Crank It Up: Sprinting Towards Single Digit Body Fat Percentages With High Intensity Training

The relationship between sprinting and a rock-solid physique is why strength coach Erick Minor put together the program in this article. He thinks it’s such a damn shame that so few bodybuilders actually sprint anymore. It’s one of the few fat burning activities that can actually build muscle tissue instead of catabolizing it, and it’s easy to do; just find a track and run! Well, and maybe read this first…

Look around a track and field event sometime and you’ll notice the relationship between sprinters and bodybuilders actually goes both ways, meaning a lot of full-time sprinters also have damn impressive bodies!

Not surprisingly, their training off the track is remarkably similar to that of a hard-lifting bodybuilder.

Okay, quiz time….

What’s the most foolproof way to increase an athlete’s performance?

“Increase his VO2 max?”
Nope.
“Uh, improve one-arm Kettlebell snatch on a Bosu ball performance?”
Hell no.

Well…

The most reliable way to increase any athlete’s performance is to improve his or her strength-to-weight ratio, which is a fancy way of saying minimizing the amount of bodyfat the athlete carries while maintaining or adding lean body mass.

Typically, any athlete with a favorable muscle to fat ratio is likely to have higher relative strength.

High levels of relative strength are necessary in many sports for world-class success. The same rules apply for recreational athletes or guys who just want to look good naked. With the exception of a handful of pure strength sports, a leaner body will perform better and faster, not to mention look better when the clothes come off. So when an athlete or weekend warrior rolls into my facility, how do I go about improving anaerobic performance, maintaining and/or increasing maximal strength, and reducing body fat?

Well, the first thing you have to understand is what I don’t do. Some of you may know that I don’t recommend steady-state “aerobic” exercise for the conditioning of any athlete.

Let me be blunt here:

The only athletes that should perform low intensity cardio such as jogging are distance runners, tri-athletes, or someone needing to lose muscle tissue. Yes, you read right, unless your goal is to have LESS lean muscle mass, the hamster wheel approach to energy system work is not for you. For maximum body composition and anaerobic performance improvements, the modality of choice is sprinting.

A well-designed sprint program will create significant losses of body fat and at the same time increase your anaerobic work capacity and posterior chain development. So less fat, better lungs, and a dead-sexy butt that will make the nymphets and cougars come crawling. What more could you ask for?

The Sprinter’s Body – Nature vs. Nurture

Pound for pound, sprinters are some of the leanest and strongest athletes on the planet. They possess the perfect storm of fast-twitch dominance, exceptional reaction time, great work capacity, and a favorable endocrine profile. Physically, they look pretty damn good too. Now you may suspect that a sprinter’s physical characteristics are all a product of awesome genetics, but that’s only one aspect of the resultant physical outcome. Yes, a certain body type is preferential for success in sprinting, but training, lifestyle, and diet all have a big impact on the expression of physical qualities. To understand my point, just attend a collegiate level track meet and you’ll note that certain track events develop specific physical characteristics in their participants.

For example, even the guy or girl who places dead last in the 200 or 400m sprint will still typically have well developed glutes, hamstrings, and fairly low body fat levels. Even though they may not have what it takes to win even a Junior College track meet, their body resembles that of a world-class athlete. I attribute this to the training.

I Wanna Look Like That!

As a strength coach of some world-class sprinters, I’m often asked if their training regimens would only be of benefit to full time athletes or if the average Joe might reap similar rewards as well. That’s a good question, as it also plays into the Nature vs. Nurture genetics debate mentioned earlier.

So for those who think it’s all genetics and that pro sprinters were born to look and perform the way that they do, check out this training program for one of the top sprinters I train:

The Sprinter’s Body

The following program outlines the typical pre-season training schedule of Darvis “Doc” Patton, #5 ranked 100-meter sprinter of 2009.

(Track workout designed by Monte Stratton, coach of multiple Olympic sprinters.)

• Monday (10am): Track work: speed-endurance (300m, 200m, 100m)
• Monday (2pm): Upper body strength training
• Tuesday (10am): Track work: block starts (2 x 10m, 2 x 20m, 2 x 30m, 1 x 50m) or speed work
• Tuesday (2pm): Lower body quad dominant strength training (squats, knee flexors, hip flexors)
• Wednesday: Soft Tissue therapy/ Massage
• Thursday (10am): Track work: speed day (5 x 60m) or (4 x 90m) or (3 x 120m) w/ 10 minute rest interval
• Thursday (2pm): Upper body strength training
• Friday (10am): Track work: speed endurance (3 x 150m) or (4 x 120m) or (180m, 150m, 120m)
• Friday (2pm): Lower body hip dominant strength training (deadlifts, split squats, hip flexors)

Twice a day workouts, off day restorative sessions, and nary a moment wasted on those minor irritants in life like a JOB? Almost makes you want to be a pro athlete, doesn’t it? (Maybe keep this schedule in mind the next time your know-it-all buddy looks at a chiseled Olympian and snorts, “Genetics” between his endless sets of seated 12 ounce Heineken curls.)

But you’ll be pleased to know that while Olympic hopefuls require a life devoted to training, time-challenged regular folks can experience very significant results with a much more modest training schedule.

…. And the Joes

Now that you’ve seen a glimpse of how a world-class sprinter trains, here’s an abbreviated version that will work for the typical Joe with normal work and family commitments. It may not have you nipping at Doc Patton’s heels in six weeks, but you should expect serious reductions in body fat, increased anaerobic performance, and the beginning development of a smooth gluteal fold that even your long-suffering wife won’t resist slapping.

Training Schedule:

You’ll sprint twice a week, and weight-train three days a week. You’ll perform a heavy maintenance session for legs once per week for the six-week cycle.

• Monday: Upper body: Horizontal push/pull
• Tuesday: Sprints
• Wednesday: Rest
• Thursday: Legs (alternate quad and ham dominant days)
• Friday: Upper Body: Vertical push/pull
• Saturday: Sprints
• Sunday: Rest

Warm-Up and Stretch Descriptions

High Knee March

• Move briskly for about 20 steps, lifting the knees as high as you can with each step.
• Pump your arms.
• Stay on your toes throughout.

Butt Kicks

• Kick your heels up to touch your bum.
• Stay on your toes and pump your arms.
• Works the hamstrings and stretches the quads.

Lateral Shuffle

• Squat down until your thighs are approximately parallel to the floor. Keep the chest up.
• While maintaining this position, quickly shuffle sideway for about 10 steps and immediately return with the same amount of steps.

Cariocas

• Move briskly sideways, crossing the trailing leg in front.
• Uncross the legs and move the trailing leg behind.
• Increase the speed as you get the hang of the footwork.

A-Skips

• Similar to a High Knee March but performed explosively (like a skipping motion with an explosive element).
• Raise kness and pump arms, and dorsiflex foot (lift toe).
• Drive ball of landing foot into the ground.

Active-Assisted Hamstring Stretch

• Lie supine (on your back) with a small rolled-up towel under your low back.
• Actively initiate hip flexion; once you reach the limit of your active range of motion use a strap to deepen the stretch by pulling the leg a few inches farther.
• Hold for 2 seconds; repeat until 6 reps are complete.
• You will feel mild pain in the hamstring on each rep.
• Your non-working leg should be in contact with the floor and completely straight with toe pointing towards ceiling.
• Sets: 3/leg
• Reps: 6 reps (Photos at right)

Notes on sprinting workouts

You may notice I don’t recommend any distance over 200 meters. This is because I want you to focus on working within the short term and intermediate energy system (anaerobic alactic and anaerobic lactic system). All sprints should take less than 30 seconds to complete. If you have less than 10% body fat and can’t run 200 meters in less than 30 seconds, you’re in sorry shape, my friend.

Intensity definitions

• When running at 80% you should not feel strained.
• Running at 90% intensity is running at full speed under control. You’re running as fast as you can while maintaining good body position (no arm flailing, neck and face are relaxed).
• Running at 100% requires you to focus on applying as much force to the ground as possible.
• Arm position: arms at 90 degrees, and your hands should pass your pants pockets during each stride.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I follow a sprint-based training program?

Here are just a few reasons:

• Increased work capacity
• Increased hamstring and glute development
• Increased maximal strength on all lower body exercises
• Loss of body fat
• Many life & death situations that you might one day find yourself in will require you to sprint. God forbid, if your toddler suddenly starts pedaling his tricycle towards a busy intersection, you won’t be wishing you spent more time on a recumbent bike.

Where I live it’s winter eight months out of the year. Can I replicate this program on my treadmill?

Doubtful. Most treadmills, even the higher end commercial ones found at your neighborhood big box fitness center, won’t cut it — unless you’re dreadfully out of shape. One notable exception would be high-speed Woodway treadmills. But if your facility doesn’t have these, you need access to an indoor facility with a track- or move!

Q: I haven’t sprinted since back when I played high school football. So what do I do? Just, uh, run?

Perfecting sprint form sprinting is much more in depth than many would think and requires years of practice and precise coaching. While most of this is irrelevant to the average guy just trying to sprint his way back into shape, here are a few key points to focus on when sprinting:

1. Keep shoulders down and relaxed, with eyes down the track and chin slightly tucked in. Keep your torso erect; don’t lean forward like you’re trying to break Usain Bolt’s record.
2. Keep hands relaxed and open, like holding an egg.
3. Arms should not cross in front of body; arm motion should be front to back, front to back with hands passing pants pockets on each stride.

Q: The last time I tried sprinting without stretching first I pulled a hamstring. Why do you only have hamstring stretches after the sprint sessions?

Passive stretching doesn’t prevent hamstring pulls. Increasing active range-of-motion and increasing eccentric hamstring strength prevents hamstring pulls.

Q: Should I focus on running faster each workout? Do I try to beat my best time or best distance?

Neither. You will get faster just because you haven’t sprinted in the past. Trainees sprinting for cosmetic purposes (fat loss, glute hamstring hypertrophy) should focus on effort more so than time. A program designed to improve sprint time/performance would be significantly different, including longer rest intervals and start work.

Off to the Track

Getting off the stationary bike and onto the track may seem a little scary to some bodybuilders. Don’t be afraid. Some of the finest built bodies of yesterday and today consider sprinting to be an essential part of their training toolbox. Remember, you have only stubborn body fat to lose and rock-hard quads, hamstrings, and glutes to gain.

Author: Erick Minor

Coping with your sugar cravings

by JANE CLARKE

If you prefer savouries to sweets, you may be feeling sick to death of chocolates in the aftermath of the sugary excesses of the festive period, but if you've got a sweet tooth, you may be fighting a losing battle trying to resist your constant craving.

In our fat-obsessed world, it's easy to forget that sugar isn't that good for us either, yet not only can too much cause obesity and dental caries, but it plays havoc with your energy levels, too.

While eating a very sweet food on an empty stomach can give you an instant energy boost, you'll soon start feeling wired and weird, prompting you to reach for another sugar fix, a cycle that can literally be nausea-inducing.

If you're a sugar addict, I'd urge you to break the habit - you'll feel so much stronger and in control of your moods as a result, while additional bonuses frequently include a clearer skin, a more settled digestive system and fewer headaches and migraines.

If you decide to try to beat your sugar reliance, you have two options: either to reduce your sugar intake gradually or to go cold turkey and banish sugary foods from your life altogether. In my experience, the most successful strategy is a compromise: try cutting sugary foods out of your diet for a period of a few days to a couple of weeks, and you may then feel sufficiently in control of your sweet tooth to savour the occasional sweet treat.

Be prepared for your body to start behaving differently when it's suddenly deprived of the quick-fix sugar hits that it has become used to - its initial response, for example, may be to overwhelm you with feelings of tiredness, making it best to start your sugar detox at a weekend, when you can give in to your urge to sleep.

And because a hydrated body is better able to cope with any sudden dietary changes, try to drink 2.5 litres of water a day.

You'd also be well advised to stop drinking caffeine-containing drinks like coffee, tea, colas and 'sports' or 'energy' drinks because caffeine can disrupt your energy levels, the initial caffeine buzz often being followed by a low that can trigger a craving for something sweet.

There are plenty of delicious foods that you can enlist in your quest to quash your sugar cravings, notably chromium-rich foods like cheese, shellfish, baked beans and such wholemeal products as wholemeal bread, cereals and pastas.

The body needs minute quantities of chromium to encourage the pancreas to produce insulin, the hormone that helps to control blood sugar levels. The question of how much chromium will stabilise any blood sugar swings is down to the individual, but it generally seems that if you eat more wholegrain foods, along with plenty of vegetables and fresh fruits (although they'll give you a welcome dose of sweetness, their fibre content will suppress any further sugar cravings), your blood sugar level should remain far more steady.

Protein-packed foods, such as chicken, fish, eggs, seafood, pulses, lentils and lean red meat, also ward off sugar urges, so if you have a lunch consisting of a good-sized portion of protein teamed with some vegetables or salad and a small amount of wholegrain, you may find your mind dwelling less on the subject of sweet foods than if you'd had lots of starchy bread, rice, pasta or potatoes accompanied by only a tiny amount of protein.

When it comes to controlling sugar urges, having small meals often is a better bet than going for hours without eating (you may already have found that when you skip a meal you end up diving into the biscuit box and then staying there).

Another trick is to carry a small bottle of vanilla essence around with you and taking a sniff of it every time that you feel a sugar craving coming on - you'll be astonished how quickly it disappears!

________________________________________

Recipe: GRILLED FRESH FRUIT KEBABS

Allow about 125g of fruit per person. Ideally choose seasonal fruits for the best flavour - I love pineapple, mango, bananas, tangerines, pears, and in the summer, berries and peaches.

Slice the fruits into similar sized chunks, but don't make them too small otherwise they'll fall off the skewer.

Arrange the pieces of fruit in colourful combinations and thread onto the skewers, allowing about 6 pieces per skewer.

Pre heat your char grilling pan, or otherwise you could use a normal grill. Then place the fruit kebabs onto the heated pan, and cook until the edges of the fruits turn golden brown,

Serve warm, either on their own or with some natural yoghurt or fromage frais. For very young children, you should remove the skewers before they eat them.

Can history help you lose weight? We put three diets from the past to the test

By SIR ROY STRONG

There's nothing new about diets. In a unique experiment a historian put three of them - from very different eras - to the test. So which one worked the best?

Hands up those of you who have never attempted to lose weight? Practically no one, I guess, in this era of universal flab-panic.

I took myself in hand at the close of the Seventies, when I was director of the V&A museum and growing so large my trousers were starting to pinch.

One of the diet guinea pigs is measured up as part of the experiment.

Within a few months I had shed a stone by eating less, taking up jogging and joining the gym.

Indeed, the weight loss was so marked that my trousers began to drop off me, and I had to have them taken in by a friendly tailor I knew in the costume department at the Royal Opera House.

Ever since then I've kept a close watch on what I eat, with the result that, although I'm in my 73rd year, a doctor has just told me my metabolic age is only 57 - a full 16 years younger than my age.

I discovered that only when I began making a TV series on the history of dieting.

It is part social history, part reality show, with nine flab-laden members of the public volunteering to enter a fictional "Institute of Physical Culture" where, for 24 days, they are subjected to three of the most extreme diets from history.

My role was to act as the head of the institute, dressed in a frock coat and top hat to preside over the whole process like some Victorian version of Gillian McKeith.

Together with the other "staff" - who were all experts in different aspects of health and wellbeing - I had to enforce the correct food intake and the appropriate exercise programmes from three eras: Victorian, Edwardian and the roaring Twenties.

To do this, we were all incarcerated in a country house in the middle of nowhere from which there was no easy means of escape.

Obesity crisis: Tricia Ford and David Jordan tried the Victorian diet

And looking at the brutal regime our volunteers were subjected to, it's a miracle the rest of them weren't chewing the carpet by the time we let them out.

Although the resulting programmes are hilarious, they are also intriguing and informative - teaching us a great deal about our modern-day attitudes to food.

Until I embarked on these programmes I had no idea that our obsession with dieting went back further than the Fifties, when I recall my mother getting slimming pills from the doctor which only seemed to make her grow fatter.

In fact, dieting goes back to the Victorian age when the new middle classes, waited on by servants, had blown up in size as a consequence of consuming the contents of Mrs Beeton's celebrated cookbook.

So could our modern-day volunteers learn something from the methods used by our ancestors to shift those extra pounds, just as modern- day celebrity chefs still turn to Mrs Beeton for inspiration in the kitchen?

The three dietary regimes I subjected our guinea pigs to all had one thing in common: they demanded extreme commitment and discipline, which was anathema to most of the tubby participants.

For me, that was the most fascinating part of the whole exercise.

For the truth is that we would not need diets at all if people relearned simple discipline.

We've had two generations where there has been little discipline, in the home or the school. And if you want to lose weight, it's fundamental.

Before they entered the "institute", our nine participants had to pledge they would adhere to their strict regimes and observe set meal times, without fail.

Drawn from all ages and walks of life, they included a special needs teacher, Madame Tussaud's guide and gas meter reader.

Yet as soon as they embarked on our rigorous regimes, it became clear that the idea of formal mealtimes was new to them.

They all belonged to the "me" generation: "I have what I want, when I want."

In their normal lives, most of them simply grazed on snacks, or sat munching something from the take-away as they gawped at the TV.

When questioned about what they would normally eat for breakfast, they gave me replies such as "a glass of water and two fags".

The idea of sitting at a table and talking to other human beings came as a total culture shock to them.

That didn't surprise me, ever since I learned from a nursery school teacher that most children arrive in her care never having sat at a table or held a knife and fork.

In fact, some of our participants had to be taught precisely that.

This lack of discipline, combined with the availability of cheap ready-to-eat food, means that most of us eat far more than our ancestors, while exercising less.

They walked, we drive. They did hard manual work; we mostly sit on a chair in an office.

Our sedentary lifestyle extends into the home, where machines do virtually all the tasks that once had to be done by hand.

Similarly, our houses are heated while in the past they were cold. All these changes mean that we burn far fewer calories than the average Victorian.

It's no wonder we have an obesity crisis. But what also struck me was the selfishness of the reasons given by our participants for wanting to lose weight and be fitter.

The answers were without exception self-centred, ranging from "I want to be able to wear skinny jeans", to "I want to look good nude for my wife".

In the past, slimming and fitness was viewed as part of good citizenship so that you would be ready for action in time of war, serve the state in peace and, as a woman, bear healthy children.

It was an era which produced the Boy Scouts, Boys' Brigade, New Health Society and Women's League Of Health And Beauty.

Today, such notions of civic duty have vanished, as not one of our participants said they wanted to be lean and fit so as not to be a burden to their families or avert adding to the cost of the NHS.

What we have is an obesity crisis, but minus the moral framework of our ancestors, who decried fatness as being the result of gluttony and loose living.

It's no use blaming the problem on the food manufacturers or retailers who are going to have to label their food with colour-coded calorie warnings.

As I said, it all comes back to one thing: self-discipline, the ability to control yourself, eat less and, when offered more, utter the words: "No thank you".

In1863 an undertaker called William Banting, who had made the Duke of Wellington's coffin, published what was in effect the first book for slimmers.

It was called A Letter On Corpulence and became a bestseller. Indeed right into the 1920s, if you were on a diet you would say that you were "banting".

At 65, Banting had found himself weighing 14st6lb(sylph-like compared with many of today's men).

At that weight, he could only climb upstairs backwards and couldn't reach down to tie his shoelaces.

More seriously, the explosion of fat was putting pressure on his hearing and he had started to go deaf.

Over the years, he tried various methods to shift the pounds: rowing, riding, purgatives and Turkish baths. None succeeded.

So in desperation, he visited an ear specialist - a man who was in contact with his peers in Paris, at that time the centre of advanced medicine.

The specialist prescribed a straightforward diet free from starchy and sugary foods, based on lean meat, boiled eggs and green vegetables.

The result was extraordinary: Banting lost 21/2st in ten months - inspiring him to write his account of how he had done it.

His formula meant eating huge quantities of lamb, beef, poultry and game, even for breakfast.

Alcohol was allowed but the essence of the diet was careful portion control.

By the time of Banting's death in 1878, his book had sold 58,000 copies - in Victorian terms a blockbuster.

But it was another man, Dr Robert Atkins, whose own version of the same dieting concept would become a global phenomenon more than a century later, forming the basis of a diet empire that was at one time worth more than £50million.

Perhaps the most revolting diet in history, this regime from Edwardian times required participants to chew everything precisely 32 times, before tilting the head backwards to allow the masticated food to slide down.

This idea was first put forward by an American, Horace Fletcher - a marksman, athlete and painter, who had become so fat he was refused life insurance in 1895.

By then he weighed more than 141/2st, but after just four months of using the chewchew method, he had shed more than 40lb.

Fletcher believed food must be chewed to be absorbed into the body's system healthily.

Hasty eating, he believed, resulted in undigested food clogging up the system, which led to constipation and the colon becoming a dangerous cesspool of bacteria.

This was an era obsessed by the evils of constipation.

Fletcher's great friend was John Harvey Kellogg, who in 1906 launched the staple of most people's breakfasts even today - cornflakes.

This daily intake of roughage was intended to oil the system and Kellogg's bran was designed to scour the intestines.

Kellogg also ran a sanatorium where people went to lose weight, through cold rain douches, sweating packs and plunge baths, along with rigorous exercise.

Interestingly, on Fletcher's diet you can eat anything - and as much of it as you like - but chewing takes so long, the desire to eat diminishes and you eat less.

Revolting, it may be. But it's certainly effective.

In 1919 an overweight Californian lady called Dr Lulu Hunt Peters published Diet And Health, With Key To The Calories.

This was so successful in the Twenties ran into 16 editions and was still in print in the 1940s.

Initially, Dr Peters advocated a calorie limit of just 1,200 a day but by 1928 she had revised her advice to just 600 to 750 per day (modern guidelines recommend 1,940 calories for a woman, and 2,550 for men as part of a normal diet).

The key to her book's success was that she had compiled a list of the calorie content of particular foods.

Almost 90 years on, this is still the standard means of achieving and maintaining weight loss.

Of our three historical diets, this was undoubtedly the most gruelling. It is an essay in total denial.

No alcohol is allowed at all and breakfast can consist of two apples and tea only.

After a week or so, the mere sight of yet another heap of celery sticks produced paroxysms in our volunteers.

I pass over the screams which went up at the sight of yet another pile of lettuce and grated carrot.

It may be brutally effective but, in reality, calorie dieting to the extreme degree that Dr Peters suggested is basically just a form of starvation, leading not only to violent hunger pangs but emotional mood swings.

Deprivation on this scale probably explains why, by the 1930s, people were looking for other means of losing weight by taking various forms of amphetamines designed to curb the appetite.

For the first time, cosmetic surgery also began to emerge as another possibility for weight loss, paving the way for today's billion-pound industry.

And the winner is...

The Victorian Undertaker's diet produced a decent amount of weight loss, but who'd want to weigh their food every mealtime or eat lamb chops at breakfast?

More manageable, and more effective in the long term, was the Roaring Twenties calorie-counting programme.

One participant lost 2st and with it his double chin, but you can't do it without a calorie count book and calculator.

No, I'm sorry to say it was the dreaded chew-chew diet that won the day, producing the highest weight loss.

You could eat what you fancied but every meal became a chewing nightmare - like watching cows with the cud.

Ultimately, whichever of the three you choose - if any - I'm sorry to tell you that curtailing food intake has to be a life sentence to be any good. You have been warned.

Overcoming Overeating

New Strategies to Stop Overeating Before You Start

-- By Nicole Nichols, Health Educator

Why do we eat? We all know why we should be eating: to supply our bodies with plenty of energy to get through the day; to get nutrients like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals which help us to stay healthy and free of disease; and to get useful carbohydrates, proteins, and fats—all of which contribute to running our bodies properly and maintaining good health.

But sometimes we can all be guilty of eating for other reasons. We love food! And that’s great! Eating should be pleasurable, not just nutritious. Food is everywhere: books are devoted to cooking and recipes, we find ourselves daydreaming and even talking about the newest restaurant or our favorite foods.

Many times we eat to celebrate—holidays, job promotions, graduations, weddings…we’ll find just about any achievement ("I raked the yard!", "We sold our house!", "My favorite team won!") to be celebration-worthy, and we’ll eat to commemorate it.

Other times, we let our emotions take over. When we’re stressed out, sad, angry, or lonely, we oftentimes turn to food to comfort us. Even starting (and staying on) a new diet can be stressful, especially when emotions creep in.

In our food-obsessed culture with out-of-control portions always lurking within our grasps, how can we not overeat? It’s hard to break habits and go against the lessons we have always been taught, like cleaning our plates, not being wasteful, or getting the best deal—which usually means ordering up and getting a lot more food for the money.

There are many ways to stop overeating. While some may seem silly…silly just may work for you. From the following list, find a few that work best for you, and try several. For example, if you find yourself eating out a lot, experiment with the dining out options more. After finding the strategies that work, stick with them. Over time, you’ll break the habits of overeating and form new habits. Pretty soon, you won’t even need the strategies at all, and you’ll be on your way to a permanent lifestyle change!

Skills for Any Setting
Whether you’re cooking your own meal, eating at work, or snacking at a football game, here are the strategies you can take anywhere:

• Know your portion sizes. Make your own "portion pack" to take with you or keep the following common items in mind when preparing and eating meals.
  • A golf ball is the size of a serving of nuts (including peanut butter) or cheese.
  • A deck of playing cards is equivalent to 3 ounces of any meat.
  • Use a die to estimate a proper serving of oils and fats.
  • For fruit and veggie servings, use a tennis ball.
  • One serving of cooked grains or potatoes is about the size of a computer mouse.
• Divide your plate. When cooking at home, looking at pictures on menus, or shopping ala carte at the work cafeteria, your plate should look like this:
  • Half (or more) of the plate should be filled with fruits and vegetables.
  • Protein-rich foods (meat or legumes) and starches (grains, potatoes, bread) should take up one quarter of the plate each.
  • Fill your "divided plate" only once. If you’re still hungry, have another half-plate of vegetables. It’s that simple.
  • Portion-controlled plates are available to buy as well…although they’re much more expensive than drawing an imaginary line.
• Quench your hunger with water. Instead of high-calorie, low-nutrient drinks like soda, alcohol, or other sugary drinks, choose water. It’s free wherever you go, and most people don’t meet their 8-10 cups-a-day requirement. Drink water before, during, and after a meal to slow yourself down while eating and curb hunger.
• Fill up on Fiber. The healthiest and most filling foods are high in fiber—think fruits and veggies, and whole, unprocessed grains. Adding fiber to your diet will aid in weight loss, and keep you feeling fuller longer, so you may eat less.
• Supportive groups are crucial. Surround yourself with positive people who motivate you to reach your goals, not those who want to sabotage your efforts. When you feel tempted, emotional, or if you have already gotten off-track, turn to your support group. Call a friend, email a family member, or get online to the SparkPeople message boards. Sometimes all you need is a short word of advice from a friendly voice.

Tips at Home 
Cooking at home may be the easiest way to control your portions during a meal, but it also presents us with fully-stocked cupboards and refrigerators that can be tempting:

• Bring home healthy fast food. Try precut, frozen, canned or microwave-in-the-bag vegetables. Automatic portion control.
• Stop the Taste-Testing Habit. If you’re the cook in the family, you may be eating a lot of calories when you taste your foods as you cook. To stop this natural habit, try chewing gum while you prepare you meals. Each time you are tempted to sneak a bite, you’ll have to take the gum out of your mouth. This will make you more conscious of what you’re doing.
• Make fruit your dessert. It’s a great way to get more produce into your diet, and it satisfies the sweet craving many people have after a meal. Experiment with new and exotic fruits. And, when it comes to fruit, eating a little extra isn’t a bad thing.
• Keep your hands busy. Many people want to eat when bored or just out of habit while watching TV. Keep your hands occupied with something else, and you won’t want to eat. Try knitting, painting your nails, shuffling cards, petting your cat—anything that keeps your hands moving will do the trick. Or, keep your whole body busy by doing crunches, squats, lunges or other body exercises while you watch.
• Feeling hungry? Try this first. Try drinking a glass or two of water. Many people mistake what is actually dehydration for hunger.
• When you feel the urge to snack or keep eating, take an exercise break. Walk around the block for 5 or 10 minutes, run up and down the stairs, or distract yourself with anything for about 10 minutes. You’ll probably find that you weren’t really hungry, but bored instead.
• Buy snack-size portions. Don’t buy more of your unhealthy snacks just to save a buck or two. If you have trouble controlling yourself—if you eat the whole bag of chips before you realize what you’ve done—then buy snack size items. You can find chips, pretzels, cookies, snack cakes, soda, juice, ice cream, and even cereal in single serving sizes.
• Make a rule that works for you and your family. No eating in front of the TV, in the car, or at your desk. This will help you avoid mindless eating when you’re not hungry.

Tricks for Dining Out 
It’s difficult to control your portions—not to mention ingredients and cooking method—when you are at a restaurant. Despite this, there are several things you can control:

• Inquire about portion sizes. If it sounds huge, and it probably is, ask the server to split your entrée in half. Tell them to box up half ahead of time (and maybe even keep it in the kitchen until you’re ready to leave). Or, split the dish with a friend.
• Order ala carte. Many, if not all restaurants are notorious for their enormous portions. When you feel like you can’t win on size, or if even half of an entrée is still way too big, order side items. Most restaurants do offer staples like baked potatoes, steamed fresh veggies, and rice dishes. Or, even if it’s dinnertime, ask for the lunch portion. You may have to pay the dinner price, but you’ll save yourself from eating way too much, and you’ll be much happier about that.
• Decide ahead of time what you’ll order. That way, you won’t be tempted by the less-healthy fare when you look at the menu. If you’re familiar with the menu, don’t even look at it—simply order what you already had in mind.
• Don’t be afraid to make substitutions in ingredients and cooking methods. Many people don’t like to be picky at restaurants, but think of it this way. They’re there to meet your needs and serve you. If they don’t have something you want, ask! Vegetarians and vegans know this scenario all-too-well, because they have to modify almost every dish on the menu to be able to eat it. Waiters and waitresses will want to comply and help out (because it means tips for them), and chefs can easily make modifications. Some things to try:
  • • Different cooking methods. If your dish is fried or high in oil, ask for steamed or stir-fry options.
    • Take something out. Ask for less or complete removal of cheese, sour cream, gravy, special sauces, mayonnaise, etc.
    • Add something new. Ask for extra veggies in your salad, or to add vegetables to a dish (like pizza or pasta) that doesn’t normally contain them.
• Substitute. Get the plain baked potato instead of the mammoth french fries; Ask for grilled chicken on your salad instead of breaded.
• Tell your server you don’t want the free bread, chips, etc. when you first arrive. Or, if you do eat it, let them know that you don’t need another round.
• Ask for dressings, sauces, and condiments on the side. Use just enough to taste. Many "sides" of salad dressings are still 2-5 times as big as the recommended 2-tablespoon servings.
• Don’t pick at the food left on your plate. Put your utensils on your plate so the handles get dirty. You won’t want to pick them up again, and you won’t mindlessly eat more while chatting over dinner. Or, try laying your napkin over top of the remaining food. Out of sight, out of mind.

30-Minute Power Walks That Blast Fat

By Selene Yeager

Thousands of doctors recommend it. Hundreds of studies extol its benefits. It's simple. It's enjoyable. You can do it virtually anywhere. And, when it's done right, walking can blast away fat as fast as jogging—maybe faster. Even better, power walking is easier on your joints, since you hit the ground with less than half the force you do when you jog. As a result, you're less likely to have your fitness goals sidelined by soreness or injury.
 
The secret is shifting from the typical window-shopping stroll to a more athletic gait and pace. It takes a little practice, but the payoff is a lower-body makeover that'll definitely put some strut in your step.

Getting Started
This is a moderate-impact aerobic activity, so you know the first thing you have to do is get yourself some good shoes. Prevent sore, achy feet by wearing walking shoes that are light, roomy, and flexible. When you bend the shoe, it should yield easily at the ball of the foot. When it's on your foot, there should be a thumb's width of space from the end of your longest toe to the front of the shoe. If your shoes are too stiff or too tight, you'll be battling tingling toes and achy joints 20 minutes into the walk.

Next, you want to work on your pace. For optimum calorie burning, I recommend aiming to walk at about a 4.5-mile per hour (mph) pace. Fitness scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered that if you walk at this pace, you can burn almost as many calories (201 per 30 minutes, based on a 140-pound woman) as someone jogging at about the same speed (223 calories per 30 minutes) because you're using the same amount of energy to stay in motion. Of course 4.5 mph is a fast walk; if you haven't been walking regularly, you shouldn't expect to hit that speed right out of the gate. Start at a slower pace and use the same fat-burning power walking form to work up to this speed.

To find your current pace, go to your local high school running  track (it should measure one-quarter of a mile) or take a drive and measure a mile around the neighborhood with your car's odometer. Then go out and walk the mile. If it takes you 20 minutes, that's 3 mph; 15 minutes is 4 mph; 13 minutes is 4 1/2 mph, and 12 minutes is a highly athletic 5 mph. The brisker your pace, the more calories  you will burn. But if all you can manage is a 20-minute mile, don't worry. Walk regularly, and within 3 weeks, your pace and endurance will increase.

Aim for 4 to 6 power walks a week. Beginners should strive to stride for 20 to 30 minutes. More experienced walkers can step it up to 45- or even 60-minute sessions (when time allows). As a rule of thumb, increase your workout time by 10 percent a week. So if you're currently walking 30 minutes a day, 4 days a week, then you should add only 12 minutes to your total weekly walking time the first week you increase. Remember that your workout time includes a few minutes to warm up and a few minutes to cool down and stretch.

Tips and Techniques
It's super easy to walk off extra weight if you start walking the right way. Here's how to transform your everyday stroll into a fat-blasting, muscle-toning stride.

Roll heel, ball, toe 
Tell most women to pick up the pace, and they will immediately lengthen their strides. But long strides are actually less efficient and more tiring than quick heel-ball-toe steps. To perform the proper quick-step stride, concentrate on landing on your heels, rolling through your instep, then propelling yourself with a push off your toes. You'll be surprised at how fast these little steps can be.
Hold your head high. While it's important to watch where you're going, you don't want your head to hang down toward your feet. Raise your chin up and look about 10 feet ahead of you. This will give you plenty of peripheral vision to see the sidewalk below yet still keep your neck and head in picture-perfect posture.

Swing your fists
Instead of letting your arms hang down loosely by your sides, bend your elbows 90 degrees, close your hands in relaxed fists, and swing them in an arc from your waist to your chest, keeping them close to your body. By swinging your arms, you'll walk faster, burn more calories, build upper-body strength, and keep your fingers from swelling the way they often do after you've walked for a while. 

Zip up
For a stronger stride, suck your abdominal muscles  in and up like you're zipping a snug pair of jeans. Contracting your abs not only helps tone your tummy, but also supports your spine so that you maintain proper posture while you walk.

Tighten your butt 
Your glute muscles are the engine that puts power in your stride. Make these muscles work even better by keeping them active as you exercise. Hold your butt muscles taut and contracted as you walk by pretending to squeeze a dollar bill between them (it's silly, but it works) as you walk. As a bonus, your glutes will get firmer faster.

Pretend you're late
If you're still not sure how fast you should be walking, here's a quick, measurement-free way to remember. Pick up your pace to the point where you're just about ready to break into a jog. That's about where you want to hover for most of your walk. Your pace should feel as it would if you were running late for an important appointment.

If you can't quite sustain the speedy pace you'd like, add intervals to your workouts; it's the fastest way to get quicker and fitter. Although the term sounds intimidating, "interval training" means nothing more than adding quick bursts of speed to your workout. Do this on just 2 nonconsecutive days a week (walk at your usual pace on the other days) and you'll burn mega-calories as well as increase your walking speed. Here are a few 30-minute interval sessions to try. For all interval sessions, judge your exertion on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being standing still and 10 being on the verge of exhaustion. 

Classic Pyramid: This simple interval session gradually builds in intensity to a peak, then eases back down.

Pace	Time (Minutes)	Exertion (1 to 10)
Warm-up	5	5
Typical	5	6
Brisker than usual	4	7
Fastest possible	2	8
Brisker than usual	4	7
Typical	5	6
Cool-down	5	5

Peaks and Valleys: This workout combines big blasts of speed with slower recovery breaks.

Pace	Time (Minutes)	Exertion (1 to 10)
Warm-up	5	5
Typical	3	6
Fastest possible	2	8
Typical	3	6
Fastest possible	3	8
Typical	4	6
Cool-down	5	5

Crazy 8: This workout is a fun mishmash of moderate- to high-intensity intervals.

Pace	Time (Minutes)	Exertion (1 to10)
Warm-up	5	5
Brisker than usual	8	7
Typical	4	6
Brisker than usual	4	7
Fastest possible	2	8
Typical	2	6
Cool-down	5	5

A brisk walk every day can keep diabetes away

By Celia Hall

Half an hour's walking a day can almost eradicate the risk of developing diabetes, a condition that is increasing in the British population, fuelled by obesity, a poor diet and lack of exercise.

While moderate daily activity is not enough to reduce weight, it has a dramatic effect on the health, cardiologists were told yesterday.

The annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology has taken diabetes as a main theme because the condition is a strong risk factor for developing heart disease.

Dr Jakko Tuomilehto, professor of public health at Helsinki University, said that his 10-year study showed that four hours' exercise a week achieved an 80 per cent reduction is the risk of developing diabetes. Volunteers who took other measures like eating a healthier diet and losing weight did not develop diabetes over the 10 years, he said.

Prof Tuomilehto stressed that doctors were not demanding too much of their patients. A man of average height weighing 15.5st would be about 3st overweight. A reduction of about 11lbs would have a beneficial effect in reducing diabetes risk.

He said that five per cent loss in body weight achieved a 40 per cent loss in internal body fat, another important risk for heart disease.

"It is important to remember that small things matter. If you eat a 50 calorie biscuit a day you will gain 5.5lbs in a year. But if you walk for a kilometre a day you will lose 5.5lbs a year. It takes 20 seconds to eat a biscuit and 20 minutes to walk it off. Half an hour's walking a day, in little bursts, 10 minutes at a time, is most effective for health."

Prof Tuomilehto said that diabetes was now common with a high lifetime risk. "By the time people have reached the age of 80, 40 per cent have developed Type II diabetes," he said.

Another 40 per cent have blood sugar abnormalities, known as glucose intolerance, which can lead on to diabetes. Type II diabetes can damage body organs, and is often "silent", not diagnosed.

In Britain more than one million people have diabetes, with another million estimated as undiagnosed. "Probably the majority of people carry genes that allow them to develop diabetes. It is major problem," Prof Tuomilehto said.

"But our study has shown that we can prevent diabetes and that means we can prevent heart disease by lifestyle measures alone.

"We had simple targets, a five per cent reduction in body weight, a reduction in dietary fats and an increase in activity of half an hour a day. Weight went down, glucose - blood sugar - levels went down and blood fats went down."

He said that when volunteers had achieved all the targets, including losing weight and reducing blood pressure, "not a single person developed diabetes".

Prof Sir Charles George, the medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "We have moved from the advice of 20 minutes of vigorous exercise, three times a week, to 30 minutes moderate exercise, five days a week. You can do this for 10 minutes at a time. This won't help you to lose weight, you would have to do more, but there will be definite benefits."