What Are You Weighing For?

Archive for the ‘Exercise and Diet’ Category

Running is the perfect workout, it activates almost every single muscle in the entire body, strengthens the core, and fortifies cardio like nothing else. Jogging, running, and sprinting are the best ways to increase all around health. Not only does the increased blood flow strengthen the muscles, but it also strengthens the brain ability to function.

Running also helps develop self-discipline, so if you can run a 5k race you can probably do most other things you set your mind to. 5ks are unique in the fact that they are both long distance and fast paced races, and because of this, runners need to be exceptionally conditioned. When training give yourself rest days in between all your training days. Start on Monday by running at 65 percent maximum pace for thirty to forty minutes, this is going to get your muscles used to the pace that will be necessary in the race. Tuesday, take a rest and let your muscles repair. Often people forget that a very important part of physical development is the resting period. Wednesday, get back to the run, this time though only run for fifteen minutes. After you have done that do four one minute runs at near maximum speed. In between each one minute run take a two minute break, doing this is called high intensity interval training (HIIT). This is the best way to create muscle development and promote caloric burn at the same time, but beware because this is going to obliterate your muscles. Thursday should be another rest day. Friday and Saturday you should still be in pain from Wednesday, so on both these days take a relaxing jog for around 40 minutes.

Once this becomes routine you will start to notice how the Friday and Saturday jogs start feeling like rest days. The purpose is to get to the point where a light jog is almost as natural as walking, doing this will allow you to maintain a quick pace throughout the entire five kilometer run.

Along with this training regimen you should be getting a good eight hours of sleep every single night and a lot of protein and veggies. The proteins are obviously to help your muscles repair, and the veggies to help the proteins repair your muscles. Don’t get discouraged if you take a day off, just jump right back into the exercise. The main thing you want to maintain is your motivation. One day isn’t going to kill you, but quitting altogether will definitely stop you from even running in the 5k. Check here for another 5k training routine.

21 days, that’s it!

They say it takes 21 days to form a new habit. If you want to be a fit person you are going to have to get yourself into the habit of working out. Obviously, habits are not formed over night but 21 days is not that long either.

Starting tomorrow you will workout every damn day for the next 21 days. If you do that, your body will be confused when you don’t work out.

Maybe it’s not even working out

You don’t have to form the habit of working out everyday right away. Maybe you have a hard time waking up early enough to workout before work/school/etc. So for the next 21 days just work on waking up early enough to go to the gym. You don’t have to actually go to the gym yet, that can come later. First, train your body to wake up early. Again, all it takes is 21 consistent days.

In an article on the Huffington Post that actually “debunks” this 21 day habit myth, Jessica Cassity chose to give herself a 21 day challenge despite doctors and such telling her the the 21 day habit myth was out-dated. Here’s an excerpt of what she said:

Then, on day 21, a funny thing happened. With the challenge nearing its end I found myself wanting to not only keep up my barre work, but also enroll at a gym that offered indoor cycling, a class I’d loved during my last fitness craze. I was hooked on the feeling. And then there were the results: On day 21 I also tried on an old pair of pants — ones that hadn’t fit in more than a year. They were snug, but they zipped. I’d been so focused on the other reasons to exercise — the camaraderie, the daily diversion from work — that I had started to edge toward this goal without my realizing it. [Read the full article here.]

The 21 day challenge is real. You will see results, both emotional and physical, from changing your regular routine for a steady 21 days. The key: Don’t give up. You have to be consistent for 21 days.

Tips to staying motivated for those 21 days

It’s going to be a battle to get yourself out of bed or into the gym or both, especially for the first few weeks. Here are some suggestions that will hopefully help you stay motivated.

• Exercise with a buddy.
• Reward yourself each time you wake up/go to the gym/etc with a new shirt or something (a hot fudge sundae probably isn’t the most appropriate reward).
• Don’t keep track of your weight right away. Your weight will be a rollercoaster for the first few weeks because of varying factors like water weight that go up and down when you first start getting into the exercising routine.
• Measure you progress as far as miles ran, weight lifted, etc. Those are the types of things you will start seeing improvements with starting with day 2. If you run 5 miles one day/week, keep track and try to beat that distance/time next week. You will be surprised at what you are capable of.

These are just a few ideas. There are many other ideas here, here, and here.

Just remember, 21 days, that’s it. Don’t give up, don’t give in, just keep pushing every single day and you will be amazed with yourself.

Are you aware that last month (July 2012) was the hottest month on record for the United States?? It’s pretty shocking when you consider that records have been kept for over 100 years, which amounts to over 1,400 months!  To me it didn’t feel much hotter, but maybe that’s just because on average it was 3 degrees hotter than usual. Some cities have been suffering with the heat wave, as it is destroying their public roads. The sun can be a pretty scary enemy, especially if you are trying to stay in shape! Here are my tips for beating the heat, while continuing on with your fitness regimin.

Purchase some home fitness equipment from Nordictrack or another reputable brand. If you can work out inside your home, you will be far better off because you can avoid the hot weather, while still getting a great workout! Consider a treadmill or elliptical for a great way to keep up your cardio health. The perk of buying your own equipment will quickly be apparent come winter when it’s too cold to work out outside! Now you are set for both summer and winter!

If you don’t want to buy your own equipment because it’s expensive, or you don’t have the space, then consider joining a gym until the weather cools off. There are plenty of activities to do there, and you will feel good knowing that you can resume your outdoor exercises as soon as it cools off… Or when your gym contract expires, whichever one comes first!

If you don’t like the thought of using equipment at home, or in a gym, consider doing an alternate indoor workout, such as working on push-ups, stretching, or calisthenics. These are great ways to stay in shape during the time that you can’t be outdoors.

Most of all, just keep in mind that summer will soon be over, and you won’t have to worry about beating the heat for another 9 months or do. Remember that our goal is to have a shirts off summer! If you can temporarily change your workout so that you don’t go for the entire summer without a workout, then when you are ready to start it up again, you will be in a good position!

Do you want to become huge, ripped and super fit? Of course you do; honestly, who does not? It is probably one of the most desired things by everybody on earth, to want to look fit.

There are three things to remember when you start pushing yourself to a new workout routine. The first is the exertion part of the exercise. This is where you will actually be running trails, lifting weights, or swimming laps. The exertion part is the part most people have no trouble with. People know that more needs to be done to get fit, they just don’t want to do it. So the trouble doesn’t come from lack of knowledge but rather from lack of discipline. People who are consistent with their exercise may be confused as to why they are not seeing the results they desire.

This is because they are missing key points two and three. The second thing you need with a good workout routine is a good diet plan. Good diet means good nutrition, you are going to have get proteins in your meals so that your body can synthesize new muscles, but you are also going to need vitamins and minerals so that the synthesis process can actually happen. Interestingly enough, minerals help the body perform the necessary chemical reactions that convert protein into muscle mass, so they are essential for body builders. Then with every pound of muscle that is gained you will have to be consuming an extra fifty calories a day. If you are not getting fifty calories per pound of muscle in your body then the body will start to break down those muscles.

The third part of a professional training routine would be rest. The actual time when the body starts making new muscles is when you are sleeping. The workout only tears the muscles and pumps them full of blood. There really is no muscle building happening during the exercising process. Sleep is the only time the body can turn off and start working to rebuild, so if you are exercising every day and not getting good sleep you will stunt your progress. In addition, use sleep, nutrition and exercise to get your physical progress. Make a scheduled plan so that you know exactly what you are eating daily and when you are exercising. Then at night make sure you get a good eight hours.

Researchers reporting from Cell Metabolism in a March publication have found that exercise and maybe even caffeine produces an immediate and significant change in the molecule makeup of the DNA found in muscles. The DNA was found to be chemically altered and on the path to be genetically reprogrammed for muscle and strength.

That means that people who are inactive lose out on buffing their DNA in this way and consequently do not gain this muscle and strength. This brings a whole new light to the “use it or lose it” phrase. I wouldn’t skip your workout routine for Starbucks just yet, but this is an interesting find. Maybe we could see these findings being incorporated in some sort of fitness trend in the days to come.

It doesn’t matter if they are over-the-counter, FDA approved, or guaranteed to work, diet pills are dangerous and are not the answer to weight loss. Apidexin diet pills, which has “helped” many obese people shed pounds, already has so many negatives to it that I can’t even imagine what things will happen to a long term user. There are many ways a diet pill will cause one to lose weight. Some suppress appetite, some remove excess fat in organs like the intestines, and some even elevate your heart rate.

There are so many cases of how these diet pills have caused serious personal injury and even killed the users of them. More over once the users of these pills stop taking them, all the weight lost comes right back. The users are forced to continue taking a potentially fatal drug in order to just maintain their weight. It’s dangerous to lose weight this fast and in this manner.

There are two main ways for getting in shape; Diet and Exercise. Too often however, people think that you have to eat less in order to be fit. That’s not necessarily true. Yes, eating less and working out more will slim you down, but it may not be the healthiest way. Athletes in order to reach their peak physique, consume a ton of calories from healthy foods, and they look like they are in great shape. The key is the focus on their exercise.

They eat more to perform better. This is a vastly different approach to the eat less and do more mentality. You need your calories to be able to get more exercise in. Just focusing on your diet alone will not put you in great shape. You need to focus on exerting yourself. After doing so much exercise you can feel good about eating a nice dinner. More food leads to more energy, more energy leads to more exercise, more exercise leads to a healthier and stronger you.

So have a real diet of a lot of healthy fulfilling foods, and focus on getting in shape through exercise. What’s the best exercise to get started with? Run. Run outside, run on a treadmill, just get your heart racing and follow through until you feel that you have had a good workout. Need a treadmill to run on? You can find some really good ones on sale that have discount codes at http://www.treadmillreviews.com/