Exercising goes beyond what we see and feel at the time; it changes how we think and how our body travels through life.
It also changes our relationship with our self and with those around us. Coming to class or physically engaging in the online program we must exert energy; this energy affects how our heart beats.
Love is always related to the beating heart, but it is more profound than an emotion, it is a state of being.
When we talk about loving life, family and friends, it is always about being actively engaged in the relationship.
Self Love
The most important relationship in our life is the relationship we have with our self. With it comes self-care.
Self-care is not the latest euphemism for eating well and exercise; it is about making your world a better place to live.
Exercising this week was tough many of you questioned your fitness, and some felt perhaps defeated.
It is very natural to feel challenged by our workouts; they are designed to grow with you and improve how you use energy, in other words, improve your metabolism.
What is Metabolism?
Metabolism is a term that is used to describe the chemical reactions involved in maintaining the living state of the cells in your body.
Metabolism is closely linked to nutrition and the availability of nutrients. Exercise determines how efficiently energy consumed is utilized.
Our base metabolism is the amount of energy it takes to keep us alive e.g. breathing. On average, this accounts for about 60% of our total metabolism, and the rest is dependent on what we do and how we live.
By exercising and increasing our muscle mass, we can effectively increase our metabolic rate because muscle requires more energy to maintain. It means that post exercise we will continue to use energy to keep our body working well.
If our lifestyle is sedentary, then there is no need for energy expenditure, and the body will divert its resources into storing the energy we consume.
The active body improves the efficiency of blood utilisation in vital organs. That is, repairing and regenerating its “equipment” to perform as necessary.
Therefore, behind the exercise scene, your body is getting ready for your next workout, and this take a huge amount of energy to do if you are regularly exercising!
Not all calories are created equal
A calorie is a unit for measuring energy; technically it is the amount of energy or heat, it takes to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius.
When we look at how our body utilizes calories we see that restrictive calorie diets don’t help you maintain a healthy weight.
Let’s use an example; One cookie is 12 grams, and yields 58 calories and one apple is 110 grams and yield 54 calories – about the same, both will take 20 minutes to work off at a vigorous pace.
Those of you who would rather eat a cookie than an apple, please read on……
The apple has fiber and requires further energy to expel, and the water content, vitamins and minerals help rebuild the body.
Cookie calories can only be used at the time of exercise after that they are stored. The apple calories are almost all used in one form or another and are less likely to be stored.
Exercising is a wonderful start to living a healthy life and if you can replace your cookie with some fruit or vegetables your body will be better able to rebuild and regenerate!
Live well with fitness!
Anna
Recent Comments