Tips to Lose Weight and Tone Up in 3 Months

Most people are looking for the magic pill to lose weight fast. You find yourself nearing a deadline - wedding, high school reunion, bathing suit weather - and boom! you realize you have 10-30 pounds to lose in a month! Of course you can go on one of those crash diets, but they aren't called "crash" for nothing. These crash diets might cause you to become more moody in turn "crashing" into everyone else around you.

The focus should be healthy lifestyle, where the benefits just so happen to be weight loss and toning. But where do you start? With all the overwhelming information out there with competing programs, it's enough to keep anyone away from pursuing a life time commitment of health and exercise. Some people are able to decide to start their own program of making little healthy adjustments here and there - taking the stairs, parking farther away from the store, taking a 5 minute walk break every so often. Most people don't know where to start.

The best place to start is with a Personal Trainer. With a little investment on your part, both time and money, an experienced personal trainer will build the best program for you. In choosing a personal trainer, you should look for trainers that have certifications that are both nationally accredited and medically recognized (ACE, ACSM, NASM, NSCA). The trainer should spend some time with you in your initial phone inquiry/consultation and first session gathering and reviewing your health history and goals. Based off that information, the trainer should build a custom program that is both safe and effective for you.

With your commitment being key, you should start to see some results within the first month and some more substantial results within 3 months. Studies have shown that people that work with a personal trainer for 12 weeks or more are 80% more likely in reaching and maintaining healthy habits. Compared to a life time, 12 weeks is not a big commitment. Plus, your trainer will motivate and encourage you and give you suggestions on how to make simple and attainable healthy changes. Have a friend hold you accountable.

Better yet, cut your training cost in half by having a friend train with you!We live in an instant gratification society - who wouldn't want to see results right away? But the perception of success is only short lived, and typically you're right back to where you started, if not worse. Hiring a trainer may seem expensive at first, but the benefits of the results of using a personal trainer will pay itself over and over again.

-Lauren Loper

Too Much Sitting is Hazardous to Your Health (IDEAfit Oct 2009)

For decades, exercise professionals have been emphasizing the need for structured exercise as the guiding tenet of physical activity and exercise program design. It is now clear that too much sitting is hazardous to one's health, regardless of whether one meets the minimum daily exercise guidelines or not.

Change your daily habits at your workplace, home, etc.
Find ways to site less and stand more throughout the day, particularly during sustained periods of sitting, thus incorporating spontaneous physical activity in your day. Reduce your sedentary behavior by incorporating some of the following activities throughout your day:

• Stand up and walk around the office every 30 minutes
  
• Stand up and get some water
• Walk to the farthest bathroom in your facility
• Always stand or walk around while on the phone
• Consider getting a standing workstation for the computer
• Take a 5 minute walk break with every coffee break
• When you email a colleague, walk to their desk to follow up

For the two-hour timeframe spent watching TV and reading, some of these options might work:

• Get up and move during every commercial
• Take a 5 minute walk break every 30 minutes
• Set a stationary piece of cardiovascular exercise equipment near the TV and use it for several minutes every 1/2 hour.
• Stand up and do some easy (not strenuous) lunges or squats at least once every 1/2 hour.
• Stand up and move for the opening segment of each TV show.
• Get up and walk around the room or house after reading a preset number of pages in a book.

The moral of this article: Sit Less and Move more!
-Len Kravitz, PH.D, Program Coordinator of exercise science and researcher at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, IDEA Fitness Association, October 2009 Fitness Journal