Hi OwnPace Family,

Hope everyone is doing well. If you are getting this email, it means you have some type of health, fitness and Wellness goal. I know first hand sometimes we don’t see as much progress as we envisioned, so my goal with this is to show you ways to start seeing progress immediately.

Does this sound like you? You have a workout program, even a diet plan, but somehow the progress isn’t happening. There are a number of other reasons that may be impacting your results.

Here are some tips to get you the results you envision:

1. Change your Perspective

   Your fitness journey doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Making the decision to eat healthy and exercise is key for reaching your weight-loss goals, however standards that are too high can be tough to stick with, and might end up backfiring. It’s a cycle, when you are told you can’t eat something you end up wanting it more, then you crave it, binge on it, regret it and most times just give up on the goal entirely because you believe you have already failed.

   At OwnPace, i teach a more Moderate approach because it’s easier to stick to in the long run. For example, when I teach nutrition we always make room for your favorite foods so that feeling of deprivation doesn't make you quit altogether.

   These same principles apply to exercise, you don’t need an intense training session every single day, some training days can be less intense like walking or yoga, and lastly plan to take one or two days off as well.

2. Your Genes Play a role

   Depending on your genetic make up you might gain and hold weight more easily than other, and on the flip side you might have a faster metabolism or higher tendencies to be muscular. It’s been proven that some physiological body types burn calories at a much slower rate and inevitably carry more fat.

   Even though we all have different metabolic rates, it doesn’t mean if you have a slower one that you are doomed and will never lose weight. It just means that since your body tends to hold on to more fat, you’ll have to work a little bit harder.

   Simple steps to take, try reducing your calories, watch how much refined carbs and added sugar you are consuming and incorporate some high intensity interval workouts to help with calorie burning.

3. Too Much Consistency

   Yes, routines and habits are great tools and make it easier to stick to our goals. But doing the same workouts and eating the same foods day in and day out, can make it harder to lose weight.

   Doing the same exercises over and over starts to reduce its effectiveness. For example, if you run a mile today and burn 200 calrories, if you continue to run that same exact mile, eventually you body becomes more efficient at it and you start to burn less and less calories. This is one reason at OwnPace we mix things up, so if I go on a jog today, tomorrow I might do sprints, next day weights ad the day after yoga. This way keeps your body challenged and your calorie burning capacity doesn’t drop off.

4. Don’t Workout too much

   Daily movement and activity is great, what you don’t want is crushing yourself everyday because that can backfire. Working out more doesn’t equal more weight loss, because a majority of your body composition (weight loss or gain) progress comes from your eating habits.

   Another important thing here is working out more makes you eat more which can end up causing you not to lose weight. Also, working out too much puts a lot of stress on the body and might cause further issues like injury.

   When I make recommendations to my clients, based on their existing lifestyles and activity levels, we find a sweet spot that keep them healthy and leaves room for growth and increased intensity when needed.

5. Are You Eating Enough?

   We all know this one universal truth, to lose weight, you need to cut calories. But eating too little can actually hinder your progress by slowing down your metabolic rate so you can conserve energy. Also excessive calorie restriction can cause loss in muscle which is the tissue that helps with the most metabolic activity. So instead of extreme calorie restriction, try to slowly reduce your calories in increments and see how your body responds.

6. You Are Way Too Stressed

   Stress isn’t just an emotional thing, it has huge impact on our physical responses as well. According to a study on obesity in 2017, people with high levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) tend to be overweight and have higher levels of abdominal fat.

   Also, stress causes some of us to eat more, especially unhealthy snacks. At OwnPace this is why training the mind is equally, if not more important than training the body. Find things that help you reduce your stress level even if its just for 5 mins.

There are a variety of reasons that can affect your progress and results. The more you are aware of the better you will be.

Until next time,

Olan