The Maui Diet: Blog

This is a super exercise tip. In fact I consider it the single best exercise tip I can give you, and maybe the easiest. It is this: get up earlier to get your exercise.

An hour earlier, or 90 minutes earlier. Or two hours, whatever it takes.

Why do I consider this such a great tip? Because we all lead busy lives and the most common excuse for not getting regular exercise is, “I don’t have the time.”

But regular exercise, daily exercise, is a must if you’re interested in losing fat. You have to make the time. And getting up earlier is how you can.

You might be surprised at how many people are up and out exercising well before light. I was when I first started into this habit.

I hit the local track a little before 5:00 a.m, while it was still fully dark. And there were a couple of dozen people already walking and jogging. A few were even finishing up and heading out of the stadium at that early hour!

No More Excuses!

The early exercise habit takes away all the excuses and in particular the one that says I have no time. You make time. You get up earlier. You stop with the excuses.

I’ve practiced this habit for a long while now, and I have never noticed any tiredness from not getting enough sleep, the opposite is true – I feel more energetic than ever before. I’m hooked on it.

There’s a powerful sense of accomplishment when you have completed your daily exercise before 6 a.m., when most people are just getting out of bed.

Try it. You may enjoy it as much as me and all the other people who practice this time-saving exercise tip.

P.S: You can now download the e version of The Maui Diet at our website: http://www.themauidiet.com and click The Store.

Here are the five main parts of my home gym. What your gym looks like and contains is up to you.
1. Dumbbells and Rack
2. Weight Bench
3. Concept II Rower (foreground in photo)
4. Gloves, Jump Ropes, misc.
5. Sound System

My dumbbells range from 3 to 75 pounds. They’re all you need for effective strength training. I bought mine, including the rack, second-hand and at sales.
The Weider weight bench I’m using in the photo I got on sale for under $70.
Got the rower second hand for $400. They’re $1,500 new with shipping to Maui, so this was s steal. I absolutely love this piece of equipment, it is great for abs, upper body, cardiovascular system.
Gloves, exercise mat, jump ropes, other items for less than $30.
Sound system is the tiny tape player on ground on at left–$10. It rocks.

The most important thing is to just get started. Your own home gym can begin with a pair of light hand weights or a jump rope, or whatever. Add to it as you go along. Mine is the result of watching for sales and gathering stuff. It was fun putting it together and I’m always on the look-out for new stuff. Have fun and get started. And next time you find yourself watching the boob tube, grab your dumbbells and pump some iron at the same time. Hit the rower or exercise bike or treadmill. Drop and give yourself 20!

For more go to www.themauidiet.com

A friend just gave me some gratifying feedback on my book The Maui Diet—he said the number one thing he’d gotten out of it was “make your exercise fun.” Absolutely—that’s why I highly recommend such a strategy.
There’s not a shred of evidence that exercise is to be taken seriously. Exercise is important, but it is just as important to make exercise fun. That way, you’ll be more likely to do it regularly. And it’s what we do regularly that is all-important.
A buddy or partner makes exercise more fun for most people. If you don’t have a partner, find an exercise buddy or two, or three or more. If one can’t make it one day, another one will.
If a buddy’s not available, or you prefer to exercise alone, you can still make exercise fun. It’s all in your attitude. Bad attitude: “I’ve got to get my exercise out of the way.” Better: “I’m grateful for my ability to exercise and I enjoy it to the fullest!”
Keep things light. If you’re not feeling motivated, warm up slowly and tell yourself you’re only going to do 10 minutes today. Chances are excellent that once you get going, you’ll do a lot more than that.
Keep your self-talk fun, light, goofy, whatever amuses you. Whatever makes it fun for you, do it.
Find new ways and times to exercise. If you’re a soccer mom or dad, the perimeter of a field is perfect for walking aerobically, or jogging. Have a sports bag packed, change into your exercise clothes and get out there. If you’re just doing drop off and pick ups, not sticking around for the practice or game, get there 20 minutes early for the pick up and use that extra time for exercise. Being spontaneous is fun.
Here’s my ultimate tip for making exercise fun: Use the beach. Take advantage of these incredible exercise settings. There are lots of reasons to exercise on the beach—the lack of pollution, the joy of exercising in the sunshine and fresh air, the entire setting—but the number one reason is because of the surface. Sand cannot be beat for walking, jogging or running. Choose the hard sand by the water, or the soft sand away from the water, two entirely different surfaces. On dry sand, all the sinking down and pushing back out overloads your musculature. Walking on dry sand takes two to almost three times more energy than walking on a hard surface. Running on dry sand requires 1.6 times more energy than does running on a firm surface. Moving on sand burns more calories, and training on sand carries a lower risk of impact injury than harder surfaces. The beach is a top exercise choice, it makes exercise fun. And if you don’t have a beach where you live, look for other great outdoor exercise settings with forgiving surfaces, like parks, trails, etc.
There are endless ways to get exercise if you’re willing to be creative, look for fun, and let nothing stand in your way.

For more go to www.themauidiet.com

Nothing is more important for losing fat and getting fit than aerobic exercise. Aerobic means continuous exercise like walking, jogging, bicycling, aerobic routines. If you’re serious about losing weight, make aerobic exercise a daily habit just like brushing your teeth, showering and other habits you never miss doing. When’s the last time you missed brushing your teeth in a 24-hour period? Probably never, right? That’s the kind of commitment true fat loss and fitness takes—you just don’t miss. You make time for it and do it. The important thing is to get at least thirty minutes a day of moderately intense aerobic, fat-burning exercise.
Make the commitment. Find the time, make the time, take the time and just do it. Shoot for seven days a week. Six if you can’t do seven and five if you can’t do six, but five is the minimum. Some exercise coaches say seven days is too much. I disagree, but you may agree, and if you do, take a day off. Or two. Whatever suits you best, but the minimum is five days. Why? Because we all have a 24-hour metabolism cycle. To burn fat more effectively 24 hours a day, we want to exercise—heat up—our bodies on a daily basis to permanently change our metabolism. Exercising less than 5 times a week won’t do enough to change our metabolism and really burn fat. We have to get good aerobic exercise daily, or a minimum of five days a week, to see dramatic, permanent fat loss.
Get aerobic exercise daily, even if it’s raining. If it happens to be raining when it’s my time to exercise, I put on my rash-guard shirt and a pair of shorts and get out there. I don’t care! What do I care if I get wet? I make it fun and get my exercise, hell or high water. Had some of my best, most fun workouts in the rain. No excuses!
Top choices for aerobic exercise are walking, jogging, Spinning, aerobic exercise routines and stair stepping. All of these must be done continuously for a minimum of 20 minutes to work.
Another great exercise tip is to exercise in the morning. When blocking out time to do your daily exercise, make it in the morning if possible. If this means getting up an hour or 90 minutes earlier, do it. Why is morning so important? Because when we exercise in the morning, particularly first thing, we’re charging up our metabolism right from the start of the day. This keeps it elevated throughout the day, so we’re burning extra calories even when we’re not exercising. If we wait until the afternoon or later to exercise, our metabolism tapers off sooner and we lose the benefit of burning extra calories.
For fit exercisers, anaerobic or strength/resistance exercise has fantastic payoffs. But for pure fat burning, you cannot beat daily aerobic exercise.