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by Alan Turnberry

Time and time again, some people lose weight on diets while others don’t. The people that don’t always want to know the "secret" to weight loss. The secret is very easy: regular exercise. When you exercise regularly, you are giving your system aerobic exercise and burning fat. You are also often building muscle. Muscle may weigh more than fat, but it even burns calories while standing still. It is easy to see why everyone would work so hard to create more muscle on their bodies. They are simply creating their bodies into efficient calorie-burning machines!

If you are not used to exercise, start off slow. Start with just twenty minutes of regular walking. You’ll be encouraged by your progress and soon your twenty minutes of regular walking will lead to twenty-five or even thirty minutes of walking. Slowly and gently, your endurance will increase. You’ll easily be doing so much more exercise than you ever thought possible! All by simply starting out with just one twenty minute walk every day. So do your best to get active every day and make that commitment to get physical each day for your health. You’ll be pleased with the results.

Another key tip is to purchase yourself a pedometer and to wear it during the day. You can easily snap this onto your jeans, skirt or other pants. Ideally you want to walk ten thousands steps every day. Work your way up to this goal. This is an excellent way to stay fit. Many people discover just how sedentary they are, as they are way under that ten thousand step mark. Add that pedometer to calculate just how many steps you are taking and give yourself encouragement as you are adding steps to your day. Set goals to add more steps to each day and make it fun. Try parking your car a block away to add in even more steps or other little tricks like that.

Give yourself rewards for doing regular exercise. Come up with some non-food related treat that you can give yourself every day to reward yourself for being physical. Perhaps you love to read mystery novels and your reward is to read the latest mystery. Or your reward is to talk to a friend on the telephone long-distance. Make your reward something you’ll really look forward to, so it is truly the carrot on the stick to make you workout for that day. You’ll be glad you have the reward to look forward to.

Try a new form of exercise to make exercising fun. Take a dance class with your spouse or partner, to be physical together. This is not just physical but also social. Or try a yoga class which will also help you de-stress. You could also try a charity 5k walk-a-thon or run to help people in your community. There are so many things you can do that would appeal to you. Simply select a fitness goal that appeals to you so much more than being overweight does. Something that spurs you off the couch. Why, you’ll be looking forward to this physical exercise so much that you’ll be slender in no time!

Another excellent tip is to purchase yourself the proper equipment to workout with. Often we start a new exercise project but we don’t get ourselves the right gear. If you want to take up bike riding, get yourself a really nice bike. Or if you want to rollerblade, get the best type of rollerblades you can find. Quality gear will have you truly enjoying your workout. You’ll have a great time exercising and you’ll know that you have the best gear to support you as you do it.

Image via Wikipedia

by Alan Turnberry

Weight loss is one of those things that most people recognize will ultimately reduce the relationship between a healthy or a diseased future. What is not widely recognized, is the relationship between your weight and the pressure on your knees. The thousands of steps you take each day puts an enormous amount of pressure on your knees.

Did you know that studies have shown your can improve your health just by losing as little as 10 to 20 lbs? In fact, if you lose 1 lb, you will reduce the stress on your knees by as much as 4800 lbs over 1 mile of walking. Wow! That means that if you lose 10 lbs, you will have effectively reduced your presumed load per a mile on each knee by 48,000 lbs! What a huge difference that would make in your daily life. The problem though, is that it is estimated that an average person takes only 3000-5000 of the recommend 10,000 steps a day.

Walking is a wonderful way to being your weight loss journey. You might find that it is difficult to start walking long distances right away, so it is recommended that you take into consideration some of these tips to get your walking started.

Walk early in the morning. This will allow you time to recover over a days period. You might find a buddy to walk with. This person can encourage you and if one day you don’t feel up too it, they can rouse you for a walk and vice versa.

In conclusion, the basic reduction in pressure on your knees has a high likely hood of reducing your chance of Osteoarthritis which is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. Don’t be a statistic. Get out and walk your way to a healthier you!