November 18th, 2008 — activities, alternative ideas, exercise, goals, motivation
If you are ready to make that commitment towards getting healthy and losing weight, you'll need to come up with a fitness plan that works for you. While it's great to set really high goals, it's all too easy to become discouraged and give up if you can't reach them. In order to build a fitness plan that is going to work for you, you'll need to keep the following considerations in mind.
1. What are you physically capable of handling?
If you are just starting out, there is no way you're going to be able to run a marathon. Instead of setting sky high goals, try for the more reasonable ones. For example, start with 30 minutes of aerobic exercise every other day. This makes it much easier to begin and you run much less risk of being disillusioned.
2. What type of exercise fits your personality the best?
If aerobics make you homicidal, then don't pick this type of plan. It's all too easy to give up if you're ready to wring your instructor's neck. If you like to keep to yourself, try spinning instead. If weight lifting is more your scene, don't waste your time on exercises you won't be interested in. The key is finding what fits you, not forcing yourself to fit into something.
3. What will your schedule allow?
It is all too easy to claim that you're too busy to exercise. Work can get in the way, but there are ways around this. Don't schedule your exercise for parts of the day that you won't be motivated to keep. For example, if you are not a morning person, an exercise plan that starts at 7am every day is not for you. It's just too much to ask to reinvent your whole life. Pick a time that is convenient and you'll be much less likely to skip it.
4. What exercise do you enjoy?
It's pretty easy to say none, but there are creative ways that you can exercise and have fun while you're doing it. Try a couple of different methods and see which ones you enjoy the most. Then, stick with those, at least at first, so that you'll be able to stay motivated.
5. Find an exercise buddy.
We can always shirk off exercise time when it's just us, but if you have a committed buddy, it gets a lot harder. Just make sure that your buddy is really motivated. It won't do you much good to pick a partner in crime, since the temptation to cheat will be too high.
Once you have figured out what type of exercise is right for you, start slowly. You can't climb Mount Everest today! Start small and then gradually add in more time each. As you start to see the results, you'll be more motivated to keep going. If you fall, get back up again and start over. By sticking with your plan, you will get results.
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September 16th, 2008 — diet, waistline, weight loss, wellness
While many of us would like to believe that we were meant to be naturally heavy, the fact is that each one of us does have an ideal weight. Finding it is never easy, and you can spend your whole life trying to beat the scale. Before you beat yourself up for one more day, it is vital to find out how much you should weigh.
This will vary based on many different factors. We do not recommend using BMI as your sole guide to your optimum weight since it does not account for frame size or muscle mass. You can use this as a clue, but do not rely completely on your BMI to determine how much you should weigh.
To discover your optimum weight, let’s talk a little about the three main body types: endomorph, ectomorph and mesomorph.
An endomorph is typically a little heavier by nature. They have softer curves and less definition throughout their body. It is very easy for an endomorph to gain weight.
An ectomorph is the polar opposite. They are usually quite slight, bony and have difficulty gaining weight.
A mesomorph has defined muscles and will typically have a very strong jaw and facial features. Even their hands may be muscled and their bones are typically large and well defined.
Finding your type may be a little difficult, but most of us are aware enough of our bodies to make a good guess. You can also ask your doctor for their opinion on what type you are. Next, let’s move to frame size. A person with a small frame should be able to wrap their hand around the bone of their wrist and have some overlap going on. A person with a moderate frame will have their fingers meet. A person with a large frame will have space in between their fingers.
Now, taking all of these considerations into mind, let’s talk about muscle mass. If you are naturally athletic, you’re going to have more muscle and as such, you’re going to weigh a little bit more. Finding your desired weight may be more about settling on a range of body fat percentage. This focuses more on a healthy weight for this body type, and keeps the range of body fat in the right zone.
A person with a medium frame will have the toughest time finding the right weight. For a clue, you can take the range of weight from your BMI result, and go for the middle numbers. Body fat percentage is also important here as well, and should be in a healthy range. If you have a low body fat percentage, but you’re still not where you think you should be, you may actually already be at your ideal weight.
A small framed person can usually use the same sliding scale, but this time, their ideal weight may be found at the bottom end of the BMI scale. Slight people may actually need to carry a little more body fat and weight to avoid osteoporosis and other health issues. If you are already underweight, you may need to actually gain weight to reach the right range.
Instead of focusing on numbers, you’ve got to look at overall health, the right weight range for your body type and the percentage of body fat you’re carrying. In there, you will find your ideal weight.
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July 3rd, 2008 — Book Review
Tomorrow is a holiday, which is why you are reading a book review today. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend. Enjoy the fireworks and BBQs!
Dr. Shapiro's book The Guide to Picture Perfect Weight Loss combines several interesting factors into one plan to help readers lose weight. While you may not agree with some of his advice or suggestions, it certainly is an interesting read and a book that dieter's should at least consider. The author really focused on healthy lifestyle changes, so that earned him points right off the bat.
When it comes to losing weight, it's not about those initial quick results. If you're not making whole life changes, it's all too easy to fall back into bad habits and immediately your progress was for naught. We always appreciate it when authors step away from the fad diet craze and start focusing on ways that everyone, regardless of their current weight, can get healthy and stay that way.
Dr. Shapiro was hired to help the Fire Department in New York City lose weight and it's easy to see why he is well renowned in the diet industry. This book focuses on using pictures to help readers make smart food choices. It's all about replacing bad foods and developing those healthy eating habits that will keep you slim for the rest of your life. We really appreciated the fact that he illustrated proper serving sizes visually since many of us have a hard time picturing what a "serving" actually is.
The best part of the book lies in the suggestions for replacements for unhealthy foods. At times, it was pretty shocking to see exactly what you could eat instead of fast food. The sheer volume of healthy but tasty food compared with the small serving of fast food was remarkable and no one could ever claim that this was a diet that left them feeling hungry.
Since total deprivation does not work when it comes to losing weight, this book offered hundreds of alternatives that readers can immediately put into action so that they feel full and fulfilled. It may be tough at first to implement a few of these changes, particularly since fast food and unhealthy food as a whole tastes so good, but the author really did his job when it came to finding alternatives that are completely comparable. If you can break your addiction to fast food, you'll be surprised at just how much healthy food you could be eating.
It was virtually impossible to come up with any criticism for this book. It's well written, well thought out and most importantly, provided a new way to look at dieting. So many diet books are all the same and so many leave reader's feeling empty or worse, ripped off. By visually representing food changes, the author really took diet books to a whole new level and we can hope that the industry will follow suit.
Overall, this is a book that belongs on any dieter's bookshelf. Even those who are already at their goal weight can learn a lot from this book and walk away with a new appreciation of eating healthy.
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