Fun Fact of the Day: Tai chi is a slow moving, meditative exercise that began in ancient China a few thousand years ago. It is one of the major branches of the traditional Chinese martial arts and involves a series of slow, meditative body movements that were originally designed for self-defence and to promote inner peace and calm.
Let’s keep it a Class 1 drug though.
I am committed to be fit.
When I say this, I mean healthy. I enjoy the occasional run to a fast food restaurant, or even a good night at the bar with friends. Everything in moderation, except your dreams. Than its either go big or go home.
I consume about 8,000 calories a day, and I think I burn about just as many. I cannot truly verify this, as its hard to really keep tabs on everything I consume and all of my activities. It is a rough estimate.
The reason I say my intake equals my outtake, is because I never seem to gain any weight. No matter what I do, it seems an impossible task for me.
I know, “Shut up Troy. You make me sick”
As I have said previously, this is not as good a thing as some people think.
Our bodies are constantly burning calories. There is no activity that does not use energy to complete. Even as I lay here typing this, I am burning calories. Our bodies are wondrous industrious machines.
My morning routine of push ups, planks, pull ups, and shoulder exercises burns roughly 1250 calories. The calories I burn from stretching after my workout is an additional 300. My run probably 800, depending on the mileage. Twice a day, I do tai chi for a total of 700. On the days I cannot run, I walk and jump rope for a total of 1100.
These are the calories I burn by taking care of my body. We also burn them we do other activities. I golf about 4 times a week. I walk all 18 holes and I carry my clubs for a surprising 1200 calories.
3 seasons out of the year, I spend an hour a day in my garden, weeding, hoeing, watering for 350 calories. For the winter months, my snowmobile replaces these calories. Although, with the fun I am having, I spend more than a hour on it and use 250 calories an hour.
Now for those of you with the 9-5, did you know you burn somewhere between 300 and 600 calories an hour. If you have an office job, you are on the low end. For people on their feet all day, you expend more energy and therefor burn more.
If you would like to turn the oven of your metabolism from warm to cook, here are a few simple tips.
1) Eat Breakfast and Meals throughout the Day
When you rest, your body naturally slows down. If you eat within the first hour of waking up, it is like throwing a log on a pile of embers, and seeing it roar to life.
2) Drink Water
To maintain fluid balance, regulate body functions, and keep your organs clean, your body is absorbing and using the water you give it. To do this, it uses calories.
3) Caffeine
The caffeine from black coffee and green tea, helps stimulate thermogenesis. This is the act of warming up the body. Plus caffeine gives you energy, which you turn into motion.
4) Fidget
Those who tap their toes, play with their hair, or gesture when they speak, are still burning energy. Up to 350 calories a day.
5) Clean
When you vacuum, sweep, dust, or rearrange you are using your body. Using your body, burns calories.
6) Stand
This simple act of keeping your body upright, burns up to 600 calories a day. Switching your computer desk to a standing desk, does more than burns calories. It strengthens your core, legs, and spine.
7) Sex
Not only is it enjoyable, it is also helps burn off some extra calories. It releases endorphins, regulates circulatory and respiratory functions, and gives an overall sense of well-being
8) Dance
This is one of my favorite activities. Probably because I don’t know I am doing it. I have been approached by friends and coworkers telling me, I just broke out in a dirge. At first I thought people were joking with me, but after many different people telling me this, I just go with the flow. And so should you.
As I stated earlier, I am not sure how many calories I consume and use. It is somewhere between 6,000 and 8,000. I only know that my intake and outtake match each other. I do not gain weight.
Since I am not ashamed of my body, I do not feel the need to increase anything to put on more mass. Your body should not be something you are ashamed of because someone doesn’t like the look of it.
The only thing that matters is what your body is telling you. If it tells you, you are feeling good, go with it. No one can take that away from you. Enjoy your body, its the only one you get.
The best thing about your body, it is a canvas you can repaint over and over again.
Everyone is different.
Every body requires different nutritional values.
We’ve all heard about the 2,000 calorie myth. I say myth, because I have consumed 2,000 calories by lunch.
Breakfast is usually my smallest meal. The complete opposite of what is recommended.
Now that I think about it, I do a lot of things that are the complete opposite of what is recommended.
Here is a run down of my typical breakfast: eggs and salsa, bagel/toast/muffin, sausage/bacon/steak/chicken, oatmeal, and fruit. I used to have a big glass of milk, but a few years ago, I became lactose intolerant.
Yes, that is my smallest meal. It usually consist of about 1250-1500 calories.
Before I eat breakfast, I get in my morning routine. 90 push ups, 10 minutes of planks, and an hour of R.O.M. for my shoulders. These exercises work my chest, back, and arms also.
I have to do slow movements, because both shoulders have already had their rotator cuffs repaired. I am 75% more likely to get another tear in them now.
Before lunch, I get about 2 snack in. Granola, fruit, vegetables, and nuts.
I know most people are juicing their snacks. I prefer to eat my food though.
Lunch and diner are larger portions of breakfast. I will also occasionally add fish to my diet. During these two meals, I drop the bread and substitute it with rice.
Between lunch and diner, 2 more snacks.
Spring, summer, and fall, I run at night. Usually 4 to 6 miles every other day. During the winter, I do this after my morning routine and before breakfast. I never run on a full stomach.
Now, here’s the kicker. I go to bed every night with a full stomach from a fourth meal. Which is usually a combination of everything I have had throughout the day. Fourth meal is also a meal to cheat. If I feel like sitting down to some McDonald’s or Taco Bell, now is the time.
Yes, I said fast-food. I treat my body well, but I know sometimes you have to treat it rough, so it stays adaptable.
I consume roughly 8000 calories a day, but I also burn close to the same amount. I don’t eat holistically, and every time I go in for a check up, my vitals are all below normal.
When I get my blood checked, my bad cholesterol levels and triglycerides are below normal. My good cholesterol is also below normal. My diet and exercise regime should not allow this, but the doctor tells me, it just must be how my body is.
What do you do to keep yourself fit? A special diet? A special exercise regime?
How do you keep yourself motivated?
