B. A training program

If you want to maintain your optimal weight while still enjoying your food, you have to invest time and effort in a regular training program. This investment will pay off immediately, and not only by maintaining your weight and fat levels. You will benefit in many other ways - exercise will help to keep nicotine away from your life; it will improve your health and reduce the risk of disease; and it will boost you physically, psychologically and spiritually. Of course you know all this, but it is important to remind you.


A good positive attitude towards training is acquired by simply engaging yourself in some sort of activity. If you then repeat the activity constantly you will develop a habit - a positive addiction. Remember that by nature we are quick to adapt, and any repeated and familiar pattern will be followed religiously. Take advantage of this and use it in order to create habits that are good for you. If you engage in regular physical activity for a few weeks, you will be waiting for the next training session with anticipation.


Don't think of exercise as a punishment or a chore - quite the opposite, it should be fun. Make it fun for yourself by firstly understanding that you don't have to work out too hard. In fact, overdoing it is counter-effective. You should take it easy even when you are sweating; enjoy the effort by not tiring yourself and not challenging yourself beyond your limits.


In order to burn fat instead of glucose, and improve your general wellbeing, you need to engage in aerobic exercise. This means physical activity of low intensity that is sustained over a timeframe of an hour or so. Aerobic activity should allow you to carry on a short conversation; if you are gasping for air while talking, it means you've crossed over into the anaerobic zone. Anaerobic means 'without oxygen' and relates to high intensity exercises - take into consideration that anaerobic practice burns glucose and not fat and hence while working out harder one is not burning fat at all. When working anaerobically you will tire faster and are more likely to experience sore muscles once the exercise is over.


We encourage you to engage in aerobic activities that include walking, cycling, jogging, dancing, swimming, aerobic classes, yoga, cross-country skiing and any other exercise of moderate intensity.


While exercising aerobically you should be sweating but not short of breath. You will gradually be able to increase the pace and effort while still not running out of puff. The facts are that stressing your body with intense anaerobic exercising can produce negative results, both physically and mentally. Anaerobic exercise competes with the Central Nervous System for consumption of blood sugar, and so you might suffer headaches, disorientation, fatigue and depression, or other side effects such as circulation and joint problems. It just makes much more sense to take it easy, patiently and persistently.