Exercising

If you’re as lazy as I am, this will be the tricky part. I used to go to the gym a lot during one particular period of my life. I know that the hardest part is getting ready to go to the gym but that once I’m there, I’m raring to go!

Often, our problems with exercising lies in our mindsets and our initial motivational preparation. We need to make up our minds to prepare for the gym, and stop making excuses.

For example, after a long day at the office, I’m usually full of excuses: “I walked 40 minutes already today,” or “I will go tomorrow,” or “Maybe my walk was enough exercise for today.”

Generally, the only thing that can get me moving are the realizations that I feel inflexible, that I have lower back stiffness when I get up after 2 hours of sitting, and that I have to maintain my muscle mass, and that the only way to alleviate these feelings is to do some stretching and some type of strength training. I noticed that if I don’t do any strength exercises for a few weeks, my back discomfort returns again, no matter what my weight is. I think that it’s because when you stop doing strength exercise, your body isn’t tightened anymore (there is no tension in it) and long hours spent sitting in the office start to take their toll.

To get myself moving, I decided to do shoulder exercises with two full 2L bottles of liquid, and then do a few repetitions of body weight circuit training. I also always remember that I first have to warm up. Never ever forget to warm up your muscles, joints and have your heart pumping. I had 2 strained muscles/tendons in the past (my left shoulder and my right elbow) and I still remember the problems and pain that they caused me. This is the minimum you can do for your health: some walking and/or some weight exercises. Of course, if you can do 30-45 minutes of cardio per day and 45 of strength training every second day, you’re doing much more for your health. Plus, you can eat more because you burned some calories. But don’t do steady cardio; research proved that an exercise regimen consisting of only cardio does not really burn fat or speed up your metabolism like it should. New research shows that you can trick your body into burning calories more efficiently, especially if you change the intervals , both during cardio and strength training. By varying intervals in strength-training and by training just a couple of times a week, you’ll reverse 50% of the metabolism slow-down that comes with age. The next time you run, swim, or even walk, ramp up the intensity for 30-second intervals, returning to your normal speed afterward. Using this strategy will help you consume more oxygen and make your cell powerhouses work harder to burn energy.

If you’re very overweight, start with just walking, then slowly introduce some stretching and then some body weight training into your exercise plan.

Body weight circuit training is sort of a minimal strength type of training you can do. You saw my pictures; I’m not the type of fitness guy that is “ripped” and “toned.” I’m a very average guy who works at a desk and has a family. I don’t have a lot of time to spend on fitness training. For example, my home body weight circuit training in the beginning was:

• 30 seconds of bodyweight squats, or until you can’t do anymore (might be less than 30 seconds in the beginning)

•  30 seconds of push-ups, or until you can’t do anymore (might be less than 30 seconds in the beginning)

• 30 seconds jumping jacks

Repeat 3-4 times. That’s it.

This is very basic training that will lead you into strength exercising. When you can do this easily every morning (or every second morning), you can add into every circuit the  following:

• 20 walking lunges

• 15-30 seconds of planking

A more advanced body weight circuit training would be to add pull-ups, dips (using bar stools), and chin-ups and to repeat the whole circuit 5 times. That should have you sweating like a pig and your metabolism should be running full steam. So, advanced body circuit training might be:

• 20 bodyweight squats

• 10 pull-ups

• 30 jumping jacks

• 20 walking lunges

• 10 chin-ups

• 30 seconds of planking

• 10 dips

• 20 push-ups

Repeat 3-5 times.

Not only does muscle weigh more than fat, but it uses more energy, too. The average woman in her 30s who strength-trains 30-40 minutes twice a week for 4 months will increase her resting metabolism by 100 calories a day. That means she’s resetting her thermostat to keep running at that rate even on the days when she doesn’t make it to the gym.

Muscles build metabolism. If you have more muscle mass, you will burn more calories when exercising as well as when  you are resting. Strength training is the easiest way to increase metabolism. We lose half a pound of muscle per year as we get older, and that lost muscle mass should be replenished. For example, if you used to go to the gym in your 20s and then do nothing for 15 years and then in your late 30s you notice that you gained some weight, you have to know that, at the same time, you have lost 7-8 pounds of muscles too and that your body now has a very different composition.

I would suggest to do interval exercises even when you’re walking, alternating short bursts of intense exercise with easier recovery periods. This will help you lose weight, but it will also strengthen your heart and lungs, reduce bad LDL cholesterol, and help your body control your blood sugar fluctuations. It will also boost your metabolism and you will sleep better.

I prefer to do my exercise in the morning, because I'm a morning person. This also helps me feel better throughout the day. I feel energized and rejuvenated. Most importantly, for the lazy person I am, I know that I did my exercise for that day and I feel great about it the whole day! I definitely think that it’s better to know that you’re finished with your exercise and feel great entire day, than to think “Will I find time and energy to do my exercise in the evening?”

Exercise is also vitally important for lymph activity (the "sewage" system of the body, so to speak, since it doesn't have its own heart to pump), which requires the diaphragm's breathing movements and other body movements to keep things flowing, cleansing, and flushing the toxins out. Check out these exercise videos on my blog: http://Superfoodstoday.com/video/ .

There is one very important fact connected to exercising, which is the mental connection that occurs when you begin to follow a routine. Let’s say you go through this diet, you start exercising, everything goes as expected, and you have achieved your ideal weight (or you came close to your ideal weight). Then, for some reason, you get into a stressful situation at work, you forget about exercising and eating healthy food, you start adding processed foods to your diet again because you don’t have time to cook, and you find yourself thinking, “What went wrong… and when?” You conclude that you have yo-yoed again. But, if you had your exercising routine firmly planted into your new lifestyle, thoughts of exercising would be ingrained in your brain. These thoughts serve as a reminder that you have to eat healthy food. Every time you start thinking about exercising, you will be reminded about your current eating habits. Even if you ate a few processed foods, you’ll be aware of it and you’ll do something about it. This positive mental connection alone should be a good enough reason to make exercising a new habit.

People who make exercise a lifelong habit feel good all the time, and do it because they want to stay healthy and live longer. I’m pretty sure that if you switch – for life – from processed food to Superfoods, you will include exercise in your daily routine. I can tell you what motivates me to exercise daily. Again, it’s the whole “feel great for the whole day” feeling. After I exercise in the morning, I feel proud of myself. I feel wonderful. I am full of energy. I’m alert. I know that I started the day on a healthy note and that I will be mindful of what I foods will be consumed that day. I know that I will have a great sleep, too.

Some exercising tips that will help keep you motivated are:

·          Find someone to exercise with. It’s more difficult to let a friend down if you agreed to exercise together. It’s even better if that friend has an exercise habit already firmly planted in his/her life.

·          Exercise on your way home from the office. Have an exercise bag in your car and go straight to the gym, so you avoid of temptation to stay at home.

·          Use “waiting” time to your advantage. For example, do a few lunges or squats when you find yourself waiting for something (like the microwave to “ding” or the elevator to arrive).

·           Use the stairs instead of the elevator, if possible.

There is one more option for people who know that they might revert to unhealthy eating and drop exercising as a habit. Join our online community of Superfoods eaters and get support there! It’s easy to be connected these days. Meet other people who are on the same quest of leaving the Yo-Yo Nation and joining the Superfoods Nation and support each other. If you make friends there, you will support each other and it will be hard to part with your newly acquired healthy-eating lifestyle that involves regular exercising.