Mental Health

In your quest for physical fitness, don't forget your mental health. Two of the main reasons we seek physical fitness is to feel better and to look better. A great part of that feeling of well-being involves our mental and emotional outlook. Believe it or not, there are exercises we can do for mental fitness just as there are for physical fitness. The following list of exercises needs no diagrams or lengthy explanations. They are familiar things that we all do occasionally, some more often than others and some a lot less than others. Do the following "exercises" daily and your mental outlook will become more positive, a sure route to feeling and looking better.

1. Do something nice for someone and don't tell anyone about it.
2. Smile at a stranger.
3. Lend a hand to someone who needs it.
4. Compliment somebody and really mean it.
5. Visit a sick friend.
6. Send a thank you note to someone who has done something for you, either recently or long ago.
7. Forgive an enemy

Move More

Make it a daily challenge to find ways to move your body. Climb stairs if given a choice between that and escalators or elevators. Walk your dog; chase your kids; toss balls with friends, mow the lawn. Anything that moves your limbs is not only a fitness tool, it's a stress buster. Think 'move' in small increments of time. It doesn't have to be an hour in the gym or a 45-minute aerobic dance class or tai chi or kickboxing. But that's great when you're up to it. Meanwhile, move more.

Don't Cut Too Many Calories Too Fast!

Avoid drastically cutting your calories. Quick and drastic weight loss can cause issues with your body's metabolism and muscle mass. When you lose a lot of weight quickly, you really need to strictly monitor where the weight is coming from. Is it water weight, body fat or muscle mass? The majority of the time, it unfortunately comes from lean muscle mass and this is exactly what causes serious issues with your metabolism. Muscle is your body's most potent and active tissue for burning calories and body fat. It's basically your body's "furnace" and you always want to keep it burning hot. When someone loses a lot of weight, which usually comes from crash dieting or some other unhealthy way of dropping the weight, the body's lean muscle mass is cannibalized and the person loses some of the most powerful tissue for keeping a lean body.

To take off one pound per week, you'll need to reduce calories by 500 per day. (one pound of body fat equals about 3,500 calories.) Try eating 250 calories less per day and exercising enough to burn 250 calories, like walking about 2.5 miles each day. The easiest way to cut back on calories is to watch your portion sizes.

Eat Your Beans!

Nutrient compounds called 'flavonoids' have been found to be effective 'antioxidants' that help protect against heart disease and cancer. These flavonoids are found in the coating of such beans as navy, pintos, kidney, great northern and black beans

Walk 10 Minutes A Day To Increase Your Fitness Level

Old thinking was to work out in a sweat-filled gym for hours a day. No pain, no gain. New studies show that even short bouts of activity can increase your fitness level, especially if you're new at working out.