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We’re now half-way through the year. Have you checked your goals lately? Hopefully back in the beginning of the year you set some measurable goals about what you wanted to accomplish this year in relation to your health and fitness. So how are you doing?

I’ve recommended several times on this blog that it’s a really good idea to check up on your goals at least every quarter. So by the end of March you should do a checkup, then again at the end of June, a third time at the end of September, and finally a year-end checkup. Well, now it’s time for checkup number two!

If you don’t have any goals, now is a great time to set some 1, 3, and 6 month goals to get you through the rest of the year. As you probably already know, goals need to be realistic, measurable, and have a deadline to be effective. If you haven’t hit the goals that you set at the beginning of the year, maybe you’ll just be extending the deadline. Or, maybe you need to adjust the goal entirely to something that is more realistic.

One very important thing to note is this: It’s ok to miss your goals! The fact of the matter is that if you are setting tough goals that make you stretch yourself to the limit you will most likely miss a lot of your goals. That just means that you’re stretching yourself and reaching for greatness. If you’re hitting every single one of your goals with ease, then your goals are too easy and you’re not stretching yourself as hard as you should. Don’t set them so hard that they’re impossible to reach (remember goals need to be realistic), but make them tough.

Also, its good to set some easier ones from time to time as well so that you can be sure to get that sense of accomplishment. Personally, I think that doing a combination of really tough, hard-to-reach goals and easier goals is great for motivation.

Good luck in reaching your goals for the next 6 months!

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As we all know, obesity and being over weight in general is a big problem here in the US. Hence all the programs and shows that come out every year about how to lose weight and get back in shape. But what about those of us that have the opposite problem? What about those people that are just trying to gain weight and muscle?

The funny thing is that most people would tell those of use that are in the gain weight and muscle game that we should be happy to be naturally skinny! But for a lot of skinny people out there this isn’t necessarily a compliment.

So here’s what I think: maybe NBC or somebody should do a show that is the opposite of the popular show “The Biggest Loser” (which I must admit is a rather inspirational show, probably one of the only worthwhile reality shows out there). You could call it “The Biggest Gainer”. All it would entail is to go across the country and find a bunch of so-called “98 lb weaklings” or other skinny types and see who can put on the most muscle in a season. Track their progress, give details about what they’re going in terms of diet and exercise, and thus educate this overlooked group of people on how to improve their lives by gaining weight.

Do you think I’m asking for too much with this idea? Granted, it probably wouldn’t have as wide of an appeal as something like “The Biggest Loser”, but could still help out a lot of people. Maybe someday. . .

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After adding the weekly nutrition tip yesterday about emotional or mood eating, I felt that it would be good to provide a little bit more information about this topic since it’s one that I feel a lot of us don’t pay much attention to. Sadly, our moods sometimes control us when we let them. And it’s very very hard to not let them control us!

So what makes the difference between someone who can control their mood-influenced eating habits and someone who can’t? In a recent article on his blog BurnTheFatBlog.com, Tom Venuto talked about this same topic. He approaches it from the angle of the difference between someone that keeps their weight off long-term and someone that relapses. The main difference was that the people who maintained their weight loss were able to confront the problem that they had with emotional eating and through careful planning and tracking they were able to overcome this problem.

Here’s a direct quote from Tom’s article that summarizes the difference between the maintainers and the relapsers:

Maintainers, on the other hand, were vigilant and conscious of EVERYthing:

- They were conscious of the quantity and type of food they ate
- They were conscious about the amount of activity that they needed personally to maintain their weight
- They consciously worked to “keep in shape” after they reached their initial goal
- They were conscious that they felt uncomfortable in their clothes after they gained even a little weight such as a few pounds after a vacation
- They intentionally wore close-fitting clothes to keep themselves aware of their bodies, which prompted them to exercise more eat less if their clothes felt tighter.

So what can you learn from this? First of all, it’s possible to beat the emotional eating habits! You just have to be willing to make the lifestyle changes that have to be made for these changes to take effect. The question you have to ask yourself is: are you willing to make those necessary changes? If you are, then you’ve taken the first step to becoming a weight loss (or even muscle gain) maintainer rather than a relapser.

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I think that all of us are guilty of ‘mood eating’ from time to time. We know what we should be eating, but we throw it out the window because we just ‘feel like’ eating something that we know won’t help us to reach our goals, whether that goal is to gain more size and muscle or lose weight. Today’s tip has to do with avoiding emotional mood eating. Dr. Berardi is talking at the end a little bit more about gaining muscle and size, but this analogy works for losing weight or any other goal as well if you look at the overall principle:

Mood Eating
by Dr. John Berardi

Most people eat based on their mood and/or some subjective feelings of hunger. They don’t eat based on what their bodies need. Think of it this way: you’re about to take a long drive on a stretch of highway with no gas station. Do you fail to stop for gas before you hit the road because you’re ‘not in the mood?’ Of course not. Think of eating in the same way. Eating fuels your metabolic engine. So it’s time to start feeling like eating so that you can stop feeling like you’re scrawny.

This tip is provided by Dr. John Berardi of Precision Nutrition

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