5 Factors of Fitness: The Fast Track to Feeling Good
By Kristie Lemon

What makes you feel good?

When we are tired, sick, hungry, or stressed it can be hard to remember what makes us feel good. But we are all responsible for our own physical health; even if we have limitations.
The following five factors can help us control our body fat and fitness level and put us on the fast track to feeling better:

1. Water Intake — Drink more pure, refreshing water. It flushes out the body as it hydrates the cells allowing every organ and system in our body to do its job better. Set a goal of drinking least eight, eight ounce glasses of plain water a day. The idea is to drink when you are not eating so your digestive enzymes can do their job. Start in the morning with a measured amount of water and don't drink anything else until you have finished. I promise your bladder will adapt (try not to drink for twenty minutes before and twenty minutes after eating).

Plain water does not tax our digestive system, it does not have to be broken down before it gets utilized by our system, but when we add things to it suddenly our system has to "dissect" it in order to use the parts. So drink water first thing in the morning; plain water, water with no additions; no lemon, no coffee or tea, just water (okay, you can have one cup of coffee).You can drink fluids like juice, pop, and coffee after you make your daily water intake goal.

Just a quick side note: Juice is not our friend. Limit your intake of juice as an adult. The sugar, even in 100% pure juice, is readily available to our bodies and our insulin response is too quick. When we strip the fruit or vegetable of its fiber our blood sugar levels spike and plummet, we want to try and keep them relatively constant for optimal functioning.

2. Food Intake — There is a ton of research on this one element alone so I will only highlight the essential factors here. Eat a lot of fresh veggies and fruits; eat a lot less packaged processed foods. Eat small amounts often; every three hours is a good goal. Remember, our goal is to keep our blood sugar levels even.

Eat foods low on the glycemic index. Not all carbohydrate foods are created equal; in fact, they behave quite differently in our bodies. The glycemic index describes this difference by ranking carbohydrates according to their effect on our blood glucose levels. The current science of nutrition says that by choosing low glycemic foods, the ones that produce only small fluctuations in our blood glucose and insulin levels, we reduce our risk of heart disease and diabetes. These foods are also the key to sustainable weight loss.

Another basic guideline is to eat food as close to its "natural" state as possible. In short make foods that you can pick off a tree or grab from the ground the majority of your diet. Second in line is the food you hunt. And last in line is the food you "make," cook, or in any way alter. When it comes to these foods, try and utilize herbs, spices, and naturally occurring fats as often as possible.
If you must eat food you need to unwrap from the factory, make it the least prevalent item in your diet. (See your diet as all of the food you eat over time.)

3. Sleep — Sleep between six and eight hours a night. This is not an option. If you physically cannot sleep that much take a nap and rest during the day to make up the time. Sleep and rest is necessary in order to burn fat, repair damage, and allow your body to heal.

I have found from countless experiences of "dieting down" for a photo shoot or a body building show or a sports event that I am unable to lose body fat efficiently if I am not sleeping eight hours. Many people in the busy world today neglect sleep or regard it as unimportant. If you want to be fit and feel good, put this factor at the top of your list, get enough sleep.

4. Cardiovascular Training — People are always asking me why they are not burning fat. After a brief consultation we discover they have been doing their cardio at too high an intensity, because they think the harder they work the more results they will get. Inadvertently they bypass optimal fat burning. Ideal fat burning occurs between 50-70% of your maximum heart rate. If you would like more information on heart rate training go to www.HeartZone.com.

5. Weight-Bearing Exercise and Resistance Training — Weight-bearing exercise means engaging in an activity with more weight than your body is accustomed to. Resistance training is an activity where your body is moving with more resistance than it is accustomed to. The reason weights and resistance are so critical is that sometime in our mid 20s to early 30s most of us begin to exchange a pound of muscle for a pound of fat every year. This affects us in two major ways; first, we burn fewer calories so our weight tends to creep up annually. Second we lose muscle and have less strength and as our ability decreases so does our bone density. This situation can rapidly compound; with less muscle we are able to do less activity and the less activity we engage in the more fat we put on and the more brittle our bones become. To reverse the cycle we must engage in weight bearing exercise.

For those of you who have been afraid of gaining muscle (particularly women) listen carefully; to prevent osteoporosis our bones need the physical demand placed on them that ONLY weight-bearing exercise provides. So add some muscle and burn some fat to get fit and keep your bones strong. (Please note, osteoporosis is not sexist — it affects men too, just on a much smaller scale.)

While there are other factors that enhance our ability to feel good such as range-of motion, stretching, breathing, and mental and emotional health. I guarantee if you implement the five factors mentioned above most of the time you will notice a dramatic improvement in how you feel all of the time.

See the article as it originally appeared on www.truenorthparenting.com