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The Body is Complex: Manage it with the 6 Tenets to Health & Fitness

Hey Trippers,

I have six important and effective tenets of good health.  The rules are in no particular order.  I guarantee if you do all six of these rules, you will not only be healthy but will also be built for the future.  You can pick and choose from the rules but you’ll find you won’t be at your optimum.  Do all six and in a matter of a few months you’ll be ready and in shape for meaningful travel.

Here are the 6 Tenets to worry free health and fitness (not in any particular order):

1. Don’t Smoke
2. Eat a Big Breakfast
3. Do Not Eat Anything Three Hours Before Bed
4. Eat Every Two or Three Hours Per Day
5. Drink Plenty of Fluids
6. Get 30 minutes Exercise Per Day

That’s it in a nutshell.  You can read the details in the previous posts.  Notice there’s nothing in there about Fat Free/Non Fat or Low Fat.  I don’t even mention the Big C – Calories.  There’s where your creativity comes in play.  The bottom Line to any weight lose program is “calories in and calories out”.  If you’re overweight, make adjustments to the amount of calories you take in during the 5 meals/snacks a day.  You can eat normal amounts to maintain.

Once you’ve adjusted to the program, you’ll find you eat less because your body will be having less appetite cravings.  And it will tell you when it’s hungry and ready for nutrients.

Next post I will mention a secret ingredient (recipe) that I have inserted in my program.  The Secret helps you with your cravings.  This Secret takes a little bit of preparation and dedication but is a health and fitness enhancement that will keep you even fitter as you follow the 6 Tenets to Health & Fitness.  It works and I’m proof of that.

Happy Tripping,

Carter

Hey Trippers,

I have six important and effective tenets of good health.  The rules are in no particular order.  I guarantee if you do all six of these rules, you will not only be healthy but will also be built for the future.  You can pick and choose from the rules but you’ll find you won’t be at your optimum.  Do all six and in a matter of a few months you’ll be ready and in shape for meaningful travel.

You may disagree but this final Fitness & Health Tenet is one you may be doing and not know it.  This makes it the easy one, doesn’t it?  Not quite. Chances are you’re doing it but not quite as effectively as you should be.  Fitness Tenet #6:

Get 30 Minutes Exercise everyday

A jogger taking a few minutes to get his 30 minutes of exercise per day

The reason I say that you are probably already doing tenet #6 is because you’re probably out and about walking and/or running;

• When you run to catch a bus (uphill would be best)

• Going upstairs (the taller the building the better)

• Walking your neighborhood (hills please)

• At the gym (pretty obvious, do cardio)

• Take the Bicycle out of storage and go for a short ride (include some incline

• Take the laundry off your treadmill and fire it up! (Put a TV in front of it if you need to)

Recent studies have shown some startling news – YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO THE 30 MINUTES OF EXERCISE PER DAY CONSECUTIVELY.  That’s right.  You can break it up throughout the day and get all the benefits.  Five minutes here, ten minutes there, and another 15 minutes over there – and you’re done for the day!  More details HERE.

Now, here’s the “not quite” part; you have to make sure you elevate your heart rate.  Your heart is a muscle and needs the exercise to keep it strong.  So, if you climb stairs, climb long ones and/or multiple floors, if you walk around your neighborhood, find a long, high hill, if you run, get your heart rate up.  If you work on the 15^th floor, take the stairs.  Burn the calories and get the heart rate up!

There was a disturbing article on the cover of TIME magazine that blared to the world that “exercise doesn’t make you thin”.   Glory Be!!!  The startling article was right; exercise alone will not make you thin.  As the study the article highlights shows; people who exercise regular tend to eat more calories than they burn, many times as a reward for putting in the effort.  Don’t fall into that pitfall.  Do tenet #4, eat regularly and make good choices.  Don’t reward yourself by eating a doughnut or muffin because you put your time into the treadmill that morning – eat it in conjunction with wise food choices – not in addition to.

For those of you who enjoy complexity, this well written, overwhelmingly full of information article may or may not help explain the complex dance that our bodies do with exercise, calorie burning, and eating – HERE.

It’s not enough to just keep busy, for good fitness & health you need to get that heart rate up, at least 30 minutes a day or more and at least 4 days or more a week.  Personally, during this phase of my life, I do this exercise program:

Monday – 3 minutes cardio warm up, 42 minutes of “core” and weight-resistant exercise focusing on upper body, stretching.

Tuesday – 3 minutes cardio warm up, 42 minutes of “core” and weight-resistant exercise focusing on lower body, stretching.

Wednesday – 40 minutes cardio, 10 minutes of stretching.

Thursday – 3 minutes cardio warm up, 42 minutes of “core” and weight-resistant exercise focusing on upper body, stretching.

Friday – 3 minutes cardio warm up, 42 minutes of “core” and weight-resistant exercise focusing on lower body, stretching.

Saturday – 40 minutes cardio, 10 minutes of stretching.

Sunday – Busy, busy, busy!  Doing, doing, doing!

If you have a program that works well for you, let me know and share it with the rest of us.  Look for a recap on the next post . . . . .

Remember, exercise alone won’t do it.  You need more.  That’s why I have the 6 tenets.  In my opinion, you need them all for success.  And I stand by my claim, if you do them all, you’ll never have to worry about your health & fitness. You’ll be just fine and conditioned for meaningful travel, exploring, and life.

Happy Tripping,

Carter

Hey Trippers,

I have six important and effective tenets of good health.  The rules are in no particular order.  I guarantee if you do all six of these rules, you will not only be healthy but will also be built for the future.  You can pick and choose from the rules but you’ll find you won’t be at your optimum.  Do all six and in a matter of a few months you’ll be ready and in shape for meaningful travel.

Now, that we have you eating a good breakfast, eating regularly, and not eating three hours before you go to sleep, I want your body’s metabolism to work at its optimum performance.  An important factor is Fitness and Health Tenet #5 :

Drink plenty of fluids

Drink plenty of fluids

Using (or overusing) the body as a machine metaphor, if food is the fuel, then fluids are the oil.  The fluids keep everything working together, aiding digestion, eliminating toxins, giving you temporary feeling of fullness, and assisting in cooling or heating your body.

Water is best fit for this job.  It doesn’t have to be expensive spring water in plastic bottle, it can be tap water.  Make sure your local water source is regularly tested for toxins.  Often bottled drinking water actually has fewer minerals because they are removed during purification.

A recent University of Nebraska study has show that you don’t need to stick to water to hydrate; you can use any fluid including coffee, tea, juices, beer, and wine.  The last three have unnecessary calories and you need to consider this.  Another recent study has shown that you do not have to use 8 eight-ounce glasses of water as a goal either.  However keeping hydrated at all times is important.  Once you are thirsty you too far into dehydration.  Your body’s functions start to work on rescue rather then keeping everything running smoothly.  You should focus on regular liquid intake.

One type of beverage that you should avoid at all costs is one with artificial sweetener.  Beverages with artificial sweeteners (so-called diet drinks) have been shown to INCREASE your food cravings – NOT curb them as we all thought they were doing.  Article HERE.  This has to do with the ACID/ALKALINE balance in your body.  I will go into this in detail on a future post.  Meanwhile, here’s a good explanation that’s easy to understand.

I was on the “Diet Soda Bandwagon” years ago.  Once I got off it, my weight began to stabilize.  If you need more proof of the “diet drinks make you fat”, do a web search.  There’s lots of research out there that’s legitimate.  As in the previous post discussing eating regularly to keep your appetite at bay, drinking a diet beverage will increase your craving.  Why have you body fight that battle?

So, beside water, what else should you consider drinking?

Besides diet drinks, what should you not drink?  Don’t drink sugary sodas, anything sweetened with HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, and fruit juices sweetened with apple, grape, or pear juice.  They all have too many calories and screw around with your blood sugar.  While traveling, if you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, these drinks can hydrate you in a pinch.  Plan ahead and carry water with you.  If you run out, save your container and fill it from a reliable potable water source.

Q: How do I remind myself to drink enough fluids?

A: At home and work keep fluid containers at arms length.  In public areas, you can fill attractive water containers with water and place them on end tables, dining table, counters, desks, work space, toilet tank, night stands, etc.  Just the sight of them will remind you to hydrate.  In your car, keep water bottles in front cup holders, secured in storage areas, and back seat.  While traveling, always carry a bottle in your backpack, shoulder bag, or coat pocket.

You can do it!  Are you still with me?  The next post is Fitness Tenet #6 and final one.  And you’ll have all the knowledge you need for a fit & healthy life.  Just focus – because you’re worth it!

Happy Tripping,

Carter

Hey Trippers,

I have six important and effective tenets of good health.  The rules are in no particular order.  I guarantee if you do all six of these rules, you will not only be healthy but will also be built for the future.  You can pick and choose from the rules but you’ll find you won’t be at your optimum.  Do all six and in a matter of a few months you’ll be ready and in shape for meaningful travel.

Fitness Tenet #4 is maybe not the most important but key none-the-less.  The physical rigors of travel don’t begin when you arrive at your destination.  They begin before you leave.  Packing alone places demands on your body.  Your body is a machine that works 24 hours a day.  I’m accused of treating my body like the machine it is and food like fuel.  I started to think this way almost 20 years ago – I don’t recall what inspired me back then.  That’s when I took the philosophy into practice.  So, here’s Fitness Tenet #4:

Eat Every Two or Three Hours Throughout the Day

Using the example of your body being like a machine and it functions/works 24 hours a day; would you run your car until it ran out of gas, then fill the tank?  No!  You constantly refuel it to assure it’ll take you wherever you’re going.  Your body is the same way.  While you’re sleeping or completely at rest your heart never stops beating, muscles never stop working, nerves never stop reacting, and your digestive tract keeps extracting nutrients from what you’ve eating.  So, why would you deprive yourself of the fuel your body needs to keep it functioning?  All of this leads to one word – METABOLISM.  That’s what it is all about.  Keeping it simple:  you need to stoke your metabolism constantly so that it does not go into “storage” mode.  (As in STORING YOU EXTRA CALORIES YOU”VE CONSUMED AS FAT)  When you reach the point of hunger and starvation, experience and research has shown that your body slows down your metabolism because it is primally protecting you from starvation.   Keeping your system out of the metabolism slowdown will have your metabolism running properly to keep your body burning calories and full of energy when you need it.

I eat 5 times a day, more when on a full-on schedule.  I eat breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snack, and an early dinner.  On a travel schedule I eat more, especially the day traveling to/from my destination.

As I mentioned above, packing means yanking out a suitcase, running around the house gathering the items on your packing list, bending, stooping, reaching, twisting, turning for hours – and that’s just the packing bit!  Then you lug the suitcase and carry-on to and around the airport, practically strip for the security, endure a long flight, and start it all again when you land.  This work takes fuel!

Now for the FUEL part.  Just like you wouldn’t use watered down gas in your car, you shouldn’t use empty calories in your body.  You need real nutrition, not simple carbs, high sugar foods, sugary beverages, or diet drinks.  A bagel?!?! A candy bar?  A high sugar, low fiber granola bar?  A bag or tortilla chips?  Crisps?  Pretzels?  Get real!  These foods will only do in a near death moment of hunger to get you to real food.

Here’s a list of good “in between meal” fuel snacks I’ve carried with me while on a day of exploration.  Some of the items below are available at virtually all city’s grocers, Farmer’s Markets, Pharmacies, or supermarkets:

Eat Food Bars as a replacement when you don't have access to a healthy meal

• High Fiber Food Bars (I’m not endorsing brands) – but it should have higher than 5 gms fiber, less than 250 calories, carbohydrates not over 35gms, it needs to have more than 5gms fat, and no simple sugars.  Don’t worry about the fat unless it combined with simple sugars.
• Well-balanced energy/protein bars (avoiding high sugar/fructose corn syrup) – should have not less than 4gms fiber, no simple sugars, carbohydrates over 25gms, and less than 10gms fat.  Again don’t worry about fat unless it’s combined with simple sugars.
• Raw Nuts and Seeds (In small quantities!  Stay away from roasted – it’s okay in a pinch) – walnuts, pecans, sunflower, etc.
• Dried Fruits (In small amounts because they’re high calories but also packed with energy and fiber) – prunes, raisins, cranberries, blueberries, cherries, figs, coconut, and kiwi.
• Whole Fruit – whole apple, grapes, plums, peaches, nectarines, cherries, apricot, grapefruit, orange, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries (try and stay away from tropical’s such as mango, pineapple, bananas)
• Vegetables (cut up or whole) – Carrots, celery, bell pepper, pickles, spring onion, cherry tomato, and radishes.
• Cooked Vegetables (pre-cooked and eaten them room temperature) – sweet potato, carrot, beets, turnip, pumpkin
• Canned Goods (available in easy open snack size) – tuna fish, vegetables, and legumes (beans).

Locally, wherever you are, there is always fruit "TO GO" when traveling

A lot to digest!  So, I won’t even get into the NON-FAT DIET myth.  Just remember that you need fat for your machine to function, digest, and extract nutrients from your food.  FAT IS GOOD unless combined with simple carbs (think ice cream or hamburger and fries).  More on that in a future post!

Use Technology!

Today we have many electronic options to remind you to eat before your appetite gets into starvation mode.  Cell and Mobile phones!  And watches!  Most all have alarms or an application, which can be set for certain times to go off as a friendly reminder.  In an office situation use “vibrate”.  I have an iPhone/iPod Touch that offers several applications that can alert you to the time to eat every meal and snack of the day.  It can even accommodate weekend schedules.  There is no longer any excuse to skip a meal or snack.

One final note on this subject matter, it’s hard to remember to eat until you’re starving.  Before you know it, you’re in a museum or at an outdoor antiquity and you realize you’re hungry – and you’re quite a while from the next food source.  You get to your meal, inhale it, and then eat more and more, until you’ve eaten too much.  Eating regularly throughout the day stops the over eating by curbing your appetite.  Winning the battle means keeping your appetite away from that point.  I have a secret tool to help keep your appetite curbed while at home too . . . another future post!

Happy Well-fortified Tripping,

Carter

No Food 3 Hours Before Sleep

Hey Trippers,

I have six important and effective tenets of good health.  The rules are in no particular order.  I guarantee if you do all six of these rules, you will not only be healthy but will also be built for the future.  You can pick and choose from the rules but you’ll find you won’t be at your optimum.  Do all six and in a matter of a few months you’ll be ready and in shape for meaningful travel.

Here’s the toughest of all the fitness tenets for people to do – especially Westerners.  How does one traveling on their dream trip focus on this one?  In my opinion based on experience and research, I’m saying it’s best for your body and health to do this.  If you can’t do it while traveling, at least do it when at home.  What am I suggesting for tenet # 3?

Do Not Eat Anything Three Hours Before Bed

YES, I MEAN NOTHING.  This is one of the most important tenents.  This one alone would solve the majority of the obesity epidemics.  You see, I too was riding the eating “cycle” – for 35 years.   The eating cycle I refer to is this:

The everlasting circle to obesity

Let’s run down “The Obesity Eating Cycle”, shall we?

Early Morning: No breakfast, maybe coffee.

Mid-morning: Feeling peckish as you finish digesting the meal from the night before, so you grab a snack; candy bar, a bagel, pastry, scone, crisps, or doughnut, and more coffee.

Lunch: You start to feel good, energetic, and lighter.  You grab a burrito, french fries, sandwich, a yogurt w/ granola, or fast food.  You think, “I’m on a roll now.  So, I don’t want to eat anything more until I leave work”.

Early Evening: You’ve worked long hours, eaten light, if at all, maybe have a long commute, and by the time you get home, you are famished!  So, you eat until you’re full.  Thing is, you’re eating much more than you need because your body doesn’t register it’s full until long after you stuffed yourself.

Mid Evening: So, you go to bed, not before a glass of wine, a few beers, or a drink or two to calm yourself down from the demands of a hectic day.

Late Evening: Snack before bed; bowl of ice cream, crisps, cookie, chocolate, piece of cake, or a kebab.

After Midnight: You toss and turn all night as your body struggles to digest the overload.  Acid-reflux anyone?  You take a pill or two to settle things down.

3AM: The alcohol you consumed the previous evening now wakes you up, so it takes a while to get back to sleep – if you do at all.

7AM: You wake up in the morning exhausted; not feeling rested, and continue through the same eating cycle day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.  And how many pounds have you put on throughout the year(s)?  Suddenly, at middle age you look at yourself naked in the mirror and wonder how your body got this way.  Depressing . . . .

Hey, do I know that you will have trouble not eating anything three hours before bed?  Absolutely!  But, it can and HAS to be done and it all depends on what you do during the rest of the day.  When you sleep, you should not be digesting a big meal, your body should be ready to rest, not churn and burn.  Sleeping is the most efficient time that you burn fat!  How’s that!  Efficient is the key word.  As a percentage, you burn more fat while you sleep for the amount of effort you put in to do it.  When you go to bed with a full stomach, that’s stopped cold.  It takes about a week of focused eating to get you off the poor eating cycle.  And how great you will feel!!!

If you’re used to that bowl of ice cream, kebab, cake, bag of chips, it’ll be HARD to adjust to that empty feeling in your stomach.  You’re used to going to bed with a bowling bowl in there.  Your body will adjust – trust me.  And you’ll feel better for it.

When traveling, it’s especially hard.  Take Spain, traditional (non-tourist) restaurants don’t even open their doors until 9PM.  When in Spain, do as the Spaniards do.  You don’t see an obesity epidemic there.  That’s because they eat late, stay up later, and throw in that afternoon siesta to rest and help recover from the late hours.  But they don’t eat hours before bed like the USA, UK, and other western counties.

So, how do you manage this when you’re on holiday and want to experience the cuisine?

• Eat a quality breakfast (see previous post) of substance.

• Eat regularly throughout the day.

• Eat lunch as your biggest meal – but not too heavy that it will slow you down.

• If on a grueling pace, eat every 2 – 3 hours throughout the day (food bars, nuts, dried fruit).

• Eat a light dinner focusing on share dishes with your traveling companions.  You’ll experience a wider variety of the local foods.

• Lighten up on the alcohol before bed.   It doesn’t mean give it up, just moderate.

One of the most important components of good health is REST.  Why don’t I include it in my plan as an official tenet?  Because when you stop eating 3 hours before bed – YOU WILL GET A GOOD NIGHTS REST.  Your metabolism will focus on resting and healing rather than processing/digesting calories that will mot be burned, just stored as FAT.

Do you think you can take the challenge, even for a week, of not eating a thing three hours before you put your head on the pillow?  If you do this you’ll be thinner, have more energy, feel better about yourself, and be healthier for a meaningful travel experience.

Happy Healthy Tripping,

Carter

Hey Trippers,

I have six important and effective tenets of good health.  The rules are in no particular order.  I guarantee if you do all six of these rules, you will not only be healthy but will also be built for the future.  You can pick and choose from the rules but you’ll find you won’t be at your optimum.  Do all six and in a matter of a few months you’ll be ready and in shape for meaningful travel.

This Fitness Tenet #2 is the one of the easiest ones

Eat a Big, Healthy Breakfast

In case you haven’t heard what dietitians and nutritionists have recommended for years, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  This one meal sets the tone for your whole day.  It contributes to healthy mental and physical function.

I have met many people and have many friends who claim that eating breakfast makes them nauseous or even sick and they can’t deal with that.  Rarely do people suffer from the condition of not being able to stomach breakfast.  Typically, it has everything to do with what you eat or, more significantly, what you’ve eaten the night before.  I was in the cycle of eating a large, late meal and when the morning came – the LAST think I wanted was more food.   Heck, I was still digesting last night’s meal.  This is part of the unhealthy eating cycle most westerners suffer from (more on that next post).

It’s important to me (and to you) to have a good, substantive breakfast everyday.  Except, when I travel I eat even more.  I know it’s hard to control regular timely eating like you can at home.  Like good meaningful travel, it takes planning.

A Well Balanced Breakfast

At the accommodation breakfast table, I load up on complex carbohydrates (high fiber cereal, whole grain rolls, oatmeal, muesli, etc.), fruit (prunes, raisins, plums, apricots, apples, kiwi, etc.), dairy or non-dairy (yogurt, cheeses, tofu, milk, soy products), fish (smoked fish, herring, lox, and gravid lax), and eggs (hard boiled, scrambled, poached, and the better, egg substitute).  And enjoy a local pastry or bread.  After all, that’s one of the reasons you’re there.  Do not start with your pastry or high sugar item.  Eat your “wellness” food first and then your treat (croissant w/ jam, donut, pastry, or sweet bread.

Yuck! Not the way to start ther day! Where's the fried bread?!?!?

Avoid the “English Breakfast” like the plague! It is horrible for you.  However, if it means you skip breakfast and there isn’t another morsel for miles, then eat bits of it.  A typical “English Breakfast” items (almost all swimming floating in oil/butter) to avoid mushrooms, fried eggs, fatty bacon, and fried bread.  Other bits of the typical “English Breakfast” that are acceptable are the broiled tomato and beans in tomato sauce.

If you never eat breakfast, then at least eat something. Yes, even high simple carbohydrate cereal or muffins, pastry, or a banana.  This is just so your body and digestive system has something to begin functioning with – even if you come crashing down a couple hours later.  I advise that you avoid fruit juices (unless you know they’re 100% fruit juice and have no high fructose corn syrup) because they are high in sugars (you’ll crash hard in an hour or so).  Everyday, including when I travel, no matter where in the world I am, I eat something in my room the minute I get up.  Typically, (full disclosure) I take a pee and then eat something I brought with me or bought in the local grocery store.  That way, my body can begin the arduous process of getting all my bodily functions up to speed.  Then, I will go to breakfast for a full meal.

Avoid overeating: this is pretty obvious because you know how you feel after when you eat too much – sluggish,  looking for a big easy chair.  When you’re spending a small fortune for your trip you don’t want to waste the hours away digesting.

At breakfast in your accommodation you can also grab a few items to take with you as a mid-morning snack (apples, bananas, oranges, nuts, cereal, whole grain bagel, etc.).  This and a good, sustentative breakfast add value to your room rate!

Breakfast is the one meal NOT to skip.  Eating a good, healthy breakfast daily will lead to a healthy life and a meaningful travel experience.  Trust me!  If you don’t believe me, read THIS!

Happy Energetic Tripping!

Carter

Hey Trippers,

I have six important and effective tenets of good health.  The rules are in no particular order.  I guarantee if you do all six of these rules, you will not only be healthy but will also be built for the future.  You can pick and choose from the rules but you’ll find you won’t be at your optimum.  Do all six and in a matter of a few months – no matter what shape you’re in now – you’ll be ready and in shape for meaningful travel.  Here Fitness Tenet #1:

Do Not Smoke

This one is pretty obvious but it is surprising how many people I see smoking.  I have close, dear friends who have smoked for years.  And yes it is affecting their health in a very negative way.  I know it’s their choice and their battle.  I know I said that the six rules are in no particular order but this one rule, single-handedly, will improve your overall health, especially long term.

In more and more places smoking is being banned; airports, restaurants, and some accommodation.  Most accommodation has limited smoking rooms available.  The tide is going the way of smoking being banned in public places in most cities worldwide.  Rental cars have started to ban smoking in them.

Even Spain has passed laws banning smoking in public buildings, on the Metro and some restaurants (too much complexity to go into).  They’re struggling to enforce them but this is a country (I joke) where the Spaniards smoke in the shower!

If you smoke a pack a day at conservatively $5.00 (€3.43) a pack, that’s $35.00 (€24.00) a week, $140.00 (€96.00) a month, and $1680.00 (€1152.00) a year.  That will buy you an exciting trip somewhere that you’ll have energy to experience fully.

So, if you smoke, do yourself, your friends, your family, your healthcare system, and your mate a favor – quit.  As a former smoker (10 years), I know its hard ( I tried to quit a dozen times), but there are enough tools available out there (many more than when I quit) to help your efforts.

Not only will you benefit overall, but so will your travel.  There’s aren’t too many things sadder than a tiny glass room in the airport filled with smokers, or a lonely smoker drawing on a fag outside a public building, pub, or airport terminal.

I challenge any smoker to write me the upside to smoking in comments . . . .

Happy Tripping,

Carter