Thursday, July 26, 2007

A Week of Weight Loss

Are you interested in losing a few pounds quickly? By making a few simple diet and exercise changes, you can boost your metabolism quickly and burn off some fat... in just 1 week! Try the 7-day "Week of Weight Loss" below to learn how to lose some flab and tone up your body quickly...

Monday

Do a short morning workout involving 20 minutes of bodyweight strength exercises (such as pushups, pullups, squats, crunches, etc.) followed by 10 minutes of interval cardio training. This will really help to jump start your metabolism and have you burning fat and calories for hours after the workout is completed.

Also, eat a very clean diet based on lean proteins, fresh veggies, fruit, nuts, seeds, beans, whole grains and healthy fats. Avoid all refined sugars and flour... as well as anything made with potatoes or white rice. Also avoid all fried foods. Stick with this diet throughout the week for best results.


Tuesday

Drink a couple of cups of green tea to boost your metabolism and burn extra fat. Then go do at least 30 minutes of "fun" cardio exercise. Make sure it's something you really enjoy. Play a "high intensity" sport such as basketball, soccer, or tennis. Go for a bike ride outdoors. Go swimming. Do 10 minutes on 3 different exercise machines. Just make sure you keep your heart rate up and stick to the "conversation" rule: if you can comfortably have a conversation with someone next to you, you're not exercising hard enough!


Wednesday

Do a "circuit training" style workout where you choose 5 or 6 different exercises, do a set of 10-12 reps for each exercise with no rest between sets, then rest for no more than 3 minutes before starting a new circuit. Do 2-4 circuits depending on your fitness level. The best exercises for circuit training workouts are either bodyweight exercises or weight lifting done with relatively light weights. Weight machines can also be used if you have access to a gym. This type of workout will really blast your fat stores while helping to tone up your muscles at the same time.


Thursday

Go for a brisk walk, bike ride, or swim -- 30 minutes maximum. This is a day for "active recovery" so you want to take it relatively easy intensity-wise while also helping your muscle tissue recover from the workouts of the previous 3 days. Make sure to eat super "clean" today since you'll burn fewer calories. Consider taking extra vitamin C as well as an omega-3 fatty acid supplement. You might want to consider going "low carb" today where you eat nothing but protein, good fats, and fresh or lightly cooked vegetables.


Friday

Do a strength training workout that involves doing just one "work" set for each of 3-4 different exercises. This basically involves warming up well by doing some light cardio and then doing a few very light "warm up" sets of each exercise followed by one "heavy" set. Again, bodyweight exercises work very well for this. A sample workout might look like this:

* 10 minutes of light jogging

* 2 light warm up sets each of pushups, pullups, and bodyweight squats (Note: A "light" warm up set for a difficult exercise like the pullup might involve doing only 2 or 3 reps, or 10 reps of assisted pullups.)

* 1 heavy set each of pushups, pullups, and bodyweight squats (Basically do as many reps as you can, or until you reach "muscle failure.")

* 5 minutes of "cool down" exercise such as walking or light jogging


Saturday

Do 30 minutes of your favorite higher-intensity cardio exercise... or a type of cardio/aerobic exercise you've never tried before. Just make sure it's something fun and try to stay out of the gym if possible.


Sunday

Depending on how you feel, either rest or do 10-20 minutes of light exercise. If any muscles are sore, don't do any form of strength or resistance training. Rest and recovery is important for both muscle-building and fat loss. Try to eat a large serving of omega-3 fats for better recovery and faster fat loss. Fish is obviously one of the best options here. Also take some extra vitamin C.


Well that it's! By now you should have lost a few pounds and you should be feeling pretty good about your effort. Now just make regular exercise and healthy eating a habit and you'll have a fit, lean, and sexy body in no time!






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