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Lose Weight Permanently through Lifestyle Change

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What action plan will you implement this year to safely achieve your weight loss goal? And how will you successfully sustain the positive lifestyle change effort to see those results last long term?

The most common and desired fitness goal without a doubt is weight loss. Everyone I’ve ever talked to has a desire to keep excess weight off – feel better and be of good health. But to do it right requires more than applying a common fitness or weight loss program strategy to achieve sustainable results.

Aerobic exercise at low to mid-intensity efforts for 10-20 minutes activates the fat burning engine.

Before setting a fit healthy lifestyle change program in motion… One must be mindful of one very important ingredient that increases will power to stay the course. I.e., what activities of personal interest will motivate you to change your current lifestyle.

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All too often people have good intentions prior to setting a New Year’s Weight Loss Resolution… and repeatedly fail. Why? Mostly because the plan they put in place is not right for them. Following someone else’s weight loss or fitness plan, or lifestyle change course may motivate them. However it won’t likely provide the will power you need to continue the course independently long term.

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To determine a plan that’s right for you requires being honest with yourself. First of all confront your current lifestyle. Once you do you can target unhealthy, or sedentary habits that prevent losing weight and getting more fit. To develop a sustainable fitness plan and program requires targeting bad habits and behavior keeping you over weight and unfit.

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I know many of you are conflicted with the daily grind that chips away at your will power to change course. But what I find most interesting… even after work and daily chores and taking care of the kids, etc., there’s always a way to begin squeezing in a window of fit healthy “me” time activity you’d take interest in.

How many sedentary or other unhealthy habits can you identify – then substitute that time for healthy activities?

There is always time to squeeze in a 15-30 min walk, or other exercise activity of interest to begin the healthy lifestyle change habit.

Let me help you identify a window of time. For example, how much time do you spend watching TV, searching the Internet, eating out after work, over sleep, go out for evening cocktails, or watch sports… You get the picture. Anyone can find time to squeeze in daily exercise activity… And if you can’t – you may need help targeting the obsessive behaviors keeping you overweight and unfit.

Ageless MirrorAthlete “Overweight and Unfit No More” is the coaching and positive lifestyle change information you need and want now to set and sustain positive lifestyle change long term.
Successful weight loss resolutions require identifying activities of interest that motivates you to stay the course.

Repeated failure in setting positive lifestyle change habits impacts how you see yourself and feel about life in general. And at some point not only will you gain more weight, you’ll feel more internal stress and anxiety – which could eventually lead to more unhealthy habits and behavior with connected ill-health symptoms and disease.

I’ve advised and programmed many clients throughout the years by arming them with customized fitness and
healthy lifestyle habit change programs of interest they’ve stuck with for life – Ultimately their success was dependent upon their activities of interests and passionate motivation to stay the course.

The following recommendations will help you achieve and sustain a positive fit healthy lifestyle course for life.

1) If you have repeated failures at losing weight or your health is at risk, you must seek help targeting and changing unhealthy habit(s) and behavior(s) [compulsive, obsessive, addiction, co-dependence on others, etc.]. If you are grossly obese, or have unhealthy habits or behavior keeping you sick – seek medical attention immediately. Behavior modification or nutritional expertise or pain management or other specialized medical referrals from your primary care physician will be of great service to you in changing your lifestyle course.

2) It is my belief the mind, body and spirit is dependent on sustainable fit healthy activities of interest – like balanced nutrition. Without some form of constant movement activity throughout the day, it becomes easy for sedentary habits to form. Our bodies are designed to move… NOT mostly sit.

Walking is our natural form of exercise and keeps the metabolism and all tissue cells and brain function in check. At a minimum everyone needs to work towards 30 -60 minutes of continuous daily walking or other exercise of interest activity. If you start out walking, or riding a bike, etc., 10-15 minutes per day – you can only advance upwards from there.

Exercise activity comes in all forms. Anytime you walk to a destination place – The fat burning engine is switched on.

3) Exercise activities of interest come in many forms. E.g., yoga, hiking, biking, skating,, treadmill, ballroom dance, stair stepping, rowing, Zumba dance, walking, pickleball, tennis, golf, yard work, jogging, etc. Basically anything that moves the body for a continuous period of time provides a fitness and health benefit. However, if you are just starting a walking program for example, do not start out walking at a brisk pace.

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Work your way into greater duration, frequency and intensity within any activity of interest you begin participating in to become conditioned. Like any type of physical exertion activity – unless you’ve trained for the task or event, it’s best to ease your way into an exercise activity change habit until the encompassing being [mind, body and spirit] becomes conditioned to a new lifestyle change.

4) Our bodies regardless of age require whole food high-quality nutrients to boost metabolism, increase energy, mood, maintain weight and overall health, etc. Healthy diet occurs by consuming a balance of wholefood macronutrients (Carbs, Proteins and Dietary Fats). I also recommend dietary supplementation of high-quality vitamin-minerals as a health insurance policy. Why, because I know most don’t consume 3-4 servings of vegetables and fruits per day. The daily balance of macro and micro nutrients will help you achieve both weight loss and fitness and health goals.

Eat more natural whole foods and limit processed foods if you really want to loss excess body fat weight.

5) It is also true, exercise may add weight. That’s right, depending on body type and genetics and exercise program – strength training causes muscle mass to increase [muscle fiber is more dense and heavier than fat tissue].

Muscle building through strength training can increase body weight because of dense muscle fiber development… and offsets body fat weight gain – muscle requires more energy and burns additional calories daily.

When you exercise muscle in general – its mass and weight will increase relative to the effort you exert during exercise activity. Fitness programming adjustments to achieve a set fitness goal may require changing an exercise activity of interest to be more favorable toward fat burning activities that offset muscle weight gain.

Find an exercise activity you enjoy to burn more body fat weight. Better yet get a friend to take a zumba class with you.

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6) It is important to measure your success weekly. If your losing weight safely and naturally, you’ll loss ~2lbs/week until you eventually achieve your ideal body weight. If you don’t measure fitness success periodically you may lose interest and motivation to sustain and achieve the set fitness goal.

Weight and Tape Weekly to Measure your Success.

A simple and convenient way to measure fitness goal success requires only a scale and tape measure and how your clothes fit. That’s it!

In home exercise activity only requires a little space and mat.

7) Analyzing the weight loss results… If your weight increases and waist band feels loose, this likely means body fat weight has decreased and muscle mass weight has increased. If your weight decreases and waist band feels tight, this likely means muscle mass has decreased and body fat weight has increased. If body weight has not increased and waist line feels the same but your getting stronger have more energy for exercise activity, your body is going through fat and muscle tissue weight change conversion. At this point it’s only a matter of time before positive weight loss and/or strength gain and/or endurance achieve the fit healthy lifestyle goal you set.

So what is the perfect weight loss exercise activity of interest strategy for you?

That depends, everyone works, lives and plays within different environments and is of varying age. We also have unique health histories, fitness goals and daily habits and activities of interests, etc.

Initially, the answer lies within targeting time available to begin implementing healthy exercise activities of interest that motivate and increase will power to stay a course to achieve a set fitness goal.

If your looking for information to help you achieve your weight loss and other fit healthy lifestyle and habit change goals once and for all… Ageless MirrorAthlete “Overweight and Unfit No More” is the coaching and lifestyle change guidance and recommended program information you need and want now.

Ageless MirrorAthlete “Overweight and Unfit No More” is the coaching and positive lifestyle change information you need and want now to set and sustain positive lifestyle change long term.

Learn how to program a successful New Year’s Resolution that’s safe, natural, right for you and can be sustained long-term. Now Get’er done!

Author: Marc T. Woodard, MBA, BS Exercise Science, ARNG, CPT, RET. 2014-19 Copyright. All rights reserved, Mirror Athlete Inc., www.mirrorathlete.org, Sign up for your Free eNewsletter.

How to Exercise Safely and Increase Fitness Levels

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Updated:19 Feb 2014

There are so many exercise programs one could engage in to increase fitness levels.  How does one know which is right for them?

This question is important why?  Increased fitness levels contribute to healthy heart, lungs, metabolism, lean body, body strength, reduced body fat, weight loss, sustainment of body weight and better physical endurance and energy levels.  Not to mention, excellent  pain alleviation benefits for weight bearing arthritic joints.

So what you really want to know is what exercise activity will give you the best bang for the buck?

I highly recommended if you are getting back into an exercise fitness program or activity, you condition your way back through a 3-5 day/workout program.  This may take you 2-6 weeks or longer to get back into good physical condition before you ramp up your efforts.  Especially if you’ve just recovered from some type of physical adversity.

Five day exercise program – Consider making two of your exercise days on Saturday and Sunday to include family fun activities as substitutes for exercise activity.  Work in the other 3 exercise activity days with exercise you enjoy and can stick too.

This type of programming will provide more flexibility at first to develop healthy fitness activity around your busy schedule while reducing stress.  After the fitness habit is maintained for 2 week period, begin to incorporate more activity choice into the plan to keep it interesting.   I’ve always found it important to take two days off in the week for needed rest [Typically Mon & Fri for me].  I don’t recommend a 6-7day workout routine unless you are training is too meet some particular fitness goal as are conditioned to do so.

Recommendations, Tips, How to safely increase fitness levels and activity,

You must develop a plan that lists your daily fitness objectives to meet your fitness goal.  Is your goal to lose weight, increase fitness level, build muscle, better health, sustain weight, increase muscular endurance, higher level of competitive sport, improve task specific activity (ski, golf, walk, biking, running, etc.).  So now you know before you spend money on an exclusive fitness membership, be sure to have a plan to achieve the fitness goal you have in mind.

Second, you must be realistic about your daily schedule. If you’re a working adult with children, there are considerations that must be thought out.  Like working around busy work and family schedules.  However, it is not impossible to squeeze in exercise activity even with a busy schedule.  It’s a matter of priorities.

For example, if you want something bad enough like a new car, getting the furnace fixed, or watching a game, or taking the spouse out to a movie you manage to find the time and resources don’t you?  Yet you have a tough time making time for any type of exercise activity.  Your fitness levels and health must be as valuable to you as any other tangible thing like a home or car you insure.

Only through daily continuous daily movement activity can one “insure” an additional layer of protection from life stresses on the mind-body.  Sustained exercise activity daily is also a proven centurion attribute, or better known to others as a fountain of youth fitness principle.

If you have time before work or after the children are in bed a daily exercise program can become a habit you will become addicted too once the commitment is made.  You simple must want increased fitness health as bad as you want to create a better lifestyle for your family.

For me, working out provides great stress relief and fitness benefits.  And for many years I’d get up at 5:30am go to the gym, or jog where the adrenalin and metabolism was at full throttle just before hitting my full time job at 7:00am.  This habit served me and my professional careers well and ensured I was always at the top of my game, I didn’t need energy drinks to start my day.  Now in my mid-50’s, my age appropriate exercise activities is walking 7 days a week and 2-3 days strength conditioning in the gym.  I’m just as competitive at these exercise activities as I was when I played football during by high school years.  I attribute much of my career success, energy levels and clarity of thought to age appropriate continuous exercise habits.

Like anything else it takes dedication to be successful at anything you do.  It’s more a matter of finding an activity that you really enjoy, get excited about and can become addicted to it.  I tended to become addictive to new exercise conditioning if I could get through the first 5 days.  If I didn’t make the 5 days, I’d reduce intensity until ready for more intense training.  I didn’t quit the training; I took it down a notch until I could physically and mentally accept the fitness conditioning plan.  To push when your not ready for it is defeating and causes too many beginners to give up when they’ve not planned accordingly.

Third, your never too old to begin a daily fitness conditioning program.   All too often I hear people give up on their fitness and activity aspirations because they “self proclaim” their too old to exercise.  And then begin to look for unsafe – fountain of youth short cut gimmicks to lose weight, increase sexual performance, anabolic steroids for max muscle increases, etc.  This line of reasoning is absolute nonsense; when did 40 become the 80 plus crowd?  Exercise activity is a metabolic optimizer that increases hormone production and immune system to keep us healthy and stimulate all things that keep our bodies, mind and spirit engaged in a satisfied lifestyle.  “Without the need of dangerous manmade chemicals that temporarily mask the real reasons were not happy with our bodies energy levels, how we feel and physical performance.

Forth, if you are infrequent about your exercise, or activity routine, it is very important you learn to pace yourself each time you exercise until your body is ready for a 3-5 day exercise activity routine. Ease into your workouts, forget about competing with what others are doing.  Set your mind to see yourself as the healthiest 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 year old possible in your neck of the woods.  If you think exercise-activity appropriate per decade, you’ll stick with a healthy exercise program for your age while physically appearing and feeling 20-30 years younger.  Why don’t I talk much about 80+ years old and fitness training programs?  Actually, 80 years and above should walk-swim, push light weights, participate in flexibility exercise, eat balanced nutritious foods, socialize and travel as much as possible for quality lifestyle experiences.  At this age, I thoroughly believe, each day is a blessing and one should enjoy life to the fullest while reducing life stresses.  And these life stresses and health are adequately sustained through social activity and low-stress walking, swimming and dance exercise.

Fifth, if you over consume too many calories per day, especially after 7:30 pm, or binge over the weekends it will be harder to lose weight.  Body metabolism slows down tremendously during evening hours and excess calories will be stored as fat for every hour you take in calories after 8pm.

Weekends will be your worst enemy with regard to calorie consumption if you don’t have an activities plan to offset food intake with caloric expenditure.  This is why in the next paragraph I recommend plan fun movement activities on the weekends.   This will help increase metabolism and will help burn off extra calories that may be put back on over the weekend.  Then over the weekdays if your mindful to balance calorie intake and expenditure relative to days of the week, you can actually continue to lose weight.

Sixth, find a workout routine you can stick with and enjoy. Various examples:  Try biking, stationary treadmill, stationary rowing, dance, ball room dancing with spouse, tennis, walking, golf, jogging aerobics sessions, swimming, etc., 3 days a week (mix it up with gym activity).  Make sure you get in 2 days a week exercise activity and 3 days aerobics (walking, biking, treadmill, elliptical walker, swim, hike etc.) minimally.   On the weekends substitute an aerobics week day activity with a planned family outdoor activity, backpack, dance, walk and shop for your meals, camping, beach walking, fishing, etc.

I recommend 5 days a week exercise activities to sustain fitness levels and good health.  I use combinations of all these activities listed above to sustain my age appropriate fitness levels and overall health.

Changing up fitness activities will help with motivation and will power to stick with exercise activities daily.  Mixing up activities also becomes very addicting when you  break the initial 2 week conditioning barrier.  It takes about this long for brain chemical stimulation and muscle toning to optimally provide the motivation and will power to sustain this lifestyle change.  Brain chemical release (adrenalin, epinephrine, dopamine, serotonin) through exercise activities is as addicting as nicotine is to a smoker; and is chocolate  to a chocoholic.

Now that I’ve provided you “How to Exercise and Increase Fitness Levels,” get out there and get it done!  Try various combinations of exercise activity.  At a minimum, if you can walk you can improve your fitness levels and experience greater lifestyle experiences.

The cost to to walk is nothing, other than your time, effort and commitment to sustain it.  Through daily walking fitness levels will increase.  This will also positively impact mood as well as how your body feels.  Sustained walking activity is good for you heart, lungs, metabolism and overall fitness goals.

Take one step at a time, one block at a time, and one mile at a time.  Do what you can daily if your exercise activity is walking.  Put no time lines, intensity of pace, or distance limitations on yourself.  The mind-body will tell you each day what it’s capable of doing.  If you have the ability to walk you’re much further ahead in becoming more fit and healthy.  The key is to move more daily, work to reach 10-15min/day exercise activity at a minimum before increasing distances and intensity of pace.  Be consistent at daily walking activity to sustain greatest fitness and health benefits.

Other tips:  Consider “not taking” your car to the store for daily staples once you can walk half a mile total distances.   Make a goal to walk and shop for your evening meals, or drive to and walk the mall.  Get a small backpack “once able to walk small distances;” carry healthy produce, products to the car, home etc.

Never carry more in weight than you can do so comfortably.  For example, I personally never carry more than 5lbs in bags, one for each arm, greater than 1 mile.  That’s .5 mile one way.   In other words when starting a shop & walk activity program, you don’t haul extra weight until you lose weight, or alleviate weight bearing joint pain [if this is a problem for you].  To do so when the mind-body is not ready may risk secondary weight bearing injuries to body compromising overall increased fitness success.

The information presented within this article and on our website, is in no way intended as a substitute for medical consulting or treatment.  Always consult a physician before starting any course of fitness programming, particularly if you are pregnant or currently under medical care.

Also Read:  Relative Fitness Programming Sustains Active Lifestyles

Author: Marc T. Woodard, MBA, BS Exercise Science, ARNG, CPT, RET. 2014 Copyright. All rights reserved, Mirror Athlete Inc., www.mirrorathlete.org, Sign up for your Free eNewsletter.

Will Power to Control Compensation Weight Gain Effect

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Walk and See all Around You.

Walk and See all Around You.

Your body’s health and appearance is dependent on many lifestyle habits and behaviors especially as you age.  With regard to diet and exercise, food intake and calorie burn through physical activity inevitably becomes a compensation-Will Power challenge.  Mind over body then becomes much more of a will power issue not to consume the “wrong types and quantities” of foods after an exercise, or activity event.  Compensation weight gain effect simply means if your body burns calories it will also want to replace them by telling the hunger center in the brain to eat more.  Your brain begins to beg you to stop the screaming fat cells from causing you agony and to satisfy them.  Scary little guys these fat cell monsters!

    I’ve known for some time that exercise alone would not be the sole factor in my weight loss and weight management program.  When I was working on my Exercise Science undergraduate degree, one thing I did learn is in order to maintain healthy body weight equilibrium especially as we age, requires a “customized” multidisciplinary fit-healthy life program approach.

    This program must consist of exercise-activity, nutrition and healthy living habits to manage weight effectively.  This multi-discipline approach is necessary for successful weight loss and body weight regulation at any age.

    My take on exercise equipment products sold on TV; as I’ve stated in previous articles…  They won’t provide you a significant or lifelong weight loss result without fit-healthy living habits.  If you’re serious about losing weight, don’t waste your money on exercise TV product gimmicks.  Instead, consider buying a gym membership and apply aerobic activity using various types of aerobic equipment to accomplish body weight goals. 

    For those of you without much experience in a gym, look to purchase a few 1:1 fitness trainer sessions for weight loss programming and/or need motivation, etc.  Look for local fitness center promotion specials that run near end of year and during early spring.  Also, learn to become smart in nutrition choices by doing your own nutritious food research.  For example, use the Internet and research under fit/healthy” weight loss tips and recommendations.  Also consider visiting your local book store/library, or take a community college wellness, nutrition/health fitness course, etc.  Consider purchasing fitness training books and videos geared around natural weight loss activities using a bicycle, walking, swimming, treadmill, etc., if the gym is not for you.  Or if dollars are tight, simply start a daily walking program.

    When I mention TV exercise gimmicks they are exercise equipment that are non aerobic in nature and specifically work on body toning, not fat burning!  For example, abs, hip-buttocks-chin specific exercise equipment. 

     Also I know many of you know my favorite aerobic activity is walking.  Walking in my opinion is the best cardiovascular, fat burning, low stress and low impact exercise available to all that can walk!  This is one of the best and least stressful aerobic fat burning activities at little to know cost on the pocket book.  It is my experience that walking causes the least amount of hunger pain if it is done with low intensity (“not” speed walking).  This is because the body will shift to greater fat burning as a fuel source.  And the most effective fat burning occurs during low intensity aerobic exercise, i.e., walking!  How cool is that!  

    I walk almost every day, own some fitness equipment and have a fitness center membership.  I’ve found fitness activity variety keeps boredom at bay by breaking up the daily routine.  This helps immensely with my daily motivation to maintain a fit-healthy lifestyle and manage weight.

    Walking doesn’t cost anything but time and the cost of good footwear.   Gym memberships are also nice because the sky is the limit on aerobic equipment choices.  If interested in fitness memberships look for one that has a swimming pool within the facility.   I find swimming pools useful for a full body workout and is also not stressful on the joints.  Swimming provides a good variety between walking, exercising with weights and other aerobic conditioning variations.  Plus, I find swimming very relaxing while working to tone other muscles throughout my body.

     Always keep in mind the compensation weight gain effect.  If you exercise, regardless of activity you’ll always feel hungry approximately 1 hour after activity.  This is because most work done in the gym tends to become quick pace through daily conditioning.  Think about it.  You want to finish and get to the home relaxation phase of your day, so you push your body to get out of the gym.  In essence you begin to exercise at a greater intensity rate which more closely resembles an anaerobic high intensity training activity that will burn greater quantities of quick fuel sources; cretin phosphate, glucose-glycogen making you feel hungrier faster.  However, if your routine is mostly aerobic you’ll burn more body fat and more of it at lower aerobic intensity rates.  My experience is, if you burn fat at lower intensity training, you don’t get the extreme hunger factor working against you.

    In knowing that daily aerobic conditioning will naturally spur higher work training intensities [especially as you become better conditioned], you can be prepared for hunger pains if you begin pushing yourself at higher intensity levels. 

    In order to gage the best fat burning intensity and reduce severe hunger pains… Don’t train at intensities that make you out of breath, or make it hard to carry on a conversation.  Also if you’re THR (Target Heart Rate) zone peaks into a high intensity cardiovascular training zone for your age you are not maximizing your body’s fat burning potential.  Ask your fitness trainer about THR, or simply research this term on the Internet to best understand how to train and burn more fat in the THR fat burning zone. 

    To easily understand how to perceive THR fat burning zone; it is just enough intensity of walking, riding a bike, or jogging where you can comfortably talk without being out of breath.  But not so easy, you can’t feel an exercise exertion.  THR burning zone is somewhere in-between these two workout intensities for the best fat burn effect.

    I do have a solution to help you out in the hunger department as you will want to be adequately armed before the hunger pains hit regardless of your fat burning training intensity.  I’ve found, especially after the work out “the calorie burn compensation weight gain effect to replace the spent calories does impact us all at different hunger pain intensities.  The tip here is to fool the brain with low calorie nutritious fillers that will curve appetite.  Supplemental fillers will also strengthen will power to avoid pounding down excess calories to satisfy the screaming fat cells while at the dinner table. 

    Whether the aerobic exercise is walking, biking, swimming, repetitive low resistance circuit training, etc., I know I’ll always be hungry after 90 minutes of exercise because my body is conditioned to work out more intensely during activity.  So if you can’t get your hands on fruit or vegetables, you can get water down your gullet.  Although water won’t fully satisfy the fat cell compensation screaming in your mind, a pint of water will stop this hunger feeling rather fast as the bloated stomach technique will temporarily fool the brain.

    Besides, water is good for you… Let’s not forget this.  I know it’s boring.  I know you’d prefer an electrolyte drink.  Don’t feed your hydration demands on these alone [drink more water instead].  Electrolyte drinks have enough calories in many of them to compensate back to your body what you just burnt [keep this in mind].  However, electrolyte drinks are great for high intensity aerobic-training endurance events where sodium and potassium levels in the blood can be reduced significantly and require replacement.  During high intensity cardiovascular activities fat burning is not the fitness goal.

    One thing I’m sure many of you may not know.  Many times when your brain tells you it’s hungry, it’s not, and your body is really thirsty.  So give the water gulping session serious consideration frequently while you work out.  This will help.  This water gut blot sensation will provide a feeling of fullness relieving hunger sensations while rehydrating the body.

    However, beware; water is easily absorbed through the stomach and intestinal lining.  So this is a temporary fill to fool your mind’s hunger pains and rehydrate the body.  It’s not the cure all solution to defeat the calorie compensation effect that will ultimately result once the body is adequately worked and watered down.  Water in the stomach to fool your brain is like putting water in a strainer that’s lined with cheese cloth.  In other words, you don’t have much time before your brain tells you you’re hungry once the water quickly absorbs into the body.   You have approximately 10-15minutes max before your fat cells say “FEED ME, once the body is adequately hydrated!”  If you give in to the jelly donut, or pepperoni pizza, compensation “excess calorie effect wins over will power and body weight discipline.”

    Will you have the discipline and will power to fight off gorging yourself with the wrong foods while dealing with the compensation effect between exercising the body through aerobic conditioning?  This leads to another trick up my sleeve I’ve used, just in case I get a huge hunger surge in between meals.  I highly recommend you find a nutritious food bar, or shake that’s high in protein and fiber to hold you over between meals.  This is like eating many mini-meals between the main meals.  You’ll find your body won’t be screaming from shear hunger, while reducing total daily calories and body weight.  There are many products to choose from… But you’ll want the fiber and protein filler bars because these low calorie high nutrient combinations will fool your brain for longer periods of time.  Good quality food bars, fruits and veggies work great after workouts and curving hunger in between meals.

    I’ve also found that by taking a water bottle with me filled with a couple scoops of fiber source drinks is a good emergency fix to satisfy a hunger attack when my compensation metabolism tells me I’m starving.  The beauty with this fix, you can carry the fiber powder around in a dry bottle forever until you add water.  When you have a hunger attack and you can’t wait to make that family dinner, fill the bottle with water, shake and chug that fiber drink.  Yummy!  “Well yummy is debatable, I did that for effect.”

    Really, there are good fiber/protein drinks out there in all flavors.  Look for fiber drinks that pack at least 3-5grams per serving.  Once you use your emergency compensation stomach fill solution to satisfy brain hunger, be sure to reload the bottle prior to the next fitness training session.  It is very frustrating to look in your gym bag, or back pack to find an empty fiber, or protein powder bottle.  More the reason to stock an arsenal of various powder drinks in ready premix bottles and power bars at the ready.  I like to use old water bottles instead of tossing them after I drink the water.   I take 3-4 of them, load two with electrolyte and 2 with fiber-protein powders where they stay in dry storage (in the capped bottle)  until I need them.  I usually keep them in my car, or gym bag.  Just add water, shake and drink.

    Finding what works for you and sticking to it is a big part of fitness and weight-diet management success. By applying the techniques in which I speak will allow you proper preplanning prior to aerobic fitness training and compensation weight management success.

Author:  Marc T. Woodard, MBA, BS Exercise Science, USA Medical Services Officer, CPT, RET.  2009 Copyright, All rights reserved.  Mirror Athlete Enterprises Publishing @: www.mirrorathlete.org, Sign up for your free eNewsletter.