You know you need to work out, but you’re having trouble getting up the enthusiasm. How do you find motivation to exercise when you just don’t feel like getting off your butt? I ask myself this question every now and then, and I have the feeling I’m not the only one.
There are a million ways to motivate yourself to exercise, actually, but these are a few that have worked for me.
* Have fun. If you hate running, don’t go to the track for exercise. Find something you like. The list of different kinds of exercises are nearly endless. The only really important thing is to get your body moving and your heart rate up.
* How you feel after a workout. I always feel great after a good workout. It’s a high. And I let that motivate me the next time.
* Calories burned. If you count calories (and it’s really one of the most effective ways to lose weight), you know that the more you exercise, the more calories you burn — and the bigger your calorie deficit.
* How you’re going to look. Imagine a slimmer, fitter you. Now let that visualization drive you.
* Change it up. Even if you have a routine you enjoy, mix it up from time to time. Try entirely different exercises. You can check out a tape at the library and try yoga or kick boxing for an afternoon. This will not only keep you interested, it will break your muscles out of their routine and help produce better results.
* Get a buddy. Exercising with a friend introduces a positive kind of peer pressure. You will be more likely to go to the gym if you know someone is waiting there for you. Talking and laughing while exercising will also keep you from being bored.
* An exercise log/graph. For some reason, writing it down is extremely important. Really. Do it for a week and you’ll see what I mean.
* Get appropriate clothing. If you don’t have the appropriate clothes for the excercise, it can be irritating, uncomfortable, frustrating, or even unsafe. If you exercise outside after dusk, be sure you have reflective clothing to prevent traffic accidents. Also be sure the clothing looks nice; if you don’t like the way your clothing looks, you may feel uncomfortable, and less likely to exercise.
* Pack Ahead of Time: An iPod, athletic shoes, a towel… whatever. Walking around the house trying to find stuff is a good time to lose your resolve. Put everything together in your gym bag. When you finish working out, take out things that need to be laundered and replace them immediately.
* Have a Goal. What do you want to achieve? Make it specific, make it meaningful, make it obtainable. Be sure to have short-term benchmarks along the way. It’s OK to change your goals if the original plan doesn’t work, but have a goal. Regularly evaluate how you are doing on your goals.
* Success stories. I find the success stories of others incredibly inspirational. If a fitness website has success stories, I’ll almost always read them.
* Reward Yourself. Have a healthy reward when you reach a goal. Buy yourself that cute pair of bike shorts. Go for a weekend hiking tri. Soak in the sauna for your “workout” that day. Buy a new yoga video. Whatever works for you to celebrate in line with your healthy lifestyle!
80 percent of success is showing up
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
10 Interesting Facts About Dogs
There are more than 700 types of pure bred dogs in the world. They were first domesticated by cavemen in the Paleolithic Age. Here are some interesting facts about dogs.
1. Dogs can register sounds of 35,000 vibrations a second where as a human can only hear 20,000 vibrations.
2. A German shepherd has smell sensory cells of 220,000,000 where as a human has only 5,000,000 cells
3. Theobromine in chocolates, a substance similar to caffeine, can kill the dogs, or at the very least make them seriously ill.
4. The tallest dogs are the Great Dane and the Irish wolfhound. The smallest dogs are the Chihuahua, Yorkshire terrier and Toy Poodle.
5. The oldest age recorded for a dog is 29 years and 5 months.
6. The world's heaviest and longest dog is an English Mastiff named Zorba which weighed 3423 pounds and eight feet three inches long from nose to tail.
7. Laika was the world's first ever space astronaut dog which was sent into space in 1957 by the Russian government.
8. Greyhounds can reach speeds of up to 45 miles per hour in short bursts.
9. In Second World War, Russians trained dogs to run suicide missions between the tracks of German tanks with mines strapped on their backs.
10. In the Middle Ages, Mastiffs used to be dressed in light armor to which was strapped a pot of flaming sulphur and were then made to run into battle against mounted knights.
1. Dogs can register sounds of 35,000 vibrations a second where as a human can only hear 20,000 vibrations.
2. A German shepherd has smell sensory cells of 220,000,000 where as a human has only 5,000,000 cells
3. Theobromine in chocolates, a substance similar to caffeine, can kill the dogs, or at the very least make them seriously ill.
4. The tallest dogs are the Great Dane and the Irish wolfhound. The smallest dogs are the Chihuahua, Yorkshire terrier and Toy Poodle.
5. The oldest age recorded for a dog is 29 years and 5 months.
6. The world's heaviest and longest dog is an English Mastiff named Zorba which weighed 3423 pounds and eight feet three inches long from nose to tail.
7. Laika was the world's first ever space astronaut dog which was sent into space in 1957 by the Russian government.
8. Greyhounds can reach speeds of up to 45 miles per hour in short bursts.
9. In Second World War, Russians trained dogs to run suicide missions between the tracks of German tanks with mines strapped on their backs.
10. In the Middle Ages, Mastiffs used to be dressed in light armor to which was strapped a pot of flaming sulphur and were then made to run into battle against mounted knights.
How to be lazy
Laziness is the key to success. Here are the rules of being lazy:
# 1. Never do anything. If you wait around long enough, someone else will do it.
# 2. Don't move. Moving is overrated.
# 3. Never run. Running is the worst thing you can do. I had to run once.. big mistake.
# 4. If something is not in your reach, you don't need it. Before you get up to get something across the room next time, think. Do you really want to get up and walk all the way there and all the way back to get it? Yeah, I know. I felt stupid for moving all those times.
# 5. Don't have an opinion. Opinions are thoughts, and thoughts are work.
# 6. Don't work. Working is for suckers. Be a CEO if you can, they never do anything.
# 7. If you have to move, fuss about it. Make it well known that you're pissed off because you have to move. Sigh a lot. Drag your feet and arch your back at 60 degrees (bad posture helps you to conform to the shapes of couches when you sit down, and it makes you look tired).
# 8. Sleep as much as you can. Contrary to common sense and popular belief, sleeping is very productive.
# 9. Don't talk. Talking requires the movement of your jaw.. way too much work.
# 10. If you have to work, do a half-assed job at it. Example: If you have to rake leaves, push them out into the road or into your neighbor's yard. If you have a riding lawn mower, run over them a few times until the pieces are small enough to hide in between blades of grass.
I have more rules, but this is taking more effort than I thought. I'll update this later.. if I'm not too tired.
# 1. Never do anything. If you wait around long enough, someone else will do it.
# 2. Don't move. Moving is overrated.
# 3. Never run. Running is the worst thing you can do. I had to run once.. big mistake.
# 4. If something is not in your reach, you don't need it. Before you get up to get something across the room next time, think. Do you really want to get up and walk all the way there and all the way back to get it? Yeah, I know. I felt stupid for moving all those times.
# 5. Don't have an opinion. Opinions are thoughts, and thoughts are work.
# 6. Don't work. Working is for suckers. Be a CEO if you can, they never do anything.
# 7. If you have to move, fuss about it. Make it well known that you're pissed off because you have to move. Sigh a lot. Drag your feet and arch your back at 60 degrees (bad posture helps you to conform to the shapes of couches when you sit down, and it makes you look tired).
# 8. Sleep as much as you can. Contrary to common sense and popular belief, sleeping is very productive.
# 9. Don't talk. Talking requires the movement of your jaw.. way too much work.
# 10. If you have to work, do a half-assed job at it. Example: If you have to rake leaves, push them out into the road or into your neighbor's yard. If you have a riding lawn mower, run over them a few times until the pieces are small enough to hide in between blades of grass.
I have more rules, but this is taking more effort than I thought. I'll update this later.. if I'm not too tired.
Friday, June 20, 2008
The Best Card Trick In The World
World Class Magician David performs another stunning feat of card magic, and betrays magicians the world over by showing how the best card trick in the world is done.
The card trick
If you're as magical as you'll have a crowd around you. If not, you'll need to find two people for this card trick. Tell them both to pick a card from the deck. Tell them to look at it and show it to their mate and the camera. They may find this confusing. But persevere.
Tell the lads to dump the cards on the top of the deck, and now perform some flashy shuffles. Now the cards have been shuffled and slammed into the middle of next week, it's time to perform some M.A.G.I.C. illusions!
With razor-like fingers, cut the deck in half and give one half to a lad. Take half of the other half (that's a quarter of the whole deck for any maths fans out there) - and fan it out, face up. Now smooch the face up cards into the other quarter deck thus mixing face up and face down cards. Hand this mess of cards to a lad and take the other half of the deck, again, fan out half of this deck and smooch it face up into the other cards.
Take the mess back off the other lad, and bang all the cards together, truly mucking them up. With the cards all mixed together, cut and turn the deck, and ask a lad to tap the deck with his young fingers. This is when the magic happens. Now go through the deck to reveal that not only are all the cards magically returned to order but that the two cards they chose stand alone face-up in the deck.
How it's done
Other magicians have exiled David from the magic circle and various internet forums for exposing his tricks but that's not going to stop him from revealing all,Just remember to thank him, if you ever meet him. You'll know it's him because he only has one suit.
Once you've found some lads, tell them to pick a card each. You do not need to know what these cards are for this cool card trick to work.
Tell the lads to put their chosen cards on top of the deck. We are going to use two blue cards here so you can follow them through the card trick. Now you make what magicians call false cuts. These are used to confuse the lads with movement, making them think the deck is being shuffled without actually changing the order of the cards. Here's how it's done. As you can see no cards change position at all, but when performed at speed, it appears as though they are mixed.
Now peel off the top two cards with your thumb as you begin to shuffle and keep them at the bottom of the deck while misdirecting the lads with a question like "can you remember your cards?". Flip the bottom two cards upside down, so they are now face up. When you break the deck, surreptitiously pull off one card from the bottom, so that you are left with two half decks both with one chosen card face up on the bottom.
Now you give one half to a lad to hold. Cut your deck in half and when you fan the cards flip the other deck over so that the bottom card is now the top card. When you smooch the cards together you are only mixing face-up cards except for the chosen card. Now all the cards are face up except the chosen card. But the audience doesn't know this, and that is the crucial deception. Do the same with the other deck. And mix both decks together, all the cards are face up except the two chosen cards, cut and turn the deck. Now go through the deck and reveal to the audience what you already know - all the cards are face down except for the two chosen cards. Asking someone to tap the deck implies that the magic happens at that moment, but we know it happened a long time ago. And there's how to do a great card trick.
The card trick
If you're as magical as you'll have a crowd around you. If not, you'll need to find two people for this card trick. Tell them both to pick a card from the deck. Tell them to look at it and show it to their mate and the camera. They may find this confusing. But persevere.
Tell the lads to dump the cards on the top of the deck, and now perform some flashy shuffles. Now the cards have been shuffled and slammed into the middle of next week, it's time to perform some M.A.G.I.C. illusions!
With razor-like fingers, cut the deck in half and give one half to a lad. Take half of the other half (that's a quarter of the whole deck for any maths fans out there) - and fan it out, face up. Now smooch the face up cards into the other quarter deck thus mixing face up and face down cards. Hand this mess of cards to a lad and take the other half of the deck, again, fan out half of this deck and smooch it face up into the other cards.
Take the mess back off the other lad, and bang all the cards together, truly mucking them up. With the cards all mixed together, cut and turn the deck, and ask a lad to tap the deck with his young fingers. This is when the magic happens. Now go through the deck to reveal that not only are all the cards magically returned to order but that the two cards they chose stand alone face-up in the deck.
How it's done
Other magicians have exiled David from the magic circle and various internet forums for exposing his tricks but that's not going to stop him from revealing all,Just remember to thank him, if you ever meet him. You'll know it's him because he only has one suit.
Once you've found some lads, tell them to pick a card each. You do not need to know what these cards are for this cool card trick to work.
Tell the lads to put their chosen cards on top of the deck. We are going to use two blue cards here so you can follow them through the card trick. Now you make what magicians call false cuts. These are used to confuse the lads with movement, making them think the deck is being shuffled without actually changing the order of the cards. Here's how it's done. As you can see no cards change position at all, but when performed at speed, it appears as though they are mixed.
Now peel off the top two cards with your thumb as you begin to shuffle and keep them at the bottom of the deck while misdirecting the lads with a question like "can you remember your cards?". Flip the bottom two cards upside down, so they are now face up. When you break the deck, surreptitiously pull off one card from the bottom, so that you are left with two half decks both with one chosen card face up on the bottom.
Now you give one half to a lad to hold. Cut your deck in half and when you fan the cards flip the other deck over so that the bottom card is now the top card. When you smooch the cards together you are only mixing face-up cards except for the chosen card. Now all the cards are face up except the chosen card. But the audience doesn't know this, and that is the crucial deception. Do the same with the other deck. And mix both decks together, all the cards are face up except the two chosen cards, cut and turn the deck. Now go through the deck and reveal to the audience what you already know - all the cards are face down except for the two chosen cards. Asking someone to tap the deck implies that the magic happens at that moment, but we know it happened a long time ago. And there's how to do a great card trick.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
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