Zen I am 49 and swim about 10km a week plus occasional runs. That keeps me in good shape but you have to swim at a hard pace, preferably sets. Note: I see guys who are my age who have been going to the pool for years but they are still overweight. They basically paddle up and down for 40 minutes and think that is a workout.
Anything that has to do with staying active and living a quality life belongs in here! The best diet tips I can give you is just to eat as many alkalizing foods as possible. Acidity is literally the cause of ALL illness, cancer, high blood pressure, arthritis, acid-reflux, YOU NAME it.. I'm going to come on out and say it.. You can literally get an EMS Stimulator, sit at your computer, hook it up to each major muscle 5 minutes per muscle per day, eat crap, take alkalizing ph drops and use detoxing supplements (pads, kidney, liver, and colone cleansers), take a multi vitamin and NEVER... I repeat NEVER get fat and NEVER get any kind of significant illness (cancer, osteoperosis, arthritis, NOTHING). I should have never said this, lol.. I cannot stress enough how important having an alkaline ph in your body is. Damaged cells ONLY proliferate in hydrogen depleted environments.
You probably hate doing weights because of the severe muscle soreness. this is because you have an acidic body and your body cannot properly get rid of the lactic acid you produce so it just sits in your body, hinders your ability to make you gain muscle, adds fat to your body (your body adds fat when it needs to store excess acids), and you always feel unmotivated. Alkalize yourself and you will have a whole new outlook on life, I promise you. You don't have to lift heavy weights to lean out, you can just do body weight exercises. Heavy weight lifting makes your effort more efficient though. As, moving a bigger load in a short period of time is an higher intensity. A higher intensity means more motor units are recruited, thus more of a strain on the body, thus more calories are burn, thus more results in less overall quantitative time frames. Do this. Wake up every morning and do my push up squat routine. It only takes 10 minutes but it's a KILLER workout.. What you do is you start out with 10 push ups then you get up and do 1 squat then 9 push ups and 2 squats 8-3 7-4 6-5.... all the way down until you do 1 push up and 10 squats.. then you reverse it.. Increase the reps as it gets easier. You can also change the tempo and do slower eccentric phases to induce hypertrophy (muscle building). What I mean by that is that you lower yourself slower. This routine is quite effective. You will be surprised at how hard it is to do. I think taht once you alkalize your body and you feel 1000% better you'll look forward to lifting heavier weights because you will get addicted to the pump. Please let me know if you have any further questions.
LOL.. This is because 1) First thing when they wake up they drink a quart of coffee. --very acidic 2) The immediately go home and drink a SLIM FAST (with 14 grams of sugar) -- very acidic 3) Eat a LOW FAT granola bar (20 grams of sugar) --very acidic .... See where I"m going with this?? Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is insanity....... BTW.. swimming is a different kind of endurance. I remember the first time I started swimming laps and I thought i was in great shape. Mannnnnnnn.. it whooped my butt! Swimming is very good for your CNS, as, it creates a solid fluidity to your muscle contractions. It makes you more efficient at resistance training and running. 10KM/wk swimming is A LOT you guys. Go swim 1KM in the pool and tell me how you feel. HOpefully you'll still be alive. 49?? Not bad.. not bad at all
Hi Matt- You keep mentioning an alkaline diet and I thought I saw mention of pH drops a few times - Do you have any specific examples of foods that would be considered alkaline? If you already posted that - just let me know - I thought I read the whole thread but maybe I missed a page or 2. Thanks!
You can go to www.ph-ion.com and download an entire list of foods. It's breaks it down for you into catagories. Stuff like carrots, spinach, lettuce, beans, squash are all alkaline. Basically anything grown in the ground, lol.. Avocados are extremely alkaline and they are awesome for your health.
Matt, What are your thoughts on the South Beach Diet? The wife and I have been following the Phase 2 portion for months now and it has worked wonders. I bring it up because it stresses the avoidance of sugars as much as possible and some of the foods you mentioned are on the "quality foods list". OP
Very interesting, that sums me up perfectly. I looked at the list of foods here http://www.ph-ion.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=26 and pretty much everything I eat is acidic. It would take a lot of changes to alkalize myself by the looks of it. Cutting back on bread/rice/meat would be hard as I would feel hungry all the time. Will do some more research on this. Thanks for everyone's replies.
South Beach diet is awesome, the premise is making sure the carbs are low on the glycemic index and thus have very little effect on your insulin levels. This is very important in controlling cravings and minimizing fat storage. It's amazing how much more energy you have isn't it? Simple sugars give you that surge of energy then a long period of sluggishness until you get another quick fix. It's a roller coaster ride and its' very unhealthy for you. The key to the South Beach diet is to just make sure you consume enough fiber to keep you feeling full.