Finish What You Started – Cut the Fat for Good

There’s no question about it – making the commitment to work out is no easy task. Not only is it hard getting your new fitness program off the ground, but you’re sure to encounter pitfalls along the way. Don’t beat yourself up or quit when you meet an obstacle, jump over it! Staying motivated is the best way to ensure that you’ll meet your fitness goals. In this article, we’ll explore how you can stay motivated in all stages of your fitness journey.

At NYC Adventure Boot Camp we are big on the three C’s- COMMITMENT, CONTROL & CONSISTENCY! Make the first step and Commit and we will gladly guide you through the rest. Whatever your health and fitness concerns are, we are confident that we can help you achieve your goals! We can discuss your goals and see if we are a good match. What are you waiting for?

In the beginning

You may start off your fitness program with plenty of enthusiasm, but many of us start finding excuses to miss an exercise session or two as early as two weeks in. You’re sore and tired and you’d rather just stay at home. Of course you’re sore! You’re using muscles that haven’t been used in quite a long time, it’s perfectly normal. Make sure your body gets plenty of rest, but don’t fall for this well worn excuse. If imagining how amazing you’ll look and feel when you reach your goal seems too far out of your grasp at this point, give yourself a short term goal.

For example, create a goal that says that after six weeks of constant exercise, you’ll finally treat yourself to that luxury item you’ve had your eye on. Once you reach the first six weeks, make a new goal and work towards that. The time it takes to reach your final goal will be different for everyone and doesn’t have a definitive date, so create a solid goal that you can reach in the short term. Stay motivated so that you can stay on track and not only reach your short term goals, but your lifetime goal of being fit and healthy!

Pitfalls in the middle

The most common pitfall most of us will face on the path to our goal is a fitness plateau. All of a sudden, the numbers on the scale, the measurement of your thighs, or the amount of weight you can lift all stays magically the same, well before you’ve reached your goal. Does this mean that you’ve done as much as your body can handle? No way! Our bodies are incredible machines and will work hard to achieve their maximum capacity at whatever task we give them, but eventually the body will become so efficient that it no longer needs to use as much energy or burn as many calories to perform the task at hand.

This usually happens when you do the same exercises over and over again, so the solution may be as simple as changing the intensity of the exercise or the exercise itself. We can help you make the necessary changes to push through the plateau and continue on your way.

Those last five pounds

It’s true; the less fat you have to lose, the harder it is to get rid of it. Those infamous last five pounds can be a killer to push through, but think of how excited you’ll be to know you pushed through and stuck to your commitment from the beginning until the very end. If you’re having trouble getting past those last five pounds, consider consulting a fitness trainer, who is helpful during all stages of reaching your fitness goals. A fitness trainer can help design a fitness plan for you from the beginning, give you ideas or pushing through your plateaus, and keep you motivated all the way to the end, when you’ve reached your goal.

If you are in New York City and interested in joining an all women boot camp or fitness boxing classes please visit NYC ADVENTURE BOOT CAMP, mention that you found us through our blog for and extra 15% off a membership. Come work out like a GIRL!!!

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6 Ways To Build Lean Muscles

You want a body shaped with lean muscle and backed by a nutritious diet. You want to stay fit and healthy in the midst of all the fatty foods and unhealthy diets. Building lean muscle isn’t impossible with the right exercise and dieting program in place. Here are some great ways women can build lean muscle.

1. Eat Nutritious Foods

Stock up on foods that help keep your muscles lean and firm. Beef is a good source of protein, zinc, and B vitamins while brown rice, eggs, spinach increase muscle strength, endurance, good digestion, and longer-lasting energy. Just remember to select only fresh and wholesome foods when creating your diet.

2. Reduce Carbs In Your Diet

Women have the upper hand when it comes to burning fat to carbs, so stick to a low-carb or no-carb diet in order to burn the fat and gain toned muscles.

3. Strengthen Muscles With Exercise

Exercise regularly in order to stretch and strengthen your muscles, but make sure to focus on exercises that promote lean muscle throughout your body. Squats, deadlifts, and lunges are just some of the many exercises that target your legs, back, abs, and obliques.

4. Remember To Drink Your Water

Always have plenty of water to drink as you work through the program. An intake of at least 8 glasses of water not only keeps you hydrated, but it curbs mistaken hunger pains and prevents overeating. And with every intake, your body is able to flush out toxins inside your body, making you feel lighter and healthier.

5. Control Your Calorie Intake

Calorie control is essential in building lean muscle. By taking in too many calories, you gain excessive weight. This makes it difficult to tell if it is lean muscle or just a layer of body fat. But a lack of calories lessens your chances of gaining and building lean muscles. Set a target calorie count that is just right and that produces results.

6. Rest

Make sure to give your body enough rest. More than to cool down from the workouts, rest allows the body to repair the muscles. What’s more, because the muscle is metabolically active, it burns calories even while the body is resting. Consider a day off for every week.

It takes a lot of effort and self-discipline to build lean, mean muscle, but the results are worthwhile. To be sure, consult a health professional before implementing any diet or exercise program.

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Why Strength Training is Beneficial

There’s a common misconception that muscle is heavier than fat, so why bother with strength training? The truth of the matter is a pound of muscle weighs exactly the same as a pound of fat. Muscle just happens to be leaner than fat and looks a whole lot better on the body. This isn’t the only reason to incorporate strength training into your workout routine. In this article, we’ll take a look at more reasons why strength training is beneficial to those that wish to improve their overall health.

Beneficial for Weight Loss

Strength training is a very important factor in weight loss because the metabolism is increased as muscle is increased. The metabolism is the rate in which calories are consumed, and the rate and efficiency of the metabolism is greatly increased depending on how much muscle is present in the body. Simply put, the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn. It has been estimated that for every pound of muscle, the body will burn 35 to 50 more calories a day. This not only helps reduce fat, but helps keep it off.

Helps Prevent Osteoporosis

Not only can strength training help with losing weight, it can also help prevent osteoporosis, which is especially important for women. Strength training can help prevent loss of bone density, which can lead to brittle bones and a host of other health issues. Not only can strength training help prevent the disastrous effects of osteoporosis, but those that are already suffering from osteoporosis and benefit from it as well, as strength training not only helps prevent bone loss, but it can also help increase it.

More Good News

While helping with weight loss and preventing osteoporosis are two big advantages to incorporating strength training into your fitness routine, there are many other benefits as well. It can help with cardiovascular health, prevent Type II Diabetes, and even make great strides in protecting joints. Perhaps the greatest advantage is that it can help reduce the bane of many a woman’s existence – belly fat.

Believe it or not, abdominal fat is often the result of not just overeating but stress. Our bodies produce a hormone called cortisol when we are under stress, and this hormone can increase the appetite and convert calories into abdominal fat. This fat is possibly the most dangerous of all the fat the can develop on the body because it is so close to several vital organs, putting undue pressure on them and perhaps causing them to malfunction. Not only does strength training use up cortisol, but it helps reduce the appetite and also helps reduce the dreaded belly fat.

Incorporating strength training into your fitness routine has so many benefits that it would be foolish to dismiss it. If you don’t know where to start in your strength training, why not consult with one of our personal trainer to get you started? Anyone can take advantage of a personal trainer’s expertise to make sure they are making the most of their sports and strength training, and to ensure they are working out safely and effectively.

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Does the word exercise cause you to cringe?

If so, you are not alone! It is estimated that 75% of Americans get less than the recommended amount of exercise. Not only is exercise important for good health, it is also crucial when it comes to weight control. While you can lose weight without exercise, it is very difficult to keep the weight off without being physically active.

Here are some of the benefits of exercise:

Reduced risk of heart disease.

Improved blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

Improved heart functionReduced risk of osteoporosis.

Improved muscle mass (this is important for those people on a weight loss diet!)

Lowers blood pressure

Improves blood sugar control in diabetics.
Aides in stress managementEnhanced self-confidence and self-imageHelps to speed the metabolism.

How much exercise should you be doing?

The basic recommendations from American College of Sports Medicine and American Heart Association for healthy adults under age 65 are: Do moderately intense cardio 30 minutes a day, five days a week Or Do vigorously intense cardio 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week And Do 8 to 10 strength-training exercises, 8 to 12 repetitions of each exercise twice a week. Moderate-intensity physical activity means working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break a sweat, yet still being able to carry on a conversation. It should be noted that to lose weight or maintain weight loss, 60 to 90 minutes of physical activity may be necessary. The 30-minute recommendation is for the average healthy adult to maintain health and reduce the risk for chronic disease.

Tips for incorporating exercise into your life.

I’m sure most of you city girls have very busy lives with work, family, social obligations, dating, etc. I bet the above recommendations can sound almost impossible. If you are trying to lose weight, do you really have 60 – 90 minutes a day 5 times a week to spend exercising?

Just tell your boss that you’ll be needing 90 minutes each day to spend at the gym. I’m sure you will receive a lot of support (wrong!). So how can you increase your activity levels in a realistic manner?

1. Start by setting realistic goals, otherwise you’ll feel overwhelmed and will only set yourself up for failure. If your current activity level is very low, your goal should be to increase it slowly. Maybe start out by walking 3 times a week for 20 minutes. Or get off the bus one stop earlier. Do not go to the gym telling yourself you will need to be on the treadmill for 60-90 minutes. You know what will happen … you won’t even go! Start with 15 minutes.Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park your car in the far end of the shopping market parking lot. It all adds up – 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there.

2. Do it in short bouts. Research shows that moderate-intensity physical activity can be accumulated throughout the day in 10-minute bouts, which can be just as effective as exercising for 30 minutes straight. This can be useful when trying to fit physical activity into a busy schedule. So walk 10 minutes to work, walk an extra 15 blocks on the way to get your salad at lunch, take a 15 minute walk after dinner.Try to walk at a good pace.

3. Mix it up. Combinations of moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity can be used to meet the guidelines. For example, you can walk briskly for 30 minutes twice per week and jog at a higher intensity on two other days. This also helps to prevent boredom as well as injury. Take a spinning class one day and a brisk walk on your lunch hour the other day if you don’t have time to get to the gym.

4. The gym isn’t a necessity. It doesn’t take an expensive gym membership to get the daily recommended amount of physical activity. A pair of athletic shoes and a little motivation are all you need to live a more active, healthier life. Just get out and walk! However if you do go to a gym, take advantage of the different machines and classes. Try a spinning class, a kickbox class or a body conditioning class. Yoga and pilates classes are great for toning and stretching, however they don’t really count as aerobic exercise.

5. Put your exercise into your daily planner just like another appointment. Maybe it’s easier for you to walk during your lunch hour, or perhaps hitting the pavement right after dinner is best for you. The key is to set aside specific days and times for exercise, making it just as much a regular part of your schedule as everything else.

6. Get your family and friends involved. Take your spouse, your children, or a friend with you during exercise to add some fun to your routine. This is also a good way to encourage your kids to be physically active and get them committed early to a lifetime of health.Many of the above recommendations came from this link (ACSM)

Set some goals for this week:

1. How many times a week are you exercising on a daily basis?

2. If you are trying to lose weight, your ideal goal is at least 5 times a week for 60 minutes.

3. Think about several ways you can increase your activity and write these thoughts down.

4. Set specific goals, such as:-I will walk for 30 minutes on my lunch hour on Monday and Wednesday with my co-worker Mary-I will walk 30 minutes after dinner twice a week with my husband-I will take a kickboxing class at my gym every Wednesday- I will walk Jack (my dog) briskly every day for 15 extra minutes.

If you are in New York City and interested in joining an all women boot camp please visit NYC ADVENTURE BOOT CAMP, mention that you found us through our blog for and extra 15% off a membership. Come work out like a GIRL!!!

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Preventing Disease

“We’ve yet to find a disease where exercise isn’t helpful,” says Miriam Nelson, Ph.D. from Tufts University. Thanks to advances in medical research, we know now that following a healthy diet and fitness routine can not only slow the effects of disease, but can also help prevent them ever developing. Exercise can help with many of the most common diseases found in America today, from diabetes to chronic illnesses. In this article, we’ll take a look at how fitness can help you lead a healthy lifestyle and prevent disease to ensure a long and healthy life.

Exercising as we age

Two major health concerns as we age are heart disease and osteoporosis. Both of these diseases can greatly reduce the quality of life as we age and can even lead to death. Thanks to advances in the medical field, we know today that the risk of developing these diseases can be greatly reduced only by leading an active lifestyle and even their progress can be slowed down. Researchers have discovered that exercise helps the heart in lots of different ways. It strengthens the heart – it is a muscle, after all; increases good cholesterol, or HDLs; decreases bad cholesterol, or LDLs; helps the heart work more efficiently; the list goes on. Even better is that a regular exercise routine can help you effectively workout your heart to prevent disease and improve your quality of life!

Osteoporosis affects nearly ten million Americans, of which at least eight million are women, while tens of millions of Americans are at risk to develop this disease. Literally meaning “porous bones,” osteoporosis is a disease in which the bones become brittle and easily fractured. But just like with the heart, exercise can help improve the density of the bones, making them strong and resistant to fractures. Women of all ages are encouraged to include calcium in their diets and to exercise in order to keep the bone density strong, which will help prevent the disease from even developing.

Obesity and Diabetes

In America, obesity can now be seen as an epidemic. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, an estimated 61 percent of adults in America could be classified as obese in 1999, and the numbers have only climbed since then. The worst part is that obesity can only lead to literally dozens of other health issues, not the least of which is Type II Diabetes. Today, at least 17 million Americans are suffering from diabetes, but researchers are proving that exercise as well as diet can help control this disease, not to mention help prevent it. At NYC Adventure Boot Camp we believe that exercise and a healthy diet can help you lose weight and help you improve blood sugar and cholesterol levels, reduce blood pressure and even increase insulin sensitivity.

Getting on the Right Path

Knowing that you want to improve your lifestyle in order to lead a longer, healthier life is a great first step, but many of us don’t know what to do next. Working out with fitness trainer is a perfect option for those that want to create a balanced fitness routine to help reach their goals, whether they are to lose weight, increase bone density or make their hearts healthier. Not only will a fitness trainer give you a full assessment and take into account any medical concerns you have at the beginning, but will be there with you every step of the way to make sure you are working out safely and efficiently towards your goal.

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