IslandMix - Soca, Reggae, Zouk and Caribbean Entertainment

Dos and don'ts of getting fit for carnival

BY LISA ALLEN-AGOSTINI

If your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight to play mas, you should know that you’re not going to turn into Yamila Diaz or Tyson Beckford by Carnival — and you shouldn’t try to, say the experts.

Personal trainer and Guardian columnist Brian Chin Leung warns against suddenly starting an intense programme of cardiovascular exercise and weights, especially if you’ve been sedentary all year.

“There’s only so much you can realistically attempt to achieve.

“Unfortunately a lot of people go on crash diets,” he lamented.

“That is so unhealthy! Ideally, if you are playing mas, you should have started training since middle October.”

A gradually increasing exercise and diet programme over time is the best way to lose weight without hurting yourself.

Sadly, that’s not what most wannabe hardbodies use. Many people who want to lose weight for Carnival run to crash diets and an intense cardiovascular exercise programme, which is “not necessarily safe,” Chin Leung said.

While it’s highly unlikely that anyone can get toned and fit in the six weeks left before Carnival, Chin Leung offered some advice on how to get on the right road so you’re “fit and healthy after Carnival.”

Attempt to do some sort of cardio four to five times a week. “At least 40 minutes — a brisk walk,” Chin Leung suggests.

“I do think that weight training is going to help with muscle tone, but you have to look at the short time you’re dealing with. What’s the sense you look buff and you drop down in the hot sun because you’re not cardiovascularly fit?”

Think of yourself as being in training for a two-day walk. “You’re talking about jumping up and covering a fair amount of mileage for two days,” Chin Leung said. “Make sure you could last two days.”

Between now and Carnival, concentrate on cutting carbohydrate intake.

“Eat chicken and fish with vegetables,” said Chin Leung.

“Not the Atkins diet, which is high-protein and high-fat. I don’t recommend that, but lean protein. In other words, you’re not going to take in too much rice, pasta, potatoes.” (Diabetics should NOT go on low-carb diets because it puts their health at risk, he said.)

Balance is the key to a healthy diet for weight loss. Not only is a balanced diet easier to stick to, but it provides your body with the nutrients it needs to function.

“All weight management programmes should at the very least include a gradual change to a healthful eating style with increased intake of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables,” states the American Dietetic Association in a position paper in the January 1997 issue of its Journal, quoted on webmd.com.

Finally, Chin Leung advises: “Hydrate properly.”

Dehydration can contribute to heat exhaustion, heat cramps and the potentially fatal heat stroke. “Make sure you take in enough water even days before,” he said.

And don’t forget to drink water on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. Alcohol is a liquid, but it dehydrates you.

Why you should absolutely never go on a crash diet

1. It can make you fatigued and headachy, says Dr Wynnie Chan of the British Nutrition Foundation.

Most crash diets make you lose weight by cutting calories and fat drastically. You drop pounds because your body uses up its carbohydrate stores (known as glycogen) in the liver and muscles. Glycogen is stored with water; lose that water and you lose weight.

When that happens, your body goes into starvation mode and begins to “eat” muscle for energy. That releases toxins called ketones, which make you feel tired and make your head hurt.

2. It can make you more prone to getting fat in the long run.

Muscle burns energy better than other cells, Chan says. If you lose muscle, your energy efficient body becomes sluggish as your metabolism drops.

When you revert to a normal amount of calories in your diet (as you almost certainly will), your body stores them as fat.

3. It’s probably not nutritionally complete.

Fad diets usually “are nutritionally inadequate in calories, protein, carbohydrate, vitamins and or minerals, says the University of Michigan’s Health System in an article on “Hazardous Weight Loss.”

4. It’s nearly impossible to stick to most crash diets.

That’s because when you don’t eat enough, your body makes a hormone called ghrelin that actually makes you hungry.

“When the body is challenged with regard to having enough energy to survive, it produces and releases increased quantities of the hormone ghrelin,” writes Bryant Stamford in the Louisville Courier-Journal in Kentucky. Stamford is director of the Health Promotion and Wellness Center at the University of Louisville. “Ghrelin increases the hunger drive, and the greater the weight loss, the greater the production of this hormone.”

No pills

Diet pills and drinks rank in the list of “don’ts” for weight loss.

They can cause “muscle deterioration affecting the heart and internal organs, dehydration, thickened bones, allergic reactions and even death,” cautions an article on the University of Michigan Healthy System’s Web page.

__________________
"If u put a small price on ur value.. rest assure that the world wont raise ur price! Love U 2day!" ~ Rev. Run

"If you keep believing in yourself and seek enthusiasm inside your soul, things will get simpler, more spontaneous." ~Paulo Coelho

"Knowledge is like the wind, once you obtain it, you can go anywhere." ~Yellow Hare(Native-American Chief)

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit
the floor each morning the devil says:
"Oh Crap, She's up!"

This is so true! this is my problem with diets! That is why I have to go running in the mornings.

And don’t forget to drink water on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. Alcohol is a liquid, but it dehydrates you


i go have to dead from dehydration den....

me too I never remember to drink water on the road

i knw tht's right...i learned tht the hard ways 3 years ago for dc carnival.... i nearly pass out in the street...... somebody had to pick me up and carry me to the side and give me water and stuff... the scariest moment of life........so since then i have my water in one hand and my drink in the other....

somebody said that was not in the case of miami 2k3

WOW me and you must have been drinking the same thing.......The same thing happened to me at the same event.......3 years ago at dc carnival.
How ironic is that.

hehehe... for real......