These are the three things that everyone should do: eat more often, exercise regularly, resistance training. It’s that simple if you do these three things your body will have no choice but to improve in physical condition. This isn’t a new concept I know you’ve heard it all before. Still everyday at One to 1 we continue to explain these things. Eating more often tends to be the most difficult one for people to accept.
If you are exercising regularly or eating healthy, or clean as we term it, but you are not eating at least five times a day you and the hamster running on the wheel have a few things in common. Each time we eat we kick the digestive machine into high gear, that machine is power hungry it demands energy to do its job and let me tell you digestion is not like an economy car. Digestion requires an incredible amount of energy to do its job; it is the single most effective calorie burning tool in your arsenal for getting in shape. If you want to be fit, eat all the time. I’m serious about this the more often you can eat or if you can teach yourself to continually graze the hungrier you will become, the warmer you will become and depending on what you eat the fitter you will become. Now just because I told you to eat non-stop please don’t be that person that makes the drive-thru line up extend onto the street, there’s too much of that already. Choose clean whole foods, carry vegetables with you everywhere. Throw a can of tuna or a few egg whites in an afternoon salad. Trim the fat from your red meat in the evening or try consuming fish or buffalo instead. Just make sure you eat that minimum of five times a day to really experience the easiest calorie burning workout known to man.
Regular cardio is an insurance policy for weight loss, the weather has been take advantage of it. Running, biking, walking, if you haven’t been out there doing those things, today is a great day to start. Combined with extra meals your metabolism is going to love you for adding regular cardio exercise. 20 minutes of sustained activity at an elevated heart rate increase metabolism for hours, more calories burning just by sitting around after. You just can’t go wrong it’s like being a savvy market investor learning to compound your rate of return with the least amount of effort. With cardio just remember you want to try to keep your heart rate elevated to at least 60% of your max for 20 minutes or more, I highly encourage workouts at higher than 60% if you are up to the task for the multitude of heart health benefits. (Max heartrate = 220-age, please consult your physician first before implementing a high heart rate workout.)
Start resistance training, it can be fun, it doesn’t have to be the boring square repetitive training that most people do, and there is plenty that can even be done in your own home with very little equipment. The bottom line is take the steps to work the muscles and get stronger. Deteriorating bone density is a problem that is on the rise, as a trainer I’m hearing it from my clients more and more. Resistance training has an anti-aging effect by keeping tissues and structures healthy. As you gain strength, experience and confidence hard resistance training is also another key in your metabolic arsenal. Anaerobic training promotes muscle fiber development. Stronger muscle fibers mean more mitochondria the cellular energy producing units. More mitochondria mean additional energy production and calorie burning, ultimately this means a fitter leaner individual.
It’s not rocket science, it’s a smart investment, an investment in your own health. It’s habits that should be a part of all our lives. Start by adjusting one component at a time it won’t take long for you to see the changes that occur.
