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Exercise Information |
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Sweating Vacation
It seems like everyone is concerned about putting on the pounds over the annual holiday season, but what about summer vacations? We spend the greater part of the new year trying to shed the weight gained from an over-indulgence of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pies and various other sweets in order to slip into that new bikini or eliminate the gut before shedding the shirt at the beach. What happens when you reach your destination of summer frolicking? Toss your diet out the window and reward yourself with excess? Stay loyal to your eating and exercise plan? Somehow manage to find a happy medium? I was faced with these questions when I embarked on a weeklong excursion of bliss to Kona Village on the Big Island of Hawaii. My parents wanted to take the family on vacation to celebrate their 40th anniversary, as well as the birthdays of my nephew (10th) and myself (36th, ahem). They decided on Kona Village because we had celebrated Christmas there back in 2002 and had a wonderful time (though I had experienced periods of boredom due to the fact that the accommodations have no TV, computer or phone). If you want a site to get away from it all, and be pampered in the quintessential locale of relaxation, this is the place to go. Over the holidays I had fallen victim to the two-headed monster known as Sloth and Gluttony, so I put in plenty of effort to get back in shape. As a competitive open water swimmer, I was focusing more on getting prepared for the spring/summer race season than achieving the perfect beach body, but I won't scoff at the aesthetic results. After months of training, respectable success in my races, and the loss of 15 pounds, I was a bit apprehensive about stepping aside for a week of hedonism. Determined to take as few backwards steps as possible, I forged a plan for exercising and eating before departing the mainland. My training partner in California (shout out to Lisa) hooked me up with a friend of hers who lives in Kona-Kailua so I would have a motivating force on the island. We exchanged communications and planned a few swims, including a race the day after I arrived! The 11th Annual King Swim took place at the Kailua Pier, which is the starting and finishing point of the Ironman World Championships Triathlon. Before you start to get impressed (just yet), the race was just 1.2 miles, instead of the 2.4 miles swum in the initial stage of the Ironman. I didn't go through the ubiquitous pre-race nerves because I didn't have any high expectations for this event. Since I was in the land of stud triathletes and had been in Kona for just 15 hours (not to mention the effect the time change had on me), I went into the race just wanting to have fun and to get some ocean swimming under my belt. Despite some crooked swimming, due to my limited attention span wondering off and looking at all the pretty fishes, I actually had a pretty good race. I finished first in my age group (got a sweet trophy), was the fifth male and the seventh overall finisher. Of the six people who came in before me, five were 18-years-old or younger, and the other was a 43-year-old woman who holds numerous world records in Masters Swimming (my island training partner). Not bad for an old man in the last day of his 35th year of life! Aside from this race, I tried to swim daily in the ocean, which included another 1.2 miler on the same racecourse (for fun) and a completion of the whole 2.4-mile Ironman course (also for fun). Throw in a couple of pool workouts and a (mostly) daily trip to the resort workout room for weights and cardio, and I got in more than my fair share of vacation exercise. I found that the key to getting your sweat on while away from home is to do it first thing in the morning, getting it out of the way and leaving the rest of the day wide open for the real fun (or napping, if you prefer). As for eating, the hardest part was resisting the temptation of the huge buffet breakfasts and lunches. I stuck to my goal of keeping on the blinders in front of the food spreads and throwing caution to the wind at dinner. Every day I was a good little boy and had eggs, cottage cheese, yogurt and berries for breakfast and a biggie salad for lunch (with a few French fries thrown in for good measure). Dinners were a different story, though I did not go completely overboard. There were plenty of four-course meals (with yummy lobster on most nights), but I knew I could shovel it in knowing I would be burning (most) of it off the next morning. As for desserts, I swore to myself that I would avoid them all unless cheesecake (my Kryptonite) was offered up. I succeeded in this mission until the last dinner of the trip when cheesecake finally popped up on the menu (woo hoo!). All in all, I had a fabulous trip and came home weighing the same as I did when I left. I'm not suggesting that y'all be a psycho nutcase like me when taking time away in the summer, but it is possible to avoid all the traps that lay ahead of you when leaving the safe confines of your home regimen. Plus, the more disciplined you are while on vacation, the easier it will be to jump back into the daily grind upon your return. Just a little food for thought. SwapThing.com is a site focused on building a strong swap community online. The ShareThing program helps non-profits get access to item & cash donations as well as volunteers and professional services. This article comes with reprint rights. You are free to reprint and distribute it as you like. All that we ask is that you do not make any changes, that this resource text is included, and that the link above is intact.
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How to Lose Weight with an Exercise Bike Program 01/06/09
by Della Menechella
Your pants are a bit tight, you can’t seem to stop eating junk, and you’re tired all of the time. It’s time to get healthy and lose weight. Combined with a more sensible diet, an exercise bike can help you achieve the results you want. About the Author
Michael Walker is a freelance author providing useful information about exercise bikes, spinning bikes and mini exercise bikes.
Ugh, the Diet.
So many people go wrong here. Forget fad diets, forget starvation. Slow and steady wins the race. Try changing one thing about your diet. Limit yourself to one soda a day. Stop skipping meals. If you always clean your plate, start leaving one or two bites. A total change in diet is work. If you go for a radical change, you are setting yourself up for failure. You’ll be surprised how well small changes work.
The Right Bike Determines Your Success
This is a critically important part. There are literally hundreds of exercise bikes available. You have to be honest with yourself to discover the one that will work best for you. If you talk yourself into some fantasy world where your exercise plan is going to work this time even though there’s nothing different, you’re going to be disappointed. If you think ahead, you will buy the right bike for your needs. You will end up with a successful long-term exercise routine.
Think back to your last exercise routine attempt. Why did you stop? Did you suffer an injury? Did you get bored? Was it just too hard to do every day? Was it hard to find the time? Answer these questions truthfully. If you don’t figure out where you went wrong, you won’t be able to come up with a solution.
Avoiding and Working Through Injuries
If an injury caused you to stop working out, how did you sustain your injury? Becoming physically fit is supposed to help you prevent injuries, not cause them. There is an exercise bike for someone who has been injured working out. It’s called a recumbent exercise bike. It’s the kind found in a lot of health clubs. It has a large, bucket seat, and you sit back and low to the ground. It is perfect for people beginning a new exercise routine. It’s also very good for back problems as it forces you to keep good posture. It puts no pressure on your joints, and you can keep working out even if you have minor injuries.
Overcoming Boredom
Did you get bored the last time you tried to workout on a regular basis? If you did, you are likely to get bored again. With exercise bikes, the solution is usually a bike with several different levels and riding programs. You can get bikes with different difficulty levels. This means that when it becomes too easy for you to pedal, you simply move up to the next level instead of having to ride longer (which just isn’t likely to happen for the person who is easily bored). You can also get different programs. Programs give you variety and goals. They make you pedal harder, simulate conquering hills, and even sprinting for short periods.
Riding programs might not be enough for you. You might need a bike that you can hook up to your television that simulates riding through different courses. You can take a leisurely ride through a park or compete with other computer riders on a difficult obstacle course. These bikes might cost more up front, but if you don’t invest in a bike that will let you sustain your workout, you’re wasting money on anything less.
The coolest thing for game addicts who get bored is an interactive bike that plugs into a Sony Playstation or Playstation 2. It makes over 50 games interactive. Whatever is happening on your bike happens on the screen in bike, car, and similar games. There are all types of similar bikes available.
If you plan on listening to music or watching TV while you cycle, be sure to pay attention to features that will make the exercise bike quieter. It’s also a good idea to get a quieter bike if you live with other people. For all you know, your workout time is going to be 5AM or midnight. A quieter bike won’t disturb other people in your home.
Don’t Try to Be Lance Armstrong Yet…
People beginning exercise programs are sometimes too ambitious. It’s good to be excited, but you have to remain realistic. If your last exercise program failed because it was just too much work, don’t make the same mistake again. Fight the urge to overdo your first workouts. It is critical to your long-term success that you start out slow. If you go from no exercise at all to 5 to 10 minute exercise bike workouts with little resistance, you are much more likely to avoid injury, soreness, and most of all, early feelings of defeat. If you aim too high – expecting to go from a sedentary lifestyle to 45 minute workouts immediately, for example – you are setting yourself up for failure. When you don’t reach your unattainable goal, it is more likely you’ll quit altogether to alleviate the feeling of failure that much sooner.
The perfect bikes for people who get a bit over-excited are exercise bikes with built in riding programs. You simply start out at the lowest level, and the bike determines your workout. You program in a small goal (10 minutes, 50 calories, or .25 mile) and when you reach that goal, your workout is over.
Finding the Time
You do have time to burn fat and calories on an exercise bike. No matter how intense your schedule is, there are people busier than you who find time to make an exercise routine work. They are not better than you. They don’t have more than 24 hours in a day. They simply figured out how to make it work. You can, too.
It can be as simple as the time of day you chose to workout in the past. There is scientific evidence that people who are “morning people” or “night owls” are physically different. Different people have energy at different times. Think about when you work best. If you wake up without an alarm clock ready to go, you should exercise first thing in the morning. If you are a night owl, you should consider working out at night. You might find that you are one of the people who tire yourself out enough with a night workout to sleep like a baby.
You Can Do This!
Losing weight is not a punishment. You are smart enough to know how to eat a little better and become more active. If you are honest with yourself, you will choose the proper bike. You want to look forward to the workout itself. Don’t get caught up in which bike burns more calories. Find an exercise bike you will enjoy riding. Figure out the time of day that’s best for you to exercise. Make it like getting dressed or bathing – it’s just something you do every day. You don’t have to train for the Tour de France. You just have to get on and do something every day. Ten minutes a day will yield results. Bookmark this article for future motivation, find your exercise bike, and get busy!
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