For now my new articles have only been sent to my newsletter subscribers, but I will probably post them eventually. If you would like to be added to my newsletter, please let me know. Just send me an email at ross@precisionhealth-fitness.com and I will get you added to my newsletter list.

For now, two of my videos can be seen on my website home page at www.precisionhealth-fitness.com/ and the exercise videos can be seen at www.precisionhealth-fitness.com/exercise-videos.html.

All the videos are also posted on my new Precision Health & Fitness Facebook page.

There will be much more to come in the future, but for now, please let me know if there are any topics you want me to cover in the near future. Also, I encourage everyone to visit my Facebook page and post your thoughts about anything related to health or fitness. Feedback/advice is always appreciated as well. My intent is to create an interactive community to discuss issues related to exercise, nutrition, psychology, and anything else that will help people reach their goals.

Click the following link to see all my VFT articles and videos: http://virtualfitnesstrainer.com/?s=ross+harrison

I am still going to write new articles, but my blog will probably not not be the first place my articles will be posted. About a month ago I started revising and updating some older blog posts and publising them to a site called Associated Content (AC). One of my future goals is to write shorter articles and this process is helping me get better at doing that. So far I have 32 articles on AC and will continue updating old posts. To see what I have done so far, please click this link. This will take you to my profile page, which has links to all my articles.

Writing for AC has caused a little decrease in time spent on my blog, but the big change is that I was recently offered the opportunity to produce new articles and videos exclusively for a health and fitness website. I would like to say more, but I am not allowed to give any specifics at this time. Since I will be spending most of my time producing content for that website, I will be writing less on my blog, but I will still try to produce occasional new content here. However, the blog content will still appear on Associated Content first, because that increases the distribution options and allows me to reach more people.

At this point I am not sure exactly what the direction is going to be for my blog, but I am always willing to answer any health or fitness questions you have and I am definitely interested in hearing about topics you would like me to cover in the future. If you ask me a question or suggest a topic for me to write about, I will make sure to respond. If you have any questions or topic suggestions, please email me directly at ross@precisionhealth-fitness.com.

     There are many things that can cause you to have to take a break from exercising, such as an illness or injury, and your ability to manage these situations has a significant impact on long-term success. Any time you can’t workout for an extended period of time, you will lose some overall fitness and most people gain at least a little fat. Beyond that, you can choose whether you want to minimize decreases in muscle or minimize increases in body fat and weight gain.

     Naturally, it is best if you can minimize both things, but if exercising stops for a long period of time, you may have to focus on one or the other. If you want to decrease fat gain, then you will definitely want to cut some extra calories.

     Eating less will help prevent fat gain and you could possibly even lose some weight, but the more you cut your calories, the more likely you will be to have greater and faster decreases in muscle mass, which in turn decreases your overall fitness.

     Personally, I take the approach of trying to maintain muscle as much as possible and I don’t worry as much about gaining fat. My reasoning is because newly gained fat is generally easier to lose than fat that has been on your body for many years, and it usually goes away fairly quickly once exercise is resumed.

     If have found that it takes much more time and effort to regain decreases in muscle and fitness than it does to lose newly gained fat, Therefore, I keep my calorie intake close to normal to help prevent my body from breaking down muscle to use as energy, which almost always happens when restricting calorie intake and not exercising.

     Of course this is just my personal experience and if you are someone who gains muscle easily or has a lot of trouble losing any type of fat, then you should focus on eating as healthy as possible and cutting calories instead. If you decrease your calorie intake by the same amount as your activity level decreases, then you should minimize any fat or weight gain.

     For example, if you usually maintain weight by eating 2200 calories per day and your normal activity burns around 400 calories per day, they you should decrease your calories to around 1800 until you are able to resume your regular exercise routine. Otherwise, those extra 400 calories will most likely just get converted into fat, unless you have a naturally fast metabolism.

     However, even if you decrease your calories by the same amount as your activity, you can still gain some weight, due to a possible decrease in metabolism. Exercise usually stimulates your metabolism to burn extra calories during the day in addition to those burned during the activity, so you may have to cut your calories even more to prevent weight gain.

     Everyone is a little different when it comes to how their body responds when they stop exercising, so you may have to experiment with your calorie intake to figure out what works best for you.

     The first tip is simply to keep yourself from cleaning your plate. You may have been told many times as a child that you are not finished until your plate is clean, but this is a very bad idea when eating out. You have probably noticed that portion sizes at restaurants have greatly increased in size over the years. Many meals now contain enough calories for at least 2 or 3 meals and that’s just in the entrée.

     Before you begin your meal, decide how much of the food you will eat during that meal and stop when you get to that point. Then the leftovers can serve as another meal or two that you can have later. However, if the meal is unhealthy, the best thing to do is leave the unfinished portion behind.

     A related tip is to be careful about ordering appetizers or desserts. In some cases, an appetizers or dessert has enough calories to count as an entire meal by itself, even if you share it with multiple people. Eating an appetizer, entrée, and dessert when dining out will quickly pack on unwanted pounds, even if you are eating healthy foods.

     The best thing to do is pick one item and only have that, or part of it, as your entire meal. If you are out with a couple friends and want and appetizer, entrée, and dessert, you can have one person order an appetizer, one person order a dessert, one person order an entrée and then split everything. Of course, this only works if everyone wants the same thing and is willing to share.

     The last tip is something many people use very effectively, but other people do not even know is an option, which is to make special requests with your food orders. Most restaurants realize that more people are trying to eat healthy and they will do their best to accommodate any reasonable request.

     For example, if a meal comes with a fatty sauce, you can ask to replace it with a lighter sauce or even skip the sauce altogether. You can also ask for specific unhealthy ingredients, such as cheese, to be left out of the meal. For instance, there are even people who order pizza without cheese and it is usually not a problem.

     Other options are to ask for a half serving or, if the restaurant allows it, you can split an order with a friend. Just let your server know and he or she should bring your order with an extra plate for the second person. This strategy has the added benefit of requiring less willpower than making yourself stop eating when you still have food on your plate and it saves money as well.

     By using these three simple tips, you can significantly decrease the number of calories you consume while eating out and prevent yourself from gaining unwanted weight. If you are really good with your food choices, you may even lose weight, although this is very difficult if you frequently eat at restaurants that serve foods with a lot of fat and calories.

     People assume their body will automatically perform exercises correctly once they understand the proper technique, but it is only the first step. Even if you know how an exercise should be done, that does not mean your body will necessarily do what you want it to. Exercise technique takes time to develop and each exercise progresses at a different rate, with some exercises taking months or even years to develop great technique.

     However, just because someone exercises for years, it does not mean they have great or even decent exercise technique. The only thing it really suggests is that their movement patterns are heavily ingrained. This means their movements are consistent from rep to rep, but it does not imply anything about the quality of the movement. 

     It may seem strange that people who have been exercising for years can have bad form, but it happens all the time. One reason is because most people are never properly taught how to perform exercises correctly, so they often end up repeating the same mistakes over and over until their flaws become a natural part of their movement patterns. 

     Another issue is people commonly try to learn correct technique by performing movements that feel like they are right. There seems to be a belief that if a movement feels right or natural, that the technique is correct. While this is true in some cases, there is certainly not a cause and effect relationship between a movement feeling good and the movement being technically correct. 

     Good technique is the result of proper body alignment, along with the right muscles contracting the right amount at the right time. When a movement feels correct, it is primarily because that particular movement is something your body is used to doing. Take walking as an example; most people find walking natural and assume they walk correctly, but very few people actually have great walking technique. 

     One common walking flaw is walking with the feet turn out, instead of pointing straight ahead and staying in line with the hips and knees as they should. When a person who normally walks with their toes turned out is asked to walk with their toes pointing straight ahead, they usually say things like “it feels strange” or “it feels wrong.” Even though it feels strange or wrong, it is technically the right way to walk.

     In these cases, correct walking technique feels wrong because it is unfamiliar, but that changes with time. If the person continually works on walking with their toes pointed forward, it will start feeling normal and eventually, walking with their toes pointed out will start to feel strange. 

     As with walking, exercises also feel good or normal based on how your body is used to moving. This can be problematic when learning exercise technique, because your body naturally tries to replicate movements you are already comfortable performing, regardless if they are correct or not.

     The best way to avoid the problem of your body automatically repeating familiar movements is to learn as much as possible about correct exercise technique. Learning how your body is supposed to move and which muscles should and should not work during each exercise will provide the foundation you need to develop great form.

     By consciously thinking about what your body is doing, you can override your body’s natural tendency to do whatever it wants or whatever feels right. Over time, movement patterns that feel right, but are incorrect, will be replaced by movement patterns that are technically correct and better for the overall health of your body.

     Of course, learning this is not easy and most people will significantly benefit from hiring a qualified fitness professional to evaluate their movements and provide feedback to train proper technique. By consistently focusing on technique and movement patterns, your form will continually improve and your workouts will become more effective as well.

     Scientific studies are very useful for supporting or refuting theories and claims, but they are also problematic, because data can be easily manipulated by anyone who wants to use the information to their personal advantage. Data manipulation has become widespread in all fields, but it seems especially prevalent in health and fitness, because scientific claims are effective for promoting and selling products like exercise equipment, supplements, and diets programs.

     Even when scientific data is presented accurately, marketers still make misleading claims that are not supported by the studies they cite. Sometimes this is done on purpose, but it also happens because the people citing the studies frequently don’t understand the research or even basic scientific methodology. Surprisingly, this is more common than you might believe and it happens in all forms of media.

     As a result, scientific studies end up being used to promote ideas or products that are never supported or even discussed in the original research. Another problem is the person citing the scientific data may form his or her own conclusions from the data, even if they are in direct conflict with those of the original researchers. The reality is that whenever scientific data is presented, you will not necessarily have all the information you need.

     Of course, when companies use scientific information in advertisements, they only show the information that supports their products or services and any conflicting data is withheld. People realize this happens, but seeing or hearing scientific data still influences the way we think about things, because scientific information is thought of as being more factual than other information. In many ways this is true, but only if the information is presented fairly and accurately.

     The simple truth is you can find scientific data to support practically any product or viewpoint, especially if you are not concerned about maintaining the integrity of the information. Some companies even hire researchers specifically to conduct studies that will support their products. In these situations, the researchers are motivated to create specific outcomes, so the research is biased and often inaccurate.

     Research is critical for the advancement of knowledge, but you really have to watch out for the questionable ways many health and fitness companies use this information. For example, advertisements often make statements like “the group using product A improved 3 times more than group using product B,” but the changes in both groups may be so small that they are inconsequential. Therefore, the fact that one group improved more than the other doesn’t suggest that product A is any better than product B, but the information is presented in a way that makes you think it is.

     This is just one of many examples of how scientific information is misused in health and fitness and it reinforces the point that you shouldn’t automatically accept scientific data as fact, especially when it is part of an advertisement or presentation. If you are interested in a product, it is best to look up some information on your own, ideally from sources other than the company selling the product. If other sources agree with the initial information, then you can be more confident that the science is sound and not just another case of data manipulation.

     The first tip is incredibly basic, but it is probably the most effective thing you can do to prevent overeating. That is, don’t keep foods around that you are likely to overeat. If there are foods that you know you cannot stop yourself from eating, then you should not buy them.

     It takes a lot of restraint and willpower to avoid overeating foods you like when they are readily available at home, but it takes much less effort to resist buying the food in the first place. When you are at the store, think about how likely you are to overeat the foods you buy and if you cannot resist an item, then put it back find a better substitute.

     Another thing to avoid is eating food out of a large bag or package. When people eat foods from a large container, such as a bag of chips or tub of ice cream, they tend to overeat. This is especially true when sitting down with the food and eating in front of the TV or while engaging in some other passive activity.

     During these situations, there is often no conscious thought about how much food is being consumed and eating continues out of habit, not because of hunger. Before the person realizes it, they may eat the whole package or at least much more than they intended to before they sat down with the food. Instead of taking the package, take one serving of the food and put the package away and out of sight.

      A related tip is to avoid having seconds during meals. The larger amounts of food you eat at one time, the more likely you will store extra calories as fat. Instead of having seconds during the meal, you can set a reasonable amount of the food aside and eat it for your next small meal 2-3 hours later.

      It is also a good idea to keep the prepared food away from your eating space. Instead of keeping all the food at the table, leave it on the counter or in some other location. Then you can prepare a plate for yourself before you sit down and not have the temptation of eating seconds right in front of you.

      The final tip is something that really makes all the other tips work even better and that is to eat using smaller plates. This is a great way to achieve instant portion control. Numerous studies have shown that when people use larger plates or bowls they also take larger portions and consume more calories¹. Switching from a 12 inch plate to a 10 or 8 inch plate can do wonders for preventing overeating.

      If you only eat two or three times a day, then and 8 inch plate will probably not be big enough to keep you satisfied, but if you eat the recommended five or six small meals a day, then 8 inch plates work just fine. Of course, this strategy only works if you are able to keep yourself from going back for more.

1. Wansink B, Cheney MM. Super Bowls: Serving Bowl Size and Food Consumption. JAMA. 2005;293:1727-1728.

     Resistance training is a very general term that covers a wide variety of activities including any type of exercise where your muscles have to overcome a resistance, regardless of the type of resistance used. Naturally, any activity that involves lifting weights is a form of resistance training, because the weights are the resistance, but weights are far from the only type of resistance.

     Resistance can also come in the form of bands or cables, medicine balls, etc. Even bodyweight exercises such as push-ups and squats are forms of resistance training, because in those exercises muscles have to overcome the weight of your body, so your body is the resistance.

     Technically, the term resistance training could be used to describe virtually every type of exercise, but most people do not classify sporting activities as resistance training, unless lifting weights is a primary component of the sport. To simplify things, other than traditional cardio exercises such as treadmill walking, virtually every exercise performed in a gym type setting is considered resistance training. 

     Bodybuilding is a term that people often use as another way of saying resistance training or lifting weights, but it actually refers to the competitive sport where contestants flex their muscles in a variety of poses and are judged on how their body looks. Bodybuilding has different weight classes and there are both amateur and professional events, with the Mr. Olympia Competition being the most prestigious event in the sport.

     Bodybuilders are judged on factors like the size of their muscles, definition (how much their muscles stand out / having minimal fat), and symmetry (proportion) of their body. People who participate in bodybuilding exercise specifically to improve the way their body looks, so they can earn higher scores in competition. Consequently, bodybuilders are concerned more about how their body looks and less about how it functions.

     This is one of the reasons bodybuilding training is very different than training to improve athletic performance or exercising for general health and fitness. By understanding the differences between resistance training, bodybuilding, and other fitness terms, people can better articulate their exercise goals and seek out the right training program to help them be successful.

     The first tip is simply to eat slowly. This is something most people realize they should do, but few people actually follow through with it. The key is that it can take about 20 minutes for your brain to realize that you have eaten enough to fulfill your body’s physiological need. This represents the amount of calories (energy) your body needs to function properly and it does not necessarily have to do with feeling full.

     When you eat slowly, it minimizes the number of extra calories you consume before your brain tells you that you have eaten enough, which is a big step in preventing overeating. This also leads to the important question of how do you know when you have eaten too much? This question has multiple answers, but the simple answer is that if you feel full then you ate too much. There are some exceptions, especially for people who consistently consume too few calories, but feeling full is almost always a sign of eating too much.

     A second tip to prevent overeating is to drink low calorie fluids, such as water or healthy teas. Even though these beverages do not contain calories, they still help you feel satisfied and are useful for preventing cravings and other negative hunger related feelings. Drinking a glass or two (8-16 ounces) of liquid during your meal also causes you to eat a little slower and further decreases the chance of overeating.

     The final tip, and perhaps the most important one, is to eat as soon as possible after you start feeling hungry. Hunger feelings are your body’s way of telling you that you need to consume more calories. Initially feelings of hunger are minor, but they typically increase as time goes on. If you eat before your hunger intensifies, the hunger signals generally go away rather quickly.

     On the other hand, the longer you wait to eat, the more you will feel compelled to eat once you finally do start eating and this leads to the consumption of large quantities of unnecessary calories. Some people think the best approach is to ignore their hunger altogether and skip meals, but this is an incredibly bad idea. It may lead to some initial short-term weight loss, but it really just results in slowing down your metabolism and making it harder to lose weight and easier to gain fat in the future.

     Ideally, your goal should be to eat when you just start feeling hungry and stop eating before you feel full. This can be a challenge, especially because so many people use the feeling of fullness as the sign to stop eating, but if you can stop before that point, it will greatly help prevent you from overeating. Plus, it leads to better overall health and long-term fat loss.