Healthy Living

Fitness has been growing in popularity as more people are attracted to the idea of fitness and healthy living. What better time to share my thoughts on fitness than now? Whether you are trying to lose weight, put on weight, cut down on body fat, or live healthier, it all comes down to eating right, exercising,and being consistent. If you're exercising but not eating right or dieting without exercise, you will not see any results. It’s the culmination of all these aspects that gives you the best results.

Being fit requires a lifestyle change. It demands you to change your sleeping pattern, eating habits, exercising habits, etc. In addition, it also calls for a lot of your time, which is especially difficult for students and teachers at Otis, considering their hectic schedules. 

Here are some facts you need to be conscious of to improve your lifestyle:

DIET

While most people have a hard time controlling their diet, it is the simplest place to start since no gym membership or weights are required. Diet encompasses what you eat, how much you eat, when you eat, and how you eat. Without a good diet, it’s difficult to improve your physique, strength and ultimately, your goal.

CALORIES

This is a website where you can learn how many calories you'll need to reach a certain goal. Remember: When you are burning more calories than you are consuming, it will lead to weight loss; When you are consuming more calories than you are burning (through metabolism, exercise) you will gain weight.

CARBS- Carbohydrates are essentially the main source of energy. Carbs turn to fat if it's not used.

FAT- Fats consist of saturated fats, monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, omega-3 fats, and trans fat. Contrary to the social stigma regarding fat, it is actually very good for you. However, you should be careful with trans fats and saturated fats, too much of them can lead to strokes, high cholesterol, and diabetes.

Protein-Protein is extremely important, it forms body tissue, enzymes, and antibodies.

Protein makes up most of our muscles.

Dieting is tricky, since there are so many dietary fallacies out on the web and in commercials. Many people often believe they are dieting the right way without realizing the adverse damages to the body. Here are some common mistakes and misperceptions we all make:

1. Starving Yourself

Eating way too little calories will make your body go into starvation mode, in which it will begin to eat away at your muscles in order to provide enough energy. Not only is this counterproductive, it also hurts you physically and mentally because you will be lacking in nutrition.

2. Most Diets Are too Short

Many of us are guilty of trying to lose weight in the span of 1 or 2 weeks. This hardly works because our body actually cuts down water weight before body fat. In order to lose body fat, give yourself a long term goal.

3. "You’ll Always be Hungry"

A problem many people face is eating foods with low calories. VLCD ( Very Low Calorie Diets ) can be potentially harmful and can lead to fatigue, malnutrition, and ironically, weight gain. When your body realizes it is getting too little food, it will begin to turn all your other nutrient reserves into fat. Eating appropriately and exercising is much better than not exercising but eating very little. Rather than eating extremely low caloric food, try eating less and more often throughout the day.

4. Eating Less ≠ Faster Weight Loss

Eating less will not allow your body to burn calories efficiently. This will result in slower metabolism meaning you will burn calories slower.

5. The All-or-Nothing Mentality

When we eat something that’s prohibited from our diet, we think, “ I failed this day, might as well go all out.” Try to stick to your diet plan as much as possible.

Being aware of these mistakes and avoiding them will really help your diet. If you want to go even further, here are a couple of foods that actually end up burning more calories than they have. Whole grain, lean meat, green tea and celery are all foods that will help you lose weight.

Lastly, a good diet incorporates exercise; here are a couple calisthenic workouts that require nothing more than your time and body.

1. pullups 100 pushups 100 situps 100

2. 10 rounds of - 10 burpees and 10 situps

3. As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of: 5 pullups 10 pushups 15 squats 

4. As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of: 5 handstand push ups 10 1­legged squats 15 pull-ups



- Phil Lee-