Category: Weight Loss Exercise

Sleep, rest and relaxation are a very important part of your daily ritual. I know that in the past I have gotten reved up with many projects and before long something has to be let go and it is usually the sleep that I need for a while.

Don’t do it!

As your sleep and rest start dropping you lose focus and can be lured into bad habits, sugar, coffee, and bad food.

The worst thing about a lack of rest is that your body will not have a chance to heal from your earlier workouts, this can be very bad as you not only will feel sore longer but it will also suck your optimism for your new lifestyle.

How Much Sleep to Get

How much rest is enough? You probably already know this. I myself do not wake up with an alarm clock or clock radio anymore. I am fortunate to have a flexible start time and know that I will not sleep in past 8:00 in the morning.

 

Try going to be earlier in the evening for a few nights and see when you wake up. In the fall and winter I always tape the TV shows that I watch so that I can get a chance to watch them when it is convenient to me not when it is convenient for the TV networks.

Another thing that pro bodybuilders do is have a nap in the afternoon, a nap can be great in cleansing your mind and letting you learn to relax better but you will probably find as I do that it is almost impossible to do except maybe on the weekends.

You can probably see from the tone of this information that I am delivering here that you must stop treating sleep and rest as something that takes away from something. Instead learn to treat it as your own personal time, something a little more sacred than just something unavoidable that has to be done.

The Effects of Sleep

According to leading sleep researchers, there are techniques to combat common sleep problems:

• Keep a regular sleep/wake schedule
• Don’t drink or eat caffeine four to six hours before bed and minimize daytime use
• Don’t smoke, especially near bedtime or if you awake in the night
• Avoid alcohol and heavy meals before sleep
• Get regular exercise
• Minimize noise, light and excessive hot and cold temperatures where you sleep
• Develop a regular bed time and go to bed at the same time each night
• Try and wake up without an alarm clock
• Attempt to go to bed earlier every night for certain period; this will ensure that you’re getting enough sleep

According to sleep researchers, a night’s sleep is divided into five continually shifting stages, defined by types of brain waves that reflect either lighter or deeper sleep. Toward morning, there is an increase in rapid eye movement, or REM sleep, when the muscles are relaxed and dreaming occurs, and recent memories may be consolidated in the brain.

No Hitting the Snooze Button

The experts say that hitting a snooze alarm over and over again to wake up is not the best way to feel rested. ‘The restorative value of rest is diminished, especially when the increments are short,’ said psychologist Edward Stepanski, PhD who has studied sleep fragmentation at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

This on and off again effect of dozing and waking causes shifts in the brain-wave patterns. Sleep-deprived snooze-button addicts are likely to shorten their quota of REM sleep, impairing their mental functioning during the day. (New York Times, October 12, 2004)

Certain therapies, like cognitive behavioral therapy teach people how to recognize and change patterns of thought and behavior to solve their problems. Recently this type of therapy has been shown to be very effective in getting people to fall asleep and conquer insomnia.

I have been asked before how to gain fast. Most people that are lifting weights at one time or another, usually in the winter, try to bulk up and gain a lot of muscle for the summer, of course there is the diet down afterwards but we can deal with that later.

How to gain fast is a question that many people that are dieting to lose weight think is insane but I know from personal experience that many people would like to gain but do not really know how. I have a former lifting partner who had a really hard time gaining muscle no matter what he tried.

Here are some tips on how to gain fast that I think would help almost anyone.

How to Gain Weight Fast – Eat Lots Of Food

This is probably a gimmie. If you want to gain fast then you have to expect that if your are going to try to learn how to gain that you will need to eat a lot of food to do this but there is a style to the idea that you can not forget.

What you want to do is eat at least six and hopefully up to eight times a day.

The meals should be an average size because as you can remember last Christmas it would be hard to eat a turkey dinner and then two hours later eat another dinner.

Most training magazines have a good idea of what you need to eat but mostly you will want to eat 30 grams of so of protein, 60 grams of carbs and another 30 grams of fats.

How to Gain Weight Fast

Most people try to make a couple of meals based on a can of tuna because it is nice and easy to prepare. This brings up a major problem in eating a lot, and that is preparing the food.

You should try to make up large meals that you can break up into freezer packs to eat over the next few days. You can also premake a lot of rice and of course, it is quick to microwave a baked potato.

When you are trying to bulk up you would likely not want to eat very much candy or junk food as it gets in the way of trying to take in very high quality nutrients.

How to Gain Weight Fast – Get Lots Of Rest

Rest is very important for your body to recover from workouts. In learning how to gain weight you are going to find that you will need to get lots of rest during the day and then at least 8-10 hours of sleep at night to try and rest and recover your body from the very tough workouts that you are doing.

One of the best reasons to get a lot of sleep is for hormone levels. In a test that studied 11 males that deprived them of sleep, during the height of their sleep debt, subjects took 40 percent longer than normal to regulate their blood-sugar levels following an injection of glucose.

The subjects ability to secrete insulin decreased by about 30 percent. A similar decrease in acute insulin response is an early marker of diabetes.

How to Gain Weight Fast – Cut Back The Cardio Workouts

Cardio is a great way to raise your metabolism. Doing lots of cardio is great for weight loss but we are looking at how to gain weight fast and cardio workouts are terrible when you are trying to keep a low metabolism.

Another problem with cardio workouts is that they will use up the valuable energy that you need for your workouts.

In saying this I worry that people will just get chubby by not getting any cardio and I think this would be bad in the long term but for a month or two skipping or radically cutting back on your cardio is not going to hurt and as we will see in the next section you will still be getting some intense exercise.

How to Gain Weight Fast – Do Lots Of Compound Exercises

Compound exercises are the types of exercises that use more than a single muscle group.

Compound exercises are really the key in how to gain fast.  Do not waste your time in curls and leg extensions instead of pulldowns, squats, and bench.

• Bench Press – Works Pecs, Deltoids, and Triceps
• Pulldowns – Works Lats and Biceps
• Squats – Works your quads, calves, lower back, and abs
• Deadlifts – Works entire back, hamstrings, Quads

There is a synergy to working multiple muscles and then ending your workouts after this. One bad habit some people have is that they will do a lot of exercises and really drain their bodies and then have no energy left to heal, the classic overtraining.

Compound exercises are exercises will help you gain weight fast, stuff like bench presses, lat pulls downs, squats, deadlifts, and military presses. When doing these exercises you want to stress as many of those muscle fibers as possible so make sure that you do your sets and reps very deliberately, slow and very controlled.

How to Gain Weight Fast – Lift Heavy Weights and Variable Reps to build muscle quickly

Decreasing reps is very important in your quest to gain fast. Most people try to do 8-12 reps per exercise for four sets.

Try instead to do 4-8 reps instead and try to get in an additional set. This means that you will still be doing less reps overall but you will hopefully do more weight overall.

Lets say this is your current and reps for bench press are four sets of 10-12. Try doing four sets of 4-8 reps with long breaks in between and slow reps, maybe 50% longer reps.

Count when doing your reps and have it take three seconds down and three seconds up for each of these heavy reps.

Remember as well that your body will get used to these low rep sets so it is important to change it up occasionally and do higher reps and other styles of forced reps

How to Gain Weight Fast – Think Big

Now that you know all of the physical keys in how to gain weight fast you can look at the mental side in how to gain weight.

One of the best things that you can do in your quest to get bigger is to think about your size and your workouts and visualize. If you know that you can take your bench press from 185 to 245 pounds this month then you can do it.

In saying this I don’t just mean that you have to idly think about improving your bench press but instead you make a plan and really push and at all times visualize yourself doing this and in fact you will be able to in a month if you have put everything together.

There are lots of great examples of people making extraordinary changes to their strength and fitness in a very short period of time just by doing everything right and not getting caught up in the standards of what people think is possible.

Do all of the above to gain fast

So there you have it. If you want that quick gain then over the next month do all of these things right and you should have no problem being up 10 pounds. Watch your weight though as you do not want to know how to gain weight fast, too fast to the point that your body starts to put on too much fat.

We all see all of the colors of the vegetables when we go to the grocery store, but do you know what vitamins, minerals and other nutrients are in the vegetables that we eat base on the color of the vegetable?

CDC in the US has been promoting people to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

As you probably know there are many ways to make yourself healthier and eating fruits and vegetables in higher quantities will definitely make a difference of how you look and feel.

Eat plenty of different fruits and vegetables. Diets rich in fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases.

Fruits and vegetables provide essential vitamins and minerals, fiber, and other substances that are important for good health. Most fruits and vegetables are naturally low in fat and calories and are filling.

5 A Day for Better Health is a national program and partnership that seeks to increase the number of daily servings of fruits and vegetables Americans eat to five or more.

The 5 A Day program provides easy ways to add more fruits and vegetables into your daily eating patterns.

Fruit And Vegetable Resources

Fruit and Vegetable of the Month
Each month a fruit and vegetable are featured with nutritional information, tips on how to prepare them and great tasting recipes.

Color Your Way to 5 A Day
TheThere are thousands of health promoting phytochemicals found in plants.

Research is just beginning to understand how they work to improve health, so it’s important to eat a wide variety of colorful orange/yellow, red, green, white, and blue/purple vegetables and fruit every day.

By eating vegetables and fruit from each color group, you will benefit from the unique array of phytochemicals, as well as essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber that each color group has to offer alone and in combination.

Here is a list of all of the colors and the nutrients that those colors provide.

More Color More Health

Growing up you may have been told to eat your greens, but what about your reds, oranges, yellows and blues?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the 5 A Day Partnership encourages YOU to “Sample the Spectrum” of the colorful vegetables and fruit available this season.

By putting something of every color on your plate or in your lunch bag, you are more likely to eat the 5 to 9 recommended servings of vegetables and fruit every day. Just think:

• 1 cup of dark, leafy GREENS
• ½ cup of RED tomatoes
• ½ cup of YELLOW peppers
• 6 oz. ORANGE juice
• ½ cup of BLUEberries.

And you have 5 A Day! It’s quite simple when you Sample the Spectrum.

The more reds, oranges, greens, yellows, and blues you see on the plate, the more health promoting properties you are also getting from your vegetable and fruit choices.

Nutrition research shows that colorful vegetables and fruit contain essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytochemicals that your body needs to promote health and help you feel great. Here are the specifics…

Reds Vegetables

When you add deep reds or bright pinks to your daily diet, you are also adding a powerful antioxidant called lycopene.

Lycopene is found in tomatoes, red and pink grapefruit, watermelon, papaya and guava.

Diets rich in lycopene are being studied for their ability to fight heart disease and some cancers.

Greens Vegetables

Do you know why this color is so essential to your diet? Not only do green vegetables look great and taste wonderful, but they are rich in the phytochemicals that keep you healthy.

For example, the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin that are found in spinach, collards, kale and broccoli have antioxidant properties and are being studied for their ability to protect your eyes by keeping your retina strong.

Also, research is being done on cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, and turnips to see if they may reduce the risk of cancerous tumors! Greens are also loaded with essential vitamins (folate), minerals, and fiber.

Orange and Yellow Vegetables

Orange, the color of a blazing sun, is a must have in your daily diet. Orange vegetables and fruits like sweet potatoes, mangos, carrots, and apricots, contain beta-carotene.

This carotenoid is a natural antioxidant that is being studied for its role in enhancing the immune system. In addition to being touted as a powerful health-protector, the orange group is rich in Vitamin C.

Folate, most often found in leafy greens, is also found in orange fruits and vegetables, and is a B vitamin that may help prevent some birth defects and reduce your risk of heart disease. With a chemical make-up this good, make the orange group always a part of your 5 to 9 a day.

Bright yellows have many of the same perks as the orange groups: high in essential vitamins and carotenoids.

Pineapple, for example, is rich with Vitamin C, manganese, and the natural enzyme, bromelain. Additionally, corn and pears are high in fiber.

Yellow fruits and vegetables belong to many different families, but they all share the common bond of being health enhancing with great taste. Go for the gold!

Blue and Purples Vegetables

Blues and purples not only add beautiful shades of tranquility and richness to your plate, they add health-enhancing flavonoids, phytochemicals, and antioxidants.

Anthocyanins, a phytochemical, are pigments responsible for the blue color in vegetables and fruits, and are being studied for their role in the body’s defense of harmful carcinogens.

Blue and purple produce have many different nutrients including, lutein, zeaxanthin, resveratrol, Vitamin C, fiber, flavonoids, ellagic acid, and quercetin. Many of these nutrients are also found in red fruits and vegetables as well.

Try these blue and purple vegetables: Eggplant, Cabbage, Endive, Asparagus, Carrots

Blueberries, in particular, are rich in Vitamin C and folic acid and high in fiber and potassium.

White Vegetables

Vegetables from the onion family, which include garlic, chives, scallions, leeks, and any variety of onion, contain the phytochemical allicin. Research is being conducted on

Allicin to learn how it may help lower cholesterol and blood pressure and increase the body’s ability to fight infections.

Indoles and sulfaforaphanes, phytochemicals in cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower, for how they may inhibit cancer growth.

Polyphenols, another important phytochemical in pears and green grapes for how they may reduce the risk of certain cancers.

Savor the Spectrum of Color All Year Long

There is color in every season. When it comes to your health, you’ll fare best with a multi-colored diet.

Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant, which means that, among nutrients, it has a greater-than-average ability to “quench” free radicals that cause damage to cells.

Excessive free radical damage has been implicated in the development of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and many cancers, as well as accelerated aging

Although phytonutrients aren’t essential for keeping you alive, unlike the vitamins and minerals that plant foods contain. But when you eat or drink phytonutrients, they may help prevent disease and keep your body working properly.

More than 25,000 phytonutrients are found in plant foods.

Flavonoids are important antioxidants, and promote several health effects. Aside from antioxidant activity, these molecules provide the following beneficial effects:

• Anti-viral
• Anti-cancer
• Anti-inflammatory
• Anti-allergic

One flavonoid called quercetin can help to alleviate eczema, sinusitis, asthma, and hay fever. Some studies have shown that flavonoid intake is inversely related to heart disease, with these molecules inhibiting the oxidation of low-density lipoproteins and therefore reducing the risk of atherosclerosis developing.

By putting something of every color on your plate or in your lunch bag, you are more likely to eat the recommended 5 to 9 servings of vegetables and fruits every day.

Think color: 1 cup of dark, leafy salad GREENS with WHITE onions sprinkled on top, ½ cup of RED tomatoes, ½ cup of YELLOW pineapple chunks, 6 oz. ORANGE juice and ½ cup of BLUEberries. Delicious and healthy!

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