It's never late to be fIt

The truth of the matter is that it takes motivation to push you into starting and maintaining a fitness regimen. Motivation is most needed in the beginning when a person first starts their regimen, because it is all new to them. People are creatures of habit and this is why fitness programs are easier to adhere to the further on that you have one.

One mistake that people make is that they focus intently on just one area of fitness and then pound the hell out of themselves. The will go to the gym and stare at the sign that reads, "No pain no gain" as they torture themselves on the various equipment that is there. While this may work on the short term, who in their right mind wants to be tortured regularly for the entire duration of their life?

Don't be afraid to take it easy on yourself in the beginning, because after all you are a beginner at the game. Don't go through your entire pantry and throw out all of the goodies in one fell swoop. Rather, eliminate them one at a time over the period of six months or so. Start with the ice cream, because if you are buying ice cream at the grocery store and bringing it home to your freezer you are bringing home and consuming pure fat.

Things like ice cream and cookies can be bought now and again at the mall in single portions, because there is nothing wrong with rewarding yourself with a treat now and again. A sensible eating program has to be part of any fitness program, because you can burn all of the calories that you want but if you are stuffing them right back in your mouth every night you are just spinning your wheels.

As the old saying goes "you are what you eat" and science has proven this to be a fact. If you are considering beginning an exercise regimen and aren't rethinking your eating habits then you really are going to make a difficult task even harder. This is because, you can burn all of the calories that you want at the gym but if you are stuffing them all back in your mouth when you get home what’s the point of it all.

One critical aspect of a fitness program is to end up looking great. Of course you will always have the fat guy that is only interested in lifting massive amounts of weights but he is by far the exception. This means that you must shed some pounds, as part of your exercise regimen so the new "toned" you will shine through. Crash or extreme diets never work, because they will only slow your metabolism down. The last thing that you need for your exercise program to succeed is a sluggish metabolism.

This means that you will want to make gradual adjustments to your diet when you are beginning your fitness regimen. The first thing that you can safely eliminate is fatty foods, such as frozen pizza and ice cream. Start reading the ingredient labels on the food that you buy and you may find that you are less willing to eat junk food after you have read what is inside of the package.

When you are beginning your fitness program you have to realize that in the beginning you body is going to fight you. You will feel sore after your workouts and the pounds won't quickly come off in the beginning. It takes a couple of weeks before the soreness goes away and you begin to see the pounds fall off.

The fact of the matter is that if you want to be fit, you have to act fit. What that means is that living an active lifestyle has to include some type of fitness regimen. This doesn't mean necessarily that you have to spend four nights a week torturing yourself at the local gym. What is does mean though, is that you have to give some thought to how you are going to incorporate some time for fitness into your daily schedule. Your body was designed to be exercised and if it isn't getting it your metabolism will slow down, which leads to fat build up.

One thing that has been proven to work is to first take an inventory of your lifestyle and time schedule and try to see how any type of physical activity can fit in. For some people this can mean placing an exercise machine in front of their TV set, so they can get their workout while they watch their daily soaps. Also, going through your pantry and refrigerator and eliminating some of the high calorie snacks can only help to keep you fit?

If you have a job that doesn't require any physical effort then what may work for you is to spend your lunch break eating a light snack and then going for a walk, instead of wolfing down a bunch of calories at a lunch counter. It is important to remember that sudden diets have been clinically proven not to work, because your body’s metabolism has a built in mechanism to fight starvation, which is what you are doing when you go on a sudden diet. Instead, take a few minutes to find a way to eliminate a hundred or so calories from your diet each day and you are sure to see actual results in time.

If you are like so many other people, you have promised yourself again and again that you are going to take some steps to get back into shape. Again and again you put it off or begin a regimen such as walking in the afternoons or evenings only to peter out in a couple of weeks. What makes it so hard to design and adhere to an exercise regimen is that they have to be consistent to be effective. There are a few tricks however; that you can use to help you stick to an effective exercise program.
Trick number one is to not bite off more then you can chew. It is far better to work your way up then to work your way down when it comes to exercise. What this means, is that instead of trying to delegate two hours every other day to a walking or workout regimen, why not try something different. Commit yourself to a twenty minute walk twice a week and mark the times you will do it on a calendar on your fridge where you are going to see it.

This is because; chances are that you are far more likely to stick to a regimen that is so short and easy to stick to. Don't worry though that it wont help, because any exercise will help in the long run. Also, chances are that you will find yourself increasing the time that you spend getting in shape and when your friends see you sticking to even a short regimen at least one of them is going to want to join you. So the final message is to make it easy for you at first and as you get in shape and begin to see even the small results you can and will adjust up.

One true statistical fact is that that the longer you wait in life to begin an exercise regimen, the harder it is to do. It’s so easy to get a room full of high school kids to adopt an exercise regimen, because they are young and open to suggestion. But when someone close to you tells you that you need to start exercising and get in better shape your immediate response is something along the lines of "screws you".

In the end only you can make the final decision to begin an exercise regimen and make sensible dietary adjustments. One trick that seems to work for many people is to begin exercising in small steps. This means that you might have a lot better luck adhering to a running program if its just running around the block a few times in the evening. Starting out by trying to run five miles every day is going to most likely lead to failure.

Also, rather then going through your kitchen and eliminating all of the junk food in one fell swoop, try just eliminating the one main calorie contributor in the kitchen. You can deal with other goodies that are in their by buying them in single serving packets rather then one big box. It may cost more to buy them this way in the beginning but not in the long run, because they are going to eventually be completely eliminated in due time.

Progress in weight loss and physical fitness is going to be made in a series of small steps and lifestyle adjustments. If you try to do everything all at once you are going to make a difficult task that much harder. What’s important is that you are on the right track and have your eye on the target and in time you will find yourself lighter, thinner and eating better.