8 STEP TO BECOME A HEALTHIER YOU!

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Step 8

Step 1: Motivation

Make sure that you personalize your motivation. What this means is you need a specific meaningful goal that is tailored to what you "want" to achieve. This might be because you want a better looking body. Make sure you look to the reason why, is it because you want to live longer, shrink your growing gut or look better naked.

Step 2: Commitment When you make a commitment to improve you fitness it implies a one

hundred percent "all in" dedication, devotion and heart. It isn't one-hundred percent until.... Think about other things you have been committed to and how you didn't come up with an exit plan. Take comfort in knowing that being committed to personal growth can help you realize not just physical health but other goals in life as well

Step 3: Buddy Up

• Time goes by faster• Less likely to cancel a workout• Holds accountability• Celebrate your Successes

Step 4: Routine

One of the most important aspects to consider when developing a routine is determining how much time you can devote to exercise. Is it an hour each day or maybe you have a family and can only devote 30 minutes every other day. Once you have that assessed you can start to develop the most efficient routine time wise. Next you need to determine what kind of exercises you should do. I would recommend keep it simple. Pick an exercise that hits your quads, glutes and hamstrings, back, arms and core. Remember to add some variety each time and not repeat the same exercise. Then determine how many sets and reps you need to do and at what weight. Then lastly how long should you be working out for? If you are working out for 45 minutes and you aren't completely worn out you aren't pushing yourself hard enough.

Step 5 Eating• Make a plan. Try to plan out your meals ahead of time.

• Don’t make to many changes as once. Changing to many or to fast can lead to cheating or giving up.

• Portion your sizes, ½ of your plate should be vegetable, ¼ proteins, and ¼ starches.For the visual people: example would be 1 cup = baseball & ½ cup = light bulb

• Take your time eating. Listen to your body if you are full or need extra.

• Fill up on colorful fruits and vegetables. The more colorful the fruit or vegetable the higher in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

• No late night snacks, your body should be in fasting mood while you sleep.

Ask yourself:

Food Pyramid

Step 6: Exercising

When just starting out, you should focus on increasing your core strength first. Your core is important for many reasons not just keeping your upright everyday. It is the base for keeping proper form when doing almost every exercise. Also when you do an exercise you should focus on proper form and technique first before worrying about what weight you are using. Proper form helps maximize the benefits from the exercise and it keeps you from injuring yourself. It is very common for people to ignore proper form and try and do a movement with to much weight, this is how most injuries occur.

This website http://www.exrx.net is a great resource for finding exercises and learning about what muscle group they effect and how to do it properly.

Diagrams

Diagrams

Step 7: Drinking Water

Water is an important part of the digestion process, if you aren’t consuming enough water during the day it actually slows down your metabolism making it harder to lose weight. If you don’t drink enough water and you dehydrate yourself this leads to a reduction in blood flow to your muscles decreasing oxygen which your muscles need to perform at optimal levels while working out. This can lead to that feeling of being drained when you should feel well rested. Lastly water also has the added benefit of creating volume in your stomach that can make you feel full. If you want an easy way of decreasing hunger pains, drink more water.

Step 8: Sleep

Sleep is incredibly important to getting in shape, staying in shape, and staying motivated. Lets face it your body and brain need sleep, it’s the time that your body recharges and your brain resets. Sleep has shown to help you learn new skills and increase your memorization.

ADDITIONAL LINKS

• http://www.caloriesperhour.com/

• http://www.bodybuilding.com/

• http://www.exrx.net/

• http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/lose_wt/fd_exch.htm/

• http://www.livestrong.com/