Looking at current pictures makes me mad!

by | Mar 6, 2013 | Diet, How Your Body Works, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Those of you who are parents and particularly moms will instantly understand what I’m talking about now.

It seems we spend our lives wanting the best for others and loving others more than we ever do ourselves and truthfully even  if we’re not parents in many ways it’s  human nature to want the best for others quite often more than we want the best for ourselves.

None of us I believe would deliberately want somebody else to be harmed by our actions and in fact most of the time we do our very best to ensure that those around us get the best out of life and that action and understanding and attitude is all fine and dandy except when it comes to ourselves.

If we had truly loved ourselves as much as we loved those around us then we would not let ourselves get into the state physically such that just catching a quick glimpse of ourselves can be so disheartening, disappointing and a shock  that brings us back to reality and it’s that shock that presents us with two new  challenges.

The first is really a continuation of what we’ve been doing all of our lives. If we truly love those around us, those that we really care for then that unselfish drive that we have deep within us requires us to stay around and be there for them. That obviously means that we need to be healthy if we want to live a long life.

That is probably something that underlines the real reason why many of us chose to do something about our unhealthy, overweight and unfit state but the real key here is not doing what we’re doing just for others but start doing it for ourselves as well.

The real challenge here is just like we love our children unconditionally is to start loving ourselves unconditionally as well simply because the things that we love the most get the most care and attention from us.

So here’s the challenge ladies and gentlemen, next time you pass a mirror look at yourself right in the eyes and say with feeling “I LOVE YOU”. You might go silly, you might feel daft telling yourself that you love yourself but frankly unless you can start doing that you’re missing out on one of the most powerful forces that we have.

It is after all not for nothing that it’s written “Love overcomes all evil”.

Hope that helps,

Mark

This is a copy of the comment I recently made on a forum post about weight loss

Few little question (Coke/LC meal replacement)

by | Mar 4, 2013 | Artificial Sweeteners, Questions about low carb, Weight Loss | 0 comments

I think we can lump Coke Zero and eating other artificial sweeteners into one. Rather than go into it at length here I would suggest you head over to aspartamesafety.com and find out why for instance airline pilots have been advised not to consume anything with aspartame in it.

My next question is would you consider drinking antifreeze? Well I’m guessing the answer is probably going to be no. Well the formula for some sugar alcohols so closely resembles that of antifreeze but you can actually use some of them as an antifreeze and seeing that antifreeze is unknown to be poisonous well that just speaks for itself.

The other thing about artificial sweeteners is that they are obviously produced by quite a complex chemical process and unfortunately the chemicals used in making them are themselves poisonous.

Whilst the manufacturers do obviously endeavor to remove as much of the poisonous chemicals that are used in their production as possible this is not a process which is a hundred percent and many of them are tainted.

Now whilst for an occasional consumption this may produce no detrimental effect, continual consumption over a number of years will mean that these chemicals can build up in the body and cause a whole range of problems.

As for low carb meal replacements my question is what’s wrong with real food?

Lastly the moot question of exercise, should it be aerobics or more strength? That depends on whose advice you want to follow. Unfortunately the professionals in the health and fitness industry have tended to go down the aerobics’ partway simply because it’s a great way of making money.

We all seemed to have been pushed into the position of thinking that the more effort and time we spend doing something the better it must be and exercise is no exception to this.

However more recent studies have shown that aerobic exercise does not do the heart nor virtually any other muscle as much good as was originally thought.

I would suggest you have a look at the work of Dr. Al Sears and a quick squint at Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Body book as they not only provide a wealth of information about what exercise does. They’re also extremely well researched and referenced and you’ll find many of the reports listed which both Tim and Dr. Sears have based their work upon. 

Obviously these are all just my opinions. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether they’re right or wrong.

Hope that helps,

Mark

This is the comment I made on a forum post about artificial sweeteners

Question for the exercise experts about breathing

by | Mar 4, 2013 | Exercise, Weight Loss | 0 comments

You have to go back quite along way in the history of weightlifting for strength and fitnes1351493754aoal7ks to understand where the breathing method comes from.

According to some of the ancient texts it would appear that athletes were encouraged to breathe in during exertion in order to stiffen the body some what as this was though to be an aid to both lifting and exertion and also the stiffening of the body meant that muscle were held in place and injury was less likely.

Other texts point out that the mere act of breathing consciously helped the athlete concentrate on the exercise that they were doing rather than be distracted by what’s going on around them.

Fast forwarding to our present century many people exercise using machines which while they offer a much safer environment to work in they do significantly limit the benefit one can get by doing the same exercise with free weights.

From my experience focus-breathing is only really necessary when you are handling very large free weights as the extra support and the consciousness of breathing both help to make sure that the lift is carried out safely.

For those of us who lift just within our normal capacity the need for conscious breathing is obviously not as crucial although some might argue that it’s helpful.

Personally when I’m exercising at normal speed I breathe with the exercise. However if I’m doing a very very slow repetition then I just breathe as I need to.

The bottom line of all of these is that the body requires a certain amount of oxygen in order to perform the exercise and not suffer oxygen depletion.

So the important thing is to breathe. How you breathe is very much up to you.

Hope that helps,

Mark

This is a comment I made on a forum post about breathing and exercise

 

Legs & muscle

by | Feb 26, 2013 | Exercise, How Your Body Works, Weight Loss | 0 comments

leg-muscles-man-15265902The muscles in the legs are about the biggest in the body so using those is actually very good for weight loss.

There are three exercises that will principally help you get the most out of using your leg muscles. They are Hindu squats (there are plenty of videos on YouTube how to do those), walking or running up and down stairs and finally 100 meter sprints (sprint in one direction, walk back).

Do that as many times as you can up to 4 times and that will be enough for that session and for most people you don’t need to add any extra weight as the weight of your body give your legs a sufficient enough work out unless you want to be Arnold Schwarzenegger of course.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Below is a copy of the comment I made on a forum post about muscle building

Hello

by | Feb 26, 2013 | Low carb diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

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One great way of lowering the size of your belly as you have already discovered is to lower carbs so it’s great that you have decided to take that approach.

One great way you can help yourself understand how low carb works is to get hold of one of the better low carb books such as Dr. Atkins.

A good read through of a book like that will give you a thorough grounding as it goes trough the whys, the wherefores, the what to do and the what not to do in a nice logical order and the great thing is you probably don’t even need to pay a lot of money for one as you’ll frequently find them in second hand book shops for a dollar or less.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Here is a comment made on a forum post about low carb