"The Way to Wellness": 7 days to a Healthy Life

How often have you gone to sleep at nighttime, swearing you will go to the gym in the morning, and changing your mind only eight hours later because when you rise up, you do not feel like exercising?

While this can happen to the best of us, it doesn't suggest you should drop the ball completely when it comes to staying fit. What people need to understand is that staying active and eating appropriate are critical for long-term health and wellness -- and that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The more you are familiar with how your body responds to your lifestyle choices, the better you can customize a nutrition and exercise plan that is right for you. When you eat well, increase your amount of physical activity, and exercise at the appropriate intensity, you're informing your system that you want to burn a considerable quantity of fuel. This translates to burning fat more efficiently for energy.
In other words, proper eating habits plus exercise equals quick metabolism, which, in turn provides more energy through the day and enables you to do more physical work with less effort.

The true idea of exercise is to send a repetitive message to the body asking for improvement in metabolism, strength, aerobic capacity and general vigor and health. Every time you do exercises, your system responds by upgrading its capabilities to burn fat throughout the day and night, Exercise doesn't have to be intense to work for you, but it does have to be steady.

I suggest engaging in frequent cardiovascular work out four times per week for 20 to half-hour per session, and resistance training four times per week for 20 to 25 minutes per session. This balanced approach provides a one-two punch, incorporating aerobic exercise to burn fats and bring more oxygen, and resistance training to improve lean body mass and burn more calories round the block.

Here's a sample work out program that may give you the results you want:

* Warm Up -- seven to eight minutes of light aerobic action intended to improve blood flow and lubricate and warm-up your tendons and joints.

* Resistance Training -- Train all major muscle groups. One to two sets of each exercise. Rest 45 seconds between sets.

* Aerobic Exercise -- Pick two favorite activities, they may be jogging, rowing, biking or cross-country skiing, whatever fits your lifestyle. Perform 12 to 15 minutes of the first activity and continue with 10 minutes of the next activity. Settle down during the last five minutes.

* Stretching -- Finish off your exercise session by stretching, breathing deeply, relaxing and meditating.

When starting an exercise program, you will need to have realistic expectations. Based on your initial fitness level, it is best to expect these changes early on.

* From one to eight weeks -- Feel better and have more energy.

* From two to six months -- Shake off size and inches while becoming leaner. Clothes begin to suit more loosely. You're gaining muscle and losing fats.

* After six months -- Start reducing weight quite rapidly.

Once you make the commitment to train several times weekly, don't end there. You should also change your diet and/or eating habits,' says Zwiefel. Counting calories or calculating grams and percentages for certain nutrients is impractical. Instead, these easy-to-follow guidelines suggest.

* Eat several small meals (optimally four) and a pair of small snacks in the course of the day
* Make sure every meal is balanced -- incorporate palm-sized proteins like lean meats, fish, egg whites and dairy products, fist-sized portions of complex carbohydrates like whole-wheat bread and pasta, wild rice, multigrain cereal and potatoes, and fist-sized portions of vegetable and fruits
* Limit your fat intake to only what's essential for adequate flavor
* Drink a minimum of eight 8-oz. glasses of water through the day
* I also recommend that you take a multi-vitamin each day to make sure you are getting all of the vitamins and minerals your system needs..

Enjoy life, we all deserve it.