Bev's BLOB Blog

This is an interesting link!

TIP OF THE DAY: Stop worrying about how many calories you burn during an exercise session. The goal of cardiorespiratory exercise is to train your body to burn fat better and more efficiently over time. An athlete burns more fat, both during exercise and at rest, than an unfit person, which explains why an active person can eat three platefuls of food and not gain a single pound. If you love to eat, then your goal should be to integrate exercise into your daily life so that you may do so and still maintain a healthy weight and percentage of body fat. Daily exercise increases your calorie burn ALL DAY long, not just during exercise!

Joanne Bednar
The Motivation Station

AN UNEXPECTED EXERCISE BENEFIT
by Katy Yocom

A Tufts University study of men and women who lost significant amounts of weight--and kept it off--reported an unexpected upside to exercise.

As you'd expect, exercise served as an important weight-loss tool. What you might not expect is exactly how it did so. Participants who exercised not only benefited by burning calories, but they also reported finding it easier to control their eating--as long as they were exercising regularly.

Other benefits worth considering: Participants who exercised reported feeling a reduction in stress, anxiety, and fatigue and an increase in alertness and creativity after just four to six weeks of regular exercise.

Restaurant Locator is a nifty device that helps you find a healthy restaurant in your area, plus links to nearly everything else!

TIP OF THE DAY: How do you get your body trained to BURN fat instead of store it? AEROBIC EXERCISE. As an unfit person begins to exercise, their body continues to hold on to the fat, because it is not trained to release it very easily. But over time, as you exercise regularly, your fat cells begin breaking down more readily, and your muscles actually recruit more fat burning enzymes to make their job easier. You essentially become more efficient. As you become more fit, your fat STORING enzymes start to disappear, and you become a fat burning machine! Now, unfortunately when you stop exercising, your fat burning enzymes also diminish, and your fat storing enzymes return. THAT is why it is so important to make exercise a part of your daily lives, and THAT is why those who successfully maintain weight loss are exercisers.

Joanne Bednar
The Motivation Station

GET SPECIFIC
by Katy Yocom

If you're having a hard time sticking to your weight-loss plan, it may be that your goals are too vague. True, there's nothing vague about saying, "I want to lose 15 pounds." But you're unlikely to get very far unless you go a step further and say, "I will work toward my goal by doing A, B, and C."

Setting specific, immediate goals means getting down to the nitty-gritty. "I will eat a minimum of three servings of vegetables every day." "I will eat ice cream only once a week." "I will exercise four times this week, for at least 30 minutes at a time." (Notice that the goal is "THIS week," not "every week for the rest of my life.") Give yourself specific instructions such as these, and suddenly your goal becomes much more attainable!

WHOO HOOO!!! Down another pound this morning for a total of 22 pounds lost so far! Yay me!

TIP OF THE DAY: Want to train hard for a high calorie burn, but hate the feeling of pushing your body that hard? Try short wind sprints. For example, if you are riding the bike, pedal as fast as you can for the first 10 seconds of each minute, and then ride at a moderate pace the remaining 50 seconds. This pushes your heart rate up for a very short time and then requires it to recover while still under the stress of your moderate activity. This will not only improve your fitness level quickly, but your calorie burn will be very high!

Joanne Bednar The Motivation Station

Yesterday I was right back on target with eating, and did 30 minutes of my new "Yoga for Dummies" tape. I really liked it and felt very good when I had finished. Very relaxing. Today, I also was right on with eating, and got in a 25 minute power walk at lunch time. I'm feeling much more enthused and energetic this week (PMS has passed). I viewed my Jan. 2 pics, compared to my Feb. 2 pics, and there's quite a noticeable improvement, so I'm quite anxious to compare to this month's new pics. One day I'll be brave enough to post them!

We've got every kind of flu imagineable in this house right now. Ben and I even had to cut our hockey trip short, as he caught a bad stomach flu. Hubby has a cold flu, and Sarah and I are just waiting to see which attacks us first! I've been doing pretty well in the eating department. Not as good as I can, or should, but with all the travelling and running around sometimes it's hard to make a healthy choice. I'm still doing well though. I managed to get in quite a bit of walking while out of town Saturday. Friday I did a good Tae Bo workout, and yesterday I did nothing but lay on the couch and sleep, as Ben and I had a pretty lousy sleep!

I have a healthy lunch packed, 3.5 liters of water, had my bowl of corn bran and skim milk, and have some salmon thawing for dinner. I hope to get a power walk in during my lunch hour, and get completely on track again.