Swimming and Aqua Exercise
Swimming is known to be one of the best ways in which to keep your body fit and healthy. Since your weight in water is around only one tenth of your weight on land it is an ideal environment for those with arthritis, back pain, excess weight or pregnant women.
Swimming is an enjoyable and potentially relaxing way in which to work your muscles and joints. It imposes far less stress and impact upon your joints than running and can provide a great way to socialise. Regular swimming will build endurance and muscle strength and can provide a great addition to other physical training programmes.
Swimming is also an effective and enjoyable way to work off some excess pounds. Since your body is so much lighter in the water you will find that you tire less quickly than you would when on dry land allowing your water based workout sessions to last longer. Swimming will burn calories at a rate of around 3 calories per mile per pound of bodyweight. So if you swim a mile and weigh about 150lbs then you will have burned about 900 calories.
Aqua aerobics and aqua exercise has been growing in popularity with many sports centres and public swimming pools holding regular classes. Aqua aerobics is generally lower impact than land based aerobics making this form of exercise great if you are overweight. In a 30 minute workout you can expect to burn around 300 calories.
Aqua exercises are generally aimed at improving strength and mobility by using the resistance of the water. The cushioning effect of water makes this form of exercise particularly suitable for elderly people, those who are overweight and pregnant women.
If you are lucky enough to own your own swimming pool then you have a ready made environment that is ideal for water based exercise. Try starting gently by walking or even jogging in the water and maybe make it a social ocassion by inviting friends or family to join you.
Whatever you do it is important to make sure that you have fun. Having fun will encourage you to keep up with the exercises, keep coming back to the classes and keep yourself fit and healthy.
Failure Doesn’t Have To Be Disaster
In a British Heart Foundation booklet on losing weight they say:
“Don’t be hard on yourself. A lapse is not a collapse … Try not to set your goals as ‘all’ or ‘nothing’. Try to learn from what went wrong and get back on track as soon as possible.”
Wise advice - beating yourself up for past failures is a waste of time. Reviewing past failures and learning from them is wisdom.
Weight Loss And Christmas
Christmas and weight loss. The two really don’t go together, but many people try to make them fit, while other people decide to splurge and ‘pig-out’ with the resolution that everything will change in the new year. But there is a middle way that means you can enjoy Christmas and not have to face a huge weight gain in the new year.
One of the simplest things is to make sure you drink enough water at all times, but particularly during the festive season. Sometimes we mistake the body’s thirst message for food, so aim to drink at least 2 litres of water a day – more if you’re drinking alcohol. When you feel hungry, have a drink of water and wait a few minutes to see if that turns off that ‘hungry’ feeling.
Dieting over Christmas and new year doesn’t work for most people, so don’t set yourself an impossible task. If you want to set yourself a goal, aim to maintain your existing weight rather than beginning or continuing to lose weight.
Put tempting high-calorie food at the back of the fridge or cupboard in dark containers and put the healthy options where you can see them in see-through containers.
Go for some behavioural changes over Christmas rather than banning foods. For example, decide you can eat what you want but only in front of other people, or that you will not eat up left overs – give the wild life a Christmas feast and put the left overs out for them. How about deciding that you will not eat in front of the TV or out of a packet? Use smaller plates so that your food looks more. There are lots of small changes you can make that will help you keep those pounds off.
Many weight loss pills make promises they cannot keep, offering unrealistic weight loss, so look for weight loss supplements that both stimulate your metabolism and reduce cravings. Ones that contain caffeine, guarana and chromium work like this. Many people think of these as something to take in the new year, but starting them now can help to keep those pounds off ad give you a positive start to the new year.