My way to happiness

Found this article and thought I share it with you guys

http://trimnasium.com/2008/12/2-ways-to-avoid-weight-loss-plateaus/

 December 31, 2008 · Posted in Workout Plans 

Your body is smarter than you when it comes to survival. No offense meant, but your body is really in charge here. In the face of great pain or injury, your body will send you unconscious while it works to repair the damage and return to homeostasis. Our body is super-geared toward survival through millions of years of evolution. The body wants to get proficient at the things you do habitually so that you burn the least amount of calories doing those things. It’s a survival technique inherited from our ancestors and it allows us to maintain our body fat reserves for times of scarcity.

Does this help when it comes to body fat loss? Not so much. There are two things crucial to continuing your success in losing body fat: providing the right environment for change inside your body; and maintaining a caloric deficit through exercise and food intake.

Make your body a happy home

Creating that environment entails a number of elements. You should be sure to get enough rest, drink enough water, eat enough nutrients (including a healthy balance of protein, fats, and carbohydrates, as well as micronutrients like vitamins and minerals), and you need to deal with stress properly. Although the first thing I would suggest for dealing with stress would be yoga, any number of relaxation methods can work.

With the right environment inside your body for change, you can achieve your weight loss goals. If you’re dehydrated, lacking in one or many vitamins or minerals, stressed out, or not sleeping, you’re body is going to head into that proverbial ’survival mode’ that hinders fat loss to prepare for possible worse times ahead. So give your body a fighting chance. You’ll be surprised how easy it can be if you focus yourself on being nice to your body.

Keep your body guessing

Your workout program for achieving your weight loss goal should always be a bit challenging. Start easy and be sure to stretch, perform regular cardio exercise, and do resistance training exercises starting with bodyweight exercises like squats, lunges, push-ups, pull-ups, and crunches. Oh, believe me, there are tons of exercises you can do without any additional equipment. Ever done the Burpee? Ha. Try 10 to start with.

 http://trimnasium.com/2008/12/2-ways-to-avoid-weight-loss-plateaus/ (there is a video on the site, I tried posting it but couldn’t figure it out )

Every 3-4 weeks, you’ll want to change up your workout and essentially make it all a bit harder, or at least significantly different that what you’ve been doing. If your body doesn’t have time to get used to a workout, you’ll continue to burn maximum calories during and (more importantly) after your workout.

The “F.I.T.T. Principle” is something that will help you when it comes time to change up your program every month. The variables of your workout program are:

Frequency - How often you work out can be increased somewhat, but this is usually the last thing you will want to increase. There isn’t a need to work out every day, and in fact; your body needs time to repair and rebuild tissue that you damaged while working out. Overwork yourself and you’ll end up with a cold or an injury. Give yourself 1-3 days of rest per week, and be careful doubling up on workouts in the same day too much. But, by all means, do it when you can and if you’d like. Just don’t over-do it.

Intensity - This could mean trying out the ‘fatburn’ setting on that elliptical trainer you like so much, or increasing the weight in your resistance program. Try doing your standing exercises on one leg, or with one eye closed, or standing on a BOSU trainer. There can be simple ways of increasing the intensity of your exercises. Watch the personal trainers in your gym. You can usually pick up on some creative exercises while watching them with their clients or in their own workouts.

Time - This is the length of each workout - at first you may only be doing 20 minute sessions of cardio, but your workouts shouldn’t really be over an hour in length at any point. You can’t really keep enough glucose in your blood for longer than an hour, so you run the risk of putting yourself into a catabolic state, where you’re burning off more muscle. Go for a harder before you choose a longer one. Quality, not quantity, matters the most.

Type - Some people really get attached to one piece of cardio equipment, but I get bored easily. I think everyone gets tired of sticking to a cardio program at some point. Even your trainer doesn’t wake up feeling like working out every morning. I love new classes, new workouts, newly invented equipment, and innovative exercises. If you’re interested in some new types of workouts, I suggest you try them wholeheartedly. You will cross-train your body and strengthen your neuro-muscular connections in new ways. You’ll burn more calories and you’ll be more prepared to take on even more new workouts. It’s an upward spiral that can easily lead you to your success. I love seeing bodybuilders doing plyometrics and marathon runners in the weight room. My heart swells to see football players in yoga class and grapplers in pilates groups. I’m reminded of Dolly Parton’s character in Steel Magnolias when she said, “Honey, God don’t care which church you go to, long as you show up!” Well, calories don’t care either, so get up and burn some, however you can.

There are some other things you can try to continue to burn the most calories - like working out at a different time of the day. Get a workout partner and push each other. You’ll see that working out with someone else pushes you just that extra bit harder. Join a charity walk, run, swim, bike, or hike. Keep in good posture throughout all your daily activities. Take your niece or nephew to the park and run around with them. Think of new ways to burn calories at certain points in your day and you may find that you have more opportunities than you think.

Remember, you can do it. You have many free resources at your disposal and as long as you keep the will to reach that goal and live healthier, you’ll get there.