Tips on avoiding food cravings!

Avoid cravings and reaching for those bad foods!

We have all experienced the feeling of food cravings, and much of the time it’s for unhealthy foods that we should be avoiding, and no matter how hard you try you aren’t satisfied until you’ve given in to your craving.

Why do we have cravings for these bad foods?

Junk foods that we all love to eat are intentionally manufactured with the perfect amount of fats, salts and sugars that gets our brain hooked on the taste. Food companies spend millions of dollars developing these foods so that your brain becomes hooked on them and always coming back for more. 

Not only are these foods generally created very calorie dense with little to no nutritional value, they are also designed to trick your brain into thinking you aren’t full, to keep you wanting more and more.

So how can we avoid this from happening, and derailing us from our healthy habits?

Luckily there are ways to avoid getting cravings.

Don’t allow yourself to become too hungry. One main reason that we get cravings is by waiting too long between meals and allowing ourselves to become extremely hungry. When this happens our blood sugar levels drop to low levels and we begin to crave calorie dense foods to satisfy that hungry feeling.

I recommend aiming to eat small meals every 2-3 hours throughout the day. By doing this it allows your body to maintain blood sugar levels and keep your insulin levels stable.

By eating small meals every couple of hours, you are unlikely to become hungry between meals, which will eliminate the desire to snack on foods.

When you are choosing your meals, it is important to be consuming high quality protein with each meal. Protein helps to keep you feeling fuller for longer and can help against over eating. Studies have also shown that eating a high protein breakfast significantly reduces cravings throughout the day.

If there are foods that you know are your weaknesses then try to distance yourself from them. If you find yourself always craving and snacking on chips or chocolate, then avoid keeping them in your house. If you are unable to simply reach for them when a craving starts you can switch to a healthier alternative.

Try and stay in control of stress levels. Sometimes this can be easier said than done, but something to be mindful of.

Stress leads to the release of cortisol in the body, which is linked to weight gain. Stress has been shown to influence eating habits and induce cravings. This is typically more common in women;   however men can still be affected by this.

People under stress have been shown to eat significantly more calories than those not under stress. So next time you find yourself in stressful situations, try and be mindful of what foods you are consuming.

Drink enough water and get enough sleep. You may wonder how these two factors could affect food cravings, but they do.

Thirst can often be mistaken for hunger, so if you feel sudden urge of hunger, have a drink of water and wait a couple of minutes to see whether the feeling subsides.

In addition to this drinking water just before a meal can reduce your appetite and assist with weight loss.

With sleep, your appetite is highly affected by the hormones in your body that can fluctuate during the day.

Sleep deprivation can disrupt these fluctuations of hormones which can then lead to an altered appetite and increase the likelihood of cravings.

Get a good nights’ sleep and then begin your day with a high protein breakfast, and you are well on your way to kicking cravings out of your day!

So, these are a few tips to help you win the battle against food cravings and stay on track with your fitness goals!

Keep working hard!

You’re not overweight, so you must be healthy, right?

You’re not overweight, so you must be healthy, right?

While it is ideal to be within your “healthy” weight range, this doesn’t always guarantee perfect health.

It is a common misconception that the only people who are unhealthy are those who are overweight or underweight.

And while yes, it is true that being overweight or underweight can lead to serious health concerns, these are not the only 2 categories that can be subjected to health concerns.

People who are in the “healthy” range on the scales are often very unhealthy without even knowing it.

So what does this come down to?

Fat.

I bet you’re saying, but I don’t look fat, so how could I possibly have any fat affecting my health?

Something that many people don’t know is that there are 2 types of fat that get stored in our bodies.

Subcutaneous fat and Visceral fat.

Subcutaneous fat is the common fat that we all know, which makes us overweight. This type of fat is stored between the skin and muscle tissue, making it noticeable when someone is carrying excess amounts of this fat as it jiggles, has dimples and caused cellulite.

Of course, this type of fat should be kept within reasonable levels to avoid health concerns. However, of the 2 fats types this is the more desirable physiologically, even though it is unsightly for those who are concerned about their appearance. 

The real danger is a type of fat that comes from eating a highly processed, refined diet and a lack of physical exercise.

Visceral fat is found deeper within the body under your abdominal muscles and surrounding vital organs such as the liver, kidneys, pancreas and intestines.

This visceral fat can cause inflammation around these vital organs and can lead to major health concerns including:

·       Heart Disease

·       Type 2 Diabetes

·       High Blood Pressure

·       Stroke

·       High Cholesterol

·       Coronary Heart Disease

·       Certain Cancers

·       Metabolic Syndrome

·       And many more

So, what causes visceral fat?

Genetics do play a small role in the amount of visceral fat someone carries, although, the primary factor here is poor nutrition and lack of exercise.

Foods high in trans-fat would probably be the largest contributor to this, so things like, fried fast foods, burgers, hot dogs, bakery items (pies, sausage rolls etc.), potato chips, packaged foods, margarines.

Excessive amounts of fructose, so items such as, soft drinks, energy drinks, table sugar, high fructose corn syrup. One exception to this is natural fruit which does contain high levels of fructose, but due to the high fibre and other nutrients found in fruit it diminishes the absorption of fructose.

Another contributing factor to visceral fat accumulation is your level of physical activity.

If you are consuming large amounts of calories every day and are doing little to no physical activity, it is highly likely that you are going to have high levels of visceral fat. If this is the case I would recommend getting it checked out.

So now that you know what visceral fat is, and what causes it, how do you go about reducing the amount you are carrying?

The method is basically the same as reducing subcutaneous fat. Reduce your daily calories (although not to extreme levels), and more importantly make wiser nutrition choices.

Consume plenty of fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains and lean proteins.

Keep any processed foods to an absolute minimum.

Along with improving your diet, regular exercise will also help reduce levels of visceral fat, incorporate both cardio and resistance training into your workouts.

Reducing stress levels and getting plenty of sleep each night are important factors also, as high levels of stress and lack of sleep increase cortisol in the body which can directly induce weight gain.

Hopefully this information will be useful to you and help you make healthier choices.

If you feel you need some help with training or nutrition, please get in contact with me, as I have a range of online training packages available as well as a Black Book of Nutrition that I have written.

You can find me at:

Web: https://www.danwhitehandfitness.com

Email: danwhitehandfitness@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danwhitehandfitness

Instagram: @danwhitehand_fitness

Tempo Training

What is Tempo Training?

Tempo is also known as time under tension, and it is a very important aspect of weight training and far too often an aspect that is ignored in place of lifting as much weight as possible…often to impress others.

When lifting weights, the movement should always be done in a smooth and controlled manner without the use of momentum. This is vitally important in the results that you will see with your physique.

So, what exactly is tempo training?

Tempo is completing each rep in a controlled manner to a set time counted in your head, rather than just completing the rep as quickly as possible.

There are 4 numbers that make up the tempo of an exercise.

An example is 3:0:1:0

The first number is always the eccentric phase of a lift, which would be lowering the bar to your chest in a bench press.

Count 3 seconds in your head to lower the bar down. The second number is if there is a pause at the bottom, which in this case it is 0.

The third number is the concentric phase, which is pressing the bar from the chest back to top position, so in this case it’s a 1 second concentric phase.

The fourth number is if there is a pause at the top of the lift before beginning the next rep.

Another example is 4:1:2:1

Here we are doing a 4 second eccentric phase, pausing at the bottom for 1 second, followed by a 2 second concentric phase and pausing at the top for 1 second before beginning the next rep.

As you can see by this example 1 rep will take you 8 seconds which over the course of the set is going to let to enormous time under tension for the working muscles.

If you can complete 8 repetitions at 8 seconds each, that will take your working set to over a minute!

If you are looking to increase your lean muscle mass it is important to put most emphasis on the eccentric phase of each exercise, as this has been shown to increase the microscopic tears in muscle fibres, which is required for muscles to grow bigger and stronger.

Because these sets are going to be so long in duration, you are going to need to select a lighter weight than you would normally do, which can be ego deflating, but trust me it’s muscle inflating.

But when I say a lighter weight it still needs to feel as though you couldn’t possibly do another rep by the end of your set.

This style of training should be part of a weight training program; however, it is important not to let your body adapt to what you are doing. This means varying the tempo ratios, or even switching up between more traditional strength training and hypertrophy training.

So, next time you’re looking to change up your training plan give this a go, and enjoy some of the great benefits listed below!

• Improved development of connective tissue
• Improved body awareness and control
• Improved motor control of the lifts
• Improved stability
• Spice up your training
• Increase in lean muscle mass
• Decrease in body fat

If you’re in need of some help with your training or nutrition, get in touch with me at:

danwhitehandfitness@gmail.com

https://www.danwhitehandfitness.com/contact-us.html

or on the socials

Instagram @danwhitehand_fitness

https://www.facebook.com/danwhitehandfitness

What drives you??

So the other day I got thinking about what drives people to succeed. It was a beautiful 30 degree day in Melbourne and I was at the local pool with my girlfriend and her family. Enjoying the sun for a few hours and we remembered that today was leg day!
Needless to say neither of us could be bothered leaving the pool on such a good day, and head to the hot gym and complete a grueling leg session.
However because we both have that drive to succeed and get things done, we left the pool and hit the gym.

As much as it sucked leaving the pool, the feeling after we left the gym was far greater...we knew that we had just done something that most people wouldn't even think of, and that we are going to be stronger tomorrow than when we woke up today!

For me it's quite simple nowadays, I know that these small sacrifices made each day are what will transform to success and greatness in my life.
It wasn't always like this though, back when I was new to all of this I would skip the gym on a nice day or when something better came up and just make up the session the following day.
Over time you learn that these skipped sessions eventually add up and are costing you! and the sooner you realize this the better.

Yeah some of you might think that I am over reacting to missing a single gym session, however I'm not just talking about one session. I'm talking about every time you are out doing something or a better offer comes up. It might not be every week that this happens, but over time you are robbing yourself of achieving the body of your dreams.
Adding to that, you're training regime should really be planned out so you know which days you are in the gym, training which muscle groups and which days are rest days for each week. When you do this, you are less inclined to miss a session because it will ruin the rest of your weeks schedule
Of course this all really depends on your commitment levels, if you're happy to just go to the gym whenever you feel like it and get average results, that is ok....it's still better than someone who doesn't go at all!

However if you are someone who is striving for greatness, it's these small decisions made each day, whether to turn up or not if it's a good day, you've got somewhere else you'd rather be, you're tired, you're not feeling the best and so on. By turning up on these days you are doing something most people don't do, and you're getting a jump on your competition.

Success is just about small decisions consistently made on a daily basis!

So guys let me know what drives you for success as I'm really interested to know.

Also I made a short video about this topic the other day after that leg session, check out my YouTube channel and be sure to subscribe :) 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxjAs04nuDW1I58jwlQaGhA

Also subscribe to my blog so you never miss a post!
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And as I'm about to post this, it's an ever better day in Melbourne today. 37 degrees and today is REST day....BEACH HERE I COME!!!

Talk soon guys!

Are All Carbs Created Equal...?

Are all carbs created equal?

When you are chasing the physique of your dreams, and spending hours in the gym each week I can’t stress how important understanding your nutrition is!

We’ve all heard the term 30% training and 70% nutrition. While I prefer to think of it as 100% commitment to the entire process, training, nutrition and mindset. The point is if you are eating the wrong foods, you are not going to achieve the results you truly want, and it’s as simple as that.

For so many people who are getting into health and fitness and trying to make healthier nutrition choices, a common problem I always see is confusion over the differences in carbohydrates. This problem is often made worse by these fad diets that we all see on TV and in gossip magazines promoting ketogenic diets where carbohydrates are completely cut from the diet in order to lose weight fast. Ok, so yes this tactic may work in the short term, however it is not a sustainable or healthy way to go about things. 

The way I always recommend my clients, is to learn and understand what carbohydrates are, the ones to include in the diet, and the ones to avoid.

This brings me now to what are carbohydrates and why are they important?

Carbohydrates are one of the three major macronutrients our body needs to function, and one of the primary sources of energy production. Once carbohydrates are digested by the body they are converted into glucose and ready to be used as energy. Excess glucose is able to be stored in various places around the body until the energy is required. However the body is only able to store a certain amount of glucose, if there is a surplus of glucose it will be converted to fat for long-term storage in the body.

Not only is glucose the preferred fuel option for the body during physical exercise, the brain and other vital organs rely heavily on glucose supply to be able to function optimally.

Now you may think a carb is a carb… However this is far from the case.

Carbohydrates come in two forms, complex carbs and simple carbs. Also known as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ carbs.

We will start with the Simple Carbohydrates.

A simple carbohydrate generally is where the food has been heavily refined so that it has a short chain of sugar molecules, usually only one or two molecules. This makes the carbohydrate simple to digest and provides instant energy but wears off quickly. You will notice this when you have a soft drink such as Coke for example. The Coke will give you a quick sugar hit that is quickly digested and converted to glucose for the body to use as energy. Insulin is then released from the pancreas and this tells the body that it has just been fed, which stops the body from burning fat as fuel and onto the nutrients that have just been ingested. Also just like how insulin opens up muscle cells for nutrient delivery, it also opens up fat cells for nutrient storage to begin.

As you can see from this, spiking your insulin levels other than at times of exercise is a bad idea as it is directly promoting nutrients to be stored in the fat cells.

Pre and post workout spiking the insulin is however a good idea, as it opens the muscles cells for nutrient delivery that you should be fueling your body with around your workouts, but this topic is a blog post for another day!

Because most of these simple carbohydrates have been so heavily refined, they do not contain the vitamins, minerals and fiber that are found in the complex varieties. It is for this reason that simple carbs are often referred to as ‘empty calories’ due to the fact they have minimal nutritional value…if any.

While simple carbs are generally bad, there are however a couple of food types that fall into this category but act differently once inside the body and offer plenty of nutritional benefits. These are fruits and certain vegetables, so don’t go thinking that because they are technically listed as a simple carbohydrate that they should be avoided.

For individuals who are on serious fat loss nutrition plans (I’m talking getting below 10% body fat) I would recommend limiting fruit to 1 piece per day and preferably post workout, and opting for more low energy vegetables instead, due to the high fructose content found in fruits.

For the majority of people, even those on diets a couple of pieces of fruit a day is fine.

Simple carbs to avoid are:

• Fizzy drinks (Coke, Pepsi, and Lemonade etc.)
• Lollies (Candy)
• Chocolate
• Artificial Syrups
• Sugar
• White Bread
• White Pasta
• Pastries and Desserts

Complex carbohydrates are considered the ‘good’ carbs because of the fact that they are made up of long and complex chains of sugar molecules. This chain of sugars can be anywhere from three to hundreds of molecules long. This means it takes the body much longer to break them down and be released into the bloodstream for energy, and because of this they will keep you feeling fuller for longer. Unlike the simple carbohydrates which have refined or processed sugars, the sugar found in complex carbs are naturally occurring sugars and are far better for the body.

When consuming a healthy diet, the vast majority of your carbohydrate intake should be coming from the complex category. Not only are these slower digesting carbs, but they also contain high amounts of vitamins, minerals and fiber which are highly important for our health.

Sources of complex carbs:

·   Whole Grains – such as Brown Rice, Corn, Wheat, Oats, Quinoa etc.
·   Whole Grain Bread and Pasta
·   Nuts, Seeds and Legumes – such as Lentils, Kidney Beans, Split Peas, Chick Peas, Soy Beans etc.
·   Vegetables – such as Sweet Potato, Onions, Green Vegetables etc.

For people trying to gain lean muscle, you should be aiming for a serving of one of the above with each meal, plus a high quality protein source to give your body the best chance for growth.

Now that you have a basic understanding of the different carbohydrate types and how they digest, you will be able to make wiser choices next time you are at the supermarket. It may take a little time reading the labels until you are totally familiar with what carbohydrate is what type, but the more you do it the easier it becomes.

Another great way to remember things, is ‘if the food product is not going to go off and start rotting in a few days, it should probably be avoided’. Foods in their natural form are not meant to last, think fruits, vegetables and meat. This however does not apply to rice and beans etc. which will last a long time.

I hope this makes some sense to you all, and it gives you some clarity on which carbohydrates to be filling your shopping trolley up with!

If you would like more info on this topic, or you need some help achieving your goals, head on over to www.danwhitehandfitness.com

Alternatively email me at dan@danwhitehandfitness.com

Until next time!

Dan Whitehand

Why I love to train my body and push my limits...

Hey Guys,

So today I just want to write up on why I love weight training and pushing my body to it's limits.

It really isn't just about looking good at the beach or any superficial reason like that (although that is always a good bonus!).

Training your body and being serious about it, takes a lot of discipline, focus and patience, but by going through this it provides you with discipline, focus and patience in all aspects of your life, not just in the gym.

To successfully train your body into achieving great results, you must first train your mind to be mentally strong to push you through those days where you don't feel like hitting the gym, or those days at the gym where you're really struggling and want to just go home, even those last reps on each set where the pain is excruciating and all you want to do is drop the weights.
Pushing through on those days, and those last few reps, is what transforms you from average to great.

Anybody can go to the gym when they feel like it, and lift some weights until the pain starts then put it down.
It takes true determination and desire for success to actually turn up when you're tired or you don't feel too good. To push through those last reps when the muscle is burning so bad, but you know that this is where the growth comes from.
This is not for the weak minded.
This is hard, and that's why I love it..I mean if it was easy, the whole world would be walking around with amazing physiques right?

When you're in the gym, and you have giving it your all for the entire session, you get a release of endorphins that give you such a natural high, it would rival any chemical drug out there, and this natural high is as addictive as anything, and all you have to do to get it, is sweat for it.
You get this endorphins rush from a thing called 'the pump' (where your muscles are so inflated with blood and nutrients that you look pumped up) and if you've never experienced it, you don't know what you are missing...you've got to experience it!

Waking up the next morning after a killer gym session with DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) is one of my favorite feelings. Yeah sure it can hurt sometimes, but it's not a bad pain, more of a satisfaction pain, because you know your body is about to grow and get stronger than it was yesterday.

Pushing beyond your comfort zone is the only way you grow in life, whether it's physically in the gym, mentally, emotionally etc. It is the corner stone of growth.

Yeah sometimes you may push your limits and fail...but if you never push yourself to your limits you will never know how far in life you can go...

Hip Flexors and why we should all be stretching them

Talking from experience here, I am telling you of the importance of stretching out your hip flexors on a regular basis.

Sitting down all day leaves the hips in the flexed state, which in turn will overtime lead to a shortened/tight hip flexor. Because as we know when a muscle is flexed or contracted it is shortening. Take the bicep muscle for example. When the elbow flexes the bicep muscle contracts and shortens, in turn bringing the forearm up closer to the shoulder.

The job of the hip flexor muscles is to flex the hip joint, which brings the leg up. Every step you take when walking is activating the hip flexors. When you are seated the leg is up, therefore the hip is in flexion.

A lot of people these days have jobs that require them to sit for long periods of the day, soon as they finish work they get into their car to drive home, which again puts them in the exact same position, and then the vast majority of the population will go home and sit on the couch and watch tv all night, again putting those hip flexors in that shortened state.

With these muscles in a shortened state for such long periods of time each day unless they are stretched out, muscle imbalances are going to eventually occur, leading to poor posture, injuries and/ or lower back pain.

Tight hip flexors will lead the glutes and hamstrings to become stretched and weak, and not used efficiently in functional movement. This then requires the quadriceps to take over the workload and do most of the work in basic movements like walking, standing, sitting etc. This will also then lead to tight quadriceps muscles.

Over time with the hip flexors and quadriceps being tight, and having weak glutes and hamstrings will cause the pelvis to tilt forward, creating an anterior pelvic tilt.

An anterior pelvic tilt is where the rear of the iliac crest (pelvis) sits noticeable higher than the front. Making it look like its sloping downwards, if looking from side on.

If this is left unattended it will lead to lower back pain in individuals due to the back extensors becoming so tight, and also creating lordosis in the lower spine, which is where the spine becomes over-arched.

Although this issue is much more common in sedentary people who do no physical activity, it can still affect people who are regularly active.

If you do have tight hip flexors you will notice it majorly affecting your squat performance as hip mobility is key for glute activation of the squat. With tight hip flexors it is highly likely that the deeper your squat goes, the further forward you will be leaning putting additional stress on the lower back. The more you lean forward during a squat motion the more it takes the work away from the glutes and slams the quads with having to do the majority of the work.

If you have noticed you may have this issue the good news is that its muscular related and fairly easy to correct, with some basic stretching exercises of the tight muscles, and strengthening exercises of the tight/weak muscles to bring that even balance back.

The muscles that are going to be tight and require stretching and foam rolling are the hip flexors, mainly the psoas, quadriceps and the back extensors.

The muscles that will require some strengthening will be the glutes, hamstrings and the abdominal muscles.

If you would like more information on this issues, or techniques in correcting these muscle imbalances shoot me an email at: dan@danwhitehandfitness.com