Rules on the Road

The new year is here and most of us have laid out some goals. If you haven't, you've been lazy and you need to get with the program. Don't set resolutions, though. Set goals. But that's a different topic for a different day. More on that later. 

So you've got your new goal. But there's some reality we all have to face. That reality is what we call life. Kids, family, meetings, the 9-5, plans with friends who don't understand fitness, etc.

One of the biggest problems we seem to face, though, is traveling. We have people to see and places to be. I'm willing to bet that you're stressing out just by reading this tiny portion of my article. Not to worry, I have a list of the five items for you that will help you out while you're on the road!

1. Get Your Mind Right

Before I get into the rest of this list, I want to make sure that you understand what you're getting into. One of the most common things I hear about is an unwillingness to eat something that hasn't been prepared by a chef at a five-star restaurant. Here's the truth, without coating it in sugar: your meals that you eat on the road won't be the tastiest you've ever had. Sometimes, they may not even be solid meals because a smoothie is all you could pack with you. Eating on the road isn't about fine dining. It's about prioritizing your macros and sticking to what you set out to do. After all, your goal wasn't to give your tastebuds the best year of their lives, was it? Didn't think so. So, if you're willing to substitute a five-star dish for chicken, rice, and steamed veggies, keep reading. If you're too soft to prioritize your goals, then stop reading and continue on with your day. 

2. Plan in Advance

Since we all have seemingly busy lives, we have schedules to keep us on track. Most of the time, you know where you're going to be a few days in advance at the least. I know some people who have meetings set months in advance. Either way, you're prepared for the day ahead of you. You should know where you need to be at what time, and how much time you have in between each appointment. So what do you do with that? You think ahead with your food as well. Take a look at your schedule for tomorrow. Find out where you have spaces in your day to eat the clean meals you have prepared. Do you have 30-minute breaks at 9, 12, 2 and 5 for example? Make four meals for the day, and divide your macros around those meals, depending on when your workouts are. Give it a try for one day and see how it goes. Prepare four meals (or whatever you need to get your macros in) and go about your day. You'll be shocked at how much easier your day will be due to the absence of food stress. 

3. Pack a Cooler

If you don't have some sort of sweet cooler with all the bells and whistles, then you need to get one. I'm all about living under your means and being frugal, but if your health is in consideration, then spend a little extra. You're going to need something big, and something that keeps your things cold or warm for a long time. This is an essential when it comes to meal prep and accommodating your schedule. Which cooler should you get, though? I recommend these:

Innovator Insulated Meal Management Bag, Black, 300 (3 Meals)

I've got one myself and it saves me every time I'm on the road. 

4. Prioritize Protein

I don't want to de-prioritize carbs and fats too much, but if you've been following me for a while, you know that i'm all about building and preserving muscle as much as possible. Muscle is essential for fat loss, and for turning heads. Whether you're a guy who wants to be jacked, or a girl that wants to build a booty, you need muscle. In order to build and preserve that muscle while you're on the road, you need to prioritize protein. No matter what, you must have enough protein to meet your macros. Before anything else, make sure your protein goals will be met for the day. If you slack on your protein, you slack on your muscle building. Plain and simple. It surprises me how much people struggle with protein, it's too easy to get what you need if you're willing to make the sacrifices. Didn't meal prep? Not to worry, some microwavable rice, veggies, and canned tuna with a sauce of your choice should do the trick. Doesn't sound good? Too bad, so sad. Your muscles won't recognize the taste so suck it up. Refuse to eat the tuna? Then don't forget to prep and you can have all the seasoned chicken, turkey, beef, or any other meat you want. Stuck with 20 grams of protein left but you already ate your meals? Hit a gas station on the side of the road for a pre-made protein drink or protein bar. That brings me to number five.

5. Blend it Up

Although not recommended 100% of the time, one of the easiest ways to meet your macros is to blend them all up in a smoothie. I believe it's best to get most of your protein from real food sources rather than whey protein, but sometimes you're S.O.L. When you've got no other choice, say you're out of chicken to cook for your last meal of the last day of the week, it's fine. Don't panic. Here's an easy fix: find your protein and carb or protein and fat and blend it up. I do this every single day for my post-workout shake since i'm usually headed to meetings right after I train. Need a protein and carb? Easy. 100% whey protein powder, banana, and oats. I usually blend it with water and it tastes great depending on what protein you have. You can always use any sort of milk too. Careful with the almond and coconut milk, though. We don't want too many grams of fat with those carbs and vice versa. What about a protein and fat? Now we can get creative. 100% whey protein powder, milk, avocado, and coconut shavings. I promise you, it's sooooo good. Another option would be protein powder, milk, and peanut butter! There are endless possibilities when it comes to smoothies. You can also get your greens in a powder form and put them in there too!

So whether you're on the road 24/7, or just constantly running from meeting to meeting, these five steps will help you reach your goals. But remember, a willingness to make sacrifices must come first. The rest is a cake walk. 

Before you go, share this with your community! I'd be willing to bet that a friend or two of yours could use some help this too. And when you need some help planning your meals and macros with your crazy schedule, reach out to me and I'd be glad to help you. I'm in the service business and I'm here to serve you! You can get ahold of me by email (adam@poehlmannfitness.com) or reach out to me on any of these platforms:

As always, thank you for reading!

"Most people adapt to their environment more quickly than they should. They adjust themselves to the situation rather than adjusting their situation to the dreams they have inside." - Unknown

Macros Matter

After years spent in the fitness industry training clients both in person and online, i've discovered that there are a lot of universal patterns between the two. Yeah, both involve weight training. Yeah, both involve cardio and stretching too but that's not what I'm talking about. The universal patterns I speak of are excuses. 

One thing you won't hear me say often is that excuses are valid. I am a firm believer in the cliche saying "If there's a will, there's a way." That's exactly why it's cliche, because it's real. Although I can be a stickler for whining and creating your own problems, there are three words that I commonly hear from people in the health and fitness industry. Most of the excuses I hear begin with these words: "I don't know."

"I am struggling in the kitchen because I don't know what to eat."

"I feel like I keep gaining weight because I don't know how much I should eat."

"I don't know how much protein to eat."

The list goes on and on.

With all of the resources we have today, I would normally say that that excuse isn't valid. It's not real. But I've been wrestling with that thought lately. There is so much information out there. How are you supposed to know what's right and what isn't? What fits your needs most? The more questions I ask, the more I understand the frustration with not knowing. 

So you don't know what you need to be eating, and how much. What do you do? Here's my professional advice: figure out your macros. If you don't know what macros are, we've discovered the root of your struggles. Macronutrients are proteins, fats, and carbs. These are the three major things you need to pay attention to in your food. If you're not tracking these, you need to start NOW. 

But how much? How many grams of carbs, fats, and protein should you be eating daily? Well it depends on a few things: 

1. Is it a training day? Carbs will be higher and fats are lower on these days.

2. Is it a rest day? Fats are higher and carbs are lower on these days.

3. What's your goal? Are you building muscle, burning fat, recomposing, maintaining? 

There are TONS of resources for calculating your macronutrient and calorie needs, but all of them use different formulas so how are you supposed to know what's right? Well, I'll strike a deal with you. Send me an email (adam@poehlmannfitness.com), and I'll help you set your macro goals. Now you don't have any excuse to not know what you should be eating and how much.

But, why macros? Can't you just count your calories?

NO. Only counting calories will lead you down a dark path. I don't mean a dark path of poor moral decisions. I mean a path that is literally dark. You won't be able to see two feet in front of you. Imagine your fitness goal is a dart board, and it's pitch black and you're throwing from 60 feet away. Good luck with that. That dart won't come anywhere near the bullseye and neither will you to your goal. 

Tracking your macros will help you do the following:

1. Manage your food intake on a daily basis. No more freaking out!

2. Teach you more about food and how it works with you body and your goals. You'll know the WHY behind what you're eating. Why>what. Always. You'll be your own nutritionist before you know it. 

3. You'll be able to live and live well more than ever before. When you go out to eat, you'll be able to look at a menu and understand what you need to order. If it's a training day, you'll understand that you need to order something with chicken and rice over carne asada with an avocado. 

Knowledge is power, and I'm giving you the opportunity to have this knowledge. Don't be a dummy. Take advantage and let me help.

For more info regarding nutrition and macros. Follow me and subscribe to the Poehlmann Fitness YouTube channel!

Thanks for reading!

What's Your Escape?

Today's blog is short, but holds a lot of value.

Something I've been thinking a lot about lately is chaos. The chaos of our lives is incredible these days. Not to mention the busyness of the holidays. There are friends coming and going, tension between family members, and seemingly too much to do in the 24-hour day. Eventually we get to a boiling point. We've bottled in all of our emotions, and we begin to carry an unbelievable amount of tension with us everywhere we go. I'd love to go into the details of how this throws off our hormone balance, ability to sleep, burn fat, so on and so forth, but I just want to stay focused on the mental and emotional side of things. Anyway, this incredible amount of tension that we carry begins to affect our relationships, our perspective, and eventually our happiness. 

So what do we do? Get away. Now hear me out. I can already imagine some of you thinking "how can I get away? I spent $500 on my kid's dumb Christmas present. I don' have the cash to get away right now." Relax. There are plenty of ways you can get away.

The power of the mind is a beautiful thing. We are able to process detailed information one minute, and completely zone out and live in la-la land the next. When I say that we need to get away, I mean that we need to get away mentally. That doesn't mean you have to drop $500 on a ticket to some island and lay on a beach chair for two weeks. That's just called running away from your problems. What we need to do is find our escape, and that's different for all of us. For my friend Steven, his escape is video games. He can forget about the rest of the world when he as the controller in his hand. That doesn't work for me. I can forget about the world surrounding me, but I suck so bad at video games that I make myself even more stressed than I was in the first place. For some, an escape is walking a trail next to their house. They can just walk and let their mind wander. Maybe it's reading, hiking, or even sitting with a close friend and just talking their ear off. If you can let your mind release all of your tension, it's your escape. For me, I have several escapes. Some include physically leaving an area for a day or two, and others include closing my eyes and just letting my mind run. In the summer, if I'm feeling overwhelmed, I'll grab a couple of buddies and head up to the mountains for a couple of days. Nothing is more peaceful than falling asleep to the sound of the river in the middle of a forest. In the winter, it's the 5 minute chair lift on the ski slopes. I value that time so much. My point is this: the possibilities for you to let your tensions go are endless. Don't set your happiness aside just because you can't buy a ticket to a warm vacation.

What's your escape? You MUST take care of your mind. You won't know how to take care of your body if your mental health is falling behind. 

For more insight on improving the mental side of things, give me a follow and subscribe to my YouTube channel!

Thanks for reading!