New Year - New You 2010

With the New Year well upon us and the 2009 festive calories now causing a nagging thought at the back of our minds many of us will have embarked on the journey to become healthier, fitter or even both in 2010!

The most popular new year’s resolution generally speaking for health and fitness is “to focus on becoming healthier and fitter”. Peoples goals vary from marathons to lifting specific weights, running a specific time or distance. The idea is the basically the same. I would like to offer some helpful hints on how to keep you on track over the potentially rocky 365 days ahead.

What is your excuse? Cut it out!

Justification, apology, pardon, reason, defence... dress it up however you want but please, don’t give up on your health. New year’s resolutions seldom last until the end of the year. If you find yourself asking a pardon from your self-claimed healthy resolution for 2010, think about the larger picture. Ask yourself do I need my health? What do I have if I don’t have my health? The information below may help you decide... Exercise is fun and rewarding and let's not to forget it is for everyone. If you have conditions such as asthma or allergies exercise can help in a number of ways

 

• In 2007 24% of adults of ages 16 years+ in England were classed as obese. (An increase of 15% from 2003)... Decided yet?
  
  
• In England Men are 41% likely to be obese. Women are 32% likely to be obese. .. How about now?
  
  
• 21% of Men were at very high risk of health problems ... Decided yet?
  
  
• 66% of Men and 69% of Women said they would like to do more physical activity... Well?
  
  
• Only 27% of Men and 31% of women consumed five or more portions of fruit and vegetables per day... Decided yet?
  
  
• 45% of Men said the reason that stopped them doing more physical activity was work commitments... Almost decided, read on ...
  
  
• In 2007 1.23million prescription items were dispensed for the treatment of obesity....Do you want to save money? Good health and exercise will do it for you!

Source: www.ic.nhs.uk

With the above in mind I am glad you chose wisely (saving money is on everyone’s mind at the moment, so lets’ kill 2 birds with one stone!)

I would like to start off with a positive kiss to all those who have taken on the challenge to exercise and be healthy for 2010. Exercise is fun and rewarding not forgetting it is for everyone. Please feel free to send me a message if you have any questions I am happy to help all.

How to KISS yourself Fitter!

KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid! The saying does not mean you are stupid! It refers to smart exercise. To start to KISS yourself fitter start to think about your day to day duties; going to work, picking the children up from school, shopping, preparing dinner and bedtime etc. Then add in a little exercise to each in the simplest way possible. You will see that small changes can really make a big difference. Below are a few examples.

Getting up and getting to work in the morning. This can seem like a chore sometimes but if you add a little exercise into the mix you’ll feel full of energy and ready to go as soon as you get to your station. You can add exercise into this part of your day by parking around the corner instead of right outside the office door. Approximately 200 metres from your front door will see an extra 400 metres of walking per day and 12,166 metres per month! If you have a lift at work, use the stairs ... If you climb 15 stairs per day over a month that is approximately 450 extra stairs. So to sum up: park around the corner and when you arrive home and climb 15 stairs before work and in one month you would have walked 12,166 steps and 450 stairs extra! (Did I mention a saving on petrol too?)

Food Shopping. In these modern times super markets usually have large car parks. This creates an opportunity for exercise. Park away from the entrance. This ensures that you walk to collect your trolley and then walk to the entrance. A full trolley can be quite a weight to push so with good technique and being careful push it to the car and earn you a few extra calories for the calorie meter!

Dinner. Dinner times can run the risk of becoming quick, effortless and easily prepared sessions, especially if time is scarce due to a busy lifestyle. If you have time, try to make preparing dinner an active time. Chopping, stirring, mixing, flipping and walking to the compost heap with pealed vegetables all help to keep you active. Avoid microwave meals or processed pre-made foods at all times. (If you can grow vegetables at home in the garden this means more exercise from preparing and servicing the garden. Unfortunately the down side is fresh nutritious great tasting food to be proud of.

Bedtime. The children are in bed, at last peace and quiet. A moment to yourself, so choose to restore sanity by stretching to help lengthen your muscles and relax your mind and body. A few squats and abdominal curls before you enjoy a soothing shower and roll into a cosy warm bed again all add to the calorie metre.

Brisk Walking with a heart rate of 100bpm will burn approximately 3.5Kcal per minute. Using the KISS example above, dinner takes an hour to took, food shopping an hour and the 3 way combination of stretching, walking from the car around the corner to your front door and stair climbing at work an hour. 3 hours of improved exercise at 3.5 Kcal per minute breaks down to figures of 180 minutes * 3.5Kcals = 630Kcal per day. (3780Kcal per week with 1 day of total rest)
If you can KISS yourself fitter and swim just once a week for approximately an hour 3780Kcals per week becomes well over 4000Kcals per week – 16,200Kcals per month.

Exercise per Hour 1	body weight
	130lbs	155 lbs	190 lbs
Cycling -  10mph	136	281	345
Bowling	177	211	259
Dancing - general	266	317	388
Golf - general	236	281	345
Cooking	148	176	216
Cleaning (house work)	207	246	302
Stretching (yoga)	326	281	345
Walking - moderate	207	246	302
Jogging	413	493	604

Eat more not less. Eating more may seem the reverse of what you think is needed to reduce your body fat %. It is correct so please read on ... Diets do not work. In extreme examples diets starve the body, increasing its ability to store fat. When you stop the diet the body rapidly stores excess carbohydrates or sugar as fat and what you see is the yoyo effect of fad diets. If you continue to yoyo diet the body is put under stress as a consistent nutrient intake is not available. This may lead to other conditions presenting themselves. A diet is for life so make yours healthy!

In the KISS example above exercise is included into the daily routine and not as a separate entity or special activity that must allocated. Eating more often is the same idea! Eating every 3 – 4 hours will keep your blood sugar levels consistent meaning that the urge to snack on sugar rich foods is reduced. (Excess carbohydrate or sugar in the body will be converted into fat by the liver) As you are eating small portions of healthy snacks regularly instead of over eating when hungry, less excess sugar is available to be converted into fat. Balanced main meals are important to help blood sugar levels. Include a good source of protein and animal fat in each main meal this will prolong the glucose availability (energy) for the brain, meaning better concentration ... so you can concentrate on KISSing yourself fitter ... remember to chew your food thoroughly before swallowing. For normal physiological digestion to work it is important to be hydrated (take your body weight in kg x 0.033 this will be the amount of water in litres to drink per day).

For those of you who have decided that a gym membership is for you then I would suggest choosing a club that is value for money. Look at the facilities and support that you will have access to.

Take a look at our downloadable Exercise Programmes

 

Information written and supplied by Mark Westbrook, TalkHealth's Fitness Expert