Good Sources of Protein

Protein is used to repair tissue cells within the body and is an essential as part of a healthy balanced diet. You should eat some protein at every meal serve.

Protein is made up from Amino Acids. There are 20 amino acids in all, 9 of which are essential to our diet. The remaining 11 are manufactured within our liver, so are non-essential from dietary intake.

A complete protein is food source that includes all 9 essential amino acids. These are mainly from animal products with the exception of Soy.

Meat
Poultry
Fish
Dairy Eggs
Soy

Incomplete proteins are food sources that contain most of the 9 essential amino acids but usually fall short on one or two of them. These are mainly plant sources and include;

Grains
Cereals
Beans
Nuts
Seeds
Vegetables

It is possible to get the full compliment of amino acids by pairing up two or more of the incomplete food sources. For example baked beans on wholemeal toast would give the full compliment of essential amino acids. It's not essential to have both food sources at the same meal serve, as long as they are eaten within the same 24 hours.

How much protein do you need.

Daily protein intake depends upon two things. Your activity levels and your body weight. The average sedentary adult should be eating 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. For example an adult weighing 80Kgs should be consuming 64 grams of protein per day.

This changes depending upon activity levels, so athletes and sports people should be consuming more due to the fact exercise damages body tissue, so additional protein is essential on top of the daily requirements to repair tissue damage.
The maximum amount of protein to be consumed in one day should be no more than 2 grams per kilogram of body weight.

Resistance Training

A good all round fitness program should incorporate the 3 following elements;

1. Aerobic (CV) training - Running, swimming, walking etc.
2. Resistance Training - Weight training, circuit training, palates etc.
3. Flexibility - Stretching, yoga

Including these 3 main elements will help you to get a good grounding in the 7 core components of fitness which are;

1. Aerobic
2. Anaerobic
3. Power
4. Strength
5. Endurance
6. Flexibility
7. Balance and mobility

For more information on the 7 core components of fitness, read our article 'Get Fit'.

Too many people only focus on one key area and that is generally the one that they feel comfortable with. For example, many people, run and never do weights. Or some people just workout with weights in the gym and never do any aerobic exercise. Very few people actually stretch before and after a workout session. The truth of the matter is all 3 are important for a balanced fitness program. Skipping any one element can end up being detrimental to your overall goals. To become all round fit, you have to incorporate a range of activities that will challenge all 7 of the core components of fitness. Progression of fitness is all about putting yourself outside of your comfort zone so that your body adapts to new challenges.

Resistance training is an essential activity that will help to develop, strength, power, endurance and balance. This in turn will promote good posture and fat loss, by preserving lean muscle mass. Lean muscle burns calories and will help to keep your metabolism on fire, thus preventing weight gain due to an increase in body fat.

If you are not doing so already, get started with a resistance program.

For more information read our article 'Weight Training for Fitness'.

For a great beginners all body resistance program check out 'Toning Exercises'

If you are not sure where to start with resistance training, have a chat with the Fitness Instructor at your local gym or hire a Personal Trainer to design a resistance program specific to you.

Relieving Stress by Exercise

With the fast pace of today’s life stress is becoming more and more of an issue, so it’s vital we know how to control it.

What is stress and how does it affect us?
There are 2 types of stress, physical and emotional. Physical stresses are actual physical conditions placed upon our body during activity or exercise. Emotional stress is caused by feelings and emotions from a certain situation, for example pressure at work or the loss of a loved one.

A certain amount of stress can be good for us, because stress is designed to make us react and take action. It goes back to the time of our ancestors where the response to stress was either fight-or-flight. They may have been in a situation where they were forced to fight or run away from a wild animal. Stress is what happens when we need to mobilize our body to take action. The problems come in today’s society where we don’t have the need to initiate the actions (fight-or-flight) associated with stress, so all the tension and emotion gets built up. Too much stress can eventually have an affect on our mental and physical health.

The affects of stress can be responsible for a number of complaints. These are just a few,

Asthma
Hyperventilation
Cancer
Diabetes
Obesity
Colitis
Constipation
Migraine
Heart attack
Colds and flu
Depression

Some people cope with stress much better than others. Learning to cope with stress is something that can be acquired and applied at anytime. It’s important for you to realize when you are suffering from stress and apply the techniques to help control it.

Unfortunately people tend to use alternative methods of coping with stress that are ineffective and detrimental to health, such as;

Smoking
Alcohol
Caffeine
Aggression

There are much better natural ways available to deal with stress. Taking regular exercise is one of the best ways to relieve stress. Exercise helps you to relax and deal with the fight-or flight response that your body has been gearing up for all day at work.
Exercise initiates the release of natural endorphins that make you feel happy and more relaxed. After an exercise session you will feel revitalized and invigorated, which helps to set you up for the day at work or a relaxing evening at home, depending on when you exercise. Of course it’s much more of a benefit if you participate in an activity that you enjoy and motivates you. Getting out, having fun and mixing with like minded people helps you to forget about the stressful things on your mind. Exercise gives you a sense of personal power and control that helps to combat the feelings of depression and anxiety.

However, it’s important to realize that exercise alone is not a complete solution to stress and is way to help relieve stress. You should carry out a lifestyle analysis and build a Stress Management Plan to identify and deal with the areas that are contributing to your stress. Identifying the source and applying a solution will help to nip it in the bud. Exercise should then become a part of a permanent change in lifestyle.

Calories per day

Wow, I was watching a TV program last night about healthy eating and I was astounded by the following, but it makes perfect sense.

Designer continental coffees are very popular these days and they seem to be a regular treat for most people either on the way to or from work or even at lunch time. They seem to have become more of a habit to a lot of people and they are playing havoc with the nations health.

How many designer coffees do you have in a day? Take a look at the following just to make you realize how many calories are in these drinks.

A large (500ml/16floz) Cafe Latte made with full fat milk contains around 330 calories. That's before you have added any sugar. Add 2 teaspoons of sugar and you are increasing that to 370 calories and a whopping 20 grams of fat.

If you have one of these 5 days a week, that's a total of 1850 calories extra in a week. That equates to around 85,000 calories in one year. (Based on 46 working weeks a year)

There is approximately 3500 calories in 1lb of body fat. Now do the maths;

85000/3500 = 24lbs of body fat or 1.7 stones in weight.

Just imagine, if you are drinking one of these every day, then potentially you could increase your weight by this much each year. On a positive note, if you are drinking this many designer coffees then this is an ideal area to cut down. So potentially you have the ability to lose this much weight in a year provided you don't replace these calories with something equally as bad.

This just goes to prove that making small changes to the number of calories per day can have a huge impact on your overall body fat levels and ultimately your health.

Reasons to Quit Smoking

Another new year starts and another round of new year resolutions are kicked off.
If your New Years resolution is to quit smoking then well done for realising that this one single act will go a long way to improving your health, fitness and overall life span. If you are not yet convinced then here are a few reasons why you might want to reconsider.

Did you know that tobacco is the only legally available consumer product that kills people when used entirely as intended? No wonder wannabe ex-smokers try to kick the habit. But it's not as easy as us non-smokers think. Nicotine encourages changes in your brain structure that are believed to cause addiction. Addiction can come on pretty quickly. A 4 year study in the US of 1200 adults showed that one in ten of those who took part demonstrated signs of addiction within 2 days of starting to smoke. Even smokers who only smoked a few cigarettes a day experienced withdrawal symptoms when deprived of nicotine.

About 50% of all smokers will eventually be killed by their habit. Smoking causes 30% of all cancer deaths (84% of lung cancer deaths are related to smoking) and about 15-16% of all heart disease deaths. Smoking costs the NHS £1.7 billion a year and kills around 114,000 people a year in the UK alone and 438,000 in the US.

Smoking causes a build up of fatty deposits in your arteries which puts a strain on your heart. Also, tar build up in the lungs eventually causes lung cancer. In the mean time smokers can also suffer from a variety of other respiratory diseases such as bronchitis, infections and emphysema. Smoking is also related to a string of other diseases and problems in the intestine, veins, eyes, skin and reproductive organs.

The long term benefits of giving up smoking are; after one year your risk of coronary heart disease is cut by half and after 10 years your risk of developing lung cancer is halved.

The short term benefits are; more money in your pocket, less respiratory related illness. More efficient oxygen distribution within your body, so overall your body will begin to function much better.

So take the plunge in 2008 and quit for your own health.

how to achieve a flat stomach

I'm frequently getting asked, 'how to achieve a flat stomach'. Most people want to know what's the best exercise for achieving a flat stomach?

The answer to that question is that there is no one single exercise that will magically get you a flat stomach in a matter of weeks. Achieving a flat stomach is a combination of 3 things,

1. Low body fat
2. Strong abdominal muscles
3. Good all round fitness

It's not possible to target fat loss to one particular area of your body. Imagine your body as being is like an ice cube. Turn up the heat and the ice will start to melt across it's whole surface area, not just in one particular place. The 'heat' is your metabolism and the 'ice cube' is your body fat. Increase your metabolism and your body fat will melt away, across your whole body surface area.

How to achieve a flat stomach in 3 easy steps;

1. Increase your metabolism by doing CV & resistance exercise
2. Strengthen your abdominal muscles by incorporating abdominal & core strengthening exercises in to your routine. Make sure that you also include exercises for your lower back so as not to create an imbalance in posture
   
3. Eat a healthy balanced diet with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, lean meats and fish.

Exercise Induced Asthma

Question:
I would love to improve my fitness, but I suffer from Asthma. I've started to put on some weight and generally feel unhealthy due to a sedentary lifestyle. I'm afraid of suffering from an exercise induced asthmatic episode, that's why I have never participated in exercise before. Someone told me recently that exercise can actually help to relieve the symptoms of asthma. Is this true? Can exercise have benefits for asthma sufferers like myself? What are the recommendations of exercise for asthma sufferers?

Answer:
Exercise definitely has lots of benefits for people who suffer from asthma. Asthma should not be a barrier from including exercise activity in your life. The plus factors far outweigh the negatives as long as you are sensible and know your limitations.

Some of the benefits of exercise for asthmatics can be;

• Increased strength and endurance of respiratory muscles
• Reduction in the feeling of shortness of breath
• Reduction in medication dependence
• Reduction in asthmatic episodes

Before you start any new exercise program, get checked out by your Doctor. This is sound advice for anyone, not just someone suffering from asthma or any other illness. Your Doctor can tell you whether you are fit to participate and can advise you how to cope with exercise induced asthmatic episodes.

Although exercise induced asthma can not be completely ruled out when participating in exercise activity, there are certain precautions that you can take to help prevent an asthmatic episode. Than main thing about exercising with asthma is you need to be aware of your current state before, during and after participating in an exercise session. Know what your personal best (PB) peak flow reading is and always check your peak flow prior to exercising. If your peak flow is less than 80% of your PB, then train with caution. If it's less than 60% then do not train at all as an attack may be imminent. Here are some guidelines before you start exercising;

• Take your medication
• Check your peak flow, before, during and after exercise
• Always have your reliever medication close to hand
• Never train alone

Exercise guidelines for asthmatics;

The focus should be around cardiovascular training (CV). Because this will help to strengthen the lungs. Asthmatics should always warm up thoroughly before exercising. This is the most important part of the exercise routine. Warm up gradually until the main CV session. The CV session should be performed at a moderate intensity (60 to 80%). For resistance training asthmatics are advised to avoid training with heavy weights. The focus should be on lighter weights, with higher repetitions and working until the last rep feels difficult to do. The cool down should be like the warm up. Always cool down and always stretch. This helps to relax you at the end of each session and helps to prevent injury.

• Warm up - Should be slightly longer. 10 to 15 minutes every session
• CV Training - 30 minutes at a moderate intensity. 3 to 5 times per week
• Resistance Training - Circuit format. Light weights, 1-2 sets of (15-20 repetitions)
• Cool down - Like warm up, slightly longer. 10 to 15 minutes every session
• Flexibility - Every session.

Asthmatics would benefit from exercising outside in a warm climate away from dusty gyms and air conditioning. The clearer the air the better. However colder days could cause problems. It's also advisable for asthmatics to stay away from swimming as chlorine can aggravate asthma.