Ways to Add Exercise into Your Daily Routine

The key to permanent weight loss is hidden in your metabolism, i.e. how quickly or slowly your body burns its energy supplies. I look at it this way: The higher your metabolism, the more food you get to eat! Sounds good? Read on...

Dieting, especially yo-yo dieting will slowly decrease your metabolism, which explains why you can eat so little and still stay fat, or why your weight loss efforts will diminish, the harder you try. So how do you increase your metabolic rate? Three ways:

1. Increase the amount of muscle in your body
2. Eat more food (more on this later), and
3. Get plenty of rest.

1. Increase Your Muscle Mass

Start by moving around more. Whether you get any movement in your daily life right now, start by adding a few minutes of activity, at your present level of fitness. If you are very overweight, then just getting up from your chair a few more times a day would be an effort and counts as exercise. If you are able to move around, then walk around the block, increasing slowly until you are able to walk a few miles, several times a week. Walk to your mailbox and back, if that is all you can do. Start at your beginning level, wherever that may be. As you grow more fit, you'll walk at a fairy brisk pace, not a stroll. Strolling is for lovers, we're talking exercise!

Don't be afraid to start at the beginning. The last time I noticed I'd gotten out of shape, I tried many times to get back into the exercise habit, and I kept failing. Why? Because I tried to do too much. I'd get in my home gym and do a nice full body workout, and then ride my bike for half an hour. I might do this for about three workouts, then about six weeks would go by with no exercise! Suddenly I'd notice, hey what happened to my exercise habit? Not very effective and frustrating.

Next I tried modifying the workout so it wasn't so strenuous, and I still couldn't seem to do it more than three or four times before something would come up, I'd miss a few weeks, and then I'd again notice, I'm still not exercising consistently.

Finally, I got wise. I started at the beginning. I rode my bike six minutes a day. That's it, just six tiny minutes. Can you do something for six minutes? Then you're at the same level as I was, and there is nothing to be ashamed of. After a tiny little amount like that, there was nothing to stop me from doing it again the next day, and the next. It was easy, and the effort didn't leave me panting and crawling to the sofa. Pretty soon I had gone a couple of weeks steady, and a funny thing happened. I decided to add a few minutes to my daily ride, so now I'm doing 10 minutes.

Keep at it. Build slowly, and create a consistent daily habit. Just like anything else you do for yourself every day like brushing your teeth and combing your hair, exercise is something your body needs, craves really, once you get into the daily habit. You'll feel better too.

If you miss a day, you don't "make it up" the next -- you just miss it. It makes no difference, as long as you get right back in the swing of things the day after. Make an effort to move around an extra few minutes every day, and call it your "exercise." You'll slowly notice yourself making improvements and feeling better, and you'll be able to increase your efforts as time goes on.

Find something you enjoy doing because unless you really enjoy any activity you won't continue it, and unless your new activity becomes a part of your day-to-day life, you won't make any lasting change. You do want a lasting change, right?

If watching TV is an important part of your day, then see if you can find an exercise you can do while watching TV. You're spending time doing it anyway, so you won't be taking anything away, just moving while you watch. I read while I'm on my bike, and since I love reading, I really look forward to it every day. I used to clean my house during commercials. I'd watch a show, and when a commercial came on, I'd pick things up, or dust, vacuum, whatever for the three or more minutes until my show came back on. Then I'd stop, go back and sit down and watch until the next break.

I'm not kidding, I could clean the whole house this way. If I wanted to work in the kitchen, I'd just set a timer for three minutes and go to it. I could just as easily have a couple of dumbbells in the living room, and pull them out during commercials, or do some crunches, etc.

You could also bring in an exercise bike, or treadmill, or whatever. Just find some way to move during commercials and you'll not only gain the benefit of some daily movement, but you'll be paying less attention to all those commercials for food and drink that aren't at all helpful.

Our next issue will include what we mean when we say Eat More Food.

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Farm Bred Fish = Out-of-Control Appetite

From the "Dumb and Dumber" files, now scientists have developed something they are feeding to farm bred fish which, get this, causes them to be so hungry they will eat anything. The idea is that fish feed is expensive, so this way they can feed the fish foods unnatural to them by causing an uncontrollable appetite in the animal. They'll basically eat anything. That's just swell but what happens when we eat the fish? Do we then get a dose of these chemicals? l don't want an uncontrollable appetite, thanks anyway, Mr. Scientist.

The amount of hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals given to our animals that we later intent to eat is appalling. Feed lot pens are sprayed with pesticide to keep away the flys, which filters into the noses, and onto the skin of the animals. It's not safe to walk in your backyard after they spray pesticides, yet it's perfectly okay to eat cows and chickens that have lived in a daily mist of it? And now, to top it all off they are going to introduce a chemical which enhances appetite to fish? Do these scientists all hold a degree from Cracker Jack?

Fish is not required to be labeled, so once this product hits the market either ask, or buy your fish at a fish market where they will know whether the fish are farm bred.

Contamination of 50% an Improvement?

A study in 1998 and reported on WebMD.com on December 11, 2002, found nearly three-fourths of supermarket chickens to be contaminated with salmonella and the campylobactor bacteria which prompted an overhaul of the government's food inspection system. A new test in 2002 found a 25% improvement, so now a mere 50% of the chickens bought from US grocery stores and tested were found to be contaminated. Wow! We're making such great strides in food safety when only one-half of all the store bought chickens are contaminated with potentially deadly bacteria.

How to safeguard yourself and your family? Be extremely cautious that you wash all surfaces that come into contact with the raw chicken, including your hands, knives, washboard, countertops, etc. Wash your knives before using them on any other ingredients, even those that will be cooked. Better safe than sorry.

Small Changes for Big Weight Loss Results!

The easiest way to lose weight is by considering your daily routine. What do you habitually eat? Do you eat fast food? How many times a week? Could you cut that in half? You'd lose a substantial amount of weight just by making a few simple changes in your lifestyle. Start with one change, and see if you can incorporate it into your life. After a month, you might be ready to incorporate another change.

Here's what I did to get back in shape:

1. Stopped eating sugared cereals for breakfast. I now eat low fat granola, or GrapeNuts most mornings.

2. Started carrying snacks to the office (fruits, yogurts, bagels, etc.) and reached for an apple when I started feeling hungry. Trying not to eat will set you up for a full-blown binge later. Try eating when you are hungry for a change. It's amazing how well it works.

3. Stopped my evening one or two glasses of red wine. (This also saves a nice piece of change because good red wine has gotten expensive!).

4. Cut back to once a month burgers and fries instead of every weekend.

5. Started eating real food for lunch, instead of a giant cookie.

6. Started consistent exercise, by riding my exercise bike every day for 10 minutes (or less). Once you develop the exercise habit, then it is easier to add more minutes.

Get the picture? Small changes. I didn't do these all at once, but one at a time and slowly over time these habits are now my usual habits. It works.

What will They Think of Next Dept: Botox for Weight Loss

Deadly toxin or miracle cure? Studies with Botox began over 50 years ago when the Army at Fort Detrick, Maryland developed a process to purify the toxin in biological research. Later in 1987 serendipity caused Dr. Jean Carruthers, an ophthalmologist at the University of British Columbia to note that when she injected Botox to relax her patients' spastic eye muscles, their brow muscles smoothed as well!

Today it is fairly well known that Botox is used for cosmetic reasons, and now research is being done to test its effectiveness against a myriad of complaints from migraine headaches, lower back pain, stroke paralysis, weight loss and many others. In the case of weight loss, tests are underway to see whether Botox is effective in weakening the muscles that allow food to be released from the stomach. My initial reaction is pretty guarded: We have a hard enough time getting adequate nutrition, let alone introducing a way to reduce the body's ability to absorb nutrients, but nobody actually called for my opinion, so the tests continue.

Make note of the warning of, "rare spontaneous reports of deaths" indicated on the label, while Dr. Robert Daroff, former editor in chief of Neurology magazine said the toxin, "has enormous potential," and a spokeswoman for the FDA said the toxin was considered "very safe" for approved uses.

So there you have it! Deadly poison as cure-all. Due to the fact that the effects wear off over time, from three to six months, even unhappy results are not permanent. Another potential downside is the cost, at still $300 to $400 a vial, yet it is affordable for many who could never afford or want to take the risks of surgery. I'm filing this in the Wait and See folder.

Trivia Bits

Why is it called hamburger when there is no ham in it?

Sites of Interest

If the food doesn't give you a heart attack, adding up the calories and grams of fat will. Check it out at Get the Facts on McDonalds. Here's one meal (after seeing these numbers, you probably won't consider it a happy meal, either!)

	Calories	Fat Grams
Big-n-Tasty with Cheese	580	56
Super Size Fries	610	45
Totals	1190	101

Wow! Those Big-n-Tasty's aren't even a huge sandwich, and I had no idea the fries packed such a calorie wallop. For about the same amount of calories, and one-quarter the fat check this menu:

	Calories	Fat Grams
Roast Chicken, 2 breasts	568	12
Baked Potato w/sour cream	338	11
Mixed vegetables (2 cups)	107	0
Totals	1013	23

Did you notice the second meal is a ton of food? Most diets allow you maybe 1/2 cup of vegetables, but why the limitation? No fat, low calories. Come up, pile it on with good food. If you used nonfat sour cream, you'd shave off those fat grams too. Food for thought.

'Til next time, eat and enjoy life. Stop waiting until you're thinner, taller, richer - Do it Now!
Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP