Good article by Monica Ciociola
It can be discouraging when your results don't seem to match the efforts you're putting into getting in shape. But instead of giving up on your fitness program, or worse, diving into the Twinkies® (trust me, you'll regret it!), try making just a few easy changes to your diet and your lifestyle. Sometimes the smallest things—like getting more protein in the morning or enough rest at night—can lead to the biggest weight loss surprises.
1. Don't skip breakfast. Eating lean protein in the morning will help get your metabolism revved up for the day ahead. Protein from egg whites, for instance, will help stabilize your blood sugar, make you feel fuller, and keep you from overeating later in the day.
2. Resistance training. Working out with some form of resistance—resistance bands, weights, or a stability ball—helps build your muscles. And because one pound of muscle burns way more calories than a pound of fat does, the more muscle you have on your body, the higher your metabolic rate will be.
3. Interval training. Short 10-minute explosive cardio sessions followed by less intense cardio for the same amount of time will rev up your metabolism. For some of the best interval training workouts, check out INSANITY® or TurboFire®.
4. Get your beauty rest. Human growth hormone works directly on cells to increase your metabolic rate by 15 to 20 percent and can only be produced during the hours of deep sleep. So make sure you get a good night's sleep!
5. The magic mix. At mealtime, try consuming lean proteins from chicken and white fish along with complex carbohydrates from fruits and veggies. This magical combination will speed up your metabolic rate as food is transformed into usable nutrients, and you'll build muscle and burn fat during the digestive process.
6. ¡Ay, caliente! Studies show that hot peppers, spices, green teas, and caffeine can give your metabolism a sudden surge by stimulating the release of stress hormones. If jalapeño and cayenne make you wince, turn to our all-natural Slimming Formula supplement, which contains green tea, for the same metabolism-boosting effect.
Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
8 Foods to Boost Your Metabolism
Another great health article as we get the new year started! Notice the curry comment!!! Enjoy!
By Joe Wilkes
If you spend any time perusing the fashion mags and tabloid rags in the supermarket checkout line, you'll see a wide array of articles claiming to have discovered the latest "miracle food" that'll burn off the pounds while you sit on your butt and eat. Well, sadly, the news isn't quite that good. Without regular exercise, a decent night's sleep, and a thought-out meal plan, your metabolic rate is going to be dragging. However, there are some things you can eat that'll move the needle into the fat-burning zone. And all of these foods are delicious, nutritious, or both, so why not? Here are eight of the best ones.
1. Fish. Most of us have read about the benefits of fish oil, which is full of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Found in many common oily fish like mackerel, trout, sardines, herring, tuna, and salmon, it can also be taken in capsules (at least 300 mg/day) by those who are averse to seafood. Fish consumption has been found to boost your calorie burn by as much as 400 calories a day. Fish is also full of great, low-fat, muscle-building protein (which requires your body to burn more calories to digest it). And now's a great time to get fishy, as fresh wild-caught salmon is in season.
2. Dark green leafy vegetables. These include arugula, chard, chicory, collard greens, dandelion greens, kale, mustard greens, and spinach. They are full of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and lots of fiber. While the vitamins are great antioxidants and very healthy for you, the fiber is where the rubber really meets the road as far as your metabolism goes. Your body expends a lot more calories digesting fiber and protein than it does simply digesting carbohydrates. This is called the thermic effect—the amount of calories required to digest food can sometimes be almost as much as the number of calories in the food itself. Dark leafies also contain many B vitamins, which are necessary to produce the enzymes for metabolism. Most other vegetables are high in fiber and low in calories and can boost your burn, but the cream of the crop, nutritionally speaking, are the dark green leafy vegetables. So listen to Popeye and eat your spinach!
3. Tomatoes. Tomatoes have gotten a lot of good press lately, as they contain high levels of the antioxidant lycopene, which has been proven to have several anti-carcinogenic properties. And like the dark green leafy vegetables, tomatoes are a good source of fiber. But tomatoes can also work overtime to flush fat, as they contain citric, malic, and oxalic acids, which support your body's kidney functions, helping your body eliminate more waste and fat from your system.
4. Blueberries and other whole fruits. Whole fruits contain lots of fiber, and many contain so much, they can be said to have "negative calories," meaning your body burns more calories digesting them than it stores. One cup of blueberries only has about 80 calories, but it has 4 whole grams of fiber. Your body will expend much of those 80 calories digesting those 4 grams of fiber. Blueberries also contain lots of antioxidants, and are believed to lower cholesterol and regulate blood pressure. Plus they taste great! Try adding them to a high-fiber unsweetened cereal or oatmeal in the morning to get your metabolism up and running at the start of your day.
5. Whole grains. Well, if you've read this far, you've probably gotten that fiber is key to keeping the metabolic fires burning. Whole grains are one of the best sources of dietary fiber. This is where careful label reading comes in. Lots of items that are purported to contain whole grains only have just enough to make the claim truthful, and may in fact be full of insulin-spiking carbohydrates or sugars, which will take your metabolism in the wrong direction. Check the ingredient list of your breads and cereals carefully and make sure the lion's share of the ingredients is whole grains.
6. Chilies, curries, and other spices. Ever eaten a particularly spicy meal and felt your heart race a bit faster and your forehead start to perspire? The capsaicin found in many hot peppers and other spices can fire up your metabolism while it fires up your mouth. In fact, some studies have shown a 50 percent increase in metabolism for 3 hours after eating capsaicin. So it helps to keep a bottle of hot sauce on hand at mealtimes. You can also use spices to add flavor to recipes instead of salty or fatty ingredients to help kick your metabolism into a higher gear.
7. Green tea. Researchers have found that green tea consumption can increase calorie-burning by up to four percent. It's believed that green tea accomplishes this by helping to increase metabolic rates, as well as fat oxidation. Studies have also shown that green tea can reduce sugar cravings and help inhibit enzymes that slow digestion, thus raising metabolic rates. Green tea's thermogenetic properties are convincing enough that Beachbody includes it in its ActiVit® Metabolism Formula. In addition to its metabolic properties, green tea is loaded with antioxidants and polyphenols, making it one of the most healthful beverage choices around.
8. Ice water. Almost every nutritionist will recommend drinking eight 8-ounce glasses of water every day, but did you know that if you drink ice water instead of room-temperature water, your body will burn an extra nine calories per glass? Drinking room-temperature water can burn about 16 calories per glass—that's 25 calories per glass for ice water. So eight glasses of cold water a day can be responsible for burning 200 calories! Besides, water is necessary for all your bodily processes, including the ones that control your metabolism. If you're underhydrated, your body will underperform. Water also flushes out fat deposits and toxins, which can hamper your energy.
Remember, a good night's sleep and smaller, more evenly spaced meals can be your best metabolic friends. And the best thing to really get your metabolism going is exercise. You can burn up to 1,000 calories an hour with Turbo Jam®. And because stress has been found to produce cortisol, a steroid that inhibits the metabolism, we recommend that you try and relax . . . and have a blueberry. Or a fish!
By Joe Wilkes
If you spend any time perusing the fashion mags and tabloid rags in the supermarket checkout line, you'll see a wide array of articles claiming to have discovered the latest "miracle food" that'll burn off the pounds while you sit on your butt and eat. Well, sadly, the news isn't quite that good. Without regular exercise, a decent night's sleep, and a thought-out meal plan, your metabolic rate is going to be dragging. However, there are some things you can eat that'll move the needle into the fat-burning zone. And all of these foods are delicious, nutritious, or both, so why not? Here are eight of the best ones.
1. Fish. Most of us have read about the benefits of fish oil, which is full of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Found in many common oily fish like mackerel, trout, sardines, herring, tuna, and salmon, it can also be taken in capsules (at least 300 mg/day) by those who are averse to seafood. Fish consumption has been found to boost your calorie burn by as much as 400 calories a day. Fish is also full of great, low-fat, muscle-building protein (which requires your body to burn more calories to digest it). And now's a great time to get fishy, as fresh wild-caught salmon is in season.
2. Dark green leafy vegetables. These include arugula, chard, chicory, collard greens, dandelion greens, kale, mustard greens, and spinach. They are full of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and lots of fiber. While the vitamins are great antioxidants and very healthy for you, the fiber is where the rubber really meets the road as far as your metabolism goes. Your body expends a lot more calories digesting fiber and protein than it does simply digesting carbohydrates. This is called the thermic effect—the amount of calories required to digest food can sometimes be almost as much as the number of calories in the food itself. Dark leafies also contain many B vitamins, which are necessary to produce the enzymes for metabolism. Most other vegetables are high in fiber and low in calories and can boost your burn, but the cream of the crop, nutritionally speaking, are the dark green leafy vegetables. So listen to Popeye and eat your spinach!
3. Tomatoes. Tomatoes have gotten a lot of good press lately, as they contain high levels of the antioxidant lycopene, which has been proven to have several anti-carcinogenic properties. And like the dark green leafy vegetables, tomatoes are a good source of fiber. But tomatoes can also work overtime to flush fat, as they contain citric, malic, and oxalic acids, which support your body's kidney functions, helping your body eliminate more waste and fat from your system.
4. Blueberries and other whole fruits. Whole fruits contain lots of fiber, and many contain so much, they can be said to have "negative calories," meaning your body burns more calories digesting them than it stores. One cup of blueberries only has about 80 calories, but it has 4 whole grams of fiber. Your body will expend much of those 80 calories digesting those 4 grams of fiber. Blueberries also contain lots of antioxidants, and are believed to lower cholesterol and regulate blood pressure. Plus they taste great! Try adding them to a high-fiber unsweetened cereal or oatmeal in the morning to get your metabolism up and running at the start of your day.
5. Whole grains. Well, if you've read this far, you've probably gotten that fiber is key to keeping the metabolic fires burning. Whole grains are one of the best sources of dietary fiber. This is where careful label reading comes in. Lots of items that are purported to contain whole grains only have just enough to make the claim truthful, and may in fact be full of insulin-spiking carbohydrates or sugars, which will take your metabolism in the wrong direction. Check the ingredient list of your breads and cereals carefully and make sure the lion's share of the ingredients is whole grains.
6. Chilies, curries, and other spices. Ever eaten a particularly spicy meal and felt your heart race a bit faster and your forehead start to perspire? The capsaicin found in many hot peppers and other spices can fire up your metabolism while it fires up your mouth. In fact, some studies have shown a 50 percent increase in metabolism for 3 hours after eating capsaicin. So it helps to keep a bottle of hot sauce on hand at mealtimes. You can also use spices to add flavor to recipes instead of salty or fatty ingredients to help kick your metabolism into a higher gear.
7. Green tea. Researchers have found that green tea consumption can increase calorie-burning by up to four percent. It's believed that green tea accomplishes this by helping to increase metabolic rates, as well as fat oxidation. Studies have also shown that green tea can reduce sugar cravings and help inhibit enzymes that slow digestion, thus raising metabolic rates. Green tea's thermogenetic properties are convincing enough that Beachbody includes it in its ActiVit® Metabolism Formula. In addition to its metabolic properties, green tea is loaded with antioxidants and polyphenols, making it one of the most healthful beverage choices around.
8. Ice water. Almost every nutritionist will recommend drinking eight 8-ounce glasses of water every day, but did you know that if you drink ice water instead of room-temperature water, your body will burn an extra nine calories per glass? Drinking room-temperature water can burn about 16 calories per glass—that's 25 calories per glass for ice water. So eight glasses of cold water a day can be responsible for burning 200 calories! Besides, water is necessary for all your bodily processes, including the ones that control your metabolism. If you're underhydrated, your body will underperform. Water also flushes out fat deposits and toxins, which can hamper your energy.
Remember, a good night's sleep and smaller, more evenly spaced meals can be your best metabolic friends. And the best thing to really get your metabolism going is exercise. You can burn up to 1,000 calories an hour with Turbo Jam®. And because stress has been found to produce cortisol, a steroid that inhibits the metabolism, we recommend that you try and relax . . . and have a blueberry. Or a fish!
20 Secrets of Very Fit People
Great article! Enjoy!!
By Chalene Johnson, creator of Turbo Jam®
Here are a few helpful, healthy "TurboFired" tips. Read them, then print and post them so you have them as a daily reminder.
1. Keep a water bottle with you at all times and drink from it often. Water is the drink of choice, but if you don't enjoy plain water, than liven it up! Try adding a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice to your water bottle. You can also drink Propel Fit Water®, VitaminWater®, or some other form of healthy enhanced beverage with zero or very few calories, but remember: pure water is best.
2. Look at exercise as a pleasure and privilege, not a burden or chore. Think positively about the changes regular exercise will bring about in your body and your life. Rather than obsessing about your next meal, get excited about your next workout!
3. Eat well-balanced meals and remember that excessive calories, even if they are fat free and high protein, will turn to excess weight. No matter what the latest fad diet is, extra calories always equal extra weight!
4. Limit your caffeine intake and your exposure to smoke—even secondhand smoke.
5. Focus on short-term fitness goals with an emphasis on completing daily exercise.
6. Keep a daily log of what you're actually eating. This includes grabbing a handful of chips here, the crust of your kid's sandwich there, and ALL your snacking.
7. Enjoy an occasional (once a week) "unhealthy" treat, but never an "unhealthy" week or "unhealthy" vacation.
8. Enjoy contributing to the health of others by having a partner or friends to exercise with, as well as recruiting others who have the desire to feel better and have more energy. Have a neighbor who walks every morning? Ask if you can join in!
9. Avoid monotony by introducing new forms of exercise to your routine—in addition to your regular workout, try biking, hiking, swimming, or rollerblading to keep you motivated and inspired.
10. Subscribe to fitness magazines to keep focused on health as an overall way of life.
11. Invest in the right tools—new workout shoes, a portable MP3 player or iPod with great music, the right fitness equipment, a new series of exercise videos, etc.
12. Make it your goal to do some form of exercise 6 or 7 days a week. If some days you exercise once in the morning and once in the evening, even better! If you're eating right, exercise will fuel your energy level!
13. Don't compare your body to other people's. Instead, work to be your personal best.
14. If your diet is unbalanced, work to balance it, and make sure you take daily vitamin and mineral supplements for total health.
15. Work to take your exercise to new levels of intensity.
16. Create an exercise schedule the day before, instead of leaving it to chance or waiting to "find" the time. Everyone from busy heads of corporations to mothers who work full-time to the President of the United States can make time to work out every day—you can make time too!
17. Move beyond the boundaries of weight loss and into total fitness. Measure success by the way your clothes fit and not some number on a scale.
18. Stick with eating plans you can maintain indefinitely. Remember that no matter how hard you're working out, if you're consuming too many calories, you'll never see the muscles that lie beneath the layers of fatty tissue.
19. Get adequate amounts of sleep, but remember that people who exercise regularly fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly.
20. Limit alcohol intake to special occasions.
By Chalene Johnson, creator of Turbo Jam®
Here are a few helpful, healthy "TurboFired" tips. Read them, then print and post them so you have them as a daily reminder.
1. Keep a water bottle with you at all times and drink from it often. Water is the drink of choice, but if you don't enjoy plain water, than liven it up! Try adding a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice to your water bottle. You can also drink Propel Fit Water®, VitaminWater®, or some other form of healthy enhanced beverage with zero or very few calories, but remember: pure water is best.
2. Look at exercise as a pleasure and privilege, not a burden or chore. Think positively about the changes regular exercise will bring about in your body and your life. Rather than obsessing about your next meal, get excited about your next workout!
3. Eat well-balanced meals and remember that excessive calories, even if they are fat free and high protein, will turn to excess weight. No matter what the latest fad diet is, extra calories always equal extra weight!
4. Limit your caffeine intake and your exposure to smoke—even secondhand smoke.
5. Focus on short-term fitness goals with an emphasis on completing daily exercise.
6. Keep a daily log of what you're actually eating. This includes grabbing a handful of chips here, the crust of your kid's sandwich there, and ALL your snacking.
7. Enjoy an occasional (once a week) "unhealthy" treat, but never an "unhealthy" week or "unhealthy" vacation.
8. Enjoy contributing to the health of others by having a partner or friends to exercise with, as well as recruiting others who have the desire to feel better and have more energy. Have a neighbor who walks every morning? Ask if you can join in!
9. Avoid monotony by introducing new forms of exercise to your routine—in addition to your regular workout, try biking, hiking, swimming, or rollerblading to keep you motivated and inspired.
10. Subscribe to fitness magazines to keep focused on health as an overall way of life.
11. Invest in the right tools—new workout shoes, a portable MP3 player or iPod with great music, the right fitness equipment, a new series of exercise videos, etc.
12. Make it your goal to do some form of exercise 6 or 7 days a week. If some days you exercise once in the morning and once in the evening, even better! If you're eating right, exercise will fuel your energy level!
13. Don't compare your body to other people's. Instead, work to be your personal best.
14. If your diet is unbalanced, work to balance it, and make sure you take daily vitamin and mineral supplements for total health.
15. Work to take your exercise to new levels of intensity.
16. Create an exercise schedule the day before, instead of leaving it to chance or waiting to "find" the time. Everyone from busy heads of corporations to mothers who work full-time to the President of the United States can make time to work out every day—you can make time too!
17. Move beyond the boundaries of weight loss and into total fitness. Measure success by the way your clothes fit and not some number on a scale.
18. Stick with eating plans you can maintain indefinitely. Remember that no matter how hard you're working out, if you're consuming too many calories, you'll never see the muscles that lie beneath the layers of fatty tissue.
19. Get adequate amounts of sleep, but remember that people who exercise regularly fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly.
20. Limit alcohol intake to special occasions.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Exercise is Medicine
Good article. Sometimes we forget!!!
By Lara Price, Professional Fitness Trainer at Cooper Fitness Center at Craig Ranch.
Behavior is the number one factor we can control that influences our health and longevity. Each of us must make a decision to be active. Dr. Kenneth Cooper says that physical inactivity has become the greatest public health problem of the 21st century.
The benefits of exercise are unprecedented. Exercise helps to prevent diabetes, hypertension, cancer (particularly, breast and colon cancer), depression, osteoporosis, dementia, chronic disease, and premature death. It helps control your weight, which can contribute to a list of other diseases and issues that are preventable.
If there was one medication available that could cure all chronic diseases and the cause of obesity, chances are there would be a long line of people at physician offices asking for this miracle drug. The bad news, no such pill exists. The good news, exercise done regularly, can in fact treat and prevent diseases.
Dr. Tedd Mitchell, CEO and President of Cooper Clinic, says no pill or substance can produce as many health dividends as physical activity can. Prescribing exercise as medicine is one of the easiest, cheapest, and most effective medicines around.
The idea of prescribing exercise as medicine has been practiced at Cooper Clinic for 40 years and is considered standard in preventive care. Many organizations have organized initiatives to raise awareness of this issue. For example, Dr. Bob Sallis former president of the American College of Sports Medicine is the chairman of the Exercise Is Medicine™ initiative. This program aims to encourage physicians and health care providers to include exercise when designing treatment plans for patients.
The recommended amount of exercise to stay healthy is 150 minutes a week of moderate to intense exercise. Moderate intense activities get your heart rate up and should be done continually for 10 minutes. Activities include jogging, swimming, bike riding, water aerobics, ballroom dancing, baseball, and doubles tennis.
So at your next annual exam, your physician may ask about your current exercise program. If your exercise program is less than 30 minutes a day and you have an elevated blood pressure and lipid panel, exercise may be on your list of prescribed medications.
By Lara Price, Professional Fitness Trainer at Cooper Fitness Center at Craig Ranch.
Behavior is the number one factor we can control that influences our health and longevity. Each of us must make a decision to be active. Dr. Kenneth Cooper says that physical inactivity has become the greatest public health problem of the 21st century.
The benefits of exercise are unprecedented. Exercise helps to prevent diabetes, hypertension, cancer (particularly, breast and colon cancer), depression, osteoporosis, dementia, chronic disease, and premature death. It helps control your weight, which can contribute to a list of other diseases and issues that are preventable.
If there was one medication available that could cure all chronic diseases and the cause of obesity, chances are there would be a long line of people at physician offices asking for this miracle drug. The bad news, no such pill exists. The good news, exercise done regularly, can in fact treat and prevent diseases.
Dr. Tedd Mitchell, CEO and President of Cooper Clinic, says no pill or substance can produce as many health dividends as physical activity can. Prescribing exercise as medicine is one of the easiest, cheapest, and most effective medicines around.
The idea of prescribing exercise as medicine has been practiced at Cooper Clinic for 40 years and is considered standard in preventive care. Many organizations have organized initiatives to raise awareness of this issue. For example, Dr. Bob Sallis former president of the American College of Sports Medicine is the chairman of the Exercise Is Medicine™ initiative. This program aims to encourage physicians and health care providers to include exercise when designing treatment plans for patients.
The recommended amount of exercise to stay healthy is 150 minutes a week of moderate to intense exercise. Moderate intense activities get your heart rate up and should be done continually for 10 minutes. Activities include jogging, swimming, bike riding, water aerobics, ballroom dancing, baseball, and doubles tennis.
So at your next annual exam, your physician may ask about your current exercise program. If your exercise program is less than 30 minutes a day and you have an elevated blood pressure and lipid panel, exercise may be on your list of prescribed medications.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
World-Class Fitness in 100 Words
This is from the CrossFit website and sounds like excellent advice. Now the challenge is to do it!! Sounds like being a kid again!
* Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar.
* Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.
* Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch.
* Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds.
* Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow.
* Routine is the enemy.
* Keep workouts short and intense.
* Regularly learn and play new sports.
* Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar.
* Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.
* Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch.
* Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds.
* Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow.
* Routine is the enemy.
* Keep workouts short and intense.
* Regularly learn and play new sports.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
How to Break a Bad Diet Habit—Forever!
Jillian Michaels is one of the trainers on The Biggest Loser!
By Jillian Michaels
Get this: Research has shown that behaviors like what you eat and whether you exercise are deeply set into physical neural connections in your brain. All of your beliefs, your habits, everything making up your mental reality, is contained in physical neural-pathways. So in order to make real changes to your lifestyle and slim down, you've got to learn how to get in there and change your brain!
The first time you have an experience or learn something new, chances are a new pathway is created. Then the next time you have that experience, your brain will search to see if you have experienced it before. If you have, it'll follow the same pathway. The more often you have that experience or think that thought, the stronger that neural pathway holding that thought or behavior will become. This is how a thought or action becomes a habit.
By repeating a pattern, we strengthen the neural pathways being used for this behavior and essentially reinforce our propensity to be "stuck in a rut"—literally. Here's an example: Let's say that you have been binge eating late at night in your home off a certain set of plates and now you have decided you want to stop that behavior. But, every time you eat off those plates you have been hard-wired to overeat, making it exponentially more difficult to break that destructive habit.
You cannot rationally "think" these physical networks away. But you can change them in two ways:
1. You gradually force the pathway to weaken and atrophy over a period of time by not using it.
Every time you resist the urge to eat an extra cookie when you're upset, or use the ranch dressing at the salad bar, you're allowing those old patterns and pathways to die away so that you can slim down and get healthier. You can do this by pausing and thinking through your choice. Ask yourself what the consequences of that choice will be. That allows you to move from the impulsive part of your personality to the part of your brain that can reason before automatically reacting.
2. Override the old pathway by wiring in a new behavior.
Let's say you've been going to the same supermarket for years—and buying garbage foods that don't support your efforts to lose weight. Try a new supermarket! It seems strange, but simply being in a new location will help you not fall into old patterns of grabbing your same-old old junk food from the same old shelves. Then repeat. Something that will help create a strong neural pathway is repetition. It's not as complicated as the term "neural pathways" makes it sound: Just know that you actually can create physical changes in your brain, hard wiring yourself for success.
Okay, now what old habits are you going to break? And what will you replace them with?
Jillian Michaels is the author of the new book Master Your Metabolism and the motivation coach for the Body by Glamour shape-up program. She's helped dozens of people get slim and healthy as a trainer on "The Biggest Loser," and has helped thousands of others through her DVDs and books.
By Jillian Michaels
Get this: Research has shown that behaviors like what you eat and whether you exercise are deeply set into physical neural connections in your brain. All of your beliefs, your habits, everything making up your mental reality, is contained in physical neural-pathways. So in order to make real changes to your lifestyle and slim down, you've got to learn how to get in there and change your brain!
The first time you have an experience or learn something new, chances are a new pathway is created. Then the next time you have that experience, your brain will search to see if you have experienced it before. If you have, it'll follow the same pathway. The more often you have that experience or think that thought, the stronger that neural pathway holding that thought or behavior will become. This is how a thought or action becomes a habit.
By repeating a pattern, we strengthen the neural pathways being used for this behavior and essentially reinforce our propensity to be "stuck in a rut"—literally. Here's an example: Let's say that you have been binge eating late at night in your home off a certain set of plates and now you have decided you want to stop that behavior. But, every time you eat off those plates you have been hard-wired to overeat, making it exponentially more difficult to break that destructive habit.
You cannot rationally "think" these physical networks away. But you can change them in two ways:
1. You gradually force the pathway to weaken and atrophy over a period of time by not using it.
Every time you resist the urge to eat an extra cookie when you're upset, or use the ranch dressing at the salad bar, you're allowing those old patterns and pathways to die away so that you can slim down and get healthier. You can do this by pausing and thinking through your choice. Ask yourself what the consequences of that choice will be. That allows you to move from the impulsive part of your personality to the part of your brain that can reason before automatically reacting.
2. Override the old pathway by wiring in a new behavior.
Let's say you've been going to the same supermarket for years—and buying garbage foods that don't support your efforts to lose weight. Try a new supermarket! It seems strange, but simply being in a new location will help you not fall into old patterns of grabbing your same-old old junk food from the same old shelves. Then repeat. Something that will help create a strong neural pathway is repetition. It's not as complicated as the term "neural pathways" makes it sound: Just know that you actually can create physical changes in your brain, hard wiring yourself for success.
Okay, now what old habits are you going to break? And what will you replace them with?
Jillian Michaels is the author of the new book Master Your Metabolism and the motivation coach for the Body by Glamour shape-up program. She's helped dozens of people get slim and healthy as a trainer on "The Biggest Loser," and has helped thousands of others through her DVDs and books.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Great Health and Fitness Website!
Please check out this excellent health and Fitness website. Lot's of great articles! Enjoy!!
http://www.landry.com/
http://www.landry.com/
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