Getting fit and healthy is amazing for your body and self-confidence. It can also take years off your appearance. Dropping a few pounds can thin out your entire body, especially your face which is what people usually see first. It can also reduce the appearance of fine lines.
Look 10 years younger by following four simple tips:
1. Go Shopping
Before you embark on your journey, go shopping! Buy an “inspirational” outfit in the size you are aiming to reach. The excitement of shopping for a smaller size will be very motivating. Hang the outfit where you will see it often, or take a picture of it and post it on your refrigerator so it will be a constant reminder of what weight you want to be. You can also treat yourself to a new workout outfit to inspire you to exercise regularly.
2. Clean Out Shop
You may have developed some unhealthy habits within the past ten years. Now is the time to let those habits go and forge forward with new ones!
Eliminating unhealthy food and snacks is a good place to start. Throw out sweet and high calorie foods and replace them with fruits and veggies which are loaded with vitamins and minerals that are needed for a productive and youthful body. You may notice your energy level improving as you eat healthier and consume fewer sugary food and drinks. You may get a temporary “spike” of energy because of a sugar fix, but that energy quickly wanes and you are left feeling tired and lethargic.
Switch out your soda or other high calorie drinks for water and unsweetened ice tea. Drink at least 8 glasses of 8 ounces of water everyday. That alone will knock hundreds of calories off your daily intake and help you shed a few pounds. Plus, a hydrated body will improve your skin and make it more elastic while giving you a youthful glow.
3. Let Go of Other Bad Habits
You may have vices that help you cope with the daily stress of living, but these vices are aging you far too soon. Drinking alcohol regularly not only packs on the pounds, but it also dehydrates the body which leaves your skin pale and dry, causing wrinkles and dark spots. Your internal organs (liver and kidneys) have to work overtime to get rid of the toxins of the alcohol.
Smoking will also age you, as well as put you at high risk for cancer. There are thousands of poisons and toxins in a single cigarette which dehydrates the body, and they seep into the skin causing acne and wrinkles. These toxins also affect the cells within the body that assist with oxygen flowing through the blood vessels properly.
Collagen plays a key role in the firmness of the skin and with smokers, the collagen levels are drastically decreased. Lower collagen levels make the skin look pasty and bloated which will add years to your appearance.
4. Exercise
If you want to be thinner and more healthy, you will have to exercise, especially if you are over 30. Once you hit the age of 30, your metabolism slows down, which means the calories you eat regularly aren’t broken down and burned off nearly as quickly as you were in your 20’s.
We gain weight by eating more calories than we work off or expend, so you will need to revamp your diet plan by eating fewer calories and exercising to burn off the calories that you do take in. For every 3,500 calories that you eat, you will gain one pound of fat if none of those calories are burned off. Take a boot camp class for maximum burn!
Go online and use a free calorie expenditure calculator to find out how many calories you burn in various workouts. Use your weight and your age to determine how many calories you should be consuming per day. Then find an exercise program that will work off a few hundred of those calories to get the weight loss you are looking for. Take a San Jose boot camp workout for maximum calorie burn!
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