1. First, don’t hang out at the gym. Socializing or talking on the phone between exercises is counter-productive. It wastes valuable exercise time and gives your heart time to slow down. Studies show that keeping your heart rate elevated between sets or reps of exercises enables you to burn more calories.
Also, Remember that the gym is not a library. Intense cardio workouts, especially interval workouts, burn the most calories, but many people read books or magazines on cardio equipment. Reading distracts you from your workout, causing you to slow down. Instead, if you listen to upbeat music on your mp3 player rather than reading a magazine you will burn more calories. And rather than daydreaming through your workouts, concentrate on what you do at the gym as you do at work. When you’re doing a strength exercise, feel the muscle contract as you lift. Focusing like this will help put you in tune with your technique.

2. Slow down. Lifting slowly—taking at least 30 seconds to complete one repetition—enables you to gain more strength than lifting at a rate of 10 seconds per repetition. Slower lifting helps increase strength because it prevents you from cheating by using momentum.

3. Improper instruction, or none at all, creates problems. Embarrassed to ask questions at the gym, Many new exercisers just watch others and try to mimic their moves, which can result in bad form. Improper lifting techniques minimize your strength gains and can lead to serious injury. Most gyms will provide a trainer to assist you in learning to properly use the equipment. You can also take down what they tell you in a notebook.

4. Work out when the gym is less crowded. If you hit the gym during the slowest period of the day—usually mid-afternoon—you won’t have to wait on line for equipment or feel hassled in the locker room.

5. It is also important to vary your routine. After about four weeks your body will become accustomed to even the best weight routine, diminishing its effectiveness. Changing your routine every month will keep your body guessing, improving your results and fuelling your motivation. Changing the amount of weight or the number of reps you do can help to trick your muscles into doing something new, causing them to work harder. In the weight room, alternate exercises and modify how you lift weights. For example, if you usually do two sets of fifteen reps, complete one set of about fifteen reps, then increase the weight for another set of ten. On cardio equipment, switch from the treadmill to the stair stepper. Mix up your exercise classes as well, switching around from pilates to spinning, yoga, or kickboxing.

6. Setting a short-term workout goal will motivate you to work harder The best exercise programs set measurable goals to be achieved over a period of weeks or months, but sometimes, when you’re losing your motivation, it’s more important to set a short term goal to achieve over the next hour. Small, achievable goals—like maintaining a sweat for 15 minutes, running 5 kilometres on the treadmill, or just giving your arms a really good strength workout—can help you focus.

7. Resist the temptation to overeat afterward. After a good workout it’s important to replenish the nutrients you’ve lost with a post-workout meal or shake, but don’t go overboard. Going to the gym doesn’t give you license to indulge. An hour on the treadmill burns roughly 600 calories, but a very large fatty meal will put them right back and will also decrease your energy.

8. Drink a bottle of water or light juice on your way to the gym. According to studies, if you’re already dehydrated when you begin your workout, you’ll tire easily.

9. In a recent study, exercisers who thought positively achieved better results. Whenever you find yourself making excuses, stop and tell yourself, “I feel great,” or “Bring it on.” In addition, you can also ask a friend to meet you for a gym date. A friend can help you find the courage to try unfamiliar gym equipment, as it’s easier to laugh off your foibles in the presence of a trusted companion. Friends who work out together can also encourage each other to work a bit harder, which contribute to the positive thinking that can power your workout.

10. Lastly, Whenever you feel like you’re getting nowhere, go to a trainer. In just one session a trainer can squeeze just a little more motivation and juice out of you.

- Energy imbalance: Energy balance is the difference between your energy consumption and your energy output. When energy input is greater than the energy output you gain weight. A gain of only 1 per year can result from an imbalance of less than 20 kcal per day….
To put on muscle, you need to run a slight positive energy balance, but if you are not doing any heavy resistance training a positive energy balance will cause you to put on fat.

- Unhealthy Food: The impacts of unhealthy food such as snacks & fast food are numerous and dangerous: Fast foods tend to be full of empty calories and lacking in nutrients. In addition they create Blood-sugar spikes: Fast foods tend to be high-GI foods, which cause people to get hungry quickly and eat more in their next meals because our brain regulates our appetite based on our blood-sugar levels.
Fast-food advertising can be misleading. Quite often a food is advertised as low fat in order to cover up for its high sugar content. Many foods advertised as low GI tend to be very high in fat. The food advertising industry takes advantage of people’s ignorance about nutrition.
Eating foods that have very few nutrients will actually cause your body to lose nutrients. The body will use its own store of nutrients to digest and absorb these foods.
Sugary beverages are also a big problem. One soft-drink can contain up to ten teaspoons of sugar. These sugary drinks contribute to obesity.

- Large Portions of food: One problem with large portions is that we are conditioned to eat whatever is on our plates. One way around this is to tell your clients at the outset to control their portions. Put a smaller amount of food on their plate in the kitchen rather than bringing it out to the table. It’s easy to have just a little more while you’re chatting away.

- Emotional Eating: Emotional eating is eating for reasons other than hunger. Many people respond to depression or stress by eating excessively. In addition most of us consume specific foods to maintain good moods. Experts estimate that 75% of overeating is caused by emotions.

Some tips to control your eating habits

- Reveal your habit patterns: Be aware of what you eat when you’re not really hungry. Over time, you will see patterns emerge that reveal negative eating patterns.

- Comfort management: Whenever you fall into emotional eating try to achieve comfort by different activities such as exercising, listening to music, read or meet a friend.

- Don’t buy unhealthy foods: Avoid having an abundance of high-calorie comfort foods in your home by simply not buying them when you do your shopping.

- Eat smartly: Try to eat at fairly regular times and don’t skip breakfast. If you’re not getting enough calories to meet your energy needs, you may be more likely to give in to emotional eating. Include foods from the basic groups in your meals and you’re more likely to feel fuller for longer time.

- Get adequate rest & exercise regularly: when your body is fit and well rested, your mood is more manageable.

- Is your hunger physical or emotional? Learn to recognize true hunger. If you ate just a an hour ago and don’t have a rumbling stomach, you’re probably not really hungry. Be aware of this and give the craving a few minutes to pass.

- Healthy Snacks: If you feel the urge to eat between meals, choose a low-calorie food or test low-fat versions of your favorite foods in order to satisfy your craving.

First, there is a basic step that will help improve your fitness, just move more! Every day, come up with a new way to move your body more than you normally would. Doing this is not only just a fitness tool but also works to reduce the stress in your body. Moving more can include anything from taking the stairs rather than an elevator, parking farther away in a parking lot rather than trying to find the first spot, walking your dog more often, and even just playing with your kids. Try not to get overwhelmed by the idea that you need to spend an hour in the gym every day, when really these small changes can truly help your fitness level. There are many logs out there that will help you keep track of your activity. You can find these online, or in books, you can even make your own. Start today by tracking your daily movement. Keep track of how far you walked today, if you climbed stairs then keep that in your log also. This is a great way to keep yourself motivated while moving in the right direction.

The second easiest step to improving your fitness is to cut the fat out of your diet. Many of these items that need to be cut are popular items like fried foods, burgers, or even breakfast foods like sausage and bacon. Do you ever take into consideration how many dairy products you eat in a day? Products like cheese and milk need to be eaten, but in low fat versions of themselves. Start to incorporate fruits and veggies into your daily routine. No matter what you like, there are always options that will work with your meal, or even a snack. Mainly, the idea isn’t to cut everything out of your diet that you love, but to find healthier ways to eat it. Next time you are shopping, look for fat free versions of your favorite foods.

If you are a smoker, then this step is for you. You hear it all the time, it is publicized constantly, and it is true, you need to stop smoking as soon as possible. Scared to quit because you fear that it will backfire on your fitness plan and make you gain weight? Try simple strategies when quitting, like chewing a piece of sugar free gum every time you get a craving, or substitute your craving for a low calorie drink like flavored water. Smoking is not only a bad habit, but a bad influence on today’s children.

Working to reduce stress is the fourth step in your process. Of course everyone wishes that they had less stress in their lives, and reducing it is always easier said than done, but there are ways to do it. Work on doing things for yourself when you are caught up in a stressful week. For instance, go get your haircut, or indulge yourself in a massage. By putting yourself first it will give you a moment to relax and also help your confidence at the same time. Work also on incorporating happier thoughts into your day. Yes, happier thoughts are proven to reduce stress. When finding yourself in a situation that you just can’t bear, take a moment and take a breath, while thinking more positive thoughts.

When you think of fitness, do you only see your weight? If so, you’ll need to work on seeing other important things that contribute to your health. Taking care of yourself is important, and it’s about more than just working out. Take care of your teeth and your eyes by going regularly to checkups and doctors appointments. There is nothing worse then dental problems to ruin your day and your hygiene. Your eyes are important for the obvious reasons, and remember that you’ll want to see the results of your road to fitness clearly!

In the end, fitness is different for everyone. Some have time to spend in the gym, and there are many that don’t. Don’t let this discourage you at all, just find a way to make it fit. No matter what your situation, it is important to make your fitness a priority and to not give up when you think that you can’t do it. All of the tips here are simple and can be incorporated into your everyday life. The objective here is to learn to incorporate fitness into your life without making it feel like a job that you hate to do. When fitness becomes something that you dread, then it will never get done. Love yourself enough to take the time to make your fitness routine something that you love. By making fitness a priority it will lead to a happier you, and a happier life.