Author: Mark Akin

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Beating Sugar Cravings

Why is sugar so bad, anyway? Let’s talk about what it is in the first place. When sugar enters your bloodstream via a donut or fat-free salad dressing, your body breaks it down into two simple sugars:

Glucose, which is found in every living cell on Earth. If we don’t get it from our diet, our bodies produce it. It enters our cells from our bloodstream and is regulated by the hormone insulin.

Fructose: Our bodies do not produce this, and we don’t need it.

In small amounts, the liver turns fructose into glycogen and hangs on to it in case we need it for energy. However, if there is already enough glycogen in the liver (there usually is), the fructose is stored as fat. This creates a fatty liver. A fatty liver creates “non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.” Basically, this means your liver starts to look like salami.

Too much sugar leads to what is called “insulin resistance.” Insulin controls the amount of glucose that enters our cells. If there is too much, our body develops a resistance to the regulatory efforts of the insulin, and the glucose levels spike. That can lead to metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and belly fat.

What is happening when we get a desire for something sweet?

A craving is not the same as hunger. Hunger is a combination of signals produced by your body. When energy reserves get low, a hormone called ghrelin lets the brain know. The brain then responds with a hormone called neuropeptide Y, which starts stimulating our appetite. Once we start eating, in order to keep us from gorging ourselves, our fat tissues start releasing a hormone called leptin as an appetite suppressant. This signal does not reach the brain instantly, so sometimes we eat until we are overstuffed.

Sugar cravings are not created by hormones and are not necessary for our survival. They are created by the brain wanting its reward system activated. When we eat sugary or fatty foods, our body releases opioids into our brain, which bind to neural receptors and make us feel good.

Candy, donuts, cake, etc. also trigger the release of dopamine and serotonin, which regulate our moods. When we eat those kinds of foods, we are basically convincing our brains that everything is awesome and it can go ahead and release the feel-good chemicals. The brain remembers that feeling and wants it again.

Hunger pains are sometimes not as intense as a craving. In addition, we create sensory memories of food, and sweets and fatty foods can be very good at bringing back warm feelings of sharing meals with friends and loved ones.

Humans can get addicted to sugar quickly, and that can create health issues. I’m not saying never eat dessert again, but sometimes we need to take action to cut back on the late-night candy bars or too many trips to the vending machine. What can we do to beat those cravings?

Be patient with yourself. You didn’t create your sweet tooth overnight, so it’s not going to go away immediately. Some research suggests that our cravings for certain foods were formed in the womb! The important part is to keep trying.

Pay attention to the timing of your cravings. If they always hit around the same time, you can take steps to cut them off before they happen. Keep healthier snacks around when possible, and munch on them about 20 minutes or so before your craving normally hits. Lean meats, veggies, avocados, fruits, and nuts can all help keep your blood sugar regulated and the cravings at bay.

Hydrate. Dehydration causes low energy, which can cause sugar cravings. You can get water from fruits and veggies also.

Do some light exercise. Walk, do some jumping jacks, pushups, etc. Exercise produces some of the same chemicals sugary foods do. It’s amazing how quickly a little movement can improve your mood.

Tell someone about it. Studies show that people who ignore their cravings give into them a lot more frequently. Let a friend know you when you are struggling.

Take a hot shower. This is obviously a somewhat extreme response, and one that’s not always available, but I bet you’ve never gotten out of the shower and thought “I really want a candy bar right now!”

Just decide to stop eating so many sweets. If you don’t commit to it, it won’t happen. Our brains are great at convincing us we need stuff we don’t. Make a decision to quit. You can do it. It just takes a little determination and a little knowledge.

Mark Akin is a personal trainer and co-owner of Envision Fitness. Contact him at Mark@envisionmemphis.com.

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Tackling Time

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About a year ago, after I turned 46, I began feeling a pain in my left calf. At first, it bothered me only at night, but the pain began to increase in frequency and intensity.

One Saturday morning, as I was leading a group of clients out for a run, my left leg gave out completely. I stumbled a little, only to have its use immediately return. I was shaken up enough to finally surrender my ego and pay a visit to a chiropractor. The X-rays they showed me that day were a bit startling. It was obvious that my spine was a mess, and that mess was starting to affect my mobility. I have been hard on my body over the years, and until my leg started giving out, I’d been training as if I were still 25. But a non-functioning leg and some cringe-worthy X-rays were proof: I was getting older.

Obviously, as we age, our bodies change, but that doesn’t mean that we should spend life after 40 plodding along doing steady-state cardio (jogging, cycling, etc.), never pushing ourselves to perform at a higher athletic level.

That said, getting older comes with some realities, so we want to make sure that as we push ourselves to be more athletic, we do it safely. Three components of fitness that decline as we age are strength, endurance, and agility. With just a little bit of focused effort, we can keep those areas sharper for decades.

STRENGTH: As we age, our muscle mass decreases. This is called sarcopenia. Living a sedentary lifestyle can cause us to lose up to 10 ounces of skeletal muscle a year. Some studies show that we can lose up to 30 percent of our muscle mass between the ages of 50 and 70.

Lifting weights is beneficial for a number of reasons. The muscle fibers needed to generate enough force to lift something heavy degenerate more rapidly than the ones used for slow, steady endurance work. So even if we jog 25 miles a week, we still may have muscles that are atrophying.

The good news is that age-induced sarcopenia is reversible. Just hit the weights. If you aren’t sure how to get started, do a little research on your own, hire a trainer, or join a group class.

Lastly, don’t worry about “getting big” (I hear this frequently used as an excuse to not lift). Two days a week of intentional weightlifting is not enough to get you looking like Arnold.

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ENDURANCE: Endurance training is simply engaging in any exercise that stresses our joints and muscles over a period of time and requires aerobic effort as opposed to anaerobic. This means endurance work requires a steady supply of oxygen to keep our body performing the way we want it to. The maximum rate your body can get oxygen into your blood and deliver it to your muscles so they can contract (work) is known as your max vO2.

Our max vO2 determines our stamina and can decrease by as much as 10 percent per decade. Obviously this decrease can have profound effects on our endurance levels. The irony is that just increasing our cardio activity isn’t enough to increase our max vO2. We need to mix our training up to increase our endurance. Don’t hesitate to lift weights and then hit the treadmill or track on the same day. Taxing our bodies aerobically and anaerobically in the same workout will lead to faster gains in endurance and stamina.

AGILITY: Agility is the ability to stop, speed up, or change direction without losing control of our body. This section is also about core strength, as our core is what keeps the rest of our body from tumbling over when our feet suddenly have to stop moving. Life is full of potential stumbling hazards like slippery floors, cracks in the sidewalk, and steps we might not have noticed were there. By strengthening our core through exercises like push-ups, planks, and almost any correctly performed weight-lifting exercise, we will reduce our chances of face planting.

Sometimes just stopping in our tracks isn’t enough though. We may need to suddenly leap over a puddle or maybe change direction quickly to avoid stepping on something. Our ability to move our feet quickly while maintaining control over our hips and torso can be improved by incorporating directional change drills into our training. “Directional change drills” is just a fancy way of saying go one way quickly and then change direction without losing time or falling down. Agility ladders are a fantastic way to become more agile. They are also inexpensive and easy to store.

Mark Akin is a personal trainer and co-owner of Envision Fitness. Contact him at Mark@envisionmemphis.com

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Fits and Starts

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In college, one of my favorite studying techniques was to apply myself diligently to my work for, say, 30 minutes or so and then break to eat Pop-Tarts or watch The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I would repeat this pattern all night, until I felt I could retain whatever information I had been learning long enough to pass my test, which was usually the next day.

Basically, I was interval studying. I would work and rest, work and rest, until I was done. These days, as a parent and generally busy dude, I find I can successfully apply those somewhat questionable study habits to a variety of other responsibilities in my life. I can interval clean, interval work, even interval sleep. I can get a lot done this way, especially when I work out. It’s amazing how useful interval training can be.

If you haven’t yet connected the dots, interval training, also known as HIIT (high-intensity interval training), is simply repeating short bursts of activity followed by even shorter rest periods at near maximum exertion for a brief period of time. What this means is if you exercise really hard for 20 minutes or so, and only take little breaks while you’re doing it, you can actually get a good workout in.

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So how does one interval train? It’s easy. All you need is somewhere between four and 30 minutes and enough space to move around a little bit. Let’s say you are pretty out of shape or that you haven’t worked out in over a year. Obviously, you wouldn’t want to just jump up and do 30 minutes of burpees and jumping lunges (actually, no one should ever do that), but that doesn’t mean you can’t get down on some HIIT. After checking with your doctor (that’s not just legalese; it’s a good idea), you could set a goal for four minutes of exercise. Since you’re not used to working out, it won’t take much for you to reach maximum exertion. And maximum exertion is what we’re shooting for here — but only for a short period of time. So using a simple 2:1 exercise/rest ratio, you could do something like this: 20 seconds of jogging in place; 10 seconds of rest; 20 seconds of jumping jacks; 10 seconds of rest. Do that four times, and, BOOM, you just worked out. You’ll feel better, and you will have burned 50-75 calories. It’s literally that simple.

What if after a month of jogging in place and jumping jacks, you can repeat the routine 10 or 20 times, and you’re getting bored? Just make the exercises harder. Go online and google “body-weight exercises.” You’ll find dozens of websites detailing thousands of exercises, most of which are easy to blend into any HIIT workout. A more difficult HIIT workout could look like this: 20 seconds of burpees; 10 seconds of rest; 20 seconds of lunges; 10 seconds of rest; 20 seconds of push-ups; 10 seconds rest; 20 seconds of sprints in place; 10 seconds of rest. Repeat that three or four times, and you’re going to be very sweaty indeed.

Just use some common sense, and as always, if you start feeling nauseous or dizzy, stop and rest. A variety of factors can cause you to feel sick when you first start training, and most of them are quick fixes. But don’t try to push through. Just take a break until you feel better. And listen (and this is really important): High-intensity interval training programs like Tabata and INSANITY are wonderful, and we use them all the time at our gym. However, they are not as effective at building muscle as is resistance training, and every exercise program needs diversity. This means that you need to mix your HIIT with some weight-lifting and some slow, steady-state cardio (jogging, biking, walking) and, of course, nutrition to actually be fit and healthy.

Besides, doing the same thing all the time is no fun. Seven years of college taught me that.

Mark Akin is a personal trainer and co-owner of Envision Fitness.

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Tips for keeping active this summer.

Aaaaand … it’s hot. It is going to stay hot, and it is going to suck. For many of us, the thought of actually exerting ourselves at all in this mess, much less exercising in it, is pretty awful. Twelve 97-degree days in a row, with nary a cloud in sight, can melt your motivation to do anything except plant your face in front of a fan until October. But if you’ve (possibly? hopefully?) been working out all spring and you’re feeling strong and fit and full of energy, the thought of letting all that hard work just go to the mosquitos is sort of depressing.

Look, it is absolutely possible to stay active and healthy during the summer here, although you may have to adjust your routine a little. It’s important to have a plan going in, so when the mid-summer blah’s hit full-force, you are ready to respond and keep moving. Here are a few tips I like to share with my clients when they start whining about how hot it is to keep them on track and moving toward their fitness goals

1. FOCUS ON NUTRITION. The heat will zap your energy. You want more energy? Eat healthier foods. We all know that a big basket of fried yumminess will taste great, but it won’t be leaving you fired up to get moving. So invest some time this season in preparing healthy meals. See what you can do with fruits, veggies, lean meats … you know the drill. You’ll be amazed at how a belly full of nutritious food can help you make it through a triple-digit day.

2. GET TOGETHER WITH OTHERS. Thinking of an excuse to not get off the couch is not difficult. Blazing hot days and ridiculous humidity only make exercise procrastination that much easier. Having a few buddies to meet up with for a workout can help keep you accountable as well as make the entire experience of moving around in the heat more fun. Get together with some friends and try mixing up who plans the warm up, who plans the workout, who brings the water, and who picks where you go afterward to hang out (Starbucks, Young Avenue Deli, etc.). I think that last bit is especially important because adding a relaxing social component to any kind of work always makes the work more enjoyable. And who says exercise has to even look like exercise? Remember when we were kids and we would run around and chase each other or throw a ball back and forth? What did we call that? Oh yeah … playing! Why can’t we do that as adults? When it’s this hot outside I strongly encourage you to relax your standards of “what exercise is” and just get up and move around. Hook up with some friends once or twice a week and throw the Frisbee, play kickball, or do whatever floats your boat. Just have fun.

3. EXERCISE IN INTERVALS. When the weather is extremely humid and hotter than 90 degrees, exerting yourself outside for long periods can sometimes be a little dangerous. It can also be completely exhausting, leaving you with no energy for the rest of the day. So if your typical exercise routine keeps you outside for an hour, try splitting that hour into two or three segments. For example, try working out 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at night. You can burn the same amount of calories and may even be able to push a little harder since you aren’t working out for such long stretches. And remember: If you experience nausea, headaches, cramps, or dizziness, it’s a good idea to stop what it is you are doing. Drink plenty of water and stay in the shade if you can.

4. JOIN A GYM. I know, I own a gym, so of course I’m going to throw this in here, right? But it’s true, gyms are a great way to get out of the heat and get moving. If you can, try to join a gym with group fitness classes. These are great because all you have to do is show up. The instructor will tell you what to do and can help you with form and modifications when the work gets a little too challenging. If your gym doesn’t offer classes and you get tired of just walking around the weight room wondering what to do, there are lots of great YouTube videos and apps that can help you get started. Look for ones where the instructor/narrator is very focused on proper form. Without good form you’ll hurt yourself, and an injury will derail your fitness plan faster than the heat.

So, good luck, have fun, and keep moving! You’ll make it through like you always do.

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Four tips for sticking to a healthy routine

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Many years ago, I decided to try cocaine. I loved it so much that I continued trying it out pretty much every day for the next five years. Predictably, I got hooked. And, just as predictably, my half-decade bender eventually came to a tedious, stupid, and lonesome end. Once the dust settled, I had no job or marketable skills, but I did have a slew of awful habits.

Fortunately, a friend recalled that I had been a rather mediocre kickboxer. He hooked me up with a job teaching kickboxing, which led me to where I now am 12 years later — making a living as a personal trainer. And, like all personal trainers, I see people start and give up on fitness programs all the time. Ninety percent of the obstacles these people face are planted snugly between their ears.

Just as being an addict doesn’t necessarily have a lot to do with actually doing drugs, being fit and healthy doesn’t necessarily have a lot to do with how many reps or hours you put in at the gym. In fact, I found that deciding to give up cheeseburgers and cokes wasn’t that much different from deciding to give up drugs — the majority of the challenges were in my brain. Much of the advice that people gave me to quit using, I frequently pass on to clients struggling with getting traction in a solid fitness program. So, if you asked me, How do I begin a healthy routine and stick to it?, I’d tell you to first …

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Change the Vocabulary in Your Brain!

Instead of issuing yourself little directives like “I need to get in shape” or “I really need to eat better,” try switching to something more affirmative like “I am getting in shape” or “I don’t drink sodas anymore.” Keep it encouraging and present tense. It doesn’t matter if 10 minutes prior to telling yourself that you no longer enjoy sodas you shotgunned three Mountain Dews. What’s important is that you begin internalizing this simple truth as quickly as possible: If you want to take positive action you gotta think positive thoughts.

I tell my clients all kinds of dorky positive stuff all day, and it works. To get started, I suggest picking one bad habit and start telling yourself, right now, that you no longer do it. It’s probably not all it’ll take to nip it in the bud, but it’s a great place to start. It may seem insincere at first, but, in my experience, the ones who say, “that positive BS doesn’t work for me,” are the ones who throw in the towel first. Our actions start with our thoughts, so that’s why I believe you oughtta …

Quit Being So Freaking Hard on Yourself!

Life can be stressful, challenging, and downright insane at times. Believe me, no matter how motivated you are in the beginning, you will absolutely, positively, no matter what, have days that you simply do not want to work out. There will be days when you set your gym bag by the door all ready to rock it out aaaaaand … BAM! Your ex or your boss calls right as you are walking out the door, pushes your buttons, and totally stresses you out. Or whatever. So instead of going to the gym, you decide to go to Gibson’s and eat a dozen donuts. Well, hey, stuff like that happens. I see it all the time, and it’s okay. Eat your donuts and move on. Get up the next day, grab your still-packed gym bag, and give it another go.

Too many times in the fitness biz, we see people enter a program with such an all-or-nothing attitude that the smallest setback triggers feelings of failure, and they just sort of give up. So you fell off the wagon. Guess what? At one point or another, so did all those other people at the gym. It’s okay. Everybody gets cravings now and then. Which is why it’s also important that you …

Be Mindful of What You Consider a Reward

This one is a little tricky. Some of the things we like to reward ourselves with are rooted in our emotional connections to stress, fear, and confusion. When disconcerted, we tend to gravitate to what will bring us comfort. Frequently, that comfort is found in high-carb, high-fat, high-sugar foods. Sometimes we might turn to those foods impulsively, or sometimes we might have an entire conversation in our brain where we convince ourselves we “deserve” that cinnamon roll. But we also deserve the amazing feeling that comes after a nice walk, or the chance to unload what’s bothering us to a friend, or the rush that comes from completing your workout after white-knuckling your way past the donut shop and heading to the gym.

Those cravings we get for unhealthy snacks and comfort foods are not really hunger. They are just a byproduct of your brain screaming like a spoiled child for you to activate its reward system. The compulsions are, quite literally, in your head. One way to combat these very powerful urges is to start recognizing when and why they hit you. Be mindful of your thoughts and feelings when you feel overwhelmed. Before you know it, you’ll feel the cravings coming on and you’ll learn how to cut them off by taking a healthier action instead of shoveling your way through a quart of Ben and Jerry’s.

Hunger is a survival tool, cravings are a coping tool. There are lots of healthy, effective ways to cope with stress, but they sometimes take a little bit of discipline and planning. So, lastly, I suggest you …

Start Creating Some Healthy Habits Now

This is a lot easier than it sounds if we remember to keep our first steps small and simple. Here are a few actions you can start today that won’t cost you a penny and take only a small amount of time.

Drink a glass of room temperature water every morning. This will get you hydrated as quickly as possible and help to set a healthy tone to your day.

When possible, walk for 15 minutes after every meal. Clearly, most of us don’t have time for a walk after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But the more we walk after eating, the more we can help our digestive system do its job and begin turning that food we just ate into fuel.

Pack snacks! Snacking between meals is critical because it can help prevent binge eating due to feeling like we are starving when we finally sit down to eat. Obviously, snacks should be healthy and not sugary or high in carbs and fat.

Put your knife and fork (or sandwich) down after every bite. Studies show that people who do this simple action ate significantly less than those who don’t.

Relax! Stress is not only a killer, but when we get stressed our body produces the hormone cortisol, which prevents weight loss. Breathe and relax. It can help you lose weight!