Do you ever wake up after the weekend feeling like you’ve gained 5lbs, bloated, and tired from all the of overeating and drinking? Or maybe you jumped on the scale and it’s gone up several pounds? This is not uncommon. But I am also here to tell you that you did not gain 5lbs in 1-2 days.

So get off the scale. It’s not going to help you. That emotional and mental stress will just add fuel to fire. Stress leads to jacking up your cortisol levels which will only magnify your cravings and water retention. Put fat burning and muscle building on the back burner.

Not only that, engaging in negative self-talk plus creating more “food rules” will only make your fitness journey harder and perpetuate the issue even more.

So take a deep breath, dust yourself off, and let’s get you feeling great, again. If you ate a ton of starch carbs, sugar and sodium and especially if you’re already eating a lower cal or even a low/lower carb diet, you will absolutely feel this.

With every gram of carb comes 3-4g of water, hence Carbo – hydrate. Carbohydrates, sodium, lack of water, hormones and not working out exercise can cause you to retain water and increase inflammation.

Here are simple tips to keep you moving forward:

1. Get rid of the negative self-talk. Don’t beat yourself up. Feeding and focusing your energy on how you “Screwed up” is not helpful for you. The longer you feed that negative mindset the longer it will have a hold on you.

2. Take a bath with Epsom salts. This will help you relax you, decompress, help with decreasing inflammation, toxins and water retention. Plus it’s a beautiful way to give self-care.

3. Eat potassium-rich foods. Potassium foods help balance sodium levels and increase urine production. Try adding in a few servings of these into your daily nutrition intake: avocados, bananas, and dark leafy greens,

4. Hydration. Not only will you have less water retention, if you’re not hydrating enough your body will actually hold onto more water. Especially if you’re drinking alcohol.

5. Get your sweat on. Don’t worry about doing a 2-hour workout. Make it short sweet and intense. Get back on the plan and to feeling great.

The best way to combat your mindset when you’re coming down on yourself for falling off-plan is to move your body. The movement will help you to shift your psychological and physiological state. Need a great workout for this

Check out the workout below for a great Metabolic workout:

1. Perform each exercise in a back to back fashion with little to no rest in between movements.
2. Once you have completed 1 circuit, immediately go back to exercise 1. Catch your breath and perform 4 additional rounds (5 total).
3. Record your time and try and beat it the next time you do this workout.
4. This is an intense workout so rest where you need to and modify if necessary.

Goblet Squats X 15

Push-ups X 10

Dumbbell Thrusters or Push Press x 10

Jump Squats (with or w/o weight) x 15

Renegade Rows X 20 (10 on each side)

30-sec skipping, knee highs, or sprints on the spot.

Jasmine Perks & Troy Brown

www.apexphysiques.ca