Here are my tips
to help you combat stubborn weight loss:
1. Do some
type of aerobic exercise (walking,
jogging, swimming, stationary cycling,
aerobic dancing, etc.) on a DAILY basis
(preferably in the morning) for 30 to
60 minutes! It elevates several of your
body's hormones that tell your body to
burn more fat. It decreases hormones that
tell your body to store fat. And, it
gives your metabolism (basal metabolic rate)
a boost and burns calories.
Here's the
bottom line - when you're sedentary,
your body loves to hold on to fat.
It likes to "store" as much as it can.
Conversely, when you exercise, your
body loves to "dump"
fat. It does everything it can
to get rid of fat. DAILY exercise! Forget
this twice-a-week stuff. Your body was
designed to be active on a daily basis. When
you are, the fat will go!
2. Tone your
muscles with weight training three
days per week. Toned muscles look great and
they supercharge your metabolism! This should
be done just after your aerobic exercise session
so that your muscles are warm and supple
and less prone to injury.
3. Incorporate
"intervals" (brief periods of more intense
exercise) into most of your aerobic
sessions. Intervals are a powerful tool
to help boost your metabolism.
4. Develop
a more active lifestyle. Look for
the "hard" way to do things - the way
that requires the most energy expenditure.
5. Always
eat breakfast! Skipping breakfast sends
the message to your body that you're "starving"
because you haven't had food in 18+
hours (dinner meal one day to lunch meal the
following day). As a protective mechanism,
your metabolism slows down. Food, especially
complex carbohydrates, fuels yourmetabolism.
6. Don't
weigh yourself every day. Your body
has daily fluid fluctuations that show
on a scale day to day but aren't reflective
of fat loss or gain. Weigh yourself
once a week at most and preferably less
than that.
7. Train
for a local 5k or 10k walk or run in your
area or set higher goals and train to walk
or run a marathon. This can be great motivation
to exercise on a regular basis. Many
of the people that are most successful at
weight loss have a specific goal of participating
in some type of race. Remember,
achieving the goal is not in winning
the race but in preparing for the race
and participating! I've seen
many people transformed from couch potatoes
to lean, mean exercising machines, because
they decided to enter and train for a
competition. Don't think you can't do it...
YOU CAN!
