Make Losing Weight Fun With These Simple Activities
Do you groan when you think of trying to lose weight and exercise? Most of us do! Unfortunately, for so many, the very idea of losing weight breeds negative thoughts and feelings. You might even think it’s an impossible challenge.
After all, who wants to think of climbing on those machines in the gym for 30 minutes to take off the pounds? Or even worse, doing sit-ups at home. Yuck!
If losing weight has become a drag, you need to rethink your strategy.
You’ll be glad to discover that you don’t need to go to the gym to lose weight and get the body you want!
Here are five simple activities that will help you get healthy while having a blast:
1. Play group sports. One great idea for losing weight the fun way is to play group sports. You can even find the recreation center in your area has the equipment you need for free.
* Start playing soccer, softball, volleyball, or basketball. With these activities, you’ll be burning off the calories while enjoying yourself at the same time!
2. Go for a walk with your friends. One sure way to become active and get better health is walking with friends or family members. Meet during the week to take a brisk walk together, either in the morning before your day begins, during lunch, or in the evening after work.
* Schedule your walk into your day as social time. While you’re walking, take time to catch up and chat with each other. This way it feels more like a social experience instead of exercise.
3. Dance. Ballroom Dancing is another great way to burn off tons of calories, while having fun at the same time. Once you get your heart pumping, you’ll enjoy an incredible workout!
* Take a dance class.
* Go out to a nightclub where you can dance the night away.
* Get some dance videos so you can dance at home.
4. Beautify your yard or cultivate a garden. Gardening and yard work are both activities that burn calories so you can lose some weight. Planting flowers or vegetables, pulling weeds, raking, hauling dirt, and doing other gardening chores can really help you get in shape.
* When you’re squatting, bending, and yanking out those weeds, you’ll be working muscles you didn’t even know you had!
5. Play with your family. Even something as simple as playtime outdoors with the family can help you lose some pounds and stay healthy. Having fun with family can give you some much needed activity like running, Frisbee, playing tag, and other games.
You can visit state parks and go hiking, or find trails in your area.
* Climb a tree in your backyard.
You can go to the water, and go swimming or water skiing.
The possibilities are endless! You’ll have fun spending quality time with your family, and teaching your children a healthy lifestyle as well.
Although these activities are fun, regular activity and eating a healthy diet go hand in hand when you want to lose weight. You can’t count one weekend of gardening as your exercise for the week. Vary your activities for more fun, and do something to get moving every day.
If you want to reach your weight loss goal, you’ll need to be consistent.
As you can see, exercising and getting in shape don’t have to be boring or unpleasant. If you want to lose weight and improve your health, there are plenty of easy activities to do!
Amber – My Fitness Motivation
It’s my oldest daughter’s 25th birthday today. It’s hard to believe that this much time has passed by since Amber’s first day. It was one of the scariest days of my life.
The Fam - Christmas '08
She was born 3 1/2 months premature and weighed in at 1 lb. 13 oz. Eventually she would get down to 1 lb. 8 oz. The doctors gave her a 5% chance of living and said if she did manage to live she would most likely not be much more than a vegetable.
Kim and I had been married just shy of 2 years. She was 21, I was 23, both super young and naive and didn’t really know what was going on. We didn’t have any family in town, my mom and sisters had left the previous day for California.
We were camping up in the mountains when Kim went into labor. She wasn’t really even showing yet. We made the drive down as fast as we could and got to the hospital. Kim was hemorrhaging badly. They injected steroids into the uterus to get the baby’s lungs to stiffen so they wouldn’t collapse and seal with her first breath.
The goal was to wait at least 24 hours for the steroids to work. 12 hours later Kim’s blood pressure got so low that we almost lost her and at that point we decided that we’d take our chances and let Amber be delivered right then.
So, at one minute past midnight on July 8th, 2004 Amber Pannell made her way into this world. The doctors didn’t expect her to make it through the night. The doctors didn’t know what a tenacious spirit this one would have.
It’s the most difficult thing in the world to watch your baby daughter, the size of a Barbie doll struggle for life. To this day, I’ve never experienced anything harder than to have to sit and watch an undersized infant fight to breath. It was so hard not being able to do anything to make her more comfortable and ease the pain she was in.
I’ve also never seen anyone more determined to live and fight as hard as she did. I am continually in awe of her. Today she is 25. She functions at around a 5 year old’s level. She has a great sense of humor and is usually a kick to be around.
She had a tough time watching each of her 3 brothers and 1 sister pass her by. That was always traumatic for her. She’s aware enough to know she has a problem and sometimes that’s more than she can handle.
In spite of her hardships, she beat the odds. She was oblivious to those odds we received the day she was born. She chose to fight, she chose to work, she chose to overcome. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t feel completely inadequate to be her father.
Today, I’m overweight by over 50 pounds. I know what the odds are for someone my size to overcome their weaknesses and get back into shape, but as I sit here writing, remembering the day that Amber came into our lives, I can’t help but feel that I owe her this at the very least.
I want to stick around a good long while to make sure that she’s well taken care of. I can’t sit back any longer and procrastinate the day I get my butt off the couch for good and get back into great shape.
Kim and I have 5 amazing kids, that we couldn’t be more pleased with. They are our reason for living. I want desperately to lose this weight and get back into shape. I owe it to my kids, I owe it to my wife and I owe it to myself to become healthy again.
Today is a milestone in my oldest daughter’s life, I think I’ll make it a milestone for me as well. I will no longer be the overweight guy that needs to make a lifestyle change. I’m now the guy making the lifestyle change and I will never look back again.
Thank you Amber for being such a great example to me of what it means to never give up, no matter what the odds. Amber, you’re my inspiration, you’re my motivation, you’re my reason for succeeding. I love you!
P90X Workout Reviews – Fatboy Fitness – 7/6/09
©Tim Pannell Photography
Well, I made it through the 4th of July weekend and I porked out pretty well over the it, and yet…da…..dada…..daaaa! I’ve still lost weight! I’m now down to 268 and it feels like my body has finally turned the corner.
My body is actually looking for reasons to let go of it’s excess weight. In the past I’ve experienced the opposite feeling. No matter how hard or often I worked out my body would still put on weight.
I think that in my situation, I’ve been overweight for so long that it just took some time for it to get turned around. I’m just glad I hung in there long enough with the P90X workouts to start seeing the results.
Initially, I only wanted to lose 1 – 2 pounds a week and that is still my goal. This last week I lost a total of 4 pounds. I’m just going to put my head down and keep bulling forward.
I’m eating better foods. I eat more often during the day and am getting used to smaller portions. I am riding the recumbent bike about 45 minutes to an hour each day and doing 1 round of P90X everyday.
My favorite P90X to date is P90X shoulders and arms, followed by P90X chest and back. I know now if I stick with it I will be able to reach my ultimate goal of 210 within several months.
I also know that I’ll be able to keep the weight off. I have become quite used to the P90X workouts and on the rare days that I don’t get one in, I truly miss it. I love the buzz I get from pushing my body to the point where it wants to give up and I manage to go even further.
I’ve come a long way in just 2 months and look forward to seeing how much more progress I can make in the next 2 months.
Today, I get to start playing racquetball again, I can’t wait. I absolutely love that sport and have been missing it badly ever since my partner tore up his knee. He finally got cleared by his doctor to start playing again.
For anyone out there that is more than 30 pounds overweight, please read this: Don’t get discouraged if you actually start gaining weight when you start using the P90X workouts. I gained 8 pounds over the first several weeks and it wasn’t until about the 5th or 6th week that I actually started to lose weight on the scale.
Since that point I’ve lost about 15 pounds. In the last 2 weeks alone I’m averaging about 4 -5 pounds of fat loss each week. It’s worth hanging in there long enough to see those results. For the first time in a long time I can actually believe that I’m going to get back into great shape.
Gotta go, it’s time for my workout. Have an amazing day everybody!
Supermodel Diet Tips From Naomi Campbell
There are many supermodel dietsout there to try, and we have complied the best ones into this article. Supermodels tend to be linked with bad press concerning crash dieting and anorexia. However there are some sensible diets out there used by many models in order to keep them looking great for the catwalk in a healthy and rational way. These are the ones we will present here. So rest assured you won’t get an eating disorder from trying these. You won’t make yourself ill, or gain more weight when you come back off the diet. These tips are more to do with healthy lifestyles.
Halle Berry is known to be on the ‘little and often’ diet. This consists of swapping the ingestion of three large meals each day for five or six small ones. This is scientifically proven to raise metabolism and insulin levels which control appetite in a healthy yet effective way. Eating regularly reduces your levels of hunger, this means that you are not craving food like you would on some diets. You burn food faster and fat too and you can eat a wide variety of food.
Naomi Campbell is rumoured to stick to a slightly higher protein intake that the recommended daily allowance. This helps you to feel full after eating. However it is not a good idea to eat a lot of protein as in large amounts you will gain weight – you need to get the right balance. She no longer consumes alcohol or drugs due to the bad effects it has on her image, body and weight.
Some celebrities that allegedly to stick to supermodel diet tips are the likes of Jessica Alba, Jennifer Lopez and Reese Witherspoon. Each is known for their cardio workout and/or weight resistance regimes which leave them both in great shape and physically fit.
This article has been brought to you by subliminal mesaging retailer Real Subliminal. To gain an advantage with your diet why not try the diet motivation subliminal messaging CD. This strengthens willpower, motivation and determination and combined with supermodel diet tips could help you on your way to the supermodel body you’ve always dreamed of.
P90X Reviews – Believe the Hype!
© Tim Pannell Photography
I’ve been using P90x workouts for about 2 months now. I’ve lost a total of 5 pounds, and dropped 8 % body fat. I started out at 275 pounds.
For those of you who are mathematically challenged, That means that I now weigh 270 pounds and I’ve gone from carrying around 110 pounds of body fat to only lugging 81 pounds.
That is significant! That also means that my my lean body mass has gone from 165 lbs. of lean muscle to 189 lbs. of lean muscle. Holy Crap! All in just 2 months.
It gets better. I have almost no cartilage in my left knee from a skiing mishap when I was 18. As I’ve gotten heavier and heavier over the years the pain and swelling in that knee got more and more difficult to put up with.
When I first started with the P90X DVD‘s I’m ashamed to admit that I couldn’t even do a simple jumping jack because of the sharp pain in that joint. Here I am 2 months later and I can do those jumping jacks without any pain whatsoever.
To me, that’s a big deal. I have more energy, more strength. My arms are a full inch bigger than they were when I started. That’s what I call gaining muscle and losing fat.
Muscle burns more calories than fat, so I’m actually starting to see the weight fall off on the scale in the morning. I actually gained about 8 pounds during the first 3 weeks of the program and it was a bit frustrating.
I didn’t have Jillian, the fitness Nazi screaming at me for cheating or being stupid or whatever, but I could still hear her in my head yelling at me for not dropping the weight fast enough.
My goal however, isn’t to drop the weight so fast that I can make a GUCCi purse out of my leftover skin…….ewwww, that was gross…..sorry. I don’t want to just get skinny. I want to be fit. I want muscle, and I want a lot of it. I want to take my time and methodically go about my business.
I’m doing P90X training at least 5 days a week. I’m riding my recumbent bike for 1/2 to 1 hour a day and next week I will start playing racquetball again. Wish me luck.
To answer anyone’s questions – “Does P90X really work?” and “Should I give Tony Horton’s P90X a try?” , let me just say this…..YES!!!!!!!!
It’s a great overall fitness workout. It’s frankly, the best fitness training DVD series I’ve ever seen. Give the 90 day money back guarantee a try. If you do it and keep at it you’ll be amazed at how much progress you can make to reach your overall fitness goals.
Have a blast sweating your butt off!
Effective Weight Loss For Teenage Girls
Let me guess…..you’re a teenage girl and you’re always wrestling with your weight and your attitude about it. You probably get all kinds of unsolicited advice from friends, family and even complete strangers about effective weight loss for teenage girls.
I imagine you’ve received a lot of conflicting advice as well……“eat more”, “eat less”, “try the Atkins diet”, “whatever you do, don’t try the Atkins diet”, “eat more often”, “lift light weights”, “lift heavy weights”. I could go on and on. The teen obesity epidemic isn’t the only one, talking about it is now an epidemic as well.
That’s annoying but not nearly as annoying as the crap the people that aren’t your friends say. The snickers..not the candy bar…the put downs, the snide comments. Sometimes it seems like it would be fun to take out a little revenge on those tools. Don’t bother, they’re not worth the time or energy.
Has it got to the point where you just don’t want to try any more or do you still want to try, but don’t know if you can handle another failed attempt?
Let’s face it, not everyone is going to end up looking like a fitness model, nor do they have to. That shouldn’t stop you however, from being the best you, the healthiest you possible. Aim for somewhere in between Oprah and Jennifer Nicole Lee.
For starters, accept yourself, physical flaws and all. There’s no reason to reject the present tense you, it won’t help you in the long run at all. Quit looking for quick fixes that will end your suffering and struggles overnight. They will only let you down. There is no real easy weight loss for teens program out there.
Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something.
Don’t starve yourself, it causes your body to burn muscle for fuel and you will end up gaining weight because you will have trained your body to get by on fewer and fewer calories. This is one of the worst choices you can make if you’re heavy.
Take a long term approach to educating yourself and finding out what works for you. We are all a little bit different no matter how badly people try to pigeonhole us. No two people respond the same way to the same exercise or the same diet. Do a little research, decide what sounds right and try it. Check with your doctor, ( I have to say that to cover my butt ).
If there are “miracle pills” out there tempting you, don’t be fooled. Old school common sense is not so common at the present time. Choose good, whole grain foods, avoid processed garbage as much as possible. Whole fruits and vegetables will do more for you than any magic berry formula from some special tree at the feet of the Andes Mountains.
Take it easy on the meat, don’t avoid it altogether, just make sure that whatever meat you eat is exceptionally lean and not a gigantic American chain restaurant sized portion.
If you only listen to one thing I say, stop drinking soda! No regular soda, no diet soda, not any soda…….period. It is garbage and has no value and is one of the main contributors to obesity today. Drink lots and lots and lots of water. Shoot for about 8-10 glasses full each day.
You shouldn’t just be aiming to be skinny, you’re better off aiming to be fit. That’s going to require exercise, no way around it. If that scares you off, you need to get over it. Get up, get out, get moving, even if all you do is walk, it’s better than sitting around watching tv or getting lost on Facebook.
One of the best ways to rev up your metabolism is to lift weights. Your body loves muscle and as you gain lean muscle your metabolism will speed up and you will burn more calories. Start out lifting weights and see how quickly you can transform yourself.
If you do too much cardio and aerobics to start out with your training you’ll actually burn up more muscle and it could actually lead to weight gain, so start gradually with the weight training and add the cardio and aerobic training a bit later.
Take a good long look at where you want to be in 3 months, 6 months, a year. What can you do today to get closer to that goal. It’s worth the effort, start today and keep moving forward, don’t let anyone convince you to stop.
So go ahead and actually get your revenge. Get fit, get healthy, feel great, discover your true self! Do this for yourself, not your friends, not your folks, not your boyfriend, Do it for you!
Home Fitness Exercise: How To Lose Weight Without Starving Yourself
Studies show that more and more women suffer from eating disorders these days. Experts believe that the rise in cases of eating disorders among women can be traced to media influence. Being thin is considered a standard for beauty and women are supposed to look at thin as those models strutting on the runaway to be considered as stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately, the whole idea of being thin and beautiful has sent thousands of women all over the country on a starvation diet. This really sad considering the fact that simple home fitness exercise programs and balanced diet are enough to keep a woman’s weight in check.
If you are one of those women who are desperately trying to lose weight, forget about starving yourself to lose a few pounds. Instead of going into that infamous starvation diet, try getting into a home fitness exercise program and stick with that program. To get you started in the right direction, here are some tips for you.
Drawing Up Your Home Fitness Exercise Program
You need to be scientific in your approach to a home fitness exercise program. You cannot just do some exercise at random. Although most types of home fitness exercises are good for the body, not all of them can really give you that nice shapely look. To get that nice shapely look, you need to target areas in your body when you do some exercise. This means that you need to know which parts of your body desperate need to shed off a few extra pounds and concentrate in that area. For instance, if you are packing a lot of extra weight around your tummy and hips, you need to come up with a home fitness exercise program that targets those areas.
Stick To Your Program
You need to stick your home fitness exercise program if you want to see some results. No, you cannot stop after doing exercises for a couple of weeks. Giving up too soon will only make matters worst for you. To help you stick to your exercise program, find an exercise buddy who can workout with you. Your spouse or you best friend will fit into this category. Working out with someone can be a lot of fun and you get to do some socializing while you try to shed off a few pounds. Just make sure that that person is also committed to the home fitness exercise program that you have or else that person will be the first to quite when the going gets rough.
Go here for more about home gym ideas and fitness training tips.
Beware of the Atkins Diet!
The short name for the Atkins nutritional approach is the Atkins diet, which was the brainchild of the doctor named Robert Atkins. He had gained a lot of weight in medical school. He read concerning this diet in the medical journal and decided to improve it and release it under his name. For all kinds of additional information about Atkins you can click over to Fat Loss for Idiots.
Atkins, in his Atkins Diet, believed prevailing theories about weight gain were all wrong. First, he dismissed the idea that saturated fats were bad. Instead it was carbohydrates that led to the weight problems Americans have. Atkins held that our obsession with fat actually worsened the problem. He pointed to all the low-fat foods that were high in carbohydrates. That meant people on a diet regularly ate foods that were of poorer quality than they usually ate.
The Atkins diet shifts the focus. By cutting out carbohydrates people would burn stored body fats. Lose the fat lose the weight. It’s not just a matter of eating less. Dr. Atkins held that your diet could actually help you burn calories. The Atkins diet allegedly burned an extra 950 calories daily. But the claims were not true. For some good information about burning calories visit Fat Loss for Idiots.
Dr. Atkins also touted the positive influence this Atkins diet could have on people with type 2 diabetes. As contrasting to type 1 diabetes, type 2 is repeatedly closely associated with diet and people who weigh too much. So in general any diet that helps decrease weight will help address type 2 diabetes. Nevertheless the Atkins diet is also low in carbohydrates, which must be avoided with type 2 diabetes anyway of caloric intake, so by means of this feature of the diet Atkins claimed those who suffer type 2 diabetes would no longer need medication such as insulin. The medical world, in general, disagrees with Atkins on this point. They agree lower carbohydrates help with type 2 diabetes, but there is no proof that carbohydrates cause the disease.
What steps does one take to follow the Atkins diet? It follows four phases – induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance. Here is an overview of the most important phase – Induction.
The Induction phase is the most difficult phase of the Atkins diet. Atkins is flexible as to the time period – but recommends two weeks. During this phase carbohydrates are severely limited – only up to 20 grams per day. The goal is to enter a fat burning metabolic phase called ketosis when the body, starved of glucose, will begin converting stored fat into fatty acids needed to power the body. Weight loss during this phase can be extreme – some Atkins followers reported losses of 5-10 pounds a week.
Learning the ideal carbohydrate levels for weight losing and for day to day intake after the weight loss ends are the purposes of the final three phases in the Atkins diet. Millions of people are still losing weight on this diet – but beware the dangers of taking in too much fat. For additional information please visit Fat Loss for Idiots.
Jack LaLanne – Fitness GURU Can Still Kick My Butt
Jack LaLanne – Be Happy!
Do any of you remember Jack LaLane? He’s gotta be about 112 years old by now, but he’s still kicking butt and taking names.
I remember when I was a little kid seeing my mom watch him on tv and do workouts to lose weight. For crying out loud, I think I remember him pulling a semi or something ridiculous.
He was fabulous in his stereotypical 60′s fitness jumpsuit. I am amazed he’s still going strong. It just shows what hard work and a great attitude can accomplish.
I can’t help but compare him to Michael Jackson, with his oxygen chamber, clean air mask to avoid germs at all costs and claims of being able to live to be 150. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bagging on Michael……his life story and struggles with personal demons is truly a tragedy.
I’m just trying to make a point …..taking a passive interest as opposed to an active interest in our own personal health. The old school, tried and true methods of days gone by sometimes outperform the latest, greatest miracle breakthroughs that are on the cutting edge.
Thank God for men and women like Jack LaLanne that are willing to defy the convention of their time and push forward for the benefit of the rest of us.
I’m all for the latest technologies, they’re a blast. I love the latest scientific breakthroughs and the dreams they allow us to have. I just don’t want to be guilty of tossing aside something that’s been proven to work for almost a century just because it’s not “hip” at the moment.
If you’re overweight, obese or even borderline obese and are wanting to burn fat and lose inches while you build muscle, nothing beats old school principles.
There are no quick fixes, it takes hard work and dedication. You have to embrace the right kind of fitness training exercises, but most importantly, you need a little Jack LaLanne attitude in you.
I’ve worked out before with little or no results and it wasn’t until I changed my workout attitude that my fitness level started turning around.
I give credit to P90X training DVD’s for reducing my body fat, but in all fairness I have to give some props to Jack LaLanne and my early childhood memories of him amazing all of us with his feats of strength.
5 Reasons I Love P90X Workouts
P90X Intensity © Tim Pannell Photography
P90X……How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
1 – I love the intensity! No standing around, no sitting down, no walking. Did you ever meet somebody that was extremely fit, ask them what they do to stay in shape and have them say….”walk”? I didn’t think so.
2- I love that the P-90X workout routine shifts and changes everyday for 2 weeks straight. No boredom here. It’s perfect for any of you that have A.D.D.
3 – I am gaining muscle faster with P90X workouts than anything else I’ve tried throughout my life. I’m transforming my body and having a blast doing it.
4 – I have almost no cartilage left in my left knee…(that sounds funny doesn’t it?). It was painful just walking ever since I can remember. After just 2 months with P90X, both my knees are pain free. That’s absolutely a fitness miracle!
5 – I have as much energy throughout the day now as I did when I was a teenager. I get up at 5 am and go to bed after 11 pm and I’m holding my own doing it. You’d think with all the working out, I’d be more tired and sooner. It’s just not the case.
I could go on and on, but I’ll end with this. If you’ve struggled with weight loss for a long time, by long time I mean decades, and no longer believe you can actually get back into shape…..this is the workout for you.
It’s changed my life, literally. I’ve been as heavy as 310 lbs. I’m down to the 260 range now and know that I’ll hit my target weight of 210 in the coming months.
I couldn’t even come close to keeping up with the P90X DVD’s the first few weeks I followed them, but I can now. I felt like there was nothing else I could do. Nothing worked.
I got even more interested once I saw the P90X discount from joining the beachbody club. I just got to the point where I ran out of excuses and I had to do something about my overall health. I ha nothing left to lose, except the weight.
