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Ok guys, you’re paying the best part of £50 a month in gym membership, but are you really getting your money’s worth? Just going to the gym is not enough; you need to make the most of your time whilst you’re there. To enable you to use your time effectively and progress in your fitness regime, here are a few things to avoid:

- Socialising: Just because you’re in the building, doesn’t mean you’re getting any slimmer or fitter. Talking on your phone or socialising between workouts wastes time and lowers your heart rate.

- No instruction: Most gyms offer a free introductory fitness assessment, so take advantage of it and don’t be afraid to ask for help!

- Not varying your exercise regime: Sticking to a tried-and-tested regime can mean that your body gets used to it after a while, which makes it much less effective. Mix things up every now and again to get the most out of your workout.

- Post-workout eating: It can be tempting to over-indulge after a good workout, but you could actually be undoing all your hard work. By all means replace the nutrients you’ve lost with a healthy meal or a shake, but don’t use a workout as an excuse to indulge in high calorie foods.

Many women feel pressured to lose their pregnancy weight as quickly as possible after having a baby, especially with all the celebrity mums whipping their clothes off almost immediately after giving birth, but it is important to not be too hard on yourself. Just make a plan and stick to it, take it easy (it can be a stressful enough time as it is), and you will lose that pregnancy weight steadily and healthily. Here are a few tips to start you off:

Do:

- Drink plenty of water (at least 10 glasses a day).
- Eat more lean meats and whole grain foods.

Don’t:

- Rush straight into strenuous exercise. Start light, gentle exercise only when you feel ready.
- Be tempted to snack on unhealthy foods. Even if you don’t have the time to prepare proper meals, keep healthy snacks such as raisins and nuts in the house.

The most common area of the body that most people complain about is the stomach area. Having more tummy fat than you’d like could be due to a number of reasons: it could be the result of water retention, over-eating, poor digestion, or it could simply be genetic. Whilst a number of these causes may mean that you can’t completely get rid of your stomach fat, there are a few exercises you can do to tone up the area:

- Medicine/Pilates ball rotations: these are excellent core exercises. Sit in an upright position with your knees slightly bent and lean back until you feel your stomach muscles contracting. Hold the medicine ball in your hands and straighten your arms, and simply move the ball from side to side.

- Medicine ball crunches: lie on your medicine ball and put your feet flat against a wall at a 90 degree angle. Very slowly, move your upper body slightly towards your feet, in a traditional ‘crunch’ movement, then lie back down again. You should be able to feel your stomach muscles contracting.

If you’re fed up with sweating away at the gym, or freezing to death on a cold morning jog, you need to buy a Wii Fit! If you didn’t already know, this fabulous invention by games console makers Nintendo can help you to lose weight and get fit in the comfort of your own home.

The game has about 50 different and fun activities, with everything from yoga and aerobics to skiing and football simulations! You do all of these activities on the Wii’s amazing balance board, which allows the software to calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) after you’ve entered your height and other details. In this way, you can track your progress, and even have a virtual personal trainer to motivate you.

So, lose weight and get Wii fit today!

There a number of types of exercise you can do, but it all depends on what you want to achieve. If you want to improve general fitness, make your heart healthier, or burn calories to lose weight, then you should undertake aerobic exercise such as jogging, dancing, swimming, walking or cycling. However, if you want to build muscle, tone up, or improve flexibility, you will need to do more low-intensity exercise such as yoga or weight training. You can even follow a fitness regime which encompasses everything. But whatever regime you choose, there are a few ways you can ensure that you stick to it.

Whatever activity you do, make it fun! An interesting and enjoyable activity will make you want to keep doing it, whereas a draining and exhausting fitness regime will make you associate exercise with being miserable. Listen to music, vary your activities, or participate in a sport with other people to make it more fun.

Additionally, make sure you’re comfortable in appropriately loose-fitting clothing and footwear, and surround yourself with supportive, like-minded people who will encourage you to reach your goals.

Before starting any exercise regime however, it is important not to overdo it too soon. If you are overweight, unfit, or have not exercised in a while, always consult a doctor before starting.

In an effort to lose weight, some people start to skip meals like breakfast or lunch in order to cut down on the amount that they eat. However, this does not work as a diet strategy, and can actually cause you to gain weight.

Missing meals provides you with an irregular distribution of calories throughout the day, meaning that you won’t have enough energy to burn in order to complete your daily activities. It can also cause low blood sugar, leaving you grumpy and irritable.

However, the main problem with skipping meals is that it fosters bad eating habits; it can leave you so hungry that you may overeat at the next meal, and your metabolism will be negatively affected so you don’t burn it off in the correct way. Subsequently, you may develop a ‘deprived’ feeling, which can lead to late night binge eating and inevitably, weight gain.

The best way to lose weight is to eat regular meals during the day, and slightly limit your portion sizes. Do some research on what foods are best eaten at various times of the day, and if you want to snack; choose something nutritious like fruit or nuts.

If you’ve started a new exercise regime just in time for Christmas, or even if you’ve just taken up a new sport, you need to make sure to eat the right foods. The combination of regular exercise and healthy, balanced meals is absolutely the right way to lose weight and tone up.

Sports nutritionists constantly talk about the importance of carbohydrates in a healthy diet and exercise plan, and they’re right; carbohydrates are the fuel your body burns during exercise. You should not cut these out, or eat a great deal more of them, because to lose body fat gradually (without those horrible stretch marks appearing), you need to give your muscles enough energy to work with. Also, as carbohydrates are stored as glycogen in the muscle and liver, if you don’t keep these stores topped up, there is a greater risk of injury.

Try carbohydrate rich foods such as rice, wholegrain pasta, sweet potato and breakfast cereal.

In pursuit of the perfect body, everyone knows that the combination of a healthy diet and regular exercise is the natural method of losing weight and improving muscle tone. However, some people may take this to extremes, turning the enjoyment of exercise into a dangerous obsession.

Exercise stimulates a release of feel-good endorphins, which affects the reward centre of the brain and leaves you on a sort of high. Chasing this high, or endorphin rush, is what can turn healthy people into exercise fanatics, pushing themselves harder and harder because they are not able to stop. This sort of behaviour often goes hand- in-hand with eating disorders, and can have far-reaching damaging effects.
Over-exercising can actually damage your body, making you prone to joint and muscle problems, stress fractures or even osteoarthritis. It can also leave you with an unnatural muscle-to-fat ratio, which can cause fertility problems and an undermined immune system.

Also, besides the physical issues, over-exercising can actually damage your relationships and social life; as you spend more time exercising than you do maintaining relationships.

So, if you think you are out of control with diet and exercise, seek some help immediately.