Weekly Meeting Topic : Metabolisim

This week I didn't go to either of my two regular Weight Watchers meetings that I normally pick from.  I had a Tournament Judging meeting late last night in the city so I decided to stay in town, go to the gym after work, grab a bite to eat and check out a different Weight Watchers meeting.  All of this before my judging meeting (tournament is on Sunday).  I left the house at 7am yesterday, and I didn't get home until after 10:30pm, it was a long day, but a great day!

I ALMOST didn't get to attend last night's meeting at the Weight Watchers Center in the city.  I showed the receptionist my Lifetime Status card, and told her I was here to attend the meeting but that I did not want to weigh in yet for the month.  She started telling me how I HAD to weigh in that it was the rules that you had to weigh in at your first meeting of the month.  I reply "really?  The two meetings I usually attend let me pick which meeting I weigh in at as long as I weigh in at some point that month."  She wanted to keep insisting that they were breaking the rules at my regular meetings.  So she pulled out a lifetime member booklet and starts reading the "fine print" to prove her point.

Here's what it says : If you weiged in during the preceding calendar month at a meeting, you are eligible to attend this meeting free of charge depending on your weigh-in results. 

So guess who won that debate???  Yup, yours truly!  It did leave a sour taste in my mouth and I don't think I enjoyed the meeting as much because of that.  I also think I'm spoilt by the fantastic leader at my local Saturday meetings.

What is Metabolism?

Metabolism is the process by which your body burns calories for energy.

Under eating and being inactive are the two main factors for a slow metabolism. So how can we speed up our metabolism or get it working better?Exercise regularly - find something YOU enjoy and "just do it"

• Build lean muscle mass
• Eat regularly!!!  Just like a car needs gas, so does your body and food is the fuel you fill your tank with.  If your car won't go anywhere on empty, what makes you think you will?
• Your body doesn't function properly, and can eventually cause damage to your organs
• Types of food we should be leaning towards to "fill" our tanks?
• Lean protein
• Fruits/Vegetables
• Whole grains
• Healthy fats (yes your body still needs them to function right)
• Eat all of your meals and have snacks!  Yes I said have a SNACK, of course I'm not talking about a bag of chips and a chocolate bar.  A piece of fruit, vegetables and hummus, there are so many choices.
• Never go hungry to a meal

The two main ways to optimize your metabolism is to increase lean muscle mass and your heart rate, which translates to "moving more".  Like I already said, find something you enjoy to do and go for it!  Exercise was always a challenge for me prior to loosing my weight until back in 1997 when I discovered Taekwon-Do.  For me it turned into a learning process, not exercise and I really dig the theory and history involved in all of it!  I did this when I was over 200 lbs and I do it even better now!  So go out there try something different and if you like it, embrace it!

Mix it up!  Try to change on a regular basis what foods you eat, and what activity you do.  By repeating the same meals over and doing the same workout day after day your weight loss will slow down.  The body is an amazing thing and the body gets used to processing the same foods and doing the same movements over and over!  Therefor it starts digesting that food and doing that activity in the most efficient manner possible.

Sleep... what can I say?  I am the biggest culprit for this!  I rarely get more than 6 hours sleep a night.  This is something else we need for our bodies and brains to function properly!

I did like the quote the leader wrapped up the meeting with.

"Nothing will work unless you do"

So go get at it folks!!!!