Everyone in the fitness industry seems to have the perfect diet, the greatest piece of equipment and the most revolutionary diet pill and ab exercise to drop those unwanted pounds….
I say Bullshi*.
Let me explain to you a couple things about how the body works and then we’ll talk body fat.
Firstly, the body is designed with an immeasurable survival instinct. Its sole purpose is to keep you alive.
This is why when you touch a hot stove it doesn’t wait for you to think about how hot it is and react… it simply pulls your hand away. This is why when you walk down a dark alley at night the hairs on your neck stand on end, and when something jumps out at you your “fight or flight” kicks in and you whoop someone or Ruuuuunnnn! It’s also why in times of stress your body RETAINS body fat to be used as energy in case you need those stores to prevent you from starving.
The next thing to note is that the body deals with ALL stresses in a similar way. This is to say that being chased by a lion, having a huge debt-load, fighting with your significant other and worrying/anxiety are all similar within your body’s minds-eye.
So, why is this important to know? Well, when people talk about stress it seems that we’re envisioning this imaginary ‘issue’, and that we’re “stressed out” because of it. But I’m here to tell you that it’s more than that. We, as humans are under MASSIVE stress all the time! We’ve built our society around stress, and even managed to create imaginary ones….
Every single day we subject OURSELVES to stress. Eating improperly stresses the body’s immune system, depletes our vitamin and mineral stores and causes spikes in blood sugar and insulin thus stressing the pancreas (the creation of Diabetes starts here). Not sleeping causes stress, and this imbalances the hormones Leptin and Ghrelin that regulate sugar cravings; this has high correlations to heart conditions, anxiety and carbohydrate cravings (do you know anybody like that?) Not drinking enough water stresses your kidneys and liver as well as your joints. It also raises your blood pressure because of the electrolyte imbalance stressing your heart. Not taking the time to breathe-deeply also raises your blood pressure, it in turn decreases the amount of oxygen you take in per breath and increases your body’s acidity. (Incidentally an acidic body is one of the largest stressors in life, ask your Naturopath).
While I’m not going into the most in-depth explanation of all of this, (as that is a book to be written all on its own) you can see how the simple things in life that we neglect cause us bodily harm/stress.
So, what we need is a plan of attack! My first suggestion; take care of the simple things. There are only 5 things that keep you alive. These things are the foundations of life and I call them they are the “Pillars of Health”. They are made up of 5 commonalities that we ALL share, things that EVERY ONE OF US must do each and every day to stay alive: Eat/Nutrition, Drink/Hydration, Breathe/Conscious breathing, Sleep and Move/Exercise.
It’s time to take notice. Being lazy and NOT doing these things is what will kill you. (NO, I’m not gonna sugar coat it because it is true and someone needs to say it.) We never worry about something until it smacks us in the face. Here is hoping that THIS will be the smack in the face, not a heart attack, kidney failure, cancer or diabetes….
By now you may be thinking “what the heck Ben, I thought this was fat loss advice… why the lecture.”
The reason is that when you take care of the self, your body stops being stressed (by giving it what it ‘needs’ it can finally deal with what you ‘want’ from your physical self) and your body will lose fat/be able to deal with its issues.
All of the ‘magical wonders’ that the fitness industry tries to sell you are NOT going to solve the stressors in your life. They’re also NOT going to stop you from dying, and they definitely don’t help you lose weight for the long-term, that’s not profitable.
So, what works?
What if I told you that it was easy? What if I told you that the only thing you had to do was rebuild your metabolism by convincing your body that it is OK…. That you’re not as stressed as you think when you take care of the necessary things?
So here’s my challenge to you:
Try this for 2 weeks, and tell me that your energy levels haven’t risen. (Please notice I didn’t say that you’d drop 10 pounds). If your energy levels have indeed risen, be very excited, this is the very definition of a kick-started metabolism. Allowing more energy to be burned and therefore available for daily usage!
Eat every 3 hours; often, small portions (think two fist-sized), and of course nutritious and tasty. Seems silly, but it will change your world! This will lower your blood sugar after each meal and stop you from adding more fat where you don’t want it. It’ll also make you consume enough calories to keep your metabolic fires burning. In addition it’ll spread out your vitamin and mineral intake so you have them whenever you need them. Need Guidance? Think "Holistic Nutritionist"!
Next, get help and change up your exercise regime. Or if you don’t have one, get on it!
Here’s why; keep in mind that every pound of body fat that you have extra on your body contains 3500 Calories. 3500 Calories!! Is that sinking in? Running on a treadmill for 40-60 mins at medium intensity will burn approximately 500 calories. That means if you have 20lbs extra you don’t want, you’d have to run on a treadmill for an hour, 7 days/week for 5 months. This is presuming you never added any extra calories along the way.
Now don’t despair, there is a very simple solution: You need to figure out how to not only burn the calories in the gym, but create the metabolism so you can burn extra while at rest. If you could burn an extra 10 calories per second each and every second of every day for the rest of your life, this would mean you’d NEVER have to worry about it again. EVER!
If you raised your metabolism by 10 calories/hr you would burn 240 extra each and every day. Not including your workouts… Think about it. This would mean that in 10 days you’d burn an extra 2400 Calories. This is on top of what you burned directly in your workout.
So how do I do this you ask? Easy! Change how you do your workouts, by finding some professional guidance, think "personal trainer". Even if you don’t stick with that longterm you can gain some knowledge on how to make your workouts more efficient. Efficiency is the key to fat loss.
Metabolism is not this blanket term you can use for the body, although that is the common way to look at it. Metabolism is different in each and every muscle, and the blanket term is applied to the whole body as a sum of the individual muscles. This often leads to confusion. By optimizing your workouts you can create a greater metabolic change in multiple muscles and therefore a larger “sum metabolism”. Consolidating movements and using functional movement patterns allows for you to use multiple muscle groups simultaneously. This also can shorten your workout for the days when you feel you don’t have the time.
Next step; drink 8-10 glasses of water/day. Your body is made of ~80% water, your brain 90% and your joints contain a fluid that is 95+% water. Also, most people don’t know that when you’re dehydrated your energy processes become ineffective because they happen in the jelly of the cell (called the cytoplasm) which is 90+% water as well and the cell requires a certain amount of internal pressure on the cell walls to allow for membrane transport out of the cell. In layman’s terms, no water = no energy.
Now, get some “you-time”, to breathe deeply and relax. It’ll relieve your nervous system of stress. A book, an impromptu dance session in your living room, a jaunt to the park to watch the dogs or some meditation is NEEDED! Whatever makes you relax and breathe deeply, do it, at least 3 days/week for 30 mins.
Get 8 hours sleep. DO IT. Make it happen, no excuses.
2 weeks??! Ok, go! Then write us to tell us what you experienced! We’d love to hear from you and share your story!
http://www.pillars-of-health.com/
I say Bullshi*.
Let me explain to you a couple things about how the body works and then we’ll talk body fat.
Firstly, the body is designed with an immeasurable survival instinct. Its sole purpose is to keep you alive.
This is why when you touch a hot stove it doesn’t wait for you to think about how hot it is and react… it simply pulls your hand away. This is why when you walk down a dark alley at night the hairs on your neck stand on end, and when something jumps out at you your “fight or flight” kicks in and you whoop someone or Ruuuuunnnn! It’s also why in times of stress your body RETAINS body fat to be used as energy in case you need those stores to prevent you from starving.
The next thing to note is that the body deals with ALL stresses in a similar way. This is to say that being chased by a lion, having a huge debt-load, fighting with your significant other and worrying/anxiety are all similar within your body’s minds-eye.
So, why is this important to know? Well, when people talk about stress it seems that we’re envisioning this imaginary ‘issue’, and that we’re “stressed out” because of it. But I’m here to tell you that it’s more than that. We, as humans are under MASSIVE stress all the time! We’ve built our society around stress, and even managed to create imaginary ones….
Every single day we subject OURSELVES to stress. Eating improperly stresses the body’s immune system, depletes our vitamin and mineral stores and causes spikes in blood sugar and insulin thus stressing the pancreas (the creation of Diabetes starts here). Not sleeping causes stress, and this imbalances the hormones Leptin and Ghrelin that regulate sugar cravings; this has high correlations to heart conditions, anxiety and carbohydrate cravings (do you know anybody like that?) Not drinking enough water stresses your kidneys and liver as well as your joints. It also raises your blood pressure because of the electrolyte imbalance stressing your heart. Not taking the time to breathe-deeply also raises your blood pressure, it in turn decreases the amount of oxygen you take in per breath and increases your body’s acidity. (Incidentally an acidic body is one of the largest stressors in life, ask your Naturopath).
While I’m not going into the most in-depth explanation of all of this, (as that is a book to be written all on its own) you can see how the simple things in life that we neglect cause us bodily harm/stress.
So, what we need is a plan of attack! My first suggestion; take care of the simple things. There are only 5 things that keep you alive. These things are the foundations of life and I call them they are the “Pillars of Health”. They are made up of 5 commonalities that we ALL share, things that EVERY ONE OF US must do each and every day to stay alive: Eat/Nutrition, Drink/Hydration, Breathe/Conscious breathing, Sleep and Move/Exercise.
It’s time to take notice. Being lazy and NOT doing these things is what will kill you. (NO, I’m not gonna sugar coat it because it is true and someone needs to say it.) We never worry about something until it smacks us in the face. Here is hoping that THIS will be the smack in the face, not a heart attack, kidney failure, cancer or diabetes….
By now you may be thinking “what the heck Ben, I thought this was fat loss advice… why the lecture.”
The reason is that when you take care of the self, your body stops being stressed (by giving it what it ‘needs’ it can finally deal with what you ‘want’ from your physical self) and your body will lose fat/be able to deal with its issues.
All of the ‘magical wonders’ that the fitness industry tries to sell you are NOT going to solve the stressors in your life. They’re also NOT going to stop you from dying, and they definitely don’t help you lose weight for the long-term, that’s not profitable.
So, what works?
What if I told you that it was easy? What if I told you that the only thing you had to do was rebuild your metabolism by convincing your body that it is OK…. That you’re not as stressed as you think when you take care of the necessary things?
So here’s my challenge to you:
Try this for 2 weeks, and tell me that your energy levels haven’t risen. (Please notice I didn’t say that you’d drop 10 pounds). If your energy levels have indeed risen, be very excited, this is the very definition of a kick-started metabolism. Allowing more energy to be burned and therefore available for daily usage!
Eat every 3 hours; often, small portions (think two fist-sized), and of course nutritious and tasty. Seems silly, but it will change your world! This will lower your blood sugar after each meal and stop you from adding more fat where you don’t want it. It’ll also make you consume enough calories to keep your metabolic fires burning. In addition it’ll spread out your vitamin and mineral intake so you have them whenever you need them. Need Guidance? Think "Holistic Nutritionist"!
Next, get help and change up your exercise regime. Or if you don’t have one, get on it!
Here’s why; keep in mind that every pound of body fat that you have extra on your body contains 3500 Calories. 3500 Calories!! Is that sinking in? Running on a treadmill for 40-60 mins at medium intensity will burn approximately 500 calories. That means if you have 20lbs extra you don’t want, you’d have to run on a treadmill for an hour, 7 days/week for 5 months. This is presuming you never added any extra calories along the way.
Now don’t despair, there is a very simple solution: You need to figure out how to not only burn the calories in the gym, but create the metabolism so you can burn extra while at rest. If you could burn an extra 10 calories per second each and every second of every day for the rest of your life, this would mean you’d NEVER have to worry about it again. EVER!
If you raised your metabolism by 10 calories/hr you would burn 240 extra each and every day. Not including your workouts… Think about it. This would mean that in 10 days you’d burn an extra 2400 Calories. This is on top of what you burned directly in your workout.
So how do I do this you ask? Easy! Change how you do your workouts, by finding some professional guidance, think "personal trainer". Even if you don’t stick with that longterm you can gain some knowledge on how to make your workouts more efficient. Efficiency is the key to fat loss.
Metabolism is not this blanket term you can use for the body, although that is the common way to look at it. Metabolism is different in each and every muscle, and the blanket term is applied to the whole body as a sum of the individual muscles. This often leads to confusion. By optimizing your workouts you can create a greater metabolic change in multiple muscles and therefore a larger “sum metabolism”. Consolidating movements and using functional movement patterns allows for you to use multiple muscle groups simultaneously. This also can shorten your workout for the days when you feel you don’t have the time.
Next step; drink 8-10 glasses of water/day. Your body is made of ~80% water, your brain 90% and your joints contain a fluid that is 95+% water. Also, most people don’t know that when you’re dehydrated your energy processes become ineffective because they happen in the jelly of the cell (called the cytoplasm) which is 90+% water as well and the cell requires a certain amount of internal pressure on the cell walls to allow for membrane transport out of the cell. In layman’s terms, no water = no energy.
Now, get some “you-time”, to breathe deeply and relax. It’ll relieve your nervous system of stress. A book, an impromptu dance session in your living room, a jaunt to the park to watch the dogs or some meditation is NEEDED! Whatever makes you relax and breathe deeply, do it, at least 3 days/week for 30 mins.
Get 8 hours sleep. DO IT. Make it happen, no excuses.
2 weeks??! Ok, go! Then write us to tell us what you experienced! We’d love to hear from you and share your story!
http://www.pillars-of-health.com/
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