Not As Sweet As Sugar

If you want to sabotage your health as quickly as possible, eat lots of refined sugar! Sugar should be classified as a poison. I know. It tastes wonderful. But if you thought about what is was doing to your body, it wouldn't seem so sweet.

Here's a nice list of seven effects of sugar:, with thanks to Diana Walker and her blog.

1. Sugar Depletes Body of Vitamins and Nutrients
Because it depletes the body of vitamins and nutrients, sugar suppresses the immune system, leaving the body little room to defend itself.

2. Sugar Feeds Cancer Cells
Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been linked with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder and stomach.

3. Sugar Links to Tooth Decay
Sugar has a high acidic content and as a result, it has a direct link to tooth decay and other dental problems.

4. Sugar Links to Diabetes and Blood Sugar Fluctuations
Refined sugar has a direct affect on your blood sugar levels and is a main cause of diabetes.

5. Sugar and Obesity
With the zero nutritional value and no fiber content in sugar, it’s clearly implicated in obesity, which can cause many other illnesses and conditions. .

6. Sugar and Anxiety Disorders
Sugar can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children and even adults. One of the first things that a person diagnosed with anxiety disorder is told to eliminate is refined sugar.

7. Sugar and the Aging Process
Another result that stems from the fact that sugar has no nutritional value, is that it accelerates the aging process. In order for a body to remain healthy it must have the necessary vitamins and minerals needed to maintain vigor and energy. Again, sugar is not only void of nutrients, but it also zaps the body of the good stuff that is already there.

I find sugar addicting. When I eat it, I crave it--every day. That's why I've given it up.

Of course, I still eat lots of unprocessed, unrefined sugar from fresh fruits and vegetables. These don't have the same effect on the body.

How can you give up sugar? Slowly. Start reducing your intake of sugar gradually. You'll find that foods with a lot of sugar start tasting too sweet. Then you know you're on the right path.

Another great strategy is to look at a doughnut or a piece of cake or a candy bar and ask yourself if you would feed it to your dog if you cared about his/her health. Aha!

You can also think about how you are undoing all the good things you have done for your body by eating this poison.

Fitness and sugar don't go together. When you crave sweets, eat a banana, prunes or a luscious peach. It's not deprivation. It's delicious.

Fat and Fitness

Fat is necessary to optimal health. That's a fact. However, the kind of fat you eat can make a difference between dumpy and defined.

Man-made fats, trans fats, are the worst. Don't even go near them. You wouldn't eat poisonous mushrooms. Think of trans fats as about the same except you won't die quite as fast.

Animal fat is basically bad. It causes inflammation, which puts you at risk for all kinds of disease, and does not contribute to getting lean. Inflammation seems to be at the root of just about every cardiovascular and neurological disease there is.

Should you eliminate all animal fat? That's up to you. Personally, I eat an egg every now and then, tiny quantities of goat cheese (naturally low in fat) and low-fat feta cheese. That's it.

Now to the good news. Many plant-based fats are great for your health and for helping you lose weight and stay lean.

Peanut butter not only helps you lower cholesterol and reduce heart disease risk; it can also help you lose weight by helping your feel full longer.

Avocados are another great food full of monunsaturated fat that appear to protect your heart and lower your risk of certain types of cancer.

Olive oil, of course, is another healthy fat that should definitely be part of your diet.

Omega-3, the fat found in fish and walnuts, seems to actually help your body burn fat.

To learn more, check out these articles:
"5 foods that should have a place in your diet"
"How Fats Help You Lose Fat"
"Good Fats Make You Healthier and Help You Lose Weight"
"Lose Weight Quickly & Easily By Getting Fat"

Enjoy foods with healthy fats, and know that they are helping you get that lean look you want.

How Do You View Food?

My fitness idol, The Godfather of Fitness Jack LaLanne, famously said, "The food you eat today is walking and talking tomorrow."

It's true. You can tell what people eat just by looking at them, once you become attuned to how what you eat affects your body.

When I start talking about all the things I don't eat, people immediately start thinking, "Oh! I could never deprive myself like that. That's not really living."

What they don't understand is that humans develop and lose tastes for food. What you tend to eat a lot, you tend to prefer. What you don't eat, you eventually stop missing and may even come to dislike. When other people think it's deprivation to turn down a piece of pizza, my response is different. I think about how terrible I'll feel if I eat something loaded with fat from cheese, meat and the added oil poured on top and in the crust. Since my body is not used to it, I would be sick for hours, if not days. Why would I want to eat something that would make me sick? How could I look at the pizza and think, "Yum"?

The truth is that Americans eat foods that they wouldn't feed to their pets. Yet they somehow think that foods loaded with fat, sugar and salt somehow constitute the good life. Where did we get this notion in our society?

I wish I could tel you can eat all the foods you currently eat and get in terrific shape just by strength training. Unfortunately, I would be lying. What I can tell you is that you can learn to love foods that make you feel and look good.

My husband has a measure of the foods we should eat. His theory is that if he can eat a regular meal and then do a hard workout without feeling lethargic or sick, he's eating the right food. When he ate bad food, it was hard for him to work out. No more.

What should you be eating? Stay tuned.

Gaining Definition

I worked out for more than 20 years and only had minimal definition. I always looked soft. Why? Because I had body fat covering up all those muscles I had built up.

The only way to get definition, to be able to see your highly toned muscles, is to reduce body fat. And, sorry ladies, the only way to reduce body fat is to change your diet.

I thought that if you ate fewer calories, it didn't matter so much what you ate (as long as you tried to eat a relatively healthy diet). But a personal experiment has convinced me that this is not the case. What you eat is as important as how much you eat.

About six and a half years ago, my weight started to creep up. I was, quite honestly, appalled. And I was determined I was not going to let the trend continue. Through lots of experimentation, I reduced my food portions and then started eliminating bad foods one by one.

Although my goal was to lose the seven pounds or so I had gained in the previous year, do you know what happened? I kept losing, not only pounds but body fat. Instead of seven pounds, I lost nearly 30, and I wasn't even trying. I have since kept off the weight. More important, I have completely changed my body. All my life, I had a healthy layer of body fat. It was as if it melted off. A woman who hadn't seen me at the gym for some months said she didn't recognize me. Even my husband of 20 years said my body had been completely transformed; he never realized just how small I was under that layer of fat.

How did I do it? I'll save that for upcoming posts.

Stay tuned.

Cardio Options

Even though I believe that strength training is the top priority for fitness, I do think that cardiovascular/aerobic training is essential, too. It's good for long-term brain functioning, endurance and, of course, a strong cardiovascular system.

In my opinion, it doesn't matter what you do, as long as you enjoy it and get your heart rate up for a sustained period.

As for me, since I can't run because of bad feet, my favorite cardio workout is the stairs. I just happen to live in a 15-story building, so I have been walking the stairs once a week: four times all the way up and down. On two other days of the week, I'll ride a stationary bike and use an elliptical machine. I choose the piece of equipment depending upon my mood. This gives me lots of variety. I never have to do the same thing twice in a week, unless I choose to do so.

My rule of thumb is to get my heart rate up to training level (between 65 and 85% of maximum) and keep it there for about 15 minutes. I add five minutes of warm-up and two minutes to cool down, for a total of 22 minutes. This is just about how long my four flights of stairs takes.

Keep in mind that a weight training workout can have a cardio dimension if you don't rest between sets.

Pick your favorite way to get your blood pumping and do it at least three days a week. It may help prevent dementia in old age, and it will definitely make you feel good right now.

What Not to Wear...at the Gym

Here's a tip for any woman who is not under the age of 30 and in fantastic shape. Never wear light gray, white or other light-colored form-fitting pants at the gym (or anywhere else for that matter). This has nothing to do with your workout. It has to do with saving you from embarrassment. If you are tempted to wear any of these light-colored form-fitting pants, first take a look in the rear-view mirror. The sight may not be pretty.

Let's face it. Even if you are in great shape, time and gravity have a way of wreaking havoc on our bodies. Dimples, rolls, wrinkles and sagging are not the features we want to accentuate.

Same goes for the legs. If your legs have that weathered look, ditch the shorts. Go for cropped-length or long pants.

Buy some nice dark-colored pants and do yourself, and everyone else in the gym, a favor.

Working Out When You're Not in the Mood

Keeping motivated to work out is hard work in itself. There are always days when we've had a hard day at work, we've had a bad experience with a friend or spouse or we are just plain-old lazy. How do you keep up your motivation?

Motivation is irrelevant. You must believe you have to work out to stay in optimum condition. Do you have to get motivated to brush your teeth or wash your hair? No. You do it because you know you have to.

Exercise is the same. It's essential to living a healthy life. Go and do it whether you're in the mood or not. Once you start training, you're likely to get into the mood and have a great workout. Sometimes it's just a matter of getting up off the couch and moving.

There may be days when you are just going through the motions. That's OK. What's important is that a mediocre workout is better than no workout. You're likely to have a great workout the next time.

If you have a training partner, that helps. My husband and I have been working out together since we met nearly 26 years ago. But each of us would work out on our own anyway. It's that important to us.

Find a buddy if it helps. Regardless, get up and get to the gym. Chances are, once you're there, you'll be glad you went.