Archive for the ‘Goal Achievment’ Category

20 fat loss tips (part 3)

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Article continued 20 fat loss tips

15.  Keep track….of what you eat; what you drink; quantity and exercise.  If you got to write it down, you are more apt to stay on track.

16.  Be prepared for a rough ride.  Stresses piling up?  The comfort of French fries calling to you?  Stressful moments can easily trigger a return to bad habits, especially within the first 6 to 12 months of successful weight loss.  You need strategy!  Take a walk, work in the garden, call a friend.  ANYTHING which does not involve eating.  Remember!  You are trying to break bad habits.

17.  Stay positive.  After weeks of progress your weight has slowly crept up one or two pounds.  Don’t worry; simply make a few small adjustments.  Skip dessert, pass on that second glass of wine, and walk a couple of extra blocks. 

18.  Stay consistent.  Weekends are for relaxing, but it does not bean you can let yourself go.  Remain good eating habits every day of the week. 

19.  Realize your goals now.  Sometimes people will say that as soon as they lose weight, they will start doing this or that.  Do the things you want to do now.

And finally…

20.  It is going to get easier.  The longer you keep the weight off, the longer it will stay off and the easier it will be.  You will have replaced life’s bad habits with new and healthy good habits. 

Ok, that was 20 fat loss tips taken from a pamphlet I had saved.  Now I am sure you out there have your fat loss and exercise tips that keeps you on track.  E-mail me your ideas at simpleefit@yahoo.com or you can check out my website and post your ideas there.  I shall gather them all together and do this again!

Laurie Jones

Offering in home personal fitness training

Lauriesimplyfit.com

 

Posted in Diet and Nutrition, Exercise and Training, General Health and Fitness, Goal Achievment | No Comments »

20 fat loss tips (part 2)

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

Article continued from last week…..20 TRIED AND TESTED RULES FOR PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS.

6.  Whenever possible, always limit bad carbs, those with a high glycemic index, when consuming foods with a high fat or protein content in the same meal.

7.  Use olive oil in place of butter, margarine and vegetable oils.  Olive oil is the staple of the Mediterranean diet where none of the inhabitants of Crete suffer from obesity or diabetes.  They do not suffer from cardiovascular problems, hypertension or high cholesterol.  They are also the healthiest people in the world.  They consume more than 20 times as much olive oil as other western Europeans.

8.  Avoid these foods:

·         Foods with white sugar such as cakes, pies and doughnuts.

·         Soda….one can has 10 teaspoons of sugar! 

·         Fried foods.  (Unless we are frying in olive oil????)

·         White breads.

·         Beer.  It contains maltose.

·         Over-processed foods.  The longer the list of ingredients or ones you cannot pronounce don’t touch!

9.  Check out the labels.  Every year portions seem to get bigger.  20 years ago, a bottle of soda pop was 8 oz.  Now there are 20 oz bottles.  This is why people are getting fatter. 

10. Eat small portions often throughout the day.  This will keep you from starving and over indulging.

11.  Eat with your wrong hand or chop-sticks.  (Well, that would surly slow you down)

12.  Treat yourself every now and again.  (Remember!  Now and again)

13.  Brush your teeth after you eat.  (After you eat your reasonable portion)

14.  Put a “Before” picture of yourself on the fridge.  Seeing yourself before you changed your ways will remind you of never wanting to be in that place again!  It’s like remembering a bad relationship that makes you think “Run for your life!”

 

Article to be continued

Laurie Jones offering in home personal training

Lauriesimplyfit.com

Posted in Diet and Nutrition, General Health and Fitness, Goal Achievment | No Comments »

MAKING IT WORK (PART ONE)

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

So, (you ask) how do I make this work, getting back into shape and eating healthier than I have been doing?  I am so busy, how do I find the time?  Time and time again I have started, done well for a short amount of time, and before you know it, I’m sucked back into the same old habits saying “What happened THIS time???” 

This last year I think I can relate more than anytime else in my life.  I have found myself missing workouts like I have never done before.  Always something.  I make plans to do my work out and then the phone rings and I have to run to the office.  Or, personal stuff.  Unexpected stuff always popping in that I have to deal with immediately, like hitting a coyote with my car and dealing with insurance and car repairs.  So the answer for me that I came up with is a “make it work” plan no matter what.  (There are two issues at hand here.  Exercise and eating.  This article will deal with exercise and will continue through the next weeks and talk about food. )

As for exercise, now I think out my day a day ahead and take one day at a time.  Instead of thinking like I used to “I will work out Monday thru Friday”, I now think “I will work out no less than 4 times this week”.  My days and times of day for my workout are no longer set in stone.  I do it when I can.  There also is now no time limit and this is what I mean.  In our mindsets, if our workouts usually are 1 hour and we do not have an hour that day, we will simply give in and not do it on the grounds of “there’s not enough time”.  Change the way you think and take that ½ hour and do your workout.  Make it simple.  If you usually go to the gym and run the treadmill, forget the travel time to the gym.  Throw your shoes on and do it in your neighborhood.  I have been going to the gym in my street clothes for the last couple of months doing my weight training.  Because it is only weight training and not cardio, I do not work up a hard sweat and since I am not getting all sweaty, I can return to work when I am finished.  If I would have to change into my gym clothes, I would never do it.  It was taking too much time.  So at this time, this is what is working for me. 

Article to be continued

Laurie Jones

Lauriesimplyfit.com

Posted in Exercise and Training, General Health and Fitness, Goal Achievment | No Comments »

Better choices=sticking habits

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

The better choices we make, the stronger we get.  This applies to all areas of life.  But since this is a fitness column, of course I will be writing about the choices we make in health.  Let’s take for example it is Monday morning, and the day before you had put it in your schedule to work out on Monday.  But, unexpected things have happened.  Maybe you ran out of gas, or was caught on the phone too long, or whatever.  Maybe you are feeling depressed over an uncontrollable issue.  Something always seems to happen.  Now the thought and temptation comes in to skip your workout.   This is where you have a choice.  You can choose:

#1.  Skip the gym.  Later you might feel funky about that, with all these “failure” thoughts plaguing you.  Or:

#2.  You can go.  You really don’t want to, but you choose to go anyway.  Later on you WILL feel good about yourself for two reasons.  First that you worked off calories and worked your body.  But second (and this is what really counts), that you followed through with your commitment by an act of your will. 

It is so tempting, at least for the moment, to take the easy way out and skip your workout.     It is so tempting, at least for the moment, to slide off a great nutritional program that you have been doing so well at and down the ½ pound cheese burger and fries.  The problem is not doing it here and there.  The problem you have to watch is that it does not happen over and over.  It is so easy to be going strong, and the slightest bump in the road can send us going the other direction! If we do not watch it, the slightest bump turns into another bump, then another.   Pretty soon you’re on a rocky road saying “What the heck happened?  I was doing so well! I’m all beat up again!”

The longer we make good choices and stay on track, the more the habit takes hold of our hearts.  We can become so strong in a good habit that in time, it will be difficult to slide backwards.  However, when you do slide back,(and you will) get back up right away and choose the best choices again.  In this way, you can guarantee yourself results, not only in how you look and feel, but how you see yourself in finishing what you determined you would accomplish. 

Laurie Jones offering in home personal training

Lauriesimplyfit.com

Tags: ,
Posted in Goal Achievment | No Comments »

How do we burn the most calories and avoid boredom?

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

HOW DO WE BURN THE MOST CALORIES AND AVOID BOREDOM DURING CARDIO WORKOUTS?

It’s time for our cardio workout, and here comes the mental fight.  One side of our brain is saying “Oh no.. not again.  I’m so bored with this!”  while the other side is saying “yes, but remember all those fries you ate?  Better get on with it…quit thinking.   Just do it”.  I have been doing this along time and this fight in the brain still comes to me.  My clients have said to me that I just “love” to exercise.  Truth be told?  I can think of LOTS of things I would rather be doing.  It’s not the exercise I love, but the results.  I feel good and my jeans fit.

So how do we combat this boredom thing and burn more calories during cardio?  This is done with interval training.  You can use steady paced cardio with interval change-ups.    What you are looking to accomplish is varying your heart rate throughout your workout which will burn more calories.  Remember the main objective of cardio workouts are calorie burn and strengthening your heart.  (And other stuff). 

Ok, so how do you do this workout?  First of all, you do not have to do it every day, but you certainly could if you want to.  If you don’t, then try to do it every other workout.  Let’s say your cardio is out door running.  Go your regular route and run at your regular pace.  Pick a starting place and then run faster than your regular pace.  You can either count (like 1-60) or pick a designation, like a tree you see up the road.  Run to the tree or the number you picked, and then bring it down to your regular pace.  Repeat what you just did using a regular pace, and then do it again with a run.  This can be done on all cardio workouts and machines.  What this does is raises your heart rate, and then lowers it instead of having a steady rate the whole workout.  It also strengthens your muscles up, and you will get done much faster.  Since it is hard work for short times, it does not over whelm you.  And, you will feel proud of yourself thinking you are one strong ox of a person! 

Tags: , ,
Posted in Goal Achievment | No Comments »