Healthy Weight Loss Tips

No, I’m not promoting the latest, greatest herbal wonder remedy. Actually, what I am promoting is completely natural and costs very little.

So what is this incredible mood booster and stress reliever?

Believe it or not, it’s exercise! I can be having the worst day, feeling totally stressed out or down in the dumps, and after I exercise my whole outlook is brighter.

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One of my clients is beginning to train for a 5K. Two months ago she never thought she could do something like this.

Several times a week she goes jogging/walking with a friend for 2.5 miles. Now, she is significantly overweight; her friend is normal weight. “I can’t believe I can run faster and farther than she can,” my client told me. She assumed that because her friend was smaller that she wouldn’t be able to keep up with her. But the opposite was true!

That’s because she is faithful to weight train, jog the track, get on the treadmill and the bike, and push herself a little more each week.

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You should know by now that your body likes to sit in a soft chair, recline on the sofa, and lounge by the pool. It will remind you of how good those things feel. And it will give you lots of reasons why you should take a break.

On the other hand, your body is not very willing to sweat, pant, burn with muscle fatigue, and put out great amounts of energy. It will remind you of how uncomfortable those things are. And it will give you millions of reason why you can’t exercise.

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Studies show that people who exercise consistently are much more successful long term with weight loss than those who don’t exercise.

If you haven’t noticed, a lot of people go on a diet, lose a little weight, then go right back to their old habits. They sit on the couch, eat Doritos and ice cream, and feel lousy. They gain all of their weight back (or more).

When someone is exercising consistently, even if they struggle with their food, they’re keeping their weight and health in focus. They may have a period of weight loss then a plateau, but if they keep exercising they can hang on to their weight loss. Usually they can return to a weight loss phase because they are exercising.

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It’s never any fun to see your kids acting like you – when they’re acting like your bad side. You can tell them not to pout, slam the door, or hold a grudge, but if you do it….

Talk is cheap. Our children are influenced more by what we do than by what we say.

This is true for all of our behaviors, including eating and exercise habits. How we eat – skip breakfast, drive-thru for a quick dinner, eat ice cream out of the box, etc. – will influence how they eat. The kinds of foods we serve them will shape their taste buds for the rest of their lives.

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Whether you never exercised regularly or have been off for awhile, it’s important to ease into exercise. Your body needs time to adjust – and so does your mind!

If you’ve been inactive, going for a one mile walk may feel tough. Your feet may ache or your legs may get shaky. You may have negative thoughts about hard how it is and how far it is.

When I first started, I went on a one-mile walking route that took me over a big hill. I thought I’d never make it. My legs were so tired and I got out of breath.

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Exercise is great. It surely does help you burn calories. It improves your fitness and health. It boosts your metabolism. It shapes your body.

But as great as exercise is – it doesn’t beat your food.

You can have a great exercise session and wash it down the drain with one bad food choice.

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It’s not uncommon for new clients of mine to feel nauseous or light headed during their first workout. (I hate when it happens.) Sometimes it’s because they were trying to push themselves too hard, but often it’s because they didn’t prepare properly.

There are three essential things that help get anyone successfully through a workout, especially a newbie: [More]

Weight loss is a pretty simple principle. You have to burn more calories than you take in. In response, your body taps into its fat stores for fuel.

Two ways we accomplish this: 1) Eat a healthy diet within our calorie range, and 2) Add daily exercise.

Now, weight loss can happen with diet alone, but it is much more efficient to add exercise. Not only are you using up more calories by adding exercise to your day, but you are adding cardio and muscular fitness.

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Sometimes it’s easier to work with new clients than with ones I’ve had for a long time. Why?

Enthusiasm.

When people first start working with me, they are anxious to see results. They want to lose weight, get stronger, develop some muscle, increase their endurance, etc. They are so eager to exercise. They try hard and the push themselves. They follow everything I say. They are enthusiastic and motivated.

As time passes and clients experience results, they become comfortable. They lose weight, become fitter, and increase their strength. With this comfort level, I often see mediocrity creep in. They don’t push themselves as hard as when they first began. The intensity of their workout drops. I have to prod them along and try to be their motivation – because their internal motivation isn’t high anymore.

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Don’t get stuck in a rut! With exercise that is easy to do. Same walk, same class, same DVD, etc.

Your body adapts to exercise. Before you know it, you’re exercising at a lower intensity – even though you’re doing the same thing you did three months ago and it was hard back then. Your body has just gotten used to it.

So now it’s time to throw the challenge back into exercise. Try these 7 ways to ramp it up: [More]

Having a strong core can help ward off back problems and improve your strength overall. Start slowly until you become stronger. Add time and reps as you can.

Lie on your stomach on a mat. Place your elbows directly beneath your shoulders and turn your toes under. Press up with your elbows and your toes so your body hovers a few inches off the floor. Contract your lower abs to hold your body in a straight line, like a board, and make sure your butt is not sticking up or dropping down.

Hold: Hold the hover for 10-60 seconds. Remember to keep good form with abs pulled in and back straight.

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Someone said, “Exercise is my Prozac.” (That’s an antidepressant in case you didn’t know.)

I totally agree. I’ve often said that I exercise more for my state of mind than for my fitness. Of course I want to be fit, but exercise totally affects my noggin. When I have a good exercise session I feel good, have a more positive attitude, and am in better control of my food.

Exercise is also my stress relief. It mellows my emotions. If I didn’t exercise, I’d be pretty high strung.

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I had a conversation with someone at the gym about the health club business and personal training. He made an interesting comment: “I’m surprised more people don’t use trainers.”

“Well, it costs money,” I responded.

“Yeah, but so do doctors and medicine,” he said.

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One of the members at the gym where I work said to me, “I don’t know what to do. My fitness level isn’t increasing.”

I noticed that he took long breaks between exercises and spent a lot of time socializing with friends. “Try keeping your heart rate up,” I told him. “Work a little faster, with a little less talking,” I smiled.

It’s easy to get into an exercising rut. We get too “casual” with our workouts. We’ve lose focus and intensity.

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I was watching an info-mercial on an exercise system this morning while pedaling away on the elliptical. I should say I was sort of watching it while listening to music on my Ipod. Then something caught my attention

A young man was giving his “testimony” about how great the exercise DVDs are, how he’d lost weight, got fit, and loved doing them. He is a delivery driver and drives a large box van. During his lunch break, he gets in the back and exercises to his portable DVD player.

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Exercise is an awesome, positive way to burn off emotions.

Some of my best workouts have been when I was running high on emotions – bad or good. There is restless energy when your emotions are up. This energy needs to be spent – in a healthy way.

When we don’t have a good way to vent, we often end up trying to relieve our emotions through other means. This could result in overeating, treating others unkindly, or restless sleep.

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Not everyone can run or kickbox or jump rope. Many people suffer from knee pain, low back issues, or weak bladder problems. They cannot tolerate high impact exercises.

If this is the case for you, be assured that you can still work out hard and get fit. The key is finding low impact exercises that get your heart rate up and burn calories.

Here are 5 low impact options to get you going:

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You only have a certain amount of time to exercise, right? Don’t you want to burn as many calories as you can? Don’t you want to strengthen your heart and lungs, and get more fit?

Then you’re going to have to make your exercise count!

I see people sitting on bikes reading magazines and strolling on treadmills like they’re taking a walk in the park. There’s no sweat on their brow, no heavy breathing. They’re not red in the face from exertion. In fact, they look pretty comfy.

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Today was definitely an I-don’t-feel-like-exercising day. I was tired and had a headache, and dreary rain was falling outside. When my timer went off for me to get up off the couch and get ready for the gym, I groaned.

I turned the timer off, but seriously considered resetting it and crashing back on the couch. However, if I did that I wouldn’t have been able to get in my full workout. I knew I’d be disappointed with myself and my calorie burn. So I dragged on my exercise clothes and herded my kids out the door.

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Everyone has a particular trouble spot they hate – wide hips, a shelf butt, a flabby belly. And they ask me, “What exercises can I do to get rid of this?”

Well, let me tell you the bad news first.

There is no such thing as spot training. You can do 500 abdominal crunches everyday and still have a flabby belly. Why? Because there’s still fat on top of those muscles.

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Tonight I had a little scare. One of my clients started feeling badly toward the end of her workout. She felt weak and light headed. She sat down and dropped her head. She began to sweat and turned pale.

I started asking her questions to rule out a cardiac event. She told me she hadn’t eaten anything since lunchtime, which was six hours past. And then she’d only eaten a salad with chicken.

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As I sit here typing, my back, shoulders, and arms are hurting! If I move my legs around, they’ll groan in protest. I haven’t had a workout that killed me like this in a long time. (I just want to go to bed!!)

I totally switched up my workout and did a bunch of new moves that use a lot of ballistic and full body movements. I rested as little as possible to keep the heart pounding. Yowzer. I’m feeling it.

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Last night after a full day of homeschooling and several hours of personal training, I finally got time to exercise. Getting on the treadmill at 8:00 p.m. was not what I wanted to do either. I wanted to go home for dinner!

My energy was in the basement and I felt a little nauseous. I started at a jog to warm up then took the speed up to run. Over the next 45 minutes I stopped a few times to get a sip of water and let my stomach calm down. It was not my best workout for sure, but I got it done and hit my calorie goal.

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One of my clients started personal training with me about four months ago. Her first several weeks were miserable. High heart rate, puffing and hard breathing, very sore muscles – she had all the beginner’s woes. After a workout she was totally “dead” for the night and couldn’t even cook dinner. (She literally had to make crock pot dinners.)

You should see her now. It’s not that she doesn’t work as hard, but she’s had great improvements in her fitness. Her recovery time is so much faster. She can lift heavier weights, do squat jumps, inclines on the treadmill, and difficult ab sets. She can now do 20 reps on the abdominal bicycle exercise, which was impossible for her at the beginning.

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