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Which weighs more, muscle or fat?
There is always a minconception related to the weight of muscle and fat so here is a hint...
What weighs more, one pound of chicken, or one pound of steak?
Answer: pound for pound chicken and steak are the same. MUSCLE and FAT are also equal.

In size, which is bigger, muscle or fat?
Volume wise, FAT takes up more space than MUSCLE.
Fat takes up 20% more space than Muscle does.
In order to burn 1 pound of fat, you must expend 3,500 calories.

As athletes, house wives, dads, weight lifters, elderly, sedentary people it is important for everyone to understand the importance of building and maintaining lean muscle mass AND reducing body fat.

So to understand the benefits of lean muscle mass we must also understand the risks of carrying exess body fat.
Having a large amount of belly fat increases your risk of:
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Some types of cancer
• Type 2 diabetes
• Insulin resistance
• High triglycerides
• Low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good," cholesterol
• Metabolic syndrome
• Sleep apnea

More than 100,000 cancers in the US each year are linked to excess body fat
The estimates show that excess body fat is linked to
49% of endometrial cancers (20,700 cases per year)
35% of esophageal cancers (5,800 cases per year)
28% of pancreatic cancers (11,900 cases per year)
24% of kidney cancers (13,900 cases per year)
21% of gallbladder cancers (2,000 cases per year)
17% of breast cancers (33,000 cases per year)
9% of colorectal cancers (13,200 cases per year).

*Gallbladder disease and gallstones.
*Fatty liver disease (also called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH).
*Gastroesophageal reflux or what is sometimes called GERD. This problem occurs when the lower esophageal sphincter does not close properly and stomach contents leak back—or reflux—into the esophagus.

STRONG benefits of MUSCLE:
•Research has shown that regular resistance training can increase your Basal Metabolic Rate by up to 15%. So for someone burning 2000 calories per day, that's a potential 300 extra calories
•Building a little extra muscle can reduce the risk of injury.
•Resistance exercise can reduce bone deterioration and build bone mass, preventing osteoporosis.
•Strong muscles, tendons, and ligaments gained through weight training are more capable of withstanding stress.
•Improved flexibility gained by strength training also reduces the likelihood of pulled muscles and back pain.

Should WOMEN lift weights too?
YES!!! YES!!! YES!!!
Testosterone is a very important factor in the development of muscle size and shape, because women have very low levels of this hormone their muscles develop differently, thus, little resistance training will not lead to a bulky, masculine physique.

FUN FACTS:
What is metabolically active bodyfat or muscle?
-Muscle- it burns calories

How many calories does muscle burn at rest?
-Studies have estimated that for each pound of muscle that you add to your body, you burn an additional 35 to 50 calories per day.

How many calories does fat burn at rest?
-About 2 calories a day


Activities to Increase activity and burn fat:
Try these activities to add more movement to your daily life:
•Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Make sure the stairs are well lit.
•Get off the bus one stop early if you are in an area safe for walking.
•Rake the leaves or wash the car.
•Park the car farther away from entrances to stores, movie theaters, or your home.
•Take a short walk around the block with family, friends, or coworkers.
•Walk the dogs!!!
•Visit museums, the zoo, or an aquarium. You and your family can walk for hours and not realize it.
•Take a walk after dinner instead of watching TV.

General Tips
As you look over the menu, read each food description carefully.
If you are unsure of how something is prepared, just ASK!
Order your food the way YOU want it!
If it comes out wrong, send it back to be made the right way!
Make choices that are low in fat!
Pay attention to the words that are used to describe the way a food is cooked.

Low Fat Terms:
Steamed in its own juice
Garden Fresh
Broiled
Roasted
Poached
Baked
Tomato juice
Dry broiled (in wine or lemon juice)
Lightly sautéed
Grilled

Phrases to be cautious of that indicate high calories, fat, and saturated fat:
Buttery
Buttered
In butter sauce
Fried
Pan fried
Crispy
Braised
Creamed
In cream sauce
In its own gravy
Hollandaise
Au Gratin
Parmesan
In cheese sauce
Escalloped
Marinated in oil
Hash
Pot Pie
Pastry crust
Bearnaise
Stewed
Basted
Sauteed
Casserole
Prime

Emotional times that make it hard to manage our weight:
Sadness/rejection
-Food provides a chemical response in our brains and is also socially associated with happiness.

Stress or Anxiety
-Turn to something that will make you happy

Boredom
-Our environment is high stimulation-without things to do we often look for food to fill the “downtime”

Anger
-Self destructive behavior

Fear
-If I have other food beliefs others might not accept me

Happiness
-Celebration: Weddings, Anniversaries, Birthdays, Graduations, Holidays, in congratulations

Society supports emotional eating via:
-TV
-Portion Sizes
-Advertisements/Marketing

How has our growth and development played a role in emotional eating?
Childhood
Research on child feeding practices has shown that foods used as “rewards” become more desirable to children than if they had not been used as rewards.

Food rewards:

-Encourages overeating of high sugar and fat foods

-Teach children to eat when they aren’t hungry

-Teaches children to reward themselves with food

-Teaches children to connect food to mood

What can we do about it?

-Food and Emotions are two different things

-They must be separated

-Life will continue to produce happy, sad, angering, frustrating, stressful times…

So we must be able to find alternative ways to cope if we are to succeed at managing our weight in the long term (ie: creating new traditions)

Practice Planning
Its not about just sucking it up: you have to create a specific plan

1) Identify the emotions that make you want to eat (choose 1 or 2 to focus on)

2) Discover ways to deal with that emotion in a way that doesn’t involve food

3) Practice that skill during the week

4) Review your plan-How did you do?

Well, the break from the end of spring to the start of the fall sports season is over. With the College and Pro Football seasons at hand and the baseball playoffs just around the corner, I wanted to talk about two different types of cultures that exist on athletic teams and the effects they have. The success of a team is directly driven by the culture on or of the team. Specifically, is it a team that is dependent [on one another] or independent [of each other]?

Dependent is defined as: relying on someone or something else for aid and support; A person who needs or relies on someone else for support. Having reliance, trust and confidence on another.

Conversely, Independent is defined as: not relying an another for support; acting by or on ones own self, irrespective of others. Not affiliated to a unit, no sense of belonging.

More and more, when the camera zooms in on an athlete after a big play, like a big run or catch for a touchdown, a goal scored in an intense soccer match or the winning shot in the NBA playoffs, you see an athlete celebrating "self"; that is, his/her own big play. Increasingly, I've seen athletes run away from or push teammates away who run to them desiring to celebrate what "they" have accomplished "together" as a team so that they can call for the applause and praise of the fans and make sure the spotlight is squarely on them and them alone. They will extend their arms in greatness, while continuing to make the effort to remain separated from teammates, to ensure they are the sole focus. I saw this in highlights from a college game where a touchdown was scored and a teammate came running up to celebrate. The running back who scored the touchdown held the ball out in his right hand and extended his left arm to push his teammate away. He proceeded to run the width of the end zone, pushing teammate after teammate away, celebrating himself. Soon, he found himself alone in the corner of the end zone once he was done facing the fans and calling for their praise of "his" accomplishment. His teammates got tired of trying to celebrate with him what they had accomplished together, so they celebrated away from him and headed off the field; without a "me focused" event.

What do you think happens to the culture on the teams where this occurs? What happens to the unity, a vital component of success to a team? When an athlete pushes teammates away or moves away from them in order to celebrate "self" and infer to his/her teammates, "no thanks, this is my moment to highlight 'me' and what I've done", it erodes unity and creates a culture of Independence; a culture of Individualism. This type of culture spells disaster for a team; a culture of Individualism (Independence) will destroy a team.

When individualism (a culture of Independence) prevails, it reduces loyalty and mutual trust within a team. Tom Osborne, one of the most successful coaches in college football history states, "to have a great team, there must be a great deal of loyalty, mutual trust and genuine caring and love [by teammates] for other teammates". He adds that it was loyalty that served as the foundation for the winning teams he was known for at Nebraska. When a team member is only interested in celebrating him/her self and ensuring they are the focus of attention, it causes teammates to question and doubt him or her. They have given of their blood, sweat and effort so they could all be successful and celebrate what they have done, together. It causes them to ask, "are you as committed (dependent) on or to me as I am on or to you?" "Do you have the best interest of me and our teammates in mind or are you only out here for your personal accomplishments and glory?" It brings about the opposite of loyalty which is disloyalty...it brings about the opposite of a dependent culture on the team, which is an independent one. Disloyalty is a synonym of Independence.

Above I referenced that a culture of Independence will destroy a team. With disloyalty (an Independent culture), there is no trust among teammates. An Independent culture causes players to speak poorly about each other, disrespect a coaches authority and team rules and players to plot against one another in order to elevate themselves and achieve their own personal goals and agenda. They lose site of "team" and team goals that were set early on in training camps. Players lash out, quickly challenge a teammate or appoint blame to a teammate during an interview or press conference. A well managed team doesn't tolerate this. The source of the Independence on the team is most often either suspended, cut from the team or traded. A well managed team does what is necessary for the culture on that team to be a culture of Dependence. One where teammates care for and are committed to others, where there is love for teammates and celebrations are team oriented and not individually focused.

It is easy for a culture of Independence to take over a team. Conversely, it takes a great deal of effort and purpose to have a culture of Dependence on a team. Someone has to model the dependence within a team. Someone has to model dependence on teammates and to teammates. Someone has to show he/she is willing to be dependent on others so that teammates can be dependent on them. This process then replicates itself and the desired culture of Dependence is established.

Jesus modeled this behavior and culture of dependence for us many times throughout his life. The Bible says in John 5:19, "the Son can do nothing by himself, he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the son also does". He showed us what it means to be committed to the good of others (the team) and to live for the benefit of others (the team) and to see to it that personal agendas or goals are set aside for the good of others (the team), in Mark 10:45, "for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

So what is the culture on your respective team? It doesn't matter what level you compete at; little league, high school, college or professional, in order for there to be success and accomplishment of goals established by your team, there must be a culture of dependence. If it already exists, then ensure you're doing your part to ensure it continues on (replicates) from day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to month and year-to year. If your team is lacking a culture of Dependence...good news: it is never to late to change the culture! I encourage you to be the one who steps up, takes the lead and models it to your teammates. Establish the dependent culture, live by it and others will be drawn to it. Then, great things will be accomplished by the team and great celebrations will be had as a team.

Thanks!
Mike Martin
www.gobeyondthegame.blogspot.com