I read something that has helped me be happy or content with eating healthy foods. When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, Satan was able to get Eve to take a bite of that fruit by focusing her attention on the one tree she couldn't have. He blinded her to the many fruits that were available to her.
He does the same with us. On a diet we routinely dream and think about the foods we can't have, forgetting the abundance of foods we can eat. Now instead of thinking of the high carb foods I can't have, I think about the chicken, beef, pork, avocadoes, olives, mushrooms, low-carb cheeses, carrots, lettuce, kale, sprouts, cabbage, tomatoes, eggs, nuts, etc, that I can have.
I'm always just a few hours away from eating again; it's nothing like fasting 24 hours each month. And there is always something good and tasty to eat. So, have fun thinking of all you can have instead of what you can't have.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
More From Dr. Sears - muscle building
These next paragraphs from Dr. Sear's book, The Doctor's Cure, explain why isometric exericses or Calisthenics are better for your muscles than just trying to increase muscle size at the gym.
"In daily life, your muscles work against the resistance of your body-weight. Despite the fancy exercise equipment in gyms, calisthenics remain the best way to build strength that you can use. Calisthenics are also much more effective in strengthening ligaments and tendons. To build strength that you can use work against your own body's weight.
"Your lower body is more important for functional strength than your upper body. For both men and women, there appears to be little benefit to creating oversized muscles in the arms, chest and shoulders, and having a muscular imbalance between the upper and lower body cn harm joints (especially shoudlers and neck) and posture later in life.
"Your biggest muscles are your quadriceps on the front of your thighs, followed by your hamstrings on the back of your thighs and the gluteus mscles in your buttocks, meaning your three biggest muscles all work to flex and extend your hip. If you want to maximize your exercise's effect on your total body strength, go to the muscles that nature designed to be the strongest and work them first."
Dr. Sears gives a series of exercises for each area. Again, just buy the T-Tapp program. It is isometric and it includes the cardio-interval training. The beginner's level is not easy; start there. I was surprised at how the short, intense exercises winded me pretty fast even though I have spent the last year doing uphill treadmill stuff every day for 40 minutes. I have good endurance, but not short-burst capability. I'll get there. It's fun.
"In daily life, your muscles work against the resistance of your body-weight. Despite the fancy exercise equipment in gyms, calisthenics remain the best way to build strength that you can use. Calisthenics are also much more effective in strengthening ligaments and tendons. To build strength that you can use work against your own body's weight.
"Your lower body is more important for functional strength than your upper body. For both men and women, there appears to be little benefit to creating oversized muscles in the arms, chest and shoulders, and having a muscular imbalance between the upper and lower body cn harm joints (especially shoudlers and neck) and posture later in life.
"Your biggest muscles are your quadriceps on the front of your thighs, followed by your hamstrings on the back of your thighs and the gluteus mscles in your buttocks, meaning your three biggest muscles all work to flex and extend your hip. If you want to maximize your exercise's effect on your total body strength, go to the muscles that nature designed to be the strongest and work them first."
Dr. Sears gives a series of exercises for each area. Again, just buy the T-Tapp program. It is isometric and it includes the cardio-interval training. The beginner's level is not easy; start there. I was surprised at how the short, intense exercises winded me pretty fast even though I have spent the last year doing uphill treadmill stuff every day for 40 minutes. I have good endurance, but not short-burst capability. I'll get there. It's fun.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Diet and Exercise Myths
I purchased a book called "The Doctor's Heart Cure" by Al Sears, M.D. I was interested in it because of his exercise philosophy; that "long-duration exercise . . . actually causes health problems. This type of exercise makes the heart and lungs more efficient, but it reduces their reserve capacity, or your body's ability to respond effectively to sudden demands you place on it.
"When you exercise continuously for more than about 10 minutes, your heart adapts by becoming more efficient. It achieves this efficiency through downsizing. Long-duration exercise makes the heart, lungs, and muscles smaller so that they can go longer with less energy, but there's a trade-off. The cardiovascular system becomes very good at handling a 60minute jog, but it gives up the ability to provide you with big bursts of energy for short periods. Far from protecting your heart, this loss makes you more vulnerable to a heart attack. . .
"Heart attacks don't happen due to a lack of endurance. They typically come about when a person is either at rest or when there's a sudden, sizable demand on the heart. Heart attacks often strike when someone lifts a heavy object, has sex, or experiences an unexpected emotional blow. For one reason or another, the oxygen supply to the heart can't keep up with a change in demand.
"Studies have demonstrated that short-duration exercise improves cardiovascular health more than long-duration exercise. A recent Harvard study found that men who performed shorter bouts of exercise reduced their heart disease risk by 20 percent. (Access the studies at the end of each chapter in Dr. Sear's book.)
"Dr. Stephen Seiler recently compared 20 minutes of running on a treadmill to running for 2 minutes followed by 2 minutes of rest for five cycles. He reported at the American College of Sports Medicine that interval exercise improved maximal cardiac outputs while continouse exercise did not. Intervals also produced another important improvement not seen with continouse exercise, the development of quicker cardiac adjustments to changes in demand. The interval trainees also achieved "higher peak stroke volumes." . . . that is the highest volume of blood your heart can pump per beat when challenged.
"Interval training also lowers cholesterol levels. . .it can improve your cholesterol ratios. Reserachers studied middle-aged, sedentary men and women who performed ten-minute bouts of exercise throughout the day for six weeks. The blood tests of the men and women showed both a drop in total cholesterol and a rise in beneficial HDScholesterol.
"Interval training also helps exercisers maintain healthy testosterone levels. Testosterone levels increase more in men who do interval exercise than in those doing endurance training. . . more youthful testosterone levels help older men maintain their muscle mass, libido, and bone integrity. (Marcia adds that normal testosterone levels would help prevent hair loss.)
"Every year very well-conditioned long-distance runners suffer sudden cardiac death. Distance runners have higher rates of sudden cardiac death than other athletes do. Modern marathons have emergency stations specifically equipped to handle the abnormal heart rhythms, heart attacks, and other cardiac emergencies that can be expected to occur. This increased risk appears regardless of culture or diet.
". . .a report in the American Journal of Cardiology found that distance running disrupted the balance of blood thinners and thickeners, elevating clotting levels and inflammatory factors. These changes are signs of heart distress, not a heart that's becoming stronger after exercise.
"The bottom line is that to use your willpower to force yourself into frequently repeating continous 'cardio' is not mimicking the natural condition. In nature, our path, pace, stride, intensity, positioning, and force during exercise all occur in starts and stops to meet the changing demands of our surroundings. Your body is designed to work in interval bursts.
"When you exercise continuously for more than about 10 minutes, your heart adapts by becoming more efficient. It achieves this efficiency through downsizing. Long-duration exercise makes the heart, lungs, and muscles smaller so that they can go longer with less energy, but there's a trade-off. The cardiovascular system becomes very good at handling a 60minute jog, but it gives up the ability to provide you with big bursts of energy for short periods. Far from protecting your heart, this loss makes you more vulnerable to a heart attack. . .
"Heart attacks don't happen due to a lack of endurance. They typically come about when a person is either at rest or when there's a sudden, sizable demand on the heart. Heart attacks often strike when someone lifts a heavy object, has sex, or experiences an unexpected emotional blow. For one reason or another, the oxygen supply to the heart can't keep up with a change in demand.
"Studies have demonstrated that short-duration exercise improves cardiovascular health more than long-duration exercise. A recent Harvard study found that men who performed shorter bouts of exercise reduced their heart disease risk by 20 percent. (Access the studies at the end of each chapter in Dr. Sear's book.)
"Dr. Stephen Seiler recently compared 20 minutes of running on a treadmill to running for 2 minutes followed by 2 minutes of rest for five cycles. He reported at the American College of Sports Medicine that interval exercise improved maximal cardiac outputs while continouse exercise did not. Intervals also produced another important improvement not seen with continouse exercise, the development of quicker cardiac adjustments to changes in demand. The interval trainees also achieved "higher peak stroke volumes." . . . that is the highest volume of blood your heart can pump per beat when challenged.
"Interval training also lowers cholesterol levels. . .it can improve your cholesterol ratios. Reserachers studied middle-aged, sedentary men and women who performed ten-minute bouts of exercise throughout the day for six weeks. The blood tests of the men and women showed both a drop in total cholesterol and a rise in beneficial HDScholesterol.
"Interval training also helps exercisers maintain healthy testosterone levels. Testosterone levels increase more in men who do interval exercise than in those doing endurance training. . . more youthful testosterone levels help older men maintain their muscle mass, libido, and bone integrity. (Marcia adds that normal testosterone levels would help prevent hair loss.)
"Every year very well-conditioned long-distance runners suffer sudden cardiac death. Distance runners have higher rates of sudden cardiac death than other athletes do. Modern marathons have emergency stations specifically equipped to handle the abnormal heart rhythms, heart attacks, and other cardiac emergencies that can be expected to occur. This increased risk appears regardless of culture or diet.
". . .a report in the American Journal of Cardiology found that distance running disrupted the balance of blood thinners and thickeners, elevating clotting levels and inflammatory factors. These changes are signs of heart distress, not a heart that's becoming stronger after exercise.
"The bottom line is that to use your willpower to force yourself into frequently repeating continous 'cardio' is not mimicking the natural condition. In nature, our path, pace, stride, intensity, positioning, and force during exercise all occur in starts and stops to meet the changing demands of our surroundings. Your body is designed to work in interval bursts.
Shed More Fat with Interval Exercise
Most people think that the longer they work out, the more weight they will lose. They plod on mile after sweaty mile, assuming that they are melting off unwanted fat with every step. In fact, these dedicated but misinformed exercisers are undermining their own efforts! Endurance exercise is not the best way to lose body fat. Long-term exercise calls on the body to store more fat!
I'm summarizing now: You do burn a great amount of fat by long, moderate-intensity exercise, but only during the 30-60 minutes you are working out. It's what occurs after you stop exercising that actually adds more fat to your body.
"Your body is always adapting to the demands put on it. When you burn fat during exercise, you are telling your body to maintain fat stores so that they will be available for the next exercise session. In essence, your body hoards your fat reserves to use as fuel for future workouts. Instead of decreasing fat, this type of endurance exercise triggers your body to make more fat whenever possible. You get the highest percentage of your energy needs from fat while you are at rest.
"Endurance exercise actually encourages fat production. When you begin working out, your body burns ATP, the highest energy fuel in the body, but there is only enough ATP for one or two minutes of exercise. Next, your body switches to glycogen, a carbohydrate stored in muscle tissue. Your glycogen stores will take you through about 15 minutes of exercise. After that, your body taps into its fat reserves for fuel. . . since your body does all it can to adapt to demands, it builds back your fat the next time you eat to prepare you for the next time you exercise for a long time. It also sacrifices other tissues, such as muscle, to preserve fat whenever possible.
"One of the primary reasons people choose the wrong form of exercise is that they presume that their body changes during an exercise session. It never does. All the important changes begin after you stop working out. They are consequences of your body adapting to prepare for the next time you ask your body to perform that same activity.
"A number of studies also confirm the phenomenon. For example, reasearchers at Colorado State University measured how long our bodies continue to burn fat after brief periods of exercise. Study participants exercised for 20 minutes in sets of two-minute intervals of exercise, and one-minute rest periods. The reserachers found that participants still burned fat 16 hours after the interval exercising! At rest, their fat oxidation was up by 62 percent, and their resting metabolic rate rose 4 percent. In other words, interval exercise continues to trigger fat burning long after the session is over."
Dr. Sears goes on to cite other interesting studies supporting the need for interval exercising. He also explains the need for exercises that build muscle mass. He has a program for interval exercising one day and muscle mass building the next. It is all simple and not time-consuming.
I recommend that you get the T-Tapp program. I did parts of it when we lived in Guatemala then gave it up for a daily 40-minute workout on the treadmill. Today I went back to T-Tapp recognizing that it is exactly what Dr. Sears is advocating: interval training. I also will continue with 20 minutes on the treadmill but will do it in intervals.
Dr. Sears also dedicates a few chapters in his book to the necessity of eating more protein in order to lose weight. He says, "When you eat protein, your body produces growth hormones that build muscles. When you eat carbohydrates, your body secretes insulin to digest carbohydrates and build fat." He talks a lot about low-carb eating and explains how carbs cause a spike in blood sugar. Too much glucose in the blood is converted to fat not energy. My sister-in-law gave me a couple of references for low-carb eating: The Idiot's Complete Guide to Low-Carb Meals. You can find more online. This sister-in-law lost 30 lbs, about a pound a week learning to eat low-carb. I don't have a lot to lose, about 5 lbs, but I have had to fight like crazy to not gain. I now understand why; I was exercising too much causing my body to store the fat. It also made me too hungry.
I hope this has been helpful information. Please weigh in with any insights you may have. I now understand why several of my relatives and friends who have tremendous will-power could not lose weight in spite of several hours of exercise a day. It just didn't make sense until I came across this book how anyone could work out so long and hard and still not drop a pound. These latest studies shed light on it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
