The CBC News recently reported news of scientists uncovering how caffeine boosts athletic performance. Researchers in Hamilton have found that caffeine releases calcium, enabling athletes to run with better performance. According to Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky of McMaster University Medical Centre (source; Journal of Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism), caffeine tricks muscles into releasing more of the calcium needed to contract and relax, making muscle contraction stronger. Additionally, the brains perception of feeling pain and fatigue is delayed, which means that you can push your personal limits for longer.

True enough, the average Canadian drinks too much coffee (67% consume 3 cups daily), which often gives coffee a bad rap. To get the benefits, you have to know how to work it. Being the nutrition geek that I am, I backed up my ‘coffee is good for you’ claims by daring myself to discover the exact amount of caffeine beneficial to my personal diet. I avoided caffeine for a week then consumed 100mg of caffeine before fitness testing, noting how I felt. I repeated this every week for several months with different caffeine doses, during a maintenance fitness cycle (to ensure the fitness results were not influenced by improved fitness).

After spending that much time decaffeinated, I will always stand up for the right to drink my perfect caffeine dosage with good coffee. Friends shouldn’t let friends drink bad coffee! Don’t waste your precious daily caffeine milligram quota on imitations like instant junk. If you are going to drink coffee, drink COFFEE. Not Robusta beans gathered from the bottom of the mountain, powered through multiple chemical processes to make it dissolve in water.

Coffee is a beautiful part of your day. Enjoy it.

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Fit people have a higher capacity to earn more, according to a Bali State University survey of 336 entrepreneurs that found regular exercisers happier and more profitable. Compared with sedentary business owners, those who worked out daily were 10 percent more likely to be content in their jobs, and14 percent more likely to reach their income goals. Business owners who weight trained or ran a few times a week were more likely to feel satisfied with their working life, and hit sales targets. These statistics bring home the benefits of committed workouts and its advantage in the work force; increased alertness, concentration, energy, confidence and psychological preparation to work hard.

Unhealthy habits such as cigarettes, eating out excessively and purchasing snacks throughout the day aren’t just filling out your pants; they are emptying your wallet. Bringing a piece of fruit to work instead of your afternoon vending machine snack, for example, could save you $1 a day, $25 monthly, $300 per year. Talley up the total savings of, say, 300 calories less per day for a year, combined with an unchanged activity level and you will see 22 pounds weight loss this year (based on 3500 calories deficit needed to burn 1lb of body fat). That simple piece of fruit and a little willpower could make you richer and thinner!

In some nations, such as Britain, the medical system is imposing conditions on patients seeking treatment. Prime Minister Gordon Brown alarmed many citizens recently when he announced that smokers, heavy drinkers and seriously obese individuals may be refused places on waiting lists for elective treatments such as hip replacements or even non-urgent heart surgery. The UK became an outstanding model in 1948 when free health service became available to everyone – yet what used to be a great system has been forced to re-evaluate, with the concept of personal responsibility and making a personal effort to stay healthy is the key message. Perhaps Canada’s medical system will follow, if they haven’t already.

If you hire a housekeeper, try spending a month scrubbing your own floor, cleaning the bathroom – grab your iPod and get prepared for a great Saturday workout! Leave your car at home one day a week and walk. Walk your own dogs instead of paying a dog walker. The savings add up!

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Start by going to the doctor. If you are obese, they will likely tell you that this means disease risk factors have increased drastically (hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease, type II diabetes, hypertension and chance of a stroke) since you hit this body weight. Get medical clearance to begin exercising.

Once you’ve got the green light, start looking into shape-up options in your community; group training, fitness classes at your local gym, outdoor opportunities. Ask around your friends and see if they will join you. Its spring, people are thinking fitness!

If you are obese, water exercise is even better than walking – you will love the freedom of movement in water that allows the joints to move naturally, the weightlessness makes water non-injurious and therapeutic to the joints. Range of motion and flexibility will also benefit. Combined with a low fat diet, lean tissue is preserved and enhances your metabolic rate through building muscle – burning extra calories both during your swim and after.

Many mistakenly try losing the weight first before starting to exercise, but even fifteen minutes of gentle walking per day will boost your confidence, mood, range of movement and desire to eat healthy foods. Consider it to be movement, not exercise.

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It wasn’t the kind of craving that goes away by calling a friend and a tall glass of water. Nor was it the kind of moment that could be substituted. This was the kind of desperation that you’d walk five miles in the rain for, dominating my thoughts for at least two hours. The weirdest thing is, I was in the middle of a workout and the only place I felt like running was to the vending machine.

When I got in sight of chocolate I suddenly lost interest. Perhaps it was the fact that I was ‘allowed’ to eat chocolate, that made it less devious. Or perhaps it was the fat kids clutching candy bars that turned me off. Regardless, I decided to compromise with a push-button treat, artificial enough to give me my fix. Seven assortments of hot chocolate varieties awaited me: banana flambé, French toast, English toffee….but no sign of plain old hot chocolate. When did chocolate lose appeal in its pure form?

Indulging in sweet delights on occasion is as necessary as eating your daily five to seven servings of fresh fruits and vegetables. Denying yourself from culinary pleasures is not necessary: an innocent spoonful of cocoa-puff can make you snap, and trigger a chocolate rampage to make up for every bite you missed out on.

Salt is the same thing. Many North-Americans eat three to five times the recommended 1500 milligram quota. Soy sauce, meat dishes, canned foods, convenience snacks, frozen meals…..less than one teaspoon can shakeup your sodium levels and put you at risk for hypertension. But don’t wait until its time to write your New Years resolutions to cut down! You’ll likely find it only takes about eight weeks to wean yourself away from your salt habit.

There really are no unhealthy foods, just unhealthy portions. You need to get feed your body balanced meals – and make sure you are getting three macronutrients (fat, carbohydrate, protein) at least 80% of the time. The 20% remaining margin is for the diva in you to enjoy a drink or two on a Friday night and ice-cream on Sunday. What’s so sinful about that?

Some of us have been striving our whole adult lives to find a diet and exercise plan that will give us back our teenage body. But chances are – when we were teens, we though we were fat!

So ask yourself what your striving for, and at what point will you feel you have ‘achieved’ this lifelong goal of looking a certain way. Is it fair to keep changing your body ideal, as you inch closer to your hard earned goal? Set a training schedule and basic nutritional plan – but stick to it!

Go with your cravings, take small portions and savor every bite. We’ve got plenty of things to feel guilty about each day.occasional deviation from the diet plan is not one of them.

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Start by going to the doctor. If you are obese, they will likely tell you that this means disease risk factors have increased drastically (hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease, type II diabetes, hypertension and chance of a stroke) since you hit this body weight.

There’s a big difference between wanting to lose weight for esthetical reasons, and having your doctor confirm that your body composition is a health risk. If you, or someone you love, have ballooned into a size that has become restrictive to carry out normal activities, don’t wait for a health scare to do something about it. The facts are scary enough to motivate you to step 2.

The second step is to get medical clearance to begin exercising. Start gathering information; consider the benefits of taking control of your health, cleaning up your diet and starting to move more.

If you are obese, water exercise is even better than walking – you will love the freedom of movement in water that allows the joints to move naturally, the weightlessness makes water non-injurious and therapeutic to the joints. Range of motion and flexibility will also benefit. Combined with a low fat diet, lean tissue is preserved and enhances your metabolic rate through building muscle – burning extra calories both during your swim and after.

Many mistakenly try losing the weight first before starting to exercise, but even fifteen minutes of gentle walking per day will boost your confidence, mood, range of movement and desire to eat healthy foods. Consider it to be movement, not exercise. All mammals need to move, and you’re a mammal.

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Ever wondered why last year’s Spring Break patio indulgences (guacamole, nachos and cocktails by the pool) didn’t leave permanent evidence around your thighs? The surprising truth; sometimes a complete change in your nutritional routine can jump start your body and force it to metabolize better. Restricting yourself to a completely healthy diet all the time (yawn!) may be restricting you from reaching your optimal body composition.

Lose fat and gain muscle by combining weight training and aerobic activities with a staggered eating pattern. Eat 300-500 calories less than what you would normally eat (about one bagel with cream cheese or a sandwich) 4-5 days per week. Then eat 300-500 calories more than usual, two days per week on your heavier training days. Adjust your base requirements every month to reflect new muscle mass, and make sure you keep up your fitness plan during these days.

Recent studies show that weighing yourself daily increases weight loss success, contrary to popular belief. Perhaps it is easier to catch slight weight gains as they appear, rather than weighing once a month and being face to face with an overwhelming five or ten pound gain. Losing half a pound is a much more attainable goal, and easier to think about making small adjustments to your lifestyle.

It is true that muscle weighs more than fat, and everyone’s bone density and body is different. Only you know what your best weight is, and when you feel your best. Think of the scale as an incomplete Polaroid of what is really happening with your body as you shape up. The body is up to 75% water, and weight can fluctuate hourly depending on fluid changes, humidity, air pressure, sodium levels, sweating and in response to exercise. It’s not uncommon to gain 3lbs from morning to night!

To calculate your calorie needs (approximately) multiply your weight in pounds by 14. This is based on the current exercise level that you are doing. If you do more exercise, multiply it by 15. Then if you are doing less, multiply by 13.

Therefore if you ate 250 calories less than what was needed to maintain your weight, it would take you 14 days to lose 1 lb based on our equation of 3500 calories needed to be burnt to lose one pound. Now if you had 250 calories less than your amount needed to maintain AND you did an extra cardio session, or burnt 250 calories more than you typically do in your workouts, you would lose 1lb in 7 days….as you will have ‘spent’ 3500 calories.

Eat well, exercise daily……everything will balance out in the end!

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Even if your driving factor for now is weight loss, once you get started that will seem far off into the distance because nothing compares to having incredible amounts of energy, and to be in the cycle of allowing your body to crave what it wants. Says Justine Ewart (37), a regular exerciser “There are days that I take off and my body will be talking to me, telling me to walk the stairs instead of using the elevator.  It is truly amazing how the motivation comes naturally. Don’t forget you have to start first.  It took some time for my body and mind to adjust and after about the 21^st day I noticed a change and I was on my way to a healthy routine.”

The Sea to Sky is an area with great surroundings and easy access to fantastic trails! This should make working out so much easier, as really, exercise is not restricted to the gym. If you are finding it hard to get up and go, have a look around.

Many people find that committing to exercise early in the morning is the easiest way to get started.  By the time you get into your daily work activities, it becomes much more difficult to tear yourself away during the day to go to the gym or go for a run. “I used to constantly  have  that sinking feeling by about 3:00 in the afternoon when yet another day had gone by and I hadn’t done any kind of physical activity, and could see that the line up of responsibilities stretched well into the evening,” says Jane Frazee, a real-estate agent and long time Boot Camp recruit in Whistler.”I feel much better when I just get my workouts done in the morning. It has been remarkable for me to experience the change, the improvement in the way I feel all day every day.” Now that Jane is in this ‘habit’ of exercising most mornings, she feels it all day long, physically and emotionally, and says that it is a ‘very positive, good feeling’.

You’ll likely find the first week or two the toughest, but once it becomes a habit you will find that even on the  days you are not exercising, you’re awake and ready to embrace the day. Imagine being showered, dressed and ready for work by 8:30 with an incredible feeling of accomplishment!

Become one of those regular exercisers who feel empowered in aspects of their life by finding your running shoes and sweat pants, and walking home from work tonight. Grab an iPod or a friend to keep you motivated through the first stages – getting started is the first step, but once you get going you won’t be able to stop. You will crave the endorphins and that will get you up in the morning – guaranteed!

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For example, all salad is good for you – right?  Wrong. Did you know that Wendy’s Taco salad boasts a whopping 730 calories, 20 grams of ‘bad fat’ nad almost the entire days quota of sodium. Add the bread, crackers or pop and you’ve about the same ammount of energy as three chocolate bars. And how about hitting your arteries with some good old comfort food, like Stoffers Macaroni and Cheese? Each package has half a days saturated and trans fat (12 grams), whopping sodium levels and almost 500 calories. Although it may be lower in calories than some pre-packaged foods (such as Shepards Pie) there is more to a ‘good food’ than just the calorie count.

So who has the accurate information? Although I’d love to say that I do, dietary researchers and regulators are hard at work every day and the forcast of heatlhy living looks to remain cloudy until who knows when.

In all honesty, probably the people with the best advice are your grandparents. Although food companies are constantly under pressure to pump newer, more colorful and fun foods into Supermarket chains across the fast food nation, grocery aisles have never more closely resembled candy stores. Back in the fiftes, the brightest colored area of the market was the produce department. And ‘fun’ was what you had burning off the energy of a great dinner, not munching through processed food!

It seems to me that our society is too far gone to get back to the days of simple eating, from a global perspective….but we can still make a difference one kitchen at a time. Take your own nutritional habits back to basics, and teach your children to do the same. Be directed by ‘old school’ words of wisdom to healthy living because honestly, this is about the longest lasting nutritional advice these days (which proves that it works). One of the leading health experts in the fifties was cardiologist Dr. Ancel Keys and his wife Margaret. In 1959, they published ground rules to living your best life; (source Scientific American September 2007). It was so refreshingly simple that it made me smile.

Here are my top three…..and you don’t need to be a cardiologist to understand its logic.

Do not get fat. If you are fat, reduce.

Good diets do not depend on drugs and fancy preparations.

Get plenty of exercise and outdoor recreation.

Lets face it, most nutritional ‘break thoughs’ that promise a fast track to optimal health are passed around cyber space and office receptions like a game of Chinese Whispers. But Dr. Keys information will still be valid centuries from now.  Pass it on!

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Think about it. Does sitting on your butt for five hours really constitute an energy deficit of a king size candy bar and family-pack of chips? Prepare for these long hauls of mundane periods – when everyone piles out of the car at the highway mini-mart (last stop for 200 miles) dip into your pre-packed bundle of bite-sized protein bars, fresh berries, whole-grain sandwich or dry fruit. A fast food fix of calorie laden junk food has a pleasure soon forgotten – eat in moderation to avoid permanent residence around your gut. And if you’re traveling by air, ask about pre ordered low-fat meals.

Extensive air-conditioning can be more dehydrating than the Sahara. Chug water wherever possible, if nothing else at least you’ll stretch your legs walking to the bathroom! You’ll relieve your back, keep your muscles supple and your blood circulating. Drink about a cup for every hour of travel, limiting fruit juices and pop wherever possible.  Water will also keep your hunger under control, as often the munchies are mistaken for boredom or dehydration.

Stay as active as possible in the sun – instead of lying around all day, go windsurfing or hiking.  Be sure to wear sunscreen! Carry a hacky sack to kick around during fuel stops, break up your trips with roadside wanders to see the sights (such as checking out the waterfalls in Squamish en route to Seattle). Jump in a lake, toss a Frisbee, get moving; ten minutes of activity accumulates and breaks up the trip.

Use your common sense when if comes to meal choices – try to sit down and enjoy your food when ever possible.  From eating your sandwiches at a roadside picnic table, to eating a smart meal in a restaurant – skipping meals is not smart. Thinking the cheese burger with double fries and chocolate sundae was enough to last all day is not eating for a lean body -  opting for smaller portions spread throughout the day is.

So you’ve got your body where you want it and you’re feeling fabulous…now chill out a little and indulge once in a while. Be as healthy as you can with your diet and exercise choices, however remember that a few too many drinks or high calorie slices of birthday cake is not going to turn you into a fat blimp – the pattern of regular over-indulgence is where the damage sets in.

© Cat Smiley, 2013 | Article Reproduction

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