A SPECIFIC PURPOSE“Great workouts have a specific purpose,” says Rick Richey, a master instructor for the National Academy of Sports Medicine and owner ofR2Fitness in New York City. Whether the goal is to help you burn more calories, gain strength, or just shimmy into your skinny jeans with confidence, the program you choose should clearly define what it’s going to do for you, and those end results should align with your personal goals.
“You will need to know where you're going before you show up,” Richey says. “Too often people arrive aimlessly at the gym and without a clear picture of what they want or why they are there.”
The best workouts should help you define your goal, and then provide you with a plan to reach it.
"Yup, you’re about to read another diet post, but not to worry: You won’t hear anything about calorie-counting or eating like a caveman here. Instead, new research reveals that the best way to lose weight is surprisingly simple: Eat more produce and sit less.
Researchers from Northwestern University studied how well four different health strategies worked over 20 weeks. The diets included: Eating less fat and getting more exercise; eating more fruits and veggies and working out more; eating more produce and reducing sedentary time; and cutting down on fat while lowering the amount of sedentary time."
"The average restaurant meal is four -- four -- times larger than it was in the 1950s. In fact, 96 percent of entrees at chain restaurants exceed dietary guidelines for sodium, fat and saturated fat per meal, according to a recent study.
All those additional calories are a big problem -- for our waistlines. The average adult is now 26 pounds heavier than 60 years ago.
It's not always easy to tell when you're overdoing it, especially since we're used to never-ending bowls of pasta and burgers too big to bite into. The infographic from the CDC below, however, makes it pretty clear."
"That the conventional wisdom of 3,500 calories less is what it takes to lose a pound of weight is wrong. The body changes as you lose. Interestingly, we also found that the fatter you get, the easier it is to gain weight. An extra 10 calories a day puts more weight onto an obese person than on a thinner one.
Also, there’s a time constant that’s an important factor in weight loss. That’s because if you reduce your caloric intake, after a while, your body reaches equilibrium. It actually takes about three years for a dieter to reach their new “steady state.” Our model predicts that if you eat 100 calories fewer a day, in three years you will, on average, lose 10 pounds — if you don’t cheat.
Another finding: Huge variations in your daily food intake will not cause variations in weight, as long as your average food intake over a year is about the same. This is because a person’s body will respond slowly to the food intake."
"When our careers take over, one of the first things we sacrifice is our health. We have a hard time focusing on too many things at once, so when we need to work late and push through difficult and demanding months on the job, we tend to neglect some very important health habits that will help us sustain a demanding schedule.
Consider this a friendly reminder to get yourself back on track. The healthier the body, the healthier the mind; and the healthier the mind, the better you will do at work, and the more your boss will reward you. So listen up -- some of these changes in your daily routine are easy, and you can start them now."
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