How to Get in the Mood for Exercise

Exercise is definitely something you should make time for. Everyone needs to do some kind of exercise on a regular basis to keep fit and healthy, but many are not, which is one of the reasons for the growing problem of obesity. The trouble is that exercise requires some degree of physical exertion and people have become too reliant on technology to actually bother doing anything. In the past, you had to walk everywhere because, unless you were rich, you didn’t own a car; plus, you were more likely to have a physically demanding job. Thus, it used to be the case that exercise was an inescapable part of life.

This is obviously not the case now, though, as you can easily get away with doing nothing if you spend your working day sat behind a desk and use your free time to watch television and play computer games. If this is how you live your life it can be difficult to change, as why should you bother? When all your friends and relatives avoid exercise why should you do anything to become fitter? It’s hard enough to motivate yourself to exercise, but when nobody else does any exercise it can be even more challenging.

You might want to think of it this way, though; if you’re one of the few people you know who does any exercise you can feel rather superior about it. You don’t have to rub your friends’ faces in the fact that you’re so much fitter than they are, but you will feel so much better when you’re walking and talking with ease while your companions are puffing and panting for air. By exercising regularly you are keeping your heart healthy and reducing your risk of having a heart attack or stroke, as well as developing serious other serious health conditions such as diabetes.

Plus, regular exercise should make it easier for you to remain a healthy weight and enable you to eat quite a bit more food than your friends who sit around all day doing nothing. Exercise makes you feel more upbeat and positive, as feel-good chemicals are released into your body. Thus, it won’t be as difficult to motivate yourself to exercise in future as you want to experience the buzz you get from keeping active again and again.

Although you may struggle to get in the right mood to exercise, at first, if you concentrate on the benefits of regular exercise and throw yourself into a new exercise regime you soon won’t be able to live without it.

How to Achieve Lasting Weight Loss

Losing weight is simple enough, but keeping it off is another matter. You don’t want to waste your time following a very restrictive diet plan so that you can lose lots of weight only to regain every single pound lost. This can be extremely frustrating and is hardly going to benefit your health or self-esteem. You end up depressed because you thought you'd found a way to control your weight and so you're left with feelings of hopelessness, although you may be able to overcome them enough to try to lose weight again.

However, if you go about weight loss in a similar yet somewhat different way you could end up in exactly the same situation; losing weight then gaining it all back again. You therefore need to ignore all the various fad diets that are available and focus on the basics. To achieve lasting weight loss you have to be prepared to count calories and to exercise regularly so that you calorie intake doesn't exceed your calorie requirements.

In fact, when you're trying to lose weight you actually have to build up a calorie deficit, which means consuming fewer calories than you burn. Once you have reached your weight-loss goal you then have to increase your calorie intake or reduce your calorie expenditure so that the number of calories you consume is the number you need. Therefore, it makes sense to take a sensible approach to weight loss to make the process of adapting to your new weight easier.

A sensible approach to weight loss is one where you don’t seek to lose more than a couple of pounds a week. If you're serious about achieving lasing weight loss you can make it easier on yourself by adopting a diet plan that enables you to eat properly, rather than one which gets you to cut out various foodstuffs. Your main focus has to be on calories more than anything else; that way you can still eat the foods you love, though maybe less of them.

It's obviously easier to stick to a diet when you don't feel as though you are being deprived of anything, which is important if you want to keep off any weight you lose, as you can'tt expect to avoid the temptation of chocolate and other calorific goodies forever! Exercise can help with this, as getting active increases your metabolism and enables you to burn more calories.

Once you have reached your weight-loss goal you can't simply abandon your diet and exercise regime if you want to remain slim and so you have to be prepared to stick with the habits that you've had to embrace in order to lose weight.

How to Find Enthusiasm for Fitness

There are plenty of good reasons to be enthusiastic about fitness, but when you’re very unfit you don’t necessarily want to accept that you should work on your fitness. If you acknowledge that being physically fit is something worth striving for it means you have to find the motivation to do something about your own fitness. When the only exercise you do involves walking around the house and to your car you don’t always have the willingness or determination to physically exert yourself, even though this is best for you in the long run.

Even if you don't;t particularly enjoy doing exercise you should certainly be able to appreciate the physical and psychological benefits of keeping fit. If you exercise on a regular basis you should find it less of a struggle to manage your weight, which reduces your risk of developing some serious health problems. By keeping active you are able to reduce your risk of having a heart attack, stroke and of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes and osteoarthritis among other things. You actually feel healthier when you are fit, as well, since you’re not continually coming down with colds all the time and you tend to find it easier to breathe and to move.

Keeping fit is also good for you on a psychological level, as it can help with self-esteem issues, particularly because it helps to keep you slim. Plus, if you engage in a physical activity that requires interaction with other people you will have an opportunity to socialise, which can give your confidence a boost. When you engage in physical activity chemicals are released into your body which help you feel more positive about life, reducing any feelings of anxiety and depression you may have, which is another good reasons to get enthusiastic about staying fit.

You may think that you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like exercise, but if you actually tried to make time in your schedule for it and stick to a regular workout schedule you should be able to start appreciating the benefits. You certainly shouldn’t throw yourself into a hardcore exercise program only to give up two weeks later because it’s too intense for you. There are plenty of sports and activities to choose from and you’re bound to find something that suits the type of person you are. Thus, the chances are you will find at least one activity you enjoy doing so that it becomes easier to get enthusiastic about keeping fit.

How to Stop Hating your Body

Women are particularly susceptible to negativity towards their bodies, due to the importance with which the female appearance is perceived to have in our society. In order for women to 'succeed' in their relationships, career, and life in general there is a certain amount of expectation for women to look 'good'. Looking 'good' seems to depend on being slim with curves in all the right places, wearing fashionable clothes, having a flattering hairstyle, and making the most of their face using make-up. Any woman who doesn't conform to this readily-accepted conception of beauty, where there is little room for diversity, can end up despising their body, feeling that they can never match up to what society wants from them.

However, women are their own worst enemies, since the reality is that whatever you look like, there are always other people who find you attractive. What is less attractive, though, is when you become so preoccupied with a supposed flaw that you drive everyone around you mad by fixating on it. They might not even recognise it as being a problem, but if it is something which drains your confidence it can impact upon your relationships. It is therefore not so much your appearance which can affect your interaction with other people, but your lack of confidence as a result of obsessing over some aspect of your body.

You therefore need to learn to embrace what makes you unique or find a way of altering the situation if it makes you unhappy. If you are overweight and believe that you would feel healthier and happier after losing weight it is in your power to change things. The chances are that losing weight will help boost your self-esteem, but you should be realistic about what you want to achieve, rather than aiming to be as skinny as a catwalk model. There are people who find larger women attractive, but it is how you feel about yourself that matters, and so if you're not comfortable with your weight you should do something about it.

The situation is slightly different if you have an area of your body that you dislike but are unable to change without surgery. Perhaps you have a crooked nose, or don't feel that your breasts are large enough. Surgery has become a more accessible option for increasing numbers of people, and so it could be something to consider. Ideally, though, you would be able to look at the bigger picture and see that your looks are only one part of you, and your 'flaw' only a small feature of your appearance. However, if it is an issue that has long affected your life, drawing negative comments from other people, it can be difficult to avoid thinking about how you would like to change yourself.

You therefore need to recognise the aspects of yourself that you like, whether they relate to your physical self or your personality and character, rather than continually focusing on the negative. How you feel about your body relates more to the social conditioning you have received than any intrinsic feelings about whether you are attractive or not. When a certain ideal of beauty is propagated it is not surprising that so many women feel that they fall short of this standard, whilst how other people treat them can also influence how they see themselves. The bullying experienced as children can affect some people well into their adulthood and shape how they perceive their bodies, so that even if there is nothing wrong with them they can't help but loathe themselves.

If you are one of these people you need to cast aside the past and focus on the here-and-now. There are some things which you can't change, and so should concentrate on the things that can make a difference. You should eat healthier, exercise regularly, wear clothes that flatter you, and make the most of yourself so that you feel confident in yourself. It shouldn't matter what others think of you if you are happy with who you are.

A Guide to the Best Ways to Stay Healthy

There are no short-cuts to getting healthy and staying healthy; it requires a commitment to eating well, exercising regularly, and getting the balance right between work and play. A healthy mind is essential in order to cultivate a healthy body, and so to stay healthy requires more than just focusing on a person's physicality; a more holistic approach should be taken if a person is to improve their health.

However, it is often easier for people to deal with their physical health because it is an area which most people feel they can gain control over. The most obvious step that people take is often to lose weight. For some people this means completely overhauling their lifestyle, so that their diets are completely different and they exercise much more regularly than before. Other people find that they only need to make small adjustments in order to achieve weight loss, but may cut down their portion sizes, eat slightly healthier and incorporate more exercise into their daily routine.

There are people for whom their weight is a serious issue, one which impacts on every aspect of their life and which they feel they have no control over. This can sometimes lead morbidly obese individuals to choose surgery to help them cope with their weight. In an ideal world surgery would not be necessary, but if surgery helps these people gain control over their lives and to improve their health, surely this is the best option for them.

It is not surprising that people are becoming more obsessed with their weight; this is partly media-driven, and partly due to governmental fears about the detrimental effect on the economy which the health implications of obesity are having. At the same time as people are being bombarded with advertisements about special offers on chocolate bars and pizzas, they are being told to look after their weight. Talk about conflicting messages.

Is it any wonder that people are so unhappy? There is so much pressure on individuals to succeed, to fit in, to look and act a certain way, that many people feel they cannot live up to these standards. Consequently, most people will experience depression at some point in their lives, whilst large sections of people constantly feel bad about themselves. This does not provide the basis for a healthy lifestyle, as people are more likely to succumb to illness if their mind cannot summon up the strength to fight it.

Staying healthy involves moderation and balance, and requires positive thinking, although this is often difficult to achieve. People have to learn how to cope with issues that crop up in their lives and to find ways of releasing the stresses and strains they have to endure. It is also useful for people to have a network of friends and families to help provide support when they most need it, because humans are social creatures, after all.

Are You Obsessed with Your Weight?

Weight is an issue that is constantly being reported upon in the media, with mixed messages being relayed to the general public. On the one hand the media is critical of celebrities becoming too skinny and the message that this is sending out to young people, particularly young girls. On the other hand, though, news stories seem to be dominated by the supposed obesity epidemic and the implications of obesity for people's health. It is little wonder, then, that so many individuals end up becoming obsessed with their weight when they live in a society which is appears to be fixated on people's size and weight.

It is not necessarily a bad idea for individuals to regularly monitor their weight in order to ensure that they stay within a healthy weight range for them, particularly if they have a tendency to yo-yo diet, as they are then in a position to limit their weight gain. However, some people can become obsessed with checking their weight, deciding to step on the scales at least once a day, rather than every week or every couple of weeks. When they see how much they weigh they might feel good or bad about themselves, depending on the number. This, in turn, will no doubt affect their relationship with food and exercise.

If the number is higher than they want it to be, they may choose to eat less and exercise more during that particular day, rather than considering that it is perfectly natural for their weight to have slight fluctuations. It is not unusual for people trying to slim down to become preoccupied with how much they weigh, because this is how weight loss tends to be measured. When they step on the scales at the end of the week it is the reading on the scales which tells them whether they have had a good or bad week. The trouble is that if they do not lose any weight, or not as much as they would have liked, their disappointment could lead them to turn to comfort food.

It is important for people to realise that health is much more important than size and weight. Medical professionals seem to have an obsession with using the Body Mass Index to ascertain whether individuals are healthy or not, which seems to have filtered down into wider society. However, there are plenty of people who are skinny but eat lots of junk food, smoke, and do very little exercise, just as there are overweight people who eat a balanced diet and exercise everyday. Weight can be a useful tool for alerting individuals to whether their lifestyle needs to change or not, but it is not the only one, and people ought to remember that there are more significant factors affecting their overall health and well-being than just their weight.

Ten Reasons Not To Diet

Everybody eats a diet of one kind or another, but when we talk of dieting it usually refers to the process of losing weight through eliminating certain food groups from your diet or concentrating on eating particular foods. This is not a particularly healthy way to approach weight loss, but many people get sucked in by the thought of losing vast amounts of weight in a short space of time, even though they know that the reality is that either they won't ever get down to their target weight or else they will most probably put the weight they lose back on. Indeed, there are at least 10 reasons not to diet.

1. Dieting means following a restrictive eating plan, which means you simply end up thinking about all the foods you are not allowed to eat. Some fad diets involve eating only one type of food, such as in the case of the cabbage soup diet, which means you won't be getting all the nutrients your body needs.

2. Connected with not getting enough nutrients is the fact that you will have very low energy levels, which is particularly unhelpful when you are trying to lose weight, since as well as cutting down on the calories you consume you should also be incorporating more exercise into your routine. If you don't have the energy to exercise you are likely to put off doing any, and may find yourself snacking on high-calorie junk food instead

3. Because you won't have much energy the chances are you will be extremely irritable and are therefore more likely to snap at people who haven't done anything to deserve it. Consequently being on a diet makes you less sociable, and people may be less willing to spend time with you.

4. You may also find it difficult to sleep when you are on a diet, particularly if you go to bed hungry.

5. Dieting can affect your metabolism as if you are consuming too few calories your body will go into starvation mode, and when you return to your normal eating patterns it will do everything in its power to hold on to the energy it is being provided with.

6. You also need to consider why you are dieting in the first place since you might think that being ultra-slim will make you feel better about yourself, but this is not necessarily the case. You might get a temporary boost to your self-esteem, but losing weight doesn't fundamentally change how you feel about yourself.

7. Indeed, thinking that losing weight is going to be the solution to all your problems increases the chance that you will put off living life to the fullest until you lose some weight, which clearly doesn't benefit you, especially if you have always struggled with your weight.

8. In fact most people who follow diets end up yo-yo dieting, going from being heavy to being light many times throughout their lifetime, rather than stabilising and learning to control their weight.

9. Obviously yo-yo dieting isn't good for your health, and your body has to continually adjust to being given either too many or too few calories, playing havoc with your metabolism and making it harder to lose weight in the future.

10. On a more superficial level losing weight quickly by severely restricting your calorie intake can leave you with unsightly loose hanging skin, whilst your face may begin to show its age.

Clearly, then, there are few advantages to dieting, as in most cases it won't help you achieve your weight-loss goals, or will do so only temporarily. It can also damage your health by depriving your body of vital nutrients, as well as making you less fun to be around. Losing weight should involve getting fitter and healthier, and so you shouldn't simply try to lose as much weight as possible through dieting, since going on a diet will not help you achieve all of those aims.