Fitness Camp to Home: A guide for parents!

It wasn’t easy sending your child to fitness or weight management camp. It was probably very expensive, and you no doubt missed your child. A teen can change an awful lot over a summer, even without going to weight loss camp, and it’s tough to miss out on that. Once your child returns home, he or she needs support in maintaining healthy habits learned at camp. There are a number of reasons that children have a tough time maintaining their weight loss once they return home. Below are a few of the difficulties and how you can help avoid them.

Unrealistic expectations are common because parents forget that their teen faces the double difficulty of losing weight while still growing. Sometimes they don’t so much lose weight as they gain height and “grow into” their weight. The point is, when they return home, they may not have lost that much weight. But don’t focus so much on the number on the scale: he or she may have grown an inch over the summer, making any weight lost more significant. Be positive about what your teen has accomplished rather than comparing it to what you think he or she should have accomplished.

Parental guilt can be destructive all around. Some parents feel guilty for “letting” their child become overweight, and some feel guilty about sending their child to weight loss camp. When your child returns home from camp, it’s an opportunity for the entire family to start again with healthier habits and to lose some of the old habits, like going out for ice cream a couple of times a week.

The kitchen itself could be a problem. If your child has just spent two months learning healthy eating habits and comes home to a refrigerator full of ice cream sandwiches and a pantry full of potato chips, it’s going to be exceptionally hard to maintain those habits in the face of such temptation. Before your child returns, stock the kitchen with easy to prepare and eat foods that are healthy. One of the best examples of this is fruit. In summer you can get fresh fruit easily, and for most fruits, the only preparation required is a good washing.

You may think you’re helping your teen by being a “food Nazi,” but if you do nothing but tell your child what he or she cannot eat, it’s a classic setup for rebellion. Encouragement is great. Talking it out is great. But saying “no treats ever, period” is unrealistic and not really supportive. Encourage the good habits your child has developed rather than looking for faults and pointing them out.

Be a good role model, but don’t go overboard. If you look perfect, get up every morning at 5 a.m. to jog, and happen to have a fast metabolism, your child is going to look at that as a set of unrealistic expectations. On the other hand, if they see Mom or Dad lying hour after hour in front of the television with a bag of chips and a bowl of dip, they’re going to wonder why they bothered learning their healthier habits. It is much better for everyone if your organize activities like a walk after dinner, or a weekend hike at a local park.

In summary, your teen’s return home from fitness or weight loss camp is an opportunity for the entire family to “reboot” with better eating and exercise habits. Let them know that you are supportive and that you are “there” for them and don’t go overboard in enforcing “rules” and you’ll have a healthier environment for them and for you.

Summer is the season of Fitness!

Here comes summer! Summer is the season of getting in shape. If your New Years’ resolution went astray, now is the time to recommit to success. One of the best things about fitness is that is never too late to start. Research has shown dramatic improvements in lifestyle of people who begin an exercise program. So get ready, get set, and go!

So how do you start again? First of all think about movement that feels good to your body. Was there any activity in your past that you enjoyed? How can you adapt that activity to something you can do now? For example, if you used to play football what was it about that sport that you enjoyed? Was it the practice sessions, your particular position and what that involved, the strategy of game play, or the team camaraderie that fired you up? As a kid perhaps you simply enjoyed riding your bike and the freedom it gave you. Perhaps in your teens you were into music and dancing. Could that inspire you again?

I strongly suggest that you get something more back from your exercise that just calorie burning. If you live or work by yourself, maybe you need a group activity or a group class for the socialization. If you need to get away from lots of hustle and bustle, maybe you need a solitary run, walk, bike or swim. If you want to feel more peaceful try yoga or Tai chi. If you want to feel more empowered, why not try intense weight training.

Once you have figured out what exercise to do, step up a goal and break it into small steps. Achieving a slimmer and better physique is all about accomplishing small steps. Weekly and monthly goal achievement lead toward major goal success. If you are a runner you first have to run 10 kilometers before you can run a marathon. If you are lifting weights you first have to lift 30 pounds before you can lift 100. If that sounds overly simplistic, it was meant to be, but you must begin where you are now and gradually move up.

If your goal is over challenging, you might get depressed or quit, so make it realistic. However, please make it something that requires you to stretch out of your comfort zone just a bit. Your body will adapt and change and you will get results if you make the effort. Make a sincere and no excuses commitment to change, do the small steps and be ready for a new you!

Use Elliptical machines to get into shape

One issue most Americans cannot escape is the weight problem. Though money can be spent on such procedures like liposuction, tummy tucks, and thigh reduction, what you cannot run away from however, is reality, as your weight will crawl back if you don’t do anything about your diet and institute a fitness routine.

This is the way our bodies function. Take my advice and quit the short cut routine and begin serious workouts so that you can be physically fit. Undergoing surgery will not put your body in good physical shape. At this stage what you really need is either a gym or good home fitness equipment. And nowadays there are even sophisticated equipments that make things easier without effecting the intensity of your workouts. One of these is the elliptical exercise machine, which is now a favorite among gym goers.

Anyone who has ever stepped into a gym or fitness center will testify that some equipment is constantly in demand. And sometimes it can be one of the machines you so wanted to lay your hands on. This is what I observed with the elliptical exercise machine. It is simply one of the stand-up machines that people walk on. It is a sort of a walking motion as you are gliding when you are exercising.

The high-tech elliptical exercise machine was designed to aid the joints. Most people are ignorant of the fact that they can easily sprain their joints when running or jogging on hard surfaces. This has a terrible effect on the knees and ankles. Each time you hit your foot on the ground, it sends a shock wave through the leg which can lead to more serious issues. This is not mentioning the fact that running can cause your internal organs to shift after some time, something that cannot be regarded as a positive development.

Thus the elliptical exercise machine is a sort of saving grace because it allows you to burn calories using a low impact form of exercise. The major benefit of the elliptical exercise machine is that it places far less stress on your limbs and the whole body in general.

I will recommend the elliptical exercise machine to any fitness nut. This will save you the time and stress of driving over to the local gym every day of the week. You will be saving money on gas as well as the pain of driving through congested traffic. You can log on to the internet and find out how to get a discount elliptical exercise machine for your home use. This is the only way you can derive pleasure from your fitness regime when working out at home.