Metabolism and Your Weight

 Your metabolism is the most important and primary factor to understand when it comes to gaining or losing weight. Your metabolism is responsible for converting energy from the food we eat, eliminating unnecessary nutrients from our body, and storing glucose and extra energy as fat for use in the future.

The right nutritional intake and activity keeps our bodies at the weight they should be. Your metabolism also affects your body fat ratio.

A very important point to keep in mind is that if you force yourself to stop eating and deprive yourself of essential nutrients your body will go into the starvation mode, which is your body will naturally try to keep the fat and use the liver’s glycogen supply for energy. Your metabolism shuts down because nothing is fueling it, and you will be hungry.

If you want to be healthy and lean, you MUST burn fat and build muscle. This is a FACT, no questions about it. If you are starving yourself on diets you are throwing off your metabolism forcing it to shut down.

You need to look at the chemistry that is happening in your body and understand that there is a whole system working inside of your body.

If you are going to get lean and firm you will not do it by starving your body and essentially turning your metabolism off.

Have you ever wondered how some people are able to maintain amazing bodies while you struggle with your weight?

They make it seem so easy to achieve and maintain results. What do they know that you don’t? When you boil it down, the answer is quite simple.

The missing link between you and your ideal body is good old motivation.

A healthy dose of motivation coupled with determination will get you almost anything in life. So how do you know if you’re genuinely motivated?

• Motivation will tell you to get out of bed for an early workout.
• Motivation will nag you to put down the doughnut.
• Motivation makes passing on fries a reflex.
• Motivation makes a sweat drenched workout exciting.
• Motivation constantly reminds you why you do what you do.

If your motivation levels are lacking, read the following four steps to turn on your motivation.                                                                    

Step #1: Pinpoint Your Motivator.

Motivation stems from having a goal. What is your goal? Why do you want to get into great shape?

Once you uncover your personal motivator you’ll find that motivation flows quickly your way.

Take a minute to really uncover the reason that you want to lose the weight. Don’t say something vague like you want to ‘Be thinner’ or ‘Look more attractive.’ Dig deeper – there is a very specific motivator in your life, you simply need to uncover it.

Here are some possible motivators…

• I want to have more energy to keep up with the kids.
• I want to improve my health through weight loss to extend and improve my life.
• I want to lose 15 pounds before my vacation.
• I want to restore my confidence to wear sleeveless shirts.
• I want to regain my figure to impress and attract my significant other.

Step #2: Make It Official.

When you write something down it suddenly feels official, doesn’t it? Write down your motivator for getting into great shape, and post it where you will see it often – next to your alarm clock, on the bathroom mirror, or in your car.

Each time you see your written motivator take a moment to visualize yourself accomplishing your goal. Try to make the scene as clear in your mind as possible. This is a powerful tool for maintaining your focus and direction.

Step #3: Be Practical.

It’s game plan time. You know what you want, and now you need to map out exactly how you’ll achieve it. It is important to be practical in your planning, rather than throwing out ideas that you know you won’t stick with.

With any weight loss goal it is important to 1) maintain a healthy low-calorie diet, and 2) participate in a consistent and challenging exercise program. 

By Shondelle Solomom Miles, Trainer/Owner Synergizeweightloss

As we enter Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I want to share a personal story with you…

 I grew up with breast cancer. My mother was diagnosed with it 6 months after getting married and 2 years before I was born. She underwent a radical mastectomy and was told that she had a 50/50 percent chance of surviving 5 years down the road. This was obviously before the medical and scientific communities made such progress in diagnosis, treatment options and cure rates. As the saying goes “We’ve come a long way baby”. But for me I have a deep understanding of what breast cancer means in terms of emotions and recovering from a life threatening disease that can scar a woman’s psyche. Not to mention the thought that the disease can kill you, the disfiguring surgeries can make a woman feel that she has lost some part of her femininity and a part of her will never be the same.

 Medicine and healing techniques have come along way since my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

 When I was growing up my mother gently told me about her bout with this horrific disease as soon as I was mature enough to understand it. One day she showed her surgical scar to my best friend and me to explain why she never wanted us to see her without her top or nightgown on. The scar made her chest look concave and went from the middle of her chest to under her arm pit and looked as though it must have felt very raw and painful in the beginning. She almost always wore her bra with the prosthesis inside to feel more normal.

 As I got older, I subtly learned that this cancer that had invaded her life had caused physical pain, emotional pain and insecurity about her sexuality. Only in her 30’s when she developed the lump that my father found, at an age where women are at their sexual peak, my mother felt ugly and maimed, especially when my father had a less than supportive attitude to her turmoil.

 As the years went on my mother stayed healthy and had no recurrence of the cancer. The lingering discomfort, swollen arm and scar slowly became less noticeable to her. She volunteered to go to the hospital and see other breast cancer patients to somehow try to ease their emotional pain and enlighten them as to the progress of the medical advances that were taking place.

 Today, more than 40 years from the day my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, there have been vast changes and improvements in the surgery, the techniques used ,added benefits of radiation and chemotherapy, reconstructive surgery, more doctors trained in the psychological effects of this dreaded disease and better diagnostic testing.

 As I wear my pink ribbon today I will think and honor all the women who have been affected by breast cancer.