Do you already know what to do to get your body fit?
Do you already know what to eat to loose weight and feel good?
Did you already read 11 articles in your local paper about right eating, exercising and how to achieve great health?
Did you already read 2 books about how to loose weight?
Did you go to a few seminars, to learn how to do it?
If you did all of that already, you surely already know at least 80% of what to do.
But, you continue taking more seminars, reading more books and talking to more trainers, thinking, that more knowledge will help you overcome fear of actually doing what’s in the books.
If you do, you are a seminar junkie.
All the fit people I know are working their asses off in the gyms and running tracks, while you are reading that other book about how to loose weight sitting comfortably in your living room.
My advice for you?
You don’t really need my advice. Just close that book, turn off that computer, cancel that seminar and get out and do some real physical exercise.
Once upon a time, doctors relied upon the body mass index (BMI) to determine who was at risk for heart disease and other dangerous health conditions like diabetes and stroke.
These days, that’s old-school.
There is a method out there, that’s more accurate and much easy to calculate.
It’s called the waist-to-hip-ratio.
You simply measure your waist and divide it by the measurement of your hips.
If the number you get is higher than 0.8 in women or o.9 in men, you are in a health dangerous zone.
The higher the waist-to-hip ratio, the higher your risk of heart attack and other dangerous health conditions like diabetes and stroke.
If you are over the cutoff point but think like many overweight people that you eat right and you are active, think again.
If your waist is almost as big as your hips or bigger, you don’t eat right. Maybe you are active a little, but what you eat is bad stuff.
The interesting thing is that, even if you don’t exercise at all and you eat right stuff you would not be overweight and your waist-to-hip-ratio would be low.
To take this a little further; if your waist to hip ratio is higher than safe number, I recommend you to don’t exercise at all, keep that comfort zone, but eat 100% right and watch your weight go down.
If you exercise, great, but the nutrition is the key to keeping your weight down.
Exercise is critical for your heart, brain and health. But too many people are avoiding it.
There are still people out there that will tell you, that exercise is actually waist of energy. So instead of wasting it, they store it and then they get very sick, because they stored too much of it. If you are one of these people, start working very hard on changing these assumptions.
I will say it again: Exercise is critical to your health.
Here are most often-heard reasons why people avoid exercising:
“It hurts.”
“It’s boring.”
“It’s not fun.”
“It makes me feel tired the rest of the day.”
“I don’t know what to do.”
“It’s embarrassing.”
“I don’t have time.”
I kind of understand these reasons. But it is unacceptable to not exercise because of these little things. Either you figure out the way to move your body on regular basis or you don’t. And if you don’t, you will suffer. As sure as gravity.
Although walking your dog is moving your body, and while it’s good for your dog, it doesn’t provide enough meaningful exercise for you. Walking your dog doesn’t count.
You have to make a conscious choice and effort to exercise. If you don’t, you are launching yourself down a path fraught with tremendous medical risks and disabilities, (so easy avoidable with intensive and regular exercise) affecting not only your life but also your family’s.
Exercise:
Decreases blood pressure.
Decreases stress.
Helps you sleep better.
Boosts energy.
Helps you get stronger.
Improves mood.
Decreases cholesterol.
Increases self-esteem.
Makes you feel happier.
Helps regulate blood sugar and decreases risks of complications if you have diabetes.
I’m still meeting people, that are asking me: Is it really that important for me to be in a better shape? What they are really saying is: We don’t want to do that. We don’t want to do all that hard work that is involved in the process of being fitter. Why should we do that?
This is why:
For better health
For better thinking
For avoiding surgery
For being better to your kids
For being better to your spouse
For better creativity
To be more relaxed
To be beautiful
For better sex
To make better decisions
To have nice legs
For more energy
To be more positive
To enjoy life more
To live longer
To earn more money
To be smarter
To drive better
To cook better
To prevent injury
To not get sick easily
To be in a good mood often
To smile more
This list actually never ends
So why than should you try to get in better shape than you are now? The answer is pretty obvious:
Being in a better physical shape improves every single aspect of your life.
The health and strength of our bones are tied closely to physical activity. When a bone is stressed, it becomes stronger. It is natures way of reinforcing your bones.
To build strong bones and keep them dense, you need to load and stress them with regular exercise.
1. Maintain a healthy body weight, (don’t be overweight)
2. Adopt physically active lifestyle
3. Be physically active for at least 30 min. each day
4. Consume a healthy, plant-based diet
5. Consume 5 or more servings of variety of vegetables and fruits every day
6. Choose whole grains over refined grains
7. Don’t eat processed meats
8. Limit consumption of red meats (beef, pork, lamb), or don’t eat them at all
9. Limit intake of alcoholic beverages especially if you are woman
10. Don’t drink sugary drinks
11. Limit consumption of energy-dense foods, particularly those that are highly processed, high in added sugars, low in fiber, or high in fat (candy bars, candy, dressings)
12. Eat variety of legumes such as beans, peas, garbanzo beans
13. Limit consumption of salty foods and foods processed with salt
