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Our muscles are largely taken for granted working away beneath our skin to keep us upright and moving. We tend to think that they are there to make us look either good or not so good on the beach in our swimsuit. Yet the condition of our muscles has a huge effect on the state of our health, our metabolic health to be more precise. Our metabolic health and wellness determines how well we handle and cope with stress, how much physical strength and vitality we have, how mentally and emotionally well and stable we are, how resistant to disease we are, how much energy and stamina we have and how well we work, play, eat and sleep. In other words our metabolic health controls and is responsible for the quality of our entire life. Your metabolism is basically the engine of your body and it involves the chemical processes that control everything from moving to thinking to growing, keeping us alive and converting the food we eat into energy at cellular level. If this vital system becomes impaired, slows down or becomes less efficient our health is greatly affected. If excess body fat is gained a condition called 'metabolic syndrome' can develop. This is caused by living an unhealthy lifestyle that includes eating too many calories and not doing enough exercise. You can tell if you are at risk of this if your waistline measures over a 40 inch circumference for men and over a 36 inch circumference for women. You may even have high blood pressure (over 130/85), high bad cholesterol and low good cholesterol levels and you may be exhibiting signs of impending diabetes. One way to overcome these symptoms is to improve the condition of your muscles. A proper exercise program containing mostly strength training exercise will encourage your muscles to be metabolically active as this is crucial to sugar and fat metabolism along with energy/heat conversion and hormonal balance. Strength training exercise not only increases muscle strength and overall body vitality but also improves the efficiency of our metabolism increasing the rate we burn fuel. We also get the bonus of a strengthened immune system to help protect us from the killer diseases so prevalent in our modern developed world. Our mainly inactive lives are caused by almost all physical activity being removed as we strive to make our daily life easier and more convenient. The problem is though is that our bodies cannot remain healthy without the stimulation of muscle building and maintaining activity. Metabolic disturbances do not happen of their own accord. Although what you eat and don't eat plays a big role, it is not just a question of eating less but improving the quality of what you eat and exercising more. Ditch the processed foods, the junk foods and the high fat, high sugar laden rubbish in the pretty boxes. Replace these with as much whole natural unprocessed foods as possible. Get your strength training exercise program set up and monitored by a fitness professional until you have learned what you need to know to be able to become your own coach and keep yourself going. Don't waste time on repetitive, long, slow activities (such as walking, jogging, or cycling) that will not work your muscles through their full ranges of movement under a load. These activities are great as part of an active lifestyle but do not replace a proper exercise program with them. Think of your muscles as your friends as this is where fat is burned for energy and by burning it there as fuel it will not be piled into storage cells causing you to become overweight. Once you are overweight your health is at risk as the damage done to your metabolism pushes you into a downward spiral that will seriously affect your health (and maybe your life) somewhere down the track. You can make sure this never happens to you.
My name is Carolyn Hansen, and my goal is to show you how to automate your weight loss by mastering your metabolism in as little as 30 days. I have been doing it for years, and you can do it too. Come find out how.
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