Sustainable Guide to Better Eating Habits

By Marcisco Morrison, Owner/Operator, Four Fitness Jersey City

My name is Marcisco Morrison from Four Fitness in Jersey City and with over 15 years of experience as a fitness professional, I still struggle with dieting. It’s an every day struggle no matter your level of fitness. I’ve created an easy and simple food guide that is sustainable and manageable.  If your goal is to be healthy and live an active lifestyle, creating a sustainable lifestyle is the way to go.

FIVE MAJOR FOOD GROUPS THAT SHOULD BE CONSUMED DAILY.

1. Carbs
2. Protein
3. Veggies
4. Fruits
5. Dairy

Carbohydrates: Important for energy so, try to understand when and how much to take. There are 2 types of carbs to be aware of

–LGC muffins, bagels, white rice and white pasta are best to be eaten before any physical activities such as a workout, cardio sessions, spinning and group classes.

– HGC sweet potato (baked or steamed), brown rice, oatmeal, bulgur and quinoa.

Protein: Essential for rebuilding muscles

-Beans (chickpeas, black and kidney beans, and lentils)

-Lean cuts of meat (round, flank, and sirloin steaks)

-Poultry (skinless preferd for lower fat content)

-Fish (filled with omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins such as D and B2)

Veggies: High in fiber that helps with digestion and keeps you feeling full longer and iron which will assist in regulating normal body temps during workouts

-Dark green veggies are higher in potassium to prevent muscle spasms

-Can also be a source of protein for meat-free diets (broccoli, spinach, edamame, brussel sprouts)

Fruits: Fruits should be eaten before 12pm because of the sugar content

-Bananas are high in potassium

-Red apples are high in antioxidants and fiber

-Green fruits are higher in fiber and tend to have less sugar (green apples, green grapes and kiwi)

Dairy: Rich in vitamin D which strengthens bones and bolsters immune systems

-Cottage cheese

-Almond milk

-Sugar free yogurt

Portioning: Remember, the goal is to create sustainability

-Protein should always be the largest potion on your plate, vegetables the 2nd largest, with carbohydrates being the smallest portion

-The average male should consume 10 to 12oz of protein on average, 6 to 8oz of veggies on average and 3 to 5oz of carbs on average.

-The average female should consume 6 to 8oz of protein on average, 4 to 6oz of veggie on average and 2 to 4oz of carbs on average.

Following this food guide will afford you to snack in between meals. Healthy snacking will keep your metabolism active throughout the day and the more active your metabolism becomes, the more calories you burn.

SNACKS: Everything must be done in moderation!

-Peanut butter with rice cake

-Peanuts, cashews, and almonds are sources of good fat

-Fruits and raisins.

Marcisco’s Tips

-Get to know yourself, your own body, and how much you can handle/eat before physical activities. Eat anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours before activity. Base it on what and how much you have consumed.

-The amount and the frequency of your eating pattern throughout the day should be based on your daily activity.

-Extra virgin olive oil or Pam cooking spray are both great alternatives to butter to use in the pan when cooking.

-Use natural seasoning such as onion, garlic, scallion and thyme for flavor when cooking. Mrs. Dash and others like it are amazing lower sodium alternatives to salt.

-Water is an essential part of your daily diet, 8oz per glass and 6 to 8 glasses per day or more should be consumed. Water should also be consumed with each each meal.

Example Meal: This breakfast will start your day off on the right foot and keep you fueled during your morning activities!

-Multivitamin of your choosing. Glucosamine and chondroitin supplements help with joint health therefore, I consider them a must have.
-GNC product CLA: Conjugated Linoleic Aid (fat burner) or your choice of fat burner.
-1 cup of black coffee for energy.
–Female – 2 scrambled egg whites & 1 whole egg with spinach, 3 to 4 total.
–Male– 4 to 6 egg whites & 2 whole egg scrambled, 6 to 8 total with spinach.

I can’t stress this enough, going on a diet is not sustainable but eating in moderation and being consistent will create sustainability.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a registered dietitian nor am I a certified nutritionist. Please consult a physician before following this food guide.

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Ten Tips for Successful Meal Planning

By Marcisco Morrison 

Meal planning saves not only money but time. In addition, it will save you from lots of stress. Planning saves your kitchen budget as you can plan ahead how much you want to spend weekly on food without having to go with whatever is available at the closest store or buying food on impulse.

There Is No Perfect Plan

You will never find that perfect meal plan that meets every need. Once you have known what you want or work, you can easily tweak your plan as you go along or as needed.

Write Down Goals

This is a vital aspect of planning as it answers questions like how many meals per day are you planning for, what type of meals, are you planning for low-carbs or low-calorie diet? Are you or members of the family on a special diet? After all, it about meal planning, right?

Make A Budget

Decide at the beginning of your week how much goes to groceries. If that is not planned ahead, you will never know exactly how much is consumed in a week or you could end up spending too much on items that are not necessary. This is particularly important if you are operating on a tight budget. It makes no sense to plan for meals if you are to get broke by doing it.

Start A Calendar

The calendar can be on the lines of a Google Calendar that has accompanying notes for each day’s menu. Alternatively, just jot simple notes on your laptop or sticky notes on your fridge door. The most important thing is to have it written down. Writing helps in sticking with your chart or menu.

 

Plan Meals Based On The Season

You will always get the best fresh produce prices during the harvest season. So plan your weekly menu according to the season and what is available on the market. Another tip, the majority of grocery stores tend to have weekly sales on Sundays.

Involve The Family

Involve every family member by asking them for their favorite meals. You can organize the list by different categories such as chicken, beef, fish, vegetarian, crock-pot dishes, side dishes, salads, and soups.

Always Stock The Staples

Staples to always have in the kitchen may include rice, pasta, tofu, frozen veggies, lentils, frozen garlic, olive oil, grated cheese, eggs, lemons, yogurt, and mixed greens/spinach. Spices are very important and must always be available in your kitchen such as curry, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, pepper, chili powder, and of course, salt.

Plan Each Day’s Meals Tighter

Personally, when I forget or unable to plan for family breakfast, lunch together with dinner, I find one meal getting skipped and more likely taking a visit to the drive-thru for a quick fix.

Avoid Overstuffing The Fridge

When your fridge is overstuffed, it’s very easy to become overwhelmed. Things tend to get hidden at the bottom or in the back, others get lost when you need them for today’s recipe. Keep your fridge light and airy, with food items arranged realistically.

Supplement Your Plan

Occasionally, you may find it hard to keep the entire plan running smoothly all week. Consider supplementing your meal plan with a reputable meal delivery service. Look for one that fits with your broad health requirements, flavor preferences, and budget. Meal planning ensures your family has balanced, healthy meals every day and that everybody is getting all the essential ingredients. Similar to all things, the more you practice meal planning, the better you become.

Call us to make an appointment at 551-208-4775 or Visit us at FourFitnessJC.com

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The Importance of a Good Breakfast Before Fitness Training

By Marcisco Morrison

Poor eating habits have the potential of undermining even your best efforts at staying fit. Athletes who are savvy understand that eating the right kinds of foods before any fitness training gives their body the necessary fuel required to last through the last set of squats or a full ten minutes on the treadmill. The meal you take prior to commencing your training can make or break not only your entire fitness training program as well as the gains in muscle building.

Breakfast has been billed by nutrition experts as your most important meal in the course of your day. Unfortunately, too many active people are following a lifestyle that tends to eliminate breakfast. A satisfying and healthy breakfast is a better investment in not only your fitness training but in better overall health.

Good for Enthusiasm and Endurance

If you train early in the morning, your body will need a big pre-training breakfast. Remember too heavy a meal can feel uncomfortable and heavy. Your body stands to benefit a lot from a healthy and balanced breakfast taken before your workout or training. Just between 100 and 300 calories from your breakfast are good enough to add the required carbohydrates into your system. This boosts your blood sugar so that your body is running on fuel and not on fumes. You will discover that this small pre-training meal adds enthusiasm and endurance to your workout. In a study, athletes who consumed breakfast were capable of exercising for 137 minutes as against only 109 minutes when they did skip this pre-training fuel.

Breakfast Combats Dual Negative Effect

To get a clear picture of how important pre-training breakfast is, imagine your body running on a stomach that is empty. You will feel somehow sluggish and you may not perform at your peak level. You could still achieve a little more with a bit more of pumping. But what you might not know is that your body is actually undergoing through a phase of dual negative effect. This happens because when running on near empty, you tend to rapidly deplete your glycogen stores. Once they get fully depleted, your internal body mechanisms will turn to your hard-earned muscle as the next best available source of energy.

Boosts Intensity and Strength of Your Training

When you are running on fumes, your strength capacity and intensity suffer. Consequently, you will not have the capacity to push yourself to the maximum resulting in a performance that is less than-stellar. Ultimately you will find that you cannot stimulate your muscle fibers to that critical breaking point needed to create new scar tissue and thus new muscle mass.

Recommended Breakfast Ingredients

If you are an endurance athlete, your pre-workout breakfast should primarily consist of carbohydrates that are easily digestible plus a moderate measure of protein as well as low-fat amounts. If your goal is to build muscle mass, your breakfast ought to be heavier in protein and light to moderate on carbs and fat. Sometimes you may not be preparing for any specific training but you want to remain competitive and always fit. If you find yourself in this category, it is important to eat a breakfast that is healthy with lots of protein, fat, and carbs. Try and steer clear of processed foods and sugar.

The Bottom Line

Breakfast boosts your daily energy levels, aids weight control efforts, enhances sports performance, and promotes future health. A healthy and balanced breakfast not only works wonders for your fitness training but also helps in improving the general quality of what you take as part of your diet. Eating breakfast reduces chances of you taking junk food items later in the course of your day. Champions know the value of breakfast before a training or workout session!

CALL US FOR AN APPOINTMENT AT 551-208-4775   StayFit!

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The Benefits of Drinking Water

By Marcisco Morrison

The amount of water consumed daily plays a vital role in maintaining your health. Experts recommend drinking 8oz times 8 of water daily to maintain excellent health (the 8×8 rule). The main component of your body is water. In fact, depending on your body size, your body is between 55 and 78% water. Our bodies also lose considerable amounts of that water through dehydration and sweating that must be replenished through drinking water.

Regular and adequate consumption of water has many health benefits.

Helps in Digestion and Fighting Constipation 

Water boosts the functioning and health of your gastrointestinal tract. Water not only helps in facilitating better digestion but also prevents constipation. Often, inadequate amounts of water in your body results in episodes of constipation as your colon resorts to pulling water from your stools in order to maintain hydration. This makes the stool harder and passing becomes a problem. Water is good for combating dehydration and decongestion also helping your body bounce back quickly when you are feeling a bit under the weather.

Prevents and Treats Headaches 

Dehydration due to insufficient water in your body can trigger headaches or even migraines in some people. It has been proven that drinking lots of water when dehydrated can relieve headaches. However, this could also depend on what type of headache you are experiencing.

Helps with Weight Loss 

Drinking lots of water can assist with your weight loss program. This is based on the fact that water increases satiety levels and boosts your rate of metabolism. It is important to time your water drinking as it has been shown that it becomes most effective when it’s drank half an hour before the meal.

As it has the effect of making you feel fuller, you are likely to consume fewer calories. It is even better when you think water cold, as your body will then use extra energy (calories) to first warm the water to your body temperature.

Flushing out Toxins

Water is good detoxifier helping in flushing out toxins from the body, getting rid of waste through urine and sweat. Your kidneys process about 200 quarts of blood each day, sitting out the waste stuff and transporting it through urine to your bladder. Your kidneys must have adequate fluids to flush out what the body doesn’t need. Water also boosts the overall functioning of your kidneys.

Certain body toxins can cause skin inflammation leading to acne and clogged pores. Water also helps in getting the most out of any aerobic and anaerobic customized fitness training programs.

Muscle Fuel

When you work at the gym, you tend to sweat a lot leading to your muscles loosing much water. When your muscles lack adequate amounts of water, they get tired easily and fast. Therefore, to give your muscles that extra energy, drink more water that will see you with enough energy for your final workout session.

You may want to think of water more like a vital nutrient needed by your body that is found in plain water, liquids, and foods. These “nutrients” are essential to replace the considerable amounts of water your body loses daily. As an added plus, water contains no fat, sugar, carbohydrates, or calories. When you drink adequate amount of H20, it helps in maintaining your body’s fluid balance, very important in assisting the transportation of nutrients in your body’s fluid balance, very important in assisting the transportation of nutrients in your body. It helps in digesting food, regulating body temperature, and more.

Call FourFitness Studio for a complimentary session at 551-208-4775 

Located at 650 Montgomery street Jersey City, NJ 07306, we believe that training with trainers who train will help you reach your desired fitness goals.

Yelp Rated us #1 since 2015. Come get motivated and encouraged to be great!

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When is the Best Time to Eat High Glycemic or Low Glycemic Carbohydrates?

By Marcisco Morrison

Anyone who has diabetes knows only too well what happens when you eat carbohydrates, blood sugar levels shoot up. How your blood sugar reacts is largely determined by the total amount of carbs in a meal or the snack that you consume. High glycemic carbohydrates lead to a fast spike in blood sugar (blood glucose) and insulin. Low glycemic carbohydrates have a smaller, slower, effect. It, therefore, pays to know when to eat high or low glycemic carbohydrates.

Using the Glycemic Index 

The Glycemic Index is meant to give you an indication of how fast the carbs are converted into glucose by your body. Two types of foods that have the same carbohydrates amounts can actually have different numbers when it comes to the Glycemic Index.

The smaller the GI number, the less impact the carbs have.

  • 55 or below = Low or good.
  • 56-69 = Medium count
  • 70 or higher = High or bad.

Foods that are closer to their natural state generally have a lower GI compared to processed and refined carbs which count very high. Moderate GI carbs fall in between. Depending on your individual workout or training schedule, you can choose accordingly to suit your goals.

Best Time to Eat High Glycemic Carbohydrates

Immediately Post Workout: Experts recommend this as the best time to consume carbs that are high according to the Glycemic Index (GI). Ideally, most of your high GI carbs daily intake should occur immediately after your training. For example, your post-workout shake should have some high GI carbs and the faster the contents get into your body the better.

Post-Workout Meal: As part of your after training meal, ensure that you also get some high GI carbs. If needed, you can easily adjust the body’s insulin response during your high GI meal by consuming lower GI carbs or fewer carbs.

Best Time to Eat Low Glycemic Carbohydrates

Morning: Your morning meals should mostly consist of low GI carbs, although there is some allowance for a small amount of carbs that are high GI. Overall, your GI count for the morning meal should be between low and moderate.

Before Bed: Body builders and weight lifters were in the past advised against eating carbohydrates rich foods before going to bed because they purportedly would end up getting converted into fat. This is not a fact as carbs before bed are essential for muscle growth.  Essentially, because you are fasting for about 6 to 8 hours during the night, it becomes crucial to ensure that your muscles are not getting catabolized for fuel. It is recommended that before bed you eat a slow digesting carbohydrate that has a low GI, ideally combined with extended-release protein.

Pre-Workout: About an hour to 90 minutes before working out, you ought to eat a meal that is rich in protein and low-to medium-GI, fructose-free carbohydrates. Getting the timing correct is important so that your body gets time to not only fully digest the food but convert the nutrients to vital energy.

Final thoughts 

Besides optimizing your workout results, choosing good carbs sources not only help in controlling your weight but also your blood sugar. Even if you are free of diabetes, consuming carbohydrates-rich healthier foods helps in warding off a host of other conditions that can reduce the impact of your workout. The truth is that in general, low GI foods are the best option but it’s also very important to realize that at times your body will need an immediate source of replacement energy. It all depends on the intensity of your workout or training. For example, if your in a marathon, certainly eating a single apple would really not do you any favors.

Come train with trainers who train and eat carbohydrates -rich healthier foods. Visit us at Four Fitness Studio 650 Montgomery st, Jersey City, NJ 07306

We are Jersey City’s fitness accountability partners! YELP RATED US #1 SINCE 2015. Call NOW (551) 208-4775 

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Fitness as a Lifestyle: Diet vs. Exercise

By Marcisco Morrison 

Whenever you want to adopt fitness as a lifestyle, the most common advice you will get from your fitness coach is to diet and exercise. However, while both approaches are crucial in losing excess weight and remaining fit, hence leading a healthy lifestyle, it turns out that one is actually more vital than the other. Nutrition experts argue that a poor diet will somehow always catch up with you.

Why Dieting Is More Important Than Exercising  

To maintain a lifestyle of fitness means that you must watch your weight. The only way you can shed off any excess weight is through the burning of more calories than those you take in. This is almost impossible, unless you check your eating habits. Experts say that one pound of fat generates 3,500 calories while running a marathon can only burn 2,600 calories. This goes a long way to confirming how ineffective exercise can be when you are aiming at keeping fit through losing excess weight.

This doesn’t in any way mean that exercise is unimportant. As a matter of fact, experts will tell you that you get faster results when you combine dieting and exercise. However, if you were to choose between the two, especially when you are out to cut some weight, evidence has it that the role played practically. Given that you can consume over 1200 calories when you eat something such as a burger and fries, it would be very difficult to lose weight and keep fit without being mindful of your calorie intake.

What is The Right Calorie Intake?

If dieting is such important matter when adopting fitness as a lifestyle, then how many calories should you be consuming? This is a common question among people who want to keep fit. Nutrition experts advise that women should consume about 1,500 calories in a day if they are out to cut weight, while men can consume slightly more. The easiest way to stick to this limit is by increasing the quantity of vegetables and fruits in your servings.

As much as going to the gym is helpful in burning more calories, a bigger percentage of people tend to recover the lost calories immediately after, which rubbishes their workout. For instance, what is the need of going to the gym to lose 500 calories, and then consuming a 1200 calorie dinner thereafter? This will simply be a big waste of your time!

One of the biggest culprits when it comes to excess calorie intake is beer. A single beer can pump anything in the neighborhood of 500 calories of more into your system. This is something that you can drink in a few minutes but to burn the same amount of calories you will need to take a three-hour walk!

Conclusion 

After you have taken care of your diet, coupling it up with regular exercise can give you faster results in your quest to become fit and maintain a healthy lifestyle. This means that it is easier as well as more sustainable to make diet lifestyle changes instead of signing up for the gym, which you may end up dropping barely two months after joining anyway. There are always simpler alternatives of regularly exercising such as parking a little further from your workplace and walking. At the end of the day, keeping a healthy lifestyle is a sum total of small victories -it is the small things that you do every day which adds up to create a significant change.

Visit us at Four Fitness Jersey City to book a personal training session with New Jersey’s #1 personal training team.

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