Tag Archives: blood pressure

Choose One of Six Habit Changes to Lose Body Fat

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Below there are 6 healthy habit changes anyone can apply to begin losing excess body fat weight. Once aware of the unhealthy habits causing the excess body weight…, to reverse the course requires acknowledgement of the unhealthy habit and changing it. Thereafter the unhealthy body fat will come off naturally without increasing health risk.

Identify the Unhealthy Habit Keeping You Overweight and Unfit and then make change.

Last Year’s Resolution to Lose Weight Failed You know why you failed your weight loss program. You did not resolve or change the habit(s) and behavior(s) keeping you overweight. Consuming more than one needs is often caused by daily stress at work and/or within the home environment, and/or unhealthy relationship(s), and/or sedentary habits. Also caused by bad behavioral and addictive food selection. Once you target the cause of your stress, anxiety, addiction, obsession and/or depression… remove yourself from the unhealthy environment, or relationship, or situation or obsession.

Thereafter, personal goals like weight loss and healthy fitness levels become easier to achieve and sustain long-term.

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Pain Factor All pain is causally related to mental and physical illness, disease and/or injury. And with pain comes more sedentary activities and often increased food consumption and associated weight gain. It is for this reason, if you can not manage the pain, it is advised to see a pain specialist.

Request a referral to see a physiatrist [pain management specialist]. A physiatrist specializes in all pain modalities and treats the patient holistically. Don not let pain keep you in a sedentary and out-of-control weight gain hurt locker.

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Party on Some carry the end of year festivities into the New Year. This behavior can last for months, or the entire year. This perpetual party habit will not help you lose weight. First and foremost, you must understand this is occurring and break the habit. A referral to see a behavioral therapist can help target the cause of unhealthy eating and drinking habit or bad behavior(s) and help you change it if you do not have the will power to do it on your own.

Fast foods after the Holidays – Too many Americans consume fast foods especially during the Holidays and End of Sports Season. Here lies the crux for much of Americas diabetes and obesity problems. Processed foods, especially those you find in colorful and attractive packaging almost always contain chemical substances known to cause unhealthy weight gain. When looking at labels, it is those food ingredients you can not pronounce or recognize… they are food chemical additives, preservatives and taste intensifiers that are also known to cause illness and disease and out-of-control weight gain. Choose more whole foods and avoid processed foods as much as possible.

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Learn how to differentiate between healthy and processed foods through food label ingredient awareness. Organic, or mostly organic products on the other hand such as meat from the butcher, fruits and vegetables and desserts from a store baker who displays those consumables ready to eat within days is often a better food selection. This is not to say, those products are not free of unhealthy weight gaining food ingredients and chemicals. But one thing is almost sure, those foods have not been chemically processed to sit on a shelf for 6-12 months. Buy fresh whole foods as often as possible and stay away from highly processed foods to reduce total body fat weight and sustain good health.

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Love of Baking I know the kids love your homemade cookies, cakes and pies. Remember moderation with deserts. Too much sugar, fat and salt is not good for anyone, even children with fast metabolisms. Try serving healthier desserts, i.e., fresh fruits, jello, pudding and peanut, oatmeal and pumpkin treats, etc.

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Empty Nester’s Bake for an Army – Regardless of season, there are many who continue to cook for an entire family after the children have left home. Modify home recipes for one or two to reduce leftovers and temptation to eat more than an average serving size.

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Once you make healthier lifestyle choices – your fitness levels and health and well-being will also improve as you achieve ideal body weight. Learn how author Marc Woodard’s Ageless MirrorAthlete book, “Overweight and Unfit No More” and how it can help you achieve your weight loss goals naturally and live the lifestyle you need, want and deserve now!

Learn how to live the lifestyle you need, want and deserve now!

Good health to you and your family!

Author: Marc T. Woodard, MBA, BS Exercise Science, ARNG, CPT, RET2019-21 Copyright.  All rights reserved, Mirror Athlete Publishing @: www.mirrorathlete.org,  Sign up for your Free eNewsletter.

Monitor Fitness and Weight loss Success Like a Pro

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Updated: 26 May 2020, by Marc Woodard

How to monitor and sustain healthy body weight, appearance, physical performance and fitness levels like a pro, and without spending any money.

Believe it or not, if you use a weight scale and monitor two bodily vitals; blood pressure and heart rate, these measurements provide a good indicator of oxygen utilization, fat burning capacity, metabolic efficiencies and overall health condition.  There is a direct correlation between these particular vitals, fitness levels, health and physical results.

For example when you fall within a healthy heart rate and blood pressure range it is much easier to achieve fitness and health goals. When oxygen enriched blood circulates unobstructed throughout the body, it is easier to achieve a desired body weight, improve muscle tone, increase strength and cardio-muscular endurance and flexibility [Range of Motion]; and sustain health and wellbeing.

The basics of vitals monitoring as related to healthy blood circulation and heart-lung circulatory capacity is pretty easy to understand. If your heart rate and blood pressure fall within a normal range for your age, it is easier to begin, improve and advance a fitness goal, or improve health condition. Likewise, if these vitals are outside normal range, it makes exercise more difficult to begin and sustain the effort and health risk increases.

Start a New Activity and Meet New People.
Start a New Activity and Meet New People.

If you’re interested in determining how your blood pressure and heart rate stack up against a comparable populace, or want to date and record vitals at no cost and compare future results, visit a local pharmacy.

Almost every retail store pharmacy has a free blood pressure cuff and heart rate monitoring station.

Free Self Check Vitals Services,

I can’t resist using the arm cuff station at the local pharmacy store to see if my vitals are within a normal range, or if I need to work on diet, exercise, or visit my doctor.  Pay attention to the blood pressure and heart rate charts at the station, then document your results. If your blood pressure and heart rate are significantly below or above vitals standards seek medical consultation. Regardless of the results, write them down and use them as a historical baseline comparison and/or share them with a medical professional.

If you’re significantly outside a normal vitals range for your age in comparison to previous results the station may be out of calibration. I’ve experienced faulty cuff monitoring stations a couple of times. To test this theory I’ve visited another pharmacy store the same day and vitals were normal for my age. If you get “at risk” readings at 2 separate store locations, seek medical advisement.

Ageless MirrorAthlete covers in detail among other things in detail, how to calculate and use Target Heart Rate, blood pressure and other vitals at home and during exercise… to live a healthier lifestyle, get more fit as you burn more body fat. Learn how to live the lifestyle you need, want and deserve now!

Blood pressure and heart rate indicators tell us a lot about metabolism and circulatory-heart health. When blood pressure and heart rate are too low or high the body is experiencing circulatory and cardio functional stress. These are warning signs that should not be ignored. Typically but not always, when body fat weight is high so are vitals.

The weight scale is probably one of the most convenient measuring devices I use. Body weight is either up or down. If you’re up, concentrate on balanced diet and aerobic exercise activity to burn more body fat.

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Take a break, enjoy the day and fuel up to continue healthy activities.

It is aerobic walking, jogging and moderate running, biking and swimming, etc., exercise that injects oxygen enriched blood into the circulatory and cardio systems during low-impact aerobic exercise activity that burns more body fat.

During low-impact aerobic exercise fat burning occurs and is measureable when activity is within the THR (Target Heart Rate) zone, or the fat burning zone.

Which simply means, if you’re in the aerobic heart rate fat burning zone during exercise, you’ll burn more body fat.

Use the simple THR formula below to monitor HR during activity and stay within the Fat Burning zone. Then apply formula during exercise to lose more body fat weight.

To use Simple formula below, first determine aerobic effort you want to apply and stay within that fat burning zone during exercise. Using the Simple formula plug in 50 – 70% to burn more fat:

For example, Intensity of Aerobic Effort Percentages: 50 – 60% – Efficient fat burning zone, 60 – 70% – Optimize fat burning furnace. 71 – 100% – Increasing physical effort beyond 70% begins to step up a greater anaerobic lactic acid and the metabolism burns less fat.

Simple formula: ((220 – age) x Intensity of Effort%/6) = Beats per Minute (BPM)

Then determine your maximum heart rate: For example, if your 40 years, take your 40BPM determined from formulae above and plug it in (220 – 40 = 180).

Then multiply 180 by 50% effort for example… the physical effort needed to burn fat at the lower aerobic intensity range can be determined by 90bpm (180 x .50 = 90 BPM).

Or multiply 180 by 60-70% intensity effort needed to burn fat at the higher aerobic intensity range (180 x .70 = 126 BPM).

Take 90 or 126bpm and divide by 6. Results: 15 to 21 BPM represent a 10 second pulse count that can be taken during exercise. Simply monitor pulse at carotid artery (side of neck) or wrist. Take a 10 second pulse count in-between exercise. If you fall within this heart rate range your burning body fat fuel during exercise.

“These calculations provide only estimates of your target heart rate, cardiovascular work zone and fat burning efficiency during exercise. To precisely determine your individual heart rate maximum, you would need to undergo physical testing, like in an exercise science lab” (Richey 2013).

Reference: http://www.livestrong.com/article/260503-cardio-heart-rate-formula/]

Author: Marc T. Woodard, MBA, BS Exercise Science, ARNG, CPT, RET. 2015 Copyright. All rights reserved, Mirror Athlete Inc., www.mirrorathlete.org, Sign up for your Free eNewsletter.


 

Successful Weight Loss Based in Blood Chemistry Fuel

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Eat less processed foods and more whole foods.

Updated 16 December 2016,                    by Marc Woodard

Doctor’s and Dieticians tell us to limit bad fats “saturated (animal products, meat, eggs, etc.) including Trans fats, which also correlates with bad LDL cholesterol and plaque buildup in the arteries.”  Both of these fats are associated with risk for cardiovascular heart disease.  Also diabetics are at great risk for heart attack or stroke.

However, too little saturated fat in the diet replaced by carbohydrates is causing an epidemic of obesity and many secondary health issues.  The more saturated fat in a diet, the less likely men will have an incident of stroke and heart disease in post menstrual women.  There is a balance of dietary fats necessary in the diet to maintain good health for men and women.

It appears saturated fats are necessary in the diet because when animal products are consumed this increases HDL’s (the good cholesterol) when metabolized and  also lowers triglycerides.

High carbohydrate intake appears to be a big part of the health risk issue when out of balance in the diet.  It appears the body chemistry requires a certain amount of saturated fats (not manmade Tran’s fats).  And complete avoidance of animal fats does not seem to be a good ideal as far as the body chemistry is concerned.  Science can not accurately tell us the perfect diet.  But it is overwhelmingly apparent you are better off with a “low carbohydrate diet as opposed from animal product avoidance all together.

One big common denominator we did not have when I was a kid was obesity run amok.   Nor do I remember many fast food chains.  We certainly didn’t have energy and diet drinks like we have today.  The fast and convenient foods of the 70’s I recall was McDonald’s, Dairy Queen and KFC.  There was one artificial sweetener I recall [saccharine], and a few artificial flavorings and preservatives in products.

Everything else seemed pretty natural.  Even the Swanson TV dinners, meat pot pies tasted pretty good back then.  And the other thing I remember as a kid, most of the dinner meals consisted mostly of meat, chicken, fish, potatoes and vegetables and a lot of casseroles made out the same staples.   And almost everyone around us had gardens and canned fruits and vegetables.

In today’s marketplace everything has changed to quicker, cheaper, convenient processed foods with lots of chemical ingredients in them.  Be sure to read “Restaurant Foods Healthy?”  If you haven’t read this article, you really need to.  Many restaurant chains serve processed everything.  “That’s why you can’t quit eating at these food places you’re addicted to the food chemicals!”

Also back then we rarely heard about heart disease, strokes, diabetes, cancer, etc., compared to today.  And to see an obese kid back then was really rare.  Today, I see kids while I’m on my daily walks that appear to have body fat typical to those in of my age (25-45%).  The kids I’m talking about appear to be around 25-60%.   I fear our children will experience an epidemic of illness/disease pain and suffering not seen in of our generation when they reach our age.

Now when I look at food and blood chemical science; including my consumption exercise lifestyle today I note the following.  My habits have not changed much from when I was a kid.  For example, I exercise daily through various activity and still consume mostly a meat, potato, chicken, fish and vegetable diet.  However, I do consume the occasional fast food, or additional carbohydrates when pasta’s, breads, chips, soda craving strikes, but not often.  I also did not consume a lot of deserts as a kid.  I guess that’s why I don’t really crave them.  But when I do eat deserts, I do enjoy them.  Of course, when processed foods are so abundant in our marketplace a little bit is going to get incorporated into the diet.  And this requires awareness, especially if one is experiencing weight loss difficulties.

I attribute my good blood chemistry results to my childhood eating habits.  I eat more organic protein type food sources than carbohydrates.  My blood chemistry reflects a High HDL count (good cholesterol), Low LDL count (bad cholesterol) and low triglycerides (read  “Why you should be concerned about triglycerides“).  My eating habits are still predominately high intake of proteins (40-50%), carbohydrates (20-30%) and fats (~25%).

I know if I cut the carbohydrates in half and increased the proteins my blood chemistry would support lowering my body fat weight over a long period of time.  “I would lose weight slow and safe, not fast like extreme dieting.”  I know this because I’ve experimented with blood chemistry lab results and body weight [used as a baseline] and compared those results later.

I’ve changed my fuel mix and exercise habits based on these results to lose and maintain stable weight.  I also use a weight scale every other day and base my weight loss success on how my clothes fit.  If you’re eating and exercising correctly you’ll lean out safely while losing body fat without breaking your metabolisms regulatory mechanisms.

Exercise is an important component to a successful weight loss.  Regardless of age, this is a fact.  The human body is designed to walk in order to accomplish all tasks necessary in life.  And to quit walking and become a couch potato is the worst habit you could get yourself into.  If I didn’t participate in daily exercise activity it would be more challenging to maintain ideal body weight no matter how I balanced my diet because of age, lifestyle habits and slower metabolism.  Balanced consumption and exercise activity go hand in hand.

Reference

Learn About Triglycerides and Levels

Author:  Marc T. Woodard, MBA, BS Exercise Science, USA Medical Services Officer, CPT, RET.  2010 Copyright.  All rights reserved, Mirror Athlete Publishing @: www.mirrorathlete.org,  Sign up for your Free eNewsletter.