Health And Fitness Goal Achievement

Summer time is upon us - but it's not too late to take some quick steps to make sure you look and feel great!

Here are four quick steps you can take to get yourself heading in the right direction. It is never too late to get yourself on your way to better shape with plenty of energy!

1) Assess your situation. Time for a quick reality check. Before you do anything, take a good look at yourself to get some direction. The mirror usually is a good place to start, and a few measurements may give you some motivation as well. Even one measurement, like your waistline, (take at the belly button level) can help you gauge your progress.

This is also the time to take a quick mental check too. Maybe you have not succeeded in the past with weight loss or fitness goals. Why?

2) Set some goals. Assessing your situation helps you decide upon your goals. Lose weight, fit into your summer clothes (the ones that somehow shrunk over winter), start exercising or re-strategize your current exercise plan. Perhaps it is time to clean up your diet a little bit, start eating a little healthier.

Get set with a positive state of mind. Great successes get set first in the mind.

Health, fitness and weight loss goal achievement requires three key items:

Proper state of mind. - You will meet your goals.

Balanced and realistic nutrition program. (That is you eating healthier, making better choices)

A set minimum amount of cardiovascular exercise and some amount of resistance training.

If you want maximal results in a minimal amount of time, these three items must be an integral part of your program. Decide how you are going to meet your goals. Devise the plan to your success.

3) Time to take action. Once you have your goals and your game plan, all you have left to do is to simply put yourself into action. Time to hit the 'play' button. Don't wait one more day to start your program. Don't let yourself get sucked into a perpetual procrastination of "I'll start tomorrow".

Make your mind up that your journey of weight loss and fitness success begins today. Take action physically with your exercise, eat a healthier diet, and mentally keep a positive charge going to stay on track.

4) Plan to stick to the plan. This inevitably will require some planning. All great end results come about from a plan. Stay on track with your diet and exercise. Keep yourself in a positive state of mind with a strong and affirmative mental lock on your goals.

All you have to do is get started. Every day on the way to your goals will build on the day before. Before you know it you will have achieved success. This can be your summer to feel and look great!

Free Fitness Tips

Fitness is the key to keep you healthy every day. Healthy lifestyle means a healthy diet and exercise. To achieve a healthier lifestyle you probably will need personal training programs, nutrition tips, spa services, aerobics, outdoor recreation for example - tennis, basketball, softball, walking trails. A lot of programs are planned to give you a total body and mind for your fitness goals.

I have made some research in this topic and have gathered some tips here:

To keep you in fitness it is not necessary to spend a lot of time. In general it can be even less than 60 minutes a day.

Walking a few meters more from your car to the door and back is an easy way to exercise. But don't do it in a dark parking lot.

Exercise gives you increased stamina, energy and keeps fit your heart. It makes easier for you to keep up with lives pace.

Exercise lowers blood pressure and reduces stress levels.

Take indoor exercises when outdoor air quality is good.

If you want to have ideal weight then exercises can help you with it.

Eat healthy food which has important nutrients and is free from chemicals.

Vitamin K is helpful in reducing the dark circles.

Try to eat low fat foods. Stay clear from foods that is fried and other fatty meats. Cheese, cottage cheese, milk and cream ought to be choose in low fat versions.

Avoid Immoderate Drinking of Alcohol. Studies show a glass of wine can prevent heart disease but more than that can result in other health problems such as liver and kidney disease or cancer.

Sleep minimum 8 hours. People who sleep less than 6 hours a night have a 70 % higher death rate.

Low fat foods, are often stuffed with sugar, which also has calories. So look at the labels.

Training too heavily, may depress your fitness. Recovering and rebuilding your body needs a certain amount of time of rest.

Garlic rich diets, is not so good for your breath, but also garlic makes your body to release nitric oxide, which keeps your arteries more elastic, resulting in a increase in circulation.

One of the best exercise for any fitness level is plain old walking.

Weight Loss Strategies For Good Health And Fitness

The debate over whether or not we should eat a low carbohydrate diet to lose weight started with the creation of the Atkins Diets. This debate continues on today and will never end because the debaters are focusing on the wrong aspect of carbohydrates. The debaters are focusing on the quantity of carbohydrates when they should be focusing on the quality of the carbohydrates.

Insulin

When trying to lose weight or live a healthy lifestyle, you want to eat meals and snacks that do not cause insulin spikes. Insulin spikes are surges in insulin. Insulin is an animal hormone. Insulin is a anabolic hormone that tells sugar to leave the blood and enter the cells. Often times this sugar is converted into fat and stored in fat cells.

Glycemic Index

That is where the glycemic index comes in. The glycemic index of a carbohydrate tells you what happens in your body after you eat a particular carbohydrate. It tells you how much and how fast your blood glucose will rise.

Simple sugars and processed complex carbohydrates are typically the foods with the highest glycemic indexes. A carb with a high glycemic index leads to a large and rapid rise in blood glucose and an insulin spike.

The glycemic index is a quality measure. It does not address the quantity of carbohydrates in your meal or snack. White rice has a high glycemic index, but if you only eat one grain of rice you will not have an insulin spike. That is where the glycemic load comes in. The glycemic load addresses the quality and the quantity of the carbohydrates in your meal.

Glycemic Load

The glycemic load is more important than the glycemic index because it addresses quantity and quality of the carbohydrate. For example, carrots and some fruits have a high glycemic index but a low glycemic load. Their loads are low because there are not that many grams of carbohydrates in one serving. Carrots and most fruits are a great addition to any diet.

You could write an entire book about the glycemic index and the glycemic load. In fact, some people did. For more information consider reading The New Glucose Revolution: The Authoritative Guide to the Glycemic Index - the Dietary Solution for Lifelong Health.

In the mean time, the carbohydrates with the lowest glycemic loads are vegetables, fruits, whole-grains, beans, and other legumes. The ones with the highest loads are the white foods: white sugar, white potatoes, white rice, white flour, and white pasta.

The low carbohydrate diet debate is over and there is no winner. The focus has now shifted away from the quantity of carbohydrates eaten and towards the quality of the carbohydrates eaten. Follow the glycemic numbers to lose the weight and keep it off.

Carbohydrates For Good Health And Fitness

Carbohydrates are the foundation of diets world wide. Most of your calories come from carbohydrates. Some nutrition plans "demonize" carbohydrates. They blame carbs for the obesity epidemic. Carbs have been falsely accused. While some carbs are "bad" for you, there are just as many that are good for you. To lose weight and keep it off you should eat more good carbs than bad. The good carbohydrates are vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes.

Vegetables

Vegetables are my favorite carbohydrates. They are filled with nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals. Most have a high water and fiber content, so they fill you up without adding many calories. Most also have low glycemic loads.

Fruits

Fruits are my second favorite carbs. They are also filled with nutrients, vitamins, and phytochemicals. They also fill you up without adding many calories. Their glycemic loads are not as low as most vegetables, but they are low enough. Fruits are an excellent way to satisfy your sweet tooth. Most fruits are very portable and do not require lots of preparation.

Whole Grains

Minimally processed whole grains are an excellent addition to any nutrition plan. These are you stone-ground whole wheat breads, whole wheat pastas, brown rice, sweet potatoes,oats, and whole grain cereals. These carbs also have nutrients, vitamin, minerals, and phytochemicals. They are also very filling. They typically have the highest glycemic loads of all of the "good" carbs. However, if you eat them as part of a well balanced meal, there will be no insulin spike.

Legumes

Legumes are your beans, peas, and lentils. Most nutritionists will place legumes in the protein category. However, legumes provide a substantial amount of carbohydrates, so I will place them in both. They could be placed in fats also because peanuts, which are actually legumes, are filled with healthy fats.

Legumes are filled with nutrients, minerals and antioxidants. They are low in fat and high in protein. They are a good source of fiber and they are very filling. They also have a low glycemic load.

There are good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates. However, in order to lose weight and keep it off, stick with the good ones. These are your vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes.

Muscle Building - A Part Of Healthy Fitness Schedule

Building muscle naturally without steroids or supplements is the best way to build muscle. Your confidence will grow with your body. If you want to learn how to do this, continue reading.

You want a great looking body and muscles that show that you take care of it. There are some things you have to do before you walk into a Gym (either at home or elsewhere) that have to come first.

The First thing to do is consider how important this is to you. Does the idea of a great looking, muscular body makes you happy. Is it one of those "must haves?"

The reason why I ask such a question is that most people, ironically enough, have some barriers to getting what they want, so, they continue searching for some type of "magical solution" to their problem. So, let me cut the chase here.

You body is like the motor. It will only do what it is told to do. It IS an efficient machine and being so, YOUR BRAIN is the driver.What you want and what you believe can happen, may be at odds with each other.

If you're busy saying to yourself things like:

"To get this is too hard" or "It can't happen for me"
IT WON'T
If you hate yourself, it won't. In fact, self hatred will not only give you a resistant body to anything you do, but, will also cause you other problems physically in the future, if not already. When you see yourself in the mirror, who do you see? Do, you smile or frown? What do you think when you see yourself? Are you critical?

Negative thinking will cause barriers in everything you do! This is a fact!

Belief in yourself and self love are your keys to mentally prepare yourself for your getting the MOST out of your body. Sit back for 5 minutes a day envisioning the way you want to look. Heck, find a picture of want you want and hang it up for inspiration. Look at it every day.

You must approach it with an absolute belief that you will succeed.

NEXT IS FOCUS.

You may not be able to devote you life to this aspect of it, but, you have to fit it in and devote a certain amount of focus to it. This is true to any change you have in life. Even if you can only focus for 30 minutes at a time a day, find that 30 minutes to do so and make sure that the time you are using is only devoted to this. The time will grow as you may or may not need it to, but, let us start walking before we run.

These things are the MOST important things to do BEFORE you start on your quest.

I want to congratulate you You wouldn't have found this article if you weren't seeking a way to build muscle. I hope you took something from this and when you walk into your Gym, you will do so with purpose, joy, and a new found belief in yourself that you CAN achieve what you want to achieve!

Abdominal StrengthTraining For Better Fitness Results

Abdominal strength training. These all have great pictures but I cannot figure out how to upload them!

• abdominal crunch with feet on the wall and arms folded

Lay flat on your back with your arms folder across your chest and place your feet on the wall. With this exercise you are going to crunch your shoulders straight up towards the ceiling. Your shoulders should only be a couple of inches off of the mat when this exercise is completed. Hold it for a second and then go back to the starting position and repeat. It is important to crunch up towards the ceiling keeping your back as straight as possible. You do not want to roll your back like you are reaching towards your knees.

• abdominal crunch with feet on the floor

Lay flat on your back with your arms pointed straight up and feet flat on the floor. On this exercise you are going to crunch straight up towards the ceiling. Your shoulders should only be a couple of inches off of the mat when this exercise is completed. Hold it for a second and then go back to the starting position and repeat. It is important to crunch up towards the ceiling keeping your back as straight as possible. You do not want to roll your back like you are reaching towards your knees.

• abdominal ball crunch

Start off sitting on the ball. Slowly lower your upper body down until the small (lower curve) of your back is in the middle of the ball. Here you will be lying parallel to the floor. Once you are here you have reached the starting position. On this exercise you are going to crunch straight up towards the ceiling. Your shoulders should only be a couple of inches off of the ball when this exercise is completed. Hold it for a second and then go back to the starting position and repeat. It is important to crunch up towards the ceiling keeping your back as straight as possible. You do not want to roll your back like you are reaching towards your knees

• hanging leg raise

This is an advanced abdominal movement and should not be tried by a beginner. Step up on a box so that you can put your arms in the slings. You want the slings to fit snugly on the bottom of your arms close to your armpits. This exercise will usually cause some discomfort to the bottoms of your arms at first but with time you will get used to it. Now that you are firmly in the slings you will very easily step off of the box so you are hanging in mid-air. Now you will raise your knees straight up until they have reached a ninety-degree angle. Slowly lower your legs back down and repeat. For a more advanced movement try doing it with your legs straight instead of bent. It is also helpful to have someone support your lower back when doing this exercise so you don't swing your body.

• decline sit ups

Place feet and lower legs so that they are firmly supported with the bend in the bench right behind your knees. On this exercise you do not want to lay all the way down but stop your upper body when it is parallel to the floor and then proceed back to the starting position.

• half V-sit ups

Sit about half way onto a flat bench with your hands holding onto it right behind your butt. Here you will extend your legs so they are completely straight and then bring them back into your chest. Your upper body will also move slightly forward and backward.

• full V-sit ups

This is done in the same manner that the half v-sit was done except now you are not holding onto the bench with your hands. You will pivot on your butt to an almost lying position and then proceed back to the starting position with your knees towards your chest.

• leg raises

Lay flat on your back and grab onto something firmly above your head that will not move. Here you will raise you're your legs so that they are finishing at a 90 degree angle to your body.

• pelvic pops

Start with your feet at a 90-degree angle to your body. Here you are going to raise your hips only several inches off of the floor.

• ab roller crunch

Place your head on the supportive pad with your legs bent and on the floor. These can be done with the feet off of the floor and there are various different exercises you can do here. Here you are going to crunch up towards the ceiling raising your shoulders only a couple of inches off of the mat.

• ab roller oblique crunch

This is done similar to the regular crunch except now you are turning your lower body so that only your lower body is on its side while your upper body remains flat on the ground. Only crunch a couple of inches off of the ground towards the ceiling

• russian twists

This is an extremely advanced exercise and should not be done if you are a beginner or are experiencing any low back pain. Place your feet under something that will not move. Grab an extremely lightweight (never go real heavy no matter how advanced you are) and hold it over your chest like it is a steering wheel. You will pivot on your butt and turn as far as you comfortably can to the left and then to the right. This is a tough one.

• decline leg raises

Lay with your feet at the lower end of a decline board and then grab onto the top with both arms. Extend your legs straight and raise them up towards your head as far as you can. You could also finish this exercise with a pelvic pop to get more bang for your buck.

Make it burn!!! Have fun!