Exercise Diary Why Keep One

by Weight Loss - March 6, 2012

Exercise Diary Why Should You Keep One

To begin with, keeping an exercise diary / workout log can have many benefits for people who want to lose weight or achieve a fitness goal. Read on to learn about benefits of using an exercise diary as well as some extra tips to help you use one in order to help you meet your weight loss and / or fitness goals..

Benefits Of Keeping An Exercise Diary

• It creates accountability. Something about keeping a list helps many people stick to a goal. By seeing a diary of what you’ve done and having a list of what you plan to do, you can see your progress and you have continuous reminders of what your goals are. There are also options where you can sign up with friends to online diaries that can be shared. This can be helpful if working out with an accountability buddy.

• You can track your progress. An exercise diary can help you determine how many calories you’re burning and can help you track your goals. Some people track weight and measurements so they can track kg or lbs lost as well as track inches lost. Seeing progress will help you stay on track to reach your goals.

• It’s smart to track days where you’ll do rest, cardio exercises, cardio and strength training, etc. It’s wise to take a rest day between strength training days but some people forget what they did on their last workout day when they’ve had a day off. Diaries help you keep track of what you’ve done and what you’re planning on doing. You can also track number of reps or weight lifted, too, and see how you’re progressing.

• An exercise diary helps you mix things up. By tracking exercises, you can avoid plateauing by switching things up often enough.

• Some fitness diaries can even recommend exercise regimens to you as well, keeping things interesting and keeping you engaged through continuous new exercise suggestions.

Therefore, there are a number of reasons why people track their exercise with a diary. How do you get started?

You can simply keep a log with an exercise diary template that you find online (or create yourself), you can sign up for a website that offers free or paid memberships, and you can find downloadable smartphone applications that let you track exercise via a diary you can access on the go.

Especially relevant, some exercise diary software and applications also incorporate food diaries as well. These can help you track nutrients, track your ratio of carbs / protein / fat and they can help you see if your combination of food taken in and calories burned off puts you in an ideal range for your body type and weight loss goals.

In conclusion, an Exercise Diary will keep you focused with your goals on target. Try it!

Leg Exercises For Women – Try Them

by Weight Loss - March 5, 2012

Leg Exercises For Women

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Men and women don’t always look for the same leg exercises to do. Many people think they need a gender specific set of exercises for their legs because they have different goals. Men and women don’t necessarily have the same goals for their desired outcome for their legs.. and leg exercises for women tend to be in an effort to tone the legs, hips, and butt as well as lower abs. Men often look for bulk and muscle while women look for leaner, tight (and maybe even sexy) legs.

Consequently, if you’re a woman who is worried you will do generic leg exercises and wind up with legs like Conan the Barbarian, this is very unlikely to happen. Most exercises for men’s legs can be used as leg exercises for women, too, probably with less weight or resistance.

Tone and Strengthen

Leg Exercises for Legs Strength training is the fastest way to get toned legs as strength training exercises can help you burn fat fast. A woman’s body composition is such that it would take a heck of a lot of serious training for her legs to look anything like a muscular man’s legs.

Therefore, doing leg exercises, for women and for men will result in toning, building of muscle, and burning of fat. You can do leg exercises with and without weights but don’t be afraid to use weights, even if you are female and want to have a small and slender build.

Walking Lunges and Squats with Dumbbells

Lunges are great leg exercises for women. Squats are great leg exercises for women, too. Add dumbbells and you’ll intensify the workout. Starting with 1 pound weights is a great start.

Kick Boxing

If you want a cardio workout for your legs with a “kick”, Kick boxing benefits for women are numerous. This total body workout does great things for toning your legs. Taking a kick boxing class could be great for building power in your legs and your whole body as well as for increasing your flexibility and range of motion.

Heel Raises

Heel raises really strengthen and tone your legs, especially your calves. All you have to do is raise up onto your tiptoes. Hold for a few seconds and then flatten your feet. Repeat. When you’re ready to take heel raises to the next level, do it on the stairs. Stand backwards on the stairs and back up so the ball of your foot is on the edge and your heel is hanging off the edge of the step. Do heel raises on the steps and you’ll really start to feel it in your legs!

Treadmill on an Incline

Walk on your treadmill on an incline. Try going higher on the scale every few minutes and vary your workout intensity for intervals of higher speeds and inclines, balanced with lower speeds, too. This will keep things more interesting on the treadmill and help you see faster results in your legs.

Walk Uphill

Get off the treadmill and walk uphill. Try walking backwards (being wary of traffic of course) for great leg results, especially in the buns

Leg Exercises for women will result and better looks and conditioning. Try doing it!

Love Handle Exercises that Yield Results

by Weight Loss - March 2, 2012

Love Handle Exercises

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If you are wanting to get rid of your love handles, it can certainly be done by implementing a great exercise regimen.

Here are some simple and effective love handle exercises to add into your exercise repertoire.

Cardio

Add walking, running, cycling, aerobics exercises, and so on. The best way to burn fat is to do cardio on a regular basis.

Pilates

Various Pilates love handle exercises are great for working the obliques and tone your muscles. Making your sides look better and smaller.

One simple but effective love handles Pilates exercise involves sitting on the floor with your feet wide apart and doing a seated twist.

Hold your arms straight out at your sides with palms down and slowly twist as far as you can one way so that your one arm moves to your front and then twist slowly the other way, too so that the other arm moves to the front. You’ll feel the twisting motion in your sides.

Crunches

Regular crunches do good things for your abs but some crunches are especially helpful for love handles. Elbow to knee crunches are great love handle exercises and they work the obliques. You can use a stability ball for many love handle exercises, too.

Side Bends

Side bridge bends can be an effective love handles exercise but are difficult on their own. Using a stability ball makes it a bit easier.

Tip: Use hand weights while doing side bends to help with the intensity of the love handles exercises.

Swimming

Swimming is an invigorating workout that works great for the whole body. Laps can work well, the side stroke as well and many people find that aqua fit classes help them tone up all over.

Leg Flutters

This exercise involves a sort-of dry land swimming and involves lying on your tummy and lifting your arms and legs up off the floor.

This helps strengthen your stomach and your back therefore, it and can help you eliminate excess fat around your midsection.

Weight Lifting

It might sound like weight lifting builds muscles in your arms more than anything, but strength training exercises can do great things for your whole body.

Hence, it is a great way to burn fat anywhere and everywhere you’ve got extra.. such as those stubborn love handles.

Consider counting calories and ensuring that you work out regularly and you’ll lose inches all over. Love handle exercises can help as that midsection might be stubborn. Do your best to eliminate stress, reduce salt, and increase your water intake and you will enhance results.

Finally, with regular work, Love Handle Exercises will reduce your waistline.

Aerobics Exercises A Fun Way To Lose Weight

by Weight Loss - March 1, 2012

Aerobics Exercises – A Fun Way To Lose Weight

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Aerobics exercises help you oxygenate and this type of exercise is a versatile way to lose weight and get fit. To start with, there are so many different options. Take a class with other women and do aerobics together. Or exercise from the privacy of your home with aerobics exercise videos or home exercise equipment. Join the gym and use their equipment, or simply start getting active in your own neighborhood. You could also do a little bit of all of the above.

Choose from many different aerobics exercises so you will not get bored. Aerobics exercises offer you a great way to work out doing different routines, keeping you interested and motivated.

Since many workouts can be boring and repetitive after a few times. The variety of aerobics exercise options however, offer many different methods to lose weight.

In addition to get your heart pumping, help you burn calories, and tone muscles. Other added benefits are, reducing risk of heart disease, lowering your blood pressure, better managing blood sugar issues, helping improve digestive function, and more.

Examples of exercises that might be in your aerobic routines:

Aerobics Exercises – A Fun Way To Lose Weight

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Walking, hiking, running
Swimming, water aerobics
Aerobics classes
Boxing and kick boxing
Rowing
Jumping jacks
Jumping with a jump rope
Skiing
Plyometric Training
Dancing

It’s clear that there are many options to choose from and not all of them are for beginners but even if you start off with low impact and a small amount of aerobics exercises several times a week, you’ll be doing great things for your health.

Whether you take a class for aerobics exercises or just strive to get moving every day. You’ll start to see a difference in the number on the scale, how well your clothing fits, and in your endurance levels. Start off with low impact activity and find that within a few weeks of working out a few times a week, you’ve got more stamina and more energy.

Don’t start off planning to run a marathon. If you’ve got health issues, you probably will want to speak with your doctor before embarking on an aggressive workout plan. Start off small with ten minute intervals of exercise.

Finally, keep looking at different options to keep aerobics exercises as diverse as possible and you’ll soon see and feel the difference.

How To Tone Your Thighs for Great Looks

by Weight Loss - February 29, 2012

How To Tone Your Thighs

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Want to know how to tone your thighs? Thighs are one of those areas of the body that seem to stubbornly hang onto excess unwanted mass. Here are some tips to help you tone up your thighs..

Count Your Steps

Are you walking regularly? Set a daily goal that is progressive so you can increase your walking. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk at your lunch hour, take the dog for a walk, etc. If you can walk daily for 30+ minutes you’ll soon see a difference in your thighs. It’s especially helpful if you can hike with mixed terrain, such as a bit of uphill walking and downhill walking, too.

Cycling

Take a spin class, buy a stationary bike, or ride your bike outdoors. This is a great leg toning exercise that will show up in your thighs.

Join A Gym

How To Tone Your Thighs Join a gym and talk to a trainer who can set up an exercise regimen that focuses on areas you want to reduce. Any trainer will tell you it’s almost impossible to spot reduce but if there is an area that’s giving you a particularly hard time, chances are that a fitness trainer will have good ideas to change up your routine enough to jump start results.

As you get fitter and healthier, you will start to see a difference in stubborn places such as your thighs and belly. There are some great machines in a gym that help you use weights and resistance that will help you in your quest for finding ways to get fitter and for learning how to tone your thighs.

Stretching

Stretching exercises, such as Yoga and Pilates are both very helpful for those of you who want to know how to tone your thighs. And Yoga is easy to do just about anywhere. Yoga can help tone the body all over and improve your balance and stability, making you better able to succeed at your thigh toning efforts. Many people who take up Yoga comment that it’s also a great stress reliever.

Squats And Lunges

Squats and lunges are ideal for those wanting to know how to tone thighs. Do these exercises regularly.

Whichever exercises you choose to help you focus on things, don’t forget to track your progress. It’s not just the number on the bathroom scale that will tell you that you are doing a good job of getting in better shape; use a measuring tape, too, and see how many inches you are around the thighs. Measure weekly and you’ll start to see progress. Remember, just like it’s not only about the scale number, it’s also not only about inches lost, too. It’s also about toning and improving the shape of your thighs, too. It will happen if you keep at it and you’ll see great results with your overall shape.

Learning How To Tone Your Thighs will lead to increased fitness and better looks.

Home Exercise Equipment Suggestions

by Weight Loss - February 25, 2012

Home Exercise Equipment For Effective Workouts

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The best home exercise equipment is the gear that you will actually use regularly.

Home Exercise Equipment It will also depend on your price range and available space. There are many equipment pieces that can provide a good workout routine.

You have to do your part however and actually use them!.

First determine what your fitness goals are and then choose the equipment you need in order to achieve those goals.

Limited Space And Money

An exercise ball, dumbbells and resistance bands are excellent fitness tools at an inexpensive price.

Plus, you can store the ball in a closet or unoccupied corner while the dumbbells and resistance bands easily will fit under a bed, in a closet or even an unused drawer. Home Exercise Equipment

Taking it a little further, you could choose adjustable dumbbells so you can add more weight as you improve. The best home exercise equipment doesn’t have to expensive.

Options For Bigger Space And Budget

If you have a little discretionary money and space, consider a cardio machine or a machine that allows you to add resistance through pulleys and weights.

Treadmills, stationary bikes and elliptical machines are the most popular for cardio exercises. Determine which one best suits your preferences and lifestyle.

Resistance exercise equipment can greatly help build muscle and strengthen bones.

If your goal is toning your muscles and growing stronger, this type of equipment is a good investment.

While some can fold down for storage in tight spaces, others do take up space and would require a dedicated area.

Exercise Tools That Enhance A Workout

A number of exercise equipment options may not be necessary but can enhance a workout, particularly if you are tired of the same old exercises.

For instance, abdominal crunches can become tedious so investing in fitness machine that works just the abs might be worth it to you.

A jump rope is a cheap, effective cardio tool as is a weighted hula hoop.

An aerobic step can boost intensity in a workout just as gliding disks can too.

Of course, there is exercise equipment you use to track your progress that can be just as important as the workout itself.

You might want to invest in a heart monitor to monitor the intensity of your workout.

There are phone applications you can purchase to track the calories in your eating plan as well as the calories you expend during exercise.

Finally the best home exercise equipment is what you deem important to reach your overall fitness goals.

Using Home Exercise Equipment as part of your daily routine is a great idea, Try it now!

Raw Food Diet and Weight Loss

by Weight Loss - February 20, 2012

Raw Food Diet and Weight Loss

Can a raw food diet help you with weight loss? Definitely! Raw food diets do cause weight loss and people who are on them can eat a vast amount of food. While you might be depriving your body of cooked food, you are not going to be depriving your body of food volume.

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There are some great benefits of a raw food diet. Weight loss is just one of them. Other benefits could include elimination of many health issues, reduction in chronic pain, an increase in memory, clarity, and feeling of overall well being, improved sleep, healthier complexion, reduction in bad breath, improved digestive function, reduction in recurring yeast infections, getting your body to a healthier and more alkaline (instead of acidic) state, and the list goes on. Without fighting toxins on a constant basis, this could have great results for your body’s organs.

As you shed weight and increase the feelings of wellness, you’ll be doing great things from a digestive and a detoxification standpoint. A great side effect of detoxification, after you’ve gotten over the hump of withdrawals of junk food, is the fact that you’ll stop craving that junk. Junk food cravings and ingestion accounts for a vast amount of weight gain. Eating the wrong foods leads to craving the wrong foods. Detoxification through a raw food diet could break that vicious cycle.

Raw food diets can help you break the cycle of emotional eating and feed your body instead of feelings and find other ways to satiate stress (such as with exercise, which will also contribute to your achieving your goals for weight, wellness, and fitness).

Caution – Get Enough Calories on a Raw Food Weight Loss Diet

When using a raw food diet for weight loss, it’s important that you get enough calories for your body to survive. A good way to do this is to track those calories. Once you start to get an idea of the caloric value of various foods, it will be easier to do. A good combination of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes is important.

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Here are some other things you’ll want to eat on a raw food diet weight loss regimen:

Green drinks and / or smoothies. These can be chock full of nutrients. Many are designed to supplement a raw food diet.
Nuts, avocados, and other raw MUFA (mono unsaturated fats) foods. These are especially helpful in targeting abdominal fat.
Greens. Man cannot live on iceberg lettuce alone. Experiment with green combinations
Fruit. Fruit will satisfy cravings and help you get full. Experiment with new fruits and exotic ones, too.
Veggies and other plant based foods like edible flowers and edible mushrooms.
In most diets you’ll be reminded to drink water. But the great thing about raw foods is that many have a high water content than cooked foods. Drink to quench your thirst but don’t stress, because if you’re eating a lot of fruits and vegetables and you’re eliminating well (with plenty of clear urine), you’re getting hydration.
Fish. Sushi enthusiasts often don’t mind the transition to raw food. You do need to be careful about mercury levels and safe food handling, though.

If trying a raw food diet for weight loss, do a lot of reading and researching so that you can get the best results possible. If you’re looking for some raw food recipes, check out our article: Raw Food Diet Recipes!

Cardio Exercises You Can Do At Home

by Weight Loss - February 15, 2012

Cardio Exercises You Can Do At Home

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To begin with there are a number of reasons why people prefer to exercise at home. Whether it is lack of time or you feel more comfortable exercising in your own home. You’ve got a number of options for doing cardio exercises at home.

Exercise Bike

An exercise bike is a great way to do cardio exercises at home. Similar to a treadmill, they display distance, speed and calories burnt.

Treadmill

Cardio Excerises At Home A treadmill is a versatile piece of cardio training equipment. It can be used for beginner exercises as well as those who are very active.

Treadmills are available in a variety of styles and sizes and there are space saver models that fold up as well.

Hence one of the great things about an electronic treadmill is that it will tell you how you’re doing with your cardio exercises at home.

You can see distance and calories burnt and some models will track your heart rate as well.

Stair Climber

If you’ve got a lot of stairs in your house, this can provide for cardio exercises at home.

Probably you don’t have enough stairs to make for an intense enough workout.

Stair climbers provide this type of cardio for you but in a small amount of space. This type of exercise can be great for raising your heart rate and for burning calories.

Elliptical

An elliptical machine is a bit like a cross between a bicycle and a stair climber with a bit of a ski machine thrown in for good measure as you get to move your arms as well as your legs.

Like the above cardio exercise machines, you can get information on how much of a workout you’re doing.

Rebounder

An option for a non-electronic exercise equipment for cardio is a rebounder. This is a miniature trampoline and while it takes up only a small amount of space, it can result in a great workout.

Actually jumping and other exercises done on it aren’t as hard on your joints as many other cardio exercises that you do but the calorie boosting power is extraordinary.

Cardio Exercises At Home Without Gym Equipment

Other types of cardio exercises at home that don’t involve expensive or space consuming equipment include: jumping rope, aerobics, jumping jacks, and jogging on the spot.

You can also buy a game console and purchase some of the video games that help you with cardio exercises such as: Kick Boxing, Wii Fit Plus, Wii Sports Active, Biggest Loser, and others.

In conclusion you have many options to do cardio Exercises at home. All you need is willpower.

Home Workout Routines You Can Create

by Weight Loss - February 13, 2012

Home Workout Routines

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Creating your own home workout routines can help you get fit and healthy without spending money. You won’t feel self-conscious in your workout clothes and you can do exercises on your own schedule. Plus, you can listen to your favorite music or television program at the same time!

The Planning Stages

In order to devise an effective exercise program, you must create a long term goal and then develop a series of short term goals to achieve. This will keep your motivation going because without a goal, your fitness routines are doomed to fail before you even start. Your objective could be to drop a pants size or two or to lose weight and lower your cholesterol.

With your goal in mind, create a schedule for exercise and stick to it; building in a day off is important too, your body needs a rest but also for peace of mind. The most effective home workout routines will exercise only two or three muscle groups at a time. This practice will allow your muscles to recuperate, thereby avoiding muscle damage or fatigue.

Home Workout Routines For example, one day you could work your legs and back, then another day your chest and shoulders and then arms the next time. With your abdominals, you can incorporate a few exercises each day as they are not as prone to injury. Alternating cardio exercises in between working your large muscle groups will help you burn fat.

Workout Routine Examples

No matter what your exercise routine is for the day, it is important to warm up your muscles first. This could be a few minutes of cardio such as walking, bicycling or even jumping jacks. Anything that gets the heart pumping and your muscles warming. What you should not do is stretch when the muscles are still “cold” as this may actually create tears in them instead of warming them up for use.

Home workout routines that incorporate legs and back should include lunges, squats and calf raises. These three moves are the foundation of strengthening your lower body and back. Once these moves become too easy, you can add resistance such as weights to challenge your body. Abdominal muscles can get quite the workout with ab crunches, oblique crunches, leg lifts and bicycle crunches.

The upper body tends to be more challenging for some. There are a few exercises that don’t require resistance such as elastic bands or dumbbells. These fitness moves include push-ups, tricep bench dips and pull-ups or chin-ups using a pull-up bar. Using weights, you can exercise your biceps with hammer curls and bicep curls while your triceps get a workout with dumbbell extensions. Shoulder muscles develop with weights on lateral raises, dumbbell rows and shoulder presses whereas the chest muscles benefit from dumbbell flies and bench presses.

Once you finish your exercising for the day, this is the time to incorporate stretches which will help keep your muscles from tightening.

After following your home workout routines for a period of time, it is important to swap some of the exercises for new ones to keep your body guessing. Allowing your muscles to become complacent from repetitive moves will slow your progress.

There are many more Home Workout Routines You Can Create. Use your imagination!

Adding Low Calorie Foods To Your Diet

by Weight Loss - February 10, 2012

Adding Low Calorie Foods To Your Diet

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Adding low calorie foods regularly to your meals will make a notable difference.

Do you know how many calories you’re consuming every day? Those who track their caloric intake and make efforts to eat more low calorie foods have a greater chance of reaching their weight loss goals and of maintaining their weight once they reach those goals. It’s not all about portion control and exercise. It’s also about calorie control.

Adding low calorie foods to your diet can help you fill up and lower your chances of eating the wrong things as well as can make it easier for you to stay within your desired calorie range.

Read the Label

Before you eat something, read the label to see if it is a low calorie food. Look closely at the serving size as well as at the calorie count. Before long, you’ll get to know when you are adding low calorie foods.

Look for Alternatives

Do you love sour cream on your potato? Why not try light or fat free? The same goes for other condiments and for anything you eat that has an alternative. These lower calorie foods will add up to lower calories overall for you. Measure your portions as well so you don’t make the mistake of using extra just because you’re opting for the lower calorie option.

Your Plate

Portion your plate with vegetables as half the plate. Vegetables are low calorie foods so you can eat more of them to fill your body, increase your nutrient intake, and reduce the calorie count of your meal overall. Hence, choose a lean piece of protein and a small fist-sized portion of carbs. Most people make their vegetables the smallest portion on the plate but increasing them is a great way to lose weight.

Water Intake

Are you looking for low calorie beverage options so you don’t wind up consuming several hundred calories a day in liquid? Better choose water, it has zero fat, zero carbs and zero calories. It will help your overall health and help you reach your weight loss goals.

Eat Low Calorie Snack Foods

It’s not realistic to cut out snacks altogether. Therefore, snacking on the right foods can actually help you reach your health and weight loss goals. Not all low calorie foods taste like health food. Here are some low calorie snack food suggestions to help keep you full between meals without sabotaging your weight loss or nutrition goals.

Baby carrots, cucumbers, radishes, and grape tomatoes. Dip in low fat dressing.
Fruits. If you like, make a low fat dip by mixing some orange juice with a little bit of fat free sour cream and fat free vanilla pudding.
Berries
Rice cakes. There are some flavoured options that make a great potato chip substitute.
Laughing Cow or cottage cheese.
Jell-O
Frozen grapes
Air-popped popcorn

Tip: Try to keep snacks to under 200 calories.