Nothing beats feeling great. It stimulates enthusiasm for all the challenges you have to face in a day. It powers your gratitude and desire to help others. As the center piece of your life, health makes all your aspirations a possibility.
Many
people find that when they want to begin a new recreation, they are not as fit
as they thought, or the recreation is more demanding than they expected. The
biggest deterrent to feeling great and being fit is often getting started on
new routines and then sticking to them until they become your lifestyle.
This book guides readers to the right program for losing dramatic weight, getting stronger, flexible, and aerobically fit. It shows how to get started and make health a routine.
As an Ace Certified Health Coach, Personal Trainer, and Nutrition Counselor, plus Surf Instructor, I have had experience coaching people to begin a path to improvement. I know how to do it. It is always tough at the beginning if you have not been active, but then you hit a pace and your routine becomes routine.
Many people do not see the need to follow good health practices if nothing is wrong. They negate the likelihood that problems could be brewing. Others see the wisdom of good health because they don’t want problems to brew. Three paths include the preventative path, the path of someone who wakes up one day and decides to change, or the recovery state of someone that has a problem and needs change to survive.
Selecting
the Right Foods
Let’s look at why, when, and what we eat. Do we eat only when we are hungry or are we eating constantly? Do emotions trigger our eating? Do we know when we are full and stop before that point? Do we eat only what we enjoy, or will we eat anything? It is important to know the answers because this is the first step in appetite control.
When we are hungry what are our first thoughts? Do we think sugar and salt? Do we think carbohydrates? Do we go for the snack machine, our
pantry, or fast-food
outlets? These are all habits that must be changed. Awareness comes first.
We
must plan for our meals and our hunger. We need the right foods for meals and
snacking. We need to find healthy choices to substitute for our addictions. We
need to make a list of the healthy foods we should eat and be sure they are
available at home, at work, or in our car. We have to clear out all the bad
foods that are available at each of our locations.
We need to get in the habit of drinking a lot of water. It is crucial for losing weight. The digestion will spend time looking for water in our food if we are not hydrated. Many times, hunger is a substitute for being dehydrated. Water helps the body digest food and release fat. A minimum amount suggested is half our body weight in ounces of water. A 200-pound person would drink 100 oz. of water.
How
to Get Started with Fitness
There are four basic exercise phases in aerobics and four in weightlifting to begin and maximize fitness. We need to move. We need to build muscle. We need flexibility. We need cardiovascular fitness. Movement activates lots of important systems and processes for which our body was designed. When we exercise, the body rids itself of inflammation and floods muscles with revitalizing fluids. Movement supports the cardiovascular system, and therefore the heart and brain.
Aerobic
exercise utilizes the glucose in our muscles. If we have been sedentary, the
muscles have not been absorbing and storing enough glucose to give us stamina.
Carbohydrates are converted to glycogen and glucose by the liver and delivered
to the muscles through the blood stream. The muscles form receptors that take
in the glucose. Training increases the amount of glucose the muscles will store
and the quality of stamina we develop. The term “carbo loading” for runners is
about getting the muscles to store the maximum amount of fuel for a
competition.
Aerobics
will burn the carbohydrates available and then our muscles look for more fuel
in our fat stores. Protein is also utilized as the muscle exercises and in
recovery. When the fat stores are not adequate, the body can start using its
own muscle for more fuel. Extreme runners get aerobically fit but can lose
muscle if they are not also weight training.
Just as we went through four phases of weight training from building stamina to building muscle, aerobics has four phases from beginner to
competitor. The beginner exerciser walks at a comfortable pace in which they can walk and talk comfortably at the same time. As we progress, we keep challenging our ability to exert and talk comfortably. At a certain point, we can no longer talk because we need the oxygen.
The second level of exercise for runners would be to start running at a comfortable pace. We increase intensity by running faster and/or longer in intervals and then shortening the rest between intervals. We add a level of intensity by measuring how comfortably we can talk. This phase introduces intervals to raise our heartbeat and make talking more difficult. This would be a proficient level to run a 10K.
Diet
A diet is a nutrition program
to provide the body with necessary nutrients and reduce the total calorie
intake. We want nutrient rich foods without empty calories (sugar, flour,
grease, cooking oils). We want to balance our proteins, carbohydrates, and fats
in a proportion that matches our goals. We want micronutrients (vitamins and
minerals) that are needed in a reduced calorie limited food diet.
We want to balance the
nutrients on our plate. The government has a suggested program called “My
Plate” in which it suggests the proportions of the macronutrients. Most diets
like the Mediterranean or Atkins, or Keto have a suggested proportion guide for
both the percentage of macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, and fat) and
the portion of each. As I mentioned, most of the diets are good if you stick to
them.
Tuesday
We are moving along now. We
have exercises. We have a diet plan. We are drinking water. We are eliminating
addictions. We are taking supplements. We are thinking about fasting windows.
We are resisting when hunger strikes between meals. We are having a glass of
water not a soda. We are envisioning a lean healthy self, looking great in
clothing, and having increased recreational capabilities. We are thinking of
how people will complement us when they see our new healthy body. We may be on
the way to reversing medical conditions or eliminating the stress on impaired
organs and glands.
Thursday
This is a suitable time to
review our routines. Are we sticking to them? Are we having more problems with
some strategies than others? What would it take to get us past certain
obstacles? Is the goal strong enough to keep us motivated? Are we enjoying this
or only feeling the struggle and pain? Are we finding discipline easy or tough?
Is our mind supporting us or sabotaging us?
These are all questions that
should be asked and answered. They are the base of success or failure. When we
hit tough days, we need to remind ourselves of why we are doing this. We need
to think in perspectives. Am I the only one trying to do this or has it been
accomplished by others? Do I want to stay like I am or do I envision a new me?
What are the benefits of these routines? Will I be a better person for
accomplishing these goals? Will I be able to accomplish more in my life if I
can set goals and stick with them?
Don’t Stop Now
As the story goes there are very few born naturals. Most people must work for what they want. Great achievement is created from daily effort. It is the small pieces all coming together to reach one big conclusion.