The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies (115 page)

Chapter 21
:
Incorporating Exercise into Your Life

In This Chapter

Delving into the benefits of exercise for both mind and body

Devising your "perfect fit" exercise plan

Discovering low-glycemic eating strategies to improve your workout

I
t's really not possible to get through any type of book on weight loss without covering exercise. I know, I know. You've probably heard it all before, so instead of telling you that you need to incorporate exercise to lose weight, I'm going to focus this chapter on some benefits of exercise and how to make exercise work in your life long term.

Believe it or not, one of the biggest reasons exercise is so important for weight loss is so you can eat a normal amount of food! Exercise not only burns calories but also helps improve your metabolic rate. So instead of suffering through a 1,200-calorie diet that leaves you starving all day, you can eat 1,500 calories (or more!) and still lose weight.

If you're like me, the thought of joining a gym may not sound too appealing. Most weight-loss programs prescribe gym-type exercises, which is great if you enjoy them, but if you don't, you'll notice your StairMaster begins to be a place where you sort your laundry. Exercise and movement
can
be enjoyable. You just have to find the right fit for you — which may not involve any fancy gym equipment whatsoever.

In order to find that "perfect fit" exercise program, you really need to be motivated to start the process. Looking at the benefits of exercise and all the ways it can help your life may be just the place to start to help you feel excited about it.

This chapter covers the various benefits you can derive from regular exercise. You then discover how to set up an effective exercise program that works for you and that you can stick to regularly. Finally, you find out how and when to fuel your body to boost your exercise efforts even more.

Exploring the Many Benefits of Exercise

Even though it may be the first purpose you can think of, exercise is so much more than simply a way to burn calories.
It's good for increasing your energy, reducing your stress, improving your mood — the list goes on. Often when you really connect with the health benefits of exercising, you become more motivated to do it regularly. Then the pounds just shed away naturally!

In the following sections, I share some of the benefits of exercise that not only help with weight loss but also improve your health and your overall sense of well-being.

Your natural body shape — revealed

For most ple, the number on the scale is the most important aspect of weight loss. Exercise obviously helps get that number down. Ho
wever, people have become so focused on numbers that they forget to simply be happy with the changes in their body shape. A scale is one indicator that gives you a concrete measurement, but the shape of your body is another.

When you exercise, you start to build more lean body mass while decreasing body fat. Your natural shape is the result. You begin to look more trim and shapely as this shift happens — even if you don't really need to lose weight.

A pound of muscle and a pound of fat weigh the same — 1 pound. However, a pound of muscle takes up a quarter of the space that fat does. So even if you don't see drastic number changes on the scale, pay attention to your body shape and how you look and feel in your clothes. That's more important than a single number on a scale. By switching your focus from numbers to body shape, you may find that you feel better with your progress.

If you're really into measuring, take a measuring tape and measure your waist, arms, and thighs. Most people find that they lose inches faster than the scale changes numbers. Monitoring your inches in addition to your pounds can help reinforce that you really are making progress.

Increased energy

Do you ever catch yourself saying you wish there were more hours in the day? Well, I can't make that happen, but I can tell you how to have more energy dur
ing the day to do all that you need to and feel great. The secret doesn't lie in the latest energy drink. It's found in exercise. Just lace up your tennis shoes and go for a walk to find that spark of energy you're looking for.

Research shows that exercise helps to improve energy, even among people with chronic illnesses that increase fatigue. As a matter of fact, more than 90 percent of studies show that people who live a sedentary lifestyle improve their energy markedly when they start an exercise program compared to those who don't.

Wondering how exerting more energy can make you have more energy? Well, the best answer is that your body and heart become stronger and more efficient with exercise. That translates into improved energy in the long run (not to mention weight loss and body shaping).

Perhaps you've tried an exercise program for a few days only to come home exhausted. That's expected, especially if you were fairly sedentary before that. It may also be a sign that you're trying to do too much too soon. Give yourself at least a week to get beyond this initial start-up hump, and you'll soon feel more energized throughout the day.

Finding the time to exercise requires personal motivation. To help keep you motivated, maintain a log of your exercise and rate your energy level on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being low and 10 being high). Then you can monitor how your energy level progresses as you incorporate more movement into your life.