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This article is designed to give you an overview of a few general steps you can take to give you some ideas of how to improve your health and fitness. You may want to print it also,a there is some really useful information to consider!
You should always consult your doctor before making any major changes to your activity levels, particularly if you are very overweight, have high blood pressure, or suffer from any other health problems.
If you want clarification on any of the points or if you are unsure how to best implement them for YOU, always ask a trained fitness professional (like me!).
1. Eat lots of fruit and veg!
The ideal is much more than the suggested “5 a day” and is infact closer to 11 a day. The vitamins and minerals you get from fruit and veg are known as micronutrients. Your macronutrients (carbohydrate, protein and fat) cannot function without them; hence vitamins and minerals are essential to your body.
Vitamins are plant based nutrients which must be received in your diet. Minerals are inorganic substances which are needed by vitamins to function.
Interestingly, 4% of your body weight is made up of minerals. They are mainly stored in your skeletal system.
The vitamins needed by your body are A, B, C, D, E and K. Vitamins A, D, E and K can only be used, transported and absorbed in the presence of fat. B and C are water soluble. The vitamin and mineral content of a food can be depleted by cooking and processing.
Each vitamin has a specific purpose – vitamin A is found in orange and red coloured fruits and veg. The colour comes from beta carotene which your body can convert to vitamin A. This vitamin slows the aging process, is good for eyesight and is anti- carcinogenic
Vitamin B (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 and B12) are needed for energy
Vitamin C is used to balance energy, slow aging and assist the immune system
Vitamin D comes from sunlight. It helps to regulate calcium and the strength of your bones. Vitamin D can help with protection from diseases and interestingly, heart attack patients tend to be lacking in Vitamin D
Vitamin E slows the aging process and is also anti-carcinogenic
Vitamin K assists in the blood clotting process
Vitamins A, C and E and minerals zinc and selenium help to slow aging and prevent cancer. They are also anti-oxidants.
The recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamins and minerals was devised
Many years ago, based on how much you needed to keep diseases common at the time at bay – such as scurvy, TB and other diseases we don’t remember now. RDA’s are not amounts suggested to keep you in good health. In fact, to prevent from cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes etc it is estimated that we probably need to intake more like 1000% RDA!
Unfortunately, due to the content of vitamins and minerals in our food being reduced due to the reduced content in the soil, it is difficult to obtain as many nutrients as we need through our diets. Everyone accepts colds and flu these days – why? With optimum nutrition, we improve our immune system and keep not only colds and flu well at bay – we need to supplement vitamins and minerals to achieve this optimum nutrition.
I have always been very sceptical about supplements and strongly believe that you get exactly what you pay for. There are no laws in the UK to regulate whether what goes into a supplement is what it says on the label and so I recommend a supplement by an American company called Usana, which guarantees what they say is in their supplements is in them. The contents of their supplements are based on extensive research into what is required by the body, not out-dated research; the nutrients are provided in a way that your body can easily absorb.
I am keen for this article not to turn into a sales-pitch, so if you are interested in the supplements please get in touch.
2. Follow the Food Pyramid!
70% of your diet should come from carbohydrate. This is where your body gets its energy from. When you take in carbohydrate it is stored in your muscles and liver until it is needed. If there is too much to be stored it is taken to your fat cells. Always choose complex carbohydrates over simple ones. A complex carbohydrate is more difficult for the body to break down; hence you get more energy from it for longer. Examples of these would be wholegrain bread, rice and pasta, rather than the white or non-wholegrain varieties. You should have a high carbohydrate snack within an hour of finishing your exercise session.
15% of your diet should come from protein. Protein is used for building bones and muscles, making the structure within your hair and nails, making white blood cells, which are needed by your immune system along with various other uses.
15% of your diet should come from fat. This brings me on to the next point.
3. You need to eat Fat!
Fat is needed by the body for many reasons – insulation, protection of vital organs, protection of nerves, use of certain vitamins (the fat soluble ones) etc
A diet very low (less than 7%) in saturated fat is ideal but you need to take in poly-unsaturated fats, and mono-unsaturated fats.
A diet high in mono-unsaturated fat has been shown to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, and are therefore thought to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.
Poly-unsaturated fats are the “good fats” which have been popular with the press recently – omegas 3 and 6. These help keep blood thin, lower blood pressure, decrease inflammation and pain, improve nerve & immune function, assist with brain functioning, vision, learning ability and coordination and can regulate mood swings.
Sources of good fats include oily fish (salmon, mackerel, fresh tuna), sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, linseeds and sesame seeds.
4. Cut out Sugar!
Sugar, among with other things such as tobacco and alcohol etc, are known as antinutrients. This is because they rob you of your micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). A diet high in sugar has a high risk of developing conditions, particularly diabetes and obesity.
Sugar causes rapid energy highs, followed by energy slumps, which make you crave more high-sugar snacks. It is far more beneficial to make better nutritional choices to
keep your blood sugar levels at a constant level to avoid the energy highs and lows of the high sugar diet.
Interestingly, many “low fat” products lose their taste when the fat is removed. Often, sugar is added to replace the taste. If you are making a good choice nutrition-wise, you should question whether having the low fat option is really necessary.
5. Can you pronounce it?
Turn into a label reader. If there is something in the list of ingredients which you cannot pronounce, or if you have no idea what it is – don’t eat it!
For, a perhaps slightly extreme, example, the below is the list of ingredients of the strawberry flavouring (nothing else!) of a Burger King milkshake:
Amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl Nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerbate, -ionone,heliotropin, hydroxyphrenyl-2butanone (10% solution in alcohol), isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, g-undecalactone, vanillin, and solvent (3)!
Amazingly, all this must be cheaper than a handful of strawberries. These ingredients do not need to be written on the packet.
Our livers must process everything we put into our body, when the liver becomes overworked the chemicals can end up in our blood stream with almost unlimited access to the cells of our bodies.
6. Increase water intake!
Water is needed by your body for all cellular functions, infact your body is 60-70% water. Water keeps your blood thin which reduces how hard your heart has to work to pump it round your body – dehydration means your circulatory system has to work harder, and therefore increases your risk of heart problems.
Often people mistake signs of thirst for hunger. You should be drinking 1.5 to 2 litres of water per day, with 1 litre extra per hours exercise you do. You can get quite lot of water from fruit and veg. If you do not drink sufficient water while you are exercising, your body will sacrifice performance in your chosen activity for temperature regulation.
Don’t start by suddenly going from drinking no water to drinking 2 litres. Start with about 500ml and build up over a week or so from there.
If you are not drinking sufficient water, your body will begin to produce an anti-diuretic hormone to prevent further water loss.
I now come on to exercise guidelines. Good nutrition should come first, as if you have a poor diet any training you do will be pointless.
7. Take regular exercise!
Take at least 30 minutes exercise most days.
The Health & Exercise Authority suggests that for health benefits we exercise 5 times a week, at 50-70% of your maximum heart rate, for 30 minutes each time. It says these 30 minutes can be accumulative. For fitness benefits the HEA suggests we exercise at least 3 times a week, at at least 70% of your maximum heart rate, for 20 minutes continuously each time.
I would suggest you get at least 30 minutes exercise every day (this can be during your lunch break from work, taking the long way to the sandwich shop, parking further from the office than you would usually – etc). The ideal would be to do the 30 minutes at once, but 3 lots of 10 minutes would probably do just as well.
I would also suggest that you get in 2 or 3 training sessions on top of this – whether its going for a brisk walk with the dog at the weekend, or going for a swim with the kids, or doing a well designed gym program.
To burn fat you should be doing some resistance exercises. These don’t have to make you muscly if you don’t want to get muscly. Because of the energy systems used, resistance training is the most effective way of burning fat. Resistance training can also improve your posture, reduce your risk of osteoporosis (as weight bearing exercise encourages your bones to strengthen), increase endurance, improve joint stability (so less risk of injury), improve appearance and confidence, increase flexibility, improve motor skills (awareness of your body) and improve immune system.
8. Strengthen your core!
Your core consists of everything between the bottom of your ribcage and the top of your pelvis. As there is no protection from any bones around this area, strong muscles are essential to protect the spine. A strong core can increase your overall strength.
Because your core is / should be contracting all the time, statically, you should train it in a static (still) way. If you spend hours doing sit ups, as well as probably working your “outer core” you are training your core to work in a dynamic (moving) way – how often do you do the action of a sit up during the day?! It is much more effective to do exercises such as the plank and skydiver, which train your core to work more effectively in the position it is in for most of the day – still. See number 10 for more on functional training.
It is advisable to receive correct training from a fitness professional as to the best exercises to work your core, and how to engage it effectively. You must be careful not to push your stomach out when doing core work as this will train the “outer unit” of your core and do little to stabilise your spine.
9. Stretch!
Flexibility is unfortunately the most neglected component of fitness. It is defined at the range of motion available at a joint and should be within a “functional” range – how flexible do you need to be? If you are a gymnast, being able to do the splits is probably quite important, whereas for the average person, being able to do the splits is unnecessary and would be called being hyper-mobile (too flexible).
Most people who work in an office and spend a lot of the day sat down have tight hamstrings, hip flexors and calf muscles. This is because when your body is held in a position regularly your muscles shorten and lengthen accordingly to make the position easier to hold. For example typing at a computer all day encourages your shoulders to round, meaning your chest muscle becomes tight and the muscle which holds your shoulders back becomes loose and stretched.
As long as you are warm, flexibility can be done any time of the day – in front of the TV in the evening, after your gym session, in your office during your lunch break…
A fitness professional should assess your range of motion and advise you on which muscles are tight and need flexibility training, and which muscles are hyper-mobile and require strengthening. A fitness professional can also advise you on the most effective stretches for each muscle group.
A regular exerciser or sports player will also benefit from flexibility training as it can enable you to work through your full range of motion which assists your training, decreases risk of injury, improves your posture and therefore your performance in your chosen activity. Stretching also reduces the aching you feel after a hard training session!
10. Train Functionally!
Always train your body for what you are using it for. For example, if you play a sport you need to be able to move in all different directions, strongly, so you should train your body to be able to do this. Similarly, if you are a long distance runner you need strong legs – not just the ability to run long distance – and should train your legs to stay strong throughout the whole run, this will reduce your risk of injury.
If you are not a sports player or runner as above, and just an average person looking to improve fitness and, as most people are, lose fat, you should train your whole body equally, aim to improve your posture and increase your ability to do daily tasks. This should involve working your whole body, using as many muscles at once as possible (which as well as burning fat very effectively will also reduce concentrated stress on any one particular area of the body).
If every time you go to the gym, you spend 30 minutes on the cross trainer, followed by 20 minutes going round the resistance machines, ask yourself how functional your workout has been. Firstly, how functional is the cross trainer? How often do your legs go round in oval shapes while your arms push and pull sticks? (the cross trainer is very useful for people with injuries which prevent them putting any stress through the joints, we are talking about the average exerciser here). Secondly, how functional is it to use fixed path resistance machines, using which you can only make one movement pattern?
Lets use the squat as an example (this is the movement you make as you sit down), this exercise is primarily done to work your thighs. As you do the exercise it is not only your thigh muscles which are working, rather all your leg muscles are working to stabilise you, as well as your core, and many other muscles you hadn’t even considered.
The machine version of the squat is the leg press where you sit on a seat, with your legs on the plate in front of you, and push the chair backwards. The only muscles working here are your thighs as you push off.
I’m sure you can see the difference, and the benefit of using the free-standing version of most exercises. Fixed path machines are great for learning technique on, but they are not the only way to do resistance training.
Please note that it is ESSENTIAL to be shown how to use free-weights correctly by a trained fitness professional to lower the risk of injury
As you can see from the above there are many components to achieving a healthy lifestyle – a well designed exercise program, a healthy lifestyle, a good diet – and the list goes on!
If you would like any advice or guidance on any of the notes above please do get in touch with me !
Please do feel free to download any of the other free articles on my website – and sign up to my newsletter to receive monthly exercise / lifestyle tips, and recipe suggestions; and a copy of my new article, Myths of Fat Loss.
Article by Heather Gillam from FitBizTraining
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