Shape up!

At the start of a new year and after several holidays in a row, a young man’s (or most likely, woman’s) fancy turns not toward love, but towards losing weight and getting in shape.  New Year’s resolutions often include one or both of these goals, goals that often fall by the wayside after either never starting or never finishing.

I want to encourage you to make this the year you DO get in shape.  You don’t need to become a triathlete or power lifter.  Start simply and build on your success.  One building block of getting into shape is, of course, eating healthily and in moderation.  People make many different choices about what sort of eating plan to use.  But getting into shape is less daunting than trying to decide how you want to eat.

Before I started participating in the Weekly Photo Challenge, I did a few Fitness Friday posts.  I’m going to share the links with you and guarantee that if you follow the advice, your health and fitness will improve without any huge financial investment and without any special programs.  Just so you know, my background is in PE and I ran my own personal training business for 16 years.  Feel better?  🙂

There are three kinds of fitness:  aerobic (fitness of the heart and lungs), strength (muscular fitness), and flexibility (range of motion for joints).  You want to improve all three.  Heart fitness has obvious benefits.  Better strength means your muscles support your body more easily, help blood move through the arteries and veins, help you have better posture, let you do more things easily, while muscle takes up less room than fat and burns calories.  Fat is stored calories; muscle is a calorie-burner.  Most women actually care less what the number on the scale says than how they look.  Flexibility allows you to move more easily and to get injured less easily.

Although the title of my first article, “Get in shape while watching TV” is a bit tongue-in-cheek, it has the advice you need to begin improving your fitness easily and even without going outdoors if the weather’s bad.  You only need a good pair of athletic shoes and socks (but wear clothes as well!)

The next article shows you how to use the push-up to improve muscle strength without using weights.  Don’t panic!  Anyone at any level of fitness can do a push-up of some sort, as you’ll see when you read the article.  Push-ups are great for more than just your arms, but fit arms not only look good, they help you every day in every way.

Balance is an important skill that few people work to improve, but one that provides many benefits, especially as you grow older.  I show you some simple ways to improve balance ways you can even use while brushing your teeth, two benefits in one.

Take a look at these three articles and get started on getting into shape during 2015.  I’ll have more advice for you later, but this will get you moving and improving.  Questions?  Just put them in the comments and I’ll get back to you.  I’ll be doing more fitness posts throughout the year.

Here’s to making 2015 a year of health and fitness!