Yin vs YangThe Battle for Success in Life

I look forward to the holidays. Maybe it’s the time well spent with my family, watching my crazy uncle’s antics, or maybe its the food and drink that’s so readily available. I couldn’t tell you which one trumps the other but I can definitely say I truly love them both.

I can tell you that it usually has a direct effect on my weight and can have an effect on my waistline. Over many years of being an athlete I have created a blue print for myself and I would like to share it with you….

10 easy things you can do that will get you on track and do a great deal of damage control during the holiday season.

Holiday eating…ohhh yes. It’s a wonder why gyms are packed come January 2nd. It is why many people put on close to 10 pounds of gluttonous weight. But fret not. I have a recipe that if you follow you are sure to stay lean through the holidays and throughout most of your life for that matter. So lets get right to it:

1. Eat to Lose Fat

The word “Diet” brings up images of no calorie sodas bland food and pea sized portions. The very word makes most people feel hungry. Worry no more. A diet is merely a eating regime. You can have a clean diet of whole grains, lean proteins, and mono unsaturated fats, or you can have a not so clean (pretty dirty actually) diet of McDonald’s super meals and soft drinks. Many people think dieting is about restricting or starving yourself. That is the worst thing possible. Our bodies are programmed from thousand of years to horde fat the moment the consistent eating stops. We were once gatherer hunters a few million years ago. Not much has changed from a physical stand point. The only difference is now we buy our meats at the meat market.

Ponder this- when we were hunters our meals would come scarcely. For survival, when we did eat, which was on rare occasions and short bursts, the body adapted to store body fat for later usage when food wasn’t abundant. We now live in civilized society, food is readily available. You have to trick your body into thinking it’s not starving by eating more often. 5-6 times a day spaced out every 2.5 to 3 hours. This will ramp up your metabolism. It sends a signal to your body that you aren’t going hungry anytime soon and it will start to shed body fat. The worst thing one can do is starve themselves. This slows down the metabolism and the moment you put food in your mouth there is a good chance that it will wind up becoming body fat. So rule of thumb, eat to loose weight, eat every 3 hours.

2. Work Out Rocky Style

One of the most fundamental things about body fat is that the more muscle you have on your body the less body fat you will have. Period. Muscles are ovens, just to sustain muscle mass on ones body you have to burn calories. Muscle burns calories all day long even at rest. They are your body fat incinerators. Working out with some form of weights be it barbells, dumbbells or kettle bells are great for you.

This type of exercise does a few things.

• Builds muscle
• Releases endorphins
• Keeps your hormones elevated
• Increases strength and stamina
  
• Enhances mood
• Strengthen bones (only load bearing workouts can strengthen bones)

Try doing some sort of workout at least 3 times a week with some form of weighted resistance training mixed in.

3. Protein. How sweet it is.

Protein is the key building block of muscle. The average diet doesn’t include enough of it. Elite athletes take in a 1.5 grams of protein per body weight a day for men and 1 gram per body pound for women. If you weigh 200 pounds you should take in 250 grams of protein a day for a man, and if your a 120 pound woman, you should take in 120 grams of protein a day for optimal results. Chicken, turkey, eggs, lean meats, fish, nuts, milk, and dairy are all good sources of quality protein and should be your first choice. But we all know how it is to be on the run. So how do you get this protein without eating all day long? Whey protein supplementation. Whey is low in calories and high in proteins that get into your system fast. They come in powder form and mix easily. Some taste really great as well. Here are some of my personal favorites:

http://www.cheapvitamins.com/Product/Complete-Whey-2-2-lb.aspx
http://www.cheapvitamins.com/Product/Natures-Best-Perfect-Whey-Protein.aspx

The times to take Whey protein:

• first thing in the AM
• after a workout (within 20 minutes of that workout)
• right before bed

Keeping your body filled with high quality protein will put it into a positive nitrogen balance. This keeps your body from looking for protein in itself. The downside to having muscles is that to sustain muscle you need to feed it protein constantly, if you don’t it will find protein in your body and the first source it goes for is your own muscles. Your body will begin to eat itself if you starve it of protein.

4. Breakfast Is THE Most Important Meal of the Day

Breakfast is literally the break in your overnight fast while you slept. For this reason it is so crucial. It’s also why its called Breakfast. Remember how in the first tip I said eating constantly will ramp up your metabolism?

Well missing breakfast is sure to plummet it by 10% for the entire day. As I pointed out, when you go long periods of time without food, your body thinks it starving and hordes fat. There’s nothing you can really do about sleeping. If you don’t sleep won’t live too long. During sleep you have a long period of no food. It’s the first time in the whole day you go (if you eat 5-6 times a day) without food for over 3 hours. For that reason its crucial to eat the moment you awake. No later than an hour after wards. Breakfast also ramps up your metabolism for the entire day, especially when you give it good proteins some fats, and low glycemic carbs (sweet potatoes, oatmeal, Whole Wheat toast etc).

Rule of thumb: eat breakfast it as soon as you wake up. Don’t wait, and definitely don’t skip it as its detrimental in trying to keep body fat off if you do.

5. All Carbohydrates are not created equal

If protein is the building block of muscle, carbohydrates are fuel that runs the engines. You need carbohydrates as a part of your diet they give your body calories to burn while it does whatever activity you have chosen. However you should not be over eating on carbohydrates. When you do eat carbohydrates you want to stay away from simple refined ones, and pick complex carbohydrates. Just to keep things moving we will abbreviate carbohydrates for carbs going forward.

Simple sugars (soda, candy, processed foods, white rice, white bread) burn fast spiking your insulin. Complex carbs like sweet potatoes, oats, whole grains , fruits and vegetables are the way you should get your carbs. Please don’t drink soft drinks. Soft drinks are the worst thing on this planet for you, completely ridding them of your diet can easily make you drop up to pounds in a few weeks. Complex carbs are crucial when you are working out or active, they take a long time for your body to burn them up, so they produce a slow and steady stream of energy as opposed to eating something sugary which gives you a short burst of energy but then crashes your blood levels after wards. Fruits although they are a high glycemic index they are a low glycemic load, Which means they take longer to burn off, but they don’t spike your insulin like pure sugar does.

6. Sleep zzzzzzzzz

Sleep is a necessity in staying lean and staying alive. You need all the muscle you can get to keep fat from piling up. Getting ample sleep not only boosts your hormone levels, it raises growth hormone in deep R.E.M. sleep. (Dreamy sleep). Growth hormone is what keeps you feeling and looking young. As you age your body secretes less and less. Fighting back with ample sleep can work wonders. You do a serious injustice to your body and mind when you do not get the proper amount of sleep. Everyone differs, some days you may need 8 hours, some days 6. For an average adult a good rule of thumb is 6-8 hours. Studies have shown you can not make up sleep. So sleeping 15 hours after being up for 2 days doesn’t do any better than 8 hours of sleep. You lost it, it’s gone. Keep it moving.

7. Water and Vitamins

You should keep yourself hydrated. If your mouth at any point in the day is dry you are already close to 10% dehydration. I bought a stainless steel water bottle. (good for the environment, stays cold, and no nasty after taste if you leave it in the car by accident. No plastiques going down my throat…) Invest in a good multi-vitamin. Some people don’t realize how much vitamins help your bodies natural functions. Vitamins are crucial to optimal digestion and body maintenance. One a day, Solgar, and many others are a good start.

8. Sports or Activities

I love MMA, and Crossfit workouts. (http://www.crossfit.com) Doing any sort of sport, or activity is good for you. Running, biking, rollerblading, ping pong, baseball, basket ball, foot ball, hiking, swimming or any sport that will get you up get you out in the real world. You get to interact with others, with nature or your own zone, its important to break the monotony of regimen workouts in a gym per say.

9. Portion Control

This one is a big one, America is sadly uneducated when it comes to portion control. Sorry people, a plate of food should not be 2 times the size of your skull as they would have you think when you eat out at some restaurants. Correct portions should be a lot smaller than you may think. The reason we have such a weight problem in this country is directly related the the size of portions we eat. Super size is super death in a bucket. lets be honest no one has the time to measure portions, and you’d be kinda weird to walk around with measuring cups at work. A good rule of thumb is using your clenched fist as a guide. A meal of 3 major groups is important. Proteins, fats, carbs, vegetables and fruits. A rule of thumb is you should have a clenched fist full of protein, of carbs, and a fist and a half of Vegetables. Add in a few servings of fruit a day and some good fats and your doing great. Using the fist method works because on average a persons hand is proportion to the size of their body (for the most part).

10. Getting Back on the Wagon After a Hard Fall.

We are all human, to say we are going to go through the holidays without indulging would probably not be realistic. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Staying fit and lean, actually includes a day of cheating. If you stick to a strict regimen all week, and take 1 day to to eat everything in your kitchen, from pizza to Baskin & Robbins, it’s OK. Blasphemy you say? Not even a bit. Eating whatever you want for a day will actually tell your body it’s not starving and help the following weeks fat burning session. If you do slip up don’t get crazy over it. Most people use this slip up to rationalize why they should quit the rest of the day and just pig out. “Oh well I messed up already may as well go for the whole day…” Wrong. Don’t go there. Just jump right back where you fell off and grab the next proper meal. That’s it. Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor was it toppled in one either. Just don’t beat yourself up over it. See it for what it is: mistake in judgment, and put yourself right back on schedule.

Holiday season is a lovely time. use these tips now and all year long and your sure to stay the same waist size. I don’t like to gloat but I have been doing this now for a decade and being 33, I am the same waist size as 23.

Wishing you and yours happy holidays from yinvsyang.com