ok, we’ve spent a fair amount of time talking about what and how you should eat when you are trying to lose weight in a natural and healthy manner. The other part to this equation is – you guessed it – Exercise! 

Work excercise into you every day activities – for example, take stairs every opportunity you get, park far away so you get a little walking in, etc.  for your regular excercise, Join a gym, excercise at home and/or, if you can, get a personal trainer. 

Both and gym and a personal trainer will work wonders for motivation! If you are looking for an affordable (free), awesome home workout, walking is a great way for just about anyone to start working out. It IS just about THE perfect work out!  A brisk walk is the perfect way to get you back in shape and can do quite a bit to help you lose weight and tone your midsection.  If you’re ready to up the intensity at home, I love 10 Minute Trainer and Crunchless Abs.

A few Quick tips:

* Only Weigh In Once A Week – if you can do it less, even better! 

* Keep An Exercise Log -  Check out the article below from the  Homebased Workouts website that’ll tell you how:  http://www.homebasedworkouts.com/exercise-log-or-journal.html

* Get A Weight Loss Buddy Or Accountability Partner 

FREE gift time!!!  Download your entire ebook here! :

Healthy Weight Loss Success 

Just visit kashi.com and click the link for your free entree!   I’m sure quantities are limited to ‘while supplies last’, so hurry over!

Develop Healthy Habits

Healthy food is just plain good for you and it can taste delicious too. In the end you will find it much more satisfying than any fast food, fatty microwave meal or snack foods that can be found in a vending machine…  and your body will thank you for it. 

* build good eating habits

Start with a good substantial breakfast in the morning, have a healthy lunch and PLAN your dinners. This is one of the biggest pit falls to a healthy family meal. when nothing is planned for dinner, most families will resort to fast food take-out or delivery and gauge on things like chinese food and pizza!  Planning dinners will help to avoid this pitfall.  Menu Planning Central is the best resource I know for help with this, they offer a free report  called  Save Time And Money By  Planning Your Meals , just visit the link to download your free report. Free gift # 1!  Read on, there’s more! :-) 

* Get rid of sugar substitutes 

Did you know that artificial sweeteners can actually cause sugar cravings? Artificial sweetners are nothing but another un-natural chemical you are putting into your body every day. And they effect your body negatively!   A natural sweetener called stevia is growing in popularity. It allows you to sweeten your food and beverages without extra calories and without the sugar cravings. 

* Drink enough water – I know I’ve been over this before! 

Did you know that we often feel hungry when we are actually thirsty? The two sensations (hunger and thirst) come from two areas in the brain that lay right next to each other, making it easy for us to confuse one with the other. Often times when you think you are hungry, what you actually need is a big glass of water. 

That’s it!  remember – keep it simple…

Today starts our 3 part series on how to finally get rid of weight once and for all!  Not only is excess weight terrible for your outsides, it can be death to your insides, and without doing something about it, life suffers. It’s simply not healthy, and hinders anyone’s quality of life.  So, in this 3 part series, we’re gonna learn to lose the weight, change our lifestyle, and be the healthy mom, wife and woman (or dad, hubby an man ;-) ) we want to be by summertime!  (At some point during the series, I’l give away a free gift to my readers, keep coming back for your FREE gift during the series!) 

Every year millions of us decide that it is time to lose some weight. Excess weight has been linked to diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, and diminished quality of life.  It can also effect your skin – poor weight control is a symptom of bigger problems in our life – ie. poor food choices, little to no exercise, lack of water in our diet, stress – which can all, by themselves effect our skin, let alone in combination!  In addition, those of us who struggle with weight, often encounter the “yo-yo” effect.  Havoc! on the skin!  The stretching and releasing of the skin leads to loss of elasticity and poor looking skin.   So, how do we stop the yo-yo dieting and finally, once and for all, lose the weight and reach our healthy self?  

* Start Small  - this is the first, and ONLY tip we are going to talk about today!  Don’t make this a HUGE deal.. you’re doing it for you, your doing it for your reasons – one of those reasons being your health!  So first thing – START SMALL!  Don’t go swearing off everything but salads, promising to run 5 miles every day, buying a different piece of work out equipment for each room in your house and filling up that gallon bottle of water… TODAY!  Wait.. wait. wait.  Take it slow… 

How many times have you decided to lose weight and then drastically changed what you ate and drank?  How long did it last? After a few days or weeks you start to get burned out and get tired of this completely different lifestyle. That’s exactly why so many of us fail in our weight loss efforts. The key is to make small, gradual changes instead. For Now:  

* LOOK –  Start by taking a look at where you are today. How much do you weigh? What are your measurement? You’ll LOVE this info. from week to week, as you look back and see your progress. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you will start losing inches once you incorporate healthy eating and a little bit of exercise into your daily life. 

* WRITE – get a journal and write it all down. Your starting weight & measurements. Also, begin writing down your food intake, at least for a few days, just eat like you normally do, but write down what you eat at each meal. 

THATS IT!  Don’t do anything else.. Make yourself STOP, and DO NOT do anything else… we’re gonna take it slow and steady this time, ok? because “slow and steady.. ” .  Well, you know the rest. :-)

So, in light of the new year and our ‘healthy skin from the inside out’ discussion – I came across something on one of my favorite blogs, Money Saving Mom, that I think you may be interested in:

Work out for FREE with Bally's!

How about a free week of Bally’s Total Fitness? Bally’s is offering a 7 day free trial to a club in your area. Just go to the website, fill out the required information, and they’ll send your guest pass via email! You can also create a personalized fitness plan while your visiting the site. An easy way to jumpstart your new healthy lifestyle!