Month: January 2007

Today we talk about how starved our bodies are for oxygen and water.

The Importance of Deep Breathing

Straighten up, no slouching! Good posture encourages good breathing and we are lazy, shallow breathing chair slumpers! Okay, even if we don’t slump, chances are we rarely take a good cleansing, belly-distending breath. Think of the productiveness and energy we are missing out on!

In Flip the Switch by Robert K. Cooper, PhD, we read,

Oxygen is the central fuel for metabolism and energy production. When you don’t take in enough oxygen with each breath, your metabolism automatically slows down, your cells are unable to effictively burn off excess body fat or resist turning new calories into stored fat.”

Poor posture contributes to oxygen starvation.”

Wow, something so simple as deep breathing can activate the fat-burning process?

The Importance of Water

Drink plenty of it. In fact, Dr. Cooper says,

A recent medical study showed that sipping 17 oz of ice water can raise metabolism by 30% for 90 straight minutes.”

Lesson #1: Maximize calorie burning by drinking your water cold!

Recent research at the University of Geneva indicates green tea may increase metabolism and fat burning by up to 35%”

Lesson #2: Iced green tea, more power to you! My friend Deborah recommends Calli tea available only through Sunrider International. (I like mine with a twist of lemon or lime!)

Most sources recommend drinking four to six 8-12 ounce glasses of water daily. Dr. Cooper shared that each member in his family carries a 16 oz stainless steel insulated water bottle. They can be bought at thermosonline.com.

When you think that you lose up to two cups of water a day by breathing alone, staying hydrated takes on even greater meaning. (And all that deep breathing you’re going to start doing? Drink up!)

Conclusion:

Activating your metabolism regularly maximizes your energy levels and burns fat. It’s truly the key to fat loss that lasts.

You control the switches that govern metabolism. Not the gym, not the hour that you exercise daily. You don’t need a special program. The key is eating light meals, healthy snacks, and activating your metabolism every 30 minutes throughout the day.

To read Parts 1 and 2:

Energy AND Fat Loss? Read on…

Energy AND Fat Loss Part 2

In yesterday’s post, I promised to go into more detail on what we can do to boost our metabolism and why we should bother.

To continually activate our metabolism, and raise our energy, we’ll need to explore several things:

• The importance of breakfast
• The importance of moving
• The importance of light
• The importance of water
• The importance of deep breathing

I’ll tackle the first three today, and the last two tomorrow. Deal?

The Importance of Breakfast

A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology (Autumn 2003) reported that those who miss breakfast are 4 ½ times more likely to be obese than those who eat a morning meal.

Robert K. Cooper, in his book Flip the Switch says,

In one study, moderately overweight women who regularly skipped breakfast were randomly divided into two groups. One group was asked to eat a low-fat breakfast every morning, while the other group was instructed to continue forgoing the morning meal. After 12 weeks, the breakfast eaters lost significantly more weight than the breakfast skippers.

Along with the fat-burning benefits of the breakfast habit come improved mental alertness, increased energy, more optimism/better attitude, in short, a better day for your buck!

A good breakfast, high in protein and fiber, moderate carb and low-fat will rev up your fat-burning potential for the whole day. Cooper suggests and provides recipes for protein shakes: combinations of milk, low-fat yogurt, whey protein powder, fresh fruit and ice. I cheat (time wise) and make a yogurt parfait, similar to those sold at McDonalds. For one serving layer 1/2 cup fat-free or low-fat vanilla yogurt and ½ cup fresh or frozen fruit (blueberries, kiwis and bananas–my faves) with a tablespoon or two of granola sprinkled on top.

Remember, according to Cooper,

When you skip breakfast, you not only keep the body’s fat burners in “off” mode, you turn on the fat-making process instead. You lose twice!

The Importance of Moving: Activate your energy at regular intervals throughout the day

Simple: Move at every opportunity. Set a timer to remind you to get up from your WIP (work-in-progress for you non-writers) every half hour or so, stretch and rotate your shoulders, breathe deeply, and/or jog in place for 2 minutes.

This activates your nervous, muscular and cardiovascular systems, flipping quite a few switches critical to your body’s metabolism. Just to be clear, the every-half- hour boosts can be as simple as standing, stretching and deep breathing. But make sure to include at least 4 toning exercises at different points throughout the day.

The Importance of Light

In addition to having breakfast, Dr. Cooper also recommends getting up at the same time each day, and upon arising, turn on the bright lights! Sleeping in or hitting the snooze on the alarm repeatedly causes an effect that Cooper calls,

…a jet-lag-like sleep disturbance that leaves you worn out and less alert.”

He talks about bright sunshine as if it’s a plethora of healing and life-giving energy. And isn’t it true? I’ve felt energized upon pulling the shades clear up and feeling the warmth seep into the room around me. He explains,

A brightly lit room has about 500 luxes of light (a lux is the scientific equivalent of the light from a single candle) compared with 10,000 luxes of light at sunrise, and 100,000 luxes of light at noon on a sunny day. To our metabolism, spending a day indoors is virtually the same as spending the day in darkness. It stimulates the inherent physiological processes associated with sleeping and gaining weight.”

There’s that reference to our tendency to want to hibernate like big lazy bears readying for winter.

I’ll finish this up tomorrow, hitting on the importance of water and deep breathing.

What if I said you could do a few simple things every half hour to feel good, rev up your energy levels AND kick your metabolism into fat-burning mode?

Still not hooked? I know I can’t be the only one in blogworld that is finding the increased write-time not so good on the figure. Add fiction writing to that and…well, that’s why I’m researching subjects such as fats and fat loss!

Simply implementing a few changes to your hum-drum routine can reap huge benefits:

• Breathe. Deep-belly-breaths, 5 in a row.
• Stand up and stretch, get those kinks out.
• Sip on ice water (hear that inner engine revving? it’s burning calories at a higher rate now!).
• Lower the thermastat…cool temps make your body work to stay warm.
• Raise the shades/blinds. A brightly lit environment keeps that inner self humming.

I mentioned Flip the Switch by Robert K. Cooper, PhD yesterday in my post about fats. According to Dr. Cooper, we are living life in hibernation mode. We slump. We yawn. We starve our lungs for oxygen and our bodies for water. We collapse at night in front of our TVs or computers.

“The typical American lifestyle seem to encourage inertia. Driving instead of walking, sitting instead of standing. Desk jobs instead of physical labor.” ~Robert K. Cooper, PhD, Flip the Switch

He brings up the fact that most of our ancestors (just look up some black and white photos) stayed fit without the aid of special diets or memberships to the local gym. The only fast food they ate probably occurred once a year at the county fair. Imagine shaking rugs instead of vacuuming them. Using a laundry tub and elbow grease instead of your man Maytag. Stairs instead of elevators/escalators.

The great thing when you think about it, is that these short bursts of activity throughout the day were all they needed to keep their metabolism revved up, and they stayed fit as a result.

Here’s more from Flip the Switch on the subject,

“They slept deeply in cool bedrooms with the windows open, played physical games instead of computer games, used their inventive minds instead of sitting while a media center beamed passive programming at them. I also suspect, very strongly, that they laughed (far more often than most of us do today) at life’s simple wonders and don’t-miss-it-moments.”

So Flip the Switch is all about flipping the switch of your Meta-stat (metabolism’s thermastat) from hibernation mode to full-speed-calorie-burning-mode. What I really like about the book beyond the author’s easy reading style, is he breaks up these switch-flip-triggers into manageable chapters that make so much sense you find yourself breathing deeply or stretching and immediately feeling the difference. He also devotes time to explaining the various hormones at work in our bodies and how to use them to our benefit. He even has a recipe section, courtesy of his wife Leslie.

Tomorrow, I’m going to post more in depth as to what some of these triggers are and why they’re important. Meanwhile, seriously think about getting this book.

And go have a glass of ice water, or iced green tea with a twist of lemon or lime…right after you drop ten on the office floor!