Article Index… · Bodybuilding Supplements May Not Be Necessary To supplement or not to...

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Gary Matthews – Maximum Fitness Articles 1 Article Index… 1. Fast Weight Loss for Special Occasions You have all been through it before, the family wedding is coming up next month and you can't seem to fit into that suit or dress because you've put on too much weight. 2. Bodybuilding Supplements May Not Be Necessary To supplement or not to supplement - that is the question on more bodybuilder's lips than ever before. Are they safe? What works and what doesn't? 3. Give up the Diet If you're thinking of going on a diet to lose those extra pounds think again. Long-term weight control through dieting is near impossible 4. How to Substitute Fat in Your Everyday Diet Fat is a nutrient that is a big contributor to the increasing problem of obesity in the world today. If you can substitute fat in your diet all the better. 5. Muscle Gain Visualization Tips We now move into an area that is far too neglected by mainstream health and fitness professionals, the mind. 6. Positive Imaging for Weight Loss Visualization can play an important part in losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle that keeps it off. 7. Steps to Avoiding Gym Rage Regulars of gyms experiencing overcrowding in the aerobics area and the weight room causes tempers flare in a phenomenon becoming known as "Gym Rage" 8. The Pros and Cons of Fad Dieting It is very tempting to try that fad diet that you have found in the latest magazine that promises the world with fantastic fat losses without doing a thing. 9. Weight Gain Myths The vast majority of myths about weight gain are mostly passed down from "gym talk" and so-called experts who know nothing about the body's workings. 10. Weight Loss Myths Every weight loss regime has its useless folk lore and half-truths that gets passed on from person to person. 11. What is the Glycemic Index Over the last 30 years, research into food and blood glucose response has completely changed our carbohydrate classification system. 12. Workout Without a Gym We know that using free weights and machines is the fastest and most efficient way there is to improve your metabolism and strength, but for many reasons these may not be convenient or readily accessible to you.

Transcript of Article Index… · Bodybuilding Supplements May Not Be Necessary To supplement or not to...

Page 1: Article Index… · Bodybuilding Supplements May Not Be Necessary To supplement or not to supplement - that is the question on more bodybuilder's lips than ever before. Are they safe?

Gary Matthews – Maximum Fitness Articles

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Article Index…

1. Fast Weight Loss for Special Occasions You have all been through it before, the family wedding is coming up next month and you can't seem to fit into that suit or dress because you've put on too much weight.

2. Bodybuilding Supplements May Not Be Necessary To supplement or not to supplement - that is the question on more bodybuilder's lips than ever before. Are they safe? What works and what doesn't?

3. Give up the Diet If you're thinking of going on a diet to lose those extra pounds think again. Long-term weight control through dieting is near impossible

4. How to Substitute Fat in Your Everyday Diet Fat is a nutrient that is a big contributor to the increasing problem of obesity in the world today. If you can substitute fat in your diet all the better.

5. Muscle Gain Visualization Tips We now move into an area that is far too neglected by mainstream health and fitness professionals, the mind.

6. Positive Imaging for Weight Loss Visualization can play an important part in losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle that keeps it off.

7. Steps to Avoiding Gym Rage Regulars of gyms experiencing overcrowding in the aerobics area and the weight room causes tempers flare in a phenomenon becoming known as "Gym Rage"

8. The Pros and Cons of Fad Dieting It is very tempting to try that fad diet that you have found in the latest magazine that promises the world with fantastic fat losses without doing a thing.

9. Weight Gain Myths The vast majority of myths about weight gain are mostly passed down from "gym talk" and so-called experts who know nothing about the body's workings.

10. Weight Loss Myths Every weight loss regime has its useless folk lore and half-truths that gets passed on from person to person.

11. What is the Glycemic Index Over the last 30 years, research into food and blood glucose response has completely changed our carbohydrate classification system.

12. Workout Without a Gym We know that using free weights and machines is the fastest and most efficient way there is to improve your metabolism and strength, but for many reasons these may not be convenient or readily accessible to you.

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Fast Weight Loss for Special Occasions You have all been through it before, the family wedding is coming up next month and you can’t seem to fit into that suit or dress because you have put on too much weight. So you must lose at least ten or more pounds quickly.

Losing weight quickly is not advisable as most of the loss will be muscle tissue and water; you put on the weight slowly (usually over years) so normally you should take it off slowly and then you will know that the majority of the loss will be body fat.

But you have a problem here and the clock is ticking so you will have to diet pretty hard to meet your target weight loss. Let’s look at that first, you all know that diets don’t work; they send the body into starvation mode, a survival mechanism from long age when humans faced periods of famine.

Going too low in calories causes the body to lower its metabolic rate, which reduces its ability to burn fat. At the same time, hunger signals increase and you quickly start to crave high-energy foods loaded with fats and sugar, the same foods you are trying to do without.

Research shows repeated dieting actually makes it harder to lose weight and easier to put it on because when you dump the diet and return to normal eating habits the drop in metabolic rate caused by the diet means that your old habits actually represent an excess in calories. Not only do you regain the fat stores just lost, but also you may even gain an extra bit.

Knowing this, you really don’t want to put yourselves through this rigorous process, but for this special occasion you will. First though, you will have to boost the metabolism that has been lowered by the dieting. To do this you will have to perform a light "Strength Train" workout to generate that initial spike in your metabolism. By increasing the lean muscle on your body by using Strength Training, your metabolism will increase, burning fat along the way.

The strength training technique I use requires just twenty to thirty mins per week. Gone are the days of the five-day a week program with 6 to 12 sets per body part, that method has never worked. One short intense strength-training workout a week will elevate your metabolism more than you ever thought possible.

While the calories expended doing exercise are important, the increase in metabolism especially after strength training continues long after the exercise is finished, burning calories at the same time.

The two main components of this technique are the intensity of the exercise and the recovery after the exercise. Infrequent, short, high intensity weight training sessions, followed by the required amount of time to recover and become stronger is what is needed to increase functional lean muscle and lose body fat.

The way to lose body fat and maintain muscle is to have a food program for life. Quality food and more energy output are the basics you’ll need to go for. Bulk foods that fill you up and don’t fill you out, foods that are low in fat and sugar which aren’t refined should be the ideal.

Small frequent meals should be consumed during the day each containing a little protein to maintain muscle mass and energy levels. A high quality broad spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement should also be taken on a daily basis.

As before get the calories from high quality food but if you can’t, utilize a blender to make concoctions from skim milk with whatever additives you want to use, just as long as you keep count of the calories for your daily total.

Now use these blender mixtures and solid food for your daily feedings. Spread it out over many small meals a day instead of the traditional three meals a day. The way to keep track of weight loss is to buy a calorie counter and record your daily calorie intake for a week.

Now average out how many calories you consume a day with the use of a seven-day eating plan and calorie counter, once you have this figure subtract 1000 calories and this will be the target number of calories you will be aiming for.

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Remembering that one-pound of fat contains 3500cals, losing 1000 calories a day will total 7000 for the week, which equals two pounds lost by dietary means alone. Another technique for low calorie eating is to watch your fat intake as this has the most calories.

Incidental activity is also very important if you want to lose this amount of weight in this short period of time, by increasing incidental activity you can burn at least another pound a week The best exercise for the purpose of fat-loss is fast walking either indoors on the treadmill or outdoors.

Walk until you are mildly puffing and hold that rate until the allotted time. If your aerobic activities leave you panting or breathless, your going too hard, your energy is coming from your carbohydrate reserves and not from your fat stores. Try fast walking for one hour a day every day of the week.

Well there you have it, as an experienced trainer I wouldn’t recommend this type of program to my clients. The weight loss is just too quick and the program would be very hard to maintain owing to the very low caloric intake.

I advise my clients to decrease their calories by just 500 per day (and no more) below their maintenance levels and they will be losing 1 – 2 pounds of body fat every week, safely, without craving and without too much disruption to their lifestyle.

Remember, think long term here and that’s between 30 and 50 pounds of fat lost in six months. Any faster and all you will be losing is water and precious muscle tissue.

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Bodybuilding Supplements may Not Be Necessary To supplement or not to supplement – that is the question on more bodybuilder’s lips than ever before. Are they safe? What works and what doesn't?

Lets have a look at the basics.

There are various reasons why athletes may be interested in supplementation.

· Concern about getting adequate nutrients from our food supply.

· Suspicion of pharmaceuticals.

· Belief that diet alone will not achieve optimal nutrition

The concerning thing about supplements is that anything classified as a dietary supplement is not required to meet any FDA or other standards! Think about that! there are no regulations in place that guarantee the safety or purity of something sold as a supplement.

They are also not made to meet the similar safety requirements as prescription drugs or any other manufacturing standards. They are not required to meet product potency or purity ratings and are not required to prove the effectiveness of any health claim that is made.

Studies suggest that a number of supplements may deliver on advertising claims. However, trainees are spending large sums of money on products that have little or no proven usefulness.

Personally I find the use of supplements over rated and as with strength training, supplementation asks the same question “if a little is good then maybe more has to be better”

Supplementation and steroids started to proliferate when volume strength training became the training system of the day. Young strength trainees slaving in the gym for five to six days a week was seen as normal. All this without making any progress or putting on any size whatsoever.

They then turned to the latest supplement or steroid thinking that this is the magic bullet to put on that added muscle when all the time they were just plain "overtraining"

The cold hard facts are that the majority of the regular trainees in your gym are overtraining. The sad reality is that the type of training that you find in bodybuilding books and magazines (and used by the stars) are irrelevant to the majority of the population and has a high failure rate.

If more bodybuilders started using more infrequent, short, high intensity weight training sessions, followed by the required amount of time to recover and become stronger…

MOST OF THE WEIGHT GAIN SUPPLEMENTS AND STERIODS AVAILABLE TODAY WOULD NOT BE NEEDED.

The bottom line on weight gain supplements:

· Before taking a supplement try to make modifications to your diet that might achieve the same goals. · Only choose products that show the amount of active ingredients on the label that are required. · Be aware that “natural” does not mean ‘safe’ · Some herbal supplements may have unpleasant side effects.

Listed below are some popular bodybuilding supplements available on the market today:

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Creatine monohydrate

Creatine was first introduced to the market place some eight years ago and has since become the most popular bodybuilding supplement of all time.

Creatine is said to significantly increase lean muscle mass, improve performance, increase energy levels and speed up recovery rates. Creatine also stimulates the uptake of amino acids in the proteins, which means that the more that it's used the more muscle that may be grown.

Dosage: A loading phase of 20grams a day for the first five days then a maintenance phase of 5grams a day from then on.

Whey Protein isolate

The highest yield of protein currently available and is extracted from milk. This is another popular supplement for athletes and bodybuilders because of its high proportion of amino acids. It is supposed to be high in potassium, which is essential for muscle growth and is an antioxidant and a good immune system builder. Dosage: 20gms - 100gms a day.

Tibulus Terrestris

Tribulus terrestris is a plant that grows in many tropical and moderate areas of the world and is very rich in chemical compounds such as saponins, flavonoids and alkaloids.

Tribulus terrestris is supposedly a testosterone enhancer and increases sex drives in both men and women.

Dosage as per bottle.

Glutamine

Is a non-essential amino acid, which makes up to 60% of the amino acids in the bodies muscles. Glutamine containing products are protein shakes and good quality protein powders; it can also be added to protein shakes for added potency.

Dosage: 5grams to 15 grams per day.

So please remember a supplement is something added to the diet to make up for a nutritional deficiency or imbalance they are not intended to substitute for eating a balanced diet. If they are to be taken at all they should only be used to supplement the diet and not replace it.

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Giving Up the Diet is the Only Way To Go If you're thinking of going on a diet to lose those extra pounds think again. Long-term weight control through

dieting is near impossible, for the simple reason is that diets promote only short term solutions not long term.

After dieting you’ll certainly look lighter on the scales, but in most cases this is because you've dumped a few pounds of body fluid and muscle, and not because you've lost any significant amounts of body fat.

One of the main reasons diets don't work is because they send the body into starvation mode - a survival mechanism for times when humans faced periods of famine. Cutting back on our energy intake causes the body to lower its metabolic rate, which reduces its ability to burn fat.

At the same time, hunger signals increase and we quickly start to crave high energy foods loaded with fats and sugars - the exact foods we are trying to do without!

Alarmingly, research has shown that repeated dieting actually makes it harder to lose weight and easier to put it on.

This is because when you dump the diet and return to normal eating habits, the drop in metabolic rate caused by the diet means that your old eating habits actually represent an excess in calories. Not only do you regain the fat stores just lost, but you may even gain a bit extra.

Five more reasons to stop dieting

1. Diets sap energy - Too little food means not enough energy for physical activity.

2. Diets lower your metabolism - Dieting causes your body to conserve energy, making results harder to achieve.

3. Diets are unhealthy - A cycle of rapid weight loss followed by weight gain can lead to a loss of lean tissue from your body and calcium from your bones. It also strips the body of essential vitamins and minerals.

4. Diets make food the enemy - Food provides nourishment and comfort. Diets can make you afraid to eat, depriving you of one of life's pleasures.

5. Diets cheat your confidence - Going from one failed diet to the next can leave you feeling depressed and create a cycle in which guilt battles against food.

Regular physical activity and a healthy, balanced diet aren't as glamorous as the quick fixes, but they do get better results.

Start with one extra exercise session and one less fatty takeaway meal per week, and gradually work towards a lifelong plan for achieving your best weight.

If you change the way you eat or exercise to lose weight, ask yourself this question. Can I see myself sticking to this routine for life?

If the answer is "no" then its time to change what you're doing. Any healthy weight loss plan should include the following:

· A wide variety of foods.

· Regular and enjoyable exercise.

· Enough filling foods to avoid constant hunger.

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· At least 1200 calories a day.

· Flexibility for treat foods and social occasions.

· A realistic goal of your best weight (not necessarily your lowest weight.)

Fact

A realistic weight loss is around one to two pounds per week. Fast weight losses are not fat loss but glycogen and water. If you lose weight quickly then you will probable return back to the weight at which you started as quickly as it was lost.

Fiction

· Weight loss is quick and simple. · Exercise is not necessary. · Certain exercises can spot reduce. · Carbohydrates (for example, bread, potatoes, rice, and pasta) are fattening.

So the way to lose body fat and maintain muscle is to have a food program for life and more energy output. Increase the amount of fruits, vegetables, non-fat dairy products, whole grains and beans that you eat.

Eliminate calorie-dense foods such as cookies, sugary desserts, chips, fries, pizza, candies, crackers etc. Research on people who have successfully lost a lot of weight and kept it off long term, shows that the vast majority succeeded by consuming a low fat diet high in fibre coupled with strength training and cardiovascular activity. These are the basics you'll need to aim for.

A sound weight loss eating plan should:

· Be nutritionally sound, providing all the nutrients you need.

· Never promise fast weight losses.

· Offer an eating plan based on real food.

· Allow you to eat out.

· Avoid expensive meal plans, products and supplements.

· Not avoid carbohydrate foods, e.g. bread, rice, pasta, cereals and potatoes.

· Make gradual dietary changes.

· Provide knowledge.

· Allow you to eat all foods

· Recommend physical activity.

Fat calories are more fattening than carbohydrate calories. Your body can easily convert the fat you eat in food into body fat, so to lose weight you need to cut down on fats and foods that contain it.

Consider the following steps to reduce fat in your diet.

· Use skimmed or skimmed milk in drinks, cooking and on cereals.

· Buy a non - stick frying pan.

· Buy a cheese slicer

· Cut the visible fat from meat.

· Eat very little pastry.

· Learn how to read a food label.

· Substitute low fat yoghurt for cream.

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· Remove the skin from chicken and turkey.

· Eat fruit as snacks rather than eating chocolate and biscuits.

· Eat fewer burgers and sausages.

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How to Substitute Fat in Your Everyday Diet Fat is a nutrient that is a contributor to the increasing problem of obesity in the world today. The number of fat cells is estimated to be around 50 billion for the average person. It can be up to 100 billion for the obese person.

Fat cells are like storage tanks of energy to be used for later use. It has been shown that obese people who binge eat may stimulate baby fat cells to sprout to increase the number of fat cells they have.

Fats are found in foods such as butter, margarine, oils, fats, dripping, nuts and oil seeds. Research conducted indicates that good fats such as fish oils especially deep sea fish, olive oil, canola oil, avocado and nuts contain important fatty acids which if taken by people aged 65 plus reduced the risk of a fatal heart attack by 44%.

Other names for fats include… Lard, animal shortening, coconut oil, palm oil, vegetable oil, butterfat, whole milk solids, copra, tallow, chocolate chips, shortening, margarine, cocoa butter.

Now lets have a look at the different types of fat. There are three types of fat to found in the diet.

Saturated fats - are found mainly in animal products and do the most damage and are the most related to the build-up of cholesterol in the arteries. . Research has indicated that saturated fats in the diet can increase LDL cholesterol levels in the blood, which is the unwanted cholesterol and should be avoided. The following foods contain this type of fat: - Meat - Dairy - Eggs - Cakes, biscuits and pastries

Monounsaturated fats - Monounsaturated fats help to decrease the cholesterol and LDL levels in the blood. The following foods contain this type of fat: - Olive Oil - Canola Oil - Peanut Oil

Polyunsaturated fats - Polyunsaturated fats in small quantities can help to decrease total cholesterol. Examples of polyunsaturated Fats would include vegetable oil and palm oil.

As pointed out before, consuming fats is the major culprit that leads to fat being on the human body mainly because fats are high in calories. I recommended that people eat less than 20% of total their total calories from fat.

We also know that eating too much fat leads to health problems and weight-gain, but we do need some healthy fats in our diet. Fats are a source of soluble vitamins A, D and E. Fats provide hormone production and skin health and protection of vital organs and insulation. Too much fat in the diet however, can increase the risk of a number of lifestyle diseases that are common in the western world.

So Please…

• Limit the saturated fats in your diet - which includes butter, cream, full-fat dairy products, fatty meats, cakes, pastries and fried foods.

• Choose lean meats where possible and trim visible fat and skin before cooking select low fat dairy products where possible

• Be aware of the hidden fats in processed foods and foods high in salt choose liquid fats over solid fats e.g. olive and canola oil over butter

• Include amounts of unsaturated or ‘good fats’ in your diet. Sources include fish, olive and canola oil, nuts and avocado

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• Also try to include the good omega-3 fats daily – fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, and sardines are good sources and try to eat three fish meals a week if you can.

Below is a list of fat substitutions that you can apply in your everyday diet whether it is at work, home, or dining out.

Current Food Change to

Cheese – High fat types…Cheddar and other hard cheeses.

Lower fat varieties e.g. Edam, Cottage, Mozzarella, Ricotta, Gouda.

Chips/French fries Thick cut ‘wedges’ or oven baked chips

Chocolate Eat in moderation and buy the best quality. Substitute jelly babies or other sugar treat

Cream Reduced fat cream, use low-fat yoghurt or evaporated skim milk

Creamed Soups Check label for fat, use clear soups

Croissants, pastries Bagels, bread rolls, finger buns

Custard Low fat custard

Doughnuts Crumpets, plain scones, raisin loaf

Ice Cream Reduced fat varieties

Meat (beef, lamb, pork) Lean beef, trim lamb, new pork or other 90%. Fat free cuts/mince

Muesli Bars Check label for fat, buy breakfast bars, power bars

Pies Reduced fat pies, use filo pastry

Potato Crisps Pretzels

Salad dressings – Mayonnaise, French Use vinegar or lemon juice

Savoury biscuits Wheat crisp bread

Sweet biscuits Plain biscuits wheat meal

TV meals Lower fat varieties (check label for fat)

There are many ways to achieving a reduced fat diet. Here are some examples:

Breakfast

· If you like butter or margarine on toast, only have it on the last slice you eat.

· If you don’t feel like a solid breakfast, have a fruit smoothie.

· Mix up your own cereal from two or three types and give your creation a name.

Lunch

· If you eat lunch away from home, plan it the night before. Make sandwiches before bed.

· Try some thick vegetable soup with a fresh bread roll to dip.

· Invest in a cool bag to keep your lunch fresh.

Dinner

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· Try oven-baked potato wedges with a salsa topping.

· Go for fresh pasta with a quick tomato and basil sauce.

· For dessert, have a piece of fresh fruit with a yoghurt topping.

Snacks

· Salsa dip with pretzels

· Plain fruit loaf

· Yoghurt

· Vanilla dairy custard.

Before a workout

· Small glass of fruit juice

· Banana and Custard

· Half a slice of toast with jam.

After a workout

· Fruit/canned fruit

· Wheat Bites

· Rice cakes with honey.

At Work

· On your desk – bottle of water or glass to use at the water dispenser.

· In your desk – piece of fruit, small pull-top can of baked beans/creamed corn/stewed fruit.

· Bring a few ingredients from home to be combined at work.

· Keep some cutlery where you work.

On a Plane

· Order a special meal when you book your ticket. You’ll usually get served first.

· Ask for an extra roll or two.

At the Hotel

· Take your own favourite cereal and reduced fat milk.

· Ask that the foods be removed from the snack bar. Eat your own low fat nibbles.

Take-Outs

· Burger Bar – Plain grilled burger, skim milk milkshake.

· Pizza Parlour – Gourmet pizza with lots of veggies, go easy on the cheese.

· Kebab House – A little meat with a lot of salad.

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· Sandwich Bar – Salad sandwiches/Rolls.

· Club – A little meat, heaps of mashed/jacked potato and veggies, pasta/rice.

· Indian – Lots of boiled rice, tikka, plain naan, dahl soup, raita.

· Chinese – Lots of boiled rice, chop suey, steamed dishes, plain noodles.

· Italian – Tomato-based dishes, plain bread.

Suggestions in General

• Record your food intake to identify problem areas. (Eg. Emotional eating, unwanted hunger craves, over-eating)

• Pay specific attention to the times when you over eat.

• Try to avoid severe food restriction (like fasting, low calorie dieting).

• When measuring your progress, monitor body fat levels, not weight throw the scale out.

• Aim for moderate fat loss (one pound / week)

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Muscle Gain Visualization Tips We now move into an area that is far too neglected by mainstream health and fitness professionals, the mind. Most books or courses concentrate on the physical side of weight gain and completely neglect the mental side of things.

Visualization can play an important part in gaining weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Gaining weight can be difficult for many people who don’t use their minds to help in the process.

Visualization is a powerful technique that can help you make lasting lifestyle changes. Just by "day dreaming", you can significantly improve your chances in achieving your goals.

Visualization is a great weight gain tool and its as simple as visualizing your body as you want your body to look like. This mental image of yourself is then transferred to your subconscious mind, which in turn starts to work on your body, shaping it in accordance with your mental image.

This means that if you program your subconscious with a mental image of yourself as a more muscular person, through persistence your mind will accept this and aid your body to conform to this mental image.

Once your mind is programmed with the proper mental images, it will start to work in assisting you to gain weight. I can't stress enough how important it is for you to believe in your visualization goals. You have to let go of your past failures and refuse to entertain any negative images that come into your mind. If you can visualize your body at its perfect proportions, the subconscious mind will work to make it become a reality. It will then begin to positively reinforce your body into aiding the metabolism and eating habits.

Programming your mind into believing that you can gain weight, and to visualize yourself with your perfect proportions is of the greatest importance.

Try to think of a different image of yourself, then let your subconscious do the work for you. If you think of your body as being out of shape all the time, then the subconscious mind will find ways to make it so.

The sub-conscious looks after all of all your vital functions, it is the cause of all your good and bad habits, and also regulates the muscles of the body (The muscles are controlled by the sub-conscious) and body-fat composition on the body.

Try to visualize your body as lean and as muscular as you would like, and your mind will work on that image. The mind can be a great partner in gaining weight. Relaxation

Relaxation the best way to reach the sub-conscious and will slow down the mind, turn off the exterior world so as to tune in to one's inner self. The best times for these sessions are in the morning and late at night right, just before going to sleep.

Perform two sessions, one in the afternoon (Primary) and the other before going to sleep (Secondary) but once a day is quite sufficient. Sessions usually last 20 minutes, which isn't time consuming especially when taking in the benefits received.

It has been stated that one of these sessions is equivalent to 2 hours of deep sleep and upon waking you will feel revitalized and full of energy. Believe me instead of worrying about time constraints; you will be looking forward to the next session.

When you begin your relaxation sessions, make sure you won't be disturbed - lock the door, take the phone off the hook and loosen all clothing. Now find a comfortable position, whether it is lying down or sitting in a comfortable chair.

Sitting may be preferable as you may fall asleep if you become too comfortable. You want to be conscious and not asleep in order to tap into your sub-conscious mind.

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Try to exhale all the air from your lungs completely and then breathing in through the nose. Take ten seconds to fill the lungs with air (not to capacity, but comfortable) hold for ten seconds and then exhale slowly through the nose for another ten seconds.

Each one of these breathing cycles should last for 30 seconds, complete five cycles and after each cycle you will be feeling more and more relaxed.

Having reaching this calm relaxed state, start your visualizations. Put together images that power your emotions. Make them alive and colourful. Make the scenes as real as possible and imagine yourself as muscular and toned as possible.

Picture yourself ten weeks from now on the beach, walking briskly and confidently to your favourite spot, your breathing is normal and relaxed. You smile to yourself; you could keep walking like this for miles without feeling fatigued.

You lay your towel out and begin to take your clothes off revealing a muscular, toned, well conditioned body. You have just bought a brand new swimming suit which just weeks before would have been lying in your closet waiting to be used.

Glancing around you notice the beach is busy, you catch the eye of someone of the opposite sex, they smile at you and you smile back. You walk confidently to the water and swim a couple of hundred yards with no problem or fatigue.

Or try this:

Visualize your family and friends complimenting you about how good your body looks. Try to view the scene as it is happening this instant - in the present, not in the future.

Using these visualizations you can construct in your mind any scene that desire. See yourself exercising, socializing, in the company of friends. Try and hear people complimenting you about your new muscular body, and watch their admiring glances. Make the mental image as real as possible.

• Remember set a goal for your ideal weight

• You must want to gain weight

• Visualize yourself at your ideal weight

• Use positive images at every opportunity

Practice these sessions on a daily basis and over a period of ten weeks you’ll be on your way to become more fulfilled, happier and muscular.

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Positive Imaging for Weight Loss Visualization can play an important part in losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle that keeps it off. Losing weight can be difficult for many people who use fad diets and pills to achieve their weight loss goals without letting their mind help in the process.

Visualization is a powerful technique that can help you make lasting lifestyle changes. Just by "day dreaming", you can significantly improve your chances in achieving your goals.

Visualization is a great weight loss tool and its as simple as visualizing your body as you want your body to look like. This mental image of yourself is then transferred to your subconscious mind, which in turn starts to work on your body, shaping it in accordance with your mental image thus reducing your weight.

This means that if you program your subconscious with a mental image of yourself as a slimmer person, through persistence your mind will accept this and aid your body to conform to this mental image.

Once your mind is programmed with the proper mental images, it will start to work in assisting you to losing weight. I can’t stress enough how important it is for you to believe in your visualization goals. You have to let go of past dieting failures and refuse to entertain any negative images that come into your mind. If you can visualize your body at its perfect weight and proportions, the subconscious mind will work to make it become a reality. It will then begin to positively reinforce your body into aiding the metabolism and eating habits. Programming your mind into believing that you can lose weight, and to visualize yourself at your ideal weight is of the greatest importance.

Try to think of a different image of yourself, then let your subconscious do the work for you. If you think of your own body fat and being out of shape all the time, then the subconscious mind will find ways to make it so.

The subconscious looks after all of all your vital functions, it is the cause of all your good and bad habits, and also regulates muscle (the muscles are controlled by the subconscious) and body-fat composition on the body, and the latter is the one we are most interested in.

So please try to visualize your body as lean as you would like, and your mind will work on that image. The mind can be a great partner in losing weight.

Getting Rid of Bad Nutritional Habits

A bad habit is like second nature and is acquired over a long period of time. Bad habits are programmed into the subconscious and “will power” alone will not get rid of it. Many try using all sorts of different ways to break it but without success.

Obesity is the result of bad nutritional habits and some of the causes are boredom, stress, tension and different complexes. Food becomes the substitution for these causes and before too long, obesity sets in. Most people become concerned that they’re obese, eat more and a vicious cycle is established.

The only way for lasting permanent weight loss is to break these bad habits and replace them with positive new ones, and the only way to do this is with visualization. Visualization puts you in charge of your subconscious where all these bad programs are stored.

All the will power in the world is not going to break these bad habits unless one has the help of their subconscious.

Relaxation

Relaxation the best way to reach the sub-conscious and will slow down the mind, turn off the exterior world so as to tune in to one’s inner self. The best times for these sessions are in the morning and late at night right, just before going to sleep.

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Try performing two sessions, one in the afternoon (primary) and the other before going to sleep (secondary) but once a day is quite sufficient. Sessions usually last 20 minutes, which isn’t time consuming especially when taking in the benefits received.

It has been stated that one of these sessions is equivalent to 2 hours of deep sleep and upon waking you will feel revitalized and full of energy. Believe me instead of worrying about time constraints; you will be looking forward to the next session.

When you begin your relaxation sessions, make sure you won’t be disturbed - lock the door, take the phone off the hook and loosen all clothing. Now find a comfortable position, whether it is lying down or sitting in a comfortable chair.

Sitting may be preferable as you may fall asleep if you become too comfortable. You want to be conscious and not asleep in order to tap into your sub-conscious mind.

Try to exhale all the air from your lungs completely and then breathing in through the nose. Take ten seconds to fill the lungs with air (not to capacity, but comfortable) hold for ten seconds and then exhale slowly through the nose for another ten seconds.

Each one of these breathing cycles should last for 30 seconds, complete five cycles and after each cycle you will be feeling more and more relaxed.

If you are sitting, open your eyes and look straight ahead. If you are lying down, open your eyes and stare at the ceiling. After a few minutes, slowly close your eyes.

Having reaching this calm relaxed state start your visualizations. Put together images that power your emotions. Make them alive and colourful. Make the scenes as real as possible and imagine yourself as slim and toned the way you will look after successful weight loss.

Picture yourself ten weeks from now on the beach, walking briskly and confidently to your favourite spot, your breathing is normal and relaxed. You smile to yourself; you could keep walking like this for miles without feeling fatigued.

You lay your towel out and begin to take your clothes off revealing a firm, toned, well conditioned body. You have just bought a brand new swimming suit which just weeks before would have been lying in your closet waiting to be used.

Glancing around you notice the beach is busy, you catch the eye of someone of the opposite sex, they smile at you and you smile back. You walk confidently to the water and swim a couple of hundred yards with no problem or fatigue.

Or try this:

Visualize your family and friends complimenting you about how good your body looks and how slim you look. Try to view the scene as it is happening this instant - in the present, not in the future.

Using these visualizations you can construct in your mind any scene that desire. See yourself exercising, socializing, in the company of friends. Try and hear people complimenting you about your slim new body, and watch their admiring glances. Make the mental image as real as possible.

• Remember set a goal for your ideal weight

• You must want to lose weight

• Visualize yourself at your ideal weight

• Use positive images at every opportunity

Practice these sessions on a daily basis and over a period of ten weeks you’ll be on your way to become more fulfilled, happier and leaner.

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Steps to Avoiding Gym Rage

Many of us go through this at our local gym or fitness centre on a regular basis, we become increasingly frustrated as a group of trainees chat away their experiences of the day on a bench or on at a piece of equipment for fifteen minutes while you are waiting to use it.

Or someone is standing directly in front of the barbell rack doing tiny lateral raises when you want to get at the heavy weights. Or casuals using equipment favoured by the regulars and often looked at like pieces of personal furniture for their own use.

All this builds up stress especially between the months of January and April when the newcomers hit the gyms and fitness centres in an attempt to lose the weight gained over the Christmas and New Year period. In trying to realise their New Year’s resolutions they overcrowd the aerobics area and take over the weight room leaving weights lying around and causing queues for equipment. Regulars of the gym experience these problems and tempers start to flare in a phenomenon becoming known as "Gym Rage"

During this testing time, all gym-goers, both new and experienced and the employees of the fitness clubs know that the newcomers usually only last until April and after that their good intentions run out. To help you through this stressful time have a look at and follow some of the hints below:

• Stand at the back of the aerobics class when you first start, as you will usually find the hard-core regulars will be down the front.

• Their are no rules that govern how many members a gym can sign up, causing some fitness centres to become overcrowded with everybody wanting to use them in the morning and afternoon on their way to and from work. So try to plan your visit to the gym a little earlier than usual or later in the day or evening. There is only one effective way to beat the January to April rush and that is to workout out late at night after 7.00pm

• Talking on your cell phone whilst you are working out, this will tie up a machine or piece of equipment for a long time causing problems. It’s recommended that you turn off your cell phone whilst at the gym.

• Don't hog the machines; try not to go over the time limits set on the particular machine you are using. If there is a time limit please stick to it. The thing that annoys most people is the way people sit on a machine knocking out set after set. By performing one set to muscular failure and moving on will free up the machines for use by the next person.

• Wipe the machines down after use, try not to leave your sweat on the piece of equipment you have just used, use a towel to separate yourself from the machine while you make use of it and wipe it down thoroughly after use.

• Don't drop the weights onto the ground and don’t clang them loudly as this is very off-putting to the other members. Make sure you return the weights to there correct place on the racks when you're finished with them even though you might have found them lying on the floor.

• One thing you don't want to do is constantly ask people if they've finished using a machine when they're obviously still exercising on it. If anything the trainee will try to sit on it longer just to annoy you. Be patient; don't interrupt them while they are lifting, wait until they finish their set first.

• A gym isn't a social club don’t stand around in large groups chatting especially if you have a machine in use, do your talking in the locker room or at reception.

• Don’t leave your towel or other personal items lying around on a bench or piece of equipment if you are not using it. Leave your training space as clean as the way you found it. If the equipment is unattended for more than five minutes go ahead and use it, but be prepared to share also, let people work in with you if the difference in weight is not too large. Leave enough space around you so that other people can approach the weight rack and get the equipment they need.

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• Don’t scream when you are going for that personal best lift, remember that the others around you are concentrating on their own work out to and don't need to hear you screaming out for attention. Exhaling loudly as you contract the muscles during your set is fine.

• Don’t hog the water fountain, only take a few mouthfuls of water and then move away, don’t fill up your huge water bottle with cold water and leave warm drinking water for the rest of the members.

• Follow the gyms code of conduct usually seen on the walls of the gym or fitness centre, if trainees are not following the code report it to management don’t take it into your own hands.

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The Pros and Cons of Fad Dieting It is very tempting to try that fad diet that you have found in the latest magazine that promises the world with fantastic fat losses without doing a thing. Just take a couple of fat burning pills follow the diet and then bang! A brand new you in a couple of weeks.

The sad fact is they do not work, they just provide more suffering in your efforts to lose weight, the only thing you lose is your hard earned money.

Firstly we will look at the latest fad diets on the scene at the moment, their pros and cons and then you will be shown how to save your time, money and unnecessary suffering by pointing you in the right direction for permanent weight loss.

The latest studies show that 90 per cent of fad dieters regained everything they had lost and even gained more within eighteen months.

The Atkins Diet

The body burns carbohydrates and then fat for energy. This diet recommends limiting the intake of starchy, high carb foods so that the fat is burned first. So by eating meat, cheese and eggs and keeping bread and potatoes to a minimum, fat is lost.

Pros: Steak with cheese topping, Chocolate mocha ice cream and pork scratchings.

Cons: Studies show high protein diets lead to increased risk of heart disease, colon cancer, bad breath (halitosis) and constipation. Consuming more carbohydrate that can be used by the body will store this excess in fat cells.

The Zone Diet

This diet claims to decrease hunger and boost energy by keeping your bodies eating habits in the zone or at its peak. This is done by keeping all your meals and snacks in the ratio of 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, 30% fats.

Pros: Being a low calorie diet, you can't help but lose weight.

Cons: Very difficult to adhere to the strict regime the diet requires. Will experience metabolism slow down because of low calories and will lead to starvation response which will eat away at the muscle tissue while retaining the fat.

The Blood Group Diet

By having a blood test and determining your blood group, this then tells you how you can absorb nutrients, thus you can plan your diet accordingly. Different blood groups can eat different food groups.

Pros: Another calorie restricting diet so weight will be lost.

Cons: There appears to be little clinical and scientific evidence behind this diet and by the elimination of whole food groups important nutritional deficiencies are likely with long term health problems encountered.

The Ashram Diet

This diet is basically a very low calorie diet (near starvation) which is coupled with a very high intensity exercise regime. A sample of this diet would include: One boiled egg for breakfast, a green salad for lunch and a baked potato with salsa for dinner.

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Pros: A very quick weight loss, 10 - 15 lbs in a week (Mostly muscle tissue and water).

Cons: Fast weight loss leads to many unpleasant side effects such as bad breath, bone loss, constipation, deprivation of nutrients (vitamins and minerals), muscle loss, metabolism slow down, headaches and poor sleep. Who would want all these problems for the sake of quick weight loss where the weight will eventually be put back on and more in a couple of months?

The Hay Diet

The main rule to follow for this diet is to not eat protein and carbohydrates together. Combination of these two foods together appears to prevent protein from being digested in the gut and can lead to an accumulation of toxins. Vegetables and fruit form the bulk of the diet with very small portions of protein and carbs.

Pros: Plenty of fruit and veggies in the diet means plenty of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

Cons: There doesn't appear to be too much scientific evidence about food combinations and by limiting yourself to certain food groups you will miss out on important nutrients.

All these diets work because of a drastic cut in calories, when this happens our metabolic rate can be brought down in a matter of 36 hours by as much as 50% which means your body is now burning only half of your calories. To compound matters further, hunger kicks in after a period of inadequate eating setting you up for over eating and binging.

Everyone is an individual so have to be careful of diets that require you to set out what types of foods and quantities you have to eat at every meal. Just because a movie star lost weight on a fad diet doesn't mean that you will. Before starting a weight loss program take into account your age, fitness levels, activity levels and medical history.

A real weight loss program includes all the food groups, strength training, low level aerobics, a slight decrease in your daily calorie levels and a program that can be followed for life.

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Weight Gain Myths The vast majority of myths about weight gain are mostly passed down from "gym talk" and so-called experts who know nothing about the body's workings. Myths that lead to wasted time, frustration and if are taken blindly as truth, can really set back your progress in the gym. Don't believe everything you hear in the gym when it comes to exercise and weight gain, do the research yourself.

Simple, basic principles apply to all weight and muscle gain such as progressive overload, variable frequency of reps and high intensity workouts. Lets take a look at some of the most common weight gain myths.

High repetitions burn fat while low repetitions build muscle

Progressive overload is needed to make muscles bigger. Meaning that you need to perform more reps than you did for your last workout for that particular exercise. If you perform the same amount of reps at each workout nothing will change on you, also if the weight doesn’t changes on the bar nothing will change on you. You need to become stronger.

Definition has two characteristics, muscle size and a low incidence of body fat. To reduce body fat you will have to reduce your calories; the high repetition exercise will burn some calories, but wouldn't it be better to fast walk to burn these off? Better still; use the low reps to build muscle, which will elevate your metabolism and burn more calories (less fat).

Vegetarians can’t build muscle

Yes they can! Strength training with supplementation of soy Protein Isolate has shown to increase solid bodyweight. Studies have shown that athletic performance is not impaired by following a meat free diet, and people strength training and consuming only soy protein isolate as a protein source were able to gain lean muscle mass.

Strength Training will make you look Masculine

If it is not you’re intention to bulk up from strength training you won’t. Putting on muscle is a long hard slow process. Your strength-training regime coupled with quality food will determine how much you will bulk up. To bulk up you also require more food. Women don't produce enough testosterone to allow for muscular growth as large as men.

By working out you can eat what ever you want to

Of course you can eat whatever you want, if you don't care how you want to look. Working out does not give you an open license to consume as many calories as you want. Although you will burn more calories if you workout than someone who doesn't, you still need to balance your energy intake with you energy expenditure.

If you take a week off you will lose most of your gains

Taking one or two weeks off occasionally will not harm your training. By taking this time off every eight to ten weeks in between strength training cycles it has the habit of refreshing you and to heal those small niggling injuries. By having longer layoffs you do not actually lose muscle fibres, just volume through not training, any size loss will be quickly re-gained.

By eating more protein I can build bigger muscles

Building muscle mass involves two things, progressive overload to stimulate muscles beyond their normal levels of resistance and eating more calories than you can burn off. With all the hype about high protein diets

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lately and because muscle is made of protein, it’s easy to believe that protein is the best fuel for building muscle, however muscles work on calories which should predominately be derived from carbohydrates.

If I'm not sore after a workout, I didn't work out hard enough

Post workout soreness is not an indication of how good the exercise or strength training session was for you. The fitter you are at a certain activity, the less soreness you will experience after. As soon as you change an exercise, use a heavier weight or do a few more reps you place extra stress on that body part and this will cause soreness.

Resistance training doesn't burn fat

Nothing could not be further from the truth. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue and has a role in increasing the metabolism. The faster metabolism we have the quicker we can burn fat. Cardio exercise enables us to burn calories whilst exercising but does little else for fat loss afterwards.

Weight training enables us to burn calories whilst exercising but also helps us to burn calories whilst at rest. Weight training encourages muscle growth and the more lean muscle mass we possess, the more fat we burn though an increased and elevated metabolism.

No pain no gain

This is one myth that hangs on and on. Pain is your body signalling that something is wrong. If you feel real pain during a workout, stop your workout and rest. To develop muscle and increase endurance you may need to have a slight level of discomfort, but that's not actual pain.

Taking steroids will make me huge

Not true, strength training and correct nutrition will grow muscle. Taking steroids without training will not make you muscular.

Most steroids allow faster muscle growth through greater recovery, while others help increase strength which allows for greater stress to be put onto a muscle. Without food to build the muscle or training to stimulate it nothing will happen. Most of the weight gain seen with the use of some steroids is due to water retention and is not actual muscle.

Strength training won’t work your heart

Wrong!! Strength training with short rest periods will increase your heartbeat well over a hundred beats per minute. For example, performing a set of breathing squats and you can be guaranteed that your heart will be working overtime and that your entire cardiovascular system will be given a great overall body workout.

Any intensive weightlifting routine that lasts for 20 minutes or more is a great workout for your heart and the muscles involved.

I can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time

Wrong. Only a few gifted people with superb genetics can increase muscle size while not putting on body fat. But for the average hard gainer, they have to increase their muscle mass to its maximum potential and then cut down their body fat percentage to achieve the desired shape.

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Weight Loss Myths Every regime has its supply of useless folk lore and half-truths that get passed on down the line from person to person. But I'd put weight loss up against any of them for what has to be the most time wasting and even the most dangerous myths out there.

There is a ton of free advice seen in the media these days and if it is taken seriously, can really set you back on your weight loss endeavours. This can lead to the kind of frustration that makes people think they are "destined to remain fat for life”.

This in not true, Have a look at the Weight loss myths below and draw your own conclusions.

Exercise on an empty stomach and burn more fat

Effective weight loss is the total amount of calories burned during the day, not how or why they were burned. It doesn't matter if it is night or morning, so exercise early in the day has no advantage to exercise later in the day.

Studies show that increased metabolism induced by anaerobic exercise is actually less after a large meal. Which probably means that more energy is being used for digestion than what is being used to repair muscle.

More exercise is better

Every exercise session is beneficial to each individual, however more is not always better. It depends on what is trying to be achieved. There is a level and frequency required to achieve results.

After this level is reached, additional exercise can have the opposite effect, not allowing the body to recuperate and adapt to the stress induced by the exercise, which can be detrimental to your results.

After stopping exercise muscle will turn to fat

This in not possible, Muscle and fat are two different types of tissues in the body and you cannot convert one into the other. This is like trying to turn water into milk. If you stop training, the muscles will shrink in size - and do not disappear. The more calories taken in that are not burned off will be deposited as fat.

If you’re not sweating, you’re not working hard enough

Sweating is the body's way of cooling itself down. Many factors contribute to body temperature, including room temperature, types of exercise done, body-fat levels, clothing, and exercise intensity. The intensity for exercise can't be judged by the amount you sweat.

A well-trained person will often sweat a lot because their body can more efficiently regulate heat.

Taking sugar before exercise to raise energy levels

Ingestion of sugar will lead to a rapid rise in blood sugar levels. This rapid rise stimulates a release of insulin, which quickly removes the excess sugar from the blood system, often causing your blood sugar levels to drop, sometimes below the level that it started at, leading to faster exhaustion.

Gaining weight is just a part of getting older

Getting older is not an excuse for gaining weight! As we age and begin a more sedentary lifestyle we start to lose muscle mass. The efficiency of your metabolism is directly linked to how much muscle you have on your body. The most efficient way of maintaining your body's muscle mass and keeping your metabolism from dropping, is by doing a high intensity strength training workout once a week.

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X is the best form of exercise

Claims like this are usually based on marketing strategy and personal bias. Even when claims are based on factual information, they have little practical value to the average exerciser. The most important thing is to choose an activity that you like, and perform it properly and consistently.

If it’s fat free I can have as much as I want

Unfortunately fat free doesn't mean calorie free. The word fat free is misleading because if you overeat on anything, even fat free foods and you don't burn off those calories, your body will store the excess as fat.

Don't drink water when you exercise or you will get cramps

By drinking litres of icy cold water in one go while exercising you will probably suffer from cramps. This is why it is important to drink water continuously before, during and after exercising to replace the fluid you've lost and avoid any discomfort.

By not having a personal trainer I wont make gains

Hiring a personal trainer is one way you can use to reach your goals, but you are an adult capable of making decisions and setting your own goals once you have the knowledge of how to go about it. Following a good exercise program and eating plan does not require someone standing over you and telling you how to do it.

By exercising my abs I will lose my pot belly

Exercising your abdominals will help to tone and firm the abdominal region, but it will not reduce fat deposits that are responsible for a pot belly. Fat reduction comes from burning more calories than you take in. Fat is reduced uniformly throughout the body there is no such thing as spot reduction.

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What is the Glycemic Index?

Over the last 30 years, research into food and blood glucose response has completely changed our

carbohydrate classification system.

It has been learned that it is impossible to predict the impact on blood glucose levels by certain foods, instead people are fed carbohydrate foods and the response measured.

This response is known as the Glycemic Index (GI), it is a measure of how quickly carbohydrate foods are digested and absorbed, and ranks carbohydrate foods according to their impact on blood sugar (glucose) levels: as indicted by elevated blood glucose.

Foods with a high GI are absorbed quickly into the blood stream and cause a rapid rise in blood glucose levels. While foods with a low GI are broken down more slowly over time and keep blood glucose levels more stable (Remember that low is slow!).

Some carbohydrate foods will maintain your energy levels for hours, while some may cause your blood glucose to rise and fall. Different types of carbohydrate can also affect feelings of fullness in the stomach and this can influence hunger and your ability to control your body weight.

Why is the GI important?

When our blood glucose levels are stable we have plenty of readily available fuel for the brain and muscles. If our blood glucose levels drop too low (hypoglycaemia) we feel tired, dizzy and generally unwell. If our blood glucose levels rise too quickly a rapid drop usually follows this.

Include low glycemic index foods in meals and snacks to slow the release of glucose into the bloodstream. A low glycemic index snack a few hours before exercise will help maintain your energy levels for more effective training.

After high intensity exercise (strength training) a high glycemic index snack should be consumed within 30 minutes. This will help to replace energy and start the recovery process.

Low-GI foods take longer to digest and help delay hunger pangs that little bit more and thus promote weight loss. So please choose your carbs carefully as this will lower your insulin levels and burn more fat. The secret is to swap high GI foods with low GI foods.

Simple steps to a low GI diet

Step No 1

Start with a healthy, well balanced and varied diet based on a good nutrition program. The diet should be low in fats, moderate in carbohydrate and protein. The program should be high in fibre and contain a varied amount of foods to provide the required amount of vitamins and minerals.

Step No 2

Look at the type of carbohydrates that you consume during the day. Look at the carbs that you eat the most, as these will have the most dramatic impact on your diet.

Try to change the carbs you eat the most with at least one low GI one. (Replace potato with sweet potato, use noodles instead of rice) By substituting half of your daily carbohydrate from high GI to low GI will result in an overall reduction in the GI of your diet.

Reducing the GI in your diet reduces your insulin levels and increases the fat burning apparatus in your body. Try to reduce the high GI's in your diet by substituting them with low GI's.

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Regular consumption of low GI foods increases the feelings of fullness and satisfaction and so prevents weight gain. Try taking in six small meals a day of healthy low fat low GI foods to prevent overeating at meal times and control appetite.

Remember, that it is also important to look at the calories in food to. Rice and bread might be low in fat but when your body is burning the carbohydrates in these foods it doesn't burn as much fat. So if you are on a low fat diet, you wont lose as much weight if your calories are still high.

Have a look at the table below for the different GI food ratings.

Low GI (<50) Medium GI (50-70) High GI (70>)

Grapefruit (26) Pineapple (66) Cornflakes (80)

Baked Beans (15) Raisins (64) W/M Bread (72)

Lentils (29) Sweet corn (59) Brown Rice (80)

Peanuts (13) Potato Chips (51) Carrots (92)

Soy Beans (15) All bran (51) Baked Potato (98)

Compare these two menus and try to adjust your diet accordingly.

High GI Menu

Breakfast: 40 Grams of cornflakes with milk. Two slices of whole meal toast with margarine and jam.

Snack: Two sweet biscuits with a white coffee.

Lunch: Ham and salad whole meal Roll with an apple.

Snack: Four crackers with cottage cheese and chives

Main Meal: Serving of Roast chicken with a large baked potato and peas. Small piece of cake.

Low GI Menu

Breakfast: 40 Grams of bran with low fat milk. Two slices of low GI toast (Try Burgen) with margarine and jam.

Snack: Two oatmeal biscuits with a coffee (Low fat milk).

Lunch: Ham and salad Roll (Low GI bread). Soft-serve vanilla yoghurt with toasted muesli sprinkled on top.

Snack: Two bananas.

Main Meal: Serving of Roast chicken with a small baked potato and peas. Two scoops of low fat ice cream with half a cup of canned peaches.

Chicken, beef, fish, eggs, nuts, and avocados contain very little or no carbohydrates. These foods if eaten by themselves will not have much effect on your glucose levels and are very low GI. Alcoholic beverages especially wine are also low GI so can be included in your diet but remember to count them in your daily caloric intake.

Low GI foods are ideal for losing weight due to the slow absorption from the stomach. Low GI foods also help to keep blood sugar levels more stable and this has an effect on reducing sweet cravings.

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Workout Without a Gym

We know that using free weights and machines is the fastest and most efficient way there is to improve your

metabolism and strength, but for many reasons these may not be convenient or readily accessible to you.

You may also have no access to a commercial gym, home gym or are on business trip, but there can be a solution, a strength-training workout without the need of expensive machines.

As with any exercise, whether you are using your own body weight, machines or free weights, if the resistance doesn't increase, your muscles won't be worked to their maximum capacity and the stimulus these fibres need to grow will be missing.

Exercises done correctly will build the lean muscle and increase your metabolism in the same way as performing exercises at a gymnasium, but without the time constraints and associated costs.

These exercises can be easily done in a bedroom, hotel room, a park, school yard, ceiling rafters in a garage or in a doorway and all you have to do is use your imagination. There will always be a way to add more resistance to your workouts.

Please remember: It doesn't matter where you are working out — at home, a hotel, or a park — always warm up properly before beginning your session, and cool down and stretch when you are finished.

Leg Exercises

Squats

They build muscle in the thighs, shape the buttocks and improve endurance. Position your feet about 13 to 17 inches apart or at shoulder width, keeping the back straight and your head up. If you want you can use something that will give you some support, i.e. a desk, bookcase, sink etc.

Now squat down to where the tops of the thighs are parallel to the floor, hold for a second and then stand up, but don’t bounce at the bottom of the movement, use a nice fluid motion. Always exhale your breath as you stand up.

Lunges

Stand straight in correct posture; now stand with one leg forward and one leg back. Keeping your abdominal muscles tight and chest up, lower your upper body down, bending your leg (don't step out too far).

You should have about one to two feet between your feet at this stage, the further forward you step, and the more your gluteus and hamstring muscles will have to work.

Do not allow your knee to go forward beyond your toes as you come down and stop where your feel comfortable (try not to let your back come forward) then push directly back up. Do all your reps on one leg then switch legs and do all your reps on the other leg.

Back Exercises

Chin-ups

Chin-ups are a great upper body workout, particularly targeting your biceps, deltoid and lat muscles. Use a doorway chin-up bar, ceiling rafters in a garage or grab the moulding of your door frame, position your hands with an under hand grip and hang down stretching the lats, slowly raise your body until your chin reaches the bar level.

Pause a moment before slowly lowering yourself back to the starting position. Don’t swing or use momentum to get your body to the top, just use the target muscles. Doorway chinning bars remove from the doorway when you are not using them and can be put up and taken down in seconds.

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Bent Over Row

Take up a position with your right hand and right knee braced on a sturdy bed or some other flat surface that will provide a good support. Now pick up a dumbbell or something heavy that you can hold onto with your left hand.

Visualize your arms as hooks and slowly bring the dumbbell or object up to the side of your chest, keeping your back straight, then lower the weight back down to arms length, no lower, on extremes, safe form only please. Concentrate on your back muscles. Reverse the whole procedure and do the exercise now with your right arm.

Chest Exercises

Push-Up

The push up is used for building chest, shoulders and arms. Lie face down on the floor with your hands about shoulder width apart and keeping your palms turned slightly inward. Now push-up until your arms are straight, lower and repeat for repetitions.

To make it more difficult elevate your feet. Try placing the toes of your feet on a stable, elevated surface such as a bench, chair or a stair. Straightening your body, position your hands on the floor at shoulder width, lower your body until your chest touches the floor at the bottom, and then return to the starting position in a nice fluid motion.

Dips

This exercise can be done between two sturdy chairs or other surfaces that provide stability. The dip is another great upper body exercise. It’s a compound movement as well and involves working all the muscles that the push up works.

Keep your head up and body as vertical as possible. For the beginning of the movement, start at the top (arms fully extended) and lower yourself until your upper arms are parallel to the seat of the chairs, hold and then push up to the top of the movement until your arms are fully extended again. Keep looking straight ahead and don’t bounce at the bottom of the movement.

Adding Weight

Although the simple weight of your own body is enough resistance to provide an effective workout we need progressive overload (added resistance) to become stronger.

So all we need to do is add some weight wherever we can find some. Because there are no metal plates and fancy machines to use it doesn’t matter because the body doesn’t care where it is as long as it's receiving resistance of some kind.

You can use heavy books clasped in your hands. You can buy some cheap weighted dumbbells or ankle weights. A weighted vest will also allow you to add resistance for both chin-ups and push-ups. Try to buy one that will let you remove and add weight as you see fit. Also a backpack filled with books can be perfect for most of the exercises and is a cheap alternative.

How about a couple of buckets and fill them with a certain level of water? As you get stronger fill them with more water. This is perfect because depending on the exercise, all you need to do is to increase or decrease the amount of water in the buckets for the required amount of resistance.

To wrap things up…

We know that using free weights and machines are the fastest and most efficient way there is to gain lean muscle and strength, but by performing the exercises in this article you’ll find that they will provide you with the same benefits as going to a gymnasium but without the ongoing costs and time constraints.

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About Gary Matthews

As the official online trainer, Gary Matthews brings over 20 years of

experience in the Health and Fitness Industry to MaximumFitness.

Gary’s professional career began in the Royal Australian Air Force where he was employed as a Fitness Instructor. His duties consisted of training recruits in various disciplines including strength training and conditioning techniques. He was soon posted to Penang, Malaysia where he was primarily responsible for creating and maintaining a commercial gymnasium used by service personal and civilians alike. During this time, Gary is also fluent in the Malaysian language, and was an essential player in re-leasing negotiations with the Malaysian and Australian governments.

Gary continued to utilize these skills when he returned to Australia and began his tenure with the ANA and Sheraton hotel chains where he lead a cultural staff exchange between the ANA hotel Gold Coast and Manza Beach Resort in Okinawa, Japan. Gary used his expertise to develop their leisure and sports club and also gained fluency in the Japanese language.

Gary has continued to build upon his gym instruction and personal training experience throughout his entire career. By developing client routines and noting their frustrations with time intensive training regimes, it became

apparent that the more people train, the slower their respond to the training. Gary steered away from volume training and developed a fitness technique that requires people to be in the gym for only 20 minutes a week. When Gary introduced this element into his clients’ fitness routines, they began to make rapid progress while increasing functional muscle and dramatically decreased body fat levels. When Gary further combined this technique with a more nutritional diet, total transformations were achieved in as few as ten weeks.

Gary currently directs a very successful personal training business on the Gold Coast of Australia and promotes abbreviated training as the preferred fitness method. He also continues to run a fitness consultancy for off and on-line businesses.

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