Authors: Abigail Cruise
Essential Oils: Essential Oils (The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Uncovering the Healing Benefits of Aromatherapy) (13 page)
C1- Dumbbell Split Squat
Stand with one foot in front of the other and shoulder width apart. Keep the chest high and abs tight.
Bend both knees until the back knee is just above the ground. Pause at the bottom for a second. Then drive up quickly, pushing through the front heel, returning to the start position.
C2- Plank with Forwards and Backwards Rock
Set yourself in a standard plank. In this progression move the body back and forth by rocking on the toes. Keep the abs and buttocks tight and make sure the hips don’t drop or stick up in the air.
Go as far in both directions as you can with good form and stop when you can no longer maintain good posture and control.
D1- Step Ups With Balance
This is a progression on the Step Ups earlier. Set yourself in a similar way. However in this version the knee of the free foot comes up to the position shown below.
Hold this balance for 1 second or until you have complete control over the balance. Then step carefully back down to the start position.
D2- Side Plank
Set the bottom elbow underneath the shoulders and the legs out straight. Raise the hips in line with the shoulders.
Again this is about control and staying stable, to do so keep the buttocks and abs tight. If the hips start to drop, stop and aim to increase the time next time.
Any form of exercise is good, so generally aim to be more active
Follow the plan above for maximum results from your exercise regime
Prioritise the kinds of exercise that have the greatest effect on your metabolism such as resistance training
Losing weight is the first stage of this journey, but once complete it is just as important to ensure that you do not regain the weight and end up back where you started or worse, regaining additional weight. Unfortunately this is a common occurrence with many people who go on diets and try to lose weight.
Fitting Weight Loss Naturally in to Your Lifestyle
For this plan to work you must follow it as written, and to maintain the results over the long term you need to maintain consistency and make it a permanent fixture in your life.
My recommendation is to pre-plan when you are going to do things such as work out, food shopping, food preparation, measuring progress and put it in your diary. Once in the weekly schedule you don’t need to think about it all the time and instead just tick things off the list as the time comes around. This consistency will help you build a habit.
Habits
Almost everything you do is because of habit. You follow the same routines and do the same things without even realising it. This can be really powerful and if you can create the right kind of habits – healthy habits that lead to weight loss and a healthy lifestyle – it makes it so much easier to achieve and maintain amazing results.
Building new habits will create a long term lifestyle change that leads to better health, energy and a fitter body, for ever. To create a habit it takes around 30 days of consistent application. That means if you do something every day for just one month, it will become embedded in your brain as a natural part of your routine. At that point, you no longer need to think about it, it will just happen.
Prioritising
Of course, you will never be able to follow everything 100%, that is just not realistic. What you need to do, is prioritise the most important things and remain consistent
the majority
of the time.
If changing your body and losing weight is important to you, and I assume it is if you are reading this book, then it should be a priority in your schedule. You have to find the time to prepare healthy food, exercise and do the things that will lead to successful weight loss.
If you fail to organise it as a top priority, you are leaving it to chance whether you will achieve your goals or not. Often times you will see some success initially on the first wave of motivation after embarking on a journey and you will be pleased to lose some weight in the first week. If this is the case, that is great, but be aware that you need to ensure it is a priority that becomes a habit, so that after the initial burst of motivation, you can sustain your success on an ongoing basis. Other things will come in to your life and take over as the newest and most pressing thing in your day. This is when it is really important that you have made a habit out of healthy eating and exercise.
Pre-plan workouts, food preparation, etc. to make it easy to schedule and fit in your lifestyle
Do things consistently for a period of 30 days to create lifelong healthy habits that will make it easy to maintain your progress
Prioritise your health and fitness, it must be an important part of your life to see the results that you want
We have covered the majority of the plan in the previous 6 steps. You now know how to set your goals, make a commitment, the principles of natural weight loss, how to eat and how to exercise, and how to make this a habit that fits in your lifestyle.
This final section is packed full of additional tips and tricks that will help you lose up to 10 pounds in 7 days.
Drinking
Water, water, water!
You want to avoid drinking additional calories, because calories that you drink tend not to fill you up, so you are still hungry and it is very easy to overconsume. This means avoid alcohol, fizzy drinks, fruit juice and milk.
Additionally, water is great for flushing the system out and helping to remove fat from the body. It is essential for health and optimum brain function. You should aim to drink 3 litres of water per day. When exercising you may want to drink even more water, to replace what you lose through sweating.
Starting the day with an iced water with fresh lemon squeezed in it, on an empty stomach, is a great trick to kick-start your metabolism and get you energised for the day.
Caffeine
Caffeine will speed up your metabolism and help you to burn additional calories. However over consumption of coffee is bad for your health and will leave you wired and jittery. The best option is
green tea
.
Green tea will increase your metabolic rate and make you burn more calories, whilst being good for health and a cheap and easy option to drink throughout the day. I recommend drinking 2-3 cups of green tea throughout the day, between meals.
Sleep
Sleep is an overlooked but extremely important part of a healthy lifestyle. Ensuring you get high quality sleep is important for health, mental focus and recovery from exercise. When you have had insufficient sleep you are more likely to crave sugary and high calorie foods that give you quick energy. This makes it extremely hard to stick to a healthy eating diet if you are tired and having cravings for certain food that you are trying to avoid.
To get the best possible sleep follow these simple guidelines:
- go to bed at approximately the same time each night, and wake approximately the same time each morning
- aim for 7-9 hours of sleep
- keep your room dark, quiet and slightly cold
- wind down before going to bed with half an hour of relaxation and do not have mobile phones, tablets and other electronics on once you get in to bed
- do not eat immediately before going to bed. Have you last meal at least 2 hours before trying to sleep
Relaxation
Relaxation and recovery techniques are important to minimize stress, increase health and wellbeing and recover from exercise.
When you are stressed out or unhappy, you will probably crave unhealthy foods and want to eat sugar or drink alcohol. Using some of the relaxation techniques mentioned below will help you to lower your stress levels and maintain control of your eating habits.
- yoga/Pilates/tai chi are all great forms of relaxing exercise that lower stress, improve circulation and flexibility as well as building balance and co-ordination. I recommend doing these forms of exercise on a regular basis, in addition to the exercise program attached to this book
- meditation/mindfulness is a great way to ground yourself in the present and let the stress wash away. Check online for beginners instructions and guided meditations
- massage is a great way to help muscles recover from exercise and also increases lymphatic flow, which removes toxins from the body, improving health and energy
Supplements
Certain nutritional supplements can be a great addition to a healthy diet, to fill in any gaps and increase the amount of vitamins and minerals that you are eating. This author is not a doctor and strongly recommends that you speak to a qualified professional before taking any supplements or other substances.
I recommend that you do your own research regarding supplements and find the ones that are most beneficial for you and your unique goals. Please note that supplements are just that – a supplement – to an otherwise healthy diet and are in no way essential. They are an additional little bonus that can help you to achieve your goals but should not be a foundation of a healthy diet.
Drink 3+ litres of water per day and optionally drink 2-3 cups of green tea for good health and to speed the metabolism
Ensure good rest and relaxation by getting good quality sleep, doing relaxing exercise such as yoga or Pilates and looking after yourself with meditation and massage
Supplements can be a great addition to a healthy diet, but are not a requirement. Do your own research and find the supplements that work for you
