Have you learned the truth about exercise?  If not, this post will have you change the way you look at fitness and your health and you will be excited to know that you no longer have to spend hours upon hours on the treadmill.  Just minutes a day will get you in the best shape of your life.  I'm looking forward to it.  Want to join me?

It has long been held that to achieve fitness and burn fat, long hours on the treadmill every week would do the trick.  Sustained cardio exercise is what most people think is best.  I don't know about you but this has never been something that I looked forward to.   

Doing time on the treadmill had two strikes against it in my opinion.  For one, it's just plain boring and you find yourself knowing things that you never wanted to know like how many tiles or holes are in the celing?  It's so boring that's why  TVs are put in front of the equipment at gyms and why you need a headset.  Does anyone know what I'm talking about? 

And the second strike against it is that not only is it boring but it is just down right time consuming.  There's only 24 hours in a day and if you have an hour's travel time to and from work that leaves little time for family and other important things like preparing healthy meals.  

So for these reasons, I have not found the desire to exercise but I was excited to learn the truth about exercise and to know that the two biggest strikes against it has been eliminated, plus knowing that it is better for you than longer workouts made it all the more attractive. 

With a shorter workout with greater intensity you can get better results than the long cardio workouts on treadmills or ellipticals.  This type of exercise will boost your metabolism long after you are done, which is the key to effective weight loss. 

 This method of exercise is for everyone, for those who are in poor health to those who are the most fit.  I learned this from a class led by my chiropractor, Dr. Rob Meadows of Meadows Chiropractic in Auburn, Alabama.  Surprisingly, long cardio exercises can raise stress hormones like cortisol and endorphins.  Cortisol stimulates appetite, has catabolic properties, increases fat storage (this was a shocker), and slows down and inhibits exercise recovery.  

The problem too with sustained cardio exercise is that with this type of exercise you are in a slow fat burning mode only during the length of the exercise.  What is really needed is an exercise that keeps you in the fat burning mode long after the exercise is finished.  This is called metabolic conditioning and it stimulates the Human Growth Hormone with an after-burn effect of 24-48 hours post exercise.  Humane Growth Hormone is a vital hormone that is key for health and longevity preventing heart disease and other diseases.

Metabolic conditioning is achieved by short bursts of high intense exercise of only 20 seconds with a 20 second rest.  This would all be accomplished in 12 minutes per day making it a 6 minute workout with a 6 minute rest.   Every day can be different so that you will never get bored.  For instance, you may have each day of the week set aside to work on a different type of exercise such as endurance, coordination, flexibility, speed, strength, or balance.

I bought the DVD called Max T3 but you do not have to purchase this to implement this program.  You do not need any specific exercise equipment either but here are a few suggestions that you might like to have.  You can actually do this without any equipment.  All you have to do is choose any exercise.  It can be weight lifting, marching in place, working out with an exercise ball, steps, lunges, swimming, bicycling, dancing, jumping jacks, push ups, etc., anything at all, even just sitting in place lifting cans or weights in hands for those who have bad knees or backs. 

The 3T in Max T3 stands for Time, Type, and Tempo.  I have discussed the Time and Type.  The Tempo is such that you want to do the 20 second sessions by going all out - really work at it - do it to the MAX.  Don't despair if you can't give it your MAX but just do it with as much intensity as you can.  Many times I fall short of making it the full 20 seconds with full intensity but I just keep going as best as I can.  With time, I'll be able to make it the full 20 and I know you will too.  I started today.  Want to join me?  Here's our program in a nutshell:

1.  Do any exercise for 20 seconds with much fervor and to the MAX.  Put your whole heart into it.
2,  Rest for 20 seconds.
3.  Repeat steps 1 and 2 two more times doing the same exercise (total time = 2 minutes).

The above is considered a round.  Change to a different exercise and repeat the round until you have done 6 rounds for a total of 12 minutes, that's it, 12 minutes and you are done with it!

Plan to do this about 3 times per week. 

Do you know that when you get a little insight into some things, that little insight is like a spark that starts slowly but will build with time.  But first you have to have the desire for the spark to grow or it will be like trying to set fire to wet wood.  Maybe since you are reading this you already have that little spark growing and you want to learn more.  I'm talking about the spark that is the knowledge of what is a healthy food or a healthy lifestyle choice.  

Maybe you are like I was.  I remember the day that the little spark of knowledge came into my life.  It quickly turned into a roaring fire and it was something that compelled me to dig deeper to find out the truth.   I wanted to know the truth even if it meant re-learning and re-adjusting.  (See About Me for my story)

Since this website is dedicated to getting the word out about healthy   food choices and healthy lifestyle changes, I decided that I needed to have a post about "where to start."  So this is it.  I'm going to tell you in a nutshell what is healthy and what is not so that you can make changes instantly without having to plow through page after page of information.  There is a place for plowing through pages, don't get me wrong, but if you are like me you may just want to know in short and up front so that you can go ahead and implement those changes.  Then you can go back and start digging, reading and researching as to why these choices are preferred over others.  I won't be giving an exhausted list but will just set out a few guidelines in food choices that will get you going on to the road of a healthier lifestyle. 

FATS -   There's the good and the bad when it comes to fats so get rid of the bad fats like refined vegetable oils such as canola, corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean, hemp, cottonseed, and  margarines.  They are unstable, rancid and produce free radicals.  Add these good fats to your diet:  coconut,  palm oil,  cream, butter (real butter not margarine), beef fat, sheep fat, lard, chicken fat, and goose fat.  These are saturated fats and they are very stable and can take the heat of cooking.  Make sure the animal fats come from healthy raised grass fed animals.  Avoid any hydrogenated oils even if it is lard.  Hydrogenation changes the molecular structure of oils making them more harmful.  Use olive, flaxseed, macadamia, avocado, walnut and sesame oils as cold pressed and unrefined and sparingly.  It would be best not to heat them as they are not as stable as the saturated fats.  Just changing your fat choices will make a big difference in your health.  You will pretty much have to toss all refined foods on the supermarket shelves.  Here is a great post entitled "Enjoy Saturated Fats, They're Good For You"

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES - Not much to say here except try to eat most of them organic and eat them often.  Here is a list of what is called the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15.  Spend your money on buying organic from those that fall under the Dirty Dozen and save  your money and just buy non organic produce that falls under the Clean 15 list if you prefer.  

The Dirty Dozen:  Apples, Celery, Strawberries, Peaches, Spinach, Nectarines, Grapes, Sweet bell pepers, Potatoes, Blueberries, Lettuce, Kale/collard greens.  

The Clean 15:  Onions, Corn (personally I would go with organic corn as most corn is Genetically Modified), Pineapples, Avocados, Asparagus, Sweet peas, Mangoes, Eggplant, Cantaloupe, Kiwi, Cabbage, Watermelon, Sweet potatoes, Grapefruit and Mushrooms.

MILK, BUTTER, CHEESE, CREAM, YOGURT, KEFIR, SOUR CREAM, etc - These are best if unpasteurized and from grass fed cows not given growth hormones or antibiotics.  Use the full fledged fat, not low fat or no fat.  The benefits of unpasteurized milk products are too many to even begin to list in this brief explanation.  If unpasteurized is unavailable then just buy organic.  Avoid UHT (ultra high temp.) pasteurized products.  It is almost impossible to find store bought cream that is not UHT.  See information on my Milk Kefir class in East Alabama.

COCONUT - Very healthy in any form (the fat, the milk, the cream, and unsweetened flakes).  Just avoid the "Lite" milk and any coconut made with preservatives added.

MEATS - Consume from organic grass fed animals without antibiotics and preservatives.   Watch out for MSG and nitrites and nitrates.   Organ meats from these animals are highly favored (I personally need to develop a taste for them).  Avoid farmed fish and fish in cans containing bad oils or preservatives. 

BREADS - Sourdough and Sprouted products made from freshly ground organic whole wheat are best.  Avoid additives and bad oils.  Check out my sourdough class in the East Alabama area.  

SWEETENERS - Throw out all artificial sweetners in the pink, yellow, and blue packets.  Avoid agave, high fructose corn syrup, and corn sweetner.  Grade B Maple Syrup, Maple Sugar, Malted Grain Syrups, Raw Organic Honey (raw honey not for babies however), Molasses, Date Sugar, Coconut Sugar and Sucanat may be used in moderation depending on your health and tolerance.  Green Stevia (the green powder, not the white) can be a good sugar replacement.  

SALT - If it's white then you need to replace this with a gray or pinkish colored salt.  White colored salt has been refined and is missing the trace elements.  Good brands are Celtic Sea Salt and Real Salt.

EGGS - Best if you can find organic pastured eggs from chickens allowed to roam free and eat all the grass and bugs they can.

CANNED SOUPS AND STOCKS AND BOUILLION CUBES:  These are full of MSG.  Avoid them and make your own.  

SOY - in a word - Bad (no not 100% but almost) Most products on our supermarket shelves that have soy as a listed ingredient are bad) Natto is actually good but if you do the research you will see that it takes a long time to properly prepare the traditional way and most food processors do not take that time.

Well this little post should get you started in doing your own research.  That's what this website is about, just getting the word out so the reader can see for themselves. 

Weston A. Price website is a good place to begin your research.  You can spend many hours just reading the articles.  So happy researching and may what you learn cause you to change your food choices for the better, in turn making a healthier you!  

According to the Daily Beast in a March 2008 post, potassium bromate was one of the top Five Controversial Food Additives.  So what is potassium bromate?  You might want to know so that you can avoid it because in the post is a quote from the FDA which says "it is reasonable, based on an extensive database, to assume that bromate induces tumors via oxidative damage."   

 It was first found to cause cancer in 1982.  So if the FDA knows and believes this, why do they still allow its use?  I went to the FDA website and searched for bromate and found that they do indeed allow bromate in specified amounts.  This was according to their revised regulation dated April 1, 2011.   While it is banned in many countries, it is not banned in the United States, but California has approved a warning label on products containing potassium bromate so this has caused many manufacturers to do away with the additive.