subject: A Realistic Nutrition And Exercise Plan [print this page] I am about to give you a realistic plan to improving your health and, consequently, your life. There will be no diets or doing anything else outlandish. It is all going to be common sense and very practical.
First, the reason you should not go on a diet is because diets are not long term solutions. So, by their very nature they are designed to fail. Instead, you will change your approach to your nutrition. Try to eliminate as many processed foods from your life as you can. The reason is because many of them contain things that are not really any good for us. For example, high fructose corn syrup has been used as a sweetener since it replaced sucrose in the 1960s. It is cheaper than sucrose but it also converts to fat faster. This sweetener can be found all over the place from soda to high fiber breakfast cereal. My wife stopped drinking soda and lost 25 pounds in a year. You can do that too, right?
Instead of processed foods eat things like lean beef, bison, turkey, chicken and fish. Eat anything that is as close to the state that nature intended.
Your exercise routine should center around weight lifting. This is because the more muscle you have the more fat you will burn. To build your muscle the best exercises to concentrate on are ones that work multiple muscle groups at the same time. Do things like the clean and jerk, dumb bell snatches, military press and others. These not only build muscle but throw your body into a state of metabolic shock so that you will burn fat even after you are done with the workout.
Recently I have discovered and started using something called a kettlebell (KB). This is a very old piece of weight lifting equipment from Russia that looks like a cannonball with a handle. Because of its design it is ideal for swinging between your legs. While traditional weight lifting exercises like the bench press are designed to build big bulky muscles KB lifting is designed for strength and endurance and will make you look more chiseled. In fact, if you have ever seen anyone who has used KBs for a while they will always be very lean and have a great set of abs.
This is because the KB works the entire body at the same time and really targets your core. While it is doing that though it is also causing you to burn as many as 20 calories a minute. And, it will throw your body into a state of metabolic shock so that you are burning calories at a much higher rate for hours on end.
