Exercise workout pal:

Embarking on a fitness mission can be a daunting task for most of us. This journey is important, but can have its own set of good and bad days. The best way to enjoy your success and seek solace for minor setbacks is by enlisting the help of a like-minded friend. An exercise workout pal can indeed prove to be an important asset for you, as you wage a war against the bulge and take those vital steps towards fitness and health.

Getting support:

An exercise pal is not simply a friend who cheers you from the sidelines and then begs you to have a slice of pizza. An exercise pal is someone who can motivate you, provide you comfort and even push you that extra bit on the treadmill. You can find such a pal in your gym or through a casual meeting at the gym or in your local park.

Sometimes, your exercise pal can be a part of your friend circle who is as much interested in improving his or her health as you. In this case you can team up with your friend and make a commitment to shed those extra pounds together.  Some special health gyms also provide this unique facility to their clients by dividing the members in different groups.

These members motivate each other, share their weight loss secrets and pull up those who desperately need some moral support.  Thus, an exercise pal needs to be empathetic, supportive and sensitive to the other person’s need. By giving and receiving support and encouragement, an exercise workout session can even turn out to be fun, tempting and friendly.

Working together:

The best way to work with your exercise workout pal is by sharing your exercise workout goals. These goals and the strategies to get there, can be discussed by you and your pal by a healthy exchange of available knowledge and valid arguments.

During workout sessions, you and your friend can offer encouragement when the other seems to be slowing down. A word of praise on completion of the activity is also appreciated and this encouragement can serve as a motivational factor in a workout. Exercise workout pals can also celebrate their success and discuss their failures effectively.

They can help each other in tough times and celebrate with each other when they reach their goals.

By enlisting and giving support, you can workout effectively and beat those exercise blues with an exercise workout pal at your side.

So it’s the end of a long day. How is your body feeling? Are you achy? in pain? Or did you start the day feeling tired and it’s only gotten worse as the day has gone on?

If your answer to any of these questions is yes, you’re likely experiencing the very real impact of stress on your body. Stress can lead to aches, pains, and a general feeling of tiredness and “non-well-ness”.

Research strongly indicates that physical exercise can improve your health, and help you manage stress more effectively, whether that stress is due to career, personal or social problems.

The biggest excuse for not exercising is lack of time- but, in that case, you need to find time. Leave a bit early from work, or wake up a bit earlier each day. It’s important to take part in physical activity on most days of the week.

Physical exercise for stress management

Physical exercise can improve your body’s adaptability to stress. This involves routine movements that will improve your cardiovascular functions and strengthen your heart. This in turn improves the circulation of your blood and other biochemicals which your body needs to maintain a good health.

When your muscles are well supplied with oxygen, this will improve muscle integrity, which, in turn, improves endurance, stamina and flexibility. Also when engaging in physical exercise, you can find an outlet for your mental stress – release your depression, anxiety, anger, fear, and so on by focusing on your workout and sweating it out.

Exercise tips

Here are some tips that will start you off right in releasing stress through physical exercise:

1. Time. Before indulging your body to some serious sweating, you must set aside some time to have an uninterrupted workout. People who exercise in the early morning are most likely to stick to their exercise goals, and to take the time needed for a solid workout. Additionally, if you exercise outdoors, the fresh air will help your body and mind feel more alert. Plus, it’s a nice break from all the electrical equipment at the gym.

2. Warm-up exercise. It is very important to engage in light exercise to warm your body up before engaging in heavy-duty workout. By doing some light warmup exercise, focusing from head to toe, you’ll be more likely to avoid cramps that will plague you for days. Start off with some minor stretching. Warm up your ankles, legs, hips, arms and neck. Make sure you do it slow and with set time intervals so your body won’t react negatively. The purpose of the warm-up is to let your body adapt to the work-out that will follow afterward.

3. Tools of the trade. If you plan to forgo going to the gym and do your exercise at home, then it is necessary to be prepared for it. Try to purchase some DVDs that features exercise routines for different parts of your body. If you want to make a habit out of this then you might need to purchase mats, weights, and other accessories to help you get the best workout at home.

4. Proper Diet. Practically the most important element of a solid physical exercise program is your food intake. Make sure that you eat enough so that you’re body won’t get tired from the physical exercise, but not too much to make up for calories you haven’t even burned yet. Reduce your intake of soda, sugar, salt, and give your muscles what they need to work their best.

To learn more about how a proper diet can help you reduce stress, and improve vitality, download our free audio by entering your name and email in the top right of this page.

There are two problems we face when starting an exercise program. Either we work out too hard or not hard enough. Workouts for beginners can be challenging but they also can be too easy if we go out on our own. As an exercise enthusiast, I have learned some things over the years about workouts for beginners that I will share here.

Too much too fast is never a good thing. If you are starting one of the workouts for beginners chances are that you are not in the best shape. The last thing you should do is run a marathon followed by a muscle building program followed by aerobics. You will not be able to move the next day.

For some reason we want to make up for lost time all at once. It is crucial that you remember that workouts for beginners need to start slowly and build. I know that we want to see results as quickly as possible but exercising too much too fast will probably lead to injury. You are also less likely to stick to a difficult, demanding routine.

I learned my lesson the hard way. I joined a gym and I started walking a five mile trail with friends in the same week. I figured that walking is one of the best workouts for beginners and the gym would also start me off as a novice.

After two weeks of soreness and 13 consecutive days of exercise I abruptly stopped the program. I also developed a violent aversion to exercise because I did not really start at the beginning. As a general rule, if you start abruptly you will stop abruptly. This does your body no good. Workouts for beginners should start off slowly but not too slowly.

My second attempt at being a responsible, healthy adult went the opposite direction. I used workouts for beginners like walking and swimming making sure to only exercise three times each week. Unfortunately, I found that I wasn’t seeing results. After two months I didn’t lose an ounce and I didn’t shrink one inch.

As any dieter knows, two months is an eternity when you are watching the scale. These workouts for beginners yielded no results because I wasn’t challenging myself enough. I was never out of breath and my heart rate wasn’t adequately raised.

When you start workouts for beginners make sure that you pose a challenge for yourself. Having an exercise buddy or coach can help you work out just right; not too hard and not too soft.

When people have had a weight challenge for a long time, they tend to be really mean to themselves.

I was speaking with a client, “Lisa” earlier today, and talked with about how she was doing on the program.

She has just been on it for a few days, but has already lost 5 lbs. When I encouraged her about this fast success, she immediately launched into a long explanation of how she was a failure, and a loser, and would probably not be able to stick to the plan, and that I should be ready for her to fail.

As we talked about this more, I realized that Lisa had struggled with her weight since she was young; and had been mean to herself ever since then. Her self criticism started at about the age of 14, and hadn’t stopped since then. She believed that her challenges with her weight were a sign of her being a loser, and a failure- rather than a simple mathematical formula of more calories in than calories going out.

When I asked her what she would say to a friend who was feeling like a failure and a loser, she immediately came up with several compassionate, loving, and very caring responses. When I asked her why she could be so nice to other people, but so mean to herself, she didn’t have an answer.

We worked on a few other things in our call, and Lisa’s “homework” for the week was to begin to replace her self critical and negative talk with something more compassionate and positive. She didn’t have to tell herself anything she didn’t believe, but she did need to stop being so mean to herself and to find another way to speak to herself.

If you struggle with mean and unkind thoughts about yourself, and many negative judgments because of your weight, you are not alone. Being overweight is tied to feeling depressed and anxious, and this can lead to negative self talk.

To change this situation, do two things- start a weight management program, and replace your negative self talk with someone more neutral (and, then, eventually, positive.) Stop being mean to yourself.

If you’ve tried (and failed) on other weight management plans before, you might have decided that this was because you had no willpower.

In fact, I was at the gym earlier today, and overheard a conversation between two women who were on treadmills next to me. One woman was telling the other about how she has been trying to lose weight for years, but she “has no willpower” and “that’s why I haven’ t been able to do it.”

This made me think about willpower, and how important it really is for your weight management efforts.

The great thing about our weight loss program is that willpower is not required.

Yes, of course, you need to be motivated to lose weight (and we have an extensive intake process which can help identify your true sources of motivation and support for your weight loss journey), but, after that, the whole process is very structured, and systematic- and you just follow it, and the weight comes off.

It’s not the kind of program where you need to think about it everyday, nor do you need to worry or stress out- we tell you exactly what to do, how to do it, and we make sure you’re on track through regular “check in” coaching calls.

So the truth is, you need to say yes! to wanting to lose weight, and then do what we tell you- and the weight will come off. No willpower required!

So you just got some bad news. What’s the first thing you do?

1) Call a friend
2) Take a walk
3) Eat something

If you answered #3 (and don’t worry, many of us did too…) you may be an emotional eater. Emotional eating is defined as eating food (usually sweet or salty) when you’re not hungry, and, instead, as a way of dealing with upsetting or sad feelings.

Very often, we seek to comfort ourselves with food, whether we are hungry or not. Eating can be a way of dealing with stress, upset, fear, anger, boredom, anxiety, loneliness, and sadness. It’s easy to eat when we feel badly, even though eating during these times doesn’t really solve the feelings- and then we feel badly because we messed up our weight control and *still* feel upset.

Some people also use food as a distraction- they cook or bake (and lick the bowl) when they are upset or working through a problem. While distraction is a good coping mechanism, the problem with spending a lot of time around food is that, eventually, you’re going to eat some, whether you’re hungry or not.

So how can you get control over emotional eating?

• Recognize true hunger (in your stomach) from ‘false’ hunger (in your thoughts).

• Give your cravings a few minutes to pass, and see if they do.

• Build other coping skills, such as connecting with friends, going for a walk, or taking a nap.

• Get enough rest (this goes a long way in keeping your emotions from running away with you)

• Eat something healthy before you eat anything unhealthy

Life is full of stress- so that’s not something we can get away from. However, we can learn to identify and reduce our sources of stress, and to cope with our stress in more healthful and productive ways than reaching for candy, soda, ice cream or chips.

Our bodies have to work harder to help us feel better when we don’t give them the right fuel.

Research shows it is always better to be overweight and active than thin and inactive- but isn’t it so frustrating when you work out consistently and just can’t seem to lose weight?

I had a patient, “Liz”, who was working out 5-6 days per week, doing a combination of aerobic activity plus weight training, and her weight just wasn’t moving. She was as fit as she had ever been, but just couldn’t get the numbers to move on the scale.

The only time she was able to do this was through drastically cutting her calories, but that left her feeling weak, unable to workout, and with a constant headache. While there is a strong genetic component to weight loss, reducing calories in a healthy and consistent way can help you lose 2-5lbs. per week.

The solution for Liz was to work with me on a specialized weight control program which helped her reduce her calories without feeling hungry and without headaches. She ate every few hours, and reported that she had more energy than ever before. She kept up her workouts, and was soon burning off fat.

If you are exercising frequently, but just aren’t able to lose weight, learn more about other weight management options. There is a system that will work for you; you just have to find it.

You might want to begin by downloading our free audio by signing up on the form at the top right of this page.

What separates athletes from the rest of us? They train hard, and eat better. New research suggests that diet is a crucial element to performing at peak levels during all kinds of sports.

The right diet can help you do everything better; whether you are a high level athlete, or a busy executive. The right combination of foods, plus exercise, plus water are the three keys to unlocking vital energy and abundant wellness.

Most of us would benefit from eating better than we do, exercising more often than we do, and drinking more water than we do.

It’s not realistic to think you can change all three of these habits at one time, but what if you just began with one?

Could you make better food choices just for today? Or drink water instead of soda? Or walk a little further during your next exercise session?

Little things do add up, and can make a big difference.

What dietary change can you make today to improve your performance at work, school, and in life?

When was the last time you stopped to think about your stomach? Not just about the last time you were hungry, but about how important your stomach is for your posture?

Many people don’t realize that having a strong stomach and back makes you stand up straighter and look thinner too.

You can look ten pounds thinner, simply by improving your posture.

When you stand up straight, you actually accomplish a few important things. First, you de-emphasize your belly fat- as all of our tummies look bigger when we slouch over.

Standing up straight improves the strength of our backs, making it easier to maintain good posture longer.

Having good posture reduces the likelihood of back pain, which means we can move through our days easily and more effectively.

Good posture also enhances blood flow to the legs and lower back, which can help improve circulation.

While weight management and weight control should be a high priority, you can look instantly slimmer by standing up straight.

Improve your posture, work your stomach and back (with proper medical guidance) and you’ll look more toned, feel more confident, and experience instantaneous improvement in your appearance and the way your body feels.

You might have heard a lot about low carb, low fat diets, and might be wondering how important protein is in the mix of your weight management plan.

The truth is, protein is extremely important, no matter what your weight loss goal.

Protein can help you build muscle (which burns fat), and can actually help you lose fat as well. Protein is used to build muscle, and to repair muscle tissue.

Protein is the main component of our bodies, and makes up a large percentage of our muscles and organs. It is also essential for maintaining hormonal function and adequate immunity against colds and sickness.

In order to lose fat, but not muscle, it is important that you preserve and grow your muscle tissue. One of the best ways to do this is to eat lean meats, such as chicken, fish, soy, low fat dairy, as well as other lean meats and beans (legumes). You can also supplement your protein intake using protein powders and supplements which are derived from protein sources, but are easier to use and concentrated for impact.

The thing about losing weight is that, without adequate protein, your body will break down protein first, instead of fat. This means that you will lose healthy muscle tissue and decrease your overall health and fitness. In order to maximize fat burn, you should give your body enough protein so your muscles stay strong and fat-burning.

So how much protein do you need?

Roughly .5-.7 grams per pound of bodyweight. So this means if you weight 200 lbs., you should eat at least 100 grams of protein per day.

Our weight loss plan helps you get protein and carbohydrates in just the right balance for optimal health, energy, and wellness- without feeling hungry. Take the first step to learn more by signing up for our free audio at the top right of this page.