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All about the food?
Hi my name is Michele and I'm a workout-aholic and foodie. :)
Yes, in order for me to lose weight I definately had to learn portion control in addition to exercise. However....
Locally we can see a lot of real life examples wandering in and out of coffee shops wearing giant sunglasses--folks that seem to have figured out you can wear "way smaller than your daughters jeans" by starving. How do they look to you? Not that hot to me, frankly. The glow is lost, the twinkle in the eye, the complexion is sallow.
Because of my giant weightloss, folks always ask how I ended up with any tone, and the answer is BECAUSE I WORKED OUT THE ENTIRE TIME I WAS OVERWEIGHT AND DUE TO THAT I FELT FANTASTIC AND STRONG.
I didn't wait to be a size 4 before going to the gym or running a marathon. I ran over 20 marathons 40-60 lbs heavier than I am now.
When the weight came off, I was already strong underneath. Before endurance cardio sports I did a ton of hardcore martial arts, and I was a big girl (with a strong right cross!)
Was it easy? NO!
Did I whine and complain? YES! LOL
Even being overweight fitness made me feel ALIVE AND FANTASTIC.
So yes, we need to portion madly to lose weight. This is harder because we are so PORTION DISTORTION in Los Angeles--we feel like we are being starved when we see the size of a normal portion, because, many times, it's our first glance at reality.
Now if you eat TONS of foods with antioxidants (i.e. vegetables) it can help you feel satisfied. No need to portion spinach and brocolli..bring it on! (well unless you boiled it in butter...hahaha)
Most restaurants keep us coming back by putting 3 or more consequential foods in one dish. For example, let's take a restaurant salad:
1. croutons dough/dry processed carbs
2. cheese (fat)
3. meat (more fat)
4. oh why not add bacon (double portion of fat)
5. olives (if they are processed, they have consequence)
6. ranch dressing (you can easily blow a day's calories on this dressing alone)
That salad can easily be 2 days worth of calories. Google the calories for your favorite big restaurant salad if you don't believe me.
There is a new commerical out that says 'just enough lettuce to call it a salad' and we crack up about this. This is obviously marketed to people who need to report to spouse or parents "oh I had a salad", when in reality it could be a BOWL OF BAD NOT HEART SMART CONSEQUENCE.
So you can't just eat a salad from anywhere and think you will lose weight, therefore it is All About the Food if you are already working out.
Anyway, point is I absolutely agree with Jackie that you won't lose weight without watching your food and portions, "All about the food"--especially if that food has consequence.
BUT, if you want to look hot or toned or healthy, you have to move move move. Being in fitness we absolutely know that, but it's true when you want to move that scale--if you are already working out....watch the fork!!
Further, are we going to be 25 forever? What if happens with diet alone and no fitness? What will become to our balance and stability as we age? Becoming one with the couch or sitting like a good person in a cube all day will not help you later on in life when you need to lift your arms, or your knee, or climb the stairs.....
It's like brushing your teeth, you just gotta do it-- so get some music you love and get to shakin!
LOVE M
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"Fitness for the body is like water to the body...you just need it. Without exercise you won't change your BMI, and increasing your muscle will help you burn more fat at rest."
"You have to move and you have to drink water. Those are the rules and don't get mad at me cause I didn't write them!"
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Metabolism and Fitness
Metabolism means to change or transform.
So what are we changing or tranforming? Food to energy. If your body cannot get nutrition from food and turn it to energy, and produce and eliminate the waste products, the body will not be pleased at a cellular level.
Exercise and Fitness will help your metabolism by changing your body composition to more muscle than fat. Will water help my metabolism? Yes. The Body needs water and coffee and diet drinks and sports drinks are NOT water. Even tea needs to be filtered by the body and will take energy from you to filter--that energy could be used for your metabolism.
Each little cell creates waste products, called METABOLIC WASTE (imagine that!). That little cell's waste products needs WATER to flush it out. Fitness helps too with SWEAT. You need to move to sweat, and you need to be well hydrated with WATER. Moving and watering is what makes those tiny cells work for you! Add some splenda or aspartame to that water and you've added more cleaning work to those poor little cells.
What if you are not moving and those little cells can't get rid of their waste products?
How will my body feel if I'm full of metabolic waste? (you can go ahead and answer that one yourselves!)
If I feel like crap (oh there I said it), do you think I might overeat? Yes I do. If you feel sluggish you can get depressed and then the overeating cycle continues.
The body is a system. If you are moving it helps your metabolism because you are eliminating via sweat, etc. AND you are improving your body composition from FAT (which just stores more toxins and is inactive tissue/non-metabolizing tissue), to muscle which those little cells HAVE metabolism, thus helping the system.
Can a chemical imbalance caused by the foods I eat and the diet drinks I consume change my metabolism? Yes, the reason why is that many of these items kill your digestive enzymes. Enzymes are the catalyst of your metabolism and can be killed with processed foods, caffiene and pharmaceuticals (that's a whole other article).
So will exercise help my metabolism? Yes
Will that help me eat more? Maybe, but overeating, especially the wrong choices, is going to re-burden the cells and the focus should be on MAXIMUM nutrition to fuel the system.
If I workout for an hour and then sit for the rest of the day, am I considered active, therefore increasing my metabolism and then I can eat more? Sorry but no, you are still considered sedentary since you are sitting most of the day.
Please don't shoot the messenger!
You have to be introspective and do some self inventory. Lifestyle over time earns a poor metabolism. Years of burdening the system takes work to correct. Put your big girl panties on (or for the men your big guy dun-dah-duns), workout and work for it. When those little cells are happy and working, you will feel fantastic!
There is a lot more on this topic...please email me with your comments and/or suggestions--I was once a biology major and now here I am at your service!:
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