I do not want to stress you out too much with all the things that can go wrong in the gym, but I want to highlight some misunderstood facts which are meant to motivate yourself. You’d be very surprised to see that we share many misconceptions when we are at the beginning and even sometimes when we are already advanced. I’m not saying that men start with different mentalities, but when speaking about women – media, fashion industry, and trends sustain some erroneous claims about the workout, which are rooted in the consciousness of many and become very difficult to remove.
Good, now let’s get to the golden list of “tips” which I think does not generate anything positive in the mind of a woman who wants to begin working out.
I need to lose weight!
But what is wrong with that you might ask … If you talk to most people who want to start working out or want to change their style of eating you will notice that what they want is to lose weight. Although it is true that many overweight people need to drop weight on the scale particularly from health-related reasons, too many women do not understand that this is not the way to do it. What we need is to decrease the percentage of body fat, not necessarily weight.
But exactly what is the difference?
Don’t we normally lose body fat if we lose weight? Not necessarily! For many people, a fitness program that includes cardio and strength training leads to muscle growth and fat losing. The effect on the body, including visually, will be a more toned body, harmoniously built, but not necessarily easier on the scale, perhaps sometimes even harder. Hence the obsession with numbers on a screen is not justified; you can improve your appearance, strength, fitness capabilities, resistance to effort and also can reduce the fat in your body while you maintain or even increase your weight. Take measurements of body parts and look in the mirror at how your body transforms, do not let a seemingly universally valid number, like “the perfect weight” to demotivate you.
I gained 1 kilo!
Again, on short-term, gaining one or two kilos is not so important. Many women have this so called problem: “Yesterday I had 53 kilograms and 200 grams; today we have 53 kilos and 800 grams.” And of course that means it was gained, and gaining weight is, of course, a tragedy! Too much concern for some insignificant figures. There are a lot of factors that can cause this change and should not be linked to getting fat, so it makes sense to panic.
If you still want to measure your weight, do it in the morning, immediately after you wake up. Do not weigh yourself in the morning and evening after your fitness routine because the numbers will be different and most likely you will not be lighter on the scale and I’m sure you will find this very upsetting, although the difference is normal and cyclical.
Water retention may be another culprit of these minor differences, and this also has nothing to do with any permanent phenomenon of getting fatter. My advice is to weigh yourself once a week and pay attention to changes over longer periods.
I will keep X diet
For many women, diet equates to two notions that come to sabotage them from the beginning: deprivation of food and a deadline. Whether you choose the grapefruit diet, the Atkins diet, the Danish diet, South Beach Diet or any other diet that will be poor in certain foods, diets that you find in fashion magazines will invariably assume to deprive yourself of certain foods.
Most often it forces you to give up culinary pleasures and even suffer from starvation or maybe both “indications”, which will surely result in the development of bigger and unbearable cravings and maybe you will fall more quickly and severely in the prey of temptation. Another thing these diets have in composition and bothers me a lot is the finite number of days that means a deadline. That more or less become the date from which you will begin to regain the lost weight; after a so-called “miracle diet”, most times you will not be able to maintain the slim shape and you can gain even more than you lost. That’s because you will feel entitled to eat what the diet forbids you and will not believe that a week will be enough to compensate for the torments suffered and will extend for another one and another one and another one. Not to mention how unhealthy dietary approach this will be for your metabolism and how much your health will suffer on a long term. It’s not very hard to eat healthier and better. Eat reasonable portions of food every time you are hungry and accept this advice as the only valid. Or even if you can’t eat small quantities of food, although it is ideal for your flat belly, at least make healthy choices and do not allow your culinary joys too often. I just can’t agree with foods that harm your health… The idea is not crying over food but also it’s critical not to put your health at risk. Diet with healthy foods must be your choice for life, like sports. Practice it as often as you can but do not get laid back when you reach a weight that you believe is ideal.
You will always find me on the elliptical bike!
I already consider it is my duty to say that only cardio workout will not lead you to the body of your dreams. I know you think that because you burn many calories, you will lose weight on the scale, but this is not the way to lose BODY FAT.
I am not saying I don’t like cardio or I don’t think it helps. I also practice cardio workout – cycling, jogging, running… But to have a toned body, and get rid of excess body fat faster, you have to combine it with weight lifting, stretching, strength exercises.
Studies have shown that the elliptical has a relatively small negative impact on the joints, compared with the treadmill or stationary bike or rowing machine (not to mention swimming or climbing), but when it comes to increasing heart rate and burning body fat, it is not superior to the ones mentioned above. That’s mainly because the movement is based on balance and inertia or resistance and it doesn’t use body weight. When I choose the elliptical, I set it on the maximum difficulty to feel like my muscles are burning and I try not to push as much in my arms, and I rely on the natural movement of the device.
I will give a chance to slimming pills
Have you read everything about their effects on your body? If you do not have complete knowledge about all substances these pills can contain, and all their known side effects, why do you choose to make them an acquaintance with your body?
Before taking any medicine, you should consult a doctor to make sure you are within normal parameters of health and to find out if the pills you are about to take doesn’t harm your health. Any pill that promises to stimulate various body systems (in general they say it will accelerate your metabolism) will proceed to torment other vital functions and organs such as your heart. Plus, just by taking slimming pills doesn’t make you lose weight, this being only a tool, among other things that helps you get there. Just by swallowing a pill does not mean you can eat junk food, you can skip workouts and weight will disappear like magic.
I would like a salad!
Salads can be indeed an excellent source of nutrients while having a low content of saturated fat and simple carbohydrates. It depends on what is the meaning of the word “salad” for you. You often order a salad thinking that is a pure, healthy meal low in calories, right? But if a salad is to you a mix of vegetables and sauces, bacon, cheese, croutons, we are not talking about low calories or low-fat meal. All those elements are full of calories and fat, and more importantly, not so easy to digest. By eating this kind of salad, you will sabotage your diet without even realize it. A healthy salad contains healthy elements full of nutrients such as spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, pure protein sources such as nuts, beans, and low-fat cheese to provide flavor and texture. You can try from a vast variety of wonderful salad recipes that are available nowadays on the internet.
I’m trying to skip breakfast
I’m not necessarily a supporter of breakfast, especially because I believe that you should not feed your body if you’re not hungry because this means that the food you ingested the other day is not completely digested so that your intern organs shouldn’t be forced to work hard the first hour in the morning. On the other hand, if you starve for a long time, you will eat more at the next meal, because you will eat faster trying to stop the sensation of emptiness in your stomach. My advice is to eat immediately you feel hungry and not before, but I also don’t encourage long hours of starvation. If you leave home before eating, take with you some fruits and a mix of seeds and nuts. This way, you will have it at hand whenever you start to feel hungry and it’s also a meal full of nutrients, that will give you energy for a few hours, and it’s also very tasty. You can also combine them with a small yogurt that will also bring you nutrients and help your digestion.
I’m doing many abs workouts for a flat tummy
Have you ever been in the situation of doing lots and lots of abs and still not have a flat stomach? Have you tried to lose fat on different parts of your body by working out those muscles? This is not enough if you want the best results – food is also important in the process. You have to minimize your meals portions but also crucial is the quality of the food you ingest and the nutrients your body receives from your diet. So, the recipe for a toned body is diet + nutrients + workout
Women shouldn’t lift weights because they will look like Hulk 🙂
Very few women know the fact that by lifting weights they won’t look like a man because we are so different in so many ways. For example, one of the most important hormones that increase the muscle mass is testosterone that is produced by women’s body in a very small quantity, unlike men whose body produces a large amount of the hormone we’re speaking about. Another difference is that men’s bones are thicker than women so that they need bigger muscles to support them so that hardly a woman can obtain man muscles, even if they lift hard weights.
It is “sugar-free” so I can eat as much as I want, without getting fat
“Sugar-free” means a product without sugar, not without calories, so pay attention to the number of calories on these products, because sometimes, you may be surprised to find out that they have more calories than the same product that contains sugar. This doesn’t mean that you can choose sugary products over the ones that contain natural sweeteners, only because they might have the same amount of calories. It is important to take into account the fact that sugar modifies the cell structure in our body and that makes it an enemy for our health and implicit for our diet.
