Great Moves to Fight that Muffin Top

http://www.fitsugar.com/Muffin-Top-Workout-29204565

More:

http://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/lose-pooch-best-exercises-lower-abs/slide/7

 

At Home Workouts That Anyone Can Do

Below are some of my favorite workouts!  I have them easily accessible on my iPad so that I can refer to them when it is time to work!

Click on the picture (above) or the link (below) to see this great workout.  Remember, if you can’t do them the way they are shown, modify them and, eventually, you will be able to do it their way!

http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=your_excuseproof_workout_plan

 

Commercial Breaks!  Wow!   It’s a video!

http://www.fitsugar.com/Home-Workout-Watching-TV-26950047

 

Great Yoga Workout with step-by-step instructions!

http://www.fitsugar.com/Basic-Yoga-Sequence-33065422

 

Some of my favorites:  (click on the pictures to go to the pages)

 

 

More to come!!!  So, what are you waiting for?  GET MOVING!!

How to Track Calories In and Out to Help You Lose Weight

It is totally amazing what one can learn once you force yourself to stop and take the time to do a little research!  I have always known that you have to burn more calories than you take in if you want to lose weight, duh, but I never knew the bottom line.  I really wanted to know so I decided to do a little reading to enlighten myself.  I am hoping that what I have learned can motivate others and awaken the desire to work harder to become a much healthier, happier person!

This may sound like overkill, but I am currently using My Fitness Pal and Weight Watchers Online to help me lose weight.  Normally, I just plug in the numbers and try my best to do what it says.   Now that I know a little more, it is clearer to me what I, personally, need to do and know in order to help lose weight.  Please remember though, that you didn’t gain weight in a few days so you won’t lose it in a few days.  You must be patient.  I read this quote once:  “A diet is like a marriage, if you cheat, it will never work!”

I like to list my points because I feel that most people would rather read concise bullet points instead trying to find the meat of the message in a long paragraph!

• Find out how many calories you should take in each day if you want to lose weight.  My best suggestions for this is to do it through My Fitness Pal (I am telling you, it is the bomb!)

• If you are not tech savvy enough to get into My Fitness Pal to fill in your basic information for them to process, then a good rule of thumb to follow is 1,200 calories per day.  This is NOT necessarily the best for everyone, but it is a good place to start if you have no clue!

• Once you find out how many calories you need to take in, you need to find a way to monitor the calories that you burn.  If you don’t want to join Weight Watchers or another weight management program, My Fitness Pal is free!  I love it.  I have been very successful using it in the past.  So have many others!

• A good rule of thumb for “how many calories to burn to lose weight” is that you should never burn more than 1,000 calories more than you take in (for instance, if you take in 1,200 calories a day, never burn more than 2,200 calories that day).  This is important because it can be counter-productive and can adversely affect your health.  I have read that for menopausal women, you must burn at least 450-500 calories more than you take in in order to lose weight.

• How do I know how many calories I am burning in a day?  Here are some suggestions:

Option 1:  Purchase a FitBit:

1. You can get them in many places, like Walmart or Target, but I found the best price on Amazon.com.  I have seen them from anywhere between $85.00 and $99.00.   There are several different models so you would have to decide which one works best for you.  I use the FitBit One, which I clip on the waistband of my pants.  If you have trouble losing things this small, you might want to try to FitBit Flex which is like a bracelet or a watch.
2. The FitBit works extremely well because it keeps track of all of the steps you take each day (very eye opening!), the calories you burn each day (including in your sleep!), and how many miles you “exercise” each day.  The One also keeps track of the number of stairs you climb each day.
3. If you log in to the FitBit site (on your computer) and set up an account, you can sync your FitBit to your computer daily (and on your smartphone..free from the App Store) and see all of your statistics online too.

**This is a great way to make sure that you are burning at least 500-1000 more calories than you are taking in.

Option 2:  Use Runkeeper, it’s free!

See my ealier blog on this:  http://midlifefrenzy.com/2014/04/27/try-runkeeper-to-track-mileage-and-calories-burned/

Option 3:  Use a treadmill or other equipment that tells you the calories you have burned (and log them).

Option 4:  Just Exercise  (Even if you have no other way of tracking your calories burned throughout the day, at least make sure that you burn 400-500 calories through exercise.  You can easily find a calorie calculator online which allows you to input the exercise, time and intensity to give you the calories burned!).

A Few Helpful Numbers 

IMPORTANT NUMBER TO REMEMBER:  it takes 3,500 calories to burn a pound of FAT.  Think about this, to keep it realistic:  if you burn 500 calories per day more than you take in, it will take you approximately 7 days to lose one pound of fat.  If you want to lose it faster, then, as you can see, you will have to burn more than 500 calories more than you take in.  So, if you eat 1,200 calories, you must burn more than 1,700 calories.

TO GIVE YOU A BASIC IDEA:  I am a teacher so I walk a good bit.  In one day, at work only, I generally walk between 4,000-5,000 steps and I burn between 1,400 to 1,800 calories.  This, of course, is not enough for me to lose weight.  SO…I must go home and burn more calories!  However, I DO make an extra effort to walk as much as possible at work or to take the long route around!

On weekends, I may have an inactive Saturday and take only about 2,500 steps (this is a little high for being inactive because I go grocery shopping every Saturday) but I also can burn 1,500 calories if I am just getting up and moving around, cleaning house, or doing some activity throughout the day.  Actually, that’s not so bad.    Remember, it is just a snapshot but it should give you an idea of what you might burn in an average day.  However, walking fast or running, or engaging in other active exercise, depending on how fast you are exercising, will result in you burning more calories in fewer steps.  Keep that in mind.

• I measure my exercise calories through both my FitBit AND/OR Runkeeper.  Runkeeper measures calories burned through walking, running, cycling (stationary or a real bike), elliptical, weight training, skiing, hiking, skating, swimming, and the list goes on!   I find that Runkeeper helps me to be more successful in burning more calories.  The best part is that I can use my phone for this!  I turn on Runkeeper and take it on my walk, run or bike ride or whatever I am doing that day.  If I walk or run on the treadmill, I just use the treadmill numbers and plug them into Runkeeper after my workout.

• Want to know the coolest thing about using FitBit and/or Runkeeper along with My Fitness Pal?  You can set them up so that they SYNC with one another.  This means that whatever you log on FitBit or Runkeeper automatically posts to My Fitness Pal and logs in your exercise for you!  My Fitness Pal gives you an ongoing summary throughout the day of the difference between your calories in and your calories out!

I am sure that I forgot something super important but, if you have any questions, please ask in a comment and I will answer it the best that I can.

I hope this helps someone understand this whole concept better.  AND, I hope it motivates you to burn more calories!

Quickies: Get Moving and Burn Calories

I am in between blogs.   I am working on my next one which will help you to determine how many calories you need to burn each day and ways to track your mileage and calories.

So….since I know many of my followers are just starting or just getting motivated, I thought I would list a few simple, but effective, things that you can do during the day that can really ADD up to calories (and FAT) burned! Some are very obvious, but it can’t hurt to be reminded!  Here goes:

1.  Turn on the music and dance, just because you can!  It will not only burn calories but it will lift your spirits!

2.  Jog in place while you are on the phone or watching TV.

3.  Take the stairs instead of the elevator.

4.  Park your car further away from your destination..

5.  Do sit-ups, crunches, or other abdominal exercises while you watch TV.

6.  Make more trips up the stairs, just because…

7.  Suck it in!  Every time you remember, suck in your abs and hold them for as long as you can.

8.  Stay vertical!  Don’t sit down and let your fat cells get any rest!  Keep them working and burning!

9.  STRETCH, it will make you feel better if nothing else (but, yes, stretching does burn calories!)

10. March in place.  Lift your knees up high!

11. Walk faster.

12. Play music that makes you move more.

13. SWING with the kids!  It really DOES burn calories. SWING HIGH!  It uses your abs and hips.  You can feel it!

14.  Sit up straight and suck in your abdominal muscles!

15.  Sit in a chair and squeeze your buns, hold for 30 seconds, release, and do it again until they burn!!

16.  Do push-ups against the wall.  You may not realize it, but it will work your arms.  Step back a few steps, keep your feet in place, and push!

17.  Get down on all fours and do leg lifts.

The list could go on.  If you want more ideas, check out my Pinterest fitness pins: http://midlifefrenzy.com/my-fitness-pins/ 

What did YOU do today to promote your health and wellness?