"YARC" Post of the Week, DESIRE!!!

[windwalker]

Back about 1965 a fellow named Carl Shelby built a car called the Cobra. It was a simple idea, "put a big powerfull engine in a light weight car". It wasn't high tech at all but even my today's standards it's one of the top high performance cars ever.

High tech is not the "Holy Grail" when it comes to our bodies. We are always wanting to find the magic pill that will let us lose all the weight we want. We seek the magic exercise that will let us grow strong defined muscles in 10 min, 3 times a week. We are constantly bombarded by advertising that promises these very things.

Being healthy is a simple concept if you understand how your body works. We are a very cool design. Each of us have the "magic" inside already, we are already more high tech than science can possibly ever match. What starts the magic working? Desire! The Desire to be healthy, to be the best each of us can be. We have to be tired of being heavy and out of shape. We have to want to be faster, leaner and healthier.

We can make our bodies listen to us but we have to learn the language it speaks first.

Our bodies are designed to survive. When we eat to much or to many calories our body stores the extra in fat cells. Fat cells are like little balloons or storage sheds. When our body fills all the sheds and more food is coming in our bodies build more sheds.

Our body looks at these sheds as necessary for survival in the lean times. That is what you will live on in the winter when food is scarse. That is a pretty good system except we never get to the lean times when the body needs to start using the stored food.

Our body holds on to it's precious supplies of food. So if you go on a "Crash" diet, your body lowers your metabolism to conserve the stored food as long as possible.

So what you have to do is pretty simple, eat healthy food regularly during the day, so your body doesn't think that the lean times are here and exercise. The exercise needs to be "aerobic" or with oxygen. Exercises like walking, running, biking and swimming done at a brisk but not all our pace will cause your body to start releasing the stored food. Since we are taking in food the body doesn't go into survival mode and lets us use the stored food for the work we are doing.

To improve your muscle fitness there is a simple process also. Continually add more work a little bit at a time. That's what these training plans are all about. Your muscles understand this cycle of work and rest.

I know this sounds like a simple minded observation of a complex process and it is. But it's a process that is already designed into us and basicly we just have to be the person we were designed to be.

Simple "YARC" Panda

 

[princessrunner]

Okay, first up, love the Shelby reference. My DD13 is named after the illustrious Carroll Shelby. She is my little Shelby Cobra Jet!!

I love this thread and your healthy tidbits. Don't forget the water and/or electrolytes in your fuel. Your body needs water more than food sometimes and as we age, it has a harder time telling us that. Post-40, you don't recognize dehydration signs as much anymore because that dry mouth sensation is not there any longer. Of course, as I learned the hard way, there is such a thing as too much water and/or too much of a good thing.

The other thing I want to add to this healthy eating and exercise thread is to remember that nothing is off limits and something you can never have again. Once you deprive yourself of something, you want it even more. With me, this includes running. You can have it all, just in reasonable portions or tasty tidbits. Food of course, not running.

Thank you Dave for invoking thought again and asking us to look inside ourselves for that magic. Believing in yourself that you have the desire to reach your goals is the key. And hey, admitting you have a problem is step one.

Hi, I'm Lisa and I am addicted to running.....

 

[windwalker]

Lisa, thank you for your additional words of wisdom. Yes we do learn a lot of what we know by trial and error. That's why we need to share as much as we can with our WISH brothers and princesses.

It can be scary, because it often seems that our bodies and our cravings are in charge of us and we are powerless to control them. When acctually we are the boss.

It takes our body about 20 min to get the signal to our brain that we have had food and are satisfied. So the faster we eat the more we can cram in before the brain gets the mnessage that we are not hungry anymore. So if we slow down, chew our food and let our systems work as designed we will be ready to stop eating when we have eaten the proper amount of healthy food. Really it works just that easily.

Simple "YARC" Panda

 

[Steffwalks]

Sipping water between bites helps you slow down your eating AND aids in digestion. Be sure and chew 32 times like your mama taught you, you can eat fast when you are trying to chew jello!

 

[windwalker]

Sipping water between bites helps you slow down your eating AND aids in digestion. Be sure and chew 32 times like your mama taught you, you can eat fast when you are trying to chew jello!

A little out of context story: When I first got married and moved in with my new wife, I decided to have friends over for grilled steaks. I knew nothing about buying meat so I bought these great looking very lean round steaks. I put them on the grill and grilled them well done. You couldn't even chew them they were so tough. I couldn't understand how I could possibly screw up grilling a piece of meat.

Another of those trial and error lessons that made me an expert on what not to do.

Simple "YARC" Panda