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You have plans of losing weight this year?  We here in Cincinnati, of course, know the basics of an effective and lasting weight loss: reduced calorie intake and increased activity to burn off more calories—meaning, proper diet and exercise.  It’s not one or the other; it’s both.  And it’s done with careful planning--deciding to change your eating habits cannot be a spur-of-the-moment thing, as it needs proper conditioning of both the mind and the body.  You may decide to take on a crash diet for a few weeks and lose that significant number of pounds, but with that, you can easily go back to your old eating habits after a few weeks and eventually regain those lost weight.    Because as Cincinnati’s expert personal trainers continuously emphasize to us, an effective weight loss program is a lifestyle change—successfully changing our eating habits…permanently.

So how do you effectively change your eating habits? Take a good look at your daily eating routine and realize what you need to change.   How much calories do you consume everyday?  Remember that losing weight means reducing 500 calories per day; a reduced calorie intake of 3,500 per week is equivalent to shaking-off about one pound every week.  It’s just about reduction, not starvation—lessening our portion sizes and making the right choices.  Most of our clients in Cincinnati start out by keeping a food journal to keep track of everything that they put in their mouth. 

Then there’s the element of time—you shouldn’t eat the bulk of your calories at night, but consume it during the day.  This means you shouldn’t skip any meal, especially breakfast; and start getting into the habit of eating small meals and snacks every 2 to 3 hours.  Calories gained during the day have a better chance to burn than nighttime calories.    Take a look at what you drink, too; soda contains a lot of empty calories that you don’t really need.  Drink plenty of cold water—that helps a lot in burning calories.  You also need to be gentle with yourself, changing your eating habits one step at a time.  Do not give yourself goals you can’t achieve (like promising yourself not to eat sweets completely), as you’ll just set yourself up for failure.  And the most important thing?  Exercise!  Hit a Cincinnati gym at least twice or thrice a week to supplement your effort.  You’ll know that you have gotten into a healthy routine when you don’t feel normal if you break your existing new rules; unlike before when it’s completely normal to overeat and not exercise.  And once you’re into the habit, you’ll see the results.   Once you see how trim and fit you are, you can rightly say that the effort you’ve made is definitely worth your while.   

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We here at Sensible Fitness just love it when people contact us about their personal fitness concerns. Each call and email we receive from our friends here in Cincinnati give us valuable insights as to how we can help our clients better.  Take this recent email that we received for example.  Our sender is 35 years old, weighs 242 lbs., and stands 5’7”.  As she says, “I badly want to lose weight, to the point of desperation.  I often daydream on how I’d be back to my old self, back when I weighed 133 lbs. about ten years ago. I’m single, and I sort of put my life on hold for the last 6 years. Now I want to take control of my life, tired of being the fat girl with the cute face that people say could really be attractive, or that sweet girl guys might like, but fat, so they move on to someone else. ”

And here’s the thing:  she says, “I’ve been into all sorts of weight loss programs and personal training centers all around Cincinnati the past year and a half—my weight would drop for about ten pounds or so, lower down to 230, and I would hope that things would go downhill after that.  But pretty soon I slowly build it up again and go back to my original weight.  I’m in a roller-coater ride. Help!”

This is pretty common, guys.  You have to know that maintaining weight loss is as important as losing weight.  Shedding off pounds is certainly difficult, but keeping that weight off is a challenge in itself. As the skilled personal trainers in Cincinnati continuously point out, long-term weight loss is more than just diet and exercise; it heavily involves the mind—breaking down old habits, developing new ones, modifying your behaviors towards stress, depressions, boredoms and more.  That’s why we here appreciate small changes—no need to do things abruptly as we focus more on the results.

Lifestyle change, that’s what it is.  Take things one step at a time, starting with small changes until you eventually develop solid and effective eating and exercise habits. The simple task of closely monitoring your calorie intake matters a lot (in time you would learn how to make rough estimates) —so you ate a lot during a lunch out with friends?  Keep your afternoon snacks and dinner to a minimum, then.  Find ways to keep yourself motivated—remember, this is a battle with your mind.  Continue daydreaming about that ideal figure and remind yourself every time you get tempted to reach out for that dessert in your refrigerator.  A journal to keep track of your weight helps a lot, too.  Consider yourself on a roll when you start feeling odd every time you eat a lot and you skip regular exercises in your favorite Cincinnati gym (we’re really hoping that’s us) —that means you have slowly acquired the way of life that you aim for.  Just hang in there, keep doing what you’ve started and if you continue being consistent, we guarantee you the best results. 

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The first thing that comes in anyone's mind after seeing the slab of chocolate is the way to grab it and eat it. Chocolates are covered by a lot of myths such as the being the cause of tooth’s decay, causing obesity, increasing skin lesions, etc. Some of this may hold true but not in all sense and direction. Chocolates, especially dark ones that are extremely rich in cocoa, provide potential health benefits.

Where normal chocolate, due to the type of butter used and the amount of cocoa butter (pay attention, its cocoa butter and not cocoa) produces certain undesirable effects on health, dark chocolate, due to rich content of cocoa is proven to be helpful on the circulatory system, cancers, mental alertness and diseases, skin, and many more.

Cocoa or dark chocolate improves one's heart and its circulatory system. It is associated with decrease in blood pressure and also lowers the bad cholesterol (LDL). There is no discrepancy found between the normal people and obese people in these effects of dark chocolate. The presence of theobromine and serotonin in dark chocolate results in its effects on the nervous system. The stimulation of the brain is the effect of theobromine and the anti-depressant effect is the result of serotonin. Hence, a depressed person craves for chocolates for the feel-good factor. Apart from these, the pleasure center is simulated by the dark chocolate as it helps in release of endorphins, which reduces pains and provides the right amount of euphoria.

Dark chocolate with an appropriate amount of cocoa butter can contribute to maintaining your skin texture and shine. The antibacterial effects of the dark chocolate can act as the barrier for skin infections and diseases like eczema and dermatitis.

Many people in our Cincinnati weight loss programs look at the benefits of dark chocolate or red wine and take it out of context and indulge.  Moderation is the key to weight loss success, along with everything else in life. 

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Personal training, weight loss surgeries, dietary supplements, and strict diets have become a big part of almost all the Cincinnati weight loss programs. Years of education and experience have help me see through the invalid weight loss promises that are being marketed to you.  Most of these, specifically surgeries, supplements, and diets, are Band-Aids that do not treat the problem, but rather give you superficial and temporary fix. 

I have always suggested changes in the dietary habits rather than conducting strict dietary plans for effective weight loss. This is based on the fact that “altering metabolism” is better than “stopping the fuel to the engine”. Nobody intentionally gain weight, and it is your habits that are slowly adding the pounds.

Adding a slice of lemon to your water, instead of a soda is the good beginning to a day that effective manages weight. Restricting starchy food to once or twice daily with adding anti-oxidant rich food like green leafy vegetables are on the menu of my Cincinnati personal training nutrition plan. This not only suggests the short-term effects of diet on weight but also long term dietary effects on healthy living.

Increasing proteins in diet from natural resources, or adding protein supplements hastens recovery from workouts and promotes weight loss without drastically impacting an increase in body fat. Stress-free exercises like performing aerobics or yoga can improve health tremendously.

To change your habit is very challenging and will often require accountability until it becomes a part of your lifestyle. The fact that a Cincinnati personal trainer from Sensible Fitness scrutinizes the new healthy lifestyle until it becomes a habit; their role is inseparable for any weight loss program. Once the new lifestyle is simply the way you live, without giving it thought, is the time you can dump your Cincinnati personal trainer and continue on your own.

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During my experience in health and fitness, I have been in many Cincinnati gyms. As I am an exercise enthusiast, I have been a member of many gyms over the years. When I was undergoing the physical therapy program in Cincinnati, and personal training others, I discovered some of the interesting facts about body building and toning individual muscles.

During my years of training to build a perfect routine to tone my body an interesting fact popped out about exercising the inner thigh muscles. The inner thigh muscles, have always posed a problem to most fitness trainers and the trainees.  Most personal trainers only perform hip adduction to train the inner thigh, and while the muscle is responsible for this, there is much more to toning this group that consists of 5 different muscles.

According to some personal trainers, toning the inner thigh muscles is as difficult as building calves. These are not easy muscles to be developed or toned by just exercises. For inner thighs, weight loss programs are usually useless. Weight control on the other hand and tracking calorie intake is a better option according to some “experts” at the Cincinnati gyms. Reducing fat intake and burning calories using aerobic exercises tries to consume the fat already stored in the body and hence, help to improve the inner thigh look. Performing strengthening exercises can promote muscle tone of the thighs, especially inner sides. However, while performing the muscle exercises, it's vital to understand that high reps on inner thigh muscles won't help the fat loss or replace fat with muscles.  Because the inner thighs also assist with hip flexion and extension, and not just adduction, it is important to have a well-rounded program, designed by a trained individual.

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The mainstream Cincinnati gyms are busy places for the month of January, with everyone full steam ahead, trying to lose weight after the holidays.  By the end of the month, a noticeable decline in attendance, and by mid-late February, back to normal levels.

Each year, so many people try to change too much about the lifestyle that them currently overweight, and in doing so, burn out and fail.  

My advice....just try to change one aspect of your unhealthy lifestyle at a time.  Maybe start eating breakfast, start exercising, or quit eating late at night.  But if you try to change too much all at once, you are doomed to fail and will be worse off come 2013.  Once you achieve one small victory, move to the next.   

Of course the accountability of a personal trainer from Sensible Fitness always helps.  Wink!

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Here is a quick lesson on human muscle anatomy in relation to the action that particular muscles give the body. Many personal trainers and coaches often refer to training the outer thigh when they are performing hip abduction, which is kicking or lifting your leg out to the side.

The only muscle that could be labeled an “outer thigh” muscle, would be the vastus lateralis, which is a muscle of the quadriceps group, and this does not perform hip abduction. The hip abductors, which include muscles like the gluteus medius, are located on the side of the pelvis, and have no muscle fibers that continue down the lateral side of the thigh.

Because the hip abductors merge with a connective tissue called the iliotibial tract, which does run down the lateral thigh, sometimes you may feel the tension of exercising the hip abductors on outside of your thigh, but you are not toning or shaping the outer thigh with these movements.

So the next time you see a personal trainer in a Cincinnati gym, or TV infomercial talking about training the outer thigh, you will know that they are uneducated on the topic.

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For the same low price of $89.99, you have the choice of two one-on-one personal training sessions, or three semi-private personal training sessions.

Both of the above options are customized personal training sessions, and can be used to learn a program that you can perform at your own home or gym.

For more details: http://www.sensiblefitness.com/home/specials/jump_start_to_fitness.html

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http://www.sensiblefitness.com/home/articles/parms/1/cat/weight_loss_toning/which/hcg_diet_the_medical_facts_revealed.html

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Cincinnati personal trainer shares clip from his human muscle anatomy DVD's.  This segment focuses on the gluteus minimis and gluteus medias.  To learn more:  musclesofthehumanbody.com

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Can sneakers really help you lose weight and bring you muscle tone? Cincinnati personal trainer and former Mr. Ohio body builder Doug Gibson talks about what you should expect in results.

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Halloween is the beginning of what I call the Weight Gain World Series. If you want to avoid another few pounds added to the January weight loss goals. Now is the time to be mindful.  Free advice, from you Cincinnati personal training headquarters.

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Cincinnati personal trainer shows you a twinkie that looks fresh but is very old.  It will inspire your weight loss goals, as you will never want to put another one in your mouth!

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Cincinnati personal training expert and physical therapy professional, Doug Gibson, reviews the anatomy of the human hip and visits about hip fractures.

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We have branched out from helping those in Cincinnati with weight loss and other personal training goals.  We are helping the actual personal trainers themselves.  Our customers have been coming from the U.S., Canda, Europe, and South Africa.  In addition to personal trainers, many customers are massage therapists, nurses, and physical/occupational therapy.

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Cincinnati weight loss expert, and personal trainer, Doug Gibson, gives you a practical example of how hard it can be to change your behavior and achieve desired weight loss.

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Personal training Cincinnati style!  Pratical, honest, and with no fluff.  This weight loss video will help your realize that your quality of life is in your hands.

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Read the article:
http://www.sensiblefitness.com/home/articles/parms/1/cat/fitness/which/affording_a_personal_trainer.html

Most of the clients of our Cincinnati persanal training center have gym memberships or equipment at home.  The problem is that they cannot make themselves us them for the long haul.  When  you make an appointment, you become accountable.  Waiting for your call.....

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