How to balance indulgences and fitness

The key to a healthy and happy life lies in finding balance, not in denying yourself life’s basic pleasures like comfort food and TV. Provided you can balance things out with exercise and healthier food choices, you can and, arguably, should indulge yourself.
The basic principle of it is familiar because we’ve all had it drummed in us when we were growing up: if you worked for it – you can have it.


It’s all about whether you deserve to have an extra hour of playing a video game or eating a chocolate or not. And it works, if you pay for it, first.

Food Indulgence

Food indulgences are tricky since you can’t let yourself have something nice and comforting after every training session otherwise you’ll cancel all out all of your hard work. It really comes down to using a simple formula correctly. If your body is getting the extra food = energy to burn in, it has no reason to dig into your reserves. So it’s not a good idea to have a chocolate after each run unless you have run over 10K and will have a calorific deficit even after a mars bar, for example. You can, however, make your “payment” in installments over several training sessions. So three full training sessions earn you a meal of your choosing or a treat. It doesn’t mean you can have a bucket of ice-cream, of course, but it does mean that in moderation you can have anything you want.

Food indulgences are important for keeping your spirit strong. If you have something to look forward to, it’ll be easier to put up with your training regime and you’ll feel happier and not deprived all the time. I suppose you could say that by doing it this way you can have your cake and eat it - sort of.

TV & Video games

These are fun, especially good quality series and good quality games not something you watch and play out of boredom. The TV or games aren’t the problem, the constant sitting down and idleness is. Our bodies are designed to work and are their happiest when they have been exercised. This is indeed the situation of “use it or lose it”. And most of us spend a lot of time sitting down all day so we need a lot of extra activity to compensate for that already.

There is a good way to fix that, get fit in the process and still indulge in viewing and playing: pay in exercise in advance. As a matter of fact, make a price list for yourself consisting of basic routines that you have to perform before you get to have your fun. So to watch one episode of your favorite series you have to first do 20 burpees or you can’t play a game until you do 40 squats. Every fun, but idle activity has to have a pricetag on it so that all of the sitting down is accounted for.

It's all in the balance

Eventually you get used to the daily exercise and won’t even think about it twice. It’ll become as normal as brushing your teeth; and to be fair it should be just as much part of your life as that for you to get and stay fit.

It’s all in the balance and in being accountable for everything you do. Eating lots of sweets and fries and then promising to be good “on Monday” doesn’t work because come Monday, you’ll be saying “I meant next Monday”. What’s better? To promise be better tomorrow, eat fries and feel good for five minutes or work for your fries first and then feel good long-term? And if everything else fails and things get out of hand, you can always use Scarlett o’Hara’s wise words “I’ll eat it tomorrow” (yes, I am pretty sure that’s what she said).

Earn your play time and you’ll never feel guilty about it ever again.

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Health And Nutrition - Fitting Fitness Into Your Busy Day

When it comes to health and fitness training time is always an issue. Some of us are busy, some of us are very busy, and some of us are so busy we don't even know which way is up. Sound familiar? 

If you are the kind of person who is on the go the minute the alarm rings in the morning to the minute your head hits the pillow at night this article is for you. If you have kids who eat up all your time and you dream of a little time to yourself, this article is for you. If you want desperately to get fit but other commitments are making it next to impossible this article is for you.

Here's the good news, getting fit doesn't take that much time. You need to address two areas in your life; exercise and diet. In fact, if you are stuck for time to workout, the diet portion is going to have more of a drastic effect on your fitness. 

Think about it, if you don't have time to burn the calories then you need to cut them out !

 Wait a minute! You are probably thinking to yourself that food is one of the only sources of pleasure in your busy day. I agree with you, it should be. Eating well better darn well also be delicious. If it isn't then you are doomed to fail your diet. So understand what I am saying, you will eat well but you must also enjoy your food. I am not talking about a radical starvation diet or diet extremes where you avoid carbs or fats at all costs. Your diet should be well-balanced.

Here are a few golden rules for your Nutrition and staying on track..

1. Drink 2 to 3 litres of water a day

2. Avoid processed foods

3. Avoid foods with refined sugar

Here's a last tip, if you are the type who eats a lot of fast food because you are so busy, just make better choices. Order water instead of pop with your meal. Have a salad instead of fries with your burger or sandwich. Have honey instead of sugar in your coffee. All these small choices made day after day will add up in the long run. 

Think about it, maybe you have been putting on 5 to 10 pounds a year for a few years. Not a lot of weight over the course of a year. This slow addition of fat has been because of all these small choices. So you don't have to make big changes to reverse this weight gain.

As for a fitness routine do one set of the following as you roll out of bed in the morning and just before you go to bed at night:

1. Push ups

2. Lunges (Take a long stride of a stance and do 1 set each for side)

3. Crunches (Remember to hold your hands by your ears, not inter-laced behind your head ‚ don't pull on your neck while you do these)

4. IF YOU ARE FEELING AMBITIOUS ‚Chin ups ( you can get a chin up bar that installs in a door frame for around $20 from most sports stores)

If you follow a simple fitness routine like the one outlined above you will definitely get strong. This will result in a sleek and shapely physique. As you lose weight and shed fat you will reveal this new toned body.

Fitness workout programs don't have to be a one or two hour ordeal. It can be and short and sweet if that is all you have time to do. What is important is that you do something to keep your body strong and performing well. One day at some point in the future you just may have more free time to join a gym or a running club or whatever you like to do. When that day comes you will be ready for it because this little fitness exercise plan and simple diet has kept you fit.

Don't put it off. It doesn't take much effort. Make a change in your life starting today.

Damian@FitnHealthy

Cardio Training Habits for Success

If you're new to the world of fitness, first and foremost never over do it, and always get cleared by a medical doctor if you think you may have health considerations

 

Cardio short for cardiovascular training by design is different from resistance training. The main focal point of cardio training is to increase the fat burning process. This is accomplished by burning fat as the main fuel source. Weight resistance training builds bigger muscles and uses glucose (usable carbohydrates) as the main fuel source. Although if cardio training is intense (not able to talk and exercise simultaneously) glucose instead of fat will be used as the energy substrate. This is due to the fact that fat doesn't burn fast enough to keep up with rapid movements.

Like I mentioned before if you're a newbie to exercise take it slow by walking in your neighbor 3 days a week for 20 min, for the first 2 weeks and progress up to 4-5 days a week for 45-60 min, at the end of the 3rd and 4th week. After that, you can try more intense versions of cardio including: treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes, jogging and cross trainers. 

 

Choose a level where talking with your exercise partner is still possible for 15 minutes, 3x week for 2 weeks. You can progress up to 45-60 min 3x week. A rudimentary way of determining intensity level for these cardio modalities is 55% to 65% of your maximum heart rate. You can estimate your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220, then multiple that by either.55 or.65. 

This is a good range that will keep you in the fat burning mode and not burning glucose that you will need for your resistance training(glucose is the preferred fuel source during weight training).

Although the age predicted max heart rate is the most common method under use today it has one major flaw. Some 60 yr olds are in better shape that some 30 yr olds, but this method would fail to recognize such an important factor. I actually prefer using something called the Borg Scale to determine intensity which I outline a little later in this article. 

Advantages of cardio training: When your muscles need oxygen and nutrients it's your heart-lung complex (cardiovascular) that does the job. When your body has waste products that need to be expelled like carbon dioxide and metabolic wastes, your cardio system better be in tip top shape, or illness and disease might soon follow. The better shape you're in the more proficient your heart will be to pump blood to all the various organs. This translates into more energy for you throughout the day and a more rewarding and productive life. 

 

An out of shape person has his or her heart working overtime just to accomplish the minimal about of work required to maintain life. Now take that person and try to make them do something active beyond sitting on the couch. The heart will have a stressful time keeping up because it's all ready working hard. Shortness of breath, rapid heart beat, wheezing, loss of balance and fatigue are signs of a weak cardio system. 

The more cardio trained you are, the less your heart has to work. Who do you think has more energy a person with a resting heart rate of 80(how many times the heart beats in one minute) or a person with resting heart rate of 110 beats per minute? The person with the resting heart rate of 80 is more proficient in pumping blood throughout the body compared to the person who needs an extra 30 beats per minute to get the same amount of blood pumped throughout the body. 

A good method of determining of how hard you're working is something called the Borg Scale and my own preference of intensity feedback:

6, 7, 8 = very, very light
9, 10 = very light
11, 12 = fairly light
13, 14 = somewhat hard (correlates 55-65% age predicted max HR)
15, 16 = hard
17, 18 = very hard
19, 20 = very, very hard

You're your own master here, which is why I like using this scale. Begin with light sessions according to how you perceive your own exertion and work your way up until you can maintain 2 somewhat hard workouts for about 45-60 min, 2 x week along with another 2 light workout sessions alternating between the 2 for a total of 4 sessions a week. 

 

 Again, cardio training along with resistance training is essential to good health. It is also the cheapest and easiest way to exercise, just grab some running shoes and you're all set!

Damian@FitnHealthy

15 things you didn't know about the Human Body

The Importance Of Teen Fitness

Childhood obesity has, from being an aberration, become a cause of concern. Nowadays, there is increasing focus on the health of children and teenagers, and the lack of fitness in that particular age group is constantly under a spotlight. Naturally, what needs to be done is to devise ways in which teenagers can be encouraged to get fit.

Adults should understand that teens spend most of their time watching television, playing video games and eating junk food. They barely engage in any physical activity. Thus, they are an easy prey to lifestyle diseases like obesity. Therefore, it is important for parents to understand why they should encourage their teens to stay fit to lead a healthy life.

Exercise For Children -

 

Why Important Only when the body is fit and the muscles are strong, will it be able to withstand illnesses. This can happen only when physical fitness is an integral part of life. A strong body will lead to a healthy heart and more stamina. This will make your teens agile and prevent fatigue. It will also stimulate metabolism and strengthen their immune system.

Without any physical activity, metabolism will slow down, resulting weight gain. Obesity doesn't affect their health alone. It will adversely affect their academic performance, lifestyle and, most important of all, their self esteem. One should also keep in mind that obese teens are more at risk of developing diabetes, heart problems and arthritis.

Once you understand why your teens need to stay fit, you should work towards pushing them to have a fitness regime. Sports are an excellent idea. Let them join their school or college sports team or even a local club. Apart from keeping them healthy, sports will also help them to develop their self worth as well as team building and leadership skills. You can also enrol your teens in swimming classes and gyms. Once they began to enjoy all these activities they will willingly participate in them.
Give your kids the freedom to choose what type of fitness routine they want to pursue. You can give them the option to cycle or walk back and forth from their school or college. Cycling and walking are excellent cardiovascular workouts which can rapidly burn fat and build muscle strength. Cardiovascular exercises are a good way to burn calories. Teens can also join cycling and rowing clubs.
 
For a healthy body, exercise is not everything. You should also take care of the eating habits of your teen. Exercises and sports will have increased effect only if the teens adopt a balanced diet. Completely eliminate junk and processed foods from their diet. They do more harm than you can imagine. Include whole grains, green leafy vegetables and plenty of fruits into their diet. This is a sure way of keeping your teenagers healthy.

Going Beyond Fitness Routines
To keep teens fit, you should also teach them to be responsible on their own.
They should understand the benefits of a healthy body and should be willing to change their lifestyle. Show them the benefits of a healthy life.

Fitness for teenagers depends on the responsibility of the parents, the school and the teens themselves. Unless all of them realize that obesity is a serious lifestyle issue, and fitness is the only solution, then it would be hard for teens to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

SOURCE : F. P. Fernandes| EZINE