Be fit, healthy, and happy forever…
PART ONE
GETTING READY
Never underestimate your power to change and improve!
You can do it!
Twelve Favorite Fidget-cisers
While I aim for thirty minutes of official exercise a day, I never miss an opportunity to move. Your muscles don’t know if you’re in a fancy gym or the kitchen. This means that you can tone the 640 muscles of the body anytime, anywhere. You can turn idle time into toning time and do exercises and stretches while dinner is simmering on the stove or you’re chatting on the phone. I call these one-minute exercises fidget-cisers, and I truly rely on them to help keep me trim and toned. Research has shown that little bursts of exercise throughout the day can increase your calorie burn up to a startling five hundred calories or more per day! Yes, five hundred calories! Here are twelve of my favorite anywhere-around-the-house fidget-cisers:
1. Sink ’n’ Squat
Shape your butt in the comfort of your own kitchen!
Stand about an arm-length away from the sink with your feet shoulder-width apart. Squat down and hold for 5 seconds.
2. Leg and Butt Lift
You’ll tone up and look fabulous from behind!
While standing at the sink washing dishes or scrubbing veggies, lift your right leg up behind you and pulse it up and down. Switch legs and repeat.
3. Saddlebag Slimmers
Target this trouble spot in minutes.
Stand with your left side to the counter and place your hand on it. Lift your right leg out to the side about a foot off the ground and pulse. Turn so that your right side faces the counter, then switch legs and repeat.
4. Inner-Thigh Toner
Lift the jiggle away.
Stand with your left side to the counter and place your hand on it. Lift your right leg off the floor and bring it across the front of your body toward the left side. Pulse. Switch sides and repeat.
5. Telephone Thigh Trimmer
Get lean while you gab!
While on the phone, stand about an arm-length away from a countertop. Place your right hand on the counter, hold the phone in your left, and bring your feet together. Squeeze your legs together as you squat down.
6. Countertop Push-Aways
I do these while waiting for my toast to pop up.
Place your hands on the counter a little wider than shoulder-width and step a few feet away with your legs.
Bend your elbows, bringing your chest toward the countertop, then push back up to the start position.
7. Down Dog
Squeeze a few of these in throughout the day and your back will thank you.
Stand about two arm-lengths away from a countertop. Place your hands on the counter, bend forward at the waist so your body forms a ninety-degree angle, and keep your back straight.
8. Leg Stretch
Another good move to do while you’re waiting in the kitchen.
Place your straight leg on a countertop. Keeping your back straight, lean forward, reaching for your toes.
9. Couch Dips
Do these dips during commercial breaks and the backs of your arms will firm up fast.
Sit at the edge of the couch. Place your palms on either side of your body and move forward so your body is off the couch. Bend your elbows behind you as you lower your body toward the floor. Keep your knees, thighs, and feet together with knees bent. Extend your arms to return to the start.
10. Tummy Tucks
Proof that you can tone your abs anywhere, anytime.
Sit on the couch with your hands on either side of your body, palms on the couch, legs bent, and feet together and lifted off the floor. Using your abs, crunch your legs in toward your upper body.
11. Lower-Tummy Toner
Flat abs for couch potatoes!
Sit on the couch with your hands on either side of your body, palms on the couch, legs bent, and feet together with toes on the floor. Alternate lifting one leg at a time, gently tapping your toes on the floor.
12. Back Relaxer
Unwind from a long day with this one.
Sit on the couch with your legs together and feet flat on the floor. Lift your right leg up, place your hands just below your knee, and round your upper body forward. Switch legs and repeat.
Food is fabulous, and having a good relationship with it will make you healthy and happy! You can do it!