Warning: Adult language

Please do not read any further if you are offended by adult language.

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FIRST THINGS FIRST: YOU NEED TO MOVE YOUR ASS!

If you're trying to convince yourself that you don't need to exercise, consider this is your wake up call:

YOU MUST EXERCISE.

I don't care if you are at your ideal weight and don't need to lose a single pound. You MUST exercise if you want be to healthy. Period. Get it in your head and deal with it. There's no way around it.

And if you are trying to lose weight, it is impossible to lose weight (the healthy way) without exercising. You can only lose so much weight by cutting calories. You MUST start exercising to continue losing weight. There is no other way.

Here's your next reality check:

You must include CARDIO and WEIGHT TRAINING into your exercise program.

Both cardio and weight training are absolutely essential, because they provide different benefits and together they help you obtain optimum health and fitness.

The importance of cardio:

Cardio is a must for several reasons. First I'll mention the benefits that nobody really cares about. Cardio strengthens the heart, improves circulation, lowers blood pressure, improves lung capacity, and drastically reduces the risk of dying from cardiovascular problems. Let's be honest here, most people do not exercise for the sheer joy of solely becoming healthier. We want to look good, we want to feel good, and we want to look good. Yep, I said it twice. Obviously, the most common reason most partake in cardiovascular exercise is to burn calories, burn fat, and lose weight. And that it does, magnificently. The most common cardio exercises are walking and running, skiing, biking, elliptical trainers, and aerobics. I run on my elliptical for an hour everyday. I could not love it more. I have been on that thing every day since I got it (save recovery time from my body lift surgery) and I look forward to it everyday. Do you need to do an hour of cardio a day. Hell no, start small. I started out doing the elliptical for 10 minutes a day...that was 2 years ago. I added more time as I felt stronger. Cardio also builds endurance. You can lift weights all day but if you don't do any cardio, you won't be building endurance or strengthening your heart and lungs. Weight training doesn't build endurance, it builds lean muscle mass which obviously builds strength.

The importance of weight training:

Lean muscle mass burns mad calories. It burns them when you're watching TV, it burns them when sitting at your desk, and yes folks, it burns them when your sleeping. The big difference with cardio and weight training, is cardio burns more calories while you are actually exercising. It's more short-term. Weight training burns more calories in the long-term. The more muscle you build, the more calories you are going to burn all day long. The more muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolism is going to be. Everybody wants a high metabolism, right? You bet your ass. So ya, you need to weight train. It doesn't matter what your age, you should be weight training. In fact, it has long been proven that the older we get, the more muscle mass we lose.

Weight training is foreign to a lot of people, but mostly women. Any man will tell you they would love to be muscular and ripped, but very few have the constant dedication to get there and then maintain it. Most women believe the myth that if you weight train, you'll automatically get bulky, manly looking, and look even bigger and fatter. Don't believe the hype ladies. First of all, for men who want to get bulky and all Arnold-looking, they are weight training in a very specific way so they can get that big. They are lifting massive amounts of weight with fewer reps, pounding the protein and supplements, and eating in a much different way than a woman who is trying to lose weight does. There are different ways to weight train. Women usually stick to the lower weights at higher reps to tone and sculpt their bodies. A healthy fit woman with muscle definition does not look manly, in fact, most think it's sexy as hell. I know I do.

For many women especially, it's scary thinking about weight training. How do I do it? What if I hurt myself? I don't want big muscles? Us women tend to make a million excuses on why we should skip the weight training stuff all together and then we justify just doing the cardio.

GET OVER IT! You have to do it!

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There are hundreds of weight training exercises that you can do. You can use free weights (dumbbells or bars), gym machines, medicine balls, kettle bells, resistance bands, etc. Do some research and see what interests you the most. I use free weights, kettle bells, and most recently started using resistance bands (which I absolutely love!). Start small and build from there. Google weight training exercises, you'll find a ridiculous amount of choices. Or take a trip to B & N and flip through some books.

{To read about exactly what I did for exercise when I first started my weight loss journey, read my article, "I Hated Exercise. How Was I Ever Going To Do This?"}

More on kettle bells:

I want to take a minute and talk about kettle bells. Kettle bells are an incredible workout! I absolutely love my kettle bell. Instead of buying all the different sizes of kettle bells, an adjustable weight kettle bell is like six kettle bells in one. I used free weights for one full year before I tried the kettle bell. I got more muscle definition from the kettle bell in two months than I did in the six months of free weights. It is a wicked workout. Totally amazing.

**Here's my baby girl! I love her. As you can see, I use her all the time. She's a little beat up. But she doesn't mind. She loves that I spend so much time with her ;)**

Most people think the kettle bell only works the arm muscles. Hell no. It's a total body workout. You are using every single muscle in your body. If you're not into making up your own program, there are lots of dvd workouts for kettle bells.

{Click here to watch my instructional kettle bell videos. I show you all the moves! Written workouts included.}

Bottom line:

You can pick whichever cardio and weight training exercises you want but make no mistake, you must do it. It's the only way to reach optimum health and it's the fastest way to lose weight. You can start out small and add as you go. You don't have to jump into crazy, long workouts at first (or ever). Just start adding both elements to your regimen until you work up to a productive amount.

What is a productive amount of exercise to lose weight?

Aim to work up to:

5-6 workouts/week with 1-2 rest days
2 of those workouts should be weight training workouts (with at least one day in between- do not weight train the same muscle group two days in a row)
Cardio workouts should be 30-60 minutes in length (45-60 minutes is best)
Weight training workouts should be 20-30 minutes in length

I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but it doesn't matter.

Dig deep and do it.

Before you know it, your clothes will be getting too big for you. You will start feeling strong, your muscles will feel tight, you'll be sleeping better, and your mood will be elevated. It's amazing how exercise makes your body feel. You will start to feel freakin' amazing! It's simply wonderful...and totally worth the efforts.