Staying Motivated to Stay in Shape After the Summer

With the cooler weather swiftly approaching again, now is a good time to think about your winter workout routine. If you’re not a big fan of the cold and snow, you may need a little extra motivation to leave your warm bed on a chilly morning to get moving. Just because we trade our bathing suits for big sweaters doesn’t mean we should hibernate and take and take a vacation from exercise.

You’ll be taking in just as many calories as during the summer, possibly even more with all the favorite winter comfort foods. Nobody needs an analyst or a psychology degree to understand how it’s easier to pass on exercising and settle in on the couch with a big mug of hot cocoa while you watch the snow fly, but you aren’t doing yourself any favors. If you’re not burning those calories off somehow, ultimately, packing on the pounds is inevitable.

Healthy Knows no Season

Your skin may notice the change in temperature, but everything inside your body still functions the same way regardless of the calendar. Working out can make you look great on the outside, but the most important part of regular exercise is the beneficial effect it has on your heart, lungs, and muscles.

When you exercise and fuel your body with proper nutrition, it can perform much more efficiently. Keeping in mind that exercise will help you live a longer, healthier life is sometimes the only motivation you need.

Preventative Maintenance

Much like a car or any other machine, your body needs regular maintenance to keep it running smoothly. If you’re prone to catching colds, you should consider exercise and a healthy diet as two of your best weapons to fight them off. If you run or do other exercise outdoors, getting out in the fresh air is always good for you, especially during the colder months when the windows are usually closed. Working up a sweat can help the body rid itself of toxins and carcinogens. In addition, the rise in body temperature may slow down different types of bacterial growth, making recovery processes more effective if you do come down with something. Not only will you keep colds at bay, you’ll also be reducing the likelihood of some potentially major health problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, and even cancer.

It’s Easier Mentally and Physically

The winter blues and cabin fever are other common problems many people face during the winter months. Regular exercise causes release of endorphins, which can make you feel happier and less stressed and keep depression in check.

Putting on weight over the winter is the main reason most people make New Year’s resolutions. By the time spring rolls around, they might feel the pressure with swimsuit season right around the corner. This is usually the time we shift our workouts into high gear, especially if we procrastinated for a few months.

If we instead stay motivated all winter and diligently stick with our exercise, we won’t have to make up for lost time. The vicious cycle can be broken if you keep exercise a part of your life throughout the entire year. If you have a hard time working out in the heat, autumn and winter weather could make your workout more comfortable, and getting into a yearlong exercise habit that much easier.

Try Something Fun

The change in season is also a great time to adjust your regular workout to make it more winter-friendly. There are plenty of recreational ways to stay active during the colder months. Sports such as skiing, skating, and snowboarding are some of the most popular choices. Other fun activities like sledding, building a snowman, and even a vigorous snowball fight can get your heart rate up and help you sneak in some exercise disguised as playtime.

Abandoning an exercise program just because it’s cold is never a good excuse. With the right attitude and a little willpower, anything is possible. The benefits are too many to ignore, and ultimately are the best motivation to make and maintain the commitment to exercise. If you’re the type of person that doesn’t like being cold, exercise is also a sure way to warm you up. When you’re done, you can look forward to a warm shower and a cozy sweater; but you won’t be using the sweater to hide anything.

About the Author:

Allison Gamble has been a curious student of psychology since high school. She brings her understanding of the mind to work in the weird world of internet marketing.” However, if you’d prefer to break the link, my bio is “Allison Gamble has been a curious student of psychology since high school. She brings her understanding of the mind to work in the weird world of internet marketing with psychologydegree.net.

While every endeavor is best met with confidence, setting the right fitness goals also involves a realistic approach. If a new fitness regimen is too aggressive, especially in the early stages, resolve will suffer and inevitably deter any serious progress. The best way to map out a successful workout regimen, then, is to first assess your ability, set specific goals, establish a workout program and allow room for self-forgiveness.

Assess Your Ability

Even if you feel intimated with your limits, designate a day to officially record your results in whatever areas you are looking to improve. If you want to achieve a certain mile time, for example, run a mile and record your time as day one of your exercise log. Make sure to note any relevant circumstances in doing this that may affect your trial, such as weather, amount of sleep, and so on. Once every relevant time, amount of weight, or maximum amount of repetitions is recorded, it’s time to establish a specific set of fitness goals.

Plateaus and Diminishing Returns

There are two major principles that every motivated person should apply when setting fitness goals. First is the concept of diminishing returns. If you can already run a mile in less than seven minutes, make sure to set expected progress levels at small increments. Expecting to drop a minute in a week, for example, is unrealistic for that mile time. On the other side of the spectrum, those with mile times of 9 minutes or more should expect to improve more rapidly, although every second shaved only comes with hard work. Both groups of people are capable of reaching the same goal, but less fit individuals will initially improve at a faster rate.

Next is the infamous plateau effect. Whether it is bench press weight or a mile time, athletes often talk of “the wall” that prevents them from meeting their goals. To anticipate plateaus when setting fitness goals, give yourself more time to achieve landmarks as you increase in fitness. This will incorporate both principles and give you the time to diversify your workout with muscle confusion and cross training to break through the wall.

Realism and Self-Forgiveness

As it concerns the numbers themselves, there is no equation relating a starting point to a final goal because of the variable of motivated effort. Even the most determined, however, need to allow self-forgiveness in setting realistic fitness goals. Telling yourself that it’s okay to miss one workout or have a burger once or twice a month, for example, will prevent the psyche from forcing the body into regression mode. After an aggressive, realistic program is established, the only thing left is to put in the hard work.

This guest article was contributed by Jennifer Bell from Health Training Guide. Check out her site to learn more about medical transcription training and other exciting health careers.

Exercise provides benefits in countless ways. For some, it lessens stress and prevents obesity. For many others however, it’s after effects aren’t always physical.

A recent study from the National Academy of Sciences provides that prolonged amounts of exercise can actually promote heightened cognitive functions, particular to the brain’s hippocampus (memory center). As we age, it’s been stated that the
brain loses 1 to 2% of volume each year. The effects of this are seen in ailments like dementia.

The study was quite simple actually – 60 Americans in their late 50s to early 80s walked 3 times a week for exactly 40 minutes. Another 60 performed yoga and various toning exercises. Using MRIs (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), it was demonstrated that the hippocampus in the walkers increased by 2% in volume. This was against a controlled experiment in which it shrank by 1.4%.

According to researchers, both groups showed tremendous development on spatial memory tests. Similar results demonstrate that most effects were prevalent in the anterior hippocampus, as opposed to the posterior. The anterior typically shows the most declines during these late stages of life.

Interestingly enough, physical exercises 3-4 times a week can help with things like anxiety, sleep disorders, metabolism problems, and short-term memory and self-esteem issues.

It’s only natural that after a great workout session, we feel better about ourselves. This comes hand in hand with naturally raised levels of endorphins throughout the body. These endorphins help relieve tension and psychological distress; they trigger positive feelings in the body, similar to that of morphine. Also known as “runners high,” this feeling can give anybody a positive outlook on life, and lead to increased satisfaction. Furthermore, this promotes habits that can be viewed as exercise for the brain, or mental stimulation.

Of course, everything is connected in one way or another, but increased physical exercise always seems to yield both physical and cognitive benefits.

Jim Rollince of Gym Source, distributor of home training equipment includingtreadmills, bikes, ellipticals, home gyms and more!

This last few months has had more than its share of sickness. We have the regular flu which kills about 35,000 Americans yearly. In addition to that we have had the Swine Flu. Other colds and flu viruses have kept American families hopping with one child, a parent, another sibling and so on sick until it seems some families have been sick for many weeks at a time.

Remember that one of the best ways to keep immunities high is to keep active. Regular trips to the gym, and or maintaining your personal exercise routine is the modern apple a day. You know this. You have heard your friends, family and the small communities of people with whom you share your particular passions the stories of how they got sick when they quit running, hiking, swimming, etc for a few weeks. This fact keeps many of us maintaining our routines.

Be smart. If it is too cold, or the roads are icy, make adjustments. If work gets hectic, or schedules fill up, make adjustments. Sometimes taking a week or two off can help sore muscles heal, and tendons repair themselves. But the trick is to get back to some kind of activity quickly. Run stairs at work. Do leg exercises in your cubicle. Do the low crawl as you do housework. Park your car at the far end of the parking lot. Put your fry sauce at the far end of the counter so you have to reach farther.

Nothing good can happen in your life without personal discipline. This is another word for sacrifice. Sacrifice bears its own special fruit. One of the choice fruits of regular exercise is health. Our immune systems are stronger. We are susceptible to fewer illnesses. This connection between regular exercise and strong immune systems has been demonstrated. We know it works, and it is cheap. We all have other people, our jobs, our children, who need us. When they get sick, or have their emergencies, it is we who fill in and make life work. Stay healthy and keep exercising for your sake and the sakes of the people who depend on you.

–

Get started today with a free exercise log from Maintain Fit

So I’ve been posting resources about either downloading or making a printable food diary. The first resource I posted was this food diary, but I found the some people had very particular needs about what they wanted to track. So I went ahead and created this post about how to create your own food diary.

If my original version wasn’t enough or you just want some other alternatives, Google may have your answer. I this short video I show you one compelling alternative that I found on Google.

When I say compelling, it’s important to understand that what I mean is it must be simple. You would say that the probability of you keeping a consistent, daily food diary is inversely proportional to it’s complexity. That’s a fancy way of saying that the harder it is to track your meals, the less likely you are to do it.

So stop fretting and get started logging your hours today. And just in case you need a little more motivation, you should read these posts I’ve put on about the risks of poor diet choices. It turns out that your diet alone is a strong indicator of whether or not you’ll end up with heart disease, diabetes and even cancer. Have a read on some of these:

• America keeps getting fatter
• Too much red meat increases risk of death
• Healthy lifestyle best way to beat cancer: new evidence shows
• Run to live longer and healthier (slow the aging clock)

The fact is that by monitoring and managing your diet, you can realize some big health gains.  Take a minute and watch the video below to get some ideas of alternative printable food diaries.  Then, take a minute and leave a comment.

I put a printable food diary up on the blog a week or two ago and had some good feedback about it. One thing that some people were interested in was the ability to make it a little more personal (custom). I kept mine pretty simple on purpose, since in my experience the more simple something is, the more likely it is to get done.

But, if you’re the type that want’s to tack everything under the sun, you might want to create a personalize food log/diary that meets your specific needs. Keep in mind that customizing the fields that you keep track of is easy inside maintainfit.com, but if you want to make your own printable food diary that is custom for what you want, maybe you should try using Excel.

It’s really pretty basic, so if you’re reasonable good with Excel you shouldn’t have any trouble at all. For example, if you want to track grams of sugar, trans fat, saturated fat and calories, you would just add each one to a heading. You can use the page break view to see how it will print out and then print it to record your meals/snacks for the week. You can even come back and update your food diary in Excel to keep a running total (don’t forget to add a date column in that case).

I made this short video to show you what i mean. After you watch it, take a minute and post your comments about the video here.

I’ve just posted a new video for the homepage of Maintain Fit that teaches the two best techniques I’ve ever learned for consistent, effective motivation to get out the door and exercise.  The stem from my nine years as a runner.

The first is social obligation, which is best illustrated by a running partner.  When you commit to someone that you’ll meet them for a workout or a run, then you socially obligate yourself to show up and greatly increase your chances of getting out the door.

The next technique is called psychological momentum, and has a lot to do with how to form habits.  This technique takes advantage of a fitness log to make your progress toward specific goals more noticeable and to provide you with momentum (motivation) to stick with it on the low days.

The video runs about six minutes and is the first of several that I plan to produce.  Others will deal with these techniques, but will also highlight the best features on Maintain Fit.

Leave your comments about the homepage video in this post.  You can watch the video here free personal fitness log.

(skip to the bottom to just print out your printable food diary [PDF])

How important is what you eat?  It may be the single biggest lifestyle choice that’s within your complete control that affects your health and longevity.  In recent years, mounting scientific evidence has clearly shown the relationship between diet and cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

It’s also shown the flip side, that when we make good diet choices, like whole grains and vegetables, our health and energy increase.  So what’s keeping us from all making the diet choices that are necessary to enjoy life to the fullest?

Food is social (and emotional)

The first thing that comes to mind is my mom’s Sunday roast beef and mashed potatoes dinner.  I can’t think of a more comforting meal, and I would guess that you have one too.  Food was a social thing long before it was a cause of disease.

In fact, the taste, smell and setting for each meal registers much higher in our minds than the nutrition label, which is why it’s so important to get in the habit of making deliberate health choices.  I was reminded of this again while reading in the Runners World magazine today.

Trade off between meat and veggies

They discussed the benefits of eating a variety of foods, mentioning that it wasn’t necessarily healthy to eat only meat or only veggies.  Some of the reasons they gave include the fact that meats contain some really beneficial nutrients, like iron, zinc, protein and B vitamins.  Fish have omega-3 fatty acids.  But these come with the negatives of saturated fat and cholesterol.

So, they suggested that a good balance is where you’ll find the biggest benefits.  But beware of changing your diet too quickly.  The human body needs time to adjust to new foods.  For example, changing your diet to include whole grain and lots of legumes can be a bit of a shock to the body.  It’s best to start small, maybe substituting some lentils for some meat in your dinner.

Dramatic changes in health from small changes in diet

Mark Bittman, author of Food Matters, told of how cutting back on meat in his diet lowered his cholesterol, his blood sugar decreased and he lost 35 pounds.  That all happened within a few months.  He even said that because he felt lighter his knees started to work again.

Even if you gave up one cheeseburger a week, that’s something.  And over time you can replace it with more healthy alternatives.

Diet resources

As I was looking into this I found that there was a need for a printable  food diary.  I created a printable food diary based on the food log inside Maintain Fit (if you haven’t already, go here to sign up for an  exercise log).  Here is the food diary:

Printable Food Diary

In case you wanted to go a little deeper, here are links to the books I mentioned in this post

As a final resource you could keep track of your health by following the HCG Diet to maintain your desired body.

Don’t forget to post a comment and share what works for you or suggest items that you would like to see in the food log or this printable food diary.

The last video I posted was about starting an exercise program using social obligation.  This video talks about one of the biggest objections that I get from people when it comes to finding a partner to exercise with.  Drumroll please….

He’ll run faster/slower than me.

I suppose it could be any number of things, like cycling further, swimming better, etc., but what it really comes down to is that asking someone to exercise with you can make you feel vulnerable and embarrassed.  I don’t discount the concern, but I think that a lot of people worry way too much about it.

In my own experience, and in conversations with dozens of people, the differences between difference partners isn’t that big a deal as long as you have a healthy idea of why you’re out there in the first place.  If you’re primary purpose is to get some exercise then the most important role a partner plays is to get you out the door.  Remember that you’re not there to compete with your partner, but to work with her.

Have a look at the video and then post your comments sharing your own experience.

I’ve posted before about the sad state of American Health as reflected in our collectively increasing waistline.  And it’s not slowing down.  23 US States report that adults among their population are fatter today than they were a year ago.

This might seem bad enough due to the negative effects it has on the lifestyle of the person carrying the extra weight, but there are other, possibly bigger, issues at hand.  For example, with the increasing levels of obesity, several health factors are on the rise.  In particular, being overweight and obese has been linked in recent research to:

• Diabetes
• Heart Disease
• Cancer
• Stroke

So while someone might argue that “my weight is my business and I’m not hurting anyone but myself by how I live”, it’s fundamentally wrong.  The fact of the matter is that rising instances of obesity are a major contributor to the health care problems in the US today.

Obesity rates among youth are also extremely high with 30 states reporting child obesity rates at above 30%.  That’s a lot of children that are daily increasing in their risk of developing obesity related diseases.  I would be interested in seeing research that explored the potential decrease in annual health care costs nationally if we could just get obesity rates down.

Maybe instead of working on universal healthcare, Obama could instead work on a plan for universal exercise and good nutrition.  Prevent the rise in healthcare costs rather than find a way to pay for them.

——————————-

Maintain your weight and boost your energy with an exercise log.

You can find the original article here.