Health and Nutrition That Is AboveNBeyond

You don’t have to be a runner to get active. There are plenty of other activities to do in order to burn those calories. I’m a runner, and everything I do tends to gravitate to the sport of running. But, you don’t have to be like me, just be yourself! When trying to find something to do to get yourself active, you need to consider what you want and if others you know (or don’t know) are doing it. I chose running and none of my friends are into it. so, I end up running by myself all the time. If being by yourself is ok, then that is fine, but you need to think about that when making your choice. There are plenty of different types of activities or options to choose from ranging from joining a gym/health club, basketball, biking, racquetball , volleyball, swimming etc. The list is actually endless with the possibilities out there. If you are not sure what you want to do, just google it and find something that interests you.

Think you don’t have time? How long does it take to ride a bike, take a walk or go for a run? The answer is that it’s up to you! Just start out slow and easy and you may just surprise yourself. Don’t let the thief of time rob you of your passions. Excuses are just words and don’t have any weight unless you accept them.

Running gives a change of scenery

Aside from the physical benefits of running, there are others such as the scenery that you pass by while running. The same place takes on a different look each season. Runner’s see this all the time, but, do we take it for granted? Now, those that tend to gravitate to the couch, miss out on a lot. Is the couch a trap that holds one back? A safety zone to keep people from venturing out? I was there once, but no more.

For me, the neat thing about running was that it inspired somewhat of a competitive spirit in me. I started running in 5k and 10k races in 1997. The whole sport for me took on it’s own life. I run in races about 5 to 8 times a year and hopefully more someday. I just heard that a friend of mine is preparing to run in her first 5k race ever! Way to go Alexa!

What can the couch do for you that a pair of running shoes can’t? It can keep you comfortable, let you rest or sleep, and give you a false sense of security thus keeping you from those running shoes. There are awesome resources for new or beginning runners on the Internet. One that I recommend is called Newrunner.com and/or Runnersworld.com So, if you haven’t started running, or just beginning, these are good sources to check out. If you want more of a selection of websites, you can google it. Who knows, it may even help one off the couch.

Now, if racing isn’t in your immediate future, no problem, it doesn’t cost anything to get those feet on the road except for a pair of running shoes. I did hear of people running barefoot, but, just starting out, I wouldn’t recommend that just yet especially if it is in the middle of Winter. Stat out slow at first, and build yourself up. You don’t want to run 4 miles right away, otherwise, you may find yourself, demotivated on running. You can find training tips on running in Newrunner.com and Runnersworld.com to help you with your progress and other issues such as dehydration, types of apparel to wear and when.

There are times, we don’t even think of dehydration especially during the cooler months. Truth is, you can dehydrate anytime. Dehydration in simple terms, is that the body is lacking the proper amount of fluid it needs.

I read an article a few years ago that during a race, a Marathon I think, a runner collapsed during the race and did indeed drink a lot of water, but ended up dieing anyway. The reason for this is that the runner did not replenish the electrolytes that the body needed. Water alone is not enough especially if you expend a lot of activity. You need a good recovery drink to use both before, during and after your workout/event. This applies to any type of endurance or activity. I recommend either H30 or Poweraide. Last summer (2009), I had some coffee, then later went running during a nice warm sunny day and found myself super hyper. I was talking with a friend a few days later and he said that I was dehydrated.

Here are some Symptoms, Do’s and Don’ts:

Symptoms:
1. Dry mouth
2. Not producing tears
3. Low or no urine
4. Sunken eyes

Continuing any form of exercise while dehydrated can cause heat exhaustion, variations in blood pressure, fainting, nausea and in some cases stroke.

Do’s:
1. Stay properly hydrated using a recover drink such as Poweraide or H30
(something with electrolytes)
2. Drink water (8 oz every 15 minutes if exercising, recovery drinks recommended)

Don’ts:
1. Don’t use caffeine or be careful how much you use when exercising
2. Don’t continue workout if you notice any symptoms

The importance of Electrolytes:

Sodium is the one essential electrolyte that is recommended to be consumed and replaced during extended exercise sessions for both safety and performance reasons. Multi-hour workouts, especially in the heat, can generate sodium losses (through sweating) of several grams.
Other electrolytes such as chloride, potassium,
calcium and magnesium can be safely replenished through a normal, well-balanced diet. There is
little evidence that the addition of these electrolytes to sports drinks improves athletic performance,
prevents dehydration or over hydration, or reduces the chances of muscle cramping

This information on The Importance of Electrolytes is from Powerbar.com

Did you ever wonder why no matter how hard you try, you don’t seem to loose much weight or achieve your goals? Week after week, try as you might, you barely get anywhere. There is a reason for this. Fortunately, the reason has a lot to do with you. It’s fortunate, because this means you can do something about it. You have to figure out what is causing you not to meet your goals. Get to the root of your problem. Until you deal with what ever the issue is, you’ll be at a wall. Walls are made to be broken and not a permanent barrier. If your goal is to loose weight and you are barely getting anywhere, you need to look at what is going on to causing you not to meet your goals here.

Ask these questions to start with:

1. Are you over eating?
2. How active are you?
3. Is there any stresses in your life other than your weight loss goals?

Until you discover the root cause of what is influencing your actions, you will be at a wall. You need to find and deal with what ever is causing your problem in order to bet over the wall.

The same can be applied to just about anything including finances. Like, what is causing your overspending? What stress is influencing your actions?

It comes down to you and what you are dealing with subconsciously. Once you get to this point, you can start making choices or taking proper actions to make these issues less prevalent in your life.

Merry Christmas! I have always looked forward toward this awesome day! Even during my dark years of depression, this was the one day of the year that always cracked a smile on my face. I used to start planning for Christmas as far back as late August or September on what I wanted to do. While the rest of the year was hard and heavy, Christmas was as light as snow and always meant a lot to me even today. This can be a hard time of year for anyone regardless of who you are or where you are at. I know of a friend who got to the point where he could not stand the holidays, though, I’m not really sure what lead him there. But, I think that may be changing for him, I hope. Christmas does not have to be dark and gloomy, and should be bright and cheerful. Ok, if you disagree, then take your hand and smack yourself hard and then crack your smile if you have to and you’ll get the point. Surely, one could take several hours out of the dark clouds to crack a smile

Get with others, go to parties, be with friends, but most importantly, smile and enjoy! Don’t let an otherwise great day be dark and lonely

Let’s all have a happy, healthy and cheerful and Merry Christmas!

Season’s Greetings to all!

Tim

In the last two posts, I’ve touched on how important nutrition is to the body and how fitness and nutrition can build a strong foundation for the immune system. If you don’t have a good immune system, then all your other efforts are a waste of time unless your immune system has been weakened for other reasons. I recently found an interesting article on the Immune System. Here is a brief excerpt on the article: You can read the full article – Diet, Stress and the Immune System This article is from the Cleveland Clinic website.

Under normal circumstances, the immune system is highly efficient, providing multiple defenses against the onslaught of outside invaders. These defenses include physical barriers (such as skin); the non-specific inflammatory response, which is brought about by changes in blood flow that bring chemical substances to the injured area; and specific immune responses, in which the body learns to recognize specific invaders and destroy them after subsequent exposures.

Ways to Boost your Immune System:

Two products (from Herbalife) called Roseguard and Best Defense, both of which provides immune system support. Roseguard aids in the defense of environmental toxins, and Best Defense helps boosts the immune system. Other ways to boost your immune system are:

1. Regular exercise
2. Get more Antioxidants
3. Adequate sleep, rest and/or relaxation
4. Be careful that you are not the problem – see below
5. Combat any developing ailments right away (cough, cold symptoms, soar throat etc)
6. Smile

Immune System negatives:

1. Lack of exercise
2. Overweight
3. Eating foods high in sugar
4. Eating foods high in fat
5. Experiencing lots of STRESS
6. Social Isolation – being lonely is not a good thing.

I wasn’t really planning on a part two here, but, it seems like I have to “run” with it. I am going to go back beyond 12 years ago (as of the date of this post) when I used to drink beer and follow other habits. I was in quite an up and down hill trend with my weight at that time. I joined a local gym and was meeting people and making good effort on my slowly evolving new lifestyle. At that time, I had no idea where it was leading. I was even making the usual or typical mistake of only focusing on my workouts and not on nutrition. Two years later, I found “running” and boy, did that put a new twist on my active fitness life. Nothing else for me even touched the tip of the iceberg as to the impact it had on me. Then, something happened, I saw my lifestyle slowly going in a different direction. I started going to a local church, continuing my membership at the gym, continuing with running and other workouts, and I was starting to make choices that was leading me into a completely different lifestyle. I gave up drinking beer and other habits / foods about 3 years later (1998). My weight issues started to improve a little bit, where some did come off. But, again, still was not fully focusing on nutrition yet.
However, some of the changes I’ve been making were having the right impact. I started to develop a much stronger immune system over the time with the choices that I was making. While things were improving, and unfortunately, it wasn’t until 2008, until the “light bulb” turned on for me. It was then, when I started to realize the whole picture. This is when I began my real weight loss & fitness journey. I lost slightly over 20 pounds and felt the best that I’ve been in years. This is also when I was applying nutrition to my program as well.

You don’t have to be a runner to achieve this. You just have to find the right activity that works for you. A simple equation could be ACTIVITY + NUTRITION = A Healthy New You! Activity is so important, and there is so much to choose from, whether it be running, biking, swimming, walking, weight lifting, aerobics, volley ball, basketball, etc, you should be able to find the right niche that works for you.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending upon how you look at it, a Couch Potato only sprouts roots and turns into mush after a while.

One way to look at this is that while Fitness is what the body needs, Nutrition is Fitness for the body underneath your skin. It’s great that people are getting more fitness minded, but, one needs to start getting concerned about what is going on “inside” the body. Some don’t think that supplements work and are a waist of money. Not so, just because you don’t always feel like superman after taking them, doesn’t mean they aren’t working. Supplements need to be taken daily and consistently to have the right impact, because they work over time.

See below for Healthy Meal Planning…

———————–

For healthy meal planning, I found this very good article online:
How to Develop a Meal Plan This article is by:
Kaleena Lawless
Personal Training Specialist
http://www.kalisthenixfitnessblog.com

In a nutshell, you can’t or shouldn’t have one without the other when it comes to Fitness and Nutrition. There are those who are only focused on weight loss and are not even considering the nutrition factor. All they care about is the end result. One person I can think of wants to loose weight so bad, that he has actually said quite frequently that “I want to get swine flu so I can loose weight”. My reaction to that is “how crazy is that!” People have died because of Swine Flu, and this guy doesn’t seem to get the point.
Anyway, Nutrition is like having a sound and strong foundation for your health. You need the “right stuff” going on inside to help fortify your life. There is no exaggeration to the saying that “you are what you eat”. If all you are concerned with is fitness and/or loosing weight and you don’t consider the nutrition factor, then that would be like building a house on a weak foundation.

There are many ways to combine the two sides of this issue. Follow your fitness plans and goals and have a good meal plan. One way for a good meal plan is to consider Weight Watchers. They have a great point system that I too use. And, there are some soups (Progresso) and other Weight Watcher food products at your local grocery store that have the Weight Watchers points right on the package or can so you can gauge yourself accordingly.
Wow, what a great way to work on Portion Control.
Membership can have it’s privileges, if you join Weight Watchers, you can purchase some of their merchandise, some of which includes a special calculator to help calculate your daily points when assisting with portion control. You can also get other literature that provides the point breakdown for food items which can be very beneficial to your goals. No, this article is not an advertisement for Weight Watchers, even if it sounds like it is. I’m trying to point out one way to achieve good nutrition while loosing weight at the same time.

Where do you see yourself now or in years to come? Do you look at yourself and lie? “Oh, I’m not that bad, there are those worse than me”. That’s denial if you feel that way. If you are not even sure where you stand, but want to know more about where you stand with your weight, check out this BMI calculator found on Active.com. This resource is FREE and very much worth your using, check it out. Even if you have a minor dislike or negative feeling on how you currently are, that should be enough to do something. Don’t let that small bad seed grow up into something you really don’t like. Now, if you are way past this, then consider this article your wake up call. It’s never to late to change the course of your ship. After all, what do you got to loose? Weight? Think of it this way, if you loose just 10 pounds, that is like two 5 pound weights that you just put on the shelf that you’ve been walking around with.

Now, something special, and coming soon…….

There will be a new section to Abovenbeyond4u.com to get you moving in the direction that best fits you. This section will be FREE and motivate you and hopefully excite you in taking action. Whether it be weight loss, getting active, this section is for you. There will no longer be excuses not to take action for yourself unless you really like where you are at! More information on this section will follow near to when this section becomes available.

If you don’t venture down the road of fitness, you are missing out on a world that will blow your mind! So what if you are lazy. We all have those days, the secret is not to let every day be lazy. Not only that, you have the rest of the day to be lazy after your workout. A little bit of pain and lots to gain. Fitness if not taken advantage of is like a door that was never opened. You never know what awaits on the other side. It doesn’t matter if you are a teenager or past the age of 70, fitness rocks!

Having a life of fitness is a great way of lessening health issues as you get older. Granted, there are no guarantees, but, why ask for it. Having an active fitness life is another way of save guarding your health. Think of it this way, your computer has or should have anti-virus software to protect it from viruses. Well, having an active fitness life is like having your own anti-virus software for your life. Now, fitness is only one third of the dish, and one must not forget weight management and nutrition. For all 3 work together and does the body good!