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Weight Loss Exercise

Joining a Gym


I have written a few articles in the past about joining a gym. To me a gym is just a place that you need to have as a place to help you get in shape. I know that many people can work at home and I myself have done that on and off for a long time but for me, a gym just feels like a great place to look forward to and build myself up.

As I have written before I do have a work gym that I use but just like anyone I can come up with excuses and I probably make it to the gym at work at lunch 3 times a week and then get some kind of exercise one day a week outside of that.

I want more.

Joining a GymI am trialing a 14 day $14 membership at Goodlife Fitness in Airdrie and this afternoon I went to the gym for the orientation and to find out more. I filled out the standard disclaimer and met with Ella, who showed me around and then brought me into a closing room. The thing to remember about a gym at this time of year is that there is a lot of pressure to sell memberships. People don’t join gyms in July, people join gyms in January with the new year.

Ella told me about the great deals that Goodlife Fitness is offering this time of year and then got me all signed up for the 14 day trial. Then I got the chance to get a cardio workout in.

Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle
burn the fat feed the muscle is an exercise and diet program. My review of Burn the Fat shows that it is designed and written by an ex-pro natural bodybuilder but is a system that was written for regular guys and gals. Teaching you how to workout and eat to lose weight.

Even though I do have a work gym in Calgary, I don’t have the opportunity to go on the weekends when it would be easier to find an hour, it is 30 minutes or so from my home in Airdrie (a suburb north of Calgary) each way and for me it just isn’t very convenient to go that far. Second reason I am looking at another gym is to give me that evening opportunity to workout if I can’t make it during the day. Third reason is different equipment and a change of scenery to keep me excited and motivated.

When you do go to a gym to check it out you need to know how it all works. Here is an article I wrote a while back about how the process of joining works.

Have you joined a gym? Are you interested in joining a gym? I know that after belonging to many gyms over the years I have seen and been in all the different types of gyms including lightweight social gyms, cardio style gyms, and even a few hardcore loud gyms with lots of weights and steroids. Now I am looking for something in between. I hope that this Goodlife Fitness gym is the way to go for me

 

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Weight Loss Exercise

How Can I Lose Weight For Christmas?


Christmas is just around the corner and I always have people asking about losing weight for this holiday or that and now people are wondering, how can I lose weight for Christmas?

Well truth is this is the worst time of year for most people to lose or even to maintain weight. We have lots of temptations and not a lot of support.


Temptations? Let me count the Christmas eating extravaganza that this season has in store for us. Christmas parties with lots of food and booze, cookie exchanges, Christmas baking in the office, holiday get together, eating food at the mall while shopping, Costco hotdogs. In fact this time of year is so busy that some people do not cook a meal between December 1st and December 24th.

And then the lack of support and motivation. Have you had anyone say, “Just one cookie, you are looking so good a cookie can’t hurt”. This is not the only chance for someone to stop you from making good choices, there are all the opportunities above to make sure that you have an excuse to blow off the gym for eggnog (double whammy) or just to sneak out for a bit of shopping. Even the best laid plans can be threatened by people that we tend to lean on for support.

So what’s a person to do? Gain 10 pounds of holiday fat? Maybe just be healthy for 11 months of the year and have a cheat month? There is some ways to make some good choices and makes the most of the month of December.


How Can I Lose Weight for Christmas

How Can I lose Weight for Christmas

How Can I lose Weight for Christmas

Make a schedule. I am bad for scheduling time until I get down to a crunch time and surely this is that time. All you need to really do is sit down and look at your social schedule, your work schedule, and your shopping schedule, and your family schedule…you get the point, look and see what you need to do and then fit in where the workouts can go. Most months our workouts will just happen on schedule but in a month like December that can be difficult so you just need to find the right times

Eat the Best Possible Foods. You will eat some bad food but the real problem this time of year is indulging in way too many white carbs and fats. What you need to do is control your breakfast and other meals as well as you can. You do have lots of control over at least breakfast but really you can control almost all meals.

We will get a lot of other foods that are terrible for us and if we keep control over all, or almost all of our meals and make sure that we are eating all those healthy fruits an veggies that will fuel our bodies and minimize all those crappy processed carbs and fats.

In fact if you don’t do this already I think it is great. Looks at the food you are about to put in your mouth and decide – is this fuel? or is this crap?

Social Events with bad eating and drinking. OK so I think that you kind of have the eating and exercise taken care of if you are planning your schedule and eat planning now there are those other times. The times out at the mall or at a party or other get together

First off I have to say don’t use fitness as a crutch not to be social there are lots of options when going out. You are out to socialize and there are lots of good things that come out of that, like having a life and stuff.

So eating can be a problem. I have found that there are always choices and whether you are at the mall or if you are at a Christmas party you can still find the meats, fruits, vegetables that will fuel you. Just try not to eat too many of the fried foods and cookies and keep a level head.

Don’t stay out too late. we all know that later in the evening our decision making abilities become hazy and sleep is a very important part of healthy lifestyle.

Drink in moderation. I tend to drink too quickly so my best hint here is to make sure to pace myself. I will have a beer and then have a big glass of water. Water is really good and the alcohol flows a little too freely in the Christmas season.

OK, I gotta say I always feel like a party pooper with a list of tips like these but really the fact is that most of us don’t have any willpower and that’s why most people gain so much weight in the month of December. It all comes down to planning, healthy eating, exercise, and willpower.

What are your thoughts? Do you have any great tips for how to lose weight by Christmas?



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Weight Loss Exercise

A Big Weight Loss Secret



I run into lots of people that are looking to lose weight and are looking for one magic tip. Should they eat lots of protein? Should they exercise 5 hours a day? Should they follow the latest crazy diet?

What is the Biggest Weight Loss Secret……?

There is one magic secret that will help you more than anything else and that is to have weight loss goals. I know everyone has a weight loss goal, that is how a diet starts. People pick a number out of the air…I want to lose 10 pounds, or I want to lose 50 pounds. The trouble with focusing on a weight loss goal that is based on weight is that you do not succeed or win until you have lost all of the weight. What you need instead is a real goals. Not just one or tow goals but a handful of short and long term goals that have nothing to do with weight.

A Big Weight Loss SecretWhat would you like to be able to do tommorow? How about eat six good meals? How about drink 8 glasses of water? How about not eating any candy?

What do you want in one month? How about running three blocks non stop? Eating power meals all day? Exercising for an hour every day for a week? How about having YOUR perfect day as you have written it out today?

What do you want in a year? A marathon under your belt? Riding an exercise bike, or real bije 100 miles in one day? Going along the same vein how about riding 1000 miles in the next six months.

I have tried to give a few ideas here of real fitness goals but of course it is up to you to come up with a few of your own. Last Christmas I did a full blown Goal Setting post but at this time of year it would be good to just get a few goals together to get you through the rest of the year and then you can reset more then.

A Big Weight Loss Secret, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating

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