I feel that it is important every now and again to send out this simple message. The weekend can get busy with all of those things that we need to do as well as all those things that clutter our weekend and make us think that they are priorities. Instead of doing what we think is important.

Make a list of the five or so things that have to get done and the next morning do these things before anything else. This is a concept that I grabbed both from David Allen in the book Getting Things Done and also from Tim Ferriss in The Four Hour Work Week.

So if one of your priorities is really to get in better shape wouldn’t two of your tops for tomorrow and today be to have a great breakfast to jump start your day? As well as to exercise?

Truly healthy people put exercise as a priority first thing in the morning because there is nothing that can get in the way of your exercise if no crisis has had the opportunity to happen yet. All it takes to workout in the morning is to get up and take a walk or in my case jump on the bike. If you want to get a bit stringer then you can get some weight lifting equipment (hopefully cheap weight equipment there is lots around) and do 10 or 20 minutes of weights before you go on that walk, run or ride in the morning.

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Fitness Equipment is an important part of a weight loss schedule for many people. During the summer we always get a chance to get out and exercise but in the winter we really have to rely on our home or gym fitness equipment. I have dealt with joining fitness clubs extensively in the past so now I will just assume that you are interested in doing weights and cardio at home with your own fitness equipment.

Cardio Equipment
I thought I would start with Cardio equipment as that is the most common equipment that someone thinks twice about before trying. The first piece of fitness equipment that I bought years ago was a stair machine, actually it was a stepper. When the fad in the late 80’s for stair machine started that is exactly what I got and to be perfectly frank the think sucked. A good quality stair machine should be smooth to use and this stepper was not very good, it was clunky and uncomfortable. After a few weeks out stepper turned into a clothes hangar and just collected dust.

About five years ago my wife and I bought a good quality stair machine and treadmill as our first pieces of fitness equipment! We found a great place that sold new and used fitness equipment and we bought the first two pieces of one year old cardio equipment for about 1600 dollars! (I know this is a bit much for most people) and then each year for the next two years we traded one in and bought a different piece of fitness equipment we would lose about 100 dollars a year on the equipment this way. We now have a good 3 year old stationary bike and a good three year old elliptical trainer. To us this has been the best way to buy fitness equipment that we would actually use. No matter what your budget it is a real treat to have tow pieces of fitness equipment in the house that changes every year.

Weight equipment
Weights and weight equipment is a pretty easy purchase. You need the following:

Weight Bench
Weights
Barbell
Dumbbells

My weight bench inclines so that I can have it flat to do my flat bench exercises and then I can angle the back up to do incline bench presses and incline flyes. My bench is pretty stable which is important because the weight exercises are hard enough that you do not want to worry about your fitness equipment falling over while you are using it.

The way that I have done this is that I have two short bars with screw ends to put the weights on and a old barbell that has slip collars that screw in (the generic ones you see everywhere). I bought weights that I could add at any time to either the dumbbells or barbells and in addition to this I have a few rubber dumbbells of 15, 20, 25 and 30 pounds. With these rubber dumbbells I have most of the common weights that I need so that I am not constantly having to set up the bars.

OK, the buying part of the weights is where you can really save money on fitness equipment. Look in your local buy and sell or bargain finder or newspaper and also try garage sales. Remember the last thing that people want to move when the move are weights that they never use. New weights cost almost a dollar a pound so never buy weight new but instead buy them used.

This week the Biggest Losers went on a cruise. This was a pretty fun episode to watch as there were a lot of things that people take for granted that were brought up. The Biggest Loser contestants went on a cruise ship and it was a classic vacation and answered one of those burning questions of “what happens once these people leave the ranch?” The answers were all there. First of all the cruise ship was empty except for the cast, crew and contestants and there was lots of food. It seemed that everyone was a bit nervous about being in a vacation atmosphere and for one team it was worse than the other.

First thing is exercise. All cruiseships have an exercise room that is used very little. Let’s face it most people ton vacation take time off of a diet and exercise. Bob Harper and Kim Lyons made it clear that if you are on vacation you can have a short intense workout and you will not have to worry about it for the rest of the day. The example that they used was circuit training. Circuit training with weight equipment does two things; it is a great cardio workout and is also good for working your muscle groups intensely like a weight workout.

Diet, this was a tough one as everyone loves a buffet. Bob Harper talked to his team about going around the buffet and asking questions before grabbing anything so that you do not eat a lot of high fat foods and then go for seconds. Kim Lyons said the best thing to use was a small plate because you will fill as big a plate as you have.
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