healthy weight loss in a week

You buy them and they don’t get the job done. Anti cellulite pills, lotions, gadgets, rubber tights and other silly money wasters that sell you hope and nothing else. The truth is, your best weapons in your battle against unwelcome cellulite are a smart nutritional routine and a consistent, properly structured workout program.

I’ll assume you have a pretty good handle on the nutritional component.

As for the properly structured workout program, which you may indeed have, I’ve put together a butt, hip and thigh routine which you can incorporate into your current workouts. This routine specifically targets the areas where the appearance of cellulite tends to show up.

Keep in mind, I’ve been training people since the late eighties. Speaking strictly from experience, I can tell you that the following routine is responsible for helping many women dramatically change the appearance of their cellulite areas.

Lying on your side, do 10 reps of each exercise:

1) Bring both knees forward so your hips are at a 90 degree angle. Then straighten your top leg out in front of you, still keeping 90 degrees at the hip. Lift the top leg slowly about three feet off the ground & down.
2) Straighten both legs so your body is in a straight line. Tilt the hips forward slightly. Lift the top leg about three feet off the ground & down.

3) Put your top leg out in front of you, on the ground. Move your bottom leg forward slightly. Lift the bottom leg about 8 – 12 inches off the ground & down.

4) Repeat all 3 on the other side.

On the elbows and knees, do 10 reps of each exercise:
1) Extend one leg straight back with your toe on the ground. Lift that leg up toward the ceiling & down. Then switch legs.
2) Lift your knee off the floor. Extend that same heel back and up so your leg is pointing toward the ceiling & then bring the knee back into you. Then switch legs.

Standing up, do 10 reps of each exercise:

1) Start with your feet together. Step out in front in to a lunge position. Touch the ground with opposite hand. Come back up & step back to the starting position. Then switch legs.
2) Put one foot up on a step (12 – 18 inches high). Slowly step up and down with the other foot. Then switch legs.

If this routine is easy try going through it twice. If you still need more of a challenge, increase the reps to 15 or 20 per set.

The common practice of requiring physicians-in-training to work many double, and even triple, shifts results in performance reductions equivalent to the effects of drinking several ounces of alcohol, according to a new study led by a University of Michigan sleep researcher published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Depending on the type of medical or surgical care they decide to specialize in, young doctors can spend anywhere from three to 12 years in training. The first year – the internship – is considered the most intense.

Thirty-four Brown University Medical School pediatric residents completed standardized tests following two different schedules: a month of 44-hour work weeks in office-based clinics with no overnight duties; and a month of 90-hour work weeks, including day shifts in the hospital’s wards or intensive care units, plus overnight shifts once every four or five nights.

Vigilance, Attention
Following the month of longer hours, the doctors’ vigilance, attention and driving skills were found to be impaired. Their test responses were equivalent to their performance after consuming three to four alcoholic drinks following a month of lighter duties.

“This adds to the growing evidence that sleep deprivation among medical residents significantly impairs their ability to perform, although it is important to note that we did not assess performance on specific medical tasks,” says J. Todd Arnedt, PhD, a sleep psychologist who is a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and neurology at the U-M Medical School. Arnedt works in the the U-M Sleep Disorders Center and the U-M Depression Center Sleep & Chronophysiology Laboratory.

Three Hours Sleep
Sleep diaries and an automatic wrist-watch activity monitor verified that the residents on heavy work shifts got significantly less sleep per night on average than those with lighter schedules during the study period.

In the 24 hours leading up to the test days, residents on a light schedule slept an average of 6 hours and 37 minutes, compared with about 3 hours for the residents on a heavy schedule.

The residents were tested four times, in two separate sessions. Two of the tests were completed after they had worked a month of light duty without overnight shifts; the tests were given before and after they consumed three to four alcoholic drinks.

In the second session, they were tested on the day after an overnight shift that came at the end of a month of 90-hour work weeks. During this session, they were tested before and after drinking a non-alcoholic placebo beverage. Of primary interest were the tests conducted after they had drunk either the alcohol or the placebo.

Performance, Effort
The researchers asked the residents to rate their performance and effort on the tests. Ratings of impaired performance were higher following the month of heavy work shifts compared to the light schedules.

Residents also rated their effort as higher after heavy work shifts compared to the lighter shifts with alcohol.

In addition, the residents rated their levels of sleepiness. During the heavy call month, they felt more tired than during the light-call month, even after they had consumed alcohol on the light-call rotation.

They were not allowed to nap on the test day or to use caffeine after noon. All of the tests were conducted at 3 pm.

Reducing Fatigue-Related Impairment
Most of the tests took place before new work-hour restrictions were imposed by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in 2003.

Residents now are subject to the following rules: an 80-hour weekly work-hour limit; a 24-hour limit on continuous duty time; in-house call duty no more than once every three nights; and one day in seven free from all patient care and educational obligations. All requirements are averaged over four weeks.

The new regulations are “a good initial step,” Arnedt noted, “but the solution to the problem is not likely as simple as well-intentioned policies aimed at reducing work hours, which can themselves have negative ramifications,” he pointed out.

“Our study, like others before it, does raise concerns about the performance of sleep deprived physicians-in-training and suggests that strategies aimed at reducing fatigue-related impairments are likely necessary,” Arnedt said.

Alcohol Comparison
Arnedt and his colleagues are the first to study medical residents using the sleep deprivation and alcohol comparison model, which has been used in other p! opulations, including truck drivers. Both sleep deprivation and alcohol consumption impair a person’s reaction time, attention, judgment, control and driving ability.

In a Harvard University study published earlier this year, the authors found that interns were more likely to have an automobile crash or near-miss while driving after an extended work shift.

Arnedt’s team found that skills on a driving simulator deteriorated in residents who were tested after an overnight shift in the hospital at the end of a month of heavy night work. The findings from these studies suggest that the personal safety of residents who drive home after working all night may be at risk.

“We need to continue to find simple, practical and effective strategies that hospitals and senior doctors can take to reduce sleep deprivation among residents,” says Arnedt.

The quest to develop a stunningly fit, lean and attractive body is a long, slow journey. It’s not something you achieve overnight by popping a few pills or strapping an electric gizmo to your belly.

Which reminds me, did you know that by the time the FTC finally blew the whistle on the electronic ab belt scam, the makers of those “ab zappers” had swindled over $100 million dollars from unsuspecting consumers? Fortunately, some of those companies had to pay it back, and then some! The FTC charged three companies – Fast Abs, Ab Tronic and Ab Energizer – with false advertising and deceptive warranty practices for these “ABSurd” gimmcks.

But I digress. back to what I was saying about the journey to a better body…

Last week I looked out my window, and where there was once nothing but a dirt-filled empty lot, there stood a sprawling six story brick condo complex. If someone looked at this massive completed structure for the first time, they might not be impressed. However, since I observed the entire construction process unfold from my living room window, I was impressed – amazed even – at what goes into erecting this kind of structure.

I remember watching the crew humming around diligently every day like busy bees, laying one brick after another. From one day to the next, it didn’t seem like much changed. But slowly, over a period of a year and a half, I watched the building gradually morph into the finished product.

When you look at someone with an incredible body as a finished product, you often tend to dismiss the long, arduous journey and hard work it took to build that body. Unless you were side by side with that person in the gym (and in the kitchen), observing the work involved, it’s easy to attribute such a chiseled physique to genetics or give credit to a supplement (they just took product XYZ and voila – overnight abs). What you don’t see or appreciate are all the months and years of sweat and hard work.

Getting in shape is a lot like a construction project. First, there must be a picture in the mind. Then the vision goes onto paper as a blueprint. It takes months just to lay the foundation. More months of work will follow. On a daily basis, it doesn’t seem like much is happening. You look in the mirror and appear, for the most part, the same as you did yesterday. But sure enough, the small improvements are slowly accumulating like compounding interest in the bank. One day, you look in the mirror and “suddenly,” your blueprint has become reality.

The body of a fitness model, figure competitor or bodybuilder is no more likely to be built overnight than a high rise is to be built overnight. It’s not physically possible. Accepting the idea that any type of pill, powder, drug, supplement or machine of any kind will make it happen sooner than nature intended (without negative consqeuences or side effects) is pure folly. You can’t force it.

Growth and development of any kind always requires a gestation period. For a baby, it’s nine months. For corn, I believe it’s about three months. If you were an expectant mother, would you want to hurry the process? Could any new development in nutrition or medical science speed up this wonderful miracle even one iota? If you were a farmer, would you try to harvest your crop before it was ripe? Would you dig up your seeds to see if anything was growing down there?

The answers are obvious. If only we would adopt the same patient, nurturing “mother’s” or “farmer’s mindset” towards getting in shape, then no one would waste their money on “fast abs” or “exercise in a bottle” or any such silliness ever again. We would understand that one must sow first, then reap the harvest, but that you can’t sow and reap in the same season.

If you ever get frustrated with the rate of progress in your fitness or weight loss program (and who doesn’t), just remember; success is always guaranteed to the persistent. Nothing in the world can stop someone who knows what they want and is willing to continue paying the price until they get it. It just takes time.

Become the architect and builder of your own dream body. You WILL build the body you want eventually if you’re patient enough and you refuse to quit. And set your goals HIGH! Create a fantastic blueprint. Michelangelo said, “the greatest danger is not that we set our goals too high and miss them, the greatest danger is that we set our goals too low and we reach them.” Envision a castle – a veritable Taj Mahal of a body! There’s nothing wrong with building castles in the sky, as long as you patiently work at putting the foundations underneath them. There are very few unrealistic goals; only goals with unrealistic deadlines.

So keep laying those “bricks” – every day – one at a time – and sure enough, eventually, you’ll build yourself a palace.