Fitness Tip - Healthy Eating

Ever heard the phrase 'You are what you eat'? That's exactly what we are.
Each time you eat something your body uses the nutrients from that food to replenish and rebuild your body cells.

Eat poor quality food and effectively you are building yourself a poor quality body.
By eating higher quality foods you will build yourself a high quality body.

Take a closer look at what you are eating everyday and look at where you can make small changes.
Some examples of how you can make changes might be;

• Reduce the amount of processed foods
• Reduce sugar intake
• Reduce salt intake
• Cut out the intake of trans fats
• Reduce stimulants such as tea and coffee
• Drink more water
• Always eat the freshest food possible

Healthy eating doesn't have to be expensive or time consuming. Change one thing everyday for the better and before you know it you will have completely changed your eating habits.

Fitness Tip - Exercise advice

Take the opportunity to exercise whenever you can. You don't have to always get your training kit on. Plan your day and think about where you can include some extra activity.

Do you need to take the car to the shops?
Can you use the stairs instead of the elevator?
Does the garden need doing?

Each one of the above activities can easily be included around your daily routine and will help you to maintain and even improve your fitness levels.

Make a conscious effort to include more activity within your daily life.

Calorie Counting

Losing weight is all about creating a calorie deficit through diet and an increase in physical activity.

The healthiest weight loss is achieved by reducing your calorie intake by 500 calories per day.

• 250 from a reduction in dietry intake
• 250 expended by an increase in physical activity

Click on the link below for 2 Free demonstration videos for the Calorie Counting and Meal Plnner Tools provided by Maximuscle.

http://www.kickstartfit.co.uk/caloriecounterdemo.html

Food Additives

How brown is your bread?

Did you know that brown bread is not wholemeal and actually contains more additives than white bread? Why? Because it's white bread with colouring.

Check on the ingredients label if your not sure.

Wholemeal bread will contain 'Wholemeal flour'. If it just contains wheat flour, then this is refined and not wholemeal. It may contain E numbers. E100 numbers are colourings.

Refined carbohydrates, which includes white bread and brown if it's not wholemeal are poor sources of nutrients and should be avoided.

Don't be fooled by the manufacturers and make sure you become 'Food Smart'. Always check the ingredients labels for additives and preservatives. The simple rule is, if you can't pronounce it then put it back.

Obesity and Exercise

Obesity and Exercise: This blog will give the basic information required for an obese person to understand the need for increasing physical activity and identify the actions they need to take before getting underway. But first let’s take a look at some pretty scary statistics.

The National Health Survey England carried out between 1994 and 2003 revealed shocking increases in obesity for males and females in the UK.

* 9.5% increase of obesity in males between 1994 & 2003
* 6.1% increase of obesity in females between 1994 & 2003

If this trend continues then by 2010 over a third of all adults in the UK will be classed as obese, putting a huge strain on the already struggling NHS. In fact obesity is rising faster in the UK than in any other European community.

For the full article click this link Obesity & Exercise

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.