Healthy Lifestyle - Training Your Brain!

You want another reason to keep up with your workouts? How about this? Exercise trains your brain to stick to your diet!

University of Pittsburg researchers just did a study, where they kept track of 169 overweight adults for 2 years. Interestingly enough, those who followed their workout plan (which was only 3 hours per week of workouts) –well, they ate less than those who didn’t follow their workout plan. In fact, the ones that didn’t follow their program consistently ate beyond the 1,500 calories of food they were allowed to eat per day!

On top of this, the people that were not consistant with their workouts also had problems dealing with snack cravings. They would sneak snacks when they did actually workout, with further sabotaged their efforts.

According to John Jakicic, Ph.D. (the study’s author) – “One healthy behavior without the other will not work – you need to diet and exercise to maintain long-term weight loss”.

In other words, the more you workout – and stay on schedule with your workouts, the more likely you’ll also stick to your diet!

Exercise - How To Guage If Your Workouts Are Making Progress

Sure, maybe you've been working out for a little while. But, how can you be sure you're making any progress? What are the signs that you're doing things "the right way"?

If you asses your progress exclusivly on the basis of lost pounds, or on inches, you might be missing out on other important signals that could be fueling your motivation. Here are a couple other measures to consider:

Pace - As your fitness improves, you should find that the time it takes to run a mile, either on the road, or on the treadmill, will gradually decrease, And, you should also find that you can maintain speeds that used to be a challenge, with less effort and heart rate than before.

Heart Rate Recovery - Remember your first workout? Remember that feeling that your heart was going to keep beating fast - forever? Well, as your workouts improve, you should find that your heart rate will now drop or return to normal much quicker than before. A good post workout heart rate recovery of 25 to 30 beats in one minute is considered good, and 50 to 60 beats per minute is excellent.

Strength and Endurance - If you can run three miles now, where before you could only run two, or lift a weight more easily than before, it's a sure sign your becoming fit.

Getting fit is more than just loosing weight, or loosing inches. It's about improving your endurance, your stamina, your strength. As you replace fat with muscle, your weight may not drop, but as muscle takes up less space than fat, you'll feel slimmer, toned, and stronger - and those are the measurements that truly help keep you motivated!

Health - What Is The Best Time To Hit The Gym?

by Bob Lachniet
Owner - Fitness 4 Home Superstore

We all know that working out is important. We also know people who insist that an early morning workout is the best time of day to exercise. Of course, there are others that feel that an evening workout works best for them. But, what is truly the best time to exercise?

Well, the answer is simple – it depends. What are you trying to get out of your workouts? The effectiveness of your gym time depends on what you’re trying to accomplish, combined with your own body rhythms.

The Advantages Of Evening Workouts – Trying to build muscle, or train for an event? Evenings may be a good time for your workouts. The afternoon may be a better time to engage in more explosive exercises, such as kickboxing or racquetball. Research has shown that the body's temperature tends to rise by a few degrees in the afternoon, warming the muscles and connective tissues and resulting in a slight improvement in your performance capabilities. If you're not putting in a longer warm-up, morning workouts can put you at a higher risk for injury. Plus, in the morning, your body hasn’t had fuel for almost 12 hours, which means there isn’t enough stored fuel (glycogen) to fuel an effective workout.

The Advantages Of Morning Workouts – Trying to loose weight?. Working out, doing cardio especially, on an empty stomach will burn more fat calories because your carb reserves are almost used up. That causes the body to turn to fat stores for energy first. (Many fitness experts warn, however, that running on empty isn't the most efficient way to work out.) Plus, evidence has shown that those that time their workouts for the mornings, are more likely to stick with their fitness routines.

Planning your weekly workouts – Whatever you do, you’re better off planning your workouts for frequent intervals during the week, rather than doing one or two long, hard workouts on the weekend. Even if you run the same number of miles in one day as you would have over three or four short sessions, you may burn the same amount of calories. But, doing shorter workouts spread out over the week gives you other health benefits as well, such as temporarily lowering your blood pressure and blood glucose levels, which provide cumulative benefits over the years. Plus, regular exercise can also help curb your appetite, further helping you to achieve your weight loss & fitness goals.