Healthy Eating and Exercise

Healthy Eating and Exercise
By C.M.N. Shakoor

Eating:
1. Eliminate ALL sugar drinks, alcohol, coffee, juice, sweet tea, fitness waters (i.e. gatorade, powerade, etc), ALL. Instead drink the following:

• Skim milk (or Lactaid). That saying "Milk, it does the body good", this IS NOT JUST A BS AD CAMPAIGN. It is very very true.
• Water 64-96oz per day (I cannot stress the importance of this enough)
• Cran-water 16 oz per day(Mix 8 oz of 100% PURE Unsweetened Cranberry juice to 56 oz of water-***NOT cocktail juice such as Oceanspray this is LOADED with sugar***)
• Good ole plain water.
• Occasionally (water with one of those Cystal Lite fiber supplements)

***NOTE Absolutely NO SODA. Or alcohol.

2. Eliminate ALL candy, junk-food, chips, cookies, fast-food, and fried food. BUT, allow yourself to cheat within moderation. Let's face it we are all human. We just have to be sensible and practice control. Here is an example of some  substitutes that satisfied can be used to satisfy sweet cravings:

• PowerBars (The ones high in protein & fiber. These are good especially on workout days)
• Fig Newtons Fat-Free(Heck even my son likes these)
• Quakes (The puff rice snacks that come in different flavors)
• Oatmeal (you'd be surprise how this knocks out my cravings)
• Yogurt (Lite or fat-free) or Greek Yogurt with fresh or frozen berries
• All- natural peanut butter (occasionally on whole grain saltines)

3. Incorporate high fiber fruits and veggies into your diet. There is no secret to the health benefits of fresh fruits & veggies why people don't adhere to this thought process is beyond me. I have eaten an orange, banana, & an apple almost every day for five days a week. I have not had a cold or been sick in more than 2 years. That alone tells me the positive impact that fruit has. I eat plenty of the following:

• Oranges (your body uses more calories to digest oranges & grapefruit than the actual calories in the fruit because of the pulp)
• Bananas
• Blueberries (considered on of the world's top wonder foods I buy the frozen kind from Trader Joe's much cheaper)
• Strawberries (very high in fiber)
• Raspberries (very high in fiber)
• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Spinach
• Melon
• Green Beans
• Apples

4. Meats. I eat meat just extreme moderation. No, I won't eat a hulking portion of steak at once. Way too much and far surpasses the recommend single serving. Chicken should always grilled, baked or roasted. Invest in a George Foreman grill or similiar product to prepare meats. And eat baked or broiled fish at least once a week. Tuna and Salmon are great over spring mixed salad with a lite vingarette dressing.

5. Like I said we are ALL human. If you eat fast food try eating it without the french fries (ARGUABLY THE ABSOLUTE WORST POSSIBLE FOOD YOU CAN EAT)...But they do taste good. If you still crave them try a bake potatoe instead. I know Wendy's use to offer bakes potatoes. Or if that will not do then just share fries and eat just a few for the taste but NEVER order a full serving of french fries.

6. Drink either 8oz of skim milk or eat low-fat yogurt at least 20 minutes before you take in a meal. This does 2 things 1) curbs appetite 2) prevent some fat from being absorb by the body (HINT: this is the concept behind ALLY which I hear is excellent)

7. Look into the supplement called Chia Seed. This is one of the most highly rated under used supplements in the world here is a link to read up on it. If you don't use Chia Seed you can also consider Flaxseed or Flaxseed Oil:
http://www.living-foods.com/articles/chia.html

8. DO NOT STARVE YOURSELF. When people tell me this I could just ring their necks. Starving the body has the OPPOSITE effect of your weight loss goals. Not time to eat, no problem there are still ways to prevent depriving your body of nourishment. I personally keep slim fast shakes or GNC's meal replacement shake powder around for convenience when I don't have time to eat. Depriving the body of nutrients is BAD BAD BAD as this sends the body into starvation mode which in turns slows your metabolism, therefore causing the body to store fat instead of using it to burn calories. So if my day is crazy then yes i will pop a shake to get my meal.

Exercise:
20 minutes of cardio is ok for those just starting out to get the body used to taking in oxygen at a high rate. But in order to initiate substantial weight loss cardio has to be stepped and changed often. I strongly recommend 30 to 60 minutes of cardio 4 to 5 days per week and changing it up during those session. (ie 10-20 minutes treadmill, 10-20 minutes elliptical, 10-20 bike)

My personal favorite cardio machines at the gym are the stairmaster and the ellipitical. If you use the treadmill try working with light dumbells while walking. (FULL BODY WORKOUT WILL BURN MASSIVE CALORIES)

Try and combine exercises and resistance training in a complete circuit (without stopping or minimal rest). AND ALWAYS finish up with at least 10 minutes of low impact cardio.
*** personal favorite exercises: push-ups, pull-ups, squat thrusts, lunges  w/dumbells, squats or dead-lifts w/dumbells, crunches on the core ball, & dumbells on the core ball. This is an example of a circuit I would do:

• 20 push-ups
• 10 pull-ups
• 10 squat thrusts
• 40 crunches
• 10 squats

(No rest in between this completes one circuits and is know as 'muscle confusion' and tricks the body into burning more calories because it has to adjust everytime you change the exercise)

Also, I would invest in one of those stability core training balls (or piliates ball as it is sometimes called). There are a wide range of excerises that can be done with this and an inexpensive set of dumbells.

Goal Setting:
Set your goals in intervals. Focus on small attainable targets. Reach that goal.  Then set a new one. Before you know it you will be like wow look how far I've come. One of the major reasons people new to fitness give up too soon is because the do not set attainable goals for themselves.