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Today I went to a new hair stylist.  As you know, there is always a lot of social chitchat when you are having your hair cut and colored. 

This was no exception with my new friend Amy, who like me is passionate about every day exercise. We soon found we shared a common interest – exercise, eating a healthy diet and losing weight.  We compared notes about the success of our programs.

Amy is overweight and she needs to lose around 20 pounds.  As a mom with two teenage kids she has a busy schedule.  She says that her first goal was to set and maintain a regular every day exercise routine.

I was really impressed to hear how she has rearranged her very full work hours to allow time for every day exercise.  She tells me that she is serious about reclaiming her wedding day body and health.

Interestingly Amy wears a portable heart rate monitor on her wrist when she walks and jogs.  This is something I haven't thought to do.  My faithful pedometer is one way of telling me whether I walk far enough but in order to get cardiac fitness it is essential that I walk at a pace that is approximately 1.3 times my regular heart rate.

If your heart rate is around 70 beats per minute you need to exercise so that you maintain consistently a heart rate of somewhere between 90 and 100 beats per minute. Maintaining an elevated heart rate improves your overall fitness and contributes not only to cardiovascular efficiency but also helps you to lose weight. Amy and I agree that increasing our heart rate is an important goal in our every day exercise.

The other thing I learned from Amy was how important social support is in her program.  She exercises with a girlfriend and they keep each other motivated. They have (non-eating) rewards for reaching goals that are part of their every day exercise and they have enlisted friends and family as their ‘support group’ to enquire about their progress and encourage them to continue.

I know that every day exercise can get a little dreary and you need to know whether you are making any gains so it is essential that you actually chart your progress.  This can be either for changes in body shape or reduction in the circumference of various parts of your body for example your butt, your waist, or your upper arms, or your chest.

The danger with charting is that some people do it too frequently and become discouraged when they do not make sufficient gains.  Another danger is that some people chart at the wrong time.  Always measure your weight at the same time each morning not in the afternoon or evening when there is greater fluid retention or when you have been eating.

So set a regular routine for exercise and a regular process for charting the gains you make.  I have decided that I am going to use a pedometer and a portable heart rate in my drive for a fitter, healthier body.  I think I will build some rewards into my program and find a buddy to join me in my every day exercise too!

Warm regards

Rowena

For the Team

www.mightydigitaldownloads.com

Rowena French enjoys the challenges of her busy lifestyle.  Finding it difficult to keep a regular exercise routine? Add simple every day exercise to your schedule for a healthier body. How YOU CAN Fit Exercise into Your Busy Schedule has the answers. 

See How to Boost Your Metabolism for details about how to increase your metabolism through exercise tailored especially for YOU.

Pedometers are a very useful tool in your get fit program. When exercising to lose weight, you need to keep track of how far you walk.  Use a good pedometer. I must confess that my husband and I both compete to see how many steps we take during the day.  He is a sore loser  when I beat him. On many occasions he insisted he has taken more steps than I. To verify this, one day while he was at work I checked his pedometer against mine and found that his pedometer scored 30% more than my pedometer.  Obviously, he wins when his pedometer is unreliable.

On a more serious note, though, when you are exercising for a healthier you, you need to have some objective means of keeping track of your daily activity.  Pedometers are extremely cheap and can be bought for less than $10.  You can keep a chart of your daily steps. When you decide on a lifestyle change to lose weight or to reshape your body type, you need some crutches to help you on your journey and to keep your motivation and energy high.

Interestingly, what started us on the use of pedometers was a corporate fitness competition called Global Corporate Challenge. Companies from around the world have registered to see how many steps their teams could make each day. The competition includes a website (http://www.gcc2008.com/login.aspx ) that shows the particular place in the world that the team can 'walk' through that day. You can profile your weight, weight loss, body fat, and steps taken. Drive obesity away! The Global Competition is another way to keep motivation high for fitness and weight loss.

For more ideas, check out some of the resources that can help with your lifestyle changing new exercise program. Change now!

We found suggestions from "101 Everyday Tips for Losing Pounds" very helpful in our weight loss program.  

Warm regards

Rowena French

For The Team http://mightydigitaldownloads.com