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Last New Year's Resolution: New Habits for
a Healthier Lifestyle
The Last New Year's Resolution:
New Habits for a Healthier Lifestyle
by Gay Riley
The new millennium
is upon us. It is clear that the past technology
decade has revealed to us enough information
about the benefits of exercise and nutrition
to prevent disease and illness. We also have
the scientific formula to mold the body into
a lean energy efficient, fat-burning machine.
Information is available every where we look.
Magazines inundate us with anything and everything
anyone could need to know about having a
beautiful body. So why is gaining and losing
weight an American pastime? Some haute couture
designers even claim that custom fittings
for woman's garment will take three to six
fittings because measurements fluctuate so much from one fitting
to the next.
Resolve to make 2000 your year for moderation; for maintaining or building muscle
and losing body fat. Manage food behaviors instead of restricting food. Here
are some other new behaviors to incorporate into your new healthier lifestyle:
- Be your own positive coach. Say
positive things to yourself instead of
negative self-talk. You will soon start
to think more positively about the world
around you as well as your attitudes about
food and your body.
- Learn to manage your stress. One
of the most common manifestations of stress
is overeating. The two other most common
signs of unmanaged stress are insomnia
and overworking.
- Make it a rule to eat at least three
meals a day to avoid ever getting hungry
and overeating. Eat most of your
food throughout the day rather than late
at night.
- Make moving your body a way of life
and recreation. Organize family and
friends to participate in active time
together like miniature golf, Frisbee,
dancing, etc. instead of eating out and
going to the movies. Stretch or do weights,
Dynabands, or other activities while
you watch television.
- Don't deprive yourself of foods that
you enjoy. Make tasty and low-calorie
modifications of your favorite foods
and keep the ingredients on hand at all
times. Try one delicious, healthy new
food recipe a week. Being prepared by
keeping snacks and foods that you enjoy
and that don't sabotage your fitness
goals will minimize overeating, impulsive
eating and bingeing on high-calorie,
high-fat, high-sugar foods.
- Eat about 5-10 grams of ate and 1-3
ounces of protein or high protein food
at each meal to satisfy your appetite
and stabilize your blood sugar. Don't
load up on non-fat, low-fate convenience
foods or you may overeat your calorie
needs.
- Never eat fewer than 500 calories
a day less than your maintenance calories
or you'll lose muscle that's needed to
burn calories. If you lose weight
too quickly, you'll end up gaining more
weight than you lost, and it may be harder
to lose next time around. As a rule,
you should never eat less than 1,200
to 1,500 calories a day. The reason?
You'll reach a point where you can't
lose or reach a weight-loss plateau and
then what will you do?
If you know that you are eating the correct
amount of food and exercising, and you're
still stuck on a fat loss plateau, change
the exercise and/or the intensity of the
workout. Chances are you have become physically
efficient at your current activity or your
are no longer physically challenged by the
current workload. If you're walking, throw
in some sprints or bike at a higher intensity.
Also, include strength training and resistance
work into your fitness plan. Resistance training
will cause your metabolic rate to be elevated
for a longer time after the workout is over
because the body must repair the tissue damage
to the muscle that is worked, causing calories
to be burned. (This actually takes about
48 hours to complete.)
It is important to concentrate on fat loss
over weight loss. The body is composed of
fat tissue and fat free tissue (lean body
Mass or LBM). Lean Body Mass consists of
water, muscle, bones and organs. About 74%
of LBM is water. If you had one hundred pounds
of LBM, 74 pounds would be water! The other
26 pounds would consist of bone, muscle and
organs. So really, all pure muscle is water
inside of thin membranes of metabolically
active protein.
In the absence of available carbohydrates,
the body will break down muscle tissue (protein)
and turn it into sugar. Once this muscle
is gone, the only way it can be replaced
is through strength or resistance training
or gaining weight, which causes resistance
to the bone.
Losing weight quickly (more than an average
of two pounds per week) will ensure that
a minimum of 25 percent of the weight you
lose will be lean muscle tissue. If more
than 25 percent of the weight you lose is
from lean muscle tissue, you will not only
easily regain the lost weight, but you'll
most likely gain additional weight.
Calories (i.e. body fat) are burned in muscle
tissue. One pound of muscle tissue burns
about 35 to 75 calories daily and consists
of 450 calories of stored energy. Body fat
stores calories. One pound of fat burns about
eight calories daily and stores 3,500 calories
of energy.
Muscle tissue weighs more than fat tissue
because it's 70 percent water while fat is
20 percent water. Rapid weight loss and under
eating result in a loss of muscle tissue
for energy and a decrease in metabolism.
Now that you've got a plan to work with,
make a commitment to a healthier new year
and new millennium. Think of 2000 as a new
and glorious beginning.
Tim Collins
is an internationally known medical intuitive
and natural healing practitioner. He
has clients on six continents and in over
40 countries. See for yourself at http://medical-intuition.com/ and http://www.howtogetwell.com/. |
