1. Build Muscle (I want a brick body not a feather body)
This part talks about the fact that lean muscle burns fat, even when YOU are at rest. That is why building muscle mass is so important and weight training is so good when you are trying to lose weight. I have some hand weights running around somewhere guess it is time to dig those back out! Here's where we can address a misconception for some as well. It is often said that a pound of fat weighs more than a pound of muscle. Last time I checked a pound was a pound was a pound no matter what you were weighing. It is kind of like the riddle which weighs more a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks? They both weight the same!! A pound of muscle and a pound of fat are both a pound! Here are the key differences: 1 pound of muscle is more compact than 1 pound of fat, like it takes way more feathers to make a pound than bricks and a pound of muscle will actually burn fat where as a pound of fat IS fat.
2. Start Eating! (Sounds counterintuative right?)
Think of your body as a machine and that machine needs regular fill ups. The autor of the book Body Confidance reccomends that you start eating an hour after you wake up and continue eating every 3-4 hours until an hour before bedtime. So, during the summer I get up at 6am and usually am in bed by 11 pm, I should be eating on about this schedule: 7am 11am 3pm 7pm 10pm. Now, during the summer I can probably keep at least close to this schedule. The problem is when school starts. Usually I don't eat in the morning anyway becaue I'm not hungry and I've always been told if you are not hungry don't eat. This becomes a problem when I'm in school because I uaually don't end up eating anything until 3-4pm and I get up between 5-6am that is a BIG gap especially when you consider I probably have not eaten anything since about 8pm the previous night. So, my eathing schedule while in school should be the same as when I'm out of school... I'll have to work on this for August! Hopefully, if I can get in the habit now I can keep it up once school has started. Basically, your metabolism needs energy to stay working. Your metabolism does not know that there is a grocery store down the street, or an apple in the kitchen. It only knows what you put into it. If you are not regularly putting fuel into your body basically your body goes into starvation mode and instead of using what you put into it it stores that. We all know what happens when your body stores energy right.... more fat is produced! Fat is the body's way of storing energy and your body only has two options use it or store it. So, if you are like me: don't eat regularly and get little to know real regulary exercise it is a recipe for disaster! Now, just because they are saying you should eat that means 1. eating regularly (working on that) and 2. eating right (working on that too). I can't eat unhealthy stuff and think "oh this is gonna boost my metabolism and I'll lose weight!" um... NO! I have to eat healthy and I have to eat on a regular basis like it or not.
3. Nosh on Protein at every meal and snack (Protein is tasty noms)
Most people hear protein and they think meat. This is not necessarily the case. If it were all you vegetarians out there would be SOL cause your body can't make all the amino acids it needs (it can only make 14 out of 22) it has to get some from outside sources and you find amino acids in proteins. You can get protein from meat but you can also get it from: Beans, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, soy, and nuts. The article suggests this plan: For a quick and easy snack, keep peanuts in your pocketbook, trail mix in your desk drawer and hard-boiled eggs in the fridge. You may be asking yourself why is protein at every meal and snack so important. The answer is that the more complex your food is the more energy it will take to break that down and thus higher metabolism. Complex foods are things like meat and fibrous veggies (get your fiber!)
4. Get Moving (Duh!)
We all know that in order to lose weight you have to exercise and move around. As much as we all hate it you can't just lay on your couch and expect to lose weight I don't care how good you eat. What this part of the article suggests is that you change the pace of your workout and include spurts of high intensity cardio. So, instead of just walking around the block it is better to walk, jogg, and run around the block. Keep your body guessing on how hard it will have to work so it doesn't get use to the same old thing all the time.
5. Drink Water (Again, Duh!)
This is anohter no brainer if you are trying to lose weight. What the article suggests is that you drink water before you eat breakfast. I need to start drinking water period really. I drink tea which is really just flavored water right? RIGHT?! Again, NO. I know the tea I drink is really like flavored suggary water. Though, I am cutting down on the amount of sugar per gallon of tea. What I need to do is to fill atleast 1 of my water bottles with only water and drink that instead of my 2 bottles of tea a day.
No comments:
Post a Comment