8 Simple Tips on How to Get in Shape
by Karen Sessions
"No matter what I do, I just can't seem to get in shape." Does this statement sound familiar? Do you put effort out each week in trying to eat right and exercise, only to fall short by the third day?
If you are constantly starting a healthy exercise and eating program, only to let it fall by the wayside by the middle of the week you are destroying your metabolism, and killing any motivation you might have had.
Getting in shape is just as much as a mental approach as it is a physical one. If you want to get in shape once and for all you have to make some changes. Below are some tips on how to get in shape to prevent falling off the wagon again.
Tip #1 Make a committed goal to get in shape Goal setting, blah, blah, blah. You may think this is an unnecessary step and a waste of time, but NOT making a committed goal can be your biggest reason for failure.
Tip #2 Stick to your goal - Don't keep changing your mind Sure, just because you have some goals written down or outlined on your calendar doesn't mean you will get in shape. You have to actually follow your plan.
Tip #3 Eat balanced meals Eating balanced meals is one of the most important aspects of getting in shape. Most people tend to think that a can of tuna or an apple is a meal. Wrong. A meal is a combination of a complete protein and a carbohydrate.
Tip #4 Eat real food Any food won't do. You should be feeding your body quality nutrients in the form of natural foods. Far too many people rely on processed food-like items in boxes labeled "healthy," low-fat," low-carb," etc. for health and weight loss. For the best quality food, eat those that Mother Nature has provided. If you can hunt, pick, gather, or harvest it, you can eat it. More importantly, it would be wise to eat organic as much as possible.
Tip #5 Don't skip meals Many people think that in order to get in shape they have to be in a calorie deficient mode. While this might stand true to an extent, most people are going about it in the wrong manner by skipping meals.
Tip #6 Don't cut the carbs The no-carb craze is still in high gear. Granted, lowering carbs can have an effect on fat loss to a certain degree, but there's a certain procedure you have to use to do it correctly to prevent fatigue, burnout, and excess muscle loss.
Tip #7 Don't kill the Cardio - Cardio is fine, provided you are eating the right nutrients to support it. The problem many people have when trying to get in shape is that they drastically cut their calories AND carbs, and then suddenly jump on an hour of high intensity cardio a day. This is simply as recipe for disaster because it leads to metabolic downgrade.
Tip #8 Don't put your faith in the latest wonder drug - People become desperate when they want to shed pounds, build muscle, or just get in shape. This can lead you to taking "fat burning supplements" with high promises and disappointing results.
Conclusion Now that you have some crucial guidelines to follow to get you on the right path and to literally get you in shape, use them to your advantage. Nothing worth having comes easy. So, put forth the effort and the time it takes to get you in the best shape of your life.
Karen Sessions has been in the fitness industry since 1988. She is a nationally qualified bodybuilder and holds two personal training certifications. She has written 6 ebooks on fitness and has helped hundreds of clients transform their bodies. http://www.theelitephysique.com "Use of this article is authorized provided it is reproduced in full, and all web URLS are active hyperlinks directed to the author" Karen Sessions may be contacted at http://www.theelitephysique.com
Bike Tour on the Horizon? How to Get in Shape
by Walt Ballenberger
People who consider going on bike tours often ask: What kind of physical condition do I need to be in, and how can I accomplish this? This article is primarily aimed at very busy people who don t have a regular exercise regimen due to work, family obligations, business travel, etc.
The very simple answer to the opening question is as follows: one should participate in 45-60 minutes of aerobic exercise at least twice, but preferably 3 times per week until the bike tour starts.
That being said, the next logical question is: what kind of exercise should one do? Some suggestions are discussed below, and much more valuable information can be gleaned by looking at the many resources offered by our friends at About Aerobics. This site can really answer all your training, diet, nutrition, equipment, and other questions. They even offer resources for people to set up a personal training program.
First of all, if you don t normally follow an exercise regimen, you might want to start out in some sort of group program at your local gym, for example. Many companies now bring in fitness trainers for aerobics classes during lunch hour as well, so if your employer offers that, you have a good option to exercise more and eat less. Overcoming inertia and getting started can be the hardest part of the overall effort. Many people even become almost religious about their exercise habits once they get started and find a program that works for them.
Here s an example of something one can do: we live in Colorado, and it s not always easy to get a bike ride in during the winter or even spring months when the weather is often blustery. Our local gym offers spinning classes, and that is an excellent option to train for your bike tour. Spinning is done on a stationary bike with adjustable tension, and classes are led by an instructor, usually to music. It takes a few sessions to get used to, because most beginners are not accustomed to standing up on the pedals for 4-5 minutes without sitting down. One should start slowly, sit down and take it easy if necessary, and forget about being macho in front of the group. Normally after about 3-4 sessions, you'll learn to pace yourself properly while endurance improves. The next thing you know you'll be able to keep up with the group. Expect to burn from 500 to 700 calories in a 45 minute session, as the classes can be intense. It is also useful to wear a heart rate monitor if you have one and track your pulse during the session. In addition, part of the program is several minutes of stretching after the class, which is something most people neglect. For beginners, my advice is to come early and get a good warm-up. You can learn more about spinning by clicking on this URL.
Another aerobic group exercise option is jazzercise. Jazzercise is popular in most locales, and it s normally not hard to find sessions that fit your time availability. As always, the hard part is getting started. Follow this link for more about jazzercise.
Of course individual aerobic exercises abound as well, including swimming, running, and various machines which are found in any good gym these days, even in hotels. Anything that will help you get your heart rate up for awhile will benefit your bike tour training.
Here s an important point, however: no matter what type of aerobic exercise you choose to do, it s absolutely necessary to get outside and put in some miles on a bike. Even if you spend a good amount of time on a stationary bike at home or in the gym, the feeling of riding outside is different, and you need to get used to that before your bike tour. Check your tour itinerary and determine the longest day of riding that you will encounter. If these distances are not specified, contact your tour operator and ask that question. If you can ride that amount of miles at home in training, then you will have no problem whatsoever on your bike tour. You ll have all day to do those miles on the tour, and you will be stopping often along the route.
One of the side benefits of bike tours is that they motivate people to get active and get into shape. You ll enjoy the beauty of the countryside much more if you re in good physical condition. Being outside on a back road, perhaps in a foreign country, smelling the flowers or the crops or the fresh bread, and greeting the locals you encounter, are all much easier and more pleasant if you re not gasping for breath. And after successfully riding 20-30 miles and enjoying a busy day of shopping, sight-seeing, and exploring new vistas, you ll feel you ve earned a fabulous dinner and a great bottle of wine. Bonne route!
Walt Ballenberger is founder of http://www.postnasaldrip.net a resource web site for sinusitis sufferers like himself. For a free report entitled Sinus Treatment Success Stories , visit http://www.postnasaldrip.net and click on the Free Report link. This resource can be of significant help to chronic sinus sufferers. Walt Ballenberger may be contacted at http://www.postnasaldrip.net
10 Tips: How to Get in Shape without Sweating
by Valerie Vauthey
Tip #1: The *Brazilian move*.
The good thing about this move is that you don't need to go a gym to do it, you don't even need to find time in your day.
Why?
Because you will do this move while you brush your teeth!
How does it work:
Standing straight in your bathroom, bend your knees slightly.
Tilt your hips forward while contracting them, then pull them back.
Remember to make a very strong squeeze when you finish the forward move.
As you brush your teeth a minimum of twice a day, that's 6 minutes a day of Brazilian move.
Along with a healthy eating, this will guarantee you will get a nice rear for this summer, yeah!
Tip #2: Use your Hands!
There are some chores you would be better off doing by hand!
For instance, washing dishes by hand will burn 78 calories per half hour.....
Knowing that a pound is about 3,500 calories, and assuming you will wash dishes half an hour over 45 days, you will have lost 1 pound without knowing it....(translated on a year, this amounts to about 8 pounds!)
Tip #3: How to get your 60 minutes of accumulated exercise a day& .
The General Surgeon's orders are to get 60 minutes of accumulated exercise per day (this can be sliced up into 6 small walks without any problem).
Beside burning calories, when you walk you will build the big muscles of your lower body. Muscle tissue uses up more calories to maintain than fat, even at rest.
Again, you don't have to go for a 60 minute walk if you don't fee like it.
You can slice it up into 4x15 minute walk:
-1- one at home when you wake up (will also help wake up even more :o)
-2- two at lunch time to go to your lunch place and to come back (just select a place that's 15 minutes away from your office)
-3- one in the middle of the afternoon to help you remain focus until the end of the day.
Tip #4: Manage your food cravings by being proactive!!!
Your body produces endorphins when you do aerobic exercise -- which means getting your heart rate up for at least 20 mn.
Aerobic exercise produces endorphins, body chemicals that induce euphoric and pleasurable feelings. These are the same chemicals produced in response to eating fat/sweet foods.
Tip #5: Improve your posture This is a great exercise to improve your posture hereby making you look great when you walk, when you are on the beach, when you enter a business meeting room.
On a yoga mat, stand straight.
Breath a few times: inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale slowly.
Tuck your toes under and push back into a low squat, with fingertips lightly touching the floor.
Drop your chin so it's relaxed toward the chest.
Slowly rise from the squat position by pushing your heels toward the floor until your torso hangs froward and down.
Keep the knees slightly bent and aligned over the center of each foot.
Breathe, relax the upper body, and hang like a rag dool.
Inhale in that position.
Exhale as you engage your powerhouse and slowly roll up to a standing position.
When you are standing, straighten your knees with your arms relaxed at your sides.
Inhale once again, and as you exhale, rise slowly to balance on the balls of your feet.
Breathe, relax the shoulders, and maintain this balance for several seconds. You can do this exercise 3 times each time you finish a work out.
It may sound complicated by reading this text; I suggest you print this tip, take it with you wherever you do your workouts, do it once with the paper and once you have understood the move, re-do it without reading.
Tip #6: Easy 6-pack abs
I have been doing 100 abs a day since I was a teenager. As a result I have a 6-pack without having to sweat over abs sessions at the gym.
How long do 100 abs take to perform? Depending on the move and the speed with which you do them, it will take you anywhere between 90 seconds to 3 mn.
Hardly un-squeezable!
You don't really need to warm up before such a short session therefore you can decide when to do them without having to re-arrange your day around this very very short session.
Suggestions per day:
20 straight crunches (your hand supporting your head, not lifting it).
20 straight crunches with a stop of one second at mid- raise.
40 bicycle moves alternating right elbow/left knee and left elbow/right knee.
20 seconds in the V-Pilates position: you rest on your bottom in a balanced position with your legs straightened out and your arms reaching out straight and parallel to your legs.
This sequence allows for deep abs (V-Pilates), superficial abs (crunches) and obliques (bicycle) to be worked on every single day.
Tip #7: Short is good!
As part of My Private Coach weight loss approach, mini- workouts (or MetaBoost as I call them) can do wonders for those who don't feel like sweating for hours in a gym.
"Something is really better than nothing. If I come in and I can work out vigorously for 30 minutes, I would consider giving it a try," said Dr. William L. Haskell, an exercise researcher and professor of medicine at Stanford University. The express workouts typically require only one set of 8 to 12 repetitions instead of the 2 or 3 sets of 8 to 16 repetitions that physiologists recommend for an optimum workout. " Copyright the Associate Press - 12/15/2003
Still, these MetaBoost workouts should come in addition to the daily 60 recommended minutes of accumulated exercise.
Write to info@myprivatecoach.com if you wish to receive FREE MetaBoost cards.
Tip #8 : 10,000 steps a day keep the doctor away!
Invest in a pedometer and make sure you are getting these famous 10,000 steps I have been brainwashing you for the past weeks!
10,000 steps start when you wake up. Wear your pedometer on your waist a all times.
10,000 = 3 miles = 300 calories approx (a little bit less than a bagel).
Take advantage of all opportunities to walk: choose your lunch place 10 mn further, get off the bus 1 stop before, take a 5 mn break every hour or so and go a *around the block walk*.
Everything counts towards this daily goal.
You will not lose weight (this is not enough really) but you will prevent new pounds from accumulating and you will improve your general health.
No sweating required!
Tip #9: Invisible chair day
Each time you get to be by yourself, sit against a wall without a chair and hold the position for 1 minute.
Try to do this 3 times a day.
This count as a strength exercise and will help shape nice thighs.
Feel free to apply this tip on other days as well!
Tip #10: How to get a really flat stomach with no abs work
Each time you walk, think about sucking in your stomack (lower and upper part).
This will work deep abominal muscles that NO crunch work can reach.
This will help you get a REALLY flat stomach.
No sweating required!
Valerie Vauthey is the founder of Life, Business and Weight Loss Coaching at My Private Coach and the president of the Silicon Valley Coachville Chapter. She brings long years of successful experience in the areas of Personal Coaching, Weight Loss, Financial Coaching, Time Management, Motivational Techniques and Behavioral Science. She is a permanent guest on the acclaimed Good Life Show hosted by Jesse Dylan.
Valerie Vauthey may be contacted at http://www.MyPrivateCoach.com or valerie@myprivatecoach.com
Interval Training: How to get in shape fast!
by Brian Gurneak
Interval Aerobic Training: A Unique way to Get in Shape
Many of you avid exercisers out there probably realize just how important it is to do aerobic activity to burn body fat, clear away toxins from the body, help to digest food, and to aid in recovery from weight training. Being a fitness professional I find that many times most people do the same type and intensity of their aerobic component over and over again. This can become boring and also non-productive after a certain period, because you re not giving your body any new stimulus. In this article, I want to talk to you about a way to do aerobics that is quite different than what you may be doing now.
It s called Interval Aerobic Training. Basically, it s comparable to shifting gears in a car. You actually burn more fuel when you re constantly shifting gears. The same is true with the human body. If you just stay with the same type and intensity of your aerobic component you won t burn the calories and expend the energy as you would when you re constantly changing the stimulus. Plus, I feel that the aerobic workout goes by faster, and it s more enjoyable. Here s how it goes: You would start out walking on a treadmill for about 5 minutes, not a slow walk, but a moderate pace. Once you complete that, switch to a Stairmaster or elliptical crosstrainer for 3 hard minutes where you re almost out of breath. Once that is complete go to 5 minutes of recumbent or stationary bike. Use a moderate pace where you re breathing kinda hard but not that intense. Again, once the 5 minutes are up, go back to the Stairmaster/elliptical for 3 hard minutes. Repeat one more bike/treadmill for 5 minutes then 3 hard minutes again on Stairmaster/elliptical. Perform a cool down for 5 minutes by just walking around to prevent blood pooling in one area. This whole workout should take 30 minutes.
Now you may be wondering how often and when you should do this workout for best results? I recommend you start doing it 3x s per week and work up to 5x s per week if your goal is to lose body fat. And as far as timing, anytime is better than NOT doing it. However, I stress that it should be done in the a.m. before you eat any carbohydrates. You will burn fat more easily by doing the workout at this time. Another good time is right after a weight training session. You will tap into the fat stores here as well, because the carbohydrates were used up during the weight workout. Just keep in mind that your intensity is a key factor in getting results with this type of program. You must work those 3 minutes really hard, to the point where you re breathing heavily to get into the fat stores. Don t be lazy during this time, really kick it up a notch and go for it. If you do this, you will seek the results you want.
Brian A. Gurneak is a Master Level Certified Personal Trainer with the International Fitness Professional Association, and Professional Fitness model for over 6 years. He is currently pursuing a massage therapy license. Please visit his websites, www.completephysique.info and www.howtotrainforresults.com.
Brian Gurneak may be contacted at www.completephysique.info or briangur@earthlink.net