"The Way to Wellness" It's time to start a Healthy life:

Your 7-Day Program


How many times have you gone to sleep at night, swearing you'll go to the gym in the morning, and then changing your mind just eight hours later because when you get up, you don't feel like exercising?

 

While this can happen to the best of us, it doesn't mean you should drop the ball altogether when it comes to staying fit. What people need to realize is that staying active and eating right are critical for long-term health and wellness -- and that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The more you know about how your body responds to your lifestyle choices, the better you can customize a nutrition and exercise plan that is right for you. When you eat well, increase your level of physical activity, and exercise at the proper intensity, you are informing your body that you want to burn a substantial amount of fuel. This translates to burning fat more efficiently for energy.

 

In other words, proper eating habits plus exercise equals fast metabolism, which, in turn gives you more energy throughout the day and allows you to do more physical work with less effort.

 

The true purpose of exercise is to send a repetitive message to the body asking for improvement in metabolism, strength, aerobic capacity and overall fitness and health. Each time you exercise, your body responds by upgrading its capabilities to burn fat throughout the day and night, Exercise doesn't have to be intense to work for you, but it does need to be consistent.

 

I recommend engaging in regular cardiovascular exercise four times per week for 20 to 30 minutes per session, and resistance training four times per week for 20 to 25 minutes per session. This balanced approach provides a one-two punch, incorporating aerobic exercise to burn fat and deliver more oxygen, and resistance training to increase lean body mass and burn more calories around the block.

 

Here's a sample exercise program that may work for you:

 

* Warm Up -- seven to eight minutes of light aerobic activity intended to increase blood flow and lubricate and warm-up your tendons and joints.

* Resistance Training -- Train all major muscle groups. One to two sets of each exercise. Rest 45 seconds between sets.

 

* Aerobic Exercise -- Pick two favorite activities, they could be jogging, rowing, biking or cross-country skiing, whatever fits your lifestyle. Perform 12 to 15 minutes of the first activity and continue with 10 minutes of the second activity. Cool down during the last five minutes.

 

* Stretching -- Wrap up your exercise session by stretching, breathing deeply, relaxing and meditating.

 

 

When starting an exercise program, it is important to have realistic expectations. Depending on your initial fitness level, you should expect the following changes early on.

 

 

From one to eight weeks -- Feel better and have more energy.

From two to six months -- Lose size and inches while becoming leaner. Clothes begin to fit more loosely. You are gaining muscle and losing fat.

After six months -- Start losing weight quite rapidly.

Once you make the commitment to exercise several times a week, don't stop there. You should also change your diet and/or eating habits,' says Zwiefel. Counting calories or calculating grams and percentages nutrients is impractical. Instead, I suggest these easy-to-follow guidelines:

 

• Eat several small meals (optimally four) and a couple of small snacks throughout the day
• Make sure every meal is balanced -- incorporate palm-sized proteins like lean meats, fish, egg whites and dairy products, fist-sized portions of complex carbohydrates like whole-wheat bread and pasta, wild rice, multigrain cereal and potatoes, and fist-sized portions of vegetable and fruits
• Limit your fat intake to only what's necessary for adequate flavor
• Drink at least eight 8-oz. glasses of water throughout the day

 I also recommend that you take a multi-vitamin each day to ensure you are getting all the vitamins and minerals your body needs.

 

I suppose that's all I can think of for now. I should extend my thanks to a doctor friend of mine. Without him, I wouldn't be able to write this article, or keep my sanity.

 

Enjoy life, we all deserve it.

SENSIBLE DIET TIPS

Start your diet with a food diary, record everything you eat, what you were doing at the time, and how you felt. That tells you about yourself, your temptation, the emotional states that encourage you to snack and may help you lose once you see how much you eat.

Instead of eating the forbidden piece of candy, brush your teeth. If you're about to cheat, allow yourself a treat, then eat only half a bite and throw the other half away. When hunger hits, wait 10 minutes before eating and see if it passes. Set attainable goals. Don't say, "I want to lose 50 pounds." Say, "I want to lose 5 pounds a month." Get enough sleep but not too much. Try to avoid sugar. Highly sweetened foods tend to make you crave more.

Drink six to eight glasses of water a day. Water itself helps cut down on water retention because it acts as a diuretic. Taken before meals, it dulls the appetite by giving you that "full feeling." Diet with a buddy. Support groups are important, and caring people can help one another succeed. Start your own, even with just one other person.

Substitute activity for eating. When the cravings hit, go to the "Y" or health club if possible; or dust, or walk around the block. This is especially helpful if you eat out of anger.
If the pie on the counter is just too great a temptation and you don't want to throw it away, freeze it. If you're a late-night eater, have a carbohydrate, such as a slice of bread of a cracker, before bedtime to cut down on cravings. Keep an orange slice or a glass of water by your bed to quiet the hunger pangs that wake you up.

If you use food as a reward, establish a new reward system. Buy yourself a non-edible reward. Write down everything you eat - - everything - including what you taste when you cook. If you monitor what you eat, you can't go off your diet.

Weigh yourself once a week at the same time. Your weight fluctuates constantly and you can weigh more at night than you did in the morning, a downer if you stuck to your diet all day. Make dining an event. East from your own special plate, on your own special placemat, and borrow the Japanese art of food arranging to make your meal, no matter how meager, look lovely. This is a trick that helps chronic over-eaters and bingers pay attention to their food instead of consuming it unconsciously.

Don't shop when you're hungry. You'll only buy more fattening food. Avoid finger foods that are easy to eat in large amounts. Avoid consuming large quantities of fattening liquids, which are so easy to overdo. And this includes alcoholic beverages. Keep plenty of crunchy foods like raw vegetables and air-popped fat-free popcorn on hand. They're high in fiber, satisfying and filling. Leave something on your plate, even if you are a charter member of the Clean The Plate Club. It's a good sign that you can stop eating when you want to, not just when your plate is empty.

Lose weight for yourself, not to please your husband, your parents or your friends. Make the kitchen off-limits at any time other than mealtime. Always eat at the table, never in front of the TV set or with the radio on. Concentrate on eating every mouthful slowly and savoring each morsel.

Chew everything from 10 to 20 times and count! Never skip meals.

Click Here to Begin your own FITNESS Plan!!

Healthy meal planning begins with your starting point:

Healthy meal planning begins with your starting point:

Estimate your daily caloric needs. Your daily calorie needs (also called Weight Maintenance Calorie level) in simplified terms is the sum of your basal metabolic energy (also referred to as basal metabolic rate or BMR) and your Activity Energy.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)- Your BMR refers to the energy your body expends performing involuntary functions such as circulating blood, breathing, glandular activity, contraction of the intestines, etc. All these processes require energy. Test data show that the BMR depends on gender, age, height and weight.

Activity Energy & Activity Levels- Your activity level depends on how physically active you are. This leads to the amount of energy you expend over and above your basal energy. What’s your body composition?

Body composition defined as the ratio of lean body mass to body fat mass. Lean body mass includes structural and functional elements in cells, body water, bones, muscles, liver, heart, kidneys, etc. Body fat is of two types such as essential fat and storage fat. Essential fat is required for normal physiological functioning. Storage fat constitutes the fat reserves of the body. Body composition is the percent of body fat mass and percent of lean body mass.

What’s your BMI? Another accurate judge of body weight is BMI, which stands for Body Mass Index. BMI calculates a weight to height ratio and assigns a number to the result. The higher the BMI number above the normal range, the greater the degree of overweight. A BMI of 27 or above is overweight and 30 or above is severely overweight. The higher the BMI number above the normal range, the greater the degree of overweight and the greater the risk for weight related health problems.


What’s your body fat? This is the amount of body fat you carry, your body fat percentage, makes a difference to your body shape and your health.
Your physique is affected by body fat percentage because muscle tissue is more compact than fat - a balloon containing 1lb of muscle tissue would be smaller than a balloon containing 1lb of fat!

Click for Free Fitness Analysis