Fitness4Her

Women's Fitness

Slim For Life

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You can be slim for the rest of your life when you make fitness a top priority. Imagine never having to worry about your weight, never having to feel awkward about your size. If you have been struggling with your weight and searching for a solution to slimming down, I have good news for you. Fitness will keep you slim for the rest of your life.

If you burn more calories than you eat, then you will lose weight. If exercise is a regular part of your schedule and fitness has a firm footing in your life, then you will never have to worry about gaining weight again.

Most women, if they were active when they were young, weren’t plagued by sudden weight gain. But as we grow older, we become less active and as a result our bodies burn fewer calories. Our metabolism slows and it becomes harder to lose the weight once we gain it. However, we can turn back the clock and train our bodies to start burning calories again. Exercise is the key.

A combination of resistance and cardio exercises is a must for any fitness program. Resistance exercises build muscle, increase flexibility and burn calories. Keeping your body in shape with resistance exercises will probably mean less chance of injury when you perform a task that your body isn’t accustomed to. Staying agile through exercises such as yoga or Pilates is also a great way to keep your body long and lean. Each exercise works various muscle groups, to lengthen and strengthen your muscles, organs and improve your health to make you healthier mentally, physically and spiritually.

Cardio exercises burn even more calories and improve heart functions as well as building stamina. Your heart is strengthened through cardiovascular exercise and these exercises also burn calories to help you lose weight. Building your cardiovascular strength means it will be much easier to complete every day tasks without fatigue as well as those unusual times when you may need extra strength to accomplish a new challenge.

Confusing your muscle groups is a great way to build strength and tone your muscles too. Keeping your muscles confused will help them to work harder. Between sets of your resistance exercises, take a minute and run in place, do jumping jacks, jump rope or hop on a treadmill or an elliptical machine. Reversing exercises, walking backwards, running backwards, working your biceps and your triceps are all great ways to train opposite areas of your muscles to keep you slim for life.

Imagine a Slimmer You

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Most women who are trying to lose weight have an idea of how they want their body to look. They imagine themselves as a slimmer version. This visualization helps to define how they want to change their body and sets a goal for the brain to follow. The more a person engages in this type of visualization, the better chance they have for reaching their goals.

Imagine a slimmer you and keep your imagination stimulated with lots of visual aides. If you have old photographs of yourself in a slimmer body, put them in frames and place them in areas where you will see them often. If you don’t have photos of yourself, choose images of women who have figures that you admire. These visual reminders will help to keep your imagination vivid.

When top athletes enter the ring, many of them use visualization. Either, due to the fact that they have been there before or because they have totally imagined the scenario and practiced their reactions, the act of visualization allows these athletes to perform under pressure with spectacular results. The same can apply for women who want to take their workout to the next level. Imagine the exercise, visualize the muscle groups that will be engaged and plan your reaction to the resistance of the challenge.

For the brain, this act of visualization is almost the same as if you had actually done this task before. You imagine the exercise and the muscles being used and you see yourself doing all of the reps and sets suggested. If you visualize each step before actually executing these moves, your success rate will soar.

There are so many possibilities when you practice visualization. It can boost your ability to achieve many of your goals, help you to reduce stress and benefit your relationships with others. Any ideas you have must first start with visualization.

Along with imagining a slimmer you, you will want to visualize living a healthier, more active lifestyle. You will want to focus on eating healthy foods and exercising regularly. Women’s fitness requires much more than imagination. It requires the commitment, dedication and perseverance to make positive lifelong changes in diet and exercise.

Early To Bed And Plenty Of Rest

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Rest is essential for women who want to be healthy and fit. Most people require 7 to 10 hours of sleep each day to reach their full potential. Not only is the amount of sleep important for optimum health, research has shown the time of day that we retire is also very important. Sleep experts say that if you go to bed early and wake up early, you will experience better restorative sleep, allowing you to be more productive during the day.

For me, rising early means quiet time at my house. I use this time for my affirmations, journaling, goal-setting and planning my day. It’s a great time to exercise, go for a morning jog or do some resistance exercises in my living room. What I enjoy most about rising early is that it gives me time to focus on my goals and take control over my life. Planning healthy meals is also easy when I inventory my supplies first thing in the morning. This way I ensure that I have all the ingredients I need for healthy, satisfying meals. I have found this to be a good way to avoid the temptations of fast foods when I am hungry for a quick meal.

If you have trouble going to bed early, try going to bed each night just 5 minutes earlier. Continue this for a full week, and you will soon be retiring 35 minutes earlier. Try reading something enjoyable to help you get ready for rest. Studies have found that reading is a much more relaxing prior to bedtime than television watching. However, if you enjoy watching a little television before retiring that works too. Just try to stay away from viewing shows that tend to excite or aggravate you, as this may interfere with your sleep.

Another great pastime before going to bed is making love. Sex is the perfect way to relax and exhaust your body physically and mentally. It has been attributed to deep and restful sleep and will benefit both you and your partner.

Your bed and bedroom are also important for restful sleep. A comfortable bed and a cool and relaxing bedroom, free of distractions will help you sleep like a baby. Get to bed early and arise each day with enough time to exercise, write in your journal and eat a healthy breakfast.

Five Points To A Perfect Posture

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Growing up, I remember hearing the words, “stand up straight,” coming from some concerned adult directed not only to me but every other adolescent and teen I knew. I have repeated the phrase several times myself and for good reason. Good posture is the foundation for a fit and healthy body. The better your posture the greater your balance, strength and range of motion. Increase flexibility, improve digestion and reduce stress as you learn the five points to a perfect posture.

1. Examine your posture in front of a full-length mirror. Are there any parts sticking out that shouldn’t be? Are your shoulders hunched forward or your belly sticking out? Straighten your posture as much as possible, and make a mental picture of the way you are standing. Keep this in mind as you move about your day, stopping to straighten your posture until it begins to feel natural. Continue this as you sit, stand, or bend.

2. Engage your core in everything that you do. Training your core muscles is one of the best things you can do for your posture, your abdominal muscles and the health of your back. Draw your navel in towards your back and hold it for as long as you can. Practice makes perfect, so do this often until it becomes natural.

3. Work on your balance. Exercising on a balance ball will help to strengthen your core muscles and improve posture. Some women I know have found it helpful to sit on a balance ball at their desk. This is a great way to work those core muscles and perfect your posture.

4. Remind yourself all throughout the day to stand up straight. Just like your mother used to do. Ask family, friends and co-workers to help remind you, too. These constant reminders will help you get straight.

5. Sit up straight. As important as it is to stand straight, it is equally important not to slouch when you are sitting. Just like sitting on the balance ball helps to improve posture, making a point to sit up straight will do wonders for your back and belly muscles. It also helps your digestion, especially after eating.

Perfect posture is like women’s fitness, it takes a little work but the pay off is priceless. But just like fitness, you begin to enjoy the benefits of a good posture almost immediately. Treat your body with the respect it deserves. Stand up straight and be noticed.

Journaling – The Best Kept Secret For Staying In Shape

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When asked what my secret is for staying in shape, my response varies. I could answer that it is my diet or that I exercise 6 days a week or that I truly believe that a fit body is a healthy body. The truth is that journaling is the real secret behind my success.

Journaling is the act of keeping a journal. While there are all sorts of journals, like work journals, travel journals, or personal journals much like diaries, the journaling I am referring to is a fitness journal. Within the pages of a fitness journal, I record everything that I eat and everything that I drink. I record my physical activities such as my strength training sessions and my cardio workouts. I make notes of the level and intensity of each exercise and write down how much time I spend walking, running and playing.

There are many advantages to keeping a fitness journal. It gives me a starting point and helps me to visualize my goals. The very act of writing these acts in a book, make them more of a reality than if I just keep it all in my head. When I am ready to take my workout to the next level, I write these goals in my journal and then form a plan to make them happen. It’s not always easy, it’s not always convenient, but I truly believe that it helps me.

It has been proven time and again, that people who keep a journal of every thing they consume and all the activities they do to burn off calories have a far better chance of success in losing weight and getting in shape than those who do not. It’s such an easy and rewarding activity and it really does help to validate your fitness goals.

You can purchase a journal with pages that can be removed or added or you can just use a composition notebook. In this digital age, many women prefer using their phones or computer to record their food consumption and workouts. I prefer the old school method of actually taking pen to paper and writing. I enjoy writing and the act of journaling both soothes and energizes me in so many ways.

The wonderful thing about writing down your goals, is reading them later and reflecting on how much hard work, commitment and dedication it takes to achieve the goals that you set for yourself. Begin journaling today and you can turn your dreams into reality.