LosingIrene  

Join BlogTalkRadio host Irene Robertson for “Light Living With Irene” on October 18, 2008, at 9:00am est. Guest hosts will be veteran TV Health Reporter Sahar Aker from FatFighterTv.Com and inspiration Diana from ScaleJunkie.Com

“Light Living with Irene” with host Irene Robertson returns on Saturday, October 18, 2008, at 9 a.m. Eastern. (http://blogtalkradio.com/losingirene) We will be discussing how to get your workouts in without spending a dime on a gym membership fee.

As a TV health reporter for 12 years, Sahar Aker has traveled from the newsrooms of television stations in Texas, Iowa, and Kansas and recently landed in the blogosphere. For as long as she can remember, healthy food and exercise have been a big part of her life, and Sahar feels very fortunate that she was able to make a career out of doing what she loves. Now Sahar has taken her passion health and fitness to her website, FatFighterTV.com. There you’ll find the latest news on diet, fitness, and the obesity epidemic, plus lots of fun stuff like videos, contests, and Weight Loss WooHoos!

After living in England for some time, Diana and her husband moved to Florida in 2002. In 2007, she started a health and weight loss blog, ScaleJunkie.Com, and in that time she has lost nearly 60 pounds. Diana takes a holistic approach to weight loss; focusing on her emotional and spiritual well being as well as her body. “It’s about eating a clean diet and making my body and mind stronger.” And as the creator of the Healthy You Challenge, she has helped hundreds of women celebrate not only weight loss, but goal setting, non-scale victories, and challenging themselves.

About “Light Living With Irene”

“Light Living With Irene” is an interactive, live Internet talk-radio show that focuses on healthy living, eating right, fitness, and organic lifestyles. Callers are encouraged to call (718) 766-4025 to ask questions or make comments. The stream and archives are available at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LosingIrene. The show is live every Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Eastern/ 6 a.m. PT. The show is hosted on BlogTalkRadio.

So now what? How do you get started? This post is going to explain the step-by-step details of starting on this journey, with a variety of helpful tips.

1. Go to the doctor

This is the one step that is the most important, yet so many, including myself, skip it. The purpose of visiting your general practitioner is two-fold: to find out where you are now and to figure out where you should be.

When you walk into the physician’s office, tell him that you have decided to become healthy by eating right and exercising. At that point he will (if he is any sort of good doctor) schedule you for a host of tests, including thyroid, urine and blood work. You will want to know your cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, and a host of other things. Try to get a print-out of this information to take home.

If you are on medication, you will want to know how they will affect you once you change your eating habits and exercise regularly, and vice versa. Some meds will make you retain a lot of water. Some will make you sleepy or take away your energy. And those that work with your hormone levels, particularly birth control pills, can do a load of things to your body. These are all important things to know.

Also, your doctor will tell you what to expect from your body for your size and age range. This will help you create reasonable expectations for yourself. You may think you can get to 120 pounds, but your physician may tell you that 135 pounds is safer. Listen to your doctor. He/She knows what’s best.

Now that you have this information, you know what work you have ahead of you. But before you leave, make sure you make another appointment for 3 months later. You will want to get regular check ups every 90 days to make sure you are doing the right things.

Now go!

2. Set Goals

With your doctor’s info in had, it is now time to sit down, being very honest, and create a list of goals for yourself. What you do want to accomplish in a week, month, 3 months, year, 3 years, and 5 years down the line?

For example:

• · By December 2008: Lose 50 pounds, Lose 20 inches off my body, Be able to walk up 3 flights of stairs without wanting to faint, Run a 5K, Have enough energy to play with my child/children for several hours, Learn how to cook healthy family meals
• · In 2009: Lose another 50 pounds, Get off xxx medication, Run a 10K, Learn to Swim, Go hiking with family
• · In 2010: Hike the Grand Canyon, Run three 10K races, Etc.
• 
  

By writing down these goals you get to see what you are working towards. Your goals can be HUGE or tiny. It all depends on what your desires and needs are. The important thing is to make these goals reasonable and achievable for your health level.

One thing I must say about goals…do not allow yourself to be hung up on them if you find that you are not reaching them in the time frame you expected to. Everyone is different so you may find that just because your best friend is reaching her goals, your body and mind work differently. Rework your goals to fit your past successes and you will do well.

3. Create a Health Plan

Now, here is where things can go in a lot of different directions. If you decide to join a gym, there will hopefully be people there who can help you create an exercise routine that’s right for you. If you cannot get to a gym, buy a few inexpensive workout DVD’s and books that can get you started.

Remember, you don’t have to buy a gym membership to be healthy. There is a big world out there full of ways to get in exercise. It just takes innovation and determination.

If you plan on using a weight loss program, like Weight Watchers, the experts there will help you create a food program that is right for you.

If you don’t have admittance to programs such as these, there are a lot of online resources to help you. My personal favorite is SparkPeople.Com. This is a fully interactive healthy lifestyle website. It helps with eating right, weight loss, and fitness. There are loads of articles, advice from experts, and a great community of supportive people like you. And the best part, it’s absolutely FREE.

It is important that when becoming a healthier person, that you work on your body and mind. This is a good time to seek out a counseling group. You may not know it, but you may find that your past life experiences may contribute to your previously unhealthy lifestyle. A group may help you to discover if there are any issues keeping you from becoming your best self.

4. Learn, learn, and learn

This is the easiest part of becoming healthy. Go to your local library and read up on everything – nutrition, fitness, and living an active lifestyle. The more you know, they more you can help yourself.

5. Work Hard and Don’t Give Up

Changing your lifestyle is not an easy thing to do. It takes patience and consistency. There will be setbacks, but those will be temporary. Remember, these are life-long changes you are making and it will come at a price. Surround yourself with supportive people. Ignore the naysayers.

6. Have Fun!

Nothing matters if you don’t enjoy yourself. Get out there and live healthy!

Yesterday I stopped by Borders at Atlas Mall and scoured the twenty or so books on triathlon training. After reviewing them all, I decided on Triathlete Magazine’s Complete Triathlon Book by Matt Fitzgerald. The book, so far, has been pretty good in explaining the type of training and why that particular training is important. Some of the information may seem obvious, but some of it I never would have thought of. Many of these methods work for training for most other sports as well. I am paraphrasing the important points of the book here. For more detailed info, buy the book. It’s a terrific resource.

Part One - Principles and Methods of Training for a Triathlon

Train for Endurance
If you consistently do longer workouts, you deplete the body’s carbohydrate storage. Your body will adapt to these longer workouts by producing more fat-burning enzymes, enhancing your body’s ability to use fat for fuel. This will decrease the rate at which you burn carbohydrates during aerobic exercise and greatly increase the duration you’re able to continue it.

b) Another big factor in the endurance equation is what’s called efficiency. Efficiency happens on two levels:

i) Neuromuscular

ii) Technique

2) Train Specifically

a) Performing a maximum-effort simulated triathlon every day is not the best way to prepare for an actual triathlon. You become better prepared for a triathlon by separating the various demands that racing places on the body and preparing for each of them individually.

b) In a typical triathlon, half of it is cycling; the rest is swimming and running. Your training should mimic this time distribution.

c) Simulate the topographical and climatic conditions of your next important race.

3) Train Progressively

In order to stimulate an adaptation in any given system of your body, you must overload that system. The principle of progressive overload is based on the fact that the body adapts best when it adapts gradually and consistently.

4) Train by Frequency, Intensity, and Duration

a) Frequency - You should train as frequently as possible without interfering with your body’s ability to recover from each workout.

b) Intensity -Intensity refers to the rate at which your body is presently converting energy into movement relative to your body’s maximum capacity to do so. Intensity is the most important training variable because it has the most direct relationship to the physical adaptations that result from training. Each workout you perform should emphasize one of the following:

i) Recovery

ii) Endurance

iii) Threshold

iv) Max Oxygen

v) Speed

c) Duration -Duration has to do with how long a given workout lasts.

5) Train in Phases

a) You Need a Solid Foundation

b) Your Training Should Get Increasingly Specific

c) You Need to Rest to Peak

6) Train in Cycles

A cycle is a pattern that recurs. Cycles in triathlon training help organize the training process and must recur if the program is going to result in progressively increasing fitness.

7) Rest and Recover Sufficiently

8 ) Customize and Evolve Your Training

a) Pre-adjustment – based on schedule restraints and individual weaknesses.

b) Post-adjustment – modifying your training according to the results of the training you’ve already performed.