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Weight Loss Exercise

How Can Visualization Help You To Lose Weight?

Have you tried visualization for weight loss? If you are not familiar with visualization, it may sound like a strange or mysterious technique, but it isn’t really.

Visualizing is something that has been proven effective for any goal or desire, including loss.

Visualization takes advantage of how our brains operate. The fact is, your brain does not know the difference between what is really happening and what you are imagining. This may be hard to believe, but it’s been proven.

Athletes and Visualization

One way this has been shown is by experiments with athletes. Athletes such as basketball players were found to gain just as much advantage from visualizing success in performing a certain task as by physically practicing it.

visualizationYou can use the same principle in your loss goals. It’s a little different from playing basketball, but your mind is still going to do the same basic thing -imagine what it is you want to create.

In this case, you want to have a picture in your mind of how you want to look and feel. Practice this for short periods, between five and ten minutes, at least twice per day. Early in the morning and before bed are the best times, but it’s beneficial to practice visualizing anytime you can.

Don’t be concerned about having photograph-like pictures in your mind. If you have a visual mind and this comes naturally, great.

But What If You Are Not Visual?

However, if you are less visual, you can focus more on how you feel. Imagine how great it feels to look in the mirror and look the way you want; how others look at you with admiration; how you feel walking down the street, etc.

The key to success with visualization is practice and consistency. Anyone can spare a few minutes every day to visualize, but it’s easy to forget. So set aside time every day and really do it! The only preparation is to relax. Sit or lie down and take a few slow, deep breaths. Then close your eyes and visualize. That’s all there is to it!

Some people, when they learn about visualization, ask, “Does this mean I don’t have to exercise or watch what I eat anymore?” Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

Visualization is something that is meant to help you in changing your overall lifestyle and habits. When you make it a daily practice, you will find yourself naturally drawn to actions that will help you lose weight.

You will, conversely, find yourself less drawn to unhealthy and fattening foods. So don’t think of visualization as something you do in place of other sensible and helpful practices. Think of it as a way to make your overall loss plan easier and less stressful.

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Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

What Kicks Motivation Into High Gear?

What gets you motivated to workout, or to eat well? I know that sometimes this is a struggle for me and if I create a habit that makes exercise a part of my day automatically then it will happen.

Today is a very snowy day in Calgary (how many times has that come up on this blog?) and I know that my normal daily schedule tomorrow is going to get thrown off. I like to get on my bike and ride to work but there is no way that I can ride in a foot of snow and will take the bus instead.

Eating is the same way. I have a plan in the morning of exactly what goes into my lunch bag and I know right now that I will be having oatmeal for breakfast, bringing an apple and orange for snacks as well as a coke and chocolate bar and I will be having chicken left over from tonights dinner

Here are some tips to get that motivation that you need if you are struggling.

Plan Ahead Instead Of Motivating Yourself

planningJust as I wrote earlier it is a good idea to plan you evercise and meals ahead of time. If you know that you are going kickboxing every Tuesday night and every morning you are going to get up and ride an exercise bike while watching the news then you will do it.

If you just decide to take things as they come then everything else in life will get in the way.

Make A List Of Your Favorite Kinds Of Exercise

Make a list of all the types of exercise that you like to do. Just because running is good for you is not any good if you do not like running. A list of things that you like to do or want to try will give you a chance to try new things and have a list of what kind of exercise that you will do during the week.

Not only is this a good way to get those new things into your schedule but you will also be a lot more excited when you get to the point of exercising for the day instead of it looking like drugery.

Plan Your Exercise In Short Bursts

We have all seen those lists that work well. Try to park a few blocks from work everyday. Take stairs instead of the elevator. Go for a walk at lunch.

These ways of working out are not easy to start. On Monday morning you make a decision to do these things and then you just do them. On Tuesday you can just dovetail what you did Monday into making Tuesday the same way.

After the first week of doing this you will look forward to that quiet time on your walks, weeling your muscles as you go up the stairs and getting away from the computer at lunch.

The habits that you have in your life now were motivations once as well and if you want to change them then just getting these few things right will just naturally change you lifestyle.

I hate the idea of motivating yourself to do exercise because you mind so often just does not want to agree and then you feel guilty for not doing what you need to do. It is just so much better not to have to motivate yourself with big plans when these little changes will make you much more healthy without much pain.

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Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

The Stiff Legged Deadlift

A stiff legged deadlift is a great stretch to make sure that you are always improving your flexibility. Not only initially will you be able to tell how well you are doing, but as you improve your flexibility you will have better body control and your movement will be much better.

First remember if you are going to stretch you need to be very careful to only stretch after having warmed up. Stretching while you are cold can lead to muscle pulls.

Have a short 5 minute warmup of cardio so that you are sweating just a bit and your muscles are loose and warm and then do your stretches.

Doing A Stiff Legged Deadlift

Position: A standing position with the feet a comfortable distance apart, the knees locked and the barbell held in front of the legs with the elbows straight.

stiff legged deadlift

Action: Keeping both knees and elbows straight, the trunk is bent forward as far as is comfortable, then the erect position is regained.

Breathing: Exhale as the body is bent forward and inhale as the erect position is regained.

Starting Resistance: Most women will find a starting resistance of 25 lbs. quite comfortable and most men 40 lbs.

Goal: Girls and women should work up to a resistance of 50 lbs. Boys and men should work up to a resistance of 100 lbs. or more.

Results: This movement will develop and strengthen the large muscles of the lower back and will also strengthen those of the hips and back of the thighs. It is very necessary that these muscles be well developed and strong. They protect the spine and sacro-iliac joints from injury and their strength gives a margin of safety against low back pain and discomfort.

Comments: As the back is bent forward, the muscles in the back and the back of the legs are stretched extensively.

Because of differences in anatomical construction and flexibility, some children and adults will be able to bend forward and touch the floor easily, while others will not be able to bend much more than half the way down. The exerciser should not bend any further forward than is comfortable, but with practice the back will become more flexible and very strong.

In the fully stretched position with the knees locked and the hands close to the floor, much pressure is placed upon the inner borders of the intervertebral discs. The untrained individual invites low back trouble by lifting heavy objects in this position. The proper position to use in lifting heavy objects from the floor is to make the effort with the knees bent and the back relatively flat so that much of the effort is taken by the legs and the back is kept in relatively good position.

In advanced training of athletes who need great strength in the lower back, this movement is used through a short range of movement with very heavy resistance. The movement is started from a standing position and the bar is lowered to about the height of the knees.

During the motion the lower back is kept flat and fixed (never permitted to “round”) and the motion is made almost entirely from the hips. In this position the lumbar spine is kept in a strong position with little pressure on the front borders of the vertebrae. The bar is usually lowered to a predetermined height regulated by some support set at that position for the bar orweights to touch.

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