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Your Physical Fitness Genie

April 2, 2010

You can control what your body does — that is, you can lose fat, you can gain muscle, or you can maintain your present physique — all at your whim.  Your physical fitness wish is your command.  Your body can be your fitness genie. All you have to do is chose which you want to do (lose fat, gain muscle, or maintain), then adjust you daily caloric intake to meet your needs.  That’s it.

But first, you’ve got to make the fitness basics a part of your LIFESTYLE.  What are the fitness basics?

1. Eat a healthy balanced diet.  A balanced diet will contain proteins, carbohydrates, and healthy fats. Get a lean protein source with each meal, and strive to eat at least 3 servings of fruits and vegetables every day.  Eat 5 or 6 meals each day.

2. Exercise.  Almost daily (5 or 6 times per week) exercise should be a way of life. Get 3 cardio workouts per week and resistance train your major muscle groups once or twice per week.  Also, stretching should be a part of your regular exercise regimen.

3. Monitor what your body is doing by weighing yourself and measuring your body fat percentage at least once per week.

4. If you’re trying to gain muscle or lose fat, keep a food and exercise journal.

5. Chose one — lose fat, gain muscle, or maintain.  To lose fat reduce your calories by 10-15%.  To gain muscle, increase your calories by 500 to 1000 per day.

Your body will tell you if you’re on the right track to your fitness goals.  What is meant by your body “telling” you is that your weekly measurements (see # 3 above) will let you know if you’re gaining muscle, losing fat, gaining fat, losing muscle, some combination of these, or maintaining.  These weekly measurements are, in effect, your body saying, “What you’ve been feeding me and making me do, exercise-wise, is causing me to ______”, where the blank would be filled in by “lose fat” or “gain muscle” or “get fatter”, etc.  Then, based upon what your body says, you make adjustments to what you’re doing to it as far as diet and exercise are concerned.  You’ll know what you’re doing diet and exercise-wise because you’ll have it all in your journal.  All you’ve eaten.  All the exercise you’ve done.  All your weight and caliper measurements.

Remember this: if you are doing regular vigorous cardiovascular and resistance training, then whether your body loses fat, loses fat and muscle, maintains, gains muscle (assuming you’re resistance training hard enough to gain), gains fat and muscle or any other loss/gain combo is entirely dependent upon what you consume in your diet.  If you’re eating a balanced diet, then the calories you consume will be the determining factor in whether or not you reach your fitness goal.

Darryl

2 Responses to “Your Physical Fitness Genie”

1. Rob Northrup says:

   April 3, 2010 at 12:33 pm

   Darryl,

   These are fantastic tips and tactics for anyone who wants to live healthier, Looking forward to more of your great info…

   Seize the Day,
   Rob

   Simple Family Survival Tips For Disasters and Emergencies
2. Cyber-Dating Expert and Online Dating Coach says:

   April 17, 2010 at 7:42 am

   Hi Darryl,

   Oh that is a fun way to approach our fitness goals. To frame our brain to think of our work outs as our being a fitness genie. lol. Your clear explanations and fitness tips make our realizing our fitness goals a reality.

   I joined a gym. I did n’t have a ton of time this morning, but rather than being perfect, I just did a 30 mins of cardio workout and got something worked into my schedule. Better than nothing, always.

   Happy Dating and Relationships,

   April Braswell

   http://www.aprilbraswell.com
   Cyber-Dating Expert and Online Dating Coach