Exercise Basics: Beyond Weight Loss 

How Exercise Benefits Your Body

One of the most important aspects of motivating yourself to get moving is to understand how exercise benefits your body and your life. Aside from the benefit of burning calories to help you lose weight, exercise can make a vast difference in the condition of your body and your organs, which can make the requirements of everyday life easier and less likely to cause fatigue or pain.

First, consider how regular exercise can benefit heart health. Just getting regular, moderate exercise can reduce your risk of developing heart disease, plus, exercise makes the heart itself stronger, and more efficient. Here's how:

Your heart pumps blood through your vascular system (veins and arteries). Your lungs extract oxygen from air and send it to your blood where it is distributed throughout your entire body. The stronger your heart is, the more easily it pumps more blood throughout your entire body. If your heart is weak, it has to work harder to provide you with fresh blood and oxygen.

To improve the strength of your heart, you need to do aerobic exercise. Since aerobic exercise makes you breathe more heavily than you normally do, it trains your heart to pump blood more efficiently throughout your entire body. You breathe more heavily during aerobic exercise because your body is moving faster than usual and therefore, using oxygen more rapidly, and in greater amounts. The oxygen is then delivered more deeply in the body.

Any activity is considered aerobic if it has the following characteristics: You are required to move your limbs at the same time, you use your larger muscle groups, such as those in your legs, and you perform the activity for at least 20 continuous minutes. Aerobic activity must also be performed at an intensity level that causes your heart and lungs to work harder than usual and is typically rhythmic and/or repetitive. So, for example, splashing in a pool is not an aerobic activity, but swimming in a multiple-lap race is.

Other ways that your body is improved with exercise include:

Muscle strength (how much weight your muscle can lift) and muscle endurance (how long a muscle can work) are directly related to your activity level. Strength training (or, as it is also known, resistance training) is ideal for significantly increasing muscle strength. It can improve many aspects of your life. Consider something as simple as going to the supermarket: Carrying groceries into your apartment is an example of muscle strength and endurance. When you lift a few heavy bags into your backseat, you are using muscle strength. When you are able to pick up the remaining, less heavy bags and make trips to carry them from your car to your apartment, that's endurance.

Bone health can also be improved with strength training since muscles are attached to bones. Stronger bones can pay off now and in the future -- you are less likely to get injured when your bones are strong and increasing bone strength can help prevent osteoporosis as you age. Good bone health also leads to deeper breathing and improved posture. According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, some of the best exercises for bone health include lifting weights, walking, hiking, jogging, climbing stairs, and tennis.

Flexibility is the ability to move joints effectively and can be improved with stretching exercises. While stretching does not increase your endurance or strength, it is an important part of reducing injury risk and soreness that results from activity. If your flexibility is limited, you will find movement more difficult. Exercises that improve your flexibility feature moves that stretch your muscles, tendons, and ligaments such as yoga or Tai Chi. 

Remember, you should talk to your doctor before beginning exercise if you are over 40 or have any health problems.

Weekly Goal Time

Happy Monday! Time to rewrite those goals!!!

I got up at my typical 4am wake up time, and felt back in the game after a little bit of P90X! I stuck to my points for Weight Watchers, and overall had a great day! I'm back!!!

Here are my new goals for 2011:
1. Achieve 4-star diamond rank
2. Loose 25 pounds, tone, and build muscle
3. Bring my Beachbody salary up to $1,000/week
4. Start teaching a fitness class two days per week
5. Build a team of leaders
6. Success Club 5 for ten months
7. Eat healthy and keep counting Weight Watchers points
8. Pay off all credit card debt
9. Start saving in Jake's college fund
10. "fire" my boss

Nutrion Newsletter - low carb pizza

This week's Nutrition Newsletter - Low Carb Pizza!

Pizza -- it's one of the most popular foods, at least in the U.S. Can we have our pizza and our waistlines too? How about healthy levels of blood glucose? Well, think about it. Most pizza toppings aren't high in carbohydrates. So what we need to do is to find different vehicles for those toppings. Here are some ideas, and several recipes, for low carb pizza. Before we turn to the crust, though, let's learn a bit about toppings.

The Sauce
Most pizza sauce has sugar in it. Yep, you heard right -- just look at the label. Furthermore, most (but not all) red pasta sauce has sugar as well. I find that sugar-free pasta sauce works very well for pizza, and most grocery stores have one or two brands that work. Look for sauce with no ingredients masquerading as sugar in it - usually these sauces have about 6 to 7 grams of effective carbohydrate per ¼ cup serving.

The Cheese
Whole milk mozzarella cheese has about 2.5 grams of carbohydrate per cup, and partial skim has slightly more. Most other mild cheeses have similar carb counts. Parmesan cheese has about a gram of carbohydrate per ounce (about 5 tablespoons of grated cheese).

Other Pizza Toppings
Most meats only have scant amounts of carbs, although some sausages have some added carb. Most vegetables typically used on pizza are low in carbs, including mushrooms (1.5 grams per cup, sliced), green peppers (2 grams per ½ cup, chopped), olives (1 gram per 4 large olives), or other low-carb vegetables.

Non-Crust Alternatives
If you don't want to take the time to make your own pizza crust, try these ideas for having that combination of flavors we all know and love:
1. Just Eat the Toppings
I call this the "when all else fails" technique. It's the most flexible, although messy, way to go. When your friends or family are ordering pizza, just don't eat the crust (and get a salad on the side).
2. Low-Carb Tortillas
The only trouble with this method is that you can't spread much on the tortilla, or it will tear. But you can smear a little sauce, cheese, and toppings, and then heat in the oven or microwave. As an alternative, try a "pizza burrito" by wrapping pizza sauce and toppings in the tortilla.
3. Portobello Mushrooms
Scrape the gills out of a large Portobello mushroom and bake or grill it to get some of the moisture out. Fill with toppings, then broil or bake.
4. Pizza Burgers
Make a thin hamburger, then cover with pizza toppings and cook in the microwave for a couple of minutes.
5. Pizza Omelet or Frittata
Make an omelet, mixing in your favorite pizza toppings, and use the sauce as a condiment.

Here is an amazing low-carb pizza crust:

I know this egg-based crust is going to sound strange, but I urge you to trust me and try this. I've tried a whole lot of low-carb pizza crusts over the years, and this is really the best one. No, it isn't like regular, but it's really good. I got the recipe on which this is based from the Protein Power Forum, and have altered it somewhat.


Based on some of the comments, I'm now realizing that some people are expecting a crisp crust, or a thin crust. This crust is neither crisp nor thin. However, you can make it thinner by using fewer eggs and less cream cheese.
Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 6 oz cream cheese (3/4 package) at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1½ teaspoon oregano or other Italian seasoning
• ½ teaspoon salt
• pinches of black and/or cayenne pepper
• 1 cup (or a little more) shredded Italian cheeses, at least half of which is a hard cheese (Parmesan, Assagio)

Preparation:
Heat the oven to 350° F.
1) Be sure the cream cheese is at about room temperature. Using a regular blender, food processor, or (my preferred) stick blender, mix the egg and cream cheese until well blended. Add the salt and spices and blend again.
2) Spread cheese in bottom of well-buttered 9X13 pan. I often use an Italian blend such as Trader Joe's Quattro Formaggio. Pour egg mixture over the cheese, and bake for 22-25 minutes, or until the top is browning.
3) Remove from oven, add pizza toppings, and bake until done - about another 10-15 minutes.
Makes 8 servings.

Nutritional Information: Each serving has 1.5 grams effective carbohydrate plus 11 grams protein, and 179 calories.

Honestly...how do you stay motivated?

Today I'm going to talk about motivation. I'm typically really motivated to get things accomplished, but these past few days I've had a serious lack of motivation. I've been working the Game Plan for my Beachbody business, but I haven't been seeing as good of results as I was hoping for. Also, being out of town really messed with my workout routine. I brought along workout clothes to do cardio but only did it one out of three days. My eating was also a mess. I only had Shakeology once, and ate out for every meal. My biggest question to myself is...how do I get myself back on track? Well, here is the action steps I've thought through for this week in three areas, business, fitness, and diet:

1. I'm going to continue telling myself that you don't see success overnight. I continuously tell my coaches that a home business takes time to build. Sometimes there are lulls in the business, so you just gotta start something new. I'm going to continue trying new ways tobmake contacts, and make exposures to people that I've never tried...school, doctors, chiropractors, dietitians, nutritionists, and people that don't already use Beachbody products. I'm going to be patient, follow the Game Plan, and work hard on my own personal development.

2. I'm going to start back up with P90X Monday morning. I missed four workouts this week...Plyometrics, Kenpo X, Yoga X, and Legs and Back. Next week is my recovery week, so I'm going ti stick these four workouts into my Recovery Week to catch up. Whenever I want to get off track on my workouts I'm going to think about all the hard work I've put in already, and talk to my accountability partners.

3. I'm also getting back on track with my diet on Monday. I'm going to go back to counting points for Weight Watchers, have my Shakeology every morning, cut out caffeine, and limiting my sugar intake.

I WILL be a 4-Star Diamond Beachbody Coach, loose 20 pounds, live a healthy lifestyle, help others become healthy, and obtain muscle tone all in 2011! I am motivated, and ready to "end the trend" of obesity!!!

Low Carb Diet Mistakes

No big surprise - we all make mistakes. From the newest newbie, to the person who has been low carbing for years, we all encounter bumps in the road, or our experiments don't turn out well. Here are 10 of the most common mistakes in low carb eating.

1) Getting Off on the Wrong Foot
You don't have to take a college class to understand low carb eating. But if you think it means you should just eat meat all day (or other low carb myths) or if you don't know where the carbs are lurking, you're setting yourself up for a fall. You do need to have some basic knowledge about how cutting carbohydrates works, what foods have carbohydrates, and how to eat a balanced low carb diet.

2) Giving Up Too Quickly
There are lots of approaches to low carb eating, and there are often missteps at first, as you try to find one that works for you, or to modify an existing one. There is a tendency to over-react a bit when everything doesn't go perfectly, and give up. A prime example of this is eating too little carbohydrate at first, suffering carb crash, and deciding low carb isn't for you. This is a shame, when a simple adjustment can usually get you through the first week comfortably, to the great rewards at the end of it.

3) Not Enough Vegetables
Time and time again, people tell me they don't feel good eating low carb, and it turns out they are eating almost no vegetables or fruit. This will not work in the long run. My low carb pyramid has vegetables at the base - in other words, you should be eating more of them than any other food! Fruit, too, especially fruit low in sugar, has its place in a complete low carb diet.

4) Not Enough Fiber
Eating enough vegetables and fruit go a long way towards insuring you are getting enough fiber in your diet. There are other low carb sources of fiber as well, and it's good to learn about them.

5) Eating Too Much
It's true that you don't have to count calories on a low carb diet. But that doesn't mean calories don't count! The great thing about low carb eating is that our appetites "turn down," allowing us to eat fewer calories without getting hungry. Some people make the mistake, though, of thinking they can just keep eating and eating and still lose weight as long as the food is low carb. Let your appetite be your guide - eat when you are hungry, and stop when you are comfortable.

6) Lack of Planning
When you are first on a new way of eating, you'll run into old habits that need to be changed to new healthier ones. No longer can you mindlessly hit the vending machine or drive-thru. This is a good thing: Pausing to re-consider our habits is a constructive step towards making improvements in our lives. But in the case of eating, it's important to plan ahead for awhile, until our new habits come naturally. Nothing will sabotage your goals more quickly than realizing that you're hungry but you don't know what to eat.

7) Getting into a Rut
There are people who eat the same things day after day, and like it that way. But frankly, most of us like variety, and will get bored very quickly if that is not built into the way we eat. There is no reason for not eating a wide variety of foods, and in fact, a varied diet is likely to be better for us nutritionally. Every cuisine on the planet has low carb options - you just need to skip the starch and sugar. Also, most dishes can be "de-carbed." If you want to figure out a way to have your favorite flavors, ask in our Forum - we love to talk about what we're eating.

8) Problem Ingredients in "Low Carb" Packaged Foods
Be wary of meal replacement bars, ice cream, and other "treats" labeled low carb or sugar-free. They often contain ingredients such as maltitol (the worst offender) which are just as bad as sugar in a lot of bodies. In general, products that talk about their "net carbs" or "impact carbs" deserve close scrutiny of the ingredients, and careful experimentation.

9) Carb Creep
You're eating low carb. You're feeling great, and the weight dropping off as if by magic. You're not hungry between meals! You have energy! You can concentrate better! Wheee! You think you'll have a piece of toast! It doesn't matter! You still feel great! You think you'll have some ice cream! Hey! You're still losing weight! A little sugar in the coffee can't hurt, can it? Maybe not, but...uh oh. Something has sent you over your own personal limit. Suddenly, you're having carb cravings, you're gaining weight, and you're in a vicious circle that's hard to break of eating carbs, being hungrier, eating more carbs...ugh.
Sometimes it happens more subtly, but it's common to let more and more carbs creep in, sometimes unawares. If that happens, it's time to take stock and probably start over, at least for a few days, to break that cycle.

10) No Exercise
There is a temptation to leave exercise out when talking about low carb diets, because often people can be successful at first while staying sedentary. However, there are several reasons for talking about exercise in any diet discussion (Atkins called it "non-negotiable"). One is that exercise lowers insulin resistance - this is probably partly why exercise alone will tend to help many people lose a few pounds. The second is that exercise is good for our bodies in so many ways. And the third is that while we can lose weight by diet alone, at least to some extent, we are very unlikely to be able to maintain a significant weight loss without exercise.