Fitsmart

It’s nearly that time of the year, so we take a moment to talk about the upcoming GWC meetup.

This week we dispel the myths around food logging, and take a look at how valuable (and easy) it can actually be.

In this episode, we take a look at how one’s food tastes may change over time.

We continue our discussion of all the various results available from diet and exercise plans and how to match your desired goals to a plan just right for you.

What exactly does someone mean when they say “my diet and exercise plan gets results?” We dive into all of the various “results” available (both good and bad) and examine what it means to match up various sets of results to best meet your true desires and goals.

We all make “excuses” for not doing what’s necessary to achieve our fitness goals. Maybe it makes more sense to think of them like artificial barriers; we face many “real” barriers, ranging from current fitness to time constraints, all of which come together to form the “envelope” in which we can achieve. Why add additional [...]

We discuss our experiences with the Withings WiFi-enabled scale and body fat device. We identify the difference between lifting for strength, lifting for size, and lifting for endurance/power. And we run down the top things you might want to know if you’re headed to the gym for the first time (or returning after a long [...]

We suggest maybe converting those new year resolutions to goals — and even shorter sub-goals that you can attain (and celebrate!) in the short run.

We take a look at compound exercises and how they fit into the workout routine as well as discuss some of our recent data collection experiences.

In this episode of FitSmart, we implore you to give yourself a much-needed break this holiday season. Keep that “screw you” spirit strong and make your own decisions about exercise and diet during the holidays, but once you’ve made a decision, accept it and enjoy yourself. Also, we take a listener calls.

We discuss the myths and realities of “body types.” And we update you on our most recent experiences with fitness data collection devices, including the new Bodymedia Core activity tracker and Runkeeper.

We discuss how to collect and interpret data when working on long-term fitness goals. We dispel the myth that women who don’t wish to “bulk up” shouldn’t lift. And we take some great listener calls including a tale of Thanksgiving dinner and an insightful question about how to manage meals in a household packed with [...]

It can be truly difficult to tell the difference between useful diet and exercise advice that can help you achieve your goals and the potentially dangerous stuff. We identify some red flags — specifics that indicate that you may need to examine the advice you’re hearing or reading more carefully before accepting it. These include [...]

Many fitness goals take a while to reach, so this week we dive into the many differences between motivating yourself for short term action (like making it to the gym today) and motivating yourself for long term success. Key discussions: accepting variation in your eating and workout plans, avoiding burnout, and interpreting slow-to-change data.

We introduce what’ll be a new segment to the podcast: fitness myths. And we start with the myth of targeted fat loss — the erroneous idea that working out a specific part of the body will spur loss of fat in that area. Not so much, it seems, though there are ways to speed the [...]

FitSmart Episode #32, recorded October 28, 2012.

FitSmart #31, recorded October 14, 2012

FitSmart #30, recorded October 5th, 2012.

Whether you’re looking to lose weight, add muscle, or learn a new sport, your goal is the same: adjust your body’s environment and experience to trick it into adapting in order to survive, you know, Darwin-style. We discuss how viewing your diet and exercise efforts in this light can explain a number of common difficulties [...]

In this episode, we deal with how to handle eating overages, learning to forgive ourselves for the occasional slipup or deviation. Chuck drools over peanut butter, and Mitch drools over fries. We also discuss how this same method of controlling habits can similarly apply to workouts.