Willpower-the ability to ignore temporary pleasure or discomfort to pursue a longer term goal. These challenges require inner strength, but where does it come from and why does this strength fluctuate. Willpower is not a personality trait, a skill, or virtue. It operates like a muscle and can be trained as one (Baumeister 2003).This strength model has important implications to fitness and wellness enthusiast who seek ways of developing tools to support positive lifestyle goals.

Willpower is in the mind and body, physiological changes that allow you to adapt to a challenge. The best known mind body response is the fight and flight response to danger, heart racing, blood pressure soaring and muscle tightening. The relaxation response, allows the body to respond to needs such as respiration, growth and restoration.

Recent research done at the University of Kentucky has begun to identify changes in the autonomic, cardiovascular, neuroedocrine and immune systems that act on willpower. These changes may be part of a whole body response to help us face the challenges of self control. This mind-body response may allow us to temporarily freeze our impulses and focus on our long term goals. The result: acting in line with our long term goals and not our impulses.

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Backward Lunge

Backward Lunge Targeted Muscles: Gluteals, hamstrings, quadriceps Starting Position: Stand erect with a neutral spine and feet shoulder-width apart. Action: Take a long step backward landing on the ball of the foot and bend the rear knee to a fencer’s lunge position; lower to approximately 90 degrees of knee flexion. Pause, then return to the starting position. Maintain neutral spine throughout the movement. Repeat with the other leg. Common Errors: Error: Dropping the head and shoulders forward Correction: Keep the chest lifted over the top of the hips and look straight ahead with neck in neutral position. Error: Lowering beyond 90 degrees of flexion Correction: Slowly lower the body and stop before the upper leg becomes parallel with the floor. Error: Forward trunk lean with heel lift of lead leg Correction: Keep the weight over the back portion of the foot rather than the toes; raise the arms to shoulder height to counterbalance. Variations: Side lunge Front lunge Walking lunge Equipment Variations: Light hand or wrist weights Weighted vest

Never Walk Without a Goal

Walking shoes — check. Pedometer — got it. But do you have a goal?

No goal? Better set one. It doesn’t even matter if you hit the mark. People who put a target on their radar — like walking 10,000 steps a day — walk a whole lot more than people who don’t have a goal. Studies prove it.

The End Game
Walking 10,000 steps a day is an ideal physical activity goal, according to new guidelines. (Find out how many steps the average person really takes.) And in a large review of the research, scientists discovered that people with this goal — or a personalized step plan — literally walked the extra mile, logging about 2,000 extra steps a day. Plus, when people tracked their progress with a pedometer, they lost weight and improved their blood pressure. (Use this tool to learn what your ideal waist size should be.)

A Few More Motivators
In addition to your comfy shoes, your daily-steps goal, and your pedometer, here are a few more tools to help you keep on keeping on:

• Some tunes: This is why you should take your iPod.
• Your furry friend: Discover the impact that Fido will have on your walking routine.
• A buddy:

7 Ways to Eat Meat and Stay Healthy

Lots of heart-conscious consumers and waist watchers have recently rehabbed their steak knives, having found that — hang onto your knife sharpener — eating a little red meat doesn’t necessarily put you on the fast track to Fat Central. It’s not the meat itself; it’s the aging, artery-clogging, cholesterol-soaring, saturated fat in meat that you want to minimize. Here’s how:

1. Select the best. When you’re shopping for meat, choose cuts labeled USDA Select Grade; they have less fat than Choice and Prime.

2. Go lean. Choose packages labeled “lean” or “extra lean” whenever possible. Lean means the meat has fewer than 8.5 grams of fat per 3-ounce serving; extra lean has fewer than 4 grams.

3. Stay on the grass. Try to buy meat labeled “grass fed” or “pasture raised.” It may have 25% to 50% less fat, fewer calories, and more heart-healthy omega-3s than regular grain-fed meat. (It also suggests the animal was raised humanely.)

4. Slice away. Trim external fat before cooking, and use that well-sharpened knife to remove any fat that’s still there once it’s on your plate. Doing so can slash fat intake by as much as half.

5. Keep it separate. Broil, grill, or roast meat on grills or pans that drain away fat.

6. Towel off. To remove both grease and calories, blot meatballs and burgers with paper towels after cooking.

7. Know your limits. Minimize meat-centered meals. RealAge recommends no more than one serving of red meat a week. One serving, says the USDA, is the size of a deck of cards, or about 3 ounces.

How big is the payoff when you lose the fat but keep the meat? How would you like to see fewer candles on your birthday cake next year? Eating a low-fat diet — and eating healthful unsaturated fats when you do eat fat — can make your RealAge as much as 6 years younger.

DIET AND EXERCISE TIPS

5 Ways to Walk More

Easy tips to make exercise a part of your daily lifestyle.

1. Always be ready. Keep a pair of walking shoes and socks at work and by the door at home, so an impromptu stroll is easy.

2. Dress right. Choose loose, comfortable clothing that gives you plenty of room to move your arms and legs. A good pair of walking or running shoes, with socks, is also a must. They don’t have to be expensive—but don’t skimp on comfort to save a few pennies, either. (Just think of walking shoes as your cheapest form of health insurance.) Replace your shoes when they become worn down.

3. Enrich the experience. Listen to your favorite music while you work out—research suggests it will help you stick with your regimen longer. Or try talk radio, podcasts or books on CD. You can also make your walks a destination in themselves, by trying a new course every once in a while—perhaps a local park, lake path or arboretum instead of your usual neighborhood walk.

4. Mall-walk. Indoor walking eliminates the “bad-weather” excuse and it’s a great place to meet a friend and socialize as you move. To avoid temptations to buy at the stores (not to mention the fiendishly aromatic cinnamon buns at the food court), leave your wallet and credit cards behind.

5. Find a walking partner. Besides having someone to talk to and make the walk more interesting, a partner helps make you more accountable. You’ll be less likely to skip a walk if you know someone’s waiting for you. If you feel unsafe or self-conscious walking alone, a partner can make all the difference. Need help finding a partner? Check your local mall or neighborhood recreation center for walking-club information.

If you have hypertension or at risk of developing hypertension, reducing fat may be key in protecting your heart. A recent study published in the American Heart Association Journal Hypertension, found that a low-fat diet is more effective than a low-carbohydrate diet in reducing the risk of developing hypertension.

When the two types of diet where compared in healthy participants, the low-fat diet improved blood flow in arteries. This led researchers to conclude that a low-fat diet offered greater protection against developing hypertension.

Commit to be fit. ~Author Unknown

The problem with five heart rate zones is that precision heart rate calculation can be confusing to the average athlete and critical to the serious athlete. Learning how to calculate you max heart rate zones is time well spent, whether you are trying to learn more about your body and how you respond to exercise or improve upon your sports training and performance.

Fitness goals are assigned to each heart rate zones, lower zones (zone 1 50% to 60%) and (zone 2 60% to 70%) are weight loss zones and low intensity zones. The higher zones, 3, 4, and 5 are used for cardiovascular fitness and improving sports performance.

Here is the real deal, exercising in zones 1, 2, and 3 there is a caloric expenditure of approximately 9 to 12 calories/minute, exercising in zones 4 and 5 there is a caloric expenditure of 13 to 15 calories/minute. The ultimate goal is to eventually train so that it is possible to exercise aerobically in the higher zones for longer periods of time. At this level weight loss/maintenance and cardiovascular fitness can be a definitive result of ones hard work.

The talk threshold test, also called ventilation threshold, may be an easier way to measure training zones for the recreational athelete.Ventilation threshold may be as effective as heart-rate monitoring for different training zones. Exercising athletes who can speak in complete sentences are in the aerobic zone, which corresponds to less than 80%of maximum heart rate. When the exerciser can only speak in short bursts this corresponds to the threshold zone, which is effective in increasing endurance, but can only be maintained for a short period of time.

A simple approach to developing your own fat burning work out is to create two zones. Zone one being the fat burning zone and zone two being a 10- beat zone .Initially try to spend most of your time in zone one and learn what it feels like to burn fat more efficiently. After a period of time, slowly progress into zone two for short periods bouts of endurance training. Over time you can repeat this cycle creating a 1; 1 ratio, until you feel comfortable enough to spend longer periods of time in zone two

The ultimate goal for most American’s is weight loss and the number they see on the bathroom scale A healthier approach may be not to enslave yourself to technology, but to pay close attention to breathing during exercise and how your body reacts to exercise.