How to Create a Running Workout Plan

So you want to create a running workout plan, eh?

....Why? Are you into torture?

Just kidding. Running is a great activity for exercise. You can't drive down a neighborhood street at seven in the morning without seeing swarms of runners. If you want to create a running workout plan, and want to bring exercise into your life, then I say good for you.
All you need now is a bit of knowledge on what running entails and how you can create the best plan for you.


Running: The Basics
Running, believe it or not, is more complicated than you would believe. I know I know; on the surface it looks so easy. People learn to run about two seconds after they learn how to walk, so how complicated could it be?

Actually, there are several concepts you need to know before we get into the actual running workout plan.


Most people run because they want to get 'fit'. But what is 'fit'? Most people would say it is fitting into the pair of blue jeans that they wore in seventh grade. It really depends (to an extent) on your goals.

For most people, being fit means being physiologically healthy, which usually means a person has a normal Body Mass Index (BMI), low cholesterol, normal blood pressure, and energy level suitable to his or her age, gender, and background. Running can help with all of those.
If you want to be more athletic, in that you want to run a faster 5K or have more endurance, then running can accomplish that as well. The key is to know what you're gunning for, so you can design your workout appropriately.

Drawing Up Your Running Workout Plan
Okay, so, you know what you want to do. No matter what goal you have for fitness, the basics are fortunately the same (that's why they're basics).

1. Distance
How far are you going to run? Here's a good rule of thumb. For losing weight, staying in shape, etc., running any more than 3 miles at a time is a waste of time. To become competitive at long-distance running, you will have to put in at least 3 miles at a time.

2. Frequency
How often will you run? Starting off, you should run no more than 3 times a week, with one day in between. To stay healthy, running three times a week will suffice. To lose weight, I would run at least five times a week. For athletic improvement, six days with one rest day is optimal.

3. Speed
How fast will you run? The vast majority of people who run do so at what I call an "average" pace, i.e. breaking a sweat and breathing deeply but not becoming exhausted or strained. That is fine for weight loss and fitness, but for athletic improvement, you will have to push.
Look over those three concepts and play with some numbers. The above concepts really are your building blocks for your own running program.

Enjoy your torture- er...exercise.

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Fitness and Running expert, Yuri Elkaim, and his Treadmill Trainer running workouts, has helped thousands of health conscious individuals (of all fitness levels) become faster and more endurant runners with just 2 runs per week. Try his interval training running workouts for free by visiting http://www.myTreadmillTrainer.com today!

Raw Food Cleanse: Restore Health and Lose Weight by Eating Delicious, All-Natural Foods - Instead of Starving Yourself

CLEANSE WITHOUT BEING STARVED OR DEPRIVED

Follow the delicious and hunger-satisfying raw-food diets offered in this book and you will lose weight, gain energy and feel vibrantly healthy while clearing your body of toxins. Raw Food Cleanse offers four customized plans that provide you with everything needed for an easy and powerful detox, including:

•toxin self-assessment
•day-by-day programs
•mouth-watering recipes
•real-life success stories

•3-Day Energy Boost Cleanse
Give your body an all-natural weekend to start your Monday feeling great.
•7-Day Rejuvenation Cleanse
Enjoy a week of delicious raw foods to thoroughly refresh your system.
•14-Day Deep Detox Cleanse
Go longer to experience better skin and hair, a clearer mind and a slimmer body.
•28-Day Total Reset Cleanse

Give the body a full recharge with an intense, nutrient-packed month of raw foods.Penni Shelton has created this wonderful book, in part, through the experience of real people in real life following her program. And I have to say, I think that alone makes it an excellent resource for raw food info ... because we're all looking for real results. Penni's writing style is also warm and encouraging ... she's just a delightful and inspiring writer. This book is organized around 3, 7, 14 and 28 day cleanses. But in this case, a "cleanse" is neither harsh nor strict with so many raw food recipes. The recipes are easy to follow and the dishes are visually stunning and delicious. I really enjoyed the real life stories of people who've already done this program. They're genuine and open in telling about the changes that have happened in their health and their lives after following this way of eating and living. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a genuine and uncomplicated introduction to the amazing health benefits a raw food lifestyle can help create.

Purchase Raw Food Cleanse here!

How to Do a Raw Food Diet?

How to Do a Raw Food Diet —powered by eHow.com

A raw food diet contains unprocessed, fresh foods. Learn how to plan a raw food meal with the help of a licensed dietitian in this free video.

Do Raw Foods Help You Lose Weight

Do Raw Foods Help You Lose Weight?

Author, Eating for Energy

 

Eating For Energy

It seems like a pretty natural assumption to make, doesn’t it? 

If you eat healthier, you will lose weight. After all, if you cut the fat in your diet, would it not stand to reason that you will cut the fat in your body? But there is a lot more to it than that. Bodies need a lot of different nutrients to stay healthy and fit. And while it is certainly possible to eat poorly and survive, it is easier to prosper if you keep your diet clean. Eating raw foods certainly fits the bill of healthier eating.

So, what exactly is so healthy about raw foods? Besides being in the natural state that food it meant to be in, of course? Well, raw foods are filled with vitamins, minerals and enzymes. Wait, you might say – what’s so bad about cooking? I mean, a cooked carrot is still a carrot, right? Cooking it doesn’t turn it into a chocolate cake. 

No, but a lot of the great benefits of that carrot are lost when you cook it. They leach out into the water when you boil it, or die off from the heat in other methods. In the end, you are left with food that essentially has already been eaten for you. The cooking process devours a lot of the benefits, leaving you with a mushy lump of whatever is left ñ still better than nothing, but not as good as the original, whole food item.

Many of the food items that you eat are also very low in calories and fats. While you need calories and fats in order to operate, you probably don’t need as many as you intake on a daily basis - thus, the extra fat that ends up on your person. But if you eat more low calorie or even negative calorie foods like broccoli and strawberries - that being foods that use up more calories than they bring to the party ñ and you will teach your body to use what calories it consumes, instead of cramming with junk and storing for lean times. You will teach your body that a regular flow of great calories is always coming, so burn what you have, and make room for the new ones.

Many of these raw-edible foods are also fairly high in natural fibre, which means all sorts of benefits for your body. For one, wastes will move more quickly through your body, and more of what you eat will be absorbed, meaning less to eliminate. What you do eat will also fill you better, meaning fewer spikes of hunger, and more periods of fullness and contentedness. That means less unhealthy snacking to cover a meal that has fallen short of providing what your body needs between your regular feeding times.

Now, that alone won't magically melt away the pounds. Raw foods are a great starting point that will make it easier for you to lose weight, but they won’t do it all. But combined with a bit of exercise, you will find it a lot easier to shed pounds and inches if you include more raw food items in your regular diet.

Grab Your Copy today --> Eating For Energy Book!

Just Another Reason to Eat Raw Foods

by Yuri Elkaim, BPHE, CK, RHN
Author, Eating for Energy

Although I'm not a 100% hardcore raw foodist, I'm a big proponent of eating raw foods. The health and energy benefits I've experience since adopting more of a raw food diet are literally too numerous to mention in this article. But for me, one of the biggies is having so much more energy - it's actually pretty frightening!

Having more energy means that I (and you) can live life to the max. Instead of needing to take afternoon naps like I used to several years ago, I now have enough energy to easily function on just 4-6 hours of sleep per night.

However, I need to be honest and tell you that from time to time I do have the occasional slip and fall back into eating "dead" cooked foods. Perhaps I've gone out for dinner or somebody's had a party where fresh foods are just not an option. In those cases, I don't go crazy and make my own raw food to bring. Instead, I suck it up and simply enjoy the foods for what they are.

After all, stressing out over what you're eating may in fact be more detrimental than the food itself.

A Recent Dinner Party

Just the other week, we hosted a dinner party with a bunch of friends. It was actually a double whammy in that we wanted everyone to meet our new puppy Laila, while, at the same time, getting everyone together for a fun night. Our only stipulation was that it was to be a pot luck dinner because preparing food for 12-14 people is just not a lot of fun for me. Plus, it takes way too long.

So anyways, everyone brought their dishes and as you can imagine, none of it was raw. Oh well, we'll just enjoy and see how it goes.

There was pasta salad, barley salad, pita and hummus, sushi, and some treats for dessert.

Now bear in mind that these are foods that I would have readily eaten back in the day when I never even knew what vegetables or raw foods were all about. As a child, I literally grew up on wheat, dairy, and meat. No fruits and no veggies. And certainly no raw foods!

So the night went well and everyone had a great time but unfortunately (for me) there were far too many leftovers. In fact, there was still a huge amount of pasta salad.

What Happened Next Was Just Ridiculous

The next day, I had a fairly active day with lots of walking and then a circuit training workout. Needless to say, I needed some energy. For whatever reason I thought that I would dive back into the pasta salad for its high source of carbs and see what would happen.

Big mistake!

After eating a bowl of the pasta and I went to do some reading on my bed and then, moments later, passed out. It was only 9pm! I normally go to bed around midnight.

Now, you'd think that I'd get up before sunrise considering how early I went to bed, right? But that didn't happen. I woke up at 8am. That's a full 11 hours of sleep!

Talk about a waste of time.

Why Did This Happen?

Wheat, from which pasta is made, is the most allergenic food on the planet. In fact, most people (myself included) have a sensitivity to wheat without even knowing it. In my case, eating wheat manifests with rapid heart, extreme fatigue, and worsening of my asthma.

So why would I even bother eating it? Good question.

Furthermore, pasta and wheat-based products are dead! They are not live foods. They have no enzymes and are basically cooked starches, which in most cases carry a high glycemic load.

The combination of wheat sensitivity with a dead food (pasta) void of essential food enzymes and carrying a high glycemic load was the cause of my 11 hour comatose!

How to Avoid This Mistake

Ending up in an 11-hour coma does not happen when you eat raw foods! It's as simple as that.

Why?

Well, first, raw foods don't encompass cooked grains like wheat. In fact, there is debate as to whether humans can even properly digest grains. The argument is that our bodies have not evolved to digest grains that came about only a few hundred years ago during the agricultural revolution.

Instead, raw foods provide you more energy than any grain ever could. Fresh fruits and vegetables are the ultimate source of the sun's energy, water, enzymes, alkalinity, and tons of nutrients that you simply can't get through a cooked food diet.

So if you won't to avoid the mistake that I made, and if you've made similar ones in the past, then you may want to consider adding more raw foods to your diet.

Why Eat a Raw Food Diet?

What Eat a Raw Food Diet?

If you're reading this article, you may be wondering about the benefits of a raw food diet, right? Well, the benefits of eating more raw foods are numerous and once you understand them you'll probably wonder why you haven't eaten more raw in the past. You'll also think twice about eating dead cooked foods ever again.

Raw Foods Give You More Energy

I don't think I know of a single person who eats at least 80% raw foods who doesn't enjoy far more energy than the average person. I know that when I transitioned away from eating a diet made up of breads, dairy, and cooked foods, and adopted more of a raw foods diet, my energy went through the roof. And I'm not talking about the quick surge you would get from an espresso but rather long-lasting energy that enables you to do more with less.

For instance, eating raw will allow you to sleep less and have far more energy than you ever thought possible. When I'm eating at least 80% raw, I can easily function on just 4-5 hours of sleep. I literally bounce out of bed and don't require any naps throughout the day. Oh yeah, did I mention that I workout every single day as well? Sometimes, even twice!

Energizing Enzymes

There are several reasons why a raw food diet will give you more energy. First, raw foods are rich in food enzymes. Enzymes are required for every single reaction in the body. Unfortunately, our bodies only have a finite number of these enzymes, so when we run out, we run out of life! To add to this, when you heat foods above 118 degrees fahrenheit, you destroy the food enzymes that are naturally present in all raw foods. Therefore, if you eat a predominantly cooked foods diet, you're not getting enough food enzymes, which means that your body will have to produce and use more of its own to digest and metabolize your foods.

The more energy your body needs to divert towards digestion, the less energy you will have for other activities. You will feel more lethargic and tired as your body is trying to breakdown "dead" foods and figure out what to do with them.

So, the food enzymes inherent in raw foods are a big reason for boosting your body's energy. They are the spark plugs and are intricately related to the next property that make raw foods so energy-boosting.

Life Force

When raw foods are left intact, they are also known as living foods. They are called "living" because they carry an incredible amount of life force.

Now, since every living being has an aura or energy field illuminating from their body, which foods do you think would enhance yours? High energy raw foods or cooked foods that dead? I think we both know the answer.

As I like to say, "eat alive and you will thrive".

Weight Loss and Beautiful Skin

The other highly sought-after quality of a raw foods diet is its ability to help you lose weight and beautify your skin. Almost all raw foodists have reported losing weight they could never lose. At the same time, they notice an instant improvement in their skin. They look younger and have a natural glow that comes about because of the "living" nature of raw foods, their abundance of enzymes, and of course the plethora of nutrients that are ingested when eating more fruits and vegetables.

You will find it easier to lose weight on a raw food diet because your getting more nutrients and, therefore, your body won't crave "dead" foods. Second, the enzymes help to breakdown the foods you are eating and excess energy and fat stores in your body. Third, raw foods are water-rich, which helps you feel more satiated, as well as hydrated.

Many of these reasons also help us explain why living foods make you look younger and beautify your skin. Enzymes, life force, water, and high quality nutrients all play a role in natural skin care.

We could talk about the benefits of a raw food diet for hours but the only to truly understand them is to experience them for yourself. So why not take action today and enjoy the health, the body, and the vitality that you deserve!

 

About the Author

Yuri Elkaim is one of the world’s leading holistic nutrition and health experts. If you want to lose weight and live your healthiest and most energetic life ever, then you can learn more about his raw food diet book, Eating for Energy and get started with a FREE 6-part Energy Secrets e-course by visiting EatingforEnergy.ca today.

 

You can pick this great book from Amazon.com

AMAZON.COM Reviews

A Good Why and How on Nutrition, March 13, 2009
By Kelly Klepfer (Iowa) posted on Amazon.com

"If you are serious about making nutritional changes and curious about why that's a good idea, you should consider looking into Eating for Energy. With loads of information on the benefits of eating raw plant foods, Yuri Elkaim, presents very compelling reasons to make the suggested changes in your lifestyle.He provides several recipes and details on specific products and supplements. If you are coming from a fast food lifestyle and are casually considering making some changes for the better this information could overwhelm you as it is a step up from simply eating healthier and/or organic. However, it is a valuable tool if you really want to change your future health and your life. I read it and found the it easy to read."