The Senior Walking Fitness Blog

Hello Everybody,

A lot of people ask, ‘How can I lose weight?’ They have tried everything and nothing works. Or they have lost a little weight and put it back on again. They are in despair. They often give up, having decided that they have the wrong genes, or big bones or some other reason beyond their control. Of course there are people with a medical condition which makes them fat. But not many. If you are overweight and can’t seem to do anything about it see your doctor. He will probably say you are perfectly healthy - but will be delighted that you want to lose weight. So what are you doing wrong? Here is the likely reason you are still asking, ‘How can I lose weight?’

You have not decided what you want. It’s as simple as that. You must have a goal. If you just think it is a good idea to lose a few pounds in the next week or so it is easy to give up. If you decide to drop a dress size or get into last year’s summer shorts by July that is a goal. If you want to lose 40 pounds in under a year that is another goal - but you will need to go about it in a different way. Short term weight loss is quite possible with crash diets or pills, but be careful and do not keep it up for very long. To lose 40 pounds and stay that way you will need a lifestyle change. So you must decide what you want.

If you have decided to lose a lot of weight good for you. You’ll look better, feel better, enjoy life more, improve your sex life - or get a sex life - and live longer. It could be the best decision you ever took. This is how you do it.

Eat Fresh Fruit and Vegetables.  Fresh fruit and vegetables are essential to a balanced diet. Try to eat them every day.

Eat Lean Meat and Fish.  Make sure you eat lean meat like chicken and grass fed beef. The best fish is oily fish like mackerel - not king mackerel as this can contain mercury and not tuna as this is being over fished to extinction.

Drink More Water.  Although you should never give up breakfast you should not be eating as much as you have been doing. To avoid feeling hungry drink a big glass of water before your meal. This will fill you up and make you want less food. It is suggested that you drink eight glasses a day - which seems to me to be rather a lot. So just drink as much as you feel comfortable with but make sure you drink a glass before you eat.

Exercise.  The big shock horror for some. It is all about self image. Overweight people don’t like waddling round the block and being lapped by keen joggers. Twice. What you forget is nobody cares. Nobody is interested in whether or not you are being lapped. Some people you meet will be more unfit than you are. So don’t worry. Tell yourself that in six months you will be keeping up with the joggers, and that’s another goal to aim for. Brisk walking is good easy exercise, but if you just can’t face it swimming or cycling will do just as well. You could even go to a gym, but that could really hurt your self image as you will see a lot of mega fit people. Too many for comfort perhaps. Whatever you do exercise for 30 minutes every day for six days a week.

That’s all there is to it. There are plenty of recipes online for meals incorporating your healthy ingredients. I like the Mediterranean diet because it tastes good, you can pretend you are on holiday and even drink a glass of wine as well. But there are others you may prefer - just don’t get bogged down in expensive fad diets. The important thing is to keep to a healthy lifestyle and never again will you need to ask ‘How can I lose weight?’

See you soon,

Cambridge UK

25 April 2011

Photo. Contatoupdig (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: how can I lose weight, how do I lose weight, I need to lose weight, mediterranean diet, need to lose weight, weight loss advice, why can't I lose fat

Hello Everybody,

What is the best weight loss fitness plan? It must be the one that works for you. That depends on what you want. If it is just to lose some weight, cut out the junk food, exercise for 30 minutes a day and in time you will lose weight. If you want fast weight loss check out crash diets and even pills - you can lose weight quickly that way, but it will come back on again when you stop the diet or the pills. If you want to lose weight, get fit and stay that way it needs a little more dedication.

You may be in despair because you have tried everything and have not lost weight. The answer is you must be doing something wrong. There is no mystery about how to lose weight - although there are plenty of ‘secrets’ marketers are happy to sell you. Burn more calories than you eat and you will lose weight. Eat more calories than you burn and you won’t - you will either stay the same or get heavier. If your weight yo-yos you are dieting and then returning to your old life style. That is where the dedication comes in. You must eat healthy food and you must exercise long term. You can set your own level of fitness from just healthy and slim to athlete, but if you want to be really fit you must exercise more than the minimum of 30 minutes a day.

Last week there was the London Marathon. Not too many of the 40,000 runners taking part were overweight. Exercise works if you do it regularly and don’t just jog from your sofa to McDonald’s and back again. Something those fit marathon runners had was a goal. Six months ago they decided to run the London Marathon, for charity, for a bet or maybe because it seemed a good idea at the time. They will have spent many hours in all weathers training to achieve their goal. There were 40,000 heroes out there on the day, but you can be a hero too. There is no reason why you cannot set a goal and achieve it.

How to start exercise? Slowly. Your first goal should be to walk a mile a day. After a couple of weeks work up to brisk walking, then jogging then running if you want to. You can stop at that distance and keep adequately fit doing it every day. The distance is up to you - if you are serious about getting really fit aim to jog ten miles. Not necessarily every day, but a couple of days a week at least. It’s a long way at first but you can do it. Take your time, drink some water half an hour before you start and when you finish.. Try to avoid more than small sips of water while you are jogging along. When you can do ten miles easily just think, only a few more miles and it’s a half marathon. Why stop there? It’s nearly a year to the next London Marathon. You could be amazingly slim and fit by then. That is a goal worth aiming for. But even if you are not that ambitious regular exercise really will make you lose weight. It is the best weight loss fitness plan of all, but don’t forget to eat healthy food as well.

See you soon,

Cambridge UK

18 April 2011

Technorati Tags: best weight loss plan, diet and exercise plan, exercise to lose weight, how to lose weight, lose weight

Hello Everybody,

It is possible for you to get slimmer thighs. The only problem is you cannot slim just one part of your body and not the rest. Slim your body, slim your thighs is the way to go. But exercise will tone your thigh muscles and that will certainly help you get slimmer thighs.. The way forward is to eat a healthy diet and exercise daily. That way you will lose weight off your thighs and the rest of your body as well.

What we do when we exercise is to build muscle mass. This increases metabolism and burns fat faster. You do need to eat a healthy diet as well as exercise to lose weight. Exercise can burn off some calories, and for muscle toning it is the only way, but without a change of diet you will be disappointed with the results.

What type of exercise do you need to get slimmer thighs? If you want to exercise indoors there are two exercises which will tone both front thigh and inner thigh.

Wall Squats. Lean your back against a smooth wall. Stand with your legs apart slightly in front of the wall and lean back. Your heels should be in contact with the floor. Keep your hands on your hips. Slide down the wall into the squat position. Hold this for a moment then slowly straighten your legs to return to the standing position. Do as many squats as you feel comfortable with - at first this will not be very many.

Seated Split Stretch. Sit on the floor and spread your legs wide. Reach to the right and grasp your toes - or as close to your toes as you can get. Hold for 30 seconds. Do the same to your left. Hold for 30 seconds. Repeat as many times as you feel comfortable with.

These exercises will certainly help your thigh muscles, but if you find them boring the answer is to exercise outdoors. Here are a few options.

Cycling. Excellent for thigh muscles as well as overall fitness.

Brisk walking. This will not burn off a massive amount of calories but it will tone your thighs. If you swing your arms you will exercise your upper body as well.

Swimming. Not necessarily an outdoor activity but it can be, and is great fun as well. Good exercise for the thighs and for the whole body.

Riding. Horseback riding is not the cheapest of sports but it is very good exercise for the thighs and the whole body.

I recommend that any of these outdoor exercises should be carried out for a minimum of 30 minutes a day. You can mix them up - one day walking, one day cycling and so on. If you mostly exercise outside do not exclude indoor exercise, there is no reason why you should not do both in a day if you want to. Or take a break from outdoor exercise and exercise indoors every so often.

Don’t forget the healthy diet - there are plenty of suggestions online and on this site. Take a look at my favourite Mediterranean diet which has delicious recipes and is healthy as well. Put diet and exercise together and there is no reason at all why you should not get slimmer thighs. Start now and you will be fit and slim for summer.

See you soon,

Cambridge UK

13 April 2011

Photo. Glossyeye(Flickr)

Technorati Tags: get slim thighs, how to get slimmer thighs, how to slim your thighs, lose weight on thighs, slim your thighs, slimmer thighs

Hello Everybody,

It is quite possible to lose weight today. Maybe you want to lose a little weight to make a pair of jeans more comfortable. Perhaps you have just decided enough is enough and want to prove you really can lose weight. Whatever the reason today - now - is the best time to start. But the conventional way of losing weight with exercise and a healthy diet is not going to lose you much in a day. Nothing is, but there are a couple of ways of losing a small amount of weight today.

 The hard way is to walk for three hours at a reasonable pace. You will burn off about 750 calories and, so long as you don’t spend an hour in McDonald’s at the end, you will have lost weight. The easier way is to go onto a fruit diet for a day or so. This advice by Genius Beauty Magazine is as good as any:

 ”‘Losing weight in one day? I have recently found an interesting intensive one day diet. Unlike the rest of the diets this one does not force you to starve for the whole day, which is very unhealthy for the body as well as the nervous system. To lower your weight fast it takes only to go on a fruit diet, according to which you consume no more than 810 calories and do not feel the shortage of healthy nutrients.

Breakfast. The breakfast should start with a salad made with cottage cheese. You will need 200 grams of non-fat cream cheese. Add 0.11 pounds (or 50 grams) of mineral water to the cheese. Blend the mix and then add finely cut banana. Sprinkle the salad with some lemon juice.

Lunch. One apple makes a nice snack before lunch. As for lunch - have some pancakes fried on one tablespoon of oil. The pancake dough is made with one tablespoon of flour, one egg, six tablespoons of mineral water and some sugar. Mix the ingredients well. Eat the pancakes with one tablespoon of apple puree.

Afternoon snack and dinner. Have one apple again for the afternoon snack. Dinner is a fruit salad. To make the salad, take any of the four types of fruit, cut them and add some orange juice and one tablespoon of honey.

Meals at the end of the day. No need to feel guilty for eating an apple right before bedtime. By following this diet the body will get enough food, and you will not feel hunger at all. In addition, the calorie intake is quite low while the food itself is very tasty.’

Eat this for a day and you probably will be able to get into your jeans in the morning. The problem long term is that you have now stopped your efforts to lose weight today. I will not mention the effect of all that fruit - suffice it to say that a lot of the weight you lost was water weight. The next day when, you resume your previous eating habits, the weight will come back on again. That is the yoyo dieting effect we hear so much about. You will be unable to get into your jeans and may think you would have been better off moving the button hole.

For long term weight loss you will need to change your life style to daily exercise and eating healthy food. But if you really want to lose weight today, short term weight loss can work for you.

See you soon,

Cambridge UK

5 April 2011

Photo.Michaelswiet (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: fastest weight loss, rapid weight loss, weight loss diets, weight loss plans, weight loss programs, weight loss solutions