Tag exercise plan

If you are wondering how to make walking a habit, you probably understand the many health benefits the simple exercise can provide. From lowering cholesterol to improving your heart health, walking delivers a significant overall health boost while shedding unwanted pounds and fat. And if you have tried but failed in the past to add a dedicated walking routine to your life, you can successfully make walking a habit simply by following the tips and tricks listed below.

1 – Make a plan, and write it down. Then post your walking goals in a place where you will constantly see them on a daily basis. This helps to habitually remind yourself of this new activity which you are trying to implement, meaning that you will have a much better chance in sticking to your exercise plan.

2 – Start slow. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you are not going from the couch to the Boston Marathon in a week. Set realistic and sensible daily and weekly goals for yourself, and the positive feelings you get from reaching them will make your walking habit much easier to achieve.

3 – Envision the perfect end result. If you are adding walking to your life to help you lose weight, then visualize your new body minus the 10 or 20 pounds which will disappear after you have successfully created a walking habit in your life.

4 – Celebrate small victories. The human brain feeds off of positive reinforcements. If you walk for 30 minutes your first day, congratulate yourself out loud. Every small win that is celebrated and recognized creates the desire for more positive self encouragement, which not only makes walking a habit, but also something you look forward to and cannot wait to enjoy again.

5 – Be very specific, and consistent. Instead of a vague goal like, “I will walk 5 miles a week,” say, “I will wake up one hour earlier Monday through Friday and walk 1 mile each morning before work.” Habits are much easier to develop when your mind and body understand that a specific activity is going to take place on a consistent basis, at the same time each day.

These simple but easy to implement tips will help you make walking a habit in your life. And you will instantly begin to see the positive mental and physical benefits that a consistent walking plan can deliver, as conscious effort gives way to unconscious habit.

If you’d like to get more out of your walking for fitness plan, check out the “Guide to Setting Your Walking Fitness Goals” for more in depth knowledge on the subject of walking for fitness. While you’re there, be sure to sign up for the free MyFitnessNut.com Newsletter to be kept up to date on the latest health and fitness topics.

Introduction to The 15-Minute Fitness Guide

In our busy lives, it’s often a struggle to find time to get everything done. Inevitably, important things can sometimes drop off our to-do lists or get pushed off our schedules.

For many of us, finding time to exercise is something we know we should do, but it’s often the first thing to get dropped.

Part of the problem may be that we think we need to find an hour or two a day, five or six days a week, in order to exercise. Or perhaps that you have to join a fancy full-service gym in order to have access to the latest and greatest exercise equipment.

Fortunately, the reality is much more forgiving. In fact, it’s possible to significantly improve your health and fitness with 15-minute workout sessions.

That’s what we’re going to talk about in this 15-minute fitness guide.

To continue reading, use the page numbers below or the table of contents to the right. Enjoy!

With kids spending more time in front of the TV and playing video games with less time outside playing, it is no wonder childhood obesity and juvenile Type 2 diabetes is at an all-time high.

If you like to exercise, get your whole family involved. Not only will it create some good family quality time, but it will instill good fitness habits in your kids.

Make it Family Fitness Fun

For kids to enjoy physical activity, it has to be fun for them. Swimming, sports and outdoor games all make getting exercise more enjoyable. Activities, such a flag football or kickball, can spark the competitive spirit to see who the “best” is. In the end, you are all winners!

Develop Your Family Fitness Plan Around a Cause

Exercising for your own well-being is one thing, however, it is not necessarily a cause shared by your kids, so make your family fitness activities benefit something. There are always “k” or fun runs of various distances for the whole family that raise money to support various organizations.

Scour your neighborhood and solicit pledges of money that will go to your cause when you finish the event. Your kids will get a sense of satisfaction knowing their efforts are helping out somewhere.

Plan a Monthly Family Fitness Activity

Kids like to look forward to things and what better thing to look forward to than a monthly family outing. If the weather is nice, plan to go on some nature hikes together or swimming. Afterward, enjoy a healthy picnic lunch.

In the fall, go to an orchard and pick your own apples or other fruit. Not only will you get exercise, but fruits are good for you to eat. If you get winter weather in your area, ice-skating, skiing or snowboarding are all great ways to get exercise.

Join a Family Friendly Gym

Kids love adventurous activities that challenge them. Find a gym that offers a rock climbing wall, kickboxing or martial arts. Not only will they get a lot of exercise doing these activities, but they will develop self-confidence in themselves. A high self-esteem leads to a more enjoyable life for them and decreases the chances depression, bullying or other self-destruction tendencies.

Set the Example

Generally kids look up to their parents. By you exercising regularly and eating nutritiously, they will adopt a similar healthy lifestyle as they grow up. Not only will they live a healthier life, but they will be more inclined to pass it onto their kids. Your actions today can set the example for a healthy lifestyle for generations to come.

How To Turn Your TV Time Into Family Workout Time

Many of us get into a routine of watching our favorite TV shows while sitting on the couch. But what if we could watch TV and exercise at the same time? Not only would be avoid the temptation to eat snacks that pack calories we don’t need, but we could burn some calories in the process. Avoiding calories and burning calories too – a win/win situation! Here is how to do it.

During the TV show, focus on doing several toning exercises while holding 5 to 8 lb. dumbbells. Do 10 to 15 repetition of each exercise until an advertisement comes on. During the advertisement, drop the weights and switch it up by doing cardio exercises. Once the advertisement is over, grab your weights and switch back to toning.

Toning

Good static toning exercises – basically exercising in the same space – include:

• squats
• overhead presses
• lunges
• one-armed rows
• tricep extensions

All of these exercises work large muscle groups. As your muscles develop over time, they will require more calories to perform the same work. If you control the other variable – what you eat – you’ll lose weight.

Cardio

Some good cardio static exercises include:

• jumping jacks
• virtual jump roping (jumping rope, but without the rope)
• jogging in place
• push-ups
• crunches

Cardio during commercials is a good way to get your metabolism revved up. And the good thing is that it will stay up long after you are finished.

Taking It to the Next Level

If you have an elliptical trainer or treadmill, you can place either one in your TV room and exercise while watching your favorite shows. If on a treadmill, one idea is to walk during the show and run during the advertisements. If using an elliptical trainer, you exercise at a moderate steady pace during the show and increase your speed during commercials.

Alternating between static toning exercises and cardio during a 30-minute to one hour show, will get your heart pumping and develop muscles, all of which burn additional calories. Research has shown that even small bursts of exercise can burn an additional 500 calories per day.

Burn 500 more calories per day than you take in and in a week, you will have lost one pound. Losing a pound or two per week is a safe and practical weight loss. Diets that have you losing a lot of weight fast are not good as most of the weight you lose is water weight – most of which you will put back on once off the diet.

If you’re using an exercise machine you can rotate family members using it or switching back and forth between two or more devices. Another great activity is to combine dog walking with your family fitness plan.

Cellulite is the bumpy, dimpled, orange rind appearance of fats beneath the skin. Almost all women have cellulite and eradicating cellulite is a 12 million dollars per year industry. That’s how much women spend every year trying to get rid of cellulite.

In most cases, the methods are neither effective nor long lasting. They’re just a drain on finances, time and emotional well-being. Many women get depressed and disappointed when the cellulite creams, massages, detox cleanses, etc. do not work. Everything just seems like a waste of money and time. The women start hating their bodies and develop a negative self-image.

The reason for this is that they have been lied to. They were made to believe that cellulite is a special condition that needs special creams, massages or other dodgy products to treat. The truth is that cellulite is just fat; normal body fat.

Cellulite is Nothing More Than Bumpy Body Fat

The fat just appears clumpy and awful because of the structure of the underlying tissues in the body. These tissues are connected in a way where the body is able to store fat. Once the fat stores accumulate and start pushing up against the skin, cellulite appears.

Men have tissues that connect differently from women and their skin is also thicker. This is why they do not have cellulite that shows up so clearly.

Now that you know that cellulite is nothing more than fat, you will be able to deal with it like normal body fat. Cellulite is not water retention or trapped toxins or any other weird explanation. Let’s keep things simple. Fat is fat and fat can be burned off with a good diet and exercise.

Your diet will need to be clean and wholesome. Consume foods that are unprocessed. Avoid white flour products and white rice. All these foods have a high GI. That means, they cause spikes in blood sugar levels and increase insulin production will leads to fat gain.

Eat More Protein to Combat Cellulite

You will want to consume more protein. Any carbohydrates you eat should be slow digesting and complex. Examples would be oats or wholegrain bread. You may also get your carbs from vegetables. Your diet will also need to be low in salt. Too much sodium causes water retention and gives you the bloated feeling.

Drink lots of water daily. Consume collagen supplements and other supplements that will keep your skin supple, elastic and healthy. No need for cellulite treatments.

Exercise to Battle Cellulite

Exercise will be crucial to losing the fat. You will need to combine cardio sessions with resistance training. Many women neglect resistance training because they are afraid to get muscular.

This is very far from the truth. Resistance training will make you leaned and toned but it will not make you look like a he-man. That takes years of training, supplements, etc. Even men struggle to gain muscle. So, no worries there.

You will want to focus on compound movements for the lower body. Lunges, squats, leg presses, dead-lifts, calf raises, quadrupedal movements, etc. All these will increase the lean muscle mass in your body while your fats are burned off. It’s awesome. Cardio sessions should be about 20 to 30 minutes. The higher the intensity the better. Cycling, running, stair climbing, etc. are great cardio workouts.

Drop Body Fat and You’ll Drop the Cellulite

If you follow the advice above, you will burn your fat stores and be lean in no time. Once your body fat levels drop, so will your cellulite. You will have toned legs and buttocks that will be the envy of other women. Not to mention the extra attention from the guys. Life will be good.

You can learn more about the causes of cellulite from these Cellulite Helpful Tips articles and you can subscribe to the My Fitness Nut Newsletter found at the top right of our MyFitnessNut.com home page. When you do, you’ll get some very effective exercise and diet programs that will help you drop cellulite and body fat without getting taken to cleaners and being sold weird and in-effective remedies.