Myth vs. Fact

MYTH: You can lose fat in a specific part of you body by exercising that part.
FACT: There is no such thing as spot reduction. When you lose fat (through cardiovascular exercise) fat is lost from all areas of your body. Doing localized exercises, like squats, will not reduce fat on you legs. Instead it will build muscle.

MYTH: Fats are bad.
FACT: Some fat is not only healthy, but essential to live. The trick is to incorporate the right types of fat into your diet while reducing the bad kind. Good fats are unsaturated, specifically monounsaturated fat. They reduce the bad cholesterol and very healthy for your heart. You can get these types of fats from olive oil, avocado, almonds. Bad fats are saturated and trans fat. These are horrible for your health. These are found in animal meats, butter, margarine, and proceeds foods. Also, I should note that you need to add omega-3 fatty acids into your diet. These are found primarily in fish.

MYTH: Crunches are the way to flat abs.
FACT: First one must lose fat to see their abs. The most efficient way to burn fat is through intense cardio (i.e. running, aerobics, swimming, biking, kickboxing) for at least 20 minutes 3 times a week.

MYTH: You can only lose weight by doing a ton of exercise.
FACT: What you eat is MORE important than HOW MUCH you exercise when it comes to losing weight. Obviously, they are both important to achieving optimal health, but you can exercise all you want and will never see results if you don't change you diet. Conversely, you can just change your diet (lower the calories and increasing nutrients) and you will lose weight.

MYTH: Carbohydrates are fattening.
FACT: This one drives me nuts. Carbs are not fat. Fat is Fat. Carbs are carbs. They are two completely different things. There is nothing wrong with eating carbohydrates. They are a wonderful source of energy. People will claim they lose a ton of weight by eating a low-carb diet. They probably do lose weight but in reality they are losing weight because they are are on a low-calorie diet. You will lose weight if you reduce your Calories whether or not those Calories are from carbs, protein, or fat. That being said there are 'good carbs' and 'bad carbs.' Avoid sugars and refined flour.

MYTH: Fat can turn into muscle or muscle can turn into fat
FACT: This claim is ridiculous. A muscle cell is completely different than a fat cell. They are not the same and they are not interchangeable nor can they morph into each other. You lose fat by doing cardio. You gain muscle by resistance training.

Food Friday: Carbs, protein, & fat! Oh, my!

Trans fat, Calorie, dietary fiber, carb, cholesterol... We hear these words on the radio and read about them in the newspaper, but do we really know what they mean? It can be hard deciphering the language of nutrition.

Carbohydrate: Carbs are the universal energy source. They are the most quickly digested and, therefore, supply energy the fastest. Most authorities recommend that your diet should consist 50-60% of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are not created equal. Here's the low-down on carbs:

Simple Carbohydrates: These are digested the most quickly and are more likely to be converted to fat because so. Types of simple carbohydrates aka sugars are glucose (blood sugar), fructose (fruit sugar), sucrose (table sugar), and lactose (milk sugar). You can find simple sugars in soda, syrup, fruit, candy, and juice. Limit these type of carbohydrates.

Complex Carbohydrates: These are digested less quickly than simple sugars and so are less likely to be converted to fat. They also provide more long-term energy. There are a two different types of complex carbohydrates: Starch and Fiber.

1) Starch is found in bread, potatoes, corn, and many other vegetables. It is fairly easy to digest.

2) Fiber is very important for health. There are two types of fiber, both are essential.

Insoluble Fiber is not digested. Instead it passes straight through your digestive tract. It is important to prevent constipation, hemorrhoids, and diverticulosis and to maintain overall colon health. As my foods teacher once called it, insoluble fiber is nature's broom. It cleans you out. It also does not contribute to overall consumed Calories. When you look at a nutrition label, subtract off the Calories due to Insoluble Fiber because you do not use them. Insoluble fiber is also excellent for weight loss because it is very filling with zero Calories. Sources of Insoluble Fiber are bran (wheat, oat, barley), cauliflower, green beans, potatoes, and celery.

Soluble Fiber is important in lowering blood cholesterol and controlling blood sugar (important for those with diabetes). Some sources of soluble fiber are peas, beans, oats, barley, fruits, and vegetables.

It is important to limit your consumption of refined carbohydrates (white flour) because the process of refining removes the fiber, bran, and most vitamins and minerals that those carbohydrates give you, but it leaves all the Calories.

Protein: These are large organic molecules made up of amino acids. Once digested, the protein is broken down into amino acids which are then assembled to build structures in our body. Amino acids are used to build muscle, hair, fingernails, red blood cells, eye membranes, skin, and many more things. Protein is also important for the proper functioning of antibodies in our immune system, the regulation of enzymes and hormones. Protein rocks!

Carbohydrates are always used first as an energy source. If not enough Calories are consumed as carbohydrates, then the Calories from protein will be used to give you energy. But if you have consumed more protein than your body needs, it will be broken down and stored as fat.

You can get protein from meat, cheese, milk and eggs. You can also get protein from whole grains, beans, legumes, oatmeal, peanuts, and soy. Most authorities recommend 10-15% of your calories should come from protein. Growing children and those who exercise need more protein. People with kidney disease or a history of kidney disease should be careful not to eat to much protein because the process of converting protein into energy puts a lot of extra strain on you kidneys.

Fat: Lipids (or fat) are large biological molecules that do not dissolve in water and are made up of fatty acids. There are many types of fat, and surprisingly, not all are bad for you. In fact, it is essential that your body gets enough.

• Unsaturated Fat: this type of fat isn't bad for you. It lowers blood cholesterol. Unsaturated fats are generally liquid at room temperature. Polyunsaturated fats include safflower, sunflower, soybean and corn oil. Monounsaturated fats (which are really good for you) include olive oil, canola, peanut, and avocado.


• Saturated Fat: this type of fat is really bad for you. It increased blood cholesterol and is generally solid at room temperature (tropical oils are the exception). This type of fat is found in animal meat, dairy, butter, coconut and palm oil.


• Trans fat: This has been a buzz word in nutrition lately. This type of fat is man made. Unsaturated fat goes through a process called hydrogenation to make it more saturated. The reason they do this is to make it more solid at room temperature. Have you ever opened peanut butter and there is this layer of oil on top? You probably think, "gross!" and then stir it up. Peanut oil is hydrogenated so that it can be solid so you won't have that problem with the stirring of the oil. Of course, you end up with different problems because trans fat raises bad (LDL) cholesterol.

Like I said, some fat is essential to overall health. Fat is used to synthesize hormones, it is important for growth, it is used for brain and eye development, and is an important source of energy. Two type of essential fatty acids are omega-6 and omega-3. Omega-6 fatty acids cannot be synthesized in your body so it is essential that you consume them. Fortunately this isn't a problem since omega-6 fatty acids are found in vegetable oil which is in just about everything. Omega-3 fatty acids are more difficult to find. They are found in many varieties of fish and are important in the reduction of coronary artery disease.

Energy Density: Energy density is the measure of how much energy a certain amount of food will give you. Energy is measured in Calories (or kilocalorie) the same way that length is measured in inches and volume is measured in liters. Very simply, one calorie is the amount of energy it takes to increase the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. How is that for some useful Jeopardy trivia! When our body breaks down either fat, carbohydrates, or protein a certain amount of energy is released. We use that energy for bodily functions or daily activity. Of course, if we consume more energy than is used, those calories are stored at fat. Our body stores energy as fat because it is the "most efficient" at storing energy. That is because it stores 9 Calories of energy for every gram of fat. Carbohydrates, on the other had, only have 4 Calories per gram. Protein also has 4 Calories per gram. The moral of the story then is to limit your fat consumption because it has more than twice the amount of calories per gram as other food. Talk about dense.

5K for beginners

5Ks are popular races for advanced runners as well as beginners. Advanced runners seek to improve their time and pace while a beginner runner might set out just to complete their first race. A 5K is 3.12 miles and takes approximately 30 minutes to jog. It is a doable goal for most anyone, but just like any goals, steps should be taken to accomplish it. Below is an example training schedule for a beginner runner wanted to complete a 5K. It is an 8 week program and starts with running a distance of 1.5 miles. First off, if you are a beginner runner, do not feel like you have to sprint these distances until your heart explodes. Take it slowly at a comfortable pace. As your confidence improves you can gently increase your pace. The BIGGEST MISTAKE that people make when starting to train for an event like a 5K is to PUSH THEMSELVES TOO HARD. Ease into the sport to prevent injury. If you cannot run 1.5 miles, go as far as you can and then walk the rest of the distance. Work your way up to the 1.5 mile run and then you can start the schedule that is below.

EZ=simple, less strenuous activity (i.e., walking, gardening)
CT=Cross Training (i.e., biking, swimming, elliptical)

Good luck and happy running!

Workout Wednesday: Benefits of Strength Training

Strength training includes weight lifting and calisthenics (like crunches, pull ups, push ups). These exercises do not burn a lot of fat, but they are important to build strength and increase muscle mass.

Many people who are aiming to lose weight may not think that they want to increase muscle mass, but I assure you that this increase in mass with help anyone lose fat. Muscles need energy to function. They can get this energy from two different places: the Calories you consume or fat storage. When you reduce the amount of Calories you consume your muscles will have no place to go but to the fat for their energy. The more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn even if you are just sleeping. That's right, a muscular person will burn more Calories just breathing than a person with less muscle all other factors remaining equal. This increase in energy use is called a faster metabolism. You can increase your metabolism by increasing you muscle mass. Bottom line, the more muscle you have, the faster you will burn fat.

What is the Swine Flu?

Currently, many people are concerned and have questions regarding the recent swine flu outbreak. I also had questions and wanted to protect my health and the health of my family so I did a little research and found this informational video put out by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). I'll be honest, it is a little boring, but it is informational. Enjoy!



Much of this video is a reminder of what we should do when infected with the normal flu and how to prevent sicknesses in general.

Motivation Monday: BFL Grand Champion 2008

I love Body-for-Life and would recommend it to anyone. Go ahead and buy the book to see what I mean or check out the website, www.bodyforlife.com.

Every year Body-For-Life has a competition that anyone can enter. It is free to enter and there are amazing prizes to be won. You just have to fill our some paperwork, take before and after pictures and work your butt off for 12 weeks. The prizes for the 2009 competition are:

Two Grand Master Champions 1 Male / 1 Female Each Grand Master Champion will receive: $25,000 cash Body-for-LIFE Champion leather jacket ($1,500 value) Reimbursement of all EAS products purchased during the Challenge Free home gym, courtesy of PowerBlocks™

Six Category Champions will receive: $10,000 cash Body-for-LIFE Champion leather jacket ($1,500 value) Reimbursement of all EAS products purchased during the Challenge Free home gym, courtesy of PowerBlocks™

For more information about the Body-for-Life competition, click here.

One of the grand master champions of 2008 was Emily Alvers:

Here is her essay as found on the Body-for-Life website:
"I was living life as your average middle school teacher the year my life seemed to come crashing down. My mother and step-father both passed away from cancer just 6 short months apart. I was devastated. 5 years prior I had lost my father to cancer as well. I felt too young and unequipped to deal with this sudden reality. I was desperately alone and confused.

As a way to escape and cope with my grief, I turned to food. I was addicted to the feelings of comfort that sugary foods gave me temporarily. I’d binge on ice cream, cookies and anything sweet I could get my hands on. Countless nights I went to sleep feeling guilty for what I’d eaten and work up each morning just as miserable. I felt powerless over my self-destructive behavior and was trapped in this viscous cycle. I was gaining weight steadily, had no energy and was extremely depressed.

While sorting through my mother’s things one day I found the book, Body-for-LIFE. It sparked my interest, and I read it cover to cover. For the first time in a long time I became hopeful that I didn’t have to settle with living this way! I realized that I needed to stop making excuses and feeling sorry for myself. My sadness and self pity quickly turned into motivation and confidence that I could change! I just knew that this was the answer to finally finding a balance in my life. I wrote down my goals and told everyone I knew about them. I was ecstatic to be starting this exciting new chapter in my life!

I committed to follow the program just as it was outlined in the book. After only 1 week on Body-for-LIFE, I was in utter disbelief at how much better I felt. My mood and energy levels skyrocketed. My cravings for sugar and the guilt I had felt for so long disappeared altogether. I was waking up ready to conquer the world each and every day! As the weeks passed, my body grew much stronger and the fat just seemed to melt away at an alarming rate. Before I knew it, 12 weeks passed and I had lost 21 lbs. and 9.4% body fat! I went from wearing a size 8 down to a size 0! My blood pressure and resting heart rate fell into the athlete range!

I am physically stronger now than I’ve ever been in my life, but more importantly I am someone I can be proud of, someone who will be a good role model to my own kids one day, and someone who is already inspiring others who have struggled to change their lives. Since starting Body-for-LIFE, I’ve also earned my personal training certification. I am living proof that big changes can be achieved in a very short time. Not only do I have the tools now to help and inspire others to live a healthy lifestyle, but I also have the free advertising to go along with it! Body-for-LIFE has helped me realize my own potential beyond what I ever could have imagined!"

She lost 21 lbs of scale weight and decreased her body fat percentage 9% in just 12 weeks! What an inspiration.

Food Friday: Calorie Budget

The most important part of weight loss is diet. I'm not talking about the atkins diet or south beach diet. When I say diet I'm talking about the type of food you consume on a regular basis. What you eat and how much you eat is FAR MORE important than exercise when it comes to weight loss. You could run 10 miles everyday, but if you don't watch what you eat, you will never lose weight.

Let me illustrate with an example. Yesterday I bought one of those twix snack packs. It had 8 snack sized twix each with 80 Calories. I ate all of them (for the sake of research, of course) in less than ten minutes. That was a grand total of 640 Calories. To burn off those extra Calories I would have to run about 6.5 miles which would take me over an hour. It took me less than 10 minutes to put on and would take more than an hour to take off.

Diet is key to losing weight. All weight loss is based on this one equation:

Calories consumed - Calories used = Change in Calories

If your change in Calories is negative you have what is called a Calorie Deficit. You're body will make up for this by using fat as an energy source. In other words, you will lose weight. If your change in Calories is positive you have a Calorie Excess. Those Calories will be stored (as fat) for future use. About 3500 Calories equal 1 pound.

The amount of Calories you need each day depends on many factors. You can use calulators like this or this to determine your Caloric Budget. I like the term budget because it helps me realize that I can eat a little treat, but that takes up some of my budget for the day so I need to eat less for dinner or I need to exercise more to burn off those extra Calories

Live Strong Website

When you think "live strong" your mind might conjure up pictures of Lance Armstrong road biking all across France. How cool is he? The coolest. It's true. Well, this website is almost (although not quite) as cool as him.

Livestrong.com is a website dedicated to health and fitness. It has a lot of neat things, but I particularly like the "daily plate" feature. First of all, it calculates your calorie budget based on weight, height, age, activity level, and weight loss goal. Then you can track your calories by entering the food you eat for the day. It has basically has every possible type of food in its database. You can also track your activities and the amount of calories you use. It is a great way to track your progress and to meet your weight loss goals.

I used it for a week or so. It definitely helped me become more aware of how many calories I was consuming compared to how many I was using. That is an important realization for EVERYONE to have, especially if you are trying to lose weight. Maybe counting calories is not for you, but I would recommend counting them (whether using this program or by hand) for a week or so just to get an idea of how you are doing.

Workout Wednesday: Awesome Abs

Who doesn't want rock solid, flat, six-pack, sexy abs? Tell me. Seriously. I can't think of anyone who would say, "no thank you, I prefer my flabby fat belly." Unfortunately there are a lot of people who don't understand how to get well-defined abdominal muscles. Many people waste hours of their life doing hundreds of crunches with zero results. Many people also spend hundreds of dollars on fancy contraptions that supposedly flatten and firm your their abs, but those products never deliver. Don't let yourself become one of these people.

First step to great abs is doing some great cardio. Run, bike, or swim. I don't care. Just get doing at least 20 minutes of intense cardio three times a week. Why? Well, because everyone has some pretty good abs, but the problem is that they can't be seen through a thick layer of fat. The best way to burn fat is cardiovascular exercise. There is no such thing as localized fat reduction. Doing crunches WILL NOT burn stomach fat, doing squats WILL NOT burn butt fat, and doing tricep presses WILL NOT burn arm fat. Those are muscle building exercises, not fat burning exercises. I cannot emphasize enough that the best way to burn fat is cardiovascular exercise. When you do cardio you burn fat from all areas of your body (including that stubborn tummy fat).

In addition to cardio, one must have a lower calorie diet in order to burn away those inches of fat. If you consume too many calories, your body will just store them as extra fat. If you consume less calories than you use, your body will turn to it's fat reserve for more energy. So make sure you are eating a lower calorie diet in addition to cardio for effective fat loss.

So now you realize that doing hundreds of crunches a day wasn't helping you get those nice abs. Don't get me wrong, crunches will strengthen your abs, but no one will be able to see those strong abs underneath layers of fat. Crunches do not burn sufficient fat to make a difference. In fact crunches (as well as all strength training workouts) are an anaerobic exercise. That means it burns SUGAR. Aerobic exercises, on the other hand, burn FAT. Aerobic exercises are the same as the cardiovascular exercises listed above: running, biking, swimming, kickboxing, dancing, anything that will get your heart rate up for at least 20 minutes.

OK, so lets say (for arguments sake) that you have a very low body fat percentage. Your abs are visible, flat, and toned. But now you want them to be bigger and stronger. Cue in the crunches! In order to do an effective crunch DO NOT try to do them as fast as you can. That is cheating the exercise. It is also important to note that you DO NOT need any equipment to give your abs a great workout. In fact, most products on the market DO NOT work.

How to do a correct crunch: First, lay down with your knees bent and push your lower back into the ground. You should be flexing those abs the entire time of the workout. Now, crunch slowly up, then hold for 1 count (exhale as you do this part). Then slowly go down as you inhale. Feel the burn? If you don't, remember to focus on flexing those ab muscles. For added resistance you can hold weight on your chest or do your crunches on a decline bench.

There are, of course, many variations of crunches. These are great for adding variety and isolating certain parts of your abs. Check our the Body-for-Life website for more ab workouts:
http://bodyforlife.com/exercise/flash/m16.html
http://bodyforlife.com/exercise/flash/m17.html
http://bodyforlife.com/exercise/flash/w17.html
http://bodyforlife.com/exercise/animations.asp

Grocery Shopping

This is where it all begins: you eat what you buy. So make sure to buy only what you should eat. Got it? Good.

First of all, make sure you go grocery shopping when you are NOT hungry. I'm sure you have all experienced this. I'm walking down the aisle and something catches my eye. Mmm, that sounds good. Next thing I know, the doughnuts are making their way into my cart. Just then I pass something else. Looks delicious. In my moment of weakness, I buy it. Avoid this by not being hungry when you shop.

Next, have a plan. Make a tentative plan of the meals you are going to eat for the week. This way you can plan for health. This will help you make a list of healthy foods you need for those meals and eliminates buying processed, fattening food or going out to eat last minute because there is nothing to make. Keep a pad of paper in your kitchen and write down food items you need for the next week as you think of them. Having a list of healthy food will prevent you from buying not-so-healthy things that you see.

You should also go grocery shopping often. I recommend setting aside one day a week for that task. I always go Monday afternoon. It is too hard to plan meals for an entire month, but a week is manageable. Also, going shopping once a week allows you to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.

To give you an idea of what type of food to buy, here are some staples on my grocery list:

• Whole wheat bread
• Whole wheat tortillas
• Low-fat yogurt
• Low-fat cottage cheese
• Skim milk
• eggs
• part-skim mozzarella cheese
• string cheese
• lunch meat
• Frozen skinless chicken breasts
• Frozen veggies

And here come the fruits and veggies.

• mushrooms
• tomatoes
• red onion
• bananas
  
• green bell pepper
• spinach
• carrots
• celery
  
• lettuce
• oranges

Hopefully this can give you an idea for your grocery list. Follow these tips for easier, healthier eating.

At Home Workouts

So what's the excuse this time? No gym membership? No time? No problem!

There are plenty of workouts that can be done at home. My favorite equipment is just a set of adjustable dumbbells that I bought at Sports Authority similar to these ones. With them I can work out all my major muscle groups (you might want ones with more weight if you are a very muscular person). For cardiovascular workouts I run outside, but you could walk or bike as well.

You can also use calisthenics. These are workouts that use your own body as resistance to strengthen your muscles and increase flexibility. Some examples of these are crunches, push ups, pull ups, lunges, and calf raises.

Bob Harper, trainer on the Biggest Loser, gives a few more examples of calisthenics that you can add to the list:



Can I just say that I LOVE The Biggest Loser.

What is a Calorie?

From the way people talk about calories, you would think that they are most horrid, awful, frightening thing out there. "I can't eat that...it has CALORIES!!" Scary, I know. But the truth is that a Calorie isn't a bad thing at all. You don't believe me, do you? Well, Let me explain:

What is a Calorie?
Scientifically, a calorie is just a unit of energy. One calorie is the amount of energy it takes to increase one gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. To make this confusing, a calorie (with a lower-case c) is different than a Calorie (with a capital c). One Calorie is equal to one-thousand calories. That means that one Calorie is the amount of energy it takes to increase 1,000 grams (one liter) of water by 1 degree Celsius...but what does that mean for you and your yogurt snack?

Filling up your tank
I'm sure you've heard the analogy that eating food is like filling your car with gas. It gives you energy to go. Food is composed of molecules (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats) and your body will break down these molecules during digestion. When it does, it releases energy. The amount of energy a certain foods will give you is measured with Calories. A person running a marathon is like a car going on a road trip. It needs more energy to accomplish its task. That means a full tank for the car and a calorie rich diet for the runner. A person who sits on the couch needs a lot less energy to perform his/her tasks for the day, sort of like the car that is just driving across the street.

How many calories do I need?
The nutrition label on food bases the Daily Value percentages on a 2,000 Calorie diet. This is just an average. Your actual caloric need is based on muscle mass and activity level. A person with more muscle burns more calories just breathing than a person with less muscle. Obviously, a person who is more active will use more calories as well. Use this calculator to determine how many calories you need.

Where do these calories go?
So what happens to all these Calories we consume? As an average, about 70% of energy you use is put toward basic bodily functions like breathing, heart beating, etc. So if you need 2,000 Calories, 1400 Calories are being burned by you just laying in bed all day. Another 20% of your energy use goes toward digestion. That would be 400 Calories based on a 2,000 Calorie need. That leaves only 10% of Calories that are being used to support our daily activity. That is a mere 200 Calories based on a 2,000 Calorie need. Just one of those yogurts I eat every day goes toward physical activity! The rest are burned without a second thought.

Of course these are just averages. If you are a very active person, a larger percentage of your energy is being used on daily activity. Conversely, if you live a very sedentary lifestyle (sitting on a couch) then your daily activity requires less energy.

Notice that these percentages are based on the amount of energy you USE not the amount of energy you CONSUME. So what happens when you consume more food energy than you are actually going to use? Well, it goes into energy storage. That is a nice way of saying: IT TURNS INTO FAT. That fat serves as emergency food storage for when food is less plentiful and it stays there until you don't consume enough calories to sustain your energy use.

Oops, I ate too many calories and now have energy storage. What do I do?
How do you get rid of that fat then? Well, you already know the answer to that one. DECREASE your Caloric intake and INCREASE your Caloric use. In other words, eat less and exercise more.

What type of foods have calories?
Well, any food that contains protein, fat, or carbohydrates do (practically everything!). One gram of carbohydrates contains 4 Calories. One gram of protein contains 4 Calories. But just one gram of fat contains 9 Calories. Moral of the story: limit your fat consumption.

In Conclusion
So Calories can be your foe or your friend. It depends on whether you need energy to sustain your activities like running or backpacking or if you already have tons of energy stored up (fat) that you would like to use. Everybody needs energy, just be careful only to consume the amount you need.