Work Out Secrets

1. Keep your work outs fun and creative!
Have fun working out by playing with your dog, so maybe you can take little ol spike out to the dog park for a romp off leash. Or if you don't have a dog play tag with the kids, or if you don't have kids get your friends together for touch football... what ever it is just be active and make it fun!


2. Keep track of your calories!
Try using a pedometer/calorie tracker (i've been meaning to get one of those!) You'd be surprised how much you can burn just by going for a walk instead of taking the car every where. Its a good motivator to see those results and he encourages everyone to have something in their life to look at so they know they're doing something right.

Also, recent studies show that people who keep track of their calories on average lose more weight when dieting than those who don't!

The study, published in the August (2008) edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, included 1,685 overweight or obese U.S. adults aged 25 and older.
For six months, they kept food diaries and were encouraged to eat a healthy diet and be physically active. They also met weekly in groups to share their food diaries and brush up on skills like how to judge portion size.
After six months, participants had shed almost 13 pounds, on average. The most powerful predictor of their weight loss was how many days per week they kept their food diary, says Victor Stevens, PhD, senior investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore.
Those who kept food records six days a week -- jotting down everything they ate and drank on those days -- lost about twice as much weight as those who kept food records one day a week or less, Stevens tells WebMD.

Why Food Diaries Work

"I think the most powerful part is accountability and the next most powerful part is increasing awareness of where those extra calories are coming from," says Stevens.

Source: WebMD.

That reminds me I gotta log into spark people and enter my food for today!


3. Don't be a Couch Potato!


Even if you are obsessed with TV  always try to stay active by doing some sit ups and push ups at commercial break.

Here's some Health Class 101 for you:

Calories: Fuel for your body

Calories are the energy in food. Your body has a constant demand for energy and uses the calories from food to keep you functioning. Energy from calories fuels your every action, much as gasoline powers your car.

Regardless of where they come from, calories you eat are either converted to physical energy or stored within your body as fat. Unless you use these stored calories — either by reducing calorie intake so that your body must draw on reserves for energy, or by increasing physical activity so that you burn more calories — these calories will remain within your body as fat.

Source: Mayoclinic.com.

So plain and simple if you're a couch potato, you're not going to burn off any of those calories and it will turn into fat!


4. Don't do something that doesn't Motivate you! Enjoy your work out!
There is nothing that will turn you off faster from keeping an exercise routine than hating the routine. Find that activity that your truly love then make that your routine, than maybe add other exercises that are going to help improve your overall fitness which will make you better, faster and stronger at your favorite activities!

Here's an Example. I love soccer (as you may have read before ;o)) So I decided to start playing soccer. But I sucked at it and I wanted to improve.

I needed to improve my cardio endurance... so I started taking spinning classes

I needed to run faster ... So I started doing sprint intervals

I needed to be stronger ... So I started lifting and doing a full body work out

Now I have more speed and confidence on the field and I still get to enjoy my favorite activity as part of my routine!

So Stay active, Be aware of your diet and keep it Fun!