Weight Loss Diet Solutions

My family does not own a scale so I only get to weigh myself when I either go to my parent’s house or when I go to the receiving office at my work.

The last time that I weighed myself was back in the middle of December and I was still sitting at 200 pounds, my lowest in a few years.

Yesterday I had a chance to weigh myself using another quality scale at my work and found that my had ballooned over the Spring to 206 pounds.

 My Recent Weight Gain

This recent gain may not seem like a big deal but as I have mentioned earlier on this blog I had it easy over the summer riding my bike to and from work and now I am at a little bit of a loss with driving instead so I am going to have to start riding the exercise bike and getting back to the lifting that I gave back a little while ago.

So now I have to make some changes. Many of you probably know my wife is very health conscious in the kitchen and I follow the ideals closely but not the diet.

I have made a list of the changes I am instituting now for the winter so that I can lose that holiday but more importantly I can gain some muscle and bring back my metabolism. Here are the changes:

1. I am going to reread Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle. As I have said in my review this is a great book and it always reminds me of what I am doing wrong.

2. Get back to increasing my water intake. In the winter there is much less water in the air and air conditioning becomes much more a way of life. Also I know how much better I feel when I am drinking lots of water throughout the day and not just in the morning.

3. Weight lifting in the morning. I like the Body for life system of working out in the morning doing half my body one day then cardio on the second day, the other half of my body and on the third and the fourth day cardio and then repeat. The system calls for six days of exercise in a row and then the seventh day off.

So there is a little overlap week to week to mix things up. I can do weights in the morning but will have to do the cardio at night on cardio days as my bike and elliptical trainer share a room with our bed and my wife probably does not want to get up when I do just to watch me workout, then again maybe she does?

4. Start eating six times a day again. At the moment I am eating a bagel with natural peanut butter in the morning and would like to replace this again with my all bran and milk for breakfast to start with. I will post soon about what would be a good six meals but right now I am probably only getting in about four.

5. Cut out refined foods. To me refined foods include things like bread and crackers and other empty calorie type foods. Since I will be pushing my muscles harder I will need all the nutrients I can get and don’t really need any empty carbs.

6. Cut out sugar and pop. These are my two real weaknesses. I have not gone a day without pop and chocolate in at least a few years and not only are these another empty carbs but also these two ‘foods’ are a killer for keeping my blood sugar at an even keel throughout the day which I have had a little trouble with.

7. Stretching twice a day. I always feel better when I am stretching and it always helps to heal sore muscles when doing a lot of hard and heavy lifting. My stretching really only takes about ten minutes a time so it is pretty easy to put this back into my schedule

8. Get my energy and attitude up. When I have a strong, positive attitude I just exude energy and this, although never really proven, I feel really raises my metabolism. When my metabolic rate is higher I burn more calories at rest, have more powerful exercise sessions and have better concentration and mental abilities. This is always a good thing

9. Increase my intake of protein and drop my carbs. This means that I will be getting more of my carbs from fruits and vegetables and replacing my starches with more protein instead.

I could never do an Atkins type diet as I feel there is a real danger to your body to really drop your carbs to zero, but it is also important to get enough protein to recover from hard cardio and lifting workouts. My extra protein of choice? Canned tuna rinsed to get rid of some of the sodium. I am a big fan of canned tuna especially when I mix it with diced cheese and pickles.

10. Sleep in more. In the fall I was sleeping quite well but now again I have fallen back into my bad habit of just getting six or seven hours of sleep a night. I know I personally need eight and that is what I will try to average again.

None of these changes are earth shattering at all but as we all know it is the consistency of the changes in the right direction that makes you healthier.

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Mens Health has a great article on the nutrients and eating skills necessary to lose fat. I usually hate the slant of these articles because I thing the target them at 18 year old kids getting ready to go to the bar but thats just my attitude.

The article is great and I am going to paraphrase the points here as I think there is some knowledge I can add and the article was a little wordy.

9 Tips How To Eat To Lose Fat

1. To lose weight, you must cut calories
The low-fat/low-carbohydrate debate comes down to this: You still have to eat fewer calories than you burn if you want to lose weight. Every study I looked at shows this. The perfect weight-loss diet is the one you can live with, whether you cut fat, carbs, or some combination.

2. Take Whey protein
A daily shake made with two scoops of whey protein, fruit (fresh or frozen berries or a banana), and water or crushed ice will decrease hunger. You can buy whey protein at any grocery store nowadays, this is the best option for protein enhancement in your diet.

3. Meat kills fat
Protein takes the most calories to assimilate and digest, followed by carbohydrates, followed by fat. Animal proteins increase thermogenesis more than vegetable proteins, so the best calorie-burning foods are lean meats. Build your dinner around lean chicken, beef, or pork. That way, you’re burning the most calories through digestion at the end of the day, when your metabolism is slower. This is one of the big reasons that I think people are too concerned about their fat intake but at the same time do not eat enough protein.

4. Take Branched Chain Aminos
Try to get at least 10 grams of Branched Chain Aminos a day. Since they’re most abundant in meat and dairy products, you can get the better part of that by following rules 2 and 3. (Two scoops of whey protein and 3 ounces of beef contains 10 g of Branched Chain Aminos.) You can also buy Branched Chain Amino supplements (which, you should be aware, are expensive).

Look for supplements that are 50 percent leucine, 25 percent isoleucine, and 25 percent valine. I personally do not like these as it is the single most expensive way to get your protein.

5. Beware of fried foods
Highly refined carbohydrates, such as fructose-sweetened beverages and low-fiber breads, are a terrible idea. These products raise your blood sugar very quickly and then they burn off very quickly and you end up feeling tired and hungry much sooner than you should. Goodbye diet, hello diabetes.

There is a way to make refined carbohydrates even worse: Fry them. Researchers have found a suspected carcinogen called acrylamide in such products as potato chips and french fries. Anytime I get a chance to talk you out of eating worthless snack foods, I do it.

6. The fullness of Fiber
Fiber’s effect is the opposite of snack foods. When you have fiber in your stomach, food takes longer to enter the bloodstream, and your blood-sugar level stays steady.

The benefits: You’ll have a more consistent energy supply and less between-meal hunger. You can safely and easily take in more fiber by using a supplement. (MD Labs’ Fiber-Psyll is a good one; go to MDlabs.com.).

Start with 7 to 12g a day, mixing some with water and drinking it before your main meals.

I recommend that you eat some All Bran for breakfast. I love All Bran and it is very high in fiber. A good size bowl of All Bran with milk gives you all the fiber you need. Lately as well I have started taking Flax seed meal and Psyllium Husk.

7. Count on calcium
Recently, nutrition researchers discovered that dairy and other calcium-rich foods help you stay lean, prevent osteoporosis, and possibly prevent colon cancer. The recommendation is to take in 1,000 to 1,200 milligrams (mg) of calcium a day. (A cup of milk contains 300.)

I have seen a lot of research saying that the calcium from Green leafy veggies is much better for your body than trying to get Calcium from Milk, check it out for yourself if you are not much of a milk drinker now.

8. Get your Omegas
Each year, we learn more about the health benefits of omega-3 polyunsaturated fats, which are found in fish, nuts, seeds, and flaxseed and fish oils. These health benefits–less risk of heart disease and diabetes, for example–are great on their own. But omega-3 fats contribute to a better physique as well.

For example, omega-3s reduce inflammation throughout your body. That not only prevents heart attacks (inflammation in the tissues surrounding blood vessels is a major cause) but also helps your muscles recover faster from workouts.

Bigger, less-inflamed muscles mean a faster metabolism, and speeding up your metabolism is crucial when you’re trying to get lean. If you don’t eat fish twice a week and can’t stomach fish-oil supplements, try eggs high in omega-3s, which are found in the dairy case, next to the regular eggs. You can eat four of them a day without any negative effect on your cholesterol levels.

I just take a Omega 3 vitamin every day. Remember if you are taking Flax Seed oil that it spoils when exposed to air very quickly.

9. Make a plan Set a Goal
Next time you read a weight-loss story in a newspaper or magazine, count the number of disparaging references to popular diets.

Based on the way diet gurus trash their competitors, you’d think there was no plan on earth that actually works. But the truth is that you can’t lose without a diet. You must have a plan.

The more sophisticated it is, and the more tailored to your likes and dislikes, the better. You can’t wing it and expect to see results.

Remember the Basics. I won’t offer you the perfect weight-loss regimen, because research has yet to discover one. But even the worst plan is more likely to succeed than no plan at all.

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I have been aware of running correctly for a long time but one of the great things that you can do in the Summer as a runner is sit on a bench and watch the runners go by.

The Globe and Mail newspaper has a great article about how you should run and how badly some people run. The trouble is that you can not see yourself while you are running so you just might be running the wrong way and this can hurt you over the long term…a lot.

“A lot of people need to work on their running skills,” says Dan Ouimet, chair of the Calgary Marathon Society. “They don’t think there’s any skill to it: You just go out and run.”

When you are running correctly everything is falling together, movement, gait, how your feet hit the pavement.

Of course, it is not that simple, says Curb Ivanic, a Vancouver-based strength and conditioning coach. “If you’re not running optimally, if your technique is not good, you’re going to be wasting a lot of energy,” he says.

Run Farther by Running Correctly

“Endurance running is all about using maximum efficiency to get you to the finish line. And it’s going to increase stresses on your joints. So it increases your risk of injury and also decreases your performance.”

Perhaps the most crucial part of good technique is how the foot falls on the ground, Mr. Ivanic says.

While running correctly you should ideally land on their mid-foot or forefoot, most tend to land on the heel first, he says. “If you’re doing a heel strike, you’re generally going to be landing in front of your body, in front of your centre of mass.

Now the impact forces are coming up through the heel, coming up through the knees and hips and into the back. It’s more impact on the body.”

This is why barefoot running has become such a hot topic in running circles recently. A study published this year in the journal Nature found that people who run barefoot tend to avoid heel striking and instead land on their mid-foot or the ball of their foot.

Other elements of running correctly technique, such as poor posture, can also hamper a run. If your shoulders are slumped forward, rather than kept straight, discomfort can begin to set in, says Jamie Armstrong, founder of Method Personal Training, in Vancouver. “People don’t know where to hold their body,” he says.

By improving running technique, people who are preparing for races can maximize their performance without having to push their mileage, Mr. Armstrong says. “They can have a less-is-more philosophy where they can get away with doing less training volume but have a greater result, training-wise,” he says.

How to Run properly

As well, by running correctly with your body tilted slightly forward, people will be able to harness the power of gravity to better propel themselves forward and also reduce the impact forces that shoot up through the legs when the body is in a vertical line, says Danny Dreyer, founder of ChiRunning, which blends the focus of tai chi with running techniques.

“If you don’t pay attention to how you’re moving, running correctly, then eventually over a number of years you’re going to get some kind of repetitive-motion injury if your movement isn’t correct,” he says.

Learning to run in a new way may sound simple enough, but it rarely happens immediately, Mr. Dreyer says. Most people should expect to practise for one to three months before a new technique becomes natural, he says. “It’s not an overnight fix.”

Great video below with tips on how exactly your running form should look

Running Correctly May Take Some Time

Carly McFetridge has been running for almost 30 years, but it was only this year that she decided to attend a running clinic to improve her running technique. The clinic, taught by Mr. Ivanic, was an eye-opener for the 58-year-old retired community health nurse. “I can see, when it all comes together, how much more efficient movement is,” she says.

But even now, a few months later, the new running correctly technique has not become second nature for Ms. McFetridge.

“It’s frustrating trying to retrain your body. I’ve been running for almost 30 years, so all these movements and my running stride and my gait are just programmed,” she says. “It takes a lot of concentration when you’re practising.”

But, on one recent trail run, while running correctly, it all came together and Ms. McFetridge noticed a marked difference in how she was running compared with her previous outings. “It was more effortless. I felt stronger and I just felt I was utilizing my running stride more efficiently,” she says.

Follow what this article says and you will be running correctly in no time and with concentration it will become second nature.

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