As promised, I am writing another health and fitness post. If you didn?t read the last one, in it I talked about my past struggles with eating healthy and losing weight. It?s certainly not required reading for this post, but it might be something you can relate to, or it might even inspire you in some way. It is just a few posts down so check it out if you want.
In this post, I will talk about what I have learned about fitness and nutrition, both from what I?ve read and from what I?ve experienced. Now, before I continue, I want to make it very clear that I am not a doctor, a nutritionist, a certified trainer or anything else that makes me an expert in the areas of fitness and nutrition. But I do consider myself pretty knowledgeable, and I would like to share what I have learned with those willing to listen. So here we go:
(1) We?re not all created equal. And I don?t mean that in a democratic sense (because if you have been reading my blog you know that I absolutely do believe that we are all created equal in a democratic sense), what I mean is that everyone has different genetics and metabolic rates, and our age, gender, height and weight all affect how we lose weight and what works and what doesn?t. One of my biggest pet peeves are those fitness articles/posts that have headlines like: ?Get a Supermodel?s Figure in only 5 Minutes a Day!? Um yeah, ok. This is like saying we all have an equal shot at marrying Jake Gyllenhaal. This is total wishful thinking and articles like this just set people up for major, major disappointment. First of all, most people (and by that I mean about 98 percent of people) are not blessed with the genetics of a supermodel. If we were then there wouldn?t supermodels because most of us would look that way! Second of all?and this is what really fires me up?no one, and I mean NO ONE, can workout for only five minutes a day and expect to have a killer body. Trust me, it takes a lot more time and a lot more effort than that to get into tip-top shape. I work out for at least 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week and have been consistently for over two months now, and I?m just starting to get into good shape. But I still have some room for improvement. I know I haven?t hit my plateau yet, despite the difficult workouts I have been doing and the fact that I can fit into my size 2 jeans again (just for the record, I don?t want to lose anymore weight; I want to gain muscle, which will likely make me gain weight because muscle weighs more than fat). So don?t think that a special diet that worked wonders for your sister-in-law?s work colleague is going to do the same for you. It might, but it might not. And don?t think that if you do the same workouts as Heidi Klum, then you will get her body. Nope, probably not gonna happen.
Everyone has a different genetic make-up and metabolism. And as I said, your gender, age, height and weight all play a large factor in how you lose weight and in what will work for you. Some people have a naturally high metabolism, and thus they burn calories at a higher rate than those with slower metabolism. Also, your metabolism slows as you age so the younger you are, the higher your metabolism is likely to be, which is why age is a factor. And the more you weigh the faster you will lose weight (but as you lose weight, the rate at which the you shed pounds will naturally slow). Plus, men naturally burn more calories than women. This is because they typically weigh more than women do and have more muscle mass (the more muscle you have the more calories you will burn?I will get into this later). So recognize that while there are many good weight loss tips out there, they won?t work for everyone equally. So if you and your best friend start the same diet and exercise routine at the same time, and she loses weight quicker than you do, don?t get discouraged. You may need to make adjustments to make it better fit your needs, or you may just have to be more patient. I know it?s unfair but that is what nature gave you and you just have to deal with it as best you can. And if you come across an article that states something that seems to good to be true regarding nutrition and fitness (i.e. eating a certain food will help you drop 30 pounds in 2 months, or using these 4 simple moves will get you to lose 10 pounds in 10 days), it is too good to be true. Don?t fall for this trickery, you?re smarter than that.
(2) Consult a doctor. Before you make any changes to your diet or start a new exercise program/routine, you should see your doctor first. The reason?and I know from experience?is that if you try to do it on your own, you will probably do it in an unhealthy manner. Most people who aren?t doctors, nutritionists or fitness trainers don?t understand how the body works. Our bodies are complicated machines. The biology, chemistry and physics involved is hard to understand?but doctors do understand this stuff. They went through eight years of schooling in order to understand it all. Your doctor will be able to help you develop a healthy, safe fitness and nutrition program that fits your specific needs. Again, not everyone is created equal, so your doctor can figure out what will work best for you. It is also a good idea to consult a nutritionist and a trainer. Doctors probably can?t tell you absolutely everything, and they certainly can?t be there with you in the gym, or take the time to show you how to cook healthy, nutritious meals. So having a good team around you to not only make sure you are doing this the healthy way, but also to support you is never a bad idea.
Now I will admit, I have never consulted a doctor. Even this time around, I changed my diet and started exercising without seeing a doctor first. I know, how dare I not practice what I preach, but first of all, I don?t have health insurance right now so I don?t have a doctor to consult. And second of all, I have learned my lesson the hard way. I?m being healthy about my diet and my exercise routine (at least as far as I can tell) and I won?t repeat the mistakes I made before. But still, as soon as I get health insurance (which should be May 1), then I will see a doctor asap. I know it is important and it is a priority, trust me.
Bottom line: You will have more success if you and your doctor set realistic goals for how you can live a healthier lifestyle. If you just try to figure it out on your own, you are much more likely to fail. So take it from someone who has failed before, GO SEE YOUR DOCTOR FIRST!
(3) Educate yourself. Read as much as you can about health and fitness. Now, be careful, because a lot of times what you read is deceiving (like the above examples). But the point is to make yourself aware of how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. There are numerous reputable books, magazines, websites and blogs on nutrition and fitness. Use these resources to your advantage. I have learned so much about fitness and nutrition from constantly reading about it, and it has helped me to make healthy choices in my diet and exercise routine. For example, I now know that if I want to lose weight, then the more I exercise, the more I need to eat. It seems contradictory because losing weight is about burning calories. But your body won?t be able to function at a high level if you don?t eat enough before a workout, thus you aren?t burning as many calories during your workout. Plus, the more you get out of your workout, the more muscle you will gain. Muscle uses more energy than fat, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn?even when you are resting. However, if you don?t eat enough before a workout and therefore have less energy to put into your workout, your muscles aren?t going to get as strong (and you could actually lose muscle mass). Also, while muscle weighs more than fat, it takes up less room than fat. So ideally, you want to lose fat but gain muscle. Your weight might not change a lot (and it may even go up a little because you?ve gained muscle), but you clothes will certainly fit a lot better. So you see, not eating enough will actually slow your weight loss?and it isn?t healthy. Of course, eating too much will slow it too, so it is about finding the right balance (another reason why consulting a doctor, nutritionist and/or trainer is helpful).
Being aware of how to make healthy choices in your diet and fitness regimen is key to being successful in losing weight and living healthier. Of course you should always consult a doctor first, but learning as much on your own can only help you to live a healthier lifestyle.
(4) Listen to your body. This is very important. When you first start working out, you are going to struggle. This is normal, but it also is the most important time for you to pay attention to what your body is telling you. The first time you do a workout is actually easier than the next few times. Anyone who has done a difficult workout will attest to this. The reason is because after the first workout, your muscles are tired and are having a tougher time getting through the movements. If you feel you are straining too much (and you will know it when it happens), stop the movement and take a break. Try to start back up again, but if the pain continues, stop the workout entirely. You may need to take a day or two off to give your muscles time to recover properly. But the more you do the workout, the stronger your muscles are going to get. Having some pain is a good thing. But too much of it is a clue that you need to slow down or stop for a day or two.
You know that burning feeling you get when you work your muscles intensely, say when you do a lot of lunges and your thighs start to burn? That is lactic acid building up in your muscles. What happens is when you train, your body gathers energy from several different sources of fuel. When oxygen is present, the energy comes from stored glycogen and blood sugar. But if you train hard enough, your oxygen level drops, causing your muscle cells and red blood cells to start breaking down carbohydrates for energy. The result is the presence of lactic acid and a burning sensation in the muscle. The stiffness and soreness you feel a couple of days later is caused by the damage done to the muscle during the workout. Essentially, as you workout, you are breaking down your muscle fibers. Over the next few days your body begins to rebuild those muscle fibers (causing the stiffness and soreness), and replaces the old ones with new, stronger and leaner muscle fibers. This is what gives you stronger muscles and more muscle definition. (Source)
So you do want to ?feel the burn? as they say. But if you are feeling too much pain, or are so sore and stiff that it hurts to walk, you need to give your muscles a day or two to recover. Don?t push yourself beyond your limit. You risk injury and that will delay you in getting back into shape and losing any unwanted pounds. Also, if you are struggling to get through a routine workout (meaning you?ve done this workout many times and usually have no problem with it), that is probably a sign that you need to eat more. If you have mastered a workout, but barely have enough energy to get through it, your body is calorie deficient.
Overall, some burning is good, but if it is downright painful (particularly if it feels like a muscle strain or pull, or if you feel light-headed and/or nauseous), stop what you are doing. You may need to see a doctor or sports trainer before you continue. Always pay attention to what your body is telling you, and trust me, it will scream at you if need be. Don?t ignore it.
(5) Diets suck. They oftentimes are unhealthy, they usually don?t work (or they only work for a short time), and they are no fun. Saying you are going on a diet is basically saying ?I might lose some weight for a few months, but then I?ll gain it all back in half the time it took me to lose it.? Instead of going on a diet, you should change your diet. But again, before you do anything, consult your doctor! Or at the very least, talk to a nutritionist (ideally you should do both).
What you want to focus on is eating less high-calorie, low-nutrition food, and eating more low-calorie, high-nutrition food. You can still eat whatever you want, just not whenever you want to it eat. In the first health and fitness post I talked about how I now have an 80/20 diet. That means that 80 percent of the time I eat healthy, and the other 20 percent of the time I eat whatever I want. And if I have a bad day where I consume a lot of unhealthy foods (and drinks), I make sure that for the new 3-4 days I eat only healthy food. Yes, sometimes it is tough. But in order to curb my cravings for unhealthy foods, I remind myself that my overall diet effects my overall health. And when I think about how some foods and drinks are just empty calories (meaning they have no nutritional value, and are likely a detriment to my health), it makes it easier to resist. I can do this because I truly do care about my health. If I didn?t, I would just eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.
Most diet plans aren?t healthy because they require that you cut something essential out of your diet, like carbohydrates or fat. The reason low-carb diets usually work is because carbohydrates are one of our body?s first sources of energy. Once we run out of carbs our body goes to our fat storage for energy, which thus causes us to lose fat. So if you don?t eat a lot of carbs, your body will have to revert to fat more often. But carbs are an essential part of our diet. In fact, 40 percent of what we eat every day should be carbohydrates. You want to eat good, complex carbohydrates like those found in whole grain and brown rice, and avoid simple carbohydrates found in white bread and white rice, and in sweets. Complex carbs take a lot longer to break down, which causes your body to use more energy in order to break them down. They are also filled with protein, vitamins, and minerals, plus lots of fiber. Fiber helps keep you feeling fuller, longer, which in turn helps curb cravings. Complex carbs also don?t cause your blood sugar to spike the way simple carbohydrates do. Low fat diets aren?t healthy either. Fat is essential to our health. It helps our brains function better and it is a good source of energy. But just as with carbs, you want to eat the right kinds of fats. Avoid fats found in fried foods and sweets, and instead opt for the fats found in certain oils (like extra virgin olive oil) and those found in nuts, fish, legumes and avocados. As long as you are eating the right carbohydrates and the right kinds of fats, your diet is healthy and you will lose weight.
Lastly, diets are simply not fun. You can?t eat this and you can?t eat that. It?s hard to stick to such restrictions, which is probably the number one reason why diets fail almost all of the time. There are very few people (and I mean like maybe 5 percent) who can stick to a strict diet. Most of us, however, don?t have the self-discipline. And that is ok. You aren?t a bad person because you sometimes eat pizza or sweets, or because you occasionally have a 2am Taco Bell run after a night of drinking. Pretty much everyone has those moments. So don?t try to do something (i.e. go on a diet) when you know you will fail. Like I said, change the focus of your diet to be more healthy, but also allow yourself to eat not-so-healthy from time to time. It?s gonna happen, so embrace it. Even plan for it if you can. Like if you know you are going to a graduation party or a wedding and will be eating and drinking a lot, plan on eating healthy the few days before and few days after. That way you can enjoy yourself instead of feeling guilty about how bad your diet has been.
The best diet is a balanced one where you eat a healthy amount of carbohydrates, protein and fat (40 percent, 30 percent, 30 percent is the recommended daily amount of each, respectively). Make sure you eat lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean protein. If you do this, you should have a healthy, balanced diet, and your body and mind will thank you for it.
(6) You are what you eat. If you eat lots of junk food, fried food and sweets loaded with sugar, then you probably aren?t in very good shape or in very good health. You likely lack energy and motivation, become irritable easily, and probably even have trouble sleeping. Yes, believe it or not, your diet does affect all of these things. I know because I?ve noticed how much better I feel now that I am eating healthier. I have more energy and motivation, my mood has improved, and I am sleeping better. I?m just happier and more content. Of course, this is partly because along with eating healthy, I have been exercising regularly (and remember, exercise releases endorphins that boost your mood?even as much as Zoloft according to some studies), but my diet probably has more to do with this than the exercise. Funny thing is, most people don?t realize how bad their diet is. I used to be one of those people. I really thought that I ate healthy most of the time, but once I evaluated my eating habits, I saw that my diet was nowhere near as healthy as I thought it was.
A good exercise to do for evaluating your eating habits is to write down everything you eat for three days straight. And try to approximate how much of everything eat. A good way to do that is to just check out the serving size from the nutrition label and guess how many servings you had (whether it be 3 servings or half a serving). Write down how many calories, fat grams, saturated fat grams, and grams of carbohydrates, fiber, sugar and sodium there is in everything you eat (remember, if you had 3 servings of something, you need to triple all of these numbers; and if you had only a half of a serving, cut the numbers in half). Also, write down when you eat?times of day and/or meals. It seems like a chore but it will really help you see how healthy or unhealthy your diet is. When you really see what you put in your body every day, it can be eye-opening. In fact, while you are doing this you will probably be tempted to alter what you eat (because you will see how poor your diet can be at times), but I encourage you not to until after the three days. If you are really ambitious, try doing this for a week. Most of us don?t eat the same everyday so doing it over a longer period can give you a better idea of your eating habits.
Once you have a picture of what your diet looks like, you can better see the areas that need improvement. For example, maybe you need to eat more fiber (and apparently like 90 percent of Americans do need more fiber in their diet). Or maybe you need to cut down on foods with saturated fat, or you need to eat foods with less sodium. Maybe for the entire 3 days you only had one serving of vegetables. Maybe you never eat breakfast (not a good thing) but always have a late-night snack (also not a good thing?usually). Doing this will really help you to make better decisions about what you eat and, possibly even more important, when you eat. For example, I?m someone who becomes hypoglycemic easily (meaning my blood sugar drops to low levels, causing me to become extremely irritable, develop headaches, feel light-headed and I?ve even passed out a few times from it). So it is important for me to eat every 2-3 hours to maintain my blood-glucose level. I usually eat anywhere between 5-7 times a day. I always have snacks in my purse (usually in the form of fiber/granola bars or a piece of fruit, like an apple or a pear) so that way I can make sure I eat every couple of hours. And while I noted a few sentences back that having a late-night snack is usually bad for you, it really depends on what it is and what you?ve eaten that day. If you didn?t eat a lot that day and need the calories, your body will use them. Just make sure it is something healthy like a small bowl of healthy cereal or an orange. Don?t eat stuff like leftover pizza or a piece of cheesecake. I have an orange just about every night about an hour before I go to bed to help maintain my blood-glucose level. So snacks at night aren?t always bad?if you need the calories and if they are healthy calories then they can be beneficial.
So if you eat healthy, you will feel healthy. If you eat unhealthy, you will feel unhealthy. It?s simple and logical. Don?t believe me, try it out for yourself. You might be thinking, ?But Lauren, I don?t feel like I lack energy or motivation, I don?t usually get moody and I sleep pretty well?I even take naps!? Ok, I thought the same thing, until I changed my diet. And guess what, I was wrong. (Note: Taking naps isn?t always a good thing. You should get enough sleep at night so that you don?t need a nap during the day.) Trust me, you will feel much better if you start eating healthier. You?ll especially notice it when you occasionally eat unhealthy stuff. Last week I had a couple of pieces of pizza, and while I enjoyed it tremendously as I was eating it, afterwards I didn?t feel so great. My body wasn?t used to it, and it told me so. So if you want to feel healthy and look healthy, then eat healthy.
Overall, the best approach to losing weight and living healthy is by exercising regularly and eating a healthy, balanced diet. There are no short-cuts, gimmicks or magic tricks. Eat healthy and exercise, that is the key. I hope you find this information helpful. Like I said in the first health and fitness post, I will try to write one of these blog posts at least once a month. Good luck on your journey to live healthier, and remember, the journey never stops. This is a life-long commitment, but one well worth making.
Source: http://themillenniallegacy.com/?p=1299
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Public release date: 25-Mar-2013
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