Six Pack Belly!

Gail Davis
July 27, 2008

How can you get more activity into your busy day? How can you make yourself leave the office early and put down the remote and get outside? How can you get to the point where you look forward to being active? The answer to all of these questions is to find an activity that you love and think of it as "play."

Expert advice tells you to exercise 20-60 minutes each day. Many people find it difficult to fit this time into their schedules. Not to worry! Research has shown that 2-3 sessions of 10 minutes each can be effective, and perhaps even more effective in burning fat.

If exercise is just not your thing, don´t despair; there is still hope for you. Just make an effort to get more activity into each day. Given a choice between stairs and the elevator, take the stairs. Park a longer distance away from your destination. Get up to change the television channel instead of using the remote. Look for reasons to walk upstairs in your house. Get up and dance during the television commercials. Take your dog for a longer walk, or borrow the neighbor´s dog. Look for opportunities to be outside. Sweep the porch, pull the weeds, and rake leaves. Each thing that you do counts! Every activity burns more calories than sitting!

Yes, it´s possible to lose weight without activity. Many experts would have you believe otherwise, but you can sit down all day and drastically decrease your caloric intake and still lose weight. It´s pretty much a guarantee though, that you will not be happy with the way you look once you reach your goal weight. With a decrease in lean muscle mass and an increase in loose skin, you´re going to wonder why you worked so hard to achieve that body staring back at you in the mirror!

Obviously, the easiest activity to help you lose weight or maintain your weight is walking. Other than a comfortable pair of shoes, nothing else is needed. It can be done anywhere, anytime, indoors or out. Aim for 30-60 minutes a day and if you get bored easily, find a walking buddy or use an iPod. One day a week, try to do a longer walk, just to shake things up a little. Walking four miles an hour burns approximately 500 calories but a fifteen-minute mile is pretty good clip. So…get a good friend or a good set of tunes and get walking!

Another excellent activity is swimming laps. Check out the recreational centers in your city. Many of them will have large indoor pools. Once you get over the bathing suit in public issue, and the swim cap issue, and let´s not forget the goggle-eyes issue, you´ll be amazed at how much you enjoy swimming! It brings back playful memories of childhood. If you´re self-conscious, remember that once you´re in the pool, no one can see you. Swimming is also one of the few activities where your excess weight doesn´t work against you. Swimming laps continuously for an hour burns approximately 470-670 calories, depending on your weight.

Joining a gym can be a fun way to exercise and meet people. There are exercise studios that cater to women only if you find the whole "health club" atmosphere to be too intimidating. If you prefer the privacy of your own home, there are hundreds of exercise DVDs available. These can be purchased at sporting goods stores, bookstores, and online. In addition, many video stores will rent exercise videos and some libraries have them available to be checked out.

Lots of exercise equipment is available and much of it is fun to use. Don´t feel, though, that you have to have it to be successful. You can find many items around your house that you can use to help you exercise. Canned goods can be used as hand weights. Broom handles can be used for stretching. Chairs can be used for dips, and walls can be used for standing push ups.

The benefits of exercise are unbelievable! The coolest benefit of all is that exercise is the gift that keeps on giving! When you exercise regularly, your body continues to burn more calories even after you´ve quit working out. What more can you ask for?