Thoughtful Thursday
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Tag Archive for: motivation
The Many Benefits Of Running
For most people, running is exhausting, boring, and sometimes painful. However, you see today so many people running as if their lives depended on it. (That is actually true to a point.)
There are many reasons why people engage themselves in running these days. Foremost of which is to stay in shape or to reach their ideal body weight. Studies show that the potent combination of correct diet and the right exercise is the most effective method in losing weight.
Weight loss
For all its boring features, running is very effective in allowing a person to burn an average of 100 calories for every run mile. Biking and walking, on the other hand, only burn a fraction of these calories in the same amount of time.
While we burn around 2000 to 5000 calories every day doing nothing, running 5 miles a day burns an additional 500 calories.
The speed in running has little or no effect on the number of calories burned. Rather, it is weight that counts. A 220-pound person running an 8-minute mile burns 150 calories. A person weighing 120 pounds running the same pace burns a measly 82 calories.
Understand that a person needs an excess of 3500 calories in order to gain a pound. This means you need to burn that much number of calories in order to lose a single pound.
Overall health
Another motivation that drives runners is the health benefits they get. Running helps lower blood pressure by maintaining the elasticity of the arteries. During a run, the arteries get exercised as well, what with all the blood moving about.
Running also maximizes the lung’s potential, keeping it strong and powerful. Deep breaths force the lungs to use more tissues, but half of both are unused. Running makes the lungs use almost all of its tissues.
Running also strengthens the heart and helps prevent heart attacks. During a run, the heart muscles are exercised, thus keeping it fit and strong by itself.
The heart of an inactive person beats 36,000 more times every day compared to that of a runner. The reason is simple – the runner’s arteries are wider and blood flows smoother.
Endorphin
Most runners keep this secret to themselves: running gives an intense exhilaration and euphoria right after a run. And they are addicted to the feeling and it motivates them the most.
Science had already found out the nature of this natural high: beta endorphins. These are released by the body’s neurons intended to relieve the pain after a run. It creates a feeling of extreme happiness and exhilaration and can be so intense it often can replace other addictions to drugs, alcohol, including appetite for food.
Natural tranquilizer
There is a trend for doctors now to recommend to their patients suffering from clinical depression and other psychological disorders to try running. This is based on studies that show running as a natural tranquilizer. Patients are reported to be less tense, less confused, less depressed, and less fatigued.
Whatever your reasons for running are, it is a safe bet that it is one of the best natural disease-fighters man had discovered. What’s more, it’s free and it’s delirious as well.
Motivation, The Heart of Self-Improvement
Pain may sometimes be the reason why people change, after all it is a great motivation factor, “No Pain, No Gain”. Getting flunked grades make us realize that we need to study. Debts remind us of our inability to look for a source of income. Being humiliated gives us the ‘push’ to speak up and fight for ourselves to save our face from the next embarrassments. It may be a bitter experience, a friend’s tragic story, a great movie, or an inspiring book that will help us get up and get just the right amount of motivation we need in order to improve ourselves.
With the countless negativeness the world brings about, how do we keep motivated? Try on the tips I prepared from A to Z…
A – Achieve your dreams. Avoid negative people, things and places. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
B – Believe in your self, and in what you can do.
C – Consider things on every angle and aspect. Motivation comes from determination. To be able to understand life, you should feel the sun from both sides.
D – Don’t give up and don’t give in. Thomas Edison failed once, twice, more than thrice before he came up with his invention and perfected the incandescent light bulb. Make motivation as your steering wheel.
E – Enjoy. Work as if you don’t need money. Dance as if nobody’s watching. Love as if you never cried. Learn as if you’ll live forever. Motivation takes place when people are happy.
F – Family and Friends – are life’s greatest ‘F’ treasures. Don’t loose sight of them.
G – Give more than what is enough. Where does motivation and self improvement take place at work? At home? At school? When you exert extra effort in doing things.
H – Hang on to your dreams. They may dangle in there for a moment, but these little stars will be your driving force.
I – Ignore those who try to destroy you. Don’t let other people to get the best of you. Stay out of toxic people – the kind of friends who hates to hear about your success.
J – Just be yourself. The key to success is to be yourself. And the key to failure is to try to please everyone.
K – keep trying no matter how hard life may seem. When a person is motivated, eventually he sees a harsh life finally clearing out, paving the way to self improvement.
L – Learn to love your self. Now isn’t that easy?
M – Make things happen. Motivation is when your dreams are put into work clothes.
N – Never lie, cheat or steal. Always play a fair game.
O – Open your eyes. People should learn the horse attitude and horse sense. They see things in 2 ways – how they want things to be, and how they should be.
P – Practice makes perfect. Practice is about motivation. It lets us learn repertoire and ways on how can we recover from our mistakes.
Q – Quitters never win. And winners never quit. So, choose your fate – are you going to be a quitter? Or a winner?
R – Ready yourself. Motivation is also about preparation. We must hear the little voice within us telling us to get started before others will get on their feet and try to push us around. Remember, it wasn’t raining when Noah build the ark.
S – Stop procrastinating.
T – Take control of your life. Discipline or self control jives synonymously with motivation. Both are key factors in self improvement.
U – Understand others. If you know very well how to talk, you should also learn how to listen. Yearn to understand first, and to be understood the second.
V – Visualize it. Motivation without vision is like a boat on a dry land.
W – Want it more than anything. Dreaming means believing. And to believe is something that is rooted out from the roots of motivation and self improvement.
X – X Factor is what will make you different from the others. When you are motivated, you tend to put on “extras” on your life like extra time for family, extra help at work, extra care for friends, and so on.
Y – You are unique. No one in this world looks, acts, or talks like you. Value your life and existence, because you’re just going to spend it once.
Z – Zero in on your dreams and go for it!!!
Staying Motivated to Exercise
Exercise is always a do-it-yourself venture. No other person and no machine can do it for you. Hence, it is important to have those motivating factors so that a person who is into exercise in order to lose weight will hang about.
This is what people who are overweight should learn to understand. However, even if it so easy to set for instructions and easy to follow, this is not the same case for almost 35% of Americans who are unable to prevent being overweight.
Of course, once we are overweight, we usually want to trim down for a whole lot of reasons, some related to physical condition and fitness, while others would want to enhance their physique and appearance. And it is never too late to be fit.
In the past 50 to 75 years, physical activity has become the exception rather than the rule, both at home and on the job. People tend to drive where others once walked. People tend to flick a switch and machines do the hauling, lifting, pushing, and pulling for them.
However, people who try to lose weight tend to believe that weight gain is likely to happen if they will not take forward-looking steps to stop it.
The point here is that health experts believe that people lose their way, especially when it comes to dieting. They tend to go back to their old eating habits even after they learn to enjoy low-fat eating. They tend to return to sedentary ways even though they enjoy exercising.
But despite the momentum toward weight gain, you can stop it from happening, experts say. And there are plenty of good reasons to avoid excess pounds, reasons that go beyond vanity or social appearance. There are many reasons in order to keep you motivated to exercise and stay healthy for the rest of your life.
Ways to Lose Big
Have an explicit goal
A simple statement like, “I want to lose some weight,” is an ambiguous and an indefinite statement. It will not the least motivate you to start doing exercises right away.
What is important is to be precise on your goals. It would be better if you will set some detailed amount of pounds that you really want to lose. Envisage yourself what you will look like after reaching your desired weight. Doing this will inspire you to lose weight. In fact, maybe even more than what you have planned in mind. The idea is to use that figure to assist you to remain resilient and dedicated.
Develop a strategy
Strength of will does not work alone! To lose weight and stay with it, your strategy must comprise of both exercise and diet, and not either of the two.
Try to start motivating yourself by throwing away your clothes that have bigger sizes. This will put you in a situation where you only have your sexy clothes and that you have to make a choice by staying motivated to exercise or not wear any clothes at all. Which do you prefer?
Make out little, calculable measures
Put into practice actions that will suit your lifestyle. This means you have to implement moves that you and you alone will benefit from it and not somebody else.
The idea here is to opt for a more positive and attainable goal and not just to shun away from being plump and chubby.
Produce monitoring that has an important effect
It would be better to have somebody willing to take note of your progress or development. This will inspire you to keep on doing what you have started. Having somebody to listen to your achievements is definitely a better prize than just achieving your goal alone.
Besides, having an extra hand to support you and cheer for you when things start to fall short. It is that simple way of hearing somebody believing on what you do is one of the greatest motivations to keep you exercising for more.
Construct a vigorous, sensible timeline
What do you plan to achieve in a year? Try to suit your objectives to your calendar, and do not look forward to see the results in just a snap.
The bottom line is that in order to stay motivated to exercise entails a lot of hard work, which is contrary to what most people tend to think. The main idea is to let people change their lifestyle because it is only through this way that they will absolutely change their weight…for the better.
Making Exercise More Fun
Nothing beats waking up in the morning with the thought of going to the gym to lift weights or jog on the treadmill or some other form of exercise. After a hard days work, the gym is one place you don’t even want to think about. Sometimes, even the thought of exercising at home with your own equipment can be less than desirable.
Sometimes, just trying to get and stay motivated to exercise on a regular basis can be a challenge. No matter how you look at it, exercise can be downright boring and even tedious at times.
So, you may be wondering just how you can get the motivation you need to exercise on a regular basis. If you’ve been wondering what you can do to make exercise more fun, you’ll find some ideas below that just may help to make exercise more fun and a little bit easier.
First things first, you should exercise with a friend. You can challenge each other, help each other out, keep each other motivated and on track, make each other laugh or just make a game out of your exercise programs.
You can also try something different. If you go to the gym each and every day and use the same
piece of equipment or use the same piece of equipment at home, you should try mixing things up.
Reverse your routine or just change the order of your exercises.
Go to a city park that has playground equipment and use the slide, climb on the monkey bars, do pull-ups, hang from your knees, just let your imagination guide you. You don’t always need to follow a strict routine, just get out there and have fun working your muscles.
An outdoor circuit in the park is also something you can try. There are some parks that have circuit
courses set up with a planned course where all you have to do is walk or jog to each station and
then follow the instructions. If there isn’t a planned course, then you should do a combination
of jogging and walking, picking a distance of a couple hundred feet. Jog 100 feet then drop and
do a couple of push-ups, walk the next 100 feet and then drop to do sit ups.
You can also ride a bike around your neighborhood or hike on a hiking trail. A walk in the park or
around your neighborhood is also a great way to get some exercise. Doing yoga in the park or on
a beach is also a nice and relaxing way to exercise both your body and your mind.
Playing a competitive sport is also something you can try. A lot of cities have team activities such as softball, volleyball, tennis, soccer, and so on. These types of activities will not only provide you with good exercise but they will also help you to meet new people as well.
When you exercise, try to picture your muscles getting bigger. Research has shown that if you
focus all of your thoughts on the muscles that you are working, they will respond better. Try to watch them work with each repetition as your muscles contract and relax.
As you can tell, there are plenty of ways you can make exercise more fun and interesting. You don’t
need to follow the same routine day after day, as you can do many other things to get in some
exercise.
The important thing is that you should always try to incorporate exercise in any various form into
your everyday life and make these habits the kind of habits that will last a lifetime.
Identify Your “Why” to Build Inner Motivation
One of the most important questions you should ask yourself when you’re beginning your body-building journey is: Why? This question is so crucial, yet many people fail to ask it.
If you have a clear, concise and well-grounded answer to this question, you’ll be able to stick with your exercise routine through good times and bad. You’ll put in the time to study the theory, you’ll put in the time at the gym and you’ll have the inner motivation to put in an extra rep even when your muscles already hurt. It’ll make all the difference.
On the other hand, if you don’t know your “why,” chances are you’ll start your workout routine, stick with it for a few days or weeks and then fall off the bandwagon when the going gets tough. After all, building a great body takes effort. You need to have the motivation to make it happen.
Identifying Your Why
Start with looking at your fitness goals. Different kinds of fitness goals tend to have different motivations.
Are you just trying to lose some weight? If so, what’s the most important thing you think you’d gain by losing that weight? Is it better health, more energy and a likely longer lifespan? Is it more social acceptance? Or more attention from the opposite sex?
If you’re skinny and want to bulk up a bit, again – ask yourself why. Why is having muscle mass better than having a skinny body? How will your life be different if you had more muscle mass?
Look at your goals and ask yourself: Why do I want my body to look this way? Often times finding your “why” is a matter of looking inward rather than outward.
Write Down Your “Why”
As the saying goes, “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” To keep your “why” alive, write it down on paper and keep it somewhere visible.
On days when you just don’t feel like getting up to go to the gym, that piece of paper can give you the push you need to get off the coach and into the gym.
Writing out your “why” also serves another function. Often times when trying to figure out your why, you’ll have a sense for it but not be able to put it into one concise sentence. Writing it out will help you form your why into a more concrete form.
To sum it up, finding your why is one of the most important aspects of being able to successfully keep up an exercise routine. If you have a strong enough reason for wanting to change your body, you can. Just make sure to keep reminding yourself of that reason, especially when times get tough.
What Does It Mean To Eat Clean?
Clean eating diets are a very popular trend these days. They focus on replacing unhealthy processed foods with fresh, whole alternatives. Processed foods have often lost much of their nutritional value in order to make them last longer or taste better. Not only that, they may also contain additives or preservatives that have a negative impact on your health with regular consumption.
Here’s some more info on the clean eating lifestyle, as well as some tips for “cleaning up” your diet if needed.
Who Started Clean Eating?
While the idea of eating whole foods to stay healthy was certainly not new at the time, it gained in popularity in 2007 when the Eat-Clean Diet Book was published by bestselling author and fitness model Tosca Reno. The book detailed the “eat-clean” diet that she stuck to in order to get in shape for a bodybuilding competition. The popularity of the book lead to ten more titles in the Eat-Clean series being published.
Stay Away from Sugar
The first step to take in order to eat a more clean diet is to cut out sugar as much as possible. Regularly eating sugar or foods that contain high-fructose corn syrup can lead to weight gain and diabetes, among other things.
Cutting sugar out of your diet completely won’t be easy. Just about every sweet, processed snack food on the market includes some sugar. But, when you’re in the mood for something sweet, reach for some fruit rather than candy or sweets.
Drink Plenty of Water
When you feel thirsty, water is the healthiest drink to reach for. Try to drink at least two liters of water every day. You may want to buy a reusable water bottle to help encourage you to drink more.
Soda and sports drinks both come with a lot of added sugar (not to mention the acid found in soda, which softens tooth enamel). An occasional glass of fruit or vegetable juice is a healthy drink alternative. Just make sure that you look for juice made from real fruits and vegetables.
Check the Labels
When in doubt about a certain food, check the nutrition facts and ingredient list carefully. Make sure that the bulk of the ingredients listed are whole foods and not artificial or processed. Some foods may say that they are “whole” on the label, but actually only be made in part with clean ingredients.
Also, make sure you pay attention to the serving size. A food’s nutrition facts may not look so bad, but “one serving” usually doesn’t include the whole product.
While there are many different ideas of what exactly encompasses clean eating, the basic principle of skipping processed foods in favor of whole, fresh ones is of great benefit to your body.
Even if processed foods have had nutrients added in to replace what they’ve lost during processing, they are not as healthy as the real, unprocessed versions. Next time you go to the store, try to buy as many of your ingredients as possible from the produce aisle rather than the canned goods aisle. Not only will all of your meals taste better, they’ll also be better for your health.
It Takes Too Long And I’m Tired
You’re completely right. It is a long and tiring journey. The question you have to be asking yourself is, “Why did I think it was going to be quick and easy?”
To be fair, this is not your fault.
If you look at any fitness magazine, weight loss advertisement or even articles on Facebook, you’ll see titles such as, “Get a Beach Body in 2 Weeks Flat!” or “Drop 12 pounds in 2 Weeks with FatsBeGone Pills”.
It all seems so easy and effortless. So why is it taking so long for you?
The answer is that you have been lied to through and through and through. If you truly stopped to think about it, you didn’t become overweight overnight or even in a month. It would have taken you a long term to become overweight to the point that you know you require to do something about the excess fats. So, if it took you quite a while to gain weight, why would you expect to lose it all fast?
Because you have been lied to. The difficult truth is that weight loss is a slow, tiring process. You will require to watch what you consume and exercise. You’ll require to maintain a caloric deficit for as long as it takes till your body burns off the excess fat.
Now that the truth has been unmasked, it’s time for a reality verify. usually, people may lose a pound of fat per week. Forget what you have seen on those weight loss reality shows. Most have been edited to make it look like the contestants lost weight in a short time. The fact of the matter is that initially the weight you lose could be about 4 to even 6 pounds in a week. anyhow, your body will adapt and in a matter of time, you can only expect to see about 1 pound of fat loss per week. occasionally, it might only be half a pound.
Imagine if you were 30 pounds overweight, it might take you 30 weeks. You can’t get a beach body in 2 weeks. That’s unreasonable.
You’re seeking at 30 weeks! That’s about 7 months. Does that shock you? Now you comprehend why you have the feeling of it’s taking forever. Your yardstick was an illusion. You were basing your expectations on hype and unrealistic declares by people and companies hoping to make cash. The health industry is a billion dollar industry and they will do anything it takes to make your pockets lighter and make you heavier. It’s good for repeat business. Now that you’re aware that it takes that long, will you prevail committed? You should. perhaps you’re just into your second month and you expected to lose the 30 pounds but you only lost ten pounds.
You feel such as a failure but you’re not. You have produced good progress. If you prevail the course, in another 4 to 5 months you would have pulled off your ambition. You’re on the proper track. All you require to do is keep going. This is a personal journey and you have no rivals. It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to lose weight or construct a body that is muscular and toned. It all takes time.
If you’re tired, it’s mostly because you feel that you’re not seeing results or not seeing them quick enough. Now that you are aware of it takes time, the “not quick enough” is not an issue. If you see no results, there is either something wrong with your training or diet. You will require to explore them nearly. Count your calories but don’t obsess through them. Have a common idea of what range you’re in. Trying to lose weight? You require to be in a caloric deficit. verify it.
Keep examining your training pattern, diet and other reasons and make changes as you see fit. Nothing is set in stone. Do anything it takes to accomplish your ambition and never lose hope.
It is within your reach.
Difficulty Finding Time To Exercise
Almost all articles and fitness books will explain you that this is the most normal excuse provided by people who don’t exercise.
This article will beg to differ.
You undoubtedly can be too full of activity to exercise. It does happen. You might be a prevail at residence mom with 2 toddlers to look after. when you are done with the cooking, cleaning, washing, etc. you’ll just need to plop yourself in bed and doze off. Who even has the energy for exercise? Or you might be a surgeon at a hospital and on balance the erratic hours you work, there undoubtedly is no fixed time that you can commit to working out. It is difficult. Make no error about it. It is difficult with a capital D.
So what do you do?
You force yourself to find time to exercise. There undoubtedly is no other way. If you can just compress in 5 minutes of push-ups and sit-ups, then do that. Something is better than nothing. The trouble most people face is that they don’t have the routine of exercising. It’s not the time. It’s the routine. If you directly must set out your day with a cup of coffee, you will directly find a alternative to have that cup. Why? for the reason that it’s a habit… and for sure, drinking a cup of coffee is way easier than working out.
The irony here is that the people who are the busiest with the least time to exercise are most often the ones who require it most. They are under pressure out and require an outlet to vent their pressure. Even a short 15 minute high intensity interval training will work wonders.
When you exercise, your body will release endorphin and other feel good hormones that make you happier, stronger and healthier. No sleep, entertainment or hobby can give you the same health pros as exercise. The endorphin diminish the perception of pain, publicize better sleep and most importantly, they give you a natural “high”. It’s this high that will provide you a positive, glad and energetic outlook on life.
This feeling is priceless and unlike unnatural drugs, it is neither addictive nor pricey. Once you experience it, you will find time instantly to exercise. The most important factor is to take the first step.
If you have a one hour lunch break, take 20 minutes to go for a run. Don’t worry about being too exhausted for work. Once you’re done, you will feel fresher and more energetic.
If you can’t do it at work, no trouble. Place a pair of running shoes next to your door and a pile of running clothes close to your door. The moment you step residence, change into your sports attire and go for that run or brisk walk. If all you have is ten minutes, then all you require is ten minutes… but use that 10 minutes.
If you’re a prevail at residence mom, find a couple of home workouts so as to you can exercise at residence. There is a fitness trainer, Emily Skye, on Facebook with 3 million. followers. She is beautiful and has an amazing body. Besides that, her workouts are perfect for women who want rapid workouts that are practical. Just go after Emily’s advice. The key fact that you should take from this article is that it doesn’t matter if all you have is ten minutes. Use that ten minutes. notwithstanding how tired you might be, say yourself it’s just 10 minutes and force yourself.
You will need Herculean determination but that’s just the way it is. So, bite the bullet and just do it. Once you set out and repeat this for a couple of weeks, you will progressively discover that exercise does make you feel better than alcohol, soap operas or other “fun” tasks. Once you reach this stage, finding time to exercise will be the least of your concerns.
You will have the time. Try it and you will see.
I’m Killing Myself But Have Yet To See Results
If you have ever found out yourself mumbling or thinking this to yourself, you’re not alone. This is the main factor that most people surrender on their fat loss goals on their journey to get a lean and fit physique. A lack of results can throw an icy cold towel on even the most enthusiastic spirit.
Yet, there are 3 crucial questions that you require to inquire yourself before throwing in the cold, wet towel.
- How long have I been at it?
- Am I doing what I’m supposed to do correctly?
- Did I give it my all?
These are the 3 most crucial questions that you directly MUST inquire yourself. Your respond to not seeing results lie within these 3 questions.
We live in a world where everybody wants results rapid. They expect to lose ten pounds in a week. They wish to see their abs after a month of sit-ups. They expect a month or two of going to the gym to result in them achieving a body that would make Stallone cry.
Why?
The answer is basic. fake advertising. Most often the people aren’t to blame. The fitness magazines, infomercials, weight loss vitamins and the myriad of weight loss products that hype their products and make declares so bold they idiot the majority into thinking that the process is rapid and easy.
It is NOT. Weight loss and a lean, toned body take time. The magazines and products can’t give two hoots about the average person. These are cash making companies with only one ambition – PROFITS!
The system is broken and serves to benefit no one but those pocketing the money. If you expect rapid results, you’re in for disappointment. You can’t get a beach body in 3 weeks if you look such as a beached whale. You can’t lose ten pounds in a week by swallowing a few thermo-genic fat burners down with a bottle of root beer.
The truth is that weight loss and fitness need sacrifice, patience, sweat equity and TIME. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Give yourself time. Assuming you lose 1 pound a week, it’ll take you 20 weeks to lose 20 pounds. That’s 5 months. NOT 5 days. Do you have what it takes to adhere it out for 5 months?
You do? Excellent. Then you will see results and your hard job will pay dividends.
Next up, you have to inquire yourself if you know what you’re doing. if your goal is to see your abs and do a thousand sit-ups a day but have a body fat percentage of 35%, all you’re doing is wearing out your floor. To see your abs, you require to bring your weight down to about 9% to 11% body fat. This is fitness know-how that is so vital to meeting your goals. Do you have the knowledge? If you don’t, no worries. The internet is full of information.
Do your exploration and do what requires to be completed. don’t come up with your own ideas and train based on guess work.
Lastly, how difficult are you working out? Most people mention that they are killing themselves, but barely train at 70% of their potential. Do you surrender the moment you pant a little? Do you train till your clothes are soaking with perspiration? Or do you call it a day after one drop of sweat rolls down your forehead?
The navy seals have a saying, “Nobody ever drowned in sweat”. be sure you give it your absolute. anything you may think, you can still do that small bit more. There is yet some fuel in the tank. Once you take off training like your life depended on it, the results will come rapid and furious. You will have a feeling of satisfaction and look forward to your next training session with determination, expectation and a bit of fear. That’s ok. It just signifies you’re training difficult.
To conclude, train difficult, train properly and most importantly, give your body time to adapt and change. It took you years to crawl then walk and on balance run. If you had given up early, you would still be crawling.
Have faith and patience. You will get there. Have no doubts about it. Ever.
