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The body you want is not going to happen overnight

There is no question that we all wish we could look like the models on the magazines, or the toned and ripped athletes that we see on TV and the movies. The problem is that a lot of people seem to want everything to happen fast and they expect to get huge rewards from very little efforts. This is something that we can see happening in all areas of life. Individuals looking to become wealthy by working a few months on a new idea, or people hoping to achieve the body that Brad Pit had in Troy, by going to a gym for a couple of months and eating energy bars every night.

The real world works quite different from what we see on TV and the movies. The only way to be able to reach your goals in life, is to work hard to obtain them. If achieving a perfect body was something easy to do, we would not be seeing so many overweight people out there. Let’s get through some important information that you need to consider before you start to work on changing your appearance.

Educate yourself on proper nutrition
You could hit the gym every single day for many hours and you would never be able to achieve the kind of body that you want if your diet is not good. Eating junk food with soft drinks is not going to provide your body with the required nutrition that you need in order to burn fat and build muscle.

Get plenty of sleep
We know that you are probably wondering when we are going to start to talk about the best muscle building and fat burning exercises, but proper dieting and getting enough rest are more important than the kind of exercise that you do. The ideal amount of time for sleep is at least 8 hours a day, but some people claim that they can get more than enough rest from 6 to 7 hours of sleep per day. Just make sure that you feel rested when you wake up and that should be good enough. The reason why this is so important is because muscles don’t grow when you hit the gym, they grow when you rest after your workouts.

Include cardio and weight training in your workouts
If you want to have a toned body, you need to be able to get plenty of cardio, but you also need to lift weights to promote muscle growth while you burn fat. We recommend that you look for a professional trainer that will give you the best kind of workout routine for your needs.

Know your genetic limitations
Anyone can achieve a fit and toned body, but you cannot expect to look exactly like any guy that has a toned and muscular body. There are certain parts of your body that are never going to get bigger than their genetic makeup allows. This is the case with your ankles and your wrists. Find out if you are an ectomorph, mesomorph or endomorph and this will give you a good idea of the kind of body you can achieve.

Conclusion
Being consistent and understanding that it takes years to build a good body is essential for success. The reason why so many men fail to transform their bodies, is because they quit after a couple of months. They expected to get huge results in just a few months, but they only see very small gains. What they fail to realize is that it takes years to build a great body and those little gains will eventually lead to the body they always wanted.

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Sitting disease

Tim Cook, the CEO at Apple, reportedly said yesterday at a conference that “a lot of doctors believe sitting is the new cancer.” And people still wonder why standing desks were innovated? Here is the reason why; Tim Cook, CEO at Apple, reportedly announced at a conference that several doctors believe sitting is like the new cancer. Not only is sitting the new disease, but is also related to the increased cancer risks.

Sitting disease is on the rise and is associated with myriads of health issues regardless of whether you workout or not. Another ensuing research revealed that the inactive lifestyle can distraught an individual’s mental health, breathing, and also increase risk of cancer. However, are these assumptions about sitting disease true or false?

Marc Hamilton, Ph.D. professor at the Inactivity Physiology Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, who has decades of experience in conducting researches of the effects of inactivity on the body, claims that he has conducted over 1,000 studies on the sitting disease since the year 2004. Mr. Hamilton compares the sitting cancer to smoking habits. He says that people used to smoke without knowing its health risks.

According to Marc’s research, sitting too much does not compare to very minimal exercise. He believes that every hour of the day is very significant to human physiology; therefore you can not only depend on the few hours you exercise. Marc’s most recent research indicates that the most inactive people have two times probability of contracting diseases such as diabetes, compared to the most active people throughout the day. The risk is even higher than people who consume a lot of sugar.

The bottom line is, Tim Cook and the rest are simply trying to make people realize the danger they put themselves in when they spend the better part of their day just seated- be it at home or in the office, and it is high time people start dealing with this issue. Exercise is great, but for some reasons such as enhances blood flow, builds muscle, slows aging and great health in general. Light activity on the other hand is different from exercise, but it too has its benefits, which exercising cannot cater for.

Same case scenario; you can’t miss working out simply because you are eating healthy, or indulge in unhealthy eating simply because you work out. The good thing is that the problem has been discovered, and the next thing after establishing the problem factor is finding a way to solve it or manage it. Just like before when people used to smoke and weren’t aware of the dangers they were exposing themselves to. Now that people know what smoking can do to one’s health, those who still do are fully aware of the health problems they may likely incur as a result of smoking.

With the same mind set, we now know what the sitting cancer can do to oneself. So what do you do about it in order to avoid incurring diabetes or mental issues? The answer is simple; Stay active

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Low Carb Diet May Be the Way to Go

In the recent past, the principle of low carb diet has been trending in the area of weight loss. However, there has been a lot of conflicting information on nutrition and weight loss making it difficult for the average person to understand how it works and how to apply it.

In respect to that, we shall clear the air on the same by looking at some of the facts backed by pure science on how the human body actually metabolizes food.

The low carb approach


This approach has fetched high popularity due to several reasons. People have finally realized that the low fat/high carb approach that has been promoted for years doesn’t work very well. In fact, it not only leaves us fatter but it has been blamed for several illnesses and health complications.

Most Americans for instance are known of eating too much carbs and are deficient in the healthy dietary fats. With the new low carb approach, many of them are now cutting carbs and avoiding them completely. This is disastrous health wise.

In the past, people have tried the low carb approach and noticed significant weight loss. Scientifically, dieting on low carbs will reduce weight but not body fat. To explain this further, it’s vital to know that the human body holds 2.4gms of water for every gram of carbohydrates consumed. Lowering carb intake thereby means holding less water in the body but the fat content remains relatively high. As much as we go low carbs, the component should not be avoided completely.

Extremely low carb diets have been blamed for several health complications. A low carb diet depletes the muscles of glycogen leaving one with sluggishness after an active workout. The brain uses carbs for energy and thus the brain will not function properly with low carb diet.
French and Canadian researchers have found that consuming carbohydrate does not inhibit fat burning for individuals not exercising.

However, another researcher called Jeff Volek, a professor of nutrition argues that a low carb diet enhances the body’s ability to burn fat for fuel instead of glycogen-a byproduct of carbohydrate stored in the liver and muscles. According to professor Volek:-

  1. One should not be afraid in eating food such as chicken skin, marbled meat, butter, cream and saturated fat. All these are used as fuel but they are not stored as fat in the body. They don’t accumulate in the blood vessels.
  2. Scheduling of sweat days – these are the days in which the workout should help in burning out fat. Lifting heavyweights for around an hour helps to burn out fat in the body.
  3. Fighting soreness with omega 3-s. Research shows that taking a gram of fish oil every day may improve heart health, ease inflammation and relieve delayed muscle soreness after an exercise. Glucosamine and chon-droitin relieve achy joints if taken daily.
  4. Mastering of a low carb meal improves the body fitness. This is a mixture of mushrooms, sausage, cream, cheddar and brown meat in relative quantities.

Carbs are fine if consumed in small to moderate amounts and on days you do exercise, carbs are stored in the muscles and not as fat.

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Walk Fit

Walking is a great addition to your current workout routine. It has a plethora of benefits and is a universal exercise. You can do it anywhere, and mostly anyone can do it, it’s free, it doesn’t require special equipment, and you can do it any time of day. By just adding 30 minutes of walking into your daily workout routine, you can change you! The benefits are countless.

It lowers blood pressure that can also be good for your cholesterol levels, and in turn reduces the risk of obesity. Walking is not only one of the best activities for your health and mental well-being, it can help you lose weight and keep it off. It will help your heart become more efficient and every day activities will become easier. You’ll sleep better, have more energy, and benefit from a little Vitamin D from getting outside.

Benefits of Walking:

  • It strengthens your heart. Regular walking reduces your risk of heart disease and stroke.
  • It lowers disease risk. It slashes your risks of type 2 diabetes, asthma and some cancers.
  • It keeps weight in check. It helps you lose weight and keep it off.
  • It can help prevent dementia.
  • It can help prevent osteoporosis. As a weight-bearing activity, it helps strengthen bones.
  • It tones. A good walk help shape and tone your legs, giving definition to calves, hamstrings and lifting your glutes.
  • It tones your arms. All the regular movement you experience in your arms while walking will help tone your arms, shoulders and even upper back.
  • It boosts your vitamin D levels. A little bit of sunshine outside each day will put you in a great mood and help your bone health and immunity.
  • It gives you energy. A brisk walk with help boost your circulation and increase oxygen supply to every cell in your body.
  • It makes you happy. Regular moderate-intensity exercise is a great antidepressant. It helps reduce stress and anxiety. It can also be done with friends while enjoying a nice chat.

Even though you are already in a regular workout routine at the gym several times a week, doesn’t mean walking isn’t for you. The key to overall fitness is cross training, or participating in various activities, and walking is the perfect complement to any training regimen. By adding walking to your routine, you end up training opposing muscle groups and end up balancing out your strength and reducing the chance of injury. Also, if you are used to high impact activities, your body could benefit from taking it down a notch once in awhile and walking. You’ll get all the benefits of exercise without the wear and tear and giving your muscles time to recoup.

Add a walk to your daily workout routine. You’ll be able to cash in on all the additional benefits it has. Speak with your trainer and see when the best time for you would be to work that walk into your schedule. Sometimes, to get you moving during the day, first thing in the morning may be best for you. Or, if you feel a little sluggish and tired by mid-day, head out for a walk on your lunch. Start walking towards a healthier you!

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Snacking, Choose Wisely

There is nothing worse than that hungry feeling in between meals. You don’t want to ruin all the hard work in your weight loss program by eating snacks throughout the day. You don’t have to have that feeling, there are lots of healthy snacks for weight loss that are delicious and still nutritious.

A good rule to follow when looking for healthy snack foods is to make sure you look for snacks that are high in protein and contain complex carbohydrates. Protein is critical because it is a primary component of every cell in the human body. The body uses protein to make and mend tissue as well as to reproduce bone, muscle, hair, nail, skin and blood cells. Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy and come in two forms, simple and complex. Complex carbohydrates are your better choice, such as whole grains. However, you can choose simple carbohydrates as long as you choose “good” simple carbohydrates, like the ones found in fresh fruits.

It is important to try to keep your snack foods within the range of approximately 100 to 150 calories and not to have them in an amount that would take you over your daily calories count. If you are allowed 1600 calories per day then it is reasonable to have three meals of about 400 calories each and two to three snacks of approximately 100-150 calories each. This should keep you within a calorie count to lose weight and remain on a healthy diet eating plan.

In addition to selecting snacks containing high protein and low carbohydrates, making sure to snack regularly in between meals is vital. It’s a great idea to get in tune with your internal hunger clock; don’t wait until your stomach starts talking to you. Practicing portion control will make snacking more effective for you. Instead of grabbing an entire bag of nuts from the kitchen cabinet, try measuring out the appropriate serving size ahead of time.

Here is a list of some good snack choices.

  • Apple slices
  • Whole grain bread sticks
  • Unsalted rice cakes
  • Baked tortilla chips
  • Nuts (1 ounce or less)
  • Whole grain cereal
  • Fresh fruit
  • Unsweetened canned fruit
  • Baked apple
  • Raisins
  • Frozen grapes
  • Celery
  • Dark chocolate
  • Air popped popcorn
  • Low-fat/fat free fruit yogurt

Eating healthy snack foods is just one part of a health maintenance strategy that should incorporate eating healthy and being active. Talk with your trainer and plan out your meal plan and workout routine.

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Calorie Cutter

Cutting your calorie intake daily will help you lose the extra weight you may be carrying around. In order to lose weight, you need to burn more calories in a day through your activities than you consumed that day. If you’ve tried to accomplish this, you know it can be difficult. Dramatic changes to your diet may seem unreasonable, undoable and unfathomable. Simple every day choices, that really don’t change the menu too much can seem almost effortless but can make a big enough difference. Cutting 50 calories a day can equal a ½ a pound a month. Or try 100 calories a day to lose a full pound each month. That may not seem like much, but when you add exercise to that, it can make a huge difference in weight loss.

Here are 10 simple ways to cut calories:

  1. Invest in some good quality cooking utensils to help reduce the amount of fat needed in cooking. Try heavy non-stick frying pans and heavy baking tray.
  2. Throw away any high fat items and replace them with healthier low calorie options.
  3. Use cooking oil spray instead of pouring oil in the pan when frying or browning foods.
  4. Skip the butter. Use low calorie peanut butter or jam on toast or a light mayonnaise on your sandwiches instead.
  5. Grill, steam, bake or poach. Eliminate the frying as much as possible.
  6. Add natural seasonings to your foods. Try herbs, spices, citrus juices, vinegar and low calories sauces like Worcester and Soy.
  7. Make sure you have plenty of variety in your diet so that you don’t become bored and give into unhealthy cravings.
  8. Don’t shop when you’re hungry. If you feel hungry when you shop, you are more likely to give into temptation and buy something that is high in fat and calories to satisfy your immediate cravings.
  9. Eat smaller portions of high-fat foods (meats, cheeses) and larger portions of vegetables, salad, fruit and very low-fat protein foods (yogurt, skim milk).
  10. Stop drinking soda and juice. Choose water instead. Water is a great to help you feel full longer and helps curb your cravings.

Remember that slow and steady is the way to lose weight and keep it off. Using these simple calorie cutting ideas does not require you to drastically change your lifestyle. With healthy substitutions and cutting out a few things from our diet, we can make some big changes on our waist line. Talk to your dietician or personal trainer, they can get you on the right track as well and offer some other helpful suggestions. Get cutting!

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Walking – A Fitness Booster

Walking is an incredible form of exercise which can be carried out by most people. It’s a low impact workout which carries a very low risk of injury. It is an activity that can easily be added to your current workout routine or a way to get started on the path to reach your workout goals.Walking regularly will keep you physically healthy. Fitness experts and physicians agree that even a short walk can do wonders for the human body. It can strengthen the cardiovascular system by exercising the heart, and it reduces blood pressure and increases circulation. It is reasonably aerobic (increases your oxygen intake and lung capacity) and of course is low impact – it’s easy on the feet, ankles and knees. Regular walking strengthens your muscular and skeletal systems and reduces the likelihood of arthritis and other bone and muscle disorders that come with aging. It helps lower the bad cholesterol and increase the good, and it decreases the risk of developing type II diabetes. Walking for fitness can also help you lose weight.

Walking is also good for your mental health. It is known to improve your mood and decrease stress levels. That effect alone is priceless in today’s world, and those benefits multiply because lower stress and better mood make your body healthier as well. The simple act of walking increases your energy and slows the aging process.

If you’ve added walking to your exercise routine for awhile, you may want to try adding a little weight to your walk. Try adding ankle weights and/or compact hand weights. The additional weight will create more resistance during your walk to burn more. Just make sure you start off very light, especially around the ankles.

You can also try to change up your routine by adding some exercises within your walk. After walking for 15 minutes you can stop and stretch for 5 minutes along the wall. Throw in some jumping jacks or push-ups to keep your blood moving. If you can carry a jump rope with you, you can stop in the middle of your walk for a jump rope session that is high-intensity and great for your heart.

Modify your route to keep things fresh. Adding hills to your walk will help you burn more calories than flat terrain. You can also try different surfaces, pavement, trails or the beach. Walking in sand will increase the amount of calories burned by 50%. That can help with faster weight loss, or help if you’ve hit a plateau.

With all the benefits of this easy exercise there is no reason to not get out and start walking today. Remember to also pay attention to your diet. Exercise helps, but only when it’s combined with a sensible diet will you see the results you want. Like all exercise routines, make sure you stay hydrated when walking. Carry a water bottle with you and fill up when needed. Talk to your trainer about the best walking routine for you.

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Getting the Most Out of Personal Training

Have you decided to hire a personal trainer to help you lose weight or build up your body? Personal training is a simple way to help you achieve your fitness goals that you can sometimes have trouble attaining on your own. You can reap many benefits from partnering with a fitness expert who can guide your efforts safely and effectively.One of the most important things to do is select the right trainer for the job. Make sure that you pick an experienced trainer with the necessary qualifications. An excellent trainer makes a huge difference to the quality of workout you will get. You need to have a clear discussion with your trainer about what your fitness goals are. This is the only way to ensure that you get the most appropriate training. Your decision should cover your long term and short term goals and also the steps you have to take to achieve them all. You should also communicate clearly that you are serious about the personal training sessions and will put in all the effort required to achieve the goals. You want to be taken seriously by your trainer.

Your entire mindset may need to change so that you do not sabotage your efforts. Your food habits should change in order to be in synch with your fitness training. You should also get adequate sleep. Both these things will ensure that your body responds best to all the training you are doing. This will ensure you have enough energy for the workout and proteins in order to provide your body with building blocks for muscle growth. Hydration and rest are exceedingly important because they help the muscles rest after the exercise. Try and do some warm ups prior to your session so you can focus most of your time with your personal trainer on your workout.

You need to consider the following to make sure you are getting the right trainer for you.

  1. Establish what you want a personal trainer for. Healthy weight loss, building muscle mass, becoming a faster runner will all require different expertise.
  2. Make sure your personal trainer has the right qualifications. You want to ensure you are doing the right exercises and that they are being done properly.
  3. You want to make sure you find a trainer that is available during the timeframe that is convenient for you to work out.
  4. It’s important that you get on well with your trainer, but you don’t want to spend more time chatting than exercising. If you are one that likes to chat, you might want to choose a trainer that doesn’t talk much.
  5. As well as giving you the exercise help and advice you need, your personal trainer will be able to talk to you about your lifestyle and diet, and recommend changes so that you can help yourself meet your targets.
  6. Keep an open dialogue with your trainer. Keep the line of communication open so they can help, adjust your work or motivate you further to stay successful with your sessions.

Personal training will give you the results you seek – just stay on track to get the most out of your fitness trainer.

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Healthy Choice or Bad Diet

A healthy diet is an integral part of any weight loss program. Generally, a balanced diet composed of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish and lean meat will give an individual the necessary energy to perform the daily activities and function at their most optimum level. More than this, well-planned meals protect against diseases. It also aids in tissue and muscle repair to enable an individual to rapidly recover from illnesses. However, society has put such importance on losing weight that people desperate to see a drop on the scale will go on “crash diets”.

The best thing is to look at dieting as part of an overall fitness plan to stay healthy physically, psychologically and emotionally, and choose foods from all sources and keep them in moderate proportions because that’s what’s good for our bodies. Meals for a healthy diet will be spread out evenly throughout the day. Drinking sufficient amounts of water will keep metabolism running helping to burn fat. A healthy diet would be coupled with exercise.

A diet that is seen as a mere means to losing weight as opposed to a lifestyle change, will result in unhealthy dieting practices that will wreck havoc on the dieter’s systems. Crash diets will literally starve the body of the most basic nutrients needed to function. Unhealthy diets are usually the ones that make outrageous claims. If it is too good to be true, then it is most likely not true at all. If any diet claims it is, then be prepared to do your due diligence and thoroughly investigate what the diet involves. Do not go on a diet that suggests you eat certain foods or certain quantities of foods that would result in you being malnourished.

Some of the biggest risk factors for unhealthy dieting are high cholesterol, kidney damage, lack of important nutrients, metabolism can slow, loss of energy, anxiety, acne, headache and depression. Unhealthy dieting practices may include crash diets, fasting, the use of laxatives or pills and self induced vomiting.

Some Dieting Tips to ensure you stay on a healthy track:

  1. Forget strict fad diets (Atkins, Zone, South Beach, Low Fat, Low Carb, etc).
  2. More fruits, veggies, lean meats and fish.
  3. Fewer simple carbs and less grease (white-flour breads, pastas, fried foods etc).
  4. Exercise – move your body more.
  5. Change your habits, change your life – make the healthy choices your new habit.

A responsible approach to dieting would be to help dieter’s understand the risks associated with unhealthy dieting and then provide them with the proper information needed to ensure proper dieting. Important to this game plan would be eating fresh fruits and vegetables, drinking plenty of water each day, and enjoying a balanced meal plan consisting of 40% carbohydrates, 40% protein, and 20% healthy fats.

There is no secret to dieting and losing weight. Unhealthy dieting can be avoided. If you eat three meals a day all of which provide you with all the nutrients that you need and add some exercise to your daily routine, you can lose the weight that you need to over time. Patience and a healthy lifestyle will shed those unwanted pounds.

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Tread Lightly

Treadmill exercise has been proven to be beneficial for all kinds of people, including at risk groups like older individuals and pregnant women. Some kinds of aerobic exercises do not suit pregnant women or older people, but walking is always recommended and a treadmill is ideally suited for this purpose. Cardio-vascular exercise derived from walking or running on a treadmill helps you to burn extra calories and will help you to lose weight rapidly if you exercise on a frequent and consistent basis. A treadmill adds consistency to your walking workout and you can set both the pace and duration of your session and increase this in order to achieve a progressive improvement over time. A treadmill can also help you to achieve your personal fitness goals.

If you like walking or have been advised to walk regularly, then the weather conditions outside can create problems. When the weather conditions are poor during periods of rain, wind, snow or unfavorable temperature it makes it unpleasant or impossible to walk outside. With a treadmill you don’t need to worry about the weather and you can continue with your regular exercise regime.

With the constant walking on a treadmill looking at the same wall and space, how do you overcome boredom and lack of motivation? Try using the treadmill trainer, an audio workout that you can download on your iPod or Mp3 player to listen on your headphones while you jog/walk on the treadmill. It is like having a mini trainer in your ears to motivate you and guide you every step of the way. Or, try choosing an upbeat music compilation of your favorite motivating songs. You can also pick a time and television show you just can’t miss and plan your treadmill workout during that time. You’ll be so engrossed in your program, you’ll forget all about the calorie burn and exercise you are doing at the same time.

With a consistent treadmill workout, you want to make sure you are preventing injury. Remember these key points when walking or running during your treadmill workout.

  • Avoid toe, heel and knee injuries by using good shoes. Replace old worn out shoes so they give you a good support and have proper shock absorption.
  • Don’t overdo it. Use the treadmill every other day, not every day. Don’t go too fast and take it slow.
  • Warm up. Make sure you stretch and warm up your muscles before getting into your exercise routine.

A treadmill can be an excellent addition to any workout. Use some of these suggestions to keep yourself motivated and injury free. Enjoy walking all year long during any temperature or weather conditions that are outside by doing your walking/running routine on a treadmill.

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