Guidelines to a Healthier You (Exercise Consistency)!

People continually try to complicate getting healthy, but it boils down to exercising and eating right. The key to health is to be consistent. You do not have to be a molecular biologist to understand that eating more calories than your body needs will lead to weight gain. Those extra calories are going to be stored for later which means more fat. I understand that life gets busy, but being consistent with a plan is worth your health. The purpose of this post is to give you some basic ideas that will be a roadmap to wellness.

Here are some simple rules I use. I hope they help you make better choices.

Exercise:

1. Set a goal. Pick a target to work towards. It can be to loose more weight than your coworker, run a 5K, 10K, full marathon, climb a mountain, or chase your daughter. It doesn’t matter what the goal is, but that it helps focus your exercise.
2. Do something everyday. Be active everyday, and pick 4 days per week to get a serious sweat on for at least 30 minutes. It can be mowing the lawn, vacuuming, walking the dog, or take up a sport.
3. The two day rule! You can’t miss 2 days of working out in a row. You can skip one day. But not the next!
4. Don't put off exercise. I am a pack rat. I build up piles of clutter to a point that it feels overwhelming to deal with. Then I start sorting and it goes by quickly. I feel better once it is taken care of. Exercise is the same way so follow the 2 day rule and you will stay ahead of the clutter.
5. Exercise can be done anywhere. It is ok if you can’t workout for a straight 30 minutes. Split it up through out the day by using Tabata intervals. Do something active during the commercials. Consistently making time for activity is the key.
6. Rest. Your body needs time to repair and that is primarily done while you sleep. Go to bed early. Use the DVR, I think it was invented for late night television.
7. Your quality of life will be so much better with exercise and healthy eating! Remember this is an investment in your wellbeing. The money spent now will pay off in dividends that can only be measured in the wonderful experiences shared with others. Following Nike's slogan…Just do it!

Nutrition:

1. Eat 3 meals each day. Providing your body with a consistent source of energy will keep your metabolism burning.
2. Eat 2 snacks per day. This will keep your blood sugar levels stable and avoid binging when hungry.
3. More veggies please. The goal here is 9 servings per day (variety is key)!
4. Fruit, a gift from God. Fruit is your dessert so don't go wild (remember it still is high in sugar).
5. Carbs are ok...but only when complex. Think of the grains your grandma used for her cooking. Simple and Processed carbohydrates rapidly convert to glycogen (sugar) in the body and burn too quickly leaving you craving more food. Instead, get back to the basic whole grains like oats and try some more exotic grains like kamut, amaranth, and quinoa.
6. Fiber is your friend. You will be amazed at how little fiber you eat each day. Aim for 30 grams of fiber per day if you want to help your digestive system out.
7. Choose lean proteins. Vegetarians stick with legumes, lentils, nuts. Carnivores choose fish, chicken, and eggs.
8. Drink lots of water. Aim for a glass every hour you are awake. I try to drink a gallon per day.
9. Don't eat 2 hours before bedtime.
10. Eat slowly. The Europeans make meal time a social occasion and savor their meals. Slowing down allows the body’s natural appetite control to work.
11. If you feel full, you ate too much. Focus on savoring the meal and only eat enough to be satisfied. You do not want to feel like you need a nap afterwards.
12. Don't sweat it if you fall off the wagon. Shake it off if temptation gets the best of you. Nobody eats healthy 100% of the time. Just make sure that your next meal is healthy. Your body will thank you for every step you make towards a healthy diet.
13. Why are you eating? Ask yourself if you are eating for emotional or physical hunger.
14. Quality in, Quality out. I have a sweet tooth, but when I gorge on sugar I am hurting afterwards. Be honest, you feel better when you make healthy choices.

I have found it way too tedious to write down my food consumption and track my exercise. If you are like me than you need to check out www.fitday.com. It is a free online diet and weight loss journal that takes the guess work out of calculating calories in vs. calories out. Go create an account and start logging your food and exercise. FitDay rocks, it is user friendly, and the best part is that it is free!

You will be on your journey to a healthy life when you consistently stick to the above guide!

Start today!

True Strength Test: Top 10 Bodyweight Exercises

Bodyweight exercises build the foundation for any training program. You are setting yourself up for injury if you can not move your own body through all the planes of movement. Bodyweight exercises help develop true mobility. I am not talking about just flexibility which is stretched out tendons and ligaments. I am talking about being able to use the joint’s full range of motion. There are some incredible athletes/teachers such as Scott Sonnon, Steve Cotter, and Steve Maxwell providing excellent instruction on bodyweight exercise (and beyond). For today’s post we are going to focus on another unconventional expert Zach Even-Esh. On his blog, he listed his top 10 bodyweight exercises for measuring real strength:

Top 10 Bodyweight Exercises Making You a TRUE Beast!

The List:

1) pistols x 10 ea. leg
2) 1 arm push ups x 10 ea. arm
3) 1 hand pull up x 1 rep ea. arm
4) muscle up on bar / rings x 5 in a row
5) 100 consecutive push ups
6) 10 handstand push ups
7) handstand walking
8) 20′ rope climb without leg assistance
9) parallel bar dips x 50 reps (upper arms parallel to floor)
10) 20 pull ups (overhand or underhand grip)

I am still not able to perform the entire list, but I am more than 50 percent there. Give the entire list a try or pick a few exercises to incorporate into your routine. Set your goal and as Zach Even-Esh says, “Kill it!”

Sun Salutation: A Quick Yoga Series to Start the Day

The Sun Salutation, Surya Namaskar A, consists of 12 postures performed in a single, graceful flowing series. Move through each posture following the breath. Inhale as you extend or stretch, and exhale as you fold or contract. Think of your lungs as an accordion…exhale when compressing the lungs and inhale when expanding the lungs. The Sun Salutation series warms up the body and tones the core muscles. Consider this your morning mobility drill to increase strength and flexibility. The Sun Salutation has numerous variations depending on the style of yoga. The listed series below show the basic movements in Ashtanga’s Surya Namaskar A.

For the series below, a single round consists of all 12 steps. I have linked pictures and further instructions from Yoga Journal for the visual learners.

1. To begin, stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose). Distribute your weight evenly over both feet.
2. Next, inhale and stretch your arms out to the side and overhead into Urdhva Hastasana (Upward Hand Pose).
3. As you exhale, hollow out your belly and fold into Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend). Keep your legs firmly engaged.
4. Inhale and lengthen your spine forward into Ardha Uttanasana (Half Standing Forward Bend). In this pose, the gaze is lifted, the spine is extended, and the fingertips can stay on the floor or rise to the shins.
5. Exhale and step or lightly hop your feet back behind you into Plank Pose. Your wrists should be flat on the floor, shoulder-distance apart, and your feet should be at hip distance. Take a full breath in as you lengthen through your spine.
6. Exhale and lower into Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose), keeping your legs straight and pushing back into your heels or bringing your knees to the floor.
7. Inhale and carve your chest forward into Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward-Facing Dog), directing that energy out from your heart. Pull your shoulders back and open your collarbones. Engage your legs but relax your gluteal muscles.
8. Exhale and roll over the toes, coming into Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose). Ground down through your hands and feet as you lengthen your spine. Remain here for five breaths.
9. On your fifth exhale, bend your knees and look between your hands. Then inhale and step or lightly hop your feet between your hands, returning to Ardha Uttanasana.
10. Exhale back to Uttanasana, surrendering into the fold.
11. Inhale, reaching your arms out wide to your sides and coming to stand through a flat back. Draw your arms overhead into Urdhva Hastasana.
12. Exhale and return to Tadasana, your home base.

One or two rounds of Sun Salutations performed in the morning will make a profound difference on your day. Eventually work up to five rounds since this is the number of times you will do Surya Namaskar A in the complete Ashtanga series. Who knows, you may like it so much you will want to start practicing the complete Ashtanga series.

Namaste

The obesity epidemic in the US is due solely to increased food intake

I recently read an article by Fran Lowry on heartwire reporting on research presented at the 2009 European Congress on Obesity in Amsterdam. The research showed how the increased amount of food Americans eat is the cause of the obesity epidemic not the lack of physical activity. This idea runs against the current assumption that our increasingly sedentary lives are to blame for the weight gain.

“If Americans want to get serious about winning the battle of the bulge, they are going to have to cut down on the amount of food they eat, Swinburn, who is director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention, told heartwire.” Swinburn and his colleagues created a series of equations to take into account energy intake, energy expenditure, and body size for a group of 963 children and 1399 adults. They used USDA food-supply data and then predicted the increase in weight in the children and adults between 1971 to 1976 and between 1999 and 2002. If the predicted weight matched the observed than it was food consumption, otherwise it was the change in physical activity. The children’s gain of 4.0 kg was attributed to calorie consumption. The adults predicted 10.8 kg was higher than the observed of 8.6 kg showing that physical activity may have moderated the weight gain somewhat. This study clearly shows that controlling what and how much we eat is going to have a much greater impact on weight gain/loss. It is important not to loose sight of the benefit of exercise and physical activity as there are a number of physiological benefits. Exercise allows us to do the activities we love whether it is chasing the kids, climbing a mountain, or dominating at the Sunday flag-football game.

The bigger challenge to creating awareness is fighting the driver of this overconsumption, the food industry. The easy approach for politicians and the food industry has been promoting physical activity as the solution to obesity, said Swinburn. "It's relatively uncontroversial, there are no commercial competitors, it's a positive thing to do, so politicians, egged on by the food industry, heavily promote the physical-activity side of the equation." The food industry has also mastered promotion, especially to the most vulnerable and impressionable members of society—children. "Over the past 30 years they have become very sophisticated in marketing and advertising that is particularly iniquitous in relation to kids. They are adept in the way they turn kids into liking, preferring, demanding, and pestering for the foods that they advertise."

The American College of Cardiology spokesperson Dr Matthew Sorrentino (University of Chicago), agreed that Swinburn and colleagues verified what experts in the obesity field had long suspected. "The main cause of the obesity epidemic in this country is the wide availability of high-caloric foods and the fact that we are eating way too many calories in the course of a day. Exercise has much less impact." Sorrentino said that about 90% of weight loss is achieved by cutting calories; only about 10% of weight loss is achieved by significantly increasing physical activity.

The take away from this study is to focus on what we can control, which is what goes in our mouths. This study does not mean that we should become anorexic and sit on the couch. Instead focus on eating whole, unprocessed, unrefined foods (lots of veggies) like the way grandma used to make. It is still important to increase the exercise as this will help with a whole host of things (we’ll save that for another blog) beyond just weight loss. Next time you crave that double double cheese burger with a soda…remember that you will have to run for an hour to burn the calories. Simply prevent that weight gain by opting for the low-cal alternative with tea/water and skip the extra 700 calories.

Using Tabata Intervals and Kettlebells

I have never been a fan of long cardio training, maybe I lack the necessary mental fortitude for it. Last fall I ran my first half marathon in 1:51.46. I know that speed won’t win any sponsorships, but I am proud of my time for someone that gets bored after 20 minutes of cardio. Training for the half marathon does require actual running, but during my training I learned another reason to loath cardio. Half way into my marathon training I developed iliotibial band syndrome, which feels like a knife is stabbing in the side of your knee with each step. I had already committed to the half marathon and my stubbornness would not let me drop out. Advil, ice baths, and foam rolling were not enough to control the ITBS so I had to find another way to up the cardio without over working my knees. That is when I discovered Tabata Intervals, named after Dr. Izumi Tabata

ABSTRACT
Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max.

Tabata I, Nishimura K, Kouzaki M, Hirai Y, Ogita F, Miyachi M, Yamamoto K.

Department of Physiology and Biomechanics, National Institute of Fitness and Sports, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan.This study consists of two training experiments using a mechanically braked cycle ergometer. First, the effect of 6 wk of moderate-intensity endurance training (intensity: 70% of maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), 60 min.d-1, 5 d.wk-1) on the anaerobic capacity (the maximal accumulated oxygen deficit) and VO2max was evaluated. After the training, the anaerobic capacity did not increase significantly (P > 0.10), while VO2max increased from 53 +/- 5 ml.kg-1 min-1 to 58 +/- 3 ml.kg-1.min-1 (P < 0.01) (mean +/- SD). Second, to quantify the effect of high-intensity intermittent training on energy release, seven subjects performed an intermittent training exercise 5 d.wk-1 for 6 wk. The exhaustive intermittent training consisted of seven to eight sets of 20-s exercise at an intensity of about 170% of VO2max with a 10-s rest between each bout. After the training period, VO2max increased by 7 ml.kg-1.min-1, while the anaerobic capacity increased by 28%. In conclusion, this study showed that moderate-intensity aerobic training that improves the maximal aerobic power does not change anaerobic capacity and that adequate high-intensity intermittent training may improve both anaerobic and aerobic energy supplying systems significantly, probably through imposing intensive stimuli on both systems.
View Abstract at Pubmed.gov

I have been training with kettlebells for several years, but I needed a way to overcome my lacking the fortitude to bang out swing/clean/snatch for an extend period of time. Determination and concentration are virtues I am working to develop. Combining Tabata Intervals with kettlebells allowed me to keep my focus through multiple rounds.

Tabata Intervals consist of 20 seconds of maximum intensity exercise, followed by 10 seconds of rest. This cycle is repeated 8 times (for a total of 4-minutes). Although Dr. Tabata used a mechanically braked cycle ergometer, I paired it with variations of kettlebell swings and cleans.

Sample Workout Interval

• Two handed swings
• One handed swings
• High Pull
• One handed Cleans

This workout will consist of 4 separate Tabata Intervals, each consisting of 4 minutes. The total workout will last 16 minutes. Depending on where you are at with your training you can add/subtract intervals or increase/decrease the weight of the kettlebell. For light days I use the 16 kg bell and for my serious cardio days I use the 24 kg bell. A bonus side effect I found from combining Tabata Intervals with kettlebells was the increased fat burning. Studies keep showing that interval training can be more effective at fat loss than low intensity, continuous cardio. Tabata Intervals give you that increased metabolic rate long after you are done working out. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!