Choose Carbohydrates That Help Stabilize Your Blood Sugar

Maintaining a steady blood sugar level is not only important for your health, it's also a critical component in your effort to lose weight. While your body breaks down all digestible carbohydrates into blood sugar, some are converted into blood sugar faster than others. Thus, some carbohydrates cause a spike in your blood sugar level causing you to feel hungry faster and to crave more sugary foods. Other carbohydrates are converted into blood sugar more slowly, leveling out your blood sugar and resulting in less hunger and food cravings.

For this reason, the Glycemic Index (GI) was developed to classify how quickly
your body converts carbohydrates into blood sugar as opposed to pure glucose. Glucose has a GI of 100, and all other carbohydrate-based foods are ranked against it. Foods with a score of 70 or more are considered to as have a high GI, while those with a score of 55 or less are considered low.

Eating lots of food with a high GI causes spikes in your blood sugar level, which can lead to many health issues, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. Eating low GI foods causes your blood sugar level to stay steady thus keeping your energy level balanced and causing you to feel fuller longer between meals. The following are some additional benefits of eating low GI carbohydrates.

• Helps you to lose and manage weight your weight.

• Increases your body's sensitivity to insulin.

• Decreases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

• Reduces your risk of heart disease.

• Improves your blood cholesterol levels

• Reduces hunger and keeps you fuller longer.

• Helps you prolong physical activity.

• Helps you to refuel your carbohydrate stores after exercise.

You can get the GI rating of hundreds of carbohydrate-based foods from the Glycemic Index Foundation, sponsored by the University of Sydney in Australia. It maintains a searchable database of more than 1600 entries at www.glycemicindex.com.

The GI is interesting because some of the foods that you think would have a high rating actually do not. For instance, fructose, or fruit sugar has a minimal effect on blood sugar, while white bread and French-fried potatoes are converted to blood sugar nearly as fast as pure glucose. In other words, you can’t classify foods as having a high or low GI based on the sweetness of taste. Many factors affect a foods GI such as:

• Processing: Grains that have been milled and refined have a higher GI

• Type of starch: Starches come in many different configurations. Some are easier to break into sugar molecules than others. For example, starch in potatoes is digested and absorbed into the bloodstream relatively quickly.

• Fiber content: The sugars in fiber are linked in a way that is hard for your body to break down. Thus, the more fiber a food has, the less digestible carbohydrate, and consequently, the less sugar it can deliver into your blood stream.

• Fat and acid content: The more fat or acid a food contains, the slower its carbohydrates are converted to sugar and absorbed into your bloodstream.

• Physical form: Finely ground grain is more rapidly digested, and so has a higher GI than more coarsely ground grain.

The basic technique for eating the low GI way is simply a "this-for-that" approach:., swapping high GI carbohydrates for low GI carbohydrates. You don't need to count numbers or do any mental arithmetic to make sure you are eating a healthy, low GI diet. Follow these easy to implement suggestions.

• Use breakfast cereals based on oats, barley and bran

• Use breads with whole-grains, stone-ground flour, or sour dough

• Reduce the amount of potatoes you eat

• Enjoy all types of fruit and vegetables

• Use brown rice

• Enjoy whole-wheat pasta and noodles

• Eat plenty of salad vegetables with a vinaigrette dressing

As you see, it’s important to include the right kind of carbohydrates as part of your daily intake. I generally get about 40 percent of my daily caloric intake from low to medium glycemic index carbohydrates. I find that this amount gives me plenty of energy for all my daily activities. You’ll find that eating low to medium GI carbohydrates levels out your energy and keeps you from those high and low points throughout the day.

Building and maintaining your muscle mass is one of the most important things you can do for your health as you age, and regular strength training (weight lifting) is the most effective way to accomplish this.  If you are over the age of 40 I recommend that you begin weight lifting 2 to 3 times each week.  You can download some of my favorite strength training programs by clicking on this link: Forever Fit and Firm.

You are as Old as You Think

Daily I hear people attributing some ache or pain to "getting older", or I hear people saying such things as; "I'm beginning to look just like me parents". The mental image of aging they have is one of declining mental and physical health. So, they surely come to realize declining health and fitness in their lives as they age.

Your body is designed to be healthy and fit all of your life if given a positive mental outlook, proper nutrition, and regular exercise.  Do you know your body completely rebuilds itself every 11 months? That's right, each year every worn out cell is replaced by a new healthy cell. I believe your body gets it's plans for rebuilding from the mental image you hold of what "getting old" looks like to you.

By constantly holding an image of health and vitality in your mind your body will be rebuilt and maintained in a healthy and energetic pattern. I know this to be true for me. I'm in my 50s and I am as healthy, strong, and fit as I was in my 20s.  I hold an image of healthy aging in my mind and that's what I get.

I've been in the health and fitness industry for over 22 years now, and I know that the right mental attitude, regular exercise, and proper nutrition are the keys to staying healthy and fit as the years pass by.  And I also know "you are as old as you think you are" to be true.

 But the real secret to lifelong good health is actually the opposite: Let your body take care of you.
  -- Deepak Chopra

A regular strength training program is the most effective and proven way of building, and maintaining your muscle mass, and strength as you age.  Download my favorite strength training programs that I use with my clients by following this link: Forever Fit and Firm

 

Is the Source of Your Protein Complete or Incomplete?

When it comes to protein in your diet you should know the difference between a complete and an incomplete source.  Protein is a necessary part of every living cell in your body. Next to water, protein comprises the greatest portion of your body weight. Protein substances make up your muscles, ligaments, tendons, organs, glands, nails, hair, and many vital body fluids. It is essential for growth, repair, and healing of your bones, tissues, and cells. So, you can see the proper amount of protein in your diet is vital for your health and well-being.

Protein is comprised of building-blocks called amino acids. There are approximately twenty-eight commonly know amino acids that your body uses to create all the various combinations of proteins needed for survival. These commonly known amino acids are further classified as essential and nonessential amino acids. Nonessential amino acids can be produced in your body, while essential amino acids cannot be produced in your body and must be obtained from the foods you eat.

The sources of protein in your diet are classified as complete or incomplete. Complete proteins contain all the essential amino acids and are mostly from animal sources such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy products. Incomplete proteins lack one or more essential amino acids that your body cannot make itself. Incomplete protein usually come from plant based sources such as fruits, vegetables, grains, and nuts. you must eat incomplete sources of protein in a combination that contains all the essential amino acids in order for your body to use them.

As I mentioned, you must get your essential amino acids from your diet because body cannot make them itself. Some of the best animal sources are fish, poultry, lean cuts of meat, and low-fat dairy products. Some of the best vegetable sources are beans, nuts, and whole grains.

Strength training combined with getting the proper amount of protein in your diet is the most effective way of building and maintaining your muscle and strength throughout your life. Checkout my favorite strength training programs by following this link: Forever Fit and Firm.

A Basic Knowledge of Carbohydrates is Important When Trying to Lose Weight

This is the time of the year when it seems that everyone in the world is trying to lose weight.  The popularity of the high-protein, and  low-carbohydrate diets has probably led you to believe that carbohydrates are “bad” for you. Just reading the hype in the media would make you think that carbohydrates are the cause of the obesity epidemic throughout the world.  However, carbohydrates are an essential part of your diet and as with all things balance and moderation is key.

Eating a lot of easily- digested carbohydrates from white bread, white rice, pastries, sugared sodas, and other highly processed foods may contribute to your weight gain, and therefore, interfere with your efforts to lose weight. On the contrary, consuming whole grains, beans, fruits, vegetables, and other intact carbohydrates promotes good health. As I mentioned before, a healthy diet is about balance and moderation. A basic knowledge of what carbohydrates are and how you body uses them is essential to understanding how to balance them in your diet.

Carbohydrates are essential nutrients that are excellent sources of energy (measured as calories) for your body; they are the preferred fuel for your brain and nervous system. Carbohydrates are found in an array of foods such as bread, beans, milk, popcorn, potatoes, cookies, spaghetti, soft drinks, corn, and desserts. The most common and abundant forms are classified as sugars, fibers, and starches.

The basic building block of every carbohydrate is a sugar molecule, a simple union of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Starches and fibers forms of carbohydrates are essentially chains of sugar molecules, some containing hundreds.

As mentioned above, most carbohydrates come from plant sources and are in the form of sugars, starches, and fibers. Sugars, also called simple carbohydrates, include fruit sugar (fructose), corn or grape sugar (dextrose or glucose), and table sugar (sucrose). Starches, also known as complex carbohydrates, include everything made of three or more linked sugars. Starches include foods such as breads, cereals, grains, pasta, rice, and flour. Fibers are technically classified as a starch because they are complex carbohydrates that your body cannot breakdown into sugar molecules. Fibers are more abundant in whole grains, legumes, and vegetables.

Your body breaks down all carbohydrates, except for fibers, into single sugar molecules regardless of their source. These simple sugars are further converted into glucose, also known as blood sugar. Your body is designed to use blood sugar as a universal source of fuel for energy.

Fiber is the form of carbohydrate that your body cannot break down into simple sugar molecules. It passes through your body undigested. Fiber comes in two varieties: soluble, which dissolves in water, and insoluble, which does not. Although neither type provides energy for your body, they both promote health in many ways. Soluble fiber binds to fatty substances in your intestines and carries them out as waste, thus lowering your low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or bad cholesterol). It also helps regulate your body’s use of sugars, helping you to keep your hunger and blood sugar in check. Insoluble fiber helps push food through your intestinal tract, promoting regularity and helping to prevent constipation.

Here’s what happens when you eat a food containing carbohydrates. Your digestive system breaks down the digestible ones into sugar, which then enters your blood. As your blood sugar level rises, specials cells in your pancreas churn out insulin, a hormone that signals your cells to absorb the blood sugar for energy or for storage. As your cells soak-up the blood sugar, its level in your bloodstream begins to fall. Now, your pancreas starts making another hormone called glucagon, which signals your liver to start releasing stored blood sugar. This interplay of insulin and glucagon ensures that cells throughout your body have a steady supply of blood sugar. 

So, you see carbohydrates are a very important source of energy for your body. The key to long-term weight loss is to balance the carbohydrates, protein, and fat in your diet to promote optimal lean muscle tissue which in turn, increases your metabolism causing you to burn more calories 24 hours a day.

Checkout my downloadable strength training routines at Forever Fit and Firm.

Keeping Healthy Muscle is as Important as Losing Weight

I want you to realize the importance of developing and maintaining muscle mass as you age.  Many of the degenerative conditions once thought to be a result of growing old can be directly associated with inactivity and the loss of muscle mass.  Below is a very informative excerpt on this subject by Dr. Donald K. Layman, one of the most respected experts on nutrition and human metabolism of our day.

Muscle size and strength are usually associated with body builders and athletes, but the latest research is proving that healthy muscles are critical for adult health. Average life expectancy continues to increase, but along with the blessing of longer life comes the risk of age-related diseases. The risks for obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease, and cancers increase with advancing age. Excluding individuals who die early in life from an accident, injury or acute illness, we all expect to live healthy and robust lives well into our 80’s or beyond. For adults over the age of 65, the real risks for loss of health relate to muscle function and mobility. The measure of functional mobility is defined as the ability to perform activities of daily living or ADL. ADL is a measure of independent living and directly predicts morbidity and mortality – how healthy will you be? … and how long will you live?

A few years ago, a colleague, Dr. Robert Wolfe, wrote an article entitled The Underappreciate Role of Muscle in Health and Disease. The article highlighted the importance of skeletal muscle in adult health. Dr. Wolfe looked at healthy aging, acute illnesses, chronic diseases, and recovery from surgery or falls and the common factor for recovery and even survival from each of these conditions was skeletal muscle health. If your muscles are healthy, then your odds of avoiding or recovering from illnesses improve greatly. Dr. Wolfe reported some eye-opening facts – women over the age of 65 who fall and break a hip, over 50% never walk again; recovery from cancer and chemotherapy is directly related to muscle mass at initial diagnosis; and risk of developing diabetes is inversely related to muscle metabolic health. Dr. Steve Blair at the Cooper Institute coined the concept of Fit and Fat to reflect that many people can be overweight and still healthy – as long as they have good muscle health. The list of examples goes on but the point is clear, healthy muscles equal healthy adults.

The importance of muscle health highlights a critical difference among weight loss diets. There are many fad diets and so-called nutrition companies that make claims about rapid weight loss or cures for obesity, but the secret they want to hide is they also cause muscle loss. That’s a critical factor when you evaluate a weight loss program. People tend to ask “how much weight can I lose in the shortest period of time?” These quick fix fad diets may work for spring break when you’re 18 to 22, but it’s a dangerous practice for any adult over 30. The correct questions are “is it a proven weight loss program, and what are the proportions of fat and muscle lost?” Be sure that the so-called miracle diet PROVES that it only causes loss of body fat and not muscle. Loss of muscle means you have damaged your metabolic flexibility and your functional mobility and virtually guaranteed the weight will return (note: research shows 93% of weight is regained within one year with these fad diets); and even worse the weight that returns will be all body fat increasing the risk for diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis. If you lose muscle during weight loss, the muscle loss will be permanent increasing your metabolic risks and accelerating aging.

Muscle health is so important that medical experts in gerontology are debating whether adults over 60 should EVER lose weight. Skeletal muscles have obvious importance for posture and mobility. When we’re young our muscles are strong and flexible. The same is true for metabolism. Young muscles have high metabolic flexibility. Teenagers seldom get muscle soreness and usually recover rapidly after an exercise challenge. As we get older, we observe changes in physical strength and flexibility, and there are changes in metabolic flexibility that we can’t see. As we get older, muscle health and metabolic flexibility requires more attention.

Strength training and getting the proper amount of protein in your diet are the two most effective ways of developing and maintaining muscle mass as you age.  Checkout my favorite strength training programs from Beginners to Advanced levels at Forever Fit and Firm.

The Importance of a Balanced Breakfast

The importance of eating a properly balanced breakfast cannot be over-stated when it comes to building muscle and burning body fat.  Studies show that consuming 25 to 30 grams of high quality protein at each meal is necessary to stimulate protein synthesis (the repair and building of muscle tissue), and this is especially true at breakfast.  Below is an excerpt on the importance of a balanced breakfast from Dr. Donald K. Layman, one of the top nutritional experts of today.

The importance of breakfast is a principle of nutrition taught to children. If you want to perform well in school you need a good breakfast, and children who skip breakfast often have low energy, poor attention, and reduced performance. The problem was low blood sugar. Nutritionists thought the solution was eating carbohydrates. This led to breakfasts that were high carbohydrate and low protein such as cereal and OJ or even donuts and pastries. Carbs became a staple for the American breakfast.

As the science of nutrition evolved we learned more about how the body uses protein, carbohydrates and fats, and our concepts about meals changed. We now know that the best way to stabilize blood sugar for children – and adults – is eating fewer carbs and more protein. Carbohydrates can give you a quick burst of energy, they but also lead to a big insulin response that causes a drop in blood sugar in about two hours. This drop in blood sugar saps your energy and leads to snacking. If you’re young, exercise daily, and have normal body weight, you may be able to tolerate a higher carbohydrate diet and snacks, but for most adults, high-carb breakfasts and snacks lead to weight gain and unwanted body fat.It’s time for a new breakfast.

When you wake up, it’s likely you have been without food for about 12 hours. Your body is burning fat – which is great – but also breaking down your lean tissues including muscle and bone. What you eat at the first meal determines how your body burns fat and protects itself for the rest of the day. Breakfast determines your metabolic pattern. If the first meal is high in carbs and low in protein, the rush of insulin shifts your body from burning fats to storing fat and even converting the carbs you eat into new fat. Lack of adequate protein at breakfast also leaves your body breaking down lean tissues. The ideal breakfast contains protein, carbohydrate, and fat with the balance of protein and carbs being the critical parts.

Getting the proper amount of protein in your diet combined with strength training is the most effective approach to staying strong and fit as you age.  Checkout my complete line of strength training programs at Forever Fit and Firm.

Squats, One of the Best Exercises for Overall Strength

If you've read any of my posts you know how passionate I am about strength training.  It is the most effective form of exercise for maintaining your muscle mass and strength as you age. In that light, I want to share some of my favorite exercises with you that I do to stay fit and strong as I age.

A properly executed squat is one of the best exercises you can do for overall strength and conditioning.  Using the Smith Machine is a big aid in helping you perform squats correctly.  First, place the bar a little lower than shoulder height.  Next, position yourself under the bar, twist to unlock it and place the bar on top of your shoulders.  Now, place your feet in front of you about six inches, a little wider than shoulder width apart. This is your start position.  Lift your chest, and keep your chin high.  Now, squat by leading with your butt until your thighs are parallel to the floor, then return to the start position.  Be careful not to round your lower back and that your knees do not extend over your toes anytime doing this exercise. (For the first few times, it’s best to have someone observe you from the side to make sure you are doing this exercise correctly).  Your breathing pattern is to inhale on the way down and exhale on the way up on this exercise.  Use a resistance with which you can do 10 to 12 repetitions of which the last 3 repetitions are difficult to complete with proper form.

You can download my complete strength training routines by clicking on this link: Forever Fit and Firm.