Speed Up Your Metabolism – Seven Days Brings Success.

I recently was prompted to publish an article dealing with
health related issues involving our choice of diet, and
particularly with regard to the very unhealthy diet which we
tradiitionally have in my part of the world, namely Central
Scotland in the UK.

I expained that I was motivated to publish that article after
seeing a very graphic billboard showing two giant grey hands
sqeezing the life out of a human heart. I complimented our
Health Authorities for the very effective campaign which they
have been running for some considerable time, which has been
entirely aimed at raising public awareness of important
lifestyle changes.

This has illustrated that we can very easily make simple changes
to greatly improve our health, and prolong our lives

To follow on that theme, I want to demonstrate in this article,
that sensible excercises can also play a very important part in
overall health, as well as helping to speed up weight loss, for
thise who may be afficted with that problem. One secret to
shedding unwanted pounds is not a mystery, simply put, you must
speed up your metabolism by sensible exercise.

I have outlined some very effective steps below to achieve
results in just seven days.

How many times have you gone to sleep at night, swearing you’ll
go to the gym in the morning, and then changing your mind just
eight hours later. This is probably because when you get up,
like most of us, you don’t feel like exercising! It can be a big
enough struggle just getting to work on time nowadays.

While this can happen to the best of us, it doesn’t mean that
you should drop the ball altogether when it comes to staying
fit. What people need to realize is that staying active and
eating properly, are critical for long-term health and wellness.
You may well have heard the saying that an “ounce of prevention
is worth a pound of cure”.

The more you know about how your body responds to your lifestyle
choices, the better you can customize a nutrition and exercise
plan that is right for you. When you eat well, increase your
level of physical activity and exercise at the proper intensity,
you are informing your body that you want to “burn a substantial
amount of fuel”.

This translates to burning fat more efficiently for energy. In
other words, proper eating habits plus exercise equals fast
metabolism, which in turn, gives you more energy throughout the
day and allows you to do more physical work with less effort.

The true purpose of exercise is to send a repetitive message to
the body asking for improvement in metabolism, strength, aerobic
capacity and overall fitness and health. Each time you exercise,
your body responds by upgrading its capabilities to burn fat
throughout the day and night. Exercise doesn’t have to be
intense to work for you, but it does need to be consistent.

I recommend engaging in regular cardiovascular exercise four
times per week, for 20 to 30 minutes per session. You can
actually achieve this by simply taking a brisk thirty minute
walk. You should also undertake to do some resistance training
four times per week for 20 to 25 minutes per session. This
balanced approach provides a two fold benefit, incorporating
aerobic exercise to burn fat and deliver more oxygen, and
resistance training to increase lean body mass and burn up more
calories.

Here is an effective sample exercise program.

Warm Up – Seven to eight minutes of light aerobic activity
intended to increase blood flow and lubricate and warm-up your
tendons and joints.

Resistance Training – Train all major muscle groups. One to two
sets of each exercise, then rest 45 seconds between sets.

Aerobic Exercise – Pick two favorite activities, they could be
jogging, rowing, biking or cross-country skiing, whatever fits
in with your lifestyle. Perform 12 to 15 minutes of the first
activity, and continue with 10 minutes of the second activity.
Cool down during the last five minutes.

Stretching – Wrap up your exercise session by stretching,
breathing deeply, relaxing and meditating.

When starting an exercise program, it is important to have
realistic expectations. Depending on your initial fitness level,
you should expect the following changes early on.

>From one to eight weeks – You will feel much better and have
more energy.

>From two to six months – Lose inches while becoming leaner. Your
clothes will begin to fit more loosely, and you will be gaining
muscle and losing fat.

After six months – Start losing weight quite rapidly.

Once you make the commitment to exercise several times a week,
don’t stop there. You should also change your diet and eating
habits. Counting calories or calculating grams and percentages
for certain nutrients is impractical. Instead, I suggest these
easy-to-follow guidelines:

1. Eat several small meals (optimally four) and a couple of
small snacks throughout the day. 2. Make sure every meal is
balanced, and incorporate palm sized proteins like lean meats,
fish, egg whites and dairy products. 3. Fist-sized portions of
complex carbohydrates like whole-wheat bread and pasta, wild
rice, multigrain cereal and potatoes, and fist-sized portions of
vegetable and fruits. 4. Limit your fat intake to only what’s
necessary for adequate flavor. 5. Drink at least eight 8-oz.
glasses of water throughout the day. 6. I also recommend that
you take a multi-vitamin each day to ensure you are getting all
the vitamins and minerals your body needs.

I do know that sometimes life just gets “in the way”, but
looking after yourself is just so so important. Take time out
for it, you will feel so much the better!

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