SolveYourProblem
eLearning Series:
Burn, Burn, Burn Those Calories
(and eat healthier too)
(
15 pages )
EXERCISE
AND WEIGHT LOSS
Well, you knew
it was coming, didn’t you? We’ve discussed at least 55 ways
to adjust your eating habits. Some of the tips we covered
will help your metabolism burn extra calories, but the bottom
line is that you still need to burn more calories than you
consume if you wish to lose those extra pounds.
The dawn of the
Information Age has given us more labor saving devices than
any other period in history. Along with this knowledge we
have settled into a more sedentary lifestyle.
Taking a little
trip back in time can really open our eyes. A typical day
for your great grandmother began long before the sunrise.
She was usually the first to awaken so she could have a hearty
breakfast on the table for the rest of the family.
She would probably
stoke her range with wood brought in the previous evening.
Unless one of the children were old enough to be charged
with the task, she would put on her coat, scarf and gloves
and trek out to the barn to milk the cow, stopping on her
way back to gather eggs from the chicken coop, home-cured
ham and sausage from the smoke house, cheese (that she had
made herself) butter (that she churned) and potatoes from
the cold storage cellar.
Returning to her
kitchen with her collection in tow, she would prepare a breakfast
that most likely consisted of ham, sausage and eggs fried
in lard she had rendered, biscuits, gravy made from the leavings
in the frying pan, flapjacks, whole milk and strong coffee.
That picture can
pretty much turn your veins to instant concrete!
Bear in mind that
after her pre-dawn preparations she would spend the remainder
of her day, sweeping, dusting, polishing, scrubbing clothing
using hot water that she boils herself, hanging the laundry
out to dry, tending her vegetable garden and often toiling
in the fields with the men.
The comparison
between your great grandparents is not so much what they
ate, as how they used the calories they consumed. Life
was hard. Normal physical activity usually burned off the
calories they consumed. They worked hard and ate hearty
and, yes they did have a shorter life expectancy.
Today we eat foods
that are processed and contain more fat and chemicals than
nutrition. To top it off, we also live sedentary lives. Unlike
grandma’s hearty breakfast we are more likely to grab a cup
of coffee on the run. We rush to an office, only to spend
the next 8 hours sitting in front of a computer screen, just
as you are doing now.
Getting a handle
on your diet is just the first step toward losing weight
and living a healthier lifestyle. In order to tame the weight
loss beast, you MUST change your physical habits as well
as your eating habits.
You don’t necessarily
have to exert yourself as if you were training for the Olympics,
but you definitely need to learn how to burn off more calories
than you consume. Once you have accomplished that, you can
step in to a regimen to maintain your ideal weight.
Before you begin
a fitness/exercise program, you need to know what you want
to accomplish. Use the information in the chapter on “Where
To Begin” to determine your ideal weight. Once you have your
plan firmly in place (we will discuss this further in the
next chapter) you can begin to incorporate the following
tips.
101.
Always warm up
before beginning your exercise activity using smooth and
fluid movement. The purpose of the warm up is to minimize
discomfort and prevent injury and loosen up your muscles
for the exercise to come.
102.
Begin with a couple
of deep breaths, inhaling through the nose and exhaling from
your mouth.
103.
When you plan
to walk or run, do just a few hundred yards at a slower walk
or a gentler jog.
104.
Use the cool down
routine in the reverse of the warm-up, gently slowing down.
This will enable your breathing and heart rate to return
to normal.
105.
Learn to listen
to your body and differentiate between good pain and bad
pain.
 
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