Posts Tagged ‘muscle’

Christmas Do’s & Dont’s

Yes it’s that time of year again when the weather takes a turn for the worst, fitness becomes less of a priority and the festive foods take over!

While it’s very easy to get caught up with the cold weather, snow and generally jolly moods, let’s not forget to keep focus on the well being of our bodies.

This may sound like hard work given all the elements we are facing but in actual fact it’s not really that difficult.  If you can sustain 30 minutes of cardio/resistance training per day that will see you through the month of December very nicely.

The trap you don’t want to fall into is going to work and finding yourself eating the cup cakes and other goodies in large trays that your very generous peers have left.  This will result in you eating nothing BUT SUGAR for 8 hours and this will continue for weeks because the next day another friendly peer will also bring in some festive yummies.

Then there will be after hour drinks and bar nights resuting in late dinners and so forth…and you will casually smile and accept what is going on because its Christmas!…Well it’s not quite Christmas, it’s the “lead up” to Christmas but you will only be more than happy to tell yourself that it is…

Now before we tackle the do’s let’s just quickly get the do not’s out of the way first as I like to end on positive and lighter notes…

Do Not…

- Do not starve yourself during the day so you can over indulge on snacks, goodies and Christmas diners

- Avoid sitting at your desk and snacking for 8 hours on cakes and goodies that your work peers have bought in!

- Separate yourself from your nearest and dearests December habits, they may not want to look after themselves as well as you do

- Avoid late night diners and going to bed straight after

- Do not get drunk on every given opportunity & avoid “one for the road”

- Do not be bullied into eating and drinking more because friends and family members are saying “go ooooooon……you know you want to”….it’s a trap!

Do…

- Drink plenty of water during the day, this will help release toxins from your body

- Do try the odd cup cake but don’t get excited and get caught up in the moment and find yourself elbow deep in tray full of assorted cakes!

- Continue to eat 3 regular meals during the day

- DO 30 MINUTES OF CARDIO/RESISTANCE TRAINING EVERY DAY

When I say cardio I am talking about going for a jog, swimming, skipping cycling any fitness activity that will have your heart rate up for at least 30 minutes.

Not only will this help you burn calories but it will keep your mind, body and immune system fit during the month of December…this will not only keep you active but it sets you up nicely for your New Years Resolutions.

Resistance training could be body weight exercises such as push ups, sit ups, squats, lunges etc…these exercises will help keep your muscles remain strong, supple, flexible, toned and well conditioned! 

Other advantages to 30 minutes of exercise per day is it keeps your immune system finely tuned resulting in you minimising your chances of catching a cold/flu and other airborn viruses that tend to pop up during the colder temperatures of December.

 I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and wonderful “Lead Up” to and Christmas

Deepak Bhangu
Head of Operations & Personal Trainer
Musclemadness

The Dangers of Sugar

Dangers of Sugar

I really wanted to make an in-depth article on Sugar but I also wanted to keep it as easy to read and understand as possible….so as I was researching this article, I surfed the web and was surprised to find that the majority of the websites that mention sugar say that it is fine to eat in moderation!!!.Most of them say that your body turns all food to glucose regardless of the kind of food eaten, so whether you eat sugar, vegetables, or steak is irrelevant. 

Now to me this is pretty shocking!!!

First of all, it is true that your body converts all foods to glucose. 

However, there is an important difference between sugar and those other foods…..meat, fruits, and vegetables all have vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and amino acids when it comes to HOW your body react to them.

 Sugar has none of those things to assist in its digestion and absorption.  As a result, metabolizing refined sugar puts the body at a severe nutritional disadvantage.

Oh yes! I know! How many times have you heard…and said it yourself in fact…”Oh I feel weak I need some sugar!”…NO…you do not need sugar…lets have a look and understand why…

There have been many researches on this topic and science has now shown us several times that there is NO DOUBT, the sugar in our food is damaging our health far more than we can imagine.

Sugar is loaded into your soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks, and hidden in almost all processed foods, ketchup, sauces, cheese…everywhere!!. And now most infant formula has the sugar equivalent of one can of Coca-Cola, so babies are being metabolically poisoned from day one if taking formula.

No wonder there is an obesity epidemic!!!

Did you KNOW…???

A can of Coke contains:

Caffeine → it’s a DIURETIC which means you will wee free water

SALT!!! → 55mg of Sodium per can! It’s like drinking Pizza

So what happens when you intake so much salt and eliminate water? You get thirstier!

And of course SUGAR! Why so much sugar? Nobody wants to consume a salty drink!  Thats the amount of sugar that covers the taste of salt!

Oh yes the people behind this are pretty clever hey… I’ll leave it to you to judge.

Too Much Fructose Creates a Metabolic Disaster in Your Body

Now…If your diet was like that of people a century ago, you’d consume about 15 grams per day… Amazingly, 25 percent of people actually consume more than 130 grams of fructose per day!

Making matters worse, all of the fiber has been removed from processed foods, so there is essentially no nutritive value at all. And the very products most people rely on to lose weight—the low-fat diet foods—are often the ones highest in fructose.

It isn’t that fructose itself is bad—it is the MASSIVE DOSES you’re exposed to that make it dangerous.

Why is fructose so damaging?

1. Your body metabolizes fructose in a much different way than glucose. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver. This is NOT the case with glucose, of which your liver breaks down only 20 percent. Nearly every cell in your body utilizes glucose, so it’s normally “burned up” immediately after consumption.

So where does all of this fructose go, once you consume it?

On your thighs!! It is turned into FAT which means more fat deposits throughout your body.

2. People are consuming fructose in enormous quantities, which has made the negative effects much more profound.

3. Fructose tricks your body into gaining weight by fooling your Metabolism—it turns off your body’s appetite-control system. Fructose does not appropriately stimulate insulin, which in turn does not suppress ghrelin (the “hunger hormone”) and doesn’t stimulate leptin (the “satiety hormone”), which together result in your eating more and developing insulin resistance.

4. Fructose rapidly leads to weight gain and abdominal obesity

One of the more recent findings that surprised researchers is that glucose actually accelerates fructose absorption, making the potential health risks from HFCS even more profound!!

You can now see why fructose is the number one contributing factor to the current obesity epidemic…

…read full article on www.ilariapetrucci.info 
(includes 75 reasons why we do NOT need Sugar!)

 Gym Love

Ila