Ways To Jumpstart Your Metabolism
Need to get in shape quickly and jumpstart your metabolism? Just focus on what you eat and make sure you have good, new and healthy food, including snacks, vegetables, and taste buds with organic products.
Each day is a new day, and each day you have the same basic choices. The way you handle those choices will determine whether or not you are successful. If you follow the rules and guidelines in this article, you will develop a certain “momentum of success,” and without a doubt, you will achieve your health and fitness goals.
Make the commitment to become a person of action, starting right now!
Jumpstart and Maximize Your Emotions
Not a moment goes by in life without emotions, and those emotions have specific effects on our health. Today, day one, we’ll take control of our health by taking control of our emotions.
You can help this process along by repeating an affirmation such as the following:
I am so happy weighing _____ pounds. I eat only healthful foods and drink lots of plain, freshwater. People comment about how great I look, and that makes me feel energized.
Emotions, you’ll recall, are the key to our hormonal responses, so when you repeat your affirmation, be sure to get excited about it. When we’re depressed, our hormones, glands, and related systems unite to keep us in a depressed state. On the other hand, a heightened enthusiasm for life does just the opposite, and that’s why it’s absolutely essential to the process of raising our metabolism.
A big part of achieving metabolic success is that of managing your own emotions. You can take active steps to turn all of your feelings into assets that will enhance your health, especially your metabolism. One of the best-kept secrets as to how you can master your emotions is the use of visualization.
The more clearly you can visualize yourself acting out and looking like that “person” you describe in your affirmations, the more excited you’ll become.
Whenever you repeat your affirmations, make a point of actually seeing yourself happy, weighing your goal weight and dressed in clothing that you think will flatter your physique. Most importantly, be sure to visualize other people remarking on how great you look and congratulating you on your new body, and then experience how good that feels.
Here’s an extremely important point:
You are in charge of every emotion you have this day (and night).
We humans all have equal access to everything the universe has to offer, and the resources we’ve been given in order to deal with people and events in our everyday life are about the same. We all have exactly the same amount of time in each day, more or less the same obstacles to face each day, and practically the same set of mental capabilities for overcoming those obstacles and helping us make good use of our time.
What makes a person great is how much control they exert over their emotions. In other words, no one can control your emotions but you. If someone cuts you off on the highway, how do you react? You’re in control of your reaction, and that reaction causes a whole chain of events to take place within your body that will have a significant effect on the functioning of your metabolism.
If you curse and get mad, then your body will internalize this emotion and react accordingly. If you simply make adjustments in your driving, become more aware of your surroundings, and refrain from getting angry, then your metabolism, hormones, glands, and all the other systems in your body will have a greater capacity to function at peak levels.
The upshot of all this is that getting our metabolism to function at its best is a direct result of how well we control our emotions.
I’ll guarantee you that the healthiest people in the world realize this fact, and, regardless of whether they think about it actively or simply have it tucked away in their subconscious mind, they are living in a harmonious way and are in control of how they react to situations. They never allow a situation or another person to dictate their responses to the particular hand of cards that life deals out to them on any given day.
actually, what I consider to be one of today’s greatest detection is the fact that the human mind cannot entertain a negative thought at the same time that it’s focused on a thought that’s positive. The two just cannot coexist.
It’s up to you to select what thoughts you will allow yourself to concentrate on, each and every minute of each and every day.
2. Answer the following questions in your journal: What does your perfect body look like? How does it feel to be in the best shape you’ve ever been in (in your entire life)?
3. List what you will give up in return for achieving your goals.
4. What is your goal date, the date on which you intend to have achieved your ideal body?
5. Prepare, in writing, a detailed and carefully designed plan of action for achieving the body that you envision for yourself. Be sure your plan of action is both specific and achievable.
6. In a single paragraph, summarize the answers to all the questions given above. Make sure your summary is positive and expressed in the present tense. Get excited as you write it out. Remember: by following what I say, you will achieve the results you’re aiming for.
7. Read your summary out loud ten or more times in an excited, passionate, obsessive state of mind. Your mind is the key to all your emotions and the key to achieving all your goals. Keeping your mind in a positive state is vital to achieving anything worthwhile in life.
Day One.
In the first day of our weeklong goal-setting action taking the program, I want you to focus entirely on your emotional health. All you’ll have to do is study the emotions that you normally experience, and then focus on wiping out the negative ones and boosting the positive ones.You can help this process along by repeating an affirmation such as the following:
I am so happy weighing _____ pounds. I eat only healthful foods and drink lots of plain, freshwater. People comment about how great I look, and that makes me feel energized.
Emotions, you’ll recall, are the key to our hormonal responses, so when you repeat your affirmation, be sure to get excited about it. When we’re depressed, our hormones, glands, and related systems unite to keep us in a depressed state. On the other hand, a heightened enthusiasm for life does just the opposite, and that’s why it’s absolutely essential to the process of raising our metabolism.
A big part of achieving metabolic success is that of managing your own emotions. You can take active steps to turn all of your feelings into assets that will enhance your health, especially your metabolism. One of the best-kept secrets as to how you can master your emotions is the use of visualization.
The more clearly you can visualize yourself acting out and looking like that “person” you describe in your affirmations, the more excited you’ll become.
Whenever you repeat your affirmations, make a point of actually seeing yourself happy, weighing your goal weight and dressed in clothing that you think will flatter your physique. Most importantly, be sure to visualize other people remarking on how great you look and congratulating you on your new body, and then experience how good that feels.
Here’s an extremely important point:
You are in charge of every emotion you have this day (and night).
We humans all have equal access to everything the universe has to offer, and the resources we’ve been given in order to deal with people and events in our everyday life are about the same. We all have exactly the same amount of time in each day, more or less the same obstacles to face each day, and practically the same set of mental capabilities for overcoming those obstacles and helping us make good use of our time.
What makes a person great is how much control they exert over their emotions. In other words, no one can control your emotions but you. If someone cuts you off on the highway, how do you react? You’re in control of your reaction, and that reaction causes a whole chain of events to take place within your body that will have a significant effect on the functioning of your metabolism.
If you curse and get mad, then your body will internalize this emotion and react accordingly. If you simply make adjustments in your driving, become more aware of your surroundings, and refrain from getting angry, then your metabolism, hormones, glands, and all the other systems in your body will have a greater capacity to function at peak levels.
The upshot of all this is that getting our metabolism to function at its best is a direct result of how well we control our emotions.
I’ll guarantee you that the healthiest people in the world realize this fact, and, regardless of whether they think about it actively or simply have it tucked away in their subconscious mind, they are living in a harmonious way and are in control of how they react to situations. They never allow a situation or another person to dictate their responses to the particular hand of cards that life deals out to them on any given day.
Our Three-Pronged Approach
Emotional management may be made easier by a facile, three-pronged approach: a program of physical fitness, self-image development, and effective time management. And keep in esprit that it’s rather hard to maintain a negative feeling when your actions are positive.actually, what I consider to be one of today’s greatest detection is the fact that the human mind cannot entertain a negative thought at the same time that it’s focused on a thought that’s positive. The two just cannot coexist.
It’s up to you to select what thoughts you will allow yourself to concentrate on, each and every minute of each and every day.
Today’s assignment
1. Keep a journal with you all day long. In it, list every type of emotional experience you have. Next, to each emotion, you list, keep track of how long that emotion lasts and how many times you experience it in the course of the day.2. Answer the following questions in your journal: What does your perfect body look like? How does it feel to be in the best shape you’ve ever been in (in your entire life)?
3. List what you will give up in return for achieving your goals.
4. What is your goal date, the date on which you intend to have achieved your ideal body?
5. Prepare, in writing, a detailed and carefully designed plan of action for achieving the body that you envision for yourself. Be sure your plan of action is both specific and achievable.
6. In a single paragraph, summarize the answers to all the questions given above. Make sure your summary is positive and expressed in the present tense. Get excited as you write it out. Remember: by following what I say, you will achieve the results you’re aiming for.
7. Read your summary out loud ten or more times in an excited, passionate, obsessive state of mind. Your mind is the key to all your emotions and the key to achieving all your goals. Keeping your mind in a positive state is vital to achieving anything worthwhile in life.
It’s Time To Go On a Cleanse
Nothing that’s great can be built on a weak foundation. Building a strong health and fitness foundation starts with first cleaning out your digestive system.
day.
I realize that having that many bowel movements is far from the norm in our society and may seem rather strange or unusual, but not if you consider what the typical American lifestyle consists of: eating fast food, getting all stressed out, sleeping poorly, and getting little or no exercise. Thankfully, neither you nor I—nor anyone else who follows the program presented in this article—still lead this sort of life.
The vast majority of Americans move their bowels only a few times a week. That being the case, where the heck does all that built-up waste matter go? Well, it doesn’t go anywhere! It remains tightly compacted in your bowels, normally in the sigmoid colon, sometimes in what is called the cecum, and sometimes in little sacs called diverticula that are formed to hold solid waste products that accumulate.
That’s right, all that gunk remains stored in your bowels until you finally clean it out—that is, unless your body functions properly and your bowels regularly move after every meal.
(Ideally, a bowel movement will take place within sixty minutes after a meal.)
When this matter is allowed to remain in your system, health problems are imminent. Your bowels are forced to expand to store it, and your engorged bowels press against other internal organs in turn, thereby causing further health problems.
This solid waste matter builds up in the form of layers that are virtually “glued” to the walls of your digestive tract. The longer the waste is allowed to remain there, the more clogged the system becomes. In addition, this coating of dead material will slowly encrust the walls of your colon.
The problem is, for the rest of our lives we will be ingesting considerable amounts of environmental and digestive toxins (chemicals in our food, pollutants in the air, an occasional soft drink, toxins in our water supply, etc.)
that we must regularly eliminate from our bodies. Unless we properly excrete this stuff, not only will our metabolic system suffer, but the overall state of our health will decline.
By doing a thorough cleansing of your system, you will enable your metabolism and your digestive system to make full use of the nutrients available in the foods you eat, so that you’ll get more power from fewer calories. And therein lies the secret to permanent weight loss.
However, before you can benefit from a cleanse, you must get your bowels working. Here are a few simple techniques you can use to accomplish this, these are techniques that you’ll be responsible for performing today.
Right now, I want you to decide how often you’re going to go through that cleansing process. Will you cleanse your system once a week? Every two weeks? Every Sunday? Only once in a blue moon? Be specific in your planning, and be sure to write it down or it won’t get done.
More is better! In fact, you should consume a few extra glasses of water on days when you’re going through the cleansing process.
2. Start the day (today) by mixing the juice of one lemon with a glass of plain, fresh (preferably distilled) water. Consume this at least ten to thirty minutes before you consume anything else.
3. Once the requisite time has elapsed, you may consume any fruit or vegetable juice, just as long as you juice it yourself— bottled or canned fruit juices are not allowed.
4. You may wish to make a broth by placing some fresh, organic vegetables in distilled water and cooking them over low heat until the vegetables are soft.
5. Consume no fewer than three servings of fresh, raw, high-fiber vegetables (preferably organic) throughout the day, and have two or more servings of high-fiber fruits such as apples or figs as well.
6. The better the vegetables, the better the cleanse. Everyone has his or her favorites. List yours in your journal. But first, I want you to do some research on the health benefits of various vegetables. Find out which vegetables help certain ailments and which ones work best together. Get yourself one of the many good books that are available on vegetable juicing.
7. Now here’s the kicker. We want to stimulate our colon muscles to evacuate any built-up matter that it may be harboring. To make this, we’re going to utilize an herb that has many health benefits: cayenne.
This herb helps to strengthen the blood and the internal organs improve blood flow, and stimulates all the systems of the body, from the brain to the digestive system. Today’s goal will be to consume 1/4 teaspoonful of fresh cayenne powder in a bit of water or juice—and to repeat this every day. Once you get used to that serving size, gradually increase the amount to one full teaspoonful per day.
Cayenne will stimulate and help strengthen your bowels, cleaning them out and making them strong again.
Just a note of caution: cayenne is spicy hot, so you should notice a hot, tingling sensation when you consume it, but it’s very good for your health—so much so that you shouldn’t go for even a single day without drinking the prescribed cayenne solution.
And try to avoid substituting the cayenne capsules found in health food stores for the fresh cayenne powder that’s called for. We want this very healthful herb to actually touch every inch of our digestive tract, stimulating the walls of our intestines as it moves through our system.
Day Two.
Everyone needs to move their bowels at least twice a day, but your goal is to have as many bowel movements as the number of meals you eat in a day’s time. If you eat three meals a day, you should have three bowel movements a day. Eating six times per day (large or small meals) means six movements perday.
I realize that having that many bowel movements is far from the norm in our society and may seem rather strange or unusual, but not if you consider what the typical American lifestyle consists of: eating fast food, getting all stressed out, sleeping poorly, and getting little or no exercise. Thankfully, neither you nor I—nor anyone else who follows the program presented in this article—still lead this sort of life.
Here’s the scoop on bowel activity:RELATED: Why Losing Weight Is Hard >>>
The vast majority of Americans move their bowels only a few times a week. That being the case, where the heck does all that built-up waste matter go? Well, it doesn’t go anywhere! It remains tightly compacted in your bowels, normally in the sigmoid colon, sometimes in what is called the cecum, and sometimes in little sacs called diverticula that are formed to hold solid waste products that accumulate.
That’s right, all that gunk remains stored in your bowels until you finally clean it out—that is, unless your body functions properly and your bowels regularly move after every meal.
(Ideally, a bowel movement will take place within sixty minutes after a meal.)
When this matter is allowed to remain in your system, health problems are imminent. Your bowels are forced to expand to store it, and your engorged bowels press against other internal organs in turn, thereby causing further health problems.
This solid waste matter builds up in the form of layers that are virtually “glued” to the walls of your digestive tract. The longer the waste is allowed to remain there, the more clogged the system becomes. In addition, this coating of dead material will slowly encrust the walls of your colon.
The problem is, for the rest of our lives we will be ingesting considerable amounts of environmental and digestive toxins (chemicals in our food, pollutants in the air, an occasional soft drink, toxins in our water supply, etc.)
that we must regularly eliminate from our bodies. Unless we properly excrete this stuff, not only will our metabolic system suffer, but the overall state of our health will decline.
By doing a thorough cleansing of your system, you will enable your metabolism and your digestive system to make full use of the nutrients available in the foods you eat, so that you’ll get more power from fewer calories. And therein lies the secret to permanent weight loss.
However, before you can benefit from a cleanse, you must get your bowels working. Here are a few simple techniques you can use to accomplish this, these are techniques that you’ll be responsible for performing today.
The Solution To Buildup Of Solid Waste
I strongly recommend that you cleanse your entire digestive tract on a weekly basis—or every other week at the very least. Scraping away at the built-up matter and eventually flushing all of it away, thereby allowing your system to function as efficiently as possible. That process is very healthful, and it provides a great source of live enzymes and perfectly combined nutrients for your body and mind.Right now, I want you to decide how often you’re going to go through that cleansing process. Will you cleanse your system once a week? Every two weeks? Every Sunday? Only once in a blue moon? Be specific in your planning, and be sure to write it down or it won’t get done.
Today’s assignment
1. consuming no less than one cup of water per day for every fourteen pounds of body weight. Figure out how much water that comes to for a person of your weight, and then find a nice-looking container that holds at least that much. Commit to filling that container with water each morning and then drinking the contents throughout the day, each and every day. Start drinking that much water today.More is better! In fact, you should consume a few extra glasses of water on days when you’re going through the cleansing process.
2. Start the day (today) by mixing the juice of one lemon with a glass of plain, fresh (preferably distilled) water. Consume this at least ten to thirty minutes before you consume anything else.
3. Once the requisite time has elapsed, you may consume any fruit or vegetable juice, just as long as you juice it yourself— bottled or canned fruit juices are not allowed.
4. You may wish to make a broth by placing some fresh, organic vegetables in distilled water and cooking them over low heat until the vegetables are soft.
5. Consume no fewer than three servings of fresh, raw, high-fiber vegetables (preferably organic) throughout the day, and have two or more servings of high-fiber fruits such as apples or figs as well.
6. The better the vegetables, the better the cleanse. Everyone has his or her favorites. List yours in your journal. But first, I want you to do some research on the health benefits of various vegetables. Find out which vegetables help certain ailments and which ones work best together. Get yourself one of the many good books that are available on vegetable juicing.
This herb helps to strengthen the blood and the internal organs improve blood flow, and stimulates all the systems of the body, from the brain to the digestive system. Today’s goal will be to consume 1/4 teaspoonful of fresh cayenne powder in a bit of water or juice—and to repeat this every day. Once you get used to that serving size, gradually increase the amount to one full teaspoonful per day.
Cayenne will stimulate and help strengthen your bowels, cleaning them out and making them strong again.
Just a note of caution: cayenne is spicy hot, so you should notice a hot, tingling sensation when you consume it, but it’s very good for your health—so much so that you shouldn’t go for even a single day without drinking the prescribed cayenne solution.
And try to avoid substituting the cayenne capsules found in health food stores for the fresh cayenne powder that’s called for. We want this very healthful herb to actually touch every inch of our digestive tract, stimulating the walls of our intestines as it moves through our system.
Lighting Your Metabolic Fire
The focus has been threefold: to rev up your metabolic rate, to increase your fitness level, and to improve your physical and mental health. It’s now time to ignite the fire by improving your food choices.
I’ve tried to educate you and change your way of thinking about food. Hopefully, you can make appropriate alterations to the example diet and adapt it to your particular needs. If I’ve been successful in imparting to you a general sense of what works and what doesn’t, you should have enough information to determine the basic changes that need to be made.
Add the following eating program to the success you’ve already enjoyed on days one and two, and you’ll be well on your way to making a tremendous shift in your metabolism, your appearance, and your destiny.
The example diet was designed for a woman who weighs approximately 150 pounds and wishes to attain a much leaner, healthier, more vibrant body. If you weigh more than 150 or are male, you will need to increase your intake of protein and vegetables.
Women should consume an additional 50 calories for every 5 pounds of weight over 150. Men should add 500 calories (mainly from protein and vegetable sources) to the baseline calorie count, plus another 200 calories for every 25 pounds of weight over 175.
The baseline for phase one, diet #1 is 1868 calories, so a man who weighs 225 pounds at the start of this program would consume about 2768 calories on diet #1:
1868 + 500 + {200 ´ [(225 – 175) ¸ 25]}
= 2368 + {200 ´[50 ¸ 25]}
= 2368 + {200 ´ 2}
= 2368 + 400
= 2768
A woman who weighs 175 at the start of the program would consume about 2118 calories on diet #1:
1868 + {50 ´ [(175 – 150) ¸ 5]}
= 1868 + {50 ´ [25 ¸ 5]}
= 1868 + {50 ´ 5}
= 1868 + 250
= 2118
Phase one of the dieting program is to be followed for (tentatively) a period of sixty to ninety days; it consists of three separate diets, each of which will draw you closer to your goal in its own way.
Phase two is a maintenance diet, one that will help you maintain your new, hard-earned physique. Once you graduate from phase one to phase two, be sure to follow diet #2 (as laid out in this book) for two days each week; on the remaining five days of the week, you should make a point of eating food that’s
generally considered healthful.
Although the diets we’re talking about here were designed to be followed for longer than thirty days, your results will be dramatic—and will be realized in thirty days or less!
Remember, the diet itself is merely one piece of the overall success puzzle. To help you achieve the desired results as quickly as possible, the three phase-one diets were used in conjunction with the example exercise program that’s presented later in this article.
Diet #1 is to be strictly adhered to for a period of two days, then diet #2 for the next three days, and finally diet #3 for the last two days of a seven-day cycle, at which point the entire cycle is to be repeated. Alternating your diets like this is a powerful way to increase your metabolism. The two-day, three-day, two-day pattern presented in this article is designed to fully stimulate your metabolism, to maximum efficiency.
If you feel as though you’re burning too much fat too fast, however, you can use the following pattern instead: diet #1 for the first two days, then diet #2 for the next two days, and finally diet #3 for the last three days of a seven-day cycle, at which point this entire cycle is to be repeated. This cycling of nutrients and calories enables the metabolism to attain its peak fat-burning level.
One word of caution: water intake during a program like this cannot be allowed to fall below one gallon per day.
between the muscle and the skin.
Diet #2 is intended to deplete your muscles of both glycogen and water. Following this diet for three consecutive days will increase the rate at which your metabolism burns fat and decrease the sensitivity of your muscle cells to water, thereby causing them to release any stored water. Because of the lack
of carbohydrates (in particular, sugars) consumed on these days, you may experience one or more of the following:
· Tendency to be more temperamental than usual
· Slightly greater-than-usual weight loss (due to loss of water)
· Increase in perspiration
· Craving for sweets
· Increase in urination
Please be advised that these are normal retreat symptoms that may happen as a consequence of the small measure of sugar you’re consuming. As stated earlier, this program was specifically designed to rid your body of such harmful things as sugar, toxins, and excess fat deposits.
During the period when these undesirable substances are being eliminated (which usually occurs during the first fourteen days), you may consume a small piece of fruit (to deal with the effects of withdrawal from sugar) if you begin to feel lethargic or slightly dizzy.
· If you are hungry or feel the want and need for additional food, you may increase your consumption of the protein sources (chicken, turkey, egg whites, tuna, and fish) at any of the meals for phase one during the first two weeks, but by day 15 you must be 100 percent on target with your food consumption.
· Either ground turkey or sliced (the 98% fat-free type) may be substituted for chicken if you use it in the same quantity. Both chicken and turkey should be measured after cooking. Six ounces of meat is about the same size as two decks of playing cards.
· While on this diet, you are permitted to consume any type of fish other than carp, herring, mackerel, mullet, salmon, sardines, squid, and tuna steak.
· For purposes of this regimen, the term grilled meat indicates to any very lean red or white meat (turkey, beef, pork, or chicken). As long as you’re on this program, be sure that before you consume any type of meat, you remove all the skin and visible fat prior to cooking.
· For purposes of this diet, the term mixed salad refers to any combination of raw, non-starchy vegetables (one that’s devoid of starchy vegetables such as potatoes, avocados, and beans).
· Your may substitute a pure protein drink in place of chicken/turkey or eggs, provided you make the substitution according to the following formula: two scoops of protein powder mixed in water is equivalent to either 3 egg whites or 3 oz. of turkey or chicken. Be certain not to make this substitution at more than one meal on any given day.
For purposes of this article, a pure protein drink is one which contains at least 40 gm of protein and less than 5 gm of carbohydrates in each serving.
· Fish or sushi/sashimi may be substituted for tuna or chicken in this phase: 3 oz. of sushi is equivalent to 3 oz. of chicken or 1/2 of a 6-oz. can of tuna.
· A medium, plain baked potato may be substituted for 1/2 cup of rice. If you make this substitution, be certain to eliminate the skin from the potato prior to eating it.
· Rice should be measured prior to cooking.
· Vegetable quantities should be measured after cooking.
· Sweet that is both sodium-free and sugar-free may be eaten periodically throughout the day.
· For the first 2 weeks of the program, bagels, English muffins, and rice cakes can be considered interchangeable as long as you substitute one of them for another according to the following formula: two rice cakes are equivalent to either one whole English muffin or one medium bagel.
You should be aware of the possibility that this substitution will slightly retard your weight loss.
When preparing your repast, avoid utilizing any butter, oil, margarine, mayonnaise, prepared sauces, or salt. In place of these items, you may substitute any herb or herbal product (no salt or fat), and—for the first two weeks ONLY—you may use fat-free salad dressing, fat-free butter (*promise*), or fat-free mayonnaise (but there is a limit of one tablespoon per meal, total, for these last three ingredients).
· You may experience an increase in urination and/or defecation during this phase of the program. This is due, in part, to the precise cleansing effect that this particular combination of nutrition has on your digestive system, and in part to an increase in your metabolic rate.
· At some point during the first 10 days of this phase, you may experience a slight increase in intestinal gas. It's natural and normal; this is due to the elimination of the material previously accumulated in your system. The release of this matter is a mandatory step toward a fully functioning digestive system.
2. That’s it. You have enough on your plate for today. Just keep to the diets, make some notes in your journal, and commit to following this new way of eating for at least the next sixty to ninety days.
STOP HERE!
Don’t go any further unless you’ve completed every part of each of the previous assignments. This is not a race. It’s a training process for your metabolism, and it must be undertaken in a systematic way. Each day, do your exercises in full, make notes in your personal journal, and continue implementing and improving that day’s exercises for a period of thirty days (or as otherwise indicated).
As you get to each of the upcoming days (days four through seven), add that new day’s activities to your ongoing exercises from all the days prior to it.
Day Three.
On this day, day three, you’re going to start your food program. As promised, I’ve included an example of what your diet could look like. Obviously, every person is different.I’ve tried to educate you and change your way of thinking about food. Hopefully, you can make appropriate alterations to the example diet and adapt it to your particular needs. If I’ve been successful in imparting to you a general sense of what works and what doesn’t, you should have enough information to determine the basic changes that need to be made.
Add the following eating program to the success you’ve already enjoyed on days one and two, and you’ll be well on your way to making a tremendous shift in your metabolism, your appearance, and your destiny.
The example diet was designed for a woman who weighs approximately 150 pounds and wishes to attain a much leaner, healthier, more vibrant body. If you weigh more than 150 or are male, you will need to increase your intake of protein and vegetables.
Women should consume an additional 50 calories for every 5 pounds of weight over 150. Men should add 500 calories (mainly from protein and vegetable sources) to the baseline calorie count, plus another 200 calories for every 25 pounds of weight over 175.
The baseline for phase one, diet #1 is 1868 calories, so a man who weighs 225 pounds at the start of this program would consume about 2768 calories on diet #1:
1868 + 500 + {200 ´ [(225 – 175) ¸ 25]}
= 2368 + {200 ´[50 ¸ 25]}
= 2368 + {200 ´ 2}
= 2368 + 400
= 2768
A woman who weighs 175 at the start of the program would consume about 2118 calories on diet #1:
1868 + {50 ´ [(175 – 150) ¸ 5]}
= 1868 + {50 ´ [25 ¸ 5]}
= 1868 + {50 ´ 5}
= 1868 + 250
= 2118
Phase one of the dieting program is to be followed for (tentatively) a period of sixty to ninety days; it consists of three separate diets, each of which will draw you closer to your goal in its own way.
Phase two is a maintenance diet, one that will help you maintain your new, hard-earned physique. Once you graduate from phase one to phase two, be sure to follow diet #2 (as laid out in this book) for two days each week; on the remaining five days of the week, you should make a point of eating food that’s
generally considered healthful.
Although the diets we’re talking about here were designed to be followed for longer than thirty days, your results will be dramatic—and will be realized in thirty days or less!
Remember, the diet itself is merely one piece of the overall success puzzle. To help you achieve the desired results as quickly as possible, the three phase-one diets were used in conjunction with the example exercise program that’s presented later in this article.
Diet #1 is to be strictly adhered to for a period of two days, then diet #2 for the next three days, and finally diet #3 for the last two days of a seven-day cycle, at which point the entire cycle is to be repeated. Alternating your diets like this is a powerful way to increase your metabolism. The two-day, three-day, two-day pattern presented in this article is designed to fully stimulate your metabolism, to maximum efficiency.
If you feel as though you’re burning too much fat too fast, however, you can use the following pattern instead: diet #1 for the first two days, then diet #2 for the next two days, and finally diet #3 for the last three days of a seven-day cycle, at which point this entire cycle is to be repeated. This cycling of nutrients and calories enables the metabolism to attain its peak fat-burning level.
One word of caution: water intake during a program like this cannot be allowed to fall below one gallon per day.
Diet #1 was designed to help strip fat and water from the areaRELATED: How To Become Slim Without Exercise >>>
between the muscle and the skin.
Diet #2 is intended to deplete your muscles of both glycogen and water. Following this diet for three consecutive days will increase the rate at which your metabolism burns fat and decrease the sensitivity of your muscle cells to water, thereby causing them to release any stored water. Because of the lack
of carbohydrates (in particular, sugars) consumed on these days, you may experience one or more of the following:
· Tendency to be more temperamental than usual
· Slightly greater-than-usual weight loss (due to loss of water)
· Increase in perspiration
· Craving for sweets
· Increase in urination
Please be advised that these are normal retreat symptoms that may happen as a consequence of the small measure of sugar you’re consuming. As stated earlier, this program was specifically designed to rid your body of such harmful things as sugar, toxins, and excess fat deposits.
During the period when these undesirable substances are being eliminated (which usually occurs during the first fourteen days), you may consume a small piece of fruit (to deal with the effects of withdrawal from sugar) if you begin to feel lethargic or slightly dizzy.
Diet Notes
· If you are hungry or feel the want and need for additional food, you may increase your consumption of the protein sources (chicken, turkey, egg whites, tuna, and fish) at any of the meals for phase one during the first two weeks, but by day 15 you must be 100 percent on target with your food consumption.
· Either ground turkey or sliced (the 98% fat-free type) may be substituted for chicken if you use it in the same quantity. Both chicken and turkey should be measured after cooking. Six ounces of meat is about the same size as two decks of playing cards.
· While on this diet, you are permitted to consume any type of fish other than carp, herring, mackerel, mullet, salmon, sardines, squid, and tuna steak.
· For purposes of this regimen, the term grilled meat indicates to any very lean red or white meat (turkey, beef, pork, or chicken). As long as you’re on this program, be sure that before you consume any type of meat, you remove all the skin and visible fat prior to cooking.
· For purposes of this diet, the term mixed salad refers to any combination of raw, non-starchy vegetables (one that’s devoid of starchy vegetables such as potatoes, avocados, and beans).
· Your may substitute a pure protein drink in place of chicken/turkey or eggs, provided you make the substitution according to the following formula: two scoops of protein powder mixed in water is equivalent to either 3 egg whites or 3 oz. of turkey or chicken. Be certain not to make this substitution at more than one meal on any given day.
For purposes of this article, a pure protein drink is one which contains at least 40 gm of protein and less than 5 gm of carbohydrates in each serving.
· Fish or sushi/sashimi may be substituted for tuna or chicken in this phase: 3 oz. of sushi is equivalent to 3 oz. of chicken or 1/2 of a 6-oz. can of tuna.
· A medium, plain baked potato may be substituted for 1/2 cup of rice. If you make this substitution, be certain to eliminate the skin from the potato prior to eating it.
· Rice should be measured prior to cooking.
· Vegetable quantities should be measured after cooking.
· Sweet that is both sodium-free and sugar-free may be eaten periodically throughout the day.
· For the first 2 weeks of the program, bagels, English muffins, and rice cakes can be considered interchangeable as long as you substitute one of them for another according to the following formula: two rice cakes are equivalent to either one whole English muffin or one medium bagel.
When preparing your repast, avoid utilizing any butter, oil, margarine, mayonnaise, prepared sauces, or salt. In place of these items, you may substitute any herb or herbal product (no salt or fat), and—for the first two weeks ONLY—you may use fat-free salad dressing, fat-free butter (*promise*), or fat-free mayonnaise (but there is a limit of one tablespoon per meal, total, for these last three ingredients).
· You may experience an increase in urination and/or defecation during this phase of the program. This is due, in part, to the precise cleansing effect that this particular combination of nutrition has on your digestive system, and in part to an increase in your metabolic rate.
· At some point during the first 10 days of this phase, you may experience a slight increase in intestinal gas. It's natural and normal; this is due to the elimination of the material previously accumulated in your system. The release of this matter is a mandatory step toward a fully functioning digestive system.
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Today’s assignment
1. Spend time making slight modifications to the three example diets given above for phase one. Show them to your physician or your health-care professional if you wish, and then get started.2. That’s it. You have enough on your plate for today. Just keep to the diets, make some notes in your journal, and commit to following this new way of eating for at least the next sixty to ninety days.
STOP HERE!
Don’t go any further unless you’ve completed every part of each of the previous assignments. This is not a race. It’s a training process for your metabolism, and it must be undertaken in a systematic way. Each day, do your exercises in full, make notes in your personal journal, and continue implementing and improving that day’s exercises for a period of thirty days (or as otherwise indicated).
As you get to each of the upcoming days (days four through seven), add that new day’s activities to your ongoing exercises from all the days prior to it.
Add Octane To Your Cardiovascular Training
Congratulations! You’re one of a relatively small contingent of readers who have made it this far. Most people quit the article after the previous section. What your persistence demonstrates is that you’re one of those in that top 10 percent of the population who truly wants to improve their health and their appearance—and you will succeed! Now let’s maximize your metabolism by training your cardiovascular system.
Aerobic (cardiovascular) exercises are those that burn huge amounts of oxygen. Here are a few examples:
running
jogging
aerobics classes
spinning classes
power walking
indoor rock climbing
Exercises such as these place heavy demands on your heart and lungs; they are excellent methods for promoting cardiovascular fitness.
Cardiovascular exercise is also known to:
· Burn calories and help regulate appetite
· Lift your mood
· Relieve depression, boredom, fatigue, and stress
Regardless of the program you choose, I recommend that your entire exercise program include the following five elements:
1. Aerobic warm-up
2. Minor stretching
3. Aerobic and strength conditioning
4. Aerobic cool-down
5. Final, more-detailed stretching
Now not everyone will have the time for all five of these activities, but you should never miss your warm-up, or the actual aerobic and strength-training session, or your cool-down.
The stretching is very helpful, but for purposes of this program, the stretching is slightly less important than the cardiovascular part. However, you should not let more than thirty days go by without including a stretching component in your exercise routine.
The warm-up elevates the core temperature of your muscles, increases the pulse rate and blood flow throughout your body, and gets your body ready for exercise. Stretching prepares the body for exercise by improving the elasticity of the muscles, which helps to prevent injury.
The aerobic exercise you choose should be performed within your target heart range (THR). The simplest way to determine your THR is the following formula, which gives lower and upper bounds on the heart rate you should aim for:
(220 - your age) × by 0.70 = your lower bound
(220 - your age) × by 0.80 = your upper bound
Monitor your heart rate by using a heart-rate monitor strapped to your chest (this can be purchased for around $75 in any fitness store). Be certain to keep your heart rate within your goal heart range (THR) during your entire period of aerobic exercise (that is, keep it between the lower and upper bounds given by the above formula).
The cool-down is really just the opposite of the warm-up. The rate at which you exercise (and your heart rate) should slowly decrease during the cool-down, thereby allowing your body to eliminate harmful lactates and return to a normal temperature.
Now set some short-term goals, say weekly, for the amount of time you will spend on the actual aerobic-conditioning phase of your exercise routine. If you can perform only ten minutes’ worth of moderate cardiovascular exercise at this point, then setting a goal of working up to a thirty-minute exercise period within the next seven days is neither attainable nor safe.
Pushing yourself too hard will not increase your metabolism. What is needed for an increase in metabolism is persistent training (that is, being sure not to miss your scheduled training sessions). Increasing the length of your cardio session by, let’s say, five minutes on every third workout is a great goal—one that will constantly increase your metabolic rate—but stop increasing the length of your cardio workouts once you get up to sixty minutes.
As for the intensity of each of your training sessions, remember to monitor your heart rate so that you will always be in the correct fat-burning, metabolic-enhancing range. Whatever your level of aerobic/cardiovascular activity, select and write out your goals, then focus wholeheartedly on achieving those goals. And do it now.
2. Commit to keeping to the following schedule for the next
thirty days:
a.Five minutes of a general warm-up
b.Five minutes of light stretching
c. At least thirty minutes of aerobic conditioning (we’ll add your strength training tomorrow, on day five)
d.Ten minutes of a general cool-down
e.Ten minutes of light stretching
3. Never set a schedule without actually starting to follow it that very day! Start and complete your first aerobic session according to the schedule laid out above.
4. Write out a schedule of the exact times at which you will train each day for the next few days. In fact, you should get into the habit of writing out the next day’s schedule each night before you go to bed.
This is a good place to make a side note regarding your journal entries. You should be writing out your goals on a regular basis, either daily or weekly. The more you write and rewrite your goals, the more ingrained in your subconscious they will become. So make this a regular practice, and never miss a journal entry.
Day Four.
Your metabolic fitness includes both aerobic and strength-training elements that work together to produce total metabolic health. You simply cannot have the whole package without including physical training and a systematic, healthful diet.Aerobic (cardiovascular) exercises are those that burn huge amounts of oxygen. Here are a few examples:
running
jogging
aerobics classes
spinning classes
power walking
indoor rock climbing
Exercises such as these place heavy demands on your heart and lungs; they are excellent methods for promoting cardiovascular fitness.
Cardiovascular exercise is also known to:
· Burn calories and help regulate appetite
· Lift your mood
· Relieve depression, boredom, fatigue, and stress
Regardless of the program you choose, I recommend that your entire exercise program include the following five elements:
1. Aerobic warm-up
2. Minor stretching
3. Aerobic and strength conditioning
4. Aerobic cool-down
5. Final, more-detailed stretching
Now not everyone will have the time for all five of these activities, but you should never miss your warm-up, or the actual aerobic and strength-training session, or your cool-down.
RELATED: Walking And Losing Weight >>>
The stretching is very helpful, but for purposes of this program, the stretching is slightly less important than the cardiovascular part. However, you should not let more than thirty days go by without including a stretching component in your exercise routine.
The warm-up elevates the core temperature of your muscles, increases the pulse rate and blood flow throughout your body, and gets your body ready for exercise. Stretching prepares the body for exercise by improving the elasticity of the muscles, which helps to prevent injury.
The aerobic exercise you choose should be performed within your target heart range (THR). The simplest way to determine your THR is the following formula, which gives lower and upper bounds on the heart rate you should aim for:
(220 - your age) × by 0.70 = your lower bound
(220 - your age) × by 0.80 = your upper bound
Monitor your heart rate by using a heart-rate monitor strapped to your chest (this can be purchased for around $75 in any fitness store). Be certain to keep your heart rate within your goal heart range (THR) during your entire period of aerobic exercise (that is, keep it between the lower and upper bounds given by the above formula).
The cool-down is really just the opposite of the warm-up. The rate at which you exercise (and your heart rate) should slowly decrease during the cool-down, thereby allowing your body to eliminate harmful lactates and return to a normal temperature.
Now set some short-term goals, say weekly, for the amount of time you will spend on the actual aerobic-conditioning phase of your exercise routine. If you can perform only ten minutes’ worth of moderate cardiovascular exercise at this point, then setting a goal of working up to a thirty-minute exercise period within the next seven days is neither attainable nor safe.
Pushing yourself too hard will not increase your metabolism. What is needed for an increase in metabolism is persistent training (that is, being sure not to miss your scheduled training sessions). Increasing the length of your cardio session by, let’s say, five minutes on every third workout is a great goal—one that will constantly increase your metabolic rate—but stop increasing the length of your cardio workouts once you get up to sixty minutes.
As for the intensity of each of your training sessions, remember to monitor your heart rate so that you will always be in the correct fat-burning, metabolic-enhancing range. Whatever your level of aerobic/cardiovascular activity, select and write out your goals, then focus wholeheartedly on achieving those goals. And do it now.
Today’s assignment
1. Write out your cardiovascular goals (for example, to do some form of aerobic conditioning four times each week, for thirty minutes each time).2. Commit to keeping to the following schedule for the next
thirty days:
a.Five minutes of a general warm-up
b.Five minutes of light stretching
c. At least thirty minutes of aerobic conditioning (we’ll add your strength training tomorrow, on day five)
d.Ten minutes of a general cool-down
e.Ten minutes of light stretching
3. Never set a schedule without actually starting to follow it that very day! Start and complete your first aerobic session according to the schedule laid out above.
4. Write out a schedule of the exact times at which you will train each day for the next few days. In fact, you should get into the habit of writing out the next day’s schedule each night before you go to bed.
This is a good place to make a side note regarding your journal entries. You should be writing out your goals on a regular basis, either daily or weekly. The more you write and rewrite your goals, the more ingrained in your subconscious they will become. So make this a regular practice, and never miss a journal entry.
Building Dense, Well-Toned Muscles
The other half of the fitness equation is the development of muscle strength and endurance, what we’ll call strength training. Today, day five, you’ll begin to accelerate your progress tenfold, by incorporating strength training into your program.
Here are some common means of building muscle endurance:
free weights
exercise machines
push-ups, sit-ups, chin-ups
Of these three, my favorite is the use of free weights.
No matter what your goals are, free weights give you greater control over
your destiny. In the absence of free weights (dumbbells or barbells), you can resort to push-ups, sit-ups, etc.; however, your progress will be slower and harder to track.
One of the principal benefits of muscle conditioning is that muscles serve as the body’s motor, burning most of the energy it produces. Losing muscle density while continuing to take in the same amount of energy in the form of food has the undesirable outcome of causing you to put on weight in the form of fat.
When we reach our thirties, we begin to lose muscle mass, for a myriad of reasons. As we age, our basal metabolic rate decreases by about one-half of one percent per year. Thus, our overall metabolic rate will naturally start slowing as we get older unless we can increase our muscle density.
Keep in mind that every pound of muscle burns approximately fifty calories per day. Thus, for every pound of muscle you gain, you can eat fifty additional calories’ worth of food each day without gaining weight in the form of fat. Better yet, make your diet a bit more healthful and gain a few pounds of muscle density, and then see what happens.
What you will undoubtedly find is that you’ll have a rapid drop in body fat on account of your heightened metabolism! Obviously, the opposite is also true.
Lose a pound of muscle mass (and you’ll lose a lot of muscle mass if you don’t exercise regularly and properly), and you’ll have to cut back on your food intake by fifty or more calories a day in order to avoid gaining weight.
Traditionally, weight-loss science has taught that optimum metabolism can be achieved by balancing the sources of energy. In short, what goes in must equal what goes out. If the energy equivalent of the food you eat is more than the energy you burn, you’ll gain weight. If you burn more energy than the equivalent of what you ingest in the way of food, you’ll lose weight.
However, that’s not the whole story. There is also an adaptive effect of dieting:
the greater the number of times you restrict your calories for a prolonged period of time, the slower your metabolism becomes. The slower your metabolism, the more calories your body will store as body fat the next time you eat.
The preferable method to combat this natural tendency to save energy is to reset your metabolic rate with a comprehensive program of strength training and aerobic activity. A balanced fitness program will help you make permanent weight loss a part of your life.
It’s far more efficient to use exercise as a metabolic-boosting and fat-burning strategy for losing weight than it is to count on diet alone. In fact, we tend to burn off calories both during and after exercise. Strength-building exercises fire up our caloric “furnace” and raise our resting metabolic rate.
Weight training has the added effect of breaking down muscle tissue. In reality, you injure your muscle tissue when you lift weights, but if you rest the affected muscles and supply them with proper nutrients, they’ll automatically seek to maintain and protect themselves from further hurt by becoming stronger and more responsive.
This may sound like a harsh, masochistic approach to fitness, but it’s totally natural and very good for your health.
Your body adapts to the stress of weight training by repairing the injured muscle tissue and then stimulating the growth of new muscle tissue in order to overcome the additional workload. In essence, your muscles become stronger and denser to overcome the added stress.
Now don’t be alarmed. I know what you’re thinking: “It sounds as if I have to become a bodybuilder or at least benefit tons in the way of muscular size.” That’s not what muscle density means.
We discussed this earlier, but I feel compelled to review it now. Muscle density refers to the strength, health, and tightness of your muscles, while muscle size refers to their volume. You can greatly increase your muscle density without increasing your muscle size!
If your goal is to gain in muscular size, slight modifications can be made to this program to accomplish that goal, but this article is focused on gaining in muscle density, not size.
Since strength-building exercises exert stresses on your muscles, they require an increased flow of blood in order to carry on their strengthening and restorative processes. When gore is forced into your muscles during your weightlifting schedule, it helps speed up the repair process in your muscle tissues.
As they rebuild themselves, they become denser and stronger than they were before. That’s why it is so important for you to follow your strength-training regimen to the letter, and to combine that program with a good diet and proper rest.
Your normal routine might include a warm-up, followed by some squats, and then some pull-downs, bench presses, bicep curls, tricep push-downs, side laterals, incline sit-ups (or leg lifts), and finally a cardio regimen. Make sure you do your exercises in the proper order.
Typically, your personal trainer (if you’re lucky enough to have a good one) will recommend starting with a larger muscle group and working your way down to a smaller one. Always train your muscle groups in an organized, systematic fashion, and complete all the sets for each exercise (if you’re doing more than one) before going on to another exercise.
Once you establish a particular order in which to work your muscles, stick to that order (unless otherwise noted by your trainer) for thirty days before modifying it and adding variety.
The best exercise system for increasing your metabolism is to do 3 to 4 sets of eight to twelve reps each. In this system, you should choose a weight that can be lifted ONLY eight to twelve times (meaning that you are actually incapable of lifting the weight one more time after you reach the eighth or twelfth rep, respectively).
Then you should repeat the sequence two or three more times (that is, do two or three more sets), allowing just enough rest in between sets for you to
recover. Normally, your rest time between sets will be about thirty seconds.
This must occur if you are to continue to reap the benefits of the exercise in the form of denser, stronger muscles and an ever-increasing metabolism caused by those denser muscles. If you don’t increase your resistance from time to time, your program will still be beneficial, but you probably won’t develop the muscular density that you have set as your goal.
Progressively increasing your resistance is your key to muscle density and metabolic enhancement through anaerobic (weight) training. The progression principle requires that as soon as the weight you are lifting is no longer causing sufficient stress on your muscles, you must either increase your resistance or decrease your rest time between sets. That way, you’ll ensure that the workout continues to be a challenge for you.
Always exercise in proper form. The key to realizing the maximum metabolic benefit through weight training is found not in just doing an exercise—regardless of style or form—but in doing it correctly so that you’ll get the most out of every exercise you do.
Your practicing motions should be clean and fluid, and directly in line with the proper axis of the muscle being worked.
If you can possibly help it, you shouldn’t allow your line of exercise motion to stray. Instruction in how to perform any given exercise correctly can be obtained from a fitness coach or a personal trainer at a good health club.
In addition to lifting form, lifting speed is an important element that has a major effect on the flow of blood to your target muscles. And while you might think better results are to be realized from lifting weights at a faster pace, the opposite is actually true. Although fast lifting creates a certain momentum, it doesn’t promote optimal blood flow to the muscle, so it pays to slow down a bit.
Always listen to your body. If your body tells you there’s something that isn’t right, then stop the exercise immediately and rest for a few days before attempting that particular exercise again. But continue with all other aspects of your training and diet.
proceed.
The exercise routine presented in the table below is a sample of one that which was used by many people who had made tremendous progress and surpassed their goals. Not necessarily for you to follow but so that you can see what a well-structured routine looks like. Study it and then create your own routine, using the one given here as a skeleton to build upon and personalize for your particular level of experience.
2. Before your first workout, write out a clear and concise goal for what you want to achieve in the next thirty days of training. Then commit to never missing a workout. You might wish to use one of my favorite slogans: “miss your favorite television show, but never miss one of your training sessions.”
3. Have fun. This is not working. This is the way you scientifically and systematically reach your goals. The process can be fun, but you must force yourself to be persistent.
Day Five.
Muscle endurance is the capacity of muscles to apply a sub-maximal force repeatedly or to be exercised over an extended period of time.Here are some common means of building muscle endurance:
free weights
exercise machines
push-ups, sit-ups, chin-ups
Of these three, my favorite is the use of free weights.
No matter what your goals are, free weights give you greater control over
your destiny. In the absence of free weights (dumbbells or barbells), you can resort to push-ups, sit-ups, etc.; however, your progress will be slower and harder to track.
One of the principal benefits of muscle conditioning is that muscles serve as the body’s motor, burning most of the energy it produces. Losing muscle density while continuing to take in the same amount of energy in the form of food has the undesirable outcome of causing you to put on weight in the form of fat.
When we reach our thirties, we begin to lose muscle mass, for a myriad of reasons. As we age, our basal metabolic rate decreases by about one-half of one percent per year. Thus, our overall metabolic rate will naturally start slowing as we get older unless we can increase our muscle density.
RELATED: How to lose 14 pounds in 2 weeks >>>
Keep in mind that every pound of muscle burns approximately fifty calories per day. Thus, for every pound of muscle you gain, you can eat fifty additional calories’ worth of food each day without gaining weight in the form of fat. Better yet, make your diet a bit more healthful and gain a few pounds of muscle density, and then see what happens.
What you will undoubtedly find is that you’ll have a rapid drop in body fat on account of your heightened metabolism! Obviously, the opposite is also true.
Lose a pound of muscle mass (and you’ll lose a lot of muscle mass if you don’t exercise regularly and properly), and you’ll have to cut back on your food intake by fifty or more calories a day in order to avoid gaining weight.
Traditionally, weight-loss science has taught that optimum metabolism can be achieved by balancing the sources of energy. In short, what goes in must equal what goes out. If the energy equivalent of the food you eat is more than the energy you burn, you’ll gain weight. If you burn more energy than the equivalent of what you ingest in the way of food, you’ll lose weight.
However, that’s not the whole story. There is also an adaptive effect of dieting:
the greater the number of times you restrict your calories for a prolonged period of time, the slower your metabolism becomes. The slower your metabolism, the more calories your body will store as body fat the next time you eat.
The preferable method to combat this natural tendency to save energy is to reset your metabolic rate with a comprehensive program of strength training and aerobic activity. A balanced fitness program will help you make permanent weight loss a part of your life.
It’s far more efficient to use exercise as a metabolic-boosting and fat-burning strategy for losing weight than it is to count on diet alone. In fact, we tend to burn off calories both during and after exercise. Strength-building exercises fire up our caloric “furnace” and raise our resting metabolic rate.
Weight training has the added effect of breaking down muscle tissue. In reality, you injure your muscle tissue when you lift weights, but if you rest the affected muscles and supply them with proper nutrients, they’ll automatically seek to maintain and protect themselves from further hurt by becoming stronger and more responsive.
This may sound like a harsh, masochistic approach to fitness, but it’s totally natural and very good for your health.
Your body adapts to the stress of weight training by repairing the injured muscle tissue and then stimulating the growth of new muscle tissue in order to overcome the additional workload. In essence, your muscles become stronger and denser to overcome the added stress.
Now don’t be alarmed. I know what you’re thinking: “It sounds as if I have to become a bodybuilder or at least benefit tons in the way of muscular size.” That’s not what muscle density means.
We discussed this earlier, but I feel compelled to review it now. Muscle density refers to the strength, health, and tightness of your muscles, while muscle size refers to their volume. You can greatly increase your muscle density without increasing your muscle size!
If your goal is to gain in muscular size, slight modifications can be made to this program to accomplish that goal, but this article is focused on gaining in muscle density, not size.
Since strength-building exercises exert stresses on your muscles, they require an increased flow of blood in order to carry on their strengthening and restorative processes. When gore is forced into your muscles during your weightlifting schedule, it helps speed up the repair process in your muscle tissues.
As they rebuild themselves, they become denser and stronger than they were before. That’s why it is so important for you to follow your strength-training regimen to the letter, and to combine that program with a good diet and proper rest.
Your Strength-Training Routine
Always start out with an easy strength-training regimen, perhaps with a one-set, ten-rep program of eight to ten different exercises, two or three times a week.Your normal routine might include a warm-up, followed by some squats, and then some pull-downs, bench presses, bicep curls, tricep push-downs, side laterals, incline sit-ups (or leg lifts), and finally a cardio regimen. Make sure you do your exercises in the proper order.
Typically, your personal trainer (if you’re lucky enough to have a good one) will recommend starting with a larger muscle group and working your way down to a smaller one. Always train your muscle groups in an organized, systematic fashion, and complete all the sets for each exercise (if you’re doing more than one) before going on to another exercise.
Once you establish a particular order in which to work your muscles, stick to that order (unless otherwise noted by your trainer) for thirty days before modifying it and adding variety.
Exercise Sets
Just a refresher: A rep (short for “repetition”) is a single performance of one particular weight-lifting or exercise movement. An ensemble consists of the sum total of all the times that you engage in a particular movement in succession before taking a rest.The best exercise system for increasing your metabolism is to do 3 to 4 sets of eight to twelve reps each. In this system, you should choose a weight that can be lifted ONLY eight to twelve times (meaning that you are actually incapable of lifting the weight one more time after you reach the eighth or twelfth rep, respectively).
Then you should repeat the sequence two or three more times (that is, do two or three more sets), allowing just enough rest in between sets for you to
recover. Normally, your rest time between sets will be about thirty seconds.
The Secret Of Progressive Resistance
As muscles adapt to a particular level of resistance (for example, the amount of weight you lift or the amount of rest time between sets), you should gradually increase your resistance, either by increasing the amount of weight you lift or decreasing your rest period between sets.This must occur if you are to continue to reap the benefits of the exercise in the form of denser, stronger muscles and an ever-increasing metabolism caused by those denser muscles. If you don’t increase your resistance from time to time, your program will still be beneficial, but you probably won’t develop the muscular density that you have set as your goal.
Progressively increasing your resistance is your key to muscle density and metabolic enhancement through anaerobic (weight) training. The progression principle requires that as soon as the weight you are lifting is no longer causing sufficient stress on your muscles, you must either increase your resistance or decrease your rest time between sets. That way, you’ll ensure that the workout continues to be a challenge for you.
Always exercise in proper form. The key to realizing the maximum metabolic benefit through weight training is found not in just doing an exercise—regardless of style or form—but in doing it correctly so that you’ll get the most out of every exercise you do.
Your practicing motions should be clean and fluid, and directly in line with the proper axis of the muscle being worked.
If you can possibly help it, you shouldn’t allow your line of exercise motion to stray. Instruction in how to perform any given exercise correctly can be obtained from a fitness coach or a personal trainer at a good health club.
In addition to lifting form, lifting speed is an important element that has a major effect on the flow of blood to your target muscles. And while you might think better results are to be realized from lifting weights at a faster pace, the opposite is actually true. Although fast lifting creates a certain momentum, it doesn’t promote optimal blood flow to the muscle, so it pays to slow down a bit.
Always listen to your body. If your body tells you there’s something that isn’t right, then stop the exercise immediately and rest for a few days before attempting that particular exercise again. But continue with all other aspects of your training and diet.
The Next Thirty Days
Here you are! The next thirty days will change your life, forever! Have you been completing your daily activities and exercises so far? If not, stop here and make sure you’re on target up to this point. Then once you are, you mayproceed.
The exercise routine presented in the table below is a sample of one that which was used by many people who had made tremendous progress and surpassed their goals. Not necessarily for you to follow but so that you can see what a well-structured routine looks like. Study it and then create your own routine, using the one given here as a skeleton to build upon and personalize for your particular level of experience.
Today’s assignment
1. Review the exercise routine that’s laid out in the following table and make any modifications you see fit, but keep the general structure, such as the order of the exercises. You may even want to keep the exercises themselves.2. Before your first workout, write out a clear and concise goal for what you want to achieve in the next thirty days of training. Then commit to never missing a workout. You might wish to use one of my favorite slogans: “miss your favorite television show, but never miss one of your training sessions.”
3. Have fun. This is not working. This is the way you scientifically and systematically reach your goals. The process can be fun, but you must force yourself to be persistent.
Jumpstart Your Metabolism
Day Six.
We’ve already talked about the importance of a personal journal in helping you keep your eye on what’s going on in your program. But now we’re going to explain precisely how to build your goals by use of your journal. In the process of doing that, we’ll be planning your physical destiny.
I once heard a professional speaker named Zig Ziglar give an explanation of the importance of goals. I have used his approach to achieving goals many times, and I’d like to share it with you now.
Ziglar told of a world-famous archer who could hit the bull's eye using a bow and arrow nearly every time he attempted it. He went on to say that he could teach anyone to be more accurate with a bow and arrow, and even to hit the target more often on average—and closer to the center of the bulls-eye—than that expert archer could. The way Zig proposed to do this was to blindfold the archer, spin him around several times, and then give him no clue as to where the target was.
That may sound silly at first. How could this world-renowned archer possibly hit a target if he were blindfolded and dizzy? But it very astutely illustrates my point about setting goals: You cannot hit a goal you do not have. Setting goals is a vital part of many of our accomplishments.
In fact, I’d be willing to bet that you’ve never achieved anything worthwhile in life without first having set the attainment of that particular milestone as a goal. You may not have been aware that you were setting a goal. You may not have actually gotten your goal down on paper.
You may not even have thought of it as a goal, but you did desire to attain it, and so you subconsciously set that goal in your mind.
You may be able to speed up the achievement of your goals by following the formula given below, but only if you are persistent in your efforts.
2. Become highly passionate about attaining this goal.
3. Clearly write out your goal.
4. Write out a detailed “plan of action,” with monthly, weekly, and daily steps, and be persistent in following your plan.
5. About thirty times each day, think about how great it will be to have achieved this goal—in essence, become obsessed with its attainment.
6. Stay on top of your plan of action, and if you notice that it isn’t working, study the situation and then make changes to your plan to help improve upon it.
2. Write out a clear description of your goal. As you do this, you can follow an approach that’s similar to what you used in doing step #2 of today’s assignment, but you need to chisel down the description of your goal to a powerful two-to three-sentence statement that gets you focused and jazzed up just by reading it.
3. Neatly rewrite the description of your goal at the top of a clean page in your journal. A line or two below that, write the words “Plan of Action.” Now get very detailed, and write a list of everything you need to do to reach your goal.
Finally, write out exactly how you will achieve each of these “sub-goals.”
4. As I said before, you need to be flexible in your approach. Modify your plan if you figure that by modifying it you’ll be likely to reach your goal even sooner. But be careful: Study your plan and your potential modification carefully. Don’t rush into any changes to your plan. If you find yourself making frequent or rushed changes, then you know you’re just procrastinating—and ultimately setting yourself up for failure.
At this point, I’d like to include a brief discussion on being flexible. I prefer to illustrate my view of flexibility like this:
Picture a field with two trees in it, one of them large, about fifty feet tall, and strong looking; the other still young, only about ten feet tall, and relatively thin. If only one of these trees survives in a major windstorm, it won’t be the larger one, the one that refused to bend in the wind.
The tree that will survive is the younger, smaller one because it was flexible and let the wind bend it temporarily. Now, don’t get me wrong; I am very adamant about holding to my vision and my goals.
But the approach I take to reaching my goals, and the approach you take to reaching yours must be filled with desire, must be written out clearly, and must be flexible enough to be modified if necessary.
5. One additional element that’s absolutely essential in setting goals is a deadline. None of your goals will be reached on time if you have no deadlines! Whenever you set a deadline for yourself, be sure that it’s reasonable and attainable, but one that scares you a bit as well!
once.
The resting and playing I’m referring to here are to be physical in nature. This is your chance to rest your body and exercise your mind.
Yes, I know, you think you’ve been exercising your mind the whole time you’ve been reading this article and doing the exercises laid out herein. But now we’re going to put your mind through mental boot camp. We’re going to crank up the volume on your desire to attain your goal. And most importantly, we’ are going to set up an “achievement mindset” for you.
I told you that when you train with weights, rather than just doing aerobic exercises, your body responds by burning calories during your exercise routine as well as for a long time after you’re finished exercising for the day.
Well, now we’re going to program your mind so that it’s focused on achieving your goal even when you’re focused on your normal daily activities. Let’s think of this process as one of training your mind so well now that you can run it on autopilot later. Even when you’re not focused on achieving your goal, your mind will be drawing it into your life!
Okay. Enough explanation. This is a hard-core, “just-do-it” kind of exercise, so let’s move on to the daily assignment.
Now take that affirmation, and read it out loud at least a hundred times today. Do this in a place where no one can hear or see you! In fact, don’t tell anyone about this exercise, or even that you have a goal.
Let others see the results in full before you let them in on the existence of your goal or how you have accomplished it. Take several breaks from your normal day to day, and, with great excitement, repeat your success statement ten to twenty times. When you do this, make sure you’re visualizing yourself as having already achieved your goal.
This is very important, so I’ll say it again: when you repeat your success statement, make sure you are highly emotional about it (get excited) and be sure to visualize yourself as having already achieved your goal (see yourself in the shape you’re aiming for— and see yourself being congratulated by others).
2. Even when you’re not repeating your success statement, stay focused on the mental picture you have of yourself having already achieved your goal. At least four times today, take five to ten minutes to sit quietly in a room where
you won’t be disturbed; first relax, and then clearly visualize yourself having already achieved your goal. See the colors, hear the compliments of others, feel the clothes you have on, feel how great your new body feels.
Obtain as many of your reason involved as you can. I know this will take time out of your day, but it will make a dramatic impact on the speed with which you reach your goal. And the faster you reach your physical goal, the faster you can become more successful in all other areas of your life.
Remember, not being in healthy and in top shape holds you back in every aspect of your life. You may not understand that now, and that’s OK. Just take it on faith that once you’ve gotten into top shape physically, it will be a lot easier to achieve all your other goals—financial goals, relationship and family goals, business goals, etc.
3. At the end of your day, while lying in bed, repeat your success statement to yourself, again visualizing yourself as having achieved your goal (this time in a relaxed state of mind—don’t get excited or emotional). Do this over and over
until you fall asleep. Make this the last thing you think about as you drift off. This will help to deeply root your affirmation in your subconscious mind.
Actually, you aren’t quite finished yet! Remember that you are to use what you learned in this article (about yourself and about fitness) to continue these activities for a period of at least thirty days. Don’t stop doing any of the activities you’ve been engaged in during the past seven days. Indeed, don’t stop doing anything you’ve learned, regardless of where it’s presented in this article.
The exercises prescribed for this seven-day period were designed to simply get the ball rolling. It’s now your responsibility to keep it rolling. Your degree of success will be determined by the extent to which you keep moving forward, daily.
Here’s to your health!
You may not even have thought of it as a goal, but you did desire to attain it, and so you subconsciously set that goal in your mind.
You may be able to speed up the achievement of your goals by following the formula given below, but only if you are persistent in your efforts.
Your Formula For Success
1. Set a goal for yourself.2. Become highly passionate about attaining this goal.
3. Clearly write out your goal.
4. Write out a detailed “plan of action,” with monthly, weekly, and daily steps, and be persistent in following your plan.
5. About thirty times each day, think about how great it will be to have achieved this goal—in essence, become obsessed with its attainment.
6. Stay on top of your plan of action, and if you notice that it isn’t working, study the situation and then make changes to your plan to help improve upon it.
Today’s assignment
1. No goal can be properly set or achieved without a sufficiently strong desire for its attainment. Write out, in a special place in the front of your journal, exactly why you desire to achieve your goal. If you are really on track, you’ll get a bit emotional about it. If you don’t get emotional about your goal, then it’s not the right goal for you, and you probably won’t have enough desire to be persistent in trying to achieve it.2. Write out a clear description of your goal. As you do this, you can follow an approach that’s similar to what you used in doing step #2 of today’s assignment, but you need to chisel down the description of your goal to a powerful two-to three-sentence statement that gets you focused and jazzed up just by reading it.
3. Neatly rewrite the description of your goal at the top of a clean page in your journal. A line or two below that, write the words “Plan of Action.” Now get very detailed, and write a list of everything you need to do to reach your goal.
Finally, write out exactly how you will achieve each of these “sub-goals.”
4. As I said before, you need to be flexible in your approach. Modify your plan if you figure that by modifying it you’ll be likely to reach your goal even sooner. But be careful: Study your plan and your potential modification carefully. Don’t rush into any changes to your plan. If you find yourself making frequent or rushed changes, then you know you’re just procrastinating—and ultimately setting yourself up for failure.
At this point, I’d like to include a brief discussion on being flexible. I prefer to illustrate my view of flexibility like this:
Picture a field with two trees in it, one of them large, about fifty feet tall, and strong looking; the other still young, only about ten feet tall, and relatively thin. If only one of these trees survives in a major windstorm, it won’t be the larger one, the one that refused to bend in the wind.
The tree that will survive is the younger, smaller one because it was flexible and let the wind bend it temporarily. Now, don’t get me wrong; I am very adamant about holding to my vision and my goals.
But the approach I take to reaching my goals, and the approach you take to reaching yours must be filled with desire, must be written out clearly, and must be flexible enough to be modified if necessary.
5. One additional element that’s absolutely essential in setting goals is a deadline. None of your goals will be reached on time if you have no deadlines! Whenever you set a deadline for yourself, be sure that it’s reasonable and attainable, but one that scares you a bit as well!
Day Seven.
This is your day for rest and play. As you know, all work and no play makes Jack (and Jill) just as dull as can be. And though you should reward yourself once in a while, you’re on a mission right now and you want to keep up the momentum for the next thirty days without veering off course—not evenonce.
The resting and playing I’m referring to here are to be physical in nature. This is your chance to rest your body and exercise your mind.
Yes, I know, you think you’ve been exercising your mind the whole time you’ve been reading this article and doing the exercises laid out herein. But now we’re going to put your mind through mental boot camp. We’re going to crank up the volume on your desire to attain your goal. And most importantly, we’ are going to set up an “achievement mindset” for you.
I told you that when you train with weights, rather than just doing aerobic exercises, your body responds by burning calories during your exercise routine as well as for a long time after you’re finished exercising for the day.
Well, now we’re going to program your mind so that it’s focused on achieving your goal even when you’re focused on your normal daily activities. Let’s think of this process as one of training your mind so well now that you can run it on autopilot later. Even when you’re not focused on achieving your goal, your mind will be drawing it into your life!
Okay. Enough explanation. This is a hard-core, “just-do-it” kind of exercise, so let’s move on to the daily assignment.
Today’s assignment
1. You have already written a really good affirmation (the two-to three-sentence statement of your achieving your goal).Now take that affirmation, and read it out loud at least a hundred times today. Do this in a place where no one can hear or see you! In fact, don’t tell anyone about this exercise, or even that you have a goal.
Let others see the results in full before you let them in on the existence of your goal or how you have accomplished it. Take several breaks from your normal day to day, and, with great excitement, repeat your success statement ten to twenty times. When you do this, make sure you’re visualizing yourself as having already achieved your goal.
This is very important, so I’ll say it again: when you repeat your success statement, make sure you are highly emotional about it (get excited) and be sure to visualize yourself as having already achieved your goal (see yourself in the shape you’re aiming for— and see yourself being congratulated by others).
2. Even when you’re not repeating your success statement, stay focused on the mental picture you have of yourself having already achieved your goal. At least four times today, take five to ten minutes to sit quietly in a room where
you won’t be disturbed; first relax, and then clearly visualize yourself having already achieved your goal. See the colors, hear the compliments of others, feel the clothes you have on, feel how great your new body feels.
Obtain as many of your reason involved as you can. I know this will take time out of your day, but it will make a dramatic impact on the speed with which you reach your goal. And the faster you reach your physical goal, the faster you can become more successful in all other areas of your life.
Remember, not being in healthy and in top shape holds you back in every aspect of your life. You may not understand that now, and that’s OK. Just take it on faith that once you’ve gotten into top shape physically, it will be a lot easier to achieve all your other goals—financial goals, relationship and family goals, business goals, etc.
3. At the end of your day, while lying in bed, repeat your success statement to yourself, again visualizing yourself as having achieved your goal (this time in a relaxed state of mind—don’t get excited or emotional). Do this over and over
until you fall asleep. Make this the last thing you think about as you drift off. This will help to deeply root your affirmation in your subconscious mind.
That’s it! You’ve done it!
You’ve completed the most powerful Seven Days of Training that you could ever come across. And you’ve done it all on your own!Actually, you aren’t quite finished yet! Remember that you are to use what you learned in this article (about yourself and about fitness) to continue these activities for a period of at least thirty days. Don’t stop doing any of the activities you’ve been engaged in during the past seven days. Indeed, don’t stop doing anything you’ve learned, regardless of where it’s presented in this article.
The exercises prescribed for this seven-day period were designed to simply get the ball rolling. It’s now your responsibility to keep it rolling. Your degree of success will be determined by the extent to which you keep moving forward, daily.
Here’s to your health!
