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Archive of posts tagged lose weight

Lose Weight Without Exercise

Posted by Kathryn Lang on 24 September 2009, 4:54 am

Forget all the expensive gym memberships. Box up you collection of dusty exercise videos. Today is the day that you start losing weight without doing one movement of exercise.

Great Tips for Easy Weight Loss

    1. Clean the house. Take a broom and a mop and get to work. Sweep the entire house from top to bottom and then follow up with a good mopping. It’s an amazing upper body work out (and you can really burn up the calories if you see how fast you can get it all done).

    2. Mow the yard. Forget the riding contraptions that cost more than my first car did. Invest in a quality push mower. Pushing that machine around the yard, twice a week, will not only tone up your lower body but will also help you to appreciate pavement. For the best work out around, invest in a mower that is NOT self-propelling.

    3. Play with the children. Whether you jump on the trampoline, take a hike with the whole family (and inevitable carry the toddler on your back) or just run around kicking the soccer ball, you are bound to get a great work out in muscles you had forgotten you had.

    4. Play with the spouse ;) – enough said!

    5. Wash the windows (inside and out). Climbing up and down the ladder to reach the top corners of the many windows in your home is going to tone more in your lower body than any expensive Stairmaster ever could.

    6. Plant a garden. Between the digging, plowing, stooping, weeding and hauling you will get a full body work out that you will not soon forget. If you really want to put your muscles to the test then rent a sod cutter and clear some area in your yard for a NEW garden (be sure to till well before doing any planting).

    7. Volunteer to keep the toddler room at church. You’ll do plenty of lifts and squats and maybe even a few presses. Rolling around with the kids can be the best exercise in the world (for the body and the heart).

The great thing about these activities is that they help keep you moving. That is one of the most important keys to losing weight. Besides, if you are up and going then you aren’t vegging in front of the television eating.

Instead of spending your time (and money) at the gym, let go of some of the conveniences around your home and you will find that you can lose weight without doing any exercising.

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Control is the Key to Weight Loss

Posted by Kathryn Lang on 23 September 2009, 5:49 am

Food has no more control over my life. It was something I confronted two weeks ago, and I’m holding my ground. It’s not like I’ve given up food. Instead, the power of what to eat and when to eat and how to eat is back in my hands (so to speak).

I’ve even gotten off the scales. When I lost the forty pounds of baby weight after my second son, I got rid of the scales. I trusted my clothes to tell me when I was losing control. Actually, it never dawned on me that I might lose control.

At 36, almost seven years after my second son was born, I found myself pregnant with a third child. (I say “found,” like we tripped over it in the woods. I knew it was POSSIBLE, but after years of hoping to get pregnant I had given up on the idea. SURPRISE!). Have you noticed that maternity clothes give you no indication of just how much weight you are packing on?

After he was born, I bought myself a scale. It calculates body fat percentage and everything – even keeps a record of my weight loss to date. Falling back into the habit of weighing daily was easier than slipping down a muddy slope. Since the scale reads the fractions of the weight, I was able to react to even a tenth of a pound up or down. There were days that I would get on the scale in the morning AND in the evening, just in case.

NO MORE! I’ve quit eating in front of the television (have pretty much quit watching the television except when I’m washing the dishes or cooking). Every afternoon when my energy starts to get low, I try to take a few minutes to play with the kids – usually outside. It’s had the added benefit of getting them up and moving as well.

I still have the scales, but I haven’t gotten on them this week. If the food doesn’t have control, then there is really no need for the scales. The weight is coming off. The clothes are fitting better. I have taken back the control.

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