Weight Debate

Do you want to make positive, lasting changes in your life? If you do, it helps for you to spend some time thinking about motivation!! What are your personal goals, what obstacles do you anticipate and how might you overcome them? It is also a good idea to visualize your success and consider how you might celebrate your achievements.

Visualizing Your Goals
Believing in yourself – believing that you can leap barriers and achieve your goals – is the ticket to success.

One of the most powerful tools for building self-confidence is visualization. This easy technique involves imagining the accomplishment of the changes or goals you are working to achieve. It’s a process of “training” purely within the mind. By visualizing in detail your successful execution of each step in a given activity, you create, modify, or strengthen brain pathways that are important in coordinating your muscles for the visualized activity. This prepares you to perform the activity itself.

The technique mentioned below is useful in many areas of life, for example, from avoiding anxiety during a stressful situation, to performing well during competition. You may also find it a powerful tool in strength training.

• 1. Identify the goal you want to visualize – for example, walking a golf course.
• 2. Find a comfortable place to sit and relax.
• 3. Eliminate all distractions – turn off the phone, television, etc.
• 4. Close your eyes and focus on feeling relaxed. Free your mind of intruding thoughts.
• 5. Now, imagine yourself on the golf course. Create a picture in your mind of the place – the sights, sounds, and smells. Imagine a perfect day, warm and sunny, with a gentle breeze. Picture yourself with your favorite golfing friends, talking and laughing. Now visualize yourself starting on your way, passing the golf carts, and setting off to walk the whole course.
• 6. Take a moment to feel the pleasure and excitement of achieving this goal.
• 7. Then imagine yourself walking from hole to hole, enjoying the sunshine, the views, the fresh air, the good company and excellent play.
• 8. Finally, visualize yourself finishing the course and feeling great, both physically and emotionally.

Stay Motivated
Consider these factors that motivate people to begin and stick with their exercise program. Then identify which ones motivate you.

• Pleasure - People often really enjoy strength-training exercises – they find them less taxing than aerobic workouts and love the results.
• Health and fitness benefits - Strength training increases muscle mass and bone density. It makes you feel strong and energized, alleviates stress and depression, and gives you a better night’s sleep. And it can help prevent the onset of certain chronic diseases or ease their symptoms.
• Improvements in appearance - Lifting weights firms the body, trims fat, and can boost metabolism by as much as 15 percent, which helps with weight control.
• Social opportunities - Exercising with friends or family gives you a chance to visit and chat while you work out.
• Thrills - People who start strength training later in life often find that they are willing and able to try new, exciting activities, such as parasailing, windsurfing, or kayaking.

Source: www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/

Your child may already be meeting the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Many physical activities fall under 2 or 3 different categories, making it possible for your child to do each type of activity in one day. Regular physical activity in children and adolescents promotes health and fitness!!

Compared to those who are inactive, physically active youth have better overall health: read more »

The pelvic tilt exercise improves your posture, and tightens the muscles in your abdomen and buttocks.

1. On the floor or on a firm mattress, lie flat on your back with your knees bent, feet flat, and arms at your sides, palms facing the ground.

2. To a count of two, slowly roll your pelvis so that your hips and lower back are off the floor, while your upper back and shoulders remain in place.

3. Pause. Then, to a count of four, slowly lower your pelvis all the way down.

4. Repeat 10 times for one set. Rest for a minute or two. Then complete a second set of 10 repetitions.

Always be careful… what is easy for one person might be strenuous for you. Consult your doctor before starting any exercise program.

The best exercise for your bones is weight-bearing exercises.

Your bones play many roles in your body. Your bones provide:

• Structure
• Protect organs
• Anchor muscles
• Store calcium

Adequate calcium consumption and weight bearing physical activity early in life builds strong bones, optimizes bone mass, and may reduce the risk of osteoporosis later in life.

Weight-bearing exercises are any activity that a person performs that works bones and muscles against gravity.

Some examples of weight-bearing exercises include:

• Basketball
• Carrying a child
• Climbing stairs
• Dancing
• Field Hockey
• Gymnastics
• Hiking
• Jogging
• Jumping rope
• Racquetball
• Running
• Soccer
• Tennis
• Walking
• Weight training, weight lifting

Examples of exercises that are not weight-bearing include swimming and bicycling. Although swimming and bicycling help build and maintain strong muscles and have excellent cardiovascular benefits, they are not the best way to exercise your bones.

Adults should engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most, preferably all, days of the week.

Children should engage in at least 60 minutes of moderate physical activity on most, preferably all, days of the week.

If you have health problems – such as heart trouble, high blood pressure, diabetes, or obesity – or if you are age 40 or older, check with your doctor before you begin any regular exercise program.

Would you like to be more physically active, but have excuses not to be, or maybe your are not sure if you can be more active than you are?

Well, you don’t have to run or do push-ups to get the benefits of being physically active – and you can have fun and feel good doing it.

Use your imagination or try some of these suggestions if you are able to:

• Dance to music – Dancing on your feet is a good weight-bearing exercise. Dancing while seated lets you move your arms and legs to music while taking the weight off your feet. This may be a good choice if you cannot stand on your feet for a long time.
• Swimming and water workouts – puts less stress on your joints because you do not have to lift or push your own weight.
• Walk outdoors.
• Be active with friends.
• Go ice skating or roller skating.
• Play golf.
• Do some gardening or yard work like mowing the lawn or raking leaves.
• Wash the car.
• Do some housework.
• Sit less.
• Walk more while doing your errands.
• Park further away from the grocery store or mall.
• Walk to each end of the mall when you go shopping.
• March in place during TV commercials.
• Take a bicycle ride
• Take 2 to 3 minute walking breaks at work a few times a day.
• Put away the TV remote control and get up to change the channel.
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator but make sure it is safe.
• Stand or walk, rather than sit while talking on the phone.
• Play with your kids, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, etc.
• Walk to your coworker’s office instead of using the phone or emailing.
• A shopping trip can be exercise – it is a chance to walk and carry your bags.
• Get off the bus or subway one stop early and walk the rest of the way but be sure the area is safe.

Any physical activity is better than none, start where you can and gradually increase the amount of physical activity you do.

It is recommended to do 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most days of the week. And don’t worry if that sounds like a lot to you, because it doesn’t have to be done all at once. You can break up the 30 minutes of activity by doing 10 minutes of activity three different times of the day. A few minutes of activity here and there can really add up.

Remember that physical activity does not have to be hard or boring to be good for you. Anything that gets you moving around, even for only a few minutes a day, is a healthy start to getting more fit.

Have fun trying different activities you really enjoy.

These slow stretches help prevent back injuries and make your muscles more flexible.

Hold each position for 20 seconds and repeat 3 times. Good to do before you start your job everyday.

It doesn’t take much time to improve the strength and flexibility of your back. In just 10 minutes a day, you can perform a few exercises, which can prevent a lifetime of low back pain!

The exercise below strengthens your stomach muscles:
Lie on your back with both knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Slowly raise your head and shoulders off the floor, keeping your hands across your chest. Work up to 30 repetitions.

The exercise below strengthens your low back:
Lie on your back with both knees bent and your feet flat on the floor.
With arms lying at your sides, tighten stomach muscles, squeeze buttocks, and slowly raise your hips into the air. Hold for 5 seconds and and then slowly bring the buttocks back to the floor.
Repeat 20 times.

The exercise below strengthens your back and leg muscles:
Stand with your back against a wall and your feet slightly apart. Slide into a half-sit. Hold as long as you can; slide back up. Repeat 5 times.

Aerobic Exercise
Aerobic exercise also stretches and strengthens the muscles that support your low back, which combined with healthy eating can also help you maintain your ideal weight. If you’re overweight, the extra pounds add to the strain on your low back. Aerobic exercise like walking, can help you lose weight.

Proper Rest
The best position for resting the back muscles is lying on your back on your living room floor with a pillow under your knees and a rolled up towel under your neck. You can also lie on your side in the fetal position – bend the knees to reduce strain on the low back and put a pillow between your knees, and under your head and neck to keep them level.

Note:
Remember to always be careful… what is easy for one person might be strenuous for you. Consult your doctor before starting any exercise program.