Today we’re going to be talking all about exercise, AKA body movement, and the best ways for you to exercise, to burn fat. I know losing weight is really important to you, and I want that for you, but I also want you to keep in mind that it’s not just about the weight loss. It’s about overall wellness. It’s about feeling good, being healthy, and living a long life. And the other thing I want you to think about is that a strong body equals confidence and it helps you feel better at everything you’re doing every day. We all know that we should be exercising more and I get it. It is so hard to fit it in. We’re all so busy and we’re working and taking care of our families. And at the end of the day, we just don’t feel like we have it in us to get that exercise in.

And not only that, but we’re sedentary so much of the day. We have jobs that keep us sitting at our desks during this pandemic. A lot of us are working from home, including myself, and we’re just sitting there in front of a computer all day long. It is just so detrimental to our health and it is so important to get up and start moving, to find the time to make that happen and to make it a priority. And weight loss has so many benefits beyond losing weight. It boosts your metabolism. It strengthens your heart and your lungs and your whole cardiovascular system. It lowers cholesterol. It improves insulin levels and prevents type two diabetes, obesity, and being overweight. It increases your metabolism, so that you burn fat more efficiently, and in the end, it helps you live a longer life and to feel better throughout your life.

A lot of us think of aging as just kind of an inevitable, you’re going to need a cane or a walker. You’re going to be stooped over. You’re going to fall and break a hip. And that isn’t true. That is what we see a lot. But let me tell you, there are lots of people out there who are aging into their 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and beyond, and they are still feeling good. They are still strong. And the key is they are moving consistently on a regular basis. So if you want to be truly healthy, you cannot just focus on diet because if you are eating well, but not moving your body, you’re not going to be healthy. You cannot have one without the other. And on top of that, when you exercise, you actually have more energy. It sounds impossible. It sounds like exercise would actually make you more tired. But when you are feeling tired, if you just get out there and move a little bit, I promise you it’s going to boost your energy. And then overall clear your mind, giving you more clarity and the ability to be more productive throughout the day. So it isn’t actually taking away from your time and energy. It is adding to it. And here is the really, really good news: Studies are showing that just 10 to 15 minutes a day of exercise can actually make a huge difference in your overall health. So we think of exercise as just a grueling session, having to spend hours in the gym, sweating and dying day after day. And that isn’t actually true. You can start wherever you are. And just getting in 10 to 15 minutes of a moderate it exercise has shown to improve heart health and prevent diseases. So it is well worth your time and effort.

As a personal trainer, people ask me all the time, what kind of exercise should I be doing? What’s going to be the most efficient at burning fat and losing weight. There certainly are types of exercise that are more efficient than others. But what I want you to remember is everybody has to start somewhere. And like I said, just 10 to 15 minutes of any kind of movement – that can be walking, that can be riding a bike that can be hiking. Anything that you want is going to start making a difference and you have to start somewhere. And I want you to think about weight loss and exercises, not all or nothing, because the, the problem I see so many people doing is they are starting from zero and they go to the gym and they work out and lift weights and run or whatever to exhaustion. And then they are so sore. They can hardly walk the next day and that discourages them from going back because it’s just torture. And so that’s an all or nothing mentality, and that’s what keeps tripping you up. That’s what keeps you starting and stopping and starting and stopping. Getting started again is so hard because you’re dreading what is to come. So it is really, really helpful to start small and build your way up. So with that being said, the other thing that’s really important is to choose something that you actually enjoy. My philosophy for diet and exercise is if it’s miserable, it’s not sustainable. Let that sink in. If it’s miserable, it’s not sustainable. I have clients who have tried running over and over and over again in their lives because they’ve heard running is a great fat burner and other people are doing it. They hear about this running high, and then they’re miserable the whole time and they hate it and they dread it. So why keep going back to that? You’re not going to sustain it. It’s not going to become a regular part of your life if you’re miserable and you hate it all the time.

You have to find something that you actually enjoy. If you enjoy walking, do that. You could take a Zumba class or a hip hop class. If you love hiking, if you love getting outdoors, start building that into your regular routine. If you did swimming in high school and you’ve gotten out of it, go back and try that again and see if you enjoy it. Runners get that runner’s high because they love it – it’s actually releasing those endorphins and those feel good chemicals in their brains. And you can get that same feeling, but it has to be from something that you actually like and enjoy. So start there and that is key.

Now, when it comes to getting the most bang for your buck in exercise, this is not what you’re doing starting off. You’re going to start wherever you are and take it slow. Any amount of exercise gives you tremendous health and weight loss benefits. Let’s face it. You’re going to burn fat, no matter what kind of exercise you’re doing, but building up also can have more benefits because the more intense your workouts are, the more fat you’re going to burn. And also the stronger your body’s going to become. The more muscle you’re going to build, the more endurance, the stronger your cardiovascular system. So when you get to that point, high intensity interval training has been shown to be the most efficient, fat burning and body strengthening type of exercise. There is, if you haven’t heard of it, it’s often called H.I.I.T. and what it is is exercise where you incorporate a short period of super high, intensive exercise, whatever that may be. It may be running, it may be jumping. Whatever it is that really gets your heart rate up to a really high level. And you do that for a very short burst of time. Then you back off and you do a recovery period. So you’re doing still exercise, but you’re not doing it at such a high intensity. You’re taking it back down a notch. So this throws your body a curve ball, because it keeps you going up and down and up and down. And the thing is, our bodies are super, super efficient.

Unfortunately, we have been wired to conserve fat. I know it’s, it’s so annoying, but it’s true because back in the hunter and gatherer days, it would be feast or famine. So you might have a hunt and a kill and have tons of food, and you have to eat it within a certain amount of time before it goes bad.

And then your body would conserve and hold onto that because of the famine to come. When all you have are just some berries or whatever you can search for and gather until the next hunt. So, unfortunately our bodies are still programmed for that, even though food is plentiful, even though we can go to the store, we can go to a restaurant, we can get food as much as we want. So there’s no famine. There’s just feasting. And when you start exercising, if you are exercising at a constant level the whole time, your body’s very smart and it learns to conserve calories. So it will only burn the bare minimum of calories that it needs to get through that exercise, because it’s again, holding on to what the fat and the calories that you might need for the famine to come. So when you start incorporating these high, high, and lower intensity intervals, your body doesn’t go into that auto con conservation mode because it doesn’t really know what’s coming next.

So it really kicks up that metabolism and it keeps you burning more and more calories. So the good news is you can do these high intensive intervals with any type of exercise. You’re going to see people out there who are super fit, and they are doing these crazy, crazy workouts, CrossFit. And you know, all the is really difficult things. Those aren’t necessary. You can start where you are and you can do intervals with just walking. You walk at a moderate pace, then you sprint jog, or just walk much faster to get your heart rate down. And then you slow back down to your or original pace and you alternate back and forth, back and forth. So you can start wherever you are. And this is absolutely the most efficient way to get yourself in shape and burn fat. And the good news is when you do this interval training, you can cut your workout times in half because the studies show that if you exercise, let’s say for one hour at a steady constant level, you can burn the same number of calories and get the same benefit in half the amount of time. With your busy schedule, this is absolutely going to give you the best bang for your buck.

I really want to encourage you to get out there and get started, figure out an exercise that you’re going to enjoy, that you’re going to stick with and start small. You’re going to see such a huge benefit. And when your body is stronger, you’re going to be stronger in life. Strong body equals strong in life. You’re going to have that confidence. You’re going to feel good. You’re going to start cultivating that body love. And that is what I want for you.

I cannot wait to hear how this works for you. I hope you’ll drop me some comments and tell me what kind of body movement you decided to do and how it’s going, because I am cheering you on the whole way. I’ll see you soon.