“How To Achieve Maximum Weight Loss & Fitness Results In Minimum Time”

“Ten Tips For Looking And Feeling Ten Years Younger.”

I would like to introduce to you all a contributing guest: Steve Dibbins, NASM Certified Personal Trainer. Owner of Fitness Together/Owasso,OK and Bartlesville, OK

1. Set realistically attainable goals. You must have tangible shortterm

and long-term goals for your fitness program so that you can

gauge your progress and stay motivated. It’s crucial to have a

baseline before you begin so that you can measure your success.

A qualified personal trainer (like me) can give you a complete

fitness analysis that will aid you in developing a personalized

fitness program which addresses your particular needs. Having

goals, particularly short-term goals, allows you to track your

progress and keeps you motivated when times are tough and you

don’t feel like exercising. Keeping a journal of your cardio and

resistance training workouts, as well as tracking what you eat is

truly a fitness success secret. Just remember that your goals

should be realistic and attainable. The best way for you to

understand what is realistic and attainable for you is to talk to

a fitness professional not to buy into the hype of

infomercials or diet and fitness products that blatantly mislead.

2. In the beginning your fitness plan should not be overly

aggressive. One of the biggest problems most people encounter

when starting a fitness program is rapidly depleted motivation

after only a few weeks due to an overly ambitious fitness plan.

Two days per week of 20-minute low-intensity cardiovascular

exercise (walking, jogging, biking, swimming); and two days per

week of 30-minute light resistance training (using weights or

resistance machines) is adequate in the beginning. As you become

acclimated to the lifestyle shift you can add more days and get

improved results. But beware: if you try to do too much too fast,

you may end up quitting altogether. If you’ve tried and failed

doing it alone then I suggest you get a training partner or

personal trainer who will help you sustain your motivation and

accountability.

3. Eat regularly throughout the day. Fasting or overly restrictive

diets will enable you to lose weight in the short run. Because

the weight you lose is primarily water weight and lean muscle

tone. But in the long-run it has exactly the opposite effect you

want. When you restrict your diet, your body instinctively thinks

it’s being starved and shifts into a protective mode by storing

fat. Your body’s energy expenditures will be fueled by your lean

muscles causing your body fat to remain essentially the same while

you lose vital fluids and muscle. The less muscle you have, the

slower your metabolism becomes, and the less fat you burn. You

should be eating three nutritionally balanced meals each day, and

you should have at least one or two healthy snacks. Avoid fried

and processed foods at all cost talk about dead calories! Here’s

a good rule of thumb: make sure that you are consistently

"grazing" on health foods about every three hours. This includes

at least half a gallon of fresh water every day. This keeps your

metabolic furnace firing, so you burn more at a faster rate.

4. If your goal is fat-loss then your cardiovascular exercise should

be low intensity initially. Your heart rate during cardio

exercise should not exceed 50% to 70% of your maximum heart rate.

Let me say that in another way: If you can’t hold a conversation

during your (fat-loss) cardiovascular training then your

intensity is to high -- bring it down. If the intensity of your

exercise increases your heart rate beyond 70% (which can occur

very easily if you are in poor shape), you start shifting from

using body fat as your energy source to relying on glucose

metabolism. Your personal trainer can supply you with a simple

heart rate monitor you can wear during exercise so you always stay

in your peak fat-burning range. As your heart becomes better at

it’s job, we will be able to utilize changes in intensity.

5. Don’t waste your time working small muscles with isolated

movements. If you don’t enjoy doing resistance training, or are

pressed for time, concentrate on working the largest muscle groups

with compound resistance movements. When I see overweight people

doing wrist curls or lateral raises, I cringe knowing that they

will not see results. It’s probably due to a lack of

understanding about how their bodies work. Most people want to

lose fat and tone and firm their bodies. The way to do that is to

use resistance (weights or machines) to train the large muscle

groups. Men should be concentrating on legs, chest and back.

Women should concentrate more on their legs and back. The best

exercises for legs are lunges or squats (a personal trainer can

show you the proper form and then monitor you during the exercise)

and the deadlift. One of the better chest exercises is the bench

press, and one of the better back exercise is the cable row. All

of these are compound movements, which means they incorporate

multiple muscle groups, and compound movements are known for

quickly increasing your metabolism.

6. Always stretch. Stretching improves flexibility, blood flow,

muscle recovery, low back pain and a host of other things.

Additionally, stretching can prevent injury, make you sleep better

and improve your performance in all sports. Always stretch, but

be certain not to stretch cold muscles. You should always warm up

before stretching. However, it is very important that you know

how to stretch to achieve optimal fitness results. Never bounce,

or aggressively push and pull a muscle beyond its natural range.

7. Never Ever do a traditional sit-up. Unless you are super athlete

with an incredibly well-developed midsection, sit-ups can lead to

a strained lower back and possibly lumbar injuries. But it gets

worse. Rather than hitting your abdominal section, sit-ups can

shift exercise tension to your hip flexors, which defeats the

purpose. There is so much misinformation about how to strengthen,

tone, and firm the midsection, it’s almost frightening. It is

very difficult to learn proper abdominal exercise technique by

reading about it or watching it demonstrated on a video. You need

to do it with supervision and get feedback about your form from a

knowledgeable source. And keep in mind that you use your

abdominal muscles in almost every single movement you make.

Strengthening your abdominal region is the single most effective

way to prevent, or recover from, low back pain and to get that

firm, slim look you are after.

8. Set exercise appointments with yourself. Use your day-timer to

set appointments for exercise, and then stick to them. You

wouldn’t miss a business meeting or client appointment, would you?

So don’t miss your exercise appointment with yourself. Nothing is

more important than your health. Nothing. Everything else will

crumble around you if your health goes south. So make your

exercise appointments a priority. If you find it difficult to

keep these appointments, then consider hiring a personal trainer

who will hold you to your commitment. When you have money

invested, and someone waiting for you to show up you are much

more likely to actually show up!

9. Remember the benefits of resistance training. Remember that

feeling of euphoria you experienced after a particularly good

workout? You experienced that feeling because the most powerful

"feel good" drug in the world, endorphins, are coursing through

your veins. If there is a panacea, it’s exercise. It will fuel

your motivation on those inevitable days when you just don’t feel

like exercising. Additionally, exercising with resistance has

tremendous benefits for your metabolism. Further, resistance

training is the only way to sculpt, tone, and tighten your muscles

on demand. Do you want greater tone in your legs? Resistance

training will give it to you. How about a firm perfectly shaped

rear? Resistance training will give it to you. Firm tummy,

defined arms and a strong back? Resistance training will give it

to you. Being physically fit affects every single aspect of your

life: you sleep better, eat better, love better, overcome stress

better, work better, communicate better and definitely look

better!

10.Never Ever skip breakfast. If you want to maximize your fitness

results or fat-loss efforts, you’ve got to eat breakfast. Even if

you don’t exercise at all breakfast remains the most important

meal of the day. Your breakfast should contain complete proteins

and complex carbohydrates (if you’re trying to lose weight, you

should eat the bulk of your complex carbohydrates at breakfast and

lunch, and only have vegetable carbohydrates at dinner). A great

breakfast is oatmeal (not the pre-packaged, pre-sweetened kind)

with a little honey and banana and a protein drink. Or try

scrambled egg whites with Healthy Choice turkey sausage.

There you have it. Ten essential strategies for an effective

weight loss and fitness program that will have you looking and

feeling better than you have in years maybe ever! I realize that

starting (or re-starting) a productive and effective weight loss

and fitness program is not easy. That’s why I encourage you to

get help.Because the hardest part is just getting started and sustaining

your motivation until fitness becomes habitual. Once you develop

the habit, which can take as little as thirty days, your whole life

will change for the better.

Thank you.

Yours in good health,

Steve Dibbins

Website: http://www.owassopersonaltraining.com

Enjoy, everyone!

Eve :-)