Article at a Glance:
Setting a transformation challenge is a great way to overcome your inactive lifestyle or breathe new life into your fitness regime.
They motivate you to set commitment for yourself by giving a definitive purpose. They help you focus your efforts on your achievable goal.
Body Transformation Challenge is a fantastic way to develop healthy habits which is the most basic requirement for building a stronger and healthier body.
What is Body Transformation Challenge?
Body Transformation Challenge is a commitment you do to yourself to achieve a certain fitness or health goal by tweaking your lifestyle over a set period. You need to set small-term and long-term goals and keep measuring your progress to ensure you are on the right track throughout your journey.
Let’s take an example:
Your goal is to lose excess weight and become fitter.
This is how your Body Transformation Challenge will look like:
I intend to shed 5 kg of my body fat over the next 30 days to achieve the target weight of 50 kg.
For this, I will take in 1200 calories per day and do 3 interval training workouts per week.
To measure my progress, I will record my body fat percentage and body weight every three days.
Tips for Transformation Challenge
When setting up your challenge, there are some key things that you need to consider.
Keep it Achievable
A too difficult challenge can leave you frustrated and you may feel like giving up. Similarly, too easy will not be a real challenge at all.
Here is what 8 Fitness Tips’ experts recommend to help you set realistic goals for weight loss and muscle building challenge.
- Weight loss goal of 0.5 – 1 kg of fat per week
- Muscle building goal of 0.5 lbs muscle per week
Make it Measurable
Transformation Challenges remove uncertainty and keep you focused. Therefore these challenges are so effective. Avoid unclear challenges and keep tracking your progress to stay motivated.
Here are some metrics suggested that you can keep a record of:
- Body Weight
- Body Fat Percentage
- Lean Body Mass
- Body Measurements such as chest, waist, thigh etc.
These metrics are easily measurable and excellent progress indicators. For better motivation, you can combine these metrics with progress pictures for comprehensive and insightful records.
Give Yourself Some Time
The “time” factor is determined by the challenge that you give to yourself. Aim for a longer duration to measure effective progress and shorter duration to stay motivated without getting bored.
As per our expert recommendation, 30 days is a good length of time to see results for most challenges.
Make a planner
Plan your activities on a daily, weekly and monthly basis and don’t leave anything to chance. Create a fitness planner that marks your workouts and records other milestones. Set reminders to record these milestones so that you don’t miss your track.
Review your progress
Set-up regular review points where you look at progress and reflect on any changes in your body. We recommend you to review every 5 days for a better reflection of your progress. This will ensure that you don’t find any surprises at the end of your challenge.
This also helps in finding out what is working for you and what’s not! And you can tweak your plan and steer your activity during the challenge.
Stay Social with your Challenge
Your Body Transformation Challenge should not be your solo mission.
8 Fitness Tips’ Body Transformation experts can help you with setting up your goal, track your progress and win your challenge!
If you are convinced that body transformation challenges are powerful drivers for change. We will make it easy to set up, help to keep you focused and accountable and achieve it stipulated time.
Why not try one over the next 30 days and let help you to get on!
Article at a Glance:
- Benefits of Virtual Workout Sessions
- Flexibility for Time and Place
- Provides a wide variety of formats
- Professional At-home Guidance
- The Fun of Working Out Together
- Connect with Yourself
- Adds to your Confidence
With so much turbulence happening everywhere, everyone’s life has flipped upside down over the past few weeks. People are gradually adopting the “new normal” routine. And in this, the healthy-going lifestyle of many people has taken a set back. Working up a sweat to stay fit while stuck at home can be difficult — but, it is not impossible.
Since regular physical activity helps not only with fitness but it also boosts immunity and builds a healthy mental being. A little home workout or Yoga seems to be the best bet right now for holding some sanity while cooped up.
Besides, working out at home for a few minutes not only keeps you fit, but it gives you that much-needed break from the monotony of staying indoors in closed spaces.
And it is way easy to start!!!
All you need is a yoga mat and a stable Wi-Fi connection and you are all set to go from anywhere. It is as good as having a trainer with you at the comfort of your home.
Benefits of Virtual Workout Sessions
Here are a few reasons why working out while you are home should be a priority.
Flexibility for Time and Place
Virtual exercising sessions gives you the flexibility to join in the session from the comfort of yours. The fitness freaks can exercise at anytime time of the day and as per their convenience.
Exercising or working out in the gym does not give you this much flexibility of time.
Provides a wide variety of formats
From high energy exercises like aerobics to the gentle core strengthening exercises like yoga – there is something for everyone.
Viewers get the flexibility to choose the format that suits them perfectly and work their health out with a specialized instructor.
Professional At-home Guidance
In virtual workout sessions, you can get the most qualified instructors conducting the sessions in the most appropriate way to time exercise and follow the right flow. You get detailed instructions on the exercises so that you get the most out of the workout while sitting comfortably at your home.
The Fun of Working Out Together
Even though your gang is not physically around you sweating its fitness out, but you can enjoy the fun of working out together even with your long-distance buddies. By virtually working out with others, you will experience the advantages of real-time workout sessions.
You get a sense of accountability, increased endorphins and eternal motivation. Isn’t it super fun!!!
Connect with Yourself
With stressful situations hovering from all over, workout sessions can be a bit of relief. Workout sessions allow you to disconnect your mind from all the drama happening around and be more mindful. These virtual exercise classes will help you connect with others and also with your inner self.
It lets you reset your mind, body, and soul for better.
Adds to your Confidence
Virtual Exercise classes are an excellent option for those who do not get excited about the idea of exercising in large groups. Alternately, virtual workout sessions also give you confidence if you are a newcomer to the fitness regime. These classes are an excellent way of building confidence in a more private environment, at a suitable pace.
To make it all a little more interesting, play some energetic music and start an effective workout session within the confines of your home.
If you are looking for an effective virtual workout or exercise session, 8 Fitness Tips’ Virtual Morning Session are your best bets. Our live streaming sessions are always fresh and new, and being around with other people with similar levels of enthusiasm provides vital group energy and socialisation.
You will not think of these as exercise — so we like to call them ‘social fitness session’, not workouts!
Article at a Glance:
What you eat reflects on your health and quality of life. And vice-versa, our health goals decide our eating habits.
If you want to lose your belly fat, change the way you eat. If you want to build muscles, eat accordingly. Moreover, the most common advice to be healthy is to eat a healthy diet.
But, what does healthy eating even mean?
- Is it shunning sweet potatoes and quinoa in favour of cheese and coconut oil?
- Is it avoiding sugary foods like ice cream and candy at all costs?
- Or is it avoiding all dairy and nix gluten?
Although eating healthy can be fairly simple, the popular “diets” and dieting trends may confuse.
These diets and dieting trends which prompt people to try unsustainable and unnecessarily restrictive diets can become confusing, overwhelming and exhaustive and may not give any long-lasting result.
But worry not! Healthy eating is far simpler than you may think.
What is Healthy Eating?
Healthy eating necessarily means eating nutrition-based food. Food items that offer more nutrition to the body.
According to studies, consuming nutrition-based diets lowers the risk of all chronic diseases possibly because these diets tend to include more heart-healthy fibre and nutrients like potassium while limiting the intake of saturated fat and cholesterol.
Foods need to hold on to its fibre, vitamins, and minerals to stay healthy and nutritious. Besides, it should be free from harmful preservatives that are added to it to keep the shelf life longer than natural.
Why is it important to develop healthy eating habits?
Healthy eating habits are important since they are the tools for a life lived well — and long. When you make healthy decisions about your eating habits, you are at a lower risk for many diseases including cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and even anxiety and depression.
Here are some of the listed reasons for the importance of healthy eating habit:
Healthy eating can help prevent disease
Healthy eating leads to a healthy disease-free life. Whereas unhealthy habits like poor nutrition, lack of exercise, and excessive alcohol are the top causes of chronic disease including heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes.
Eating habits affect your mental health
Food choices affect our physical and mental health equally. When we prioritize a healthy diet, our mental health sees an equal boost as our physical health.
A diet rich in vitamins and minerals lowers the risk for mental health disorders including anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Healthy eating helps in your weight loss journey
Having a healthy eating lifestyle in which due attention is given to portion sizes will help in achieving a healthy weight.
Eat mindfully:
- Stop eating when you’re full.
- Don’t eat too fast
- Don’t eat for emotional reasons.
Healthy eating does not require you to make huge changes. Set small goals and change your eating habits a little bit at a time. Gradually, small changes will make a big difference in your health.
Developing healthy habits, setting small goals are not that difficult. Since the benefits of good nutrition are fairly obvious to most of us. You have more energy, better health conditions, and a healthier state of mind.
We have been learning since ages that healthy eating plays an important role in maintaining a healthy weight, decreasing the risk of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, cancer and a host of other health ailments.
And if there are so many good reasons for healthy eating, why is it so difficult to do?
When talking about diet, the most common advice that one gets is to either eat less or avoid fat. And eventually, we feel overwhelmed with conflicting nutrition and diet opinions.
However, depriving yourself of essential nutrition and fats is not the solution, but balancing these nutrition’s in the right amount at the right time is.
To support a healthy lifestyle, it is essential to get the right type and amount of foods at the right time.
How much do you need daily, when is the best time to eat proteins or carbs and what should the portion size be – all these questions look very confusing. Isn’t it?
Do not get carried away with all these. Just to our fitness experts and get yourself a sorted balanced nutritional meal plan that matches your lifestyle requirements.
Further, read on to understand how a balanced nutritional meal looks like!
What is a balanced diet?
A balanced diet should contain different kinds of foods and nutrients in certain quantities and proportions so that the body’s requirement for calories, proteins, minerals, vitamins and alternative nutrients is met. Besides, a small provision must also be reserved for additional nutrients to endure the short length of leanness.
A balanced diet should also offer bioactive phytochemicals like dietary fibre, antioxidants and nutraceuticals that have positive health advantages.
A balanced diet primarily focuses on providing all these nutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fat along with micronutrients including vitamins and minerals) that your body needs. These nutrients play different roles in the smooth functioning of various body parts.
Let’s understand more about these nutrients:
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are your body’s main source of energy. Carbs are hard to digest but they’re an important part of a healthy balanced diet.
Proteins
Protein is the main component of all of your body’s cells, including your hair, skin and soft tissues. We burn more calories in digesting proteins than carbs.
Fats
Fats provide energy, store vitamins and synthesize hormones.
Vitamins and Minerals
Vitamins and Minerals are the micronutrients that support metabolism, nerve and muscle function, bone maintenance and cell production.
Minerals are inorganic and so minerals from plants, meat and fish easily find their way into the body.
Vitamins are fragile compounds and it’s difficult to shuttle them as they may be destroyed during cooking or storing. Vitamin A, E, B12 and D are vital and so is calcium and iron.
Eat wisely
Healthy eating habits primarily consist of three main meals along with healthy snacking to curb cravings. This is important to keep your body running smoothly.
Ideally, breakfast should be the heaviest and healthiest meal of the day. However, due to busy schedules, you sometimes can just manage to gulp a glass of milk and grab a bite of toast.
But when you skip or gulp your breakfast, and take a quick lunch, your body eventually demands more in dinner and you end up eating heavy dinner. While dinner should be the lightest meal of the day, it ends up as an elaborate family meal.
Here’s how you can divide your meals for balanced nutrition.
Breakfast
A good morning meal should comprise three things – carbs, proteins and nuts. The right balance of these will allow you to eat fewer calories for the rest of the day.
Lunch
Lunch should be a mix of high-fibre, starchy carbs and some good sources of proteins. You can also include some probiotics and fibre to complete your meal.
Dinner
To have a balanced nutritional intake, pick your last meal of the day with a high satiating value that will keep you full for longer and curb midnight bingeing. For this, include vitamins and minerals in your dinner. Limit your carbohydrate intake but do not avoid it completely. Your body needs them to regenerate and repair itself during your sleep time.
Intermittent snacking is important
Healthy snacking is important as it fulfils the quick ‘pick-me-up’ need of your body. Eating small yet frequent meals is the ideal way to supply your body with the required energy. It does not mean you eat more but spread your daily requirements of nutrients throughout the day.
Fuel up at the right time
The timing of the meals plays an important role in the smooth functioning of your digestive system.
Ideally, have your first meal of the day in about one and a half hours after waking up. Further, keep at least a three-hour gap between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and evening tea time. Dinner should be taken two hours before your sleep time. This will allow your body to wrap up the digestion process.
If you need to lose weight or look fitter connect with 8 Fitness Tips to create a perfect weight loss plan as per your body requirement. Our well-researched and scientifically proven diet and weight loss plan will help you shed those extra kilos and develop healthier habits.
Wellness is no more just a buzzword or trend. One needs to actively make choices towards a healthy and fulfilling life. Personal wellness occurs when you are committed to making lifestyle choices based on healthy attitudes and actions.
If you are not ill, does not comply that you are well. Wellness is more than being free from diseases. It involves positive change and growth of oneself.
One needs to have a balanced state of emotional, intellectual, physical, social, and spiritual well-being. With all said, your what you eat, how you live, defines your wellness parameters. By managing our nutrition and exercise, we can achieve this balanced state of well-being.
Why Wellness Matters
For a better and higher quality of life, it crucially important to maintaining an optimal level of wellness and health.
So, wellness matters!
It is, therefore, important to subdue stress, reduce the risk of illness and ensure positive interactions.
A disease-free, positive and peaceful life is important. And this type of lifestyle can only be achieved by exercising regularly and taking proper nutrition. These two aspects can help prevent a variety of ailments including cardiovascular disease, obesity, and fall risk behaviours. Besides, the body requires more vitamins and minerals after age 50.
8 Fitness Tips is dedicated to providing Wellness Education Program to people to help them achieve pursue and peaceful and stress-free life. We work on the mission of improving the quality of life for people with the right choices.
Based on the lifestyle and requirement, we provide a variety of programs that help achieve wellness goals including healthy eating, active living, and enhance fitness.
These Wellness Education Programs are designed to help incorporate healthy eating and fitness into your daily routine. The word invokes thoughts of nutrition, exercise, weight management, blood pressure, etc.
Whether you are 20 or 80, wellness is important and we encourage you to get active. Assess your personal wellness goals and get started today; it is never too late!