Fatso to Muscles

Summer is getting closer and closer, pretty soon, the beaches will be packed with people from all over. If you decide to hit the beaches this summer, will you be ready to show off your body from all the hard work you had started at the beginning of the year or did you slack off sometime in the middle? Or did you even started at all? Well, it’s not too late to begin, in fact, it’s really never too late. So get off your computer or put down that remote, it’s time to get in shape for the Summer!

So you’ve started to exercise again at the beginning of this year but you got side tracked and never got back to it. Or, you never started because you don’t believe in resolutions. What ever the case is you want to get back in shape or just get in shape for that matter.

It’s not too late to get that beach body you’ve wanted. All you have to do is to commit to exercise and eating healthy. Simple right? But yet so many people have trouble with losing weight.

Exercise an average of 4 times a week starting with minimal effort and increase the resistance and duration. In other words: increase weight and intensity of exercise, and increase sets or reps and time of cardiovascular exercises.

Increasing resistance and duration will help burn more calories over the course of the day thus eventually lose weight.

Eat healthier for at least 6 days a week and give yourself an off day. Eating healthy will definitely help you shed those pounds because most foods that are healthy doesn’t have too many calories in them compared to something that isn’t. Fruits, vegetables, lean meats: chicken and fish, and unrefined carbohydrates: brown rice, wild rice, and wheat bread.

Off days are giving yourself an opportunity to eat what ever you want once a week. Because we are human, our urges for sweets, fats, or basically junk food are always in us, there is no point to deprive yourself of this urge, so instead, consider it a reward day, only if you followed your own rules for the week.

Overall, you have to have a calorie deficit in order for you to lose weight. So the time is now, and not tomorrow or the next day, because tomorrow or the next day will never come. Summer is approaching fast, so takes what I said into consideration and apply it to what you are doing or not doing.

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This may seem to be common sense, but sometimes we get so wrapped up in our exercise routines that we forget to slow down a little or just stop and rest. It is true that once we build a routine, it is hard for us to stop, even when we are about to get injured. So stop and rest when you need to and continue when ready.

It is only natural that some of us get into the routine of things and forget that we have physical limits; because some of us built this habit and made it into a routine, we get wrapped up in our own world that accidents may occur more often than not.

It’s also that our mindset, willingness, or determination, call it what you will, is limitless, so we tend to push our selves harder and harder until our bodies are the ones that give.

I have had many injuries, not because I wasn’t aware, because I was so into the rhythm of my work out I didn’t care if I got injuries or not, I wanted to finish it because if I didn’t I felt like I would have failed.

I use to think this way, maybe because I was young and immature, or maybe because I was a fool, either way, it was dangerous and I had injured myself many times and had suffered the consequence.

I have had sprained ankles, pulled muscles, and almost a dislocated left shoulder. It’s not as bad as some other people I know that put themselves through hell to achieve their goals, but it’s pretty bad because it had set me back and I had to wait for my body to naturally heal it self, and that my friends, that a long time.

When my shoulder was injured, I had to wait for my body to heal it self for a little over 10 months. I was pushing myself to the limit, quite possibly, and that limit had been reached and my body gave in.

So never again shall I push myself to the maximum limit if I know, particularly, when the little man, some call it your subconscious, tells you to stop, you should listen to it and rest. Because if you get injured, all that hard work at the gym or track for months would go to waste in a matter ignorance.

If you know that you’ve pushed yourself to the max and a little more, you should stop and rest for a bit, then proceed when you feel that you can go again. Your body will tell you if you can go or not, otherwise you may get injured because our bodies have limits.

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When I turn on the television these days, I see that there are more and more weight lose products. I don’t watch T.V. that much anymore, but when I do, there seems to be a special about the new weight loss product, and it seems to be very common now. But one thing is for sure, I am tired consumers and companies blaming each other about how their product don’t work and how consumers fail to follow everything.

Since Summer is approaching, there are many advertisements about weight loss book, six-pack equipment, and fat burning pills. I’m guilty of buying more than a few of those products in the past, but that was when I didn’t know anything about the science of fitness and nutrition.

And they exist because we buy into the idea that some book, machine, or pill is the easiest and fastest way the lose weight. We are so desperate to look like those models they have on the infomercial, that we will practically believe almost everything those companies are saying that we buy into their products.

I am not here to say that all products sold on the media is useless, but it is only some of them. Most people that watch those weight loss products miss the whole point of the product. Which is they don’t follow the guide lines that the weight loss product had provided for you.

Most consumers that do buy into those products fail because they fail to follow the diet part of the plan, which is the most important part, and discredit the companies. Look, the companies have some blame to it, but mainly it was yours. Because you fail to follow everything the product said to do.

The reason for this is because the products being sold on television emphases too much on their product and not on the diet part. They only speak a little about the diet part of the product and fail to emphasizes the diet part to be the most important part. It is also in the companies best interest to sell their product and NOT use words like “diet” too much because they know that most people are don’t want to go on diets because going on a diet means sacrificing unhealthy foods that we all love.

There is a strict diet that comes with almost all weight loss products and that is: eat healthy or eat right. Now what does that mean to most of us? Well, if you understood the science of nutrition, what that means is eat foods that have the most nutritional value for us but have the fewest amount of calories.

Losing weight is not easy and fast, but if you know the science behind weight loss, then it could be easier and faster than if you didn’t. Here’s the truth to losing weight…you ready? You have to burn more calories than you consume or have a calorie deficit. That’s it! Plan and simple right?

Well, if it’s so easy then why do most people have a hard time doing it or know about this? Well, it’s the simple fact that we’re lazy. Because to have a calorie deficit, we have to exercise right and eat right, or in other words…hard work and sacrifices.

So you see…it’s not the media fault that most of those product fail, it’s your fault that you’ve failed to realize that it takes hard work and a little dedication in-order to lose weight.

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There are so many gyms, fitness facilities, and health clubs out there that it is almost comparable to the amount of fast food restaurants there are. Okay, so it’s not that many, but there are quite a few out there to choose from. So you’ve already made the choice to join a health club rather than working out at home. Now the questions are which club, out of the many, would benefit you the most in terms of location, convenience, fees, crowd, cleanliness, size, and equipment wise?

I live in a large metropolitan area where there are quite a few or rather many health clubs within a 5 mile radius from where I live. And with so many clubs out there within that distance, it would be hard to choose which one is the best for you. So I’ve came up with a few things you should consider when choosing a health club to join:

Location

The location is very important. Because the location of where the health club is located can be convenient for you drive to or even walk to from work or from your home. And who wants to go far just to exercise at a health club? I sure don’t, unless they’re paying me to use the their facility and also the cost of gas. And speaking of gas, since gas prices aren’t as high as last year, that doesn’t mean you should go the distance.

I am lucky to live in the county of Los Angeles where there are many health clubs to choose from, and the location to each of them are close by. So going the distance would take time, and you know the saying,”Time is money.” Which brings us to the next thing to consider.

Fees

The amount of money you have to pay is also important when considering a health club to join. Since there are many health clubs especially in big cities, the price of membership won’t be as much.

You should visit the many that are near your area and negotiate the price with them. You can find coupons and discounts on the Internet. Or just wait for their next promotional deal so then you can save. And some promotions are reduction of a joining fee.

One thing you have to watch out for is to make sure you read and understand what the contract says because you could be signing for 3 years of payments. And if you’re in the Military, then you can diffidently get discounts from health clubs.

Some health clubs, usually the non-profit ones, can work with you if your income status is below a number or, in other words, have low-income. And another reason why non-profit health facilities are respected, because they help out the community around them. Also, from my experience, staff and faculty alike seem to be more nicer and down to earth than the profit ones. Because let’s face it, profit health clubs exist because they make profit.

Crowd

Unless you are the very few that either work 3rd shift and have the mornings off, own a business but don’t have to be there most of the time, or don’t have to work much or at all like the rich and famous, then you need not to read more on this part.

Most of us follow a certain routine, and that routine almost everybody in the world follows: go to work and wait in traffic, come home from work and wait in traffic, get some dinner at a restaurant and wait in line, so by the end of the working day, no one wants to wait any more, especially to wait for an equipment behind the 3 other people waiting for the same one.

Waiting in line sucks! That is why you should ask staff when you do go visit anyone of the health clubs around your area when are the busiest times, and also, you might want to actually visit the peak hours to see if it’s decent enough for you to get a membership there.

You also have to see if parking is decent enough during the peak times, because you don’t want to wait for a parking spot and then wait again for an equipment to open up. So consider that more people means waiting in line for parking, equipment, and maybe even a line to the toilet.

Cleanliness

This one is not as important as the others but it would be a factor when considering to join a health club. It is, however, still important to consider cleanliness when choosing a health club because dirty means unsanitary, and unsanitary would cause disease. Plus, who want to use a dirty facility, especially if you were to pay for the membership, why would you tolerate a dirty facility? I sure wouldn’t.

However, I have in the past have paid for a membership to a very dirty facility, which will be un-named. The reason why is I couldn’t drive nor work at the time so I had to go with what was most convenient and available at the time. It was horrible; particularly the bathroom/lockers had mold and sometimes feces would be smeared in the bath walls.

Size

The size of the fitness facility may be the least import; however, I would still consider the size of the club a factor because usually the bigger the club, the more people would go, and the smaller the club, the least people would go.

But it also depends of the location. If its the only club in town and it’s also very small then there would be a lot of people there. And another thing to consider about the size of the club is: the bigger the club, the more equipment is would have, and so the smaller the club, the less equipment is would have. And that brings me to equipments and machines.

Equipments

Most people want to use state of the art equipment that came out a few months ago. Because who wants to use machines and equipments that had been hand-me-downs since Arnold was in the scene?  No one, or no one that I know of.

Sure I could understand that if you had no choice in the matter or some old equipment wasn’t a concern for you then go ahead. But since memberships come with paying a monthly fee, why not choose a club that have the most equipment?

And old exercise machines have been used so many times it is dangerous to use it further. Plus, it only makes sense to work on a fairly new machine than an old one, because the science of engineering exercise equipment and machines are way advanced than 10 or even 5 years ago so with new machines, it is more safer.

So you see, when choosing a heath club, there are so many things to factor in. There are, however, many more factors to also consider when choosing a health club but these are the ones that are the most important when seeking a club in my view. You have to research about the health clubs that are around your neighborhood and see what fits you. So as long as you have these few things on your list when making a purchase, you can’t go wrong.

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We exercise so we could look good and feel, and when we exercise, we want to know that we are improving on health, fitness, and looks. But we sometimes lose our motivation along the way to continue to exercising; we want to see improvements, because without improvements, there would be no point to exercise or to continue to exercise. So here are a few ways to keep track of progress in order to keep yourself motivated.

Ask people about their opinion

Asking people you know about how you look today to how you look in a few months is a good way to track progress; ask your friends, family, and associates about how you look today compared to how you would look in a few months.

Doing this is a good way to keep motivated because hearing people speak about the improvements you’ve made in your body transformation will boost your ego and give you more motivation to continue on.

And sometimes, you don’t even need to ask, because when you lost weight people around you will start to notice and will compliment you. That is what happened to me when I lost 40lbs. It took me a few months to do so and when I did, people around me started to notice and complementing me on how great I looked. For me, those complements on my physical transformation helped me continue on my journey.

Measure yourself

Use a tape measure to measure the circumference of your waist, hips, neck, arms, thighs, or neck. For men, the problem area is the waist. Men tend to carry fat in that area more so than women do. For women, the problem areas are the hips and thighs, and for some the waist but not as common as men, so women need to measure the those areas to track their progress.

Tracking your measurements on paper help with seeing the difference in numbers on where your measurements are and where they would be. Because comparing the difference is a big plus to keep yourself motivated, and it reminds you of the progress you’ve made.

I just started to do this. I would measure myself every week on Sundays and keep a record on where I was and where I am now. This helps me stay motivated because I can see the difference in numbers on where I was formerly to where I am.

Keep track of weight

Using a weight scale to measure your weight. Keep it logged on paper every week or every other week. Measure yourself in the morning and keep an account for that number, and then do it again the next week and so on. Make sure to use only the scale that you first started with because one scale might be calibrated differently than the next.

There are so many kinds of weight scales out there and I think you should get a decently priced one because the lower priced ones aren’t as built as good as the higher priced one. And since you’ll be using it often, you want one that is of great quality. If you don’t already own a weight scale, then you should get one.

I weight myself every Sunday morning to see whether or not I should be changing up my routine on diet and exercise. If I see that there is no difference in weight or that I’ve increased in weight, then I increase my exercise intensity and decrease my calorie consumption the new week that follows. But if I do see a difference in weight, this is of course losing weight and not gaining weight, then I would maintain what I’ve been doing.

Take pictures and/or videos

Taking picture or video is another great way to track you progress. Take a picture or a video of yourself every week to see if you’ve physically improved or not. This is the best way to keep yourself motivated is by seeing the difference in photos and videos of yourself.

Because when you actually see a side by side comparison of a 3 months old photo to a present photo of you, you’ll be amazed of the difference that the camera captured of you when you had some weight on and after with some weight off.

I take a still image of myself every week nights on Sundays. I keep it on my computer so this way, I can have photos of before and compare them to photos that were recently taken. This will also help you stay motivated in the process.

And those are some things that can help us or you because starting an exercise is one thing that most people have a hard time with, but continuing to exercise is another thing that most people have a hard time with. And having motivation will help us get pass this barrier, because if there was no motivation to push us, then it would be harder to accomplish or even finish our objectives. That is why we need to hear and see progress. Doing the recommended things I’ve mentioned will help us reach our goal. And it’s not just one thing but many things or a combination of things you need to do in order to know that you are progressing. This had helped me stay motivated and I hope this will also help you.

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