Archive for August 3rd, 2009
August 3rd, 2009 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
Welcome back!
Many people think that because they are not sick they are healthy. But real health is so much more than simply ‘not being sick’. Being healthy doesn’t just mean an absence of disease but also an abundance of vitality and vigor. You have high levels of energy and ‘get up and go’ along with emotional balance, a sharp quick mind and the ability to distress yourself.
Your body has the ability to fight off disease and illness if you have real health. You don’t suffer from the preventable ‘lifestyle’ diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes that rob so many people of their health. Your healthy body allows you to enjoy a long and healthy life span and you remain fully functional until the end. Shortened life spans are now common often ending after many years of pain, disability and poor health.
Being really truly healthy gives you peak performance, both physically and mentally.
But many people do not have real health, or maybe have not experienced it for a long time and if you don’t feel well it is hard to ‘do’ well in life. When you look at the statistics for ill health it is frightening.
One out of every two people in the world has at least one chronic disease and many have multiple conditions. Eight out of ten people are overweight and many are obese. Many more are tired, listless and lack the energy or motivation to do much to pull themselves up out of the hole.
Yet there are only two options. You can continue to slide down the slippery slope that leads to degeneration or you can take full responsibility for your own health and wellness. It is all in your hands and you should look after it well. After all who else will?
Taking care of your health should be part of your daily routine and the two areas you can make the ‘biggest bang for your buck’ is in how you eat and how you exercise. These are the two areas that can skyrocket your health status if they are done correctly. Even if you are ‘not well’ now improvement in these areas will show big improvements in your health and how good you feel.
Your exercise program should be mainly strength training exercise with some cardio interval training to complete the program. Forget long slow repetitive activities like walking, jogging or cycling. It is great to be an active person but a proper exercise program is necessary to build back lost muscle tissue and reclaim health.
If you are new to exercise it is important that you have a fitness professional set up your program and teach you not only correct exercise technique but how intensely you should perform those exercises to ensure results.
The other piece of the puzzle is your healthy eating plan. Try and eat as much fresh, natural food as possible. Stay away from processed foods with little nutritional value that are full of unnatural chemicals. Aim for small meals every 2-3 hours with a protein source at each one. Make up the balance of the small meal with raw and cooked vegetables. You should eat between 5-7 small meals each day for loads of energy.
The little things you do every day really do add up to either a healthy or an unhealthy life and you owe it to yourself to be healthy and to make a success of it you have to work at it. It is not good enough to take it for granted as when we lose our health nothing else matters.
Do you want to discover the secret to rejuvenating your body and improving the quality of your life? Download my free ebook “I’ve Found the Fountain of Youth- Let Me Show You Too!” here: Secrets To Longevity For Free Fitness Report here Fitness Weight Loss Carolyn Hansen is a certified fitness expert and fitness center owner who coaches clients to look and feel younger.
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/alternative-medicine-articles/do-you-have-real-health-1092693.html
August 3rd, 2009 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
Many people think that a particular exercise routine or a super duper secret diet is the fastest way to burn excess body fat. But it isn’t just either of these two things it is actually a combination of three specific components. If all you do is go on a diet chances are you will gain all of the weight back (plus some extra) as diet alone is not the fastest way to burn body fat.
The problem with just a diet is that it restricts calories (usually a lot of calories) and when you do this you do burn some fat but you also burn precious muscle tissue. Losing muscle tissue is a bad thing as it is metabolically active, meaning that this highly active tissue burns fuel (calories) twenty four hours a day just to exist.. So when you restrict calories and lose muscle tissue you lower your overall metabolic rate (the rate your body burns fuel).
So, to continue losing weight you would have to continue to eat less and less which is the one main reason so many people who go on a diet are unable to sustain that weight loss. They simply cannot continue to restrict their food intake that much. Add to that fact that their metabolism (the body’s engine) is now lowered so fewer calories are needed to run the body’s systems.
When they start eating regularly again they rebound and pile on the body fat at lightening speed, much faster that they did originally. And the worst bit, they are in an even worse situation then when they first started the diet. Because they lost a lot of muscle tissue while dieting and added back a lot of body fat, they now have a lower metabolism and they look worse because they are carrying more body fat and less firm muscle tissue.
Clearly dieting is not the way to go when looking for the fastest way to burn body fat and keep it off permanently. So then, is cardio activity or strength training exercise the way to go? If you do cardio only like the dieting only some of the weight you lose will be muscle tissue causing all of the problems already mentioned above in the same way a diet only program would do. Steady state cardio is so low intensity that it is unlikely to burn enough calories to really chew into those fat stores. You may even gain weight doing long slow cardio activity as the body stores fat in preparation for these endurance type sessions.
Strength training exercise is a step up from dieting or cardio for body fat loss. Why?
Because with strength training, you will burn calories but you will also keep from losing muscle tissue. This eliminates the problem of lowering your metabolism and changing your body composition (muscle/body fat ratio) in a negative way.
You need to be aware that with strength training your body needs high quality nutrition to support the exercise program otherwise you will burn out very quickly. You still need to create a caloric deficit though so you can lose body fat and it is a fine line between eating enough and eating too much.
So let’s put the pieces of the puzzle together. We need a proper exercise training program that includes a couple of sessions of interval training each week combined with a proper nutrition plan. The third component we talked about is probably the most important of all. It is your mindset. You need to have a strong and determined mindset if you are to achieve weight loss success long term.
Not having this positive mindset is the biggest reason most people never reach their fat loss goals and continue to struggle forever with them or even quit before they succeed. And it is the wrong mindset that prevents them from even getting started on the journey in the first place.
Do you want to discover the secret to rejuvenating your body and improving the quality of your life? Download my free ebook “I’ve Found the Fountain of Youth- Let Me Show You Too!” here: Ways To Look Younger For Free Fitness Report here Fitness Weight Loss Carolyn Hansen is a certified fitness expert and fitness center owner who coaches clients to look and feel younger.
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/alternative-medicine-articles/for-a-fast-metabolism-to-lose-weight-you-need-these-three-things-1092694.html
August 3rd, 2009 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
Strength training exercise is no longer just the domain of bodybuilders and athletes. More and more research is showing that the benefits of this special type of exercise are enormous for adults of all ages. Older people and people in poor health can also benefit greatly improving their quality of life.
Just 2-3 sessions per week with a proper program preferably set up and monitored by a fitness professional increases the density of bones and increases healthy muscle tissue.
The loss of this muscle through our sedentary lives is one of the reasons we age at a premature and accelerated rate.
When we strengthen our muscles we strengthen our bones as well which is important to counteract osteoporosis (thinning of the bones) and the associated fractures that go with a weakening of the bones.
Other benefits of strength training exercise are:
* Body weight maintenance - Not only does the activity of strength training burn calories and fat but the resulting increase in toned muscle tissue can increase the body’s metabolic rate (the rate the body burns fuel) by as much as 15%. Muscle is highly active tissue that requires lots of calories to function, whereas fatty tissue does not.
* A great anti-depressant ? Exercise plays a vital role in uplifting depression, increasing energy and renewing vitality. Many doctors are prescribing exercise instead of, or in addition to medication. A proper exercise program could well be the cheapest and most available anti depressant and according to research, is as effective as any drug for healing depression.
*Arthritis relief ? Many people associate joint disease with having to cease physical activity but people who are sedentary are more prone to developing arthritis. When muscle tone is lost, weak muscles increase the risk of injuries due to their inability to properly protect and cushion joints. Strong muscles around weight bearing joints help support and distribute the force and load of body weight and movement.
* Blood glucose control -When our blood sugar levels become unbalanced our body has difficulty converting food to energy, so you not only feel tired and lack energy but your body isn’t getting the nutrients it needs to stay healthy. If this situation continues over long periods of time, it could be setting the stage for the killer disease diabetes.
It is very important to understand that only strength training exercise can increase the amount of toned muscle tissue you have which is a key advantage for helping prevent or manage diabetes. When you engage your muscles vigorously up to 90% of excess sugar in the blood will be cleared away so you are not exposed to the damage it will do.
These are just some of the many benefits of strength training exercise. It is an excellent form of exercise for people of all ages and health concerns. Being physically stronger enables you to perform everyday activities easier and with less effort. Then you will have some energy left over to pursue your favorite leisure activities giving maximum enjoyment out of life.
Do you want to discover the secret to rejuvenating your body and improving the quality of your life? Download my free ebook “I’ve Found the Fountain of Youth- Let Me Show You Too!” here: Health Related Fitness For Free Fitness Report here Fitness Weight Loss Carolyn Hansen is a certified fitness expert and fitness center owner who coaches clients to look and feel younger.
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/alternative-medicine-articles/increase-the-quality-of-your-life-with-proper-exercise-1092702.html
Next »