Daily Workout

Let me start by saying this is a lot of info and might seem overwhelming.  If you take only one thing from today I want you to get moving.  Even if it is just slow and easy.  The rest will come.  Everyone starts at different places.  The key is to start!

For most of you our workout goal is to do at least 30 minutes of cardio 3 days a week and weight training 2 days a week. We will be increasing the cardio and weights as we become more fit but we don’t want to do too much too fast and injure ourselves. If you have already been working out, feel free to do more that 30 min. For this program to work you will have to push your self, just don't kill yourself on the first week. On the other hand don't take it too easy. 

Cardio: The goal is to get your heart rate up! Find something you like to do. It can be swimming, walking, jogging, aerobics, yoga, biking, dancing or anything else you like. I have put a few links on the side of the page for ideas. If you are really just beginning I LOVE the beginning treadmill workout. I used it every time I am getting back into working out after having a baby. If you don’t have a treadmill, walk around the block or track. What I want you to be most concerned about is your heart rate.

Warm up: Always start out with a 5 min warm up. To warm up you can walk at an easy pace to get your body warmed up and moving.

Aerobic workout: (Aerobic in our case means you are burning fat for your body’s fuel.) After your warm up you want to get your heart rate into a “fat burring zone”. To measure or take your heart rate you need to be holding still. Place your right index finger and middle finger on the right side of your neck. Find your pulse. Once you have found your pulse time yourself for 10 seconds and count how many times your heart beats. Find your age on the chart. You should keep your heart rate at least in the 55% range for the first week and hopefully in the 70% range for the remainder of the 30 min. If your heart rate is low, work a little harder and take your heart rate again in 5 min. If your heart rate is too high slow it down and take it again in 5 min.

Cool down: Always cool down after a workout. Walk slower, bike slower, swim slower or tap side to side. Your heart rate should be back down when you are done with your cool down.

Strength Training: This should be done twice a week with at least 1 day between workouts. So if you do weights on Tuesday wait until Thursday to do it again. Warm up (walk) for 5 min then start the workout. If you are going to do weights and cardio in the same workout do the weights first so you will have good form and not be tired, then do your 30 min cardio.

Strength training program:
Exercise 1: Bench press
Exercise 2: Squat
Exercise 3: Dumbbell clean and press
Exercise 4: Bicep curl
Exercise 5: Lunges
Exercise 6: Lateral raise
Exercise 7: Barbell row
Exercise 8: Medicine ball abdominal crunches (with or without ball)

I will post this information tomorrow or you can take a look at the link I have placed on the right sidebar under Strength Training. In that link, beginning at the bottom of page 28, you will see a description of the workout. There are also picture starting on page 32 of the link.  The link also has some eating and cardio ideas.  This strength training workout is a great weights workout for beginners. It is simple and keeps you moving so you are burning calories and getting stronger. Remember muscle burns more calories even when you are at rest. By adding some lifting you will be burning more calories everyday and feeling stronger! We do not want to end up looking like body builders so this workout is perfect. Our goal is to keep it aerobic with long lean muscles, which means you should be able to do 3 sets of at least 10 of whatever strength training you decide to do. That means you should be able to lift the weight 10 times without stopping. Don’t get me wrong, I want you to have to put some effort out but I want you to have good form, not hurt your self and build LEAN muscle. You can start with a 3 or 5 lb weight but we will be going up! Do each of the lifts 10 times in the order on the list, then start back at the top of the list and do them all again 10 time, go through the list one more time at 10 times each to reach your 3 sets of 10. If it was supper easy the first set, go up to 8 lb barbells.

This is a lot of information so if you have questions ask away! 

MEAL PLAN

With eating being so important I thought I'd try to give you more info. Our goal is to get as much nutrients in each meal as we can so your choices are important.  Also you want to make sure you eat protein with every meal and snack.  It will help cut cravings.

Counting calories can be hard at first but once you figure out your go to meals it gets a lot easier.  It is well worth the effort in the beginning.  For most women you should keep your calories between 1200 and 1900. (Check here http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ for your exact amount.) You must eat three meals and 2 snacks everyday. Never skip a meal!!! Even if you are going to go over on calories just try to make good choices. If you are over on your calories one day, do not try to make it up the next day with having under 1200 calories. Also do not eat more calories thinking you will just add a workout to burn it off. Remember this is your life and your goal. You can make the choices you need to to get you where you want to be. No one can force you to succeed and no one but you can take the credit when you do!

Hear are some meal ideas. Like always, these are just ideas. Feel free to mix it up and above all COUNT THE CALORIES and write it down!!! Counting the calories is so you can learn to make good choices so stay on top of that for now.  If you find something you love let us know so I can add it to the list. Try to keep each meal to around 400 calories and the snacks to 100 calories. I tend to eat the same thing everyday because it is easy to know i am making good choices. Make sure you read the serving sizes on everything. YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Drinks
Drink around 1 gallon of water a day. Fill up the jug and have it gone by the time you go to bed. You can drink low fat or non fat milk. There are alot of drinks out there with no calories, some have sweeteners that are not so great if you have too much, so drink them sparingly. Try to avoid sugary juices. Even if it says 100% juice they have alot of calories and sugar. I have found a orange juice that has 50% less sugar and calories it is called Trop50 from Tropicana.
Breakfast ideas:
Oatmeal and almonds
Oatmeal with fruit
Omelet with any kind of veggies
Omelet with mushrooms and spinach
Eggs and fruit
Yogurt and fruit
Whole Wheat beagle and fruit

Lunch (With any sandwich you can use a lettuce leaf as the bread if you need to cut calories or eat it as a salad)
Tuna Sandwich or salad: w/relish, tomato and lettuce (no mayo)
Deli Meat sandwich or salad: (chicken, turkey) lettuce, tomato, mustard (no mayo)
Grilled Chicken salad
Taco salad: lettuce, tomato, cheese, seasoned hamburger meat, salsa (no chips)



Snacks (feel free to mix it up ex: cottage cheese and fruit)
Yogurt (low fat or fat free)
Fat free string cheese
Fruits and veggies
Almonds (about 10)
Cottage cheese (low fat)
Granola (i have a recipe I will share)


Dinner: use a smaller plate. ½ of the plate veggies/salad, ¼ protein source (lean meat), ¼ whole grain side if you need the calories. If you go back for seconds only get the salad or veggies.

Salmon
Tuna
Shrimp
Grilled Chicken
Lemon pepper chicken
Turkey

Green salads (no dressing!)
Eat a green salad with every dinner if you can. Mix it up. My new found favorite is Spinach, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, purple cabbage, grated carrot and strawberries.

Steamed veggies( no butter)

Soups can be a good filler but they should be clear (veggie, chicken). Stay away from the “cream of” and cheese soups. As always check calories

Cooking
The grill is probably the healthiest way to cook. There is no fats to cook the meat or veggies in. If you are using a frying pan you can use olive, canola, corn or sunflower oil or Spray Pam and lightly coat the pan. never use lard, shorting, or grease.

If you cant live without butter or salad dressing there are a few lite options in the spray bottles. use it sparingly and count the calories. Also real butter is your best option.  By the way alot of the stuff that sayes "diet food" or "light" is really not good for you so don't be fooled.

Notice there is no dessert. For now try to cut sugary and fatty deserts out. Try fruit like pineapple, a peach, grapes or yogurt. it might take a few weeks for your body to stop craving the sugar but in a few weeks you will forget you ever ate them.... OK, maybe not forget but you will see results, feel great and it will be easier to eat healthy. I promise a little sacrifice now WILL be worth it!


Serving size info
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCenter/HealthyDietGoals/Suggested-Servings-from-Each-Food-Group_UCM_318186_Article.jsp

There is also a meal plan on this link starting on page 15. Again count the calorie.
http://www.building-muscle101.com/support-files/getting-rid-of-fat-free.pdf

more healthy eating info:
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/WeightManagement/LosingWeight/5-Goals-to-Losing-Weight_UCM_307260_Article.jsp



http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/WeightManagement/LosingWeight/5-Goals-to-Healthy-Eating_UCM_307257_Article.jsp

Eating Right: the first step

When trying to lose weight eating right is the most important part. You can workout until you die and you will not lose a pound if you don’t eat right. If you need to start out with baby steps start with a health diet first. Here are some tips to get started.  I'll talk more about all of these things as we go.

Drink water: About a gallon a day. Fill up a gallon container and try to make sure it is gone by bed time. This means more runs to the restroom BUT water is so important when it comes to flushing out the unwanted waist your body will needs to get rid of to lose weight and be healthy.

No processed foods: Processed foods really make your kidneys and liver spend more time filtering the chemicals and such out of your food.  Eating whole foods relieves that strain and lets the kidneys and liver do their job better, that in turn helps you feel better.  Not to mention that with whole foods you get more nutrients in less calories and less calories in a serving size.
Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible, before being consumed.  Whole foods does not necessarily mean organic.  Just to make this clear.  Whole foods can be fresh fruits and veggies, lean meats, beans, nuts..... We will talk more about this soon!

Fruits and vegetables are your "go to" thing to eat. You can eat more or less as much as you want. Try to eat the darker greens and use a variety of other colors through out the day. Raw fruits and veggies are the best way to go but steamed is a good way to mix it up.

Fresh poultry and fish should be your fist choice when it comes to eating meat. Try to limit red meat to only twice a week and cut things like sausage, bacon and the fatty meats out all together.

If you are going to eat grains make them whole grains.  If you make them yourself that is even better.

 

Count calories: WRITE IT DOWN!!!! Keep track of everything that goes in your mouth, at least at first. You MUST HAVE at least 1200 calories a day to keep your body healthy and happy. Let me say that again.  YOUR BODY NEEDS AT LEAST 1200 CALORIES A DAY.  Eating less sends you into starvation mode and we don't want that, but more on that later.  Make good choices on what you choose to eat. Remember everyone is different weights, heights, age, male/female and have different goals. If you input your information here http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ you will know exactly how many calories you need to eat to reach your goal. I like to give a range so you can have a little give and take.  And let me say if you eat the right foods you can eat a lot!!!!  That is the real goal.  EATING THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF THE RIGHT FOODS=NOT BEING HUNGRY= NOT OVER EATING= STAYING IN THE COLORIE RANG= A HELATHY HAPPY YOU.:)


Limit sugar: For now we are going to try to cut out most of the sugar, aka junk food, we eat. Your body will thank you and it helps you cut those calories.



Fat: Fats are important in a healthy diet. We just want to make sure we are getting the right kind of fat. Try to keep your fat intake under 40g a day. Keep away from solid fats like lard or shorting and sugary foods like candy bars.


Remember there are no excuses. If you want to lose the weight you can!

This web page has alot of good info and some healthy recipes to try. Take some time and check it out!
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/WeightManagement/LosingWeight/5-Goals-to-Losing-Weight_UCM_307260_Article.jsp

Recipes!
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/WeightManagement/Welcome-to-the-No-Fad-Diet_UCM_305835_SubHomePage.jsp