Exercise Before Dinner
Photo by Carl Mueller
Just before dinner is a great time to exercise. After a long day at work or home, it will perk you up and help put you in a more relaxed mood.
It won’t work if you allow yourself to get too hungry however, so make sure you grab a healthy afternoon snack or crunch on an apple a little while before you start.
Even a quick walk in the fresh air, a five-minute bike ride or a run around the park with your kids will help reduce your appetite a little and give your metabolism enough of a boost to cope with the meal to come. And you can still do this even if you did your workout earlier in the day.
Reminding yourself of your health goals in this way by deliberately doing something active before you prepare food and eat a meal gives your subconscious a nudge so you tend not to overeat so much and ruin your good intentions.
Digging for Victory : Work Out in Your Back Yard
If your garden is looking a bit jaded at this time of year get outside for a great work out this weekend as long as the weather is not too unkind.
According to Diane Irons, author of “The World’s Best-Kept Diet Secrets” (seems to be out of print but available on ebay) you can use up to 150 calories in 30 minutes with a bit of effort.
You’ll tone the following areas too
- Arms: heavy weeding and composting
- Chest: digging and hoeing
- Stomach: turning compost and raking
- Legs: raking, hoeing and digging
- Back: raking and lawn mowing
- Buttocks: weeding, digging and mowing
Just think of all that wholesome, fresh air and the sense of satisfaction you’ll get at seeing your newly tidied up garden.
And don’t forget to reward yourself with a long soak in the tub after all your hard work…
Something to Do At Your Desk Right Now
My friend Tracy Griffen ( featured in Harpers Bazaar as one of the best body trainers in the UK this month – go Tracy!) has been talking about the importance of range of motion in her newsletter.
Basically, if you don’t use the full range of motion your body is capable of then you lose it bit by bit. And let’s face it, we often don’t use our bodies much in the course of everyday life these days.
Tracy says..
By taking a joint through all the directions possible, you ensure that the joint has the necessary length of tendons and ligaments (the bits that hold your joints together) to cope with all movements necessary.
As an example, you can check the range of motion in your ankles right now at your desk.
Raise your leg a little and try to “draw” a circle with your big toe, circling your foot slowly from the ankle joint as far as you can in each direction. Make sure you move only your foot and not your leg.
If your circles are far from circular then you have work to do on your joints.
And in any case, whether you have good range of motion now or not, it’s a good idea to practice the movement every day to ensure your ankle joints stay flexible and less prone to injury.
10 Second Fitness Tip : Float Your Way to a Sexy Body
Use a float while swimming to shape up your lower body fast.
Not a float like the girl in this picture is using – that’s the kind of floating you do on your next vacation AFTER you get the sexy body 
The kind of float I mean is a polystyrene block that you hold onto – the kind you use when you’re learning to swim.
Just hold the float in both hands while doing freestyle (front crawl) or breast stroke kicks.
Perform the kicks as perfectly and as powerfully as you can to see mega quick results.
10 Second Fitness Tip : Late Night, Early Morning
If you’ve had a late night, exercise as early as you can the next day.
The longer you leave it, the more tired you’ll get and the more likely you are to decide to skip your workout.
An early morning run outside will blow away the cobwebs and make you feel miles better to face the day… even a gym visit before work will leave you feeling virtuous – at least you’ll be awake after it.
You know it’s true but will you do it?
Ladies : 12 Ways to Look Good Naked
The TV show “How to Look Good Naked” has been a raging success and with good reason – it tackles women’s insecurities about their bodies and makes them feel good about themselves – a sure-fire winner.
For a show about how to look good naked an awful lot of attention is focused on how to look good in clothes. I guess the confidence you get from looking good out and about (and the admiring glances you receive) translates to you feeling altogether better whether you’re wearing clothes or not.
Although the show has to be applauded for attempting to make women feel good about themselves without trying to change their shape, it does go against the grain a bit for me because I am all about helping people to improve their bodies and their health.
Let’s Face it – Your Mirror Doesn’t Lie
When you take your clothes off to get in your shower or to make love to your partner, you no doubt want to look good naked and when you look into your mirror . . . it tells you the truth, whether you want to ‘hear it’ or not. For many people, the mirror is the only time they ever see their toes . . . their excess flab, their love handles and every other bit hang without support – which means ‘how to look good naked’ is more than looking good in clothes.
And I believe the best way for you to look good naked is for you to actually work on your body so it’s the best it can be.
Nevertheless you can do a lot without making yourself feel bad about your body and feeling you are less than perfect because you can’t manage 2 hours a day in the gym.
So what can you do WITHOUT too much effort?
1. Good Fuel
Looking good naked is not about losing weight – most of the women in the show would have liked to be lighter but sexy does not have to mean twig-like. In fact it’s easier to be sexy with a few womanly pounds of flesh here and there than with a bony too-skinny look. Looking good naked DOES mean caring for your body with the right foods to make you feel great – good food and plenty of water to keep you nourished, hydrated and full of energy. And quite often the right foods will result in a slimmer body anyway.
2. Avoid the Pregnant Look
No one is going to look good naked with a stomach stuffed full of pasta. (Just look how you get a 5 months pregnant look next time you go into carb overload). If you want to look good naked, make sure you eat in moderation before you take off your clothes! And if the pregnant look is a constant feature of your body (and you haven’t stuffed yourself with carbs for ages) sign up for the FREE 5 Easy Ways to Flat Abs course here on this site and do something about it in just a couple of minutes a day.
3. Firm Not Flabby
It’s not only our stomachs which look better toned. We all look better – excess flesh or no excess flesh – if we have great underlying muscle tone. Just a few minutes a few times a week spent firming, toning and strengthening your butt, thighs, chest and arms will go a long way to making you look great without your clothes.
4. Pampered Soft Skin
The ladies on the Look Good Naked show have plenty of pampering beauty treatments to make sure that their skin is soft, hair-free and smooth. Flaking, rough skin, goose bumps and hairy legs are not the look you are aiming for…
5. Beautiful Color
If you’re pale, an even and subtle fake tan always makes flesh more attractive in and out of your clothes and helps cover a multitude of sins (fat and cellulite…to name but two).
6. Hair Update
Your hair is the only fashion statement you’ll be wearing so it needs to look current, soft, healthy and touchable (give the hairspray and sticky gel a miss). Most important of all you need a cut which suits the shape of your face and is in proportion to the size of your body. Find a good hairdresser and visit often for a regular trim and occasional restyle.
7. Don’t Forget Your Extremities
Make sure your hands and feet are beautiful with a professional manicure and pedicure or learn to do it yourself. Chipped nail polish, rough hands and jagged nails are not going to win any prizes in the Look Good Naked stakes.
8. A Bit of Makeup
You don’t want your face paint to come off on the bed clothes but a bit on subtle makeup can work wonders to accentuate your good points and camouflage the points you’re less than happy with. And you can also use a bit of body makeup to cover up flaws such as spider veins.
9. Smile
Don’t forget your teeth. If they don’t enhance your look and they make you want to hide your smile it’s time to save up, get over any fear you have of the dentist and get them sorted out.
10. Let Your Eyes Sparkle!
When your smile reaches your eyes you want them to sparkle not show the effects of too many nights burning the candle at both ends. Get plenty of beauty sleep before a big night or as a last resort for a special occasion, use those brightening eye drops.
11. Smell Good
Don’t overpower the world with too much fragrance or use a whole selection of competing products – differently perfumed shampoo, deodorant, soap and body lotion can be a toxic combination. Lightly layered perfume from matching bath products and no more than a light spray of fragrance from the same range will leave you smelling good as well as looking good.
12. Lighting
Remember that none of us looks our best under bright fluorescent light – soft lighting or candle light will improve the mood of the moment AND your body.
If all else fails, you’ve eaten too much pasta, your jeans have popped the first 2 buttons, you’re bleary eyed, your make-up is smudged and you never did do your toning exercises, bear in mind – the person you are getting naked with probably couldn’t care less – especially if you are going to get jiggy with it!
30 Second Fitness Tip : Think One Step Ahead
Why do you skip your regular workout?
Something comes up, right?
What if you know something is coming up tomorrow, do you still end up skipping your workout?
If you don’t plan ahead you probably will.
Many things which seem to “crop up” can be dealt with if you think about them in advance. For example,
- If you know that you have to be out of the house early, get things ready the night before so you still have time to do your workout.
- If you know you’ve got a meeting which might run into your lunch hour, go to the gym before work instead.
- If you think you’ll be too hungry after work to go training, take a light snack in your gym bag.
The same holds true for all kinds of diet disasters
- If you know you’re likely to eat the bread basket empty never turn up at the restaurant table starving hungry – eat an apple before you go
- If you can’t stop eating chocolate once you start buy a tiny individual chocolate bar instead of the mega bargain size
- If you will come in from work starving hungry and eat the fridge empty while you’re cooking – have some chopped veg in he fridge ready to nibble when you come in (and hide away everything else)
A bit of forethought can go a long way towards helping your success…
What is the Best Time to Exercise?
There are quite a few studies going the rounds about one time of day being more beneficial for working out than another.
Just ignore them!
The best time for working out is the time which is most convenient and works best for you – that means you’re more like to actually do it!
When I was working full-time in an office, I chose to work out at the gym (which was just around the corner) at lunch time. That gave me a much needed break and set me up for the afternoon.
Others liked to go to the same gym before or after work, but I found the “before” too much of a rush and the “after” encroached on my child-care responsibilities. (Not to mention I was hungry for dinner by that time )
Now that I work from home, I have to do something in the morning before my shower or somehow the day just disappears without me doing anything.
It all depends on the activity you’re doing too – you might have to fit in with an exercise class schedule or generally when your chosen activity is available – not much in the way of salsa dancing at 6 a.m. I guess unless you want to do it alone
30 Second Fitness Tip: Boost Your Workout Before You Start
According to a study (Stover, B. et al. 2003. Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology, 28 suppl s105) nearly half of all exercisers are at a disadvantage before they begin their workout and most don’t even know it.
How’s that?
Well, they arrive at their workout dehydrated.
Most of us know to drink fluid during and after a workout but did you know having a glass of water an hour or so before your exercise session makes your routine more effective?
How much should you drink?
The recommended amount of fluid to drink an hour before your workout is 17 to 20 ounces according to the National Athletic Trainers association.
There have been a few studies performed by those who sell those sports drinks (it figures) showing we don’t drink enough before, during and after our workouts because we find it hard to stomach plain water.
The thing is, water is the healthiest fluid to drink, and you really don’t need anything more expensive unless you are doing something more strenuous than most of us ever manage.
Not drinking plain water is a bad habit that a lot of us have got into in recent years.
Try drinking water at different temperatures. Some like it ice cold while others find it goes down more easily at room temperature. You can also have a cup of hot water with a slice of lemon if you need a warm drink.
10 Second Fitness Tip : Mini Workout at Your Desk
Are you slouching over your computer?
Sit up straight like your mom taught you!
Good posture at your desk means you’re engaging the core muscles in your stomach and back as you sit. And you’ll be getting a mini workout without taking up any extra time at all. Plus you’ll look like you instantly lost 10lbs and guard against a sore back.
That’s the theory behind those exercise ball chairs
I suppose sitting on a ball is bound to make you work harder at staying upright in case you land on the floor with your legs in the air (very undignified!)
Anyone tried one? Leave a comment and let us know how it worked for you…
-
CLICK ON THE IMAGE above
for your FREE course -
