Hula Hoop Your Way to Lean, Sexy Abs

By: Angelique Millis International Fitness Expert

Chances are you had a hula hoop as a child and you spent many a summer's day swinging it around your hips! Little did you know that in your tireless abundance of energy, you were doing what adults refer to as "cardio". Hula Hooping can help you to reconnect with your inner child while helping you tighten and slim your body. Even celebrities like Shakira and Beyonce use the hula hoop as a cardio activity.

Why Hula Hoop? This has become popular form of exercise because it includes multiple elements that contribute to a fun cardio activity. It's creative, portable & provides both muscle toning and cardio.

Getting Started Begin by hooping for ten minutes twice a day -about as long as it takes to listen to three songs on the radio or your mp3 player -and then build from there.

Whittle Your WaistlineTo get the ultimate benefits from hooping, it is best to do a hoop routine starting with 30 minutes three times a week, pushing that to 40 minutes until you can hoop for an hour at a time. The physical benefits of hooping are incredible and will whittle your waistline. In addition to strengthening your abdominal muscles and lower back muscles, this kind of shimmy provides an intense cardiovascular workout & enhances your coordination. The best part is that you put little to no impact on your joints!

Hula Hooping for Flat Abs As many crunches as you can do, there is no other ab exercise that moves your waistline in a circular pattern. This simple and contrived motion allows you to move your hips & control your abs while keeping the hoop spinning.

If you need help, feel free to ask me any questions by clicking here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Angelique-Millis/129125997128841 or visit www.AngeliqueMillis.com to subscribe to the newsletter!

March 15, 2012

Get a Gym Quality Workout at Home

By: Angelique Millis International Fitness Expert

Let's face it - there are not enough hours in the day to accomplish nearly half of the things on our "to-do" lists - we're lucky to even cross off 1/3 of them! Most Americans are so stressed out and overwhelmed that driving to the gym and working out is the last thing they want to do! Demands from a job, spending time with the family and household duties overcome one's need or desire to commute to a crowded neighborhood gym. Learn how to save time and work out in the comfort of your very own home!

Designate a home workout zone. Create a special area in your home where you can exercise on a daily basis. Make sure there is a TV nearby so you can watch your favorite programs while you workout. Maybe you would prefer to set it up in a calmer part of the house, perhaps by a window where you can enjoy the scenery as you stretch! Depending on the space that you choose you may want to put up some motivational posters, mirrors and a sound system if you want to be really fancy.

Equipment. Now that you have thought of a place to set-up your in-home gym, there are certain pieces of equipment that you should invest in. You will need some free weights, a workout bench, workout matt, stability ball and a piece of cardio equipment. Do not worry about spending thousands of dollars on a Bowflex or any other at-home gym equipment because believe it or not you can achieve just as an effective workout with these minimal supplies! It's all in the way that you use what you have.

Stay Motivated & Motivate Others
Those that think that they need to go to a gym in order to get an effective workout are living in the dark ages! They have been programmed to believe that they need all of those bulky and sometimes intimidating exercise machines to get in shape although it's quite the opposite! Stay on track and follow your intuition to want to save time and money by working out at home; don't let yourself make excuses! You know the old saying "Out of sight, out of mind." Don't let that happen to your at-home gym equipment! Don't "hide" your workout equipment or put it in a room that you normally would not want to be in, because unless you have already formed a terrific at-home workout habit, you will forget about it!

In many cases you will end up NOT wanting to go to the smelly dark grungy basement or garage and you only end up doing everything else except workout!
If you have limited space in your home for your workout zone, get creative and store everything (with exception of stability ball) in a medium size storage bin underneath the bench.

• Understand that fitness is a journey to be enjoyed, not a one time event. Like the old adage goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day." Your body, too, is a masterpiece in progress. Take it one day at a time, and enjoy the process.

• Don't over train! If you over train, your appetite will increase and you will start eating like a 250 pound football player and not a bikini model. Rather, do just enough to blast fat, and not to hit a plateau. Again if you over train, your body will "lock up" and not allow you to burn the fat off that you need too, because it will reach a state of "shock", thus holding onto the fat.


If you need help, feel free to ask me any questions by clicking here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Angelique-Millis/129125997128841 or visit www.AngeliqueMillis.com to subscribe to the newsletter!

March 14, 2012

Create Healthy Diet Habits for Life

By: Angelique Millis International Fitness Expert

While there is no magic formula that you can calculate that will guarantee you success in achieving your fitness goals, there are certainly a few key eating habits you can incorporate into your daily routine that can make all the difference between lean flat abs or a bloated belly. When done habitually, passionately and with patience and dedication, your body will react and respond to your new habits faster than you can say string bikini!

1) Listen to Your Body
I am FASCINATED by the human body! I see my body as something sacred that I nurture each day, like a science experiment. It amazes me how the body responds to what you put into it. Once you listen closely to what your body is telling you, you will notice how it responds to the amount (and type) of food, exercise and rest that you give it. Remember, it is YOUR CHOICE how you care for your body- nobody else’s. You can either give it the best fuel available and fine-tune it like a Ferrari or let it rot like an 80s junk car waiting to be made into scrap metal. Get to know your body and focus on what it feels like when you are at your very best and just aim to feel that way every day of your life. Trust me, I know from experience how horrible my body feels after a night of drinking and bad food but more importantly I also know how wonderful I feel when I eat right, drink plenty of water and get my rest. I opt for the latter and so should you!

2) Know Your Daily Caloric Intake
While you don’t need to neurotic about every bite you take throughout the day, it’s always in your favor to have a ball-park figure of what you need to consume to maintain and/or lose weight.

Average Daily Calories to MAINTAIN Your Weight:
Here is a simple formula courtesy of Discovery Health that can also help you figure out how to lose a few pounds. Simply take your weight and multiply it by 12 and that is the amount of calories you need to consume daily. For example if you weigh 135 pounds than you should be consuming 1,620 on a daily basis.

3) Eat More and More Often
Don’t starve yourself! Your body will go out of whack and go into survival mode by going after your muscle tone (NOT the fat) and will only leave you feeling weak and “skinny fat”. Eating more often helps maintain a steady level of blood glucose levels which helps give us steady energy levels throughout the day. Steady energy comes from steady intake of foods. By eating 3 meals and 2 snacks per day you will boost your metabolism and your body will burn stored fat (provided that you are exercising on a regular basis). Remember, when calories are consumed, there is a thermic effect that takes place, and your metabolism rises in order to process those calories.

It is very simple; the more often you eat, the more 'thermic' effect the body is getting, thus a higher metabolism overall. When I eat this way, I can feel my metabolism responding and hear my body saying “thank you!”

Average Daily Calories to LOSE Weight:
To produce a weight loss at the safe rate of one to two pounds per week, all you need to do is subtract calories from your daily total. If you want to lose one pound, you should shed 500 calories per week. For two pounds, you should ditch 1,000.

4) Be On “Portion Patrol”
Who wants to weigh foods to practice portion control? Certainly not me! Although it’s always good to have a food scale in the kitchen for measuring out tricky portions, it’s not always practical. In order to keep your “guesstimated” portions in check (I doubt there will be a food scale handy when you sit down to eat) you can use every day household items as a mental reference guide.

Here are some examples of standard serving sizes:
• Cereal (1 c.) = a baseball
• Salad Dressing (2 Tbsp.) = a shot glass
• Nuts (1 oz.) = a cupped palm
• Cheese (1 oz.) = a ping-pong ball
• Lean Sirloin Hamburger (3 oz.) = a mayo jar lid
• Peanut Butter (1 tsp.) = one die
• Beef (3 oz.) = a bar of soap
• Rice (1/2 c.) = an ice cream scoop
• Potato/Sweet Potato= a computer mouse
• Butter (1 tsp.) = a Scrabble tile
• Fruit (1 c.) = a tennis ball
• Fish (3 oz.) = a checkbook
• Chicken (3 oz.) = a deck of playing cards

If you need help, feel free to ask me any questions by clicking here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Angelique-Millis/129125997128841 or visit www.AngeliqueMillis.com to subscribe to the newsletter!

March 13, 2012