Moss Tae Kwon Do

Your Diet Questions Answered!
By Leah McLaughlin (Fitness Magazine)

Question: “How do I figure out how many calories I should be eating?”

Answer: If you’re healthy and you exercise moderately two or three days a week, you can figure out your calorie intake by multiplying your ideal body weight (IBW) by 14. (If you’re trying to lose pounds, your IBW is your goal weight; for maintenance your IBW is your current weight.) For instance, if you weight 135 pounds and you want to maintain that, you need about 1,890 (135 x 14) calories per day. This is a very rough calculation; for a more accurate assessment, have your metabolic rate tested by fitness professional.

Question: “I always consume fewer than 1,500 calories a day, and I still can’t lose weight. Help!”

Answer: Compile a detailed food diary for at least a week. Most of us underestimate how many calories we consume, so it’s possible you’re eating more than you think you are. If the calorie count’s correct, the wrong exercise program could be to blame. If you’re not strength-training while you’re dieting, you may be losing lean tissue, and that cuts your metabolic rate. Most likely, though, you’ve just hit a plateau, which is a fancy way of saying your body has adjusted to your lower calorie intake. To bust out of it, you need to change your workout by exercising longer or more intensely. Cutting calories could also work, but it’s not advisable to consume fewer than 1,500 calories a day because it’s extremely difficult to fulfill all you nutrient needs.

www.fitnessmagazine.com is a great website for health advice. It has an interactive link to help you keep track of your calories (intake and output), as well as nutrient count. Check it out.

The Twelve Best Flat-Belly Foods
-From Fitness Magazine

•Chicken/Fish/Eggs:
Your body has to work harder to digest protein, so you’ll burn more calories just by eating it. Aim for 60-70 grams a day. (A three-ounce chicken breast has 27 grams, a five-ounce piece of tilapia provides 37 grams, and an egg delivers 7 grams.)

•Olive Oil/Walnuts/Avocado:
These foods contain monounsaturated fats, which help your body metabolize fat, especially from your midsection. You should consume at least 10 grams- about one tablespoon of olive oil or two tablespoons of peanut butter per day.

•Apples/Baked Sweet Potatoes/Hearty Whole-Wheat Bread:
The fiber in these foods (4 grams, 4grams and 5 grams, respectively) takes hours to digest, keeping you satisfied longer. Go for 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day.

•Chickpeas/Almonds:
They’re packed with fiber and protein- which means they both fill you up and help your body metabolize fat.

•Yogurt:
Not only is it rich in calcium, it’s also easy to digest and leaves your stomach quickly, so you won’t bloat. Look for a low-fat variety that’s also low in sugar.

By Mindy Graden (UBC Director)

Is anything on your to-do list really more important than your health?

•The house will never be clean enough
•There will always be another errand to run
•The grass will continue to grow
•You’re never have time to watch all of your favorite shows
•Everything you buy will need to be dusted, repaired, maintained or disposed of in some way

If we ever hope to reach our biggest goals (especially weight loss goals), we have to start making some tough choices. We have to start giving ourselves permission to ignore one thing- or several things- for the sake of something more important, our health. What can be more deserving of our time?

Obviously, there are some realities of living that require attention. We need to work, eat, sleep, and care for our families. Beyond that, though, everything is optional. The choices are completely yours. If you feel you don’t have time to pursue your healthy lifestyle goals, you can do something about it by making those though decisions.

It’s difficult to accept this idea. By now, we’re used to being pulled in 43 different directions. We’re uncomfortable with the idea that we may just have to let something slide. We get tunnel vision on the next task and lose sight of other people and what’s important. In a pursuit of happiness, that’s a futile strategy.

Someone smarter than me once said, “You can have everything. You just can’t have everything right now!” To reach your goals and live the life you want, it takes priorities and patience-the ability to choose between two competing wishes, and the willingness to set one aside for now and wait.

You can build the path that you want to walk on, and decide which steps to take. It’s important to you- to your health, you goals and your family-that you take some time to exercise and plan healthy meals. You should treat it that way and give yourself permission to take that time without feeling guilty. The irony is that by being healthy and taking time from your schedule, you’ll be able to take care of more of that “other” stuff in the long run.

Besides, is anything on your to-do list really more important than your health?

Nutrition + Exercise = Results
-UBC director

To achieve maximum fitness, both nutrition and exercise must go together. Many people do well sticking to their nutritional plan, but slack off on their workouts. Others love to exercise, but don’t watch what they eat. One without the other doesn’t add up.

Tips:
1. Track your intake: Studies show that those who track what they eat consistently lose more weight and maintain that weight loss far better than those who don’t. Tracking points in your UBC manual, or keeping some form of food log is crucial for success. Accountability to yourself!
2. Food Availability: We all have moments of vulnerability when we crave certain foods and can be tempted to eat (like late at night after seeing one of those diabolic pizza commercials!) If you know your favorite trigger foods are in the house, sooner or later you’ll eat them. Don’t keep unhealthy foods in your house.
3. Hydration: Drink lots of water. This helps satiate your appetite and helps your energy level.
4. Intensity: You must exercise with great intensity. With regular exercise we “condition” our bodies to be stronger and endure more. Once our muscles become conditioned to the demands we put on them, much less energy is required to repeat the same effort. So we must continually ask our muscles to do more than they want to do. When we push our muscles to the point of fatigue, the body not only grows stronger, but also begins burning unwanted fat for energy. Whether you are using resistance bands, free weights, or doing fitness kickboxing class, always try to push yourself to the highest level of exertion, even if only for a few seconds. Push yourself intensely for short intervals during the kickboxing classes. If you can do the repetitions with one band, move to the next color. Doing five difficult pushups on your toes is better than doing 20 easy ones on your knees. Remember, “You can do anything for 10 seconds”.

Water: hydration for health and weight loss
By Gay Poe (nutritionist and advisor for UBC)

What are the benefits of drinking more water? As a whole, we are made up of 70% water. Muscles that are hydrated look more toned because they are made of 70% water. Not drinking enough water is similar to depriving that less-than vibrant plant you water every few weeks. The plant will survive, but at what expense.

Other benefits to drinking water include:
• Helps digest food
• Lowers blood pressure
• Reduces constipation
• Lessens Asthma
• Eases Depression
• Metabolizes fat
• Supports healthy hair and nails
• Carries more blood and oxygen to your face
• Eases irritability
• Regulates body temperature so you don’t get too cold or too hot
• Suppresses appetite
• Prevents water retention
• Reduces stress

There are so many aches and pains that most people attribute to being old, sick or tired, when in all actually, it’s probably just a case of dehydration. What about those painful joints that we complain about? Water works as a lubricant. The two opposing surfaces (for example, the femur and the tibia at the knee) will glide freely and minimize friction damage, causing less pain.

Metabolism and You
By Gay Poe (nutritionist & UBC advisor)

1. Eat Whole Grains (especially Oats):
The B vitamins are the biggest contributors to the metabolism. Where are B vitamins located in grains? On the outside part of the grain so when you eat enriched grains, you aren’t getting any of the very necessary B Vitamins. Vitamin B will give you more energy and increased metabolism.
2. Eat berries, berries, berries:
Berries will rev up your metabolism and have a whole load of other health benefits.
3. Breakfast is the key:
You have to get your body out of ‘starvation’ mode and let it know that it’s going to consistently get fed or otherwise it’s going to start storing fat, not burning fat.
4. Strength training is as much a key to weight loss as kickboxing (cardio). By adding strength training to you workouts you increase you lean muscle and increase the size of you fat burning engine.
5. You have to eat within 45 minutes two hours after strength training.
6. You need to get sufficient sleep. If not, a hormone called Grehlin will become stimulated and this is the hormone that signals hunger. We don’t want that hormone! If you’ve reached a plateau, it’s most likely from the misinformation regarding nutrition.

Nutrition: 8 Rules to follow when it comes to making health food choices:

1. Focus on first 3-4 ingredients when reading labels: When reading a label, if the first 3-4 ingredients are enriched flour, sugar or high fructose corn syrup, don’t buy it.
2. Avoid refined sugar at all cost: White sugar and high fructose corn syrup have no nutritional value.
3. Avoid corn (for 10 weeks): Corn is what they feed pigs and cattle to fatten them up, AND, if they can make a syrup form corn, that tells you something!
4. Avoid white flour or enriched flour: These are empty calories with little-to-no nutritional value. Avoid it at all cost.
5. Count sugar grams: If something has more than 6 grams of sugar in a serving, don’t eat it.
6. Don’t be fooled by advertisers: Many food items like cereal, cereal bars and yogurt are advertised as healthy food choices, but in reality they aren’t. Too much sugar!
7. Don’t let fat-free fool you: If it says fat-free, they most likely added more sugar to make up for the loss of taste. Exceptions: cheeses and sour cream. Choose fat-free on these since no extra sugar is added when the fat is taken out.
8. Drink low-fat or skim milk: Whole milk has loads of saturated fat. Look at the sugar count on all milks; they can have up to 11 grams of sugar or more per serving. If you’re trying to lose weight, keep milk to a minimum until you’ve reached your goal.

DID YOU KNOW…..
Quick workouts strengthens you heart.

According to Fitness Magazine…
One of the best ways to shrink your time and waistline is to incorporate interval training into your cardio routine. During this kind of workout (where you push the intensity as close to your maximum), your muscles use more oxygen, increasing the amount of energy you spend. According to Shawn Dolan,ph.D.,R.D. a professor of kinesiology at California State University at Long Beach, “ In a 30-minute interval routine, you have the potential to burn a third more calories than you would just going at a steady pace.”
Interval training is also more effective at improving performance. Studies show that it increases both endurance and speed by improving the body’s ability to use oxygen. Short bursts of exercise improves the function and structure of blood vessels, making you and your heart stronger.

In Our FKB (Fitness Kickboxing Class): We integrate interval training throughout the workout. That is why our program is the strongest, most effective program in Nashville. It is scientifically designed to burn the most calories and get you in the best shape of your life. Check out our webpage at www.mosstaekwondo.com.