Losing Weight-More on This!

I want to follow up on yesterday's post about losing weight. I got a really good email from my sister that made me think about what I wrote. She mentioned that it may turn people off to tell them they have to do 1 hour of exercise each day as the article I posted states that most successful weight loss maintainers do that . She is right.

I have posted before about how it is OK to break up your workout time into smaller increments over the day. Maybe you can do three 10-20 minute sessions 2 to 3 times per day like some resistance work before work, a walk at lunch & maybe some more resistance work or abs or jump roping, high knee ups or some other form of cardio while you are watching the news or your fav program at night. Even do things in the commercial breaks. Maybe you pick just two of these times & do 15-20 minutes at each one.

What I will say is that you really have to establish what your goals are FOR YOU not the person next to you or on TV or in the next cubicle over. Do you just want to lose some pounds & feel healthy & better? Do you want to lose a lot of weight & go down 4 clothes sizes? Do you want to lose weight & look muscular? Establish what your goal is & work towards that.

When you first start losing weight, it comes off easier. But as we get fitter & "lighter", our body does start to adjust and you will have to work out longer (depending on how long you are working out now) or smarter ( higher intensity, upping the cardio speed, intervals etc.). You may have to play around with your food program a bit to help push past some plateaus.

If you want to be lean with some muscles, plain & simply, this is hard work.. not that just losing weight is not hard work, it is, BUT, you will have to put in at least an hour a day depending on your goals for how lean or muscular you want to be.

For a regular person, if you are just starting out, do what you can & that is an accomplishment right there!!!! Over time, try to fit in 3-5 exercise sessions a week that include cardio & weight resistance. Try to work up to 30 minutes if you are new & as you improve your health, you may want to add in more time depending on your goals. I think rest days are important & maybe you are just "playing" on those rest days. Sledding with the kids, frisbee at the beach or park, roller skating & running after the kids etc. Or maybe you are just resting like me!

Remember, pick things you like to do and can stick with for the duration ... is it classes at the gym, walking, jump roping, videos at home, roller blading, bike riding, hiking, kick boxing, yoga .. so many choices. Also remember that just moving & playing with the kids is exercise too. You can do lots of hings at the play ground. Check my older posts. Housework adds up as well.

Hope this helps & thx to my sister Bethe again!