10 Ways to Find Time For Fitness

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Time is a precious commodity and with the fast-paced, urgent world we live in, most people push their needs — including exercise — to the bottom of their to do lists. You may not have thought of it this way, but exercise saves you time and will most likely add longer and stronger years to your life. Read on for 10 tips to make time for exercise and 6 ways to express your workouts. Taking a little time for exercise will surprisingly help you manage other areas of your life. Some of the positive effects include lifting your mood, boosting your self-esteem and reducing your stress. Exercising gives you a healthier focus.
Those who exercise are sick less often, report being happier and even make more money then those who do not.

Exercisers make healthier food choices and sleep better. If you can manage to make exercising a priority, you will be pleased with how much better you become at managing life tasks.

10 Tips to Make Time for Exercise:

Make an appointment -
Schedule activity in your planner 1 month in advance and keep that commitment the same way you would any other meeting. When you go to schedule other activities, do so around your workout session. If it’s necessary to cancel a workout session, reschedule it immediately for another time during the day or for the very next day.

Plan Ahead -
Cook on Sunday night for the week. This way, you can head to the gym after work and still come home to a healthy cooked meal. Every Sunday, my husband and I boil at least a dozen and a half eggs, cook up a Crock Pot of chicken breasts, and a week’s worth of steel cut oats. This will help you stay on track for your meal plan as well as your exercise schedule. For best results, both your meals and activities need to be planned for and should not be left to chance.

Workout at Lunch -
A workout break will refresh you for the second half of the day and is known to boost brain power. You will be more productive after recharging your body with exercise than working through your lunch and eating at your desk. Live with no regrets!

Get Support -
Let your significant other know your exercise schedule ahead of time, so there are no conflicts or guilt when it comes time for working out. Inform your employer of your goals and ask for some flexibility in your schedule. For example, come in later and work later, so that you can get in your morning yoga or interval training workout.

Stick to Your Schedule -
Set you watch or palm pilot to go off when it’s time to exercise. Then stop what you are doing and take 30+ minutes to exercise. You will be more productive finishing up tasks after you worked out versus trying to work through a situation knowing you did not keep your commitment to yourself.

Make an Investment -
Consider signing on with a personal trainer, joining a gym or purchasing home gym equipment. Making an investment is likely to help you make a time commitment. Knowing that you have a trainer waiting for you, or that you prepaid for a package of fitness classes will increase your chances of showing up.

Always be Dressed to Move -
You never know when the opportunity will arise to go for a walk or hit the gym. Keep your sneakers in your car at all times, lay out your workout clothes or pack your gym bag the night before. Eliminate excuses and always be prepared for opportunities to exercise.

Engage in Intermittent Sessions -
Take several 10-15 minute walking breaks throughout the day. By days end, you could have completed 60 minutes of cardiovascular activity, and the health benefits can be even better than doing continuous exercise, specifically if you keep the intensity level up during your short rounds of exercise.

Eliminate Time Wasters -
Take a look at your 24-hour schedule and see where you can eliminate some time wasters. Can you multi-task, be more efficient or watch less TV? You only need to dedicate 2 percent of your week to exercise. You are worth it!

Set Yourself up for Success -
Get up 30 minutes earlier — then you don’t have to make excuses for the rest of the day. Morning exercises have the highest compliance rates, as do those who exercise with a partner.

Reaching your goals does not have to mean hours in the gym. You can express your workout routine and still maximize your results. Below are ways you can get the most out of the time you do dedicate to fitness.

6 Ways to Express Your Workouts

Combine Your Upper and Lower Body Exercises -
Cut your strength routine in half by incorporating exercises for several body parts. For example, while performing a lunge, add a set of bicep curls to the movement.

Choose Compound Exercises -
Exercises that work several muscle groups simultaneously are more time efficient than isolation exercises, which focus on one major muscle group. Examples of compound exercises include the leg press, squat, chest fly, walking lunge and seated row.

Circuit Train -
With minimal equipment, you can set up stations alternating cardio activities with strength training activities. This will keep your heart rate up so that you can get both the aerobic and anaerobic (strength) benefits. A sample circuit might include: jump rope, bicep curls, jumping jacks, push-ups, jogging in place, squats, mini-trampoline exercises and dips. Repeating the circuit up to three times is guaranteed to boost your metabolism in under 30 minutes.

Interval Train -
Using active rest and work ratios will allow you to workout at the upper and lower levels of your heart rate zone and optimize calories expended. You can start with brisk walking for 2 minutes and jogging for 30 seconds. Then progress to 2 minutes of brisk walking and 1 minute of jogging. Eventually progress to two minutes of each and ultimately to spending less time walking and more time jogging. If you are already a runner, alternate your running with spints where you accelerate with a burst of energy and then taper back to a run.

Increase Your Intensity -
By picking up the pace, you can cover more miles and ultimately burn more calories in less time. You may need to work up to higher intensities gradually, but you will become more efficient in the process and be able to cut back on the duration of your exercise sessions. Ditto for you strength training workout. If you keep each set intense, you can get the most benefit and eliminate the need for several warm up sets.

Incorporate Mind & Body Exercises -
You can get a lot of mileage out of choosing a discipline like yoga or pilates. Not only will you get the physical benefits of a well-toned body, but you will also enjoy the flexibility, relaxation and stress-relieving enhancements as well.

Make Fitness a Lifestyle Change -
By eliminating some of life’s modern conveniences and getting more physical, you can expend up to an additional 800 calories a week. That can add up to 11 pounds lost at the end of a year. So, start taking the stairs — even if you work on the 10th floor! It will get easier. Park your car in the last spot and join the kids on the playground. You never know when the opportunity will arise to get your heart rate up.

Sex Counts -
While I wouldn’t suggest replacing a formal exercise program with sex, it certainly does burn calories. The more fit you are, the more enjoyable all activities, including sex, will be. Keep in mind that there will be snags in the best though out plan. So, prepare for changes and be flexible. Use obstacles as an opportunity to try something new. In the long run, the time you invest in exercise will come back to you. Remember, no one goes to the grave saying that they should have worked more. You often hear people say, If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself. So, make your health and fitness a priority by making time to exercise.

The Great Flat Tummy Hoax…

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Today’s article is a guest post from Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS, also known as The Rogue Nutritionist, a nationally known expert on weight loss and nutrition.

Must be the season, but virtually every women’s magazine has a cover story that is a variation on the old potboiler “flat abs in minutes a day.”  And no wonder.  Who wouldn’t want that?

A couple of minutes a day, and that spare tire is gone, right?  Minimum effort, maximal payoff.  Whose not gonna buy it?  Hey, put it on the cover, I can hear them saying, right next to the article on the new miracle cellulite cream.

Think it’s too good to be true?

You’re right.

Ab-Solutely Off Base…

Look through the articles—they’re all pretty interchangeable—and you’ll find an assortment of pretty good ab exercises.  Crunches, side crunches, reverse crunches…the usual suspects.  Done correctly, these exercises will absolutely build abdominal muscles.

Should you do them?

You bet.

Will they work?

Ah, there’s the rub.

See, nearly everyone who wants a “flatter tummy” really wants to lose fat.  What they really mean, when they point to their midsection and say they want to “tone up,” is that they want to lose plain old, garden variety fat, which, for most of us, accumulates around our middle.  Or our thighs and hips.  Or both.

And that’s why the magic, “minutes a day” routines are a scam.

It’s a Diet Issue…

Because—hear me now—no amount of crunches, no matter how religiously you do them- is going to get rid of fat around your middle.

Fat comes off by eating in a way that causes the body to go into its “savings account” and start using fat up for energy.  It comes off by turning down your fat storage hormones and turning up your fat burning hormones.  And it comes off when you increase your metabolic rate by building muscle.

So does this mean those ab routines are a waste?

Not on your life.

Your abs are part of your core musculature.  Along with your lower back, they are responsible for your posture and your carriage, and are essential to a well-toned fit body.  They assist in dozens of movements and exercises.  And they help you feel strong and centered.

And if you don’t have well-trained, well-developed abs, it won’t matter how much fat you lose, you still won’t like the way you look, even when you’re thinner.  Because to get that “rippled” effect, there has to be something underneath to “ripple.”

So.  Flat tummy in minutes a day?  ‘Fraid not.  That is, not unless those minutes are accompanied by a rehaul of the eating program that put on the unwanted layer covering those abs in the first place.

And a great way to start this new eating program and unveil those abs is to first get rid of “false” fat.

Sounds Good and IS True…

“False fat” is a term coined by Dr. Elson Haas.  It refers to the bloating, edema, and water retention that is often a result of eating too much of the wrong kinds of food, foods to which your particular body is sensitive.

This “false fat” can easily add an extra 10 pounds or more of weight.  Not only that, but eating these foods can contribute to creating “real” fat as well.

Don’t count on conventional allergists to help you figure out the foods that cause this reaction.  They may be “allergy-like” responses, but they don’t come under the heading of classic food “allergies.”

Conventional medicine defines “allergy” in a very specific way.  Using the traditional definition, only about five percent of the population has allergies.  But there are lots of ways your body can scream, “I don’t like this food and don’t know how to handle it.”

“Food reactions” is a better description of the phenomena than “food allergies,” but the overall result is something that you don’t want: both false fat and real fat.

Allergy Equals Swelling…

Just like hay fever causes swelling in the nasal tissues and eyes, food sensitivities cause “swelling” by sending water to surround food particles that your digestive system is unable to break down properly.  This is just a normal part of the inflammatory response.  Your body sees these “undigested” particles as foreign invaders and tries to get rid of them.  One result of this is abdominal bloating and water retention.

Another is the release of stress hormones.  What is one of the standard “emergency room” techniques for a major food allergy reaction?  A shot of adrenaline!  Why?  Because this stress hormone has important anti-inflammatory properties.  That’s why your doctor often gives you cortisol when you have an injury.

When you eat reactive foods, your body also puts out adrenaline and other stress hormones, as part of its own natural “emergency room response.”  These stress hormones make you feel better at first, but when you “crash” from the adrenaline high, you reach for more of the craved foods and the cycle begins again.

To make it worse, the very foods that you crave are the ones that destabilize blood sugar, raise and lower insulin levels, and wind up putting on real fat.

Add a Dash of Addiction…

It gets worse: You can easily become “addicted” to the very foods that cause this reaction.

Here’s how it works: The response to a “reactive” food also includes the release of the body’s own opiates.  It’s as if your body had a built-in medic and when the medic saw you in distress, he immediately injected you with a painkiller, making you feel kind of loopy and good.  Those naturally secreted opiates can be addictive!

As Dr. Haas points out, the presence of the reactive food in your system prevents discomfort, just as the presence of alcohol prevents discomfort in the alcoholic.  Remove the reactive food and bingo…discomfort begins.  Result: cravings, anxiety, and a kind of “withdrawal.”

Since food cravings are one of the primary reasons diet strategies fail, preventing cravings is critical.  And the foods that you crave are almost always the very foods that contribute to the problem of overweight in the first place!

Toss In a Mood Swing or Two…

Serotonin levels are also depressed when you eat reactive foods because serotonin is mostly carried by white blood cells which are the very same cells used by the immune system in producing a “counter-response” to reactive foods.  While those white blood cells are busy responding to the reactive food, they’re less able to deliver serotonin to your brain.  Low serotonin levels are consistently associated with cravings, depression, and the lack of a sense of well being.

Since sugar and high carb junk foods raise serotonin levels, those are exactly the ones you tend to crave when you’re in “low serotonin mode.  What’s more, these are precisely the kinds of foods that are front-loaded at any holiday gathering!  From a weight loss (and health) perspective, they are also the ones that do the most damage.

Get Real About False Fat…

Since many of the foods we are “reactive” to are all around us, and many of the usual suspects—like wheat—are in virtually everything, detoxification and rotation diets are often a good idea.

If you’re stuck on a plateau, or are experiencing any of the symptoms discussed like fatigue, bloat, or “brain fog,” try removing what Dr. Haas calls the seven most reactive foods: dairy, wheat, corn, sugar, soy, eggs and peanuts.

At the very least, try taking out dairy, wheat, and sugar and see how you feel.  You’ll be amazed at how much better you can feel within a matter of three day

Change Is Definitely Good

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By Dena Kouremetis

Why is it that we sometimes make changes only when we are forced to, even when change in and of itself can be so cathartic and life-affirming?

When I was small, I remember seeing the satisfaction and delight my mom took when simply cleaning out a drawer or moving some furniture around and then standing back and admiring her work. To her, it was if that space were new again, reward enough for her efforts.

As Mom got older, however, she began to savor a degree of sameness — as if changing the location of something might change her memory of a specific time or event. I realize that this is why professional organizers, designers or stagers are brought in to make the changes people hesitate to make. Owners can fall into a rut, forgetting that change and a little risk-taking is what once made their lives interesting, fun and adventurous. And just like HGTV makeover reality shows — where people return home to the ‘reveal’ of the space that used to be cluttered or inefficiently arranged– once they see what was done, they face it as if they are receiving a new lease on life.  This is despite the revelation that — just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz — they had the power to make those changes all long.

 

I can relate to Mom’s joy in making small changes as we prepare to  move back into our home following repairs from a flooding disaster several months ago. Living comfortably at the time in a house we purchased only four years ago, I can see now that my spouse and I had fallen into somewhat of a rut.  After the first year there, the excitement of the move-in died down and I ceased talking about ‘honey-do’ projects or even the desire to take them on myself. We unwittingly stopped planning projects to update the place, citing times off in the future (when we win the Lotto?) to address dated tile, wall colors we disliked, cabinets that either needed replacing or painting, locations for belongings and the repurposing of areas that were best used differently once things were put away “temporarily.” We figured, of course, that we’d get to all of this later. But once a daily rhythm kicked in, these plans somehow became fleeting thoughts instead of short trips to Home Depot.

 

Okay, so real estate isn’t worth what it once was, and you figure, “why pour money into a declining asset?”  I can tell you why. It’s HOME. It’s where you wake up each morning. And no matter what small changes you make, it can only benefit you in the long run to take care of your surroundings. Making your place your version of beautiful can feed your soul, even if it lightens your wallet a little bit — from revamping a cabinet space and putting in new shelf liner to throwing out things you haven’t used in years to heading to Ikea for attractive storage bins.

As I plan our ‘re-move-in’, my head is already full of ideas on how differently I will arrange things. The closer the move gets, the more giddy I become.  Having seen how recent small decisions on our part completely changed ambience of our living space during the repairs, I am bolstered by what else we can do once we are living there again.  Slowly but surely, yellowing honey oak cabinets will get sanded and painted white to match trim all over the house (I am going to STOP wishing we had enough money for all new cabinets..). An old desk already got ‘Craigslisted’ to make room for a new, more contemporary one that will permit me to gaze out windows in my home office at a gorgeous Bird of Paradise plant that seems to have gone on steroids lately. Pieces of furniture that cluttered small spaces will be sold, leaving larger expanses of new hardwood and carpet for us to appreciate. Dated bathroom fixtures are being replaced and tract home bathroom mirrors have been removed, making way for elegant, framed ones instead.

So I ask again…why does it sometimes take fate to play a hand in getting us off our collective ‘keisters’  when the power to do this has been ours all along?  I dunno. That’s for you to ponder.

But no matter. The fact that it can still happen to me means I am still eminently capable of change and that, my dears, makes me feel young again.

Preventing Kidney Stones

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Preventing Kidney Stones

by Dr. Jonny · 4 comments

preventing kidney stones

I’ve never had kidney stones, but I’ve heard people describe the pain of passing them as akin to pulling your upper lip over the back of your head. (Or maybe that was a description of childbirth.) In any case, no one I know who’s ever had them is eager to repeat the experience.

Kidney stones are hard masses that can grow from crystals forming within the kidneys. Women sometimes get them, but they’re much more common in men. About three-quarters of the stones are made out of calcium oxalate.  (Uric acid stones are most commonly found in gout.)

Oxalate is an organic salt, but when combined with calcium it produces an insoluble mass called calcium-oxalate which is the most common chemical compound found in kidney stones. Urinary oxalate is the single strongest predictor of kidney stone formation- the higher the urinary oxalate, the greater the risk of oxalate kidney stones.

So anything that helps reduce urinary oxalate would help reduce the risk of kidney stones, right?

Exactly. And that’s the finding of a recent and important study in which supplementation with 900 mg EPA and 600 mg DHA, for a period of 30 days lowered the urinary oxalate by 23%, thus effectively decreasing, by a significant amount,  the risk of calcium oxalate formation.

Because 75 percent of kidney stones are formed from oxalates, you’ll want to avoid or at least reduce your consumption of foods that are high in oxalates: nuts, tea, chocolate, beets, rhubarb, and wheat bran are all on the list. Phosphate-based soft drinks are also a big problem for stone formers. A study in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology examined 1,009 male patients and found that the guys who consumed the largest quantities of phosphate-based sodas had the highest rate of stone recurrence.

Two other things you can you do to help prevent another excruciatingly painful stone from ever forming again is to take magnesium and start  drinking a ton of water. Water will make calcium oxalate more soluble and a lot less likely to form crystals. Water and lemon juice may help as well, since a half cup of lemon juice a day will raise citrate levels, which can help fight stone formation. (Soda, on the other hand, does the opposite.) And research shows that grapefruit juice raises the risk of stones by as much as 44 percent, so if you’re prone to stone formation, avoid it. Ditto with salt.

The Magic of Magnesium

According to Alan Gaby, M.D., author of the textbook “Nutritional Medicine”, research “strongly suggests that supplementing with modest doses of magnesium and vitamin B6 can greatly reduce the recurrence rate of calcium oxalate kidney stones.” In one study, 149 patients with long-standing stones received 100 mg of a cheap form of magnesium (magnesium oxide) three times a day, equal to 180 mg per day of elemental magnesium. They also received 10 mg of  vitamin B6 once a day at the same time.

Would you like to know what happened?

The mean rate of stone formation dropped by 92.3 percent.

Another study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition showed that supplementing with 500 mg of magnesium a day (even without the B6) dropped stone formation by 90 percent.

“Unfortunately, many doctors remain unaware of this simple, safe, effective, and inexpensive treatment for recurrent kidney stones,” Gaby says.

5 Easy Steps for Preventing Kidney Stones

If you really want to reduce the risk of stone formation, follow these five easy steps for preventing kidney stones:

  1. Drink a ton of water. Every day
  2. Throw out your soda
  3. Take Fish Oil  daily: about 1.5 grams of combined EPA-DHA (the amount used in the study mentioned above)
  4. Take 400-800 mg of magnesium (preferably with at least 10mg of vitamin B6)
  5. Reduce or monitor your consumption of high-oxalate foods
  6. Avoid grapefruit juice
  7. Reduce salt

Fructose Turns to Fat Faster Than Any Other Sugar

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by Dr. Jonny Bowden

fructose

Pretty much everyone is aware of the fact that high-fructose corn syrup is bad news. But not everyone really understands why.

The politically incorrect truth is that high-fructose corn syrup is only marginally worse than regular sugar, a fact that the corn growers association has repeatedly hammered home in their PR efforts to get you to think of high-fructose corn syrup as a relatively benign substance (it’s not). Once you understand what fructose does in the body, you’ll understand that whether it comes from HFCS or regular sugar, it’s still one of the worst things you can ingest. Here’s why:

Ordinary table sugar (technically called sucrose) is 50% glucose and 50% fructose. (High-fructose corn syrup is 45% glucose and 55% fructose, not an enormous difference.) But the “bad” part of either substance is the fructose part.

Fructose also turns to fat much more easily than other sugars, a fact demonstrated by recent research from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Researcher fed healthy people breakfast drinks containing three different “sugar combinations” followed by a carefully controlled lunch. They did this over several weeks. In one test, the breakfast drink contained 100% glucose; in another the drink was half glucose, half fructose (which is what you’d find in ordinary sugar). In the third condition, the subjects got a drink that was 25% glucose and 75% fructose.

The researchers were interested in two things, both of which should interest you. One, they wanted to measure how fast the sugars in the drink turned to fat in the liver. Two, they wanted to see how that morning sugar-meal influenced how people metabolized foods eaten later in the day (for example, lunch).

The findings were disturbing. For one thing, the researchers found that fructose got “made” into fat way more quickly than other sugars. And for the second thing, they found that when fructose was eaten with fat (for example in any junk food snack you can name) the fat was much more likely to be stored rather than burned.

“Our study shows for the first time the surprising speed with which humans make body fat from fructose”, said lead researcher Elizabeth Parks, PhD.

So what about fruit?

Good question. Some low-carb proponents point out that people with weight problems caused by insulin resistance may be sensitive to even the relatively small amount of fructose found in fruit, and therefore suggest limiting fruit in the diet, if not cutting it out completely.

But remember that the fructose in fruit is relatively small compared to the amount found in any sweetened processed food. Fruit also comes with fiber and nutrients. The breakfast drinks served in the study had as much as 65 grams of fructose. (An apple has about 11 and a cup of strawberries only 4.)

(On Diet Boot Camp we allow a small amount of fruit during the two week period after prep week. For most people this doesn’t present a problem.)

The damage done by fructose isn’t limited to weight gain. Recent research from the Journal of the American Society Nephrology shows that people who eat a diet high in fructose in the form of added sugar (of any kind) are at increased risk of developing high blood pressure.

The researchers found that people who consumed a diet of 74 grams or more per day of fructose (corresponding to 2.5 sugary soft drinks per day) had a 26%, 30%, and 77% higher risk for blood pressure levels of 135/85, 140/90, and 160/100 mmHg, respectively. (A normal blood pressure reading is below 120/80 mmHg.)

Fructose also causes insulin resistance, a key factor in both diabetes and metabolic syndrome, both of which increase the risk for heart disease.

So whether it comes from high fructose corn syrup, plain old sugar, or—I’m sorry to say—agave nectar (which can be as high as 90% fructose, dwarfing even the amount found in HFCS), fructose is bad news.

The 2 Most Effective Strategies For Keeping Weight Off

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Article by Dr. Jonny Bowden

There’s a ton of info out there on how to lose weight, but not nearly as much on how to keep it off. But that’s about to change. Recently, one of the largest dietary studies in Europe was completed, and it sheds a lot of light on the question of what to do to keep the scale from inching back up.

The study- known as the Diogenes Study- offers clear evidence that choosing foods higher in protein and lower on the glycemic index is the most effective strategy for preventing weight regain.

The Diogenes study enrolled 772 European families, which included 938 overweight adults. In the first stage of the study, participants were put on a very low calorie diet for eight weeks, during which the average weight loss was 24 pounds.

But this wasn’t’ the interesting part of the study. (After all, it’s no big surprise that if you literally starve people they’ll drop weight.) The interesting part of the study was what happened in the next phase.

After eight weeks, the researchers randomly assigned the 772 adults who had completed the eight-week weight loss diet to one of five maintenance diets, which they stayed on for six months. The researchers were interested in finding out what type of food plan made it easier to keep the weight off. (Note: none of the diets involved calorie counting.)

Here are the five diet conditions:

  1. Group one: Low protein (13% of calories), high glycemic index
  2. Group two:  Low protein, low glycemic index
  3. Group three: High protein (25% of calories) low glycemic index
  4. Group four: High protein, high glycemic index
  5. Group five: Standard, “current dietary recommendations”… (the European version of our food pyramid)

The average weight regain across the board, blending all groups, was about 1.1 pounds. But there was a big difference between the groups.

The poorest results were obtained by the low-protein, high-GI diet (group one). They were the only group to have significant weight regain (gaining back about 3.7 pounds on average).

The best results by far were obtained by the high-protein low-GI group. More participants from this group actually completed the study leading one to suspect it’s a much easier plan to stay with. And both high-protein and low-glycemic index independently improved the results. Those in the higher protein conditions had on average 2 pounds less regain than those in the lower-protein conditions; those in the low-GI conditions had on average 2 pounds less regain than those in the high-GI conditions.

Take home point: Modest increases in protein and modest reduction in glycemic index led to better compliance and better maintenance of weight loss.

The results won’t surprise any of us who have been preaching higher-protein lower-carb diets for a long time. Protein helps you feel full, boosts your metabolism and makes weight loss easier. High glycemic foods, in general, send your blood sugar skyrocketing and can lead to metabolic issues, cravings, weight gain and mood swings. Is it any wonder that a moderate calories, higher protein, lower glycemic index diet would work so well?

Incidentally, that’s exactly the kind of eating program used in the Diet Boot Camp program. Diet Boot Camp isn’t exactly a low-carb program, but it’s a low junk food program. You’ll eat plenty of carbs but most of them will be vegetables, fruits and some “mixed” foods like beans, all low-glycemic and high fiber. Couple that with adequate protein and a healthy dose of fat, moderate calories and a program to help you break through your self-sabotage, and you’re looking at a road map for success. All you have to do is get in the car and start driving!

Self Limiting Exercise–Fat Limiting? :-)

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Self Limiting Exercise

By Alwyn Cosgrove

I was first introduced to the term self-limiting exercise a few years ago while speaking with Gray Cook (we were teaching together at a Perform Better one-day event).

Gray was talking about the book “Born to Run” By Christopher MacDougall and the barefoot running idea.

Running barefoot is what can be classified as a self-limiting exercise – the body cannot over-stride or heel strike because the immediate feedback – pain – auto-corrects the form of the runner. In fact, it is completely self-limiting as there is no way of creating overuse injuries either – the foot and the joint impacts of running will prevent that as you’ll stop running. You can’t do it incorrectly.

It’s a perfect exercise. However – when we introduced the running shoe with padding – we put a problem in there (And thought we were creating a solution).

The body is now no longer given immediate feedback to adjust or correct running form, and the very nature of the thick sole of the shoe can allow runners to perform far more volume than their muscles and joints can handle. The results – inevitable injuries, as exhibited by many strapped up/knee supported runners you see.

It’s an interesting concept and Gray and I discussed it at length as applied to other forms of exercise.

A self-limiting exercise as defined by Gray “requires mindfulness and an awareness of movement, alignment, balance and control. Self-limiting exercise requires engagement”

My further definition is that a self-limiting exercise provides an automatic yet natural obstacle that prevents you from doing it wrong, or doing an excessive volume. I suppose my first exposure to self-limiting exercise was via martial arts training and in particular sparring – if you don’t protect yourself, you get hit – immediate feedback in the form of a punch on the nose!

With speed and agility training – the CHAOS system as devised by Robert Dos Remedios of open-response is self-limiting – athletes are left behind or fall if their technique or direction change isn’t perfect – very different from closed-response (when you know when you’re going to change direction).

But it also applies to traditional exercise. For example – The Turkish Get-up, inverted rows, bottoms-up kettlebell pressing are all self-limiting. It’s hard to do too many bottoms-up presses, you won’t be able to keep the kettlebell in position. With inverted rows – either the core, or the grip strength limits you. And with Turkish get-ups – you’ll either remain stuck to the floor or have a weight drop on your head!

There are more – jump rope can’t be performed incorrectly or to excess, the battling ropes system, the TRX and the stability ball all have built-in corrections or “abort” mechanisms in their very nature.

As I studied the concept of self-limiting exercise more I started to think of it in terms of fat loss training. In fact, self-limiting exercise may be one of the reasons why our fat loss programs are so successful.

Self-limiting exercise performed in a circuit is essentially training to technical failure, but without the risk of overuse injury or sloppy form – it’s just impossible to do poor, sloppy reps. Yet the energy demands are through the roof. To train with that absolute level of engagement demands so much metabolically, that it can be exhausting and immediate in terms of fat loss results, yet at the same time, being of a low volume due to the auto-correction mechanisms in place.

Anecdotally, I did a recent workout of Turkish Get-ups. I performed a countdown style workout with 60s rest between sets. 5 reps each side, 4 reps, then 3, 2 and finally a single rep.  The last rep took almost as long as the first set of five. The entire workout, including rest periods, took less than 20 minutes and consisted only of 30 total repetitions. It was mentally and physically tough however -almost exhausting. Despite being low in volume, and short – the metabolic demands were off the charts.

Can self-limiting exercise be the future of fat-limiting exercise? Naturally imposed loads seem to train the weakest links, with a high metabolic cost – naturally!

Money Saving Tips 4 Eating & Drinking Healthy

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7 Ways to Save Money While Eating and Drinking Healthy
By JJ Virgin

shopping calculatorOkay, I admit it. For the past year I have been flatly refusing to participate in the recession. I have been in total denial about its existence and figured if I didn’t give it any energy, it would go away. Unfortunately, it is clearly not just up to me and from what I am hearing, things are not turning around anytime soon.

Since my mission is to empower the world to be proactive about their health by consistently implementing simple action steps, I realized that I needed to make sure that I removed as many “excuses” as possible. I realize that the two reasons I hear most often as to why people don’t take better care of themselves are time and money.

Now, I do agree, when we tell you to switch to organic and buy wild fish and high quality grass fed beef it can definitely cost more. So here are some cost-cutting techniques to compensate for that increased and necessary expense.

1. Spin your salad.
salad spinnerOkay, so I broke down and bought a salad spinner (they have very cool ones at Target) because I realized that I was spending a small fortune on bagged lettuce that I still had to wash (yep, you do remember that e. coli scare, right?), so I really wasn’t saving any time and it was definitely costing more money. Actually, Leanne Ely and I were recording our Ultimate Meal Planning Guide and she was talking about which kitchen tools you must have and she went on a tear about salad spinners and I didn’t want to admit that I didn’t have one!

2. Go to your local farmer’s market.
Go to your local farmer’s market and get to know your local growers. Many growers use organic growing principles but don’t have the $$$ to spend to get the organic “label”. This is also great because it ensures that you are buying local and seasonal which means fresher, more nutritious food.

3. Pack your own.
I carry a safe drinking bottle with me to fill out with filtered water on my travels – no more $4 plastic water bottles at the airport for me. Plus, I always keep PaleoBars with me so I have emergency food. The last time I forgot I ended up having to spend $9.50 for a small bag of turkey jerky at the airport. I also travel with nuts, apples and jerky so I don’t get caught empty handed and have to choose some high cost, low nutrition option that will hurt my body and my bank account.

4. Go simple.
Okay, I admit that I do have a daily Starbucks habit, but I have an Americano (half decaf/half caf) which is far less than those gourmet coffee drinks. Plus I usually end up working there for an hour or so, so I justify it as paying office rent smiley face. If you are having one (or more…) of those $4 gourmet coffee drinks daily, switch over to green tea, an Americano or coffee and look at how much money you save over the month.

5. Stock up.
couponsWhen your local grocer is having a sale on grass fed beef, free range chicken, organic olive oil, etc, stock up! And the same goes for those coupons. I always laughed at them but the ones they hand me at the store are usually for things that I am already buying so I now carry them in my wallet. BTW, in the spirit of saving money, I have decided that we are going to have a 24-hour “Buy 3, Get One Free” Stock Up Sale on our shakes, bars and supplements soon, so stay tuned for that.

6. Brew your own.
Have you checked out how much they charge for organic iced green tea in plastic bottles (so you are paying for toxic phthalates from the plastic too) at the store? Our local grocery sells it for $5 per quart of brewed tea whereas I can make a gallon for $5 worth of organic tea bags. My favorite green tea of all is Japanese Cherry from Coffee Bean — it makes amazing iced green tea.

You’ll be amazed at how much you can actually save each month by following these simple tips (easily $100 to $200 each month). Finally, there are the items that you want to spend all that saved money on: high quality cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, wild fish and grass fed beef.

©2010 JJ Virgin & Associates, Inc. Celebrity nutrition and wellness expert JJ Virgin is a media personality, in-demand public speaker and best-selling author of Six Weeks to Sleeveless and Sexy, The 5-Step Plan to Sleek, Strong and Sculpted Arms. Get her biweekly LEANzine chock full of tips to get you slim and sexy fast at www.jjvirgin.com.

Reduce Those Stubborn Tummy Pounds

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CLA Reduces Stubborn Belly Fat

CLA (Conjugated linoleic acid) has become a fascinating addition to losing body and especially tummy fat. While losing pounds is CLA’s most notable claim to fame, the benefits go way beyond to include slowing the spread of cancer cells, help stop bone loss in postmenopausal women and interestingly, calming of inflammation linked to asthma and a host of other things.

~ Dr. Jonny

 

 

A new study in the prestigious American Journal of Clinical Nutrition adds to the growing body of research showing the CLA- conjugated linoleic acid- is extremely effective at reducing fat around the middle.

In the current study (Am J Clin Nutr 09; 90: 468-476) fifty-five obese postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes received either safflower oil or CLA during two 16-week diet periods separated by a 4-week “washout” period.

It’s called a “crossover” study- each group gets the first treatment, waits a few weeks and then gets the second treatment so that all participants get both “treatments”.

Supplementation with CLA reduced body mass index (BMI) and total fat tissue without altering lean mass. The effect of the CLA in lowering BMI was detected during the last 8 weeks of each 16-week diet period. The women lost an average of 4 pounds of fat from around their waist area.

I’ll never forget my first introduction to CLA. I saw a series of photos years ago that came out of an early study on overweight rodents given CLA in their diets.

After euthanizing the rats, the researchers did the equivalent of a rodent autopsy and took photos of their inner abdominal areas.

The rats that ate only regular rat chow had huge amounts of white abdominal fat around their middle, while the CLA rats had almost none. It was dramatic, and I still remember the pictures.

A couple of years go, a trial was published in the British Journal of Nutrition in which researchers divided 118 overweight subjects into two groups and gave one of them about 3 ½ grams per day of CLA and the other group a placebo.

Those assigned to the CLA group lost a little more than 3 percent of body fat mass (compared to about a tenth of 1 percent in the placebo group).

The thing about CLA is that you have to use it consistently for it to work, and you have to take the right amount.

Many studies have used 3 grams or so of CLA, but the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study used 8 grams. Always check the percentage of CLA in the capsule- if the capsule is 1000mg of 80% CLA (a high percentage) you’ll need 4 capsules to equal 3,200mg.

By the way, the benefits of CLA go way beyond the loss of fat.

 

“In 2005, nearly 300 studies were published on CLA, including studies in which CLA slowed the spread of cancer cells, helped stop bone loss in postmenopausal women, calmed the inflammation of asthma, was linked to lower rates of colon cancer, and boosted immune function.”

~Harry Presuss, MD, Georgetown University Medical Center professor, President of the Executive Committee of the American College of Nutrition.

 

SuperCitriMax – Great
CLA Boost

CLA is great for weight loss but as Dr. Harry Preuss and his colleagues found, adding SuperCitriMax provided quite a boost.

Another caveat here — SuperCitriMax also has to be taken at the right dose.

In one study, Preuss and his colleagues looked at thirty healthy but overweight people age twenty-one to fifty. All participants ate a diet of 2,000 calories a day and walked for half an hour five days a week. One group was given Super CitriMax and the other group got a placebo.

At the end of the study the placebo group lost an average of three pounds, but the Super CitriMax group had lost an average of twelve pounds- a whopping 400 percent more weight. Their average BMI fell by 6.3 percent (compared to only 1.7 percent for the placebo group).

For the month of November, CLA and SuperCitriMax are on sale at a 15% savings. And, as always, we love to hear your results when you try the many ways to boost your weight loss.

Check out Dr. Jonny Bowden’s site and complete supplement store at www.jonnybowden.com

 

Boundaries Can Be Liberating

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Most of us are under the misconception that fit people work hard and spend most of their lives deprived in order to achieve their amazing bodies.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

I’ll let you in on a little secret…It’s not hard to get and stay fit. It’s not about hard work and deprivation.

It’s all about boundaries.

Let me explain…

When you were a child your parents set boundaries for you. They were the authority on what was or wasn’t acceptable behavior. You had to complete your chores before dinner. You had to finish your homework before going out to play. You had to eat all your vegetables before dessert.

If you failed to comply with these boundaries then you knew that there would be consequences.

As an adult you, and only you, are the authority on what is or isn’t acceptable behavior. You are in the position to set boundaries around yourself. These boundaries serve as a framework of order around you – a rock of support in an otherwise chaotic world.

With self-imposed boundaries you can assure your success in anything…specifically with weight loss.

Your fitness boundaries have to be self-imposed—no one is going to do it for you. Don’t look at this as a bad thing! Self-imposed boundaries are self-empowering.

Let’s face it, you’ve been living life without health and fitness boundaries.

You eat whatever you want, whenever you want it.
You use any excuse to avoid exercise.
You indulge whenever it feels good.

It’s time to introduce boundaries back into your life. These boundaries are the key to unleashing your ideal fit and healthy body.

1. Fitness Boundary One: What you eat

If you were to be perfectly honest with me, you could list off the foods that are unhealthy and fattening. So why are you still eating them? You know that refined, fried, processed and sugary foods are not good for you.

Place boundaries around what you will allow yourself to eat. Acceptable food items include whole foods, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean meats.

2. Fitness Boundary Two: How you exercise

I know that you’re not an Olympic athlete, but that doesn’t mean that you can simply pass on exercise. By now you are well aware of the host of benefits that exercise provides. With regular exercise you’ll look great, feel amazing and have more energy than ever.

Place boundaries around how often you must exercise. Choose exercise that is challenging and fun – don’t be afraid to try new activities that improve your strength and endurance.

3. Fitness Boundary Three: When you indulge

Let’s face it, we live in a world where indulging has become the norm, rather than the exception. When you live life without fitness boundaries, everyday is an opportunity to indulge. These indulgences all add up quickly, causing your clothes to become tight and your energy levels to drop.

Place boundaries around when you can indulge. You’ll find that by limiting your indulgences you’ll end up enjoying them even more.

Putting It In Action

Sit down and take a long, hard look at your lifestyle. Are you eating as healthy as you could be? Are you exercising 3-5 times each week? Are you indulging too often? Answer the following questions:

What 3 food items can I eliminate from my daily diet? (These should be nutritionally void items like high-calories beverages, fast food, packaged snacks, high-fat food, candy or desserts.)
When can I schedule exercise into my week? (Pick 3-5 days, and select a specific timeframe. Example: I’m going to exercise on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays from 5am-6am.)
When will I allow myself to indulge? (Don’t go overboard here, especially if you need to lose weight. Enjoy a treat a couple times each month, and do so guilt-free knowing that you’ve maintained healthy food boundaries the rest of the time. When trying to lose weight, I recommend you eat lean and fit 90% of the time, and give yourself 10% treat freedom.

Remember that self-imposed boundaries are self-empowering.

Fitness boundaries put your fitness results on autopilot. If you know what constitutes an acceptable meal, then choosing what to eat just got a whole lot easier. If you’re committed to exercising 3 times a week, soon it becomes second nature.

Need help setting up your fitness boundaries? I am here to help – call or email me now!

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