How to walk off belly fat
April 9, 2010 by Beth · Leave a Comment
Courtesy of CNN.com- By Tracy Teare
Sure, you know walking is good exercise. But here’s something you might not realize: You can give your waistline (and other body parts) a serious trimming by tweaking that walk around the block.
Walking up an incline can help you lose pounds faster than on flat terrain.
The three women below each walked off at least 35 pounds, much of it around the middle, using one of these secret weapons: plyometrics, hills, or intervals. The strategies also strengthened their legs more quickly than plain old walking sessions, so they could walk longer and faster to burn more calories.
After six weeks of walking four to six times a week, you will feel stronger and look slimmer where it counts. Health.com: Walk a little, live a lot (longer)
Secret weapon: Plyometrics
Adding bounding, jumping, and skipping moves (called plyometrics) to your walk is a fun way to spike the intensity. You’ll burn up to twice as many calories –and significantly more belly fat — per minute than you would just walking at a moderate pace.
“These moves vary the walking pattern your body has grown accustomed to, so you engage different muscle fibers,” says Joy Prouty, veteran Florida-based trainer and American College of Sports Medicine-certified health-fitness director. “And that helps shape and define your body.” Health.com: Walk this way
It worked for Claire Jefferson-Glipa, 31, of Riverside, California.
Adding one-minute bursts of plyometrics to the Stroller Strides classes she leads each week — along with making healthy changes in her eating habits –helped Jefferson-Glipa drop 36 pounds in just nine months. “It’s so exciting that my clothes are looser,” she says.
Make it work for you
Try this workout from Prouty, gradually adding more plyometrics as your fitness level improves. It can be done either outside or on the treadmill (just be sure to step off the machine to do the plyometrics moves).
• 1. Walk 15 minutes, building to a moderate pace.
• 2. Do 30 High-Knee Steps forward (alternating legs); skip for 30 seconds, then walk at a moderate pace for one minute.
• 3. Do 15 Traveling Lateral Squats (turn and move sideways as you squat) in slow motion, followed by five Squat Jumps (squat slightly, then swing arms up as you jump). Knee problems? Rise up on your toes instead of jumping.
• 4. Walk at a moderate pace for 10 minutes.
• 5. Repeat step 2.
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• 6. Walk for five minutes at a moderate pace, then five minutes at a slow pace to cool down.
Secret weapon: Hills
To triple the number of calories you burn, go to where it’s hilly, Prouty says. Walking on hills can burn tons of calories and fat, so you’ll work that stomach pooch off faster than you would on flat terrain. Uphill walks are great for strengthening and shaping your lower half — plus, you’ll feel stronger and go faster on level ground. Health.com: Tips if you don’t have time to walk
It worked for Robyn Kammerer, 33, of Rowayton, Connecticut.
Kammerer dropped 50 postpregnancy pounds in four months by eating healthier and walking every day on the hills near her home. “If I’m out of breath at the top of one of these killer hills,” she says, “I remind myself that I can now wear skirts that haven’t fit in years.”
Make it work for you
Start by changing your walking routine: Twice a week, replace 25 percent of your flat route with short or gradual hills. (New to walking? Start with 20-minute walks that include five minutes of hills.) After two weeks, seek out longer or steeper hills, and add 10 percent more climbing each week. Your goal is to do between one-half and two-thirds of your workout on hills.
Live in a flat area? Substitute this treadmill climb: After a 10-minute warm-up, gradually increase the incline from 0 to 2 percent for 5 to 10 minutes. Then, gradually decrease the incline in the same amount of time, finishing with 5 to 10 minutes of flat walking. Each week or two, increase the incline by 1 percent.
Secret weapon: Intervals
Alternating moderately paced walking with short, faster-paced intervals lets you amp up your walk without tiring yourself out. You’ll also dump stomach weight more quickly and torch more calories than you would on a steady-paced walk. By peppering in a 30-minute walk with 10 one-minute speed bursts, for example, you can nearly double your calorie burn. Health.com: The ultimate walk-it-off plan
It worked for Virginia Cox, 42, of Belmont, Massachusetts.
Doing 15 miles’ worth of interval walking a week (plus cutting down on starchy foods and sweet treats) helped Cox shed 45 pounds of baby weight in just six months. “I look and feel great because of walking,” Cox says. “Plus, I now fit into the jeans that I wore when I was in my 20s.” An unexpected bonus: She’s sleeping much better, too.
Make it work for you
Warm up at an easy pace, then walk at a moderate pace for 10 minutes; increase speed for one minute, Prouty says. Do another 3 minutes at a moderate pace; repeat one or two times, then do 10 moderately-paced minutes.
As you get stronger, add more intervals, aiming to alternate 1-minute speed bursts with one minute of moderate walking
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Top Excuses for Skipping a Fitness Workout
February 20, 2010 by Beth · Leave a Comment
Written by Jeff Behar and Lynn Glenn
Some people like working out, but let’s face it even the most energetic people sometime feel like skipping a workout. The following are some of the most common excuses for missing a fitness workout. Are any familiar to you?
Most Common Excuses for Missing a Fitness Workou
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- Read more
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Day Three - July 15, 2009
July 14, 2009 by Beth · Leave a Comment
This is the 3rd day of my 21 Day Makeover - Tip for helping to lose weight - Drink More Water! You can speed up your metabolism by adding just one 8 oz glass of water to your day. And you can lose additional fat by simply drinking more water! Drinking water throughout the day is a proven method
for speeding up your metabolism. Water consumption alone can help in releasing those additional pounds - so start drinking more water today! Set a goal for yourself of a minimum of 12 (8oz) glasses of water a day and watch the pounds go away.
Check this out-fyi:
So you are on the weight loss journey and exercising, good but have you been drinking lots of water? If not. read on to know why it is necessary to drink plenty of water. It is essential you keep yourself well hydrated while exercising, so that your skin retains its glow, and you do not feel drained and exercise lagged! Water is essential to achieve the goal of weight loss, it increases the metabolism level, your stamina and energy. Helps kidney to flush out toxins, helps liver in burning the stored fat (it sound heavenly for sure). So what are you waiting for? Drink More Water while you exercise to Loose more Weight.
Drink more water and boost your metabolism, and lose weight - Water is a great source for losing weight. Water is a magic potion, having 0 calories; you can drink it and keep yourself full. Many times we are just thirsty but mistake it for hunger and start eating. If we can recognize our thirst and drink at least 2 litres of water, then we can achieve our weight loss goal faster and in a better way. Water gives us the satiety feeling that is great feeling when we are on the weight loss journey. It surely helps us in reducing the binging and snacking that create havoc to the weight loss program. Water helps kidneys to flush out toxins and if we drink less water, the kidney’s works gets transferred to liver. Liver helps the body to metabolize the fat stored in the body. So, if liver has to work for kidney, than you can imagine that liver will not perform its function correctly, meaning your stored fat will not get metabolized correctly.
Water is a necessity in the journey of weight loss. Weight watchers will find drinking water essential for weight control. While doing weight control exercises, one should drink little water in intervals. Too much water intake while exercising sometimes leave you uneasy but too little will hamper your quality of workout. The general rule of thumb, however, a women of average weight needs about half a liter of water every 15 minutes of exercise.
Tips for adding more water to your day:
-Drink one 8 oz glass of water every hour while at work. Add 2 8 oz glasses before and after work and you’re done.
-When you have a craving…for anything, drink a glass of water before you do anything else. That craving may be the result of dehydration and the water will help you feel full.
-Drink through a straw - you will usually take larger sips.
-If you are having fruit juice, cut it one for one with water.
-After each trip to the rest room, drink a glass of water to replinish your system.
-If you drink diet soda during the day, drink 2 glasses of water between each 12 oz soda.
-At each meal, drink at least 2 glasses of water. With each snack, drink 1 glass of water.
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Day Five - July 17, 2009
July 14, 2009 by Beth · Leave a Comment
This is day 5 of my 21-Day Makeover and I haven’t been as consistent of putting my progress on the site as I should.
We worked out this evening instead of this morning and I feel GREAT! 45 reverse ab crunches, tricep pull downs (for the ole ‘bye-byes’), shoulder press, french press, leg presses for the calf and thighs and ab crunches on the BowFlex - 4 sets of 25 - 100 ab crunches at 35 lbs!!! Oh My Goodness!!!
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Day Six - July 18, 2009
July 14, 2009 by Beth · Leave a Comment
This is Day 6 of my 21-Day Makeover - How to read a nutrition label. Nutrition labels list ingredients in order by amount. So a product that lists ‘high fructose corn syrup’ as the first ingredient has more high fructose corn syrup in it than anything else. Many products have multiple types of these ‘processed’ and ’simple’ sugars and grains in one product. So, if you see several of The Dirty Dozen listed in one product, you need to count them together. Also, watch out for the use of parentheses. You are looking for the first 4 ingredients NOT in parentheses.
The Dirty Dozen
Since these sugars have such patential to compromise your Glycemic Profile, we need to minimize them as much as possible during my 21-Day Makeover. Unfortunately, that can be tricky because these refined sugars hide behind so many different names - what we will call The Dirty Dozen. Look for the following names (AKD The Dirty Dozen) on your food labels and avoid foods that have any of them listed as one of the first 4 ingredients.
(1) Sugar (Sucrose)
(2) High Fructose Corn Syrup
(3) Brown Sugar
(4) Dextrose
(5) Maltose
(6) Corn Syrup
(7) Malt Syrup
(8) Maple Syrup
(9) Maltitol (Sugar Alcohol)
(10) Maltitol Syrup (Sugar Alcohol)
(11) Modified Corn Starch
(12) Corn Starch
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Day Seven - July 19, 2009
July 14, 2009 by Beth · Leave a Comment
This is the 7th day of the first week of my 21 Day Makeover - and in the 7 days, I have learned so much about how to eat the foods you love in the right proportions. One of the things is to really watch Carbs…there are ‘fast carbs’ and there are ’slow carbs’. It is recommended that you have a fast carb and a slow carb along with a protein at every meal. This is one of the biggest learning experience during the first 7 days of the 21 day makeover.
My day with Lauren
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35 One-Minute Weight Loss Secret
April 1, 2009 by Beth · Leave a Comment
Sneaky ways to slim down
All you need is a minute to start shedding pounds! Here are dozens of successful strategies to cut calories and burn fat that take 60 seconds or less. With about 1,000 waking minutes in everyday, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to slip these weigh loss tips into your routine and watch the scale go down. If you’ve already begun your weight loss, these can maximize your efforts and speed results.
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Dan Can and So Can YOU!
March 18, 2009 by Beth · Leave a Comment
Keeping At It - Dan Evans, Fifth Season Biggest Loser contestant, continues to find success-
The Biggest Loser Club recently caught up with season five cast member Dan Evans. Dan arrived at the ranch weighing 310 pounds. He shed a whopping 136 pounds (43.87 percent of his body weight!) and has maintained his loss for more than a year. A few months ago, Dan released Goin’ All Out, his debut country-rock album. With his new found music career comes bus touring, press interviews and new demands. Still, Dan makes time for mindful eating and exercise. Here’s how: Read more
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Fifth Weigh-In February 21, 2009 Blue Team
February 21, 2009 by Beth · Leave a Comment
Debi Bryson, 5th Weigh-In February 214h, weight 256 (-3 pound lost). Good Job Debi!!!
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Jacque Nowell - Personal Trainer for the Blue Team
February 21, 2009 by Beth · 7 Comments
Jacque is the personal trainer for the Blue Team and she keeps them going. She has them at the gym working out while sh
e’s there encouraging them and working them. They all love and appreciate her dedication to the team and with all that hard work, her team was the winning team with the most combined weight lost this first weigh-in, 33 pounds. One of her contestants, Joel Keys, was the winner of her team for having lost the most individual weight, -9 pounds, for the first weight-in!!! Go Blue Team!!!
And go Red Team!!! You all are winners!!!
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