Rainbow of Colors

Are you eating your "Rainbow of Colors"? I have posted about this before. But it is well worth posting about again.

The very easiest way to manage the way you eat is to manage your "colors".

An active female needs 5-7 servings of vegetables and fruits a day. Dark green veggies, orange veggies, fresh fruits. Limit your juices. I call them 'wasted calories'.

3-5 servings of whole grain foods. That is one slice of bread. 1/2 cup of cheerios, etc. Today's cereal bowls are huge, just a little at the bottom in all you need.

Dairy... you need 3 or so servings a day. Stick with fat free and lowfat milk, cottage cheese yogurt, etc.

Protein - meat, 3 servings a day, if you lift weights, more. Sometimes it is tough to get that much in. I suggest a whey protein powder that can be made into a shake as needed. I do not recommend a certain brand. I prefer one b/c I have become accustomed to the flavor.

Fats... olive oil, nuts (also a protein, but not a complete protein) fish these are your best sources for fats. Vegetable Oils, OK in very small quantities. Remember, calories from fats are still calories...

Drink water...H2O. In the Winter I will drink a minimum of 2 quarts a day. Plus any hot liquids. In the Spring and Summer I will drink 3-4 quarts a day. It is hot! Also, if you lift weights to help maintain your weight and you are eating a lot of protein, you need to drink a lot of water to process that protein. You do not want the protein to settle in the kidneys.

Today's Tip:
Use My Pyramid (link in the side bar) to help plan your menus, track your food intake, etc. This is a great tool and you tax $$$ at work!

Pilates

Photographs of Joseph H. Pilates

A Younger Joseph Pilates. Photo taken sometime after he moved to the States.

Photo of Joseph H. Pilates taken sometime in the 50's. I think the color has been added. I have seen this same photo in B&W.
These photos were taken from various places on the internet. I do not believe anyone 'owns' them. Not sure.

I love Pilates. I am a Pilates Practitioner. (Take and pass my Diet and Nutrition test and I will be 'Master Practitioner'.) I do not teach it as much as I used to. In this area, it does not seem to be as popular as in other areas. Though, there is always a demand for the classes! People are always asking me to start the classes, etc. Beg for the classes, but 'life' seems to get in the way of regular attendance.

My solution is I incorporated Pilates in many of my regular classes. Most of the time participants do not know the difference. But the ones who want Pilates seem to be satisfied.

Joseph Pilates was not a healthy child. He had respiratory problems and rickets. I imagine him as a child who was the type if told, "you could never do that..." he would prove you wrong every time. He became an expert swimmer which increased his lung capacity. Joined the circus as a youth, learning gymnastics and acrobatics. By the time he was 14-16 years old, his legs were straight and body developed enough to model for medical drawings.

He was in the UK during WWI. Being German, he was sent to the Isle of Man to work. He became the head Physical Therapist in one of the wards at the Military Hospital. This is where he began to develop "Contrology" what we now call "Basic Pilates". He required everyone in the ward he was in charge of to do Contrology everyday. Employees and even patients, with help and as part of their physical therapy. Many had just been shot up on the war front.

By now, Pilates had studied yoga, swimming, gymnastics, some ballet, perhaps other forms of exercise as well, and he was incorporating what he believed to be the best of all of these disciplines in his physical therapy and exercise programs. And you know what? It was working! He had the fastest patient recuperation. Those who worked in his dept were also in fine health.

During WWI the Hospital was hit by the flu. Pilates ward was the only ward that did not lose a life to the influenza. Not even the patients who caught the flu. (They healed quickly like they only had a cold.) They say it was due to the 'Contrology' exercise they were required to do daily.

After the war, Pilates and his wife Sara, took a ship to the states and settled in New York where he opened a studio. He moved on to develop what we now call Pilates. He died in 1962 in his 80s. His studio had caught on fire. He had left a proto type of a new exercise invention and ran back inside the studio to get the prototype. The smoke overcame him.

In Pilates lifetime, he saw the industrial age take off. He saw poverty disappear. Jobs become more and more sedintary. I have two of his books and he states several times in those books, God did not make our bodies to sit all day at a desk, come home sit and read the newspaper or a book and then go to bed. And somewhere during that time, eat 3 large meals. What we now call Basic Pilates was designed for every individual to do everyday at home in the floor for about 20 minutes or more. So whether 20 or 70, you can get up and down off the floor to play games with your children and grand children.

Jennifer Kries (there is a link to her site in the sidebar) is one of the best instructors in the country. If you have not tried Pilates before I recommend her basic DVD. It is wonderful. She perfectly shows you how to execute the exercises. She takes you in babys steps and moves you up. She also shows modifications and encourages you along the way just as you should be encouraged in a class. Keep in mind, Jennifer has a wide range of motion. She was a Ballarina, and she is a yoga master. She will instruct you to only use your range of motion.

Todays Tip:
Libraries carry exercise tapes and DVD's. It is always a good idea to check one out to try out. If you do like the tape/dvd, then you can invest the money in it. If you do not like the tape/DVD, you can take it back, check out another you might like better. Either way, you have not invested money needlessly.

Have a blessed day
Love,
Melissa

About Sugars and Tummy Fat...

...and fats in general.

You basically have 3 kinds of fats on your body:
visceral fat --edited to say, there is a photo here that ain't purty.
omentum/omental fat
subcutaneous fat

Visceral Fat is designed to protect the organs. You do not need much.

Omentum Fat is designed to feed you in times of famine. There are little aprons or sock looking things that hang from your stomach. During times of Harvest and Plenty they act as storage for your excess calories, fat and nutrients. During famine and stress your body will utilize this storage to feed your body.

Subcutaneous Fat is the fat you have between muscle and skin. Contains all your capillaries, nerve ending, etc. It is where you get your short term energy for activies, exercise, cleaning the house, etc.

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, we have not seen a time of true hardship and famine in this country in decades. People are slap out getting FAT! Lot's of 'Belly Fat'. I really do not think it is as much as we have food so plentiful as much as we have been raised by parents and grandparents who lived during 1-2 depressions. You ate every bite on your plate. {Were you told to eat everything on your plate?} The difference is, we are putting a lot more on our plates!!!!

Not only that, but the plates are Bigger!!!

I learned today that the plate on top is a very very old Blue Willow Stoneware plate. The plate below is my everyday stoneware. It is nearly 2 inches larger. Almost large enough to be a charger! Some years ago, plates started getting larger. Some dinner plates are larger than 12 inches!!!

As we continue to eat, the calories we do not need to sustain life is stored in the omentum which gets larger and larger and larger.... grows around the stomach the intestines, the heart the liver, the gallbladder, and really starts sticking out in front... Might look a lot like a baby or like someone is carrying twins! More fat calories are stored in the visceral fat cells causing them to grow larger and larger as well. This leads to obesity, type II diabetes, heart diease, GERD, etc.

Sugars and fats feed these. Cutting back on these (fruitrose, corn syrup, read your lables!) will really help the omentum and visceral fat cells get to a normal size. You will become healthier.

Cardio exercise daily and strength training 3-4 times a week will speed it up. Really work on getting your waist down.

Today's Tip:
Increase your Simple Sugars and Complex Carbs. This really helps to reve up the metabolism. Read your lables. Remember, to maintain-only eat as many calories as you burn. To lose weight-eat less calories than you burn. High Intensity Interval Training {HIIT} that I wrote about in my last post, is great for getting rid of that 'belly-fat'.

Romans 14:

• 16.Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil ;

• 17.for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

• 18.For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.

• 19.So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.

• 20.Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense.

• 21.It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles.

• 22.The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.

• 23.But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith ; and whatever is not from faith is sin.

Here Paul is talking about whether to eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols. We need to set an example to others what to eat, how to eat it. I am becoming increasingly careful of what and how much I eat especially when I am at church and around ladies who I teach and come to me for diet advice. I have to 'practice' or rather demonstrate what I preach. LOL!

Pray for me. I have having a hard time with my current Sugar Fast. It has been tough. I still have a week to go. I am hungry and tend to get week. I will continue to pray for you all who are fasting as well.