Pay Up… and Then Move On

So you ate that cookie you were try­ing to avoid… or you stayed in bed instead of work­ing out… what do you do next? Do you for­give your­self and move on? Or do you crash even fur­ther into a tailspin?

Many folks feel so guilty that they throw their hands up in fail­ure and give in to even fur­ther temp­ta­tion before they get back on track. They think, “Well, I’ve already failed, so why bother even try­ing now?”

Don’t let this hap­pen to you. Every­one has a weak moment here and there — and that’s OK. If you fall into a trap, imme­di­ately rec­og­nize it and declare a con­se­quence for your­self. For exam­ple, give your­self extra chores around the house. Or, take away a weekly treat like your Fri­day night glass of wine.

By adding a con­se­quence to your slip-ups, you’ll stick to your work­out and diet rou­tine — or you’ll pay the piper — instead of feel­ing guilty.

How do you bounce back from temp­ta­tion? Share your thoughts by click­ing “Com­ments” above.

A Guide to Tracking Health & Fitness Online

Greatist​.com — which itself entered the health and fit­ness mar­ket this past year — has put together a best-of list of web­sites, iOS apps, Android apps and gad­gets to keep you fit and healthy.

The info­graphic also pro­vides some pow­er­ful incen­tives for track­ing your health and fit­ness using these new tools. Use one not listed in the info­graphic? Tell us about it comments!

How to Burn Your Holiday Belly

It’s no secret our hol­i­day tra­di­tions cause weight gain. The Amer­i­can Heart Asso­ci­a­tion reports most peo­ple gain five to 10 pounds between Thanks­giv­ing and New Year. Overindul­gence in alco­hol, desserts and tra­di­tional hol­i­day treats along with spend­ing more time eat­ing and less time exer­cis­ing may leave you with a lit­tle extra bulge in your belly.

If you are guilty of overeat­ing dur­ing the hol­i­days, here are some tips to get you back on track and burn off your hol­i­day belly.

1. Drink 80 oz. of water daily.

Drink­ing 80 oz. of water or more is one of the most impor­tant things you can do on a daily basis. It’s as nat­ural as you can get. There are no added calo­ries, or cho­les­terol, and none of those unhealthy addi­tives you find in other drinks.

Another ben­e­fit of drink­ing water is that it helps remove tox­ins from your body. It helps trans­port food from one part of your body’s diges­tive track all the way to the very end. Fur­ther­more, dehy­dra­tion can affect your metab­o­lism which can delay weight loss. Drink up.

2. Replace cof­fee with green tea.

Green tea can help boost your metab­o­lism and burn fat more quickly. It also con­tains caf­feine and antiox­i­dants. Green tea helps reg­u­late glu­cose, fight heart dis­ease, pre­vent can­cer, and reduce inflammation.

Another way green tea is good for burn­ing belly fat is because it is a nat­ural diuretic that helps reduce water weight from the body. This makes you look less bloated and helps clean out your sys­tem each time you drink.

3. Eat lots of fruits and veggies.

Fruits and veg­eta­bles are weight loss all-stars. Not only are they low in calo­ries and high in fiber, they con­tains antiox­i­dants that boost your health. It’s impor­tant to eat a wide vari­ety of col­or­ful fruits and veg­eta­bles every day to reap opti­mum health benefits.

4. Choose bet­ter carbohydrates.

Get rid of white sugar and processed car­bo­hy­drates and choose instead to eat whole grains. Good sources include: steel oats, brown rice, whole grains, yams, sweet pota­toes and legumes.

Eat car­bo­hy­drates after an intense work­out when your body is most recep­tive and will con­vert them to energy. Also include pro­tein and fats in your daily meals.

5. Stay active.

It can help you imme­di­ately feel bet­ter. Car­dio exer­cise can include brisk walk­ing, run­ning, bik­ing, danc­ing, or cross-country ski­ing. Doing car­dio four to five times a week with com­bi­na­tion of weight train­ing two to three times a week is a great way to burn body fat.

If you are not see­ing results, increase the inten­sity of your car­dio exer­cise. But give your­self time to see results. The key is to stay active.

We all overindulge from time to time but get­ting back on track is one of the best ways to deal with the stress and anx­i­ety that comes from overeating.

Start now. With each healthy choice you make, remem­ber your com­mit­ment to stay healthy and fit year-round while quickly burn­ing off your hol­i­day belly.

Source: Active​.com

Make it Work!

Time for New Year’s Res­o­lu­tions! Since you’re here, you prob­a­bly made some fitness-based res­o­lu­tions. We think that’s fan­tas­tic and we want to help you stick with them!

Here are some tips to help you stay on track:

1. Don’t rely on your level of moti­va­tion or emo­tions. Just do it!

EXPLANATION:

Action is gen­er­ally the pre­req­ui­site for moti­va­tion, not the other way around. If you think you need to wait for some inspi­ra­tion before you start your new exer­cise rou­tine and/or nutri­tional plan, you could be wait­ing for a long time.  Many sources sug­gest that new habits take a min­i­mum of three con­sis­tent weeks to form, and some­times longer.

2. Aim low to begin with.

EXPLANATION:

Many New Year’s res­o­lu­tions aim to change way too much, way too soon – and are soon com­pletely aban­doned due to unre­al­is­tic com­mit­ments and goals, as well as due to insuf­fi­cient ‘how-to’ infor­ma­tion. Instead of declar­ing that your goal is to lose 40 pounds, or to triple your strength – start with a tar­get that’s more rea­son­able, like los­ing 3 to 5 pounds in the first month, or per­haps lift­ing weights that are 10 to 20% heav­ier than nor­mal, then pro­ceed from there.

3. If you can’t resist temp­ta­tion, take it out of the kitchen!

EXPLANATION:

Even ath­letes are human beings, and are influ­enced by the five senses – touch, taste, smell, sound, and sight! Prac­ti­cal Fit­ness Tips rec­om­mends remov­ing all ‘bad temp­ta­tions’ from your home – or, if liv­ing with oth­ers, at least remov­ing as much as pos­si­ble from sight. This includes all junk foods, sug­ary snacks, choco­late, alco­hol, ice cream and other sim­i­lar items.

Obvi­ously, if you know in advance that you will be enter­tain­ing guests on a cer­tain evening, there is noth­ing wrong with pur­chas­ing a few items on that day – and a quan­tity suit­able for that evening only – no pur­chas­ing ‘Buy 3, Get 1 Free’ items! If you have noth­ing to ‘tempt’ you in the house in the first place, you can save your­self hun­dreds of calo­ries per week.

4. Don’t be a perfectionist.

EXPLANATION:

Don’t beat your­self up over the occa­sional slip – whether it involved miss­ing a few too many work­outs, or ‘giv­ing in’ to your diet on a Fri­day night while out with friends. An ‘all-or-nothing’ approach can be deter­mi­nan­tal, as life doesn’t gen­er­ally fol­low a con­sis­tent and pre­dictable path – includ­ing in the New Year. Expect to slip-up from time to time, and when it hap­pens, just get right back on track imme­di­ately after­wards. If it makes you feel bet­ter, if you ate or drank too much at a par­tic­u­lar meal (or entire week­end!), sim­ply increase the inten­sity level of exer­cise and con­sume slightly fewer calo­ries dur­ing the next few days – no prob­lem! Focus on your weekly calo­rie con­sump­tion, not just daily.

5. Tell your fam­ily, friends and colleagues.

EXPLANATION:

Speak­ing of ‘giv­ing in’ on a Fri­day night, one way to min­imise such occur­rences is to share your goals with every­body you know. A room­mate or fam­ily mem­ber will be less likely to offer you a slice of cake if they know you’re try­ing hard to reduce your calo­rie intake!

Find some­body with a sim­i­lar goal, and keep one another account­able by check­ing in with each other reg­u­larly to make sure you’re both on-track.

How do you plan to stick to your res­o­lu­tions? Share your advice here!

Source: Adapted from Prac­ti­cal Fit­ness Tips.

25 Little Tips for Big Weight Loss, Part 1

1. Good things come in small pack­ages.
Here’s a trick for stay­ing sat­is­fied with­out con­sum­ing large por­tions: Chop high-calorie foods like cheese and choco­late into smaller pieces. It will seem like you’re get­ting more than you actu­ally are.

2. Get “water-wise.“
Make a habit of reach­ing for a glass of water instead of a high-fat snack. It will help your over­all health as well as your waist­line. So drink up! Add some zest to your six to eight glasses a day with a twist of lemon or lime.

3. Herb it up.
Stock up your spice rack, and start grow­ing a small herb gar­den in your kitchen win­dow. Spices and herbs add fan­tas­tic fla­vor to foods with­out adding fat or calories.

4. Slim down your soup.
Make a big batch of soup and refrig­er­ate it before you eat it. As it cools, the fat will rise to the top and can be skimmed off the surface.

5. Doggie-bag that din­ner.
At restau­rants that you know serve large por­tions, ask the waiter to put half of your main course in a take-home box before bring­ing it to your table. Putting the food away before you start your meal will help you prac­tice por­tion control.

6. Lis­ten to your crav­ings.
If you’re crav­ing some­thing sweet, eat some­thing sweet—just opt for a health­ier snack (like fruit) instead of a high-calorie one like ice cream. The same goes for crunchy cravings—for exam­ple, try air-popped pop­corn instead of high-fat chips. It’s just smart substitution!

7. Ease your way into pro­duce.
If you’re new to eat­ing lots of fruits and veg­eta­bles, start slowly. Just add them to the foods you already enjoy. Pile salad veg­gies into your sand­wiches, or add fruit to your cereal.

8. Look for high-fat hints.
Want an easy way to iden­tify high-calorie meals? Keep an eye out for these words: au gratin, parmi­giana, tem­pura, alfredo, creamy and car­bonara, and enjoy them in moderation.

9. Don’t multi-task while you eat.
If you’re work­ing, read­ing or watch­ing TV while you eat, you won’t be pay­ing atten­tion to what’s going into your mouth—and you won’t be enjoy­ing every bite. Today, every time you have a meal, sit down. Chew slowly and pay atten­tion to fla­vors and tex­tures. You’ll enjoy your food more and eat less.

10. Taste some­thing new.
Broaden your food repertoire—you may find you like more healthy foods than you knew. Try a new fruit or veg­etable (ever had plan­tain, pak choi, star­fruit or papaya?).