New Year's Resolutions

What's your #1 health & fitness goal for 2013? Lose weight, healthier diet, get in shape, drop a bad habit? 

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The whole point of a New Year’s resolution is to start the year with a positive outlook and the hope for a better you. When you set goals that you can’t reach, the opposite tends to happen. Set realistic goals for yourself this year by following these tips. 

Be realistic. If you wake up on 1 January with a hangover and a strong urge for a double espresso and a bacon sandwich, is this really the day to begin the 'first day of the rest of your life?' Start on the 2nd, instead, and use the 1st to finish up the stilton and the Quality Street and to clear the cupboards of any other tempting food that is not in keeping with your new regime! 

Set a goal you can keep - take baby steps. First, choose a resolution that is attainable. Forget about losing 100 pounds or saving enough cash to buy a house. When you make goals that are unreachable, you set yourself up to fail. Instead, set small goals that you know you can reach. If you succeed, you can just keep going, and you'll feel great about accomplishing your goal. For example, set a time frame that within 3 months, you will lose 10 pounds. This would be a healthy way to lose weight, about 1-2 pounds per week. It is possible that you could actually lose more weight, which would make you feel that losing weight is easy. If you were trying to be healthier either through diet or exercise, set a more realistic goal. For instance, plan to exercise for 30 minutes 2-3 days per week, and gradually increase throughout the year. Set goals for the week or month. When trying to eat healthier, make small changes, such as eating one fruit per day, and increase as this becomes a daily habit.

Don´t go it alone - Get help. If you're setting a big goal, find someone to help you along the way. Want to lose weight? Hire a personal trainer or look for an workout buddy. Want to find a new job? Visit a career counselor. A professional who is trained to help you meet your goals will have an arsenal of tools to get you where you want to be. If you can't afford a professional, look for a friend, a websites or support groups to help you meet your goals. There you can motivate each other and share ideas. Most of life's challenges become less daunting when you aren't in them alone; working with a friend to reach your goal may mean the difference between success and failure.

Be patient. Fitness and weight loss don't happen overnight. That's why it is important to have a time frame for your goal. Set mini goals to work towards along the way - these give you something more immediate to aim for, and help you build confidence and faith in yourself.

Keep track. Spend some time formulating and writing down your health and fitness goals, ensuring they are challenging but realistic. Be positive and confident about your ability to achieve them. Keep a food and/or exercise diary to monitor your progress and help motivate you to stay focused on your goals. I use an excel-file for my plans and documentations of weight and training.

Make your health a priority Perhaps the most difficult thing to do is to make all of this work in your hectic schedule. It usually helps to maintain a list of things you need to do. To help with your cooking, try to plan a menu each week so you will know exactly what you need at the grocery store - and to minimize the possibility of ordering take-out. If you must eat lunch or dinner out, remember that healthy choices, such as salads or wraps, are better options. However, moderation is also OK. Occasionally having the dinner that you enjoy will not hinder your ultimate weight loss goal. As the saying is: Take care of your body.  It's the only place you have to live.  Jim Rohn

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In sum, don't try to put too much on your plate. Take each day as it comes, and do not get frustrated if you slip up every now and then. Don't be afraid to start again! Once you establish healthy habits, the rest will be that much easier. Treat yourself for reaching each goal or staying on track for a certain amount of time. Good luck with your resolutions!


As you know, I already set my cornerstones for 2013 so I don´t need a new year´s resolution. My plans and wishes are to be staying on track for reaching my goals of loosing weight, shaping and strengthen my body (with clean eating) and get into the best form of my body I ever have.

Take care!

Merry FITmas!

My Mission for this year´s Christmas will be:
 

Get fit, not fat, this Christmas

 
The festive season is upon us, and that can only mean diet debauchery, abandoned fitness regimes and six-hour TV marathons. But it doesn't have to be this way. With a little forward planning and a smidgeon of self-discipline, it is perfectly possible to enjoy a happy Christmas and enter the New Year feeling fit, not fat.

Many people fall off the exercise bandwagon at Christmas, or rule out the idea of getting into shape during the festive period, assuming there is no point in starting until the New Year.

But given that one of the biggest barriers to exercise is lack of time, a break from the usual routine can provide the ideal opportunity to begin or maintain physical activity. Staying active over Christmas not only reduces your chances of gaining weight, it also helps energise you, reduces stress and gives you a break.

Exercising first thing may entail getting up a little earlier than normal, but it does ensure that you get your workout done before other commitments and crises get in the way - and it will kickstart your metabolism for the rest of the day.

Workouts don't need to be long to be beneficial. If you're prepared to work hard, you can fit a super workout into just a 30-minute window. It's a trade-off between duration and intensity.

If an influx of family and visitors make it difficult to do your usual workout, try to get everyone involved in something seasonal, like ice skating or a winter walk.

If you can't drag yourself - or anyone else - outdoors, look for indoor alternatives to slumping on the sofa. The ubiquitous Wii-Fit Plus or XBOX360 Kinect - maybe you´ll find one of these gifts underneath the Christmas tree - offers a realm of opportunities for hitting virtual tennis balls, punching invisible targets or having a dance battle without leaving the living room.

While it would be rather Scrooge-like to suggest that you forgot all treats and extras at Christmas, you can limit the damage by selecting your festive foods more carefully. Try choosing healthier nibbles like pretzels, roasted chestnuts, unsalted nuts, dried fruits or satsumas instead of crisps and chocolate. And think twice before you open your mouth. Do you really want it, or are you just eating it because it's there?

Don't feel obliged to eat more than you normally would, just because it's Christmas. Turning down seconds doesn't mean you didn't enjoy your meal - it's just that you have had enough.

Similarly, there is nothing wrong with politely putting your hand over your glass when it still has wine left in it, so that you can keep track of how much you've had. When the whole season is an excuse for celebration, those alcohol units can really mount up. Mulled wine on Christmas Eve, buck's fizz with breakfast, wine with dinner, Baileys, brandy … Keep tabs on how much you are drinking, and intersperse alcoholic drinks with soft ones and plenty of water.

It's worth bearing in mind that it's not the amount you exercise and eat between Christmas and New Year that is the problem - it's what you do between New Year and Christmas that makes the real difference!

I found in the internet this helpful pdf-file for Xmas & New Year ’s Calorie Countdown, which I want to share with you.

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I´ll be off to St.Anton in Austria for a sporty Christmas Season from December 23 to December 25: Skiing, Winter walk, Swimming in the hotel pool and using the gym!

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Starting Training – What women need to know about training

There is no “one size fits all” plan and while following a generic plan can help you get started, it is often a frustrating path. The best investment you can make is to get yourself a trainer. A trainer who will design and individualize a training and nutrition plan specifically for you, your goals and needs. You will start out doing things the RIGHT way, instead of just randomly going in and doing whatever you feel like when you feel like. The benefits of having a trainer also includes accountability (which is very important), having someone there to show you the correct technique for each exercise (also very important – poor form leads to injury, ineffective and inefficient training, and is detrimental overall), and teach you about what you are doing and why, so that you can understand everything, with the eventual goal of being able to know what to do for yourself. If you don´t want to invest in a trainer you should have a good knowledge in the field of nutrition, biology and kinematics.

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Training

Learn and understand the importance of resistance training, cardio should not be the focus (in all honesty, you do not even have to do cardio to get the figure you want, but as you get more experienced with training or want to improve your cardiovascular fitness, then it can be beneficial to include).

Weights

Anything from two to four days of training per week is ideal to start with, especially in the gym. Each body part should be trained once a week, giving it plenty of time to recover before the next training session for the same body part.
Resistance exercises you should be doing are multi-joint, compound exercises, as they use more than one muscle, and are the most effective for not only building muscle, but also in burning fat. Compound exercises require more body parts  to perform than isolation exercises. The best compound exercises that you can do are the squat and the deadlift, as they use pretty much every muscle in your body. Other compound exercises that are good to include are the power clean, bench press, shoulder press, pull-ups, dips, and calf raises (the only isolation exercise that’s really good).
Complete at least two exercises for each muscle group, with four sets of 6-10 (even up to 12) reps per exercise, with 1-2 minutes recovery in between. Always lift as heavy as you can for the number of reps you are set; the weight should challenge you... if it is too easy, you are not doing yourself any favours.
Be sure that you always use good form for EVERY exercise; otherwise you are putting yourself at risk for injury. All reps should be controlled and with good form. It is not about how much you can lift, but how well you lift. You WILL get stronger as you keep at it.
An ideal training time is 40 - 45 minutes; otherwise you become too catabolic and can end up losing muscle, which is not desirable.
So that your body does not get used to your training and stop adapting, every 4 - 12 weeks make small adjustments to your weight sessions. Adjustments do not have to be drastic and simply increasing the weight for the same session from one week to the next is a change that can make a difference. Other adjustments can include changing the order of exercises in a session or the number of sets and/or reps that you do for an exercise (and it only needs to be one exercise changed at a time, small adjustments over the weeks, not a complete overhaul of everything!).

Cardio

If you ARE going to do cardio, make it as efficient and effective as possible. If you do High Intensity Cardio or High Intensity Interval training, you can get the same, if not BETTER results with a brief 12 - 20 minute cardio session instead of spending two or more hours a day doing it! If you feel that you need to do more cardio, then you can add a couple of additional 20 - 30 minute moderate intensity sessions to your training week. Skipping, stair sprinting/running, or rowing, are the next highest calorie burners after sprinting.

Flexibility

Don’t forget about adding in some flexibility exercises, ideally 20 - 30 minutes a day on the days you train, preferably after you have done either cardio or weights, while your muscles are still warm, as this decreases the risk of injury. Stretching makes sure that you can move more freely and easily and helps elongate the muscles, ligaments, and tendons, for overall joint health and fitness.

Consistency

Understand that CONSISTENCY is essential; nothing is achieved without it. If you miss days, don’t stress over it; there is no need to “make up” for them either by doing more on another day - just forget about them and get back on track the next day. Remember the 70/30 Rule: As long as you do everything right 70% of the time, the other 30% allows for when things don’t go as planned because life gets in the way or some other reason.

Efficacy

Never forget that when it comes to exercise more is not always best! You want maximal results for minimal time. You also need to remember that some of this is experimental, and about finding what works best for YOU, since everyone is different and responds differently to different exercise programmes.

Let´s start!

The eat-clean principles – Part One

As already announced, since a few days ago I started to eat clean. For sure, at the beginning it won´t works for 100 percent to change completely your nutrition from one day to another, but I try to involve peux-a-peux the rules into my daily life. And I see, that it works from day to day even better.  

The following information are some excerpts from the book:  The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged: Lasting Fat Loss That´s Better than Ever! http://www.amazon.com/The-Eat-Clean-Diet-Recharged-Lasting/dp/1552100677/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355309548&sr=8-1&keywords=the+clean+eat+diet+recharged

But, what does eat-clean exactly mean?

So, let´s start with the basics: To get a beautiful and healthy body, there´s a simple rule: You have to focus on the right nutrition (80%), clean and regularly training (10%) and have the right genetics (10%). You are certainly wondering, why 80% nutrition and only 10% training instead of 80% training and 10% nutrition? A popular quote is: “Abs were made in the kitchen, not in the gym!”

In some ways you do have to live with the genetic package your parents gave you, but nutrition is far more responsible for creating your shape and your health than you ever could have imagined.

Eat poorly and you become sick and overweight. Eat well and you become a glowing example of health and vibrancy.

I need to recognize that some “foods”, which I ate are “anti-foods” - and I  must work hard to avoid these. The improved food choices I make along with moderate amounts of exercise, mostly in the form of strength training, should be the catalyst for change.

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What to do:

• Eat more – eat six small meals each day (at the end of this blog you´ll find a sample schedule)
• Eat breakfast every day, within an hour of rising
• Eat a combination of lean protein and complex carbohydrates at each meal (55% complex carbohydrates, 27% lean protein and 18% healthy fats)
• Eat sufficient (2-3 servings) healthy fats every day
• Drink 2-3 liters of water each day
• Depend on fresh fruits and vegetables for fiber, vitamins, nutrients and enzymes
• Adhere to proper portion sizes (use your hands for the right portions)

What to avoid:

• Aviod all over-processed foods, particularly white flour and sugar
• Avoid chemically charged food
• Avoid foods containing presercatives
• Avoid artificial sugars
• Avoid artificial foods (such as processed cheese slides)
• Avoid saturated and trans fats
• Avoid sugar-loaded beverage, including colas and juices
• Avoid (or do your best to limit) alcohol intake
• Avoid all calorie-dense foods containing little or no nutritional value (=anti-foods)
• Avoid super-sizing your meals

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These principles are as easy to follow as brushing your teeth or combing your hair. If you decide right now to embrace just one of these principles you will be immediately living a healthier lifestyle. That’s because each one of these steps is empowering and entirely doable. Imagine what could happen if you cement in your mind that you will accept them all right now! Look out world – here you come!

Another catalyst for change is the right food at the same time with the right frequency: Eat six meals a day (every two-and-a-half hours to three hours). 

As promised, here´s a sample schedule:

7 am – First Meal = Breakfast
10 am – Second Meal = Mid Morning
1 pm – Third Meal = Lunch
4 pm – Forth Meal = Mid Afternoon
7 pm – Fifth Meal = Dinner
10 pm – Sixth Meal = Evening

You´ll get more information in one of my next posts!!

Stay healthy!

Tasting sweat! – Part II

This weekend was one of my most sporty weekend since blogging. 

As announced I attent the Zumba Masterclass Session on Saturday. We had so much fun during our 2 hours of dancing and jumping. Here you´ll see the result......(I´m very proud of myself !!):

1063 kcal burned!!

(c) by me

 Isn´t it amazing, is it?

On the top I just came from the gym, where I did my regular interval training on the treadmill.

I see also here some tiny improvements of my fitness level: As compared to my beginning (2 weeks before) I´m now faster than before (+ 0,5 km/h) with the same heart rate. :o)

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Looking for your comments....

Stay healthy!

Santa Claus gift for you...

Today is Santa Claus Day I want to make you a little surprised gift:


Here we go.....

Now you´ll find 'Getting back in shape' also on facebook.

klick me

I´m looking forward to your comments, feedbacks and likes.

Happy reading!

Eat clean and work out

I know that I didn't mentioned the topic 'nutrition' yet. The reason is, that I had so many several nutrition and diet plan in the past but without consistency. The most of them weren't suitable for a very busy full time worker as me: after a few days of strictly following the plan I lost more and more the motivation and ate that food what I shouldn't. The ups and down results now as a huge number displayed on my scale.

As I'm very interesting in the nutrition (what will happen with my body if I'll eat the right/wrong food) I was looking for some of the fitness groups and discussion panels of the web.

One of them, which I really like is bodybuilding.com
(Don't get a panic attack when you read "bodybuilding".) :-)

I'm fascinated with working out to be the strongest that you can be while also maintaining a feminine and sexy form with curves in all the right places. I've never been a fan of skinny and flat, but I've always been a fan of being FIT and STRONG. So basically, this is me trying to say that I'm going to step up my game another notch. Now I´ll include weight training in my fitness plan.

On this site there's a really good 12-weeks female fitness plan of Jamie Eason (http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jamie-easons-livefit-introduction.html) , motivational pics of female body transformations and nutrition plans....and all of them are free!! (The only fee is to get your ass off the couch).

Here are two examples of body transformations which awake my interest.
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/body-transformation-clean-eating-made-her-a-model.html (she´s as tall as me)
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/body-transformation-fitness-formula.html

The intention of the several nutrition plans are: eat clean!!

That mean exactly: eat only that kind of food, which comes naturally from the nature and avoid all processed food (relying on fresh fruits, fish, lean meat, vegetables and whole grains rather than prepackaged or fast food).

Here are a program of Kelsey Byers Challenge Program and Mealplan.

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That clean eating in addition with weight training (starting this week) and cardio should be my formula for a nice shaped and healthy body 2013 - besides reaching all of my planned cornerstones!

Finally, it's a pleasure for me to tell you all, that I lost 1,3 kg last week. Okay, that's only a finger in the dike, but a nice beginning!!!

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One more cornerstone

After a strength-sapping weekend I have now enough time for my next post.

On Sunday I got a surprising mail including a wedding invitation of my colleague (and also a good friend of mine) Susi. The wedding will be end of May 2013. That's exactly in 6 months!!

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That's so exciting!! My last attendance of a wedding was 23 years ago!! As a little fashion-conscious girl one of my first thoughts was: "Aaah, what should I wear?!"

The wedding will be on May, 25. So normally it'll be a warm summer day in Germany - I think a dress is the right choice.

But from the current point of view, this choice will also have a catch.... It's not the problem of having NO dress. All of them doesn't fits me and I do not have a well-shape body for wearing a dress. But I have 6 more months to change this situation!!

So this will be my forth cornerstone of 2013: looking good on my friend's wedding.

Here is an overview of all my four cornerstones 2013:

• On May, 5 there will be in my home town a 10K city run (5x2km)
• On May, 25 there will be the wedding of my friend: looking good in wearing a dress is the mission.
• On July, 28 there will be the premiere for a participation in a triathlon
  (short distance/olympic distance)*
• On September, 22, there will be also a 10K city run.

To keep on the progress I went to my Zumba class on Monday.

After this sporty hour I lost 627 kcal... That's the beginning of shaping.

On my today's schedule will be a intervall training on the treadmill.
  

Dear fat - say goodbye to my body!!! :o)

Start Running

I have one older brother, who is really a experienced runner of the half-marathon distance.
For shame, I have to tell you, that the only distance which I made during a competition was a 5K on 2009 with a lots of breaks for taking breath....

As you see, you can´t call me a endurance athlete, because my fitness level didn´t raised up in the last time. 

After consultation and some more discussions he gave me the bible of a running god (his quote): Herbert Steffny. I have to train with persistence to run 30 min without a break (step-by-step), and after that I can try a 5K and a 10K-Training.

As announced in my last post, I want to finish all three cornerstones in 2013. The first cornerstone will be on May 5 with a 10K run.
So I picked my calendar 2012/2013 up and made a detailed schedule for a healthy training of getting fit.

My training plan looks as follows (until April 7, 2013):



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Monday - Zumba (unless it is school vacations)
Tuesday - Rest
Wednesday - Running (in winter: on treadmill / in summer: outside along the next river)
Thursday - Rest
Friday - Running
Saturday - Rest
Sunday - Running and/or Zumba Masterclass (once a month)

If I getting nervous on my rest-days it´s up to me to do some more sports like swimming, or go mountain biking or anything else.

My first plan is to run 30min without any walking break. This should be possible in the first week of January. Please keep your fingers also crossed for me!

Should I - or shouldn´t I?

Souce: http://thinnerandwiser.files.wordpress.com

Yesterday I took a closer look at my sport plan where I scheduled my plan of training and my progress.
Normally I should went to the gym for a small (but -certainly- essential) training on the treadmill.

But after coming home for a long working day with overtime I met a little devil and a litte angel on each side of my shoulder. The devil said "Come on, stay at home, because it´s getting late and the way to the gym (round about 8km) isn´t be worth for a training of 30 minutes!"  My angel said (with a wagging finger): "If you shouldn´t go to the gym - You won´t have success with your plans of body transformation!! Come on! Make yourself an effort and go. You only have to pick up your sport bag and move your ass into the car."

After thinking a long time, which one I want to give my blessing, I decided to clean up the flat and made a compromise: Implementing the training part of yesterday in my today´s training!!

Both of them were satisfied and this plan shut them up! :o)

Nevertheless, I hope, that this wouldn´t wake up my bastard inside of me!!

On the weekend I´ll be off for a visit of my parents-in-law and I´ll come back on Sunday, where the next training session will be....!! Looking forward to my next Zumba Session on Monday!!

Tasting sweat! – Part I

A few weeks ago I decided to try Zumba. Zumba is a fast and sweaty dance fitness program with some salsa, samba, merengue, bollywood and latin moves. The first hours was just testing these new kind of body moving – and it was quite funny although I didn´t know the choreography and the right moves very well.

But from time to time I improved myself and getting better.

So I did the choice of making Zumba to a routine. Every Monday evening I participate in.

Two days ago (on Monday)  I checked additionally my heart rate and the consumption of kcal with my heart rate monitor … and was really astonished: I burned 722 kcal in just one hour!! But I also have to tell you, that my average heart rate was 156!! But I felt great…. Also the day after!

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Did I mentioned yet, that I additionally took part in a Zumba Masterclass on Sunday?
The Zumba Masterclass is a advanced Zumba Class, which takes two hours with two different instructors. The first hour was with our regular zumba instructor. And the second one was with a male professional salsa-merengue-latin-dance instructor. I didn´t know where I have to take my breath (...and he his condition!)! That was so heavy – but I did it!! After that I was tired, but very very happy!

I signed in for the next Zumba Masterclass on December 8. I´m really excited, which instructor will take the second hour.

Confession

I have a confession to make: I have been the biggest slacker in terms of fitness in the last few weeks, months, years ...

When I was a child I did a lot of sports: classical ballett, swimming, and gymnastics. In my spare time I played always outside with my friends.

But now? I´m getting chubby and chubbier and that really sucks! 
Quite frankly the reason for that being that my gym has definitely not seen enough of me lately and late-night (and wrong) snacks while studying or watching TV has been filled my stomach a few too many times. 

To make a picture of me: I´m female, 29 years old, engaged and work as a full-time assistant in the south region of germany (between Stuttgart and Munich). Besides my office job I do a study in general management as a distance learning class. And finally, my Body Mass Index is 28 (yes, twentyeight!)

Well, it’s all about to change!!

I am determined to get back to my old healthy self in the next few weeks and months. On April 2013 (in 4 months) I´m getting 30 and that will be my first cornerstone to recheck my fitness path.  

The other cornerstones 2013 will be:

• On May, 5 there will be in my home town a 10K city run (5x2km)
• On July, 28 there will be the premiere for a participation in a triathlon
  (short distance/olympic distance)*
• On September, 22, there will be also a 10K city run.

*Short Distance will be 500m Swim, 20K Bike, 5K Run
  Olympic Disciplin: 1,5K Swim, 40K Bike, 10K Run

Maybe some of you feel the same way and that’s why I thought I would share some of the things on my to-do list.

• I´m overweight. To get in a normal space of weight I have to loose at least 15 - 20 kg.
• Workout at least 3-5 times a week
• I have to train to run 30min, 5K, 10K without a break
• Reducing the sweets in general and especially in the late evening
• Asking myself: Am I really hungry or just bored?
• Drinking a lots of water and unsweeted tea: at least 2 liters.

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If you guys like my posts like this, I’d be happy to share some of my workout routines, favorite music for motivation or more healthy meals. I am by no means an expert in the department, but I always love hearing what works for others. Just let me know in the comments. Also, I’d love to hear what you guys do to stay active and healthy!!