Aquasize To A Flatter Stomach!

Swimming is great exercise however and whenever you do it. But as well as using the water for fun and relaxation you can use your time in the pool to help you in that search for a flatter stomach. 

More so than air, water provides great natural resistance. Moving through it takes effort and can exercise your muscles more fully but more safely than many other types of exercise. It offers a low-impact way of exercising making it better for your joints and the exercise of choice for many age groups.

Try this exercise the next time you are in the pool and see what we mean. Remember to

consult a medical professional before starting any new exercise routine, and make sure that you do warm up properly.

The Dig and Jump

This involves two movements, one targeted at your lower body and the other at the upper.

Begin by standing in water of a depth above your navel and your chest. Then place your feet at least shoulder width apart and jump so that your knees come to the pool's surface then force them back down again and repeat the moves (picture a frog jumping while you are doing it and you'll get the idea). This is great for exercising the lower body and this includes the abdominal muscles.

The second part is to work the upper body. To start make a separate scoop with each hand.

Place your hands low in the water then bring them to the surface and out to one side. Start by doing one hand first for three minutes then the other. Work alternate sides to maintain a

balanced workout. Once you are comfortable with it do both hands at the same time to exercise the entire stomach region at once.

Set realistic targets as you work towards your health and fitness goals. Don't over exert yourself leading to injury. Start slow, know your limitations and build on them incrementally. As you increase endurance and strength you can vary the speed and length of the workout, and even add water gloves to increase resistance. It is important however not to compromise on the style of movement in order to increase reps or speed. It's better to do something well rather than quickly.

A few additional tips for exercising your midriff

• First, a balanced diet is essential to any fitness regime. It's no use working hard only to undo all of the great work with a poor diet.

• Secondly, stay hydrated not only when exercising but in your general daily life. A good rule of thumb is to take your body weight in pounds, divide it by 2 and aim to drink that number of Ounces of water per day. This will maintain a healthy balance.

• Third, get enough rest. Get plenty of sleep but also the right kind of sleep. Sleeping on your stomach for example may make it difficult to do certain types of stomach exercise. Try to sleep in a number of positions.

Also, it may sound strange to say so but take adequate rest from

exercise. Be sure to schedule in rest days to any training schedule. Your body needs to

recover so your muscles can rebuild.

By following this you will already be on the way to a toned, flat stomach.

Goals? What Goals?

Wonder why some people Never seem to become what they dream of becoming? Blame it on pure dreaming and lack of setting goals for achieving their dreams.

Setting goals is a huge part of success. People who set goals literally create a map of their dreams for their lives, marking where they should begin, where to pause, where to detour, and where and when to stop. Once this map is created, it allows the map drawer to check her progress and whether or not he is making achievements that will take him closer to his goals.

Why is Setting Goals so Important for Weight Loss?

 

Setting goals will allow to track their progress in your weight loss journey. It will help you become more confident in yourselves and more motivated to achieve your plans.  With a clear goal in mind you will know exactly what you want, how to get it and how close you are.

Goal setting means you are proactive in dealing with challenges that may affect your plans as well (Hello Birthday cake! lol). Being proactive means one is able to outline possible difficulties that may occur as well as the solutions to these difficulties. By doing this, you will not feel defeated when challenges (Cookies!) occur because you have already prepared for them. You will have strategies to get back on track.

How to Make Successful Goals

 

To be successful in goal setting, the goals that you set for yourself should be realistic and based on your own capabilities. Being too ambitious in setting up goals can make the goals unrealistic and difficult to achieve. However, do not also set goals that are too low because this will be discouraging when you don't see any weight loss!

It is also necessary to include a time frame within which the weight loss goal will be achieved. This way, you are able to determine if you need to fast track your strategies or to slow down a bit.

Break your goals down into little steps, and once you have achieved something, even a little of what you hoped to achieve, then you reward yourself to keep you motivated (Just NOT with food!  Get a massage, buy a new nail polish or spend the afternoon reading a book-don't undo all your hard work by using fatty or sugary foods as your reward) Also, celebrate your milestones, but don't complacent with any little achievement, as this may cause you to backslide.

These goal guides can be used in any aspect of your life - from personal or family life, to career and finances.  When setting goals, it is always important to set standards that would suit your present situation, your capabilities, and other factors that may influence the achievement of your goal.

10 Things To Should Know About Stretching

If you are not taking the time to add stretching to your workout-why the heck not?? :)  Here are 10 things you should know about this important fitness step:

1.  When to stretch? Stretch before and after workout minimum to increase your flexibility and to avoid injuries.  Stretching before workout prevents injuries during the exercises, and stretching after workout, when muscles are still warm, can increase flexibility.  To really gain flexibility, do some light stretches in between workout sets.

2.  Hold your stretching position for more than 60 seconds to increase flexibility.  Holding your position for 20 seconds is enough for warm ups, but hold each position for at least 60 seconds when aiming for more flexibility.

3.  Do not go into a stretching position then immediately return to the relaxed position, and do it repeatedly.  This is more appropriately termed as bouncing while in a position.  When stretching, hold that position for the 20 - 60 seconds, and then slowly relax.   Bouncing or forcing yourself into a position during stretching can strain or damage some joints or muscles.

4.  Work slowly in increments instead of immediately proceeding to doing the hardest exercise or position.  **Good advice for any exercise**

5.  Make sure that you have stretched or warmed up all muscle groups. The most neglected group: neck muscles.  Stretching the neck muscles can be as simple as placing the palm of one's hand against the front of the head and pushing it.  Then, do the same to the sides and the back of the head.

6.  Stretch regularly to continually increase your range of movements and your level of flexibility and strength.  Every workout, every time.

7.  Workout considering only your capabilities and not of others.  Do not force yourself to do exercises that you are not yet capable of just because there are people who can do it.  Increase your limits slowly.  Listen to your body.  There are days when your body may be too tired that you may have to consider reducing your range of motion.

8.  Learn to rest.  Rest in between sets and stations to make sure that the body has enough time to recover its energy.  Also, it is advisable that you don't work the same muscle groups consecutively for two days.  The muscles grow during the period when you rest and not when you are working out.

9.  Do aerobic exercises.  These exercises help pump fuel (blood) to the muscles, and help clear out toxins-the things that lead to sore muscles.

10.  Music may help you when you want to train for longer periods or to increase your intensity.  You can use mp3 players, CD players or lightweight am radio receivers for this.  Choose a relaxing tempo song when stretching to encourage you to hold the stretch longer.

Apart from preventing injuries and increasing one's limit, it is also said that stretching is good for a tired body and also for a stressed mind and spirit.  Its a great way to ease into a work out, and to calm down afterwards.

The 100 Workout...

 A friend sent this to me and I love it!  Thanks Juan <3

10 Foods you MUST have in your kitchen :)

Some foods should be thrown out the minute you decide to lose weight (hello Cheetos and Little Debbies-I'm looking at you!).  Other foods should have a permanent place of honor in any health conscious pantry or fridge. 

Here is my list of the 10 best foods to have on hand when trying to shed pounds:

10. Popcorn.  The un-salted, un-buttered variety please.  Very filling and low-calorie

9. Apples.  An apple a day may not keep the Doctor away-but it will help you lose weight, improve your complexion and do tons of other great things to your body :)

8. Avocados. I am not a fish person-I don't do any kind of seafood.  When getting my dose of heart-healthy fats for the day I rely on produce to get me there :)  Avocados are a great source of heart healthy fats.  They also taste great and keep me full for hours.

7. Olive Oil. (See above about heart healthy fats)  Many cooking oils have the evil trans fat (or partially hydrogenated oils-horrible for you!)  Use olive oil instead.  Also great on salads and bread (skip the butter!)  Extra virgin is best, but anything is better than margarine :)

6. Nuts!.  Almonds, pecans and walnuts top my list, but almost any nut is great in moderation.  Add them to oatmeal or yogurt instead of sugary granola or sprinkle on fresh fruit to add texture and protein.

5. Chicken.  Grilled or in a broth, its a great source of lower fat protein (Skip the ground beef and instead go for ground chicken in any recipe.)

4. Whole grain low Calorie bread.  Sometimes you just want bread!  Make sure its healthy and low calorie (many whole grain breads aren't so be sure and read the label!)

3. Melba Toast.  My go to when craving chip-type junk food.  Satisfies my craving and much better calorie and fat-wise than potato chips

2. Baby Carrots. Another great snack food-super low calories :)

1. Spinach.  Great raw in salads or cooked in almost anything-its a great "sneak in" item.  Puree it and add it to marinara sauce, omelets or vegetable soup.  This is my go-to all time favorite health food!

So get moving!  Toss out any food that isn't helping you reach your weight loss or fitness goals (better to go to waste than to your waist!)

Staying Fit and Healthy Aging

The aging process starts from the day we are born. You may not realize it but we need to work on staying fit and healthy everyday. In the end, you’ll feel and look younger all during the aging progression.

I will try to give you lots of ideas on how to stay fit and "turn back" the aging clock here. Your diet, however, is probable the most important thing affecting your aging and health. Make sure your diet contains the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients you need to stay healthy.

Get yourself into some kind of exercise program. Walking is a great program to get involved. Start out walking gradually and work your way up to 12 to 15 miles by walking two or 3 times a week. Walking brings up the heart rate making it do its work. You can loosen the tight and stiffness in your legs and besides loosing weight with diet it will help to tone your muscles. Combined weight lifting with your walk agenda but don’t over work yourself because it will make your muscles sore. Along with your new walking and weightlifting program trim down your diet and take supplements to make up for the vitamins you are cutting out. Exercising will burn up some of your vitamins too so make sure you take enough but not too much of the supplements. If you are not sure about the amount to take, consult you physician.

As you build new activities, you will be meeting people and that always gives you something new to talk about to help keep the depression away. You will need encouragement and support throughout your goal to stay healthy. Seek support from family, friends, or people with the same goals.

As we grow older high cholesterol becomes a health issue with most of us. Your new walking program is a good start to lowering your levels.  2 miles a day, 3 times a week will help you to lower your cholesterol by helping you lose the excess weight you’ve put on in the last couple of years. If walking doesn’t seem to be helping to level out your cholesterol, try eating seven nuts. The combination of both will sometimes bring it to a balance. Be sure your doctor knows what your doing as these things continue. Fat is good in nuts, avocados and olive oil etc. (non-trans fats please!!) to help lower the blood pressure and blood sugar as well. Try changing your diet and eat more whole grain foods while you cut back on the meat you love so much. Instead of using, spreadable fats use olive oil and canola margarine. As a snack…sneak in those nuts:

Has your blood pressure gone up in your older years? Try adding three servings of low-fat dairy products to you diet. Calcium, magnesium and potassium are good to help lower that blood pressure.

Cancer, as many of you know, is something extremely personal to me, and is always a threat to us young or old so we need to start early on trying to help prevent it. Vitamin D is vital-make sure you are getting it from sunshine (not too much-melanoma!) and from your food and milk. Watching your diet and taking vitamins, helps reduce the risks of getting colon, breast, or ovarian cancer. 

Ovarian cancer for women is very common, yet women have the power to lower their risks. Green and black tea 2 times a day or even eating an apple or grapefruit will help.  Anything that is high in antioxidants is good. 

Mixing your foods to cover everything daily is a good idea so you don’t get bored eating the same things all the time. Mixing up what you eat in a recipe or on your plate the nuts, maybe some black-eyed peas, whole grain wheat bread or cereal and add a little peanut butter on that bread.

Changing your foods that you eat may not stop you from getting cancer but it is known to lower the risk and help prevent it.


Most importantly make sure you are seeing your doctor regularly-and stay with the same doctor if possible as he will know you and your history and be better able to compare your health over the long-run.

Overdid it this weekend...

Sooo.....  Might have overdid it this weekend.  No that's not really true-I definitely overdid it.  +10 lbs.  in three days.  I know, I know.  Ouch.  That's a huge gain for one weekend.

How did it happen?  Start with a long road trip, little sleep the week before and the weekend.  Add in starchy food, meat overload, sugary pop and alcohol (a lot of alcohol!) and you have a diet bomb of immense proportions!

Now I could spend the next few hours beating myself up.  Getting mad over my massive diet fail and concentrating on all of the things I shouldn't have done.

That's not going to happen though!!!

What's 10 lbs. really?  Sure it will take a few weeks of healthy eating and working out to lose the weight again.  And it will be hard work.  But 10 years from now I guarantee you I will have no idea what I weighed this weekend-or even this month.

The party though-that's another story.  I will never forget the memories I made this weekend :)  The cake all over my honorary niece's face while she enjoyed her birthday cake, the gossip shared over a big plate of pork and noodles, the warmth in the kitchen while we all enjoyed a big bowl of Posole, or the dancing that followed a Saturday night of toasting the birthday girl (repeatedly!)

10 lbs isn't a bad price to pay for an incredible weekend :)  So, How was yours?