Staying Fit -- Make a Small Change

Greetings Busy Working Moms and Fitness Buffs,

Just concluded mountain bicycling this morning.

Here's what came to mind to help you in the months ahead.

If you're watching the Olympics right now, this is the best time

to incorporate small changes.


Fortify your mindset with the power of the Olympics right now

and apply something great to your life. You're seeing athletes of all

ages working out. Their skin sparkles and they're looking great.

Why not take up walking or hiking or something beneficial?

Point is. You can look great at any age. I'll be 48 years young, early

next year.


If you haven't obtained your copy of my free salad recipes

guidebook, feel free to enter your information in the white boxes.

All information remains confidential. I don't sell your information

to any company and I won't be calling you on the phone.


Reduce Sugar Intake

One of the easiest things to alter in your diet without reducing

bulk is removal of excessive sugars in your diet. If you're saying, "Well...

I don't really eat a lot of sugary snacks, that may be true". As a reminder,

if you're not reading food labels, natural foods stores and your local supermarket

carry items overloaded with sugar. I'll admit, it's challenging to avoid this substance

because it's added to everything.


Substitute Water For Fruit Juices

The experiment I've been playing with this summer to stay cool

but to more importantly bring you solid tips, involves substituting

water for fruit juice. I gave myself 2 months of water, with added

Stevia Extract and ice. I eliminated most of the fruit juice.


Result


I lost one full jeans size without extra exercise, taking less tea.

I kept everything else in my day the same.

Focus on balanced eating and you'll find you can drink more water happily.


Try This

Add a touch of tea, lemon, lime or Vanilla Stevia and ice for flavor.


People Are Dehydrated

If you feel sluggish throughout your day, it's most often due to

dehydration. In all posts, I talk about the importance of

hydrating with 16 - 24 oz. , before eating anything.

This step cuts out a lot of weight, over the course of a lifetime.

Keep this step going and you'll find your need for sugary juices will vanish.


Consider Tomato Juice

Low salt tomato juice is great for your body. Studies indicate people

who drink tomato juice often experience fewer health risks. Tomatos are like

oranges. They're great cleansers for the hair and body because the juice

keeps you clean inside and out!


Pick High Quality Foods Yielding A Leaner Body

Low carbohydrate foods -- vegetables not spiking blood sugar.

Fruits -- eaten earlier in the morning.

Lean meats -- eaten throughout the day.

Sugar cravings are a way of your body saying, "I want protein".

To Shed More Weight, Without Heavy Exercise

Consider adding apple cider vinegar (tablets found at your

local food store) to your meals. 1 - 2 tablets, per meal, 3X/daily,

found in the weight loss aisle of your natural foods store. It will

keep your intestinal lining clean in-between periodic fasting or

10-15 day intestinal cleansings. If you're not sure what an internal

cleansing is, I talk about that in my very first post, offering

affordable recommendations.

without the need for an internal cleansing kit.

You Don't Have to Go Broke To Be Beautiful,

B. Brinkmeyer, MBA

4th Degree Black Belt, Internationally Certified Instructor, Retired

Work In Progress

This blog will form once the MLM blog and affiliate blogs are complete.

Kindly asking for your patience,

B. Brinkmeyer

Hunter-Gatherer's Guide To Proper Nutrition

Greetings. Today's posting offers help for what I call addressing 'American sagging diets'. Many times we're rushing about here and there but we forget to slow down for proper hydration...or even the bathroom.

Always take care of your kidneys. Alot of people are walking around in dehydrated states, suffering from what I call 'water/oxygen depletion'. Ask the fireman in your local community what their primary concern is. They'll tell you...people are poorly hydrated.

Then, if we shift to addressing dietary fads -- diets really don't work for the long haul. They'll help you shed the initial water weight, even burning fat at the expense of lean muscle... but because your body constantly likes to believe it's sitting in feast or famine states, you see the challenge to keeping a leaner body. You always have to keep your body 'off-balance', training at different times of the day, changing also what you eat..., when you eat.

So what can you do? Do you negate newer diet trends or do you ignore recent findings
or do you follow the doctor's recommendation for a 'low-fat' diet (usually a poor long-term recommendation). More will be shared along those lines in the coming paragraphs but let me share with you my solution.

A primary rule I use when food shopping is to follow the cavewoman's guide to proper nutrition --

'Feed the inner cavewoman'. By that.., I mean to suggest evolution has been in charge of our genetics for a very long time. Now that Americans have been consuming processed foods for several decades, it's creating changes in the way be break down and absorb our nutrients and it's not pretty. A large majority of people are now facing obesity earlier in life. So, you have to think along hunter - gatherer lines whenever you're walking down a food aisle.

It doesn't hurt you to eat berries and nuts.

If you consume your fats during the day, stick to early morning or noon. Eat lean foods later on as nighttime approaches...and drink just a bit more water during your early PM.

You know that any label which makes a food look pretty probably isn't helpful. You want high nutrition instead of empty calories. You know what the rules are already.

Stick with raw foods, if you don't have a sensitive digestive system (as in having had no prior cases of serious food poisoning compromising your intestinal tract).

Anything with a 'hydrogenated' anything is NOT helpful. Your body doesn't know how to handle it.

When you're craving sugar, that's your body's signal to eat lean protein.

Starve the fat in your body by reducing the sugary intake but feed your muscles and you'll begin to see changes in your metabolism. Keep in mind, by feeding the genetic
cavewoman within, over time... you will see positive changes. If you gain weight initially with any dietary changes or changes in the way you exercise, that means you're adding muscle first. Then, your body will begin to burn the fat.

Let's address the doctor's recommendation to stick with a 'low fat' diet. Don't take this advice too far. You need good fats (Omega 3's and 6's...you can find in fish)...but you have to stay out of the bakery section. Sorry. If you can't do that, then buy 'Low Pudge Brownies' made with vanilla yogurt and consider using a margarine substitute like low calorie applesauce bake. You can use this product in place of butter but never use Crisco. That stuff will permanently clog your arteries!

To nurture working moms further --

The reality is we have to be strong and full of vitality to take good care of ourselves and others. So what some will say is good for you -- well..., you'll have to decide for yourself. In all things, my #1 rule is to use common sense. It's served me and others like me very well.

If you're feeling fatigued too often, consider adding a decent multi-vitamin and minerals to your daily diet. A strong mineral supplement I highly recommend is Emergen - C (pronouned emergency). You can find it in the powdered supplement section. If you're not sure, feel free to ask someone in the store for help. They'll know what this product is. But, it boosts immunity greatly. It will help you fend off colds and other nasty unwanteds. There's also a joint formula I recommend that's very good. Take 1 or 2 packages/day, depending upon personal preferences.

3 other rules you want to keep in mind daily, to shed unwanted weight or to manage present weight:

1) Control your carbohydrate intake

Good carbs..., bad carbs..., it doesn't matter. Your body knows how to convert starches into sugars easily. So, you have to limit your intake of these substances (whites, whole grains, etc.), whatever they are just to keep your body optimally burning those daily calories.

2)Control your weight

Additions of weight in the winter are common. One of the best ways to offset this weight gain due to limited outdoor activity levels is to find a variety of exercises you can easily adopt, indoors or otherwise.

What you gain in the winter, you must shed in the summer. There's no way around this reality.

3) Burn fat and speed metabolism

Let's face it. Whether you're running after your children or running after a collegue, this is the best activity you can get each day. I know working moms are tired but consider walking farther in a parking lot (instead of parking close to your house or work entrance).

Avoid the elevator. Take the stairs as a rule. Always do this if your knees will allow. If you're greatly overweight, then use your common sense. Push yourself a little bit more than you're traditionally use to and ask a doctor if you're not sure what you can incorporate. But, whatever you choose to do..., walking, walking faster..., taking those stairs, you have to become more active than you are now, if you're going to burn the fat, speeding up your engine.

If you're stuck, consult a gym. Consider paying for a professional fitness assessment to determine where you should begin. If that's not workable, consider
joining a support group of some type where everyone shares in a similar goal (working out often..., helping each other stave off unhealthy foods..., goals like that).

4) Bonus rule -- if you're underweight -- don't carb out. You have to begin to add muscle by most likely adding weight lifting or some type of weight bearing activity. This will help you put meat on your bones. You'll want to add more lean protein to your diet to accomplish this goal but you must keep your workouts going consistently to hit this new target.

If you any questions, feel free to leave a comment or an e-mail and I'll do my best to personally answer your fitness/dietary needs.

Supporting Better Health,

Barbara Brinkmeyer, MBA
4th Degree Black Belt
Certified Instructor
New Paradigm Marketing, All Rights Reserved on Original Content 2008.

Marathon Walking The Safe Way

Greetings!

This post is dedicated to Maria.

She asks:

Thanks for the great tips! I walked for the Susan B. Komen 3 Days last year and I started my training just a couple of months before the event -- not enough time to prepare me for walking the full 60 miles, and I got injured along the way. I hope this year, will be a better performance on my part. I tended to train twice a week by walking 10 miles on my own. Do you know of any good books for training walkers who are about 50lbs too heavy?

Let's begin with low cost means by beginning with assumptions --

a) Your injuries are healed
b) A medical assessment is adviseable before the 2nd walk to examine your legs
c) Some people's bones are not made for distance walking or running, particularly if they've led sedentary lives. There's nothing wrong with this lifesyle. People who are consistently active are made differently because they've had years to adapt.

If you could examine my legs under X-Ray, you'd see my bones are thick along the long bones. I've been very active all my life but I've been involved in the martial arts since I was 18. Now I'm 49 and I keep the martial arts forms going strong because they offer many health benefits. However, when students of all ages walked through my school doors, I offered an intial assessment. People young and older have to build up their activity over time. So, I have a system that's used to many different exercises.

A 60-mile walk is big!

Here's What You Can Do Today:

1) Consider strongly reassessing Year 2 goals -- spare yourself unnecessary injury because you only have one body. You want it to last a lifetime, said kindly! And.., we love your smile!
2) You may consider walking 20-30 miles in this year's event, as a more realistic goal but you could work up to a new level by Year 3, 4, and 5. That kind of a goal will take you into an entirely new human body.
3) Maintaining or increasing your strength, endurance, balance, and flexibility are the key factors to staying healthy. Walking builds your strength and endurance, which contributes to better balance.
4) You can improve your flexibility with stretching exercises designed specifically for inactive adults, starting slowly each day, holding poses, then over the coming weeks and months, increasing stretching levels. By striving to increase all four factors, you not only lower your risk of injury but you'll slow the aging process in your joints and muscles.
5) For some, walking a full hour or even 30-minutes a day may be difficult. I suggest walking a flexible schedule incorporating different exercises you may encounter in a 60-mile walk:

park farther away from the walk-in entrance at work
climb stairs (cut out elevators if knees allow)
reduce sugar intake
increase protein intake whenever you're hungry
walk on Friday evenings and Saturdays
walk Sunday if your body is still happy
then walk a longer distance on Wednesday.

The key is to get the time in "spent walking" (not entirely on a level, level surface), even if it's not all at once. If you can stay off concrete, I recommend that strategy but I'm willing to guess your actual walk will be on the streets.

I'll research books and let you know but we can start you out on my free ebook, titled, "Salad Recipes". Enter your name in the right-hand column to automatically download this book. It will begin to address excess weight humans commonly accumulate in a year's time.

As your health improves -- combine your walks for longer intervals over time, as you advance. Again, common sense goes a long way. Your body will always tell youh how it feels.

When you're tired -- schedule training on your calendar to make it happen.

When you're feeling strain -- rest. Try to include new challenges such as climbing a hill, extending the time you walk, increasing your walking pace, or adding an additional day of walking over time.

If you want more specifics, ask more Q's and we'll tackle more. There are many books out there but no 2 books are created equal.

I recommend a detox for starters.

See other article post on that topic. It gives you specifics, by name.

To Your Walking Success!

Barbara

Mystery Motto

"Great things are accomplished by creating a series of small things
strung together."

Fun Facts

Did You Know...in the U.S. alone, Americans spend as much as $115 Million dollars each year just to improve the tone of their abdominal muscles? Absolutely, it's true! They're spending money on exercise equipment, (Stowers Report, 2008). What can you do about a sagging belly today, without breaking the bank or purchasing heavy exercise equipment (which usually gathers dust in the corner of your bedroom or basement)? Get ready. The answer isn't sexy.

Sit-Ups! I hear you groaning already but don't lose heart. 1) Perform 25 each day for the first few weeks...moving up to 50 reps/per day for as many days as your body allows. In a few month's time, you'll have a stronger mid-section. 2) To add encouragement, have someone you love sit on your feet (like a child or a spouse). 3)Keep your back and neck straight, look up to the ceiling with each lift..., don't forget to breathe. 4) Sometimes, the best exercises are the simplest ones.

Toasting Your Health!

Barbara Brinkmeyer, MBA, 4th Degree Black Belt

How To Fight Chocolate Cravings (During Tax Season, Part 2)

Greetings Working Moms,

Offering you a quick post before you submit your final taxes.

If you're in the group of people who have "already done that but have the 2007 tax return t-shirt", congratulations! You reside in a very organized minority.

If you sit in the crisis-driven, wait-til-the-last-minute majority (like me), figuring out it's better to electronically submit your tax return 7 days before the deadline or you'll have to file via paper (because you missed the 48-hour e-filing window), then you're probably in need of a few minor "candy or chocolate pieces". Did you know that the average American eats 25 pounds of chocolate each year?

So what can you do about these cravings?

Garcinia extract can be very effective. You can find it at your local health foods store. I'll be mentioning this fact often in my posts.

If you can't swallow pills, try a high protein meal replacement powder or a low calorie, high protein chocolate bar of some type -- again see your local health foods store. They usually carry a brand high in fiber. It should be free of hydrogenated palm kernel oils or coconut oils because these trans fats are high in saturated fat.

The best bars I've found are Cliff Bars. They're great at staving off chocolate cravings.

If you are diabetic, choose a low blood sugar chocolate mint product. Russell Stover makes a nice product.

In my next post, we'll cover a Salad Recipe, talking about helpful diet tips for this upcoming Spring and Summer, 2008.

To Your Continued Health!

Barbara