Lowering your Toxins and Why it is Important

You've probably heard on several occasions that people who quit smoking often gain weight. This is actually a MYTH.

What is more accurate is that people who quit smoking often experience weight fluctuations as they readjust to taste buds that can appreciate food again and a body that is shedding some of its toxins that it has stored up in their body fat as protection. Over the longer term most people who quit smoking actually lose weight as the result of this release of toxins and fat.

According to one study I found which tracked long term the weight changes over a 48 month period people who quit smoking do the following:

19% gained weight
24% weight stable
42% moderate weight loss
15% substantial weight loss

So 57% of people lose weight over the long term. It is only the rare few (19%) who replace their nicotine addiction with a sugar addiction who end up gaining weight, and that really comes down to poor willpower. So yeah, myth busted!

But back to my main point of this example. Your body stores toxins inside fat cells in an effort to protect the body. Basically its like a tiny prison cell for toxins and if you are consuming, eating, smoking, snorting lots of toxins then your body's natural reaction will be to store those toxins somewhere safe - which means you will be adding extra fat to your frame.

Fat and water storage are just two ways your body uses as a means of protecting you from poisonous toxins by diluting them and storing them in water and fat. This is often the reason why people have difficulty losing weight because our immune system tries to maintain a certain level of toxicity and it isn't going to allow the breakdown of fat cells if there is too much toxins in your blood. Our highly intelligent immune system simply won't allow the removal of excess fat if the level of toxins that is stored in the fat may put your life in jeopardy by their release into the bloodstream.

Warning Signs of Too Much Toxicity

Difficulty shedding weight
Dry, itchy, scaling or flaking skin
Soft, cracked, or brittle nails
Hard earwax
Tiny bumps on the backs of your arms or torso
Achy, stiff joints

 What you really want in your body is "healthy fat" with no toxicity in them. Healthy fat stores energy for your cardiovascular system to deliver to your cells that need them. Why does the type of fat matter? It is because building your body from the inside out is just like building a house. You can frame the house with the cheapest stuff you can scrounge. Or you can invest in quality materials that are going to be energy-efficient and last a long time. If your fat is toxic then you will end up storing lots of it and never using it, and you will feel slow and sluggish because you don't have enough healthy fats to provide energy for your daily activities.

So how do you get rid of toxins?

#1. Healthy diet. Cut out anything that is toxic or carcinogenic. That means don't eat the burnt crusts on your toast (anything burnt is carcinogenic), same goes with burnt meat and burnt marshmallows. If you are one of those people who burns their marshmallows and eats them anyway, stop that!

#2. Start reading food labels. Beware of any foods that has strange chemicals in them. Preprocessed foods are high in them.

#3. Avoid eating anything with bacteria in them. Bacteria creates toxins. So avoid eating meat that isn't well done. Indeed try to cut back on your meat consumption entirely so its at a more reasonable level.

#4. Go on a Detox Diet (eg. the Lemonade and Cayenne pepper one). This is for the more extreme detox people out there, but it really does work.

Are Food Dyes Toxic and How Dangerous are they?

There are a lot of websites out there which claim that food dyes are toxic. This is only partially true.

Part of the problem is that the websites and people spreading this misinformation are automatically assuming the worst and keep quoting nutjob websites which are far from reputable. In my effort to clear up this matter I found the following PDF:

http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/food-dyes-rainbow-of-risks.pdf

The PDF goes down a long list of studies into the dangers of food dyes and what it determined was the following:

#1. Some people have allergic reactions to food dyes. That doesn't make them toxic. Some people are also allergic to peanuts, but peanuts aren't toxic either.

#2. The dosages of most food dyes are so ridiculously low that they don't cause tumours.

#3. There are some toxic tumour causing food dyes (Orange B and Red 3), but they're either illegal and banned by the FDA or no longer used any more.

#4. There is one remaining food dye which is known to cause tumours (Citrus Red 2), but its only used on some brands of oranges. So the advice there is Don't Buy Oranges with Food Dye.

Otherwise food dyes are harmless because they're either not toxic or the dosage is so ridiculously low (and those that are tumour causing are banned by the FDA). And they're certainly way less harmful than bacteria in your meat, burnt crust on your toast and smoking cigarettes.




But if you're really worried about it then just read labels when you buy your food.

To me the really dangerous chemicals are not the food dyes. Its the man-made chemical additives found in processed foods which are designed to make foods more addictive... and throw in lots of corn syrup (aka glucose) is added to almost all processed foods. That much glucose is definitely not good for you.

If you want to cut down on your toxic intake eat only foods that have no weird additives in them.

Does Exercise Stunt your Growth?

A commonly asked question that people have when they see an image like the one on the right here (a boy who clearly does weightlifting) is how does this effect his physical growth?

Does exercising stunt his growth?

This, as it turns out, is actually a myth. Exercising actually does the opposite. It actually INCREASES growth by triggering the brain to release Human Growth Hormone...

Children who exercise and eat healthy grow up to be "big and strong". Its an old concept similar to Popeye's "I'm strong to the finish because I eat my spinach!"

Exercising, any exercising, causes the brain to release more Human Growth Hormone (HGH), which in turns triggers the body to both regenerate existing tissue, but also triggers growth spurts in children, and in adults HGH works to hinder diseases like cancer and keeps the body feeling younger.

It is one of the reasons why people who exercise are typically taller and also appear younger than counterparts in their same age group. (I am frequently told I look to be approx. 25 years old and almost no one ever guesses I am 33. That is the result of exercise and healthy eating.)

For children who are growing regular exercise needs to be part of their regular routine. Lack of exercise and unhealthy eating will result in children growing up to be "short and stout". Exercise, vitamins, calcium and a balanced diet make a big difference in a growing body.

If children excel at a particular sport, for example competitive weightlifting, it isn't going to stunt their growth and will actually make them taller. Look at the weightlifters at the Olympics. A lot of them are hovering around 6 feet tall or over. That is the result of exercise and eating their proverbial spinach.

Now lets pretend you don't believe me or don't believe in the science behind HGH.

Go ahead and ask some pro-weightlifters when they started exercising and how tall they are. The majority of them will say they started weightlifting around 11 or 12 years old and say they are between 5'9" and 6'6" tall. No shortage of tall people amongst weightlifters.

But they will also stress the importance of proper diet. Nutrition and exercise go hand in hand when it comes to growing both taller and bigger physically.

Archery as an Alternative to Weightlifting

By Charles Moffat - Archery Instructor in Toronto

One of the comments I hear regularly from archery students is how much harder archery is physically than they were expecting.

They were apparently expecting a sport which required very little muscles and was more about aim (like darts, gun marksmanship or even golf) than your ability to pull the bow and hold it steady.

Sadly this is a very common misconception amongst non-archers who make the assumption that archery is easy and anyone can do it. But they forget that in order to aim you first have to be able to pull the bow and most importantly hold it steady.

Let me put it this way... I can lift 300 lbs. But I have to struggle to string a bow that has a 40 lb draw. The bow may say it has a 40 lb draw, but that number is confusing for non-archers because they think 40 lbs isn't a lot.

Olympic recurve archers typically use 40 lb to 50 lb bows when they're in their prime. Some more extreme archers shoot 60 or even 75 lb bows, but those are exceptionally rare.

The trick about archery it is essentially weightlifting, but you are often using some of your weakest muscles to pull the bow. In my experience the average woman can only manage a 20 to 25 lb bow with ease. The average man a 25 to 30 lb bow. Anything higher and they start to struggle or had better be above average with their back, shoulder and arm muscles.

The next trick is holding the bow steady. A lot of people have underdeveloped forearm muscles and struggle to hold the bow steady with their bow arm, and their arrow arm may be strong enough to pull back the arrow, but lacks the endurance to hold it steady long enough so they can aim.

Lastly, there is the matter of repetition. If you shoot 200 arrows with a bow you can barely pull in a 4 hour period you will have a sore back guaranteed. Possibly sore arms too. It really is like weightlifting.

If you're into mythology just look at the legends about famous archers.

Hercules left his bow to the Scythian brothers and only 1 of three brothers could string his bow, thus making him the one who should be king. A different bow belonging to Hercules went to the Trojan War and was the same bow which shot Paris (and he later died from hydra poison).

Other strongmen who used the bow in history, folklore and mythology include: Abhimanyu, Apollo, Arash, Arjuna, Feng Meng, Hayk, Houyi, Jumong, Karna, Marduk, Osoosi, Palnetoke, Rama, Robin Hood, Shiva, William Tell, Zhou Tong.

If you watch all the recent movies featuring archery (The Hunger Games, The Avengers, Brave and even the recent Rambo film) and TV shows (Smallville, Game of Thrones) you might be led to believe that archery is easy.

It can be, but you need to develop the muscles by training. Its true that archery has a steep learning curve. (My students are typically hitting the target after 2 hours of lessons, wherein in comparison their first 10 or so shots were probably complete misses.)

Given lots of time, and lots of helpful tips from an archery instructor, they can learn to hit the target consistently even when distracted, tired, stressed, in poor weather conditions... but they aren't going to reach that pinnacle unless they also build up some muscle strength.

CROSS-TRAINING FOR ARCHERY

#1. Pushups - This is #1 for a reason. Pushups use your triceps and your back muscles which are the two most important muscle groups when doing archery. Pushups also develops your core muscles in your back which helps your balance. I recommend doing 100 to 200 pushups daily.

#2. Chinups - If you have a chinup bar you will want to use it daily. I recommend 100 to 200 chinups per day. It will build up your bicep and shoulder muscles, also good for archery but less important that the triceps and back.

#3. Cardio - This is to build up your endurance. Doesn't matter whether you run, swim or cycle. You need to be building up your endurance so you can shoot 200 arrows per day.

#4. Weightlifting - If you access to weights use them. Lie on your back and lift the weights above you. Stand up and do arm curls. Stand upright and lift to the side using your shoulder muscles. Do all three 50 to 100 times each.

Need more advice on how to train for archery? Hire a personal trainer to create a series of cross-training exercises specially for you!

The Fat-Burning Zone Myth

You may have heard that if you go over a certain heart rate while doing cardio or aerobic exercises that you do not burn fat.

This is however an urban myth. It is one of those misconceptions that should be put to rest once and for all when it comes to fat burning aerobic exercises. The idea got its start in the mid 1990s when scientists reported that during high-intensity fat burning aerobic exercises, the body burned mostly stored carbohydrates for fuel, as opposed to burning stored fat as it did during lower-intensity activity.

The key word is 'mostly'.

Unfortunately a few unintelligent exercise instructors took the news and ran with it, encouraging people to pay for low-intensity "fat-burning" classes... classes that ultimately didn't help people much.

It is true that the body burns a higher percentage of calories from fat during more mellow exercise like walking and easy cycling... but the actual number of calories is very little.

When you pick up the pace for a higher-intensity cardio workout you burn a greater number of overall calories of both stored fat and stored carbs... and thus burned much more fat period.

For example, say a 140-pound woman performs either a fairly easy walk or a high-intensity jog. After 1 hour, she would have burned the following in total and fat calories:

Walk = 200 calories (75% fat for a total of 150 calories of fat)

Jog = 300 calories (60% fat for a total of 180 calories of fat)

Thus the higher intensity workout always burns more fat. Its really the result of your body drawing upon all available reserves to get as much energy to the muscles as it can.

NOTE! High-intensity aerobic exercises kick your metabolism into high gear even after you're done working out. That means that even after you stop exercising you are stilling burning calories because your blood is being pumped faster for a longer period in an effort to heal muscle tissue.

"When you exercise vigorously, you get a robust hormonal change, which causes your body to burn more fat during your recovery time," says Janet Walberg Rankin, PhD, professor of nutrition at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg. Your metabolism also stays revved up five times longer after a vigorous workout than after an easy one. Over time, this can add up to burning an additional 100 to more than 200 calories a day.

High-intensity exercises are difficult to sustain, especially if you're just starting out. But practice makes perfect and you can build up more intensity and duration as you get better at it.

The easiest way to infuse intensity into your existing routine is to start adding 5 minutes of higher intensity exercises to whatever you are doing.