Ordinary or extraordinary? 20 or 30 years from now, which of these words will describe how you lived your life. Did you make your life's choices because they were easy, normal, or what everyone else did? Or did you challenge the norm? Did you conform, or did you strive for something better? Did you do what everyone else was doing because it was easy, or did you step out and do what you really wanted to do even though it was more difficult?
When people ask you, "what do you do?", do you answer with your profession? Or do you have something greater about your life than where you spend 40 hours a week that defines who you are?
Peer pressure doesn't end when we graduate high school, or even college. It is present our entire lives. If your neighbors, co-workers, friends, and family happen to be the most excellent spouses, parents, and employees, if they are healthy, happy, and financially secure, then you will be surrounded by positive peer pressure. But if your peers don't meet all these standards, it's probably safe to say that you have plenty of neutral or negative peer pressure in your life.
More than likely peer pressure is influencing how much and what you watch on tv and what you let your kids watch. It may affect where you go on vacations, what you eat, what type of car you drive, where you live, how you decorate your house, what you wear, what music you listen to. Just about all decisions we make can be affected by peer pressure, either for good, for bad, or indifferent.
Is there an area of your life you would like to achieve excellence in? It could be health, friendship, family roles, a sport, or career. If you are wanting to focus on excellence in your life, you need to realize that excellence is difficult. People who seek excellence are often ridiculed for being different by their peers.
For example, if you choose to parent with a more "traditional" approach and follow more strict guideline as to what you allow your children to watch on tv or at the movies, you are sure to hear from some other parents about being "over protective."
Humans are social animals. We don't like being outcasts. It's far easier to go along with the crowd than to stand out. I think that anyone who seeks excellence should go out of their way to be laid back. Practice humility. Certainly don't act as if you are better than others. Appear ordinary in every way you can. I believe by doing this that you can avoid turning other people off and maybe be motivation to a few others to pursue excellence themselves. Wanting to help others better themselves is another way we can reach excellence.
5 qualities will lead you to excellence.
1. High Motivation. This goes beyond giving lip service to goals. A truly motivated person is on a mission. They have a hard time keeping themselves in check. They spend time writing and evaluating their goals. They study by reading books, watching videos, and attending clinics and seminars. They get up early and stay up late. They welcome company in their journey, but will go it alone if they need to.
2. Discipline. The disciplined person will make daily sacrifices and make do with hardships in order to excel. If they are trying to achieve a healthy weight, they can go to a birthday party and say no to cake and ice cream. If they are aiming to be fit, they don't miss workouts. If they are striving for a promotion, they go in to work early and stay at work late. They don't get sloppy with anything that has to do with their goals. Most people don't have discipline like this, so you may find yourself making light of your own discipline to be accepted by your peers.
3. Confidence. Some people seem to live with an unwavering belief in themselves. I'm not one of those people. How many of us, when we got married or became parents, didn't wonder if we had what it took to be a good spouse or a good parent. Heck, I remember hoping that I had enough sense just to keep a baby alive, let alone to be a good parent. To have more confidence, all it takes is some success. Success breeds confidence. After that 1st kids made it to 3 years old and I hadn't let it die yet, I was much more confident bringing the 2nd one home. Never dwell on failures. Seek out and relive your successes.
4. Focus. Another way to think about this is to call it "purpose". Know where you want to go in life. Don't expect to drift along, going wherever the winds of life blow you, and one day end up achieving your goals. Each effort you make towards your goals leads towards excellence. But you have to take it one step at a time. Which leads us to...
5. Patience. Martial artists practice katas or forms. These are martial arts moves done in sequence like gymnastics floor exercises. They are simulations of martial arts moves in an imaginary fight with imaginary opponents. A Korean proverb says that once a student practices the kata 100 times, he knows the moves to the kata. Once he practices it 1000 times, he should be able to visualize the opponents lying around him on the floor who he has killed. Once he has practiced the kata 10,000 times, the moves of the kata will be so real and life-like that the audience watching him perform will be able to visualize the fight and the opponents being slain. Excellence takes time to achieve, and anyone wanting success will have to have patience and not give up early.
Excellence requires mental and emotional power. We all have the capacity to develop these mental abilities.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Run a 5k
If you sometimes find yourself getting bored with just going to the gym for your workouts you might consider training for and competing in a fun run. A fun run will offer you an opportunity to take some of your workouts outdoor. Running outdoor can be a different experience each time you go. Head east today, and west tomorrow. Run in your neighborhood this week, on the high school track next week. The variety of your scenery is only limited by your imagination. You can run in the park, on the Seawall, on trails, at the college, or take it back to the gym on the treadmill for some cool air conditioning on hot days.
Just about every fun run offers a 5k distance. That's 3.1 miles for those who flunked the metric system in school. Training to run a 5k can be done in 3-4 workouts a week, each lasting about 15-35 minutes. Of course you can do more if you want, but if you are just getting started running, this is all the time you need to commit to successfully run a 5k. Give yourself about 12 weeks to train if you haven't been running.
If you are in the Houston area you can find a pretty good list of local races and fun runs at the HARRA race list. The list is not quite complete, so you might stop by The Runner's Link, On the Run, or Fleet Feet. These running stores will have flyers for all the local races that are upcoming. Also, you can talk to the sales people, who are also runners, and they will be happy to help you find an event that is well organized and well supported.
Expect to pay $15-25 to participate in a fun run. For your money, you should get an event t-shirt, water stations along the race route, fruit and water after the race (sometime even cookies or hotdogs), and you will be supporting a local charity. Also, you will get an official time. If this is your first race, you are guaranteed to get a PR (personal record). From there, your goal will be to improve on this time.
It will be helpful to find a training program to follow at looks like fits your ability. If you haven't been doing any exercise up to this point, you can search online for a C25K (couch to 5k) program. These training schedules are designed to take a sedentary person and train them for a 5k race in 9-12 weeks. They will start with walking, build up to walking with some running, and take you until you are running all or most of the milage.
If you feel that running is a little to intense for you at this point, you can find a program that trains you to walk a 5k. Fun runs welcome walkers, former high school track stars, and everyone in between.
Here's some great news for anyone wanting to lose weight or fight off the weight creep at comes with age. Walking a mile burns about 75 calories, and running a mile burns about 125 calories. These numbers are dependent on your weight, but you can get a general idea of how many calories you are burning with these numbers. If you want a more accurate number, you can purchase a heart rate monitor for about $100. These devices are able to take your weight and age and calculate it with the information in gathers while you run and give a much more exact number of calories burned.
Where do you go from here? First, find a race that is about 3 months away from now and commit to it by pre registering. Then, find a training program online that you think you can follow. Print it out and stick to it. Try not to miss any of the workouts. If you have to miss one, commit to make it up on another day. Finally, post photos on facebook and show everyone how awesome you are!
Just about every fun run offers a 5k distance. That's 3.1 miles for those who flunked the metric system in school. Training to run a 5k can be done in 3-4 workouts a week, each lasting about 15-35 minutes. Of course you can do more if you want, but if you are just getting started running, this is all the time you need to commit to successfully run a 5k. Give yourself about 12 weeks to train if you haven't been running.
If you are in the Houston area you can find a pretty good list of local races and fun runs at the HARRA race list. The list is not quite complete, so you might stop by The Runner's Link, On the Run, or Fleet Feet. These running stores will have flyers for all the local races that are upcoming. Also, you can talk to the sales people, who are also runners, and they will be happy to help you find an event that is well organized and well supported.
Expect to pay $15-25 to participate in a fun run. For your money, you should get an event t-shirt, water stations along the race route, fruit and water after the race (sometime even cookies or hotdogs), and you will be supporting a local charity. Also, you will get an official time. If this is your first race, you are guaranteed to get a PR (personal record). From there, your goal will be to improve on this time.
It will be helpful to find a training program to follow at looks like fits your ability. If you haven't been doing any exercise up to this point, you can search online for a C25K (couch to 5k) program. These training schedules are designed to take a sedentary person and train them for a 5k race in 9-12 weeks. They will start with walking, build up to walking with some running, and take you until you are running all or most of the milage.
If you feel that running is a little to intense for you at this point, you can find a program that trains you to walk a 5k. Fun runs welcome walkers, former high school track stars, and everyone in between.
Here's some great news for anyone wanting to lose weight or fight off the weight creep at comes with age. Walking a mile burns about 75 calories, and running a mile burns about 125 calories. These numbers are dependent on your weight, but you can get a general idea of how many calories you are burning with these numbers. If you want a more accurate number, you can purchase a heart rate monitor for about $100. These devices are able to take your weight and age and calculate it with the information in gathers while you run and give a much more exact number of calories burned.
Where do you go from here? First, find a race that is about 3 months away from now and commit to it by pre registering. Then, find a training program online that you think you can follow. Print it out and stick to it. Try not to miss any of the workouts. If you have to miss one, commit to make it up on another day. Finally, post photos on facebook and show everyone how awesome you are!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Carbs, fat, protein, and weight loss
People are forever looking for shortcuts to lose weight. Pills, drinks, weight loss tea, Atkins diet, meal replacements, South Beach, protein drinks, juicers, on and on. The problem in giving a one size fits all approach to weight loss is that we are all different. Some are recently overweight, some have been fighting weight problems for years. Some are genetically disposed to be thin, others genetically heavy. Some are men, others women. Because so many are searching for the answer to weight loss, I want to address some common myths.
Myth: Carbs are fattening.
Truth: Excess calories are fattening. Calories come from carbs, fat, and protein. Carbs and protein each have 4 calories per gram, and fat has 9 calories per gram. Another source I haven't mentioned before is alcohol (7 calories per gram). The main dietary demon is fat. Butter, margarine, oil, mayonnaise, and grease are obvious sources of fat. But there is also, cheese, nuts, peanut butter, and hidden fat in meat. Remember that although some fats are healthier than others, they all are equally fattening. Dietary fat is easily stored as excess body fat; carbs are easily stored as muscle fuel.
Myth: High protein, low carb diets are the best way to lose weight.
Truth: Your best bet is to eat smaller portions and create a calorie deficiency for the day. The type of calories are less important than the number of calories eaten. All calories count. My biggest personal hang up about this type of diet is that it doesn't provide the energy you need to be active. To be your healthiest, you need to control what you eat as well as participate in exercise. Carbs give you the energy you need to exercise. I also don't believe in starting any diet that you can't maintain the rest of your life, and if you plan on living an active lifestyle, this just won't work.
Myth: Food eaten after 8:00 pm turns into fat.
Truth: If you have calories left in your calorie budget, and you are hungry, it's okay to eat late. Better to honor your hunger than end up binge eating.
The verdict is still out if eating late is inherently fattening in itself. The real problem might be what we eat. Binging on ice cream, buttery popcorn, or fudge brownies before bed adds a lot of calories to your calorie total for the day. Be sure you are eating plenty of your calories during the day and not skipping breakfast. This will help you not to binge at night.
Myth: The more you exercise, the more weight you'll lose.
Truth: The more you exercise, the hungrier you will be and the more you will eat. You can spend an hour exercising and burn 500 calories. Reward yourself with a bag of chips and eat 600 calories in 10 minutes. Your body has natural urges to protect itself from wasting away. This is why it is harder for women to lose weight than men. Nature wants men to be lean hunters, and women to be able to reproduce. No offense ladies, I'm not trying to destroy all the efforts of the bra burners in the 70s. The "ideal" man has 4% body fat, and the "ideal" woman has 12% essential body fat. This difference allows women to nourish a baby if she becomes pregnant. Try to get below these levels and nature is going to fight you. Again, you have to create a calorie deficiency through a combination of diet and exercise.
Myth: Train for a marathon, Ironman, Tough Mudder, etc. and the body fat will melt off.
Truth: Wishful thinking. Training for triathlon I burn 5000-7500 calories a week above my basal metabolic rate. If I ate a normal diet of 1800-2000 calories a day, I should be losing about 2 pounds of fat a week. But I've weighed between 149-151 pounds for months. One thing about training that hard is that you tend to be more sedentary the rest of the day. I can tell you that I have gotten much better at napping on the couch over the last several months. Also, I'm not trying to achieve a calorie deficiency, so I tend to eat larger meals and more snacks.
Myth: Exercise kills your appetite
Truth: It does for a short time, but after you cool off and recover, your hunger will catch up with you. Body temperature does show some effect on appetite. So being hot after a gym workout can slow your appetite, but being cool after a pool workout can actually make you hungrier. Try to fill the hunger with a low calorie, nutrition dense snack or meal full of colorful vegetables.
Myth: By exercising you can turn your fat into muscle.
Truth: Fat and muscle are two separate entities and are not interchangeable. Fat does not turn into muscle. The reverse is also true. If you have been exercising and stop for some reason, your muscle is not going to turn into fat. Ever buy an untrimmed brisket and see how there is a layer of fat on the meat? You have a layer of fat over your muscle just like that. Create a calorie deficiency and you body will convert the layer of fat into energy it can use and the fat layer will shrink. Eat more calories than you burn and your body will store the excess calories for later and the layer of fat will grow. Work your muscles and the muscle fibers grow and expand. Stop working the muscles and the muscle fibers will actually shrink.
If there is one common theme in all this it is that if you want to lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficiency, either by consuming less, burning more, or a combination of the two. Personally, I feel that if you do it all through diet alone, you are cheating yourself out of the health benefits of exercise. If you try to do it all through exercise, it will be a long, slow road, and if you continue to ignore a diet low in saturated and trans fats, you will not realize all the health benefits you should.
Myth: Carbs are fattening.
Truth: Excess calories are fattening. Calories come from carbs, fat, and protein. Carbs and protein each have 4 calories per gram, and fat has 9 calories per gram. Another source I haven't mentioned before is alcohol (7 calories per gram). The main dietary demon is fat. Butter, margarine, oil, mayonnaise, and grease are obvious sources of fat. But there is also, cheese, nuts, peanut butter, and hidden fat in meat. Remember that although some fats are healthier than others, they all are equally fattening. Dietary fat is easily stored as excess body fat; carbs are easily stored as muscle fuel.
Myth: High protein, low carb diets are the best way to lose weight.
Truth: Your best bet is to eat smaller portions and create a calorie deficiency for the day. The type of calories are less important than the number of calories eaten. All calories count. My biggest personal hang up about this type of diet is that it doesn't provide the energy you need to be active. To be your healthiest, you need to control what you eat as well as participate in exercise. Carbs give you the energy you need to exercise. I also don't believe in starting any diet that you can't maintain the rest of your life, and if you plan on living an active lifestyle, this just won't work.
Myth: Food eaten after 8:00 pm turns into fat.
Truth: If you have calories left in your calorie budget, and you are hungry, it's okay to eat late. Better to honor your hunger than end up binge eating.
The verdict is still out if eating late is inherently fattening in itself. The real problem might be what we eat. Binging on ice cream, buttery popcorn, or fudge brownies before bed adds a lot of calories to your calorie total for the day. Be sure you are eating plenty of your calories during the day and not skipping breakfast. This will help you not to binge at night.
Myth: The more you exercise, the more weight you'll lose.
Truth: The more you exercise, the hungrier you will be and the more you will eat. You can spend an hour exercising and burn 500 calories. Reward yourself with a bag of chips and eat 600 calories in 10 minutes. Your body has natural urges to protect itself from wasting away. This is why it is harder for women to lose weight than men. Nature wants men to be lean hunters, and women to be able to reproduce. No offense ladies, I'm not trying to destroy all the efforts of the bra burners in the 70s. The "ideal" man has 4% body fat, and the "ideal" woman has 12% essential body fat. This difference allows women to nourish a baby if she becomes pregnant. Try to get below these levels and nature is going to fight you. Again, you have to create a calorie deficiency through a combination of diet and exercise.
Myth: Train for a marathon, Ironman, Tough Mudder, etc. and the body fat will melt off.
Truth: Wishful thinking. Training for triathlon I burn 5000-7500 calories a week above my basal metabolic rate. If I ate a normal diet of 1800-2000 calories a day, I should be losing about 2 pounds of fat a week. But I've weighed between 149-151 pounds for months. One thing about training that hard is that you tend to be more sedentary the rest of the day. I can tell you that I have gotten much better at napping on the couch over the last several months. Also, I'm not trying to achieve a calorie deficiency, so I tend to eat larger meals and more snacks.
Myth: Exercise kills your appetite
Truth: It does for a short time, but after you cool off and recover, your hunger will catch up with you. Body temperature does show some effect on appetite. So being hot after a gym workout can slow your appetite, but being cool after a pool workout can actually make you hungrier. Try to fill the hunger with a low calorie, nutrition dense snack or meal full of colorful vegetables.
Myth: By exercising you can turn your fat into muscle.
Truth: Fat and muscle are two separate entities and are not interchangeable. Fat does not turn into muscle. The reverse is also true. If you have been exercising and stop for some reason, your muscle is not going to turn into fat. Ever buy an untrimmed brisket and see how there is a layer of fat on the meat? You have a layer of fat over your muscle just like that. Create a calorie deficiency and you body will convert the layer of fat into energy it can use and the fat layer will shrink. Eat more calories than you burn and your body will store the excess calories for later and the layer of fat will grow. Work your muscles and the muscle fibers grow and expand. Stop working the muscles and the muscle fibers will actually shrink.
If there is one common theme in all this it is that if you want to lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficiency, either by consuming less, burning more, or a combination of the two. Personally, I feel that if you do it all through diet alone, you are cheating yourself out of the health benefits of exercise. If you try to do it all through exercise, it will be a long, slow road, and if you continue to ignore a diet low in saturated and trans fats, you will not realize all the health benefits you should.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Hydration for exercise
Knowing how to hydrate for exercise is always important for your best performance and quickest recovery, but now that the heat of summer is here, it's important for safety as well.
Dehydration stresses the body. It causes your body temperature to rise, causes your heart to beat faster, burns more glycogen(your body's energy source), makes it harder to concentrate, and make exercise feel harder.
A water deficit with an electrolyte deficit can also increase the chance that you will cramp during or after exercise.
If you find yourself getting dizzy when you stand from a sitting or lying position later in the day after vigorous exercise, this could be another sign of dehydration. Water is the main component of your blood, and if your blood volume drops from dehydration, your blood pressure can also drop. Drink more water to replenish your blood volume and get your blood pressure back to normal.
Hydration starts before you exercise. Try drinking a couple of glasses of water in the 4 hour leading up to exercise. The goal would be to finish early enough so that the excess fluid has time to pass through your body so you can "dispose" of it. Pre exercise drink can be water or a caffeinated beverage. The caffeine can make the exercise session feel easier.
The easiest rule to follow for drinking during exercise is to follow your thirst. Drink when you are thirsty. For exercise lasting up to 60 minutes or in air conditioning, that is probably all you need to know. But if you would like, it can get somewhat scientific.
To be sure you are getting the best results from your hydration program, you need to find your sweat loss. This will tell you what your water deficiency is during exercise. If you are drinking 10 ounces of water during an hour of exercise, but losing 25 ounces through sweat, you have a deficiency of 15 ounces.
Finding out your sweat loss is actually pretty easy and something you won't need a sports lab to do. Start by stripping down to your chonies and stepping on the scale. Write down your weight, you'll need this number later. Next, do your normal exercise. If you want to find out what your sweat loss is, don't have anything to drink during or after your exercise. If you want to find out if you are drinking enough to avoid a water loss, it's okay to drink as much as you normally would during exercise. After exercise, strip down to your chonies again and weigh yourself once more.
A pound of water weighs about 8 pounds. Since there are 8 pints in a gallon of water, each pound you lost during exercise is equal to 1 pint of sweat loss if you didn't drink, or 1 pint of water deficiency if you did drink.
So as an example, if you weighed 165 pounds before your exercise, and weighed 163 pounds after exercising, you lost 2 pints, or one quart of water through sweat. Your goal would be to drink this amount of fluid during exercise.
Running in he afternoon during the summer, I have measured as much as a half gallon of sweat loss during an hour run. That's a lot of water to try drinking during a run(64 ounces) and unfortunately is probably not possible. We are are limited by our body's ability to absorb fluids. Our bodies can only absorb about 30 ounces of fluid per hour. So if your sweat loss is greater than that, you will be fighting a losing battle with any hydration program. Fortunately, you will only see water loss like that during intense exercise or in intense heat. If it's that hot, you might be better of just staying inside and running on the treadmill.
For exercise lasting less than 45 minutes, I think you will be okay just drinking water. For longer exercise sessions, you need to focus on replenishing more that just water. You will need to replace some sodium (this will also help stimulate thirst if you have trouble remembering to drink), some potassium to replace what is lost in sweat, and carbohydrates (sugar) for energy. Sports drinks like Gatorade and Powerade have these ingredients already included. If you are like me and your stomach doesn't do well drinking these sugary drinks during exercise, another option is to drink water only, and have a gel every 45 minutes during exercise. Gels such as Gu and Clif Shots have the carbs and electrolytes built in and are easy to carry if you are running or cycling.
One caution about sports drinks. They are for sports only! They are good to have during and right after exercise, but they are not healthy alternatives to soft drinks. The calories you would get from drinking these drinks throughout the day are just as bad as drinks from soda. They offer no nutrition outside of exercise.
If you drink so much during exercise that you have water sloshing around in your stomach, you are drinking too much too fast. All this will do is make you uncomfortable at best, and nauseous at worst.
One more note about drinking during exercise: as a rule, drink to hydrate, pour to cool. Drinking water to cool yourself doesn't have much of an effect. Pouring water on your head, on your back, and over your shoulders has a much greater effect on cooling you off.
When exercise is over, it's time to start rehydrating for your next exercise session. If you know what your water deficiency is, you should concentrate on drinking 50% more fluid than you lost. You need the extra fluid to account for what will be lost in your urine. If you lose lots of water, you will need to be more aggressive to replace your water. If you start your next workout with a hydration deficit, you will be starting with a disadvantage and more likely to feel the ill effects of dehydration. Sipping fluids over time maximizes fluid retention over drinking a large amount at one sitting. The other things you lose in sweat such as sodium can be made up through your normal meals, fruits, and vegetables. The carbs can be replace with a diet of whole grains.
Finally, don't forget that the body has it's own way of letting you know if you drinking enough. If your urine is dark, you are dehydrated. If it is clear or a light yellow color, you are probably properly hydrated.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Dehydration stresses the body. It causes your body temperature to rise, causes your heart to beat faster, burns more glycogen(your body's energy source), makes it harder to concentrate, and make exercise feel harder.
A water deficit with an electrolyte deficit can also increase the chance that you will cramp during or after exercise.
If you find yourself getting dizzy when you stand from a sitting or lying position later in the day after vigorous exercise, this could be another sign of dehydration. Water is the main component of your blood, and if your blood volume drops from dehydration, your blood pressure can also drop. Drink more water to replenish your blood volume and get your blood pressure back to normal.
Hydration starts before you exercise. Try drinking a couple of glasses of water in the 4 hour leading up to exercise. The goal would be to finish early enough so that the excess fluid has time to pass through your body so you can "dispose" of it. Pre exercise drink can be water or a caffeinated beverage. The caffeine can make the exercise session feel easier.
The easiest rule to follow for drinking during exercise is to follow your thirst. Drink when you are thirsty. For exercise lasting up to 60 minutes or in air conditioning, that is probably all you need to know. But if you would like, it can get somewhat scientific.
To be sure you are getting the best results from your hydration program, you need to find your sweat loss. This will tell you what your water deficiency is during exercise. If you are drinking 10 ounces of water during an hour of exercise, but losing 25 ounces through sweat, you have a deficiency of 15 ounces.
Finding out your sweat loss is actually pretty easy and something you won't need a sports lab to do. Start by stripping down to your chonies and stepping on the scale. Write down your weight, you'll need this number later. Next, do your normal exercise. If you want to find out what your sweat loss is, don't have anything to drink during or after your exercise. If you want to find out if you are drinking enough to avoid a water loss, it's okay to drink as much as you normally would during exercise. After exercise, strip down to your chonies again and weigh yourself once more.
A pound of water weighs about 8 pounds. Since there are 8 pints in a gallon of water, each pound you lost during exercise is equal to 1 pint of sweat loss if you didn't drink, or 1 pint of water deficiency if you did drink.
So as an example, if you weighed 165 pounds before your exercise, and weighed 163 pounds after exercising, you lost 2 pints, or one quart of water through sweat. Your goal would be to drink this amount of fluid during exercise.
Running in he afternoon during the summer, I have measured as much as a half gallon of sweat loss during an hour run. That's a lot of water to try drinking during a run(64 ounces) and unfortunately is probably not possible. We are are limited by our body's ability to absorb fluids. Our bodies can only absorb about 30 ounces of fluid per hour. So if your sweat loss is greater than that, you will be fighting a losing battle with any hydration program. Fortunately, you will only see water loss like that during intense exercise or in intense heat. If it's that hot, you might be better of just staying inside and running on the treadmill.
For exercise lasting less than 45 minutes, I think you will be okay just drinking water. For longer exercise sessions, you need to focus on replenishing more that just water. You will need to replace some sodium (this will also help stimulate thirst if you have trouble remembering to drink), some potassium to replace what is lost in sweat, and carbohydrates (sugar) for energy. Sports drinks like Gatorade and Powerade have these ingredients already included. If you are like me and your stomach doesn't do well drinking these sugary drinks during exercise, another option is to drink water only, and have a gel every 45 minutes during exercise. Gels such as Gu and Clif Shots have the carbs and electrolytes built in and are easy to carry if you are running or cycling.
One caution about sports drinks. They are for sports only! They are good to have during and right after exercise, but they are not healthy alternatives to soft drinks. The calories you would get from drinking these drinks throughout the day are just as bad as drinks from soda. They offer no nutrition outside of exercise.
If you drink so much during exercise that you have water sloshing around in your stomach, you are drinking too much too fast. All this will do is make you uncomfortable at best, and nauseous at worst.
One more note about drinking during exercise: as a rule, drink to hydrate, pour to cool. Drinking water to cool yourself doesn't have much of an effect. Pouring water on your head, on your back, and over your shoulders has a much greater effect on cooling you off.
When exercise is over, it's time to start rehydrating for your next exercise session. If you know what your water deficiency is, you should concentrate on drinking 50% more fluid than you lost. You need the extra fluid to account for what will be lost in your urine. If you lose lots of water, you will need to be more aggressive to replace your water. If you start your next workout with a hydration deficit, you will be starting with a disadvantage and more likely to feel the ill effects of dehydration. Sipping fluids over time maximizes fluid retention over drinking a large amount at one sitting. The other things you lose in sweat such as sodium can be made up through your normal meals, fruits, and vegetables. The carbs can be replace with a diet of whole grains.
Finally, don't forget that the body has it's own way of letting you know if you drinking enough. If your urine is dark, you are dehydrated. If it is clear or a light yellow color, you are probably properly hydrated.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)