It’s clear that exercise has mental, physical, and health benefits. When you exercise, you can uplift your mood, reduce your risk of illness, and get better sleep. Exercise may even help you live longer.
Yet, if exercise isn’t already a part of your routine, it can be difficult to start fitting extra physical activity into your life. And after you do start - how will you be able to sustain the exercise in a way that will create lasting results?
Consider these benefits of exercise, as well as tips to create a sustainable fitness routine.
Benefits of Exercising:
1. Helps to prevent weight gain or maintain weight loss
2. Helps to prevent health issues including high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, and anxiety
3. Improves your mood
4. Helps to manage blood sugar and insulin
5. Boosts energy
6. Improves your sleep
Use these tips to exercise consistently and create lasting results:
1. Start with two minutes. When you start with something new like exercise, you want to make it as easy as possible to get started. Limiting your first sessions to two minutes will help you start showing up so that you can transition into the routine of exercising.
2. Make it easy to exercise. The ultimate mind hack to exercise is making it easy. This way, when it comes time to exercise, you’re already on the path of least resistance.
- Set a specific time and place to exercise.
- Put your workout clothes in a specific, open place.
- Prepare your food, shoes, and hydration the night before.
3. Link the exercise with something you already need to do. You can also combine exercise with a task you already do throughout your day.
- Walk or run to work.
- Run to your errands.
- Listen to an audiobook or podcast while you exercise.
- Exercise while watching your favorite television show.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
4. Announce your exercise goal to someone to hold you accountable. Studies on motivation show that people who tell their friends, family, and colleagues about their goals are more likely to be successful. Telling others about your exercise goals can inspire you to take action.
5. Instead of thinking of working out as something you have to do, think about it as something you want to do. When you look at exercise as something you have to do, you rob yourself of enjoying the process.
6. Choose consistency over intensity. What will happen when you are stressed, ill, or injured? To avoid burning out and losing your motivation to exercise, choose to be consistent with your exercise instead of sticking to a rigid “all or nothing” plan.
7. Accept progress over perfection. Your fitness journey will not be linear. If you focus on trying to be perfect, you run the risk of feeling like you are not progressing at all. If you feel like you’re not progressing, you may find it hard to stay motivated. Realize that any progress is good!
8. Track numbers and progression. Studies show that writing goals, measuring progress, and establishing rewards lead to success. When you keep track of your progression, you can identify what you would like to improve or focus on.
- Plus, you can see the progress you’ve made over a given time, which can motivate you to keep going!
- You can use an app or notebook to track your numbers and progression.
9. Think about the benefits. Studies also show that permanent change comes from reminding yourself of benefits associated with achieving your goals.
- What benefits will you reap by achieving your fitness goals? Maybe you will get more energy, lose weight, or feel more confident.
- Remind yourself why you wanted to start exercising in the first place.
10. Reward yourself. A reward will help train your brain to look forward to exercising and help you achieve your goal.
Exercise can greatly benefit your life. Don’t be afraid to start small as you begin working exercise into your daily life.
Have you noticed that you’ve gained a little excess weight recently? If so, you may be tempted to join the gym. However, joining a gym isn’t always necessary. You can get fit in the privacy of your own home - and on your own terms.
Try these tips to get fit in your own home:
1. Use social media. While sitting at home, you could be using the power of social media to get some workout ideas. Simply follow some online fitness coaches and influencers on Facebook or Instagram and you will have fresh content delivered direct to your feed each day.
2. Invest in some key equipment. While it would be nice to buy a squat rack, chances are you won't have enough room at home for it. Instead, think about other equipment that can aid your workouts that don’t take up much space.
● A kettlebell and some mid-weight dumbbells would be a good start as they can add an extra dimension to your home workouts.
● You may also want to invest in some resistance bands or perhaps a skipping rope to perform cardio in your garden.
3. Clean the house. Very few of us like doing the housework, but doing those chores are a good way of getting fit. Plus, you’re making your house healthier and more presentable too, which will help uplift your mood.
4. Use your surroundings. The furniture around your house, even your walls and surfaces, can be used to create interesting exercises and workouts.
● For example, you could use a chair to perform tricep dips, or perhaps even step ups.
● Use your imagination and you may surprise yourself with the possibilities.
5. Use those empty gaps of time to exercise. Waiting for the kettle to boil, or perhaps during TV commercials, could be the perfect time to do a few exercises.
● These short 30-second workouts can add up to something significant by the end of the day.
6. Try bodyweight exercises. Although we earlier mentioned buying certain pieces of equipment, you don’t really need them if you prefer bodyweight exercises. From squats, to push-ups, to burpees, the possibilities are endless.
7. Load up that fitness DVD. At the back of your cupboard you may find an old celebrity fitness DVD. Perhaps it’s time to give it another shot?
8. Browse YouTube. If you’re struggling for workout ideas or motivation, take a moment or two to browse YouTube. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of personal trainers and fitness experts available with numerous routines you can follow.
9. Keep workouts short. You don’t need to work out for hours to see results. Even 20-30 minutes a day can produce dramatic benefits.
● Ensure that you give 100% when you do exercise. Otherwise, you most likely won’t see the results you would hope for.
● HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) is a good idea as you are working out to set intervals, where you will be giving 100% followed by a short break.
10. Practice yoga. Yoga is good for both your mind and body, so it’s worth adding it to your home workout routine. Luckily, you don’t need to be an expert to experience the benefits!
As you can see, it’s certainly possible to get fit in the comfort of your own home.
A gym membership may seem like a good idea, and they will certainly have more equipment than you have at home, but it’s an expense that you may wish to forego, especially during these uncertain times we’re living in.
Does it seem like you’re constantly on a diet? You’re not alone! You may be surprised how many people feel the same way. These weight loss tips for the constant dieter may be what you’ve needed to finally make the dieting roller coaster stop so you can get off.
Maybe you’ve tried every diet that’s come down the pike. You’ve eaten grapefruit to the point where you can’t stand the sight of them. You’ve given up carbohydrates but still crave sugar, potatoes, and bread. Seeing that it was a losing battle, you gave up on every one.
You may have had some success at losing weight, only to gain it back. Let’s face it, it gets discouraging when you hear that most dieters will regain the weight they’ve lost within three to five years. With those kinds of odds against you, you may wonder why you bother.
The reasons you keep trying to lose weight may vary. You know you need to lose weight to improve your overall health or reduce symptoms of disease. You can’t fit into your clothes or you have a reunion to attend. There could be any number of other reasons.
Regardless of why you want to slim down or how many times you’ve dieted in the past, if you want to succeed at losing weight once and for all, you may be better served by following the example of those who’ve achieved their goal and kept the weight off.
Effective weight loss tactics for those who’ve succeeded include these techniques:
1. Look at weight loss as a life change rather than the means to a particular end. You’re not merely losing weight; you’re making a commitment to change your eating and exercise habits so your health and life can improve.
2. Learn all you can about food, the nutrients needed by the human body, and how to provide your body with the fuel it needs, rather than overfilling it with foods that will make it sluggish and unhealthy.
3. Learn to work through frustrations, loss, and stress without turning to food. In many cases, those successful former constant dieters have turned to exercise as a means to release the stresses that often cause people to resort to their old eating habits.
4. Recognize when your body is truly hungry. Discover how to recognize your body’s signals to stop eating when you’ve had enough, rather than continuing to eat until you’re stuffed.
5. Focus on your health and fitness, instead of dieting to look good. Instead of dieting for a short term goal – getting into a bikini or looking great for a class reunion – be more concerned about how the foods you eat affect your health.
6. Learn to recognize proper portion sizes. Eating correct portion sizes will allow you to eat only the amount of food your body needs.
7. Acknowledge only temporary failure when you blow it. Rather than giving up when you’ve eaten too much, decide to start again the next day.
8. Seek and allow support from others. Getting a mentor or a coach who’s a weight loss success, joining a support group, or including a friend to hold you to your goals will help spur you on to success.
These weight loss tips for constant dieters are given with the hopes that you can finally find the ideas that will allow you to break the dieting cycle. You don’t have to be one of the many dieters who’ve failed.
You can learn how to make changes in your eating habits to make the weight leave for good. Take your time, learn what your body needs, and then provide the nutrients and exercise to become healthy and happy.
You’re going along sticking to your diet when suddenly you hit a bump in the road. Maybe you skip breakfast and wind up eating a double bacon cheeseburger for lunch because you’re so hungry. Maybe you enjoy healthy dinners, but you snack on potato chips afterwards because your stomach is rumbling.
Managing your weight is easier when you can control your appetite. Even if you’re a healthy size now, your body will slow down as you grow older. That means you’re liable to gain excess pounds just by eating the same amount as usual.
Remember that hunger starts in your brain and so does the solution.
Try these tips for training yourself to eat less.
Changing What You Eat:
1. Consume more fiber. Foods rich in fiber fill you up faster partly because they tend to be bulky and take longer to chew. As a bonus, they’re often highly nutritious and reduce your risk for many serious health conditions. Good choices include most vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.
2. Increase your protein. Protein also discourages hunger, and it helps you conserve muscle mass. Muscles burn more calories than fat. Spread your protein out in each meal and snack so your body can use it effectively. Choose lean sources like low-fat Greek yogurt and most seafood.
3. Drink water. Sometimes we confuse thirst with hunger. Drinking a glass or two of water before meals may help you to reduce your portion sizes.
4. Choose solid calories. Fancy coffee drinks and cocktails make it easy to down 600 calories or more before your brain knows what happened. Food you chew gives your brain more time to feel full.
5. Serve soup. However, the liquid in soup is a different matter, because the high water content suppresses your appetite. Settle down with a bowl of minestrone on a cold winter day.
6. Avoid artificial sweeteners. Using zero-calorie sweeteners can backfire. Scientists believe they prime your brain to want to eat more because they’re hundreds of times sweeter than sugar.
Changing How You Eat:
1. Act mindfully. Slow down and savor your food. You’ll digest it more completely, and you’ll probably eat less.
2. Buy smaller plates. Several studies confirm that food looks and feels more abundant when you place it on a smaller serving piece. It’s a simple way to have your cake and eat lighter too.
3. Sleep well. One of the reasons why a lack of sleep can cause you to gain weight is because you’re disrupting the hormones that regulate hunger. Get enough sleep. Ensure that you’re sleeping well, too. Go to bed and get up at the same time each day. Keep your bedroom as dark and quiet as possible.
4. Exercise regularly. Physical activity can help regulate your appetite in addition to burning calories and relieving stress. It’s a powerful combination for anyone who wants to make staying fit more pleasant.
5. Whittle your waist. The fat that accumulates around the midsection is especially harmful, raising the risk for heart conditions, diabetes, and certain cancers. There is also some evidence that it stimulates hunger hormones and the accumulation of fat. Focus some of your activities on waist-trimming exercises.
6. Seek support. The most effective fitness plans incorporate social support. Let your family and friends know that you want to eat less and tell them how they can help you. For example, find some lunch companions whose eating habits will reinforce your healthy intentions.
It is possible to eat less and still enjoy delicious food. Small changes in the way you eat add up to a big difference. Find the habits that work for you to satisfy your hunger with fewer calories. Your brain and body will adjust to and benefit from these healthy changes.
When we have a long-term goal we are working towards, it’s easy to be so focused on it that we start to believe we won’t be happy until we reach it. It’s important to have long-term goals, but not at the expense of your daily life. Staying in a place of gratitude for what you already have and what you’ve already achieved in your life can be a huge benefit in reaching your goals.
Gratitude Makes You Happier
Neurologists have learned that feelings of gratitude actually change the way your brain works. When you are consciously aware of all the wonderful things in your life, you are happier and more content. When you are happy and feeling good about your life, it’s easier to believe that more good things await you down the road.
Gratitude Lowers Stress
A life filled with the struggle to always be better will lead to a life of stress. Yes, you want to reach your goals. You want to unlock all the potential that’s inside you. But finding a way to balance this desire with gratitude for what you’ve already accomplished and what you have in your life today is also important. When constantly pushing yourself forward, it’s easy to believe you aren’t good enough today. Focusing on what you have to be grateful for today lowers your stress level and helps you enjoy the journey to your ultimate goal.
Gratitude Makes You More Optimistic
Believing the grass is always greener on the other side is a sure way to ensure your dissatisfaction with life. It makes you feel like you may never get the life you want. This pessimism just makes everything in life harder. You may even just give up on your dreams because you don’t believe you can attain them. Keeping a grateful mindset offers you a way to enjoy life now and look forward to the future, once your goals have been realized.
Obtaining a grateful spirit doesn’t take a lot of time and effort, but it makes a huge difference in your life. Start by keeping a small notebook with you or using an app on your phone to note the little things that happen throughout your day that you are grateful for. Some people prefer to keep a gratitude journal by their bed and add a short list of things that they are grateful for that day. Give it a try if you feel you’ve been too focused on a goal and it’s making you unappreciative for what you already have.
