Five Wonderful Ways That Exercise Is a Great Weight Loss Motivator
Exercise is not only a great weight loss motivator; it can also be a life changer! Give it a try, and within a few weeks you’ll find that your body is changing for the better. Keep at it, and it won’t be long until people start to notice a change in you; soon you will feel lighter, happier, more confident, and definitely less out of breath when you bend over, run for the bus, or when you zip up your jeans! Motivating yourself to get up and move will take less willpower; but if you still need encouragement, here are five important motivational points that you should keep in mind.
Exercise Increases Your Metabolism! You can tell this immediately for yourself! Your heart beats faster, and your breath comes more quickly. Your cheeks flush and you can certainly feel your metabolism jump into overdrive. But, do you know that after you’ve stopped your exercise your metabolism continues to run faster? Continuing to exercise each day will keep your metabolism turned up; that means feeling more peppy, and you can really imagine a little furnace just burning up all of those calories in your body all through the day and night!
Exercise Increases Endorphins! Endorphins are those excellent little body chemicals that can help to make you feel happy and optimistic! People who do aerobics, running, and other cardiovascular exercise that kicks up their endorphin levels call it an endorphin rush, and many rate that rush to be the thing that helps to keep them motivated and on the move. It’s worth giving it a try!
There are so Many Ways to Exercise! It would be nearly impossible that there is no form of exercise that you would like; and no way to become bored. There are the aforementioned aerobics classes where you can lose pounds and inches and find friends. Yoga classes are popular to tone mind and body; kung fu, karate, and tai chi are also disciplines that could work for you; and we haven’t even mentioned dance! Ballet, belly, folk, jazz and modern; you can do these individually or grab your partner for jitterbugging, tangoing, square dancing, ballroom, boot scooting fun. Or why be so formal? Just get out on that dance floor and groove to whatever music is playing!
Exercise Increases Energy! You might have been wondering how a person, exercises and dances her way through a busy day and manages to get dinner (healthy and low fat, of course) on the table on time? Increased energy is the answer! Not only energy to help you through your busy day, but we are talking increased mental focus, improved self-esteem, and a newer, heightened sense of control also help you in your daily life! It takes energy and stamina to be this happy; it’s being depressed and low that doesn’t take pep, but who wants that?
Exercise Increases your Social Life! There’s nothing like a room of sweating, grunting women for forming friendships! Not only friendship, but a support group with similar interests and goals that can really understand what you’re about because they are about that, too! You could find women with children near your kids’ age, with similar outside interests as yours, such as liking the same kind of films you do, or having the same political philosophy. Instant friends! Instant walking buddies, coffee buddies, instant emergency babysitters!
So, are you ready to give it a try? These wonderful ways to motivate yourself can not only change your dress size, but could motivate you to change so many things in your life for the better!
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Losing Weight? Make it a Family Project
Obesity runs in families, it’s true. So does a life-long love affair with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream! For better or worse, our children learn their eating habits directly from mom and dad. If you have noticed lately that things are getting a little chubby around the house, maybe it’s time for the family to make a project about losing a bit around the middle. It’s time to make dieting fun! Well, OK, dieting isn’t fun, but how about having fun while dieting? That’s a goal that’s worth pursuing.
The first item on the agenda is having everyone in the family on board. Announce the date dieting and getting fit is to begin. Of course, you may have a family member or two that shy away from this little project. They will at least have to eat what the rest of the family eats, and hopefully can be motivated to join the fun.
Perhaps the family should create a name and a theme for this new way of life. How about something like “The Pirate Family Jones Sets Sail for Bikini Island” or “Team Smith Sacks the Calories”?
Some lifestyle changes also have to happen. It must be an absolute rule that no eating of any kind happens away from the table. It is a fact that people who eat at a table and away from TV or other distractions will consume fewer calories.
Speaking of munchies, all those empty-calorie and sugar-laden eats are definitely out of bounds in your house. No sticking them up in high cupboards for the duration; they are gone! There should always be a big, fresh bunch of veggies on hand. Rice cakes, apples, and plain popcorn can help soothe the crunchy yearnings. Fruit, fresh or canned, will help with wanting something sweet. In fact, summer is a really good time to put on a family diet because of the abundance of fresh fruit, which is tasty anytime. Buy and chill a family-size watermelon, cut it up, and have seed-spitting contests. Summer is also a good time because the weather is warm and the sun is up later so all kinds of fun exercising can take place. Can’t bat another ball or sprint another inch? Have mom and dad dig out their goofiest old-fashioned music and have a family sock-hop! A rousing game of take-no-prisoners charades can be a great aerobic exercise!
Now we must discuss the black sheep of this pudgy flock. Nearly every family harbors one of them. We are speaking of the family member who is…skinny. Who knows where they came from and how they got here; they just don’t or can’t gain weight no matter how many chocolates and yummies they eat. These family members can be very helpful during this Family Quest. They can help by not being smug, for one thing. They can help with salad preparation, thinking up new taste treats for the family and dishing out the occasional frozen yogurt or other frozen low calorie treat. They can spritz or drizzle the salad dressing, apportion the chocolate rice cakes with chocolate chips, in short, do the portion control that the rest of the family cannot. The skinny one can also tell jokes and do comical dances to keep the family’s morale up, and to not take it personally when someone throws a slipper at them.
So there you have it. Do your dieting as a Family Quest and it won’t be just deprivation. Have fun with it and encourage everyone else. Perhaps some good new lifestyle changes will become the norm at your house, and your collective waist can feel the difference. The most important thing is you are a family, and that you share life together.
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Important Ways to Motivate your Child to Exercise
Grandparents can remember when children’s TV programming came on television roughly at the time the sun came down during the winter months. There was no such thing as a cartoon or kid’s channel. That meant that if you didn’t want to stay inside (which made it a lot easier for someone to ask if you had homework) you were outside. There were a few precious hours to play a game of ball or freeze tag; you could be on the neighbor’s patio learning the words and creating dance steps from the new Beatle’s song; or you could be practicing skate boarding or your big brother’s five speed bike (with or without his approval).
In other words, kids got a bunch of exercise because there really wasn’t much else to do. The combination of outside stimuli and frenetic childhood energy just naturally had kids whooping and hollering until that first streetlight came on and it was time to come in.
Nobody had to tell us that the outdoors was fun; but for a multitude of reasons modern children haven’t gotten that message. How, then, can today’s parents motivate their children to exercise?
The time to start your children exercising is before they can walk! Put them on your back and show them you enjoy the outdoors; point out birds and cats and other interesting features of the neighborhood. Whistle and hop a little bit (babies like hopping) and give them the fun feeling of a body in motion and the idea that being outside is a fun place to be. When they begin to walk, take them out to practice. If you have a bike, put them on the back for fun rides. As the child gets older, supply them with some fun stuff to do. This doesn’t have to be expensive; a tire hanging from a tree could suffice. Also important is to furnish them with a nice, welcoming lawn, if possible.
Make exercising a fun family activity! Start early by trooping the whole family out for a walk around the block for no reason except it’s nice to walk. Be silly and sing at the top of your voice if you want (soon your children will be mortified if you do so, so take advantage now). Go hiking, swimming, and kicking around whatever nature is near to you.
Speaking of nature, while teaching your kids that the outside is not radioactive is also a good time to teach, or to let them discover, that nature is to be protected and respected.
Encourage any aspect of the outdoors they might be interested in, be it fuzzy caterpillars, birds, or animal tracks. This will also encourage them to be out and active.
Sports are another fine way to encourage exercise. Have family or neighborhood softball or whiffleball games. Take your kid out to have a catch. Go to school games to encourage your child to strive, if that is his nature. Even if your kid is a born spectator, that’s all right; he’s outside, jumping up and down, and yelling for his team.
Perhaps you have noticed my drift, which is: it’s hard to get your kids up and motivated about exercise if you’re not. Sitting on the couch and telling them to go out in the fresh air and run around may not sound as if you really mean it. If all of a sudden you decide that your kids are not fit enough and need to exercise, it will probably sound like one of mom or dad’s wild hairs that will go away in time if ignored long enough.
Taking your kids out and kicking around outside not only tells the kids that you like the outside and exercise, it tells them that you like them too, and that spending time with them is something you enjoy.
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Invest in Yourself—Hire a Personal Trainer
When you feel ill, you go to the doctor. When the back of your neck feels knotted up, you go to your massage therapist. When you are going to a glamorous function you head straight for your hairdresser and your makeup maven. These are professionals who help you to achieve a goal—so why not hire a personal trainer?
Perhaps because the idea of a personal trainer is a relatively new concept, it might be thought of as an extravagance. But is it?
Let’s look in your closet for just a minute. Just as with most of us, there are several outfits that are a size or two too small. You bought them in the anticipation of losing ten or so more pounds; bought for the summer, bought in anticipation of a big event a few months away; put bluntly, you haven’t worn them yet. Many of us have wardrobes that consist of several different sizes; to put it bluntly, you are storing clothes you paid very good money for that are doing you absolutely no good. Grab your calculator and tell the truth now; how much money is being wasted?
As your mother is probably fond of saying these days, none of us are getting any younger. The stark truth is that today is the day that you can be making a big difference in your future health. Diabetes and heart disease are two diseases that you can avoid or mitigate by your own actions right now, with your choices regarding diet and exercise. You don’t need your calculator to realize what a price you would pay, should you not take your health seriously today.
Taking your health into consideration right now, it is common knowledge that out of shape people take more sick days (and in some cases the sick days you use equal less vacation days later on), they also have more headaches and backaches. Checking this out on your calculator would only make you depressed, so don’t bother.
So, which is the biggest extravagance? Wasting money or taking steps to improve not only your body, but your emotions and outlook as well?
A look through newspaper ads and the directory will show you how many personal trainers there are these days. More trainers mean better rates, especially if you live in the city or the suburbs. You will certainly want to talk to several to see which one is right for you.
It is important to visualize the kind of personal trainer that you would like, because a bad fit will only leave you hating the trainer and yourself for having been stupid enough to hire her. This is the time to ask yourself the question: do you want a jolly, encouraging sort or an absolute fanatic when it comes to diet and exercise? Do you want someone to go through your fridge and cupboards and trash all your fave foods? Or do you want someone gentler, who will lead by example? You are the only person who knows what you will respond to for the desired goal. There is another good question: do you want to lose significant weight, or rather to just tone up; do you want a total change of lifestyle, rather than just a healthy improvement? Remember, the more sweeping your desired change, the more it may cost. You must also make the commitment to act on all your trainer’s suggestions, because cheating on yourself is just silly.
As your training begins to take affect, you will look and feel better and your friends’ compliments will make nearly all of it worthwhile. But what could be more worthwhile, though, than the looks on your friends’ faces when you say, “Wish I could stay for a slice of pie, girls, but I need to go meet my personal trainer.”
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Commit to a Charity Athletic Fundraiser and Realize a Healthier Body and Spirit
There are so many good causes that deserve your help these days, but there are only so many you can support with writing a check or clicking a “donate now” button. Beyond the power of your budget there can be an even more powerful donation you can give: your time, your talents, and yourself.
A look through your newspaper shows you there are many deserving charities that are working hard to raise money. You will likely see announcements for pancake breakfasts, spaghetti dinners, soda can drives, paper drives and more. Beyond ingesting a lot of carbs and realizing a clean space in your garage (for the moment!) you can donate your time and your own personal talents. Setting up, cleaning up, waiting on tables and generally running back and forth might even make a steamy pile of pancakes and a bit of syrup not such a disaster to your diet!
If pushing pancakes sounds too much like work and you are feeling deprived of that beautiful Saturday morning, the perfect solution is a charity athletic fundraiser. These are ways you can donate yourself, and in a capacity far greater than your budget might allow. There are many functions, such as Relay for Life, where you can find people willing to sponsor you in your activity, in other words, every lap you walk your sponsors pony up a specific amount of money. So, if you have ten sponsors, every lap you walk makes ten donations more than if you only walked on your own or if you wrote out a check only. How exhilarating to feel such an accomplishment! It may even inspire you to walk another lap or two.
If walking isn’t your speed, you will find that there are many charity runs and marathons in which to participate. There are many cities and towns, especially in the beautiful Northwest, which sponsor a number of these events every summer, usually timed to coincide with their festivals. These runs become bigger every year, as the participants get to run through some really wonderful scenery, and many people travel to meets such as these. Some of the larger charities sponsor their own runs. For those not so physically ambitious, Fun Runs are also becoming quite popular. You can even run in a costume if you feel so inclined!
Just about any physical activity can be an inspiration for a charity athletic fundraiser. Softball, soccer, and football games are popular choices, as are tennis and golf. One activity that may not be thought of as athletic is dancing. A dance floor under a warm summer night with live music can attract a crowd. If you have access to a high school gym or a similar space, a ‘40s jitterbug theme, ‘50s sock hop, or ‘80s dance night can be maximum fun and make good money for your charity. Dancers can be charged admission, and the sponsorship idea can work there as well. And if you don’t really think of dancing as athletic, just see how you feel after a night of rock and roll!
If your town has a number of beautiful gardens, lovely old houses, or art galleries, a sponsored walk encompassing any of these locales is a little bit of aerobic exercise and a pleasure for the senses. A little wine tasting during the walk is also good for the heart and for your charity’s coffers.
Speaking of the heart, it will do yours good. The feeling of joy and accomplishment will not only lift your heart, but your spirit as well. The sense of being part of a larger good is one of your rewards for volunteering.
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Improving your health thu motivation!
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This article may be republished with the above credit.