|
| |
 |
Professional Quality Vitamin Supplements at Discount Prices |
 |
Health Tips from Vitamin Power
Helping You Stay Healthy and
Optimize Well-Being . . .
With Safe, Effective, Natural Nutritional
Remedies For Common Health Ailments and Conditions
Very few Americans are satisfied with their
current weights. There are too many good tasting, high-calorie foods, and too
few hours available to burn the fat. It can be done easily, and here are the
best ways to do it. Remember, weight-loss is best approved by a physician,
especially if there are any medical concerns such as high blood pressure,
elevated cholesterol, cardiovascular problems, etc.
1. Increase cardio workouts.
If you’re “in shape” and have no critical health
concerns, perform an aerobic workout every day of the week. To burn fat, a
person needs to work at a certain level and cardiovascular exercise is the
answer.
Don’t put pressure on yourself with an unrealistic goal, like losing the 20
pounds in a week. Unless you have excessive water weight or are already
excessively overweight, you won’t likely drop it that fast.
Aerobic exercise, such as running or biking outdoors, or on indoor machines such
as the treadmill, stair stepper, stationery bicycle, etc., keeps your heart rate
at a certain level. Sports such as tennis racquetball and basketball, though
rigorous, aren’t really “aerobic” because they are stop-and-start activities.
If you exercise at a very high level, you burn glucose, but if you exercise at
the “right level,” then you burn fat. The ideal target range is 70 to 85 percent
of your maximum heart rate.
2. Eat a large, healthy breakfast and lunch and smaller dinner.
Your body won’t be trying to metabolize large
amounts of food at night, during its dormant time while you sleep. You expend
energy during the primary time that you’re taking it in. Keep it low-fat, but
take in most of the quantity in the morning and afternoon.
3. Interval training.
Combine aerobic and anaerobic workouts. Perform
one or two sets of strength training – press, curls, squats, etc. then one
minute of jumping rope or fast sprints. The whole purpose of this cycle is to
allow your body to have enough oxygen to really burn fat efficiently.
A high intake of oxygen is needed in order to metabolize body fat and burn it.
Anaerobic or strength training does not really do much for body fat, but if you
combine the two (anaerobic plus aerobic) you get excellent results. This type of
workout should be at least 30 minutes, but not more than 45 minutes, and you
should be stretched-out, warmed up and limber before you begin.
Cardio exercise on the exercise bicycle for weight loss is not recommended
because the seat carries part of your weight and a person is supposed to carry
their own body weight for optimum results.
4. Give yourself strength with enough sleep.
Get eight hours of good sleep every night.
If you can, rest during the day when you get tired. Some people think they’ll
increase their energy with coffee, which is an appetite stimulant. Then you eat
more.
You can make your body feel good in ways other than eating, and appropriate
sleep is very important. A positive feeling toward life is another. Work at
being happy and content. It’ll make you feel less “deprived” if you give up
fattening foods.
5. Don’t follow “fad” diets: make eating right an ongoing priority.
With diets that focus on one food group at the
expense of another, you’re going to suffer an imbalance of nutrition. Metabolism
goes down, craving for food may go up, all kinds of things go on that give you
less control over eating.
6. Cut calories while not slowing down your metabolism.
Increase your exercise by a little more and make
a slight adjustment to your calorie intake, but not a large one, because you do
not want to throw your metabolism out of “sync.” Reduce your fat intake by 10 to
15 percent less fat per day to begin. Fast exercise burns more fat.
7. Divert yourself at times of craving.
Curbing your eating behavior at the times you’re
most likely to eat “bad” foods can involve physical activity, though that
doesn’t work for some people. You can do a reduced level of physical activity.
Get out of the house and take a walk. Listen to music. Read a good book, but do
something to take your mind off unhealthy food!
8. Drink a lot of water.
Water helps you feel full, and is needed for
flushing out your system. If you think fruit juices, coffee or soft drinks
“count” as eight glasses of water a day, they don’t. Fruit juices, though
beneficial in other ways, are higher in calories. Eight cups of caffeinated
coffee is a poor substitute for water because you’ll be feeling unhealthy
effects of the caffeine. Soft drinks either contain sugar or artificial
sweeteners. Sugar gives you useless calories, and too much artificial sweeteners
causes headaches. There’s no substitute for good, clean refreshing water!
9. Eat more fiber.
Physicians and health experts advise that our
bodies are biologically designed for survival and reproduction. Taste buds give
us the full flavor of food so that we’ll want to eat and survive. It follows
that if your stomach is growling constantly, your mind is sending signals to
eat.
Fill up with low-fat fiber like brown rice, cereals, fat-free rice cakes, soy
chips and other food that will give you that full feeling. Otherwise, you’re
fighting your own mind. Be sure to count how many calories you’re ingesting when
you go for more fiber. Fat-free food doesn’t mean it will never create fat on
you; Too many calories, even if they’re fat-free, can still pack on the pounds.
10. Consider proper support.
Besides supportive people, like those found in
Weight Watchers and other weight-loss support groups, you might consider
subliminal weight-loss tapes. Or even hypnosis. If done properly, hypnosis has
been known to help people lose their desire to overeat.
Reduce lifestyle barriers that make weight-loss difficult. This is the real
world, consider your own lifestyle, and how that is going to help you. Beware
how it will hinder you, too. Do you feel hounded by fat-laden vending machines
at work? Do you dislike the gym because you’d rather be home? Does your mother
make you a pan of lasagna every week? Plan ahead for the demons in your life
that will try to put those pounds back on.
|
