What Happens to your Body when You Fall off Your Exercise Wagon and Stop Exercising Regularly

Well, as much as I hate to admit it, I feel off my treadmill after Sunday this week and didn’t get back on it.. sad but true, and was feeling terrible about it.. guilty and depressed would be good words to describe it, because not only did I feel I was letting myself down, I was also letting all of you down, so today I have given myself chance to redeem myself and renew my own commitment to myself and to you all. I had many excuses this week.. I have a headache, my leg hurts, my other leg hurts, I have too much to do, I have an early business meeting.. of which none of these things deterred me for the first 8 weeks…. terrible excuses and I know it! So today I am looked up the effects of stopping exercising on a person and it was not terribly surprising..

People that stop exercising after just one week feel depression, fatigue, and your body degrades much quicker than it took you to get to that level of fitness to begin with.. on top of this, in many cases once the depression sets in, also fall off their healthful eating wagon and this sets the pace for more weight gain and more depression. It becomes a vicious circle. Even stopping for 2 days after a regular routine, affects your body’s insulin and within a week, the muscle you spent so much time building starts to degrade.

The MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER, is that you are human and sometimes your mind does get in the way of your best intentions.. forgive yourself for this little stumble in your routine and then boot your sorry butt back into gear.. which is exactly what I am going to do the minute I finish this email..

I refuse to let my mind dictate what my body can do! .. there is a sign on my fridge that says “Whether you think you can or your can’t.. you are right” So… tell yourself once again that you can and have a better day. Just think how good you will feel once you complete the exercise.

Here are some links for you to read about this topic.

Stopping Exercise has Adverse Psychological Effects
Skipping Exercise for two days has adverse effects
How Quitting Exercise can affect your body

How Time Change Affects Us

Yawn… Good morning, I woke up very sleepy today and so decided the best thing to do was to crawl right back into bed for an extra little rest. Time changes tend to make people very sleepy, but that isn’t the only affect to our health. While we do adjust eventually, making this transition can be very difficult for some people. You may have found yourself feeling out of sync with the world yesterday especially!

Daylight savings time was started in Germany in 1915 light could be better used during the day. The solution was to push the clocks ahead one hour in springtime, forcing people to wake an hour earlier. They would therefore expend less energy trying to light their
homes if time were adjusted to suit their daily patterns. You can read more about the history at the CBC news link below.

The change could people in many ways, sleepiness, headaches, additional stress, attention deficit, increase in heart attacks, accidents (especially in the workplace) and suicides.Usually this all subsides within about 3-5 days but during that period, you should get some extra rest and exercise more caution.

So, what to do to help your body adjust? Exercise! A brisk walk is one suggestion. Spending some time under florescent lighting is another, and most important getting extra rest will help your body to move ahead.

Here is some interesting reading if you would like to pursue the topic.
Time Change, Spring Forward, Fall Back
Heart Attack Risk Rises in Daylight Savings Time
The Dark Side of Daylight Savings Time
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Shift to Daylight Savings Time

What does one pound of muscle compared to one pound of fat look like?

I was secretly little discouraged that I am not losing weight faster the other day.. after all I am supposed to be your fearless leader! But I realize that I am looking at my weight loss .. not just as something I am going to do just in the next few months but a choice of lifestyle for the rest of my life.

I am losing the weight slowly enough that my body is constantly in a state of shrinkage even though I may not see immediate results. So I went looking for a visual aid and found many references and these two images below are used on many fitness and blog sites.( For the life of me I couldn’t figure out where the original one was to link to) SO the next time you think that losing one pound isn’t a big deal, come back here and have a look.

Many people reported that doing weight training, they lost less than 10 pounds but up to 3 clothing sizes before the scale actually started moving ahead and showing the results on the scale. Well I don’t know about you but THAT would make me very happy!

Fat is 3 times larger than muscle.
The image on the left represents 5 pounds of muscle compared to 5 pounds of fat but the photo on the right tells you the real story.. one pound of fat is about the same size as a coffee mug .. or just take that one pound square of shortening out of the fridge and fluff it up a bit and there you go.. one pound of jiggly fat.

Just remember.. you do need reduce the number of calories by 3500 week if you are looking for results, through exercise and monitoring your eating habits… there is no magic cure.. take care of your body and it will take care of you.

Here are some references to check out:
Calories per Pound of Fat
10 Ways to burn one pound of body fat

What’s in Your Makeup?

Thanks to Sandy King for this blog on the PICFIT site. The article talks about how many makeup manufacturers put some strange and nasty things in the products you put on your face. Sandy says “The ugly truth of the beauty industry is that the ingredients do not need to be disclosed and some of these “beautifying” ingredients are not only ugly, they are plain and simply, gross.

Most contain animal by-products which are rendered-down animal parts as well as dead animals, such as those that have died from natural causes (illness), have been euthanized (poisoned), and road kill. The products will typically have chemical perfumes and dyes added to them to make them look and smell nice. Long-lasting lipsticks contain lead (why is that we cannot have lead in our paints, but it is okay for us to put on our lips?) and your mascara may contain mercury.”

So, in your quest for a healthy body, you may want to consider the products you are using on your face and body, because as we all know, our skin loves to absorb all kinds of things.. it is like a perpetual one year old, it has no idea if it is healthy or not, if you don’t stop it from “putting it in your body” it will just because it’s there.

The company Sandy represents sells botanically-based makeup that is free of chemical fragrances, dyes, animal products, mineral oil, and the company, Arbonne, discloses ALL of it’s ingredients.

I recommend you read the full blog at:
http://picfit.ning.com/profiles/blogs/dr-oz-and-makeup

Why Music Conductors Live Longer

I know, this has been a burning question you you have probably been wondering about right? Ok, so probably not but you should! I am sure you are also wondering what music and health has to do with each other too. (or maybe you are thinking.. I wonder where that crazy woman gets this ideas?..:- ) )

So back to the conductor. It has been documented that music conductors usually always live into their 90′s. Makes you wonder right? After all, they just stand there for a couple hours … wrong! They spend their days expelling great energy in one place by waving their arms around and over their head. This creates good blood flow to the heart and keeps your blood pressure regulated.. most music conductors have lower blood pressure and great circulation because of this constant arm movement.

The other reason is a mental health aspect, music gives off positive energy, which can calm or excite us and it stimulates the brain.

So there you go. If you want to add a new dimension to your workout.. and I do this all the time on the treadmill, turn up the music and swing your arms around and over your head. I have some slower paced songs on my MP3 player that when they play, I slow down the pace on the treadmill and do a stretching routine with my arms, stretching them slowly out to the side, up over my head, forward until stretched in front of me and then push back behind my back.

So while working out flap those arms… and listen to your favorite music (or broaden your horizons and listen to something new even!). Your heart and lungs will love you for it.
Here’s an article on it:

Why Conductors Live So Long

How Many Calories Do You Burn Each Day?

I was thinking about this yesterday as I cleaned the house .. how much work housework and how many calories you actually burn while doing housework and other daily activities. If you read my tip yesterday, you already know that if you are building muscle, each pound of muscle you have burns 6 calories a day without moving so you have a bit of a start (especially if you are already working on weight bearing exercises and building a good muscle structure to support your bones.)

So of course, wondering minds.. (or was that wandering minds… needed to know the answer to this question. The answers I found confirmed that if you keep moving doing your daily activiites, active playing with your children or going out to play sports etc, as long as you are watching how many calories you take in, these regular daily activities will go a long way in helping you with your weight loss.

Enjoy browsing the links below and enjoy your active life!
Calculate how many calories you burn during exercise
Burn carbs doing housework and chores
How to do housework and burn calories
Turn housework into a workout
Calculate how many calories do you need each day