5 Ways to Get Your Body Get Back On Track
Conscious Fitness: How to Get Back On Track After the Holidays
It’s January, and with only a little ways into the New Year, you have to start setting conscious fitness goals and making resolutions now. But make sure you make realistic goals that will stick to you better than the sugar you consumed that is now trying to stick to you backside. With that being said, I know you all have stuffed yourself this past Thanksgiving and Christmas (more than you’d like to admit), and that’s why in this article I am sharing some of my favorite ways to lose the belly fat from the holiday banquets.
Most of you probably are not really ready to commit to the ideal that you may have overeaten this past holiday season. And for the most part, I’m willing to wager you did cross the line; you know, the line labeled, “EAT HERE IF YOU WANT TO BE SATISFIED.”
You may be reluctant to come clean, but don’t worry; you’re not alone. Most of America overeats–it’s true. We are the most overweight country in the world and overeating is the chief cause of diseases of excess weight. These include: Diabetes, some forms of cancer, cardiac disease, and stroke.
Still not convinced that you may have bad eating habits putting you at risk? Okay, answer these questions:
1. Have you ever supersized anything?
2. Have you eaten at a buffet before?
3. Have you ever eaten out of the ice cream carton or the bag of potato chips?
So, suppose I were to ask another question: How much food did you really NEED to eat this past holiday weekend? What would you say?
Most likely, you wouldn’t know how to answer that question; because, how much is too much?
Get Back On Track with Conscious Fitness
Well, I started really watching the amount of food I would take in on a normal basis. How did I know if I ate too much? I could estimate the caloric intake, but that wasn’t enough. I had to go with hard evidence. The only way I could truly determine I had ‘acted a fool’ was to assess how I felt after eating.
If I felt full, too full, to the point where my stomach was encroaching on my stomach, I had overstepped my conscious fitness boundaries. I learned to eat until I was satisfied. That means ate only enough of what my eyes wanted. I would load my plate with a little bit of every item and when I was finished, I pushed away from the table and did not go back for seconds.
But you may not have done that and possibly overindulged too much. So what are you to do now? Get back to getting busy.
Here are my five, quick-hitting activities to get you back on track:
Back on Track Tip 1. Light walking.
Start off with distance as a barometer of how much you’ve done. Half a mile, or one full mile. Either one counts towards getting you back on track. Track your time. When it gets too easy. Take it up a notch and finish the distance quicker.
Back on Track Tip 2. Bike riding.
Same thing here. Go for distance first, and track your time to complete it. Then advance to heart rate monitoring. Try to get your heart rate within a safe range of 75/80 of your heart rate max. Figure 220, minus your age, equals your maximal heart rate. Take 75-85% and work at it for a time period and stick with it and push yourself to new limits concerning distance and effort versus heart rate.
Back on Track Tip 3. Swimming.
Whether light or aggressive, swimming is a great exercise because it works multiple muscle groups at one time. Actually, you can activate three to four muscle groups or more per one stroke during swimming. Therefore, you get more work for your buck, or stroke, that is.
Back on Track Tip 4. Jogging.
Take it up a notch from walking. Once you have achieved walking a certain distance at a good pace, at 75-85% of your age adjusted max heart rate, it’s time to add a jog. I suggest not building or taking down Rome in a day. Try interval training—jog a bit, walk a bit. Pick a distance within the mile where you will either run or walk, and then go at it, full throttle.
Back on Track Tip 5. Abdominals!
I know you were hoping I’d skip it, but I didn’t. You’ve got to hit these, and hard. I suggest planks verses crunches, and lower abs versus upper abs. This means incorporating legs like reverse crunches and scissors.
Hope this gets you going, everyone. We’ve got the entire year of 2016 in front of us. Don’t be wasteful. Take care of your vessel and it will take care of you. You owe it to yourself to be a good steward of the gift of life you have, now and tomorrow. Follow these conscious fitness tips and so much more in my new book, Fat Free For Life, available everywhere. Enjoy and be safe!
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