Reasons You Should Include Walking Into Your Day To Day Schedule

September 7th, 2010 Guest Posted in Self Help and Motivational No Comments »

More and more people are beginning to realise just what a great way walking is to exercise. It's a pleasant, low injury risk, low impact method of exercising which you can even introduce a social aspect to if you like. It’s the ideal exercise for anyone who is new to exercise or who hasn’t taken regular exercise for a while.

It doesn't need any training or special equipment and you can fit it into your day whenever it's most convenient for you. It’s also very cost effective. There are no monthly gym fees to pay, so it won’t cost you a fortune to get in shape.

As with any form of exercise or physical activity, you will burn extra calories when you are actually walking. Just as important, your metabolic rate will increase. This means that you will use calories more quickly during the day, regardless of what you're doing. If you're sitting reading a book, surfing the internet, watching TV - or even while you're fast asleep - you will burn calories faster than if you weren't exercising.

Apart from weight loss, walking on a regular basis will provide you with many health benefits. Oxygen intake in the blood is increased and this not only improves blood circulation but strengthens the heart. It can be an effective way to lower blood pressure, it can strengthen your lungs and it is even effective against anxiety and depression. The risk of contracting certain variants of cancer is also much reduced for regular walkers. Walking will give you more energy and help you to sleep better at night. As a matter of fact, the full list of potential health benefits is too lengthy to include here. Walking is like a miracle drug.

One good way to make sure your walking sessions are fun is to make it a social event. Instead of sitting in front of your computer, why not go for a walk with some colleagues during your lunch hour - or you walk around the local park, or even just your neighbourhood, with family and friends in the evening after work. If you like, you can just take your dog.

The miles and the time will fly by much more quickly when you're listening to your favorite tunes. If you don’t already have one, an mp3 player is a sound investment. Do take care not to turn the volume up too high and watch out for traffic, especially if you're walking in a busy area.

There have been a lot of new developments in fitness footwear recently. You can now choose from a wide selection of “toning” footwear like Fit flops sandals, Skechers Shape Ups shoes, Masai Barefoot Technology shoes and Reebok Easy Tones exercise shoes. These all claim to increase the amount of work done by the muscles in your legs and butt and increase the efficiency of your walking workout. They achieve this by using special soles, which either mimic the effect of walking on soft sand or which generate an element of microscopic imbalance which makes your leg and butt muscles work a bit harder.

If you have a job keeping your motivation up, then you might think about getting hold of a pedometer. An Omron pedometer is accurate to within 5% and will display your progress in terms of steps taken, distance covered or calories burned. There seems to be general agreement amongst health professionals that walking 10,000 steps each day will deliver a whole host of health benefits - including weight loss. Carrying your pedometer throughout the day will encourage you to actively look for new ways to get your daily step count up.

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Easy Fat Loss Tips for Almost Anybody

September 3rd, 2010 Guest Posted in Self Help and Motivational No Comments »

Losing weight is one of the most searched topics on the internet around the world. In this article, I am going to share some simple tips that can help you lose body fat no matter where you are now.

The average person drinks soda, tea, coffee, and other sugary drinks every day. One way to ease into your weight loss campaign is to start eliminating those drinks and replacing them with water. This one change of drinking water instead of sugary drinks could help you lose several pounds a month even if no other changes were made.

Drinking lots of water alsy helps you eat less. Additionally, if you don't have enough water, your body can confuse that with hunger forcing you to eat when you are really just thirsty. Drinking water right before a meal can also help you eat less. You will eat less because you feel full faster. On top of that, having plenty of water in your system helps your body get rid of toxins which will help you feel better.

Many people do not eat enough fruits and vegetables. Eating a fresh vegetable with each meal and trading one junk food snack each day for a piece of food will help you, naturally lower the number of calories you eat and still feel full and satisfied. If you have a salad with each meal you can eat your normal diet, but less of it making it healthier. You can even take a health supplement like acai berry drink because there are a lot of acai berry health benefits including a high concentration of antioxidants.

Now that we have talked about diet, lets cover exercise. No matter how well you are doing with exercise (like advanced ab exercises), chances are you can either do more of it or do more effective exercises. Below are a couple ideas you may not have thought of yet.

If you don't do regular exercise yet, the first thing to do is start. You don't want to start by doing wind sprints or training for a marathon. Start slow. A great way to start is to take a brisk walk. Starting your day with a brisk walk is a great way to start your day. Going for a walk in the evenings can be a great way to relax after a stressful day. No matter which time you choose to walk, the sooner you start the sooner you will see results.

If you have already started an exercise program of jogging or walking, your focus should be to improve what you are doing and get better results. Mixed intensity exercising is a good way to do this. For example, warm up by walking for a few minutes. Then jog at a slow pace for a minute. Next you will run for a minute. Finish off the interval with one minute or running as fast as you can. Once you peak, start back over with the slow jog (or walk). This type of exercising really gets your heart beating fast and helps you keep it high without having to go all out the whole time. This is almost like running fast the whole time, but give yourself a chance to catch your breath so you can keep going. This mixed intensity exercise is very effective at burning fat and improving your cardiovascular health.

This is just a few ideas for you. The key is to do something. Weight loss is a simple thing. You have to either burn more calories or eat less calories to lose weight. The more of one or both that you do the better the results will be. If you make a few small changes, they add up to big results over time and are usually easier than making massive changes. Just focus on being better and don't try to be perfect. As long as you do something consistently, you should get good results over time.

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