Want to almost accidently lose 10 pounds in weight whilst havng fun in to the bargain. Then why not drag that old bike from out of the basement or garage and get out in the sunshine on a bike ride. Here's why it's so effective...
Now you have realised it's time to lose weight. Most women do when they start to see that things have got out hand at some point of their lives and we all dream of wearing those sexy outfits that used to drive our lovers wild. We yearn for the day when we can once again walk out in the street and we are the ones that others are admiring from a far as you walk down the street with new found confidence.
A good starting point is to aim to lose 10 pounds when starting a weight loss program. For most people this should be an attainable goal within just a few weeks which if you need to lose more weight will motivate you to carry on. To be fair to yourself and your body don't try a crash diet trying to lose 10 pounds in 2 or 3 days it will just make you feel ill.
So where do you start? Most people, when they think of weight loss, think of unappetizing diets ( who could enjoy a diet of cabbage soup for example) or strenuous exercise regimens (you don't want to become a Navy Seal do you?), but it doesn't have to be that way.
What if you could lose 10 pounds while doing something you might enjoy and also could if you wanted spend more time with your children and get tons of fresh air as well. Well you can be taking up bike riding again..
There are many benefits to biking, but the main one is that it's really the only form of exercise that can also function as transportation. The biggest reason it's difficult for many people to lose weight is because they find it hard to find time for it into their already busy lifestyles.
For example, let's say your plan is to lose 10 pounds by getting a gym membership and going a few times a week. While this may be great idea at first, and I commend you for it, soon there's a good chance that it's going to start interfering with other commitments: one day you have to stay late at the office so you skip gym; one day you have to pick up your daughter from after school club so you skip again.
In a few weeks you find going to the gym is just impossible to schedule with all your other commitments so you decide it's not really worth all the bother.
Just for now lets imagine as an alternative to a gym membership you decide to go out an buy a bike or get yor old one repaired if you had one in the garage gathering dust. By using it to maybe bike to work you'll so start to lose weight and even save on gas. Pretty neat huh?
If you live in the city chances are it will only take you a few extra minutes compared with travelling by car or subway. So you get a full body work out for free and it fits in to your schedule just great.
When you engage in most other forms of exercise, you're engaging in it exclusively: you're not getting anything else done when you're at the gym. With biking, on the other hand, the exercise is almost a secondary bonus to the primary function of getting somewhere you need to go. Add to this the fact that you're saving money on transportation and doing good for the environment, it's hard to argue against biking as one of the best forms of exercise.
By simply biking to and from work every day you should be able to lose 10 pounds fairly quickly without affecting your schedule too much. If your employer is a far enough distance away from you that you must drive, consider instead using a bike for errands outside of work. And if you want to really lose those 10 pounds quickly, start biking for recreation too - some weekend bike riding will do wonders for weight loss.
By Graham Foster