My New Regimen for Fiber

So I belong to Lifetime Fitness Gym.  And I receive a monthly magazine called, Experience Life, in the April 2010 issue, there is an article named:  Fiber:  Why It Matters More Than You Think.  After reading this article, which I might add, was well written, so that the consumer could understand.  I now have a new regimen for fiber. 

I used to recommend getting in your 26 grams of fiber a day by eating General Mill's Fibre One or Kellogg's All Bran.  And I still recommend using these cereals as one of the sources for getting in your daily recommended allowance of fiber.  One half cup of either cereal for breakfasts gives you 13 grams of the needed 26 grams of fiber per day, and yes I said per day.  But get this, the average adult only gets in maybe 8grams of fiber a day.  So that means, with each day we are getting behind in eating the required amount of fiber so that our bodies can function properly. 

After reading this article it was crystal clear why my bodies needs to get in the full 26, if not more grams of fiber per day.  Fiber helps the body eliminate trash, toxins, garbage in our systems.  According to the article I read eating your daily recommended allowance of 26grams of fiber a day, you could eliminate a lot of different types of illness.  So now, I will break down my portion of fiber and have 3-1/2 cups of fiber per day. I will not be eating cereal 3 times a day, no.  I will have one serving fiber from cereal. I am probably going to get my second serving from dried beans, and the last from fruits and veggies. That way, my body will be taking out the trash 3 times a day.  Fiber gives bulk and shape to your bowel movements. 

Fiber comes in three types they mentioned in the article, soluble, insoluble, and a new one to me, prebiotic.  I will write about the three different types in my next article, so stay tuned.

Eat Healthy,
Exercise Daily,
Enjoy Your Body,
& Become Fit & Empowered
with MartiKay The Queen of Fitness!

Work and Your Fitness

Balancing work and fitness is sometimes a hard thing to do.  And I am not sure why.  We typically work eight to ten hours a day, yet there is 24 hours in our day.  So that begs to ask where are we spending our time that we are unable to dedicate 45 minutes a day to exercise.  Image whatever work you do now how much more effective you would be if you were in shape. 

Most people have sedentary work.  And with sedentary work there is not the need for high caloric foods, yet that is when we eat the most.  So my solution is to:

1. Starting today, either get up earlier and start with 20 minutes of aerobic exercise, work at your own pace, or take an evening walk with your dog or a friend, significant other, or by yourself, but get moving today.  Walk on your lunch hour for 20 minutes, but just get moving.  Release all that inflammation caught up in your joints.   
2. Plan out the food you will be eating.  Measure it out and eat every three to four hours.
3. Start to journal right now today on what you are eating.  That is a big componenet to our health.
4. And last but not least go to bed, just shut off the TV, drink something cold it will help you fall asleep quicker, and take ten deep breaths in and out and sleep. 
5. Almost forget, dont eat a high carb meal for dinner and dont eat after 8:PM.

Eat Healthy,
Exercise Daily,
Enjoy Your Body,
& Become Fit & Empowered
with MartiKay The Queen of Fitness!

MartiKays 10 Commandments to burining Fat & Building Muscle

So todays inspiration comes from watching Dr. Oz today and his topic was, "Dr.Oz's 10 Commandments to Weight Loss.  To find his 10 Commandments go to http://www.doctoroz.com/ .  So I came up with my own that I endorse and live by when I am actively participating in a nutrition & fitness program.  Here they are:

1. Participate weekly in a managed weight loss program, like Ediets, Atkins. or WeightWatchers, until you reach your desired weight.  By doing this it will help bring architecture to your eating regimen.  Hence you will lose fat.
2. Buy mearsuring tools.  Buy a new set of stainless steel measuring cups, and that represents you receiving a Silver Medal for following MartiKay's 10 Commandments to Losing Fat &  Building Muscle.
3. Purchase a digital read out scale to take your weight daily.  Yes take it daily and get over that crape about weighing once a week.  Yeah they may be scientific research to prove to the contary but. I have been there before.  I have found that when I was losing fat I keeped a daily journal with my weight, food intake measured out and written down for everything I put in  my mounth including water.
4. Journal daily on your progress, this is mandatory.  You need to see your body as a sceince project and you are creating the new you, so journal and keep up with your sceince project so you can get an A.
5. Plan your meals daily and weekly.
6. Start a simple walking regimen.  Walk initially for 20 uninterrupted minutes however slow or fast.  Walk at your own pace and weekly increase your workout by duration until you reach your cardiac goal.
7. Once you are at your peak cardio performance add on weight lifting with 5 pound weights gradully increasing the weight over duration of time and working the muscle til failure.  This will build muscle.
8. Eat from the USDA's, MyPyramid.gov.  There you can click on the different foods groups we need to use in our daily eating plan.
9. Be patient, know that along the way there will be upsets, and setbacks, but in the end you will have victory over your health.  So with that being your goal you are working on getting better and better with everything you do.  When you practice this you will have excellance in all parts of your life.
10. Follow MartiKay on www.facebook.com/martikay, www.twitter.com/martikay, www.youtube.com/martivideo and of course http://www.askapersonaltraineronline.blogspot.com/ .

Eat Healthy,
Exercise Daily,
Enjoy Your Body,
& Become Fit & Empowered
with MartiKay The Queen of Fitness!

Bisphenol A, Free Water Bottles

So what is Bisphenol A. aka BPA. BPA according to Wikipedia is an organic compound with two phenol functional groups. It is a dysfunctional building block of several important plastics and plastic additives.

The down side for us human is BPA is in the disposable water bottles otherwise known as polycarbonate bottles you know the popular hard-plastic drinking bottles and baby bottles.  NOTICE in the definition is says dysfunctional building block of several important plastics. So I guess that is why the environmentalist is concerned how they are filling up our landfills. So if environmentalist is concerned out about what it is doing to our planet, imagine what the plastic chemical may be doing to your body, hum, something to think about.

Here is an excerpt from Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (May 22, 2009) — A new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that participants who drank for a week from polycarbonate bottles -- the popular, hard-plastic drinking bottles and baby bottles -- showed a two-thirds increase in their urine of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA). Exposure to BPA, used in the manufacture of polycarbonate and other plastics, has been shown to interfere with reproductive development in animals and has been linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in humans.

So I know back ten twenty years ago the big push was to drink more H20 hence bottled water seemed an ideal thing to do, and it was, but the latest and greatest info on bottled water is to make sure the label says BPA Free. Now I am not sure if the bottling companies have been required to make all disposable water bottles BPA Free but you can buy your own reusable water bottle that is BPA FREE.

So do something for mankind and at the same time you will be helping out your body. Buy a BPA Free reusable water bottle and drink to your health. You can find these bottles in any major chain store, like Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, health food store. One more thing it is a great way to track your water intake. I got a 32 oz and it helps me keep track of my liquids.

Eat Healthy,
Exercise Daily,
Enjoy Your Body,
& Become Fit & Empowered
with MartiKay The Queen of Fitness!

National Colorectal Cancer Month

Hi guys, I was reminded that March is National Colorectal Cancer Month.  I was acutally diagnoised on 3.27.08 with it.  I was fortunate had surgery and had the tumor removed, and did my treatment with radiation and chemotherapy and today I am FREE. 

It is recommended you get your first colonscopy by the time you are 50, unless someone in your family had it, then it is recommended you get it at age 40.  In my case I was 49 and when I was diagnoised I was in stage 4.  With Colorectal Cancer there were 5 stages.  I do not know if this is true with all cancers. 

Some of the symptoms might be dark red blood in your stool, small pencil like stool or no stool at all I even had trouble passing gas.  So I knew something was up.  Now all these symptoms did not happen all at once, but at the time my health insurance from my employer had been cut off, so I did get diagnoised until 6 months after I noticed changes in my bowel movements.  So always look at your poop.  And really know what it looks like.  Also another characteristic is dark charry stool. 

So today I am great, in good health and I highly, highly recommend getting a colonscopy.  It is a simple cool procedure.  Your doctor will have you prep 3 or 4 days before.  And this is really needed so that when they go in they can see your intestinal walls and if there are any polyps and if so they can snip snip them away during the colonscopy. 

The other things is you wont feel a thing and even know they are doing it.  It is done through out patient.  You will need a driver.  They will give you some drugs that will have you out in seconds, and next thing you know you will be waking up in recovery.  I think the actual procedure took less than 30 minutes.  And when you come home you dont feel any pain.  So I hope that helps.  In the meantime

Eat Healthy,
Exercise Daily,
Enjoy Your Body,
& Become Fit & Empowered
with MartiKay The Queen of Fitness.