Participating in physical activities in and out of school more than two times a week protects adolescents from becoming overweight young adults, according to new research.

Basically the study determined that if a kid was active rollerblading or playing basketball or whatever, the chances of being overweight as an adult was reduced by 48 percent. Common sense tells me that the likelihood of a kid being active when they are young, the chances are great that they will continue to want to be active when they get older. Johns Hopkins didn’t need to commission a study and waste their money on that. But I guess somebody had to spend some grant money.

I came across a fabulous article on Yahoo Health by Michael Mejia. He is a fitness trainer and he has some awesome ideas on how to get the most out of a workout.

For losing weight a beginner needs to do a circuit routine doing 10-12 exercises, with 10-15 repetitions, with little rest between the exercises. A couple of circuits should be enough. For advanced people trying to lose weight he suggests doing supersets where you do two exercises back to back then 60 second rest. But you work out different areas of the body with the two exercises. Maybe the first exercise is for the legs then the second is for the chest.

His suggestions for gaining muscle he simply says to stick with the tried and true 8-12 repetitions. Do the sets with 60 sec rest between each one. For the advanced he suggests sticking to a variation of the super sets. If you are gaining muscle he suggests the two exercises stick to the same body area. If you bench press then immediately go to dumbbell flies, for instance.

Everybody complains that they do not have enough time to workout. If you can only spare two days then Mejia suggests you do full-body workouts on those days. If you have three days then you can begin to split your routine. Four days and more you can split your routine to concentrate on major muscle groups and focus on specific area as well.

Don’t forget about recovery. You have to give your muscles time to break down and build back up. This is where you will see the improvement. Constantly breaking down the muscle without rest simply causes more harm than good.

• Keep foods out of your house that you don’t want to eat. No junk
• Find an exercise that will get you moving which you enjoy.
• Minimize your stress.
• Go to sleep.

You can read more of Gabrielle’s tips for getting in shape, losing weight and keeping fit here.

identifying the things you WANT out of life can serve as a great motivator in getting them.

Now that you have a few things listed, write down three actions you should take over the next month that would help you get closer to realizing the most important goal.

I would recommend you incorporate drinking more water, increasing your exercise time and limiting food vices in your list of actions. I am confident they will help you to realize any and all of these goals.

Now, set a plan to get each of the three actions ingrained in your daily schedule each day. Make specific tasks that will help you do this.

I like the idea of creating a list of what you want out of life. Maybe you want to fit into size 12 clothing. Maybe you want to run a half-marathon. Make sure you write down what you really want, then your motivation will help you get where you need to be to accomplish that goal.

• Having a defeatist attitude from the start. It’s all about attitude. Hate tell you but if you believe you can do it, you can. If you don’t, you won’t.
• Starting something you can’t see yourself sticking with forever. Don’t stop just because you aren’t seeing the results you’d hoped for after a month. This takes time. Stick with it.
  
• Starting something you hate from the start. Try to find some enjoyment with this. Find someone or group to help encourage you to succeed. You can make this fun.
  
• Weighing yourself too much. It’s like watching the clock. Constantly looking at it won’t make the time go by any faster. Don’t obsess over the weight. Obsess over getting fit.
  
• Not drinking enough water. Stay hydrated. Keep yourself full with water. It’s no  calories and will aid in your fitness and recovery from exercise.
  
• Drinking sugary beverages. Exactly. Get used to drinking water.
  
• Eating more processed foods than natural ones. It’s a bummer but natural foods are expensive and not convenient. But they are better for you.
  
• Not having a plan. No plan = no success. Set a goal for yourself. Anything. If you want to get in that size 12 then plan on doing just that. Give yourself 6 months. Reward yourself along the way. Get a plan and stick to it.
  
• Not being at least a little nutritionally savvy. Get interested in your health and start reading up on it. bet you spent some time researching for that car or home or stereo. Isn’t your health worth at least a little consideration?
  
• Always cleaning your plate. If you’re full, stop eating. I know what your grandma said. I also know that they lived in the depression times and got one good meal and didn’t know if they would eat another meal for the day. We are in the land and time of excesses. Stop eating like it’s your last meal.
  
• Going back for seconds. Don’t be a pig. This is just stupid.
  
• Skipping breakfast. Eat a little something in the morning to get your metabolism revved up.
  
• Starving yourself all day so you can cheat later. You need energy to lose weight.
  
• Binging when you slip up, and waiting until tomorrow or after to get back on track. Consistency is key.
  
• Believing you’re genetically destined to be fat. Maybe you are. But you also control what you stick in your mouth and how much exercise you do. Not everyone will be supermodel thin form exercise and eating properly. Just be the best you can be. At least give yourself a chance.
  
• Treating “fat” as a personality trait. Being fat is not healthy no matter what media says about “big beautiful women”. They are just telling you what you want to hear.
  
• Waiting until your ‘thin’ to start living. Decide you want to lose weight and get excited about it. Live your life like getting fit is just part of who you are. Be proud of the journey.
  
• Putting too much stock in diet pills, gimmicks, etc. Want to lose weight? It’s simple math. Burn more calories than you consume. It’s hard work and the best result is always the one that forces you to get fit. Not pill pop.
  
• Treating exercise like a chore. Stop being lazy and just find an activity that works for you.
  
• Drinking too much alcohol. Or don’t if you love your beer gut.
  
• Watching, instead of playing, sports. Life shouldn’t be a spectator sport.
  
• Watching too much TV. TV isn’t bad unless you do it at the expense of getting off your ass and being active.
  
• Believing that dieting in spurts can have lasting results. It’s a life long process.
  
• Eating fast foods regularly. Fast food is simply bad.
  
• Waiting until tomorrow to get started. Start today. Right now.
  

We all like things to be easy. Easy weight loss. Easy Money. But if you really want fitness to mean something you have to work a little for it. No pain, no gain, right? It’s true.

Maybe these weight loss pills will work for you. It doesn’t mean you’re getting fit. And that should be one of your goals. Lose weight and get fit. That should be what everyone strives for.

What’s will happen if you start to exercise? Your fitness and health will improve. Increased energy. You’ll feel better about yourself. What’s the worst that will happen? You’ll be tired. It’s the price you pay for not being lazy anymore.

So how do you lose the weight? Simple. Eat correctly. Stop eating the high-fat foods. Sure they taste great but do you really want to have to lug around the after affects of your indulgence?

So I hear you say you can’t afford to go to the gym. Fine, don’t. Do old-fashioned situps and pushups. You can walk every morning before work and walk after work. Exercise a few times a week. Surely you can carve out 30 minutes a day from your TV viewing. Here’s an idea if you can’t pull yourself away from your TV: do situps during the first commercial, then pushups during the second commercial.

There are many different programs on the market with people promoting them as the best and there are also many opportunities for you to find a free weight loss exercise programs on the Internet but quite often these programs are written by people who don’t have sufficient knowledge for you to achieve the maximum benefits.

Nutrition needs to be taken into account and for this to be done correctly you really need specialist nutrition advice and that is what is quite often lacking with the free weight loss exercise programs that we have had the chance to have a look at online.

Some of these free weight loss exercise programs are particularly deficient in the nutrition and can quite possibly lead to ill health so be careful before you start on any free weight loss exercise program that you might find.

But in early 2004, he was having some back pain and his doctor advised him to give up running. He also wanted to lose the 20 or so pounds he’d gained since turning 40.

“The older I got, the heavier I got,” says Tomanio. “The doctor said I should take up swimming or go on an elliptical trainer or biking.”

Tomanio never liked relying on machines for his workout, but then a friend suggested he try indoor cycling or spinning. more