Exercise; A Buzz, not a Bore!

Everywhere we turn, we’re surrounded by Mr. Motivators, super-low-fat cereal advertisements, and those extra-skinny friends that make the rest of our friendship group feel like total bloaters. That’s not to say they’re bad things to be surrounded by, of course; actually having things there to motivate us into a healthier lifestyle is brilliant, it’s just that this encouragement can sometimes feel so overwhelming that we actually start to resent the idea of exercise. The thought of the amount of effort and persistence involved in exercising, combined with the longevity and commitment needed to get the real happy ending, leaves us feeling slightly disheartened, and reaching into the fridge to grab a bar of chocolate seems like a much easier and quicker way of getting that feel-good buzz. 

However, if we focus on the huge buzz that exercising gives us along the way, rather than imagining this end point where suddenly everything is perfect, we can find ourselves enjoying fitness as a whole, and the thought of creating an exercise regime becomes fun. It’s all about changing our perception of fitness, and what is really involved. First of all, it’s better to give yourself small and realistic goals that can be reached in increments, rather than large and daunting goals that feel almost impossible. This may seem obvious, and something we’ve all heard before, but if we look at the biological effects of exercise, even on your very first session, it’s actually very exciting.

Charles Volcatte, a health researcher for Skinnyasap, and Dr Mark Dombeck, an established mental and emotional health author, explain how exercise works as a fantastic relaxant. The chemical changes in the brain during exercise induce happiness and create an anti-depressant effect. When certain intensity is reached, the adrenaline rush causes a pleasant feeling, and working the body regulates stress hormones like Cortisol and releases endorphins. This is shown to significantly improve our mood and make us feel much more positive about life in general; simply because of the instant gratification we experience, thanks to our brains.

Being active can be very pleasurable, and once we start concentrating on the immediate benefits, rather than the long-term goals (even if long-term goals will be achieved eventually), it becomes far more enjoyable. Making the most of the moment rather than the future, and the great buzz that we can experience, means that taking a trip to the local gym or plugging in your head phones and popping out for a run provides a much stronger feel-good sensation than the chocolate bar does.

The excellent advantage of this is; not only do we achieve instant results where we feel healthier and happier, but we start to achieve those incremental goals that were devised at the beginning. Whether that was weight loss, or reaching milestones regarding our stamina and fitness level; the key in reaching those goals is to enjoy the journey and the happiness it can bring along the way.

Written by a Play and Activity Expert at the Big Game Hunters group.

Published by Emma Green

I don’t know about everyone else, but one of the things that I have come to find out for myself is that life is indeed very busy.  Between all the different activities that we have going on and all the commitments, it’s a miracle we even have time to sleep.  However, one thing  that I feel I have neglected to some extent is exercising.

This is unfortunate as studies have shown that exercising actually makes you smarter.  Yes it’s true, there is a strong correlation between a healthy body and a healthy brain.

According to research done at UCLA, exercisers run faster, remember more, thinker clearer and recover more easily from brain related injuries.  So, especially for students or those who regularly deal with problem solving, that extra 30 minutes of exercise could give you the competitive edge that you need.

The basic principle behind the research is fairly simple.  Exercise, like hunger causes stress on the body “and sometimes” says Fernando Gomez-Pinilla of UCLA, “stress can be good.”

Aerobic exercise burns calories which in turn threatens the body’s energy reserves.  This is important because it causes the body to react by protecting one of its most important energy consuming organs, the brain.

Neurons, or the types of cells that the brain is made up of, die within one minute if they are deprived of energy, therefore this imposing threat activates the body’s protective benefits associated with calorie restriction and the release of brain-building growth factors.

Growth factors are highly beneficial to the brain as “they make neurons stronger, healthier, and improve their ability to learn,” says Carl Cotman, director of the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia at the University of California in Irvine.

All of these benefits can be obtained by exercising for 30 minutes, every other day.

So next time the choice of whether or not to exercise comes up, make sure to remember the obvious benefits of exercising on a daily basis.

 
Carlos Morgan is a 22 year old Communications Major hoping to get into Law School one day and make a difference. If you feel you want to know more, check out his Google+

(Before I go any further, there is an info-graphic that explains all this in a much more aesthetically pleasing way, for those of you who do not like to burden your eyes with reading too much.)

Losing weight

When losing weight your diet plan is going to be pretty straight forward. Just eat less calories than you used to, and also make sure that exercise is a part of your plan.  Eating less calories may sound difficult, it really isn’t.  Look at what we most commonly eat right now.  Most of us live off a concoction of fast foods and freezer burritos.  These types of foods are packed with empty calories, the kind that turn straight into fat and provide little energy.

If you were to eat straight vegetables all day and nothing else, you would have to stretch your stomach to get the same amount of calories that come with fast foods.  Take into consideration a one pound hamburger – quite a monstrous sight, right?—this has more than 1,000 calories.  Ok, you’re right. You wouldn’t ever eat a pound of hamburger in one sitting.  But for comparisons sake let’s look at vegetables.  In one pound of carrots you get only 180 calories. That means to reach your daily 2,000 calorie mark you have to eat just 11 pounds of carrots.  That is ridiculous.

The trick to losing weight is fruits and vegies. It works so good you will be frightened at how fast the pounds drop.

Basically there are three types of people: 1) Those who exercise. 2) Those who don’t exercise but wish they did. And 3) Those who don’t exercise and don’t care that they are missing out.

If you are in the last category there isn’t any point in finishing this blog unless you belong to the rare 4th group of people who don’t exercise, don’t care but wish that they did. It’s pretty simple– getting in shape and exercising is crucial to getting all you can out of life.

Here are three tips for creating an exercise regimen that will actually help you get in shape.

1) First off is BE CONSISTENT. This means working out a set number of times every week, or every month, or every_________ (Insert period of time ). Most people should be able to handle a weekly schedule especially if there is a set day off from work or a break in classes that would accommodate a workout. Every week. That is the first key. That is the key to being able to say, “Yeah, I work out.”

2) Set realistic goals. Even if you have to trick yourself. If your goal is 50 push-ups, start at 200 and count down. I don’t know. Just get some concrete goals that you can check off at the end of your workout.

3) Bring a friend. Working out with a friend will help you stay motivated. It can be tricky to align two schedules but it is worth it. Also, goal setting can be done with two people; keep setting goals that you can accomplish together. Have fun!

Most people will avoid change because it takes them out of their comfort zone or forces them to do something they haven’t before. We hold the idea that change is a difficult thing. When in reality it isn’t.
Change is as simple as changing your influences.  As much as you would like to believe that you are completely 100 percent an individual, I’m sorry, you are not.  Don’t get down on yourself though. It’s not a big deal.  Everyone is partly composed of their environmental influences.

The great thing about us humans is that we have the ability to change our environment.  This means to change all you have to do is change your surroundings. Change is as easy as changing your influences.

There are two types of influences.  There are the internal influences, like when you talk to yourself and tell yourself how good you look.  And then there are the external influences, like when your buddy is talking to you and saying how good you look.

Now you may notice when you think about exercise you might also associate it with some negative things like discomfort, boredom, or fatigue.  This is your subconscious internal influence that is conditioning how you react to the idea of exercise.

The brain works by making connections.  It connects networks of words and memories together, and a lot of times these connections influence our actions subconsciously.  For example, if you say “mustard” out loud then the next time you hear the word “must” you may be reminded of the yellow sandwich condiment, simply because I just placed the connection in your mind.

So if you want to hack your brain it is as simple as drawing connections between exercise and other positive things.  Repeat this list of words each day and think about them with exercise: “go, drive, do, make, objective, important, create, commitment, purpose, enthusiasm, eager, and motivation.”

Repeating these words daily while thinking about exercise will build connections in the brain, so whenever you hear one of the words from the list you will be reminded to exercise.  Yes, this similar to daily mantras, but it is actually more effective.  Mantras work to reinforce a single idea. This works to build connections that create positive influences.

This doesn’t mean you have to sign up for any crazy diet plans that are going to make you starve.  And you are not going to have to do crazy intense exercises every day either.  All you have to do is begin to change your daily habits little by little.

The body becomes accustomed to the amount of stress it receives daily.  Luckily for you, you have a marvelously adaptable body.  That means if you start jogging each day then jogging is going to become easier with each jog, because the body will adapt by developing muscles and shedding excess fat.

However, if the body is neglected then it will start to acquire too much fat.  The body adapts to resistance, and when the resistance is taken away the body becomes soft.  This is particularly troublesome for astronauts dealing with zero gravity.

Like I said, this doesn’t mean you have to start doing some incredible exercise routines or get on some crazy diets.  All you need is a little more resistance in your life.

Try to incorporate 30 minutes of exercise into your day.  It doesn’t all have to be all at once, but if it is then that is going to do some extra impact to your physical development. Little things like tapping and drinking water can help burn an extra 300 calories a day.

Just find little things you can change and start working on improving those first.  Then, within no time,  you will have changed so many little things that you are a completely different person.

Exercise is merely a catalyst that promotes physiological development. Or in other words, it is only just a single part of the whole equation.  You have to have both exercise and the proper nutrition to get the physical development that is desired.  Neglecting one or the other is going to hamper your muscular development.  When it comes down to it muscle building is a simple equation, all you need is a bit of exercise and a cursory knowledge in chemistry.

Above we have the periodic table of elements, fun huh?  You will notice that each element is colored either blue, yellow, green or white.  The blue elements are the elements that are essential for basic life. You will see they are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the entire universe. Hydrogen has a very simplistic atomic structure making it very useful in atomic compounds.  Just think the human body is 70 percent water, and water is two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, so basically you are like 48 percent hydrogen already. Drinking water works to keep the pH level of different organs in check and balanced.

Carbon is a compound that is essential for organic life. Don’t worry about not getting enough of this in your diet, because most everything you eat will have a good amount of carbon in it. This little element is particularly good at holding onto very large molecular strands, which make life possible.  Any kind of raw food you eat, from fish to veggies, anything that hasn’t been brewed in a lab will provide a good source of this element.

Oxygen is one we all know and love.  If we were to stop breathing there would be no way our cells could function.  Inside the cell there is this little energy box known as the mitochondria, and this powerhouse feeds off of two things.  One of those things is glucose and the other is oxygen. Anytime you use energy, the body has to produce that electrical charge inside the mitochondria. Thus oxygen is vitally important for every single action you make.

My family is one full of musicians, artists and performers, so you can imagine how they must feel about me spending my life working around fitness rather than aesthetics. Sometimes I consider fitness to be like music. Each exercise is like a note in some grand sonata, and you, your health, your appearance that is the magnum opus.

You see forcing someone into doing something just turns them away from the entire concept.  But becoming inspired can cause a lifetime resolution.  Exercise is just like music, you have to be inspired and you have to find your forte.

Exercise has to be something you enjoy doing for yourself.  If you are exercising because you feel like you have to or because you promised someone else you would, you are not going to have the same commitment to exercise that you would have if you were doing it for yourself.

Now I know that many people like the gym.  It is a great place to stay motivated and meet people with similar fitness interests.  Personally though, I think finding a sport or a leisurely activity that you love to do is going to be the best way to become fit and healthy.  It is just sometimes the gym can feel so much like a chore, ya know?

I myself like to combine climbing and jogging, and basically anything that has to do with the outdoors.  I suppose that would be where my interests lie.  I would even go as far to say that climbing is my forte. It is that activity that keeps me moving.

What is your forte, have you figured it out?

I think we only have a handful of these moments in our lives, but the thing is, they are so vitally important to us because they are essentially a snapshot of our character at the moment.  Will we have enough courage to stand for what you believe when worst comes to worst?  Do you really have enough faith to die for a cause or for something that you have placed all your convictions in?

It seems that this world is not necessarily lacking in who are will to be swayed by the popular vote, but for people who take the time and the effort to reach a conclusion about a certain point and then stick by that proven point in the thick and in the thin.  This is especially true in regards to politics and leadership.  You cannot simply be swayed by every slate and wind of the world around you, but it is so vital to become what you believe in, live for it, and die for it.

Now, although that dying is not literal, it will probably take some sacrifice and some effort to stand by a point.

How will we do the next time a hinge point moment comes around?  We’ll just have to wait and see.

-Ace

What do NYTimes, CBSnews, and Medicinenet all have in common?  The answer is they are all boisterous fidget advocates.  Are you a fidgeter? Careful how you answer, it may determine whether or not you are overweight.

As it turns out fidgeting regularly can result in close to 350 extra calories being burned daily. Now, that may only sound like the calorie content of two McDoubles, but in a year’s time that is roughly equivalent 30 to 40 pounds.

Why yes, I do fidget.

You have probably been told to stop fidgeting since you were just a toddler in elementary.  Well, your grade school teachers didn’t know what they were talking about.  Fidgety people usually get a bad rap, often they are assumed to be nervous or anxious, or perhaps maybe even on drugs.

People who naturally fidget are more susceptible to a chemical called ‘orexin’.  This is a neurotransmitter (a chemical found in the brain) that excites people to burn calories by causing them to fidget.  When the body is aware that there is more calories being ingested than being spent it will brew up some orexin .  This is sort of its way of telling you to get up and move.

Tuckered out from too much Fidgeting

The reason some people are more susceptible to this orexin stuff is partly genetic and partly from diet.  Feeling sluggish after eating a great big meal may seem to contradict everything I have just said. But what happens is the glucose in the food blocks the orexin in the brain thus causing a lethargic listless stupor. Therefore eating foods low in glucose will not give you that same slothful feeling.  Try feeling sluggish after eating vegetables, it’s not going to happen.

So here is what you do:

• Start making fidgeting a habit. When you are sitting at a desk move your feet, when you are waiting for a bus pace back and forth, when listing to a lecture tap your fingers.

And

• Avoid eating foods high in saturated fat (i.e. bad glucose).  Glucose is a necessary component for making energy in the body, but it can cause temporary laziness, so be sure you get healthy nutritious foods with good sugars.