Answer To Your Fitness Questions" />The Recipe Of Your Life!
June 26, 2008
With these few suggestions to developing your own recipe, feel free to modify where necessary to meet your own personal needs and limitations.
Ah, the cardiovascular exercise: 3-5 times being optimal at a minimum of 30 minutes a session. And for weight loss more like 60 minutes. Make this a definite priority as it is very easy to feel you don’t have enough time!
Onto the strength training. Participate at least 2-3 times per week in a basic program performing 8 to 15 repetitions each time you re working any major muscle group.
Flexibility training next! This is critical to good posture, spinal alignment and keeping muscles strong and balanced. Hold your stretches for 10-30 seconds at the extremities of the joints at least 3 times per week, with daily being awesome!
Being satisfied with your food. DO NOT starve yourself, it can lead to binge eating or in the long term overeating! So eat frequent meals during the day.
Keep your metabolism working! You remember the input and the output concept? In short, consume a healthy diet and exercise regularly!
Keep a food diary! Pay close attention to all the foods you consume, if you visit mypyramid.gov, they give you good tips for a balanced menu!
Learn to manage your stress! None of us can run from stress, but we can learn to manage it by finding ways to release through exercise, pilates or yoga with a little meditation. these are all proven remedies and can make a significant difference to your well-being!
Oh, and don’t forget sleep!!! According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 30 percent of Americans get less than six hours of sleep per night on a regular basis. when seven to nine is recommended. Therefore, suffering from sleep disorders or sleep deprivation. Make sleep a priority and find ways to wind down at night that will bring about sleep.
Take time to find joy! Do things and be with people who make you laugh! Play games!
So as you begin to put your ingredients together, you will find you need all of the above to make life taste really good and you will desire more!!
Fat, The Good And The Bad
May 19, 2008
The fat pockets spread in clusters between the skin and the muscles. And of course, when we accumulate more energy than is consumed they will get bigger in size and the dreaded fat begins to accumulate more.
Oftentimes, on the surface of the skin of the buttocks and the back of the thighs we will see deep depressions or dimples that we call “cottage cheese” develop. We’ve also called this cellulte. This does have an important effect in women. Now really listen, when the body consumes fewer calories than it absorbs, the fat reserves increase! WHAT??? Did you read that?? “This subcutaneous fat, or cellulite, is compartmentalized by a fibrous connective tissue net. When this net is compressed, the lymphatics and blood vessels that run through the area are also compressed, the organic exchanges are slowed down, and the blood does not readily reach these fatty areas to remove the stockpiled fatty acids.”
So it becomes much more difficult to get rid of that localized fat, and even intensive training may not get rid of it altogether. So those on strict diets to lose weight will lose their breasts but keep their hips. Intersting! Makes a lot of sense when we don’t feed ourselves. The body is amazing in survival!
Also, hormones play a role in the increase of cellulite. Especially the excessive amounts of estrogen during the menstrual cycle or during pregnancy. They get subcutaneous water retention. It is associated with fat compressing the blood vessels which slows down circulation and the subcutaneous energy reserves more difficult to get moving out.
The fat reserves in women are mostly found in the buttocks and the low back and below the gluts in what we call the “saddle-bags”. And for various reasons these fat reserves occur in women according to climate. Another interesting point. Fat in the gluts can mainly be found in hot climates for Africans. Fat on the hips in Mediteraraneans, and fat around the navel, some Asians. It avoids covering the body like a coat and would be difficult to carry around during hot times.
In cold climates it is usually distributed more evenly, which gives the body more protection in the cold.
Please note though, that fat is essential! Healthy amounts are important! You need fat to insulate, to move vitamins through, to bear children and you need it to be comfortable sitting, etc. We get far too obsessed with it and it causes us to make poorer food choices and also go without food which in the long run will mess up the natural systems of the body.
The best thing we can really do, is listen to our body and respond to the signals it does send us in a natural, healthy way. Eat approximately 30% of your total calories in fat. But do watch your portion sizes and do get your cardio and strength training in. And then learn to accept “what is” in your genetics, your circumstance (pregnancy etc) and your lifestyle!
