"Ooohhhh! I think I pulled a hamstring!" #1 tip of all is to hire a personal trainer!
1. Eat smaller meals. Food has calories and if you eat more food than what your body needs over the next 4 to 4 1/2 hours then the extra will go to fat. Don’t think to eat for the day or eat because you are really hungry. Eat however much food you will need for the next 4 hours and then eat again.
2. Don’t go longer than 4 hours without eating. Your body needs fuel every 4 hours or so, if you go longer than you metabolism will slow down because your body will think that it is not getting fuel often enough and will naturally slow down and you will get a sluggish felling.
3. Eat your veggies in the morning and for lunch. Yes, I said it veggies for breakfast. Your vegetables have much needed nutrients that you need early in the day for normal function.
4. CONSISTENCY is the key. Why eat right one day and not the other. And why workout one week and not the next. Be consistent and before you know it you will be at your goal.
5. Move more. Park in the spot farthest from the front door. Take the stairs. Go for a walk after dinner. Plan family activities that require moving more. Stand up when at work or talking to someone. Studies show that people who were overweight sat down for hours longer than others who where not overweight.
6. Find an activity you enjoy and do it!! Some people prefer to walk or hike and others like a sport like tennis, basketball, racquet ball, biking or football etc. The point here is that something you enjoy to do you will do more often. I have even had clients pay me to go hiking with them then we do some abs and stretching afterward. They love the hiking but need an apt and someone to make them do it, but they don’t cancel as much because they love to do it. Think of some activity that you most enjoy and do it!
7. Find a partner to exercise with. I suppose I could go on and on about how good it is to get a partner to exercise with but hopefully it just makes enough sense to you that you will do your best to go out and find a training partner.
8. Drink about 6-8 glasses of water a day and more if you are working out or sweat a lot and more if you aren’t eating your fruits and veggies. Eat your fruits and lots of veggies because they contain quite a bit of water.
9. Add spinach to your diet it is a great superfood and contains a tremendous amount of vitamin C
10. Make sure your routine is balanced. Meaning that in order for you to be healthy A. you need your heart healthy so do some cardio. B. You need to be strong so do some weight lifting. C. You need to be flexible so do some stretching. D. You need the proper nutrients so eat healthy. E. Is for Equal or balanced, meaning that all the above aspects of health and fitness need to be in balance. You should not have a lot of strength and very little flexibility or vise versa.
11. Go to war!!! Look at it as a battle and you are going to win!! This may be more of a way that I do it so I may be bias in how I think you should do it, but I look at it as a war and I am going to win!! It is a war and each step of the way you win small battles. You win a battle over a certain craving or you win the battle of trying to be consistent and so on. Each step of the way is a battle and when you get to where you wanted to be and stay there then you have won!!
12. Don’t forget the spiritual part of being healthy and fit. Do it because your Creator God the Lord Jesus Christ would want you to be healthy and fit. You can have no greater motive to reach your fitness goals than because God wants you to do it. God gave you your body so take care of it be a good steward of what God has given you. And if you have been abusing your body then ask God to forgive you because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and then repent and live a healthy lifestyle.
13. Be diligent and not Lazy. As the Proverb goes “The desires of the diligent are fully satisfied, but the lazy man craves and gets nothing.”
14. Want a faster metabolism? Do some weight training. Although a fat active person can burn more calories than an inactive skinny person, adding more lean muscle mass will increase you metabolism so go out there and hit the weights!!
15. Correct weight training will increase your bone density which helps to prevent all kinds of health issues related to low bone density.
16. A study done by soldiers in bootcamp revealed that stretching before exercise did not reduce the amount of injuries during bootcamp. The same amount of injuries occurred with the group that stretched before training as the group that stretched after training. And just about every trainer out there will recommend to stretch after exercising because it is then that the muscle will stretch best because it is warm. Plus after you have worked the muscle it is generally in a shortened position and will get stronger in that shortened position if you don’t stretch it. If you stretch it then it will get stronger in the longer position, which being flexible and strong should be one of your overall goals.
17. Having trouble finding time to exercise to lose weight? If you are wanting to burn calories then you can split up your time. You don’t have to workout an hour at a time. You can split it up into 2 sessions of 30 minutes.
18. Are you having trouble trying to find time to build muscle? You really only need to up the intensity of your workout by doing supersets or drop sets to increase the intensity of your workout. Workout one body part a day and increase the intensity of that workout and you will find yourself getting gains with just 10-15 a day. You won’t improve at a fast rate but you will improve!!
19. Most people that want to lose weight tend to eat way to many calories before bedtime. For your average women to lose weight about 60 calories per hour before bed for the last 4 hours will generally result in fat loss. And guys can generally get by with eating 80-90 calories per hour and lose fat. So for a woman that goes to be at 10pm and eats at 6pm, she should eat only 240 calories at 6pm and she will lose weight. 60 calories per hour and 4 hours til bedtime equals 240 calories. And always remember to have fun losing weight.
20. Think long term. Nearly every time I have a client struggling to lose fat one of the main factors holding them back is that they aren’t thinking long term. Like the rest of their life. You need to make it a lifetime goal to be healthy and fit.
21. Have a plan. Someone said “Failing to plan is like planning to fail” Have a plan!! You could go to any bookstore and pick up a book on losing fat and they will all work!! Yes they will all work if you do them. I have not seen a plan that doesn’t work. Let me take that back, some diets don’t account for people who have diabetes and thyroid conditions so most traditions diets won’t work for them. But if you are not in a special situation then any diet out will work if you follow the rules. They all have a plan and if you follow it then it will work, so go out there and follow the plan. Yes, some plans are harder than others but they all will work if you do it.
22. What is the number one reason people don’t get the end result they want? They QUIT!! Plain and simple, they quit. So don’t quit. Ever.. Never ever quit!!
23. Make sure each and everyday you are doing something to get you one step closer to your goal. Once you have a plan you can easily check each day by asking yourself if you followed the plan. If you followed the plan then you are getting closer to your goal. If you worked out, ate right, weigh less or didn’t eat before bed etc. then you are getting closer.
24. The lazy person thinks of all the obstacle and then comes up with excuses. The diligent person thinks of the obstacle and finds solutions. Find the solutions to any obstacle you run into and don’t make any excuses. Yes things may get hard but that is no excuse there have been many people in your situation that have lost weight, built muscle or got healthier so stop the excuses and get diligent overcoming obstacles. Just as a side note, I think obstacle are great because they help build a persevering character!!
25. Keep in mind that it will be an uphill battle. If losing weight were easy then everyone would be in shape. Know that it will be work but you can do it. You will have to go against your natural cravings, be hungry sometimes and you will have to get off the coach or get up earlier to exercise. These things are not easy, but resolve to do them because you have a goal that is worth achieving.
26. Record you food for one week. Write down the time you wake up and then the time that you eat your first meal. Then write down everything that you ate or drank for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Everything. You will find out that you are probably eating a lot worse than what you thought. If you don’t know how to evaluate you food journal then have a trainer or nutritionist evaluate it for you. Sometimes just writing things down will be enough to get you to change your bad habits.
27. Remind yourself often about how would feel when you reach your goal and how bad you would feel if you don’t. Remember how you would feel when the going gets tough and know that it will be worth it to press on and not quit or cheat. Make a list of the pros and cons and you will find that it will not make sense to cheat or quit.
28. A Craving generally means that you are missing a nutrient. If you are thirsty then you need water and if you are hungry then you need food, generally not a lot of food but you need food. If you have a craving then it could be because you haven’t had a balanced diet earlier on in the day. Most people have some complex carbs and protein but are missing the much needed nutrients that are in veggies, so your body will get a craving.
29. Be the last one in line to get food. If you are the last one and you put very little on your plate then others will finish eating about the same time that you do and you won’t have as much of an urge to eat more food than necessary.
30. When going out to eat ask for a “to go” box right away and put the extra food in the box and only eat what is appropriate for you at that time. Or split a plate with someone. I can hardly think of one meal out there at the restaurants that is the right size for someone wanting to lose fat.
31. Late at night if you get the munches then eat air popcorn, celery, those low 5 calorie crystal light drinks, chew gum or suck on a hard candy.
32. If you happen to overeat for one meal then don’t sweat it! Actually sweat it out. Go for a walk after eating to big a meal, this will help you to realize that the more you eat then the more you need to move in order to keep losing weight.
33. Doing crunches will not reduce the fat off your stomach. When you do a crunch you are working your abdominal muscles. But the fat your body uses to work your abs comes from everywhere off your body. If you did enough crunches to burn a pound of fat (probably 50,000) then you would lose 1/4 pound off each leg and 1/4 pound off your midsection and 1/4 pound off your arms for a total of one pound. If you do crunches or sit ups then you will get good ab muscles but you really aren’t burning as much fat as you think. You are better off going for a run or doing an aerobics class for 20 minutes rather than doing 20 minutes of abs if your goal is to lose your tummy.
34. People ask me “What is the best way to lose my belly fat?” Over the years my best answer is......... Drum roll please...... “Don’t get fat in the first place.”
35. Go for improvement!! If your goal is to get healthier than what you are then you need to make sure that you are improving each week. Improve the speed of your walk, improve your posture at the computer, go up in weight uses while working out, go up in reps ( do 20 abs instead of 15), go up in intensity. You need to keep in mind that you should not only start exercising but make sure that you are improving in your workouts. Go for the same hike but get done faster or do a longer distance in the same amount of time. If you are at a certain fitness level now then you must improve it to get better, so shoot for improvement.
36. Wear the proper shoes!! Many people have either flat feet, to high an arch or they are fine. If you have flat feet then you need arch support in your shoes or shoes that have built in arches from a specialty shoe store. If you have to high an arch then get special shoes or custom orthodics. If your feet are fine then just make sure you buy new ones when the “squishiness” is gone.
37. If you walk, run or hike everyday then it is good to have two different shoes. Wear one one day and the other the next day. Your shoe need time to reshape itself back to normal. After running or walking the shoe “squishes” down and is flat a little. It needs time to go back to it’s original shape, so give it time to reshape by not using it for one day. Your feet will thank you!!
38. Set a realistic, tangible, written down goal. Not I want to lose a lot of weight fast. I want to lose 1 pound a week for the next 2 months and write it down. Then come up with a plan and make sure each day that you are getting one step closer to your goal.
39. Avoid the things that hinder you and do the things that help. Track your progress and find out what it is that helped you get closer to your goal and do it again. Find out things that didn’t help you and don’t do that again.
40. Change your routine about every 6-8 weeks. Your body will have a tendency to level off or plateau. To avoid this make sure that you change something in your routine like go hiking instead of biking. Do different machines. Walk faster. Change sports. Change scenery. Add a day. Up the time that you workout. Change something and even better if you change it to something harder or more challenging.
41. Warmup. And Stretching is not warming up unless you are 80 years old. Many runners or hikers come to me with tight calves or shin splints because they took off right away without doing their activity at a lower pace first. The muscles need time to warmup. 5 minutes minimum of walking before running. Walk, walk fast then run or hike.
42. Hire a trainer to keep you accountable if you have a hard time being consistent. 80% if people that hire a trainer hire them because if they did not have an apt or pay for the training then they would not exercise. They know that exercise is important but they just can’t seem to get into the gym or stay on a diet.
43. Be aware of your body. Are you tired then don’t do so much. Do you have energy then do more. If you felt tired then ask yourself why. Being aware of your body is extremely important when starting a routine or getting back into one.
44. Be careful not to overtrain. Generally speaking if you are sore longer than two days then you did to much. If you know your resting heart rate then it is easy to tell if you are overtraining because your resting heart rate will be higher the next morning because your body is working very hard to fix itself. Also is you didn’t sleep well or lack energy the next day then you may have overtrained.
45. Tip 45 is whatever tip you think is most important, but is not on this list, put it here.
46. Get a massage more often than you think. A good massage therapist can work out the “knots” in your body. We all tend to have bad habits that tighten and knot up some muscles. In order to be in good health and avoid back and neck pains and just about a hundred other ailments it is a good idea to get a massage more often than you think. Tell the massage therapist to do what you need not for you to have a nice soothing Swedish massage but something you need to get the knots out and make you healthier. 46. When you start a new exercise program then you are taxing your body more than what it is used to. This is a good thing, but it can sometimes tax the body a little to much so make sure that you eat healthy and especially get your vitamin C. You run a higher risk of getting sick the first week of starting a new routine so make sure to eat healthy and get your sleep so you don’t get sick.
47. See or ask your doctor about starting a new exercise program especially if you are overweight, have high blood pressure, pregnant etc. The list goes on and on. If he says you shouldn’t exercise then what he may really mean is that you shouldn’t exercise by yourself. So you can ask would it be okay for me to exercise with a qualified trainer? Then he may say yes.
48. Try to workout at the same time everyday. Make it a pattern. Try to make it such a pattern that you feel guilty if you don’t make it. Having the same day and time each week will help you to make it a pattern. Plus this will help you when scheduling other stuff in your week. You will remember that you have an aerobics class on Monday at 7 so you will have your friend come over at 9.
49. Try to think of a reward that will motivate you. A massage, vacation, piece of jewelry, dress you always wanted. Double stuff oreo cookies.....just kidding :-)
50. Keep an extra set of gym clothes in your car so that it would be easy to go anytime.
51. If you are married and you want your spouse to workout then I have found it best that you should not say anything at all to a spouse that is not willing to workout with you right now. You could ask permission from them to see if they don’t mind you working out. Then do not tell, command or demand them to workout. If you are just a good example then they are more likely to follow, If they want you to remind them to eat right and exercise then by all means do it. But if they do not want to workout then you can not force them but you can be a good quiet example.
Tip # 52 is whatever tip you know that I have not told you that you think is important then make sure you do it, so my tip 52 is whatever your tip is :-) Always have fun and God bless you on your journey.
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Remember to let me know what you think the top 3 tips are :-)
