Basics Pt. 1

Hello. This is my first post. How interesting for all one or two of you that might find this. Anyway, I wanted to just to kind of break down a few things about working out, going to the gym, training or whatever you want to call it for those people out there who want to do it, know they should do it, but don't know how or are kind of intimidated to do it.


You see, one of the amazing things about the benefits of exercise is that it's one of the very few things that nearly everyone agrees on. If you can find me someone who honestly believes that it is healthier to sit on the couch and watch "Full House" re-runs than to do some sort of physical activity I would be very surprised. Given this fact it is astounding that so many people don't exercise. I can only think that it's because a large percentage of those people don't know what to do and are intimidated by the fact that they think if they go to the gym, they'll either be confronted by a bunch of musclebound, sweaty, screaming guys throwing 350 pound dumbells across the room, (while this is certainly how I work out, it doesn't accurately represent most others), or they'll be thrown into a sea of strange looking pulleys, bars, machines and iron plates and they won't know what to do.

Not your average gym member.

In any case in my next few posts I'm going to focus on a few very simple things you can do to make yourself feel better and healthier. These are things that you should be doing before you worry about what crazy new program you're going to do if you are already exercising, or they are something you could start to do to build a foundation for your new healthy lifestyle if you are not already exercising. Basically, if you are not doing these things, you are putting yourself into a hole and guaranteeing yourself that you won't get the results you want.

Today's topic: Eat Breakfast!!

Eat Breakfast! I know. You don't have time. You're not hungry in the morning. The dog ate your homework. The checks in the mail. None of that matters.

Here's the thing: when you eat, you raise your metabolism. Your body says to itself, "I'm getting some fuel, that means I can get rid of some of this stuff I already have that I don't need anymore." That means your body burns off fuel. That means your body burns off fat. When you don't eat, your body says to itself, "Hold on there. I don't have any fuel coming in, so I really need to hold on to what I've got." That means your body stores fuel. That means your body stores fat.

The longer you don't eat, the more your body wants to store fat instead of burn it off. When you break up the word breakfast, what do you get? Break. Fast. You are breaking a fast. You haven't eaten in 8 or 9 hours so your body really needs something to get it's metabolism going. All you are doing when you skip breakfast is slowing your body's metabolism down to a crawl and guaranteeing that whatever and whenever you do eat, it will all be stored as fat. And by the way, research shows that when you are overly hungry you are much more likely to eat sugary, fatty junk food, making the situation much worse.

If you are looking at all of the latest workouts and gym equipment and you are not eating breakfast, you are very nearly wasting your time. Like all of the things I will be adding to my "Basics" posts, eating a good breakfast is a foundation that you should build your whole healthy lifestyle on. Start at the beginning and take each step as it should come and you will get healthier, feel better and look better.

By the way, a piece of chocolate cake doesn't count as a good breakfast.

Mitchell Rothbardt

http://mitchrothbardttraining.com/

(coming soon)

P.S. Look for more posts. I will try to update on a regular basis. Please leave me comments if you have any suggestions or loved it or hated it. Thanks for reading!