by IcennaEmach | May 17, 2009 | Burn Baby Burn, Uncategorized
What happened to her?
She wants me to walk 14 miles a day to lose weight.
I’m worried about her!
I better tell her she’s taking this weight gain thing far too seriously!
Such is the feedback to my last two weight loss issues. Now I know how the playwright felt when a review read “There was only one thing that weakened the play. They opened the curtain.” But, there was an objective to the direness I wanted one to feel in reading the past two issues.
The objective was to point out that it is easy to gain weight, but hard to lose weight, and because of this, we would be wise to utilize preventative weight gain measures such as weekly weighing and logging of caloric intake. The illustrations were intended to expand awareness of what occurs when one gains weight quickly yet expects to lose the added weight just as swiftly. It appears I accomplished this! I even have death threat e-mails to prove my astuteness in bringing full awareness to my Fit Through the Ages readers.
In part, our problem with weight loss has to do with our expectations. It is easy for all of us to consume additional calories. Eating a delicious pie ala mode may take only 5 minutes, and is pure enjoyment, but burning the calories will take two hours of what some term exercise misery! If we gain a pound of body fat in a short period of time by consuming too many calories, should we expect to lose the pound in the same amount of time it takes us to gain it?
The explanation in the last two blogs on weight loss frankly illuminates how much one needs to exercise, or reduce calories by, to lose a pound in 3 short days was certainly preposterous. However, consider the irony of this with our own weight loss goals. That is, that many of us expect to lose weight as rapidly as we gain weight. Who is going to walk 14 miles daily for three days in addition to working out in the gym for an hour daily, and all the while consuming only 1,100 calories on each of three days? Unfortunately, this is the reality when the goal is quick fat weight loss.
Viewing typical information in different ways helps to put things into proper perspective. Weight loss is about putting things into this proper perspective.
Think about this:
It is easier to gain weight than it is to lose weight.
It is easier to maintain weight than it is to lose weight.
And, it is easier on the body, mind, and spirit to maintain weight loss when done slowly, deliberately, and smartly than it is to lose weight quickly only to gain it back. The days of quick weight loss with no sense of sustaining lifestyle changes will soon be a perspective of the past. Our challenge is to act smartly, and with a sense of continual progressive lifestyle changes that deepen our convictions to do more for ourselves than just lose weight.
by IcennaEmach | May 17, 2009 | Perspectives in Aging Well, Uncategorized
There are groups of people throughout the United States and the world that organize and meet with the sole intent of supporting each other to live to be 100 years and older.
Humans, according to Robert N. Butler, M.D. founding director of the National Institute on Aging, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Why Survive? Being Old In America, have about 110-120 years at the outside of their genetic life span. This information is encouraging.
The question that appears for most of us, however, is not so much how do we live longer, but how do we live healthier?
“The two it seems”, writes Lenny Guarente, PH.D. and Novartis Professor of biology at M.I.T and author of Ageless Quest: One Scientist’s Search for Genes That Prolong Youth, “should go hand in hand. And they often do because we can tip the odds in our favor by our lifestyles and by avoiding things that we know are bad, like smoking, like transfat, like excess body fat, like high blood pressure.”
Most people would agree that if we can extend health span the extending lifespan is just an extra bonus.
Many of us do not have a vision of the life we could live happily, productively, and disease free, as we get older. Part of the reason for this is that we are not exposed to seeing those people that live happily, productively, and relatively disease free well into their 90’s and 100’s.
There are other reasons why we do not have a vision for living well into our later years. Three of the most significant reasons are:
1. We believe that healthier lifestyles and specific lifestyle habits are too difficult to change so we abandon the idea of living as a centurian.
2. We are unsure if it is too late to make lifestyle changes due to age and health circumstances.
3. We are unsure whether the payoff of healthy living will increase our life’s quality and longevity to the degree that we would like.
These are legitimate concerns. Lifestyle changes take time. Lifestyle changes take effort. And lifestyle changes are difficult to implement on our own.
If you have simply thought about changing your lifestyle for a better life quality, then you have a vision. It may not be a fully developed vision, but it is a vision. And a vision is a start. Keep it! Develop it! Don’t let it fade away. I can assure you that if you’ve implemented the lifestyle habits that you know are necessary for a more healthy, vigorous and vital you, then you will not be disappointed.
by IcennaEmach | May 15, 2009 | Burn Baby Burn, Uncategorized
There’s no doubt, our metabolism slows as we age. Before reading on, ask yourself this question, “ Do I want to accept the fact of a slowing metabolism, or do I want to implement a strategy to counter the effects of a decreased metabolic rate?
This is a difficult question and some people may believe that the intent of the question is to challenge the reader into seeing it my way. After all, wouldn’t we seem weak willed if we announced, “I’m going to accept my slowing metabolism and let my life’s energy do as it may!” The intent of the question however is not to influence the reader into my way of thinking, but to highlight the difficulty we face in deciding at what juncture in life we abandon certain time consuming and energy expending health practices that are difficult to maintain in favor of a less physically arduous lifestyle that may offer more daily time, balance, and life enjoyment.
This will be a topic for another issue. The question of exercise intensity and exercise duration as it corresponds to balancing life enjoyment is raised in this issue because the most effective way to supercharge metabolism requires much effort! And this effort, if you remember, is in the form of high intensity anaerobic intervals! Are you ready? First a review of EPOC.
Excess Post Oxygen Consumption
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? Read on for examples of this high intensity interval system designed to put you in EPOC and burn hundreds of calories even while you are sleeping!
There are thousands of ways that intervals may be designed. You’ll need to try out a few to see what it feels like. The following are good examples of interval training that will put you in EPOC and intensify your ability to burn fat. The following is directly from Men’s Health Magazine. It should give you a better understanding of interval variations. Keep in mind that trying a few will give you a different feel than long and steady cardiovascular training. Go ahead and try a few of these variations and let me know how they go. I’m always available for questions and I’d be happy to hear how the increased intensity is working for you.
Getting Up to Speed
They say that slow and steady wins the race. But the cardiovascular key to fat burning is using interval training workouts – workouts that alternate high-intensity levels with lower-intensity effort. This formula keeps your body burning calories long after you’ve stopped working out.
Interval training mimics sports – start-and-stop motions with periods of sprinting or close-to-sprinting speeds followed by light jogging or rest. You can use interval training workouts any way you want – running, cycling, swimming, on elliptical trainers, even walking if you alternate a speed walk and slow walk.
You can also vary the intensity levels in different combinations. To start, here are three options for setting your workout. (If you use exercise machines, don’t choose the interval workout; choose the manual one, and create your own intensities by adjusting it yourself. It’ll give you greater control over the speeds and will help you burn fat faster.) You’ll derive benefits in as little as a 20-minute interval workout. As you build up endurance and strength, you can add time to your workout.
Interval Variation I: Standard
The following is a typical interval workout. You alternate the same period of low intensity with the same period of higher intensity.
a. 3 – 5 minutes warm-up (light jog, low intensity, gradually increasing at the end of the warm up period)
b. A 1 minute moderate or high intensity followed by 1 minute low intensity (repeat 6 – 8 times)
c. 3 – 5 minutes cool-down (light jog, low intensity, gradually decreasing by the end of the cool-down period)
Interval Variation II: Pyramid
This pyramid structure allows you to start with short bursts of speed, and then you’ll peak at the longest surge of energy in the middle of your workout before coming back down.
a. 3 – 5 minutes warm-up
b. 30 seconds high intensity, 1 minute low intensity
c. 45 seconds high intensity, 1 minute low intensity
d. 60 seconds high intensity, 1 minute low intensity
e. 90 seconds high intensity, 1 minute low intensity
f. 60 seconds high intensity, 1 minute low intensity
g. 45 seconds high intensity, 1 minute low intensity
h. 30 seconds high intensity
i. 3 – 5 minutes cool-down
Interval Variation III: Sports Conditioning
Sports are unpredictable. This interval simulates some of that unpredictability by having you doing different times and different intensities. You can mix and match the orders and repetitions as much as you want. Rest longer after the periods in which you use the most energy.
a. 3 – 5 minutes warm-up
b. 2 minutes moderate or high intensity followed by 2 minutes low intensity (repeat once
c. 30 seconds high intensity followed by 30 seconds low intensity (repeat four times)
c. 60-yard sprints (or 10 seconds if not running) followed by 90 seconds rest (repeat 6 – 10 times)
d. 3 – 5 minutes cooldown
In following articles, look for perspectives in how we may decide at what juncture in life we alter certain time consuming and energy expending health practices. The key for all of us lies in knowing when to change certain practices that may offer more balance and enjoyable yet healthy lifestyle. None of us want to feel like we are “giving into aging prematurely,” but having a flexible mind and healthy alternatives are central to growing well.
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