Getting the Motor Running

I had a great conversation with one of my friends today about how all of this works - the lifestyle, the work outs, everything. His questions and the dialog that began because of his questions just reaffirmed to me why this lifestyle is the way to go if you want to lose weight, keep it off, and feel healthier than you have in your life.

He was shocked to find out that I rarely do cardio workouts anymore. I did in the beginning - 3 to 5 times a week. But, over the last 6 weeks, I may have been on a treadmill 3 times. Here's why: once you start building your muscle, and increasing the intensity of your workouts, you don't need as much cardio in order to lose weight. If you want to do cardio to increase your endurance for sports, feel free! But, it isn't necessary once your body starts adapting to your new way of eating and living.

And let me explain what I mean by the intensity of my workouts. At least twice a week, I don't rest between sets. For instance; I will do a set of bench presses and immediately do a set of crunches, then immediately back to bench presses, etc. If you do that for 45 minutes, you have received both an aerobic and anaerobic workout. On these days I almost always do abdominals as my adjoining exercises - unless it's a day where the gym is relatively empty and I can take up two machines at once.

Another reason why cardio isn't as necessary once you get going is that the foods you are eating are all muscle building, energy providing foods. What you are eating is being used by your body, there isn't excess fats or calories that are waiting to be burned off. Intense workouts require your food to do what it's meant to do - so your body's metabolism starts running faster and faster, especially as you build more muscle.

And let me kill a myth right now for women. You will not build the kind of muscle a man will, regardless of how hard, or how heavy, you lift weights. You will build muscle defenition, yes, but you will not bulk up. In order for that to happen, you have to introduce more testosterone into your body through chemical means. So have no worries about what will happen if you give it your best in the gym.

Another concern my friend had was the amount of protein in this lifestyle. People have heard too much protein will cause kidney issues and other medical problems. This is true ... if you're not working out intensely. But, if you are performing intense workouts, then your protein is being used by your muscles. And you will see that within weeks. So don't be scared of protein, or having too much of it. If you are working out, you need it. It is what gets the body's weight loss motor running!

Thanks for readin'!