Monday, February 28, 2011

Top 7 #3: 7 Tips to Ready Your Body for the Beach

Don't you feel summer-y already? March is around the corner and people have started their usual gym buzz to get those much needed curves and bumps for the beach. You might be facing the dilemma now of getting in shape, so we here at Daily Anomaly thought it would be good to share some of the things that have helped us. Most of them are nothing new, you might have even done them before, but a little explanation and knowledge is always better.

1. Use a smaller spoon, fork, and plate and always chew your food. The mind can be fooled to thinking it has enough food. The good news is that it's really easy. Eating at a pace and using a smaller plate. According to research, the mind will interpret a full plate as enough food. Using a smaller plate which is easier to fill up with food gives you less food yet enough to make your mind think it's had enough. Another way is to chew your food completely and slowly. Properly masticated food is easier to digest. Also, the longer the time you eat, the more full up you're gonna feel. Research has it that after the first taste of food, the appetite can only last upto 20 minutes. So tie those two ideas up.

2. Take out rice from your diet and eat sweet potatoes instead. Filipino actor Aljur Abrenica popularized this diet as the Machete diet and people have since caught on to calling it that--much to my dismay. I know how sad that just sounds, but sticking to my observations, I notice just how quick the results for people who do this diet religiously. And I myself tried it and was impressed that in as little as a week, I have seen myself dropping weight and getting shapely-er.

3. Intensify your workout. Intense workouts, apparently, are very good for young people. A workout where you need to be catching your breath, or when conversation is impossible, uses too much oxygen that it burns calories hours after your workout. Thing is, the fitter you get, the easier your body replenishes its energy stores and will soon not yield results--this is called plateau-ing. To avoid this, get plenty of time outs, too, then push harder after.

4. Drink plenty of water and avoid salty foods. We all know that salt promotes water retention. To avoid this, lessen your salt intake while at the beach. When you eat too much salty foods, you will tend to feel thirsty more often, resulting to you drinking more and making you look bloated in the end. Drinking enough water will help flush out things in your system and give you that healthy glow. You will also avoid chapped lips with enough water.

5. Exercise with friends. People who quit the gym or any exercise routine after two or three months lose interest at the activity possibly because they have no one to do it with or they have less reason to visit the gym or continue doing it. Having like-minded individuals working out with you will only pique your interests especially if you're competitive enough to get going and beat them to a certain goal. Also, having friends helps you gain more knowledge on what you are doing.

6. Get enough sleep. Research has it that sleeping more than 9 hours and less than 5 can cause fat build up. Not only that, muscle repair also happens during our sleep, so little sleep begets less muscle repair, less muscle repair means greater possibility for injury and less performance. 

7. Don't over-exert. Over-exertion may be subjective or on a case to case basis. Some people can be capable of running a full marathon, while others can only do 5K at most. The best way to know when you're over-exerting is when your body is complaining. Our body is designed to do a lot of things, and it can. But you have to let it adjust slowly. The Great Wall wasn't built overnight, but it was built anyway. Same thing with fitness, you cannot get it overnight, but you will get it if you are patient enough.

Hope this helped. Just finished with the beach, and all I can say is that my friends approved of my new figure.

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