Your Heart…..Your Most Important Organ!

Heart disease is the #1 cause of death in America. Don’t you think you might want to know how you can reduce your chances of dying of heart disease???!!!

1. First one’s a no brainer……..stop smoking!

2. Reduce your blood cholesterol – cut down saturated fat, dairy products, and increase c0nsumption of vegetables.

3. Exercise – weight train, which builds lean body mass which lowers your blood pressure.

4. Reduce your salt intake.

5. Increase your calcium intake – calcium citrate supplement and fruits and vegetables.

6. Take one 81 mg. aspirin daily. (check with your doctor first)

7. Eat fish. Eating fish (salmon is great) and reduce your chance of heart disease from 40% to 50%!

8. Supplement with vitamins C, E and Enzyme CoQ10.

9. Make sure you eat 30 grams of fiber daily. It lowers blood pressure, cholesterol. and blood sugar.

10. Men, having two drinks a day (women; one drink) is more heart healthy than having none! It helps raise your good cholesterol, HDL.

Aerobic means “with oxygen.” Aerobic exercise is low to medium intensity repetition training done over an extended time; it promotes overall cardiovascular fitness. If you are looking to burn calories, aerobic activity is the best way to do it. One can look fit but be in poor cardiovascular shape.

Being lean and muscular is one part of fitness, but cardiovascular fitness is just as important. Cardiovascular disease is one of the top killers of American men. Studies have shown that cardiovascular fitness is perhaps a greater factor than body fat for those at risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. It was found that men who were lean and unfit had double the risk of dying than men who were lean and fit.

Besides being a great way to rapidly burn calories and help shed excess body fat, cardio work’s healthiest benefits are in reducing blood pressure, lowering the risk of heart disease, and improving lung function and lessening stress. Cardiovascular fitness should be part of everyone’s regimen.

Many people waste their efforts when performing aerobics. They get on the same machine or jog the same course all the time. Their body adapts to the constant routine, like the muscles adapt to the same weight training routine. At this point progress comes to a standstill. The body becomes energy efficient at the routine and expends less and less effort to perform it. You must “shock” your body aerobically, just like you must “shock” your muscles to stimulate further growth. You should get your cardio through as many sources as possible. A variety of activities is the key. The great part about aerobics is, there are many activities you can do to achieve cardiovascular fitness. You can bicycle, walk, run, swim, climb stairs, hike, dance, play basketball, tennis, racquetball, etc. The most effective cardio is when you physically have to move your body around with you—as in the above activities. Don’t exclusively use gym cardio machines for your aerobics. It’s a lot less boring, tedious and monotonous playing tennis, basketball or swimming than walking on a treadmill for 40 minutes.

If you want to do cardio work in the gym, there are stationary bikes, treadmills, stair climbers and elliptical cross trainers—and most gyms and health clubs have plenty of them. Most of these machines are low impact, and should be used with medium to moderate intensity. They all have various degrees of difficulty, so whether you are a beginner or advanced, each machine will serve your purpose. Some machines with their multi-function keypads, can be a bit intimidating. Any employee will be glad to show you how to use one. Don’t be embarrassed to ask an employee of your gym to show you how to use a machine. It’s their job.

Most cardio machines focus on your legs because this burns the most energy. Some new machines have arm movements also, which is better than just using the legs. I don’t recommend using the stationary bikes. You are sitting on your butt, not burning many calories at all. Why do so many people use them? Because they aren’t hard to do. These are people you see in the gym for months and months, whose bodies never change. You’ve got to put in physical effort to change your body. As a rule of thumb, the machines you don’t like (the ones that are the hardest to perform) are probably the ones you need to be using.

High-intensity aerobics are activities such as kickboxing, sprinting and high-energy aerobics classes. For most of you who just want to be in good aerobic shape, I recommend low impact aerobic activity.

High-impact aerobic activity could cause potential muscle and joint injuries if not done correctly. I do not recommend running on hard surfaces; it can lead to shin and knee injuries. If you get into very good cardiovascular shape, you might want to try some high impact aerobics. Attaining cardiovascular fitness should be done like everything else in fitness … in gradual steps. Start slow and build up. The body begins to burn a greater amount of fat than carbohydrates after 20 minutes of aerobic activity. Once you are in reasonable cardiovascular shape, your aerobic sessions should last from 20 to 40 minutes, for the best possible fat loss (and more importantly, heart health).

Once again, each one of you will have your own personal goals. If you are starting from scratch, or haven’t done cardio for a while, you should start with 15-minute sessions. After your body has adjusted and you have built up some endurance, you can lengthen your sessions. You might want to try five-minute increases per week.

A general recommendation from organizations such as the American Heart Association, the American College of Sports Medicine and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is from 90 to 120 minutes per week, in 3 to 4 half-hour sessions of moderate to high intensity, non-impact, aerobic exercise. This is an excellent guide.

I do not recommend going cardio crazy. Lean is healthy; skinny is not. If you are a larger individual who has attained some cardiovascular endurance, and are still trying to burn fat, you might want to do two to four hours of aerobics per week.

Let me give an example of why good health is a combination of diet, aerobic exercise and anaerobic exercise (resistance training). Have you ever seen long distance runners? Good long distance runners don’t do any kind of resistance training. They take one-fourth of the equation for optimum health out of the picture. This is why they are all frail and skinny looking. Whatever muscle mass they would have had has been eaten up by their overload of aerobic activity. They are in unbelievable cardiovascular shape (lungs and hearts), but their muscle has been cannibalized for energy. To endure their large amount of aerobic activity, their bodies shed both lean and adipose tissue. This is why you should do cardio in moderation. The right amount of cardio helps you lose that fat, but too much can strip away any lean muscle you may be trying to build. These three components have to be balanced to achieve maximum fitness.

Lots of people, including myslef, start running because they want to loose weight. Becuase running is probably one of the hardest cariovascular exercises you can do, for most people it is an very good way to burn calories and start shedding the weight.

You need to remember that healthy eating should be part of your weight loss program because you will only loose weight if you burn more calories than you consume. So, for example if you loose a pound in wieght then you have to burn around 3500 calories, which means you should think about running AND healthy eating to loose wieght efficiently.

If your running, like mine, turns into a more serious sport for you, then you could consider racing in 5K or 10K races, or even look into training for a half marathon or even full marathon distance, which is 26.2 miles. I’d recommend that you first start building up you weekly training program and see if you can run up to around 10 miles. Of course the longer distance you run, the slower your pace should be.

Anyway back to healthy eating! Runners sometimes start to eat more food and load up with too many calories, putting on weight even though they’re training! If you think you might be falling into this trap then have you ever though of keeping a food diary? The best thing you can do is look at how much you’re eating, when and where.

The other main point with running to loose weight is that you really need to run on a regular basis. By regular basis I mean every day if you can! If this isn’t possible, certainly to begin with you will need to ensure you rest adequately between training runs, then I suggest 3 times a week or more.

Finally, after your body becomes used to your training program and you’re finding that running 5 miles or so, 3 times a weeek is fairly comfortable for you, you need to start mixing up your training. A good way to do this is to introduce speed training to your routine – this sounds like more pain!? Speed training is essentially running very fast for short period of time, having a similar short resting period where you jog or walk, and the run very fast again for the same period of time. You should repeat this process so you are running fast for 4 or 5 times, resting inbetween each fast run. This is called interval training, and it will help you burn more calories, plue increase your slower, long distance running pace, over time.

Using calorie shifting and exercising individually can definitely help a person lose weight relatively fast. But how about when that same person uses both at the same time? The possibilities of weight loss become exponential. Let’s take a look at how to effectively combine these two weight loss methods in order to lose weight very fast.

Run, Run, Run!
While the thought of physical exercise can be overwhelming for some it’s undeniable effectiveness cannot be ignored. One of the best forms of physical exercise is running. Running is a sure fire way to get in shape and lose weight fast. But if you are really not in the position to start running due to being out of shape don’t fret just yet. Walking is a much more relaxed form of running but it can still supply a lot of benefit to the body. While you don’t have to necessarily run/walk every single day, it is very important to keep a consistent schedule. It is also very important that you progress in difficulty. Try to regularly best your previous distance or time ran/walked. These to tips will guarantee you to lose a lot of weight and fast.

Eat, Eat, Eat!

When it comes to the dieting aspect of losing weight there is only one reliable method. It is called calorie shifting. Calorie shifing is a diet plan that allows you to lose weight by eating. This is possible because fat is burned rather than stored after each meal. But, a very specific meal plan must be followed in order for this to take place. You will be able to eat 4 meals a day under the diet of calorie shifting. This is very important because you will need plenty of energy to keep a consistent exercise routine. Also, just by following the diet plan of calorie shifting you will be able to lose 9 lbs every 11 days! Talk about fast weight loss! Just imagine what you can achieve by successfully combining exercise with calorie shifting.

If you are serious about losing a lot of weight, and losing it fast then you need to take exercise and calorie shifting very seriously. By combining these two methods of weight loss you will be able lose weight very fast and do it in a healthy manner.

Low calorie diets make a whole lot of sense. I mean, you drastically cut down what you eat and you lose weight, right?

Wrong!

Being on a low calorie diet is setting yourself up for a fall. And why? Because you’re fighting biology and the way your metabolism works. Sure, you may see some impressive weight loss in the first few days or maybe weeks, but soon your weight loss will come to a grinding halt and you won’t even know why. Then you’re stuck eating so little that it’s depressing and you’re not even losing weight anymore.

Why do low calorie diets fail you in the long run?

The reason is very simple: When you start a low calorie diet, your metabolism is used to a higher amount of calories (what you used to eat before you went on a diet). When you start to cut down your calorie intake, your metabolism starts to gradually slow down and burn less and less calories. This is a biological process which is intended to keep our body alive for the longest time. You see, your metabolism thinks that you’re running out of food because you’re eating so little. It slows down so you can keep going for a long time on the calorie stores in your body. This is what kept our predecessors alive in the wild when they had little food.

This process causes your weight loss to slow down, because your metabolism slows down to the low level of calorie intake your new low calorie diet prescribes. Your metabolism burns less and less fat as time goes by and you stop losing weight. If you ever stop your low calorie diet, your metabolism is still running low and now you’re taking in a lot of calories so you gain all the weight that you’ve lost and even more. That is the nasty fall I’m talking about.

What can you do about it? Avoid low calorie diets and use diets which let you eat a reasonable amount of calories each day and keep your metabolism running high at all times.

You’ve seen those charts on compound interest. Was it Benjamin Franklin who called compound interest the eighth wonder of the world? I’m not sure. Some credit Einstein or others with the quote. Whoever crafted the phrase certainly had a valid point. Even a small amount of money at a fairly low interest rate, if left untouched for a long period of time, will grow into a substantial sum.

Have you ever thought of exercise calorie expenditure in the same way? Can small amounts of burned calories lead to significant weight loss? Let’s explore some of the possibilities. To simplify the calculations, we will round all numbers and not get too technical in the evaluations.

So let’s set 100 calories as the calorie expenditure for running 1 mile. That’s probably a very conservative estimate for a number of reasons. Factoring in weight, speed, terrain and other variables would most likely increase that number considerably. There’s also the likelihood of elevated metabolism following the exercise session contributing to even more calorie burning. So we are very safe using 100 calories per mile as our benchmark. Now, let’s assume that you are currently a sedentary or at least fairly inactive individual in terms of regular exercise. Let’s further assume that you start a running program, slowly and gradually I would hope, and you arrive at a 3 to 4 day a week schedule of 2 mile runs. Some weeks you run 4 days, other weeks only 3 days, but on average you run 7 miles a week. The math: 7 miles times 100 calories equals 700 calories/week. Here’s where we see the beauty of compounding. Extend the weekly total for 1 year and you have 700 calories times 52 weeks or 36,400 calories used. It looks like a pretty big number, but what does it mean?

The approximate number of calories needed to equal 1 pound is about 3500. Theoretically, eat 3500 calories and you will gain 1 pound; burn off 3500 and you will lose 1 pound. Here’s the math, then, using your yearly total: 36,400 divided by 3500 equals over 10 pounds. Everything else being equal, if you continue to eat as you currently are and devote about ½ hour to running 3 to 4 times a week, you can lose 10 pounds next year. As far as I know, there is no record of Ben Franklin running through the streets of Philadelphia. Maybe he had no need for weight loss?

People go for running, jogging or walking either for the purpose of exercising or for sports event. To ensure safe running and to prevent running injuries, plan the running program properly. The warm-up and stretching exercises are a must before you start running. Do the stretching exercise again after you finish running.

Always prefer to run in the early morning or evening. This is highly important in hot summers to avoid sun strokes. Avoid running at night. Do not run in traffic areas. Be conscious of your running environment in order to prevent injuries while you run. Try to run on clear, smooth, even, and almost soft surface. Avoid running on hills, which increases stress on the ankle and foot. When running on curved surfaces, change directions in forward movement, so that pressure on both feet is even.

Wear proper dress and footwear. Your dress material should provide insulation, absorb perspiration and moisture from skin and protect against wind and external moisture. While buying your running shoes, look for good shock absorption and construction that will provide stability and cushioning to the foot. Make sure that there is a minor gap between the end of the toe and the shoe. Replace your shoes when it loses the shock absorption capability.

Apply good sunscreen lotions or creams, wear sunglasses and hat with a visor if you are exposed to sun while running. During cold seasons, do not expose your skin. Wear gloves, full jackets and hat, and cover the neck. Petroleum jelly can be used on exposed areas, such as the nose.

Drink some fluid 10 to 15 minutes before running and every 20 to 30 minutes while you run. Dr. Lewis G. Maharam who is the world’s premier running physician, medical director of New York Road Runners, ING New York City Marathon, Elite Racing’s Musical Marathons and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team and Chairman of the Board of Governors, International Marathon Medical Directors Association, said in an article “I can safely say that there is no substitute for a sports drink when exercising for more than 30 minutes. If you drink it — using thirst as your guide — you will truly be healthier and perform better”.

If you have asthma, you may find difficulty in running or exercising. Changing your diet and exercise habits can help asthma patients to run. Try to lose extra pounds to make you run more effectively, even with your asthma. Eat fresh vegetables rich in magnesium, avoid food items which trigger asthma attacks, drink eight and ten glasses of water every day, and stop smoking and drinking alcohol. Practice breathing exercises that will allow you to maintain proper breaths even while running. Know your limits and stop running if you get a tightening feeling in the chest. Always have your asthma inhaler with you at all times, especially when running or exercising.

According to experts, walking or running barefoot develops muscle strength in the feet, legs, and hips. Also it stretches and strengthens your calf muscles, improves your walking or running style and equilibrium. Many runners routinely finish their practice with barefoot running in the grass. But, if you have some serious medical ailments like poor circulation, diabetic neuropathy, and open crack or wound never run or walk with barefoot. For safe running with barefoot apply sunscreen to the tops and bottoms of your feet and avoid running on or near hazardous areas.

Don’t wear a headset or jewelry while running. Carry a whistle or other noisemaker. This will help you in emergency situations. If you are running alone, carry identification card or paper containing information such as your name, phone number, blood group, and medical information. Let your family members know where you will be running and taking rest. Have some money with you to make a phone call in emergency situations. Seek the advice of doctor within 24 hours if you are injured.