UBF Blog Unbreakable Fitness Blog. Articles relating to life, fitness and the pursuit of happiness.
mentalFitness
November 4, 2013

Mental Fitness 101

Brain power is the most important piece of your livelihood. Keeping your mind sharp will allow to excel in all other areas of your life. Here are a few things you can do to bring your mental fitness to life.

  1. Physical Activity – We often keep hundreds of “TO DOs” in our mind on a weekly basis. Committing 30 minutes a day to physical exercise will give your brain a rest . Not only that, it will reduce the stress that your “TO DOs” create.
  2. Eat Healthy- Eating small balanced meals throughout the day gives you a steady form of energy. Keeping up your mental fitness requires giving your body the nutrition it needs. Eating healthy will give you sustained energy throughout the day and help you think better. Do it!
  3. Sleep – Eight hours daily. Part of keeping your mental fitness in top shape is to give your brain a rest. Eight hours of quality sleep will give your brain a great recharge. I suggest keeping all TV and electronic devices out of your bedroom so NOTHING will disturb your rest.
  4. Day of Rest – Work six days a week and rest for one. Take that one day to do anything your heart desires, as long as it isn’t work related. You get to give your brain a chance to fill itself with enjoyable thoughts. Your mental fitness will benefit in a HUGE way if you can stay faithful to this.
  5. Learn Something New – Spend at least 10 minutes a day in personal development. Read a book that will add knowledge and help you grow at whatever it is you are passionate about. Learning something new daily will really grow your mental fitness. It’s like increasing weights in the gym, except the mental gains you can see are limitless!

Even if you only select two or three of these to incorporate into your daily routine, you’ll notice a significant change almost immediately. Give it a try and tell us your success on Twitter. Use #ubfblog.

Mike Almeyda No Comments , , , , , ,
not-seeing-results
October 21, 2013

Four signs you have a workout plateau

Having a fitness routine is important if you plan on living a long life. For a routine to be effective, it must be dynamic. For example, you can’t do the same exact exercise every Monday for 52 straight weeks. Even if you increase the weight or resistance, your body will recognize it’s going through the same motion. You won’t recruit additional muscle fibers during exercise and you will stunt your progress. Do you have a workout plateau? Here are five tell-tale signs that you are:

  1. Feeling sluggish. If you’ve started feeling tired and weak after a workout, it may be time to review what you’ve been doing for the past several weeks. If you haven’t been keeping track of that record, it’s definitely time to change it up. If you don’t your past gains will begin decreasing and your workouts will be ineffective.
  2. No noticeable results. If you’ve gone a few weeks without seeing significant results, it’s time to mix up your routine. You know how comfortable and lazy your body feels when you lay in bed? That’s how your body feels when you don’t change your routines consistently.
  3. Low motivation. Your body is extraordinary at adapting to change. Just like we get bored seeing a rerun on television, our body gets bored with the same exercises over and over again. This adaptation triggers boredom and you may have little desire to exercise because of it.
  4. Constant hunger. If you feel hungry all day long, before and after your workout and consistent throughout the day, your body is fatigued. Fatigue will lead to depression, and depression will lead you to more eating and less exercise.

The only good thing about a workout plateau is that it’s easily recognizable and correctable. It only takes a small change in your routine to correct the problem. If you are constantly going to the gym, take a break and try one of the top home fitness programs in the wellness industry. It will give you a good change of pace and challenge your body to adapt to something different. You may even gain a skill set you never thought you had! If you are insistent on going to the gym, that’s fine too. Take a few days off, create a new routine featuring different exercises and go back with a full head of steam. Men’s Fitness has some great recommendations depending on what your particular goal is.

One thing is for sure. If you want to stop the workout plateau, it requires only one thing. CHANGE!

What have you done to stop YOUR workout plateaus? Share your tips with Unbreakable Fitness on Twitter @FitUnbreakable.

Mike Almeyda No Comments , ,
Lazy
October 14, 2013

How to avoid being lazy

Your alarm clock goes off at 5AM. It’s Monday. “Not again” is the first thought that runs through your mind. You said on Friday that you would start making the change on Monday. What happens? You hit snooze until you realize that you have to be at work in 15 minutes and now you’re going to be late. The rest of your day is ruined. Sound familiar? 98% of the population experiences this at least one week a month, but I’m going to show you how to avoid the trap. Your weeks don’t have to start out like this and you have the means to change that TODAY.

Grab a sheet of paper and a pen. I’M SERIOUS! If you want to stop being lazy, you are going to want to take good notes and follow the simple steps I’m going to give you to stop being lazy. Okay. Now that you have that pen and paper I want you to write down all the things you have ever wanted to do. It could be something as simple as exercising three times a week to something  big like a trip around the world in 30 days. Go ahead and take five minutes to write the list out. After you have your list, I want you to put a number next to everything you listed. If it’s something that you would like to do this year, put a “1” next to it. If it’s something you’d like to do in three years, put a “3” next to it. If five years, put a “5” and so on and so forth.

Let me guess. You have a lot of 1’s on your paper right? If you do, it’s a tell-tale sign that you were bit by the lazy bug, and that’s okay. We are about to fix that. Let’s focus on all of the 1’s that you have on your page. Pick the top three that hit home with you the most. Being that it’s October, we want to make sure that we set realistic goals for ourselves. Look at the first goal and figure out what you need to do in order to obtain that goal. For instance, if you want to take a trip to Hawaii, what is it going to require? Airline ticket? Hotel reservation? Rental car? Activitiy List? Dates to travel? Are you getting my drift? All of these things have to be figured out before you can take your trip. Seems like a lot right? I suggest taking a look at the blog post where I helped super busy moms plan a schedule. After you plan your schedule for the week, you should see some open white spaces in your calendar. All those things that you have to do to reach your goal need to go in those white spaces.

The process is simple to develop. The challenge is doing what you said you were going to do. My suggestion? Write out those three goals and put them somewhere that you will see them every single day. Write the deadline date next to your goal too. You’ll avoid that lazy rut your in because you want to achieve your goals. Don’t believe me? Give it a try. What are some of the craziest things you have done to achieve a goal? Tweet your responses @FitUnbreakable with #UBFgoalachiever. Best tweet get’s a prize!

Mike Almeyda No Comments , ,