Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts
Dad, Your Example Made a Difference (Happy Father's Day, Dad!)
In this USA Today article, "Obesity is contagious among friends, study suggests," the point is made very clearly. Being surrounded by obese friends makes it more likely that you will be obese. Which causes which? It probably goes both ways. But it stands to reason that your example counts. And it did with my dad.
When I hit puberty, along with all the other strange things happening to my body, fitness and how I looked started to become more important. Especially how I looked to girls. I began to notice that my dad exercised. He had one of those workout things, with three steel springs that you'd stretch out across the chest. I commandeered that one.Later on, I saw that he'd go for a run every day after getting home from the office.
So I started to pick up on that. And his example stuck with me and makes a difference in my life all these years later.
So dads, you aren't only doing it for yourselves, but for your boys and girls as well. That's very motivating.
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Don't Go On a Diet: Instead, Learn to Substitute
Millions of us have tried going on diets. They are a huge waste of time and a virtual guarantee of discouragement and defeatism. Instead of going on a short-term diet, learn how to substitute. This is what makes for permanent success in the health and fitness arena.
Here's a quote from an article I read recently about Bret Baier, a well-known anchor on Fox news:
Substituting is simple: You make a list of the stuff that's bad, and another list of the stuff that's good. Then you replace the bad with the good. Every chance you get. Whether you're cooking at home or eating out. What's bad? Simple carbs. What's good? Protein, good (polyunsaturated) fats and complex carbs.
You can't each as much as you want, unless you want just enough to maintain a healthy weight. I'm not that lucky. I don't get to eat as much as I want because, for whatever reason, I want more than I need. So I have to restrict my calorie intake, but eating as much as I need is not that difficult, and the benefits keep me motivated.
An added benefit, though, of substituting good foods for bad ones, is that your appetite is far more controllable. Bad carbs, as we know, cause sugar spikes and are somewhat addictive. The more you eat them the more you want/need them. Replace them with complex carbs and you'll see your cravings diminish to a level that you can control.
So try substitutions rather than going on short-term diets. You'll see that I'm right!
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Here's a quote from an article I read recently about Bret Baier, a well-known anchor on Fox news:
"after a while, you become accustomed to what is in your beneficial list and you make that your choice."That's what substitution is all about. Not starving yourself or sweating bullets trying to stick to some weird set of restrictions (like, you can have as much as you want, as long as it's only the skins of grapes! As much as you want!).
Substituting is simple: You make a list of the stuff that's bad, and another list of the stuff that's good. Then you replace the bad with the good. Every chance you get. Whether you're cooking at home or eating out. What's bad? Simple carbs. What's good? Protein, good (polyunsaturated) fats and complex carbs.
You can't each as much as you want, unless you want just enough to maintain a healthy weight. I'm not that lucky. I don't get to eat as much as I want because, for whatever reason, I want more than I need. So I have to restrict my calorie intake, but eating as much as I need is not that difficult, and the benefits keep me motivated.
An added benefit, though, of substituting good foods for bad ones, is that your appetite is far more controllable. Bad carbs, as we know, cause sugar spikes and are somewhat addictive. The more you eat them the more you want/need them. Replace them with complex carbs and you'll see your cravings diminish to a level that you can control.
So try substitutions rather than going on short-term diets. You'll see that I'm right!
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There's no free lunch when it comes to fitness
You can't get chiseled abdominals by using that gadget for only 10 minutes a day. Maybe 2 hours a day would do it in a year, but then you'd probably get a hernia.
These models got to look the way they look only by lots and lots of exercise, and some pretty serious portion control along with it. Believe it. And you can look like that too, assuming you're also 25 and willing to devote yourself to fitness and healthy eating.
When we see people who look good - I mean trim, strong, energetic - it's easy to assume they're just lucky that way. Don't believe that. They don't look that way by luck and great genes. They look that way because they're careful about what and how much they eat, and because they stick to a good exercise regimen.
The cool thing about all this - the fact that it's not about luck or good genes - is that you can do it too.
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