I recently did a five-day effortless weight loss mini challenge in my Facebook group and during the challenge a couple of questions came up about starting exercise. You see, there were a number of women in the group who are new to exercise or just getting back off into working out after a health issue or an injury. They were unsure where to start. I’ve been exercising for most of my life so I had to take a step back and say, “If I were a new person starting this from scratch, what would I need to know’”
Let’s start at the very beginning. Why should we exercise’ Well, besides helping you lose weight, exercising is good for your overall health. Working out can yield big benefits like decreasing blood pressure, diabetes risks and helping you to stay mobile for the long term. For women in their 40s exercise helps with hormonal balance and helps you relieve your stress.
There’s an old saying: ” exercise is king; nutrition is queen.” If you begin to exercise thinking this is the fastest way to lose weight is to exercise more and eat less, let me be the first to tell you that, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Denying yourself food and ramping up exercise is the quickest way to create cravings that will derail your plans. Instead, there are three things you need to focus on.
- Protein – I’m not saying bacon and eggs for breakfast. I’m talking about a quality protein, like fish, lean chicken, lean cuts of beef, eggs. The beauty about protein, it’s very filling so you’re not going to feel like you’re eating like a bird, it’s very satiating. Make sure you get 30 grams of protein per meal.
- Vitamin D – with all the sunscreen and bug spray we use these days, we’re blocking out the vitamin D from the sun. This also plays a part in our muscle loss. Ask your doctor to check your levels and see what, if anything, you need.
- Omega-3 – This help with inflammation. Yes, you can just take a pill, but good fat oils are so much better! I want you to think any oil with the exception of sunflower, safflower, corn vegetable, soy. Any grocery store you go to there will be a whole selection, as long as you don’t pick any of those five oils, I just named you’re good, rock on with your bad self.
The best way to maintain your success is to combine exercise and nutrition.
Plus follow these steps:
Make a choice – What am I going to do and how many days a week can I honestly commit’
Start simple – A simple walk is a good place to start. Just get moving! 15 minutes of something
Make it a routine – Routine is a big part of the Fit Girl Magic Formula. It all starts with having great habits that builds into a routine that builds into consistency, and that’s what ultimately gives you the results.
Be courageous – I get it, you might have tried in the past and you failed miserably. Or maybe you did too much too soon and you just kind of went balls to the wall and then you got injured and then you just stopped. Okay, you found something that didn’t work; now let’s try something else.
The tactical for beginners
Start working out anywhere from two to three times a week. Do a full body exercise and work your big muscle groups. That’s squatting, doing push-ups, doing some bent over rows. Throw in some biceps and triceps.
Now, I know some people out there have some type of constraints – hip/knee replacements, somewhere on their body is an arthritic joint, that’s fine. What I’m saying is you can work around those potential injuries/limitations. I don’t want you to be your injury/disease. I want you to be what you can be in spite of your injury/disease. I had a client who had two knee replacements at the same time. She did upper body exercises. She was still walking on crutches, walking with a walker, but she did upper body exercises. When an injury or disease hit you are going to work with what you’ve got, and you’ll work around the injury or the limitation depending on whatever the heck it is.
My goal is to make the information that you get from me, that you get from the Fit Girl Magic podcast to be as simple, sustainable and easy to digest as possible, because guess what’ It doesn’t need to be complicated. When it’s too complicated you either 1. Don’t do it or 2. Go too hard to fast.
So where can you start today that you can maintain for a better future’
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