make adjustments and get it done. Stop living up to other people’s expectations of you and make sure the only person your pleasing is the person you look at in the mirror.

Stop Settling!

Ever wonder about trying a Vegan diet?

Vegan diets are known to help people lose weight, but they are also many health benefits as well. A vegan diet helps you maintain a healthy heart. Also, this diet can help offer some protection against type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancers.

Benefits of having a vegan diet:

You will have to eliminate meat and animal products from your diet completely. This may be a struggle for some people at first but eventually, your body will be able to adapt to it. Also, with the vegan diet, you will need to start eating more vegetables than you were consuming before. This is key because you will start to intake more nutrients. The majority of the foods that you will be eating is grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, peas, nuts, and seeds. Also, vegan diets tend to be richer in potassium, magnesium, folate and vitamins A, C and E.

Another benefit of going vegan is that you lose excess weight. When you are not consuming junk food and start having your source of protein be from plants, you will start to notice your body lose weight. Many of the animal-based foods are high in fat and calories so eliminating them may help you lose excess body fat as well.

It is also known to lower blood sugar levels and improve kidney function. This is a very good thing because this will lower your chance of developing type 2 diabetes. Also, the substitution of plants for meat protein can reduce the risk of poor kidney function.

Think of some of the strongest animals in the world, from elephants to the rhino to even some of the biggest dinosaurs on earth, all were plants eaters! So, the myth of you only get protein from meat is completely FALSE. Going vegan can be one of the most important decisions you can make in your life concerning your health.

How much Water should we drink?

When making a lifestyle change we often focus on eliminating the food problems. We often tend to stop buying as much junk food and start eating more healthier. We start buying more whole foods, eating more vegetables and fruits but we often forget one of the most important things. And that is drinking Water.

IF YOU FEEL THIRSTY YOU ARE ALREADY DEHYDRATED.

YOU SHOULD NEVER FEEL THIRSTY!

I hear all the time people say that they are giving up soda to replace it with diet soda. They think this will help them lose weight when they are completely wrong. People drink soda with their meals not even realizing that the soda neutralizes the stomach acid. So when this is happening your body is not breaking down the food properly.

People do not drink enough water on a daily basis (me being included) until I started realizing what was happening to my body. People often mistake thirst for hunger.

Some of us walk around dehydrated thinking their light-handedness in the gym is a result of their bodies not being use to healthier food. The common rule of thumb is to drink eight glasses each day. One glass equals eight ounces of water. So that would be 64 ounces per day. But if you want to know your exact amount multiply your body weight by 60%. And the number you come up with is the amount you should be drinking in ounces. Example (If a 200 pound person were to calculate their daily intake they should be drinking 120 ounces of water per day.)

Now before you start thinking to yourself that is a lot of water here is something you should know. Your body is 75% water. Our bodies need water to make blood and other bodily fluids. It is also needed to flush fat out of our systems by sweeping it through our digestive track before your body has a chance to absorb it.

I say all this to say, water is the single most important element when it comes to losing weight. The more water you drink the less you retain, if you see yourself having a lot of water weight that is your body letting you know that it is does not get that much water so it better keep whatever amount it already has in its possession.

So the next time you want to think about getting something to drink, make sure you reach for the water not the soda!

Coach Q

Abs not showing?

Thousands of crunches alone won’t do it. The biggest misconception most people have when training abs is that more is better. The time you spend working on your abs has very little impact on how long it takes you to get a six-pack. People often go to the gym and do a million different style crunches every day of the week waiting and hoping to see results. But if you find yourself doing this I’m afraid to tell you, you are trying to get abs the wrong way.

Abs muscles are like every other muscle in your body and you need to treat them just like you do for example an arm workout. You don’t do arms every day in the gym because they get tired right? Your abs need recovery time as well. You working your abdominal muscles every day is only hurting yourself.

The truth is that everybody already has a six-pack! But in order to see it, you have to lose body fat. Now you can keep killing yourself in the gym but if you are not seeing any results I am going to tell you the key secret. It is something that many people, including a lot of trainers, overlook: diet. The single most important tool that you need in order to develop your abs is diet

As your body fat starts to reduce you will slowly start to see them and you will see that you will not have to work as hard. Bottom line is if you want to see change then it all starts with what you eat!

Be sure to checkout my at home ab workout as well!