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!

Make Losing Weight Fun With These Simple Activities is a post from: Losing weight with P90X

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!

Effective Weight Loss For Teenage Girls is a post from: Losing weight with P90X