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Eat Simple

Eat Simple

So many of my clients in San Antonio, Texas, have actually thanked me for helping them to eat healthier. It’s for a couple of reasons. The first and the most important is that they feel so much better and are losing weight without extra effort or feeling deprived. The second is that preparation time for a meal is often cut in half, since eating healthy means you eat simple and normally don’t spend hours slaving over a hot stove. That’s actually the first key to eating healthy, simple is best.

Read the labels on most processed foods.

You’ll find that they often have a laundry list of ingredients, some of which you can’t pronounce. It’s even worse when you’re discussing fast food. Some of the burgers aren’t hamburger, but a pink gooey slime that they make into a patty. It’s almost scary. How much healthier it is to simply buy lean ground beef, make a patty and put it on the grill. Simple is far better than complicated, especially in this case.

Chopping and assembling fresh vegetables is the easiest route to take.

You can have a delicious meal that’s also healthy with very little effort. In fact, you can actually make a week’s worth of meals in one day. Just get out the grill and put on the veggies, some salmon, shrimp, chicken and/or steak. Use some those ingredients to top a mixed green salad that has loads of other vegetables. Grilled cold asparagus is delicious, especially if the dressing has a touch of lemon to accent their flavor. It’s good with both shrimp and beef. Think of it, with a little chopping and one day at the grill, you can have a whole week’s worth of simple, clean and healthy meals.

Eating simple shouldn’t require a flow chart!

You should know what foods are proteins, which are healthy complex carbs and which are healthy fats, but after that, just remembering to eat more vegetables and include a palm size of protein and some healthy fat is all you need to know. You probably already realize that tossing that grilled shrimp on the salad provided the protein. Toss in a handful of nuts or add some avocado and you have healthy fat. There’s no need to measure each food with precision, unless you have health issues that require that. Making it as simple as possible makes it more likely you’ll stick with healthy eating.

  • Chop up that grilled chicken breast, add some celery, onion and other veggies that sound interesting and then top with Greek yogurt and a bit of balsamic dressing for a salad to remember. Experiment with ingredients.
  • Don’t expect every combination to taste frightfully delicious. You’ll make some boo-boos and some will just taste frightful. Get creative with your meals by adding grapes, craisins, pears and other types of fruit for extra flavor.
  • If you want to get more creative, buy some herbs at the store or grow them yourself. Basil is exceptionally good in salads, just as fresh cilantro or fennel is. Find an herb you like and taste test it over part of your serving. If you like it, add it to the rest.
  • Drink more water and leave the cola behind. Water is my magic elixir that clears my head, quenches my thirst and makes my body healthy. You’ll lose weight and feel better leaving soft drinks behind.

Simple Tricks To Cut Calories

Simple Tricks To Cut Calories

I hate diets and so do most of my clients in San Antonio, Texas. That’s why healthy eating is so popular. It’s not about depriving yourself, but more about making small changes and smarter food choices. It’s about making substitutions that you don’t notice in taste or satisfaction, but increase the nutrition and lower calories. Here are some tricks to cut calories that save a few calories. It may not seem like much, but add all those small changes together and you’ll notice weight loss is easy.

Fill up on salad and fiber foods.

Think of fresh fruit and vegetables as bargain priced when it comes to spending your daily calorie allotment. They have fiber to fill you up and provide nutrition without tons of calories. Always start a meal with a salad or fresh veggies. Eat slowly and skimp on the dressing or leave it on the side and dip your salad or veggies each bite. Use nuts, not croutons as toppers. Use mixed greens or spinach instead of iceberg for far more nutrients. Drink water and not a soft drink or sweet tea for extra calorie savings.

The main dish is often where the calories are, next to the dessert, of course.

If you’re trying to shed a few pounds, how your food is cooked is important. Grill, broil, boil or bake, never fry. Frying adds plenty of extra calories. New air fryers seem like a great option, but watch out for the breading and extra oil necessary. Keep it to a minimum. Get grassfed beef and free range chicken or chicken eggs. These animal products have more nutrients, not to mention a healthier lifestyle. Be aware that free range doesn’t always mean the chickens ran free. They may spend an hour outside the coup. Look for “Animal Welfare Approved” on the packaging for true free range eggs and poultry.

Use visual trickery.

Smaller plates has always been recommended, but it doesn’t always work, unless you’ve always been member of the plate cleaner’s club and eat even if you’re full. New studies show that if you’re really hungry, it isn’t nearly as effective in tricking your brain. However, if you’re at a buffet, it buys you time for your feeling of satiety to kick in before you go back for seconds. If you’re trying to lose weight, buffets may not actually be your best option. Go to restaurants that let you take home a doggie bag. One meal can become two meals and you’ll feel like you got your money’s worth without eating more.

  • Greek yogurt is a great substitute for sour cream and will save calories, plus provide extra nutrients. Feta or goat cheese is not only a good substitute for traditional cheese, it also is far healthier than low fat processed cheese options.
  • Toss those crackers and cheese. Snack on apple slices and cheese instead. Apple slices and peanut butter also make a great snack.
  • Switch out mashed potatoes for mashed cauliflower or a combination of potatoes and cauliflower until you adjust your tastebuds.
  • Save tons of calories by using vegetable spaghetti to replace the pasta spaghetti. It has a slightly different flavor, which you might find you like better. Once you add the sauce, you won’t notice the difference.

Best Workouts To Get Rid Of Love Handles

Best Workouts To Get Rid Of Love Handles

Sure it’s cute. Your special someone calls your donut roll/muffin tops, love handles, but it doesn’t make you any less self-conscious or embarrassed, no matter what your gender. Love handles are those rolls of excess fat at the side around your waist. They lap over the top of your jeans and make clothing fit uncomfortably tight around the middle. Getting rid of them can help restore your confidence, while you tone the rest of your body at the same time. Here are some workouts to get rid of love handles and some other helpful tips.

Losing weight is the first place to start.

Since love handles are a deposit of fat around the middle, it only makes sense that you need to start with a healthy diet. Cut out sugar, skip those processed foods and focus on whole food. Make sure your diet has plenty of healthy fat. One study showed that people who ate an avocado a day, which is loaded with healthy fat, not only weighed less, but had less abdominal fat. Getting rid of love handles means getting rid of abdominal fat! Include healthy fiber in your diet, too. Switch out simple carbs for complex ones and make sure you have adequate protein.

Get moving.

Include a program of exercise, which focuses on core exercises. You can’t get rid of fat in just one area by using spot exercises, but you can tone the muscles in that area. Kettlebells and core exercise holding weights that involve bending, twisting at the waist and lifting help. Wood choppers, Russian twists, side plank hip lifts and bicycle crunches help tighten the muscles around the middle to whittle down the appearance of love handles.

Cut the stress.

Too much cortisol, a stress hormone, can cause love handles and accumulation of abdominal fat. One thing that is a true stress buster is exercise—any type of exercise! Get moving. Go for a walk when you’re stressed out and make it brisk. Run up and down stairs! Learn to avoid stress with deep breathing exercises or meditation. Find ways to make your life less stressful. Get up a half hour earlier so you don’t have panic before going to work, accept that some things are out of your control and that you can control whether you let someone else’s bad day become yours.

  • Sleep deprivation adds to those donut rolls around your waist. Get adequate sleep at night and you’ll find the battle of the bulge is easier. You’ll have more energy and resolve to work on making it better.
  • You can’t change getting older, but you don’t have to fall into the trap of more belly fat as you age. Get active and stay active so you never have to worry about belly fat of any type again.
  • Drink plenty of water. Cut out those sugary drinks, including diet sodas. Studies show diet colas add extra inches around the middle! If you drink many soft drinks, just switching to water will make a big difference.
  • Improve your posture. Stand up straight and push your upper body toward the sky. You’ll feel it in the muscles on your side. While good posture won’t eliminate love handles, it will make them less obvious.

Can You Lose Weight Without Exercising

Can You Lose Weight Without Exercising

Yes, there’s no doubt that you can lose weight without exercising, but why would you. Exercise makes the process of weight loss go much faster, plus it has other health benefits. Losing weight without exercising is like bailing water out of a boat with a teaspoon. It’s doable, but a whole lot tougher. Exercise does more than just burn calories, but if it only did that, it would be worth the time to add it to your schedule. Even if you only burn 200 extra calories every time, that translates to losing two extra pounds lost 35 days.

You can’t out exercise a bad diet.

Some people think that if they workout regularly, they can get into shape, shave off those extra pounds and be healthy. A healthy diet is always a top priority when it comes to good health and weight loss. If you’re eating a large fry and shake at every meal and for mid morning and mid afternoon breaks, the odds of you shedding that weight or even being healthy are slim, no matter how much you exercise.

Exercise makes weight loss even easier after the results start showing.

Working out boosts your metabolism. That means you’ll get benefits of calorie burning while you exercise and even more after a few weeks of working out. Exercise builds muscle tissue and the more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you burn. That’s because muscle tissue requires more calories for maintenance than fat tissue does, raising your basal metabolic requirements—the number of calories needed to keep your body functioning when it is at rest.

The type of weight you lose with diet alone is important.

Losing weight can be frustrating. It seems like the minute you take off a pound, you look at a donut and two pounds plaster on to your body. That normally happens when you use diet alone to change your weight. That’s because diet alone converts both muscle and fat tissue into calories to make up for the calorie deficit. It goes back to your basal metabolism. It slows it down because you have less muscle mass if you don’t exercise, making weight gain easier and weight loss even harder.

  • The type of exercise you do makes a difference, too. Strength training, resistance exercises such as lifting weights or bodyweight exercises build muscles while it burns calories. Aerobic exercises doesn’t discriminate between muscle or fat tissue, depleting muscle tissue and making weight loss harder.
  • You’ll boost your energy level when you workout regularly. The more energy you have, the more you’ll do and the more calories you’ll burn.
  • You’ll tone your body as you lose weight, giving you a shapelier appearance.
  • Exercise not only helps you lose weight, it helps you look thinner, too. One cubic inch of muscle tissue weighs more than a cubic inch of fat, so it takes a smaller container—your body. You’ll could look thinner even if didn’t shed a pound, but built more muscle tissue.

Is Your Body Ready For Summer

Is Your Body Ready For Summer

If you talk to the people who workout in our San Antonio, Texas gym, you know that they’ve already started to get swimsuit ready or they’re ready year around for more revealing clothing. If you haven’t already started, it’s not too late to get your body ready for summer. Even though it’s June, you still have three months of summer and you could look fabulous with time to spare for swimsuit weather and more revealing clothing that’s part of the season.

It starts with setting goals.

It’s one thing to think about getting into shape and quite another to write out goals. Do you want to lose weight? Is toning your goal or do you simply want to boost your energy for more summer fun? Identifying your goal and then laying out the steps that will help you achieve it is important. Your goal must be measurable with steps you can reach along to the way to reach it. If you want to lose ten pounds, how are you going to do it? One reason personal trainers are so valuable is that they help you set goals and create plans to help you reach them. It’s the toughest part. Track your progress. Winners keep score.

Eating healthy should be part of your program.

Whether you want to boost energy levels, build a toned body or lose weight, eating healthy should be an integral part of the program. Healthy eating provides the nutrients to build muscle tissue and helps you shed unwanted pounds. It also increases your energy by omitting sugar and other ingredients that can sap you of your energy and strength. If weight loss is your goal, a healthy diet is a must. You can’t out exercise poor eating habits, no matter how hard you try.

Make your workout an appointment.

Exercise and healthy eating needs to become a habit to be the most effective. Until it becomes one, you have to take special care to ensure you stick with the program. Make your workout as important as any appointment you have in your schedule. Consider it a “not going to the doctor’s” appointment, since it helps you stay healthier.

  • You can make eating healthy easier by planning meals ahead, shopping once a week—after you’ve eaten—and making all your meals on the weekend, so you just have to warm them for supper.
  • Double your recipes to make extra meals to freeze. After a few weeks, you’ll have fewer meals to create on the weekend, since your freezer will be stocked. Use the divided freezer containers to store meals.
  • Add to your workout and include some fun activities that provide exercise on your days away from the gym. It can include bicycling, hiking, swimming or other activity you enjoy.
  • Track your progress, not only by the amount of weight you lost, but also by the progress you’ve made in the gym, clothing size or even health indicators like blood pressure.

Does An Apple A Day Keep The Doctor Away

Does An Apple A Day Keep The Doctor Away

Eating healthy means consuming food that is closest to its natural state without processing. One of the favorite foods of many is the apple. The old saying that an apple a day can keep the doctor away has merit. Just eating one apple a day and the balance of your diet junk food, won’t put you on the road to good health, but it’s a start. There are many health benefits from apples that will add to your good health, especially when combined with other healthy food options.

Apples are loaded with nutrients.

Apples have a lot of vitamins and minerals. An average size apple has under 100 calories, but contains almost 16 percent of the daily fiber requirement, 14%of the vitamin C RDI—referenced daily intake, 6 percent of the potassium RDI and 5 percent of the vitamin D RDI. It also provides copper, manganese, vitamins A, B1, B2, B6 and E. When you eat an apple, don’t peel it. The skin is high in polyphenols, a type of natural antioxidant.

Improve your heart health with apples.

When it comes to fiber, the more the better and apples are a great way to get it. It contains soluble fiber, which helps lower cholesterol levels and is a prebiotic, food for healthy bacteria in your gut. It also has the polyphenols that are antioxidants. The polyphenols in the skin of apples are primarily anthocyanins, which give apples their red color. They help lower cholesterol levels, too. In fact, one study compared eating an apple a day to taking statin drugs and found that apples were nearly as effective in lowering the death rate from heart disease as the drugs. The epicatechin, a flavonoid in apples, helps lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of stroke.

Weight loss may be easier if you eat an apple a day.

If you want to fill up and not out, consider eating more apples. Applesauce and apple juice won’t do. One study showed that eating a few slices of apples prior to a meal made people feel fuller than simply eating applesauce, drinking apple juice and of course, fuller than not eating anything at all. In fact, people who ate apple slices ate 200 calories less than the others. They’re full of fiber and water, while still being lower in calories. Try adding an apple or two a day to your diet and you’ll find weight loss easier.

  • Make sure the apples are organic, since they’re on the dirty dozen list, which means that more than 90 percent of the apples tested nationwide had residue for two or more pesticides.
  • Studies show that eating apples can boost bone density by slowing the loss of calcium. It comes from the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds contained in apples.
  • Apples are mildly acidic, but you won’t hurt your teeth by eating them. In fact, eating apples also promotes saliva, which is good for the teeth, while the natural sugars aid in neutralizing the acids. The apples contain vitamins for healthy gums.
  • You’ll lower your risk of diabetes, cancer and asthma when you eat apples regularly. It also contains antioxidants that protect the lungs and immune system.

Amazing Healthy Snacks

Amazing Healthy Snacks

Any plan for healthy eating and getting fit should include healthy snacks. Snacking has become an important part of a daily meal plan. When you have mid morning and mid afternoon snacks available, not only are you less likely to stop and grab a candy bar at the gas station, you’re also less likely to eat too much at normal meal time. Planning for healthy snacks means making sure they provide all the necessary nutrients to add to your daily diet, but also are lower in calories. Some snacks also need to be prepackaged in single serving sizes so you aren’t tempted to eat too much.

Nuts are a great snack, but also should be kept in single serving baggies.

Nuts are a good source of protein and healthy fat. Unlike many healthy snacks, they’re easy to carry and don’t require any refrigeration. They provide fiber and also are very filling, thanks to the protein and fat they contain. They not only help you lose weight, they lower your risk for serious conditions like heart disease, cancer and even may help elevate your spirits to reduce the potential for depression. If you’re like many people, it’s easy to misjudge what a serving size is and eat far more than you should. That’s why carrying them in single serving baggies helps keep you on track.

Veggies and fresh fruit are a favorite go-to snack.

If you want to make sure fruits and vegetables are eaten, make sure they’re ready to eat. That’s right! When you bring home that cantaloupe, the first thing you should do is seed it, peel it and cut it in bite size portions. Wash the vegetables and chop them up into bite size pieces and keep them in a covered bowl. When fruit and vegetables are ready to eat, requiring only a bowl or plate to serve them, they’ll be more likely to be used as snacks by the whole family.

Get out the celery or apple slice and spread it with nut butter.

If you’re a peanut butter fan, then you probably already have some plans to smear a bit of apple or celery with peanut butter, but for those not fond of peanut butter, there are alternatives. Almond, cashew, pecan or sunflower (technically seed butter) nut butter can please even people that hate peanut butter. You’ll fill up on just a half an apple and a tablespoon of butter spread on it. A tablespoon of walnut butter is only 85 calories, while a tablespoon of cashew butter is 95. Add approximately 50 calories for half an apple and you have a filling snack for under 150 calories. It provides healthy fat, protein, fiber and other nutrients.

  • Don’t forget the cheese or hard boiled eggs. Two easy go to snacks are slices of cheese and hard boiled eggs. For a little variety, combine the cheese with apple slices or cut the egg in half and mix a bit of mayo, pickle juice, pepper and mustard for deviled eggs.
  • A few dark chocolate coated almonds will satisfy your urge for sweets and help your heart at the same time. For heart healthy benefits, the chocolate must be 70 percent cacao. You can make your own by putting the chocolate in the microwave until melted, mixing in the nuts and then sprinkling with sea salt.
  • Create some dips to go with those fresh veggies or fruit that help fill you up and not out. Whether you make hummus your dip, go for seasoned Greek yogurt, like cilantro/avocado dip or cucumber feta or like to walk on the adventurous side with a dip made from pureed beet root, you’ll look forward to snacks.
  • Try a half an avocado with some hot sauce. Check your favorite brand to find the healthiest. They all contain antioxidants that can help keep you healthier and younger!

Healthy Microbiome- Keeping Your Belly Bugs Happy

Healthy Microbiome- Keeping Your Belly Bugs Happy

Do you have healthy microbiome? In case you’re wondering, I’m referring to the collection of microscopic bacteria, fungi, viruses archaea and eukaryotas that live in the body, mainly in the gut. These are actually now under consideration as a separate organ that promotes immune activity and digestion. You hear about these “belly bugs” everywhere. There are advertisements or yogurt as a probiotic, foods that provide prebiotic benefits to feed the probiotic bacteria and even more information on how healthy microbes can affect what might seem unrelated parts of the body. Microbiome even play a role in your mental health.

You’re outnumbered and we’re just learning who is friendly.

The area devoted to the study of the “second human genome” or second set of genetic materials, is relatively new. Scientists are still trying to figure not only what is in your body, but the role each bacteria or microorganism plays. If taken by count, not weight, your cells are outnumbered by 10 to one when it comes to the trillions of microbes in and on your body. One estimate is there’s at least five thousand different types of microbes. Many from the gut die as soon as exposed to air. Other places these microbes “hang out” are on the skin, in your mouth and in the vagina, even though the gut has the most.

Microbes play an important role in good health.

If you haven’t surmised by now that microbes help keep you regular, you probably aren’t listening to yogurt commercials. The bacteria are an important part of the digestive process, not only breaking down food and reaping the energy, but also producing important roles like producing enzymes, neurotransmitters, like serotonin, and vitamins, like vitamin K. They help the metabolic system and also the immune system. They also keep their microbe community under control by maintaining a balance between good and bad microbes.

The best way to improve the health of your gut microbiome is by eating healthy foods.

You won’t get any cheers welcoming processed foods from these microbes. In fact, some foods contain emulsifiers that act like scrubbing bubbles (some are actually like detergents) on the intestinal lining, leading to inflammation throughout the system and increasing the risk of conditions like diabetes. Low fiber foods won’t feed your microbes. They need fiber, including soluble, insoluble and food-based resistant starch, to be their healthiest. These are prebiotics that help them grow.

  • One study showed that people with type 2 diabetes had a distinctive gut microbiome and finding that was more predictive of diabetes than BMI. When people had a gastric bypass, their microbiome changed.
  • Even some “bad bugs” may do a job that’s important. For instance, healthy people have strains of E. coli and enterococci. The science is still too young to understand why.
  • There is a belief that the more diverse your bacteria, the healthier you are. Western civilization, particularly America, has a less diverse collection of bacteria than those from underdeveloped nations.
  • Antibiotics change the microbiome in the gut, especially when given early in life, like during childhood and infancy. It may even shift it toward metabolic abnormalities, obesity and autoimmune disease.

What Cancer, Diabetes And Weight Gain Have In Common

What Cancer, Diabetes And Weight Gain Have In Common

If you’ve never heard the term angiogenesis you’re lucky. It’s a term commonly used when discussing cancer treatment. Angiogenesis is a natural process that when running at its best, creates new blood vessels by splitting or growing new ones. It’s necessary to help heal wounds and part of normal growth, by which new blood vessels form, allowing the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the body’s tissues. It is a vital function, required for growth and development as well as the healing of wounds. In fact, it’s also important to help heart disease, growing new vessels when others are clogged. However, when it’s not working correctly, it can boost the potential for cancer, diabetes and weight gain. I work with clients in San Antonio, Texas who fear the process, because they’ve only heard of it in association with these diseases.

The body creates new blood vessels and trims them.

When angiogenesis functions normally, the body is creating new blood vessels, but when there are too many, cuts them back and stops the growth. When it’s not working right, it continues to create blood vessels and in the case of cancer, feeding the cancer cells. Everyone has cancer cells. They normally die and there’s no problem. However, sometimes either the cancer cells create a chemical signal to grow blood vessels or even stimulate the healthy cells near them to do it. That creates a way for them to receive the nutrition and oxygen they need for growth and causes tumor growth.

Diabetes stimulates changes in angiogenesis and angiogenesis contributes to obesity.

While faulty angiogenesis may contribute to cancer, diabetes contributes to faulty angiogenesis. It affects the blood vessels and creates an environment where the body is less able to create new vessels, creating a potential for peripheral artery disease and all the dangers that often lead to slow healing and amputations. Ironically, diabetes also causes problems with overproduction of premature blood vessels in the retina, leading to diabetic retinopathy. With obesity, the creation of new blood vessels caused by angiogenesis builds in the adipose tissue—fat—continuing to feed it and make weight loss difficult.

All three have more than just angiogenesis in common.

With all three types of changes to the body’s angiogenesis, there’s a growing body of evidence that what you eat plays a huge role in regulating angiogenesis. Many of the studies on angiogenesis and food are part of cancer research. Red grapes and red wine contain resveratrol, which is known to reduce abnormal angiogenesis by approximately 60 percent. Strawberries contain ellagic acid, an even more potent inhibitor of abnormal angiogenesis. The research shows that what makes whole foods so potent is the synergy that provides the combined power of each individual component, not just one key chemical in the plant or food.

  • Cutting out processed sugar and other processed foods and eating whole foods is the first step to healthy functional angiogenesis. It not only helps prevent too much angiogenesis from occurring, it ensures the function of anti-angiogenesis takes place correctly, too.
  • Healthy foods that are also good as regulators and anti-angiogenetic are kale, cherries, berries, green tea, artichokes, turmeric, nutmeg, garlic, maitake mushrooms and tomatoes.
  • Eating healthy means eating whole foods with an emphasis on fresh vegetables and fruit. When you consider this, it’s the recipe for losing weight, fighting heart disease and fighting cancer—as well as nearly 70 other diseases.
  • While you should never try to treat serious conditions on your own, you can improve your chances of being disease free and even help boost the effectiveness of treatments for conditions you now have with healthy eating.

Changes To Expect From Working Out

Changes To Expect From Working Out

There’s a lot of great changes that take place in your body when working out is part of your weekly routine. You might not see the changes immediately, but they definitely are occurring. I’ve seen clients attend their first workout and check out their reflection in the glass on their way out. I’ll be the first to say, you definitely won’t look thinner or fitter after just one session, but you might look a little healthier. There will be a glow to your skin with a hint of pink indicating increased circulation. You may even be smiling, since exercise boosts the happy hormones and decreases the stress hormones.

You might notice improved energy after a very short time.

It may take longer, but usually after the first week or so, people notice they have more energy. They get more work done both physically and mentally. The increased energy level means you move faster with less need to rest and improved endurance. The improved mental energy comes from increased brain function from exercise. That can come from the reduction of stress and the boost in your circulation, sending oxygen and nutrient rich blood throughout the body. Exercise also increases the development of neural pathways.

It only takes about a month to six weeks to have visual proof that exercise is making a change.

You’ll start noticing muscle mass increasing and look thinner and fitter. Fat will start to disappear. By the end of the month, there are some real changes going on and others will notice it as well. Even if you didn’t lose weight, people may ask if you lost it, since you’re converting muscle into fat, which makes you look slimmer. You’ll feel stronger and notice the difference in your strength. You’ll be able to lift more weight in the gym. With the increased muscle mass, you’ll also notice weight loss is easier, since it boosts your metabolism.

After a six months, there’s no doubt about it, you’re looking good.

Not only will your body be more muscular and/or thinner, you’ll look years younger and definitely more confident from the improved posture. Not only will your body look younger with pep in each step, your skin will too. In fact, you’ll be younger at a cellular level. Exercise boosts the creation of adult stem cells and extends telomeres. Telomeres are the chromosome protectors that prevent it from unraveling every time it divides—avoiding early cell death or damage.

  • You’ll sleep better at night after a few sessions. While you might be a bit achy after the first session, which could interrupt a good night’s sleep, it won’t take you long to fall asleep once you start exercising regularly.
  • You’ll feel happier and more like socializing. Exercise does give you a confidence boost and improves your body image. When you feel good about yourself, you’re more apt to be social.
  • You’ll keep up with the kids and maybe even outlast them. That endurance that occurs will help you take on several flights of stairs without the need to rest on the way up and keep you hiking a faster pace without stopping along the way.
  • You’ll find you miss exercising when you skip a session after a few months. When you exercise on a regular basis, it becomes a habit. You become uncomfortable when you miss a session.