Hello Zimbojammers!! I hope you have all been well and enjoying your health and fitness journey – whatever your goals are. Do you know that we have just over 3 weeks before 2017 ends? That’s right – 3 weeks! 3 weeks is just enough time to create some new fitness and lifestyle habits that will propel you into the new year on a different wavelength. Don’t wait until January 1. Plan now. Start now. Every day counts.
So with many of us now thinking of possible travel plans; Christmas partying; presents and all the expenses that come with this particular holiday season – I thought I would give you 5 easy ways to still get fitter and do boxing move ‘uppercuts’ with those impending piling pounds on your belly. End the year on a strong note so that you leap into 2018 with momentum!
Tip 1: Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail
If you have 3 weeks, and you’ve been slack – muka shamwari. At this point in your journey, planning is essential. Think of the goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year. Evaluate them and set new ones for yourself. Write down a realistic goal e.g. losing a few kgs; fitting into your favourite dress or trousers by the end of January; feeling stronger etc. Then think of how you can achieve it in the time you’re setting for yourself, through good nutrition and exercise. It might mean cutting down on buying unhealthy lunches at work and preparing food from home that you can take for your workday.
If you are unsure of a good exercise structure for your body type and goals, you can visit a local Personal Trainer in your city or view the variety of workouts you can do from home or the gym on my YouTube.
Tip 2: Use your surroundings
If you’re someone who can’t afford a gym membership, there are a whole variety of workouts you can do outdoors. You can use hilly areas for walks, jogs or even sprint up.
Try this time-saving fat-burner workout. Warm up for 5 mins e.g. by jogging slowly until you feel warm. Then jog or sprint up the hill as fast as you can. Walk down and keep repeating your jog/sprint x 5 times. Finish with 3 sets of a core exercise such as planks holding for 30 to 60 secs.
There are also plenty of things to use in kids’ playgrounds such as the monkey bars for chin ups; benches for step ups and dips.
Tip 3: Your home can be your gym too
You can get fit from the comfort of your own home! If you have equipment – great. However, there are so many bodyweight moves that don’t need equipment such as jumping squats; jumping lunges; push-ups on your knees or toes and more. If you’re a Beginner, you can now download the Fitness To A Tee Beginner’s 30 minutes At-Home workout DVD from Vimeo, in which you workout along with me at http://www.vimeo.com/ondemand/flattummyworkout. For a hard copy contact me via the Fitness To A Tee website (link below this article).
Tip 4: Try Tabata (pronounced taBHata lol) workouts
I thought I would let you know that ‘tabata’ is not a Shona word lol and definitely not what I’m trying to bring across in this article lol! Tabata are great for burning fat and making you work intensely in a short space of time. The latter is great for those who are busy as you can literally do 12 – 30 mins workouts in any location.
Tabata works on the basis of doing 20 seconds of intense work then getting 10 seconds rest. You repeat this sequence 8 times which equals 4 minutes total. You can then repeat this 3 to 4 more times, depending on your time. To access on online Tabata timer, go to https://fitlb.com/tabata-timer
Here is a sample Tabata workout you can do along with me which I did during the Christmas season in 2016:
Tip 5: The simpler you eat, the better for your waistline
Less is more! Focus on eating fruit and vegetables, particularly those growing locally in whichever country you are in, including things like muriwo and all the other abundant, delicious foods we have. To see a list of top Zimbabwean local foods for a flatter tummy, view the previous 2 articles at (insert link) and (insert link).
Instead of having white refined carbohydrates focus on wholemeal options such as sadza rezviyo; pumpkin; butternut squash; and brown rice. Have vegetables as the most on your plate, followed by meat/fish then the carbs can form a ¼ of the plate.
I love fruit and veggie markets. You can pick up your favourites at amazingly low prices, whilst helping farmers and those selling earn a living.
Fitness to a Tee is Zimbo Jam’s official health and fitness partner.
Get more tips, videos and useful information here:
:: www.fitnesstoatee.com.au
:: https://www.facebook.com/fitnesstoateecomau/
