How Portion Distortion Is Sabotaging Your Nutrition You’re not paranoid! They really are out to get you! It’s not your imagination but a known fact that the portions of food you’re getting have been getting larger for the past 20 years. Watching portion sizes is an important part of healthy nutrition When you’re served bigger portions, you tend to naturally eat more. Afterall, didn’t your parents always tell you to clean up your plate?! While we all occasionally overindulge, doing so becomes a problem when you habitually override your internal fullness cues by eating more than you need to sus ..read more

Strategies to improve your wellness in 2023 (and be Army Strong) I figured that if it’s good enough for the US Army, it’s good enough for us regular folks, too! If you’re looking to boost your mind, body, and spirit in the new year, here are 12 months of fitness, health and wellness tips to take you into and through 2023. You can do them all at once You can try one a month Or even just adopt one to try as a resolution or goal Taken from the US Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness(1) system, I’ve adapted and applied them to us ordinary, everyday citizens. They are designed to provide a full-pi ..read more

Regular Workouts? Check Solid Nutritional Plan Check Adequate Hydration Check Solid Sleep Habits Check Daily Gratitude Practice Huh When you think of fitness results, gratitude is typically not the first thing that comes to mind. It’s burning more calories, eating healthier, and Sweatin’ to the Oldies like Richard Simmons back in the late 80s. But when it comes to being healthy and a life well lived, gratitude and fitness go together like sugar and spice (and everything nice). Gratitude and Fitness The benefits of fitness are clear and well documented at this point. You’re able to do more t ..read more

Setbacks can be frustrating! One of our members recently injured their shoulder. X-rays and an orthopedic exam showed no obvious injury. But that didn’t alleviate the pain every time they raised their arm above their shoulder. They were making such huge progress in the gym and this left them feeling angry and deflated. But this member athlete was determined not to let this setback undermine their progress. Perhaps this athlete’s biggest strength wasn’t their lifting, but their mental attitude. If you engage in athletics (and in life) things are going to hurt sometimes. Even under the best coac ..read more

There are many reasons I got into personal training. I love to help people I’m constantly amazed by the progress they make It’s awesome to see transformations not only of people’s physical abilities, but of their mental capacities The fun community Making a difference But probably the most selfish reason is the inspiration I get from our member athletes and the things they accomplish not only in the gym, but in their world. I had the privilege of training one of those inspirational members. We trained privately and many of the members didn’t really get to meet him. I wish they had because he ..read more

We were wrong all along – All Calories ARE NOT Created Equal! Sorry, But the Truth Is… A Calorie is NOT a Calorie! Losing weight is, by far, the number one reason people seek out a fitness program. I am not going to go into my thoughts on that here (you may want to read my article on the #1 Myth of Weight Loss: “You Don’t Want to Lose Weight!” here: https://mailchi.mp/f9d9858d6406/weight-loss-myth-1). I do, however, want to share some of the most current research from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1) on the subject and bust some common myths. You may have heard, and even still ho ..read more

Sleep and Fitness: The dynamic duo: Most of us who are committed to our workouts work really hard at maintaining our plan and schedule. We laboriously scrutinize our workouts or miles and plan what we can do to get the most effectiveness out of our fitness. But what part of the plan do most of us neglect? Workout days – Check Nutrition Plan – Check Hydration – (Mostly) Check Sleep – Oops! Sleeping is something we all have to do. And it is an essential part of your fitness plan. Without adequate sleep, you could be throwing all your fitness gains out the window. I’ve been struggling with th ..read more

Here’s Some Things That Might Fill Up Your Happiness Tank I read a great article in the newspaper the other day about happiness. Happiness isn’t a topic you’d typically find in a fitness blog, but when a new prospect reaches out to us, it is usually motivated by something that they are not happy about: How much they weigh How they look in a mirror How their jeans are fitting How they feel (and how they used to feel) So while fitness is truly our focus at 614Fitness, it seems happiness is (or should be) high on the list. And, truly, if you have ever witnessed one of our grueling workouts, you ..read more

6 Tips to Fix Your Stalled Fitness If you’ve been going to the gym, running or working out for a while and not feeling like you’re getting the gains you think should be, here are six suggestions that may help you get the gains you’re looking for. Go heavier Go lighter Go slower Go faster Change it up And finally, take a break! #1. Go Heavier You may have been lifting or working out for a while but haven’t changed or Justin the weights or resistance you’ve been using. Try upping it a little bit. I didn’t resistance to your training regimen will create that muscle hypertrophy you’ve been looki ..read more