The Sugar Detox isn’t just about food and skin care; exercise is also a huge component here. With help from top personal trainer Liz Barnet, we’ve created a fitness plan for everyone from a couch potato to a gym enthusiast.
Think about it this way: How often have you used sugar to bump your energy or had a sweet treat because you were feeling blue? Now that you’ve committed to overcoming your reliance on sugar, you’ll find many other things—food and otherwise—will take the place of sugar in your life. Exercise is one of them. Physical movement is a great complement to the detox diet and an essential part to the program as a whole.
Okay, we’ve heard all the excuses before: You’re too busy, or your knees have hurt ever since that skiing accident ten years ago, or even the worst excuse of all, you hate to exercise. We know it’s hard to get started, but trust us: Once you get into the routine, you’ll soon begin to see and feel the benefits that will keep you coming back. And don’t worry—we’re not going to get all boot camp on you.
Believe it or not, there is a physiological reason that exercise makes you feel good. Exercise releases endorphins—chemicals in your brain that cause that exhilarated feeling after a hard workout. Ever hear of the “runner’s high”? Endorphins. Exercise is also a great stress reliever and can be used to counteract depression. And there’s more good news: Exercise makes your skin look good. It increases blood flow to all tissues, including your skin, leaving you with a rosy afterglow. Exercise also helps with sagging skin, because toned muscles provide a better supporting structure for it. So we’ll have no more complaining about flabby arms or sagging knees, okay?
Besides your feeling and looking good, there are also many health benefits to exercise, including weight loss; improved bone density; cardiovascular health; and lowered blood pressure, lipids, and yes, blood sugar. And a study from California Polytechnic State University found that a good, sweaty workout can actually slow down blood flow to the part of your brain that controls food intake, helping you ignore those pesky sugar cravings.
We are not going to overburden you with exercise, because we believe that once you get the sugar out of your diet, adding a little exercise becomes easy, creating a healthy cycle: As you start to feel better on the diet plan, you will want to exercise more. And as you look and feel even better overall, you will have the motivation to keep to your new, healthy habits.
In today’s world, most of us sit, then sit, and then sit some more. We understand that you may spend hours at sedentary activities, both at work and home. Office work may keep you chained to your desk for hours on end. We also understand that once you get home, you might like to watch TV or videos or surf the net for still more hours. All of this inactivity gives new meaning to the term couch potato. We don’t love potatoes in your diet—or as a description, either.
We spend way too much time on the computer and using other electronic devices that make life easier, and also make us lazier (with the advent of cell phones becoming an extension of our arm, we don’t even have to get up off our fat behind to answer the phone!). There is overwhelming scientific evidence to support the notion that a sedentary lifestyle is hazardous to your health. It can lead to being overweight and to developing such diseases as metabolic syndrome and diabetes. A study of previously healthy adults who cut down their daily activity to sedentary levels showed that these individuals began immediately to have increased blood sugar spikes after meals. Sedentary adults also have higher fasting insulin levels—and higher insulin levels lead your body to continuously store fat. So suffice it to say that the combination of inactivity and a poor diet is causing a major health crisis that it is literally killing us.
There are so many health benefits of regular exercise that entire textbooks have been written on the subject. Here, we are going to focus on how exercise can be used to control and lower blood sugar and why it’s important for weight loss.
Carbohydrates are the fuel for the body. Organs such as the brain, skeletal muscle, heart, and liver, rely on carbohydrates as a source of energy when they need it. When blood sugar levels are high—for instance, after a meal loaded with carbohydrates—the body’s insulin will signal organs to take up the glucose and store it as glycogen. Skeletal muscle stores about 80 percent of the body’s glycogen because muscle makes up such a large portion of the body’s mass. The liver is actually filled with more glycogen ounce for ounce as compared to muscle, but it is a much smaller organ so it doesn’t contain nearly as much. The brain and heart store smaller quantities of glycogen. When your muscles contract during exercise, they use glycogen for fuel. As the stored glycogen depletes within the muscle fibers, the muscles begin to fatigue. After exercise, your muscles immediately begin to take up more glucose, turning it into glycogen to replace what was lost during exercise. The other interesting thing is, the more you exercise, the more sensitive your muscles become to insulin and the more glycogen your muscles can store. So if you participate in sports or exercise on a regular basis, you have an increased capacity to store glycogen, giving your muscles more energy and stamina. This is why sports conditioning and training is so important. It is this continuous cycle of glycogen production and glycogen depletion in your muscles that makes exercise such an important factor in blood sugar control. Exercise helps your body store carbohydrates and utilize glucose in a healthy way.
Even if you fall on the couch potato end of the spectrum, you can make an immediate improvement—without even going to the gym or even getting on your treadmill at home—simply by increasing your daily physical activity. By definition, physical activity is any type of movement, period. To increase your physical activity, all you have to do is start doing such things as using the stairs instead of the elevator. If you drive to the mall, park a little farther from the entrance, just to walk a bit.
Scientific studies have shown that just taking short breaks from sedentary activities can improve glucose metabolism and lower blood sugar. Something as simple as getting up and standing or walking for just five minutes every hour will do the trick. Taking breaks from sedentary activity will jump-start weight loss, prevent weight gain, and even reduce your risk for diabetes. Doctors treating patients with diabetes and metabolic syndrome now routinely recommend increasing daily physical activity. Diabetics who take more frequent breaks from sedentary activity see health benefits, including smaller waistlines, lower triglyceride levels and lower postmeal glucose levels.
Increasing physical activity is such an easy thing to do, and it will come back to you in terms of health benefits almost immediately.
8 Easy Ways to Increase Movement Every Day
1. Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
2. Walk to a co-worker’s desk instead of sending an e-mail.
3. Park a block farther away.
4. Do nearby errands on foot, instead of getting back into the car to drive separately to each of them.
5. Take 5 minutes between projects to stretch.
6. Get off the bus or subway one stop earlier.
7. Perform simple exercises in your office (squatting to your chair, pushups against wall or desk, tricep dips from chair)
8. Find ways to increase your steps instead of multitasking to reduce them.
Adding a more dedicated exercise routine to your lifestyle is going to take a little more effort than just increasing physical activity, but we promise not to make it too painful. By “exercise routine,” we mean planned, structured, and repetitive activities that are done to improve your physical fitness, strength, and endurance. The current federal recommendation is 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity exercise or 120 minutes a week of high-intensity exercise. Now, if those numbers seem daunting, let’s break it down into thirty-minute increments. To meet these goals, you could do a half-hour of moderate exercise five times a week or more intense exercise four times a week. If that seems too hard for you, you can break it down even more, into fifteen minutes in the morning and fifteen in the afternoon or evening, or even into ten minutes three times a day.
Any complete exercise program should include both resistance training and cardiovascular exercise. These types of exercise do two very different things for your body, and both are important for good health and for controlling glucose metabolism. A combination of cardiovascular exercise plus weight training has been shown to be the ideal exercise to help you reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes.
Cardiovascular exercise (a.k.a. cardio), as the name implies, gets the blood pumping, raises your metabolism, and improves cardiovascular health. Increasing your metabolism helps you burn calories even while at rest or sleeping and enables you to use food more efficiently. Cardiovascular exercise is characterized by repetitive movements that use your whole body. Cardio can be anything from walking to running, stair climbing, dancing or skating, or engaging in sports.
Resistance, or strength, training is pretty much what it sounds like, too: It is any type of exercise during which the muscles contract against external resistance, either by using your own body weight or by adding weights as you work out. This type of movement increases strength, tone, and muscle mass. Resistance training also helps improve bone mass, making it particularly important for women who are at risk for osteoporosis.
Here is more about how cardio and resistance exercise could work for you.
The most basic things you are trying to achieve during cardio are strengthen your heart, specifically, and become more physically fit, in consequence and in general. When you begin to exercise, the first thing you will notice is your heart beating faster as it tries to deliver more blood—and thus, oxygen—to the muscles, helping them make energy needed to sustain the movement. The blood also removes waste products such as carbon dioxide and lactic acid, which builds up during exercise. With repeated exercise, your heart becomes stronger, allowing it to be more efficient at delivering blood to the rest of your body.
When you exercise, you will also notice that you are breathing harder and faster. This is because those waste products signal the respiratory center in your brain to tell your respiratory muscles to work harder. You may recall from grade school science class that you breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide—this mirrors what your red blood cells are actually doing throughout your body. With increased respiration, your lungs fill up with much-needed oxygen that is then carried to the muscles by your blood cells via a protein called hemoglobin. When they reach your muscles, the hemoglobin doesn’t go back empty. Instead, it deposits the precious oxygen into your muscles, picking up the above-mentioned waste products, especially carbon dioxide, and brings those back to the lungs. Back at home base, the hemoglobin gives up its load of carbon dioxide and picks up more oxygen to take back to your muscles. This cycle repeats itself over and over again. So, don’t think of it as panting—all that deep breathing is a good thing! The more oxygen your body is capable of processing through your respiratory system, the more efficiently your muscles will work; and the more calories you burn, the stronger they will become. Of course, the more you exercise, the more efficient this entire system becomes.
As noted earlier, walking, hiking, jogging, or running; biking; jumping rope; swimming; and, of course, such active sports as tennis all qualify as cardio. Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are great winter cardio options for the outdoor enthusiast. Newer forms of cardio such as Zumba or hip-hop, cardio-boxing, or spinning are tons of fun. Pick something you feel comfortable with and build your endurance and cardiovascular fitness slowly. Note: If you suffer with any type of joint problem, you are better off choosing a low-impact type of cardio such as swimming or biking.
It’s important that you start exercising slowly and not overexert yourself (if you’re just starting out, just make sure to seek out a beginner-level class). Remember, slow and steady wins the race in the end. The goal is not to overwork your body, but to build up endurance gradually over time. Stick with the program for at least four weeks, or the 31-days of the Sugar Detox, and you will start seeing amazing changes in both your body and your endurance.
Endurance, which is a series of adaptive physiologic responses that happen over a period of time as a result of regular exercise, increases your stamina and allows you to exercise for longer periods of time, increasing your overall fitness. Within weeks after beginning an exercise routine, your heart will begin to pump more efficiently, allowing you to be able to handle your workouts without causing your heart rate to go so high. Your body will begin to be able to deliver more oxygen to the muscles being used, and this will bring your breathing rate down as that oxygen is delivered to muscles more efficiently. Also, your muscles will begin to store more glycogen, allowing you to work out for longer periods of time. Endurance is what you are striving for as you become more physically fit. But remember, it doesn’t happen overnight. You have to build it slowly, one step at time.
Note: Before beginning any type of cardiovascular workout that increases your heart rate, you should consult with your physician.
Resistance, or strength, training is often an overlooked component of exercise. Everyone loses muscle mass with age: From about the age of forty-five, the average person loses muscle mass at the rate of about 1 percent per year, rising to about 2 percent from the age of fifty. Resistance training is the best way to increase muscle mass and overall strength. It also helps you perform daily activities with a lower risk of injury. You will be less likely to suffer a fall, and overall more likely to remain independent and self-sufficient as you age.
Also, sculpted muscles make you look better! Often, women are afraid of weight training for the fear of becoming too muscular. That’s not the case, as women don’t produce enough testosterone on their own to truly “bulk up.” Sculpted and well-defined muscles make skin appear tauter, reducing the appearance of cellulite and sagging skin. And don’t forget that increasing muscle mass helps you burn calories, as the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, even when you aren’t being active. That’s all good! While muscle definition takes awhile to start showing (and, due to the differences in hormonal makeup and muscular structure, women have a more difficult time than men when it comes to gaining and maintaining sufficient muscle mass), what goes on behind the scenes starts happening immediately. Like cardio, resistance training improves glucose metabolism, helps control blood sugar, and improves insulin sensitivity.
Now that you understand the basics, let’s get off that couch and get started on your Sugar Detox exercise regimen.
To maximize exercise benefits, you need to make sure that you are working your heart rate in the appropriate zone. Learning your target heart rate and keeping it in this range while you exercise is the best way to ensure you’re exercising safely and effectively.
The first thing you need to do is calculate your maximum heart rate, which can be obtained by a simple formula: 220 minus your age. There are more complicated ways to find a more accurate maximum heart rate, but this is the easiest way for you to get an approximation. For example, if you are forty years old, 180 beats per minute is your maximum heart rate (220 – 40 = 180). This is the upper limit of your target heart range, depending on your experience and health situation.
Your target heart rate (THR) range lies somewhere between 50 and 75 percent of your maximum heart rate. This is the range you want to remain in for the majority of exercise, to ensure you are challenged safely. To obtain your target heart rate, multiply your maximum heart rate by 0.5 (50 percent) for the low end, and then calculate the upper range by multiplying your maximum heart rate again, this time by 0.75 (75 percent). Using our example, for a maximum heart rate of 180 beats per minute, the THR would be 90 to 135 beats per minute (180 × 0.5 = 90; 180 × 0.75 = 135). According to the American Heart Association, this is considered a safe range for your heart rate during your exercise routine.
By keeping your heart rate within this range, you will safely burn calories without overexerting; you can also learn how to judge how hard you’re working and see improvements over time. You can monitor your heart rate while exercising by simply placing your index and middle fingers (don’t use your thumb) over the inside part of your wrist and counting how many beats occur in ten seconds, then multiply that by six. This will give your heart rate per minute. Many cardio exercise machines have a feature that can determine your heart rate, or you can even buy a simple heart rate device at any sports store or online.
The hardest part about exercising is finding—or making—the time to do it! But those who make exercising a part of their daily routine are the ones who are most likely to stick to it and have success. The trick is to dedicate a small and regular allotment of time to workouts, just the same as you might not even think twice about never missing your favorite half-hour TV show.
If you have a super busy work schedule, it might be best to exercise first thing in the morning. This way you have completed your exercise before the activities of the day begin, plus it’s less likely that something will come up that will get in the way of your workout. If you have kids to get off to school, then working out at lunchtime or even after work might be better. After all, workouts are great stress relievers and can help you put the worries of the day behind you. If you travel for work, get in the habit of taking your workout clothes with you so that you can keep your routine consistent (you can always travel with a favorite exercise DVD or video loaded onto your laptop, for workouts in your hotel room; some hotels even offer the amenity of a workout room free of charge to paying guests).
If you are new to exercise, we understand you might be a little intimidated to join a gym right away. While you may think gyms are only full of toned and sculpted models, the truth is that they serve people of all shapes and sizes—and chances are, you’ll meet someone else who is just starting out, too. If you’re not ready to take the membership plunge, then we recommend that you start by using a combination of at-home and outdoor activities. (A park is a great place to get some cardio while enjoying the outdoors.)
Before beginning your cardio, make sure you buy a good pair of walking or running shoes that fit well. Dermatologists treat lots of foot problems, including blisters and calluses, caused by improperly fitting shoes. You can also damage your toenails if your shoes don’t provide you with some cushion and room in the toe box. Make sure your socks are snug and not too bulky. If you are going to do your cardiovascular exercise outdoors, don’t forget sunscreen and a hat. Schedule your outdoor workouts early in the morning or after four o’clock in the afternoon. Avoiding the peak rays of the sun will keep your skin looking good and reduce your risk of developing skin cancer.
For resistance workouts, you will need just a few simple tools that can be purchased in any major discount retail store or online: An exercise mat is a must-have item that can be purchased almost anywhere. It’s also a great idea to pick up a couple of light dumbbell weights as well: 3 pounds if you are a beginner, to as much as 10 pounds if you are more advanced.
Beginners should start with thirty minutes of mild to moderate-level cardio at an intensity that keeps your heart rate within the target zone. Choose whatever type of cardiovascular exercise appeals to you. The easiest cardio to do is simply to walk at a brisk pace. Study after study has shown that a good, fast walk improves cardiovascular health and stimulates weight loss. Keep yourself engaged by listening to music on headphones. Challenge yourself by seeing how fast you can walk briskly to a goal, such as a street lamp or corner. If you find a walking buddy, that could also help the time pass while keeping you both motivated. At your workplace, you can get in some cardio by taking a break and walking up and down a flight of stairs a few times. If you prefer exercising at home, plenty of shows on television and the Internet feature fitness gurus doing cardio workouts. Pick one you like and join in for thirty minutes. Exercise videos are also great and make it even more convenient for you to fit in your cardio workout.
Cardio should be done at least three days a week. That said, true beginners should start with twenty minutes of cardiovascular activity. If that’s too much to start, aim for just ten minutes—but try to do something every day. This will help your body adjust to all the new activity. Once you reach the twenty-minute threshold with ease, add one more minute to your workout per workout until you reach thirty minutes. This will be your new baseline for slow and steady cardio. You don’t have to do thirty minutes at once; you can break it up into two fifteen-minute workouts spread throughout the day. As you become more fit, increase your cardio workouts to four or five times a week.
If you’ve been exercising regularly, it may be time to kick it up a notch. One way you can do this is by lengthening the duration of your cardio workout. For example, if you normally do thirty minutes a day, try increasing by two-minute increments per workout or every other workout, working up to sixty minutes. This increased time will push you to become more physically fit and improve endurance. It is important as you increase your time and intensity that you closely monitor your heart rate, making sure to keep it in the target zone.
You can also increase the intensity of your cardio workout. Add some hills to your walk or run or bike ride. One of the advantages to working out in a gym is that the equipment allows you to increase the intensity easily: treadmills can be set to simulate walking uphill by increasing the incline; bikes and cross-trainers have similar built-in ways to increase resistance.
An additional benefit to going to a gym is that most of them have a variety of workouts, such as boot camp, spin class, and aerobic dancing. These are excellent for more advanced cardio training—and they’re just plain fun! The secret to successful cardio training is finding something you love to do and sticking to it.
Perhaps you have heard of high-intensity training (HIT). Although this type of exercise isn’t for everyone, it’s important to cover this topic in this chapter. HIT is a low-volume, high-intensity workout that is popular because it saves time and gets quick results. In this type of workout, you do bursts of high-intensity cardio for a set period of time, alternating with rest periods. For our purposes, that burst of high-intensity cardio is one minute. For example, a workout might be to sprint on a bike or run at maximum speed for one minute, followed by at least a minute of recovery time, repeated for a total of ten to twenty minutes. Even trying for quick bursts for twenty seconds and then resting for ten seconds, in a total of eight rounds, will give you four minutes of great HIT.
Studies have shown that HIT can be used to improve fitness, increase endurance, and lower blood sugar. High-intensity training is an advanced form of exercise and should be used only under the guidance of your physician and a professional trainer. But even if you aren’t the most physically fit, you can still benefit from a modified version of HIT. For example, if you have been doing the same half-mile walk a few times a week, try to kick it up a notch: Without going to any extremes, adjust your high-intensity intervals to be slightly above your usual intensity, while remembering that they need to be done in very short bursts interspersed with a rest longer than each burst. For example, if you walk, try to jog for thirty to sixty seconds, then rest for one to two minutes. If you’re comfortable with jogging, try running for thirty seconds or sprinting for fifteen seconds, followed by a minute or half-minute rest, respectively. The most important rule of thumb is, the higher the intensity, the shorter the interval and the longer the recovery period. This will ensure you are challenging yourself in a safe and effective way.
If you aren’t comfortable increasing your speed, switch up what you’re doing. Take a break during your workout to throw in some jumping jacks, or drop and do a few push-ups, or even get down and hold a plank position as long as you can. Varying the speed or the intensity of your workout will challenge your body and keep it guessing. Just as your mind can get bored of the same old workout, your body can get bored and plateau as well, which can lead to your becoming inattentive to good form. These are all safe and attainable ways to keep your heart rate up, prevent you from plateauing, and increase your results.
Although most of us think of weight training as a guy thing, women need strength (resistance) training just as much as, if not more than, men do. It’s a fact that as you age, you lose muscle mass. Decreased muscle leads to a decreased metabolic rate, which means you are more likely to store extra calories as fat. Of course, that’s the last thing you want to happen. Dr. Farris sees patients every day who are looking for a laser or other quick-fix device for removing unwanted fat. Some complain of tummy fat, while others obsess about their thighs. What these patients don’t realize is that they don’t need a doctor to remove unwanted fat. By embracing the weight room, they can take advantage of the ultimate fat burner: their own body weight! Although thirty minutes of cardio burns more calories than thirty minutes of resistance training, the latter allows you to continue burning calories even after your workout is over—which means it burns more calories overall. This is because muscle is more metabolically active than fat and requires more calories and energy. A pound of muscle requires 50 calories a day to sustain it, meaning that muscle is burning calories even when you are resting. The good news is that you can build muscle at any age by engaging in some type of resistance training or simply lifting weights. (Note: If you are a novice at the latter, ask a professional trainer to demonstrate how to do it properly.)
As noted earlier, resistance training is designed to work your muscles in a progressive way, using your own body weight or small added weights as you do squats, lunges, and push-ups. Each muscle group is worked individually with a set of repetitive movements (reps). Basic resistance training should work the biceps, triceps, shoulders, back, chest, abdomen, gluteal muscles, thighs, and calf muscles. It’s important to understand that you cannot lose fat in a specific place by weight training. That’s why doing sit-ups or crunches won’t magically melt away tummy fat, and lifting your legs while wearing ankle weights won’t slim your thighs. Working all the various muscle groups in your body will increase overall muscle mass, which will in turn make your body a more efficient fat-burning furnace. The most efficient way to approach strength training is by targeting the larger muscle groups; the more muscles you use at once, the more calories you will burn overall.
Here are few basics you should consider before you begin the resistance-training exercises that follow. Keep in mind that the goal of a particular exercise should be to properly execute that exercise with good form and enough resistance to impose a challenge on the muscles. Sometimes your own body weight might be sufficient, as in a push-up or a squat, and sometimes you may need to add an external load in the form of a weight. For our purposes, you should have access to a set of 5-pound and 10-pound dumbbells; but if you are an absolute beginner, you may want to invest in a set of 3-pound weights as well. A resistance band is also helpful for certain modifications of exercises and just to mix things up.
It is important to balance the amount of work you are doing with an appropriate amount of rest time, just as with cardiovascular training. It is helpful to think of strength training exercises in terms of repetitions (reps) and sets. A repetition is doing a particular exercise to completion once, with good form all the way through. A set is a certain number of repetitions strung together, one after the other. We suggest that for any particular exercise, you should aim to complete 8 to 12 reps with good form per set, and to complete at least 2 to 3 sets per workout. This particular breakdown of reps and sets is most useful for general health and fitness, modest improvements in strength, and position changes in physique.
To judge whether you are using the correct amount of weight for an exercise, you want the last couple of repetitions per set to feel difficult, particularly during your last set.
Equipment. You’ll need a set of weights, plus a mat or towel for the floor, and a chair or bench. Optional: inflatable exercise ball.
Clothing and Environment. You should wear comfortable clothing that’s neither too loose nor too restrictive. Sneakers are fine for your feet. You can do these exercises anywhere—at the gym or in your own living room.
You can select from a vast majority of exercises that will get you results, but sometimes the simpler, the better. We have selected the following strength-training exercises because they are simple and yet effective, they recruit the largest muscle groups, and they are already recognizable to most people. There is a low risk for injury as long as you pay attention to proper form. You can manipulate certain variables (external load, exercise order, number of repetitions, rest periods) to constantly challenge your body in new ways while still sticking to this exercise selection.
For each exercise, we provide the setup and instructions for the basic version of the exercise, plus intermediate and advanced options.
The squat is an excellent total body toner; it recruits the largest muscles of the lower body, which in turn blasts major calories. Squats improve your form and strength in practically any physical activity, from bike riding, walking, skiing, dancing, hiking, to just getting up out of a chair. Squats help sculpt the legs and lift the booty!
Setup. Stand with your feet hip distance apart, toes facing straight forward or slightly turned out. The squat can be performed without weights (beginner), holding a weight in each hand with your arms by your sides (intermediate), or with a weight resting on each shoulder (advanced).
Exercise. With your upper body upright, start by bending your hips and knees and leading downward with your glutes (buttocks), as if you were sitting in an imaginary chair behind you. (For beginners or those with poor balance, you can and should use a real chair for support and guidance.) Inhale as you lower yourself until your thighs are parallel to floor, then exhale as you press back up to stand.
Note: Keep your spine tall and try not to pitch your torso forward over your thighs. Be sure not to round your upper back and or thrust your shoulders forward, especially if using weights. Watch to be sure your knees stay aligned with your toes and hips and don’t collapse in toward each other.
The plank is the one exercise that every single person can and should include in his or her repertoire. Much more effective than crunches for toning the core muscles, the plank sculpts your muscles from head to toe, when executed properly. Rather than completing planks by repetitions, hold a plank with good form as long as you can, trying to increase your time during each workout.
Setup. For a high plank (which looks like the top of a push-up; see page 150), start with your feet hip distance apart, place your hands, shoulder distance apart, on the floor or a bench. Make sure your wrists, elbows, and shoulders are aligned. If you have wrist issues, you may make a fist with each hand and rest on your knuckles, or try the forearm plank, which has the same alignment as the high plank except that you are resting on your forearms and elbows (place your forearms flat directly under your shoulders, either running parallel or with your hands clasped so your arms make a V shape from elbows to wrists).
Exercise. Step backward with your legs raised from the floor so you are in a long, straight line from your shoulders to your feet. Breathing evenly and deeply, hold for as long as possible, aiming for at least 30 seconds to start. You may rest and restart as needed.
Note: It is very important to keep your abdominals engaged as you continue to breathe. Look down at the floor or your hands to keep your neck long and relaxed. Don’t allow your hips to sag down or pop up. Imagine squeezing every muscle from your head to your toes.
Push-ups are an excellent upper-body and core strengthener, when properly executed. They are also an important movement for daily life, one that will help you when you need to push yourself out of bed or off the floor. Expect toned triceps and chest muscles as a result. This is especially helpful for ladies who are trying to fight the effects of gravity on the front of their body!
Setup. Place your hands slightly wider than shoulder distance apart either on a wall (beginner), a bench or counter (intermediate), or the floor, while holding a plank position (for advanced version; see the plank exercise for specific setup details). Alternatively, instead of placing your hands on an elevated platform, you can put them on the floor but assume a modified plank position on your knees instead of your feet. Be sure to keep your head aligned with your neck and look forward.
Exercise. Inhale as you bend your elbows to at least 90 degrees, lowering the body in one straight line. Exhale as you straighten your arms and return back to your starting position.
Note: Be sure to engage your core muscles by pulling your navel area toward your spine. Don’t allow your hips to sag or your butt to pop up. Point your elbows straight out to the side for a traditional push-up; or keep them close to your body for a “yoga,” or triceps, push-up. The latter may be easier for individuals with shoulder pathologies.
It is important to counter every pushing exercise (such as the pushup) with at least one pulling action. This is because our sedentary lifestyle, such as sitting at the computer for long lengths of time, forces us into an uncomfortable, unattractive, hunched-forward position. If you find you have a lot of neck, shoulder, and back tension, be sure to add plenty of rowing or pulling motions, such as the ones mentioned next. They will improve your posture, combat back flab, and reduce the risk of injury.
Setup. Rows can be done using bands, cables, or free weights. To set up a row using a band or cable machine, anchor the band or cable slightly below shoulder height; you will be pulling horizontally, parallel to the floor. Another option is to set the anchor up high above you, so you will be pulling downward on a diagonal. These two setups work slightly different muscles and are both useful. To use free weights, stand with your torso angled forward about 45 degrees from the floor (individuals with lower back issues may want to avoid this setup). In either case, keep the knees and hips slightly bent and soft; the spine, long and straight; and the core, engaged.
Exercise. Starting with straight arms, exhale as you squeeze your shoulder blades together and bend your arms back, leading with the elbows. Inhale as you straighten your arms and return to start.
Note: Be sure to not let your shoulders creep up toward the ears in any of the positions. The abdominals should stay engaged to support the lower back. For beginners, keep your elbows close to the sides of the body as you pull back. For a more advanced variation, take the elbows wide as you pull back, in the same path as you would a push-up.
There are many variations of the lunge, but it is essential to perfect your form in the basic versions before advancing to more complicated ones. Lunges are especially helpful for improving balance, as your legs are doing two different things at one time and are not positioned side by side. Like squats, lunges recruit all the muscles of the lower body and are therefore essential for increasing lean muscle mass, which will burn calories and give you definition.
Setup. Start with your feet parallel, hip distance apart. With one leg, take a step forward about a foot or so in front of you. For beginners, maintain this foot position, known as a split stance, to execute stationary lunges.
Exercise. Inhale as you bend both knees, trying to get them both to 90 degrees. Exhale as you straighten both legs to their starting position back together.
For the stationary lunge, your feet will remain in this split stance for all repetitions. The reverse lunge is an intermediate variation: Keeping one foot planted, step backward with the other foot and bend both knees before stepping forward back to start. The forward lunge is the advanced variation; keeping one foot planted, step the other foot forward as you bend both knees before stepping backward to start.
Note: It is very important to make sure that, whichever foot is the “front” foot, you distribute your weight over the heel of that foot. Putting too much body weight in the toes of the front foot (particularly during the forward lunge) will cause the heel to lift and put unnecessary pressure on the knee, making the lunge less effective. Whichever foot is in back, the heel will remain off the ground and the weight will be on the ball of the foot. Keep your torso tall and your abs engaged, no matter which variation you are completing. You can complete the lunge with or without additional weight.
The overhead press is a great exercise for sculpting toned arms and shoulders while challenging your core strength. This is another variation of a push or a press, so be sure to counter it with a row or a pull.
Setup. Stand with your feet parallel and hip-distance apart. Hold a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder height, with your palms facing in. For a more advanced version, hold the dumbbells slightly to the outside of your shoulders, with your palms facing forward.
Exercise. Exhale as you press the weights overhead, inhale as you return to start. With the beginner version (palms facing in), the weights will go straight up and down. If your palms are facing forward, you will push the weights up in an arc shape until they touch overhead, before reversing the motion.
Note: Keep your hips and knees soft and bent, and your abdominals engaged, particularly when pressing overhead. Those with shoulder or lower-back issues may want to avoid this exercise.
Here is a basic chart to get you started in developing your own program. See page 158 for tips on incorporating this with cardio for a full week’s worth of fitness.
TABLE 10.1 Developing Your Own Exercise Program
It’s amazing how many people don’t stretch before or after exercise. It’s important not to start exercising without a minimum of a 5-minute warm-up period that should include some light stretching of the muscle groups you are going to work. In addition, the best time get a good stretch is after a workout, as muscles are more responsive to stretching once fully warmed up. After a workout of any kind, you should spend at least ten minutes stretching.
You don’t have to do all of the following stretches, but make sure to target the ones that stretch the muscles you will use or have used in your workout. Here are some of our favorites:
Low Back Stretch. Lie on a mat or on the floor. With both knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, reach behind your knees with your hands and pull your feet off the mat. Hug your knees to your chest, pressing your back to the mat. This will give your lower back a good stretch. Hold for 15 seconds.
Hip and Gluteals. Lie on the mat with your knees bent, left foot on the floor, right ankle crossed on your left thigh just above the knee. Your legs will resemble the number 4. With both hands, reach around your left leg and gently pull your left knee up toward your body. Be careful not to overstretch—just enough to feel a little tension in your right hip and buttocks. Hold for 15 seconds and release. Repeat this stretch with your right leg on your left thigh.
Hamstring Stretch. To stretch the muscles on the back of your legs, start by lying down with your feet on the mat and your knees bent. Lift your right leg, with the leg straight and the knee slightly bent and your foot flexed. Reach down with both hands and grab just above the right knee, while keeping your hips on the mat. Gently pull the right leg toward your body until you feel a mild stretch on the back of your right thigh. Hold for 15 seconds and then repeat on the other side.
Abdominal Stretch. Lie facedown on your mat with your hands, palms down, directly under your shoulders, elbows bent and pointing upwards. Point your toes. Press into the mat as you extend your arms straight, keeping your head aligned with your spine, keeping your hips on the mat as you stretch the front of your torso. Exhale as you stretch your arms straight from mat to shoulder. Hold for 5 seconds and then repeat this stretch three times.
Shoulder and Upper Back Stretch. Kneel on the mat, sit your hips back onto your heels, and settle your body over your thighs. Extend your arms straight out in front of you pressing, down into the mat; your elbows should be straight; and your hands, palms down on the mat. Feel your shoulders and upper back stretch. Hold for 15 seconds.
Quadriceps Stretch. Lie on your left side, on the mat. Your left arm should be extended straight on the mat with your head and left ear resting on it. Keep your left leg straight and bend your right knee. Reach back with the right hand to grasp your right ankle and press your heel toward your buttocks. Pull only until you feel a mild tension in front of your thigh. Be very careful not to overstretch the knee. Hold for 15 seconds and then repeat on the other side.
Seated Inner Thigh Stretch. Sitting up on your mat, bend your knees and place the soles of your feet together. Try to have your feet positioned close to your body. With your hands on your knees, lean forward and press your knees down gently. Feel a mild tension in the inner thigh area. Hold for 15 seconds.
Calf Stretch. Standing about 12 inches away from a wall, place your forearms against the wall and lean forward. Step back with your right leg, keeping the leg straight, and press your right heel down. Feel a mild tension in the right calf. Hold for 15 seconds and then repeat on other side.
Chest Stretch. Either sitting or standing, extend your arms straight out to the side, with your palms forward. Relax your neck as you press your arms straight back. Hold, feeling a mild tension through your chest. Hold for 15 seconds.
Palm-Up Stretch. Either sitting or standing, extend your right arm out in front of your body, with your palm facing up. Grasp your right fingers with your left hand and gently pull your right fingers back and toward your body. Feel a mild tension in your right forearm. Hold 15 seconds and then repeat on other side.
Behind-Head Triceps Stretch. Either sitting or standing, drop your chin down to your chest and reach your right arm straight up overhead, palm forward. Bend your elbow and drop your right hand to the back of your neck (your palm will now face in). Reach overhead with your left arm and grasp just below your right elbow, gently pulling your right arm to the left. You should feel a mild tension in the back of your right upper arm. Hold for 15 seconds and then repeat on other side.
Standing Torso Side Reach. Stand with your feet at shoulder width, your toes pointing straight ahead. Place your right hand on your right hip for support, and reaching your left arm up and overhead, bend your torso to the right. Hold for 15 seconds and then repeat on the other side.
Neck Rolls. Begin by either sitting or standing. Drop your chin down to your chest. Keep your chin down close to your body and roll your neck from shoulder to shoulder in a smooth, controlled motion. Move your chin from side to side ten times.
As we noted earlier, during the 3-Day Sugar Fix, it’s best to not try anything new when it comes to exercise. Even those who exercise regularly should take it down a notch during this strict phase and stick to walking or light yoga or stretching.
Once Week 1 begins, you can increase your exercise. Following are some exercise plans, geared to various levels and experience.
Beginner. Two days per week light resistance training, 2 days per week cardio exercise. You can mix and match the resistance training and cardio during a workout, but still get moving at least four days per week. Include light HIT to build stamina. See Table 10.2 for an example.
TABLE 10.2 Exercises During the 3-Day Sugar Fix, Beginner
Intermediate. Two days per week resistance training, 2 days per week cardio exercise, with HIT. See Table 10.3 for an example.
TABLE 10.3 Exercises During the 3-Day Sugar Fix, Intermediate
Advanced. Two days per week resistance training, 3 days per week cardio exercise with HIT. See Table 10.4 for an example.
TABLE 10.4 Exercises During the 3-Day Sugar Fix, Advanced
