The Ultimate Balancing Act
Maintaining a smart carbohydrate diet using principles of the glycemic index is one thing. Exercising on a regular basis is another. I have to admit that eating well is often much easier than working out most days of the week. Even so, exercise is a key ingredient to losing weight, maintaining weight, as well as for controlling diabetes - no matter what diet plan you might be following to accomplish any of those tasks.
With regular walks and stair-climbing along with watching what I ate, I managed to lose 35 pounds rather easily upon my type 2 diabetes diagnosis. But I wasn’t seeing an athletic look to my body - that look I thought would come easily with weight loss. I had occasionally used a yoga DVD, but it wasn’t inspiring. Then I heard about the balance (or stability) ball.
At the time, I was training for one of those 2-day charity walks. I knew I had to balance cardiovascular training with resistance training. At first, I tried workouts from some of my favorite women’s magazines, but all those gave me was some troublesome elbow tendonitis. I bit the bullet and ordered a beginner’s kit for the balance ball.
Rather quickly, I was hooked, especially when I realized I was sculpting my body. For the next year and a half, I included the beginner’s workout in my exercise routine every week. Even if I wasn’t losing weight, I looked great (according to my peers, friends, and relatives) and could fit into smaller-sized clothes than when I was including cardiovascular activity alone.
The beginner’s kit only included basic yoga and pilates principles, but now I use more advanced workouts that also include hand weights in their routines.
Some important things to remember about the balance ball include:
- Use the right ball for your height. You may cause undue strain on certain parts of your body (i.e. neck and back) if the ball is too big or too small.
- Under-inflation is as much as a problem as over-inflation. You want to have the right amount of resistance to maintain balance.
- Always be mindful of your breath. Whether you are using yoga or pilates principles, it is important to breath correctly in order to have the right resistance effects.
I too find exercise more difficult than dieting. I try to walk the dogs 3 miles a day, which I can cope with, but doing any gym work is awfully difficult to ‘keep at’. I think its the boredom that kills me.
You mention the glycemic index, which I use when planning my diet as well (I am diabetic - so it really helps me). Have you heard of the satiety index? It seems to be only partiallly completed, but it shows which foods keep you feeling full for longest - this has been a great benefit to me.