Vitality Fitness  · Lifestyle Info Guide Click here for a Printable Version of the Lifestyle Info Guide >>> 1. Metabolism Your muscles are responsible for 90 percent of the calories you burn every day. The key to increasing your metabolism, burning more calories and fat throughout the day is to increase your lean muscle tissue. This is best accomplished by weight training for three or more times a week at varying intensity levels that challenge the body to constantly adapt, therefore adding more lean muscle tissue and making your metabolism more efficient. Eating the every three hours and doing aerobic exercise three or more times per week in addition to the weight training is the optimum combination for increasing your metabolism. 2. Fat Fat is more easily converted into body fat than proteins or carbohydrates. Fat is also a more caloric ally dense food than proteins or carbohydrates, yielding 9 calories per gram as opposed to 4 calories per gram for the latter. That means a little fat in your diet goes a long way. Only 15-20% of your total daily intake of calories should come from fat. Saturated fats are the worst fats, and that list includes fatty red meats, butter, lard, margarine, shortening, palm and coconut oil. Good fats, also called essential fatty acids, which your body does need in small amounts include: extra virgin olive oil, sesame oil, canola oil, safflower oil, flax seed oil, and almonds. Two teaspoons a day is all you need of these fats. These oils can be mixed with vinegar to make salad dressing. 3. Water Toxin, waste removal, tissue growth, fat loss, and high energy levels, all depend on the quantity of your water intake. Your size and activity level can affect the amount of water you need, so here are some guide lines: drink 55% of your bodyweight in ounces of water each day as your base. For every 15 minutes in the sun and/or involvement in a strenuous activity, consume 8 ounces of water. When you are properly hydrated, your urine should almost be clear. If it’s yellow, you’re drinking too many sugar drinks. Choose purified or distilled water over tap for health purposes. Most tap water is heavily polluted. I suggest you get a gallon jug and fill it with 2 inches of water and freeze it overnight. Fill it up the rest of the way in the morning and you will have ice-cold water all day. There are two advantages to this. First, by drinking from the same container all day, it’s easier to keep track of how much you drink during the day. Second, for every 64 oz of ice-cold water you drink, your body burns 200 more calories which will add up to several pounds of extra fat loss by the end of 90 days. 4. Blood Sugar It’s important to combine certain foods to ensure stable blood sugar levels throughout the day. This is of paramount importance if your goal is to loose fat and have stable energy levels on a daily basis. When you consume something that raises your blood sugar too quickly, insulin is released to remove excess sugar and return your blood sugar levels to normal. If it’s not needed immediately for energy, the removed sugar has a high probability of being converted and stored as fat, then you’ll be left with low blood sugar. This will leave you feeling weak, restless, irritable, and craving something that will bring your blood sugar back up quickly. Junk food will be your choice because your brain remembers the sugar highs you’ve gotten in the past and knows that those foods will get your blood sugar back up again, fast. Unfortunately, this sets your body up for another cycle of fat gain and cravings. Many people go through this cycle several times a day!!! If all that’s not bad enough, another hormone galled Glucagon that’s needed to burn fat is inhibited from being released every time your body is producing insulin. Yikes!!!! Check your labels carefully and be on the look out for foods containing more than 20% of their total carbohydrate calories from these simple sugars: sugar, brown sugar, sucrose, dextrose, lactose, fructose, maltose, corn syrup, honey, and molasses. All processed foods made from white flour fall under this category, as well as all juice drinks and many fruits. If you do choose to eat a high sugar food, eat it with a protein, which will slow down its rate of absorption into the body. Also, try to avoid artificial sweeteners. “Sweet N’ Low” turns into formaldehyde in your body!!!! Can you say EMBALMED!!!!!!!! 5. Reading Labels Serving Size: is the first thing you should look at when reading a label, ALWAYS!!!!! People tend to look at the fat grams first and then assume that the amount listed is for the whole container…… Wrong! Everything you’re about to read on the label is what’s in one serving. After determining the serving size, you’re going to go right down the list. Calories: Women should try to stay around 300 or so per meal, with men coming in around 500 calories per meal. Keep in mind that these numbers should be used as general guidelines only. Your caloric needs can vary greatly depending on facts ranging from current activity level to the health of your system and your body’s ability to assimilate food efficiently. Fat grams: A low-fat food should only get 20% of its calories from fat. Since 1 gram of fat has almost 10 calories, that calculates out to about 2 grams of fat every 100 calories. Example: if a serving of cereal has 300 calories, then it should have no more than 6 grams of fat for it to be considered “low-fat”. 300 calories x2 grams = 6 grams of fat. Sodium: An adult only needs about 2600 milligrams a day for proper health. Five hundred milligrams per meal would be ideal (based on eating 5 times per day). If you consume more than that in one meal, as long as you’re eating clean and not consuming a lot of processed foods, you shouldn’t worry about it too much. Carbohydrates: Look under the word “carbohydrate” for the word(s) sugar, sugar alcohol, and “other” carbohydrates. These are the “simple” sugar carbs that are bad for you. Add up the number of “bad carbs” and make sure it’s 20% or less than the total number of carbohydrates in that serving Protein: Most active people will fare well to get .75 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. Example: a 140 pound woman would need 106 grams of protein a day. 140x.075 = 105 grams. If she’s eating her 5 meals a day, that would break down to 21 grams of protein per meal. For people looking to really put on the muscle, they should shoot for 1 gram per pound of bodyweight per day. Ingredients: Be on the look out for bad sugars such as dextrose, sucrose, corn syrup, and hydrogenated oils….. they cause cancer. Stay away from foods with lots of artificial ingredients instead, look for foods containing healthy fats. 6. Fat Fighting Tips Do aerobics in the morning Twenty minutes of aerobic exercise before breakfast is more effective at burning fat than an hour of aerobic exercise performed later in the day after you’ve eaten several meals. After not having eaten during the night as you’re sleeping, you awaken in the morning with low blood sugar levels and low carbohydrate reserves. Exercising before you eat causes your body to dip directly into your fat stores for the energy required to get you through your workout. If you have a higher amount of fat to get rid of, start with 20 minutes, three times per week and gradually work your way up to 45 minutes of cardio, 5-6 days a week. As you become more fit, increase the intensity of the cardio to keep your body progressing. Eat five to six times a day If you want to make your body a fat burning machine, you’ve got to eat 5-6 times a day. Think of your metabolism as a small fire. Feed it small doses of kindling (small meals) frequently and watch the fire get bigger and bigger. On the other hand, dump 1 or 2 big logs (big meals) on the fire several hours apart and you’ll be lucky if you don’t put the fire out all together. Eating several small meals a day will keep your blood sugar levels stable, your energy level high, make you less likely to binge at night, and will supply your body with a steady supply of nutrients throughout the day. One of the ways to make it easier to consume 5-6 meals a day is to consume three whole-food meals with 3 snacks, or three protein shakes and focus on eating every three hours. Don’t starve yourself Reducing your caloric intake to an amount less than eight times your bodyweight may cause your metabolism to institute severe energy measures that will make you grumpy, lackadaisical, and reduce the rate at which your body burns calories. It will also cause your body to cannibalize its own muscle tissue. Eating small meals throughout the day tells your body that everything is O-Kay, and your body will be much more likely to burn fat than muscle when you do your cardio. Combining foods properly Eating protein and carbs together at the same time will keep your blood sugar levels from rising too fast. That’s important when it comes to losing body fat. Here are some examples: A healthy breakfast might include a six-egg omelet, and a small bowl of oatmeal with applesauce. Lunch and dinner might be a serving of fish or chicken and a small baked potato or brown rice and some fresh veggies. By eating this way you’ll supply your body with more consistent energy levels and a constant supply of amino acids glucose which helps support muscle tissue. Eat the meals in the combinations listed below. The key is in the combination of eating proteins and carbs together. Do not split your meals up. · Breakfast should consist of a protein, starch, and a fruit. · Mid-morning snack should consist of a protein and a fruit. (Option – shake) · Lunch should consist of a protein, a starch and a veggie. · Mid-afternoon snack should consist of a protein and a veggie. (Option – shake) · Supper should consist of a protein and a veggie. Food Choice List This list contains the ideal foods for you to choose from for each category. PROTEINS STARCHY CARBS VEGGIE CARBS Chicken breast Baked potato Broccoli Turkey breast Sweet potato Asparagus Lean Ground Turkey Brown Rice Dark Lettuce (Romaine, etc) Egg Whites Oatmeal (not instant) Carrots Low-fat cottage cheese Beans Cauliflower Albacore tuna (in water) Yams Green beans Salmon Wild Rice Green peppers Haddock Squash Mushrooms Top Round steak Pumpkin Spinach Extra lean ground beef Barley Tomato Swordfish Corn Peas Orange Roughy Whole-grain bread Brussels sprouts Crab Whole-grain cereal Artichoke Lobster Whole-grain pasta Cabbage Shrimp Celery Soy-low fat Cucumber | Zucchini 7. Portion Size Per meal for women: proteins- 4oz starch – 1/2 veggies – 1 cup Per meal for men: proteins – 7oz starch – 1 – 1 ½ cup veggies – 1 - 1 ½ cups The portion sizes listed above represent a starting point from which to begin. You will also learn to use actual hunger levels, energy levels, state of health, protein needs, and the speed at which your body composition is changing as guiding factors for your diet as well. However, the first rule of thumb to remember is this: You eat a meal - you have three hours of energy before you eat again. This process should be repeated four to six times a day. As far as the portion sizes of your meals are concerned, you should begin this program by following the guidelines shown above. However, there are a couple of other considerations to keep in mind as well. If you find yourself excessively hungry (physically hungry, not “emotionally”) before its time to eat, that means you didn’t eat enough at your last meal, so increase the portion sizes of your next meal conversely, if you’re still feeling stuffed when it’s time to eat again, that means you ate too much at your last meal, so decrease the portion sizes of your next meal. You just want to eat enough food to get you from meal to meal every three hours. · Count “portions” not calories Keep track of your portion sizes by eyeballing them. A portion of food is roughly equal to the size of the palm of your hand. A portion of food typically contains 100-150 calories. For example: one chicken breast is approximately one portion of protein and one medium-sized baked potato is approximately one portion of a carbohydrate. 8. Fat You probably noticed that I don’t have any fat listed with the protein and carbs. This is because you will be taking in small amounts of fat every time you eat a lean animal protein, and that will take care of the majority of your fat intake. However, you still need a small amount of additional healthy fats in your diet, and the best choices are: almonds, extra-virgin olive oil, canola oil, and flax seed oil. The oils can be mixed with vinegar and used as a salad dressing. Remember, you NEED a small amount of healthy fat each day, even whey trying to lose body fat. Trying to exclude fat from your diet completely will actually slow down your fat loss because it will throw you body out of whack nutritionally. If using oil for your daily fat intake, two teaspoons a day is fine. If you choose to eat nuts, 10 or less is plenty. · Watch the fat content Besides being more fattening than its protein and carbohydrate friends, (fat has 9 calories in a gram, protein and carbs have just 4 calories per gram). A gram of fat is more easily converted to fat than either protein or carbs. If you eat 100 calories of carbohydrates, your body will have to expend 23 calories just to digest it. The energy “cost” of protein is even higher. One hundred calories of fat will require your body to expend only 3 calories to process and deposit it, probably on your hips, tummy, or rear end. Switch to more protein and less fat, you’ll ingest fewer calories and be taking in food that’s more difficult to be stored as fat. 9. Fat Loss and Muscle Gain By increasing your lean muscle tissue you also speed up your metabolism, thus burning more body fat. To maximize this process, it is very important that you have more protein going into your body than you have coming out. This is called “maintaining a positive nitrogen balance”, and to accomplish this, you need to take in 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. To help get you on track with this process I recommend that you track your progress with a protein guidebook to determine the exact amount of protein that you will need at each meal. Obviously, weighing and measuring your food for the first couple of weeks will help you tremendously with this process as well. · Build more muscle Building more muscle will serve three purposes. One: muscle is what gives us shape, tone, and makes us look good. Two: more muscle means more strength, good to have when it comes to getting the lid off an aspirin bottle. Three: the more muscle you have on your body, the more calories your body burns. This is because muscle is metabolically “active” tissue, burning calories 24/7. Fat, on the other hand, is metabolically inert. It’s simply stored, like your old KISS albums in the closet. Also, don’t think that after lifting weights for a few weeks, you’re going to wake up one morning and be muscle-bound, it doesn’t work that way. Building rally big muscles requires superior genetics, and several years of hard training. Normal people like you and I will just feel better about ourselves and the way we look and feel. · Keep your protein intake high Protein should be the cornerstone of every meal you eat. It helps to prevent muscle loss when you’re trying to lose weight. Keep your protein intake at about one gram per pound of bodyweight. For example, if you weigh 150 lbs. you would take in 150 grams of protein per day. · Workout consistently People often ask, “Do I have to keep working out once I’ve achieved my goals”? My reply usually is “will your teeth stay clean if you quit brushing them”? In other words, quit focusing on exercise as this horrible thing you have to go through to look and feel good and learn to make it a part of your daily routine. Learn to enjoy the journey, so to speak. Research shows that your metabolism is revved up for as long as nine hours after a workout. An intense one hour workout will result in up to 600 calories burned and an additional 120 calories burned over the course of the day as a result of having worked hard. Working out daily is the “physical equivalent to compound interest”. · Cut back on starchy and simple carbs at night Carbohydrates are your body’s favorite source of energy. When you consume an excess of carb calories at night and then sit around watching TV and eventually go to bed, your body has to decide what to do with all these additional calories. You’ve taken in all of this energy, but you’re not asking your body to perform any activities so your body stores this extra energy in your gut and butt for future use. · Don’t eat before you do cardio If you eat before you do your cardio, your body will use those calories for fuel, because they’re immediately accessible. In that scenario, your body will have no reason to release fat from your fat stores to use as fuel. This is one of the reasons that I recommend you do cardio first thing in the morning. Your carbohydrate levels are at their lowest in the morning, and doing your cardio at that time will ensure a higher amount of weight loss. · Free meal and snack Allowing your self a free meal and a free snack once a week is very beneficial physically and emotionally. It’s important that you exercise a few guidelines on your free meal so you don’t blow a whole week’s worth of hard work, so observe these three rules. 1. Offset the damage whenever possible. Ex. Eat healthy foods along with the not-so-good-ones. Having pizza? Eat a large green leafy salad with balsamic vinegar, fresh lemon and pepper on it. For every bite of pizza, you eat a bite of salad. You’ll end up eating way less pizza than you would otherwise, but you’ll still feel satisfied. 2. Keep your portion sizes small and eat slowly. This way you still get the taste of the food without overeating. 3. Continue to do healthy things, such as your cardio and drinking your water. By continuing to stay somewhat on your program, you’re still maintaining a certain amount of control. · Cold water Water helps you to eliminate waste products, which in turn keeps you healthy. Drinking a lot of water helps to remove toxins and keep your system running more smoothly. Ample water intake also helps to remove excess salt and keep you from looking bloated. Here’s a cool little trick: drinking 64oz of water a day (ICE-COLD), will make your body burn an additional 200 calories per day. That’s because your body has to expend more calories to maintain its core temperature due to the ice cold water. · Set goals with a deadline There is an old saying that goes “A goal without a deadline is a wish”. There’s a lot of power in putting a date and a time limit on when you’re going to reach your goals. It forces you to stay more focused and to utilize more of your personal resources than you would otherwise. Give the deadline even more power by telling everybody when it is, this makes you more accountable.