For years now it’s been the same routine- get up; go to work; drive straight to the gym and follow simple, mundane weight lifting instructions on a notepad. This was up until about a year ago, when I discovered that this habitual practice was demoralizing and ultimately making me miserable. Sure, life can be routine, but it’s in that routine that we can exercise our creativity to conjure up new ways to make fitness exciting.

For some people, this could mean simple tweaks in their written/routine free-weight exercises, starting with chest and ending the week with arms. For others, it’s about hopping on that bike and/or treadmill and running that extra five miles a day. It’s my strong recommendation that you immerse yourself in a solid mix of cardio and free weight exercises as not to create boredom, or lack of will. BUT, don’t make your schedule the same each week; spontaneity is key! Sure, there are those who say they’ve come to learn to love what they do, charming the same weight-lifting regimen weekly while avoiding anything irregular as not to “tarnish” their workout. Learning to love however, is different from naturally engaging in something that’s enjoyable.

Routines can be easy, and not very strenuous; but after all, they are just routines. So it’s with my dear advice that as practitioners of exercise and fitness we teach ourselves new things, while also teaching our body the same. This is inherently true with things like dance. More specifically, Zumba is an excellent example of something different, fun, and unique. The ability to genuinely enhance cardiovascular function and endurance, while practicing muscle memory routines effectively exercises the whole body. And simply put, it’s fun.

The most practical and enjoyable way to stay in shape undoubtedly is by playing sports. Joining a soccer league on Sundays or perhaps playing something as simple as intramural dodge ball or kickball can successfully burn thousands of calories in just one day. The sheer competitive nature of these athletic activities drives the body further and beyond, and although strenuous at times, people crave the struggle and willingness to become better. There comes a certain rush that comes with fast paced activities, which brings me to my next point.

These could include anything from dance to karate and MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). Again, most of these practices are very difficult to mimic at an ordinary Gym. You can certainly find out more from top trainers/classes at pristine establishments like MMA Industries.

Things like mountain climbing, biking, quad-racing, fishing, golfing, etc… – These are all great ways to actively stay in shape, and they’re quite enjoyable as well! A sudden increase in endorphins will surely make anybody’s day brighter. Also, almost all of these activities take place outdoors, which captures much needed vitamins from the sun, further enhancing the overall experience. Keep in mind however, it is important to get your heart rate up every now and then, so switching on and off amongst these and cardiovascular exercises (i.e. – treadmills) will keep your body guessing while enhancing overall fitness.

Sports and Dance are both a leisurely and/or competitive practice, but can also be the most effective way to exercise. Treadmills and Ellipticals will shed weight and enhance muscle strength/endurance, but will never capture the soul and rhythm that dance makes so enjoyable. Meanwhile, the competitive nature and drive that comes with playing sports will always be an important part of everybody’s lives. But again, it’s important to diversify your fitness, and be able to incorporate pleasure and strain. Attempt to pull one’s self away from everyday fitness equipment and home gyms; pick up a class of zumba and/or sign up for an intramural softball league and you’ll be on your way to a healthier, more enjoyable lifestyle.

Jim Rollince is a representative from the web relations department of Gym Source. He currently oversees all creative writing efforts and is an expert in http://www.gymsource.com/.

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Photo by ginamig276

You started a fitness program which includes cardio and weight training exercises.  Your goal is to lose weight and tone your body, the problem is that after several weeks of tireless exercise you feel stronger but still weigh the same or maybe even a little more.  Looking at the scale at this point can be depressing and send you into a feeding frenzy.  There are a couple of reasons this could be happening such as the fact that muscle weighs more than fat and you may be building muscle faster than you are burning fat.  

I am going to focus on something a little different, nutrition.   You cannot do a 60 minute Spin class, burn 600 calories and then run to the nearest fast food restaurant for a 600 calorie lunch – it just doesn’t work that way.  Keep in mind that it takes 3500 calories to lose one pound of fat—yes, one pound, which means that you need a deficit of 500 calories per day for seven days to lose one pound per week.  That sounds like a lot and it is but it’s not difficult to do.

Here are few key points to consider:

Your meals are not errands or chores – sit, eat and enjoy what you eat.

Balance your meals throughout the day: Eat a light, balanced breakfast (1% or fat free milk with whole grain cereal; yogurt with granola or fruit; cottage cheese with fruit; egg whites with piece of toast, tea or coffee), followed by a lunch filled with raw foods, lean protein, and healthy carbs, and an equally healthy, balanced dinner.

Fuel your body with healthy carbs and protein before and after exercise: Healthy carbs such as fruits, whole grain foods, legumes; protein from lean meat, fish, poultry, and eggs; for the vegetarian this means protein from soy, legumes, nuts and dairy.

Stay away from fast food and specialty coffee shops — at least for a while: A frozen coffee can has as many as 350 calories, a burger with fries=over 1000 calories easy

Include lots of raw foods and whole grain in your diet: if you need a snack between meals or need that 3:00 pm lift you want to look at all fruits and vegetables (except potato) but including sweet potato; whole grain breads, brown rice, whole grain cereals, and low fat dairy products.

Log what you eat each day: Helps you stay on top of your nutrition goals.  Log every bite, every candy, every potato chip and every drink.  Do this for a couple of days just to see where your calories are going.

Read the food labels: Very important that you become familiar with food labels—how else will you avoid eating something you shouldn’t.

Avoid foods high in sugar and sodium:  Aim for balance.  Some foods are low fat but have a huge amount of sugar and sodium to make up for the lack of taste and nutrition.  These foods will not fill you up for long. 

Drink plenty of clear water before during and after exercise:  Sip it throughout the day, sometimes you’re just thirsty, not hungry.

Keep healthy snacks handy at all times for days when you have to eat on the go:  Granola bars that are high in protein and fiber; home-made trail mix (granola, dried fruit, nuts, whole grain cereal in zip lock bags or plastic containers); portable fruits such as apples, pears, bananas, oranges.

Your body will react based on what you put in it, regardless of how hard you exercise; losing weight requires that you provide your body with well balanced nutrition and exercise.  It doesn’t have to be a chore and it doesn’t have to be difficult for you or your family.  Change the way you eat and your family will follow.  When you eat healthy together you are more likely to make this a part of your family’s healthy living style and everyone will benefit in the long run. 

Eat Well, Stay Well - Spin Diva!

For more articles from SpinDiva, visit her Family In Shape blog. 

Photo from lalla-ali

Exercise is something we all need to do. But it may not go correctly all the time. We might start – feel we’re getting nowhere and then just give up. When that happens, what we need is a bit of remotivation.

We need to do something that’ll make us get up and get back on the exercise path. Sometimes remotivation happens spontaneously when we just have the urge to exercise. Sometimes the worst needs to happen to us – we put on weight and no longer look like our ideal weight. Sometimes we just have to have some near-death experience to start rebuilding our ideal life. Sometimes a simple stock take on our life and ideal look is all it takes.

Here are three steps:-

1. Take stock of where you are. Answer questions such as how do you look now and is it how you wish to look? Where do you want to lose weight? Where do you want to gain weight? Where do you want to build muscles? What have you done so far and how do you look?

2. Devise some realistic goals. Within 4-6 months, where do you want to see yourself? Where do you see the muscles and what do you look like? How healthy are you and what does it feel like?

3. Come up with creative ways to achieve those goals. Make a list of things you could do, have or be in order to get remotivated with your health and fitness goals. 

Here are three ideas to pick yourself up again:

• Set up a reward system. Come up with BIG rewards – rewards that will literally blow you away like a big vacation, a shopping spree, a weekend away, a spa retreat, whatever it is that takes your fancy. Give yourself these rewards once you reach a particular milestone that you set.

• WHY. Answer the why for your goals and you’ll have bigger emotional wants to get up and take action. That’s what Tony Robbins says: come up with as many reasons as you can for wanting to achieve your goals.

• Create your fitness playlist. I like how iTunes have created fitness playlists so you could download them and listen through them when you’re exercising.

Photo from CommandZed

The problem with good beer isn’t just the occasional hangover, it’s something your partner (or mother) would have warned you about – more calories. It’s been revealed by studies that those who binge drink are more likely to get overweight and form a “beer belly” than those who may drink the same thing but spread it over long periods of time.

In any case, these extra calories are unwanted no matter why and for what reason you drink beer.

Also, if you didn’t know, belly fat is more dangerous than ordinary fat and so along with that comes with a number of serious risks including heart disease, forms of cancer and high blood pressure. For better productivity, and for better life, here are some steps to follow if you want to begin to lose your beer belly.

Cut down (completely if possible) your alcohol intake.

The most important, and more obvious first step. To get a flatter stomach and get rid of some of that belly fat, cut down or completely stop taking in alcohol. If this is really important to you, you’ll get onto a strict regime and avoid certain things.

Work on full body workouts.

Most people who do exercise to lose their beer belly usually only work on belly exercises. The fact is, those kind of exercises are wrong. If you want to lose your beer belly, then you’ll need to work on full body workouts. Cut down on overall body fat. If you just work the abs, you’ll soon reach a plateau and won’t be able to make any more fat loss. If you invest in your entire body, your stomach will naturally take course, and much easily.

If you’re working on just your stomach, you miss out your core muscles such as abs, lower back and midsection and they lose their strength. Work on your core muscles and body workout, and your stomach will even itself out.

The best exercises to focus on are those which will help you burn overall body fat. Focus on cardiovascular exercises such as biking, brisk walking, jogging, etc and weight training sessions such as those in the gym. If you haven’t got lots of time to work at the gym, you don’t have to worry. Even just 3 sessions of intense 45 minutes each is enough a week.

Get a buddy.

Most people do better when they’ve got someone to work with or to be accountable to rather than working on your own. Ask a friend or family member to invest some time in working with you. In return, offer them something. That could even be working with another beer belly friend to both get rid of your beer bellies!

Consistency is key.

This article can’t go without saying that consistency is key. You probably won’t see results immediately. Stick it out for a few months and you’ll see transformations. That’s near enough guaranteed. Remain consistent and you will see results.

Are you on the path to losing your beer belly? What have you done so far? Please share…

Photo from ginamig

Mum always said breakfast is the most important meal of the day and a healthy breakfast would make me a healthy young man. She was right and I should have listened more than I did. 

I’d like to think that my breakfast is the exciting meal of my day, mixed with so many juices and fruits that it’s electrifying and energizing like something out of this world. But I know that for most people, it’s not like this so here I’m offering five awesome ways to improve your breakfast daily and listen to what mum said.

Some people have time but just aren’t bothered about having a decent meal when they get up. To try and cater and offer some alternatives, I’ve come up with five things that aren’t the norm for breakfast and I hope it’ll inspire you to get up and try something different. 

1. Frozen fruit. Get up and have a bowl of your favorite frozen berries. My favorites are raspberries but you could mix them with blueberries and/or blackberries. Frozen mango is also a favorite of mine aside from berries. Why frozen? I have no idea – it’s just something different.

2. Porridge or oatmeal. Have a bowl of oatmeal. You could even add your frozen fruits to it to sweeten the oatmeal and make it more tasty.

3. Go all nutty. Eat a selection of your favorite nuts (pecans, walnuts, cashews, almonds, etc) whilst you sip your hot green tea. The nuts are rich in nutrition when taken in small amounts and can be washed down easily with your drink.

4. Make yourself a protein shake. I remember when I used to go to the gym actively about a year ago to work on my upper body muscle. After a heavy workout routine, I’d spend a £2 on a small bottle of strawberry flavored protein shake. It was the tastiest and most filling drink I’ve ever had and was it not for it’s expensive tag (I was already buying 4 a week at that time) I would have bought more than one every day. Now I’ve learnt to make my own. Simple: get a teaspoon of protein powder and add it to milk or water and have yourself an nutritious protein shake!

5. Water. I can’t forget water of a list. My regular readers know I’m a big water drinker. Drink a big glass of water first thing in the morning. If you don’t like water, squeeze some fresh lime into it to give taste and drink it. You’ll be grateful.

There are five ways you can improve your breakfast. Add some more by leaving a comment… 

Photo from yoshimov

Ever look at the opposite (or even the same) sex, they give you a really warm and nice-looking smile and you get a really good feeling about that person – whether it’s that you’re on the same wavelength, you’re attracted to them or you just want to go over and make conversation?

A nice looking smile is an important aspect of non-verbal communication. A smile is the center of giving thanks, showing appreciation, accepting a deal, falling in love, making small talk and exhibiting inner happiness. I find that when I am naturally happy, grateful for all that I am and have, I smile more realistically than when I just smile for the sake of it.

As science has revealed, there are natural ways to increase the quality of your smile. Here are five ways you can have a warm, nicer looking and much more attractive smile:

1. Brush your teeth properly. Many people restrict their smile because they’re ashamed at the quality of their teeth. Make sure you give your teeth the time necessary to keep bacteria and plaque away. One lady I recently made gave me one of the most amazing smiles I’ve ever seen. I asked her how she smiled so nicely. She told me that as she takes care and time in brushing her teeth, she has nothing to worry about how she looks. (By the way, asking how a lady smiles so well – good or bad pickup line?)  

2. Avoid snacking. Snacks that are high in sugar and carbs are worse as they can attack your teeth using the acid for as long as 20 minuts. Bacteria feed on the sugar and may start to grow on your teeth and gums. These include simple sugars in fruits, breads and vegetables. So ensure you time your eating with cleaning your teeth. 

3. Drink plenty water. The most prominent feature when it comes to your overall health is always about water. Water will ensure your body has plenty fluid and doesn’t suffer from internal dehydration allowing your skin and lips to look smooth and sensational. Also, by drinking lots of water, you’ll prevent getting bad breath.

4.  Straight teeth. We’re talking about a good smile here so I’ve got to write about teeth. Having straight teeth is an important facet of beautiful smiling. If you haven’t got straight teeth, do your best to get some by seeing a dentist/orthodontist and the effort you put in now will be great for future years. A more faster approach but more costly is cosmetic dentistry.

5.  Live a healthy lifestyle. The most beautiful smile shines from within. Working out, eating right and practicing good overall hygiene will not only promote healthy teeth and gums, it will make you feel good about yourself. Your self-confidence and positive energy will radiate out of your expression’s most important asset – your beautiful smile.

I wondered if there really was anything new to this kind of yoga or if it really just meant for people to get back to their younger ages and make silly faces and movements with the cheek and face bones so that they are being exercised.

The focus of facial yoga from a marketing perspective is to help boomers reduce their wrinkles so they can look and feel more younger. And as it’s less painful than surgery and cheaper than Botox, it becomes an attractive thing. Also, there’s the huge social element of going to a facial yoga class once or twice a week, making silly faces and movements and then heading back home to daily life – call it a time to get away from the hustle and bustle of life that causes the wrinkles anyway.

Check out some of the facial expressions yourself and try them (it could even be a party game!). New York instructor Annelise Hagen demonstrates them in this UK Daily Mail article. If you can learn this off a book, you could do it anywhere. But do you really need to learn how to make faces from a book? Aren’t these silly faces things you did as you grew up and now you’ve just got to do it again for a health and wellness benefit?

Make of it what you think for yourself. For me, it’s yet another simple service that boomers can buy into for the social aspect of working with others. Aside from that, you could even just practice facial yoga walking down the street.

Watch this video for a quick tip or two:

Photo from Sauri 

I believe weight loss is about calorie balancing. In order to get serious about your weight, you’ve got to take note of the calories of everything you with commitment. You can lose weight without counting calories but the speed at which you lose weight is nothing compared to you putting in the effort to monitoring your calories.

The idea is simple: consume less calories than you’re working to lose through exercise. Do that consistently for a set period of time and you will see considerable changes in your weight.

Some schools of thought set diets to restrict you from eating certain foods. For example, one magazine I read recently told you to eat a simple banana and milk diet for 2 weeks and was nicknamed “The Skinny Black Dress Diet.” I believe that weight loss should be fun and although you must be committed in counting your calories and making sure you take in less calories than you give off during the day, you won’t need to restrict your eating.

Calorie Counting

I recommend creating a week’s meal plan in advance for as much as possible so that you can balance out your eating and measure your calories to approximation. This will also allow you to use a calorie counter tool to fit up to 2000 calories in your body each day and also working out how many calories you burn every day.

For example, if my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR, or how many calories I burn daily) is about 1900, I should aim to consume about 500 calories less than that so that I give off 500 calories and work on my weight loss. Then with the calorie counter tool I can plan a weeks eating and add up the calories. Using this example above, losing 500 calories a day should get you to lose 1 pound weight a week!

Choosing Your Foods 

Now knowing that you’re going to restrict the amount you eat but not restrict to the type of food, common sense should prevail and guide you to first selecting whole foods, proteins, carbohydrates and lots of water-rich fruits and vegetables. The biggest killer in people focused on weight loss is binging, however you can prevent this by strict motivation to stop eating when you shouldn’t or just eat small amounts in more intervals throughout the day so taking the example above, you would spread about 1500 calories into about 5 times a day for 5 small meals of 300 calories each.

Also, during weeks focused on weight loss, set up some rules.

• No snacking between breakfast and lunch.
• No snacking between lunch and dinner.
• No snacking after dinner.

Snacking (or nibbling) usually starts small but ends up large. Avoid it as much as possible. When you feel hungry, drink a glass of water and as well as getting your energy up, it will help making you feel fuller.

The idea of not restricting some foods I have proposed here is not supported by everyone. But for those on a weight loss plan I think it’s a bit harsh to close out some foods you may like from your life. For that I suggest you take up a 2-bite rule. Any desert you like, any food you like, at only one time in the week, you’re allowed a maximum of two yummy bites. That’s fair, isn’t it?

Exercise

Some say exercise isn’t necessary because your BMR is already going to aid you in giving off calories, however sometimes it’s not the calories you want to give off and ones you should be working to get rid of get stuck in your body. Exercise is extremely important and for at least 30 minutes a day. If you can’t exercise for 30 minutes a day in one go, don’t worry, as Elisa Zied says in her book Feed Your Family Right, you can break it up in 5-10 minute intervals and do it throughout the day at home, at work or during travel. But make sure you do it.

Exercise will help you increase calorie output and thus you may be able to lose weight faster or increase your food consumption a bit more. It’s all about doing your maths right.

Other bits

1. Keep a log. Every day, log down the amount of calories you eat and what you eat. Also log down when you exercise, what exercise you did and for how long for. This will provide useful feedback when you look back on and celebrate your results.

2. Forgive yourself. I don’t think you’ll get it correct right away, so forgive yourself if you do something wrong. Go back, rectify what you’ve done, change course if required and try again. Never say never. 

If you’ve done something like this, let me know how it’s working for you. 

A common question asked by my patients is how diabetes mellitus affects the feet. This article will explain why and how Type I and II diabetes mellitus affects the feet.Diabetes may not affect your feet initially but there are three mains way in which it could. These ways can exist together or separately.

Reduced circulation can occur. This is called ischaemia.

This occurs when large blood vessels or arteries have their inner walls covered by a fatty substance called an artheroma. This means that there is less room for the blood to flow down to the foot. There also may be changes to smaller blood vessels such as the ones in the foot. In severe cases a blockage can occur in the vessel. Diabetes can also cause hardening of the arteries as calcium becomes deposited in the vessel wall, thus causing the blood not to be pumped efficiently around the body.

Smoking can make the problem much worse. It is important to maintain a good supply as it is essential in helping to maintain healthy skin and tissues and heal any open wounds. Regular blood supply checks can be carried out easily by feeling for pulses in the foot and performing blood pressure checks on the foot. This should be carried out routinely by a Podiatrist or other Health care professional. It is recommended that diabetic patients have a foot health check at least once a year.

Impaired sensation known as neuropathy.

This is where the nerves in the foot and sometimes the lower leg have been damaged by diabetes. You may be unable to distinguish the difference between hot and cold, or feel sharp objects. Sensory loss can occur at any time. The skin can often appear dry due the loss of nerves stimulating sweating which help keep the foot hydrated. A podiatrist can routinely perform a simple test that will identify any problems. They will test your protective senses through using a 10mg monofilament test and using a tuning fork.

Changes in foot shape

This is likely to occur in association with reduced sensation. The nerves controlling the muscles do not work properly and this can cause clawing of the toes. The balls of the feet can become more prominent. This can cause a change in way you walk or stand which can cause abnormal pressure areas and calluses.

How to prevent foot problems – General measures

Ensure that you do everything you can to maintain good control of your blood sugar level and it is very important not to smoke as it increases the chances of problems occurring. Also performing gentle exercise regularly will help improve the blood flow.

Photo from Mr TGT

Over the last few days, as I’ve kept an eye on the Kenyan post-elections violence I also happened to watch and read about ‘globesity’ – a phenomenon that health secretary Alan Johnson says makes the UK’s obesity crisis just as important as the climate change crisis.

According to a report by the BBC says that the people of the UK are most attached to fast food with the US following in second place. Even more striking is the risk that in just the next generation, children are likely to die before their parents if what they eat and drink is not controlled. Although some people are born overweight, most are not and if their eating habits are not healthy from the start, it is going to be increasingly difficult to keep them off junk food in later life and this will increase in extreme risk.

2007 was probably one of the worst years of obesity that I’ve heard and read about in the UK. More shows than ever following obese kids and what they eat were shown on British television. I remember what was in the news this time last year: a child was going to be taken from his mother because he was extremely obese.

No matter how much one has gone into making obesity known to the public, I don’t think it is having the intended effect of showing people how big a risk it actually is. The consequences for obese people who either don’t do anything about it or don’t know that they’re overweight is dire. Vicki Swindon of Fat Is The New Black sums it up well in this BBC report: “It’s got to a stage now where it’s actually hard to get any useful messages across because people have heard so much, often contradictory, information, that they just think: obesity blah blah blah”.

Some have argued that there is no link between children eating fast food and their obesity, but studies have proven otherwise. Fast food just like sugars and fats contain a lot of ‘empty calories’ and one study shows that children of all ages who eat at fast food places eat too many empty calories and this unhealthy intake adds extra unneeded “junk” cells into the body, increasing the weight.

Think about it. An overweight may stop off at a fast food place twice a week each time taking in about 250 empty calories. Multiply that by 52 weeks and you get an extra few pounds of empty calories within a year. Sure, they may exercise and lose some of it but if they’re overweight, it’s unlikely they do much exercise and most of it just builds up over time. 

Here are a few points to helping you and your kids get back to looking and feeling great:

- Make more time for your health. One of the reason people get onto junk food habits is because of the busy lifestyles they lead which means they just don’t have time to prepare a healthy meal. Decide to make some time for yourself each day whether it starts with an extra ten or twenty minutes and fix yourself a healthy meal and salad.

- Keep a food journal. If you’re going to change, you’ll need to want to do it from within. One of the best ways to do this is to keep a food journal and become really aware what you eat. Write down what you eat and drink at every meal time and in between. When you do this and look back on it after a few days, you’ll see how much empty calories you take in and then can consciously decide which ones to cut out from your lifestyle.

- Decide to eat less. It’s often easier said than done, but deciding to eat only a little bit each meal rather than eating till your absolutely full is a great way to allow yourself to cut out unneeded calories and still have lots of energy. When you eat till you’re full, you use up all your energy in getting the food digested as best as possible and become very tired. When you eat only a small amount of healthy food and stop yourself from overeating till you’re stuffed you allow yourself extra energy to keep going.

- Take a walk every day. Find a walking buddy from your local neighbourhood – whether it’s your partner or a close neighbour – and commit to walking for at least 15 minutes each day. This could be first thing when you wake up in the morning or after your dinner at night. Whatever you choose, make sure you do it and walking with someone else makes you accountable.

-  Cut the fizzy. Stop drinking fizzy sugar-rich drinks. Drink lots more water and allow your cells to wake up again from their squashed lifestyles. Cells need lots of oxygen to replenish themselves and fizzy drinks doesn’t give you that – they just disrupt your digestion.

- Eat a salad. Salad is water-rich and will help wash down your food. Even if you still continue to eat junk food, have a big healthy salad to help wash down the food and aid your digestion.

- Fad diets don’t work. These are diets that provide lose-weight-fast option and are best avoided as they are difficult to follow in the long term and sometimes require complete restriction in the early days.

What tips can you share to cut the fat?