Cardio Training

Since the date is 12/12/12 for the first time in forever, I will give you 12 fitness and health steps you need to take before year-end. If you're waiting for January 2 to get started improving your health and fitness, don't....start today!


If you are overweight or have too much body fat (a skinny person can have too much body fat), your body is not as healthy as it could be. Start making changes today.

Here are 12 fitness steps to start taking today:

1. Adjust your attitude. Everything goes better for you when you are optimistic each day. A positive attitude does wonders for your health. And, you'll need a positive attitude to identify your fitness goals and determine why your fat loss and weight loss efforts have failed or succeeded in the past. You must get your motivation right for your exercise program to work for you.

2. What is your body's composition (body fat % vs. lean mass %)? You need to know where you are fat. Excess abdominal fat has been shown to be a precursor to diseases such as cancer. A trainer will check it for you for free as part of a fitness assessment.

3. When's the last time you had your body measurements taken (chest, arms, neck, hips, waist, etc.)? You must burn fat and inches to transform your body. This is part of your fitness assessment.

4. What's your health history? You might need a doctor's clearance before you can begin an exercise program.

5. What are your eating habits? Part of your assessment will look at what you are eating, how you are eating and changes that you need to make. You may need a pantry makeover, throw out the bad stuff and replace it with healthy stuff.

6. What is your basal metabolic rate? Don't know? You will after your fitness assessment. This rate helps you set the daily calories you will need.
Its important for you to not eat too little or too much to reach your fat loss and weight loss goals.

7. Have you had low back pain for some time? If so, you probably have postural problems that need to be corrected. And, yes, a postural assessment is part of your fitness assessment. Do you have other injuries? Start healing your body.

8. Had any muscle spasms or "knotted muscles" lately? Then, you need to improve your flexibility. The fitness assessment will tell you where your muscles are tight, lengthened or weak. You may need other therapy such as deep tissue massage.

9. When's the last time you checked your resting pulse rate? Your resting pulse rate will tell you how hard your heart is working in a resting state. For instance, my resting pulse rate was 58 beats per minute the last time I checked it. That's pretty low.

10. How ready is your body for physical activity? You don't know? You will after your fitness assessment.

11. Start walking 30 minutes every day. Staying active as much as possible is very under-rated. It helps relieve stress, improves bloodflow and improves breathing. Sedentary lifestyles are a huge problem in society. We’ve gone from being physically active laborers (such as farmers) to sit-down jobs. So, if you have a "sit-down" job, I would recommend that you move more. When you sit, your fat-burning enzymes basically shut down.

Try to stand as much as you can during the day and take walking breaks to activate your fat-burning enzymes. Any activity is good to go along with your regular workouts. All movement burns calories.

12. Drink enough water every day. Surprisingly, it is difficult for many people to drink enough water every day.

This will help you limit sugary drinks that pack on belly fat. Your body is about two-thirds water. Drink water and unsweetened drinks (like tea) most of the time. It will help you eat less and help your body function better.

Drink about half your weight in water every day. So, if you weigh 140 pounds, drink 70 ounces of water each day.

Remember, certain foods contain large amounts of water. This counts toward your water intake. For instance watermelon is about 90% water and lettuce has about 95% water. Some meats contain as much as 70% water.

Water also helps your body flex muscles, remove wastes, cushion joints, carry nutrients and oxygen to your cells and helps convert food into energy (although water doesn't provide energy).

You may be experiencing dehydration if you have dry lips/mouth, dizziness, headache, nausea or muscle cramps. When you exercise, drink about a cup of water every 15 minutes.

Get yourself started today to improve your health!

-Cathering Ebeling and Mike Geary are co-authors of the popular ebook, Fat-Burning Kitchen, which shows you how to totally revamp your kitchen to make your body a fat-burning machine. Get it now!

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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