It’s hard to afford your own personal trainer and find one that’s really good for you.  Most I’ve found always tie you into a long term contract, and frankly personal training is a very individualized thing.  I find that most of the more affordable ones tend to leave you on your own in some ways, and they’re really not all that helpful.  I mean they seem to ignore you a lot, and I could definitely do better.  This being said, I won’t pay for that. 

But now they have online personal trainers.  I mean obviously I know it’s not that personal, and posting back to make changes every day is not the greatest.  Plus they’re not right there to motivate you to keep going or yell at you or whatever.  I do better with tougher people in general who just push you no matter what, unless of course it’s threatening to your health or something.  But most are getting softer, they think clients are more likely to stay(and they are)if you’re nicer even if you don’t show that great of results.  But frankly, for many people, online personal trainers just like other online options are becoming more popular and more successful in general terms.

After childbirth, it can be a difficult time losing weight in general.  Frankly, I don’t think it should be.  If you are eating right and otherwise, I’ve seen a lot of women who obviously have a certain amount of water weight and other things that were meant to protect the baby to come off, and sometimes you just retain water seemingly for no reason.  but realistically speaking, if you are eating right and exercising, and yes you should actually be exercising while pregnant, you shouldn’t have a real challenge losing weight and fitting back into your old jeans. 

You will definitely have some loose skin, but loose skin and fat are not the same thing to say the least.  So while you are pregnant, yes the fetus is growing and yes some would consider the fetus a person.  But you are not eating for two!  You are eating for one and a little bit more.  So frankly speaking, you should be eating maybe one more serving of something in a day.  That should about cover it in all reality.  And frankly you should still be focusing on the fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains that you should have been focusing on before anyway as well as doing exercise.  You may of course want to stick to some gentler exercises, but there is no proof that exercise has any negative impact on the fetus.  So leave all the myths behind and take a realistic look at how things work.

The food pyramid used to be faulty, and to some degree it is still faulty, will always be somewhat faulty.  I was raised mostly in the 90’s with the idea that you should eat just grains and carbs in general a lot, it was non descript, and it put far too little focus on fruits and vegetables.  Even then, there were health teachers and health experts complaining about it, coming out against it, saying that it wasn’t the pyramid it should be. 

But since then, they have to some degree specified things, defining good and bad carbs to a larger degree and in essence educating themselves through greater education.  Many now believe that you should have more protein along with the essential sources of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, and it has recently tried to reach out more to those of differing body types rather than just one, which is without question quite an improvement in general. 

They are still obviously doing more research into what makes things effective and what will give you greater results.  And to be quite honest, the food pyramid still has a long way to go before I would personally recommend taking it completely seriously and really following it.

I love coffee, and the other day I was realizing that I drink a lot of it.  I like my caffeine, and frankly it’s to the point where coffee actually really relaxes me.  It sounds contradictory, but I could drink a cup of coffee and then go to sleep whereas I really don’t sleep that well on a regular basis.  For a lot of people, caffeine of course causes jitters.  But theoretically at least, it’s supposed to in larger amounts like 400mg, speed up the metabolism while creating a thermogenic fat burning effect in the body. 

So the coffee I drink is actually rather concentrated to say the least.  I get about a 16oz can, which per serving has around 100 calories, so 200 calories total.  It has 1600mg strait caffeine per serving.  So you can imagine the ridiculous amount.  It is full of antioxidants due to the coffee element, and theoretically with that much caffeine on a regular basis, which is actually the only amount that really affects me in the energizing way at all, I should be burning fat like nothing else, especially with that few extra calories to actually actively burn off.  But I have nothing in that direction.  It does not burn fat for me, it does not result in automatic weight loss.  I should be a stick by now!  But that is one thing I think is a hoax in part for that reason.

Most people focus on eating negative calorie foods, which basically comes to include fruits and vegetables.  But there are some who would tell you that in order to really lose weight, of course you don’t want to just eat negative calorie foods, but you should focus on eating specifically water rich vegetables.  Obviously, in fruits, watermelon for example would be rich in water.  But in vegetable terms, it’s more like cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, and otherwise. 

These can be used in salads, soups, just by themselves, or otherwise.  They give you more water, which naturally works to hydrate your body to some degree.  But it also works to lower the calories you are actually taking in while still providing you with vitamins, antioxidants, and other nutrients in general.  This will help your body to lose weight faster in general, especially if you are actually eating soups instead of solid foods.  They keep your stomach full for a longer period of time than water alone would, and they have various other benefits that water wouldn’t have while including the benefits of water in its simple form.  So they’re doubly effective in certain ways and can therefore have greater appeal to many.

Hoodia has been highly publicized as the newest weight loss miracle, suppressing your appetite.  Yes, appetite suppressants are actually the most effective of weight loss supplements, but they have to actually work to have that greater effect.  Hoodia has been credited with being used by the African bushmen, and some have even said that’s why they’re so skinny.  They have protruding bellies that are that way because they are starving and malnourished in general terms.  I mean honestly, if an anorexic person used hoodia, would you say that’s why they are so skinny?

No.  Either way, there are some that have made various claims about clinical studies, etc.  What they don’t mention is the fact that in all of those clinical studies, subjects did not actually lose more weight with hoodia than they did using the placebo.  Moreover, there have been reports from Phytofarm, a company that was trying to engineer a patented form of hoodia but then ran out of funding, that without more research it could actually cause serious liver damage.  Add to that the fact that hoodia is not shipped out of South Africa by law, so you can’t get it, and their story does not look good to say the least.  Either way, it’s one of those hyped up ingredients that should not actually be bought.

In general terms, the upper body tends to be stronger for men whereas the lower body is stronger in women.  It’s a simple fact, and women also tend to carry more fat due to menstruation, pregnancies, and other general parts of being a woman.  However, there are some women who want to correct this imbalance in some ways and strengthen their upper body.  It is natural to have it, but if you want to achieve this, there are options.  Generally speaking, women don’t actually want to bulk up, just tone up. 

So start out by using small weights in a greater number of reps.  This will give you greater toning rather than bulky muscle building associated with larger weights.  In addition, you could well use exercise bands.  Of course, your first plan probably won’t be the best one for your body.  But just go by ear.  If something is working out a little better, stick with that, if you notice that one part of your workout isn’t working so well, then change it.  Just adjust it to the things you can figure out through your own experiences, and incorporate a good personal trainer as well.  They can give you tips you might not otherwise know about.

If you are trying to keep away from holiday weight gain or achieve after holiday weight loss, there are a few things to do.  First of all, remember to keep exercising, even during the holidays.  If you exercise 3 times per week, maybe take it up to 4 for that extra caloric intake, or maybe just keep it at 3.  Either way, don’t go down on your regular routine. This will just compound other problems in general terms.  Second, remember to keep eating a good and healthy breakfast, generally speaking packed with protein.  This will keep you full throughout the day at a higher rate, and if you keep it high in protein and low in carbs, it will naturally increase your fat burning either way. 

Third, never go on an extreme liquid or otherwise crash diet.  This won’t help you to really lose weight, and it will even sabotage future weight loss efforts in general.  All of these are things to keep in mind if you are looking for a successful way to lose weight in general terms.  However, they are especially important when it comes to losing weight or maintaining weight loss around the holidays or otherwise not gaining weight in general.  All in all, the holidays are the hardest time of year, but you can still overcome your problems in general and you can still achieve all the benefits.

One of the easiest and not to mention cheapest ways to lose weight is to dine in.  By that I mean make your own meals instead of going out.  This will naturally help you to of course avoid going to fast food restaurants.  But when you are cooking, you can also better measure the amount of calories you are actually taking in, the amount of food you are actually making to adjust it to the amounts you actually should be losing rather than actively just ignoring it and going too far. 

You can eat slower, because there’s no ticking clock for most people when they are at home versus a restaurant possibly speaking.  This will allow you to get full over time without eating as much.  But the big thing would be that you actually know what is going into your food.  You actually have a greater awareness, which has helped many people to lose more weight.  After all, if you can’t deny it, you have to address it, or at least theoretically speaking you have to address it.  This will help you to lose more weight, and if you combine it of course with an exercise program and healthier eating practices in general, you will be better able to achieve results as a whole.

Are you experiencing knee pain?  It’s common.  It might be that you just need to let your body recuperate a little, maybe sit in a hot tub before you workout, maybe take one day’s rest or a few days rest per week between workouts, maybe just switch between upper and lower body between days to give your knees a break in general terms.  This works for most people.  But the simple fact is that your joints may also be breaking down over time.  So this is definitely something worth considering. 

You may want to start taking a joint supplement of chondroitin and glucosamine just in case.  That is just one of those things that may actually help you out in the journey you are taking.  But also you may want to look into that, because plenty of people experience arthritis, many people who exercise in general break down their knee joints specifically over time.  It happens to the best of us.  It’s just a matter of keeping all the possibilities in mind and therefore considering all the possible solutions.  This will help you to ease your joint pain in many cases while actually keeping up your exercise routine as a general rule.