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One of my readers asked for a list of 10 steps to good health. I provided it, but now I want to break each of these items down and give you more useful details. So here’s step 9, eating smaller and more frequent meals.

I’ve talked about this sort of meal plan before, but I’d like to get into a bit more details this time. Seems like every time I mention this people say it doesn’t make sense to them. Why would spacing out the same amount of food over time make a difference? After all, you’re still eating the same amount of calories. Well, the best way I’ve found to explain this is to compare it to money.

The budget analogy

Today is July 31st, which is a perfect date to start this. I’m going to give you $20 today and $20 every day from now until the end of August. This money is meant for food, your other expenses are taken care of. How difficult would this be to budget? Well, if you’re like me, not too difficult. Sure, there would be days where you paid a bit more than $20 and days where you paid a bit less, but on the average they would balance out. Plus it would be easy to budget for this since you know exactly how much you’ll be getting each day. You know that you’ll have another $20 tomorrow, so spending your money today is fine.

Now let’s think of another example. I’m going to give you $20 and $620 dollars sometime between August 1st and August 10th. Now how easy would it be to budget? Seems a bit harder, doesn’t it? You might need to stretch that initial $20 out by not spending much of it for the first ten days. After all, you don’t know if you’ll get more money until the 10th. Even worse, what happens if you get the money on the 10th? Now you have an average of $30 to spend every day until the end of the month. However, now you remember the tough time you had in the first ten days. You tell yourself that you need to save this money for the beginning of next month. That way you’ll have a bigger reserve come September and won’t have to live on $20 for ten days. The end result is a little savings account with some money in it just in case you don’t get cash early next month.

Switching in calories

Now think of that same example but using calories. Your body has a little biological budget it keeps. It needs to keep you running. All those heart beats, the blood movement and the thinking uses up a lot of calories. If you keep your body fed at regular intervals then it has an easier time making a budget. It doesn’t mind spending 100 calories now when it know 100 more are coming soon. However, if you feed your body once a day, then it tries to stretch that budget a bit more. It saves on calories because it doesn’t know when the next bit of energy will come in. Once it gets some food, it stays a spend thrift. Just like in the budget example, your body doesn’t want to go through another lean period. So it saves some of this new calorie windfall in a savings account.

What, you didn’t know your body had an energy savings account? It absolutely does and it’s called fat. Fat is your body’s way of storing energy for that day when food might be scarce. Back before food was plentiful, fat was absolutely necessary. It was your protection against drought, a bad harvest or a failed hunt. It was your emergency savings account for when you ran out of other food. In fact, some fat is still healthy. Your body wants to know that it can survive in an emergency. Without a certain percentage of fat, your body will begin shutting down various system in much the same way that people with no money begin trimming out portions of their life. So a certain percentage of fat on your body is good, but too much leads to obesity and we know that’s bad.

Getting to the point

So what does all this have to do with eating smaller and more frequent meals? Well, think of the difference between many small meals and one big meal as the difference between that $20 a day or $600 dollars a month. Both are about the same amount of money, but one is much easier to budget for. That makes it less necessary to keep a savings account. In other words, feed your body at regular intervals, and it won’t get scared of famines and keep around a lot of fat as an emergency reserve.

Start your day with a small but healthy breakfast to let your body know that today is going to be fine. No need to conserve energy, no need to put away fat, there’s plenty of food around. And keep your body thinking that way by feeding it small meals throughout the day. I usually split up my daily food into a breakfast, a lunch, a small afternoon meal at around 4 and an evening meal at around 7 or 8. That way I’m eating once every 4 hours on average. Toss in the occasional piece of fruit as a snack and my body is perfectly happy to spend those calories.  Remember, a large savings account is good for your financial situation but not so good for your health.

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One of my readers asked for a list of 10 steps to good health. I provided it, but now I want to break each of these items down and give you more useful details. So here’s step 8, getting enough sleep.

It’s funny how people who are trying to get healthy view sleep. They tend to see it as being lazy, as time that is not being spent productively. When I had my own little health meltdown, I was the same way. I thought to myself “wow, I spend too much time in bed. I need to cut that down and start doing something!” Well, the truth is a bit more complicated.

Yes, you might be spending too much time in bed but you also might be spending too little time sleeping. That sounds counter intuitive but it’s true. Many overweight people have problems getting a good night’s sleep. So they might spend 10+ hours in bed but they’re still not getting the 7 to 9 hours of deep sleep that they need to be healthy. Yes, you heard that right, you need 7 to 9 hours of good sleep a day. That’s about a third of your life spent in bed, sleeping.

Benefits of sleep

Sleep is not completely understood by medical science. We still don’t know why our bodies need to enter this odd state in order to recharge. Why can’t we rest by simply sitting down but remaining awake? However, what we do know shows that sleep has a number of profound affects on our bodies. One of these affects has to do with eating, overeating to be specific.

When you sleep, your body secretes a hormone that’s used for signaling your body that you are full and sated. If you don’t get enough sleep, your body doesn’t get enough of this hormone. This means that you feel hungry and keep eating even when your body doesn’t need anymore food.

Sleep can also have an impact on your energy levels. Without enough sleep you feel tired and lethargic. This means your metabolism is running low, you’re burning less calories and retaining more fat. It also means you’re unlikely to workout or do anything active. In short, sleep makes you eat more and burn less calories.

Getting a good night’s sleep

A few things you need to do if you want to get a good night’s sleep:

Light proof your bedroom - Our bodies are very sensitive to light. If you let sunlight into your room then it’s a signal to your body to wake up. Make sure you have curtains or blinds on your windows and that they’re shut before you go to bed.

Go to sleep on a regular schedule - Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. Varying your schedule confuses your body.

Take care of snoring problems - Snoring by itself can be a serious sleep problem for you and those around you. It can also be a sign of sleep apnea, another serious sleep disorder with very bad health risks. There are a variety of ways to deal with this, from losing weight to sleeping on your side. Make sure to consult with a doctor.

Don’t eat before going to bed - Eating right before going to bed can lead to acid reflux and other digestive issues that will keep you awake. Also stay away from caffeinated drinks before bed for obvious reasons.

Do some light physical activity - No cardio before bed since that will just wake you up. However, a very mild weights workout, some stretching or even a short walk can calm you down and get you ready to bed. In case any of you are curious, yes, sex is a very good light physical activity to do before bed.

Do some light intellectual activity - Alternatively, some people prefer to read a book. These are essentially two different ways of clearing your mind and getting ready for some stress free sleep.

The bedroom is for sleep - Keep work and stress out of the bedroom. Use it for sleep and that’s all. Well, aside from other bedroom activities which I won’t get into but can be a very healthy way of going to sleep

Summary

Spending time in bed doesn’t necessarily have to mean you’re lazy. Your body needs sleep to be healthy and you should try to provide it with 7 to 9 hours of good sleep every night. Just make sure those 7 to 9 hours are spend well and that, once they’re done, you’re out of bed.

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I’m sitting here in my office. It’s a quiet day in the South Bay. Weather is beautiful and I’m about to go out ring shopping with my fiance. The only odd intrusion into this ideal picture is a little round thing called a Roomba. For anyone who doesn’t know, a Roomba is a little robot that vacuums the house on its own. I don’t know why, but I find this fascinating. There’s a little white round thing motoring along on the floor and it’s vacuuming! The only thought that keeps going through my head is “when will this thing get struck by lightning, malfunction and try to take over the world?” Oh well, if you’re not a sci-fi fan like myself, that joke might be lost on you. On to this week’s interesting articles.

Those of you still drinking bottled water might want to take a look at this article from Reuters. It details how the makers of some of the biggest bottled water brands in the world are finally admitting that the source of their water is the tap. Yep, you’re paying money, using patroleum and polluting the environment for what I get for free out of the tap. Save yourself the dollars and just install a filter on your tap. Your wallet will stay full, your water will be cleaner and so will the earth around you.
@Reuters

From the Diet Blog we have this article about will power and weight loss. I’m a firm believer that you can in fact control your own weight and health. No matter how much the fast food companies spend on advertising, it’s still you who chooses what foods to eat and what activities to do. All you need is to educate yourself and make the right choices.
@The Diet Blog

Over at FatBloggers, Lady Rose is talking about her eating plan. She was trying out a diet that included dropping to 800 calories a day. I can’t say enough about how strongly I disagree with this kind of weight loss plan. It does nothing good and can in fact cause serious damage to your body. I believe she would be much better off eating more and being more active. And yes, I know her post mentions her arthritis, but there are exercise plan and activities that even she can do.
@FatBloggers

And finally from eDiets, we have this discussion of nutrition myths such as all fat is bad for you. Anyone trying to live a healthy life style should read through these and see how educated they are about nutrition.
@eDiets

Hope you all have a good weekend and see you tomorrow when we pick up our discussion of the 10 steps of good health with #8, sleep.

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One of my readers asked for a list of 10 steps to good health. I provided it, but now I want to break each of these items down and give you more useful details. So here’s step 7, a healthy breakfast.

This is something I learned when I was already well along in my health recovery. Simply put, it means starting off every day in a healthy way. If you do this, your entire day will tend to be healthier. You’ll be less inclined to snack or gorge and you’ll have more energy throughout the day.

Here are the three main parts of a healthy breakfast:

1. A nutritious meal without too many calories. That could mean fruit, vegetables, a small sandwich, an egg or a variety of other items. Stay away from the sugary cereals, they’re nothing but empty calories. Also stay away from the large restaurant style breakfasts that include multiple eggs, potatoes, bacon and so on, those have way more fat and calories than you need in the morning. I usually like to grab a couple of pieces of fruit and a hardboiled egg. If I have more time, I might eat a small salad instead of the fruit. If I’m in a rush, I’ll grab a piece of fruit and some cheese. Whatever your preference is, keep the calories low and the nutritional value high.
2. Some exercise. Did you think a healthy breakfast is just about eating? Nope, getting a good start to your day also involves being active. I always make sure to do some physical activity in the morning. This could be as simple as your walk to work or it could be a quick weights workout. Just do something to wake your body up and get your metabolism going. Personally, I used to do a 5 minute weight workout every morning. However, I recently switched to biking to work so that took the place of the workout. Pick something that’s quick and fits into your morning routine. The point here isn’t to get a complete workout, just to start off the day on a high energy note.
3. A supplement. Yep, I usually recommend that everyone take a vitamin supplement of some kind. It’s almost impossible to make sure you get the right daily dose of every single vitamin and mineral unless you carefully track every meal. Since I have no intention of doing that, I take a vitamin supplement every morning. It’s my nutritional insurance policy. I usually use this One-A-Day Men’s Health Formula Dietary Supplement, but feel free to use different ones.

That’s it, follow these three steps and get a healthy start to your day. Once you learn to do this every single day, I think you’ll find that the rest of your day feels much better.

For more information on starting your day right, check out this series of articles.

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One of my readers asked for a list of 10 steps to good health. I provided it, but now I want to break each of these items down and give you more useful details. So here’s step 6, living an active life.

I’ve said over and over that being healthy isn’t about temporary diets and month long workout plans.  Being healthy and fit is about lifestyle.  It’s about choosing to live your life in a healthy way.  A healthy lifestyle means more than just being unhealthy most of the time and then trying to fix things during specific meal times and gym visits.  It means every moment of every day you make the choice to be healthy.  It can be big things or it can be little ones, but you always make the healthy choice.

I realized how important this was about a year after my health meltdown.  Of all the things I learned, this is the only one that I implemented all at once rather than gradually.  Simply put, once I realized what a healthy lifestyle meant, I just couldn’t live it gradually.  In fact, this is the only piece of information that was a bit of sudden revelation instead of a gradual learning process.

Visions in the parking lot

It all happened one afternoon as I was arriving at the gym.  I usually prefer to workout around lunchtime but this particular day I was arriving right before dinner.  The gym parking lot was packed and there were very few spots.  I found a spot at the far end of the parking lot but I decided to move and search for a better spot.  That’s when it hit me.  Here I am going to the gym in order to exercise and I’m going to spend an extra few minutes driving around just so I could avoid a bit of walking.  Does that make sense?  I was actually going to waste time (looking for a closer spot would have taken longer than walking in from the farther one) and money (gas) just to save myself a 60 second walk when I had come here specifically for a workout!

That was the key realization for me.  It make me understand that if I wanted to be really healthy then I couldn’t just add a gym workout and change my eating habits a bit.  Being healthy meant living healthy and it meant making choices like walking the extra 60 seconds rather than driving around looking for a closer parking spot.

What does it mean? 

Living a healthy lifestyle and leading an active life means taking every opportunity to use your body.  If you can walk rather than drive, do so.  If you can take the stairs rather than the elevator, then do so.  If you can get up and go talk to someone rather than calling them on the phone, then do so.  If you’re sitting at your desk and you’re staring at your screen trying to figure out what else to write on your TPS report, why not pick up a water bottle and lift it a few times?  If your dog needs to go outside then how about you go out there with it and play with him or walk him rather than take him to the dog park and watch him run around?

We make hundreds of choices every day and most of us choose to be inactive.  We choose to spend money on gas and electricity rather than take the time and be healthy.  Why not make a different choice?  Every time you rely on a car, on an elevator, on an escalator or on a phone, remember that you are paying money in order to be unhealthy.  Make the right choice and be active.

There are of course some exceptions.  When we moved into our new apt. on the 4th floor, I certainly wasn’t going to try carrying the sofa up four flights of stairs.  In the morning, I ride my bike to the train station but then ride the train most of the way.  These are common sense to me.  Riding my bike to work would take too much time.  Carrying the sofa up the stairs would have been nearly impossible and carried a high risk of injury.  So yes, there are times when you should take the elevator.  But for every sofa that needs to go up to the 4th floor there is also someone driving around in the gym parking lot trying to save himself a sixty second walk on the way to his workout.  That’s the choice that needs to change.

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One of my readers asked for a list of 10 steps to good health. I provided it, but now I want to break each of these items down and give you more useful details. So here’s step 5, cardio.

Almost everyone who’s trying to get healthy and lose a bit of weight will eventually take a look at cardio activity, and if they don’t they’re making a mistake. Cardio is an essential component of every healthy lifestyle. It promotes weight loss, increases cardio vascular health and improves your stamina.

Personally, I started doing true cardio about a year into my health recovery. By then, I had lost enough weight that running no longer hurt and I understood fitness and health enough to know that small failures are just temporary setbacks. So I was ok with being unable to run fast or far. Instead, I simply started running and slowly improved.

Benefits of cardio

Weight loss - Cardio burns a lot of calories. During an average cardio training session, I can burn upwards of 700 to 800 calories. However, cardio also elevates the metabolism causing your calorie burning to continue throughout the day.

Cardio vascular health - Most people don’t think of this, but your heart is just one more muscle. Like any other muscle, it could use a workout to get healthier. A cardio workout is sort of like a weight workout for your heart. You’re putting additional strain on it temporarily to strengthen and condition it. That way, your normal heart rate will be lower. That’s a bit of an oversimplification, but in general, cardio training really benefits your cardiovascular system.

How to start

Here’s something you can learn from my experience, jogging is not the only cardio alternative out there. For some reason, many people are familiar only with jogging and so that’s what they think of when you tell them about cardio. Actually, there are a number of cardio alternatives out there and I’ve discussed several of them in this previous post. So pick the activity you like and don’t be afraid to change things around later.

Now start slow. Don’t push yourself to failure the first day. That’s bad for your body and it’s bad for your soul. That first day failure almost made me quit. It’s much better if you slowly and gradually work your way up. So yes, you’ll start out that first day at a slow pace, but who cares? At least you’re doing something!

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One of my readers asked for a list of 10 steps to good health. I provided it, but now I want to break each of these items down and give you more useful details. So here’s step 4, weight training.

Most people don’t think of weight training when they think of general fitness. They prefer to believe that it’s something reserved for athletes and hard core body builders. However, weight training can be one of the most effective things you do as a beginner. In fact, I started with weight training before cardio.

You see, I knew I needed some form of exercise. I was walking every day but I didn’t think that was enough. I had tried various cardio exercises but failed miserably. In fact, it was during one of these failed cardio trips to the gym that I first tried weights. I was wandering around the gym feeling depressed at having been unable to run yet again for more than 10 minutes. I somehow found myself in the free weight area where I observed the people working out. There were a few who had clearly been doing this for years, but I also saw many who were rather new to this. They were lifting a range of weights, some of them light enough that I thought even I could manage. Best of all, they were taking their time and being social while working out.

Yes, you’ll see some people in the weight and machine areas with iPods on, working out and ignoring the world around them, but you’ll see many more talking, working out with friends and joking with one another as they work through sets. Something about that appealed to me and so I decided to give it a try. I went over, lifted some weights and wonder of wonders, I didn’t have any problems at all. If there was something I wasn’t quite good at, which was pretty much everything back then, I simply lowered the weight. If there was something I was unfamiliar with, I asked. In fact, by the second week, I asked one of the frequent gym goers there to help me build a workout tailored to my requirements. He was happy to help and I soon had a routine to follow. I’ve enjoyed weight training ever since.

Benefits of weight training

Fun - I find weight training to be a more social activity than cardio. You can talk without huffing and puffing. You can help each other out rather than simply run side by side. Plus, it’s easier to accommodate different levels of activity. If your workout partner is not quite as strong, you simply lower the weight for their sets. I’ve tried to workout with someone whenever I can. Even now, when I don’t have a regular workout partner, I’ll go out of my way to get people from the office to come workout with me. This is one of the reason I recommend weight training to beginners, because like walking, it teaches you that physical activity can be fun, social and interesting.

No failure - It’s hard to fail at weight training. It’s easy to fail at cardio. When you’re fat and out of shape you can’t just start running. You can’t get on a bike and get a good workout. You’ll find yourself out of breath in 5 minutes and unable to go on. With weight training, you can always set the bar a little lower and try less weight. So what if you’re just lifting the bar itself, at least you’re lifting something! As long as you get your sets done and slowly improve, you’re doing fine.

Weight loss - I didn’t realize this at first, but weight training was actually really good for weight loss. Muscle mass uses a tremendous amount of energy even when it’s not being used. So an extra lb or two of muscle could mean a significant difference in your daily calories burned, which translates directly into weight lost.

Health - And along with weight loss itself, weight training taught me that being healthy isn’t all about losing weight. This is probably the most important lesson I learned from this activity. After my first month of weight training, I weighed myself and found that I had only lost 1lb that month. Feeling a little disappointed, I got dressed for work when I noticed that my pants no longer fit me. They were simply too big and I had to cinch my belt another notch to keep them on. Yep, being healthy does not necessarily mean being thin. Your body actually need muscle mass to do its work and if all you do is diet and cardio, you will quickly lose that muscle mass. By starting out early with weight training, I managed to keep my muscle mass while still losing weight, if a bit more slowly.

How to get started

It’s easy. Either get a gym membership or buy a small set of weights. Then design your workout or use someone else’s prebuilt workout like this four day workout we discussed last week. Now start workout out. It’s that easy. Ladies, weight training is definitely for you too and no, it will not turn you into body builders. You need a lot more than 30 minutes for four days a week to grow bulging muscles. Weight training is a vital part of every healthy lifestyle.

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