The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies (40 page)

Doing jumping jacks

Practicing some quick yoga poses (such as sun salutations)

Dancing to your favorite music while making dinner

Taking your dog on an extra walk

Doing leg lifts, sit-ups, and/or push-ups

Taking the stairs rather than the elevator

Parking in the last spot in the lot so you walk more

Carrying your groceries to your car rather than using a shopping cart

Throwing a ball for your dog in the backyard

Tossing a Frisbee or football around on the weekend

The more small activities you add, the more your metabolic rate will rise throughout the day, each and every day. So keep looking for extra ways you can move more during the day to help your body burn more calories. Heck. Make a game out of it! Think of the many different ways (including the ones from the preceding list) you can incorporate metabolic boosts throughout the day. Choose as many of these ideas as you can as part of your master metabolism makeover. You'll find that adding more small activities to your daily life may be the simplest strategy for increasing your metabolic rate.

Eating low-glycemic resistant starches

New research is showing a connection between metabolism and the foods you eat, specifically that certain starch-resistant foods increase the body's efficiency at burning stored fat. One study found that replacing just 5.4 percent of total carbohydrate intake with resistant starch created a 20 to 30 percent increase in fat burning after a meal. The great news about starch-resistant foods? Several of them are also low-glycemic, making them the perfect fit for you.

Resistant starches
refer to a type of fiber that "resists" being digested. Unlike other types of fiber, resistant starch ferments in the large intestine. This fermentation process creates beneficial fatty acids, including one called
butyrate,
which
may block the body's ability to burn carbohydrates as its main source of fuel, causing it to burn stored fat instead. Butyrate has been shown to decrease blood sugar and insulin responses, lower plasma cholesterol and triglycerides, increase "full" feelings, and reduce fat storage.