If Not Now, When?

Fitness-After-50 - Thomas D. Manfredi, Publisher
tom@fitness-after-50.com
http://www.fitness-after-50.com
January 3, 2006; Vol. 2, Issue 1
Published the first Monday of every month

THIS ISSUE: Additional Items to Help You Lose Weight

Table of Contents:

1) Editor's Note
2) Food for Thought
3) Feature Article: Additional Items to Help You Lose Weight
4) Teleclasses
4) Question & Answer
5) Our Services

Editor's Note

Hi,

Happy New Year!

Once again the holiday season has come and gone. I hope it was good for everyone. As I mentioned back in November, we didn’t get to go home for the holidays this year. It is hard this time of year not be with family. This is an especially fun time to be around young children (we have four grandchildren). They enjoy the season so much, and it makes it that much more enjoyable for us “old folks”.

Speaking of “old folks”, I heard an announcer mention the other day that this is the year that baby boomers start hitting 60 years old. As a leading edge baby boomer (I will hit 60 in mid February) I know of what he speaks. He also mentioned that we are the most active and energetic generation in history. I don’t believe that 60 qualifies us as “old folks”, but I do believe we need to stay on top of our health and fitness in order to keep active and enjoy the upcoming years to their fullest.

I’m sure many of you had good intentions this holiday season to watch the party food and drink and to keep to your exercise routine. By doing these things, you could have kept from gaining any unwanted pounds. But, let’s be honest – how many of us didn’t gain a few pounds this season? It does us no good to feel guilty and give up. We need to get back in the groove and do what we need to do to get and stay fit and healthy. I hope that by reading this newsletter and visiting my site, fitness-after-50.com, you will gain the knowledge and methods that will help you reach your health and fitness goals.

Good Luck in 2006.

Best Wishes,

Tom Manfredi
tom@fitness-after-50.com
fitness-after-50.com

Food for Thought

Feature Article - Additional Items to Help You Lose Weight

Just as important as what we eat, is how we eat. Do you eat just because it’s that time of day? Or maybe you eat when you’re bored. Do you ever have an extra helping just because it tastes really good? How often do you keep eating, even after you’re full, just because the food is there? These, and other behavioral issues, can cause as much of a problem for us in our quest to lose those pounds as anything else. So, let’s look the challenge a little more closely, and from more angles.

There are all kinds of sensible diets that give us good guidelines regarding proper proportions of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. Once we find a sensible diet that seems right for us, what are some of the other things we can do to help us succeed?

Look closely at the kinds of calories that you are ingesting. Did you know that by having a lite yogurt instead of a low fat yogurt, you can save up to 110 calories? Drinking a can of diet cola instead of a regular cola saves about 150 calories (and most cola drinkers have at least 2 cans a day, equaling 300 calories). Eating a hard boiled egg in place of a Power bar reduces your calories by 173. If you replaced each one of those items in your diet for a week, you would save 4081 calories. That translates to the loss of over one pound per week just with those small changes. That translates to more than 50 pounds in a year. So, look for ways to make lower calorie substitutions for things that you like to eat. But, be careful with those choices, because things like “low fat” items are not necessarily lower in calories.

Most diets strongly suggest that we drink at least 64 ounces of water each day. If you drink a large glass of water about 10 minutes before each meal, it will help to make you feel full sooner. And, if you mix a fiber substitute into the water, it will not only make you feel fuller, it will help your body eliminate excess materials more quickly.

Another thing that many of us do that gets us in trouble with our dieting is how often we eat. Dieters often think that if they eat less frequently, it will help them shed the pounds quicker. Guess what? Almost the opposite is true. By eating less frequently, we are teaching our body that it needs to conserve energy by saving the calories we ingest for those times when nothing is being eaten. What will work better is to eat 5 or 6 smaller meals throughout the day so our body doesn’t feel the need to conserve extra calories.

In summary: analyze why you’re eating; look for healthy, low calorie substitutes; drink water before every meal; and eat more, small meals each day. These suggestions are not the only things you can do to help yourself lose weight. But, they will go a long way to making your weight loss goal more attainable.


I am in the process of adding a number of pages of information regarding diets and nutrition to my site. If you are interested, check back periodically on my home page at fitness-after-50.com and click on the “Diets” tab.

©2005 Thomas D. Manfredi, MS

Teleclasses

I will be announcing upcoming teleclasses in this section in the future.

If you have a topic that you would be interested in hearing about in a teleclass, send an e-mail to mailto:teleclasses@fitness-after-50.com

Questions and Answers

As someone who has over 4 decades of experience practicing the martial arts, 3 decades of long distance running, swimming, and biking, and an advanced degree in exercise physiology, I feel comfortable in saying that my personal experience indicates that sensible stretching makes sense as part of a warm up routine for any kind of exercising. Just make sure that the stretching you do is slow and sustained rather than the bouncing type. Bouncing while you try to stretch actually causes muscles to shorten rather than stretch because of a protective mechanism that is built into each muscle.

To get more information on various fitness and health issues, please go to my site – fitness-after-50.com


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If you have a fitness or nutrition question you would like me to consider answering here in the newsletter, just send your question, along with your first name and city, in an e-mail to mailto:quesandansw@fitness-after-50.com
Obviously, I can't answer every question submitted. I will choose one question each month to answer here.

About Our Services

Online fitness coach Tom Manfredi is the creator of the site "fitness-after-50". This site is designed with the mature adult in mind. There is a lot of information available on the site for anyone looking to start or restart a sensible exercise program. Learn more by going to fitness-after-50.com



Tom Manfredi, 1218 Easy St., Ste 101, Wickenburg, AZ 85390