Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms in order to maintain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories.Catabolism breaks down organic matter, for example to harvest energy in cellular respiration. Anabolism, on the other hand, uses energy to construct components of cells such as proteins and nucleic acids.
During my last visit at my Doctors office I asked him a question "Do you have a magic vitamin or something to jump start my Metabolism?", "I think it has stopped". He just sat back and laughed. Then he proceeded to fill me in on this little phenomenon that happens to all of us at some point in our lives whether we want it to or not. Our Metabolism slows down as we age.
I'm a Mother in my early forties with two children a seven and four year old. I eat pretty healthy and exercise when ever I get a chance. Getting thirty minutes of cardio every day is a part of my daily routine. Yoga, Pilate's and some strength training are squeezed in when I get that extra Mommy time which rarely happens these days. So I park the car far away from the store front and walk, take stairs instead of the escalators, walk to the school instead of drive... I try to get that little extra in when I get the chance. Now this is coming from a person who absolutely hates to exercise! I never had to when I was young. I could always eat what I wanted and stayed stick thin. Then I grew up.
Now that I am in my forty's my Metabolism has started to slow down. For example if my out take of was 5,000 when I exercised for 30 minutes before, my out take now is only 4,000 for thirty minutes of exercise. My choice is to either reduce my in take of calories or increase my out take. I have to add an additional thirty minutes to my cardio work out. My Dr. told me to look at it this way; the first thirty minutes is for cardio (which we all need) the second thirty minutes is for weight loss. It's either add the additional thirty minutes on the treadmill or don't eat as much anymore.
So I have decided to to both. My first day on the treadmill for an hour was a long one! I did start my new routine at the club instead of at home. Thinking that I had an hour during my Daughter's swim lesson to hit the treadmill with others working out I would have the incentive to go the full hour. After the first thirty minutes I seemed to relax a bit and actually did get a little bit more energy! Then I think it dropped off at the forty five minute mark but I struggled through to the end. Feeling very proud of my accomplishment I knew I could do it again another day.
So today I was at home on the treadmill. I managed to get in my full hour and it seemed a bit easier. I was able to get in some running along the way. With the egg white and spinach scramble for breakfast and the veggie lavash wrap for lunch I did pretty well. We shall see how we do over the next month. No scale was used it's the clothing that will tell the truth here! Let's see how we do, I will keep you posted :)
Happy Spring!
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