Fitness Mantra : A Health and Fitness Blog

03

November

Fitness Mantra del.icio.us page Welcome to the second edition of del.icio.us Friday, my weekly feature to keep you updated with the top news from the word of health, nutrition and fitness. Remember you can stay updated with this news as it happens by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

Here are the week’s top stories:

Kids Learn to ‘Red Light’ Bad Food: A weight-control program in Stanford, Calif., is helping significantly overweight kids — some as young as eight years old — understand the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods.
NYC officials want calories listed on menus: As part of its assault on obesity, New York City’s health department has a plan to require some restaurants to list the calorie content of their food on their menus.
Study: Red Wine Extract Seems to Counteract Fatty Diet: A new study of mice suggests that massive amounts of red wine extract slow the aging process, even when a high-fat, seemingly unhealthy diet is consumed.
Heart disease still the most likely killer: But more than 910,000 Americans still die of heart disease annually, according to the American Heart Association. And more than 70 million Americans live every day with some form of heart disease, which can include high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, stroke, angina (chest pain), heart attack and congenital heart defects.
Obese Kids Getting Hardened Arteries: The latest bad news is that by the time they reach their teens, obese children’s blood vessels already are hardening on the outside and thickening on the inside.
One for the Ages: A Prescription That May Extend Life: Calorie restriction, involves eating about 30 percent fewer calories than normal while still getting adequate amounts of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Aside from direct genetic manipulation, calorie restriction is the only strategy known to extend life consistently in a variety of animal species.
Exercise May Protect Eyesight: A new study suggests that regular exercise can reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration macular degeneration (AMD) by up to 70%.
Teen Diet Isn’t All Junk Food: A walk through the food court of any mall confirms the worst reports about teens’ eating habits: Kids share overflowing cartons of french fries, bite into cheeseburgers and dripping slices of pizza, and quench their thirst with jumbo cups of soda.
Outside One School, Snacks Galore: Ann Squires, a nurse practitioner, says students’ eating habits are largely “horrible”: “Students’ diets consist largely of fast food, and there is an extraordinary amount of obesity.” Many students skip meals, she adds, because they don’t like what the cafeteria has to offer.
KFC phasing out most trans fats: The restaurant chain said it will start using zero trans fat soybean oil systemwide in the United States with the rollout expected to be completed by April 2007. KFC said many of its approximately 5,500 restaurants already have switched.
Slimming Down: It’s a Family Affair: Parents need to remember that “your habits are their habits,” Sandra Hassink, director of a pediatric weight management clinic says. So let your children see you snacking on a bag of carrots, rather than a bag of Fritos.

Have a great weekend!

Fitness Mantra del.icio.us page

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How Fitness became my Mantra

31

October

pumpkin Happy Halloween! Today’s the day when monsters and ghouls roam the streets in search of a sweet fix and even adults succumb to the guilty pleasures of consuming way more candies and treats than they could hold down. People love to get a good scare this day, and so it is doubly strange that it was on this very day a year ago that I got the biggest scare of my life: a real-life lesson in the truth about fitness and how I was going about it the wrong way.

It began with a freebie

Halloween 2005. Audible, the audiobook company was offering one free audiobook just for signing up (don’t bother checking - they don’t have a similar deal this year, unfortunately). I had a page full of choices including Life of Pi, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values and Tyrannosaur Canyon.

But my eyes were drawn to a bright orange colored book sitting silently on one corner of the page. Ho hum, I yawned - another fad diet book with a cover full of promises and content full of lies. I already knew what worked, right? I had just started using the company gym for a few months and I thought knew just what I had to do to make over my body - i just had to hit the machines everyday picking whichever ones were free and work out till I was tired. As for eating I had to eat less to lose weight - simple! I just had to this and I knew I would have the body I desired.

But there was one problem: I was 3 months into this regimen and could see no sign of any change whatsoever. What could be wrong? Heck, this was a free audiobook - what did I have to lose? Nothing, I realised a week later. Except years of misinformation, bad eating habits and random exercising!

Learning and implementing the facts about fitness

Everyday for a week, to and from work, the audiobook guided me chapter upon eye-opening chapter to help me understand the truth behind some of the deceptive marketing practices so prevalent today. I learned about calories, trans fats and high fructose corn syrup. Almonds, oatmeal and flaxseeds. Lowfat milk, cottage cheese and yogurt. Whole grains, eggs and lean meats - the juggernaut of information just kept on coming.

I had to listen to the whole thing again to make sure I got it right - I had been wrong all this time! My foods were wrong, my exercises were wrong - no wonder I saw no change in my physique or general health! I immediately did two things: implemented the recommendations into my life right away and made a plan to spread the word.

The first was easy because certain changes were downright simple to make:

Banish fried snacks (chips, doughnuts) and calorie-dense (but nutritionally empty) foods like ice-cream and cookies. These were now “special occasion” or “party foods” only and even then, in moderation.
Switch to whole grain alternatives for bread, pasta and rice.
Include a lot of dairy and eggs (being vegetarian I realised the importance of whey protein sources all the more)
Incorporate a comprehensive exercise plan that comprises weights as well as cardio.

Spreading the word with a blog

The difficult part was trying to spread the word about what I had learned. I already knew that obesity was a growing (!) problem in the world but the massive amount of misinformation and deceptive advertising was only making it worse. It wasn’t until early this year that I realised that blogging about my experiences with fitness and nutrition was probably the best way to get the word out there.

They say you learn the most when you teach and although Fitness Mantra is not really meant to teach but rather recount my experiences with products and fitness news , I have indeed gained a lot in this entire process. Certain posts take a lot of research because I strive to present an unbiased view yet take into account all the latest information available about a product. Doing this takes time, but the research keeps me much more informed and I take that as a healthful side-effect of running a blog like this.

The results and what’s next

A year later, I am certain that the efforts have not been in vain. I look better and am certain I am in the best shape of my life although I can see massive room for improvement. I feel more energetic, my clothes fit better, my posture has vastly improved and the best part is that I know what is good for me and my family helping us make better choices everyday. I certainly hope this site has been useful to you too and I can assure you of continuous and pertinent information about the world of health, nutrition and general fitness as I get hold of it.

Fitness became my Mantra because of a chance offer on Halloween, but I hope you wouldn’t leave it to chance, but instead make a conscious effort right now to get educated and inspired to make a positive change in your life through a good mix of healthful eating and exercising. The benefits of doing so (and the costs of not) are simply too great to ignore.

All together now, let’s repeat our mantra: Let’s Make Fitness Our Way Of Life!

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