The time of year for fitness excuses is here... December is probably the worst time of year where most people use excuse after excuse as to why they are letting themselves get fat and out of shape during "the holidays".
So with this post, I just want to give you some tips and motivation to do the opposite of what most people are going to do this december, and get yourself in BETTER shape during this busy season. This doesn't mean that you have to deprive yourself of anything during your parties with friends and family, but it DOES mean that you have to be sensible and stick to your fitness and nutrition plan when you're not in party mode.
First, the biggest excuse I've heard over the many years I've been doing fitness counseling is that they don't "have any time" to keep working out during the holidays.
Ok, I know we all may have a lot of family gatherings and holiday parties to go to during this time, but saying that you don't have time to keep yourself in shape is basically admitting that your health and fitness is not a priority in your life. If it was a priority, you'd make time.
So let's commit to a pact that we will not use the lack of time excuse this holiday season. Instead, if there are days that you don't feel that you have time to go to the gym for a full workout, schedule a 15 minute workout in for yourself at least 4 days/week either before or after work, or at whatever time you can fit in a 15 minute workout at home.
Anybody can fit in 15 minutes... that's all it takes. However, those 15 minutes need to be full of high intensity exercises that work your entire body. Even doing just some bodyweight circuits at home can keep you in great shape.
For example, you can rotate through 5 or 6 exercises such as lunges, bodyweight squats, pushups, mountain climbers, and lying leg thrusts in a circuit fashion, alternating between them for as many sets as you can do in that 15 minute time period.
If you work hard enough, you can get a great full body workout in only 15 minutes and then be ready to go for whatever holiday activities are on your schedule.
The second biggest excuse I've heard over the years from many people during the holidays is that there's no way they can control their eating during this time of year with parties and gatherings with all of the delicious food being offered everywhere. What many people have told me is that the 5 or 6 weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years every year is just one massive free-for-all bingefest for them.
This doesn't make any sense though. For example, even if you were extremely busy with parties and gatherings and let's say you have 8 parties/gatherings to go to during these 5 weeks, that is still only 8 days out of 35 that you're going to be surrounded by party food for only a small time each day.
This means that if you're still eating super-healthy during the 27 other days and also during the other time available on the party days, you can easily still have at least 90% compliance with your healthy diet. If you can have 90% compliance, it is quite easy to stay lean instead of packing on the lbs during the holidays.
The important thing to keep reminding yourself is that the ONLY time you are going to cheat is during the parties and gatherings and not before, after, or for entire weeks at a time.
One thing I like to do if I know I'll be going to a holiday party or big meal is that I plan to get in a great weight training workout within a few hours (if possible) before going to the party. This way I know that my metabolism is already elevated from the weight training and some of the excess calories that I may consume can help towards muscle repair and glycogen replenishment instead of being deposited as body fat.
So I hope this post has helped to make sure that you stay on track with your fitness during the holidays. There are NO EXCUSES. There's no reason at all to wait until January to start on your fitness program, when it should really be a part of your everyday lifestyle.
Here's to getting in BETTER SHAPE, instead of worse this December!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
holiday alcohol choices
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The 5 Best and 5 Worst Cocktails
Across the board, studies keep telling us that a bit of alcohol in your diet enhances health and lengthens life span. But last time you hit the bar, you woke up feeling like someone was using a rototiller on your brain, leaving you to wonder, "How can this have been good for me?"
The truth is—it isn't. A hangover means you've done damage that needs to be reversed. Unfortunately, a common remedy is a greasy meal, which further damages your system and hinders all weight loss plans. But there's no doubt that a drink every now and then can help lift your spirits and diminish stress. But all cocktails are not created equal. Just like making smart choices with the foods you eat, imbibing with a plan can be the difference between extending your life and getting to know your Domino's guy on a first-name basis.
The Best
Red wine. Much has been written about its high antioxidant content and how wine drinkers are the healthiest sect of those who imbibe regularly. The difference between red and white wines is the grapes' skins. Whites don't have 'em, and they also contain more residual sugar, and sugar and alcohol is a bad combination.
Downside . . . The sulfates in red wine affect many people poorly, often leading to an inability to sleep. And if you can't sleep, you're offsetting all of the positive effects.
Light beer. Beer is a blend of barley and hops and, essentially, fairly healthy. It has some food value and its alcohol content is low. Light beer has about a third fewer calories than regular beer; a bottle generally contains less than 100. It's not a terrible snack by any means.
Downside . . . It's hard to drink just one. Because it's mainly water, it's not uncommon to see light beer drinkers wielding a 12-pack after work and 1,200 calories of beer will ruin anyone's diet.
Guinness stout. In Ireland, the saying goes that Guinness is food. And, sure enough, it tastes like it. Thick, rich, and syrupy, one Guinness can feel as satisfying as a case of Bud Light. However, it's not all that high in calories or alcohol and has a high iron count.
Downside . . . It can be addicting. When one doesn't do the trick anymore, you can quickly pile on calories. "Food" as it may be, most of beer's calories still comes from alcohol.
Top-shelf alcohol of any kind. Straight, on the rocks, or with water. The means of producing hard alcohol ensure that you're getting what you pay for. Cheap stuff isn't made with a high-quality distillation process, leaving it with all sorts of impurities and a taste that renders its main use to be mixed with non-alcoholic, and usually highly caloric, substances. Top-shelf stuff, whether it's bourbon, vodka, or even rum, is made to be consumed alone, or with water. Slowly savoring your drink is a great way to make sure that you don't overdo it. Cost is another. It's much better to slowly relish a glass of Blanton's than to power down a fifth of Old Granddad and Coke.
Downside . . . The cost of providing for your top-shelf-only habit could lead to enough extra stress down at the office to offset the stress you're relieving with your drink.
Vodka soda. Vodka is the purest of the hard alcohols and soda is mainly water. Add a couple of limes and you've got a clean and refreshing cocktail with very few calories.
Downside . . . It's so clean and refreshing, it's hard to be restrained. If you have four of these, you might as well have just had that strawberry margarita you wanted in the first place.
The Worst
Scorpion. Or just about anything you'll find at the Kon Tiki, Trader Vic's, or any place where drink is referred to as "grog." If there's anything worse than mixing a lot of sugar-based alcohols together, it's mixing them with a bunch of sugary juices in a bowl that's big enough for six. Drink one of these and be prepared to skip the entire drunken process and head straight to the hangover.
Long Island Iced Tea. Forget the word "tea." There are no antioxidants to be found in this concoction of five different alcohols, sweet and sour mix, and Coke. A few of these and you might as well put in a wake-up call to Domino's.
Red Bull and vodka. If you want to be a supercharged drunk, here ya go. One of the main offenders of the hangover is your inability to sleep well after a night on the town. Nothing enhances the chance of seeing dawn's early light like a couple of these. The only positive is that maybe you'll dance all night and work off the calories. Hopefully, you don't have to work the next day.
Jack and Coke. You might as well just mainline your whiskey. Nothing's better than Coke at creating a sugar rush. Adding alcohol to this mix creates the perfect atmosphere for a bar fight. The only saving grace is that being drunk impairs your reflexes. Losing a couple of late-night melees could lead to some restraint.
Piña Colada. The only thing more densely caloric than alcohol is fat and this baby combines the two, along with all the sugar you need to guarantee a hangover. The result is a virtually nutrition-free milk shake that contains half of your daily caloric requirement. The only possible bright side is that you're only likely to feel comfortable drinking one of these on an island where you have ample opportunity to shed the pounds you gained the night before.
The 5 Best and 5 Worst Cocktails
Across the board, studies keep telling us that a bit of alcohol in your diet enhances health and lengthens life span. But last time you hit the bar, you woke up feeling like someone was using a rototiller on your brain, leaving you to wonder, "How can this have been good for me?"
The truth is—it isn't. A hangover means you've done damage that needs to be reversed. Unfortunately, a common remedy is a greasy meal, which further damages your system and hinders all weight loss plans. But there's no doubt that a drink every now and then can help lift your spirits and diminish stress. But all cocktails are not created equal. Just like making smart choices with the foods you eat, imbibing with a plan can be the difference between extending your life and getting to know your Domino's guy on a first-name basis.
The Best
Red wine. Much has been written about its high antioxidant content and how wine drinkers are the healthiest sect of those who imbibe regularly. The difference between red and white wines is the grapes' skins. Whites don't have 'em, and they also contain more residual sugar, and sugar and alcohol is a bad combination.
Downside . . . The sulfates in red wine affect many people poorly, often leading to an inability to sleep. And if you can't sleep, you're offsetting all of the positive effects.
Light beer. Beer is a blend of barley and hops and, essentially, fairly healthy. It has some food value and its alcohol content is low. Light beer has about a third fewer calories than regular beer; a bottle generally contains less than 100. It's not a terrible snack by any means.
Downside . . . It's hard to drink just one. Because it's mainly water, it's not uncommon to see light beer drinkers wielding a 12-pack after work and 1,200 calories of beer will ruin anyone's diet.
Guinness stout. In Ireland, the saying goes that Guinness is food. And, sure enough, it tastes like it. Thick, rich, and syrupy, one Guinness can feel as satisfying as a case of Bud Light. However, it's not all that high in calories or alcohol and has a high iron count.
Downside . . . It can be addicting. When one doesn't do the trick anymore, you can quickly pile on calories. "Food" as it may be, most of beer's calories still comes from alcohol.
Top-shelf alcohol of any kind. Straight, on the rocks, or with water. The means of producing hard alcohol ensure that you're getting what you pay for. Cheap stuff isn't made with a high-quality distillation process, leaving it with all sorts of impurities and a taste that renders its main use to be mixed with non-alcoholic, and usually highly caloric, substances. Top-shelf stuff, whether it's bourbon, vodka, or even rum, is made to be consumed alone, or with water. Slowly savoring your drink is a great way to make sure that you don't overdo it. Cost is another. It's much better to slowly relish a glass of Blanton's than to power down a fifth of Old Granddad and Coke.
Downside . . . The cost of providing for your top-shelf-only habit could lead to enough extra stress down at the office to offset the stress you're relieving with your drink.
Vodka soda. Vodka is the purest of the hard alcohols and soda is mainly water. Add a couple of limes and you've got a clean and refreshing cocktail with very few calories.
Downside . . . It's so clean and refreshing, it's hard to be restrained. If you have four of these, you might as well have just had that strawberry margarita you wanted in the first place.
The Worst
Scorpion. Or just about anything you'll find at the Kon Tiki, Trader Vic's, or any place where drink is referred to as "grog." If there's anything worse than mixing a lot of sugar-based alcohols together, it's mixing them with a bunch of sugary juices in a bowl that's big enough for six. Drink one of these and be prepared to skip the entire drunken process and head straight to the hangover.
Long Island Iced Tea. Forget the word "tea." There are no antioxidants to be found in this concoction of five different alcohols, sweet and sour mix, and Coke. A few of these and you might as well put in a wake-up call to Domino's.
Red Bull and vodka. If you want to be a supercharged drunk, here ya go. One of the main offenders of the hangover is your inability to sleep well after a night on the town. Nothing enhances the chance of seeing dawn's early light like a couple of these. The only positive is that maybe you'll dance all night and work off the calories. Hopefully, you don't have to work the next day.
Jack and Coke. You might as well just mainline your whiskey. Nothing's better than Coke at creating a sugar rush. Adding alcohol to this mix creates the perfect atmosphere for a bar fight. The only saving grace is that being drunk impairs your reflexes. Losing a couple of late-night melees could lead to some restraint.
Piña Colada. The only thing more densely caloric than alcohol is fat and this baby combines the two, along with all the sugar you need to guarantee a hangover. The result is a virtually nutrition-free milk shake that contains half of your daily caloric requirement. The only possible bright side is that you're only likely to feel comfortable drinking one of these on an island where you have ample opportunity to shed the pounds you gained the night before.
Monday, November 3, 2008
pre-holiday goal setting
Set some compelling training and fitness goals before the holidays.
Don't wait until January 1st to set your goals just because you think
it will be harder to achieve them over the holidays. On the contrary,
studies have shown that you'll reach 80% of the goals you put onto
paper. The problem is that few people set any goals at all, and fewer
still set them before and during the holidays.
Why wait? Why not do it now? Set some big goals that you can start
working on before the holidays:
Set a goal to lose the 10 lbs you've always wanted to lose, NOW.
Set the goal to be able to gain 5 pounds of lean, fat-burning muscle, or
lose 3 inches off your waist, NOW.
Have you always wanted to do a triathlon or run a 10K race or marathon. Pick an
early spring race and GO FOR IT - START TRAINING NOW! Maybe you are planning a winter holiday and need to firm up for the beach!
Goal setting should not be a once a year affair, it should be a continuous
process. You should always have your goals in writing and your list should
be regularly updated and rewritten. If you only set goals once a year,
you'll never get around to accomplishing much.
So don't be lazy....be lean!
Don't wait until January 1st to set your goals just because you think
it will be harder to achieve them over the holidays. On the contrary,
studies have shown that you'll reach 80% of the goals you put onto
paper. The problem is that few people set any goals at all, and fewer
still set them before and during the holidays.
Why wait? Why not do it now? Set some big goals that you can start
working on before the holidays:
Set a goal to lose the 10 lbs you've always wanted to lose, NOW.
Set the goal to be able to gain 5 pounds of lean, fat-burning muscle, or
lose 3 inches off your waist, NOW.
Have you always wanted to do a triathlon or run a 10K race or marathon. Pick an
early spring race and GO FOR IT - START TRAINING NOW! Maybe you are planning a winter holiday and need to firm up for the beach!
Goal setting should not be a once a year affair, it should be a continuous
process. You should always have your goals in writing and your list should
be regularly updated and rewritten. If you only set goals once a year,
you'll never get around to accomplishing much.
So don't be lazy....be lean!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
8 Fitness Myths
8 Misleading Fitness "Facts"
When it comes to our well-being, not much pricks up our ears like the word miracle. But when referring to health and fitness, the word miracle is generally synonymous with the word scam. That is unless finding yourself suddenly motivated to exercise and eat better is something you would consider a miracle. Other than that, miracles don't exist.
At Pro-Fitness Training, we're always on the lookout for the next great thing. We analyze every diet, every workout, and every medical breakthrough that promises to reverse the obesity epidemic and make the real world look like, well, the set of The Real World. What we find, without fail, is that the only "miracle" breakthroughs are those that expand on what we already know—that only through exercise and diet will you effectively change your body and your health for good. Let's take a look at eight marketing miracles that fail to do much more considered miraculous than make their creators rich. We'll interpret each one and then let you know how each claim may have a positive effect on your life.
You can get thin with a supplement. One of the most common questions we get is whether or not our programs will work without the supplements. Given how many claims there are about miracle cures involving a pill, this question makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that when we tell people that diet and exercise are the major components of our programs, they often become skeptical. We've been led to believe by advertisers that the reason we're overweight or out of shape is because there's a secret ingredient in some supplement that we've been missing. This, to put it a noninflammatory way, is not how it works. The obesity epidemic is the result of two rather simple numbers: we eat about 5 percent more calories than we once did, and we exercise about 20 percent less.
This in no way means that supplements are worthless. While there are many shady supplement manufacturers in the marketplace, the reason that we have supplements at all is because they can be effective in keeping us healthy. The use of supplements goes back thousands of years. Traditional medicines were the original supplements. There have been many advancements in the modern world, but basically, those same herbs and nutrients that aided people's health once upon a time have the same effects today. But they weren't miracle cures in the old days, and they still aren't. This is the reason we refer to our programs as being supplement-assisted exercises.
Medicine can make you healthy. Medicine can make you not sick, but it can't make you healthy. Along with curing us from diseases and injuries, doctors now inject, alter, and prescribe us into becoming healthier-appearing beings. Cosmetic medical advancements are indeed impressive, but let's not lose sight of the facts. The human body needs exercise and nutrients to run smoothly. There is no way to chemically change this. There are certainly medical alterations that can be done to change our bodies once they've been misused and started to fall apart. And there are drugs and other chemical alterations that can reverse certain conditions. But try as they might, scientists have still yet to come up with a way for us not to need to exercise and eat properly so that we can perform to the best of our abilities. We may be able to increase our natural abilities using medicine, but without the fundamental groundwork that is exercise and what we eat, no amount of medical help will allow us to live long and vibrant lives.
You can get ripped with the right diet. With the "Flat Belly Diet" on the bestseller list and the "Abs Diet" on the cover of Men's Health, it may be hard to believe that no diet alone is going to land you on the cover of a Joe Weider publication. Dieting can help you lose weight and greatly improve your health. But since that isn't what marketers like to spin, it's generally not what they pitch. The only diet that will give you ripped abs is a starvation diet. And that one comes with a lot of undesirable side effects.
Many of these diets, including the two referenced above, are basically very healthy. But if you want your body to look ripped, you need to exercise and diet in combination. A healthy body can look lean but rarely ripped. A muscular body with too much fat won't look ripped, either. Only a healthy and muscular body can allow you to both look ripped and perform well. A starved body will be both lean and ripped in appearance, but this is not due to your body being healthy—rather, it's due to the catabolic state you enter as your body feeds on its muscle for survival.
You can have a six-pack by only working out your abs. Ab work will make your abdominal muscles strong, but you won't be able to see them unless your diet is in line with your exercise expenditure. The easiest and quickest way to see your abs is to work your entire body intensely and eat well. The more muscle you add to your frame—your entire frame—the more your metabolism will increase, the more fat your body will burn at rest, and the sooner your ab muscles will appear. And, of course, the cleaner you eat, the faster you will make this happen.
Six-pack abs—like most things used to gauge fitness—are a function of one's overall health and condition. They won't pop up on their own.¹ But you're also not wasting your time working on them. Your core, which is in part your abs, is the foundation that all of your movements are based on. Having a strong core is the single most important aspect to being physically fit.
One supplement can make up for a bad diet. We love miracles, especially when they don't require much work on our part. That's why we're always looking for a pill we can take that will make up for our bad habits. Supposed muscle-enhancing supplements have been available since Jack LaLanne invented the Universal Gym, but in the last decade, we've also been bombarded with things promising the opposite. Fat blockers, carb blockers, diet pills, cleansing pills, and so on all promise to rid us of something we wished we hadn't eaten in the first place. This, unfortunately, can't be done.
There are many good dietary supplements, but heed the word "dietary." Supplements work along with the other factors of your diet. Nothing can even hint at offsetting a poor diet. In fact, one of the main advantages of supplements is exactly the opposite: they make the biggest difference when you're dieting already. Supplements are, basically, condensed nutrients. When you're exercising and also attempting to lose weight, it becomes difficult to get all of the nutrients that your body requires to recover from exercise. This is the realm of the highly effective supplement. Proper supplementation can allow you to eat fewer calories than you normally could and still allow you to recover from hard workouts, which greatly enhances your results. We offer you the best vitamins and supplements available today and only what you need to make sure you get the nutrients you need each day to get the most out of your fitness program.
Cardio is the only exercise you need. Cardio isn't even a scientific term for a type of exercise, yet it's still often trumpeted as the be-all and end-all for exercise effectiveness. This, in my experience, is often a cop-out by medical practitioners who feel the need to recommend exercise but don't want to risk being specific. Cardio as a general term means anything affecting the heart. The problem with interpreting the term is that everything you do has an effect on your heart. And although intense exercise works the heart much more than easy aerobic exercise does, it seems that most people define cardio as aerobic, meaning low-level movement. And low-level movement is not the only exercise you need, unless your physical state inhibits you from doing something more intense.
The key to changing your body composition, staying young, and remaining healthy is to do short bouts of high-intensity exercise. If done correctly, this is all the "cardio" you need. It also promotes muscle breakdown and hormonal releases that have a pronounced effect on your health. All "cardio" training is good, including low-level aerobic training. It just should, however, not be the only exercise you do.
You can plug in and get ripped. Remember the old exercise machine that had a strap you placed around your butt that would vibrate like a washing machine? Back in the 60s, this odd contraption filled fitness centers worldwide and, undoubtedly, made someone a lot of money. It also never shed a pound off of anyone. And even though it's used in many gimmick jokes, we just can't stop trying to replicate it. If you ever see an advertisement for something that does all the work for you and claims you'll look better because of it, start searching for the remote. The calories you burn looking for it will exceed any amount you'll burn using the device.
As is the case with most gimmicks, there is a scientific example at their root somewhere. Most of these modern contraptions are some type of electronic muscle stimulation (EMS) device. These machines use electrodes to contract your muscles while you do nothing. They were designed for physical therapy and work well within this application of keeping your muscle tissue from atrophying when you can't work your muscles naturally. So, yes, these machines do build muscle. But they lack the ability to stimulate anything near what you would do naturally. To keep the type of physique you would acquire in our workouts would require you to be plugged in for most of any given 24-hour period.
A single type of workout will make you fit. Beware of exercise that promises to be "the only workout you'll ever need." Even if one workout did cover all of your energy systems using each workout modality, it still would not be all you need. The reasons are many, but, primarily, it's because your body adapts over time to any exercise regimen. To achieve continued progress, you need to alter what you do from time to time. The more planned out this is the better.
There is a reason that we at Pro-Fitness continually alter and design fitness programs. For best results, you should train your body progressively and periodizationally. That is to say that you need to progressively overload your system as it becomes used to any one thing. Then, you should change the focus of your program to target various energy systems. By doing this, you keep your body stimulated and your progress curve will continually ascend.
When it comes to our well-being, not much pricks up our ears like the word miracle. But when referring to health and fitness, the word miracle is generally synonymous with the word scam. That is unless finding yourself suddenly motivated to exercise and eat better is something you would consider a miracle. Other than that, miracles don't exist.
At Pro-Fitness Training, we're always on the lookout for the next great thing. We analyze every diet, every workout, and every medical breakthrough that promises to reverse the obesity epidemic and make the real world look like, well, the set of The Real World. What we find, without fail, is that the only "miracle" breakthroughs are those that expand on what we already know—that only through exercise and diet will you effectively change your body and your health for good. Let's take a look at eight marketing miracles that fail to do much more considered miraculous than make their creators rich. We'll interpret each one and then let you know how each claim may have a positive effect on your life.
You can get thin with a supplement. One of the most common questions we get is whether or not our programs will work without the supplements. Given how many claims there are about miracle cures involving a pill, this question makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that when we tell people that diet and exercise are the major components of our programs, they often become skeptical. We've been led to believe by advertisers that the reason we're overweight or out of shape is because there's a secret ingredient in some supplement that we've been missing. This, to put it a noninflammatory way, is not how it works. The obesity epidemic is the result of two rather simple numbers: we eat about 5 percent more calories than we once did, and we exercise about 20 percent less.
This in no way means that supplements are worthless. While there are many shady supplement manufacturers in the marketplace, the reason that we have supplements at all is because they can be effective in keeping us healthy. The use of supplements goes back thousands of years. Traditional medicines were the original supplements. There have been many advancements in the modern world, but basically, those same herbs and nutrients that aided people's health once upon a time have the same effects today. But they weren't miracle cures in the old days, and they still aren't. This is the reason we refer to our programs as being supplement-assisted exercises.
Medicine can make you healthy. Medicine can make you not sick, but it can't make you healthy. Along with curing us from diseases and injuries, doctors now inject, alter, and prescribe us into becoming healthier-appearing beings. Cosmetic medical advancements are indeed impressive, but let's not lose sight of the facts. The human body needs exercise and nutrients to run smoothly. There is no way to chemically change this. There are certainly medical alterations that can be done to change our bodies once they've been misused and started to fall apart. And there are drugs and other chemical alterations that can reverse certain conditions. But try as they might, scientists have still yet to come up with a way for us not to need to exercise and eat properly so that we can perform to the best of our abilities. We may be able to increase our natural abilities using medicine, but without the fundamental groundwork that is exercise and what we eat, no amount of medical help will allow us to live long and vibrant lives.
You can get ripped with the right diet. With the "Flat Belly Diet" on the bestseller list and the "Abs Diet" on the cover of Men's Health, it may be hard to believe that no diet alone is going to land you on the cover of a Joe Weider publication. Dieting can help you lose weight and greatly improve your health. But since that isn't what marketers like to spin, it's generally not what they pitch. The only diet that will give you ripped abs is a starvation diet. And that one comes with a lot of undesirable side effects.
Many of these diets, including the two referenced above, are basically very healthy. But if you want your body to look ripped, you need to exercise and diet in combination. A healthy body can look lean but rarely ripped. A muscular body with too much fat won't look ripped, either. Only a healthy and muscular body can allow you to both look ripped and perform well. A starved body will be both lean and ripped in appearance, but this is not due to your body being healthy—rather, it's due to the catabolic state you enter as your body feeds on its muscle for survival.
You can have a six-pack by only working out your abs. Ab work will make your abdominal muscles strong, but you won't be able to see them unless your diet is in line with your exercise expenditure. The easiest and quickest way to see your abs is to work your entire body intensely and eat well. The more muscle you add to your frame—your entire frame—the more your metabolism will increase, the more fat your body will burn at rest, and the sooner your ab muscles will appear. And, of course, the cleaner you eat, the faster you will make this happen.
Six-pack abs—like most things used to gauge fitness—are a function of one's overall health and condition. They won't pop up on their own.¹ But you're also not wasting your time working on them. Your core, which is in part your abs, is the foundation that all of your movements are based on. Having a strong core is the single most important aspect to being physically fit.
One supplement can make up for a bad diet. We love miracles, especially when they don't require much work on our part. That's why we're always looking for a pill we can take that will make up for our bad habits. Supposed muscle-enhancing supplements have been available since Jack LaLanne invented the Universal Gym, but in the last decade, we've also been bombarded with things promising the opposite. Fat blockers, carb blockers, diet pills, cleansing pills, and so on all promise to rid us of something we wished we hadn't eaten in the first place. This, unfortunately, can't be done.
There are many good dietary supplements, but heed the word "dietary." Supplements work along with the other factors of your diet. Nothing can even hint at offsetting a poor diet. In fact, one of the main advantages of supplements is exactly the opposite: they make the biggest difference when you're dieting already. Supplements are, basically, condensed nutrients. When you're exercising and also attempting to lose weight, it becomes difficult to get all of the nutrients that your body requires to recover from exercise. This is the realm of the highly effective supplement. Proper supplementation can allow you to eat fewer calories than you normally could and still allow you to recover from hard workouts, which greatly enhances your results. We offer you the best vitamins and supplements available today and only what you need to make sure you get the nutrients you need each day to get the most out of your fitness program.
Cardio is the only exercise you need. Cardio isn't even a scientific term for a type of exercise, yet it's still often trumpeted as the be-all and end-all for exercise effectiveness. This, in my experience, is often a cop-out by medical practitioners who feel the need to recommend exercise but don't want to risk being specific. Cardio as a general term means anything affecting the heart. The problem with interpreting the term is that everything you do has an effect on your heart. And although intense exercise works the heart much more than easy aerobic exercise does, it seems that most people define cardio as aerobic, meaning low-level movement. And low-level movement is not the only exercise you need, unless your physical state inhibits you from doing something more intense.
The key to changing your body composition, staying young, and remaining healthy is to do short bouts of high-intensity exercise. If done correctly, this is all the "cardio" you need. It also promotes muscle breakdown and hormonal releases that have a pronounced effect on your health. All "cardio" training is good, including low-level aerobic training. It just should, however, not be the only exercise you do.
You can plug in and get ripped. Remember the old exercise machine that had a strap you placed around your butt that would vibrate like a washing machine? Back in the 60s, this odd contraption filled fitness centers worldwide and, undoubtedly, made someone a lot of money. It also never shed a pound off of anyone. And even though it's used in many gimmick jokes, we just can't stop trying to replicate it. If you ever see an advertisement for something that does all the work for you and claims you'll look better because of it, start searching for the remote. The calories you burn looking for it will exceed any amount you'll burn using the device.
As is the case with most gimmicks, there is a scientific example at their root somewhere. Most of these modern contraptions are some type of electronic muscle stimulation (EMS) device. These machines use electrodes to contract your muscles while you do nothing. They were designed for physical therapy and work well within this application of keeping your muscle tissue from atrophying when you can't work your muscles naturally. So, yes, these machines do build muscle. But they lack the ability to stimulate anything near what you would do naturally. To keep the type of physique you would acquire in our workouts would require you to be plugged in for most of any given 24-hour period.
A single type of workout will make you fit. Beware of exercise that promises to be "the only workout you'll ever need." Even if one workout did cover all of your energy systems using each workout modality, it still would not be all you need. The reasons are many, but, primarily, it's because your body adapts over time to any exercise regimen. To achieve continued progress, you need to alter what you do from time to time. The more planned out this is the better.
There is a reason that we at Pro-Fitness continually alter and design fitness programs. For best results, you should train your body progressively and periodizationally. That is to say that you need to progressively overload your system as it becomes used to any one thing. Then, you should change the focus of your program to target various energy systems. By doing this, you keep your body stimulated and your progress curve will continually ascend.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Weight Loss Game Plan
When you work out and the pounds still don't come off, it can be incredibly frustrating. But what you may not know is that certain habits and physical changes can undermine even the most scientifically proven weight loss strategies, especially after you reach age 40. When Australian and UK researchers reviewed nearly 100 studies on exercise and weight loss, they discovered why those extra pounds won't budge despite your best efforts. These four targeted fat-fighting tips are the key to turning the tide--so your body will finally shed the weight.
1. Make some extra muscle
Lift weights three times a week It's the fastest way to build muscle and get results when the scale is stuck. "Research shows that regular strength-training can increase your resting metabolic rate by up to 8%," says Wayne Westcott, PhD, fitness researcher in Quincy, MA, and author of Get Stronger, Feel Younger. In one 8-week study, women and men who did only cardio exercise lost 4 pounds but gained no muscle, while those who did half the amount of cardio and an equal amount of strength-training shed 10 pounds of fat and added 2 pounds of muscle.
Rest less If you already strength-train, shorten the time you linger between sets. "Taking a brief, 20-second break after each set burns extra calories and accelerates metabolism more than waiting the standard 60 to 90 seconds.
Do double-duty moves Trade exercises that isolate a single muscle, such as biceps curls, for multijoint, multimuscle moves like chest presses and squats. "The more muscles you engage at once, the more calories you'll burn."
Break up your meals If you're losing weight (and therefore muscle) by cutting calories, eating five small meals instead of three large ones helps keep metabolism high. Spreading calories throughout the day "keeps blood sugar levels even and controls the release of insulin that can cause your body to store more calories as fat," says Leslie Bonci, RD, MPH, director of sports medicine nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "And every time you eat, your metabolism speeds up to digest the food."
1. Make some extra muscle
2. Outsmart a plateau
3. Be a stealth calorie burner
4. Halt hunger hormones
Your Fat-Burning Game Plan
2. Outsmart a plateau
It's a common scenario: The first 10 or 20 pounds come off easily, but then the scale won't budge. Plateaus can happen in as little as 3 weeks, find Drexel University researchers. As you drop weight, your body doesn't have to work as hard simply because there's less of you to move around, says Michele Kettles, MD, medical director of the Cooper Clinic in Dallas. That means your workouts produce a smaller calorie burn. For example, if you weigh 180 pounds and lose 35, you'll melt about 100 fewer calories in an hour-long cardio class--which can slow down further weight loss. And as you get older, injuries or arthritis can make it difficult to do vigorous, high-impact activities that help compensate for this calorie defi
Get your heart rate up Watching TV or reading while you exercise can lower your workout intensity--and your calorie burn. Instead, pay attention to your pulse, suggests Kettles. For best results, stay between 60 and 80% of your maximum heart rate. To estimate your MHR, subtract your age from 220. Then multiply your MHR by 0.6 for the lower end of your target heart rate zone and by 0.8 for the upper end. For example, if you're 40, aim for 108 to 144 beats per minute. (For easier tracking, invest in a heart rate monitor.)
Diversify The more comfortable you become with a routine, exercise class, or fitness DVD, the less effective it gets. To continue to lose weight, you need to challenge your body in new ways. "Even replacing one exercise can create enough of a surprise to keep results coming," says Kettles. Try this: The first week of every month, do a new upper-body exercise; the second week, a new lower-body one; the third, a new abs move; and the fourth, a different type of cardio (cycling instead of walking, for example).
1. Make some extra muscle
2. Outsmart a plateau
3. Be a stealth calorie burner
4. Halt hunger hormones
Your Fat-Burning Game Plan
3. Be a stealth calorie burner
It may happen subconsciously, but studies show that some people move less after they begin an exercise regimen. When women and men, average age 59, started to work out twice a week, their everyday activity decreased by 22%, according to research from the Netherlands. The reason for the slowdown, experts speculate, may be postworkout fatigue or the perception that if you exercise, you can afford to skimp on the small stuff. Wrong! Little activities such as standing instead of sitting, fidgeting, and walking more throughout the day can add up to an extra 350 calories burned per day, according to Mayo Clinic studies. Other research shows that a decrease in these everyday actions may shut down an enzyme that controls fat metabolism, making weight loss tougher. And even daily half-hour to hour-long workouts aren't enough to turn it back on.
Track nonexercise activity Record your daily step counts with a pedometer on a couple of days when you don't work out. Then calculate your average (add up your daily totals and divide by the number of days tracked). If you don't maintain at least this level of activity every day, your fat-burning ability will decline. For instance, if you normally log 5,000 steps a day but skip half of them on days you work out, it could slow weight loss by up to 50%--even though you're exercising.Add a 30-45 minute walk everyday on top of everything else you are doing. You have to attack fat!
Post reminders One study showed that signs encouraging people to take the stairs increased usage by 200%. To motivate yourself, stick notes on your bathroom mirror, microwave, TV remote, steering wheel, and computer that simply say: Move more!
Set up weekly physical outings You'll be less likely to blow it off if you make a commitment to someone else. Plan a hike or bike ride with your family, help clean out a friend's garage, or volunteer to walk your neighbor's dog.
1. Make some extra muscle
2. Outsmart a plateau
3. Be a stealth calorie burner
4. Halt hunger hormones
Your Fat-Burning Game Plan
4. Halt hunger hormones
When 35 overweight women and men started exercising, researchers found that some of them compensated for their workouts by eating as much as 270 extra calories a day--negating more than half of the calories they burned, according to a study published in the International Journal of Obesity. "Some research shows that exercising regularly can trigger the release of ghrelin, an appetite-stimulating hormone meant to protect the body from losing weight too quickly," says Bonci. To make matters worse, appetite also appears to increase as you approach menopause because of declining estrogen levels, according to animal studies.
Simple Strategies
Snack before you sweat "Exercising on an empty stomach lowers blood sugar, which can increase your appetite and set you up to overeat afterward," says Bonci. To ward off postexercise hunger, have a light (about 100 calories), carbohydrate-rich snack, such as 4 ounces of yogurt or a banana, 20 to 30 minutes before you work out.
Write before you eat Keeping a food diary is a proven weight loss tool, but don't wait until after your meal. "When my clients record what they're going to eat, it puts their dietary habits on pause long enough to decide if their food choices are really worth it," says Bonci. Time your meals If possible, schedule your workouts before a meal. In studies where meals were served 15 to 30 minutes after exercise, participants ate less than those who had to wait an hour or more to eat.
Sip often People who drink water regularly eat nearly 200 fewer calories daily than those who only consume tea, coffee, or soda, reports a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study. Bonus: Make it ice-cold water. German researchers found that drinking 6 cups of cold water a day raised metabolism by about 50 calories daily--possibly because of the work it takes to warm the fluid up to body temperature. And every little bit helps!
Make the scale move!
Log your workouts and meals, see your body change over time, and stay on target with progress reports from My Health Trackers at prevention.com/healthtrackers.
1. Make some extra muscle
2. Outsmart a plateau
3. Be a stealth calorie burner
4. Halt hunger hormones
Your Fat-Burning Game Plan
Your Fat-Burning Game Plan
Every day
Wear a pedometer.
Eat five minimeals (300 calories each).
Log your food choices before you eat.
Drink at least six 8-ounce glasses of cold water.
Three times a week
Lift weights, doing multimuscle moves such as chest presses. Twice a week ain't going to cut it folks!Going to a box gym is fine, however you need to look at your results!
Rest no more than 20 seconds between sets while strength-training.
Whenever you exercise
Snack before your workout (see Step 4 for suggestions).
Schedule exercise before a meal so you eat within a half hour of finishing your workout. Track your heart rate during cardio.
Weekly
Change one move in your workout routine every Monday. For example, swap push-ups for chest presses one week, lunges for squats the next, and so on.
Plan an active outing such as hiking.
1. Make some extra muscle
2. Outsmart a plateau
3. Be a stealth calorie burner
4. Halt hunger hormones
1. Make some extra muscle
Lift weights three times a week It's the fastest way to build muscle and get results when the scale is stuck. "Research shows that regular strength-training can increase your resting metabolic rate by up to 8%," says Wayne Westcott, PhD, fitness researcher in Quincy, MA, and author of Get Stronger, Feel Younger. In one 8-week study, women and men who did only cardio exercise lost 4 pounds but gained no muscle, while those who did half the amount of cardio and an equal amount of strength-training shed 10 pounds of fat and added 2 pounds of muscle.
Rest less If you already strength-train, shorten the time you linger between sets. "Taking a brief, 20-second break after each set burns extra calories and accelerates metabolism more than waiting the standard 60 to 90 seconds.
Do double-duty moves Trade exercises that isolate a single muscle, such as biceps curls, for multijoint, multimuscle moves like chest presses and squats. "The more muscles you engage at once, the more calories you'll burn."
Break up your meals If you're losing weight (and therefore muscle) by cutting calories, eating five small meals instead of three large ones helps keep metabolism high. Spreading calories throughout the day "keeps blood sugar levels even and controls the release of insulin that can cause your body to store more calories as fat," says Leslie Bonci, RD, MPH, director of sports medicine nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "And every time you eat, your metabolism speeds up to digest the food."
1. Make some extra muscle
2. Outsmart a plateau
3. Be a stealth calorie burner
4. Halt hunger hormones
Your Fat-Burning Game Plan
2. Outsmart a plateau
It's a common scenario: The first 10 or 20 pounds come off easily, but then the scale won't budge. Plateaus can happen in as little as 3 weeks, find Drexel University researchers. As you drop weight, your body doesn't have to work as hard simply because there's less of you to move around, says Michele Kettles, MD, medical director of the Cooper Clinic in Dallas. That means your workouts produce a smaller calorie burn. For example, if you weigh 180 pounds and lose 35, you'll melt about 100 fewer calories in an hour-long cardio class--which can slow down further weight loss. And as you get older, injuries or arthritis can make it difficult to do vigorous, high-impact activities that help compensate for this calorie defi
Get your heart rate up Watching TV or reading while you exercise can lower your workout intensity--and your calorie burn. Instead, pay attention to your pulse, suggests Kettles. For best results, stay between 60 and 80% of your maximum heart rate. To estimate your MHR, subtract your age from 220. Then multiply your MHR by 0.6 for the lower end of your target heart rate zone and by 0.8 for the upper end. For example, if you're 40, aim for 108 to 144 beats per minute. (For easier tracking, invest in a heart rate monitor.)
Diversify The more comfortable you become with a routine, exercise class, or fitness DVD, the less effective it gets. To continue to lose weight, you need to challenge your body in new ways. "Even replacing one exercise can create enough of a surprise to keep results coming," says Kettles. Try this: The first week of every month, do a new upper-body exercise; the second week, a new lower-body one; the third, a new abs move; and the fourth, a different type of cardio (cycling instead of walking, for example).
1. Make some extra muscle
2. Outsmart a plateau
3. Be a stealth calorie burner
4. Halt hunger hormones
Your Fat-Burning Game Plan
3. Be a stealth calorie burner
It may happen subconsciously, but studies show that some people move less after they begin an exercise regimen. When women and men, average age 59, started to work out twice a week, their everyday activity decreased by 22%, according to research from the Netherlands. The reason for the slowdown, experts speculate, may be postworkout fatigue or the perception that if you exercise, you can afford to skimp on the small stuff. Wrong! Little activities such as standing instead of sitting, fidgeting, and walking more throughout the day can add up to an extra 350 calories burned per day, according to Mayo Clinic studies. Other research shows that a decrease in these everyday actions may shut down an enzyme that controls fat metabolism, making weight loss tougher. And even daily half-hour to hour-long workouts aren't enough to turn it back on.
Track nonexercise activity Record your daily step counts with a pedometer on a couple of days when you don't work out. Then calculate your average (add up your daily totals and divide by the number of days tracked). If you don't maintain at least this level of activity every day, your fat-burning ability will decline. For instance, if you normally log 5,000 steps a day but skip half of them on days you work out, it could slow weight loss by up to 50%--even though you're exercising.Add a 30-45 minute walk everyday on top of everything else you are doing. You have to attack fat!
Post reminders One study showed that signs encouraging people to take the stairs increased usage by 200%. To motivate yourself, stick notes on your bathroom mirror, microwave, TV remote, steering wheel, and computer that simply say: Move more!
Set up weekly physical outings You'll be less likely to blow it off if you make a commitment to someone else. Plan a hike or bike ride with your family, help clean out a friend's garage, or volunteer to walk your neighbor's dog.
1. Make some extra muscle
2. Outsmart a plateau
3. Be a stealth calorie burner
4. Halt hunger hormones
Your Fat-Burning Game Plan
4. Halt hunger hormones
When 35 overweight women and men started exercising, researchers found that some of them compensated for their workouts by eating as much as 270 extra calories a day--negating more than half of the calories they burned, according to a study published in the International Journal of Obesity. "Some research shows that exercising regularly can trigger the release of ghrelin, an appetite-stimulating hormone meant to protect the body from losing weight too quickly," says Bonci. To make matters worse, appetite also appears to increase as you approach menopause because of declining estrogen levels, according to animal studies.
Simple Strategies
Snack before you sweat "Exercising on an empty stomach lowers blood sugar, which can increase your appetite and set you up to overeat afterward," says Bonci. To ward off postexercise hunger, have a light (about 100 calories), carbohydrate-rich snack, such as 4 ounces of yogurt or a banana, 20 to 30 minutes before you work out.
Write before you eat Keeping a food diary is a proven weight loss tool, but don't wait until after your meal. "When my clients record what they're going to eat, it puts their dietary habits on pause long enough to decide if their food choices are really worth it," says Bonci. Time your meals If possible, schedule your workouts before a meal. In studies where meals were served 15 to 30 minutes after exercise, participants ate less than those who had to wait an hour or more to eat.
Sip often People who drink water regularly eat nearly 200 fewer calories daily than those who only consume tea, coffee, or soda, reports a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study. Bonus: Make it ice-cold water. German researchers found that drinking 6 cups of cold water a day raised metabolism by about 50 calories daily--possibly because of the work it takes to warm the fluid up to body temperature. And every little bit helps!
Make the scale move!
Log your workouts and meals, see your body change over time, and stay on target with progress reports from My Health Trackers at prevention.com/healthtrackers.
1. Make some extra muscle
2. Outsmart a plateau
3. Be a stealth calorie burner
4. Halt hunger hormones
Your Fat-Burning Game Plan
Your Fat-Burning Game Plan
Every day
Wear a pedometer.
Eat five minimeals (300 calories each).
Log your food choices before you eat.
Drink at least six 8-ounce glasses of cold water.
Three times a week
Lift weights, doing multimuscle moves such as chest presses. Twice a week ain't going to cut it folks!Going to a box gym is fine, however you need to look at your results!
Rest no more than 20 seconds between sets while strength-training.
Whenever you exercise
Snack before your workout (see Step 4 for suggestions).
Schedule exercise before a meal so you eat within a half hour of finishing your workout. Track your heart rate during cardio.
Weekly
Change one move in your workout routine every Monday. For example, swap push-ups for chest presses one week, lunges for squats the next, and so on.
Plan an active outing such as hiking.
1. Make some extra muscle
2. Outsmart a plateau
3. Be a stealth calorie burner
4. Halt hunger hormones
Thursday, October 9, 2008
11 tips for the Body of your Dreams.
11 Steps that Absolutely Guarantee you'll have the
Body of your Dreams in 90 days or Less!
1. Persistence!
Violate this step and you'll never achieve permanent results. We recently concluded conducted a 10 year study which proves that persistence is the single most important aspect of any diet or exercise program. The study followed a group of people (group #1) who exercised and dieted very strictly, but sporadically and compared those results to a group of people (group #2) who exercised mildly and followed a very basic diet, but this group never varied from their routine. Even though group #2 exercised and dieted far less (but did so persistently) they got 68% better results than those who exercised and dieted VERY STRICTLY but only occasionally.
2. Workout around other people.
Working out with others will get you about 43% faster results!!!
3. Don't take bad advice.
Take ONLY the advice of those people who look strong & healthy themselves, and, whom you know to be knowledgeable about health & fitness!
4. ALWAYS keep an eye on your pulse.
When doing aerobic or cardiovascular training! Keeping your pulse inside your 80%-85% target heart rate zone will burn up to 9 times more calories. Dropping below your target heart rate will not burn nearly as many fat calories, and going above your target heart rate may lead to muscle breakdown.
5. Surround yourself with winners.
One of the key qualities of all successful people is that they avoid negative people and they spend the majority of their time surrounded by those who have already achieved what they themselves seek to achieve. So if your goal is to weigh 135 pounds by eating healthy and living an energy full life - then seek out others who already live a healthy lifestyle and weigh 135 pounds. Hanging out with people who just talk about getting in shape but never take persistent action will ensure that you never reach your goal.
6. Know your outcome.
Have specific goals. Get a photo (or several) of what you WILL look like when you reach your goal, then focus only on that image. Quickly erase any negative beliefs or images that may enter into your mind during your day.Put those pics in and behind cupboard doors and on your refrigerator as a reminder.
7. Increase you water intake.
Water is a key component to life. No living creature can survive without a fresh supply of pure water each and every day. If you do not consume enough fresh water every day, your body will age faster, appear fatter, be more susceptible to germs and colds, lose joint mobility, and much more. Generally speaking, most people who weigh under 150 pounds require no less than 8-10 glasses per day, those who weigh between 150-250 pounds require about 16 glasses per day.
8. Watch where your calories come from.
Without a doubt, we eat way too much sugar and fat. Moderation was the key in the past, now the key is moderation and the exclusion of junk food. One or two binges per year are generally OK if you are a normal healthy individual, but more is absolutely not OK.
9. Increase the number of meals consumed per day.
On average, you should be eating some form of protein and vegetable combination that's low in fat and high in fiber every 2 -3 hours of the day. Doing so will give you an almost unfair advantage over those who only eat the normal 3 meals (or less) each day.
10. Visualize Clearly and Often.
Design your new body in your mind first. You cannot achieve your idea of the perfect body if you don't have an idea of what the perfect body means to you. Take 10 minutes when you are sure not to be disturbed by people or phone calls, get comfortable, fully relax, then begin to dream about what you will look like when you have achieved your goal. Be specific, what will your calves look like, your legs, your butt, your lower back, your stomach, your chest, your upper back, your shoulders, your neck and your face. Then review this image as often throughout each day as possible (never less than 3x/day).
11. Cardio...Cardio...Cardio.
Cardiovascular exercising does more for the health and the appearance of the human body than any other form of exercise. Learn how much and what type of cardio is right for your particular body. Then refer to step #1 and do it persistently.Make sure you do 45-60 min of cardio on the days you are not at Pro-Fitness Training.
Body of your Dreams in 90 days or Less!
1. Persistence!
Violate this step and you'll never achieve permanent results. We recently concluded conducted a 10 year study which proves that persistence is the single most important aspect of any diet or exercise program. The study followed a group of people (group #1) who exercised and dieted very strictly, but sporadically and compared those results to a group of people (group #2) who exercised mildly and followed a very basic diet, but this group never varied from their routine. Even though group #2 exercised and dieted far less (but did so persistently) they got 68% better results than those who exercised and dieted VERY STRICTLY but only occasionally.
2. Workout around other people.
Working out with others will get you about 43% faster results!!!
3. Don't take bad advice.
Take ONLY the advice of those people who look strong & healthy themselves, and, whom you know to be knowledgeable about health & fitness!
4. ALWAYS keep an eye on your pulse.
When doing aerobic or cardiovascular training! Keeping your pulse inside your 80%-85% target heart rate zone will burn up to 9 times more calories. Dropping below your target heart rate will not burn nearly as many fat calories, and going above your target heart rate may lead to muscle breakdown.
5. Surround yourself with winners.
One of the key qualities of all successful people is that they avoid negative people and they spend the majority of their time surrounded by those who have already achieved what they themselves seek to achieve. So if your goal is to weigh 135 pounds by eating healthy and living an energy full life - then seek out others who already live a healthy lifestyle and weigh 135 pounds. Hanging out with people who just talk about getting in shape but never take persistent action will ensure that you never reach your goal.
6. Know your outcome.
Have specific goals. Get a photo (or several) of what you WILL look like when you reach your goal, then focus only on that image. Quickly erase any negative beliefs or images that may enter into your mind during your day.Put those pics in and behind cupboard doors and on your refrigerator as a reminder.
7. Increase you water intake.
Water is a key component to life. No living creature can survive without a fresh supply of pure water each and every day. If you do not consume enough fresh water every day, your body will age faster, appear fatter, be more susceptible to germs and colds, lose joint mobility, and much more. Generally speaking, most people who weigh under 150 pounds require no less than 8-10 glasses per day, those who weigh between 150-250 pounds require about 16 glasses per day.
8. Watch where your calories come from.
Without a doubt, we eat way too much sugar and fat. Moderation was the key in the past, now the key is moderation and the exclusion of junk food. One or two binges per year are generally OK if you are a normal healthy individual, but more is absolutely not OK.
9. Increase the number of meals consumed per day.
On average, you should be eating some form of protein and vegetable combination that's low in fat and high in fiber every 2 -3 hours of the day. Doing so will give you an almost unfair advantage over those who only eat the normal 3 meals (or less) each day.
10. Visualize Clearly and Often.
Design your new body in your mind first. You cannot achieve your idea of the perfect body if you don't have an idea of what the perfect body means to you. Take 10 minutes when you are sure not to be disturbed by people or phone calls, get comfortable, fully relax, then begin to dream about what you will look like when you have achieved your goal. Be specific, what will your calves look like, your legs, your butt, your lower back, your stomach, your chest, your upper back, your shoulders, your neck and your face. Then review this image as often throughout each day as possible (never less than 3x/day).
11. Cardio...Cardio...Cardio.
Cardiovascular exercising does more for the health and the appearance of the human body than any other form of exercise. Learn how much and what type of cardio is right for your particular body. Then refer to step #1 and do it persistently.Make sure you do 45-60 min of cardio on the days you are not at Pro-Fitness Training.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Eat right for consistent energy
Hey gang, thought you would find this article helpful. Right in line with everything we teach!
Quick: Name your usual tiredness fix. If you said a cereal bar or a coffee drink, you're not getting an effective boost--and may even be setting yourself up to crash later on. "The food you eat is like the gas you use to fuel your car," says Bonnie Taub-Dix, RD, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "Without enough of it--or the right kind--your energy will stall." Luckily, certain foods can help fight fatigue. Here are some of the top stamina sappers you may encounter, and what to eat and drink more of (sample menus included!) to stay sharp, focused, and energized all day.
ENERGY SAPPER: STRESS
Eat more:
Carb-rich foods Healthy treats such as half of a whole wheat English muffin with fruit spread are rich in carbohydrates, which can boost your levels of serotonin, a calming brain chemical.
Chocolate Nibbling on a few squares of dark chocolate may work, too--it's packed with caffeine and theobromine, mild mood- and energy-boosting stimulants, according to UK researchers.
Fluid-filled foods "Food accounts for about 20% of our daily fluid intake," says Samuel N. Cheuvront, PhD, RD, a principal investigator with the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine. Staying hydrated is one of the simplest ways to keep energized and focused. A recent study of athletes found that 92% felt fatigued after limiting fluids and water-rich foods for 15 hours; they also had lapses in memory and reported difficulty concentrating. To eat for energy, avoid dry packaged snacks such as pretzels, which lack sufficient fluid to aid hydration. Instead, opt for water-rich snacks, including fresh produce. Foods that swell up during cooking--such as oatmeal or pasta (which is nearly 65% water)--are also smart choices.
Drink more:
Tea A recent report found that pairing caffeine and the amino acid L-theanine, both present in tea, decreased mental fatigue and improved alertness, reaction time, and memory. What's more, black varieties can help you recover from stress, according to researchers at University College London. In their study, adults who drank tea four times a day for 6 weeks had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol after a tense moment, compared with those who drank a tealike placebo.
YOUR STRESS-BUSTING MENU
Breakfast
1 c oatmeal made with fat-free milk, topped with 1 diced pear, 2 Tbsp chopped walnuts, and 2 tsp brown sugar
1 c black tea
Lunch
1 c reduced-sodium minestrone soup
1/4 c hummus with 10 baby carrots, 1 c cucumber and red bell pepper slices
2 c air-popped popcorn
Snack
2 Tbsp semisweet chocolate chips
1 c black tea
Dinner
Spicy shrimp spaghetti: 10 lg shrimp sauteed in 2 tsp olive oil with 1 clove minced garlic and a pinch of red-pepper flakes, tossed with 1 chopped tomato and 1 c cooked whole grain spaghetti
Small salad with 1 Tbsp vinaigrette
1 orange
Snack
3/4 c raspberry sorbet
Nutrition info: 1,560 cal, 57 g pro, 248 g carb, 38 g fiber, 44 g fat, 10 g sat fat, 110 mg chol, 840 mg sodium
ENERGY SAPPER: DIETING
Calories are literally units of energy. Without the proper amount of fuel your cells need to perform, you'll feel weak and light-headed. Your challenge: Trim enough calories to lose weight but get the right number to keep energized. Visit prevention.com/healthtrackers to determine your daily caloric needs, and then follow our smart strategies for slimming down without slowing down.
Eat more:
Frequent meals Small, regular meals and snacks (instead of a few large ones) every 3 to 4 hours give you sustained energy and dampen hunger by keeping your blood sugar on an even keel. When researchers at the National Institute on Aging compared middle-aged men and women who ate only one meal a day with those who consumed three squares, they found that the one-meal-a-day group had larger spikes in blood sugar. As a result, eating less frequently may cause energy levels to soar and then plummet.
Fiber Roughage-rich foods slow digestion, keeping energy stable; they also help fill you up so you eat less. Choosing foods such as onions, bananas, and whole wheat may help you keep up your stamina and control your weight because they are rich in inulin, a prebiotic fiber (meaning it encourages the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut). The substance may keep unwanted pounds at bay by regulating some of the hormones that control appetite, according to researchers at the USDA ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center. Right now there's no recommended intake of prebiotic fiber specifically, but getting small amounts throughout the day is a strategy that can help you meet your daily 25 g of total fiber and drop pounds.
Drink more:
Water and unsweetened beverages Staying hydrated will keep you energized and may help you shed weight--even mild dehydration can slow metabolism, according to researchers at the University of Utah. Just avoid artificially sweetened beverages. Although they contribute few calories, a Purdue University study released earlier this year revealed that artificial sweeteners may interfere with your brain's signals, prompting you to eat more. If you don't like water, try another energy-revving drink that will hydrate you without increasing your appetite or adding excess calories, such as tea or sparkling water (either au naturel or flavored with homemade frozen 100% fruit juice cubes).
YOUR DIET-FRIENDLY MENU
Morning Meal
1 slice whole wheat bread, toasted and topped with 1 Tbsp almond butter and 1 sm sliced banana
Coffee or tea
Midmorning meal
1/2 c fat-free vanilla yogurt with 2 Tbsp dried cranberries
1 glass water with lemon
Afternoon meal
Greek tuna wrap: 1 c romaine lettuce tossed with 3 oz drained chunk light tuna, 1/2 sliced tomato, 5 black olives, 1/4 sliced cucumber, sliced onions, 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar, and 1 tsp olive oil, wrapped in 1 whole wheat tortilla
1 glass sparkling water with 2 100% grape juice ice cubes
Midafternoon meal
1 apple
2 1" cubes low-fat cheese
12 oz unsweetened iced tea
Evening meal
Onion-smothered barbecued chicken: 4 oz grilled chicken breast with 1 Tbsp barbecue sauce, topped with 1/2 grilled, sliced onion
1 baked sweet potato
6 steamed asparagus spears with 1 tsp olive oil
End-of-day meal
2 c air-popped popcorn sprinkled with 1 tsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 med orange
Nutrition info: 1,380 cal, 85 g pro, 208 g carb, 27 g fiber, 29 g fat, 5 g sat fat, 130 mg chol, 1,550 mg sodium
ENERGY SAPPER: SLEEP DEPRIVATION
When you're tired, you may feel hungrier than usual; lack of slumber disrupts hormones that signal your need for nourishment. Eating the right foods can help boost your energy and keep you satisfied without overeating.
Eat more:
Sleep-promoting nutrients "Certain vitamins and minerals have a profound effect on the quality of our slumber," says Elizabeth Somer, RD, author of Food & Mood. "Getting adequate amounts of vitamins B6 and B12, calcium, iron, and magnesium can help you maintain healthy sleep patterns." One key player is vitamin B12, which we don't absorb as well as we age. The nutrient helps fight fatigue by building strong, healthy red blood cells. Several studies reveal that vitamin B12 may improve chronic insomnia by influencing melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep cycles. Because B12 is found only in animal foods, such as turkey and milk, vegetarians and vegans may need to eat fortified foods or take a supplement.
Carbs at night Before you turn in, try a small bowl of oatmeal or a handful of whole grain crackers for their comforting carbohydrates. An all-carb snack increases levels of mood-lifting serotonin, which may help promote sleep.
Drink more:
Small doses of caffeine Frequent mini-servings of caffeine (8 ounces of coffee or less) keep you awake, alert, and focused for longer than a single jumbo one would, according to sleep experts. "When you quickly drink a large coffee, the caffeine peaks in your bloodstream much sooner than if you spread it out over time," says Harris R. Lieberman, PhD, a research psychologist with the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine. Start your day with an 8-ounce coffee (the "short" size is available by request at Starbucks). Or, ask for a large half caf. Then keep the caffeine lightly flowing with a lunchtime cappuccino (it's got only 75 mg--about one-quarter of what you'd get in a 16-ounce coffee), followed by a small midafternoon latte. If you have trouble sleeping, you may want to avoid caffeine in the afternoon, or altogether. Not a java junkie? Tea works, too, though it is lower in caffeine.
YOUR SLEEP-DEEPLY MENU
Breakfast
Morning burrito: 3 egg whites scrambled in 1 tsp canola oil with 1 Tbsp shredded low-fat cheese and 2 Tbsp salsa, in a whole wheat tortilla
1/2 grapefruit
8 oz coffee or 16 oz half caf
Lunch
Turkey burger on a whole wheat bun with 1/4 sliced avocado and sliced tomato and onion
1 c grapes
4 dried apricots
8 oz fat-free cappuccino
Snack
8 oz fat-free latte
2 Tbsp nuts with 1/4 c whole grain cereal
Dinner
3 oz grilled or broiled lean flank steak
1 baked potato with 2 Tbsp low-fat plain yogurt and 1 Tbsp chopped chives
1 c spinach sautéed in 1 tsp olive oil with 1/2 clove minced garlic
Snack
1 packet prepared instant oatmeal
Nutrition info 1,560 cal, 99 g pro, 229 g carb, 29 g fiber, 33 g fat, 6 g sat fat, 95 mg chol, 1,060 mg sodium
Quick: Name your usual tiredness fix. If you said a cereal bar or a coffee drink, you're not getting an effective boost--and may even be setting yourself up to crash later on. "The food you eat is like the gas you use to fuel your car," says Bonnie Taub-Dix, RD, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "Without enough of it--or the right kind--your energy will stall." Luckily, certain foods can help fight fatigue. Here are some of the top stamina sappers you may encounter, and what to eat and drink more of (sample menus included!) to stay sharp, focused, and energized all day.
ENERGY SAPPER: STRESS
Eat more:
Carb-rich foods Healthy treats such as half of a whole wheat English muffin with fruit spread are rich in carbohydrates, which can boost your levels of serotonin, a calming brain chemical.
Chocolate Nibbling on a few squares of dark chocolate may work, too--it's packed with caffeine and theobromine, mild mood- and energy-boosting stimulants, according to UK researchers.
Fluid-filled foods "Food accounts for about 20% of our daily fluid intake," says Samuel N. Cheuvront, PhD, RD, a principal investigator with the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine. Staying hydrated is one of the simplest ways to keep energized and focused. A recent study of athletes found that 92% felt fatigued after limiting fluids and water-rich foods for 15 hours; they also had lapses in memory and reported difficulty concentrating. To eat for energy, avoid dry packaged snacks such as pretzels, which lack sufficient fluid to aid hydration. Instead, opt for water-rich snacks, including fresh produce. Foods that swell up during cooking--such as oatmeal or pasta (which is nearly 65% water)--are also smart choices.
Drink more:
Tea A recent report found that pairing caffeine and the amino acid L-theanine, both present in tea, decreased mental fatigue and improved alertness, reaction time, and memory. What's more, black varieties can help you recover from stress, according to researchers at University College London. In their study, adults who drank tea four times a day for 6 weeks had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol after a tense moment, compared with those who drank a tealike placebo.
YOUR STRESS-BUSTING MENU
Breakfast
1 c oatmeal made with fat-free milk, topped with 1 diced pear, 2 Tbsp chopped walnuts, and 2 tsp brown sugar
1 c black tea
Lunch
1 c reduced-sodium minestrone soup
1/4 c hummus with 10 baby carrots, 1 c cucumber and red bell pepper slices
2 c air-popped popcorn
Snack
2 Tbsp semisweet chocolate chips
1 c black tea
Dinner
Spicy shrimp spaghetti: 10 lg shrimp sauteed in 2 tsp olive oil with 1 clove minced garlic and a pinch of red-pepper flakes, tossed with 1 chopped tomato and 1 c cooked whole grain spaghetti
Small salad with 1 Tbsp vinaigrette
1 orange
Snack
3/4 c raspberry sorbet
Nutrition info: 1,560 cal, 57 g pro, 248 g carb, 38 g fiber, 44 g fat, 10 g sat fat, 110 mg chol, 840 mg sodium
ENERGY SAPPER: DIETING
Calories are literally units of energy. Without the proper amount of fuel your cells need to perform, you'll feel weak and light-headed. Your challenge: Trim enough calories to lose weight but get the right number to keep energized. Visit prevention.com/healthtrackers to determine your daily caloric needs, and then follow our smart strategies for slimming down without slowing down.
Eat more:
Frequent meals Small, regular meals and snacks (instead of a few large ones) every 3 to 4 hours give you sustained energy and dampen hunger by keeping your blood sugar on an even keel. When researchers at the National Institute on Aging compared middle-aged men and women who ate only one meal a day with those who consumed three squares, they found that the one-meal-a-day group had larger spikes in blood sugar. As a result, eating less frequently may cause energy levels to soar and then plummet.
Fiber Roughage-rich foods slow digestion, keeping energy stable; they also help fill you up so you eat less. Choosing foods such as onions, bananas, and whole wheat may help you keep up your stamina and control your weight because they are rich in inulin, a prebiotic fiber (meaning it encourages the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut). The substance may keep unwanted pounds at bay by regulating some of the hormones that control appetite, according to researchers at the USDA ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center. Right now there's no recommended intake of prebiotic fiber specifically, but getting small amounts throughout the day is a strategy that can help you meet your daily 25 g of total fiber and drop pounds.
Drink more:
Water and unsweetened beverages Staying hydrated will keep you energized and may help you shed weight--even mild dehydration can slow metabolism, according to researchers at the University of Utah. Just avoid artificially sweetened beverages. Although they contribute few calories, a Purdue University study released earlier this year revealed that artificial sweeteners may interfere with your brain's signals, prompting you to eat more. If you don't like water, try another energy-revving drink that will hydrate you without increasing your appetite or adding excess calories, such as tea or sparkling water (either au naturel or flavored with homemade frozen 100% fruit juice cubes).
YOUR DIET-FRIENDLY MENU
Morning Meal
1 slice whole wheat bread, toasted and topped with 1 Tbsp almond butter and 1 sm sliced banana
Coffee or tea
Midmorning meal
1/2 c fat-free vanilla yogurt with 2 Tbsp dried cranberries
1 glass water with lemon
Afternoon meal
Greek tuna wrap: 1 c romaine lettuce tossed with 3 oz drained chunk light tuna, 1/2 sliced tomato, 5 black olives, 1/4 sliced cucumber, sliced onions, 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar, and 1 tsp olive oil, wrapped in 1 whole wheat tortilla
1 glass sparkling water with 2 100% grape juice ice cubes
Midafternoon meal
1 apple
2 1" cubes low-fat cheese
12 oz unsweetened iced tea
Evening meal
Onion-smothered barbecued chicken: 4 oz grilled chicken breast with 1 Tbsp barbecue sauce, topped with 1/2 grilled, sliced onion
1 baked sweet potato
6 steamed asparagus spears with 1 tsp olive oil
End-of-day meal
2 c air-popped popcorn sprinkled with 1 tsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 med orange
Nutrition info: 1,380 cal, 85 g pro, 208 g carb, 27 g fiber, 29 g fat, 5 g sat fat, 130 mg chol, 1,550 mg sodium
ENERGY SAPPER: SLEEP DEPRIVATION
When you're tired, you may feel hungrier than usual; lack of slumber disrupts hormones that signal your need for nourishment. Eating the right foods can help boost your energy and keep you satisfied without overeating.
Eat more:
Sleep-promoting nutrients "Certain vitamins and minerals have a profound effect on the quality of our slumber," says Elizabeth Somer, RD, author of Food & Mood. "Getting adequate amounts of vitamins B6 and B12, calcium, iron, and magnesium can help you maintain healthy sleep patterns." One key player is vitamin B12, which we don't absorb as well as we age. The nutrient helps fight fatigue by building strong, healthy red blood cells. Several studies reveal that vitamin B12 may improve chronic insomnia by influencing melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep cycles. Because B12 is found only in animal foods, such as turkey and milk, vegetarians and vegans may need to eat fortified foods or take a supplement.
Carbs at night Before you turn in, try a small bowl of oatmeal or a handful of whole grain crackers for their comforting carbohydrates. An all-carb snack increases levels of mood-lifting serotonin, which may help promote sleep.
Drink more:
Small doses of caffeine Frequent mini-servings of caffeine (8 ounces of coffee or less) keep you awake, alert, and focused for longer than a single jumbo one would, according to sleep experts. "When you quickly drink a large coffee, the caffeine peaks in your bloodstream much sooner than if you spread it out over time," says Harris R. Lieberman, PhD, a research psychologist with the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine. Start your day with an 8-ounce coffee (the "short" size is available by request at Starbucks). Or, ask for a large half caf. Then keep the caffeine lightly flowing with a lunchtime cappuccino (it's got only 75 mg--about one-quarter of what you'd get in a 16-ounce coffee), followed by a small midafternoon latte. If you have trouble sleeping, you may want to avoid caffeine in the afternoon, or altogether. Not a java junkie? Tea works, too, though it is lower in caffeine.
YOUR SLEEP-DEEPLY MENU
Breakfast
Morning burrito: 3 egg whites scrambled in 1 tsp canola oil with 1 Tbsp shredded low-fat cheese and 2 Tbsp salsa, in a whole wheat tortilla
1/2 grapefruit
8 oz coffee or 16 oz half caf
Lunch
Turkey burger on a whole wheat bun with 1/4 sliced avocado and sliced tomato and onion
1 c grapes
4 dried apricots
8 oz fat-free cappuccino
Snack
8 oz fat-free latte
2 Tbsp nuts with 1/4 c whole grain cereal
Dinner
3 oz grilled or broiled lean flank steak
1 baked potato with 2 Tbsp low-fat plain yogurt and 1 Tbsp chopped chives
1 c spinach sautéed in 1 tsp olive oil with 1/2 clove minced garlic
Snack
1 packet prepared instant oatmeal
Nutrition info 1,560 cal, 99 g pro, 229 g carb, 29 g fiber, 33 g fat, 6 g sat fat, 95 mg chol, 1,060 mg sodium
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