Hello fellow Dads! This is my first post on the Life of Dad site. I can’t thank the boys enough for giving us this outlet to communicate with one another. I am approaching the wonderful age of 35 and I’m trying to get myself in shape. College, like many others, did a number on me that I’m still recovering from.
My posts will focus on Personal Development. This entry went a little longer than what will be more common. I hope you enjoy and get something out of it!
Each day our office receives the Business Digest-a one page fax from a local financial adviser. Our office also benefits from Avensure, an outsourced HR firm. On Tuesdays there is a small section that deals with Health and Fitness. I took a lot out of today’s information and wanted to share it.
So here it is….
An hour of TV takes 22 minutes off your life according to researchers.
I had to do some research on this one before believing it. And even after reading the research you still never know what to believe. Here is a link to the article published in 2011. The idea is that a sedentary lifestyle is as bad for you as smoking and obesity because of the dangers posed by inactivity and greater opportunities it offers for unhealthy eating.
Clarissa and I watched Criminal Intent last night. In fact we watched an episode and a half. This was from about 11:00 to 12:30. I ate wings and triscuits. That’s disgusting. It wasn’t bad enough that I watched TV and ate incredibly unhealthy foods but because I was up late last night, I did not wake up early to go for a bike ride like I had planned.
#FAIL!
It’s impossible for me to say if you lose 22 minutes from your life if you watch an hour of television like the research suggests. However, I can say with 100% certainty that the most unhealthy moments of my day are when I am parked in front of a TV whether it be watching the Phillies, Seinfeld or anything for that matter. It’s just an incredibly unproductive time for me and if I’m true to myself, it’s downright destructive.
Eat breakfast at home. Eating this meal out doubles your odds of obesity.
Home fries, pancakes as big as your head, french toast with butter and whipped cream. These are all things I would order at a restaurant that I do not have at my house. There is nothing I enjoy more than home fries but they are completely vacant of anything healthy. Recently I discovered a book called, The 4-Hour Diet. Written by Timothy Ferris. All men should get this book and they should share it with the ladies in their lives.
Although it’s not exactly a weight loss book, it certainly has a lot of information on how to lose weight. I lost 15 pounds in a month while using the ideas. When I stopped using those ideas I gained about 7 back. One of the rules in the plan is to have a cheat day, which for most people is Saturday. So if you are doing this plan or any plan that allows a cheat day than by all means, eat as many home fries and enormous pancakes as you want. But if it isn’t your cheat day than stay away from restaurants and make something at home because the temptation to order something unhealthy is way to tremendous.
If you have to go out to breakfast try to stick with protein. 2 or 3 eggs (scrambled) with a side of spinach and either Canadian bacon or turkey sausage. And of course a bottle of hot sauce.
People who exercise at ANY intensity just 17 minutes per day feel 61% less stressed, say Danish researchers.
Another beautiful part of the 4-Hour Diet book is the idea that you do not need to spend hours at the gym. In fact, Ferriss recommends just 75 – 100 swings with a kettlebell 3 times per week. Which is exactly what I did the month that I dropped 15 pounds. Lately I have been doing a different plan that focuses more on muscle building-15 minutes/twice a week.
Whatever plan you decide to use, whether it be an hour at the gym everyday or a 20 minute walk around the neighborhood after dinner, you WILL feel less stressed. You will feel better about yourself and you will be much healthier than if you didn’t take the small amount of time to exercise. Plan ahead and execute. Everyday.
The best exercise program in the world is the one you enjoy doing.
Reece has baseball practice at a location where there are 3 or 4 baseball fields, 6 basketball nets, 2 playgrounds and even a skateboard/roller blade park. Last week I dropped him off at practice and went to the basketball nets and discovered that two of them were only 8 feet tall!! I have never been able to dunk on a regulation rim so I was very excited at this discovery. After shooting around for 20 minutes (and missing 95% of the shots) I took to the low baskets.
I spent about 25 minutes trying to slam that stupid basketball. I would say that I tried about 50 times and was only able to do it about 5 of those times. It was pathetic! But it was so much fun and I can’t wait to try again. The week before I took my roller blades and hockey stick and ball to the skateboard park and skated around the cool kids and shot at the fence while they did tricks.
I looked like a jackass on both days but it didn’t matter. I was having fun and getting tremendous exercise. If you like running, run. If you like bicycles, go for a bike ride. If you like to dance, try zumba. If you need to relax, do some yoga.
In a new study, sleeping 8.5 hours per night=fat loss. Sleeping 5.5 hours per night=muscle loss.
Now I’m pissed off. I spend my days trying to build muscle and then at night time I’m up at midnight eating wings and triscuits. IDIOT! I have heard many times that sleeping 8 hours or more is something that is incredibly good for our health especially in terms of weight loss. It’s simple, suppose I went to bed at 11:00 last night. I wake up at 6:00 AM (without a belly full of disgusting food) ready to go for that scheduled bike ride. That is common sense.
But what about the muscle loss? I searched the net but was unable to find too many articles on this subject so I really can’t say for sure. But this is what I do know-lack of sleep leads to sleeping in later and not waking up early to exercise. It also leads to making poor decisions which makes it easier to not follow through on scheduled workouts. In addition a lack of sleep is is more likely to lead to a diet that may not promote muscle growth.
This is not good. Muscle is a very important tool when you are trying to lose weight. Mark Lauren of the great You Are Your Own Gym goes into tremendous detail in his book about why body weight exercises will help you lose weight much more efficiently than cardiovascular exercises, we recommended to read this article. It’s a little off topic so I wont go into detail now but if you want more info on this ask me. Or better yet, ask Mark! He’ll explain it to you.
One pound of fat takes up 18% more space on your body that one pound of muscle.
I’m convinced that cardio is unnecessary when trying to lose weight. Eat the right foods six days a week, go crazy on the 7th, drink more water than you thought possible and build muscle in an efficient manner. That is how to effectively lose fat. I’m not trying to and I never will look like a body builder. But thanks to this method I will never look like the way I did in my post college years.
Here is a really disgusting photo…
Which of these two would you rather have in your body?
This should be enough to get us to get moving!
Do you disagree with any of these ideas?
What is your favorite way to exercise?