FitnessCrew

Here’s wishing all of our readers a Happy New Year and a successful and healthy 2010. Here are some fitness tips to help you get the new decade started in the best way, and I think you’ll find some of them are a pleasure rather than a strain! I’m sure you’ve all been celebrating and even the most dedicated to a healthy diet and fitness regime will have had a break to party, so here are some ways to get back in shape and detox that body.

My favourite recent fitness discovery is that a glass of red wine a day with meals is healthy in even more ways than you might think, so I’ll make a resolution to have a little tipple with my dinner. A glass of red wine a day actually helps you avoid storing fat on your abdomen and is especially good for women with this problem.

The main resolution many of us will be making is to lose weight. To do this successfully it’s best to set an achievable target per week rather than aiming for too much weight loss and giving up when we fail. The best amount to aim for per week is up to 1kg (2.2lbs) and half that amount is also good. If you lose any more than that research has shown you are likely to be losing muscle, which can also be damaging for your heart, so be realistic and stay safe.

A steady weight loss of up to 1kg per week soon leads to noticeable results. Why not back up your diet by charting your progress? Keeping a chart of your weight loss and your planned fitness regime has been proven to help you commit to it. One of the best ways to stay motivated to lose weight is to use graph paper with fairly large squares with each representing 1lb or 0.5kg. Seeing the line of your weight loss mapped on this chart is great for self-esteem and you really don’t want to see it start climbing again. Don’t worry when you reach a plateau and lose nothing for a while – it’s normal and the line will start descending again if you stick with your diet and exercise.

Why not decide on the type of exercise you want to do every day so you can really commit to a fitness plan? Getting into the habit of regular exercise for a month has been shown to increase the likelihood of you continuing this healthy lifestyle. To make sure you’ll continue it’s also best to choose a form of exercise you enjoy. I like swimming and would miss it if I didn’t go every morning. How about you? If you don’t have a favourite form of exercise the important thing is to vary what you do so that you avoid getting bored, as boredom is the main reason people drop their fitness routine.

With these resolutions in mind we should be off to a happy and healthy 2010. If you’ve already been struck down by colds and flu, or other illnesses and physical conditions, you can still find a form of exercise you can continue. With many conditions you can still manage to have a good walk every day, and if you haven’t caught a cold or flu yet remember that swimming in a pool helps kill the germs that cause colds, so a regular swim could protect you.

I hope you’ll be joining me in these resolutions and send me your comments and tips so we can encourage each other. Soon I’ll be going back to the gym for my daily swim, alternating with fitness machines or classes, and remember you can even ask for a personal trainer to visit you from Fitness Crew if you want to get in shape from the comfort of your own home or workplace.