Saturday, February 28, 2009

Build Muscle

Many people – particularly some women – are very leery about undertaking any exercise regimen that can lead to muscle building. The old perception was that muscle building leads to muscle bulking, and before long, gorging forearm veins and other unwanted results. This is, frankly, not the case. Provided that women aren’t supporting their workouts with specific muscle-building supplements, there is no need to be concerned; because building lean muscle won’t make them bulk up. Still, however, the question remains: why would women (and, of course, men) who want to boost their metabolism focus on muscle building? Isn’t cardiovascular exercising the only thing that matters? Again, the answer is: No! In addition to a healthy and responsible cardiovascular program, muscle building is an exceptionally powerful way to boost metabolism.

Posted by JMD at 6:44 AM | 2 comments  

Friday, February 20, 2009

Anabolism and Catabolism

The first function is creating tissue and cells. Each moment, our bodies are creating more cells to replace dead or dysfunctional cells. For example, if you cut your finger, your body will begin without even wasting a moment or asking your permission –the process of creating skin cells to clot the blood and start the healing process. This creation process is indeed a metabolic response, and is called anabolism. On the other hand, there is the exact opposite activity taking place in other parts of the body. Instead of building cells and tissue through metabolism, the body is breaking down energy so that the body can do what it’s supposed to do. For example, as you aerobically exercise, your body temperature rises as your heart beat increases and remains with a certain range. As this happens, your body requires more oxygen; and as such, your breathing increases as you intake more H2O. All of this, as you can imagine, requires additional energy. After all, if your body couldn’t adjust to this enhanced requirement for oxygen, you would collapse!

Posted by JMD at 3:40 AM | 0 comments  

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Drinks

If you think you are one of those people who just cannot resist a table laden with food, if you think you will inevitably succumb to temptation because when the hunger pangs strike your will-power will evaporate, then try this : before you go to the party, nibble something that is within the rules, to ”line your stomach”. In the mid-nineteenth century a forbear of mine (my great-great-grandfather), who had six children, was invited with his family to lunch with the managing director of the company he worked for. I am told that my great-great-grandmother took good care to see that the children were fed a hearty soup before they went. With their stomachs thus lined, these delightful children showed a good deal less unseemly enthusiasm than they might have done, when dishes of a magnificence they were quite unused to were set before them. And my great-great-grandparents acquired the instant reputation for having extremely well brought-up offspring.

Posted by JMD at 6:39 AM | 0 comments  

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Cheese

It is not at all impossible and you will soon discover it actually tastes much better this way. And you will enjoy it all the more before long, when you are allowed to drink some wine with it. Exceptions need to be made for cantal and for goat cheeses, which contain a little carbohydrate, so it is better to avoid them in the early stages. There is no reason why you should not finish a meal of this kind with a yoghurt or some fromage frais, but do not eat more than 100 to 125g, because both do contain some carbohydrate. Anyone who is overweight and still very sensitive to carbohydrate may find that, although their glycaemic index is very low, from age frais or yoghurt can trigger an undesirable secretion of insulin at the end of the meal, and that could result in body fat being formed from the contents of the main course.

Posted by JMD at 6:37 PM | 0 comments  

Saturday, January 31, 2009

BEER

I am not going to be much kinder about beer. In my view, it is a drink to be consumed in the strictest moderation. Just as you may know skinny people who incessantly stuff themselves with bad carbohydrates with no ill effect, you have probably also met heavy beer drinkers with stomachs as flat as a pancake. You do not need to have visited Germany to know about the usual side-effects of beer drinking, though : bloating, weight gain, bad breath and indigestion, all of which occur despite the presence of diastases. Let us just say that without diastases the consequences of beer drinking would be catastrophic. Beer contains everything that is bad for you : alcohol, gas and, above all, a large amount of a carbohydrate called maltose, whose glycaemic index is 110, higher even than that of glucose. Furthermore, the combination of alcohol and sugar tends to lead to hypoglycaemia, and therefore tiredness and under-performance. So it is a drink with high energy potential, which means a high potential for creating stored fat.

Posted by JMD at 6:32 AM | 0 comments  

Monday, January 26, 2009

FRUIT

For starch to be digested, it is essential that an enzyme called ptyalin is present. This is secreted in the saliva. Most fruits have the effect of destroying ptyalin, with the result that any starch consumed along with fruit cannot be digested. The food bolus remains ”in limbo”in the stomach, where the warmth and humidity will cause it to ferment. Bloating, flatulence and indigestion can often be attributed directly to this phenomenon. Maybe this explanation sheds a little light on these familiar symptoms. Let us now consider what happens when fruit is consumed with protein-lipids, such as meat or cheese. Fruit requires rapid passage into the intestine, where it is normally digested, but in this instance its journey is interrupted for a while in the stomach. For meat remains for some time in the stomach, where the essential enzymes account for the most important stage of its digestion The fruit is therefore also trapped in the stomach where once again the effect of the warmth and humidity causes fermentation, even producing alcohol, and the whole digestive process is upset. At the same time not only does the fruit loses all its vitamins, but protein metabolism is also upset, and the abnormal decomposition of the proteins results in abdominal bloating.

Posted by JMD at 9:27 AM | 0 comments  

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Bad carbohydrates

I have deliberately discussed in greatest detail the bad carbohydrates you are most likely to be eating on a regular basis, and which you will have to give up, at least temporarily. Other bad carbohydrates tend to be foods which contain a good deal of carbohydrate but very little protein, and which have only poor quality fibre. The combination of these factors confers on such foods a high glycaemic index. It is worth mentioning carrots and beetroot in this category. Also to be included are all the carbohydrate-lipid items,such as biscuits, croissants and pastries, which should be ruled out in Phase I. Dark chocolate, if it is the bitter kind with a high cocoa content, has a low glycaemic index. However, it should be eaten only very exceptionally during Phase I, as it too constitutes a carbohydrate-lipid. There is one more rather special kind of carbohydrate we now need to look at: fruit.

Posted by JMD at 6:24 AM | 0 comments  

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