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FITNESS GUIDE
FITNESS GUIDE
levels. Any diet that focuses on just one food group source or processed foods
can be unhealthy in the long run, and should be avoided. Don’t focus too much
on any particular meal or snack, but rather on your overall intake of a variety of
different foods during any given day.
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Drink Water
Our bodies are made up of over 70 percent water, and most of us don’t drink
enough. Carry water with you everywhere you go, and drink as often as you can.
This helps the body function at optimum levels, and can signifi cantly help with
weight management.
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Eat More Often and Be Mindful of Your Portions
Research has shown that it can be helpful to eat smaller meals more often
versus three larger meals a day if you are looking to promote healthy weight
maintenance or weight loss. And we have discovered that many portions we eat
are much larger than necessary, and can be laden with calories. So, try snacking
more and not eating so many large meals, and share your snacks or food with
others (or break your portions in half) to help manage your caloric intake.
Monitoring Your Intensity
When you are doing cardiovascular workouts, it is important that you work at the
appropriate intensities when you are fi rst starting out. It is also important that you
workout at a variety of intensities after you have built a fi tness base.
Research in recent years has indicated that one of the best ways to monitor your
cardiovascular intensity is to pay close attention to how you are feeling when
you workout. Most individuals can do a very good job of choosing the correct
intensities if they simply categorize how they feel into one of four intensity
“zones.”
These zones could be described the following ways:
Zone Description
1 Easy
Warm-up
Cool-down
2 Challenging, but comfortable
Steady endurance pace
3 Challenging, and slightly uncomfortable
Race pace
Borderline out of breath
4 Breathless
Not maximum, but winded
Can’t keep the pace for very long