The long standing debate – which one is more important? Depends on your goals but both are essential for good health.
If weight loss is the goal, reducing calories and fat should be your main focus.
If looking sexy and toned is what you strive towards, your main focus should be on exercise.
You can be slim but have no shape but if you have a little extra weight but have toned muscles and curves, you will still look hot. Unless we are talking about runway models, society has shifted focus away from the skinny anorexic look to curvy and healthy look. Simply look at celebrities or open any clothing retail magazine or website.
Personally, I focus on both – a healthy diet and a very active lifestyle.
Diet
Approximately 97% of dieters regain everything they lost and then some within three years. Diet and Weight Loss Statistics.” Fitness for Weight Loss. 2015. Accessed: March 20, 2015
If you want to follow a diet or start an exercise regiment, don’t think of it as a temporary plan but a lifestyle change. If you can not commit to healthy eating active lifestyle for the rest of your life, you will forever struggle. Diet, in the traditional sense, involves going on a strict calorie deficit or eliminating certain food groups for a period of time. Sure, you will lose weight but, beware, once you go back to your old ways, the calories will creep back with a vengeance, which often causes the yo-yo dieting phenomena (endless cycling through weight loss and weight gain).
I suggest eat healthy nutritious whole foods, with none to minimal processing. Cook your meals at home whenever possible and turn it into a family activity. Don’t eat on the go. Make eating as a family a tradition. Practice mindful eating. Smell, chew, and taste your food. Don’t gobble it down like it is your last supper. Avoid using electronics while at the table and focus on your company instead. This is the time to talk, share, and discuss.
If you need healthy recipe ideas, I am working on a recipe post. Please stay tuned.
How often should I eat?
Another famous debate – should I eat many small meals a day and graze on food or should I practice intermittent fasting?
There is no right answer to this question. It all depends on what works for your body and lifestyle. Grazing involves eating many small meals a day. The idea is that you do not allow yourself to get hungry, thus, your body will not go into starvation and eat half of the refrigerator contents when you finally open it. Intermittent fasting, on the other hand, involves eating fewer larger meals but only during specific hours while giving your body time to relax during the fasting hours.
Personally, I have been a long-time proponent of intermittent fasting. I find that grazing makes me eat when I’m not hungry so I end up consuming more calories than I should. Also, intermittent fasting makes me enjoy and appreciate my meals more since I’m eating when I’m hungry. Plus, it is more convenient for a busy on-the-go lifestyle. However, I believe in listening to my body. If my tummy is grumbling for food during my fasting hours, I eat. I try focus on a salad of vegetables or fruit with protein.
Why Exercise?
Exercise because you will speed up your metabolism and burn fat quicker.
Exercise because you will look sexy.
Exercise because you will be healthy.
Exercise because you will feel strong, energetic, powerful, and accomplished.
Exercise because you will sleep better.
What type of exercise regiment should I follow?
Ideally, you should be doing a variety of workouts, that include cardio, weight training, and flexibility. There is no one type of exercise regiment that is better than another. Depending on what look you are trying to achieve, you can focus on on type over another. HIIT (high impact interval training) type of workouts will give you a more athletic physique whereas yoga and Pilates type of workouts will lean you out and give you more of a dancer’s body. Keep in mind, the fitness industry has commercialized a lot of traditional yoga and Pilates routines so you will find HIIT Pilates and HIIT yoga workouts. See what works best for your body, pleasure, and, most important, joints.
You don’t need fancy gym equipment or a lot of space to exercise so if you’re using that as an excuse, you are never going to start. All you need is a pair of sneakers and a mat and you can do without one or the other. When there is a will, there is always a way. My favorite place to exercise is on my balcony to YouTube videos. Please see my favorite fitness YouTube channels in my previous post on “How Do We Stay Fit?” You can use anything outdoors from benches to scaffolds to work out. Here is my scaffold workout.
A note on any fitness regiment for beginners, make sure you do your research. Don’t dive into a fitness regiment and injure yourself. Please get a reputable trainer to show you the proper body alignment. If you cannot afford a trainer, ask a friend who’s a fitness geek. If you’re too shy to ask a friend, go to Google or YouTube. They have an endless wealth of information on how to do each exercise properly. If you are old fashioned, get some books from the library.
Running is a wonderful equipment free fitness option. It does not require you to master coordinated movements in the aerobics studio and allows you special time to do lots of thinking. However, running is a art and requires just as much knowledge as any other form of fitness. Make sure you research high cadence running. Cadence is the stride rate or the SPM (number of steps a runner takes per minute). Shorter stride means high cadence or higher SPM and faster and more efficient running. Longer stride, on the other hand, means low cadence or lower SPM, which translates into locking knees, slamming heels, and extra pressure on joints, ultimately slower less efficient running. More on that in a separate post to come. I will post more on running in a future post.
If it hurts your joints when you run, back off and try to do less miles at a slower pace. If you want to get 5 miles and your knees bother you, try to break it up and do 2.5 miles in the morning and 2.5 miles in the evening. If you are still in pain, go on a hike or speed walk, instead.
Focus on low impact over high impact workouts if your joints hurt. Do regular squats and lunges instead of jumping lunges. Research modified alternatives to your workouts. Listen to your body and stop competing with the rest of the people in your class. Your only competition should be staring at you in the mirror. Strive to do better than you did yesterday.
However, if exercise does not come easy to you and you have to force yourself to do it, I’d say stick to whatever gets you off the couch. As long as you are active and moving, you will reap the health benefits. Gardening, walking, throwing ball with your kids, food shopping, cleaning the house, cooking, dancing at a party are just a few of things that will help you burn calories and make you feel alive. Go for the stairs instead of the elevator, walk to your destination instead of driving or taking public transportation, get off a stop before your designated stop when commuting, take a walk during your lunch break and eat at your desk while you work, if you can.
People who are leaner move an average of 150 minutes more per day than overweight people. Simply getting off the chair and moving helps turn on fat burning enzymes and increase blood flow. “How a Sedentary Lifestyle (Sitting Too Much Every Day) Can Seriously Endanger Your Health.” Women’s Health. September 30, 2009. Accessed: March 20, 2015.
Invest in a simple fitness watch that will count your steps and remind you to get up and walk around if you are sitting for too long.
Hiking
Since this is a hiking blog, I feel that this form of fitness deserves a separate section. Hiking, especially uphill hiking, is both a cardiovascular and an endurance workout. Scaling uneven terrain trains your balance, coordination, and concentration. It works the whole body, especially core strength .
In addition to the physical benefits, hiking provides numerous mental rewards. Hiking is a form of “forest bathing” or a visit to the forest, a newly recognized relaxation and stress reduction technique developed in Japan. The mountainous promote a feeling of peace and calm. With poor or no cell signal, you will disconnect and unplug from the everyday hectic lifestyle, which you cannot do at the gym or on your city streets.
Hiking is also a wonderful way to bond with your significant other, family members, or friends. Sheldon and I never cease to appreciate the special time together on our hikes. If you don’t have anyone to hike with, register for MeetUp or hiking groups on social media where you can team up with other interested solo hikers.
Good luck on your new healthy lifestyle!
