Dropping the Fat

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  How to exercise without going to a gym

• Is it possible to do Low Carb as a vegetaqrian?

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  We visit Jimmy Moores web blog at living La Vida LowCarb

Watch Dropping the Fat Episode # 1

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to Dropping the Fat. In this edition, we look at the topic of exercise as we try to answer the question “Can you get exercise without going to the gym?” We’ll also be having a look at a web resource that has lots of information to help make your diet more interesting. Later, our Burning Question this time is asking about vegetarian low carb. All that, and more to come, on a show that’s dedicated to helping you have fun as you’re Dropping the Fat.

Intro

Well, first of all, many of you might be wondering what this show is all about. It is about providing you with the tools you need to make your diet work. Let me just say first that I am very much a maverick when it comes to following the conventions commonly associated with the world of dieting. That’s because so much of what is peddled today is not so much concerned with about what benefits YOU, but it’s more concerned with what benefits, or should I say what profits, those who are trying to tie you into buying their products. Frankly, I am much more concerned about letting you know about the things that work. In fact, you could say I am on a mission, that mission is dedicated to outing outdated and ineffective things that just don’t work. And at the same time, highlighting those things that have been shown to work and work well. Remember, we are talking about your body here. I’d like to help you take control of your dietary health, and at the same time put some effective tools into your hands, so you can really get the benefit of the time, effort and money you put into making YOU a better YOU. Along the way we are sure to have some fun.

Anyway, on to our first topic.

I don’t know about you, but I for one, don’t really enjoy spending time in the gym. It’s not just the cost, although that does have some bearing on it. After all, you can easily pay up to what, a thousand dollars or more for a year’s membership, which is OK if you’re using it. But if you only attend, what, one aerobics class a week, well that actually works out to be very poor value. There are, of course, many other reasons why you would not want to go to a gym. Maybe you just don’t like that sort of activity, or maybe you don’t have the time. After all, family commitments do seem to be taking more and more of our already busy schedules. Or perhaps you are just like me, and you might find going to the gym just too plain boring. There are, after all, so many much more interesting things we can be going.

Well frankly, whatever your motives are, you are to be congratulated. It seems that expert opinion is now catching up with reality. Which means that, whether you know it or not, you are now at the forefront of expert opinion. Actually, probably a step or two in front of it, but we won’t tell them that! The current professional opinion can be summarized in five words: “The gym won’t fix it.”

Andrew Hamilton, of Peak Performance Sport Performance Magazine, has been quoted as saying “The problem with gyms is that they compartmentalise physical activity.” It goes further, saying: “You become locked in the idea that you need a special place and special equipment to exercise, when the truth is that gyms only exist because we aren’t leading our lives properly.” Now I for one would wholeheartedly agree with those sentiments. Let’s have a look at the figures. A one-hour workout in the gym burns about, what, 400-500 calories easily, and frankly it’s not that hard to burn the same amount of calories by doing other more useful things, simply by putting a bit more vim and vigour into doing our everyday activities.

My advice is to let the world be your gym. Quite frankly with a few minor adjustments, many of our activities throughout the week could be turned into a useful form of exercise that is done as part of something else, rather than as an isolated activity on its own. Just by doing that, many of us can regain valuable time each week, over the course of a year that could add to what nearly an extra weeks worth of enjoyable time spent doing things we want to do rather than spent doing things we feel we OUGHT to be doing.

Now, before we get on to the active part, let’s put things in context. You’ll probably be pleased to learn that you can only really reap the benefits of healthy exercise if you also ensure you get a healthy amount of rest too, so I’m not suggesting that anybody should sacrifice the Saturday or Sunday morning lay-in. If that’s what you like to do, just do it. And let’s face it, if you had a late night the night before, it may be just what your body needs. So, have your lay-in if you want to. But when you do decide to get out of bed, do so with a spring in your step – take your first exercise of the day in the shower. Well, that’s what David Stencil says, and he should know as he’s the senior lecturer in Exercise Physiology at Loughborough University in England.

He says he alternates standing on each leg for 30 seconds. This apparently is a useful way to improve strength, especially in those smaller leg muscles that we use for balance. That should be followed by a vigorous drying, which will raise your heart rate a little, stretch and loosen your shoulders, and tone your arms and back. Breakfast is important too, and that should conform with a regime that works for you and your body. If you follow that with a brisk walk to collect the papers, say, even if it’s only a few hundred yards, well that’s good too.

Again, David Stencil says that research suggests if you take 10 brisk walks of three minutes duration over the course of the day, then that has the same health benefits as a one-half hour session all at once. An apparently, some of these benefits are almost immediate. The next day, for instance, your blood pressure is reduced and blood fat levels get lower compared with having no exercise at all. Now, if walking just one mile briskly burns about 100 calories, then in just over a month of walking an extra mile a day, you’ll have burnt about 3 and a half thousand calories, which is equivalent of a pound of fat. That’s about, what, 10 pounds a year. Now, when you get back from your walk, how about a quick trip around the house with the vacuum cleaner? Or better still, take a brush around the yard. Doing that is good for the biceps, triceps, chest and stomach. Or maybe you fancy hand-washing the car? After all, that sponging, polishing, bending and reaching are great for back and shoulder mobility, and you can easily burn 300 calories an hour just by doing that.

Of course, part of what we are doing here is to make sure we don’t miss out on doing family stuff. So, why not head off to the park with the kids and a ball? as even the gentlest of kick-a-bouts can bring on a sweat. Pushing a swing is a good low-key workout for the back; while throwing a stick for the dog can build explosive power in your arms. All these exercises will enhance your main body flexibility and muscle strength.

So now it’s time for lunch. But here’s the good part. All this activity has raised your core body temperature, so you’ll find you’re not so hungry. That in turn will reduce your appetite, in just the same way that you don’t feel like eating so much on a warm summer’s day. Now, an afternoon spent in the garden not only ensures that you get the pleasure of a great outdoor space, additionally you can get in some serious exercise – mowing the lawn for instance for just 20 minutes will not only raise your heart-rate, but it will also help to develop power in your lower back and legs. If that’s not enough, it will burn 80 calories as well! However, it’s in the digging and lugging stuff around that you’ll see the real results to the tune of 600-700 calories an hour. That’s actually more than you’ll get in the gym!

Most of our big endurance muscles are in the lower body, so lifting stuff around will strengthen your back and thighs. On the other hand, digging provides a great upper body workout, as it works the back, arms, shoulders and chest. Weeding and reaching are good for extending mobility. Now of course, to be really effective, the week-end workout should be on top of your normal activities, not instead of them. And if you don’t have your own garden, well you could become one of the most popular people in your neighbourhood, by offering to help others do their gardens while getting the exercise you need at the same time!

Now, onto our next feature, which is our “Healthy Clicks” feature.

Healthy Clicks

This time we are going to look at a site that many of you may be familiar with, but then again you may not. It’s run by a guy who, like me, lost a lot of weight, and has lived to tell the tale. The site is called Living La Vida Low Carb, and this is what you might call a life project of a guy by the name of Jimmy Moor. You can find it at www.livinlavidalowcarb.com.

Now, if you look at his site you can see what Jimmy looks like now, but just down the page on the bit about him, you can see what he used to look like. As he says, he was a morbidly obese 410lb man on a one-way ticket to an early grave. Now after trying a number of ways to drop the fat, he eventually tried the ultra low fat diet because, as he says: “…that’s what we’ve always been taught, that eating fat makes you fat.” With which he managed to lose 170lbs in nine months, but there was only one problem, as he says: “I was constantly hungry which made me irritable, tired and feeling like I was going out of my mind. My stomach was so bloated and big I felt I was a lot worse off than I was before my weight loss.” It’s no surprise it didn’t last, and he gained the weight back, going way above the 400+ lbs that he was before he started.

A series of events in the fall of 2003 made him look again at dropping the fat, and the break-through came when he adopted the low carb approach by reading Dr Atkins book cover to cover, and doing what it said. In many ways Jimmy agrees with me in that he makes a great deal about doing what the book says, rather than doing what folks think it says. Jimmy went on to put his story into a book called Living La Vida Low Carb, which is both inspiring and informative, and there is a handy link on the site if you want to get a copy – and no, I don’t get a commission!

There’s lots more on the site, and so I would recommend you have a look for yourself, it includes a large number of before and after photos and links off to various sites, blogs and other interesting and useful places to visit.

So there you have it, Jimmy Moor’s Living La Vida Low Carb.

Burning Question

Now, have you got a Burning Question that you just have to have answered? Well, this next section is just for you.

Here’s a question from one of the readers of Low Carb Monthly. She says “I’ve had several friends and colleagues at work who have done the South Beach Diet, and I’m amazed at how much weight they’ve lost and how quickly they’ve lost it. I would like to lose weight as quickly as they have, but I am a vegetarian. Can I do a low carb diet?”

Well, yes you can do a low carb diet but it’s not going to be easy. A lot depends on what type of vegetarian you are. For instance, a vegan will have a very difficult time as their food choices are already fairly limited. However, if you are an ovo-lacto vegetarian then you should be able to find enough variety in what you can eat, so that your diet won’t be too boring. Obviously, people who are semi-vegetarian and eat perhaps fish, but not meat, as part of their regime, would have no problem in doing a low carb diet at all, as their food choices are far, far wider.

Now, if you would like to get a no-nonsense answer to your Burning Question, use the link on the site and send it to me in an email. If your question gets chosen, not only will you get a straightforward reply, but you’ll also get three months free membership to Low Carb Monthly.

Well, that about wraps it up for this time, next time we’ll be tackling the thorny subject of bad breath and other low carb smells – they’ll be another Burning Question to answer as well. Don’t forget, just use the link above to email me your question.

You could be the lucky viewer who gets that three months free access to Low Carb Monthly. We’ll also have another Healthy Click to add to our list, and this is Mark Moxom, wishing you a healthy and happy time, until next time.

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