Personal Training Blog with Douglasville Personal Trainer David Hansey

When was the last time you cleaned out your gym bag? Ever washed it?? Placing your gym bag on the floor of a gym no matter how clean the gym is transfers germs. And tossing your sweaty clothes into your gym bag puts all of the bacteria and germs for every place you ever went in the gym into your bag where it can grow and multiply.

Most gym bags do fine being washed in the washing machine and many can even go in the dryer so give it a try.

This seems especially true when people have an ankle or leg injury but balance work is one of the BEST ways to recover from an injury. It is also one of the main ways to get stronger. Why did you turn your ankle in the first place? A variety of reasons but I promise you that you will be turning it again if you skip the balance work.

It is simple and can be added to your workout and can even enhance other parts of your body like your abs because you are working in ways that challenge multiple parts of your body.

Ok so I have always told my clients to keep a food diary at least for the first week or anytime they get stuck. It not only keeps you honest but it also points out things you really might not have seen.

Most of our mistakes are really honest mistakes, like not realizing that coffee drink has 700 calories (which is at least 1/2 day for the average person trying to lose weight) or realizing that their gum is 40 calories or that they are having several servings of cereal etc.

So if you like to write it down, I have a free diary on my www.4fitbodies.com page that put the whole week on one page. if you are more into your gadgets — try Tap and track for the iphone. It is AMAZING and seems to have every food known to man and hundreds of restaurants. There is also Lose it for the iphone that is free on itunes.

However you choose to do it – KEEP THAT DIARY — it really is the roadmap to where you are. And like any map, you can’t know where to go until you see where you are at now

A study done at Tufts University found that athletes who did not drink enough fluids during their workouts reported feeling more angry and more depressed after than those who were properly hydrated.

Sounds simple enough to me — drink some water and quit being so crabby!!

Keeping a food diary is the quickest path to finding out where you are going wrong with your eating.

That said, an activity journal is also a fast way to see if you are getting sufficient cardio and being accountable to yourself and your workout goals.

There really is no excuse for trying to keep a food diary at least for a week or two or when you hit a plateau. It is mind altering to see the reality.

People who tell me they eat “very little” find out they are consuming THOUSANDS of calories a day. Let’s be honest, if you were eating very little the weight would have to be gone, wouldn’t it. It is just simple science. So if it is not budging, simply you are eating too much for your activity level.

I have people tell me daily that they are “eating good”, “not eating that much”, etc. BUT THEIR WEIGHT REMAINS THE SAME. Why? Because something is wrong. It is not a blame game, often they can’t see it. That is why plateaus happen. You allow a few calories here and there to sneak back in and poof –weight loss stops.

Is it liquid calories (cokes, coffee drinks, sweet tea, dairy, etc) or it is the sneaky bites (a few bites of macaroni from your childs dinner, a few jelly beans at the coworkers desk, half a piece of birthday cake because someone down the hall is having a birthday) FIND OUT!!

Keep an honest food diary for a week!!!

A 12 week study at Skidmore College found that exercisers who did heavy total body weight routines in addition to cardio lost twice as much fat as those who just did cardio and 4 times the amount of belly fat than the cardio only group.

So pump some iron in addition to those aerobics classes or cardio routine for the best body in the same amount of time.

Heavy weights were used in the study so classes with weights do not qualify as a heavy weight is classified as one you cannot do more than 15 reps with.

Lots of wives nag about putting the seat down. And here is a really good reason to not just do that but to close the lid.

when you flush a toilet, thousands of germs are put out into the air. These can land on all surfaces including your toothbrush which can then put the bacteria into your body affecting your teeth, heart and your health. So just close the lid and prevent that.

Most people touch their toothbrush to the tube opening so do not share and save yourself the germs!!

More than 25 million Americans get their water from a well that has elevated levels of arsenic above levels set by the EPA. Personally I think any arsenic is a bad thing.

Studies have shown that elevated levels of arsenic can lead to a suppressed immune system which can set you up to get and die from diseases that are preventable such as the flu.

If you are on well water, have your well tested and if it is high, invest in a remediation system to remove the arsenic.

Eating popcorn may curb your appetite according to a study presented at the Experimental Biology conference in 2009. People who ate a cup of microwave popcorn before lunch ate a total of 105 fewer total calories.