7. Forget the gym. The gym can be horribly convenient, but it can also be intimidating for beginners, and confusing if you don’t know how to use the equipment. Sure, you can get a trainer to teach you, but if the cost or the confusion stops you from exercising … well, skip the gym and do it at home or at the park or somewhere less intimidating. You can do pushups and crunches and dumb bell exercises at home very easily, workout to a DVD, or go walking or jogging in your neighborhood. Cheap and simple is my motto.
8. Reward yourself. Self-explanatory, but rewards are best if they are frequent in the beginning. Be self-indulgent! Even sweets are good rewards — remember, get into the habit of exercise, and you can worry about weight loss later.
9. Do a 30-day Challenge. Challenge yourself, and see if you can rise to the occasion. Do it with a group or your significant other. Put in rewards. Tell everyone you’re doing it. Motivate the hell out of yourself.
10. Join an online group. One of the best motivators is having to report successes and failures to a group of people. Check out some online groups (there are groups for every type of exercise), introduce yourself, see which ones you’re comfortable with. Once you’ve gotten established (after a couple of days) see if you can post your results every day — you won’t go wrong once you start doing that.
11. Post your results on your blog. There’s nothing more motivating than positive public pressure (short of a gun to your head). Step it up by making a promise to your blog readers that you will commit to this goal for a month, and post your results every day. Even if your mom is your only blog reader, it’ll really help.
12. Do a journal. If you don’t post your results on your blog, write it in a journal, either online or on paper. However you set it up, make it a habit to post to your journal or log right away, as soon as you’re done with your log. It will motivate you to see your progress over time, and it’s a good way to see what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong.
13. Make it fun! Exercise doesn’t have to be a chore. I love doing a morning run, with the sun coming up, the world so quiet, my mind left to its own devices. Enjoy yourself and you will actually look forward to your workouts.
14. Fuel up. If your workout is more than 30 minutes, you really should have some energy in you. You shouldn’t work out on an empty stomach — but you also shouldn’t eat right before you work out. Eat a banana or some peanut butter toast or a ClifBar an hour or two before your workout, and you’re good to go.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Exercise Tips
1. Start slow. The biggest mistake that people make when starting an exercise plan is starting too fast or too hard. Trust me, I’ve done it many times. I’ve learned to take it easy, start as small as possible, and worry about endurance or intensity later. The key in the beginning is to make it enjoyable and accomplishable. That’s probably not a word, but it should be. And it is now. Zen Habits are ones that are accomplishable.
2. Increase but gradually. After getting used to a certain level of exercise, you’ll want to increase it. Don’t just run two miles or walk 20 minutes three times a week for a year. Your body adjusts to the stress you’re giving it, so you need to increase the level once you’ve adjusted. But do it gradually, and only every two weeks or so.
3. Crank it up. Once you’ve gotten used to exercise, you’ll want to do some higher intensity ones for better fitness and fat-burning. For example, instead of running slowly and steadily, for a long time, try doing shorter bursts of fast running, with periods of rest in between. You can do this for any exercise. Higher intensity increases the calorie burn, and improves performance. But you can’t do it as long, and you shouldn’t do it every workout. Mix it in with endurance workouts.
4. Schedule workouts. Make appointments with yourself to workout, at a specific time and place, just as you would with any other appointment. And make it the most important appointment on your calendar — more important than a doctor’s visit or even the manicurist.
5. Make it a habit. If you can do exercise at the same time, every single day for a month, you are more likely to make it a habit. Consistency makes habits more ingrained. Once it’s a habit (and start easy in the beginning!), then you can step up the intensity a bit.
6. Forget about weight loss. Yeah, many of us would like to lose some weight. But if you’re motivated solely by weight loss, exercise will be a tough proposition. The reason is that you might not lose weight right away. Oh, it’ll come, if you can keep it up over time, but in the beginning you might be disappointed (especially if you haven’t changed your eating habits). Just get into the habit of exercise, and worry about the weight later. First things first.
To be Continued.....
(If you cant wait to get your hands on all the 42 tips, then send me an email: 30dayslim@gmail.com and I'll forward you the tips and link to a ton of health resources and much more)
2. Increase but gradually. After getting used to a certain level of exercise, you’ll want to increase it. Don’t just run two miles or walk 20 minutes three times a week for a year. Your body adjusts to the stress you’re giving it, so you need to increase the level once you’ve adjusted. But do it gradually, and only every two weeks or so.
3. Crank it up. Once you’ve gotten used to exercise, you’ll want to do some higher intensity ones for better fitness and fat-burning. For example, instead of running slowly and steadily, for a long time, try doing shorter bursts of fast running, with periods of rest in between. You can do this for any exercise. Higher intensity increases the calorie burn, and improves performance. But you can’t do it as long, and you shouldn’t do it every workout. Mix it in with endurance workouts.
4. Schedule workouts. Make appointments with yourself to workout, at a specific time and place, just as you would with any other appointment. And make it the most important appointment on your calendar — more important than a doctor’s visit or even the manicurist.
5. Make it a habit. If you can do exercise at the same time, every single day for a month, you are more likely to make it a habit. Consistency makes habits more ingrained. Once it’s a habit (and start easy in the beginning!), then you can step up the intensity a bit.
6. Forget about weight loss. Yeah, many of us would like to lose some weight. But if you’re motivated solely by weight loss, exercise will be a tough proposition. The reason is that you might not lose weight right away. Oh, it’ll come, if you can keep it up over time, but in the beginning you might be disappointed (especially if you haven’t changed your eating habits). Just get into the habit of exercise, and worry about the weight later. First things first.
To be Continued.....
(If you cant wait to get your hands on all the 42 tips, then send me an email: 30dayslim@gmail.com and I'll forward you the tips and link to a ton of health resources and much more)
Sunday, October 18, 2009
My First Blog
This is the first input into my weight loss journal, as you may already know I am on a 30 day journey to get fit, get lean, get healthy and get sexy while at it. I would have loved to put down a day to day account on how I am faring but I guess that will be boring to you and beside you don’t need all that information so I am going to keep it straight, simple and to the point as much as I can.
From the first day that I started only one thing was certain and that is I was ready to make a change especially when I discovered that obesity is the leading cause of over 100,000 deaths per year in the USA with all the health care that is available to them I couldn’t even imagine what the death toll is in Nigeria, also I wanted to avoid other health problems that comes with being obese and that includes cardio problems, heart issues and not to forget diabetes which is highly preventable.
I realized that if I wanted to start eating right that at first my body is going to react to the changes, by reacting I mean that I was going to get hungry more often and I had to do something, after searching online for safe ways to reduce appetite I found out that a herb by the name glucommanon has the ability to increase over 50 times its size in water, so I searched if there was any apetite reducer in the market that has that herb and luckily I found one.
But I decided to buy their whole weight loss package (although what shocked me was that the package was not meant to make you lose weight in a flash but to help you make a transition to eating right and exercising so you can maintain your weight for as long as you live) but please note that it is not a must that you must buy or use any products to lose weight it is only a matter of personal preference and also something to aid you.
The first day I started with a breakfast consisting of the appetite reducer, thermogenic enhancer and a cup of protein shake(vanilla flavor) at 9am and then exercised a little (30 pushups, 30 sit-ups) and I took my shower. Sometime around noon I took apples, I didn’t take anything in the afternoon (because I couldn’t find wheat bread because it was sold out in my area) I mostly ate fruits though and at night I ate the same thing I had for breakfast.
Other days I would take vegetables in the afternoon or I would take wheat bread only because that is the only low carb foods I could find around, I also ate a lot of carrots.
On the fourth day I had a problem, the problem wasn’t that I was hungry, but that I just wanted to chew on something, the craving was terrible, I couldn’t resist it so in the end I ate a whole loaf of wheat bread in one night and I was feeling terrible, but I decided that it wont happen again.
Anyway the cravings reduced after some days, it still comes once in a while but now I have the ability to control myself. The most difficult thing for me was to sacrifice all the junk food I was used to and resisting all fried foods and all forms of soft drinks and alcohol.
By the end of the first week I lost 2.5 - 3Kg and though I was happy I knew that I could do more.
So that is a brief rundown of the story so far, tomorrow I will weigh myself again and find out if I have been making progress. Below is what my daily routine in relation to keeping fit like
Morning: Thermogenic enhancer, appetite reducer and 1 cup protein shake
Mid morning: apples, carrots or garden eggs
Afternoon: Vegetables (cooked with condiments) or wheat bread or oat meal
Evening: any fruit I can find but I don’t normally eat in the evening.
Night: Same as breakfast
Exercise routine
30 pushups and 30 Sit-ups everyday
Rope skipping (200-400 skips) every other day
Taking a Walk (depends on my program for the day).
So this is what my life is like, it is fun but sometimes I am tempted to slack but by God’s grace I will form a healthy lifestyle in the long run, if you have any comments or questions you can email me on 30dayslim@gmail.com and if you want to contact me just let me know in your email.
Thanks for your patience in reading my blog, I’ll be updating the blog on a daily or at worst every other day with helpful hints on living healthy.
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From the first day that I started only one thing was certain and that is I was ready to make a change especially when I discovered that obesity is the leading cause of over 100,000 deaths per year in the USA with all the health care that is available to them I couldn’t even imagine what the death toll is in Nigeria, also I wanted to avoid other health problems that comes with being obese and that includes cardio problems, heart issues and not to forget diabetes which is highly preventable.
I realized that if I wanted to start eating right that at first my body is going to react to the changes, by reacting I mean that I was going to get hungry more often and I had to do something, after searching online for safe ways to reduce appetite I found out that a herb by the name glucommanon has the ability to increase over 50 times its size in water, so I searched if there was any apetite reducer in the market that has that herb and luckily I found one.
But I decided to buy their whole weight loss package (although what shocked me was that the package was not meant to make you lose weight in a flash but to help you make a transition to eating right and exercising so you can maintain your weight for as long as you live) but please note that it is not a must that you must buy or use any products to lose weight it is only a matter of personal preference and also something to aid you.
The first day I started with a breakfast consisting of the appetite reducer, thermogenic enhancer and a cup of protein shake(vanilla flavor) at 9am and then exercised a little (30 pushups, 30 sit-ups) and I took my shower. Sometime around noon I took apples, I didn’t take anything in the afternoon (because I couldn’t find wheat bread because it was sold out in my area) I mostly ate fruits though and at night I ate the same thing I had for breakfast.
Other days I would take vegetables in the afternoon or I would take wheat bread only because that is the only low carb foods I could find around, I also ate a lot of carrots.
On the fourth day I had a problem, the problem wasn’t that I was hungry, but that I just wanted to chew on something, the craving was terrible, I couldn’t resist it so in the end I ate a whole loaf of wheat bread in one night and I was feeling terrible, but I decided that it wont happen again.
Anyway the cravings reduced after some days, it still comes once in a while but now I have the ability to control myself. The most difficult thing for me was to sacrifice all the junk food I was used to and resisting all fried foods and all forms of soft drinks and alcohol.
By the end of the first week I lost 2.5 - 3Kg and though I was happy I knew that I could do more.
So that is a brief rundown of the story so far, tomorrow I will weigh myself again and find out if I have been making progress. Below is what my daily routine in relation to keeping fit like
Morning: Thermogenic enhancer, appetite reducer and 1 cup protein shake
Mid morning: apples, carrots or garden eggs
Afternoon: Vegetables (cooked with condiments) or wheat bread or oat meal
Evening: any fruit I can find but I don’t normally eat in the evening.
Night: Same as breakfast
Exercise routine
30 pushups and 30 Sit-ups everyday
Rope skipping (200-400 skips) every other day
Taking a Walk (depends on my program for the day).
So this is what my life is like, it is fun but sometimes I am tempted to slack but by God’s grace I will form a healthy lifestyle in the long run, if you have any comments or questions you can email me on 30dayslim@gmail.com and if you want to contact me just let me know in your email.
Thanks for your patience in reading my blog, I’ll be updating the blog on a daily or at worst every other day with helpful hints on living healthy.
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