Exercise for Weight Loss
and How To Sustain Self-Motivation

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By Alan B. Densky, CH

If you've already made the difficult decision to lose weight - congratulations! For many people, making the commitment to their own well being is the hardest part. But despite self-motivation, many people find they don't know what exercises to do for weight loss. 

There are three major types of exercise: aerobic exercise, such as walking, running, biking; flexibility exercises, such as yoga and other forms of stretching; and strength training, including weight lifting and resistance exercises. 

Of the three types, aerobic and strength training will help you burn the most calories. Since weight loss is dependant on either taking in less calories or burning more, it's best to focus on these at first to ensure your self motivation continues as you drop pounds. 

Fitness experts generally agree that 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three times a week should be your initial goal, but it needn't be continuous: two 15-minute blocks works equally well. You can build up the time and frequency as you progress.

But many people whose self motivation has urged them to begin an exercise for weight loss program often overlook the importance of strength training. Aerobic exercise will burn more calories at first, but weight lifting will increase your muscle mass, and muscle burns more calories than fat. In fact, a pound of muscle requires 35 calories a day to function at rest; a pound of fat requires just two calories for the same function.

The fitness consensus used to believe that to "build" muscle, you should do fewer reps (3-5) at higher weights, and to simply "tone," doing higher reps (12-15) at lower weights was best. But the fact is that there's no such thing as "toning." The definition that comes with what's mistakenly called toning happens because you have lost the layer of fat covering your muscle, making it more visible. The size of the muscle underneath depends on how strenuously you strength train. 

The tenet of strength training is that you must "tear down" the muscle so it can rebuild and repair itself afterward. In fact, you don't build muscle while you're working out but rather in the days afterward when it's "resting." 

The general rule for strength training is that you should begin with three sets of 8-12 reps at a weight that leaves your muscle group nearly incapable of completing one more rep at the end of the set. Then you can rest for 30 seconds to a minute before beginning your next set. Don't be discouraged if you're not able to do all of the reps on every set. In fact, you can use that to help you gauge when to add weight to your sets. If you find you are completing each set of reps without any muscle strain, you will want to add weight.

Self motivation is what compelled you to begin your quest in the first place, but many people have a difficult time sustaining the pace. It helps to know that the source of each of our motivations is a belief. Think about it: If you did not believe that the gnawing sensation in your stomach meant that you were hungry, you would not feel motivated to eat.

Figuring out what ideas motivate you is imperative to sustaining commitment to weight loss, because when you feel powerfully motivated, you will exercise consistently.

Thanks to NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), a form of hypnosis that can be used to create exercise motivation, it's a lot easier to learn how to believe these new ideas than you probably think. You may have a desire to exercise for weight loss but, over time, that desire by itself probably won't be enough to keep you going. And exercise hypnosis motivation treatment can help.

Your first task is to figure out the most important things in your life. We call these things highly valued criteria. Your most highly valued criteria are usually intangibles; money wouldn't be highly valued criteria, but the freedom, fun, or security that money can provide would be.

Next, figure out what you need to believe to feel motivated to exercise. For this step, it's important to remember that logic has nothing to do with belief. Things don't have to be logical for you to believe them. As a matter of fact, they rarely are.

Just figure out what you need to believe to feel motivated to exercise no matter how ridiculous it may sound. When you have, you may find you already have a belief that contradicts this new idea. That's okay.

While it's valuable to understand what motivates us, exercise hypnosis motivation treatment can put these ideas to work for you to ensure that your self motivation endures. Hypnosis for motivation does this by modifying the computer codes in your brain so you actually believe these motivational ideas.

Our belief systems are based in our unconscious mind. The unconscious is like a computer, and computers don't reason. The input controls the output. The NLP techniques used in exercise hypnosis motivation treatment can make you believe almost anything.

You start out by making a picture in your mind that illustrates something that you already believe, such as, "I love my children." Then you learn how to calibrate the elements or 'Submodalities' of that mental belief picture. 

Next you make a mental picture that illustrates your motivational idea. Let's say you're your motivational idea is, "If I exercise, then I'll look great and my marriage will improve." Then you learn how to adjust the Submodailties of this mental image to match the Submodailties in your calibrated belief picture. It's just that easy. Conversely, if you have a belief that is holding you back, you can use the same technique to change that belief to doubt. 

Using an exercise hypnosis motivation program ensures that the enthusiasm you began your weight loss goals with stays with you until you reach your objective and then helps you maintain that objective.

Copyright © 2007 By Alan B. Densky, CH. This document may NOT be re-printed without permission. All Rights Reserved. We are happy to syndicate our articles to approved websites.