Andrew’s (Spring85sigma) BodyBlog

Those of you who have communicated with me on a regular basis, know that I am passionate about seeing people succeed in reaching their health and fitness goals. I admit to surfing BodySpace member profiles of people who are at all fitness levels just to see what and how people are doing (probably the doctoral student in me! LOL! ) One of the most common complaints I see concerns cardio–How much to do; don’t do it; don’t want to do it, when to do it; fasted or not; etc., etc. I am subscribed to a number of fitness e-zines and newsletters and from time to time like to share interesting and helpful articles. What follows is an article from David Grisaffi.

His website: http://www.FlattenYourAbs.Net 

His blog: http://www.flattenyourabs.net/blog 

I’ve found some useful information in his newsletters and his blog. Hopefully, those of you who are not ready to commit to heavy duty cardio, but need to get moving, will find this article useful.

How To Lose Weight With Walking
By David Grisaffi
www.flattenyourabs.net

Three universal goals nearly all of us share are: (1) to live longer,
(2) to live free of illness and (3) to control our weight.  Amazingly,
walking lets us achieve all three. In fact, walking may be your best
medicine for slowing the aging process, reducing your chances of illness
and slashing your body fat. For anyone out of shape or not athletically-
inclined, walking is the no-stress, no-sweat answer to lifelong
conditioning. All you need is a good pair of shoes, a little time, some
common sense, a few guidelines from a fitness professional and you’re
ready to go.

Unfortunately, there’s more misinformation floating around today about
fitness walking and weight loss than ever before. Some experts even say
walking is not effective for weight loss at all and they insist that
only higher intensity forms of cardio will do anything to improve your
body composition. Others fitness experts believe that you should not do
cardiovascular exercise every day - even walking.

There may be a little truth in each of those statements, however,
walking always was and still is one of the best exercises for
strengthening your bones, controlling your weight, toning the muscles in
your lower body, maintaining good posture and improving your self image.

Walking uses almost every muscle in the body, it improves circulation of
blood to the joints and massages the blood vessels, keeping them more
elastic.  Walking also helps you maintain muscle and an efficient
metabolism as you get older (not to mention keeping you young “in
spirit.”)

Walking is incredibly convenient too. Since you don’t need a gym or any
special equipment, you can walk any place, at any time and that allows
you to lose weight and get fit with little or no interruption to your
busy schedule.

People who diet without exercising often get fatter with time.  Although
your weight may initially drop while dieting, weight loss from low
calorie and especially low carb diets consists mostly of water and
muscle.  When the weight returns, it comes back as fat.  To avoid
getting fatter over time, you must increase your metabolism by
exercising daily.

To get the maximum benefits of a walking program, you need make it more
challenging than a leisurely “walk in the park.” Walking at a steady and
brisk pace burns more fat simply because it burns more calories. Just
remember to begin slowly to avoid muscle soreness, and increase your
pace over time as you become more fit.

To lose weight, it’s ideal to alternate your walking sessions between
high intensity and lower intensity days.  For example, on one day walk
for 30- 45 minutes as a steady and moderate pace. On the next day, walk
at a faster pace. You could even do “road work” like the boxers do,
where you break up your walk along the route with some sets of squats,
lunges, bench push ups or other body weight or callisthenic exercises to
make it a real cardiovascular and muscle blaster of a workout! It
doesn’t have to be boring or the same thing every day.  Make it fun and
keep it up consistently, leading an active life-style 365 days a year.

Slow and casual walking has benefits, but you will not get as much out
of walking at a very slow pace because we all have a built-in mechanical
advantage for walking long distances at normal speeds.

Our bodies, via the spinal column, muscle attachments and bony
structures, reserve energy in the musculoskeletal system and release it
back to us without asking for additional energy output. In other words,
as you walk, your spinal column keeps energy in reserve because of the
way you straighten and extend your spine during normal walking.

As you step, your spine is stretched, and as you take another step, the
energy reserved in the spine is used in propulsion. The spine acts very
much like rubber band as your walk, harnessing this reserve energy.

To get substantial cardiovascular, muscular and weight loss benefits,
this is why you must walk briskly or create extra movement patterns
beyond casual, slow walking in order to optimize your walking program
for weight loss and cardiovascular fitness.

Walking the right way will also improve your posture and tends to help
keep you upright (because you must see where you are going). Just hold
your chin up and shoulder slightly back.. Walk with your heels hitting
the ground first and your feet pointed forward. Swing your arms fully
and make lengthy strides.

To lose weight and achieve optimum health, exercise and diet are both
necessary and interrelated.  Exercising without maintaining a balanced
diet is no more beneficial than dieting while remaining a couch potato.

Carbohydrates are high-octane fuel.  They provide energy for movement
and help raise internal body metabolism.  They’re also satisfying.  The
key is to avoid adding high-fat and high calorie toppings to your
carbohydrates. Also be sure to focus on fruits and vegetables and do not
eat the majority of your carbohydrates from the starch category such as
bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes. These type of carbs can create an
insulin spike, which in turn feeds your fat storing system.

Fruits and vegetables are the ideal health, diet and fat loss foods for
many reasons.  They’re relatively low in fat and calories, high in fiber
and rich in essential vitamins and minerals. The National Research
Council recommends eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables
a day.

Your everyday habits will determine your long term body weight and body
composition.  Make sure you get enough sleep, drink enough water to
expel toxins, avoid processed food as much as you can, eat your fruits
and veggies, eat organic when ever possible and work hard.

Just one last thought: taking a three-minute walk after each meal is
worth a four pound reduction in body fat in a year’s time.  Climbing two
flights of stairs a day burns off half a pound of body fat in a year.
On the other hand, one candy bar eaten daily will cost you 20 pounds
annually.

David Grisaffi
Firm and Flatten Your Abs
http://www.flattenyourabs.net

About The Author

David is the author of Firm And Flatten Your Abs an online best seller
which teaches you how to lose body fat and develop “six pack abs‘ while
improving strength, function and athletic power at the same time. You
can contact David or learn more about his programs at

http://www.FlattenYourAbs.net

Also visit my blog at
http://www.flattenyourabs.net/blog

A lot of my colleagues on here are fighting food cravings. They crave certain foods during certain times, for example. They often feel guilty about having "fallen off the wagon." As a therapist, I must say that when one is working toward a goal, that is changing behavior, often there are times when we may have setbacks. The important thing to do when these setbacks occur is to find out WHAT triggered the setback, assess the setting, your emotional state (e.g. lonely, bored, sad, depressed, etc.), any "activating events," (e.g. trauma, argument, celebration, etc.), who were you with, etc. After this is done make sure that you remove barriers, develop "safeguards" and or preventive strategies, and/or change settings to minimize the chance for the setback occurring again. With food cravings, it is often best to not have "tempting" foods in the environment. Once a craving occurs, if one can distract onself for about 5-10 minutes the craving will usually subside. Another strategy is to plan when you are going to eat something that is less than healthy. Have some of the food and then get back to your healthy diet.  Also make sure that there are family, friends, and other supportive people who understand your struggle who will encourage you to stick to your eating plan and NOT sabotage it. Remember, it takes about 21 days to change or acquire a new habit. Be patient with yourself.

I found an article by Jeff Anderson, "The Muscle Nerd" which summarizes some of what I’ve mentioned above. I hope this assists those of you who are continually fighting food cravings. The URL for the article is as follows:

http://www.undergroundbodybuildingtips.com/article_details.php?aid=38

Here is the text of the article:

How To Conquer Food Cravings!
By: - The Muscle Nerd - Jeff Anderson Mmmmmmm!  My wife is baking cookies as I write this article! 

Do YOU have insatiable food cravings? Everyone does, right? 

Maybe for you it’s CHOCOLATE…or POTATO CHIPS…or LIME JELL-O! Whatever it is for YOU, food cravings are one of the reasons so many diets FAIL. 

After a few weeks of depriving yourself, you mindlessly scarf down your “secret sin” food and then wallow around in self-guilt. Sound familiar? 

Well, here are 4 TIPS TO CONQUER YOUR FOOD CRAVINGS… Food Craving Tip #1:  Time Your Indulgence 

The best time to eat your “guilt foods” are shortly after training. This is when your body can actually USE the common insulin spike from eating sugary foods to help your muscles recover from your workout. 

That helps you build or maintain muscle which will in turn help you burn more fat. Food Craving Tip #2:  Find Healthier Alternatives 

Eating the WRONG foods isn’t an “all or nothing” ordeal. So many people say, “If I’m gonna blow my diet, I may as well blow it BIG!” 

Wrong answer! Choose low-fat eggnog over full fat 

…dark chocolate over milk chocolate …bake without the lard, full fat butters, or hydrogenated oils that recipes call for and use “healthy” oils instead. 

One of my favorite “desserts” is sugar-free vanilla pudding mixed with vanilla protein powder! Mmmmm…muscle-building goodness for late-night cravings! 

Food Craving Tip #3:  Cheat, Cheat, Cheat! When you’re trying to lose weight, a “cheat day” can actually HELP you achieve better results! 

If you’ve been programming your body to deal with reduced calorie intake, it can adapt and try to hold on to body fat because it feel it needs to conserve that valuable fuel source. But by adding a “cheat day” in (no more than once a week!), you can jolt your sleepy metabolism into letting go of more body fat. 

Food Craving Tip #4:  Plan Your “Make Up” Too often when falling off the wagon, people see it as “failure” and just give up. 

Instead, when you know you’re going to be “cheating”, PLAN for how you’re going to compensate.  So if you find yourself at a party and the voices in your head are screaming for chips and dip, mentally COMMIT to hitting the gym the very next day with the intention of burning off those extra calories!