Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Weight Loss - "and it's good for you."

What exactly does this mean? I mean, I try to make healthy alternatives to my favorite foods. Like a low sugar ice cream and a healthier version of a delicious smoothy, but I wound't go as far as saying that it is good for you unless it is packed with replentishing vitamins and minerals.

I hear this phrase quite a bit and I am starting to get sick of it. I know most people say it to cover the fact that they made an item better for you than the original sin, but it is not good for you. My definition of "Good For You" is that you should be able to eat as much as you want and it will help you in replentishing your vatimins and minerals and make you feel better about yourself after eating it. When I eat a turkey burger, I am happy that I ate something that was better for me that red meat but I wouldn't eat it a lot on a regular basis because the protein in it is good for me, to much will make me fat and possible heart attack because of the fats.

I can see right now that this article might suggest to be a stricked vegetarian because those items are good for you. There are other items that are good for you and would be better for you if we, HUMANS, did polute the water and air. Because fish would be good for you because of the good omega fatty acids that are in the meat and also high concentrate of protein found in the meat. BUT, due to our polution mercury levels are inceasing every year and making people sick from eating to much.

I don't know what the evolution schema had in mind for the dietary intake for humans, but I see nothing but benefits in eating more veggies, fruits, whole grains, and little meat than what is suggested. OK, don't hate me but in future articles I will promote eating more meat in your diet to gain muscle and increase your weight lifting performance. You just have to take the protein where ever you can get them. But, if you are planning on losing weight, then I would suggest to decrease meat in take and increase veggy, fruit, and whole grain intake. Those three are "good for you," this is something that my wife knows and promotes because she does a great job in recreating healthy treats by using these three as a driving factor for essential ingredients.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Weight Loss – Water Water Everywhere….So Lets All Have A Drink.

A famous quote from the well known Homer Simpson from the “Simpsons.” When my wife and I go grocery shopping, we see a lot of people buy a large amount of soda. I have nothing against soda, aka “Pop,” but why fill yourself with that much calories and sugar when you very well that you cannot burn all of that at once unless you live a very active life style…..most people don’t. The caloric count of a soda can would be the same as if you were going to eat a couple of apples. At least with the apples you will satisfy some hunger needs and which will keep you satisfied longer than a can of soda.

I just find if interesting that people can drink so much soda and not think anything of it. I feel guilty after having a can of soda that I want to go and hit the gym but you know what? You need to treat yourself now and then to satisfy those hungers because if they are taken out of your diet you will either do one of two things: Go crazy and just engorge yourself in a bucket of candy and fried foods; OR Stop the diet all to together and then you are still eating that crap. I propose that you have a treat now and then. You could have a treat everyday at the end of the day, but be careful of what you are eating. You could also have one day set aside, Sunday, to eat whatever you want. This will give you a goal at the end of the week which is what I do. I feel that if I eat really good throughout the week then I can have a fried chicken and wash it down with some soda. What I have noticed by leaving your treats to the end of the week is that you are already in that train of thought so you limit yourself to what you eat on Sunday. I got to the point that I was not interested in candy bars and any kind of fried foods. I would crave shicken salads with an extra broil chicken breast on the side. I am talking in the past tense for the simple fact that I am a father of one and a husband to one. We eat healthy but my wife gives into the ice creams and candies so I give in too. If we didn’t think about it I would not have a problem with not having any of it in the house. I know what you are thinking, he is full of s*it and I would have to partially agree with you. I suggest having those things during the week day and she gives in, but the thing is…she is really slender and it does not seem to phase her one bit. She feels guilty afterwards but she doesn’t have to worry about her weight because she runs after a 22 month all day……let me tell you, that is an aerobic exercise if I have ever saw one.

Weight Training – What The Hell Is All Of The Jerking About?

I was lifting in the gym the other day and I was watching this gentlemen lift weights. The person was very skinny as if he was just starting to weight train. I compliment any person who is that skinny to come into a gym where most of the people don’t have necks and sit along side them to train. I do have a problem when the person that is starting out does not do any research to find out what proper techniques are to use on each body part. When I started I learned from my father and I mostly learned from books and some videos. That is the only way to do it unless you like to look like an idiot and be criticized. This person was doing a barbell curl with 20 lbs on each side. At first I was impressed with the weight that he was going to do for his size until I saw his form. To me, form is everything in order to get consistent data and have consistent increases. The form that he was using was to bend over and make his body horizontal to the ground and then jerk his upper body back so he can swing the weight up to his chest. I have always thought to increase your strength, you have to actually use your muscles to lift the weight. I predict that this person will never see any increases and if he does it will take him forever.

Weight Loss – Don’t Be Lazy!

The parking garage that I was going to park in was under construction so we had to take a detour to another parking garage which made a whole lot of people late including myself. I was carrying my clothing, bathroom supplies, laptop (for work), and my gym bag. I had to admit that I was enjoying the exercise but I almost busted a gut when I saw all of the people that I was walking with take the escalator instead of the stairs. Granted the stairs was going directly to the third story but it was still funny. There was a long line waiting for the escalator and no one, I repeat, no one was taking the stairs. I avoided the escalator and walked up the stairs, two at a time, and beat everyone that was ahead of me by a great distance. We were all trying to hurry to make it to the closest train and I got on board just in time. While we were leaving I noticed the group that I was with to be still walking to the train. I just couldn’t help but laugh to see how lazy people have gotten these days. I understand if you have leg problems or a health issue but all of those people could not have had either one of those.

If you would do a little extra exercise to get something done i.e. walking instead of taking the horizontal escalator. This is correct that you will walk faster but this might be a kick in the ass to actually be punctual instead of procrastinating to the last second. I know I was that way in college and also in high school but that is also why I gained the weight that I did. In college I gained 50 lbs in one semester because I was a sloth and never would leave my dorm room for anything but to go to the bathroom and get more food. I would have about 10 hours of homework at night and also eat non-stop. I am not talking about grazing, “Weight Lose – How We Are Supposed to Eat.”, I am talking about continuous eating of popcorn, transfat, and other junk food. Not to also mention the food that was served at the cafeteria which I would not say is healthy by any means. The only healthy food that they had was the salad bar which also needs to be revamped.

One last point that I want to make about people these days being lazy. If people would do a little bit of manual labor or a little bit more walking than just standing or sitting. People would not be so heavy and also wouldn’t have a many problems with walking, running, and stair climbing. You shouldn’t be tired from walking through a terminal to get to your flight, if you are, then you need to do it more often so you are not so winded. To build up you cardio endurance, a person should try to get some form of exercise in every day. At work, I could get into my car and go to the different plants that I am needed but I choose to walk to them because even thought a get my exercise in everyday in the morning before work, I still want to get some more exercise in to keep it going.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Weight Loss - How We Are Supposed To Eat

For the last 22 months of my daughts life, I have been taking notes of how she eats and what she eats. We have always taught her that fruits and vegetables are good foods and for the most part kept candy and a lot of sugar out ofher life. Because of what we have done, she prefers fruit over anything else that we offer her. We have actually tried to give her chocolate over strawberries and sure enough, she wants the strawberries. That was a quick summary of what she eats, now to how she eats. When she is hungry at any time of the day, she lets us know and we give her a nice healthy treat. The treat is realatively small and just enough to fill her up. Then I thought, this is a grazing method of weight control. You only eat when you are hungry and not on a specific time schedule. Then I started to think about why we eat on a regular schedule and that we only eat three meals a day. The only thing that I can think about is we were told to from the beginning.

As Neanderthals, they would eat when they were hungry and when they were hungry, they went out and hunted. They would hunt for vegetation and also for live animals, but they would only do it when they were hungry and not because it was 11:00am or 5:30 pm. With the grazing method, the person eats just enough to take off the edge of being hungry. This would keep your body from going into starvation mode and store the next thing that comes down the hatch. Think of your hunger as a small paper bag. For breakfast, lunch and dinner we tend to fill that paper bag with a lot of food that sometimes makes it over flow. Well your body, unless you are training for a marathon, only needs that bag to be filled up either a quarter or half full. If all of the food given was not used, then the food gets stored and also thrown away. So this means a lot of waste will be coming out and weight gain will start to happen. When I was eating like this, I had very little waste at any given point in time and I was never really hungry. I felt very energetic and with a little bit of food I was satisfied. I was also weight lifting and trying to build muscle so my diet consisted of whey protein and chicken. It was also filled with vegetables to help keep the cravings down and also a very usefull snack.

So that is my thoughts on how we should eat, grazing.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Weight Loss - Control Portion Size

Controlling your portion size has been the easiest way to help control your weight if not promote weight lose. It takes your stomach about 20 minutes to deliver a message to the brain telling it that the stomach is full. This is where portion control will help eliminate the need for the stomach to slowly tell the brain anything. Your stomach is the size of your fist, if not a little bit bigger, but when you keep eating until your stomach tells your brain anything, it is already to late. Your stomach, at this point, is about twice the size as it is at rest. When your stomach is that large and you don't plan on running a marathon in the next couple of hours, it will go to storage (fat) or waste. When you control your portion size you will have very little storage regardless of what you do and you will also have little waste. I have found that little meals throughout the day (Grazing) keeps me from getting hungry and also gives me a great feel of energy in the morning and at night. I have the best results with about six meals a day but sometimes I will have seven or so. The other thing to keep in mind when you are eating is to eat slower than you usaually do. This will by you more time for your stomach to talk to the brain.

I will admit, it is hard to get into the habit of eating like this for the simple fact that you need diversity in your food and sometimes grazing holds you to a select kind of food that you might eat once, twice, or even three times in a day. Normally your stomach will get used to it in about a weeks time or so. It all depends on how you ate before this method.