What's Your Body Clock Set To?

"Research found that shortchanging slumber by as little as 80 minutes leads people to take an average of 549 more calories the next day."  from Shape July 2012 issue

Check out:  Importance Of Sleep, Post Workout Snack & Water Intake

Not sure how much sleep your body requires?  Everyone needs a different number of nightly zzz's.  To determine what your body's needs are and what your body clock is set to, forgo using an alarm clock for a few nights and see when you naturally wake up and how much sleep you got.....then just back into when your bedtime needs to be based on when you need to be up in the mornings.  Best results for nightly rest and recovery is to have the same bed time and wake time each 24 hours.

Get Fooducated

With today's technology and ready available info via smart phones, there should be no excuse for not knowing what you are consuming at a restaurant, or purchasing at a grocery store.  Beyond "Google" and the array of web sites dedicated to such ready access information, you can get a host of free and nominal fee apps on your smart phones such as Calorie, Fast Food, and Fooducate.  Fooducate actually assists you in the store in that it scans product barcodes and allows you to see the product highlights as well as compare products to others without having to hunt down the other products ... this saves on time allowing you to quickly make the best nutritional selections!

Restaurant Survival

HELP!  Is what I hear a lot of regarding how to "eat out" and not completely screw up fat loss success.  Planning ahead is always a good idea.  There are numerous ways to find out the nutritional information for any particular restaurant....easiest way is to simply Google it.  Some restaurants offer their nutritional info and for those restaurants that do not, there are tons of free sites offering up the info.  If you have a smart phone, there are free apps you can download such as Calorie, Fast Food, etc., that provide both fast food and sit down restaurant nutritional info at a quick glance and search.  Whether you look up the info on the ride over to the restaurant, or in advance planning, knowing what you are choosing is the best way to side step the pitfalls of a restaurant experience and not falling "victim" to the head trips of what only looks like the healthier option.

Just Sitting Around?

From the July/August 2012 issue of Fitness magazine:

"Sitting around can make you flabby.  No surprise there, but despite what you may think, the culprit is not just a lack of exercise.  In fact, the physical act of sitting or lying down may actually speed up your body's production of fat.  When we lounge on a sofa or in a chair, we exert forces on our cells that cause them to become stretched out and to generate flab, researchers say."

Solutions:  Get up and move around at least every hour.  Take the stairs, walk to someone's desk instead of calling them, park farther away in a parking lot, do a quick 60 seconds of in place movement such as walking in place, jump squats, burpee thrusters, or mountain climbers.  Are You NEAT?

CHALLENGE ALERT:  Got a good one for getting NEAT.....For Two Weeks every time you are watching TV, Reading (book or device), Playing/Looking at device or social media, or Talking on the phone....don't sit or just stand....instead, every time you are sedentarily engaged in one of these "activities" actually make it an opportunity to be active and NEAT.....March in place, jog in place, squat in place, lunge in place, ride a stationary bike, whatever it is....MOVE! 

Don't Give Up!!!

If you have a bad day or bad week or bad experience doesn't mean it's okay to give up on your fitness goals and aspiration of good health!  We all have bad days, etc.  Nothing is perfect or ever going to be, but keep on moving forward with each new day, each new opportunity, each new experience!  One day might be seemingly perfect....kids well behaved and doing everything you ever desired them to do, house is in place, to-do list is getting checked off, workout done, work done, etc., then the next day all hell breaks lose...kids have forgotten everything you ever taught them, the house looks like an F5 hit it, you feel like a failure with anything and everything you attempt to do, nutrition goes out the window, etc.  Don't despair and don't give up.....Just as quickly as it all goes to hell, it can turn around and go right and awesome again.  It's all about finding some peace and solace in each and every moment (even the bad ones) and ebbing a flowing right along with the rockiness that is all of our lives.

Balance
Inspiration & Encouragement

Food Rewards

Are you guilty of rewarding your children (or yourself) with food?  I know I am.  Have you considered that you are setting them up for emotional eating issues later in life?  Think about it.  If  you reward your child with a "treat" for good behavior and/or revoke a "treat" for bad behavior, the association your child builds is one of comfort with food.  Not good!  Food is fuel and enjoyable, but should not be so closely associated with feelings of emotional comfort and reward.  As an adult, I'm sure you can see in your own behavior how this has been an ongoing issue, so as a parent you can certainly see how you can help them later in their life by not "rewarding" them now with food. Rewards

Instead, reward them and yourself with time (not things or food).  Play a game, read a book, snuggle, whatever it is, trust me when I say that your children will treasure the moments you spend with them both in the present as well in the future.  Then, you will have associated activity and time with emotion as opposed to food or material things. 
Also:  Your Children Are Watching!  &  Sad but True

Habits? What Habits?

2 Week Habits Exchange Challenge

Can't think of any habits you have to exchange out?  Really?  K, here are just some examples you can choose from if there are not any already on the top of your list ;-)

Nutrition
*Sugar, Sugar, Sugar.  Sugar comes in many forms:  sugar (high fructose corn syrup, etc.), simple carbs (good whole grain carbs and veggie/fruit carbs are good for you, but the rest is crap and PI material), alcohol (wasted calories that goes straight to sugar and on top of that slows down your metabolism).  To figure out what to replace this overindulgent habit with, first determine why you over consume.  If it is an emotional trigger or stress reaction, then replace it with something healthy to ingest as well as a behavior modification to replace the food response.  If it is a social habit, then announce to your social group your new goals for the support and accountability and curb your social intake of the bad and increase better choices.  Alcoholic Beverages

*Not enough produce:  If you are either not getting enough produce in (at least 8-10 servings), or are consuming way more fruits than veggies (shoot for at least one to two more servings of veggies to fruit total), or are choosing low fiber, high sugar produce and your total daily fiber intake is below a 25g minimum (I'd shoot for 30-50g a day), then preplanning is going to be the habit you need to make to hit your minimums at least. Produce Serving Sizes

*Too many processed foods:  Ideally, you'd consume a grand total of ZERO processed foods in your daily life, but life is rapidly zooming and that is not always doable.  If, however, you are consuming more than one or two processed foods in a day on average, then I'd aim for zero and see where you land.  Preplanning and preparation is going to be key with this habit change.

*Eat out too much:  If you eat out for more lunches and/or dinners than you make yourself at home, then you need to preplan and prep for your weeks.  Even making the best possible choices when you do eat out is disrupting your fitness, health, weight loss goals as you are, at the very least, getting way more sodium, fat, and calories than you would had you prepared that healthy choice yourself.  Short On Time?  Eating out is a PI and you are only supposed to be getting 3-4 of those a week....remember a PI is not a whole meal but a serving....Eating Supportively

*Too many PIs or UPIs:  Planned Indulgences and Unplanned Indulgences.....Reign it in folks.  If you are bite, licking, and tasting your way through the day, then you need to hunker down and get serious about your goals!  Preplan and stick to the plan!!!

*Don't journal or Don't preplan meals:  If you have not practiced journaling your food, then I'd highly suggest giving it a whirl.  You might think that you do not consume that much or that little, but unless you start logging your actual daily intake, you will never know....and believe me we are always wrong on this one!  If you are great at journaling, but fall down because you don't plan, then that is where you need to be...."If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

*Wait too long in between meals:  If you are go, go, going and go longer than 3-4 hours before eating your next meal, you are only slowing your metabolism way, way down and setting yourself up to UPI all over the place.  Trust me, busy days do not have to equal not eating what you should, the way you should and when you should, but what it does mean is that you are going to have to make the choice that your goals are important to you and preplan, preprepare, and Just Do It!


Fitness
*Workout too little:  If you read my blog, then you are familiar with the 3 times a week resistance/interval workout recommendation and why.  If you cannot find 90 min to no more than 3 hours a week to accomplish this, then I'd have to say you are also too busy to watch tv, blog, post on Facebook, Tweet, read a book or a Kindle, play a game on any device, take a bath, chat to a friend on the phone, you get the idea.  All of us waste an exorbitant amount of precious time, so carve out at least 90 minutes a week to no more than 3 hours to at least prolong your life...it's like a savings account of time then!

*Workout too much:  If you are strength/resistance training and interval training more than three times a week for more than 3 hours a week.  If you are running more than 3 days a week in addition to this.  If you are doing additional fitness activities in addition to all of this....You are probably working out too much and not allowing your body the proper recovery time to heal, mend, and benefit you.  Aside from overuse injuries, you are actually slowing your metabolism down by overworking out.  Make a sensible and reasonable plan and stick to it.  If it is almost a compulsion, this can be as serious as over indulging on sugar, so sit down and dive within to figure out what is going on.

*Don't stretch enough:  If you do not properly cool down your muscles post workout and in addition to this do some sort of stretching regime a couple to a few times a week, you are setting your joints up for some real issues down the line.  With strength training, you are building short muscles that pull the joints apart which is great if you are balancing that with stretching....so be sure to stretch those muscles out to relieve that otherwise building tension.

*Don't push to workout intensely:  If you just go through the motions during your workouts, you might as well go for a walk as the good it is doing you.  If you want strength, endurance, fat loss, go for the heart pumping, air gasping, sweat through every fiber of your clothing workout.  Get in, get done!  If you're doing it, DO IT!


Hope this helps beyond just a two week Challenge.  If there are some references you don't understand, check out Eating Supportively  and/or  Workout Tidbits  to get answers or contact me at cagib1@charter.net

2 Week Habits Exchange Challenge

I, like everyone, fall into bad habits, and if stressed enough, suffer the consequences before getting "back on the wagon" and doing what I know to do!  So, for me, the consequences have officially accumulated, and I have had enough!!!  What are my consequences?  At present I have added pounds and inches in the past few months and am tired of letting my crazy, stressful life be my excuse for not doing what I know to do!  I say excuse, because while I am not excusing the behavior or in denial about the situation, but wanted to stress to you, the reader, that reasons=excuses...period, end of story.  I'm certain you yourself have many "reasons" as to why you don't do A, B, or C, but the bottom-line is these "reasons" are just excuses until you have officially had enough of suffering the consequences of not finding a better way to do better!  Is my arrival at this point going to change my circumstances?  No, but my attitude and efforts will change the balance....And that will change my circumstances!!!  Does knowing this make it easy?  NO, but perfect practice, makes perfect results!!  So I continue to practice what I preach and move forward with what I know to do! 

In addition to doing what I know to do in all aspects of my life, here is what I am going to also do and propose you at least give it a try for 2 Weeks:  Exchange 2 Bad Habits for 2 Good Habits!  Simple and straight forward!!!  For just 2 Weeks, exchange one bad nutrition habit for one good one AND exchange one bad fitness habit (or excuse) for one good one.  That's it!  In two weeks you'll be moving in a forward momentum that should propel you into good results and better balance.  I started today, but you can start when you are ready!  It's just two weeks!!!  It's just two habits!!!  What have you got to lose but at the very least two bad habits that are holding up your results and balance!!! 

Curious what mine are?  For nutrition: no alcohol for two weeks & instead going to replace with green tea and meditation.  For fitness:  I have not been doing my daily yoga, and even though my schedule is about to get even busier than it has been, I am still going to make time to do 20-60 minutes of daily yoga 6 days a week.  This is just for the habits exchange portion, for the remainder, I am going to move forward practicing all the rest of what got me my awesome results to start with: daily Bible Study, Supportive Nutrition, Effective Resistance/Interval Training three times a week, and Striving Daily for Balance in Faith/Family/Home/Work/Rest.  Easy?  If it was easy, it wouldn't be something so easily thrown by the sidelines...no it's not easy.  Is it worth it?  ABSOLUTELY!!!  Is it doable?  ABSOLUTELY!!!  Curious as to my results?  Well, I'll report in to you on just that on Aug 6th! 

Need help?  cagib1@charter.net

How Effective? Very! How Do I Know?
Measuring Results
Eating Supportively
Inspiration and Encouragement

Best Time of Day

The answer to the question of what is the best workout is ultimately always going to be the one you will do.  The answer to the question of when is the best time of day to workout is ultimately always going to be whenever you can fit it in and do it.  All of that aside, if you can workout first thing in the morning, an extra benefit that you will receive in addition to a days worth of extra fat burning energy, is your metabolic rate setting on high for the day!  But whenever and however you workout, if at all possible, try to consistently workout at the same time of day each workout.  Why?  "When  you consistently work out at the same time, your body releases testosterone and adrenaline during that period.  Those hormones help muscles process energy more efficiently, leading to increased strength and power."  (David Behm, Ph.D.)

Need help with a plan?  Contact me to discuss cagib1@charter.net

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Short On Time?

Short On Time?  Don't think you have time to prepare supportive meals for you and your family?  That's kooky talk!  First, don't make it complicated!!!  You can have extremely supportive home cooked meals in minutes!  Here's how I do it:  Pick one hour a week (whatever day you have an hour to be home...Sunday afternoon, Friday evening, Tuesday morning, whatever day works for you) to prepare your weeks worth of meals.  I usually cook the meats (mostly baked...so not even in the kitchen for the hour) whether it be a combo of baked, grilled, sauteéd, or crock pot.  Then if I am going to cook dried beans, I also put those on and/or anything that needs some time to cook or prepare.  Then it all goes in the fridge to be pulled out the meal of throughout the week and put with whatever veggie or grain I am combining with it.  Some grains (such as quinoa can be prepared also in advance and stored and just pulled out).  Fresh veggies steam within 10 minutes in a free standing steamer pot (can be purchased at WalMart for $20).  I can have a healthy and supportive dinner within 15 minutes of walking in the door at night (1/3 of the plate protein (lean meat/fish, beans/legumes) and 2/3 veggies and/or grains).  Eating Supportively

Sip Green Tea

From the July/August 2012 issue of Fitness magazine:

"This healthy brew acts like a diet drug in a mug, but without the negative side effects.  A review of studies concluded that regularly sipping green tea can help you drop pounds.  This weight loss is the result of EGCG, a compound known to reduce fat absorption, according to new research from Penn State.  But that's not all this magic drink does:  As it's reducing fat absorption, "green tea also increases the amount of fat that your body eliminates", explains study author Joshua D. Lambert, Ph.D., an assistant professor of food science at the university.  So think about trading your usual afternoon java for green tea instead.  Experts say that drinking three to five cups of the regular or decaf variety every day may help you lose weight."

Site & Page UPDATES

I have UPDATED the PAGES on this Site to better organize important Post Links for easy access and reference.  This will help ongoing followers as well as new comers to the site.  If you are new to my site, be sure and check out all the Pages and referenced Post Links as this will best help you on your journey to fitness success.  If you have been following me for a while, go back to the Pages and check out the changes and read some of the Post Links you might have missed in the past.  Note, that at the bottom of each Page, I will continue to post Links to relevant info, so be sure and check back if you have missed any days/weeks of Blog Posts. 

Want to take the "work" out of having to check for new Posts?  Be sure to sign up for e-mail updates:

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ATP

Carbohydrates serve as the major food fuel for the metabolic production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) and is stored as glycogen in both the muscle and the liver.  Why is ATP important?  When a muscle fiber contracts, the energy used to drive the contraction comes primarily from a substance within the cell called ATP.  ATP is utilized by all muscle fibers (Muscle Fiber Types) as well as in both aerobic and anaerobic metabolic pathways.  (Energy Systems & Greater Muscle Mass = Higher Metabolism)

Glucose is both readily available in your body as blood glucose or in storage from as glycogen.  Glucose trapped in one muscle group cannot be removed to help meet the energy needs in another depleted muscle group.  So, energy stores may be abundant in your upper body muscles, but they cannot help out your lower body muscles during a challenging lower body workout.  However, you can build up your glycogen storage and thus improve exercise performance by being consistent in your workouts and the types of workouts you perform (such as high intensity interval training). 

An article from the March 2012 issue of IDEA Fitness Journal discusses why the body prefers carbohydrates as exercise intensity increases:

As exercise intensity increases from rest to near-maximal levels, the body gradually shifts to using glucose and glycogen as the predominant sources of ATP (Kraemer, Fleck & Deschenes 2012).  From a metabolic standpoint, in the mitochondria more ATP can be produced aerobically from the breakdown of carbohydrate as opposed to fat.  Most important, however, is the fact that as exercise intensity increases, many more fast-twitch muscle fibers are recruited, and (because of their enzymes) these fibers are much more suited to using carbohydrates for the needed ATP production.  In addition, higher-intensity exercise stimulates epinephrine production, which also enhances carbohydrate metabolism (Kraemer, Fleck & Deschenes 2012).

Principle of Specificity

"The principle of specificity explains the outcome of a given type of training program such that the exercise response is specific to the mode and intensity of training.  In other words, only the physiological systems emphasized during a training program will improve.  For example, a program of long-distance endurance running will improve an exerciser's aerobic capacity, but it will do nothing to enhance the exerciser's performance on a heavy bench press."  ACE's Essentials of Exercise Science for Fitness Professionals

Balance in resistance, cardio, and flexibility training is vital to being physically fit and healthy!  Focusing on only one area is not going to fully benefit you and in fact will have a point of diminishing return regarding benefit.  Incorporating resistance and strength training along with cardio and flexibility training is the only way to assure you are physically fit.

Muscle Fiber Types

There are two main types of muscle fibers:  slow-twitch fibers and fast-twitch fibers.  Within the fast-twitch fibers there are two sub-types:  Type IIx and Type IIa.  Below are the difference and what you  need to know about each.

Type I Slow-Twitch Fibers
   *Slow Oxidative (or aerobic)
   *Resistant to fatigue and capable of sustaining aerobic metabolism (endurance fibers)
   *Smaller than fast-twitch fibers
   *Contract more slowly than fast-twitch fibers

Type IIx Fast-Twitch Fibers
   *Limited capacity for aerobic metabolism
   *Have high number of glycolytic enzymes which provides a considerable anaerobic capacity
   *Fatigue more easily than slow-twitch fibers & cannot sustain their efforts for more than a few
     seconds (under two minutes at most)
   *Largest and fastest muscle fibers and capable of the most force

Type IIa Fast-Twitch Fibers
   *Intermediate  or fast-oxidative glycolytic fibers
   *Possess speed fatigue and force-production capabilities somewhere between slow-twitch and Type
     IIx fast-twitch fibers (up to three minutes)
   *Used for strength and power activities
   *Are highly adaptable and are capable of increasing their oxidative capacity to levels similar to
     those in slow-twitch fibers

"A muscle's fiber-type composition is typically an equal mixture of both fast- and slow-twitch fibers, though some muscle groups are known to be made up of primarily fast- or slow-twitch fibers.  The percentage of specific fiber types contained in skeletal muscle may be influenced by genetics, hormones, and the activity and exercise habits of the individual."  (ACE's Essentials of Exercise Science for Fitness Professionals)

Even though people respond to specific exercise programs based on their own individual genetic composition, studies have shown that a combination of high-intensity resistance training and short-interval speed work can cause the conversion of Type I fibers into Type IIa fibers (Anderson et al., 2000; Staron et al., 1990)  Therefore, muscle-fiber composition is only one variable that determines success in overall physical performance.

Energy Systems

There are two distinct types of metabolism:  Aerobic with (or in the presence of) oxygen and Anaerobic without the presence of oxygen.  Even sitting and reading a book is considered to be aerobic activity because aerobic simply means any activity where the oxygen supply is equal to the demand.  Anaerobic activity is without oxygen and can only be maintained for a short period of time.

There are three energy systems that contribute to the total energy needs of the body during physical activity:

Phosphagen System - high intensity, very short duration activities for only about 10 seconds of all out exertion.

Anaerobic Glycolysis System high intensity, short duration activities between 1-3 minutes of intense activity beyond the phosphagen system.

Aerobic System lower intensity, longer duration and steady state activities.

Hot July

It is going to be a toasty July for sure!  I wanted to thank everyone who participated in the Fitness Challenge these past 12 weeks!  I have communicated with everyone who participated and especially to those who won something beyond good habits and fat loss as a result! 

I just posted a bodyweight workout for July that you can do anywhere and in any space, so it is perfect for whatever travel plans you might have.  Free Monthly Workouts  Mark your calendars for Trinity at 8 am on July 21st as I will be offering more than just a free workout.  If you would like to come and just watch a workout and get a feel for how they work and then talk with me after about any questions you have, I would love to see you there! 

I am going to take the rest of this week off from blogging, but will be back up and going next Monday, July 9th!  Hope everyone has a Happy and Safe 4th of July! 

How Fit?

Being Active does not equal being Fit!
Being Physically Fit does not equal being Healthy!
Being Physically Healthy does not equal being Mentally Healthy!
Finding Balance, being Physically Active, Fit and Nutritionally Sound and Healthy, & Mentally and Emotionally Healthy is worth striving for, working towards, & achieving on a daily basis!!!!


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