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High Definition Holiday Health Tips
9 Simple strategies to navigate the holiday party season while
maintaining health.

1.Be the Host
When you’re the host, you have control of the nourishment. You will be doing all your guests a favor by not contributing to the health hit they may be exposed to at their other parties.

Choose grain, dairy and legume free recipes and if you don’t mention it, nobody will likely notice. Build meals around a solid protein or two and have lots of fun veggie dishes to back fill folks’ plates.

2. Bring nourishment with you
Easy travel stuff:
● Deli meat tray
● Shrimp (wrapped in bacon)
● Bacon anything
● Olives (wrapped in bacon)
● Spiced (not sugared) nuts
● Stuffed mushrooms (with bacon?)
● Veggie platter

3. Fill up before you go
Showing up hungry is an easy way to overwhelm willpower when staring at a table of pies, cakes, cookies, candies and creams.

Eating beforehand may lower your stress levels, help curb some cravings and reduce the space inside your stomach. You’ll likely reduce your exposure to gluten and other anti-nutrients while still enjoying the company of your peers.

4. Politely say no thank you
Don’t be afraid to make up an awesome story about training for the World Championships of hot air balloon racing or something.

A little light hearted humor may help to defer your cousin’s insistence that you eat a piece of ments-meat pie or that strange holiday haystack candy stuff. WTH is that stuff?

5. Start your day like a boss  
Eat a high quality protein packed breakfast such as steak and eggs or bacon and some leafy green veggies to begin your day with good blood sugar management and satiating foods.

Also some good quality movement or exercise early in the day can assist with a positive mood and insulin sensitivity for the day.

6. Eat all the protein
When it’s time to eat, focus on protein first. I’m talking about the meat. Don’t short change yourself here. Get some!

Protein is the most satiating macronutrient and may decrease your desire to overeat the mysterious super-sweet cranberry slurry. (I’ve eaten real cranberries and they aren’t sweet. Just sayin…)

7. Adulting the beverages
It’s the holiday’s and family is around, taking the edge off may be necessary to enjoy Uncle
Tony. I get it.

So bring sparkling water and limes for your mixer to avoid syrups. Choose high quality beer or wine and really enjoy it so you don’t need to hammer down a 6 pack.

One or two will do just fine of the good stuff. Dry Farm Wines is the choice to have ready to open.

8. Go for a brisk walk
Go for an after meal walk. Known as passeggiata in Italy.

Encourage the kids to come with you and trek around the neighborhood to help control the after-meal blood glucose levels. Get outside for some midday sunshine as an extra bonus.

9. Enjoy the journey
Have a plan but be open to changing the plan along the way. It’s the holiday season and time for laughs, love and thanks. Enjoy your time as it is limited.

Be aware that our modern environment is not designed for health, happiness and optimization and most folks are unaware of this. Spread the positivity of health and fitnessas part of your lifestyle.

Your journey is unique, and that’s awesome!

Who Are You…At Your Center? 

We are systematically reprogrammed to expect more and more from ourselves. Bombarded by social media of “success” from “influencers.” We’re being brain washed into behavior that puts our eyes back on social media, notifications, and the “virtual world.” The unfortunate part of this psychological attack is that it’s working. It has affected all of our lives. 

We see too many people who think they “should” live a certain way. When we ask them why they want to live that way, they often don’t know. They’ve gotten lost in the media stranglehold. They don’t know who THEY are. They haven’t developed the skills to filter influencers and learn your true reason for being. 

It’s time you take control of your life. You shouldn’t have to be something you’re not. You shouldn’t have to demand things you don’t care about. And, you shouldn’t have to live a life that doesn’t fulfill you. When you break the chains and get to the other side, life brightens forever. 

In the fitness world, this challenge gets exposed in how people train. Many people train with somebody else’s hopes and dreams attached to each workout. It’s not until they learn what drives them internally that they remove pressure from their fitness and start loving how fitness can improve their lives.  

Do you train to help guide your kids to enjoy their own dreams? Awesome – enjoy your journey for how it empowers you to guide your kids consistently. 

Do you train to achieve success at work? Excellent – enjoy your journey for what advantages it gives you in your career. 

Do you train because you love to progress your fitness? Wonderful, enjoy your journey of physical challenge day in and day out. 

Train for YOU. Live for what you value. Improve because it inspires you. That’s where life-long progress and happiness emerge. There is no amount of physical challenge that will overcome an inspired life!
 

To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top. – Robert Prusig 

For so many of us, we don’t necessarily love the start or the finish; we love the journey that life provides us. We love to progress and grow throughout our entire lives. It doesn’t matter what area of life we’re talking about, we love the hard work, the breakthroughs, the successes, and even the setbacks.  The world tries to “sell” us on quick fixes and band aids to bring us “pleasure” but we believe that it’s a life well-lived that leads to “happiness”. This is what leads to growth as a person, to becoming a better you. 

It’s reassuring to know we aren’t alone. We surround ourselves with people who love progressing as much as we do. The general exercise community has not connected the experience in the gym with experience outside of the gym. We recognize the power fitness has in how we experience progress forever. We allow ourselves to love the journey!  

It’s imperative for your time in the gym to connect to your priorities outside of the gym. It’s when you use fitness to enhance your Life that you’re able to live life more fully.   

If you’re ready to love the journey.  If you’re ready to be surrounded by others loving their journey.  If you’re ready for enduring fulfillment and progress towards a better you.  

High Definition Fitness has a coach ready for you. 

Nutrition:  A K.I.S.S approach (Keep It Super Simple ) 

Technology and social media seem to be speeding up the world, but this “mass connectivity” often causes considerable confusion as we are served more and more cheap information with less and less context.  All from so-called “experts.”  

Nutrition falls squarely into this category of confusion. Macros this, calories that, detox piss, juice cleanse fat, keto now, fasting later: what in the world are you supposed to do to get healthy, lean out, and have energy? If you just read internet articles (ironic, I know), you will be met with thousands of complex answers. DON’T FALL VICTIM TO COMPLEXITY FOR COMPLEXITY’S SAKE. 

Nutrition must start SIMPLE! 

You need to meet yourself where YOU are, today. Consider these simple fixes first and foremost before anything else: 

• Are you chewing each bite of food 32 times? It may sound ridiculous, but this will allow your body to absorb more of your food’s nutrients. 
• Are you eating vegetables multiple times per day? 
• Are you eating 10 varieties of vegetables throughout the week? 
• Are you drinking ½ of your bodyweight, in ounces, of clean, clear water each day (as a minimum)? 
• Are you consuming a consistent, quality amount of biologically available protein? 

• Are you mixing up your foods so that you don’t eat exactly the same thing each day? 

If you are missing one of these things, put that in place today and your health will move in an improving direction. Once you’ve got that dialed in, add another from the list. Nutrition isn’t a “figure out the fastest option” game. It’s a game of consistency, cleanliness, quality and above all – simplicity. 

Take a few moments and ask yourself, “Where am I, today?” We are confident that a few simple tweaks will benefit you and make a large difference in the medium and long-term journey towards improved health and fitness.  

And, if you’re still in doubt, remember these practices have a zero risk of negative side effects.   

Try them out, you only risk improvement!  

Fitness Is More Than Sweat 

Fitness is in the eyes of the beholder. What that means is your experience and expectations with fitness may be different than everybody else’s. But what is consistent across the board is that people pursue fitness for a reason. When you clearly understand your reason, you will find great enjoyment and progress in your health and fitness for the long-run! 

We’ve had the privilege of working with many people who have gone from unhappy to happy with their fitness, and much of that change happened as they learned and recognized what they were getting from their weekly training. So, we ask you this…. 

Why are you training? How do you intend to grow because of fitness? How long will that last? What happens after that? 

It’s easy to say “I train to lose weight, look great, or get strong.” What about losing weight connects to you? Why is it important to you? What would change in your life if you lost weight? Be honest with yourself as you answer this. Many people start a workout program for surface reasons, but they never connect to why that surface reason means something important to their life away from the gym. 

Here are two examples: 

“Last weekend I went to Disneyland with my daughters and spent 12 hours walking around and going on rides.  It was wonderful!  We-had-a-blast!  I thought I’d never be able to do that again and my family was so happy for me.” –Melissa 

“My mother received a notice from the city of weed abatement required on her property or she’d was going to be fined.  My mother is older with poor health and unable to perform yard work and my brother is recovering from recent heart troubles.  She was worried and stressed about being fined but also didn’t have the money to hire a professional landscaping company.  I told her I’d take care of it and I raked and hoed her entire property all by myself.  I cleaned it all up and completely surprised myself, my mother and my brother.  It was an amazing feeling of accomplishment and I’m proud that I could do it! And I wasn’t even sore the next day!” – Jamie 

It’s when you connect to the underlying why behind your fitness regimen that you will find deep enjoyment in your journey. What does fitness allow you to do inside of the gym, but what does it allow you to do outside of the gym as well. Your values and priorities will shift over time; that’s part of life. But, fitness has the power to change and enhance your life for decades.  

What does your effort represent? Enjoy your journey.
 

How Can Proper Fitness Help Your Career? 

Many of us find deep meaning in our work. We value the time we spend learning, growing, and helping build our companies. That said, while we love fitness, when we search within, we realize that fitness isn’t our top priority. Is that wrong? NOT AT ALL! 

Fitness is meant to be the medium for us to improve our lives. It’s the proverbial, “tie that binds.” One of the most important facets of health and wellness is managing stress; as we lower our stress levels, our bodies stay younger, stronger, and leaner. Many people make fitness a net stressor in their lives instead of utilizing it for its hugely positive impact not only to their health, but also to their career. 

The key to balancing life and fitness is recognizing how fitness leads YOU to YOUR highest values. In the context of your career, when you have great energy, resilience, confidence, strength, and perspective you will more consistently ascend the business mountain. As you align your goals and values, you’ll realize that fitness provides you with the momentum you’ll need to conquer the boardroom or jobsite. 

Unfortunately, too many “fitness facilities” place an unhealthy amount of emphasis on competing in the gym. While competition is a beautiful thing, pushing yourself day in and day out places a great deal of stress on your mind and body and often leads to a net loss of energy that you just can’t afford as you climb the ladder. You’ll find great balance when you put your energy into progressing your fitness not only for the sake of fitness, but also for the betterment of your life. 

Here are examples of how two professionals used fitness to get the most out of their life, in and out of the gym.  

“Dave“ 

An Executive at an Fortune 100 company, Dave’s in his early 50’s, and his focus is on the next 20 years of his career. He doesn’t intend to retire right away, as he loves the work he does, but still wants to grow and improve with each passing year.  

In his initial consult with his Coach, Dave mentioned that he’d been injured in the past and that his big goal was to feel strong, happy, and capable. His Coach noticed that Dave spoke passionately about the business that he was in, so he asked him some more questions about how he’s being doing fitness in the past. Dave told his Coach that he was often “tweaked” in his body. He just couldn’t stay healthy. He was burning the candle on both ends and his body felt like it was revolting. 

Not wanting to put too much emphasis on the past, Dave’s Coach started him out with a lot of structural strength work so that Dave FELT (and got) stronger almost immediately. It was in a controlled setting so that Dave didn’t feel worried about getting hurt. If Dave got hurt, he’d have to stop working, and that would devastate him. 

Over the first few months of workouts, assessments, and consultations, Dave’s Coach zoned more and more in on Dave’s biggest values. Dave’s total time in the gym actually dropped so that he could enjoy the balance of work, fitness, and his family. His time in the gym was focused and he loved it, but he felt progress without the fear of injury and that transitioned over into his job. It was fantastic to watch. 

Dave now knows WHY he does fitness and he’s improving his life daily! 

“Diane“ 

Diane is a small business owner who has always loved connecting with people. An influencer in her community, she’s in her late 30’s and has always been the “I’m going to try it first woman.” Whether it be yoga studios, spin studios, CrossFit®, or a host of other options, Diane tried them all. 

Unfortunately, Diane kept getting hurt. She’d be great for a few months and make progress but then she would get hurt out of nowhere again and again. She wanted so badly to be with her friends that she always returned to training too early before she was healed. Diane had the right intentions, but constantly being hurt not only hurt her “fun” factor, it hurt her business as well. 

When Diane came in for her initial consult, she relayed this story to her Coach. Her Coach didn’t try to change everything right away; he helped her align her values of growing her connections, as well as her business. She trained alongside other people each working on their own unique journeys’ but her program was designed to help her heal and build strength to do the skills that allowed her to feel great.  

It took a few months of great conversations both on the gym floor and during Diane’s consultations, but soon Diane began to feel better and enjoy her journey. Her extra energy immediately proved valuable to her business; she was able to grow her business faster than she had in her other training programs 

Diane will never need another training program because she’s so happy with her Coach and client relationship, and it shows in all aspects of her life. 

Happy New Year!  We are a couple weeks into the new year now and resolutions are beginning to wane throughout your friends and family.  But that’s okay, it happens every year about this time.  Since we opened in 2009, we have never been keen on the resolution phenomenon as we’ve always understood that true and real change often takes time and the slow game works better long term.

If you’re like us, you’ve seen about 10,000 different versions of fitness or health and wellness TRANSFORMATIONS. “Transform how you look, what you weigh, how you live;” the list goes on and on. But the key claim most fitness transformations make is that they are “fast, easy, hacks…”  

You’ve certainly seen the New Year’s health and wellness offers to transform your life in 60 days, 30 days, and even 7 days. Think about how ridiculous these claims are. It’s all internet click bait designed to get you emotionally connected to results that are unrealistic and have no control in the long-run.  

Transformation, by Google’s definition is either through an entire life cycle, or through a “nuclear process.” A NUCLEAR PROCESS! – Google’s Definition 

Notice how all of the definitions signal an overwhelming change or metamorphosis. We must honor that we can NOT fast track biology. Our bodies take time to change. We don’t think we can gain 100 pounds in 2 months, but we’ve been fed nonsense that we “should” be able to lose 100 pounds in that time frame. It makes no sense. It’s all marketing without truth. 

What does make sense is to align your transformations to YOUR OWN goals and desires. We must go into the process with quality expectations of what your transformations will entail, the work required, and the time that it will take us to achieve a quality and sustainable result.  

Quality expectations always lead to better long-term results. Remember, you aren’t after a transformation that’s immediately followed by a reversion back to zero or below zero. You want results that last a lifetime. 

At High Definition Fitness we use the Individualized approach to transformation that aligns your goals and your lifestyle. When alignment happens, you’ll get results over your lifetime throughout your health and fitness journey.