Changing The DNA of The Traditional Dieter


A while back, I started a project called Movement is Life, which is still running and provides many of my clients with weekly progressive online cardiovascular exercises designed for healthy living and weight loss. As I look back into why it has taken off, I realize that movement is the impetus for creating a rational mindset that is open to sensible weight loss expectations. Because of that, I am ready to offer an extension of the Movement is Life program that may be helpful to you called Movement is Life-Changing the DNA of the Traditional Dieter.

This Isn’t a Lose Weight Quick Scheme
There are dieting marketers aplenty who will tell you that you can lose 21 lbs in three weeks with their time tested formulas. I’m sure some of those gimmicks work rather well, and I am not saying that some folks aren’t making that kind of success, but that’s not what I am selling. With Movement is Life-Changing the DNA of the Traditional Dieter, you and I are going to look over several things, from what affects a woman’s resting metabolic rate/what affects a man’s resting metabolic rate, to elements of a successful over age 50 weight loss plan, increasing your human growth hormone naturally, why baby boomers gain weight, weight gain and menopause, to why we overeat and how to begin the process of change. None of what I offer will fall into the camp of “lose weight quickly,” and so, if that’s the goal, you might look elsewhere.

We Will Talk About Motivation As Well as Actions
Wishful thinking is okay. Turning it into a vision is central. Wanting to lose weight via exercise and better eating habits is a must. If you are a person that wants to stop the process of aging prematurely because of poor exercising and eating habits, then this program is for you.

Don’t Quit Your Current Exercise or Eating Plan Just Yet
We’ll cover different topics every week, and along the way, you’ll find some things that resonate with you and others that won’t. Additionally, every single week for 10 weeks you will receive a cardiovascular plan designed specifically for you that is not a cookie cutter plan. Don’t jump into this whole hog and think that you will be changing everything all at once. Instead, let’s figure out what works well for you, how you intend to make some changes that are not drastic and keep you feeling motivated about being headed to a better way of life. Let’s see if we can find what makes you healthy, happy, and lose weight. I’m not selling desperate attempts at weight loss. BodySmartWay is selling sensibility.

If This Sounds Interesting
If you are interested in learning more, give me a call at 904 501 6002, or just sign up here on my blog at www.bodysmartinc.com and go to Movement is Life. The weekly online coaching plan, Changing the DNA of the Traditional Dieter, although not indicated on my blog here will be included free if you sign up with the Movement is Life plan by Februuary 29,2012

And if not, a new potentially useful post is coming out soon.

Our Wealth is in Our Health,
Kim Miller
BodySmartWay

How You Train is How You Look

A question generated by a previous article, “How You Train Determines How You Look”, is from a reader who exercises regularly, but still has concerns regarding the approach to training and disappointing visible results.

Question: I am 57 years old and have been exercising regularly for the last 9 years. I do cardio classes at the YMCA two times a week, yoga one day a week, and additionally I am in a weight training class two days a week. I eat healthy, feel good, and am at a good weight, although I’d like to lose about 6 pounds. I have a lot of energy too, but with all this exercise, I still don’t look like I work out. My arms are flabby, I have no waist, and my posture is semi-poor. I don’t understand your last letter on recruiting muscle fibers with weight training for a leaner look! Don’t I do that in my weight training classes?

Your concern is understandable and also very typical for many people who exercise regularly. You are putting much energy into working out, but you just cannot get the look you desire.

Here’s What You Need to Know:

What is Cardiovascular Exercise Good For? What is it Not so Good For?
Cardiovascular exercise is great for burning calories and for making the heart strong. However, it does little for shaping the muscles of the upper body or even the legs. It’s true, sometimes you’ll see runners or other people who only do lots of cardiovascular exercise like biking and the elliptical trainer and they have nice looking legs. However, this is rare and seen mainly in those individuals with very little body fat. You’ll notice they look good, even though their muscle mass is minimum. For the other 99% of us, we must use full range of motion weight training techniques to fully sculpt not only the muscles of the legs and gluteus maximus ( rear) but the muscles of the upper body as well, especially the tricep muscles ( back of upper arms). As an additional note, if you are not exercising with good form and through a full range of motion, you are encouraging bad habits and increasing the likelihood of furthering poor posture.

What Can Yoga and Pilates Do For Us?

Yoga, pilates, and well designed stretching routines are great for increasing flexibility, general strength, and core strength. They aid our appearance by helping us move more fluidly as in our younger days. Some people who are very lithe and slender can attain a lean look solely by faithfully implementing these forms of exercise. This advantage lays in their super low body fat percentage visually magnifying what little muscle mass they may have. For those of us who are not so thin and lissome, or want a more fit look, developing muscle through properly tailored weight training routines are critical to achieving a visually appealing body frame.

Fortunately, many of today’s yoga and pilates instructors are well aware of the benefits of specialized weight training for a more desirably aesthetic look. These savvy instructors smartly refer and encourage their clients to engage in uniquely designed weight programs that are not being implemented in their yoga , pilates, or general weight training classes.

How Specialized Weight Training Can Change the Look of Your Body

Weight training is different than cardiovascular training flexibility. Of all the forms of activity, it is weight training that is crucial to shaping our muscles!

Think about this, but don’t get the wrong idea. Body builders sculpt and shape their muscles through the lifting of weights. It is not through hours on the treadmill, hours in the yoga studio, or hours spent on the pilates machine that muscles are densely defined. Now, before your image of the body builder is taken to the extreme form, know that their training is highly rigorous, highly intensive and highly systematic. That’s ok for them, but for those of us that want just a small amount of defined muscle that looks good and gives us that chiseled smooth look, we need not follow their program intensity or duration, but only their highly specialized weight room system for building muscle.

The progressive overload technique as well as various forms of what is called pyramid training done properly and implemented correctly are two of the quickest ways to achieve muscle tone that has been lacking for years. And yes, even in the hard to define areas of our bodies such as back of the arms, abdominals, rear end, hips and shoulders. What you need to know is that regardless of age, you are capable of gaining muscle, gaining strength, and gaining the confidence that you can not only feel better, but look better. For this to occur, specialized weight training is crucial, but the results are remarkable! You can do it! I will help. Bodysmart gives you the flexibilty to train online, on the telephone, or in person. For questions or inquiries on training with kim go to [email protected].

High Intensity Interval Training For Increased Metabolism

High intensity interval training, also called HITT, is a specific type of interval training that in the past was practiced mainly by athletes at the highest level of sports. Today, it is implemented commonly by athletes and non athletes alike who desire obtaining the most, lean, athletic, and sinewy physiques that are “possible for them.”

Emphasis on, “possible for them”, is placed because it’s important to understand that we have innate body shapes that make becoming lean more easy, or more difficult,depending on genetic factors. There are three body types:
Ectomorph
Body types are naturally lean and thin skinned. They will see quicker looking body fat results than the two other body types, mesomorphs and endomorphs.

Mesomorph
Body types are characterized by dense musculature. They will see results less quickly than ectomorphs, but have greatest lean muscle looking potential.

Endomorph
Body types are characterized by softness and fatty areas throughout body. These individuals respond to high intensity interval training less quickly than ectomorphs and mesomorphs, but results of fat loss percentages are more pronounced than the former two groups.

The Truth of the Matter
Think you are an Endomorph? Think again! Go back to your childhood, and recall what body type you were at age 10. This is what you are today, even if you feel a little soft.

EPOC to Super Charge Metabolism
When you exercise using the high intensity interval system, your body consumes considerably more oxygen. And the more oxygen you expend, the more calories you burn. However this increased oxygen during exercise is not really what fuels what we all desire- a higher metabolic rate, it’s the after-burn, or what is called EPOC, and more descriptively, excess post exercise oxygen consumption that fuels our metabolism. It works like this. The more energy your body uses during training, the higher EPOC. EPOC works in increasing metabolism by telling our body to get back to balance or what is referred to as homeostasis.

Getting back to homeostasis takes energy though, and this energy burns calories for several hours if not days afterward. That’s why hard working athletes who consume thousands of calories still find it difficult to sustain their weights. Their bodies are calorie burning machines even when they are at rest. How would you like to have even a fraction of their speedy metabolisms? You can. Next week we’ll go over specific high intensity interval training techniques to get you started on EPOC. In the meantime, think about this:

1. Training without good nutrition is nothing.
2. Over eating is not good.
3. You can do what you want to do.
4. Now is the time.
5. Control your destiny by managing your health.

Five Tips For Aging Well

Thankfully, there’s an ongoing awareness that aging well requires being physically fit. But many people are unsure of what being physically fit actually means. Does being fit mean that you can run a mile in 8 minutes? Or does it mean that you can touch your toes or do 25 push-ups in one minute? There are five prime components to being physically fit and regardless of age, extending oneself in these five key areas of health are critical to healthy aging. There are additional areas not traditionally considered part of physical fitness like balance training and mental training but will be considered in upcoming articles.

Keep in mind that aging well is an ongoing process so although we may get specific testing data on where we should be performing in each fitness category based on gender and age, truly aging well requires expending energy in these five key areas over a lifetime.

Cardiovascular Fitness
Minimum 20 -30 minutes 4 days a week
Heart rate at minimum of 70 %. Formula is 220 minus age multiplied by .70 = HR minimum. Example for a 71 year old minimum at 70% is 104 beats per minute while exercising the heart. *Those on beta blockers will not use this formula and should consult their doctor on exertion levels.
Exercise must use leg muscles and be a continuous motion to be considered cardiovascular in nature. Ex. walking, biking, stair climbing, jogging, elliptical trainer, cross country skiing.

Muscular Strength
How much upper body can lift for one repetition. How much lower body can lift for one repetition. * Should not try this one rep maximum especially if you have not been training. There are rules that apply to this depending on the age of the person.

Muscular Endurance
How many repetitions upper body can lift in one minute. How many repetitions lower body can lift in one minute.

Flexibility
The range of motion in such areas as the hamstrings ( back of legs), upper and lower back areas, shoulders, hips, neck, and quadriceps ( front of thigh.)

Body Composition
Being at a weight that is comfortable for the individual given his lifestyle needs. It includes being at a weight that does not contribute to elevated blood sugars, lack of energy, cardiovascular risks, osteoarthritis, and other increased body fat health issues.
Includes being at a body fat that is considered within normal range. This varies but typically men should look at a range from 10-18% depending on age and lifestyle needs and women at 18-26%.
Regardless of age, extending ourselves in these five key health areas, studies have shown, reduce premature aging and are vital for aging well.

Best Way to Burn a Maximum Amount of Calories

A reader writes, “How can I make the most of a cardiovascular workout?” Because of our busy lives, this is a common, yet important question. And depending on who asks it, can have several meanings. I know from talking with this reader that his question had two major intents:

1. How can he burn the maximum amount of calories in the time available?

2. How can he make the most use of his limited exercise time, while improving his current physical conditioning, and increasing his chance for a high quality lifestyle in years to come?

This is the first of a five part article series. Like all Fitness Through the Ages articles, the broader goal is to bring full awareness that we can be healthy and fit as we age. Fitness Through the Ages,” reflects our desire and innate capacity to live a more energetic, disease free, and continuously independent lifestyle.

Today’s article answers question number one for the “newbie” fitness person. “How can we burn a maximum amount of calories in a given amount of time?” If you are not a newbie, read on anyways, as even the most experienced calorie burners will benefit from this long slow distance training also called LSD. You’ll see in upcoming articles how LSD training has a very useful purpose to even the most conditioned athletes.

Burn Baby Burn
No doubt, burning calories is what is on everyone’s minds. It takes 3500 burned calories or a caloric deficit of 3500 calories, or a combination of both to equal one fat pound loss. Follow these guidelines for increasing your calorie burn:

1. Engage in an activity that is continuous.

2. Engage in an activity that uses muscles of the legs.

3. Engage in an activity that keeps your heart rate elevated.

These three key ingredients add up to what is called a cardiovascular activity, great for the heart indeed, but prime time ingredients for shedding layers of fat as well! Examples include: walking, biking, elliptical training, cross country skiing, hiking, swimming, rollerblading, running, and stair-climbing.

Newbie LSD Plan
Keep moving in one of these activities and don’t worry about anything but time. Aim for 15- 60 minutes, 5-7 days a week, at a continuous long slow distance pace ( LSD) in your chosen activity. Panting and breathing heavy is not the intent in these first few weeks. Rather, the goal is forming new life changing habits, priming muscles, ligaments, tendons, and the cardiovascular system for a lifetime of increased fat burning ability and a speedier anti aging high metabolism.

Advice for the Wise from the Wise
Your primary goal may be to burn calories, but injury occurrences during these opening weeks is common and setting the stage for the ultimate calorie burn takes patience, so go easy on yourself, listen to your body’s aches and pains, and adjust accordingly. Aim for consistency and stay on this plan for 4 to 12 weeks depending on your previous physical conditioning. This is basic training but there’s nothing basic about it. You’ll burn 70 – 100 calories per mile!

And Yet More Advice
Get on a consistent stretching program to stretch these muscles commonly used in endurance activities: Lower lumbar back, hamstrings, quadriceps, hip flexors, adductors, abductors, groin, and calves. Now may be the time to get the expertise of a personal trainer. And no, not to watch you walk, run swim or whatever you choose, but to structure a plan – keep a smart eye out for the wrong kind of pain – stretch your aching body – and or assist with accountability, more traditionally known by trainers as “make you do the work that you said you would do!” New exercisers stop for one of two reasons, lack of motivation/support, and two, unnecessary injuries due to lack of knowledge. Don’t let this be you! If it is so easy to get motivated and stay injury free then everyone would be lean mean disease free calorie burning machines. Well maybe not mean! You can do it though. Stay tuned and I’ll help you out.