One Step at a Time

It has been awhile, since I wrote for the blog. Many things are happening in my life… A breather today was welcomed with open arms .

So how are things going for me? Pretty good! Lost a bit of weight in last month. And now 15 days into Ramadan, more weight loss should happen.

So what’s my current weight? Hey, you know I hardly measure myself on the scales. So how do I know that I have lost few kilos? The fit of my clothes says it all. They are bit loose than before, my wedding ring glides easily onto my finger and I can feel the increase in my energy levels. The whole process wasn’t easy for me though.

All along, I took small steps and achieved victories at each step. And trust me, these small victories have been good motivator for my weight loss journey. Few baby steps and good habits at a time made way for healthier me.

Earlier I tried various ways to shed pounds, but I burned out too easily. After some good soul searching, I decided to take small achievable steps. Did you know that it takes about three good weeks to establish a habit? I found this when i was pushing myself religiously, sometimes once/twice a day to do my yoga exercises. Besides working out at home, I would look forward to my classes. Yoga helped me calm down and enjoy ‘me’ time, which was rare.

Before starting yoga, I was not sure how to get started. So I sat down with my list of changes and chose weight loss as the first change. I haven’t been able to do a makeover in my entire diet, but it is happening in bits and pieces.

I feel confident each day with my renewed sense of energy. I am positive that I will be able to check off all the items on my list for change soon.

Have you hit the Weight Plateau?

You did the right exercises, ate the right foods, and controlled your portion sizes, but still the scales did not budge. Isn’t it extremely frustrating, when scales stop co-operating?

Just because you haven’t lost weight, avoid the temptation to drown your sorrows by taking extreme measures such as skipping meals or excessive workouts. A weight plateau is no reason to give up on a healthy plan. Instead, it could mean that you’re ready for something more.

The numbers on the scales don’t tell us all that is needed to assess fitness levels. Calm down, regroup your priorities and consider other ways to measure your progress. It’s time to see health rewards elsewhere other than on the bathroom scales.

Monitoring numbers such as body fat percentage, waist-hip ratio, BMI, blood pressure, heart beat rate, cholesterol and stress levels and improved overall quality of life denote positive change in the weight loss efforts.

Few ways to trace your progress:

Keep a daily journal of your fitness activities, measurements, dietary needs, sleep and your day-to-day feelings.

The fit of your clothes is the best indicator of how is your body shaping up with regular exercise and healthy food habits. If your clothes hang looser in all the right spots unlike earlier, then your weight loss program is effective

Test your fitness level to measure your muscular strength, cardiovascular endurance, stamina and flexibility. Repeat these tests at regular intervals and compare the results. Difference in numbers should tell all.

Stalling in a weight loss program is natural. A plateau means that your body needs a change in the intensity, frequency and/or type of workout. The ideal way to get over weight plateau is to bring about small changes in kinds of exercises, speed and intensity of doing them.

I too, have reached weight plateau many a times and frankly it is uninspiring. But my fitness success is not measured by bathroom scales alone. Fit of the clothes and finger ring, increase in flexibility, stamina and energy levels to do various things gauge my weight loss progress.

Happy Stretching

I’m sure you all must have heard that it is good to stretch before and after your workouts. Do you know why? Simply because stretching reduces the risk of injuries, keeps our body supple and more resilient in the long run. It helps in improving blood circulation, reduces wear and tear, relieves tension allowing you to relax and hold your body in a more balanced way.

Stretching exercises are not meant to strain muscles. There are various stretching exercises targeted at major muscle groups. Focus should be on arms, legs, abs, back and neck. A light body warm-up is a must.  Start your stretch by taking a deep breath, continuing as far as you can without pain (for 20 seconds or a minute) and then slowly breathe out. Be sure never to bounce while stretching!

Stretching exercises are ideally performed in sets of three for 30 seconds to one minute. Eventually, you should listen to your body. It’s best to include a variety of stretches, holding them for as long as you can and releasing yourself from the position when you feel the pain.

If you exercise regularly, perform stretching exercises daily. Having a diary with a list of stretching exercises targeted at major muscle group ensures that you stretch all the muscles in your body.

Interval Walking

If your regular walking exercise has become boring and drab, add intervals to your regular walking plan to make it more interesting.

Interval walking is all about walking briskly, faster than your normal pace for short time period followed by recovery period of walking at your regular speed.

Before you start with interval walking, few minutes of warm-up like strolling and stretching is a must as it allows your muscles to warm up.

Determine your interval levels. Start with short periods of brisk walk followed by a longer period of recovery walking.

When you start the first interval walk, walk at twice the speed of your normal pace for a minute or two. Start by adding one or two five-minute high intensity intervals to your walk to build your stamina. Gradually increase your period of interval walking.

Maintain good posture while walking. Hold your abdominal muscles tight; lift your chest and keep your chin parallel to the ground. Keeping your arms bended at 90^o helps you walk at a faster pace than your usual speed.

Slow down to allow your body to recover from your strenuous workout. The recovery interval should be about twice as long as you’re walking interval.

Once you’ve mastered interval training and enjoyed the benefits, you might be tempted to push yourself to do even more. Avoid doing so as your body needs to rest and recover.

+ves

Interval walking burns fat and calories and challenges your body to prevent it from hitting a weight loss plateau.

It improves your cardiovascular fitness. Faster walking means your heart beats faster, showing a higher demand for oxygen. That strengthens your heart; increases your blood flow and improves you’re overall fitness level.

After a Workout

Many of us have a great workout routine. We drink plenty of water before hitting the gym, do warm stretches, work the entire body and even throw in some cardio. After the last set of exercises, you head back to your locker, shower, change and head home to get started with your daily work.

But have you ever thought of how you should treat your body in the next 15-20 minutes after your training to avoid muscle soreness and stiffness, increase muscle strength and growth and staying hydrated. Here are few things to do cool your body after a training session.

Cool Down. That is the first thing you need to do. Do few light exercises such a slow walk on the treadmill for five minutes to bring down your heart rate to a slow and steady pace.

Stretch. Light stretching exercises allows your muscles to get the full benefit of your workout. It relaxes your muscles, helps speed circulation to joints and tissues, thereby reducing the soreness and stiffness of muscles from a workout routine.

Drink water. Replenish yourself with water to avoid dehydration.

Refuel. Experts recommend eating healthy foods within 60 minutes of your workout to repair your muscles and boost your energy levels.  Eat foods that are packed with complex carbs and proteins.The sooner the better.

Workout Buddy

Revamping you’re eating habits, starting an exercise plan and improving your overall lifestyle is not easy. These are big changes and one definitely could use all the encouragement and support required to maintain these changes.

Experts say people who have support and encouragement are successful in maintaining their diet and exercise programs.

Having a support or making a commitment to improve your lifestyle along with someone like a close girlfriend/buddy, significant other or your own child – will make you want to stick to your program, simply because that person is counting on you.

If you’re on a look out for a buddy, ask your neighbour to commit to walking together for 30 minutes daily a week, sign up for a dance class with your friend/spouse, play a sport with your child or cook healthy meals over weekend for your family. This will help you keep up your new lifestyle changes.

You can also look for support online. Like your best pal, who is just an email away or sign up with any of the weight watchers sites where you will come across inspiring stories of people who have successfully managed to shed off pounds and improve their lifestyle through proper healthy diet plans and exercise regimes.

Sindhu and I started this blog for supporting and encouraging one another in our journey towards healthier lifestyle. Along the way, we have come across people who appreciate that the fact, a workout buddy is a must. We have been successful to a certain extent, but we still have a long way to go.

Go find that extra support. There is no time to waste.

Walk-O-Mania

Walking is by far the easiest form of movement for humankind. One that can be transformed into a cardiovascular exercise simply by adding pace and hand movements.  Walking (outdoor walking) is easy for people with mobility problems.  It is good for people who like to be in control of their body’s responses and not be overwhelmed by it (as in case of jogging or running).   Walking is an exercise where you can increase and decrease your speed as per your comfort level, without stopping.  A good, brisk walk lasting for about 45 – 60 mins is a great cardiovascular workout.  

Walks can begin with a leisurely pace for about 1/2 km.  Once you get the rhythm, you can gradually start adding pace.  Walk faster, move your body faster, push yourself to go to the maximum speed.   Achieving that maximum speed is not as simple as it sounds! For one, you might be quite unaware of the pace your own body can achieve in the first place.  If you are a first-time walker, you could begin by timing yourself.  Check how much time you take to finish one round (a set measure is helpful in knowing how much you can walk each day, distance as well as time).   Clocking the distance helps in upgrading your pace in each round by putting a wee bit more effort each time.  Try to better your timing each day, it might begin with as little as one minute the first day, slowly increasing  to 3-4, even 5-7 mins as the days go by! Give yourself a pat on the back and keep going!

While walking you could take smaller, quicker steps keeping your hands flexed at the elbows, much like the walkers in walkathons, this style helps you increase and maintain a good speed.  The other style could be to take longer steps, extending your leg to the point where your knees flex a bit and then take the next step.  In this style (from my personal experience) is that though the speed is a bit lower, you can work on your buttock muscles simultaneously.  Squeeze your buttock muscles as you move each leg forward, a super add-on for those shapely bottoms!  Being a avid walker myself, I find the benefits of walk generally helps me get over a stiff neck without much more than a couple of my usual brisk rounds, I attribute this to just the simple movements of the body while walking that  kind of rattles the little bones back into their places and easing out the pain in turn!  Walking is beneficial not just to your heart, lungs and skin, it helps keep your legs in good shape not just externally but also with regards to  bone density since its a weight bearing exercise for the legs.  Depending on your area/place of walk, you could add variations such as try out different routes, add inclines whenever possible, this adds variety to the daily regime. 

Having a walk partner is great fun, preferably someone who shares your passion for walking.  Talking or being able to hold short conversations while walking is a good measure to check if you are overstraining yourself, you are not if you can talk and reduce your pace a bit if you can’t.  Again from personal experience, my walk time gives me “me-time”, time to discuss the most trivial to the gravest issues in life with my walk partner, whether its advice, tips, problem-solving, lending a helping hand, I get all this and more during my one-hour walk time!  On the days, I have to walk alone, my radio accompanies me for a constant jingle of music in my ears.  There are days when I abandon my phone/radio and opt to spend my time walking with just reciting my prayers, meditation on the go! 

Walking can be done on the treadmill in an air-conditioned environment if you so wish, though personally I prefer the outdoors with the wind rushing on to my sweaty face!  Walking on the treadmill can be an option if the weather outside is not suitable for a brisk walk (rains, snow etc).   Walking is addictive, believe me but be regular with it and continue it long enough (a time-frame of say 2 weeks) to know or rather for your body to enjoy the benefits of a daily walk, so much so that you start missing it when you skip it.   As you start be prepared to brave aches and pains in your legs – calves,  shin and thighs. Understand, that these are not really aches and pains but the teething troubles as your body gets used to this new form of exercise gradually.  Enjoy a good night’s sleep as you get regular with walking and drift off into slumber with pleasantly fatigued muscles.

Last, but not the least, a sturdy, good quality pair of walking shoes is the only material requirement to start walking. Go, girl, go!

What more to do?

My doc-cum-instructor is as puzzled as me over the fact that I am not budging on my hips, thighs and bottom inspite of doing my workouts religiously all these days.  What has  moved and is still moving is my waistline, having dropped a good 2.5 inches. 

My instructor has added more and tougher exercises to target the hip and the lower body.  On my part, I am seriously doing my bit and trying not to cut corners or take shortcuts.  I even try to add an hour of brisk walk to my day whenever I can!  So, now my exercise regime consists of cardio (increased level), leg (thighs n calves) stretches, hip exercises, ab crunches (atleast 40-50 in 4 – 5 different variations). Ofcourse, not to forget the stairs that I do everyday!

In an endeavour to make my weight move, she has asked me to cut down on carbs especially for dinner. I have to stick to soups, salads and cooked vegetables but get completely off carbs for the night.  Well, Iam gonna try this for a week to see if it makes any difference to the scenario! So, that’s the latest update on my work out regime.

Thigh and Hip Stretch

To loosen the stiffness and tone the hips and thigh area, this simple stretch exercise will help.

What
Thigh and Hip Stretch

How
Sit in upright position with your legs stretched out in front of you. Lift your left leg and place it on your right thigh with the left leg ankle touching the thigh bone. Lift your left thigh and bring it close to your chest similar to cradling a baby close to your chest. Hold for five seconds and then lower the thigh. Repeat five times with each leg. When your thigh is close to the chest, you will feel a pull in your thigh and hip region. This stretch will loosen your muscles, strengthen and tone the hips and thigh area and gradually reduce the flab.

When
Anytime of the day or add it to your daily exercise regime.

Knee Ups

A great way to tone up your thighs and strengthen your leg muscles is doing a set of Knee Ups

What
Knee Ups

How
Stand next to a wall on one side, taking minimal support with your hand.  Next, raise your outer leg well above the knee level at a right angle.  The other leg remains straight on the ground.  Breathe in, hold in your abs tight as you raise your leg and tighten your core (anal) muscles.  Do a set of 8. Repeat with the other leg (you will have to turn to the other side to do that!). This exercise can be done even in the lying down position.  You can do both to add variety and work your thighs better.  Make sure you stretch your quadriceps well after you do the knee ups. 

When
Incorporate into your daily workout routine