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Before you can hit your workout goals, you have to set goals. Setting goals is always the first step toward fitness. You have to know what you want and create a pathway to get to that destination and actualize your dreams. One of the first steps is looking at your goals and making sure they’re achievable. If you want to lose 50 pounds a month for two months, that’s not possible to do. It’s not only unhealthy, but it would also require some type of major illness or surgery to do.

Be consistent.

You can’t exercise every once in a while or eat healthy at breakfast and consume a soft drink and candy bar for lunch and still expect to reach your goals. Schedule your workout at a specific time and put it in your appointment book or on your phone. You’ll not only be more apt to stick with an appointment, but also develop a habit of working out at that time. Plan your meals. Our meal planner can help you create all the meals for the week and snacks, so you eat healthy at every meal.

Learn easy ways to judge portions to give you more control.

There are simple ways to identify what a portion of any food is. For instance, a portion of meat, poultry or fish is the size of the palm of your hand. Your cupped hand can measure your carbs and a fist is the perfect measure for veggies. Fats, like butter, are the size of the tip of your pointer finger and by putting together your ring finger and middle finger, you’ll have the size of a portion of cheese.

Keep a food diary to help you stick with a healthy eating pattern.

Don’t be ashamed if you’re more aware of what you eat when someone is watching. It’s human nature. Keeping a food diary is one way of doing it, keeping you aware of all the bites and nibbles you have throughout the day. Too often people don’t realize just how much they eat. For instance, you might grab a handful of candy when you pass a coworker’s desk candy dish or clean up the last of the lasagna in the dish before you put it in the dishwasher. If you’re more aware of what you eat and when, you’re more able to find ways to save those calories or substitute that food with lower calorie options.

• Get help. Everyone does better when people work together toward a goal. A personal trainer or family can provide motivation. You can workout with a friend or family member.
• Track your progress a number of ways. It’s not all about weight lost, inches lost count, as well. You can also track your blood pressure, energy level and clothing size. Take a full length selfie every month and compare photos. All these successes will be motivating.
• Have fun. Not all exercise is done in workout sessions. Find active hobbies and fun activities that also burn calories. Ride a bike, take a walk or play a little basketball with friends or family.
• Appreciate who you are. Don’t do negative self-talk. If you fall off the wagon and eat a whole cake, go back to healthy eating the next day. You only fail when you quit trying, so never give up.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C Fitness

A lot of clients at RCF, whether they come to the gym in Houston, TX, or workout online, hate to take the time to make goals or when they do, make them unrealistic. Why should your weight loss goal be realistic? There are a lot of reasons. You not only want to lose weight, but you also want to keep those pounds off permanently. Unrealistic goals may cause you to starve yourself to achieve, so you won’t learn how to eat healthy for permanent weight loss. If you set them too high, it can also be discouraging. Losing weight permanently is all about changing habits and habits take a while to change.

Is your overall goal a healthy one?

If you’re trying to lose weight, but are already to thin, there’s a big problem. If you weigh 135 pounds, that doesn’t mean much, you might be the perfect weight, too thin or too heavy, it all depends on your height. A person who is six foot tall and weighs 135 is classed as underweight on the BMI chart, but they’re five foot tall, they’re overweight. You need to know what your ideal weight is for your gender, age, height and build to see how much you need to lose.

Once you determine your ideal weight, set your goal.

Keep your goal healthy by checking with a BMI chart and give yourself a healthy timeline. Most trainers agree that aiming for losing two pounds each week is a healthy route to take, particularly if you’re using both exercise and a healthy diet. You’ll probably lose more weight in the beginning, since the bigger you are, the more calories you’ll burn. It’s like carrying a heavy weight everywhere you go. Just stick with the two pound loss each week, even if you lose a ton the first week or two, it will slow down.

Divide your goal by two to find how long it will take.

If forty pounds is your ultimate goal, it will take you 20 weeks. Now you have to put it on a timeline. If you’re starting May 1, you’d reach your goal by September 18th. You’re now ready to make your goal, it will be similar to: “I will lose 20 pounds by September 18th by following a healthy diet of 1200 calories daily and working out 45 minutes a day. Track your progress to make sure you stay on track.

As you build muscle tissue, you’ll burn more calories, since muscle tissue requires more than fat tissue does. However, muscle tissue weighs more per cubic inch, so you may not shed a pound, but look thinner.

While a healthy diet is the most important part of weight loss, since you can’t out-exercise a bad diet, you need exercise to tone and shape your body. Stick with realistic workouts.

You don’t have to stick with strictly pounds as your goal, you can use inches or other way to measure your progress. Even tracking your progress with a picture of you in the same outfit each time works, especially if it’s way too tight initially.

Keeping your goals realistic boosts your motivation, especially if you exceed your goals, which can happen, particularly in the beginning. They help you not only form a plan, but let you modify it if you’re not getting the results you want.

Great legs make you feel fabulous whether you’re wearing your favorite shorts or jeans or at the beach in a swimsuit. At RC Fitness in Houston, TX, we can help you achieve that goal. Workouts to tone your legs focus on the muscle groups of the thighs, calves and booty. It gives you that curvy, trim look. Do you suffer from cankles—where your calves and ankles are the same size? Start with the ankles with weighted calf raises, side lying leg lifts using resistance bands, seated calf raises and stair calf raises. They shape the calves and slim the ankles.

Get rid of thunder thighs and puckered cottage cheese thighs.

You can’t really eliminate cellulite, but you can make your thighs smaller and/or smoother by strengthening the muscle tissue. Squats and lunges help do that. Squats to make cellulite less visible include a goblet squat, where your feet are wider than a normal squat and you push your knees out to the side, not straight forward. Side lunges are excellent to tone the thighs, as are side leg raises and donkey kicks.

Make sure you work the front, back and sides of the legs.

If you want faster results that strengthens all the muscles in your legs, do a jumping plyometric squat. Jump up and drop down to squat position, then jump back up again in rapid succession. Every muscle in your leg will be worked. It’s tough to do. Explosive lunges also work the whole leg. They’re done like lunges with feet together, then lunging forward on one leg. Instead of stepping back, you jump as you switch legs midair and land with the other foot forward, continuously switching forward leg.

Tone your booty while you tone your legs.

A plie squat, like ballerinas do, work hamstrings, inner thigh, quads and glutes. The difference in how it’s done compared to a regular squat is the position of the feet. Instead of straight forward and held closer together like a regular squat, the feet are turned out to form a V. If you want to challenge yourself, keep making the V wider. An exercise that will tone your thighs and butt as it strengthens your abs is a bridge. Lay on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor, hands to your sides. Lift your hips off the floor about five inches and hold, squeezing your glutes as you do.

• Go up on toe like a ballerina and you’ll have gorgeous legs like they do. You’re really not going up on your toes, but rather on the balls of your feet. Raise up slowly and then lower yourself slowly until your heel is touching the ground again.
• As your legs get into shape, you can increase the intensity and the number of repetitions you do. As you increase both number and intensity, you’ll get faster results.
• Step ups are also good for leg muscles. Start with the platform lower and work your way to a higher platform. If you have weights, hold them in your hand as you get more proficient.
• If you’re overweight, a healthy diet to lose weight is important if you want gorgeous legs. At RC Fitness, we offer in person and on line exercises and a healthy diet to help you lose weight.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C Fitness

We focus on both diet and exercise for a healthier life and great appearance at RCF in Houston, TX. Fruits and vegetables are an important part of that. Some tasty additions to a healthy diet are berries. Berries are defined as a fruit with a pulpy pericarp that has seeds embedded inside it. You immediately think of grapes, blueberries and currants, but bananas, peppers, eggplant, watermelon, oranges, pumpkins, avocados tomatoes, kiwis and cucumbers also fit that description. Yes, all of these are considered fruits and are berries. Strawberries, black raspberries and raspberries aren’t berries, but we’ll include them in the group of berries.

Grapes and products made from them, like juice, raisins, vinegar or wine, have health benefits.

When you eat the skin and the seeds of the grapes, you’ll be consuming the potent antioxidant polyphenol, that it contains. They not only help lower blood pressure, but also heart rate. Grapes contain fiber, vitamin C and vitamin K. One study showed that if you ate grapes three times a week, your risk of type 2 diabetes was lowered by 12%. Another study showed that people who consumed 17 ounces of grapes for 8 weeks had lowered blood cholesterol levels and less oxidative stress. However, 17 ounces is about 89 grapes, which is quite a lot. Another study found drinking 12 ounces of Concord grape juice for 12 weeks improved memory.

Cranberries can be beneficial for UTIs—urinary tract infections.

Most people are aware that cranberry juice and cranberries may be beneficial for UTIs and many nursing homes include cranberry juice daily in residents’ diets. The cranberry juice contains substances that prevent the E. coli bacteria from sticking to the urinary tract or bladder wall. Other infectious bacteria, like the H. pylori that causes gastric cancer and stomach ulcers, also succumb to the teflon-like powers of the cranberry that prevents it sticking to the stomach wall. Cranberries contain fiber, vitamin C, manganese and antioxidant polyphenols. They can help keep the arteries more flexible, oxidative stress, lower high cholesterol and blood pressure.

Blueberries are healthy are part of that comes from the color.

Seriously, the substance that makes blueberries blue, anthocyanins, are not only good to reduce oxidative stress, it also helps lower the risk of diabetes, cancer and heart disease. They also help lower bad cholesterol and enhance the artery functioning. They reduce insulin resistance, which is the precursor to type 2 diabetes by as much as 26%. They’re even good for reducing cognitive decline that comes with aging. Blueberries contain fiber, vitamin C, K and manganese.

• Raspberries, the berries that aren’t really berries, are high in vitamin C, K and manganese. They are also high in antioxidants. Black raspberries reduce the risk of heart disease and may reduce inflammation.
• Goji berries are high in vitamin A, C, fiber and iron. The vitamin A and zeaxanthin they contain are beneficial to the eyes. They also contain the antioxidant polyphenols and drinking goji berry juice for 30 days can increase blood antioxidant levels in 30 days.
• Strawberries, another berry that’s not a true berry, has high amounts of fiber, vitamin C and manganese. It can reduce the risk of heart disease, lower inflammation and may help prevent diabetes.
• You might not expect berries to grow on a palm tree, but acai berries do. It has ten times more antioxidants than blueberries. It can reduce insulin amounts, blood sugar and cholesterol levels. It also reduces the symptoms of osteoarthritis.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C Fitness

Changing your diet isn’t all about losing weight. It’s about feeling healthy and full of energy too. When clients at RC Fitness in Houston, TX, tell me how hard it is to give up certain foods, I tell them to give it a month, then reassess. There’s evidence that the longer you go without junk food, the more your taste buds can taste the true flavor of whole food and it tastes pretty good.

One study found that within a short period, people changed their preference for saltiness.

They were given salt-free soup throughout the weeks of the study on a regular basis. They were allowed to salt the soup to taste. The amount added each time was measured and noted. By the end of the study, the test group used half the salt to flavor the soup as they did in the beginning. Their taste buds had adjusted to a diet that required less salt for flavoring. By changing the diet and taste, the lower sodium intake helped lower blood pressure, kept kidneys healthier and made it easier to lose weight.

Cutting out food with added sugar can boost your energy.

It will take a while to realize the difference, but within a month, you’ll suddenly realize you no longer have that dragged out feeling mid-afternoon and that morning coffee will keep you going strong all day, without the need for a second cup at any time. While it’s tough to give up sugary treats, after a few weeks, you’ll notice just how sweet fruit tastes and how good you feel. Sugar metabolizes fast, but in a short time, you’ll crash just as fast and need more sugar to keep going. It’s a vicious cycle that also packs on the pounds.

You’ll look fabulous.

Not only will you lose weight, you’ll lose abdominal fat, those pounds packed on around the middle. Eating junk food causes spikes in blood sugar that floods the body with insulin and promotes fat around the mid section. That type of fat around your belly is visceral fat, the most dangerous type. It crowds the organs and floods them with hormones that can cause cancer and heart disease.

• Expect to see changes in your skin. Not only will you have a glow, a low sugar diet stops glycation. Glycation slows the repair of the collagen in your skin, and that causes wrinkles and sagging. The less sugar you eat, the more youthful your skin will look.
• You’ll love looking in the mirror and admiring your new body. Within just 30 days, you will see a difference, especially if you follow a program of regular exercise with the dietary change.
• Your cravings for junk food will diminish, but if you eat your favorite after 30 days, you won’t find it quite as delicious as you remembered. That’s because your taste buds have changed.
• You’ll feel better. Some people describe it as feeling clean after a meal. Part of that is from the increased fiber that cleans your system from the inside outward.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C. Fitness