How to burn off the excesses of Easter!

After a long Easter weekend of roast dinners and more chocolate than you would usually eat in a year, you may be feeling a bit lethargic and bloated. With the summer just around the corner it is time to burn off those Easter eggs and shake yourself out of this sugar slump!

Start slowly if you are not used to doing a lot of exercise. The last thing that you want to do is injure yourself on the first day of your fitness kick and end up in bed for a week! Start by incorporating exercise into your everyday life. Exercise doesn’t have to mean jumping jacks and sprinting- anything that raises your heart rate above its normal pace for a sustained period of time will help with your overall fitness. Small bursts of exercise throughout the day will also help to increase your metabolism and get that chocolate bunny-bulge burning!

Try parking further away from your office or get off the bus a stop early and incorporate some brisk walking into your daily commute. Take the stairs not the escalator or lift and instead of browsing the internet in your lunch break, take a little walk around a local park. You could even try and get a few of your colleagues together and start a walking club, or do a quick exercise video in an empty office. Not only is exercise good for your body, but it has also been proven to have a positive effect on your mental state. Doing some exercise in the middle of your workday could help you to be less stressed and more productive too! It’s a win-win situation!

If you need a bit more motivation, you should invest in the Fitbit Ultra. This clever little gadget records your exercise all day and uploads it wirelessly to your smart device. Using a free app you can record how much exercise you do on a daily basis, how many calories burned and consumed and track your overall progress. You can even get advice and support from an online community who will encourage you to achieve your goals and keep you motivated!  

Get bikini ready quickly and easily!

Summer is quickly approaching; bikinis and crop tops are appearing in the shops. The countdown to our Summer holidays has begun!

If like a lot of us, this time of year has you feeling optimism and dread in equal parts, you are not alone- it is stressful pulling on last summer’s sundresses or trying on the first bikini of the year! But if you know that you are not going to like what you see- then why not do something about it now! 

There are plenty of ways to lose a bit of weight and tone up without having to starve or torture yourself! Find an activity that you enjoy- try a dance class or Zumba, or perhaps trekking in the fresh air? See what is available in your local area and step outside your comfort zone- you just might enjoy it!

Eating healthily doesn’t have to be a chore either- swap your soggy sandwiches at lunch for a nutritious soup and try out a new fruit or vegetable every week- you could be missing out on something really delicious!

There are some great apps out there to keep track of your calorie intake and exercise too. MyFitnessPal lets you record all the food that you eat and works out the calories and nutritional content of your daily consumption. It also lets you record your exercise and offset calories burnt against calories eaten, encouraging you to be more aware of your daily energy input and output. You can track your progress with charts and build up a support network of your friends and family or even other dieters.

If you would prefer to let a gadget record the amount of exercise that you are doing during the day (and gain a more accurate insight into your daily activity levels) you could invest in a FitbitUltra. The Fitbit wirelessly transmits the information that it gathers all day to your smart device or computer so that you can see where you can make improvements and congratulate yourself on your achievements. There is even the Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale that measures your weight, body mass index and body fat percentage to provide a full picture of your weight trends. It allows you to set goals, stay in control and stay motivated every day.

A lot of people are surprised by the unexpected calories that they are inadvertently consuming every day and shocked by how little activity they do in their day-to-day lives- sometimes just being aware of where you are going wrong can make huge changes to your weight, fitness and overall health and help you get that bikini-ready body back in no time at all!