Showing posts with label knowledge to glean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label knowledge to glean. Show all posts

Thursday, January 22, 2009

10 Ways to Boost the Ol' Metabolism

WebMD has a good slideshow about ways to boost your metabolism. Here are some highlights as well as some commentary. Be sure to check out the link at the end for the full article.


1) Build muscle (I'm doing)
Everyone burns calories, even while doing nothing. This rate is much higher in people with more muscle. Each pound of muscle needs 6 cals a day while each pound of fat needs 2.

2) High intensity workouts (Thank you, triathlon training)
They deliver a bigger, longer increase in resting metabolic rate than moderate workouts.

3) Drink more water (Thank you, triathlon training)
In one study, adults who drank eight or more glasses of water a day burned more calories than those who drank four.

4) Have your drinks on the rocks (Check)
Ice-cold beverages prompt the body to burn more calories during digestion.

5) Eat more often (No problem here)
When you eat large meals with many hours in between, you train your metabolism to slow down.

6) Spice up your meals (Will start)
Eating a tablespoon of chopped red or green chili pepper can temporarily boost your metabolic rate by 23 percent.

7) Eat more protein (My biggest goal already, actually)
The body burns up to twice as many calories digesting protein as it uses for fat or carbohydrates.

8) Drink black coffee (I just will never, ever be able to do)
In one study, the caffeine in two cups of coffee prompted a 145-pound woman to burn 50 extra calories over the next four hours.

9) Drink green tea (I've got some in my cabinet and will make some today)
Drinking two to four cups may push the body to burn an extra 50 calories each day. That adds up to 5 pounds of weight loss in a year.

10) Avoid crash diets (No problem)


Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Death by Triathlon?

Before bringing this up, it's important to note that dying during a triathlon is very, very rare.

This year, however, there was some buzz about it after someone died in the New York City Triathlon and The New York Times wrote a story about it.

Most recently, Beginner Triathlete (BT) published a really good article on it, prompted, I assume, from the questions asked late this summer after the news story.

Here is the BT story.
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=1604

Here is The New York Times story.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/fashion/31fitness.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

What's a "Chi" and Why is it Running?

Some of you may notice a link on here to a Web site called ChiRunning. If you want to run better, and pain-free, you have to check this out.

Seriously.

I was skeptical when I heard about it, too, but about a year ago, I decided to pick up running. This was right before triathlons got on my radar screen. I started out running a half-mile and then worked up to one mile. The trouble is, my knees started to really hurt - again.

In fact, I decided to take a break from running and work on building leg strength for a few months. If the muscles surrounding my knees were strong, my knees wouldn't be so weak and, therefore, as able to be injured.

Meanwhile, I got interested in triathlons. I read a swimming book, Total Immersion (TI), and just fell in love with the theories behind the author, Terry Laughlin's, techniques. At the end of his book, he recommended ChiRunning by Danny Dreyer.

Soon thereafter, I got a copy from the library. I read it in one day.

I won't go into all of the details about the mechanics of it. It would take a book to explain and Dryer's already written it, but basically it's about falling into your run instead of forcing yourself to run.

Here's a short video of Danny Dreyer, the creator of ChiRunning, explaining the difference between ChiRunning and typical running.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA0Yd4NLKlo

I can say that since running this way since April, I have experienced no knee pain during or after running - none!

If you're tired of your running causing you pain, it is definitely worth your time to check out the book and/or DVD. It may end up not being for you - but what if it is?

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