Walking on an Incline

Now that it's winter, it's tough to walk or run outside on a regular schedule because bad weather is always popping up. Having a treadmill or a gym membership becomes really beneficial during the cold winter months. When I can't get outside to run, sometimes I run on the treadmill, but oftentimes, I walk on the treadmill for an extended period of time and watch one of my favorite TV programs. I find it hard to run on a treadmill and watch TV because of all the bouncing up and down, so to still burn a lot of calories, I vary the incline and walking speed to give my workout an extra push.

Increasing incline and decline have the obvious benefits of burning more calories and working muscles harder, but there are other benefits. It's been shown that varying your walking/running speed and incline/decline increases the effectiveness of your workout. By maintaining the same speed on the same incline/decline over several workouts, your body becomes used to the workout and is less stimulated, burning fewer calories. By mixing things up, your body is stimulated more during workouts instead of finding ways to cover the distance using less energy.

Check out this article from Family Circle Magazine which outlines a beginner and intermediate 30 minute variable speed and incline treadmill workout.

http://familycircle.com/fc/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/fc/story/data/1161182457015.xml

Cardio Exercise Motivation

When I'm pushing myself during my runs, I think back to when I was much heavier and trying to figure out how I pushed myself so much back then without giving up. Well here are three of the biggest factors that kept me motivated back then:

Music- I remember I had tried to run long before I had lost any weight and all I could concentrate on was my choking and trouble breathing. I thought it was impossible and I gave up. The day I started the journey where I actually lost all the weight I had set out to, I brought along a CD player and listened to music. The CD player ended up skipping the whole time, so I threw it in the bushes and came back for it later.

That night, I went out and spent $10.00 on am/fm radio headphones at Wal Mart. I used these for a good year before I even got an iPod and they worked great. I know it sounds stupid, but I owe a lot of my progress to my $10.00 Wal Mart radio headphones!

Take yourself out of your body- Another big thing that I still do to this day when I'm running is to take myself out of my body. I concentrate on anything but the run. I use the time to think and day dream. It usually takes about 2-3 minutes into the run before I get to this point, but once I'm there, it's 10 time easier to run. It really helps to have zero distractions. Putting the music up loud really helps this because I cannot hear my foot steps and breathing. Running outside at night also helps because it's almost like I'm not even there. I wouldn't recommend running outside at night to everyone though.

Look at yourself go- Think about when you're looking at someone else doing intense cardio at the gym. What do you think to yourself? Wow, they are working their ass off! Well no matter how good of shape they are in, if they're working their ass off and sweating, they are probably feeling just like you feel when you workout, but they keep going. They might be in great shape, but they're running 8 or 9 miles an hour and that's hard for anyone.

Now when you're working out and feeling like crap, look in the mirror or just picture what you look like. You look just like them. You are working your ass off and you should be proud. This makes it a little harder to give up because you want to be proud of yourself and the more you see how hard you're working, the more proud you are!

Apple Nike+ iPod Sport Kit- Quick Tip #2

I found this out the hard way.

Program your playlist before you leave for your run!

I was running recently and had reached in my pocket to switch songs shortly into the run. When I got back home, I found out I had somehow paused my workout and it did not record most of my run.

Set your playlist before you leave the house and lock the keypad!

Keeping your Apple Nike+ iPod Sport Kit Accurate

As we train, more often than not, our bodies change. If you are using a Apple Nike+ iPod Sport Kit to measure your runs, it definitely takes some up-keep to maintain it's accuracy. Here are a few tips that might help:

• Don't Calibrate your Nike+ iPod Sport Kit using another piece of technology that requires calibration. For example- Don't use a treadmill to calibrate your running/ walking speed! Treadmills require calibration themselves, and more often than not, the ones at the gym are not 100% accurate. Instead, go to a standard quarter mile track. You can find one at just about any middle school or high school. Your iPod suggests you calibrate by running/ walking 400 meters which is a quarter of a mile. Stay to the inside of the track, as the inside of the track one time around is one quarter mile. The further from the inside of the track you run, the more distance you are traveling.
• Calibrate Regularly- Unless you've been running the same distance and time forever, you should be improving your walking or running effeciency and recalibrating often will make sure your sensor stays accurate.
  
• Make sure you update your weight frequently so the calories burned value is as accurate as possible.

Healthy New Years Resolutions!

Does anyone really keep their New Year's Resolutions? Ok, that wasn't the right question. The right question is: how long do they keep them? Most of the time, it's not very long. What is a New Year's Resolution anyways? I think it's just an excuse to set a goal with a solid start date which makes it easy to measure. I also think it's a joke. It is universally understood that New Year's Resolutions are hardly kept for very long.

This year, let's change that! Lets make some realistic goals and surpass them! The following are a couple of goals that are easy to keep and will greatly affect your weight loss! The first one I saw in Fitness Magazine.

Make your New Year's Resolution to make healthier shopping lists!

This is fantastic advice! Think about it- how hard would it be to mess that one up? If you make a resolution to eat healthier and you're sitting at home looking in the cupboards and have nothing but unhealthy choices, it will be very easy to throw your New Year's Resolution out the window.

Now when making your grocery list or shopping without one, you have healthy and unhealthy choices side by side, so there is NO EXCUSE not to buy healthy food! As everyone knows, excuses kill goals, resolutions, and diets more than anything.

Set cardio exercise goals that you KNOW you will be able to accomplish EVERY TIME you perform a particular cardio exercise.

It takes repetitive bad eating and lack of exercise to put on weight and it takes repetitive good eating and exercise to take it off. Pushing yourself during exercise after exercise until you reach your goal is great; but you know what is better? Pushing yourself each exercise and reaching your goal every time! To do this, set time or distance goals. This way, you know you can't fail. Let's say your goal is one mile. If you can only run for 10 feet this time, walk the rest as fast as you can, but keep moving until you reach one mile. Even if you are out of breath and walking slow with your hands above your head, if that's the best you can do, you're pushing your body! The next time you run, increase efficiency by running a little longer or a little faster and reducing your time.

This can also be done with time goals (which is actually a better option). Set a goal of 20 minutes of your particular cardio exercise. So what you can only run for 2 minutes. Keep moving as fast as you can for 20 minutes. If you keep at it, it's only a matter of time before you will be running the whole time.

You have to set goals that you can accomplish every time and then make your ultimate measure the efficiency of how quickly you complete your goal distance or how far you go during your goal time. Set internal goals which you hit every workout and then set an external progress goal. For example, if you run/walk 20 minutes every other day. 20 minutes is the internal goal you hit each workout. An external goal may be- "I want to run 2 miles in that 20 minutes" or "I want to be running for 75% of that 20 minutes."

When I started, I was more like- "I want to be able to run a mile." I would run as much as I could and then walk a little bit, but I should have walked until I hit that mile and then increased the distance I was running, compared to walking, with each workout. Doing burns a lot of extra calories and is a great motivator.

As I said before, excuses kill goals, and I doubt anyone could come up with a good excuse why they can't move their body for 20 minutes straight at the fastest pace possible, even if it's just walking or swinging their arms.

Alcohol and your diet... #2

My girlfriend turned 21 last month and like anyone who just turned 21, she wants to take advantage of her new privileges and go out drinking a couple times a week. Of course I go with her, and of course, being a young guy, I'm not going to go to the bar and NOT drink. But all this drinking made me remember an article I once read in a magazine about how many calories were in alcoholic drinks. I've been researching and thought I would share some important points.

First, I'm sure most people are like me and don't factor their drinking into their diet. Why is this? Well it's obvious. There are no nutritional labels or even ingredient disclosures on 99% of all alcohol packaging. The ones that do have nutritional info are using it to market based on low calories or some other health benefit of their particular drink.

The "reason" for this is because the alcohol producing companies don't want their ingredients listed for fear of people copying their formulas. I think it also has a lot to do with them not wanting people to be turned off by the outrageous amount of calories per serving. Right now, mostly due to people's allergies to certain ingredients, different groups are pushing for legislation which will require a nutritional and allergen labeling system for alcohol packaging. Politics are politics, however, and I'm sure the government has an interest in the alcohol companies making money, so I doubt we will see this any time soon.

In the mean time, we can use some basic info to see what we're drinking. When it comes to 100% pure alcohol, you're looking at:

• Alcohol- 7 Calories per gram

compared to

• Protein- 4 Calories per gram
• Carbohydrates- 4 Calories per gram
• Fat- 9 Calories per gram

Since most people aren't drinking pure alcohol, the amount of calories a drink has in it is going to vary depending on the drink. If you're a beer drinker, the following web page lists the calorie amounts for several popular beers:

http://www.brewery.org/library/AlClbinger.html

*This site lists calories per 100ml, so just remember 1 US pint = 473.176475 ml so if the beer has 50 calories per 100ml, one pint of that beer has about 237 calories. There are about 3.38 ounces per 100ml so a 12 ounce bottle of that beer would have about 178 Calories.

For those of you who prefer wine, there are so many wines that a lot of the nutritional information on the Internet is conflicting. For estimation purposes, this site does a good job at listing nutritional content for wine:

http://www.wineloverspage.com/wines/nutrition.shtml

*Pay attention to the serving size. This site calculates calories based on 5oz for Red and White wine and 3oz for Dessert Wine.

Spirits and Hard Liquor really vary in calories due to the different styles and ingredients. For the basics; gin, rum, tequila, vodka, and whisky, the calories in one shot (1.5oz) vary between about 50-150 depending on the proof of the liquor. The higher the alcohol concentration, the more calories it will have. Alcohol packs more calories per gram than anything other than fat, and these liquors don't contain fat. For different flavored and specialty liquers, do your own math and expect them to have a little less calories per shot due to a lower alcohol concentration (but a lot more carbs because they are usually heavily sweetened).

When it comes to mixed drinks, I wouldn't even know where to start. The variations are endless and so are the variations of calorie counts. Approximate the calories based on the hard alcohol in them and the calorie content of the mixers. If the calorie content of the mixer is not known, it's safe to just assume there is a LOT of sugar.

With all that said, just remember that no matter what alcoholic drink you are consuming, it's most likely that you are consuming nothing but empty calories- alcohol and sugar calories. These provide very little if any nutritional value for your body in the way of vitamins and other nutrients. On the flip side- numerous studies have shown that moderate drinking is healthy for your heart because it reduces stress and lowers your blood pressure, among other things. For more info on this debate, check out the following link:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/alcohol.html

Now, if you've gotten this far, I'm sure, like most people, you enjoy an alcoholic beverage on occasion. For that, I will give some of the ways I drink with my diet in mind.

• Low Calorie Mixers- if you like mixed drinks, mix them with diet sodas, sugar free juices, natural juices, or pre-packaged low calorie mixers
  
• Low Calorie Drinks- Like every other category of calorie we consume, the alcohol industry is capitalizing on our new health conscious mentality. I can't list them all here, but there are a bunch of light beers and artificially sweetened light liquors. Two good ones off the top of my head are Budweiser Select and Bacardi Island Breeze. Scan the aisle for them next time at the store.
• Drink Moderately or Drink to get Drunk- This one may cause some controversy, but here's my philosophy: If you enjoy a drink or are drinking for health benefits, drink moderately. Have no more than 1 drink a day. If you are drinking to feel intoxicated, go out once a week and get drunk! Sitting at home every night and having 2 or 3 beers to get buzzed is just making your belly get bigger with little benefit, if any. As with anything you do, weigh the benefits and the consequences before you make a decision.
  
• Increase Exercise- If you are young and like to drink or are just an alcoholic, increase your exercise to counteract the extra empty-calorie intake.
• Step Away From the Food!- I've learned this the hard way many times. It's been shown that drinking alcohol increases your appetite. I just think it makes you let your guard down and forget about your diet. Either way, when you're giving your car keys to the designated driver as you take your first drink, designate that person to make sure you don't pig out. Or better yet, don't go to bars that serve food...or peanuts!
• ADD YOURS HERE- Leave your suggestions in the comments!
  

Alcohol and your diet...

Here's some good advice for myself and others:

Don't go out drinking at restaurant bars or other bars that serve food. The calories in the alcohol are bad enough, but most of the time, I use my drunken lack of judgement as an excuse to order a lot of really greasy food! The sliders, pizza, and deep friend onion straws really did me in tonight. And I must add, this was 4 hours after I already ate dinner. Luckily I ate my first dinner from the Weight Watchers Menu at Applebees.

More on this tomorrow!

Problems with the site...all fixed!

UPDATE- everything is now fixed!

Sorry for anyone who came here expecting the blog and got the old sales page for my book. My host had some problems with their server and my site was down half the night last night. When they restored the server with their back up, it put my old site up. I'm not sure what they're doing over there, but they haven't backed anything up in several months. Luckily I'm using a third party program to write my blog so they keep a back up of my template and posts.

What this means:

1. The before and after picture page is down.
2. The download my book page is down.
3. My contact page is down.

I am aware of these problems and I will try to get them fixed by the end of the day, but I just realized the other sites I have hosted with this company are messed up too and I have to figure out what is wrong with them so I can e mail my programmer.

I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may cause or may have caused anyone. Please let me know if you notice anything else that needs fixing!

Thanks for supporting my blog! =)

Mike

UPDATE: It looks like they are going to be able to recover my files from the server. I'm not sure how long this will take, but everything should be back to normal soon.

Burpees Variations

I wrote a post recently about a full body workout that prisoners do without any equipment (called burpees). You can read it here:

http://www.howilost80lbs.com/2006/12/complete-full-body-workout-you-can-do.html

Since then, my workout had gotten a little stale, so I searched for some new variations of burpees to mix up my workout a little bit. I came across this video on a message board and I thought I would share it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seHiBvgxwCE

When I went to You Tube to get the link for the video, I also found there is a second video from the same guy with more variations. Also, I noticed a bunch of other amatuer instructional workout videos.

Magic Bullet Blender Review

This review will be pretty short, but I feel this product deserves some love. For Christmas, my girlfriend wanted a Magic Bullet Blender so she could mix up cocktails quickly without the hassle of dirtying the blender. Because the magic bullet is one of those infomercial products, I was skeptical of it, but when I saw it at Linen's N' Things, I figured it had to at least do what it says.

If you want to know everything it does, you can check out the website at:

http://www.buythebullet.com/

For the purposes of this blog, I will just tell you what I mostly us it for. In the mornings, I can throw in some ice, fruit, and protein powder and make a smoothie in about a minute. Then I can clean everything up with one hand while I drink my smoothie. When I used to lift a lot of weights, I would to fill up on protein a few times a day, but every time I did, I would have to get out the big blender, put it all together, then break it down and clean it up when I was done. The best thing about the magic bullet is that the cup you blend everything in can be used to drink your smoothie when you're done. I think I paid $59.99 for it and I'm sure I will get more than my money's worth by the time I'm done using it!