I was going to talk this time on nutrition but came across this article by Suzanne Dixon MPH, MS, RS. Suzanne is an internationally recognised expert in nutrition, chronic disease, cancer, health and wellness as well as the Executive Editor of Nutrition Intelligence Report, a free natural health and nutrition newsletter.
I thought as the whole reason for us being together here is cancer related and this article relates to nutrition it would be of benifit. I hope you find it useful.
In the world of medical fears, few things rank as high as cancer. For many people, a cancer diagnosis challenges their view of themselves as a “healthy person.” Fortunately, many cancers are curable. You can survive cancer and be healthy.
Cancer Biology 101
A basic understanding of how cancer develops can help you take advantage of what nutrition has to offer. Food can and should be a part of your plan for reducing the risk of cancer, and the risk of getting cancer again if you’ve already had it.
There are three basic steps to cancer development. Obviously, the process is very complicated at the cellular level. But the three-step model explains the most important changes that lead to cancer. These three steps represent some of the best opportunities for preventing cancer from developing at all.
Don’t Be Initiated Into This Club
The first step in cancer development is called “initiation.” One of the most common causes of initiation is free radical damage. Free radicals, which also go by the name oxidants, cause cell damage. Have you ever really thought about antioxidants? What is an oxidant? And why are we anti or against oxidants?
Oxidants cause oxidation, which is damaging to DNA – the instructions that tell cells what to do when. To wrap your head around oxidation, think of rusting.
Rusting is oxidation in the environment. Metal rusts and it no longer functions as it should. This same process happens in the body. We don’t exactly rust, but we do experience the same type of oxidation damage in our bodies.
This is where nutrition comes in. Vegetables, fruit, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds – plant foods – are loaded with antioxidants. And not just the common antioxidants we all know and love. Beyond vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta-carotene are hundreds, even thousands of antioxidants in plant foods.
It’s these thousands of antioxidants that work together to prevent oxidation in our bodies. In this very direct way, antioxidants in food prevent initiation. This is one of the ways by which plant foods are believed to reduce cancer risk.
But even with this plant protection, a few cells in our bodies are likely to be damaged or “initiated.” The key to preventing cancer development also lies with the next step, called “promotion.”
One Promotion You Don’t Want
The second step of the cancer development process, called promotion, doesn’t happen to just any cell. It happens to cells that already are initiated. We know plant foods limit the number of initiated cells, but what happens to the few cells that slip through the cracks?
Ideally, if a cell becomes damaged, it goes through a programmed cell death. This prevents it from multiplying and creating more damaged cells. However, for cells that are initiated, but don’t die, promotion, or step 2 can occur.
In promotion, damaged cells ignore the chemical messages of the normal cells around them. The damaged cell might be getting ready to multiply and grow. The normal cells in the neighborhood send chemical messages to prevent this. These messages say, “stop, wait, don’t go there.” Promotion allows damaged cells to tune out the “stop” messages.
Here’s where plant foods come to the rescue again. Among the thousands of nutrients found in plants are many that can help damaged cells hear the messages. These nutrients can, quite literally, act as little messengers. They make damaged cells sit up and take notice.
Dark purple and red foods seem to be especially adept at improving cellular communication. Think blackberries, blueberries, dark red cherries, grape juice, and red wine. Soy foods, such as tofu and tempeh, often touted for their possible effects on regulating female hormones such as estrogen, have some anti-promotion tricks up their sleeves as well.
And promotion is reversible. It’s one of the only parts of cancer development that can actually be turned back! Plant foods can help a “deaf” cell hear again. In a sense, this can help a damaged cell become closer to normal.
Stop This Progress If You Can
This brings us to “progression,” the third step in cancer development. In progression, damaged cells take the communication problem one step further. Now, these cells not only ignore messages. They begin to create their own messages. They try to influence the cells around them. It’s like negative peer pressure.
This is the damaged cells’ attempt to get normal cells to cooperate so they can grow and spread beyond the original site of cancer. This step is a key to metastasis – when cancer cells spread to distant parts of the body. This is important because it’s only after cancer cells have spread that treating cancer becomes so difficult.
You guessed it. Plant foods have a role to play in blocking progression too. Just as the thousands of naturally occurring phytonutrients in plants help damaged cells hear, they also help block unhealthy messages from damaged cells.
Many plant nutrients can act as roadblocks of a sort. They make it harder for damaged cells to influence the cells around them to misbehave too. Several nutrients have been studied for their effects on preventing or slowing progression.
Resveratrol, found in red wine and grape juice; lycopene, found in cooked tomatoes, watermelon, and pink grapefruit; and quercetin found in apples, tea, and onions all seem particularly well-suited for minimizing cancer cells’ ability to go through the progression phase of cancer development.
Putting Plants To Work For You
Knowing that plants contain nutrients that can slow down and impede the cancer process is pretty motivating. Every time you put a healthy plant food on your plate, you’ll feel good knowing you’re giving your body the tools to keep cancer at bay.
And it doesn’t hurt that these same foods help prevent other diseases as well. For preventing heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, arthritis, you name it … plants in the diet are nothing but helpful.
Every chance you get, throw in a plant food. You’ll be on your way to better health.
Blueberries on your oatmeal? Check. Apple with lunch? Check. Nuts in your afternoon yogurt? Check. Carrots and hummus as a snack while fixing dinner? Check. A heaping pile of veggies with dinner? Green leafies on your sandwich? Check.
The options are endless. The choice is up to you.
By Suzanne Dixon on 03/12/2010
Friday, 26 March 2010
Monday, 15 March 2010
Health and Breathing – The Benefit of Aerobic Exercise
To have more than you’ve got, become more than you are.
Jim Rohn
Just before I get into this discussion I would like to update you all on my training and fund raising efforts. The end of February I did my first 20 mile run and by the time I post this entry I will have completed a second. My Achilles injury has been healing really well and I am confident that it will clear up completely over the next few weeks. I continue to work on my running style so that I get the most from the run, it is difficult to fight against the embedded notion that you must work hard in order to become fit and improve your health when in fact all you are really doing is seeing how much suffering you can take before deciding it’s not worth it!! Not being one for suffering I will allow my body to tell me what’s right for me and enjoy the experience of every step I take right up to the finish line.
The really good news is that we have raised just over £400 with the promise of a further £500 so that is taking the pressure off a little. All the money donated will go to Children with Leukaemia in the names of work colleagues and friends who have died in service: they are Joe McVeigh, Hughie Workman, Vic Sproule and Malcolm Dawson, all good decent folks and it is a real honour to be able to pay tribute to them in such a meaningful way – I would like to thank their families for making this possible.
We still have a way to go and every penny counts so if you would like to lend your support you can do so at: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LLA2010. The money you donate will be put to use in saving human life, I cannot think of a more worthy endeavour. You can always contact me directly at liam.bolger@gmail.com
Thank you for your support and I hope you are getting something from our discussions here so let’s get into it.
Have you ever watched a baby breathe their belly rising and falling rhythmically and with no apparent conscious effort on their part everything natural just as it was intended. Then watch an adult and you will notice the breath goes to the chest and is much less pronounced in terms of movement to that of the baby. I believe this shallow breathing to be the cause of many illnesses and in today’s information age you won’t find it difficult to uncover research that supports my view.
An understanding of the difference between health and fitness is critical if we are to gain the maximum benefit from the exercise we do.
Fitness can be defined as a measure of physical performance such as how fast you can run a mile or a marathon or how many push-ups you can do.
Health is different in that it has to do with how well the various systems of the body function and it is our aim to ensure that the way in which we exercise benefits us in terms of both health and fitness. Nutrition and emotional state are also key in maintaining good health but for now we are concerned with breathing and movement. In order to understand more clearly the importance of what I am sharing with you here we are going to look at Lymph, what it does, how it works and then we will look at function of the Capillaries.
Lymph
Lymph is concerned with how effectively your body carries away the toxins produced as the body tries to protect itself from damage by foreign materials. If you have ever cut yourself where you haven’t actually bled such as a paper cut or perhaps a puncture and you see a clear liquid oozing from the cut that will be Lymph. Your entire body is soaked in lymph and there is a whole lymph vessel system that is just as complex as your blood vessels. Every human has a heat, arteries, veins, blood vessels and ultimately capillaries. You have just as many lymph vessels and capillaries as you have blood vessels and capillaries.
Capillaries flow past cells but do not actually connect to them. What happens is that the clear, watery blood plasma containing the oxygen, proteins, glucose and white blood cells "leaks" out through the capillary walls and flows around all the cells. The pores in the capillaries are too small to let red blood cells through and that is why lymph is clear rather than red. It is through the lymph that the cells receive their nutrients and oxygen.
Somehow, all of this lymph has to end up somewhere, so it is recirculated. The lymph capillaries and vessels pick up the lymph fluid and start pumping it away from the cells. Lymph in the lymph vessels eventually reaches a lymph node, there are about 100 nodes scattered throughout the body. Lymph nodes filter the lymph and also contain large numbers of white blood cells (a big part of the immune system), which remove foreign cells and debris from the lymph. When you get certain infections, the lymph nodes swell with billions of white blood cells working to clear the foreign cells causing the infection. The filtered lymph then flows back into the blood stream at certain points.
Here is the really important part, lymph vessels do not have an active pump like the heart. Instead, lymph vessels have one-way valves and it is muscle and respiratory motion that pumps the lymph and that is why movement and deep breathing to the belly, just as a baby does, is so important, it gets the lymph moving keeping the cells healthy.
Capillaries
The capillaries are where all of the important exchanges happen in the circulatory system. The capillaries are a single cell in diameter to aid fast and easy diffusion of gases, sugars and other nutrients to surrounding tissues.
Functions of capillaries
Capillaries have no smooth muscle surrounding them and have a diameter less than that of red blood cells; a red blood cell is typically 7 micrometers outside diameter, capillaries typically 5 micrometers inside diameter. The red blood cells must distort in order to pass through the capillaries. These small diameters of the capillaries provide a relatively large surface area for the exchange of gases and nutrients.
What capillaries do:
• In the lungs, carbon dioxide is exchanged for oxygen
• In the tissues, oxygen and carbon dioxide and nutrients and wastes are
exchanged
• In the kidneys, wastes are released to be eliminated from the body
• In the intestine, nutrients are picked up, and wastes released
The diameter of the capillaries both blood and lymph almost belies their importance, they are the givers and maintainers of life to our cells. Exercise is necessary to dilate the capillaries allowing them to feed our bodies tissues and to remove waste, lack of exercise and inactivity literally dries up the capillaries leaving cells reliant upon them vulnerable.
More recent research has shown thirty minutes walking a day to be more effective in the treatment of depression than prescription drugs. Disease (dis-ease) is a body not at ease and there is no better means of promoting emotional and physical health than through regular Gentle exercise so begin today, adopt the habit of breathing low to the belly holding it in and releasing it gently. Do this as often throughout the day as you can, if it helps count how long you breathe in for, hold it in for twice that time and exhale four times as long as it took to inhale but just make sure it is comfortable for you, do not stress your breathing doing this.
Exercise is to be enjoyed not endured so be gentle with your self and allow your body to dictate the pace. Know the good you are doing, start off slow and allow yourself to build up naturally there is nothing to be gained in forcing your body into a state of dis-ease. Breath deeply, take time to appreciate the world around you and most of all live in a state of gratitude - every day above ground is a great day!
Well that’s it for this entry I hope you have found it to be useful, we will speak again soon.
Until then,
Live out Loud
Liam
Jim Rohn
Just before I get into this discussion I would like to update you all on my training and fund raising efforts. The end of February I did my first 20 mile run and by the time I post this entry I will have completed a second. My Achilles injury has been healing really well and I am confident that it will clear up completely over the next few weeks. I continue to work on my running style so that I get the most from the run, it is difficult to fight against the embedded notion that you must work hard in order to become fit and improve your health when in fact all you are really doing is seeing how much suffering you can take before deciding it’s not worth it!! Not being one for suffering I will allow my body to tell me what’s right for me and enjoy the experience of every step I take right up to the finish line.
The really good news is that we have raised just over £400 with the promise of a further £500 so that is taking the pressure off a little. All the money donated will go to Children with Leukaemia in the names of work colleagues and friends who have died in service: they are Joe McVeigh, Hughie Workman, Vic Sproule and Malcolm Dawson, all good decent folks and it is a real honour to be able to pay tribute to them in such a meaningful way – I would like to thank their families for making this possible.
We still have a way to go and every penny counts so if you would like to lend your support you can do so at: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LLA2010. The money you donate will be put to use in saving human life, I cannot think of a more worthy endeavour. You can always contact me directly at liam.bolger@gmail.com
Thank you for your support and I hope you are getting something from our discussions here so let’s get into it.
Have you ever watched a baby breathe their belly rising and falling rhythmically and with no apparent conscious effort on their part everything natural just as it was intended. Then watch an adult and you will notice the breath goes to the chest and is much less pronounced in terms of movement to that of the baby. I believe this shallow breathing to be the cause of many illnesses and in today’s information age you won’t find it difficult to uncover research that supports my view.
An understanding of the difference between health and fitness is critical if we are to gain the maximum benefit from the exercise we do.
Fitness can be defined as a measure of physical performance such as how fast you can run a mile or a marathon or how many push-ups you can do.
Health is different in that it has to do with how well the various systems of the body function and it is our aim to ensure that the way in which we exercise benefits us in terms of both health and fitness. Nutrition and emotional state are also key in maintaining good health but for now we are concerned with breathing and movement. In order to understand more clearly the importance of what I am sharing with you here we are going to look at Lymph, what it does, how it works and then we will look at function of the Capillaries.
Lymph
Lymph is concerned with how effectively your body carries away the toxins produced as the body tries to protect itself from damage by foreign materials. If you have ever cut yourself where you haven’t actually bled such as a paper cut or perhaps a puncture and you see a clear liquid oozing from the cut that will be Lymph. Your entire body is soaked in lymph and there is a whole lymph vessel system that is just as complex as your blood vessels. Every human has a heat, arteries, veins, blood vessels and ultimately capillaries. You have just as many lymph vessels and capillaries as you have blood vessels and capillaries.
Capillaries flow past cells but do not actually connect to them. What happens is that the clear, watery blood plasma containing the oxygen, proteins, glucose and white blood cells "leaks" out through the capillary walls and flows around all the cells. The pores in the capillaries are too small to let red blood cells through and that is why lymph is clear rather than red. It is through the lymph that the cells receive their nutrients and oxygen.
Somehow, all of this lymph has to end up somewhere, so it is recirculated. The lymph capillaries and vessels pick up the lymph fluid and start pumping it away from the cells. Lymph in the lymph vessels eventually reaches a lymph node, there are about 100 nodes scattered throughout the body. Lymph nodes filter the lymph and also contain large numbers of white blood cells (a big part of the immune system), which remove foreign cells and debris from the lymph. When you get certain infections, the lymph nodes swell with billions of white blood cells working to clear the foreign cells causing the infection. The filtered lymph then flows back into the blood stream at certain points.
Here is the really important part, lymph vessels do not have an active pump like the heart. Instead, lymph vessels have one-way valves and it is muscle and respiratory motion that pumps the lymph and that is why movement and deep breathing to the belly, just as a baby does, is so important, it gets the lymph moving keeping the cells healthy.
Capillaries
The capillaries are where all of the important exchanges happen in the circulatory system. The capillaries are a single cell in diameter to aid fast and easy diffusion of gases, sugars and other nutrients to surrounding tissues.
Functions of capillaries
Capillaries have no smooth muscle surrounding them and have a diameter less than that of red blood cells; a red blood cell is typically 7 micrometers outside diameter, capillaries typically 5 micrometers inside diameter. The red blood cells must distort in order to pass through the capillaries. These small diameters of the capillaries provide a relatively large surface area for the exchange of gases and nutrients.
What capillaries do:
• In the lungs, carbon dioxide is exchanged for oxygen
• In the tissues, oxygen and carbon dioxide and nutrients and wastes are
exchanged
• In the kidneys, wastes are released to be eliminated from the body
• In the intestine, nutrients are picked up, and wastes released
The diameter of the capillaries both blood and lymph almost belies their importance, they are the givers and maintainers of life to our cells. Exercise is necessary to dilate the capillaries allowing them to feed our bodies tissues and to remove waste, lack of exercise and inactivity literally dries up the capillaries leaving cells reliant upon them vulnerable.
More recent research has shown thirty minutes walking a day to be more effective in the treatment of depression than prescription drugs. Disease (dis-ease) is a body not at ease and there is no better means of promoting emotional and physical health than through regular Gentle exercise so begin today, adopt the habit of breathing low to the belly holding it in and releasing it gently. Do this as often throughout the day as you can, if it helps count how long you breathe in for, hold it in for twice that time and exhale four times as long as it took to inhale but just make sure it is comfortable for you, do not stress your breathing doing this.
Exercise is to be enjoyed not endured so be gentle with your self and allow your body to dictate the pace. Know the good you are doing, start off slow and allow yourself to build up naturally there is nothing to be gained in forcing your body into a state of dis-ease. Breath deeply, take time to appreciate the world around you and most of all live in a state of gratitude - every day above ground is a great day!
Well that’s it for this entry I hope you have found it to be useful, we will speak again soon.
Until then,
Live out Loud
Liam
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Burning The Fat
“There is no passion to be found in playing small – in settling for a life that is less than what you are capable of living”. Nelson Mandela
We spoke last time about the difficulties we sometimes face in deciding what we really want and sticking with until we achieve the desired outcome and how these problems are linked to the image we hold of ourselves. Hopefully you have internalised what we spoke about last time and have a solid foundation on which to start building the dream.
As the title of this entry suggests we are going to look at burning fat and I will share with you the most effective means of doing just that. I said in my first entry that we would not be discussing ‘dieting’ or ‘losing’ as the former suggests being deprived of something and the latter causes us to search for what we perceive we have lost, either scenario is unlikely to result in success. Instead we will hold an image of ourselves that is both believable and desirable and we will commence working toward that image so let’s get started.
The Lessons after the Experience!
I started running late 2004 just coming up to my 44th birthday, I hadn’t run in earnest since my school days which came to an end on or just around my 15th birthday and my first attempt was not a great experience!! I ran about 200 yards down one side of the park opposite where I lived at the time and I was spent, I couldn’t breathe and I was exhausted; up until May that year I had been a 30 to 40 a day smoker and it showed!! I could walk for miles and not think about it but was totally taken aback by how ‘unfit’ I was.
I was not prepared for running, I did not understand the dynamics or mechanics, was not prepared mentally or physically and did not have the appropriate attire and I suffered for my ignorance. My first relief came through a discussion with a work colleague and seasoned runner Charlie or Droz as we like to call him. At this stage I was running about 5 or 6 months and badly it has to be said!! Charlie took me under his wing and arranged to take me for a run, it was the first time I ever ran six miles and was a massive experience and huge lesson to me. Up to this particular point running was torture to me although I stuck with it as I knew that it was the only likely form of exercise I would ever undertake (the gym or swimming were not for me) but it did not bring any great pleasure.
We set out at a pace much slower than I was accustom to, I was a fully paid up member of the ‘no pain no gain’ school as are so many others and was rarely disappointed particularly on the pain side of that equation but this felt great. I did the six miles much to my surprise and enjoyment albeit I was still tired and needed a lay down later that afternoon – never told Charlie that with him being ex army and all.
Being a student of human potential this one event fanned a spark into a flame and true to form I had to know how much more was possible which was very timely as the damage I had done through not knowing was about to manifest itself by way of shin splints and the next 13 to 14 months was to prove torturous, without the flame I think I would have abandon running during this period.
When I did get back on my feet and started to cover greater and greater distances, I am talking the difference between 6 and 12 miles here, but was not a believer that I would actually ever participate in a marathon which I viewed as the greatest of mass human events on the planet that was reserved for true athletes although I will admit I may have been momentarily intrigued by the possibility. Perhaps the primary reason for my lack of belief was fatigue, my recovery rate was by now good but I would always feel tired and as soon as I hit resistance by way of the smallest of inclines my energy would be drained – I had not yet discovered the sources of energy we are discussing here. I guess like most things we have to have the experience first and then seek out the lesson and I did just that!
The Energy Store
You may be looking at this and saying ‘hey Liam I just want to get fit I’m not that concerned with reducing fat’ well that’s great if you are because what I am talking about is fat as an energy source and what I am about to reveal to you is the best of both worlds – a sure fired way to reduce fat whilst getting fit and all without the pain. So how do we do this? Well let’s look at our make up in terms of calories.
The average person will have approximately 165,000 calories of which 2,500 calories are sugar, 23,000 are protein and the remaining134,500 are from fat. The 2,500 from sugar we will refer to as the high octane energy source and the 134,500 from fat as the candle source.
Sugar based fuel is the choice of ‘fight or flight’, it is used when there is a sense of urgency and it provides for a quick anaerobic burst of energy the kind sprinters would require or we would use to flee danger. Dependency on this fuel source will not aid you in distance, it will make you more tired more quickly and is more likely to cause you to produce fat than reduce it. Exercise produce fat well how can that be?
It’s to do with acidity, not all people you see that are overweight are that way because they eat too much, or that they are lazy in fact many of them will tell you they eat moderately and exercise but it all seems to go to the waist or hips and working out doesn’t seem to shift it. This is a topic that deserves a discussion on its own and I have one planned for just for that but for the purpose of this entry it is enough to note that the body’s defence against acid is fat and sugar converts to acid. The other element at play here is that you only have 2,500 calories at your disposal, not much when you look at the energy provided by fat.
As ‘fight or flight’ triggers sugar burn the opposite is true of fat burn, slow and calm is what is required here and this is the realm of aerobic exercise. For fat burn breathing and awareness of your body and the world that surrounds you is king.
This is where you create energy not expend it; this is the home of production.
Having 134,500 calories available to you is what takes you the distance, it is your ultimate source of energy. When you tap into this source you are releasing energy the kind that keeps you going throughout the day without feeling you could do with a nap in the afternoon. The most common causes of fatigue is a high sugar based diet with an over reliance on caffeine and if, as I did, you combine this with anaerobic exercise you will be working hard to stand still or even worse you may do your body more harm than you would by doing nothing in the first place.
We are going to talk more about this later but for now get out there either walking or running and take it slow. Stick with your breathing low to the belly is best just like a baby breathes and give some thought to what crosses your lips – no harm to consider that both in and out. Just as importantly work on the image of you already in possession of your goal and try and spend time doing this daily. I could write volumes on this but we have enough to be getting on with, anyway it is about quality not quantity so I will stop here.
Next time we will look some more at the benefits of aerobic exercise and the impact it has on all your vital organs.
Until then,
Live out Loud
Liam
We spoke last time about the difficulties we sometimes face in deciding what we really want and sticking with until we achieve the desired outcome and how these problems are linked to the image we hold of ourselves. Hopefully you have internalised what we spoke about last time and have a solid foundation on which to start building the dream.
As the title of this entry suggests we are going to look at burning fat and I will share with you the most effective means of doing just that. I said in my first entry that we would not be discussing ‘dieting’ or ‘losing’ as the former suggests being deprived of something and the latter causes us to search for what we perceive we have lost, either scenario is unlikely to result in success. Instead we will hold an image of ourselves that is both believable and desirable and we will commence working toward that image so let’s get started.
The Lessons after the Experience!
I started running late 2004 just coming up to my 44th birthday, I hadn’t run in earnest since my school days which came to an end on or just around my 15th birthday and my first attempt was not a great experience!! I ran about 200 yards down one side of the park opposite where I lived at the time and I was spent, I couldn’t breathe and I was exhausted; up until May that year I had been a 30 to 40 a day smoker and it showed!! I could walk for miles and not think about it but was totally taken aback by how ‘unfit’ I was.
I was not prepared for running, I did not understand the dynamics or mechanics, was not prepared mentally or physically and did not have the appropriate attire and I suffered for my ignorance. My first relief came through a discussion with a work colleague and seasoned runner Charlie or Droz as we like to call him. At this stage I was running about 5 or 6 months and badly it has to be said!! Charlie took me under his wing and arranged to take me for a run, it was the first time I ever ran six miles and was a massive experience and huge lesson to me. Up to this particular point running was torture to me although I stuck with it as I knew that it was the only likely form of exercise I would ever undertake (the gym or swimming were not for me) but it did not bring any great pleasure.
We set out at a pace much slower than I was accustom to, I was a fully paid up member of the ‘no pain no gain’ school as are so many others and was rarely disappointed particularly on the pain side of that equation but this felt great. I did the six miles much to my surprise and enjoyment albeit I was still tired and needed a lay down later that afternoon – never told Charlie that with him being ex army and all.
Being a student of human potential this one event fanned a spark into a flame and true to form I had to know how much more was possible which was very timely as the damage I had done through not knowing was about to manifest itself by way of shin splints and the next 13 to 14 months was to prove torturous, without the flame I think I would have abandon running during this period.
When I did get back on my feet and started to cover greater and greater distances, I am talking the difference between 6 and 12 miles here, but was not a believer that I would actually ever participate in a marathon which I viewed as the greatest of mass human events on the planet that was reserved for true athletes although I will admit I may have been momentarily intrigued by the possibility. Perhaps the primary reason for my lack of belief was fatigue, my recovery rate was by now good but I would always feel tired and as soon as I hit resistance by way of the smallest of inclines my energy would be drained – I had not yet discovered the sources of energy we are discussing here. I guess like most things we have to have the experience first and then seek out the lesson and I did just that!
The Energy Store
You may be looking at this and saying ‘hey Liam I just want to get fit I’m not that concerned with reducing fat’ well that’s great if you are because what I am talking about is fat as an energy source and what I am about to reveal to you is the best of both worlds – a sure fired way to reduce fat whilst getting fit and all without the pain. So how do we do this? Well let’s look at our make up in terms of calories.
The average person will have approximately 165,000 calories of which 2,500 calories are sugar, 23,000 are protein and the remaining134,500 are from fat. The 2,500 from sugar we will refer to as the high octane energy source and the 134,500 from fat as the candle source.
Sugar based fuel is the choice of ‘fight or flight’, it is used when there is a sense of urgency and it provides for a quick anaerobic burst of energy the kind sprinters would require or we would use to flee danger. Dependency on this fuel source will not aid you in distance, it will make you more tired more quickly and is more likely to cause you to produce fat than reduce it. Exercise produce fat well how can that be?
It’s to do with acidity, not all people you see that are overweight are that way because they eat too much, or that they are lazy in fact many of them will tell you they eat moderately and exercise but it all seems to go to the waist or hips and working out doesn’t seem to shift it. This is a topic that deserves a discussion on its own and I have one planned for just for that but for the purpose of this entry it is enough to note that the body’s defence against acid is fat and sugar converts to acid. The other element at play here is that you only have 2,500 calories at your disposal, not much when you look at the energy provided by fat.
As ‘fight or flight’ triggers sugar burn the opposite is true of fat burn, slow and calm is what is required here and this is the realm of aerobic exercise. For fat burn breathing and awareness of your body and the world that surrounds you is king.
This is where you create energy not expend it; this is the home of production.
Having 134,500 calories available to you is what takes you the distance, it is your ultimate source of energy. When you tap into this source you are releasing energy the kind that keeps you going throughout the day without feeling you could do with a nap in the afternoon. The most common causes of fatigue is a high sugar based diet with an over reliance on caffeine and if, as I did, you combine this with anaerobic exercise you will be working hard to stand still or even worse you may do your body more harm than you would by doing nothing in the first place.
We are going to talk more about this later but for now get out there either walking or running and take it slow. Stick with your breathing low to the belly is best just like a baby breathes and give some thought to what crosses your lips – no harm to consider that both in and out. Just as importantly work on the image of you already in possession of your goal and try and spend time doing this daily. I could write volumes on this but we have enough to be getting on with, anyway it is about quality not quantity so I will stop here.
Next time we will look some more at the benefits of aerobic exercise and the impact it has on all your vital organs.
Until then,
Live out Loud
Liam
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