Are you a plus size woman looking for alternatives to get slimmer, healthier and be more active without dieting or going to the gym? Here's a quick start step by step activity guide to reclaiming your health and feeling great at any size.
Despite what you may believe, the problem is not what you're eating, but what's eating you! In order to get slimmer permanently, and end emotional eating, we've got to get more serious about dealing with the stress on our plates and stop obsessing about the food that goes in our mouths.
Being active is a great way to relieve stress.
More activity: Guaranteed to improve your health It's a fact.
For good health, just 30 minutes of moderate activity, 5x week is all you need.
Being more active is guaranteed to improve your health and quality of life.
Not only that, but it will make you feel downright gorgeous because by doing something that nurtures you and makes you feel good, you'll be boosting your self image.
The secret is to make being more active a part of your life by finding activities that are fun and doable that will also raise your heart rate.
But what happens if you've been sucked in by years of equating exercise with weight loss? Then you're probably facing what seems like an insurmountable resistance to being more active.
Choose exercise to be healthy & fun As a former gym rat myself, and a past compulsive and obsessive dieter, I arrived at the point of getting injured and overdoing it so completely with being active that I became fed up with the whole idea of exercise.
As a result of that, I stopped doing anything and everything, and decided that I wasn't ever going to step foot in the gym or exercise again simply for the reason of wanting to lose weight.
It's true that exercising with the sole intention of wanting to lose weight can make you nuts and create undue stress in your life, but finding ways of being active so that you can have a healthy heart and live disease free are very compelling reasons to spending more time moving your body.
If you're as disillusioned with exercise as I was, it may take you a bit of time to re-frame exercise so that your resistance will melt away.
I recommend taking whatever time you need to feel comfortable being more active.
I've found several things that worked for me to change the way that I feel about exercise.
Here are 4 tips for you to baby step your way into a more active lifestyle: 1) Will to live Science in the field of mind/body medicine has proven that our minds and bodies are interconnected and in constant communication with each other.
If you want to make any lifestyle change and find yourself facing resistance, discover a way to connect your reasons to doing it, with something that is already very important to you.
You may not feel like putting away those potato chips and getting off of the couch, but if you consider the consequences of a long term sedentary lifestyle and recognize that may mean not being around long enough to see your child grow up, finish your book, make that move, or get that degree you'll be more inclined to want to find more ways of getting healthier.
2) Mental Rehearsal Close your eyes and visualize yourself doing an activity that you enjoy.
Choose something fun that gives you great pleasure, dancing, swimming, playing tennis, volleyball with the kids, taking an aquarobics class, biking, walking the dog, going for a leisurely hike with a bunch of friends.
Get specific and be creative.
You are the director in this film.
If you want to go walking, but don't have the oomph to get started, go ahead and visualize putting those sneakers by the door, laying out your sweats and filling up a water bottle and sticking it in the fridge.
By planting the seeds of intention in your subconscious mind, you are creating mental shifts in your brain by generating positive visual images of you being more active.
You will notice that after you do this a few times, you'll begin wanting to act on what you see.
3) Take it Step by Step Here's some great news.
You don't have to get all your activity in one big gulp.
Remember that small amounts of movement throughout the day can improve your health.
Even a two-minute walk or shooting some hoops with the kids or a game of tag counts toward boosting your activity level.
4) Keep it Simple If you're not ready to actually invest time in your day to be more active, start small and make it easy by squeezing it into the time you already have.
In their book Active Living Every Day, physicians and researchers at The Cooper Institute in Dallas, Texas, suggest several ways to build activity into your day without disrupting your schedule: oGet off the bus a block or two before your stop and walk the rest of the way.
oRake leaves or catch up on your gardening.
oPut on some dance music while you are vacuuming and keep up with the beat.
oWalk around for two minutes during a coffee break or while you're on the phone.
oTake the stairs instead of the elevator.
oStart off a shopping trip at the mall with a fast-paced walk around the mall, glancing in the windows to check out what's available.
oTake a two-minute walk during TV commercials.
Now that you've got the inside scoop of how good and heart healthy activity is, what will you choose to do next? Remember by keeping it small and doable, you take off the pressure and make it easy.