6 Tips to a New Years body!

Soon New Years will be here, and the familiar packed health clubs will be churning out new members looking to start the new year with a new body. Unfortunately most of these new members motivation and their desires will diminish near the last week of february. Some of the reasons for the diminish of motivation and desire is lack of results and burn out of the entire process of improving fitness levels. Most new members workout every day, when before january 1st the most exercise they got was the occasional walk around the block. To make sure your weight loss resolution is a big success, I have come up with a list of tips!

1. Don't over do it! A lot of people prescribe to the more is better philosophy. In fitness that is not the most effective mindset. A better mindset would be to think of your fitness level as a progression, so we need to start doing exercises that match your current level of fitness. To start seeing results all you need to do is to workout 2-3 times a week for no more then 30min-60 min a workout session. If you start your workout program doing more hours than that a week, you may see some short term results then your body will adapt and plateu or worse go in the opposite direction. Another reason this is important is that you will be making small changes so it will be easier to eventually change your lifestyle.
2. Get a workout partner or personal trainer. Having a good workout partner or personal trainer will help motivate and keep you accountable to coming into the gym. If you are not very knowledgeable or want an extra push in the right direction, a good trainer can help show you the way towards your results.
3. Fitness is a journey not a destination. Fitness is a journey because in order to keep your results, you will have to make exercise and healthy nutrition a part of your lifestyle. When you reach your goal you will need to keep your healthy lifestyle up or you will be coming back to the gym next new year making the same resolution.
4. Have a support system in place. In order to be successful, you will need to have support from your family and friends.There is not a worse senerio that I can think of then coming home from the gym and your spouse or the kids are eating junk food in front of you. Even if they don't mean to tempt you, most people will succumb to the temptation and eat what is in the kitchen. Have your family get on board with you and your new fitness lifestyle at least for the first few months so you can create good habits for yourself.
5. Stay injury free. A lot of new members coming into the health club for the first time, or even veteran members who are not aware of proper form on the machines and weights will get injured. This is one of the worst ways to derail your progress of your new years resolution. If these members swallowed their pride long enough to seek out a qualified person to teach them proper form on exercises and how to do a warm up properly, they would not have gotten injured in the first place.
6. Think of your new years resolution as a goal. Your mind is always seeking to accomplish goals. Write it down, tell as many people as you can, so they can keep you in check and make sure you follow through with your goal. Most resolutions are not kept because they are not seen as specific goals such as "I want to lose 10 pounds in one month rather than I want to lose weight". When writing them down attach a specific number to your goal!

I have seen countless amounts of new years resolution members during the month of january. Some have succeeded, most have failed. With these tips in your hands you have a head start over the members that have failed in the past. All you have to do is to take action now! If you are reading this before january 1st, don't wait till then, take action ASAP!

Slim Fast Recalls "not the only reason to avoid it!!"

Just last week Slim-Fast recalled their meal replacement drinks due to bacteria contamination. This is not the only reason people who are trying to lose weight permanently should avoid slim-fast. I have yet to see anyone taking slim-fast as a diet aid get permanent results. People who are taking slim-fast either are restricting their calories too low or not getting enough protein in their diet due to slim-fasts low protein intake(their regular formula only has 2 grams of protein, and their high protein formula has a low protein content of 7 grams). Your body needs protein to develop toned lean tissue and helps to decrease your hunger. Most people do not realize even if they are not lifting weights; they need a sufficient amount of protein in their diets to prevent loss of metabolism AKA muscle tone. The muscle tone helps keep your metabolism steady, so when you lose 20 pounds you will not yo-yo back up because of metabolism loss. If you are looking for a meal replacement take whey or soy protein it will decrease your appetite, make your body burn more calories through digestion, and maintain or increase muscle tone.

The best form of cardio to do the day after Thanksgiving to help you burn that turkey dinner off!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope yours was as great as mine was! Like most people I participated in the gluttony of our traditional Thanksgiving holiday. This got me thinking what would be the best form of cardio to help burn tons of calories in the least amount of time, so you can minimize the effects of thanksgiving on your waistline and still allow you to spend a little more time with family and friends. Most people would answer just do an hour of cardio. Yes that could work, but the most effective way to burn tons of calories in the least amount of time would be Interval training. Doing 20-30 minutes of Interval training can burn twice as much calories as doing an hour of traditional cardio. Not only will your burn rate increase while your doing your Interval cardio training, but your body will be burning more calories up to two hours after you stopped doing cardio. There are many ways of doing Intervals, the most basic way is to sprint for one minute on the treadmill or elliptical, then jog or walk for two minutes, and repeat the sequence for 20-30 minutes. Hope this makes you guys feel a little less guilty after your Thanksgiving meal!