Wednesday 22 February 2012

3 Steps to Getting Fit and Losing Pounds

Whether you want to hear this or not, you cannot expect to see improvements in your weight, body shape or overall fitness without regular exercise. You can dictate your levels of exercise on your own personal levels of fitness. It is just as important to remember not to over exercise, as it is to ensure you put in enough effort, particularly when starting out.

Think about using a mixture of exercises that interest you but do not look for the exercises you find easier to do with minimum effort, or all you will be doing is simply wasting your time. You can think about exercising more regularly, even every day without over doing it. A long walk to the shops, or a brisk walk around town can count as a physical activity.

Below is a guide that I have used over the years and it does not have to be so regimented either, try adding further activities that you know are of benefit to you.

1. Regular Exercise

If exercising everyday is too much initially don’t panic or worry, because you can build up to this over time. If your workouts can be pretty intense, then it would be wise to have a break for a day before your next session. The idea of exercising every day is to ensure that you keep to a routine or habit that is beneficial to you.

Set yourself realistic goals that are achievable and this will help you stay motivated to keep going. Try to keep yourself positive mentally and don’t be put off if you don’t quite achieve your goals. If this is the case re-assess them and change them if necessary. The important thing here is that you have a positive mental attitude to this and try to appreciate the bigger picture and long -term goals.




2. Maintain a Healthy Diet

It is vital that you don’t waist the hard work of your workouts but eating and drinking food that is going to have an adverse affect on your health, energy levels and performance. The best way to look at it is, if you want beer, wine or champagne once or twice a week you’ve got to earn it. This is what I always tell myself, and more often than not it works. I enjoy a beer as much as the next guy, but if I tell myself that unless I work hard exercising the week before, I’ll end up putting on weight and looking out of shape.

The key is to eat sensibly, make sure you have regular intake of fruit and vegetables and just as important make sure you drink as much water as you possibly can. The importance of water regularly cannot be expressed enough. Without regular water intake our energy levels drop and we end up feeling lethargic, which in turn de-motivates us.

Eating three square meals, especially large meals is not really a good idea. If you think about it, after we have eaten a large meal we tend to feel lethargic and sleepy. Therefore try eating small portions but more regularly through the course of a day. You will probably find that your energy levels are much higher than you anticipated.



In summary:

• Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables
• Drink plenty of water
• Do not eat large portions, try more frequent smaller portions



3. Intensive Activity Beats Long Duration

Although you may see many people carrying out long duration activity, it does not always mean that they are achieving better results. Sometimes people find that their bodies become used to the same continuous activity over and over again. When this happens there is no real benefit to the body because there is no next level, and the body does what is known as plateau.

When you are looking for a leaner and fitter physic your body requires quality exercise sessions rather than long flat workouts. Look at it like this, when you go for that 3km run at your usual steady pace, try increasing your speed throughout. If you keep a running chart of this you will see if your times begin to improve. This again is a good way of motivating yourself to improve on previous times over the same course and distance. http://www.articlealley.com/3-steps-to-getting-fit-and-losing-pounds-2416940.html

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