Three Steps to Preparing Your Body for SummerWritten by Marjorie Geiser
Summer isn’t too far away. It’s almost time for shorts, tank tops, and bathing suits. Time to prepare body for not only looking good in such few clothes, but preparing body for effects of heat and sun. Three important steps to this preparation include exercise, eating foods high in antioxidants, and drinking plenty of water.The National Weight Control Registry and a Consumer’s Report survey of 32,000 people both show that people who have lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off have all followed some consistent guidelines, which has included regular exercise, eating lots of fruits and vegetables, following a low fat diet, and eating primarily healthy fats. The advantage of regular exercise not only includes weight loss, but more important is that consistent exercise results in body fat loss and development of muscle tone, which shows most when clothes are skimpier. This improvement can be felt quickly, as muscles are worked and get used to demands made of them. When you feel more fit, you start to hold yourself up, stronger and prouder. Posture improves and you just look better, overall. For someone who has not been exercising regularly, after a quick checkup by your doctor, simple walking can be a great way to get started! But, in order for it to be effective, you have to do it on a regular basis; at least 3-5 days a week. When just starting out, 3 days a week of 20 minutes per walk may be plenty. It may even be a challenge at first! If you keep it up, though, shortly it will get easier. As it gets easier, progression to 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week will be more effective. If someone started walking 4 miles per hour (15 minutes per mile) for 30 minutes, 5 days a week, they will start burning roughly an extra 1500 calories a week. Although this will only result loss of a few pounds in 10 weeks, increase in your resting metabolic rate will also increase with regular exercise. Your resting metabolic rate is how many calories you burn at rest. The higher your metabolic rate, more calories you burn when just sitting! So, without even changing way you eat, you’re already working towards some weight loss. This brings us to second step for preparing body for summer, which is making some changes to diet by increasing your intake of fruits and vegetables. There are three advantages to a diet high in fruits and vegetables; 1) these foods are rich in antioxidants, which help protect skin from harmful, oxidating effects of sun and toxic chemicals from hot air, 2) they also have been shown to help fight against heart disease, cancer and obesity, 3) finally, they will fill you up on fewer total calories because they are high in fiber and bulk. If a person were to eat 5-10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, which is recommendation of many health organizations, today, they would feel fuller on fewer net calories by end of day. Theoretically, they could end up eating 200-500 fewer calories per day, which further helps with weight loss. Plus, you would feel better, your hair, skin and nails would look better, and you would become more ‘regular’.
| | 16 Tips to Looking + Feeling GreatWritten by Jesse Cannone
Do you want to improve quality of your life? Do you want to look and feel better than you have in years – maybe better than you ever have before? Do you want to protect yourself from disease and injury? And do you want to live a longer, more vital life? I’m confident that you answered YES! to each of those questions, just as hundreds of individuals I’ve counseled, coached, and trained in my career as a Certified Personal Fitness Trainer and Rehabilitation Specialist. I’m now going to reveal to you 16 essential strategies that have enabled my clients to achieve health and fitness goals they always wanted! 16 Essential Weight Loss and Fitness Strategies 1. In beginning, your fitness program should not be overly aggressive. One of biggest problems people encounter when starting a fitness program is rapidly depleted motivation after only a few weeks due to an overly ambitious fitness program. Attempting to do too much too fast is worse than doing nothing at all! Because then you feel like exercise is too hard and it’s just not for you. Start out slow, maybe just shooting for 1 or 2 workouts a week. Once you have successfully added that to your normal routine, then attempt to slowly add to your fitness program. Plus, most people don’t need to exercise more than 3-4 times a week. That doesn’t mean you can’t exercise more; it’s just not necessary. 2. Always have a detailed plan! In order to reach your health and fitness goals, you must have a road map to follow. I can’t stress this enough. If you are unsure of how to put together a fitness plan, or if you’re uncertain of effectiveness of one you have, I highly recommend you consult a professional fitness trainer. With a well thought out plan you are much more likely to be successful! 3. Set realistic, attainable goals. You must have tangible, quantifiable, short and long-term goals so you can measure and assess your progress. Too many people have totally unrealistic expectations of what to expect from an exercise and nutrition program. The best way for you to understand what is realistic and attainable is to talk with a fitness professional – not to buy into “hype” of infomercials and diet and fitness products that are blatantly misleading. 4. Keep a journal! This is one of most important things you can do. If you’re not tracking what you’re doing, how will you know what worked? There are quite a few great exercise and nutrition logs I’ve come across. You should keep track of all your exercise and also each day’s food intake. There’s a company called NutraBiotics that makes a great 90-day journal that can be used to track strength training, cardiovascular exercise, and daily nutrition. If you would like more information on this journal, please feel free to call me at 240-731-3724. 5. You must be accountable! Set exercise appointments with yourself if you’re not working with a personal fitness trainer. Use your appointment book to set aside times for exercise, just like you do for meetings or events. Don’t let things get in way. Nothing is more important than your health! If you don’t have your health you can’t effectively do anything. I often have mothers tell me that they can’t find time to exercise because they have to take care of their children. I have 4 daughters myself, and a baby on way, so I know exactly how hard it is. Whatever your situation is, making commitment to exercise and your health IS possible, and very important. Plus, it sets a great example for children! 6. Remember benefits of exercise. Being physically fit affects every aspect of your life: you sleep better, eat better, love better, overcome stress better, work better, communicate better, and live better! Remember how good it feels to finish a workout, and how great it feels to meet your goals! 7. Exercise safely and correctly. So much time is wasted doing, at best, unproductive exercise, or at worst, dangerous exercise. Educate yourself on how to exercise correctly. The best way to do that is to hire a personal fitness trainer. It could be for just a few sessions to learn basics, or it could be for a few months to learn everything. It’s completely up to you. But statistics prove that those who understand how to exercise correctly get better, faster results. And that’s what you want, right? 8. Enjoy your exercise! For example, if you hate doing strength training, try to find ways to make it more enjoyable. Circuit training might be a more fun and exciting way to fit this important part of fitness into your program. The key is you should enjoy it, and if you don’t you need to look for other exercises or activities to replace whatever it is you don’t enjoy. If you don’t enjoy it, how do you expect to stick with it?
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