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Make Small Changes And Start To Feel Amazing

Make Small Changes And Start To Feel Amazing

Published by on July 27, 2018 | Leave a response

If you’ve tried to make all the lifestyle changes necessary to get fit, but didn’t quite make it, it might be that you took on too much. You don’t have to do everything at once. You can make small changes and start to feel amazing, but you need to make sure that you do each change enough to become a habit. Start with something that you know you’ll be able to do every day. It could be adding a fifteen minute walk to your schedule, substituting healthy snacks for unhealthy ones or drinking more water. After a few weeks, make another change. If you’re tackling a major change, stick with that until you know you’ve mastered it and only then add another small change.

Increasing your exercise is a start.

Nobody says you have to go into a full blown exercise program. Just increasing your activity is important. When you’re working, set your cell phone alarm to go off every 45 minutes so you make sure you get up, move around and stretch. Buy a pedometer and increase your walking by one hundred extra paces a day until you reach 10,000 steps each day. Add a routine of a warm up and stretching in the morning that’s quick and simple, but will get your blood circulating and loosen your muscles.

Change the way you eat.

There are so many beneficial way to change eating. You can make sure you’re stocked up on healthy snacks and have them ready when you’re hungry. Try changing your eating times so you have intermittent fasting—eating everything in an 8 hour window and not eating for 16 hours, such a first meal or snack at ten a.m. and last meal or snack at 6 p.m. Cut out carbonated drinks and substitute water. You can make it something simple to follow, but more difficult to do, such as eliminating processed foods entirely. As you make one change a habit, make another healthy change.

Get adequate sleep.

Your brain needs the time to process the day’s activities and your body needs time to heal. It’s done during the sleeping hours. Set a regular bedtime and stick with it. If you’re sleeping too much, you may need to seek medical help to ensure there’s no health issue. Set your alarm to get up earlier and use the time to exercise. Make sure that all electronic devices are shut off and that the room is dark, to get the most productive sleep.

  • Increase your water intake. People don’t hydrate themselves enough and water is perfect for that. It has no calories and can help cleanse your system. Increase your water intake to two liters—eight 8-oz glasses—each day. More if you perspire a lot.
  • Wean yourself from a bad habit. Start procrastinating when it comes to drinking, smoking or anything else that’s unhealthy and done in excess. If it’s smoking, wait an hour longer before you light up or only smoke half a cigarette. Better yet, quit altogether.
  • Learn something new. Keeping your mind active is as important as keeping your body active. Learning something new is even better when it requires you to move more.
  • Reach out to others. I love the idea of doing a random act of kindness each week. It’s good for the body and the soul. It doesn’t have to be big. Visit someone in a nursing home. Pick up trash along the beach or roadside. Buy a bag of food for a no-kill rescue or pet foster parent. Doing something good for others makes us feel good. It’s even better when we do it without fanfare.
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Learn Something New And Enjoy New Vitality

Learn Something New And Enjoy New Vitality

Published by on July 15, 2018 | Leave a response

There’s an adage that you’re never too old to learn something new and it’s so very true. When you learn something new, you change the neural circuits and eventually create new neural pathways in your brain. Most of all, you renew your appreciation for life and enjoy new vitality. It’s the same whether you’re learning something mental or physical—or a combination of the two. When you take up a new sport, you’ll have to learn the rules, but you’ll also have to learn how to move your body for the different physical demands of the sport.

Change your workout and get more from it.

Learning something new to add to your program of fitness does more than just build new brain pathways, it helps you lose weight, too. When you do the same routine consistently, your body becomes efficient at it. That means it burns fewer calories. You have to continually ramp up the routine to get the same results. Changing your workout not only helps prevent boredom, it helps burn more calories and shed pounds faster.

Find out the latest on nutrition.

You’ll be amazed a how many ideas of healthy eating are no longer valid. At one time, fat was the criminal that robbed people of a longer life. Now it’s known that you need fat in your diet to be healthy. Of course, that doesn’t mean trans fats that cause damage. Sugar often got off easy. Today we know that it’s not only sugar, but even some sugar substitutes that can wreck the body. In fact, that diet cola that was touted as the low cal alternative is shown to add inches to the waist. Learning new recipes that use whole food is a challenge, but one you’re sure to benefit from both mentally and physically.

Find a passion.

Learning something new is a way to find new things you enjoy and look forward to doing. You may never be a fan of golf, but find that rock climbing is a true rush. However, you won’t find that out unless you try both. Even activities that might not seem active, like gardening and treasure hunting with a metal detector, can get you up and moving when you otherwise might be glued to the TV. Having enjoyable activities in your life gives you a reason to get up in the morning….even on your day off of work.

  • Never lose your curiosity. You may have seen and done a lot of things in life, but walked through the activities blindly. Start watching the world around you closely and ask “why” a lot. You’ll be amazed at how much there is to learn.
  • Renew old interests. When you were a child, was there something you loved to do or investigate that was lost as you aged. Revive your old interest and start with a fresh eye. You may find it’s even more satisfying than you thought.
  • Learn how to calm your mind. We always think of learning new active things that stimulate the mind, but in today’s society, learning to think of nothing and calming the mind is a more difficult task. It might be the new experience you need.
  • Make new friends. Do something out of the ordinary that will have you mixing with others. Take a friend and experience it together. Journeys to new information are always more fun when shared with another.
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Create A Small Goal First, Then Achieve It

Create A Small Goal First, Then Achieve It

Published by on July 3, 2018 | Leave a response

Too often I see people give up before they even try to get into better shape. That’s often because the hurdles they must overcome to achieve their ultimate fitness goals seem too great. It’s one of the biggest problems faced by people who have a large amount of weight to lose or someone that has undergone a long period of inactivity. The key to getting fit is to start with goal you truly believe you can accomplish. It may sound simplistic, but it’s true. You need to create a small goal first, achieve it and then move on to another small goal. Eventually, you’ll reach your ultimately goal that would have left you feeling overwhelmed had you started with it first.

Baby steps aren’t bad, as long as you do them.

Big goals get big results. That statement is very true, but I find it also leads to people overdoing to the point of injury or giving up in frustration. If you have 100 pounds to shed, go with the 10% goal for the month. You’ll get quicker result, which can keep you motivated to stick with your program, tackling the next 10%—-9 pounds. You may even change your goals and add other types of fitness goals along the way, but starting with baby steps is the first goal to tackle.

Change your eating habits.

Some people do quite well changing over to a healthy diet all at once. Others find they miss their favorite foods too much, break down and eat them and then throw the rest of the diet out the window. You can overcome this problem by making smaller steps toward healthy eating. Learn how to make substitutions that don’t change the flavor but add more nutrients or are lower in calories. Start with eating healthy three days a week, then increase it one more day as you feel comfortable. Remember, even if “goof” and slip up one or two days, it doesn’t mean you give up. Go back to healthy eating again the next day.

Accomplishing small goals gives you more confidence.

As you set small goals and achieve them, you’ll boost your confidence. Yes, small goals are easier to achieve, but they also get results faster. Fast results are super big motivators. Some people who come to Next Level Fitness have tried and failed so many times, they believe that they can’t achieve their goals. That’s just not true. By achieving smaller goals, they start building their confidence to tackle even larger ones and eventually achieve what they thought was impossible previously.

  • You need to make your first goal challenging, but one that you can achieve quickly. Your goal actually may be to workout every other day for a month and walk for a half hour on the other days. It doesn’t have to be all about weight loss. Using a personal trainer can help you achieve that goal.
  • Look to other things besides weight loss to accomplish. For instance, use body measurements, body mass index or the intensity of your exercise as a marker.
  • Track your progress in the gym. Record the number of repetitions, sets or the amount of weights you lift. Set a small goal to be able to do more, based on your present level of fitness, the next month.
  • Get a pedometer and track your steps. This is one of my favorite things to have people do outside the gym. Make your ultimate goal to get in 10,000 a day on your day away from the gym. Wear it the first few days just to identify how many steps you normally do.
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