Creative Ideas to Boost your Metabolism

Creative Ideas to Boost your Metabolism
In my previous articles I have discussed that you can boost
your metabolism by making changes to your lifestyle, by
improving your exercise routine and by altering your diet.
These three factors are key components which affect your
metabolic rate. However, with our increasingly busy day to
day lives it can often be difficult to find the time or
space to make such changes. In this article I discuss some
creative ways in which you can incorporate adjustments in
these areas without having a significant impact on your day
to day routine.

Now I am assuming that the majority of people reading this
article are in full time employment. If so, this can be a
huge obstacle to our metabolism boosting efforts. Not only
do the majority of workplaces lend themselves to inactivity
but there is often temptation to eat the wrong kinds of
foods such as biscuits, cakes and carbonated drinks.
However, with a little imagination the workplace can be a
great place to increase your metabolic rate. Below I have
outlined three areas in which you can rev up your
metabolism whilst working:

1) TRAVELLING TO AND FROM WORK:- For many of us the daily
commute involves a bus, train or car journey. However, is
this really neccessary? If it is possible for you to walk,
cycle or jog to and from work (even if it means getting up
a little earlier) then you really should do it. You will
get in some valuable exercise which will help boost your
metabolism plus you should save a little money.

2) EATING AT WORK:- As I mentioned above there is an
increased temptation to eat unhealthy foods in most
workplaces. Often the foods that are most convenient
(chocolate, cakes, crisps etc) are the ones that are most
damaging to your metabolism. The best way to avoid these
tempting and convenient foods is to plan what you are going
to eat each day in the workplace. Either find a place
where you can get hold of some healthy food during work or
prepare your food beforehand and bring it to the workplace
with you. Having the occasional cake will not harm your
metabolic rate significantly but to realise overall
improvements you will need to alter your eating habits.

3) EXERCISING AT WORK:- At first glance this seems like a
difficult one. However, there a number of opportunities in
most workplaces which lend themselves to exercise. Your
lunch break is the perfect time to go for a walk, or if
long enough to have a quick gym session. If a lot of your
work involves sitting at a desk try some desk exercises (a
number of which I detail in my Free Fitness Tips Email
Course). Finally, take every opportunity throughout the
day to remain active. If someone in your department needs
someone to visit another department volunteer to make the
walk, take stairs instead of elevators and if time permits
try and take a slightly longer route to your destination.

Apart from work, children are a large part of many people's
lives. To develop a good relationship with our children we
need to spend time with them. With a little creative
thinking this time can also be a great way to increase your
metabolic rate by exercising. Below I have outlined a few
ways that you can spend time with your children and get
some useful exercise:

1) BALL SPORTS:- Basketball, football or soccer are all fun
ways to bond with your kids. They are also great ways to
build up a sweat and burn some calories. You can play in
your back yard or go to the local park. All you need is a
ball.

2) PLAY FIGHTING:- Young children in particular enjoy play
fighting. By chasing your kids you will get some
cardiovascular exercise and if you lift them up you will
get some weight training benefits too. Play fighting can
be done in the house or in the back yard.

3) SWIMMING:- Teaching your children to swim is a great way
to bond by helping them learn a valuable life skill. It is
also a great way to tone your muscles and get some
cardiovascular exercise.

As you can see our day to day routine throws up a number of
challenges to our metabolism boosting efforts. However,
with a little creative thinking we can still perform our
important daily activities whilst increasing our metabolic
rate. Careful planning and thought can allow you to modify
your diet and exercise habits in the majority of the
situations that your daily life entails, ultimately leading
to an improved metabolism.

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The Free Fitness Tips Blog provides you with fantastic,
free advice on all aspects of fitness. To find out more
about your metabolic rate and how to boost metabolism head
over to http://blog.freefitnesstips.co.uk/

Diets Don't Work

Diets Don't Work
Many Americans view a healthy lifestyle as something
difficult to attain--and something that's not much fun.
Traditional diets have taught us that to lose weight, we
must count calories, keep track of everything we eat, and
deprive ourselves by limiting the amount--and kinds--of
foods we eat. Diets tell us exactly what and how much food
to eat, regardless of our preferences and individual
relationships with hunger and satiety. Dieting can help us
lose weight (fat, muscle, and water) in the short term but
is so unnatural and so unrealistic that it can never become
a lifestyle that we can live with, let alone enjoy!

While very few diets teach healthy low-fat shopping,
cooking, and dining-out strategies, many offer unrealistic
recommendations and encourage health-threatening
restrictions. Even more important, diets don't teach us the
safest, most effective ways to exercise; they don't teach
us how to deal with our cravings and our desires, or how to
attend to our feelings of hunger and fullness. Eventually,
we become tired of the complexity, the hunger, the lack of
flavor, the lack of flexibility, the lack of energy, and
the feeling of deprivation. We quit our diets and gain back
the weight we've lost; sometimes we gain even more!

Each time we go on another diet of deprivation, the weight
becomes more difficult to lose, and we become even more
frustrated and discouraged. Then we eat more and exercise
less, causing ourselves more frustration, discouragement,
depression. Soon we are in a vicious cycle. We begin to ask
ourselves, "Why bother?" We begin to blame ourselves for
having no will power when what we really need is clear,
scientifically-based information that will help us develop
a healthier lifestyle we can live with for the rest of our
lives.

Deliberate restriction of food intake in order to lose
weight or to prevent weight gain, known as dieting, is the
path that millions of people all over the world are taking
in order to reach a desired body weight or appearance.
Preoccupation with body shape, size, and weight creates an
unhealthy lifestyle of emotional and physical deprivation.
Diets take control away from us.

Many of us who diet get caught in a "yo-yo" cycle that
begins with low self-acceptance and results in structured
eating and living because we lack trust in our body and are
unwilling to listen and adhere to our body's signals of
hunger and fullness. On diets, we distrust and ignore
internal signs of appetite, hunger, and our need to be
physically and psychologically satisfied. Instead, we
depend on diet plans, measured portions, and a prescribed
frequency for eating.

As a result, many of us have lost the ability to eat in
response to our physical needs; we experience feelings of
deprivation, then binge, and finally terminate our "health"
program. This in turn leads to guilt, defeat, weight gain,
low self-esteem, and then we're back to the beginning of
the yo-yo diet cycle. Rather than making us feel better
about ourselves, diets set us up for failure and erode our
self-esteem.

The attitudes and practices acquired through years of
dieting are likely to result in a body weight and size
obsession, low self-esteem, poor nutrition and excessive or
inadequate exercise. Weight loss from following a rigid
diet is usually temporary. Most diets are too drastic to
maintain; they are unrealistic and unpleasant; they are
physically and emotionally stressful. And most of us just
resume our old eating and activity patterns. Diets control
us; we are not in control. People who try to live by diet
lists and rules learn little or nothing about proper
nutrition and how to enjoy their meals, physical activity,
and a healthy lifestyle. No one can realistically live in
the diet mode for the rest of their life, depriving
themselves of the true pleasures of healthy eating and
activity.

We Don't Fail Diets; They Fail Us!

Decades of research have shown that diets, both
self-initiated and professionally-led, are ineffective at
producing long-term health and weight loss (or weight
control). When your diet fails to keep the weight off, you
may say to yourself, "If only I didn't love food so much .
. . If I could just exercise more often . . . If I just had
more will power." The problem is not personal weakness or
lack of will power. Only 5 percent of people who go on
diets are successful. Please understand that we are not
failing diets; diets are failing us.

The reason 95 percent of all traditional diets fail is
simple. When you go on a low-calorie diet, your body thinks
you are starving; it actually becomes more efficient at
storing fat by slowing down your metabolism. When you stop
this unrealistic eating plan, your metabolism is still slow
and inefficient that you gain the weight back even faster,
even though you may still be eating less than you were
before you went on the diet.

In addition, low-calorie diets cause you to lose both
muscle and fat in equal amounts. However, when you
eventually gain back the weight, it is all fat and not
muscle, causing your metabolism to slow down even more. Now
you have extra weight, a less healthy body composition, and
a less attractive physique.

Diets require you to sacrifice by being hungry; they don't
allow you to enjoy the foods you love. This does not teach
you habits which you can maintain after the diet is over.
Most diet programs force you to lower your caloric intake
to dangerously low levels. The common theory is that if you
eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. But
when you eat fewer calories than your body needs to
maintain its life-sustaining activities, you're actually
losing muscle in addition to fat. Your body breaks down its
own muscles to provide the needed energy for survival.

Traditional diets which use calorie restriction to produce
weight loss are no longer appropriate. Most weight-loss
programs measure success solely in terms of the number of
pounds lost per weight loss attempt. Diets don't take into
account the quality of the process used to achieve that
weight loss or the very small likelihood of sustained
weight loss. For long-term good health, you need to move
away from low-calorie diets and focus on enjoyable physical
activity and good nutrition. Exercising regularly and
eating lean-supporting calories, protein and carbohydrates,
and reducing fat-supporting calories will not only help you
look and feel better, it will also significantly reduce
your risk of disease.

America spends billions of dollars on different ways to fix
people. If we focused more on prevention and on improving
our day-to-day behaviors, we could cut health care costs in
half. Contrary to popular belief, leading a healthy
lifestyle doesn't have to be difficult; it doesn't have to
painful or time-consuming. Making gradual, simple changes
in your diet and physical activity will make great
improvements in your health and well-being, and they can
drastically reduce your risk of disease.

If your weight management program is to be a success,
everything you eat and every exercise you do must be a
pleasurable experience. If you're not enjoying yourself, it
is unlikely that you'll continue your program. It's that
simple. These small, gradual changes are not painful or
overwhelming but rather the core of an exciting lifestyle
that you will look forward to.

Take the frustration, guilt, and deprivation out of weight
management, and allow yourself to adopt gradual, realistic
changes into your life that will make healthy eating and
physical activity a permanent pleasure. You will soon
discover what your body is capable of and begin to look,
act, and feel your very best. Good luck and enjoy all the
wonderful benefits of a healthy, active lifestyle.

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