Want to Have a Great Body? Follow These Tips

I have been going to the gym regularly (well, almost) for the last one year. And I have lost about 19 lbs too. Considering the fact that I was not overweight and weighed 145 lbs, that’s no mean achievement, losing 13% of my body weight.

But it didn’t take me one year to lose 19 lbs. I didn’t lose any weight in the first six months. It could be because I was not going to the gym as often as I should have, or I was not working out properly, or it could be some other reason. Then in January this year, I asked the fitness director of the club why I still have fat around my tummy. After all, I joined the gym to get rid of this fat, not to lose weight. He gave me just one tip – run faster on the treadmill, rest, run, rest.

I used to run at 5 mph on the treadmill for about 30-40 minutes. I changed my routine and started running at 6 mph for 2 minutes, then walked at 4.2 mph for 2 minutes, and so on. Then I started to gradually increase the duration for which I ran at a faster pace. Eventually, I ran 30 minutes at 6 mph, walked for 5 minutes, and ran again for 10-12 minutes. With this routine, I spned more than 700 calories in an hour. And yes, I kept increasing the incline of the treadmill, finally stopping at 3.5.

Any exercise is incomplete without cardio, strength, and stretching. So I spend about 20-25 minutes on strength trainging, working with various machines and dumbbells, and exercising all parts of my body. I lost weight in about four months, and even now, I’m losing some weight – half to one lb a month or so.

I have found the way to a great looking body and a great health. Here’s my take on what to do:

Control your diet

• Read the nutrition facts on everything you buy. Discard it if it contains any amount of saturated fat or trans fat. If the calorie count seems too high, don’t buy it.
• Calculate the calories you eat in a day. Contrary to popular perception that an average person requires 2000 calories a day, most of us need 500 to 1500 calories a day unless someone has a physically demanding job.
• Do the math. If your calorie intake is more than the calories you need, chances are you will gain weight and/or clog your arteries or both.
• Keep food items out of sight. It is easier and tempting to keep eating whatever is close by. Keep high-calorie stuff in difficult-to-reach places.

Exercise

• The best way to exercise is to make it a routine, and a routine can easily maintained by joining a gym, 3-4 days a week (3 is the minimum).
• Do the right exercises – 10 minutes warm up, 20 minutes strength exercise (yes, even if you are a woman), 45 minutes cardio (running is the best cardio exercise), and 10-15 minutes stretching and cool down.
• Don’t take your weight every day. Fat comes off very slowly and not seeing a drop in weight can be very demotivating.
• Give it at least six months before expecting any result.
• Keep the intensity of exercise high. The formula for an optimum heart beat rate – subtract your age from 220 – your heart beat rate should be 80% of this number (if you are a beginner to intermediate level) or 90% (if you have been exercising consistently for a few months).

Motivation

• The most difficuly to achiive, maintaining consistency can be very boring and hence, demotivating. Pair up with someone, especially a health freak.
• Vary your exercise regimen.
• Don’t go to the gym if you feel like staying home or doing something else (but don’t make it a habit).

I have compiled the list of tips above from my experience and trust me … IT WORKS.

Exercise? If only there were 25 hours in a day

Most of us, at some point in time, have wanted to start exercising. Some of us do finally start it, albeit only for a few days or months. Some intend to start exercising but they are never able to make the transition from the planning to the execution phase. The most common reason – a lack of time.

How can I spend my valuable time exercising – at home or at the gym? My life is so busy, will a full time job, groceries, children, television, and numerous other engagements (and of course, sleeping). And there are only 24 hours in a day! And I’m busy all these 24 hours. If I had just an hour or two extra in a day, I’d exercise daily, because then I’d have extra time when I’m free. Have you had a similar thought lately? Well, guess what – there are only 24 hours in a day! And that 25th hour is never going to come.

Time is most common excuses (and a perfectly valid reason, in some cases) for not exercising. There is an old saying that a piece of work stretches to occupy the time available. The amount of work we do in 24 hours would stretch and fill the 25th hour too, and there will still not be enough time to exercise. I have faced the same issue, and despite the occasional motivation to go to the gym, have never found enough time. Until last year.

I have been regularly (three days a week) going to the gym for the last one year or so, and arrived at the conclusion that it’s not the time but motivation that has always prevented me from exercising. And I have started believing that this is the case with most of us. We are not motivated enough. Even if the motivation hits us sometimes, it goes away as soon as it came.

Exercising at home, park, or a gym, takes a little time and lots of motivation. The motivation to make a beginning, motivation to keep it up for a long time. And motivation must have a reason behind it. Motivation is an intrinsic state of mind, and comes from a realization, a goal, or in some cases, like mine, a shock.

So where does the motivation for exercising come from? Here are some of the most common reasons.

An overweight person:

• wants to slim down and look good
• has to reverse a medical condition, such as high blood pressure
• wants to avoid some ailments for which s/he has high risk of catching

An average weight person:

• wants to lose fat and tone her/his body
• has to reverse a medical condition, such as high cholesterol, or prevent it
• wants to build more muscle mass
• remain active in old age

People who are happy with their weight and shape and are physically fit find no reason to exercise, and hence, there is no motivation for them to go to the gym. However, there are many benefits to exercising, even for healthy people. So here’s my advice – if you are overweight, hit the gym. Even if you think you are healthy, get yourself checked by a doctor – you never know what’s happening inside your body. If you have a genetically high risk of high blood pressure, it’s very important to prevent it from happening.

There are many more benefits to exercising. And the elusive 25th hour will never come. So motivate yourself … and join a gym.

A Healthy Lifestyle: Now What’s That?

If you are 30+ and have a job that requires you to be in the office the whole day (and evenings), this post is for you.

Most of us lead a sedentary lifestyle with all kinds of amenities to take care of physical work. And most of us do not exercise, or rather, do not have time to exercise. Leading a busy life with a family and job can be very demanding with virtually not free time. All free time is spent doing “important” things like shopping, watching movies, and eating. Where in the world is free time, you ask? I wish there were 25 hours in a day, so I’d have one hour to swim, jog, and hit the gym. Well, guess what, there are only 24 hours in a day, so …. no time for exercise.

Is exercise necessary to lead a healthy lifestyle? Most of us think we already avoid junk food, we are not fat, so we are healthy, right? Wrong. A healthy lifestyle goes beyond junk food and being thin (or not being fat). I realized the truth the hard way.

Last summer, I got my lipid profile done. If you have never got yours done, here’s what it is. You don’t eat 12 hours prior to giving your blood sample. You can’t even drink anything except water. You go to the doctor, they draw some blood for testing, and within a day or two, they tell you the results. You get to know what your blood sugar level is, your LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein, also called the bad cholesterol), HDL (High Density Lipoprotein, also called the good cholesterol), the triglyceride levels, and some other things.

When I got the results, every reading was way above the acceptable limits. I’m thin, used to exercise, though never regularly and may be not the correct exercises, so I was under the impression that I was healthy as a horse. Not really, the doctor said. I was scared. I didn’t want to get a heart attack at this stage of life. So I did some reading on the Internet. The more results Google returns, the more confusing everything seems. But one thing common across most of the Web sites is the theme – healthy lifestyle. Some sites do talk about fat-melting tea or drink or something. I will write about why these drinks don’t (and can’t work).

By the way, eight months later, I got my lipid profile done again. And this time, everything was perfectly normal. I was relieved. I will write about how I did it and you can try and make it work for you too. In the meantime, go to Google and do a keyword search for healthy lifestyle.