Collaborative Post
This is the year you’ll change everything. You’re sick and tired of not being healthy, you want to finally achieve the toned body you’ve always wanted. Your first action will be to go online and search for the best possible workout routine for someone at your level. You find a few plans that look like they’re feasible for someone who is a novice. You mix and match and you create the right kind of plan for you. Ready to hit the gym? Wait a minute! Just hold it right there. Have you tried any of the more abnormal uncommon techniques? If you haven’t already, these are some things you should look further into to complete your lifestyle plan. Although not as well-known, these small adjustments can have a great impact on your routine.
The number one issue for most people who lead sedentary lives is their metabolism slows right down to a crawl. Therefore anything you put in your mouth, it just goes straight to your waist, hips, thighs, and glutes. If you could speed up your metabolic rate, anything that you eat will not only be digested quicker, but your fat-burning enzymes will be made in abundance.
Acidic foods in moderation, will add to your stomach acid and thus, quickly break down food. After a while, your stomach will become used to the fact that it needs to produce more stomach acid and perhaps to a higher strength. These are some of the foods that can help to make this happen.
- Tomatoes: Not only are they great for red blood cell manufacturing, but they’re also sharp in taste. Tomatoes have a medium level of acid, meaning you can eat them every day without putting yourself at risk of developing acid reflux.
- Lemons: a squeeze of lemon juice over your salad or chicken, brings out the flavour. However, lemons are also a high-level acidic food, so make sure you’re watching your intake.
- Apples: This is a great fruit which you can consume as a juice. If you’re not into eating raw apples, pour some apple juice into your fruit smoothie.
- Oranges: Having a glass of orange juice at lunch is something so simple, there’s no excuse not to buy a small bottle to take with you to work.
All of these fruits and vegetables, raise the level of acid in your digestive system, aiding in breaking down the food you eat. Eventually, this will speed up your ability to breakdown food and also, burn fat.
You have to realise, that one of the reasons your body may not be showing you the results you want from your workouts is because it’s still living to your old routine. Sometimes the best way to change your body is to put it through a shock and awe training regime. Here are some of the things you can do.
- Early morning sprint: Wake up before sunrise and put on your running shoes. Have a good stretch for 5-6 minutes, then go out for a quick run. However, this is going to be a sprint, so half your normal running path. If you jog 1-2 miles a day, cut this down to 800-1600 metres. Sprint up to 80-90% of your full pace for as long as you can up to the halfway point. Take a quick rest for 1-2 minutes. Then sprint back to the starting point. What this does is, shock your muscles into rapid movement. Your body will be zapped out of its groggy state and into a full fight or flight mode.
- On the spot: Aerobics is a great way to wake up your body in the morning. You’re essentially doing bodyweight exercises that are designed to increase your heart rate. This is the secret to losing weight, your heart rate has to be above a certain level which causes you to sweat and pant. Get yourself a yoga mat and make a playlist of beginner’s aerobic sessions on YouTube. There’s plenty of content to choose from. Give yourself a quick 10-15 minute intense workout every morning for a week and see how your body is melting away the fat.
- Before your dinner: Going for a jog before you sit down for dinner is something out of the ordinary. It’s not what your body is used to, which is all the more reason why you should do it. Take it easy as you will be tired from work and you don’t need to shock your muscles too much. This will speed up your metabolism just a bit, before dinner and sleep which is great for slowing down your system from creating and storing fat of the food you ate throughout the day.
Call in the A team
If you don’t know your way around the gym, don’t set yourself up for failure by going anyway and only have a half-baked workout. You should hire a Personal Trainer which will do a number of things for you. They offer small group training sessions so you can meet and workout with some fitness buddies on the same level as you. They also offer personal training sessions so all their focus is on your progress. Lastly, they will look through your current diet and pick it apart. Then, they’ll design a new nutrition plan which will be made easy to stick to, with shopping advice and meal planning.
Many beginners will try their luck on their own. Thanks to the countless online workout videos, you have a lot of advice to trawl through. However, sometimes the best option is to be given a guiding hand until you have gotten the hang of something new. A personal trainer doesn’t have to be a long-term thing. Once you have become comfortable with understanding your own body, tracking it’s responses to certain foods and exercises routines, you can take off the training wheels and go the rest of the way on your own.
Push your body hard with an early morning sprint; a great way to shock your body into burning fat. Perform aerobic exercises at an intense rate so your heart rate makes you sweat.