Fitness4Her

Women's Fitness

Your Health Is More Valuable Than Wealth

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It is health that is real wealth, not pieces of gold and silver. –Mahatma Gandhi

Many people strive to attain wealth at the expense of their own health. They mistakenly believe that their health will not fail them, that there is plenty of time to take care of the body. They chase after gold and silver without considering the priceless gift of health that they are trampling upon in their foolish fight for wealth. Sadly for most of these people, they never appreciate their health until it is gone.

The truth is that the best investment you can make is in your health. The amount of time you spend exercising will have enormous benefits. I promise you will never regret the time you spend engaged in physical activity. You may often dread working out, but rarely do you feel like you wasted your time after a good workout. More often than not, we feel so good after vigorous exercise that all we can think about is how amazing we feel.

Exercise and fitness are an important part of a healthy body but so is your diet. Especially for managing your weight, your diet is the foundation for losing weight and keeping those pounds off. You may need to make changes in your lifestyle, learn some new ways to cook old favorites, or cut back on your portion size, to reach the weight that is healthiest for you. Keep in mind when you give up old habits, that your reward is a healthy slim body that will be easy to manage for many years to come. Remember the old saying, “a minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.”

Your health is more valuable than anything you can buy. Protect your health, be good to your body and treat it with respect. The payback is tremendous and cannot be purchased with gold or silver. More important than wealth, health will bring you happiness and contentment for the rest of your life.

A Sexy Smile Can Transform Your Face

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A warm smile can melt an iceberg. There is something sexy about pretty teeth, especially when a woman smiles. A subtle invitation that indicates friendliness, most public speakers will tell you that they seek out a smiling face in a crowd to relieve stage fright.
When a sincere smile shows off healthy shiny white teeth, the smile becomes an adornment for the entire face.

On the contrary, dingy or decayed teeth can hinder the look of the smile. Decayed teeth can lead to many health problems from bacteria and abscess and should be treated as soon as possible. Dingy teeth may show improved results with whiteners, either over the counter brands or having it done at your dentist’s office. It’s even possible to get your teeth whitened at the mall.

However, there is such a thing as too white of a smile. If people start putting on their sunglasses as soon as you walk into the room, chances are you have gone overboard on the whitening process. If this happens, you can drink tea, eat some berries or other colorful fruit or vegetable to tone down the brightness of a too white smile.

Excessive whitening can cause over sensitivity to the teeth and surrounding gum tissue. Your dentist may recommend that you use a toothpaste for sensitive teeth before and after your whitening process. A fluoride toothpaste may be used too, to help protect the teeth from decay.

A sexy smile is more than just an adornment for your face, though. Healthy teeth and gums can protect your heart and overall health. The same bacteria that cause plaque in the teeth is responsible for plaque build-up in the arteries too. It is believed that proper dental care can help to protect your body at one of the earliest sources of bacterial infection—your mouth.

Love Your Heart With An Active Lifestyle

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The number one killer of women is heart disease, according to the American Heart Association®. The good news is, there are many steps you can take to protect your heart and make it healthier. But first you need to know your risk factors, important information like your family’s history of heart disease. Did your parents, grandparents, or siblings experience heart disease and if so at what age? Sharing these informative facts with your physician can help determine your risks.

Your diet plays a big role in your heart’s health, too. So does getting ample sleep. But neither of these risks figures in as dangerously for the heart as the effects of a sedentary lifestyle. Inactivity is a killer for women and men, alike. Outside of smoking, a sedentary lifestyle is one of the unhealthiest behaviors, but fortunately, this behavior is completely preventable.

Exercise, on the other hand, is one of the healthiest behaviors in which you can participate. It has been proven that even moderate exercise leads to a healthier heart. The more active and fit a woman is, the less chance she will have for coronary heart disease. Many studies have been conducted over decades and each time the results are pretty much the same. Exercise and an active lifestyle will keep your heart healthy.

There are so many forms of exercise to keep your heart healthy. Believe it or not, housework can count as exercise, too. But remember, your goal should be to reach a cardio heart rate for at least 20 minutes. It may take you a while to get there but the more you train your heart the stronger it will become.

Walking and jogging are also good forms of exercise that even a beginner can excel at. But if you need something more stimulating, try taking tennis, dance or spinning classes to stir up some fun. Any sort of sport that you enjoy playing will help you to work your heart and increase oxygen circulation, the key to helping your heart work at optimum condition.

Your body’s ability to take in and use oxygen improves with regular exercise making it easier on your heart to reach a cardio heart rate. Effective exercise occurs when the heart, lungs and muscles work together. Regular cardio exercise will help your heart to become a more powerful pump so that it can supply the body’s needed oxygen at a slower heart rate.

Exercise is essential to a heart healthy lifestyle. Love your heart and become an active participant in your own life story.

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.

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.