Do it for you, and for your life. Looking good for bikini season or showing off the results of those crunches is terrific, but seeing your grandchildren grow up is also pretty fantastic. That’s why, when it’s time to put your Lifetime resolution into practice, you’ve got to make the right choice and diet to live. Read on, and you’ll feel good about doing right by your body!

A balanced diet is a time-tested healthy choice. The best way to treat your body is not by withholding needed nutrients, but by being smart about what you eat. Trimming down can involve a few adjustments, but radical changes, drugs (this includes many “supplements”) and extremes are giving your body a beating, and it will remember, especially if this is an annual ritual. You’ll find that eating well is its own reward, and will actually help fight cravings naturally!

Extreme results can vary from increasing your risk of osteoporosis (and brittle bones even in your 20’s!) and losing your muscle mass, to heart problems and even death. Rather than risk denial in saying “well, that’s not me…” check your habits and find out whether it really is you or not. It’s your choice, of course, but it should be a fully informed one.

First, check the food pyramid. Are you keeping up with it? If you’re not, you may not be getting the nutrients you need. If your particular diet requires an extreme adjustment, like near zero fat intake, very low carbs, or a lot of protein, realize that is going to confuse your body, no matter how short term. Your body always tries to make do with whatever you give it, or handle excesses if you overindulge. Sometimes it will start robbing from muscles or vital organs to meet your needs. As the old commercial once said, “it’s not nice to fool mother nature,” so diets that trick your body may come back to haunt you.

Next, are you taking any appropriate non-diet vitamins and supplements? This is not the diet aids, but just plain old multivitamins and other nutrients your body needs. You may find that, if you’re not getting the right nutrition from food and supplements, your body is giving you cravings which add weight as it tries to direct you to the foods you need. If you can’t find the right fresh foods when they are out of season, multivitamins might be a reasonable answer to keep your body in balance.

Are you messing with your metabolism? It’s a lot more than “fat burning rate,” it’s your internal temperature, energy level, stress on your heart and on the organs that make up your endocrine system including adrenal glands, thyroid, pancreas and more. This is one area where a checkup might help. Your doctor can order tests to ensure that your system is in good regulation - it could be a simple thyroid or blood sugar problem is affecting your weight and overall health. If you’re a diabetic or possibly could become one due to heredity, weight or “Syndrome X,” this is a particularly risky area to mess with by yourself – your body may already be struggling without your interference. In any case, supplements that affect this area could give you unnecessary stress on your body, and since they are usually not prescribed exactly for you, some users find that the regular dose can be an overdose of potent stimulants, and a night of anxiety or a trip to the ER is all you get out of them. If you love yourself, love your body and be kind to it.

Finally, there’s exercise. Yes, it’s time for the gym for everyone stuck indoors in winter, and a good workout feels great. It really feels like you’re doing something, even the first day. This is another metabolism thing, though. A slow start, and looking for long-term results is the way to go. It’s true, very new exercise gadget or technique promises to throw away that outdated concept and give you instant results, but perhaps they are only promising the results that they can deliver, and not what you really need to be healthy. Why just burn calories when building muscle mass (which adds healthy weight!) adds calorie burning muscle to your body? Check with a trainer for more information.

ALL Year, resolve to be good to yourself for the long run. Take good care of your body and your health, and you will be rewarded for years to come, not just for the coming summer beach season. You’ll be surprised how you good you feel when you eat right and take care of yourself, and you might even cut yourself some slack in the bikini department because of it!

Exercises to fit into your Skinny Jeans Skinny jeans are the latest must-have fashion at the moment but many women worry that they will not fit into theirs as they are not as lean as they could be. By following an exercise regime you can fit into your skinny jeans and be able to strut your stuff like you were on the catwalk!  The best exercise to perform to give you thinner legs and lose your saddlebags is the Penguin Shuffle and this is how to do it: 

• Hold the ends of a resistance band in each hand and stand on the centre of the band with your feet hip-width apart. There should only be a few inches of band between your feet.
• Then curl your hands up towards your shoulders.
• Keeping your arms curled, take one step in the to the right with your right foot until the band is taut.
• Then take one step in the same direction with your left foot.
• Continue side stepping 6 to 8 times to right and then reverse the direction and do the same.

By following this exercise you will see results within a week and be able to fit into your skinny jeans in not time! 

One exercise that gets rid of the dreaded “muffin top” over hang is the Plank and here’s how to do it! 

• Lie face down and the floor and raise yourself up, balancing on your forearms and toes, clasping your hands together, align your spine and pull your abs in so that your lower back does not sag.
• Hold this position for 10 to 60 seconds (you will get better with practise and be able to hold it for longer each time) focusing on keeping your torso straight.
• Perform 1 to 2 sets each day for maximum results.
• Admire your fantastic flat abs!

Another way of making sure you fit in to your skinny jeans is to stand up properly, this may seem a little like common sense but you would be surprised as to how many people don’t stand up correctly. Here’s how to do just that: 

• Stand with your back against a wall, keeping your feet at a comfortable distance from the wall, heels together and toes apart.
• Pull in your abs and gently press your entire back, as well as your neck and shoulders into the wall. Letting your arms hang down at the sides.
• Drop your chin to your chest and then peel your neck off the wall, followed by your shoulders, upper back, middle back and the lower back.
• Keep your tailbone and butt against the wall and hang forward for a moment and the slowly reverse the movement, pressing your entire spine back onto the wall.

By following this exercise you will improve you posture and by standing up straight you can instantly shed 10lbs – so will look and feel amazing. Use these exercises every day and in no time at all you will be looking amazing in your skinny jeans. 

Weight loss and dieting programs are most often begun on the scale. The number that appears on our bathroom floor every morning, as if to awaken us to the reality of how unhealthy we have become. That number is the one we log when we start a weight loss or dieting program, but, that number is not the most important number to weigh you weight loss.

The body is an organism made up mostly of water. The water level in the human body can fluctuate 3 to 5 pounds every day just with simple activity and eating. When dieting, this water level fluctuates even more due to exercise and increased water intake. From the time we wake up in the morning, until the time we fall into bed at night, those numbers on the scale are the ones that stick in our minds if we are dieting. The numbers that should matter, rarely do.
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