Trucker Fitness Archives - Page 17 of 17

7 Little Changes Drivers Can Make To Improve Their Health

There are changes every driver can make when it comes to improving their health.

Taking charge of your health no matter how you are and what you do can be daunting. But it doesn’t have to be. I have been helping individuals and companies make healthy changes for almost 20 years and just because your job take you over the road is no reason to feel that your health has to be left at home.

The ultimate goal of this is to get yourself fit and ready for every day. By maintaining this type of lifestyle, you ensure your health stays as well as possible while you start getting older. By focussing on your fitness, you’ll most definitely give yourself the most energy and efficiency you possibly can. This will not only be beneficial for your health but also your career and goals. When you start leading this healthy lifestyle, you’ll embrace a new love for life, this will get you waking up earlier working harder which will ultimately lead to more success.

Most of the time we over think the changes we can start making today. And as a trucker, over the road or not, I can imagine that your health can easily take a back seat to what is on the road in front of you.

Here are 7 little changes you can start to make today to start living life a bit on the healthier side of the road.

Park further away. I am certain someone has told you this before. But I am going to tell you this again. Park further away! When you pull in for the night, if it’s available, find the furtherest parking spot available that will make you have to walk a few extra steps into the truck stop. Those extra steps add up.
Drink up. Time is of the essence. But so is your health. And considering our bodies are primarily made up of water, it is best you start get to drinking. Water that is. You should be drinking half your body weight in ounces of water per day. And to help avoiding extra bathroom breaks, try getting up an hour earlier and start guzzling 10 ounces of water. Then an hour before you stop for break another 10 – 20 ounces. And then an hour before you unload and stop for the night…well you get the picture.
Do something while you are driving. Now please don’t take this the wrong way. Be safe! But what about a hand weight, or resistance band, or shoulder rolls, or something! Better yet, tune into Mother Trucker Yoga’s 42 minute audio track that guides you though simple movements you can do while driving!
Take a deep breath. Before you roll out of bed, take two minutes and breathe deeply. Your breath is the engine for your metabolism. Yet few look to this when it comes to getting healthy. Place one hand on your belly and one hand on your chest and just breathe as deeply and calmly as you can. Stress wrecks havoc on your body. Here’s one way to curb that. And try Mother Trucker Yoga’s audio track for better stress free breathing.
Container eating. Sounds silly I know. But portion control can be one way to help control what you put in your mouth. It’s easy to all of a sudden have eaten that entire bag of chips. Or even though it’s healthy, an entire plate of rice, veggies and chicken. Most people eat when they are not even truly hungry. Here is what I ask myself daily: “Hope, are you head hungry or really hungry?” Most people are head hungry and not truly looking for nutrition. Make sure you know the difference.
Add more movement in. I’m not saying you need to try to park your rig at a gym or yoga studio. But start to notice the moments in the day you have down time. The moments you are doing something, but nothing all at the same time. The moments you could be moving! Somehow moving. A stretch here, a squat there, it all adds up. And don’t forget to log into Mother Trucker Yoga’s online studio to get fit anytime, anywhere!
Finally, start to believe you can live healthier. Visualize yourself a healthier, happier you. I use to think that was silly. Visualizing myself that way, and writing it down. Now that was ridiculous. But when asking people who have made big changes in their lives what they all did. The one thing they all have in common is they visualized themselves already there and they wrote it down. So, if anything, today, start here.

Don’t over complicate health. And believe that you can feel better than what you do now. But you, yes you have to make the first step.

The first step is usually the hardest, and after that, well that is why Mother Trucker Yoga is here. We got your back!

5 Reason Truckers Need A Food & Fitness Journal

When is the last time you saw someone advertising to a truck driver to keep a food journal?

Have you ever kept a food journal?

Have you ever tracked what you eat, when, and in what quantities?

You might be surprised to find that most Americans eat more than what their brain cares to remember.

Some of you may or may not know, but I found yoga as a means to step into recovery from a long battle with an eating disorder. One that I was told, best case scenario is I would “learn to function in the world on medication.” But something in me said that would not be my future.

Having a food and fitness journal helped me establish a healthier relationship with food, fitness and myself. I used food to not have to deal or feel with anything in life. Maybe you can relate better to the word numb. I wanted to be numb.

But if you want to change anything, and I mean ANYTHING, you must first be aware of it. Aware of what it is you desire to change. And then be willing to step back from your excuses and loaded reasons as to why you are the way you are (be them true or not) and see things as they actually are.

I have worked with thousands of people over the last nearly 20 years and trucker or not, most of us have a skewed perception of what and how much we really eat and do over the course of a day.

Drinking that Diet Coke and Monster at 10 AM every day is so automatic that you most days forget you even do it. But when you don’t have it. Watch out world, things might get ugly.

And when it comes to moving more (some call it fitness or exercise), well we all know the response. I’m to BLANK. Or I do move a lot (except it’s only in small bursts one to two times a day straight off of sitting for several hours behind the wheel.

So what is the benefit of keeping a food and fitness journal?

Well, its really quite simple.

Eating is for fueling, not feeling.

When you track what you eat. How much you eat. Alongside how you are feeling or why you are eating what you are eating. It is important to point out that food does not fix how we feel-talking from experience. And many of us are eating out of boredom, loneliness, oral fixation, sadness and so on. And when we can see on a piece of paper right in front of us what is really going into our mouths only then can we start to do something about it. And when you tie in how you are feeling, well Dr. Phil we may have just found a very important piece to the puzzle.

It is easier to create a plan when you have data.

Trucker Food Journal

Have you ever tried to plan a route to get your load from point A to point B but it’s your first time running the load? So that initial time feels like a shot in the dark.

Hoping things go smoothly.

Hoping there are no delays.

Hoping you didn’t miss or forget something.

And because you have no real data to compare to, it’s shot in the dark. It’s only after you run the load that you gather data and then for future loads you can become more and more effective. Food and fitness are no different. Journaling (logging) what you eat and how much you move daily, as much of a pain in the ass as it may seem will only help you be more effective in the changes you desire to make. Those shots in the dark can easily become frustrating. And what if some of the changes you decided to implement weren’t even necessary? And could have been avoided having first collected data. AKA what you ate, and how much you moved in real time.

Fitness really can be at your finger tips. It really can be. It’s available to you each and every day. Except you and everyone else struggling with working out. Is just that, only looking at fitness as exercise. Hitting the gym, heading to a yoga studio or dying as you try to keep up with a P90X video that seems to have skipped absolute beginner mode. And if you are still wondering what yoga can do for you here are 60 benefits for truckers to read up on.

Fitness to me should be an equation incorporating your every day life movements.

Downward Dog Stretch while filling up with fuel + Core Marching while in the drivers seat waiting to unload + wrist stretches while driving + ANYTHING else you can throw in there = WAY more than you would be doing otherwise!

The little things can easily go unnoticed.

Three little packs of ketchup (sugar) here, sugar added to your coffee over there. Sweetened Ice-Tea at 2 PM, and on it goes. All those little things DO ADD UP! And all those little things are usually packed with sugar, preservatives, and you just don’t need it. Let me say that again. You just don’t need it. You want it, it’s a habit, extra ketchup, mayo, sugar, sweetener, and now your body craves it because it’s addicted to it.

But trust me when I say the world will keep turning when you opt out. But in order to opt out, you have to have a true sense of of much you are opting in on those condiments in the first place. So say hello to your food journal. How many ketchup packets, how many sugars, how large is the sweetened ice-tea and what are you feeling when you reach for them?

You might be doing better than you think.

When I talk to people about how much they are moving and what they are eating it is not uncommon to have a slightly slanted view of how good you really are doing. It’s easy to let the few not so great choices cloud our vision of success (talking from experience). Writing down everything can help you gain a better sense of where you truly are in your journey. Trust me when I say lying to yourself will not get you anywhere. And it is vital to celebrate the little wins, and acknowledge what you are doing right.

It is easy to want everything to change tomorrow and when it doesn’t we can easily get frustrated. But let’s be real for a moment and say where you are, and how you are did not happen over night. When I was going through the early stages of recovery I would have a slip up or bad day and think I just suck, and am doing everything wrong. But I had learned how to live this way over the course of 10 + years. So it was unrealistic to allow myself to think that I would be all good in a week, a month, even a year. And to be really honest, it’s been 15 years and and I am STILL working on things. Layer by layer.

Where to start.

Where to start? Seriously, where to start? Overwhelm can easily set in and before we know it we are complaining to our friends that this and that, and the other thing just aren’t working. Maybe it’s because you never really, truly laid out a plan. You never really figured out where to start because you never really stopped and took a week to figure out where you are.

This is a big mistake I see many people make. keeping a food and fitness journal can help you create a clear focus of where you truly are. But you have to be truthful and honest with what you write down, and don’t miss a thing. The will be a part of your brain that will say “this is dumb”, “just give up”, “you don’t need this”. My advice: “throw down some cuss words and do it anyway”. (that was my humor again). You got this. You really do.

So now what?

Well, you start to write it ALL DOWN! EVERYTHING. Don’t miss a thing!

For how long?

No less than three days, but ideally an entire week! And don’t forget to write down what you are feeling as well.

Here is a quick cliff notes sheet of everything to write down in your food and fitness journal:

Date
Time
Feeling/Emotion Connected
Are you truly hungry
What did you eat
How much did you eat
Movement: when, how long, how you feel

And most importantly, go easy on yourself. This is day one, step one on your journey to a healthier and happier you. And if anyone gives you grief. Just have them answer to me!

Here are a few suggestions for paper and pen food and fitness journals that could help get you started.

Not a paper and pen kinda person? Try texting to yourself your data. Look for an app. Whatever method you decide, commit and be honest. Because tracking your food and fitness in a journal is step one. And if you can do this, you and I, my friend, can do anything!

Trucker Fitness: Expectations vs. Reality

Trucker Fitness

Trucker Fitness: Expectations vs. Reality IS something that needs to be discussed because it IS tricky to stay fit and healthy while on the road. But with a little planning ANYONE, can improve their over the road lifestyle.

Now lets be clear: I am not a trucker. But I have had the privilege of working with drivers over the last fifteen plus years locally in my Wisconsin yoga studio. And now hundreds of drivers through Mother Trucker Yoga.

And as someone who does travel quite a bit, fitness on the go has to be a priority or, it can fall to the bottom of the list quickly.

Fitness first.

Let me say that again: fitness first.

I don’t care how old you are, how stiff, overweight, arthritic , what your gender, skin color or what brand of truck you drive. Fitness first.

And to be even more clear: Fitness does not mean you have to be the most fit. And it surely does not mean you have to chisel out 60 consecutive minutes each day to qualify for such a badge.

When many hear “fitness” they instantly think long workouts, classes, and getting to the gym. But for most drivers that is not reality.

Reality is, you if you are a driver, then… wait for it… you are driving for most, if not all of the day or all night.

But wedged in between tough traffic and arranging your load are small bouts of time where you CAN insert fitness.

Yes! You, the one who rolled your eyes at the sight of my website titled: Mother Trucker Yoga, but were intrigued enough to read on CAN be fit while being a truck driver.

I’ve done a lot of research, I mean a LOT of research when it comes to fitness, and what I call everyday functional fitness. Meaning: movements that make sense for your life and lifestyle and enhance your abilities to keep doing what you love and assist in you living life.

So that means for you- AKA the truck driver, that trucker fitness IS a reality and can be achieved. If you are open minded enough to start to make some small yet powerful changes to your every day life.

Exercises for Truck Drivers (small changes you can make to improve your health):

Stretching your fingers and wrists against the steering wheel to help combat tightness and arthritis in those very necessary joints.
Twisting your entire spine on purpose when reaching for your seat belt and buckling up- because it’s the law.
Stepping up into your rig, and instead of doing those two steps just once and in. Creating your own stair climber and for a minute straight stepping up and down as quick and safely as you can.
Filling up with fuel and down dogging it like no one is watching (like the Half Dog pictured below). And if they are… Asking them to join.

These are just a few ways you can create a reality around fitness for YOUR lifestyle.

When I dove deep into research on yoga and fitness for truckers I found a few videos with someone standing next to a truck doing push ups or jumping rope. And for the one app I downloaded, it was again someone doing jumping jacks next to a big rig, toe touches and then a few demonstrations of sit ups. That with all my research on core health, I wanted to come through the phone and offer some tips on how to safely and more effectively work your core.

Today, I want you to not over think fitness. Consider what you can insert into your already busy day. What moments (and that is all it takes) do you have that you can make a conscious effort to insert a quick move here or there.

Mother Trucker Yoga’s whole premise is 3 – 5 minute EASY moves explained for the drivers body for a move that make sense and you can feel the difference with. Why? So you can keep doing what you love with less pain.

So don’t be distracted by someone telling you you NEED 60 minutes of exercise daily. And what they mean is hitting the gym for 60 straight minutes.

What I’m telling you today is if you add a move here, and a move there and a few moves at the end of the day right inside your rig. You WILL feel the difference! And as a result start to make more positive changes to your life.

Because every little movement adds up! And we are meant to move. Not just once a day for 60 minutes. But all day long. And Mother Trucker Yoga is here to show you that it CAN be done! And currently truckers all over the US are incorporating this very idea into their day with BIG results.

So what is one move, one thing you can add to your day today?

What one move?

For just a few minutes?

Master that move.

And before you know it, fitness will become a reality.

7 Little Changes Drivers Can Make To Improve Their Health

You May Also Like

5 Reason Truckers Need A Food & Fitness Journal

Eating is for fueling, not feeling.

It is easier to create a plan when you have data.

The little things can easily go unnoticed.

You might be doing better than you think.

Where to start.

Here is a quick cliff notes sheet of everything to write down in your food and fitness journal:

You May Also Like

Trucker Fitness: Expectations vs. Reality

Fitness first.

Exercises for Truck Drivers (small changes you can make to improve your health):

These are just a few ways you can create a reality around fitness for YOUR lifestyle.

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