Monthly Archive for July, 2006

Self-Esteem

Published on July 25, 2006 in Health, Mental and Personal. 1 Comment

Self-esteem is one of the things that leads our lives. If you don’t have a good self-esteem, chances are that you’re not happy with who you are and your life in general, you see things as obstacles. The opposite is that you feel great about everything, enjoy life and see everything as a new way to learn and to appreciate it’s natural ingeniosity. Self-esteem is what makes us act like us.

Self-esteem is deeply connected with our self-image, which is our mental image of ourself. The higher our self-esteem is, the better our self-image is. Self-esteem is our declaration of being able/unable to do things. It’s in some sort, our limits, or what we believe are our limits. We are unlimited beings, the mind is our only limiter. If you believe everything is possible, then it will, if you don’t, you won’t believe it’s possible.

Working on your self-esteem is easy if you believe it is, so think like that. What you want to do is to accept everything the way it is and to stop trying to change already accomplished events because it is impossible to do so (for the moment). Then you have to act like everything is reachable. Never limit yourself or say no to opportunities. Seek those opportunities and enjoy them. If someone invites you to play a sport you know you’re not that good at it, don’t refuse because of self-esteem corruption. Accept and see the event as a way to ameliorate your skills and enjoy doing it. If you do, others will as well. When you act like you would others to, they will respond to that mood and will act like you. This is called mirroring.

Always seek every opportunity under a positive light. If you’re having boring conversations with your mates ask yourself why. Is it because you don’t participate or is it because the subject is not interesting to you or even BOTH of you? If it’s any of these, change subject or tell the other person you’re not interested. Don’t waste your time and energy on unwanted material, although see the “boring” conversations interesting by finding ways to control them, seek possibilities for you to turn it into something enjoyable, try different speech speed, pitch, expressiveness, etc. Even the worst topics can be interesting if you give some of your energy into it.

One important thing about self-esteem is that we often value it by how others perceive us. Self-esteem should be OUR estimation of ourself not OTHER-esteem. Stop relying on others to judge you, because you’ll only find ways to lower yourself which is the mind primary behavior because it defends the organism against future attacks. Believe EVERYTHING you BELIEVE. Make it rock solid. Sure, sometimes you beliefs aren’t strong enough but look for all the possibilities and then establish yourself. What is vital to remember is that no one should define you. Only you should be doing that. Create yourself based upon YOUR choice, not the others. By doing so, you’ll increase your self-esteem and self-image tremendously.

7 days to a Better Body : Day 7

Published on July 2, 2006 in Daily, Exercises, Health, Mental, Nutrition, Personal, Physical, Physical activities and Sports. 0 Comments

Our 6 days

1. Preparation
Like in anything you’ll do in your life, preparation is always a good step, physically and psychologically. Confidence is a huge factor in how you’ll be able to accomplish the task that’s awaiting you.

Resume: Eat enough, try to avoid fast food at all cost, eat correctly (not too much), drink plenty of water (8 x 8 oz).

2. Daily Routine
The daily routine will make sure you get into a good physical cycle by keeping you working each and every day. Cardio activities such as jogging or rope-jumping will help you burn the fat and will also improve your heart muscle. If you’re looking to burn fat, you should do low intensity cardio which means you jog at 65%-75% of your maximum heart beat for the longest period of time. You should know that dropping 2-3 pounds max/per week is safe and higher will cause loose skin.

Resume: Warm up, cardio, Cooling down.

3. The Workout
Working on every muscle separately is a great way to improve your fitness. Not only will it improve your health in general but it will allow you to perform a lot better in the sports you do.

Resume: The 5 BX method will get you to work muscle everyone wants to be in shape: pectorals, abs, legs and arms. The exercises will take you less than 11 minutes to accomplish and are done in a specific order which will produce the best results. (no warm up needed as it is part of the work out)

4. The Sport
The sport is the best way to enjoy your strenght and agility while having fun at the same time. Sports also improve our fitness in many way and increase our coordination.

Resume: Do a bit of cardio to warm yourself, some stretching (specifically dynamic movements related to the sport) and cool down at the end of your session. Don’t forget to drink water before and after, water in-between can result in cramps.

5. Stretching: all covered
Stretching is an important part of any physical activity. You do not want your muscle to rip while performing your activities. Stretching allows you to improve the range of your movements and also prepares your body to physical performances.

Resume: Stretch should not fatigue you. Try doing the morning routine if you’re looking to improve your flexibility.

6. Supplements
Since only eating cannot provide all the nutrients our body need, we have to look somewhere else for that amount we carve in. Post-workout shakes are the best method to get your body back in shape after and hard and long period of work.

Resume: Post-workout shakes will give your body the nutrients he needs to repair the micro-tears in your muscles. As proteins is the main ingredient to muscle reparation and growth, a shake containing an high amount of it will give your body more than enough to repair and grow (exactly what we’re looking for).

Stay motivated

Our mind control everything about us. Staying motivated is the most important step to your workout and your sport since it will keep you doing it. Find ways to enjoy these activities and what is their return into your life. Logging your progress is a great way to keep you motivated especially in times where you think you’re going nowhere. Look back at your log each time you feel no more confident about yourself and you’ll see that results are still showing up.

Conclusion

The program comes to an end. I hope you’ve enjoyed the information I gave you through the whole 7 days and that you will continue to work with your body because it is the only thing we’ll own until our death so we must take care of it. Physical health will ameliorate your life in many way and will result in a more interesting lifestyle. Enjoy it.

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7

7 days to a Better Body : Day 6

Published on July 1, 2006 in Health and Nutrition. 0 Comments

If you’ve ever followed a specific training at a gymnasium and had a personal dietist, (s)he might have recommanded you to take what we call “post-workout shakes”. Those shakes contains a high-dosis of proteins which will help your muscle to recover and grow. There are numerous supplements we can take in order to help the body recover much faster and get better results than by only eating but you should still eat right. Supplements are to be taken as SUPPLEMENTS, not food.

SUPPLEMENTS

Post-workout shakes recipe (Protein shakes)
BodyBuilding Protein shakes recipes
When: After your workout (post-workout)
Benefits: Provide the nutrients the body needs to get your muscle to grow, especially useful after after muscles have been worked out.

Recommanded proteins

Optimum Nutrition Optimum 100% Whey Protein
Flavors:Chocolate, Chocolate Mint, Cookies N’ Cream (not recommanded), Rocky Road, Strawberry, Tropical Punch
and Vanilla

I’d recommand you buy the 5 lbs deal because of the low price per portion and also because you might/will want to change in the future.

Here are the information about the 5lbs of whey from Optimum Nutrition
Price per portion: 0.38$
Number of servings: 77
Price: ~~$43.99~~ $28.89

Best source of whey supply for the lowest price: BodyBuilding.com

BodyBuilding.com recommands
1. Optimum 100% Whey Protein
2. Higher Power 100% Whey Power
3. Prolab N-Large II
4. CytoSport Cyto Gainer
5. Dymatize Elite Whey

You can use their protein finders, which is a simple search engine on their website which allows you to filter by price, grams protein, grams carbs and grams fat. They also have an advanced search feature which allows you to filter even more specifics.

Water

Even though water isn’t a supplements, I’d like to remind you that you should drink at least 8 glasses of it daily. This will help you keep your inside clean while preventing things such as fatigue. If possible, you should also add things which are high in fiber such as apples. They will help your intestine remove all the toxins and will allow you to absorb more water which will also help you remove toxins and bad stuff in your blood which is filtred through the kidneys.

See you tomorrow for day 7.