Wanna Get In Shape?

2009-01-05T23:50:00.001-08:00

The Idiot Guide to Dieting - Dieting Tips For Weight Loss Success
By James Hamby

Have you found yourself trying a diet but then looking at all the other things you could eat and stopping? Have you found some of the diets that you try have directions that are simply too complicated to follow? Our diet will be able to help you in so many ways where others may have failed. This is a type of weight loss for idiots that is actually something that can work for anyone. Whether you over complicate the instructions you are given and then find yourself confused, have some issues with the way that confusing web sites explain their diets and more. We can help you reach your dieting goals.

What do we do, that most do not? Most companies will give you great recipe ideas and encouragement, then state that you need to follow their diet but remember to eat to get nourishment. They do not even bother to explain to you how you should do this, what else you should do and much more. They may not even have nearly as many facts behind what they are trying as are behind our book and diet generator that may be soon to be as your disposal. Being on a diet is hard enough if you do not know what you are doing and the positives as well as the negatives. Many of these other diets and generators have a great deal more negatives then they let you know ahead of time. We will let you know both the negatives and the positives.

What are the Negatives and Positives of Weight Loss? The positives of weight loss include a lighter body that some feel looks more attractive, you are able to do more physically and in terms of energy and of course being more physically fit. By being more physically fit we do not only mean that you are able to work out or move around we actually mean that there are many ailments you are less likely to have or get in addition to being more likely to be able to sleep well. We do this through a calorie shifting plan which has major positives such as being able to eat your own proportions as long as it is recommended food and having more freedom with food then many other diets give you. However you also will be expected to stay on a schedule in terms of what times you eat these food.

Learn more about the idiot guide to dieting and how it can help you lose weight at http://www.bestdietingsecret.com/fat-loss-4-idiots.php

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2008-08-25T18:07:00.000-07:00

Get Stunning Toned Legs - 5 Amazing Inner Thigh Exercises You Must Do
By Sigmund Kii

All of us want to look amazing; we all want smaller stomachs, slimmer arms, and toned thighs. However, getting one specific area to look good is quite difficult. If you only work one area, it's not going to show much results. Instead, you should be working your entire body while placing extra work on problem areas, such as your thighs. Here in this article, I will show you various inner thigh exercises that you can use. You should include these inner thigh exercises in your regular workout in order to see the best results.

Inner Thigh Exercises 1: Butterfly Stretching

This should be your first inner thigh exercise before you do anything else.
a. Sit down on a flat surface, and put the soles of your feet together in front of you. Drop you knees to the ground. You may begin ti feel your inner thighs stretching.
b. Wrap your hands around your feet to keep them together, and now bend your upper body down as far as you can (but don't overextend yourself).
c. Remain in the same position for a few seconds, then bring your body back up and repeat.
This should stretch your inner thighs effectively.

Inner Thigh Exercises 2: Thigh Squasher

a. Assume a standing position with your feet shoulder-width apart.
b. Lower your self and squat down until both of your legs form a 90 degree angle. This will look as if you're sitting in a chair. Keep your back straight and your head up.
c. Hold it for about 5 or so seconds, then get back up and repeat.
Make sure that your knees are not past your toes as you are squatting; otherwise you're not bringing your glutes (butt) far enough towards the back.

Inner Thigh Exercises 3: Inner Thigh Lifts

a. Lie down on your side on a flat surface (such as the ground). Put a pillow or your arm under your head.
b. Take the foot of your top leg and bring it up front towards your hips. Rest it on the floor.
c. Now take your leg that's on the ground and extend it; keep it straight and raise it off the ground slowly.
d. Bring it up to about half a foot, then slowly lower it. However, do not let your leg touch the ground... when it's close to the ground, lift it again.
After your reps are completed, do it again with your other leg.

Inner Thigh Exercises 4: Outer Thigh Lift

a. Lie down on the ground on your right side. Using your right forearm, have it support you as you bring your upper body nearly upright.
b. Bend your right leg and extend your left leg in the front of it. Your left leg will be at a 45° angle.
c. Raise your left leg approximately 6 inches off the ground. Hold it for a count, then slowly bring it back down.
d. Before it touches the ground, repeat by lifting the leg again.

Inner Thigh Exercises 5: Pillow Firmer

a. Lie down on the ground on your back.
b. Take a pillow and place it centrally in between the lower part of your legs.
c. Using both legs, place as much pressure as you can on both sides of the pillow to squeeze it. Hold it for about 3-5 seconds.
d. Release it and then repeat.

Remember to include these inner thigh exercises in a large workout routine! Exercise regularly and have a healthy diet; within no time you'll have slimmer & toned thighs with a great looking body.

If you're looking to tone other parts of your body, then take a look at my fitness and weight loss website for various exercises, techniques, and diets. If you're really serious about losing weight and getting a toned body, then my recommended Weight Loss eBook is something you should definitely check out. It is Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto. This is a weight loss program that is guaranteed to make you burn fat quickly, without using some crazy gimmick. It's a weight loss program that takes you back to the old and true method of losing fat: fitness and proper dieting.

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2008-08-14T00:29:00.001-07:00

Fat Loss For Idiots - Truth Behind the Diet Plan
By Rubena Mohan

Introduction to Fat Loss For Idiots

This the most advance diet plan in market today to lose weight in a natural way - without spending hundreds of dollars for diet pills. You don't need to buy any additional products or pills once you had this program in hand. Firstly before you start to read this article, you must totally forget everything you have heard about "dieting" and "low carbs" and "low fat" (and every other weight loss related topic). This is because that stuff is just "hype" which changes like the flavor of the month as the media changes it's tune whenever it thinks the ratings will benefit from a new tune -- they have no clue as to what dieting methods work.

Fat Loss 4 Idiots reveals the truth and how it is possible to lose your weight at any time with the right method. Set a goal of the how much weight you want to lose - either it's QUICKLY or MORE CASUALLY (I will explain later in this article).

Those who can lose weight with this program are:

If you are wasting time going for gym, cut off your daily meals and try very hard to lose your weight by eating 'selected' foods which you consider as the 'right diet'?
If you wanted to lose weight to fit in your favorite dress
If you are suffering from "bad genetics" - You have been overweight since childhood, and having very hard time trying to lose weight.
Late night eating habit and other non-healthy eating habits. If you're a chocolate or ice cream lover, don't worry with this program you can still eat your favorite food while still losing weight - which they call it "Cheat Day".
If you decide to get the body shape you dream for by following the diet plan given in this program.

Let's Look What's the Truth Behind Fat Loss For Idiots Diet Plan

The program consists of 2 type of diet plans:-

1. Online Diet Generator - If you want to lose weight MORE QUICKLY. It generates your menu in just seconds.

2. 10 Weight Loss Rules- If you would rather lose weight more "casually" (without having to follow a specific diet) then the second weight loss program which is a collection of which you can use to lose weight in a much more "casual" way.

The first thing you must do is learn the 3 types of calories, and which calories are in each type of food that you eat.

The 3 Types of Calories are:

1) Protein
2) Carbohydrates (Carbs)
3) Fat

You DO NOT have to worry about manipulating "fat" calories, you only need to worry about manipulating PROTEIN and CARBS.

Here are few sample foods made of Protein and Carbs given in the program:-

[There are more than 10 foods given in the actual list to rotate for 11 days]Protein

Egg Salad (use non fat mayo)
Chicken (Skinless)
Lean Turkey

Carbs

Mixed Salad (only lettuce, tomatoes, and veggies allowed)
Bread (should be "oat" or "bran" type bread only)

The day is divided into 4 meals that should be eaten at a minimum of 2 1/2 hours apart. There is no calorie or carb counting, no limit on portion size.

After the 11 day meal plan there is a 3 day "cheat" - where you get to eat whatever you want. Then you are back into the 11 day plan again....Now that's the best of I have discover in any diet plan so far.

Intensive Exercise Will Not BURN FAT

The reason, intense aerobics and exercise only burn mainly carbohydrates for energy and not fat tissue. If you over-exert yourself and your breathing (and heart rate) become too elevated then your body will burn mainly carbs.

However your goal is not to burn Carbohydrate Calories but to burn stored Body Fat.

Low Carb Diets Don't Work

If you assume to include low carb foods in your diet plan , which most of the program in the market suggest then this assumption is TOTALLY WRONG! Fat Loss 4 Idiots will explain why.

The body and brain with the energy from carbs to function properly and to be healthy.

Do You Know?

Walking is the Best Exercise

Do not underestimate the power of walking (it may take a week or longer to begin seeing results but walking will increase your body's metabolism).

Water Can Help Burn Fat

Wheat bread is just as unhealthy as normal white bread.

Everybody thinks that eating "WHEAT" bread is somehow "healthy" or non fattening. Similarly, people think that "wheat" pancakes are a "healthy" form of pancakes which are non fattening. This type of absurd thinking is what helps to keep people overweight.

They both have a glycemic index rating (carb rating) which is too high (which is unhealthy).

If you are looking for a healthy form of bread then you should buy "Oat Bran Bread", it is a very healthy form of bread and is much healthier than regular wheat bread.

The mechanics of the eating plan are easy to understand. There's no room for error or misinterpretation. That's why it's called Fat Loss 4 Idiots. Get motivated start to lose your weight and get the body shape you dream for.

Start losing weight with Fat Loss 4 Idiot's Diet Plan.

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How to Lose Weight Fast

2008-08-04T19:46:00.000-07:00

2008-01-02T20:36:00.000-08:00

Fast Ways To Lose Weight

Fast Ways To Lose Weight
By Hannah Graham

It might not seem possible but there really are fast ways to lose weight - and keep it off.

There are all sorts of short term things you can do to quickly drop some pounds but they aren't feasible for the long term, of course. But the best way to lose weight quickly and for good is to eat small meals several times per day.

Now, by small I mean they shouldn't exceed a certain number of calories. Yes, you'll have to start learning how many calories are in foods. You won't lose weight otherwise.

First you have to figure out how many calories you need to maintain your ideal weight. If you are female take your ideal weight and multiply by 12. That is the number of calories you should eat per day. If you are male, take your ideal weight and multiply by 14.

It's best to eat those calories throughout the day in small meals. Sure, you could blow all your calories at once on a super sized Big Mac meal and eat calorie-free food for the rest of the day but that would defeat the purpose.

When you eat regularly, in small portions, your body doesn't store fat. It knows there's food right around the corner and doesn't store fat by thinking there's a famine.

When you start paying attention to the calories you'll find that you also start learning more about nutrition too because you want to get the most nutrition for your calories. The technical term for this is Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition (CRON) and there is all kinds of research supporting the health benefits of this type of eating.

Don't worry: you'll quickly start memorizing the calories and soon it will become intuitive. You'll look at a dish and automatically know the proper size and roughly how many calories are in it. You won't have to walk around with a charge or calculator.

You will steadily lose weight until you reach your ideal weight. After you reach your ideal weight you will continue to eat the same amount of calorie in order to maintain that way. And as I know from experience, being in the position of maintaining your weight, instead of having to lose it, is a wonderful feeling.

Want to try a calorie restriction diet that's actually fun and easy to learn? Go to http://www.sixworddiet.com This little 60 page booklet has been flying off the shelves. Why? Because you get to eat whatever you want, 12 times per day.

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2007-07-10T23:35:00.000-07:00

Weight Training For Women and Weight Loss: Weight Lifting Advantages
By Leigh Watson

Weightlifting was one of my exercises of choice when I was younger. I was never into the bodybuilding competitions, not even close to that level, but enough that I could feel and see my muscles take on a different shape and tone.

I always felt lighter when weightlifting, even though muscle mass is heavier. It was a strange and welcome feeling being able to propel yourself more easily, whether it was a quick sprint up a hill, or a jump onto a rock. There was a sense of confidence that I could rely on my needed body part when it was required. It was an exhilarating, empowering sensation.

Even though I have been an athlete my entire life, in hindsight I believe that when I was weightlifting I was in the best shape, both physically and visually. Combining weightlifting exercises with a steady consistent cardio workout would give me the optimal fitness desired.

The interesting thing about weight training for women, or anyone, is that when you increase your muscle mass you consequently increase your metabolism. Weight loss increases as a natural side effect to increased muscle mass. Muscle burns twice as much energy as fat, approximately.
Bodybuilding on a recreational scale, is a healthy weight loss approach. Weight training programs are easy to follow and most gyms will set you up and have you followed by a personal trainer to ensure that you use the weight lifting equipment properly to avoid injury.

Weight training for women has other benefits as well in the area of osteoporosis prevention. Weight bearing exercises increase the bone density.
As I age, and hopefully do so gracefully, I aspire to get back to weight training. I think the benefits are immense.
Know of anyone with a Bowflex for sale?

Leigh Watson is a Homeschooling Mom, and Nutrition Consultant involved in introducing an extraordinary new Internet Work at Home Based Goji Juice Business System.
Check out the new Goji Juice Storefront
Visit Her Blog at: http://Weightlossmagicormyth.blogspot.com

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Quick Weight Loss Plans - Are They Really An Impossible Dream? - Joseph Cole

2007-04-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

As you get older it seems that losing weight becomes harder and harder with every day that passes. When we were younger it was much easier to stay fit and thin, but as we age our metabolism slows down and weight loss becomes a bit of a challenge. There are many quick weight loss plans on the market today and it can seem quite daunting when faced with the task of choosing one to follow.

Quick weight loss plans and bogus claims

The problem with many quick weight loss plans is that they can be quite harmful to your health. In fact, many fad diets do nothing more for you than to lose vital muscle tissue and water weight. This is how such claims exist in the weight loss community; for eg., lose 20 pounds in 20 days. Very little of those 20 pounds will be body fat.

Don't let this discourage you though, there is a way to lose weight that is not only effective but it is safe and will not result in muscle tissue or water weight loss, but actual fat loss.

Everyone is searching for that magic bullet, the quick weight loss plan that will "do the work for them" so to speak. And I don't blame them, it is human nature to seek out the easiest route. But the only problem is, quick fixes don't exist. But don't let this discourage you. There is a way to lose weight, fast effectively and safely, however it will take some effort on your part.

A way to lose weight, without the B.S.

The first thing you need to do, is to start eating more often. This may seem counterintuitive, but the practice of eating four to six times a day will communicate to your body that you are not in starvation mode and to speed up your metabolism.

What kinds of foods you eat? Lean proteins, good starchy carbohydrates, fibrous vegetables and healthy fats. Don't bother with counting calories, many people do this and quit because it becomes too difficult to keep up with the counting. Just make sure your portions relatively small.

You must also exercise three to four times a week. Choose a fun form of cardio, for e.g. swimming, cycling or playing a sport. Jogging is not a healthy form of exercise. A form of strength training is also advised, either body weight calisthenics or weight training.

The most important thing is discipline. Keep your goal in mind at all times and whenever the temptation arises to stray from your plan. Remember that it will all be worth it in the end. So remember, the next time you see a quick weight loss plan that tells you that you can lose 20 pounds in 20 days, know that it most likely isn't true.

Tired of quick weight loss plans that simply don't work?

Then click this link to learn of a
simple paint-by-numbers weight loss plan that will melt pound
after pound of excess fat from your body. Hint - unlike popular fad diets, it's designed to work *with*
the human body instead of against it.

Discover more on The ANTI-Diet Plan!

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Is The Weight Loss Patch For You? - Cheryline Lawson

2007-03-02T00:14:00.000-08:00

There is always a new invention and modern ways that are constantly implemented to assist with effectively losing weight. During my research, I found one such called The Weight Loss Patch. The Patch is claimed to be revolutionary, advanced appetite suppressant, metabolism booster, and energy enhancer...all in one. The Patch helps to prevent going on starvation diets because of its natural and easy use. It is safe and requires no grueling and dangerous exercises. It is said to work all day and all night long by placing it on any area of the body.

Placing a new adhesive skin patch on your body each day are the instructions for continuous, safe, and effective weight loss. It is much like a Nicotine Patch that takes away your craving for cigarettes or the Detox Foot Patch that removes the toxins from your body while you sleep.

The Weight Loss Diet Patch as experienced by those who use it is supposed to drastically reduce your cravings for food, so you naturally do not want to over-eat. At the same time, the Patch boosts your energy level, and jump-starts your metabolism to burn maximum body fat.

It obliterates the need to take pills, diet plans or weight loss programs. Due to the fact that it does not have to be taken internally, most people would want to try it out of curiosity or desperation. People are motivated by different things and have different needs at certain times in their lives. No matter where you are in life or what mental state you find yourself, if you really want to lose weight without the hassle, you will be tempted to at least try the weight loss patch as a means to the end of your weight loss issues.

The primary positive fixation about this patch is that the ingredients are safe for anyone to use and according to the retailers that sell this product, it will work or you get your money back. I guess that is how confident they are about their product.

The results, though, have to be consistent with how you use the product and if you follow the guidelines of how to use it as with any other weight loss product on the market. The possibility of losing weight in a natural and safe manner has created a craze for this product in comparison to diets like Atkins diet, South Beach diet, Jenny Craig, Trimpsa diet and Nutrition System because those diets follow a more rigid plan.

After reading this article, can you honestly answer the question, “Is the weight loss patch for you?” This is your challenge and decision to make and I would think that it really depends on how serious you are about your weight loss success.

Cheryline Lawson, author and owner of http://www.alkalinedietdetox.com and you are welcome to use this article as long as you keep the resource box intact and publish the article in its entirety.

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Phentermine Alternative Diet Pills - Ian Mason

2007-02-18T22:34:00.000-08:00

Phentermine is now illegal to order online. So why is America's most popular diet pill in the black? Well for starters, we've got some bags, envelopes, Indian businessmen, old white doctors with Mexican housekeepers, concrete filled pills, and New Yorkers.

Now, you might be wondering what on earth hispanic housekeepers have to do with Phentermine. Get ready, because I'm about to drop a bomb.

On January 2nd, 2007, Congress said it was 100-percent illegal to get a Phentermine prescription online without an in-person, face-to-face consultation with your doctor . So that basically rules out... hmm... every online pharmacy that has ever sold Phentermine.

Here are two choices:

1. Get ripped off. First you could order Phentermine from a generic pharmacy site based in India or Panama (but they pretend to be in the U.S), and then get ripped off when they send you fake pills full of concrete dust or a placebo. That's too bad - in June 2006 you could have gotten your prescription online with an official stamp of approval from a housekeeper.

2. Find an alternative. Play it smart and look into Phentermine alternative diet pills. I have affiliate relationships with many companies who say their pills are the best, but in my experience (yes I have actually tried it) only Phentramin provided good hunger suppression. Of course it doesn't work for every single person who uses it, but I'd say about 98% of customers get results.

So, is Phentramin everything you need to lose weight and keep it off? Nope. In fact, any diet pill by itself can only help you lose weight temporarily. But there is hope. See, with a phentermine alternative that suppresses your hunger, you’ll have no trouble improving your diet. Without cravings, it will be easy to change your habits.

Check out Ian Mason's free Phentermine Alternative report, which shows which diet pills help you lose weight like Phentermine.

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Fat Burning Supplements; A Quick Way To Weight Loss - Gary Holdon

2007-02-11T00:37:00.000-08:00

Fat burning supplements work. More and more scientists and weight loss supplement manufacturers are realizing that weight loss or fat burning supplements are associated with thermogenesis. They have also gathered more information concerning the causes of obesity. The most interesting results that have come out of these studies are how brown adipose tissue - which is tissue composed of animal fat - are associated with obesity. This knowledge is vital in the battle against obesity which we unfortunately have more than enough of in our part of the world. Now, let's take a closer look at thermogenesis.

According to The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary it is

"Generation or production of heat, especially by physiological processes"

and according to Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary it is

"the production of heat especially in the body"

So, what has the body's production of heat to do with animal fat and weight loss? Well, our bodies have three types of thermogenic processes;

Exercise induced heat production Our muscles create heat as they work because they function much better when warm.

Regulating the temperature of the body Shivering when you get cold is a good example of this type of thermogenesis.

Now, what the manufacturers of weight loss or fat burning supplements are most interested in is the third type of thermogenesis and this is the thermogenic process caused by diets. How does this thermogenic process work?

When we consume food, the energy it takes to digest the food comes from our brown adipose tissue or fat. This fat is located around blood vessels and vital organs, and warms up the blood as it is stimulated. More and more scientists now believe that the activity of adipose tissue is a significant component of obesity. Studies have shown that obese people have much less brown fat activity, and thus less energy burned by thermogenesis which in it's turn can cause weight gain problems.

What weight loss supplement remedies tries to do is activate the brown fat without food consumption. By this activation the brown fat will instead use up calories from white fatty tissue with decreased size of fat cells as a consequence. The fight against obesity will in many cases be won when the supplements can handle this process perfectly.

Gary Holdon is a writer and internet publisher who likes to publish Weight Loss resources. You can go to Weight Loss Plans, Fitness Diets And Workout for more.

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>Exercise to Lose Belly Fat - 2 Killer Tips For Fast Results - Tom Gifford

2007-01-30T21:25:00.000-08:00

Have you been unsuccessfully trying to lose belly fat? If so, there is a good chance you might be making some basic mistakes.

In this article, we are going to go over the 2 essential areas that are crucial to have correct if you want to exercise to lose belly fat quickly and permanently.

1. Total body strength training workouts 2-3 times per week.

This can melt fat from your body by gaining muscle and increasing your metabolism!

The more muscle you work, the more calories you will burn. Remember that muscle is the main thing that will burn fat while exercise. Strength training will help you to lose belly fat because the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn.

Don't make the mistake of doing the common "3 sets of 10" on a strength machine with a minute of rest between each set. It is a better idea to follow more of a "circuit training" structure. Here is an example:

Warm up: 5-10 minutes

1. Pushups - 10 reps

2. 1 arm DB row - 10 reps per arm

3. DB squats - 12 reps

4. Leg curls on stability ball - 10 to 12 reps

5. Side planks - 5-15 seconds per side

6. Hyperextensions - 12 reps

7. Standing DB overhead press - 10 reps

8. Ab crunches on stablity ball - 10 to 15 reps

Go from start to finish, and rest 30-45 seconds between each exercise. Try doing the entire rotation 2-3 times around. This should take no more than 20-30 minutes depending on how much rest time you need.

This workout is just an example to show you what a total body workout looks like. There are lots of different ways to structure a workout like this, but this serves our basic purpose.

With this type of total body workout, you will exercise to lose belly fat as well as gain strength. Whenever you doing total body workouts, you always want to wait a day before doing it again so your muscles can rest and recover.

2. Interval training cardio instead of long, boring, same speed workouts.

Interval training differs from regular "same speed" cardio routines because it is quicker and a lot more fun. It is a great way to exercise to lose belly fat because you alternate between high and low intensities throughout the whole workout. Here is an example:

First 5 minutes: warm-up

2 minutes: slow

30 sec - 1 minute: fast (almost as hard as you can)

-Repeat the "2 minute slow 1 minute fast" 3-6 times.

Last 5 minutes: cool-down

By doing this type of routine, you are making your fat loss workout time shorter and more effective. You will increase your metabolism and you will have a lot more fun burning fat! Do this right after your total body strength training workouts 2-3 times per week.

Be sure to keep your heart rate in mind. Because you are working very hard, you should check with a doctor and make sure this is a safe way for you to exercise to lose belly fat.

Now that you have a structure for how to exercise to lose belly fat. The effort to lose fat does not have to be frustrating and slow. If you exercise correctly and have the right diet, you should be able to lose 1-3 lbs of belly fat each week until you reach your goal!

Want to Reprint this Article?

Reprinting is welcome as long as the content, links, and author bio and resource box are all included and remain unchanged.

If you are serious about wanting to reach your goals, go to Exercise to Lose Belly Fat for some killer information.

Tom Gifford is a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) through the American Council on Exercise and also holds a degree in Kinesiology (Exercise Science). Tom specializes in effective fat loss training for people who have tried all the fad diets and exercise gimmicks.

He is the founder of href="http://www.TheFatLossZone.com">http://www.TheFatLossZone.com, which is a free newsletter about how to safely and effectively lose fat permanently.

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How To Lose Belly Fat Fast And Lose Love Handles Fast - Chris Chew

2007-01-19T01:16:00.000-08:00

As we age, our metabolism starts to slow down and we start to gain fat in all the wrong places. To make matters worse, it is known that the older we get,the more sedentary our lifestyle will be. This will be translated to less fat getting burnt off and more fat being acccumulated. For men, fat is often gained around the belly. If you are lucky, only your waistline will bulge which is commonly being referred to as love handles. But for most of us, fat will build up on the tummy or what is commonly called, belly fat. The ladies tend to accumulate fat around the thigh and butt. That is not to say they will not have belly fat or love handles. In fact, women have it worse than men and are more inclined to gain fat all over. All of us want to own an attractive flat belly and a slim waistline. We will not only look attractive, we will also have less risk to fat related diseases such as heart attacks, strokes and other medical complications.

So how do we get rid of belly fat and love handles fast? First, let the truth be out. There is no such thing as spot reduction short of invasive medical procedures such as mesotherapy which actually inject drugs into your fat to supposedly melt them away. This treatment still has its controversy at the time of this writing. The other is liposuction. A very excruciatingly painful and expensive medical procedure. But do these procedures as well as others such as body wraps, slimming pills, diets etc keep your waistline slim and belly fat at bay? Well, perhaps initially, but to keep fat off permanently, they are questionable unless you keep poppng pills or on a diet for the rest of your life.

To keep belly fat and your love handle off permenantly, you will need to incoporate regular cardio exercises, weight training and a healthy eating habit into your life style. No starvation diet is required. Cardio exercises will burn fat fast. Weight training which will build you some muscles will also burn body fat. The added advantage is that when you pack on more muscles, your metabolism skyrockets and you burn fat round the clock, not just your belly fat and love handle but body fat from all over you. You will also have the benefit of owning an attractive flat belly and a slim waistline with beautiful muscle tone and that fabulous six pack abs for the guys. Added to your healthy eating habit such as avoiding too much dietary fat, sugar, simple carbohyrate, you will not only lose your belly fat and love handle, you will lose them forever. And if you have other fat deposit in other parts of your body, the same routine will also burn away those fat fast too.

So the if you want to own an attractive flat belly and a slim waist line fast, add cardio and weight exercises along with a healthy eating habit. Then watch the massive improvement to your health and fitness and watch your belly fat and love handle melt away quickly.

Well, it may take some effort getting used to the new routine at first but when you start to see your belly fat and love handle melting away and when you are forced to change you wardrobe because of your new slim waistline, you will enjoy and appreciate your new healthy lifestyle and attractive body. Try it.

Chris Chew is a personal trainer who counts top fashion models, international male pageant winners and actors as his clients. He is the author of "Burn Fat Build Muscles Fast!"

About Author:For more free fitness tips check out his sites at www.sgfitness.com and www.sgfitnessonline.com

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A Quick and Easy Low Calorie Diet That Anyone Can Do With A Product Found In Your Pantry - by Brenda Wagner

2007-01-16T08:26:00.000-08:00

Here is one of the easiest ways that I have found to lose weight. You do not have to follow a ton of rules, and you do not have to buy a whole lot of groceries either. You may already have the main part of this diet in your pantry! I have done this for 2 weeks and lost 7 lbs without feeling like I was dieting. What is this main food you will be eating? Kelloggs Special K Cereal. Here is the plan:

For breakfast and lunch, eat 1 bowl of Special K Cereal.

For dinner, you eat a well balanced meal with 4 ounces of meat, 2 cups of veggies or a salad (stay away from the fatty dressings), and a small baked potato topped with salsa or any other non or lowfat topping. Have any kind of fruit for desert.

Keep your dinners interesting and keep away from fats. You can have fruit for snacks. I add half of a sliced banana to my cereal for a change. If you are one of those people who dump a lot of sugar on your cereal, substitute the banana for that. You can keep a little diary of what you eat, it will help you keep an eye on your habits. If you work on the computer a lot, just make a diary on word or notepad. Keep a piece of paper on your fridge that you can write on. When you leave it on the fridge, people will see what you have been eating. Now that really motivates me to be a good girl. I also drink a lot of water to cleanse my body.

In two weeks, you will feel great and will most likely have lost up to 7 lbs without starving!

Brenda Wagner is a Co-Founder of OperationAct.com Visit today to see how you can help our troops and all of those who serve and protect us. Also visit Operation Act .com Store for the best in health and weight loss products! She is expert at helping people who are on shoestring budgets get started with their own business at home. If you'd like to join our billion dollar industry, just click on one of the ACT links at our website and read about our awesome opportunity that everyone can do. Our energy drink lasts for Hours with no side effects like caffeine has. Perfect for everyone who needs a boost! You feel it in 5 minutes. Lasts for hours!
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A Quick and Easy Low Calorie Diet That Anyone Can Do With A Product Found In Your Pantry! - Brenda Wagner

2007-01-16T07:43:00.000-08:00

For breakfast and lunch, eat 1 bowl of Special K Cereal.

In two weeks, you will feel great and will most likely have lost up to 7 lbs without starving!

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There Is Only One True Method to Rapid Weight Loss - John Christian Sebastian

2007-01-08T23:15:00.000-08:00

I want rapid weight loss! That single sentence just summed up about 99% of the thoughts that is on every person’s mind that is interested in weight loss in the United States. Rapid weight loss is the main desire for dieters today. Unfortunately, everyone knows this. This desire became dangerous the day that this knowledge was discovered by marketing directors for weight loss product manufacturers world-wide. Suddenly, hundreds of rapid weight loss products sprung up all over the nation. Rapid weight loss was the new key marketing tactic for weight loss products in the United States.

I still want rapid weight loss! I know this, and I empathize. A lot of you have suddenly discovered your weight problems. A lot of your have known, and tried to do something, but are now faced with a sudden need due to a planned event. How many brides in this country are looking for rapid weight loss products and tanning products? The number would astound you! In fact, this rapid weight loss desire has even resulted in a few incidents. How many brides do you know of that have stood at the altar with severe sun-burns? How many brides have passed out due to dehydration caused by a sudden increase in usage of their newly acquired rapid weight loss products? Improper use of supplements can lead to serious injury and even death. Ask Mike Matarazzo about how he almost died of dehydration on stage of a bodybuilding competition, which was speculated to have been caused by usage combination of Creatine and Ephedra. He too was trying to achieve rapid weight loss by lowering his body fat index.

Usage of rapid weight loss products will always be dangerous. There are products out there that can help you to lose weight faster than most. However, the faster they help you to lose weight, the more dangerous they can be. This danger level is elevated even further when people use greater doses than what is directed. People make the mistake in believing that their rapid weight loss will occur even faster if they increase the amount taken. The problem is that improper supplement usage and abuse can lead to dehydration, stomach lining damage, heart attack, kidney problems, drastic increases in blood pressure, and cardiac rhythm disorders. Rapid weight loss is a dangerous realm to be playing in without the direction of a physician.

There is only one true method to rapid weight loss. You must work for it. The truth is that, most likely, your problems are a combination of poor diet habits and lack of exercise. Fat is produced only when your body is taking in more calories than it needs as well as not having the essential dietary needs which help to break down and burn fat. By changing your diet to ensure that you are getting plenty of healthy fats, vitamins & minerals, carbohydrates, and proteins, you will see a drastic increase in your metabolism, as well as energy levels, which will lead to a natural rapid weight loss. This proper diet must also be utilized in conjunction with regular exercise. By ensuring that your body is getting the activity that it needs to burn more calories per day, you are ensuring that your metabolism increases in order to give your body the “fuel” that it needs for daily activity. This means that your body will burn the calories instead of storing them, ensuring a safer method of rapid weight loss as well.

It is that simple people! Exercise ensures that your muscle density is elevated, which means that they must burn more calories when they are in use as well as at rest, which a natural rapid weight loss is dependent upon. It doesn’t mean that your muscles will get more bulky, just harder and stronger. Density is not the same thing as size. If you want to increase muscle size, and are not concerned about rapid weight loss, then there are specific exercise and dieting techniques that you can use to do that. However, if rapid weight loss is what you are looking for, you can find more information on how to get the rapid weight loss that you want by changing your dieting and exercise techniques through my website listed below. Your body is a machine, and needs to be fueled and operated properly in order for it to perform at its best. The only way to do this is by “tuning” your body to perform in the manner that you want it to, which will then give you the rapid weight loss that you desire!

Discover The Extreme Weight Loss and Fitness Secrets That Personal Trainers In Hollywood Charge $97/Hour To Teach FOR FREE at http://www.FitnessTuning.com

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Is Fasting a Faster Way to Weight Loss? - Sylvia Jaumann

2007-01-07T21:50:00.000-08:00

You’ve probably heard about how Beyonce recently stated that she went on a fast liquid diet in order to quickly lose weight for a movie role.

Or maybe you recall years ago how Oprah Winfrey tried the same thing for three months and lost a tremendous amount of weight. Then, as soon as she started eating solid foods again, she rapidly put the weight back on.

Liquid diets or fasts, as they’re known, are one of the worst things you can do to your metabolism. It’s a well-documented fact that every time you starve yourself, your metabolism effectively shuts down. This is why you gain all the weight back as soon as you start eating again.

Your metabolism is a wonderful thing when you’re young and you can eat anything you want without having to worry about gaining weight. But once you hit your 30’s and 40’s, your wonderful metabolism suddenly turns into your worst enemy. The pounds start to creep on around the middle and suddenly you realize that your metabolism has slowed down.

In fact, it may surprise you to learn that in order to increase your metabolism you need to eat regular low-fat meals and snacks throughout the day. This, combined with a regular exercise program (such as walking) will turn your body into a fat burning machine.

Fasting sounds like a great quick fix because you can lose weight very quickly. But the price you end up paying in damage to your metabolism is too great for short term weight loss. Fasting is short term solution because you will inevitably gain the weight back.

Did you find these tips on fast weight loss useful? You can learn a lot more about weight loss here.

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Realistic Weight Loss Tips - By John Campbell

2007-01-04T23:38:00.000-08:00

There are a many positive changes that occur as a person works on healthy weight loss. Other than physical appearance weight loss affects a person in many ways. Health and depression risks are greatly reduced. Quality of life, longevity, self-esteem and physical ability are all improved.

Diets alone do not work. Like a lot of things in life if the claims are “it is so easy and takes very little time and effort” you can expect a poor quality results. Sensible healthy eating and raising fitness levels must work together to produce long term weight loss; both take dedication and effort over a long time.

To lose weight effectively and permanently 3 aspects of life should be changed: what to eat and drink, attitude and activity level.

Consult your doctor

The first thing that an over-weight person must do is seek advice from a doctor or other health care specialist. They can recommend the best weight loss regime and ensure that your health is not going to be put at risk. This should be done after a physical examination that leads to the determination of proper weight loss technique and assessment of existing fitness levels.

Realistic Weight Loss Tips:

First: Realistic weight loss is a combination of mindset, exercise and in some cases, diet supplements. Begin by taking part in a food reduction and exercise plan that is practical. The exercise plan should be at least fifteen minutes a day to start with. Depending on your existing fitness level you should be doing exercises like brisk walking, running, swimming, and dancing to begin with and builds to at a least 30 minute a day.

Second: You must set realistic goals that reduce your weight and increase your fitness. The weight reduction must be healthy and sustainable. The ability to focus and have positive mindset enables someone on a diet and fitness regime to lose those extra pounds. Joining a group or a class can help as reporting progress to a peer group encourages you to stick with it. You must learn to become tenacious and patient to allow your hard work time to pay off.

Third: Everyone's body reacts differently to different weight loss programs and plans. A realistic weight loss and exercise program must be suitable to your body type and existing level of fitness. Not being able to exercise or loose weight as rigorously as some others can be discouraging or encouraging depending on your attitude. Just be careful not to over do it.

If walking is all that you can manage, then walk, however you are in luck because walking is proven to be a great fat burning exercise. The ideal speed is walk as fast as you can but still be able to talk freely without gasping. This burns up the calories but builds muscle and cardio endurance.

Fourth: Eat more quality foods that contain fibre and vegetables as it helps to make you feel full sooner and in stays in the tummy longer moving the harmful waste in the digestive system more efficiently.

Fifth: Keep away from fried foods especially deep-fried as this contains a large amount of fat. Although fish and chicken appear leaner than beef when it is fried can contain more fat than beef. Grilled food is far better for you as it greatly reduces the amount of fat that is consumed.

Sixth:Take lots of fluid. Drinking at least six to eight glasses of water a day keeps the body refreshed. Water helps body eliminate body waste and keep stay hydrated which is very important when you are exercising. It also acts like an appetite suppressant helping you feel full.

A little bit of time and effort applied consistency equals Realistic Weight loss success. Light dieting, quality workouts, and right amount of food and supplements applied in a regular way everyday will result in permanent weight loss and improvement in general health. Taking massive inconsistent action only to be followed a return to old habits will show little improvement and loss of motivation.

It is impossible for diets to work on their own. The key is Keep It Simple, Drink plenty water, Walk when you can and eat a good balanced diet consistently.

You are free to reproduce this article. In return please always attached the following links. My mission is to provide useful pearls of wisdom for the enhancement of life and the elimination of debt. We have e-books, books, articles many of which are FREE.

About the Author: I started writing my first book 'Financial Dignity' about four years ago. It was not easy balancing a job, a family and writing at the same time. It has been a enjoyable hobby which has become a business. You are invited to visit http://www.financialdignity.net and http://www.family-life.eu

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Reach Your Weight Loss Goals - Four Steps to a Fit New You in 2007 - Dean Carlson

2007-01-02T23:32:00.000-08:00

2007 is upon us, and many of us are looking for a new beginning as well. Many of us use the new year as an impetus to get off the couch and back into the gym - or at least that is our intent.

But we've been down this road before - All gung-ho in January, and back in front of the tube by the middle of February, with our goals all but forgotten.

How do we maintain that drive and keep on keeping on until our goal is reached? Do these four steps - yes I said do, not try - and you will succeed.

1. Write your goals down

This is an absolute must. If you don't put your goals on paper they are just a vague idea, and it is impossible to be accountable to vague ideas. In fact, don't write down vague ideas either. There is a huge difference between "I want to lose weight", and "I want to weigh 125 pounds by August 1, 2007".

Most of us have heard of SMART goals:

Specific

Measurable

Action plan organized

Realistic Timed

Is your goal setting SMART?

2. Review your goals daily

Look at your goals every day. This is a big one for me. When I do this, I succeed. When I don't, I fall behind. Most of us are very good at two things - procrastinating and making excuses. If your goals are staring you in the face EVERY day, it is much harder to ignore them or put them off. I guarantee that if you look at your goals first thing in the morning, you will be motivated to work on them, and when you work on them, you can achieve them!

3. Measure your progress weekly

How will you know if you are reaching your goals? Part of the goal achieving process should include checkpoints; weekly "sub-goals" that will ensure you are on the right track. For example, if your goal is to lose 10 pounds of bodyfat in 10 weeks, you are going to have to average 1 pound of fatloss a week to reach that goal. If you have only lost 3 pounds after 5 weeks, you are going to have to either change your fat loss plan, because it is not giving you the results you wanted or:

4. Adjust your goals as necessary

This really is key to achieving the results we want. Why? Because sometimes life just gets in the way, and we don't make progress as fast as we want. What will 90% of people do when things aren't going their way? Give up! That's right, they will decide that if after all the sacrifice and hard work they aren't making fast enough progress, then just forget it!

But wait a second, what is that going to accomplish? So what if you only lost 6 pounds in 10 weeks, you still look and feel better, don't you? So just adjust the goal and keep working on those last 4 pounds. You are planning on being around for the next 6 weeks aren't you? Would you rather be 4 pounds lighter or back to where you started (or worse)?

One of my favorite quotes is this one from Bear Bryant "Never quit. It is the easiest cop-out in the world. Set a goal and don't quit until you attain it. When you do attain it, set another goal, and don't quit until you reach it. Never quit."

Write, Review, Measure, and Adjust - Four steps to a fit new you in 2007!

About Dean: Fed up with the way he looked and felt, Dean Carlson decided enough was enough. After wading through the conflicting diet and fitness information, and through much trial and error, he found himself 80 pounds lighter and with a new outlook on life. His desire to help other people get healthy and fit without going it alone led him to start Cr8 Health & Fitness, where he shares his knowledge and passion for fitness with others looking to get off the diet roller coaster.

Dean is a Certified Professional Fitness Trainer with the National Exercise and Sports Trainer Association.

Website: http://www.cr8health.com/

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Weight-loss throught Cognitive Therapy - James Krehbiel

2007-01-01T13:36:00.000-08:00

Often, individuals become obsessive with the weight-loss pattern. Weight-loss and weight maintenance can become a ritualistic, compulsive cycle. Charlie Whitfield, author and addictions expert calls the pattern the “repetition cycle.” Anxiety and depression mount, followed by the urge to eat, leading to self-indulgence, and ending with symptoms of self-blame and guilt. Then the cycle of abuse repeats itself. Paradoxically, those who follow an addictive quest to lose weight may actually end up sabotaging their own goals.

Self-defeating thinking and behavior tend to perpetuate the cycle of unhealthy eating. No amount of exercise or nutritional support will address the need for individuals to learn to rationally respond to their maladaptive eating patterns. Unhealthy eaters are typically overwhelmed by self-blame. A downward spiral is set in motion by the way in which the person views himself. Unhealthy eaters will label themselves as being “fat” (whether they are or not), and will chastise themselves for not making progress in losing weight. Viewing oneself as an “overweight louse” is not an effective motivator for change. In fact, browbeating oneself for being less than perfect only intensifies the cycle of unhealthy eating abuse. Self-blame is a form of tyranny which keeps one stuck in the midst of the problem.

Most unhealthy eaters experience thwarted anger. Rather than direct their resentment at the source of their difficulties, they self-sabotage by internalizing their anger and directing it toward themselves through unhealthy eating. They may feel frustrated by the conditional nature of a relationship, may have a family member who humiliated them about their weight, or experienced rejection through social betrayal. As confidence was stripped away, they developed a negative concept of self which fueled their unhealthy eating pattern. The self-blaming message is usually, “I guess I really am a slob, so the best I can do is to continue to prove it to myself.”

Unhealthy eaters can untwist their maladaptive thinking and meet their weight goals by:

• Learning to rationally respond to negative thinking. For example, instead of saying, “I’ll never meet my weight goals, I’m just worthless,” one might say, “Just relax and be patient, Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

• Identify cognitive distortions such as castastrophizing, labeling, personalizing, and black and white thinking. An example might be, “If I can’t lose 5 lbs. this week I might as well give up” (black/white thinking).

• Instead of being unkind to yourself, talk to yourself the same compassionate way you would to a dear friend who is experiencing the same weight problem.

• Instead of assuming your negative thoughts are accurate, examine the evidence that supports your conclusions. “If I don’t lose 15 lbs., will people really think I am hopelessly obese?”

• Instead of taking full responsibility for your weight problem, you can assess the many factors that may have contributed to it and address those issues with the support of others.

• Set a realistic agenda. Ask yourself, “What would it be worth to me to stop my unhealthy eating? How hard am I willing to work on a rational solution?”

• Evaluate weight maintenance progress based upon the process – the effort you put in – rather than the outcome. Your efforts are within your control, but the outcome may not.

• Substitute language that is less emotionally loaded. “I shouldn’t have eaten that extra helping” can be redefined as, “It would have been preferable if I hadn’t eaten more.”

Often, people will expose themselves to a diet that will dramatically assist them in losing excessive weight only to have the weight return. Instead of “quick fix” diets, setting a realistic agenda for weight-loss is a more rational, thoughtful approach. A slow, gradual loss of weight helps us to more easily adjust to the psychological ramifications of body perception change. Weight-loss goals need to be established because we prefer the change, not because others want it for us. Feeling coerced to change, or sensing that others acceptance of us is conditional upon weight-loss will lead to resentment and a feeling of helplessness in our quest to change. Instead, we must vow to learn the difference between self-indulgence and self-respect and work to put self-kindness into our everyday experience and choose our relationships based upon these positive qualities.

Weight loss is about majoring in the majors. It’s not about how you butter your bread. It’s about feeling good, getting out of self-blame, planning goals, changing one’s life style, setting personal boundaries and getting involved. People who are unhappy with their life are more likely to self-indulge, to be compulsive and obsessive, and carry out other self-defeating behaviors as a means to ward off psychic pain.

Making the courageous efforts to lose weight calls for a radical transformation in one’s thinking. Because we are humans, we may all relapse, but the changes we make in our life can be imbedded in a new life style when we give our selves personal permission to change.

There are no secrets to losing weight. It would be nice if there were a quick fix. We wish it and it is so! But like almost all struggles in life, this, too, takes hard work and commitment. From childhood, we are conditioned to believe that the only way we can change is when we are coerced. Therefore, we learn to mistrust our instincts and believe that if we give ourselves enough rope, we’ll hang ourselves. Without exploring the psychological issues that may be triggering weight problems, most people will be doomed to repeat a pattern of self-defeating behavior. We must understand that we are more than the pleasure center of our brain. We are much more than the darkest side of our soul. Many may say that if I am not intolerant of my mistakes, how will I learn to motivate myself to change? However, real change only occurs when we learn to respect and value who we are with all of our faults.

James P. Krehbiel, Ed.S., LPC, CCBT is an author, freelance writer, and cognitive-behavioral therapist practicing in Scottsdale, Arizona. His personal growth book, Stepping Out of the Bubble is available at http://www.amazon.com James can be reached at http://www.krehbielcounseling.com

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Planning On Getting In Shape: A Very Basic Guide For The Un-Exercised - Steven Morris

2006-12-28T17:34:00.000-08:00

Fitness seems to be the thing these days with plenty of health clubs opening up its big business. Nevertheless, you do not need to go to a health club of gym to get in shape. Depending on how “Unfit” you are, depends on where you start. Therefore, I am going to pen this guide with the couch potato in mind.
If you have, any breathing difficulties or heart problems see your doctor before you start any sort of training.

First things first, we need to increase our level of activity. I would advise you to do this gradually. With fitness, we get it into our heads that we need to go from zero activity to going to the gym every day. We end up doing to much and end up with our muscles aching this in turn sends a signal to the brain associating fitness with pain and then we stop wanting to get fit. Fitness is not a sprint it is a slow walk and it is not about the winning it is all about the taking part

Walking

Do you walk anywhere? If you have a car, probably not; I know from my own experience that getting into that nice warm car is a lot more enticing then walking to the shops in the freezing weather. Start walking if you don’t have time, make time, get up earlier in the morning go to the shop and get a paper or just walk around the block before breakfast. By doing this simple change to our daily routine we have increased our activity level. Make sure you do this about 3 – 5 times a week Keep this up for 2 weeks then move on to the next stage.

Walk a bit faster

We have been walking for 2 weeks, now we need to push ourselves, just a little. Walk to the shops, a bit faster. We need to put a little more pressure on our heart and start to get the blood pumping around our body. Do this for 2 weeks, again 3 – 5 times a week

Fancy a little light jogging

Jogging is a great way to get fit you can jog as slow or as fast as you like and it’s a great way to have some “you” time. Grab your-self some trainers and lets get out and jog go down your local park. No need to sprint round just a gentle jog and over time try and do it a little quicker, only do what you can manage

Now you should be feeling the benefits of a little light exercise. By doing this on a regular basis your heart will be stronger your whole body would have benefited now it’s up to you where you go from here. This could be just about the right amount of exercise that you feel comfortable with, or you may feel that you want to get in the best shape that you can. whatever your choices , Good Luck

Steven Morris from Trust and find digital Information

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Want to Lose weight? How to Keep Your New Year's Resolutions this Year - Janice Elizabeth Small

2006-12-26T22:06:00.000-08:00

Losing weight is one of the most common New Year's resolutions to make and the one that is most often broken. Do you make the same promise to yourself year and year, and end up right back where you started or (worse) with a few more pounds to lose? What will make this year different?

1. Focus

Trying to make too many changes at once is going to mean you succeed at nothing. If you want to lose weight, make sure you haven't got too many other goals and ambitions vying for your attention. You don't have to focus on losing weight and nothing else (sometimes that is counter-productive) but I recommend that you should make no more than 3 resolutions or take on no more than 3 projects at any time to have the most chance of success. If weight loss is not important enough to be in your top 3 then forget it until it is - it's just not important enough to you to make the effort.

2. Be Specific

Many people make a vague resolution to "lose weight" or "get fitter" never really defining what that means. What exactly do you want to achieve? How will you know when you have succeeded? Sometimes we are afraid to set a specific target because it is then very easy to see whether we have succeeded or failed. But you need to put the possibility of failure out of your mind and just keep your eye firmly on your target to increase your chances of success. If you spend your time worrying about failure that's exactly what you will do. Commit to a target and go all out for it.

3. Have a Plan

Having a target but no idea how you will get there makes success difficult from the start. Deciding to lose 20lbs and just thinking you will "be more careful with what you eat" or "do a bit more exercise" is unlikely to help you. But it doesn't mean that you have to know exactly what you will do for the next 6 months either. Sometimes it's off-putting if you imagine how much effort you may have to put in to achieve you goal over months and months. But you CAN plan one day or one week at a time as long as you do plan ahead. Plan what you will eat. Plan how you will get more movement into your life and then carry out your plan one step, one day, one week at a time.

4. Take a Gradual Approach

How many of us decide that from January 1st things will be different - and I mean completely different? Suddenly we imagine we'll be paragons of virtue as far as eating is concerned. No junk food will pass our lips. And from being couch potatoes we decide we are going to join a gym (or finally dust off that membership we've been paying for and not using) and get down there for a full-workout three times a week. How long do you keep this up? A week, a month, three-months at most? Most people have given up on such far-reaching changes by February. But if you decide to make your planning focus on a few small achievable changes instead of all that you are much more likely to keep up the momentum and finally succeed.

So replace a couple of sodas a day with water and then go on from there (don't decide to let nothing but water pass your lips from January 1st (or whatever your start date is). Reduce your portion sizes gradually (instaed of forcinging yourself to feel hungry all the time). Introduce slightly healthier foods one by one into your eating habits. Start taking a short walk each day (or whatever seems a reasonable and achievable amount of activity from your current fitness level) and commit to that. This is how real sustainable changes are made.

5. Keep Motivated

Nothing motivates like success. Just don't see success as only a figure on the scale. Though it's nice to see the pounds drop off, it's not much use if they are not going to stay off. Success is a permamnent lifestyle change which has become a habit and which you are happy to live with. Remind yourself of the good changes you are making and be proud of that no matter what the scales say (and remember they DO fluctuate for all sorts of reasons such as hormones and salt intake).

Know why you want to lose weight. What will you really get out of it? And remind yourself daily (and if you need to before each meal or decision to exercise/not exercise) of the reasons why you are doing this.

Know in your heart of hearts that you CAN succeed in changing your lifestyle one habit at a time - anyone can - and if you want this for you this year you just have to do what it takes and success is yours.

Janice Elizabeth is a weight loss coach, slimming club owner and author of "The Diet Exit Plan", an 8 week coaching program for automatic permanent weight loss. Get her FREE 15 page report "How to lose weight without dieting - 7 secrets the diet industry doesn't want you to know" at http://www.SimplySlimming.com TODAY!

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A New Weight And Exercise Program - By Yvonne Volante

2006-12-21T22:05:00.000-08:00

We all know the importance of a competent weight loss and fitness regime, especially if you want to lose weight. A adequate intake with vitamin supplements, some physical training, walking and swimming are just some of the things that need to be considered.

Diet

A friend dies of a heart attack, the doctor gives you a stern warning, your twentieth high school reunion is coming up, a new book on weight loss comes out, or a new exciting diet arrangement hits the market. All of these events have inspired you to finally do something about your weight and fitness.

Weight loss surgery, you say? We neither are advocates for or against it, but keep in mind that for most surgeries an even additional extreme diet will be required after surgery. And the same is true of an exercise system. Be sure to investigate all the competent AND bad of weight loss surgery,

Keep in mind that deciding to reduce the calories, fat, saturated fat, and sugar in your diet is a big step, and trying to do that at the same time you endeavor to make a drastic change in your physical activity level, may be biting off too much at one time. So be cautious about taking on the extra stress than you can handle at once. If you can handle it, though, you'll have a head start. Adding fibre to your diet -- such as whole grain cereals, legumes (lentils and beans), vegetables, and fruits -- can help you feel full with fewer calories.

Here is a sure formula for failure: go on an extreme (starvation) diet. You only consume 1000 to 1500 calories per day. The result is usually that you have set yourself up for failure in the long term. Most people can't keep it up and the body protests and will begin to "save" fat. Generally, this is not a acceptable idea.

Training

Strength training benefits everyone, no matter what age or sex, and is becoming recognized as an important component of fitness. One big advantage of weight training is that your fat stores are attacked in a couple of ways: first while you are actually training and second after the fact. You see, your body will continue to burn fat long after you stopped training. Strength training will also benefit weight loss in the long run due to the formation of muscle tissue which can aid in burning calories.

There are 2 types of training. They are aerobic also know as cardiovascular training and anaerobic training such as resistance training. The best time to do aerobic training is first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Be sure that your intensity remains within your target heart rate training zone (about 120 heart beats per minute - an estimated average for most non health-impaired adults). For a potent exercise system, consider a pilates class. For more on pilates information, please visit http://www.fluidvitamin.com/pilates-cl-and-yoga-classes/.

High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT as it is commonly called is one of the best exercise methods for excellent fat loss and muscle retention. All sprinters incorporate HIIT in their training procedure and they are muscular and yet have very little body fat. Slowing build up your running to extra time per session, added sessions per week or additional strenuous activity such as occasional sprinting.

Swimming

Any aerobic exercise like walking, jogging, swimming and most sports increases the flow of oxygen to the brain as well as heart. Swimming can be a great weight loss exercise because it is easy on the joints. Swimming is very, very low impact and it works a variety of muscle groups. It is an alternative to jogging for those physically unable to jog.

Walking

Were you aware that brisk walking burns more calories than jogging for the same distance? that's because it takes extra time to walk than jog that distance and poses less risk for injury to muscle and bone. Other low to moderate impact aerobics include swimming, stair climbing, step classes, light water aerobics, rowing and cross-country skiing.

When you visit boundless shopping malls how about walking up the stairs and ban the escalators or elevator? Whether you are pushing your basket around the supermarket, trying on things or just walking around you are definitely using up extra calories than if you had stayed at home on the couch. That means that in a half hour of walking, you could burn an additional 200 extra calories.

Start a walking group or find a walking friend. Plan out periods during the day that you will have a little extra time to exercise in - things like walking out to go get lunch, parking your motor vehicle a few rows further away than the closest spot, or even fidgeting at your desk will burn calories.

It doesn't really matter what you do. Just know that in order to lose weight and get fit, you will have to be proactive and take action. It's worth it.

About the Author: Yvonne Volante, the author, is a big fan of health and fitness and writes for fluidvitamin.com, which is the premier vitamin resource on the internet. You can see all of the articles over at http://www.fluidvitamin.com

Source: www.isnare.com

Body Building and Nutrition: What You Need to Know Before Starting - Brian Brogan

2006-12-17T22:55:00.000-08:00

Like egg and toast body building and nutrition go hand in hand. Luckily it is not too complicated a subject with two of the most important facets of body building nutrition being the frequency of meals and the meal portions themselves.

Frequency Of Meals

The ongoing purpose or goal of body building nutrition is to keep the metabolism going to promote the growth of fat free muscle and the depletion of excess fats and reduction of water retention. What do you do to achieve this goal? Well one way to do this is to increase your meal intake. This should be done with smaller but more frequent meals. To apply this you would be eating smaller meals every two and a half to three hours throughout the day.

The advantage of eating more frequently is that it keeps your body’s motor running and your metabolism rate elevated. Your actual diet and the composition of the meals is also important as you will find discussed later in this article. Just eating more frequently alone is not enough but in addition, meals need to be placed strategically throughout each and every day.

Nutrition and body building go hand in hand also more specifically, when the nutrients should be taken in. For help in achieving your body building goal calories should be focused around times of activity and decreased during times of inactivity. Simply put, if your workouts are focused toward the beginning of the day, so then should be the meals you ingest.

Composition Of Meals

It has been found that body building and nutrition are related not only in the frequency of meals, but also in what type of food products goes into those meals. What is important here is ratios, more specifically the correct ratios. This relates mostly to the input of carbohydrates and proteins. It has been found ideally the ratios should be 40% carbohydrates, 40% proteins, and 20% fats. Not all fats are good fats but here the fats should be lean fats found in lean meats or plant oils only.

Proteins are essential in the absorptions of amino acids needed to build muscles within the body. Eating carbohydrates will provide your body with the energy needed to get through the workouts. Fats, though they have been given a bad rap recently, are also essential in body building. They are important in many ways, in insulating and coating nerves, as well as providing cushioning for your vital organs during strenuous workouts. For this reason, it is essential to obtain fats into your diet, as a body builder, to help you the most.

Water The Elixer of Life

Sometimes overlooked but still one of the most essential aspects of body building and any nutritional routine is water. Not only a natural thirst quencher but water is vital to your body building success. Water serves many purposes to the body builder. It cools you down after a hard workout. Water helps flush out the toxins that build up in the body. Drinking plenty of water can help control the appetite, and it is suggested that cold water also helps increase metabolism. And of course it is great for removing the build up of external sweat in a refreshing shower after a good workout.

Brian Brogan

Web developer

SEO developer

The Correct Nutrition

No More Sweat

A Lively Talker

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brian_Brogan

Building Muscle - Simplified - Qaisar Shah

2006-12-15T20:14:00.000-08:00

Quick muscle building is the goal of every underweight guy who hits the gym and embarks on a weight training program for the first time. But with all the misinformation available these days, one is eventually led to believe that building muscle is an infinitely complex process involving rocket-science precision and an intimate understanding of human physiology.

However, when it comes to building muscle I like to keep things simple, so I’m going to simplify the process of building muscle for you too.

In order to take advantage of these tips to build muscle, it's important to understand the fundamentals of weight training, which is if you do not challenge your body it will not adjust by building muscle or burning fat.

This is an extremely powerful tip to building muscle mass, not to mention one of the easiest tricks to ensure your body side-steps plateaus forever. Now, this is common knowledge to a lot of people, but it's also where they run into problems because they get the other important factors wrong when tackling a muscle building program.

The best approach for building muscle is to stick with the basic compound exercises such as, bench press, squats, deadlifts, barbell curls etc. Use lower reps and just a few heavy sets with such exercises as they place an enormous demand on the central nervous system and the body needs sufficient time to recover after performing them.

Single reps are great for strength and often used by powerlifters. Even regular weight lifters and bodybuilders can benefit from the muscle building power of single rep training as they can also build lots of muscle mass. However, in order to stimulate growth volume is also needed and a program that combines both types of training periodically will lead to greater overall gains.

Whilst putting together a muscle building program it is important to take into consideration the possibility of overdoing it and burning out i.e. overtraining. Since overtraining varies from person to person, it's extremely important to keep track of everything in your weight lifting program so that you can make appropriate and systematic changes so you reach your muscle building goals.

Another important consideration is diet. It’s not all about hitting the gym. Think of food as the fuel for your body. Without it you won’t have any energy to train. However, you need to get the right type of fuel in the right quantity to ensure optimum development. Too much food and/or the wrong type and you will get fat. Too little food and/or the wrong type and you won’t have the energy needed to make that final rep needed.

One question that I am often asked is: Is it impossible to build muscle and lose fat at the same time?

It’s fair to say that a weight training program is the best way to build muscle mass but it's also one of the best way to lose fat, completely change the shape of your body, and keep the fat off. That's why weight training is arguably the best tool for losing fat and building muscle. However, although building muscle and losing fat at the same time is not impossible, attempting to build muscle and lose fat at the same time is not as efficient as choosing one over the other. This is because you are chasing after two conflicting goals.

Following these principles will ensure a solid foundation of general fitness and muscular endurance and lead to building muscle mass more easily.

Weight training can be a future investment for permanent weight loss and weight maintenance because as you continue to lose stored body fat and gain lean muscle, your muscle will continue to aid in the calorie burning process. Put together a program that includes these tips for building muscle and burning fat and you will be on your way to a body that has more muscles and less fat.

For more information on developing such a routine please visit my website =>http://www.MuscleGainingTips.com

Qaisar Shah

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Qaisar_Shah

Could Thyroid Problems Be Causing Your Weight Gain? -

2006-12-14T16:46:00.000-08:00

Dr. Merril W. Edmonds describes the thyroid’s function as similar to a car’s cruise control. Just as the cruise control keeps the car at a constant speed without effort from the driver, the hormones released by the thyroid ensure that your body is functioning at a constant and correct speed.

The thyroid regulates the body’s metabolism. When the hormone level decreases, all the cells in your body become less active. Because the cells are less active, they need less energy to perform and thus more energy is stored in the form of body mass. In other words, you gain weight. This is a condition called hypothyroidism, and due to the wide variety of symptoms, it can often go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. The condition occurs in 1.5 to 2 percent of women and only 0.2 percent of men.

When hypothyroidism-related weight gain begins, you lose your ability to burn off or waste extra calories – that is, any calories your body does not need to maintain its normal functions. This is something most people with normal thyroid function are able to do. If someone has hypothyroidism, they can eat less than people with normal thyroid function and still gain more weight.

Once diagnosed, hypothyroidism can easily be treated by taking extra thyroid hormone in pill form. This will speed up the patient’s metabolism and help him/her lose weight, though the process is often still difficult. Taking the correct dosage is crucial, because too much thyroid hormone induces protein weight loss, which can result in heart problems and osteoporosis. Though it seems like a simple solution, thyroid hormone in pill form may not help indefinitely. After taking thyroid hormone for a long period of time, some people begin to gain weight again, even though thyroid hormones may be at the correct level.

The following symptoms may indicate hypothyroidism:

• Slowed speech and a hoarse voice. Sometimes the voice will deepen or break.

• Impaired memory, slowed reflexes, and general brain fog

• Hives

• Migraine headaches

• Increased sensitivity to heat and cold

• Shortness of breath

• Puffy or swollen skin, especially in the face, hands, and feet

• Hair loss

• Brittle fingernails

• Decrease in libido

• Abnormal menstrual periods, sometimes coupled with infertility

• Anemia

• Constipation

• Unexplained weight gain, or weight gain in spite of diet and exercise

• Unexplained fatigue

Helpful information on maintaining normal thyroid function may be found at http://www.alvidar.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Susannah_Young

Exercise Equipments That Suit Your Fitness Goals - By Charlene J. Nuble

2006-12-13T14:56:00.000-08:00

Health-buffs that have been using exercise equipments are surely no neophytes on this matter. But newbies on exercise equipment won't have a hard time on knowing which to use. It's just a matter of getting armed with the right info and sufficient determination to be at your fittest.

Choosing the best fitness exercise equipment to meet your needs could be a bit tricky and complicated. Equipments could cost you thousands of dollars. What's worse is that they might just end up collecting dust in your basement. Surely you don't want this to happen so here's a few tips:

Decide on What To Work On. Are you a wheezing kiddo? Plainly stick thin? Could you qualify as an overqualified sumo wrestler? Blue baby? Just decide what you need to improve on. Consulting a physician might help. Or maybe simply looking at the mirror will do the job.

Canvass Through Friends. You might have a health enthusiast friend like you who have been using exercise equipments for quite some time now. It'll be one fun activity if you could actually convince him to lend you his equipments. If you are close friends, you might even enjoy more bonding time while exercising. If you are just casual acquaintances, consider making the most out of your charm. Stealthily persuade him to lend you those stuff. By hook or by crook! All for the name of fitness.

Home Work. And when finally you were able to earn that friend's trust, get your clammy hands on those equipments quick. Get those equipments inside the steam room of your house, where you won't mind getting sweaty that is. Figure out how much space in your home you have to work with. Did that exercise equipment fit in that spot? Does it look good against that wall? If not, consider renovation.

Go Large. Go to a large gym and try out the various pieces of exercise equipment, including cardio machines, weight machines, and free weights. Just a piece of advice, don't do this all of this testing activity in just one day. Trust me. Keep the weights very light - you just want to get a 'feel' for each piece of exercise equipment so you can figure out which ones you like the best. Make a list of your top 5 pieces.

What's in Store. If there's a local fitness equipment store in your neighborhood, by all means, do visit that store. Ever clicked on your remote control and crossed upon a channel selling things from Abflex to miraculous necklaces? This might be one of the best time to finally get something from your drooling over those ladies doing workouts. See what exercise equipment they are offering to obtain those washboard abs and tight tushies, if that's what you're planning to morph your into. Oops, don't forget to compare prices.

Financial Fitness. After all that trust-earning fuss, note-taking, drooling and renovations you actually succumbed to, it's time to check on your dough. Can you afford those exercise equipment? If not, Yoga or Pilates tapes could come in handy.

I told you this could get really tricky. Exercise equipments stuck on your basement is a lot better than having nothing to turn to if you finally felt like exercising with an equipment, right?

About the Author: Charlene J. Nuble 2005. For up to date links and information about fitness equipments, please go to: http://fitness-equipments.besthealthlink.net/ or for updated links and information on all health related topics, go to: http://www.besthealthlink.net/

Source: www.isnare.com

The Very Best Way To Lose Weight Is To Cleanse Your Body - Ralph Morton

2006-12-10T21:12:00.000-08:00

If you're one of those people who have never given any thought to what ingredients might be in the products you use, you're not alone.
And if you're one of the people who believe that if it's on a shelf being advertized and sold, then it must have been tested and be safe to use, well, think again.

It is so frustrating to me to see how large corporations sell out their consumers just to make a buck, but then I guess that's what makes the world go round, right? Profits are put before the health of the public and using "beauty" as the hook, most people are drawn right in. I think it's time that we set new standards for ourselves and our children. Sure everyone wants to look "younger" and "more beautiful," but at what expense? We as consumers need to know what is in the products we are using and how it can affect us today and in the future.

The truth is that few of the chemicals in cosmetics and personal care products are fully tested to find out what kind of affects they have on the humans that use them, and certainly none of the toxic chemicals are tested in relation to other toxic chemicals. After all, you do use more than one product at a time, don't you?

In other words, no one really knows what the adverse reactions are at the time of usage or what's going to happen after they have accumulated in your body over a period of time.
It's time for you to become informed, learn about the ingredients, read about what consumer organizations are doing to try to protect you, find out about healthy alternatives to using synthetic toxic products, learn about the effects of these ingredients and the various reactions that you might have to them.

Find out the truth about fluoride. Why is it that the FDA requires a warning on all fluoridated toothpastes telling the consumer to seek professional help or contact a poison control center immediately if they accidentally swallow more toothpaste than used for brushing?

Learn about the possible link between the aluminum in antiperspirants and Alzheimer's disease and that there is research to suggest a link between aluminum and epilepsy.

Using conventional products is a matter of personal choice. We can avoid many of these toxic chemicals by simply using organic products instead. We have options. Organic skin care is an area of the organic movement which has made real progress in recent times, and where previously there were few options available, there is now a fairly wide range of grooming products out there. Another option open to consumers is to make your own cosmetics using organic ingredients.
As you can see, we are really required to look after our families and ourselves, no matter what products we are using, they may toxins.

We also find toxins in our vegetables, our meats, our dairy products, a great lot of thought has to go into your selection of foods.

Have you ever asked yourself this question, why is it today
we have more obese people? Up 67% of the population are
overweight today. There were a great lot less many years
ago. A few, but in no way were they around as they are
today, and believe me it will get worse. It will not get any
better unless people educate themselves. Unless they know
why this is happening, the problem will continue to grow.

In order to rid ourselves of these toxins it was required
someone came up with a Natural body cleanse which would be able to clean out
the fatty particles, and the toxins from the colon, liver, kidneys
and lungs, plus all the other organs. I am happy to say I used John
Anderson's natural cleanse from the Isagenix company, after I used it
I felt 100% better and had the energy I had lost over the years.

You will also find this company offers Natural Beauty Aids which are worth investigating.

In order to rid ourselves of these toxins it was required someone
came up with a body cleanse which would be able to clean out the
fat particles, and the toxins from the colon, liver, kidneys and
lungs, plus all the other organs. I am happy to say I used John
Anderson's natural cleanse, after I used it I felt full of energy,
just like I had when I was young.

You are not doing yourself any favors by leaving toxins in your
Body, cleanse and feel wonderful.

Ralph Morton is the author of many articles regarding Toxins.
has helped hundreds of people lose a lot of weight. To learn
a great lot more visit http://www.theteam.isagenix.com and
click on ISAVIDEOS and watch and listen to Dr Natrajan.

For much more information Visit http://thisisyourbusiness.net or email at noviorbis@telus.net

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ralph_Morton

How To Get 6 Pack - Niall Mehaffey

2006-12-07T22:33:00.000-08:00

This is one of the more common questions men ask, I mean, it's the ultimate women magnet, right? Having a 6 pack will definitely help you to attract the ladies and of course, it looks great too. It's usually thought of that only certain men can have a 6 pack but this is not the case, in fact, cay man can have them if they really want to, you just need to do what it takes to get them.

So, how to get 6 pack abs?

Well, there are quite a few factors to consider when you ask how to get 6 pack abs, you have to think about things like:

*When you want to have a good 6 pack - No, it will not happen overnight but that's ok because when it does happen you will be overjoyed you waited, if you expect things to happen overnight then you are wasting your time.

*Your diet is important - Your diet has quite a big effect on your body as a whole so you will have to try your best to eat foods that will be beneficial for your 6 pack, you can find out what you should be eating on the internet.

*How much you can train - This is the most important factor, you will need to take note of how much time and effort you can put into working on your abs, think about things like your work hours, your social time, sleep and anything else you might have to do.

*Your plan - Another very important factor is having a plan and sticking to it, you can get fool-proof plans already made for you which will be the best idea as they are proven to work, instead of you wasting your time on something that doesn't.

Those are some of the biggest factors in the general idea of how to get 6 pack abs although, there is more to it than that, you have to know what to do, how to do it, when to do it, for how long to do it and much more, I suggest you find out more information and really drill down to what needs to be done, this way it will be much easier on yourself to complete it.

If you really want to know how to get 6 pack abs then I highly suggest you take the needed action to get them, I mean, it won't happen by you just sitting around thinking about it, you have to do it. Take action today and see the results tomorrow!

Discover how you, too, can get 6 pack abs in no time at all using a proven-to-work system at:

==> the-internet-marketer.com/get6packabs it's the easiest and fastest possible way to know how to get 6 pack abs!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Niall_Mehaffey

Walking: The Ultimate Exercise - Dek Santos

2006-12-06T16:34:00.000-08:00

Heart associations around the world recommend one form of exercise that is effective and won't cost you half a month's salary: Walking. Yes. Nothing can be simpler. I've been seeing a lot of misleading advertisements in both online and off-line media. What the general public doesn't know is that they can achieve the same results and perhaps burn the same amount of calories without that expensive machine.

The amount of calories that you can burn with usual pace walking is between 100-150 calories in 30 minutes. It is recommended that you should spend 30 minutes, 3x a week, doing brisk walking, which will let you burn 200-250 calories per session. Aside from burning calories, you strengthen your heart, you improve your circulation, and better yet, you don't force your joints or muscles to conform to any machine standards.

Now, maybe you're thinking: 200 calories per walking session? That's not enough, is it? If you're aiming for a drastic drop in your weight, yes, this may not be enough. But as I have pointed out in my previous articles, drastic weight loss is UNHEALTHY weight loss! The amount of calories you burn by walking (along with a healthy controlled diet) will make you lose weight in a gradual, healthy manner. Yes you are only losing 200 calories per walking session. But imagine the amount of calories you can get rid of if you incorporate walking in your lifestyle! Climb the stairs (instead of using elevators), walk a few blocks (instead of riding a cab), walk around whenever and wherever you see the opportunity!

So the next time you are tempted to buy another exercise machine, don't just think twice but thrice. Know that you always have a healthier, equally effective alternative. I'd invest in a good pair of walking/running shoes if I were you. Let's walk to your health!

Dek Santos is a practicing physician in Manila who concentrates on methods of losing weight the natural and healthy way. Learn more about his ideas by visiting: http://www.healthydietweightloss.com

Stay Safe, Stay Slim, Lose Weight Naturally!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dek_Santos

Achieve Weight Loss - Know the Top 10 Reasons We Get Fat - Lenay Rogus

2006-12-04T22:00:00.000-08:00

1. We eat too much cereal and drink too much apple juice.

Both of these foods have too much sugar and can contribute to insulin resistance. They can also cause children to act out of control.

2. We eat lots of white flour foods.

Most “wheat” bread is enriched white bread. Think of all of the foods made with white flour: breads, pasta, cookies, muffins, Danish, crackers, pretzels, snack foods, biscuits, pancakes, waffles, all cakes, all pies. White flour can turn into sugar in the bloodstream faster than regular table sugar. White flour foods contribute to obesity and insulin and leptin resistance.

3. We eat too much sugar.

Most all of the white flour foods in #2 above have sugar in them or added to them. We all love candy, cookies, cakes, pies, candy, ice cream, fruit juices. Sugar, especially the very high glycemic high fructose in salad dressings and fruit juices, contribute greatly to our inability to manage sugar in our bodies. If we eat too much sugar foods, or what we call high-glycemic foods, the body must produce more insulin than usual to control the sugar. This is what leads to insulin resistance. Sugar cannot easily be taken into cells to burn for fuel, so they are quickly led into fat storage.

4. We love those potatoes.

Potatoes are a staple of American life. We love French fries, country fries, hash browns scalloped potatoes, mashed potatoes (especially whipped with garlic), baked potatoes, boiled potatoes, and potato salad. We love them with butter, sour cream and chives, bacon bits, and melted cheese. We might allow a little bit of vegetable in them like broccoli on occasion. Potatoes are a good vegetable, high in potassium. But we really overdo it. All potatoes are high glycemic except for the red new potato which is more difficult to break down into sugar. It’s medium glycemic. What that means is that the potato, like white flour, quickly turns into sugar in the bloodstream.

5. We have food cravings. Foods call to us.

We really crave food if we eat any of the foods above that have a high glycemic value and raise our blood sugar only to have insulin drop it. The insulin drop can cause overwhelming, uncontrollable cravings. Think about eating a lovely Italian meal with pasta and garlic bread. You usually wind up overeating…being almost too stuffed to walk out the door. Unfortunately, when we crave food, we usually crave a sugar food as in #2 and #3 above.

6. We love to drink wine in this sophisticated age.

We also love beer and martinis, etc. Alcohol easily turns to sugar in the body. One drink is rarely enough. We’d be okay if we stopped at just one, but it’s usually two….or more. That automatically stops any weight loss program you are on for at least three days. To pace yourself, order a glass of water with lemon along with your drink order when you go to a restaurant. Sip on both of them. That way you won’t be finished with your drink by the time your meal comes.

7. We eat too fast.

We often shovel in the food before the brain signals us that we are full. That’s why we may overeat and not realize it until we are done, or until we leave the restaurant. Many restaurants and fast food places serve very large portions. Generally, we are eating more food than we need and feeling too full at the end of our meals. When we go to a restaurant, the bread is brought out first along with any type of alcoholic drink, if we order one. Then it takes a long time for the food to come. This isn’t an accident. Restaurants know they can often get another drink order if they wait. It’s important to slow down. The best way to do this is to put your fork down frequently during a meal. That way you can converse and enjoy your meal more. Hypnosis can help create this habit.

8. We eat late at night or before going to bed.

This causes the leptin signal to your brain to create more leptin instead of slowing it down so the body can get the message to burn fat. Fat burning occurs while you are asleep, and it will burn fat at a 60% rate if there is a span of 11 hours between eating at night and having breakfast in the morning. If the leptin remains high before you go to bed, the fat burning process turns off.

9. We often go on crash diets or fad diets to lose weight fast.

Taking weight off fast without ultimately changing your eating patterns only assures you of a fast rebound of weight gain. The body likes its fat cells just the way they are, and when you try to reduce them, the body responds by lowering your metabolism thinking its going into starvation mode. Then when you eat “normally” again, the weight is immediately regained, and often more than you took off.

10. Everything is all or nothing.

When we are on a diet and eat something we shouldn’t, we have a mental voice that says, “Well, I better eat it all so it won’t be in the house tomorrow when I go back on my diet.” So we eat more cookies, have that second (or third) piece of pie or cake….finish the box of chocolates. We lose our sense of moderation. We feel if we screw up with one meal, the day is lost. It’s really small mental adjustments throughout the day that keep us successful in maintaining our weight. If you have that piece of sourdough bread for lunch, that doesn’t mean you have to go wild with your eating the rest of the day. However, if the carbs are too high, we often become uncontrollably hungry and often for more carbs.

You may think gaining weight is a result of just eating too much food, but for many it’s not the quantity of food but the type of food that results in weight gain. Hypnosis works so well with weight loss because it basically records over old tapes we have in our mind about how we relate to food. New re-programmed habits can then automatically, almost effortlessly replace the old conditioned responses we have to eating. Used in conjunction with the right type of eating plan, hypnosis can play an important role in losing weight.

Lenay Rogus has been a consulting hypnotist since 1995. She is founder of the Forever Slender™ weight loss program, a program that consists of 5 hypnosis CD’s, an innovative, low-glycemic food plan with menus and recipes for eight weeks, plus personalized email coaching. You can visit her websites at www.foreverslenderprogram.com and www.hypnosisbylenay.com

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Going To The Gym For The First Time? Here’s What You’ll Need To Know - By Jim O’Neill

2006-12-03T22:04:00.000-08:00

You’ve been thinking about it for quite some time now. You know you need to get your butt to the gym and start working out. You know you’ve gotten yourself out of shape and an hour or so in the gym three or four days a week sure wouldn’t hurt.

Ok, so you’ve finally done it. You went down to the local fitness club and spent 2 weeks pay on a one year membership. You even went to the local K-Mart and got yourself some new exercise outfits. Now you’re ready to go and get in shape. But before you do, there are a few things you should keep in mind to make your time in the gym productive, enjoyable and most of all, injury free.

WARM UP FIRST: this is very important to not only get your blood flowing but to minimize the risk of injury. some good warm up methods include walking on the treadmill for 10-15 minutes starting out at a slower pace then working up to a more brisk pace halfway through. Perform 10 minutes or so of stretching exercises such as toe touches, hurdlers stretches, twisting at the waist and reaching your arms out fully in every direction. before you do any exercises that involve using weights (biceps curls for example) do one set with half (50%) of the weight you’ll be using to prepare the muscles, tendons and ligaments performing the exercise to better handle the heavier weight.

START OUT EASY: when you first get to the gym and you are ready to hit the weights, select an amount of weight at first that seems almost too light but still provides some resistance for each exercise. Remember that proper form, posture and technique are far more important than how much weight you are using. Also, you must give your connective tissue (tendons and ligaments) time to strengthen in order to help prevent injury from the heavier weights you’ll be using later. You can always increase the weight as you go when you can do so without compromising proper form, posture and technique.

When you first get on the treadmill, stationary bike, stair climber or elliptical machine, remember that your heart probably isn’t going to be in the kind of shape to go all out and for this reason you should take it at a slower pace for a while. Each week, pick up the pace and the length of time spent on these machines a little at a time. This will give your heart time to build up to faster paces and longer periods. Remember, your heart is a muscle and like any other muscle, it needs time to adjust to the stresses placed on it during exercise.

KEEP AN EXERCISE LOG: one of the best ways to monitor your workouts as well as your progress is to write out your exercise program, stick to it and write in the weights you use for each exercise, and when you’re ready to increase the weight on any exercise, write it in.
On the treadmill or any other cardiovascular machine, write in your speeds and length of time spent. when your ready to make increases, write them in. in this way you not only are able to stay on a structured program ( which is far more productive that having no system ) but you can also keep track of the progress you are making and see how much progress you have made since you began. When you see that you’re making good progress as you go, you will become more motivated to stick with it.

COOL DOWN: after you’ve completed your workout, take 10 minutes at a slow pace on the treadmill. This will let your body cool down a little slower and a slower cool down is easier on your heart than if you cooled down quickly. During this time, you can reflect on the workout you just performed and feel the sense of well being that exercise gives you.

Now that you know a few things that will help to make your gym experience a more productive, more enjoyable and more injury free one, you are ready to go and start working on getting the body of your dreams, the right way.

About the Author: Jim O’Neill gives you tons of valuable information on the subjects of weight loss, fitness, and nutrition to make it easy for you to live a healthy lifestyle. Sign up now for his free 7 part mini e-course at: http://www.mrgymfitness.com/minicourse.php

Source: www.isnare.com

Fast Muscle Growth - Bodybuilding 101 What They Don't Teach In Muscle School - Frank Sherrill

2006-12-01T11:50:00.000-08:00

Are you working out like a madman or mad person, to be P.C. and still not getting the results you want? Then the answer may be found in this article. So take a moment to read these quick steps you can take to GUARANTEE your muscle growth.

Do you want to be bigger, stronger, faster, and have more endurance?

If that's what you want then consuming more protein in your daily diet may be the ticket to accomplishing your goals.

Secret To Fast Muscle Growth I've heard from hundreds of clients, fellow Rangers and Bodybuilding buddies that they desire to get bigger, stronger, faster and have more endurance.

Often, when I propose that the solution may be just as simple as eating more protein, many get dismayed and feel that I'm giving them a blown-off response.

But the simple truth is that most athletes don't eat nearly enough protein to help them recover from their training, much less grow bigger and stronger.

Why is protein so important for me as an athlete and bodybuilder?

Of the three macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, and fats) protein is the only one which contains nitrogen. Nitrogen is necessary to muscle growth. Consuming sufficient protein can help keep you in a "positive nitrogen
balance" meaning that your body is retaining more nitrogen than it is excreting.

Being in a positive nitrogen balance is indicative that you are in an anabolic (tissue building) state. That means you are in a position to build bigger, stronger muscles.

The best times to consume your proteins are:

First thing in the morning upon awakening, to stop the catabolism (tissue breakdown) that results after several hours of sleeping, and jump start your body into an anabolic (tissue building) stage. The best protein for this meal is a complete protein such as scrambled egg whites or a protein
shake containing a multi-blend of proteins. Be sure to also consume some carbohydrates with your protein, such as oatmeal or whole grain cereal.
Every 3-4 hours thereafter as part of a complete meal. Giving your body protein every 3-4 hours promotes a positive nitrogen balance and will ensure that your muscles are supplied with the nutrients they
need to grow. Remember to wait at least 1-1.5 hours after a meal to train.
The best proteins to consume during your daily meals are lean chicken, fish, or turkey or a protein shake. These proteins are broken down and absorbed slowly over a period of hours, providing long lasting nourishment to your muscles.
Pre-exercise meal. Using proteins that are mostly isolates will digest the fastest. Take a high quality whey protein isolate about 30-60 minutes prior to exercise to allow for proper digestion. Take in 30-60 grams, along with a piece of fruit such as a banana.
Directly after your training. Within 30 minutes of training you should consume 75-100 grams of carbohydrates in the form of potatoes, whole grain bread with jam, bananas, rice, or whole grain cereal with
skim milk. You need this to raise blood sugar levels in your body.

This sugar will be deposited in the cells of your muscles and liver. The insulin released by your body in response to the carbohydrates will promote the uptake of amino acids into muscles as well.

For this meal, you should consume 40-60 grams of a high quality whey protein isolate. Unlike protein blends which take hours to digest Whey Protein is digested very quickly (within 30-45 minutes) so that your body can begin post workout muscle repair right away.

Then, one hour later, have a complete whole food meal consisting of a protein such as chicken, turkey or fish, along with a complex carbohydrate such as sweet potatoes, rice and beans, or whole grain rice.
Right before bedtime. Using a protein with a high casein content will allow for absorption over an extended time period and help stabilize your insulin through out the night. This should allow you to sleep better through the night. A light protein will provide time-release amino acids that your body can use to repair and build muscle all night long. Take in between 30-60 grams, depending on your duration of sleep and ability to digest protein.

Follow these shortcut steps and quickly build a muscular body.

Frank Sherrill is a former U.S. Army Ranger, martial arts expert and the
creator of the Bully Xtreme Portable Home Gym which offers up to 600
lbs of resistance and 82 muscle pumping exercises. Frank has written hundreds of articles about Isometric Exercise, Static Contraction and the Bullworker. Learn how to build your body and turbo-charge your metabolism without drugs, using his little know secrets by visiting Bullworker . To receive Frank's free muscle building report and free monthly newsletter, visit www.bullyxtreme.net

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Frank_Sherrill

20 WAYS TO LOSE WEIGHT - By Sheila Dicks

2006-11-30T11:51:00.000-08:00

1. Take it one step at a time

Start by paying attention to what you eat. Cut back on fat and sweets and add more fruit and vegetables. After you have that under control, add exercise. If you hate to exercise try it for only 15 minutes a day at first, then a 1/2-hour. Keep in mind that while you are exercising you are burning calories and not eating. Also, it will be easier if you chose an activity that you enjoy.

2. Find a friend

It is always good to have support when you are trying to lose weight. Find a friend who wants to lose weight and compare notes, weigh-in together and maybe even have a contest.

3. Use weights

Working out weights will build muscle and raise your metabolism so you will burn more calories. Also, muscle takes up less space than fat so you will be smaller ( but probably weigh more).

4. Eat fewer carbs

Don’t eat as much bread and pasta and you will see a difference.

5. Set a goal

Set a deadline to lose the weight and write it down. For example, ‘ By Dec 14/04 I will weigh 150 lbs or less’. Put it somewhere you will see it daily.

6. Give up soda

If you drink a soda or 2 a day you are adding empty calories. If you find it hard to stop completely, cut back at first and drink water instead.

7. Grill or boil

Avoid fried meat, grill and use lots of spices. You will get used to it and probably enjoy it more.

8. Don’t buy junk food

When you go shopping, don’t go on an empty stomach and you will be less likely to buy junk food. Keep your home ‘junk food free’ so you won’t be tempted to indulge.

9. Eat breakfast

Consume most of your calories early in the day and always eat breakfast. Don’t eat after 8pm and not only will you avoid those added calories but you will sleep better.

10. Give yourself a treat

When you tell yourself that you can’t have something you want it more. Give yourself a treat once a day ( ie. half a cookie) and you won’t feel you are missing out.

11. Use smaller plates

Trick yourself into believing that you are eating more by using a smaller plate.

12. Drink lots of water

Drink water when you are feeling hungry and you will get that ‘full’ feeling.

13. Don’t eat everything on your plate

Many times we eat just because it’s there. Pay attention to when you have had enough.

14. Eat five or six meals a day

Eating more frequently will keep you from getting too hungry.

15. Plan your workout sessions

Write your workout sessions in your journal or planner.

16. Stay away from fad diets

Fad diets don’t work. If you lose weight fast chances are that you will gain it back ( and more) just as fast. It takes time to put it on and time to take it off.

17. Do several workouts a day

While you are watching TV do crunches and leg lifts.

18. Measure your food

If you decide to have junk food for a snack - be sure to measure and control what you eat.

19. Keep pre-cut vegetables …and ward off those cravings.

20. Create Good Habits

It is a known fact that when we do something twenty-one times it becomes a habit. Create good eating habits.

Sheila Dicks is a wardrobe and image consultant who teaches women how to look slimmer by dressing to suit their body type. Visit her at http://www.sheilasfashionsense.com to download a copy of her e-book Image Makeovers and get How to Build a Wardrobe free.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sheila_Dicks

Appetite Suppressants - A Natural Proven One That’s good For You! -Sacha Tarkovsky

2006-11-29T09:25:00.000-08:00

There is cheap natural organic compound that is a great appetite suppressant to help with any diet and what’s more it is also proven to make you feel better.

Can’t guess what it is well it may well surprise you. Let’s take a look.

It’s nicotine and its safe and healthy to take when:

Not consumed in cigarettes.

Here were going to discuss nicotine in its natural form as an appetite suppressant only - were not recommending you smoke!

Nicotine as an appetite suppressant

It is well known that Nicotine has an affect on the signals in the brain that trigger hunger pangs.

A significant number of smokers when they quit smoking over eat and put on weight.

Nicotine without the smoke

If you want to curb your appetite, then nicotine can help and you don’t have to smoke to get it.

Nicotine is an organic compound that is safe, non toxic and is found in a variety of common foods including potatoes, vegetables, bell peppers and some teas.

Medical research

Nicotine is known to act as appetite suppressant and this has triggered major research into it helping treat obesity and a number of other conditions.

Nicotine is also known to help improve mood and concentration and research is ongoing into the possibility of nicotine being used to treat:

Depression, Schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and Attention disorders.

Drug companies are therefore looking to extract nicotine in its organic state and use it as a treatment for the above.

First products on the market

Nicotine in water has already appeared on the market and has been researched by a number of companies and the first is now on the market.

Water is a great delivery method for dieters as it is a well known fact that water is another appetite suppressant in its own right.

Water acts as a natural appetite suppressant by keeping your stomach full and stopping dehydration which can lead to hunger pangs.

When you get "hunger signals", in a large majority of cases they are “thirst signals"

Water also helps your body metabolize stored fat by helping the kidneys flush out waste.

So Nicotine and water together are a great combination to help dieters.

Nicotine getting a new image

Nicotine has had a bad reputation due to its association with cigarette smoking but removed from cigarettes not only can it help curb appetite, it can also make you feel happier, improve concentration and memory, all at the same time.

Nicotine is now being seen as an organic compound that actually has some great health benefits and in the near future expect to see more new products hit the market.

New Organic Nicotine Drink

Get a new refreshing lemon water, containing pure organic nicotine and to find out more about nicotines potential health benefits, visit our website at: http://www.smokefreechoice.com

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

3 Ways To Avoid Weight Gain During The Holidays - Eunice Coughlin

2006-11-28T09:35:00.000-08:00

The holiday season typically is a time of indulgence. It is seen as a last chance to eat all the good stuff until the diet kicks in January 1st. It is rare to see someone make a commitment to maintain their weight, rarer still to see someone try to lose weight during the holidays. If you are one of those few people, congratulations!

You may feel alone in the crowd, however, so here are a few tips to help you hang on during the rough spots.

First, make a plan for the parties. Let’s be real and admit that you are probably going to indulge yourself at some point in the holidays. I know I will. However, if you plan it right, you can still enjoy the goodies without completely blowing it. Choose one or two events that you know you are going to have to be more flexible with your diet. Make a commitment that those times are the only times you are going to “cheat”. Once the event is over, go right back to your healthy diet. If you’ve been faithful to follow a healthy diet the rest of the time, your metabolism should be able to weather those occasional indulgences pretty well.

Second, commit to your exercise plan no matter what. Even if you do eat something you shouldn’t eat, the exercise should burn up the extra calories so that you are at least maintaining your weight.

Third, when you do indulge, remember that it is only food that we are talking about here.
Eating that piece of cheesecake or scooping into that spinach artichoke dip is not going to change your life or solve your problems. It might taste good for a moment but then the after-effects of bloating and weight gain stay with you. A little taste is good and really all that you need so that you don’t feel deprived. Keep a level head and don’t get carried away with how good it tastes on your tongue.

Most of all, be proud of the fact that you are watching your weight during the holidays. Most people who take advantage of the “eating season” will go on a diet New Year’s Day and will probably be back to their old habits within a week. If you’ve chosen the most difficult part of the year to try and lose weight, be encouraged to know that you will probably be successful in the long term.

Eunice Coughlin is the founder of www.healthy-living-for-moms.com, a resource for moms of all ages and stages who seek spiritual and physical health and wellness. To find out how to lose 5 pounds fast in a healthy way, go to www.healthy-living-for-moms.com/lose_5_pounds_fast.html .

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eunice_Coughlin

10 Healthy Tips for Fitness Success - By: Linda Geyer

2006-11-27T11:29:00.000-08:00

Getting fit is on the minds of most people. However, many people are not consistent and fail in the first three months of an exercise program. But if it becomes a habit and they stick to it, something magical happens after four months. You are finally getting the results you expect and chances are you will continue with the exercise program.

Here a 10 simple tips to help you with your fitness success.

1. Get Moving. Resolve to be active in a variety of physical activities on a regular basis that will develop strength, cardiovascular capacity and flexibility.

2. Prime the Pump. Resolve to participate in physical activities that involve the large muscle groups of the body.

3. Let Your Muscles do the Work. Resolve to lift weight or use resistant exercises to place demands and challenge your muscles.

4. Loosen Up. Resolve to stretch regularly – before and after or during exercise. Remember to move your muscles through their full range of motion on a regular basis.

5. Win the Losing Game. Resolve to maintain your weight at an appropriate level. If you need to lose weight, a general rule to follow is to eat less and exercise more (both in moderation).

6. Watch What You Eat. Resolve to eat a healthy diet. Good nutrition equates to good health. Good nutrition involves providing your body with the required nutrients in appropriate amounts.

7. Chill Out. Resolve to keep matters of your life in proper perspective. Know what factors you can and cannot control in your life. Don’t “stress out” over those things beyond your control. See change as an opportunity, not a threat.

8. Get Plenty of Rest. Resolve to get enough sleep. The basic guideline concerning how much sleep you need is whatever enables you to feel refreshed, alert and in relative good spirits the next day. Sleep helps to rest and restore your body – both physically and mentally.

9. Keep Your Focus on the Task at Hand. Resolve to make time to exercise on a regular basis. Consistency gets results. Focus on the muscle you are exercising. Don’t just go through the motions.

10. Keep in Mind that “There is no Free Lunch.” Resolve to commit to sound lifestyle choices. For example, don’t smoke. Maintain an appropriate level of body fat. Avoid the latest fitness and diet fads, magic potions and exercise gadgets that seem too good to be true (they always are).

For more information and tips on exercise, go to http://www.easyexercisetips.com
Linda Geyer, entrepreneur, speaker and author has spent her entire career in health related businesses helping clients and audiences make health a priority. She is Founder and CEO of Vitality Management and owner of Peak Physique Fitness Training in Michigan. Linda inspires, motivates and educates on health prevention through exercise, healthy eating and positive attitude. For FREE tips go to www.easyexercisetips.com To contact Linda, email linda@peakphysiquefitness.com

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

A Beginners Guide to Bodybuilding – The Basics - Bob Giddy

2006-11-26T13:24:00.000-08:00

As a beginner to bodybuilding there are few basics you need to know before you head off head first down the gym to start training to ensure that you maximize the effects of your work outs and minimize the risks of injury.

One of the biggest mistakes many people do when they are starting out in bodybuilding is to fail to do any research and so they don’t see the results they want, so if you’re reading this you’re a step ahead of the game. A failure to see results causes serious frustration and many people stop training, so do your research first.

You need to learn the most effective and efficient methods to build muscle, burn fat and tone your body, plus learning how to live a healthy lifestyle is essential especially in terms of your nutrition.

One of the first things you need to do before you start any new training program or exercise regime is to get in touch with your doctor and get a full check up. If you are in your teens, a young adult or have had any health problems in the past this is especially important. Also your doctor should be able to give you advice about training programs, your diet and do general checks to ensure your body is in good order. Plus your doctor may be able to recommend good gyms to join.

As a beginner bodybuilder you should make a concerted effort too learn as much about your body and bodybuilding as possible, as it’ll help you in your efforts to get that perfect body if you know what you’re training and why you’re doing it. A good way to get started is to do train your entire body first by working the largest muscle groups, and then focus on specific areas that you want to tone and define. So don’t just go down the gym every day and do a few hundred sit ups and expect to get a six pack, it won’t happen. Don’t forget to warm up before and after you session and stretch thoroughly to encourage muscle growth, keep you flexible and avoid injury.

If you don’t eat healthy you won’t build the quantity of muscle you could do otherwise and you’ll never get the definition you want. Self discipline is essential. You also should speak to a nutritionist and learn the difference between good fats and carbs and bad fats and carbs; also you need to identify the optimum amount of protein you need in you diet.

When you are training make sure that you drink plenty of water to ward off dehydration. If you eat the correct foods and live a healthy lifestyle, such as not smoking, not drinking and ensuring you get enough sleep, you’ll maximize all your training efforts significantly.

Finally speak to other gym goers and find a coach to teach you how to use the equipment properly and to design you a personalized training program to optimize you efforts. If there’re professional bodybuilders at your gym, speak to them and ask them about how they did it. Follow your training program carefully to avoid overtraining and learn your body’s limits so you don’t injure yourself. If you eat and live healthy and stick to your training program you’ll have the lean and toned body you desire in no time.

Do you want to learn how to pack on massive muscle, melt away fat and get the body of your dreams? If so, get your hands on free bodybuilding tips for beginner bodybuilders by clicking the following link: http://teenbodybuildingtips.info/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bob_Giddy

Sorry to my Readers

2006-11-25T20:48:00.000-08:00

Sorry to all my readers but I was away for the holidays and no where near a computer. I will be posting more articles soon. Thanks for your patience.

Sincerely,

Anna A.

6 Ways to Prevent Holiday Weight Gain - Craig Ballantyne

2006-11-21T13:19:00.000-08:00

Obesity has worldwide problem. In fact, almost 2/3 of Americans need to lose weight and over 1 billion people in the world are overweight. If you are overweight, you need to lose weight and improve your health and fitness. And yes, this can still be done over the holiday season. Don't wait for New Year's day to start your weight loss resolutions.

There are a number of reasons for the increased incidence of obesity and overweight individuals, as suggested by American statistics, but also a number of workout and nutrition tips that can counter the effects of each bad nutrition and exercise habit that we have:

* It has been estimated that for every high-sugar drink you consume, you increase your risk of obesity by 60%! Soft drinks provide 33% of all added sugars in American diets.

Tip #1: Avoid drinking calories!

* In the USA, sugar consumption has increased from 26 to 32 teaspoons (between the 1970’s and 1998).

* Americans eat an extra 150 kcal per day now in comparison to 1980. In theory, this could lead to 15 lbs. of weight gain per year!

Tip #2: Avoid over-eating treats at parties. If you can't have just one, don't have any at all!

* Your obesity risk increases 6-fold if you watch more than 2 hours of television each day.

Tip #3: Stay active. Walk around the mall a couple extra times if it means you'll avoid the couch and overeating at home. Stay busy, stay active, stay lean.

* Only 25% of individuals exercise moderately for 30 minutes each day, whereas 25% of the population does no exercise at all.

Tip #4: It's not all or nothing. If you can only do 15 minutes of exercise, that is still better than nothing. Don't stop all exercise just because you can't do 30 minutes that day.

* Obesity continues to increase in the USA despite a continued decrease in the consumption of dietary fat. In 1994-96, fat accounted for 33% of total calories compared with 40% in the late 1970's.

* In 1994-96, just over half of the population reported eating fruit each day while the consumption of processed carbohydrates (such as bread, snack foods, and cereals) has increased 110% since the late 1970's.

Tip #5: Avoid processed carbs. Hit the veggie tray, the protein offerings, and the calorie free beverages at parties. If its rolled in pastry, don't eat it.

* Milk consumption has decreased in children by 16% since the late 1970's, while consumption of soft drinks increased by 16%.

Tip #6: Don't keep soda in the house. If you don't buy it, neither you nor the kids will drink it.

Stick to these 6 simle tips and you'll stay lean over the holidays. Add in a little more exercise and you could do the impossible - lose fat over the holidays!

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Craig_Ballantyne

Tips for Building Bigger Biceps - Richard Mould

2006-11-20T21:38:00.000-08:00

The best way to build bigger biceps is to incorporate a few different types of curls that each trains the muscles in a different fashion. It is important to note that the term biceps refers to two different muscles (long head and short head) and by diversifying your workout and attacking your arms with various approaches; you can be assured that your arms will get a comprehensive workout.

The most grueling biceps training routine is performed with the use of supersets. The concept behind doing supersets is that there is almost no rest between sets, causing your muscles to overload- thus triggering growth. I suggest using a three or four station rotation. I have always performed a three-station routine. I prefer to do this workout with a partner for two reasons; motivation and timing. Bicep workouts cause a lot of pain, and the extra motivating force, that comes from working out with a competitive partner, provides the extra boost that I need to push my body hard enough to finish the workout. When working with a partner, I begin my rotation just as my workout partner finishes theirs. The competition that comes as a result of taking turns shortens the rest period between sets, making the workout more challenging and thus more effective.

The program consists of three stations, each targeting and isolating the biceps in a unique and specific way. For the first station, I recommend the standing dumbbell curl. Begin the movement with the dumbbell heads pointing to your front and back, and rotate the dumbbells as you lift them so that the heads of the dumbbells are pointed to your left and right as you complete the movement.

The second station is the standing barbell curl. Select a light weight for this station because even the what may seem to be a light weight in the beginning, is going to feel very heavy after just a few repetitions. Make sure you keep your back from excessive rocking back and forth as this may cause injury or help you cheat on your lifts- two very bad things.

Finally, on your third set, move to a bench and perform seated dumbbell curls. Keep the dumbbell heads pointed parallel to your body, i.e. the heads should point over your shoulder at the end of the movement. Do not rotate the dumbbells while doing these curls.

When you have completed 4-6 rotations, it is time to move on to a burnout station. For the biceps, I recommend burning out with incline-curls. These will add significant size to your arms, in a relatively short time. Incline-curls are very similar to the last station in the rotation, except they are performed while on an incline bench. These are great to finish a bicep routine because they simultaneously stretch and flex the biceps muscles. Incline-curls are very effective at adding size to the biceps, and they are most effective at the end of a workout, when your muscles are torn because they double as a stretching routine. You can lift both dumbbells at the same time, or one after another. If you lift them at the same time, this workout offers a good stretch for your chest.

Richard writes a lot of articles.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Mould

Weight Training Exercise And Dieting - By Dorrie Ruplinger

2006-11-17T08:36:00.000-08:00

Is weight training exercise important when dieting? Many experts will quickly tell you “yes” if you ask them this question. Why? It’s because weight training builds muscle and helps increase the body’s metabolic rate. This means, that even while resting, a person who weight trains and who has built more muscle in their body will burn more calories than a person who doesn’t do any weight training.

Plus, weight training workouts typically burn more calories per minute of exercise than cardio workouts do.

But, for women especially, the thought of doing weight training exercises with the intent of building muscle scares them because they think it will make them look less feminine and too masculine. A woman shouldn’t worry though. Unless she does a tremendous amount of muscle building exercises (hours a day) she will not develop a more masculine physique.

Many experts are now recommending that women pick up heavier weights to help them build more muscle and a lean, toned body that is healthy.

Curves for women is one national chain that promotes a circuit type workout for women that builds muscle without building bulk. They recommend doing their 30 minute workout three times a week. That doesn’t mean a person should only exercise three times a week. Cardio exercise can be done every day of the week. Curves isn’t the only choice for women who wish to do weight training exercises. The YMCA is a good place for both men and women who want to get in shape.

Muscle building exercises shouldn’t be done every day though because they fatigues the muscles too much (except for body builders who spend hours a day in a gym following highly specialized workouts under the advice of highly trained trainers). Muscles need a day to rest and recover from their workout before being worked out again. That’s why the recommendation for most people is three weight training sessions a week, doing cardio workouts the other days of the week, with one day a week off to rest.

Another benefit of weight training workouts while dieting that many people don’t think of is that they prevent the loss of lean body mass that typically occurs when people diet. What typically happens when a person goes on a diet is they lose some of their muscle mass along with that unwanted fat. Weight training exercise also strengthens bones and connective tissue.

So, to help your weight loss efforts be successful, do three 30 minute weight training exercise sessions a week. Not only will they help you lose weight, they will help you get stronger, more toned, and healthier.

About the Author: Dorrie Ruplinger has written several articles about weight loss. For a free report on how to lose 10 pounds before Christmas visit LoseWeightForChristmas.com.

Source: www.isnare.com

10 Easy Weight Loss Tips - Chris Chenoweth

2006-11-16T00:12:00.000-08:00

What is the secret to losing weight? Carefully monitor what you eat and expend more energy than you consume. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? However, if losing weight is really that simple, there would not be so many overweight people.

Obesity is quickly becoming an epidemic in this country. Why has it become such a problem? Too much stress, too little exercise, poor eating habits and a rushed way of life are all contributing factors. Losing weight is NOT simple.

What can you do in order to be successful at weight loss? Try the easy, but effective, tips listed below. They will help you lose weight in a healthy way and keep it off.

1. EAT AT LEAST 5 SERVINGS OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES EVERY DAY. Eating vegetables in their most natural state (raw) is more nutritious for your body but cooked vegetables are fine, too. If it is a struggle to get that many fruits and vegetables into your daily diet, try vegetable soups or fruit smoothies made in a blender.

2. EAT ONLY WHEN HUNGRY BUT NEVER SKIP A MEAL. Eating increases your metabolism so eat four or five small meals every 3 to 4 hours. Your most important meal of the day should be breakfast. Eat protein, whole grains, fruit and vegetables.

3. CUT OUT WHITE FOODS (sugar, flour, bread, donuts, crackers, etc.). They raise insulin levels, protecting your stored fat instead of burning it off. If you have these foods lying around in your kitchen, get rid of them! They will only provide temptation for you.

4. DRINK LOTS OF WATER, at least 8 glasses a day, instead of soda or other sweetened beverages. Water flushes out the system and eliminates harmful toxins. It forces the body to run more efficiently, speeds up metabolism, and makes it easier to lose weight and burn fat.

5. ALWAYS EAT YOUR MEALS SITTING DOWN at the kitchen/dining room table. NEVER eat in front of the television. This leads to overeating because you are not paying attention to what you are putting into your mouth.

6. DO NOT RESTRICT YOUR FOODS TOO MUCH. If you do, you will become bored and frustrated by your limitations causing you to revert back to your former eating habits.

7. EAT SLOWLY. Chew your food completely to decrease your appetite. Put down your fork/spoon after every bite. This will help you realize when you are full.

8. DO NOT EAT AFTER 7:00 PM. If you absolutely cannot abstain from eating, indulge in a piece of fruit or a cup of herbal tea.

9. EXERCISE EVERY DAY – sorry, but you have to! However, you do not have to kill yourself. The easiest exercise that will benefit anyone regardless of their fitness level, that can be done inside or outside, is walking. A brisk walk can burn as many calories as jogging, but does not have the risk for injury that jogging does. The only equipment needed is a good pair of shoes. If you do not want to walk alone, find a friend to go with you.

10. GET AT LEAST 8 HOURS OF SLEEP EVERY NIGHT. This is very important for your body.

Is losing weight simple? No, but by following the tips listed above, you will be engaging in a lifestyle that will enable you to lose weight and keep it off.

Chris Chenoweth, author of the DO-IT-YOURSELF HOME, HEALTH & MONEY GUIDE, writes articles pertaining to diet, exercise, health, and business.

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Three Basic Factors To Sexy Abs! - By: Gina Marietti

2006-11-15T15:53:00.000-08:00

There are three basic factors that will help you lose your belly: strength training (which increases resting metabolic rate), cardiovascular exercise (which burns calories), and proper nutrition. Without all three, you can do crunches all day and never get the flat tummy you desire.

Let’s start with cardio. You need to do a cardio exercise you enjoy, 30-45 minutes, 3 or 4 times a week. Running, walking, biking, you pick. Strength training should be performed 2 or 3 times a week. Remember having more muscle mass means you burn more calories during the day. And last but not least, watch what you eat! The stomach is one of the first places bodyfat is stored. So when extra calories are consumed, a “spare tire” appears. Dieting off the fat is absolutely necessary if you want to reveal the muscles of your midsection.

One way to get the most out of your ab exercises is a better form. Follow these few tips during your work-outs. Keep your hands folded across your chest or rest them at your ears. This will ensure your abs do all the work during the exercise. Many people want to put their hands behind their head-don’t- this will only put pressure on your cervical vertebrae. Instead of raising your shoulders towards the ceiling, think about bringing your ribs and pelvis together. You will get a more intense crunch if you concentrate on using only those muscles.

The key behind great abs is your DIET! If you do not lose the fat that covers your muscles you will never be able to show off your six pack. Great Abs is 90% what you eat and 10% exercise. So start burning fat calories and you’ll see your tight abs in no time!

Visit my webiste www.fitnessinhometraining.com to learn more about getting GREAT ABS!
Gina is an ISSA certified personal trainer. She works with her clients in their own homes and offers online fitness training. She writes a weekly fitness article for her local newspaper. Her passion is fitness and helping others reach their fitness goals. She participates in dualthons and 5K races all the way to marathons.

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Dangers Of Dieting - Dieting Truths You Need To Know - Maisy Day

2006-11-13T11:58:00.000-08:00

Dangers of dieting - yes you heard right, dangerous diets. We are all aware of the facts on healthy eating and of the benefits i.e. keeping the weight down. To follow a well balanced diet encourages a healthier rewarding lifestyle. Healthy diets will most evidently help towards keeping you in shape and a state of well being - but on the other hand we have those eating plans that do not point out the dangers of dieting.

Dangers of dieting where rapid weight loss occurs is most commonly found in young teens who feel pressured into losing weight, especially after flicking through a glossy magazine full of slim line models that grace the catwalk.

To avoid the dangers of dieting always speak with your doctor or dietician. Bear in mind that any diet on which you eat fewer calories than you should, like an 800 calorie-per-day diet for instance - is very dangerous. Warning - look out for diets that do not allow any fat, these are not good for you and should be avoided. The reason why is - we all need a certain amount of fat - up to 30% of your total calories. Although needless to say that a low-fat diet may be fine, do not follow a diet that is completely free of fat.

Do not be tempted by a diet that encourages the dangers of dieting - such as a total ban or strict restrictions on certain food groups. A diet plan that states no bread or pastas and only permits the consumption of fruit is unhealthy. Your body needs vitamins of which you will not get by following dangerous diet plans as such.
You can brush aside those worrying words - the dangers of dieting if you have selected the right plan to follow in your quest for weight loss.

Dieting means restricting calories or cutting down on certain food types. Remember that cutting out particular foods can prove to be very dangerous indeed. Always ask questions on matters that may give you reason for concern. Abstaining from certain food types can lead to poor growth and other health problems.

Do not be egged on by the magazine models with pouting lips and bony skeletal frames because, surely by looking at their appearance i.e. no flesh on the body can not hide the fact that they chose to ignore the signs of the dangers of dieting.

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5 Weight Lifting Myths That Destroy Muscle Results - Jim O'Connor

2006-11-12T12:06:00.000-08:00

We have all heard that weight lifting is beneficial for our bodies to maintain lean tissue, increase strength, and boost metabolism. The challenge arises when we base our weight lifting routines on certain myths. This, of course, leads to wasted time, and less than optimal muscle building results. Therefore, it is safe to say, we are not getting a great natural muscle return for the precious weight lifting workout time invested.

Weight lifting myths start when one bodybuilder tells another bodybuilder who tells another bodybuilder of this new weight lifting workout technique that really works. The only problem is the theory is backed by pure fallacy rather than sound science. It is upsetting to realize the weight lifting workout world is riddled with myths. Therefore, it is my responsibility today as an Exercise Physiologist to deliver the weight lifting truth.

My top 5 weight lifting myths will not only empower your mind, but also stimulate your body to more natural muscle in much less time.

Please avoid these 5 weight lifting program myths that I reveal below. Your natural muscle building results depend upon it.

1. Use heavy weight and less reps to build muscle mass, and low weight with lots of reps to shape the muscle and increase its definition. How many times have you heard this fallacy? I have heard it thousands of times. Many women believe this is a way to "prevent them from developing big muscles." This is definitely not the case.

The fact is shaping muscle results from decreasing subcutaneous body fat. If you simply decrease your calories each day, you can develop greater natural muscle definition. Greater natural muscle definition is even possible without lifting weights, that is, if your body fat drops low enough.

Don't get caught falling for this myth. Instead decide first what your primary weight lifting program goals really are. Are you interested in building muscle mass, or increasing muscle endurance? Next you decide the number of reps, and intensity of training. If definition is your main goal then build muscle while decreasing calories in order to strip away the unwanted subcutaneous layer of adipose tissue.

2. You can reduce fat in a specific area by working that specific muscle (spot reducing). Please note that muscle growth and body fat loss is systemic in nature. It is a fact that the central nervous system triggers the muscle growth process. Therefore, overloading the central nervous system is the most important step in natural muscle development. As far as body fat is concerned, working a specific muscle group does not mean fat will suddenly melt off in that specific area. Weight training and fat loss, once again, has a systemic, not localized effect in the body.

3. You must train at a full range of motion to develop natural muscle. There has not been a study proving that "full range" reps stimulate more muscle fibers. The fact is limited, or partial reps stimulate muscle growth, and can be considered safer. Just think, almost all of our daily activities are performed at a partial range of motion. Let's take sprinting for instance. Sprinters are not running at a full range of motion, and they still develop muscle tissue. Once again, there has been no study conducted to date which confirms you must perform a full range of motion in order to stimulate maximum muscle growth.

Now I'm not suggesting in natural bodybuilding it is bad to train at a full range of motion, but possibly more effective to train at the strongest range of motion. Thus, more resistance can be applied leading to greater muscle fiber stimulation. Consider incorporating partials in your weight training workout.

In order for hypertrophy to occur in a natural bodybuilding program there are two requirements: maximum overload, and increased work in a unit time. Range of motion is not imperative to muscle development.

4. Must weight train 3 days each week or your muscles will suddenly get smaller. Many natural bodybuilders feel this is absolutely true. Please don't fall into this trap. The fact is the opposite is best. Weight lifting less allows for maximum natural muscle regeneration. Without rest the body can't overcompensate from the added stress by generating larger muscles. Once a weight lifting workout is conducted while not completely recovered from the previous session, the whole natural muscle building process will be short circuited, and compromised. Therefore, bodybuilders who train religiously 3 days per week at a high intensity level are doing more harm than good.

Don't be afraid of losing muscle if you miss a week of weight lifting. More than likely you are gaining muscle during rest, not losing it.

5. You must do 3 sets per exercise, and multiple weight lifting exercises in order to see progress. False. False. False. Studies have proven all you need is one high intensity, muscle stimulating set in order to stimulate maximum muscle growth.

There is no scientific basis, nor reasoning for performing 3 sets per exercise.

As a natural bodybuilder, and Exercise Physiologist, I know how important it is to not fall into the trap of these all too common weight lifting myths. By reading this article you are a step above other bodybuilders, and will get much great muscle results from your weight lifting routine. The next time someone tries to promote these myths you will definitely know better. Weight train with wisdom!

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Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine, Blog, Autoresponder,
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Jim O'Connor is an Exercise Physiologist who specializes in natural bodybuilding. He has numerous information product, and website promoting the bodybuilding truth. To qualify for his free multimedia health and fitness newsletter go ahead and visit natural bodybuilding.

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The Great Side Effects Of Being Fit - Christopher C.

2006-11-11T22:32:00.000-08:00

Since most everyone talks about the “bad” side effects that occur when you try to lose weight somebody else’s way (starving yourself, not exercising correctly, popping pills to lose weight), I want to focus on the positive side effects that you will feel when you decide to change your life by doing it the right way.

Let’s quickly make a list of the “side effects” of not getting on a fitness exercise program and healthy eating plan vs. making a change to a newer, greater you…

Not on Health/Fitness Program “Side Effects”:

-Gain weight -Lose muscle (If you had any in the first place) -Add fat -Decreased stamina (In ANYTHING you do) -Increased rate of illness (colds, flu, etc.) -Increased rate of disease -Frequently tired -Depression -Lowered self-esteem

Now, let’s list a few side effects of being healthy when you start to adopt a positive change in your life:

-More energy -Confidence -Greater feeling of self-worth -More muscle -Less fat -A general feeling of happiness -Feeling that you can conquer anything you want to (and you can!) -Lost weight

It’s a pretty easy pick, isn’t it?

And that’s just the beginning, folks.

Believe me, there are a whole lot more side effects (both positive and negative) when you make this all important choice.

And I haven’t even touched the reasons about your friends and family, and how this greatly affects them too.

That’s for another time.

So, it all comes down to this….

Would you rather take the easy way out, and lay on your couch, eating bon-bons (do they even make those anymore?).

Or………

Would you rather decide right now that you’ve had enough, and design a plan of action to take you from where you are right now……

To wherever you want to go to.

Do I need to go any farther?

Didn’t think so.

At least by reading this (and my other) articles, you are taking that all important first step.

That first step to a leaner, healthier you.

It may SEEM hard at first.

But let me tell you……..

Oh, really let me tell you………

It’s FAR more worth it than anything else you can imagine.

I mean, who wants to (as they get older) spend all of your free time in doctor’s offices and hospital rooms?

What kind of retirement is that?

Well, if you don’t start taking care of yourself NOW (no matter what your age)……..

You have a very high likelihood of giving all of your money away to doctors.

What fun is that?

Not much.

You might as well wave goodbye to your vacation home, your trips overseas, your new sports car, and your new boat…..

You’ll be too busy paying doctor bills.

All because you didn’t follow Chris C.’s advice, lol.

I would say I told you so……..

But you’ll probably be experiencing too many negative “side effects” to listen……..

Since I know your way better than that, let’s start today and not turn back!

Don’t wait till it’s too late!

I’ll talk to you soon.
Chris C.

About The Author

Chris Callegari, founder of http://www.fitnesswithchris.com/ is unleashing his real-world exercise, fitness, nutrition, and healthy eating tips to the world, to help support lifestyle changes for any and everyone.

Dumbbell Workouts - A Smart Way To Exercise - C.J. Gustafson

2006-11-10T19:09:00.000-08:00

Dumbbell workouts have been around for many years, especially as part of weight training equipment and programs. Fad workouts and equipment have come and gone, but dumbbell workouts have remained an easy, inexpensive way to get in shape and strengthen muscles. Their reliability and effectiveness are just some of the reasons for the longevity of their popularity. Add in the fact that they take up little space and cost far less than many other types of equipment, and it becomes clear that they are a perfect choice for many fitness fans, especially as part of a home gym. There are many different dumbbell workouts that can be done at home.

Advantages of Dumbbell Workouts

Working with dumbbells has several advantages over other types of equipment that use resistance. For instance, by their very nature, dumbbell workouts require you to use stabilizing muscles that are important to strength, balance, and posture. Unlike some exercise equipment that utilizes movements that may take some getting used to, dumbbell exercises use many of the body’s natural movement patterns and also incorporate a greater range of movement than many other types of fitness equipment. And the flexibility of dumbbell workouts means that you can target specific areas of the body very effectively.

Dumbbell Safety

Before getting started with dumbbell weights, there are some basic safety rules to follow. As with all forms of exercise, it is best to start with some stretches or warm ups to loosen and prepare each muscle group. Failing to stretch the muscles can result in strains, tears and other injuries. It is also important to learn how to do the exercises properly, using correct form and technique before moving to heavier dumbbell weight sets and more difficult dumbbell workouts. There is a wrong way to do the exercises, and this too can result in injury or at a minimum, a lack of conditioning or effectiveness. Using a mirror helps you to see if you are using correct form.

In addition, experts recommend that with any type of weightlifting program, you have someone spot you at all times. Spotting entails having a person who watches every step of your workout to be sure you are not overextending yourself and to provide support and encouragement at critical points. A properly executed dumbbell workout will push your muscles to their limits and even a lightweight dumbbell can hurt like heck if you drop it on your head or toe. Lastly, it is a good idea to check with your physician or fitness professional before beginning exercises if you have health concerns or have experienced an injury, especially in the back or shoulder area.

Dumbbell Workout Exercises

When people think of dumbbell workouts, they often think of working the biceps and triceps. And in fact, dumbbells are ideal for strengthening and growing these muscle groups. However, there are exercises that incorporate dumbbells in ways that work every major muscle group in the body. The following six exercises each tackle one area of the body. They are some of the most common and easy to understand.

1.) Build those biceps

Hammer Curls - Stand straight and slightly loose with a dumbbell in each hand. Extend your arms on each side of your body with your palms facing each leg. Keep your elbows tight against your body, curl the weights up in a hammer motion and slowly return to the starting position. You can work both arms simultaneously or alternate the two. Repeat as many times as possible. Remember the goal is to fatigue the muscle.

2.) Try your triceps

Press – Lie flat on a mat or weight bench. With a dumbbell in each hand, extend your arms straight above your head, palms facing each other about two inches apart. Keep your shoulders pressed flat and avoid moving them. Bend your elbows and slowly lower the weights until your hands are on either side of your head. Push your arms back to the extended position and repeat for the desired number of reps.

3.) Shoulder the load

Shoulder Press – Can be performed sitting or standing. Sitting is recommended for beginners, as is a chair or bench with back support. With a dumbbell weight in each hand, extend your arms directly over your head, keeping elbows slightly bent to avoid locking. Slowly lower your arms until they are bent in a 90-degree angle, then push back to extended position and repeat. It is important to be sure you are pressing straight overhead as the tendency is to move at a diagonal.

4.) Best Chests

Flies – This exercise can be done lying flat or at a slight incline with back supported. With a weight in each hand, extend arms above your chest with palms facing each other. Bend your elbows slightly and be sure to keep that bend throughout the exercise. Lower your arms to either side until your upper arms are parallel with the floor. Push back to the extended position and repeat.

5.) Back to basics

Bench Rows – This exercise requires a bench set at a 30-degree incline. Adjust the height of the bench so that when you lie face down on the bench, your hands just barely touch the floor. Grab a dumbbell in each hand with your palms turned toward your feet. Bend your arm at the elbow and lift the dumbbells to your sides so that your upper arm is parallel with the ground. Slowly return the weights to the starting position and repeat.

6.) Get a leg up

Lunges – This is an exercise that is often included in an aerobics workout. Adding a dumbbell helps target the leg muscles and increases the strengthening effectiveness. Stand straight with feet about 12-18 inches apart. With a dumbbell in each hand, held at your sides, step forward with one foot, bending the knee at a 90-degree angle. Allow the other leg to bend automatically and that knee to just barely touch the floor. Push back to an upright position with the original foot and repeat. Do a set leading with the opposite foot as well, or alternate after each lunge.

These are just a few of the different dumbbell workout options. Trainers and fitness professionals have developed dumbbell exercises for all levels and situations. Dumbbells are an inexpensive, versatile way to burn calories and target specific muscle groups. They work well for people with limited space and for anyone who wants to add difficulty to an existing workout.

About the Author:

C.J. Gustafson is a successful writer for Best-Home-Gyms.com, providing consumer information and reviews on the best home gyms, strength training equipment, adjustable dumbbells and the best ab machines. Copyright 2005 Best-Home-Gyms.com

Article source: www.anyarticles.com

Bodybuilding Hypnosis: Mind Over Muscle - James Malone

2006-11-09T15:22:00.000-08:00

Those rugged individuals who pursue bodybuilding and other strength related sports are known to be a group bordering on the fanatical-and they often cross over that boundary. Whether it is a new diet or exercise regimen, they are always on the lookout for whatever will give them the extra edge. Bodybuilding hypnosis is another tool that can have considerable potency.

Contrary to the image of hypnotism in funny stage shows or scary movies, a hypnotized person does not become unconscious or out of control. Rather it is a relaxed state of awareness where an individual learns to better activate his full mental and physical potential.

Clinical hypnosis is often used to help people successfully overcome fear, pain, lack of confidence, stress and unwanted habits. There are also three primary areas where hypnosis can help the bodybuilder as well, these being relaxation, breaking past barriers and maintaining focus.

Relaxation. As every strength athlete knows, muscle is actually built during the resting phase. Exercise that progressively increases in intensity places stress on the muscle fibers. During rest the body adapts by making them larger and stronger in preparation for future challenges. Although regular exercise is a great stress-buster, it is a rare individual who can relax deeply and completely at will. A lack of sleep and rest interferes with the hormonal system’s ability to respond to stress; dampening energy, immunity and yes, muscular development. Hypnosis has a well deserved reputation for helping people to develop deep relaxation skills.

Breaking past barriers. Are the limits on your potential solely physical or is there a mental aspect involved as well? Sports history tells us the story of Sir Roger Bannister, the first human to run a mile in under four minutes. Prior to that, many “experts” proclaimed that this feat was impossible and possibly life-threatening. What is most interesting is that after Bannister smashed that barrier, several other runners followed suit soon after. Nothing had changed about them physically. Rather the collective belief system of those athletes had undergone a transformation for the better. Hypnosis enables you to overcome self-imposed limitations. Maybe your potential is greater than you have suspected?

Increasing focus. It has been noted that successful people are usually both confident and intently focused on what they truly want. The word “confident” itself is derived from the Latin for “with faith.” If you can persistently focus on a compelling goal image, your behaviors will unconsciously change in order to turn that picture into reality. Most people lack focus and are vague as to what they want out of life or from their training routine for that matter. As a result their efforts tend to be scattered and inconsistent. Is it that you want greater size, strength or definition? A few minutes spent every day relaxing and focusing on your desired outcomes will pay handsome dividends.

If mind over matter is possible, certainly mind over muscle is as well and should be considered when putting together a well-rounded training program.

James Malone is a Certified Hypnotist from Point Pleasant, New Jersey and is also the publisher of the wildly popular Creative Calm Online Newsletter. He realizes that you would probably kick sand in his face (and deservedly so) if he were to suggest that hypnosis could replace proper diet and exercise when it comes to building your ideal physique. But what if it gave you an added 5% edge in your performance over the next year, would you be interested? You may wish to learn more about his Mind Over Muscle Audio Program.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Malone

Presidential Fitness Challenge: A Right Step To Curb Obesity - By Ashish Jain

2006-11-08T16:31:00.000-08:00

Obesity is fast emerging as a health problem the world over. The US seems to be among the countries that have been worst hit by fat-attack. It is quite evident from the fact that the President of the United States could not ignore the situation and brought the presidential fitness challenge into effect. This is an effort to encourage and fire enthusiasm in children and adults alike to exercise and stay fit.

Presidential fitness challenge gives ample room to the children to be active in any way they feel like. They can choose any such physical activity that they like and stay active with it. The goal of the measure is to have children exercise for at least an hour every day for five days in a week. They are, therefore encouraged to pick any physical activity of their choice from low-intensity workouts like walking to high intensity activities like playing basketball or football.

Adults too can participate in the program and the goals for them are similar. But there are a few modifications in the requirements considering the busy schedule of an average American. For an American adult thirty minutes of exercisign is enough for a day, provided the frequency of the workouts is maintained regularly

The US seems quite serious about its rising average body weight as more and more people are being diagnosed obese everyday. It is important for children to learn the benefits of exercising so as to be active and fit all through their lives. It is also observed that the children who play passive games lose their ability to enjoy rigorous games and eventually start feeling tired and bored doing their daily chores. This is disheartening because any fellow who goes to the gym can tell you as to how elated they feel after working out.

A person doesn't only feel the spark of energy in his body but also in his mind and spirit. This feeling of wellness plays a vital role in generating enthusiasm and boosting one's self image, which, in turn, bolsters one's self confidence and makes one feel and perform better. Therefore, a regular workout keeps one healthy, fit and confident. What else can one ask for.

About the Author: To get more information on weight loss, obesity and weight loss and weight loss pills visit http://www.thelosspill.com/

Source: www.isnare.com

The Difference Between Liquid Hoodia And Hoodia Pills - Rand Hanes

2006-11-07T15:03:00.000-08:00

For those interested in taking hoodia, they will be presented with a choice between pill and liquid forms. As with any natural supplements taken, there are certain distinctive differences between liquid and pill forms of consumption. Similarly to taking multivitamin supplements, hoodia in liquid form is more expensive but has been shown to assimilate into the body system faster and have a greater amount of the substance used by the body than when it is taken in pill form.

Of course, companies who produce in liquid form are more than happy to self advertise these facts. The process requires state of the art technology and can be a bit expensive, which is why the supplements do indeed cost more than their pill counterparts. Reducing the substances to liquid forms allows the body to be able to digest it faster and easier than pill form, which results in a higher percentage of the substance being used by the body due to the increased biochemical potency and this results in more effect for less substance.

The system works since liquid hoodia is pre-extracted and therefore the body does not actually need to digest and break down the hoodia as it would need to in the pill. Rather, liquid form contains pre-extracted hoodia and this allows the body to use it as soon as it is consumed, bypassing the digestive process.

Obviously price can be a deterrent in swaying certain buyers from switching to liquid form, however there are a couple more advantages. Namely, less hoodia has to be consumed for similar effect. Rather than having to take a bulky pill, users can instead put a few drops into a glass of water and drink the extract with ease. Thankfully, the taste is of such liquids is usually either not noticeable or contains a few additives to add a good taste to counteract any negative tastes resulting from the extracts in the liquid.

About The Author

Find out more about hoodia gordonii, and my weight loss blog at http://www.hitechweightloss.com/ or click on the link on the left hand side of this blog.

How to Build Chest Muscle - Ben Ehinger

2006-11-06T23:21:00.000-08:00

I once was a skinny guy that had very small muscles, but now I am large enough to have confidence in my new chest muscles. Here is my strategy for how to build chest muscle fast and steady.

I once weighed only 150 pounds and had very little confidence in my physical stature. Now I weigh over 200 pounds and I am pretty much a cut, good looking hunk. I love the new confidence I have and the attractive women I am able to date because of my confidence and new body.

I started by searching for all types of information on how to build chest muscle and how to gain weight properly. I tried all the different designer proteins and supplements. The GNC store got a lot of my money before I actually started making gains and achieving my goals.

The key was that I had to slow my metabolism down with more anaerobic exercise and higher protein foods. This allowed my body to gain fat and turn it into muscle.

In order to build up my chest I started doing bench press, butterflies, incline press, dumbbell bench press, and push ups on Monday and Thursday. On Tuesday and Wednesday I would only lift with my lower body and on Friday I always did my arms back and shoulders.

This allowed my largest gains to happen in my chest. Once I started really gaining weight I added in a weekly run and now I run 3 times weekly so that I can stay cut. I also do 500 crunches daily and have been working on higher reps to stay trim and sexy.

My after picture is something I am very proud of now and my before picture is almost like a funny comic strip to me now. I love my new body and my new confidence.

Are you ready to gain weight and build your muscles? Do you want to find the confidence that you need to date more attractive women, turn heads, and know that you are stronger and more attractive? Go to the following website to learn all the deep dark secrets of the body builders that are most successful:

http://www.ready-repair-my-credit.com/muscle.htm

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ben_Ehinger

How Much Cardio Should You Do - Craig Ballantyne

2006-11-04T21:03:00.000-08:00

Tom Venuto is an NSCA-certified strength and conditioning specialist, lifetime natural bodybuilder, freelance writer, and personal coach. Tom has spent years in the gym training himself and thousands of clients. Here's his experience based recommendations for you.

CB: Do you ever have some individuals that just don’t lose fat even though they are doing “everything right”? What do you do in these special cases?

TV:
Very rarely. If someone is honestly “doing everything right,” then they get results. However, I’ve worked with people who got results very slowly. If someone was journaling their training and nutrition and I knew they were honestly doing everything right and getting poor results, I might refer them to a physician or health professional for some testing, but I usually look closely at a few factors first.

What I’ve discovered over the years is that there are big differences in how people respond to various diets due to their metabolic type or somatotype. Somatotype generally refers to the physical body structure; ectomorph, mesomorph or endomorph. Metabolic type refers more to how efficiently an individual metabolizes proteins, carbohydrates, fats and specific food types. Prescriptions by macronutrient ratio are often given according to metabolic type. I think there is value in metabolic typing if someone is stuck on the standard “conventional” fat loss diet, but I find some of the metabolic typing systems and questionnaires overly complicated and unnecessary.

In terms of metabolic typing, the single most important distinction you can make is simply a person’s response to concentrated carbohydrates. Some people handle a diet of 50-60% carbs perfectly, while a small handful seem to only respond to getting rid of the grains and starches, (and sometimes even limiting fruits). That leaves lean proteins, healthy fats, nuts, seeds, all types of vegetables and some fruits. The amount of starch/grain the person can handle is the X factor.

That’s the factor I would test and manipulate if someone is on a diet such as 50-55% carb, 25-30% protein, 20% fat, doing everything right and nothing is happening. You can do it without complicated lab tests or long questionnaires – it just takes a little trial and error playing with your “X factor.”

If you asked me 12 or 15 years ago, I would have been the guilty one saying, “Never eat a low carb diet.” Today I’ve experienced first hand that carbs must be manipulated for some people to really get results. Over time as the person gets leaner and increases lean body mass, I find that the tolerance to carbs increases so that more carbs can be included during maintenance.

Another thing I do when someone isn’t losing fat is that instead of just looking at what they’re doing now, I like to know what they’ve been eating and how they’ve been training over the past three to six months. If someone has been chronically dieting and chronically overtraining for many months, sometimes the best thing they can do is take a layoff, or eat more!

More often than not, the client will be resistant to both ideas. If you give them some hard data, it’s not hard to persuade them. There are reams and reams of research on the effect of very low calorie dieting on metabolism, hormones and body composition. When I explain the consequences of prolonged very low calorie dieting, they’re more likely to listen than if I say do it just because I said so.

Show any man a study proving that extremely low calorie diets lower Testosterone, and you get their attention quickly. Many of the strategies that are most effective for fat loss are counter intuitive to what the average person believes. People are sometimes hard to change, but it’s a matter of educating people.

CB: Another area of debate is the use of cardio during muscle-building programs. What’s your opinion of doing traditional cardio training when a client is trying to build as much muscle as possible?

TV:
Cardio should be kept to an absolute minimum on muscle building programs. In some cases it can be dropped completely. I prefer to keep three days a week for 20 minutes year round. I like the way it makes me feel and I believe it helps me stay leaner while gaining muscle without interfering with my gains.

When the fat loss season arrives, there is a progressive and gradual increase in cardio frequency, duration and intensity. I don’t recommend high volume cardio year round. It’s too easy to adapt to high volume cardio. Cardio should be periodized just like strength training.

People who are strongly opposed to aerobics often like to use aerobics instructors as the example of why “cardio sucks.” “Why did a survey reveal that the average aerobics instructor has twenty-something percent body fat? Why aren’t they leaner?” The answer is because they don’t periodize their cardio like bodybuilders do. Lay off the cardio when you want to gain muscle. Gradually increase and build to a peak when you want to get ripped. Your body will be more responsive this way when you do add in the cardio.

CB: What levels of cardio do you recommend for general health purposes? Can you have good health without cardio?

TV:
You can definitely have great health without cardio. Even the medical and scientific communities agree on this now. In 1990 the American College of Sports Medicine revised their position stand on the recommended quantity and quality of exercise to include strength training. Today other organizations have finally followed and publicly recognize the health benefits of strength training.

We know that lifelong health and permanent fat loss can only be achieved if a client will adopt exercise as a lifestyle and stick to it. If a client won’t stick to a program he or she isn’t going to get lasting results. So when you make a recommendation you have to consider what your client’s preferences are.

If you have a client who hates weight training, well, I’d still persuade them to include a few brief strength workouts every week and explain in excruciating detail why they need it. But if they love being outdoors cycling, walking, hiking, rollerblading, I would also factor those personal preferences into their program. I teach my clients that when it comes to your health, all exercise counts and I encourage them to simply be more active in general.

CB: Any final words, tips, or hints to help our readers lose fat?

TV:
Be flexible. Customize. Know your body type. Test and experiment with various methods and make up your own mind. Let your results dictate your approach. Don’t try to avoid risks, manage them. And work your butt off; there’s still no real “secrets” or “breakthroughs” - nothing works like hard work.

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Craig_Ballantyne

Whip Yourself into Shape with Buns of Steel - Morgan Hamilton

2006-11-03T09:25:00.000-08:00

Are your jeans quite tight around the waist? If this is so, maybe you are suffering from a serious affliction called weight gain. You are not the only one. Millions of Americans have the same problem. It might be because you have turned thirty and your metabolism is not working as before. Or it might be because you have started a second shift and you usually have dinner at midnight. No matter what has caused this weight gain, something should be done about it. No one wants to leave their clothes in the trash and have to buy a whole new wardrobe full of plus size clothes. This is not plus as in a positive thing, this is plus as gaining pounds. It is high time you did something. It is time for "buns of steel".

Are you aware of the buns of steel fitness regime? If not, you should look it up. It is a video tape which can be bought from any store. Its main purpose is to make your body back into shape, buns included. If I were you I would not laugh. After all, the opposite sex pays a lot of attention to our backsides. Do you know that a recent survey showed that this is the primary part focused on by women? Well...just as men women love shapely buns. I would have suggested it was man's chest but obviously nice buns are more important. Guys, how do your buns look now? Maybe this is a bad question. But anyway, you should know that it is not only the women who should acquire buns of steel. It is always a two-way street, guys, so be ready to get into shape for your lovely ladies.

What kind of exercises do you do every day? Do you prefer to do your exercises at home or do you go to the gym on a regular basis? Regardless, either way is a good way to stay fit. In case you are working out at home, then buns of steel is an ideal asset for you. Purchasing this fitness tape is inexpensive and you can use it for as long as you want to. The best place to find hot deals on a buns of steel workout video is the Internet. There are hundreds of fitness tapes and regimes available online. Check any discount superstore such as Amazon.com and get that buns of steel tape for a few dollars. Purchase the bunks you've always wanted.

Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding all aspects concerning Buns of Steel. Visit our site for more helpful information about Buns of Steel and other similar topics.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Morgan_Hamilton

How to lose weight - Anjlina Croft

2006-11-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

My great grand father is appalled. Big sophisticated health clubs, fitness centers, nutrition schools never figured during his time. Health trainers, diet experts, fitness coaches, figure counselors are total strangers.

Even his favorite morning newspaper has changed. Coverage for politicians is on shrink though pages have multiplied. Big chunk is poached by sports and health. His world is totally changed. Depressing - while he is growing old and feeble, the world is renewing its youth.

Fat is the most hurting comment today a person can make on another. To some it agitates more than the four letter word. The body image now has become a social identity with slimness no more a monopoly of actors and celebrities. Commoners are now aspiring to be Miss World and they are aware, no celebrity carries even a fraction of extra bulk.

Youth are not alone. World governments have collaborated for the slim battle albeit for different reasons.

More than 80 million Americans adults are smokers, obese or both and face increased risk of poor health and early death, say researchers.

Australians seem losing the fight against obesity, as average Australian has put on an extra 1.4 kg in the past five years. The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study warns waistlines have expanded dangerously and above 20,000 in Queensland alone, are now classified as obese rather than overweight.

Recent figures show the number of obese children in Britain between 11 and 15 has almost doubled over the past 10 years.

India too, has jumped among the top 10 obese nations of the world with around 120 million urban Indians seriously overweight.

The obesity epidemic has brought with it a host of associated illnesses or co-morbidity factors, such as diabetes, heart ailments and even cancer.

World Health Organization has classified obesity a chronic disease and physicians are encouraging pharmacotherapy along with lifestyle changes to maintain weight.

While nutritious diet and exercise are long term measures to contain obesity, medication for achieving quick results are necessary.

Oral Phentermine is an appetite suppressant sold for weight loss for short-term management of obesity. Safe and effective, Phentermine works best when taken in conjunction with diet, exercise and behavior therapy.

Phentermine works by stimulating the hypothalamus gland and affecting certain neurotransmitters to decrease appetite. The hypothalamus is the region of the brain that controls the autonomic nervous system, appetite, etc.

For More information visit: http://www.prescriptionsfirst.com/

Anjlina Croft is an associated editor to the website http://www.prescriptionsfirst.com/. It's an online pharmacy company. It is committed to provide visitors with complete information on weight loss, men's health, sexual health, and online prescription drugs like Cialis, Xenical, Phentermine, Adipex, Influenza and Tamiflu by latest news, personal views, and articles on different health related topics. Your feedback & comments will be highly appreciated at anjlinacroft@gmail.com

Article Source: DW Articles

What Is Hoodia? - By Alvin Toh

2006-11-01T13:04:00.000-08:00

Hoodia has been used by South African Bushmen as an appetite suppressant and thirst quencher during long hunting trips for more than 100,000 years. It was discovered during a study of indigenous foods by a lab in South Africa, and may represent a great opportunity for the South African economy as well as a diet miracle for many who have given up on other weight loss products. Hoodia is a succulent cactus–like plant, with stalks that look like spiky pickles.

However, it does not belong to the cactus family. Hoodia plants grow up to about 1m tall, with large strong smelling flowers in the wild of the Kalahari Desert in South Africa. They are known to the indigenous people as Xhoba.

Hoodia Gordonii is the species that is being researched for its appetite suppressant properties. There are other Hoodia species, some of which are grown in gardens, but only Hoodia Gordonii is thought to contain the active ingredient, Hoodia P57.

The diet industry is a billion dollar industry. Following the media hype on Hoodia, many US supplement companies began selling pills which they claim to contain Hoodia. Demand for Hoodia pills skyrocketed. In a set of clinical trials, obese volunteers were given an extract of the Hoodia Gordinii plant. They ate, read, watched TV and slept without exercising at all. At the end of the 15-day trial period, they reduced their calorie intake by 1,000 calories per day. Hoodia seems to offer a ray of hope to those who have been trying to lose weight. It has also become more popular following rumors that TV actresses were taking Hoodia to stave off weight gain.

Pharmaceutical companies are trying to develop extracts of the Hoodia Gordonii, the active ingredient P57 and market them in diet pills. They are also trying to develop synthetic version of the Hoodia P57 molecule which is responsible for suppressing appetite. Unfortunately, the synthetic version is too expensive and difficult to mass produce. It seems Hoodia Gordinii from the Kalahari Desert is best in its natural form. There have yet been reported side effects from Hoodia users. However, further research is still required.

When combined with proper diet and exercise, Hoodia can speed up weight loss. It curbs hunger and cravings. However, it is difficult to buy real quality Hoodia supplement. Hoodia, being a native plant of the Kalahari Desert, requires the appropriate climate and soil to grow. Hoodia plant takes up to 6 years to grow and mature for harvest. Attempts to grow Hoodia in the USA, China and Mexico have been unsuccessful.

There is a severe shortage of Hoodia and yet, it is highly demanded by many who are desperate to lose weight. This is a highly profitable business that has given rise to unscrupulous companies selling counterfeit Hoodia products that they claim to contain real Hoodia.

Two news correspondents travelled to South Africa to test the Hoodia Gordinii plant. Read about Hoodia in the Media at http://www.reviewsonhoodia.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alvin_Toh

You can also learn more about Hoodia for weight loss by clicking on the link to the left or clicking here.

Exercise For Cellulite - By Charles Anderson

2006-10-31T23:43:00.000-08:00

Many people believe that special creams and pills will make them get rid of their cellulite. It is true that some creams and potions can help them, but pills and creams are never enough to rid you of the complete problem. In fact, several companies that have sold cellulite creams which have made misleading claims to this effect have been prosecuted for false advertising. So, if you really want to do something to help you make your cellulite disappear, there is a more natural way, that is cheap, effective and sometimes even fun. It is all about exercising.

We all know that exercises are good for our health, heart, state of mind and muscles, but exercises can also lead to cellulite elimination. There are parts of the body, such as the thighs and buttock that depend on exercises. 10 to 12 repetitions of leg curls and squats with some weights are great. Then after one set, a 2 minutes break and another 10 to 12 repetitions are recommended. For the final round, the same break and the same number of exercises are just enough for one day.

To make cellulite disappear once and for all, you must try and do some exercises with light weights 3 times every week. Also, you should try and remember not to exercise the same body parts on successive days as you may cause undue strain to them.

Give your body at least a 24 hours break between workouts to rest, and remember your weight lifting exercise session can be as little as15-18 minutes a day on three times a week every other day. The days you exercise are not so important, as long as you don't weight train on consecutive days, and you stick to the program.

The other important aspect of losing weight and cellulite is to have a balanced diet and watch your weight. Any help you get to lose some weight and the fatty deposits you have acquired is a bonus. When you burn more calories than you take in, you will lose weight. Also, eating less is quite important. And when I say that I mean you should consume fewer calories. Studies have shown that a calorie consumption reduction of 25% will lead to losing one or two pounds each week. Ensure you consult your physician though before starting your exercise and diet regime if you have any health problems.

Exercises can be quite daunting at the beginning. So try and indulge in activities that are fun and don't necessarily feel like exercise. Go for long walks with your dog in the park, try playing tennis or any other sports you enjoy, ridding a bicycle, swimming, taking aerobic classes or any other activity would be great fun activities to start with.

We all know that exercises can lead to losing weight, but remember these exercises can be a lot of fun too. All you have to do is to find the activity that you enjoy most, and stick with it.

About the Author: Charles Anderson contributes to several web magazines, on health tips and fitness topics.

Source: www.isnare.com

Making a Six Pack and Losing Weight - Low Jeremy

2006-10-30T11:32:00.000-08:00

Studies have shown that there are more people who are overweight now than ever before. To counter this threat, health professionals have come up with various ways to lose weight.

Some programs recommend the person eat products that are rich in carbohydrates while cutting down on protein and the other way around. A few examples of these are the south beach diet, protein power and the Aitkin’s diet.

One program that could make the person have great abs and lose weight is called the Abs diet.

Mr. David Zinczenko is the person who designed the abs diet. Thos who want to try this should commit to the program over a 6-week period. After which the individual will see a dramatic change such as flatter abs and weight loss.

This dietary plan was initially designed for men but some women have also tried it and have reported to show positive results.

Studies have shown that a pound of muscle gained helps the person burn more than 50 calories per day. So, if after extensive work in the gym the individual is able to develop 10 pounds of muscle, this translates to burning 500 calories daily.

People who follow the program consistently are able to lose twelve pounds in the first two weeks with about five to eight in the succeeding weeks.

Everybody normally eats three square meals a day. This diet program involves eating small servings six times a week. The food consists of eggs, whole grain cereals or bread, poultry, lean meat, low fat dairy products and certain fruits.

Aside from only eating those in the list, the person will also have to endure a 20-minute workout three times a week that is designed to help in the fat burning process.

The abs diet is fairly new compared to other programs that have been around for more than 10 years.

The abs diet is available in the bookstore or in the Internet. It is best to read up on it and do some research so the person will be able to understand what will happen should the individual decide to try it out.

It is also advisable to consult with the doctor to make sure the food to be taken in and the exercises to be done weekly are safe.

Losing weight will not be easy. The person should be serious about it and follow all the directions in order to achieve the desired results.

Low Jeremy maintains diet-plans.articlesforreprint.com. This content is provided by Low Jeremy. It may be used only in its entirety with all links included.

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Treadmill Dances To offer You Lots Of Fun While Daily Workouts - Javier Fuller

2006-10-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

Folks now a days long for lots of fun in order to keep boredom at bay. Most of the folks hate monotony of exercising on treadmills and they end up craving for much entertaining options of loosing weight and gaining fitness. But guys! Don't give up treadmill exercise for this little reason. Treadmill dances have come on the block to offer you lots of enjoyment and fun while you are on your daily workout.

In fact treadmill dance has become a rage in America. With these dances your exercise session happens to be rocking. A good number of dance numbers have surfaced to be appropriately suited to different types of treadmill workouts. Before picking out a dance number for your treadmill exercise you must ensure feasibility of dance on treadmill with the track that you have zoomed in on.

Different dances are followed for different level of exercises. Jogging dances of treadmill are different from walking treadmill dances. There exist a good number of online treadmill dance guides that would make you acquainted with suitable tracks for your exercise level.

Exercising and dancing simultaneously on treadmill doesn't only result in quick weight shedding but also cast a rejuvenating effect on you. These two simultaneous activities on treadmill break your connection with the outside world for a while and help relieve your stress.

Treadmill dance tracks CDs have also come on the block to offer you a variety of dances. Shape Fitness Music Series offer host of treadmill dance tracks. You can pick out one of its CDs to enjoy dancing while doing workout on treadmill. Walking songs offered by this series include popular tracks like “Beautiful life” and “New attitude”. Jogging tracks include numbers like “Backfield in motion” and “Rock steady”. “Here it goes again” happens to be one of the most popular group treadmill dances.

For most of the folks dancing on treadmill happens to be a sheer enjoyment. However you must not indulge in dancing for extended periods on treadmill and you must not opt for complex dances on treadmill. If you don't follow these warnings you may end up damaging your hips and joints.

These dances along with bringing entertainment to your workout are also meant to contribute to weight shedding purposes. If you happen to be beginner for treadmill dances better opt for group dance exercises under guidance of a trainer or an instructor. And last but not the least, enjoy dancing on treadmill and always be cautious of your movements.

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Easy Weight Loss Permanently? - By Yasu Minoda

2006-10-26T19:51:00.000-07:00

This article summarizes what a plan must have to be able to result in long-term weight loss. If a plan fails in any one of these, any weight loss will be short-term and the individual will experience "yo-yo dieting". Several years ago, a colleague who had tried several weight loss plans, asked me to help her figure out why she wasn't able to achieve permanent weight loss. After extensive research on how the body regulates weight and studying individuals who had succeeded in attaining long-term weigh loss, I concluded that there are four characteristics that a plan must have to result in long-term weight loss. If a plan fails in any one, it might create short-term weight loss but the pounds will come back and you will find yourself trying something else. At first glance, these factors might look straightforward and simple but I will present the science behind them and why they must be taken into account for you to succeed.

The four characteristics are:

1. The plan must avoid cravings 2. The plan must avoid hunger 3. The plan must call for increasing your activity level 4. It must be a plan you can live with for a long time
What are cravings? A craving is when your body pushes you to want a particular food ingredient. This can occur even when you are not hungry. When you finally give in and get the food, you almost always binge, that is, eat more than you would have if you did not have cravings for it.

What causes cravings? Your body needs 6 essential food ingredients to function properly. They are carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals, vitamins and water. If you deprive your body of any of this, it will create the sensation that will drive you to get it. The most easily identified example is when you deprive your body of water. You develop thirst. Thirst is the body craving for water.

Weight loss plans that tell you to cut out particular foods will always lead to cravings. It is this battle in your body to give it what it needs that creates conditions of discomfort and lead to most individuals ending the programs. There is an area of the brain that controls what and how much you eat and is responsible for creating cravings as a way for you to provide the body what it needs.

So, how do you avoid cravings? By eating all the required food ingredients. The key is that in all the food groups, there are "good" types and "not so good" types. You need to know the good types and eat only those. For example, with carbohydrates, the good types are the ones with low glycemic index (GI). GI is a measure of how fast a food increases the production of insulin. Insulin causes fat buildup. Simple sugars, potatoes and white bread are examples of high GI foods, while whole grains and vegetables have low GIs and therefore good for weight loss.
By understanding the concept of eating all the essential foods and dividing them into "good" and "not so good" foods, you will avoid cravings and overeating.

Next time we will discuss hunger and how successful plans avoid hunger.

About the Author

Dr. David Nganele empowers individuals with the knowledge to take help them take control of their health. His latest book is "How to choose a weight loss plan that will work for you". Learn more at http://aboutdietplans.com.

For Free articles and more information, please visit:-
http://www.theultimateweightloss.com

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Foods That Will Allow You To Lose Weight While Snacking - By Gregg Hall

2006-10-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

Today's current trends of diets have people turning from carbohydrates, alcohol, and other guilty pleasures. This is causing failure in many diet attempts, but it does not have to be this way. You can enjoy many snack foods without feeling bad about your binge. The trick is learning which foods are okay for snacking.

Yum! Chicken nuggets. Virtually every person craves these tasty morsels. Their fat content is horrifying, however. Instead of a fried chicken nugget, try baking them. Slice up some boneless chicken breast; dip it in a mixture of egg white and water and then coat in ground almonds or whole wheat bread crumbs. Bake at 400 for half an hour and you have a new twist on an old favorite.

There is a wide array of baked potato and tortilla chips on the market. Salsa is rich in antioxidants and fat-free. You can enjoy a bowl of baked tortilla chips and serve some delicious salsa alongside it. This snack is both good for you and will satisfy your chip craving.

If you prefer guacamole with your baked tortilla chips, go for it. Avocados are rich in fats that raise good cholesterol levels. If you do not like the taste of avocado try using mashed peas instead.

Baby carrots served with a low-fat or no-fat dressing are an easy to make and delicious treat for any hour of the day.

Cook a couple of potatoes in the microwave and then scoop out the middle flesh. Slice the remaining skin into large sections and pan fry in a skillet sprayed with non-stick spray. Serve these potato skins along with some fat-free sour cream.

Popcorn is a neat treat that can be very healthy. Air pop it and eat it without butter. If the taste of unbuttered popcorn is too much, use some of the fat free butter sprays (Olivio uses a blend of olive oils that is scrumptious and available in many countries) to add a little flavor.

Jell-O, a childhood favorite, is fat-free and satisfying. The sugar-free versions cut calories completely. Add a dollop of fat-free whipped cream and you have a perfect dessert.

Deviled Eggs, if eaten in moderation, can be made with fat-free mayonnaise. Add some horseradish for extra zip.

Pita Bread, especially if the pita bread is whole wheat, can be baked crispy and served in place of tortilla chips. Serve wedges of fresh tortilla bread with fresh vegetables and yogurt-based dips.

You can also make a version of croutons using whole wheat bread, olive oil and garlic along with other desired seasonings. Bake these in an oven set at 300 for a couple hours. The resulting product is a crouton that is good for you and extremely satisfying.

Regardless of your desires, there are alternatives to high-fat, bad for you snacks. Use your imagination and you will find you do not have to run crying from some of your favorite guilt foods.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Beach, Florida. Find more about this as well as custom gift baskets at http://www.gourmetgiftbasketsplus.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gregg_Hall

6 Steps to Beginner Fat Loss - By Craig Ballantyne

2006-10-24T01:04:00.000-07:00

The 6 Steps to Fitness Success for Beginners: Part I

Two of the more dreaded post-holiday tasks are assembling new electronics and planning your New Year’s resolution workouts – especially when you have no instruction booklet for the latter.

For beginners, getting into fitness can be intimidating and confusing. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, getting fit is one of the most straightforward tasks you’ll attempt in the New Year. Fortunately, reaching your fitness goals requires only two things; discipline (that’s up to you) and a set of simple guidelines (which I’m happy to provide).

First, you should arrange for a full physical examination from your physician. This is mandatory for people that have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, or are obese. Once you have your doctor’s approval to begin a fitness program, you should schedule a fitness assessment with a health professional at your gym.

While both of these are incredibly annoying, they are essential to your success and well-being. The benefits of a doctor’s visit are obvious, particularly if you have one or more of the previously mentioned conditions but it also allows you and your doctor to discuss your lifestyle.

Preventative medicine is far better than reactive medicine. Make your doctor part of your fat loss and health-building team along with the health professionals at your gym.

The real benefits of the fitness assessment aren’t finding out how much body fat you have or how many minutes you can last on the treadmill, but rather getting a better understanding of your strengths and weaknesses.

According to Tim Irvine, President of Totum Life Science, “First and foremost we need to identify what works and does not work mechanically for an individual. We do this from an injury prevention standpoint and also to determine what the limitations are for an individual. Much more appropriate programs can be set from this information.” If you want to avoid injury and actually achieve your goals this year, get to know your strengths and weaknesses.

The next secret is to walk, don’t run, to fitness success. If you want to pick up your University running workouts where you left them 10 years ago, that’s fine. But I guarantee you won’t last 10 days. And then it’ll be a dreary 355 days until you’re ready to try exercise again.

The hidden benefit of a good fitness assessment is that it will actually serve as a nice introductory workout to your return to fitness. It will buffer your delusions of fitness grandeur from the reality of what your body actually can do. After the fitness assessment teaches your body a lesson and awakens your muscles from their winter slumber, only then will you realize your limits that you must respect in subsequent workouts.

Goal-setting is the fourth secret to success (and not just in fitness, but in any area of life). It is much more effective to commit to a set of specific short-term and long-term goals than it is to routinely hope for weight loss each year.

Set realistic goals and remember to train within your limits. If you are currently sedentary and haven’t exercised in months (or years), don’t begin an advanced training program. Start with a conservative beginner program. Your belly wasn’t built in a day, and neither will be lost overnight.

Limit your initial workouts to 1 set per muscle group. In week 2, you should be ready to add another set. And if you want to build up to 3 sets, then do so in week 3. Slowly increase the weight and stay within your desired repetition range. At no time should you be too sore to function. And runners should also heed this advice. Too much running will guarantee shin splints in the early going. Avoid running on back to back days for the first two weeks and keep the distance short. Sore muscles are guaranteed when you lift. So keep the volume low.

And now for the two super secrets that will help keep you committed and consistent with your workouts and will finally help you lose fat for good.

First, build your social support team. Social support is the #1 factor for success for women in fitness programs, and is important for men as well. Support can come from your spouse, brother or sister, child, mom or dad, friend, neighbor, co-worker, personal trainer, or lifestyle coach.

Don’t try to go it alone. As Dr. Eric Serrano says about his weight loss patients, "Patients respond better when they report to a person instead of a machine. No one wants to disappoint a real person."

You also need to know that nutrition is the second most important factor for success in fat loss programs. That’s why you don’t need to train like a world-class athlete when you are starting to lose fat. Most of the fat you’ll lose in the early going is because you have chosen to make better nutritional choices. And if you don’t make better nutritional choices, even the best exercise program in the world isn’t going to help you achieve your fat loss goals.

Nutrition is a lot simpler than you think. Don't over think things. See a nutritionist or listen to what your mother told you as a kid. Food choices should contain a large nutrient-to-calorie ratio. Dr. Phil (yes that Dr. Phil) calls this “High-Response Cost, High-Yield Nutrition”. And follow this rule: Don't eat foods with added sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, or fruit syrup,” says Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD. Log your nutritional intake on www.Fitday.com. This is a free website that allows you to track your calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fat.

The consistent use of these 6 secrets will help you achieve your New Year’s resolutions. Make this year’s fitness plan a strategic investment in your future health. The most efficient and effective way to lose fat this year is with my Turbulence Training workouts - the choice of fitness professionals.

Craig Ballantyne trains athletes and executives in Toronto, and writes for Men's Fitness magazine. His trademarked Turbulence Training workouts and his comprehensive workout manuals (including "The Ultimate Bodyweight Workout") are featured on his website Turbulence Training

Article source: http://www.anyarticles.com/

9 Surefire Ways to Lose Weight - Joseph Corbett

2006-10-23T00:09:00.000-07:00

1. How Do You Eat an Elephant: “One bite at a time.”

Start slow, and pay close attention to what you eat. The best thing to do is cut down on sweets, salt, and fats and add more fruits and vegetables in your diet. After you have taken that “bite”, then simply add a bit of exercise to your regimen. Start off slow with anywhere from 10-15 min of exercise a day, then increase it by increments of 10 min every week.

2. Get Support, Work Out with a Friend

It is much easier to lose weight when you have to be accountable to someone else. Further, having someone there can provide a great support system. Additionally, working out with someone may even foster your competitive spirit and motivate beyond what you could or would accomplish on your own.

3. Add Weights to Your Routine

Weight lifting will lead to the development of muscles. Muscles, in turn, will increase your metabolic rate and lead to greater calorie loss. Calorie loss will help you lose weight.

4. Stay Away from Simple Sugars, and Eat More Complex Carbs

Ingesting simple sugars or foods that create more simple sugars in the body (rice, pasta, candy, soda, etc...) has the effect of raising insulin in the body. When this occurs, your body is no longer as efficient in burning fat as a source of energy. Therefore, it’s best to eat more fruits and vegetables as your source of carbohydrates as this doesn’t produce the insulin spike that leads to decrease fat burning ability.

5. See it and Be it… Visualize Your Goals

First write down your goals so you can see it everyday when you wake up and before you go to bed. And make sure you make the goal specific. If I weighed 205 pounds for example, and wanted to lose 20 pounds in 3 months I would write this: “ I, Joseph Corbett, weigh 185 pounds and look and feel healthy and fantastic.” Repeat this statement 4-5 times in the morning and at night before sleeping, and really feel how it would feel to be at this weight.

6. Eat Breakfast Like a King, Lunch Like a Prince, and Dinner Like a Beggar

It is best to consume the majority of calories in the beginning of the day, and the least amount of calories at the end of the day. Do you know how Sumo Wrestlers eat? They do the reverse… They eat the bulk of their calories right before sleeping. If you do the same (Eat a late night meal before sleeping), you’ll look the same. And we wonder why America has such a large percentage of obesity?

7. Water is Your Friend

First, most people do not drink the amount of water they need to, to stay healthy. First and foremost, drink from 6-8 glasses of water a day. Also, when you are hungry, make sure it is not your body signaling that you’re dehydrated instead. So, at the first hunger pangs, drink water and see if your hunger doesn’t go away.

9. Eat 5-6 Smaller Meals a Day

Eating frequently ensures that you keep your blood sugar level in check, which means that you don’t spike your insulin levels and stop burning fat (see number 4 above). Further, eating more signals your body that you are getting enough food, and so keeps your hunger pangs in check.

Joseph Corbett is the founder of Burn-The-Fat.info - http://www.Burn-The-Fat.info - devoted to helping individuals burn fat and lose weight quickly and naturally. Download Your Burn the Fat Secrets Today.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joseph_Corbett

The Dangers Of Diet Pills - By Martin Stanwyck

2006-10-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

Not regulated by the FDA, cheap diet pills are a dangerous trend causing severe side effects including death. Is there a natural solution available?

The battle of the bulge – it is one fought by people across the globe. America has now become a predominantly overweight nation with eight out of every ten people over the age of twenty-five being overweight. If you turn on the TV, you are assaulted with commercial after commercial for cheap diet pills. In an era where thin is “in”, it isn’t hard to understand why these companies sell their pills in local stores, via the internet, and through television campaigns.

Who is buying these cheap diet pills? The simple answer is just about everyone. People from all walks of life are pulling out their wallets to purchase cheap diet pills as a possible “quick fix” for long term weight loss. These companies make big promises. Whether they promise more energy, a boosted metabolism, or astonishingly quick weight loss, they all have big promises.

A consumer often purchases these cheap diet pills without doing any research. Often, losing weight the healthy way isn’t as important as losing weight. Few people stop to consider the risks of cheap diet pills.

These cheap diet pills are over the counter medications. Probably the most rapidly rising segment of the weight loss industry, these medications are often unregulated by the FDA. This sounds like a trivial fact, but it’s not. Cheap diet pills that are offered to a consumer without prescriptions have not been tested by the government, and they are not subjected to dosage and labeling requirements. Although the manufacturers of cheap diet pills claim that these are not drugs but rather food supplements, the bottom line is that these pills really are drugs.

Most of these cheap diet pills have powerful ingredients that are similar to amphetamines. The problem is that, although many deaths have been reported along with other side effects, the numbers are unclear because they are unregulated and unreported.

Some of the many side effects of cheap diet pills are a general feeling of anxiety or nervousness, heart problems, diarrhea, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, and even heart attacks.

As the years roll by, cheap diet pills become more and more powerful. Now, pills are being manufactured to work on the brain, reducing your appetite to aid in weight loss. The side effects of these pills are even more serious. Chest pain, fever, high blood hair loss, impotence, heart damage, depression, and anxiety are just some of the many reported risks associated with cheap diet pills.

So what is the solution? If you really want to lose weight, and you realize cheap diet pills aren’t the way to go, you may find yourself frustrated. Jumpstarting your weight loss is important to you, but you want to do it in a healthy, natural way.

One option is Hoodia Gordonii. If you haven’t heard of Hoodia yet, you will soon. Recently featured on 60 Minutes and the Today shows, this revolutionary weight loss tool is actually a cactus-like plant that’s been around for centuries. Bushmen used it to ward off hunger since it actually tricks your body into thinking you’ve eaten. Before you dismiss the idea as another mind-controlling cheap diet pill, remember that Hoodia is a vegetable, not a drug, and completely safe. By incorporating this African plant into your diet, you could lose weight quickly and safely.

About the Author: Martin Stanwyck is the author of many articles on diet and nutrition. If you enjoyed what you read and would like to hear more, visit www.hoodia.info.ms

Source: www.isnare.com

Diet Motivation Secrets - Peter Murphy

2006-10-19T00:27:00.000-07:00

People are always looking for a way to lose weight without the pain and suffering of actually going on a diet and exercising. Well, unfortunately there is no such way to lose weight. But a person can achieve diet motivation.

Diet motivation is the desire and drive to eat smaller portions of healthier foods and exercise more frequently. While it is not an easy thing to achieve, it can be done with some tips and advice on dieting and motivational skills.

To get started on your diet motivation, you must first decide what your desired weight loss should be. This is where it gets tricky. The goal must be realistic and possible to obtain. If we set our weight loss goal at 50 pounds, yes it is a great plan, but not realistic for most of us.

If the goals are set too high, they are useless to our cause. If they can't be met then they are detrimental to our diet motivation. So, the goals that we set must be both, realistic and possible to reach. This goes for our exercise goals as well.

Don't set a goal for working out two hours every day. That would be great to be able to do that, however, it is really unlikely that the average person can do that and commit to it every day. As you reach your goals, you can then raise your standards and climb up as you go.

The foods that you eat will more than likely have to be altered as well. The key to success with any weight loss program is that you should expend more energy than your caloric intake. It is really that simple.

You do not have to deny yourself of everything that you enjoy eating. Just downsize the portions and eat these items in moderation. As a matter of fact, studies show that the people who do deprive themselves of their favorite foods, end up binging on those foods and going off their diets all together after time.

Again, you can have pretty much anything you want in the food group, just use common sense and eat less and exercise more to burn off any extra that you have eaten.

Diet motivation will become a habit in the same way that overeating becomes a habit. Your body will get used to the workouts and the healthy eating, and it will be come natural after time.

Think of the positives of obtaining diet motivation. You will feel better, you will look better and you will have more self discipline and will power. All those things combined are going to make a better you.

Peter Murphy is a peak performance expert. He recently produced a very popular free report that reveals how to crush procrastination and sustain lasting motivation. Apply now because it is available for a limited time only at: motivation techniques

Article Source: articlecapital.com

Tips To Achieve Your Optimal Body Shape - By Cheryl Haining

2006-10-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

A few simple changes can make all the difference to the long-term health of your body. Here are some tips and suggestions to improve your body and your health.

Food Choices

What you eat and drink gives your body the fuel and energy to carry out all the physical and mental activities that you do every day. Some foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables provide excellent fuel for the body, with lots of beneficial nutrients.

Other foods provide poor quality fuel. These include high sugar content foods and ‘junk’ foods. What percentage of your current diet is giving you energy efficient, nutrient rich food? Try keeping a diary for a week then analyse where your major energy and body fuel comes from.

Healthy Choices

Choose meals and snacks that are kind to your body. These are natural foods such as fruits, vegetables, salads, grains and pulses. These are ‘living’ foods. Avoid foods that are over processed, stored too long, high is sugar or fats. These are ‘dead’ foods with little to offer nutritionally. Variety is also vital, helping you obtain the broad range of nutrients your body requires.

Fibre

Your body needs between 18-35 gms of fibre a day. Fibre, together with water, is essential for proper digestion. Fibre provides the food for ‘friendly bacteria’ in the colon, which manufactures various essential vitamins. One cup of the following is equal to 10gms of fibre: - oats, peas, dried apricots, peanuts, prunes and sunflower seeds. Half a cup of wheat bran or almonds also equals 10 gm of fibre.

Water

Your body is 70% water and it needs a fresh daily supply to ensure cells are hydrated and energized. Water is essential for the digestion of food. Keep your body properly hydrated by drinking 6-8 large glasses a day.

Less is more

Eating large meals puts a great strain on the digestive tract. Choose smaller, more frequent meals. This will keep your fuel tank topped up through out the day. Remember the more you eat the more your body has to either burn off, or store as fat. So eat to live – don’t live to eat! Slow down eating and enjoy your food. Chewing is essential to assist the digestive process. Eating food quickly, or while stressed, disrupts digestion and the absorption of nutrients.

Get Active

You need enough activity to keep all your moving parts in good working order. Choose the form or exercise that suits you best. Remember to incorporate warming up and cooling down exercises to avoid pulling or straining any muscles.

Relax

Find time every day to relax. Take time out once or twice a day for at least 15 minutes. Sit or lie comfortably, close your eyes, breathe deeply and slowly. Listen to some relaxation music. No interruptions just focus your attention on your health, happiness and abundance of all you need.

Love

Love makes everything workable. For complete harmony of mind, body and spirit surround yourself with people you love and who love you. Follow these steps and watch your body reach its optimal potential.

About the Author: Cheryl Haining is a successful home based business operator. To learn how to create an income stream from your home that will replace your job and develop true financial freedom visit: www.keybusinesstips.info For information on nutrition and weight loss visit www.uloseweight.net

Source: www.isnare.com

Whip Yourself into Shape with Boxing Fitness - Morgan Hamilton

2006-10-17T22:14:00.000-07:00

Everyone seems to be concerned with their health these days. And with good reason, since the advent of processed foods and the degree of pollution in our cities, people’s health can really be in danger. To help combat these problems, health improvement facilities like gyms and spas have popped up on every street. But since traditional exercises are not really enjoyable many people prefer activities that allow them to have fun while keeping fit.

Hiking, ballroom dancing, rock climbing, and biking are just a few examples of recreational activities that can also be enjoyable. Sports, weight training, and martial arts have also become popular ways of trimming down. One type of martial art type of exercise program which you might want to try is boxing fitness.

You might think of boxing as a violent sport. Professional boxing as seen in television is a dangerous sport reserved for athletes who train extensively to get in shape for their bouts. But unknown to most it can also be a satisfying and effective form of workout.

Boxing fitness involves hours of diligent training, cardio workout out and can even teach you additional self-defense. Boxing fitness improves your, flexibility, agility, stamina and coordination. You don’t necessarily have to go as far as fighting in the ring but a little sparring mixed in your routine can make for a fantastic workout.

Besides being a lot of fun boxing fitness also improves your self-defense skills. One look at professional boxers shows you that training allows you withstand punishment and give back as much as well. Today’s world can be quite dangerous and learning a practical martial art like boxing can really be useful. While you might not turn into the next Mike Tyson you can be good enough to keep your self safe on the street.

If you want to try it you can try local gyms to see if they have a boxing fitness program. If none are available you can hop online and do a search for “boxing fitness” to find a program and gym that are convenient for you. Put on those boxing gloves now and punch your way into an exciting way to be healthy.

Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding all aspects concerning sports and fitness. Get more information by visiting Boxing Fitness

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Morgan_Hamilton

Top 5 Shoulder Exercise For Maximum Strength - By Francois L. Botha

2006-10-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

Building up strength in the shoulder region is an important part of any work-out, and when done correctly can protect the shoulder area from injuries which weak shoulders may sustain, either during training or in everyday life.

Make sure that you perform these correctly, using the correct form and utilizing the full range if motion for the muscles involved. This will help avoid injury and also ensure you get the maximum benefit from the work-out.

Always be sure of your physical fitness before embarking on any new regime, including this series of exercises.

Be sure to warm up the shoulders first with shoulder rolls, arm rotations and stretches before starting.

The first 4 exercises target the Anterior Deltoid muscles, while the 5th targets the Deltoid and Lateral muscles.

1. Military Press

It may be considered a bit old fashioned, but this standard exercise still offers exceptional upper torso strength. It can also be done from a seated position.

• Brace the abdominal region throughout the movement.

• Stand erect with feet shoulder width apart.

• Grasp the bar overhand, with arms slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.

• Do not allow your wrists to pull backwards – keep them rigid.

• Breathe in and extend your arms straight up, slightly to the middle of the top of your head.

• Extend the neck marginally, allowing the bar to move past the face.

• Fully extend your arms at the top of the movement.

• The bar should be straight over your head.

• Pause briefly, maintain control, then lower it back down.

• Repeat.

2. Dumbbell Shoulder Press

This can be done seated or standing. Both the shoulder muscles and the triceps get a workout here.

• Grab a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing forward.

• Lift both dumbbells simultaneously to chin level.

• Isolating shoulder muscles, lift both dumbbells overhead until they almost touch

• Lower both back to chin level.

• Repeat.

3. Lateral Raises

This can be done one arm at a time, and also using cables.

• Stand with feet shoulder distance apart, knees slightly bent.

• Grasp a dumbbell in each hand and let your arms hang down, palms facing.

• Keeping elbows slightly bent, lift the arms sideways to shoulder height, so that you are in a ‘T’ stance.

• Lower arms.

• Repeat.

4. Front Dumbbell Raises

This can be done with both arms simultaneously and using a barbell or cables is also appropriate.

• Stand with feet shoulder distance apart, knees slightly bent.

• Grasp a dumbbell in each hand and let your arms hang down, palms facing the front of your thighs.

• Keeping elbows slightly bent, lift one arm straight out in front of you to shoulder height.

• Lower to starting position.

• Repeat with your other arm.

• Repeat, alternating arms.

5. Upright Row

This works the shoulders and biceps.

• Stand with feet shoulder distance apart, knees slightly bent.

• Grasp the bar with shoulder width, or slightly narrower, overhand grip.

• Pull the bar up to the neck with elbows leading.

• Allow wrists to flex as bar rises.

• Lower.

• Repeat.

Always conclude any exercise session with some stretching to cool down the muscles.

About the Author: Francois is a well-know author in the health and wellness field and is also associated with the top shoulder surgery and shoulder problems website in South Africa

Source: www.isnare.com

Health And Fitness|how To Get Great Body Shape-stay Fit And Healthy - By: Chris Chew

2006-10-15T01:12:00.000-07:00

Most people know that having health and fitness is important. Many try to stay fit and healthy to get a great body shape. The question is do people know the benefits of being fit and healthy or how to get that great body shape they yearned so much for?

Unfortunately not, otherwise there will not be such high dropout rates in gyms all over the world and people getting fatter and fatter.

Benefits of good health and fitness :-

1) Day to day chores are so much easier Because you are fit, you will not tire that easily and chores such as gardening, carrying stuff , bending over or climbing up to pick up things will be so much easier.

2) Enjoy life better Since daily chores are no longer chores, you are able to do more things and faster. Savor your productivity and efficiency.

3) Save money and live longer Save money on your medical expenses from diseases that strike unhealthy and obese people. Your risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks, stroke and some form of cancers, all of which are deadly is reduced significantly when you stay fit and are in great health.

4) Your posture and confidence improve Because you are stronger, your strong muscles hold up your skeletal structure will. This improves your body posture and your confidence will soar.

5) Look great in your clothes You will carry your clothes well because you are no longer flabby or skinny with your clothes either too tight or too lose.

6) Attractive hunk Gone will be the days when your body shape was the butt of jokes. Instead, people will ogle and admire your new attractive body. A body that many people will die for.

There are many more benefits for having great health and fitness. Too many to mention in just one article. So we shall go on to discuss how to be in great body shape, fit and healthy.

How to be in great body shape-stay fit and healthy.

Just three things.

1) Healthy eating habits and healthy lifestyle You are what you eat. So if you eat unhealthy food, you will be unhealthy. Thus avoid saturated and trans fat. Eat less sugary stuff and sodium. Avoid alcohol and quit smoking. Drink plenty of water and remember what your mum used to say, Take your vitamins.

2) Do cardio exercises It toughens up your heart and lungs. Cardio exercises are great for your respiratory and cardiovascular system. Best of all, it burns tons of calories.

3) Lift weights Build muscles for a toned and defined body. With muscles come strength and with more strength you will be able to do many more things than just having a sexy muscular body.

So you can see, it is not that difficult to be fit and healthy. Having a great body shape along the way is indeed a bonus. So have you written out a plan for your health and fitness goals?

Chris Chew is a personal trainer of actors, pageant winners, models and other celebrities. Check out his celeb training websites http://www.sgfitness.com and http://www.sgfitnessonline.com

Article Source: Article Hub

Unlock the Secrets to Building Muscle Fast by Learning the Weightlifting Beginner Basics - John Doetsch

2006-10-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

You probably already know that as a weightlifting beginner there is so much to take into consideration. But, the most important thing you need keep in mind is to take everything gradually because you do not overwhelm yourself physically or mentally.

Before you begin your training, it is important to set goals for weightlifting that are realistic for yourself. Also, you must determine what kind of body type you have from the list below.

There are three distinct kinds of body types, which include endomorph, ectomorph and mesomorph.

Endomorph – This body type has the highest percentage of fat. An individual with this type of body type often has difficulties losing weight.

Ectomorph - This body type is too lean and has problems both building muscle as well as gaining weight. These people are often referred as the “skinny kid” or “stick man”.

Mesomorph - This body type is considered the ideal body type, as this is an person with a "well-formed physique" who has little problem gaining or losing weight.

Once you have set realistic goals for yourself as a weightlifting beginner, you must learn the language. Two basic terms that are necessary to learn from the beginning are "reps" and "sets".

A rep means one movement or one kind of exercise and nothing more. To use an example, if you do one pull up then you have completed one rep. Doing a series of reps in a row without stopping becomes a set. So for example, 10 reps of pull-ups constitute one set. In the weightlifting world if you are asked in a routine to complete 3 sets of 10 pulls ups then that translates to doing 10 pull ups in 3 sets (or 3 times) while taking breaks as you finish each set.

Spending time in the gym is good but never overdo. Contrary to what most weightlifter believe, overtraining and overdoing any type of exercise routine can actually take you two steps back as opposed to two steps forward. A weightlifting beginner should spend no more than 60 minutes at a time on a work out at the gym.

It is possible that only 30 minutes at a time can achieve optimum results for beginners as long as you are doing the exercises properly and stay focused on the task. Focus is so important when you are at the gym training. If you cannot be focused on what you are doing come back later. Don't waste precious time in the gym chatting with people or doing other things. You have come to the gym to train so do so and then leave.

A weightlifting beginner should always concentrate on exercises that help work the largest muscle groups in the body. In the beginning, pay attention to the back, chest and leg muscles. The more you concentrate on these areas the better. Keep in mind that the large muscle groups that are the most important. You will build more muscle faster the more attention you pay to building larger muscle groups.

It is important for the weightlifting beginner to eat as healthy as possible. Be sure to eat lots of carbohydrates, proteins and essential fatty acids on a regular basis. Getting adequate rest on a nightly basis is vital as well. It is during sleep that muscles both grow and repair themselves.

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Obesity Treatments That Real People Use - Jeanette Pollock

2006-10-13T15:38:00.000-07:00

Obesity can be treated by dieting and exercise programs, or by the use of drugs and surgery. The best way to figure out which one is best for you is to consult a doctor who will have a good idea of what type of diet or weight loss program will best suit your specific condition. A qualified doctor’s prescription is much safer and effective than what you usually find in diet magazines. As an added advantage, you can have your condition monitored by the doctor who can take you off of treatments that do not seem to be working. If your obesity is the result of hormone imbalance, an endocrinologist’s advice is called for.

Simultaneous exercise with dieting often works well. Here also, it is better to consult your doctor to learn which forms of exercise may be more useful for you. But be sure that you can handle the exercise you have been recommended to do. If overeating is your problem, try to resist the temptation by following suitable methods and say ‘no’ to food when necessary. Consult a psychiatrist if your eating problems are more psychological than physical.

Drugs for weight loss fall into several categories; appetite-changing drugs like Sibutramine, metabolism-changing drugs like Orlistat, and energy-boosting drugs like Ephedrine. A doctor must be consulted before you use any of them because they might produce serious side-effects if taken arbitrarily.

Two types of surgery have been recommended to treat people having severe obesity. The first one is gastroplasty, which surgically reduces the size of the stomach and gastric bypass surgery that creates a small stomach pouch and connects this pouch to the second portion of the intestines. Liposuction is no more than just a cosmetic method that removes fat cells at certain points of the body.

Jeanette Pollock is a freelance author and website owner of obesitytopics.com. Visit Jeanette's site to learn more about obesity treatments.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeanette_Pollock

Three Essentials to Weight Loss - David Snape

2006-10-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

One bane of human experience is that we don't get to know everything that everyone else knows. At best we can read or hear about what someone has to say on a particular topic, but even that has limited potential to convey the sum of the person's knowledge. Imagine if you could have all the knowledge of all of the weight loss experts out there, right now, instantly. Well I certainly can't provide that to you, but wouldn't access to such information and experience be priceless?

What I can do is share some thoughts and ideas about weight loss with you. There are three basic concepts that I think are important for anyone attempting to lose weight to know about and take into consideration.

Adequate protein intake is the first. I think a lot of people trying to lose weight end up on a highly restricted diet especially during the initial phases of fad dieting. Those initial phases may produce limited short term results but at the expense of the smarter weight loss principles.

Not getting enough protein is asking for the loss of muscle tissue. Lean muscle mass is not what you are trying to lose. What good is it to lose weight if you have also lost the tone of your muscles, affecting the appearance of your body? Resting muscle tissue burns more calories than any other kind of tissue in your body. So you want to keep as much of your muscle tissue as possible.

The body needs protein about once every eight hours or so. The body, if it finds itself short on amino acids will begin to steal those amino acids primarily from your muscle tissue. This will result in the loss of muscle mass. Consider that to be bad.

The second important concept is getting enough essential fats. I've added this because people dieting are likely to think they need to avoid fat. In general that might seem like good advice, but not when it comes to essential fats. Your body needs them for multiple reasons and you don't want to go without them.

There are so many reasons why essential fats are important to your body. The term essential when used in conjunction with nutritional terms basically means that it is a substance that your body needs but cannot make on its own. Since the body cannot make essential fats on its own, you must get them from your diet. Do not skimp on essential fats while dieting or at any other time. They are necessary for the health of your body.

The third item is understanding when your body actually taps into its fat reserves. Because if you understand this point, it may help you lose weight more effectively. The liver keeps a store of short term energy. Only when that store is near depletion will the body start looking at the fat reserves, the ones you want to get at.

Therefore, you can see that it is very counter productive to eat a large carbohydrate supply before working out. During exercise, the short term storage supply needs to be used up before your body will start to burn fat.

Let's recap three important points to aid in achieving your weight loss goals in a healthier way. Insure an adequate protein supply. Insure an adequate intake of essential fats. Finally, become sensitive to the short term storage energy supply in the liver and plan exercise accordingly.

This article is for information purposes only and is not intended to serve as weight loss or any other kind of advice. Contact your primary care physician for such advice and before starting any diet or taking up any form of exercise. You should also contact your doctor if you have or think you have a health problem of any kind. Your doctor can provide proper diagnosis and treatment.

David Snape writes for To Be Informed. You can
read more about weight loss there. To Be Informed is a site supportive of
health, fitness and wellness.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Snape

Blast Your Chest with this Workout - Mike Berg

2006-10-11T19:41:00.000-07:00

One of the most impressive muscle groups for a bodybuilder has to be the pectorals. There is nothing quite as intimidating and imposing as that armor plated look that a seasoned bodybuilder has who has trained his chest muscles correctly. From the upper pecs that almost look like armor plating, down to the lower sweep of the muscle where it attaches to the lower shoulder, a complete chest will definitely turn heads when you take off your shirt.

So how to get that look? Well, first remember that as in all aspects of bodybuilding, nothing happens overnight! You have to train with intensity, regularly and intelligently. Proper rest and diet are probably as important if not more important than your actual training so do not neglect those!

As I've mentioned in previous articles such as my series on Why Can't I Get Bigger?, it's also important to not overtrain. Unlike smaller muscle groups such as your biceps and triceps, your chest can take more of a pounding and more sets but remember: Use your mind as well as your body! If you are not getting stronger or bigger, overtraining might very well be the culprit.

I've used this routine myself and on others I've trained over the years and it usually gets a pretty good blast to the entire chest area.

Important Note: The weights listed here are strictly for illustrative purposes. Always chose a weight that you can handle for the stated reps. If you need a spotter for safety be sure to have a buddy around.

We're aiming for 9 - 12 sets TOTAL!
It might be unusual for you but I typically start with the incline bench. Do 2 or 3 warmup sets with light weight. Go for something light enough where you can do 12-15 reps.

Incline Bench

Warm Up Sets

135 lb x 15 reps
135 lb x 12-15 reps
135 lb x 12 reps

Once you've warmed up your joints/shoulder area and gotten some blood flow to your chest, get right on it.

185 lb x 10 - 12 reps
225 lb x 8 - 10 reps
250 lb x 8 reps
275 lb x 6 reps

After you've blasted your upper pecs, you will not be as strong on the flat bench as you would be if you'd done that first. Thats okay! Head over to the flat bench!

Flat Bench

250 lb x 8 - 10 reps
225 lb x 6 - 10 reps
225 lb x 6 - 8 reps

At this point your chest should be completely pumped and while you might be eager to keep hammering for another 3 or 4 sets, keep in mind that it's probably not necessary. Let's head over to stretch those pecs out with some dumbell flyes.

The key to doing flyes correctly is to really get a good stretch in the bottom postition. Your elbows should be slightly cocked. Don't lock out your elbows! The motion you want to go for is like Arnold described almost 30 years ago: Bring your arms up as if you're hugging a big tree.

Dumbbell Flyes

50 lb x 8 - 10 reps
50 lb x 6 - 10 reps
50 lb x 6 - 10 reps

If you have chosen poundages that are correct, this should be more than enough to completely fatigue your chest. If you are using weights that are too heavy you won't be able to continue through this. Too light and you're wasting time. Remember: Pick a weight that is heavy enough for YOU. Forget what others are doing or how much they're lifting. You should be struggling to complete your final reps but at no time should you need the help of a spotter for your first sets or reps. If you do, the weight is too heavy.

Also remember that you should try to mix up your routine from time to time. I rarely go more than 2 or 3 weeks doing the same exercises.
Try these others along with your basic compound movements:

Cable flyes
Pec Deck
Weighted dips
Decline bench

Mix it up, keep the weights moving, eat right, get enough sleep. You'll be sporting amazing pectoral development in no time!

Mike Berg has been involved in bodybuilding and fitness as an enthusiast and trainer for over 20 years.

Visit his website for bodybuilding and fitness articles and Bodybuilding Supplements at http://www.milleniumfitness.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Berg

Elliptical Trainers: Cardio without Stress - Jeanette Pollock

2006-10-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

Elliptical machines and trainers are classified as low-impact cardio workouts because you move the platforms on which your feet stand, rather than hitting the surface with your feet. According to USA Today, the number of elliptical trainer machines in use has increased by over 700 percent since 1997. People who are concerned about the effect of impact on their joints are embracing elliptical trainers as a good low-impact alternative to treadmills.

People who have experience with treadmills will take a while to get used to the motion of elliptical trainer machines, but the progression of a workout can be much the same. Elliptical trainers can increase resistance, go faster, and add an incline, so a treadmill workout can easily be adapted to elliptical trainers.

Most elliptical trainer machines also have handlebars that can be moved to work out your upper body as well as your lower body and add to your cardio workout. Another advantage of elliptical trainers is that they can be used to add variety to a low-impact workout. If you get bored with low-impact aerobics or dance, a workout on an elliptical trainer can be just the change of pace you need to get you more engaged with your workout again. If you've put enough mileage on stationary bicycles to cross the country and rowed across virtual oceans on rowing machines, elliptical trainers can give you a good workout and burn calories without the lower-body joint impact that running and jumping can cause.

Popular pieces of health club equipment, elliptical trainer machines are increasingly available and affordable for home use.

Jeanette Pollock is a freelance author and website owner of cardio-workout-hq.com. Visit Jeanette's site to learn more about elliptical trainers.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeanette_Pollock

Making Lifestyle Changes For Permanent Weight Loss - By: Abbas Abedi

2006-10-09T00:17:00.000-07:00

So you want to lose some weight. Almost all of us have felt this way at some time or another.

Maybe it's some holiday weight you want to work off, or maybe you've just decided that you would feel and look better with a little less bulk.

Whatever the reason, losing weight can sometimes be difficult. It's often the case that you find yourself dealing with a very restrictive diet that is difficult to stick to, or other inconveniences. You can avoid much of this, however, by making some lifestyle changes that incorporate more healthy activities into your daily routine.

Although everyone will likely be tempted to try and lose weight as quickly as possible, unless you feel for some reason that this is absolutely necessary, it's better to take a long term approach.

If you want to lose weight quickly, it's likely that you're going to have to make a restrictive and drastic diet change that will be hard to implement. This also means there's a good chance you will simply put the weight back on when you diet is over, or when you (inevitably) lapse from it.

A far better long term solution is making some lifestyle changes. Not only will this be an easier way to lose weight, but those pounds you lose will stay lost. The reason that lifestyle changes are an effective way to lose weight is that you don't have to alter your daily routine too much.

Many people find the exercise regimens and diet changes involved in quick weight loss unrealistic - you never have enough hours in the day as it is, so it's hard to make more for exercise.

The best place to start in your attempt to lose weight is to look at things you do every day. First and foremost for most people is going to work. Many people live close enough to their employers to bike, but choose instead to drive. By biking to work you will not only be getting exercise and working towards your goal of losing weight, you will be saving money and doing a good thing for the environment.

Try and think of other small changes in a similar vein: take the stairs instead of the elevator, go for a walk on your lunch break instead of sitting at your desk. Although these chances may seem small and suspiciously convenient, they will go along way towards losing weight.

The other more pro-active way to lose weight through a lifestyle change is to engage in more athletic activities. Take up a sport, or go hiking on weekends. The beauty of this is that these things are entirely recreational: you're having fun at the same time that you're losing weight. It's much easier and more enjoyable to commit to going on a hike every weekend or playing tennis with a friend than it is to sit alone in gym: after all, there's a reason they call it "work"ing out.

Lifestyle changes go a long way towards losing weight, and anyone who incorporates some of the changes listed above should find themselves able to lose weight permanently.

By Abbas Abedi

To make weight loss easy visit my blog Weight Loss Hypnosis

Article Source: Article Hub

Exercises For Seniors - By Zane Madisson

2006-10-08T00:27:00.000-07:00

Walking at a brisk pace is simply the single best exercise you can perform. If you are fifty years of age or older, it should be your activity of choice. To reach your goal of optimal health, resolve today to begin a regular program of walking, at a pace which will provide an excellent cardiovascular workout.

Before beginning any exercise routine, especially after age fifty, you would be wise to consult your physician. If there is anything on your chart that would call for caution, your doctor will so advise you. I am sixty five years of age and I enjoy brisk walking for one hour each day. I am careful not to exceed my maximum heart rate which is 155 beats per minute.

The target heart rate for me, for the greatest benefit, is seventy to eighty five percent of the maximum heart rate. That would be anywhere between 109 and 132 beats per minute. I maintain a rate of 120 beats per minute throughout my walk. You might not be able to exercise every day and you do not need to. If you are walking for 30 minutes three times a week or every other day that will be sufficient as long as you are training at a pace which will raise your pulse to the target rate for aerobic conditioning. If your heart rate is higher than the target for your age, slow down.

Taking your pulse as you walk is easy. Wear a watch and midway through your walk, stop for a few seconds to check your heart rate. This can be done by gently touching your neck or left wrist. When you feel the pulse, count the number of beats for a period of 10 seconds. Now multiply that by six. If for example you are 55 years of age and counted 22 heart beats in the 10 second time frame, your training heart rate is 132 beats per minute. That fits perfectly within the desirable range of seventy percent to eighty five percent of the maximum heart rate of 165 beats per minute.

Now you might be inclined to say you don’t need to walk, you get enough exercise doing the household chores or walking to the car. Perhaps you play golf or go bowling. All of these activities are signs of life because while performing them, you are moving, but walking is different. Other exercises are good. Walking is great.

Here are just a few of the reasons for you to consider walking for health and well being. The degree of difficulty is low. You warm up and cool down by performing the exact same motion used during the walk, only you walk a little slower. It is a low intensity exercise with more time spent at a less strenuous level. You can do it alone or with friends. You can take your dog with you. During times of severe or inclement weather, you can move to an indoor track or mall.

Walking is basically an injury free activity, especially when compared to jogging. It is an excellent stress manager. No special skills are needed. No special equipment is required other than comfortable clothing and good walking shoes. Walking briskly provides an excellent cardiovascular workout. It develops muscle tone, endurance, strength and agility.

Walking out of doors amid pleasant surroundings gives you time and space to reflect. A good walk can lift you out of depressions, clear the mind, lift the spirit and even set the stage for problem solving later that day. You will lose fat, improve circulation, and expel waste matter through the lungs and skin. Increased intestinal motility results from the gentle swaying of the internal organs. Finally, walking fine tunes the metabolism, regulates the appetite, and increases your energy.

If you are between 50 and 100, a regular program of exercise can change your life and go a long way towards the prevention of diseases associated with aging. Why not get started this week? Speak to your doctor. Line up some comfortable clothing and break out those walking shoes. Aerobic walking is the best exercise, the best means, to eliminate or prevent sickness and suffering from your life, while extending your life expectancy.

About the Author: © 2006 -- Zane Madison -- To speak German or to learn to speak German, please visit this website.

Source: www.isnare.com

1200 Calorie Diet - Barbara Jones

2006-10-07T00:38:00.000-07:00

Want a fast way to get thin? Check out the 1200 calorie diet.

The 1200 calorie diet has become popular with people with all sorts of dietary needs. It is a simple diet, involving moderating your food intake by monitoring you caloric intake. Before you begin this diet, however, you should determine if it is right for you.

The calorie is the basic unit of measurement of energy derived from food. Each calorie represents one unit of energy. If you consume more calories than your body needs, your body will store them as fat. This is a defense mechanism in case your body needs energy later when calories are not available. If you are overweight, counting calories is one way to maintain your health and lose weight fast.

The first thing to consider when considering the 1200 calorie diet is whether it will meet your body’s nutritional needs. Don’t use this diet if your body truly needs more than 1200 calories a day to function. The best way to calculate how many calories your body needs is to measure your height and weight. With those two numbers you can calculate the number of calories your body needs each day. If you want to lose a certain amount of weight, you need to calculate how many calories/day less you need to consume.

The way that the 1200 calorie diet works is that by eating only 1200 calories per day your body will use the stored caloric units of energy instead of just the ones you are eating. By doing this, you get rid of fat (the stored calories) and your body works more efficiently.

The 1200 calorie diet has a few rules you need to follow. The first is that you will have to change your eating habits. You will need to smaller meals more frequently, snacking throughout the day. This allows your body to maintain an influx of energy throughout the day without allowing you to ever feel overly full. The second thing you need to do is change the type of food you are eating. This means that you should eat more fruits and vegetables and less junk food.

Having accomplished that, you will need to determine what else you can eat by using a calorie counter. There are several online resources available that can help you in counting calories. You can also enlist the aid of a nutritionist. With these resources you can determine how many calories are in each serving of the foods you like to eat. They can help you to determine which foods are filling without being high in calories.

If you want to get rid of those stored calories in your body, then going on the 1200 calorie diet might be right for you. If you are taller or have a larger than average body frame, you can adjust the number of calories in the diet to make it fit your needs. The 1200 calorie diet can help you to lose weight quickly, eat healthier, and make better food choices. The 1200 calorie diet is one way you can start living a healthier life.

Barbara Jones enjoys writing for several web sites, on wellness and diet topics.

Article Source: www.ContentArticles.com

Get In Shape After Pregnancy - By David Desousa

2006-10-06T00:47:00.000-07:00

The breasts go first, and then the waist and then the butt. Nobody ever tells you that you get a butt when you get pregnant. - Elle Macpherson

It’s nature’s way to make a shapely woman out-of-shape and it should be woman’s endeavor to regain her shape after pregnancy. The proportion of weight-loss after birth is much less than the weight-gain during pregnancy. The excess pounds in the flesh must be shed in order to regain the pre-pregnancy figure.

Firstly, we must realize that the weight gained during pregnancy wasn't overnight and should not expect to lose it overnight either. In fact the extra weight gained during pregnancy gives the mother lots of reserves for feeding the baby.

There is a method to shedding those extra pounds after pregnancy. We have a look at it in a phased manner –

Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding a child serves twin purposes. Firstly, it ensures a nutrient-rich diet to the newborn. It also ensures weight-loss by transferring the extra fat in the form of mother’s milk to the baby.

Diet Management

Healthy diet-regime along with lots of water is a sure way to reducing extra calories in the body. Oily and deep-fried foods are a strict no-no if you aim to reduce weight after pregnancy. The ideal diet must be rich in complex carbs like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat-free dairy products etc. This must be supplemented by plenty of water (no juice, no soda just water).

Weight Management

If you are shedding lots of pounds too quickly, that’s bad news. Post-pregnancy weight-gain is meant to be lost gradually. Thus it is imperative to have your meals well spread-out for the day. Diets pills like phentermine, adipex, bontril, xenical, acomplia etc can help in losing weight during pregnancy but do consult your health care professional before opting phentermine online.

Try Cardio

The cardio workouts should be done under the surveillance of a physical instructor. The cardio machines burn quick calories and are good for the overall well being of the body. It can be supplemented by gentle walking. For the time being, avoid lifting weights.

Be Patient and enjoy Motherhood

Motherhood is god’s way to make woman a complete human being. It should be enjoyed and lived to the fullest irrespective of its accompanying weight problems. Don’t rush into attaining that pre-pregnancy look. Normally, it takes up to 6 months to ward off the pregnancy-fat from the body. Slowly work yourself up the progress ladder! Do involve dieticians and your doctor – if required – to plan out a healthy diet for you. Give your precious time to the newborn and do not keep yourself pre-occupied with the thought of weight-loss. Try out some outdoor activity like walking with the baby in your arms.

About the Author: David desousa is the author of http://www.acompliaslim.com which gives information on acomplia.

Source: www.isnare.com

Top 7 Weight Loss Exercises Myths - By Den Fransen

2006-10-05T01:21:00.000-07:00

A lot of myths about weight loss exercises go around. Here are the top 7 of most common misconceptions.

Crunches will lose fat from the belly

Doing a lot of crunches to train the abdominal muscles will get you strong muscles, but won’t give you a nice six-pack. To get a six pack you need to both train the abdominal muscles and lose the fat on your belly. You will not lose fat around the spots you are training.

The more exercise the better.

A lot of people think that the more you exercise the better it is for your health. This is not true, if you exercise too much your body is unable to recuperate. When exercising to long, you can also burn you muscle tissue instead of fat tissue. Half an hour exercise a day is good for most people to get and stay fit.

You need to sweat during exercises

It is not necessary to sweet during exercises to burn fat. You will start sweating whenever your body is not able to lose the heat produced during your exercises. But if you are is a cool room or outside sweating is not necessary for losing the heat.

If you don’t use your muscles it will turn to fat.

You muscles can not turn to fat, but if you stop exercising your muscles might shrink a little. If you eat more calories then you burn during a day your body will store it as fat. But more muscle will not produce more fat if you stop exercising.

Low intensity exercises are best for weight loss

Low intensity exercises are known to burn more fat then heavy exercises. But for weight loss it doesn’t matter whether you burn fat or carbohydrates, it only matters how much calories you have burned during the day compared to the number of calories you have eaten.

To burn fat you need to exercise on an empty stomach.

To burn fat you need to burn more calories then you eat. It doesn’t matter when you exercise or what you have eaten before the exercise as long as you burn more then you eat over the day. Some people don’t like exercising just after they have eaten and prefer to wait two hours.

Wear Sweat Suits to lose more weight

To maximize weight loss during exercises people used to wear a sweat suit. Wearing a seat suit, you will probable sweat more during the exercises, but after you drink water to compensate lost fluids, you have not lost more weight then without the sweat suit.

About the Author: Den Fransen is the editor of weight-loss-papers.com. For more information on Weight Loss Exercises, visit weight-loss-papers.com

Source: www.isnare.com

How Many Calories Should You Eat to Lose Weight? - by MARJORIE SALADA

2006-10-04T00:46:00.000-07:00

You know you are going to have to reduce your calorie intake to lose weight, but how many calories are you going to have to eliminate.

If you eliminate too many calories, your body is going to think it is being starved and it is not going to want to give up any of its weight. So the key is coming up with a number that will allow you to lose, but still allow the body to be nourished properly.

The other thing that you have to factor into the picture is exercise. Exercising will deduct calories from you daily intake. Sometimes all it takes for people to lose the desired weight is to exercise. Exercising may be enough to create the necessary calorie deficit needed to accomplish your goal. For most people, it is going to take a combination of exercise and reduced calorie eating.

An extreme calorie reduction (less than 800 to 1000) will cause your body to go into defense mode and hold onto everything that it has. 1200 to 1500 calories is a more reasonable figure to start out with and if you have a lot of weight to lose you may want to go as high as 1800 calories. You will have to gradually reduce the amount of calories (or increase your exercise) as you lose weight, in order to be able to continue to lose weight.

Keep a food record so that you can calculate the average number of calories you consume on a normal day. You will need to determine the number of calories it takes to maintain your present weight. With there being 3500 calories in a pound you will need to reduce your daily caloric intake by 500 calories lose a pound per week. To lose a pound and half weekly, you will need a 750 calorie reduction and a 1000 calorie reduction daily, will get you 2 pounds a week. These calorie reductions can be accomplished by reduced food intake or increased exercise or a combination of both. Put in its simplest terms, weight loss is simply a numbers game.

If reducing your calorie intake by 500 calories is going to put you below the 800 to 1000 calories minimum. You are going to want to reduce your caloric intake by 20 percent. This is a healthier weight loss because it is slower. If you are trying to lose 20 to 30 pounds, the 20 percent method is best for you. If you have a lot of weight to lose, you should try to get 2 pounds off, per week for the first month or two so that your body can start experiencing the health benefits (reduced joint pain, lower blood pressure, fewer respiratory problems, etc...).

If you keep track of the number, make wise food decisions and exercise regularly you will soon see the benefits of your efforts and find yourself living in a leaner, healthier, more energetic body.

Marjorie Salada is the owner of Weight Loss 3000, a website that contains information on weight loss, exercise, weight loss surgery and living a healthy lifestyle.

Article source: www.amazines.com

The Importance of Rest during Weightlifting - Gary Breuhan

2006-10-03T00:42:00.000-07:00

It’s taken a long time, but the strength and conditioning community is finally starting to embrace the concept of “rest.” We now realize that muscles grow after we’ve left the gym, and that the central nervous system, the true governing body of performance, requires several days – and possibly even weeks – to recover after maximal challenges. However, as far as we have come, we’re still missing the boat in one regard. Our modern “revelations” have brought us to realize the importance of chronic rest, but judging by what you see in many gyms nowadays, most people are still overlooking the importance of acute rest – that is, rest between sets.

We need to look to two ends of the spectrum when considering the importance of acute rest. First, many lifters and athletes are resting too long in between sets. Obviously, this leads to less productive use of training time, but more concerning is the fact that prolonging workouts excessively can have a negative effect on one’s endocrine function. In an ideal world, training sessions should not last more than one hour, the point at which hormones that break down muscle tissue rise appreciably. You need to get-in, do your thing, and get-out, so it’s important to pay close attention to the rest periods you’re taking between sets.

Previous research has also established that circulating growth hormone levels are increased with shorter rest intervals during resistance training sessions. If you want to maximize output of this crucial muscle-building, fat-burning hormone, you’d be wise to keep an eye on the timer between sets. Short rest periods are also crucial for endurance athletes seeking to make the most of their interval training; if the rest intervals last too long, the athletes won’t be challenging the buffering capacity of the metabolic system.

Conversely, many athletes’ impatience is actually shortchanging their efforts, as they aren’t resting long enough in between sets. Heavy resistance training protocols geared toward enhancing maximal strength may actually require rest intervals as long as 8-10 minutes! While the muscles themselves may feel recovered from the previous effort, the nervous system that tells those muscles to fire takes appreciably more time to recharge between efforts. If one doesn’t rest long enough between efforts, subsequent force output will drop off, and the overall training effect from the session will be compromised.

This same phenomenon is true with high-impact plyometric training, sprinting, and agility protocols, which may demand rest intervals in the 3-4 minute range. It’s also imperative that athletes be given ample rest when learning a new technique, so coaches would be wise to put their athletes on a timer to prevent them from rushing when a new skill is introduced. Finally, adequate rest is necessary in interval training protocols to ensure that a sufficient amount of quality work is performed in spite of the incomplete rest periods.

The take-home message is that regardless of your goal – size, strength, speed, agility, technique, or endurance – you need to pay close attention to timing your rest periods between sets. Letting them run long or cutting them short could be the difference between “good” and “great” results. We all know that it’s very easy to get caught up in the moment when you’re all fired up to lift, so we don’t instinctively look to the clock to start timing our rest immediately upon finishing a set. With that in mind, why not “outsource” this thinking to a quality timer like the GymBoss? If you bring the attitude and the effort, we’ll take care of the timing.

Training Goal Optimal Rest Period Length

Strength 2-5 minutes

Power 2-5 minutes

Hypertrophy 30-90s

Muscular Endurance 15-30s

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gary_Breuhan

Kickboxing Combinations Applied to Cardio Kickboxing - John Harker

2006-10-02T00:04:00.000-07:00

This is the second in a series on martial arts striking combinations used as choreography in cardio kickboxing. As said, a key difference between a trained martial artist and a streetfighter is that the martial artist reflexively hits in sequences of three or four moves. The instinctive non-thinking reaction isn't just a one-move event, its a more effective practiced sequence of strikes. One punch or kick is easy to defend against, but three or four thrown in a row can be very difficult to deal with.

This reflexive reaction of hitting in sequences is only learned through lots of repetition and drills, performing sequences over and over until it is an automatic reflex. Cardio kickboxing is an ideal way to do this. In fact many of the patterns in cardio kickboxing are drawn from such drills.

Useful for cardio kickboxing choreography, here are some real-world combinations culled from the martial art sport loosely called Kickboxing. What came to be known as competitive kickboxing is a constrained system common to a number of martial arts. The original brand of "Kickboxing" was developed in Japan in 1950 by boxing promoter Osamu Noguchi as a style/ruleset for beating Muay Thai fighters. In classic competitive Kickboxing opponents are allowed to strike with both the fists and the feet, hitting above the hip. However, unlike Muay Thai, using elbows or knees was forbidden and the use of shins was also often not allowed.

Kicks are generally more powerful than punches and so are a valuable tool. But in practice it is a good idea to set up a leg kick with handwork first. A jab or two will make your opponent think about your hands...then you step and kick. Or jab/cross/right kick, with the cross either being more of a fake and push (which allows you to kick really hard) or a hard right that sets up a right kick It's more difficult to kick hard with this combo, but if you drill the guy with a good cross he'll be knocked back a bit and then you step in...

Here are the combinations:

Jab, cross, lead hook, cover

Jab, cross, lead hook, lead front kick

Jab, cross, rear leg front roundhouse kick, cover

Introduce the sequences half-time, then depending on the students, double it up. For the last sequence above make sure to tell the students to bring their rear foot back to the rear-foot starting position after the roundhouse kick (instead of alongside the other). In practice the cover happens simultaneously with bringing the foot back.

Of course for every rule (punch before kick) there is an exception. This sequence works particularly well on the bags.

Lead leg side kick, feet together, rear leg step back

Lead leg side kick, feet together, cross with rear leg step back

These combinations can be repeated individually or in sequences either on the floor or with a heavy bag. Devote equal time to right and left leg forward positions. Most are oriented around smooth rotation around the spine, swinging the body so that each punch or kick winds up for the next. After you get the progressions down, start inter-mixing the combinations together in different patterns to present something different every class.

John Harker is a cardio kickboxing teacher in Santa Cruz, California. He teaches at Westside Aerobics and Martial Arts. More information on cardio kickboxing and martial arts can be found on their website at http://www.wama-club.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Harker

The Benefits Of Pilates Exercises - By Claire Quaty

2006-09-30T22:33:00.000-07:00

Pilates once was a well kept secret of dancers and athletes. Nowadays, Pilates has become one of the most popular forms of work-outs in the world.

Pilates is a wonderful method of toning and stretching the body. Pilates is safe for almost everyone because it doesn’t add any extra strain on the joints or muscles of the body. Older individuals find Pilates both relaxing and effective but it is also extremely popular among the younger generation.

In a group setting Pilates is generally offered at different levels depending on experience. Someone who is new to the practice of Pilates will do well to take an introductory course. This offers them some insight into how Pilates can benefit them. The instructor also offers some fundamental Pilates exercises.

In a one on one setting Pilates will be taught at the level of the participant. The instructor will ask about the physical condition of the participant and will set up an individual Pilates program. This is especially good for someone who is new to the world of exercise and feels uncomfortable with the idea of taking part in a class with others.

If cost is a factor a person can still enjoy the benefits of Pilates. There are many Pilates DVDs and videos available that detail the exercise plan. These are focused on helping the viewer to understand the program and also how to effectively use the moves to generate the biggest results. These types of items can usually be found in the exercise section of any department store. Often they are sold in tandem with a Pilates mat which is a must for anyone doing Pilates.

The DVDs and video tapes featuring Pilates are generally sold at different levels. For someone beginning the program they will want to choose a DVD that is focused on that. It’s not wise for someone just beginning with Pilates to choose a more advanced program.

Once they understand and have mastered the moves featured in a beginner Pilates program they can then graduate to a more advanced level. These often include exercises devoted to toning certain areas of the body including the stomach, thighs and arms.

Pilates programs that are more focused on one body area are also more strenuous. Therefore it’s very important that a person who wants to use Pilates to tone a certain body area is already versed in basic Pilates moves. It can be damaging to start Pilates at a more advanced level your body won’t be ready for it.

In addition to using a mat there are also several pieces of equipment available to people interested in Pilates. If this is something you want to check out then it’s advisable to visit a local gym to try the Pilates equipment before investing in it for your home.

People who are regular participants in Pilates often find that the results reach beyond the physical benefits. Regardless of your fitness level, Pilates can add something positive to your life.

About the Author: Read more fitness related articles at: Blogoltre.com - Health Resources

Source: www.isnare.com

How to Choose Exercise Equipment - Alex Fir

2006-09-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

Choosing equipment is one of the secrets that many leave behind when working toward peak performance. The first piece of equipment you want to consider in a gym or at your home is endurance machines. Why?

Endurance exercises build staying power, stamina and fortitude. Vigorous people may choose treadmills to include endurance routines. Bicycles or cycling machines are also good idea.

Exercise and diet is just the beginning of reaching peak performance. Equipment selection plays a crucial part in reaching top results. For example, if you are working to build mass and only using heavy weights and adding even more weights to overload a muscle, you can cause injury.

Similarly, if you are only working to build large muscle groups without building endurance, cardiovascular and the like, you can trigger serious problems. The key is choosing the right equipment that includes endurance, strength training and reduction of stress on joints.

Strength training builds muscle strength. Thus, you want to consider strength-training equipment, since it flexes the joints, builds body composition, rest metabolism, and enhances the overall physical faculty.

Strength training works the prime mover and stabilizer muscles as well as the antagonistic muscles. The antagonistic muscles are the aggressive muscles.

Some of the exercise types include isometric, aerobics, isokinetic, powerhouse, isotonic, dynamic variable and constant resistance. The aerobic and powerhouse are types of cardiovascular and strengthening routines, while the other named exercises are strength training.

Nautilus, Pilates, dumbbells, and so forth are all types of exercise equipment you want to consider while working to peak performance.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alex_Fir

Physical Fitness Accentuates Weight Loss - By Charles Jones

2006-09-28T23:02:00.000-07:00

Exercise is the key to a healthy body. A proper exercise benefits each and every part of our body and keeps it a healthy one forever. According to popular belief, our body should be used in totality because if they are left unused, they become defective in growth, susceptible to disease and age quickly. Physical exercise and activity is of prime importance for maintaining a healthy and ailment free life. It helps in weight loss and keeps our body slim n trim for ages.

A regular dosage of exercises has a beneficial effect on the course and severity of many diseases apart from helping in the process of weight loss. Some of its health benefits are:

Heart benefit: Making exercise a part of our life can help in preventing the development of high blood pressure. You can control the occurrence of high cholesterol levels which are a major risk factor in heart attack and stroke by performing regular exercise.

Control of Diabetes: Weight loss helps in preventing and treating diabetes. The effective treatment of this disease is influenced by the obesity of an individual. Mild diabetes is often controlled by diet and exercise which is much preferred in the elderly rather than management by drugs. So, make exercise a part of routine life and say no to diabetes forever.

Prohibiting the occurrence of Fractures: Regular exercise helps in strengthening our bones and muscles. It keeps us away from weak and brittle bones. Regular physical exercise not only increases the muscle tone but also helps the bones to retain calcium and remain strong, reducing the incidence of fractures when we grow old.

Say no to Cancer and yes to exercise: Exercise can help you get rid off dreaded ailments such as cancer. Studies have shown that cancer of the large intestines is greater in those who are not physically active. Similarly, breast cancer and cancer of the sex organs rarely affects sportswomen therefore exercise is the best way to keep a horde of ailments at bay.

Constipation: An inclusion of routine physical exercise combined with a high fiber diet can help avoid constipation and the pain and discomfort associated with it.

Exercise promotes a general sense of well-being. While exercising, people tend to take their minds off personal and psychological problems and thus avoid anxiety and depression. It keeps them away from weight gain and obesity and helps in leading a healthy life forever.

About the Author: Charles Jones is the author of the http://www.slimtalk.com, a website on weight loss drugs. For more information visit it.

Source: www.isnare.com

How To Jump Rope For Health And Fitness - By Marilyn Pokorney

2006-09-27T23:55:00.000-07:00

Rope skipping is an excellent cardiovascular exercise
according to the U.S. Olympic Committee Sports Medicine
Council. It is far less hard on the muscles and bones than
jogging.

While running or jogging, each foot absorbs up to 5 times
the body weight from the force of the impact as the foot
hits the ground. This force of hitting the ground can cause
damage to the feet, ankles, hips and knees. But in rope
skipping, the shock of hitting the ground is absorbed by
both feet allowing the calf muscles to control and absorb
the impact.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine,
skipping rope is among the activities it recommends for
aerobic conditioning. In order to improve heart and lung
health, it must be performed 3 to 5 times per week for 12 to
20 minutes an hour, and at an intensity that will get the
heart rate into training range.

To find your training range subtract your age from 220.
Multiply that figure by .9 to get the high range. Multiply
by .6 to get low range. With this formula a person 25 years
old must keep their aerobic heart pulse between 117 and 176
to be gaining benefit. Aerobic benefits do not diminish or
decline with training as in other aerobic activities.

From an energy standpoint, jumping rope at about 130
revolutions per minute is similar to running at 6 miles per
hour or cycling 12 miles per hour. Just 10 minutes of rope
skipping is equivalent to a one-mile run.

When choosing a rope, hold the rope and stand with your feet
on the middle. If the length is correct, the handles should
just reach your armpits. Handles should be thick and
comfortable.

Look for a cushioned surface to jump on. A large
rectangular carpet remnant is ideal. Hard surfaces like
concrete should be avoided.

Choose well-cushioned athletic footwear just as you would
for walking or running.

Start slow by gradually increasing session time over 2 to 3
weeks to let your leg muscles get accustomed to the extra
exercise.

Many adults give up rope jumping because they are
uncoordinated and miss too many steps. But this improves
with time and practice.

More information on jump ropes may be found at:

http://www.apluswriting.net/diettips/fitnessequipment.htm

About the Author: Marilyn Pokorney
Freelance writer of science, nature, animals and the
environment.
Also loves crafts, gardening, and reading.
Website: http://www.apluswriting.net

Source: www.isnare.com

Fighting Obesity, Natural Weight Loss - by Victor Lensora

2006-09-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

Due to the huge health hazards associated with obesity, it is important for those who are overweight to try and lose weight, and get back into shape.

Arguably more importantly is that when doing this, they do it in a safe manner. Through this article, I will try and guide you in ideas and methods to lose weight safely!

Okay, to lose weight, calories used per day by the body needs to be greater than calories consumed per day. Below is a variety of ways to help you on your way!

• Firstly, during your everyday life, you can take lots of small easy steps to help burn some extra calories. Rather than taking the lift/elevator/escalator, take the stairs, although this is minor, through the week, it all adds up. This is probably the easiest of all methods to implement into your day to day life. This method itself is unlikely to help you shed lots of pounds, but in conjunction with other small ideas for example get off at a bus stop ahead of your desired destination, and walk the final leg of your journey, or even better, cycle the whole of your journey while following a few of the tips on eating below, and you should find yourself losing weight in no time. • This is obvious, but you should try to cut down on fatty foods, fast food is a huge culprit for clogging up your arteries with cholesterol and piling on the pounds. For example, there are several fast food meals that contain over a whopping 1000 calories, to put this into perspective, women should eat 2000 calories a day, and men 2,500! So that’s nearly half of your daily calorie allowance in one meal that is not even likely to sustain your hunger for more than a couple of hours and so should be avoided. Also when shopping, when buying low-fat products, you should be careful to look at the nutritional information, quite commonly the food manufacturers replace the fat with sugar. Excess sugar that is not needed by the body is converted into glycogen and is stored as fat.

• Avoid fizzy drinks e.g. coca cola, these drinks are packed with sugar and as a result contain loads of calories, replace these with healthier drinks such as water and you'll find yourself cutting back on lots of calories, as well as saving your teeth and some extra cash.

• Try and do at least 30 minutes of exercise at least 5 days of the week, this could just be a walk round the local park, football in the garden with friends, or a gentle game of tennis. The goal for losing weight is to use more calories than you consume, this exercise will help you on your way.
• Around 50-60% of your daily calories are recommended to come from carbohydrates. Try to make as many of these from foods that are high in complex starchy carbohydrates, opposed to sugary carbohydrates.

• Be sure to watch you portion size, often portion sizes are much smaller than you'd expect, if you are counting calories, be sure to only eat the portion size that it recommends, otherwise take into account the extra calories that will be consumed by the large serving.

• When you feel you need a snack, rather than reaching for a snickers or a couple of biscuits, replace these high calorie snacks with some fruit. Not only will you eat fewer calories, but you will also consume vitamins and minerals which the body requires.

• Personally, I do not recommend diet pills; this is due to negative side affects that some will produce. Furthermore there is no guarantee that you will lose a noticeable amount of weight, and there is a good chance that you will just put it straight back on.

Implement a number of the above points, and you should start to burn more calories and consume less, and in turn, lose weight! Remember the golden rule that is, to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume! A happier and healthier life awaits you.

By Victor Lensora - Owner of the Awesome Health Website http://health-fitness4life.blogspot.com Along with the brand new blog http://easy-natural-weight-loss.blogspot.com helping you with loads of tips to lose weight without endangering your health!
For running tips and advice go to http://runningadvice.blogspot.com

Aricle source: www.amazines.com

Starting A Body Building Program - Jonathon Hardcastle

2006-09-25T00:48:00.000-07:00

Having an impressive physique is of high importance in the aesthetic-obsessed world of today. To that end, you can start a body building program in the courtesy of your own home for little to no money! Keeping in shape increases your sexual appeal and aids your body in maintaining a proper level of health.

If you're looking to build a base for yourself before getting into heavy lifting, push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups can greatly increase your level of fitness. Try to do three sets of these exercises every other day, giving your body the opportunity to rest and rebuild. After a few months, you should note a remarkable difference in your physique; your arms, chest, and abs should all be much more refined even after a small period of time. Once you feel that you've reached the limit of what you can gain from these exercises, it may be a good idea to invest in a weight-lifting bench and some free weights. If you can't afford to get new equipment, it can be a good idea to look in the classified ads. Many people begin to work out in the home but fail to follow through on the plans, giving you ample opportunity to get some rarely-used equipment for a much cheaper price. Online auctions represent another viable opportunity when it comes to purchasing your own equipment.

Once you start working out with free weights, it's a good idea to find a workout partner; a ‘spot' is required for some of the heavier lifts that are performed in a body building routine and without a spot, you can run the risk of serious injury. Another important aspect of the home gym that is often neglected is nutrition. While some people have no qualms about lifting all hours of the day, the benefits that they gain may be lessened due to an unhealthy diet. Bodybuilders should focus on a diet that is high in protein; meats such as chicken offer an abundance of this key compound, and you can supplement your protein consumption via workout shakes that are available for sale at any major health-food store.

Gym memberships can be expensive; by simply buying your own workout set-up, you can save a whole lot of money without even having to leave the house! A mirror is also a good idea for a workout room; the more that you see the progress you've made in the mirror, the further inspired you'll be when it comes to getting even stronger.

Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles on many topics including Sports, Games, and Recreation

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathon_Hardcastle

There Are No Easy Weight Loss Solutions - By D Fraser

2006-09-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

Weight loss solutions, one of the most searched for things in todays faced paced, quick fix society. Do you have your personal weight where you'd like it to be? I know I don't, and I think if you posed that question to a great number of people they would tell you the same thing. I conducted a survey not that long ago of college students asking this exact question, and you know what, the majority said they weren't happy with their current weight. If this is the feeling of college students how do you think the response would go from those of us that are in our 40's and 50's.

The reality is it all comes down to our lifestyle and the choices we make day to day. What are you having for lunch today? Better yet what did you have for breakfast this morning? These are very important questions and they need to be planned meals with the right food if you're serious about weight loss solutions. There is no quick fix, although that's what most of us want, if you're serious about losing those pound you need to be serious about doing the work.

Now most of you probably don't want to hear these same obvious recommendations again but lets go over a few of them. The most important of them all is diet, it's just not possible to eat what ever your heart desires and expect to not gain weight. What are you currently planning on eating for dinner tonight? If you were thinking of it in terms of weight loss solutions would you still have the same thing? If you want to lose weight, you need discipline. Now not to suggest you can never have junk food again, the key is to minimize intake, and everything in moderation. Eating right is the number one thing to staying fit, now followed closely behind to exercise. The best scenario, devote an hour a day to cardio, if you're schedule doesn't allow for this, do the best you can but don't let yourself off the hook easy.

When we get right at the core of weight loss solutions, there isn't a quick fix. While many of us are looking for immediate gratification the natural healthy solution isn't out there. Just look at all the gad diets that come and go, if they all worked we wouldn't need more of them. You need to get off your butt, and get busy. If you're having trouble knowing where to start you can research a lot of good healthy diet plans, and exercise routines on the Internet. Take some time to plan your week for meals, and activity and make it happen. You'll find a vast array of weight loss solutions, as well as diet and exercise plans online, but you need to take the first step and find them, they won't ever find you.

About the Author: If you're struggling to find relevant weight loss information, or want to read some more articles about tips to lose weight visit our website at Weight loss tips.

Source: www.isnare.com

Build Strong Ripped Abs With Core Fitness Training - By Bryan Ashbaugh

2006-09-23T23:38:00.000-07:00

Core stability training works the muscles of the trunk, including the abs and back, as well as the hip musculature. Your core is the origin of movement and must be stable and strong to protect your spine and internal structures from injury while also giving you the ability to enhance performance. You can improve posture, balance, and create a solid foundation for increased strength and power.

Use a draw-in technique when performing these exercises. This means to draw in your navel toward you spine and hold tight, while maintaining a rhythmic breathing pattern. Use these exercises to supplement to your program. They are most effective in helping you reach your fitness and weight loss goals when combined with a complete body weight training and cardiovascular program and a healthy diet. At liveleantoday.com, our personal trainers will incorporate these exercises into a complete health and fitness program to help you reach your goals.

Level 1 exercises (beginners)

Quadruped

Begin on your hands and knees with your abdomen drawn in and tightened and your head in alignment with your torso (do not look up or let your head drop). Keeping your head and neck aligned, slowly raise one arm, thumb up straight in front of you, and the opposite leg, straight out with your toe pointed until your arm, torso and leg form a straight line. Hold for 1-2 seconds and then return to the original position. Repeat with alternate arm and leg.

Floor Prone Cobra

Lay face down on the floor with your arms at your sides, palms up. Draw your abdominals inward and tighten. Keeping your chin tucked, and without using your arms for support, raise your chest off of the ground. Hold and slowly return to the starting position. Repeat as directed.

2 Leg Floor Bridge

Position yourself stomach down on the floor with your toes pointed behind you, your elbows at your sides and your fists clenched under your shoulders. Draw your abdominals inward and tighten in one movement, lift yourself up and backwards so that your body is supported on your forearms and your toes. Your elbows should be directly beneath your shoulders. Keep your back flat and your head in alignment (do not look up or let your head drop). Hold as directed and then slowly lower yourself back to the starting position. Repeat as directed.

Level 2 exercises (novice/advanced)

Ball Bridge

Begin seated on a stability ball with your feet flat on the floor in front of you, shoulder width apart, toes pointed forward. Walk yourself forward, letting the ball roll up your back until the ball is positioned between your shoulder blades and your buttocks are a few inches off of the floor. Drawing your abdominals inward and tightening, raise your hips until your knees, torso, shoulders and neck form a line that is parallel to the floor. Hold for a moment and then slowly lower to the starting position. Repeat as directed.

Ball Cobra

Kneeling in front of a stability ball, position yourself so that the ball is under your abdomen; your arms are straight in front of you, perpendicular to the floor, palms flat on the floor; and your legs are straight out behind you, ankles flexed and toes on the ground. Keeping your legs straight, bring your arms up next to your sides, palms up, and then raise your chest so that your legs and torso form a straight line. Hold for one to two seconds and then lower your chest and return to the starting position, palms flat on the floor.

Ball Pushup

Standing with a stability ball in front of you, bend at the waist and place both hands on the ball, shoulder width apart, thumbs pointed forward and fingers open for optimal stability and arms straight. Draw your abdominals inward and tighten. Step backwards with both feet until you are in a push up position. (Note: your hips, shoulders, neck and head should form a straight line and remain inline throughout the exercise.) Bend your elbows to slowly lower body towards the ball, going only as far as you can stay stable. Push yourself back up to the starting position by extending your elbows and contracting your chest.

Abdominal Bridge with Leg Lift

Position yourself stomach down on the floor with your toes pointed behind you, your elbows at your sides and your fists clenched under your shoulders. Draw your abdominals inward and tighten. In one movement, lift yourself up and backwards so that your body is supported on your forearms and your toes. Your elbows should be directly beneath your shoulders Keep your back flat and your head in alignment (do not look up or let your head drop). Keeping all parts of your body in the same position, lift one leg off the ground no more than 6 inches keeping your leg straight. Hold as directed and then slowly lower yourself back to the starting position. Repeat this exercise, lifting the alternate leg.

Ball Shoulder Combo

Lay face down with a stability ball under your abdomen. Keep your feet pointed down, legs completely straight, and abs squeezed in. Your arms arm extended to the floor and your palms flat. Slowly extend your arms straight out in front of you to a superman position, continuously bring your arms back to 90 degrees so your body forms a T, then extend your arms fully behind you in one motion. This movement will simulate a breast stroke in swimming.

Pushups with Rotation

Kneel on the floor and place your hands on the floor in front of you, with your right thumb and index finger almost touching your left thumb and index finger to form a triangle. Draw your abdominals inward and tighten Move into a push up position, with body supported on your hands and toes, and your torso parallel to the ground so that your hips and shoulders are on an even plane. Keeping your torso parallel to the ground, slowly bend your elbows lowering your body to the ground, and then raise your body back to the starting push up position. Keeping your right arm on the ground, rotate your body at your left shoulder, reaching your left hand toward the ceiling. Continue the rotation as far as you are capable while maintaining balance. Reverse the motion to return your hand to its starting position and repeat the exercise raising your right hand. Repeat the exercise alternating sides as directed.

About the Author: Bryan Ashbaugh, MS Exercise and Sports Science is CEO of LIVE, llc of www.liveleantoday.com
Visit Live Lean Today for more information on weight loss, core fitness programs, optimal diets, and online personal trainer & dietician services.

Source: www.isnare.com

Six-Pack Abs Require A Combination Of Diet And Exercise - Gregg Hall

2006-09-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

Many of us would love to have the six-pack abs. Everywhere you look there are commercials or ads promising these wonderful abs, but what really works? There are many of these ads that say taking a supplement can give you the envious abs you've always wanted. Whether or not these supplement is still yet to be decided. One thing that we do know for sure is that hard work will get you the results you want.

Not all the supplements that are available to you are safe. Who knows what they are putting in these supplements that will give you these great abs. There have been reports of serious side effects resulting from taking these supplements. The good news is there is another way to get these great abs without having to take supplements and risking your health. With a little hard work, exercise and a healthy diet you can achieve great looking abs all on your own.

First thing you will need to do is get some sort of journal to keep record of your exercise and diet program. You can choose whatever kind of journal you think will work best for you. If you want to use a little notebook that you can take with you to help you stay on top of your record keeping that is just fine. If you have a personal digital assistant you can invest in a program that will help you keep your records. Whichever way you decide will work better for you is what you need to do.

The purpose of the journal is to keep track of your progress, and help find any areas that may need more attention. Information you will need to put in your journal will be what day it is, your weight, what exercise you are doing or did on that day, and your food intake. You will also want to make sure you record the time of each of these events to make tracking progress easier.

You will also want to take your measurements weekly or biweekly depending on how dramatic of results you like to see and record these also. How often you weigh yourself is up to you as an individual, it all depends once again on how dramatic you want the results to be. Just remember that if you do it every day it may make you more aware of your goals and make you try harder to reach them. Whichever way you decide to go, just make sure you are weighing yourself at the same time of day each time.

When you track this information it will make you more aware of what you need to work harder on the next day or week. If you have a record of what you did you can look and see if maybe you skipped a day of exercise, or didn't eat very healthy. You want to make sure you are burning more calories than you are taking in. If you keep track of your how much food you ate and when you ate it, it will be easier to see when you need to watch more carefully. Maybe you are overeating everyday at the same time of day, if so your journal will help you see this so you can fix it.

When keeping track of your exercise you will want to write down what type of exercise you did, when you did it, and how long you did it. Keep in mind that just doing sit-ups will not guarantee that six-pack you dream of. You need to make sure you get rid of the fat so that you can see the great abs you are looking for.

To maximize your results you will probably want to do aerobic exercise or cardiovascular exercise to burn fat and calories, strength training to create more muscle, and abdominal exercises. Strength training is important because muscle burns more calories than fat, and will help power your aerobic exercises. Walking, swimming or training along with an aerobic exercise tape are all great ways to get you aerobic workout in. For abdominal work you can do regular sit-ups, or try something like Pilates. Pilates incorporates strength training for your abs and uses twisting movements to get better results.

Just remember that you should exercise four to five times a week, and keep an honest an accurate journal to maximize your results. You also need to realize that you will not get your dream abs overnight; it takes hard work and time.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about this as well as Herbal Supplements at
http://www.online-pharmacy-plus.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gregg_Hall

The Secret Ingredients of Bodybuilding Supplement Gakic - Gary Stephens

2006-09-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

After the successful launch and campaigning of company Muscletech for the new supposed breakthrough supplement Gakic, many questions have been asked as to the products effectiveness, potential side effects and in particular ingredients.

When a supplement promises a benefit so dramatic people inevitably want to know how. In this article I will attempt to discuss the ingredients of Gakic in the hope of demonstrating why the guys at Muscletech might just be more than great marketers.

Firstly to lay it out for you the ingredients of Gakic as stated in the products documentation are:

First and foremost glycine-l-arginine-alpha-ketoisocaproic acid calcium (shortened to Gakic). With the additional ingredients being:

Dextrose, maltodextrin, citric acid, sodium citrate, sodium gluconate, polyvinylprrolidone, natural and artificial flavors (modified food starch, corn syrup solids, gum acacia, silicon dioxide), acesulfame-potassium, sucralose, fd&c red no. 40.

Without getting too complicated with the science of things, I will try to briefly explain how and why these ingredients are effective in performing the suggested tasks.

The benefit of Gakic is stated to be that it helps the body to remove and prevent the build up of fatigue toxins such as Ammonia that cause the body to lose strength and eventually fail towards the end of the workout.

Gakic's main ingredient works as such: The compound glycine-l-arginine-alpha-ketoisocaproic acid calcium as a ketone group has no Ammonia in it as ketone compounds usually do. For this reason when it enters the body and the muscle cells, it scavenges for Ammonia particles with which it can react neutrally to become more chemically stable. What that means is that this compound glycine-l-arginine-alpha-ketoisocaproic acid calcium is pre-disposed to remove in this manner traces of Ammonia from the muscle cells. The acid when enters the body is converted to leucine that carries out the function above as well as glycine and arginine which then are responsible for moving the removed Ammonia through the uric acid system to be eliminated from the body. Further to that the glycine and arginine have further effects. The glycine is also said to give the effect of an insulin stimulator while the arginine is able to increase blood flow to the area effected by the toxins allowing the leucine to ravage even more of the toxins it seeks to eliminate.

This being the function of the main ingredient, the other ingredients of Gakic serve to enhance the extent to which the muscle cells can absorb the substance and hence take their effect.

As you can see the process Gakic undergoes in the body is a complex one. It is mainly for this reason that scientists and users of the product alike seem to be touting its benefits. As for the question of will it work for you, it is up to you to decide.

Gary Stephens is a writer on bodybuilding supplements and currently runs an informational website providing the real information on bodybuilding supplement Gakic, including Gakic Reviews.

For more information please see http://www.gakicreview.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gary_Stephens

Menopause Weight Gain – You Can Lose It - By Susan Megge

2006-09-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

It’s probably safe to assume that the reason you found this article is because you’ve gradually, but progressively gained some unwanted weight, especially around your mid-section. This is somewhat surprising since you’ve not necessarily changed your lifestyle or eating habits. As a matter of fact, there’s a good chance you’ve even cut your caloric intake, but still the weight remains. Could this weight gain be associated with menopause? If you’re a woman in your thirties of forties, the answer is “yes – most definitely.” Weight gain, as you approach menopause, is quite common and often one of the first symptoms of menopause that women notice. This is true even if you’re still experiencing regular periods.

You see, as you approach menopause your body’s hormone levels are declining, thus causing many changes to occur. As your estrogen levels decline, your body will naturally look for other places from where to get the needed estrogen. Unfortunately, fat cells are capable of producing estrogen, which results in your body working harder to convert calories to fat.

In addition to the declining levels of estrogen, your body’s testosterone levels are also declining. As you may know, testosterone is the hormone that converts your calories to lean muscle mass. Obviously, with lower testosterone levels you’re now losing muscle mass. Since muscle burns far more calories than does fat, your body is no longer capable of burning calories the way it used to.

As you can see, your declining hormone levels are the main culprit behind all of the weight gain you’re now noticing. Don’t think for one minute that you need to accept or welcome this unwanted enemy because you can easily lose this menopausal weight gain. I recently published some inspirational quotes on my website to assist women in their everyday lives. One of my favorites comes to mind when I think about what makes so many women complacent when they’re faced with symptoms of menopause and weight gain. Jim Rohn once said “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” If your goal is to lose the weight you’ve gained, the only thing that can possibly stop you from accomplishing this goal is a lack of discipline.

If you’re willing to put your discipline into high gear you will undoubtedly lose the weight you’ve gained due to declining hormone levels associated with menopause. It’s important that you understand what’s taking place inside your body so that you’re well aware that simply cutting calories will not significantly reduce or eliminate the weight around your mid-section. You must build muscle to turn your body into a calorie-burning machine. You needn’t be extreme, but an exercise routine that includes weight training at least three days a week will give you results that will astonish you.

Remember, “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” Don’t be complacent. You're headed in the right direction because you researched the Internet seeking information regarding weight gain during menopause. Consider this the first step in your walk across the bridge to accomplishment.

About the Author: Susan Megge is the founder of http://www.40isbeautiful.com, a website designed to assist mature women as they approach and experience menopause. She is a grandmother, who started experiencing symptoms of menopause several years ago and researched various avenues to deal with these symptoms naturally.

Source: www.isnare.com