Health Beauty & FitnessHealth, Beauty, Fitness Tips

Walking contains all of the necessary qualities that you need to lose weight and become healthier. It exercises the major muscles and gets your heart rate up, which can, in turn, boost your metabolism and help you lose weight.

Starting a walking program is easy, no matter what your age or current level of fitness. Some consider walking to be the perfect exercise because it is low impact and you can increase your level of exercise as your strength grows. All you need to get started is a good pair of walking shoes and some determination.

If you haven’t exercised in a while, it’s best to start slow. Most people find that a 15-minute brisk walk is enough to get their heart rate up and their muscles moving. Even though you’ll want to walk for longer periods of time in the future, this can be enough to get you started with a walking plan.

Once you’ve done 15 minutes per day for a week to ten days, you can start increasing your distance and your time. Stretch yourself further each day until you’ve built up to 30 minutes of walking time. After the first five minutes of walking, your body moves out of the warm-up phase, and then you can move into calorie burning territory. When you walk for 30 minutes, you’ll have plenty of calorie-burning time in your workout to make it worthwhile.

While you are walking for weight loss, it’s important that you keep up the proper intensity level. One good rule of thumb: you should be exercising at an intensity that allows you to carry on a conversation, but if you are able to speak comfortably for long periods of time without taking a break or if you are able to comfortably sing a song, ramp up your intensity a bit. You should break a sweat during your 30-minute walk and you should keep the same pace until you do a 5 minute slow down at the end of the walking.

Once you’ve started your walking program it’s important that you keep going. After the first week, you’re bound to see a remarkable difference in your energy level, which will help you to keep going.

To stay motivated, mark a date on your calendar three weeks from when you begin and make a deal with yourself. If you keep walking each day until that date, reward yourself with something special. To stick to your weight loss goals, make sure to reward yourself with a non-food item, such as a shopping trip or some new music to work out to.

Walking can be an effective way to lose weight and to improve your health at the same time. Because it’s accessible to everyone and easy to do, it’s the perfect way to start exercising. With persistence and determination, you can make walking a part of your life.

It took me a long time, 3 years, about 1-million ab-crunches and a few thousand miles on the treadmill before I gave in and decided to have a tummy tuck. After having lost weight with gastric bypass I was left with an apron of loose abdominal skin. A tummy tuck was my last hope to get rid of it.

No matter how thin I appeared, how many compliments I received, I always believed the belly bulge was the equivalent of a wart on the tip of the nose. I was certain it entered the room before me and people stared at it. I loathed how I looked naked.

A tummy tuck, abdominoplasty, is a procedure that flattens your abdomen by removing extra fat and skin, and tightens muscles in your abdominal wall. But be cautioned: This is a major surgery, it is not the easy way out

I had the tummy tuck last fall. The surgeon cut me hip to hip: I have a 20” scar to prove it. He removed the flap of skin, gave me a new belly button and did some body sculpting with liposuction on my hips and waist. Like the breast surgery, it was done in his surgical suite and I went home that evening heavily medicated. I rested in a reclining chair for several days. Everything was painful and exhausting: sitting, standing, showering, eating. I slept a lot for two weeks. I wore a surgical girdle to keep everything in place.

The surgeon closed the wound with tape and I wore a surgical drain for 10 days (sound familiar?) My body was quite swollen and this messed with my head – - I expected to wake from surgery swimsuit model perfect. Not so. In fact, my measurements after surgery were actually greater than prior to surgery. The swelling lasted, to a lesser degree, for about a month. The good news, within 3 weeks I was back to my walking program on the treadmill.

Now, six months post-op I’m happy to report a firm flat tummy. Who me? The Little Fat Girl!! The incision is still wicked ugly red and tender: wearing jeans is uncomfortable. Still, I’m happy I had the surgery, but don’t even consider asking me if I want any more surgery. I hope I’m done with that forever!

Who Are the Best Candidates For a Tummy Tuck?

A tummy tuck is suitable for both men and women who are in good general health overall.

It should not be confused with a liposuction (the cosmetic surgery used to remove fat deposits), although your surgeon may elect to perform liposuction as part of a tummy tuck.

Women who have muscles and skin stretched by multiple pregnancies may find the procedure useful to tighten those muscles and reduce that skin. A tummy tuck is also an alternative for men or women who were obese at one point in their lives and still have excessive fat deposits or loose skin in the abdominal area.

How a Tummy Tuck is Done

Depending on your desired results, this surgery can take anywhere from one to five hours. The complexity of your particular situation also will determine whether you have it completed as an in-patient or outpatient procedure.

You will receive general anesthesia, which will put you to sleep during the operation. It’s important to have someone with you who can drive you home. If you live alone, you also will need someone to stay with you at least the first night after the surgery.

There are two options for a tummy tuck. You and your surgeon will discuss your desired results, and he or she will determine the appropriate procedure during your consultation.

Complete abdominoplasty

Your abdomen will be cut from hipbone to hipbone in this procedure, the option for those patients who require the most correction. The incision will be made low, at about the same level as your pubic hair.

Your surgeon will then manipulate and contour the skin, tissue and muscle as needed. Your belly button will have a new opening if you undergo this procedure, because it’s necessary to free your navel from surrounding tissue. Drainage tubes may be placed under your skin and these will be removed in a few days as your surgeon sees fit.

Partial or mini abdominoplasty

Mini-abdominoplasties are often performed on patients whose fat deposits are located below the navel and require shorter incisions.

During this procedure, your belly button most likely will not be moved. Your skin will be separated between the line of incision and your belly button. This type of surgery may also be performed with an endoscope (small camera on the end of a tube). The procedure may only take up to two hours, again, depending on your own personal situation and the complexity of your needs.

We have been hearing for sometime that Subway has multiple sandwiches with 6 grams of fat or less. Great! But if the subway diet is so good why does there seem to be little support to back up the results?

There is a constant barrage of commercials starring Jared, who lost over 200 lbs eating only subway sandwiches. I am as happy for Jared as the next guy, but something works shouldn’t there be more than one person as proof? If it were a diet pill there would be government trails, FDA approval, and more than one person testing it before the general public would be allowed to have access. But we are supposed to take the word of one guy?

After a brief search on the internet it seems the general consensus is that it wasn’t so much the Subway sandwiches as it was the radically change in the amount of calories Jared was eating daily, about 1/10 of his previously normal daily intake. Most sites/articles also pointed out that after some initial weight loss he also started a walking program to further enhance his weight loss activities.

It is not recommended to have such a radical change in your eating habits, but a gradual reduction in the number of calories you eat daily is a better approach. Also, look at what you eat. Not only was Jared eating few calories, he was eating healthier foods. Mostly veggies and bread, no mayo or oil. Look at what you eat as well as how much.

Bottom line is the same for any diet. Take in fewer calories than you burn and you will loose weight. So either take in fewer calories or start an exercise program to help your body burn more. A final reminder, before starting any diet or exercise program consult with your physician to determine what is right for you. Good luck and good health.