The right way to climb Stairs!

 You probably didn’t know there was a right way and a wrong way to climb stairs

  

Most of us go out of our way to avoid stairs, so first, I will give you reasons why you should go out of your way to look for stairs, then I will tell you how to climb.

·        It is totally free and just about all of us can get access to a set of stairs.

·        It leverages gravity and the heavier we are, the harder we're forced to work and the more calories we burn.

·        It is a relatively intense exercise that quickly increases our heart rate and in doing so can greatly improve our cardiovascular fitness.

·        It helps strengthen and shape our most common problem areas like calves, thighs, buttocks and tummy.

·        It actually flattens your Belly

·        It is a very efficient way of burning maximum calories and is great for those of us with limited time to exercise.

·        It can easily be mixed with other exercises, like walking, skipping and weight training, to maximize results and stair climbing workouts are easy to build progression into.

·        It can be done by almost anyone, regardless of fitness level.

·        Because it is weight bearing, it helps build bone strength.

·        It is low impact and safe for the knees (providing correct technique is used and a preexisting condition doesn't exist)..

How to Climb

You probably didn’t know there was a right way and a wrong way to climb stairs, did you?  Typically you just put one foot on the step in front of you, lean forward on your toes, and lift the other foot off the ground to advance to the next step.  WRONG!  You will probably have knee problems if you continue climbing stairs this way.  Instead, stand up straight and push off of your instep – NOT your toes – using the larger hip and thigh muscles to lift you to the next level.  As these muscles become more accustomed to being used, they will become stronger and more supportive, and it will be much easier for you to climb stairs.  Then, skip the elevator, and climb the stairs whenever you can..  You don’t need a stairclimbing machine to get a workout if you learn to climb properly! So get to climbing peeps!

Skimmed Milk or Full Cream?

“@weightloss9ja, skimmed milk doesn’t work, I have been taking it since last year and I have still not lost any weight, why?……Whao! back up! Who said skimmed milk will help you lose weight?

Theres is a lot of debate as to which milk is better “skimmed” or “whole”, some researchers have argued that whole milk is better than the skimmed version based on some scientific “abracadabra”. But I do know that skimmed milk helped a lot in the initial stage of my weightloss.  In all honesty, Skimmed milk doesn’t have any ingredient that directly contributes to weight loss but il take it over whole milk when it comes to dieting.  I swapped all my full cream powdered milk for marvel skimmed milk and my cornflakes for kspecial and weetabix, and I watched the number on my weight scale go down.

 Skimmed milk has less calories and almost no fat as compared to full cream milk and it contains more protein which makes sense when you are trying to cut down calories. if you consume less calories than you should, you will lose weight, Cutting your calories intake gradually will lead to weightloss and subtle changes like this will go way and you won’t even know you are on a diet.

The only problem I had with it was its taste, but there are different brands with different taste, even dano now has its skimmed powered version or you could go for the liquid fresh skimmed milk. my new favourite is the "Emborg"

fresh skimmed milk in the picture, you could try out different brand and find one you are comfortable with

More importantly is what you take with it, you can’t pour a cup of skimmed milk into a bowl of double coated frosties and expect to lose weight, and you also have to make subtle cereal changes. Im a kspecial fan, you could go for whole wheat cereal if you like, just eat healthy

Did make sense? Tell me what you think

lose that holiday weight!

Ahn ahn, rice, dodo, efo, iyan...omo! I declare today a ‘weightloss holiday’ Tomorrow, I will watch my weight!

Just when you're finally getting your weight under control, boom! It's the holidays, and food is everywhere. I can never understand the thing with Nigerians and rice, it’s almost like if there is no rice, the party hasn’t started. I fear that at this rate, its only a matter of before chickens become extinct!

Oh the birthdays, house parties, events, clubbing and do not forget, the owanbe’s, how on earth are we supposed to watch our weight when everyone seems to be getting married in December?

Fear not guys, for I will not sit here and tell you to hold your breath through the holidays to avert temptation but rather to fall into temptation with dignity! Instead of eating 10pieces of fried meat like you normally do during the holidays, try eating 5 instead or even better 2 and walk away, at least you ate meat right? Another tip to minimizing the weight gain during the party season is ‘never arrive at the party hungry” eat before you leave your house, that way, you can reduce the over-indulgence at the party buffet

The biggest problem when trying to lose holiday weight is that the holiday routine becomes “normal.” In other words, you continue buying the ice cream and cake long after zenith bank has removed its Christmas decoration. While it’s okay to add a little weight during the holidays, do not forget to get it off immediately after the holidays. Don’t be found 20days after the holidays still carrying that weight around, if not, you’ll just keep piling on the weight. The holiday is over, let it be over with your mouth and belly too and work on getting back to your pre-holiday weight

Did you pick up an habit during the holidays? Drop it!, do you now have to take a bottle of coke after every meal? Stop it!  or do you still have the chocolates your cousin from canada brought back home for the holidays? Give it out! While you are at it, Cut out the late night eating too…

Stop over eating. First cut out the junk, remember that the holiday is over, next is to try to reduce the amount of food on your plate each time you eat, try not to eat until your belly is swollen. Instead of sitting around feeling stuffed and uncomfortable after a big meal, get up and walk around.

 Drink lots of water.  The importance of water cannot be over-emphasized. Although, water is not associated with direct weightloss, it still has an important role to play in metabolism and portion control  Drink a full 8-oz glass of water when you first get up in the morning, before every meal, and before you go to bed at night.  Another little trick is to take a drink of water between every bite of food.  All of this will help you to eat less and improve your digestion too. Also try lacing your water with lime incase drinking that much water get to boring. Say goodbye to the alcohol for a while please

Exercise! I know that right after the holidays is work work work! So there is really no time to exercise, but there are a couple of exercise you do even while you are work!: pull your seat back and squat even while you are working or maintain a good sitting posture, Sit up straight, and breathe, Try Pulling in your belly. Hold for 8-10 seconds, and repeat several times. Stretch your upper body as far as you can. Try walking around during your break time. But if you can make out time, take advantage of this and lose that holiday weight

The problem with holiday weight gain is that people don’t remember to lose it afterwards. The key is to get back to your old, successful eating routine immediately.

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The wrong way to lose weight (Part 1)

2:00pm….3 more hours, 2:45pm….2hrs 15mins to go, arrrghhhh! something is wrong with the clock!

 It had become a daily painful habit to count down till I allow myself to eat. The wrong thought the being overweight was brought on by overeating caused me to cut down my food intake and painfully rearrange my eating habit. First, I cut out the late-night munching, then reduced my daily meals from 3 to 2 and began to take long walks for exercise.  It wasn’t long before I began to get the “are you sick” comments from people, which only meant whatever I was doing was working. Taking a step further, I started to eat just once daily and my weight fell off rapidly. The best part was the worried look on my mother’s face which only reinforced my anorexic mission and reduced my food intake to naught and yes, the weight kept falling.

However, my joy was short lived, it got to the point I was eating almost nothing but wasn’t losing weight as fast as I should. As the days dragged on and my starving much more serious, my daily thought and nightly dreams became dominated by food and day after day, I would fight the urge to eat in the hopes of losing more weight but still, the number on the scale till did not drop fast enough. After reaching a certain weight milestone, I decided to take a break and eat a little. I gained 5pounds(10kg) within a week and had to starve myself for two months to get it off! . It wasn’t fun anymore; I was starving to death and the weight scale seemed stuck. Something was definitely wrong because the less you eat, the more you lose the weight right? Wrong….

 I figured out after a lot of research that I had been going about it the wrong way and had succeeded in killing my metabolism which only injured my quest to lose weight. I’ll tell you how it works, but first you have to understand the terms in simple “English”

Metabolism: the process by which your body converts what you eat and drink into energy

BMR: Basal Metabolic Rate; The number of calories it would take just to lie in bed all day.

 it represents the amount of energy, usually measured in calories, that your body must burn to keep itself alive while you are at rest and not digesting any food. This varies for different people and could also depend on

Body size and composition: Overweight people are more likely to have a faster metabolic rate — not a slower one.

Sex: Men burn more calories than women of the same age

Age: The older you get, the less calories you burn

It is important to understand that  Even when you're at rest, your body needs energy for functions such as breathing, circulating blood and repairing cells meaning that every single thing you do — from breathing to eating to sleeping — burns calories

That being said, my point is the human brain's first priority is survival, meaning that if you skip meals, your brain receives the starvation signal and hence conserves whatever little food you eat, so instead of burning calories, your body is saving calories and the way it does this is by slowing down your metabolism.

Inotherwords, "Your body is trying to protect you from starvation. Once you start eating normally again, you have a metabolic rebound, and your body tries to hold on to every calorie you eat."

While starving myself, over time, my body adapted to my lifestyle and built a tolerance. Its no wonder I wasn’t losing any weight.

After many months of falling face down on my weight loss goals, i finally have a solution...........

To prevent metabolic rebound, set a realistic goal of losing weight at a rate of about one pound(0.5kg) a week. Remember that one pound of fat is equal to about 3,500 calories, and you need to cut that amount from your diet — or burn it off through exercise — to lose one pound. "That means if you cut back on 500 calories each day, you can lose that 1 pound(0.5kg) a week without shocking your metabolism,"

 Starving actually has the opposite effect over time............

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weight loss problems? Take it to God!

Most of us do not find the connection between the physical appearance and God, for He has not created us in his image, beautifully and wonderfully?
I've learnt to talk to him about everything no matter how trivial it may seem, that way He is my partner and the burden is shared, making it all easy, "i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" Phil 4:13. asking him for wisdom to know things we shouldn't bother changing.
The integrity, discipline and strength to take charge of our life is given to us by God, so include Him every irrelevant step of the way.......


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Fat genes? Find out how to beat it....

I've recently stumbled on an amazing fact that "lifestyle" can prevent even the most probable diseases meaning even if your family has a history of diabeties, a health lifestyle can reduce the likelihood of your infection by 70%!. Your history has little to do with your physical state, rather, your present body state is as a result of what you ingest, what you give is what you get! so, to see the change you want, you have to change your lifestyle.
The belief in "Fat Genes" has given a lot of people a culprit to blame and an excuse to why they don't bother trying. Your weight destiny is cast in stone so why bother?,dieting is difficult enough without our heredity fighting against us right?
Before we hang the culprit, I've got news!
A study found that the effect of the gene on weight gain is very small, only about 2 pounds. So, for example, if you carry a fat gene and you’re 20 pounds overweight, at best you can blame about 2 of them on your parents; the other 18 pounds (about 90 percent of your extra weight) are the result of your dieting and exercise habits (or lack thereof).In other words, the explains that a genetic susceptibility to obesity is modifiable by lifestyle (choices)

Its my strong belief that we have a tremendous amount of control over our bodies. Even with my enormous birth weight of 4.6kg, I've managed to move from a large size 14 to a 6! this proves to me how little our genes and histories have to play.  As said before, our appearance is merely a "reaction", how we look is a reflection of our lifestyle. While we have absolutely no control over our genes, we can control our lifestyle by deciding how much we eat and how much exercise we get. We control our bodies and not the other way! 

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