Pedometer Weight Loss Program
A few people have asked me about my walk off your weight program.
It is a simple step by step plan for losing weight by walking. A pedometer helps by measuring the number of steps you take each day – and you help yourself by gradually increasing that number 
Though the plan was kept exclusively for my private weight loss clients until very recently, I decided at the beginning of December that others might appreciate this program especially in these credit crunch times when a hefty gym membership fee might be out of reach.
Since then I’ve expanded it for general consumption and released it out into the world for those who need a low-cost way to get fit and lose weight.
You can find it on eBay U.K. just now. If you’re not in the U.K. or you’d prefer an immediate download (and no postage charges) you can also get it here.
Walking, Fitness, Weight Loss and Me
I feel that walking has had a bad press among exercisers. After all, it can’t be real exercise, can it…
- if you don’t have to get yourself to a gym
- if you don’t have to learn complicated moves with state of the art equipment
- if you don’t have to get showered immediately afterwards
- if you don’t even need to change your clothes before you begin ?
Yet regular walkers are some of the fittest and healthiest people around and they rarely suffer the injuries and set backs of runners, joggers and regular gym goers.
Usually at this time of year I am thinking about starting to run as training for an annual charity race – the Race for Life. Then as I get going I decide I hate running and never run again after the race until the same time next year.
This year I’ve decided to add a regular walk to my fitness routine instead and see how I like that as a “rest of my life” activity. It feels right as I will be following in the footsteps of my Dad who walked every day of his adult life until he died last year aged 86 – staying fit until the very end.
Walking is great for weight loss too of course. Though that’s not my primary motive in taking up this form of exercise, I have some clients who follow a weight loss walking program I put together and find this the very best way to lose weight and keep it off. It will do me no harm to join them – especially as I have eaten so much after Christmas….
Secrets of a 4 Minute Workout
The idea of a 4 minute workout is very appealing. Let’s get it all done in 4 minutes and get on with your life.
I came across this fitness video today which is meant to be a 4 minute workout for beginners.
No beginners I ever met could manage this 4 minute exercise program, so please don’t even try unless you are reasonably fit!
But if you are why not give it a go…
If this 4 minute workout looks too strenuous for you, yet you want to get fit without taking up much time, my Fitness in No Time program will be much more to your liking
5 Ways to Make Exercise Easier on Yourself
1. Plan Ahead
Always have your exercise kit ready and available. Have enough workout clothing so you can get a fresh kit together right after your workout while you’re still feeling good about having gone out for a run or to the gym. And keep it in a handy place at home ready to grab and go or store it in your car trunk so it’s always with you.
2. Follow a Program
Follow a work out program which is suitable for whatever stage of fitness you have reached. If you follow a pre-designed program you never have to think about what to do today – it’s all worked out in advance. If you are more experienced, you can create your own workout plan making sure that you don’t go too far too fast to avoid injury and over-training.
3. Get the Intensity Right
Use a heart rate monitor in conjunction with your program to ensure you are working at the right cardio intensity. You will also be able to follow your progress by seeing a reduction in your resting heart rate and the rate for any particular cardio exercise as you get fitter.
4. Schedule Your Exercise
Make an appointment with yourself as if you had a personal trainer turning up and expecting you to be ready to work out. Write it in your diary and schedule the rest of your life around your exercise sessions so that you make time for them.
5. Stay Healthy
Good food, plenty of sleep, proper hydration and avoiding cigarettes and too much alcohol and will make the job of keeping fit a lot easier than if your life is filled with late night booze sessions and junk food. If you do feel ill, give yourself a break from exercise and don’t force your body to work when it needs rest and recuperation. You’ll get back to full strength a lot faster.
Push Ups for Everyone
Push ups image by Urban Mixer
Push ups are a great exercise because they use your own weight to build strength. You can do them anywhere – whether you’re stuck at home with the kids or out on the road travelling – you don’t need a gym or any equipment.
And they strengthen and tone your whole body engaging muscles in your chest, hands, arms, shoulders, back, stomach, legs and feet – and probably a few other places as well.
But the classic push up everyone is familiar with is not an easy exercise to do correctly.
You have to build up to that.
Wth that in mind, fitness trainer Funk Roberts has created a push up challenge page to teach everyone to master the perfect push up without props or problems.
He has every stage of push up perfection covered from beginners who push against a wall to intermediate exercisers who use a modified form of push up (the knee push up) to a more advanced level ready for the perfect push up.
You just have to find the right place to start for you and not go too fast too soon.
Funk’s blog post lays out a push up training program to take you from beginner to 10 perfect push ups in 8 weeks. This should be possble but your results may vary In any case you’ll get there by progressing through the stages one at a time.
If you ever wanted to be able to show off perfect push-ups, Funk’s page is a great place to start.
No Time to Get Fit?
I read in the local newspaper yesterday that the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gets up at 4am to go to the gym.
No wonder she looks so good at 53.
It’s not that she is any different to anyone else. As she says
“Like everybody, I get up some mornings and think “I can’t do it” and then I think “Sure you can, because you won’t feel alert if you don’t”"
Although you might think being featured regularly in the media might give you the motivation to stay in shape, (and I’m sure that would work well for me – vanity prevails) the same can’t be said of some stars who get in and out of shape with alarming regularity. Don’t they care when a million people see their flab over breakfast? I sure would.
If you know getting up at 4am is not an option, yet you’re so busy it’s the only time you can see free in your schedule, why not take a look at my Fitness in No time program because 10 minutes, three times a week and a simple home routine is all you really need to get in shape.
Maybe Condoleezza should try it for those days when matters of State get in the way?
Get the Truth from Body Fat Monitor Scales
I have a tyrant in my bathroom, lurking in the corner every day – a Tanita body fat monitor scale
But I’m really quite grateful to that scale.
I’ve long been an advocate for daily weighing when you want to maintain your weight and my trusty scales let me know as soon as my weight is creeping up.
If I’m 2lbs over my target weight for more than a day I am on the case. (Don’t know about you but my weight can easily fluctuate up and down by a pound or so for all manner of reasons other than pigging myself and being a lazy slob).
I’m not perfect by any means but I feel it’s an occupational responsibility to keep reasonably slim and fit otherwise what good is it me trying to tell my clients how THEY can get fit or lose weight?
To be honest, I’m always struck by the pretty sizeable men and women (even those who have lost some of their vast bulk successfully) selling diet books and programs – I have come across 3 in the past week where I thought they could be listening to their own advice a bit better first. (And no I’m not going to name names because I think that would be pretty hurtful – you can see them for yourself all around the net) I just don’t want to be one of them.
The scales I use also have an inbuilt Body Fat analysis function. I don’t use that very often – maybe once a month or so (I can never remember how to do it without getting out the instructions).
I know body fat analysis with scales is not that accurate but I think it’s worth getting that functionality if you are going to buy scales anyway. It lets you do a regular check to see if it looks like you are losing lean body mass (muscle).
If you lose weight too fast (more than one or two pounds a week after the first week or two of initial rapid water weight loss) or you don’t keep active enough, you are probably reducing the proportion of lean tissue in your body. You can tell this is the case on your scales if your weight is going down but your body fat percentage is not.
If you lose as much (or more) muscle than fat, you will pile the weight back on after you stop dieting. Muscle is active tissue which burns fat even at rest and you don’t want to lose ANY of it.
Keep up your lean body mass with exercises to tone and strengthen your muscles while you lose weight – at the very least keep as active as you can so that your body does not give up muscle tissue without a fight.
See the whole range of Tanita body fat analysis scales here.
More on the Myth of the Fat Burning Zone
A little while ago I wrote about the myth of the fat burning zone – the idea that moderate exercise is the best way to burn fat.
This myth led to every piece of cardio equipment at the gym being given a misleading fat burning program or fat burning zone workout.
You think you’re doing well – 30 minutes “burning fat” – when really you’d be better getting on your treadmill and doing interval training for the same period (and you’d continue burning fat after your workout).
The myth arose because you burn proportionately more fat when you exercise at a moderate pace than you do when your workout is more intense – so a bigger percentage of the calories used come from fat.
You just tend to forget that you use fewer calories overall!
Anyway, I read today in Personal Trainer Cliff Lathams‘ newsletter something even more interesting about fat burning. He says
“I have news for you. You burn a higher ratio of fat to carbohydrate during complete rest. Therefore, sleeping would burn the most fat off your body. And you don’t really think that sleeping in on Saturday morning helps you reach your goals do you?”
Mmmh – think about that next time you step on your treadmill and choose your workout program.
Too Tired to Exercise?
Sometimes it’s the thought of exercise (or of having to get your kit ready, get changed, get out there) that is off-putting.
Just get yourself to take the first step – getting your kit ready – and then see how you feel.
Can you do one more step?
What’s the betting that you can and you’ll be wearing your exercise gear before you know it.
Then ask yourself whether you could do just 5 minutes. Course you can! Then you’ll be exercising tired or not. And if you feel like stopping, stop – at any time. But you probably won’t.
If you’re lacking in energy, exercise is actually the best thing you can do. Research has shown many times that it gives you MORE energy not less.
In a 14 week program, women exercising 20 to 40 minutes 3 times a week on typical cardio equipment found that their energy levels increased 50 to 100% – with those most lacking in energy finding the best improvement on average.
Don’t let feeling sluggish be an excuse to be a slug.
Fitness Tip 7 : Monitor Only Your Own Progress
You can see the insecure gym-goers a mile off – taking more notice of what everyone else is doing, how much weight they are shifting, how fast they are going on the treadmill, rather than focusing on getting on with their workout.
But the thing is, bodies are all different so there’s no point comparing yourself to others even if you are doing the same routines or trying to achieve the same goal.
The only thing which counts is that you are making a consistent effort with your workouts. If you make the effort and follow a good program you will see progress in your body – you will be getting fitter, leaner, stronger and more flexible day after day.
It takes motivation to keep going when the going gets tough – to turn up and “just do it” as the saying goes when you are tired or busy or just don’t feel like it.
The best way to keep up your motivation is by monitoring your progress. Make notes on every workout and what you achieved in a fitness log and you’ll see that your consistent effort is giving you results. The very worst way to keep motivated is to continually check your progress against Mr or Mrs Universe at the gym.
There will always be someone better (or worse) than you, but any comparison other than a comparison of last week’s, last month’s or last year’s with today is totally worthless to you.
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