Balance Diet and Exercise!

A few years ago I joined Curves to try and lose weight and get fit. I found it discouraging because as faithful as I was to those 30-minute workouts every other day, it was a very slow battle to losing my excess weight. So slow that I ended up quitting and sticking just to my usual walking routine.

Now I know why.

While fitness/exercise is an important element in healthy living, it isn't, at least not for me, an efficient way of losing weight. I'm too impatient, I want to see that scale dropping a pound or two a week and with fitness alone that wasn't happening for me. Did you know that it takes five hours of jogging for a 150 pound person to burn approximately 3,500 calories. And 3,500 calories is only equal to one pound of body fat?

Fitness is crucial in getting optimal health; but to lose weight at a healthy and reasonable rate, you clearly need to adjust your food intake so that the calories going in your mouth are less than the calories that you burn in your day-to-day activities and workouts. If you have the patience of Job, and are consistent with your eating habits, then yes, you will lose weight over a longer period of time with just adding exercise to your routine. The problem with that is that usually, when you add physical activity to your life, your appetite also increases and thus what you're burning in exercise you are also consuming in your increase food intake.

So if you want a healthy, more efficient drop in weight, get your mind around healthy eating while you do the healthy moving and your whole system will benefit all the more efficiently and quickly!

May we all have a Good Choices day ahead!

Eileen