How To Get Your Fitbit Steps In

 I have to admit that I love my Fitbit. When I first got it I wondered if it was really possible to get 10,000 fitbit steps in a single day. There is some research that proves that 10,000 steps in a day has real health benefits.

In fact I have written about my Fibit a couple of times here on the site, and the fact that it has been on my arm for well over a year is a testament to how it has affected my life.

So since the beginning of using my Fitbit I have tried to setup my day to get my steps in

Make sure to start the day with steps – I get up in the morning and I have to take the dog out, feed the dog and cat, get my lunch together and start the car. Really what I do is get a bit of momentum in the morning so that I have a bunch of steps in even before I have had breakfast

Read More at How to Get your Fitbit Steps 

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5 Simple, Safe And Natural Ways To Boost Your Energy Levels

How to Lose 20 pounds in a month

For many people knowing how to lose 20 pounds in a month would be a dream.

Put that dream right in front of you because I am saying that there are ways that you can lose 20 pounds in a month.

To get started on any loss goal is easy but you need a strategy and tactics in place to know how to lose 20 pounds in a month.

Your strategy towards any goal is the broad strokes, the big concepts that are important. Here is your loss strategy Increase your resting metabolism Reduce your calorie intake

Quickly burn calories during cardio and workouts Now that you have a strategy to lose 20 pounds in a month so now you need the tactics that will make it a reality. You need radical changes to lose 5 pounds a week.

 

Losing Weight the Quick Way
A lot of us feel that if you want to lose weight all you have to do is reduce the amount of what you eat. While this may be true to some extent, it's more important to remember that the kinds of foods you eat can make a huge difference in your weightloss program. You need to eat healthy to lose weight. In other words, you must find out how to make appropriate food choices to achieve the right nutrition in the right amounts.

The truth about weight loss is this: you can lose weight only if you burn more calories than you consume. You can do this by eating less, exercising more, or doing both. Health experts recommend a combination of a healthy diet and exercise to lose weight. A good weight loss plan allows you to eat healthy to lose weight naturally.

Develop a Lifestyle Change

Many people become overweight resulting from making the wrong food choices. Sad to say, this is due to our everyday life makes it easier to munch on doughnuts and cookies rather then fruits and veggies. The refined carbohydrates in cakes, white bread, cookies, candies and biscuits quickly add pounds to the waistline and belly. The taste buds in the typical American are attuned to greasy food, chips, and junk food. Clearly, an effort needs to be exerted to get people on the right track when it comes to making healthier food choices.

Folks who choose to lose fat often go on a number of diets, hoping that they may eventually find one that will help them shed fat and keep the extra pounds off permanently. It's time people realize that fad diets don't work for long-term weight reduction. You have to make a lifestyle change and understand how to eat healthy to be able to lose extra weight and keep it from coming back again.

Healthy Food Choices for Weight Loss

People have to eat but making the incorrect food choices can result in obesity or weight problems and illness. If you need to lose fat, eat the following sensible foods:

•    Fruits
•    Vegetables
•    Lean meats
•    Fish
•    Whole grain cereals
•    Nuts and seeds
•    Milk products
•    Eggs

A healthy diet for weight loss should also include a great deal of water.

The right way to Eat Healthy to lose weight naturally

The smartest technique for losing weight is usually to choose healthy foods that you really already have as part of your normal diet plan. Make this the starting place to your new and healthy healthy eating plan. Eating familiar foods helps dispel the notion that you're on a weight loss program. This is very important when you are trying to lose weight because being on a diet implies that it is going to end some day. When you stop your diet, you could possibly gain back the extra weight you lost.

By switching your ways of eating and finding out how to eat healthy, you'll be able to lose weight and keep it off for good. Reduce your consuming refined carbohydrates and watch everything you put in your food. Avoid creamy sauces, high-calorie salad dressings, and fried foods. Keep in your mind that it's possible to make healthy food choices even at the fast food restaurant.
How to lose weight fast

Lifting Weights to lose weight
Weight training or lifting weights plays an important role in your goal to lose weight. While many people are aware that cardiovascular exercise and a healthy diet are important in weight loss, they may not realize that lifting weights can help you lose weight. The most efficient way to burn fat is to combine cardio workout and weight lifting. When you gain lean muscle mass, your body will get stronger and turn into a fat-burning machine.

Lifting moderate weights is a great way to lose weight. Many people are concerned that weight lifting will cause them to grow big muscles and gain weight. Women, in particular, are afraid of developing a muscular physique. This is unlikely to happen because women do not have enough testosterone for that kind of muscular gain. With the proper technique for lifting weights to lose weight, men and women can develop lean muscle mass that burns more calories.

Significance of Metabolism

Your metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories. Even when you are resting, your body continues to burn calories to sustain life. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR. People with more muscle mass burn more calories than someone who has more fat, even if they weigh the same. If you want to increase your metabolism and burn more calories, it's important to lift weight to build more muscles. Even additional pound of muscle burns an extra 35 to 50 calories per day, even without additional activity.

High Repetition Intense Workout

One of the most effective ways to lift weights and lose weight fast is by high-rep intense training. Exercises such as bench press, rows, squats, leg press, and military press workout the major muscle groups of the chest, shoulders, back, glutes and legs. Exercises that isolate specific muscles should also be done, such as barbell curls and leg curls.

For weight lifting exercises to lose weight, do two sets of each exercise using light weight for 15-20 reps. Limit your rest period to 30 seconds betweens sets. After completing all exercises, rest for 3 to 5 minutes and then repeat. The high-rep intense workout should take at least 20 minutes. This will elevate your heart rate and cause your body to start burning fat.

Beginners can reduce the number of exercises or increase the rest period.

Circuit Training

Circuit training is another way to lose weight while lifting weights. Circuit training is a highly-intense exercise routine that should include 8 to 10 different exercises or stations. The circuit should include exercises for the major muscle groups and body weight exercises like crunches and push-ups. Do 15 to 20 reps per station and the maximum number of crunches and push-ups that you are capable of doing. Do not rest between stations.

After completing the first circuit, rest for 3 to 5 minutes and then repeat two or three times. Circuit training involves high-rep and light weights that will elevate your heart rate and burn more calories for weight loss.

How drinking can affect weight loss
Everyone knows that losing weight means cutting down on your calorie intake and burning more calories through exercise. However, many people fail to consider the impact that their drinks have on their weight loss goals. Drinks contain calories just like food, but some drinks can even hinder your weight loss efforts in other ways! Here's a guide to the main drink categories you need to watch while losing weight.

Alcohol

Many people are good at looking at their diet and knowing what they should and shouldn't eat, but don't take time to look at their alcohol consumption in the same way. Alcohol should be accounted for as part of your daily calorie allowance, so a couple for drinks a day will soon add up!

And they don't call it a "beer belly" for nothing: research has shown that alcohol can actually reduce the rate at which your body burns calories! It can also lead to some pretty unhealthy cravings, so it's important to be careful.

Coffee, Tea and Weight Loss

Some other drinks that many of us have every single day include coffee and tea. But are these helping or hindering your weight loss efforts? Studies have shown that any drinks containing caffeine can interfere with weight loss. The stimulation that occurs after you drink caffeine, whether from coffee, tea or even soda, really isn't good for cravings!

Many of us also even link the drinking of tea or coffee to eating a snack. In this case, even if the coffee itself isn't doing you any harm it's still encouraging your snacking habit, which isn't going to help you lose weight!

Many people drink green tea for weight loss. There's been a lot of hype over this drink in recent years, and studies have shown that green tea extract may help you to lose weight. However, drinking too much green tea means you'll still experience all the negative effects of caffeine listed above.

Juice

Many people switch their unhealthy sodas for juice when trying to lose weight, on the assumption that this is "healthy". While it's true that fruit juice does come with more health benefits than sugary drinks, you still have to be careful about how much you're drinking. Make sure you choose juice without added sugar and include the calories within your daily allowance. Try not to have huge amounts in one go, as you'll want to keep your blood sugar levels stable.

Water

When you're trying to lose weight, it's vital that you drink enough water. Not only will you need this to keep you hydrated while you're working out, you'll also want to use it as a way to make losing weight easier. There's no miracle cure for losing weight, but water comes pretty close.

Did you know that what you think is hunger is often thirst? Drinking more water as standard every day can reduce those cravings that force you to overeat. And drinking a couple of glasses of water before each meal can help fill you up to prevent overeating. This makes it a lot easier to reduce your portion sizes!

The truth is that water is always best. If you're used to drinking coffee, sugary drinks, alcohol and soda, then gradually replacing them with water will help your weight loss efforts, even if you do nothing else!

Best Juice For Weight Loss
Mood:  happy
Topic: juicing
The consumption of vegetables and fruits is very beneficial for your health.  Drinking fruit and vegetable juices is a good way to start losing excess weight.  Fresh juices offer several benefits including improving your overall health.  People who suffer from various ailments are advised to go on a vegetable or fruit juicing diet.

Juicing fruits and vegetables is also a great way to maintain a healthy body and a great shape.  It is not only a delicious solution to help you with your weight loss goals but also an incredible way to increase your vitality and keep your stamina up.

So What Is The Best Juice For Weight Loss?

Fruit juices act as a cleanser for your body.  Citrus fruits are usually the best cleansers.  If you are not a fruit-eater, then the best way to consume fruit is to squeeze them.  Freshly squeezed fruit juice tastes delicious and is just as healthy as eating a piece of raw fruit.

Fiber is lost when squeezing fruits so a healthier alternative is to blend the whole fruit.  You need fiber to help cleanse the body and prevent many types of diseases.  Fiber adds bulk to your diet and stimulates the digestive system.  It is also a big help in reducing excess pounds.

Nature has blessed us with a huge variety of fruits.  They can be combined in creative ways to come up with the best-tasting and healthiest fruit juices for you.

Vegetable Juices For Weight Loss

A technique to help consume the large quantities of raw foods we need everyday is through vegetable juicing.  Vegetable juices are low in calories and fats yet rich in nutrients.

Regular vegetable juicing is a significant key to good health as it is an important source of nutrients that keep the body detoxified.  It is a powerful tool to keep your weight loss goals on track.  Vegetable juices also help us maintain a high level of vitality.  Because vegetable juices have virtually no fat, it’s a good idea to supplement them with essential oils such as fish oil, flaxseed oil, and evening primrose oil.  These healthy fats will aid in the absorption of certain vitamins and minerals.

Best Juice for Weight Loss

A number of studies revealed that vegetable juices contain more nutrients than fruit juices.  Vegetable juices contain basically all the nutrients required to build and sustain the human body in prime health.   They also help in weight loss.

However, you shouldn’t turn your back on fruit juices either.  They are also rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and they are a good cleanser for the body.

Fruits and vegetables have different functions in the body.  Combining these two is the most effective way to lose weight and gain various health benefits.

What Happens when You Quit Smoking?
Trying to quit smoking is not an easy feat. In fact, the challenge can be almost overwhelming for some people. The changes you experience in your body when you give up smoking can be difficult to handle. That's why it's important to understand what happens to your body when you quit smoking.

The withdrawal symptoms, that almost every smoker goes through when quitting, can be very unpleasant. This is the reason why so many people can't resist having another cigarette. They may attempt to quit over and over but be unable to stay smoke-free, due to the painful withdrawal side effects.

However, if you understand what happens to your body when you quit smoking and you know what to expect in the process, this information can help you to stay on course. It's easier to deal with weight gain from smoking, nasty withdrawal symptoms when you realize they won't last long.

You probably know that nicotine is a powerful and addictive drug. As with any other addictive drug, when you stop taking it you will inevitably go through withdrawal. Your body has to adjust to the absence of nicotine, which takes a little time and results in physical and mental side effects. But soon enough, if you can avoid smoking, your body will lose its dependency on nicotine and return to a healthier, non-addicted state.

Let's look at what happens to your body when you stop smoking:

1) You feel intense cravings to smoke, which is your body demanding the addictive substance
2) You might develop ulcers in the mouth
3) You may cough a great deal, which is the way your lungs and upper respiratory system try to expel the cigarette toxins
4) You will feel irritable and be unable to concentrate
5) You might experience disruptions in your sleeping patterns
6) You may get blisters, sores, and skin inflammation
7) You might feel fatigued and have little energy

These are just some of the events that can occur when you quit smoking. The symptoms may sound rather dreadful, but keep in mind that they last just a short time, often no more than a couple of days. On the bright side, your health will begin to improve right away, with positive changes taking place only 20 minutes after you smoke your last cigarette.

The longer you can avoid smoking, the more health benefits you will experience. You might not be looking forward to going through withdrawal, but try to focus on all the positive things you will gain when you quit smoking for good. The effort truly is worthwhile.

Metabolism and Weight Loss - Whats the link?

One of the key factors in losing weight is your metabolism.  Metabolism is a chemical reaction in your cells that changes the calories (energy) in the food you eat into energy that you can use in your daily life.  In other words, it's the rate you burn the calories in the foods you eat.

Calculating your BMI
Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is how much energy your body uses when it is at rest.  If you take your present weight and multiply it by 10, you will get your BMR.  This energy is measured in calories, so it is easy to understand that if you consume more calories than your body needs on a daily basis, you will gain weight.  Conversely, if you consume less calories, you will lose weight.

One good way to increase the amount of calories you burn, and to burn calories more quickly and efficiently, is to increase the amount of exercise in your daily routine.

As you grow older, your metabolism may automatically slow down.  This is what causes people to gain weight as they age.  Nothing else changes in their lifestyle, but their bodies burn less calories each day and, as a result, they start to slowly gain weight.  Some easy ways to combat this "creeping weight gain" is to eat less or to exercise more.  Aerobics or strength training are both great ways to increase your metabolism and strengthen your body - and protect your heart.

Muscle Building to Raise Metabolism
Muscle Building, especially, offers two benefits that help with your metabolism.  In the first instance, strength training increases your muscle mass.  Using your muscles burns fat so, consequently, the more muscle mass you have the more fat you will burn when you do other exercise, or just going about your daily chores.

There is a theory that metabolic typing may also be important to successful weight loss.  There are many "tests" you can take online to determine if you are a "carbohydrate" type, "protein" type, or a "mixed" type.  Which type you are determines the most efficient proportion of carbohydrates, protein, and fat you should consume each day for optimal health and weight control.

Portable Fitness Equipment
Most modern day households have more stuff than ever before. In your natural weight loss program finding a good way to organize your home and get the most out of your space can be challenging. For those who live in small apartments, finding free space is also a challenge.

If you're working on a home exercise program, finding portable fitness machines is a great way to get the equipment you need without worrying about losing precious space.

Basically, portable equipment is something that can be compacted and fold down to a smaller size, and then stored away until it is ready to use. Most fitness equipments that are portable can be tucked away either into a closet or even under the bed. The set up should be easy so that you can get moving in a short period of time, and then take the equipment down just as easily to be stored away.

Another great benefit to the portable version of a fitness machine is that it can be taken other places as well. If you friend calls and wants you to come over for a workout, you can put the equipment in the trunk of your car and head on over with it. It's great fun since you can offer for others to try it also. The smaller, portable fitness equipment is also usually a bit less expensive than its larger, non-movable counterparts.

Fitness equipment should be fun to use and it doesn't necessarily have to have an entire computer hooked up to it in order to do its job. Not all of this equipment has to be mechanical either. It can be something as simple as a jump rope, hand weights, or a bar that hangs over the door and allows you to do pull ups and crunches.

A great fitness DVD is another great version of a portable piece of fitness equipment. Invite a few friends over to a central gathering place and have your own private teacher in your home gym.

If you like to work out outdoors, portable equipment is also great because you can simply stash it in your backpack and go. It's lightweight and simple to use, and does a great job of getting you in shape without the use of a power cord. Resistance cables and large inflatable balls are other examples of simple fitness equipment that can be taken anywhere you go, and can help you to improve your overall health.