My first article for the national newspaper
Josedavid
Posts: 695 Member
Well, I dont know if I can see this as a NSV because the newspaper approached me to talk about this matter!! Anyway I am happy to share a little of my project with the media! haha!
I hope you like it!
How to keep a healthy diet and how to stick to exercising during vacations.
Vacations is a great time to discover new places and enjoy the spare time together with the family and friends. It’s time to be exposed to the local culture wherever you travel and to enjoy the local gastronomy.
We use to associate the idea of vacation with inactivity when there is a better understanding of the “vacation” concept as a time to change your day to day routine activity into other new, enjoyable and funny activities.
This is, briefly, what our vacations are made of:
- Aircraft trip to destination
- Sleep/Jet Lag
- Gastronomy (Food/beverage)
- Tourism activities and visits
- Sports
And we will also talk about:
- Role model
- Golden Rules
What I learnt throughout my weight loss process (38Kg loss during a period of time of 200days, from 142Kg to 104Kg, or Body Mass Index BMI 40.2, which is “morbidly obese”, to BMI 29.4 which is just “overweight”) is that no one should relay in any flash diets of magical gym routines that only keep promising and promising but with no outcome. But adopting some habits and adapting our costumes a little we can be always in the safe side when it comes to keep a healthy life
- Aircraft trip to destination
o During your trip, especially when it is a long flight you should never forget to hydrate yourself as much as you can. An aircraft is not a mild and friendly environment for the body. It is a very dry place and the pressure could slightly change. Do not wait to be thirsty to ask for an extra cup of water and enjoy the freshness of that water anytime! An average of 1.5lts water should be consumed everyday
o This is more a beauty advice but you shouldn’t forget to moisturize your hands and face skin if you don’t want to arrive to destination looking like a raisin
- Sleep/Jet Lag
o May it happen during the flight or at your destination hotel but you should try to catch up with the sleep so to adapt to the new time zone. It’s commonly accepted that you would need at least one day for any single time zone difference you passed by. So, if your destination city has 6 hours difference with your home town where you departed you would need 6 days to be really adapted to the new city day-to-day schedule
o As important as the exercise is for the body it is to rest. Sleeping time should not be less than 8 hours so to allow your body to rest after a long tourism day full of activities
- Gastronomy (Food/beverage)
o Every place we visit they have their own gastronomy and their own specialties. If you are a big fan of gastronomy, as I am, you will find any single excuse to go over calorie
o I never trusted any diet that prevents me from any specific nutrient group. There are many of them preventing you from carbs, fats, etc. Let’s take as a rule of thumb that our meal should be made out of:
1 part of fat
2 parts of protein
3 parts of carbs
How to calculate them? You would find a wide range of iPad/iPhone applications, also for Android and Blackberry that could help you to calculate them and to count calories
• The most famous one and the one I use is My Fitness Pal (www.myfitnesspal.com)
o The average adult food intake is around 2000 cal/day. How to stay healthy is related to basic mathematics. If you eat more than 2000 cal/day and you don’t exercise, you will, and it always applies, gain weight
o What I do when I travel is that I have a great breakfast, the breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Make it full of complex carbs (muesli, oatmeal, multi-cereal bread), fruits and diaries. Avoid refined sugars and fats.
o At lunch time indulge yourself enjoying the local food. Try to discover the most typical dishes and try them all! Is not about the food you take but also about the portions and color. Color…? Yes! We trend to eat “golden” color food (deep fried) because is tasty for us but if we change that trend into a “rainbow” look like dish we will be not only adding color to our life but also adding health! (colorful veggies)
o The dinner should be light, actually… what are you doing after dinner? Most likely you will sleep so… why should we add calories to our energy stores when we are not going to use them until the next day?
o Remember:
What you eat in private you wear it in public!
If you go from a 3 big meals a day to a 5 smaller and better balance meals a day you will be able to control your calorie intake and your hunger very much better
- Tourism activities and visits
o Do not limit yourself to be confined in the hotel, resort or limit your visits to big malls. There are plenty of really “walkable” (perfect to be walked) cities to visit and most of them has a great pedestrian downtown circuit to discover the cultural buildings, museums, landscapes, etc.
o If the place you are going to visit is not that far away… why don’t you try to reach it by walk? Or maybe the city you are visiting can offer you a bike service. There are some cities where they offer you a one or two hours bike rental for free when you leave your car in the city parking.
o Does your destination selected offer you adventure excursions? A great way to exercise yourself without noticing it is by taking part in one of these adventure package (rafting, hiking, boot camps)
o Does your hotel / resort offer you sport schedule with the entertainers? Do not hesitate to join them doing aqua gym, football, family games, aerobics, dance…
- Sports
o If you are concerned about your fitness level and you want to keep it up to the normal standard that you are being working out through the winter session you should plan your sports activities beforehand
o Ask for information about the hotel/resort gym if there is any available. If not ask them to tell you if any of the nearest hotels have any gym availability and don’t be shy, go there and ask for the fee. Most of them have a day pass and you could train as u are used to do back home.
o For me training is never a problem, why?
I love the best sport that produces one of the most, if not the most, calorie burn: Running!
• I love to run in vacation, either outdoors or treadmill. I run for 1 hour enjoying my iPod playlist and my favorite time in the day for running is before breakfast… I burn 1100-1200 calories in a one hour run, so it means that it allows me to eat a little more that day!
• You never tried running/jogging? Then you should check www.c25k.com They offer a running training program for free based in the interval training method. Beginning being seated in the sofa, doing nothing and being a “couch potato” (c25k stands for “from the couch to five kilometers” you will be able to run either 30min or 5km nonstop at the end of the training program (8-9weeks training only 3 days a week)
I always put my TRX suspension training system in my luggage. You only need to hook it to the door frame, or to any tree or pole you could find outdoors, no installation needed, and you will be able to train almost every single muscle group, especially the core. Its size is like a two packs of 1kg rice and its weight is around 1-1.5kg) www.trxtraining.com
Train your biggest muscles groups. Big muscles groups burn more calories than smaller ones. So, a good legs, back, chest, shoulders, biceps and triceps training, splitting them into:
• Day 1:
o Chest
o Biceps/triceps
o Core
o Calves
• Day 2:
o Back
o Shoulders
o Core
o Hamstrings/Quadriceps
• Day 3:
o Rest
You don’t need to train more than one hour a day to feel the very big difference. 30 minutes cardio (brisky walk, jogging, running, rowing, biking, elliptical trainer) and 30 min exercising + 5 min stretching is more than enough. Allow yourself to get one or two days off a week. Even dough you will still have 5 days of 23 hours to do whatever you want.
Keep a good memory by videotaping you doing exercise. When I travel I always do a small clip performing a very demanding exercise called “burpee”. So what I am getting now is a collection of small clips doing this “Burpee everywhere” in all the cities I travel to. You can find the videos in www.youtube.com/team966
- Example (role model)
o Most of us are travelling with the family and most of us lead the family. The trigger point that made me decided to change my life was my wife pregnancy. When she told me she was pregnant I started thinking about what kind of father would I be. Would I be a good role model for him? Would I suffer a lot if I keep keeping my high weight, my obesity, and my son wants to play with me, to run, to jump, to do all that things that kids want to do? My answer was: I want to change my body so to be a great role model for him but by changing my body I will change my food habits and my diet will become healthier so I will become a healthy daddy. Now I cannot wait for him to grow up a little and share this sports moments together, healthy food together, healthy habits together
- Golden rules
o If you want to start a training program ask to your doctor first and if the doctor gives you clearance to go training then spend some time finding a certified personal trainer
o If you want to start any new diet (which I don’t recommend, I always recommend to learn how to eat better), ask to a nutritionist
o Make sure that your personal trainer understand your needs and that he listen to you. It is very common that trainers trend to make you fit in a pre-establish fitness program. No, no, and no… every person is unique so the training should be.
o Set up achievable goals and write them now:
I want to lose 5kg during the next 10 months
I want to be able to run 5km nonstop at the end of the 8-9 week program
I want to play with my kid more than 5 minutes without feeling suffocating
José D. Ortiz is a Spanish resident in Jeddah and ISSA (International Sports Sciences Association, USA) Certified Personal Trainer specialized in weight management fitness programs
Facebook: Team966
I hope you like it!
How to keep a healthy diet and how to stick to exercising during vacations.
Vacations is a great time to discover new places and enjoy the spare time together with the family and friends. It’s time to be exposed to the local culture wherever you travel and to enjoy the local gastronomy.
We use to associate the idea of vacation with inactivity when there is a better understanding of the “vacation” concept as a time to change your day to day routine activity into other new, enjoyable and funny activities.
This is, briefly, what our vacations are made of:
- Aircraft trip to destination
- Sleep/Jet Lag
- Gastronomy (Food/beverage)
- Tourism activities and visits
- Sports
And we will also talk about:
- Role model
- Golden Rules
What I learnt throughout my weight loss process (38Kg loss during a period of time of 200days, from 142Kg to 104Kg, or Body Mass Index BMI 40.2, which is “morbidly obese”, to BMI 29.4 which is just “overweight”) is that no one should relay in any flash diets of magical gym routines that only keep promising and promising but with no outcome. But adopting some habits and adapting our costumes a little we can be always in the safe side when it comes to keep a healthy life
- Aircraft trip to destination
o During your trip, especially when it is a long flight you should never forget to hydrate yourself as much as you can. An aircraft is not a mild and friendly environment for the body. It is a very dry place and the pressure could slightly change. Do not wait to be thirsty to ask for an extra cup of water and enjoy the freshness of that water anytime! An average of 1.5lts water should be consumed everyday
o This is more a beauty advice but you shouldn’t forget to moisturize your hands and face skin if you don’t want to arrive to destination looking like a raisin
- Sleep/Jet Lag
o May it happen during the flight or at your destination hotel but you should try to catch up with the sleep so to adapt to the new time zone. It’s commonly accepted that you would need at least one day for any single time zone difference you passed by. So, if your destination city has 6 hours difference with your home town where you departed you would need 6 days to be really adapted to the new city day-to-day schedule
o As important as the exercise is for the body it is to rest. Sleeping time should not be less than 8 hours so to allow your body to rest after a long tourism day full of activities
- Gastronomy (Food/beverage)
o Every place we visit they have their own gastronomy and their own specialties. If you are a big fan of gastronomy, as I am, you will find any single excuse to go over calorie
o I never trusted any diet that prevents me from any specific nutrient group. There are many of them preventing you from carbs, fats, etc. Let’s take as a rule of thumb that our meal should be made out of:
1 part of fat
2 parts of protein
3 parts of carbs
How to calculate them? You would find a wide range of iPad/iPhone applications, also for Android and Blackberry that could help you to calculate them and to count calories
• The most famous one and the one I use is My Fitness Pal (www.myfitnesspal.com)
o The average adult food intake is around 2000 cal/day. How to stay healthy is related to basic mathematics. If you eat more than 2000 cal/day and you don’t exercise, you will, and it always applies, gain weight
o What I do when I travel is that I have a great breakfast, the breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Make it full of complex carbs (muesli, oatmeal, multi-cereal bread), fruits and diaries. Avoid refined sugars and fats.
o At lunch time indulge yourself enjoying the local food. Try to discover the most typical dishes and try them all! Is not about the food you take but also about the portions and color. Color…? Yes! We trend to eat “golden” color food (deep fried) because is tasty for us but if we change that trend into a “rainbow” look like dish we will be not only adding color to our life but also adding health! (colorful veggies)
o The dinner should be light, actually… what are you doing after dinner? Most likely you will sleep so… why should we add calories to our energy stores when we are not going to use them until the next day?
o Remember:
What you eat in private you wear it in public!
If you go from a 3 big meals a day to a 5 smaller and better balance meals a day you will be able to control your calorie intake and your hunger very much better
- Tourism activities and visits
o Do not limit yourself to be confined in the hotel, resort or limit your visits to big malls. There are plenty of really “walkable” (perfect to be walked) cities to visit and most of them has a great pedestrian downtown circuit to discover the cultural buildings, museums, landscapes, etc.
o If the place you are going to visit is not that far away… why don’t you try to reach it by walk? Or maybe the city you are visiting can offer you a bike service. There are some cities where they offer you a one or two hours bike rental for free when you leave your car in the city parking.
o Does your destination selected offer you adventure excursions? A great way to exercise yourself without noticing it is by taking part in one of these adventure package (rafting, hiking, boot camps)
o Does your hotel / resort offer you sport schedule with the entertainers? Do not hesitate to join them doing aqua gym, football, family games, aerobics, dance…
- Sports
o If you are concerned about your fitness level and you want to keep it up to the normal standard that you are being working out through the winter session you should plan your sports activities beforehand
o Ask for information about the hotel/resort gym if there is any available. If not ask them to tell you if any of the nearest hotels have any gym availability and don’t be shy, go there and ask for the fee. Most of them have a day pass and you could train as u are used to do back home.
o For me training is never a problem, why?
I love the best sport that produces one of the most, if not the most, calorie burn: Running!
• I love to run in vacation, either outdoors or treadmill. I run for 1 hour enjoying my iPod playlist and my favorite time in the day for running is before breakfast… I burn 1100-1200 calories in a one hour run, so it means that it allows me to eat a little more that day!
• You never tried running/jogging? Then you should check www.c25k.com They offer a running training program for free based in the interval training method. Beginning being seated in the sofa, doing nothing and being a “couch potato” (c25k stands for “from the couch to five kilometers” you will be able to run either 30min or 5km nonstop at the end of the training program (8-9weeks training only 3 days a week)
I always put my TRX suspension training system in my luggage. You only need to hook it to the door frame, or to any tree or pole you could find outdoors, no installation needed, and you will be able to train almost every single muscle group, especially the core. Its size is like a two packs of 1kg rice and its weight is around 1-1.5kg) www.trxtraining.com
Train your biggest muscles groups. Big muscles groups burn more calories than smaller ones. So, a good legs, back, chest, shoulders, biceps and triceps training, splitting them into:
• Day 1:
o Chest
o Biceps/triceps
o Core
o Calves
• Day 2:
o Back
o Shoulders
o Core
o Hamstrings/Quadriceps
• Day 3:
o Rest
You don’t need to train more than one hour a day to feel the very big difference. 30 minutes cardio (brisky walk, jogging, running, rowing, biking, elliptical trainer) and 30 min exercising + 5 min stretching is more than enough. Allow yourself to get one or two days off a week. Even dough you will still have 5 days of 23 hours to do whatever you want.
Keep a good memory by videotaping you doing exercise. When I travel I always do a small clip performing a very demanding exercise called “burpee”. So what I am getting now is a collection of small clips doing this “Burpee everywhere” in all the cities I travel to. You can find the videos in www.youtube.com/team966
- Example (role model)
o Most of us are travelling with the family and most of us lead the family. The trigger point that made me decided to change my life was my wife pregnancy. When she told me she was pregnant I started thinking about what kind of father would I be. Would I be a good role model for him? Would I suffer a lot if I keep keeping my high weight, my obesity, and my son wants to play with me, to run, to jump, to do all that things that kids want to do? My answer was: I want to change my body so to be a great role model for him but by changing my body I will change my food habits and my diet will become healthier so I will become a healthy daddy. Now I cannot wait for him to grow up a little and share this sports moments together, healthy food together, healthy habits together
- Golden rules
o If you want to start a training program ask to your doctor first and if the doctor gives you clearance to go training then spend some time finding a certified personal trainer
o If you want to start any new diet (which I don’t recommend, I always recommend to learn how to eat better), ask to a nutritionist
o Make sure that your personal trainer understand your needs and that he listen to you. It is very common that trainers trend to make you fit in a pre-establish fitness program. No, no, and no… every person is unique so the training should be.
o Set up achievable goals and write them now:
I want to lose 5kg during the next 10 months
I want to be able to run 5km nonstop at the end of the 8-9 week program
I want to play with my kid more than 5 minutes without feeling suffocating
José D. Ortiz is a Spanish resident in Jeddah and ISSA (International Sports Sciences Association, USA) Certified Personal Trainer specialized in weight management fitness programs
Facebook: Team966
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