Make A Healthy Body Your Number One Priority 03/06/2011
 A healthy body should be your number one priority for yourself and your loved ones. Our guest blogger, Isabel de los Rios shares her insight as a nutritionist and weight loss expert . . . Cheers, padre art ~~~~~~~~~ If your healthy body is like every other yo-yo dieter out there, chances are you have started and stopped several diet plans with no success. The first week is easy. You’re full of excitement. You tell yourself “this time will be different.” The second week is OK, a little harder than the first but you’re still sticking to it. And then what happens? You bend the rules a bit and start falling back into your old habits. Why does this happen? Why do we go through this vicious cycle? I’ll tell you why . . . We are focusing on the wrong goal. For whatever reason, we must not perceive our weight loss as being “important enough” to achieve. So what would be “important enough” to stick to our new healthy eating habits? Your HEALTH! Nothing in this world is more important than the state of your health. Think about it, your health affects everything else in your life. Once our healthy body is compromised we automatically change our lifestyle habits. Just look at President Clinton. Not until he had the ultimate health scare did he really change his eating and exercise habits. Let’s not wait until our bodies completely have a break down before we decide to take care of ourselves. If you feel lousy, everything you do that day is lousy. Likewise, if you feel great, everything you do that day is great. So this year, let’s not focus on just losing a few pounds, let’s focus on Health, the #1 thing in our lives. Ask yourself . . .
1. Make the time to focus on health. The number one reason people do not eat healthy or exercise is because they “don’t have the time”. But why is it that once we get sick, have a heart attack, are diagnosed with heart disease, diabetes or cancer, we all of a sudden have the time? This doesn’t make any sense. We wait until our bodies have become so ill to finally take measures towards taking care of it. This is the equivalent to never getting an oil change or servicing your car and letting it completely break down before doing anything about it. Prioritize your day. What could possibly be more important than your health? Your children, yes, I agree. But guess what? If something happens to you, who will be there for your children? I know that sounds terrible but it’s true. How many times have we heard stories of young children losing parents to heart attacks and strokes? Choose health not only for yourself but for your children as well. Prioritize your day so that making healthy meal choices and exercising are right at the top. 2. Take a long hard look at what you are putting into your body. For one week, read every ingredient of every food you eat. This could potentially be a scary experience. Some ingredient labels on packaged foods sound more like a college chemistry class than anything we should be eating. As a golden rule, if you can’t pronounce it, chances are you shouldn’t be eating it. The majority of the foods you should be eating shouldn’t even have an ingredients label. They should be . . .
Cook more than one portion at a time when you do cook so that there are always healthy leftovers in the fridge. You can always have for lunch leftovers from the night before. Cook several portions of one meal and freeze some. A good example of this is healthy soup or turkey chili. Put a portion of chili in a small Tupperware and freeze. You can grab this when in a hurry for lunch or dinner. 3. How much are you eating? In the United States, our perception of one portion is extremely distorted. Restaurant portions are about 3 times more than what we should be eating in one sitting. If we become accustomed to seeing this much food on our plate at a restaurant we tend to do the same when we are at home and serve ourselves. According to a study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, women are eating 300 more calories a day and men 168 more calories than 20 years ago. All it takes is 100 extra calories a day to gain 10 pounds a year. For one week, reduce your portions at lunch and dinner by half. There is no need to “clean your plate”. Most times what’s on your plate is double what you should be eating anyway. If you feel some hunger in the afternoon, add one small apple with a handful of raw nuts as a snack. Your body will quickly become accustomed to the smaller portions and you will eventually not be able to eat as much in one sitting as you did before. Remember, you have access to an abundance of food every day. You don’t need to eat it all at once. 4. Drink WATER! Dehydration has directly been linked to several forms of diseases including colon cancer, high blood pressure, and elevated cholesterol levels. Many people also mistake thirst for hunger. So it may not be that you’re hungry all day, you may just be thirsty and dehydrated. In due time, dehydration will cause a gradual gain in weight from overeating as a direct result of confusion of thirst and hunger sensations. Take a look at what you are drinking each day.
5. How much do you move each day? Your body was designed to move! Your heart is a muscle and must be worked just like every other muscle in your body. You don’t have to join a gym to move, you just have to challenge your body and your muscles each and every day. The two best time saving exercise options I always suggest to clients are: 1.Go for a walk. You can go for a walk anywhere and anytime. No time you say? Please refer back to rule #1. 2. Set up your home with some free weights and an exercise ball. You will be amazed at the number of exercises you can do with just your body, some free weights and a stability ball. If you don’t know how, hire a trainer to show you or get a good book. Get into the routine of scheduling your exercise time each and every day. No ifs, ands or buts. Make your exercise time more important than phone calls, laundry, errands or lunch dates. Make a promise to yourself that this time will be about a healthy body, not about short term weight loss. Really evaluate how you are treating your body on an everyday basis. Is that the same way you would treat a highly valuable, expensive piece of equipment? Because that’s what your body is. There is no amount of money in the world that will buy you another one, so you might as well take really good care of the one you got! Get started on your own fat loss and health goals right away with these Simple and Easy Healthy Meal Plans. Stay up to date on the most current nutrition and health information here: The Best Diet Info. Did you like this article? Share it with your friends on Twitter and Facebook.  Isabel De Los Rios Certified nutritionist, exercise specialist and world-renowned author. She has a degree in Exercise Physiology, the highest certification as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist while rounding out her scholastic credentials as a certified Holistic Nutrition Lifestyle Coach. Isabel has helped over 25,000 people, all around the globe, to achieve weight loss and health at her the brick and mortar location in New Jersey, the New Body Center for Fitness & Nutrition and the online website: Add Comment  Here are some fat loss tips that fitness author, Jon Benson, would like to share with you before the coming holidays. Cheers, padre art +++++++++++++++++++++ Want to be leaner? Good deal . . . here are 5 tips that will help you along . . . TIP 1 Ditch the Starch Starches, such as rice, potatoes, some veggies, oats, etc. are often considered "health foods." While they can be healthy, they can also pack on stomach body fat like crazy if you overdo them. As you may know, my "Every Other Day Diet" System (EODD) actually encourages you to eat starches and even sweets several days a week to get rid of excess weight: (Some of you may see a survey here on how best to help with your body weight goals.) Well . . . how does THAT work? Simple: Timing is everything. And we take a "weekly" approach to foods rather than a daily approach. This keeps your metabolism guessing. If your body cannot figure out what you're up to, fat burning is that much more powerful. And you can get by with eating starches . . . at least a specific times on specific days. But if you're not going to do EODD, then you'll have to wing it. And the best way to wing it is to simply cut starches out entirely for 4-8 weeks. Then slowly add them back a few days per week. This is no where near as effective (or as fun) as the EODD method, but it will get you pointed in the right direction. TIP 2 Can the Sodas This one is really hard for me. I've been hooked on diet-soda on and off for years. When I go to get into top shape (like I am now) I have to get rid of the diet-sodas . . . yes, DIET-sodas. Need I say "real" sodas too? They are loaded with sugar. Why diet-sodas? A recent study revealed that people who drank diet-sodas actually increased body fat when compared to those who drank sugar-sodas. What the . . . ?? Yep. Your body cannot be fooled by aspartame and chemicals. Sorry, but that's the truth. Here's a personal story: When I cut out the diet-sodas my body fat drops like a rock in a pond of clear water. And that's what you need to be drinking: A quart of pure water per 50 lbs of body weight a day. I mix it with lemon and a bit of Stevia (an herbal sweetener) and make lemonade. It's wonderful! TIP 3 Stay Hungry Arnold's first movie was "Stay Hungry" (well, after "Pumping Iron" that is). You cannot rest on your butt and stay hungry. You cannot think you've "arrived" and stay hungry. It takes a special person to be hungry . . . and an even greater one to stay that way. I want you to stay hungry in two ways: In how you workout and literally . . . stay a bit hungry before you go to bed. Not "starving" . . . just a bit hungry. For your workouts, I have a great solution. If you pick up EODD you'll get a limited shot at "7 Minute Body" . . . my combination of "7 Minute Muscle" and "The 7 Minute In-Home Workout" in one book... and for more than half off . . . but that's a very limited deal. Gotta have EODD . . . you'll need them both . . . (Some of you may see a survey here on how best to help with your body weight goals.) You see, progression -- "forced" progression -- is the best way to stay hungry. 7 Minute Body forces you to progress without thinking about it. Progression is built into the System. As far as staying hungry at night? Check with your doctor and if he/she okays it take 500mg of potassium and 1000mg of magnesium/calcium a few hours prior to bed. This helps with the hunger pangs. Also, keep hard-boiled eggs in the fridge. If you get really hungry, eat one with half the yolk (toss the other half). It keeps me full for an hour at least. TIP 4 Cardio Clarity Hours and hours of cardio a day is not the answer. However, you can do "light" cardio (i.e. brisk walking, or riding the bike at 60% of your max) just to burn off calories. That's okay . . . and personally I don't find it that boring if I'm watching a TV show. It does not interfere with my main fat loss exercise (weight training . . . YES!) and it burns off about 400 calories an hour. What does work is early morning fasting cardio . . . but you only need 9-15 minutes. I explain the GXP Protocol (Modified) in the 7 Minute Body book, available only if you pick up EODD, and you can get it at more than half off: (Some of you may see a survey here on how best to help with your body weight goals.) TIP 5 Get Raw at Night Raw veggies with your last meal and as a snack will really help your fat burning along. I started with red peppers because they're sweet. Now I eat virtually every veggie raw at night without thinking about it. Give this a shot. The fat loss is well worth it. Note from padre: Jon is still giving away "Radical Fat Loss Blueprint" along with EODD for a few more days. And he is giving a lucky few the chance to pick up the Supplement-Kit that comes with Radical Fat Loss for almost 100 bucks off . . . the video and details are here:  |   Enhance the effectiveness of your diet with a Fat Loss Support Community over 16,000 member strong.
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Authorpadre art is author, fitness enthusiast and lives the Mediterranean lifestyle (diet).  ArchivesMarch 2011  CategoriesAll   Get Off the Couch with Joan
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