Step-by-Step Weight Loss Plan | Natural Diet Plan | Lose Weight Without Dieting | What Should I Weigh? | Grapefruit for Weight Loss

Weight Loss & Exercise Tips

click here to return to previous page

Diet Article: Tips for getting adequate activity into your weight loss routine..

At this point we have established that you probably don't dig heavy exercise. To put this situation in perspective, let's recall a popular Andy Griffith episode - the Aunt Clara's Pickles episode.

Andy and Barney were a bit upset because Aunt Bea had made a batch of homemade pickles. Although Bea could cook, she didn't do pickles well at all. So they pretended to like them, then worked hard to peddle them off on visitors passing through Mayberry, replacing the nasty-tasting homemade pickles with store-bought pickles.

It wasn't a big deal to them - even when Bea announced that because they appeared to like her pickles so well that she had decided to enter them into the county fair.

Then Andy had a visit from Clara, Bea's dear - yet competitive friend who had won the 'best pickle' ribbon for many years. She had a book that contained all her ribbons - and she was so proud of her accomplishments. And Andy suddenly realized that although the pickle ribbon didn't mean anything to him and Barney, it meant a great deal to Clara.

In the end, Andy and Barney made sure that Bea entered homemade pickles rather than the store-bought ones that the boys had switched out and passed along to Mayberry visitors. They had to eat a lot of pickles so that Bea would have need of preparing another batch for the fair.

Clara won the prized blue ribbon, hands down - telling Andy how much she had suffered over making her pickles. Andy responded, "We've all suffered, Clara."

So with that said, think of exercise as all the things that Andy and Barney did to get rid of those pickles in one way or another. They didn't want to do it. And they kept meeting obstacles that they had to jump along the way - such as making sure that they ate up all the store-bought pickles so that Bea would prepare a homemade batch.

They had to scramble at times - but they had a vision, a goal in mind as they went along. And that's how our exercise time should be - set forth with fitness goals in mind. What do we want to accomplish? Toning? A stronger body? A more muscular body? An increase in weight loss results? Our response sets the pace for our activity routine and we build our plan around these things that we want to accomplish.

Example: Bodybuilding requires a much different activity plan than toning. It requires a deeper well of dedication to both the activity routine and the daily diet than a toning plan does.

The rewards of exercise represent Clara's smiling face, and of course - that snazzy blue ribbon that she put into her book. It was a record of her accomplishments.

Exercise gives us so many health benefits - and we just flat feel better when we move around. And we accomplish milestones in our weight loss plan, it instills so many positives that we can then build upon.

THE KEY TO FINDING AN EXERCISE ROUTINE THAT'S PERFECT FOR YOU is to discover something that you love to do! For my husband Tom and me, it's hiking. We love to hike; we love to climb and so that's what we do.

For someone else, it may be shooting hoops or walking the dog or even playing a game of tennis. It may be roller skating, hula hooping, skipping rope or running.

Tom and I support moderate exercise coupled with a daily diet based on the official food pyramid. We feel that individuals would improve their health GREATLY if they implemented moderate activity at least every other day for at least 20 minutes. And if an individual can't do 20 minutes, even 5 minutes is better than nothing.

We also feel that the activity guidelines set forth in many diet plans and programs is frankly nutsy coo-coo and is a chief reason that dieters LEAP off the Old Diet Trail. click here to continue

Wickedly-Good Diet Index of Articles

Free Diet Menus | Calorie Needs | Fruits Low in Calories | Diet Dessert Recipes | Tortilla Soup Recipes

Weight Gain Causes | Site Map | Diet Bites | Site Disclaimer