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  This
is the start of a new year, 2004. I suggest that this year you stop
hopping from one new diet to another, that you stop wishing you
looked this way and felt that way, that you stop feeling guilty
if you binge once in a while. I suggest, instead, that you accept
the health challenges offered each month of this new year and that
you make a serious commitment to increase the amount of exercising
you do.
If you do this, I promise you will feel better and look better by
the end of 2004.
Our goal this year is quite basic: I want you to become more familiar
with different types of exercise and I want you to shift to a low-fat,
low-salt, low-sugar, low-animal-protein, high—complex-carbohydrate
diet. You'll find out why as the year progresses.
In advocating this approach to eating, I am joining with the doctors,
scientists and health experts who all agree that this is the healthiest
way to eat and the best therapy for weight loss, diabetes, heart
disease, cancer, arthritis and just plain wrinkles and bloat. Let
me explain specifically what I have done in this calendar: |
 Each
month I will focus on a different body part, giving exercises
that strengthen and tone those muscles and other exercises that
increase their flexibility. For January, concentrate on aerobics
and stretching. You should continue these exercises throughout
the year in addition to working on the specific muscle groups
that will follow. Remember that there is no such thing as "spot
reducing." If you want to lose fat you must do aerobic types
of activities that burn the fat stores from all over your body.
But in addition to burning up fat you should be building up and
toning muscle tissue. Muscles are an important factor in weight
loss.
Muscle tissue is an active tissue which metabolizes almost 90
percent of the calories we consume. In addition, muscle tissue
continues to burn calories even after you've stopped exercising.
Fat, on the other hand, is an inactive tissue. It burns few calories.
In other words, the more fat you burn up through aerobic exercise
and the more muscles you develop through repeated movements of
isolated muscle groups, the more you will metabolize (burn up)
the calories you consume. Most diets are actually counter-productive.
They slow down your metabolism and reduce muscle tissue. When
you go off the diet (I've never known anyone who could stick to
one) it's mainly fat you're putting on, not muscle, so you're
worse off than when you started. |
 A
great bonus of exercise is that it reduces your appetite: When
your blood-sugar level drops, you feel hungry. If you exercise
regularly/your blood-sugar level remains stable and there will
be less insulin in your blood because your muscles use proportionately
more fat than sugar as fuel. Insulin is what causes the blood-sugar
level to drop precipitously, thereby making you feel hungry .A
proper exercise program must include: •
Aerobics—for cardiovascular fitness and to burn calories
• Repetition—to promote muscle tone and strength,
and to burn calories
• Stretching—for increased flexibility |
  You
should exercise at least three times a week, but you will lose
weight much faster by doing your exercises four or five times
a week. Forty-five to sixty minutes a day is ideal but twenty
minutes is better than nothing.
If you have not been able to resist your favorite dessert or extra
piece of bread, don't feel guilty. Everybody needs to binge now
and again and being guilty about it will only make you more anxious
and more apt to continue on a binge. Instead, and I can't stress
this enough, just work out more strenuously the next day and you'll
burn off the extra calories.
Never
go for rapid weight loss. Your body will rebel sooner or later
and you'll just put the pounds back on—faster. Instead,
cut down a little on the amount you eat (say, 500 calories a
day)—especially salt, fat and sugar—and increase
your exercising. With this method your weight loss will be slow,
but sure and steady. You will be losing fat,increasing muscle
and developing a metabolism that, in time, will allow you to
eat more without gaining weight.
For the most part, I have not specified the exact length of
time or number of repetitions for each exercise and stretch.
It is up to you to gauge your limits. Start easy and increase
both your total time and number of repetitions each week.
Keep
track of the time spent exercising and the number of repetitions
you are doing. Jot the figures down on your calendar each day.
That way you can chart your progress. Try to work up a sweat,
feel your muscles working to their maximum and your pulse accelerating.
It
is important that you establish a steady, rhythmic tempo while
doing the exercises and that you rest as little as possible
between them. Also remember not to strain yourself. If at any
time you feel excessive pain, stop and find out what is wrong
before continuing..
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  Each
month I will ask you to accept a new health challenge. It may
not be possible to be 100 percent perfect, but 1 hope you'll
make a real effort to try to adjust your eating habits to these
new approaches. If you can do them 100 percent, all the better!
By the beginning of 2005, you'll wonder where you've been all
your life. I've included some favorite recipes that I've gathered
along the road to good health.
1. Eat only when you are really hungry.
2. Enjoy your food when you eat it.
3 . Don't eat absent-mindedly, or out of boredom.
4. Chew well so that the digestive enzymes can begin their work
before the food reaches the stomach.
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