Rule #3
Exercise is a major factor in keeping your blood sugar in balance, boosting energy levels and enhancing your body’s efficiency in storing nutrients into your cells.
Take exercise out of the equation and you’ve eliminated your body’s secret weapon for losing weight and improving your heath. Moderate exercise can reverse many of the negative effects of a poor diet. This is not to say that if you exercise you don’t need to watch what you eat. Instead, your attitude should be that your goal is to feed your body the proper fuel to prep yourself daily for some physical training. The nice thing about exercising is the more energy you put into it, the more energy you get back. It’s that simple. Start by building a base level of training and slowly add some intensity when your body is ready. A balanced meal before training leads to a spectacular workout. A meal out of balance will cause you to feel so sluggish you may not be able to finish.
Choose wisely what you eat before you train and just as important what you eat after you train to replace what you burned. With higher intensity training you can actually eat higher glycemic foods after exercising to quickly replace your glycogen or muscle energy for the next day. The body’s blood sugar threshold is expanded after a good workout meaning that it’s harder to mess up. Early morning training on an empty stomach can actually help you burn fat up to three times more efficiently, however it is important to remember to eat within an hour of waking. Lifting weights puts on lean muscle mass the fastest and therefore increases your metabolism even while you are resting.
That means you get to eat more. Putting on an extra 5 pounds of muscle equates to over 200 extra calories burned at rest. That could be just what you need to jump-start you back into health. Three to five workouts a week are recommended with training sessions lasting from 30 minutes up to one hour. With 24 hours in a day there is no reason not to spend at least 30 minutes strengthening your heart, lungs, muscles and discipline. Make your workouts fun. Variety is the key. Also, its great to train with a friend to stay motivated and reach your goals. Hold each other accountable for showing up on time and putting forth a quality effort.
Rule #4
Three meals a day or less are not enough to keep your blood sugar levels in balance. The goal here should be to strive for small balanced, nutrient dense, low glycemic meals eaten every 3-4 hours throughout the day. Usually that comes out to 5 or 6 feedings or grazings a day. Large meals are out if you want the mirror to reflect a healthy image back. On the other side of the coin, skipping meals will slow down your metabolism, drop your blood sugar down to dangerous levels and take you out of hormonal balance.
To avoid missing meals I recommend using a high quality meal replacement shake or such as the ones offered by NutriSource International. The meal replacement should include high quality proteins with all 22 amino acids, low glycemic carbohydrates, essential fats, digestive enzymes, vitamins, minerals and be low in sugars. NutriSource International is one of the few companies that does not compromise on their ingredients. An every other meal approach works best. For example breakfast should be a food meal. Three hours later have a meal replacement shake to maintain blood sugar levels. Lunch is next and a food meal is again appropriate. The late afternoon feeding should be a shake, followed ideally by a workout.
Your dinner or after workout meal is next and should again consist of a food meal. Your last meal should take place three hours later before bed and a snack or half size meal works best to enhance your sleep quality. Remember to include each of the three macronutrients: proteins, carbs and fats with every meal. Drink plenty of water in between meals and some with them. The right kind of water helps keep you hydrated, transports nutrients and removes excess toxins and wastes. Waiting until you are thirsty is too late. At that point you are operating at 25% beneath your normal capacity.
With 60% of your body weight coming from water its one nutrient you must take seriously. One half of your body weight in ounces of water is the ideal hydration level to shoot for daily. We have discovered that a water discovered by Dr. Lee Lorenzen called “Vivo” works best. It uses a special micro-clustered technology that allows more water into your cells assisting with literally thousands of metabolic functions in our body’s tissues. It is currently being clinically tested all over the world with studies showing amazing results.
Rule #5
Feed the body specifically what it needs and eliminate what it doesn’t. What does the body demand daily to stay in optimum health? We discussed the importance of the right balance of macronutrients, (protein, carbohydrates and fats). In addition, there are a total of 92 essential nutrients that one must consume on a daily basis to maintain proper health. Vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and trace elements make up another part of the nutritional puzzle, while water, fiber, enzymes and key adaptogenic herbs from nature round out the rest.
On top of what the body needs daily to function is the fact that when we overload ourselves with non-nutritious choices or anti-nutrients our body spends hours trying to discard the excess toxins interfering with our ability to utilize the good foods we are eating. On the one hand, most people are deficient in many nutritional categories while at the same time are filling themselves up with a lot of “empty” calories. With an emphasis on covering the basic essentials and cutting out the junk at the same time we blast up the top of the ladder of well-being with relative ease. Check to make sure you are getting the essentials without polluting the body at the same time.
Rule #6
You have to have a plan. Your plan needs to cover what you need, when you need it while fitting into your busy schedule. It has to be easy, practical, effective and complete. It also has to be something you can stick to for the rest of your life without feeling deprived of the foods you love or feeling like you are starving all the time. You must feel the difference and lock your body into a true hormonal balance that maximizes the internal environment for cellular functioning. The body has some amazing powers to heal itself when given the proper nutrients in the proper balances.
The combination of the right foods together with the right type of supplementation provides you with a way to master the each of these nutritional rules. The consistency of your new approach will begin to build a momentum with your energy, strength, endurance and recovery. A body in balance that is functioning at its potential creates an abundant flow of life-energy. This energy will continue to expand until you reach a point where your immune system becomes so strong, sickness and disease become ancient memories.
Stay tuned for part three in this three part series coming up next.
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