Park farther away from door and walk. At work, at grocery store, at mall; any place where you’re stuck walking outside anyway, just bundle up and get a few extra steps. When indoors, take stairs instead of elevator or escalator. You’ll burn lots more calories. You can even try using restrooms, copy machines, etc. on a different floor just to get more exercise. Consider wearing a pedometer and challenging yourself to keep increasing your steps per day.

Use your lunch break if you work in an office. If your company has a gym, use it. Walk outside when weather permits. If it’s raining or snowing, walk laps around parking garage or laps around each floor perimeter plus steps between floors.

Be less efficient! If you live in a multi-story house, take as many trips up and down stairs as you can instead of saving things to go up or down. At office, take a walk to see your coworkers instead of always using email. Face-to-face conversation is often better anyway, as it avoids misunderstandings and leads to better bonding and teamwork.

Consider winter sports. Skiing (downhill or cross-country), ice skating, and snow-shoeing can all burn lots of calories. Also, just play in snow! Go sledding or build a snowman, and make some snow angels!

I hope these tips help you to stay active this winter! Remember, key to weight loss is to burn more calories than you consume (and weight maintenance is balancing intake and burn equally over time.) If you don’t burn calories with exercise, you’ll need to cut your food intake, and that will be especially difficult during holidays. I personally would rather exercise more and enjoy a few holiday cookies! So get in habit of exercising consistently now!

You bet your bottom dollar they are!

The vast majority of people who want to loose weight start dieting, but this is only part of battle, and on its own you will not be particularly happy with results.

So why is exercise import? SIMPLE! Look …

Let’s say you want to cut out 500 calories a day from your daily intake. A daily reduction of 500 calories might be too difficult for you – and that is why so many people fail in reaching their goal. They set themselves goals that are too hard to reach. Don’t fall into that trap.

We know that a 3500-calorie reduction per week is needed to produce a one pound weight loss of fat. Therefore, a daily calorie reduction of approximately 500 –1000 calories is necessary to loose 1 to 2 pounds of fat per week.

For instance, let’s say a portion of macaroni provides 250 calories per serving, and we all know how easy it is to eat a double serving of packaged foods, which would be 500 calories. Using above example of 500 calories a day, if we don’t eat macaroni we easily reach our daily goal, but we don’t eat!!! So, how do we manage this … We eat one portion (250 calories), and we exercise away remaining 250 calories.

250 + 250 = 500.

Using diet + exercise approach, it is easy to see how much easier it is to reach your goals. You really don’t have to starve. In case above you can still eat your macaroni. Does that seem hard to you? I don’t think so.

A one-hour walk equals approximately 420 calories. A reduction of 500 calories a day means a one pound weight loss per week. Once you’re in shape, just look at uphill walking, that goes anywhere from 480 to 900 calories!

Are you feeling motivated yet? Doesn’t it seem easier now?

Just remember diet alone won’t really get you to where you want to go. Team diet together with an intelligent exercise routine and … Whoa! You get fit AND it’s easy to stay fit!