6AM: It's MONDAY! Day 1 of the David Diet! Rise and Shine! Stretch, brush your teeth, put on your sports bra (if necessary), sweat shirt, sweat pants, socks and walking shoes.
For Outside Walkers:
Head out the door for your one mile walk. It will take you at least half an hour if you haven't been exercising recently. The goal is to progressively work up to five miles per day, adding perhaps one mile each week if you feel alright. Don't push it or you may hurt yourself and wind up being sidelined. Pain is the body's way of telling you to slow down and take a break. Once you achieve a five mile daily distance, it will take you about 100 minutes when you are in tip top shape, depending upon the length of your legs and your stride. To gauge the distance you are walking, do not bother wasting money on an expensive GPS pedometer. If you own a car or have a friend with a car, drive your intended route to clock the distance. A circle may be more interesting than a straight back and forth routine. For multi-taskers, one idea is to walk to the post office to pick up your mail at your post office box. But that requires timing your walk to arrive after the access door to the post office box area is open. And no, you should not wear an MP3 player or equivalent with headphones. Not only is there a safety risk when you cannot hear properly, but another component of this exercise program is meditation. When you are walking without distraction, you are able to think. When you are able to think, you are able to organize your thoughts, deal with anger or frustration and potentially come up with a great idea which will enrich your life, advance your career--or both. DO take a pen and several 3x5 cards with you, to write down any thoughts as they occur to you during the walk. By the time you return from your exercise, you will be motivated and energized and more productive during the rest of your day.
For Treadmill Walkers:
Start at two miles an hour with an elevation of "1" on an elevation scale from zero to ten. Spend 30 minutes on the treadmill for the first week, and with two minutes remaining, reduce the speed to one mile an hour until conclusion. Your target heart/pulse rate depends upon your age. The standard formula for knowing the relatively safe range of your heart/pulse rate is as follows: 220 minus your age times .60. Example: 220-30 years old is 190 multiplied by .60 which is 114 beats per minute. For a person who is 50 years old, the arithmetic is 220-50 is 170 multiplied by .60 which is 102 beats per minute. If you are in very good shape, you can eventually work up to a factor of .75. Using the above examples, this means 142 beats per minute (bpm) at 30 years old and 127 bpm at 50 years old. For those who have been exercising regularly for over half a year and are in excellent shape, some cardiologists will permit a ceiling factor of .85 in the above calculation, but you may experience muscle or joint pain at that level, which defeats the purpose of exercising. On a treadmill, it is not the speed or distance which is important but rather the calorie burning. Ideally, the exercise routine will cause you to sweat significantly and burn up much of the day's caloric intake before you've consumed the first mouthful. Remember, the goal is to burn or eliminate more calories than you take in. Measure your heart rate either via the treadmill's sensor system (if included with the unit) or by pressing firmly against either carotid artery on your neck to find the pulse and count it for six seconds. Multiply the result by ten for the beats per minute result. If you are below the low end of the bpm target range, increase the treadmill elevation at the start of Week #2 to a level of "2" on a scale from zero to ten. Increase the speed or elevation no more than once a week, and do not exceed 3.5 miles per hour on the speed to help avoid muscle or joint pain. Increase the elevation to increase your heart rate but always stay within your physician's recommended heart rate levels. Increase the exercise time to 45 minutes when you start feeling energized by the exercise routine, but do not exceed one hour. And increase the cool down period to five minutes or longer as the intensity of the workout rises. You do not want to step off the treadmill in a state of dizziness. While on the treadmill, do NOT look up. Look down at the panel or lower to avoid crushing a disc in your neck and/or pinching the nerves in your neck. (I speak from experience on this issue.)
7AM: Shower and dress for the day. Prepare breakfast. You will have pre-cooked your oatmeal on Sunday in preparation for the week, so all you have to do right now is cut out a one quarter square from the refrigerated plastic storage container, put the oatmeal in an eight inch cereal bowl, place it in the microwave to reheat, and then pour on the low fat or nonfat milk, sprinkle on a little white or brown sugar, and chow down. Yes, real sugar. The difference between real sugar and artificial sweeteners is so insignificant as to be laughable. Nobody ever got fat from eating a teaspoon of real sugar. Of course, if you cannot eat real sugar, use the sugar substitute. And here's another secret: if you cannot face oatmeal with milk, then go ahead and use a bit of light cream. I won't tell. Now, don't you feel naughty? Good! The beverage at this meal is one eight ounce glass of Apple Juice. Need a cup of caffeinated coffee to start your day? Maybe not. The walk and shower may have awakened you sufficiently. But if you need your "cup of joe," go ahead. But do NOT use processed creamers. Try to drink it black or with a touch of light cream to neutralize the acid. A Bunn brand coffee maker (www.bunnomatic.com) may be just the ticket. The company's brewing machines are used by some of the most popular coffee shops in the country, and the secret is the brewing process, combined with the use of decent water and real cream--not half-and-half or milk. Pack a bag of cut raw carrots, don't forget the tea and juices below, and head out the door.
10AM: Drink one 16 oz glass of decaffeinated tea which you made on Sunday by steeping six bags in a pitcher for at least ten minutes. The two bags each of Lipton, Earl Grey and Green tea come in decaffeinated versions. The Lipton and Early Grey are black teas. Why tea rather than water? Tea contains more health benefits and black tea and green tea contain different ones, which is why you need both. Do NOT drink processed tea. It may have additives with calories and studies show it doesn't have the anti-oxidants of home-prepared tea. The tea will also fill you up temporarily and will also help hydrate and flush your system.
11AM: Getting hungry? The oatmeal didn't quite "stick to your ribs," as Mama used to claim? Well, that means it's time for your prune juice. Yup. We haven't gotten to that subject yet, but it's definitely part of the diet! Besides, that 8 ounce glass will provide you with 170 calories to make it further into the day. Drink it slowly. Make it last.
Noon: Another 16 oz glass of tea. Same reason as at 10AM--to give your body something to think about while you wait for your next bunch of calories.
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