Spring Body Tuneup time-Week 2
May 2nd, 2008 | by Jeniffer |
This will be my second weekly review of my Spring Body TuneUp, but first, I thought I would share some more general information. This week, let’s take a look at eating, which is one half of the weight gain or weight loss scenario.
Calories:
A calorie is a unit of energy produced by food. You need calories, burning them to carry out your daily tasks. Even just sitting there reading, you are burning a certain amount of calories.
Once you have burned off 3500 calories, you have burned off the equivalent of one pound. Of course, if you do this and take in 3500 calories, you will not lose any weight.
The thing is, upping the amount of calories you burn, while subtly lowering the calories you take in.
Types of calories matter. Certain sources of calories are worse than others, and I’ll be taking a brief look at those here.
Do you know where your calories come from?
There are two evil villians in the weight loss war, each easily metabolized, each producing empty calories.
First of all, there are the much-talked-about fat calories, weighing in at 9 calories per gram. Your body metabolizes fat calories very easily, using next-to zero calories to do so. Because of this, as small an amount of calories as possible should come from fats, and those you do consume should be from the so-called “good” fats, such as fish oil or olive oil.
Fish oil, in fact, is healthy for your heart and for your brain.
Alcohol is the second of the two most fattening forms of calories there is. It contains 7 calories per gram, and is metabolized by the body as easily as fat is. It also lowers your resistance to certain high calorie foods. Alcohol has absolutely no nutritional value. For these reasons and due to the fact that it often leads to binge eating and other regrets the day after, avoid alcohol while dieting.
A Bit About Nutrients
Cholesterol:
The very word prompts pictures of heart attacks, strokes, and heart disease, all of which it can contribute to if there is an excess of it in your blood. It is natural for the body to have a certain amount of cholesterol; our liver produces it. It is also found in egg yolks (remove them when cooking, or buy egg whites and skip the temptation), as well as in certain meats.
Fiber:
Fiber helps bulk up food, making you feel fuller faster. It is a dieter’s friend. However, if you are increasing your fiber intake, do so gradually so that your body has a chance to adjust to it. You may notice you are more gassy than usual when you are increasing your fiber intake. This is normal, and as you adjust to the new levels, it will tend to–dare I say it?–blow off.
Fiber also helps to control your blood sugar.
You find fiber in whole grains, which is what the bread and pastas you eat should be made of. It is also found in fruits such as apples, and in certain vegetables.
Sodium:
Sodium is a naturally occuring mineral.
We get plenty of it from a normal, healthy diet.
Calcium:
Calcium is found in large quantities in milk, and in milk products.
Coupled with weight bearing exercise such as walking, it can help prevent osteoporosis, which is a bone thinning disease. Thin bones are weak bones, and once you have osteoporosis,simply lifting or twisting may cause them to break.
Along with calcium and weight bearing exercise, you need to ensure you are getting enough vitamn D, which will help your body to absorb that calcium.
As well, limit your intake of caffiene and alcohol, which have been shown to interfere with calcium absorption.
You may wish to take a calcium supplement, and if you are 50 or better, a vitamin D supplement as well.
Water:
Water is what much of your body is made up of. It carries nutrients to your cells, is calorie free, and helps you to feel full, faster.
Drink 8 8-ounce cups of water each day for optimum health.
Types of Exercise:
Note: always, ALWAYS, get your doctor’s approval before you embark on any health-improvement regimen. This includes changes to your diet and/or exercise. You may have some underlying health concern which could actually make undertaking such a routine dangerous to you, or the regimen which works for one person, may not be the best for you. Share your plans for change with your doctor, discuss it in detail while she/he gives you your physical.
Now, about the exercise I have been doing…
Cardio:
Up until now, my primary aerobic/cardio exercise has been walking. This fits nicely into my life, because I can do it while pushing my son in a stroller, while my daughter is riding her bike beside us, etc. It is something which is easy to do, requires no equipment other than my shoes (and my son’s stroller!), and does not require a huge amount of inconvenience to anyone involved. It fits my life perfectly.
However, I do like to mix things up a bit, so this weekend I’ll be getting my bike and my son’s bike trailer ready, so that next week we can enjoy a couple bike rides if the weather remains cooperative.
As well, I have been known to dance around my house as I clean it. I figure, I’ve got to clean it anyway, so why not add music and more movement, so that not only the does the house benefit by being scrubbed, but my body benefits by zapping some calories as well?
Weight/Resistance Work:
I do not have a huge weight workout routine. Even the term “weight workout” may be misleading. Only for the bicep curls do I use any weights at all, other than the weight of my own body. Perhaps I should be referring to this as my resistance training routine, instead!
What I do:
I actually do vertical leaps, bounding like a bunny as high as I can for as many reps as I feel like doing (but I do have a minimum number, because some days I feel like doing exactly zero, and that is not enough!).
Then I do sideways leaps, placing some object on the floor and jumping sideways over it. Again, I have a minimum in mind, and I go from there.
(Note: do not push yourself if your doctor gives you the ok to do these and you want to try. Many people overdo the initial phase of a workout system, then burn out and quit, believing they have failed. You cannot go from doing next to nothing to doing thirty reps of each exercise in one day, then repeating it every day for a month. As well, your body needs days in between to recover. That is when it is building muscle tissue. The recovery days. I walk on my recovery days, but that is my personal choice.)
Then I do pushups, the bent-knee kind for now, but later, after I’ve developed more upper body strength, I’ll progress to “real” pushups.
Bicep curls, using just five pound weights.
Followed by crunches, then side crunches, to really work those abs (I’m thinking of adding ab work on the days I’m not doing this routine as well.)
Bench dips, which are great for the triceps.
Leg raises.
Lunges.
Walking lunges (these look wierd, but hey, no one can see me, and I can feel them work!).
Then I do some stretching, and I’m done. It doesn’t take very long, and it feels like it’s working.
Time to Review Week Two Of My Spring Body TuneUp!
Average Calories Per day: 1709
Total Calories of Junkfood for The Week: 2650 Average Per Day: 379
Aerobic Exercise (Days): Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Weight Workout (Days):Saturday, Monday, Wednesday
Steps Per Day (Average): 9982
Best Time Spent With Family: Last weekend, my husband and daughter went up north on Friday, while my son and I stayed home. We did this because he had a cold, and the weather had turned chilly, so I wanted to make sure he remained as healthy as he could to ward off that cold. We had a wonderful time together, he going with me on my walks (we have a beautiful lakeshore where I live, and that is where I like to go walking. There is also a nice playground there, so he didn’t mind the walks, either!).
My daughter and my husband had a great time up north, and my son and I had a great time staying home for a change.
Best Time Spent Alone: Again, working on my site is what I mainly do when I have some time to myself. I’m up a few hours before the kids are, and I’m back on the computer while my son is napping. Also, this past weekend, I managed to get in some reading, which I love (it was a Dean Koontz novel, The Good Guy, in case you are wondering.)
Biggest Goal Achieved this Week: I lost one pound, which doesn’t sound like much,, but it brings my total to four pounds down, which is fantastic.
Big Goal Set For Next Week: I’ve been invited to do a guest post on another site. I have to have it in by Wednesday. That is my big goal for next week.
Total $ Saved Towards Shameless Bribe For Weight Loss: $32.73
That’s it for my review of my Spring Body tuneUp for this week!
Have a helpful comment or suggestion? Got a story of an amazing makeover/physical change? why not share? Comments are always most welcome!
