If you're reading this blog, then you've just taken the first step to becoming more fit and reaching your health goals. But chances are, if you're like the rest of us, you've already taken a first step - over and over and over again.
So what makes this blog special - or me qualified to write about fitness? The fact that I'm just like you. I've struggled with reaching and keeping my health goals from about the time I was 12 and still struggle today 19 years later - pease do NOT do the math on my age.
I'm not a personal trainer, I'm not an underwear model and I haven't lost 400 pounds so I could host host my own infomercial about diet cards, weight machines or whatever.
What I have done is try every diet on the planet, a bit of anorexia, fat burners, getting thin, getting fat, getting somewhat muscular, being active, being lethargic and a TON of reasearch on health trends, foods, and how they affect the body.
So what does this blog offer? Read on...
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Realistic Healthy Tips for Today's Busy Lifestyle
Y'know, I would LOVE to be an underwear model. But the fact is, I didn't get the genes to make me naturally lean and muscular and no one has walked up to me at the mall and said, "Hey! You'd look great in a Calvin Klein ad." Now don't get me wrong; I'm not completely unfortunate looking. But I live in the real world just like you.
That means I have real world obligations and have to find the time to work in my fitness regime. I have to have a paying job because I have a car payment, a mortgage, a child (OK she's a dog, but she still requires non-stop attention), and all the other every day responsibilities that come with life.
But I love fitness. I love the whole health craze thing. And I want to help real people like you and me with easy, every day tips to living a healthier lifestyle. I'm not promising that we're going to end up on a 2xist underwear box or in the Victoria Secret catalog. I'm just going to help you acheive your fitness goals with ideas that I've learned about over the years or read about that are simple, easy and most of all REALISTIC for all of us who live in reality (as much of a drag as that can be sometimes).
So without further ado...let's get started!
That means I have real world obligations and have to find the time to work in my fitness regime. I have to have a paying job because I have a car payment, a mortgage, a child (OK she's a dog, but she still requires non-stop attention), and all the other every day responsibilities that come with life.
But I love fitness. I love the whole health craze thing. And I want to help real people like you and me with easy, every day tips to living a healthier lifestyle. I'm not promising that we're going to end up on a 2xist underwear box or in the Victoria Secret catalog. I'm just going to help you acheive your fitness goals with ideas that I've learned about over the years or read about that are simple, easy and most of all REALISTIC for all of us who live in reality (as much of a drag as that can be sometimes).
So without further ado...let's get started!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Calories? I Don't Think So...Moogalies are Better.
How cliche, right? Start the first fitness tip of this new blog with calories. Well, that's because they are important - they're the unit of measure that we go by when determining nutritional elements. If we're not comfortable with the term "calories," or that term has too much of a negative connotation, we could always call them something else...like...hmmm..."moogalies." How 'bout that?
I went through a phase where I was completely opposed to counting calories, I mean...moogalies. I was all about eat a nutritious, balanced meal with complex carbs, proteins, healthy fats and the moogalies won't matter. And to a certain extent that's absolutely true. However, have you ever stopped and looked at how many moogalies are actually in food? It can be astonishing. Remember on the nutrition label, they're referred to as, "calories."
Our first step, is to determine how many moogalies we need in a day. Everyone is different, so everyone's number will be different. And how active you are will also determine the amount of calories...moogalies...you need. Luckily, there's a TON of websites out there just waiting to help you calcuate this easily and quickly.
My favorite site to do this is:
http://www.build-muscle-and-burn-fat.com/calorie-calculator.html
I love this website, you fill in the numbers, and it does all the calculating for you. You can even calculate how many moogalies you need to eat to lose 1-2 pounds a week in a healthy way.
HOWEVER, we are NOT going to be all about "losing weight" in this blog. That's not what I want this to be about. It's about simple tips that anyone can do on a shortage of time to live healthier and feel better about themselves.
The reason I think it's important to be aware of the moogalies is because most of us AREN'T aware of how many we are really eating.
Let me give you an example of why we should be aware:
My very healthy lunch yesterday: What I ate - # of Moogalies
Two slices of sugar free whole wheat bread - 140
Boar's Head Turkey Lunch Meat - 100
20 grapes - 68
Handfull of nuts - 170
Total Moogalies - 478
That's a lot of moogalies compared to what we should be eating in a day. And that was with a HEALTHY meal. Can you imagine if I had splurged?
Just to make things interesting...our next tip...EAT EAT EAT!
I went through a phase where I was completely opposed to counting calories, I mean...moogalies. I was all about eat a nutritious, balanced meal with complex carbs, proteins, healthy fats and the moogalies won't matter. And to a certain extent that's absolutely true. However, have you ever stopped and looked at how many moogalies are actually in food? It can be astonishing. Remember on the nutrition label, they're referred to as, "calories."
Our first step, is to determine how many moogalies we need in a day. Everyone is different, so everyone's number will be different. And how active you are will also determine the amount of calories...moogalies...you need. Luckily, there's a TON of websites out there just waiting to help you calcuate this easily and quickly.
My favorite site to do this is:
http://www.build-muscle-and-burn-fat.com/calorie-calculator.html
I love this website, you fill in the numbers, and it does all the calculating for you. You can even calculate how many moogalies you need to eat to lose 1-2 pounds a week in a healthy way.
HOWEVER, we are NOT going to be all about "losing weight" in this blog. That's not what I want this to be about. It's about simple tips that anyone can do on a shortage of time to live healthier and feel better about themselves.
The reason I think it's important to be aware of the moogalies is because most of us AREN'T aware of how many we are really eating.
Let me give you an example of why we should be aware:
My very healthy lunch yesterday: What I ate - # of Moogalies
Two slices of sugar free whole wheat bread - 140
Boar's Head Turkey Lunch Meat - 100
20 grapes - 68
Handfull of nuts - 170
Total Moogalies - 478
That's a lot of moogalies compared to what we should be eating in a day. And that was with a HEALTHY meal. Can you imagine if I had splurged?
Just to make things interesting...our next tip...EAT EAT EAT!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Eat Eat Eat!
So in the last post, we talked about becoming more aware of how many calories, woops, I mean moogalies we need each day. And I showed how even a healthy meal can pack a wallop of calories. So yeah, me saying now that we need to eat, eat, eat probably seems kind of weird. And in a way, it kind of is. See, as weird as it may sound, eating more - or more often anyway - will actually help you reach your fitness/health goals. And here's why...
When we go a long time without eating our blood sugar drops. So we not only get hungry we start to have cravings. Sugary cravings. Carb cravings. BAD cravings. Don't ask me why. I'm not a doctor. Chances are you know exactly what I'm talking about though. We've all done starvation diets. So we know what happens when we start to get hungry, stomach starts growling, start picturing the ideal meal, head starts feeling fuzzy, and all you can think about is ordering a pizza, breaking open a bag of chips, drilling the freezer until you find ice cream. That's because your blood sugar has dropped and your body is trying to make up for it.
That's why we should eat 5-6 times a day - or every 2-3 hours. And no, not 5-6 full meals like you see on TV in Denny's commercials. These are 5-6 smaller meals. Take how many calories you figured out that you should be eating in a day and divide that by five. If you want to have more calories at breakfast, lunch and dinner that's fine. Just have fewer calories at your snack times.
Sample
1)Meal 1: Egg Whites + sugar free whole wheat toast
2)Snack: Apple plus 1 table spoon of all-natural peanut butter
3)Meal 2: small salad, fat free dressing, marinated chicken breast
4)Snack: low-calorie meal replacement bar
5)Meal 3: Grilled fish or grilled chicken and green vegetable of your choice with lemon pepper seasoning
Remember have something to eat every 2-3 hours. By eating several times during the day, you'll also keep your metabolism up and burning calories throughout the day. When we don't eat often enough, our metabolisms slow down. So eat more often, burn more calories, become trimmer, be happier.
When we go a long time without eating our blood sugar drops. So we not only get hungry we start to have cravings. Sugary cravings. Carb cravings. BAD cravings. Don't ask me why. I'm not a doctor. Chances are you know exactly what I'm talking about though. We've all done starvation diets. So we know what happens when we start to get hungry, stomach starts growling, start picturing the ideal meal, head starts feeling fuzzy, and all you can think about is ordering a pizza, breaking open a bag of chips, drilling the freezer until you find ice cream. That's because your blood sugar has dropped and your body is trying to make up for it.
That's why we should eat 5-6 times a day - or every 2-3 hours. And no, not 5-6 full meals like you see on TV in Denny's commercials. These are 5-6 smaller meals. Take how many calories you figured out that you should be eating in a day and divide that by five. If you want to have more calories at breakfast, lunch and dinner that's fine. Just have fewer calories at your snack times.
Sample
1)Meal 1: Egg Whites + sugar free whole wheat toast
2)Snack: Apple plus 1 table spoon of all-natural peanut butter
3)Meal 2: small salad, fat free dressing, marinated chicken breast
4)Snack: low-calorie meal replacement bar
5)Meal 3: Grilled fish or grilled chicken and green vegetable of your choice with lemon pepper seasoning
Remember have something to eat every 2-3 hours. By eating several times during the day, you'll also keep your metabolism up and burning calories throughout the day. When we don't eat often enough, our metabolisms slow down. So eat more often, burn more calories, become trimmer, be happier.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Reading isn't just good for the mind...
I've never been a big reader - or so I thought. Until I started thinking about how much time I actually do spend reading. I'm just not reading what a lot of other people are reading from the NY Times Best Seller lists. But over the years I've read a ton on pop culture, music, the economy (I am big into MSN money now) - and nutrition, fitness and general health.
Just about everything that you read in this blog I leared from reading Men's Health, Men's Fitness or other fitness magazines/books - as well as Wikipedia or just somewhere on the Internet. You don't have to go to school or have a piece of paper to make you an expert. You just have to be able to back up what you say with a source.
So I recommend that you start reading some sort of fitness publication. My fave is Men's Health. A few years a go, they did a great thing and introduced Women's Health. I purchased a subscription of WH for a friend, and she absolutely loves it. She even renewed the sub on her own.
Yes, I know reading takes time. And you've got a demanding job, kids, pets, friends and not to mention a life plus other interests. So I have two suggestions for finding time to read:
First - take the magazine or whatever healthy publication you're reading to the gym. Ride the bike, do the eliptical machine, cross trainer - whatever you like best or hate the least - and read. Not only will you start gaining a ton of knowledge about being healthy that will help you acheive your goals, you won't even realize that you've been doing cardio for 30-45 mins, and then it'll already be time to go home.
Second - WARNING - this may sound a little crude...take it to the bathroom. I know. It's sounds gross. But men have been doing this since the first indoor bathroom was built - and frankly, it's brilliant. People are less likely to bother you in there, and it's an easy way to sneak away for 5, 10, or even 15 minutes to read a few pages in a fitness publication or a book on how to be healthier. Before you know it, you'll have read every page, and be sitting on pins and needles (or porcelain) waiting for the next Women's Health issue to arrive.
Recommended Reading:
Women's Health
Men's Health
Body For Life by Bill Phillips (more on this gem later)
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Let's Talk Trash...
I love to talk trash. So let's talk about one piece of trash I think everyone should get rid of immediately - your scale. Weight is crap. And it's an absolute crap way to measure health. OK, OK - don't start yelling back at me just yet...read on for a minute.
Your weight fluctuates daily based on what you've eaten, how much you've eaten, your physical activity, your lack of physical activity, your water retention, the weather, the score of the latest Rockets versus Mavericks game, whether the Dow is up or down - you get the point...a million things can affect your daily weight.
Here's one illustration why we shouldn't use weight to measure health goals: if you eat 8 ounces of plain grilled chicken breast you're eating about 220 calories. If you eat a doughnut (1.8 ounces), you're eating about 200 calories. Almost the same number of calories, but which one weighs more? And which one is going to weigh more in your body? The chicken breast. Yet, the chicken breast is a much healthier option.
Your body will use almost ALL of the chicken breast and burn just about every single calorie you've eaten - about 200 calories of the 220. But if you eat a doughnut, over half the calories enter your body as fat. There's 22 grams of sugar in a Krispy Kreme - that's about 88 calories. That means of the 200 calories in a doughnut, almost all 200 calories come from fat and sugar. Fat and sugar may weigh less the day you eat it, but your body will store almost of that as fat - and in case you haven't heard yet - fat doesn't weigh as much as other substances...say...like muscle. So weight can be very deceiving.
OK, I've started making my point. So what heck are you supposed to use to measure how your meeting your healthy goals - because let's face it - it's fun to see our successes?
One idea is to use your favorite pair of jeans. As you continue to incorporate more healthy habits, you're going to start to noticing changes in your clothes and how they fit. As you get healthier, your jeans will start to get more and mnore loose.
Measuring your waist is a really good way to keep track of your progress - and it's much more accurate than using a scale.
If you're just dying to weigh yourself or curiousity is getting the best of you, just about every gym has a scale or you can use one at GNC usually.
Your weight fluctuates daily based on what you've eaten, how much you've eaten, your physical activity, your lack of physical activity, your water retention, the weather, the score of the latest Rockets versus Mavericks game, whether the Dow is up or down - you get the point...a million things can affect your daily weight.
Here's one illustration why we shouldn't use weight to measure health goals: if you eat 8 ounces of plain grilled chicken breast you're eating about 220 calories. If you eat a doughnut (1.8 ounces), you're eating about 200 calories. Almost the same number of calories, but which one weighs more? And which one is going to weigh more in your body? The chicken breast. Yet, the chicken breast is a much healthier option.
Your body will use almost ALL of the chicken breast and burn just about every single calorie you've eaten - about 200 calories of the 220. But if you eat a doughnut, over half the calories enter your body as fat. There's 22 grams of sugar in a Krispy Kreme - that's about 88 calories. That means of the 200 calories in a doughnut, almost all 200 calories come from fat and sugar. Fat and sugar may weigh less the day you eat it, but your body will store almost of that as fat - and in case you haven't heard yet - fat doesn't weigh as much as other substances...say...like muscle. So weight can be very deceiving.
OK, I've started making my point. So what heck are you supposed to use to measure how your meeting your healthy goals - because let's face it - it's fun to see our successes?
One idea is to use your favorite pair of jeans. As you continue to incorporate more healthy habits, you're going to start to noticing changes in your clothes and how they fit. As you get healthier, your jeans will start to get more and mnore loose.
Measuring your waist is a really good way to keep track of your progress - and it's much more accurate than using a scale.
If you're just dying to weigh yourself or curiousity is getting the best of you, just about every gym has a scale or you can use one at GNC usually.
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