Metabolism: You Are What You Eat

Food is Fuel!

The old saying “You are what you eat” is not just a cliché. It is absolutely true! The best way to look at this metaphor is to view your calories as fuel and your body as the vehicle that needs something to run on.  Just like a car, if you fuel your body with premium fuel, you will get a body that lasts longer, runs more efficiently and gets more mileage out of smaller amounts of eaten calories. However, if you fuel your body with less than nourishing foods, you are in essence wearing it out, depriving it of it’s power and degrading your fuel lines (that in this case would be your circulatory system, digestive system and nervous system.)

Metabolism is the word that describes the process of our bodies breaking down food to obtain energy, which is necessary so that our bodies can create the essential chemicals it needs to function properly. It slows and you gain weight when it is not nourished properly.

Your metabolism basically performs two functions:

1.     Anabolism in which smaller molecules from food are transformed into larger molecules of carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

2.     Catabolism in which large molecules are broken down to release energy for muscle function, body temperature regulation and more. Through the process of catabolism, our bodies create waste.

It is your pancreas that decides whether or not a process should be anabolic or catabolic depending on what you have eaten.

Your metabolism also enables thyroxin to be released by the thyroid, which in turns determines how speedy these processes will occur.

This is why good nutrition is so important. You need to consume foods that are rich in the nutrients that your body needs to function optimally such as nitrogen, sulphur, oxygen and hydrogen.

You also need to eat a diet that is balanced with the big four components that make up that quality fuel that your body needs to run on including:

1.     carbohydrates (starch sugar and fibre) that the body converts into glucose for energy

2.     proteins for supplying the amino acids that build the proteins that make up all of our tissues

3.     fats to help form cells, absorb nutrients and reduce inflammation

4.     vitamins and minerals to help body regulate the metabolism so that nutrients are produced so the body runs smoothly

When you revise your lifestyle, by taking part in a Healthy and Active Metabolism Program, you learn what fuels a.k.a. foods are best to fuel your body so that it just doesn’t run, it practically purrs with good health. To learn more about Healthy and Active visit the website.. www. healthy-active.com

M.R.

Boost Your Energy With Tai Chi

Many people who are practicing the Healthy and Active Lifestyle program have found some benefit by practicing the ancient art of Tai Chi. This art involves practicing a series of repetitive moves aimed to improve the movement of the lymph, rev up the metabolism and improve physical self-control,

What is Tai Chi?

Tai Chi is a very personal discipline that is about training both mind and body.  To some people it is a way of losing weight, to others a way of improving posture and balance and to still others a way of form of meditation and spiritual questing. Practicing it can also be about all of these things. It’s a kind of ancient Chinese cure all for everything from a stroke to low self esteem to depression to back problems…you name it!

Perhaps one way to sum up this discipline that can almost be described as a moving form of meditation and yoga combined is that it is about increasing personal power. The movements also teach you to let go and be balanced even in the midst of chaos.

In fact, the Chinese characters for Tai Chi Chuan can be translated as the 'Supreme Ultimate Force'. The notion of 'supreme ultimate' is often associated with the Chinese concept of having both yin and yang in balance.  Yin if you will recall encompasses such qualities and elements as female, passive, dark, shrinking and yielding. Yang encompasses the qualities of male, forceful, light, expanding and force.  The reason Tai Chi is the ultimate dance of balance is that it combines both.

Military Moves Combined With Bird Poses

The Tai Chi Sword Position

There is no one standard for Tai Chi. Most Tai Chi exercise sequences consist of = imitations of the movements of animals and birds and some of these postures are stances used in Asian military hand-to-hand combat. However even if you are doing what seems to be a militant posture all of the poses done in Tai Chi are done gracefully. The idea is to move from pose to pose with soft, fluid gestures.’

Tai Chi can help you become more coordinated because the postures in the sets are designed to animate the energy centers in your body. Many people who practice them experience better reflexes, improved posture and less muscle tension and strain.

Be Calm Yet Energetic

Don’t make the mistake in thinking that Tai Chi is a martial art, although it probably will make you more sharper in some ways. It is mostly a meditation that helps harmonize the mind and body connection.  Once this happens you are able to generate and store more energy. In Chinese this energy is referred to as “chi”.

One of the aims of Tai Chi is to increase Chi and foster the popular circulation of it in your life. Not only are your health and vitality enhanced but your mind becomes more focused, less negative and able to manifest good things.

However the benefits spiritually and mentally are what seem to blow most people’s mind when they become addicted to this ancient discipline. The benefits include a calmer and more tranquil mind and also a better connection to the higher self.  You are also less vulnerable to stress, especially those caused by emotional distractions and will be able to work, study and sleep deeper and longer.

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Michael Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.