Boost your activity level each day, and you’ll be burning calories and getting lean and trim in no time.
Many men and women are interested in getting fit, but don’t know where to start. Or, they start, but don’t keep it up because they get bored or feel like it’s a lot of hard work.
But you can get into the mood and the move in a lot of different ways that don’t involve hours on a treadmill or stairclimber, or spending a fortune on gym membership or equipment.
The most important way to stay fit and lose weight is to stay on the move. It takes 2000 calories to put on a pound, but 3000 to burn one off.
But exercise does not have to be a chore, or something you need to set aside hours for. The good news is that even 10 minutes a day can help—and new research has also shown that 4 sessions of 10 minutes a day is actually better for you than 40 minutes of sustained exercise.
Not only does it help you stay physically fit and trim, exercise also enhances your mood. Often you can even meet a lot of great like-minded people who will encourage you to stay fit.
The easiest way to exercise is the 10,000 steps a day rule. You can get an inexpensive pedometer to help keep you on track. Walking is a tremendous way of staying in shape for many men and women. You can gradually begin walking more with each passing day. In time, you can build up to the 10,000 step a day level.
You can also carry two water bottles and/orswing your arms more vigorously, to burn even more calories. Walking up hill or up stairs can also increase the impact of the workout and the number of calories burned.
Walking to the store instead of taking the car, or, not grabbing the first parking spot, but actually parking further away from the store entrance, can all help you meet your 10000 step goal.
Taking the stairs instead of the elevator, both up and down counts. Stepping from side to side while you wait for a bus or train works too, and actually exercises another set of helpful muscles. To increase your heart rate when walking, take smaller, more numerous strides per minute instead of longer, fewer ones.
A dog is also a great way to keep fit, and he is a mood booster too. Just remember, a puppy is a 15 year marriage commitment, til death do you part, usually its death. At the same time, though, there are tens of thousands of dogs looking for a home at www.petfinder.org if you feel that a canine pal will help keep you on track with your fitness goals.
Other daily activities which you can include would be golfing, especially if you carry your own clubs, and gardening.
Swimming is another huge calorie burner with low impact on your joints, something to consider if you are trying to lose weight without stress and strain to yourself or your joints. But you can’t do it literally anywhere (even in a plane!) the way you can with walking.
The worst exercise is none at all, so look at your daily schedule and try to see where you can add a few steps here and there to get your 10,000 every day. Every step counts on your path to better fitness.
FURTHER READING
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