Along with eating low fat, to lose weight, you need to exercise. You can just go out there, and start running, but if you are out of shape, chances are you are jut going to get tired, burned out, and possibly injured. You need to start slowly! Thats where a heart rate monitor comes in.
With a heart rate monitor, you can exercise intelligently. Yur heart rate is a great indicator of your effort level. If you are out of shape, it doesn’t take much to get your heart rate up. When you get into better shape, you will have to physically work harder to get your heart rate up.
When you raise your heart rate up to a certain level, you enter the aerobic zone. In this zone, you are burning mostly fats. As you increase your level of effort, your heart rate increases, and you begin to enter the anaeobic zone. In this zone, you begin to burn more glycogin (sugars), and less fats.
Fats are like charcoal, and glycogen is like lighter fluid. The charcoal will burn slow, but for a long time. The lighter fluid will burn fast, but we gone quickly. You need glycogen to get the fats to burn. But as you go anaerobic, you are burning just the glycogen. Also as you go anaerobic, your body starts producing lactic acid faster than it can get rid of it. This is what makes your muscles sore after a hard workout. And when you burn all the available gycogen, your body wants to stop. Working out in the aerobic zone, also increases your chances of injury. And repeated anaerobic workouts will wear your body down.
So for the most benefits, it’s best to stay in the aeobic zone. This is where the heart rate monitor comes in. It allows you stay in the zone. It tells you when you need to speed up, or when you need to slow down.
If you are just starting out, a basic heart rate monitor such as the Polar FS1 will work fine.
A couple excellent books on the subject are Heart Monitor Training For The Compleat Idiot by John L. Parker Jr. and also High Performance Heart by Phil Maffetone.
Stop The Insanity by Susan Powter
SUMMARY: Great book with a solid method for losing weight that works!
I was first attracted to reading this book when I had seen Susan Powter on TV. It might have been one of her informercials. You would recognise Susan Powter! She would the athletic looking, high energy woman with a blond buzz cut. But it wasn’t her that I was attracted to, it was her ideas. I liked what she was saying. What she was saying about fat, and carbs, and proteins, reminded me of what I had read in the body building magazines that I used to read. I found the book someplace for cheap. The book is written I think more with women in mind. She talks a lot about her personally life, and how she lost weight. The basic idea is eat low fat where less than 20% of the calories come from fat. Also you should eat healthy food, and not crap. Using the ideas from this book, I lost about 30 pounds in two months. I maintain that weight for along time. Now I am eating low to get my body fat percentage down.
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So you are trying to lose weight. How much? What are your weight loss goals? Some people make the mistake of just trying to lose weight without any plan or goal in mind. This is kind of like getting in your car, and driving, without having a map or a destination in mind. How will you know when you and achieved what you set out to do?
Try to set a goal. Do you want to achieve a certain weight, or a certain size? I don’t have either of these in mind.
I have already lost my own weight. Now I want to maintain my weight while lowering my body fat percentage so that I can see my abs. Thats my goal.
I have a very good friend who is trying to lose weight, and her goals are to fit into a pink dress that she bought. She also has an interim goal of fitting into a particular pair of jeans. To help herself visualize her goal, she has hung pictures of those jeans in various places in her kitchen.
So when planning to lose weight, come up with your goals, write them down, document them, tell people about them. By having these goals in mind, your brain will start to work out how to get there. It will help you. But you have to admit to your goal. If you are keeping your goal secret, you are giving yourself an out so you can fail, and no one will know. But if you simply write it down, you are making a commitment, and you are more likely to achieve it!
Last night I made a great dinner for Valentines Day. It wasn’t completely low fat, but then it was a special occasion. You want to be careful, and not go insane trying to eat all low fat all the time! Pretty soon you are going to be binging on junk food.
So last night I made some filet mignon (very lean beef) with a thin pat of steak butter (butter with garlic, parsely, worchester sauce, etc in it) melted over the top. The butter was not low fat, but it is really good with the filet mignon! I also made some sauteed mushrooms (sauteed in a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil), steamed broccoli, and boiled salt potatoes. I used Molly McButter on the potatoes and the broccoli. We also had a caesar salad, light on the dressing. For dessert my wife had made some chocolate dipped strawberries. These were really good.
Do we eat like this all the time? NO! But on special occasions, yes!
Today it is back to eating Healthy Choice entrees. So don’t feel bad to eat a good, not quite so low fat meal every once in a while! Don’t go overboard though!
