Tips and Challenge

During my last training session, I spoke to my trainer and asked him for a tip for my readers. Paul's first tip is, when you are exercising, try to keep the time between exercises really short. The less rest time, the longer your heart rate stays up and the more fat you can burn. His second tip was to practice Push Aways. Paul said they are a great exercise for people trying to lose weight. Now I hadn't heard of these before, so was very interested to hear the details. So I had his explain exactly how to do one. So here's how a Push Away is done. First, while seated at the table, place your hands on the end of the table in front of you and push back so your chair and you push away from the table. Now for the important part, this is to be done while eating a meal, and before you have finished. Just when you've had enough to feel satisfied. The idea being, if you can push yourself away from the unfished meal, you'll eat less. :) We got a good laugh out of it being an "exercise," he said it as a joke, but I told him I was going to put it in anyway.

Now, those of you who have been following me for a while (or have read some of the old posts), may remember the Fabulous Fatties challenge that I was a part of. Well, they're at it again. The Fabulous Fatties Challenge #3 is in full swing. I just found out about it yesterday, barely in time to join up to participate. But even though it's too late to participate in this one, I'd recommend popping into their site anyway. They are full of life and very inspirational, plus they are sure to have another challenge soon, so you can get a feel for how they work. Stop in and say "Hi", tell them a_healthier_me sent you. :)

So far I have 5 points for yesterday (cut me some slack, I didn't find out until late in the day).
Set a goal of what you want to achieve during this challenge. *2 entries
Exercise 30 minutes a day or more *2 entries
Eat a healthy breakfast *1 entry per day

Today will be a higher point score. :)

Healthy and Happy Living

Potato Chips

My trainer gave me a fabulous tip yesterday. We were chatting a little between sets, as I cought my breath in preperation for my ball squats (that's where you put a big stability ball behind your back, lean against the wall, and do squats, great thigh workout). I mentioned that I was sitting on a ball at work now, and would find myself bouncing on it constantly. He said, "If a chip a day equals a pound a year, then that has to do something."

What? Did he just say what I think he said? A chip a day, one single, solitary, lonely little potato chip per day, equals one pound! Can it really be that simple? Lets see, so twice a week, I've been getting a particular coffee drink from a famous coffee chain. My drink has 380 calories. So if I cut just 10 of those out per year, there's a pound. Well, what if I stop drinking them all together? That's 11 pounds in a year, just by stopping my twice a week coffee habit and replacing that caffeine with a no cal drink (and yes, my no cal morning drink is full of caffeine, and yes it's soda!)

Gee, if that little change can make such a big difference in a year, what else can I change. Well, my afternoon walks (which I admit I haven't done as often as I should in the past couple weeks, I blame it on the heat, but that's a poor excuse), I burn more than 400 extra calories that I would sitting on my butt for that 45 minutes to an hour. So, lets say I go for an afternoon walk 5 days a week, every week for one year. That's 30 pounds lost in the year!

I knew I loved math for a reason. Seeing these numbers add up is driving home a point for me. If I cut one little thing out a day that I may have otherwise eaten, or replace it with something with slightly fewer calories, I can make a huge difference.

I'd love to hear about other ideas for making small changes for big results. Do you have any tips to share?

Healthy and Happy Living

To BMI or Not To BMI

My money is on Not to BMI. While for a certain body type person this may end up being an accurate calculation of obesity level, for the vast majority of people it is most definately not. I have believed for a very long time that a much more accurate measure is Body Fat %. The main problem with BMI as I see it is the logic behind the math is fundamentally flawed. The formula is based purely on weight and height, but what about those muscle builders? Since muscle is heavier than fat, if a person is in athletic or really fit shape, their weight will be higher thus their BMI higher, putting many of these people in the overweight or even obese category. What? Seriously? You're going to try and convince me that, for example, Mr. Olympia 2008 Dexter Jackson is Obese? At 233 lbs and 5' 6" his BMI is 37.6 putting him high into the Obese range. The case is similar with all the Mr. Olympia's.

Now, how are we, the average overweight person trying to get healthy, supposed to use this measurement to get us healthy? If we do too much muscle building, it bumps our weight higher so that even if we get down to the size we want to be, we'd still be overweight by BMI standards. So, maybe we don't build so much muscle, but that's what burns the calories so that we can lose the body fat. And what if we let our muscle mass shrink? Well, do you think the scrawny person who can't lift a gallon of milk is better off than someone who has so much muscle mass it boosts their BMI into Overweight or Obese? I sure don't. There has to be a happy middle in which we can build the muscle we need or desire, reach our size goal, and are still considered healthy. There is! It's called Body Compositon. This is a method for determining how much by percentage, of your body is Lean Mass (muscle, bone, organs), and how much is Body Fat. That is a much more accurate determination of overall health and risk levels.

Why don't we do this? Quite simply, BMI is fast, easy and cheap. Body Composition is not. I firmly believe this is holding us back, and I vow from this moment on not to look at, calculate or even consider BMI as a determinig factor in my healthy living efforts. While I may not be able to go through the fancy body composition testing, just usung a scale that measures body fat, or having a trainer at your gym measure with a scale or some calipers, is way more accurate. I'll stick with that.

Article: Top 10 Reasons Why The BMI is Bogus

Remember, weight loss and healthy living is a personal journey. No one can tell you how to make that journey or what path to take or not take. I suggest listening to what people have to say, soak in the advice and the articles, then make your own decisions. Come to conclusions that are right for you. You know your body better than anyone else!

Healthy and Happy Living