Focus: A Weight Loss Strategy
I just finished working my quads on a weight machine. My head races and my body hums all in an attempt to lose weight. Only moments ago, my legs worked so hard that they began to fail. They worked so hard that my muscle tissue cried out in pain and began to tear. Now having just finished, my body sweating with the effort, I can rest for a couple of minutes before doing it again.
Each day this week I will have targeted a different group of muscles. Each day I will work them, stretch them, and tear them. Each day, I will work so hard that my heart beats a new rhythm into my metabolism. Each day, my body will set to repair the damage I have done in such manner that it does not happen again. Each day doggedly break my body down and force it to improve itself. This is working out, this is getting fit, this is what it takes.
As I sit and stretch between sets, my quads still reeling, I scan around the gym. I take in those around me. At this hour, there are few people willing to brave the cold mornings to make the run to the gym. There are two people working with some free weights near by. They are within earshot and while I am resting I listen to them complain about, work, relationships, their bosses, clothes, their bodies and their friends. The conversation flows from one topic to the next seamlessly and it is clear by their candor that they know each other well; that they have been friends and work out buddies for a while. What grabs my attention however, is not the meandering topics of their conversation, but the fact that conversation is occurring at all.
I ponder this until I start on my second set. As my second set starts, all I can focus on is exercise; flexing my muscles against the weight. During the relatively short time it takes for me to run through my set and completely exhaust my quads, every action, every breath becomes an exercise in methodical control and economy. Every action I make is geared to the exercise at hand.
When I finish and I reengage with the world, I come back to the two people and their on-going conversation. As they chat, they work through a routine of exercises that look habitual and ritualized. When they work their muscles, they go through the motions; intent more on the conversation and company then their bodies.
There is a point to this. There is a myth, an urban legend if you will, that says going to the gym will make you lose weight. It is a logical extension of the same myth that says I need to go to the gym, I am out of shape. These two ideas have become synonymous with healthy lifestyles and fitness. For the two people I observed, simply being at the gym was enough to assuage their concerns for their physical health. The bottom line is that this is an illusion. To make yourself fit, you need to break your body down and force it to rebuild. The idea being that after the rebuild, you will be stronger and fit. This cannot occur by merely being in a gym, or as in the case with the talking pair, this cannot occur by going through the motions of working out.
Before I get accused of being a fanatical meat head just understand that I carry an extra few pounds around my waist. All I know is that to really make progress, to have physical and visible results, you must have an impact on your body. The kicker is that they almost have it made. These people are at they gym early on a cold morning. They are committed to their weight loss goals. They go through the motions of their exercises like a well rehearsed dance routine. Clearly they want to achieve something with their bodies. If they just focused, and worked their bodies just a little more; enough, say, to deny them the ease of conversation, then the results would be tremendous.
The whole point is that you have to be clear about what it is you want to accomplish. I know with every fiber in my being, that I will burn off the extra weight around my waist and that I will firm up my desk loving muscles. But I won’t do it by talking.
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Low-Carb Diets – An Introduction
According to a recent survey by the National Health Institute, about a third of overweight Americans who are trying to lose weight, are doing so by eating less carbohydrates (carbs) largely because of the increased popularity of fad diets like Atkins Diet and the South Beach Diet.
Who Invented Low-Carb Diets?
The term “low-carb” was coined around 1992 when the USDA recommended that Americans include six to eleven servings daily of grains and starches in their diet.
In fact, low-carb dieting dates back more than 100 years to 1864, before the trendy Atkins diet, when a pamphlet titled “Letter on Corpulence” was written by William Banting. This was as close to the first commercial low-carb diet as you could get.
Banting’s diet eventually fell out of favor, but low-carb diets began appearing again in the 20th century. The most famous of these are the Atkins and Scarsdale diets that came to popularity in the 1970s.
While Scarsdale has a set 14-day meal plan that must be followed and greatly restricts calories, the Atkins diet allows for unlimited calorie consumption as long as those calories are from protein, fat and vegetables and carbohydrate intake is kept low.
Atkins and Scarsdale fell out of favor in the 1980’s when the USDA encouraged the consumption of grains and grain products.
It was only in the 1990’s that we began to see a return to low-carb dieting that seems to be more than a fad. Low-carb is now a lifestyle!
As more and more people realize the weight loss and other health benefits that are available to people who eat low-carb, the number of diets and stores that sell specialty low-carb products continue to rise.
In a nutshell, most low-carb diets carry the same basic premise: that too much of simple, refined carbohydrates leads to over overproduction of insulin, which leads to the storage of too much fat in the body. This fat storage is especially prominent around the middle.
While there are degrees of difference among the many diets, they all agree on the negative effects that excess insulin production have on our systems.
While it might be great to lower the body’s sugar content and be healthier, wouldn’t it be great to learn how to do so while being part of this fast-paced world?
People want and need simpler solutions. And they need simpler dieting plans.
Forget spending mega bucks on gourmet, hard-to-find items. Forget spending hours just to prepare meals. And forget counting, measuring, and weighing ingredients.
Either a low-carb plan fit into real-world lives, or it doesn’t. So how do low-carb diets fit into the real world today?
Low Carb, Slow Carb
In a nutshell, there are two kinds of carbohydrates, simple and complex. Some refer to them as bad and good carbs, fast and slow digestion carbs and other possibly confusing lingo. Here’s the scoop.
Simple Carbs
Foods with simple or refined carbohydrates most often have a low nutrient content and a high-glycemic index. They are quick to digest and can cause blood sugar to soar then fall dramatically within a short span of time.
In order to keep the body running more healthy and stable, health advisors recommend that these type foods be limited.
Examples of these simple carbs are white bread, potatoes, bananas, and sugary treats like cookies, candy, cupcakes and cakes, and soda beverages like popular cola products.
Complex Carbs
Foods with complex carbohydrates contain many nutrients and have a low- to moderate-glycemic index.
Higher fiber content in these foods means slower digestion, which is healthier for the body. And these foods are considered good choices by health advisors.
Examples of these complex carbs are whole grains, most fruits and vegetables. Legumes, plants of the pea or bean family, are also in this category.
Which Is Best?
While studies like one from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in January of 2004 show that low-carb diets can help with weight loss; the carbs need to be of the complex, low-glycemic type.
However, it is not necessary to totally avoid the simple carbs. A treat now and then, in moderation (and approved per your dietary advisor or in accordance with your health practitioner), should be fine.
As a side note, your teeth will also be healthier without the build up of sugar decay from simple carb foods. So healthier smiles will shine with healthier bodies.
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Priya Shah is the Editor of The Glutathione Report and the webmaster of Glutathione – Your Whey To Health
Read our online report on Low-Carb Dieting Secrets and get a Free Booklet titled “Low Carb Recipes and Food Ideas People On The Go”
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