Adventures of the Bauer's: exercise

Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts

Healthy Habits: The Truth About Metabolism

Many theories about metabolism are falsely rooted in the idea that there are particular foods or beverages that will magically increase your ability to burn calories. While most nutritionists agree that eating meals based on whole grains and lean proteins is a healthy diet practice, this approach won't actually help you burn calories faster. Neither will "fat-burning" foods like grapefruit or cabbage.

Here's the truth about other popular metabolism-boosting theories, including the one that actually works.

Healthy Habits: 10 Ways to Work in Effective Workouts

You work eight hours a day, have kids, and manage a household — so when do you have time for a workout? You owe it to yourself, and your health, to find the time for both aerobic exercise and strength training.

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Everyone needs to get a certain level of physical activity just to stay healthy. Each week, you should be engaging in at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise, plus a minimum of two strength-training sessions. And if you want to lose weight, you may need to work out even more. Stretching is necessary, too, during your warm-up and cool-down — and possibly as a separate practice if you want the additional mind-body benefits of yoga or tai chi, for instance.

These workout goals can be fairly intimidating if you’re new to an exercise program and are unsure of how to fit them into a full and hectic schedule. Here are some ideas for how you can work out and burn calories on even your busiest days.

How to Work in Working Out

Schedule 10-minute workout sessions. If blocking out time for a 30-minute aerobic exercise workout seems impossible at first, start by finding 10 minutes three times a day. For example, instead of sipping another cup of coffee in the break room at work, take 10 minutes to walk around the block or up and down a few flights of stairs.
Find a workout buddy. Having a friend to exercise with can help motivate you to schedule a regular workout and stick with it because you won't want to let down your buddy. You can encourage each other and share tips on what works and what doesn't to make your workouts more effective.
Join a fitness club with a schedule that meets your needs. You may find even more motivation from working out in a group and feel challenged to extend yourself more if other members are slightly more fit than you are. But the secret to making a health club membership pay off is to join one that has a schedule that meshes with yours. If your job often has you working late, look for a club with extended hours.
Make your chores part of your fitness routine. You can burn calories by doing everyday chores. Raking leaves, mowing the lawn, washing the car, dusting around the house, or running a vacuum cleaner can count as moderate exercise, particularly if you perform these activities vigorously.
Take extra steps. Make it a little harder on yourself to get where you're going. Take the stairs, not the elevator. Park farther away from a store's entrance, and walk between stores, if possible, when you’re out running errands. Research says if you take 10,000 steps a day, you'll be on your way to better physical fitness.
Find an exercise activity that really engages you. It could be a team sport such as basketball or softball, a more solitary pursuit such as jogging or bicycling, or a group activity like step aerobics or Zumba. The important thing is that the activity appeals to you so much that you look forward to it and want to carve time out of your day to pursue it.
Pick a workout time that feels right to you. Do you find it easier to exercise before you go to work and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing it’s done? Or would you rather exercise at lunchtime, as a nice break from the workday? Maybe you prefer to cap your day with a session at the gym before heading home for dinner. Once you identify your best time, you’ll be more likely to work out at that hour on a consistent basis.
Work your workout into family time. Spend time with your family pursuing activities that will improve everyone's health. Play a family game of softball or touch football. Take a weekend hike around a park or through a nature preserve. Walk or ride your bikes around the neighborhood in the evening after supper. You’ll all enjoy quality time and increased physical fitness.
Use social gatherings as a stepping-off point for exercise. Set up a lunchtime walking group at work. Organize an after-church bicycle ride with other members of the congregation. It's easier to get moving when you're already out of the house, and the members of your group will motivate each other.
Reset your daily schedule. Get up a half-hour earlier to give yourself time to fit in a workout. Take a red pen to your daily calendar and look for activities you can drop or do at another time to make room for exercise. Remember that every minute spent exercising is a worthwhile investment.

Remember that part of fitting exercise into your day is wanting to fit it in. If you have a routine and it’s beginning to bore you, look for ways to shake it up and renew your commitment.

Healthy Habits: How to Break Bad Habits

Old habits die hard, but the good news is that they do die. Don't lose hope or beat yourself up over it if you're having trouble breaking bad habits. It's not that easy to change your ways. Just keep plugging away.

Start by replacing old habits with new ones. The key is to learn how to take care of yourself and pamper yourself in ways that are life affirming rather than self-destructive. Learn how to deal with sabotaging emotions by establishing some healthy patterns of behavior and investing in your physical and emotional well-being.

If you judge yourself every time you're in front of a mirror, try focusing on the things you love about yourself. When was the last time you looked in the mirror and told yourself how great your features are and how beautiful you look?

If you're constantly looking to the media for stories about celebrity diets and weight loss, try finding more realistic role models — everyday people who've lost weight or achieved other goals similar to yours. They will be the most inspiring. Start paying attention to people you know.

If you tend to blow off your workouts until your vacation rolls around — or there's some other event, like a wedding, lighting a fire under you — ease yourself back into your daily workouts. Without commitment, you won't be able to achieve the goals you truly desire. Put your life in perspective. Everything is a choice — from how you feel when you wake up in the morning to whether or not you floss your teeth at night. To make the right choices, you need to ask the right questions: What is my true goal, and how are the choices I'm making going to help me achieve that goal?

Healthy Habits: About Metabolic Syndrome

From LOSING IT! With Jillian Michaels
Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Nearly one-quarter of Americans have a syndrome that dramatically raises their risk of developing other serious health conditions. It's called metabolic syndrome, and you have it if you meet three or more of the qualifying criteria:

A waist circumference greater than 40 inches in men, and greater than 35 inches in women
High triglycerides: 150 mg/dl or higher
Low HDL cholesterol (the "good" kind): less than 40 mg/dl in men; less than 50 mg/dl in women
High blood pressure, defined as a reading of 130 mm Hg or higher for systolic pressure (the top number), or 85 mm Hg or higher for diastolic pressure (the bottom number)
High blood sugar: a reading of 100 mg/dl or higher for a fasting blood glucose test

Why does metabolic syndrome matter? If you have it, your risk of developing heart disease doubles, and you're five times more likely to develop diabetes. You also have a higher chance of developing fatty liver disease or polycystic ovary syndrome.

The good news is that there are ways to fight metabolic syndrome and lower your risk for its related conditions. Metabolic syndrome is linked to insulin resistance, and many of the strategies for combating insulin resistance are helpful for people with metabolic syndrome. For example, if you're overweight, losing 10 percent of your body weight can cut your risk of diabetes and heart disease and raise your life expectancy. Eating four small meals a day, without going longer than four hours between meals, can help you stabilize your blood sugar and insulin levels. And one of the most important changes you can make is to get more exercise, which can increase your cells' ability to use insulin.

If you think you might have metabolic syndrome, talk to your doctor. While it's a dangerous condition, the consequences are not a foregone conclusion — with diet and exercise you can take control of your metabolism and get healthier!

Healthy Habits: Exercise Classes Can Change Up Your Routine

Signing up for an exercise class is a great way to add variety to your weekly cardio routine. And let's face it — misery loves company, right? Having companions with you to sweat through all that cardio can be a great motivator.

Just be sure that if it's a cardiovascular class, it involves a minimum of 45 minutes of activity and keeps your heart rate up. For maximum calorie burn, I recommend working out at 85 percent of your maximum heart rate, or MHR. (To calculate your MHR, subtract your age from 220. Multiply that number by .85 to get your target heart rate.) Wear a heart rate monitor or check your pulse a few times during the class to make sure you're staying on track.

Go to your local gym or fitness center and see whether you can get in on one of these bad boys:

Spinning: Climb on the bike and pedal to motivational music and instruction. Spinning doesn't require a whole lot of coordination, and you can go at your own pace; in any case, it's a real calorie burner.

Step: Start stepping up and down to the beat of your step aerobics instructor. The stepping motion offers a boost to cardio by adding another level of intensity.

Boot camp: This high-intensity workout will kick your butt — in a good way. It's a combination of cardio and strength training, and it works the whole body.

Kickboxing: A personal favorite of mine, kickboxing aerobics classes incorporate punching and kicking motions and are great for toning muscles and releasing pent-up stress.

Healthy Habits: Tips for Controlling Your Appetite

From LOSING IT with Jillian Michaels

If you suffer from constant food cravings, there are some steps you can take to remedy the situation. The first step is to make sure you're eating correctly for your metabolic type. (You can find out how by taking the "What to Eat" quiz on my site!) This will help a lot. If you're certain that you are eating as you should for your metabolic type and you still feel hungry all the time, consider these tips to curb your appetite:

If you're looking to squeeze that butt into skinny jeans this fall, I have just the exercise for you. These step-ups target your glutes, hamstrings, and quads and will help you build a rockin' lower body.
This exercise requires a bench or another type of sturdy platform that is ideally at about knee level. While you're stepping up onto the bench, pay attention to a couple of things. Make sure you maintain good posture

Healthy Habits: Working Out When You're Under the Weather...

After personally being sick the past few days, early birthday present from my hubs, I felt the need to post this.

Working out when you're feeling sick can be a drag, but illness doesn't have to derail your routine. If your symptoms appear above your neck (runny nose, sneezing, sore throat), you can keep working out if you take your intensity down a few notches. If your symptoms appear below the neck (a deep chest cough, vomiting, diarrhea), or if you have a fever, it's best to lay off altogether until you feel better.

If you're well enough to exercise, the key is to keep some momentum going without overdoing it. However, sometimes when you're not feeling well, the last thing you want to do is exercise and eat well. If you do fall off the wagon, don't give up once you're feeling better. Here's what one of my rock stars posted recently on the Message Boards about feeling sick, falling off the wagon with her eating habits and exercise, but then how she's rebounding:

" I got really sick while I was in Santa Fe — terrible headaches and nausea, which I believe were caused by the high altitude. I could not exercise while I was there (could barely stand upright!) and decided to comfort myself with food (the whole, if I can't exercise then might as well be 'off' plan mentality!) Well, once I had the taste of food food, I couldn't stop — I had so much ice cream this week it was insane! (and delicious!) I basically ate anything I wanted for a week. You would think that it would be really satisfying, but it wasn't. I forgot how much energy, self-loathing, and guilt goes into eating that much — it is more work than exercising and eating right! Giving in to every craving, finding the right foods, eating, sneeking, feeling guilty, the lethargy, unhappiness, yuck — I can't believe I used to live like that.

BUT, I'm back!!! I'm sure the scale is up a few pounds, but I know what I have to do to shake it off. I went for my first run in a week yesterday and suffered through five miles in the heat, had a decent day of eating and am generally moving in the right direction. I am going back out of town on Monday for business and I need to be better prepared this time to not let the change in environment and routine throw me off track."

—I.am.worth.it

Good job — this journey is all about getting healthier. Sometimes life will throw you a curveball, and you've just got to do your best, don't give up, and get back up to speed as soon as you can.

Healthy Habits: Fight Flabby Arms With These Moves

In this August heat, I bet you want to wear less to stay cool. I'm not talking about exhibitionism but about revealing your arms in tank tops and sleeveless dresses! Not ready to bare them quite yet? Well, it's time to sculpt some sexy arms that you'll want to flaunt!

First, a brief anatomy lesson: Your biceps are the prominent muscles in the front of your upper arms, and your triceps are the horseshoe-shaped muscles located in the back of your upper arms. Biceps help you bend your arms, and they assist the muscles of your upper back in pulling and carrying. The triceps muscle's primary function is to extend the elbow and straighten your arm, but the triceps also assist the chest and shoulder muscles in throwing and pushing.

Two great exercises for working these muscles of the upper arm are dumbbell biceps curls and triceps kickbacks. Check them out:

Dumbbell Biceps Curls

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms at your sides. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, your palms facing your sides. Exhale, and keeping your elbows locked against your rib cage, curl both arms three-quarters of the way up to your shoulders, rotating your wrists as you lift, so your palms end up facing your shoulders.
Hold for a beat, focusing on squeezing your biceps. Inhale, and slowly lower your arms to the starting position; repeat.

Triceps Kickbacks

Hold a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing your sides, and stand with your feet hip-width apart, with a slight bend in your knees. Bend forward from the waist so that your torso is nearly parallel with the floor. Bend both elbows so that your upper arms are locked at your sides and parallel to the floor (your forearms should be perpendicular to the floor).
Keeping your upper arms still, straighten your forearms behind you until the ends of the dumbbells are pointing toward the floor. Hold for a beat, then inhale and slowly lower your arms to the starting position; repeat.

Don’t Exercise to Punish Yourself for Eating

Powerless thinking is the root cause of a sedentary lifestyle. Rewire your brain with more powerful thoughts to create the vibrant, healthy life you desire. Here are six examples:

Powerless Thought #1: I have to exercise to lose weight.
Punishing yourself for eating leads to yo-yo exercising—yet exercise is proven to help you feel better and live a longer, healthier life—even if you don’t lose a pound. Instead of exercising to earn the right to eat or pay penance for eating certain foods, and all it does for you.
Powerful Thought: I exercise for fitness and health.

Powerless Thought #2: I know I should exercise but I hate it so I just can’t make myself do it.
Notice the negative words “should,” “hate,” “can’t,” and “make myself.” These stem from past experiences like being chosen last for teams, boring exercise routines, and discomfort from doing too much too fast. This time, find enjoyable physical activities that suit your personality and lifestyle. Start slowly and allow your body to adjust gradually. Choose to focus on all the great things exercise does for you and how wonderful you feel.
Powerful Thought: I enjoy becoming more physically active each day.

Powerless Thought #3: I don’t have time.
It only takes 1/48th of your whole day to exercise for 30 minutes—and most people waste more than that on less productive activities like watching TV. If you’re too busy to exercise, you’re too busy. Since physical activity is so beneficial, give it the priority it deserves.
Powerful Thought: I make time for my health and well-being.

Powerless Thought #4: I don’t have the energy.
This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Exercise improves your strength, stamina, and sleep so you’re more productive and energetic. Since you’re likely to feel better within a few minutes of starting to move, commit to exercising for at least ten minutes. Most of the time, you’ll feel so good that you’ll want to continue.
Powerful Thought: I feel myself becoming healthier and more energetic.

Powerless Thought #5: I’m embarrassed to be seen exercising.
Most people are so focused on themselves they don’t notice you anyway. Those that do will likely admire you. Eventually you’ll feel less self-conscious but in the meantime, find activities and places that feel comfortable so you can focus on all the benefits.

Powerful Thought: I exercise for me.

Powerless Thought #6: Exercise is really hard for me.
Physical activity doesn’t have to be hard or hurt to be beneficial so lower the bar. Ask yourself, “What is the least amount of exercise I can do—joyfully and consistently?” If you start there, little by little, you’ll feel stronger, leaner, more energetic, and healthier.
Powerful Thought: I am an active, healthy person.

Repeat these and other powerful thoughts often and soon they’ll become your new reality!