I’m going in to a period of increased cardio and weight loss over 30 days and writing posts daily about my thinking processes. Incorporating walking for weight loss, running for increased calorie burning and general activity is the process. I am training for a ‘marathon’. Not the traditional running or walking event but a vacation!

Today I am using basic visualization techniques to help motivate me. These are not the end goal of a bikini clad goddess (I leave that to the young or more adventurous) but the vivacious full of energy magnet for fun and feeling good, who looked great in swim wear, shorts and evening gear. Note the use of past tense as I build my visualization.

I  had an action packed sun and fun filled January (note the past tense, goal achieved) including an intense 12 day cruise, that would be the equivalent of a marathon, unless I trained for it. My goals for this cruise include enjoying as much as the onboard and port activity as I can and still have time for relaxation!

The key that seems to have slipped notice of many people that if you are not used to having a really good time you have to prepare for it. So to look as good as I want and to have the energy and enthusiasm for lots of action I am starting now. At my age and lifestyle (behind a computer a lot of the time) even with my regular walking to lose weight activity, I can benefit from this process of preparing both mentally and physically.

The overall success will be enhanced if I use (as I am doing) a memory visualization as well. During this short visualized ‘dream’ that focuses on the end goal I am adding the ‘memory’ of how much I enjoyed the process of getting into shape, increasing my energy and fitness, and how valuable it has been for my enjoyment of my new lifestyle.

Doing walking to lose weight as a lifestyle means that there are times when preparing or training adds to your success!

Technorati Tags: burning calories, goal setting for weight loss, Lifestyle, visualization, walking for weight loss, walking to lose weight, weight loss exercise

Where do you rate on the excursion participation scale? Once I was on the ‘avoid at all costs’ end but now I’m an excited and selective participant. One major advantage of walking as an exercise for weight loss is to make extensive activity an option and enjoyable. This can be as simple as baby sitting to doing a trek.

In other words, walking becomes an asset in your lifestyle repertoire. I continue to talk about walking to lose weight even though it is much more. Because walking or intense exercise such as climbing stairs and hills is now a daily habit, the Zoo program was tiring but not excessive. I was able to find enough enjoyment without making food my reward.

I know many people who find ‘fun’ exhausting. Is this how you want your life to be?

Frankly if you are basically sound (healthy) you should be able to spend some regular time that requires activity with friends or family well into your older age, without ‘suffering’ from exhaustion afterwards.

If you want to go on that European tour, for instance, you’ll get more from it if you bring your fitness level up before you go. I always recommend walking to lose weight for this purpose. It will help both with your health and fitness, if you are currently overweight. Don’t wait until you’r climbing all those steps and wishing you’d 1. lost weight and 2. exercised more before coming. Also when you are active during the day you are able to eat more to replenish the calories you’ve used. This totally justifies the extra pre-trip effort alone.

Life is a lot more fun with walking to lose weight!

Technorati Tags: burning calories, exercise, walking, walking to lose weight, weight loss, zoo

Recently I was putting on the Leslie Sansone walking DVD for the third time in a few days and felt, let’s say,…hesitant. How many times can I do it in a row without getting bored? Especially since I’d misplaced the 3 mile walk and was doing the 2 mile. (I’m packing up the house ready for selling.)

As usually happens when I’m reluctant to do something when I get started it feels much better than I expected. However knowing that I really wanted an extended walk made me put extra effort into the 30 minute walking to lose weight program. The 3 mile walk is high intensity and I really know that the guided DVD walk is more calorie burning than my regular one hour, because you follow  four different types of steps in this home version some of which you’d be unlikely to do exposed in the outside world. Knee lifts, kicks, sideways moves and, of course, weights.

This time with the 2 mile walk I threw myself into the “walk”once the warm up was over. I did it all at a high energy pace and ended up with some floor exercises including push ups. I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed the exercise even though it was only another walking to lose weight DVD.

Then today I went for a walk in the sunshine and perfect sky when all of a sudden black clouds appeared and a little while later a drenching shower made me very, very wet! Unable to do much about it and without an umbrella or rain gear, I simply walked quickly along my walking route. I reasoned that as it was not cold, and I had on my Goretex trainers (I highly recommend these for wet ground) it was better that I simply accept the conditions and get the most out of my walking circumstances.

This is it folks! By accepting the challenges of walking for weight loss it really works. The answer to how to make it work is to make it joyful work.

Technorati Tags: burning calories, exercise, Leslie Sansone, walking, walking dvd, walking to lose weight

If your results go the other way and even with a regular daily walking to lose weight schedule your weight loss has plateaued then you need to shake up your schedule in another way. The energy (calories) used from any particular exercise changes over time as the body’s muscles adapts to the process and economizes on the number of calories burned. Initially this is compensated for by increasing the amount of time and distance of walking. Total calories burned increases.

Eventually, however, you will meet the maximum time commitment you are able to make and at this stage when your walking for weight loss schedule needs intensifying then several options are available to you.

1. Increase the intensity of the walking you do by adding hills, steps, weights or intermittent running. Another way to increase the intensity of an hour’s walking to lose weight would be to do a high intensity walking DVD such as those from Leslie Sansone or  Kathy Smith’s Power Walk.
2. Break up your standard program with exercise groups such as aerobic step classes.
3. Use an activity  monitor which measures not only steps throughout the day but also the level of exertion during those steps. This enables you to increase the number of movements done at the higher level intensity rather than the lower end of your walking to lose weight.
4. Have a ‘bootcamp’ period of one or two weeks when you try different forms of exercise, such as boxing, aerobic dance, etc.

Remember that walking to lose weight on a smooth surface such as a path can allow you to walk at a brisker pace. Walking on natural terrain can increase the calorie burn though if your feet must grip, divert directions, go up and down inclines, change balance etc. Walking on a treadmill does not require the natural push off needed when walking normally. However you can walk faster, increase the incline and run for intervals.

Technorati Tags: burning calories, calories burned, exercise, treadmill, walk, walking, walking dvd, walking for weight loss, walking to lose weight

The crux of the weight loss exercise argument is always about calories burned. Aerobic or fat burning exercise produces more calories burned in a shorter time than walking. Once I have a certain level of fitness which can sustain faster or more intense exercise without causing undue restriction to ongoing activities (the easiest way to derail an exercise program is to overdo it and force quit ) then walking to lose weight can be supplemented with very effective calorie burning for those occasions when walking for an hour is not an option for me.

Just Dance! for an hour would probably burn 500+ calories. Walking at a brisk pace would burn around 300. Time vs effort is the equation!

Technorati Tags: burning calories, calories burned, Just Dance, walking to lose weight

Others are puzzled by the popularity of walking as a weight loss strategy. Some do it and question its success. Also starting a walking to lose weight program, if you do it around others, can attract lots of attention. There are many options for walking whether inside or outside, or doing it alone or with friends or a group. Look at Walk Away the Pounds as a less public alternative to walking in a gym.

It’s simple with this basic understanding:

What is required of you when walking to lose weight is relative to the activity already existing in your life.

1. If you are already active and then start following recommended walking times you will find little response. This is natural because you may not be adding much, if anything, into your active life -perhaps even doing less than normal. Or you might be adding to your eating allowing the exercise to stimulate your appetite and then rewarding yourself with food or drink. The purpose of additional exercise is to create a calorie deficit, stimulate your metabolism, divert the mind, increase well being, and improve sleep. All these things and others combine synergistically to enhance weight loss.

2. If you haven’t been particularly active before but focus on the specific time requirements or distance recommended, and then stop for the rest of the day, you may not be adding to your exercise at all; if you stop other exercise when adopting a weight loss routine it has to be because the amount of exercise you’ve added more than substitutes for your normal activity.

However if you are frail, underweight or under-exercised to extreme weakness, the only way forward is to build up your muscle strength before taking on extensive walking.

A couch potato who adds in a 10 minute walk morning and evening will respond well to wearing a pedometer all day, finding out what is their normal daily step count and being motivated in bringing them up to the 10,000 recommended daily steps for weight loss. Any significant increase in walking for this person is likely to lose weight.

However, an active person may not find adding walking has an effect on weight loss. Normally though, an additional one hour daily walking will cause weight loss.

Generally diet modification is also necessary for weight loss. Think about what you are eating. Instead of mindlessly looking for what appeals right now, consider the impact on you real goal, to lose weight. Being a little bit hungry is all right. Eat wisely if still hungry and always drink water before you are thirsty. I.e. consciously drink water or diet drinks, after you have exercised, increasing the amount depending upon the temperature of your body, and the weather.

Technorati Tags: 10000 steps, burning calories, counting steps, diet, pedometer, walking for weight loss, walking to lose weight

An Overview of the Wii Fit.

It’s a discovery that is exciting me. I seem to have found the key for Wii Fit, walking to lose weight and me. Regular readers of this blog will know how I like to avoid weight monitoring and prefer checking out the clothes and how they fit. I do however have the occasional weigh in for confirmation purposes. This I have taken to doing on the Wii Fit. It is a fantastic mechanism for the detail work- weight, BMI, goals, time frame. The introductory trailer above isn’t working properly but this link to it shows some Wii Fit features for measuring progress.

I’m doing brisk walking of at least an hour daily, and my clothes are getting looser.

But today with the weather not so good, and feeling frustrated with my work/life balance I woke up feeling more reluctant than usual. Inspiration hit, perfect timing to get out the Wii Fit. Now generally if I want to walk inside than I get out the Walk Away the Pounds DVD, I use it a lot. I am definitely a fan of Wii Fit but ever since I changed my walking program to one hour I haven’t returned to the Wii for exercise. In the past I found that I could get to about 30, maybe 35 minutes Wii exercise before getting bored.

I started using Wii Fit on November 24th and since then have lost 6.8 kg (just under 15 lbs) and just over 2 BMI % points.

So I get it out, which is not that difficult because I haven’t actually packed it away this time, just tidied it up. As usual I remember why I find it so much fun, it asked me how I was and then about Gaz, a friend who hasn’t been around much, then inquired as to how Gaz is looking, has he lost weight? I said he had put it on just to see the response. It advised that it was best not to mention “it”.

I have lost 2.4 kilos in the last 30 days. About 5 lbs. Today it is raining and windy and generally unpleasant. And I am feeling less than enthusiastic about my weight loss than usual. Generally I feel super confidant about the weight I am losing because I’m doing brisk walking of at least an hour daily, carefully monitoring what I eat and my clothes are getting looser, or actually fitting, in some cases.

So I need a boost and the Wii Fit test is the way to do it. I anticipate a good result but have had times when the answers are not what I wanted to hear. This is where an attitude of resilience comes in. Ignore the poor results unless it is gives you good information.

The fitness tests let you check out your history and then I take a different approach with the exercises. Take jogging. I have always found it difficult to work out the desired 60% running speed. And I can’t find a way where swinging my arms to burn those extra calories feels right. Until today. I decided to play with the options and increase the standard distance to a round the island run…but this time I walk. Marching on the spot and it works really well, and I can swing my arms and burn those extra calories (if I want to). So a marching action works for anyone who is turned off by jogging.

Then the hula hoop-I have seen a couple of videos with girls doing this and it has puzzled me because they do it in a sort of lazy way to my mind but…

turns out that is the way to get the best result! That is score highly on the Wii for that exercise.

I tried it on a few other of the games and it is a very successful strategy. This is very motivating. It helped me get to 62 minutes without really trying by doing some muscle exercises, balance games and aerobics.

Slowing down allows you to refine the posture and other details, check the balance monitors, succeed at the game and feel in control.

Walking to lose weight on the Wii Fit!

Technorati Tags: burning calories, walking for weight loss, walking to lose weight, weight loss tips, Wii Fit

It is effective for toning or adding aerobic levels of exercise when a routine is not having the muscle and heart training effect. Once a body has adjusted to a level or type of exercise it works less at it, meaning less energy (calories) is required and it’s fat burning decreases but all that has to be done to re-stimulate the calorie burning is to shock the body into working again by changing or increasing the intensity of what you are doing.

It works brilliantly on a treadmill, or in an exercise class or with a personal trainer. Walking or exercise dvds should have higher fat burning options.

An easier way to add intensity to a regular walking to lose weight routine other than increasing the pace is by varying the terrain. In some way increase the energy used during a normal route by walking off the path, on gravel, or grass and an uneven surface. Anything which makes you lift your feet higher or sidestep, alter pace etc. will require more energy e.g. walk up that hill you normally avoid.
I also find that varying the walking surface for one walk a week to a “harder” one then normal also has an effect. This could mean walking on the beach or on a bush track instead of a treadmill or concrete path.

This increased intensity also works to stimulate renewed interest for you in what you are doing. The same routine can become comfortable but ‘phoned in’. Your body needs to know it is working! And to get the natural high which results from pushing just a little harder.

Technorati Tags: beach walking, burning calories, treadmill, walking for weight loss, walking to lose weight

There are many fans of the kick-start approach which hits while motivation is high with an intense effort whether exercise or diet, with the idea that this large weight loss results in continued motivation to make the ongoing changes necessary to keep it off, or keep going if more weight loss is necessary.

A review of the book Lose Weight in a Flash, prompts me to ask the question, does losing 65 lbs count as success if you then put 40 back on even if you maintain that net 15 lb loss? Lose Weight in a Flash bases it’s direction on an “impressive” result where participants started their weight loss program with a 900 calorie a day diet and 2000 calories burned in a week exercise program. They then move to a more moderate diet for the longer term. The initial loss of 65 lbs resulted in a net loss of 15 lbs after 5 years. Because sustained weight loss is statistically unlikely, medical opinion considers this 15 lb net result remarkable, but is it?

At what point in this 5 year study did they maintain anything? Or has it been a slow return of 40 lbs? And then would you call putting on 40 lbs in 5 years slow?
Once again this is is proof that the super-charged, quick start diet does not have the long term effectiveness of slower weight loss with ongoing modified lifestyle.

Technorati Tags: burning calories, diet, walking, walking for weight loss, walking to lose weight, weight loss

Factors which affect weight loss:

fitness level

weight

sex

age

height

lifestyle

health

In particular height and weight affect calories used in any particular activity such as running or tai chi. Since it takes an additional 3500 calories burned to lose one pound of fat this can make a difference when counting calories.

Body composition will also affect the number of energy units used daily and when exerting yourself. Men and  heavier, taller, fit people burn more calories. As weight is lost the calories burned for an exercise is less than when you weighed more.

Another one of the reasons why the intensity, or form, of exercise requires constant changing is to prevent the body accomodating the new level of fitness, streamlining its performance and using less calories in the process.

The recent study reporting a precise measurement for what constitutes moderate exercise is a great benefit for all of us who walk to lose weight. The required 150 minutes in a week of moderate exercise is equivalent to 3000 steps in 30 minutes. This is a brisk walking pace.

Pedometers are so important as a weight loss tool. They help you keep track of activity; motivate you into walking every day; into doing more to get the steps or distance or minutes higher. Now by counting steps and the time you do them in you know if what you’re doing qualifies as “moderate exercise”

Variety is also very important when exercising to prevent weight maitenance rather than weight loss. This information on steps takes away the differences caused by heights and the effect on individual distance and time achievements, and accordingly is a great way to start an weight loss program. A stroll for some is a rapid walk for others so combining number of steps with the time it takes gives everyone an understanding of the term “moderate”.

However to achieve weight loss over time, changing between types of exercise is very benefcial. This is why many walkers on weight loss programs combine any number of differing activites within their exercise program. A good example comes from the Leslie Sansone’ Walk Away the Pounds dvd. Here Leslie says that 2 miles in 30 minutes daily is all you need when walking to lose weight. However she adds lots of additional movements including step and arm variations including using her weight loss balls for a high calorie burn.

Technorati Tags: burning calories, walking for weight loss, walking to lose weight, weight loss