5 Tips and Motivation Hints to Start Your Fitness Routine This Fall!
Copyright 2006 Lynn VanDyke
The crispness of autumn's air settles in after a long summer of hot and humid weather. The leaves begin to turn vibrant colors and the children head back to school. Adults settle back into their regular routines and begin preparing for the upcoming winter months.
If you're like most adults, one of your priorities is to lose weight and tone up. Perhaps you want to drop a few dress sizes or add a few pounds of lean muscle. Whatever your goal may be this season, here are a few tips that will jumpstart your fat loss:
1) Eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day. Each meal should be 2-3 hours apart. Each meal should contain one protein and one carb. The first meal should be eaten within an hour after waking.
2) Drink a cup of water at each meal.
3) Rest properly. This means taking at least 48 hours between strength training the same muscles, and it also means getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Lastly, it means taking 1-2 days off from exercising per week.
4) Cardio should be done at different intensity levels and different session lengths. Consider doing a low intensity/long session, a high intensity/short session and a few medium intensity/medium length sessions.
5) Strength train each muscle 1-3 times per week. You should lift a proper weight and perform the proper amount of sets/reps for your strength training method. If you need more guidance or exercise ideas you can search the web. Try using the search term ?strength training woman? or ?strength training men? to narrow down your results. Include the quotation marks for best results.
It is possible for us to begin the autumn season and start checking things off of our ?To Do? list. The secret to successful fitness programs lies in correct execution. Non-stop dieting or crash course fitness regimes will not help you achieve lasting fat loss.
There are many ways to keep your motivation strong through the fall and winter months. Here are a few that you can begin using right now:
- Join a gym and talk with a personal trainer about your specific goals.
- Find a workout buddy.
- Create a fitness and nutrition journal. Log your daily food intake and workout program. Also note your moods and feelings. Contact me for a free workout log.
- Invest in an ebook. An ebook is an electronic book that many fitness professionals are creating. The ebook should be authored by a master trainer and offer you a complete program on fitness and nutrition. Having a complete guide by a master trainer is one of the cheapest and best ways to succeed.
Whether your goal is to slim down or bulk up, combining the 5 tips above with a focused fitness and nutrition program is the absolute best path to long-lasting fat loss. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Your success depends on you!
------
Lynn VanDyke is a master trainer and fitness nutritionist. Her fitness site, http://www.strength-training-woman.com is ranked within the top 1% of all websites. She has authored the wildly popular ebook, Melt the Fat (http://www.melt-the-fat.com). It is yielded as one of the best fitness and nutrition ebooks available.
Double Your Brain Power With Food!
Copyright 2006 Lynnee Davidson
It's a well known, stated fact: ?Healthy mind, healthy body: healthy body, healthy mind.?
So in the same way that a proper diet is good for your body, so it is for your brain.
And the foods that you consume, whether ?good? or ?bad? can possibly influence your brain power.
Your brain is the greediest organ in your body, with some quite specific dietary requirements. So it is hardly surprising that what you eat can affect cognitive function. And like any other organ in your body, your brain also needs the correct fuel to perform well. Unfortunately, proper nutrition for the brain is often overlooked by a fast paced lifestyle and often having to eat ?on the go?. Take for example, the effect of simple carbohydrates (such as processed flour and sugary foods) on your brain and body. These foods can cause a rush of sugar into the bloodstream, causing Insulin to be released. Insulin works hard to ?mop up? all the excess sugar in your blood; the trouble is, Insulin is a bit too efficient, and can cause blood sugar levels to plunge. This is known as Hypoglycemia. But it doesn't stop there. Hypoglycemia can cause the release of Adrenal Hormones: these hormones squeeze stored sugar from the liver, sending blood sugar levels back up. This is known as a ?sugar high?. So the body goes on a blood sugar roller-coaster, with "sugar highs" and "sugar blues." But it still doesn't stop there, because the ups and downs of blood sugar and adrenal hormones may stimulate brain neurotransmitter imbalance, causing fidgetiness, irritability, inattentiveness, and even sleepiness.
And after all, people work hard to conserve their body in the desire to look good for as long as possible, so why not do the same for the brain? Here is a list of my Top Five foods which may influence, and possibly, double your brain power! Omega- 3 Oils.
Perhaps the number one food for brain health, the case for Omega- 3 oils is overwhelming. Omega-3 oils, (or Omega-3 Fatty Acids) are essential fatty acids necessary for human health. They are termed "essential" because they cannot be produced by the body, and so must be obtained from the diet. Omega-3 oils are beneficial because they provide fluidity to cell membranes and improve communication between brain cells. They may help to boost learning power, but also greatly enhance mood. Foods rich in omega-3 oils include oily fish such as sardines, salmon and mackerel. Maybe fish is a ?brain food? after all! Vegetables and legumes Unlike processed flour which contains simple carbohydrates, vegetables and legumes contain complex carbohydrates which can supply your brain with a steady source of energy. These would include soybeans, kidney beans, chick peas, and lentils. Soya
Soya contains natural plant Oestrogens called Isoflavones.
These are thought to act on oestrogen receptors in the human brain, particularly those in the hippocampus, which we know is a crucial area for memory. As a result, new nerve connections may form more readily. Medical trials have revealed that persons fed a high Soya diet showed improvements in verbal and non-verbal memory and in mental flexibility. Good sources of Soya include Soya milk and tofu. Berries Fruit such as Blueberries, Blackberries, Cranberries, Strawberries and Raspberries contain anti-oxidants, helping to rid the body of harmful free radicals produced during body cells converting oxygen into energy. Scientific Studies have shown that a good dietary intake of antioxidants from fruits and vegetables will significantly reduce the risk of developing ?Cognitive Impairment?. Chocolate Good news for all lovers of chocolate! Studies have hinted that eating milk chocolate may boost brain function. Substances, like Theobromine, Phenethylamine and Caffeine, present in milk chocolate, can act as stimulants that may lead to increased mental performance. So the next time you feel tempted to eat that huge sticky donut, think about the effect it might have on your brain as well as your body!
------
Lynnee Davidson lives in the U.K and currently works as an Educator. She has a special interest in Self Help and Self Motivation techniques and her published material aims to help all achieve life success.
For more information, please go to: http://www.doubleyourbrainpower.com
The Final Verdict On Cardio and Weight Loss
Copyright 2006 Jonathan Perez
People looking to lose weight / burn body fat, feel that cardio is the way to go.
This what they have been told that cardio does:
Cardio supposedly burns calories during the actual session.
Cardio supposedly burns calories after the session.
Cardio supposedly raises the body's metabolic rate.
Cardio supposedly puts the body into a calorie deficit.
And all in all, it supposedly burns body fat.
Regardless of how many so-called scientific studies someone may quote you, regardless of what everyone else seems to be blindly doing, and regardless of what all the magazines and internet sites say???it all comes down to observing what happens in the real world.
Plain and simple.
Sure, cardio does do every one of the things listed above, but as I've demonstrated over and over, the amount of calories cardio burns, the amount of fat cardio burns, the degree it raises the metabolic rate, or the amount of calorie deficit it achieves is so low, so little, that it is not going to make absolutely that big of a difference in how your body looks.
Period.
I've kept stating the same real world examples over and over, and I'm going to do it again to drive the point home:
Compare those that do cardio to those that don't.
Let's look at professional bodybuilders, since no one is more qualified than a pro bodybuilder to demonstrate the most effective way to build the most muscle, while carrying the least amount of fat.
Look at Darrem Charles, Dave Henry, Gerard Dente, Vince Taylor, and for over the first decade of his career, Dexter Jackson (along with a ton of other big name amateurs).
These guys don't do any cardio whatsoever. Never. Not offseason. Not precontest.
They don't even come close to a treadmill, stairstepper, bike, or any other cardio contraption.
Yet these guys, consistently, contest to contest, are always the most ripped, defined, vascular, and muscular bodybuilders on stage.
They are always in much better condition than any of all the other bodybuilders that do perform cardio day in and day out.
Now, please don't say, ?Oh, but what about working the heart, blah, blah, blah??.
Do you honestly believe that your heart isn't getting an intense workout when you do a set of heavy lunges, pulldowns, presses, or any other big movement exercise??
Those that don't think so have obviously never weight trained in an intense manner.
I guarantee you that you are working your heart to a much higher degree when forcing the body to lift heavy weights than any type of cardio you can think of.
Do you really think that a little treadmill works the heart more than getting in a leg press machine, pile on the weights, and start knocking rep after grueling rep out???
Listen, we've already established in my past articles that heavy, intense weight lifting does everything that cardio does, and to a much higher degree.
It burns calories, it burns fat, it raises the metabolic rate for days afterwards, it can cause a calorie deficit???.and, most important of all?????it builds muscle mass!!!!!!!!!
No cardio exercise whatsoever can build muscle mass.
And everyone knows that building lean muscle tissue is the most important factor in being muscular or toned and with low body fat.
What should matter most to you, if you are in search of the most effective and efficient ways to lose weight and burn body fat, is what works in real life, in the real world.
What actually w-o-r-k-s!
Go tell that to all of those people at the gym who spend hours at a time on a treadmill, like gerbil, or in aerobics or spinning class.
Those people, you see them today, and look at them 12 months later, and they'll still look the same!!!
Yeah, they are working up a real sweat, and may feel excellent afterwards, but I prefer to actually look good without a shirt.
Focus on heavy, intense weight lifting, and correct calorie eating.
That's what will actually make a difference in how you look in the mirror.
As with everything, as we experiment and test, test, test, and test some more, for months on end, we sometimes find better methods that lead to gain muscle weight / fat burn at a quicker and easier rate.
But after many many months of testing and measuring rate of fat burn / muscle mass weight gain, and taking a step back and looking at what is happening in the real world and observing other very successful bodybuilders, I have come to the conclusion that cardio is not necessary.
You no longer have to do cardio at all!
Again, focus on the ?Big Two??..heavy, intense weight lifting and proper calorie eating.
I noticed that cardio always severly depleted my energy levels, it made me take longer for my muscles to recover, it would cause me to lose some of my hard-earned muscle mass, and it would chew up a lot of my time.
As soon as I stopped doing cardio, concentrated on my special way of weight training I immediately noticed that my muscles would remain ?full?, I had a lot of energy, and I was able to burn fat a lot faster and easier.
Part of this is because cardio is VERY catabolic (eats up muscle tissue).
You'll have more time and more energy on your hands. Trust me.
So, say ?goodnight? to cardio.
------
How did a Cleveland Firefighter discover how to lose over 50 pounds of fat weight and 10 inches off his waist in 3 and half months WITHOUT using any supplements, doing NO cardio, and no fad diet?
Jonathan Perez has created the *ultimate* guide - "Fat To Buff!.....How To Lose Weight Eating Any Foods You Want Every 4th Day, Using No Supplements Whatsoever, and No Cardio"
FREE Details: -------> http://www.FatToBuff.com
The crispness of autumn's air settles in after a long summer of hot and humid weather. The leaves begin to turn vibrant colors and the children head back to school. Adults settle back into their regular routines and begin preparing for the upcoming winter months.
If you're like most adults, one of your priorities is to lose weight and tone up. Perhaps you want to drop a few dress sizes or add a few pounds of lean muscle. Whatever your goal may be this season, here are a few tips that will jumpstart your fat loss:
1) Eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day. Each meal should be 2-3 hours apart. Each meal should contain one protein and one carb. The first meal should be eaten within an hour after waking.
2) Drink a cup of water at each meal.
3) Rest properly. This means taking at least 48 hours between strength training the same muscles, and it also means getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Lastly, it means taking 1-2 days off from exercising per week.
4) Cardio should be done at different intensity levels and different session lengths. Consider doing a low intensity/long session, a high intensity/short session and a few medium intensity/medium length sessions.
5) Strength train each muscle 1-3 times per week. You should lift a proper weight and perform the proper amount of sets/reps for your strength training method. If you need more guidance or exercise ideas you can search the web. Try using the search term ?strength training woman? or ?strength training men? to narrow down your results. Include the quotation marks for best results.
It is possible for us to begin the autumn season and start checking things off of our ?To Do? list. The secret to successful fitness programs lies in correct execution. Non-stop dieting or crash course fitness regimes will not help you achieve lasting fat loss.
There are many ways to keep your motivation strong through the fall and winter months. Here are a few that you can begin using right now:
- Join a gym and talk with a personal trainer about your specific goals.
- Find a workout buddy.
- Create a fitness and nutrition journal. Log your daily food intake and workout program. Also note your moods and feelings. Contact me for a free workout log.
- Invest in an ebook. An ebook is an electronic book that many fitness professionals are creating. The ebook should be authored by a master trainer and offer you a complete program on fitness and nutrition. Having a complete guide by a master trainer is one of the cheapest and best ways to succeed.
Whether your goal is to slim down or bulk up, combining the 5 tips above with a focused fitness and nutrition program is the absolute best path to long-lasting fat loss. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Your success depends on you!
------
Lynn VanDyke is a master trainer and fitness nutritionist. Her fitness site, http://www.strength-training-woman.com is ranked within the top 1% of all websites. She has authored the wildly popular ebook, Melt the Fat (http://www.melt-the-fat.com). It is yielded as one of the best fitness and nutrition ebooks available.
Double Your Brain Power With Food!
Copyright 2006 Lynnee Davidson
It's a well known, stated fact: ?Healthy mind, healthy body: healthy body, healthy mind.?
So in the same way that a proper diet is good for your body, so it is for your brain.
And the foods that you consume, whether ?good? or ?bad? can possibly influence your brain power.
Your brain is the greediest organ in your body, with some quite specific dietary requirements. So it is hardly surprising that what you eat can affect cognitive function. And like any other organ in your body, your brain also needs the correct fuel to perform well. Unfortunately, proper nutrition for the brain is often overlooked by a fast paced lifestyle and often having to eat ?on the go?. Take for example, the effect of simple carbohydrates (such as processed flour and sugary foods) on your brain and body. These foods can cause a rush of sugar into the bloodstream, causing Insulin to be released. Insulin works hard to ?mop up? all the excess sugar in your blood; the trouble is, Insulin is a bit too efficient, and can cause blood sugar levels to plunge. This is known as Hypoglycemia. But it doesn't stop there. Hypoglycemia can cause the release of Adrenal Hormones: these hormones squeeze stored sugar from the liver, sending blood sugar levels back up. This is known as a ?sugar high?. So the body goes on a blood sugar roller-coaster, with "sugar highs" and "sugar blues." But it still doesn't stop there, because the ups and downs of blood sugar and adrenal hormones may stimulate brain neurotransmitter imbalance, causing fidgetiness, irritability, inattentiveness, and even sleepiness.
And after all, people work hard to conserve their body in the desire to look good for as long as possible, so why not do the same for the brain? Here is a list of my Top Five foods which may influence, and possibly, double your brain power! Omega- 3 Oils.
Perhaps the number one food for brain health, the case for Omega- 3 oils is overwhelming. Omega-3 oils, (or Omega-3 Fatty Acids) are essential fatty acids necessary for human health. They are termed "essential" because they cannot be produced by the body, and so must be obtained from the diet. Omega-3 oils are beneficial because they provide fluidity to cell membranes and improve communication between brain cells. They may help to boost learning power, but also greatly enhance mood. Foods rich in omega-3 oils include oily fish such as sardines, salmon and mackerel. Maybe fish is a ?brain food? after all! Vegetables and legumes Unlike processed flour which contains simple carbohydrates, vegetables and legumes contain complex carbohydrates which can supply your brain with a steady source of energy. These would include soybeans, kidney beans, chick peas, and lentils. Soya
Soya contains natural plant Oestrogens called Isoflavones.
These are thought to act on oestrogen receptors in the human brain, particularly those in the hippocampus, which we know is a crucial area for memory. As a result, new nerve connections may form more readily. Medical trials have revealed that persons fed a high Soya diet showed improvements in verbal and non-verbal memory and in mental flexibility. Good sources of Soya include Soya milk and tofu. Berries Fruit such as Blueberries, Blackberries, Cranberries, Strawberries and Raspberries contain anti-oxidants, helping to rid the body of harmful free radicals produced during body cells converting oxygen into energy. Scientific Studies have shown that a good dietary intake of antioxidants from fruits and vegetables will significantly reduce the risk of developing ?Cognitive Impairment?. Chocolate Good news for all lovers of chocolate! Studies have hinted that eating milk chocolate may boost brain function. Substances, like Theobromine, Phenethylamine and Caffeine, present in milk chocolate, can act as stimulants that may lead to increased mental performance. So the next time you feel tempted to eat that huge sticky donut, think about the effect it might have on your brain as well as your body!
------
Lynnee Davidson lives in the U.K and currently works as an Educator. She has a special interest in Self Help and Self Motivation techniques and her published material aims to help all achieve life success.
For more information, please go to: http://www.doubleyourbrainpower.com
The Final Verdict On Cardio and Weight Loss
Copyright 2006 Jonathan Perez
People looking to lose weight / burn body fat, feel that cardio is the way to go.
This what they have been told that cardio does:
Cardio supposedly burns calories during the actual session.
Cardio supposedly burns calories after the session.
Cardio supposedly raises the body's metabolic rate.
Cardio supposedly puts the body into a calorie deficit.
And all in all, it supposedly burns body fat.
Regardless of how many so-called scientific studies someone may quote you, regardless of what everyone else seems to be blindly doing, and regardless of what all the magazines and internet sites say???it all comes down to observing what happens in the real world.
Plain and simple.
Sure, cardio does do every one of the things listed above, but as I've demonstrated over and over, the amount of calories cardio burns, the amount of fat cardio burns, the degree it raises the metabolic rate, or the amount of calorie deficit it achieves is so low, so little, that it is not going to make absolutely that big of a difference in how your body looks.
Period.
I've kept stating the same real world examples over and over, and I'm going to do it again to drive the point home:
Compare those that do cardio to those that don't.
Let's look at professional bodybuilders, since no one is more qualified than a pro bodybuilder to demonstrate the most effective way to build the most muscle, while carrying the least amount of fat.
Look at Darrem Charles, Dave Henry, Gerard Dente, Vince Taylor, and for over the first decade of his career, Dexter Jackson (along with a ton of other big name amateurs).
These guys don't do any cardio whatsoever. Never. Not offseason. Not precontest.
They don't even come close to a treadmill, stairstepper, bike, or any other cardio contraption.
Yet these guys, consistently, contest to contest, are always the most ripped, defined, vascular, and muscular bodybuilders on stage.
They are always in much better condition than any of all the other bodybuilders that do perform cardio day in and day out.
Now, please don't say, ?Oh, but what about working the heart, blah, blah, blah??.
Do you honestly believe that your heart isn't getting an intense workout when you do a set of heavy lunges, pulldowns, presses, or any other big movement exercise??
Those that don't think so have obviously never weight trained in an intense manner.
I guarantee you that you are working your heart to a much higher degree when forcing the body to lift heavy weights than any type of cardio you can think of.
Do you really think that a little treadmill works the heart more than getting in a leg press machine, pile on the weights, and start knocking rep after grueling rep out???
Listen, we've already established in my past articles that heavy, intense weight lifting does everything that cardio does, and to a much higher degree.
It burns calories, it burns fat, it raises the metabolic rate for days afterwards, it can cause a calorie deficit???.and, most important of all?????it builds muscle mass!!!!!!!!!
No cardio exercise whatsoever can build muscle mass.
And everyone knows that building lean muscle tissue is the most important factor in being muscular or toned and with low body fat.
What should matter most to you, if you are in search of the most effective and efficient ways to lose weight and burn body fat, is what works in real life, in the real world.
What actually w-o-r-k-s!
Go tell that to all of those people at the gym who spend hours at a time on a treadmill, like gerbil, or in aerobics or spinning class.
Those people, you see them today, and look at them 12 months later, and they'll still look the same!!!
Yeah, they are working up a real sweat, and may feel excellent afterwards, but I prefer to actually look good without a shirt.
Focus on heavy, intense weight lifting, and correct calorie eating.
That's what will actually make a difference in how you look in the mirror.
As with everything, as we experiment and test, test, test, and test some more, for months on end, we sometimes find better methods that lead to gain muscle weight / fat burn at a quicker and easier rate.
But after many many months of testing and measuring rate of fat burn / muscle mass weight gain, and taking a step back and looking at what is happening in the real world and observing other very successful bodybuilders, I have come to the conclusion that cardio is not necessary.
You no longer have to do cardio at all!
Again, focus on the ?Big Two??..heavy, intense weight lifting and proper calorie eating.
I noticed that cardio always severly depleted my energy levels, it made me take longer for my muscles to recover, it would cause me to lose some of my hard-earned muscle mass, and it would chew up a lot of my time.
As soon as I stopped doing cardio, concentrated on my special way of weight training I immediately noticed that my muscles would remain ?full?, I had a lot of energy, and I was able to burn fat a lot faster and easier.
Part of this is because cardio is VERY catabolic (eats up muscle tissue).
You'll have more time and more energy on your hands. Trust me.
So, say ?goodnight? to cardio.
------
How did a Cleveland Firefighter discover how to lose over 50 pounds of fat weight and 10 inches off his waist in 3 and half months WITHOUT using any supplements, doing NO cardio, and no fad diet?
Jonathan Perez has created the *ultimate* guide - "Fat To Buff!.....How To Lose Weight Eating Any Foods You Want Every 4th Day, Using No Supplements Whatsoever, and No Cardio"
FREE Details: -------> http://www.FatToBuff.com