Your Cookie Diet

So you’re overweight, “fat”–to be honest–and you want to start exercising. Before you take off like an overlarge airplane and start preparing for the Olympics trials, stop right there.

You may have it all figured out by now, after checking with your friends, the media and finally that fickle fiend known as the bathroom mirror, that a regular exercise program is the only way to fly when it comes to permanent weight loss. That entails working out or otherwise flexing your physical and psychological muscles on a regular basis, perhaps three times a week, or maybe even once per day.

But therein lies the rub. How do you get started? How often do you exercise? Most importantly, if you’ve been very sedate or at least somewhat off your feet for awhile, what’s the safest way to begin an effective, weight-loss centered exercise program?

Beginning a Righteous Program – Realistically

First of all, follow the old saw about consulting with your doctor. Don’t start thinking you can just begin running around the block. That’s why the medical profession exists, to advise and keep you safe. Your doctor will recommend specific types of exercise tailored to fit your own individual lifestyle, personal health needs and concerns. But you don’t need to make it entirely clinical when you begin an exercise program.

Most importantly, you need to pick something you’re going to stick with. What do you like in the way of sports? If you’re people-oriented, you should look into joining a team sports program of some kind in your area, one created for adult participation. You can look for a local softball league, take a beginning aerobics class at a fitness center, or play regular games of basketball at a gym with your buddies. And then there’s golf, the perennial favorite of people who want to perform fun and interesting mild exercise. All you have to do is motivate yourself and perhaps some friends to get started. Or if you’re a loner, you can take up an individualized sport such as bicycle touring, which can also be done in small groups, or laps swimming at your community pool.

And if you like to be around a humungous amount of people, how about mall-walking, one of the latest in adult and family mild fitness trends, or the more traditional act of partner dancing, which you can do at all kinds of gathering places such as local taverns, senior centers, community halls and social clubs. There’s an almost infinite number of places you can go and groups you can join. Just pick one, and remember to start out with a breezy, fun and easygoing attitude. You’re not punishing yourself; you’re picking up on a lifelong habit of moving your body for health purposes. You’ll feel better, look fitter and maybe meet new people while you’re dropping those needless extra pounds.

But be realistic, and work with your doctor. You want to aim for something fun that you’ll keep committing to doing regularly. If it’s something you hate, perhaps such as running on a track, climbing stairs or using what seems to you to be boring exercise equipment, forget it! Don’t spend all your money on something you can’t keep doing because you feel guilty, or think you have to punish yourself into exercising. Be sure you like what you’re going to do before you get started. Simply walking around the block is a very inexpensive and potentially fun way to go from a sedentary state to a beginning new level of much better health and fitness. You must start with something easy and simple if you haven’t been exercising for decades, and you should gradually increase your level of activity as you feel comfortable with it. Move by inches, not by miles.

Are you a morning or an evening person? If you’re the former, plan to work out in the morning, and if you wake up later in the day, do your routine more near twilight. Also, as your doctor will tell you, start with a small window of time, perhaps only fifteen minutes at first, and slowly increase it every other day or so. In order to achieve a higher level of fitness and to lose weight, you must perform whatever exercise you choose at least three to four times a week. This is better at first than every day, as a rest may be needed between workouts to give your aching muscles a chance to soothe themselves and heal before you bravely saunter forth again or head back merrily to the gym.

Eventually, you can try exercising every single day, anywhere from twenty minutes to a full hour. But especially at first–and that may be for several months–don’t push yourself too hard. Don’t go all out, and get frustrated because you can’t keep it up. You don’t have to be a college athlete, and you can seriously hurt your heart by pushing too hard or overdoing it. Remember, you’re doing this for fun, for health reasons and to feel good about yourself. Don’t try to become an “athlete” unless you think that will be something you’ll want to commit to on a much more rigorous schedule. Later!

Easy Exercise Comes – Naturally

Americans tend to think of exercise as more their duty than as a part of their culture, or “way of life.” But it’s a true lifestyle preference. Throughout the world, many forms of regular exercise are taking hold of whole general populations. Take walking, for example. In Europe, people are flocking to their local well-developed public hiking trails, and there’s quite a few of those spread across the USA as well. Walking of a moderate type is called Volkssport in Europe, and it’s really been around for many centuries.

Easy-going exercise such as walking continues to stave off heart disease, osteoporosis, high cholesterol and many types of cancer, as well as taking care of most of your belly flab. It doesn’t sound like much, but it will really tighten your whole body up. Your legs will especially benefit, and your buns will automatically grow firmer as you stroll. Not to mention that the worst investment you need to make is a pair of comfy, sturdy sensible shoes, preferably made of leather or canvas with rubber soles.

You may think that yoga is some uncomfortable form of Eastern self-punishment and mysticism, but it’s not. Yoga is great for toning your body, as it’s extremely gentle when done correctly. It combines traditional breathing and relaxation techniques with simple stretching. It’s good to use yoga during a weight-loss program when you’re sedentary, as it’s very easy on your body, you don’t have to repeat the same exercises every day, and it requires a minimal time commitment.

Yoga can be used in conjunction with a more rigorous exercise program to help maintain your overall state of fitness. “Yoga doesn’t take over your life, it enhances it,” says Alice Cristensen, founder and executive director of the American Yoga Association.

Continuing Your Program – Goals and Motivation

Okay, so you’ve gotten started, but what does all this have to do with watching your weight? To keep on schedule with this as your original goal, you also have to keep that commitment to lose enough poundage to be a healthy, happy and physically fit person.

First of all, you have to figure out exactly what you’re expecting to accomplish. Are you looking for optimal health, or do you really want to fit into slinky clothes better? Either way, you’re going to have to set goals and try to attain them as you go. It helps to clearly keep in mind what you’re aiming for, and it helps to visualize yourself at your ideal weight several times a day. This image impresses itself upon your subconscious and inwardly motivates you to continue your program with a bulldog’s sheer tenacity and motivation. You want that; whatever happens, you don’t want to stress out and quit. Try looking at old photographs of yourself at your ideal weight and picturing realistically what you’ll look like when you’re back there again. Don’t expect the Fountain of Youth, but you’d be shocked how close you can get to your mental picture, and how good you’re going to feel as you move your body, eat less liberally and become fit and not fat.

Also, you should make a brief list of the five major reasons you’re embarking on an exercise and weight-loss program. Do you want to bring down your blood pressure? Does being fat make you feel too old? Do you want to attract someone new in your life? When you sit in your car, does your stomach practically turn the steering wheel? Make it a point to carry this list with you wherever you go, and when you get in the mood to quit and give up, whip it out and read it aloud, saying to yourself that this is what you really want.

You must also remember to keep it simple when you’re losing weight. In most cases, burning more calories than you ingest is the biggest concern. You have to expend approximately 3,500 calories to lose one pound of adipose fat tissue. Water weight doesn’t count, and that’s what a lot of people lose at first. Also, the important thing about exercise is that you can eat almost normally and still lose the weight at a healthy and reasonable pace. If you don’t exercise and try to lose weight, you’ll be tempted to embark on a starvation diet. This has been shown to make you lose lean muscle mass instead of fat in most cases, and although you’ll drop some pounds, they may be the wrongest ones. Chances are that if you’re unfit while you’re losing weight, you’ll get physically tired, sleep less, become overly emotional, and stress out and become extremely irritable. It simply isn’t healthy to do it that way, so you need at least a moderate exercise program.

Try keeping a journal of your progress every day, and consult with it when you want to know how far along you’ve come. You can also use it to gauge how you’re doing, and whether or not you’re losing weight at a reasonable pace. Congratulate yourself every time you ate the right thing, kept to your walking schedule, or didn’t give in to temptation that day by making a brief note about it. Read the journal to inspire you about what you’re doing whenever you feel the urge to let go.

Meanwhile, as you chart your progress, take the time to reward yourself for everything you’re doing right. Ignore occasional slipups, and don’t let them bother you. Move on and motivate yourself by going to a movie, taking a break from work, going to the beach or whatever floats your boat. Don’t reward yourself with food, ever! Find other methods of loving life and use them. Treating yourself manifests your brain’s reward system and keeps you striving toward your goals.

Don’t forget to share any successes or failures with your friends and family. Tell them all about how proud you are of the new lifestyle choices you’re making, and share in their enthusiasm. They want you to be healthy and go on living, and so do you. But some of them may worry that you’re starving yourself or are in a state of denial. Reassure them, and proceed carefully with your healthy diet and exercise plans, while always knowing that it’s exactly what you need to do to look better, feel stronger and live longer.

Easy Dieting Tips to Live By – Starting Now

• Never eat after 7 pm. Studies prove that your body’s metabolism begins to shut down in the early evening. It needed fuel to function earlier, but at night you’re getting yourself ready to fall asleep. Eat the bulk of your daily food intake around noon–that’s when you’re burning the most calories. But if you work nights, do it the other way around, of course. It’s not the time of day that’s important; it’s the fact that your body is well-adjusted to a cycle where it doesn’t burn many calories before and during bedtime.

• Americans are used to eating super-sized meals, so learn to limit your portion size. Eat smaller meals five or six times a day instead of the standard three huge ones, and grab healthy snacks like vegetables, fruits and yogurt in-between. You want to prevent any binging or “pigging out” that could occur. Eat modestly, but often, and be sure to drink plenty of healthy fluids–mostly, pure cool water.

• Limit your intake of saturated fats, sugars and any other substances in food proven to add empty calories to your daily diet. Don’t drink any pop or sodas at all as they’re very bad for you generally, being full of chemicals. Diet sodas tempt you into drinking the sugary ones, and all soda pop robs water from your system and makes you thirstier. That can lead to eating more food.

• Eat lots of vegetables and fruits. You might want to go easy on some of the higher-calorie fruits such as starchy bananas, and don’t eat lots of high-fat avocados. But in general veggies are a dieter’s best friend. You might want to always eat your veggies with some meat protein to curb any histamines that might ravage your system and make it harder for you to breathe. Also, eating plenty of veggies kills the hunger signals from your brain, due to their sheer bulk and fiber. And the nutrients in fruits and veggies will increase your physical strength. Eat your spinach!

• Also eat lots of whole grains, which provide antioxidants that fight cancer and help you feel satisfied in a manner similar to that of eating veggies. But whole grains are even more filling, and help you digest your food. You want to eat plenty of fibrous foods, plus drinking lots of water, to flush toxins left over in your body from the dieting completely out of your system.

• Take a healthy multivitamin. Don’t go overboard and try to take everything, because some of the substances we need interact non-positively and can cause chemical imbalances. Consult with your doctor and see what’s recommended nowadays. One good wholistic multivitamin and mineral supplement–not a megadose of potentially harmful chemicals–can improve your skin, hair, overall appearance in general, and also your chances of managing on a little bit less food.

Lastly – Remember This

Please remain consistently aware of one thing: these are radical, life-changing choices that you’re making each day and night, and you’ve got to stick with them. Not everyone else in the world is going to live this way, but many people are and it’s a sensational start! Think that you really have no choice, if you want to go on living for many long years and be vibrant, strong and healthy. Realize that your loved ones truly need you, and that the right thing to do is to take the best possible care of yourself. Tell yourself that with honest compassion, every single waking moment of your entire life.

SIDEBARS

First sidebar: Please Make Your Kids Exercise!

America’s children are routinely both terribly inactive and physically unfit, which means the USA will face ever-increasing health care costs, reduced workplace productivity and a more restricted and undesirable quality of life.

Nowadays, TV, computers and their accompanying video games are replacing the physical sports and activities children used to play that enabled them to frequently exercise. Obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes are becoming hideously prevalent among today’s modern kids. Fitness has become an anachronism for many of us, and we must continuously strive to get our children moving, running and laughing with each other before they succumb completely to unhealthy lifestyle patterns.

Researchers have found an existing relationship between the amount of TV watched and a child’s accumulated body fat. A healthy diet and vigorous exercise are needed as much by our nation’s children as they are by their sedentary and underactive parents. You should know exactly what’s appropriate for your child and how to instill the fun and repetitive behaviors that create a lifetime of pleasure and good health. And you must become a lasting, visible role model by demonstrating these capabilities outwardly, or they won’t take hold with your child.

There are basically two types of exercise the experts want you to consider. Aerobic exercise burns fat, and it can be very fun and involving for all ages. It causes rapid increases in your child’s breathing and heart rates, and must be performed over at least a twenty-minute time period. It takes that long for your child’s body to start burning its stored fat reserves. Aerobic exercise includes most team sports such as basketball, soccer, hockey, rowing, swimming, and running. It also includes individual sports such as bicycling, cross-country skiing, jogging, karate, rollerblading, tennis, and fast walking. (Continued on next page)

Second sidebar: Please Make Your Kids Exercise! (Continued)

Anaerobic exercise causes a short burst of exertion followed by a brief rest, and tends to develop stronger muscles. It complements the fat-burning aerobic exercise. This includes weight training and strength training, such as that done with free weights or standing equipment, and standard “training” exercises like pushups, crunches, pull-ups and other such floor exercises.

Most healthy children have little trouble working out on a twenty to thirty minutes, three to four times a week basis. But if your child is overweight and sedentary, he or she needs to begin on a similar schedule to that of a sedentary adult. You mustn’t let your child overdo it, either! Use the talk-sing rule. If while exercising, your child cannot sing but can still talk, he or she is moving around at a proper rate of pace.

Children need to imitate their parents and older siblings, and that means you must personally take on physical activities in front of them. Use family participation to stress the rules of active fitness, stressing variety, freedom and joy. Avoid overly regimented and competitive activities, and show your kids that being active is fun. Plan outings that involve long walks, such as going to the zoo or a national park, and encourage them to play extended outdoor games and easygoing supervised organized sports.

Our children are the blue-ribbon prizes of a well-lived existence, and need to be taught a lifelong appreciation of good diet and physical fitness. How can we idly sit by and take no action when the quality and decency of their lives is what’s truly at stake?



By: Karen Cole Peralta

About the Author:

If you’re like many people, you are looking into creating an exercise routine that will help you stay fit and trim. However, you may be shocked to discover that not just any old type of exercise will be sufficient – in fact, research studies routinely show that there are two basic types of exercise that are both highly efficient and successful.

Because so many people struggle to deal with exercise motivation, choosing the most efficient types of exercise is crucial, since the less time you spend exercising – and the less time you waste on inefficient exercise – the more likely you will be to be persistent with exercising and therefore reach your personal weight and strength goals.

Our first type of exercise which has been routinely demonstrated to aid people to lose the pounds and get healthful is progressive resistance. Briefly, progressive resistance is one type of strength training. It functions by over time increasing the amount of weight that you lift, the number of sets, and number of repetitions performed. The result is that muscle fibers cannot be put under strain or subjected to damage – instead, they are slowly and steadily allowed to strengthen without any setbacks.

The second type of exercise that has been thoroughly studied is cardiovascular training. This is any type of exercise that results in a heart rate of 60 – 85 percent of its maximum rate. Examples of cardiovascular training might be jogging, jump rope, aerobics, or running on a treadmill, as well as others, but it is your choice.

Even though progressive resistance and cardiovascular training alone have been found to be highly efficient kinds of exercise, scientists now know that performing both of these types of exercise is the best bet for achieving success. If you combine both progressive resistance and cardiovascular training, you will strengthen muscles and improve general endurance. According to a scientific study, exercisers who used both cardiovascular and progressive resistance over the course of two months lost 45 percent more than those doing cardio training or progressive resistance alone.

Just as critical as the type of exercise you do is, the way in which you exercise is also important. It no doubt will come as no surprise that being consistent is the name of the game. Exercising in an irregular manner may enact strain on your muscles and will likely not aid you to increase strength and endurance. In addition, it is unlikely to improve your whole-body health. According to many experts, the best routine is to exercise for forty minutes to an hour three to five times every week.

Unfortunately, it turns out that for a significantly sized percentage of the American population, getting enough exercise is not as simple as attending the health club several times every week or listening to what researchers say. For this group of people, exercise motivation is the big issue – this group of people simply doesn’t have the motivation to go to the gym. In fact, they might be fearful of all exercise, to the point of problematic anxiety.

Nobody knows what percent of the populace suffers from problems with exercise motivation, but experts say that about 20 to 40 percent of people say that they “hate” or “dread” exercise. An even larger percentage of people might have more minor problems with the motivation to exercise, claiming that even though it is simple enough to commit themselves to an exercise routine for a week or two, motivation eventually disintegrates, which leaves them where they were initially – physically out of shape and heavy.

If you’re one of these people who struggles to deal with exercise motivation, you will be glad to know that there are some easy strategies to handle the struggle. According to the findings of a recent research study, volunteers who wanted to begin an exercise program were provided with a brief educational program that helped them decide on the best types of exercise, were matched with a motivational therapist, and received a brief series of sessions with a hypnotist. After 6 months, they were asked to evaluate their progress. It turned out that over 85 percent of the participants had stuck to an exercise program during the whole 6 months. Even better, they lost an average of fifteen more pounds than people who were not given hypnotherapy.

If you have an interest in this study, it may be good to investigate the possibility of finding a motivational therapist, habit control therapist, or therapist who focuses on hypnotherapy. These therapists are specially trained in helping people to overcome anxieties, increase exercise motivation, and reinforce the creation of good habits. One more choice for providing exercise motivation is something called self-hypnosis – which is a simple and inexpensive discipline that often helps people take control of their own inborn powers of motivation.

Hypnosis therapy and self-hypnosis are safe ways of increasing motivation that have been proven to offer success in the case of the motivation to exercise. Hypnosis functions by using hypnotic relaxation to evoke the abilities of our minds to influence behavior modification and the formation of habits. Hypnosis therapy is a wonderful choice for the exercise adverse because it can help the development of the will to get healthful and lose the weight simply and effectively.



By: Alan B. Densky, CH

About the Author:

Do you have an exercise plan? Do you own any exercise equipment? Perhaps a treadmill, an exercise bike, or any of the gazillion exercise machines advertised on infomercials over the last 10 or 20 years? I think we’ve all been sold at one time or another on something to make exercising easier… or so we thought. And that’s good! Having the desire to look better, feel better and implementing a good exercise plan can help us to reach those goals and also help us to keep our weight under control. And those are just a few of the benefits of exercise. When we perform an exercise routine regularly we begin to not only look and feel better… we even sleep better. When you get right down to it I think we all know that a good exercise plan is part of a healthy lifestyle.

I often hear people ask “What is the best exercise?” And the answer to that question is the one you like the most. Why? Because that’s the one your more likely to do! For many people, just one exercise would not be enough because although we all want to be in good shape and the proper weight, we all have different fitness goals… but for others, one exercise performed consistently and regularly provides all the benefits mentioned above and then some!

So… how many exercise plans do you need to receive all of the exercise benefits described above? One! That’s right… just one! And how many exercises do you need to do? That will depend on your particular fitness goals… your likes and dislikes… but the first question I encourage you to ask yourself is “What one exercise do I like the most? That answer will get you started on a good exercise plan.

Now…

Did you know that how often you exercise is the single most important factor in whether you: • reach your weight loss goals • will be satisfied with your results • will feel good about your progress

You could own every piece of exercise equipment ever advertised on an infomercial, from an exercise bike to an exercise ball and every exercise machine in between, but if you’re not going to use them, then your exercise plan will never succeed. Now I’m not saying that you need to own exercise equipment to be in shape. There are many people who are in excellent condition who own nothing more then a pair of Nikes. If you get just one thing from reading this, understand that your fitness level is directly related to the frequency in which you exercise.

It doesn’t matter if you know how to do every imaginable abdominal exercise, dumbbell exercise, aerobic exercise, tricep, deltoid or backside exercise. The important thing is how often you do them!

I challenge you right now to base your exercise plan on frequency, and I promise you will be much more successful. Whether your exercise plan consists of 20 different exercises or one… please remember this.

Now I don’t want you to get carried away. There’s more to life than just exercising… much more. All I’m saying is when you set about creating an exercise plan, the frequency of exercise is crucial. So as you create your exercise plan answer these two questions: 1) What one exercise do I enjoy the most? Even if you currently hate all exercise… there must be one that you like or hate less than the others. 2) And secondly, how often can I sincerely do this?

Answer those two questions and your exercise plan will be off to a great start!



By: Don Pasco

About the Author:

There’s no doubt that hydraulic circuit training health clubs are more popular than ever before. With over 10,000 of these gyms dotting the American landscape, men and women alike are finding circuit training exercise to be relatively easy and certainly effective.

The question is, however, just how effective is circuit training exercise equipment when it comes to burning calories? Will the average workout buff incinerate 200 calories in a typical 30-minute circuit workout? Is it 400? 600? More?

Like many things in life, there are no exact answers when it comes to this exercise program and caloric burn. The reason is that different people will achieve different results from the same workout. To confuse matters even more, the same person will realize better results one day than they do another day, even though they’re using the exact same exercise machines for the exact same amount of time.

There are several reasons why this is so, some of which include: * How hard you work / the effort you exert; * The resistance settings on the machines; * Your age; * The amount of lean tissue (muscle) you have on your body; * Hormone balance; * Hydration levels; * Does the workout contain enough cardio to elevate heart rate?

WORK = REWARD

Even though it may seem like common sense, the first point to make is that for circuit training weight loss exercise to be effective, you must put in some serious effort. Of course, this is also true of any exercise program! As an example, let’s take a look at cardio exercise in the form of running. A 165-pound person running at 5 mph for thirty minutes will burn 299 calories. That exact same person, running at 10 mph for thirty minutes, will consume 599 calories. The reward is directly related to the effort put forth. In this case, the number of calories burned more than doubles because the exertion is doubled. This principle is true whether we’re talking about aerobic exercise or weight lifting exercises.

RESISTANCE TRAINING EFFORT COUNTS TOO!

The underlying reality is that all weight training exercise machines are not created equal. Whether your goal is to exercise to lose weight or gain strength, the approach you take when resistance training has a direct relation to the number of calories you’ll burn. As an example, let’s consider our hypothetical 165-pound person again. When they resistance train moderately for thirty minutes, they can expect to burn about 112 calories. If, however, they resistance train vigorously for that same thirty minutes then their caloric burn will climb to 225. Again, the result more than doubles because the user has put in more effort.

If you’re going to gain the maximum benefit from circuit training then it’s important to hit the resistance portion of the workout with maximum effort. This means getting as many repetitions as possible (moving the exercise equipment quickly) and using the appropriate level of resistance.

2x THE WORK = 2x THE RESULTS

The bottom line is that how many calories you burn while circuit training is primarily up to you. The benefit of exercise that many people are seeking is caloric reduction (fat loss), so it stands to reason that if you’re going to work out it’s a good idea to put in maximum effort. Vigorous exercise, as opposed to moderate exercise, will double your fat loss results. This is true of both cardiovascular exercise and resistance training.

The exciting feature of hydraulic circuit training is that this exercise program actually combines the two different types of workout, so you’re getting your cardio and resistance training at the same time. By alternating between exercise machines and cardio stations, you maintain a constant elevated heart rate while at the same time working every single muscle group in the body. This ‘double duty’ workout serves to double your results, and it’s one of the major reasons why hydraulic circuit training is so effective.

SO WHAT’S THE ANSWER?

We know that you can burn from 299 to 599 calories in thirty minutes of aerobic exercise, and we also know that you can burn from 112 to 225 calories in thirty minutes of resistance training. Finally, we know that with the circuit training exercise routine you’re getting both types of exercise at the same time. Therefore, it stands to reason that you could conceivably burn between 411 and 824 calories in a thirty-minute circuit training session.

That’s why circuit training gym exercise works so incredibly well for those willing to exercise vigorously each and every time they enter the health club. It’s also a strong argument for hydraulic circuit training in general, as opposed to other forms of exercise such as exercise bikes, exercise balls or exercise treadmills. To achieve a calorie burn this high, you simply must be engaging in both aerobic and resistance exercise at the same time.

It’s easy to see why the best exercise tip is to take part in a regular exercise program on circuit training equipment. The proven caloric burn will bring you proven results.



By: Tracie Johanson

About the Author:

like most of us you think losing weight should be a simple process of eating less and losing weight. I’ll bet you’ve even tried a number of different diets and may have lost a little weight only to gain it back. In fact, if you beleive all the different diet books, infomercials and magazines you’re just one quick fix away from losing all the weight you want, if only you could find the right one. Calorie shifting is not so much a diet as it is a technique.

Calorie Shifting has become one of the fastest growing weight loss trends because it works on a theory that actually makes sense. Most low calorie, low carb, low fat, diets basically fail because your body realizes one thing when you are on one of these diets. It realizes that you’re starving yourself (in a matter of speaking) by taking in low amounts of calories.

There are many reasons why you are overweight, it will interest you to know that your metabolism plays a major part in your ability to lose weight and burn fat. The question that you and millions of overweight people want to know the answer to is how do you increase your metabolism. You trick it, thats how. You see your metabolism has a memory and it remembers what you’ve eaten the past few days and adjust to the number and type of calories you take in.

Calorie shifting is based on the principle that you can induce the burning of fat by shifting the types of calories that you consume, from meal to meal, thereby simulating a sustained nutritional deficiency. However, the reality is that you will be eating plentiful food from all four food groups. Rotating your calories is an amazing and flexible diet that anyone can do. This style of eating has been proven to cause your body to raise its metabolism and fat burning system in order to process this new eating method.

Calorie Shifting is a way in which you constantly rotate your food thereby tricking your metabolism so it remains running high and burning a lots of fat. The Diet program is about constantly eating your meals at strategic times throughout the day to ‘trick’ your metabolism to remain high and burn more fat throughout the day. Your metabolism gets confused and starts operating off what you are currently eating.

If you’re sick and tired of your flabby abs try the calorie shifting technique to lose weight. You’ll be surprised at how effective it is. This is such an unusual diet plan and certainly goes against the traditional weight loss methods. Anyone who tries this type of diet will find out quickly how revolutionary it is. As with any weight loss plan you should consult you physician before starting.



By: Jen Jorden

About the Author:

Golf exercises used correctly can increase the power, speed, and distance of your tee shots. Through the utilization of what I call golf power exercises the reality of increased distance of your tee shots can occur. I have discussed power relative to developing club head speed in previous articles. If you recall clubhead speed is contingent upon power development in your body, and golf fitness exercises can increase club head speed through increasing the power outputs of your body.

An additional component exists relative to your body, power development, and clubhead speed. The additional component we are talking about is speed. Yes, speed is a critical component of increasing power in your golf swing, and directly related to all of your golf fitness power exercises. Remember, power is the ability of the body to create the greatest amount of force in the shortest amount of time possible. (Vladimir Zatsiorsky, Professor, Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Penn State Univeristy)

If we take this piece of information, the additional information we know about golf fitness training, and incorporate them into our exercises. The exercises within the power development section of our program must be executed at a high rate of speed.

This accomplishes over time the ability of our bodies to generate more force in the shortest amount of time possible. This allows our body to generate more power within the mechanics of the golf swing. The end result is increased cluhead speed, and when the clubhead is traveling at a faster rate at impact with the golf ball. The golf ball has the potential to travel a longer distance (remember swing mechanics also play a part.)

A simple concept once broken down step-by-step but let’s make sure we all understand how to implement speed into our golf fitness exercises. Take the example of the Medicine Ball Side-to-Side Exercise. Speed of movement is a very important component of this exercise.

The Side-to-Side Medicine Ball Rotation requires you to rotate back and forth maintaining the “athletic position” of the exercise. In order to induce a power developing effect the exercise should be executed as fast as possible. This elicits the development of power in the muscles of the core. If-and-only if the form of the exercise is maintained. If you find yourself loosing your technique as you increase the speed of the exercise. Slow it down a little and increase the speed as your body becomes stronger.

Remember, golf exercises in the the specific form of golf power exercises can improve your golf swing, and distance of tee shots. It is through these types of golf fitness exercises within a comprehensive golf training program increased power and speed can occur. Power outputs from the body have a direct effect on clubhead speed. Increase the power outputs of your body and you can drive the golf ball farther. And remember speed is a component of power and must be a principle involved in your golf fitness power exercises.

Sean Cochran is one of the most recognized golf fitness instructors in the world today. He travels the PGA Tour regularly working with professional golfers, most notable PGA and Masters Champion Phil Mickelson. To learn more about Sean Cochran and his golf fitness exercises and training programs go to http://www.seancochran.com



By: Sean Cochran

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eeking answers to what are the best fat burning exercises? If you are like many people you may be confused as to which exercises burn fat more effectively. After all there are many different articles and experts that have different answers or secrets to burn fat.

Some will tell you the low to moderate aerobic exercises are the best fat burning exercises while others believe it is the high impact aerobics that burn fat best. And then there are those who will tell you strength training is best for burning fat. So with all these experts giving different advice, how can you determine what?s the best for you.

The truth is all these experts are correct. Both strength training and aerobics, at any level, will help you burn excess body fat. Aerobic exercises are the most effective at burning calories and fat while performing the exercise while strength training gives you the benefit of increasing your metabolism. With a higher basal metabolic rate, you will be burning more calories each day while doing every day activities including sleeping.

So if all these methods help shed fat, why is it important to know the best fat burning exercise? Well if you are trying to maximize your fat burn then you need to understand how each exercise will help so that you can pick the most effective workout routine.

Strength Training

Strength training exercises are those exercises that challenge your muscles through resistance. The higher the resistance the more challenge the exercise will be. Although strength training itself is not a high calorie or fat burning exercise, it does help tone and strengthen your muscles and increases your lean muscle mass. The more lean muscle mass you have the more calories you burn due to an increased metabolic rate.

Weight lifting offers the most versatility for adjusting the resistance. You can continually increase the weight and challenge to your muscles. However not everyone has access to weight lifting equipment nor do they necessarily need to perform weight lifting to increase their muscle mass.

Resistance band exercises and dumbbell exercises are a great alternative to weight lifting. With resistance bands, you can easily adjust the resistance to your muscles by shortening the band for higher resistance or loosening for lighter resistance. They are fairly inexpensive and easy to travel with so they make a great on the go exercise.

Dumbbell exercises also are fairly inexpensive and easy to store. You can buy several sizes so that you use heavier weights for higher resistance and lighter weights for less resistance. You can also do body weight exercises where you are just using your body and gravity to provide the resistance. The bottom line is that any strength training exercise that helps you build lean muscles will help you burn fat.

Aerobic Exercises

It is aerobic exercises where there is the most debate as to which exercise is best to burn fat; low to moderate intense level or high intense level aerobics. With the low to moderate intense aerobic workouts your body uses approximately 60% of fat for fuel. However, the low to moderate level aerobics also burn fewer calories overall as compared to high impact aerobics.

The high impact aerobics will give you a higher calorie burn overall but only use about 35% of fat for fuel. Hence the reason for the debate and confusion as to which is the best fat burning exercise routine.

To best understand the difference between the two types of aerobics, let?s use an example. For instance, if a man weighing 175 pounds took a brisk walk at 4 mph for 30 minutes, a low to moderate level aerobic exercise, he would have burned approximately 158 calories. If 60% was fat, he would have burned about 95 fat calories.

Now if this same man jogged or ran for 30 minutes at 6 mph, a high impact aerobic exercise, he would have burned about 420 calories with 147 of these calories coming from fat; or 35% of total calories burned. So you can see he had the highest total calories and fat calories with the high impact aerobic workout.

Unfortunately not everyone is at a level in their exercise routines to be able to keep up this fast pace for this amount of time. So let?s assume that this man ran for only 20 minutes instead of the full 30 minutes. In this case he would only burn 280 calories total and 98 fat calories. Even with the shorter duration of the high impact aerobics he was able to burn more calories as well as a few more fat calories.

Again this is a high impact level and if you are not in a position to run at this pace for even a few minutes, then your best fat burning exercise will be a low to moderate level aerobics. To increase both the total calories burned and the fat calories try increasing the duration of your low to moderate aerobic workout.

As you begin to adjust to your aerobic workouts, try increasing the speed as well. Mix up your aerobic exercises by doing low to moderate level with spurts of high impact aerobics. This high impact interval training exercise will give you the benefit of both low to moderate to high impact aerobics calories and fat burn. So make the most out of your fat burning exercises.



By: Gen Wright

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